Conscientious Objector: The Unintended Consequences of Super-Development

Conscientious Objector: The Unintended Consequences of Super-Development: The Unintended Consequences of Super-Development: The ongoing recession (which I don’t think is over as some would like to believe) is reall...

The Unintended Consequences of Super-Development

The Unintended Consequences of Super-Development:

The ongoing recession (which I don’t think is over as some would like to believe) is really a case of unintended consequences of super-development.  I coined the word super-development, because some economies are well beyond the capitalist classical definition of development (mostly defined by the industrial revolution). My definition of super-development is when an economy is so highly sophisticated that over 60% of its GDP is comprised of income earning productivity from intangible assets; the skills of its labor force are no longer aligned or cannot fit with the required skills set to produce these assets; virtual technology efficiencies and mechanical automation is increasingly replacing human labor capital; tangible manufacturing outputs are based on fragments components of inputs sourced from multiple external suppliers, etc. There are other indicator variables but you get the idea! The transition from development to super-development (like most change) creates economic tensions and structural crisis that manifest in the form of economic depressions, recession, under or unemployment downturns, etc.  These are challenges and consequences of first mover advantages into super-development –another unintended consequent! However, to address these tensions requires innovative thinking, a paradigm shift in the ways they approach and implement economic solutions. But we seem stuck in obsolescence.

 Unlike other leaders before him as far as I know, President Obama is sending out his emissaries from different federal agencies to conduct focus group meetings with different local leaders of communities and industries. These private focus group meetings are being held all over the country as a way of the administration reaching out to the “grassroots”  in order to get feedback on  the pulse of what’s really happing on the ground in the Towns and Cities in the country! Once again this past week, one of President Obama’s emissaries was in New Jersey.  Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Manufacturing and Services, International Trade Administration, Ms. Nicole Lamb-Hale came to meet with business and economic development leaders in Newark, NJ.  As usual, I was one of those leaders invited for this focus group meeting to discuss and brainstorm ideas of boosting the economy in America. As an economic development specialist and business leader, I have been invited to several of these focus group meetings held in Newark because of my involvement with small business development at Rutgers.  Given that the Assistant Secretary is with the Department of Commerce the specific focus was on the broadening of international trade through enhancing American manufacturing and services industries. The ultimate objective is always to generating jobs, increasing business development, increasing consumer confidence, etc, etc.

 In her opening presentation the Secretary shared one fact that picked my interested: America makes up 5% of the global market; thus 95% is out there. From a business perspective we all know that there are really two strategies of growing your business through an increasing market share approach: 1) either through a vertical integration strategy where you penetrate the same market using a matrix of strategic actions; or 2) by a horizontal integration strategy where you create a diversified portfolio of new and old markets.  Why they are we still just focusing on the 5% and seeming to ignore the potential of the other 95% market? I suggested to the Secretary that we are too preoccupied with finding solutions within our 5% market and it’s not enough we needed to think outside the box. From the solutions like workforce development training how can we increase market share?  One of the ideas I shared with the Secretary was the possibility of thinking about the Department of Commerce, in collaboration with the Department of Labor looking at ways of exporting some of the brick & motor skilled labor force to emerging markets that are still in the building phase! One of the Union leaders in the room had pointed out that he has 40% of his skilled trades labor force unemployed – if we have stopped manufacturing as we used to, and building new infrastructure as we used to our 5% market is not going to absorb this skilled labor surplus.

She acknowledges collaboration of related federal department in businesses services is something the administration has started doing. She also added that the thought of exporting labor as a resource was brilliant and thinking outside of the box. But the silence in the room was telling me I had taken the conversation out of its comfort zone - Americans work as migrant workers? That would be a culture shock. A perspective I have discussed in one of my other blog: “The Era of the New Migrant Worker”. In addition, the idea of exporting labor is the same suggestion I wrote about on exporting the American high school education model on “Manufacturing Education: Navigating the Public High School System minefields”. Thus exporting this labor would definitely boost the American economy as it increases the purchasing power of the expatriate’s families.

I was in Southern Africa recently and I noticed the emergence of small businesses – mostly traders. Entrepreneurship is booming in these economies. I found out that most of these traders are buying their commodities from Asia and the Middle East through online commodity procurement portals. These commodity consortiums are predominately Asian and Middle-Eastern suppliers of goods and services. I do not know of any commodity portal where American suppliers of goods and services are available to buyers in the 95% global markets. The Federal & State goods and services procurement portals we have here are of those businesses seeking to do contract with the US government or its State and local affiliates! I suggested to the Secretary, it would be a great idea to have US supplier portals that any global buyer or dealer can access if they wish to buy US manufactured goods and services. America’s competitive advantage is its credibility in producing quality products and services that meets standard guarantees. With Asia gaining the reputation of flooding emerging African markets with sub-standard goods and services, this presents an opportunity for the US to step in. But if they really need to do business with Africa the Administration also needs to take into account discouraging and unfavorable visa practices in the State Department that have undermined emerging market’s desire to do business with the US!

In a nutshell growing a 5% market will entail expanding into the 95% global market share.  For me, each time I attend these private focus group meetings I have left with mixed feeling of both excitement and of hopelessness for several reasons. The excitement is merely because the President is genuinely interested in connecting with the grassroots and finding out what’s really going on in the field. I don’t remember any President ever trying to do that. However, I am frustrated because usually most of the so called leaders (politicians/administrators/ businesses/academicians, etc)in the room have a very narrow focus on what the issues or solutions are because they are too focused on their immediate local  challenges and short-sighted to the dynamic complexity of the interconnections between the small and big pictures;  focused on what more the government can do for us; some leaders are out of touch and do not have many ideas let alone words to share; most are the usual suspects (like me – but at least I get it!) but  most frustrating for me is  that most cannot even fully articulate what the solutions could or  should be! Instead they will recycle ideas that have been done already - like we need to have more workforce development training; complaining about the need for more jobs but how to get these jobs created no one can tell; we need to get people to spend more to boost the economy, but if they do not have the money or are out of work where is the money to spend? Everyone is struggling to comprehend what should be done? Most of what can be done locally had been done and the results do not meet expectation.

After my recent trip to Southern Africa, it reinforces what I have known for a while – geography is irrelevant, and where you invest does not necessarily dictate where you earn; and where you earn is above and beyond not limited by where you invest! That’s the migrant mentality. I believe the writing is on the wall, the question is: “Are we prepared to move out of our false self-sufficiency superiority complex comfort zone and accept that the world now is really flat, not hierarchical?”

