Latest articles (100)

NAKEEL

  • CHIRAU MUST GO

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 3:26 pm by Nakeel
    As a bitter taxpayer I know there is little I can do to make this man go but if the President and the PMPS (Prime Minister Press Service) recorded what happened in Likoni yesterday someone by now should have packed and heading uko Kinango akalime Mbaazi. If you managed to get a glimpse of what happened in Likoni in the morning. The ferry almost sank as it was overweight. I could see the

Wanjiku Unlimited

  • Google - Too Many Errors.

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 3:24 pm by Shiko-Msa

    This and many more errors have become a staple with Google which is really acting up of late. Not all the time of course but for those who use it daily, it’s occasional bad moods become very noticeable. And it’s the whole network. Temporary errors on Gmail, Gtalk, and Adsense, and article/comment publishing are becoming all too common. The one in the picture is as straight forward as they come but if you’re not lucky you’re confronted by a whole page of techno babble when trying to publish.

    Few things in blogging are as frustrating as not being able to post articles and comments when you want to. But maybe the most annoying of them is when you write a comment and try to publish only for it to disappear into thin air. Just like that. And blogger says ‘done’. Done what? Where is my comment? And then you’ll have to go back to the post and open the comment window afresh. Woe unto you if you had not copied the comment elsewhere like in Microsoft Word - in which case you’ll have to retype it.

    Some people have said it’s a question of poor internet connections but I beg to differ. Does poor internet connection only come to play when it comes to google? Does Africa Online and Access Kenya for example fall under poor? Plus how can you explain a scenario where there are several people sharing the same internet connection on a network and only one or two get these errors at any one time?

    Something strange happened on this blog last week. ‘CIS vs Kenyan Law – Who Will Nail The Culprits’ was posted by HLumiti on July 16th with proper paragraph formatting. Then on July 21st it suddenly changed formatting and the whole article became one huge paragraph. How does an article change formatting when it’s already live for 4 days? Of course it can always be edited back although the whole 500 plus words article gets blown to what must be font size 20 in the edit window. It’s good Google are hosting our blogs, mail and all but can they also be flawless in the process? After all they’re Google no?

    Maybe there are still a few things I’m yet to figure out about blogger. Any experts out there? Your word will be highly appreciated.

Black Looks

  • Hate speech kills

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 3:13 pm by Sokari
    Tags: LGBTI South Africa Hate Speech Homophobia SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Hate speech kills", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/07/hate_speech_kills.html" });

Devastating The Obvious

  • the courtship at mala*

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 2:40 pm by dobvious

    * due to influences the place is referred to by some  as mara

    The uncles were here in their droves , gobbling  bottles of malted barley that was not so easily obtained from the army canteen across the road and groaning to old tunes that reminded us of the 45’s of days gone by . It was really a good day by their estimations - to get to relive their prime , Nothing could match that . The aunties from the bride’s side were however not in an upbeat mood as such for they could not fathom why there was need for such a discord  .It was now  almost a four hour wait , a standstill that was occasioned by the misunderstanding as to what metric was to be used in calculating the standard bride price of sixteen cows and a bull.

    With the shilling proving to be a rather ineffective barometer some argued that perhaps it would be better to return to the old ways and have a cow stand in for a cow .Instead of having these long sessions of metrics and confusion . Though this proved to be an even sharper thorn in the ankle when another debate ignited as to which breed of cow was to be used. One even volunteered to generously give them in pairs for he knew of a place and a certain pastrolist , roughly four hundred and twenty five miles from there who was more than willing to discard his herd at any price . Some - definately  suffering from the effect of the  froth mess even suggested that a cow be equated to the share price of the recently  public listed company - that way they said they would never operate at a loss since from their investment intelligence they were sure that it was sure to head north .

    Still they could not come to an understanding .

    He was clearly bored by the whole time drag - at this point he wondered to himself . Did he really need all this . Or was he better off in a far away land where all that was needed was just four cows and 4 drums of honey or that place famous for producing   the atheletes of the other kind - two goats and a bottle of moonshine ? .

Rugby in Kenya

  • Weekend Games

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 1:35 pm by DataMiner
    The battle for the Kenya Cup Rugby Title continues this weekend. In what is turning out to be one of the most monumental battles ever, the race is wide open with only five weekends to go. Any slip up by any of the top four sides is one finger off the trophy, metaphorically speaking. League leaders Impala take on Strathomore at home. KCB and Nakuru are away to Mean Machine and Mwamba

KA-INVESTOR

  • Equity Bank 2008 H1 Numbers: More Surprise!

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 12:58 pm by ka-investor
    Equity Bank has done it again! If you thought last years result were marvelous then this year’s result will be a great shocker. Though I expected such a performance due to the role the bank played in the Safaricom IPO, I still didn’t expect the bank to hit a near 200% profit increase (197% to be exact). The bank CEO, James Mwangi, attributes the jump to ‘a delicately balanced growth, profitability and good control systems’ (whatever that means)

    Summary of results:

    • Profitability tripled to Ksh.3.087 billion from Ksh,1.037 billion same period last year.
    • Total assets grew by 143%, from Ksh.29.9 billion to Ksh.72.5 billion
    • total operating income increased by 156% to Ksh.6.58 billion
    • Total overheads increased by 128% to Ksh.3.5 billion.
    • Consolidated loan book increased by 153% from Ksh.14.3 billion Ksh.36.2 billion (probably Ksh.15 billion from IPO loans)
    • Despite the post election violence non-performing loans only increased by 3%.
    • The bank has 2,456,982 deposit accounts (over 45% of all deposits accounts in the banking industry) and 510,768 loan accounts.
    • Equity still remains the biggest bank in terms of market capitalization.

My Life is...Mochalicious!

  • Summer Chunes - 2008

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 12:44 pm by Mocha!
    The sun is out and humid…….means only one thing, summer is finally here! Here are my summer tracks on my weekender list. Hope you have fun wherever you are and Nakeel….have a timam one. Baditude - Spoon, Harris and Obernik (Not sure about this one, but I have a feeling it will grow on me) Pictures - Sneaky [...]

Odegle Nyang

  • pornography ...for breakfast

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 12:20 pm by odegle
    I heard a story one time of a young woman who was born-again and was getting married to another born-again brother. During the pre-nuptials fellowship, both the families were invited. the girls family as well as the young man's family. after a lot of preaching, worship and singing, it was time for testimony. Testimony in the evangelical worship is quite integral. the story goes that the young woman got up and gave a testimony of how she met the Lord and he saved her life. she went on to give the juicy details of her former life which she called a life of prostitution saying she could not even count how many men had laid her. it was a shocker. even though this was a gathering of saved people with high forgiveness quotient, the mother, the sisters, the aunts of the man could just not reconcile themselves with the prospects of their 'clean' son marrying a whore! the marriage did not proceed.

    The story taught me that there are things you can say even if you were saved and there are things you must not say. a human being must have secrets. and private life must remain, mmmm errr private.

    fast forward, enter fm stations with young upward mobile presenters and all of a sudden every one wants to discus their private life in public. its getting worse by the day. i normally awkwardly have to drive with my finger on the radio buttons to change channels. the music is great but it stops all of a sudden and listeners are being asked what they think of the caller who had CFA with this man and now wants to dump him. or what they think of this sex style. or which tribe is best at pare pare and so on. everywhere i turn to its the same story. I often wonder who is so keen as to discus live pornography as early as 7AM. initially i heard these shows were aired at night for the benefit of the single and lonely. but now, i hear them throughout the day even evenings. incidentally this is the same time kids are either going to school or coming from school. Surely! and to make matters worse some stories are so awkwardly lurid that even as an adult you are left wondering how someone can say that on national radio! and its worse if you use public transport since you have no control over the radio!

    but as radio stations were going down koinange street, yesterday two TV stations performed a first in Kenyan or even world history. I saw them host Prof. Sam ongeri live on two separate talk shows in separate stations at the same time! Ok i dont know if the good old prof has a double or magic powers. after all he comes from the land of the powerful witches.

    yet one man who urgently needs more divine power is one Ali Mwakwere. How on earth can you be so laid back when people are dying and your ministry is in such a mess. indeed i now agree with my friend who said that you can be promoted to your level of incompetence. he had warned me against raw ambition. that the higher you climb the more you expose the holes in your cassock. But surely the MPs who showed kimunya the door can help us? yesterday i watched in horror as they showed a ferry almost sinking and killing all on board! The minister was well as expected: mum.

boyfulani

  • jack bauer and the drunk of marigo-ini.

