Like which meanings?

the very fact that we have people on this forum discussing and critiquing the 'most intelligent' label of the city they hail from adds credence that there is some 'intelligence' in Nairobi! of course some of you may want to claim that i was not intelligent enough to criticise the 'most intelligent' tag/label when I first posted it but rather I decided to use Obama's meme. The reason I did this is because I had gone before you and known that most of you will intelligently criticise the 'intelligence' tag and from previous discussions gathered that the label was fitting and thus I posted it. The very fact that you have been able to follow this string of thought shows that you are indeed intelligent and adds credence to the fact that there is some 'intelligence' in Nairobi - some thing that I always thought you would be able to do coz you are indeed ...'intelligent'

Of 'intelligent'.

Granted.

But then again, in my rebuttal, I give you the (in)famous "Peculiar Kenyan Calling Habits" that has since become part of the Kenyan lexicon.

"They" give the resounding success that mpesa has become in bringing the mass man into the monetary-banking mainstream as one of the signs of this "intelligence". Yet only failure has met those that try to replicate it elsewhere.

I want to think that this is an adaptation to new phenomena and not destruction of language as you so eloquently put it.

"Peculiar Kenyan Calling Habits" did not, in my opinion, render communication unintelligible but actually enhanced it in that it defined a new behavior that could only have developed from peculiar usage of a relatively new technology.

How wrong am I?

Looking at their definition:

The rankings, in the forum’s opinion, recognize the achievements of communities that have inclusive, prosperous, economies on a basis of information and communication technology.

I am inclined to think so.

The question is, do you?

For me the key words are 'communities', 'inclusive' and 'prosperous economies', 'consciously deciding' using ICT.

m-pesa is neither communally generated nor inclusive in generating economic prosperity. So it doesn't qualify.

I have never really understood this metric! why do they consider it a failure? since it's not as big as Kenya's? how long did it take for Kenya's version to grow to these levels? what people don't get is that what makes m-pesa tick is not tech or numbers of people on a telco network but rather what we call 'network effects'. The larger it becomes the more useful it becomes. people have not taken time to try and create these network effects. it's a chicken and egg situation - agents who need customers and customers who need agents. When people just seed a society with a product and wait and no magic is created they wonder - why are people not joining it? then they say - ah! kenyans are peculiar people.

what we have is too much 'internet'

The issue of 'intelligence' has been on my mind for sometime now, and am glad that there's some white space on wazua for me to think and learn from others. In that case, wazua emerges as an intelligent entity. And in similar breath does Nairobi become intelligent. And perhaps the most intelligent in Africa.

To see how wazua, or Nairobi are intelligent one has to appreciate that wazua and Nairobi have different meanings, forms, and relations on different dimensions.

Maybe I should share what I think 'intelligence' is, or rather what I have discovered it to be. Intelligence is the ability to create harmony between unconscious forces and conscious actions. Adaptation isn't about the external environment alone. Evolution is in effect, a spiritual act and process.

So in a global context Nairobi exhibits intelligence by creating harmony with the unconscious forces of globalization and internetworking by adopting the appropriate behavior like embracing digital transactions and even by showing innovation - like in the case of m-pesa.

It may be true that Nairobi is very intelligent. I concede.

How is this intelligent Nairobi using it's intelligent to set apart Nairobians?

What advantage does it accord Nairobians as compared to for instance Kampalians?