Month: March 2018

Across Africa, radio call-in programs are buzzing with tales of Africans, usually men, bemoaning the loss of their spouses and partners to rich Chinese men. “He looks short and ugly like a pygmy but I guess he has money,” complained one lovelorn man on a recent Kenyan show (Extract from anonymous blogger). True or imagined, such stories say much about the perceived economic power of Chinese businessmen in Africa, and of the growing backlash against them. Can it get any worse than this?

China has become by far Africa’s biggest trading partner, exchanging about $160 billion-worth of goods a year; more than one million Chinese, most of them laborers and traders, have moved to the continent in the past decade. The mutual adoration between governments continues, with ever more African roads building and mines built by Chinese firms. I feel like it’s overdone. Our governments are all over the Chinese, makes we wonder what sort of charm this people got!!

I agree that Chinese investment does have the potential to address Africa’s infrastructure gap, but its approach has led to mounting debt and few if any jobs in most countries. Do anyone agree less on this? They are locking Africans and making them dependent. And once they do this, they will get their support for geopolitical goals and hence undermining democracy. What am just trying to say in simple terms is that it looks like the Chinese are doing this intentionally, pooh!

If you didn’t know, China launched a project in 2013 “One Belt one Road”, which its key intention is to expand China’s influence in global affairs (looks like The New world Order to me, dot you think?) This program has saddled developing countries with crippling debts and increased their dependence on China. According to IMF reports, Djibouti’s public external debt in the last two years has increased from 50 to 85 percent of its gross domestic product, this very impressive! Wait not so fast, what of Kenya? According to recent data, each Kenyan citizen owes at least 100,000kshs to China. Kenyan government was noted last year to have borrowed approximately 62.7 billion per month. Most of this cash was from China. So next time you meet a Chinese along the stress you can as well take the curtesy of offsetting your personal debt by giving him some money with abroad face, you owe him remember?

The growth in China demand for commodities is growing exponentially and prices of many raw materials are thickening. That said, China’s hunger for agricultural goods, and perhaps for farm land, may grow as China’s population expands and the middle class becomes richer. Imagining having billions of people with good spending power and hunger for to use their money? We might probably runout of goods!!

Africans are increasingly suspicious of Chinese firms, worrying about unfair deals and environmental damage, are we waking up? Opposition is fueled by Africa’s thriving civil society, which demands more transparency and an accounting for human rights. This can be an unfamiliar challenge for authoritarian China, whose foreign policy is heavily based on state-to-state relations, with little appreciation of the gulf between African rulers and their people (I gaze they would not risk handling us like they to in Hong Kong) In Senegal, residents’ organizations last year blocked a deal that would have handed a prime section of property in the Centre of the capital, Dakar, to Chinese developers. In Tanzania labor unions criticized the government for letting in Chinese petty traders. We might just be finally waking up!

Some African officials are voicing out criticism of China. Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s former central bank governor, says Africa is opening itself up to a “new form of imperialism”, in which China takes African primary goods and sells it manufactured ones, without transferring skills. Isn’t it obvious people?

After years of bland talk about “win-win” partnerships, China seems belatedly aware of the problem. On a tour of the continent, the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, said on January 12th that “we absolutely will not take the old path of Western colonists”. Last May the Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, acknowledged “growing pains” in the relationship.

If you haven’t noticed, this wasn’t the first time I was putting this matter across, as matter of fact it appeared in one of my previous posts. This is just an indicator how dare this situation is. We have to make a choice here, to seat back and watch as we are being manipulated with raw deals in the name of Bilateral trades, or we actually take control of the situation and forge our own paths which will actually work for us. Let’s not be the cow being fattened for slaughter here!

I am so much attached to my motherland. You will pardon me for making it a reference point most of the time. I am sited outside my grand ma’s house, in a home-made bench referred as ‘orindi’ just next to the granary so as to lean on comfortably and rest my legs. I am facing the East just to be in the right angle to enjoy the sun and to also watch at the beautiful view of the several hills in front of me. They are named ‘Got Ndonyo’, ‘Got Gembe’ which is just next to Ruma National Park, and ‘Got MaKOwaga,’ actually this specific hill is named after my Grandfather. That is so incredible and intimate.

