Anatuletea mahidi? Kama haji na mahidi akwende uko!!

[quote=timska]Germany Prime Minister Angela Merkel's visit to 3 African countries where she will spend less than 20 hours per country -- shows that Africa isn't really important to the German government. It is an obligatory tour and nothing more. A little bit of symbolism to mark Germany's six-month presidency of the UN Security Council. Merkel's lack of interest in Africa isn't just personal -- it is shared by the country's entire political class and its business leaders.
It was different during the Cold War, when Africa was the scene of proxy wars. In those days, both West and East Germany were more heavily involved in the continent. But since then, Africa has deteriorated in the eyes of Germany to a region of crisis, disease and conflict which harbors many risks and few opportunities. German politicians have little to gain by raising issues pertaining to Africa. In parliament, Africa experts are quickly relegated to the back benches of foreign policymaking, unlike people with special knowledge of the US, Russia or China.
http://www.spiegel.de/in...d/0,1518,773690,00.html[/quote]

Pigs should remain in their countries of origin. Otherwise, the only sure thing they can bring is swine flu. Merkel, of what interest is Kenya to you. Keep off.

@Insurgent, anyone you do not like is a pig, yet you support the actions of confirmed idiots like Osama? Nktest

I bet the tongues of our govt officials are already out dripping with rivers of saliva at the prospect of laying their dirty hands on these funds ala FPE funds.

We really don't need aid, it creates dependency!
We can meet our national budget from domestic resources if we tax Mpigs and bring all other eligible kenyans under teh tax net!!!

All these yrs of aid and we still have deep poverty in our midst...did anyone watch KTN jana where homeless folks have to pay 30/= daily to get a place to sleep? An equivalent to western-style shelters. And there were 200 folks!
And these are the lucky ones...

It's not always what competing interests "want" directly, but also what they want to keep us out of. Say Kenya decides (in all seriousness... it's just an example... bear with me now) to start the Nyayo factories back up, and some engineers from the diaspora and local engineers team up with a crew of jua kali mechanics and start building power switching equipment and transformers. This would create direct competition for Siemens. Now, we can't have that, now can we? They are pretty much guaranteed to be mired in mountains of paperwork, bureaucracy, financing, and infrastructure issues AT HOME, in order to prevent a foreign company from loosing market share. In order words, it won't happen, and if it does, there will be some sort of political pressure, a la Mwau.

In addition, with all that geothermal going in, who will provide the turbines and power-switching equipment?

This is how politics REALLY works in the real world, not the circus we see from certain characters. Any first-world government will spend any amount of money to keep exports high and job creation ongoing, even if it costs more upfront to do this, because A) it' a long term investment, and B) it's the people's money- the tax base, fueling corporate profits, so it's a nice transfer to the wealthy.

We have to make the decision to control our own destinies, and realize that with a well-coordinated effort, we can make MORE money than the handouts by building our own industries. The issue is self-doubt. We doubt and laugh at ourselves when I even mention the Nyayo Manufacturing Complex. But this is 2011, and it can be done.

Like a teenager just turning 18, yes it's comfortable digging through mom and dad's fridge and living in the extra DSQ, but, we have to go out on our own. It will be tough at first, but all the better for us later.

Best,

Hill