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Have you ever wondered how we can find opportunities during the recession. Economist Alex Tabarrok argues free trade and globalization are shaping our once-divided world into a community of idea-sharing more healthy, happy and prosperous than anyone’s predictions

This is a refreshing talk  by Alex Tabarrok on how we can all use our own ideas to ride the economic storm and come out the better for it. Really inspirational stuff here. Watch  the Video below

Dambisa Moyo

Dambisa Moyo gave a talk about Exit Strategies for Aid for Africa at the Africa Business Network where she urged governments to pursue development. Aid according to her is an inhibitor because it creates DYSFUNCTIONAL governments and creates STIGMA amongst the African people. i.e. People will always ask for relief from donors and will not seek ways to actively improve themselves. In addition corruption, bureaucracy, ethnic strife and poor political representation are problems associated with constant reliance on AID.

She urged trade with China, increased foreign direct investment and use of the capital markets as direct alternatives to the AID MODEL. Strengthening of micro finance institutions and remittances will also form a huge component of the EXIT strategy from AID.

Please see more at http://stopaid.org

Share your Issuez

GotIssuez.Com a web startup currently operating out of Nairobi, Kenya was founded by a group of Strathmore University graduates namely Anthony Mwangi, Sarah Njeri, Esbon Wahome and Mark Kaigwa and Kevin Rombe.  It is a social platform that lets users from all over Eastern Africa speak their mind on Products, Brands and Service Delivery. It helps companies solve issues swiftly and effectively, getting in touch with the people that matter and get them involved and resolving relevant issues with their companies.

The website reward our members by offering them plenty of gifts they can bid for with the points they get from Ranting and Rating Issues.

It has a Gift Gallery is where you can get your company and your products noticed, as the community bids to win them.

Visit the website at www.gotissuez.com and follow it on twitter at twitter.com/gotissuez

Will we see red?

Hey Guys,

I have been dwelling on the impressive Economic growth of China over the last 30 years. The country’s policy is not decided by a notorius parliament or president (Democracy) but by a commitee of leaders of the Chinese Communist party.

There may not be democratic freedoms like those we find in Kenya but the country is developing at a rapid rate so much so that European countries have been forced to form the European Union to stand a chance against the Chinese Industrial Machine.

In 20 years time the Chinese Military, Space Program will be at par with the Americans. In 30 years time they will have replaced the United States as the world super power together with India joining by 2050.

The West has been forcing democracy down Africans throats by using Development Aid as bait. The result has been Ethnic conflicts around  the continent with different Ethnic groups fighting for the famed National Cake.

Africa has lost many years with this model (Democracy and Multi Party tribal nonsense) and it is only until the Chinese began buying concessions for raw materials, oil et al in exchange for building roads,ports and stadiums has made Africa’s economy begin to expand rapidly as well.

If you think about it Western AID has largely been about expenditure i.e. giving money for government run programs like education and health etc. In exchange African countries are forced to open up their markets to Western goods and even most projects which are Western funded force the Governments to hire Western Experts and pay them at Western rates. Therefore the Africans accrue debts while Aid destroys our own industry and make us dependents for life akin to the intravenous drug user who requires a regular fix.

Its only till China came into Africa and gave it a fairer(there are still some issues) deal for its resources is when Western development agencies are trying to scramble some visible development projects. Otherwise its been 60 years of hard exploitation that we must learn from.

Reports in the Financial Times show that Kenya’s government is in talks with Beijing over development of a multi-billion dollar port and transport corridor that could provide a new export route for Chinese oil in southern Sudan.

The cash-strapped Kenyan government opened negotiations with Qatar over a potential $3.5bn investment in the port project late last year in return for a lease on 40,000 hectares of land to grow crops. But no deal was struck and Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, indicated to the Financial Times that he now viewed China as better suited to the project.

“The Chinese offer the full package,” he said, referring to the combination of financing and technical expertise that state-backed Chinese banks and construction companies have rolled out across Africa.

A Kenyan delegation led by Mr Odinga flew to China late on Wednesday for talks on the project involving the construction of a port in the popular tourist area of Lamu, and road and rail links to Kenya’s borders with Ethiopia and southern Sudan.

This shows that Kenya and other African countries have finally learnt the art of engagement and playing to powers (West and East) against each other which truthfully has been Africa’s problem a failure to learn how to liberate itself economically and safe guard our interests.

