Page 23 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 9

RE- DEFINITION

point. which is an over-stretched and potatoes have lost half their copper
non-favorable-to-the-common- and iron, a third of their calcium,
I live in the beautiful Nairobi area. man business model. In that paper, half of their vitamin C, and almost
Because I live here and see things the author ,Father Anselm Adodo, all their vitamin A. You need to eat
every day, my analogy will be about wrote something about the culture eight oranges to get the same mount
the things I have seen in Nairobi. of waste that we have in Afrika. of vitamin A as your grandparents
Here is an excerpt from some of the from one orange. We continue to
Mind you, I am not using Nairobi things he wrote price food by weight whereas the
in my analogy out of any biases or "To change the business model we real value comes from the nutri-
prejudice, but because I live and see have to ask the question, tional content that depends on the
things here. “How does nature do it?”. quality of the soil."

I love walking in the mornings to Nature has an incredibly efficient My thoughts
both exercise my body and also to business model. There is no waste in So clearly, we are losing touch with
pray, meditate and prepare my mind nature, no pollution and no unem- what really matters and chasing
for what God may be saying to me ployment. Nature prevents erosion, after things that don't matter and
and for what I need to get done in maintains soil fertility, pollinates, for which we need to start blocking
my day. When I take my morning and balances pests and populations. our broken pipes if we want salvage
walks, its not unusual for me to It maintains life cycles and genetic what we have remaining and also
see fresh water flowing wastefully diversity at productivity levels far our future.
from broken public water pipes. I beyond any human-made technol-
mean multiple broken water pipes ogy. Bring it home
over a not too big area. I see these In nature, any substance is always There is lots of stuff in our daily
wastages and then try in my mind a resource for a new process of life to talk about and also relate to
to accommodate the various news regeneration. Any good policy has this issue of wastage and the act
stories you hear in the media about to start with an understanding of of blocking broken pipes. Take
how there is shortage of water in waste. In fact, with the understand- for instance, a middle class earn-
Nairobi and how the ministry for ing that waste does not exist. Nature er in Kenya who earns let's say a
water resources is using rationing to does not produce waste. In nature, 100,000 shillings to 200,000 shillings
help assuage the situation. any substance is always a resource a month (USD 1,000 - 2,000). He
Kudos to them for at least finding a for a new process in never-end- lives with his family of one wife
way to help a very critical situation, ing loops of regeneration. A tree and two kids in a supposed middle
but is it possible to actually look drops its leaves which are converted class apartment that costs about 60
out for the various avenues through through armies of species including to 70,000 Shillings per month, he
which the not-too available water is earthworms, ants, fungi, micro-or- buys his food (mostly processed and
protected from wastage though the ganisms into humus – soil – which sometimes GMOs) from shopping
blocking of the broken pipes? Let blended with rain and bird poop malls that he pays unnecessary extra
me leave you to think about that. feeds the tree again through the money for. He takes his family
roots. The same soil that feeds the for weekend eat-out where he will
The issue of wastage in trees, maintains all life – includ- spend no less than 3000Shillings for
Afrika ing ours. Policies then (in science, junk that will land him or his family
I only used the issue of water short- Economics, medicine, politics in the hospital a few months down
age in Nairobi due to wastage as an etc) should not just be focused on the road and somehow if you care
illustration of a bigger problem we protection of the environment; they enough to ask him, he will tell you
have in Afrika, which is, the wast- should be focused on the regenera- he is servicing a loan for the fine car
age of our natural resources, skills, tion of nature. he brought his family to the mall
talents and the many other things with.
we waste. We Are Not Only Wasting Soil,
But Wasting Waste Not to go into too much detail, let
I was reading a paper about a new We are not only losing vital soil, the me ask you a question, do you know
business concept that has the power soil that we have is no longer as rich how much it is to buy a KFC 2
and potential to unseat capitalism as it used to be. Research shows, for kiddie chips, nuggets and a piece of
example, that in the past 50 years, chicken with every 9 piece bucket in

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