Africa-Press – Lesotho. Research, it has led me to love to see my country Lesotho’s environmental scenario improve, my study of the world History since 1860, my knowledge of how the legendary and charismatic Moshoeshoe I cherished to see Lesotho to be and the dismal failure of this current crop of our leaders failing us in Lesotho kills me slowly.
The learning culture and style of the Basotho children drives me to the EBB of being alive. Let me share with you what I found out about the Japanese nation.
The home where Toyota and inventions of much reliable machineries are birthed leads me to salute the Japanese. You may feel that 76 characters in the first year are not too hard.
But, in addition, the Japanese students have to learn the two other Japanese writing systems-the hiragana and the katakana in his first year. Each of these systems has 50 characters. The number of new characters introduced increases each year until the student knows the 2, 000 or so that will enable him to read the newspaper.
Morning Exercise
All around the world, people hop, skip, jump or jog. In Japan they do calisthenics. About Fifty years ago or more, a set of exercises began to be broadcast daily over the Japanese radio.
It was continued through the war years and is still very popular. You can switch on your radio anywhere in Japan at 6:17 in the morning and hear the familiar piano accompaniment for 10 minutes of exercise.
Many companies have recorded the music from the radio and play it over the office or factory loudspeakers before or after the starting bell. Thus everyone, from the president down, can improve his blood circulation before settling down to the day’s work.
Students are encouraged to get up early and exercise even during the summer holidays. A car park or other convenient plot of land is chosen where they—and any neighbors who wish to join them—can gather at 6:17, switch on the radio and exercise together. This early start helps students to get through the pile of homework assigned for the holidays.
Group Consciousness
Compulsory education starts at age six, but many parents put their children in kindergarten for two years before this. Thus the children quickly get into group activities.
Children in primary school assemble at a fixed time and place and walk to school in small groups behind the one chosen as leader. Noon meals provided at school further help toward group orientation.
The pattern of learning and the style of doing things vary little from one end of the country to the other. This is helpful, since many families move around as companies transfer their workers from one branch to another.
Children learn that they must be adaptable, and they try to fit in quickly with a new group. The emphasis on the group as opposed to individualism does not mean that personal ambition is forbidden.
Ambition, if anything, is encouraged. But ambitions are realized through orthodox methods recognized by the group. A Japanese person, once he enters the employ of a company, expects to be there for life.
His loyalty is not taken for granted. The company’s survival is his survival. Hence, he is expected to put it before everything, even his family. Quitting one job and finding a better one is very rare in Japan.
Quitters are considered unreliable. If the worker is not willing to throw in his lot with the company, he is not wanted. However, once in the company, if he is loyal, he is cared for.
Everything possible is done to keep him on the payroll, even during difficult periods of depression. When a worker’s skills become outmoded due to technological advances, the company will teach him new ones.
There are regular company outings and generous bonuses. There may be company housing for the married and dormitories for the single. Many companies have lodges and other facilities at famous hot-spring resorts.
The company may provide lessons in English and other cultural subjects, pay for various kinds of entertainment and provide other fringe benefits. As he gets older, the employee’s position improves and his salary increases. He feels secure as a member of a permanent working group. He knows the company will look after him.
Days On and Days Off
Mainly out of concern for their image abroad, many large firms have adopted the five-day workweek. Others give two Saturdays off. Some small businesses keep going seven days a week, but, generally speaking, Sunday is regarded as a day off.
Actually, if workers took advantage of all legal time off, including annual vacations and national holidays, they could have from 80 to 130 free days a year.
But most of them do not take nearly that much time off. Japanese workers talk about “service overtime. ” In many cases they work late into the night or over the weekend, for no extra pay.
When they are busy, they keep working until they reach a stage in the job that allows them conscientiously to quit and go home. Many families never know at what time Daddy will be home, and they are quite used to his working on Sunday.
In fact, due to lack of space, relaxing at home may be difficult for the workingman. In the morning the bedding is folded and put away, transforming the bedroom into a living room.
“Sleeping in” under these circumstances is not easy. The children usually get up early and the room is needed for the day’s activities.
A man may have a choice between being in the way at home and going out to spend money on entertainment. Often, it is less trouble just to go to work as usual!
Besides, in summer the small house may feel extremely hot compared with the office, which is usually air-conditioned. And in winter, too, the heated office may be more comfortable.
Personal Hygiene The famous Japanese batha daily, or almost daily, affairis about as important to the workingman as eating and sleeping. To try it yourself, you will need a tub of rather hot water in which you can soak up to your chin.
The Western-style bath is not the same, since you must be able to wash outside the bath. First, rinse your body, then get into the tub and soak for about 10 minutes.
Next, get out, give yourself a good soaping and a good massage with your washcloth. Rinse all the soap off and get back into the tub. As the minutes tick by, you will feel your muscles relaxing and you will begin to wonder why you never did this before.
When you get into bed you will feel comfortable and warm and sleep soundly. Next day, you will get up feeling like a new personin fact, like a Japanese.
Once you get used to it, you will see why this kind of bathing is so important to the hardworking Japanese. Hygiene might be considered a side effect of bathing. A well-washed body contributes to a pleasant atmosphere, a feeling of well-being, and shows consideration for others.
Industrious in All Things
A Japanese citizen works hard, not only at his employment, but even at recreation. For example, imagine that he wants to learn to ski. First, he will buy all the equipment: skis, ski boots, special waterproof clothing, gloves, hat, goggles everything.
Then he will make short trips to some famous ski resort as often as his time and finances allow. To get the most out of a weekend, he may travel overnight on Friday, ski hard all day Saturday and Sunday and then travel back overnight to get to work on
To my dismay the Basotho children and students at most are not interested in learning, study and education. Do your own research and see how many of them dodge classes on a daily basis.
Ask the school inspectors about the cheating methods of the teachers in the schools. Get to any sector of employment just to find the shocking figures of workers cheating their working hours.
They ought to arrive at work before 08:00 am but they get to work from 08:30 am to 09:30 am with lame excuses daily. Go to a nearby high school and check what you will see.
Cast your eyes across this country and witness how it is cut across by extra deep gullies. The agricultural fields have just dwindled to nothing. The adults of this country make babies that they can’t feed.
This is a scourge of a nation and its leaders who can’t even generate jobs for its citizens. But just pay an unwavering ear to their NATIONAL ANTHEM what about the part that was cut out? An overwhelming disgrace if you would get to know its words.
I am a bit skeptical to be a Mosotho. What about the Japanese? The Japanese morning exercise and their daily bath methods…. . Look! The first thing early in the morning in Lesotho go out and board a taxi or bus and witness that squalor smell in there.
It will be from the shoes and or socks, also from the place I feel ashamed to mention, the armpits and the mouths that early morning. What will be the situation as the day progresses? In the past the Afrikaners used to give them rough and rude kicks here to force them to work.
Do not ask me where because I am suffering from several bouts of forgetfulness. They never learned any lesson from there, hence become overly excited when the boss is not around; they idle and take extra good naps, hoping to get extra good payments.
Animals are better than them in that they keep grassing even when the shepherd is not around. Group Consciousness: These days the Basotho do not protect each other but expose others to be butchered.
When it comes to school work no team work not even in any spheres of their lives, all what was taught by the legendary Moshoeshoe 1is dead. Yet their country is highly depleted due soil erosion, in fact their fields.
Compared to the Japanese are the Basotho of Lesotho pebble minded? There is no solidarity in Lesotho among them. My heart is aching allow me to continue next week. Till then adieu!!!
