Building Zimbabwe to be Great

Background

Like many Africans countries, Zimbabwe is within a world that has deep seated colonial wounds, tragedies and a painful racial past with far-reaching implications on the political, economic and social systems. This part of the world is still struggling to delicately deal with the structural, institutional and psychological legacy of such a past. That past has conditioned people to live a life of unconscious assumptions of negativity - bitterness, anger, hostility, insecurities, blaming, intense dislike, emotional fragility, etc.

This burdening past is the "wounded consciousness" in the now. For us to grow, we need to move out of the social framing of such a "wounded consciousness," just like we need to outgrow the agonies, miseries, deprivations, pains and tragedies of our personal lives.

A “wounded consciousness” denies us the opportunity to accept individual and collective responsibility in the very thoughts, words and actions that we seek to blame others for. Concentrating on what has to be done i.e. responsibility and seeking to expand and create new economic opportunities and possibilities in the here and now should not be misconstrued as an attempt to minimize and undermine the painful experiences and deprivations that we have individually and collectively gone through.  

An unlimited and unending focus on the “wounded consciousness” can give us as a people a very debilitating, weakening and limiting self-expression. This creates risks of a "grave emotional and psychological harm” to ourselves. 

The fatal and terminal danger of a form of being human based on “wounded consciousness” is that it traps a people in a collective perpetual negativity and retributive dysfunctionality. It is a conceptual frozen humanness of "us" as perennial victims against the eternal evil "others" and a fueled and unfulfilled infinite reactivity.  

"A grievance is a strong negative emotion connected to an event in the sometimes distant past that is being kept alive by compulsive thinking, by retelling the story in the head or out loud of "what someone did to me" or "what someone did to us." A grievance will also contaminate other areas of your life. For example, while you think about and feel your grievance, its negative emotional energy can distort your perception of an event that is happening in the present or influence the way in which you speak or behave toward someone in the present. On strong grievance is enough to contaminate large areas of your life and keep you in the grip of the ego...The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that. And what is a grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion...Complaining as well as faultfinding and reactivity strengthen the ego's sense of boundary and separateness on which its survival depends." - Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Create a Better Life (2005). 

A bitter view of the world around us creates negative energy that makes us seethe with anger, high level sense of insecurity and feeling hopelessly vulnerable. Despite such “wounded consciousness,” political energy to achieve justice, expand existing and create new economic opportunities cannot be devoid of the power of Truth and Virtue.

The unhealed “wounded consciousness” has "somehow simplified our condition, that it could sometimes disguise or suppress the very real conflicts amongst us" to the extent of overlooking the shocking, brutal and savage treatment of each other.   

A sense of humanity, belonging and meaning to life with insecurities at the core has the possibility of creating stagnancy and perpetual anger instead of growth, innovation and novelty.

If too much effort and energy is bitterly and angrily spent on wrongs committed and deprivations against us and seeking to reframe the pain, it disrupts and distracts us away from the focus on GROWTH through expanding existing and creating new economic opportunities and possibilities. This is the "What needs to be done here and now to expand existing and creating new opportunities and possibilities?"  

Without the above question of "What needs to be done?," we are lead ourselves towards tendencies to inflict and project the same wounds, emotional scars and insecurities even against ourselves and fellow Africans. 

As Africans, we do not have to continue debasing and degenerating our individual and collective psyche and temperament with endless anger and bitterness. Those who sacrificed their lives for our political liberation from colonial bondage and racial brutality and for inherent human dignity or worth and freedom or self-determination did not do so to make us live a life of cancerous agony, vulnerability and negativity.

The shared tragedies and pains of our collective past should humble, inspire and strengthen us to deal with and overcome the current challenges with honour and sincerity, a sense of duty and service as an opportunity to create a positive impact in our lives and those of others.

A shared painful past or “wounded consciousness” should also remind us that unless we are vigilant, cautious and alert, we will remain vulnerable to the degenerative and poisonous human behaviour even by seemingly well-meaning benevolence. Today in Africa, life of an African should not be so cheap especially at the hands of a fellow African.

Across Africa, many influential voices are largely weak-willed and desensitised when it comes to the inhuman treatment of Africans by another African - religiously, ethnically or politically. Foreigners through their governments and non-State actors have been “invited” by our own indifference and inertia to the cruelty and brutality of the African political class towards their own.          

As Zimbabweans, we should be dynamic and forward-looking to create a system of social, political and economical thinking that:

   1.     Makes us take full responsibility for the consequences, results and effects of our own actions or lack of and learning from one’s and others’ mistakes and best practices,

   2.     Unceasingly create new economic opportunities and possibilities of life for ourselves, our children and their children, infinitely,

   3.     Innovatively and creatively solve new problems and challenges and never allow ourselves to be in a comfort zone, and

   4.     Build sound, stable, credible and constantly improving national institutions underpinned by prudence, accountability and efficiency.