Published and copyrighted: @ February 4, 2012 by Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA (Strategy Leadership Institute in Private  & Public Affairs); Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC.

Suggested related readings from my blog CONCIENCIOUS OBJECTOR: http://docndoro.blogspot.com/

1.       “The Era of the New Migrant Worker”: http://docndoro.blogspot.com/2011/05/era-of-new-migrant-worker.html

2.       “Manufacturing Education: Navigating the Public High School System minefields” : http://docndoro.blogspot.com/2011/09/manufacturing-education-navigate-public.html

3.       “Urban Entrepreneurship: Challenges & Solutions”: http://docndoro.blogspot.com/2011/06/urban-entrepreneurship-challenges.html

4.       “A Framework of Possibilities for Small Business Growth in the Globalization Era”:

5.       http://docndoro.blogspot.com/2011/02/framework-of-possibilities-for-small.html

Civility is NOT a Sign of Weakness!

I am truly fed up with grown adults with the audacity to display no manners or sense of courtesy to other people in public. I have a growing belief that the human race as a species is really regressing behaviorally rather than progressing. We are gradually losing our social skills, if we have not lost it already. I also notice that people have a total lack of passion and compassion. They are so robotic and thought-less in their actions and behaviors, like they have been neutered of humanity! It’s not just the lack of manners, ethics and etiquette, but a pervasive lack of sensibility, of just simple common decency. I work with the public a lot and I have seen a person pick up their cell phone in the middle of a training or presentation and proceed to entertain the cell while everyone is trying to listen to the presenter. I used to be diplomatic, but now I have had to tell some adults to leave the room with their cell phone because they are disrupting the class and the presenter!

As a parent of an autistic child, I have become so keenly aware of human behavior in public, simply because people are so intolerant of children who are different from the typical.  The other day I went to Costco and my son threw a huge tantrum in the store. He was running around the store and disappearing to look at the merchandise like the electrical fireplace and the fan heaters on the floor which are his object triggers. Because he was not listening to stay close to me, as punishment I told him he had lost his privilege of having the take out ice cream yoghurt. A treat I usually buy for him after check out. All hell broke loose. He wanted my reassurance that he was going to get the ice cream and I kept telling him no…no…No! He would not hear it. With each no, he would scream and run up and down the aisle then come back asked me again and I would say no. While this whole scene was unfolding, I started noticing this man and his three children following us from aisle and just starring at us. My teenage daughter just stood there holding the cart feeling helpless. As for me frankly, I don’t get embarrassed at all, it is what it is, this is my normal world.  By the third aisle there was quite a little crowd of adults including the man and his three children again just standing there and starring at my son doing his thing! As it dawned on me that people were starring like this was entertainment for them. As I was just about to go market on them and yell at them to keep it moving and mind their own business, I caught my daughter’s eye – begging me not to!  I could not believe it; these people were looking as if they have never seen a child throw a tantrum before. Who stands around as a spectator starring at a child throwing a tantrum as if its entertainment? Their passive action was abnormal to me to say the least.

Then I came home and caught the last bit on Anderson Cooper 360 town hall meeting on Bully. As I heard most of the experts saying the schools had to be equipped to handle these kinds of bullies by training the teachers, holding the kids accountable, etc, etc. I was like are you kidding me. Thanks to Doctor Phil for saying that this starts with the parents and therefore we need to hold parents accountable!!! I AGREE 100%. It starts with the parents and the value system they set for their children. Bully parents breed bully children. I truly believe that if you have a child bully, one of the parents (if not both of them) is certainly a bully either at work or to their spouse or in their extended family circles. I remember when my daughter was being bullied in elementary school. The bullying occurred on the afterschool bus to the YMCA. The bullying was being perpetrated by a click of 5^th grade girls on my daughter. One of the bully girls’ younger sister was in 2^nd grade with my daughter and they were having a run-in during class periods over a friend who was initially my daughter’s friend, but now this other little girl wanted my daughter’s friend to be her friend, but was not interested in sharing the friend with my daughter. When my daughter told me they were bullying her and calling her insulting words on the bus, it was on. I went to the class list and sought out the little girl’s home number and called the parents. When the mother picked up I politely introduced myself and told her why I was calling. Her first comment was “You shouldn’t be calling here; you should address it through the school! Besides, my daughters would never do that they are sweet and innocent.” I couldn’t believe that this parent was hiding behind “the school” and absolving herself of the responsibility of her daughters’ behavior. Instantly I knew therein lay the problem. I became icy cold and told her firmly “Your daughters are by no means sweet or innocent, they are bullies. You need to tell your mean daughters to leave my daughter alone. If they as much as stare at my daughter again or whisper any profanities to her again, I will be on that after school bus before the week is over and you do not want me to tell them myself. Do I make myself clear?” She was speechless. I continued, “Your daughters are messing with the wrong little girl and you do not want to hear from me again!” Then I hung up. That was the end of the bulling. My daughter never had trouble from them again.

These are just two of many incidents I have witnessed where adults just do not have common decency or social skills, they simply take no accountability or responsibility of their actions and they hide behind “the system”. The sneaky smile on Ruth Madoff’s face during her interview on CBS’s 60 minutes confirmed it all for me! It irritated the hell out of me and I felt like crawling into my TV screen and wiping it off her mouth with a cactus. People just abdicate their conscience or civility but stands by ignoring, blaming, or pushing it onto someone else! There is a decadent behavior of watching other people’s pain and misery without feeling compassion or empathy. Then we wonder why our children are growing up without proper social skills. Well it’s because most of the adults themselves have neutered social skills. CIVILITY IS NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS!

Copyright @ November 1, 2011 by Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA (Strategy Leadership Institute in Private & Public Affairs); Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC. 

