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Showing posts from January, 2011

Zimbabwe... What is in it for the next generation

I am part of the group of Zimbabweans called the "born frees", essentially we are the ones born after independence. For us born just after independence (1980 - 1990) I believe we benefited greatly from what Zimbabwe had to offer good education system, health was accessible and a large number of our parents were able to improve themselves so as to do better than their parents. Well for our generation I believe it will be very different. A lot of us will not be able to better what our parents did, it will be a miracle if we do as well. I have have been lucky to meet some big names in Zimbabwe whilst growing up Moses Chunga (he was a great Zimbabwean footballer) at a Dynamos game in Mbare, Mumwa Mawere at an NDA talk in the 2000s in Mutare. I met a number of politicians; some I liked and some I didn't. But the common thing a lot of them believed was that us the born frees were not doing enough to look after our birth right.... Zimbabwe. Now I do not know what could have bee

Are subsidies correctly targeted?

There is a strong feeling amongst us the "post-independence" generation of Africa that the development models implemented in Africa are designed to keep the continent. The evidence is strong to support this assertion. I mean capitalism in its rawest form is the exploitation of the poor by the rich. Some very clever economists who, after the uprising of the poor in Europe to displace monarchies in the 19th century, cleverly exported exploitation to continue this very Darwinian economic system. I hope the reader is not mistaken by may tone, I am a strong believer in capitalism as the best and fairest form of economic organisation so far. I just do not believe it is sustainable in its form as competition is not encouraged globally. Subsidies in wealthier economies ensure the domination of the poorer areas of the world even if we may have a competitive advantage. It is no secret that if the World Trade Organisation worked properly, Technology would come from Asia, Capital would c

How Do I become BIG?

Well I hope those of you with the dirty minds clean them a bit... I didn't mean that. This is a useful question in doing business in Africa, as it is doubly hard to make a million here! I have just finished reading a book by Andrew Sardanis "a venture in Africa". Now this guy created Africa's first truly African multinational, but a number of factors led to his decline. I do not think there has been a thorough enough analysis of the decline of Meridien BAIO by our more learned in Africa to see what effects it had and more importantly, to propose how this can be prevented from happening again. For us to achieve some semblance of greatness how do we go about it? I mean, we have little access to capital, am now thirty and the only loan I ever had was an educational loan from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe... this was a staff loan. Now if i need to create employment, I need access to capital. I have the training and experience to make a venture succeed, but have difficulty