Fare thee well my comrades readership
Solly Rakgomo | Thursday December 21, 2017 14:50
My memorable journey with this publication started in April 2015 when I used to send letters to the editor to share my little but valuable knowledge on issues of international politics. It was only in 2016 when Mmegi gave me a permanent platform after the editorship realised the sheer passion and consistency that I have shown in contributing articles on a weekly basis.
It is without doubt that I am very passionate about the field of International Relations more so that I am a graduate student in that field. I realised that there is a serious gab in provision of knowledge in this field as no local writers were coming forth to contribute articles with regard to this field on a regular basis.
Many Batswana writers are overly obsessed with local politics to such extent that international politics has always being viewed as alien to many readers despite the fact that many issues or decisions taken by many actors in the international system directly or indirectly affect Batswana in some way or the other.
For example, consistent wars of regime change and resource control of the Middle East by the United States of America has led to escalation or rise in world oil prices.
The rise in oil prices meant the rise in fuel prices in Botswana and subsequently the rise in both transport and food costs. This has a serious impact on both our families and national budgets.
I felt is as an important calling that I share my opinions with a lot of people on these simple issues of International Political Economy.
Another example is how international economic sanctions against Iran led by the USA have seriously jeopardised good prospects for Botswana to harness common trade interest with Iran in many fields.
A good example here is on petro chemical industries and Nano technology. Iran is far much more advanced in those fields and trade relations with Botswana would have benefitted Botswana in a good way, but thanks to selfish sanctions by the US, Botswana is restrained on how it can work in trade partnership with Iran.
Furthermore, through this column, I shared knowledge on the operations of international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Batswana learnt that those institutions are used by imperialist powers to control third world countries by confining them to cycles of debts and policies of Structural Adjustment Programmes.
Many African countries that got loans from these Institutions are far much worse off than they were before they accessed IMF loans. In other words, IMF has transfixed third world economies in economic intensive care units. The column was very robust in articulating these issues.
I have to quickly admit that when I first started, I never in my wildest dreams thought that there would be people interested in following my writings.
However, the response that I got from the readership really humbled me as every week I would receive many calls from the readers giving me some very positive responses including constructive criticism.
Some of the readerships like Cde Nchi Baikae have become more than a personal friend, but an avid follower of the column that he has archived each and every article I have written since I started writing articles for newspapers in 2012.
This has humbled me and last week when I broke the sad news to him that my contract is coming to an end I could feel his shock and pain of not going to be able to read my articles again. Probably he is not alone.
I also have to fully appreciate without any iota of doubt that the column has really opened some doors for me as I got many invitations to do presentations at various forums. This is the column that made one good radio presenter from Gabz FM, Gabriel Rasengwatse to regularly invite me at his breakfast show and debate topical issues such as terrorism, International Criminal Court and other Foreign Policy issues.
I shared the radio studio with some notable personalities like Dr Athalia Molokomme, Reverend Richard Moleofe, Prof Kesitegile Gobotswang and Dr Boga Manatsha to mention a few. I have also made numerous presentations/debates at Duma FM at the invitation of Costy Moloi, thanks to this column.
The University of Botswana (UB) through the Democracy Research Project also invited me as a panellist on various topical issues like Political Party Funding and Electrical Voting Machine. Some professors within the UB have also invited me to give lecture presentations to their students after reading my column. The list is endless but the highlight was a recent invitation where I shared a stage with some South African liberation heroes, Prima Naidoo and Ronnie Kasrils on the commemoration of the Palestinian struggles against Israeli occupation.
Truly speaking it will be a serious injustice if I fail to appreciate the humbleness of Mmegi staff especially the editorial board that consisted of Oarabile Mosikare, Bame Piet and Mbongeni Mguni.
These guys have always appreciated my work and never disappointed in extending any assistance that I needed from their side. To me these editors are more than friends to me but blood brothers whom I fully confident that if conditions improve at Mmegi, they will definitely rope me in as a columnist again.
We started a journey and even though I say that journey was not completed, it had to come an end in some way or the other as the situation is totally out of our control. Farethee well my comrades.
Catch me @ 7552732573904141