The Con Game of Shearing & Controlling the Consumer

The Con Game of Shearing & Controlling the Consumer

I just spend 2hrs of my Saturday morning with Comcast Xfinity Wi-Fi set-up...what a lousy process! When they hooked up my internet to my cable last Saturday and I asked the technician for my Wi-Fi password and he told me “Oh I am just supposed to hook up your router and not set up your Wi-Fi" I said to him but I specifically asked for high speed internet with Wi-Fi capability? He just shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly, looks at me calmly while he is fidgeting with his cell phone and said “So do you want me to hook it up or not?” I had already waited 2 weeks for the appointment, and he had just arrived 2 hours late for the appointment time and I was entertaining visitors, so I was in a corner. “How long will it take to hook it up?”  I asked. He says “20minutes.” Commonsense kicks in - I could not wait for another 2 weeks for them to come back for a 20 minute job. So I let him do it! I have FIOS right now and I am pissed at them too that’s why I am getting Xfinity before I kick them to the curb site! Sure enough he is done in 20 minutes. After the tech is gone, it’s irking me that they did not have it together, so I call customer service to find out why the order they gave the technician did not have Wi-Fi? The guy tells me, “Oh your router is already Wi-Fi capable, if you can’t get Wi-Fi on your laptops when you hook-up your desktop call us back and we will walk you through it, by the way you have 30 days to try it and if you are not happy you can always call us back to cancel it!” I had visitors and could not hook-up the desktop from FIOS to Xfinity there and then so I said I will get back to you!!!

Today, exactly a week later to the day, I call customer service again to tell them, well all is set up and I still cannot get my Wi-Fi! The guy tell me,

“Oh let me transfer you to our Wi-Fi department they will set you up.”

“You people told me to call you back, why do you have to transfer me?” I retorted.

“Yes, Dr. Ndoro but it’s another department that sets it up”

By then its dawning on me that I am being ‘handled’ and from experience there is always some rude surprise definitely awaiting me. I was right. They do not tell you that when you set up for internet installation with Comcast (which is $59 bucks) you have to make a separate call to set up your Wi-Fi network to your laptops and charge you another $45! The guy on the phone starts explaining in a calm voice the rational for the $45 dollars, and I am like “I don’t care about your back office logistics and which department does what or how much it cost, as an end user I wanted my technology working to my expectations the day your technician hooked me up….I did not expect to make any other service calls and go through a learning curve about cost and who does what in Comcast!”

I am beyond annoyed at this rate and I could feel the yelling coming on! But I remain calm. I tell him, “My experience with FIOS is you do not get all this peace-meal service...when they are done all your gadgets and services are working and the only thing they hand you is your NetID password!!! So again I don't care how you do it in your back office or how much it cost...just hook me up and let me use the service”. He continues calmly, “Yes, Dr. Ndoro”. But they are shearing me like a sheep…that’s what we call it in public administration when we refer to how the government increases your taxes slowly but surely without the taxpayer realizing it, otherwise the taxpayer will riot at sudden obvious hike moves…vano nyangira!

When all is said and done,

He tells me “We are done with writing up the order and you also have  Xfinity Signature support for another $5.95/ month which will appear on your bill and I will now transfer you to our network technician who will set it up for your here is your ticket #.. ”

HOLD IT!!! My mind is still at the other $5.95/month statement I just heard…..!

I ask him “Why am I now going to pay another $5.95, that’s not what your deal offer said? That takes another 15 minutes of conversation.

He tells me “This is not mandatory and it’s not included in your deal, this is just that if you ever need any Wi-fi support in case something goes wrong you can call us anytime at no extra cost”

“So it’s like insurance?”

“Not exactly, its additional support” he says.

I ask “What does that entail and ‘what would go wrong’ with the service”

“Oh if you ever buy another computer and you want it hooked to your home network we can help”

I said but that’s just to add my netID and my password to the new computer and I have to pay you $5.95 every month????”

 Then he adds "well, other people do not even know how to hook-up a new computer so we also help them with that straight from the box.."

I say "really...well I am not other people I can hook up my hardware myself"...

then he says "things can go wrong and you can call us any time, if you do not have the support plan it can cost you $45 each time you call us for a tech to help you remotely!!!".

By this time they have made me so insecure and paranoid. So finally, I am signed up for the $5.95 and yet I am experiencing buyer’s remorse and thinking - ”why should I pay rich Comcast an additional 6 bucks!!!” But I am worn out and exhausted with the conversations and need to move on at this point. I am thinking I will call them another day when I have new energy! Not to mention that when I finally get the network technician to set up my Wi-Fi, he remotely enters my computer system and takes over my desktop and is now controlling it remotely!!!! What the F**king hell are these people up to!!!  They have the capability and power to enter my home computer system through their little black box from anyway in the universe!!!! Instantly, I forget my concern of having been sucked into paying $5.95/month for ‘support’…. I am more than insecure and paranoid…I am PETRIFIED at the realization of how much control and ownership they have over me and every consumer out there!

Manufacturing Education: Navigating the Public High School System minefields

 

I had an epiphany the other day – I am learning vicariously through my children. In fact, I realized that since becoming a parent I have been learning and gaining exposure to life, not just my kids’ lives, but the capacity to understand mine too. As the kids are growing I have to assimilate them in the education industry. I have realized that this requires more unorthodox skills and street smarts than any classroom education can give you. My learning curve is in realizing that America has perfected the manufacturing of education! As an entrepreneur I was thinking this is one commodity America could franchise. If we could franchise this education system to the world every child would be “educated”, i.e. have a high school diploma! The question is will that High School Diploma allow your child to be an officer in the military, OR enter a 4 year college; OR become an entrepreneur pursuing their genius? That’s what it’s about, but if you as a parent check out or blink, your child sinks.

Don’t get me wrong – what I am saying is the superior education curriculum content is there, the problem is some of the kids are being excluded from the elite course offerings! Like everything in our American economy there are different levels of consumption – each consumer according to his/her means – you can either shop at Wal-Mart or Sears or Sacks Fifth Avenue; or you can either eat at McDonald or Olive Garden or at Per Se (NYC), but you are still consuming something! At the end of the day everyone is dressed and fed – life’s basic needs are met! The public education system is set up the same way, and frankly I do not think a lot of parents realize or understand how it works or some of the implications of it! Inclusion is not necessarily equal!

However, my daughter who had spend the first two and a half years of high school studying abroad recently changed schools to a public school here in the US. The last time she attended public school was in grade 1 & 2. After that I pulled her out into parochial schools. Now we are back, and little did I know that the Public High School System is designed as a mass production manufacturing education factory! It’s been an interesting awakening and a major learning curve from the private school process we are accustomed to. Here was my learning experience: After the application process for my daughter to attend the local public school, I sent an email to my daughter’s guidance counselor requesting a meeting. Having learnt to manage IEPs processes for my son, I knew that I had to be proactive, act timely, be fully involved and engaged in her transitioning process.  (RULE #1 – BE THE NO.1 ADVOCATE FOR YOUR CHILD).

