My wild dreams :)

No, I haven’t travelled widely, matter of fact I have been to only one country other than Kenya and that is Finland, though in my priority list right now is to leave the country preferably to pursue further studies, but if I could leave maybe on work related grounds even just to volunteer that would be perfect but as I am realizing it is much easier to volunteer in Africa if you are white than it is for an African wishing to volunteer in say America or in Europe reasons for which I believe are clear to you as they are to me. I want to visit different countries, experience different cultures, get the exposure that comes with living in a different country other than yours and ohh even get married to someone from a different nationality and even have an half-cast baby :P

My work offers me opportunity to interact with people from different nationalities, countries, backgrounds etc some stereotype, others reserve their opinions while yeah others are just fun to be around but this is nothing if I had the experience while say living in their respective countries.

 I want to travel the world, compare what we have and what other countries have in terms of governance, infrastructure, their education system, ICT and internet penetration, the people etc.  This maybe will enable me to appreciate what we have more and hone my tolerance levels and above all enable me to embrace different cultures and know how to deal with people of divergent opinions and ideologies and give me the fun of just knowing what it feels to be roaming the wide world.

Just my wild dreams J

Internet as a catalyst for development

"If they mess with the internet, I'll mess them up" that's a friend of mines political ideology when he was asked about his political views, a view that am sure most of us share especially those whose daily activities revolve around the internet.
Internet is quickly becoming an integral part in the day to day activities of most people: entrepreneurs, businesses, academia etc its lack therefore literally stalls/messes up these activities. It holds the key to so many benefits: knowledge, education, employment, political activism and the promise of a better future and a means of empowerment, it is also the link that gives our children access to high quality educational resources; it helps our entrepreneurs and small businesses compete and grow; and the internet holds the promise of better health care and a more affordable entertainment.

Computer literacy and other aspect of computer technology are prerequisites for using internet technology, a fact that has greatly lowed internet penetration especially in rural and slum areas because majority of these people are mostly computer illiterate and are either ignorant or simply don’t know the benefits that can be accrued from the internet. This can also be attributed to the fact that in most rural or slum areas, we have poor infrastructures in terms of power lines etc which thus discourages the use of gadgets like computers which requires electricity to operate.

Internet is quickly curving a niche as a great tool for catalyzing development initiatives, it has a direct link to social, economic and even political developments and therefore the Kenyan government directive that IT be a compulsory course for all students joining public universities is a most welcome move but I would rather it be compulsory right from high school if not primary school to give our young-stars an early start of computer literacy which as I have indicated earlier is a prerequisite for using internet technology.

Development-I believe-is directly proportional to the degree of internet penetration, granted, internet has its disadvantages but dwelling on these disadvantages without looking at the bigger picture is like simply refuting the benefits of computers because it leads to ‘loss of jobs’, a so backward argument that you can only be forgiven because you know not what you are saying!

So what can that poor woman or that poor kid do with internet back in the village/slum yet they don’t have food on the table, shouldn’t they be worrying about better things other than Internet?

Long time ago, we had three main basic needs: food, shelter and clothing others were simply luxuries if you wish, but today, computers, phones and internet are necessities if not needs. You talk internet and you talk information, that poor woman can learn a lot from the internet- from what type of crops to plant during dry season, from how to carry out a first aid of snake bite to save her baby before she can take her to hospital, from how to find market for her produce and sell them at fair prices etc. That poor kid who can’t afford to buy books, can get all that materials from the internet and compete fairly with that boy whose parents can afford, he can learn new programming languages, can learn how to hack, can learn how to play guitar and loads of some other stuff, who knows he can even show the world his musical prowess like Justin Bieber did- see where he is right now.

But the challenge is, if they cannot afford to put food on the table, who will take care of the internet bill, who will buy them computers coz internet and computes go hand in hand? This is where the government should come in, to ensure that every sub location, market place, public school has a library equipped with computers and good internet speed, maybe restrict the time per sitting to say 30 minutes per person but offer the service free to encourage many people to use computers and internet and tap these benefits, the government should have its own innovation hubs and organize events where these people can show the skills acquired from the internet, by so doing, the government will eliminate the worry these poor people go through of how to pay these bills but at the same time foster  an information rich society where people can gain skills to do plenty of stuff without just sitting back and waiting to be employed in a society where jobs are becoming a scarcity, they say nothing is as dangerous as a wounded animal who knows it can survive, I say nothing is as motivating to the poor as knowing they can improve their situation! And internet holds the key to that.

