Dogs and Sheep

A friend of mine once asked me if carrots grew on trees. Which reminds me; some time back I was driving through a local town in Hawaii and came across a herd of sheep. A friend of mine who was riding with me wondered why some one would keep all those dogs in their backyard. But that was not far from a good friend of mine that has just returned from a mission trip to Rwanda who was asked if he saw gorillas in town. I mean, come on! Gorillas in town!!, are you kidding me! Now wait when you hear this: “Do you eat cooked food in Africa?” Okay, that really got me. I mean, fire was discovered in Tanzania by a caveman a few years ago in African history. Are you wondering whether cavemen eat cooked food? The answer is yes. Of course we are so many years ahead of caveman living. Little wonder we eat cooked food. But seriously, what’s up with our education system? I mean, why are our kids getting slower and slower about world events and simple visual recognitions? Did I say kids? I meant, why, including more than kids, are we so… uninformed?

A few days ago I was talking to a western investor (and by WEST I mean from Jupiter) about real estate investment in Kampala Uganda; Talk about 50% ARR (Annual Rate of Return). The gentleman looked me in the eyes with an absent-minded-I-know-the-answer-kind of look and said “what about Joseph Kony? Is it safe to invest in a city where Kony’s soldiers vandalize houses everyday?” I know you were going to laugh at this. If you didn’t laugh, please stop reading this because what follows is probably going to annoy you even more.

I called this note YELLOW AFRICA because of my affinity to bananas. My wife knows I can have bananas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Did you just say MONKEY? Please!! Anyways, yes, bananas. According to my banana preservation technique, there is a time in the life of a banana when it is the sweetest. It’s normally between the stickiness and the stinkness of a banana. Imagine if a country like Rwanda was a banana. Maybe we could call the time period between 1991 and 1994 “sticky Rwanda”. But ten comes 2005 and 2006. Close your eyes before you read this because your Jupiter-mind will not believe it: Percentage change of Rwanda’s GDP growth rate was a stinking 477.78%. In the same year, United States’ percentage change in GDP growth was a sarcastic -27.27% (we are talking minus in terms of negative growth. It’s like walking to heaven backwards).
Now let’s talk future. In 2007, United States’ GDP growth was, you got it, Zero. What about predictions for 2008? Yeah, that’s right: minus (negative) thirty one point two five percent (31.25%) “ungrowth”.

Now going back to our sticky Rwanda, 2007 figures show that Rwanda’s GDP outgrew one hundred and twenty two (164) countries of the world at a whopping 11.54% growth rate. Now that’s what I call a really-yellow-banana ready to go. And we have so many of them in Africa. Lots and lots of them. But our Jupiter minds have not been programmed to see them. We miss them. Everyday. Until we hit rock bottom. Then we wake up to India, and China, and Taiwan, and Singapore… and it’s too late to jump onto the boat. Fasten your seat belts. And if you would excuse me, we are off to we-told-you-we-were-really-ripe-for-investment land”.