I’ve been suffering from a very acute flu for the past few weeks. Each and every joint I had ached as if it was getting good money to do so. My nose decided that it was equally as capable as my feet of undertaking the task of running. My head decided to notify me by throbbing painfully after every heartbeat, without a doubt under the impression anything the heart could do it could do as well.
This however did not stop me from more or less attempting to get around to my various duties, and, naturally, getting involved in a very heated debate.
This past few months have seen an unusual influx of Kenyans in the diaspora from the various countries and counties that they diaspora in. Following is a sample 2 week schedule of one such cowboy
Day 1
Arrive in the country at some ungodly hour of the night and proceed to call up everyone you know to inform you are around
Day 2
Find bearings. Get used to :
- Driving on the left
- Ever changing geography of Nairobi
- largely ignored highway code
Day 3
Meet the family. Hug everyone. Give away the gifts that were limited by (in descending order)
a) Budget
b) Airline personnel
c) Customs personnel
Day 4
Go to see the grand folks in shags
Day 4
Back in town, meet the friends and chart out a solid 10 days of enjoyment
Day 5 – Day 10
Attempt to visit all the discotheques, clubs, bars, coffee houses, movie halls and restaurants in and around Nairobi
Day 11 – Day 14
Go to coast
Day 15
Leave town in a hurry, carrying nothing more than an amazing hangover and pleasant memories
Good times, good times. And us locally based sons and daughters of our parents also attempt to stuff as much fun as possible into the remainder of the year. In this haste we generally forget that the December salary is actually supposed to be spent in January, but that is for another day.
But I’ve digressed enough. A couple of days ago I was having coffee and throat lozenges with a conglomeration of Kenyan Tourists (KTs ™ ) and Kenyan Roots(KRs™ ) until the discussion took an interesting turn.
The discussion as usual swiftly swiveled into politics and the state of affairs of Kenya. Nothing can neatly divide the diaspora from the locals better than this topic.
Armed with copies of the Washington Post, the Economist and numerous clippings from the online version of the newspapers, and memories of conversations with ambassadorial staff, and the odd clip on CNN and BBC the KTs™ will pontificate just how good governance and the economy has grown in leaps and bounds, and how things are looking much better under Kibaki’s able leadership. They will be pleasantly surprised that Nairobi has become a safe haven where the lion will lay with the lamb.
Armed with copies of police abstracts, medical bills and numerous physical and emotional scars, and memories of conversation with gangsters, us KRs™ will wonder exactly what the KTs have been smoking, and when it expired. We will wonder what manner of good governance has a cabinet that is precisely a third of the entire community of members of parliament. We will wonder which economy is this that grew, and where its mother keeps it indoors because we have never seen it. All we see are steadily rising prices of everything. We will question Kibaki’s ability to lead his shadow through a doorway. We will wonder about this security business when police themselves are being shot by the day, and when people who yawn carelessly in down town Nairobi finish their yawning without realizing they have been relieved of wallet, belt, tie and tooth fillings in that brief interval between opening mouth and closing it.
Naturally fierce and enthusiastic debate will ensue and after everyone is flushed under the collar, a subtle change is introduced when someone finally concedes that there is a problem or two in Nairobi, and wants to know what can be done t fix them.
It is at this point things began to hum.
“By building Kenya,” a KT™ declared impressively rising to all of his four feet and banging the table with a fist for effect.
The agreement was unanimous, and there was peace until I sneezed (while holding top of head to keep it from exploding) and fired the shot that sunk the ship.
“And just how do you build Kenya from a very comfortable air conditioned apartment, complete with goldfish, in New York?”
This particular KT™ floundered briefly.
Another spoke up, haughtily informing me that she sent thousands of dollars to Kenya over the past couple of years.
And it was there that the camel’s back was broken.
Thousand and thousands of Kenyans leave these hallowed shores to go abroad to study. Each has their own reasons
- They can afford to
- What they want to study is not offered here
- To say the magical sentence “I’m flying out”
- They’ve gotten a chance to study at a good school
- Just because
And so they depart. The entire clan is at Jomo Kenyatta Airport to see them off. Everyone, from the family patriarch to the family livestock and poultry is there. While the several dozen uncles, aunts, bothers and sisters deposit kisses on the cheeks of the excited students, the family poultry deposit guano everywhere. Tearful goodbyes are exchanged and the student leaves, ostensibly for four years to study Nuclear Physics / The Mating Habits of the Equatorial Baboon.
Five, six, seven years later, there is puzzlement as to why the student has not returned.
Bewildered relatives corner the father in a bar.
No, Waithera did not switch to Music then to Theatre then to Engineering then to Catering like so many of her fellows. She did not acquire a credit card for each day of the month and then spend days hiding from creditors in a manner that the Special Forces and Navy Seals would do well to emulate. She was not forced by circumstances to get 5 jobs that consigned her studies to a distant back bench.
She stuck to her Nuclear Physics and indeed completed, Summa Cum Laude, Quid Pro Quo, Et Cetera, Nolle Prosequi, Ave Maria, some five years ago.
Then why is she not returning? Because she has decided to live there. She now works for NASA.
“In fact,” the proud patriarch says happily taking a swig of his Tusker Malt, “She was just telling me that she has developed a vehicle constructed entirely from bamboo, fishing line, timber and a watch battery. It is powered principally by the warmth in the human breath, and speaking for five minutes into a little unit gives the car power to travel 100km. Of course if given to a politician he can travel to the moon and back, ha ha!”
“But,” asks a cousin morosely, who forgets to hide his ulterior motives, “Is that to say she is not coming back?”
“She says not in the foreseeable future,” the patriarch says polishing off the Malt and then hailing the barman.
“However she sends me a good bit of money every month and so, my friends, help me reduce this thousand dollars to more manageable levels. Drinks all around my good man!”
There are several thousand Waitheras out there. In the North America. In Europe. In Asia. Indeed, even in other countries in Africa. It’s just a matter of time before South Africa and Botswana start speaking Kiswahili. I vaguely recall some report some weeks back that suggested that Kenya was one of the top contributors of students aboard in the world.
We have several dozen thousand very able scientists, doctors, surgeons, lawyers, IT professionals, authors, musicians, artists, researchers, scholars, engineers and architects all around the world, doing sterling work wherever they are.
Which is good. When opportunities present themselves, grab them. If they don’t present themselves, you go out and get them. Once Harvard / Yale / MIT / Princeton are through with you, and empower you to join the working masses you have in many ways triumphed over adversity.
