{"id":11190,"date":"2016-08-28T19:21:45","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T19:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=11190"},"modified":"2016-08-28T19:21:45","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T19:21:45","slug":"unbelievable-are-african-leaders-so-naive-and-stupid-by-field-ruwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=11190","title":{"rendered":"UNBELIEVABLE: Are African leaders so naive and stupid? &#8211; by Field Ruwe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=10118&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">They call the Third World the lazy man\u2019s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent\u2014totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it \u201cthe dark continent\u201d for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,\u201d the man next to me said. \u201cGet up and do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year\u2019s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cMy name is Walter,\u201d he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I told him mine with a precautions smile.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhere are you from?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cZambia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cZambia!\u201d he exclaimed, \u201cKaunda\u2019s country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cYes,\u201d I said, \u201cNow Sata\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cBut of course,\u201d he responded. \u201cYou just elected King Cobra as your president.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">My face lit up at the mention of Sata\u2019s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,\u201d he continued. \u201cI wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.\u201d He lowered his voice. \u201cI was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.\u201d He smirked. \u201cYour government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all\u2014the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAre you still with the IMF?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We\u2019ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cNo, you won\u2019t,\u201d I said. \u201cKing Cobra is incorruptible. He is \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He was laughing. \u201cSays who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Quett Masire\u2019s name popped up.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cOh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIsn\u2019t that beautiful,\u201d Walter said looking down.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThat\u2019s white man\u2019s country,\u201d he said. \u201cWe came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I grinned. \u201cThere is no Lake Zambia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He curled his lips into a smug smile. \u201cThat\u2019s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels\u2014crumbs. That\u2019s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that\u2019s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That\u2019s what lazy people get\u2014Zambians, Africans, the<br \/>\nentire Third World.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The smile vanished from my face.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI see you are getting pissed off,\u201d Walter said and lowered his voice. \u201cYou are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That\u2019s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let\u2019s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThere\u2019s no difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAbsolutely none,\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cScientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I gladly nodded.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAnd yet I feel superior,\u201d he smiled fatalistically. \u201cEvery white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he\u2019s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For a moment I was wordless.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cPlease don\u2019t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don\u2019t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I was thinking.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He continued. \u201cExcuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cYou my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you rest your head on the pillow you don\u2019t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThat\u2019s not a nice thing to say,\u201d I protested.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He was implacable. \u201cOh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I held my breath.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cDo you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don\u2019t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He looked me in the eye.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAnd you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don\u2019t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked\u2014oh, I have a PhD in this and that\u2014PhD my foot!\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I was deflated.<\/p>\n<p><code><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWake up you all!\u201d he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. \u201cYou should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those dissertation papers you compile should be your country\u2019s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He paused. \u201cThe Bwana has spoken,\u201d he said and grinned. \u201cAs long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He tempered his voice. \u201cGet over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your\u00a0 own stuff for god\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston\u2019s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI know I was too strong, but I don\u2019t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.\u201d He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. \u201cHere, read this. It was written by a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He had written only the title: \u201cLords of Poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia\u2019s literati\u2014the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed\u2014how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I believe King Cobra\u2019s reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our own car, he would throw me out.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cNaupena? Fuma apa.\u201d (Are you mad? Get out of here)<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter\u2019s level let\u2019s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let\u2019s dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don\u2019t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It\u2019s time to change our political culture. It\u2019s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don\u2019t be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Use Nigeria\/Nigerian to substitute Zambia\/Zambian in the article and it holds true for all African.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Hard fact.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Just PONDER! . . .<a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/African-leaders.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11191\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-11191\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/African-leaders-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"African leaders\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/African-leaders-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/African-leaders-768x512.jpg 768w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/African-leaders-272x182.jpg 272w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/African-leaders.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This article was penned by Field Ruwe.\u00a0 He is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History.<\/p>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=10118&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They call the Third World the lazy man\u2019s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent\u2014totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[23,7],"tags":[2852],"class_list":["post-11190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","category-opinion","tag-african-leaders"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/African-leaders.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-2Uu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11192,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11190\/revisions\/11192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}