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 11:36 am by boyfulan¿
    there was this drunk back in my village, Marigo-ine whose name translated to ‘chicken or hen. he was ‘ngoko’ nguku yaani, eh. i dont know if it has something to do with his cowardice, or a poultry farm he ran before i was born, i found people calling him that. but one thing was for sure about [...]

Gukira

  • Racism: Not Just by Racists

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 9:52 am by keguro

    We need to question the belief that only “racists” perform racist acts. It is a belief that continues to be used to excuse racist acts. Indeed, the cry that x person is not a racist, is simply “ignorant” or just “misspoke” attempts to mitigate the injury of the racist act.

    How do we begin to parse this?

    In part, the idea of “the racist” seems to defy history—and this is where we must begin. If race is socially constructed, then racism must also be socially constructed. Now, to be sure, the idea of social construction needs more elaboration than I can give. In its glib, irresponsible version, social construction seems to suggest that “things” don’t exist: there’s no “truth” to race or sex or gender or even class. In this irresponsible version, deprivation and oppression can often be attributed to perception (it takes a special type of student to argue that poverty is socially constructed, as one of my special students once did).

    In the version I prefer, and use, social construction directs us to history and historical change. It tells us that racism under slavery is not quite the same as racism after slavery or racism after civil rights. It suggests that the causes of racial animus and antagonism change along with history. But to accept this version also requires that we attend more carefully to how racist acts manifest, and to that slippery place between act and identity.

    We might twist this argument around to this: if a racist act can only be performed by a racist (which is taken as a substantial identity), then act is predicated on identity and thus non-racist individuals (those whose identity is not defined by racism) cannot perform racist acts. This line of reasoning has been used over the past few years to excuse racist acts: “x individual is not a racist (by character) and thus the statement made was not racist.”

    We can state two objections. First, we can return agency to the site of injury by stating that the person against whom the racist act is performed has the authority to term the act racist. We have ceded this position too often, too quickly, been shamed into silence. And it is a position we must reclaim.

    Second objection, and this is where I depart from King: we cannot trust that a person’s character guarantees one’s actions. As an aside, one might note that King’s seeming opposition between color and character, while rhetorically powerful, is theoretically sloppy and historically irresponsible, especially given the complex intertwining between color and character in racial histories.

    “Racist” is not an identity that precedes an act but a temporally unstable designation, one whose temporality is uneven, contingent, sometimes lasting, sometimes fleeting. Some people display racist acts longer than others, for entire lifetimes, others for minutes or seconds. There is a complex algebra (perhaps alchemy) to racism that deserves even more attention than we have dared.

    Understanding the designation “racist” as historically and temporally contingent offers a more flexible, more usable concept than does using it as a kind of ahistorical identity. Simultaneously, returning agency to the bearer of injury, and taking seriously the injured party, offers a more historically responsible mode of identifying racist acts and their effects.

The Diary of one black man

  • Understanding the kalenjin.

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 8:20 am by kip
     You know this guy Kumekucha had a very Twisted and convoluted article about Kalenjin Secrets. I took it upon myself to correct the wrong message that he   passed as solid truths! I Have noticed that a lot of people are very ignorant about KALENJIN culture. They tend to band the Kalenjin warriors with bandit groups [...]

For Love and Money

The Night Book

My Life is...Mochalicious!

  • SO WHAT???

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 2:19 am by Mocha!
    This Luo-Kikuyu BULLSHIT should come to an end. I am now sick and tired of people talking about it. Take for example the current topic circulating here in the UK. Click here, here and here to get the gist. So what if she is a daughter of a rich former/current MP? So what that they are rich? So [...]

Opalo's weblog

  • I think I’ve caught Obamamania too

    Posted: July 25, 2008, 2:16 am by kenopp
    The speech and the pictures from Berlin did it all. I am a news and political junkie (no apologies) and have been keenly following the US presidential election ever since Iowa set things rolling in December of last year. Until today, I had been caucious about Barack Obama - I mean I read his two [...]

Kikuyumoja's realm

  • is ja hammergeil, du..

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 1:56 am by jke

    An dieser Stelle sollte eigentlich ein Blogartikel zum Thema 23Tage* mit diesen kleinen Filmchen stehen - aber dann habe ich doch keinen Bock mehr gehabt und mir gedacht: Nee…lass ma.

South of West

  • The Bashir Boogie

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 12:59 am by robcrilly
    Just back in Khartourm from a trip to Darfur with President Omar al-Bashir, who is waiting to find out whether the International Criminal Court will issue a warrant for his arrest. The trip was astonishing and fascinating in many ways. It was a whistle-stop tour of El Fasher, Nyala and El Geneina with five-minute visits [...]

a search for sanity or..........

  • Not satisfied with your life?

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 12:15 am by gal africana
    Ask the right questions and then be open to the answers that come. You don't have to do anything different other than ask the right questions...and the answers will come. Write them down or say them out loud...and I kid you not, the answers will come back louder and simpler than you ever imagined. I can say this because I KNOW IT TO BE TRUE IN MY LIFE.

    You could be asking a higher power (if you believe in one) or your subconscious (if you don't believe in a higher power). Any which way, you wont know the answers if you don't even ask the questions.

    What do you have to lose? Nothing. What do you have to gain? LOADS. It's just a question. Start with the magical word, HOW?

    I started asking my questions early this year and so far I've been getting answers in the most wonderful ways and I can see taht I've started a transformation, based on the answers, that is what I never knew I wanted but I wanted.

    My HOW questions and inspiration to you:


    How do I get the job of my dreams?
    How do I become wealthy?

    How do I buy property?
    How do I find a charity project that I love and will be instrumental in?
    How do I learn to assess situations so I act in a way that maximizes my personal, professional, spiritual and financial achievement?
    How do I maximize my financial and personal achievement?
    How do I become a more loving friend? One that provides her friends with the 5 A’s (Appreciation, Acceptance, Allowing, Affection, Attention) in the right situations?
    How do I overcome my fear of success?
    How do I get more positive friends?
    How do I become the best me?
    How do I become more secure and gain self-esteem?
    How do I enjoy freedom of body and spirit?
    How do I get in touch with my childhood wounds and heal them?
    How do I release the anger and grief of my childhood and old wounds?
    How can I be of service?
    How can I give to people?


    WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EXCEPTIONAL? ASK HOW, and then have fun with the answers, for they will come! :-)

Kenyanpoet

  • 'Just A Band' First Live Concert to Debut in Kenya

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 11:20 pm by N.W
    I think I have been living under a rock, I just got to learn about this group 'Just a Band' this week. 
    Just A Band is a Kenyan house/funk/disco band whose career was launched with their debut album, Scratch To Reveal, in 2008. Their music has explored various musical directions such as, but not limited to jazz, hip-hop, disco and electronica.
    The band are also notable for their DIY aesthetic. In addition to writing, recording and engineering their music, the band creates their own music videos, packaging and promotional items and establishing a strong web and blog presence, referencing elements from virtual band like Gorillaz and incorporating anime and animation, illustration and photography in their visual campaigns.
    They will, FOR THE FIRST TIME and in Kenya, have a LIVE Concert at Electropulco, marking the opening party for the KwaniLitFest, friday August 1st from 8.30pm(Acapulco, Muthithi Rd, westlands) Entrance Charges are Ksh. 200.
    Out of all the songs I saw/heard namely, Maisha, Fly and Lalalalala, I love the latter most. I don't know if its coz of the choice of language(its in pure Swa) and also the afrofusion feel to it. ah! I give them props for this(again am not all that into electronica and Disco, but I will dance, heehehheh)
    Watch the video here as you prepare to come watch them Live and hopefully grab one of the free cds they'll be throwing to the crowds.
    “As to the pure mind all things are pure, so to the poetic mind all things are poetical”

Gukira

  • Notes on Bullies

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 10:49 pm by keguro

    The figure of the bully in Kenyan schools is both loathed and respected. Those of us who lived under bullies—the under being quite literal as one strategy required younger, weaker students to lie under a bully’s bed—speak with admiration of the more inventive bullies, those who went beyond simply making one wash socks and performed pseudo-scientific experiments. We knew how electricity moved through bodies because we were attached to live wires.

