A sodom moment
Michael Dingake | Tuesday January 28, 2014 16:00
A sodom moment
O
ne of the bible stories that spellbound me as a small boy, was Lot's wife transformation to a pillar of salt because she looked back when she was ordered not to look back as Sodom in the background was consumed by fire, after the family evacuated. 'Flee for your lives! Don't look back......' For unstated reasons she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. What a tragedy! Nostalgia probably prompted her to look back at the city she had lived in and wished to continue living there for the rest of her life. The morale of the story is never to look back on a flopped project once it is certified dead, lest you ossify into some dead form!
After almost half-a-century of meandering in failure, corruption and a forest of stunted development, Batswana watching this unpalatable stalemate can no longer contain their disgruntlement with the status quo. Drawbacks, lack of progress and unhindered corruption, have become unacceptable; the heavy yoke of the BDP has become onerous. There is rot in the state of Botswana.
The lies, the incessant denials of mistakes committed and piqued by the arrogance of power, many Batswana have become sensitive. Domkrag isn't popular anymore.
The good-for-nothing party has fiddled while the country was consumed by fires of unemployment, poverty, unparalleled inequality, landlessness, disempowerment of the masses and corruption. Lies and blanket denials are peddled around when questions are raised about government's inefficiencies.
Beneficiation efforts are frustrated by mismanagement and corrupt practices. We can only speculate how many more Feng Yue and Morupule B-like projects await the country. Nothing appears to work.
Things fall apart. Circumvention of credible general elections and by-elections looks remote as petitions get signed by spooks and the integrity of the highest office in the land is embattled and embarrassed, no end. How long is all this going to carry on? People have begun to be itchy and restless. How do we wriggle free out of this vice around our necks?
General elections are coming. Why not use these to escape from the undeserved purgatory on earth? From sheer desperation, Batswana are starting to clutch at straws, hoping to retrieve lost opportunities. One isn't surprised some Batswana have begun to see salvation in the eating of grass! Over the private radio talk-shops, private media columns and pages of the social media, the remedy apparently lies in the unity of the opposition parties!
One party, is either lambasted for frustrating this event or the errant party is cajoled to jump on the creaking band-wagon to unyoke the nation from the BDP misery. Either we who agitate for this faint solution at this late hour are newcomers in the whirligig of a search for winning strategies, suffer from memory lapse or our thinking capacities are impaired.
In 2010 I was among the enthusiasts of opposition unity to oust the BDP from government. Regime change was a sure thing if the opposition stopped bickering and worked together for the national good. The respective opposition parties, the unaffiliated Batswana, a few patriotic Domkrag members wished the project a success.
Yes patriotic BDP members also sense Botswana needs regime change in order to take positive strides towards a new beginning, development and prosperity. When the negotiations were initiated the four parties: BNF, BMD, BPP, BCP, pro-unity individuals, were buoyed by the apparent breakthrough.
They were in agreement that the negotiations initiated, needed to be wrapped up in time to allow election campaign preparations ample time to kick off. Invariably negotiations have prospects of success and failure.
Moreover successful negotiations depend on the give-and-take demonstrated on the table. Attributing negotiation failure/success to one party is false and dishonest. If and when, one party concedes and another/others refuse to concede, progress is stalled.
On 22 December 2011 there was consensus, talks had collapsed. The equitable allocation of constituencies was the reason. All agreed the talks had failed! All who followed the progress of the talks understood the talks were wrecked on the rock of constituency allocation, the same rock where Umbrella II talks teeter and are currently trapped, with individual BNF members threatening to go it alone. Now which is the lesser evil, individuals belatedly going independent or one party doing so well in advance?
The media harps on the problem of registering a mutual agreed symbol within Umbrella II; the truth however is the ubiquitous snag of allocation of constituencies, the same that ended Umbrella I! Why then does the party that foresaw the stumbling block made the scapegoat in absentia? It is an open secret that BNF members feel disenchanted by constituency allocation formula and want out of Umbrella II! Chickens have come home to roost. Why then continue to snipe at an uninvolved party in the Umbrella II for the ultimate fiasco of the project?
