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20:23
Somali women hold Somalia together
» Kenya Imagine A few years ago I met a female Somali member of parliament. She was part of the transitional government that was based in Nairobi and flew into Mogadishu as often as they could.
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Two Cents, Two Days to Go
» Kenya Imagine Two days to go. I can just imagine the furor that will be in the office come Tuesday/Wednesday. Who is to say how this race will pan out? I can only surmise.
As my fellow history buffs would agree, one would need to look at the chronicles of this country to understand what is taking place this day and age. To quote Shakespeare (and then Biden) "What's past is prologue". In other words, history is an eye into the future.
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18:12
Partying Like It's 1960
» For Love and Money Partying Like It's 1960
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14:56
Nairobi City Council - Bouquets & Barbs
» Rants, Raves & Reviews Bouquet - Increased burial fees. We need fewer burials & more cremations. Of course, murders can't be solved if the bodies are cremated BUT that only happens on CSI. In Kenya, 'investigations' are a joke. What was the idiot's name who claimed Robert Ouko 'killed' himself then set himself on fire?
Barb - Why would you raise the fees for LOADING BAYS from 60,000/- to 100,000/- in Nairobi?
Many world-class cities want businesses to open/remain in their downtowns e.g. New York, London, Chicago, etc... the idiots at the Nairobi City Council want to drive these businesses out! These businesses keep residents downtown longer & create vibrancy.
Higher costs of the various licenses will either push these businesses out by encouraging hawkers who pay no fees or charges! Violent & armed robberies are on the rise & the police as usual consider these as 'normal'.
Barb - Why doesn't the NCC get rid of the death traps - 14-seater Nissan matatus? I would post photos but I don't want my phone or camera being snatched!
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Gospels of Prosperity
» Kenya Imagine As a born again Christian and a patriot of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I have noticed a worrying trend in some of our churches lately. More often than not, a new church springs up promising signs and wonders, prosperity, a good life etc. Be it on the top building of a bar, in residential areas, next to other churches, literally anywhere you are bound to find a church. One is left wondering why this is so? Is it that the churches are not enough? What is the exigency of having a church next to others? The services are at the same time and one clearly hears what's happening in the adjacent church. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to discern that there is something suspicious about it.
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13:42 Greens' McKinney and Clemente: Helping us learn to overcome
» Marian's Blog This will be one of my last blog posts before Tuesday's U.S. presidential election. Borrowing from our sisters over at Document the Silence blog (on violence against women of colour), I feel the need to quote my Caribbean-American lesbian sister,...
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11:02
Brand Obama: Signed, Sealed and Delivered
» You Missed This 
The clock is finally ticking as the candidates approach the finish line. This was a campaign like no other before it. Pundits have had to revise their tales and most have their tails safely tacked in between their legs. Obama is here to not only make history but REDEFINE politics as we have known it.
The tension is a mile thick and the expectation is insatiable. Obama is working his socks off as if he is the one trailing in the polls. Complacency is the sure stealer of sweet victory from the jaws of success. And what do we have in all this, one may ask? Well, WE HAVE EVERYTHING as a people and more so as Kenyans. With Obama’s victory the world geopolitics WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.
Obama has set the standards so high and with unparalleled superlative ideals, weak minds and jealous competitors will unwittingly reduce his supporters to idol worshipers. Well the ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME tag would have been more apt in defining a candidate whose star seems to reside past the ordinary skies.
Obama’s fast political rise underscores the merits of clearly defined objectives with the commensurate determination to work tirelessly to achieve them. His highlight the selflessness of public service anchored on sound virtues that capture the collective fears and aspirations of a generation. Listening to him speak anywhere is akin to winning a ticket for a ringside seat at a giant shredder. Discipline is his singular signature, he is unruffled and his organization is tightly-controlled. His campaign is conducted within the two pillars of grace and intellect. They do not like the unpredictable.
Masked fear
Obama’s meteoric rise couldn’t have come at a better time. This has been the most fascinating, most gruelling and most expensive US presidential election campaign for generations. He threw his hat in the ring, banished time-tested templates and exploited technology to his advantage. Now the prize is his to lose. We all crave for change but Barack breathed new life into simple word that leaves the crowd cry back: "Yes We Can". The onus is on him to deliver and YES HE WILL.
But just like a Hollywood thriller with an assured conclusion, the race still leaves the heart racing. The endgame of this year’s US election has gripped every black person with a powerful mixture of extreme emotions. Obama's win represents a previously unimaginable triumph over centuries of racism and stereotypes against blacks. He epitomizes HOPE and OPTIMISM. But beneath the hope and pride lies fear of polling inaccuracy and voting chicanery.
