Idle Hands Are The Devil’s Tools…
As I’ve been thinking about Kenya these past few months, one thing has become clear to me and perhaps to all of you: At the heart of the problem is the question of extreme poverty. Regardless of what side you are taking in the midst of this political crisis, one thing is clear: They are too many young men in Kenya who have no jobs and no money and let’s be honest here – these are people who are fighting and causing all the violence (idle young men).
So, the question is..why is Africa so freaking poor? I was asking myself this question last night as I watched a clip on the BBC news about Lebanon (there was another suicide bombing in Beirut). However, as I watched clips of Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, I thought to myself what a “nice” looking country it was! nice roads, tree lined streets, cafe’s, etc, etc… it looked nothing like Kenya. Actually, even in the midst of yet another suicide bombing, the streets of Beirut looked much better than the streets of Kibera, Huruma and many other parts of Nairobi!
I think the problem is our lack of productivity (i.e. we produce nothing). Can somebody tell me one thing that an African country produces? (& don’t include South Africa cause we all know it’s the mzungu’s who are the main producers there).
We are idle people and that’s why we hack each other to death with pangas at the slightest provocation. I know the pro-ODM forces like to talk about things like justice and democracy, but isn’t the fundamental problem our lack of productivity??
I’ve pretty much concluded that no country can have stability when 50% or more of the population is living in poverty. You need to get those poverty numbers down to about 20% in order to have a modicum of stability. Even if Raila had become president, it would not have made a difference as long as those poverty numbers remained constant.
We have nothing to do and it’s huge problem….
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime (Aristotle)…….
I beg to differ about democracy not being a part of the fabric, which enables us to build platforms from which we can launch our economic prosperity. Singapore for example is a highly organized country whereby the rule of law is protected to absurd levels. though look at the end result. Singaporeans are some of the most educated, civilized and least idle people on earth. It is good to know that you can work and achieve goals in your life if the playing field is levelled.
Corruption is just as bad as murder or idleness. We Kenyans have sat back and watched endemic corruption reduce us to educated beggars. When you looked at the streets of Lebann, did it occur to you that they were built and maintained by the tax payers money? Did it occur to you that stealing an election is part of the corruption, because we do not respect other peoples votes, wishes or tax money. We call them ‘wananchi’ meaning the others, but as we steal and hide our wealth, and gorge our friends companies and cronies with favours at the expense of the nation, we really are just creating this monster. I for one believe that Kenyans are hard workers when they see that they have a future ahead. We idle and stop to work when we see our sweat being eaten by those in power. Goldenberg, Anglo Leasing etc.. the list goes on.
When Githongo was forced into exile, I knew for sure we were doomed, for we as usual swept things under the carpet. When Attorney general Amos Wako remained in his position, I knew for sure that our legal fabric was eroding every second that he sits in his office. Prosperity cannot be achieved under a shroud of shaky law making and worse still enforcement. The integrity of a man or woman is what makes him trustworthy, and makes people working with, and electing them to office. People need to know that they matter, and that their existence is not only for the whims others. I have never been to jail, but I guess living as poor person in Kenya damn well nears it. Getting your backside penetrated day in day out, while you are asked to sing songs of praises for your country, when you know its ‘their’ country must increase your anger to the nth degree. Unfortunately Kenyans now have well educated high school and university grads living in the slums. These people do not need a politician to tell them that they are getting it up the ass. I went to university of nairobi in the 90’s and i know of many brethren who struggle daily, heck some of them are even car jackers! I presume those of us blogging for the most part are the lucky ones. We talk about getting back to normal, normal for some guys is walking on hungry stomach to and from job seeking on a daily basis. It is living on a dollar (over50% of Kenyans) a day, and lets not forget the other 30% who live on 2 dollars a day (no consolation). It is getting mugged in Mathare or kibera if you dont make it home by 7pm, or paying a fee to the enforcers in the slums for protection, after the police have ripped you of during the day. And the weekends are now even stolen, for your favourite football team, cannot play because KFF is corrupt and it has killed your weekend football outlet. It is seeing death on a daily basis be it from disease, road accidents, muggings or police brutality. Kenyans dont act like these things dont exist.
i for one went to Starehe boys Center for my whole schooling period. the discipline we had, was unmatched and it shaped who i am today. At Starehe, we adhered to school rules and this maintained discipline. Not even the prefects or school captain was above school laws, many a times I saw prefects demoted and caned for infractions. The school was kept clean and the millions donated by well wishers were spent and accounted for to the penny. We never wanted for books, uniforms, food, equipment etc. Never was there a riot or unrest, and the students always had a ‘Baraza’ every Sunday where we met in an open style forum with Mr. Griffin, Shaw, teachers to present grievances under immunity and impartiality. If only Kenya would follow suit. It taught even the roughest of kids to become civilized people. I know it is a long winded sermon, I rarely post anything, but we can do better. We need to demand more of ourselves.
Ke finally something of sustance from yu unlike your previous posts i totally agree with yu until we fix the problem of poverty we will have the same problems come the next general elections
…and you’ve been sitting on this post for how long?
Is this really coming from the blogger(s) who suggested that mobilizing a government hit squad, a Kidon of sorts, was Kibaki’s “moral obligation”? Interesting…
Oh, my goodness, KE…Brazil IS actually part of Latin America!
By the way, we can add that they are the first nation to succeed in getting off oil. They now run most of their cars on sugarcane ethanol or a blend of ethanol and gas. This was a government initiative from back in 1973 during the huge oil crisis. Now how’s that for effective government! Sweet, huh! No pun intended.
Let’s also not forget that they are the co$metic $urgery capital of the world…
Latin America, which we ALL now know includes Brazil, also does quite a bit of hi-tech manufacturing in pharmaceuticals, computer and office equipment, aircraft parts, communication equipment. Oh, and let’s not forget that almost 10% of the world’s oil comes from Latin America – Venezuela, Ecuador (believe it or not, Africa’s contribution is slightly higher).
So, Why is Africa so freaking poor? It’s clear that we can neither manage our existing natural resources nor create and sustain man-made ones. Our problem is that we lack the leadership and as citizens do not feel obligated to hold that body of leadership accountable to the needs of the people…until now.
Africa produces a lot, but not so much in the hi-tech industry. We are yet to be significantly industrialized in that sense. Our potential based on our current riches is still so great but it just can’t be properly managed. If we were on top of out game, Africa could easily be a global economic powerhouse even without the hi-tech manufacturing sector. We are rich but we’re either giving it away for pennies or doing next to nothing with our wealth.
Food for thought – 60 percent of Japan’s domestic demands for food and agricultural products is imported – 60 freaking %!
Yes, poverty = idleness = frustration = resentment = unstable powder kegs = kaboom! How did we get to 50% unemployment? It didn’t happen overnight and can’t be cured overnight either. Doesn’t this have something to do with ineffective government on all levels over a sustained period of time? Poverty and bad politics go hand in hand.
Granted, the productivity [output] level of the average African is not that much and that’s because the mechanisms that can be used to channel them are non-existent. If there’s no foundation for growth then we aren’t going anywhere for a while.
Lack of productivity ties in directly with effective government and a motivated population or lack thereof – which African country [excluding S.A.] can boast both that in abundance? Botswana, maybe? It seems we are content in serving lesser masters like tribalism and corruption that have so blinded us that we refuse to see past the bold-faced lies being peddled and that our neighbors are not our mortal enemies…hence the hacking and counter hacking until we’re all bleeding, dead or homeless.
The Lebanon question? Well, the Lebanon and it’s capital Beirut that’s known to most of us was delivered courtesy of the international news outlets as a bullet ridden city with bombed out and scarred structures that still suggested that a period of peace and prosperity once existed. It was once the banking center of the Middle East and was even sometimes called the Paris of Arabia. It’s the land of the pretty successful ancient Phoenicians. This modern day war zone has been part of some of the greatest and successful empires that ever existed – the Persian, Macedonian (even during Alexander’s reign), Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman empires…then the French waved their magic colonial wand and voila!.
Kibera? Mathare? In the developed world, they have strict codes when it comes to what and where you can put up a structure legally and that’s why they can maintain the aesthetics of their cities. In our beloved country, well, if you bribe the right people, you can build whatever you like anywhere you like. Sometimes you don’t even have to bribe…you just do it and chances are there won’t be any consequences. That’s why we are home to the super slums of Africa. Some things are just optional in Kenya and Africa. City ordinances are just a minor inconvenience to be ignored since they won’t be enforced anyway.
It’s unbelievable that the city government never saw Mathare, Kibera and the rest of the slum cast coming…or they did but didn’t care.
Nairobi as a province covers less than a half percent of the country’s area and yet the population is ridiculously high.
If the other cities were upgraded, and the rural areas made more desirable and productive, they would spread the population out and relieve the stress on the capital but the tribe factor tends to limit what happens where and how much of it. Kenya is such a small country that if there were good roads, decent transport services then access to urban centers would be no big feat and people could live as far as the wanted and not worry about transportation. good roads equal less wear and tear on vehicles. Instead, government officials spend our money buying SUVs to navigate the terrain…what bullshit.
For urban planning and rural development – Kenya gets no points.
If the barely existing roads, rails, public utilities and services are in a less than mediocre state, then that creates an access problem. If the taxpayers Kshs were to be spent wisely then this would be less of a problem. Other countries know this…it’s not a secret but we still can’t manage what’s common Knowledge.
Building and maintaining basic infrastructure nationwide – no points for Kenya.
Africans are not stupid in an academic sense; in politics it’s another story. There are tons of Africans in the west being extremely productive to their adopted nations. That’s because the ruling governments and the citizens have made sure that the foundations required for development and it’s sustenance remain in place and are working at an optimal level.
Their systems can survive government changes with very little turbulence which is worlds away from what goes on in Africa. In the west, the people can and do fire their elected representatives for failing to serve their needs. We have some of these mechanisms in place but only on paper.
Look at Kenya…how did we fail to replace a government that’s clearly failed us? It’s the same people under different umbrellas peddling the same lies and we seem to fall for it every time. To us, democracy and good governance is a game…meanwhile, people are dying while we figure it out.
Like I said earlier, we must be content in our service to lesser masters and, therefore, content in the misery they have visited upon us.
Still, other factors have contributed significantly to African poverty on top of gross incompetence, greed and corruption, lack of national pride
Colonialism – This was a one way street. The Europeans came here to plunder and not assist. Whatever infrastructure they built was to make their exploitation more effective (we just never really built much on it after that). Then there was divide and conquer…nuff said.
International Trade Imbalances – We are being practically ass-raped as far as foreign trade with the richer nations is concerned. Tariff escalation is one thing that’s hurting the manufacturing industry on the continent.
Trade with neighboring nations isn’t that easy either even with trade agreements are in place. Just transporting the goods and raw materials is hard enough due to oil and gas prices and again that all too vital infrastructure or lack thereof.
In the end, I still agree with the title of this blog, Idle hands are the devil’s tools or the variation I recall from my younger days Idle minds are the devil’s workshop and many times he appears wearing a suit…
I had to delete some off-on-a-tangent remarks…if you noticed some flow issues. I hope it makes sense.
Cheers
edgeofsanity:
Yes – I know brazil is part of latin america. You are not informing me of something I didn’t know. However, I separated Brazil because I think it’s way ahead of the other countries in Latin America in terms of it’s innovation and industry (I assumed you’d pick up this point, but apparently you didn’t).
And I still believe that Kibaki has a moral obligation to go after the planners of this ethnic cleansing. You cannot let people who commit acts of murder and destruction go free.
The rest of the things you said are a bit too academic for me. Trade imbalances? if we produced things of value, we’d be able to trade them anywhere in the world.
KE,
I have the answer. It’s real simple but very hard to get in places like Africa or any other Poor area : Leadership daddi, that’s the keyword, and I’m sorry but I have to paraphrase MOI when he said” siasa mbaya, maisha mbaya..” which I could take to mean bad leaders mean low standard of living.
It’s all about leadership. lOOK At Dubai, which is really not that major of an oil producer anymore. The marktoum family had a vision for Dubai and are now rushing to acheive it.
Brazil is tricky because despite it’s relative wealth, it has major, and I repeat major class and socio economic differences. It’s one of the most unequal countries in the world.
Latin America too is not that good.Look at kenya’s growth rates (economically, quality of life ) from independence, then look at the growth / decline rates during MOI era.
Halafu, look at the growth rates during the Kibaki era.It’s all about leadership daddi.
One major challenge any future leader of kenya will have is Unifying the country. There are always selfish forces who polarize the country and act as if they want kenya to secede from itself and disntergrate into regions.
This has been there since the kenyatta days, but MOI ruled kenya with an iron fist, he didn’t have time for real democracy, maybe coz he knew people would use it in bad faith.
the key is leadership.
and with all due respect to my ODM Supporters, I think next time you guys shoulod do a better job at vetting your candidates leadership experience.
I still wonder how Mr Odinga escapes the scrutiny that he’s been MP for 15 yrs yet his constituents are the poorest. what has this guy done for them apart from inciting them into violence when it suits him ?
Odinga should have been an example of how he’s improved his constituents lives coz he has the potential to make a huge huge impact in their lives …but he hasnn’t….again, it’s leadership stupid!
and by the way KE,
Raila will never be president. come next election he’ll almost be 70, and I don’t think he’ll have william Ruto by his side to deliever Rift Valley
lebanon economy; $24 billion, population of 4million
kenya economy: $24 billion, population of 33 million.
thats why we’ll kill each other any day. nothing worse for a man than to lose his economic footing. its like telling him he doesnt make sense any more.
the cause? idiots in power. idiots in business. idiots on the ground.