
What I really like about Frankfurt is that you not only come across such an awesome decoration on a wall, but also find three jamaas (from TZ?) standing on the other side of the street who are actively admiring this art. In Kiswahili.

What I really like about Frankfurt is that you not only come across such an awesome decoration on a wall, but also find three jamaas (from TZ?) standing on the other side of the street who are actively admiring this art. In Kiswahili.
Consider both your hands. One of them is stronger than the other. The stronger hand is destined to take the brunt of most of the manual work that you undertake. For example, when hammering a nail, the stronger hand lifts the hammer and makes the effort of driving the nail into the wood. Meanwhile, the best that the weaker hand can do is just hold the nail in place. In the course of daily work, the stronger hand often hurts the weaker one. In some cases, the damage is extensive and the scars might even last a lifetime. In the example of hammering the nail, the stronger hand can easily miss and strike the weaker hand. When that happens, a painful ugly welt often results and might even cause a fingernail to come off. This leaves a scar that the affected hand would live with for the rest of its life.
And yet despite these differences in strength and the amount of work that each of the two hands can do, and despite the hurt that one might cause the other, they have learnt that they are better off together than apart.
We can learn a lot about our own nature as men or women from observing our hands. And then perhaps it can become clear why God made men and women with different physical capabilities and levels of sensitivity. For example the left hand might not have as much brute strength as the right, and yet it is considered special enough to be adorned with a wedding ring and to wear a watch. But despite these clear differences, no one hand ever considers itself less equal to the other, and so every hand is free to be what it naturally is; no hand has to prove anything to the other.
Have you noticed that one hand will always clasp the other in comfort when any hurt occurs? In the case when one hand hurts the other; the aggressor will have the humility to offer comfort while the victim will have the grace to accept that comfort. Incidentally, no hand will ever hurt its opposite deliberately since it already knows that it would be tantamount to hurting itself. Is it possible for one partner to hurt the other without hurting himself or herself in the process?
When idle, the hands often come together in a warm place to snuggle. It would not matter whether the left hand hurt the right hand earlier, or that the right hand did most of the work earlier. They leave triviality behind and forgive each other without uttering a single word of blame, or raising a voice.
Consider both your hands and think about what you and your partner can learn from them.
Pls don’t nail me down if this has been mentioned before (as I haven’t been following KBW lately due to other obligations - which is sad because the feed is pretty much interesting these days), but I just stumpled across this interesting note on another network about a German company from Potsdam that apparently programmed a web-based interface which will allow internal whistleblowers (!) to report any cases of corruption anonymously.
In Kenya, that is.
The Kenya Anti Corruption Commission recently implemented the Business Keeper Monitoring System (BKMS®) which shall assure “anonymity & information confidentiality” as well as an “anonymous diaologue”.
screenshot from the website
Says it on their website: “The BKMS® system is used as an internet-based communication platform by whistleblowers worldwide (employees in companies and administrations as well as outsiders) to report misconduct and risks. If necessary, whistleblowers can remain absolutely anonymous in order to be protected against repressive measures.”
Obviously, such a system may not be working for those poor souls who are constantly harassed by the police, and may also come too late for Mr David Munyakei (1, 2, ex 3), but it’s a good start, I think. Also, I am wondering about the - fear - this may generate among members of the public service.
According to the website, the BKMS system is already in use with some companies and orgnanisations in Europe, but I wonder if anything like that has already been applied to the EU commission? Ah?
Today, I came across the same dead snake that I saw yesterday by the pathway. However, unlike yesterday, the dead body seemed to have suffered an additional blow or two by idle passersby. And as I looked at the thin tiny body of the young black snake with a white belly, I marveled at the unconscious fear that many people have about snakes.
Like many other people, I was taught that a snake is dangerous at a very young age. I learnt that each time a person encounters a snake, it should be killed instantly by hitting its head with a stick or a stone. Have you ever tried to kill a snake? The body of a snake seems to have life in every cell, and hitting the head only makes the rest of the body writhe in pain. It is not until you pound every inch of its long body that the poor creature will eventually stop meandering itself. I think this is the true meaning of over-kill.
My lessons went ahead to instruct me to burn the carcass of a snake. This was for two reasons; One, lest it had eggs in its stomach that would later hatch into more snakes. Up to this day, I am not even sure whether that actually happens. The second reason was advanced by a person who managed to convince most people that a snake would come to life if another snake slithered over its dead body. Only by burning the body of a snake to ashes would ensure that it was gone completely. The lesson in the fear of the snake was so effective that encountering a snake, watching snakes on television, or even thinking about a snake was guaranteed to bring nightmares.
Of course you know what the snake did. According to the Christian Bible, God condemned the snake to die each time it is encountered by a human being since it made the mistake of deceiving Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. And I suppose that the reason why humans kill the snake with so much gusto is the fact that were it not for that deception, we would not have to work for a living, we would not die, and women would have painless birth. And since that blunder by the snake ancestor, apart from being condemned to crawl on its belly, no snake has had peace on earth on account of man’s vengeance.
It was not until I met a South African man called Stretch that my perception about snakes was challenged. Stretch is so comfortable with snakes that I once saw him pick a snake from the ground with bare hands and drop it down the front of his shirt. I could see it struggling against his belly under his cotton shirt as it tried to escape. Hanging out with Stretch made me become curious about the world of snakes, and I even learnt that only a very small percentage of snakes are poisonous enough to kill. And although that didn’t make me fear snakes any less, now I wouldn’t readily kill a snake as I might have done years ago.
Thinking of the dead young snake pulverized by the roadside reminds me of the saying ‘The sins of the father have visited the son’. For indeed, the snake is not the only descendant that is misunderstood because its ancestor did wrong. What fault would a child born into a war ravaged Iraq have done to warrant a life of trauma it might live for the rest of its life? What about the young boys and girls being maimed daily in Israel and Palestine? And the millions of kids who will go hungry due to drought in Africa as a result catastrophic man made changes in the world climate?
Perhaps if each person asked himself or herself what wrong a snake did to him or her before striking it with a stick, then perhaps a consciousness would be born that would wipe out most of the world’s suffering.
