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piqer for: Global finds
Ciku Kimeria is a Kenyan author "Of goats and poisoned oranges" - (https://www.amazon.com/goats-poisoned-oranges-Ciku-Kimeria-ebook/dp/B00HBBWPI6), development consultant, adventurer and travel blogger (www.thekenyanexplorer.com). She writes both fiction and non-fiction focusing on African stories that need telling. She has worked on diverse pieces for various international and local publications including Quartz, Ozy, The East African etc. She has travelled to 45 countries – 16 of them in Africa. 153 countries to go and 63 territories!
"Of goats and poisoned oranges" has been extremely well received in Kenya and beyond. It tells the story of a Kenyan middle aged power couple and their complicated marriage. The novel explores issues of greed, revenge, betrayal and murder. It runs from the 1960s to 2013. It has been described as “Wicked, funny, poignant, wacky, human, a big ball of fun and danger”, “A unique and captivating book”, “Fun and intriguing”, “Impossible to put down once you start reading.”
She recently moved to Dakar, Senegal from Kenya to work on her second novel. She also works at as the Africa Communication Manager at a leading global strategy consulting firm.
She holds a B.S. in Management Science from MIT with minors in Urban Planning and International development studies.
Africa's future debt crisis if Western economies improve
The IMF does not go without significant criticism in Africa especially given the history of structural adjustment policies in the 1980s and 90s that required African countries to rapidly privatize institutions in order to qualify for financing. Such programs have been criticized for the rapid privatization and deregulation that plunged several African countries into social crisis. Some of the major effects of the programs included the removals of subsidies on food staples, the widespread retrenchment of workers, a rise in cost of social services and goods and reduced wages for workers.
As a result, most Africans are extremely apprehensive of any widespread reform programs proposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) especially any that involve conditional lending.
In this particular interview by IMF's current chief, Christine Lagarde, an interesting question is however brought up. What will the effect be over the next few years of recent sovereign bonds totaling over $20 billion that have been taken by African countries over the past few years?
Lenders were so eager to lend that I don’t think they were very serious about assessing the risks and assessing their exposure. And there was clearly, on the part of some investors, in the private sector in particular, a drive to push as much debt as possible in order to generate some yield.
She also touches on - leapfrogging and how it's meant to be the panacea for everything that ills the continent. This issue is most eloquently written about by the recently deceased Kenyan born thinker in innovation and technology and Harvard Kennedy School Professor - Calestous Juma. In his essay, Leapfrogging Progress - The Misplaced Promise of Africa’s Mobile Revolution he states, "The failure of the mobile revolution to stimulate industrial development in Africa is the result, in part, of a faulty narrative that assumes that Africa can leap into the service economy without first building a manufacturing base.