    We learned to enjoy our calluses, to boast of having endured the worst. Those of us who were less bullied were deemed less worthy. In retrospect, the notion that one’s worth relied on one’s ability to endure pain and humiliation should give us pause. We were learning how to relate to power and authority, with submission and resentment, praise and even grace. We were learning that normal social relations consisted of repeated exposure to violence.

    We learned to attach respect to violence, to understand violence as ordinary, not needing comment, essential for daily life. It was a lesson that was reinforced by fevered imaginations of Nyayo House, a place that linked the ruling philosophy to torture, suggesting that the ruling philosophy consisted of torture. In our minds, the elite military General Service Unit (GSU) was the arm of government dedicated to taming recalcitrant university students and political dissidents. Those of us whose primary schools abutted the main universities witnessed university students fleeing through our corridors as the government tried, once again, to beat them into submission.

    There is a complex multi-layered narrative to be told about how the figure of the bully became inextricably bound to education. Bullying became normative and normalizing, creating us as students and citizens.

    It should come as no surprise that one of the first proverbs we learned was “asiyefunza na wazazi hufunzwa na ulimwengu.” Pedagogy and discipline, discipline and violence, discipline as violence, and a world eagerly awaiting to teach.

    The relationship between pedagogy and discipline, pedagogy and violence, extends into all areas of Kenyan thought and action. Even outside of strictly pedagogical settings, we continue to understand living as a mode of pedagogy. The claim, “I learned so much,” uttered after church services, business meetings, and conferences speaks, I think, to the hold that pedagogy as a mode of living has on our collective identity.

    Yet, if the scene of pedagogy is inextricably bound to discipline and violence, and if pedagogy defines, in some substantial way, what it means to be Kenyan, then we have to contend with the centrality of the bully within our national imagination, for this figure mediates, in an important way, how we approach the national everyday.

    Theorizing the centrality of the bully to our self-imagining as a nation requires that we contend with the difficult task of recognizing we rely on and desire this figure. reliance, in some perverse way, we need the bully. Our continued encounters with this figure confirm that we belong, that we learn, that we survive, that we are. This is why a gathering of those who were bullied invariably returns to those scenes of humiliation and pedagogy: groups of “old boys” confirm their shared sense of belonging by discussing monsters-turned-teachers and friends.

    If we are to confront the specter of the bully that lies at the heart of who we imagine ourselves to be, memories need to be recalibrated, turned into opportunities for self-critique. We might begin to ask the difficult question of how we learn to love, or at least revere, our submission. Confronting the revered bully means re-thinking how we have become who we claim to be. It means changing the nature of our anecdotes, refusing the uneasy laughter of those who learn to laugh through pain.

ExcessVille

  • Someone call 911….

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 10:42 pm by Xs
    Because some voice in my head tells me i should end it all. But maybe i should hold ON for awhile. You never know, it may turn out for better. I might still be useful around here…. or the other way around! Am tired, Am burnt out, This is no longer exciting, its too damn routine - i hate [...]

Kenyanpoet

  • Poets & Writers liven up Kenya National Library Services

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 9:48 pm by N.W
    A few hours ago, I was at the Kenya National Library Services for the first in a series of poetry and readings that will be held at the venue every two months.

    An idea was conceptualized by the Kwani team with an aim of increasing the spaces where literature is shared, and what better place than where it is lying in between book covers waiting to be made alive.
    The provincial librarian officially opened the event with an aura of oldschoolness (he ordered the Citizen TV crew to be seated despite them trying to set up and record the event and later ordered guys to clap for him for a great speech, lol)

    Well, the sweet Annette who was the event’s Emcee managed to radiate the Kwani feeling of free speech and invited yours truly onto the stage,(she’d mistakenly thought that Ndanu – the winner of ‘to be a man’ competition, was performing. I guess Ndanu’s day at the office was abit cold, she didn’t want to freeze further from guy’s inquisitive eyes)

    I performed the first part of the piece ‘When change comes’. I was informed it’s quite lengthy and the last thing I wanted to do was have people starting to yawn or get their cellphones out to play games (you get my drift). I also performed ‘Welcome to America’; a piece I feel should be drummed into our heads lest we think that we will move to Canaan (stato) when Obama (our son) becomes orezo. America won’t change much; the Ku Klux Clan will still be there. I digress.
    Next was Samuel Munene with his piece on a friend who wanted a mzungu boyfriend. Sam always amazes me on how he’s able to narrate his stories; the humor is just too fresh.
    Cindy Ogana who finally mastered the courage to perform her work without reading it, (go gal) shared with the crowd he dilemma between reading her works and performing. She did finally perform a piece, reminiscent of the post election Violence.

    Binyavanga Wainaina whose first name I must say, first got me questioning his Nationality, was in and he did read excerpts from his upcoming book ‘Discovering Home’. Those like me who have been perturbed by his name got to know the story behind it and more. Look out for the book when it comes it, I can promise it will be a great read.

    Philo Ikonya, Kingwa Kamencu shared their written stories. I however missed performance by Tony Mochama who was seated right in front of me. Had to leave before the event ended but managed to take several photos, Check out this space tomorrow (forgot my data cable so can’t upload them now)“As to the pure mind all things are pure, so to the poetic mind all things are poetical”

The Displaced African

  • Pursue your Passion: Mwangi Interviews Kirk Nugent (Part 2)

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 9:04 pm by Mwangi

    Do You Like this Podcast?

    Though my podcasting service is currently undergoing some technical difficulties, I am on it and intend on it being up very soon.

    If you enjoy this or any of the other podcasts, this blog has to offer then make sure you subscribe to the Displaced African Podcast. You can do this in two ways:

    1) Either click here to subscribe via your favourite RSS reader (If you have no idea what RSS here, click here to watch 2 videos where I explain what RSS is and why it’s the best thing since sliced bread, only better than bread )

    2) Go to the Itunes store, search for “the Displaced African” podcast and subscribe to it (I have created a video tutorial that shows you step by step how to do this which you can find by clicking here or watch below - I debut it today, Yay!).

    Without further ado:

    The Podcast

    [See post to listen to audio]

    Things Covered

    1) So what did he do after Part 1?

    2) Funny story about how a struggling speaker gets his daily bread.

    3) How did he transition into being on Def Poetry Jam, the Queen Latifah Show and performing for the NAACP?

    4) After speaking to hundreds of college students, his take on what separates the successful college students?

    5) How one can acquire discipline and self-initiative?

    6) What was his grand vision when he first quit his job?

    7) Was he always a good speaker?

    8 ) How would one become a professional speaker?

    9) What is his process as a speaker?

    10) Final thoughts….I ran out of questions

    PURSUE YOUR PASSION,

    Mwangi

  • My 4 Hour Work Week Journey: Interrupting Interruptions

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 9:04 pm by Mwangi

    Fortunately, considering I spend most of my time working from home alone, a lot of what is in this chapter doesn’t apply to me. But without further ado:

    Questions and Actions: Interrupting the Interruptions

    1) Create systems to deflect my email and phone availability: I created an auto-responder that states I will only check and respond to email at 5 a.m.

    To be frank my email at present isn’t that big of a problem: I receive between 15 - 30 emails a day which it take me about 30 minutes to respond to.

    This will probably matter a lot more as the blog grows and I try to do more things with my life so its good to set the foundation now.

    Phone

    I started doing this long before I ever read the 4 hour work week. I almost never get personal phone calls. At most maybe 1 or 2 a week. A lot of people now know that if they want to reach me, email is the way to go.

    I leave my phone off or am away from it for most of the day (Right now it’s on my bed side table while I type this).From being a self-important young adult who camped by my phone and racked up $500 bills, I now only have a mobile phone because my cousin thrust a mobile phone in my hand as her way of contacting me.

    As for professional calls, again, I don’t really matter enough to get that many a day.Almost everyone knows that email is the best way to reach me. If they don’t know, I guess the benevolent education begins now.

    2) Get Very Specific When Communicating in Emails: I read the 4 hour work week and began applying this principle quite some time ago.

    From day one, whenever I was emailing someone about interviewing them from a podcast, I always gave them my availability times and proposed a very specific time to conduct the interview.Now one thing I am going to add to that email is that I must obtain someone’s phone number and time zone in regards to GMT: GMT +10h, GMT -4h for example.

