Alexander Valeton
Creative Producer Media HQ –
Director Yielder – Kenya
COVID-19 shocked the world as year 2020 started and when it was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, there was need to take drastic measures. Kenya has been in lockdown since 6th April 2020 and this immediately impacted businesses who were encouraged to practice working from home just as the children had to shift to online classes.
In the midst of all of this, there was a growing demand on food supplies amongst other necessities, and farmers too had to find a new way of not only connecting to their customers but to keep up with trends to cope with the agribusiness.
Crossover Kenya’s Harleen Jabbal had a chat with Alexander Valeton- Creative Producer Media HQ and Director Yielder Kenya on his recommended five comeback tips for business as we get to a “new normal”.
According to Alexander, “Covid-19 is the punishment of the world: we went too fast, too polluting, too money driven. If we want to restart the economy the times of neo-Liberal money making should be over because we know that there are too many people losing out. The weakest in our societies don’t have access to money to dream and build. Capitalism always has winners but it also has losers and until now it seems that the biggest loser is the limited source- our planet. The extreme rich don’t pay taxes and the extreme rich consume most and their eco footprint is biggest. We should break that cycle and we can only do it by being responsible.
We is every one, yes really everyone, from slum dweller to low middle-class, to top middle class and we can give the good example to the high class.”
Five Comeback Tips:
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
1 Pay Taxes: Everybody should be a responsible citizen and do his/her part to build up the country, the community and societies; we need a centrally paid system that serves us all: roads, public transport, health care, education, traffic lights, judges, internet services. All these things that we all use and we all benefit from. People and organisation that privatise their support select things they find more important to beef up their face and reduce the tax payment so that there is not enough money for public good. That is why USA became a developing country with holes in the roads, too few hospitals and a national beds that is in-comprehensive.
2 Demand explanation of how tax money is spend: we need a good free press that is annoying and researching everything. All people should be accountable for what they do. If people get away with bad management, with corruption with non-transparent leadership then they should be tackled and shamed publicly. There should be a strong legal system. There should be honest prosecution and there should be no remorse with mid level quality for high level jobs: that is an insult to the tax payers and that is why people turn away from paying taxes.
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
3- The Earth it tired because os us: Growth was translated to economic growth only because ‘quality’ is too hard to measure and happiness is a soft factor. We are beyond that now. If people can not say why they do something then they shouldn’t do it, and what counts for people should count for companies and organisations too. Be accountable for what you do. Don’t produce anything that makes people fat or sick, that pollutes or destroys. Bye bye arms dealers and weapon industries, cheap Chinese plastics or coke and burger.
4- Do nicer things: if we don’t stand in traffic jams for 2 hours a day while polluting and wasting time, if we don’t fly to the other side of the world for a meeting and if we don’t go to Dubai to come back with bags full of stuff we never needed, then we can spend more time on nicer things. We can create quality in stead of eating, drinking consuming and spending. Yes, it is nice to visit Borobudur and Kyoto but Venice, Amsterdam and Barcelona have been killed by cheap tourism. What is actually the take away message? Been there, done that… is that all? And then there is Machu Picchu, Petra and Victoria Falls still on that bucket list… take a break.
5 – Choose wisely: Whenever the public, the consumers and the voters are clear in their demands they will not be stupid sheep going to the ballot boxes, standing in line at Mc Donalds or jumping around in the same jeans. People need to be taught to be independent, to be responsible for their choices and not to delegate understanding. If you can pronounce your needs and wishes you can ask for it, and if you can pronounce it you are also responsible for your choice.
Be a free thinker with a responsibility, never follow the crowd and vote with your voice, your money and your network.
We are moving up and reaching out to more and more farmers. With Yielder’s Blended Learning solutions we can reach farmers remotely: they are in the field and we are behind our desk. The Yielder Ambassadors are training people in small groups.
Yielder is a smartphone app and a farmer information platform created through a partnership with key stakeholders in order to aid farmers to increase their yields. The information in Yielder helps farmers produce enough food to meet a growing local and global demand. Yielder is the digital bridge between the need for information from farmers and the existing information available in knowledge centers like NGO’s and universities.
Yielder is the one-stop-shop for all the information farmers need to farm better, get better yields.
