The Tragedy Of Dreams

The amazing thing about the youth in this country their passion for work, the depth of their intelligence, their desire to make money, their entrepreneurial spirit, their creativity and much more.Sometimes I ask myself whether this country is ready for the youth it has now, whether its ready to harness the immense potential they possess, whether it is ready for entrepreneurship. In a classical society, the youth grow up, with dreams and aspirations shaped by their heroes, their role models. People who have trodden down roads they want to pursue. If I was in the states I would admire Gates or Steve Jobs (apple computers-yes of the iPod craze) or even Trump. The tragedy of our youth is that they lack such role models. Yes, we definitely have people who have amassed great material wealth. But have they the spiritual depth that can inspire the youth, isn’t it true that all they have is high profile connections and corrupt schemes. Are the youth expected to be inspired to be corrupt?’ No one makes it in Kenya if the play straight’. Isn’t that what every one says?

Encouragingly, some of us have decided to take the road list travelled. Increasingly the new generation of youths is exploring creative, innovative and novel ways of developing themselves. What some aspiring entrepreneurs have done would transform them into billionaires if they were in a country like America. Think of products like graduates.com, afrogle.com, stockskenya.com etc. think of the many youth with the capacity to develop high end application software, offer above board IT solutions. Think of the dude who makes animations for adverts (have you seen the kayamba Africa video!!), the graffiti artists, the likes of home boyz, etc.

There is really nothing so amazingly creative about myspace.com or youtube.com. If those dudes were in Kenya I doubt they would have made an impact. They just happened to be at the write place at the right time. So are we, in Kenya, at the right place at the wrong time? Or maybe at the wrong place at the right time! We live I a country when some 50 year old asks for a payroll soft ware and expects it for free. Why? Coz you are young, don’t need money, and its just software! Were people expect websites to be developed for 30K but must look like, and have the same functionality as the eBay site! We are just not ready for the energy and brilliance that our generation has to offer.

The other day me and a friend of mine, who happens to be highly entrepreneurial were joking that maybe we should stop developing high end IT solutions and instead, go back to agriculture, buy matatus or just open a retail and whole sale shop. After all we live in a society were a product is a product if it can be touched, felt and maybe eaten-food, shelter and clothing: a basic needs society that stifles our creativity and kills our dreams- the tragedy of our dreams