True reality for Africans

Please note that credit goes to who ever wrote the article. 

They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.
“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”
Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.
“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.
I told him mine with a precautious smile.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“ Zambia .”
“ Zambia !” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.”
“Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.”
“But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.”
My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.
“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.”
“Are you still with the IMF?” I asked.
“I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.”
“No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”
He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.”
Quett Masire’s name popped up.
“Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.”
At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles .
“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down.
From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.
“That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia .”
I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia .”
He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World .”
The smile vanished from my face.
“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”
“There’s no difference.”
“Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.”
I gladly nodded.
“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.”
For a moment I was wordless.
“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”
I was thinking.
He continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.”
I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.
“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.”
“That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested.
He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”
I held my breath.
“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”
He looked me in the eye.
“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!”
I was deflated.
“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan , China , India , just look at them.”
He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”
He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”
At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston ’s Logan International Airport . Walter reached for my hand.
“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”
He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”
Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia ’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.
Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.
But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line.
I believe King Cobra’s reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our own car, he would throw me out.
“Naupena? Fuma apa.” (Are you mad? Get out of here)
Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter’s level let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let’s dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.
A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don’t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It’s time to change our political culture. It’s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don’t be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining few of your beloved ones.
Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History

PORTERS FORCES

Areas covered by the Porters Forces are below. Recommendation is to combine SWOT and Porters Forces together.

Direct Competition

You as a business need to under the forces around competition. For instance, what are your competitors doing, that they may even be doing it better.

Threat Of Entry

If there is a lot of money to be made in the sector then it's a matter of time before you start getting loads of competitors. 

Threat of Substitute

What is the likelihood that the customers can simply find an alternative product to use instead of yours.

Supplier Power

If you have just one supplier for a product then you are bound to be squeezed heavily, hence ensure you have various option.

Buyer Power

Do the customers have money or too much leverage that they can squeeze profit. 

NEGOTIATING

You can always draw up a "contingency contract", which in the sense means one party get more share if it goes one way, and it is reverse if it goes the other way.

The ordering way of information is presented has an effect on the way the negotiating is going. 

When you go into the a car show room, you will see the cars and also the price in bold. They know you will come and negotiate, but the reason for putting it there is to serve as the "anchoring point" for the start of negotiating.

BUSINESS CASE - NOTES

1. Understand your language and ensure you speak their language. Majority of the investors are older and not up to date with the technological terms used by the younger generation, hence crucial that things are kept simple
2. The product/process needs to be clear.
3. Writing the document in tiny fonts is not recommended as majority of people will need glasses.
4. Repeat key messages several times, in the executive, body, and financial sections.
5. Avoid cliches, as a good business case does not have that.
6. If you don't have access to concrete business case, speak to potential customers, and reflect that in the document.
7. The financial section should be written in a story form, the figures can be there. E.g. say there is need to £400k to move to the next stage, which in turn will increase revenue in year 2 by 30%.
8. When you are presenting financial forecast, 3-4 years is more than sufficient, anything beyond that timeframe means it will be guessing. 
9. Any pessimistic aspect should be reviewed with strategy in place to address it.
10. State clearly what is the benefit objective for the Managers(including you). 
11. Don't use words like substantial market share, it is essential for instance to say "we aim to achieve 4% of the market share".
12. When you have completed the document, read it out loud.

TOUR – HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

Ticketmaster was clever enough to have brought the tour of the Westminster Parliament to my attention when I went browsing their site for random stuff to do. After 9+ years residency in the country, it was only right for me to check out the story behind the seat of power. Since my visit to the German Budestag parliament trip, have caught the bug to try more.

In a nutshell, will recommend that everyone attempt to visit British parliament (aka Westminster Palace) at least once in his or her lifetime. Those that love politics will not need any form of persuasion, but can adequately confirm that those that not even into politics will enjoy it equally, hence if you are ever thinking of where to go or do in London, then a tour of the parliament is a high recommendation.

Cost and Tour Duration

Ticket for adults does retail for £15, if you are lucky to be a student, then it’s £10. The guided tour last approximately 75mins. You will be wishing it was longer by the end of the tour.

Rules and Regulations

Below are some of the guidance we were told to adhere to during the visit, in summary, breathing is the only thing you are allowed to do. It’s quite a strict procedure, but as my accomplice expressed, it actually makes you focus more on the tour. Some of the ones highlighted were:

1.     No death – neither you nor the MPs are allowed to die in the parliament building, hence if you have any idea that you might have heart attack or something, then please stay out. This is serious and not a joke as you might be thinking.

2.     No camera allowed once the tour begins. The only exception is the “Westminster Hall”, the point where we are gathered when waiting for the tour to begin.

3.     No Mobile phones – preference is for the phones to be switched off but you are also allowed to put it in silent mode. So those of you Facebooker and Twitterers that like to keep people up to date with your affairs might not be able to do that for 75 mins, lets hope your followers don’t think you are dead.

