Thought Picnic: Breaking the yoke of the firstborn

Good intentions count for nothing.

I reflected recently on a situation where many depend on you, but you cannot depend on them. It was highlighted clearly but unnoticed at the time when an appeal was made for help and support.

What was obvious was what others actively did to contribute to that appeal, while those who were expected to do more were caught hand-wringing and hesitating, and were more concerned about how my plight affected them than genuinely caring about what I was going through.

Any contribution, no matter how small, would have helped, but all I heard was intention, and it never amounted to more. I am very grateful to those who, from afar, showed their generosity to a man who was going through a difficult period in his life.

I cannot say if it was a total indifference or a lack of compassion that informed the lack of interaction that visited my cancer diagnosis last year, because a cursory view of my blog and social media activity would have revealed as much, but it might be conceited to think others should be that concerned.

They care little for you.

And so, when one re-evaluates issues as they are, some tough love must be applied to relationships that have become transactional due to family responsibilities. I dare say, they have lacked the care, love, or attention one would normally expect in such settings.

In my many experiences with adversity, they have not been the ones offering to support me; it is friends who stood by me. My shortcomings have been more an embarrassment to them than an opportunity to help, whether emotionally or materially.

Even the supposed comfort once offered by the matriarch soon wore thin as I struggled with my confidence.

Firstborns bear significant burdens of duty, often at the expense of their well-being, especially in non-Western environments. Extraneous demands are placed on us to deliver with little respite; we invest considerable resources with little return, as expectations and entitlement drain what little we try to save for tough times.

Firstborns Anonymous to the rescue.

The lesson we fail to learn is that everyone eventually manages on their own, whether we are there or not. How we burden ourselves at the cost of our own good is rarely talked of. A support group like Firstborns Anonymous could help us break free from these constraints to focus on ourselves.

We have become hostages to misfortune; we did not choose where we end up, and if, for many, we haven't asserted ourselves to gain privileges from our birth circumstances, then perhaps a selfish gene should take over, setting different priorities from cultural norms.

None of it was an investment.

We need to close the door to endless demands and build sufficient capacity for ourselves before we help others. Sadly, none of what was expended was an investment; if it had been, there would be some returns, some relief, some ease. Instead, they are sunk costs we struggle to walk away from, like unprofitable ventures.

In the end, when everything is accounted for, you owe nobody anything. When you exert yourself, do so with the hope that it benefits those who are truly grateful for what you do, and rest assured that if times are hard, they will stand by you.

The disappointment is tangible; our expectations were misplaced in what once seemed like a store of treasure, in family.

Africa: China in the minds of impressionable African kids

We are going to ABC school

My less than salutary views of China’s apparent invasion of Africa are continually reinforced with the bits of news that seem to show that China’s activities in Africa are not entirely for the long-term good of Africans.

I was irked this time by a tweet that came into my Twitter stream minutes ago.

It started with this tweet

@eolander If you don't think #China is moving to a soft-power strategy in #Africa: read this - they plan to build 1000 schools: http://bit.ly/g6x3Es [1]

To which I responded

@eolander Building primary schools is commendable http://bit.ly/g6x3Es but that is hardly the vehicle for knowledge transfer, is it?

I got this response

@eolander @forakin Africa's development needs extend beyond pure knowledge transfer. Building schools seems to be a wonderful price of entry to the African market.

There are so many strands of discourse with this development, the idea that the Chinese would build 10 ICT driven model primary schools in Kenya is quite commendable and must be applauded, and this intent would be scaled out to 1,000 such schools across Africa giving the lucky pupils a basic educational grounding in life.

One basic context

This however throws up a host of issues, one of which was exemplified in Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls [2] (OWLAG) in South Africa, the benevolent lady shelled out $40 million of her own money to build that school and it drew a number of plaudits and condemnations.

In my view, I felt building one $40 million school where she had complete control of quality, management and oversight was something she could well do and it might serve as a model for schools that the government and other philanthropists might build in the future.

The other view was that she should have contributed the $40 million for 40 $1 million schools and that would have spread the opportunity but depreciated the quality because spread so thin we would have had to rely on the failing governments who are not making adequate provision for schooling in the first place to provide infrastructure, staff, support, inspection, monitoring and all.

It would have had all the makings of a logistical nightmare and prone to failure if standards could not be synchronised across the whole franchise compared to focus on a single school.

Extrapolating this view, for governments to welcome this idea at this level of the education ladder shows obvious and probably unforgivable failings of African governments to address the need for good primary school education.

