Kenyan crisis hammers tourism sector
By Peter Greste
BBC News, Nairobi
Mombasa beach
Mombasa's beaches are deserted
Sally Mullens stared out across the azure blue channel that separates the coastal village of Shimoni from the island of Wasini white beach just north of Mombasa.
As the owner of Charlie Claws, a tour company that runs diving and snorkelling trips along the spectacular coastline, she is responsible for about one hundred local staff, and she is deeply concerned.
"I just don't know what we'll do," she says "We've already had to lay off about half of our staff, and almost all the other hotels and resorts have had to do the same.
"Normally we'd expect about a hundred tourists a day for this time of the year. Tomorrow we're down to 12."
Her fears stem not from any risk of violence or looting, but from the potentially catastrophic collapse in tourism that looms as a result of Kenya's ongoing political crisis.
Cancellations for her business, as well as most others along the waterfront and for those who run wildlife safaris in the interior, have been coming thick and fast, despite the fact that no tourists have so far been caught up in the troubles.
"Just look at this," she says. "The conditions are perfect. If it weren't for the news reports, we wouldn't know that anything was wrong in other parts of the country.
""But all the publicity and the travel advisories have really hit us hard. If only they'd make a more realistic assessment of the risk to tourists, we'd be fine."
Long-term impact
Tourism is easily Kenya's biggest foreign currency earner, bringing in an estimated $1bn (£500m) per year - more than horticulture and tea exports combined.
Kenyans are an incredibly industrious and entrepreneurial people. They've recovered from big hits in the past, and they'll do so again, but this is going to be very difficult for a while to come
Robert Shaw, economist
It has also been one of the economy's most spectacular performers, with visitor numbers doubling over the past three years.
But it is a notoriously fickle industry. Already, tourism is the industry most dramatically affected by the recent crisis, and analysts warn it could take years to recover.
"Tourism is dead," says Tasneem Adamji, chair of the Kenyan Association of Tour Operators (KATO) for the coast region.
"The coast depends on charter flights for most of its tourists. This week, they've lost 5,400 seats on those flights mostly from Europe. That represents an 85% loss on their usual numbers.
This, she adds, means "20,000 direct job losses are imminent along the coast between now and March" so that when indirect jobs are included the total job losses will reach 100,000.
Given that each employed Kenyan feeds 10 people, the tourism industry's difficulty could affect at least a million people, KATO estimates.
"The dilemma for us is that there has not been a single incident involving tourists since the whole crisis began, but in ten days, we've undone all the hard work of the past six or seven years to recover from the last collapse in tourism," says Ms Adamji.
Analysts, including Professor Terry Ryan, believe the entire economy is staring at a recession, and this after growing at a blistering 7% last year.
In an interview with the Business Daily newspaper, he said he would "expect the economic growth rate to scale down to between 2% and 4.5%, and that is assuming that the situation returns to normalcy soon."
Nervous investors
Already, Kenya's finance minister estimates that the economy has lost $1bn since the post-election crisis began on 28 December, and industries like transport and agriculture and financial services are still struggling to get back on their feet.
Another economist, Robert Shaw, believes one of the biggest problems has been the loss of business and investor confidence.
Kenya tourists
Tourists have stopped coming to Kenya
"Things might be calmer now," he says. "But parliament is going to be stormy for the foreseeable future, and there is no sustainable solution anywhere on the horizon.
"Investors are all incredibly nervous," he adds. "The last thing they want is instability, and that's exactly what we have right now."
Part of the problem has been the focus of opposition anger on President Kibaki's Kikuyu community.
The Kikuyu dominate economic life in Kenya, but many of their businesses have been burned, and farmers driven from their properties in the post-election violence.
"The movement of Kikuyus takes a lot of the dynamism out of the economy," Mr Shaw says.
Vital link
And it is not just Kenya that is suffering as a result. No fewer than five neighbouring states channel their exports and imports through the Kenyan port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean.
In a statement, the World Bank says a quarter of the gross domestic product of Uganda and Rwanda and a third of Burndi's pass through Kenya, including essential commodities.
South Sudan, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Tanzania also lean heavily on Kenya both for trans-shipments and imports of essentials such as maize.
Although road transport has returned to normal across much of the country, ongoing instability in the west of the country near the Ugandan border continues to make trucking dangerous, and shortages of fuel and other essentials are continuing inside Uganda.
That is already driving up inflation across the region.
Tough times ahead
The government insists it has taken control of the situation. On Tuesday afternoon, President Kibaki announced half of his cabinet, including re-appointing his finance minister Amos Kimunya, who told the BBC that what investors wanted was continuity and stability, and that, he insisted, is what the president has delivered.
But economic analyst Mr Shaw disagrees.
"They're pretending that everything's normal, but it isn't," he says.
"This is really the lull before the storm, whether it's a political storm or more than that.
"The fundamental fault lines, which caused the troubles in the first place, are still there.
"Kenyans are an incredibly industrious and entrepreneurial people. They've recovered from big hits in the past, and they'll do so again, but this is going to be very difficult for a while to come."
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7179577.stm
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Monday, January 07, 2008
You absolutely have to read this. It is so damning!
January 7, 2008
OPINIONS & COMMENTARIES
LETTER TO A KAMPALA FRIEND | Muniini K. Mulera
What a deceptive world where a spade is called a big spoon!
Dear Tingasiga: We live in an era of linguistic deception; of calling things what they are not; of not calling things what they are.
People do not die. They pass away. A country’s president, a certified pathological liar, does not tell lies. He misspeaks. He misrepresents the truth. A government minister does not steal public funds.He misappropriates them. He is not a thief or robber. He is corrupt.
Listen to the barrage of painfully deceptive words in reference to the disaster that was Kenya’s presidential election ten days ago. Scribes and diplomats alike report that the Kenyan presidential election was “flawed”; it was marred by “irregularities,” “malpractices” and “loopholes” in the tallying of the votes.
These are soft words that make it sound like innocuous incompetence; mischief by naughty politicians and their agents; nothing more than that. I refuse to engage in such diplomatic circumlocution in this deceptive intellectual tip-toeing around matters that demand calling a spade a spade.
What happened in Kenya was grand thieving, daylight robbery by political bandits who care less about Kenya than they do about their overflowing pockets and egos. To avoid ambiguity, Tingasiga, let us record for posterity that the Kenyan presidential election of December 27, 2007 was stolen by Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki, in a civil-paramilitary coup that began long before the millions of hopeful Kenyan voters went to the polls to elect their new president, Raila Amolo Odinga.
Yes, that’s right. The elected president of Kenya is the son of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, he who wrote, 40 years ago, Not Yet Uhuru, a classic treatise whose title is true today as it was all those many years ago. That is why it is a great insult to the Kenyan people to ask their chosen leader, Raila Odinga, to join Kibaki, the loser who stole the throne, in a so-called government of national unity (GNU). It is akin to asking a man to return to his own house, to join those who have robbed and raped his house and spouse in a fellowship dance of death.
No, the Kenyan people have rejected Kibaki, along with most of his ministers and parliamentary candidates. To force him onto them, no matter what justification, is to annul their democratic and human rights. Stay the course Raila. Say no to the Americans and the British and whoever else is afraid to call a spade a spade.
A week ago I, like most of the world, laboured under the view that Kenya’s ruling classes and their Electoral Commission (ECK) were committed to democracy. Today, I stand disabused of this illusion, not only by the confessions of ECK Chairman Samuel Kivuitu; and not only by careful analysis of the published electoral results, but by the most extraordinary tales I have heard first hand from sources that were right at the centre of the Kibaki coup.
According to my sources, with whom I have spoken at length by telephone, the events of last week were a culmination of a well-calculated and brilliantly executed plot that was hatched at least two years ago to keep Kibaki in power. The Kenyan referendum of 2005, which was won by Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), left no doubt in the Kibaki Court that there was little hope of winning the presidential election of 2007.
My sources have confirmed as true the allegations by Raila Odinga that a combined force of the Administration Police (AP) headed by Commandant Kinuthia Mbugua, members of the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) led by Director General Michael Gichangi, and sections of the Kenya Armed Forces, led by Lt. Gen. Julius Karangi, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff (CGS) swung into action to sabotage the democratic hopes and rights of Kenyans. My sources told me that the Administration Police, very loyal to Kibaki, was drilled in election rigging and funds from the security services were used to buy electoral clerks and returning officers of the ECK.
Above all, “advance marking” of presidential ballots were embarked on by six AP officers, allegedly headed by one Jabel Munene.
According to my sources, by election day, pre-marked ballots giving Kibaki a huge lead over Odinga had been transported to many polling stations across the country, carried there in 56 buses that also ferried 3,500 AP officers who had shed their police uniforms in exchange for ECK polling agents’ and returning officers’ badges.
The AP officers-cum-polling agents who went to Odinga’s home province of Nyanza were attacked and forced to retreat by the locals. They had taken the precaution of rigging the Nyanza ballots in favour of Odinga to make their voting patterns appear “genuine.”
Furthermore, where they inflated the numbers for Kibaki, they made sure they inflated Raila’s numbers, but to a lesser degree of course. To be sure of “victory” they created new polling stations, complete with ballot-filled boxes that gave Kibaki decisive “wins” over Odinga. This ballot stuffing and substitution of fake “ballot boxes” for the official ones into which Kenyans cast their votes by the millions, is the reason why Kibaki and his courtiers have been calling for a recount.
But that is also why Odinga and the ODM, fully aware of the entire anatomy of the robbery, have rejected the idea of a recount. They are right. What Kenyans need is a fresh election, conducted and supervised by a team from the United Nations and from a select group of truly democratic members of the African Union .
Meanwhile, as the world continues to dispense its advice to the Kenyan leaders and citizens, we should all meditate upon this secret brief, which was written by the Analysis and Production Division of the NSIS, and sent to President Kibaki on December 29, 2007: “Any announcement which would not favour Raila Odinga is going to be a source of anarchy in the country.”
Kibaki ignored the advice of his intelligence agents. Rivers of blood now flow in what was supposedly an island of stability.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/muniini/What_a_deceptive_world_where_a_spade_is_called_a_big_spoon.shtm
January 7, 2008
OPINIONS & COMMENTARIES
LETTER TO A KAMPALA FRIEND | Muniini K. Mulera
What a deceptive world where a spade is called a big spoon!
Dear Tingasiga: We live in an era of linguistic deception; of calling things what they are not; of not calling things what they are.
People do not die. They pass away. A country’s president, a certified pathological liar, does not tell lies. He misspeaks. He misrepresents the truth. A government minister does not steal public funds.He misappropriates them. He is not a thief or robber. He is corrupt.
Listen to the barrage of painfully deceptive words in reference to the disaster that was Kenya’s presidential election ten days ago. Scribes and diplomats alike report that the Kenyan presidential election was “flawed”; it was marred by “irregularities,” “malpractices” and “loopholes” in the tallying of the votes.
These are soft words that make it sound like innocuous incompetence; mischief by naughty politicians and their agents; nothing more than that. I refuse to engage in such diplomatic circumlocution in this deceptive intellectual tip-toeing around matters that demand calling a spade a spade.