Naturally, while studying for your degree, you don’t stop living. You come to the realization that in some places it is a big deal for power to disappear. That opening a tap and getting running water is not a pleasant surprise. Some countries have realized that roundabout is Ancient Greek for one person wasting three other people’s time. Some politicians resign because they have been accused of some misdemeanor. That you can apply for a job, do your shopping and pay your bills without leaving the house and dealing with sweaty gentlemen who breathe through their mouths and do not believe in Colgate.
There are plenty of reasons for one to decide that the grass is indeed greener on the other side and decide to settle there. And so a good many do precisely this and go on to settle abroad and get jobs with NASA, IBM, Microsoft, on Wall Street, etc. They will do those jobs and be equally adept, if not more, than the residents.
It is therefore amusing for Waithera, lead researcher for NASA and Onyango, Head of Design at IBM to come to Nairobi for holiday and while seated across from me, purport without batting an eyelid to be working round the clock building Kenya.
You are doing nothing remotely of the kind.
Any innovations you make there will be the property of NASA and IBM, ergo any benefits above and beyond a handsome bonus cheque to you will go straight to NASA and IBM. Your ingenuity is building NASA, IBM and the USA.
Waithera’s car will be made at a cost price of4$ and will turn up for sale in Kenya some 5 years later at a pocket friendly price of 1,000$. If 1 million Kenyans buy this car they will send a grand total of 1,000,000,000,000 dollars straight to the United states GNP, which they can undoubtedly find uses for like building roads and disaster management. In the United States.
While Onyango is developing processors the size of a crumb of bread that can be powered by a watch battery and run for a month on it, the Ministry of Science and Technology still operates a behemoth whose processor is the size of Chris Murungaru and produces about as much hot air and sweat.
Now just imagine how many hundred thousand Waitheras and Onyangos we have working and building USA, UK, Switzerland, Holland, Spain, Belgium, and a dozen other countries with their skills and know how.
If they all returned to Kenya and took charge of ministries, parastatals and the private sector, starting KASA and KBM it would just be a matter of time before we start being known for something other than running.
Before we build our own industries. Before we build nuclear power plants and stop being at the mercy of rain and shine. Before we laugh at the hypocrisy of George Bush and Tony Blair whining about Iran’s nuclear program while they are doing the exact same thing.
Before my computers come in boxes saying “Made In Kenya” and not “Made in the USA”.
Before we tell pontificating condescending, professional activists like Bob Geldof and Jeffrey Sachs to take their magic bullet experimental formulae and stick them in a location that depends on how tightly these magic bullet experimental formulae can be rolled up.
I have nothing against settling overseas. After all, all of us dream of having a good life and are always in pursuit of actualizing our dreams. I don’t even have a problem with changing citizenship if it brings you closer to your dreams. The sad truth is that patriotism is not particularly edible and it’s difficult to remember the words of the national anthem when you’re hungry.
What I take issue with is pontificating about how things are going to the dogs, how the country is run by nitwits and how you’re correcting the situation and building your country by wiring money from the comfort of your New York apartment, complete with goldfish..
You can’t have your cake and eat it.
I’m sorry to inform you that sending money is not building anything, besides offices for Western Union. It does not build Kenya anymore than trainee teachers build schools by declining to return to teach after training and sending money instead.
Sending money merely allows Kenya to run on the spot at best. It allows your nearest and dearest to subsist. It pays bills. Nothing more nothing less. Spare us the absurd notion that we should be grateful to you for the greenbacks you mail every month in the guise of building the country. Attempting to place your wired money on a pedestal is merely massaging your conscience.
Which is not to say you should not send money. Au contraire. If it keeps roofs over heads of wee tots, pays the odd bill, clothes backs and educates a few, carry on. If it enables cantankerous old men to down rounds at the local bar, soldier forth. At least you’re sharing your spoils.
You can’t have your cake and eat it.
The United States we know today was, and continues to be built by the English and the Irish and the Chinese and the Mexicans and the Italians and the Indians and the Russians and the Japanese and the Germans who live and work there. And of course by poor Africans who had a remarkable incentive program called the whip and were not distracted by little things like wages and unions.
Money does not build countries. People working does. Do not for half a second delude yourself otherwise.
You can’t have your cake and eat it.
There is only one way to build Kenya.
Come back and work.
Alanis Morissette – Uninvited
The truth hurts!
Oh and M, before people start thinking mimi ni KT, tafadhali badirisha my flag of choice. Thank you.
PS/ Try a shag for that flu. Don’t ask, just try. Amazing!
At m that is a great post and I have to jump in with my $0.02.
First of all I do not have to be in Kenya to build Kenya.Look at all those people working for EPZ and large multi-nationals.Other then taxes these companies do as little as possible to build Kenya as the funnel their profits outside the country.I am in academia and the research that I do can be channeled towards developing Kenya or is it only sweat and not sparking neurons that count as development?
Also some of us did not run away, we merely went where we were wanted.If Kenyan companies and institutions will not recognise our contributions we will go to where we are valued be it states or europe.
Whether you like it or not Kenya would be different without remittances from abroad.Some of this money may be wasted but alot of it does what our government does not ie pay for healthcare,build schools and keep roofs over people’s heads.
Also I do concur with Guess who told Nick something to the tune of you can’t blame us for talking about people back home who do little to allieviate the state of affairs they find themselves in. If there is one things folks back home knew how to do is to talk and give cures to the situation that Kenya finds itself in but do little in terms of action.So we may talk because we are far and can do little on the ground but you who are on the ground what is your excuse? Kenyans take little initiative when it comes to entrepreneurship and would rather jump on someone else’s ingeneuity ie exhibition craze.
Also when we are far away and try to give solutions and send cash we are told that we have little to offer and have run away but on the other hand when we turn our backs we are accused of being traitors.Which way would you rather have it?
Also Keguro talks abouts working in the Public sector, what I have to say is that I was in Kenya more recently then you, so stop looking at things through rose colored glasses.First of all the public sector is experiencing down-sizing (thanks to IMF et al),also their is rampant ism when it comes to hiring (take your choice cronyism,nepotism etc so since I am not from the hills of Mt Kenya I think that makes things rather hard from me),also Kenyan bureacracy is well known for frittering talent (me wasting away in a government office is indeed a great show of patriotism!)
Anyway this is an issue that generates more questions then answers so I guess I will keep reading the comments.
Good post M.
I also don’t blame ppl for looking for greener pastures but I blame ourselves for not putting mechanisms to lure these professionals back.
