GK
IDD-UL-FITRI: Share
Monday, 21 September 2009 at 03:46
In Uganda, and other African countries where a European power was the coloniser, Islam was discouraged - and persecuted. Muslims were denied education, and discriminated against in public life. In Uganda, they drifted to the more liberal environment urban areas where they became artisans,taxi drivers, small traders, cobblers, name it. One result is that outside of the Islamic countries in Africa, mosques were a rarity in the countryside.
However, the discrimination against Muslims turned into a boon. Because they were not tolerated in rural areas and congregated in urban areas, and because of the ablutions that Islam requires them to undergo (much despised by Christians) the unintended result was that Muslim households in East Africa, for example, have generally a higher standard of living than Christian ones. They are more likely to have piped water, electricity, latrines or flush toilets, than Christian homes Because they are largely urban, the many children from their many wives were integrated in the modern urban economy much faster than the many children of Christian polygamists in the villages, who became peasants. When a Muslim child in the city went rogue, and became a thief, if he was lucky, a robbery would net him $1,000. The Christian child in the village, meanwhile, would only steal a chicken worth $5.
The Muslims have, therefore, been able to grow their numbers more than Christians because the child mortality rates in their households are far lower; and they have accumulated more capital.
Granted, the sight of Al Shabaab in Somalia stoning rapists to death, and chopping off the hands of pickpockets will revolt many, but this strict approach to discipline has generally ensured that Muslim children (as a percentage) stay on the straight and narrow and fish school more than Christian children.
With better standards of life, in Kenya you will notice that Muslim women are better groomed and, given the percentage of the population, most of the very beautiful women on the covers of newspaper style inserts are Muslims. Behind the burqa lies a bewildering array of beauty, my Muslim and adventurous Christian friends tell me.
In Christian homes, the Protestants did much better than Catholics in decades gone by. But then Protestantism got hit by the independent Born Again churches which turned followers into zombies, and robbed them of their savings in the name of Christ. In Uganda, now, we are seeing what happens in the west - Born Again churches going bust like the commercial entities they are. Protestantism, as a result, is in deep s**t. There is nothing more devastating than being robbed by your Messiah.
Catholics are coasting alone. Catholics have the most liberal church in Africa. Apart from its backward position on the role of women in the church, and abortion, the Catholic allows its priests to get drunk, smoke, and mix more freely. The result of this liberal attitude, mixed with its inflexibility on matters of doctrine (I do, by the way, support the Church's position on celibacy), has made it the laughing stock, because the weaker members among its priests, nuns, and bishops are forced to live a double life as secret husbandas and wives. This has landed Catholicism with a serious image problem.
But that, really, is not a crisis--the Catholics are just going back to their roots, of powerful corrupt popes who had harems and real political power. One result of this laxity, is that in Uganda Catholic households up-country tend to have a lower standard of life than Muslim and Protestant ones, and the very high birth rate that ususally comes with poverty.
The only advantage is that outside the Islamic countries, in Africa the Catholic populations continue to grow and present the church with an opportunity to be powerful. However, the general lack of an official line on behaviour, means Catholics tend to be more divided than Muslims and Protestants, and therefore are not able to vote their own into power in most countries (in Uganda, they are majority, but the country has never had, and is far from having, a Catholic president).
The African traditional religion, meanwhile, continues to thrive as Protestants, Catholics, Muslims all dip into its rituals of superstition and ancestors' shrines at night. They are like the attractive househelp. The man of the house will visit her quarters when the Madam is away (sometimes even when she is around), but he will almost never acknowledge her or step out hand in hand with her.
My sense, and the evidence supports it, is that Islam (hopefully it will the more liberal and cosmopolitan version), Islamic banking, and Islamic-backed secular schools, will be the most dominant in most of Africa in the coming decades. Christianity could be moribund. The Golden Age of Islam in Africa is yet to come.
IDD-UL-FITR
Monday, 19 October 2009
MAIZE, SLAVERY, AND AFRICAN STOMACHS
COO
Food—or rather the lack of it—has now become truly an elephantine problem for Africa. In Kenya, early this year the government announced that 10 million were in danger of starving. The crisis sparked off one of the biggest citizen-driven humanitarian efforts I know of in an African country.
Overall, since 1990, Africa’s hungry have increased by 20% and now estimated to be 32% of our continent’s population of 850m. As far as food for Africa’s hungry, especially the adults, goes the killer application is corn/maize – posho flour for making ugali.
However, the irony of this is that some of Africa’s problems today have their roots in the arrival of maize on our shores in the 16th Century.
We owe this astounding insight to a book that very few people in Africa have read. A marvellous work which goes by the title “Maize and Grace: Africa’s Encounter with a New World Crop” by a good man called James C. McCann.
So what is McCann’s take? First, that maize was unknown in Africa until the sixteenth century, although it has become Africa’s primary food product. Of the 22 countries in which maize constitutes the highest proportion in the national diet, 16 are in Africa.
Three-quarters of the maize consumed in the world today is eaten in Africa. McCann, therefore, argues that apparent that the changes it brought about in cultivation and consumption habits were radical and require careful historical analysis.
He identifies 1540 as the date for the first documentary evidence of maize cultivation in Africa. Maize quickly became an essential food crop in the Asante kingdom, as important as gold mining and the slave trade. Without the infusion of carbohydrates into the West African farmers’ diets, he argues it’s doubtful that Asante or any of the other slave-exporting economies in that part of the world could have been such energetic participants in the Atlantic slave trade. Maize (ugali), you might say, made slavery possible.
You could argue, if you wanted to stretch it, that had there been no ugali, and therefore slavery on a small scale or none at all, then the economic and political development of the Americas, would have been different. Maybe the US would not be a super power today.
McCann also addresses the opposite question; whether maize has been beneficial to the Africans, or whether it has contributed to the continent’s long history of impoverishment.
His verdict is that without its high carbohydrate content, and without its adaptability to Africa’s difficult tropical climates and terrains, Africans would be less well fed and life would be more difficult.
On the other hand, given the fact that maize is the crop of people living in the world’s poorest continent, one might ask, is there a connection?
McCann joined with a team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in a research project on Ethiopia, where the connection between poverty and maize seemed strong. The results of the research seemed to indicate that in areas where maize was being cultivated, anopheles mosquitoes were bigger, lived longer, and more effective in spreading malaria. That, it would seem, is because a lot of land had to be cleared for the crop. Maize, it saved, and also killed us, in equal measure.
(Thanks additionally to insights on the political economy of maize by Robert L. Tignor)
Food—or rather the lack of it—has now become truly an elephantine problem for Africa. In Kenya, early this year the government announced that 10 million were in danger of starving. The crisis sparked off one of the biggest citizen-driven humanitarian efforts I know of in an African country.
Overall, since 1990, Africa’s hungry have increased by 20% and now estimated to be 32% of our continent’s population of 850m. As far as food for Africa’s hungry, especially the adults, goes the killer application is corn/maize – posho flour for making ugali.
