Friday, November 29, 2013
A MANIFESTO FOR THE SIMPLE LIFE 2
In a previous article we discussed the life of a neo-socialist as a simple life. As we reflect on these ideals let us see the life of Mahatma Ghandi (the great soul) as a prototype of a truly simple life. He lived like all socialists aspire to do - he lived a frugal, austere and almost ascetic lifestyle.
Among the core beliefs of a neo-socialist, we had elaborated on :
1. All men are created equal
2. Society advances through conflict
3. Robust debates and credible elections are the only guarantee against revolutions
That man must aspire to such ideals as credible elections and robust debates is a sine qua non. Or else he must live with an ever present reality of impending revolution. All neo socialists hold these truths to be immutable. This philosophy hinges on the premise that all opinions are valid in their own way and so every perspective must be explored. He who thinks in a purely capitalist mode should not see He who operates on a Socialist frequency as a rebel, disrespectful and as an enemy of state. If the greater good of society is our concern there has to be a middle ground! Compromise at some point pays in the long run. Being uncompromising is the father of breakaways. We must shift a little to the left and a little to the right, mixing a little capitalism with a sprinkle of socialism. Indeed we can develop a new way of doing things through debate - one we can truly call the Nigerian Way!
In the world of science as in the world at large advancement is through debate. The hotter the debate the quicker progress cooks up. The fiercer the debate the more passionate the debaters are for change. Any culture where superior argument wins, builds a superior society! Any sector where higher logic is appreciated and employed always experiences higher output! Any election conducted without recourse to open debates on issues and ideas is selection. Every voter who casts a ballot on the ground of superior argument is on solid ground. All neo socialists know that without these things we must all live in fear of an implosion and a revolution. A fear that may be unfounded but a paralyzing fear still.
4. Privatize cautiously
It has been the opinion of neo socialists all over the world that the trade unions and professional groups must have a say in the privatization process. A certain 30 % share in all privatized entities must be left for the labor movements who have slaved over the years to keep a semblance of service running. A mere severance package makes it look like the new investor is more Nigerian than they are. It makes them feel like second class citizens in their own nation. And no human can keep such feelings bottled up for long. It will boil over soon.
Some sectors of a nations economy shouldn't be 100 percent privatized according to a socialists view point. Health and Education should have a whole lot of Government input. Aviation and shipping should also have huge government financing. The petrochemical and mining industry should never be fully privatized. A purely capitalist model says Government has no business doing business. A socialist model says there can be no big businesses without big government involvement.
5. Educate basic and primary school pupils freely and make it compulsory
Obafemi Awolowo remains Nigeria's foremost socialist thinking leader. His aggressive pursuit of free education remains a reference point amongst his people. Pure capitalists will say you can't appreciate an education you don't pay for. History reveals that view is false. A neo socialist knows that a society's value is seen in how it treats its most vulnerable - in this case basic and primary school pupils. A society that cannot guarantee them a free education and even make it compulsory must have a hard time proving it has any values worth emulating.
6. Subsidize critical sectors of the economy
A total and complete removal of subsidies is to be abhorred. Even our currency value can and should be subsidized. Education and health should be subsidized. Agriculture should also enjoy huge subsidies. In a socialists mind cattle rearers are entitled to some form of relief same applies to cash crop farmers. Government silos are a socialists pride. Grains bought from farmers to prevent rot are stored in their several billions of metric tonnes and sold directly to the open market to eliminate middle men. Middle men are the reason your food stuff are so expensive. They buy them at ridiculously low rates from the village farmers and sell it to the urban dweller at shylock rates
7. Price regulation boards
The idea of allowing prices to be fixed arbitrarily by market forces of demand and supply is purely a capitalist idea. That's why as christmas approaches stock that have been in a shop since october will suddenly start selling for twice the price! Foodstuff will also have their prices almost tripled. A neo socialist would argue that there should be a price ceiling beyond which prices must never be allowed to go!
8. Health sector
Obamacare is the reason President Barrack Obama has been labbelled a socialist. This is because he believes and I do too, that the few rich should pay more health insurance than the many poor. He insists like I do, that the few rich must be interested in the inablility of the many poor to pay hospital bills and get quality health care. Of course the few rich folks kicked against obamacare. They couldn't see why they should pay more. Health insurance in a Pay Insurance As You Earn system. That is in simple terms what led to the government shut down. These rich people lobbyed congress not to pass the budget until funding for Obamacare ICT staff and all that was scrapped from the bugdet.
