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4:53
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!Impact of globalization in Africa with so many Chinese workers now based there. An Aljazeera documentary. Share on Facebook
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4:32
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!The laws of economics are universal. Many people don’t want to believe it. i.e. they want to believe that somehow their countries are unique or are disconnected from these fundamental laws, but in fact, they are not. So, in an effort to increase your understanding of general economics, here is a video lecture by Peter Schiff explaining how interest rates work, what their impact it and how governments distort everything. Enjoy… Share on Facebook
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3:06
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!So, I thought I might write about an experience I’m having with trying to sign up for a gym membership and the business questions it’s raised for me as a consumer because I think it’s quite interesting. Anyway, I used to be a member of a particular gym and when I signed up to join it, they were offering a special discounted price of $100 dollars a year for full membership, which included use of all their equipment, classes, showers, etc… The membership to this gym expired this December and I decided to start looking for another gym (for a number of reasons) — but mainly because I wanted a gym with better amenities overrall. So, this week, I finally found a gym that had what I was looking, but their pricing structure left me baffled. However, first, let me give you a little background on the owners of this gym. It’s a couple of former trainers who decided to venture out and open up their own business — offering classses, workout equipment and I suppose their advice if you wanted it. Okay, fine. What’s not fine (at least to me) is their pricing structure, [...]
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21:21
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I’ve been focusing lately on trying to listen to the right people when it comes to economics. i.e. to the people whose predictions were right when it came to predicting the global financial crisis and one of those people is the hedge fund manager Kyle Bass. I like his analysis for a few reasons: 1) He focuses on numbers and facts (and) 2) He has a global perspective about where the world is headed Very scary stuff, but worth a listen, so enjoy this engaging discussion on the global economy and it’s implications; Share on Facebook
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2:37
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!So, Kenya (after quietly watching a couple of tourists in Lamu get killed and/or kidnapped) finally decided to go into Somalia and…I”m not quite sure what they’re going to do exactly. Anyway, it’s pretty obvious that they are conducting this “mission” in Somalia with strong urging and backing from the United States. This report written by a journalist talked about the CIA’s secret “office” right there in Mogadishu as well as a secret prison they maintained in the basesment of the transitional governments offices. The report mentions that young Somali men in Eastleigh have been picked up and flown to this prison in Mogadishu. Among the men believed to be held in the secret underground prison is Ahmed Abdullahi Hassan, a 25- or 26-year-old Kenyan citizen who disappeared from the congested Somali slum of Eastleigh in Nairobi around July 2009. After he went missing, Hassan’s family retained Mbugua Mureithi, a well-known Kenyan human rights lawyer, who filed a habeas petition on his behalf. I don’t want to get hung up on a discussion about human rights issues as they entail to terror suspects because the way the world operates today, nobody really gives a shit. America [...]
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21:06
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter! Live video from your Android device on Ustream Share on Facebook
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3:53
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I was reading this story in the Nation and it got my attention because it involved the politics of land, the rule of law and the rights of ownership. In a nutshell, this is what happened: An Indian business family that used to live in Uganda had acquired quite a bit of land, but during Idi Amin’s reign, when he kicked all the Indians out, their land was repossessed and given to the state. This occurred in 1971. Now, for 14 years after that, this guy Madhvani sat tight and then in 1985, when Museveni came to power, he was able to reclaim their land (helped in part by Museveni wanting to attract the Indians back in order to try and spur the economy after the civil war) — but the point here is that they never gave up on reclaiming their land. They patiently waited until the political situation changed and then they did what they had to do. Fast forward to Kenya and the same thing happens to them, but this time in 1982. Land they had acquired in Mombasa was taken away from them and again for 20 years, they sat tight and [...]
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0:46
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter! I was reading a blog post the other day about the debt crisis in America and it’s impact around the world (particularly as it applies to fiat or paper currencies) — Essentially, what is happening is that governments in Europe & America have decided to “socialiazie” risk by not allowing those who made crazy bets to suffer. i.e. they are using their printing presses to bailout private companies and sticking the bill with the taxpayers. This decision is leading to the destruction of currencies in those countries where the printing is taking place and in the blog post, someone talked this phenomenon. i.e what is “paper” money? and how is it’s “value” calculated and what does this mean to you? The quote from the article follows: “What is money?”, thats about as good as anyone can put it! Gold, silver, oil, food, water and any other commodity have real value because it takes effort to get it, there is risk involved in looking for it and there is a need, desire and use for it. But what about paper notes…….hmmmm, the only value they have is what the government says they have. As the [...]
