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The Intimate Link Between Laziness and Poverty Printable Version PRINTABLE VERSION
by Temi Ige, Nigeria Oct 24, 2003
Culture   Opinions

  

I will work!

At the trace of twilight I rise
To the urging crow of the cock
Every living soul that is wise
Will heed the call to work

As fate will prove, time and again
Even philosophies built with rock
Will crumble and fall – defeated, slain
What won’t change is the will to work

Observe the ubiquitous ant
As she accumulates her winter stock
“Work when ye may” she will chant
While engrossed in the act of work

Whatever you sow, you’re sure to reap
Why not now invest in the quarry of work
And with all done, you’re free to sleep
Quietly reaping the fruits of work

And if we ignore the call to toil
The gates of despair we’ll unlock
To shame’s stain and poverty’s soil
So lest these be, I will work!


It’s a very old saying that “whoever does not work, must not eat.” From time immemorial, it has been a natural belief that the reward for labor should not be given to those who have not worked to deserve it and usually, when an individual suddenly “gets rich”, it arouses suspicions and eventually the society will probe and find out the source of the sudden prosperity. Since it is well known (even though it is said, “wherever there is no law, no sin abounds”) that, every man has an inherent moralistic guide to good and evil [I shall elaborate on this in another discussion], cannot it then be said that we are blatantly contravening both human and natural laws by trying to find a solution to poverty without promoting a good attitude to work?

Certainly! I believe that we will not have a breakthrough in poverty alleviation until we can address its precursor from the grassroots – Slothfulness. I was born and raised in one of the most abundantly endowed (naturally, economically, socio-politically, name it…) countries in the world, yet, sadly, one of the poorest, most economically deprived and disadvantaged places one could ever be. This is true, not because there is no potential, but because most of the people here are too lazy to take advantage of the immense opportunities that my nation has to offer. They (I refer to many people, not all) are even too lazy to think of new ways to combat the situation and because they can’t, they prefer to use wickedly subtle means to derive pay without work. And the cycle goes on and on, laziness, poverty, greed, corruption, crime etc.

Usually, we try to take solace in the fact that our problems have evolved because of the acute corruption that we claim “takes place in the high places”, but we refuse to acknowledge that most of the leaders we so well chastise have once been people like us, eating and drinking the gruel of laziness and poverty that we complain of and yet do not make any concrete attempt to change. The fact remains that, until we can curb this lethal cycle, we will continue to product vicious and corrupt leaders who will “punish” us for refusing to set them on a just part. Can we then say that our leaders are responsible for our misery? Of course not.

And if we argue that we are not endowed with the appropriate resources, be it material, situational or manpower- wise, then we would be correct if we assume that there is at least one spot on earth that is so barren to be utterly desolate, where no amount of personal effort, investment or sacrifice will yield any results (even if it were just visual esthetic satisfaction!). But is this true? Impossible.

The only fact now left for us to consider is the individual factor. Who are we? Where are we? What are we capable of doing? What are our limitations and what can we do about them? Are we lazy? Can our general attitude towards work be changed? If yes, how? These are the questions we ought to ask ourselves. And when we find these answers, we must be sure not to put them aside with idle thought and laziness, but we must work on them to ensure an effective change in our society. He who does not work, must not eat!







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