“If you want to change the world, START WITH THE MAN IN THE MIRROR! WE ARE OUR OWN BIGGEST HURDLE TO OUR DEVELOPMENT ASPIRATIONS”  –Lino Tom, MP.

WE ARE OUR OWN BIGGEST HURDLE TO OUR DEVELOPMENT ASPIRATIONS

By Dr. Lino JEREMAIH TOM - Health Minister, Sunday,01 Jan 2023. It’s not difficult to tell. It’s glaringly obvious and has become part of our NEW NORMAL and accepted way of doing things in this nation that we don’t even stop to think about them. We’ve taken them for granted. Let me give some examples: 1) Our own people scheme and scam and sell all our land to foreigners; 2) We chew and spit bettel nut spittle on the roads and pavements without even a second thought; 3) We litter everywhere; 4) We ask our own people for tips to do things we are paid to do as public servants; 5) The police have become MEDIATORS and protectors of upper class citizens instead of LAW ENFORCERS and protectors of state and public property; 6) We come to work very late and yet spend only a hour at work and wonder off early for buai and smoke breaks-our productivity is way too low, we’re cheating our government (us) of productive hours; 7) The first thing our graduates are doing is learning how to scheme and scam-our education system has created a system of ELITE scammers; honesty and hard work are values quite rare amongst our young populace; 8) We aid and abet foreigners to rob and plunder our nation without any form of remorse, (walked into one of our departments and saw these foreigners just waking around freely inside this office picking cheques and papers from one section to another without any form of respect; our systems and sovereignty have become desecrated to a level now where foreigners trample on them with little to no respect at all ( I would not tromp into a foreign office in a foreign country and do likewise checking on my payments); 9) We no longer respect the jobs we do, etc These are symptoms of a failing culture and nation. Unless we realize that there is NO SUBSTITUE FOR HARD WORK, HONESTY AND RESPECT, we are slowly moving towards the verge of total national collapse and failure. Resources and money will never be the answer to the gradual national decline in almost everything. We need a REVOLUTIONARY mindset change and see how successful nations have done it. One common denominator is the CULTURE. In 2023 May we start doing the small things right and commit ourselves to our jobs before we point fingers at the politicians and leaders. If you want to change the world, START WITH THE MAN IN THE MIRROR! Remember no one will come and prescribe a magic formula to change our nation. We need to learn from our fathers, who dressed neatly; worked hard and honestly and were patriotic towards the nations plight. Now we just have a lot of educated, lazy parrots who only know how to whine. We can be better and the answer is OURSELVES. We have lowered the standards too low that mediocrity is now accepted and applauded. Maybe, the Labor-mobility program may show our people that contemporary cultures elsewhere in successful nations have evolved based on solid values of hard work, honesty and patriotism. TO MOVE FORWARD, WE HAVE TO LOOK INWARDS AND DEVELOP A GOOD CULTURE OF TRUST; HARDWORK AND HONESTY! ANSWER LIES IN US. Wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2023.