Another Sino-African job imbalance

The standard of those schools might well be such that the staffing would not be by Africans but the opening for another influx of the Chinese of another profession – this time, teachers rather than engineers and entrepreneurs. To the million add another 50,000 Chinese ready to mould the minds of our dearly impressionable children.

In the meanwhile, we all think our children are getting a good education which they are, but whose minds would they have when they have finished?

Africans in the Chinese mould

The next stage to this is the building of model secondary schools that would take in the graduates of the primary schools, those who fail to make the grade would be a ready under-skilled workforce for the many Chinese industries that are growing around the continent.

Having been imbibed with the “Chinese Work Ethic”, they would be sophisticated sweatshop fodder for scandal-prone FoxConn-like [3] organisations, herded, kettled, run like the typical country folk of China that man the manufacturing lines of Chinese industry, living in atrocious bomb shelter conditions [4].

{Foxconn has seriously improved its human resources management in China but would Chinese companies have that kind of scrutiny in Africa? Where they do would we trade-off the opportunities they bring for the welfare of our people?}

Indeed, we need our African children at work, the good primary school graduates are 6 years away, then the secondary school intakes have another 6 years of reinforcement to make up the probably shift-leader and foreman class of the industry.

The risk of higher education

One would suppose universities would be the next stage but that is the dangerous part, that is where real knowledge and technology is transferred, that is where the spirit of independence is cultured, that is where ideas, solutions and entrepreneurs will emerge from and that would be the stiff competition to the Chinese Industry Complex [5] that is laying foundations as solid as pyramid bases all around Africa.

Again, on the surface it is all for the good, but the long term considerations of this seemingly “good intentions” use of soft power cannot of essence be for the noblest and altruistic reasons.

Africa already has many universities, they need funding, they need endowment, they need good management, I would rather we had Chinese money flow into those institutions, the Chinese brain-boxes join the faculties, Chinese professors of renown bring their wealth of knowledge just as they are bringing their money to give Africa the kick start it really needs.

Graduates of these universities would have more affinity for their localities; they will contribute to their communities, encourage development in their countries and be the kind of role models worthy of emulation that would really lift both our educational standards and the people in general out of poverty.

A fisherman without a boat or a lake

We are constantly told of the Chinese proverb – Give a man a fish, you feed him a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him his whole life.

That would be too simplistic a recipe for success, they have fed the man a day, even taught him how to fish, but there are no lakes to fish in and where there is water he has a rod but no boat – that is the context of this incipient soft power offensive that looks so commendable if it were not cynically sinister on closer scrutiny.

Sources

[1] Kenya Broadcasting Corporation - KBC News - China to build primary schools in Kenya

[2] Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls [akin.blog-city.com]

[3] Scandal-hit Foxconn sets sights inland - People's Daily Online – Other related articles on the page point to serious human resources issues.

[4] Underground world hints at China's coming crisis - Telegraph

Addendum giving context to this blog.

[5] China's economic invasion of Africa | World news | The Guardian

Analysis of this news story requires another blog but a few interesting excerpts for starters.

"If you want to start something – and be the boss – Africa is the place to do it."

"Chinese work very hard, very quickly," he says. "But here we are training local people to do the work, and if someone does not understand, he works slowly. You have to watch." Read in the context of the engineer in charge who speaks halting English.

Other Sino-African blogs I have written

Nigeria: NaijaLeaks and why China is bad for Africa

South Africa: Why again China is bad for Africa

Comments: Why China is bad for Africa

Africa: How to make China good for Africa

Africa: How to make China good for Africa

Preamble

This is my third blog on why China is bad for Africa, it could be counted as the fourth but my last posting showcased comments that were posted with regards to the second blog I wrote.

Now, I would hate for any of these views to be misconstrued as a hatred of China and their activities in Africa, far from inciting Sino-phobia my intention is highlight areas in which Africa should improve their negotiating stances with China leading to lasting progress derived from the ready and attractive solutions the Chinese bring to Africa without caveats or requirements.

Ndubuisi Ekekwe wrote a blog for the Harvard Business Review starts with the headline Before Your Next African Investment [1] to which I contributed the following re-tweet.

RT @HarvardBiz Before Your Next African Investment http://s.hbr.org/gxykbE The Chinese have come for the mines and nothing for our minds.

Take it all in context

This blog must be read in the context of all the blogs listed below that I have written on this topic, or else it would be difficult to appreciate the issues raised in this blog.

Nigeria: NaijaLeaks and why China is bad for Africa

South Africa: Why again China is bad for Africa

Comments: Why China is bad for Africa

They speak English there

This time it is Sierra Leone where an English speaking country has taken on a Chinese makeover with its hotel sporting television remote controllers with Chinese labels.

