True social security through social banking

 

Why are we poor? Is it our africanness? Is it our global trade laws that allow the third world to be paid less for their goods? There are so many reasons, but the chief one is that we are not fully in this modern world. Our people are not fully subscribed to the cash economy, now cash is strange, it is built entirely on trust and suspension of disbelief. Imagine the first time our ancestors were shown a piece of paper and told “This is equal to a cow” and they laughed. How can a piece of paper be equal to a cow? A cow is equal to a cow. Money is the greatest invention of mankind, it may be the worst invention, but it has driven progress for millennia. How does one quantify labour? If a shoemaker wants to sell to a goat-herder then how many shoes equal a goat, you one need one pair, what happens to the excess money or labour? Money solves that problem of quantifying and rewarding labour. We take a piece of paper and ascribe value to it, we have wizards in BNR who have done forecasts, consulted the financial gods and all is well. When we stop believing the money is worth much we get inflation, the wizards have to come and reassure us again that all us well. Most Rwandans have not bought into the cash economy, they still live by their own sweat growing their own food and it is rare that they need money compared to a city person. There is a crop in the field, honey in the tree, meat in the bush, milk in the cow, and they have no commercialism to aspire to own the latest this or that. They need just medicine, soap, salt, and the odd utensil. School fees and uniform kit can be earned through seasonal labour, and the rest of the time is free. The global economy waits for no man, but we do not yet aspire to that. Capitalism is built on more, more, more, creating a surplus and excessive excess. What if you just want to chill?

What is the point of a bank?

 

You cannot just chill because population pressures are never far away, Rwanda has a high population density so Malthus will not allow us to relax. If one has not subscribed to the cash economy then banking is out of the question. Banks charge monthly fees on average of $4, if you count that annually that is $48 in fees, if you take average earnings at even $900 a year then it is substantial – THE MATTRESS CHARGES NO MONTHLY. No wonder people are not interested in opening accounts, it can cost 15% of your income. What is the point of a bank? Yes, it is to make money for shareholders, but how? Not by overcharging  like my bank KCB does. I asked a question on their suggestions board. WHAT SERVICES DO YOU ACTUALY PROVIDE? ATM, Visa, Chequebook and what? Loans? What else? Ask yourself, what is the point of a bank in this day and age? You can make transactions without them, you can get loans without them, you can do anything, they are largely obsolete especially with mobile money. Quite often we hear of banks which are charged to help development instead lending money to their own employees to make massive profits on land deals. Or all the loans going to the family and friends of the employees, that is what a bank is for, to enrich the bankers at our expense.

 

 

Punitive damages

 

Our banks are stuck in the 90’s even KCB comes to Rwanda to rehash its 90’s model having being thoroughly destroyed by Equity Bank. They are proud of their long queues, we even say “wow look at BK, people are queuing all the way on the pavement outside, they must have loads of money.” And the other banks are jealous, wishing they had people around the block. These queues are just bad customer service, you find at peak times only 2 counters working as workers go for lunch at the time when everyone goes to bank. The banks make money on fees, the workers, lights, water is paid by fees, so they don’t have to make a profit because the basics are paid. We need to abolish bank fees for having an account, maybe charge for services but don’t deduct 4,000 for doing nothing. Access Bank and Equity now have annual single fees, I urge other banks to do so as well. We should be earning interest and not paying just to queue for our money. Mobile money is also heavily expensive, around 1-3% charges on MTN, they punish you the higher the money you send so it will never graduate to serving big business when you can lose hundreds of dollars per day on large amounts. We are overtaxing mobile money before the sector even grows. KCB charges 1,775 to withdraw money from your online account to Mobile money, Banks are punishing customers to prevent them from moving to the inevitable to preserve their business model. We need a monthly fee and transactions to be free of charge after that.

 

The labour value chain

 

Why are interest rates high in Rwanda and Africa? The bankers give you a bullshit answer they have prepared. “You see the high interest rates are caused by low capitalization of banks due to lack of a savings culture.” Bull, crap, rubbish, lies. How can we save what we don’t have? How much can a person on $900 save? Unless they starve, they also need to spend to get out of poverty, even borrow to get out. So what chance is there we will start to save on average some $1,000 a year when we earn less than that? The REAL reason is we lend to the WRONG people (the politically connected) and secondly we lend into a messed up value chain. In order for banks to survive we need to remedy these two areas, on risk management and value chain management. Our banks manage risk proactively, by weeding out the risk ahead of time, but if you slip through the net there is a 18% to cover all eventualities. No nation has ever developed on 18%, a debt becomes unviable above 8% and you will have negative equity. In order to reduce our lending costs, we have to manage the value chain, to eliminate risk in real time.

 

Scenario

 

You lend money to a farmer, they give their title deed as their collateral, and now the bank is covered whether you succeed or fail. In fact the bank will be hoping the farmer fails so they can grab the land cheaply, they pray for locusts, droughts, even plagues to hit their client just so they can profit. Our banks are equally betting on us failing and succeeding. Banks have failed to invest in farming, our basic survival, because 18% is too high to start a business on. 18% is an insult to us all, it says they do not believe in Rwanda, they are betting on us to fail, 18% is a vote of no confidence and wanting to pay off a loan within a presidential term. We need to lend longer, over 20-30 year for property at 5-7% instead of 8 years of 20% that is too steep a ladder to climb.

 

Scenario 2

 

A bank decides to do value chain management. They decide to reduce the number of actual bankers they employ, counterintuitive like a hospital sacking doctors. Instead they replace 30% of staff with non-banking people, technical staff: engineers, lawyers, marketing, sales, distribution, transport and logistics. They never invest in a sector unless you have inhouse people who understand it fully.

 

A group gets together to build a mall, around 10 investors put up half, the bank the other half at 10% to be realistic, looking at a 3% margin but also a 50% stake that has to be bought out. The bank needs to be invested and not just win if you lose, you have to be tied at the hip. The bank gives you all the advantages you need instantly, engineers, architects, project managers, foremen, each reporting regularly and inspecting progress. To proactively troubleshoot in the field: if supplies are being overcharged, if transport costs are being boosted, if people are stealing cement on the site, if fake invoices are being handed in. That is why we pay 18% to pay for thug niggaz stealing money on the side. So we have to pay for the building plus a couple secret buildings where the supplies went. It is the only way a bank can protect its investment, they just watch their money flowing down the drain “Look your money is going down the drain.” The bank knows it can raise interest rates 2% and recoup that money gone down the drain, but it is a death spiral.

 

Scenario 3

 

Bank lends money to Cooperative, a well-detailed project is written up, timelines, deadlines, but a hands on approach. Inputs, environment and farmers, to manage the whole value chain from the field to the plate. Every single risk can be mitigated until there is no risk apart from sheer bad luck. Irrigation means you don’t wait for rain, rain is a bonus to boost the harvest, you have enough to last to harvest even if there is a drought. Fertilizers and pesticides can remove other environmental risks. Machinery can increase the capacity of work you can do, then when you harvest you have adequate storage. Finally, you can add value addition and food processing to increase profits. When risk has been mitigated, then we can go into the Futures, where a farmer can sell several years ahead knowing that the return is guaranteed.

 

So when I asked KCB “What services do you actually have?” it seemed absurd, it is a bank, take it or leave it. Your clients need financial services, accounting, auditing, sales, marketing, logistics, payroll management, tax assessment, you name it. Banks are actually cutting staff in a time they should expand, they should invest in risk managers who work in real time to avert disasters. You lend a business money then you hear Revenue closed them down coz the books were sloppy. If that bank had sent even an intern 3 days before to sort out the books then a $100,000 loss could have been avoided. A bank has to leverage its clients to build a business ecosystem in-house, let your clients lift each other, call in favours. A bank manager should call any company that owes them money “Hey I need some help, one of my clients needs a marketing plan done for their project. By the way, your loan is up for review next week, so it would help to keep things smooth…..” Okay we’ll send someone. So your client gets a world class marketing plan as a favour for a favour.