    This proposing of an exact time has saved me countless back and forth emails and hours. In fact the one person I saw do it waayyyy more effectively than I did, wrote me an email that went a little something like this:

    I read about your blog on X and I wanted to find out if you are interested in telling your story on (media outlet) at X time (Name of their city and proposed time). Let me know

    My response was long and flowery:

    Yes

    and the deal was done. Specificity is a lost art.

    It’s wonderful to be non-specific and ambiguous in social situations but not in matters of productivity and the work place, I think.

    [See post to listen to audio]

    3) Batch Activities: If it isn’t an 80/20 activity, batch it together and create a regular time slot for it. An example:

    I work with virtual assistants, freelance coders and writers and am also a freelance writer and blog consultant (aaah, what do you know, I DO have jobs with fancy titles).

    What I recently started doing is sorting out all the emails and communication and work that needs to be done AS SOON as I get on the computer. Usually, this involves sending out an email or two, checking on something here, something else there and usually in a couple of hours I am done.

    This is definitely better than my previous style of checking on them in 5 minute chunks here and there throughout the night and leaves me a lot more time to write blog posts, market the blog, respond to comments and test out monetization techniques.

    4) Delegate More if You are an Entrepreneur and Request More Control if You are an Employee: Avoid decision-making bottlenecks and give individuals as much power and responsibility as you can while they work on a particular task.

    I have been outsourcing blog functioning from day 1 and intend on one day bringing a writer or two onto the tDA writing team so I have little problem relinquishing control right now.

    Ladies and gentlemen, with that we have eliminated the unnecessary and can now move on with laser like focus upon that which is important.

    Now on to what you and I have been waiting for, Step 3: A is for Automation.

    Be blessed and bless others,

    Mwangi

Falsafa, Njaro, Mawazo, na Vako Zangu (My Philosophy, Style, Thoughts and Vakos)

Black Looks

  • Appalling homophobia

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 8:51 pm by Sokari
    My first reaction was “here we go again” but this is far worse. I’m referring to an article in the South African Sunday Sun “Call me names but gay is NOT OK”. The article - which includes a despicable cartoon equating same sex realtionships with bestiality, calls for a rewriting of the SA constitution [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Appalling homophobia", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/07/appalling_homophobia.html" });

KA-INVESTOR

  • My Mid 2008 Green List

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 8:34 pm by ka-investor
    Mid 2008 Green List I’ve been procrastinating on this list for a while now. Of late I’ve been unsure of the future of the NSE and its listed stocks. The market has been on a slump. With one of the highest inflation rate of 29% (from 31% last month) in Kenya, a cash crunch from the Safaricom IPO and rising interest rates the market is facing one of the toughest times since the 2005/2006 bull-run. Some 'strong' counters such as KQ and Safaricom are proving to be anything but the darlings of the market.

    last years Green List performed far much better than the market average. In this year’s green list I will mainly focus on counters that show considerable prospect of growth and are undervalued in this respect. The following four stocks will form my 2008 green list, although I still hold my reservation on some:

    1. Equity

    Never say die for Equity bank. The bank has proved all its critics wrong and there’s not stopping now. At above Ksh300 and a PE of 44, it’s considered one of the most expensive company among the financial stocks on the NSE, followed by Housing Finance. But I still think there is room for this company to improve. The recent acquisition in Uganda and with a very innovative and aggressive expansion plan the bank has some more surprises to give. There have been some insightful analyses of this counter and a share split is more than eminent at Ksh.350. I expect a very impressive half year result announcement soon. Although the lock in period for Equity directors ends this August, a green light is still shining on this stock.

    1. KCB

    KCB has one of the most aggressive expansion strategies, almost similar to Equity but a little bit inefficient in their service delivery. Their operation in Rwanda was recently approved and the just ended rights issue is a sure over subscription. Although the additional new shares are small in number, I expect the share price to drop considerably once they start trading. Ksh.26 or anything below is a buy position for this counter. The share will be trading in mid 30’s by the end of the year and probably 40’s in the 1st quarter of next year.

    1. Safaricom

    Safaricom is no Eveready. The hyped IPO pulled in some very strange shareholders, especially the so called ‘foreign investors’. At the moment speculators and loan-investors who bought in this counter during the IPO are selling in panic that the share will drop further for them to make their quick gains. This has dampened the share price as supply is far much more than demand. But in a matter of a few months the speculators would have cashed out and the share will resort to its true value, which is Ksh.10 and above. This is the time to accumulate this share and in six to nine months time it will be a sweet story.

    I believe Safaricom is no penny stock. Even with the new entries of Econet and Telkom, safaricom’s market share will remain more than intact, if not increase from the new cheaper calling rates. Their 3G internet provision is a good addition although still plagued by their poor customer service. Safaricom is the price setter in this industry and it will take some years before its competitors catch up.

    1. Barclays Bank

    BBK has been hovering around ksh.68 for some time now. Despite their unimpressive Q1 results this company has great potential to perform. Any price at Ksh.70 and below is a bargain. I believe is just a matter of time before this counter move to mid 70’s and then into 80’s. Its one of the strongest long term counters I can ever advise a serious investor to buy. The sooner you get on board the better. The banks expansion strategy is a bit conservative but generally good. They have opened sales canters in almost all corners of Kenya and have some of the most aggressive sales and marketing agent in town.


    Others to watch:
    • National Bank
    • Total Kenya
    • Athi River Mining n Bamburi
    Disclaimer: the Green list is a personal list of my preferred stocks in the market. It does not indicate certainty

bankelele

  • Foreign Correspondents in Africa

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 8:32 pm by bankelele
    - "We went into the heart of Africa self-invited — therein lies our fault." (Henry Morton Stanley) - How to write about Africa (Binyavanga Wainaina The 2008 Kwani Lit Fest kicked off on Wednesday night with a talk on How foreign correspondents have formed the literary image of Africa with a panel consisting of Steve Bloomfield (The Independent/Monocle), Binyavanga Wainana (Kwani), Jonathan

Kenya Christian

  • Who are the athletes to watch?

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 8:12 pm by Frank


    Okay, I have to admit I am not really feeling any excitement for the Olympics this year. Is it because the games are being held in China? Maybe, I'm not sure but Olympics fever just has not hit me in 2008, at least yet. I hardly even know any athletes that will be participating! So with 14days to go, I have attempted to pick some athletes to watch for the Beijing Games.


    Catherine Ndereba - Women's Marathon(Kenya)
    I love this woman, she's so cool, calm and collected. Go Kenya,go!!


    Asbel Kiprop - Men's 1500m (Kenya)



    Asafa Powell - Men's 100m (Jamaica)
    Will he disappoint again or will he receive glory?



    Muna Lee - Women's 100m (USA)



    Roger Federer - Men's Tennis (Switzerland)



    Marta Silva - Women's Soccer (Brazil)



    Usain Bolt - Men's 200m (Jamaica)



    Guo Jingjing - Women's Diving (China)

    What about you, which athletes will you be watching out for this summer? Who do you think are the favorites?

Sukuma Kenya

VIOLA's IRIS

  • THAT WAS TOUGH…

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 5:33 pm by Vee
    …saying goodbye to the place that has been a home away from home for the passed couple of years. It’s amazing how I grew attached to those red walls…

Kenya Christian

Wilfred Mworia's Blog

  • Facebook Chat Desktop Client

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 4:28 pm by wmworia
    UPDATE: It finally worked… Now I just need to get some friends on it so that I can chat! A few weeks ago I got curious about a friend I had not seen or heard from in close to a decade. We had gone to primary school together and I had got curious to find them. [...]

Lost White Kenyan Chick

White African

  • 5 More African Conferences/Events

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 2:57 pm by HASH

    A few more conferences to add to my earlier list of events going on around the continent, though one is in the US and another is in Europe, and are about Africa.

