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• October 06, 2009
• 17:17

  Is Democracy slowing down Africa’s Growth?

   » ‎ johnkaranja.com
  

  Will we see red?

  Hey Guys,

  I have been dwelling on the impressive Economic growth of China over the last 30 years. The country’s policy is not decided by a notorius parliament or president (Democracy) but by a commitee of leaders of the Chinese Communist party.

  There may not be democratic freedoms like those we find in Kenya but the country is developing at a rapid rate so much so that European countries have been forced to form the European Union to stand a chance against the Chinese Industrial Machine.

  In 20 years time the Chinese Military, Space Program will be at par with the Americans. In 30 years time they will have replaced the United States as the world super power together with India joining by 2050.

  The West has been forcing democracy down Africans throats by using Development Aid as bait. The result has been Ethnic conflicts around  the continent with different Ethnic groups fighting for the famed National Cake.

  Africa has lost many years with this model (Democracy and Multi Party tribal nonsense) and it is only until the Chinese began buying concessions for raw materials, oil et al in exchange for building roads,ports and stadiums has made Africa’s economy begin to expand rapidly as well.

  If you think about it Western AID has largely been about expenditure i.e. giving money for government run programs like education and health etc. In exchange African countries are forced to open up their markets to Western goods and even most projects which are Western funded force the Governments to hire Western Experts and pay them at Western rates. Therefore the Africans accrue debts while Aid destroys our own industry and make us dependents for life akin to the intravenous drug user who requires a regular fix.

  Its only till China came into Africa and gave it a fairer(there are still some issues) deal for its resources is when Western development agencies are trying to scramble some visible development projects. Otherwise its been 60 years of hard exploitation that we must learn from.

  Reports in the Financial Times show that Kenya’s government is in talks with Beijing over development of a multi-billion dollar port and transport corridor that could provide a new export route for Chinese oil in southern Sudan.

  The cash-strapped Kenyan government opened negotiations with Qatar over a potential $3.5bn investment in the port project late last year in return for a lease on 40,000 hectares of land to grow crops. But no deal was struck and Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, indicated to the Financial Times that he now viewed China as better suited to the project.

  “The Chinese offer the full package,” he said, referring to the combination of financing and technical expertise that state-backed Chinese banks and construction companies have rolled out across Africa.

  A Kenyan delegation led by Mr Odinga flew to China late on Wednesday for talks on the project involving the construction of a port in the popular tourist area of Lamu, and road and rail links to Kenya’s borders with Ethiopia and southern Sudan.

  Kenya’s government is in talks with Beijing over development of a multi-billion dollar port and transport corridor that could provide a new export route for Chinese oil in southern Sudan. The cash-strapped Kenyan government opened negotiations with Qatar over a potential $3.5bn investment in the port project late last year in return for a lease on 40,000 hectares of land to grow crops. But no deal was struck and Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, indicated to the Financial Times that he now viewed China as better suited to the project.

  This shows that Kenya and other African countries have finally learnt the art of engagement and playing to powers (West and East) against each other which truthfully has been Africa’s problem a failure to learn how to liberate itself economically and safe guard our interests.

  In conclusion perhaps we should review this democratic system and replace it with a Council of Elders with Chief Elder as Boss. This is what China has done in a nutshell. I am sure a framework can be worked out around using the different African head of states to form a governing council at the top. Democracy should not precede POLICY. It is not the end but the means to the end.

  If you think this is a joke just look at the Military display China put up for the world during its 30 years of COMMITEE rule. The sleeping giant has awoken from her slumber.

  P.S. The video is in Chinese which is good considering we may very soon start speaking that Language.

  Discuss?

  VIDEOS

  You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

  

• 17:00

  Hague Express: Heat is on, Goalposts Shifting

   » ‎ You Missed This
  Parliament has been reigning supreme. They demanded Ringera's head and they got the Judge's scalp. MPs demanded The Hague. They reminded all and sundry not to be vague but instead choose The Hague. Well, prayer answered and so Hague here we come. But not just yet, we will board that jalopy to Netherlands at our own pace.
  