 

The RSSB bank

 

The vast majority have not bought in fully to the cash economy, they see cash as a necessity at times when certain situations demand it. Rwandans are communal and familial, they are not yet individualistic as capitalism demands. So any economic program has to be based on the family and not the person, policies like Mutuelle should be more family centred, a premium should be per home adjusting for the number of residence. We should introduce a credit card system for work, where people can work on projects in exchange for credits that can be exchanged for health coverage, school fees, tax debts, even money. Umuganda is used in rural areas to speed up completion of projects, the community gives its labour in exchange for a new school, or clinic, or courthouse. We should be able to quantify and reward labour, Rwandans should be able to pledge their labour and get rewarded, to pledge 200hr a year to help build their country, and be credited for those hours in return for better social security. In Greece where the nation was about to default, the finance minister Varoufakis came up with a system of a digital currency to keep the nation going. It would allow citizens to trade credits instead of money, the idea was killed by the EU as Greece was forced to accept austerity. The idea of a credit system could get Rwandans into the system quicker, working for money is greed, but working to get healthcare for your family is common sense.

 

The Social Security Bank should be created, merge our pensions, tax and savings into one system. Revenue should issue a number to every Rwandan, that becomes your SS number, tax ID no, bank account number, and your credit risk profile. You should be able to bank money, and time, because time is money and money is time. The time worked entitles you to services in the next year, you can farm to feed your family but the basics are taken care of, and education and healthcare don’t bankrupt people. There should be no monthly charges, just premiums according to the customer’s needs. The top premiums should pay 40% of the workers last salary for 6 months if you are jobless, people would pay 10% for employment insurance, if you are never sacked in that time you can recoup 5% as savings or credits. The biggest creditor and debtor is the Government, the delays in payment by government institutions is one of the biggest logjams in doing business in Rwanda. Our strict accounting systems cause delay though debts are paid in full, a business can be bankrupt by then. Using this credit system means govt debts can be traded or borrowed against, giving a business more time and flexibility.

 

I don’t have all the answers, I realize the difficulty involved but this is just my opinion.

 

Rama Isibo

Rwanda needs work

Rwanda is not working

 

When PR takes over….

 

A nation is on the way to doom, when you seek the glory and approval of outsiders, you cease to do it for yourself. We are a nation that now lives on PR, on the ambrosia of praise and false flattery. When a Western media outlet does a story on Rwanda, it is just looking for fodder to fill its pages, they don’t love us deep down as a people. A minister is judged by how many articles their ministry generated in the international media, you no longer have to perform, you just have to appear to perform. When you live by PR you no longer make decisions based on the cost-benefit but in the PR it will generate. It is like crossing the road by doing a quadruple back flip and spin when you could just walk across. A good recent example is the Drones, that was genius, it was big thinking, but is it what we need now? It made headlines, Rwanda looked good, but there are so many other cheaper and more effective solutions, but they don’t generate good PR. Simply making ice-pack fridges which can fit on the back of a moto would be more reliable, cheaper and provide employment. That is where thinking big goes wrong, you think out of proportion and perspective of your problems. One Lap Top Per Child, you jump to digital when analogue radio can be used to teach children and adults alike. Analogue radio isn’t cool, it won’t get you on the cover of Time, but it will solve your problems cheaper and quicker in your own context. We should open a radio station with multiple frequencies for different ages, teaching courses 24 hours a day.

 

Where are the jobs?

 

Some Govt offices exist just to produce good PR, not to solve problems, so they are never honest about the problem in the first place. The Labour ministry produced stats saying there is 2% unemployment, the joke of the year, the minister went on to insult Rwandans but the biggest insult is that lie. 2% ? Then it says urban unemployment is 8%, that is the sweet smell of cooked stats, if you deny the symptoms of the patient then you can never cure them. The total number of jobs added last year was 86,000 and we had 7% growth. That is pathetic. We are having a jobless boom, so much money swilling, record profits but no jobs. If there are no jobs then there is no boom. We judge our progress on shiny new buildings, empty buildings, mountains of debt with no tax-base to pay for it. We have some 350,000 tax payers and that barely grows, they are paying all the income tax. The Labour ministry is sleepy, it is a sweet job where nothing happens and you get promoted because you avoid scrutiny by doing NOTHING. People are so fed up with them, most want it disbanded as it doesn’t know its purpose. Just pay govt workers on time, that’s all. Rwanda has a whole black economy worth $20bn, all this growth is just bringing these shadow businesses online, we can have 10-15% growth with the right policies.

 

 

 

The Fundi scenario

 

Here is a story we all know well, I am sure you will appreciate this illustration of our structural problems.

 

Tap is leaking or lights are out, you need a technician, there is no directory of approved plumbers so you send someone to ask around. The first person they ask “Do you know any plumbers?” and they answer “Funny you should ask, I did plumbing for a Belgian, I am one of the best in Kigali, ask around” The odds of bumping into Kigali’s best plumber at the first time of asking are slim but you accept.” The first thing he asks you for is money to hire tools, a professional should have tools but in Rwanda they rent tools from the hardware shop. He is stinking of booze, the Sudiweri – little liquor bottles of 100ml marked “Sealed Well” Sudiweri. He asks for an advance and comes back 6 hours later even more drunk, this time he needs money for parts only. You dismiss him but you get another drunkard, maybe they do it. Even if they can do a job, they deliberately sabotage and leave something loose so you call them again.

 

Look around in the room where you are sat right now, is it straight lined? You see the window at a slight angle, the floor is never level, the people who build it can never see it. It is “Good enough” never the best job you can do, just enough, people are often over-budget and behind schedule so they never do things straight. I never look at Rwandan buildings because it pisses me off, the tiny mistakes amount to a lot, it looks great when it is new and shiny but eventually the ugly shows. The drunk Fundi who measures by closing one eye and tilting his head till it is straight, we need to professionalise him, maybe even get some more her’s in the sector. The real jobs are not being counted, over 2m Rwandans have jobs that are unrecognized, bicycle mechanics, handy men, day labourers, painters, transporters, vendors, hawkers, small bankers. They are outside the economy, they don’t figure in the knowledge based economy dream we have, but they are the vast majority. How do we bring them online into the main economy?

 

Formalizing the informal

 

UK had the same problem, drunk Fundis, thieving technicians, what we have now. Then there was a law introduced saying clients could sue fundis who did a bad job. Now the Fundi’s had to get insurance, to get insurance they had to register for tax, they also had to declare an income. Now imagine if Sonarwa had to pay every drunk fundi who messed up? Now they would set up qualifications and standards required to get insurance. So the client is covered, the worker professionalises, the fake imposters are removed because they don’t have insurance. Then we can have a minimum wage that is worth it because quality is guaranteed. You should not be able to call yourself a bricklayer unless you have been approved by the City Guild of Workers, your exam is to make a wall of bricks against the clock and meeting good standards. Same with plumbers, electricians, mechanics, tyre-fitters, even basic labourers should be certified and covered with insurance, making it mandatory will expand our insurance sector which lacks subscribers. After that we will start to see our windows straight, our floors will be level, and people will have jobs.

 

Many have proposed a job agency, one twitterer was adamant that Labour should be moved away from the ministry of Labour otherwise it will wither. Then what would be the point of Labour as a ministry? We have this fascination with creating autonomous stand-alone institutions because we cannot fix the bureaucracy and institutional memory in certain institutions that resist change. Labour is a good example of this with an autonomous Capacity Building dept. What is their purpose? They cannot create jobs but can provide a framework towards formalization, while also connecting people with jobs, and employers with workers. The metrics of measuring unemployment also need to change, you can’t count subsistence farmers as employed, then measure the jobless as part of this overall number. It should be those seeking work as part of the total formal taxpayers. That is why we need an agency that truthfully collates employment numbers in all subsections of demographics to give us a better idea of the problem and how to solve it. Instead they cook the numbers to look good, 2% go away, no problem here. That is a problem, we should sack ministers without problems and dissolve their ministries, if only 2% unemployment then we can close it, there is no problem of employment. We all know this is false because many young graduates we know are unemployed for up to 3 years after graduating, no one counts them because they are fed at home but anger is mounting, and it is wasted potential.

