SOMEONE just sent me a fascinating article. Written by a US-based Zambian called Field Ruwe in January 2012, it is based on a conversation he had with a White man he met on a plane on New Year’s Eve, 2011. I have taken the liberty of summarising and slightly paraphrasing parts of Ruwe’s account because the original version is too long to fit onto this page. Field Ruwe Field Ruwe I regard it as poignantly instructive and relevant to Nigeria. I would love to know what Vanguard readers think of it. He extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat. “My name is Walter…Where are you from?” he asked. “Zambia.” “Zambia!” he exclaimed. “…I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s…and wined and dined with many highly intelligent Zambians.” At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles. “Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down. I took a glance and nodded admiringly. “That’s White man’s country,” he said. “We came here, turned Indian [native American] land into a paradise and are now the most powerful nation on earth. We built this aircraft you are travelling in…and we come to your country and take your resources and leave you with morsels. We get what we want and you get what you deserve. Crumbs is what lazy Zambians and Africans get… “I’m sure you regard me as a racist. But let us put our skin pigmentations aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?” “There’s no difference,” I replied. “Absolutely none…Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that…And yet I feel superior,” he smiled. “Every White person on this plane feels superior to a Black person. The White guy who picks up garbage, the homeless White trash on drugs, feels superior to you, no matter his status or education… “…I can pick up a White nincompoop from the New York streets…and take him to Lusaka and you’ll all be crowding around him, yet he’s a riff-raff. Tell me why!” For a moment I was wordless. “Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or on colonialism, or some psychological impact or on some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.” I was thinking. He continued: “Excuse what I am about to say….but you and all your kind – are lazy…When you rest your head on your pillow, you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy…It is you, and not those poor starving people, who are the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.” “That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested. He was implacable. “I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the streets, selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women crushing stones to sell and I wept… “…I asked myself: ‘Are Zambian engineers so imperceptive that they cannot invent a simple stone crusher or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after 37 years of independence, your university has not produced a scientist or engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the university there for?’” I held my breath “Zambian intellectuals work from 8 till 5 and spend the evening drinking. We Whites reserve the evening for brainstorming. “And you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic…You don’t care about your country and yet your parents, brothers and sisters are in villages, living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked— oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!” I was deflated “Wake up!…You should be lifting ideas, formulae, recipes and diagrams from American factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own ideas. Look at Japan, China and India… “…And for as long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you shall remain inferior…Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole…Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for God’s sake.” When the plane touched down, Walter reached for my hand. “I was too strong [harsh], but I have been to Zambia and seen too much poverty.” I watched him walk to a waiting car. And he left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscenti, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars, guzzling drinks and talking irrelevancies. I remembered how some of them got the highest possible grades at top foreign institutions like Harvard, Oxford and Yale; and yet none has provided us with a single invention or discovery. Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity…We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk, wearing a tie with our degree certificates hanging on the wall. Such working environments do not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition or the spectacle of innovative rituals. But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which we have had little control. Past governments embraced orthodox ideas and failed to offer opportunities for drawing outside the line…and failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. Let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader…so we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades and harvesters. Let’s dream big and also make tractors, cars, and planes, or, as Walter said, forever remain inferior. A fundamental transformation of our country requires a bold, risk-taking, educated leader with a triumphalist attitude. Don’t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger or disease. It is time to change our political culture. It’s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate a progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don’t be afraid or dispirited. Rise to the challenge.

TRUTH IN IT GLORY!

Here in Nigeria, we are concerned about how to hammar and buy the latest things. Not what we can produce. Even when we manage to produce, we call it "aba-made". Our own inferiority complex is unfathomable.

All thanks to nnamdikanu @director of radiobiafra.

soloroyality:
All thanks to nnamdikanu @director of radiobiafra.

Nnamdi kanu motivates me,so does this post

And I wept too..............

