[kictanet] Korea

[Rad!]

Last December I went on holiday in Thailand.

Thailand is considered a laggard compared to Malaysia and Singapore and
Korea but my friends it is still miles ahead of Kenya. Flyovers, 8 lane
highways, 4 lane roads in the CBD. I was impressed.

What struck me the most was not the technology and infrastructure, but the
work ethic.

I had a meal at a McDonalds and at the door was a man whose job was to open
the door to customers as they came in, smile at them and close it behind
them.

That is all.

Open, smile and close.

I watched him for a while as he did this.

He did his work very proudly and with dedication.

He seemed to understand that this small role was a cog that together with
other cogs leads to the success of the fast food shop.

You will be hard pressed to find such a work ethic here. Go to any office
(not just Government!) and you will be treated by staff as if you are
bothering them.

The doorman role is just as important as the CEO for the collective success.

We can't all be CEOs. But whatever role we have if we do it well will lead
to the success of the whole.

This my friends is what we lack, and why Vision 2030 will remain a pipe
dream until as a society we change.

We have a very poor work ethic.

On Tuesday, November 8, 2011, S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya at gmail.com> wrote:
> Painful man... Painful!
>
> On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 7:40 PM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:KEN&dl=en&hl=en&q=kenya+gdp+statistics#ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=country:KEN:KOR&ifdim=country&hl=en&dl=en
>
> For a graphical comparison. Apologies for the long link.
>
> On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 7:25 PM, S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Will you visit one of the churches?
>
>
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/657/south-koreas-coming-election-highlights-christian-community
>
> On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 5:19 PM, <bitange at jambo.co.ke> wrote:
>
> I arrived in Korea yesterday for a Global e-Government conference.  ITU
> ranks Korea as number one in ICT diffusion.  From the airport you see
> people walk through with an e-passport using biometrics.  The New Incheon
> airport is 70 Kms west of Seoul, the capital and largest city of South
> Korea with some 11 million inhabitants. It is one of the largest and
> busiest airports in the world actually the world's fourth busiest airport
> by cargo traffic, and the world's eighth busiest airport in terms of
> international passengers in 2010.
>
> Korea is about 99,000 sq Kms or one half of the Rift Valley Province of
> Kenya with a population of 50 million and a GDP of $1 trillion (Kenya's
> GDP is about $35 billion).  In the 60's it was largely a donor recipient
> country with a GDP less than that of Kenya and more than 60% of its
> population below poverty.  They have turned tables to be a member of the
> OECD and a donor country over a short period.
>
> For many years it mostly depended on the USA as its largest trade partner
> but over a time they focused their energies on the Asian Markets.  Its
> trade with China, USA and Japan in 2010 figures stands at %190, $98 and
> $90 billion respectively.  They import a great deal of food and the reason
> why we should not lease our land but use it to improve on our economic
> growth.  A Kg of meat here is $100 imported from Canada and Brazil.
>
> I asked our Ambassador why we cannot sell our meat here.  He says we do
> not meat their standards.  This should not be a problem since we have
> broadband in most parts of the country that we can keep pace with the rest
> of the world in keeping the records especially those required by various
> standrds organization.
>
> Back to Korea.  ICTs are also deployed along the highways making it easier
> to go through the toll stations and collecting all the revenues.  You can
> get data from government at every hour.  You can for example know the
> number of children born in a day throughtout the country.  There is CCTV
> practically everywhere.  Crime is approaching zero.
>
> There is an over supply of affordable public transport via the rail and
> bus system all clean and on time.  If you choose to drive on your own, you
> are taxed at every new turn you make.  The tax from the polluters who
> cannot use public transport is used to subsidize the energy efficient
> public tranportation.
>
> Every child after high school h
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