 

 

Lowering entry barriers

 

When you look at classified ads for jobs in Rwanda it is almost saying “Kenyans and Ugandans only” they are demand too much for too little pay. They want qualifications and experience, but also want youth. How can you get experience in Rwanda in such a new economy? Even when they hire experienced Kenyans and Ugandans their experience cannot fit the Rwandan context. It is better to lower entry barriers and employ our own, we talk of Agaciro but we worship Kenyans and adore Ugandans, even if some suffer corruption and laziness. Most of these expats are just looking for a way to make quick money, to earn expenses or fake them, they have no investment in Rwanda and all the money goes back home. A university degree should get you any entry level job in Govt then you can learn as you go, a job of $500 a month requiring a Master’s degree is left empty for years, any non-stealing worker would be better than empty. We need to lower our standards and make the best of what we have, get people who are enthusiastic and willing to learn, and not second-hand cast offs. We have to believe in Rwandans, not just their book knowledge but cultural knowledge and understand their context better. I worked with NGO’s where I was told I am too “involved” and my opinions were clouded the same type of thinking. We also think like that as a people. We can do it, so bring that Diploma from ULK, or UNR, or Kabyayi and let us build our nation together.

 

Part II coming soon

True social banking and social security

 

What is the point of a bank?

 

Rama Isibo

The Africanisation of American politics

 

There has been a strange synthesis in politics, a reverse osmosis if you will. When an experiment has the reverse effect to what you envisaged. There has been this prevailing notion that if only African nations could be more like America – the land of the free and the home of the brave, then they will develop better. Markets will decide what levels of development we have. There is this idea that there is something inherently corrupt and irredeemable about our African nature that makes us undemocratic. If only we could shed our culture entirely will we be able to enjoy the fruits of modernity and Western excess. As we have seen in the West, particularly America, we have managed to infect them with our dirty politics, woe unto us. If we had an African election between a former First Lady who used her husband’s connections to build a business and political network that granted favours in exchange for money, they’d be stories of how this reflects our basic nature as corruptible beasts. If an African contender in an election had said he wants to expel a certain tribe he didn’t deem worthy, we would have ICC threatening charges. When Mswati holds his Reed Dance of young nubile semi-naked women, showing off their bodies for his personal amusement, we say SAVAGERY, Trump calls his “Miss Teen America.” Like Trevor Noah said, Trump would be the first African president of America. I tried to explain the absurdity of this to Africans, they just see it as politics as usual.

 

Bombastic rhetoric is a hallmark of African politics, when you talk to the international cameras you use the language of diplomacy, call your opponent an honourable Gentleman. However, when you go home and talk to crowds in your native language, it is talk of war, talk of murder, and talk of revenge. You tell your tribe that they are discriminated against by a system that favours the unworthy, hard workers are left behind while jobs go to those who don’t deserve it. You say that ONLY YOU can fix this mess. The truth is that, like most African countries, the elite is in bed together. They pretend to fight for the cameras but behind the scenes they joke and laugh together, while supporters fight each other.

 

No details are ever offered, solutions are deliberately vague, “We will increase GDP by 10% a year” How? Never an answer, instead you point to the mistakes of your opponent and smearing. “My opponent wants to increase your taxes and kill the economy” What do you want to do? I can’t tell you, but trust me, it’s all gonna be rosy. There has been no policy debate, much like an African election, just platitudes, or intense rambles from Hillary which are all smoke and mirrors. We can’t even agree on facts, something that should be irrefutable. Is the economy growing or shrinking? Depends on who you ask.

 

Jailing opponents is the inevitable element in African politics, when you have the power it is the first order of business after swearing in, some even jail them before. You have the power, what can stop you? Suddenly the tax office goes after the opponents businesses and those of their allies, the opponent is jailed on flimsy treason charges. There can only be one bull in the kraal so the loser must go to exile or jail, never to roam free where they can plot their eventual victory. Power is a roll of the dice, losers lose, winners win.

 

Trump won’t recognize if he loses, if he wins he expects Hillary to call him to congratulate him, but if he loses then he won’t accept. That is so African, no leader ever accepts defeat graciously, even if there was the slightest problem caused by bad logistics they blame they. A big man is never defeated, like a boxer who is knocked out but claims he was hit unawares. Trump wants to start another party after the GOP is done with him. A party centered around him, his ego, his connections, like an African party, when the leader dies, the party dies because  it was all based on patronage around him.

Mswati reed dance is seen as outdated savagery, but Trump televises his Reed Dances, he can walk into their dressing rooms as the undress, same stuff. An African would see this as his right to do so, to bless these fertile young women with his admiration. The grabbing of women and ravaging them is what Idi Amin did, many others, in fact more African president did than didn’t. Allegations of sexual predation against Trump have solidified his base, their man is sinned against. Much like when Jacob Zuma was accused, the woman was tarnished as a whore, supporters of Zuma made excuses for him. Why now? This was politically motivated, he would never do that, then, it was consensual. Bill Clinton was excused by a whole panel of prominent feminists, they stuck to him because he was from their political tribe despite his misogyny.

 

Claims of rigging and Ethnic divisions are part and parcel of every BBC report on an African election. Yet we hear it is neigh on impossible to rig an election in USA, we saw what happened in Florida 2000. Like in Africa, no need to rig, just deny voter ID to those less likely to vote for you. Around 14 states in the South, mainly Republican leaning, have made it harder for Blacks and other minorities to vote. Blacks are asked for 3 forms of ID, so a Driving License and passport are not enough, Whites are rarely asked for ID. In African election it is common to deny members of your opponent’s tribe the right to vote, even if they want to vote for you. In the areas supporting an incumbent even children get ID’s to vote, like in Kenya where Central had 110% voter registration while Nyanza province which votes for Raila Odinga only got 40% of voter ID’s. Instead of appealing to new voters with policies to excite them, it is easier to stop them voting, that way you don’t have to evolve as a party. This is what Republicans do, instead of appealing to Black and Latinos who make 30% of the nation and are increasing, they double down, block them from voting and stay the same.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/middle-aged-white-americans-left-behind-and-dying-early/433863/

White lives matter too, for the first time in history, stats are pointing downwards for whites. They have gone from 90% to 65% and will be down to 49% in 20 years. Rumors of the demise of the white race are now ringing true in some ears, the worst subsection are Trump’s core base – working class white males aged 45-55. These are the men left behind by globalization, the men who had safe Union jobs that are going abroad. There is a high mortality rate among these men, there is a 40% opiate addiction rate among this group and no one is listening to them. The solution was to medicate a generation that was likely to complain, the pharmaceutical companies saw a gap in the market to produce legal drugs; vicodin, zanax, percoset are all the exact chemical composition as cocaine or heroin, but legal. These drugs have been prescribed by doctors for profitand they put drug dealers out of business. The problem is when these prescriptions run out, they turn to real cocaine and heroin. Black went through this in the 70’s in the first wave of deindustrialization, crack and heroin ravaged societies, now whites suffer the same effects.

Corruption is the system, the system is not corrupt, it is working fine. You have to pay for play, no official will meet you unless you pay a donation to their reelection. Large companies pay absolutely no tax, by writing off their donations to the parties. If this was Africa, it would be corruption but in USA it is called Lobbying – we need to start using complex words to describe our corruption, lobbying fees aka bribes. What killed African democracy is killing American democracy, money, the collusion between the Political and Economic elite to preserve themselves ahead of others. In a democracy, the Political class should oversee the Economic, and economic class holds the political class accountable, but there was a secret deal. A wink, a nudge, that is all it takes, for the watchman and the thief to collude. Like Africa, the private sector is plundering the state, inflicting debt and deficits on the tax payer, the politicians collude to bail out these huge corporations.

 

Hillary will be more of the same, Big Business and Wall St will rejoice at her election, more corporate welfare. Trump would be a DISASTER in his own words, like having a 7 year old with nuclear codes, it could end humanity. So Hillary wins, but I hope she is blocked at every turn, and ends up a one term president and the dirty secretive style of government goes with her. She took control of the Democratic party apparatus so no other challengers could emerge, it only emerged later what a weak candidate she was. “Hillary lost to a black guy with a Muslim name, then barely beat a 74 year old Jewish guy, now she can’t even finish Trump. Hillary!!! We’re trying to make this easy for you and you can’t do it.” Said Bill Maher, comedian. It is like being asked if you want to get shot or stabbed. Hillary is the slower death, death by Wall St, death by deficit, secret deals behind backs. Take your pick, now you know how Africans feel about their politics.

