The present regime in Kenya might not be the one to streamline the contribution of the Kenyans in diaspora and the regime's appointee to deal with this issue is, in my opinion, not the right person for this purpose.
First off, the Kenya government is approaching the diaspora issue in a knee-jerk manner of response. They have done very little ground work to get their facts straight. They have no clue whatsoever as to who the kenyans in the diaspora are, where they are, and what they need. The government's pre-assumed conclusion is that there is a group of Kenyans, a large one at that, a group with no idea of what is happening in Kenya, with lots of money to spare and they would like to send it to Kenya.
So they have appointed a propagandist and a social media romantic,-according to his twitter handle, Director Digital,New Media & Diaspora. Executive Office of the President-'to deliver the Digital Promise & Connect Kenyans to the Presidency!' and coordinate the affairs of the diaspora? One is forced to wonder just what happened to Duncan Ndirangu, Public Communications Officer-Social Media Manager at the Office of Public Communications/Government Spokesperson?
Did the powers that be request and receive a policy statement from the appointee showing his grasp of the task at hand and was this appointment competitive?
Matters diaspora, like the coffee industry or tourism constitute a very potent sector of the national economy to be relegated to a politician or a government apologist. It is still very fresh in the memory of Kenyans abroad that they had been promised to take part in the last elections. It turned out too late in the hour that the government had no idea or clue as to the magnitude of the task. They did not know where and how many Kenyans were located at any given point.
At this time the Jubilee regime ought to be laying a firm foundation to tap the resources represented by the diaspora. The same way they have planned the framework of the government ministries and appointed so-called technocrats to head them, the diaspora fits to be a ministry if not a major department in one of the ministries (probably one dealing with economic planning) This is not the time to fumble with national policy. This is time to set up the systems that may very well determine the success of Vision 2030. It is my humble submission the the diaspora is a major player towards this end.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Saturday, September 7, 2013
We and Them
Capitalism as a form of economic development or lifestyle and economic domination of the majority by a minority is on the downward trend. Recent upheavals in global economy especially affecting the highly cut-throat super economies of Europe and the Americas is a sign of underlying malaise that will eventually bring the system crashing down.
This is so because the stop-gap repairs applied to 'heal' the economies never, and are not addressing the real ailment(s) and the leaders/technocrats either have no will to rectify a sickened situation or simply have no political impetus to do so. In fact, the short term measures being bandied around as cure are simply further exasperating the situation by fatally bruising the majority poor populations. The austerity measures laid out in Europe, the half hearted stimulus packages in the US, watered down by governance gridlock only goes as far as alienating the political elite from the masses. The majority being left to wallow in abject poverty, debt and unemployment and the few who are employed have to work two or more jobs to make ends meet-resulting in dysfunctional families. The 'Occupy' movement, the empowered 'Tea Party movement,' the rise of cult-like militias all over the country and the general feeling of powerlessness and mass paranoia are a result of this impasse.
The world over, especially in the capitalist democracies, strange crime patterns in the scale not previously known is a common occurrence today. The decay, compounded by under-funding of social structures starting at the family level is contributing to dysfunctional societies. The poor individual in the ghetto has nowhere to go for refuge. The poor are getting poorer as the rich are getting richer, in the developing countries and the same holds true in the developed ones. In Kibra, Nairobi, Kenya; in Dharavi, Mumbai, India; in the favelas in Brasilia to the Highland Park (HP) in Detroit, USA. The poor are being pushed to the fringe of humanity, to the edge, into a tight corner , and it is just a matter of time the pressure will build up, and when the explosion goes off, capitalism as we currently know it will be gone. As the saying goes; fluids have a way to find their own level.
The current displeasure with, and apparent shift from, the West by developing nations in Africa as indicated by the rift between Senegal and France or Kenya and Britain/The US in favor of China and Russia in the case of the latter while the Senegalese are open for any 'non-Francosphere' player may seem like a slap in the face on capitalism but that is simply not a panacea for the ills of mass marginalisation of the poor in the world. The moneyed elite will form new cartels to fleece their nations and impoverished masses with multinationals from the new trading partners - case in point is the apparent rise in illicit ivory trafficking that seems to be unstoppable since the Chinese got involved in infrastructure rehabilitation in Kenya. There is some positive aspects in these moves, especially when one considers the facts that; The Senegalese could only get bottled water, processed milk among other basic necessities from France! So one can only guess as to the scope of deprivation the country's poor face. Nigeria, a major crude oil producer in the powerful league known as OPEC, is a major exporter of crude oil but also a major importer of processed petroleum products! The Congo-Namibia-Niger (as a region) is a primary source of diamonds among other rare products like uranium but here lives some of the most deprived populations in the world.
