An African Perspective

Dear David,

I have received Agenda for a New Economy, and already started reading it.

You speak to my deepest concerns and convictions.  This phenomenon of phantom wealth, which takes away from those who produce wealth and gives to those who don't is a critical issue that undermines the quest for honest living in our societies.  Sadly, the mistakes of the West, and especially of the US are so projected in the developing world generally and Africa in particular that they become the defining aspirations of whole societies. Why we can never learn from these mistakes I do not know. Why we in Africa aspire to the same lifestyles and pursuits that have wreaked havoc with Western civilization beats me.

In recent years, pyramid schemes have become a craze in my country, Kenya, even when there was a whole body of knowledge showing that these things do not work.  There is a whole movement in this country that revolves around phantom wealth - everybody wants to become very rich very fast, preferably without doing a lot of work.  In our case it is compounded by corruption of political leadership. It is all about deals that create overnight millionaires, never mind the cost that the entire society has to pay across generations.

Let me read on, and I shall be in touch.

Thank you for the great job!

Michael

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Michael Ochieng Odhiambo
Executive Director
Resource Conflict Institute (RECONCILE)
Nakuru, Kenya