14th July 2012
Promises and expectations don’t materialize overnight

It has long been expressed that a promise is a comfort to a fool, so just believing in a promise could be your fault. But not to believe in promises is also not to believe in anything. Ironically, from very young we depend on promises, especially from our parents. We are asked in church to believe in the promises that God made to mankind. We have sometimes no choice in believing the pronouncement from teachers, politicians and a whole lot of persons. We believe and have hope that even in our own personal relationships we will get a better deal from our partners or spouses. We also talk to our children when they do wrong and again after they make the same mistakes over and over, we all still hope as parents that our counsel will bear fruit. All these hopes are derived from promises that parties make. We are fully aware that if a thief is caught, to gain his freedom he would promise his capturers that he would never commit that offence again. The rapist when caught, the priest, the policeman -- in fact regardless of what field of work or profession, we all make promises to fulfill dreams, aspirations, goals and I am sure that most of us never always fulfill the promises we make to each other. But if you listen to the talk shows, there is always somebody -- especially a party hack -- always wanting to know why this promise and that promise has not come to pass.

I am not taking the side of any party, but are things supposed to change overnight? Do systems get dismantled immediately as a government changes? Do jobs, jobs, jobs materialize as soon as they are pronounced? Are all the job-seekers mentally equipped, skilled and educated to do any job, or shouldn’t the process be a new cultivated value that with time would or should bear fruit? I have never seen a tree bear fruit overnight, some take short periods to bear and others take a longer time almost indefinitely -- in fact, even after planting some never bear fruit, so I wonder what system do the people really want?

Is Jobs about earning regardless of the human output? Is there any business -- be it private or public -- that should employ persons purely on a sentimental basis? I think where the present government failed on another technical term is “giving jobs”. It happened before when the terms “Transparency” and “Accountability” were the punch lines and the Government paid dearly when they did not deliver. I think the operative word or promise should have been to “train” our people to become productive to be able to secure a job if the opportunity presented itself. Then there would be less bickering on the basis that, like a tree some fruits take a while to bear.