Execute!!

        Phineas and Ferb Executing!! (http://hubpages.com)

"Ideation without execution is nothing but a delusion" said Robin Sharma. I agree with him a 100%. On Saturday I was invited to be part of a debate team talking on the theme "The Impact of Western Aid to Africa". Now that's a very contentious issue. I was on the team that said it's been positive and of course I know what you are all thinking, I MUST BE MAD!! I don't blame you, I thought the same too but it's easy to blame things that fail us than to accept that we have failed ourselves. I am not saying the situation has been great for the African continent but I am not saying it's been bad either. I am saying we both play a big part in how aid is and has has always been managed since it's conception. No one is forced to receive aid but the truth of the matter is most of us do without thinking. We have become used to getting and not giving. Especially our leaders. They don't realise by always accepting free gifts they are taking the power away
to govern ourselves, to vote in organisations like the UN and to actually be able to truthfully point out wrongs when they happen. "Hey the next load is going to come next week so I won't worry much". We should be worried, very worried indeed because just like any welfare aid can be disabling, not just physically but mostly mentally. Our sense of being, our dreams, our visions our hopes lie in execution and not ideation.
We can dream all we want but if we don't get up and put dreams into action we will be stuck in the rut for good. We will even have to stop dreaming if we have to keep going that way. The worst part is our children, all those people who idolise us will learn from that. There are a lot of people who think that role models are popular people and don't realise that they might be a role model for someone else out there, albeit being unaware of this, who sees them as the epitome of hope the beacon that holds the light to show the way, to encourage and to lead. When they let themselves down they take a lot of people down with them. As a Zimbabwean living in Ireland popular positive role models of black/African descent are very scarce and therefore it is the private, the unknowns that are really role models in the community. We need to not just dream but to execute our ideas, put them into action and not worry about success or failure because that is not the point. We learn by doing and not by talking so power to NCP (New Communities Partnership) which organised this debate and I do hope that the lessons learnt won't just be remembered by the walls of the room we were in but be seen in the various actions that all of us will be taking to improve not just the image of Africa and it's relations to aid but our image as Africans and our interaction with those that aid us.