Beats me why
most are so petty. Petty over things that have no relevance to their wellbeing.
Why would anyone want to talk of a billionaire's attire when visiting Africa? A
case in point is Mark Zuckerberg’s image portrayal in Nigeria and Kenya, a
T-shirt & jeans guy, and how humble he is etc. etc.... For me it's neither
here nor there, for heaven's sake he is a tech guy, it is his prerogative to
wear what he feels comfortable with, but to converse on his attire is so
shallow.
The conversation
should be, why Zambia was not on his calendar? Again, missed opportunities for
the unemployed youthful entrepreneurial software engineers whose product
innovations will never see the light of day for lack of a market or funding.
Our friends in
Kenya and Nigeria are well ahead of the game, they keep their ears on the
ground, they advocate, they run, and it is survival! They vent "if you are
not vocal you will die local".
Kenyan's are
generally tech savvy, their commerce is driven by technology (pioneers of
mobile transfer money) whereas in Zambia our IT policy is dodgy it does not
inspire software development.
Stakeholders
would rather buy and re-sell software produced in other countries; the result,
missed opportunities like Marks visit. Obviously, the successful developers in
Kenya and Nigeria will be considered for lucrative deals, thus enhancing their
country's profile as the bedrocks of technology in Africa.
Zambia is not
short of brains, we have misplaced priorities.
Imagine, why one
would ask Mark to come to Zambia to come and eat ifinkubala, ba khoswe,
chipampila etc. and then continue to compliment his dressing of his t-shirt,
when what we should be asking is how we can attract the likes of the Marks to
Zambia for the mutual benefit.
Life is not all about comedy
and politics, can we start asking the right questions and having the right
conversations, this business as usual approach is frightening.
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