 

No diggity Lyrics from 96 from Blackstreet

Rollin’ with the phatness
You don’t even know what the half is
You got to pay to play
Just for shorty, bang-bang, to look your way
I like the way you work it
Trumped tight, all day, every day
You’re blowing my mind, maybe in time
Baby, I can get you in my ride

The Diaspora is failing us, no more crumbs

 

We have recently had a heated debate about the role the Diaspora plays in our development. It quickly descended into a partisan name-calling, the Diaspora were just brainwashed mental slaves scared to come home, the locals were just jealous they never got a chance to live in the heaven that is the West. Many in the Diaspora point to the remittances they send back, indeed the Diaspora would be our biggest aid donor if it were a country. In this globalised world we are lucky to have Rwandans abroad to represent us, speak for us, and send some money home to help grandma pay the bills. I was most impressed by Nigerians in the West, the sense of having to help each other, even though they were sometimes criminals they had a sense of responsibility. “When you climb over the wall, you need to throw a rope over to help others.” A beautiful metaphor, trailblazers should make it easier for the next pioneers. Rwanda is not alone in having a large Diaspora in the West, where it lags is how it uses this 200,000 strong Diaspora in development.

 

We don’t want your pennies, we want trade, there must be more than just running to Western Union. The Diaspora is the key to unlocking all opportunities denied to us. Take the example of Coffee. EU slaps a 350% tariff on non-EU goods, so we often sell at a low price to avoid the high tax. A second company buys at rock bottom then resells to its parent company at a much higher price. This is fraud but they call it free trade, it is how our exports are undervalued at 10% of their true market value. Rwandans with dual-nationality can set up coffee trading companies, bring in their goods at low tariffs then export back the money earned at a higher price. When Israelis export to USA they do it via an Israeli owned company based in USA. However, we send mostly academics to the West, to study dry, boring courses in admin, we never send hustlers. If we sent hustlers we would see the corresponding growth in exports. We can never produce western manufactured goods but we can have customized manufacture in crafts. Our Baskets sell for hundreds of dollars in New York, our style is renowned, but not our story. What makes a product is a story, the process, the history, the meaning, all combine to make a product. Take a Japanese Samurai sword, an ancient method is used, one million tiny sheets of metal layered on top of each other. It takes 4-6 months to make a good one, so it costs $30-50,000 for a sword, the more you use it, the sharper it gets unlike other blades. African goods can also sell if they have cultural significance, a ritualistic creation process, and a story.

Other countries use their diasporas to help develop their economies, not creating a dependency via remittances, but by encouraging wealth-creation back home. The irony is, we don’t need your money, we need your expertise, ideas, work ethic, connections and dual-nationality. The world economy is structured to keep whites on top, people with dual-nationality are nominally white, so their status allows them to do what trade barriers stop us from doing. Telling the Diaspora to simply come home is missing a huge opportunity, we are better off selling our coffee and tea directly to Rwandans, our minerals should make Rwandans abroad rich so they can invest back home. We need technology and skills transfer, each Rwandan must ask what they are doing in that regard. The vision we have for Rwanda outlined in Vision 2020 will need thousands of doctors, nurses, engineers, technicians in the thousands. Returning Diaspora can never fill that gap, we must do it with locals. What we need from the Diaspora is their legal status, ideas, and connections. We should understand that our poverty is structural, the global economic system was designed to have the vast majority at the bottom fighting for scraps. This poverty is not as a result of our laziness, it benefits many to keep us poor, the West puts on a plaster on a gaping wound called aid but it is not meant to make us richer, just to suffer less. So we will have to find a way around or maybe over our problems. Diaspora will be our secret weapon in that, they can’t throw crumbs over the wall, they need to send a rope to lift us up out of this.

 

End

How to write in Africa

 

I was asked recently to address a group of young writers, it was bad timing as I’d just been detained for 10 days at the pleasure of the relevant authorities. I felt I was a bad choice, I had nothing to tell them, and it wouldn’t have been sincere anyway. I thought about it, everybody tells you how to write about Africa, but not how to write while IN Africa. Apart from a few exceptions, maybe South Africa, it is a dangerous life to be a writer. We as Africans, we complain that our story is not being told and yet we shoot the messengers. I have spoken to various writers from different nations, at different stages of development. Our media goes through a cycle like a butterfly or something. There is the beginning where things are good, you are unknown, you have a small following but growing, then a boom as you expand and consume everything like a caterpillar. Then you are exposed to danger and you have to return to a cocoon, a serious time of trial where you transform into a butterfly, then you are free. My own nation Rwanda is where Kenya or Uganda was 16 years ago, the authorities feel they have justification to clamp down on free speech. Like in those days, the go-to sections for prosecutors are; sedition, incitement, treason, disrespecting officials, national security. It is part of the evolution of a nation to go from not tolerating to opening up. That is the first challenge you face as a writer, your own laws as a nation permit or restrict literature and arts.

 

A blessing and a curse –

 

Deciding to be a writer is a serious calling, it is your duty to express the views of people who might think like you. Even better, put yourself in the place of other people to understand and explain their beliefs. Writers are very empathetic people, often driven by a need for justice, to speak out, especially is our unequal societies. There s no better feeling than an acknowledgement from a happy reader, to think a person took time in their busy lives to read my ramblings is edifying in some way. Then there is the other side, as much as people love you, they will hate you as well. Trollers on the internet are a nuisance, many will insult your dead grandmother for a cheap shot. The internet is a horrible place, especially in Africa, words you write online can result in a bullet in the brain. The effects can be meted on your family, your friends can abandon you, pressing SEND can be the difference between life and death for some. Our societies use ostracism and social pressure as the first measure of control, you threaten privilege the moment you start to write the truth. I spoke an old vet, he said that is part of the deal, family members think you went out to damage them, like before you write you think ‘let me mess up my relatives.’ The most perverse thing is when people think that they deserve to suffer for your actions. People you love will say the most horrible things to you, things they can never take back, but after a few days and when things have calmed down then things are normal. Until the next time you write something power finds offensive.

 

Be fearless – those words are just FEAR and you must know when a real sentiment is expressed and when it is just insulting out of  fear speaking. Every good African writer has fallen foul of the authorities, you want to just write novels but daily life gets in the way. There is so much going on to document, and just life is fascinating. Besides, no one reads novels, but you can give it to them 2 pages at a time. Blog and never use a pseudonym, your name is your shield. If you write anonymously, you can die the same way. Be fearless, know that nothing is permanent, everything is subject to change and there’s no changing that. Find your voice, make your writing sound like talking, no heavy grammar and if it sounds like writing then it is stuffy. It must sound like your voice is leaping off the page, you must write how you talk because idiosyncrasies make you unique. Speak for yourself, hope to resonate with others but be honest to yourself. There is nothing more liberating than saying something that society can see but refuses to acknowledge, whatever the consequences, publish and be damned. Do not give into the emotional blackmail of those around you, conditional love is not real love. Even if you step back for a time, just to let things heal, and to remember what bonds you. There is no other profession than the arts and writing that demands you give it up for the good of society. No bricklayer is even told their bricks are a danger to society.

 

Against the tide – what bonds us is a prevailing narrative. Scientists like Noah Yuval Hariri believe that it was not biological evolution that spurred us but social evolution. Over the last few millennia our brains have been shrinking, our ancestors had to process a lot more information to survive, thousands of plants; some poisonous and some not, insects, animals, rivers. We have evolved socially while becoming individually stupid, we have experts to study and we use their knowledge instead of fending alone in the bush. What bonds us is fictional narrative; humans live in two worlds, reality and virtual reality simultaneously.  Millions of people can work together bonded by a common narrative, like a tribe which was born of a crocodile, just a common story you all believe in. The same with religion, football teams, nations, they only exist in our heads. There is no Rwanda, you cannot see a line of the borders that God created, it is all in our mind. This is why whoever controls the narrative controls the people, when you mess with that narrative, you mess with the pillars of society. The truth is, even if this life is a lie, we all deeply want to believe in this lie. This is why the job of a writer is sacred, it is to wake us up from the matrix, it is not a minor task and people will see you as a threat.  So take it seriously, but without fear. The fear is not theoretical, people are punished for speaking out in Rwanda. The same laws were made to prevent Genocide are sometimes misused to protect minor people, incitement, and the same colonial laws that kept colonialism in power so long. We kept them on the books because they underpin state power without accountability.

