FINGER POINTING CURSE



THE FINGER POINTING CURSE
By Jeremy Leariwala

A blame game circus is the most misused tool of evading responsibility. When somebody is tasked and fails to deliver results, he or she will mostly point a finger at someone or something out of his/her control. But one would ask, “do people really understand what pointing one finger away means?”
A friend of mine shared the following two stories that I would wish to share with you too. First there are three men who volunteer to hunt down Satan and secondly there is a labourer with a flower shedding tree.
Many years ago three men from a certain town volunteered to go out and hunt down Satan! Perhaps so many of their problems were blamed on Satan and everyone was tired of it. These three men wanted to handle the devil once and for all. They set out very early in the morning, walked for the better part of the day until they came across a bag full of money. Well, it is a long story but to sum it up, the three men ended up killing each other even before the met Satan.
In the second story that my friend share, a priest had a tree in his compound that shed flowers almost every night. He hired a labourer who would sweep away the flowers every morning for a fee at the end of the week. The labourer diligently cleaned the compound for very many months and duly received his wages. One morning though he woke up with a very brilliant idea. He went up to the priest and suggested that to solve the flower litter menace, he could cut down the tree. The priest looked at him and thought he had finally found a valuable lesson. The labourer was permitted to cut down the tree. The following morning, as punctual as ever, the labourer reported to the priest house ready to be assigned new duties. The priest politely informed him that he had finished his work the previous day.
Once in a while you might have complained about services your government is providing. Poor sewerage services, irregular electricity supply, poor water systems or even lack of food to eat! Here you are pointing one finger at your government. Let us say that the government improves the water supply system and brings the water closer to your house. Or it works on the electricity supply and even installs street lights around your home. The time you used to look for water will have been reduced. The streets will be lit and you would have more time to walk around without fear of dark corners. Unless there is something constructive you are doing, this is all idle time. What can you produce with the new steady flow of water to make things better? You have to pay the water bills and the street light is not entirely for free! What is the value of this idle time to you and your government?
Eradicating hunger and living far away from poverty is everyone's dream. Quite a good number of us, living in the arid or semi-arid areas always have something to point at as the reason why hunger and poverty are here to stay. That is pointing a finger away and relying on food-aid is the order of the day. We need effort, commitment, total participation and a belief in ourselves if we are to achieve long term results here.
A clenched fist with one finger pointing away, at a blame far from oneself, can turn out to be a curse. Remember that three other fingers are pointing back at the person and the thumb, many times, will be pointing down to the earth. With total commitment, even the sustainable development goals achievement, to a higher degree, can be a success.

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