What happened in Kenya was grand thieving, daylight robbery by political bandits who care less about Kenya than they do about their overflowing pockets and egos. To avoid ambiguity, Tingasiga, let us record for posterity that the Kenyan presidential election of December 27, 2007 was stolen by Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki, in a civil-paramilitary coup that began long before the millions of hopeful Kenyan voters went to the polls to elect their new president, Raila Amolo Odinga.
Yes, that’s right. The elected president of Kenya is the son of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, he who wrote, 40 years ago, Not Yet Uhuru, a classic treatise whose title is true today as it was all those many years ago. That is why it is a great insult to the Kenyan people to ask their chosen leader, Raila Odinga, to join Kibaki, the loser who stole the throne, in a so-called government of national unity (GNU). It is akin to asking a man to return to his own house, to join those who have robbed and raped his house and spouse in a fellowship dance of death.
No, the Kenyan people have rejected Kibaki, along with most of his ministers and parliamentary candidates. To force him onto them, no matter what justification, is to annul their democratic and human rights. Stay the course Raila. Say no to the Americans and the British and whoever else is afraid to call a spade a spade.
A week ago I, like most of the world, laboured under the view that Kenya’s ruling classes and their Electoral Commission (ECK) were committed to democracy. Today, I stand disabused of this illusion, not only by the confessions of ECK Chairman Samuel Kivuitu; and not only by careful analysis of the published electoral results, but by the most extraordinary tales I have heard first hand from sources that were right at the centre of the Kibaki coup.
According to my sources, with whom I have spoken at length by telephone, the events of last week were a culmination of a well-calculated and brilliantly executed plot that was hatched at least two years ago to keep Kibaki in power. The Kenyan referendum of 2005, which was won by Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), left no doubt in the Kibaki Court that there was little hope of winning the presidential election of 2007.
My sources have confirmed as true the allegations by Raila Odinga that a combined force of the Administration Police (AP) headed by Commandant Kinuthia Mbugua, members of the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) led by Director General Michael Gichangi, and sections of the Kenya Armed Forces, led by Lt. Gen. Julius Karangi, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff (CGS) swung into action to sabotage the democratic hopes and rights of Kenyans. My sources told me that the Administration Police, very loyal to Kibaki, was drilled in election rigging and funds from the security services were used to buy electoral clerks and returning officers of the ECK.
Above all, “advance marking” of presidential ballots were embarked on by six AP officers, allegedly headed by one Jabel Munene.
According to my sources, by election day, pre-marked ballots giving Kibaki a huge lead over Odinga had been transported to many polling stations across the country, carried there in 56 buses that also ferried 3,500 AP officers who had shed their police uniforms in exchange for ECK polling agents’ and returning officers’ badges.
The AP officers-cum-polling agents who went to Odinga’s home province of Nyanza were attacked and forced to retreat by the locals. They had taken the precaution of rigging the Nyanza ballots in favour of Odinga to make their voting patterns appear “genuine.”
Furthermore, where they inflated the numbers for Kibaki, they made sure they inflated Raila’s numbers, but to a lesser degree of course. To be sure of “victory” they created new polling stations, complete with ballot-filled boxes that gave Kibaki decisive “wins” over Odinga. This ballot stuffing and substitution of fake “ballot boxes” for the official ones into which Kenyans cast their votes by the millions, is the reason why Kibaki and his courtiers have been calling for a recount.
But that is also why Odinga and the ODM, fully aware of the entire anatomy of the robbery, have rejected the idea of a recount. They are right. What Kenyans need is a fresh election, conducted and supervised by a team from the United Nations and from a select group of truly democratic members of the African Union .
Meanwhile, as the world continues to dispense its advice to the Kenyan leaders and citizens, we should all meditate upon this secret brief, which was written by the Analysis and Production Division of the NSIS, and sent to President Kibaki on December 29, 2007: “Any announcement which would not favour Raila Odinga is going to be a source of anarchy in the country.”
Kibaki ignored the advice of his intelligence agents. Rivers of blood now flow in what was supposedly an island of stability.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/muniini/What_a_deceptive_world_where_a_spade_is_called_a_big_spoon.shtm
The article below is quite interesting and shows us how hasty decisions and actions as happened with our kenyan elections are truly foolhardy.
The hurried rush to madness
Published on January 6, 2008, 12:00 am
By Kap Kirwok
At times like these, we are lost for words. The events of the last week — the announcement of a winner of the presidential contest despite credible evidence of rigging, the hurried swearing in ceremony, the brutal suppression of public protest, the continuing unrest — leave me completely speechless.
Searching for suitable words to describe these events, and finding none in my shocked and dazed mind, I turned to the Merriam-Webster English dictionary.
Here is what I found. To thumb one’s nose. This is to express scorn or ridicule by placing the thumb on the nose and wiggling the fingers. That comes very close to describing what the powers that be are doing to Kenyans. At its most basic, it says I am going to lord it over you and there is nothing you can do.
But where does such an attitude come from?
To find an answer I searched under letter H and came across the word Hubris whose meaning is "excessive pride to the point that a mortal challenges the superiority of the gods; hubris is a fatal flaw, which is inevitably punished."
The last part of this sentence is little comfort to those who have lost loved ones.
Hubris comes much closer to the word I was looking for. Where does hubris derive its motive force? What is its taproot?
William Shakespeare in Measure for Measure nails it on the head with devastating poetic force: "But man, proud man, dressed in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what he’s most assured; his glassy essence, like an angry ape, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep." There you have your culprit — a little brief authority.
Excessive pride is, therefore, driven by a little brief authority or power. And there is no worse narcotic than power. Power is sweet, power and privilege even sweeter. It plays tricks on our minds. We start thinking we are superior to the gods. We become most assured of what we are most ignorant. We begin to believe we can get away with anything. We begin the grand march to methodical madness.
But hubris does not quite capture what we see displayed by our leaders. Delusion, a persistent false psychotic belief that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary, is the word I was really looking for; a total loss of contact with reality.
Much has been made of the claim that even the United States rigged its presidential elections in 2000; what is wrong with Kenya doing a little bit of rigging of its own? Unbelievable. Should we judge ourselves by the worst in others? If we must do so, let us remember the actual facts about that controversial election.
In the American system of presidential elections, the electoral vote system determines the winner, and Bush won this count, although Gore received more popular votes. Let us also remember that Gore demanded a manual recount of votes and that this was granted. Unfortunately, because of the lack of clarity in recount rules regarding the ballots considered validly cast, the actual recount was time barred. Florida law required all counties to certify their election returns to the Florida Secretary of State within seven days of the election.
As we recall, this time requirement was disputed all the way to the Supreme Court and decided in George Bush’s favour — all within four weeks.
In our own tallying controversy, would it have been too much to allow a re-tallying of presidential votes in all 210 constituencies, even if it took two more days of waiting? Why insist on the court system when we all know it can take more than five years to resolve?
The intoxicating mix of power, hubris and delusion was simply too overpowering to allow for humility and clarity of thought. Now see what we have reaped.
On December 9 in this column, I wrote "The readings on the tribal Hate-O-Meter are off the charts. The dial has been creeping up gradually since about early 2003 and is now inching dangerously towards the red zone."
Well, we are in the red zone. Tribal hatred just got a zillion times worse, and is likely to remain so for a long time to come. What a shame! What a real, crying shame! So now we know. Beneath the veneer of civility displayed by some of our leaders lies a terrible secret: They are hopelessly vain. Now everyone is calling for peace and sacrifice. We have suddenly discovered that Kenya is bigger than all of us.
Where will Kenya get clear-eyed leadership at a time when eyes are rapidly blurring under a torrent of tears? Cry, beloved Kenya, cry.
—The writer is based in the USA Strategybeyondprofit@gmail.com
http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143979972&cid=190
The hurried rush to madness
Published on January 6, 2008, 12:00 am
By Kap Kirwok
At times like these, we are lost for words. The events of the last week — the announcement of a winner of the presidential contest despite credible evidence of rigging, the hurried swearing in ceremony, the brutal suppression of public protest, the continuing unrest — leave me completely speechless.
Searching for suitable words to describe these events, and finding none in my shocked and dazed mind, I turned to the Merriam-Webster English dictionary.
Here is what I found. To thumb one’s nose. This is to express scorn or ridicule by placing the thumb on the nose and wiggling the fingers. That comes very close to describing what the powers that be are doing to Kenyans. At its most basic, it says I am going to lord it over you and there is nothing you can do.
But where does such an attitude come from?
To find an answer I searched under letter H and came across the word Hubris whose meaning is "excessive pride to the point that a mortal challenges the superiority of the gods; hubris is a fatal flaw, which is inevitably punished."
The last part of this sentence is little comfort to those who have lost loved ones.
Hubris comes much closer to the word I was looking for. Where does hubris derive its motive force? What is its taproot?
William Shakespeare in Measure for Measure nails it on the head with devastating poetic force: "But man, proud man, dressed in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what he’s most assured; his glassy essence, like an angry ape, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep." There you have your culprit — a little brief authority.
Excessive pride is, therefore, driven by a little brief authority or power. And there is no worse narcotic than power. Power is sweet, power and privilege even sweeter. It plays tricks on our minds. We start thinking we are superior to the gods. We become most assured of what we are most ignorant. We begin to believe we can get away with anything. We begin the grand march to methodical madness.
But hubris does not quite capture what we see displayed by our leaders. Delusion, a persistent false psychotic belief that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary, is the word I was really looking for; a total loss of contact with reality.
Much has been made of the claim that even the United States rigged its presidential elections in 2000; what is wrong with Kenya doing a little bit of rigging of its own? Unbelievable. Should we judge ourselves by the worst in others? If we must do so, let us remember the actual facts about that controversial election.
In the American system of presidential elections, the electoral vote system determines the winner, and Bush won this count, although Gore received more popular votes. Let us also remember that Gore demanded a manual recount of votes and that this was granted. Unfortunately, because of the lack of clarity in recount rules regarding the ballots considered validly cast, the actual recount was time barred. Florida law required all counties to certify their election returns to the Florida Secretary of State within seven days of the election.
As we recall, this time requirement was disputed all the way to the Supreme Court and decided in George Bush’s favour — all within four weeks.
In our own tallying controversy, would it have been too much to allow a re-tallying of presidential votes in all 210 constituencies, even if it took two more days of waiting? Why insist on the court system when we all know it can take more than five years to resolve?
The intoxicating mix of power, hubris and delusion was simply too overpowering to allow for humility and clarity of thought. Now see what we have reaped.
On December 9 in this column, I wrote "The readings on the tribal Hate-O-Meter are off the charts. The dial has been creeping up gradually since about early 2003 and is now inching dangerously towards the red zone."
Well, we are in the red zone. Tribal hatred just got a zillion times worse, and is likely to remain so for a long time to come. What a shame! What a real, crying shame! So now we know. Beneath the veneer of civility displayed by some of our leaders lies a terrible secret: They are hopelessly vain. Now everyone is calling for peace and sacrifice. We have suddenly discovered that Kenya is bigger than all of us.
