3 things recently...

The Activist vs The Agent


I looked up the meaning of Activist and the meaning of Agent
Activist: an especially active vigorous advocate of a cause
vs
Agent: a person or thing that acts or has the power to act
Both kinds of individuals are great, they bring about change, more often desirable change, but I definitely prefer one.


The promised land

When the 12 spies were sent out to explore The Promised Land, it was not empty waiting for them to come and occupy it but for sure It was flowing with milk and honey.
This was what they found in Canaan...
"They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land.
They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.
The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan." ...and it did take quite a while to conquer it, but it was still The Promised Land.


The Monkey Problem

I came across a site by ManagerZine article The Second Skill: Getting Rid Of Monkeys
This is a what took it home. "We received a call from a far-flung reader with a monkey problem. He had three direct reports who were managers themselves. Each had some heavy new responsibilities. Turns out, they were not shy about getting him involved with their work.“Can you please review this before I send it out?” was a typical request.“I’ve got a problem. Here’s what happens” was another. Pretty soon, his work became their work and his time was not his own.
What is happening here is a classic back and forth game of who has responsibility. The subordinate puts the monkey on the manager when she asks for a review or when the boss is asked to solve a problem. When a manager picks up the monkey from a direct report, he or she is literally working for the subordinate. The manager’s time is being taken up by a subordinate’s work. Something is wrong with this picture."... very entertaining and infuriating.

my opinion

Developed Country vs Developing Country

Life in a developing country is far more expensive than in a developed country.

In Celebrity Apprentice, the winning team receives an award of $20,000 towards their choice charity, and it has been surprising to see the celebrities appreciate that as an award,not that it is not 'something', its just that had it been on this end, the equivalent would be around Ksh.1.6Million which for a foundation I work with currently would go towards supporting 8 children through their four years secondary education www.palmhsefoundation.org against a target of 70 children. This means that such an award would be not as competitive to a celebrity here as it is in the developed country and clearly the cost of basic education is quite expensive here.

I traveled to LA, California for RYLA-Rotary Youth Leadership Awards a while back a two weeks trip. I carried with me Ksh.50,000 ($640) and I made it back with Ksh.30,000 ($385). I would pay for my meals, take a bus or a cab and managed to bring back souvenirs for my family. That was far lower than I expected to spend and I was not a miser.
I bet that it was an issue of standard of living, I went for basic commodities that are quite expensive on this end as compared to the same in developed countries. I did not think of quality, rather availability.

The cost of communication is quite high in developing countries and the gadgets are only available to the elite few, transport costs are forbidding and we have many who walk to and fro work for long distances. In my country, we have been trying to develop a 24hr economy but offices and shops are located within the city centre while the population live in outskirts and with inadequate and expensive lighting structure, the city centre is deserted at night.

The low income earners spend more than middle and high income earners. They buy basic commodities in pieces which costs much more in the long run than bulk purchasing made by middle and high income earners. Our main evaluation of products is availability and not quality.

Local telecommunication campaigns only widen the gap between the rich and poor as costs are very expensive for low denomination value of airtime and internet which the poor are only able to afford, if and when the access it. The larger the denomination value, the cheaper it becomes and this locks out the poor.

The poor buy paraffin for cooking and lighting as a cheaper oil product as compared to buying LPG which comes packaged in bulk and thus cheaper in the long run, benefits the middle and high income earners.

Large multinationals are closing shop on this end as the costs of productions are steep and we have become net importers as our export is mainly agricultural products affected by changes in weather.

Of course corruption and poor systems increases our costs due to inadequacies which some take advantage of and exploit them. Black markets and hoarding also increase our costs to unbearable heights.

We also have many tax defaulters who do not contribute to development kitty, a scarcity mentality indeed as they would also have lower costs if accountability by all was observed.

The most unfortunate thing is that we have poverty of the mind. Compounds directly in-front of our houses are extremely dirty, we have litter everywhere, sewerage spew on the road and no one claims responsibility of these 'small things',we demand for responsibility from our leaders for 'large things' but we do not expect much as they come from us.

These among more could be reasons why costs in developing countries are higher than in developed countries.