Fine let them work in the West gain skills, contacts and experience but they are gonna have to retire, right? Few Kenyans want to retire in the West. That’s when u lure them back with incentives and put their skills to use the same way China, India and Singapore r doing. It’s a win-win situation.
These pple have had exposure and understand global trends – there4 they can be used to strategically position the country to take advantage of emerging and future global trends. I believe is their greatest asset as we need to become world class in everything we do (just as Kenya Airways is doing). Of course then pple will complain about the Kenyan diaspora being favoured but u can’t please everyone and strategies can be devised to mitigate this.
On remittances I think there’s a better way. Instead of being used on subsistence they should be channelled to achieve growth thru mechanisms such as Mutual Funds. These should be made availabe to the Kenyan Diaspora and they should be educated on the relevant concepts.
These Mutual Funds could offer the govt ways of raising capital thru govt papers other than domestic borrowing that crowds out local wananchi/businesses(the 90s) or “foriegn aid” (which r actually loans not aid!) and give the donors disproportionate leverage that they r only too keen to exploit for their own interests.
They could also be invested in infrastructure development as most of our infrastructure could be technically feasible but economically unviable due to skewed financing from IMF/World Bank etc. Of course corruption needs to be done way with so as not dampen the KTs investor confidence and unnecessarily increase the risk premium.
These Mutual Funds could also be invested in the stock exchange giving local companies relatively cheap capital for expansion so as to stave off or match foreign competition (SA), chutis with their informal 0% interest loans from family members all over the world etc.
All in all if the KTs economic potential is properly tapped it could enable innovative solutions to develop and create employment, growth etc. More importantly, it could improve national security by decreasing reliance on foreign aid and thereby reducing foreign leverage.
Thank u.
As a KT, I have to speak in defence of the president.
You’re whole argument is about building Kenya. The president is part of the London School od Economics alumni yet he hardy gets any props for the hard work it is obvious he does. Unfortunately, not the whole govt is as hardworking as he is.
On day 15 of the aforementioned KT holiday, there was a news article with MPs from famine-stricken regions accusing ‘the government’ of not reacting to the drought quickly enough. Aren’t they part of the government??
What appears, to me anyway, as well architected plan for economic development by the president seems to have been decelerated by politiking, constitution blah-blah and a cabinet (and parliament) that seems to be disappointed that they’re not eating as much as the previous regime. Hopefully in time that mentality will be rooted out. In the meantime, the blame should land squarely on those responsible: after three years in office, Hon. Raila Odinga did not do much for roads, surely he should take some of the blame for the stagnation of our infrastructure.
On the other hand, former transport minister Hon. Michuki lead to a drastic reduction in fatalities on Kenyan roads! Some orthopaedic units around Nairobi had to close for lack of work! You won’t see him being commended on the media.
One of the things that pissed me off (kedo day 12) is seeing people complaining about alcoblow interfering with their weekend activities. How could something that saves lives in this way be bad? Maybe Kenyans should borrow the habit of ‘designated drivers’ that is practiced in other countries and drink responsibly!! Or, start to use taxis and assist in job promotion, instead of making the govt. to be a bad guy for actually giving a hoot about Kenyan lives.
I can’t speak on behalf of the people in comfy New York flats since I haven’t finished my studies but I would love to channel whatever I’ve learnt into ‘building my country’. But the attacks on Kibaki are uncalled for.
M, you really are “nec pluribus impar” !
Cheers :))
lakini honestly how can one go back to build the nation when there is bila jobs for the millions of the jobless. I wil say let those who want to build it from states etc do so.
I mean look at the educated jobless people in kenya, some have become bank robbers and hit men. And they didnt choose their path that leads to the grave for the robbed or the robber.
I love Uk but only during summer. come winter I miss kenya like heaven!
I know your arent asking people to go back home. and am sure you’re almost pulling out you hair ..sorry curly kit (blame nick)when people conclude that thats what you’re asking.
Ur right. it takes work to build the country. But no one will run back to a sinking ship jus because of patriotism. What us KT’s need are signs that the captain and crew have realized there are holes on the boat and are taking steps towards fixing it.
U have missed out in your analysis those kenyans who, though they remain, do NOTHING towards repairing Kenya. By this i mean those who will still bribe officers, still accept bribes and so forth. What we need is a monumental shift in our thinking. And it needs to be felt throughout the country. In the media, in the government, everywhere. We need smarter, younger people in government, but unless we have that monumental shift in thinking, it’ll never happen.
How can a first-class 26 year old graduate, having worked abroad, be inspired to come back with the intention of helping bring about change when everyone in Kenya thinks only aged people can help them!!?? What we need is more KR’s like you, M, to wake everyone the hell up!!! Realize that the situation you are in is not working and get those people out of government. Countries are built on policy. Policy is only as good as the policy-makers.
Unfortunately we are more interested in the tribes of our policy-makers than their qualifications!! If KT’s knew they could realize their full-potentials in Kenya, trust me, they would RUSH back. And KR’s would not leave. There’s a reason things in Kenya are the way they are in terms of skills shortage. Let’s get policy-makers in who can realize this reason and can enact policy to try and fix it.
M you opened a pandoras box, and the more i read the comments the more i realize people go to school to get jobs. The guys out there are even lucky they can work while in school and can save up; for us guys here getting unpaid internship is a miracle but we don’t give up. At the end of the day i owe my country one at least for funding my education.
In international law, if a person is declared an alien, then the only country that can be forced to accept him back is his country of birth. I think Go read, come back build the nation should be the new slogan. Corruption and whatever else Kenya is accused of should not be your excuse for not coming back.
Think of it this way people worked hard to build the developing countries..so why should you bask in their glory? Don’t even start giving reasons. Matiba my constituent mate is terminally ill but him and others had to suffer to save us from dictatorialism and one partyism..the more we talk the more we do nothing.
Okay Class, Time out. Teacher back in class!
Guess and Nicky, stop with the fighting already…go to the corner and squat!
That Nicky can be quite a trouble maker, so Nicky hold your ears as well.
Its just funny how people have jokes amidst all this. LOL at curly kit. Someone had to bring it up.
@ Nicky…You are demented. LOL…don’t even get me started with the name dropping….
@ Ms K, LOL @ sewing sequins.
Swee, you make starting a business seem like such a piece of cake. All over again, it ties back to the same thing….there are no measures in place to lure entrepreneurs to do it. From setting up the business to finding a market to incentives to keep them going….
Kwanza, I am a javaholic but if you hear the story/rumor of how Java started…….he! nione kando! Entrepreneurs nothing!
