-> G21 AFRICA
 BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE.
WHY should you advertise here? We'll tell you.
HBIC New York Realtor and New York Mortgage Broker 
|
To read this article in Deutsch, Francaise, Italiano, Portuguese, Espanol, Korean, Japanese, Dutch, Greek, Chinese and Russian, copy and paste the complete URL ("http://www.g21.net/africa77.html") and enter it in the box after you click through.
400 BRICKS G21 AFRICA AMERICAN DREAMS JOIN OUR MAILING LIST. The A-LIST starts here. DAY ONE GLOBAL*BEAT MY GLASS HOUSE NEW YORK STATE (Of Mind) G21 ELECTION POLL RADIOACTIVE RADIO FREE ARIZONA RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT ARCHIVES. LAST WEEK's EDITION MEET THE G-CREW! These are the people behind this jam-band every week. HOME TABLE OF CONTENTS & BACK ISSUES BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE.
WHY should you advertise here? We'll tell you. |
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - What do Mississippi and Kenya have in common? Not just black people -- who make up 36% of Mississippi's population -- but also casinos. In the last ten years, gambling has become Mississippi's leading industry with most casinos located along the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time Kenya has been accumulating her share of casinos. They can now be found in every corner of Nairobi and other cities.
X.N. Iraki The increased number of casinos may be one good indicator of the increase in inequality in both places. People gamble because either they have too much money or too little. Those who are rich may have nothing better to do with their money; the poor think the only way to become rich is to gamble.
Marketers and conmen have taken full advantage of this inequality. You rarely rest in Kenya without a certain firm launching a competition where a prize worth millions is at stake. Such competition, another form of gambling, is rare in the US. Some may suggest, increase in the number of conmen could be another unscientific measure of inequality; a few conmen -- most are men -- try to multiply money, one wonders why not their own ...
The just published report, "Pulling Apart: Facts and Figures on Inequality in Kenya", highlighted inequality in a scientific way, using data. It was a very objective analysis, with no reference to [the] causes of inequality or solutions [for it.]
The analysis however left a few salient questions.
Why not make a comparison across the borders between Kenyans who remained at home and those in the Diaspora? The top 10% own 42 % of the wealth; who constitutes this 10%, what are their ages, backgrounds, and origins? Can we have our own list of richest Kenyans (like Forbes) and how much they are worth; after all, are we not declaring our wealth every year? That wealth declaration can be used to inspire the young people; after all, even Deng Xiao Ping admitted "being rich is glorious". And who would not want to be a Bill Gates?
- Why does Nyandarua have one of the highest life expectancies and unemployment rates?
- What does a school enrollment of over 100% mean?
- Why are more women than men affected by AIDS?
- Why is one community disproportionately afflicted with AIDS?
- Does the high percentage of expenditure attributed to the top 10% in Nyanza confirm a popular stereotype?
Where have [the] men gone in Vihiga, Murang'a, Kitui and Siaya; their proportion in the population is too low. - And one more, why was no attempt made to analyze inequality based on racial groups, Asians, whites, Arabs, indigenous people, or was no one ready to open a Pandora's box?
Inequality is a global phenomenon; I highly doubt we shall ever be equal like the horns of a cow. Yet governments and other institutions, like the church, have eliminating inequality as one of their avowed goals.
Governments tax us to increase equality; churches preach that we should love our neighbor, while we even insist students should put on uniforms to mask their inequality, a British tradition that is fast catching up in America. But, despite all these attempts, inequality is still with us, the unwelcome companion.
Even in the progressive USA, inequality exists across regions and color. The poverty rate is much higher among black people and those who live in the inner city than whites or those who live in the suburbs. Inequality is, however, never an emotional issue in the USA; if they don't progress economically, people tend to blame themselves. There is a belief that anyone has a chance to emerge from poverty and there are enough examples and counter-examples.
Though 10% of Americans control 70% of the wealth, you rarely notice that; water, education, health, transportation, telephone and power are accessible to everyone -- then you can worry about paying the bills. People pay taxes and the government uses the money to provide services. The welfare system ensures no one starves; politics plays almost no role in provision of services or jobs, perhaps the most admired part of the American system.
The Kenyan analysis also left a few issues that should have been highlighted; informal sectors players e.g. jua kali (self employed people) have lots of money but I doubt if they can ever say they have it or they are employed. Two, the rich share their money with brothers, sisters and other relatives, leading to less inequality!
Maybe we should move one step farther and ask what the causes of inequality are. Some causes are universal, like history. In Mississippi, the legacy of slavery has contributed to inequality. In the slavery era, agriculture made Mississippi a very rich state, cotton reigned. Plantation owners were respected and built great mansions that still attract tourists to Mississippi and [the] antebellum South. Those who have visited the Deep South, even from other parts of the US itself, are amazed how time has stood still, frozen, and chilled.
