Just 11 days ago the garbage collector from Pittsburgh posted this thread :
https://www.kenyatalk.com/index.php?threads/the-wind-is-blowing-south.106697/
And in that thread I argued as I often do that we don’t need FOREIGN INVESTORS to design, finance and build projects for us.
Lets say Kenya needs a new super highway from Mombasa to Kisumu. In an OPEN, democratic society the elected leader holds a competition where the citizens and anyone who feels like pitches ideas and drawings for a new road!!
And you will get so many responses utashangaa.
Not some crude designs, hurriedly cobbled together in Beijing or Washington by Bechtel or CCCC then presented in PDF format in TOP SECRET fashion in documents that no one will ever see… and in that PDF the thugs eat 20 or 30 billion shillings… and within months the project that no one knows begins…
NO! NO! NO!
In an OPEN society the leader encourages public participation. You draw the road. The winner is selected and given a small prize, the budget is drawn up, OPENLY and if need be people even contribute towards the cause.
And the contract is not hidden by the President in a safe somewhere. And when journalists ask, wanadanganywa ati watapewa siku moja. The whole process is very open.
And because the citizens know the importance of the road, they will chip in ushangae. You will get Kenyan engineers from abroad giving free advice. Mtapewa free tractors and equipment hadi mshindwe kwa kuziweka. You will not even need a loan from China Exim bank or U.S. Exim bank.
Even the labour iko papo hapo Kenya. Watajitolea ushangae. From raiya, to the army corp to NYS… labour force ni kubwa sana. Hitler evil as he was, rebuilt Germany in a few years because he inspired his fellow Aryans to do it.
The same in the 1930s U.S. , Fidel’s Cuba… as well as Jomo in the 1960s. Jomo built Kenya on the Harambee Spirit. There was no money but people needed classrooms and roads. And the people stood behind him. And those schools and churches and roads are still there today. Of course after he tasted money and the good life and shambas…
This is what I’m talking about :