Re: [kictanet] Interesting Piece ...
Friends Here are my off the cuff remarks on the provocative piece. My suggestion: let's not be too defensive; truth can be bitter. On innovation: take the example of the automobile and semiconductor industries. A lot of countries started with fabricating parts; soon they did sub-assemblies as their precision engineering developed and soon they were making whole cars/computers/etc/. The Nyayo Car project was on the right cause if only it has realized capacity in the fabrication of parts and needed engineering and manufacturing processes. I recently saw news of a mechanic that used to service shock absorbers but now fabricates them; and people find these last longer that original ones not suited to our rough roads! He is on the right path and should, in fact, be encouraged with incentives and (possibly) injection of capital. In the west, investors would be hovering around to offer the person either a buyout or equity investment in order to expand the business which has huge regional potential as few people are in the business. Where is old money when it is needed here?? Regards. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com Agano Consulting Inc.; www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda; Skype: okiambe ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Be prepared to face ICT Security failures & know how to respond when they happen! Call: +1-888-587-1150 or info@aganoconsulting.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk I have a workstation…" - Anonymous ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail, including attachments, may be privileged and may contain confidential or proprietary information intended only for the addressee(s). Any other distribution, copying, use, or disclosure is unauthorized and strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and permanently delete the message, including any attachments, without making a copy. Thank you.
@Daniel, I went to www.kenyaimagine.com after seeing the link under your email signature and happened across this article, which I feel broadly underscores what we are trying to discuss here....it might be in the periphery but helps lead to the core: http://www.kenyaimagine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3189&catid=278:environmental-issues&Itemid=235 If I may lift an excerpt: "In The Happiness Hypothesis , psychology professor Jonathan Haidt compares human brain/behavior to a man riding an elephant. There exists a complex choreography between our newer rational cortex (the 'man'), and our older, more primitive brain structures (the 'elephant'). His point was that our brains can accomplish amazing things when we mesh our analytical abilities with our baser emotions and impulses, but that quite often the 'elephant' (our limbic and reptilian cores) unwittingly assert their dominance, and in the process override any rational, reasoned intentions. In aggregate we are a society that has become both habituated to and confused by 'more facts'. " and the closing part: "I would guess 30-40% of our population is cognizant that something is wrong with our current path. They don't need to know the details of net energy decline. They don't need to understand dispersive discovery or decline rates to know we are dependent on fossil fuels. They don't need to have read Murray Rothbard or Frederick Soddy to understand we can't print our way out of a physical bind. However, I suspect that though my Aunt knows <5% of what the average people on TOD do, it is people like her, one day, perhaps soon, that are going to force change. They will do it not out of some epiphany of of multidisciplinary understanding but rather out of outrage. " For the first excerpt, I'd like to think that in Africa we are more in touch with our primal selves - I am not saying that in a negative way but broadly meaning we are largely not westernised and sullied by western culture. However, we can still adopt what works in order to adapt it to our realities. But we must also hold the "elephant" in check - let it be both wild and tame - if that makes sense. For second excerpt - while the "intellectuals" out there may give reasons why x cannot be done, and make our aspirations collapse under a pile of facts, theories, isms and statistics (and eventually cause us to think little of ourselves and therefore become inferior), I think if we allow ourselves to return to a somewhat primal state (as alluded above re: the elephant) we can rise to whatever challenge there is. I know it calls for a little social re-engineering (esp when we read statements like "we can't", "we have never been know to", "its beyond our ability to..", etc). I should point out that I am not in any way deriding true intellectuals or ridiculing anyone. Verily there are those on this list with very good visions of where Kenya can go (and are already putting us firmly on that path despite so many side shows and nay sayers). But the word needs to get out there among the population. Good site BTW - I esp like the book reviews... F On 25 January 2012 23:43, Matunda Nyanchama <mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com> wrote:
Friends
Here are my off the cuff remarks on the provocative piece.
My suggestion: let's not be too defensive; truth can be bitter.
On innovation: take the example of the automobile and semiconductor industries. A lot of countries started with fabricating parts; soon they did sub-assemblies as their precision engineering developed and soon they were making whole cars/computers/etc/. The Nyayo Car project was on the right cause if only it has realized capacity in the fabrication of parts and needed engineering and manufacturing processes.
I recently saw news of a mechanic that used to service shock absorbers but now fabricates them; and people find these last longer that original ones not suited to our rough roads! He is on the right path and should, in fact, be encouraged with incentives and (possibly) injection of capital.
In the west, investors would be hovering around to offer the person either a buyout or equity investment in order to expand the business which has huge regional potential as few people are in the business. Where is old money when it is needed here?? Regards. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com Agano Consulting Inc.; www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda; Skype: okiambe ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Be prepared to face ICT Security failures & know how to respond when they happen! Call: +1-888-587-1150 or info@aganoconsulting.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk I have a workstation…" - Anonymous ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail, including attachments, may be privileged and may contain confidential or proprietary information intended only for the addressee(s). Any other distribution, copying, use, or disclosure is unauthorized and strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and permanently delete the message, including any attachments, without making a copy. Thank you.