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2:42
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I’m running out of things to write about these days. Never thought that would happen, but anyway, today, I want to talk about a the famine ravaging through Somalia and parts of northern Kenya. I’d like to talk about it in relation to a blog post I was reading on Zerohedge where the discussion was about the limited resources that the entire world is now facing due mainly to surging populations (particularly in India and China). Simply put: They are too many people and there’s not enough food and oil to keep us all happy. A quote from the blog follows: “When the planet’s human population reached 500 million, there were sufficient resources to enable a doubling to 1 billion. Then 1 billion tripled to 3 billion, which has doubled to 6 billion. Now, as China, India and other nations are industrializing, the 600 million high-consumption “middle class” of the developed economies is expanding four-fold to 2.4 billion. There simply isn’t enough oil and other resources on the planet, in any remotely plausible scenario, for 600 million of China’s 1.3 billion people to live on an American scale of consumption, not to mention 600 million of [...]
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5:15
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!Well…it’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog and I thought to myself and said hey! you really need to put something up. So, what’s been on my mind lately? Well…the twilight zone. You know that zone between fantasy and fiction. Yup. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. It began with a conversation I was having with someone about the online gaming company called Zynga and how the founder of that company has convinced millions of people to go to his site and spend even more millions on virtual toys. The guy is brilliant and when Zynga goes public he’ll be worth a cool billion dollars (you can read a very interesting article about him and his company here in Vanity Fair). Anyway, during our conversation about Zynga (we were actually talking about buying some stock when it goes public) — a friend mentioned how facebook rarely has negative stories pasted on it’s board (& since Zynga gets most of its players from facebook) this whole twilight zone of fantasy and fiction was all tied into one and we were talking about how people really, really, really, want to get away from reality [...]
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4:08
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I was having a discussion with someone the other day about the law and how it eventually grinds you down and catches up with you. The discussion was triggered as we were watching the news and just seeing all these people who (no matter how long it takes) who eventually go down, especially if powerful countries like America and other countries in Western Europe decide that you are a “bad” guy and they’re going to take you out. Eventually, they’ll get you. Osama Bin Laden: It took them fifteen years, but eventually, America killed him. They just kept looking and looking and refused to give up and bam! one day, he was sitting in his bedroom watching video’s of himself and a bunch of navy seals show up and kill him. Out. Ratko Mladic: The Bosnian/Serb war criminal. Again, it took them sixteen years, but eventually, they got him. A new government came in and they decided that joining the European Union was important to them and bam! they arrested him. No more protection. Out. Gaddafi is on his way out. Mubarak is out. Saleh of Yemen is out. Ben Ali of Tunisia is out and [...]
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2:54
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I was watching this video below of a so called cattle pusher and I couldn’t believe what I was watching. So, these cattle pushers act as transporters for people in Nairobi who own slaughter houses. The slaughter house owners gets in touch with the market that sells cows, once the owners have paid for their cows, the so called “cattle pusher” then walks (yes, walks) the bought cows all the way to Nairobi. I think in the video it says it will take the cattle pushers about 25 hours of walking before he finally gets to Nairobi. Now, this video was unbelievable to me because I couldn’t figure out why the slaughter house owners won’t just rent a lorry and have the cows driven to Nairobi in half the amount of time. Why on earth would you hire a guy to walk through the rain with a bunch of cows in places that have thugs lurking a night (& thus, run the risk of losing all your cows and investment) when you could rent a lorry and get the cows to your destination quickly? Prior to watching this video, I had just finished listening to an [...]
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1:21
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I’ve been paying attention to the news lately and all sorts of crazy and bizarre things have been happening. Earthquakes, Tsunami’s, wars, etc, etc. However, I suppose on another level, that has always been what the world was like and in this respect, I’d like to introduce my next topic, which is, how one should analyze this bizarre world. I want to begin with Willy Mutunga and his wearing of a diamond stud. Most people don’t think it’s an issue, but I think that for a 64 year old Kenyan man, choosing to wear an earring in a conservative culture such as Kenya’s, is actually bizarre. Mutunga’s explanations on why he chose to wearing a earring left me thinking…well…that’s even more bizarre. First, he said it was for religious purposes. Which religion requires this? Then, he said, he was doing it in reverence to his African ancestors. Did Africans wear diamond studs? If he wanted to keep it real, what he should have done was cut his ear loop and put in an ivory piece (because that’s what they did). Then, I start wondering why this man with bizarre behavior is being so highly touted to [...]
