WE have been ridiculed from time to time that we darkies have never been innovative enough and have always waited for someone else to start a new idea or invent something new but then cry our tears dry if those goods don’t make it to our shores quickly. Titse! That is buffoonery of the highest order, as KK would say.
Where have they been when we beat Keurwyne’s price for those bolomakiesie-making goodies? Our records stand for themselves on how innovative we have been to ‘discover’ things that make us feel like we are drifting under ‘cool clouds’.
Weren’t we the first to find out that Pattex glue wasn’t just good for patching up our shoe’s soles? If you come from our era, you would remember that as soon as that glue got on the shelves at Groot Winkels, it ran off faster than goat ‘smilies’ at Otjikaendu’s Den.
There were many other ‘discoveries’ that won’t make it on this page for the sake of our children, but the latest invention had me wondering how sick can we be?
At first I questioned whether there was a new flu virus in the air that I didn’t know of when I heard people were storming to the pharmacies to buy cough syrup.
It was then I realised that the cold medicine shortage was not for very honourable reasons. I was reminded of the song ‘Sipping on some sizzurp (syrup)’ that I danced to at some point somewhere in a far-away land, not knowing what it really meant.
And I am not the one to reveal the secret ingredients of the syrup discovery as I overheard, but if I see you with a bottle of Borstol or funny looking juice, I will know what you are sipping.
But those are not the only discoveries. The amount of genius that goes into ncinas’ minds will bumuka you. They have known for the longest how to empty your bank account without a trace and going into your pockets or handbag without you noticing a thing.
While you are still busy exploring how to catch them on the last trick, they have already invented a new one. Yoh, yoh!
Don’t get me wrong, I am not praising these freeloaders and I know these acts are unlawful, despicable and wrong, but I always wonder why these outlaws cannot be rounded up and trained to do the right things with those sharp minds.
I mean, as society we find excuses for everything under the moon if we can’t get things right. If we fail at school, it’s because the teacher just hates us for being soo better looking than them. If we get fired from work it’s because the boss was feeling threatened by our very presence or just hated us for driving a better tjor than them.
We find excuses for everything and this has become evident in our daily lives from inter-relationships, traditions to large-scale issues, such as the economy and politics.
Why can’t we use this same vigour to discover new methods of doing the right things without having to become parasites living on others’ misfortunes?
We can find new methods of putting food on the table, excelling at school and work and inventing those things that we find so distantly possible if only we put our minds to that.
We can stop this dependency syndrome.
Sorry Ngo!
mnunuhe@newera.com.na