  Obama can eat his heart and take care not to suffer constipation. Hit kite won’t fly and the balloon sent to us in the name of Kofi Annan is at the mercy of our sharp pins. It is such a huge shame for a whoole ex-UN boss to shamelessly stoop so low to an extent of criticizing our president on his EXECUTIVE appointments.
  
  It is the height of pettiness for Annan to globalize our tribal governance. He needs to understand that Kenya is for Kenyans and only we can change at our own pace. The impressive report of 90% pass warrants appreciation. The accelerated judicial reforms will render Luis Moreno-Ocampo jobless and all his hitherto bravado will be irrelevant at best and hot air at worst.
  
  Kofi Annan must have met a very different Martha Karua from the one he dealt with just a year ago. He can as well use that single sample to generalize our collective national propensity to deceit. The boot is in the other boot which reminds you of yesterday reform champions turned present day masters of impunity - it is our time to eat.
  
  We are so dynamic as a country we change the goalposts as appropriate. Those who have been shouting themselves hoarse about The Hague are now staring the real prospect of joining Charles Taylor sooner than they imagined.
  
  One wonders who the members of this so-called international community are. That red herring can paint itself all the rainbow colours but remain rest assured that Kenya will not give an inch, not even with Michael Renneberger’s loudmouthed gimmicks.
  
  Babysitting octogenarians
  We are so unique and enterprising as a country so much so that we can have IDPs parking four wheel SUVs outside their tents. To us every calamity is an opportunity and we need no MBA from Harvard to exploit an opportunity when we see one.
  
  Our country remains an island of peace in a sea of chaos and those who think otherwise are living in DENIAL PARADISE. Nothing exemplifies our fledging democracy than the fractious coalition trading accusations. Who said the Permanent Committee on the Management of the Grand Coalition cannot reconvene after the Kilaguni fiasco?
  
  Annan came and he will soon leave after the four-day holiday. Ocampo will follow and he too will leave. Meanwhile Kenya remains where they found it. We embarked on project Armageddon in 2007 which must be completed in 2012. We need total extermination so that Kenya can regenerate a fresh.
  
  All other efforts amount to nothing but ego expansion gimmicks. Annan can not re-invent the wheel neither can he go against established natural order by attempting to babysit octogenarians.
  
  Put simple, nobody is going to The Hague anytime soon. Let Annan ask Omar El Bashir.Kumekucha

  
  

  

• 9:23

  ‘Mo Faya’ The Musical - A Review of the Show at the New York Musical Theatre Festival

   » ‎ Kenyanpoet
  Reviewed by Margaretta wa Gacheru
  
  “They call it a slum. We call it home.”
  [The slogan on the back of each miniature Kenyan flag placed on every single seat of the TRG Theater in Manhattan before all six shows staged during the New York Musical Festival]
  
  Mo Faya is a Kenyan masterpiece and Eric Wainaina-- the show’s composer, lyricist, script writer and delectable DJ Luanda around whom the show’s storyline revolves-- is a genius.
  
  But then, one more mark of genius is knowing how to surround yourself with brilliant partners, and Wainaina has done just that: first by making his mate Sheba Hirst the show’s producer and John Sibi-Okumu his super-fine director, and then assembling an incredible cast, including award-winning actors and singers like Peter King and Mumbi Kaigwa, Dan ‘Chizi’ Aceda and Valerie Kimani, as well as a marvelous Kenyan band that features Marvin Maveke, Emmanuel Mkuwa, Isaac Mugunda and Patrick Nanjero.
  
