Welcome to the fifteenth short publication of the Kikulacho Cultures Series™ that discusses popular cultures that may be having a negative impact on your financial and personal well-being. The word “Kikulacho” comes from the Kiswahili (Swahili) language, and literally translated into English means “what is eating you”. However, in practice it is used in the Kiswahili language to mean “what is ailing you”. A popular Kiswahili saying “Kikulacho Ki nguoni mwako” is the inspiration behind the name of this short publications series. The practical English translation of this saying is “what ails you is within you”!
Per discussions in my previous short publications, the new economic environment has short new product/new skill/new innovation life cycles and fast changing consumer needs which results in “brutal” competition, smaller profit margins, and falling wages. In this new economic environment, the relevance or real value of the goods and services traded becomes a focal point of many. It is therefore interesting to find industries whose existence is heavily dependent on complicating things that could be made simple, in which case the industry would either shrink drastically, have greatly reduced profits/wages or cease to exist. These industries continue to have large revenues and their services continue to be critical. I will look at four dominant economic sectors to analyze this phenomenon; Health, Education, Information Technology and Justice.
Health:
The content in all fields of education continues to grow rapidly, and in specific areas, namely the so called STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math’s) more complex. The complexity of the so called STEM courses discourages many from pursuing them. They have thus created a shortage in these fields, which raises the wages and profits in these sectors. Is this intentional? There are many who believe that if an educator knows their subject matter well, they should be able to explain it in a short and simple manner to anybody with a high school education. So what is wrong with the STEM courses? The inability of the educators in the STEM courses to present their material in a short and simple way could only mean that they either do not understand the material well enough to explain it simply, or they are creating an intentional shortage of personnel to keep wages and profits up in their professions.
ABRIDGED VERSION
(See Prof. Ngarua’s books on Amazon for more information on this topic. Click on the link below to view the books. Commissions earned if a purchase is made on Amazon)
Habari shujaa 