    In Africa

    Tech4Africa - The Technology for Africa conference has a group of really interestin speakers from around the web, mobile and ISP space in Africa. A lot of grassroots guys who are actually doing things, intermixed with some international, and well-known, speakers.
    Dates: October 3-4, 2008
    Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

    Int’l Bloggers Roadshow - Still being put together, it sounds like an interesting group of US-based big name bloggers will be heading to South Africa. More by Matthew Buckland.
    Dates: Unannounced
    Locations: Unannounced

    FOSS4G (Free and Open-Source Software for Geospatial) - A meeting of international mapping gurus. Hopefully we can get some major African mapping work started here.
    Dates: September 29 - October 3, 2008
    Location: Cape Town, South Africa

    In the United States

    BarCamp Africa - Organized in California as a way to bring people interested in Africa, on a variety of levels and topics, together in one place for a day of exploration, connection and enjoyment. Some big Silicon Valley names are getting behind this. (more on Twitter, Facebook and the wiki). Note: not the real logo above, I made that up…
    Dates: October 11, 2008
    Location: Pending

    In Europe

    Surprising Africa @ Picnic’08 - A one-day program designed to inspire and update the Picnic public - creatives, innovators, trendsetters and technologists - with a range of cross media and culture happenings from various Africa countries. From South African urban identity photography to Ethiopian architecture, to mobile banking to Kenya (online) critical writing, amongst others.
    Dates: September 26, 2008
    Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

A Nairobian's Perspective !

  • Googles Latest Invention;KNOL

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 2:50 pm
    From blogger google has come up with a new online platform to share information called Knols, will these attract massive new users as blogs have always been?Thats left to be seen however i came to know of this new program through an interesting and exciting article on the official Google's blog entitled "Encouraging People To Contibute Knowledge "The article in part provides:

    The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped to make that information more easily accessible by providing pretty good search facilities. But not everything is written nor is everything well organized to make it easily discoverable. There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it. We believe that many do not share that knowledge today simply because it is not easy enough to do that. The challenge posed to us by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge. This is our main goal.

    Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling "knol", which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.

    The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors. Books have authors' names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors -- but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted. We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content. At the heart, a knol is just a web page; we use the word "knol" as the name of the project and as an instance of an article interchangeably. It is well-organized, nicely presented, and has a distinct look and feel, but it is still just a web page. Google will provide easy-to-use tools for writing, editing, and so on, and it will provide free hosting of the content. Writers only need to write; we'll do the rest.

    Now that is some interesting news.But what will make knol different and more useful than blogger? The article above highlights that Google's intent is to highlight authors at the same time that Google seeks to encourage the development of strong ethical standards on online writing especially using the knol project(could this be some form of censorship of content!)
    I have just viewed a couple of the knols and they range on interesting topics such as:
    • How to Backpack by Ryan Moulton
    • Solutions to toilet clogging
    • Cosmetic Surgery
    • Entrepreneurship 101 etc
    There are endless topics that one can write on like how to make the most efficient and classic makaa(swahili for charcoal etc) and claim that they are an expert on that field!The official Knol page has a tutorial to guide users on how to maintain objectivity and write a good Knol.The good Blogger: A Nairobian's Perspective ! - Create Postpart is that one can generate revenue with adsense on ones own knol!So here i am off to write Africa's first knol,question is on what am i an authority??? any suggestions dear readers???


My Life is...Mochalicious!

  • FUU! FUU!

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 2:32 pm by Mocha!
    Picture a humid summer day, packed like sardines on the London Transport network on your way home. Lets just say, if they had sprinklers in there, I for one would not mind, but all of us would be shocked to death as the network uses electricity to run. Anywhoo, I almost never made it home. Someone decide to [...]

Black Looks

  • Not taking poverty seriously

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 2:29 pm by Sokari
    The South African supermarket chain Shoprite has been expanding into various countries across the continent, including Nigeria, for the past 10 years. The Lagos branch is part of the “Palms” mall complex at Lekki Beach opened in late 2005 and one of two malls on Victoria Island, Lagos’s most expensive real estate. [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Not taking poverty seriously", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/07/not_taking_poverty_seriously.html" });

Life, The Universe and Everything

  • Papparazzis: Godsent or Menace?

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 12:18 pm by egm
    Ssembonge raises a very interesting point in his comment on this post. That papparazzis should be outlawed. It has been interesting seeing the papparazzi phenomenon, first as an independent observer, and then as a photographer myself.

    The first time I got to know of them was at a wedding I attended during one of my trips back home while I was still based in the US. It fascinated me that I could buy prints taken of me at the same event only hours after the fact. I never did buy any, however. But the thought that I could had I wanted intrigued me.

    After I took up photography seriously, I got to see papparazzis in another light. One that was not as favourable as before. It felt like they got in the way of properly carrying out my work at events where I was hired as the main photographer. But then I managed to get around that by being more assertive. So for now it is no longer a problem for me. Once I have made known to the relevant people that I am the main photographer, it's easy from there on. During group shots, I tell them to look just at my camera, ignoring all others. It doesn't always work, but for the most part it does.

    The reason above is why I find it very hard to cover an event where I am not the main photographer, even though I may have been asked by the main people at the event to help out. I did a wedding two weeks ago as a favour for a friend. Though everyone had been alerted to my presence, I still did not feel 100% at ease. I made sure to talk to the main photographers and alert them that I had been asked to help out so they wouldn't think me as an unwelcome outsider.

    When it comes to the issue of whether papparazzis should be allowed to do their thing or not, I find that there are mixed feelings among people. There are those like Ssembonge who would rather they don't exist. I have covered weddings where they even had security to ensure said papparazzis were not even allowed into the venue. At one wedding I covered, my brother was helping me out with a second camera. Since the bride hadn't met him yet, she thought that he was a papparazzi and asked me about him. I told her he was with me, and that calmed her down. But one other guy that was there unkown to either of us was promptly shown the door.

    At yesterday's funeral, I got to see some guests who were walking in give any papparazzi that tried to take their photo a warning glance. Clearly they did not want their photos taken. At the start of the day at the funeral home, I was taking pictures when one of the family members looked at me badly and said she hoped I was not a papparazzi since she wouldn't buy any of my pictures. Were this not a funeral, I would have found that very funny, since my photography style is anything but!

    And then there are those that welcome papparazzis with open arms. I did one wedding where at the express wish of the groom several papparazzis were called upon and asked to help cover the event, complete with selling the photos during the reception. There were about 5 of them, in addtion to myself and the other official photographer. I also have a wedding coming up where the groom's side of the family wants papparazzis present to assist.

    And this is not limited to just low budget weddings. I was told of this high profile wedding with a very big budget where the family wanted the photographer selected to do some papparazzi style photography in addition to what he was offering as the main package. This photographer doesn't do that. But because his doing it would determine he gets the contract, he just had to.

    So, are papparazzis a menace, or a necessity? It depends on who you ask. For now, for as long as there are those that want their services, they are here to stay. If you outlaw them, those that want them will be up in arms. So I guess the best thing is to just work things out such that you can have them not barge in on your event if you don't want them. That, or just let them be. I don't know. Personally, I have learned to live with them. What is your take?

You Missed This

  • MAU FOREST COMPLEX: Raila Odinga’s Real Acid Test

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 12:13 pm by Phil
    Isaac Ruto & Company playing disgraceful KANU politics with Kenya’s livelihood

    Sitting some 250 kilometers North-West of Nairobi, the Mau Forest Complex covers approximately 400,000 hectares (about 900km2) straddling no less than ten administrative districts in the Rift Valley Province. At independence in 1963, it was the single largest block of montane and moist indigenous forest in East Africa but thanks to partisan party politics it has now been sadly depleted to about 22 patches of forest.
    -------------
    Also in Kumekucha today: Biggest hindrance to relationships will shock you

    How super earners make $100,000 online
    -------------

    As the country’s biggest water catchment area, the Mau forest occupies a central place in the economic and ecological lifeline of the people of Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza provinces. Indeed, the national economy stands to lose over US $300 million to the tea, tourism and energy sectors alone if the forest of the Mau Complex continues to be degraded. The Tanzanian government has already formally protested about the effects the Mau degradation is costing her environment and economy, while the Uganda and Egypt governments are said to be closely watching how Kenya will resolve this Mau fiasco that has now taken an international dimension.

    Past political expediency resulted into systematic illegal excision of huge parcels that reduced forest cover in Kenya from approximately 1.7 million hectares in 1963 to 1.4 million hectares as at 2005, which translates to only 2.5% of the total land area and a meager 1.7% under closed canopy. A country with less than 10% of its area under closed canopy forest is considered “environmentally unsecure”.

    At the height of his autocratic rule, President Moi’s KANU government de-gazetted huge tracts of forest land to irregularly reward party supporters. The infamous Ndung'u land report revealed that there are more than 200,000 illegal and irregular title deeds which were fraudulently issued in the Mau Complex, most of them to politically connected personalities, some of whom later sold the land to unsuspecting investors and members of the public.