Where will Kenya get clear-eyed leadership at a time when eyes are rapidly blurring under a torrent of tears? Cry, beloved Kenya, cry.
—The writer is based in the USA Strategybeyondprofit@gmail.com
http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143979972&cid=190
A Canadian Expatriate's view: Kenyan elections 2007
The letter below was written by a Canadian expatriate who resides in Nairobi, Kenya. It reflects the profound sadness that many Kenyan people including foreigners who love the Kenyan country feel over the flawed elections of 2007.
Dear Friends and Family,
It is 1994. Tanzania. I stand upon the hill on which the Anglican church stands. I look around me, and let my eyes rest on the river Ngara below. The view is stunning. I wonder why there are so many crocodiles floating lazily in the river. I look again - and look away. They are not crocodiles; they are human bodies, floating down from Rwanda. I look again, hoping to see an end to these floating bodies. There is no end. More and more and more.... small, large, bloated, incomplete.... I turn, I run, I fall. I get up but stumble yet again. My mind cannot comprehend what my eyes have just seen, and my body fails me under the weight of it all.
It is 1997. South Africa. I attend several sessions of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. "I set the dog on your husband. Yes, he was carrying your son. He bit them both, yes. I did not restrain the dog. I was under orders. The dog, he was trained .... he tore.... he mauled.... I left them there. No help. They died there, both of them. Loss of blood. No, the bodies were not buried. You know the dogs, they had tasted human flesh. I am so sorry. God, I am so sorry." Archbishop Tutu, who is moderating the session, gets a bloody nose. The hearing must stop. It will continue tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.... I walk out, hurriedly. Outside it is raining.
It is 1998. Rwanda. I am on my way to Kivu. My host Liz stops the landrover. We get out to visit a church. The air feels cool. The winding road before and behind us is smooth as silk. A gentlemen appears and opens the church door and I walk in. My eyes take a few second to adjust to the dim lighting and then: skulls, hundreds and thousands of skulls. Some with cracks, some with missing halves, empty holes where eyes and minds, joy and sorrow, thoughts and feelings, love and hate once lived. The skulls are neatly arranged on tall tables. Underneath the tables is a huge assortment of many other bones. These once enabled a person to run, to dance, to dig, to live. Each skull representing a unique and special human being who will never be again.
A large pit forms in my stomach. Outside the church the sun is bright and the hills are lush and green. A teenage girl tells us what transpired in this part of Rwanda in 1994. I listen to her but I don't hear. All I see is the huge scar from the top of her head, across her eye, nose, mouth, neck and shoulder. Machete. Rape. She survived. Or did she?
It is 2007. Netherlands. It's a graveyard we are visiting - a memorial to the Canadians who fought against the Germans and her allies to free the Netherlands during World War II. White crosses, hundreds and thousands of white crosses, row upon row. They all blend into one, yet each stands unique. Each cross a unique young life snuffed out by war. Soldiers, all of them soldiers. Senseless. Or is it? Here lies ..... 19 years old...., 21 years, 25 years, 17 years. Died in 1943. Died in 1944. Died in February 1945 - three months before the liberation. Come, lets go. I have seen enough. Just war? Lest we forget... for the sake of freedom. For my sake, my freedom.
It is 2008. Kenya. The nation is on fire, literally on fire, from Kisumu to Eldoret, from Bungoma to Naivasha, from Nairobi to Mombasa. Yet since 1996, I travelled this beautiful country from East to West, from North to South, and at times alone. A flat tire at dusk near Webuye; an overheating radiator at Sigor; a tire blow out near Kisii; sick and vomiting in Dol dol; no accommodation available in Voi; my 8-month old baby feverish in Garsen; - I never felt threatened or scared. I always had good Samaritans lend a hand.
But for the past six days, in Nairobi, I have not ventured more than 10 km from my home. Even then I hurry back to the safety of the lawn behind my locked gate, and the home behind the concrete walls. I can't even get to my office. The nation is fighting for justice and truth. The election was stolen, rigged, dishonest. "Justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. (Is. 59:14-15).
Democracy is at stake. Freedom is at stake. At least 164 people have been killed so far. Over 70,000 people have been displaced from their homes. How many more for the sake of truth and justice? How many more for my sake and for the sake of my children? Democracy and freedom are for the living, not for the dead. With Kenya going up in smoke, and her people dying and beaten - including our world renown athletes - what will remain to rebuild the nation upon? "I will not keep silent, I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn..." (Is. 62:1).
Anja Oussoren
2 January 2008
The letter below was written by a Canadian expatriate who resides in Nairobi, Kenya. It reflects the profound sadness that many Kenyan people including foreigners who love the Kenyan country feel over the flawed elections of 2007.
Dear Friends and Family,
It is 1994. Tanzania. I stand upon the hill on which the Anglican church stands. I look around me, and let my eyes rest on the river Ngara below. The view is stunning. I wonder why there are so many crocodiles floating lazily in the river. I look again - and look away. They are not crocodiles; they are human bodies, floating down from Rwanda. I look again, hoping to see an end to these floating bodies. There is no end. More and more and more.... small, large, bloated, incomplete.... I turn, I run, I fall. I get up but stumble yet again. My mind cannot comprehend what my eyes have just seen, and my body fails me under the weight of it all.
It is 1997. South Africa. I attend several sessions of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. "I set the dog on your husband. Yes, he was carrying your son. He bit them both, yes. I did not restrain the dog. I was under orders. The dog, he was trained .... he tore.... he mauled.... I left them there. No help. They died there, both of them. Loss of blood. No, the bodies were not buried. You know the dogs, they had tasted human flesh. I am so sorry. God, I am so sorry." Archbishop Tutu, who is moderating the session, gets a bloody nose. The hearing must stop. It will continue tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.... I walk out, hurriedly. Outside it is raining.
It is 1998. Rwanda. I am on my way to Kivu. My host Liz stops the landrover. We get out to visit a church. The air feels cool. The winding road before and behind us is smooth as silk. A gentlemen appears and opens the church door and I walk in. My eyes take a few second to adjust to the dim lighting and then: skulls, hundreds and thousands of skulls. Some with cracks, some with missing halves, empty holes where eyes and minds, joy and sorrow, thoughts and feelings, love and hate once lived. The skulls are neatly arranged on tall tables. Underneath the tables is a huge assortment of many other bones. These once enabled a person to run, to dance, to dig, to live. Each skull representing a unique and special human being who will never be again.
A large pit forms in my stomach. Outside the church the sun is bright and the hills are lush and green. A teenage girl tells us what transpired in this part of Rwanda in 1994. I listen to her but I don't hear. All I see is the huge scar from the top of her head, across her eye, nose, mouth, neck and shoulder. Machete. Rape. She survived. Or did she?
It is 2007. Netherlands. It's a graveyard we are visiting - a memorial to the Canadians who fought against the Germans and her allies to free the Netherlands during World War II. White crosses, hundreds and thousands of white crosses, row upon row. They all blend into one, yet each stands unique. Each cross a unique young life snuffed out by war. Soldiers, all of them soldiers. Senseless. Or is it? Here lies ..... 19 years old...., 21 years, 25 years, 17 years. Died in 1943. Died in 1944. Died in February 1945 - three months before the liberation. Come, lets go. I have seen enough. Just war? Lest we forget... for the sake of freedom. For my sake, my freedom.
It is 2008. Kenya. The nation is on fire, literally on fire, from Kisumu to Eldoret, from Bungoma to Naivasha, from Nairobi to Mombasa. Yet since 1996, I travelled this beautiful country from East to West, from North to South, and at times alone. A flat tire at dusk near Webuye; an overheating radiator at Sigor; a tire blow out near Kisii; sick and vomiting in Dol dol; no accommodation available in Voi; my 8-month old baby feverish in Garsen; - I never felt threatened or scared. I always had good Samaritans lend a hand.
But for the past six days, in Nairobi, I have not ventured more than 10 km from my home. Even then I hurry back to the safety of the lawn behind my locked gate, and the home behind the concrete walls. I can't even get to my office. The nation is fighting for justice and truth. The election was stolen, rigged, dishonest. "Justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. (Is. 59:14-15).
Democracy is at stake. Freedom is at stake. At least 164 people have been killed so far. Over 70,000 people have been displaced from their homes. How many more for the sake of truth and justice? How many more for my sake and for the sake of my children? Democracy and freedom are for the living, not for the dead. With Kenya going up in smoke, and her people dying and beaten - including our world renown athletes - what will remain to rebuild the nation upon? "I will not keep silent, I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn..." (Is. 62:1).
Anja Oussoren
2 January 2008
Kivuitu, you are to blame for the disaster that we in Kenya face now
I was shocked and utterly dismayed as I watched how Samuel Kivuitu, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya conducted himself in the recently concluded elections. Even in the face of mounting evidence of election irregularities and the continued pleading from the opposition leaders to hold off reading the final results he completely ignored all these calls and went right ahead and announced the results thus leading to grave consequences for the Kenyan nation.
This was a great miscarriage of justice and a great contempt for the people of Kenya. Hundreds of precious Kenyan lives have been lost because of his carelessness and callousness. He needs to be held accountable for his actions.
Many Kenyans highly regarded Mr. Kivuitu and saw him as the best and most qualified person to provide leadership for the 2007 elections. But the actions we saw from him made many of us wonder whether he was operating from another reality. What a disappointment Mr. Kivuitu! You let down every single Kenyan.
Even though Mr. Kivuitu later admitted that he announced the results because of great pressure from other quarters, he should have used his moral and ethical judgement and refused to announce the results given the contentious nature of some of the election returns.
In due time he must be made to answer for his careless and grave actions that have led our lovely country Kenya on a downward spiral.
I was shocked and utterly dismayed as I watched how Samuel Kivuitu, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya conducted himself in the recently concluded elections. Even in the face of mounting evidence of election irregularities and the continued pleading from the opposition leaders to hold off reading the final results he completely ignored all these calls and went right ahead and announced the results thus leading to grave consequences for the Kenyan nation.
This was a great miscarriage of justice and a great contempt for the people of Kenya. Hundreds of precious Kenyan lives have been lost because of his carelessness and callousness. He needs to be held accountable for his actions.
Many Kenyans highly regarded Mr. Kivuitu and saw him as the best and most qualified person to provide leadership for the 2007 elections. But the actions we saw from him made many of us wonder whether he was operating from another reality. What a disappointment Mr. Kivuitu! You let down every single Kenyan.
Even though Mr. Kivuitu later admitted that he announced the results because of great pressure from other quarters, he should have used his moral and ethical judgement and refused to announce the results given the contentious nature of some of the election returns.
In due time he must be made to answer for his careless and grave actions that have led our lovely country Kenya on a downward spiral.
Dissapointing Kenyan Elections
Many Kenyans today are still reeling from the shock and profound dissapointment with the recently concluded elections. There is a sense of great frustration with the way the election outcomes were handled. Now the country is truly at a crossroad seeking the way forward as it tries to pull itself from the brink of total collapse. The writer below sums quite well the feelings of many Kenyans and that is the need for new elections!