9. Effective Taxation
Property taxes ought to be imposed in such a way that if I own huge sprawling estates around the country I should be conscientious enough to pay reasonable tax to the government so that access roads can be maintained, power systems can be installed and guaranteed and water systems can also be networked through town to my facilities. Also, heavy taxes ought to be placed on luxury items and all such items tha can be produced in our country! So that if you want to use imported tooth pick you would be ready to pay like 500% more than what a locally manufactured toothpick would cost! Tax evasion should be discouraged and reduced to a barest minimum.
10. Reward systems should reflect manhours
Professions in which the professionals spend long hours at work should as a matter of natural justice earn more. So that if you're at work for 24 hours multiplied by 7 days in a week, it is a call to anarchy for you to earn anything close to one who works 8 - 4 pm! People should be payed per hour!
Punishment should also reflect the long hours that must have been put into planning the crime! A corrupt official who must have spent long hours of government time during which he was meant to be doing government work, planning to steal government money should face capital punishment!
In the same vein any person or group of persons who must have spent hours cooking up stories and coming up with slogans that would incite people to violence, once any live is lost in the ensuing violence, the speaker of such hateful or inciteful speech should be locked away for life.
Any action that is detrimental to society must be fought to a standstill by strong deterrant measures that send a strong message to the world... We are a decent people and acts inimical to societal wellbeing are unacceptable in our refined culture.
Iroko Obasi ND
Thursday, November 28, 2013
A MANIFESTO FOR THE SIMPLE LIFE
A lot of people don't like to be associated with the term socialist. The capitalist wing have given the concept of socialism a stigma! But they're wrong! Pure capitalism is failing in many parts of the world. And that is because pure capitalism means that the means of production are owned by those with the most money! So at the end of the day, the man who can afford to manufacture all the sugar, salt, maggi, indomie and spagghetti will own all these things. He would receive an alert anytime we eat any of these products. If he can afford to manufacture all the cement, rods and building materials, we would also allow him own them all. So that for every hut or sky scraper that is constructed, he would receive an alert! Then finally, chances are that such a pure capitalist would afford to buy up all our refineries and power stations. That is pure capitalism. Its good in its own way but it is failing in most parts of the world already!
However, society only moves forward through a constant friction of ideas between the pure capitalist and the neo socialist. Where one believes in total privatization of all state assets, the other believes that some services must never be privatized! Where one believed people must pay for education to value it, the other believes that basic primary education must be free and compulsory! Where one insists that healthcare can never be free, the other asserverates that it must be free for pregnant women and under 5's. Out lined below are the core beliefs of a neosocialist.
A Neo-Socialists Manifesto
1. All men are equal: No gender is superior to the other. A son is as valuable as a daughter and a man is invariably of the same capacity with a woman if given similar opportunities. So a neo socialist commits his life to the advancement of equal opportunities for all sexes. In this same vein no race is superior to another. We all share a common humanity and our battles against the vissisitudes of life in birth and in death are one and the same. We all have a similar vision of a better life for the greatest number of people. And that is one vision that remains unchanged regardless of the words in which it is phrased. In tandem with this philosophy of life, no profession is superior to another. There is dignity in labor. And all labor is of intrinsic value. Every laborer is worthy of a decent days meal, a home to call his own, a guaranteed future for his offspring and an inalienable right to negotiate and determine their lot in life. This explains the socialists natural appeal to trade unions and professional bodies. This explains the neo socialists dream of having all labor movements from every sector work together with a common realization that we exist for the advancement of society and not the advancement of self. For if society moves we move! Society is always previous. That great el dorado of equality of the classes is a dream- a dream that must be aspired to.
2. Society advances through conflict
Socialists are often branded confrontational. They challenge the system with alternative ideas. This natural tendency is because they believe there can be no motion without friction. Societies that shy away from friction ossify. Sectors that glorify peace may just be glorifying the uneasy peace of the grave. It has been the experience of many that there can be no peace without conflict. Hence every system needs a good conflict resolution mechanism to prevent systemic failures. The conflict between neo socialists and capitalists is as old as man. The conflict between the have's and the have nots is a never ending one. The conlict between the bourgeois and the proletariat may never cease. For those who hold the means of production in their hands do so for their personal gain. The workers who make the wealth of nations do so under conditions that are so far apart from the living conditions of their overlords.
