In a recent New York Times Op-Ed Article a Kenyan and Kiberan ranted about his displeasure with Slum Tourism and how it will not help the slums. It was great article, but I have my own a opinion. One of the reasons I got involved with the Sauder Africa Inititative is because of a tour I took in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Personally, I have a very hard time with the balance between the ‘success’ I feel volunteering with Social Entrepreneurship 101 and what is really being accomplished. The other day, as I push my longboard up-hill preparing for Skate4Kenya I hit a real mental wall and just stopped pushing. HOW AM I HELPING! I have started to despise slum tourism for tourism sake, but much like training entrepreneurs, I wonder, is it the 2% that survive and create healthy businesses that I focus on, or the 98% that fail? I decided I’m voting for the 2% and so I started pushing again. What else can I do?
In a very frank conversation with my students today, our last day, I scolded a number of them for showing up late to present their business plans. Of course their response was, ‘sorry’. I wouldn’t accept, ‘don’t say sorry to me, say sorry to yourself,’ I told them. ‘You have this opportunity, this chance to help yourself, a way to grow and you didn’t take it seriously.’
I have to believe that all is not hopeless, that the slum is all there is, the only way. I can’t blame it strictly on the government and corruption and ‘circumstance’ because I have watched people with incredible opportunity choose to waste it – in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, and in Kibera. Mental illness, addiction, abuse, etc. aside, when given opportunity how can one not attack it and seize it! I guess only 2% will, but I believe in what they are creating for themselves and for Kenya and ultimately, this, I think, is why I am pushing a longboard across the country: for hope, for change, and to create opportunity for the 2%.
Every Kenyan I talk to calls me a crazy Mzungu and asks me if I know how far it is from Nairobi to Mombasa. They tell me there are just as many wild men as wild animals I will pass that can harm me. And they tell me the road is rough and not made for rolling on. I might be a white foreigner, but I am not an aimless wanderer. Like many of our young, hopeful entrepreneurs, maybe I don’t fully know what I am getting myself into, but I am going to sweat, hurt, get frustrated, likely bleed, maybe puke, and possibly cry, but I have a goal and I will make it to Mombasa.
When I deal with ‘small businesses’ in Kenya, I witness 2 prices – Mzungu prices and Kenyan prices. As a Mzungu, I pay more. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR EXTRA REVENUE? Do you save it? Do you invest it in your business? Do you spend it on your basic needs? or do you see it as a windfall and waste it? Its my experience that 2% use it for the positive and 98% squander it.
Slum tourists or not – if you will it and you pursue it relentlessly, you can overcome it. You can hate the tourists, but you can also create opportunity and change. I do not come from a nuclear or wealthy family. I have also experienced addiction and substance abuse first hand thanks to my parents. But I can sure as hell say, whether opportunity knocks or not, I will create it and I will make the most out of it for the future. I feel very lucky to have been exposed to so many opportunities, and because of them (Slum Tours included!) I am here with SE101 and Skate4Kenya to do what I can to create these opportunities for the slum and the country.
Carpe Diem is a logical fallacy. Sieze the opportunity.
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