However, the irony of this is that some of Africa’s problems today have their roots in the arrival of maize on our shores in the 16th Century.
We owe this astounding insight to a book that very few people in Africa have read. A marvellous work which goes by the title “Maize and Grace: Africa’s Encounter with a New World Crop” by a good man called James C. McCann.
So what is McCann’s take? First, that maize was unknown in Africa until the sixteenth century, although it has become Africa’s primary food product. Of the 22 countries in which maize constitutes the highest proportion in the national diet, 16 are in Africa.
Three-quarters of the maize consumed in the world today is eaten in Africa. McCann, therefore, argues that apparent that the changes it brought about in cultivation and consumption habits were radical and require careful historical analysis.
He identifies 1540 as the date for the first documentary evidence of maize cultivation in Africa. Maize quickly became an essential food crop in the Asante kingdom, as important as gold mining and the slave trade. Without the infusion of carbohydrates into the West African farmers’ diets, he argues it’s doubtful that Asante or any of the other slave-exporting economies in that part of the world could have been such energetic participants in the Atlantic slave trade. Maize (ugali), you might say, made slavery possible.
You could argue, if you wanted to stretch it, that had there been no ugali, and therefore slavery on a small scale or none at all, then the economic and political development of the Americas, would have been different. Maybe the US would not be a super power today.
McCann also addresses the opposite question; whether maize has been beneficial to the Africans, or whether it has contributed to the continent’s long history of impoverishment.
His verdict is that without its high carbohydrate content, and without its adaptability to Africa’s difficult tropical climates and terrains, Africans would be less well fed and life would be more difficult.
On the other hand, given the fact that maize is the crop of people living in the world’s poorest continent, one might ask, is there a connection?
McCann joined with a team of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in a research project on Ethiopia, where the connection between poverty and maize seemed strong. The results of the research seemed to indicate that in areas where maize was being cultivated, anopheles mosquitoes were bigger, lived longer, and more effective in spreading malaria. That, it would seem, is because a lot of land had to be cleared for the crop. Maize, it saved, and also killed us, in equal measure.
(Thanks additionally to insights on the political economy of maize by Robert L. Tignor)
Historic moment as Rwanda is ushered into East Africa family
Published Date: 18th-June 2007
NEWS ANALYSIS
A momentous page will be laid today in the history of regional communities as Rwanda and Burundi officially join one of the oldest African regional economic communities: the East African Community (EAC).
The two neighbouring and brotherly nations receive their formal admission into the revived EAC when the ninth East African Heads of State Summit sits in Kampala, Uganda.
The admission date was brought forward from July 1 which had been earlier set by the EAC Secretariat last year.
It will be the last step in the proverbial journey of 1,000 steps that Rwanda set out on way back in the 1990s to gain admission in this 90-year-old bloc.
Rwanda applied to join the EAC bloc in 1996.
In 1999, its application reportedly caused a heated debate during a preparatory meeting attended by foreign ministers from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, the three original members of the community.
Supported only by Uganda, the proposal to bring Rwanda on board at the time was reportedly defeated since it was deemed not possible to admit new members at that stage when procedures for doing so were not yet in place.
Rwanda went back and used the time to fix what was required of it to qualify for the bloc’s membership. The full membership status in the regional bloc guarantees Rwanda and Burundi voting rights as well as total participation in every programme pertaining to the EAC.
Among Rwanda’s selling points, observers in the region say, has been the current peace and stability the country enjoys.
EAC history
The EAC boasts a long history which dates back to 1917, when Uganda and Kenya established a customs union.
Former Tanganyika - before it later merged with Zanzibar to form Tanzania - joined ten years later. But the actual East Africa Community was formed 40 years later in 1967.
Ten years after its formation, the community was disbanded because of political differences among the three member states: Uganda was caught up in the Idd Amin dictatorship; Kenya went capitalist while Tanzania signed onto socialism.
It was however revived 30 years later in 1996 when the Heads of State of all the- Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania - signed a new agreement on trade.
And its full revival came in 2001 in the Tanzanian northern town of Arusha, which is also houses the community’s headquarters.
Reservations
Even when Tanzania and Kenya at one time stayed Rwanda’s request to join the EAC in 1996, there were reservations in some sections of Rwanda on what it would benefit from the bloc.
There were concerns as well that the country’s young economy risked unwarranted competition in the face of ferocious price and promotional offer wars waged by the more established EAC member states.
There were also fears that there had not been sufficient consultations to represent the will of Rwandans in the community, as a new group in the age old bloc.
As such, it appeared that there were no guarantees that this time the community would not crumble like before. And if it did, who apart from the Rwandan citizens would bear the brunt?
President Paul Kagame, in his monthly press conference in August last year, noted that Rwanda never rushed to join the community.
He said then that the country did not need to belong to several regional organisations but instead had to make priorities depending on where it stood to gain more both economically and socially.
“All the member countries must agree on reciprocity so that each EAC nation derives advantages,” he said.
Rwanda’s contribution
What does Rwanda bring on the EAC table? And what does it hope to benefit? It must be noted that it was largely the former concern that formed one of the hurdles whether or not to admit the country into the EAC fold.
Economic benefits seem to stand out every time the EAC is mentioned, and rightly so since the community is at the foremost an economic bloc. With the inclusion of Rwanda - and its neighbour to the southern Burundi - the region’s market will grow to about 120 million people.
The business community in the region is already warming up to these numbers. There is a shared view that this market and the resources in the five countries are enough to stimulate development in the region and transform it into one of the leading business destinations.
Former EAC Secretary General, Col. (rtd) Amanya Mushega, while addressing a consultative workshop on fast-tracking the political federation of the member countries, noted that Rwanda’s admission into the regional bloc would create more opportunities for the region and solve problems related to industrialisation by increasing the labour force.
For Rwandan business people, in particular, access to thousands of international goods and importing and exporting products through the ports of other community member states will be easier with reduced customs duties because of its membership in the bloc.
According to Mary Baine, the Commissioner General of Rwanda Revenue Authority, this will spur national and regional trade. With her booming tourism industry - a targeted area for the country’s economic development - Rwanda will also benefit from the single East African Tourist Visa since it will encourage new tourists to the region. In this context however, it will not be taking away more than it will be offering.
Owing to the fact that she shares the rare mountain gorilla with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, her efforts in conservation will come in handy seeing as it is that the population of these primates in Rwanda has grown from 324 to 358 according to recent estimates.
Gorillas, and more
And Rwanda can talk about gorillas, and far much more. Compared to her sister countries in the region, it has a more elaborate Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy and is aggressive in science and technological development. That it is reputed to be on track to becoming the region’s ICT hub is without doubt.
Recently, the country scooped two awards for using ICTs in fulfilling public service delivery functions. The Technology in Government in Africa (Tiga) awards were organised by UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) with support from the Canadian Policy Resource Centre in training African policymakers.