  It didn’t hurt that Wainaina also got Safaricom to sponsor the full cast, band and crew’s going to the New York Musical Festival where Mo Faya opened in its world premier September 29 and ran six times in a global showcase that features a score of original world class new productions, most of which came from the US, but at least three came from the South: from Kenya, South Korea and Mexico! Mo Faya will also give one final American performance organized at Bard College by Binyavanga Wainaina, before the cast comes back to Kenya to open in this not-to-be-missed musical production at the GoDown for several shows.
  
  Set in the “slum” shanty town of Kwa Maji, the stars of Mo Faya are all slum dwellers, apart from villainess Anna Mali (Mumbi Kaigwa) whose NGO, called C.U.R.E, aims at the kind of “urban renewal” that Kenyans have seen when local slums have gone up in smoke and sites like Muroto have been razed to make way for sky-scrapers and high rises where poor people won’t be welcomed at all.
  
  Writing in the same satirical vein as a Wahome Mutahi or a Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who both used humour, irony and satire to expose the corruption and contradictions in Kenyan society today, Wainaina similarly doesn’t shy away from talking about hot topics, like land grabbing, lust and dirty linkages between corrupt politicians, cops and even members of the non-governmental community.
  
  Yet the show doesn’t just focus on corruption [although as an expose of the inner workings of Kenya’s corrupt power elite, Mo Faya may make some local politicians feel quite uncomfortable.] On the contrary, the star of the show in a sense is ‘the slum’ Kwa Maji itself – and the everyday lives of the people who reside therein.
  
  Capturing the creativity, dynamism and vitality of those poor people’s lives through pop music [including reggae and Kenyanized hip hop] and well choreographed dance, Mo Faya shows the centrality of local FM radio in the lives of people who may not afford dish satellite or downtown cinema shows, but who love to laugh and be entertained artistically nonetheless.
  
  Yet the exploitative spirit of both governmental and non-governmental politicians is never far from the lead storyline, since even the beautiful sense of community that these poor people share is corruptible in the scheming land-grabber’s mind. In fact, when the self-proclaimed “Total Woman” Anna Mali aims to destroy the people’s sense of solidarity prior to her pushing them off the land they call home, she goes after the people’s hero, DJ Luanda.
  
  
  Tempting him to leave community radio for “Big City radio” with its fatter salary and higher public profile, DJ Luanda sadly takes the bait. But his departure signals a weakening of the people’s sense of social cohesion and solidarity, something Luanda has previously embodied for them.
  
  Anna Mali’s partner in crime, the mungiki-like-monster Mkwajo [played masterly by Peter King], proceeds to sow the seeds of terror in Kwa Maji with a slew of mysterious murders, all part of Mali’s malevolent master plan to make over the slum into an up-market income generator for her and her corrupt colleagues, including the police chief (Joshua Mwai) and the politician (Daniel Mwashigadi).
  
  I won’t tell you how the story ends since Kenyans will have to see the show for themselves, and I won’t be the spoiler who gives the ending away. But I will say the script is brilliant and the casting superb.
  
  One genuine stroke of genius that I credit Wainaina with is the ensemble nature of this show. It’s as if his cast were a jazz band, wherein every instrument, every cast member, has his or her moment to showcase her/his talent, be it as a dancer, a singer, and more often than not, as both!!
  
  Sibi-Okumu undoubtedly had something to do with enhancing the ensemble-aspect of the show, since he worked hand in hand with Wainaina and the cast for weeks before heading to New York, honing the script down to a manageable size and form. And as for the cast, I can’t speak about every single member although everyone, especially Valerie Kimani, DJ Luanda’s sweetheart, has an especially important role to play in this multi-layered modern day morality musical. The other cast member who holds the show together with finesse, charm and style is the Professor, played by Dan ‘Chizi’ Aceda, since he not only takes the time at the outset of the show to artfully introduce every Kwa Maji community member; he also steps in at pivotal moments to provide the continuity required, especially for audiences who may not speak Kiswahili, meanwhile about a third of the show is conveyed in it
  
  Relying on a minimalist set design and ordinary street clothes and kitengis for costumes, it is the music of Mo Faya that makes the show so distinctively Kenyan [the music and of course, the dancing that goes so rhythmically with it]. For however much critics may claim that Kenyan music is ersatz African American, Wainaina proves that Kenyan culture and creativity is no copy cat.
  