We want fresh election and an end to impunity
Published on January 7, 2008, 12:00 am
By Ashish Shah
Over eight million Kenyans turned out in their highest numbers ever to vote on December 27. Whichever side of the political divide you sit on, a little over one week later, you are still being reminded why we all came out to vote.
We came out to vote because we are tired, angry and frustrated with the political patronage and impunity that pervades our beautiful nation, and we wanted to use our precious vote to make our concerns known. Little did we expect that it would be the same impunity and patronage that had spread like cancer into our own electoral commission.
Our votes have been manipulated because of impunity and patronage.
I have lost all faith in the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK). I cannot accept having ECK commissioners come out now, after they made decisions based on impunity and patronage, to call for an independent investigation.
Impunity and patronage allow for ECK commissioners to continue to sit in office despite presiding over gross irregularities. They allow politicians to suggest that we use the courts to resolve the crises when we know that our courts continue to be under the influence of that same impunity and patronage.
Impunity and patronage allow for a President to be sworn in without citizens of a nation celebrating. Impunity and patronage allow for brazen attempts to silence the media. They allow for a media house to be raided in full glare of cameras.
There is no shortcut to our future. We have lost faith in all our governing institutions and we cannot rely on them to resolve this impasse. I cannot allow for independent people to re-tally votes already manipulated by the ECK. I cannot trust courts to solve this impasse.
There are only two things I can trust: One is the power of the people to cast their vote under the supervision of an impartial and independent and perhaps foreign electoral institution so that people are given the opportunity to regain control of the destiny of this nation with non-violent means. In the absence of non-violent means which are in the control of citizens to vent their frustrations and opinions, both sides of the political divide will only contribute to escalating violence, peacelessness.
Worse still, what we are seeing in Kenya is a greater consolidation of power resulting in more patronage and more impunity, the very things more than eight million Kenyans came out to vote for and change.
Supporters for both sides of the political divide voted for radical change. That is why over 16 Cabinet ministers were felled. That is why we all turned out in such large numbers.
We must allow Kenyans to vent their frustration and their desire for a better country through the ballot box yet again if we want to prevent citizens from venting their frustration through violence in the streets.
But beyond a fresh presidential election, we must use the current impasse to redirect all out energies into revolutionising our Constitution, because it is our Constitution that continues to allow impunity and patronage to go unchecked and unabated. This impasse provides for an opportunity for all of us to focus our energy on the real issue — delivering a Constitution that will prevent against impunity and patronage.
The real issue is not about who comes to power. The real issue is that we are tired of those who exercise power given to them with impunity and patronage. We are tired of personality-based politics.
Without a new constitution, we will continue to hope for benevolent leadership. This is a risk I am no longer prepared to take. As we have seen over the last five years, even the most benevolent of leaders can preside over impunity and patronage.
Do not waste this impasse in violence against your fellow brothers and sisters. Use this impasse to rid Kenya of impunity and patronage by calls for fresh and independent elections and immediate constitutional reform that places power back into the hands of millions of voters, and away from the political elite.
The writer is an economic and social policy consultant.
http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143980038
Many Kenyans today are still reeling from the shock and profound dissapointment with the recently concluded elections. There is a sense of great frustration with the way the election outcomes were handled. Now the country is truly at a crossroad seeking the way forward as it tries to pull itself from the brink of total collapse. The writer below sums quite well the feelings of many Kenyans and that is the need for new elections!
We want fresh election and an end to impunity
Published on January 7, 2008, 12:00 am
By Ashish Shah
Over eight million Kenyans turned out in their highest numbers ever to vote on December 27. Whichever side of the political divide you sit on, a little over one week later, you are still being reminded why we all came out to vote.
We came out to vote because we are tired, angry and frustrated with the political patronage and impunity that pervades our beautiful nation, and we wanted to use our precious vote to make our concerns known. Little did we expect that it would be the same impunity and patronage that had spread like cancer into our own electoral commission.
Our votes have been manipulated because of impunity and patronage.
I have lost all faith in the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK). I cannot accept having ECK commissioners come out now, after they made decisions based on impunity and patronage, to call for an independent investigation.
Impunity and patronage allow for ECK commissioners to continue to sit in office despite presiding over gross irregularities. They allow politicians to suggest that we use the courts to resolve the crises when we know that our courts continue to be under the influence of that same impunity and patronage.
Impunity and patronage allow for a President to be sworn in without citizens of a nation celebrating. Impunity and patronage allow for brazen attempts to silence the media. They allow for a media house to be raided in full glare of cameras.
There is no shortcut to our future. We have lost faith in all our governing institutions and we cannot rely on them to resolve this impasse. I cannot allow for independent people to re-tally votes already manipulated by the ECK. I cannot trust courts to solve this impasse.
There are only two things I can trust: One is the power of the people to cast their vote under the supervision of an impartial and independent and perhaps foreign electoral institution so that people are given the opportunity to regain control of the destiny of this nation with non-violent means. In the absence of non-violent means which are in the control of citizens to vent their frustrations and opinions, both sides of the political divide will only contribute to escalating violence, peacelessness.
Worse still, what we are seeing in Kenya is a greater consolidation of power resulting in more patronage and more impunity, the very things more than eight million Kenyans came out to vote for and change.
Supporters for both sides of the political divide voted for radical change. That is why over 16 Cabinet ministers were felled. That is why we all turned out in such large numbers.
We must allow Kenyans to vent their frustration and their desire for a better country through the ballot box yet again if we want to prevent citizens from venting their frustration through violence in the streets.
But beyond a fresh presidential election, we must use the current impasse to redirect all out energies into revolutionising our Constitution, because it is our Constitution that continues to allow impunity and patronage to go unchecked and unabated. This impasse provides for an opportunity for all of us to focus our energy on the real issue — delivering a Constitution that will prevent against impunity and patronage.
The real issue is not about who comes to power. The real issue is that we are tired of those who exercise power given to them with impunity and patronage. We are tired of personality-based politics.
Without a new constitution, we will continue to hope for benevolent leadership. This is a risk I am no longer prepared to take. As we have seen over the last five years, even the most benevolent of leaders can preside over impunity and patronage.
Do not waste this impasse in violence against your fellow brothers and sisters. Use this impasse to rid Kenya of impunity and patronage by calls for fresh and independent elections and immediate constitutional reform that places power back into the hands of millions of voters, and away from the political elite.
The writer is an economic and social policy consultant.
http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143980038
Friday, November 16, 2007
Lakewood fourth-graders learn about students in Kenya
connecting students
Sentinel staff report
By Marcia Buck
Margaret Kimosop, wearing clothing from her homeland Kenya.
When fourth-graders at West Ottawa's Lakewood Elementary School learned about Kenyan children, and their need for clean water, "they had eager minds, generous hearts and loving spirits," said Marcia Buck, a Holland representative of the Aqua Clara program.
On Nov. 7, Margaret Kimosop from Kenya addressed the group in her traditional Kenyan dress, while Bettie Visscher of Holland told the group of her experiences as a teacher in one of the schools in Kenya.
Earlier, with their teachers, Jamila Jawahir, Ken Arthurs and Amy VanAllsburg, the Lakewood students had learned about the children in five elementary schools around Eldoret, Kenya, and elected to contribute some of their limited funds to help these Kenyan children.
Visscher told the students that the Kenyan children would walk to school, sometimes an hour away, and that they would sit for four hours straight without a break, sometimes with little brothers and sisters on their lap, for morning classes and then again in the afternoon.
For breakfast they would have a cup of tea, for lunch, corn gruel (like cream of wheat in texture) and the same for dinner, but maybe with a little goat meat. The Lakewood students asked whether there were snacks or a cafeteria where they could get other food. The answer was no.
A doctoral student in Public Administration at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Kimosop told the students that the Kenyan children love to learn. They want to learn English and know everything they can about the United States, because that can get them a job. She told the students that the children of Kenya wear uniforms to school, and politeness is very important. Their lessons are at a table made of planks of wood in a large room where all the children are seated. When the teacher enters, the children all rise and say, "Good Morning, Miss Kimosop," sit and begin lessons for the day.
The Lakewood students asked what kind of sports or games the children played. Kimosop said although recesses are few, they love to play outside, just as American students do, but there they would make balls out of paper and string and make up games to play.
To foster cross-cultural communication, this month the Lakewood students are writing letters and short stories with pictures for the children in Kenya. The principal of schools at Eldoret has promised that the Kenyan children will respond with letters. However, they have a limited supply of paper and pencils, so when the letters are sent from Holland, paper, pencils, erasers and sharpeners will be included. Mrs. Jawahir's class has already collected 683 pencils. Collectively, it is the intention of all the children to establish longer-term communications with each other.
"Last year, Lakewood Elementary students collected $460 to help buy water purifiers for the children in each of the grades in five schools around Eldoret. These water purifiers, as developed by Aqua Clara using age-old technologies, provide clean water from fecally polluted water at $0.0003 per liter," Buck said. "At that time, we made the promise to the Lakewood children to establish a linkage between these groups of children so everyone could talk to everyone, which is now happening."
"So at this meeting, John Hesselink III of Holland, who will expand the training of the Kenyan teams in producing these water purifiers, also shared some of his experiences with the children. He described the condition of the water from the local stream, where the children bathe and the wild animals defecate, as being the same water the children and their families have for drinking. Such water often makes the children chronically sick and sometimes die. He explained the new, locally made water purifiers provide clean water at a price their families can afford. John went on to describe the high interest of the Kenyan children in having clean water and sharing that with their families. In January he will also help in expanding the linkage between the schools and share with the Kenyan children the greetings from the children from the Lakewood Schools."
For more information, visit www.aquaclara.us or call Marcia Buck at (616) 396-8511.
connecting students
Sentinel staff report
By Marcia Buck
Margaret Kimosop, wearing clothing from her homeland Kenya.
When fourth-graders at West Ottawa's Lakewood Elementary School learned about Kenyan children, and their need for clean water, "they had eager minds, generous hearts and loving spirits," said Marcia Buck, a Holland representative of the Aqua Clara program.
On Nov. 7, Margaret Kimosop from Kenya addressed the group in her traditional Kenyan dress, while Bettie Visscher of Holland told the group of her experiences as a teacher in one of the schools in Kenya.
Earlier, with their teachers, Jamila Jawahir, Ken Arthurs and Amy VanAllsburg, the Lakewood students had learned about the children in five elementary schools around Eldoret, Kenya, and elected to contribute some of their limited funds to help these Kenyan children.
Visscher told the students that the Kenyan children would walk to school, sometimes an hour away, and that they would sit for four hours straight without a break, sometimes with little brothers and sisters on their lap, for morning classes and then again in the afternoon.
For breakfast they would have a cup of tea, for lunch, corn gruel (like cream of wheat in texture) and the same for dinner, but maybe with a little goat meat. The Lakewood students asked whether there were snacks or a cafeteria where they could get other food. The answer was no.
