I am, because you are!
Michael Dingake | Tuesday September 1, 2015 16:12
Travel between two points has shortened tremendously. A journey to London which used to take months by boat, takes hours by jet; a journey between villages which took days by sleigh has been reduced to hours by automobile. A message previously transmitted by post which took weeks to arrive at destination, takes seconds by fax or e-mail. We can watch our athletes competing for medals in Beijing while we relax in our sitting rooms in Gaborone, or watch soccer teams play for the world trophy thousands of miles in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We can chat with friends in Timbuktu on skype when we feel like. Life is good we enjoy the presence of people and things we love because technology invented by other humans makes things and people we treasure accessible all the time. I am, because you and other humans are!
Politically, we have a myriad of international organisations to deliberate on matters of mutual concern. Regionally, we have SADC; continentally we have the AU, internationally we have the UN headquartered in New York. The UN deliberates on development and peace issues. Almost all countries in the world, big and small, rich and poor, distinct on faith matters, meet to exchange opinion on the maintenance of world peace. Humankind is interdependent and interrelated. We are our brothers/sisters’ keepers. Whenever an epidemic breaks-out in one part of the world, the rest of the international community is alerted to prevent the epidemic spreading and wreaking havoc everywhere. Alerts on bird flu, ebola keep us all on tenterhooks. In 1918 the influenza epidemic wreaked havoc in every corner of the world. Were it today the damage would have been limited to the location of its origin. Of course it’s not just the advance in health science, technology in communication plays a role in the non-vulnerability of our species to incidental afflictions. So the unwritten human law is that I shall be safe, happy and alive as long as you, my neighbour, my co-worker, my fellow citizen, are alive, safe and in touch!
Humankind has always been connected across the planet by trade. Trade has only been dehumanising, degrading and nigh destructive of the human species or sections of it, when Africans were traded in slavery. But when trade was on goods produced in one region, continent or hemisphere, trade has always been for the good, the skills, the betterment and improvement of others. It is trade that makes our economies tick, thrive, hum and expand to feed the burgeoning world population, which is reported to be at the seven billion mark! Trade, more than any other interaction, among humans determines the progress we see around us as nations.
Small Cuba supplies a large part of the world with sugar; the sweet-toothed are, because the Caribbean island of Cuba is; and on an increasing scale the scarcity of medical doctors would be a thing of the past if the US would live and let Cuba live. Lifting of the embargo on Cuba by US will make more and more of the world population sample Fidel Castro’s longevity! Bigger countries who flex their economic muscle to force smaller countries to toe the line, should bear in mind how their actions impact on their innocent brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. Such countries behave like Cain of the bible who killed his brother Abel and protested, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ when he was asked: ‘Cain where is thy brother, Abel?’ Without trade many countries would be poorer. No household, no village, no city, no country, no continent and nobody is self-sufficient without trading their surplus resources, skills and goods with others. Villages, cities, continents, nations, companies and individuals are interdependent. Quid pro quo exchanges, is the norm of live and let live. Without fellow- citizens, relatives, neighbours and co-workers life as we know it would be a dream. I am, because you are!
World capitalists may be cock-a-hoop with their riches, their yachts and diamond rings, but they have what they have because of the poor workers they exploit! Without workers’ cheap labour, capitalists would be non-existent and their obscene riches unknown and unheard of. Capitalists are, because exploitable workers are. Workers are the source of their filthy riches. Oh, if only people knew they survive physically, emotionally and otherwise because others are, human relations would be sweet. Magistrates, judges wouldn’t be, if the criminals in the underworld weren’t there. I wouldn’t write this column if you dear readers weren’t there to read it. I write because you read! The schools, universities wouldn’t be there if there weren’t those who teach or those who wish to learn to read and write. Think of anything you do and ask yourself whether you’d be doing what you were doing if it wasn’t for the benefit of someone: a relative, friend, neighbour, customer/client, boss, colleague! I am because you are! None of us is self-sufficient and independent. The queen wouldn’t be queen without her subjects, nor the pope be pope without his congregation, child wouldn’t be, without parents, etc….! We all are here because you are all there. We are made for each other! Why do we then hate, cheat, rob, kill and rape one another? Is it because we do not want to make our planet heaven on earth? Shall we all be misfits in heaven and fits-all in hell?