History is made today while the present and the future belongs to us if we are of relentless drive for industry, revolutionary innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship anchored by honour; sense of duty or responsibility and service to cause a positive impact in the lives of fellow human beings.

"The future depends on the choices we make today," so said Deepak Chopra, a renowned author and self development coach. Justice Thomas Troward called it “an organic connection between causes sown today and results produced tomorrow to continually germinate into greater and greater fullness of joyous life…” (‘Bible Mystery and Bible Meaning,’ 1913).

If we have such a persistent approach to politics and economics, we will be able to move away from a stagnant economy based on a mere claim to natural resources. We need to move beyond simply trading natural resources or unprocessed products so that we vibrantly grow an upward class mobility-enhancing industrialised economy consisting of grand pillars:

   1.     Ideas - vibrant and dynamic ideas to improve, innovate and create arising out of an education system underpinned by classical liberal arts and sciences;

   2.     Industrialisation - creating and expanding the industrial, manufacturing and services capacity underpinned by entrepreneurship, innovation and productivity so that there is exporting of finished products of high standards;

   3.     Infrastructure development underpinned by public-private sector partnerships; and

   4.     Prudence - fiscally prudent government with a high level of accountability, diligence and efficiency.

The political and economic thinking should always seek to expand existing and create new incentives for increased capital investment, manufacturing and production capacity and employment levels.

"To reduce unemployment, the economy must create enough new (companies and) jobs to absorb entrants into the labor market and the existing out-of-work…Recall that the private sector is the main employment engine. Businesses create jobs when two conditions are met. First, extra demand for their products justifies more workers. Second, the extra demand can be satisfied profitably. There are qualifications to these generalizations (startups, for instance), but these are the basics. As for government, it's less a job creator than a job changer. It supports jobs (soldiers, teachers, scientists) by taxing, borrowing and regulating. If government taxed, borrowed or regulated less, that money would stay with households and businesses, which would spend it on something else and, thereby, create other jobs. Politics determines how much private income we devote to public services." –

Robert Samuelson, ‘Job Creation 101’ (www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/12/job_creation_101_111285.html), the contributing editor of ‘Newsweek’ and ‘The Washington Post.’

An economy works best when “business and government complement one another: Business plays the vital role in economic expansion and job creation, while government oversees the environment in which business can innovate and compete…For the good of the nation, our elected leaders must now find it within themselves to pass sound laws, regulate judiciously, and put aside escalating tactical political battles.” - Jim McNerney, 'What Business Wants From Washington,' Wall Street Journal (November 1, 2011). 

An economy is driven by 1) corporate efficiency, productivity and profitability; 2) production of new wealth and 3) the security of existing jobs and creation of new jobs. This is largely as a result of entrepreneurial creativity and innovation. The increased growth of the production of new wealth and the creation of new jobs is propelled by the quality and quantity of advancement of technology, product innovation and creativity.  

"Research at the World Bank has found that once all of a country’s natural and produced capital is added up, they together generally constitute less than 20 percent of its actual wealth; the remaining 80 percent is intangible. What is intangible wealth? The World Bank study, “The Changing Wealth of Nations,” defines it as “human capital, social, and institutional capital, which includes factors such as the rule of law and governance that contribute to an efficient economy.”

“Human capital is the set of skills and knowledge people living in a country have acquired. This is roughly measured by the average years of schooling per capita and a country’s average healthy life expectancy. So yes, great teachers certainly do contribute to the development of human capital…

“Social and institutional capital is measured by the World Bank’s rule of law index. This index takes into account the extent to which citizens have confidence in and abide by the rules of society. In particular, it measures the quality of contract enforcement, strong property rights, the rule of law, an honest bureaucracy, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence, and an educated populace, that enable the process of entrepreneurial innovation and job creation in free markets....

“Good governance underpins these things, but not all governance is good. Just as government can enable the voluntary creation of wealth, it can also impede and even destroy it.

“Why is new firm creation lagging now? …numerous studies find that higher tax and regulatory burdens impede entrepreneurial activity which in turn slow economic growth and job creation. For example, a 2010 study, "The Economic Effects of the Regulatory Burden," done for the Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis (of all places), found that while some rules are necessary for entrepreneurs and markets to function “that countries with a light regulatory burden show more rapid economic growth in GDP per capita.”