Yonasani Kanyomozi, a Ugandan representative in the EAC Legislative Assembly, acknowledges this advancement and states that Rwanda stand better chances than any other country in exploiting ICT opportunities in the EAC. “They [Rwanda] have concentrated concretely on science and technology.
If the other countries do not take heed, we shall lose everything to Rwanda.” In an era where ICT seems the soul of everything, Rwanda’s expertise will help other countries in the bloc put their ICT houses in order.
Tied to ICT is the country’s Karisimbi Power which will bring in place computer aided broadcasting. According to information from Rwanda Gateway, Karisimbi Tower will enable Rwanda receive television signals from as far as Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and Togo with ease.
The country will also possess a 1000Kms of VHF coverage boosted with the use of satellites and the accompanying mono-pulse radar. “International broadcasting and telecommunication companies are already looking at the Karisimbi (Project) as a way to boost their signals in the region.
There is no doubt Karisimbi Project will become an absolute gateway to better connectivity in the region,” reads information on the Gateway site.
In addition, with necessary support, Rwanda could be the solution to the energy needs that seem to beset the region. According to the Ministry of Energy and Communication, methane gas deposits in Lake Kivu amount to about 55 billion cubic metres. When this is extracted and processed, says State Minister for Energy and Communication, Eng. Albert Butare, it comes to more than 700 megawatts of energy supply which is far beyond what Rwanda needs. The good news is that the country has already expressed willingness to export, or even share.
Strategic location, exemplary leadership. Rwanda is geographically Africa’s heartbeat. Besides the aforementioned assets, Rwanda’s central location has already been identified by Uneca as one of the strategic points to connect Africa.
The country is already reaping from this location. According to Dr Laurent Mbanda, the vice president of Compassion Africa, Kigali City was chosen for the organisation’s headquarters because of its easy access to most parts of the continent.
The EAC stands in line to benefit from this location as much. Rwanda will also contribute exemplary leadership to the region and lessons in recovery. The country has succeeded in curbing corruption when its neighbours have been sucked into the vice.
For all the mayhem the 1994 Genocide bore on the country, it is surprising to see today that Rwanda has pulled to the front lane with the rest of her neighbours, well almost. Such experiences will be invaluable to the EAC bloc.
What the country will put on the table however does not dispel legitimate fears.
One of these lies in the political federation. Because of its past, there are concerns that its nascent stability might be affected by the vigorous reorganisation of the political arena, since as it is internal politics themselves are still setting.
While the East African Court of Justice might come in handy in Rwanda’s unique efforts of reconciliation and bringing to justice people suspected of committing Genocide crimes, it remains to be seen other partner states will buy into such situations that are specifically unique to it.
The country faces a challenge of taking on the EAC without letting go of the good chips it holds.
Written by GEORGE KAGAME
The New Times
NEWS ANALYSIS
A momentous page will be laid today in the history of regional communities as Rwanda and Burundi officially join one of the oldest African regional economic communities: the East African Community (EAC).
The two neighbouring and brotherly nations receive their formal admission into the revived EAC when the ninth East African Heads of State Summit sits in Kampala, Uganda.
The admission date was brought forward from July 1 which had been earlier set by the EAC Secretariat last year.
It will be the last step in the proverbial journey of 1,000 steps that Rwanda set out on way back in the 1990s to gain admission in this 90-year-old bloc.
Rwanda applied to join the EAC bloc in 1996.
In 1999, its application reportedly caused a heated debate during a preparatory meeting attended by foreign ministers from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, the three original members of the community.
Supported only by Uganda, the proposal to bring Rwanda on board at the time was reportedly defeated since it was deemed not possible to admit new members at that stage when procedures for doing so were not yet in place.
Rwanda went back and used the time to fix what was required of it to qualify for the bloc’s membership. The full membership status in the regional bloc guarantees Rwanda and Burundi voting rights as well as total participation in every programme pertaining to the EAC.
Among Rwanda’s selling points, observers in the region say, has been the current peace and stability the country enjoys.
EAC history
The EAC boasts a long history which dates back to 1917, when Uganda and Kenya established a customs union.
Former Tanganyika - before it later merged with Zanzibar to form Tanzania - joined ten years later. But the actual East Africa Community was formed 40 years later in 1967.
Ten years after its formation, the community was disbanded because of political differences among the three member states: Uganda was caught up in the Idd Amin dictatorship; Kenya went capitalist while Tanzania signed onto socialism.
It was however revived 30 years later in 1996 when the Heads of State of all the- Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania - signed a new agreement on trade.
And its full revival came in 2001 in the Tanzanian northern town of Arusha, which is also houses the community’s headquarters.
Reservations
Even when Tanzania and Kenya at one time stayed Rwanda’s request to join the EAC in 1996, there were reservations in some sections of Rwanda on what it would benefit from the bloc.
There were concerns as well that the country’s young economy risked unwarranted competition in the face of ferocious price and promotional offer wars waged by the more established EAC member states.
There were also fears that there had not been sufficient consultations to represent the will of Rwandans in the community, as a new group in the age old bloc.
As such, it appeared that there were no guarantees that this time the community would not crumble like before. And if it did, who apart from the Rwandan citizens would bear the brunt?
President Paul Kagame, in his monthly press conference in August last year, noted that Rwanda never rushed to join the community.
He said then that the country did not need to belong to several regional organisations but instead had to make priorities depending on where it stood to gain more both economically and socially.
“All the member countries must agree on reciprocity so that each EAC nation derives advantages,” he said.
Rwanda’s contribution
What does Rwanda bring on the EAC table? And what does it hope to benefit? It must be noted that it was largely the former concern that formed one of the hurdles whether or not to admit the country into the EAC fold.
Economic benefits seem to stand out every time the EAC is mentioned, and rightly so since the community is at the foremost an economic bloc. With the inclusion of Rwanda - and its neighbour to the southern Burundi - the region’s market will grow to about 120 million people.
The business community in the region is already warming up to these numbers. There is a shared view that this market and the resources in the five countries are enough to stimulate development in the region and transform it into one of the leading business destinations.
Former EAC Secretary General, Col. (rtd) Amanya Mushega, while addressing a consultative workshop on fast-tracking the political federation of the member countries, noted that Rwanda’s admission into the regional bloc would create more opportunities for the region and solve problems related to industrialisation by increasing the labour force.
For Rwandan business people, in particular, access to thousands of international goods and importing and exporting products through the ports of other community member states will be easier with reduced customs duties because of its membership in the bloc.
According to Mary Baine, the Commissioner General of Rwanda Revenue Authority, this will spur national and regional trade. With her booming tourism industry - a targeted area for the country’s economic development - Rwanda will also benefit from the single East African Tourist Visa since it will encourage new tourists to the region. In this context however, it will not be taking away more than it will be offering.
Owing to the fact that she shares the rare mountain gorilla with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, her efforts in conservation will come in handy seeing as it is that the population of these primates in Rwanda has grown from 324 to 358 according to recent estimates.
