[kictanet] A must listen

[Wamuyu Gatheru]

Yes, this is an inspiring talk by an articulate US educated Indian  
politician from Kerala. One of my good friends is from Kerala where  
the literacy rate is over 90%.

In a sense, besides its huge population, India is just like us. Their  
politicians are some of the most corrupt. They have severe social  
divisions (baby girls are frequently killed as they are considered a  
burden, then there is that caste business and actually widespread  
killings were a common feature in their general elections). 2/3 of  
their population is still poor.

I think their redeeming value, that has created the IT industry, is  
their competitive nature. Being number 1 is very important for  
Indians. My friend frequently reminded us of how she was 1st in the  
entire country when she did her MSc. She cried for 3 days non stop,  
without leaving her room, when she failed to get into the World Bank's  
Young Professionals' programme - she made it to the final list of 6  
from tens of thousands of applicants.

The lessons: (a) Those doing good things should just keep at it - the  
bad/corrupt guys will continue being bad and the country must succeed  
inspite of them. (b) We need to keep the competitive culture of our  
public ed system (with ofcourse relevant curriculum). The notion, in  
private schools here, that ranking students is bad is strongly  
disproved by the India ed and IT success.

Wamuyu

Quoting robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk>:

> Picked this from Sam Gichuru's post and would like to recommend that you all
> listen to this powerful presentation, it will help us stop being a  
> nation of cry
> babies
>
> http://www.samgichuru.com/you-soft-power-and-the-internet/
>
>  Robert Yawe
> KAY System Technologies Ltd
> Phoenix House, 6th Floor
> P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
> Kenya
>
>
> Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Sam Gichuru <gichuru at gmail.com>
> To: robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk
> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Sent: Tue, 24 May, 2011 6:24:31
> Subject: [kictanet] Some Soft Power for Kenya please...
>
> Am I building soft power for Kenya?
>
> The action that will be taken against Okemo & Gichuru, will decide
> what pigeon hole the world puts us in, if we complain about being  
> dis-respected
> its because of the actions we take on a day to day basis. This  
> decisions will be
> made on round tables by people like me and you, I read the news of Samuel
> Wanjiru with allot of sadness, knowing that whatever the case is we  
> scored some
> more bad points globally, losing all credit and more on soft power  
> he had earned
> the country.
>
> Another thing is we cannot generalise this country and say the police are
> corrupt or Government is corrupt, no, its time to start letting  
> everyone carry
> their burden, lets say its Sgt "Njoroge or wanjiru", its  Chris  
> Okemo or Samuel
> Gichuru who is corrupt and prosecute this people as individuals then  
> we send a
> clear message both locally and globally.
>
> Forward thinking means we don't just think globally, we think  
> galactically and
> act galactically.
>
> This video was a big inspiration to me last year. -  by Shashi Tharoor, a man
> who will win your heart and provoke you any day, Muraya your question on
> tribalism might be answered here.
>
> --
> Warm Regards,
> ------------------------
> Sam Gichuru
>
>
>
> twitter: | @samgichuru
> Blog: |  www.samgichuru.com
> Facebook: | Sam.gichuru
> Skype: Sam.gichuru
> Cellphone: | +254-722-730565
>
>
> Co-founder/ Director /Nailab Incubation
> Location: | Nairobi
> Website: | www.nailab.co.ke
> twitter: | @thenailab
>