Other people’s lives always seem better

OTHER people’s lives always seem better than our own, at least on the outset. More so when one is faced with unpleasant circumstances, the human psyche isn’t known for accommodating predicaments with alacrity. Thus it is commonplace to see people who seemingly have it far better than other wishing to trade places with the less fortunate.

Picture this; an office manager may wish to be the office messenger just because he or she has slight altercations with their bosses on regular bases. And when they see the messenger, happy as ever at all times, they can’t help but wonder how he does that. 

The one thing they are not aware of is the fact that the messenger has a truckload of problems of his own but he simply never shows them. In the face of trials and tribulations, we become the most vulnerable of species.

Yet most of our problems are self induced. That may also explain why we are quick to wish to be in the place of others when faeces hit the fan. Again, that’s why we are also very quick to shift the blame, wherever it may suit, after we mess it up.

Governments too are like human beings. After all, they are run men and women. It is very rare for governments to accept failures on their part. The Americans and allies will never shoulder the blame for the failures in Afghanistan, Iraq and in the future in Libya. It’s just the morning after in Libya; more difficult hours are yet to come.

But you have to give credit to government in developed countries for taking responsibility when domestic policies fail. They may not want to be liable when they ruin other countries, but when it comes to their own kind, they man up.

And we want to be just like them! It is easier said than done. The debt crises in Europe brought down the Italian and Greek governments. Others were voted out, more follow but time will tell. You don’t expect to see that happening in our countries. In Swaziland, for example, the King and his many wives live in relative luxury while the government can’t afford to pay the salaries of civil servants. How then can we wish to be like them (developed countries)?

Nothing exceptionally good comes without sacrifices. And sacrifices are not confined to slaughtering flocks of sheep as an offering. Sacrifices also include making way for others where one sees that the task before him or her is insurmountable.

We need to think beyond personal status and perks. We need to start thinking of building a nation and moving it forward. It is wishful thinking to believe that one can make progress like others have done while at the time not willing to make similar sacrifices.

It will also be myopic on my part to hang on to the thought that we will make progress by simply doing what those who have succeeded have done and then sit back and wait for results. My position should also not be misconstrued to suggesting we should all go Mzungu. But we still have to start somewhere. And that somewhere could be a change in our attitudes and ways of doing things, our own way.

A few days back, a parliamentary select committee that was formed to investigate misuse of funds in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals presented its findings in Parliament. In the saga, several senior government officials were found to be complicity in wrongdoing and due disciplinary and legal action against them was recommended.

After a whole week had passed not so many of us knows what has become or will become of them. However, out of courtesy and as a gesture of savory demeanor, the least one would have expected is for those implicated taking the first responsible step by resigning out of their own volition.  

Since that doesn’t seem likely to happen, we will continue to be us and they will continue to be them. And to us, their lives will always seem better than ours because we will never come to know of their pain and suffering, we only see their joy and progress.