I have never ceased to marvel at how African leaders unabashedly short-change our people. It is a long list: from looting and stashing our funds abroad to condoning degrading immigration and travel practices by their erstwhile colonial masters; from denying local contractors to killing indigenous entrepreneurship; from pushing academics to the wall to disincentivizing our vibrant Diaspora. We serve other lands, and damn our land! We import shamelessly and export little or mere commodities - scant value added. So, dear reader, Africa is the world's dumping ground - a veritable dust-bin!
Because public funds pay their fares and passage, our leaders and their crowd care not (perhaps, check not) how much it costs our people to fly, or to freight....at home and abroad.
Pray, how do you explain the outrageous disparities between the airfares to Africa and those to other world destinations? We know that from Europe to America (at least 9 hours) costs less than from Europe to Nigeria (about 6 hours)!!! So, what is this whole thing about NEPAD and its Development Partners which brings no benefits to the African masses? Where are the low-cost airlines? Why has the EU intervened in so many areas of pricing and business practices, as the US does in antitrust and price gouging, yet our own leaders look the other way?
Are the airlines bribing their way to the bank? After all, some of them are under investigation! Remember how the oil conglomerates soiled their hands in very sticky corrupt practices, and are now being probed by their home countries? What are African leaders still waiting for in the matter of tickets and freights? Should our people continue to bleed unabated? No!
Enter Virgin Atlantic. I know that the airline has yet to give Nigerians the much-anticipated low costs in air tickets. But I also know that Richard Branson saved the British masses from the tyranny and exploitative practices of the air travel cartel in the 1980's. He can and should lead the way in Africa, today. The collusion and exploitation in this sphere must be stopped. Now!
African airlines also need to get their act together. There should be urgent mergers, alliances and consolidation. Our continent is a profitable destination...especially Nigeria/ECOWAS. Why then should we not have vibrant and successful airlines, world class air business? Let our sons and daughters in the African Diaspora invest heavily in African airlines, and stop this crying shame. African pilots, like medical personnel, are in many successful airlines around the globe. Let them join the crusade. The time to act is NOW.
The present prices will make our continent unattractive for both internal and external tourism. If we act now, it will stimulate intra-African travels and trades, and help mobilize our peoples towards the FIFA World Cup, as fans and tourists, in South Africa 2010. As a continent full of potential and repeat pilgrims, lower fares will help our people with their faith-journeys' costs.
This is certainly a subject for the EU-ACP Cotonou Agreement. Europe, as usual, should step in to help stop the mindless exploitative practices which perpetuate poverty and retardation in the African continent. European airlines will be pursuing their enlightened self-interest if they were to proactively redress the matter by industry-action, as telecoms players are now doing with mobile phones' roaming charges within the EU.
If they don't, from the comprehensive debates now in the African media, they can count on new players in the near term. And new reality, too. Certainly in Nigeria, post-Elections 2007.
Qatar Airlines is a sensible model. And why not!
***wherever you go, you may find thoughts in my views or fun in my thoughts: www.versesforthemasses.blogspot.com
www.onoviranseries.blogspot.com
www.manifestoesnigeriafrom2007.blogspot.com
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Monday, August 28, 2006
To Boost Organic Farming
The world is finally going crazy about ORGANIC FOODS. I applaud. Of all the regions of our planet where help can come from in this enterprise, AFRICA certainly stands high. It is the real place to produce ORGANIC FERTILIZERS from. And this is her time. So, where is the deal?
We must call on the governments, leaders, and peoples of the ancient continent to rise and arise for the task TODAY. Africa must lead the way to better farming...thus, better feeding....and better living, through organic agriculture. Over the next few months, we will be looking at lots of creative possibilities that one can conjure for this project. Will they be exhaustive? Absolutely not. Will they be challenging? Sure. Will we see enough temptings to grow and glow? You bet.
Let's start with BUSH BURNING: The menace, the pace of damage and the place of change.
Over the years, natives have used fires to clear the land, hunt for wildlife and games, herald a season, or just plain fun. Some have set accidental fires, while bush fires have been used in some conflicts and boundary disputes as well. Nature's abundance, in lustre and greenery, is so much that no one seems compelled to worry: After all, it will all grow back next year! After all, no one lives there! Sheer abuse. Sheer waste. And cumulative serial, if ritual, damage.