At least we have ''Aba, Onitsha and Nnewi made'', goods produced by indigenous Nigerians but scorned by non-Igbo Nigerians due to hate and vile. The rest of the things made in NIGERIA are made by MULTINATIONAL companies, which, by all intent and purposes, cannot be regarded as truly made by Nigerians.

@op , I took my pain to go through this write up which I think is important for others to see. However, your paging and presentation is quite bizarre. I will advice that you re-edit the content and make it easier to read through. Thanks.

Majority will read few lines and then run away. They will say its too long. Others will after reading nod their heads in agreement but as soon as they spot any tribal tainted thread will head there straight and hence forget to articulate the message they just got. Its a big shame on Africans that till date we cannot feed our own populace talk more of building solid roads along the length and breadth of our respective countries. Its really a disgrace.

Respect to igbos and biafra as a whole.

Biafra I salute.

Nnamdi kanu I respect,just listen to him for one week and ur life will never be the same

Lol. Real fact but sound like joke. I swear is word will not change anything even on the forum.
Check this.
Buhari will probe GEJ
Ambode fighting fashola
Northerners say Igbo can brake away
Igbo's are shouting Biafra
Oba of lagos some people will die in lagoon
Igbo's lagos is no man's land.
Yoruba and igbo's today
Igbo's and Yoruba tomorrow.
No innovation nothing at all.where is the brain
Bribe and corruption everywhere
Crude oil = no fuel.
Cocoa= no coffee and we still import chocolate

Ayomel:
Lol. Real fact but sound like joke. I swear is word will not change anything even on the forum.
Check this.
Buhari will probe GEJ
Ambode fighting fashola
Northerners say Igbo can brake away
Igbo's are shouting Biafra
Oba of lagos some people will die in lagoon
Igbo's lagos is no man's land.
Yoruba and igbo's today
Igbo's and Yoruba tomorrow.
No innovation nothing at all.where is the brain
Bribe and corruption everywhere
Crude oil = no fuel.
Cocoa= no coffee and we still import chocolate

Oops,I forgot your pills,

Where is the support from government,since we are the victims,

The answer u at looking for, is already in your write up

A steady power supply and other infrastructural development from the gov will set us straight. Who can invent in the dark? We'll get right soon before long. Our time is now!

PrinceBundu:
Oops,I forgot your pills,
Where is the support from government,since we are the victims,
The answer u at looking for, is already in your write up

It is a classic case of being unable to understand the relationship between cause and effect. Intelligent people are less likely to be corrupt .

Ayomel:
Lol. Real fact but sound like joke. I swear is word will not change anything even on the forum.
Check this.
Buhari will probe GEJ
Ambode fighting fashola
Northerners say Igbo can brake away
Igbo's are shouting Biafra
Oba of lagos some people will die in lagoon
Igbo's lagos is no man's land.
Yoruba and igbo's today
Igbo's and Yoruba tomorrow.
No innovation nothing at all.where is the brain
Bribe and corruption everywhere
Crude oil = no fuel.
Cocoa= no coffee and we still import chocolate

Nice point. they say The wealth (Success)of a Nation is the sum of the individual(capacity or intelligence ) of the people that make up that Nation.

a2personal2013:
@op , I took my pain to go through this write up which I think is important for others to see. However, your paging and presentation is quite bizarre. I will advice that you re-edit the content and make it easier to read through. Thanks.

Mr know all .i saw it on a nation dalies.and i posted it unedited.

well, the white man didn't lie...even people as illustrious as African Presidents don't dream big for their people, the people aren't motivated. Blacks are enslaved mentally, they are just too marveled at the whites ; their inventions,their lifestyle,their culture. Blacks dont really know what they have...we have the culture,the beauty,the natural landscape to be proud of ourselves but we aren't. we don't love our individual countries, we don't believe in ourselves and our identity, we dont use our identity to our benefits...the poor uneducated people on the streets are no different from a university graduate in the way he thinks and reasons. When Africa begins to have quality leadership in successive tenures, woe be unto the white man who thinks of himself as better.