    Lately, the Mau has been turned into a nasty political tug of war for supremacy between MPs from the Maasai and Kipsigis communities, and this war is already threatening to degenerate into ethnic clashes. To make matters worse, some of the Kipsigis MPs led by Isaac Ruto are using the Mau as a tool of blackmail for settling political scores (read: cabinet appointments) within ODM. The Kipsigis MPs are throwing needless roadblocks into efforts to reclaim and restore the Mau forest as they know it is their people who are occupying and destroying the forest while, a little further downstream, Maasai communities are watching in horror as rivers are drying up and weather patterns are becoming harsher. Others hypocrites opposing the Mau evictions like Franklin Bett are themselves beneficiaries of the fraudulent Mau allocations by Moi.

    The very nature of our politics has effectively turned the Mau Forest into very hot political potato as well as a massive environmental time bomb. The reality of the matter is that there is only one solution to the Mau problem: TOTAL EVICTION

    Considering the loud war-cries emanating from the Kipsigis axis, it seems pretty obvious that we are heading for confrontation and it goes without saying that the restoration of the Mau Forest will mean forcefully uprooting thousands of squatter families, compensating them and re-settling them elsewhere. This may sound inhuman to our so-called human rights lobby groups, but it certainly guarantees the future of millions of Kenyans for whom the waters provided by the Mau mean life. Already, the commissioning of the Japanese funded Sondu Miriu hydro power station in Nyanza province has aborted due to low water levels on the river which is as a direct result of the destruction of the Mau Forest. In the already battered tourism sector, the world famous annual Mara Wildebeest migration, dubbed the 7th Wonder of the World, is also severely threatened by human settlement in the Mau.

    In 2005, the then NARC government unilaterally sanctioned Kenyan security forces to forcibly evict an estimated 3000 families (about 15,000 people) destroying seven primary schools and affecting thousands of students. The displaced people were left with no access to food, shelter, sanitation facilities or education, and physical infrastructure was also destroyed. According to IDMC, allegations of rape and theft of harvested crops by evicting officers was reported. The brutality in which the evictions were carried out led to the suicide of three people, and one man suffered a heart attack when his school torched. A repeat of these unfortunate events is probably what Kipsigis MPs are concerned about when demanding for acceptable compensation and resettlement. President Kibaki has said that the resettlement will be conducted humanely. PM Raila has also assured that this time the evictions would be given a human face to ensure the fundamental rights of the affected individuals are not violated.

    The latest initiative by Prime Minister in forming an all inclusive Mau Forest Conservation Task Force deserves the express support of all Kenyans. The 22 member all-inclusive task force is firstly expected to draw up its own terms of reference through consultations with all stakeholders including residents and then proceed to develop a time-bound implementation plan of evicting, compensating and re-settling those who currently reside in the Mau Forest. Ultimately, government plans to re-demarcate the forest boundaries, fence off the forest and also put in place an effective long-term management plans to reclaim and sustain the jewel that is Mau Forest. The success of these plans will mean that the country will have averted a major economic disaster and unthinkable environmental catastrophe. It will also mean another feather on to RAO's already thickly feathered political cap.

    The Government also ought to prosecute all those politicians and public servants who were adversely involved in illegal demarcation of the forest in the first place. I mean, if President Moi ordered these illegal allocations, he must be called into account and made to answer charges of abuse of office!

    The recommendations of the Ndungu Report may have been too drastic in suggesting amendments to sections of the constitution to facilitate the formation of a Lands Title Tribunal to enable the revocation and rectification of all irregular title deeds in the Mau and other forest., but it I think is time for us to bite the bullet for the sake of future generations.

    Resources: Mau Complex Under Siege: Continuous destruction of Kenya’s largest forest, UNEP, 2005

The Diary of one black man

  • IS kibaki on his Death bed?

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 10:24 am by kip
    Listen to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown imply that there is some health issues with President Kibaki? Reference to Kibaki’s health is at the start of the clip. To quote  PM Gordon Brown   let me send my best wishes to president kibaki who becuase of health he could not be here with us today… I Think Kibaki Is In Bad [...]

Seasons and Reasons

  • Facades: Screens or lies?

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 10:09 am by Seasons
    Fake it until you make it! This is an oft used line albeit more as a pop culture phrase. I have been wondering about our value of honesty and it being a virtue and all. In life, we are faced with situations where we have to create many facades in our interactions. In marketing, we [...]

Memorable Jokes

  • I'm Tired

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 9:04 am


    Yes, I’m tired. For several years I’ve been blaming it on getting older, lack of sleep, weekend projects, stale office air, poor nutrition, carrying a couple of extra pounds, raising a family, recent ailments, and a dozen other reasons that make you wonder why life is getting tough.

    But now I found out what’s really happening! I’m tired because I’m overworked. The population of the USA reached 300 million last October. 79 million of the population are retired. That leaves 221 million to do the work. There are 19 million toddlers and 76 million students in schools, which leaves 126 million to do the work. Of that total, 21 million are unemployed leaving 105 million to do the work.

    Then you take away 34 million in hospitals and that leaves 71 million to do the work. 43 million are in prisons and that’s 28 million left to do the work. Now take away 14,683,468 federal, 5,344,722 state and 5,370,743 city workers who run our government and you’re left with 2,601,067 to do the work. Take away the 2,601,065 people in the armed forces and that leaves just two people to do the work - You and Me!
    And you’re just sitting there reading this! No wonder I’m tired!!!

  • The Three Sons

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 9:03 am

    Three sons left home, went out on their own and prospered. Getting back together, they discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly Mother.

    The first said, "I built a big house for our Mother." The second said, "I sent her a Mercedes with a driver." The third smiled and said, "I've got you both beat. You remember how Mom enjoyed reading the Bible? And you know she can't see very well any more. I sent her a remarkable parrot that recites the entire Bible. It took Elders in the church 12 years to teach him. He's one of a kind. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot recites it."

    Soon thereafter, Mom sent out her letters of thanks: "Milton," she wrote one son, "the house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house."

    "Gerald," she wrote to another, "I am too old to travel any more. My eyesight isn't what it used to be. I stay most of the time at home, so I rarely use the Mercedes. And the driver is so rude!"

    "Dearest Donald," she wrote to her third son, "you have the good sense to know what your Mother likes. The chicken was delicious!"

Kenya Imagine

  • Violence in Kenyan High Schools | What is going on?

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 6:41 am

    It has been about six months since Kenya's infamous surge of violence that left hundreds of Kenyans dead, and thousands without homes. Now, we watch as young high school boys burn down their facilities in an attempt to get their way. Is this the new culture? Are we teaching our youth that the only way to negotiate is through violence?

    Join in on the discussion with some of kenyaImagine writers as they address this crisis:

    • Kamale T discusses his experience as a high school student at the Starehe Boys' Center here.
    • Capt Collins Wanderi is an educator. Here, he addresses poor parenting and policies within the education as factors that are to blame for the current crisis in Kenyan high schools.
    • In the cane and our culture of violence, Barasa Simiyu proposes that perhaps it is not such a surprise that our children have grown into such violent young adults.

The Displaced African

  • What I Learned from Being a Fake Philosopher: The Teenage Years Continued

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 6:05 am by Mwangi

    This post is a continuation of the post The Journey of a Christian Agnostic Theist: The Teenage Years

    Now as many of you would know, when I first showed up in this country of Australia, I wasn’t necessarily a popular person. That was probably the main catalyst behind what I lovingly call:

    My Really Fake Philosophy Days

    I was angry at the world and angry at everyone. For some reason I don’t quite understand to this day, I took all that anger and channeled it into trying to disprove the existence and authority of Christianity and the Christian faith.

    Cue the Internet

    And so I got online and started searching for any way to disprove the existence of Christianity. In addition to that, yet again for reasons I don’t quite understand, I got quite mesmerized by Eastern philosophy.

    And so I began to study, especially meditation and yoga, and the wonderful effects they had had in riding people of all sorts of mental and physical ailments. And just because I was a super spiritual person, all this was somehow mixed in with porn.

    And so my quiet moments away from the world would be spent watching a documentary on Confucianism, reading a website that nit-picked at every little contradiction and misspelling in the “good book”, and finding it how many licks……..another sordid tale, another sordid time.

