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Obama's GES: A not so new beginning

10/7/2015

 
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Once again, I find myself doing the lonely thing of expressing my concern that Africa is going to come out humiliated by the Obama administration after the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. 
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The Kenyan media is going gaga about Obama finally visiting his fatherland Kenya, reducing Obama’s visit to a homecoming rather than questioning the interests of the US being served by the visit. We saw this in August last year during the US-Africa Summit which left Africa with egg on her face.


I got interested in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit because I thought it was yet another conference in Africa on innovation, education and entrepreneurship, conferences which are beginning to get on my nerves because of their stereotypical themes. The conferences usually blame African institutions of learning for teaching the youth to expect employment, and then tell the African youth not expect employment and instead go for entrepreneurship.

So I wanted to know which philanthropist is behind this new initiative, only to find that it is the White House itself! Apparently, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit is Obama’s foreign policy baby, sparked off by a speech in Cairo in 2009 entitled “A new beginning.” The program was initially designed to use capitalism to spread America’s agenda in the Muslim world (of course Obama puts it more eloquently than I have).

But now black Africa has finally been remembered. It appears that the US government has been impressed by iHub, Nailab and Kenya’s leadership in innovation and start-ups, and that’s why GES is coming to Kenya.

Kudos to the young innovators whom I’m privileged to know – though not personally. Nailab, the iHub and the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) have changed my life and my department at work more than they know.  On the other hand, I wondered for a moment if the visits of Kenyatta II and Waiguru to Nailab were out of a genuine interest in what our youth are doing, or embarrassment that the US had taken interest in the center. But I digress.

Because of we teachers often receive the brunt of attack in these entrepreneurship and innovation forums, I have always dreaded them. But because I’m not an economist, I normally push my questions to the back of my mind. This time, though, those questions are nagging me a little bit more, and I just have to vent them out.

Question no 1: Isn’t it ironical that most of the people telling our youth not to expect employment, but instead be entrepreneurs, are usually employees on salaries at some hot-shot institution like IMF, World Bank, or even the White House?

Question no 2: Why are the floodgates of entrepreneurship directed to countries outside the so-called first world?

I had to consult the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) website to see if maybe Germans, French or British –  or even the Greeks, since they appear to badly need it – are hosting entrepreneurial summits. Of course they’re not. The US and the EU talks about Greece are not about telling the Greek youth to be entrepreneurs but about bail outs – which the public has to pay for.

It’s interesting that the Kenyan media is not mentioning that GES is an American foreign policy agenda of the Obama administration. And once US government is involved, we have to ask what GES implies for us and whether it serves Kenyan interests. With all the excitement about the US president coming to his fatherland, I probably will get vilified for this, but I smell a rat in this bias of GES towards the so-called Third World.

And that rat is the fact that the US is pushing for the privatization of public services through telling us to go for not for social justice, but for (social) entrepreneurship. Which is not fair when we Africans still pay taxes for public services. And truth be told, social entrepreneurship, even by billionaires like Oprah and Bill Gates, cannot replace the resources of a nation and its leadership.

Question no. 3 (and most disturbing for me as a teacher): Why is there no mention of the professionals and technicians?

I find it interesting that in all the stories about the poor or girls finally going to school, or about mothers getting maternal and child health care, or about bursaries and maternal health mobile clinics, or about decent housing and clean water, there is no word about the professionals and technicians who do the work of teaching, healing, constructing and plumbing. Yet kids are not taught by bursaries, neither are the sick cured by money, nor buildings built by cement or water taps installed by themselves. So why are we not discussing training, pay and treatment of professionals and technicians? How are the millennium development goals of healthcare supposed to be met when countries like Kenya are bleeding out doctors and nurses to the first world because our politicians are too insecure to have health professionals in their counties?

The hatred that many entrepreneurship advocates express for teachers never seems to amaze me. We’re accused of drilling students and not encouraging critical thinking, but let one teacher try and do it – politicians will whine about exam results and the government about quality assurance, as if education is an industrial conveyor belt where minds can be tested for “quality.”