In requesting a meeting it’s always best to specify your agenda items for discussion in your email before your meet with the school representative (s) you are seeking to meet with. As a rule and for convenience I never call school personnel or communicate by phone to the school in the beginning or on important issues I want to discuss. I always write a letter or most often email first. It also saves as a reminder of the issue I need to cover in the meeting, after the meeting and months later when there is no follow through then I have evidence of having brought it up. (RULE #2 – PUT EVERYTHING IN WRITING FOR YOUR RECORD AS WELL AS TO ENSURE A PRODUCTIVE MEETING)

Well the IEP prior experience was very helpful in the situation now upon me with my daughter. We arrived in the guidance counselors (a very nice woman) office and she was ready for us and realized the email had also been helpful to getting her plan and focus on how we would proceed with the meeting. We hit the ground running. Started with reviewing her transcript from the other school – check; equated the subject credit list for the two prior years  she had done school abroad– check; discussed how the school worked – check; finally address her subject course needs for Grade 11 – pause! She reviewed her assessment test and told us “well she is slotted mostly for level 3”. NO! I had done my home work -Level 3 is the second from the bottom and was general education curriculum, it would not prepare her for a 4 year college and she was not going to a community college first! (RULE #3 – DO YOUR RESEARCH GET CORRECT INFORMATION AND BE INFORMED BEFORE GOING IN).

The other level were:  level 4 (honors); Level 5 (advanced placement) Level 6: College prep; Well my daughter was going to college we had already attended an open house/ orientation for the university I wanted her to go into so there was no way she would get in with a level 3 education! I put my negotiation skills and demanded that 1) nothing less than level 4 would do; 2) some of the courses she needed were in level 5 and I had already reach out to the subject area supervisor for approval for advanced placement. (RULE #4: Make sure as a parent you are talking to the right PERSON WHO CAN MAKE A DECISION ON THE ISSUE)

As we chatted while the counselor works on my daughter’s course selection for her schedule, we come to find out the high school has 2000 students (Grade 9-12). “What,” my daughter exclaims – her previous boarding school had a total student body of 450!  How do they manage to educate 2000 student a year? Couldn’t believe it. I am thinking “this is an education manufacturing plant to say the least” I am now finding out that public high school operates just like the universities. The students have customized course schedules created and they move from class to class based on that schedule and may never take a class with the same students for the whole year! A good course and time management experience for her near future years in college. My daughter’s guidance counselor had 200 students in her case file! I know as a public administrator, public service employees are usually overworked and under paid; I also know that they have rigid rules and regulations based on policies some legislator push through that they have to follow. But I also know that public administrator have enough room within the parameters of those rigid rules and regulations to exercise their own discretion in making certain decisions about your special circumstances based on what’s in front of them. The ideal is a one size fits all, but they can shave a square peg to fit into a round hole if need be or justifiable! (RULE # 4 –KNOW WHAT LEVEL OF DECISION MAKING DISCRETION THE SCHOOL REPRESENTATIVE YOU ARE TALKING TO HAS & ALSO KNOW THAT THEY HAVE ENOUGH DISCRETION TO MAKE CERTAIN DECISIONS)

Once the initial schedule was done, I stopped by the principal’s office and requested the student/parent hand book only to be told it was still at the printers and we would only get it after school started! This did not make sense. In my common sense, it should be made available during the summer before schools starts so that parents and students are fully informed about their options. Well it was not. Was this by design? My skeptical mind thought, but I quickly brushed the thought aside – it was distracting and a waste of energy for now – it would be my cause when my daughter is settled in school. Therefore I figured, it was now time to put my samurai sword away and use strategy skills – I would wait a few days till it comes. (RULE #5 – CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES).

But as soon as we got home I got a call from my guidance counselor we had a class conflict in period 6 so she had cancelled French for creative writing. I am thinking she needed a foreign language to get into the university program we wanted. It was now time to pull out my strategy skills. She needed French and we need to put it back! The counselor retorted but then she will not have an English requirement and the creative writing was it! She needed English so now she had to take Shakespeare in period 2not creative writing! I don’t mind Shakespeare, but my daughter as a music lyric writer, loves creative writing so her desire won. While the guidance counselor was stuck on the conflict in period 6 I am reviewing the transcript and seeing she there were other electives I did not care for. So I asked what other period is creative writing offered? She says, “In period 4 but she has supplement English reading and writing.” “What SuppEng was it for?” I asked. She tells me for an exam every 11^th Grader takes in March. Really, well let’s take it out and put creative writing, then give me the curriculum and I will teach my child to pass the damn exam! She knew I was not going to budge. Why is a child who has been speaking, writing and reading English proficiently since she was born need to take a subject for a one time exam? I know the performance measurement game in the public sector; I have a PhD in Public Administration!!! As it turns out that class can be taken after you fail the exam, not before, therefore she did not need to spend a year studying for an exam just to meet the State passing standard goals. I eventually read this in the student/parent handbook that we got after the fact, but my district was making it “mandatory” for some students before the exam! (RULE #6 – MAXIMIZE YOUR OPTIONS, ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS AND YOU WILL GET THE RIGHT RESULTS)

Surprisingly, my district high school is quite reputable in the State, and up there in the country! It has a music program which is not found in many high schools! Who knew? I sent my child to an oversees expensive elite boarding school to have the benefit of the music theory program yet it was right in my backyard. However, she learned piano there, got some global experience, made friends with kids from all over the world, learned about diversity, grew mature and grounded, that was a plus. Other than that, I am glad she is back home and not having to be pay tuition while paying taxes as well! At the end of the day, it was a win/win/win outcome. My daughter got a schedule that works for her and she loves her teachers and our public school; I got the level classes I wanted for her (&me too); and the guidance counselor did not get a headache from us. It all finally came together.

Downgrading America!

I woke up the other morning to hear on NPR (public radio) that Standard & Poor had downgraded America! The first questions that popped in my head were “What does that mean? Is that possible” and the next one “Who had such power and authority to ‘downgrade’ America?” Having listened to all the angry debates, I still could not make heard or tail of it, nor could I wrap my mind around it. Some started attacking the credibility of S&P opinions and predictions given that they had given favorable ratings during the derivative carnage. Others were trying to be intellectually civil and sound “normal” about it. But all I heard were a lot of convoluted explanations full of words that didn’t mean much. One thing I got loud and clear was America’s credit score has gone down – but I thought this only happened to consumers. However, only one angry guy I listened to on NPR articulately claimed that this was another gimmick to create superficial fear and volatility in the market place in order to once again steal from the aspiring middle class investors seemed to make sense to me. I admit, it may be a selective sense because I have always been skeptical of the stock market rain dance principle. I don’t believe in it, nor do I trust the rational of it. But according to my bourgeois friends I am supposed to appreciate the stock market jargon and masquerade like I know that it’s the epitome indicator of one’s financial plan and success. An educated person is supposed to have something  intelligent to say at uppity cocktail soiree. But I live in the real world, good at maths and I have trust issues, so I would never completely trust anyone with my money! It’s the same reason I never gamble, I am a sore loser. By night fall I saw the news cast that Dow has fallen by 635 points.

