WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2011-07-25 Time: 14:00:01 Posted By: News Poster
By Andrea Bohnstedt
Adam and Eve fall in love, but then maybe Adam takes up with Wangari, or possibly with Steve, or perhaps Eve runs off with Maina. There’s a possibility that Adam and Eve, after much drama, get back together.
But ultimately, there’s a limited number of permutations to the old boy-meets-girl story. Even so, I usually prefer them over action movies and, in particular, car chases. Yawn. Boring. If I can fast-forward through those, I will.
Unfortunately you can’t fast-forward through everything that’s dull and predictable. So we had so sit through the whole warm up (figuratively and literally) to the famine again: No rains. No rain means no food, less hydroelectricity, and then depressing images of life stock dying. Of course a handful of people mention this to the Government of Kenya (GoK). GoK will then, as reliably as the sun rises in the East and I lustfully press my nose against Mocca’s shop window, deny that there are food shortages. Eventually, GoK concedes that maybe there isn’t enough maize after all – there’s a bit more drama if you can tease this out for a few months longer.
This script then typically comes with two more compulsory sequences: one, GoK will ask donors to donate because, you know, the poor people are starving and also dying! And two, GoK will set up some financially advantageous food import scheme under which special quota or tax exemptions are allocated under not entirely clear circumstances, and, no extra gold star for inventive storylines, said emergency food is then promptly re-exported to, say, Southern Sudan where it fetches even more money. People starve and die. Donors donate after a circus load of foreign journalists, MPs and actors have toured Dadaab. Are you still with me, nibbling away on your crisps and peanuts, or have you fallen asleep already?
Someone else has been watching the usual drama unfold. And Prof Jeffrey Sachs hasn’t just watched, but he even came all the way to Kenya. Now Jeffrey Sachs is a busy man. A very busy man. He must ceaselessly rush around the world and badger presidents for cash and throw much of it at Millenium Development Villages, a rehash of the 1970s ‘integrated rural development’ concept, only with smaller locations and more social media. So I understand that he gets confused – happens to the best of us: Because when he was in Nairobi this week, he said that he had spoken to President Obama about the impending famine, bout the need for an emergency initiative, that there has to be sustainable development, that he had proposed a drylands initiative.
Imagine, two years ago he had already shown Mr Obama the pictures! Not that I disagree with him on the need for development, but I am a little lost why he is talking to Mr Obama. Last time I checked, the drought and famine conditions were in Kenya and the neighbouring countries and not, in fact, in the US. Kenya has a president and a prime minister, too, plus a hefty cabinet, so might any one of them not be a good starting point for that whole emergency and development discussion? Two years ago perhaps? You know, since they are officially in charge?
None of that whole drought and famine maneno is new. Happens every few years, and in fact, when I feel rushed and out of topics and like a lazy writer, I can conveniently pick it up again. So you’d imagine that after a couple of rounds, GoK would have figured out both some preventive measures as well as an early warning system and a set of emergency measures. But even when the humble elected servants of the people are not busy launching presidential campaigns, they generally seem to struggle a little with managing anything: The good Prof. Ongeri is still not so sure where the free primary education money went (primary education being, I think, a good starting point for development). Now the newspapers claim that across ministries, accounting for millions and even billions of shillings has become a little vague in the last fiscal year. Leading the hip-swinging ‘what is that thing of political responsibility?’ conga line is Beth Mugo’s Public Health Ministry of with KES3.6bn, followed by Franklin Bett’s Roads Ministry with KES889m.
Even the Special Programmes Ministry, then under Naomi Shabaan, can’t immediately trace KES408m. All that is, of course, small fry compared to the money lost through GoK’s AngloLeasing contracts. It’s a bit bigger fry than the money regrettably spent on Mr Mike Gideon Gedeon Mbuvi Sonko, a legislator who, I suspect, would rather be seen dead than actually legislating. Or you could amuse yourself with some reading on CDF money being, shall we say, suboptimally spent, as just pointed out by the Auditor General. So Jeffrey Sachs is talking to President Obama? And donors? Because Kenya doesn’t have a government, and doesn’t have revenue collection, and doesn’t have an obligation to its citizens? Me, I don’t even know.
Andrea Bohnstedt is the publisher of Ratio Magazine, an East Africa online business magazine, and works as an independent country risk analyst for several international firms. Andrea has an established track record in country analysis, having worked for Global Insight (now Global Insight IHS), one of the largest international country intelligence providers, as Africa analyst for three years.
Since leaving Global Insight, Andrea has written on business, economic and political risk issues for, amongst others, Dun and Bradstreet, Africa Practice, African Business, Africa Investor, Afrika-Wirtschaft, Control Risk Group, Oxford Analytica, Risk Advisory Group, and MarketWatch. Occasionally, Andrea gets asked what she thinks by media like BBC, CNBC, NTV, ITN, Bloomberg, and others.
Andrea holds a first degree is in business studies, and an MSc in development studies from the London School of Economics (LSE)
Original date published: 23 July 2011
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201107250155.html?viewall=1