Let’s all arrange the sequence of thoughts here and find the dream that M had when he blogged this. (M, if I lose the dream, please do correct me) What is the use of such a beautiful discussion/fight if WE CANNOT COME UP WITH A SOLUTION???
1. There is need for change, as in real, political first, social, economic, infrastructural, etc not for sending people cash, although we agree that IT HELPS! (don’t you start or I will have you all take 5 laps around the playground yelling ‘milk’)
2. A pretty chunk of the people that can make tangible change are in the Diaspora, they are doing their best, and they CARE about this country, if not, they will begin to.
Those that are here are also trying, if not they will start to henceforth. If you do not care about this country, please leave, we have nothing to offer.
3. There are no/limited opportunities to get KT’s to come back OR make TANGIBLE CHANGE from where they are.
Now, get in groups and device a way forward from here, and no more about justifying circumstances, gold fish, plastic patriotism, NASA, Sequins, curly kit…..In Fact, no one should talk about their own situation!
At the end of this lesson, we will need solutions. Ideas, real ones on HOW EVERYONE, REGARDLESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION or any other (de)limitations CAN MAKE TANGIBLE CHANGE necessary to MOVE THE COUNTRY FORWARD!
Get working!
And Nick and Guess go into the same group!
@M. Please go bring a nice long cane for your rear for not cleaning up your mess
Think of it this way people worked hard to build the developing countries..so why should you bask in their glory?
Ooh i meant developed countries.
Nick i can see you are trying to catch up with me. Work Harder
@msanii:ur still on the outside looking in…unleashing ideas you were not unleashing when u were here
@Acolyte:thats my point people here and over there just know how to talk.Kenyans have the mentality of politicising everything…those abroad criticise guys here and vice versa…and that is just idle talk-in the words of Rodney King to the cops and batons and hidden camera and boots “CANT WE ALL JUST GE ALONG!!
I’m the type that wont give a crap that ‘u’ are out there making a life for urself,im even happy for u…but i draw the line when Guess asks me what have i done for kenya lately(whether in tyrese’s or janet jackson) version
If am not asking you that, where do you get off askin- when u are all the way there!
Much as my saying it may irk you, I think you should run for presidency.
CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG! Booohooo!
Some of us cannot stand violence of whatever kind (physical, verbal, emotional, virtual, playful, serious……)
M, do something!
Ni Nicky na Guess wanataka kupigana.
Fight! fight!…as soon as we can find Guess
how can we come back and creat jobs while even the people in kenya can’t! (or have tried and failed) I mean what is it that we can do that you guys at home cant do. Si sisi wote (maybe not all of us) tuko na degrees in whatever.
Nick serial blog killer; be worried Guess. I still remember how you bullied him but the war is getting a bit hot.
At least i can say with conviction that Nick has a clinic and employs someone at least. With time 20 of his classmates will.
At least most of my classmates still around here will open their law kiosks when it is time.And in that way employ more.
The least you can do is invest in Kenya; real estate,shares, just make sure you spend here.
M this just sums what people have been waiting to be reminded as people pretend they dont know about the issue anymore.
Am with Wangu run for Presidency and carry Obasanjo’s heart.. ((we Kanu if u dont lead the team to win you are not going to play abroad for any club with your teammates.. but change your line to We Farmgal if u dont come home and start a company with Guess starting a dispensary and make Nick as the head of dental department never look at Kenya))
Shiroh says she owes her country for funding her education. I agree.
I owe my family for funding mine. Not my country, my family. When I make money, it will go to my family first.
When I said people who return work in private firms that belong to their families or friends of their families, I simply took the line that economic privilege reproduces itself. We have to be practical. Does further entrenching the middle or upper-middle classes “build the country?” I’m not an economist. I can’t answer this question.
When we say “build the country,” what do we mean? Do we follow some strange reagonomics that claims benefits will “flow down” when we “return” and drink ourselves silly at Pavement?
On some level, this strange business of “building the country” requires skills that we have not yet acquired: how do we ensure a solid foundation while fixing leaks in the roof and replacing windows? I’m not being defeatist.
Let’s also not abstract political work. Policies develop from very local initiatives: from one family or one village or one small location. They emerge from need and circumstance. They don’t always get press until some time later. (Ory, in her journalism series, is looking at how the press works, or doesn’t.) Policies develop from pressure being applied to politicians: for this, we need politicians who listen and take responsibility. We actually need them to be in their offices, to have mailing and email addresses, to meet and listen to their constituents. Some do. Many don’t. I’m not passing the buck. I am saying we need to think in structural terms.
We focus a lot on those who “have left.” I am one of 4 siblings. I am the only one out of the country. Many have remained and continue to remain. There’s no disconnect between those who leave and those who remain. Some might sit in comfy New York apartments (the very few who make too much money) and not pay attention to what happens. Many of us pore over local papers, call, text, email, write letters to family. We do things that our parents’ generation did. We join in self-help family funds, donating small amounts each month or two months or three months. We join our families in setting goals. We try to realize them.
Only a certain arrogance would convince diasporic Kenyans that they can put pressure on the government or restructure the economy in ways that our families at home cannot. This would be an instance of hubris.
And, I ask again, why presume that diasporic Kenyans have vast resources, enough to start companies and shape policy? Who needs this convenient fiction? As though we do not pay rent and bills and, for those who have them here, try to educate siblings and children.
Few of us can afford to sit in New York apartments and look at our goldfish. Some might. I’d hazard to say not most. Sending back $50 a month may not sound like much. For some it’s not. For others it’s a good percentage of income.
When I left I was told: go, get as much education as you can, get as much experience as you can. When you come back, be someone who can do something.
It took my parents a good 15 years to save enough to open their own little business. It will not take me 3 months or two years. My degrees will not substitute for the 5 years experience all the ads in Kenya ask for. And, I ask again, which university will employ me?
Like it or not, Kenya is part of a global economy: global economies seduce, lure, and entice workers. Nostalgia might feed my writing. It does nothing for my bank balance.
Hmm …
I think we all agree on a few things:
a) Patriotism won’t put food on our tables
b) Building Kenya depends on policy
c) Money talks
Methinks the passion that each voice has portrayed is enough, at the very least, to spark change.
What we must all remember is that Big things very often start small, and, as the Swahili gurus put it, Fimbo ya mbali haiui nyoka (A stick won’t kill a snake if it’s not at hand).
Now, if M will run for office (or advisor’s office), and the KTs send money with specific instructions on spending (of course geared towards capital generation), we will be on course to bring our diasporaing friends back …
Ama aje?
