First World status is a curse to the have-nots

What this elderly woman called home was a tiny dilapidated three-walled hut – she no longer had the strength to repair the fourth wall that had fallen off as a result of the wear and tear courtesy of the weather - whose roof could no longer protect her from the inclement whenever it was raining. The fallen wall provided easy access into the hut and to its lone dweller. And so it was on this particular day, March 28 this year, that as she was preparing to sleep she was attacked by her nephew, who is about half her age, raped and robbed her of the little money she had.

Fortunately, she was able to identify her assailant as her nephew who was promptly arrested by community police shortly after the attack and has since been convicted for rape and incest by a Magistrate’s Court and is awaiting sentencing by the High Court. While the nephew is waiting to serve time for his crimes, the elderly woman is struggling to put together the shattered pieces of her life. Besides the trauma and indelible physical and mental scars left by the ordeal, gogo’s body went into shock shortly after the invasion of her physical privacy manifesting itself in a heart attack that left her needing the support of a walking stick.

And while hurtling at rocket-like speed towards the much vaunted dream of a First World country, our leadership seems to have forgotten the plight of destitute Swazis as represented by the 70-year-old gogo. As it happens gogo epitomises the suffering majority of the people, both old and young, whose primary concern is to live each day as it comes. By forgetting the plight of the suffering majority represented by gogo, it is as if our leaders have single mindedly decided that it is every man and woman for himself and herself and God for us all without as much as giving a thought to the majority of the people living in grinding poverty, in their mad hurry to reach their desired destination.

Just at what prize to the ordinary people struggling to survive from hand to mouth will the First World status dream be achieved, is the salient question that is begging for answers. As for gogo, her sad story somewhat has a fairytale ending because it exposed her to local members of the International Police Association (IPA) who displayed the humane face of the police force by constructing a brick and mortar house she recently took ownership and occupation of. All thanks to the men and women in uniform united by IPA, whose motto is ‘service through friendship’, gogo can now at least claim to have some semblance of security and a proper shelter over her head.

But, as I see it, while gogo has the security of shelter, all thanks to the humane members of IPA, this is nevertheless too minute relative to what the national constitution envisaged should be provided for the elderly of society, particularly women. For gogo still does not have the full comforts of what a home should provide because she can no longer provide for herself because she has gone the full cycle of life and now needs to be taken care, of like a baby incapable of doing things and providing for itself. If the constitution envisaged a situation of state intervention on humanitarian grounds on such critical matters, government and indeed the leadership at large seemingly have been blinded by the beckoning lifestyles of their desired First World country.

As I see it, and as things are, it appears no one really cares about how the suffering and destitute of our countrymen and women, who include both young and old, would suddenly be beamed and transposed into the vaunted First World kingdom of eSwatini. That, of course, is premised on the rationale that the leadership envisions that developing the kingdom to a First World country also entails developing the political and socio-economic fortunes of the ordinary people to be at par with First World lifestyles. Not that I am so naive as to think or expect that wealth or socio-economic status has any relevance to the economic or level of development of a country. But I still have this fear that a First World kingdom of eSwatini will be the exclusive preserve of the chosen few enjoying political power and their vessels and whose exclusive control of the economy has placed them on a natural trajectory into a First World lifestyle. If ever in any doubts, government’s Circular No.1 of 2010 provides the latest example of the economic empowerment vehicles the leadership routinely use to hoard more and more wealth.

As I see it if the much-vaunted First World dream was a collective practical journey of wills from the leadership down to the governed, everyone should have been aboard the train by now and not asking on the sidelines what this whole thing was about. Yes, proper planning that inevitably produces a road map towards the achievement of the stated objectives; a First World country in this instance, should have followed the policy statement that was pronounced by the head of state, His Majesty King Mswati III. But have we seen any of this happening except politicians, apparatchiks and the rank and file loyalists of the Tinkhundla system parroting the same verses without giving us any insight into what it is, what it means in real terms to the people and the country and what has to be done to achieve it? I believe this is essential in order that we are all on the same page in terms of appreciating and understanding the First World dream. Right now, the whole dream symbolises the Tower of Babel – we are at variance with each other, our appreciation and understanding are at loggerheads such that we might as well be talking in tongues.

Having experienced and sampled life in various so-called First World nations in Europe, Asia and the United States of America, I have my own appreciating and understanding of what constitutes a First World nation. I am certain there are hundreds of compatriots who have lived in some First World countries who are also in this quagmire. Someone might think a road transport network of highways or freeways is definitive of a First World country. In a nutshell, my simplistic understanding of what constitutes a First World country includes but not limited to the presence of an advanced functional infrastructure – modern transport network as in airline, rail and vehicular, electrification across the nation, sanitation and water reticulation across the nation, health facilities across the nation, schools or learning institutions within reasonable reach across the nation, social and physical security within reasonable reach across the nation, etc. – coupled with plurality of politics and clockwork service delivery in all sectors of the economy.

As I see it, if we were to go on a process of elimination to size up the Kingdom of eSwatini’s eligibility for First World status, it definitely would be some light years before this country could qualify. After all, a majority of the people have no decent houses because of a lack of a national housing policy and government intervention, the majority of the people still live like animals in shelters that are not fit for human cohabitation.

Also, people are still sharing water, in the rare event there is any, from the same sources with animals and they are largely living in poverty that is palliated by handouts from the donor community. People are encumbered with a multitude of socio-economic problems and have no easy access to the many facilities that are essential to sustain a healthy lifestyle and service delivery is a nightmare across the economic divide.

Surely, these and many other challenges cannot be addressed overnight as part of a deliberate trajectory towards achieving the stated goal of a First World. Unless the First World status is exclusively for the haves, in which case it is a curse to the majority poverty stricken have-nots.

Comments

Maswati kuyoze kube nini sihleli sibukela ticumcantja titentela kulelive letfu. Konakele manje action must be taken.
Oct 13, 2010, 8:08 AM, Melusi Simelane (screech@live.co.za)

Siyaphi ku 1st world when clearly we can't handle yona le 3rd world lesingiyo? aw shem gogo..
Oct 13, 2010, 9:33 AM, TGF

Unfortunately ye Sibisi we have a Government that doesn’t care about the plight of what you are talking about, all they think is to accumulate as much wealth as they can, so they can survive in the First World Status, this First World Status that they are talking about is not for me and you but only the chosen few, we thought we elected people to Parliament to go and improve the lives of the majority but nanabo found that there is fattening ranch and they forgot the mandate of the people but thought of their stomachs.
Oct 13, 2010, 10:03 AM, Sungwez

This is so painful because up until now no solid structures that have been set up to stop this violence which is hitting hard on the female. Kuyamangalisa lokutsi even the intension of the trouble makers is not clear. Asifike ku first world having dealt with this!
Oct 13, 2010, 2:18 PM, swapane (swapane@yahoo.com)

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