"DEVELOPMENT"

Dear ICT consumer,

Once again I must apologize for my absence in the blogging world. My reasons are honest; had to study as I had exams! Cliché right? Either way, it is true! This concludes my apology. Thank you.

As I studied for my exams, questions twirled in my mind. These are the questions that many students ask themselves, desperately searching for the answers. Why do learn things we won't “need” in the future? Why do lecturers “torture” us with exams? Will I ever find a job in this developing country?

The last question really had me thinking. In my country, the unemployment rate is at a staggering 40% The average Kenyan lives under a dollar a day. Most of the population fall under the umbrella of sub-standards of living. However, does that mean we give up? NO!

The world has derived terms that disintegrates the society rather than uniting us. One such term is development. Who defies the term development? According to whose “desirable” standards did this phenomenon come from? Is it limited only to a large scale?

As a result, many countries strive to be recognized as developed nations; Kenya included. Despite various setbacks in our aim for “development”, we shouldn't give up. Let us not develop so as to fit in with the society, but develop at our own pace for the betterment of our nation. As much as we are seen to be staying stagnant in terms development, through my eyes development has already occurred. Development is seen in the free public primary school education benefiting thousands of children, almost 17 million phone users embracing technology, a peaceful referendum voting process proving the world Kenya is peaceful, embracing a new Constitution after the struggles of the past 20 years, Increasing revenue brought in by tourism and even an improve in infrastructure.

Yes, there have been struggles and hiccups, but these are unavoidable circumstances. True character is derived from how these struggles are overcome. I do not necessarily back all the methods of overcoming the issues of development in our country, but I believe that is being done in good faith.

In our quest for “development”, we should use the “developed” countries as our case studies. Borrowing certain aspects from different nations builds a nation exhibiting open- mindness and one that embraces diversity. We can borrow the idea of flexi-time working hours from the US, part time jobs from Canada, improved pension schemes from UK, better road networks from China, online jobs from Australia among many ideas. However, let us not let foreign ideas dull our sense of innovation or our close ties to culture, but rather augment our already intact systems of status-quo.