M running for President is laughable! And that has nothing to do with M. Can you imagine, what are his chances? Following that thought, how many hundreds of thousands of people could make a better President/Cabinet/MP’s than the ones we have?
And this is why KT’s should stay where they are, and do what they can. Come back when M is President.
Ah and the debate gets more and more interesting.First of all I would like to clarify one thing that Keguro kinda touched on.Very very very few Kenyans can afford to live in New York (it’s expensive for Americans too;starting price for a good apt is $1million) but I know that you were using NY as an example.KR should know that we KT out here rarely have life as easy as people back home think we do.Life here is expensive and unless you have your papers in order you arent going to get a cushy job that lets you lounge in an apartment.Many Kenyans work 18 hour days so the fact that they can scrimp for something to send home is dedication to Kenya enough as it is when they could just put their noses to the grindstone and forget about Kenya while chasing the American dream.
@ Nick
Yes I agree with you that Kenyans have a knack of politicising every single thing ie who will be the chairman of the estate committee!
As for you being asked what you have done for Kenya lately, we out here are labelled as doing nothing but you may have heard the saying, “don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house”
Me i think if one makes mega bucks and doesn’t mind being 2nd class citizen and is at peace with their conscience while designing prototypes like waithera’s for the g7 countries (or others) while brothers are pushing mkokoteni back home, ah, is ok!-hio ni yao na wachana nao!! i’d understand when they’re miffed to imagine being interred at dusty patchy langata.
but me am peevish when these kind condescendingly rant on about how things are a mess at home as if we cant see for ourselves and in the process not offer probable soln. its as though on flying out, they changed place of birth in their kitambulisho and in their heads too. yaani kweli they cant remember seeing walaka ferrying water with an ass from the river? hai! thought memories were made of these mundane daily activities
but again, me i think different. though i love money, to do the real good gives me a better high,a legal high that is!. i’d get the sweetest kick repairing a bridge at wakor in pokot and enable relief food get to nginyang’ and receive Sh. x rather than design a ninth wonder-a bridge connecting eiffel tower and statue o liberty, say-and gloat as the g7 folks marvel at my miro genius and pay me Sh. 100x.
@M, your blog scintillatingly rocks. had to peer out of the woodworks
Heh heh I BACK!!! Head groupie in the house!!!
@Farmgal
“how can we come back and creat jobs while even the people in kenya cant! (or have tried and failed)”
Not everyone fails. If you paid attention you’d see that there are many who have made a go of it and have succeeded.
For example, you opened a store, right? I’m sure you have fabulous clothes. What makes you think me and KenyanMusings wouldn’t spend all our hardearned mbesha at your store? Did you even consider it.
@KenyanMusings
Do tell the Java story. I’m just miffed that a bunch of Americans had to come and tell us that our coffee is fabulous. It just makes us look like thenges.
@Keguro
I’m willing to bet good money that you would find a job chap chap. You’re like, a genius! Who wouldn’t want to have you? I’ll even put my money where my mouth is. Twende kazi!
@M
Aki this post rocks. Do you know you probably don’t have to blog for a month. This could go on forever!!!
M, i think u’ve hit on a very explosive subject. I agree with you that leaving to go work in another country for better pay under better conditions does not mean ur not patriotic. But coming back to work for crumbs in a dilapidated country does not a patriot make. Kenya needs to do what it takes to attract talent back. Just recognizing the problem won’t overcome it. Talent will only be attracted back if Kenya looks attractive. Thats the reality of the matter.
[...] The topic of returning home is currently popular in the African blogosphere. Here ThinkersRoom writes an imaginery two week visit by a Kenyan to her/his homeland then goes on to discuss how things would change for the better if Kenyans began returning home and contributing to the building of the country” That the post got 73 comments shows how important this issue is to Kenyans and Africans in general. [...]
M.. Glad you are feeling better..
I couldn’t agree with you more on the subject.
We all need to recognize that sending money to Kenya is not building Kenya, that is merely supporting your family.
building a nation requires hands on work and available brains to be used when and if necessary not sending your cucu 20 bucks for a pair of shoes and thinking that the shilling will be stronger against all the other currencies because your cucu has a pair of shoes! come’on people…
Our generation is failing Kenya and unless we do something about it.. well.. … see Kibaki….
and M, next time one of those KT’s attempts to have a conversation with you about the economy of Kenya, you have my permission to smack the dollars out of them and buy rounds at the bar for everyone.. there is no way someone would come from Kenya to the US and talk to me about US economy because i live here, and i see it everyday.. those fools (KT’’s) are no exception they don’t live in Kenya, unless they consider being there for 14days out of 10yrs living there, in which case, i see no future for Kenya.
The president is very much an issue as what you are calling for is Kenyan foreign graduates to return home to ‘build the country’. As LSE alumni, His excellency fits the bill.
You make very negative associations to him. If your heart is in the right place with regards to your plea for graduates to return home to build the country, why all the negativity regarding the governance of an individual who has done just that! What criticisms do you have in reserve for those of us who will follow in his nyayos? And whats with all the reference to fossils. Fresh blood is good but experience is important too. I’ll no doubt have much to learn under the mentorship of experienced Kenyans before my imported degree can uplift our GDP.
Secondly, his hard work isnt hidden. Refer to your local daily for details: http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?premiumid=0&category_id=1&newsid=65166
And for the record, if I was to go by what I read in the economist, newsweek, guardian, BBC online about Kenya, I would think we were on the verge of a civil war as opposed to extolling the emerging security in the CBD.
This is going to come back and bit me in the butt…. to hell with it. You’re absolutely right there is nothing wrong with the raisins in the sun shooting for the stars in whatever planets they may occupy. However, what stopped the KT’s and the KR’s from forming companies, industries, dot coms, cash cows etc. Rome wasn’t built in one day and I think quite a few romans and non romans help build it.
But on the other hand, Kenya just received negative publicity (with no help from the Kenya Airways CEO) for marked tribalism, Option A get a job where your credentials count, or option B, get a job where your tribe counts, woe be to you should the MD’s tribe change.
In summary so far
- Send the money (dollars, pounds liras) if you can, it counts, whatever you do not matter how small COUNTS
- Stop the tired lines explaining why you cannot come back ati there are no jobs, the city is dusty…blah.
- You are to blame for the state the country is in no matter where you are geographically.
-Those statistics about economic development are doctored
-BBC & CNN are not a reliable source of info on what is going on. FYI we are not on the verge of a civil war.