On the hills, a beautiful view of the landscape and the wilds is clearly visible. The wilds is composed of mostly shrubs and acacia trees. It looks so green. On several occasions I normally go to the hills to eat wild fruits ‘olemo’,’sangla,’ ‘nyabende,’ among many others. I only know them by their native names. My grandma also use to get herbs from the hills. The wilds on the hills offers a rich and diverse resource to the locals here.

My motherland is not the only place I share great intimacy with as far as environment is concerned. I was raised up in Muguguga, a hub of many environment research institutions- KARI, KEFRI, and VERTINARY among others-Whose key objective is to protect the lives of living things. This area is a serene environment, just as Karura forest is. I am not certain if it is still the same. I was there last, more than 10 years ago. I am sure I will be visiting soon.

Last week was set aside just to celebrate and emphasis on the importance of environment. I was privileged to attend one of the events courtesy of UNEP and the Columbia Embassy. This occasion was resourceful. The key message was for every individual to understand that environment is the caretaker of lives. There is a need to stand for its conservation efforts. Each and every individual should feel obliged to ensure that the environment is taken care of, bearing in mind that this is for the good of the current and the future generation and there posterity.

Environment is basically our surroundings, both living and non-living things. It is made up of natural environment which is composed of things which exist naturally, and built environments which is manmade. Now that we have familiarized ourselves with the definition of what an environment is, we need to know why its state is getting worse and find solutions to rectify.

In most of our homes we use timber, firewood and construction poles. Apparently, all these come from trees which are part and parcel of our environment. What is much disheartening is the fact that most of those who depend on this valuable commodity, make no attempt to plant more trees in order to counteract the depletion of the same. Trees in their natural state have an important duty of supplying living creatures with fresh air as well as being habitat for the same. The uncontrolled cutting down of trees not only destroys natural habitat for animals but also depletes the supply of fresh air.

Our methods of farming mostly employ techniques harmful to the environment. Farmers are using heavy machinery powered by diesel engines in their farming activities. These machines emit harmful gases such as carbon monoxide to the atmosphere and this eventually leads to the global warming and climate change. Also, the farming chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers have negative side effects to our surroundings since they cause pollution to waters, soil and air as well and hence man and other living things is vulnerable to ill health.

In the industrial sector, environment has not been spared either. Some of our industries pollute water through emitting harmful effluents which contain chemical residues to the surroundings. This water eventually finds its way into water bodies. When animals and humans are exposed or drink this contaminated water they are likely to suffer from waterborne diseases. Many of these diseases can cause death some of them include typhoid, amoeba, cholera among others.

On the other hand, most industries emit harmful gases to the atmosphere. Some of the gases emitted from industries are oxides of nitrogen, carbon, and sulphur among others. These gases cause global warming, air pollution and acid rains as well. Acid rain affect plant chlorophyll and result into withering of plants. Global warming has led to melting of glaciers, which in turn results into disastrous increase of oceans’ water levels. This consequently leads to submerging of the lowlands that border the oceans and cases of drowned people and destruction of property being reported. Also, polluted air causes harm to the respiratory systems of man and animals. Humans can contact respiratory diseases such as asthma, reduced energy levels among others when exposed to polluted air.

There are also other human activities that highly contribute to the pollution of the environment. First of all, taking into account trade as an economic activity. In supermarkets, shops and other outlets packaging of products is done by plastic materials which are non biodegradable. These plastic materials end up in landfills or incinerators leading to water and soil contamination, and air pollution when burned. Secondly, the humans residential sector. Due to increased population, residential sector is counted as one of the major sources of environmental pollution. Household wastes end up finding their way into the environment to the landfills or municipal incinerators. Most of the household wastes do no decompose fast making burning of waste as the only alternative to reduce wastes. Eventually this leads to air, water and pollution.