4.     No seating – you must adequately be abled for the tour as there is no seating allowed during the tour. Reason for this is because you need to be a Lord or member of the parliament to seat in the House of Lords and House of Common respectively. Seating facilities in the other rooms are for important dignitaries and goes along with the same principles.

5.     No riff raff behaviour – e.g. chewing gums, spitting, swearing, and all those crazy characteristics that you exhibit anywhere else.

Statistics

The parliament seats on an area of 8 acres (3.2 hectares), 3 miles of passageways, 1,100 rooms, height of clock Tower is 316 feet (96m), and height of the Victoria Tower is 323 feet (98m).

Facts

1.     Red is the colour denotation for the house of Lords, and Green for the house of common.

2.     As you might have suspected, the décor in house of Lords are splendid and probably defined as out of this world, but house of common is very basic (probably secured from Ikea).

3.     Lords respond by answering “Content” (in favour) or “Not Content” (against the motion).

4.     Members of the house of common respond to motion by saying either "Aye" (in favour of the motion) or "No" (against the motion).

5.     If you watching the debate on TV, and see the MPs leaning their head against the seats, was informed they are not sleeping, what in fact they are doing is listening to the questions/responses through the speakers integrated into the side of the seats.

6.     During the Prime Minister question time, the opposition is allowed to asks six questions, with the first one very basic such as how was the week going.

7.     The reason why the Prime Minister of the day always has a very large file is because it contains response(s) to all possible questions that the opposition might raise. This means that the advisers to the PM need to have thought off all the questions the opposition could ask, and provide the response (or data) in the folder which the PM has in front of him(or her).

8.     As of today (2012), there are currently 650 elected MPs, but there is a plan to cut that down to 600 for the next election (2015).Yep, some MPs are not happy as their constituencies might disappear entirely, and some will have to do a merger. Discussion on the implementation strategy remains a hot debate.

9.     There is also a recommendation to cut down the amount of the Lords, a motion tabled by the current (2012) coalition partner, Lib Dem.

Westminster Hall

Work commenced on the hall during the reign of Williams the conquerer’s son, William Rufus, in 1097. It was completed in 1099 and designed to host great state occasions and be a place for feasts and entertainment. It is has witnessed some of the pivotal moments in British history (e.g. trial of Guy fawkes and King Charles I).

At 240 feet x 68 feet (73m x 20.7m) in dimension, it was the second largest building in Europe during it’s early days. Am in agreement with the guide that confirmed that it is an architectural spectacle, with the largest surviving single span mediaeval timber roof in Northern Europe, and has witnesses

Keep a close on the floor as you will notice some of the key events commemorated on brass plaques.

Click Here to read more about Westminster Hall

One most important thing, please arrive about 20 mins earlier in order to pass through security and make your timeslot for tour. The show will begin with or without you being present. 

Free Badges

Security Pass

UN 2300 Population Forecast

Yes, I agree with you that all of the generation Y (.. the term generally used to describe people born in the1980s and early 1990s, sometimes including those born as late as the year 2000...) will be dead by 2300, but that did not stop the United Nations (UN) Population division from compiling the long-range population. Am sure the report did not factor in potential of a world war (only a matter of time at this rate), and also any outbreak of a killer disease (or perhaps I have been watching too many hollywood movie).

You can get hold of the report from here. It's about 254 pages long, hence browse accordingly.

According to the article, the six largest countries in 2000, in order, are China, India, the United States of America, Indonesia, Brazil, and the Russian Federation. Together they cover 51 per cent of world population. By 2050, the six largest will be India, China, the United States of America, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Looking back to 1950, one sees that China, India, the United States of America, and Indonesia have been fixtures among the top six, but the other two have changed and will change. Occupying the other two slots are the Russian Federation and Japan for 1950, Brazil and the Russian Federation for 2000, and Pakistan and Nigeria for 2050.

Nigeria will remain the most populated country in Africa in 2300 at an estimated 282.8m, followed by Ethiopia at 206.5m. By the report(refer to page 56), 6 of the top 20 populated nation is an African nation. For Africa to feed the estimated growth, then it will have to get his gear in tact before then. India estimated to overtake China around 2028. Around 2050, India's pop will be 1.53bn, while China will be 1.40bn, the difference is an outstanding 136m or 9.7%.