But most of all, the question that isn’t answered is this: are doctors, nurses, teachers and other professionals and technicians supposed to be entrepreneurs? If everyone is supposed to be an entrepreneur, what happens when entrepreneurs get sick? Or when they have children that need to be educated? Or when those business incubators need to be housed in buildings? Or when entrepreneurs need their cars repaired, or planes flown?

A nagging suspicion

Basically, all this talk of entrepreneurship leaves me with the nagging suspicion of a neo-liberal agenda to lessen the accountability of governments to African citizens. Advocates of entrepreneurship ignore the fact that African unemployment is rooted in runaway corruption, huge wastage of resources on commissions and sitting allowances, highly un-intelligent political cultures, a huge gap between the rich and the poor, and lack of independent imagination in leaders who are often beholden to Western interests. Instead, the advocates in the form of Western governments and philanthropists tell us citizens that we are responsible for our own unemployment.

Entrepreneurship is fine as a policy, but it must be only one out of other policies to build a nation. And those policies must be driven by us, the Kenyan people. The Greeks have asserted their sovereignty even in the difficult economic circumstances. So should we. 

Fred Miya
25/7/2015 07:03:33 pm

Wow! This is as concise as it gets. As a teacher, I see an ever never-ending stream of 'get rich' schemes offered to the youth. Personally, I would advocate that we shouldn't be looking at the 'American' model of entrepreneurship, because it's skewed against an African scenario. The 'German' or 'Japanese' model, offers better success. What might never be highlighted about American success stories, is that more often than not, most entrepreneurs come into the 'American' business scene as a completed package. Very few actually were born in the USA, or they're second generation immigrants whose parents have already carried through the arduous and intricate task of integration. America by and large avoided the cost of their early-childhood education and upbringing, escaped the ravages of their youthful, bashful delinquency and received a clearheaded individual. I say,better Germany or Japanese model. Whatever arguments have to be made for GES, America was never built by technological advancement from another country. Early settlers on the new continent were dirt poor. We want to bulldoze shortcuts to advancements that can only be achieved by simply being prudent with what's already in your hands.

Mwagiru
26/7/2015 02:20:14 am

Previous GES meets have been held in Dubai and Turkey. Are those not first world countries?

KT
26/7/2015 01:45:37 pm

Mixed bag of unwarranted emotions.
Firstly the world knows the GES is a US (read Obama ) agenda to encourage participation of marginalised youth and women to get into business. I do not see anything wrong or illmotive with this strategy. Secondly I don't understand why you are feeling left out as a teacher? You are free to start your own school. Doctors can start their own clinics. All this is entrepreneurship. It's all about offering solutions to today's needs and wants.
Then there is innovation that we see at places such as the IHUB which can also be turned into a business venture (read entrepreneurship).

Mshai Mwangola
27/7/2015 05:00:13 am

Excellent analysis Wandia. I hope there will be critical reflection and analysis in conversations on the post-trip "now-what?" around these questions. Particularly when analysis of what was highlighted in the trip basically gestured to, but did not actually engage OUR hot-button issues. To be fair though to the Americans, what else could we expect? Their No.1 priority is their interests, not ours. Ours are incidental.