There are various ways through which we can conserve the environment. In our homes we can make effort of trying to conserve the environment through using environmental friendly sources of energy and building materials. These alternative sources of energy may include solar energy as source of power in our homes and energy conservative stoves for cooking. This will help in the environment conservation since people will cut down fewer trees for energy and construction purposes.
However, farmers ought to use environmental friendly methods in carrying out farming activities. The diesel consuming machines used for farming ought to be replaced by those that consume bio fuel. This will help in reducing large amount of gases that is emitted into the atmosphere. The farm chemicals such as insecticides, fungicides, pesticides and fertilizers which cause soil, water and air pollution ought to be replaced by organic farm inputs which are less harmful to the environment.

In the industrial sector, government should come up with strict measures of controlling methods used by industries in emitting their effluents. In order to reduce water and soil pollution by industries, government needs to ensure that no industry or firm that is located near to a source of water, releases its effluents which has not met the minimum requirements into the waterbody. Also government should ensure that emission of gases is done according to international standards and regulations. On the other hand, the government should ensure that industries which are likely to pollute environment are located far from residential areas and continuously monitored.

The other important method of environmental conservation is to carry out campaigns aiming at persuading the public to plant trees for the purposes of afforestation or reforestation. Also, public need to be sensitized on the importance of increasing the forest covers in our planet- both to humans, animals and biodiversity preservation-Government should input strict measures of environmental conservation such as prohibiting illegal cutting of trees, waste disposal methods by the public.

In conclusion, there is this story about the “people of the Jaguar.” They live in ‘centre of the earth’, deep in the Amazon forest. This region is the epitome of a virgin land, very fertile, and has never been exploited by the outside world. Very beautiful indeed! The people living here are indigenous to the place, with absolutely no exposure to the so called ‘modern civilization’. They are fierce on protecting their environment, they never allow any stranger to get in, because they probably fear for their environment. This place has remains to be the most probably the only un-exploited region on earth, and it is our responsibility to keep it that way. We should not make any attempt of making contact with these people, not even as tourist so as to let it remain as pure and virgin as it is. We should desist from conducting exploration or expeditions seeking economical exploitation opportunities. Instead, we should make effort of keeping this place pure for the sake of the people there and their environment, keeping them safe from us.

It’s is easy to see and undeniable, in fact no tough algorithms are required to determine that a home or a society entailing empowered women is way much different with those that are not! Empowered women are embodiment of progressive change in the society. Such women acts as are a compliment to their men, they do not depend on men entirely for their wellbeing and those of their family. These women will promote social growth by ensuring that they children get best in life in regards to health, morals and education, which will in turn have a ripple effect on the society.

Yet besides all this vast advantages women bring to the society, it is miserable that women fighting for what is rightfully theirs is seen as revolting. I think this a common practice that we can relate to in our society- a women who has made it through the ranks is thought to as a social climber so use unorthodox ways to the top and not on pure merits, a women pursuing the so called ‘masculine’ career (mostly STEM based or leadership positions) are viewed as misfits, women are still view to belong in the kitchen and not the boardroom, women are seen as rebels and disrespectful when they challenge or the question the system- I believes in the wise saying, ‘teach a girl child, and you would have taught an entire generation.’ This only comes to prove that women empowerment should be something that every nation should mandate on. To completely bring down the status quo, both our girls and boys should be educated in school, and mentored to know that there are simply no boundaries to how far they can go in this life. Your gender should not be a limitation set on stone by society.

This year’s hashtag on Women Empowerment is #pressforchange. Women across the world, have come together to push and press for change. This can be done in various capacities that we engage in our society. Through this joint act, I believe we will finally break the glass ceiling. Yes, we will break the ceiling. I hypothesize that in the next 25-30 years, it will not matter whether you are a man or a woman. What do you think will be the implications of it? Something to ponder on.

