Maravi

Don't patronise people, tell them the truth

COMMENT - I am very uncomfortable with government officials telling people there is something wrong with them, when they themselves are not pulling their weight. I would be much more impressed if the government reinstated the Windfall Tax, and started to channel money into easy loans for small and medium sized enterprises, and infrastructure.

That would both build the economy, and provide hundreds of thousands of jobs - far more than have or ever will be created by mining. Also, let's take an example from Japan and South Korea where it comes to both indigenising manufacturing and increasing social equality through free education and healthcare. There is a lot to be done, and blaming people's work ethic when the state has not made easy credit available to entrepreneurs to me sounds like shifting blame.

Don't patronise people, tell them the truth
By The Post
Thu 25 Oct. 2012, 14:00 CAT

There is no need for our political leaders to patronise the people, to patronise us. Just as they tell the people, just as they tell us what they would do, we feel they should also tell the people, tell us what they could not do.

Some people thought life would change overnight after last year's elections that brought Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front in power, but that is far from the case. Life will not change dramatically in a very short time, except that they now have a chance to work with a very hard working and honest President to change their country and thus their lives. Patience is needed.

They might have to wait for five years or so for some results to show. But also our people need to be challenged; they shouldn't be patronised by the political leadership. They should be told in no uncertain terms that if they want to continue living in poverty without adequate food and clothes, they should continue not working hard and spending their time drinking beer and other alcoholic beverages. But if they want better things, they must work hard. The political leadership cannot do it all for them; they must do it for themselves.

And Sylvia Masebo is right when she says "we must work hard, unite and have a vision; we need to change our mindset to work hard. I don't believe as a citizen that Zambians are working hard enough". And challenging the Zambian people, Sylvia asks: "What vision do you have for your country and yourself? What is your purpose on earth?"

Truly, as Sylvia demands, we need to change our attitudes and start to work hard.

Through work, we co-operate with the Creator in bringing to fulfilment the created world; we exercise our God-given abilities and talents as co-workers with God in the great task of transforming the material world.

Work is not simply an onerous necessity, coincidental with our physical existence, a burden which we should try to escape. It is a vital part of our humanity, the manifestation of our creativity, an opportunity for our growth and fulfilment. Indeed, work is nothing less than a constituent dimension of the purpose for which the world was created and for which we ourselves were brought into being.

To live is to be active; and for a human being this means the exercise of one's faculties of mind and body. Where this activity is directed towards winning a livelihood or improving one's mode of life, it normally involves fatigue and it's called work. In our present state, as children of Adam striving against odds to attain security and liberty, work is indispensable.

It is imposed upon us by God; since without fatigue a human being cannot now, as God decreed, fill the earth and bring it to serve the needs of human being; "All the days of your life, you shall win food…with toil" (Gen 3:17).

Work does not detract from the dignity of a human person; rather it increases the person's worth, for it is the means whereby the person overcomes the defects and limitations of one's fallen nature and reaches the goal that God has fixed for that person.

The true value of work is communicated to it by the worker, so that there is no such thing as degrading work since even the meanest chore is elevated and ennobled by the dignity of the person. Think, for example, of Christ in the humble workshop of Nazareth.

To work with a view of gaining greater security and freedom or to improving one's material state is a good and natural ambition. But to work with these sole motives is unworthy of a human being. It is only when we bring our labour and fatigue into relation with our origin and destiny that it is illuminated with the light of nobility and dignity. "In eating, in drinking," said St Paul, "In all that you do, do everything as for God's glory" (1 Cor 10:13).

And moreover, what is work? Work is struggle. There are difficulties and problems in those places for us to overcome and solve. We go there to work and struggle to overcome these difficulties. A good leader or citizen is one who is more eager to go where the difficulties are greater.

And it is said that hard work is the mother of all inventions. Be it Galileo or Archimedes or even Newton, it is their persistence to a particular theory or thought that gave rise to some of the highly valued and important inventions of all times in the world.

In normal day-to-day living too, it's hard work that counts. However in today's world, "smart work" or rather "no work" is the new mantra. Today's youth do not believe in working or maximising hard work in any activity of life. But as is aptly said, "easy it comes and easy it goes".

Today's world is one of instant gratification, but nonetheless, the importance and necessity of hard work cannot be overemphasised. A person may be a little bit farfetched when it comes to intelligence, but hard work and persistence may show him glory some day or the other. There are get-rich-quick scams galore in today's times. And they are cases of wealth creation by many visionary leaders in today's times that have been made possible by their sheer hard work.

Struggles are a very vital part of everyone's life and to sail through it, one needs to work hard. Youth is considered the best time to utilise on the pressures doled, be it at the workplace or otherwise. A person who works hard in his youth, has not much to worry about in his old age. And this fact indeed holds true.

Everything needs to have a purpose and so is the case with hard work. You need to be objective about why you are struggling so hard. The goal must be fruitful and motivating. Otherwise, slogging would just end up in donkey hours. There has to be a motivational drive behind all the hard work that one puts in.

Labour has to be utilised in a concrete way so as to give fruitful results.
But there is also the need to learn from mistakes. This lessens the chances of getting overworked. Thus, there is need always to keep the golden and age-old fact in mind that hard work indeed pays off. The results may show and vary but it will indeed come to you in some sort of manner some day.

In human affairs, there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. We know you have heard it a thousand times before. But it is true - hard work pays off. All growth depends upon activity. There is no development, physically or intellectually, without effort, and effort means work.

The one thing that matters is the effort. There is no substitute for hard work. Nobody can think straight who doesn't work. Idleness warps the mind. Any necessary work that pays an honest wage carries its honour and dignity.

Of course, hard work doesn't guarantee success, but improves its chances. We shouldn't forget that every good that is worth possessing must be paid for in strokes of daily effort. Much effort, much prosperity. Success is dependent on effort.

Hard work and togetherness go hand in hand. You need the hard work because it is such a tough atmosphere. You need togetherness because you don't always win and you have to hang on through together.

Hard work is painful when life is devoid of purpose. But when you live for something greater than yourself and the gratification of your own ego, then hard work becomes a labour of love.

Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven't planted. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. We think you can accomplish anything if you are willing to pay the price.

We urge all of you to hold your heads high now. We can overcome our challenges and problems. We must not lose ourselves to cynicism, pessimism and despair.

Even in the gutter, let's dream that one day we will be upon our own feet again. We shouldn't stop with the way things are; we should dream of things as they ought to be. Let's face the pain, but love, hope, faith, hard work and dreams will help us rise above the pain. Let's use hard work, hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress.

Let's go forward and never surrender to malnutrition. We can feed the hungry and clothe the naked. We must never surrender to illiteracy. Let's invest in our children. We must never surrender to poverty in general. Let's not give up.

We know it's tough sometimes. But we shouldn't give up or surrender. It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. In the end, hard work and faith will not disappoint. Zambia can get better and better if we resolve to work hard, very hard.

Labels: SYLVIA MASEBO, WORK ETHIC

posted by MrK @ 5:58 PM