Opinion / Columnist
'Youth will rescue Zimbabwe' - no, only strong minds will; age, war hero irrelevant and failed
17 Jun 2019 at 09:16hrs | Views
It was the great Greek philosopher Socrates, 2 500 years ago, who said "STRONG MINDS DISCUSS IDEAS, AVERAGE MINDS DISCUSS EVENTS AND WEAK MINDS DISCUSS PEOPLE."
Socrates lived during the golden age of Greece when democracy, science, art and civilization was at its glorious best and Socrates, Plato and other great minds were right at the thick of it. Socrates and his fellow thinkers were never contend with what they saw and heard, they had inquisitive minds always asking questions. Why? When?
"An unexamined life is not worth living!" said Socrates.
To discuss ideas that will help solve problems and change the world one necessarily needs a certain amount of intelligence to accrue knowledge, to sift and refine it through reflection and real-life experience. It is this strong mind, with the refined knowledge, tested and proven facts and religious regard for the truth, that will solve problems and change the world.
It is easier to talk about people because here everything goes, there are no rules and knowledge counts for nothing. Truth, facts, opinion, lies and damned lies are all legal tender to be traded in equal measure, accepted today and rejected tomorrow. No one listens to what they are saying let alone what the others are saying. No one remembers anything, it is impossible to remember something one heard with their ears only; there is no intellect to record anything verbatim let alone process the information and store it as knowledge.
Discussing ideas required train, discipline and effort and for the intellectual couch potato discussing people is the default setting because it requires the least effort. The strong-minded people get their buzz, Eureka moment, from see their ideas work. The feeble-minded people are not so demanding, they will cheer and applaud anything! Anything at all!
"In Africa, there is a problem of failing to understand the generational transition. Our old generation is failing to understand the times. They looked after us when we were children but now it is our turn to take charge," Nelson Chamisa, the President of Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the MDC Alliance.
"(Former President Robert) Mugabe, Mnangagwa you have done your part in serving this country during the liberation struggle but now pass the button to today's generation. Then we will show you how a country is run," to deafening applause.
Chamisa's default setting is to discuss people and his feeble-minded audience were thrilled to bits to hear him wittering about nothing. QED!
With Mugabe and Mnangagwa it was one's war-time history, political loyalty, gender, tribe, region, etc. that matters the most and intellectual merit matters not at all. It is therefore not surprising that the country has gone to the dogs during their 39 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule.
Zimbabwe is in a real economic mess with unemployment a dizzying 90%, most basic services likes health care have all but collapse and ¾ of the population now live on US$30 or less per month.
Before independence the country was rightly proud to be called the breadbasket of Southern Africa. We produced enough food to feed the nation with surplus to feed our neighbours and still be world leader in producing quality tobacco, cut flowers and other produce. All that is history, today the nation is relying on imported food aid.
We live in the day and age when human ingenuity has turned deserts into blooming orchards. And we are starving in the land that, for all practical purposes, is the Garden of Eden! A damning testimonial to the sheer incompetence and feeble-mindedness of Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs.
Whilst Mugabe and Mnangagwa elevated those with liberation war record to the status of demigods with rights and privileges galore whilst those with no such records have been denied their freedoms, human rights even the right to live! Chamisa has become obsessed about age; anyone older than him are useless as he/she has gone past their use-by date.
"Young people of Africa this is your time. This is not just a Zimbabwean phenomenon. This is the case in South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and in Kenya. Young people must stand to rescue our continent," said Chamisa.
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, the President of the ruling party in Kenya, is 51 years old whilst Raila Odinga, president of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, Chamisa's natural allay, is 74 years old. So, if it is youth alone that matters Kenya certainly does not need rescuing!
Emmerson Mnangagwa and many other Zanu PF thugs in power today were a lot younger that Nelson Chamisa's present age of 41 years in 1980 when Zimbabwe gained her independence but their youth did not stop them ruthlessly imposing the de facto one-party state the nation has suffered under these last 39 years.
The youthful MDC leaders failed the nation as their checked political track records shows. Ten years ago, Chamisa and his fellow MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the GNU. Not one!
South Africa has had the misfortune of having corrupt and incompetent leaders but there is no doubt that the country has always held free, fair and credible elections. To suggest that the country needs rescuing is to fail to appreciate the virtue of a healthy and functioning democracy.
Yes Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya certainly need rescuing from the curse of rigged elections. These countries need to replace the feeble-minded opposition leaders with the strong-minded ones who will implement the democratic reforms and finally deliver free, fair and credible elections!
Strong-mindedness and likewise feeble-mindedness are a measure of one's intellectual aptitude and that has nothing to do with incidental and/or biological attributes such as age, sex, tribe, etc. Zimbabwe is in a mess because the country has had the misfortune to have feeble-minded leaders on both sides of the political divide.