In my last blog, referenced the issue that the Chinese create isolated enclaves for themselves meaning they fail to integrate with the host countries they have emigrated to.

The fact that television remote controllers are in Chinese begins to illustrate the glaring divide that is between the Sierra Leoneans or even Africans and the Chinese, very few of the locals would have any knowledge of Mandarin or Cantonese and it creates a barrier in communication and the generation of relationships which I highlighted in my first blog where Chinese managers who spoke no English could not be engaged when it came to industrial disputes.

Working Chinese and worked Africans

With a million Chinese in Africa, they are in no way helping create an African elite through the transfer of knowledge or skills, what the writer saw was young Chinese men getting ready for work, one can only wonder how many local people were getting ready to work in these Chinese operations who were of similar or higher cadre than their guests.

History seems to be repeating itself in Africa; though this is anecdotal, the Europeans of old that came to Africa cannot be said to have been the cream of the crop of their societies, though they did eventually make big names for themselves and probably a lot of money, gaining status and recognition back at home whilst sometimes doing commendable things for the Africans.

In the same vein, these Chinese young ones cannot have been sent out to Africa if they were the brains, the innovators, the thinkers and the geniuses, obviously, this assumption can be challenged but it is a valid premise to have.

These people who were hardly relevant at home come to Africa to become chiefs with “Indians” at their beck and call to be shot at like vermin as was the case in Zambia – one risks the accusation of wiping up a form of xenophobia but the facts are becoming evident on the ground.

Communication is key to knowledge transfer

The underlying problem is this, at best, the communication between many Chinese and Africans would be Pidgin English, poor French, or passable Portuguese depending on if you are in Anglophone, Francophone or Lusophone Africa; in the extreme it would be barking monosyllables with frantic gesticulations; hardly the means for technology or knowledge transfer – Africans will then be left none the wiser as the young ones build their profile to return to their home societies hopefully with the respect and authority they once did not have, having earned their stripes and medals from faraway Africa.

This is the crux of the problem, the Chinese are buying up access to resources, building infrastructure peopled and managed by themselves with Africans doing the graft work in miserable working conditions without adequate safety, human resource relations or developed management structures – there might be the token African face somewhere to offer the pretence of partnership but we should see through that.

When Africa runs out of the opportunities the Chinese are so ready to exploit, one does wonder what Africans would be left with as the Chinese leave to seek other lands to rape, albeit with consent and compensation.

Kill two birds with a Chinese funding

Indeed, we need infrastructure development and it is the failure of our African governments that has led to needing the Chinese to build our roads, our power installations, our railways, our stadiums, our critical infrastructure for economic progress and other aspects of real estate that seem cater to foreigners rather than the locals.

However, where our governments have failed us most is in healthcare and education, the headlines of disease and famine can become something of Africa’s past with good hospitals and good schools; this is where our governments should begin to direct their negotiating prowess with more finesse.

Take the money if you must but add conditions that would make for a lasting legacy for Africa and Africans, link the number of Chinese being brought in with numbers of Africans who need to have jobs, link infrastructure projects with community development for primary healthcare and good primary and secondary education along with scholarships to good Chinese universities.

Get tough with the immigrants

More so, use a percentage of the deals to endow impoverished local universities making them centres of excellence on African soil and finally require that no more than a certain percentage of Chinese immigrants are allowed to stay in African for more than a stipulated period without learning the official language of the country.

Short-term the visa requirement that at renewal a test of language proficiency is passed before their stay is extended.

It is not enough to receive Chinese funds, Africa should make good use of the influx of Chinese investment with radical changes to the lot of Africans in general – and then we can begin to see reasons beyond why China is bad for Africa to a longer term benefit for Africa.

Source

[1] Before Your Next African Investment - Ndubuisi Ekekwe - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

Comments: Why China is bad for Africa

Comments and views

In response to the blog I wrote about why I think China is once again bad for Africa, I have received two lengthy comments that address matters of rate of investment and how African governance should be more protective of its interests and those of Africa in general.

I have decided those comments should not languish in the almost invisible sections of my blog and herewith publish them verbatim thanking the contributors for taking the discussion forward by making time to air their views on my blog.

The alarming rise in investment is unsettling

From JustRecently, I got this comment

Hi Akin,

I don't think that the West needs to return to Africa - it's never left. For some proportions, India's investment in Africa is about half as big as China's, and early last year, India planned to invest 1.5 trillion USD by 2019.

Then there's the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a trade program between the US and 34 sub-Saharan countries. Not to mention France and its trade and investment in north-western Africa, and beyond.

