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| Teachers in Swaziland have engaged in an indefinite strike |
Few days
ago I was chatting with my friend, discussing the current situation that the
country is facing. The crisis that we see almost on daily basis in the country.
We looked back where huge degradation happened to the citizens of Swaziland. This
dates back to as far as I can remember but to pencil in up a few scandals that
have happened recently, we had a judicial crisis, where we saw lawyers taking
to the streets for over a month, secondly we experience an educational crisis
where we also saw teachers taking to the streets boycotting classes for over
three months, right now we experienced a constitutional crisis where a vote of
no confidence was passed against the cabinet and the King did not uphold the
Parliamentarians in this regard as required by the Constitution. All the above
happened and no minds were provoked. 
While
chatting with my friend, he then told me something, I can even recall “Colani you know what, Swazi are now used to
this things, we have actually developed a scandal fatigue”. I took some time thinking, recalling all the
instances where all these disappointing things happened. Like for real, have we
developed a weakness in challenging all these? For how long are we going to
keep like this? What is the worst that we are awaiting to happen before we can
realize that there is actually something that can be done to sort this mess?
Many years of unfavourable conditions has created a culture of submission and
natural passiveness reaction to issues of paramount importance, but how come as
a nation seemingly we are going against nature on this? I am trying to figure
out this, my way of thinking is saying by now we should at least be strong
enough to stand on our feet.
While
chatting with my friend, he then told me something, I can even recall “Colani you know what, Swazi are now used to
this things, we have actually developed a scandal fatigue”. I took some time thinking, recalling all the
instances where all these disappointing things happened. Like for real, have we
developed a weakness in challenging all these? For how long are we going to
keep like this? What is the worst that we are awaiting to happen before we can
realize that there is actually something that can be done to sort this mess?
Many years of unfavourable conditions has created a culture of submission and
natural passiveness reaction to issues of paramount importance, but how come as
a nation seemingly we are going against nature on this? I am trying to figure
out this, my way of thinking is saying by now we should at least be strong
enough to stand on our feet.
I would
really hate to admit that of course we have developed a scandal fatigue. Do we
lack men and women who have a clear vision of what a free Swaziland would look like?
A clear vision of how a free and open society looks like? I do not want to
believe that we do lack these people. One then tends to wonder how is the
coming generation going to cope if we allow such conditions to happen without
being challenged, is this the kind of environment that we want them to operate
in? What is it that will motivate them to continue with life and keep going?
One
thing for sure is that we don’t need a prayer alone.
Just
thinking out loud...
Firstly, thanx for creating this blog, its such forums that will make people aware and ignite action towards change.
ReplyDeleteLack of freedom of expression and action in Swaziland has created the scandal fatigue. We are totaly afraid of victimazation by government. Worse is that at least 70% of Swazi's are civil servants.
So how do we revolt against this system, especially if its the hand that butters our daily bread?
Its trully a difficult situation, particularly because the culture of sacrifice and risk is not in most of us, worse is that most of us come from christian backgrounds which have been used indirecly by the system to doom us, thus we are passive and accept horrible situations in the name that the next world will be better & earthly things should be left the way they are.
Imagine a country where every graduate was guaranteed of a job, all children had access to education, the elderly were taken care of, there was comprehensive health care at an affordable price, freedom of expression without fear of victimization, access to sexual and reproductive welfare, affordable and fair trade terms with a booming private sector and investment, easy access to and exchange of technology, good governance where accontability and perfomance were key perfomance indicators to detemine the tenure of the goverment in office.THIS IS A SWAZILAND I WANT...
A Swaziland where people know that they have an active resposibility to shape their futures and the powers to shape these futures would fully reside with them & not the goverment or the ruling system in place. People should have influence on at least 90% of what occurs in goverment particularly if we say Swaziland is democratic country.
Radical change is important for the liberation of Swaziland and its people. Bit by Bit has run is course. Now is the time to formulate strategies and try to improve whats on the ground. We should start now to change the lives of our people and our selves in the communities we live in. We should start now initiating programs for a sustainable Swaziland.
Good Governace should start in our communities, homes, work place, etc. Now is the time to change and shape the culture of doing things.
We young peole should join hands and start doing things for our selves so that the government that we put in place would be a way to elevate us.
Bubu do you mind if i blog ur comment as it is? i feel there is a need to share your thoughts with a larger audiance.
Deleteamazing stuff Bubu and thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. i will be blogging your comment today so that we can share your ideas as they are with a larger audiance, hope you wont mind. Thank you
ReplyDelete