-Waithera and Onyango could come back to head our own NSIS instead of building NASA
- It is not advisable to buy goldfish for your apartment in NY and look at it while thinking about kenya
*tiny weeny question*
Does being in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda count as being in the diaspora? Ama that is just going visiting kwa neighbour?
Definitions
1 Kenya-African country which neighbours Uganda and Tanzania
2. Kenyan- A person who is born in Kenya, acquires citizenship by naturalization et cetera
So when you say that Kenya needs to attract its own; what do yah exactly mean?
Who do you think should attract you and why?
We choose leaders; where are you to be chosen or to choose?
You know M it just occured to me…
a woman needs to run for President in Kenya during next elections.. seeing as men have held the chair since Kenya’s independence and the country has gone from bad to worse,
i think its time we gave a chance to a different species…
don’t y’all think?
Yani I have missed the lighting of the stove, the cooking of the food and the heat na sasa the chakula is cold!! Haiya.
I commend the issues raised, and although I have been a fervent proponent of Kenyans either going back to start business or investing in shares (i.e. helping to create and maintain Kenyans in employment) I find myself feeling kidogo defensive as one in the Diaspora.
The point that M raised – and several others – about how returnees shouldn’t complain about the lack of jobs (is unemployment in Kenya not 40-50% of the adult population?) – is very important. Returnees, with their sterling, euros, dollars, have more capital. Personally, it is only because of being abroad that I can accumulate enough capital to start a business. Had I never left, it would be kitu 20 years before I could start a biashara. Okey, point taken and I agree fully.
However, you talk about Java as a foreign company – why do people go there, instead of Kenyan-owned coffee houses? People run for Calvin Klein and sijui nini, whilst Wonder Wear selling Kenyan clothes goes into liquidation. People scoff in Nandos, whilst Jeevanjee fish & chips lays off workers. Uchumi and Nakumart are stuffed with foreign produce – hata chewing gum na Fairy liquid wata import, leaving akina Panga soap na Unga Foods tremble near bankruptcy. People grab everything and anything labelled “made in [ulaya]. Same thing for music, films, TV progs, basically any commodity you can imagine. Tafadhali tell me how this encourages Kenyan entrepreneur to return with their life savings and start a business.
Mr. John Smith arrives with his khaki safari gear, to set up a business in Nairobi. He is welcomed and fast-tracked as a “foreign investor”. Sisi wananchi encounter bureacracy, ageism, multiple -isms, as if we are trying to fly to the moon.
There is a worshiping of FOREIGN things in Kenya- since Independence hadi leo. I thus find the emphasis on Kenyans in the diaspora returning – as a big solution – to be uncomfortable. Yet again, considering the many unemployed Kenyan graduates in Kenya, the out of work CEOs, etc (hence across the age span), despite the lack of support for Kenyan industry, the solution for Kenya’s economic problems is not with Kenyans in the Diaspora. I disagree with the viewing degrees/experience in the West as better or more valuable.
…and sijawai kusikia any Kenyan abroad bragging ati they are building the economy by sending money.
Another thing … many Kenyans abroad who have “made it” resent the fact that it was only when they were recognised in their fields in the West that Kenyan employers/society turned around and recognised them. I’d imagine Ngugi wa Thiongo is a case in point. Dude was not only jailed but barred from gaining employment in any university. Now that he’s worn awards and been celebrated in the US/Europe, that’s when many of those who ignored/ rejected him, are saying to him ati “come home”.
@ Memoire
I agree with the points you raised, but I beg to differ on a few points … much as we should build Kenya, we must build it with quality, which is what a lot of Kenyan industries lack at the moment.
Picture Uchumi, for example – the supermarket chain did well for a VERY LONG TIME, despite the fact that Nakumatt was making its name, and a good one at that. Then what happened? Their stocking and other things such as keeping items on their shelves dust-free (in some branches) did a nose-dive. I am sure you agree with me that there are numerous examples in every branch of industry that we can mention. However, there are also some indigenous companies that have blossomed, despite being Kenyan, which I believe makes my point a valid one.
Another thing … granted … there is a lot of red-tape in Kenya, but we must agree that a lot of good has been done since 2000 – which gives us reason to be optimistic. The media industry, I think, is a clear indicator of improved policy on establishment of institutions. There have been good radio stations and bad ones … and everyone agrees on that.
I don’t intend to digress, so enough with that.
Kenya’s future is optimistic … so let’s not dwell on the past. Come up with a good idea, talk to people you think can help, take a shot at your idea, and EMPLOY INDIVIDUALS WHO WILL MAKE YOUR IDEA WORK.
Your turn
I, woman ar not a different species…they are the superior of the species.
M, now you know the meaning of ‘the grateful dead’. least they were feeling better than you did!
blog – one of your best so far. Brilliant!
building Kenya has to start with patriotism from that place inside.
What makes you want to be home…always. Not just when things are good.
I believe if you wanted to nothing could take you away from building your country. What about all the idiots who wax eloquent on ‘ back in the States…’
I say its just PAIN DRAIN.
I couldn’t articulate it better – btw this is my first time commenting; very insightful. I live in the US but I get tired of people of quoting statistics of how much they’re running the Kenyan economy.
I think that all these comments can be taken,edited and turned into a part two post.What do you think M et al?
Interesting point of view. I do like the way you brought this out. However there are some considerations to be taken into account:
1. The Wangui, Onyango, Kilimo etc have been accustomed to this way of living for the past 5 – 10 years, it would be rather hard for them to try and adjust their “way of living” just for the sake of coming back and building the country. Though these are the same conditions that they were used to living before, making the adjustment really takes a strong will power.
2. Take current situation, government, econimics, etc when you read “our” Kenyan news, what kind of general feeling do you get? Lets say you’ve been away for 5, 10 years. I can attest to this fact, all you get is this wave of negative feelings that you feel better off staying where you are than come back, after all the challenges that you face are far more greater than those faced by the folks at home.
I am not trying to discredit your contributions though, I think its a wonderful wonderful food for thought that should be taken into account by all our people in the diaspora.
Hi M, please check out standard commentary by Wallace Kantai
http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news_s.php?articleid=35328, okay, here is the link
Cited in Standard! I feel proud.
