Let’s live and let live

Mbuso Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter

IT was to be expected that the usual voices from certain quarters would come out as one belittling the significance of the ZimSat-1 launch. 

In trying to ridicule the mammoth milestone, they inadvertently exposed their ignorance as they argued from an ill-informed position. Due to our economic position, to some among us, life for Zimbabweans must be an endless vista of misery. Instead, “our task now is not to fix the blame for the past, but to fix the course for the future,” as late American president John F Kennedy once said.

Mistakes have been made in the past but we can’t afford to dwell on them and ignore the efforts to right them. It was sad to hear the voice of a journalist trying to downplay the event by throwing snide remarks as if everything in the country has to stop until all hospitals acquire much needed machines. As they are wont to do, they rushed to criticise a development they didn’t understand just because it was connected to Zimbabwe.

While our hospitals need to be better equipped, it must not mean that all other facets of our being should be neglected. It has become a tired song for some of our so-called learned sons and daughters to throw mud at any achievement yet they stand to benefit just like every citizen. The irony is that they pretend to love the country yet their works show otherwise. We sometimes forget what our long gone elders taught us; that when there is no enemy within, the enemies outside can’t hurt you.

Only a simple mind thinks everything in life revolves around food and the stomach. Apart from ZimSat-1, our sport recently set records by first qualifying for the T20I cricket finals in Australia. Once there, the Chevrons went a gear up, qualifying for the Super 12 where they drew with big neighbours South Africa with the assistance of rain, and beat mighty Pakistan who eventually lost to England in the final.

The usual discordant voices were heard wondering if the Chevrons’ super performances would bring food to the nation’s tables. Really? And we say we are educated. If one does not play cricket, how do they expect to earn a living out of it? It is erroneous to think that we all must have the same aspirations in life. Like Robert Louis Stevenson often cautioned, we must not judge each day by the harvest we reap but by the seeds we plant. If I’m not comfortable today, it must not mean it will be so tomorrow. Others around me must not be expected to stop drinking and dancing because I’m not as successful as they are.

Some diasporans and Harare opposition political opinion shapers could not hide their frustrations recently when two capital city based celebrities Mai Titi and Madam Boss kept Zimbabweans at home and abroad glued to their phones and computers as they spoke about their personal issues. Mai Titi had over 10 000 people following her on Instagram Live and raised the bar when she spoke on . Madam Boss’ StarFM appearance had over 20  000 listening and watching.

What pissed off the pseudo politicians and their followers was that a leading opposition politician had just had 1 200 following his social media presentation. So to them it somehow meant a snub on opposition politics. But should life be all about politics? Must we stop living and focus on politics. All pubs, churches, sports fields and cinemas must be shut until a leader of their choice is in power. Absurd is it not? Who regulates how fellow citizens must use their own data by declaring when it is usefully or uselessly used. They forget that they too were actually watching the same that they seek to deny others.

 Madam Boss and her friends are not known as celebrities for nothing. It is clear among the ordinary citizens that currently, Madam Boss and Mai Titi are the most followed and people are willing to spend data and time while suspending everything else just to watch them. They can’t be blamed, that opposition politicians can’t sell themselves and keep audiences captivated. Ironically the critics often post themselves quaffing expensive whiskey and driving fuel guzzlers.

The economic situation has been bad for some time now and that calls for us to celebrate every little achievement that comes our way. Every step is valuable as we focus on development. It would be unrealistic to expect us one morning to wake up to a middle income economy just like that. Up the ladder we must climb as flying to the top is just a dream. An old saying goes “there is joy in self-acceptance.  Seek perfect acceptance, not a perfect life.” Self-hatred inherent among us will not take us anywhere.

The usual line by detractors that “what can we do now that you have not done in the past” seems to imply that Lewis CS was wrong when he advised that we are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. All those countries that we so worship were not always like that but some people had to work hard to get there. Zimbabwe is on the path to fulfil its set goals and ZimSat-1 is just one of many. What we need is to keep the eye on the ball as we live and let live.