According to this biblical assertion, whose contextual necessity was a momentous time for the Israelites — known in the Christian religious tradition as God’s chosen people; I introduce this submission in the form of a question to say: Is this a cursed generation of youth in our country?
It is with a broken heart that I have noted, among fellow young leaders, the apparent lack of conviction and purpose, which should be the hallmark of today’s youth leadership against human backwardness, deprivation and strife. There is little commitment to the purification of society and redemption of fellow young people from debilitating circumstances of despondency, disease and want.
However, whatever one does as a young leader, it is crucial to reflect on the pertinent revelation that “you may be there for such a time as this”.
Evidence abounds of the sheer incapacity to measure and appreciate the requirements of the historical moment, and the generational mandate of young leaders in terms of relevant societal reconstruction in line with the true agenda of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. For instance, it is disheartening that young people’s political institutions like the student movement have been hijacked by pretentious political elements bent on reducing such institutions into platforms of delinquent fraud.
If these tendencies and people who participate in them are not excluded in the long march into the future, it is clear that the whole generation is headed for a deep societal crisis.
It is clear that the commendable spirit among young African youths that guided the liberation war has all but disappeared. Zimbabwean political players, including respectable student leaders involved in the important struggle for educational transformation, are doing so in such an half-hearted manner as one would a beerhall darts tournament.
Our generation has sunk to such scandalous levels to the extent of failing to appreciate the almost divine uniqueness of leadership responsibilities in our society, the role of public leadership to human destiny and the need to conduct leadership roles responsibly.Indeed, very few seem to understand, as Esther was told by Mordecai, that they may be “there for such a time as this”.
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Vivid Gwede
Simplify budget for ordinary citizens
As the 2012 national budget address by Finance minister Tendai Biti approaches, so the nation waits in anticipation of a better tomorrow. Obviously, civil servants have renewed high hopes of improved salaries after they have struggled since the establishment of the government of national unity.
An ordinary villager in Mount Darwin’s Dotito area lives with the hope of a better tomorrow each passing day, as the national budget approaches.
But the jargon used, as is traditional in budgetary speeches, is too technical, and was never meant to be understood by an ordinary and illiterate villagers living in remote parts of the country.
Ordinary people seem to be constantly sidelined in these very important issues like the national budget. Will an ordinary gogo (grandma) deep in Mwenezi’s Chomutsvairo village understand terms like national fiscus, government expenditure, credit lines and the like? There is need for the powers-that-be to ensure that every citizen is involved in issues like the national budget.
Yes, nationwide consultations on the general framework of the budget have been conducted, but come the day of the actual presentation by Minister Biti, people shall be bombarded with economic and financial terminologies they may have never heard in their lives and will be left confused.
People need clarity and transparency as to how government spending is planned and should not be kept in the dark and vexed by complex economic and financial verbosity in budgetary speeches.
For all this to be achieved, there is need to consider that the country’s population is diverse, — made up of the educated, the uneducated and the averagely schooled.
After all, the national budget affects everybody in the country and if it were possible, the budget statement was supposed to be translated into all the languages spoken in the country so that the national budget story is heard clearly by everybody.
