The
Gambia, like many countries around the world, has been in an unhappy state of
economic hardships and political discontent for a long time. Like Gambia’s,
many economies around the world remain weak and are at the danger of total
collapse without the benefit of external aid. It has gotten so bad that we can
now legitimately talk of government by begging in Africa and other parts of the
world where poverty is rampant and nations feel helpless to do anything about
the plights of millions of impoverished citizens. Politically, these countries
are stuck in a state of constant political bickering, latent or actual
conflict, and impotence in the face of biting and growing socio-economic
challenges and an ever rising mountain of unmet public needs.
An
inevitable corollary to this difficult state of affairs in The Gambia and
elsewhere is blaming the system. One must hasten to add that in almost all
cases, system failure, that is to say government failure contributes
significantly to this sad state of affairs. Political and bureaucratic
incapacity to identify viable and lasting solutions exist side by side with a
fragmented political mentality marked by hostility and lack of vision for the
country. Civil society organizations do their work to the extent they are
equipped to, but still within a fragmented civic environment and a disorganized
and chaotic social environment. But system blaming does not seem to be working
either, because even in the unusual event of a change of government, perennial
problems of human survival and human happiness persist, making significant
segments of the human community communities of perpetual discontent.
Even
well-meaning governments in these difficult countries often find themselves
incapable of overcoming some of the most challenging conditions in their
countries. The poverty has lasted so long it seems destined to be permanent;
there are too many poor people; there are too many sick people; there are too
many unemployed people; there are too many underpaid people; there are too many
pot-hole ridden streets and unpaved roads; and there are too few resources,
understood as the material resources needed to run a country but are constantly
depleted by the repayment of untenable foreign debts; debts clearly accumulated
for no use because conditions in these countries have only progressively
worsened in spite of billions of dollars in debt monies. An impersonal, amoral,
unforgiving and threatening economic superstructure looms large and demands due
payment of monies borrowed by poor countries over decades and for which poor
countries have nothing to show. Sadly, many of the failed systems derided and
blamed for the social difficulties in these countries remain visibly incapable
of finding a way out of what has now become a perpetual conundrum of
incapacity.
Certainly,
the faults for which most systems are blamed are rightfully theirs. Whether the
system is capitalist, socialist or some strange hybrid or unstable ideological
hodgepodge, it is their responsibility to create the conditions for happiness
needed by their societies. Having assumed responsibility for the welfare of
society, they can in no way be excused from blame if they fail to bring about
the welfare of society. Limited resources and debt burdens are no excuse for
the persistence of severe problems of political hostility, widespread
unemployment, chronic under-employment, poor health services, poor educational
facilities, poor roads, pot-hole ridden streets, and ultimately, a perpetually
stretched, desperate and unhappy population.
However,
system failure clearly does not define the collectives that are nations, and
takes nothing away from the fact that human societies are capable, by proper
deployment of their collective intellect, to overcome most challenges that
arise in their environments and aspire to a state of relative happiness.
Deployments of other national collectives such as nationalism and patriotism
are only useful relative to specific situations and within particular contexts.
Gambian nationalism bred independence but in the space of independence, it
remains fragmented according to partisan political affiliation and is deployed,
not so much against external foes, but against segments of the nation for which
it purports to speak and whose wholeness it seeks to promote. Patriotism is
doing no better. AllGambians share the same love of country, but that love of
country has not been able to prevent bitter political acrimony and even enmity
among our political communities. Each political community aspires to leadership
of the country and some offer leadership in many particular domains of national
life; but all this activity happens in a fragmented political landscape within
an environment of shared difficulties whose solutions elude us from year to
year.
The
reality is that we must search for answers that might ultimately be premised on
our love of country – on nationalism and patriotism - but that must be anchored
in the fact of our humanity. In other words, it might be worth taking a serious
look at the proposition that societies can only really succeed if they
recognize, embraceand positively expressthe fact of their collective humanity
and their collective intellect, and if they then deploy that collective
humanity and collective intellect in developinga just community – the only kind
of community that can actualize a happy society: a society that will still face
some challenges, but a society in which the majority of people are reasonably
content with their lives. As one great scholar put it, “the error of modern man
is that he wants to reform the world without having either the will or the
power to reform man, and this flagrant contradiction, this attempt to make a
better world on the basis of a worsened humanity, can only end in the very abolition
of what is human, and consequently in the abolition of happiness too.”
In
the final analysis, if we must move our society towards happiness, we must look
within ourselves and our relations with each other for the pathway. It can be
done and it would not be a bad idea to try.
God
bless The Gambia and all Gambians, their families and loved ones everywhere.