Anyway as I listened all day to the debates, I also realized that some of the anger stemmed from the fact that people were feeling demeaned and insulted at the idea of being downgraded! I remembered Eddy Murphy in the movie “Trading Places” when he said to Dan Ackroid the worst thing you can do to rich people is to make them poor! Yes, it seemed to me that most of the angry comments were stemming from the fact that our superiority complex had been tarnished. What about what happening in Europe, no one has yet downgraded Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Norway, etc, etc… The same afternoon I talked to my brother-in-law on Skype and he was curious about the economic temperature in the US given the news they were watch on CNN back home. He also enjoys complaining to me from time to time about the hardship in Zimbabwe. I reasoned with him at least they are better off because they are used to their permanent economic hardships and have coping mechanisms already in place. It’s not the same for us. To be downgraded from the position of affluence into hardships is a nasty shock to the system! Therefore we were obviously upset. He thought I was being superior. Maybe so, but the process of assimilation also entails embracing the value system, I retorted. Our conversation got me pondering about all the news trends in the last few weeks – the debt limit stalemate and now the credit downgrading. This has always been a province of the consumer – the idea of having bad credit, not nations. But then again third world countries have always been in debt. All the same, do we need to be borrowing so much as a nation?

 I personally hate living on credit. I have smaller fishes to fry close to home. All day my immediate concerns were on how much the US dollar is going to be trading on the foreign currency market. This I can relate to because its affects me directly. I have overseas tuition to pay and it had increased by 35% in the last 2 years due to the devaluation of the US dollar! I am feeling the pinch! The other day I just flew to Las Vega and sat next to a gentleman from Ireland. He was so happy to tell me that this was his second time visiting the US this year because his Euro was going such a long way! He could now have extravagant vacations to the US like never before; was coming to do his shopping of designer jeans which in Ireland he would pay 150-200 sterling pounds but here he was paying US$100 buck! Really! Good for you, I thought. I was not happy, his meat was my poison! My hard earned US dollar is not worth the same anymore and it does not feel good. I am humbled.

Copyright @ August 8, 2011 by Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA (Strategy Leadership Institute in Private & Public Affairs); Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC.

A REVOLUTION SWALLOWS ITS LEADERS IN 2011 (PART 2)

My father was one of the revolutionaries of the Zimbabwean struggle and he used to say to me all the time “A revolution swallows its leaders” when we get into political debates. I remember asking him once what he meant by this statement and he simply said, “If a leader does not know or choose when to step down graciously, then the law of nature (in the form of  a revolution) is bound to take them down!”  I nodded as if I understood his explanation, but I really did not grasp it. I was only 10, maybe 12 years old. My father was my inspiration for loving politics. He had a lot of charisma about his tolerance of it.

 But before this statement, I also remember once asking him why, despite all his past sacrifices for the struggle for Zimbabwe and present political engagements, he never hungered for political power? For political positioning and why he stood by and watched his compatriot curve out political power and got positioned into lucrative political positions at the independence of Zimbabwe? It angered me that he got nothing out of his struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe! That he never got acknowledgement for it, in some way or other after the sacrifices that he made….which included us having our house bombed with Molotov cocktails (home-made petrol bombs) during the Zhanda days of the Zimbabwean revolution. (My mom, sister and I almost died in that bombing incident).

Zhanda - For years I had a dream that haunted me of an all consuming fire flames lapping at me and a cloudy white mushroom overcoming me such that I could not breath! Then suddenly I would wake-up in a cold sweat.  I had that dream for many, many years and could never understand why it always recurred or repeated itself so identically? It was not until I was an adult living in America I realized that the dream was my babyhood trauma of remembering that Molotov cocktail bombing incident of our house! I was only a baby when the incident occurred!  The dreams also stopped when I left my homeland. I also remember my father always in hiding from the Rhodesian government, so the family story goes. Growing up, for years, I was used to my father disappearing and then reappearing with no logical explanation! The disappearing acts coincidentally stopped when he went to the Lancaster House Conference in the UK to participate in the “negotiated” the peace treaty for Zimbabwean independence!

Anyway, moving forward in 1996, the first time he mentioned  “a revolution swallows its leaders” statement, I was home on vacation from America and my father stopped by the house one afternoon and we found ourselves talking about his political passions. Just him and I. It was the time he was passionate about the promise of the new opposition political party –the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM). I was concerned. I had asked him, why he was now aligning himself with ZUM, which seemed infested by disgruntled political pariahs, and I also felt that they were “using” him as their sounding board because he was non-threatening to the ruling regime, so if anything, there did not seem much for him to gain by supporting the opposition, except putting himself and us in danger! For years, I had felt that he had sacrificed so much and yet he had never benefited from his sacrifices! I also felt that he was always inventing excuses of why he did not get his own! I had secretly thought he was always pulling his punches when it came to his politics, thus he was a political coward! How wrong I was!

That afternoon, I realized he made political scarifies for the common good, not for his personal gain!  I remember telling him that politics was not for idealists! Then I also remember that after I said that, he looked at me with the pride of amusement at my passion yet at the same time the wise look in his eyes told me I had a lot to learn. His eyes also told me (now I realized) I reminded him of his younger, passionate political self!  But in response to my belligerent, enthusiastic comments and reasoning, he remained engaged in our conversation and that’s when he said to me – “A revolution swallows it leaders!” It sounded like a profound statement, but I did not understand the insightful depth and wisdom of it! Not then anyway. My father was a great orator so I was used to profound statements whether I understood them or not. In this case, it was a statement out of context and ahead of its time for me to grasp or appreciate its meaning!  Yes he tried to explain, but the, magnitude of his meaning – the epiphany - was to come later!

