To quote a Government website “For many Australians the phrase 'the lucky country' has a particular resonance… (these) words have been used in numerous ways to describe everything that is great about our nation. The phrase has been used to describe our weather, our lifestyle and our history. It is often invoked to describe the nation's good fortune, from gold booms to economic booms.”
This is not however what the author meant and in his own words this is what he said ‘Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck.' The Government website goes on to state that the author “was critiquing an Australia that did not think for itself; a country manacled to its past; and 'still in colonial blinkers': 'If we are to remain a prosperous, liberal, humane society, we must be prepared to understand the distinctiveness of our own society'.”
In the two hundred plus years since the Europeans first arrived, Australia and its now diverse population have turned this desert island into a tourist spot of choice and the preferred destination for a wide range of immigrants both legal and illegal. Apart from a second world war bombing of Darwin by Japan it has not fought any major battles on its territory. The Aborigines of Australia may however disagree!
Not everything is wine and roses. In 2009 in excess of 2000 people took their own lives. This is a far higher death toll than road traffic accidents. Australia has in the past 6 months been hit by major floods in Queensland and NSW causing widespread devastation to homes and cities.
These were not rural villages as in Africa or elsewhere these were upmarket homes with the owners in many cases losing everything. The country has, until the floods, been in the grip of a serious drought.
It has some serious social problems with drug and alcohol abuse particularly among its youth. It like every other country has a criminal element.
It is easy from afar to look back over the 30 years since Zimbabwe’s Independence and realise that there has been a multitude of wasted opportunities both nationally and individually. Some in Zimbabwe have become incredibly wealthy just as in Australia there are some incredibly wealthy individuals.
However the vast majority of Australians have an opportunity to share in or benefit from the overall wealth of the country whilst in Zimbabwe it is only the well connected few. It is criminal that a potentially wealthy country is unable to provide basic necessities for all its citizens because of the selfishness and greed of the few.
Zimbabwe should be a lucky country after all it is blessed with arguably the world’s best climate, significant natural resources, in terms of wildlife, scenic beauty, minerals, known agricultural capability and in the main an industrious population.
But to paraphrase the author of The Lucky Country “If Zimbabwe is to become a prosperous, liberal, humane society, it must be prepared to shed the manacles of the past, and the colonial blinkers.' In the words of Lynne Twist in her excellent book The Soul of Money Zimbabweans must change their paradigm from you or me to you and me!
Post published in: Letters to the Editor