Obama’s unprecedented race for the presidency has left records tumbling in his wake. His extraordinary campaign has not only shattered records and brought ceilings down but all the assumptions have been banished to irrelevance. This is in deed a race for the ages. What is more, kind Mother Nature also appears to be playing ball in Obama’s court. What with a broke world and a goofing Bush that has set the rest of the world against the US? The resulting toxic atmosphere is in urgent need of a pacifier and none fits that bill better than Obama.
Race for the ages
The challenges are piles high and Obama has his work clearly cut for him if he wins on Tuesday. He will have to immediately confront some of the most difficult economic challenges since the Great Depression of the first half of the last Century. But Barack is up to task if his focused and disciplined campaign is any measure of his strengths.
This years campaign has been a clear contrast between good and bad. Hitherto maverick McCain has not only laboured under the long gloomy shadow of the White House incumbent record, but his own campaign has jumped further into the shadows. McCain must reap in abundance his antics of reducing a campaign to peddling fear and guilt by association. The truth is McCain's ticket has cheekily corrupted his lust for power into putting the country first. Poor John must be privy to a unique MIRACLE in proving both the polls and pundits wrong.
The US08 presidential race has been rich in both precedent and incident. The winner will be prefaced by either the FIRST or OLDEST – Obama as the first Africa-American president in the 232-year history or McCain as the oldest first term president. Whatever the yardstick for judgement, the milestones reached, the paradigms challenged, the passions stirred and the numbers reached and shattered in this campaign will surely exhaust all the available journalistic adjectives: epochal, pivotal, historic, once-in-a-lifetime ad infinitum.
Make no mistake! Barack Obama is acutely aware of the perils of premature celebrations as evident in his strategy to save his best for last. His victory amounts to comprehensive triumph of greater good over bad. While it is difficult to control anxiety, it is near-impossible to bottle excitement, it just seeps through.
By all indications, Obama has the right temperament in confidence, ambition and drive that propels a worthy politician to high office at a time of multi-pronged tribulations: global economic Tsunami, rampaging Taliban in Afghanistan, battered nuclear-armed Pakistan and the ragging Iraq war that is almost engulfing Iran. By many measures, Obama is destined to inherit a colossal heap of unprecedented mess.
It is no mean feat transforming one's self into a global candidate-OBAMANIA. And by winning this contest, Obama will be historically adding that much-needed flavour on the sumptuous cake. No doubt Obama has earned his place in history books as one of the greatest black men. Go Barack go, conquer and and change world for the better. YES WE/YOU CAN.
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8:24
All Obama, All Over the Place
» What An African Woman Thinks Good people, if there is an Obama nation, it is situated in the eastern part of Africa, it straddles the equator, and, for give away clue, its name starts with K and ends with A.
Obama’s like a disease in these parts and everyone’s caught the fever. The lead stories in today’s press are all about Obama. I just went through my copy of the Sunday Nation and Obama features, in photo or text, in a whooping 17 out of 51 pages.
Pause. Mull. Be amazed.
There’s a little about McCain as well of course, but mostly in a sidekick, afterthought, supporting actor sort of way, to this drama that is Obama.
And, putting aside the rudimentary quantitative analysis and honing in on the detail, it’s a variety show of sorts:
A lead story about the last 48 hours of what is an historic election;
A story about ‘Obama the Musical’, a play being staged today by Tone Theatre Productions at the Kenya National Theatre;
A panel of Kenyan (political?) pundits predicting the outcome of the election on Tuesday, putting their mouths where their hopes are, as the sub-heading reads;
A story about how Obama’s relatives have congregated in Nyangoma Kogelo village where they will remain until after Tuesday’s US presidential election and how they have set aside a bull to slaughter in celebration should he win;
The editorial, which is titled: “Obama offers US chance to redeem itself”;
A curious editorial cartoon which features what appears to be a top level security meeting in the US with a General or some other such high-level uniformed official reporting that “Our intelligence reports indicate that there could be political violence in Kenya if Obama loses the election!”;
An article about three factors that favour Senator Obama’s quest to be the first black president;
A ‘letter from New York’ asserting that Obama will clinch the election;
A colourful advertisement of a 2 part documentary on Obama and McCain poised to be aired on KBC tonight;
An announcement of the winners of a nationwide schools’ competition which asked high school students to write both a question and a short letter to one or both of the major party candidates in the US election;
Another colourful advertisement that Citizen FM will provide special coverage of the US election in conjunction with Voice of America;
An opinion piece about why the US should care about world opinion polls on their presidency;
An article about the US election by Andrew Kohut, the president of the Pew Research Center;
An article about what the Obama White House might look like;
That hilarious advertisement from Dura Coat paints where the White House has been repainted a screaming yellow and Mr Marangi (found in translation: Mr Paints) is declaring that he agrees with Mr Barack, ‘It’s time for change!”