What did I know? In 1996, I was a newly graduated MA political student from an American University. I was a newly “educated” self-confident radical twenty something, I looked at things differently and had my head full of new perspectives and ideologies (not that I necessarily agreed with them but I understood the logic or rational for them). So I had experienced (theoretically) different political world views and had drunk a diversity of political views in my education! You did not negotiate with betrayers, with sell-outs and there were other ways of doing politics…and government!

Well now in 2011, with all the events unfolding in North Africa and the Middle East, a revolution swallows its leaders makes sense! Overwhelming sense! When a people are willing to die for liberation, a leader, no matter how powerful needs to realize that the beginning of his end has come!

In Part 1 of “A revolution swallows its leaders” published February 2010, I wrote that:

“A revolution swallows its leaders. This is the natural progression of socio-political dynamics. It’s not their choice to be swallowed, but it’s a factor of time, trends and change. But they have options. These options are: Reinvention; Innovation and Diversification. Unless they are willing to reinvent themselves; innovate and diversify their ideas, their political platforms, their agenda, their worldviews, their values, beliefs, culture, geography and paradigms then being swallowed is inevitable. It’s a natural progression of human evolution.” @2/2010 –DocNdoro/SLIPPA

Today, I must add a fourth option: Gracefully stepping down!!! So, I am not surprised at what’s happening in Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya..etc…even Milwaukee, WI, USA.  It happened in Eastern Europe with the fall of the Soviet Union. What I do not understand in this dynamic revolutionary process though is how these leaders are so out of touch with the fact that the wheels of change are turning and its beyond their humanly control to hold on to power? I guess power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely….even the common sense of the mind!!!

 I once wrote a college paper about Democracy and my argument was democracy is not about the regime, the government in power…it’s about the people, therefore “elections’ are not a definition of democracy but an process of how power changes hands. On the other hand, democracy is about how the people exercise their power whether it’s by the ballot or by protest! It was a paradigm shift from how I defined as well as regarded democracy!

Copyright @ February 23, 2011, Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA/Brighten the Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC

THE QUEST FOR UBUNTU – Income Equality makes societies stronger!

The other day I had the pleasure of making welcoming remarks at a lecture inspired by the book The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Stronger Societies Stronger. My introduction went as follows:

Friday, January 21, 2011

GOODMORNING Ladies & Gentleman, my name is Dr. Tendai Ndoro,

On behalf of Community Access Unlimited Board of Trustees, Executive Management & Staff and Community Access Unlimited Collaborative partners, I would like to welcome you all to the Center for Science, Technology and Mathematics Education at Kean University Campus. More importantly I welcome you to this very important  lecture program inspired by the publication: THE SPIRIT LEVEL: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.” written by Drs. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett

This is such a timely topic of conversation given the economic recession that has overtaken the world like a tsunami forcing us all to question our prevailing socio-economic paradigms and values. In Southern Africa there is expression that embraces the value of equality called: ‘UBUNTU”, which means I AM BECAUSE YOU ARE! The essence of which speaks to the perils of inequality that one cannot be really WHOLE when others are LESS! The Spirit Level truly attests to the essence of Ubuntu by advocating that greater equalities make societies stronger!

To our distinguished guest, Dr. Richard Wilkinson, Welcome and we truly appreciate your presence here with us today. Thank you.

The irony of this whole day was that America is a Society that at its core values believes in individualism! However more and more I have been hearing both people in academia and public society calling for cooperation, collaboration, cooperativeness, community, common ground and any of those communal adjectives that favor the social capital of togetherness! But this is not framed in Putnam’s Social Capital theoretical framework. The independent variables vary depending on which discipline the author or speaker comes from -  Dr. Richard Wilkinson is a epidemiologist and therefore comes from the health industry.  

But my question is: Is globalization forcing us to evolve to social communalism? The Spirit level is a study that looks at the developed world (including such countries as – Japan, Sweden, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, etc) and measured how certain social indicators such as: homicide, imprisonment; teenage pregnancies; infant mortality, mental illness, drug abuse; social mobility; obesity; high school dropouts; etc  perform based on the margins of income equality. The greater the income equality and lower the social maladies, conversely, the gross income inequalities leads to the higher the social maladies. In a nutshell the authors point out that “gross inequalities tear at the human psyche, creating anxiety, distrusts and an array of mental and physical ailments”. Thus reducing the gap in income inequalities leads to stronger and better societies. Unfortunately, this data based study indicated that the US had the greatest income inequalities and as such was at the bottom of the ladder in terms of greater social maladies. “Therefore if you want to live the American dream, you may have to relocate to Sweden or Japan” Wilkinson remarked.

At the end of the lecture, one of my Republican colleagues in the room came to me and expressed his horror at the thought of equal incomes, as ‘income equality’ translates into “income redistribution”! I laughed and reassured him that he need not worry as it will never happen in his lifetime! He exhaled!

This social study narrative is not new. That is, the variables are new but the idea or explanations of why some people suffer and others prosper is a narrative that has emerged in many other various forms in the past. To name a few – Mills’ power elites theory (the idea that interwoven interests of people in and/or with power will do anything including setting up institutionalized systems to protect those interests); Putnam’s social capital (the idea that homogeneity fosters greater community wealth for members of that group, thus feminism and racial integration undermined social capital in the USA), Galtung’s structural violence ideas (widely defined as the systematic ways in which a regime prevents individuals from achieving their full potential. Institutionalized racism and sexism are examples of this - @ Wikipedia); and Schneider & Ingram’s policy design as a socially constructed narrative for target populations, usually choosing who gets benefits or burdens, with burdens skewed unfavorably to the disadvantaged populations (@ Policy Design and Democracy); and now Wilkinson &  Pickett’s narrative of how income inequalities (disparities) undermining stronger societies, and thus lead to chronic social maladies.

Well, I always live in a ‘relative universe’ (i.e. the reality of my perceptions are defined by my circumstances at that moment in my universe), and thus always tries to draw parallels to show that we are all the same, it’s just our geography that’s different. Therefore in participating in this lecture presentation, it reinforces my beliefs in those parallel existences as well as the lines of symmetry that bind us together as humans. I came to one conclusion which is the quest for Ubuntu - which had once been called primitive during the reign of colonialism - is still relevant after all! I must add, Ubuntu is a universally African philosophy which means that I AM BECAUSE YOU ARE, but the term itself is specifically a Southern African term – Ubuntu or as the Shona people would say Uhunhu or Unhu – the essence of being [human].

Copyright @ February 1, 2011 by Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlightinend_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA/Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO- EDCTrainers, LLC.

