Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Pedro B. Ortiz on Nairobi Expressway



Nairobi expressway:
With this project Kenya proves to be an underdevelopped country.... and that it deserves to be.
(The Kenyans that are proud of it are those that make of Kenya what it is)
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المهندسة ماجدة الشويات and 22 others
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  • Dan Vill
    At the same that Jalisco gov wants to build an express way on a suburban area instead of connect or provide services to new Metropolitan areas.
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  • Pedro B. Ortiz
    If the toll is too high, it will only benefit the wealthy and the politicians (with free pass). If the toll is too low, it will be as jammed as it previously was. In any way, it will benefit the investors but not the economy of Nairobi. While all developed capitals are taken down their flyovers because they have realized they have been a mistake... Kenya sets them up. Kenya intelligence is a Century late. Low speed intelligence! The way to address congestion and efficiency is through mass public transport (metro and commuter) not by doubling in ignorance.
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    • Cliff Nyagara
      Pedro B. Ortiz on this one I agree with you.We had better options but then it's not really as bad as you sound... We are behind but not an entire century!
    • Pedro B. Ortiz
      Cliff, ok. You are only back 80 years (Germany was already building these in the 1930's and the USA in the 40's. But the problem of lagging back is your only prospect is to serve those that lead ahead of you. Serving others is your everlasting future? You have done so for 130 years. With these decisions i see that you are bound to be serving still for another 130. Sad.
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  • Brisa Cill Quemba
    He has a similar idea Peñalosa for Bogota and his elevated metro which I guess will be surrounded by brilliant and useful bolards 🤷🏾 ♀️
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  • Mutuma Kelvin
    True...am a Kenyan. Our DP was against public transport the other day.
    • Pedro B. Ortiz
      Mutuma. Ignorance! But people have the politicians they deserve. They elect them! (Then comes the Pope and says that the world shouldn't exploit Africa! The question is: Does Africa know anything else than to offer itself to be exploited? It is the curse of ignorance)
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  • Elizabeth Maldonado del Cid
    Congratulations Pedro for giving such vision and support to design, plan and bring to fruition impact and positive development projects to Kenyans.
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  • Merham Keleg
    The public minds are filled with propagandas which alter their perceptions and refuse to hear to the experts!
  • Jens Aerts
    This monstruous, mono-modal, non inclusive, carbon high infrastructure required loans from banks - public or private. When are we going to impose sustainability assessments before giving loans for this?
    • Pedro B. Ortiz
      Jens. Chinese economic colonization. The Kenyans deserve it. I was able to stop the World Bank finance 12 years ago. But the Kenyans thrive being colonized.
    • Jens Aerts
      Pedro B. Ortiz that explains a lot … in the mean time China inows better for its own citied: subways and bullet trains. While exporting its outdated engineerings and contractor services to Rwanda…
  • Pedro B. Ortiz
    The Chinese have financed it! Hahaha. Economic colonialism! And the Kenians are happy been colonized... 130 years after the British did it in 1895! Hahaha. Do the Kenyans like to be a colony of someone else? Looks it is a vocational attitude! Hahaha.
  • Adil Abdalla
    Pedro B. Ortiz; Despite smart technologies and applications, the "Worlds" are getting further apart.. The fortunes of "Global South" are spent on nonsense, while principle assets for better knowledge and living are deliberately ignored by corrupt systems.. Powers of "positive" Collective Intelligence is not working at the South.. No wonder that many call for "Formal" recolonization..!!
    • Pedro B. Ortiz
      Adil. Straight on the spot, Adil. That is the problem. Lack of Collective Intelligence. (Read my words: 'Smart Cities' is another trick from wealthy countries to sell false expectations to the poor one... for a high price)
    • Pedro B. Ortiz
      Adil. I Remember once, twenty years ago in a meeting in Africa where I was the only non African. One of the speakers said: "we have to fight against the idea that we were better off under the white people" Terrible. If you have to fight an idea it is because it is gaining ground. Terrible!
    • Adil Abdalla
      Correct.. Therefore, I only addressed "Smart Technologies and Applications".. which allow the "enlightened ones" to export ideas, concepts and realizations.. I believe that most the world are deceived by the phrase "Smart Cities.."
