Times Of Swaziland: DEPENDENCY SYNDROME

DEPENDENCY SYNDROME
================================================================================
The Editor on 16/05/2018 04:12:00


Sir,
First of all kudos to whoever invented the idea that colonisation has ended and
secondly, congrats to those who continue to believe and spread the notion that
colonisation has indeed ended.
The only response to such genius would be that they forgot to tell the rest of
us about economic colonisation. Imagine a doctor telling you about the rash on
your body and neglecting to inform you about the HIV in your blood.
Do you ever wonder why the main focus and constant theme of our education system
is centred on getting a job and earning big money?
But, what if another focus was encouraged? A focus on knowledge, and knowledge
for knowledge’s sake; which leads to self- awareness. Now, self-awareness is
the real deal. It is vital in discovering and developing potential. Of course,
at this point, questions such as who designed the education system and what was
their agenda naturally follow.
The education system was among other systems inherited from colonisation with an
agenda to produce better workers for the colonisers while keeping inequality
safe in its place. This then explains the need to ensure the Swazi child learns
as little as possible and testing that by how much they can memorise and answer
by the book.
This in turn gives a broader picture of the reasons behind the degrees and
capabilities rotting at home waiting for job opportunities and those big ideas
in art, such as music and painting, just waiting to be discovered and sponsored.
This is also known as a dependency syndrome. This is the meaning of economic
colonisation. And as long as this exists at a large scale, stop spreading rumors
about a free democratic nation.
Uniting and organising ourselves might just be the best tool for us to becoming
economically independent. Just look at the many street vendors in town, don’t
you think their voice would be louder than the big supermarkets and retails if
they were to organise and be united to combine their best efforts.
This is what we need and once we have this economic power, we will then be able
to affect politics and other social issues in our country. This is not to ignore
the injustices in our systems but to point out that we may be part of the
problem if we do not plan our lives beyond bread and butter. We may be part of
the problem if we fail to look at dependency on finding a job or opportunities
in the eye and realise that we can try other much difficult options that may
bring us invaluable growth in the long run.
N S Mbuli