Colnathan LTD

02/03/2021

26/10/2019

01/07/2017

29/06/2017

17/02/2017

Let your Heat beat count

Pause: Throwing starfish back into the ocean
__A star that will light the future.

As I said last week, now and again I will write about an inspiring initiative from someone on this platform. This is not meant to be a competition, but rather to help us encourage one another, and also to learn some principles which we can apply elsewhere.

Here is one from Joy Lewanika from Zambia. Joy writes:

“I visited a friend at UTH, because I heard that she was looking after a grandson who had been admitted in the children's ward. When I got there I found that the boy who was in hospital has got severe Cerebral Palsy and has been like that for the last twelve years. He can't walk, doesn't talk and his grandmother has been caring for him all these years as his parents died not too long after he was born. In spite of knowing the grandmother for a number of years, I didn't know that she had such a challenge as she is always smiling and upbeat about things (if you know what I mean). However, on that day in hospital I saw something in her eyes that touched my heart and I vowed to help in any little way that I could.”

“In addition to prayer,” she wrote a little later, “I offered to take the boy for his doctor's appointments and physiotherapy sessions. Met a lady who has set up a school for disabled children, at physio, and now the boy is in school, funded by a group of my friends. This has given more time to granny attend to other matters. The boy is thriving in his new environment. I have made a lot of new friends and together we are looking at ways to elevate the life conditions of those who are needy. Indeed, even just a little bit of help makes a difference!"

My reply:
What can I say?
That is the love of God!
You are blessed. Stay in touch.

Someone else on this platform told the story about a guy who used to go out every morning and pick up starfish stranded on the beach, and throw them back into the ocean, one by one. Another guy asked him, "How can helping just a few starfish, out of thousands, ever matter?"

"It matters to this ONE,” the guy replied calmly, returning another to the sea.

Anyone can blame a government, a local authority, or some rich people that don't care. But as Joy shows us, there’s always something each one of us can do.

__Problems are only solved when one person decides to do something about it.

Do you see children on the street corner who should be in school? Well, by the time some government or authority even acts, maybe their life will have been condemned to crime.

When my wife and I started the Higher Life Foundation, it was not because we were rich. We just wanted to help a few orphans with school fees. At the time, we could barely afford to send our own child to a private school.

I am going to find Joy and her friends, and join their group, by making a small annual contribution. I will match whatever they contribute. Let's go to the beaches, and throw starfish back into the ocean.

__There is a problem you saw today, and the reason it has been tugging at you is perhaps God wants to use you to do something great for someone, and after that, for your community, Africa, and the world.

The starfish that you will save is a STAR that will light the future.

To be continued. . .

27/01/2017

READ AND BE WISE

In my last blog I promised a list of skills children can be exposed to. Let me start with my most serious disclaimer: Watching tele...

30/11/2016

04/10/2016

GIVE THAT DREAM A FEARLESS PURSUIT.........NEVER GIVE UP

29/01/2016

The Eagle in a storm (Part 2b).
__Imagining new wealth creation models.

The talk with my Japanese friend had left me thinking deeply about how we in Africa think about wealth. Maybe, just maybe, there was another way to think about it?

Imagine if my teachers had taught me that we are "very rich" because we produce some of the smartest entrepreneurs in Africa… people with the know-how and vision to transform our minerals into such great innovations and products that we no longer export our raw materials all over the world!

From then on, every time I visited a country (or even a major city), and watched its economic activity, particularly places doing well, I would reflect on its "wealth creation model."

__Imagine a wealth creation model that doesn’t require any raw material endowment, like Silicon Valley, or Singapore!

I was fascinated by countries that rise without necessarily being underpinned by minerals and the exploitation of raw materials: Dubai, Mauritius, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, to name but a few.

I was also fascinated by countries where consumers can buy domestically-processed and finished products – value-added goods created from their own raw materials! I imagined a Nigeria which turned its oil into plastics, fertilizers, sports equipment, cosmetics, deodorants, and toothpaste!

It’s good to have oil and platinum, and to grow cocoa and coffee. But for citizens to benefit from a nation’s natural resources, it’s critical to have the best stewardship, and to eliminate corruption. Without a culture of respect for rule of law, all future wealth creation models are doomed to failure.

__The bottom line is: We can no longer allow our national economies to be underpinned solely by the export of raw materials.

If we’re not careful, we can even become dangerously addicted to them, such that African nations, workers, and citizens in general are forced to endure endless boom and bust cycles… When the price of oil is up, we're doing well; when it goes down, we're scrambling… copper, platinum: boom, boom, bust! It’s happening now.

We must prioritise the development of innovative capacity to redeploy our rich natural resources within our own economies. It goes beyond the simplicity of "processing" and so-called "beneficiation." That’s not enough. We must also pay attention to emerging technologies and how they’re likely to affect the businesses we’re familiar with today.

My appeal to this next generation is to get us out of a “wealth creation model” underpinned by export of natural resources. We can no longer afford to think of the wealth of our nations in terms of mineral and raw material exports. Not when you know there's a Silicon Valley; not when you know that Apple Computers Inc. is worth almost the same as Nigeria’s and Angola’s combined GDP! Not when you’re the generation that knows about Alibaba, Tencent, Uber and Skype!

As we see the price of oil, copper, and platinum plummet, let's stop and take a deep breath, and say to ourselves: "It's time to change our WEALTH CREATION MODEL.”

__Within the next 25 years, we must break our addiction to resource-driven economic wealth. It's time to turn to our African inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs.

Selah!

To be continued. . .