In 2008, of all Chinese foreign direct investment, 78 per cent went to other Asian countries, 10 per cent to Africa, and 7 per cent to Latin America, according to these statistics. That was quite a dramatic rise, given that the total amount of investment had more than doubled with 2007, when the share of that investment in Africa was only 6 per cent.

But I think what strikes China's competitors most is the dramatically rising trend of its investment, rather than the actual amounts.

Nevertheless, I'd certainly agree that China has a very negative influence on African governance.

That just worse in that good governance is essential to make - or rather keep - Africa attractive for investment from OECD countries.

Africans need to serve their own interests

From CodLiverOil, I got this.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and no doubt this is yours.

But Africans have to grow up and make up their own minds.

Before the advent of China onto the continent when the West was attempting to guide/ influence how African countries should be run. The African elite were always quick to turn round and say they don't need to be patronised by the former colonialists.

China has now entered the scene, some African rulers want to use the fig-leaf of Chinese development will come to their shores provided that they remain in power until death forcibly removes them from the scene.

China is charting its own destiny; they have not aped the Western or Eastern models of governance but have formulated something of their own. So far so good, but that is something unique to China given its particular social and cultural history.

Africans have to wake up and grow up and realise they are neither the West or China or even Arabia, or anything in between. They have to formulate their own policy and chart that path to growth and stability.

The way African leadership and their associated elites are behaving it's no wonder why we are not taken seriously on the world stage in any quarter.

As for signing deals with foreign companies, it goes without saying that they should not sign deals that are detrimental to the national interest, merely because they personally benefit from it.

If we can't respect ourselves and our land, don't expect foreigners to. Do you think China will tolerate this behaviour by foreign nationals on their soil? I think not.

We should not be fooled that the West is entirely benevolent. We should remember history and act wisely. Our leaders should not be such cheap and worthless "sell outs".

Thought Picnic: Attending the 1st Church of the Bank

A Facebook initiation

I found it difficult to join in this Facebook discussion, matters concerning religion amongst Nigerians very rarely find an objective trajectory, getting involved in the conversation almost always leaves you exasperated.

In this case, I decided it was best to lift the initiating statuses from Facebook and create a blog on the issues raised.

Chxta Bee

is pretending that he hasn't heard about the 1k charged as gate fees by Christ Embassy...

http://www.facebook.com/Chxta/posts/190118291004350

Seyi Osiyemi

Gone are the days of I.O.U Christianity. When you are allowed to make a monetary 'pledge' and pay later. Nowadays, it is 'Pay As You Go' Christianity. Some Churches even have signs saying 'cash only'. And in cashless societies, the ushers have mobile EFTPOS machine or there's always an ATM within the Church premises. #The Lord Loves A Cheerful Giver#

The gospel of cash

The matter of church and cash or the tendency for the message to centre mostly on money, the acquisition of lucre and the dispensing of it with the lifestyles that purveyors of that gospel live always draws comment and many not that favourable.

The common term for this message is the Prosperity Gospel where prosperity which should be broadened to include health, peace, contentment and ability has been narrowed down to transactions in money.

Now there is a faith element that allows people to believe that investing in the “House of God” is good value with great returns and there is no reason to contemn that belief system, it does work for some.

Cash the key to the blessing

However, it becomes worrisome when access to the sanctuary is gated as if one is attending some social event of particular privilege and right of access to those who can afford to make payment to gain entry to that inner sanctum for blessing.

There is a school of thought that proffers that no one is compelled to make that payment but coercion does not have to be direct, there are people who are fearful enough of the missing a blessing that their motivation is compelled by that fear of losing out.

There people who think the “Man of God” is infallible and hence every utterance and action is presumed to be of God no matter how wrong and false it might be, in that vein they are compelled by the force of the personality they believe is derived from Godly instruction.

There are others who might well question the rationale behind this development but cannot be seen to separate themselves into a thinking minority challenging the norms in that environment – so they are compelled by the circumstances to acquiesce and emulate.

The majority however just do as they are told, joyfully, sheepishly and without hesitation, they have become members of the cult, their spirituality well exceeding their ability to reason out the options they might have and make quality decisions grounded in the Scriptures they profess to fully believe to the letter.

However, let us not challenge any of these people on any of these belief systems, rather, let us assume a more practical posture on this matter.

The harvest of investing or sowing

If money were put under a mattress, it would yield no interest and probably go mouldy; however, if invested in a bank with some guaranteed interest there would be some profit; in shares or stocks, there is the possibility of there being a profit or a loss but those who invest in the markets vary their options to ensure that their investments yield returns.

