Why Nairobi Attract’s Amazing People Like Me!

I enjoyed this New HuffPost Piece: Why Nairobi Attract’s America’s Young Social Entrepreneurs by jonathankalan

He discusses why "Nairobi has just recently to crept into the international market as a city to keep an eye on." which makes me feel pretty cool for living here!

He says, "It’s what I’ve come to dub as the four P’s — Potential, Poverty, Politics, and Parties -- a unique blend that draws a distinct class of Gen-y ers looking to make money, make a name for themselves, and make a difference…."

Clearly I consider myself one of the UK's best and brightest young social entrepeneurs with my shiny development degree from the University of Easy Access so its nice to hear this chap's evaluation of why I'm here in Nairobi.

More seriously, I've been thinking a bit of late about 'Generation Y' and what we are up to, how we are trying to find our way in a fast-changing world, growing-up being told we would change the world, that we would be history makers and finding ourselves the other side of uni struggling to even get employed, filling in the meantime with a quick trip somewhere so we have something to post on facebook.

This blogpost nicely introduces how in Nairobi I find myself mixed in with other young people in very different situations, with very different values, motivations and dreams for their lives. On the one hand I have friends my age praying and dreaming to get a qualification that might make them minimally more likely to get a job in this country which has about 10 jobs to offer the expansive young population. I have friends who have gone to the best schools, read widely and have big dreams of what their country could be, they are full of passion and ideas and are getting on with changing their society. Some friends whose main goal is to provide for their young family or to help their parents provide for their siblings.

Read the whole thing at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-kalan/potential-poverty-politic_b_969338.html