A doctoral student in Public Administration at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Kimosop told the students that the Kenyan children love to learn. They want to learn English and know everything they can about the United States, because that can get them a job. She told the students that the children of Kenya wear uniforms to school, and politeness is very important. Their lessons are at a table made of planks of wood in a large room where all the children are seated. When the teacher enters, the children all rise and say, "Good Morning, Miss Kimosop," sit and begin lessons for the day.
The Lakewood students asked what kind of sports or games the children played. Kimosop said although recesses are few, they love to play outside, just as American students do, but there they would make balls out of paper and string and make up games to play.
To foster cross-cultural communication, this month the Lakewood students are writing letters and short stories with pictures for the children in Kenya. The principal of schools at Eldoret has promised that the Kenyan children will respond with letters. However, they have a limited supply of paper and pencils, so when the letters are sent from Holland, paper, pencils, erasers and sharpeners will be included. Mrs. Jawahir's class has already collected 683 pencils. Collectively, it is the intention of all the children to establish longer-term communications with each other.
"Last year, Lakewood Elementary students collected $460 to help buy water purifiers for the children in each of the grades in five schools around Eldoret. These water purifiers, as developed by Aqua Clara using age-old technologies, provide clean water from fecally polluted water at $0.0003 per liter," Buck said. "At that time, we made the promise to the Lakewood children to establish a linkage between these groups of children so everyone could talk to everyone, which is now happening."
"So at this meeting, John Hesselink III of Holland, who will expand the training of the Kenyan teams in producing these water purifiers, also shared some of his experiences with the children. He described the condition of the water from the local stream, where the children bathe and the wild animals defecate, as being the same water the children and their families have for drinking. Such water often makes the children chronically sick and sometimes die. He explained the new, locally made water purifiers provide clean water at a price their families can afford. John went on to describe the high interest of the Kenyan children in having clean water and sharing that with their families. In January he will also help in expanding the linkage between the schools and share with the Kenyan children the greetings from the children from the Lakewood Schools."
For more information, visit www.aquaclara.us or call Marcia Buck at (616) 396-8511.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Culture, civilization, and development
How do we build a world that is more tolerant and accepting of all people? How do we build societies that are more accepting of others and that seek the best for all their people? These are some of the many questions that we al grapple with as we struggle to find answers to all the turmoil that we see everyday all over the world. Global terrorism is on the rise around the world and even as of today the United States and its allies seem to be loosing the battle in their fight to root out terrorist activities around the world. How does culture play a role in nurturing democratic ideals in a given society and how are these ideals sustained and practiced holistically without discrimination or preference.
The article reviewed looks at this critical matter and how culture shapes society. The article is based on an interview of Lee Kuan Yew (former ruler of Singapore from 1969- 1990) and conducted by Fareed Zakaria (1994). Zakaria’s aim in doing the interview was to explore some of the critical factors that led to the enormous economic success of Singapore since its independence. In the interview, Yew notes that one of the factors that has enabled Singapore and especially the Asian tigers to succeed immensely is their cultural values and belief in “thrift, hard work, filial piety and loyalty in the extended family and most of all, the respect for scholarship and learning.” He acknowledges that even though these values also exist within the Western cultural system and have in the past led to the western nation’s success, these values have been on decline in these nations for decades now thus threatening the underpinnings of their societies.
Yew also points out that another reason for Singapore’s success has been the government’s facilitation of certain changes that have created economic growth as the country moved from and agricultural society to an industrial society. Although others have criticized this kind of government initiated and driven economic policy and plan as compared to an American-style system that is flexible, laissez-faire and constantly adapting to change, Yew sees it differently. Although he believes in the government’s role in society, he nevertheless believes that in keeping with the Confucian value system the strongest foundation for any society is in the family. He notes that through all turbulence the family provided an individual a “survival raft.” According to him this “life raft is what enables the civilization to carry on and get to its next phase.”
Yew notes that notwithstanding the criticisms that have been leveled against some East Asian countries of their distrust for open and freewheeling intellectual climate, East Asian countries actually value innovation and the production of new technologies and products. Yew points out that East Asians tradition of strict discipline and respect for teachers enables the nurturing of intellectual capacities. On a governmental level, the encouragement of savings and investments, keeping inflation low, and providing high-quality education have been key drivers of success. However, Yew stresses that the overarching factor is the cultural underpinnings of the society. He notes that even if a country liberalizes its economy and gets many of the economic fundamentals right, if other driving forces are ignored including the value of learning and scholarship, hard work, thrift, and deferment of present enjoyment for future gain, the going will be much slower.
In many ways, there is some truth in what Yew talks about especially one compares the East Asian nations to the oil rich gulf states that have a lot of economic wealth (in terms of oil money), but whose societies still languish and are far behind the East Asian nations.
Yew notes that although with the passage of time cultures change and adopt new ways of doing things and seeing the world, people still tend to grope backwards in the hope of identifying with their past. He illustrates this with the example of how there is a resurgence or the rise of religion in many parts of East Asia. In other parts of the world (especially in the western world) people are not looking to official religion but are searching for a higher meaning and purpose in their own lives. He also acknowledges that there are massive changes occurring within the East Asian societies in terms of lifestyles, ways of bringing up children and especially governance systems within the countries. In terms of the spreading of ideas of democracy and individual rights with East Asian countries, he acknowledges that many of these countries have changed considerably and are still changing. However, he notes that this will not necessarily mean that the systems of government will end up being like the American system or the German system. It is possible that they will be entirely different in keeping with the people’s needs and the maximization of possibilities for all citizens. He is convinced that what will eventually emerge is what will work best within their culture and context.
Implication for governance values
Such an argument mirrors the discussion on what is happening in the Middle East today and especially United States policy in Iraq. Trying to forcibly plant a western style democratic system in such a country and within a short period of time is foolish at best. The United States has hopefully learnt a valuable lesson from the Iraq debacle that one cannot unilaterally impose one’s own system of governance on another country without taking into account the history and context of that nation. There are no generic solutions to be dispensed at will to anyone that one has control of. What is needed is for the rebuilding of societal institutions in such ravaged nations and planting of seeds that will hopefully flower to create a society where everybody is valued and provided with the opportunity to be the best that they can be.
Yew explains that the United States, Western Europe, Japan, China, and other emerging strong nations will in the future need to work more and more closely together in working to find ways to maintain the rule of law and to spread the rule of law in international relations. He notes that the world has over the decades become more intertwined and nations have become interdependent on another thus calling for a need for greater collaboration in world affairs.
REFERENCE
Zakaria, F. (1994). Culture is destiny- a conversation with Lee Kuan Yew. Foreign Affairs, 73 (2), 109- 126
How do we build a world that is more tolerant and accepting of all people? How do we build societies that are more accepting of others and that seek the best for all their people? These are some of the many questions that we al grapple with as we struggle to find answers to all the turmoil that we see everyday all over the world. Global terrorism is on the rise around the world and even as of today the United States and its allies seem to be loosing the battle in their fight to root out terrorist activities around the world. How does culture play a role in nurturing democratic ideals in a given society and how are these ideals sustained and practiced holistically without discrimination or preference.
The article reviewed looks at this critical matter and how culture shapes society. The article is based on an interview of Lee Kuan Yew (former ruler of Singapore from 1969- 1990) and conducted by Fareed Zakaria (1994). Zakaria’s aim in doing the interview was to explore some of the critical factors that led to the enormous economic success of Singapore since its independence. In the interview, Yew notes that one of the factors that has enabled Singapore and especially the Asian tigers to succeed immensely is their cultural values and belief in “thrift, hard work, filial piety and loyalty in the extended family and most of all, the respect for scholarship and learning.” He acknowledges that even though these values also exist within the Western cultural system and have in the past led to the western nation’s success, these values have been on decline in these nations for decades now thus threatening the underpinnings of their societies.
Yew also points out that another reason for Singapore’s success has been the government’s facilitation of certain changes that have created economic growth as the country moved from and agricultural society to an industrial society. Although others have criticized this kind of government initiated and driven economic policy and plan as compared to an American-style system that is flexible, laissez-faire and constantly adapting to change, Yew sees it differently. Although he believes in the government’s role in society, he nevertheless believes that in keeping with the Confucian value system the strongest foundation for any society is in the family. He notes that through all turbulence the family provided an individual a “survival raft.” According to him this “life raft is what enables the civilization to carry on and get to its next phase.”
Yew notes that notwithstanding the criticisms that have been leveled against some East Asian countries of their distrust for open and freewheeling intellectual climate, East Asian countries actually value innovation and the production of new technologies and products. Yew points out that East Asians tradition of strict discipline and respect for teachers enables the nurturing of intellectual capacities. On a governmental level, the encouragement of savings and investments, keeping inflation low, and providing high-quality education have been key drivers of success. However, Yew stresses that the overarching factor is the cultural underpinnings of the society. He notes that even if a country liberalizes its economy and gets many of the economic fundamentals right, if other driving forces are ignored including the value of learning and scholarship, hard work, thrift, and deferment of present enjoyment for future gain, the going will be much slower.
In many ways, there is some truth in what Yew talks about especially one compares the East Asian nations to the oil rich gulf states that have a lot of economic wealth (in terms of oil money), but whose societies still languish and are far behind the East Asian nations.
Yew notes that although with the passage of time cultures change and adopt new ways of doing things and seeing the world, people still tend to grope backwards in the hope of identifying with their past. He illustrates this with the example of how there is a resurgence or the rise of religion in many parts of East Asia. In other parts of the world (especially in the western world) people are not looking to official religion but are searching for a higher meaning and purpose in their own lives. He also acknowledges that there are massive changes occurring within the East Asian societies in terms of lifestyles, ways of bringing up children and especially governance systems within the countries. In terms of the spreading of ideas of democracy and individual rights with East Asian countries, he acknowledges that many of these countries have changed considerably and are still changing. However, he notes that this will not necessarily mean that the systems of government will end up being like the American system or the German system. It is possible that they will be entirely different in keeping with the people’s needs and the maximization of possibilities for all citizens. He is convinced that what will eventually emerge is what will work best within their culture and context.
Implication for governance values
Such an argument mirrors the discussion on what is happening in the Middle East today and especially United States policy in Iraq. Trying to forcibly plant a western style democratic system in such a country and within a short period of time is foolish at best. The United States has hopefully learnt a valuable lesson from the Iraq debacle that one cannot unilaterally impose one’s own system of governance on another country without taking into account the history and context of that nation. There are no generic solutions to be dispensed at will to anyone that one has control of. What is needed is for the rebuilding of societal institutions in such ravaged nations and planting of seeds that will hopefully flower to create a society where everybody is valued and provided with the opportunity to be the best that they can be.
Yew explains that the United States, Western Europe, Japan, China, and other emerging strong nations will in the future need to work more and more closely together in working to find ways to maintain the rule of law and to spread the rule of law in international relations. He notes that the world has over the decades become more intertwined and nations have become interdependent on another thus calling for a need for greater collaboration in world affairs.
