ALWAYS READ THE LABEL, by Rama Isibo
Wu-tang
baby, You gotta read the label, an all-time rap classic; a thumping
denouncement of record labels being punned to distraction and a
stinging critique of capitalism was delivered. I always try to remember
to “read the label” but I often peruse and I did the other day. I
needed to fresh up coz I was sweaty in town, so I went a shop to buy a
spray; I looked over the bottles they had and none that I recognised
till I saw “cool water” grabbed it coz it smells like you’ve showered.
Later I got home and read the label and realised I had bought something
else “This design is not connected in any way to Parfums Davidoff of
COOL WATER for men.” I just thought the pure genius of that, imagine;
that is just obviously saying that you are counterfeiting a product,
because it smells just like the real thing, the same bottle and even
same brand but it is not the same product. It reminded me of the cloned
brands we used to get back in the day and still do, adibbas, Mike,
Hike, ReaBok, Punna, and several others that someone inattentive or
dyslexic would never notice.
The
average Rwandan shopper is not bothered with brands and doesn’t care
about brands and copyright law but neither does China, India, Brazil,
Mexico, and all the emerging economies do this to varying degrees
producing everything from generic ARV anti-AIDS drugs, to cars, to
shoes and clothes. I have a friend Tony with whom I used to debate the
whole “African dilemma” and talk late into the night solving Africa’s
problems and forgetting the solutions by morning. I assure you that if
we remembered the stuff then our GDP would be 3 times higher as a
continent but we’ll just imagine the great rhetoric. He asked “why do
we have only 2 aluminium smelters in the whole of Africa?” I pondered
and said historical factors, lack of investment, corruption, lack of
skills and all the usual excuses. Then came my “Oackham’s razor”
moment; even if we overcome all those hurdles and increase investment,
fight corruption, raise skill levels and build the smelter, we have to
do it cheaper than China, Brazil, India, and the emerging economies.
With this global borderless market you have to be globally competitive.
When
we look at China and India, they are both a blessing and a curse to
Africa. They are good because they offer a counter-balance for the
Western-dominated economy and an alternative market for African raw
materials. The counter-effect is that Africa is flooded with cheap
worthless products which are of such low quality that they are barely
worth a fraction of what they cost. African manufacturing will never
develop because we are flooded with cheap crap, yes we might produce
Blue Band, Omo, Fanta and such consumer goods but when it comes to real
products we are far off from producing quality goods or even adding
real value to our goods. The “China syndrome” is a product of
globalisation and growth in manufacturing capacity; for example in the
UK every city had its own manufacturing base, often producing goods for
the local market. In Henley near where I lived there was brewery called
Brakspears and they supplied the local market with unique local ales
and lager but soon there were breweries that could supply a whole
nation of 60 million from one plant. Soon small breweries were out of
business as Bass Breweries in Burton-on-Trent could produce 100 million
units of alcohol in a day.
The
Chinese and Indian economic miracles are a result of globalisation but
they have taken differing paths. In China the Communist government
decided in 1978 to adopt a capitalist economy while maintaining
Communism as the political system. India also had socialist leanings
until they also liberalised but their success has been more organic
than the centrally planned Chinese model. Their size is their strength,
but to maintain that unity they need social cohesion when both nations
have a multitude of ethnic groups and regions. India in the long-run
looks more viable; I question whether communism can ever achieve what
America has achieved. For now China is the industrial complex of the
world providing cheap labour but little else; for all their industrial
might I cannot name a single Chinese brand, this proves that when it
comes to innovation and brand-development the Communist system stifles
free-thinking and the incentives for innovation, so all their brands
are imitated. China lives by its own rules, imagine if any other
country forcibly sterilized its female population? What would Amnesty
International say? Even in Rwanda with a higher population density than
China we would never contemplate such a policy.
In
this global economy size matters, we have to unite in coherent blocs
that can increase our bargaining power, just like India and China as
well as Brazil and Mexico cannot be ignored we must aspire to that
level of influence. The recent Doha round showed that the 3rd
world of a minor concern in the wider global economy; the West is
clinging to what it has because they know they are in decline and the
emerging nations bide their time as they wait to take over. In the
meantime we sit on our hands as we wait for the world to have mercy on
us and change the system. We need to develop our markets and connect
with each other; for example Congo imports oil from the middle-east
when Angola next door is one of the biggest producers in Africa. Africa
missed the industrial revolution as we merely provided the material, so
we sought to jump to the next level and just focus on services and the
tertiary industry such as tourism. We have to go back to square one; we
have to manufacture our own products; just so we can not be held ransom
by relying on others. Our industries are inefficient and out-dated but
they have to be given a chance to develop in a period of grace even
though it might mean high tariffs on the cheap tat from China. Till
then we have to read the label because we are being too easily fooled.