UBUNTU ROOTS: ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(philosophy) :

Ubuntu (Zulu/Xhosa pronunciation: [ùɓúntʼú]; English: /ʊˈbʊntuː/ oo-BOON-too) is an ethic or humanist philosophy focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word has its origin in the Bantu languages of southern Africa. Ubuntu is seen as a classical African concept.^[1]

Ubuntu: "I am what I am because of who we all are."

Bantu means the men or people. The word occurs in all Bantu languages, for example, it appears as wa-tu in Swahili, ba-to in Lingala, and aba-ntu in Zulu in shona as Van-hu

The Bliss of Ignorance?

I was watching Steve Kroft interviewing Julian Assange (Founder of WikiLeaks) on CBS 60 Minutes the other Sunday. Something about the interview got me wondering about the Bliss of Ignorance. The question that arose in me during the interview was - Do we want to hear or know everything that our leaders or governments do in the name of us - the People? Surprisingly I had no definitive YES or NO answer to this question -just a MAYBE - it depends! Well that’s not good enough, I told myself. I do not appreciate living in the grey zone.  While I was pondering over this, I had an epiphany of sorts– A lot of people “prefer” to live in ignorance not because they can’t help it, but rather that they prefer to live in ignorance bliss because it absolves them of the responsibility to have to do something about it once they know the truth – especially if the truth leads to the responsibility of having to act against the status quo! Once you gain knowledge about something then you are now voluntarily or involuntarily recruited into being responsible for it.

 With responsibility comes action and with action comes accountability. Thus you consciously or unconsciously become an ‘activist’ or a ‘revolutionary’ of sorts. The essence of learning is that once one becomes informed, the information and knowledge inevitably leads to consciousness – e.g. self-consciousness or, social-consciousness or what I like to call  ‘circumstantial relative-consciousness’ i.e. when you understand yourself clearly relative to the circumstance of your universe. As Steve Biko once said, change the way a person thinks and you change their behavior!

Thus, I truly believe that when we say Ignorance is Bliss, it’s a choice because  the quest to be accepted, to be included, to belong is always greater than the pressure to maintain one’s own collective identity and thus one’s perceive integrity in the face of contradictory knowledge or values. Hence, when all I could come up with was a “maybe” to my question I was choosing to be in the bliss of ignorance? This hedging on my part, I concluded, was based on my double standard that -I don’t like secret, unless they are mine! However I have since come up with a definitive position on this thought, which I choose to keep a secret! But on a more general level my learning curve and final conclusion is that those who prefer or choose the bliss of ignorance are choosing to be irresponsible, hence those who stand for nothing account for nothing! Therefore, it’s better to be wrong than to be nothing.

Copyright @ January 31, 2011 by Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA/Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO- EDCTrainers, LLC.

The African Rain Dance – Things are not what they seem!

Copyright @ January 14, 2009, (Edited January 18, 2011) by Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA/Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC.

Well a sucker is born every day...so the saying goes...now all the suckers are grown!!! And its payday for all the few thieves out there.

When I started my PhD, one of my PhD professors once said to the class, and to me in particular ....”it’s so silly that some African tribes believe in the rain dance”. Since I was the only “African” (although I am Zimbabwean) I asked him what he really meant. He explained that Africans believe that if they dance the rain would come, and it’s really so silly if they understood weather science,  they would know that dancing does not bring rain, that’s why WE have meteorologist in the developed world.  

First I smiled to hide my boiling blood! At this post graduate level of study I was used to this condescending attitude in higher education driven by ignorant superiority complexes, I had also been run out of another PhD Program years before for being “unrestrained in my ‘passionate’ opinions” (which meant I did not know “my place”) that was 1995.  However, in 2001 I now knew how to manage my academic politics!

With my smile  still on my face,  I  calmly explained to him that “It’s interesting that you thing its  “silly”, but I don’t think It’s silly at all...if you lived as one with nature – like most Africans do, especially rural dwellers, you would know that when rain is coming, the earth smells of water, the dust feels damp and the birds start chipping excitedly and the chipping frenzy gets more excited as the rain day gets closer and approaches, they  may not know  exactly what day of the week the rain is going to actual fall, but they just know with certainty it’s coming soon. Because of all these natural weather signs and the people know they need to prepare it may take a few days or a week or at most two week but the rain comes sooner than later! So they dance in celebration because they rely on the rain for their agricultural crops to grow and thrive. But if you are not in touch with the way of nature and have no clue about these signs, you will think the dancing is silly because you are disconnect from your universe and there is no instant gratification of the meteorologist feeding you the information.”

 He was staring at me as I continued...”However, what I really think is more silly is the obsession with the revered stock market dance where people are expected to be dancing for YEARS for the pot of gold that may/or may never come and if it does come you are right where you would have been if you could have just put all that money under your mattress little by little and not having to pay someone to keep it for you!!! It was his turn to smile, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to get an A grade or D that semester! I got an “A”. He stood corrected after all!
 

The following African parable underscored for me the Stock Market rain dance philosophy and why I do not buy into it.  I think every culture has its rain dance; the difference is the high stacks associate with each and the margin of futility from stupid!

"Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each." The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars. They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of monkeys!

Now you have a better understanding of how WALL STREET, its CEOs and Banks got us in this recession ditch and this real estate mess!!!!

• Recommended reading: The Poison Wood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver -The Poisonwood Bible (1998) by Barbara Kingsolver is a bestselling novel about a missionary family, the Prices, who in 1959 move from Georgia to the village of Kilanga in the Belgian Congo, close to the Kwilu River. (The nearest town, an impossibly long journey away, is Bulungu.) The Prices' story, which parallels their host country's tumultuous emergence into the post-colonial era, is narrated by the five women of the family: Orleanna, long-suffering wife of Baptist missionary Nathan Price, and their four daughters – Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May.(Copyright: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisonwood_Bible)

Rethinking the Issue of Race –it’s about Economics

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.....! If we want better we have to do better and demand better”

I had a fascinating discussion on Face book with some of my networking colleagues the other day. The discussion was on race. A subject I usually avoid to discuss in person because my views are generally unorthodox to most people.  (I also avoid public discussions of religion and politics, if I can help it.) However, at the core of my philosophy about race is that it’s not an argument of SKIN COLOR (pigmentation) but a conflict about ECONOMICS (fundamentally who get what, when and how much of it!). For me this perspective changes and shifts the paradigm in many ways and for this I have been label by my intellectual friends as a “Classist”, which I don’t mind.  I find that may people are stuck in the events of history such as slavery and colonialism and forget all about what really drives us all - Self-interest and self-preservation. But ask the question, if each one of us had the opportunity to exploit the other for wealth creation would we think otherwise?