    When I Did Meet People

    I became, and to some extent still am, that really obnoxious person who kept pointing out the truth that we all know but don’t like to be constantly reminded of:

    All ways of life, schools of thoughts, paths and directions are flawed and incomplete.

    Unfortunately though, I wasn’t comfortable with this ambiguity, I was just angry, very very angry and kept trying to attack any ideas that I could find a flaw in. Like I will never forget when I first heard a sermon on providence.

    Are You Saying It’s all Predetermined?

    The wonderful thing about her preaching style was that she was raw and she was open. If she forgot her thought, she would tell you, not really care and move on. If something angered her, she channeled the Incredible Hulk and went for it.

    I think this was the first time I ever saw her preach. And she preached on providence. Now in truth I loved her sermon, I loved her style, but the fake philosopher wasn’t having that message.

    And so I got an envelope, got a piece of paper, and across two pages managed to stretch out one basic idea:

    If there indeed is providence. Then what’s the point of my doing anything. Isn’t it all predetermined anyway?

    Robin Hood Story

    I don’t remember who told me this story or even if it’s true. But apparently in one of the tales of Robin Hood, there was a time he was in the dungeon with other people waiting to be executed.

    Everyone in the dungeon was going absolutely ballistic. But Robin Hood was as cool as a cucumber in a North Pole ice party. When his coolness was challenged, his response was simple:

    What will happen, will happen. The course is already in motion. No use worrying about it now.

    And that’s how I saw providence, albeit through much angrier eyes, as I wrote that letter.

    The Response

    Was totally, unequivocally nothing. I left the letter at the church reception to be sent to her and that was the last I ever saw or heard of my letter. Not a very good start in my philosophy career.

    The Meditation Quick Fix

    As I said before, I was obsessed with studying yoga, meditation and Eastern philosophy. In truth, I didn’t really care too much about understanding or following my Tao, or living by the principles of Confuscious, or achieving the enlightenment of the Buddha, I wanted a quick fix cure for my mental anguish and I thought meditation would be the cure.

    I remember the first time I ever experimented with meditation:

    Constipate Your Way to Enlightenment?

    I went to the book shop and got this tiny booklet that explained step by step how to meditate and achieve inner peace.

    1) Find a quiet place (there was background noise from the family TV in my room but I didn’t think this mattered too much)

    2) Sit in a comfortable position ( I lay down on my bed)

    3) Quiet your mind ( OK, Mwangi…….quiet your mind. Be still, stop thinking Mwangi. Stop thinking, QUIET your mind for Pete’s sake, stop thinking, AAAGGGHHHHH, BE EMPTY ALL READY)

    4) If you are having problems quieting your mind ( phew a section for hyper-kinetic stimulus junkies like me) then simply focus on your thoughts and detach yourself from them until you achieve a state of peace. This may take time - “I don’t like that!” ( Alright Mwangi, focus on your thoughts, hmmm should I focus on the good ones or the bad ones, JUST focus, and then what, what do I do when there’s this empty vacuum and nothing to fill it? hmmm, still your mind, still your mind, STILL YOUR……Oh forget it, what’s on the porn tube)

    Second Time was Never the Lucky Time Was It

    The second time, I went and got not just a meditation book, but a book on ESP: Extra Sensory Perception.

    Apparently there were some people who were able to bend the rules of reality and physics and bend spoons with their brains (I might have been a detached philosopher but I wasn’t above such superficial validation of such cool tricks) and move mountains all with the gray matter combined with the endless energy inside of me.

    To be honest, I don’t even remember how I failed at this one. All I remember is one day, ESP was all I could think about, the next day ESP was nothing but a pile of……………………………..

    Kinda Like Saul Before He Became Paul

    Back to my Christian bashing era: I was hell bent on disproving Christianity and I found a cyber idol in some aethist from the States. I don’t remember much about the man, but I do remember that he said that simply because God didn’t exist that shouldn’t stop us from being moral beings who did fun things like spending time with family and tennis.

    For that reason let’s call him Mr. Aethist Tennis (AT) and his site the AT site.

    The AT site had listed every problem with the good book you could imagine. Where verses and ideas clearly contradicted each other:

    Faith without actions is dead vs No one comes to the father by me vs All you need is the faith of a mushroom seed vs the wages of sin are death = How the heck do I achieve salvation and eternal life?

    It listed times when family trees didn’t quite add up. And according to Mr. AT the Catholic church had a book full of biblical difficulties, which I have yet to read to this day.

    So Am Sure After Reading this Convoluted Tale You are Wondering What the Heck I Learned

    What’s interesting is that, it was in the midst of all this that I was blessed with the most wonderful gift: I stepped on stage for the first time, acted and actually moved people.

    It’s amazing how in an 80/20 analysis, the simple acts of moving a crowd of people on a stage and having them admire and respect me afterwards cleared all my philosophical raging and bitching.

    As cliche as it sounds, all I ever wanted was to be needed, wanted and cared for. And I think that’s probably the main thing that I picked up: as long as we people are unconditionally loved and cared for by at least SOMEBODY, a lot of things that would be problems just melt away.

    I also learned that I really didn’t hate the Christian faith. After all, I still ended up going to church on a semi-regular basis and still do to this day. All my life I could still say that the most wonderful people I have ever met were all Christian people and that has never changed to this day. So sometimes what we are talking about and what we really need and want are really 2 entirely different things.

    Thirdly, as I stated before, I learned that every way of life, including the Christian path was flawed. If it weren’t 1500 denominations would not exist, not to mention the many cults that use the good book as their guide, Da Vinci code wouldn’t have resonated as much as it did and we would all follow the same path.

    Whereas I have no doubt that there is probably something deep at the core of all of us that connects us all and brings us closer to God, I personally think that fully understanding it is above the human experience. I also learned that there were probably some things I just wouldn’t know.

    Finally, I learned that, even though I never ever truly know my perfect purpose and reason for being here, I am here. I have been loved and cared for and taken a chance on, even at my most wretched and my most wicked. I best make us of this life I have and make sure that somehow someday I repay the favour and love and care for folks who wouldn’t have gone very far otherwise.

    I hope that kinda explains just a little bit more why I am particularly fond of the catchphrase:

    Be blessed and bless others,

    Mwangi

Kikuyumoja's realm

  • MW&I website rant

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 4:33 am by jke

    While waiting for an apt-get update on my machine here to finish, I made the mistake of checking out the Website of the Ministry of Water & Irrigation in Kenya.

    Sigh. Pls allow me this short rant.

    The (recently relaunched?) website of the MW&I in Kenya provides only very little to no information at all to its visitors. Yeah, sure, there’s this Zimbra e-mail client hidden under a subdomain, but else - what’s the use of having a *new* website if content is missing?

    Me thinks: keep it short & simple. What ppl DON’T want to read online are long speeches by this or that honorabool PS or Minister, but instead what they WANT to read and download are guidelines regarding the water policies, how they can interact with the Ministry & it’s offices (WSBs & WRMA) and further links to websites that provide enough detailed information beyond the political blabla NO one is going to read anyways. So how come that this website is just another lost opportunity to show that there are indeed some very smart folks at the MW&I who could provide much better services to the public? Is it because the poor souls who had to redesign the site weren’t provided with enough detailed information?

    This just reminds me of the IT discussions on Skunkworks Kenya following the NYT article the other day. It’s like there’s enough potential available but only *those institutions* (like JKUAT) clearly lack enough facilities because the funds went into other pockets… a vicious cycle of incompetence, with those suffering who should be helped building the nation.

    I really wish that one day we’ll get rid of those hippos who are blocking real progress in Kenya and elsewhere.

You Missed This

  • Secondary School Strikes: Grand Coalition Government Courts More Disaster

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 4:11 am by chris
    It has been fascinating researching into the real causes of the current wave of school strikes that has left many Kenyans numb with shock. The first thing we have realized is just how complex the problem is. The truth is that those looking for a single reason to heap all the blame on will be disappointed because there are actually a number of reasons that have led to the current crisis. However many of them are related.
    ----------------
    Also published in Kumekucha today: Sex in marriage: How to ask
    Small Business Kenya: How to take your small business online
    ----------------

    Fascinatingly, despite the fact that we are now told that over 300 schools countrywide have been involved in strikes, few Kenyans realize just how serious the problem is. For instance many do not know that in the course of this term alone Upper Hill School students have been on strike twice. The unrest that led to the death of a student was the second one. And so has Sunshine School in Langata.

