Gift of life

Life is mortal, but the gift of life is immortal unto humans. Of all the wonderful things that God gave us, of all his creations, none is as beautiful as the gift of life. The birth of a new being signals continuation of the human race and how much God loves us that he keeps giving us more life. Scientists may be up to no good in their labs forging human life, but they fail to see one thing. They may forge the body but they will never forge the soul. What good is life without a soul? God alone is the sole creator of a human being and by human being I mean body +soul. The wonder of life will never cease to amaze us, just as the mystery of death continues to dazzle us. What is life and what is man to God? What does he intend us to do with life and why did he choose us, on earth to live?

I haven’t met anyone who has been satisfied with the answers they received. Perhaps the answers to these questions lie in living one’s life as best as possible. We are all recipients of this remarkable gift that is life, yet funny enough some people make attempts to throw away this gift and do succeed to do so. Intelligence of mankind has driven him to points of absolute insanity so much that he feels he can end own life whenever he pleases. The joys and miseries of life propel us to do acts that question God’s power. If he alone is the giver of life, then surely he alone will determine when to end one’s life. Perhaps we must examine this notion clearly before considering ourselves worthy of anything. Do we own our lives or are we borrowed this time on earth? Who made us masters of our own life? If we say we own our lives, then why can we not sustain ourselves? Why can’t we make it rain when we please or end natural disasters with the wave of a hand? We cannot do all these things because we are not in control of our lives. This wonderful gift is ours for a limited time only and our greatest task is to make the most of it. Clearly, taking one’s life is undermining God’s power and perhaps provoking him.

When creating humans, he gave them dominion over animals. This means intelligence to rule earth, but sadly this intelligence has been used to over turn God’s path. When suffering and misery invade, one makes plans to end own life, but I tell you this much; what would life be without suffering? One has to suffer in order to fully understand life. One day’s suffering is not the end of life. There are people born in adverse conditions yet continue to live and appreciate each moment. These are people who understand that our time on earth is borrowed and must be used to the fullest wisely. I always find it strange that those who commit suicide and claim to have suffered are usually those who live most comfortably. I have never heard of a poor person who committed suicide because they had nothing to eat. Yet the rich one can commit suicide because they owed someone M 50 000. The poor man values life and looks forward to each day for they live in hope. The rich man has since placed himself above all creatures. He thinks he is God and if do not go his way he ends his life. Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise because those who live on earth should be strong and all the weaklings must go.

There are people who have seen un-imaginable things yet continue to smile, but you, just because your husband/wife cheated on you yesterday you are ready to give up. Look at the condition of most African children. Born in poverty, growing up in poverty, not knowing where the next meal will come from yet still smile every time when the UN takes pictures of them. This has led to many rich people, especially whites into believing that poverty is glamorous. In many UN pamphlets, these poor, abandoned children are smiling. Their minds are filled with hope and they see the beauty of life to the fullest. The rich man on his porch stares into thin air and contemplates suicide. Poverty is not a curse but a blessing because through it we come to know and fully acknowledge the existence of God. The poor know God, the rich spit on him. Dear brother/sister, why then are you contemplating suicide over a lost job when someone has never held a job but continues to support his family? Why do you want to end your life just because someone you truly love does not love you? The greatest secret of love is that those who love the most are seldom loved by those they love. Know this and live by it. No one can force another to love and its better to be alone than with someone who only pretends to feel the love.

Troubles will come and shake us but only the strong shall survive. Many weak have fallen and the moment you take your own life you become a statistic and join the weakling club. Troubles of today are only introduction for tomorrow’s troubles. If today when you encounter a problem, you cry a river then surely tomorrow you will cry an ocean and all earth shall drown. What this means is simple, whatever may be happening in your life is there to strengthen you so that you can carry the coming without fear. In the end, all battles come to an end and only heroes stand to taste the victory. Life is a big battle that only the strong win. Do not be one who falls before war can begin. Life is a gift and must be treated so. Do not spit in God’s face, appreciate the gift he gave you and make him proud. That is our mission as mankind, to make our creator proud. Few achieve this, but it is achievable. Live your life in a way that God will smile every time he turns to face you!

Unemployment depression in Lesotho

A man is a creature destroyed by own choices; ironic because man alone is the only creature blessed with the gift of choice! Animals and birds have no choices. Birds must fly, migrate and reproduce. Animals live for food, breeding and hibernation, but man can choose if he wants any of these, yet he cannot do himself or fellow being any justice. Choice in our language means intelligence and wisdom. Sadly it remains true that the world is built through the blood of the innocent. Towers and castes stand tall. Mansions and empires spread along the plains of earth, and as they do, blood soaks earth! This is the case in Africa, children of the earth till the land but they shall never enjoy the fruits of the harvest.

Five decades down the line and Lesotho is said to be independent. What is independence by the way? Is it right and proper to label ourselves independent when we fail to come up with strategies that could minimize high unemployment rate? Perhaps one needs to examine this notion that has eluded our mentalities without our realization.

