Globalization: Kenya Getting Linked to The World

Skype experience: I had heard of Skype a couple of times before, but had never used it until i downloaded it for the this Technology class. I started using the phone feature to call my friends and family-- who are by the way more than 8,000 miles away for fairly cheap rates. Due to Skype reliability and convenience, i have pretty much done away with other long distance phone services i had subscribed to before Skype. The conference feature is really amazing, one can practically hold a bussiness or any other kind of conference call from anywhere. When i used it for this class, i was just experimenting, but wow!!

Back to the conference call: It is really amazing how technology has changed the World. About ten years ago, i often heard leaders especially in my country (Kenya) saying the World was going to be a global village, it did not cross my mind then what they meant. It was not until i started reading Friedman book " The World is Flat" that it started dawning on me that the World was in fact becoming a global village.

I became curious and started skyping to my friends in other countries to see what they thought of technology "leveling" the World. I was particularly surprised by what my friend in Kenya brought to my knowledge. He said Kenya had signed a deal a couple of year back with an Asian fiber optic company to lay cable all the way from Japan under the sea to Kenya and eventually to South Africa. The main reason was to connect Kenya to the rest of the World for business reasons. My friend told me that the cable company was almost done networking all the major cities and towns in Kenya with fiber optic cable, a move that has already started transforming the country.

There has always been a monopoly in media and telecommunication companies in Kenya. However, with fiber optic cable other companies have joined in to share the "pie". The "sharing" according to my friend has proven benefitial to the common man. The rates that used to be extremely high have been lowered significantly due to competition for customers. The quality of services have also improved tremendously.

Let me also share a litte bit about what else is happening in Kenya. Due to the fiber optic project, my friend told me that many international companies are now seeking to do business in Kenya. This is a golden opportunity for many companies looking to reduce their cost of production and maximize on revenue. Why....?

Some quick facts about Kenya:
In Kenya there are at least 20,000 graduates graduating from Kenyan universities annually. Due to the high unemployment rate, less than 20 percent are employed. This number increases every year, and it is becoming more and more competitive even to be considered for an interview. In most cases to improve the chances of getting employed, one has to climb the educational ladder all the way to Ph.D. or Doctorate. It is becoming more common now than ever to see university graduates going all the way. Some of them end up being send through governments labor programs to other countries that may be in need of manpower e.g. teachers, college instructors, nurses or even engineers.

Technology as Friedman acknowledges, has flattened the World beyond anybody's imagination. I am interested to see what the powerful force will do in my neighborhood (Kenya) especially after reading what it did to India.
Technology has created a new World called the "Global Village".