Monday, May 22, 2017
BLOOD, TOIL, SWEAT
AND TEARS
Britain was feeling the pinch of the Second World War when
Winston Churchill rose to become Prime Minister. When he summoned new ministers
to the Admiralty House on 13 May 1940, he told them: ‘I have nothing to offer
but blood, toil, tears and sweat.’ A few hours later he repeated that in the
House of Commons as he spoke there for the first time as Prime Minister
In the House of Commons Churchill went on to add, ’we have
before us an ordeal of the most grievious kind. We have before us many, many
long months of struggle and suffering. You ask what is our policy? I will say
it is to wage war by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the
strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never
surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our
policy’
It does not require a Jewish prophet nor a son of Malawi to
prophecy that Malawi continues to undergo through an economic quagmire. What
should be our policy now to fish our beloved nation from the shackles and
manacles of endless poverty? We have to wage a brutal war against poverty. Let
us fight it in the sea. Let us conquer the waters we have in lakes and rivers
and utilise them for irrigation to do away with the perennial monster of
hunger. Let us conquer the war of poverty on land. We have the most fertile
land and it is unthinkable that we remain beggars of food and take pride in
calling for our country to be called a state of disaster. We that have plenty
land resource ask for food from those that have no fertile land.
The war against poverty should be waged in the air. We are a
country that is blessed with the sun throughout the year but unable to
capitalize on solar energy to boost our economy. We are a country blessed with
wind but even though William Kamkwamba demonstrated that it is possible to
harness energy from the wind, we let the wind just run and at times even wreck
havoc. Why are we losing the war in the air?
We have the media that blast airwaves and front pages mostly
with stories that demean us. Inspirational stories are never news worthy. A bit
of the flickering stories about our country and its country men are covered by
international broadcasters but not our own. It is Africa Focus on international
TV channels that showcase some progress in Malawi not our local broadcasters.
We have lost the script and have our default instinct towards negatives.
If Malawi is to rise beyond poverty then all its citizens
should be ready to undertake greater sacrifices for the common good. It is
imperative that those working in the public sector and entrusted with public
resources put high above all the needs of the country at the top than personal
gratification. The looting and plundering of public resources to satisfy the
insatiable appetite for a glorious life we can never attain is a manifestation
that we lose focus.
It is time that the political landscape changes. The
political landscape should be the driving force encouraging us to work more than
just waiting to receive. The political landscape should be inspiring us to take
agriculture seriously, to be patriotic, and to be ashamed of being perennial
beggars for budgetary support and food. It is time the political landscape
tells us frankly that we will live by our resources and that we have to be
ready to sweat more, to toil more, to cry more for the creation of a wonderful
future. No matter how long it may take us, we can achieve if only we take the
sacrifice.
What should be our aim now? Winston Churchill said once
again: ‘you ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word: it is victory,
victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and
hard the road may be: for without victory there is no survival.’
It appears that we are resigned to failure, that in our
thinking we no more go forward in the hope of victory. Our language testifies,
we only glorify failures than successes. But if we decide to wage a gallant and
winnable war against poverty we can make it. The only thing that stands in
between us and victory is the limitations we put on ourselves.
Now is the time that we no longer walk on the path of
mediocrity. Now is the time that we have to refuse to act according to the
book, we have to write the book of our own life, our own struggle in fighting
poverty in the context of our beliefs. Let us face the prospect of surviving
failure after failure but not change our belief in our self. Now is the time we
move forward, we push to the edge, and live our dreams. We are the architects
of the future we want. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