Wallace Kantai, Lenana School, Class of ‘93
“A fellow named Keguro,” Lenana School, Class of ‘93
Okay, back to serious comments
Well written article; not only very well said, but needed to be said. Kenyamusings, I agree with you completely! As a KT#1, I do not condone any Kenya bashings by anyone who is not making a ‘difference’ or helping the situation in any way. It’s completely useless. Even having studied overseas since high school, I remain very Kenyan in who I am and choose to be. I will always be a foreigner everywhere but in Kenya. Kenyans who’ve decided to settle in the diaspora are in denial about that basic fact. Even in the ‘land of the free’, we’ll never be ‘free’. I am an entrepreneur making American dollars for Kenyan good. This does not entail sending money to ‘my family’; it means creating jobs for Kenyans here and in Kenya as well as finding markets for Kenyan goods/services overseas. As we continue to succeed and stabilize, I plan to move back to Kenya shortly to participate in nation building – which, I believe, cannot be done remotely.
We are all looking for solutions. And as it has been noted by several others, entrepreneurship (private sector) is what will save Kenya. Not the government and its politicians. Talk is just that, TALK – so lets leave it to the experts, our ‘beloved’ politicians. Any work that needs to be done lies in the hands of the citizens – whether we like it or not. All Kenyans (in the diaspora and otherwise) should and MUST participate in developing the country. Kenya has absolutely no excuse for being a ‘Third World’ nation. We should not be starving. Kenya has the most beautiful, brightest, most enterprising and visionary people on the planet. I am yet to meet a Kenyan who is not in love with Kenya and would move back in a heartbeat should circumstances change for the better. Top 3 on all our lists is Security, Infrastructure and Healthcare. But to each their own and to those of us who would do it differently, know that there are leaders and followers. Let each one take their respective places.
Why does it matter so much more that a person leaves Kenya for work in South Africa than that another leaves his village for district across the next, and takes as long to turn back as the one who went to South Africa? Does the mere fact that the one who moves two districts over did not leave the country give him, or her, a moral ground to judge the one in South Africa?
People do not send money home with the sole purpose to build Kenya. They send money to finance projects that they value, including providing for kin. It just happens that many of those projects will be in Kenya, where the individuals have fundamental social attachments and a sense of belongingness or ownership. That leads to my punch line: Kenya grows from what Kenyans do, not because Kenyans are so focused at building Kenya, but because as they build what matters to them, much of which is in Kenya, Kenya invariably grows. No matter what you say here, you do not make your decisions giving any consideration of how those decisions build Kenya. How individuals contribute in building Kenya once they are in foreign lands is influenced most by international policies and Kenya’s domestic policies because then the interplay of those policies factor in the decision-making process. So cut that argument that people cannot build Kenya living in New York apartments (I hope you meant to exaggerate the comfort in which Kenyans leave abroad). For a fact the most profound projects in Kenya are the result of resources sent from foreign institutions with strings attached. This fact tears to the ground your argument that money sent home on voluntary will, with no repayment contracts, can not count as building Kenya.
Another thought, it would be prudent to note that a great number of individuals living abroad are people that were destined for waste in Kenya in the first place, i.e. people who, in spite of obtaining university degrees and other sophisticated training, were on the streets daily for years trying their lack in the offices. For many of them that lack came in the form of an opportunity outside Kenya. For such people, with all due respect, it is not only the dime they send home that counts as input in building Kenya, but their mere personal reclamation into valuable members of society rather than the destitute hoard that a disorderly economic system was bound to make them also is! For every Waithera out somewhere, there are a number of others that would have been vagabonds if they never found their places abroad.
How unpatriotic do you consider the foreign nationals you see in Kenya? As long as you are open to the idea that man has legs and mind so as not to be sedentary, you must be open-minded enough to remove all geographical bounds from the concept that defines the state of being true Kenyan, or even a Kenyan patriot. If the moon becomes habitable there will be individuals willing to pack and go, and I doubt their love for earth has anything to do with that willingness.
Would not claim to be one of the KT’s you refer to. I love the motherland , the only thing that bothers me is everytime we take a step forward in the great race to a higher civilisation as a nation we seem to go two back.
It stinks of a sisyphianism to come back home and build the nation with our hard earned intellectual capital ,which would not receive adequate compensation. My point is that patriotism or no , monies sent back home to allow for sustenance and or capital creation provide which provide a necessary balance between personal enhancement and national development.
With all due respect to the opinions expressed, the bottom line is that we all have a duty to do what we can to better ourselves (spiritually, mentally and physically), our families and our communities. To do less than that, defeats our purpose on earth. There is nothing to defend, only work to be done. Don’t just talk about it, BE about it.
Ngai baba! Look what you started M!
See M. I think that by having a reductionist approach to the issue where it becomes a dichotomous either/ or scenario, then we risk not gitching what is actually a more complex and nuanced situation as “KT-ing” and “nation building” are not mutually exclusive.
That said, I concur with the points that you made about not using the excuse of ‘not enough jobs’ to justify not coming back to Kenya. I mean, no-one owes me anything. If I want to work in IT managed zero-grazing for iPod listening zebus (or just start a battery factory and export AA bats to Uganda), I’ll just have to do it the old fashioned way and roll up my sleeves and deal with KPLC, thika Municipal Council and ‘dem – just like everyone else.
I also disagree with the notion that even if my primary residence is not Kenya, I know zilch and should not comment (and match this with action on a diaspora-level!) on the politics of Kenya- such as they are. ‘Cause by using that logic of :
IF not in the sitation, THEN you don’t know AND you aren’t qualified to make an informed analysis on the sitation
This would mean that 76% of Kenyans cannot comment on the Marsabit massacre; Mtongwe ferry disaster and [insert localised event that you witnessed first hand].
That said, it’s also true that while it’s easy to pontificate on “how things should be” it’s harder to act on “this is how I’m gonna make things be”.
And that is a point well taken by this KT.
Okay, I’ve scratched my head to the point of baldness because this is an almost unanswerable question. If I agree with you M, I shoot myself in the foot. If I don’t then I hear myself being defensive. If I do both, then I’m sitting on the fence. There’s no way out.
Okay, cards on the table:
1. Yes, I suppose I am “diasporic” although for some reason it was really startling to think of myself in this way
2. Yes, I have a very high level of education and specific skill set
3. Yes, I earn a respectable income
BUT
1. I have to agree with Keguro–that KT you mentioned doesn’t sound familiar to me. This is not what I do when I come home. I try to work–and it is very difficult. I have vast networks of friends and associates who are Kenyan, live at home or abroad, and all of us are trying our best, in our considered ways, to work for positive change. So I humbly beg to differ–I may not be building the country (but what does that mean?), but I would suggest that I am doing at least as much as you are to remove the obstacles that prohibit the various energies of Kenyans (wherever they are) from being used to their full effectiveness in Kenya’s favour.
