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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.
Will Prosperity In Their Own Countries Keep The Migrants From Coming?
Common development thinking these days is that if only developing countries could prosper, this would stem the flow of migrants to Europe. This article explores the issue and arrives at quite different findings. With several European development organizations now financing projects to keep Africans in their countries, what really has been the success of such initiatives?
In just under two years — lightning speed for the European Union — the 28-nation bloc has approved nearly $2 billion in spending on 116 projects aimed at countering the “root causes” of migration in 26 African countries.
The reality on the ground is that the sustainability of the projects being funded is being put to question and there is proof that increased earnings only increase migrant's abilities to get to the West.
The story of the Malian cashew factory — which was still sitting idle in July, five months after it first ran out of raw materials — highlights the immense challenges that await European policymakers seeking to remake the poorest countries on Earth into attractive places to live...Traoré had long dreamed of migrating to Europe. Also like them, he lacked the resources to make it there...He had been saving money working at the cashew plant. The notion that someday there might be a well-paying job for him right here in Mali — the kind of job envisioned by EU policymakers — struck him as unlikely. If one suddenly appeared, though, Traoré knew exactly what he would do: “I would save money and go to Europe.”
Economists show the fallacy in the belief that better jobs will discourage migrants from leaving the country. If the jobs are not sustainable and if there are no macro-level changes that happen in the country to help the economy grow, migrants will save all they can to move abroad.
This should not surprise anyone though, as in the mind of African migrants, similar to other migrants, all people ever want is to be able to survive the best they can – sometimes that involves migrating.
