It appears that we have been consigned to our fate and some believe that nothing positive can come out of Malawi. We have come to accept poverty as a norm. We have come to the conclusion that nothing can change and the future looks hazy. This in the end has put limitations into how best we can work hard, how innovative we can become and what extraordinary things we can accomplish in life.<\/p>\n
Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once pointed out that most people take the limits of their vision to be the limits of the world. A few do not, join them. Leadership guru Robin Sharma adds that the life that you see this very moment is not necessarily the life of your future. You might be seeing things through the eyes of your fears, limitations and false assumptions. Once you clean up the stained glass window you see the world through, guess what? A whole new set of possibilities appears. Remember we see the world not as it is but as we are.<\/p>\n
The world has had wonderful stories of nations that broke the barriers of poverty thus becoming economic hubs; the Asian tigers are the most common story. Many a literature points out the poverty levels of China half a century ago, the very same country that now is a super power with some of the biggest investments the world has ever seen. India has a story to tell, so too Singapore, Malaysia and many other countries that have been able to shake themselves off the dust of poverty.<\/p>\n
Malawi is better positioned to bury poverty in the grave of history. But it has to start with our mentality. We need to have the belief that we can make it. It is only when we believe that we can eventually challenge ourselves to do the unthinkable.<\/p>\n
Before 1954, it was believed that no runner could ever break the four-minute mile barrier. But after Roger Bannister broke it, many more replicated his feet \u2013 within weeks. It is all because he showed people what was possible. They got a new reference point. And then armed with that belief, people did the impossible.<\/p>\n
We only need a few people to enhance irrigation farming to become a reference point. We only need a few people to spearhead value addition to agricultural products and start exporting then many people will follow. We will eventually start believing that if others have made it so too we can. It is the thinking that creates reality. If we believe that we cannot then we can never win but if we believe that we can then certainly we will. Alan Axelrod emphasizes that the anticipation of crisis will create crisis, if you allow it to blind you to the opportunity. The best attitude is to embark with the expectation of success, not failure.<\/p>\n
Certainly Thomson Mpinganjira must have anticipated a great crisis when he was contemplating establishing a bank. Certainly if he has to do an autobiography it will carry a chapter or two stressing the moments he nearly gave up. But if he had given up then we could have been thinking that there is no way that a Malawian can ever own a bank. We have many success stories. Consider Napoleon Dzombe and the factory that manufactures tooth picks and tiles from bamboos in Kasiya. Without that, we certainly could have been thinking that toothpicks can only be imported and that nothing of economic value can come from bamboos.<\/p>\n
We have many reference points that have defied the odds despite the poverty status that we are saddled with. What made them achieve the seemingly impossible is that they never believed in impossibilities. In the end they even created markets and job opportunities that we are cherishing. What matters is that we inculcate in ourselves their relentless belief and unstoppable attitude towards undertaking any initiative we may consider embarking upon. It is time, through our belief, that we create a new breed of the Koreia-Mpatsas, Mike Mulombwas, Nkondola Ukas, Napoleon Dzombes, Sidik Mias and many sung and unsung economic heroes of our motherland.<\/p>\n
We can break the barriers of poverty if only we believe that we can. If we intensify mechanised farming then we will rid our country off hunger which is a great catalyst of poverty and heightening inflation. It is time we embarked on robust import substitution thus creating small industries that will be feeding our local manufacturing industries. The result is more job opportunities and economic growth. South Africa imports beef from Brazil yet South Africa is only a two hours flight away from Malawi. Let those in the cattle industry explore that market. We will in the end create a vibrant pool of small holder farmers in the cattle sector. We can break the barriers of poverty. It only takes us to believe that we can.<\/p>\n
Sharma rightly points out that \u201cif you think something cannot occur in your life, then there is no way you will take the action required to make that goal a reality. Your \u2018impossibility thinking\u2019 manifests itself\u201d<\/p>\n
Let us begin to believe and start taking actions that will transform our country and all citizens. We are the architects of any future we desire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It appears that we have been consigned to our fate and some believe that nothing positive can come out of Malawi. We have come to accept poverty as a norm. We have come to the conclusion that nothing can change and the future looks hazy. This in the end has put limitations into how best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21015,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21013\/revisions\/21015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}