The loop-sided game of grabbing from the earth's resources is just about to reach maximum saturation. The 99% are waking up from a reverie of hundreds of years. The waking up is taking various diverse forms but they are waking up. The Tiananmen Square uprising, theTwitter Revolution in the Persian gulf, the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, the 'liberation struggles' happening in Africa, the Cochabamba water war in Argentina, struggles that have rocked Bolivia, the Amazonian natives' struggles against loggers and non-native farmers - though all seem to be still-births at best, the implication is clear. It is them against us. It is the slow stirring of a powerful, sleeping giant. The rumbling and spewing of steam by a powerful volcano about to erupt.
This is so because the stop-gap repairs applied to 'heal' the economies never, and are not addressing the real ailment(s) and the leaders/technocrats either have no will to rectify a sickened situation or simply have no political impetus to do so. In fact, the short term measures being bandied around as cure are simply further exasperating the situation by fatally bruising the majority poor populations. The austerity measures laid out in Europe, the half hearted stimulus packages in the US, watered down by governance gridlock only goes as far as alienating the political elite from the masses. The majority being left to wallow in abject poverty, debt and unemployment and the few who are employed have to work two or more jobs to make ends meet-resulting in dysfunctional families. The 'Occupy' movement, the empowered 'Tea Party movement,' the rise of cult-like militias all over the country and the general feeling of powerlessness and mass paranoia are a result of this impasse.
The world over, especially in the capitalist democracies, strange crime patterns in the scale not previously known is a common occurrence today. The decay, compounded by under-funding of social structures starting at the family level is contributing to dysfunctional societies. The poor individual in the ghetto has nowhere to go for refuge. The poor are getting poorer as the rich are getting richer, in the developing countries and the same holds true in the developed ones. In Kibra, Nairobi, Kenya; in Dharavi, Mumbai, India; in the favelas in Brasilia to the Highland Park (HP) in Detroit, USA. The poor are being pushed to the fringe of humanity, to the edge, into a tight corner , and it is just a matter of time the pressure will build up, and when the explosion goes off, capitalism as we currently know it will be gone. As the saying goes; fluids have a way to find their own level.
The current displeasure with, and apparent shift from, the West by developing nations in Africa as indicated by the rift between Senegal and France or Kenya and Britain/The US in favor of China and Russia in the case of the latter while the Senegalese are open for any 'non-Francosphere' player may seem like a slap in the face on capitalism but that is simply not a panacea for the ills of mass marginalisation of the poor in the world. The moneyed elite will form new cartels to fleece their nations and impoverished masses with multinationals from the new trading partners - case in point is the apparent rise in illicit ivory trafficking that seems to be unstoppable since the Chinese got involved in infrastructure rehabilitation in Kenya. There is some positive aspects in these moves, especially when one considers the facts that; The Senegalese could only get bottled water, processed milk among other basic necessities from France! So one can only guess as to the scope of deprivation the country's poor face. Nigeria, a major crude oil producer in the powerful league known as OPEC, is a major exporter of crude oil but also a major importer of processed petroleum products! The Congo-Namibia-Niger (as a region) is a primary source of diamonds among other rare products like uranium but here lives some of the most deprived populations in the world.
The loop-sided game of grabbing from the earth's resources is just about to reach maximum saturation. The 99% are waking up from a reverie of hundreds of years. The waking up is taking various diverse forms but they are waking up. The Tiananmen Square uprising, theTwitter Revolution in the Persian gulf, the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, the 'liberation struggles' happening in Africa, the Cochabamba water war in Argentina, struggles that have rocked Bolivia, the Amazonian natives' struggles against loggers and non-native farmers - though all seem to be still-births at best, the implication is clear. It is them against us. It is the slow stirring of a powerful, sleeping giant. The rumbling and spewing of steam by a powerful volcano about to erupt.
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