Friday, May 11, 2012

Social Change, part 1

I believe we evolve everyday, all our daily experiences  make us different people as each day passes.If indeed am right, then why have we in developing countries remained underdeveloped? So many academics would have answers to this question but non truly apply in the real sense. i find myself in conflict with Rostow's stages of Human development.They are six1.Traditional society 2.preconditions for take off 3.take off4.drive to maturity 5.High mass consumption and 6. Beyond high mass consumption. step 1 is where the people (and argue with me if we are not at this stage in Zambia right now) have limited production due to their inability to apply science and technology in production of goods, high devotion to Agriculture, social organisation dominated by tribal and clan connections( just look at Sata's Ministers and people in Government, all Bemba's, just as in Mwanawasa's time), Income too limited to invest ( the majority of Zambians are unable to have Bank accounts and later on even save for those that have them due to the high cost of living) and finally, the culture does not allow growth or initiatives or new ideas ( just look at how Zambians are reacting to the idea of permitting Gay rights, all they imagine is sex, when most gay couples are just as sexless as heterosexual couples and evidence has shown that heterosexuals perform more anal sex compared to gay couples.
The next step we went into and got stuck is the Pre-conditions for Take off. In this period the society prepares itself for sustained growth and modern science begins to be applied in terms of Agriculture and production, entrepreneurship develops and is encouraged and Banks mobilize capital for investments.
Nations around the world have surpassed us greatly, and yet we want to jump in the pool of high mass consumption, a state where a society has worked hard and is now enjoying benefits such as massive shopping at Malls and not local traditional markets even when their earnings do not allow.
What can we do to cure ourselves of this suffrage, this constant manipulation in trade differences between the west and us, this political backwardness, this technological gap, cultural negativity and religious zealous y that has not taken us anywhere but leads us to continuous  slavery and poverty. Even as we seem to be developing, and buildings are being erected and the traffic is larger than ever before....truth is we need People's will, a total turn round and personal sacrifice in issues of national development, for this country and many others like us to see some development, not creating and recreating and recreating a constitution that still has so much power vested in the office of the president and nullifies all those little things the public is getting appeased with like Duo citizenship when the chief justice and the whole Judiciary is still appointed by the office of the President.
To be continued......

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