a friend of mine thinks he has no business being in africa. his goal in
life is to make it to america and never come back. if all goes as planned, his
son will be the next obama (though not as smart…trust me)
this is commonly referred to as brain drain.....but for brain drain to
occur there has to be a brain involved. am not saying my friend is stupid, but
let's examine the facts
who in their right mind would
go outside africa to look for money?
if you are to look at the list of africa’s wealthiest people, six of the
top ten are self-made and none of those six amassed his wealth through being
under-employed in a foreign land i.e. “doing kyeyo“ if you prefer to put it so glamorously
even when you narrow it down to uganda, bad black aside, the same thing
applies: sudhir ruparelia left uk in 1986 without a million to his name but amassed
all his wealth in uganda. geoffrey kirumira can't even spell the word kyeyo
(yeah I know it’s a luganda word). patrick bitature on the other hand went to
the uk to study, but he didn't end up marrying some overweight briton in her
late thirties just so he could legally over stay his welcome, he came back and
made his wealth in uganda
i know an argument can be made that there is more money abroad than in
africa. but this doesn’t hold much water if you consider the fact that three of
the most valuable companies on earth (exxon, petro-china and walmart) have to
come to africa to make money and the remaining two (microsoft and apple) can’t
afford to ignore africa’s potential any longer
in other words we struggle so much to go abroad to make money when the
people abroad have to come to africa to make money so they can pay our wage for
keeping their toilets spotlessly clean
i am not ready to admit that my
friend is brainless, so let’s entertain the idea that theft is more lucrative
when you are abroad in a bid to redeem his dignity
no self-respecting thief will claim that the grass is greener abroad. if
you’ve been following the gavi funds scandal, the opm accounting scandal, the
chogm funds scandal, the national identity card project…….generally if you have
ever followed current affairs in uganda for at least a day, you know it for a
fact that theft isn’t only more lucrative in uganda, the president gives
thieves medals on hero’s day
maybe it’s the fact that
america is more developed than uganda in so many aspects
this makes sense, for a second, before you consider the fact that
america too was once poor. we should also consider the fact that it didn’t
become wealthy through americans migrating to england to be street performers.
china too was once poor by first world standards but no one credits its
economic success to remittances from racially abused immigrants
and if you
decide to ignore our narcoleptic inclination, you’ll find that we have more
potential than both 18th century america and 20th century
china
awwkay, may be the fact that he
is a professional can help us put the “brain” back together with the “drain”
not all africans who go abroad are half baked and unskilled, actually
many are well trained professionals (who should know better)
according to the international organization for migration, africa has
been losing 20,000 professionals each year since 1990
the
sad part is, the continent is losing the very people it needs most for
economic, social, scientific, and technological progress. case in point, 38 of
the 47 sub-saharan african countries fall short of the minimum world health
organization standard of 20 physicians per 100,000 people
to fill the human resource
gap created by the exodus of the professionals, africa employs up to 150,000
expatriate professionals at a cost of US$4 billion a year. when you add this to
the billions of dollars african countries spend every year training professionals
who end up practicing abroad and you will catch a glimpse of the intellectual
horse power or lack of it, of these migrating professionals
i give up
the foreigners on the other hand, see africa for the gold mine that it
is. they leave the countries we risk our lives to get into and come to africa,
setting up companies that that exploit our minerals and tap into our growing
market. through this, they make more money than that any immigrant would ever
dream of and they do so with their dignity intact
yes i know the the situation in africa makes it hard for one to stay home
but if you keep spending time at the neighbour’s house just because it’s better
than yours, you’ll never fix your house.
Hehe....nice one!.....I guess your friend just needs to learn the hard way..
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