REFERENCE
Zakaria, F. (1994). Culture is destiny- a conversation with Lee Kuan Yew. Foreign Affairs, 73 (2), 109- 126
Welfare reform: An outcomes analysis of policy changes
Welfare as a public policy issue has always been a contentious one and among the broad range of people in society, it evokes different feelings and emotions. On one hand there are those who strongly believe that welfare is an entitlement program that should be done away with completely or at least severely limited because of its effects of building a culture of poverty. Others on the opposite end have always seen welfare as a means of meeting the needs of the poor in society and as a way of equalizing the unfairness of the American socio-economic system. According to this camp, it is morally justifiable to meet the needs of those who cannot provide for themselves and no limits should be placed on such kind of help.
From the time of the great society programs and President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty programs in the 1960’s to the early 1990’s this debate raged deeply among the American people. Many calls were made to reform the welfare system because many people judged the system as it was a failure in rooting out poverty and stabilizing millions of people living in poverty especially single mothers and their children. As a result, in 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA) into law which ushered in a new set of welfare policies that made work –not need – the centerpiece of the welfare system. Over ten years since the enactment of this law, conflicting outcomes have been evidenced. The article reviewed below closely examines the impacts and outcomes of the 1996 welfare reform and evaluates its successes and failures. Essentially, what the article contends is that welfare reform is not enough and the system needs to be better structured to adequately meet the needs of those it serves. As has been stated above, this is just one of the sides of this debate and others would strongly disagree with such a conclusion. Really, depending on one’s own ideological view, it is possible to come up with a different set of conclusions. Advocates of the welfare system, even in its reformed state say that the system has enabled many individuals and especially many young single mothers lead a dignified life with their own health and the health of their children assured.
According to Tanner, M. (2003) “welfare reform has not been the disaster predicted by its critics, but neither has it been the extraordinary success hailed by its supporters” (1). He contends that welfare reform has been less successful in meeting many of its stated goals including the enforcement of time limits and work requirements. He also points out that welfare reform has not been able to reduce out-of-wedlock births to young women and has not been successful in breeding a new culture of independence and self-sufficiency among welfare recipients.
In terms of its success, Tanner points out that results show that poverty rates declined every year between 1996 and 2001 and by 2000 child poverty rates had declined to 16.2 percent from a high of 20 percent in 1996. He also points out that by 2003 there had been a drastic decline in poverty among female-headed households compared to other demographic groups though women and children still remained more likely to be in poverty than two-parent families with children.
Tanner also points out that welfare caseloads have been declining since the enactment of the new welfare policies. He points out to statistics that show that in the year 1995 more than 5 million Americans were receiving welfare benefits and nearly one of every seven children lived in a family receiving welfare. After the passage of welfare reform in 1996 caseloads decline increased rapidly and nearly every state saw a significant drop in the number of people seeking benefits. Of course others have seen this decline as having come as a result of a combination of many factors and not just welfare reform. According to those observers, a fall in welfare caseloads coincided with a period of substantial economic and job growth thus leading to the conclusion that former welfare recipients were taking advantage of the good economy and therefore getting jobs. However, this conclusion was subject to debate.
According to Tanner others point out that a fall in welfare caseloads was a result of stringent sanction policies that were put in place by many states to move people out of welfare. Many other welfare recipients were “strongly” encouraged to find work and many did eventually find work and stayed completely off welfare. Many other states also introduced “work first” programs that helped former welfare recipients to ease into work environment and also provided many work support programs like child care and transportation to assist clients retain their jobs once they were employed. However, in the recent years caseloads have either leveled off in many states or have inched up a little bit in some states as a result of weak state economies and loss of jobs. On the whole, Tanner and other policy observers acknowledges that there will be many people who will always dependent on welfare because of a variety of reasons including those who lack education, job skills and employment history and many others who battle with substance abuse, domestic violence, lack health insurance, those who have disabilities, lack transportation, and other problems.
Tanner also points out that success of welfare policies should not be judged by declining case loads alone but also by the well-being of those who have left the welfare rolls. According to a study done in South Carolina and Wisconsin among former recipients, many believed that their quality of life had improved since leaving welfare.
In terms of discouraging out-of-wedlock births, post-1996 welfare reforms have shown encouraging results. Researchers at the Brookings Institution have pointed out that the slowing down of out-of-wedlock births during the first part of the 1990’s was as a result of a decline in second out-of-wedlock births to women who had already had one child out of wedlock.
Implication for governance values
As has been noted above, welfare reforms since the mid 1990’s have exhibited mixed results that include both successes and failures. However, on the whole there have been more successes that have contributed to the betterment of the lives of millions of Americans. The calls for welfare reforms in the 1990 were partly a call for limiting government and especially in its role in the lives of the citizens. It was also occasioned by the cries of those who saw government as huge bureaucratic machine that had become mired by waste and fraud. Many observers today therefore see the 1990’s welfare reforms as positive changes that were long overdue. As more studies are done to ascertain the success or failures of the new welfare system, what is of importance to keep in mind is that the quality of lives of million of Americans is at stake and therefore any policy changes that are made should be done in a spirit of fairness and justice and not just out of expediency and partisanship.
REFERENCE
Tanner, M. (2003). Welfare reform: Less that meets the eye. Cato Institute Policy Analysis No. 473. Cato Institute. Retrieved February 20, 2006 from the World Wide Web: htt://www.cato.org
Friday, March 16, 2007
Eco-tourism: Does it help or hurt fragile lands and cultures?
Ecotourism has become the in-thing today. More people are latching on to the ecotourism bandwagon in the hopes of gaining some benefit from this relatively new tourism phenomenon. However, of late there has been grave concern that rather than promoting and protecting the environment, ecotourism actually hurts the environment and that the costs far out way the benefits. The article reviewed below analyzes this critical issue from all angles.
The international Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment and improves the well-being of local people”. Cox (2006) in her article notes that in the booming global travel business, ecotourism is one of the fastest-growing segments. Those who strongly advocate for this kind of tourism see it as a “benign tool for sustainable economic development in even the poorest nations” However, those who are critical of ecotourism point out to the dangers to fragile ecosystems which visitors flock to see, and the threats to the wellbeing of indigenous cultures as they come in contact with outsiders.
Cox notes that in the last twenty five years, many travelers have enjoyed expanding opportunities to visit locations once considered impossibly remote. Places like the Antarctica, Galapagos Islands and Mount Everest, have become popular destination spots for many tourists in recent years. Cox notes that for those tourists who seek meaningful experiences during their vacations, ecotourism has been able to provide them with these kinds of opportunities. Tourists are able to learn about different cultures and how other people live and are also able to observe and learn about unique natural settings and ecosystems. Advocates of ecotourism also point to the benefits that local economies gain by participants in the ecotourism business. In fact a number of development economists have pointed out that ecotourism is one of the best methods of local community development especially in many poor communities. This is especially so in communities where the indigenous people are made a part of the decision making process and are closely involved in the ecotourism projects.
Indeed there has been some evidence that this kind of program has worked in some communities. In Kenya for instance, the Masaai and Samburu ethnic people who live near many of the most popular wildlife destination spots in the country that receive thousands of international tourists a year have partnered with the government and both local and international tour operators to manage some of the game parks and national reserves so that all the stakeholders can benefit from the tourism trade. In the past these communities had been marginalized and denied the benefits accruing from the tourism trade and this had led to a lot of disenchantment and retaliation from the local communities. Today, the development of these kinds of partnership has led to increasing trust and openness and even led to greater efforts at conservation and preservation of the natural environment by local communities and other key stakeholders.
Those who are critical of such development however, point out that for many other local communities around the world, ecotourism has not been the boon they thought it would be. Some critics point out that a lot of that money that is brought in by tourists ends up back in many of the developed nations in terms of “profits earned by foreign-owned businesses, promotional spending abroad or payments for imported labor and goods.”
Some have contended that many groups have joined the ecotourism or “green” bandwagon just to make quick profits and not necessarily because they care too much about the environment or even whether their services or tour offers are really ecotourism related. This has led to calls for a certification system “reflecting a destination’s environmental and cultural sensitivity. Cox points out that those who advocate for such kind of certification system see it as the only “way to protect the market advantages of genuine ecotourism and encourage development of sustainable practices in the broader marketplace.” However, those who criticize such a move see it as one more way that “diminishes the involvement of indigenous people and exacerbate many of the problems ecotourism already creates for its communities.”
Even as ecotourism has benefited numerous communities around the world, there has been increasing concern that fragile ecosystems are in great danger of tremendous damage. Cox (2006) gives an example of Costa Rica, where as a result of an explosion of visitors to some of its beautiful park systems, hundreds of Costa Rican workers moved into these areas to provide services to the tourists creating a negative environmental impact on the fringes of the preserves. This shows that more needs to be done to balance population needs with environmental protection.
Implication for Governance values
On the whole, ecotourism can be beneficial to all stakeholders if managed well. Governments, conservation agencies, tour operators and local communities all need to work together to aggressively promote environmental sustainability. Sustainable practices are being encouraged on a global scale to mitigate the effects of increasing tourism around the world. Cox (2006) notes that in “Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize and Ecuador, more than 200 tourism operations in or near sensitive or protected areas are receiving training in the “best practices” of sustainable tourism including waste management and water and electricity conservation, as well as social factors as paying adequate salaries and including local and indigenous people in decision making.”
Others point out to the benefits accrued as a result of different people from different cultures meeting and learning from one another. Indigenous-rights activists see the interpersonal connections and first-person impressions derived from tourist visits as of great importance. They contend that tourism should be utilized as a means of effective communication with one another and as a better way of understanding the global crisis that we face today.
REFERENCE
Cox, R. S. (2006, October 20). Ecotourism: Does it help or hurt fragile lands and cultures? CQ Researcher, 16(37), 865-888.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Women’s role in society
I agree with the writer Kang’ara that African women today have been disempowered through the economic system of the modern world. In the past African women were “proud landowners and producers” but today they do not have a say in their economic lives. They have been reduced to consumers of products rather than producers. Even though the products they produced in the past were basic and often rudimentary, it met the needs of their families and their communities. Cottage industries thrived in these traditional communities and goods were exchanged through barter trade. When you look at e-bay for instance, it is nothing but a virtual market where people barter products they have in exchange for the goods they need, only that it is done in a little bit more sophisticated way.
We need to carefully study the traditional system of family and community sustenance and especially the traditional economic systems that acted as mechanisms for the exchange of goods and services and see what lessons we can glean from our forefathers. The lessons learned can then be applied to our modern African context and figure out how the system of today can incorporate those tried and true traditional ways. Presently, development aid has almost completely failed in Africa because it is based on a faulty system. We need less aid and more trade and opportunities to create goods and services and exchange these in the world market. We need to redesign our financial systems so that money received is well protected.
“Women were once leaders in the business of survival but today are forced to sit on the sidelines while others make decisions for them” We need to empower women once again to be welcome to the decision making table where they will have a voice and say in policy making. Today, the United States has a woman as the Speaker of the house making it a historic moment because she is the first woman to hold this position. She is in a powerful policy making position and under her watch a lot of key legislations and policy will undoubtedly be passed making her a powerful person.
We must use science and technology to further enhance the lives of women in Africa in the years to come. Once a lot of the drudgery of their daily tasks is removed from under them, it will free them to become more productive and better contributors to society’s development.
