Arthur Golden said, “Adversity is like a strong wind. It
tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see
ourselves as we really are”.
After the Second World War Japan’s prestige was in shambles,
all its cities bore severe marks of war. Nagasaki and Hiroshima were utterly devastated.
More than 3 million people had died, and a further 10 million faced eminent
death by starvation.
But the Japanese, a
resilient, focused and hardworking people enameled by the Samurai honor code
where the ultimate price was offering ones life in Harikiri (ritual suicide by
disembowelment) stood firm.
The Korean War of 1950 -1953 was considered a ‘gift from the
gods’ by the Japanese and allowed them to implement a well-coordinated plan of
industrialization. By the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, the world was sufficiently
shocked by the level of development that Japan had just gone through in less
than 20 years.
Another nation that sent its delegation to the Olympics was
South Korea. At that point in time South Korea was poorer than Kenya. See pictures.
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| Poverty in South Korea |
But what they had was a visionary dictator in Park
Chung-Hee, a man who would orchestrate the “miracle on the Han River”, and in
20 years transform South Korea into an economic powerhouse.
The trauma that the Japanese and South Koreans had to go
through experiencing war first hand, losing loved ones, homelessness,
starvation and disease were enough to equip them with a desire to become
better, they had sufficiently hit rock bottom.
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| Hiroshima after the bombing 1946 |
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| American soldiers in Japan |
In contrast Kenyans have known peace all their lives,
despite most of our neighbors being at war at one point or another and losing
civilian and military lives, Kenya has been a bedrock of peace and tranquility
since independence.
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| Kenyan Matatu Madness |
Then again war cannot be the primary source of adversity
that drives a population towards industrialization and development. The
contrary is evident across Africa. There has to be something more rooted in the
psyche of a people.
The Japanese come from a stock of people, who believe that
they are the best in all they set to do and history has proved them right
countlessly.
Read piece mentioning them.
The Samurai honor code cascades across society to a point that
when they went into ship-building to rebuild their economy in the 1950s and
were pitted against the world’s best, a project manager was willing to commit
Harikiri (suicide) if the project failed. Due to this seriousness, every person in the project was
intimately involved and driven to ensure that they were successful.
Further more the Japanese were trained and educated to be
highly coordinated, disciplined and loyal. They glorified the group more than
the individual.
They were taught that they needed to be frugal with what
they had because they were no longer an empire with abundant colonies to mine resources. They had to innovate on their feet.
Kenyans have lived in relative tranquility under the
equatorial sun. Our first two presidents were not pressured by any personal
proclivity to jolt the nation out of a long siesta. When sense of direction and visionary
leadership was lacking Kenyans who innately crave for these two things looked for
inspiration and affirmation from the only ‘parents’ we knew, our colonial
masters and the western world.
Kenyans like their leaders became individualistic, driven
to achieve personal goals, and aspirations, in a jungle of other like-minded
people. Group speak was subconsciously shunned and looked upon as a weakness. It
did not help that Ujamaa and communism failed.
Kenyans want to compete and be wildly successful; to the
detriment of all and sundry. Common good
is only touted and supported when there is short-term personal gain to be
obtained. While this is the truth it
doesn't apply to all situations.
Kenyans are non-confrontational as a people. Lessons
inculcated by the ‘Moi era’ where there was an all-seeing, all-knowing
intelligence apparatus functioning. This is why today we experiment with the
‘anonymity’ of social media to voice our previously unsolicited and well-guarded
thoughts.
Used to this docile nature Kenyans corporately will wait
until they are on the precipice of death before they clean a septic festering
wound. This is why bad governance, is only talked about openly but no
counter-action is taken. Unavoidably, due to this peaceable attitude Kenya has witnessed
‘atrocities’ done to its resources and people by the political
class, Kenyans themselves and terrorists, because “Kenyans are sufferable”. It
does not help that Kenyans have a pandemic ability to forget past injustices and
forge ahead undeterred. To counter this peaceable and docile nature Kenyans' coping mechanism is a self-preserving culture of short-term focus, greed and corruption, ready to
make a quick buck from every ‘investment’ idea, presented at their doorsteps.