UK Tax and Levies

Below are some of the UK taxes and levies on individuals and businesses

1. Income Tax
2. National Insurance
3. Value Added Tax
4. Stamp Duty Taxes Land Tax (SDLT)
5. Non-domicile Tax
6. Residential Rent Tax
7. Inheritance Tax
8. Capital Gains Tax
9. Furnished Holiday Letting
10. Corporation Tax (main and Small)
11. Tax of Foreign Branches
12. Business Rates
13. bank Levy
14. Stamp Duty
15. Stamp Duty Reserve Tax
16. Oil and Gas Profits (32%)
17. Alcohol Duties
18. Tobacco Duties
19. Fuel Duty
20. Vehicle Exercise Duty
21. Carbon Dioxide Tax
22. Aviation Tax (Air passengers and Business jet taxes)
23. Climate Change Levy
24. Landfill taxes

Muhammad Ali - Memorable Qoutes

Muhammad Ali, the hand that told the world he is the greatest and no one disputed that. That was because he delivered based on the boosts he made. Came across some of the statements he had made in the past. 

1. 'Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, his hands can't hit what his eyes can't see'
2. 'I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and got into bed before the room was dark'
3. 'It will be a killer, and a chillier, and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila'
4. 'Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wildlife'
5. 'If you sign to fight me, you need speed and endurance but what you need most is to increase your insurance'
6. 'I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have said. Called him(Frazier) names I shouldn't have called him. I apologise for that. I', sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight'
7. 'Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up'
8. 'Nobody has to tell me that this is a serious business. I'm not fighting one man. I'm fighting a lot of men, showing a lot of 'em, here is one man the couldn't defeat. My mission is to bring freedom to 30 million black people'
9. 'If he [Henry Cooper] gives me jive, he'll fall in five'

Nigeria 2012 Budget

During my quest to keep up to date with the state of affairs in Nigeria through Twitter hash tag #OccupyNigeria game across the link to the proposed Nigeria 2012 budget through the Twitter handle @BankyW. Even having such information available on the Internet is a progress in its own right (no hint of sarcasm intended).

Based on the data available, I did compute the equivalent budget for each ministry in USD and GBP, did this so that those residing outside the country can appreciate the value more. Exchange rates (NGR:USD = 161.90 and NGR:GBP = 249.747) was taken from xe.com as of Sunday 8th, Jan 2012.

This piece also includes the rough comparison between UK and that of Nigeria in some areas which I could get data for both. Yes, you are right, Nigeria and UK are not in same par in terms of development status hence might be an invalid comparison, but the comparison is able tell a story about the budget allocated for Nigeria (estimated pop of 156m) against UK(estimated population of 60m). One might even be able to deduce why Nigeria probably is not developing in measurable levels that might be expected (sorry, dreaming of).

If anyone of you know where I can source the Nigeria government receipts (e.g Income tax, business tax, stamp duties) then do let me know. Will be nice to get to see the gap between budget and estimated national income.

Source of information of data are confirmed appropriately. There is probability for mistakes as the figures were manually copied across, hence feel free to analyse and point out any omission or mistakes.


Story of the 2012 Budget
The Nigeria govt plan to spend an estimated N4.749 trillion ($29.33b; £19.02b) in 2012 to keep the nation moving. Those of you that are clever enough and have an idea what the US and British govt budgets are, will instantly come to the conclusion that they must be some mathematical computation error. US federal budget alone for 2012 is estimated at $3.7 trillion (please bear in mind that US estimated population is about twice that of Nigeria).


Consolidated Revenue Fund Charges (Item no 51 in snapshot below) which include items such as Pensions and gratuities, service-wide votes, and capital supplementation, takes the higher proportion of the allocation at 21.42% (N1.02t; $6.28; £4.07b).


At an allocation of 10.78% of the total budget, servicing of the domestic debts comes in second highest in terms of proposed budget, at N511.98b ($3.16b; £2.05b).


Education is the best gift a child can be given, hence Nigeria govt plan to spend an estimated N400.15b($2.47b; £1.60b). This is only 8% of the total allocation budget. According to the HM Treasury UK, the estimated Education spending in 2011-12 is £89b (N22.22 trillion), which alone is about 1,689 times what the TOTAL Nigeria budget is. This will explain why the education system will continue to degrade year-on-year, many bright Nigerians leaving to study abroad(and may never return), and the country lacking behind in terms of Research and Development. Click here to get full breakdown of allocation to each educational institution in the country. 

Budget allocation for the health sector is N282.77b ($1.74b; £1.13b), this is only about 5.95% of the total budget allocation. National health insurance scheme takes about N1.55b (£6.20m) of that allocation. If the economy was well developed, with jobs available to majority of the people, that National Health Insurance can be paid for by the people. In comparison to the UK, there is an allocated budget for health(NHS item) of about £101.5b (about N25 trillion). Click here to get the Nigeria Budget health breakdown item.

Presidential office has an allocated budget of N43.60b ($269.27m; £174.56m). Items that make up the total cost are diverse, hence do not conclude it was only meant for the president. Click here to get more details

Pictures below show the breakdown of the budget by ministries, and the allocation of the total budget. Data was sourced from the Nigeria Budget Office.

The supporting document, produced by the Nigeria Budget Office can be found here.

Source of the UK budget can be found here