The Boiling Frog Syndrome

Human beings and frogs are the two creatures in nature who have tremendous power to adjust. Yes, you all know the story ... put a frog in water and start heating the water. The frog is ignorant about the looming danger and just when the water is about to reach boiling point, the frog tries to jump out but is unable to do so, because it lost all its strength in adjusting with the water temperature. Very soon the frog dies. What killed the frog? Many of us would say the boiling water. But the truth is what killed the frog was its own inability to decide when it had to jump out.

I used to think that humans are too smart to be complacent about a steadily deteriorating situation, but everyday realties and the way we are treating and ignoring critical issues proves me wrong. Instead of taking immediate and decisive action, we sit, discuss and in many cases debate the crisis. We arrange Indaba’s and meetings, we appoint advisory committees and compile new policy documents (all while simmering). We tell ourselves that we’ll do something about it “soon”, or, whatever we are busy with are steps in the right direction. We sit in the water of our own apathy and denial without making any conscious decisions to tackle the problem(s). Worse even is that some don’t see the crisis and cannot comprehend the inevitable ramifications. We’re letting the situation boil away and instead of taking action, we blame, complain, and in some extreme cases think that decolonisation is the solution.

Although this applies to many sectors and systems I must highlight the crisis in education and the inability of our School and Higher Education systems to prepare our kids, teens and young adults for the world of work and business. We need to take stock of the situation and act. We need to recognise the seismic shifts happening in the world of work and business, and pull resources together to course correct.

Unemployment is at an all-time high and while the President acknowledges the role of education in the crisis, we channel our resources (and attention) elsewhere. There are so many fires burning in South Africa that crisis management became the norm instead of focusing on proactive long-term solutions.

I refuse to be a simmering frog. I refuse to let go of the notion of a prosperous rainbow nation. I refuse to fail the children of South Africa. Be the pebble that causes the ripple. Act!