philo Ikonya link
27/7/2015 09:20:47 am

Well done Wandia for offfering your thoughts with precaution and without prevarication! Such clarity! Great! We have to answer as to why "the eyes of a hungry child" as spoken of by JM Kariuki naming the child from Turkana, from Kiambu and from Nyanza?? have continued to stare at us that way...Who mothers Kenya in the brother relationship I kept reading about between UK and PO? Who does in the world? Is how much is taken out equal to how much is given? Is it given even in NGOs? The Italian Prime Minister's visit to Kenya and his lecture were hardly noticed? I asked someone in a neighbouring country what his name is, and he answered he does not know and that even if his own president came to Kenya hardly anyone would want to hear his lecture because he is not Obama or like him, actually he is not, but because his country is too small in Europe. But I was to remember this man as Obama mentioned Lamu and the coast, Samburu Park etc. Little Milano out there and yes, how entrepreneurship has left out the teaching of languages to those who come to Kenya to stay and those are jobs. Ngugi, when he came to Kenya and was in State House I thought had come to discuss Kamirithus in Samburu and in Taita. More so, I remember Richard Branson also is an entrepreneur in the Mara, I think. That Gates Foundation gets money back a plenty because of their great work in Kenya. Great that disease is kept down. We promised to fight it 1963. Done well in some aspects but Singapore@50, would GES fit there with the same tone and spirit? Perhaps G7. Some Norwegians say that their country is just a mini USA brother and is becoming more and more like that. One wanted to go into exile in protest because he hates invasions into other country. Norway's population is only abt 5 million. Compare that to some ethnic groups in Kenya. Social Welfare... where Kenya should be looking to... a safety net for the unemployed, a doctor for each one, mapped by the state, is in place no matter the frustrations that follow. That is not so in the USA. I want to follow this dialogue keenly to see what will be not counter organised to the trade meeting... but what can be pointed out and run in juxtaposition so that being mentioned or touched by Obama might not become the only reason for wanting to live... The unmeasurable distances and the eruptions of enthusiasm. The chasms that do not allow us to see that much inspiration is also buried in current and ancient Africa trade systems. The Scramble for Africa that was and continues and the fact that the world wants this growing sector, the youth, at home and not in Lampedusa. I try to light my lamp. I see the touch and go entrepreneur and the sweat of ages of so many with brilliant ideas also for social justice. I observe jua kali in Kenya and what I called the trade summit at the rest was too high tech after Sasa Wasee! Ni aje!? This is a vast topic. I know that I wished we could have a follow - up of profits from both sides and compare and contrast who gains what. I was quick to say in a Jua Kali way as am no banking professional that the USA has already banked before we can unpackage what all that was about. GES has been held elsewhere yes, true but I think for most people it is a fraction of a G7 summit located in people more than in politicians. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/06/08/g-7-leaders-declaration I fear that things cannot be separated so neatly although priorities are meant to do that. When it suits us to cover weakness priorities such as women whom we have not actually decided if they should exist loudly and with their bodies in mini-skirts or #medressmychoice, then they become the reason why we must wait before other rights can be discussed. Education comes first too, as it was at independence Kenya@50 so we have to keep at it cleanly first before educating on diversity in sexuality and among peoples... so neat. In truth, none excludes or should exclude the other. Small is beautiful may be old but growth at 7+% can hit zero in the absence of justice very fast. Obama came home. We cannot change the fact and the love and admiration are ours, caution and all, Beast and Beetle. He inspired with his impassioned speech. Our SECURITY will be proven later, his is already banked... Super power. Where one cannot touch the will of the people and their hearts whether jua kali or not, nothing can work. So thank you Obama, you touch like church fire in Kenya. The figures... the marines, the use of Kenya by America and for free, the culture of Big is Beautiful... Nyerere cannot reply to Ni aje? Wasee, Mazee! But from far he will understand a high five. The fist to my heart in my hunger. I think that social justice engines must USE all this power first to root what is being sold as new! Africa believing in the saviour from afar... Obama spoke The Trouble with Nigeria in his speech, in a way. Obama spoke JM Kariuki. Fluency is gifted with touching and gaining and learning in an instance. Ob

Njoroge Thuo
27/7/2015 05:30:30 pm

Dear Mwalimu, allow me to respond. Should I at any point veer off the point, I will stand corrected. My response basically address your questions as presented given they provide a summary of your thoughts.

Q1 Response
I distinctly see that you question the messenger but on the same footing suggest that the message is irrelevant because of the barer. I doubt you have a problem with the message but in case you have, I guess you will know that we cannot grow our country's economy based on employment. We need the creators of employment. Should they be youth? I think so. Its easier for a young dog to learn new tricks. In any case, there is sufficient empirical evidence to suggest that, most successful entrepreneurs tend to have started their entrepreneurial endevour earlier in life.

Now to the question about the messenger, I believe it is not ironical that in most cases, teachers teach us to become what they are not themselves. The best lecturers in business are rarely businessmen. It is therefore not necessarily ironical that, the calls to entrepreneurship are made by non-entrepreneurs.