Chamisa has no sound ideas to get Zimbabwe out of the mess and he therefore presenting his youth as if it is a proven virtue, as if he, for his part, will never grow old. Only a feeble-mind would dwell on such frivolity especially now when the nation's future is on a knife edge!
Socrates lived during the golden age of Greece when democracy, science, art and civilization was at its glorious best and Socrates, Plato and other great minds were right at the thick of it. Socrates and his fellow thinkers were never contend with what they saw and heard, they had inquisitive minds always asking questions. Why? When?
"An unexamined life is not worth living!" said Socrates.
To discuss ideas that will help solve problems and change the world one necessarily needs a certain amount of intelligence to accrue knowledge, to sift and refine it through reflection and real-life experience. It is this strong mind, with the refined knowledge, tested and proven facts and religious regard for the truth, that will solve problems and change the world.
It is easier to talk about people because here everything goes, there are no rules and knowledge counts for nothing. Truth, facts, opinion, lies and damned lies are all legal tender to be traded in equal measure, accepted today and rejected tomorrow. No one listens to what they are saying let alone what the others are saying. No one remembers anything, it is impossible to remember something one heard with their ears only; there is no intellect to record anything verbatim let alone process the information and store it as knowledge.
Discussing ideas required train, discipline and effort and for the intellectual couch potato discussing people is the default setting because it requires the least effort. The strong-minded people get their buzz, Eureka moment, from see their ideas work. The feeble-minded people are not so demanding, they will cheer and applaud anything! Anything at all!
"In Africa, there is a problem of failing to understand the generational transition. Our old generation is failing to understand the times. They looked after us when we were children but now it is our turn to take charge," Nelson Chamisa, the President of Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the MDC Alliance.
"(Former President Robert) Mugabe, Mnangagwa you have done your part in serving this country during the liberation struggle but now pass the button to today's generation. Then we will show you how a country is run," to deafening applause.
Chamisa's default setting is to discuss people and his feeble-minded audience were thrilled to bits to hear him wittering about nothing. QED!
With Mugabe and Mnangagwa it was one's war-time history, political loyalty, gender, tribe, region, etc. that matters the most and intellectual merit matters not at all. It is therefore not surprising that the country has gone to the dogs during their 39 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule.
Zimbabwe is in a real economic mess with unemployment a dizzying 90%, most basic services likes health care have all but collapse and ¾ of the population now live on US$30 or less per month.
We live in the day and age when human ingenuity has turned deserts into blooming orchards. And we are starving in the land that, for all practical purposes, is the Garden of Eden! A damning testimonial to the sheer incompetence and feeble-mindedness of Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs.
Whilst Mugabe and Mnangagwa elevated those with liberation war record to the status of demigods with rights and privileges galore whilst those with no such records have been denied their freedoms, human rights even the right to live! Chamisa has become obsessed about age; anyone older than him are useless as he/she has gone past their use-by date.
"Young people of Africa this is your time. This is not just a Zimbabwean phenomenon. This is the case in South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and in Kenya. Young people must stand to rescue our continent," said Chamisa.
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, the President of the ruling party in Kenya, is 51 years old whilst Raila Odinga, president of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, Chamisa's natural allay, is 74 years old. So, if it is youth alone that matters Kenya certainly does not need rescuing!
Emmerson Mnangagwa and many other Zanu PF thugs in power today were a lot younger that Nelson Chamisa's present age of 41 years in 1980 when Zimbabwe gained her independence but their youth did not stop them ruthlessly imposing the de facto one-party state the nation has suffered under these last 39 years.
The youthful MDC leaders failed the nation as their checked political track records shows. Ten years ago, Chamisa and his fellow MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the GNU. Not one!
South Africa has had the misfortune of having corrupt and incompetent leaders but there is no doubt that the country has always held free, fair and credible elections. To suggest that the country needs rescuing is to fail to appreciate the virtue of a healthy and functioning democracy.
Yes Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya certainly need rescuing from the curse of rigged elections. These countries need to replace the feeble-minded opposition leaders with the strong-minded ones who will implement the democratic reforms and finally deliver free, fair and credible elections!
Strong-mindedness and likewise feeble-mindedness are a measure of one's intellectual aptitude and that has nothing to do with incidental and/or biological attributes such as age, sex, tribe, etc. Zimbabwe is in a mess because the country has had the misfortune to have feeble-minded leaders on both sides of the political divide.
Chamisa has no sound ideas to get Zimbabwe out of the mess and he therefore presenting his youth as if it is a proven virtue, as if he, for his part, will never grow old. Only a feeble-mind would dwell on such frivolity especially now when the nation's future is on a knife edge!
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.com
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