SO MUCH WORK BUT NO JOBS

Sir,

Many years ago, while growing up, I didn’t understand why there were so many rules one had to follow as a child. I never understood why I should prepare my bed every morning when I leave for school, why I should sweep the yard, take cattle out to the grazing fields then around eight or nine o’clock bring the cows to milk them.

Every Thursday of every week I had to take the same animals to the local dip tank. During the ploughing season, we would wake up with the birds to work on the fields. A larger part of me hated growing up because I felt like a slave. I always dragged myself to any task because I felt I was too young for that amount of work.

Grow

My grandparents thought I was rebellious and believed I would grow up and be a weak man. I asked a lot of questions regarding things that didn’t make sense to me. They would explain everything even if I didn’t understand. Their parenting always sought to make me understand the realities of this world; that nothing came easy.

Hope

Despite all what seemed negative, they found hope in that I never hated school and the feedback from my teachers was really positive. At least there was one thing they were proud of. They believed I would finish school and put myself in a better position for employability.
Fast forward to today, it finally made sense that all what my parents did was in itself a very important form of education. They were instilling a culture which says if you want something achieved, you have to work for it. Even if I am grateful for those life lessons, it just hit me hard that we inhibit a world that has so much work but no jobs.

Shortage

Does this make sense? Of course it seems it doesn’t, but if you look around you will realise that there is a shortage of even the things we call our basic needs. We are born, grow up, go to school and graduate but the moment you’re given your certificate you are told there’s no job for you. How then are you supposed to take care of yourself is the type of question that sets depression in.

What kind of a world has so much work but no jobs? There is a shortage of houses in some communities and destitute people are sleeping in falling structures. We need better schools for our children, good health facilities and clean water. There are areas which are inaccessible and we need roads constructed.

Humanity

Whatever our needs, they all require work. Why then is all this kind of work not undertaken because it is evident it has to be done. If you think long and hard about it, you come to the realisation that humanity has turned this world; where work is not related to satisfying our needs.

This is a world where work is only related to gratifying the profit needs of businesses. The communities that we found alive and functioning were not built by these huge corporations or government bureaucracies, instead they were built by people who knew the value of work.

Nhlangano 
 

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