2. Okay, some Kenyans abroad are probably very well qualified and all, but you make a quantitative and not qualitative argument when you want us to throng back to “build” the country because
by what compass of arrogance do we assume that we, the glorious super-heroes of Kenya, can leap over tall buildings in a single bound and come home to teach you local ignoramuses the REAL way to do things.
Does this not assume that all of you at home have been sitting around examining your navels intensely and for recreation picking lice out of each other’s hair? I do not for one minute believe that there is something I know how to do better than at least four colleagues at home right now whom I know personally, and who are right now in the process of proving me right. They make a tenth of what I do, some of them don’t even have offices, they are worked nearly to death and in the end, are exploited, insulted and underappreciated. So what exactly is it that we abroad “geniuses” are going to contribute to the “building” of the country except a worse housing shortage and higher unemployment rates? Not to mention exponentially raising the incomes of customs officials as we are compelled to try to bribe our way back into our own country with our belongings intact?
3. The argument about sending money home has been raked over so many times that I have nothing further to add, except that while it may not “build” Kenya, I know for a fact that mine builds “Kenyans”–specific ones, who get to go to school and buy medicine and eat. And if they are healthier and better educated for it–that seems to me to be more meaningful than for me to come home and join them in their misery.
4. I’d really like to understand what all this “building” means: even if thousands of us come home today, do you think that some magical doors will open to our shouts of Open Sesame, so that we can immediately take over road construction, hospital administration, policy formulation and etc.? Puhleeze. If those of you at home, who are just as capable but have the advantages of knowing how to get things done from long familiarity if nothing else, cannot do it, then why on earth hang the responsibility on us?
If your excuse is you don’t know how to get things done I suggest you find an alternate one because that particular one no longer washes. As an academic it’s a fallacy, an oxymoron, and an irony for you to use ‘I don’t know how to’ as an argument!
5. We can’t even use all the talent that we DO have. We kill, or chase away, those who try to make a difference (and oh, by the way, where are all those marvellous residents when our local heroes are being persecuted?) Munyakei, anyone? Yes, I have a bee in my bonnet about him, it is true. And Githongo is not, really, the disappointment of the year, M. He left because a) he was not allowed to do the job that he had been told to do and as a result of his trying b) people were threatening to very immediately assist him in shuffling off his mortal coil. Under that sort of inducement, I would have walked to England, forget waiting for the plane.
6. I apologize for blogging on your blog, but you make a strawman out of us when you think that all we do is come home to party and to criticize (or over-enthuse, whichever is more pernicious). There’s more than one way to foil a government, make some change, care about home. We don’t have to do it your way to be doing it right. On the other hand, we don’t have to justify ourselves to be doing it at all. Again, apologies, man–went on for too long, kama kawaida.
I started to read the comments but I got tired and pissed off coz of all the cop outs here. Ati ninety something comments?! I’ll finish reading them later..:-)
Let me start by saying I’m a KT. So I’m also talking to myself here..:-) And I’ll most likely be all over the place so bear with me.
M, you and I know that most of these KTs consoling themselves that sending some money home is building the country are full of shit right? Why are you being nice to them? Tell them reread your post and then comment. M is not saying that you should blindly just go home after finishing school. That would be damn and wont help the country anyway coz you have no work experience.
What he is saying is after kedo 5-10yrs experience, start thinking of going home to help build our country. Start applying for jobs and don’t give up and say that there are no jobs just because the 1,2 times you applied u didn’t get the job. Try again and again. Why are we always waiting for other pple to do ‘it’. If not you and me who will?
There are many kenyan doctors, pharmacists, civil engineers, lawyers, architects, researchers, professors, etc here with so much experience that i bet u if they were to apply for a jobo back home they’d most certainly be hired.
M has said it over and over that what he is talking about is some serious dvpt of the country in terms of infrastructre……let me copy and paste what he said for those choosing to miss his point:
“I’m not sure we’re arguing on the same page. My arguments are for building the country, not just the economy. I’m talking in terms of infrastructure. Roads, bridges, buildings, telecommunications. I’m talking about disaster preparedness and management. I’m talking about medicare and education. Contrary to popular belief, money is not the panacea for everything. People need to actually work”
So, eh, how is that $100-a grand you are sending going to do this? That red only helps ur immediate family. Which is a good thing…don’t get me wrong. They most certainly need our help. But,he is talking about building the country as a whole.
I could be wrong, but si right now kplc wants to get the canadians or sijui italians to help them ‘manage’ their company or some shit like that? Why can’t this contract be given to kenyans…I’m sure there some out here or in kenya already who can do this job as well as the westerners can but since we don’t make ourselves and our qualifications known they’ll go looking for total foreigners to do it. And anyway we all know on the other hand how those old fossils think that coz ur young you are not qualified. When are they ever going to learn?
We need to think about our kids. Do we really want them to grow up here. Deep down we know this stato is not the place to raise a kid. They become spoilt brats because they can get away with alot of shit. We have to start to prepare our country now for our kids and their kids. We can’t educate them and then have them work to build other peoples countries! Aish how long should this go on for?
Actually another thing is, those of us out here should not be relying on getting hired at home anyway. We have the ability to save enough to go start a business, be consultants etc. Don’t say u cant be able to save enough to be able to do that coz u got bills, who doesn’t?! **I’m not taking about students here…u guys concentrate on ur studies for now**
Get a part time job if u work 9-5. There are many part time jobs out here. That will enable u to save. Don’t drive a lexus, get a toyota…trust me its the same car, you are just paying for the name…sorry hehehe. Telling the peeps at home ati they should be the ones starting the businesses is a tad shallow. It’s not as easy for them to get capital. Besides so many are trying anyway. Imagine what u can do if u started saving all the money from that ka part time job right now?
Saying that some people have tried and failed to set up a business and so it’s going to be hard for you is pure bull shit! You will not get very far in life with that kind of mentality. Why don’t you find out why that person failed in that business and learn from it. Some of them prolly didn’t have enough capital. Maybe they didn’t have a good business plan, maybe they got robbed/conned etc. We learn from our mistakes and those of others. Do some homework, I think it’s commonsense to do some research before starting a business. Don’t look at others failures and think you’ll fail too.
Dude you hit the nail on the head and some of us are trying to console ourselves coz we know we should be back home.
Ai, a KT asked Nick, a KR what he’s doing to help build the country or something like that?! Pole, that was below the belt. Ouch I feel ur pain my guy.
Hmmm. Not sure if I’m a KT or KR, but anyway, great article. You know you’ve touched on some of those things that no one in our community really wants to talk about deeply.