Before I get deep into the discussion, let us first familiarize ourselves with the meaning of the word empowerment. Empowerment is equal opportunities for both gender socially, politically and economically. Women Empowerment itself now elaborates that Social Rights, Economics stability, judicial strength and all other rights should also be equal to women. There should be no discrimination between men and women.

Even today, women get micro credits for macro products. This is so sad and very unfair. We as women are wired to do triple shifts. And this involves sort of a super power – the real world’s wonder woman-We are capable perform exemplary well in our homes, be the best wife’s and best mother or parents to our children and yet be the best CEOs in the corporate world. Women are literally doing “double shifts”. From work place to another work place we call home every single day every day. Despite the exhaustion women must still take care of their children and husbands, this calls for respect and admiration for the women. They deserve to be treated as superhuman and given better opportunity and exposure so that they can even do more but with dignity.

There is a time a woman could not open a bank account and also was not allowed borrow money in the bank without the husband or letter from the husband permitting her to do so. This has changed because of the great work that both men and women have done to advocate for gender equality. Kudos to all that made this happen. We have come from far but not where we need to be. We need to upgrade our game to finally break the glass ceiling. We need to continuously embrace the “HeForShe” agenda. For it is by the hands of men and boys that action can be swiftly and easily taken against negative inequalities faced by women and girls. This is achievable by encouraging the male to be the agents of change, they do it for their mothers, sisters and daughters to have a better and a life with equal and open opportunities for them to be whatever they desire.

We should prepare and invest in ourselves so that we can finally achieve our desires. I do say, that there is no such thing as luck. We should embrace the culture of working hard and smart, and utilizing any resource that avails itself to be the stars that we want and advocating for. Let us not get the 50-50 share not because we are women but because we deserve it. Therefore we must work smart if we want to get more leadership roles in society. We should be ready.

I am normally impressed by how men operate. Even if they do not like each other, they still do business with each other. They act based on their common objectives which is empowerment. They are not controlled by their emotional feelings towards each other. Women should learn to develop each other. Remember an iron sharpens another iron. Women empowerment can only be possible and effective when we women lifts and support one another to greatness, without this mutual support the journey will only get tiresome. We should always have a broader and futurist view of life which can give us motivation for work and plan for the future.
I get sad when I see the same ‘Mama mboga’ is the same “mama mboga’ ten years after. We should be progressive and stop sticking to doing small businesses that will not make any progress in our life, but we should thrive to grow these business to larger and sustainable enterprises overtime. It is true that Women are the drivers of economy, and yet most are still stagnated. Why is it the case? Probably because we are stack on doing small business that are non-competitive.

Glass ceiling is the unseen, yet un-breachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements. For example, according to the 2015 Forbes reports indicates that just 10 women were among the 359 incoming CEOs at the world’s 2500 largest companies in 201%. This disparity is way too huge to ignore or assume, it’s an indication that women are yet being felt in the corporate world as they are supposed to.

I attended a conference that was celebrating Women’s International day, and one of the speaker asked us whether the glass is marble, or is it sticky? (Sticky floor is the barriers for career advancement. It is the discriminatory employment pattern that keeps a certain group of people at the bottom of the job scale.)
An empowered woman is able to make better choices for the family, community and ultimately the country. We should learn to embrace life in totality. No matter how busy our lives are at work, no matter how much work takes away from us.

The gender pay is a key indicator of pay discrimination faced by working women. I believe it is common sense for us all to agree that equal remuneration for work of equal value is important and should be respected. Paying less wages to women performing a similar job which earns a male counterpart more money is nonsensical and should have been corrected like yesterday! Sadly, this discriminatory culture is yet to end even in 21st Century!

Barack Obama once quoted that it is not the smartest thing to do by empowering women but it is the right thing to empower women. In simple turns, the society should not consider women empowerment as a privilege but as a right and necessity to our dear women. Until then, the society is yet to feel the real power and potential of empowered women!