Please OP, I need a credible source to this article, I want to reproduce and modify it to Nigeria and then paste it around my place of work, but I still need to refrence the source!

sinkhole:
Please OP, I need a credible source to this article, I want to reproduce and modify it to Nigeria and then paste it around my place of work, but I still need to refrence the source!

check or google it .i saw it on a vanguard paper .i can't remember the exact date.

The truth is bitter

This should make FP. But lazy minds prefer to read about tonto dike

vfactor:
Here in Nigeria, we are concerned about how to hammar and buy the latest things. Not what we can produce. Even when we manage to produce, we call it "aba-made". Our own inferiority complex is unfathomable.

hammering is the motivation that will lead us to produce

aba made should stop making expensive substandard stuff

Yujin:
Majority will read few lines and then run away. They will say its too long. Others will after reading nod their heads in agreement but as soon as they spot any tribal tainted thread will head there straight and hence forget to articulate the message they just got. Its a big shame on Africans that till date we cannot feed our own populace talk more of building solid roads along the length and breadth of our respective countries. Its really a disgrace.

we can feed ourself
we just don't want to
different thing

PrinceBundu:

Oops,I forgot your pills,

Where is the support from government,since we are the victims,

The answer u at looking for, is already in your write up

now that govt no send una
una no get plan b ne

mikolo80:
hammering is the motivation that will lead us to produce

aba made should stop making expensive substandard stuff

Expensive? Buying a TM shirt for 1.8k or 2k instead of 7 to 10k and u say its expensive!

LoveMachine:
A steady power supply and other infrastructural development from the gov will set us straight. Who can invent in the dark? We'll get right soon before long. Our time is now!

you don't need power to farm or produce soap or even assemble electronics
just screw drivers and cows or donkeys

vfactor:



Expensive? Buying a TM shirt for 1.8k or 2k instead of 7 to 10k and u say its expensive!

the people that can afford Tm will never buy 'cheap ' 'substandard ' shirt
majority cannot afford such clothing

mikolo80:
the people that can afford Tm will never buy 'cheap ' 'substandard ' shirt
majority cannot afford such clothing

That's point. What makes u feel that made in Nigeria is inferior. If we begin to patronise what we have, we wouldn't know if they are inferior or not. Or better still we would compel them to improve. Shoe was sent to me from London and the sole (made from wood) couldn't withstand the Nigeria road. If that shoe had been made in Nigeria we would have branded it inferior!

vfactor:


That's point. What makes u feel that made in Nigeria is inferior. If we begin to patronise what we have, we wouldn't know if they are inferior or not. Or better still we would compel them to improve. Shoe was sent to me from London and the sole (made from wood) couldn't withstand the Nigeria road. If that shoe had been made in Nigeria we would have branded it inferior!

because it wasn't, ppl would've been buying made in Nigeria

mind you inferior can take many forms
in quantity or quality

even packaging matters
so aba boys need to up their game by producing nope quality or quantity cos they will never be able to compete otherwis
Hyundai is same as Honda cut they don't dare sell at same price and if they want same price quality must be higher
choice is aba boys

White guys create wealth,jobs and fortunes for generations while our on people(blacks) loot wealth and destory it. google on wikipedia history of most of the world multinationals and their founders.from Mobil,Chevron,Shell,General Electric,IBM,HP,Microsoft,Walmart.,Baker hughes, even to world largest Aircraft company Boeing.the list is endless.
most of this companies are older than the Almagamation of Nigeria in 1920 to say the least.Our own is politics nothing more no brain to utilize resources within their environment.imagine states like Imo and Bayelsa and many states in Nigeria.do not have any single factory or industry.eg in Bayelsa pure water is brought from Delta state.
yet they have politician and wealthy people but no foresight. i pity Nigeria till we change our mindset nothing will change.even corruption is a product of the mindset.