Gorillas, and more
And Rwanda can talk about gorillas, and far much more. Compared to her sister countries in the region, it has a more elaborate Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy and is aggressive in science and technological development. That it is reputed to be on track to becoming the region’s ICT hub is without doubt.
Recently, the country scooped two awards for using ICTs in fulfilling public service delivery functions. The Technology in Government in Africa (Tiga) awards were organised by UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) with support from the Canadian Policy Resource Centre in training African policymakers.
Yonasani Kanyomozi, a Ugandan representative in the EAC Legislative Assembly, acknowledges this advancement and states that Rwanda stand better chances than any other country in exploiting ICT opportunities in the EAC. “They [Rwanda] have concentrated concretely on science and technology.
If the other countries do not take heed, we shall lose everything to Rwanda.” In an era where ICT seems the soul of everything, Rwanda’s expertise will help other countries in the bloc put their ICT houses in order.
Tied to ICT is the country’s Karisimbi Power which will bring in place computer aided broadcasting. According to information from Rwanda Gateway, Karisimbi Tower will enable Rwanda receive television signals from as far as Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and Togo with ease.
The country will also possess a 1000Kms of VHF coverage boosted with the use of satellites and the accompanying mono-pulse radar. “International broadcasting and telecommunication companies are already looking at the Karisimbi (Project) as a way to boost their signals in the region.
There is no doubt Karisimbi Project will become an absolute gateway to better connectivity in the region,” reads information on the Gateway site.
In addition, with necessary support, Rwanda could be the solution to the energy needs that seem to beset the region. According to the Ministry of Energy and Communication, methane gas deposits in Lake Kivu amount to about 55 billion cubic metres. When this is extracted and processed, says State Minister for Energy and Communication, Eng. Albert Butare, it comes to more than 700 megawatts of energy supply which is far beyond what Rwanda needs. The good news is that the country has already expressed willingness to export, or even share.
Strategic location, exemplary leadership. Rwanda is geographically Africa’s heartbeat. Besides the aforementioned assets, Rwanda’s central location has already been identified by Uneca as one of the strategic points to connect Africa.
The country is already reaping from this location. According to Dr Laurent Mbanda, the vice president of Compassion Africa, Kigali City was chosen for the organisation’s headquarters because of its easy access to most parts of the continent.
The EAC stands in line to benefit from this location as much. Rwanda will also contribute exemplary leadership to the region and lessons in recovery. The country has succeeded in curbing corruption when its neighbours have been sucked into the vice.
For all the mayhem the 1994 Genocide bore on the country, it is surprising to see today that Rwanda has pulled to the front lane with the rest of her neighbours, well almost. Such experiences will be invaluable to the EAC bloc.
What the country will put on the table however does not dispel legitimate fears.
One of these lies in the political federation. Because of its past, there are concerns that its nascent stability might be affected by the vigorous reorganisation of the political arena, since as it is internal politics themselves are still setting.
While the East African Court of Justice might come in handy in Rwanda’s unique efforts of reconciliation and bringing to justice people suspected of committing Genocide crimes, it remains to be seen other partner states will buy into such situations that are specifically unique to it.
The country faces a challenge of taking on the EAC without letting go of the good chips it holds.
Written by GEORGE KAGAME
The New Times
Monday, 12 October 2009
When the loyal and skilled manpower in Bossman became fugitives
GEORGE KAGAME
Meneja, in the ambiance of a good office perched up on the fourth floor of the marble tiled building in downtown Citi swiveled in his custom made chair. The chair itself was one of the few changes at the workplace in recent days among other things at the office. The consignment of the new office furniture arrived after news of excellent performance from Banana Inc. The good ‘practices’ agricultural cooperative had impressive postings in recent statistics and was nowadays placed in good light with government authorities and crucially, donors.
Meneja whose real name is Mwamba Wa Kuku had coined his title to his name, he was an ambitious countryman in Bossman Republic who at some point in his life turned the village corner and set up shop in the high places of the Bossman's capital far away. He now made decisions that influenced people and events, he was a powerful man.
The cooperative, formed by a local government authority initiative aimed to assist small scale businessmen and farmers in Minazi Province to grow better quality seeds and, at harvest, have appropriate avenues from which to earn a good living, Meneja headed the cooperative.
Good living was a major component of programmes put in place and effectively demanded by the highest authorities in the land.
Meneja had himself benefitted from a recent decision by the authorities to identify, search, attract and employ competent and skilled Bossmans in strategic positions in the management of the good old country. Citizenship in Bossman was not by conventional methods as other countries in granting their residency. In Bossman citizenship was open, you stood a chance without much effort and documents to acquire it. As such Bossmans were a unique lot, they were brought together in this wonderful country by circumstances of mutual interest and worked hard to develop and uphold those interests.
A national skills audit-like that for Big Brother Africa was undertaken to attract Meneja’s kind. In fact a whole national commission was established to survey, analyze or determine which sectors in Bossman’s economy were lacking of skilled manpower. As a result it had not taken much for Meneja to climb the corporate ladder. The moment it was established that he could wear well pressed trousers and polyester shirts on top of a sprinkling of a few English sentences, he easily made the grade. But it also helped that he was related or was claimed to have been born on the same village with the Director of Finance in Banana Inc.
As Meneja turned in his chair analyzing a new report, his palms were sweaty. Somehow his fortunes had turned in the immediate past and he figured that he did not have long to be hanging out in his chair. He was not only due to vacate this sweet chair, he was also facing prospects of jail with details coming in, painfully slowly, that Banana Inc was marketed very properly on paper reports, but inside funds were being fleeced by Meneja and some of his trusted corporals in management.
As a result, Meneja, until recently a brilliant example of the success of programmes and policies of the government of Bossman and the province of Minazi, was now facing the possibility of being designated as one of its terrible failures. He was not alone, like him, many of the newly established officials as per the skills hunt were yesterday villagemen turned business executives today.
A bunch of his colleagues in other cooperatives, commissions, agencies and public offices were now undergoing a new drive to replace these 'skilled' individuals who had turned corrupt and swindled from the hand that fed them. This group was now being hunted down vociferously, not really to recover the funds they had fleeced but to show other Bossmans that being corrupt was not good, and if done by government and public officials it should not be seen to be done.
The performance of Banana Inc was itself achieved after a comprehensive research and grassroots survey carried out by the respected National Institute of Statistics of Bossman-NISB. However, in a sad turn of events, the director general of NISB was himself facing arrest and prosecution for corruption, therefore even the information contained in his his statistics or their lack of was disputable. Making the glow of Banana Inc a fake.
If anyone was caught in the business of corruption they faced a few nights in police custody, the humiliation of appearing in the media as the bad apple and they also stood a chance to be unemployed for a while. The punishments for being corrupt ranged from being out of the group that will bring good life to other Bossmans and living in the ‘wilderness’ like King nebuchadenezer. The authority would ultimately have the mercy to bring you back to the good life planning group in later stages, but the immediate effect of the arrest could swing several ways and so Meneja was right to be comprehensive in his choices.
