People – Power of Decision

The local Camerounese economy seems to depend on the beer industry, which does NOT make citizens wiser, while the export economy depends on other products (oil, timber, cash crops…) that make a FEW powerful people richer. Is there something wrong with this picture?

The only power the people have is the power of decision: to drink or not to drink; to spend hard-earned money supporting an industry that does not really care about the effects of consuming its products day in, day out. Is it not right and just for people to use the only power they have to change a situation that has become untenable?

For people to organize and take back their power, they need to be sober, because taking power, even when it naturally belongs to you, requires a minimum of responsibility, which is questionable when the mind is not paying full attention to the details of the situation.

Most communities under dictatorship lose, after a while, the habit of doing things for and by themselves. They learn to rely on the existing dictatorial system, despite its failure to solve their local problems.

Now, if you want to do away with the system, you need to replace it with something. Another dictatorial system? Obviously not. People have amazing abilities and can perform miracles, given the right circumstances.

But I insist again: for our people to perform at this level (governing themselves, not handing over their rights to an absentee landlord), we need to seriously consider the health effects on the minds of our citizens and communities where above-average beer consumption has become part of the local culture.

Quick question for you: what do you suggest as an alternative way for the people to take back their power?

~wv

— Wanaku Verdzekov