[kictanet] Interesting Piece ...

[Francis Hook]

@Daniel, I went to www.kenyaimagine.com after seeing the link under
your email signature and happened across this article, which I feel
broadly underscores what we are trying to discuss here....it might be
in the periphery but helps lead to the core:

http://www.kenyaimagine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3189&catid=278:environmental-issues&Itemid=235

If I may lift an excerpt:

"In The Happiness Hypothesis , psychology professor Jonathan Haidt
compares human brain/behavior to a man riding an elephant. There
exists a complex choreography between our newer rational cortex (the
'man'), and our older, more primitive brain structures (the
'elephant').

His point was that our brains can accomplish amazing things when we
mesh our analytical abilities with our baser emotions and impulses,
but that quite often the 'elephant' (our limbic and reptilian cores)
unwittingly assert their dominance, and in the process override any
rational, reasoned intentions. In aggregate we are a society that has
become both habituated to and confused by 'more facts'. "

and the closing part:

"I would guess 30-40% of our population is cognizant that something is
wrong with our current path. They don't need to know the details of
net energy decline. They don't need to understand dispersive discovery
or decline rates to know we are dependent on fossil fuels. They don't
need to have read Murray Rothbard or Frederick Soddy to understand we
can't print our way out of a physical bind. However, I suspect that
though my Aunt knows <5% of what the average people on TOD do, it is
people like her, one day, perhaps soon, that are going to force
change. They will do it not out of some epiphany of of
multidisciplinary understanding but rather out of outrage. "

For the first excerpt, I'd like to think that in Africa we are more in
touch with our primal selves - I am not saying that in a negative way
but broadly meaning we are largely not westernised and sullied by
western culture.  However, we can still adopt what works in order to
adapt it to our realities.  But we must also hold the "elephant" in
check - let it be both wild and tame - if that makes sense.

For second excerpt - while the "intellectuals" out there may give
reasons why x cannot be done, and make our aspirations collapse under
a pile of facts, theories, isms and statistics (and eventually cause
us to think little of ourselves and therefore become inferior), I
think if we allow ourselves to return to a somewhat primal state (as
alluded above re: the elephant)  we can rise to whatever challenge
there is.  I know it calls for a little social re-engineering (esp
when we read statements like "we can't", "we have never been know to",
"its beyond our ability to..", etc).

I should point out that I am not in any way deriding true
intellectuals or ridiculing anyone.   Verily there are those on this
list with very good visions of where Kenya can go (and are already
putting us firmly on that path despite so many side shows and nay
sayers).  But the word needs to get out there among the population.

Good site BTW - I esp like the book reviews...

F

On 25 January 2012 23:43, Matunda Nyanchama
<mnyanchama at aganoconsulting.com> wrote:
> Friends
>
> Here are my off the cuff remarks on the provocative piece.
>
> My suggestion: let's not be too defensive; truth can be bitter.
>
> On innovation: take the example of the automobile and semiconductor
> industries. A lot of countries started with fabricating parts; soon they did
> sub-assemblies as their precision engineering developed and soon they were
> making whole cars/computers/etc/. The Nyayo Car project was on the right
> cause if only it has realized capacity in the fabrication of parts and
> needed engineering and manufacturing processes.
>
> I recently saw news of a mechanic that used to service shock absorbers but
> now fabricates them; and people find these last longer that original ones
> not suited to our rough roads! He is on the right path and should, in fact,
> be encouraged with incentives and (possibly) injection of capital.
>
> In the west, investors would be hovering around to offer the person either a
> buyout or equity investment in order to expand the business which has huge
> regional potential as few people are in the business. Where is old money
> when it is needed here??
> Regards.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama at aganoconsulting.com
> Agano Consulting Inc.;  www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda;  Skype:
> okiambe
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-- 
Francis Hook
+254 733 504561