When a new government is elected, the first thing it sees to is the involvement in the line of production. Jobs and more jobs as stated in their manifestos. Why is it that two governments have failed to achieve this in Lesotho. We witnessed the reign of the first government and all its wonderful achievements. Despite all that it was able to achieve, it could not hold out the job promise. All citizens waited but eventually realized that the old government would not be able to provide them with adequate jobs. Realizing its failure, the past government sought to implement strategies of self employment. Many Basotho saw this as a beacon of light, but once again their hope for a better life was crushed when policies governing the self employment proposal became too tight. One had to be qualified up to a certain level, in a certain criteria. The struggling majority was still side lined and into poverty we continued to sink. Now that the past government was done with, we waited while the new one came into power. New dreams emerged and new ideas were born. A change had come with hope for a better Lesotho. New and fresh minds came into power. A new Lesotho was being born, but that new born Lesotho can not get its foot off the ground. How many governments have to govern Lesotho before we can say we have beaten the unemployment beast? Why is it that it’s so difficult to enact working structures that will decrease this high level of unemployment? It seems we are capable of achieving anything but that. The high level of graduates staying at home is proof of not the government’s failure alone, but failure of the entire country. Perhaps we do not have it in us intelligent people who can come up with a cure for this disease that is digesting Lesotho from inside. While all these questions raid my mind, I wonder; are we too many that there is no room for us all in the employment field. Are we not practicing self employment well, because if one man can succeed in establishing a business, then at least ten people will be employed. Some would argue that it’s all because of corruption like nepotism where a man and his immediate family get jobs while the neediest go jobless. It seems all futile to reason why this is so, instead it’s wise to come up with solutions.

A few years ago, while I was still in primary school, I was told that Lesotho is a developing country along with many others. I went on to high school and I heard the same story; ‘Lesotho is a developing country’. In varsity the same song again! Now I wonder; will we ever reach civilization Basotho? How many more years before we are finally there? If I recall precisely well, Botswana was also a developing country with Lesotho, but now the development Botswana has seen is remarkable. Years of the song ‘developing country’ finally paid off to other countries, but ours. What is it going to take for our country to reach that level? It appears to me that instead of becoming better we are further drowning. Ten years back one would get their passport in one month, then in the so called development they adjusted that and now it takes two years for one to own a passport. Public service was no different; it was in rare cases that a government worker would be taking care of own business during office hours, but in these cursed days that we live in, not only do they hold private meetings in their offices but they tell you to go back and come another day. (Actually they throw you out)

With the rate that we are going, we will be singing our notorious song for another millennium because clearly we would rather sit and watch the world elevate than work our own elevators. Our fellow African sisters and brothers are no better. Why won’t Africans stand up and change Africa for the better? Why is it that Africans are so poor? We may wish to ignore this but it remains true. Africa is one of the richest places on earth yet Africans are some of the poorest people on earth. Amazing fact is that Europeans got rich through Africa. Our soil and its minerals enriched westerners so much that we can never match up to them. African countries were colonized and their wealth stolen by colonizers as they left. Today, many years after colonization ended, African countries are singing the same song ‘developing countries’ and now there is no more audience to hear them out. Donations are running stale and it’s becoming a sin to beg. Who will stop this tiring song and bring about a new and melodies one ‘developed country’?

Love or lust!

While in the primitive days it was common and very appropriate for a young girl to marry an old man, it has become something we all fear, and the question remains, is it love that is shared between a man of 45 and a young woman of 22? Should we all look at such a couple with a million questions or perhaps in some bizarre twist it could be true love, the very love that we are all looking for but fail tremendously? Many questions arise when someone, be it female or male has an older lover, but few people dare to resolve this situation, hence we all resort to calling them sugar mummies and sugar daddies. If they have sugar then they are good for sugar makes good stuff but sugar also causes diseases and can kill!

The rise of older lovers has given birth to a lot of controversial conversations that seem to end in one way,’ it’s utterly wrong’ despite the possibilities at hand. Clearly this may sound absurd coming from this age of AIDS to think and perhaps argue that in those love affairs, some emotions and commitment may be invested, and showing those emotions may be hard because society seems to be at war with everyone engaged in such a relationship. The essence of this discrimination and massive phobia for older lovers is nested in the Basotho’s idea about love and marriage. Historically and in a precise way, older lovers and older husbands are not wrong in the Sesotho content. King Moshoeshoe had many wives, and he kept on marrying right into his old age. Critically thinking, in his old age, King Moshoeshoe was now marrying young women. Some young enough to be his daughters and before he married them he must have courted them and they were his lovers for that period before marriage. Basotho men throughout history have always loved their women and went on with concubines of very young ages. It was not wrong, although it lacked one basic ingredient; love. No one questioned a man and marriages were organized between old men and young women. The world as large too advocates for a young woman and old man, so why does it appear so weird and immoral for one to take up an older love?

Could it be that under some civilization and evolution to humans we have since decided that being with an older lover is acceptance of immorality? Basotho have changed and are not aware of it. What was right back then without reasoning is now wrong in this era. I choose to say what was right without reason because an older man would marry a younger woman without consideration for the feelings between the two, that is whether they were in love or not. Society would decide that was right and that was enough. In this era, two lovers of a massive age gap are denied rights to be, regardless of the love they may feel for each other. It seems like another lust story when such a couple passes by. We all seem to know that it’s just lust and material possessions in due and no love. But the reality is that much more can exist, after all love has no timing or size and it certainly doesn’t ask why. The conditions of love are always un-catered for and we all know that it comes when we least expect it. However, the AIDS pandemic has given so much to fear. Older lovers without hearts are by no doubt serious messengers of AIDS, no one wants to die for love or at least die seeking it. Older lovers are thus seen by thee ‘Khanyi Mbau’s’ of our time as meal tickets and if they are not careful, an older man will become a meal ticket for a young girl who will pack and leave when her tummy is full. It always makes me wonder when an older man is seeing a woman young enough to be his daughter without loving her if that makes him feel special and in fashion. Clearly he is ruining her future in pursue of own fantasies. Whatever the motives behind him, one can only guess. I suppose what freezes us up is that of younger men and older women. It’s hard to imagine love for the older the woman, the more her biological clock expires. But before we can imagine that the younger man is after some easy legacy and a role of entertaining the old lady, it will not kill to imagine the possibility of love reigning between them. Or maybe the one question we should ask it ‘what is love and what is lust’?