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PROSPERITY FOR FEW

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Sir,

We are an obstinate nation that refuses to take sound advice; and as such we refuse to be ‘bullied’ by anyone as it was once emphasized not so long ago. The irony of it is that we refuse to be ‘bullied’ by even those who are bankrolling our social programmes in terms of aid and trade.

As a nation, we seem to have earned ourselves a reputation of refusing to take sound advice; and that is a huge setback for us; the reason we are languishing in acute poverty for a greater majority of our population.


This attitude is destroying this nation. The pace of doing things in this country is also painfully slow. We pass up opportunities due to our lackadaisical approach to matters; emphasizing our old-age adage; ‘there is no hurry in Eswatini’. The trouble is, there is so much hurry in global communities today; where opportunities wait for no one. The world has become a global village and protection based on sovereignty is fast diminishing.


Observation


Government has folded its arms before; and what would be new if it continued to do that? My observation is that there is so much lip-service in government to the point of making its word count for nothing. And all this boils down to refusing to take advice. The USA has warned us repeatedly about this but we have chosen to ignore their advice, believing that they are bullying us and interfering in our sovereignty.


Examples of how this country refuses to take advice can also be seen in our attempt to coin our own definition of First World status. The question I ask is, who are we fooling? And why re-invent the wheel?

I mean, whether we are considered to have reached First World status will be determined by those around us; the global community and not ourselves. To me, it is an exercise in frivolity to fool ourselves we would reach First World status by building roads and by achieving economic prosperity for a few when a huge segment of the population is languishing in acute poverty. Poverty; industrialisation, democratisation and other social reforms need to be factored in.
 
Babe Dlamini

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