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se or Lose by
Oyeniyi Oluseye
Use connotes
being employed for a purpose. When something is being used, it means the thing
is useful, important and needed for a certain purpose.
The word use has over time been misinterpreted
as describing the employing of a material or even a human, for a certain
purpose and having no sense of attachment to such thing. Interestingly people
also employ the word ‘use’ when describing being taken undue advantage of such
as; the politicians only use thugs to achieve their political ambition and
abandon them after the elections.
While this article does not overlook or
ignore the fact that people take advantage of other people, it also seeks to highlight
the fact that when a thing or person is said to be employed for a certain
purpose which should be noble, that act is a productive and a potentially
evolutionary transaction between both the employer and the employed, hence
should be taken with privilege and respect. A tool such as knife, if it is not
being put to use for a long time will experience bluntness, such that it loses
its sharpness. A machine that is left idle and unused for long will have to be ignited
to work effectively.
The book of Proverbs says ‘to him that
has much more will be added and to him who does not have even that which he has
will be taken from him. This was aptly described in the parable of a master who
gave talents of varying amount to his different servants and it was stated that
when he came back he requested for a report of how each had utilized the
talents given; the one given five talents had multiplied it, while the one who
was given one talent just hid it.
The master reproved the one who hid the
talent given to him, and asked that is one talent be taken from him, while
additional talents to be given to the one who has earlier had five talents.
The story above highlights the fact
that; a utilized thing or person increases in value while an unutilized one
diminishes in value.
A fund puts to use in business
becomes a capital which ultimately generates profits.
A seed planted in the ground as though
buried, dies and grows to birth new seeds and much fruits.
It is therefore an error and waste
when people or resources are denied being properly employed or utilized. They
lose their vigour, strength and skills gradually. It therefore becomes pathetic
when people shy away from their duties because they claim they are being used.
Developed nations are developed
because the majority of their citizens are gainfully employed in productive
activities thus raising the standard of living of the general population of the
country while undeveloped country are undeveloped because the majority of the
citizens have not been gainfully engaged in productive activities and therefore
refuse to develop the collective standard of living of the populace.
Talents, gifts and skills are
developed when they are being utilised. The process of utilization may not
always be smooth, easy and anciul; like a gold being dug from the mine, it’s a
dirty, rigorous process but when it’s been harnessed and refined, it makes you
a celebrity.
This article does not in anyway
encourage enslavement nor does it suggests living or working in an atmosphere
of deprivation or ven harassment, but it seeks to inspire the reader to possess
a learning spirit where he sees tasks given him as an opportunity to learn and
his duties as an opportunity to develop himself as well as contribute his quota
to development of humanity.
Where tools and resources are seen not
as play toys or even things to be dread or merely for consumption, but as
instruments for advancement.