    It is interesting how the local media which has rushed to talk to teachers has generally heaped all the blame on parents who are said to dumb their unruly children in school and leave them to “terrorize” teachers. Surely how can this be true when youngsters spend most of their time at school (a minimum of 9 months out of 12). Would the reverse not be a little more accurate in that teachers who have mostly despaired in many schools across the country are molding the kind of youngster who end up terrorizing parents whenever they are at home. But having said that it is not a smart thing for all the blame to be heaped on any one party. Both share responsibility and it is supposed to be a team effort. Sadly these days, rather than co-operation the two key groups are busy mostly fighting and second-guessing each other at most schools, my investigation has revealed.

    From my 3 day investigation I am forced to announce that the number one reason for the current problems in schools is that teachers have mostly abandoned their responsibilities in schools and are too busy trying to make extra money. While it is true that there are various other factors that have contributed to the current crisis including the withdrawal of the cane without an adequate discipline system to replace it, the truth is that if teachers were on the job, they would have sounded the alarm long before the first can of petrol was purchased to burn down anything.

    What has in fact happened is that teachers have despaired and are only in schools to do the bear minimum to enable them earn their salaries so that they can re-invest in all kinds of enterprises that occupy their mind and indeed most of their time. There is nothing wrong with a teacher being enterprising, the only problem is that teaching is the kind of profession that does not work with anything less than total dedication.

    The reaction of the government to the wave of strikes is bound to make the situation worse. As usual they have rushed to address the symptoms (so that they are seen to be doing something) and nobody is interested in digging out the root cause of this unprecedented crisis. That is why the ministry has banned DVD and CD players in school buses (what does that have to do with the problem?). Indeed they have also opted to charge as many of the students as possible in courts. While I agree that no mercy should be shown to arsonists, the reality is that quite a number of innocent students will get a chance to mix with hard criminals in police cells and you can be sure that they will never be the same again.

    A more productive approach would be to start with the teachers and ask them where they were when the students planned and launched their attacks. This will hopefully lead to teachers admitting about their current state of despair which will in turn lead to the issue of the cane (which must be re-introduced). This will be much more useful than banning music in school buses and locking up barely legal youngsters.

    P.S. 1 :

    In your weekend special this Saturday: How prominent Kenyans made their money. Kenyans worship money and they really don’t care how their leaders made their cash as long as they have plenty of it so that during election campaigns, they can distribute Kshs 50 or even Kshs 5 to voters (when some of them have stolen thousands from each individual Kenyan countrywide). For those interested in the way in which these wealthy well known Kenyans made their money my detailed series of articles this weekend will amaze and surely disgust you. Dump your girl friend or boyfriend for yours truly this weekend (I promise not to disappoint). And let’s meet right here in your one and only Kumekucha Weekend special.

    P.S. 2

    Yesterday I published a story in my raw notes that I can NOT dare advertise here. Get the details on what it is about including a sneak preview into the hottest article I have ever penned in my over 20 years in Kenyan journalism. Email me NOW for FREE details and also regular advance information on what is going to be published here including Breaking News Alerts. And it is all FREE. Email me at; make-money-kenyans-subscribe@yahoogroups.com


    P.S. 3

    I appeal to regular readers of Kumekucha to remain on high alert and to refuse to be taken in by common trickery, especially in the so-called comments in this blog (and I am NOT talking about the ones coming in from a mental asylum in Spain). I have visited every single blog and web site reporting Kenyan news and I can authoritatively tell you that no other site invites more criticism than this one. But why? Just ask yourself the simple question; why don’t these “unhappy readers” move elsewhere instead of spending the whole day here trying to prove that our articles are either NOT factual or that (this is the latest one) I am recycling old Kumekucha articles. There was an especially amusing incident 2 days ago when some well-trained-in-propaganda-techniques-Kenyan pounced on a single statement in an authentic email I reproduced here, talking about photographs, to suggest that the personal account on a sexual assault by the Kenya police was pure fiction. Co-incidentally on the same day the Daily Nation carried an article (with much less details) confirming that the assault actually took place.

    It is also fascinating that the attacks are mainly focused on articles that I write myself and not so much on the other contributors. Some of this chaps lack reading skills because they also pounce on guest posts written by others that I post myself. Anything with Chris’ name at the bottom is earmarked for scrutiny with the intention to attack.

    Heheheheheheehe. I know you guys are terribly worried at what I know. Lakini pole sana, I have no intention of holding anything back from my dear readers. So… bring it on!!

    I am not one to brag but there is only one possible explanation as to why Kumekucha is the most attacked Kenyan blog on earth. Folks, they fear us too much and with good reason. Keep it here and if you are easily confused by clever propagandists, just skip the comments area and read the posts only and then wait for as long as 2 months for the story to break in other media.

Adventures Revisited

  • I see you on the shore,I ...

    Posted: July 24, 2008, 3:52 am by Sayyeda
    I see you on the shore,
    I yearn for you.
    I see you in the morning dew,
    I yearn for you
    I hear your drops fall
    I yearn for you

    Your cycle continues
    From the pits of the earth, so narrow.
    You're lifted to the skies, so wide.
    Fall you must, back into the earth.
    I hear you,
    I feel you
    I quench myself with you.
    Oh! Sweet water, how pure are you?!

of love, life and living it up

  • .....

    Posted: July 23, 2008, 1:26 am by spicebear
    i've been reading about the striking high schools with a little bit of deja vu. i swear, every time strikes happen the drugs are always to blame. or parents who let their kids indulge in television watching and are not tough enough on them. or those damn wazungu influenced people who banned caning. the chorus then goes "why, in my day (and seriously, this has got to be the most irritating part of the conversation) we smacked our lips in anticipation of the weevils cos that was our source of animal protein. when we got caned for misbehaving we smiled and said thank you and asked for more because we were bright enough to know it was for our own good. what are they complaining about anyways? ati what are those things they are striking about? salaaaleh! watoto wa siku hizi, they just don't know how good they have it."

    maybe im a bit skewed in my thinking. after all, i went to secondary school in the era when it was fashionable to walk out of school and go to nation centre to air various grievances. while that solved nothing on the students end apart from giving footage to news cameras that would later be tsked tsked over on the evening news it didn't change anything either. instead of the question being why there were so many schools striking it was where these arrogant and spoilt teenagers were getting their bhang from.

    if the post election violence should have taught us anything it should have been that it never helps to put a band aid over a problem and hope that it goes away. i wish instead of there being more lamentations about the good old days when children knew their place there would be more reflection on what needs to change in a system that has stayed the same for so long in a society that is changing. but si you know how we kenyans are? we do best when our heads are in the sand ignoring things and when we come up for a breather we go like "what? there are problems? stuff is happening and things are changing? in my day, blah blah blah .... " and then promptly put our heads back there.

    _______





    someone sent me the above after i told them how much i enjoyed watching chef! it's most definately being added to my netflix list since there is a dearth of things to watch on tv over the summer apart from reality shows.


    ____


    also, this has got to be one of the most pointless things i have ever read in the papers (at least, this week) i was torn between being horrified and extremely amused. all i could think was really? people are getting paid to write this? i have seen blogposts and drunken facebook ramblings more coherent than this article. damn, for real, i cant believe he got paid for that. does that mean i can get my pointless, meandaring blog ramblings published in a national paper and get a cheque? pretty please with sugar ontop? cos that would most definately get me out of my perpetual blog slump.

Seinlife

  • CNN Presents: Black in America

    Posted: July 23, 2008, 12:27 am by Seinlife

    Tonight is the beginning of a two part CNN documentary, researched and hosted by Soledad O’Brien on being Black in America.

     

    The first part, the Black Woman & Family, airs on July 23rd 2008 at 9 pm EST.

    explores the varied experiences of black women and families and investigates the disturbing statistics of single parenthood, racial disparities between students and the devastating toll of HIV/AIDS.

     

    The second part, the Black Man, airs on July 24th 2008 at 9 pm EST.

    evaluates the state of black men in America and explores the controversial topics of black men and fatherhood; disparities between blacks and whites in educational, career and financial achievement; and factors leading to the dramatic rates of black male incarceration. The documentary also examines the achievements of black men and the importance of the positive influences of black fathers.

     

    For more information and to watch a trailer, go the CNN special reports page, Black in America

     

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