 

How can we believe that human rights reports are written to embarrass our nation? When Rwanda was rated low for Doing Business some 12 years ago, they did not expel the people who published the report, they looked at the benchmarks one by one and improved them. The same can be done for human rights, it cannot remain a blot on a perfect record, like passing 11 A’s and a D in the mix. To think that people hate you or are trying to embarrass you is wrong. Rwanda can work with its harshest critics and end this perception. Some people are able to talk sense to power without offending them, and that is a good position as long as your principles are not compromised, but it is tap-dancing around issues. To each their own, don’t shout if you are not shouty, be yourself. In the end people always come back, old veterans speak of being in the cold, then back in the limelight again. First they love, then they hate you, then they love you again. Life is a marathon and not a sprint, most just look at the next 100m but after it’s all said and done; you are one again. Africans are so emotional, we are always up in arms about what this person said. You decide to work within the system, to walk the tightrope, skirting the issues, explaining, excusing and deflecting. Then everyone forgets like it never happened. Write even if you never publish, when the time is right we will see them. We will remember this as the best of times and the worst of times.   Never take yourself too seriously, always laugh at yourself and at the ridiculousness of this thing we call life.

 

Rama Isibo

End

It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it

 

 

Landlord wakes you up at 5am with a sledgehammer through your wall, bang, bang, bang. You panic and hide under the bed, it must be the end of the world. One more bang and daylight comes through. It is your landlord poking through the hole. “Hello, good morning! I’m just making some repairs! I’m giving you an en suite bathroom and 3m more space!” You complain that he never told you. “Didn’t you check your Myspace or Yahoo messenger? I spelled it out clearly.” Doing the right thing in a wrong way is something Kigali City Council is accused of. It is often a criticism that they never consult enough, the alternatives routes are never provided, and no time is given to adjust to these changes. So we see businesses suffer for the “Big Picture” without time to adjust, there is massive outcry and then things die down. Policies can pass, but it is better when there is social consent and we invest fully in a new policy. One can force the bitter medicine down a child’s throat, or sweeten it. The latter is always better.

 

TLC is needed, talking, listening and caring. Quite often, people’s opinions are taken on board but no action is taken to alleviate the impacts. Until 100 years or so ago, there were no anesthetics or painkillers in the modern sense, operations were done without pain relief. Doctors never really thought to develop effective painkillers, the patients were told to be happy the doctors were saving their lives; a bit of pain was part of the deal. Later, doctors found that having a stable patient in an induced coma was better for the operation. Likewise, we never truly think of the costs that policies impose on people. There was no economic analysis of the impact of the Car-free Zone, they could have tallied up the worth of the businesses there and deduced the taxes paid there. They would have found it would cost millions of dollars in a country that is poor, Revenue service would be up in arms if they saw the hole in their taxes. That hole was plugged elsewhere but it was unnecessary pain, we don’t yet understand opportunity costs, every minute is money. Every business employs people, these people have families who rely on them, but the multiplier effect is never thought of.

 

Banning banning is the best thing Rwanda could do now, every day there are edicts banning this or that. We can’t even keep up with the bans, we just assume everything is banned. Banning the problem away, then exact a fine for an infringement, if symptoms persist then JAIL. First it was hawkers, then hookers, then hooligans, they go alphabetically. There are times when banning worked well, like with polythene and plastic bags, there was a viable biodegradable alternative in the manila paper bag. Banning plastic bags created a whole industry in brown paper bags, this was not the case in Uganda, so it failed because a lack of an alternative. There is no need to ban, we can nudge society in the right direction without the strong arm of government. Many of our social ills will require social solutions, the transition from poverty to development will put an enormous strain on the family. We will need social workers, not police, to deal with social issues. Problems like street kids will not go away if you take them away to an island, or hide them. Even if you teach them carpentry, or other skills, how can they get the emotional and social skills to stay out of crime? We need social workers and foster-carers.

 

Underlying issues need to be dealt with. Let’s look at Hawkers. They were told to form a cooperative, and then identify a place to have a hawkers’ market. Hawkers are by definition mobile, it is like trying to make nomads sedentary by giving them a nice patch of grass. Naturally they were put out of the way, never got clients and started moving. The underlying reason for hawking is that no shop in Kigali can offer VARIETY, QUALITY, AFFORDABILITY. The clothes shops are terrible, no choice, poor quality, and expensive. Your best chance is stumbling upon a hawker with something that takes your fancy. New clothes are overtaxed, shop-owners never band together to buy more and sell more, rents are too expensive, so hawkers are a godsend. The only thing that can get rid of hawkers is changing the way clothes are taxed, to make it viable to have megastores where every type of clothing is available. Variety, quality, affordability; is what makes hawkers necessary because the main market has failed to cater for our needs. The rewards are worth the risk of being jailed, the customers are willing to pay more for better quality. We can make clothes affordable, not secondhand clothes but brand new clothes. A shirt which costs $5 brand new in USA, is resold at $10 secondhand in our Caguwa markets. We need a trade deal that can supply brand new clothes at $3-10 like I see in UK. Banning is not the answer.

The Great Olympic Shames

The Great Olympic Shames

 

The Ethos

 

Some 3,000 years ago, the Greek gods decreed that there was enough war in this world, they declared that an athletic competition will held in their honour. They called on athletes from far and wide to come and honour their creators by excelling in sport, a flame was lit on the slopes of Mt. Olympus and a ceasefire declared for the duration of the games. Nations at war were obliged to stop, enemies were guaranteed safe passage on their way to and from to the games, and travel took months, even years then. That is where the fantasy stopped, in reality, there was nothing noble about the ancient Greek games. There was cheating on all levels with nations wanting to gain an edge for national pride. We revived the games in 1896 but in an unequal world where most nations were colonised and sport was the preserve of a few. Rio is not the worst ever Olympics, in fact, it is one of the best in recent times. The worst was St. Louis in 1904, African athletes were displayed in cages, when the marathon was going to be won by a Black South African, they unleashed wild dogs on him and sent him the wrong way. Athletes were stopping for injections of steroids openly, the marathon was won by a man who hailed a taxi and it dropped him 1 km from the end. He arrived without barely sweating, he was hailed until he was exposed by the taxi driver for not paying his fare.

 

The Reality

 

The Olympics really highlight the ineptitude of African sports federations, and how the corruption in our societies kills our talent and stops it from developing. There is a litany of funny but ultimately tragic stories, at first you laugh, and then you cry because you know this will carry on. A head of a national swimming federation, in this case Ethiopia, sends his fat overweight son to compete in the Olympics, embarrassing us all. The Kenyan athletes were locked out of the Olympic village because some government officials decided to take their girlfriends on holiday and took their accreditation. MP’s flew over to see that the athletes are preparing well and took over their budget, eating $500 a day each. Coaches could not get plane tickets because of hangers-on taking all the places. Most athletes have to self-sponsor to make sure they get what they need, the gold medal winners bought their own kit because the Nike supplied kit had been stolen. The team Doctor for Uganda is a Dentist, not a physiotherapist. Overall, we send over more officials than athletes, big-bellied ministers get to march and wave flags at the opening ceremony. The money the IOC gives to develop sport is just squandered. Same with football, the promise of the 90’s teams was killed by corrupt officials.

 

Evolution vs GDP

 

 

Looking at the table of medals, it corresponds with the global GDP table, the ones that are not there like Brazil have massive inequality. What does this tell us? Leisure and Sport is a luxury, in a world where half are starving and the other half is obese, it is hard to focus on sport when you are not getting enough calories. The poor have more talent but less opportunity, the rich have more opportunity but less talent. The equalizer for us poorer nations is genetics, in sports where the advantage is clearly seen like Athletics, we excel. We lag in gymnastics, swimming, team sports, but excel at producing individual brilliance. The long distance races will be won by people from a narrow strip of valley some 40km wide, the Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Kenya, the real dominant nation. In Kenya, they will come from one tribe, the Kalenjin, long famed for their running skills. They have higher red blood cells than average people, therefore, they can absorb oxygen at higher rates and run longer. Sprinters will come from a narrow strip of West African coast from the Niger Delta to Ghana, their descendants traveled via the slave trade to represent Jamaica, USA, UK, and avoided the corrupt African officials who destroy talent. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t come from that area because you are just taking part, but one day the African might not have eaten because their official may have given their girlfriend the lunch pass, and the skinny boy from Slovakia wins.

