[kictanet] Vision 2030: ICT and Other Sectors Converged (Day 3)

Fri Dec 30 18:51:57 EAT 2011

> Dr. Ndemo, if you may some commentary under your submission.....also from my iPhone so please pardon any errors.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Dec 30, 2011, at 6:12, bitange at jambo.co.ke wrote:
> 
>> From the Blackberry (forgive unintended mistakes).
>> 
>> Grace,
>> Allow me to wish everybody a prosperous 2012.  
> I join myself to this wish and extend it beyond the wish that in 2012 we would rise up and DO the things we have been discussing and planning in this forum.
> 
>> My year did not end well having lost a dear friend and mentor, Prof. Donald Woods.  
> You have my condolences and let Prof. Woods rest in the assurance that those of us they have handed the baton to would build on their works and do greater works.  
> 
>> I have followed the debate but I must say here that I was rather disappointed.
> Me too but at least there is discussion and hope that we can move in the cause towards DOING.
> 
>> 
>> Mugo is one of the most accomplished Kenyan having risen to the pinnacle of both Private and Public sectors in Kenya.  I got the feeling that we treated him with kid gloves.  I did not see any question with respect to our expectation of the public in achieving the vision.  Let me elaborate what has happened in developed countries' guiding policies.
>> 
>> Adam Smith thought that politics and the economics are two different activities.  That economic activity happens whether you like it or not.  That is how he came up with his "invincible hand" (you cannot quite see what guides business in a capitalist society) these thoughts guided especially the Western world between 1776 and 1920.  There were many variants of this thinking.  That is how Marx thought it cannot survive.  And indeed it formented bad things such as slavery and extreme poverty.
>> 
>> The separation of economics and politics ended with British economist, Kynes introduction of new thinking leaning more to social democracy arguing that the role of government was to manage the economy.  That is how government intervention in business activity was introduced.  Mainly the role of government here was to make laws of market economics and let the citizen do their thing. This thinking thrived for 40 years and led to great success when new thinking close to Adam Smith's emerged.
>> 
>> Milton Friedman assisted by politicians Thatcher and Reagan.  Instead of treating economics as a branch of politics they went the opposite and treated politics as a branch of economics.  Deregulation set in and massive unemployment crept in.  Enterprises made money and greed of couse set in.  
> Unfortunately this is where I would have to stop you.....Greed has been around for the longest time, even before Adam Smith and has been responsible for the failure of all the economic theories you have outlined above. Am not saying there is anything wrong with greed but when greed is not "regulated" it makes a mockery of the best systems ever invented, please help me in studying global and economic history and before long it would clear. 
> 
>> That is how the whole thing came crashing in 2009 and the rise of civil society's demand to occupy Wall Street.
> Same way it crushed before, again and again so as a member of the human race, my advise is, let's watch this guy called greed and "contain" it. Otherwise the European crisis would soon get out of hand which would trigger situations in Asia. As a matter of fact in Paul Krugman's last piece in the NY Times, he firmly argues that China would have no choice than to break soon and if you pay close attention to the submission, you would see greed all over it....
>> 
>> These two competing ideologies have have shaped Western Politics.  
> Ideologies yes but our human endeavors can undo all ideological underpinning so personally I have moved to the middle with Obama. I think our world would only be sustainable in the 21st century if we avoid "extremism" and find moderation as the key so for example we need to find moderation between "ideologies" and "pragmatism".
> 
>> We have for many years blindly followed the West and assumed our people understand this.  
> My good old friend Prof. George Ayittey would buy you a beer for making this point which am not ashamed to say he spent his entire life making. George argues and I have spent time to read greatly on this and am convinced that he is saying something that need serious attention, before the colonial master Africa had her own governance and political system that was based on consultation and consensus etc. He then argues that colonialism did a lot of damage but we cannot continue to blame colonialism and then insist on their imported system which in his own words "our African elites do not understand". In Africa Unchained, he confronts Prof. Ali Mazuri's externalist approach and homes in on our need to be internalist. Am a big fan of Ali as I am of George so my verdict is that both are right in presenting the extreme views but WE have to find the middle ground (moderation) to chat our cause for Africa's re-emergence. Let me be quick to add that in some cases we are doing that but need to be more forthright and speedy in implementation because trust me, great ideas are not enough. 
> 
>> Capitalism is not bad at all.  It is the most adaptive ideology but yet the most misunderstood.  
> Am still learning and experiencing it and am open to more of such, actually am a student of knowing my experience but that does not mean I don't read.....moderation as always is the key.
> 
>> Take The case of China and Russia.  Both are under the assumption that they are opening up their economies to free market economy.  China has been successful with a regulated capitalism whereas Russia's approach only led to creation of oligarchs and millions of the poor.
