What's Wrong With Africans, Honestly?

General
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So, from yesterday I am watching all these analyses on the president’s speech. Professors, economists and top politicians are all giving their five cents worth, and I am just dumpstruck at how shallow they all are.

First, let’s agree. If gavament uses 50% of revenue to pay salaries, there’s no way that 30% could be lost to corruption. I don’t know where that statistic came from about 7 years ago but like the lie about Kibra having 1 million people it’s become an urban legend.

“We lose a third of our revenues to corruption”. Total BS.

The other thing that has struck me are the arguments about why the 5.9% GDP growth is not being felt at the grassroots. Niggas please.

I have said it here before and I will say it again. If your population is growing UNSUSTAINABLY, then it doesn’t mattaer whether your GDP growth rate is 20% or even 30% per year. Mtakuwa mnacreate 400,000 new jobs per year, watoto 1.5 million wanaingia workforce (remember last year Matiang’i released the results of 1 million KCPE candidates? Add the numbers of those who had dropped out, those who had never gone to school like the chokoras etc etc and you get the magnitude of the problem). Net effect of creating 400,000 new jobs and pumping out 1.5 million job-seekers is that 1.1million of them will be jobless, that’s a no-brainer surely?

Kenya can prolly become developed very fast, but until it tackles three major challenges we ain’t going anywhere any time soon - CORRUPTION, A RUNAWAY WAGE BILL AND UNSUSTAINABLE POPULATION GROWTH.

Na kwanza hiyo ya mwisho. China became a developed country after it froze its population for 30 years. South Korea, which many of the so-called professors have been quoting has the average woman getting 1.2 kids, compared to Kenya’s 4.3.

Just think this. How much would you be worth from inheritance if your own parents just had two kids - you and another - instead of the 8 of you now? Chances are that you would have attended better schools, had a better bike, dressed better, etc etc.

Somehow, all the professors and economists I listened to missed that.

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the tragedy facing .ke is that even the learned people have allowed their intellectual contributions be clouded by political goals.

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Population isn’t a bad thing. Unskilled un-educated population that feeds off the educated half is the bad thing. So, what you need to consider is the population density per square km vs the services available. India/Israel have pop densities of about 400 people per km. Germany is at 230 people per km. Kenya, is at, wait for it, 80. So, we need the manpower and population to build the infrastructure that we so badly want to enjoy. That is why my future wife needs to be ready to carry 6-8 children.

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germany has had 400 to 500 yrs to build the infrastructure to serve the 230 p/p/sq km…us 50?

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Your analysis is flawed. Most of Kenya’s land is not habitable due to arid and semi arid conditions. It would be unwise to compare our density with that of Germany that has no desert. Israel has a very highly educated population and very advanced technology. It’s small size also makes it sustainable despite the high population density. India is not exactly a good example of a successful country. There are a billion poor people in india, and several million super-rich.

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Strange how you can use your own argument against yourself.
Germany has no desert, true, how about Israel? How did they overcome that? Tech, right? A small army is treated the same way as a large one. Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
India isn’t a success story? How many Africans go there for affordable healthcare? And the way capitalism works, by the way, is having several million poor people to every millionaire.

There are lessons to be learnt from each of these countries. We’d still need the numbers to actualise them.

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What was the generation between 1963- 2003 doing? Those are the guys who failed this country. But the beauty of the situation we find ourselves in, is that we don’t need to go through trial and error, invent our own electricity and such, we can easily adapt tech that already exists and build on it. Thus, yes, 30 years is more than enough to get to Germany level. Welcome to the information age mate.

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You, sir, are the kind of educated ‘idiot’ that is failing us. NOWHERE HAVE I SAID THAT A BIG POPULATION IS A BAD THING. I have talked about RATE of growth. Water is good, right? But what happens when rain falls for one week nonstop? Uncontrolled floods.

That’s what we are having in Kenya - a flood of hungry, angry young people. That’s bad.

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Israel is small in size and has advanced technology in farming coupled with a highly educated workforce. Kenya has the education, but lacks the technology.

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For the record, between 1963 and 1980, Kenya was growing at between 6-8%, the highest in the world.

BUT THE UNSUSTAINABLE POPULATION GROWTH DID US IN EVEN THEN.

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@M2Random, I have called this guy an ‘idiot’ - though he prolly is not - for a reason. Let him google Israel’s population in say 1985, and today. I can bet that even with all the migration in, including of Ethiopian Jews, their population has not doubed in that time. So they are able to plan for their infrastructure and social services.

Meanwhile here in Vumbistan, the population of Nairobi has gone up from 800,000 to 4.5 million in the same time…

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watoi nimefikisha 7 saa hii , target ni 30 .

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[ATTACH=full]88467[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]88468[/ATTACH]

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I agree with you in the sense that the high rate of growth strains natural resources such as arable land, water and food. Outdated cultural practices like land fragmentation, early marriages and polygamy make the situation even worse.

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Your argument is very correct, we will not progress if we continue pumping out babies, however policy makers led by politicians belong to a different school of thought. They don’t see population growth as a problem, they see new votes. In some counties they are even giving incentives to villagers to pump out even more babies.

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:):):slight_smile:

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In all the countries that are developed there was a period of high population growth that later slowed down. The reason it slowed down was because of quality healthcare, education and industrial development. The best way to get a lower population is to have people get to college especially girls. The child birth will take care of itself. Thomas Malthus was wrong and so are you.

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You sir, need to learn a little more of the history of your country in order to get off your judgemental high horse. From 1963 to 1983- our parents were picking up their lives after the decade of a disruptive maumau that had not only dispossessed them but disoriented them. In spite of having little to spare they took us to school, laying the foundation of this country…
1983-2౦03- do I need to tell you what was happening?
You might now want to revise your opinion?..

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Anyone who has worked at any level in any government funded project can tell you for free, a big, big part of the budget ends up in people’s pockets. Hii upuzi ya nitpicking, downplaying corruption and incomptence and celebrating mediocrity is why Africans are wallowing in poverty. This kind of stupid thinking is the real African problem. The population issue is more complex than you think.

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You are being alarmist for nothing.

Anyway even if we got chilren per mother down to two we will still have high population growth due to the fact that there are many young people who haven’t gotten kids yet e.g like in Bangladesh

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