Human beings are naturally selfish; I heard the other day that capitalism is embedded in people’s blood, heart and soul. Government or company workers will always drive government or company cars so badly simply because they are not theirs.
Carl Marx’s communism has also failed to work simply because it promotes communal work, communal ownership of properties, communal everything.
For instance, communism has failed to develop North Korea, Cuba and many other countries of the former USSR and East Germany. Despite its close proximity to the Asian Economic giants of South Korea, Japan and China, Communist North Korea remains a poor country likewise Cuba, despite its close proximity to the world’s superpower – USA, Fidel’s Castro’s country remains a third world country. The reason is simple,
communist systems do not provide for an extra reward or motivation for an extraordinary work done by an individual.
Communist China saw the light earlier. You can see where it is now – World’s number two economic giant after USA. Trust me people!, China only hides under the guise of communism maybe for propaganda reasons but it is number one capitalist country in the whole world. Recently, China has been in the world spotlight facing criticism for aggressively investing billions of money in many African countries without due regard for their bad records in human rights abuses and governance, the likes of Sudan and Zimbabwe. The reason for China’s aggressiveness is simple; it wants more resources to sustain its high levels of economic growth and development. China’s example is a high level of individualism at a country level.
Did I hear DJ Bush Baby of East Africa TV and radio in one of Uganda’s dailies recently saying that Tanzanians more than all the other people in the five East African countries are still sleeping because of Julius Nyerere’s UJAAMA policy which encouraged communal work and ownership of properties. That thinking will take long to get out of the people’s mind, I think, it is the reason why Tanzanians feared to join the East Africa’s political federation because they feared capitalistic Kenyan and Ugandan business people from taking over their businesses, land, etc and instead make them ‘slaves’ on their own land.
Imagine a hardworking person working on a communal project where some people are sick, some are lazy, some are naturally weak, some are dumb, etc. What will happen to the hardworking person after a day, a week, a month, a year, etc – reduced motivation to work because of no extra motivation like extra payment in recognition of her/his hard
work?
Uganda government, donors are now focusing on supporting group projects because to them, it’s a smart investment with capacity to ensure human economic development. Surely, group support is good when it comes to some issues like monitoring projects because people will easily check each other’s performance, in cases where mobilization of huge capital for big investments is necessary, community security but surprisingly, you will be shocked to find that many group projects fail because of selfish (individualistic) nature of human beings.
I was recently sharing with the Executive Director of a local NGO based in Fort Portal (Engabu Za Tooro) which supports group and individual entrepreneurship projects, he said, “Individual projects are flourishing but many group projects have failed to pick up”. There is a big lesson to learn from this experience? Individual interests are always at play, everyone wants to get something for her/his family at the expense of the sustainability of the group project.
The spirit of individualism coupled with poor administrative systems is the reason why corruption is ripe in Uganda, being a poor country with huge numbers of uneducated people who can’t put their leaders to account for their funds, it will always be easy for a government official to swindle billions of money meant for treating malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS for millions of people and instead use the money to pay for her/his kids school fees in expensive schools abroad, meet a medical bill of a family member outside the country, buy a posh residence in a developed country, etc.
People have been complaining of the Uganda government controlled National Agricultural advisory services (NAADS) for giving farmers substandard animal and seed breeds which are procured at exorbitant prices by people who get the NAADS contracts. Now, I hear that NAADS has set up a new guideline where money will be channeled directly to the farmers to procure the items.
Very few people can be selfish to themselves; people make many investment mistakes mainly because of ignorance. The new NAADS guideline is a plus to the institution because households will always strive to buy the best animal and crop breeds to improve on their household incomes.
Support to group projects is good but in areas where they can’t work, support to household projects should be a serious option for consideration by donors and government if the country is to get out of poverty. However, such initiatives can make the country a success story in economic growth and development if proper assessment and monitoring mechanisms are instituted.
At the end of the day, a household or family is the smallest administrative unit in the country and there is a popular saying that ‘one by one makes a bundle’ therefore, when families in a country are economically self reliant, the whole country will be economically self-reliant.