Women have an inbuilt capacity for compassion and empathy and this can be a powerful leadership tool especially in troubled times. Africa leadership for instance today ignores the role that women can play conflict resolution and peace initiatives. Exemplary leaders like Oprah Winfrey, Wangari Maathai, Rosa Parks, mother Teresa, and Eleanor Roosevelt have used their power, position and platforms to highlight critical community issues that needed or need to be addressed. These issues range from environmental protection, civil rights, social justice, poverty, and social wellbeing for all.
What is the effect of global capitalism today especially pertaining to women of Africa? What famine eradication policies are in place today and how do they take into account the long term needs of communities? What is African leadership doing about these issues? What are the voices of women who have to live through starvation and deprivation? What can they teach us about their situation? What are the nations’ of Africa long term planning for food stocks?
Women must be at the center of creation of opportunities of enhancing food production capacity and creating markets for goods produced. They need to be at the forefront in the investment initiatives in rural areas and key players in the ownership and control of means of production. Famine is not right in the eyes of women and their empowerment to fight this ill is long overdue.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Does the United States still depend too heavily on oil?
How does use of fossil fuels impact the environment and the general quality of life of Americans? What is the global impact of the unrelenting use of oil? What policy initiatives has the US government undertaken to address the pressing issue of the impact of energy use on the environment? What other policy initiatives has the government considered in order to lessen the dependence on oil? The paper reviewed below attempts to address some of those issues.
Cooper, Mary (2000) contends that indeed the United States depends too much on oil. Because of this heavy reliance on oil usage, environmental quality in the United States has been seriously compromised. She gives a comprehensive summary of different problems and solutions to America’s dependence on oil. She notes that even though the USA has strong energy policies, America’s insatiable thirst for oil and other fossil fuels continues to rise, this in spite of the recent gas shortages and growing concerns about global warming and other environment problems.
Cooper notes that America faces major vulnerabilities because of it transportation system that is “97 percent dependent on petroleum”. She observes that even though the oil crises of the 1970’s and early 1980’s forced motorists to line up for gas and also forced auto makers to make more energy efficient cars, today America has become more dependent on foreign oil than ever before and the types of vehicles being driven today ( e.g., sport-utility vehicles) consume vast amounts of gas.
She points out that some of the environmental impacts of burning fossil fuels include smog and acid rain. Compounds that get emitted into the environment as a result of burning of these fuels include nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxides, and volatile organic compounds.
Although measures and legislation has been put in place to help maintain air-quality standards as was the case of the 1970 Clean Air Act and other subsequent legislation leading to greatly reduced forms of air pollution, many cities today still continue to be covered in a thick blanket of smog.
Cooper notes that though the political will is there to maintain the strict air-quality standards in many states, governors of some states have been “dodging the politically unpopular steps of properly enforcing auto-emission standards at home”
Another major problem mentioned in the article is the threat of the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused by burning fossil fuels. Cooper points that scientist have determined that excessive emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are causing the warming of the earth’s atmosphere. Because of this danger, Cooper points out that the United States and 37 other countries signed the Kyoto Protocol with all the countries committing to reducing their 1990 greenhouse gas emission levels by 5-8 percent by 2008. Former President Bill Clinton strongly supported this initiative but in the recent years the Bush administration has not enthusiastically embraced the initiative.
Other initiatives that have been contemplated include the increased use of nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuel. Although there are strong proponents for this initiative, many still oppose it by stating that it is not any cleaner than fossil fuels and that the dangers of radiation from nuclear waste are too critical to ignore.
Developed nations like France and Belgium have strongly adopted the use of nuclear power for generating electric power and on a worldwide scale, nuclear energy “accounts for 6.3 percent of the world’s energy production”. In the United States, nuclear power accounts for one-fifth of its electricity. Such statistics indicate that nuclear power is certainly a viable option and that the increase in its usage is inevitable.
Implications for governance values
The US government cannot continue acting in an isolationist manner in regards to environmental policy. It needs to reexamine its stand on the Kyoto protocol on global warming by realizing that it needs to work together and collaborate with other nations to fight the effects of global warming. The government should stop being beholden to large corporate interests that do not want to be challenged in how they consume vast amounts of energy with little regard to the environment.
The government must also tighten its regulatory standards through the EPA. Those who violate the EPA standards should pay high penalties thus acting as a deterrent. Although these tenets go against the governing values of limited government, it nevertheless important for the government to strongly enforce its standards and to be a watchdog by providing oversight over legislation passed.
Congress needs to work hard at passing stronger legislation to protect the environment without necessarily hampering the ability of today’s industries from functioning. They also need to work at securing funding for research into energy efficient practices that can lead to a declining need for oil. Further research needs to be done in the field of biofuels. Citizens need to be involved in finding solutions to the energy dependence that the country faces. It might be a surprise that people come with creative and innovative ideas on how to cut on foreign oil dependency.
REFERENCE
Cooper, M. H. (2000, March 3). Energy and the environment. CQ Researcher, 10, 161-184.
The globalization of the labor market for health-care professionals
In recent years, we find that the migration of people from one country to another has become a contentious issue. This is especially so for the migration of million of people from the developing nations to the developed nations. In the United States today, there is a raging debate about the issue of illegal immigrants who are within the country’s borders and what the government ought to do to stem the tide of many more who are willing to do anything to get into the country. Europe too is facing a similar problem with the European citizens calling for tighter measures to keep out immigrants who the citizens claim come to take their jobs and take advantage of their social systems. However, with the current trend in globalization and the relative freedom of movement of people, goods and services it seems this is an increasingly loosing battle. People often move from one country to another in search for jobs and a better standard of living and if jobs or opportunities are plentiful in one region of the world, people will move there.
The article under review analyzes the subject of the globalization of the labor market focusing on health-care professionals. Unlike other kinds of labor markets, the health care labor market and the emigration of health care professionals has been to a large extent endorsed by many developed nations thus leading to high rate of migration of health care professionals from developing nations to developed nations. Clark, F.P., Clark, A. D., & Stewart, B.J., (2006) in their article contend that though this kind of emigration has always taken place, in recent years this phenomenon has accelerated significantly. Although migration of health care professionals also takes place between poor nations and between wealthy nations, a larger number of professionals are moving from poor nations to rich nations.
This kind of movement has been criticized heavily in recent years because of the effects it has particularly on poor nations. The authors note that many poor nations are loosing critically needed nurses, doctors, physicians, and other health-care practitioners. The loss of these workers has made the situation desperate for many poor nations who as a result cannot adequately meet the health care needs of their people. The authors point out that the under funding and the dysfunctional nature of the health-care systems of many poor nations leads to major flows of labor to wealth nations. Thus, global labor market is disproportionately tilted towards nations that are affluent and that provide the kinds of compensations and opportunities that are a big draw to highly trained professionals.
The authors highlight the problem of the shortage of health-care workers in both developing nations and developed nations. In the case of developed nations, the imbalance is occasioned by a greater demand of health care workers whereas supply is not keeping up. A rising ageing population who have a significantly higher need of health care is met with fewer workers joining the health care profession. Another cause for the shortage is the soaring malpractice insurance rates that have driven away many physicians. In developing nations the shortage of health care workers is mainly caused by lack of resources to train or retrain health care workers and also poor working conditions for those who are already working in the health care field.
The authors note that major migration is among English speaking countries. In the year 2001-2002 there were over 7,000 Philipino nurses who migrated to the United Kingdom while there were over 2,000 nurses who came from South Africa. Australia contributed over 1,000 nurses while from India came over 900 nurses.
As has been noted above, there are costs and benefits to the migration of health-care workers from one country to another. The benefits often accrue to the individuals and to the receiving nations who are able to fill in needed workers where there are critical shortages. However what has been the case is that the costs have often been greater for developing nations who lose valuable human resources that they sorely need. In addition resources that are used to train these departing professionals are often taken away from other critically needed services within the country including education, infrastructure development and social service provision. In the United States, the hiring of foreign workers has centered on the effects it has on labor practices and working conditions for local workers. Issues here include the potential erosion of employment conditions and depressed wages.
Given the high costs that developing nations face when there workers migrate to wealthier nations, there has be an international call to deal with this issue that many have a called a moral and ethical issue of our time. One of the suggestions that has been floated is for developing nations to require the health-care professionals who are planning to emigrate to make a “repayment” commitment in form of a required period of public service especially for those health care workers whose training was publicly funded. Developing nations have also been urged by the world community to increase their investment in the health care sector particularly by working at improving the working conditions of health care workers and also providing better compensation as an incentive to stay within their own countries.
However, on the whole it is an agreed fact that something ought to be done to address the overall issue of negative migration of health care workers from developing nations to developed nations. On a global scale, many solutions have been proposed including passing regulation limiting the number of health care professional who can emigrate to wealthy nations. This solution has however met with resistance because it infringes on the rights of individuals to make their personal choices as to where to live and work. In addition market advocates contend that the current labor movement is a result of the market forces at work that lead people to move where the need and demand for their services is.
Developed nations like the United States and the United Kingdom have been urged to help developing nations to improve their overall social, physical and economic infrastructures as a means to stem the outflow of workers. This particularly important because historically developed nations have faced an unfair terms of trade in the world market with the consequences being devastating for these nations. In addition United States and other developed nations have been urged to support a global fund that would fund the training of health-care workers in developing nations negatively impacted by migration.
These and many other strategies will hopefully address some of the critical issues surrounding the global market of health care professionals.
REFERENCE
Clark, P.F., Clark, D.A., & Stewart, J. B. (2006). The globalization of the labor market
for health-care professionals. International Labour Review, 145(2) 37-64
Monday, January 15, 2007
Children are our future
Educating a child today is creating hope for tomorrow. Children hold so much potential and possibilities that it is imperative that we invest in them. At Potters House Academy, we are investing in the lives of hundreds of children. We are helping these children build self-confidence and gain the knowledge and skills that will enable them to live fulfilling and fruitful lives.
The 21st century holds so much promise for the African continent and so we must prepare the next generation to take the reins of leadership and take the continent to new levels of develpment. It is our hope that Potters House Academy will be at the forefront in preparing these kind of leaders.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Moral and ethical leadership: The case for Africa
Introduction
Moral and ethical leadership is needed in the continent of Africa, more than ever today. The continent faces numerous challenges that have resulted in the hindrance in economic development and the improvement of the living conditions and standards of its people. One of the Key ingredients to this failure is the lack of moral and ethical leadership. Corruption, tribalism, nepotism and the like continue to ravage the continent.
This paper aims to look at the issue of moral and ethical leadership as it is being played out in the African continent and to examine some of the implications of a lack of clear leadership in terms of economic development and the general welfare of the people.
Before looking at the ethical and moral leadership in the context of Africa, it is imperative to define the terms ethics and morality and give a brief overview what has been written about ethical and moral leadership in organizations or institutions today. According to Northouse (2005), leadership ethics as a topic of study is a recent phenomenon. He points out that one of the earliest writings on leadership ethics was as recent as 1996 in the work of a group sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. The groups’ ideas were published in a volume titled Ethic:, the Heart of Leadership (Ciulla, 1998). However, Northouse points out that during the last ten years, interest in the nature of ethical leadership has increased.
