« Come to me!». With that greeting in sheng, dialect used by most young Kenyans, opened Barack Obama the Global Entrepreneurs Summit in Nairobi last weekend. The entire country heard his words of hope, of future and determination. Nairobi, full and clean, adorned with American flags that fluttered alongside Kenyan ones, moved at a different pace. No trace of the famous traffic jams!
Notorious (and corrupt) political, scoundrels from high places, brilliant entrepreneurs, optimistic young people, evil police officers capable of negotiating with the devil in exchange for two bucks, they listened and nodded. The moral extremes of Kenya they shook hands on that historic visit.
Nairobi, full and clean, decorated with American flags, moved at a different pace
“There are no limits to the human imagination.!”, Obama stated before an excited Kenya. There was a lot of talk about the economic growth that the country had experienced in recent years.. There was no mention of the fact that corruption takes up a third of the national budget.. Yes, there was talk about the need to fight corruption. Everyone agreed that it is a “cancer.”, especially the president of the country, Uhuru Kenyatta, whose name means freedom en swahili, here in the International Criminal Court could not judge despite being accused of being indirectly responsible for more than 1.300 deaths in post-election violence of the year 2007. A president who governs freely, so free that the cases of corruption that are convicted are rare for a country whose Police leads the ranking of Transparency International as the most corrupt institution in East Africa.
There was a lot of talk about the country's economic growth and nothing about the fact that corruption takes up a third of the national budget
They talked about women's rights. Of democracy. Of the triumphant right of the weak to stand up and say NO (but how to say no when you are hungry and they offer you some bread). The path to change was presented as a natural turn, A collective effort was requested from a country that is continually trampled by the hypocrisy of authority. Optimism shined, symbolic, about problems that do not need symbols, but of decisions. Of things.
Obama left and traffic invaded the streets again and American flags began to disappear
Obama was, and traffic returned to the streets invade. Jams turned to despair anyone and US flags began to disappear gradually. And then reality, The fantastic thing about the country: people who earn sixty dollars a month and raise a family by starting a business that starts with two chickens; mothers who plant the land with their son on their backs, crouched down, pulling out weeds from the fertile land; young people who get up at four in the morning and cross the city to their low-paid jobs and who, when they finish the day, They go to class because they have a dream. The entrepreneurs who did not attend the summit. The entrepreneurs who hold this country on their shoulders and who get their hands dirty and their clothes dirty.
The entrepreneurs who hold this country on their shoulders and who get their hands dirty did not attend Obama's summit
How can it be that we are so dazzled by big words and show so much indifference to the really important things?: those that happen in the street, now, the little stories, the small challenges, the small dreams that make this country something great.
I hope that Obama's “childhood”, that greeting addressed to the people, arrive directly to the town, and do not get entangled in the pockets of the scoundrels who “govern” this country of opportunities that are real, but they are only accessible to a few.