In his wisdom Meneja schemed to find a way out, to run and escape the over zealous police pawns themselves eager to be part of good life. The cops were taking their sweet time deciding first to take his ‘file’ to the national prosecution office. The PO was very eloquent in its pursuit of those it deemed sabotaging the desire to achieve good life and would gladly issue the arrest warrant.
Meneja knew with conviction the sequence of events preceding and following the copy of paper and the information it had. He was ready to take a way out. Having been a member of good life project for a while, he was assured that in his passport their was a Visa that could take him to the safety of not just one country by several of them. And his escape plan depended on his passport being near his heart and wallet and yet far away from the zealous cops.
As events unfolded, it was discovered that the head of police along with his chief of spying was under unexplained circumstances also booted and rumours were presently doing the rounds that he also faced a stunt in jail. A city mayor and an esterwhile governor in the same province were also currently doing the police and prosecution dance with a possibility of detention cells serving as a dance floor.
The mayor in particular was an interesting case, the man that had supervised his rise to mayorship was now his boss, while his former boss who had risen to higher places and left him in the province and had then fallen back. Investigations were rife that as governor, the former boss was alleged to have let one eye close as funds were being fleeced. Bossman was undergoing a serious shift of gears, starting from skilled manpower who changed into corrupt and now they were turning fugitive.
The tune of police and prosecution was a loud one in recent days. It had started with the ministry in charge of administering and or regulating, supervising, envisioning and spying on local government authorities. Two senior officials in this ministry had withered, one ending up in jail and the other utilizing his well kept passport properly to escape the prying eyes of the cops. The cops had to be fast because even the ministry official that ended up in jail was arrested while attempting a Carlos Jackal at the airport.
To be continued.......
Meneja debuts at police while Chichi is chilling on holiday
GEORGE KAGAME
Last weekend, Meneja a hitherto man of influence in Bossman Republic-a successful country as far as modern post conflict management is concerned-was analyzing his options after receiving an assessment letter that highly questioned his style of work and the organization he headed Banana Inc.
There was no doubt that the former villageman cum blue eyed boy was headed to jail. The threat of jail was in fact made in a very eloquent manner when a summon from police and the prosecuting judges appeared simultaneously. The new Bossman managers never cared less for procedures.
As such he was due to face investigation, interrogation, quizzing, arrest, detention, prosecution and imprisonment in no particular order. By the beginning of this week he was some way in dealing with the menu listed above.
One evening after being arraigned in front of a judge-another one of the Bossman's eager crew to jump on the good life wagon and not only show that the judiciary was not corrupt like other departments but also that they were watching other Bossman whose bellies and car fleets were expanding at fast paces.
As Meneja was reflecting on the various episodes in his life recently that had led to the current precarious state of his affairs, he turned his large frame in this unfamiliar new place of abode, a 50 metre squared room which also served as his detention centre and was rueful at the speed with which his candle had turned from bright light to slow burning and finally extinction. This is about the time I ventured at the police post to answer a summon myself and hopefully check out Meneja.
While Meneja was still the round cheeked poster boy of the good things happening in Bossman, our paths crossed one time. I had been once an envoy of all witch-doctors and traditional healers in Bossman to Banana Inc. During our brief encounter he was the new breed of Bossmans, a busy and time conscious lot eager to get off work and head for sports activities in the afternoon. On the other hand, I was one of the several 'necessary evils' that he was supposed to deal with in the execution of his leadership duties head of Banana Inc. The duties of assisting farmers and Bossmans involved in the agriculture industry.
At the time I tried to get his attention and sympathy at how I had been mistreated by his secretary-you see he had a pretty faced lady who acted more as his bodyguard than administrative assistant. When I tried to get an appointment with Meneja to discuss my intention to start an NGO that I envisioned would develop a network, fellowship or scheme for all witch-doctors in the country, such that the witch-doctors would assist the farmers in terms of causing an early and long rainy season enabling a richer harvest. She dismissed my idea and in a very eloquent but rude manner said her boss, (to whom she was also rumoured to be a mistress) did not have time.
So as Chichi gave me a long tirade and ridicule of my idea, she was very much convinced that she was not overstepping her authority. Now as Meneja sat lonely in his cell, Chichi was very busy lining up a job in a major telecommunications firm. Rumours were rife that she was after-all a bait. She is said to have been a mole but it was not clear whether she worked for her own security organization or that of the higher authorities and as such she moved from the arms of one influential in Bossman as easily as she entered and occupied the most prestigious of offices in the country. She was much more concerned for her forthcoming trip to shop in Dubai than Meneja's current misfortune.
The assistant, Penelope Chichi was indeed highly educated but it was with no coincidence that she seemed to have a flair of changing high profile jobs and higher men. If you thought about her life for a while she seemed to be the subject of that Kanye West Song, Gold Digger, "......... I aint saying she a gold digger, but she aint messing with no broke man......he gonna make it to a Benz from that Datsun, watch him..stay by his side."
Because of this humiliation, my idea to connect the important and necessary services of witch-doctors to the need of farmers died and I never wanted to see Chichi's well manicured fingers and expertly made up face ever. I was bitter and now as I went to visit Meneja in his cell, a part of me was hoping that he'd stay in the 'commune' for a while, be starved, be in need of company and feel the powerlessness of being out of office in an agrarian country like Bossman.
For his part, Meneja wondered what was happening to all his former colleagues who had earlier dined with him in high restaurants in Citi-the capital of Bossman). He heard that his former old chum who had been an executive in the senate was detained as was the director of the influential national organiztion in charge of public investment and external finance. Another former colleague was also rumoured to have diverted a large proportion of the national health insurance fund and his file was also doing the police+prosecution dance. It was while Meneja was busy juggling these thoughts in his mind that I made a grand entry at the police post where he was being hosted. We were not happy to see each other again. Yet I was here to help him. The witch-doctors, who had not taken lightly their being snubbed from the funds of Banana Inc were in benevolent mood now and they had sent me as an emissary to Meneja.
They knew the demons that were currently sweeping through Bossman and were ready to come to the assistance of folks like Meneja 'if only' he could promise to peddle their case through the numerous layers of bureaucracy so as they could be welcomed on the Donor Dining Table. I also carried a special message of support from Chichi, (the witches that I represented had washed me with god waters and my heart was cleansed of all its hate and I was made so attractive that Chichi was very eager to speak with me this time.) She had recorded for him a couple of songs on CD from her recent visit to the Caribbeans with her latest boyfriend.
Me: Chichi sends you her greetings and says that she is working on that 'promise' you and her had to visit Italy one day. She believes that you are very strong and will get through this current misfortune and that though she is too busy to visit you, she sends you this music to relax your soul as you deal with the heartless police summons.
Meneja: She is a bitch that woman, she is a slut. I swear I'll slap her in public when I get out of here.
