Conscience Pricker: The Lucrative Yet False Developmental Indicators We Blindly Toast To

By David Mugun |Author|Management Consultant & trainer|Publisher|

The setting of this article is in the African country of Kabambe with Malenge city as its Capital.

A while ago, Philip, an expatriate, arrived in Kabambe on a three-year renewable contract. A lucrative package enticed his relocation. A decent salary, a fantastic house, two cars, a hefty children's school fees allowance, an international medical cover, a well-paid domestic servant and a driver to boot. The gratuity was equally generous.

Philip worked with an NGO dedicated to supporting needy communities within Malenge's slums and further out in remote Kabambe.

He had local colleagues too who enjoyed perks similar to his. The locals did everything possible to impress Philip and went out of their way to ensure that he was familiar with all the preferred expatriate zones. And he blended in very well.

When the honeymoon was over, a sense of guilt engulfed him. A hard-punching conscience pointed him to the fact that he luxuriated at the expense of the communities he was sent to serve. Back home, his kids went to regular public schools and had lived in an ordinary neighbourhood. But what was regular and ordinary there was a luxury in Kabambe.

Increasingly he came to believe that the local situation was deliberately created to serve some interests.

He had come from a place where all systems worked and benefited even the poorest in society. Accountability on public expenditure was paramount.

A recent statistical revelation that over 15 million Kabambeans live in absolute poverty, would have killed Philip. These are people surviving on two dollars or less a day.

It soon hit him that all the trappings of his present job, were in fact, the products of compensatory measures taken to cushion him from the failures of the public system. Back home, one could see where his taxes went and what they actually did to better his experience as a citizen.

In conversations with colleagues, he indicated his reluctance to renew his contract contrary to what many other expatriates would have done. A brush with leaders at a meeting over poverty eradication sent an unwelcome chill down his spine. The leaders seemed keen to further spread instead of eradicating the biting poverty.

And seeing things from his point of view, he came to the realisation that Kabambeans have a competitive spirit that could lead one to keep up with the Joneses. An attitude of resignation to public system failure and out of it, a Phoenix-like determination to foot the bills left out by the government.

This situation deprives the salaried and small business people the opportunity to build up savings and leaves them comparatively disadvantaged in a globalising world.

Many of these indicators are the source of big money to the savviest investors. His caution though, was that he had no problem with the presence of such private facilities, but too many of them indicated government failure. There is a thin line between complementing public services efforts and a complete takeover.

Over time he saw this as a double pocketed market development strategy. One pocket's from the poor and the other pocket's from the marginally able Kabambeans. These are:-

1. Too many private schools taking the place of yesteryear good public schools ironically on the back of increased tax collection. That parents could avoid free primary education was an indictment on the government because quality assurance in education is its constitutional duty.

Too many private schools without a justified public-private partnership rationalisation kill the public school system. Most dependable teachers originally in public schools have voted with their feet and walked away to better paying and well-equipped schools.

2. Too many private medical facilities better equipped and better run than public facilities. Sometimes the one attending to you at a public facility will ask that you report to his private clinic for better treatment. His public job station is the source of clients for his private practice.

So in such a case, the conflict of interest means that public facilities will remain inferior to private ones for a long time. When their presence ceases to compromise government services, then their presence will be a welcome choice addition.

3. Too many cars on Kabambean roads more because of a wrecked mass transport system than as a sign of a growing economy. Too much money is unnecessarily tied up in vehicle ownership. When an entire population is under the mercy of wreckless PSV operators, it says something about the collective country leadership.

In fact, Philip likened the PSV culture to public leadership in many African countries. Both cut unbelievable corners and both also remunerate themselves at the slightest opportunity. Additionally, they both circumvent the rule of law and also share a demonstrated indifference with the continent's poor. They handle them like loose baggage down a bumpy road. Good Presidents are let down by many within their own systems.

4. Unnecessary importation of counterfeits, toothpicks and stuff Kabambe can manufacture locally. For as long as people enjoy unholy connections in high places, bad imports will always undermine the economy. Jobs and hard currency are lost for good.

So Philip will not return to Malenge city in a long time. He hopes to someday read about how the majority of the population was lifted out of poverty, and those in gainful occupations spared the inconvenience of spending instead of saving up.