#PoeticLicence: Every year we hear the same song from the same choir

Writer and poet Rabbie Serumula. File image.

Writer and poet Rabbie Serumula. File image.

Published Feb 13, 2022

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Johannesburg - There is something about words that can either soothe or slay.

It lays in the same tall grass, either alone or in a pride and it listens.

Soothsayers say it deciphers utterances when you supposedly tell the truth and when you pray.

Prayers are nothing but bottled confessions. Confessions to the God within; to self.

Words are devoid of substance when they are devoid of feeling.

A feeling invoked in the listener. A feeling that originates from the sincerity of the words spoken. A feeling you can’t create.

This “something” about words is that you can’t make a person believe them.

Once they fly out of your mouth, they create their own forcefield.

You can’t force this field to integrate with the energy of the listener.

We have the human condition of being more honest in our prayers, than in our waking life.

But we pray in our waking life, we even lie to ourselves when we do so.

The universe is vast with spoken nothingness and expectancy is a curse.

The difference between words and action is time. But time is relative.

If there are moments in the life of a nation when old uncertainties are reshuffled, then surely repetition emerges.

Repetition breeds familiarity. Familiarity gives birth to complacency, which is a disease as severe as conformity.

Even when the truth can be agreed upon, it will never set EVERYONE free.

Assuming happiness is a valid measure of freedom, it is an unreachable feat intending to make all people happy, all the time.

And the truth is; we have all known that the government does not create jobs, businesses create jobs.

Yes, our government is the single largest employer in the country with over 1.3-million employees across sectors including teachers, municipal workers, nurses, doctors, police officers, and defence force members.

With a pick and a shovel, the private sector can dig South Africa out of its unemployment slump.

With a hammer and chisel, the private sector can whittle the country out of its downward turn in growth.

The government's room for employment requires ventilation and social distancing.

We can't all fit in there. Therefore most PEOPLE WILL BE LEFT BEHIND.

President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address pledged “to leave no one behind”.

This is all too familiar to our energies.

It felt electrifying the first time he promised a million jobs in 2018.

It became lukewarm when he promised another million in 2019 or was it the same million from the year prior?

In 2020 the number went down by 200 000 and in 2021 there were “big plans” for job creation.

The point is; Every year we hear the same song, with a bad combination of pitch and rhythm, from the same choir.

And so the cycle is clear, repetition breeds familiarity. Familiarity gives birth to complacency, which is a disease as severe as conformity.

The difference between words and action is time.

It was about time the majority heard from the horse's mouth that the government doesn't create jobs.

Related Topics:

cyril ramaphosajobs