Beware of false prophets

Has anybody ever wondered why the dull always celebrate the fall of the bright? Why the poor enjoy the demise of the rich or why failures usually relish the episodes when the successful stumble?

How many times have we encountered people who discourage us from executing certain positive ideas simply because they feel it’s impossible? And; how many people have we seen in our society who feel that if something is not done their way it is bound to fail?

I have encountered many of these in my short life; from my family to my numerous schoolmasters to fellows in the struggle. I still remember the heated argument that I had with my mother when I told her that I no longer wanted to go to school but rather wanted to study at home. My mother sold clothes and other wares for us to go to school. She had always wanted the best for us, that’s why I ended up at Mutare Boys High School despite the cost of fees there.

I could see how she struggled to raise such amounts and I offered to transfer to Serima Mission whose fees was half that of Mutare Boys High. She gave in after a struggle. Life got tougher and tougher and I offered to drop out from Serima, she refused. Fortunately I was suspended from school for disobeying orders and I ended up staying at home for four months. I wrote my A levels and I passed.

I talk about this freely with my mother now and she has grown to understand why certain people do certain things that certain people would be unable to do. That is the uniqueness that exists in us. Unfortunately, society does not appreciate this exclusivity rather it views it as being a renagade.

Along the way, I have also grown to appreciate age, wisdom and intelligence. I respect my elders because they deserve my respect. I know that sometimes age comes with wisdom, however; sometimes it comes alone. Wisdom means the ability to use a known solution to a known or similar problem. Intelligence means the ability to prescribe a new solution to a new problem or to prescribe a better solution to a known problem.

Armed with these experiences, my intellect and my drive to be creative I have confronted the challenges that we have in our struggle head-on. I have made enemies because of my conviction that the truth should be told except where one is bound by a code of ethics that dictates that there be confidentiality. We should not fear to reprimand each other even if it means confrontation.

In our struggle, we have had circumstances where resources fall in the hands of the greedy, where failures are entrusted with the responsibility to make the society successful and where the dull are supposed to churn a vision for society. In all these circumstances conflict has been inevitable.

Closer to reality, we have people who have had the privilege to be at certain positions that allow society to listen to them when they speak. Some actually have the ability to influence public opinion. What happens when these people use their status to mislead people into pursuing futile and infertile objectives?

I mean, what should happen when people who call themselves leaders of the civil society discourage MDC from joining the Government of National Unity, MDC defies them and joins, today they are the ones at the forefront demanding positions in the same GNU which they were vehemently opposed to?

What should happen to our learned Constitutional Expert at NCA who seems to believe that a good constitution for the country cannot be in place unless it is done his way? The aspect of collective opinion is dependent on how information is passed to a body of people. Society gets a combined impetus only after complex concepts are chewed for them to consume. Whose responsibility is it then to chew? What should happen when a political space is occupied by people who dogmatically stall progress because the status quo has more benefits to them than when there is change?

What happens to the have-nots when the haves stand on top them and tell them our pain is the labour-pain for prosperity? Who should tell them it’s a lie? What should happen to the learned professor who presides over the downfall of the education system and tells the youth that they are fighting for their rights?

It pains me today that the people whom we respect are the ones punishing us. They went to school; today they do no care if we don’t have school. They have business but they tax us when we seek to start ours. They have jobs in big offices but they do not care if we lose ours. They have a life but they do not care when we die. These are the people we call our elders, WISE and INTELLIGENT elders?

Society has eyes, children have tears and the boys have ears. The old are shaking at the events in Madagascar, they know; the youth are like dynamite, once there is a matchstick, be assured of chaos!

I rest, but I have made my point: BEWARE of false prophets!