OT : back from a trip and disappointed
I'm sharing my opinion on tech sector, so any bashing welcome. :-) I spent sometime in joburg. it was one city I wanted to know more about, and I did. arrived back and disappointed with our progress in tech sector. Eg, I could buy an HDMI cable in a smaller but well laid out city called bloomfontein than I can in nairobi. Policy makers and planners travel all the time to conferences etc. have they ever questioned themselves on how things should be? An eg : BMW have an assembly plant in SA, while we have a GM plant that mostly deals with buses! Our tech sector is more like a inward internal operation than a global one. My impression is that of disappointment, our tech sector is very weak and has a bleak outlook besides things like micro solutions and short term stay alive injections of many solutions. We are missing a very vital link to the rest of the world. Something is wrong with our approach, method of doing things and a large portion of something holding us back. Or whatever serious proposals are most likely collecting dust. This is a disturbing trend. We are trying to become a global player. Someone please tell me how we are achieving this? A simple techie view....
Rome was not built in a day...so goes the famous say, I would counter with the following facts besides Joburg, Cairo, Khartoum, Djibourti...(add any city better than nairobi), Nairobi is actually having far much more better infrastructure than all the other cities in Africa not counted. If I look back 3-5 years ago, what we had as infrastructure compared to now so much has changed. I have all the reasons to believe that we will get there, though I share in your disappointement cause we started late. We have in the past been dragged by bad governance and serious corruption. A food for thought... The cost of calling using a mobile phone in Kenya is far much more cheaper than in the US. AT&T will charge you for receiving calls and your sim expires within 30 days if you dont reload on prepaid network... Regards, Paul. On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 8:50 PM, aki <aki275@googlemail.com> wrote:
I'm sharing my opinion on tech sector, so any bashing welcome. :-)
I spent sometime in joburg. it was one city I wanted to know more about, and I did. arrived back and disappointed with our progress in tech sector. Eg, I could buy an HDMI cable in a smaller but well laid out city called bloomfontein than I can in nairobi. Policy makers and planners travel all the time to conferences etc. have they ever questioned themselves on how things should be? An eg : BMW have an assembly plant in SA, while we have a GM plant that mostly deals with buses!
Our tech sector is more like a inward internal operation than a global one. My impression is that of disappointment, our tech sector is very weak and has a bleak outlook besides things like micro solutions and short term stay alive injections of many solutions. We are missing a very vital link to the rest of the world. Something is wrong with our approach, method of doing things and a large portion of something holding us back. Or whatever serious proposals are most likely collecting dust. This is a disturbing trend.
We are trying to become a global player. Someone please tell me how we are achieving this?
A simple techie view....
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-- "Change is slow and gradual. It requires hardwork, a bit of luck, a fair amount of self-sacrifice and a lot of patience." Roy.
Well, methinks we are getting there soon. The problem lies on how quick we want technology to drive our lives or the trouble of adapting tech at the expense of traditional conventionals. Maybe we need to shift our focus on creating an enabling environment for technological advancement. On 23/06/2009, Paul Roy <roykoikai@gmail.com> wrote:
Rome was not built in a day...so goes the famous say, I would counter with the following facts besides Joburg, Cairo, Khartoum, Djibourti...(add any city better than nairobi), Nairobi is actually having far much more better infrastructure than all the other cities in Africa not counted. If I look back 3-5 years ago, what we had as infrastructure compared to now so much has changed.
I have all the reasons to believe that we will get there, though I share in your disappointement cause we started late. We have in the past been dragged by bad governance and serious corruption.
A food for thought... The cost of calling using a mobile phone in Kenya is far much more cheaper than in the US. AT&T will charge you for receiving calls and your sim expires within 30 days if you dont reload on prepaid network...
Regards, Paul.
On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 8:50 PM, aki <aki275@googlemail.com> wrote:
I'm sharing my opinion on tech sector, so any bashing welcome. :-)
I spent sometime in joburg. it was one city I wanted to know more about, and I did. arrived back and disappointed with our progress in tech sector. Eg, I could buy an HDMI cable in a smaller but well laid out city called bloomfontein than I can in nairobi. Policy makers and planners travel all the time to conferences etc. have they ever questioned themselves on how things should be? An eg : BMW have an assembly plant in SA, while we have a GM plant that mostly deals with buses!
Our tech sector is more like a inward internal operation than a global one. My impression is that of disappointment, our tech sector is very weak and has a bleak outlook besides things like micro solutions and short term stay alive injections of many solutions. We are missing a very vital link to the rest of the world. Something is wrong with our approach, method of doing things and a large portion of something holding us back. Or whatever serious proposals are most likely collecting dust. This is a disturbing trend.
We are trying to become a global player. Someone please tell me how we are achieving this?
A simple techie view....
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks Other services @ http://my.co.ke Other lists ------------- Skunkworks announce: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce Science - http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science kazi - http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general
-- "Change is slow and gradual. It requires hardwork, a bit of luck, a fair amount of self-sacrifice and a lot of patience."
Roy.
-- Solomon Mburu P.O. Box 19343 - 00202 Nairobi Cell: (+254-0) 735 431041 Man is a gregarious animal and enjoys agreement as cows will graze all the same way to the side of a hill! AND It is better to die in dignity than in the ignomity of ambiguous generosity!
I think an example should have been the Govt in its budget would remove VAT on all internet services. This would include any type of service provided on this infrastructure. Then there should have also been an emphasis on community and closed networks and tax breaks on products that fall into this category. Finally all solutions offered under the internet scheme should also have no vat applicable. my theoretical solution lies here : Let Kenya be the first TAX FREE ICT sector. This includes no VAT on shipping and other charges.
Aki, i appreciate your comments however we must appreciate where we have come from and where we are heading, there are great men and women on this list doing great work as far as propelling ICT in this country is concerned despite challenges in the legal and regulatory framework to name a few, i will start with PS Ndemo, Alex Gakuru who is on this list Vincent Ngundi at Kenic, Dorcas Muthoni, John Walubengo, Evans Ikua as well as the convenors of Skunworks Phares, Josiah and the rest of the guys. I suggest that you put your ideas on paper and share with any of this guys, or groupings, something will definately happen, on VAT and internet i know there are many factors that determine the budget, maybe you could touch base with GITS Regards On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 10:26 PM, aki <aki275@googlemail.com> wrote:
I think an example should have been the Govt in its budget would remove VAT on all internet services. This would include any type of service provided on this infrastructure. Then there should have also been an emphasis on community and closed networks and tax breaks on products that fall into this category. Finally all solutions offered under the internet scheme should also have no vat applicable.
my theoretical solution lies here : Let Kenya be the first TAX FREE ICT sector. This includes no VAT on shipping and other charges.
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-- Barrack O. Otieno ISSEN CONSULTING Tel: +254721325277 +254733206359 http://projectdiscovery.or.ke To give up the task of reforming society is to give up ones responsibility as a free man. Alan Paton, South Africa
participants (4)
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aki -
Barrack Otieno -
Paul Roy -
Solomon Mburu