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Self-help and interependence
By
DD Phiri - 04-06-2002 |
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Self-help is better than self-pity, said Booker T. Washington, principal and founder of the Tuskegee Institute, in Albama, USA. Yet Washington, an African-American spent a good deal of his time at Tuskegee visiting rich people, especially the whites—soliciting funds for his institute—until it grew into a world famous college for black people.
Self-help though a virtue does not require that we should refrain from seeking help from others, or not give help to them. No man is an island, and to try to be totally independent of others is self-defeating.
Self-help means that what you can do for yourself by all means you should do instead of all the time pleading for assistance from other people. No one is without problems of his own. We often condemn other people as unhelpful and selfish because we are aware only of our own problems. We do not realise that other people too do have hard times even if they do not tell us.
Self-help is an aspect of self-love, which is not the same thing as selfishness. Jesus said ‘love your neighbour as you love yourself; what you want other people to do for you, you should do for other people as well.’ This extent of loving may be too high for us.
We all love ourselves a good deal more than we love our neighbours. When we have taken part in a group photograph, the day then is out we look four our own faces first. When we go to a school concert, we want to see our own children first.
Self-help is, therefore, a form of self-love. Anyone who goes about life expecting other people to love him more than he loves himself is pitching his hopes too high. Self-love is an activity in which you meet no competitor. Someone will be jealousy of you if you love the same girl as he loves. He will not be jealous of you if you love yourself.
Nature has bestowed on us the ability to do most things for ourselves, and yet for certain things we are entirely dependent on others. For defence and protection from danger we depend on the services that the community in which we live provides. The minimum for existence and security from danger is always given to us by other people like the police and the army, and so on. Only where there is law and order can any of us exercise our rights to help ourselves.
Self-help engenders dignity. When you can do something for your self—despite handicaps of sorts, you earn a lot of respect. During the Industrial Revolution in England, one of the most famous successful businessmen was Josiah Wedghood (1730-95), founder and proprietor of several pottery works near Stok-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Yet he was physically handicapped. He looked at himself and saw that despite his disability there was something he could do, and when he did it, success smiled on his face. He now counts himself as one of the pillars of the industrial revolution. Self-help is truly better than self-pity.
In what field can we practise self-help? Practically in every field. We first have to discover where our talent is. The best educated and most knowledgeable people have largely been self-taught. On top of what they learned in school or college they have added something of their own. This is a form of self-help. No one will stop you engaging in self-help unless you break the law. It is nice to obtain a scholarship and go to college, but scholarships are scarce. There will always more applicants than the scholarships. If you fail to get one must you give up your ambition for education? No, just see what you can do for yourself. There are other routes to higher education than scholarships. There are distance education courses, national libraries containing all the textbooks that you would require if you went to college. God helps those who help themselves first.
While self-help is a virtue, helping others is the quintessence of holiness. Those better off than others in anyway should feel morally bound to help the less fortunate. It is said giving is more blessed than receiving. But giving should be the sort that will not encourage sloth and spirit of dependence on the part of the receiver.
One thing I noted among the British people during the colonial days was the extent they devote to voluntary services. Those like the wives of civil servants or missionaries who were not employed would be seen engaged in some charitable work without pay. Woman might be teaching African women knitting and embroidery, or might be engaged in some other work that was useful to others, but for which they received no remuneration.
The spirit of self-help out be engendered because it is part of the work ethic. There is no sweet without sweat. Poverty will continue to hover around so long as we shun hard work. Hard work means assigning more hours to useful activities than to leisure and sleep.
We have talked of self-help at the individual level. But even at the communal and national level, the spirit of self-help ought to be cultivated..
Chiefs and village headmen ought to continue the tradition of organising their people to engage in communal projects. Instead of just telling the President or the MP, when he visits them ‘we want this and that’, they should be reporting what they themselves have already done. It is not money that works. It is the people. A good deal of worthy projects can be accomplished with only a minimal injection of funds.
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