Pure capitalists justify these things as the way things ought to be because not all fingers are equal. But by assuming such positions, they forget that when one finger is plunged deep in oil it must stain every other one if precautionary measures are not taken. It is these precautionary measures which will stop the spread of corruption from the more priviledged to the less privilegded. For when the rich do nothing to guarantee a better life for the poor they have to sleep with one eye open. The wealthy have to protect society from the mounting frustration of the everyday Nigerian. This is a necessity until such a time when there is equitable distribution of wealth.
(To be continued)
Iroko Obasi ND
However, society only moves forward through a constant friction of ideas between the pure capitalist and the neo socialist. Where one believes in total privatization of all state assets, the other believes that some services must never be privatized! Where one believed people must pay for education to value it, the other believes that basic primary education must be free and compulsory! Where one insists that healthcare can never be free, the other asserverates that it must be free for pregnant women and under 5's. Out lined below are the core beliefs of a neosocialist.
A Neo-Socialists Manifesto
1. All men are equal: No gender is superior to the other. A son is as valuable as a daughter and a man is invariably of the same capacity with a woman if given similar opportunities. So a neo socialist commits his life to the advancement of equal opportunities for all sexes. In this same vein no race is superior to another. We all share a common humanity and our battles against the vissisitudes of life in birth and in death are one and the same. We all have a similar vision of a better life for the greatest number of people. And that is one vision that remains unchanged regardless of the words in which it is phrased. In tandem with this philosophy of life, no profession is superior to another. There is dignity in labor. And all labor is of intrinsic value. Every laborer is worthy of a decent days meal, a home to call his own, a guaranteed future for his offspring and an inalienable right to negotiate and determine their lot in life. This explains the socialists natural appeal to trade unions and professional bodies. This explains the neo socialists dream of having all labor movements from every sector work together with a common realization that we exist for the advancement of society and not the advancement of self. For if society moves we move! Society is always previous. That great el dorado of equality of the classes is a dream- a dream that must be aspired to.
2. Society advances through conflict
Socialists are often branded confrontational. They challenge the system with alternative ideas. This natural tendency is because they believe there can be no motion without friction. Societies that shy away from friction ossify. Sectors that glorify peace may just be glorifying the uneasy peace of the grave. It has been the experience of many that there can be no peace without conflict. Hence every system needs a good conflict resolution mechanism to prevent systemic failures. The conflict between neo socialists and capitalists is as old as man. The conflict between the have's and the have nots is a never ending one. The conlict between the bourgeois and the proletariat may never cease. For those who hold the means of production in their hands do so for their personal gain. The workers who make the wealth of nations do so under conditions that are so far apart from the living conditions of their overlords.
Pure capitalists justify these things as the way things ought to be because not all fingers are equal. But by assuming such positions, they forget that when one finger is plunged deep in oil it must stain every other one if precautionary measures are not taken. It is these precautionary measures which will stop the spread of corruption from the more priviledged to the less privilegded. For when the rich do nothing to guarantee a better life for the poor they have to sleep with one eye open. The wealthy have to protect society from the mounting frustration of the everyday Nigerian. This is a necessity until such a time when there is equitable distribution of wealth.
(To be continued)
Iroko Obasi ND
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Why True Leadership Hasn't Come Yet!
I haven't written in a while and that's because I've been considering some inputs Kay's Fittings has been making into my blog. She, Kerren Amaechi and a couple of friends have made me adopt a more conversational approach in my blog posts. I do tend to be straight laced when I write, that is especially so considering the subjects I have chosen to address. Questions about nation building, statesmanship and leadership are serious issues. But maybe I could talk about weighty issues with less gravity! I really don't have to write with the same anger I feel when I look at the way we are led both in our families, in our religious organizations, in our communities and as a nation at large. Truth be told, I feel angst that even if we vote in an exceptional leader several things can still go wrong:
1. He can somehow manage to surround himself with people having huge value deficits.
2. The opposition can somehow decide to provoke him into taking a couple of unnecessary decisions
3. The media can be hijacked and used as a tool to disseminate un-researched information.
4. The political party he belongs to can somehow get split along the middle, putting him on a rough path.
The fact of life remains that if anything can go wrong at all... It most definitely will especially so with the fragile nature of True Leadership. So, if faults are all you're looking for, you will surely find several.