  The show makes a powerful statement about the ills Kenyan society faces. But it also reveals the rich resiliency and resourcefulness of the people. What Wainaina didn’t provide was a solution to Kenya’s political plight and moral malaise. But his ending is provocative and somehow hopeful.
  
  What is most marvelous about this show is that Kenyans will have an opportunity to see Mo Faya themselves when it returns home and premiers in November on the Kenyan stage.
  
  For more details on the New York Musical Theater Festival, visit www.nymf.org.

• 8:10

  I'm not much of a fashionisto but all I want for...

   » ‎ Mo-Mo Baggins
  I'm not much of a fashionisto but all I want for...

• 7:53

  Talking About Guns in New York

   » ‎ What An African Woman Thinks
  So this slackvitist has rocked off her chair, donned her bright red bata moccasins and made the trek across seven time zones to New York to participate in a series of events around the Arms Trade Treaty negotiations beginning at the UN this week.
  
  It’s about time and whatnot.
  
  In December 2006, an NGO-led movement that began agitating in the 1990s for a treaty to regulate the global arms trade based on universal principles scored a significant victory when the UN General Assembly voted by an overwhelming majority for negotiations to begin on what would be a legally binding universal Arms Trade Treaty.
  
  Fast forward to this, the week when the negotiations begin.
  
  The devil, as we well know, often crashes the party late, making a grand entrance just when the details are being served up.
  
  This is what I have come to see and hear, ever so briefly, firsthand.
  
  I’m very curious to witness, up-close, what major interest clusters have formed or will emerge to coalesce around which different positions and why. And to learn a little more about who’s got their foot on the accelerator and who’s got their foot on the brake and who will bring more pressure to bear to win the day.
  
  As usual, I make a commitment to listen and engage with all sides of the debate, but I make no claims of neutrality on this issue.
  
  States may have the right to produce or procure arms for self-defence and law enforcement but with that right comes the responsibility of ensuring that those arms do not slip out of the legitimate channels of distribution and cross porous borders so that the next thing you know there’s a story on my national television about heavily armed cattle rustlers in northern Kenya making away with thousands of heads of cattle, leaving a trail of death and destruction of livelihoods in their gun totting wake and; there are scores of teenagers wielding deadly weapons running around Nairobi in gangs, wreaking terror on our night life.
  
  Yes, what the raingods conjure up in these lofty parts rains down in torrents where I live. Often with devastating effects.
  
  This then, is personal. (As are most things, in the end.)
  
  So, here I am, to listen and to learn, to ask and to blog.
  
  Let the negotiations begin.It's my window, but I don't own the view.

• 7:23

  She’s also in the works

   » ‎ Media Madness
  Capital is also courting Cess Mutungi to come back!! I have a feeling they’re trying to bring back the success they had in 2004-2006 and those boys on the Jam need to start sending our CV’s

• 2:27

  Olympia Capital 2009 AGM

   » ‎ bankelele

  Tags:  NSE investments  

  Olympia Capital 2009 AGM

• 1:23

  WHY I BLOG ABOUT INVESTMENTS

   » ‎ Kenyantykoon's Blog
  There is a saying that ignorance is bliss. This is true but only for a while. It may be bliss not to know that a catastrophe is coming because one does not have to take precautionary measures and better still one does not have to lose precious sleep worrying about the consequences of the imminent [...]

• 0:10

  It’s not true! Period!

   » ‎ Media Madness
  I knew people were obsessed with Peninah Karibe but not to this level!! The Nairobi rumour mill is at it again! This time people claim there’s a ‘movie’ out there with Peninah doing some naughty things! Well let me burst your bubble it’s all LIES!!! People have been writing in and asking about it and [...]