“A 2008 study, "Government Size, Composition, Volatility, and Economic Growth," done for the European Central Bank examined the effect of government size and fiscal volatility on economic growth for developed countries between 1970 and 2004. The study finds that the bigger government and the slower the growth rate. Every percentage point increase in the share of total revenue going to government decreases overall economic output by more than a tenth of a percent. The report further noted, “Public capital formation may indeed turn out to be less productive if devoted to inefficient projects, or if it crowds out private investment.”  - Ronald Bailey, "Government Did Not Build Your Business" 25 July 2012, http://reason.com/archives/2012/07/25/build-that-entrepreneurs-government

Vision

As citizens, we sincerely deserve and should work towards an industrially growing, and a more engaging Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe as a country has a great and prestigious name. Most people are very happy to be associated with it. Zimbabwe can be a great and prestigious country. Most people want to be part of the work to make it a great and prestigious country.

The name of the country arises out of the enduring dry stonemasonry or mortarless stone architecture, Great Zimbabwe monument, built by the 15th century Mutapa Empire, whose territory covered the modern Zimbabwe and parts of modern Mozambique and South Africa. 

Its people tried numerous times to negotiate and later took up arms in a protracted liberation struggle to fight a colonial and racist system. Ultimately, led by trade unionists and middle class-based professionals (lawyers, teachers, medical doctors, etc), involving the sacrifices of all people of diverse races, ethnicity, religions and cultures, Zimbabwe achieved independence in 1980 following a protracted liberation effort and then a general election.

The modern country is a now home of a diverse racial, ethnic, cultural and religious mix of people. 

To make Zimbabwe a vibrant and dynamically country is work-in-progress requiring the active involvement of all its citizens to expand existing and creating new economic opportunities. There is nobody with the monopoly of what is best for this country and its citizens. At each time, the "public square" is the platform to engage each other reasonably.

It is every citizen’s role, duty and responsibility to make it a country where human aspirations and hopes are fulfilled through a good quality of life, easy access to job opportunities and promotion of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. 

The twin pillars of a dynamic and prosperous society are liberal education for self-discovery and innovation (for industrial and technological development).

Self-discovery or liberal education develops "those capacities needed by every thinking adult: 1) analytical skills, 2) effective communication, 3) practical intelligence, 4) ethical judgment, and 5) social responsibility."

"Zimbabwe" is a great name full of history that invokes powerful emotions and a sense of pride to those with a strong attachment and connection to it. We, the citizens of this country, can make it a vibrant and dynamically a secular and pluralist society by modern standards.  

The construction of ancient Zimbabwe structures should be studied very closely. "The durability of ancient Zimbabwe monuments is a clear evidence of the innovation, a testament of the creativity, the willingness to experiment and the practical genius" of African builders and stonemasons. Roman architect and engineer, Marcus Vitruvius (80-15 BCE) said, "The end is to build well. Well building hath three conditions: strength (sustainability), utility (usefulness), and aesthetic effect (delight)." 

"Strength arises from carrying down the foundations to a good solid bottom, and from making a proper choice of materials without parsimony. Utility (usefulness) arises from a judicious distribution of the parts, so that their purposes be duly answered, and that each have its proper situation. Beauty is produced by the pleasing appearance and good taste of the whole, and by the dimensions of all the parts being duly proportioned to each other." - Vitruvius, "On Architecture" Book 1 Chapter 3:2. 

Vitruvius is like Imhotep, the Chief Architect to the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Djoser (reigned c.2630 - c.2611 BCE) and the founder of civil engineering (What is Civil Engineering?) as a profession. Imhotep was responsible for the world's first known and greatest monumental stone building, the Step Pyramid at Sakkara and is the first architect we know by name. He was later to be venerated as the patron of scribes, personifying wisdom and education.

The Great Pyramid of Giza of the 4th Dynasty Pharaoh Djoser/Khufu (named Cheops by Greeks), the largest and oldest freestanding stone structure in the world, was constructed in about 2,450 BCE, built “on the most exact astronomical and mathematical calculations” and to line up with the star belt of Orion. It came to be known as the “House of Light,” a reference adopted for the King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.

  

Imhotep is credited with the invention of authentic superstructure stonemasonry for pyramids, courtyards, temples, tombs and other buildings. Disciplines such as astronomy, sculpture, philosophy and religion were intertwined with the building, especially of stone structures.

Architectural design and construction engineering are considered some of the oldest professions in the world and Imhotep, the first documented engineer. He was a "supervisor of that which Heaven brings, the Earth creates and the Nile brings." The worshippers of Ptah, the artificer god and the modeler of the world (whose right eye was the sun and his left eye was the moon), first displayed the art of stone working and stone building on a lower scale, especially at Abydos. Earlier the structures were made of sun dried mud bricks.

The genesis and splendour of stonemasonry was the pyramid construction in Pharaonic Egypt, China and Central America. The best outstanding landmarks of any civilization has been its buildings and this is mostly the temples, roads, rail system and bridges. The best minds of any civilization has been the eminence of the architectural and engineering skills in the infrastructural development and the “public square.”