However, I'm not a fault finder when I say that true leadership still tarries. Neither are you a rabble rouser when you say our nation needs a revolution. We share one deep seated animosity, not against any individual but against the shame it has now become to carry the Nigerian passport. I'm not deprived to say the least even though I'm not lounging on a yacht like some of our leaders. At least I can afford a smart phone with which I'm typing this work. But life as a Nigerian is more than whether I have a job or whether I have shelter or whether I have food. All of which things I do have to a comfortable degree. Life as a Nigerian is about my compatriots who can't finish up their educational pursuit because the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union can't reach a compromise on an already existing agreement. Life as a Nigerian is about my friend in the UK who was asked how come a Nigerian minister spent over 1 million US dollars to buy 2 vehicles for her ministry when in the UK such officials wouldn't dare such, definitely not under David Cameron as Prime Minister, at least not yet!
Distilled below are a few of the reasons why True Leadership Tarries. You can add yours:
1. Seeming lack of Values
2. Virtual Oneness
3. Conquistador mentality
4. 'Dash me' orientation
5. Short attention span
6. Recycling Leadership
7. Weak Institutions
8. No Rallying Point
9. Preferring wrong solutions
10.Elder Worship
11.Reliance on Other Peoples Money
12. Misinterpreting Criticisms
Subsequently I shall expantiate on all these. But for now, just imagine a society in which a Leader emerges who has all characteristics listed above. That is a recipe for stunted growth, slow progress and no development.
Every nation gets the leader it deserves so said Ravi Zacharias a notable philosopher. In my own words I would say "No nation ever rises above the sort of leadership it demands!" Charles Robertson has predicted an African Boom whose key is for Africans to increasingly ask their leaders hard questions and demand embarrassing answers. Mohammed Ibrahim insists that the inability of the Mo' Ibrahim foundation to find a worthy leader for this years award for African Leadership isn't meant to indict African Leaders. We as a people tend to feel someone is trying to indict us when the person tries to point out a better way.
This writer is all about pointing out better ways. For ahead of us are better days. Thanks to Kay's Fittings for her helpful comments. I hope I've done better this time.
Iroko Obasi ND
1. He can somehow manage to surround himself with people having huge value deficits.
2. The opposition can somehow decide to provoke him into taking a couple of unnecessary decisions
3. The media can be hijacked and used as a tool to disseminate un-researched information.
4. The political party he belongs to can somehow get split along the middle, putting him on a rough path.
The fact of life remains that if anything can go wrong at all... It most definitely will especially so with the fragile nature of True Leadership. So, if faults are all you're looking for, you will surely find several.
However, I'm not a fault finder when I say that true leadership still tarries. Neither are you a rabble rouser when you say our nation needs a revolution. We share one deep seated animosity, not against any individual but against the shame it has now become to carry the Nigerian passport. I'm not deprived to say the least even though I'm not lounging on a yacht like some of our leaders. At least I can afford a smart phone with which I'm typing this work. But life as a Nigerian is more than whether I have a job or whether I have shelter or whether I have food. All of which things I do have to a comfortable degree. Life as a Nigerian is about my compatriots who can't finish up their educational pursuit because the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union can't reach a compromise on an already existing agreement. Life as a Nigerian is about my friend in the UK who was asked how come a Nigerian minister spent over 1 million US dollars to buy 2 vehicles for her ministry when in the UK such officials wouldn't dare such, definitely not under David Cameron as Prime Minister, at least not yet!
Distilled below are a few of the reasons why True Leadership Tarries. You can add yours:
1. Seeming lack of Values
2. Virtual Oneness
3. Conquistador mentality
4. 'Dash me' orientation
5. Short attention span
6. Recycling Leadership
7. Weak Institutions
8. No Rallying Point
9. Preferring wrong solutions
10.Elder Worship
11.Reliance on Other Peoples Money
12. Misinterpreting Criticisms
Subsequently I shall expantiate on all these. But for now, just imagine a society in which a Leader emerges who has all characteristics listed above. That is a recipe for stunted growth, slow progress and no development.
Every nation gets the leader it deserves so said Ravi Zacharias a notable philosopher. In my own words I would say "No nation ever rises above the sort of leadership it demands!" Charles Robertson has predicted an African Boom whose key is for Africans to increasingly ask their leaders hard questions and demand embarrassing answers. Mohammed Ibrahim insists that the inability of the Mo' Ibrahim foundation to find a worthy leader for this years award for African Leadership isn't meant to indict African Leaders. We as a people tend to feel someone is trying to indict us when the person tries to point out a better way.
This writer is all about pointing out better ways. For ahead of us are better days. Thanks to Kay's Fittings for her helpful comments. I hope I've done better this time.
Iroko Obasi ND
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