Africa's underdevelopment-could population be a factor?

Over the past few months, media has fed us with several images of desperate children, women and men dying of hunger due to famine which has been declared as the worst to have hit the Horne of Africa in 6 decades. Refugee camps are overstretched with people looking for relief. Kenyans have particularly come together to help their own under the umbrella initiative dubbed 'Kenyan4Kenyans' which raised a whooping over Sh 500 million in just less than 2 weeks after its launching to help the hunger stricken fellow Kenyans starving in Turkana 

Hunger is not a new thing in Kenya and in Africa a s a whole, several projects have been proposed to curb a repeat on this but it appears that the government is either not so keen at implementing them or has other reasons up its sleeve. But all in all, these images have kept me wondering why the Kenyan government cannot feed its own, why Africa is always in a state of dependency- Why Africa is not as developed as it should be.

Several theories and books have been written explaining why Africa is not at par with the rest of the world in terms of development

• Economist Ntahan Nunn argues that slavery is the main culprit. "without the slave trades, 72% of Africa's income gap with the rest of the world would not exist today"
• Oxford University and ex-World bank Economist Paul Collier attributes it to environmental factors such as being landlocked, existence or lack thereof of coastline, being resourceful or resource scarce etc,
• Zambian economist and Ex-World bank consultant Dambisa Moyo in her book "Dead Aid" categorically blames it on foreign Aid
• There is of course the largely unspoken view that the problem with Africa is Africans- that culturally, mentally and physically Africans are innately different. that, somehow, deeply embedded in their psyche is an inability to embrace development and improve their own lot in life without foreign guidance and help
• We also have historical factors like colonialism, the continent's disparate tribal groupings and ethno-linguistic make up has also been blamed, other factors such as absence of strong, transparent and credible public institutions like civil service, police, judiciary etc have also been apportioned blame as part of the problem

What about unregulated population?

Though may not out rightly be the problem, I have a feeling that Africa's constant population increase could also be another contributing factor why we are still scrawling in this development sector.

Take for instance, the Kenya's case where Kenyan population was reported as 38.6 million in 2009, compared to 28.7 million in 1999, 21.4 million in 1989 and 15.3 million in 1979, an increase by a factor of 

2.5 Over 30 years, or an average growth of more than 3% per year.

Kenya is about 580,000km2 in terms of surface area compared to let's say Finland- the 8th largest country in Europe in terms of area at 337,030km2- though relatively small compared to Kenya- in 2000 its population was about 5.2 million, in 1990 the population size was about 5 million. Since the mid 1990s the annual growth has remained under 20,000 persons averaging at about 5.4 million now. 

Though this might not be a perfect comparison, compare their growth rate to Kenya’s and you will notice a very big difference.  Interestingly, regardless of the growth rate, the resources remain constant which means these additional number of people will have to survive on the already limited available resources,  this in my view leads to high poverty levels and makes it even harder for the government to take care of its citizens.

As much as it is the responsibility of the government to take care of its citizens, people should also just give birth to the number of kids that they can comfortably take care of and by so doing developing themselves and the country as a whole

Just how long can you live on hope?

I remembered a friends’ facebook status that I saw some months ago that “It sucks living on hope” and today I have been thinking about that very statement because for some time now, I have been living on nothing but hope-hope that things will turn out for the better and I must admit, sometimes it sucks holding on to hope especially if nothing seems to be working out.

Hope-to desire with anticipation of obtainment- comes to play when circumstances are dire, when things are not going well or at least there is considerable uncertainty about how things will turn out, hope literally opens up and removes the blinders of fear and despair and allows us to see the big picture thus allowing us to become creative and have a belief in a better future…..Wikipedia

Hope has a way of keeping us going, of keeping us alive, of helping us overcome difficult times. A story is told of mother from famine stricken Turkana who could not stand to see her children lose hope in life and die of hunger, she herself new that there was  nothing she could do to avert the situation but she had to give her kids hope,  so she lit fire, put her gumboots in a sufuria, poured water and decided to cook, Kids oblivious of what their mum was cooking started being jovial and expectant that at least they will eat something , the ‘food’ took forever to prepare but when the kids prodded why this particular meal wasn’t getting ready, their  mum replied that it was one huge hard but delicious meal that needed a lot of time to prepare- and so  just when the ‘meal’ was about to be served, she diapered not wanting to see her kids' disappointment and that’s the last time she  saw her kids but at least she gave them hope that saw them through that day!