'Flee for your lives! Don't look back......' For unstated reasons she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. What a tragedy! Nostalgia probably prompted her to look back at the city she had lived in and wished to continue living there for the rest of her life. The morale of the story is never to look back on a flopped project once it is certified dead, lest you ossify into some dead form!After almost half-a-century of meandering in failure, corruption and a forest of stunted development, Batswana watching this unpalatable stalemate can no longer contain their disgruntlement with the status quo. Drawbacks, lack of progress and unhindered corruption, have become unacceptable; the heavy yoke of the BDP has become onerous. There is rot in the state of Botswana. The lies, the incessant denials of mistakes committed and piqued by the arrogance of power, many Batswana have become sensitive. Domkrag isn't popular anymore.
The good-for-nothing party has fiddled while the country was consumed by fires of unemployment, poverty, unparalleled inequality, landlessness, disempowerment of the masses and corruption. Lies and blanket denials are peddled around when questions are raised about government's inefficiencies. Beneficiation efforts are frustrated by mismanagement and corrupt practices. We can only speculate how many more Feng Yue and Morupule B-like projects await the country. Nothing appears to work. Things fall apart. Circumvention of credible general elections and by-elections looks remote as petitions get signed by spooks and the integrity of the highest office in the land is embattled and embarrassed, no end. How long is all this going to carry on? People have begun to be itchy and restless. How do we wriggle free out of this vice around our necks? General elections are coming. Why not use these to escape from the undeserved purgatory on earth? From sheer desperation, Batswana are starting to clutch at straws, hoping to retrieve lost opportunities. One isn't surprised some Batswana have begun to see salvation in the eating of grass! Over the private radio talk-shops, private media columns and pages of the social media, the remedy apparently lies in the unity of the opposition parties! One party, is either lambasted for frustrating this event or the errant party is cajoled to jump on the creaking band-wagon to unyoke the nation from the BDP misery.
Either we who agitate for this faint solution at this late hour are newcomers in the whirligig of a search for winning strategies, suffer from memory lapse or our thinking capacities are impaired. In 2010 I was among the enthusiasts of opposition unity to oust the BDP from government. Regime change was a sure thing if the opposition stopped bickering and worked together for the national good. The respective opposition parties, the unaffiliated Batswana, a few patriotic Domkrag members wished the project a success. Yes patriotic BDP members also sense Botswana needs regime change in order to take positive strides towards a new beginning, development and prosperity. When the negotiations were initiated the four parties: BNF, BMD, BPP, BCP, pro-unity individuals, were buoyed by the apparent breakthrough. They were in agreement that the negotiations initiated, needed to be wrapped up in time to allow election campaign preparations ample time to kick off. Invariably negotiations have prospects of success and failure. Moreover successful negotiations depend on the give-and-take demonstrated on the table. Attributing negotiation failure/success to one party is false and dishonest.
If and when, one party concedes and another/others refuse to concede, progress is stalled. On 22 December 2011 there was consensus, talks had collapsed. The equitable allocation of constituencies was the reason. All agreed the talks had failed! All who followed the progress of the talks understood the talks were wrecked on the rock of constituency allocation, the same rock where Umbrella II talks teeter and are currently trapped, with individual BNF members threatening to go it alone. Now which is the lesser evil, individuals belatedly going independent or one party doing so well in advance? The media harps on the problem of registering a mutual agreed symbol within Umbrella II; the truth however is the ubiquitous snag of allocation of constituencies, the same that ended Umbrella I!
Why then does the party that foresaw the stumbling block made the scapegoat in absentia? It is an open secret that BNF members feel disenchanted by constituency allocation formula and want out of Umbrella II! Chickens have come home to roost. Why then continue to snipe at an uninvolved party in the Umbrella II for the ultimate fiasco of the project?