Last weekend, Meneja a hitherto man of influence in Bossman Republic-a successful country as far as modern post conflict management is concerned-was analyzing his options after receiving an assessment letter that highly questioned his style of work and the organization he headed Banana Inc.
There was no doubt that the former villageman cum blue eyed boy was headed to jail. The threat of jail was in fact made in a very eloquent manner when a summon from police and the prosecuting judges appeared simultaneously. The new Bossman managers never cared less for procedures.
As such he was due to face investigation, interrogation, quizzing, arrest, detention, prosecution and imprisonment in no particular order. By the beginning of this week he was some way in dealing with the menu listed above.
One evening after being arraigned in front of a judge-another one of the Bossman's eager crew to jump on the good life wagon and not only show that the judiciary was not corrupt like other departments but also that they were watching other Bossman whose bellies and car fleets were expanding at fast paces.
As Meneja was reflecting on the various episodes in his life recently that had led to the current precarious state of his affairs, he turned his large frame in this unfamiliar new place of abode, a 50 metre squared room which also served as his detention centre and was rueful at the speed with which his candle had turned from bright light to slow burning and finally extinction. This is about the time I ventured at the police post to answer a summon myself and hopefully check out Meneja.
While Meneja was still the round cheeked poster boy of the good things happening in Bossman, our paths crossed one time. I had been once an envoy of all witch-doctors and traditional healers in Bossman to Banana Inc. During our brief encounter he was the new breed of Bossmans, a busy and time conscious lot eager to get off work and head for sports activities in the afternoon. On the other hand, I was one of the several 'necessary evils' that he was supposed to deal with in the execution of his leadership duties head of Banana Inc. The duties of assisting farmers and Bossmans involved in the agriculture industry.
At the time I tried to get his attention and sympathy at how I had been mistreated by his secretary-you see he had a pretty faced lady who acted more as his bodyguard than administrative assistant. When I tried to get an appointment with Meneja to discuss my intention to start an NGO that I envisioned would develop a network, fellowship or scheme for all witch-doctors in the country, such that the witch-doctors would assist the farmers in terms of causing an early and long rainy season enabling a richer harvest. She dismissed my idea and in a very eloquent but rude manner said her boss, (to whom she was also rumoured to be a mistress) did not have time.
So as Chichi gave me a long tirade and ridicule of my idea, she was very much convinced that she was not overstepping her authority. Now as Meneja sat lonely in his cell, Chichi was very busy lining up a job in a major telecommunications firm. Rumours were rife that she was after-all a bait. She is said to have been a mole but it was not clear whether she worked for her own security organization or that of the higher authorities and as such she moved from the arms of one influential in Bossman as easily as she entered and occupied the most prestigious of offices in the country. She was much more concerned for her forthcoming trip to shop in Dubai than Meneja's current misfortune.
The assistant, Penelope Chichi was indeed highly educated but it was with no coincidence that she seemed to have a flair of changing high profile jobs and higher men. If you thought about her life for a while she seemed to be the subject of that Kanye West Song, Gold Digger, "......... I aint saying she a gold digger, but she aint messing with no broke man......he gonna make it to a Benz from that Datsun, watch him..stay by his side."
Because of this humiliation, my idea to connect the important and necessary services of witch-doctors to the need of farmers died and I never wanted to see Chichi's well manicured fingers and expertly made up face ever. I was bitter and now as I went to visit Meneja in his cell, a part of me was hoping that he'd stay in the 'commune' for a while, be starved, be in need of company and feel the powerlessness of being out of office in an agrarian country like Bossman.
For his part, Meneja wondered what was happening to all his former colleagues who had earlier dined with him in high restaurants in Citi-the capital of Bossman). He heard that his former old chum who had been an executive in the senate was detained as was the director of the influential national organiztion in charge of public investment and external finance. Another former colleague was also rumoured to have diverted a large proportion of the national health insurance fund and his file was also doing the police+prosecution dance. It was while Meneja was busy juggling these thoughts in his mind that I made a grand entry at the police post where he was being hosted. We were not happy to see each other again. Yet I was here to help him. The witch-doctors, who had not taken lightly their being snubbed from the funds of Banana Inc were in benevolent mood now and they had sent me as an emissary to Meneja.
They knew the demons that were currently sweeping through Bossman and were ready to come to the assistance of folks like Meneja 'if only' he could promise to peddle their case through the numerous layers of bureaucracy so as they could be welcomed on the Donor Dining Table. I also carried a special message of support from Chichi, (the witches that I represented had washed me with god waters and my heart was cleansed of all its hate and I was made so attractive that Chichi was very eager to speak with me this time.) She had recorded for him a couple of songs on CD from her recent visit to the Caribbeans with her latest boyfriend.
Me: Chichi sends you her greetings and says that she is working on that 'promise' you and her had to visit Italy one day. She believes that you are very strong and will get through this current misfortune and that though she is too busy to visit you, she sends you this music to relax your soul as you deal with the heartless police summons.
Meneja: She is a bitch that woman, she is a slut. I swear I'll slap her in public when I get out of here.
Saturday, 26 September 2009
Emotion, ‘new media’ and journalism, an African threesome made in heaven
GEORGE KAGAME
In its December-31-1999 special edition titled Person of The Century, Time Magazine asked Steven Spielberg-am assuming you know of him-what issues and events would shape movies and the media in the new millennium.
Spielberg answered that people at the time were fed up with traditional movies. The ones about good/bad guys, morality, kick-ass etc and added that the audience would move towards reality television.
He elaborated that viewers were tired of being consumers, they wanted to be actors of their own lives and so the camera was coming to our homes from Hollywood.
Soon afterwards, Big Brother Africa made its debut in Johannesburg, and was a runaway hit to many Africans in urban areas. Later, it was Nigeria’s drama woven into substandard films which many Africans related to that became massively popular.
As ever, in the west it got even weirder. Women, with a touch of science started to give birth to six or eight babies at a go-normally featuring the use of fertility clinics. Octopulet mothers started surfacing and making their circumstances into sci-fi dramas.
In later years the reality show world moved from television to the internet and made the ICT highway accessible to many, both literally and virtually.
Thanks to the internet, politicians and mainstream media became more visible, and in Rwanda, where previously we had waited for the radio-if we were lucky enough to avoid the Kigali ‘routine’ of attending rallies organized by Local Government officials-we could sign on to our leaders’ pages on Facebook and have exclusive access to their speeches and “What they were doing.”
To many voyeuristic people the ICT highway offered a vanity wall where users stopped to look and admire themselves constantly and continue with their lives - which is snooping on what other people were up to.
And yet this confluence of ICT, man’s emotion and space made for a sumptuous threesome. On your profile, (depending on which ICT highway you belong to) the costume of the theatre that is society was thrown away, your innermost self was hoisted up on your ICT vanity wall.
Facebook for one, constantly asking you, “What’s on your mind?” It is while I was trying to figure out what was on my mind during this past week that I tried to first find out (voyeur and snoop not referring to me in this case-) what was on other people’s minds at the same time.
