Showed up to the
venue, and I was impressed. It had one of those great open-layouts (that lately
apparently seem to be the target of disparagers worldwide), and a diverse crowd
in attendance – the majority being techies, of course. Admittedly, I did manage
to find the one other Biology major in there (apart from me), and a
Sociologist, which didn’t leave me feeling totally left out. But the majority
of the event was techie-oriented: Apps, Google Glass, Cloud Computing,
Developer Languages, Blogging…
Yeah, yeah, I get that
all this stuff is important; but I can’t help but feel that Kenya as a whole is
missing the boat here. Seems like ever since Mobile money transfers blew up,
everybody’s being trying to replicate MPesa’s success. Mpesa really only worked
because, like other people noticed, our banking system was pretty crappy to
start with and was not widespread enough to accommodate the needs of the common
mwananchi. To see everyone running into Apps assumes a few things that just
aren’t part of the mix here: 1) Smart Phone penetration can’t possibly be more
than 15% out here (mulika-mwizi is the order of the day; 2) How many people do
you know around here who actually buy Apps? The willingness - and market for
that matter - is pretty overestimated!
That in a nutshell, is
what I feel ails this country’s current outlook on things. Sure, everyone wants
to have First World aspirations, but it’s hard to tie that to the reality that
we currently find ourselves in.
- We want free maternity and obstetric care for our fledgling
mothers, but don’t bother to get rid of polygamy or reduce the markedly
high average birth rate (5 kids per family). We don’t even add to the the
number of professionals or health facilities, stretched as they already are,
that are meant to deal with the sudden influx of new patients
- We want to give our children laptops to aid with their learning,
without appreciating that a lot of children are actually learning in
schools that have no walls to speak of (in extreme cases, under trees).
- We award our Members of Parliament First World salaries in a
country with a meager Third World GDP, whilst refusing to effect pay rises
for essential staff like Doctors, Nurses, Police, Teachers, Pilots,
Firemen, etc.
I can’t think of a
time when we needed to focus more on Appropriate Technology than at this
current juncture. As I stood there amongst the iHub attendees, I couldn’t help
but think that two of Kenya’s biggest problems were a mere kilometers from
where we were sited: KIBERA (a slum
of high regard with poverty tourism buffs) and the Nairobi River (& Dam), a vastly polluted water catchment,
which was initially meant to provide a water solution for Nairobians. Like it
or not, issues of pollution and public health are ubiquitous and not things we
can escape: sure, I can hide myself from the computer revolution as much as I
choose to, but there’s no place I can run to escape the ravages of what someone
else inadvertently puts out into our common environment, whether I end up
inhaling, drinking or encountering it in some other way. For me, that’s where
we need to invest most of our efforts.
And it’s not like
there isn’t profit in any of these ventures either. I’m reminded of the example
of Sweden, which, being so efficient at recycling its trash and burning up
remnants for energy co-generation, has now run out of trash and has to ship
some in from a neighbouring country. Germany, a country smaller than my own,
which makes use of so much solar energy to offset its other energy sources
(wintry weather not withstanding), yet, Kenya, bathed in most of its areas by a
scorching sun has barely gotten off the ground with solar energy. This very
same Kenya that is contemplating a future with Nuclear Energy when it has
barely even exploited its vast Geothermal capabilities.
I was happy to see
some attempts at Appropriate Tech in terms of a ‘Seawater Greenhouse’ type
project, and Geographical Information Systems (GIS), which should have been
bigger in Kenya than it currently is. Last, but not least, as a bit of a last
minute entry I intended to give a talk on my ‘Hyacinth Economy’ hypothesis, but
time run out on that one. In any case, I feel that in the next few days I’ll be
getting the chance to present it to an academic board of sorts so that I might
get some form of R&D assistance. I don’t know what’s in store, but I’m
really looking forward to it.
Hope all things go
well.
God Bless