In conclusion perhaps we should review this democratic system and replace it with a Council of Elders with Chief Elder as Boss. This is what China has done in a nutshell. I am sure a framework can be worked out around using the different African head of states to form a governing council at the top. Democracy should not precede POLICY. It is not the end but the means to the end.

If you think this is a joke just look at the Military display China put up for the world during its 30 years of COMMITEE rule. The sleeping giant has awoken from her slumber.

P.S. The video is in Chinese which is good considering we may very soon start speaking that Language.

Discuss?

VIDEOS

Spammed by Russia

I logged in to the admin section of this website to discover that i had been spammed (SQL Injection Hacks) into yet another tiring routine of deleting comments and lose 20 more minutes of my life carefully perusing through spam and actual comments.

Spam is increasingly becoming a huge expense and burden on almost anyone who uses the internet to check mail or communicate.

Assuming i earn $15 for every hour of productivity. It means i am loosing 1/3 of $15 = $5 every day which translates to a whopping $150 every month due to useless spam.

If a company has 200 people that rely on email that translates to $30,000 monthly loss and an unbelievable $460,000 lost to spam.

The estimate is even worse if we take a country which has conservatively 100 companies with over 200 people employed as staff who face this problem. In this case the country looses $46,000,000 roughly Kshs 3.7 billion to such spam attacks.

Such figures should immediately prompt the Kenyan government to set up safe guards that protect Kenyan websites and servers from Spam traffic that originates mostly from Russian/Siberian servers. This should be a project for the Communications Commission of Kenya and National Security Intelligence Service Cyber War unit.

This country is in a de facto state of war for which its security agencies are inadequately prepared. In the past 6 months the following websites have been hacked.

• StateHouse.co.ke which is the Presidents personal website.
• Capitalfm.co.ke which is one of Kenya’s leading websites.
• EquityBank.co.ke which was cloned by Nigerian scammers [See Proof]

Rumour has it that the most famous hack was in 2008 when the Department of Defence was attempting to transfer money to Ukrainian arms dealers over unsecured protocols (specifically http) when the money (in Billions) got intercepted by Russian hackers who presumably proceeded to have to largest party ever courtesy of Kenyan tax payers.

Hackers are having a field day in this country its time we got organized.

Income Statue of Africa's Rennaissance

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has commissioned a 160-ft high bronze statue commemorating the “African Renaissance.” The statue, “shows a muscular man in a heroic posture, outstretched arms wrapped around his wife and child, who is balanced on one of his biceps,” reports the Associated Press. Plus, the entire group is coming out of a volcano. The statue is symbolic of the African family(Man, Woman and Child) rising out of the volcanic threshold of Slavery, Racism and IGNORANCE . The statue members seem to be pointing at their collective destiny with ultimate focus and expectation.

Senegalese media reports that the statue will be dedicated in a grandiose ceremony on December 12, 2009, with various African leaders and Brazilian President Lula Ignacio da Silva in attendance.

Read more on Africa’s Rennaissance [Click Here]

Anyone can be rich!

Kenya’s Investment mogul Ali Khan of Rich.co.ke has spent the better part of last month touring the world’s financial capitols in the US,UK and Canada. He discusses with K24 Executive Presenter Richard Kagoe some of the challenges facing Global markets as well as the Kenyan economy. Notably, he sites political bickering as one of the major dampeners of Business Confidence in the country.

Ali as always puts investing into perspective and  i have to say i have increased my on meagre earnings succesfully in the past based on some of his sound advise. He may not always read the market correctly(due to some unforeseen destabilizing factors) but his manual for getting rich is one every Kenyan Investor should get acquanted too.  His website is Rich.co.ke

In this interview these are some of the Key issues he raises.

• We should all invest when the Stock Market is depresses as that is best tiime to get value for money.
• China is USA’s new Bankers hence has become more powerful in the IMF and G20.
• Remittences are picking up again.
• Political bickering is distabalizing for the Kenyan Economy.
• World Economic power is shifting East to China and co.
• Obama follows the trend and agress to all inclusive world markets.
• He identifies some Entrepreneural Kenyans making Billions in the US. [Feature coming soon]

Watch the interview here and give your opinion on what he has to say.

Part A

Part B

Part C

Part D