Q2 Response
I think, this question deals with "to whom is the message directed to" your suggestion is laced with suspicion of conspiracy. That may be true. However, it is equally true that development is a function of entrepreneurship and innovation. As to whether the push is being made or directed to the first or the third world is materially irrelevant. The solutions offered by ihub etc are useful to kenya and the rest of the world. M-pesa, M-Kopa, etc are solutions that we cant trivialize just because the drive may have been done by the west. It would be a different case if such solutions are irrelevant to our context. But in such a case, "Irrelevant solutions" are usually weeded out by market forces. Back to the issue, if you study the growth models of all developed nation, entrepreneurship and innovations done provide solutions resulted in an increase job creation which is a pre-condition for development.

Q3 Response
This questions seems to question the role and position of professional and technicians in the equation of enterprenuership.The second part of the question alludes to the role of proffesional and technicials outside the enterprenuership. To the first question, I will be categorical to mention that entrepreneurs cant exist in isolation to professionals and or technicians. There may be those who think otherwise, but is is a position perpetuated either by ignorance or arrogance or both. It is imporant to mention however that, it is possible to have both capabilities. For instance, a teacher (like yourself) running an educational institution, a Doctor running a private health facility, an engineer running a construction firm, a techie running a software firm. The eco-system of enterprenuership requires the inclusion of all capabilities, whether they are resident in an individual or several people (although growth in a business enterprise requires that they be resident in several). In the book E-Myth, Michael E. Gerber clarifies that the absence of the Proffesional/Technician and Manager in an entrepreneurial endevour will automatically lead to failure.

On the second question as to whether all people should be enterprenuers, I think not. However, you are well aware that today in Kenya for instance, we have more professionals than there are jobs (except for a few areas). We are producing more lawyers, more accountants, more teachers, more artisan, more engineers but not matching them with equal job opportunities. The government and government institutions cannot and should not absorb all. Private sector though government facilitation in terms of policy, legal, fiscal frameworks etc should be capable of absorbing most if not all and this can only be achieved through enterprenuership.

I think it is unjust to read the GES with glasses of paranoia. I think its a great call.

Yours Student (at Daystar University)

Sonnienjoki link
9/8/2015 07:41:25 am

I agree with you. You can be a professional and still be an entrepreneur. I tend to get the feeling most people equate entrepreneurship with being housed in an incubation hub.
Good entrepreneurship should create employment for people around you.

Ay1m
9/8/2015 06:55:42 am

Interesting article but I would like to briefly correct some mis-statements.

1. The reason why we need more entrepreneurs is due to fact that the traditional avenues of job creation are dead. Technology guarantees that you need less people per task than before and yes, even teachers at some point and extent will be impacted by technology. If you look at number of jobs at independence, and number of jobs today, you will see there is a huge disparity in relation to population growth.

2. There is no country in the world that is not pushing entrepreneurship. America has tax cuts and favorable legislation to stimulate entrepreneurship. Their whole education system is geared toward creating entrepreneurs rather than employees. You mention Greece but if you look at some of the IMF preconditions to Greece, are measures to liberalize almost all sectors to enable youth enter into trades and business previously closed to them. In short, Greece must do a lot to stimulate entrepreneurship, before they can get the bail out. On the other hand, the EU market is different from ours, they have a future thats predictably going to be impacted by labor shortages, their policy decisions will obviously be different to ours.

3. Professionals and technicians were welcome but in an entrepreneurial capacity. History has shown that countries always fall apart when unemployment rate hits approximately 52%. We need to stimulate as many Kenyans as possible to think out of the box and try and get into ventures that will create jobs for the youth.

4. And finally, it will be a long while before we have the next GES hosted in Africa. My only hope is that we capitalized on opportunities presented. The difference between business and government aid is that in business, you can always walk away from a deal. Our future lies in building synergies and being ahead of the curve. We need more entrepreneurs and thinkers in kenya.

Go be an entrepreneur.


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    Wandia Njoya

    African. Woman. Wife. Teacher.

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