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2:09
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!So, if you’ve been paying attention to the news (or to your pocket book) you’d have noticed that prices on essential goods like food and gasoline are rising worldwide. In sub-saharan Africa, they are finally beginning to feel the pinch. In the Middle East (which is comparatively richer than many parts of sub-saharan Africa) they felt the pinch much earlier and when they couldn’t afford to pay for bread, revolutions erupted. Now, I’ve been following the debate in Kenya on rising prices and the reactions by politicians are not making sense to me. They are now caught between a rock and a hard place, i.e. if they reduce taxes on gasoline, kerosene, food or whatever, how will they be able to fund this bloated coalition government? On the other hand, if they leave the exorbintantly high taxes in place, it could lead to riots and other disruptive events. However, the fundamental problem that countries like Kenya are going to face is one I’ve mentioned here before and it is a growing population and a low productivity country. The current population is around 40 million. Now, let’s say in ten years, that number increases to 50 million. [...]
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4:37
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!The events in Ivory Coast and in Kenya with the ICC cases has left me wondering whether Africa can ever truly resolve it’s underlying problems. Kenya and Ivory Coast used to be the shining stars of that continent. Stable countries in a sea of war and confusion, but today, Ivory Coast is all but destroyed and Kenya is facing a humiliating turn with six high level government officials facing charges of having committed war crimes. One person suggested to me that what happened in Ivory Coast and what is happening in Kenya was inevitable. When you start to see huge divides in income and poverty, it builds resentment and that resentment often translates itself through ethnic violence. So, this is what happened in Ivory Coast — For years, as the country was building up it’s economy, the gap between the have and the have nots wasn’t that wide, but as time went on, you began to see a politically powerful elite emerging and after being in power for over 20 years, they became very powerful. This political elite in Ivory Coast was made of christians from the south. The muslims in the north have been harboring [...]
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6:15
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!The situation in Ivory Coast is giving me the chills because I can see how Kenya may have (or still could) end up all because of a disputed election. I’ve said here before that I don’t believe western democracy can ever work in Africa and they should give up on that idea altogether and adopt a Chinese style of governance, i.e. focus on developing your economy first and worry about things like democracy and constitutions later. Ivory Coast used to be one of the Jewels of Africa. A place with fine restaurants where people drank fine wine and enjoyed themselves until it all went to hell in a hand basket, but what has worried me the most about Ivory Coast is the UN and French involvement in that country. Actually, I shouldn’t even use the word “involvment”. The UN is bombing the place!! Since when was the UN’s mandate to go out and bomb people? The last time the UN and France cooperated on a venture, was in Rwanda during the genocide. I honestly think that Sarkozy has lost his God damn mind. What the French are doing in Ivory Coast is insane. Imagine for a [...]
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18:54
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I was reading a blog post on productivity (my favorite subject) and I found this interesting conclusion about what it is begining to mean for the west in terms of future low employment numbers and how it can help your understanding of other economies or businesses in general. I’ll begin with the quote (below): “The fewer people employed, the higher the productivity, that is, until you attain perfect productivity with a fully automated economic production. Small problem: fully automated production means no employees. No employees means no wages paid which means no funds to pay for consumption. Production cannot be consumed unless employees are paid wages with which the production may be purchased. Therefore, productivity beyond a certain point is counterproductive. A productivity paradox?! Just an extrapolated thought“. So, one could argue that the west has been moving towards automation, which has created perfect productivity and this perfect productivity has led to there being less of a need for many jobs. Therefore, high unemployment rates will become the norm in many industrialized, western countries because they just don’t need as many people to do certain tasks. However, let’s take this quote and apply it to Kenya [...]
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0:40
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I was going through the latest Wikileaks cables on Kenya and they have an interesting story on Nakumatt and it’s drug patrons (namely John Harun Mwau and William Kabogo). Now, I had been told a few years ago that Nakumatt was being funded with drug money so this latest Wikileaks cable didn’t suprise me that much. However, I still want to share the information within it because I think it’s both interesting and relevant. It’s relevant because it provides evidence about the corruption that I’ve been talking about on this blog for years, but for some reason, Kenyans are still unwilling to accept. I’ve always maintained that Kenyans (for the most part) don’t read and because of this, they have a tendency to overrate the country and it’s prospects, which in many ways leads them to not fully understand how that criminal economy really works. So, once again, I’m going to put the information up here for anyone to read and those who don’t want to believe it can keep fooling themselves and others who like the truth can digest it factually. Kenyan auditor Peter Odhiambo exposed billions of shillings of tax evasion and money laundering at [...]
