The role of religion in economic development was the title of the discussion I was at yesterday. The gentleman presenting wanted to highlight how religion and economic development are interlinked and how they affect each other.

First we looked at how economic development affects religion. There are four factors that come into play education, value of time, life expectancy and urbanization. Economic development will likely lead to higher education and with increase in education there is a desire to explain things scientifically. A less developed country would explain any situation using God and religious beliefs. The probability of explaining things using God in a developed country becomes less. People tend to use scientific terms to explain day to day living on any challenge that might come their way. For instance in a developed country if there is famine the explanation would be scientific but in a not so developed country famine might be explained as the anger of God or a lesson that we need to learn from gods especially in our African context.

Then religion plays a pivotal role in the way of our thinking. Value of time in developing countries makes it hard for people to seek religion. People would rather be at work than in church. Thus economics or being more economically developed will affect the way people view religion.

Knowing the life expectancy in any country can also contribute to how economic development can make it hard to find a community seeking for God. In America the life expectancy is around 75 to 80 years and if a male aged 30 still has his grandparents alive he sees no rush of going to church. On the other hand in a less developed country with a life expectancy of 35years like in Zimbabwe, people would rather go to church and prepare to go to heaven.

Urbanization brings many social platforms in a country as it gets developed. Going to church is among many of the options that people choose from. Urbanization brings in nightclubs, movies and many other social spaces. In a less developed country the only social space available to people in that country might be the church or other religious settings.

We then looked how religion affects economic development. Religion is attractive to higher educated societies. There are all these people trying to explain the existence of God, explaining the existence of God takes philosophers. It takes people who have a high education to do that. Then religion will affect economic development through education. Most religions value education, as you have to read the Bible or the Koran. Religious beliefs reinforce religious factors like hard work, honesty, thrift and value of time. So it is true to say that religion does affect economic development. The more people are taught in their religious circles to value time, to be hard working, the more a country can be economically developed.

Here is a statement just in from the Law Society of Zimbabwe:

The Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) wishes to express its deepest concern at recent media reports that a government Minister has told villagers to defy a Court Order.

Minister of Presidential Affairs and ZANU PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa reportedly told villagers in Chipinge that they should not vacate Makandi Tea and Coffee Estates despite a Court ruling ordering them to do so.  It is the LSZ’s contention that the Minister may have committed an offence of Contempt of Court.

During the inaugural Joint Judiciary and Legal Practitioners Colloquium held in September 2009, stakeholders, among them members of the judiciary, expressed serious concern over the disobedience of court orders especially by state actors.

The LSZ notes that the Minister and others may be aggrieved by the decision of the Chipinge Magistrate in that particular manner.  However it is important to remember that any litigant has the right to appeal against any decision of a lower court up to the Supreme Court.

The LSZ calls upon the Minister concerned and any likeminded individuals to desist from inciting members of the public to disobey court orders.  Such actions, if they remain unchecked, may result in members of the public losing confidence in the justice delivery system and are likely to result in anarchy and lack of respect for our Constitutional order.

The LSZ further calls upon the Minister to immediately issue a statement in which he reaffirms his respect for the rule of law and the judiciary in Zimbabwe.  He is advised to assist the villagers to appeal against the Magistrate’s decision instead of taking the law into his own hands and advising them to disobey court orders.

Josphat Tshuma – President

We’ve got a World Cup 2010 photo gallery and match schedule up here

We’ll be updating this gallery regularly, so watch this space!

All photographs rights reserved – © Taurai Maduna.  If you’d like to use this photograph, please email admin [at] kubatana [dot] net

We want to get to know our website users better. Do you use www.kubatana.net? If so, we want to hear from you! Please email survey [at] kubatana [dot] net and let us know:

- Your gender
- Your age
- Your occupation
- Where you’re based
- When you first found out about the Kubatana website
- How often you use it
- What you use it for
- What is your favourite part about it?
- What do you least like about it?
- Your pick to win World Cup 2010!