Ethics is defined as “the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group and also as a set of moral principles or values” (Mariam-Webster’s Collegiate dictionary, 3rd ed.) Morals on the other hand relates to “principles of right and wrong” (Mariam-Webster’s Collegiate dictionary, 3rd ed.). Northouse (2005) states that “ ethical theory provides a system of rules or principles that guide us in making decisions about what is “right or wrong” and “good or bad” in a particular situation” (p. 302). In terms of leadership, Northouse points out that ethics deals with a leader’s behavior and integrity. Practicing ethical leadership leads to the building of strong trust among all stakeholders. This in turn leads to collaboration in undertaking various tasks and meeting the national goals for development. Northouse argues that ethical leadership is a key to effective leadership. To him, since leaders have been vested with power, they ought to use that power in a positive way to influence their followers in significant ways. Northouse says that some of the characteristics of ethical leadership include: “respect for others, service to others, justice, honesty, focus on community building” (p. 310).
Heifetz (1994), another scholar who studied the importance of ethical leadership pointed out that leaders need to use their authority to help their followers deal with the conflicting demands of a changing work environment by creating trusting and supportive environments.
Greenleaf (1970, 1971) was another key figure who argued for ethical leadership through what he called ‘servant leadership’. According to Greenleaf, an effective leader must be ready to serve his followers. Servant leadership allows everybody to participate in the life of the community and helps build trust and respect among all the stakeholders.
An Individual’s values are the basic principles and tenets that guide beliefs, attitudes, and behavior (Gordon, 1996). A value is believed to function as a guide to the individual’s adaptation to the surrounding environment (Kahle and GoffTimmer, 1983). Thus, values are the point on which the individual intersects with society (Grunert and Scherhorn, 1990).
The relationship between leadership and values has long been studied in the management literature (e.g., Barnard, 1938; Selznick, 1957). Selzick (1957) argued that the real task of leadership is to create a social structure of shared values. Schein (1985) notes that top managers attempt to communicate their organizational values to employees to shape behavior and lead the firm. The ethical orientation of the manager, in terms of traits and behaviors, is a key factor in promoting ethical behavior in an organization (Carlson and Perrewe, 1995). An ethically oriented organization is one that has the capacity to reflect on values in the decision making process and establish how managers can use these observations in managing the organization (Caroll, 1987).
Thompson (2004) asserts that leadership is fundamentally a moral endeavor. She notes that “effective leaders are able to engage with others in building, by example and constructive effort, an environment within which individuals and groups are free and encouraged to discern and actualize the right and the good in fulfillment of shared goals, values and purpose” (p.28).
Leadership especially at an institutional level or a national level sets the tone of the ethical orientation of their environments. Leaders communicate and exhibit the values that lead to an ethical orientation in their settings (Hood, 2003). Therefore, when studying leadership in the African context it is important to examine some of the values that African leaders exhibit in their practice of leadership.
Colonial experience
The colonial experience in Africa was not a pleasant one. Because of repression and the way in which the colonial administrators treated the people within their colonies, the leadership model displayed was not a positive one. Often, the colonial leaders used the divide and rule approach to dealing the indigenous people thus breeding mistrust and animosity between different ethnic groups within a country. A good example of this is what happened in Rwanda and Burundi where seeds of distrust were planted within the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups that decades later led to devastating massacres of innocent people.
Post-colonial experience
Although, the colonial experience for many African countries was not pleasant and a lot of damage was done in the leadership and governance practices of the varied countries, the post-colonial experience has not been very rosy either. Failure in African leaderships is still evident today four decades after colonialism ended. Numerous scholars have posited different views as to why this has been the case. The general consensus however, has been the notion that a lack of a value driven leadership has been the weakness of most African leadership (Bonsu, 2002). Bonsu notes that “politically, the Sub-Saharan African leadership has always built organizations where networks of trust are confined to families and cronies, and those of mistrust and suspicion are relegated to outside groups” (p. 5) Regional conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone for instance has led to terrible human rights abuses and economically impoverished those nations.
However, a small number of African nations have shown some progress in terms of leadership and economic development during this post colonial period. Botswana for instance has not experienced internal instability since its independence from the British in the mid sixties. This has been attributed to Botswana’s post colonial leaders who fostered and maintained a high moral leadership culture that reduced corruption (Bonsu, 2002).
Governance
Leaders who uphold ethical and moral values help build societies that value good governance. Amoako (2001), states “that good governance generates confidence in institutions and process of government.” He continues to add that good governance creates value for all sectors in an economy including the private sector. Good governance demands peace and security both of which are in scarce supply in many African countries as a result of internal conflicts. However, Amoaki notes that a number of peace efforts have been initiated and moral leadership provided by such luminary figures as Nelson Mandela.
Corruption
Corruption and graft are not unique to the African continent. Corruption exists everywhere and anywhere due to the nature of man and due to the cultural context in which he or she operates. Examples of massive corruption and ethical lapses has been witnessed not only in the U.S., but also in many European countries and even in Asia. However, we find that corruption has often become more institutionalized in some regions as compared to others. In many African countries, corruption has become such an embedded feature in the leadership practice that it has become a very serious and moral crisis.
Because of rampant corruption in many African nations today, people have lost trust in their government. Kenya for example was recently cited as one of the most corrupt nations in the world by Transparency international (Transparency International, Kenya, 2006). A lot of Kenyans interviewed after the corruption index report was released expressed an increased level of frustration as they saw that corruption was increasing every year. In addition, Kenya was recently said to be a high level transit hub of the illegal drug trade. How can such things happen if the elements with the government are not condoning such practices? Such practices cannot happen within a vacuum. Corrupt and greedy government officials must either be colluding with the drug cartels or they must be looking the other way as illegal drugs are transited through the country. The present Kenyan government was elected on the platform of zero tolerance to corruption. However, four years down the road those declarations seem mere platitudes as corruption has hardly been tackled. In fact, what happened once the new government came into power was the inheriting of the corruption rings and corrupt systems of the past regime, to benefit those who now wielded power.
High levels of corruption have led to political elites to embezzle from the national treasury for personal use, thereby undermining the accumulation of financial capital resources essential for economic development (Bonsu, 2002). The late President Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo had, according to one estimate, well over $5 billion in foreign account, an amount the size of Congo’s foreign debt at the time (Economist, 1993). Kauffman (1997) notes that corruption is negatively associated with developmental objectives everywhere. He notes that the results gathered from surveys conducted among high level officials from emerging economies shows that public sector corruption is rated as the most severe developmental obstacle facing their countries
However, the good news is that there are a number of African countries that have been cited in a new World Bank research as among countries which have made progress in improving governance and corruption. These include: Botswana, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, and Liberia. Moral and ethical leadership will say no to corruption and under hand dealings that are driven by selfishness and greed.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
New leadership paradigms for 21st century schools: A case for sub-Saharan Africa
Africa today is groaning under the weight of immense socio-economic challenges. its societal systems are under so much attack and its people are indeed floundering. Part of Africa’s challenges stem from its own history of colonial rule and the subjugation of the African people. Its education history particularly leaves a lot to be desired, especially in the light of the colonial legacy where the colonial administration did not invest seriously in the education of the African people. After independence, the educational gaps in the society were immense. Post independent Africa has not faired much better. Education in many sub-Saharan countries still lags behind. As a result of this history, we find that human capital has not been fully tapped in order to aid the development of the continent.
What is needed is a new paradigm in school leadership and administration in African schools with the goal of transforming school systems and the educational environment as a whole in order to produce graduates of a high caliber who are able to face the 21st century with its opportunities and challenges. What then are the new leadership qualities, skills and capacities that are needed for the prospective school administrator or leader?
The goal of this paper is to examine school leadership through the lense of transformational, contingency, and team leadership theories and draw some lessons that can be applied to school leadership in sub-Saharan Africa.
In this essay, we will look at what others have said about transformational leadership and its implications for school leadership in particular.
In a recent article written by a leading Kenyan newspaper, school heads were interviewed and were asked what were some of the challenges they faced in school leadership. Many answered that there greatest challenge was that they did not feel prepared for the tasks of school management and leadership. Inadequate training and preparation greatly hampered there work. I believe however, that beyond learning the management skills of running a day to day operation of a school. School heads need to cultivate leadership skills that will transform their schools into places of excellence where all involved thrive and excel.
A transformative school leader will be one who will cast the vision about where he or she wants to see the school head. This leader will inspire all the stakeholders in the educational enterprise to seize moments of opportunities for excellence. As a transformative person, the school leader will be ready to take risks, create new visions, and change people’s perception about themselves and their situation. The leader will build new relationships and new structures that fosters a healthy learning climate. The leader will also work at creating a new culture that is open to new ideas and approaches that enhances the school operates.
The 21st century school leaders must learn to be collaborators and co-participants with all the stakeholders in the educational community, including parents, children, policy makers and other community leaders. School leaders can gain tremendous insight by listening and drawing ideas from a wide variety of people in order to enhance the effectiveness of schools. Effective school leaders will be those who will be able to cope with conflict, set new directions, align resources and inspire all stakeholders. They will empower all stakeholders to create longterm vision, define and clarify problems and opportunities, create and commit to improvement strategies and take action. Such leaders will require courage, commitment, and empathy.
One of the major problems that has plagued school leadership in many sub-Saharan countries is the use of top-down approach to leadership where it is assumed that the boss knows it all and he or she should be the one to come up with all the solutions. This, has resulted in ineffective school performance and massive failure. Many teachers and heads acknowledge that this has been the scenario for decades. Nevertheless, many have come to realize that this practice needs to change. Many African schools are now adopting bottom-up approach to educational leadership....You can request for a copy of this whole paper from: mkimosop@hotmail.com
"Let this Pan African Parliament be the voice of the poor. Let us be open to allow the voices of those who speak through us be heard,"
Nelson Mandela challenging the members of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) while launching the Trust Fund at the seat of the august House in Midrand, South Africa.
For details go to:
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=39&newsid=85547
The launching of the Trust Fund triggers many things to many people. Personally, it swings my mind back to the pet subject of many in
Corruption may be defined as the provision of material benefits to politicians and public officials in exchange for illicit influence over their decisions. The corruptor uses private benefits to induce a public decision maker to bend or break formal rules of procedure in order to confer on the corruptor special favors in the adjudication of rights or the allocation of resources. Although it may be tolerated by a country's citizens, corruption is, by definition, illegal. It is important to distinguish corruption, which entails the illegal sale of special favors, from political patronage, which occurs when public decision makers use their legal margin of discretion to confer favors on their friends and followers without receiving material benefits in return. Corruption can have two different purposes. Politicians and public officials may sell favorable decisions in order to accumulate funds for political reasons, such as a future election campaign. They may also use bribes to accumulate private wealth. Of course, the boundary between political and personal corruption is fluid.
As regards increased enticement for corruption, a prime suspect is the wave of democratization that has swept across
With this in mind, I call upon all young leaders in
Visit this site for some interesting stuff in the women's world: http://wworld.org/programs/newItem.asp?eventID=40
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