    • Pedro B. Ortiz
      Adil, smart is the immediate use for short-term benefits. Intelligence is something different. Smart... is not intelligent
    • Pedro B. Ortiz
      Now the new stupid idea is the "15 minute city" and we will pay for that stupidity for the next 15 years.
    • Adil Abdalla
      I also remember; while a lecture of yours, some Arab-speaker audiences were whispering of jokes.. It is sad that the "Brains" are still rusted or ingrown despite degrees and media..
    • Adil Abdalla
      I think the "Price" of any urban misconceptions are long-lived>> decades if not centuries..
    • Pedro B. Ortiz
      Adil, European mistakes of early 19th C. cities are still paid for today. 200 years later!
    • Lyse Corazone
      Well this road serves me very well as a Kenyan so I will praise it
      • Pedro B. Ortiz
        Lyse. Good for you! (Though bad for Kenya) should I remind you that sentence of Kennedy: "Do not think what America can do for you but what you can do for America". Kenya is undeveloped because there are Kenians benefit from Kenya being undeveloped...Good.
      • Lyse Corazone
        Pedro B. Ortiz well I believe that that the top 1% of the top 1% grab all the wealth worldwide and nothing will ever change that
      • Pedro B. Ortiz
        Lyse. It might be difficult to fight that (we have improve that in Europe in the last 2 centuries) but should we promote it? The Expressway does.
    • Khalid Z. El Adli
      What are your thoughts about develoment’s in cairo
    • Suresh Patel
      New colonial power, which is changing the world dominance.
    • Joseph Heathcott
      I wonder if it is possible for everyone to take a step back and think about how to critique these kinds of projects in ways that are not couched in such racialized developmentalist terms. No debate is advanced by opinions like "Kenya intelligence is a Century late." Or that "Kenya" "deserves" to be "underdeveloped"? Or that "Africa" suffers "the curse of ignorance." Or that "Kenyans thrive being colonized." In my view, this is not only a facile and reductionist line of critique, it is unbelievably offensive as well. "Underdevelopment" is a deeply problematic story told by Global North intellectuals about former colonial societies, grounded in tropes that reinforce relations of superiority. The idea of a country being "130 years behind" some register of "progress" (defined by Global North intellectuals and agencies) is a spurious claim and a phantasm of European supremacist thought. It is intellectually lazy, and reveals more about the claimants themselves than it does about the country to which they refer. Who decides what is or is not "bad for Kenya" when Kenya is so enormously complex and multifaceted? To be sure, I'm not a fan of large-scale urban expressway projects, and I have spent a lot of time in Nairobi to know that this road is a mixed bag for the city. And of course Global South infrastructure projects are proffered by transnational financiers, foreign state interests, and national elites, often at the expense of the people. But we do not have to dismiss an entire country as if it fails some ladder of progress and modernity test crafted on its behalf? I hope that people reading the exchanges here do not think that all urbanists share these views.
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      • Pedro B. Ortiz
        Joseph, finding excuses on the name of political correctness is a way of perpetuating it.
      • Joseph Heathcott
        Has nothing to do with political correctness. I really don't even know what that phrase means. It is nonsensical, and a simplistic way to dismiss ideas. You'll have to do better. We all will.
    • Constant Cap
      The next step after this is someone saying 'we need to move the capital' - as if the new capital will be ran by robots.
    • Mike Jimbi
      What happened to positive criticism? So you won't make your point without being salty
      Is it because Kenya went East for financing?
      • Pedro B. Ortiz
        Mike. 1) It is not bad to be salty. It promotes discussion. 2) my criticism is based in professional knowledge (I was involved in Nairobi decision making 12 years ago. I know how things go). 3) my criticism was made before I knew the Chinese had financed it. But this finance explains even more things. 4) I am not blaming the Chinese for this economic colonialism. The USA did exactly the same in Latinamerica early in the 20th century. It was called "Dollar Diplomacy". 5) I am blaming the Kenyans for not understanding what they are doing: "waste investments decisions that put them under a colonizers' rule". Do the Kenyans like to be a colony instead of a sovereign country? Looks like it

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