So today I was just wondering out aloud, how long can one live on hope or otherwise put how long can one live without hope?

                "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

                                                Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do you ever listen to your conscience?

 Napoleon Hill in his ‘Think and Grow Rich’ book on page 180 says and I quote “There is plenty of evidence to support the belief that the subconscious mind is the connecting link between the finite mind of man and infinite intelligence. It is the intermediary through which one may draw upon the forces of infinite intelligence at will. It, alone, contains the secret process by which mental impulses are modified and changed into their spiritual equivalent. It, alone, is the medium through which prayer may be transmitted to the source capable of answering prayer”

Call it a hunch, call it intuition call it a feeling but it all narrows down to ones conscience or sixth sense. Every being has a conscience right from conception, and with this even without any form of schooling, someone is able to differentiate between right or wrong. Conscience as Von Gogh puts it is a man’s compass in life.
Some people tend to suppress that still little voice especially when they know the decisions they are about to make is wrong, or that the deeds they are about to indulge in is wrong, but even with high degrees of suppression, it will still be there wishing that you listened.

Most problems that we go through as humans are problems whose solutions we have with us, just as Napoleon says in the above quote, if only we gave our subconscious mind the right and enough stimulations and proper problems to work on and ‘trust’ it enough then it can give us the proper solution to that problem but seldom do we do this!

If only we can listen to our conscience then we would know when to walk away from abusive and unfulfilling relationships, we would know how to read the writings on the wall and act accordingly, we would know how to deal with fellow human beings and treat them as equals but most importantly, we would know how to differentiate between right and wrong but alas! We don’t listen to our conscience: we either ignore it completely or we listen but don’t take the offered precautions because God forbid, human beings are the only animals that sense danger and still move towards it.

 “Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune”
  Carl Jung

Things I would do different if I were to go back to collage

They say that we are better educated than our parents' generation (a fat lie). What they mean is that we go to school longer. ~Richard Yates

 I was having a brief chat with a student some days back, so I asked her whether she was enjoying her studies and the plans she had for the future, (she is yet to Join University) she told me she was so looking forward to joining university and would only be happy after graduating and getting herself a job- talk of being independent :)  somehow I felt happy for her but felt the urge to tell her to tone down her getting job enthusiasm a bit, coz apparently, that’s where happy life seems to end for most graduates.

I see students joining University with a lot of enthusiasm, with the hope that after graduating they will immediately secure their dream job and set their life rolling! (Which is perfectly in order only that there appears to be lots of challenges before you get it rolling) and the ‘better’ the course that you are pursuing the happier your future life looks. I remember we use to tease education students that they were waking up early just for 20 bucks (That’s almost the amount that Kenya TSC pays graduate teachers) coz somehow we felt that our course was a bit superior to theirs and therefore our starting salary was somehow pre defined :)

Most students realize that life is actually different when looking for attachment places but most importantly after graduation. That’s when they realize that real life is far from the imagined life after collage. We have heard of extreme cases where graduates tear up their original university certificates after failing to secure a place and others doing the unimaginable jobs. In some parts of the country like Nairobi, drivers and jobless graduate youths have entered into an informal arrangement in which the latter occupy seats to lure passengers so as to fill the vehicles quickly, for their effort, the job seekers get between Sh30 and Sh50.

I have nothing against being enthusiastic when joining collage, but I just wish I could tell them to tone their expectations just a bit, in that case, they would know how to fit and deal with real life after collage without getting extremely disappointed.

Just like churches have become a major source of income for some preachers, am afraid learning institutions are slowly turning into cash cows by introducing some courses that are not so relevant which they insist students must take. Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often young people are being given cut flowers when they should be taught how to grow their own plants.

