Daily Independent Online.
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Wednesday, August 11, 2004.
The
Eighth Wonder of the World
By Sam Kargbo
How many of you are familiar with the television programme
called ‘the Weakest Link?’
If you are privileged to own a DSTV and you are adventurous please
endeavour to watch it once in a while. If you are however the indolent type, please do not bother. Save
yourself the shame of thinking that the Briton is the most intelligent being on
earth. The programme affords individuals who believe in their IQs and possess
above average knowledge of all aspects of life to earn good money from quiz
competitions on BBC Television. Many women, mostly the old have won such
competitions. The speed at which the participants answer wicked and seemingly
difficult questions from the quizzer, who suffers no fool is amazing. I have on
many occasions tried to rate myself and I can confess that I am no where near
Professor Oyibo.
The good thing, however, about my nature is that I like to
be challenged and to challenge myself. I subscribe to Readers Digest regularly to examine my word power.
You cannot imagine how embarrassed I was the first time I attempted the word
power questions and scored a mere 14 over 20. I had presumptuously believed
that I knew the meanings of all the words and phrases presented but I was
wrong. Some of them where tricky. To add pepper to injury, by scoring just 70
per cent the assessors were unimpressed with my efforts as they considered my
attempt just fair and not good enough. You can guess my fears on my second
attempt. One of the best lessons I have learnt over time is that it is
difficult to spot the difference or capture the nuance without being attentive
and critical.
This is why I will ask you to take your time before
responding to the following questions. First question: What State has the best
record on peace and cultural tolerance in Nigeria and what in your view is the
state of human development in that State?
I will announce the winner(s) for this question next
week.
Question number two: What is the eighth wonder of the world?
If you do not know, I will tell you. The 2004 United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report recently discovered the eighth wonder
of the world. God’s own
country and printer of the all-conquering dollar, the United States of America,
is not the first but the eighth developed country in the world. America can
pride itself as the first economy of the world and the glutinous consumer of
about 40 per cent of total world output.
It can be the only super power pulling the rest of mankind by the
nose. Truly, it has Mr. George
Bush who behaves as if he is God’s representative on Earth, but it is not
the most developed country on Earth.
I wish all those unfortunate people struggling to obtain the American
visa know this. It is important
and I hereby humbly plead with the Ministry of Information and National (Re)
Orientation to publicize this revelation.
The true lions of development are the Scandinavian countries. Even Australia that could not impress
our white South African brothers (who were tempted to resist the Rainbow
Constitution providing for equal opportunities for both whites and blacks in
South Africa) is in the reckoning of the UNDP’s more developed than that
arrogant America. Perhaps, it is
for the radicality of the report and its obvious indictment of the lone super power that the UNDP has
put up a caveat that the views and conclusions of the report were not those of
the UNDP but those of the team that produced the report. For all I care, when you commission a project
and you accept the end project, it becomes yours. But that’s an aside. The issue is, why did America trail behind seven other
countries? The answer would also serve those who care to know why Nigeria is
way down the ladder - standing at 151 out of 171. I am sure many are anxious to
know why the assessors are that unimpressed with Nigeria.
Whereas most of us assess development principally in terms
of the income of a nation, the UNDP has better ideas. In its own words, human
development is based on much more than the rise and fall of national incomes.
Rather, it is about creating an environment in which people can develop their
full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accordance with their
needs and interests. People are the real wealth of nations. Development is,
thus, about expanding the choices people have to lead the lives they lead.
Of course such other indices as literacy, poverty, access to
health, improved access to energy services, better water and land management
and sustainable use of biodiversity are themselves dependent on how a country
prioritises the distribution of its income, but the case is different with
other indicators like cultural tolerance, participatory good governance,
respect for the rights and liberties of the individual. These factors are
entirely dependent on the political will to achieve them and the desire to
create an equitable socio-economic environment for the individuals to
‘lead long, healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, have access to the
resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate
in the life of the community. Without these, many choices are simply not
available and many in life are inaccessible.”
This year’s report deliberately chose cultural
tolerance as one of its principal themes. The rationale is that a country that
successfully manages cultural plurality and invariably excels in cultural
tolerance provides the individual with a better environment for self
actualization. The report more or
less urges the world to pay premium on the effective management of cultural
diversity and create more functional and effective tools for the actualization
of shared cultural tolerance and respect. Rather than waste efforts in
preaching cultural moderation, emphases should be in appreciating cultural
differences.
There is hardly
any monoculture society or state in the world today. All societies can now be described as rainbow
societies. The last European Cup clearly demonstrates this. The English, the
French, the Germans etc have all had to accept and respect in their countries,
people with different cultural origins. Therefore, a state can have huge per
capital income, zero unemployment, fantastic health care system and a
spectacular educational system, superb flyovers if it has a low record on the
management of its diverse cultural tendencies. It may not provide the kind
of security that the state with
sterling record on cultural tolerance provides the individual.