Ed Pacino, (Rwandan senior journalist, his real name protected for fellowship purposes) was asking the world: “do we have democracy and political tolerance in Rwanda???”
There were a couple of answers to his mind. But he was not satisfied with any and later, as if some answers from Transparency International did not please him, Pacino was very upset.
He adjusted the mirror to where the vanity wall was visible in all corners, Pacino wrote:
“The West has given us a mirror with a built-in ugly image and we have looked into that mirror and imagined the image is ourselves. We have let someone judge us wrongly as we watch him doing.
Africa has its democracy in its style. The west criticizes us just to get away (a way – Ed) of justifying their charity business am so pissed...never to consider western reports on transparency in Africa.”
Still on the E-sojourn another Rwandan, Usambara Mwenye’Chupa, a post graduate student in South Africa was stating: “.....Africa has to massively invest in education and healthcare. Everyone fools and undermines us because we are not educated and sick (sick and not educated –Ed).
Even investors fear dealing with illiterate people and with no healthcare. Lacking the two is a great component of poverty, conflicts and underdevelopment. Please, act now, our dear Presidents!!!!”
The president to whom, you can assume Mwenye’Chupa was addressing was himself busy in his hotel room in New York preparing to address a UN General Assembly.
He wrote an OpEd piece for The Washington Post where he was calling on a; “shift from an agriculture-based economy toward a knowledge-based economy, with a vibrant service sector.
We have enacted and consistently enforce a rule of law that counters corruption........” His piece was to be seen cruising on the E-highway as well.
The convergence of the three ideas from three different people that could be completely anonymous to each other-in thought-is what makes a dream threesome of a reporter. And yet, there’s still room to upgrade the ‘some’ to four.
Having missed his time for four decades, Muamar Gadaffi compensated himself. And ridicule him as you may, Gadaffi attempted to beat the record for most meandering train of thought from the occupant of The Hammock!
Ends
In its December-31-1999 special edition titled Person of The Century, Time Magazine asked Steven Spielberg-am assuming you know of him-what issues and events would shape movies and the media in the new millennium.
Spielberg answered that people at the time were fed up with traditional movies. The ones about good/bad guys, morality, kick-ass etc and added that the audience would move towards reality television.
He elaborated that viewers were tired of being consumers, they wanted to be actors of their own lives and so the camera was coming to our homes from Hollywood.
Soon afterwards, Big Brother Africa made its debut in Johannesburg, and was a runaway hit to many Africans in urban areas. Later, it was Nigeria’s drama woven into substandard films which many Africans related to that became massively popular.
As ever, in the west it got even weirder. Women, with a touch of science started to give birth to six or eight babies at a go-normally featuring the use of fertility clinics. Octopulet mothers started surfacing and making their circumstances into sci-fi dramas.
In later years the reality show world moved from television to the internet and made the ICT highway accessible to many, both literally and virtually.
Thanks to the internet, politicians and mainstream media became more visible, and in Rwanda, where previously we had waited for the radio-if we were lucky enough to avoid the Kigali ‘routine’ of attending rallies organized by Local Government officials-we could sign on to our leaders’ pages on Facebook and have exclusive access to their speeches and “What they were doing.”
To many voyeuristic people the ICT highway offered a vanity wall where users stopped to look and admire themselves constantly and continue with their lives - which is snooping on what other people were up to.
And yet this confluence of ICT, man’s emotion and space made for a sumptuous threesome. On your profile, (depending on which ICT highway you belong to) the costume of the theatre that is society was thrown away, your innermost self was hoisted up on your ICT vanity wall.
Facebook for one, constantly asking you, “What’s on your mind?” It is while I was trying to figure out what was on my mind during this past week that I tried to first find out (voyeur and snoop not referring to me in this case-) what was on other people’s minds at the same time.
Ed Pacino, (Rwandan senior journalist, his real name protected for fellowship purposes) was asking the world: “do we have democracy and political tolerance in Rwanda???”
There were a couple of answers to his mind. But he was not satisfied with any and later, as if some answers from Transparency International did not please him, Pacino was very upset.
He adjusted the mirror to where the vanity wall was visible in all corners, Pacino wrote:
“The West has given us a mirror with a built-in ugly image and we have looked into that mirror and imagined the image is ourselves. We have let someone judge us wrongly as we watch him doing.
Africa has its democracy in its style. The west criticizes us just to get away (a way – Ed) of justifying their charity business am so pissed...never to consider western reports on transparency in Africa.”
Still on the E-sojourn another Rwandan, Usambara Mwenye’Chupa, a post graduate student in South Africa was stating: “.....Africa has to massively invest in education and healthcare. Everyone fools and undermines us because we are not educated and sick (sick and not educated –Ed).
Even investors fear dealing with illiterate people and with no healthcare. Lacking the two is a great component of poverty, conflicts and underdevelopment. Please, act now, our dear Presidents!!!!”
The president to whom, you can assume Mwenye’Chupa was addressing was himself busy in his hotel room in New York preparing to address a UN General Assembly.
He wrote an OpEd piece for The Washington Post where he was calling on a; “shift from an agriculture-based economy toward a knowledge-based economy, with a vibrant service sector.
We have enacted and consistently enforce a rule of law that counters corruption........” His piece was to be seen cruising on the E-highway as well.
The convergence of the three ideas from three different people that could be completely anonymous to each other-in thought-is what makes a dream threesome of a reporter. And yet, there’s still room to upgrade the ‘some’ to four.
Having missed his time for four decades, Muamar Gadaffi compensated himself. And ridicule him as you may, Gadaffi attempted to beat the record for most meandering train of thought from the occupant of The Hammock!
Ends
Sunday, 13 September 2009
George Kagame: Kick the 'bigman syndrome' its an impediment to efficiency in the service sector
GEORGE KAGAME
The spirit of the Rwandan or African bigman was captured very well by Emma Kabanda in one of his Sunday Musings recently. Kabanda illustrated how his endeavors to get paid for his services to an unnamed company had taken him over two months. In one instance the boss of the company was not available to sign his pay slip, in another the accounts office had misplaced the slip.
This back and forth played itself out in over a month or so while the pay slip was doing the African administrative dance and finally the poor man forfeited his earnings out of frustration. While I shared this story with a European colleague he confided in me that his people have a joke that 'Africans have watches while Europeans have time.' This certainly made sense when I remembered that sheer size and price estimate of the watch on one of my boss' hand!
The musing was important because it tried to tackle all the crucial ideas that Rwanda has been striving to achieve in the past five years and even more important because many people in the country could relate to it. It pointed out our well elaborated desire to develop efficient customer care strategies across all sectors of the economy. Establishing and developing self sustaining institutions beyond the people that head them plus exposing the folly of the famous performance contracts. More important however, and why the pay slip is alluded to here, is the fact that the example is an embarrassment to the 'regional service hub' cliche going on in the country.