It is thus not disputable to state that Kenyans are willing
to sell their birthright that will transform their future for immediate
gratification.
How else will you explain the current slaughter of elephants
and rhinos for ivory or the high road carnage across the country?
While the truth is corruption is not unique to Kenya, we can
only be blamed if we don't realize that it is disastrous and unacceptable for
us to dabble in it.
Kenyans are enterprising and hardworking, one of the best crop
of people to hire in any institution around the world. Despite that there is
an edge that can be learned from our Asian brothers who have experienced
adversity and succeeded.They understood that for a country to advance, government
and business had a responsibility to fulfill; while government offered a
conducive environment for rapid growth, the Zaibatsu (Japan’s conglomerates) and
Chaebol (South Korea’s conglomerates) were expected to provide jobs to the locals
and embrace the government agenda of industrialization as a strategic
objective. Protectionism should not be
equated with isolation, offered innovatively it can push the economy of Kenya
to greater heights
Kenyans also need to be weaned from their pessimistic
nature, which casts doom and gloom in every action taken by a person.
Politicians, socialites and individuals have suffered disdain and disrespect
when they are perceived to be different or controversial. Persons in authority
are expected to bring about change and make no mistakes, when they do make
mistakes which everyone does eventually, people are not so forgiving and will deride
them as incompetent and unworthy even before the ink settles on their appointment
letters.
Despite the clamor for change, Kenyans are petrified of
change, they say they want a corruption free country, yet they give bribes,
they say they want good leadership, but still vote along tribal lines. ‘Better
the devil you know than the angel you don’t know’ is a common statement that
comes to mind. They say they want a government that is lean, but don’t support
retrenchment. And the contradiction goes on an on. Politicians understand this
double speech and exploit it with relish.
We talk of the ‘Kenyan tribe’ as a concept worth uplifting
and then deride it as unattainable and unrealistic. We speak against tribalism
and its ills eloquently in public, but privately our prejudices can be seen in
our speech and actions.
Unfortunately, to cap it all, Kenyans don’t read, research
or strive to innovate away from what others have already done. This is why
quail eggs, Ponzi schemes, ‘cheap’ plots and other ideas do their rounds in the
country for an extended duration of time before they become unacceptable.
Kenyans rather prefer to read and digest political commentary and
gossip day-in-day out. And the evidence is in the kind of news available at
prime time, or the gossip websites which have the most traffic, so too the plethora
of soap operas on TV. We are predisposed to think we know-it-all, and talk like
we know-it-all despite the fact that we have little substance or understanding
on most of what is happening around the world. We are broad on information, but
thin on depth. This is why we complain insistently about problems but offer no
solutions.
Few Kenyans really do world-class research, or invest to
innovate we prefer to copy, let others do all the hard work, then jump in and
ride the wave. A result of this is that we don’t place too much emphasis on
quality that is why the service we get from both government and private
entities is hogwash. Is it not true we
buy second hand cars and call them new? But then again have we collectively witnessed
what world-class quality is to demand for it?
The mental block that Kenyans have developed over time is
the only stumbling block to any real achievement.
Having said all this, Kenya still has a bright future, but
we need a common enemy that can rally the population into one solitary unit.
Either manufactured or natural, I believe a concerted effort needs to come into
play that will inspire Kenyans to be proud of who they are, and for them to
know that they can achieve the impossible and be the best in the different
sectors of our economy.
I am afraid that assertion can never be achieved on the
whims of the masses; they are just too hungry, too unemployed and disillusioned
to see past tomorrow for now.
What we need is a visionary, no-nonsense leader, who has the
best intentions for Kenya. Who will rally Kenya to become industrialized, will
utterly frown upon corruption and who has both the political and personal
temerity to herd Kenyans where they need to be, forcefully or subtly, but
resolutely. So that in good time all will see the light and embrace it.
NB: Let me know what you think.....
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