The farmer naturally sows seed expecting a harvest and knows when a harvest is good or bad, tends to the crops during the season between planting and harvest to ensure that the best yield is derived from all the labour that when into that activity with the hope that when the crops reach the market it would have been all worthwhile with the impetus for the same rewarding activity the next year.

Most instances where references are made to sowing in the Scriptures there is the reaping; where investments are made there is real accounting and accountability with rewards for making the best of the initial capital given.

Open a ledger with God

In other words, there is nothing wrong with paying into the coffers of these institutions of churchianity but open a ledger with God – write down what you put in and when you did, note when you get your returns and if that investment has been worthwhile or your church has been selling you junk bonds masquerading as seed faith.

With all read and seen, there might well be a time for some tables to be upturned in the temple, there might not be the money changers and pigeon hawkers of old, not even the selling of indulgences of times of Martin Luther but your indulgence in being craved and many leaders are indulging in very unscriptural practices but if you cannot free yourselves of these cults I would suppose the leaders have had it made and you have your hopes to live on with reality somewhere in the not too distant eternity.

Meanwhile, we are all fully persuaded of the fact that, the Lord loveth a cheerful giver; a bountifully rewarded receiver could even be a more cheerful giver if they have been giving for the right reasons, in the right places far from being fleeced for every penny they have to receive that amazing blessing.

Think! My people, think!

Unbelievable returns might mask a Ponzi Scheme

Another fraud?

The news that Sir Allen Stanford [1] has been charged with the massive investment fraud [2] should ring alarm bells for many who have investments in arrangements with uncharacteristic returns that are not reflected in the market in general.

Only a few months ago, Bernard Madoff was caught or rather acquiesced in running a large investment scheme [3] that apparently amounts to a Ponzi scheme [4] that might cost investors well over $50 billion.

Taken by the takers

There is no doubt that certain personalities with larger than life portfolios have blindsided regulators all around the world, offering better than normal rewards for investments from investors who believed they belonged to an exclusive club of market makers where they have the inside on how to make serious money.

Many [5] have swooned at the genius and spell of these Midas moguls who seemed to have turned lumps of investment coal into gold and diamonds returns.

Early results and persuasion compel their customers to pour more of their fortunes into these investment vehicles built on the promise of unbelievable profits – the returns should have been unbelievable but many believed and desired beyond all to be involved.

The England and Wales Cricket Board were suckered into this grandiose circle [6] of wealthy patronage as they negotiated with Sir Allen for the big money stakes of Twenty20 Cricket [7] tournaments against the Stanford Superstars.

Can you get out now?

I do not know if people already roped into many yet undiscovered schemes have the ability now to withdraw their funds but the warning signs should be clear – any investment offering returns way higher that what you can get on the market without discernable competitive peer comparisons is probably suspect.

Just like the pyramid schemes of old took on new names like Multi-Level Marketing [8] or Network Marketing whilst still operating as the original scams, those amazing investment returns of today can be found in fancifully renamed High Yield Investment Programmes [9] which are essentially bare-faced Ponzi Schemes fronted by seemingly successful, flamboyant, respectable looking people fully integrated in community activities.

Parted from ones money

All appearances of propriety are deceptive and almost Machiavellian in nature, people have been seduced and cajoled but in the end have willingly allowed themselves to be lead by the nose to the point where that they are about to lose more than they can afford to lose.

If I have not made this warning clear enough, people should start examining their investments most especially in African capital markets, the global economic crisis is definitely going to expose how unsustainable these returns have been from the very first day they were conceived and marketed as the Holy Grail of mega investment returns – if your money is not in your mattress it is probably already out of reach.

If a word were enough for the wise, the unkindest lesson to be learnt could be summed up in realising that a fool and his money are soon parted – one would rather not be that fool.

Sources

[1] Allen Stanford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

[2] FT.com / Companies / Financials - SEC charges Stanford with fraud

[3] FT.com / UK - Madoff agrees not to contest Ponzi civil charges

[4] Ponzi scheme - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

[5] List of investors in Bernard L. Madoff Securities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

[6] BBC SPORT | Cricket | England | ECB suspends talks with Stanford

[7] Twenty20 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

[8] Multi-level marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

[9] High-yield investment program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

HYIP Monitor - The Best High Yield Investment Programs Rating Service

Ten Big Lies of Multi-Level Marketing

List of multi-level marketing companies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

The 10 Nastiest Ponzi Schemes Ever | Business Pundit

Strategies for avoiding Madoff-like Ponzi schemes -- Newsday.com