I am not disparaging black Africans but…………

Last night I was reading articles on the Singapore’s economic miracle and the genius behind the almost magical economic transformation in that country. Look: after independence from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore was nothing more than a hopeless backwater with a miserable GDP(per capital) of roughly $500. With no any enviable natural resources, today the city-country has a GDP of $467 billion and, as everyone knows, it is one of the most developed, least corrupt and safest countries in the world.

I don’t want to say much and don’t get me wrong but I couldn’t avoid asking myself this question: If that tiny island was occupied by blacks and if the first prime minister was black, would it be where it is today???

Call me a self loathing black African but I must say that when it comes to matters economics and governance, we blacks simply don’t have it……yes, that’s the bitter truth.

Tell me: out of all these tens of African countries that a few decades ago were agitating for ‘independence’ how comes no single African country managed to stage even a ‘mini’ economic miracle???. Don’t talk about SA because it is whites who made it what it is today though the black man there is busy destroying the gains.

How comes many African countries have never after all those years managed to solve simple problems like drought? Or even provide adequate health care???

Seriously, we black Africans don’t have the right mental attitude to handle some of these things.

Just imagine if Singaporeans and their first prime minister were domiciled in DRC with all of its minerals??? I solemnly tell you that today DRC would be 3 times bigger(economy-wise) than Germany. It’d be playing in the same league with the mighty USA.

Say what you want but I think Asians have far much better ethics than blacks. It hurts but it’s the bitter truth.

Again, although I am black I must concede that Asians are far more intellectually gifted than blacks.

I leave it at that…….

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Because unfortunately Africa is full of semi illiterates such as @uwesmake. Before you understand the science behind building a bridge you have to be able to do some mathematics. You cant do mathematics if you’re are intellectually lazy

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I failed to add this. Until recently, the only ‘assets’ that Kenya could brag about were coffee, tea and tourism. This is where the entire BS is. These, for heaven’s sake, are natural resources that had absolutely nothing to do with the erroneous and mythical ‘hard work ethics’ of Kenyans peddled around by cosmetic romanticists. If you are given a piece of land full of mango trees, don’t brag to the world how you’ve worked hard to become a mango farmer.

I am saying this because we like bragging about our supposedly magical wildlife(which we all busy decimating). Nothing wrong with that except that I cannot brag about having hair on my head; if it were possible, it is nature that’s supposed to brag for giving me hair. But I can brag about my 100k suit because I worked hard to have it. I invented and sold stuff to have it. I hope you are all getting my drift. We absolutely have very little to show to the world after 50 years of this thing called ‘independence’

Today, if you give the wasteland that is Northern Kenya to Singaporeans, in 20 years, you will find cities bigger than Nairobi in that wasteland or green farms that would feed the whole of Africa.

And, for those who think Mpesa is a Kenyan invention, you are wrong……terribly wrong.

So if nature never gave us wildlife, coffee and tea, where would we be???

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Its been said before but tribalism just destroys Africans as a people. It somehow renders us incapable of seeing the bigger picture and narrows our view to taking care of me and mine. We spend so much time trying to get as much as we can before the next guy comes and takes it we lose sight of the fact that, if we all cooperate, we all get to eat. This simple concept works very well on a small scale (read saccos) but multiply that by return 1000 and suddenly all logic goes out the window.

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Yes u r right their economy is much better thsan ours even though they started worse off but dont forget this is by western measures…yes our hospitals are ill equipped our traffic chaotic our economy highly inflated etc but we have more freedom than most citizens of those better off countries…few of you do 12hr shifts just pay taxes,rent and put food on your tables,most of us can have as many children and afford it comfortably…few of us are ever on time for anything,most of us party and relax evry weekend, our cultures are more relaxed on matters of money and yes work ethics so we have more time to spend with our families and friends…

I fully agree. Our neighbour is now insolvent despite huge reserves of oil!!!

Karl Marx.
Africa never received a Marshall Plan that bailed out most of the world regions after world war 2.
Japan which was leveled to the ground got a lot of help to build a car industry that propelled it to amazing wealth.
Instead, Africans got “Economic Hitmen” and saboteurs.
Karl you seem well read so I don’t need to remind you the havoc that the horrific SAP (structural adjustment programmes) by the Worldbank & IMF duo caused African budding economies.
You know what they did to African leaders who aimed to help Africa. Sankara, Lumumba were sent to Nyasae. Economic saboteurs such as Mobutu, who literally stole 90% of the wealth of Zaire, was a darling of the West. He had/has mansions in France.The Cameroon president Paul Biya enjoys tremendous support by France. Cameroon is a basket case.

This is what I know. Yes we Africansare to blame for the problems we find ourselves in. But we shouldn’t take the whole blame. The wealth that built Europe came from the blood, sweat n tears of Africans. You’ll notice that when Chinaman came to Africa in the early 2000’s looking to do trade, all Western media were quick to say Chinaman is out to recolonise Africa.
To this day African natural resources end up in the West and Africans receive nothing on return.

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…will cut and burn charcoal…earn some chillings…buy my friends a drink-o…

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living with nature like we were before the stupid mzungus came to interfere with our lives…

…and most recently Gaddafi, killed in a culvert like a “rapid” dog…

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Last I heard California and Australia still have drought as a recurrent problem…perhaps it’s time we started exporting some of those famed Western Kenya rainmakers to these lands to bring back some megabucks…

Haha, it’s high time rainmaking as a subject is introduced in the school curriculum.

You mean UG is insolvent? Wacha hekaya

Poor leadership, Institutional failure, politics of patronage, corruption, wastage etc are our problems

I think the education system is also a catalyst for poverty. We borrowed most of the content and pedagogy from our former colonizers yet it didn’t suit us at the time. Even now all kids do is rote learning - they learn stuff they never try to build, principles they never apply because all we care about is impracticable competition. You get an A but have nothing in the brain. Now compare our education system with that of Singapore and Japan and see for yourself.
The egomaniacal culture we like to praise has also been detrimental. If a leader embezzles millions he/she is a hero(mnoma kuruka) and these are the role models almost everyone wants to emulate. Even after stealing all those funds, the thieves invent nothing, it’s for luxurious gratification. We want goodies without any positive change in attitude or effort. Hence we cripple our own economy.
We spend time clamouring for proper use of our natural resources yet we do nothing to those ‘elites’ who defile our nation. We know all these but we sit back and relax because it’s our norm to watch. We should get awakened by our own selves.

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true, even the little manufacturing industry that we got here is completely under the control of Asians,siasa mbaya maisha mbaya former commander in chief of tribalism once said

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Reminds me of this:

http://www.wazua.co.ke/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=32045&p=1

My two cents, I guess we have ourselves to blame for the mess and slow growth that is in Kenya. Our leaders always have great vision for the country and somewhere along the way they change their priorities. We get inexperienced senior citizens who have been there since independence running the show with nothing to show for it. Every other leader is there for his or her own stomach and never minding about the population at large and any development agenda to raise the living standard of the citizen. Like it is a country of few millionaires and a million paupers

Compare Singapore to Kenya

Size of Singapore 716 square kilometers, Size of Kenya 582, 650 square kilometers. Population of Singapore 5 million people, Kenya’s population 44 million

Its easier to cater for 5 million people as compared to 44 million

This old excuse of blaming colonialists is tired & lame. In as much foreigners are busy meddling in our affairs it is ourselves who in the end give them the keys to the vault. It’s not the foreigners that are killing the elephants n rhinos in our parks. It’s not foreigners that r cutting down the trees in our forests exposing us to a future of drought n hunger therefore dependent on food from foreign nations.

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