Having had a taste of life outside collage (real life) coupled with so many other issues, I came to the conclusion that if I were to go back to college, these are some of the things that I would do different:

• As much as I will learn the offered courses, my ears will always be open to what is going on in the job market, I will learn tones of other things that I feel will give me a competitive advantage over the others.
• Passing exams will never be my priority, I will instead concentrate on getting the concept
•  I will have fun and lots of fun, will enjoy my collage life to the maximum (coz apparently, this is where real life is!)
• I will network right from year one but most importantly I will focus on being the job creator rather than the job seeker because it is this jobseeker mindset that prevents most people from exploring their full potential
•  I will be flexible enough to do anything/any job (and I mean anything) with all the enthusiasm that I can master, provided I have my set targets and goal in life- which you must have if you are to go anywhere
  
  

Teleworking/Telecommuting

Sometime back I had a chat with a friend of mine on how terrible the Nairobi traffic had become, especially in the morning and evening, my friend attributed this to 8-5 work schedule of most Kenyan employers, this means that fare prices hike in the morning and evening and are relatively low the rest of the day. Most employers demand that their employees get to work by 8 AM and not leave before 5 PM regardless of the workload.  

I worked in an Electrical/Mechanical consultancy firm before as an IT support  fellow, sometimes I could go without work for days but still I had to be at my work place at 8 and not leave before 5.30- that was the rule and every employee had to respect that, the said friend of mine (Electrical Engineer) lost his position in this firm apparently because he did not report to work on a Saturday ,since he felt there was no work on his desk to be done on that Saturday only to be served with a suspension letter upon coming on Monday which was thereafter followed by a termination of contract (he is in the process of establishing his own firm and promises to give his employees  flexible working hours provided they get the work done satisfactorily  and in time)

With the advent of technology, you don’t have to necessarily be in the office to get the work done, though this also depends on the nature of work one does. If we can have e-learning, distance learning, e-court proceedings why not e-working (Teleworking/telecommuting) if the nature of your work allows it?

….Telework occurs when information and communications technologies (ICTs) are applied to enable work to be done at a distance from the place where the work results are needed or where the work would conventionally have been done…

Currently I work in an ICT oriented NGO and I am more of a teleworker, we do a lot of our meetings on Skype, correspond a lot through emails and exchange and share files through dropbox, my work also involves tutoring, I don’t have to be physically present in a class to give lectures, with the help of software such as camtasia, I can create very professional lecture videos and notes so that even people who are not in my country of residence can still attend my classes online.

I must confess more often than not I have to give a lot of explanations to the kids especially why I claim to be busy working yet I don’t ‘go to work ‘in the morning like their daddy does, this reminds me of a rather interesting scenario- this kid came over and was like “kindly let me use your computer to play a game” since I was very busy, I politely declined and told her I would consider her request once I complete my work. Her response kind of took me a back, she was like- “you pretend to be busy working yet you are not!”

  I have realized that it is not only kids who don’t understand this teleworking concept, but even grownups themselves, for instance my pals and siblings don’t take me seriously when I tell them am teleworking, the question that mostly follow is ‘Where are your offices situated?’. A lot of importance has been pegged on ‘going to work’ than the work itself

Having teleworked for some time now, I have got this to say:

Advantages

 

This article tends to summarize the advantages of teleworking: http://www.ventanazul.com/img/weblog/telework-people-sample.pdf

Drawbacks (I have these to say on drawbacks)

• With teleworking, you can easily become a workaholic, since there are no breaks typical of 8-5 work schedule, for instance I rarely realize its lunch time and most of the time I work well past midnight depending on the workload
•   You miss out on the social aspect of life; mostly you are alone in your room or virtually with people in chat rooms, so you don’t get time to interact with your workmates and even others. You can even take like a whole week without leaving the house.
•   If you are not careful, you can become unkempt, since your level of interaction with others is somewhat limited, therefore the taste of fashion and being smart takes a back seat coz most of the time you are alone anyway.
•   Hmmm, and am wondering if this comp will render me infertile :) , as usual ,mostly I work from my bed which means I normally place it somewhere on my abdomen- and am afraid of the radio active rays it produces :)
•   I wouldn’t recommend it to fresh graduates, in my view it suits those who have got enough experience and are rather established in their work.