-
18:14 Shop Green: Earth Day 365 days/year
» Marian's Blog If you're in the U.S. or nearby, when you need to shop start using this site - Co-op America's National Green Pages.
-
17:41
IDPs: Pawns in Political Game
» You Missed This True to tradition of avoiding making tough decision, Kibaki is having three days of rallies to the internally displaced Kenyans. The truth is Kibaki’s determination to create impression of acting is premised on sustainable plan. This unique problem CANNOT be solved nor addressed using the hackneyed old school leadership.
The IDPs are symptomatic of Kibaki’s betrayal of Kenyan dream. He started it immediately after the 2002 election. You could smell embarrassment on his face when his own PNU MP for Naivasha told him to his face the genesis of political tension in the Rift Valley. On entering office he chose to reincarnate his nostalgia of Jomo’s rulership and utter contempt of his voters. He capped it all with STEALING the election which makes it VERY difficult to spare Kibaki in the whole mess because he was the principal cause of the mayhem that let to violence in the first place.
True leadership is premised on making TOUGH sound decision in the face of crisis. But you cannot claim that virtue when you make CRISES your middle name. That we have been experiencing perennial election violence after every five years is cheap to trivialize and/or overlook the underlying root cause. Even Koffi Annan who saved us from self-destruction and was here for less than 40 days ended up understanding our problems better than the pretenders masquerading as the most experienced practising politician in Kenya today. Well Kibaki’s experience must be a catalogue of indecision and fence sitting that is often mistaken for principle to be hands off.
Cart before horse
That MPs are playing political games with people lives is not only inhuman but an extension of institutionalized IMPUNITY albeit in disguise. Moral authority like virginity is irrecoverable once lost to the winds of deception and fraud. Instead of formulating sustainable structures that will see Kenyans banish localized hostilities to the grave, Kibaki is comfortable by ridding the cart ahead of the horse.
Kibaki's penchant to opt for easy fixes in the face of grand problems amounts to cheap leadership oiled by short term measures. Such plots only succeed in incubating national problems making them potent to explode at the slightest political spark in future. IDPs need a permanent solution that will see them restart their lives in confidence of never having to look over their shoulders in case their neighbours revert to their old devious ways.
-
13:53
Barack Obama Priced For Perfection
» For Love and Money Barack Obama Priced For Perfection
-
13:06
11 years later
» Kikuyumoja's realm ALL those years of trying to get my (how do I say this delicately?) “non-internet-nerd”-friends online and/or joining alumni websites (also since I had created a website for my former school in 1997 and had seen some alumni sites coming and going since then) — and then FACEBOOK comes along and all those long lost “friends” from “back in the days” are suddenly unearthing from their Mid20s-college-university -freedom-chaos -sabbatical to reunite on this evil online network.
WTF, really.
“OH, so what have you been up to during all those years?” - “Well, I have been online since then, waiting for you ******** ********* joining this online world and now the dumbest social network of all (besides of MySpace) with its walled garden policies and overrated hype eventually gives you reason enough to jump on the bandwagon?”.
filed under: I am cool & u r not. sigh.
-
12:04
What Was It Like Saying Goodbye to African Soil?
» The Displaced African Enclosure: [download]
I recently read about the heart breaking, raw reaction that Kelly had to having to leave Kenya. That mixed in with some discussions I had with some friends got me thinking about what it was like when I had to say goodbye to Africa.
Do You Know What My Reaction Was?
Nothing! This post will be short because I felt nothing about leaving home. I wouldn’t miss anyone or anything.The only thing I felt was excited because I was going to a new place that was supposedly better than where I was coming from. I was also feeling pretty good because Australia also promised this wanna-be Mandingo his girls.
Ironically…..
My apathy eventually bit me in the butt and within six months I was missing all my family and friends. I was writing them all emotional deep letters expressing how much I loved and missed them. I was on the phone with my cousin so much the authorities must have thought we were plotting a jewel heist.
I wrote this post because I am curious. What was it like for you, when you had to say goodbye? Leave a comment below and let me know.
Before I leave though……
If Denzel Got Rejected What Hope Is There?
I have just watched an interview with Denzel Washington where he said that when he first proposed to his wife over the phone…..she said NO! If Mr. Mo’ Better got rejected, that evokes two feelings in me:
a) For real, no a lot of the time is just, not yet.
b) If John Q couldn’t seal the deal with his first proposal, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Rewind Selector
Until then, please enjoy Malaika one more time.
Why? Because they are that good!
Be blessed and bless others,
Mwangi
-
7:51
IDPs: A Modest Proposal
» Kenya Imagine You would not know it to listen to the Kenyan media, but many of your countrymen are unable to return to their homes. Not even now, after the crisis has abated and a political settlement been entrenched. There was a time, not too long ago, when the aggressing political leadership decided it would not interfere in the violence. The ODM leader was reported telling a crowd in Kisumu that they should not attack the Gusii residents of the city - who had been cleansed along with the Gikuyu and Akamba. They voted for me, he explained, except that the Kibaki people stole our votes. There was no call for similar abstention from violence towards the Gikuyu. You sensed in those days, from the media narrative, from ODM-leaning civil society, and from the international understanding of the situation that the victims - mostly Gikuyu - somehow deserved the attacks on them.