 

When the show gets going, nothing beats the Olympics, not even the World Cup. They are great stories, of overcoming adversity, of defying prejudice, or defeating the odds. There is the total supremacy of Usain Bolt, reassured, jovial and untouchable. There is the Syrian girl on the Refugee team who rescued 20 people when the ship she was on capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. There have been countless delights, the dive of Shaunee Miller to win, the two who crashed into each other and decided to support one another to the finish line. These are the moments that make the Olympic games, that strive for a higher ideal. That is why we were disgraced when an Egyptian Judo Athlete refused to shake the hand of an Israeli opponent, he was sent home in dishonour. So let us enjoy our games, and lament why more Rwandans are not competing. We will one day.

 

The Rough Road to Rwandaful Innovation

The Rough Road to Rwandaful Innovation

Apps have become our lives, we use them for everything, it was a giant leap in innovation to move from robotics to applications. I was impressed to see over 50 Rwandan Apps on Google Play Store, and there was a huge variety of very well thought out apps. Takeaway order applications like Hellofood, now Jumia foods, are adapted to our market. +250Taxi is another growing app that is beating Uber to the punch in Rwanda, and so many others. Then there is Sakwe Sakwe, a surprise gem, it gives you riddles to answer against a clock. These riddles were used to help us think laterally and really use our brain, that is something employers often complain about, inability to think laterally. Dereva helps you learn how to drive with online tests, also helps you hire a driver instantly if you are drunk to avoid a conviction during a late night drink session. We have the constitution as an app, you can instantly defend your right by quoting it in second, soon we’ll have the penal code app. We have so many types from banking, to music, to Bible, to Dating apps all in the local language and interface. It is really an underground revolution it has the capability to create employment and link services to clients instantly. In Rwanda, we’ve had a huge investment in ICT infrastructure and we’re awaiting the explosion of the tech boom. There a certain obstacles to this.

 

Toxic environment

Rwanda is not yet a real enabling environment, think of a business environment as an ecosystem; you have plants and animals, predator and prey, water is like capital, growth is the balanced expansion of the ecosystem. Like an ecosystem, when one aspect is out of balance, it leads to the demise of the whole ecosystem. Too many predators and the prey die out, then the predators, picture the circle of life in Lion King. In Rwanda we have done everything there is to speed up the process of opening a business, but when you walk out of RDB you face a dangerous ecosystem that is stacked against you succeeding.

 

• Innovators face lack of capital to start
• Rent in offices is expensive, transport, food, and other basics are also expensive.
• Internet access is relatively expensive despite huge left over capacity due to expansion.
• Lack of incubators – we have a few good spots like Kigali Hub, Innovation Village and a few others but there is not enough nurturing of business. Where are the breeding grounds, where little businesses can hide away from predators? An incubator provides capital in exchange for shares in your firm, they should allow you 2-3 years to grow and give you help with other aspects that give you an unfair advantage. Good marketing, accounting, sales, legal, auditing, technical skills all help a company grow. An incubator will take care of all those other aspects so the innovator can focus 100% on their idea.
• Lack of complementary skills – this is the age of the open code, no one person has the answer, innovation is collaborative and we have too many Lone Rangers. Understanding that it is your skills not your idea that is valuable, anyone can have an idea but few can execute it. We need all these lone rangers to work on mega-apps instead of spreading too thin.
• Not valuing intellectual property as an asset. Lacking the means to enforce copyright infringement means we cannot fully monetize intellectual property because the internet is ungovernable.

 

Banking and venture capital

 

In the late 90’s, there was a conversation that went something like this, and it happened 20 times over in several banking institutions.

“I’m sorry, you want me to invest in a number, a code that lets you search for stuff on the internet? I don’t even think this internet craze will last.”

“It’s a Googol sir, over a million numbers in a perfect sequence, an algorithm that will change the internet forever.”

“Google is a stupid name, why not QuickSearch? Sounds silly to me, go somewhere else.”

 

Several banks turned down Facebook, Google, Apple, but they also invested in duds. Knowing a real winner from the duds is hard, 90% will fail, only 3% succeed but 7% get bought out. In Rwanda, the odds are much higher than in Silicon Valley where they have capital, knowhow and ideas flowing freely. Banks would rather invest in fixed assets; buildings, stock, tangible assets, an idea is so hard to invest in. However, these companies are driven by people, so you are investing in people. We need government to incentivize investment in innovation with tax breaks or lower rates of borrowing. We need the judiciary to prosecute Intellectual Property (IP) cases, our singers are never paid for their songs on the radio, same on TV. If these laws are enforced better, then we can see banks investing in local artists knowing they have revenue.

Private capital is also hard to deal with, it can come unregulated and with high rates, the old Banque Lambert – the smiling loan shark. Even with formal contracts it is hard to enforce a deal, the investor can change terms at a drop of a hat. The ratio of capital to borrowers favours the investor, there are 50 other prime projects all slated to make money, so you are not special. The investor can often overrule a technical expert just to show them who is boss. Engineers are overruled on structural matters and it always comes to a bad end. People with money feel they were born with nothing, but somehow managed to accumulate wealth to get this far. They made it, and this means that they can make it in any business, they feel their skills are transferable to any sector. Failure to listen to experts means they pay down the line, people hire the best then ignore everything they say.

 

Japan syndrome – when a nation develops technologically and economically but stays the same socially and culturally, it will hit a road block where it stops to innovate. When a Japanese worker bows down and cannot even look his middle-management boss in the eye, then how can he give and honest professional opinion? How can she or he criticize and idea to make it better? Rwanda has the same problem of  deference to authority, a natural conservatism that is a natural barrier to innovation.

 

Maslow never lies

 

When you look at Rwanda innovation in general, few innovators are looking at the lower end of the economic scale. Our needs are basic, we cannot compare to the West who are on the verge of Level 5 Self-actualization. Africans are still on the level 1 and 2 of Maslow, we need basics, like food, shelter, water, health, renewable energy, security, and such. We love facebook, which gives us love and belonging, but this is a diversion, we need the basics. In order to make innovation matter to all, it must serve all. Water – apps can use satellite technology to identify underground reserves of water which locals can tap into. Energy, we must be trying to create energy solutions that will be sustainable and affordable. Africans want to jump to the top of the scale and have a mobile phone or laptop made in Rwanda, but stop!!!

90% of Rwandans are subsistence farmers, involved in backbreaking work, why not invent a hoe, a spade that reduces the burden. Instead, we jump to a mobile phone, if you invented a hydraulic spade that reduced energy use by 30% you will have increased the GDP of Rwanda. People would pay $50 for one and you could sell up to 5m while making more impact than a mobile phone. Innovation must fit our needs, we should never adapt to technology, it should adapt to us. Rwandans are conservative and reluctant to adopt new technology, until they see an immediate advantage.

 

Importance of rebellion

Innovation is rebellious, it is to go against perceived wisdom, to go against interests, to invent eco-friendly energy is to go against charcoal sellers, petrol station owners, and oil companies. Imagine Jenner, the man who invented immunization, coming up with the idea that infecting a child will protect it. It sounds mad, no sane parent would have allowed it, and so he practiced on his own children. They turned out fine, it took years to be accepted, some doubt it to this day, but it took an act of rebellion to take a bold step. Every inventor went against the received wisdom, and the first obstacle is cynicism, doubters, haters, and dream thieves. Society wants you to stay in this little box, the walls of Norms, the glare of public opinion, dogmas, social constructs, gender roles, class stratification, all limit human excellence. Conservative societies cannot innovate, they can force social change or stasis, the forces of the interests always win over public sentiment in patriarchies. In ancient Rwanda, the Twa pygmies were the best craftsmen and innovators, living outside mainstream society meant thinking outside the box came naturally.

 

 

Rebellion, Capital and Knowhow

https://salon.thefamily.co/what-makes-an-entrepreneurial-ecosystem-815f4e049804

The perfect recipe for innovation as identified by this group is to have Capital, Knowhow and Rebellion in equal measure. Why rebellion? It is the spark that sets of innovation, not rebellion in the literal sense of anarchy, but not wanting to follow the accepted way. To always question. It is in question that we find answers, but when we see a child in school asking too many questions, our instinct is to silence the child. That child should be encouraged, instead the teacher might be scared to say “I don’t know.” There are some examples below to show why rebellion is important, call it imagination, new thinking..

Black Landlord at MilkBoy Philly on 2013-08-15.