The fires in wooded lands are creating new grasslands, even as poverty is pushing rural souls to fell more trees for both fuel and food money. The costs to our combined ecosystem are simply rising by the day. Yet, it need not be so. From now, it must not be so....again.
To combat Bush Burning successfully is to borrow from the ploughshares concept: "Give a little something in exchange". In this case, substitute burning with composting of cropped vegetation. Meaning, harvest the greens - be it grass or shrubs, etc. - and turn them into a rich, natural manure, in an organized and orchestrated programme.
How to proceed? Easy:
1) Leave it to local governments and local communities
2) Build capacity and capability
3) Introduce appropriate incentives and create market windows
4) Empower civil society organisations as catalysts and monitors
5) Introduce composite national legislation
6) Work with rural women
7) Partner with faith organisations
8) Challenge and incentivize the media
9) Improve schools curricula
There is a role for the donor community and international development agencies to join this crusade immediately. One crucial input from them will be funding solar cooking stoves and dissemination of liquefied gas, briquettes, slow-burning fuels, etc. To make it work, please do not create centralized and national bureaucracies! Go to the PEOPLE.
Some pilots may be necessary, but not a long one. One year work, one year result. Use these in demonstration farms and pace-setters communities. Do so in several countries and regions of the continent. You are on your way!
With regard to the media, we need to draw up a special scheme that fully incorporates both the local and national press. There is something about us in Africa: We love competition and thrive on community spirit. Never mind the show of shame that our governments display all over the place. Most of those guys do not truly represent the real culture of hard work and tradition of honour that are the bedrock and essence of our African Humanity.
The true Africa is the Cradle of Humankind, and is the one that must, and I believe will, rise to the millennial challenge of Organic Agriculture.
Arise, O' Continent! The sun is up!!
We must call on the governments, leaders, and peoples of the ancient continent to rise and arise for the task TODAY. Africa must lead the way to better farming...thus, better feeding....and better living, through organic agriculture. Over the next few months, we will be looking at lots of creative possibilities that one can conjure for this project. Will they be exhaustive? Absolutely not. Will they be challenging? Sure. Will we see enough temptings to grow and glow? You bet.
Let's start with BUSH BURNING: The menace, the pace of damage and the place of change.
Over the years, natives have used fires to clear the land, hunt for wildlife and games, herald a season, or just plain fun. Some have set accidental fires, while bush fires have been used in some conflicts and boundary disputes as well. Nature's abundance, in lustre and greenery, is so much that no one seems compelled to worry: After all, it will all grow back next year! After all, no one lives there! Sheer abuse. Sheer waste. And cumulative serial, if ritual, damage.
The fires in wooded lands are creating new grasslands, even as poverty is pushing rural souls to fell more trees for both fuel and food money. The costs to our combined ecosystem are simply rising by the day. Yet, it need not be so. From now, it must not be so....again.
To combat Bush Burning successfully is to borrow from the ploughshares concept: "Give a little something in exchange". In this case, substitute burning with composting of cropped vegetation. Meaning, harvest the greens - be it grass or shrubs, etc. - and turn them into a rich, natural manure, in an organized and orchestrated programme.
How to proceed? Easy:
1) Leave it to local governments and local communities
2) Build capacity and capability
3) Introduce appropriate incentives and create market windows
4) Empower civil society organisations as catalysts and monitors
5) Introduce composite national legislation
6) Work with rural women
7) Partner with faith organisations
8) Challenge and incentivize the media
9) Improve schools curricula
There is a role for the donor community and international development agencies to join this crusade immediately. One crucial input from them will be funding solar cooking stoves and dissemination of liquefied gas, briquettes, slow-burning fuels, etc. To make it work, please do not create centralized and national bureaucracies! Go to the PEOPLE.
Some pilots may be necessary, but not a long one. One year work, one year result. Use these in demonstration farms and pace-setters communities. Do so in several countries and regions of the continent. You are on your way!
With regard to the media, we need to draw up a special scheme that fully incorporates both the local and national press. There is something about us in Africa: We love competition and thrive on community spirit. Never mind the show of shame that our governments display all over the place. Most of those guys do not truly represent the real culture of hard work and tradition of honour that are the bedrock and essence of our African Humanity.
The true Africa is the Cradle of Humankind, and is the one that must, and I believe will, rise to the millennial challenge of Organic Agriculture.
Arise, O' Continent! The sun is up!!
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