Read and discuss here.
-
6:52
Concerned Citizens for Peace Meeting Apr 18
» Kenyan Pundit IDP’s * There are 250 camps still existing countrywide. Little concrete solution for them and we don’t want them to become a forgotten species. Need symbolic gesture to remind govt and public about this situation – a group from CCP to spend night in the camps. Through this, they can strengthen the call for political [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Concerned Citizens for Peace Meeting Apr 18", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/04/23/concerned-citizens-for-peace-meeting-apr-18/" });
-
5:25
Solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe
» Black Looks PRESS STATEMENT: SA LESBIAN AND GAY COMMUNITY CONCERNED ABOUT DEMOCRACY CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE The South African Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP), formerly known as the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE), is concerned about the deepening political, economic and social crises in Zimbabwe. We express our full solidarity with the lesbians, gay men, [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/04/solidarity_with_the_people_of_zimbabwe.html" }); -
We Write What We Like
» Black Looks Black Perspectives on the South African Human Rights Ruling Against the Forum for Black Journalists The details surrounding the Forum for Black Journalists (FBJ) and Radio 702’s Katy Katapodis showdown have been rehashed in the media ad nauseam and while these may soon be blurry bits of yet another tantalising ‘racism’ story, what is likely [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "We Write What We Like", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/04/we_write_what_we_like.html" });
-
4:38
IPO Guilt Part II: Rule of queues
» bankelele IPO Guilt Part II: Rule of queues
-
3:43
When Change Comes (The two tribes in Kenya - The 'Haves' & 'The Have Nots')
» Kenyanpoet When Change Comes
I. Growth
When villages grow into towns
Towns into cities
Shops into malls
Spaces into estates,
When streets turn into avenues
Avenues into highways, super highways
Subways and runways
Then things change.
Villages become frail old women deserted by their offspring
All gone to the cities with big lights,
Who, unlike prodigal sons, only return in coffins.
Homesteads empty like the stare of a 9 year old boy
Eyes stiffened by industrial glue liquid,
Face barren of emotions.
City streets give birth to illegitimate children – street children
Who, at the age of 8,
hang around city corners, begging for a shilling.
At the age of 18,
You beg them not to harm you as they rob from you,
In the big city streets and big mall corners
Subways and highways.
Estates and villas,
Suburbs and urban spaces
Metropolitan cities and industries become fathers who sow wild oats
To shanties, ghettos, slums, poverty stricken valleys.
II. Changes
In these valleys,
Girls quickly grow into women
Siring children at the age of 16, maybe even 13.
Where single families spring quicker
Than a spring chicken.
Where lands mushroom to shanties,
With no jobs in mind, in the mines or offices.
When kids can’t go to school,
Only to sit in the sun counting cars
Watching others live their dreams,
While theirs have been packed away like the text books in their bags
Then innocence changes.
When husbands neglect wives for brewing dens,
Choosing illicit drinks over tuition fees
When kids go hungry for days and nights
Mothers are jobless, fathers are drunkards,
When all one can show for years of sacrifice in school
Is a piece of paper – a college degree
With no job, money or respect
While unqualified minds run companies and governments,
Then minds change.
When opportunities look at the colour of your skin
Asking for your names,
who you know with lots of muscles,
Politically, spiritually, economically,
When your name, skin tone determines which doors shut,
how fast hand bags are clutched,
who calls you up for a job,
what neighborhoods you can take a stroll in-
then thoughts change
III. Takes
When you realize that your fate was sealed in that moment of conception
Even before you took your first breath in this cosmic space
You then know, it takes more than yourself to survive.
When you are born in a small dark room
In the slum- ghettos of Nairobi,
The wrong side of town
Born in the wrong side of jobs
Wrong side of school
Wrong side of life
Wrong side of everything good in life
Except life itself
Then you know it takes more than yourself to be on the right side
It takes governments that are willing to accept the growing gap
The gap between those with and those without
It takes bridging that gap with informal jobs, equal opportunities
With Youth, women, men empowerment bridges
Bridges that seek to empower minds, endanger idlers
Bridges that recapture people’s dream of equal opportunities
And put them back into peoples' hearts
It takes more than corrupt individuals
It takes more than paying taxes for more government officials
It takes more than policemen gunning down innocent youth
It takes more than black men looking down upon their brothers as lesser mortals
It takes leaders willing to listen to the cries of their people
It takes systems that will help its people come out of mental slavery, self pity, oppressed lives
It takes everyman to make that change.
you, me, him, her, them,
Us.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“As to the pure mind all things are pure, so to the poetic mind all things are poetical”
A dedication to the many disillusioned youths living slums.
Piece by N.W
kenyanpoet@gmail.com
April, 2008
All rights reserved©
-
Happy birthday, Bram Fischer!
» Black Looks Bram Fischer was born on 23 April 1908. Happy Birthday to him. Lawyer, born into a prominent Afrikaans family. He studied law in South Africa and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He became an active member of the Communist Party, while also reaching the heights of the legal profession. He defended those charged in the [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Happy birthday, Bram Fischer!", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/04/happy-birthday-bram-fischer.html" });