Capital alone – innovators pray for capital, as if it is the lifeblood of a business, true, it cannot function without capital but ideas are the lifeblood. When one has too much capital, one becomes lazy, there is no point going out to hustle when money comes to you. You can merely collect rent, you become a rent-seeker. You merely calculate how much your lifestyle costs and you accept that exact sum. Being broke makes you improvise, improvisation is instant innovation, you find more innovation in poorer areas than in richer areas, the rich can buy a solution instantly. Look at countries like Saudi Arabia that can import millions of people to work their economy while citizens get $30,000 free per year.

Knowhow alone – nations like India have the biggest pool of technical engineers but lack the capital to develop their own technology, they also lack the rebellion to create new ideas, so they subcontract. So Indian coders wrote this program I am writing on and Bill Gates got the money. Many young innovators tire of the broke life, tired of working out of mum’s garage, so you seek a job to provide the basics. This ends up killing the creative fire because they give you just enough, not a penny more. They give you just enough to kill your creativity but not enough to solve your problems.

Rebellion alone – that is the African malaise, too rebellious to sit down and solve our problems. Always trying new things but never seeing them through because we don’t have the capital and the knowhow to solve the problem. We know the solutions to our problems, they are as simple as the causes. Everybody wants Africa to change but none of us want to change. Rebellion leads to subsistence living, we mistrust our neighbours too much to form a cooperative, buy farm equipment, diversify and intensify crops, agro-process and preserve to get maximum profit, and repeat until rich.

 

Capital + Knowhow = efficiency economy. When a tech innovator submits a proposal for a loan at a bank, they are competing with a guy with a simple plan. “Go to Dubai, buy stuff worth $30,000, pay $20,000 tax and freight, sell for $80,000, repeat next month. Banks will opt for the trader with a short turn around and quick ROI, than on the guy who might be the Rwandan Zuckerburg or not.

Capital + Rebellion = Bling Bling. If your dreams came true and you have a great idea plus money, you will blow it. Look at every Rapper, faded superstar, MTV Cribs type of person. They had dreams of wealth but no means to manage it, they spend on shiny ostentatious crap they don’t need, to impress people they don’t like but we have that need to show off.

 

Rebellion + Knowhow = Playground. It is good to have ideas and the knowhow to implement them, but without capital to bring them to fruition then it is just a playground of ideas. Capital plays a crucial role in regulating the rebellion so that it is not out of control, capital has to see sustainability in the ideas with revenue streams. Capital pays for the knowhow to bring it off the paper to a tangible product. Capital must respect the ideas, and trust the technical knowhow and link the other two. Steve Jobs was the epitome of rebellion, his ideas were left field but he created a new center ground. He wasn’t a programmer, Steve Wosniacki was the technical nerd, but Jobs could provide vision and satisfy the investors explaining complex matters in simple terms.

 

C.RA.C.K – Connecting Rebellion Adaptation Capital Knowhow

 

The perfect ecosystem is one which has an equal balance of the three elements. I remember a time in Kigali when there were only 5 good web designers who could make you a good site that wasn’t crashing or looked nasty. The shortage of good designers meant going to Nairobi or Kampala, or dealing with months delay in Kigali, the local designers were overpaid and always late as competition for them was tight. Now you have an oversupply of designers, there are even apps that let a novice design their own site. Capital was flushing around in Kigali for the Tech sector some years ago, everyone was getting funding as government prioritized it. The extra capital did not produce extra innovation because Knowhow and Ideas (Rebellion) were missing, guys bought flashy cars, became innovators just by printing a business card. INNOVATOR!! We had seminars, oh God, we had seminars. “How to leverage technological innovation to transform Rwanda into a Knowledge economy?” Step 1. Get out of Serena and into the real world, Biryogo, just 200 meters away.

It really isn’t that hard, but Rwanda lacks the crucial element, lateral thinking. Our education system teaches people to cram, not to understand. We don’t teach problem solving as a skill, we breed people to obey and not to think, then we are surprised when people expect government to solve their simple problems. In the old days we taught by example, we taught to giving a task and letting the child figure it out and we correct them later. My grandfather once left me with a bow, he said “Use your voice to string it.” I tried everything till my cousin told me to put it on my sternum and press down to bend the wood then let go.” I tried again till I got it. There are more solutions than there are problems. Group learning is important, children teach other children and understand, if you understand, you will remember. Leaving kids in groups with a problem to solve (Problem-based learning) is the model used in Silicon valley to innovate by collaboration. Some people are introverts and never take part in large groups, but a group of 5 people is enough to get them to open up and have a voice.

 

Military – science – industrial complex

There is a virtual or vicious circle, depending on how you see it, between – the scientific community, military and industry. This alliance is not new, it goes back to the Stone Age, ever since we used wooden spears, and then a man designed a spear made of sharp flint blade. This blade killed the wooden spikers and gave the stone-agers an advantage, soon everyone had stone tools of different quality. One day, a person put rocks around a fire to hem it in, these rocks melted and left behind a hot liquid, this liquid dried and made copper, when mixed with zinc it becomes Bronze. Bronze-Age guys kill all the stone-age guys, then a person discovers another metal stronger than bronze, iron, the iron age. We call it ‘cutting edge technology’ because we were looking for a sharper blade to kill our enemy with, this escalated to nuclear bombs, drones, surveillance technology. Technology will never make us equal, the whole point is to make us unequal, to give an unfair advantage, we are all born equal but as soon as we are born we become unequal. This is due to the levels of technology we are exposed to.

There has always been a link between technological progress and military advancement. The military has a blank cheque when it comes to security. A Rwandan tech innovator should have James Kabarebe and other Generals in mind when they think of products. If you can provide a strategic advantage to your country, then the Government is obliged to invest. The Americans developed Silicon Valley firstly for military purposes, later, venture capital came in but the military is still king as they invest $500bn for defence. Imagine if we took the best innovators to Gisenyi, gave them a liberal environment and told them to just create. Find better and cheaper ways to kill the FDLR or other groups attacking us, find a cheaper and more effective way to house our 50,000 military and police, find a cheap energy source for the military. There is no single solution but several smaller solutions, this is because situations and people are different.

 

Need is paramount, we must solve our own problems in our own context. Back to basics, our problems are basic so we need to focus on that. Energy, Water, Shelter, Food, Security, Connecting, all these should be the main focus of our innovation. Our wants are different from needs, we can’t tell the difference, needs are things you can’t do without.

 

So, go forth and innovate

End

Effects of Brexit on Rwanda

 

 

 

Currency instability – the fall of the pound will affect all global currencies as they readjust to the new reality. The dollar was strengthening before the pound collapsed and this will only make it stronger. Importers will suffer as prices go up, exporters get more powerful dollars which they convert to higher profits locally. The pound might stabilize at $1.40 from the current $1.34, which is a fall from $1.50 the week before. British goods are now cheaper, so UK might be a trade destination to rival Dubai.

 

Aid – The fall in the pound means the value of UK’s aid to Rwanda has gone down by 14% and this could lead to a budget shortfall of 3%, though the Pound looks like settling at $1.40. The bigger question is future funding. Will the UK reduce its aid budget? If so, by how much? With the looming prospect of austerity, we can expect calls to reduce the aid budget and spend the money at home. The last few years have proved austerity doesn’t work, it is better to borrow for future growth than cut money to projects which have a social impact. Rwanda is one of the best examples of how a country can effectively use aid, all over the country we can point to good projects that have improved life. So I doubt Rwanda will be one of the ones to be cut. In the longer term with more growth in UK we might see more aid as they compete with EU for influence.

 

New markets – with the UK trading 43% of its goods to EU, it is tricky to extricate itself from the bind of the EU. However, UK runs a trade deficit with EU of $160bn or 5% while Germany makes 7.5% trade surplus. UK will need to expand trade with emerging economies to plug the gap. EU regulations are a huge barrier to African exporters, with excessive standards and tariffs that nullify any potential profits. If Britain can have laxer regulations it would help us export more. Britain is an Island that imports almost everything, it needs to trade to survive, and it will never be isolationist. A weaker EU is in our interests, for more competition for markets, investment and labour. UK ceded too much ground to China in the recent years, Britain would need to invest $100bn a year in Africa to match the power. The Government doesn’t have that money but the City of London has trillions to invest, they lost $2 trillion in one day after Brexit but they made it back already. Rwanda can be at the front of the queue if we are ready, and seek more investment from UK, specifically the City, which is where most minerals and commodities are traded.