> You know am very careful when I speak about these two establishments and I won't for a second pretend I know anything about them because I don't, am still in the process of spending time there, reading and trying to understand what is going on but there is one thing I would stand up to, "only fools doubt results" - so long as China is poised to over take the US in the 21st century, I have no problem reducing myself to learning what they are DOING right. The US's number complaint is China in every form, currency manipulation, you name it. Am not saying it is not true but to my point one needs to strike a balance even between complaining and doing. If China is a "fraud", time would take care of it but for now we in Africa need to ask ourselves, how can we do and do better than them.....:-)
> 
>> 
>> Clearly in Kenya we need to define what we want.  What we expect of the government.  What we expect of the people.  The private sector is not capable of exploiting the opportunities we have.  
> You have laid out the foundation of a united Africa but am not sure I entirely agree with your wording of the last sentence. For what it is worth, I would expand. Africa has had steady GDP growth of 5% average over the last decade and the mobile magic also happened over the same period and we have empirical data to support the correlation between GDP growth and fix line, mobile, internet and broadband penetration so something has to give. However we don't yet have basis for coxiality, also if you take the UNDP HDI over the same period, you see a decline which tells me that something is wrong. Now to my point that the growth we have experienced has being purely private sector lead so I disagree with you to extend that you "entirely" dismiss the private sector's ingenuity but I know that not what you meant. I agreed with you that there is more room for improvement. Haven said that let me tell you the Eric Osiakwan foundation of the problem and I think we have debated this before but if members would pardon me. Empirical data tells us that between 35 to 65% of African economies are OWNed by non-Africans, this means that there is massive capital flight so the 5% growth that we are seeing is not reinvested in Africa and you know better than me the economics of capital circulation and for those who do not, George Soros did the best rendition of this in his book "Soros on Globalization". Anyway so my submission is we need to craft a strategic approach towards owning Africa ourselves, otherwise trust me we would be going in circles for much longer, if you don't believe me ask God. 
> 
>> If they were they could have invested in Energy.  
> Energy is a problem because government is "standing" in the way of private sector instead of assuming a posture of how do we (all stakeholders) work together to generate a win-win situation. The mobile magic is a perfect example, it could not have being done by the private sector alone, all had to collaborate so again it is all about striking a balance even between the stakeholders. Just ten years ago, there were more landlines in Manhattan than all of Africa but now Africa has more cellphones than the whole of the US and we lead the world -- the economist cannot help but change it's headline from hopeless to hopeful: folks, something has happened in the last decade wether you like it or not. Mo Ibrahim has become a billionaire from that, I only wish he was living fulltime and reinvesting all that money in Africa. Mark Shuttleworth, MTN etc are all examples whic begs the question why is it that we make billionaires and millionaires on the continent only for them to relocate? These are the issues I expect the African Union to be discussing (not debating...:-) to come out with a plan to change that in from 2012....
> 
>> If they were they could have put their money in the fledgling ICT sector.
> I may be wrong but if you pay attention to the investments in various sectors over the decade, the private sector has done much more for the ict sector than government (this is not to pitch them against each other) and the Ict sector has had more impact on lives than other sectors. Let's take the mining sector, am afraid that it has only made the rich richer from the natural resources in the poor man's backyard and in some cases destroyed farmlands that use to sustain peasant farmers. The mobile magic to the contrary is liberating, empowering and democratizing - my mother calls me and tells me, "Eric I hear Ecobank is selling shares, am going to buy some so why don't you also", before she use to rely on me telling her what's going down - something has changed.
>> 
>> Back to Mugo.  
> Yes, back to basics...
> 
>> Given the underlying ideological theories and the fact that our peoiple are unaware,
> They are becoming aware, i like to recognize little efforts or success as a basis not to be complacent but to do more and better.
> 
>> what do we expect from the people of Kenya in achieving Vision 2030?
> The answer is "let's DO - get everyone doing something". Africa is soo good on paper sometimes I wish we could just be in the paper. In 2012, let's start focusing on implementing vision 2030 even if it is not the best. We can be refining it as we implement because we have being planning this for way to long and if we are not careful 2030 would arrive with us still discussing and planning it.
> 
>> 
>> Ndemo.
> Eric here
> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my BlackBerry®
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga at hotmail.com>
>> Sender: kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.keDate: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:33:52 
>> To: <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
>> Cc: <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Vision 2030: ICT and Other Sectors Converged (Day 3)
>> 
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>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>> 
>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.

Eric M.K Osiakwan
Director 
Internet Research
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