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-- Francis Hook +254 733 504561
Asante sana. It's good to hear you like KI. And that really was an excellent piece, even though I say so myself. (I'm a cognitivist<http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/research/emotion/cemhp/documents/dalgleish_bramham.pdf>about emotions---so I'm not sure I can follow the author all the way, but it's a v. good piece). We also published another piece<http://www.kenyaimagine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2799&catid=269:review&Itemid=227>, from Binyavanga Wainaina in 2009, which spoke to something very similar. This time, it was the centrality of vocation. See what you think. Daniel Waweru www.kenyaimagine.com Art and analysis; debate and opinion. On 26 January 2012 05:45, Francis Hook <francis.hook@gmail.com> wrote:
@Daniel, I went to www.kenyaimagine.com after seeing the link under your email signature and happened across this article, which I feel broadly underscores what we are trying to discuss here....it might be in the periphery but helps lead to the core:
If I may lift an excerpt:
"In The Happiness Hypothesis , psychology professor Jonathan Haidt compares human brain/behavior to a man riding an elephant. There exists a complex choreography between our newer rational cortex (the 'man'), and our older, more primitive brain structures (the 'elephant').
His point was that our brains can accomplish amazing things when we mesh our analytical abilities with our baser emotions and impulses, but that quite often the 'elephant' (our limbic and reptilian cores) unwittingly assert their dominance, and in the process override any rational, reasoned intentions. In aggregate we are a society that has become both habituated to and confused by 'more facts'. "
and the closing part:
"I would guess 30-40% of our population is cognizant that something is wrong with our current path. They don't need to know the details of net energy decline. They don't need to understand dispersive discovery or decline rates to know we are dependent on fossil fuels. They don't need to have read Murray Rothbard or Frederick Soddy to understand we can't print our way out of a physical bind. However, I suspect that though my Aunt knows <5% of what the average people on TOD do, it is people like her, one day, perhaps soon, that are going to force change. They will do it not out of some epiphany of of multidisciplinary understanding but rather out of outrage. "
For the first excerpt, I'd like to think that in Africa we are more in touch with our primal selves - I am not saying that in a negative way but broadly meaning we are largely not westernised and sullied by western culture. However, we can still adopt what works in order to adapt it to our realities. But we must also hold the "elephant" in check - let it be both wild and tame - if that makes sense.
For second excerpt - while the "intellectuals" out there may give reasons why x cannot be done, and make our aspirations collapse under a pile of facts, theories, isms and statistics (and eventually cause us to think little of ourselves and therefore become inferior), I think if we allow ourselves to return to a somewhat primal state (as alluded above re: the elephant) we can rise to whatever challenge there is. I know it calls for a little social re-engineering (esp when we read statements like "we can't", "we have never been know to", "its beyond our ability to..", etc).
I should point out that I am not in any way deriding true intellectuals or ridiculing anyone. Verily there are those on this list with very good visions of where Kenya can go (and are already putting us firmly on that path despite so many side shows and nay sayers). But the word needs to get out there among the population.
Good site BTW - I esp like the book reviews...
F
On 25 January 2012 23:43, Matunda Nyanchama <mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com> wrote:
Friends
Here are my off the cuff remarks on the provocative piece.
My suggestion: let's not be too defensive; truth can be bitter.
On innovation: take the example of the automobile and semiconductor industries. A lot of countries started with fabricating parts; soon they did sub-assemblies as their precision engineering developed and soon they were making whole cars/computers/etc/. The Nyayo Car project was on the right cause if only it has realized capacity in the fabrication of parts and needed engineering and manufacturing processes.
I recently saw news of a mechanic that used to service shock absorbers but now fabricates them; and people find these last longer that original ones not suited to our rough roads! He is on the right path and should, in fact, be encouraged with incentives and (possibly) injection of capital.
In the west, investors would be hovering around to offer the person either a buyout or equity investment in order to expand the business which has huge regional potential as few people are in the business. Where is old money when it is needed here?? Regards.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com Agano Consulting Inc.; www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda; Skype: okiambe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Be prepared to face ICT Security failures & know how to respond when they happen! Call: +1-888-587-1150 or info@aganoconsulting.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train
stops.
On my desk I have a workstation…" - Anonymous
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail, including attachments, may be privileged and may contain confidential or proprietary information intended only for the addressee(s). Any other distribution, copying, use, or disclosure is unauthorized and strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and permanently delete the message, including any attachments, without making a copy. Thank you.