 

Less lecturing – The EU has been nauseating of late, a pious sanctimonious voice for Humanity while they let migrants drown in the sea. The same leaders are accused of being out of touch by their own voters, ooh wait…. They are unelected. Unelected leaders have been lecturing elected African leaders on democracy for decades. If EU is so democratic, then why can’t Juncker and the other commissioners stand for election? They know they would lose. The EU has now lost all credibility as an organization, the crucial word is “Union” and they are not united. They have much bigger problems; they won’t come to tell us how to paint our house, when their house is on fire. UK will be the nicer uncle to run to for help, thus nullifying EU power. The intellectual Left that led fight against demonized African leaders has been defeated by the Working Class Left, who are less bothered about human rights compared to fair economics. Foreign policy will be very different, reviving Commonwealth ties in competition with China and America. They will still object to massacres and extreme abuses, but a middle of the road overzealous leader is acceptable.

 

The overall effects are yet to be seen, the events are fluidly changing, but the worst fears are yet to arise as markets have settled. The biggest uncertainty is what kind of government there will be, both the Tories and Labour are in internal wrangles, and Scotland wanting to peel off. Then it is a question of what kind of relationship UK will have with EU. At the moment, the EU is being harsh, threatening the harshest punishment like a spurned lover. Neither side can afford to lose, the markets have shown that the EU was worse hit than UK, 5% losses in UK, were 10% losses in EU. If UK loses an eye, then EU will lose both eyes. The relationships between Rwanda, UK and the EU are yet to be determined until the UK-EU relationship is finalized. The best for all will be UK to be part of the European Economic Area like Norway and Switzerland, to have the benefit of trade without other unwanted aspects, like Statehood. Hopefully, UK can have lower export tariffs that allow emerging economies like Rwanda to flourish and then manufacture goods to EU standards for export to the continent.

BREXIT WRECKS IT but u gotta flex it

BREXIT WRECKS IT

 

Couples divorce over the stupidest things. A toilet seat left up. That annoying thing he does picking his nose. Farting all the time. Never makes a proper cup of tea. These things are only the presenting issues, the real problem is lack of communication, trust and shared goals. So it is with much somber fanfare that we enter this dangerous time for UK. The options are STFU – Shut the fuck up” or GTFO – Get The Fuck Out. Lump of leave it, all or nothing menu. It is like going to restaurant with a set menu that you all must eat regardless, even if you are allergic, you cannot remove the foods that can kill you. If you complain that you are allergic to peanuts, everyone will say they are allergic to peanuts, then we’ll have to change the menu for everyone. Britain wants a more flexible relationship with EU, to opt out of this and that, but the EU is on course for a Superstate that will swallow all around. That’s fine if you have no history, or you are ashamed of it, but not if you are a proud nation like UK. It’s like Elvis joining the Beatles, it would be economically sound but egos will clash.

 

As an African I have had a strange ambivalence to the EU, it is a benign force for good within its borders, but it is an economic bully that is destroying Africa. I arrived in UK in 93 when the nation was changing from its past form to a future glory as yet unknown. It never happened, the flails of globalism killed what little industrial jobs there were. I worked for companies, downsizing, mechanizing, outsourcing for quarterly profits. Around 2000, I got many friends from back home in Africa coming over to Britain almost weekly. We’d have the old gang back together again. Jobs were plentiful, you’d arrive on Sunday and be working by Monday. They quickly climbed the ladder of success, for these were not idle lazy Africans but the best the continent had to offer. At my workplace, I was told to bring as many of my friends as I could. The shortage of labor was driving this immigration, the nation was getting browner, new music, food, dance, and subcultures were taking over. This made many native Brits uncomfortable and the right-wing media was apoplectic. Then these immigrants were stopped from working, and made to use food vouchers. This made employers lobby for Eastern Europeans to plug this gap, to flush out the brown immigrants. Europe used to funnel its refugees to UK, French border guards help refugees cross over the relieve themselves of having to deal with foreigners.

http://www.themindfulword.org/2013/stealing-africa-resources-poor/

The EU is a double-headed monster, the biggest advocate for democracy in Africa, and yet, it is inherently undemocratic. The officials are unelected, unaccountable, unreachable in their ivory towers, and looking down on these stupid mortals. It is unsustainable in its debts, incoherent in its vision, and dying. There is no avoiding that Europe will slowly fade away as new powers emerge, for nations are born, then age, and die laying in their own filth. The EU is a nursing home for nations waiting to die, better off together, but they hasten their demise by reinforcing negative habits. They love the fried greasy bacon of debt that periodically gives economic heart attacks, solution – more greasy bacon. The EU is a cancer, it causes cancer, feeds it through the Common Agricultural Policy. Whenever we would try to buy food from Africa, a sweet potato, plantain, cassava, beans, to remind us of home we find it costs 10 times what it costs back home. Food is slapped with a 350% tariff plus transport and other costs. All the food they have in the supermarkets is cancer-causing, full of pesticide, preservatives and other chemicals. As long as it is the right colour, length, and the angle of the curve it is fine and forget nutrition. However, it is full of cancer and has no nutritional value, if you want non-cancer food then you must earn more to buy organic. Then you slap a 350% tax on a perishable food that is cancer-free.

Top 10 Cancer Causing Foods: Understanding what Causes Cancer

All this said, Brexit would be disastrous for UK in the short-term, they are joined at the hip and there will be blood. Why can’t EU be flexible enough to negotiate aspects of its membership? Why is it all or nothing? The EU has thousands of laws and even the best proponents can’t agree with every single one. So why did the politicians make it a zero-sum game? They tried to stare down the British voters to shut them up once and for all, and they might get slapped in the face for it. After tiny Greece almost brought down the Behemoth, they decided to pick a fight with UK. The actual changes UK wants are not too big, looser confederation as an option for some, some kind of control over immigration, Germany doesn’t allow Poles and other neighbors to work there, yet they force UK to allow them. It will be a narrow victory for Remain, but even if we vote to Leave, they’ll just make us vote again until we stay, as we saw with the Nice Treaty and others. I hope UK gradually decouples from the EU over coming years, having 65% trade with one bloc is putting eggs in one basket. An EU recession then becomes potentially fatal, unless it spreads its wings further it faces dangers in a dying market. There is a whole emerging market they are missing out on because of EU navel-gazing and the money merry-go-round of trade. You give me this money, I give it back and you give it back. EU is a reaction against free trade, to opt for preferential treatment and exclude viable competitors. Africa is being screwed by the EU, EU companies dodge $200bn in tax to our continent and they give us $40bn in aid but with conditions that further cripple us. So I cannot love an entity that oppresses my people, a vampire-superstate sucking a continent dry.

 

As an educated liberal I should be really pro-EU, I should see Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians as my brothers, and they are. However, there is a huge disconnect between the electorate and politicians on both sides, it is hugely complex. The working classes have not benefited as much, they can go to Mabella without visas, but their jobs are gone. The middle classes could now have cheap nannies, and be waited on by servile foreigners who are glad to be earning poverty wages. They could get cheap Camembert and brie, all their favourite continental delicacies, but there is a cost. These angry working classes will form the bulwark of future xenophobic mass-movements because the liberal Eurocrats failed to listen to minor grumbles. The result will be tight, it will be a bloody nose for EU with a narrow victory. Will they back down and be more conciliatory or double down on “Take it or leave it?” The superstate is a failed project, Greece has shown us that national interests cannot be reconciled with regional interests. Britain should stay, but plot another more global future, it should gradually reduce trade with EU and seek emerging markets. The EU is aging and reducing in population, drowning in debt, it has no long-term future demographically compared to the Emerging Economies. If Britain ties itself to this sinking ship, then it will sink too, so we need to gradually consciously uncoupling, not a brexit. There is a whole new world out there, staying in the EU is cozy but it is a slow death. EU is unifying but exclusive, to the point where Africans are drowning to get to this Promised Land. Europeans call it unity, but it is collective xenophobia. Lower your tariffs, let African farmers make a living so they don’t come and bother you there. The EU is needs to look at its effects beyond its borders, the unfairness of it, or we shall have these strops of nationalism and gradual fragmentation in a world where states don’t matter anymore. I live globally. So should the UK.

 

END