After the industrial revolution agriculture lost its preeminence in the South. But the freed slaves were less educated and it took time for them to catch up. Some left for the industrial North; Mississippi has not yet recovered from this change. Today, as other states attract high tech industries, Mississippi is attracting car manufacturing, thanks to low wages and lack of unionization. It is still a puzzle why Mississippi has failed to attract retirees, like Florida or Arizona, despite the sunshine ...
In Kenya, those regions that had early contact with the white man prospered. They got exposed to the modern formal economy, their sons and daughters went to school, while in other communities they did not. No wonder most post-independence leaders came from such regions.
Huge social changes also cause inequalities, e.g. regime changes, great discoveries or innovations. Such changes spawn new classes of rich people, who -- armed with new ideas -- make headway when the masses are trying to find their way. This has been witnessed in the former communist countries and in England after the Industrial Revolution.
I am skeptical as to whether inequality was reduced after 1993 when liberalization took place in Kenya, unless we all became poor first!
In Russia, after the end of the communism, it is rumored that seven oligarchs controlled the whole economy. My take is that they may not be seven but they are few ...
After independence, the few educated Kenyans easily acquired wealth, without competition, and major changes since then has spawned few rich people because this group perfected ways of ensuring that wealth does not leak out, including marrying among themselves.
Technological changes, from computers to mobile phones "chills" out the uneducated as the educated and savvy make their money, easily. The fact that most of the new ideas are not homegrown in Kenya makes it easy for the elites to capture them before they reach the masses; an example, a mobile phone costed 120,000 KSh [Kenya Shillings] in 1994 and it was the size of a bar soap!
Nature however also plays a role in equality. We are born with a certain endowment of intellect which helps us navigate our way though life's many mazes. If your IQ is 180, you are likely to land in leading schools that bestow you a life long competitive advantage, you get a good job, get easily promoted and start on the way to getting rich, and possibly marry a beautiful wife, while your peers lag behind.
Education was supposed to mitigate inequality or be the great equalizer but it has ended in being the greatest uneqauliser. Parents have come to realize that. In fact, one other measure of inequality in Kenya is the emergence of private schools. School can make up for the deficiency in intellectual endowment., Rich parents can hire tutors , while in US and even in Kenya, the school you go to determines how far up the social ladder one will go.
In the US, and to some extent in Kenya, we have a well-layered schooling system , with parents starting to prepare their children for certain Universities right from the time they are born. At one time in the UK, parents would book a place for their children at Eton College before they were born! Through such schools, the kids are prepared for their expected positions in life, well-paying and privileged often, with the help of "Old Boy's Network".
Schools don't close their doors to poor parents but the charges are enough to keep the poor parents off. In Mississippi and in Kenya there are private elementary schools that are more expensive than the universities! This way schools becomes clubs, where fees payment is the barrier to entry.
The other cause of inequality is (you guessed right!) marriage. Unlike poles repel! The rich marry from the rich. This ensures, deliberately or not, that wealth remains among certain people. But as soon as a poor man becomes rich, he can marry from any class. In the US, the color becomes insignificant, which has made the minorities very bitter; there a serious shortage of eligible bachelors among the minorities in the US -- maybe due to inequality.
What cannot be disputed is that inequality is among us and has been civilization's companion for a long time. Though it has been on the wane, but reluctantly, a child today has a greater chance to reach the highest echelons of any society, irrespective of who his father was, his great grandfather may have been less lucky.
The people who wield power and influence are best placed to reduce inequality, but will they really bell the cat? Reduction in inequality will benefit even the privileged, those on the right side of the inequality divide, because greater social harmony makes it easier for one to enjoy his wealth. There is less crime, it becomes easier to do business, there is more trust and economic growth goes up, the "feel-good" effect is one of the most effective impetuses to economic growth.
Now we know how unequal w e are, now we know the evils of inequality and the merits of equality. How do we move from inequality to equality without disturbing the social harmony? Or do we accept inequality as one of baggages we must carry on our long journey to progress and economic growth?
If it is true that inequality worsens at the initial stages of economic development, we have a reason to rejoice and smile. If not, we have a reason to worry. Whatever the truth, we still need to reduce inequality. How do we do that? My next article will address that important question.
X. N. IRAKI, a Lecturer at the University of Nairobi's Faculty of Commerce, is currently a Fulbright scholar in Mississippi, in America's Deep South.
© 2004, GENERATOR 21.
E-mail your comments. We always like to hear from you. Send your snide remarks to rod@g21.net.