I had thought that the older I got, the less complicated the world would become, but it seems to be getting more complex as there are more mind bogging questions now on my mind that I can’t seem to find answers to. Nevertheless, I have resolved that rather than live a defeatist life, I will continue to engage and confront these questions as much as I can, in order to successfully navigate this very complex world that I have found myself.
Amongst several unexplainable events that have occurred in recent times, I am particularly intrigued by the current political developments in countries like the United States of America, France, South Korea, South Africa, Nigeria and some others that I cannot remember now. My estimation is that there seem to be a deliberate conspiracy to change the old order without any serious consideration to whether the new order is right or wrong, or even capable of providing the much needed solution. The question is, should change be instituted based on the fact that the order is new or old or because of the gains the change will bring about? Bringing this thought into perspective, let us examine ‘our world’ in the context of a system, maybe by so doing we would find better navigational skills that can help us successfully negotiate this ‘multifaceted complexity’, that we call ‘our world’.
There are several definitions for a system, but for the sake of this piece, let’s use the Encarta dictionary’s definition which says ‘a system is a complex whole formed from related parts’. Drawing from this definition, we can safely say that ‘our world’ is a combination of related parts organized into a complex whole. The operative phrase in this definition in my opinion is ‘formed from related parts’, which simply means that there cannot be a system without related parts, note that they are not just parts, but related parts, meaning that the various parts must always complement themselves.
This same principle that the grand designer of the world has put in place governs all other systems such as the human body, eco-system, societies, weather as well as government at all levels. The human body for example which consists of eleven organ systems namely the circulatory, respiratory, digestive, excretory, nervous, endocrine, immune, integumentary, skeletal, muscular and reproductive systems, will only be able to function optimally, when all the eleven organ systems are functioning at their optimum capacity. This is so because of the complimentary roles that these organs in the body play to one another at all times. If any of the organs malfunction and it is left unattended to, the body will start to function sub-optimally until it eventually grinds to a halt.
Therefore, going by these assertions, it is only logical that the people of societies the world over, make deliberate and frantic effort to identify all functionally related parts that constitute ‘their world’ and always ensure that all these parts are in sync and work optimally together. Since it has been established that no matter how efficient or effective some parts of the society maybe, and no matter how strategically placed they are, the inability of the other parts to operate optimally would ultimately adversely affect the collective wellbeing of every part of that society.
A careful examination of the way things generally run in ‘our world’, one would understand that nothing in this world can be said to be completely useless, one can only say that the use for that particular thing has not been discovered. For instance, barely more than 100 years ago, one would not have imagined that crude oil which initially was thought to be a useless, foul-smelling nuisance of a liquid oozing from the ground, would become one of the most sought after and most useful raw materials in the world today.
My final take on this matter as it regards governance in Africa is that, there is too much exclusivity in the way we have continued to govern ourselves, thus we generally need to seriously look at inclusivity in governance. It is for this reason that we have considered inclusivity from different perspectives in this edition as reflected in Tope Fasua’s piece titled – the ‘Economic Basis of Inclusivity’, and Dayo Adebayo’s article about ‘The Black Amazons of NASA’ who heralded NASA’s operations in the United States in spite of their colour. In this vein, we also talked about the newly launched campaign of South Africa, tagged ‘I Do Tourism’, which is geared towards making sure that all South Africans are recruited to play a role in their new drive to further invigorate their already successful tourism Industry. I am certain you will once again have a pleasurable reading experience with this edition. Enjoy!