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22:28
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I was reading a blog recently where an economist who had predicted this global recessionary cycle talked about why he led what he referred to as a Multiple flag life style. He believed this lifestyle would protect him against political turmoil or economic shock waves occurring around the world. Anyway, I thought this was an apt topic for a blog post in today’s times, especially as we look at the turmoil in the Middle-East, raising food prices everywhere, growing inflation, etc, etc. So, what is the Multiple Flag Lifestyle? It’s described as follows: Living in one country, working in another, becoming a citizen of a third. I thought this was interesting and applicable to many Kenyans in the diaspora today (or even those in Kenya, perhaps). In the 1960′s, during th e Kennedy airlift program (a program that brought Africans to the west and gave them scholarships for college) — the rationale was that these newly, westerned educated Africans would return to their home country and help rebuild them. I’ve talked to many people from that generation who told me that the idea of living in the west forever was out of the question for [...]
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1:09
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter! I want to continue my discussion on failed states, Egypt, Kenya and what it’ll mean for many of us and our futures. In this regard, I found another very interesting post from a blog that I regularly read called Zerohedge.com. The post was on Egypt, but it wasn’t confined to Egypt. It really was a post about economics and the mathematical facts, which now exist in many countries and which are going to lead to future problems. Let us begin with some facts on Egypt and why (if Mubarak had been paying attention to them, he would have seen this uprising coming) The relentless math: Population 1960: 27.8 million Population 2008: 81.7 million Current population growth rate: 2% per annum (a 35-year doubling rate) Population in 2046 after another doubling: 164 million Rainfall average over whole country: ~ 2 inches per year Highest rainfall region: Alexandria, 7.9 inches per year Arable land (almost entirely in the Nile Valley): 3% Arable land per capita: 0.04 Ha (400 m2) Arable land per capita in 2043: 0.02 Ha Food imports: 40% of requirements Grain imports: 60% of requirements Net oil exports: Began falling in 1997, went negative in [...]
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4:09
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter! I was watching this video of starvation in Baringo and watching the events in Egypt as well and at some point, you have to call a spade a spade. There are some cultures in the world that are “winners” and others that are just ”losers”. This is just the reality. When the majority of your citizens cannot afford basic food items, you are a failed state. This is the reality in both Egypty and Tunisia today. When some of your citizens are starving to death and don’t even have water (in a country that is not landlocked!) you are an utterly failed state. This is the reality in Baringo and in Kenya today. How can there not be water when you sit on the shores of the Indian Ocean? Why not think about desalination? When you have Lake Victoria, Lake Naivasha, Lake Baringo, Lake Turkana….you get the picture. This is not about parliamentary select committee’s and new constitutuions. It’s about a culture that can’t produce anything and this is what ultimately leads to faiiled states (not lack of democracy as others are pointing out). In my earlier post, I said that it was going to [...]
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4:43
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I’m sure by now everyone is watching what’s happen in Egypt and before that Tunisia and if you’re an African reading this blog you are probably familiar with corrupt dictatorships and how they don’t work. What prompted the riots in Tunisia and Egypt? The press is flapping it’s feathers talking about democracy and human rights and all of that fluffy stuff, but it’s really economics. Commodity prices are rising (thanks to America’s excessive money printing) and food is becoming expensive and people are getting poorer and when that happens, you have trouble. Then, of course, other Africans are wondering why they couldn’t do the same in Kenya or in Zimbabwe or wherever else you have these corrupt dicators and the truth is, sub-saharan Africans are too tribally divided and if they did that, they’d be shot on site. That’s one thing that shocked me about both Egypt and Tunisia — they were no shoot to kill orders. If you tried to pull that in Kenya, eventually, the shoot to kill orders would be given. Very surprising. Anyway, there is an article that I found on a blog that I regularly read that clearly explains the links [...]
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23:08
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Kenyan Entrepreneur
Send this article to Twitter!I’ve been strolling around Twitter lately and I became quite focused on how much Kenyans were following the news of American software and technology companies. So, I asked a couple of them why they were so interested in these companies. After all, for many of these entities (outside of companies like Google and Facebook) — they weren’t actually using them in Kenya. For example, companies like Groupon or Yelp are essentially used by American consumers. Also, if these companies went public, it’s not like any of them could buy shares from Kenya. So, why the excitement over something you’ve never used and over something you’ll never benefit from monetarily? The answers they gave was that they were hoping they could replicate the success of these American companies in Kenyan and it is here that I brought up the issue of per capita income. A lot of these companies are using technology that many people in the world have access to. So, the barrier for Kenyans would not be the technological know how. The difference (I tried to argue) was in the per capital incomes of the countries. A company like Groupon (which is essentially an online [...]