But let’s look at it from skin color because this is where most people are stuck from. I argued that racism is not a philosophical argument of demands and wants. When I go back home I find out that even after years of so called “independence” the remains of colonial racism are so entrenched among the black to black relations within themselves. It’s from everyone even the mediocre black waiter in Meikles Hotel who treats you differently that the Caucasian dinners as if we were still in the colonial times. Race from a pigment of your skin argument (which I think is now irrelevant in the global economy) is also a paralyzing state of mind. (ref. Steve BIKO – I write what I Like)

The pigmentation race-based argument is like that story most Shona people heard at family gatherings called “Biras” (night ceremonies to consult with the ancestors). Self appointed Zinathas (witch doctors and fortune tellers) showed up to consult with the hosting family and the family elders wanted to find out if there are problems in the family. They would be told that there is a problem of an unpaid debt...the story was always that the family owed an unfulfilled promise to some migrant worker (usually a Malawian man) who their ancestors promised a wife as a payment in exchange for the work the migrant worker did. Then for some inexplicable reason the migrant worker leaves without his payment (the promised wife) of course intending to come back to get his wife at a later date, but never does. So now the family is haunted by the migrant worker's spirit that still need to be repaid!!!

I have asked every Shona person that has stopped by my house if they ever hear of this legend and so far I have had 5 people tell me their family were also told the same story about the migrant worker curse.....So I started thinking this reminded me of the race argument. When will other races stop paying their debt to black people? Yet we ignore the Black heads of states that have mismanaged their African economies and have stashed away billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts! It’s time we start taking responsibility; focus on self-sufficiency & self empowerment, instead of steal from each other; mismanaging & plundering the country with greed, then turn around and blame it on history of colonization & everyone else!!!

I have been called an apologist, a classist and other choicer labels, but I am not an apologist, apologies are a waste of time! I am a realist and I understand how the game is played. Whenever I give my African brothers and sister the migrant worker curse parable I find that they do will not address it even if they see parallel futility of it all.  I used the immigrant worker curse as a parable to highlight that: a) Historical debts are a black hole that gets black people nowhere and will never be settled as details/facts are obfuscated; b) We get stuck on focusing on the past not the future; c) we exhaust energies on problems that divide us and not solutions that unite us: d) instead for remembering the past to create a new future of the future past we would all want our children's children to remember; e) finally we should not want our children to carry the burdens of our ancestor...whether they owe or  are owed a debt. I like working with progressive people no matter what color they is!!! That’s mobilizing my resources (SLIPPA principle #3)

From an economic perspective the issue of race makes more sense to me. It is the idea that those with power and resources can exploit those without in order to maintain the status quo – both within their economic class bracket as well as externally  to other class brackets without. From my observations, it seem that the moment you have power or resources that you can bargain with, your race matter not! We all seem to forget a person’s race once they become wealthy, for example people like Oprah, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson or Tiger Woods, and no one really seems to be preoccupied about their race. Unless  of course they become too greedy and  dominant and violated the principle of “YOU GO CHOP, I GO CHOP

I had a debate with some Nigerian colleagues of mine during the Tiger Woods scandal and everyone was arguing that it’s because he was a black man and they were just waiting for him to slip up, which he did, and the vultures where out to pull him down! I argued that Tiger’s exposure had nothing to do with his race at all, but with the economics of who get what, when, how much and for how long! It was more to do with the fact that he was dominating the Golf  economic pie! He was getting all the lucrative endorsements in addition to staying number one in the game! Same thing happened to Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson. They dominated their industry pie so much that the only way to move them over was to find a scandal that would derail them at the right time and place…The reason why people want to pull over-achievers down is because it’s the only way to make room for others to enjoy the pie. I reminded my Nigerian friends, it was no different from what  they famously say  “YOU GO CHOP, I GO CHOP”!!!   Its primitive, but its captures the true essence of sharing the economic pie.  Tiger’s down fall had nothing to do with him being a black man…everything to do with the fact that Tiger go chop, chop all for himself and failed to let others chop also in the golf pie too!

On the other hand Oprah’s has survived because her style of doing business clearly involves “YOU GO CHOP, I GO CHOP “philosophy! Maybe not by design; But also I think because she is a black woman she does business different…very different from say…Martha Stewart! She had created all these other stand alone brand extensions and lucrative supply chains which have made so many other people really wealthy and famous along the way! So if one were to attempt to take her down they would really be taking down a whole chain-work of a highly integrated wealth creation system. Hence the program on the “ Oprah Effect”  exemplifies the tentacles of the “YOU GO CHOP, I GO CHOP” philosophy in her style of doing business.

So when we talk about racism or tribalism or nepotism any of those concepts of them vs. us its just a way of categorizing who  belong were at the time so that the curving of the pie goes to those with the most clout– we are talking about turn taking among the power elites in sharing the pie. For the most part the power elites don’t care what your race pigmentation is, but more what your economic status is! If you can create opportunities for more wealth for all to go chop you stay, but greed will result in evitable downfall.

 On a country level, we can talk about America and the European countries designing regional blocs and institutions as a way of having a mutual understanding of who get what spoils from where on the global level. But the rise of China and India has upset the status quo. A good example is China, which used to be the economic underdog of the West is now leveraging its labor resources to amass economic influence and the Western powers that be have had to calibrate their approach in dealing with China. Of interest is how the democracy carrot that Western powers used to use as a condition for doing business with the less powerful LeMonde du Sud (southern countries) has been undermined by China and its way of doing business -they are openly doing business with dictators around the world and this has upset the balance of economics in the global arena.  China has changed the paradigm of who is doing business with whom! It’s not my imagination that I don’t hear much about conditionality of democracy in the development narrative…..? Not that it has completely gone away,  is now encapsulated in the new  “governance” terminologies.

I could flip and dissect this race issue in so many ways, to prove how the race argument is so obsolete on a macro level. Of course, people of color may encounter isolated incidents of racial prejudice, but I would attribute this to an element of individual failings or insecurities, but not a narrative of mass consciousness. As Friedman said “The World is flat”, hence economics is the only relevant relational narrative currency of our times!

Copyright @ January 2011, Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA/Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC