Watching some of the
documentaries of America I am left wondering just how much can one man bring
change to his country and at the same time become insanely rich. Of late there
is talk about African economies rising while the Western countries are in recession.
I applaud all the African states that are doing well in the economic front but
really I do not think that’s a reason to celebrate and shun the West. For one,
Africa is rising because that is the only way they could go. Correct me if am
wrong but the improvement of infrastructure, I.T. developments and innovations and
improvement of social amenities are some of the elements that improve the
economies. Other significant showcases
of economic growth include job creation among other things. (Now am left
wondering every year governments promise job creation but at the same time the
population keeps growing steadily how then will the governments succeed in this
promise? Sometimes I think a number of children policies should be initiated in
Africa lest we become like China).The thing all the African countries are doing
is emulating the West and trying to reach the levels of their economies. I do
not dispute that but seeing where the West has come from and where they are
today, is that really the way we as Africans want to go? In my opinion, African
countries are both very lucky and very unlucky at the same time. It all depends
on how we look at things or what we choose to follow from our predecessors.
The West has been defining the
world for a very long time now. But the Asian countries chose to stick to their
traditions and instead of letting the West define them, they chose to define
and develop themselves. Do not get me wrong here when I say the Asian countries
developed themselves, to a large extent, these countries had a lot of help from
the West especially America. The big question always arises; how come the Asian
nations developed so rapidly? Kenyans compare the economy of Singapore and of
Kenya which was at par in 1963 when we got our independence. First we all know
Lee Kuan Yew the then prime minister of Singapore cannot be compared to Mzee Jomo
Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi who were too greedy, corrupt and selfish. They
also did not have the intellectual capacity to grow Kenya’s economy to equate
it to Singapore. However, that is a very shallow comparison in terms of
economy. Apart from corrupt leadership in Kenya, Singapore had the advantage in
terms of investments. While the West was busy exploiting the resources in Kenya,
they were investing on the other hand in Singapore. The other reason is the
fact that Singapore is such a small state with a smaller population.
Controlling and growing such an economy would not be as difficult as was in the
Kenyan situation. But again I am not trying to defend Kenya’s underdevelopment. We should have done way better than we are
right now.
African countries are going
through the same transitions as all the developed economies went through. It
really is absurd for the international system to look at Africans as backwards
due to the constant civil war yet all these countries went through some form of
wars to get to where they are today. For example Europe went through a thirty
year war that brought about state sovereignty after the signing of the
Westphalia treaty in 1648. America went through a series of revolutions and
civil wars to be the country it is today. Again I am not trying to defend
African countries. The 21st century has ensured that education is
available to a larger population in Africa and the media too has raised
awareness on a lot of the issues other countries are facing. It is for this
reason I would urge Africans to learn from the mistakes of others and try to
develop their countries. America was built by a few men who were courageous,
ambitious and very strong willed the likes of Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Andrew
Carnegie just to mention a few. These men did all they could to stay on top of
the rich list and they used crude methods to attain it and through their
ambitions, they managed to define the American capitalistic culture.
Today America has progressed in
many ways and the world looks up to her to define their individual cultures.
However, Africa is over 200 years behind and looking up to America is not
really the best way to go. The problems Africans are facing now are considered
charity work by the West and it is for this reason I would think that simple
innovations would help move our countries forward. Great innovations in
technology have given Kenya a platform in the international system. More needs to be done however which brings us
to job creations and improvement of people’s lives. In Kenya for example we
used to study about pyrethrum and sisal as cash crops. Some of these crops have
lost their monetary value and in turn lost their importance in the Kenyan
farms. We have witnessed a surge in the real estate where people opt to uproot
their plantations like coffee and tea to build flats for residential and
commercial purposes. We have seen people cut down trees for the same reasons to
provide shelter for the increasing human population. Have we learnt nothing in
school? The topic of discussion nowadays is global warming so we need our trees
not only for Africa but also for the rest of the world. We see tourists
flocking our countries in billions of numbers yet we still rush to kill our
wildlife and pollute our beautiful beaches. The reason why the tourists come is
because these animals are phenomenal to them. Most got extinct in their
countries so we need to work harder to preserve these God-given heritages so
they would not be a case of the dinosaurs.
Africans we need to be smart.
Competing with the developed countries in my opinion is not a very bright idea
instead setting a bar that all developing countries would want to follow now
that would be better, like China. And do not also criticize what I am about to
say but I think the only way the African economies would grow is through having
a benevolent dictator. This democracy vibe has brought us nothing but death,
animosity and poverty amongst ourselves.
