On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 9:36 PM, Joshua Gichuhi Kinuthia < joshuagichuhi@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Skunkers,

I honestly have no words... how can we be ranked alongside Iraq, Afghanistan and China??

http://www.cio.com/article/523463/Worst_Cities_to_Work_in_IT_International_E...

Regards, Joshua Kinuthia -- Self-reflection is the school of wisdom

ok, my amatuer thots added here, few due to lack of time.... I'm going to remind such people they should not forget that before WW2 eg the UK had cardboard places, lack of enough housing in main cities and many people stayed in cramped conditions, lack of basic amenities while at the beginning of the last century ( not that long ago, considering time and development ) NY had its own share of street chidlren, immigrants issues and housing while the " great " depression was dawning. Not to forget that some of the key scientific achievements were taken out of europe and developed into other things under immigrant rules.... Ireland was a typical example. (a little history helps.)

Agreed we have our fair share of issues as other developing nations while we really do not have diamonds, copper nor rare metals to build economies thus it is vital that our scope for export will come in talents. While political situations do not really help those lower than in govt positions and while those that have access to top layers continue wheeling dealing to die filthy rich and not re-invest in the country, we have something in ICT that would be difficult to describe in a few words : Drive to excel and achieve. So these guys need to watch, another few years ( with the right roots taking place now eg iHUB and Malili ) kenyans will be inviting them to invest into local generated ideas and bridge that gap. If anyone has no idea about the impact of eg iHUB to what it means, then unfortunately they are looking backwards. Erik and the others involved in the project have done something that even the govt and other bodies are still dreaming about or can just rant about. What developers make of its success is vital to others who will follow in the process. The ball is about to start rolling and time to start reversing the typical image that goes with it. There was a time Poland, Romania had a typical image i.e a donkey pulling a cart with old people on it and these images played out a lot in the world. Well, a lot has changed. And until the developed world continue dealing with political elite in developing countries and playing big brother of favours in return for contracts and business and the rest while allowing banking facilites for looted economies, we can expect nothing much to change except special efforts based on individuals. The rest, well we will still have Kibera, Kawangware and the rest for another 50 years. Is that going to stop innovation in the ICT sector ? I dont think so, we have to make do with what we have and build from there. sorry to drift away from tech...incase have stepped on any toes, I do apologize. :-) Over and out for now. Rgds.