The Roman architect, Vitruvius said, “the architect was a specis of magnus, conversant with the sum of human knowledge and privy to the creation’s underlying laws. Paramount among these laws was geometry, on which the architect was obliged to draw in order to construct temples by the help of proportion and symmetry…” 

Architecture is an art and skill to "construct according to a design and purpose, and to organize in proportion and symmetry." It is not by accident that modern China has engineers at the centre of its political system. 

The mentor of Cecil John Rhodes and English art critic and social thinker, John Ruskin (1819–1900), in his work, 'Seven Lamps of Architecture,' argued that the laws of architecture are moral and chivalric laws, as applicable to the building of character as to the construction of cathedrals. He found those seven laws to be Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory and Obedience. 

Ruskin further said Life is happiness, Faith is acceptance, and Creation is continuance.           

In the 18th century, the term "civil engineering" was coined after the construction of the Eddystone Lighthouse (Rame Head, UK) by John Smeaton between 1756-1759.

Civil engineering is defined as "a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like bridges, roads, canals, dams, and buildings. It is the application of physical and scientific principles, and its history is intricately linked to advances in understanding of physics and mathematics throughout history."   

Civil engineering or construction of buildings using rough stones dug from the quarry in their natural state – rude, unformed and unpolished. "Such stones possess innate qualities of strength, solidity and everlastingness. It is in this rude and natural, unformed and unpolished state, that it is hewed and squared by appropriate working tools for use on a building under construction. The sides must be right angles to each other produced by chiseling some projecting corners and knobs so that it becomes a rectangular stone block, known as a rough ashlar. A rough ashlar is hard stone that has been sculpted to be a partially perfect stone. It is then worked into due shape for a place on a building until it becomes a perfect ashlar. 

"Human life is best considered a rough ashlar or a crude block of stone from the quarry of elemental nature. The rough ashlar is emblematic of humanity’s natural state – ignorant, uncultivated and vicious but with the internal qualities of a perfect or noble character. The quarry represents the limitless and boundaryless human nature and endless opportunities. The crude blocks need skilled craftsmen to labour it - squaring, polishing and transforming them into objects of beauty and splendour."

Together the "polished and transformed" stones make a building of splendour. Likewise citizens who are of transformative characters build a nation that is vibrant and dynamically a pluralist society. 

Ancient Zimbabwe was a product of civil engineering and modern Zimbabwe also needs exactly the same principles of innovation, creativity, experimentation and practical genius of its people. Modern Zimbabwe needs the mind of an architect and engineer guided by the principles of strength (sustainability), utility (usefulness) and beauty as pronounced earlier.

We therefore should build a Zimbabwe that celebrates, enhances and protects innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship and enterprise. In turn this expands existing and creates new capital or wealth, additional revenue for the government, and new jobs in a country currently with such high unemployment and a growing young population. 

We should offer our undivided attention and heartfelt service to a Zimbabwe that GROWS through expanding existing and creating new economic opportunities and possibilities in life.

A Great Zimbabwe is rock solid in its efficiency and fiscal prudence and focuses on important public matters to make its citizens strive and thrive on their own so that the State does not become a nanny or paternalistic.  

As we wish and hope for a Great Zimbabwe, we will relate with our country and fellow human beings through "honour, duty and service"!

The love for Zimbabwe and for it to be vibrant and dynamically a pluralist country is affectionately substantial and genuine. 

Paraphrasing Max Heindel (1865-1919), we should hail the flag and national anthem of Zimbabwe with joy, enthusiasm and passion and stand up for the greatest good in Virtue and Truth because it awakens in our breasts the tenderest feelings for home and our loved ones.

The flag is a symbol of all the things which we hold dear. Our innermost and tenderest feelings of belonging should be awakened by Zimbabwe’s name, flag and national anthem. The noblest impulses to be part of the efforts to have Zimbabwe to grow, rise in triumph and glow should be stirred in us to be active citizens.

This is because it is the duty of every active citizen to be part of a solution for the various challenges we face in our lives and communities in Zimbabwe.

We should be driven by a moral imperative - a high sense of honour or integrity in the work we are involved in at any one time; dutifulness or responsibility to what is expected of us with fervency and strong eagerness; and better and sustainably improving standards of service for those relying on our work.   

We should build Zimbabwe to be Great and we should effortfully and industriously work for a country that GROWS through expanding existing and creating new economic opportunities and self-determined possibilities in and about life. 

As citizens, let us individually commit and pledge ourselves by saying: "I promise and vow loyalty and service to my country in every laudable pursuit and I will always be an active citizen for the country’s greatest common good."