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people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
-- Francis Hook +254 733 504561
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
I disagree with the notion that market forces should be relied on for delivery of goods and services whether social like healthcare and education or commercial like stone crushers and milling machines. Every 'developed' country's government gave massive support to its industries and greatly assisted be it policy wise, seed capital or actively looking for markets for the products. The industries in Manchester and Birmingham in the UK nearly collapsed the Indian textile cottage industry all because of the colonial push. This had to be stopped and the same goes for china and Japan. They closed their economies ,copied western tech, perfected it and now are leading technologists. China with its billions feeds itself and only imports aw materials not finished goods. The industrial might just like in Japan is government backed. The US spends trillions on its military and I bet most of the cash goes to R&D run by private American companies. Letting the government off the hook is a bad move if there ever was one. On 1/27/12, Daniel Waweru <daniel.waweru@gmail.com> wrote:
Asante sana. It's good to hear you like KI. And that really was an excellent piece, even though I say so myself. (I'm a cognitivist<http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/research/emotion/cemhp/documents/dalgleish_bramham.pdf>about emotions---so I'm not sure I can follow the author all the way, but it's a v. good piece).
We also published another piece<http://www.kenyaimagine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2799&catid=269:review&Itemid=227>, from Binyavanga Wainaina in 2009, which spoke to something very similar. This time, it was the centrality of vocation. See what you think.
Daniel Waweru www.kenyaimagine.com Art and analysis; debate and opinion.
On 26 January 2012 05:45, Francis Hook <francis.hook@gmail.com> wrote:
@Daniel, I went to www.kenyaimagine.com after seeing the link under your email signature and happened across this article, which I feel broadly underscores what we are trying to discuss here....it might be in the periphery but helps lead to the core:
If I may lift an excerpt:
"In The Happiness Hypothesis , psychology professor Jonathan Haidt compares human brain/behavior to a man riding an elephant. There exists a complex choreography between our newer rational cortex (the 'man'), and our older, more primitive brain structures (the 'elephant').
His point was that our brains can accomplish amazing things when we mesh our analytical abilities with our baser emotions and impulses, but that quite often the 'elephant' (our limbic and reptilian cores) unwittingly assert their dominance, and in the process override any rational, reasoned intentions. In aggregate we are a society that has become both habituated to and confused by 'more facts'. "
and the closing part:
"I would guess 30-40% of our population is cognizant that something is wrong with our current path. They don't need to know the details of net energy decline. They don't need to understand dispersive discovery or decline rates to know we are dependent on fossil fuels. They don't need to have read Murray Rothbard or Frederick Soddy to understand we can't print our way out of a physical bind. However, I suspect that though my Aunt knows <5% of what the average people on TOD do, it is people like her, one day, perhaps soon, that are going to force change. They will do it not out of some epiphany of of multidisciplinary understanding but rather out of outrage. "
For the first excerpt, I'd like to think that in Africa we are more in touch with our primal selves - I am not saying that in a negative way but broadly meaning we are largely not westernised and sullied by western culture. However, we can still adopt what works in order to adapt it to our realities. But we must also hold the "elephant" in check - let it be both wild and tame - if that makes sense.
For second excerpt - while the "intellectuals" out there may give reasons why x cannot be done, and make our aspirations collapse under a pile of facts, theories, isms and statistics (and eventually cause us to think little of ourselves and therefore become inferior), I think if we allow ourselves to return to a somewhat primal state (as alluded above re: the elephant) we can rise to whatever challenge there is. I know it calls for a little social re-engineering (esp when we read statements like "we can't", "we have never been know to", "its beyond our ability to..", etc).
I should point out that I am not in any way deriding true intellectuals or ridiculing anyone. Verily there are those on this list with very good visions of where Kenya can go (and are already putting us firmly on that path despite so many side shows and nay sayers). But the word needs to get out there among the population.
Good site BTW - I esp like the book reviews...
F
On 25 January 2012 23:43, Matunda Nyanchama <mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com> wrote:
Friends
Here are my off the cuff remarks on the provocative piece.
My suggestion: let's not be too defensive; truth can be bitter.
On innovation: take the example of the automobile and semiconductor industries. A lot of countries started with fabricating parts; soon they did sub-assemblies as their precision engineering developed and soon they were making whole cars/computers/etc/. The Nyayo Car project was on the right cause if only it has realized capacity in the fabrication of parts and needed engineering and manufacturing processes.
I recently saw news of a mechanic that used to service shock absorbers but now fabricates them; and people find these last longer that original ones not suited to our rough roads! He is on the right path and should, in fact, be encouraged with incentives and (possibly) injection of capital.
In the west, investors would be hovering around to offer the person either a buyout or equity investment in order to expand the business which has huge regional potential as few people are in the business. Where is old money when it is needed here?? Regards.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com Agano Consulting Inc.; www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda; Skype: okiambe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Be prepared to face ICT Security failures & know how to respond when they happen! Call: +1-888-587-1150 or info@aganoconsulting.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train
stops.
On my desk I have a workstation…" - Anonymous
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail, including attachments, may be privileged and may contain confidential or proprietary information intended only for the addressee(s). Any other distribution, copying, use, or disclosure is unauthorized and strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and permanently delete the message, including any attachments, without making a copy. Thank you.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
for
people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
-- Francis Hook +254 733 504561
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/daniel.waweru%40gmail.c...
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
-- Regards, Mark Mwangi markmwangi.me.ke
participants (4)
-
Daniel Waweru -
Francis Hook -
Mark Mwangi -
Matunda Nyanchama