Writer after writer have come to remind The New Times readers over the years about the acute shortage of basic customer care traits in the country and their experiences/humiliation with this problem. Ahead of this campaign to illustrate our congenial client relationship problems is the Nyamirambo based American journalist Josh Kron, (speaking of Kron and the nature of Rwanda's relationship with customer care.) Onetime I shared a bus ride with the American from Bujumbura to Kigali at the beginning of this year.
Since we all speak one language in the country, it is easy to start a conversation in a public place and have everybody in the place participate, it is possible that one simplistic comment can become a public discourse. And so while the bus was leaving Akanyaru boarder post, Kron requested the bus driver to reduce the volume of a very loud and blurry sounding music system in the bus.
This seemed to be the only chance of the bus driver to feel some power over an American. He refused to reduce the volume and said some mambo jumbo to his passengers. The entire bus erupted in conversations about the protestations of the American against the clearly disturbing noise. Since indeed very few Rwandans have had the experience to travel to foreign places and suffer the humiliation of having people seated next you and speaking a strange language that they cannot understand, it is next to impossible to paraphrase the humiliation that Kron was going through in this situation.
Yet there's an upside to this complaining about the quality of service provision in Rwanda and that is that service providers can be excused for their lackluster efforts to the population, some of whom are used to different. If this is the kind of clientele (as the bus experience with the American illustrates) that public and private service providers in the country target.
It is less surprising that a journalist can wait for two months to get his pay, a visitor can be told off in the bank that he is a foreignor. It also gives credence to another New Times columnist LibanMugabo's serial argument that Rwandans must let loose all entry points to people from outside to come and run our affairs. Although South Africa's recent experiences make this only an academic option! If South Africans-with all the advances they are supposed to have in their society-kill fellow Africans on the basis of taking jobs, it is fair to say that Rwandans, who have Genocide on their resume can do worse. Although this is another debate altogether.
The problem of service in the country is routed in the belief of the bigman, no important person in this country can claim to have been treated with disdain at a bank, in a shop, pub, hotel and Moto riders because our culture has been construed that way. Where I grew up all the power was in the hands and legs of the husband of that family. Whenever we saw him coming in the compound we runaway and squeaked in dark corners. We also ensured that before he left the house each day we noted the shirt he was wearing such that on his return journey we'd easily notice the impending danger of his arrival back. If he left any instructions to be carried out while he was away, nothing else was supposed to be done before the tasks he assigned were completed. This arrangement did not even spare his wife.
This kind of arrangement is outplayed in today's service provision in the country. In the banks, there's a line for us, the mere mortals and then none or one for the bigman even he does not subscribe to VIP sections of the bank. When the bigman enters he is welcomed very properly by the cute smiling bank tellers, led to the a special corner and served immediately. Sometimes a modern bigman even feigns signs of embarrassment to other clients.
In the final analysis, before we eliminate the bigman culture, we will continue with our disillusionment about customer service in the country or until I become a bigman myself and change the rules of service.
ENDS
The spirit of the Rwandan or African bigman was captured very well by Emma Kabanda in one of his Sunday Musings recently. Kabanda illustrated how his endeavors to get paid for his services to an unnamed company had taken him over two months. In one instance the boss of the company was not available to sign his pay slip, in another the accounts office had misplaced the slip.
This back and forth played itself out in over a month or so while the pay slip was doing the African administrative dance and finally the poor man forfeited his earnings out of frustration. While I shared this story with a European colleague he confided in me that his people have a joke that 'Africans have watches while Europeans have time.' This certainly made sense when I remembered that sheer size and price estimate of the watch on one of my boss' hand!
The musing was important because it tried to tackle all the crucial ideas that Rwanda has been striving to achieve in the past five years and even more important because many people in the country could relate to it. It pointed out our well elaborated desire to develop efficient customer care strategies across all sectors of the economy. Establishing and developing self sustaining institutions beyond the people that head them plus exposing the folly of the famous performance contracts. More important however, and why the pay slip is alluded to here, is the fact that the example is an embarrassment to the 'regional service hub' cliche going on in the country.
Writer after writer have come to remind The New Times readers over the years about the acute shortage of basic customer care traits in the country and their experiences/humiliation with this problem. Ahead of this campaign to illustrate our congenial client relationship problems is the Nyamirambo based American journalist Josh Kron, (speaking of Kron and the nature of Rwanda's relationship with customer care.) Onetime I shared a bus ride with the American from Bujumbura to Kigali at the beginning of this year.
Since we all speak one language in the country, it is easy to start a conversation in a public place and have everybody in the place participate, it is possible that one simplistic comment can become a public discourse. And so while the bus was leaving Akanyaru boarder post, Kron requested the bus driver to reduce the volume of a very loud and blurry sounding music system in the bus.
This seemed to be the only chance of the bus driver to feel some power over an American. He refused to reduce the volume and said some mambo jumbo to his passengers. The entire bus erupted in conversations about the protestations of the American against the clearly disturbing noise. Since indeed very few Rwandans have had the experience to travel to foreign places and suffer the humiliation of having people seated next you and speaking a strange language that they cannot understand, it is next to impossible to paraphrase the humiliation that Kron was going through in this situation.
Yet there's an upside to this complaining about the quality of service provision in Rwanda and that is that service providers can be excused for their lackluster efforts to the population, some of whom are used to different. If this is the kind of clientele (as the bus experience with the American illustrates) that public and private service providers in the country target.
It is less surprising that a journalist can wait for two months to get his pay, a visitor can be told off in the bank that he is a foreignor. It also gives credence to another New Times columnist LibanMugabo's serial argument that Rwandans must let loose all entry points to people from outside to come and run our affairs. Although South Africa's recent experiences make this only an academic option! If South Africans-with all the advances they are supposed to have in their society-kill fellow Africans on the basis of taking jobs, it is fair to say that Rwandans, who have Genocide on their resume can do worse. Although this is another debate altogether.
The problem of service in the country is routed in the belief of the bigman, no important person in this country can claim to have been treated with disdain at a bank, in a shop, pub, hotel and Moto riders because our culture has been construed that way. Where I grew up all the power was in the hands and legs of the husband of that family. Whenever we saw him coming in the compound we runaway and squeaked in dark corners. We also ensured that before he left the house each day we noted the shirt he was wearing such that on his return journey we'd easily notice the impending danger of his arrival back. If he left any instructions to be carried out while he was away, nothing else was supposed to be done before the tasks he assigned were completed. This arrangement did not even spare his wife.
This kind of arrangement is outplayed in today's service provision in the country. In the banks, there's a line for us, the mere mortals and then none or one for the bigman even he does not subscribe to VIP sections of the bank. When the bigman enters he is welcomed very properly by the cute smiling bank tellers, led to the a special corner and served immediately. Sometimes a modern bigman even feigns signs of embarrassment to other clients.
In the final analysis, before we eliminate the bigman culture, we will continue with our disillusionment about customer service in the country or until I become a bigman myself and change the rules of service.
ENDS
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