An article about people on the street have to say about the prospects of a President Obama.
There. There’s more but I’ve run out of listing steam and I’m sure you’ve gotten the picture. If you haven’t, it isn’t coming, it got lost in the mail. Or something.
I confess, also, to not being an objective observer, watching from the sidelines, simply reporting what I see. I’m stark in the thick of it, probably located at the epicentre.
From my observation perch thousands of miles away, I’ve become an expert on all the ups and downs and lefts and rights of this election.
I can list for you, without hesitation, all the battleground states that will likely decide this election and what the latest polling stats are for each. I can tell you how almost each three day rolling poll, from Gallup to Rasmussen to Zogby is weighted for party affiliation.
A classmate of mine was surfing the internet yesterday and came across a funny titled article on Slate with a photo of a woman next to it. I was looking over her shoulder so she asked, absentmindedly, ‘who’s this?’ and I responded, without hesitation, ‘Elizabeth Dole,’ and followed that up with a brief explanation of the Dole-Hagan saga. Of course she raised her eyebrow at me. I would raise my eyebrow at me too, as in ‘you know this why?’ Seriously, I know this why?
I can tell you what former Secretary of State Eagleburger said and then tried to unsay.
It’s as ridiculous as it is exciting.
That confessed, I don’t get the feeling that Kenyans have unrealistic expectations of an Obama presidency. Sample these opinions by ordinary, on-the-street Kenyans published in the Sunday Nation today:
“…We know that Obama will not get into the White House and start throwing goodies at Kenya, but Kenya will have produced a great man.”
“…The US has its own policies which he will be expected to follow and Kenyans should not expect much.”
“…If you look at Obama, he represents the face of the world. He has an African father and a mother from Hawaii(sic)…his win will cause a wind of change across nations who will understand that politics is about issues not personality…”
Oh well, roll the drums please, here comes history.It's my window, but I don't own the view. -
Actions and Consequences and Impunity and Mutahi Ngunyi
» What An African Woman Thinks Mutahi Ngunyi continues to annoy me with his seriously bent out of shape logic around the Waki Report. What gives? Methinks he’s just trying to be provocative, to draw me into a reaction. In that case, well done, Mr Ngunyi, you have succeeded.
What’s with the fluffy, philosophical(not), head-buried-in-the-sand suggestion that either only 2 people are guilty for the violence that rocked Kenya early this year or all 38 million of us are guilty?
People with power and access to resources on both sides of the political divide first provoked and then organised and equipped ordinary citizens to commit atrocities against their fellow citizens.
And yes, I remember there was a highly flawed election.
Still.
To his credit, I concede that Mutahi’s argument is as clever a ruse as a politico can pull.
If only two people, Kibaki and Raila, are guilty, what can we do, really? They occupy the two most powerful political offices in the land. Do we sack them both? If we do, then what? Back to the ballot already? Highly improbable. Or maybe sack one of them. But which one? The country will be sharply divided on that question. Well, not so much sharply divided as not speaking in one voice, if you can read between my lines. Can somebody spell S-T-A-L-E-M-A-T-E?
That takes us to the 38 million people guilty verdict. Yes, I agree, we must each look at the very real ways in which we contributed to what happened in Kenya at the turn of the year. What did we say that we oughtn’t have said? Why did we vote the way we did? What didn’t we say that we ought to have said? Who did we listen to that we ought to have told to go jump in a (fill in the blank)?
But, if all of us are complicit in this terrible tale, does that mean no one is guilty of the very grave crimes of cruelly taking the lives and the livelihoods of their neighbours? Is this an Either Or? We all get punished or none of us get punished, is that where you’re navigating this ship to, Mutahi?
I disagree. We all went dangerously close to the line. But some leaders overtly encouraged people to cross that line, and some people crossed it. That's the wire we're down to. Hundreds of innocent Kenyans died. Hundreds of thousands of Kenyans lost their homes and livelihoods.
The other day a friend recounted to me the tale of woe of some women who had previously lived relatively comfortable lives as farmers. Now, they are reported to be chipping away at rocks in the harshest conditions in stone quarries because they had everything taken away from them and this is the only thing they can find to do.
A list of somebodys stood this country on its head and shook it to its core and I for one will not apologise for wanting to get to the bottom of this.
Also, Mutahi, I’ve said this before: Kofi Annan is not the problem. Don’t let’s even go there.
Unfortunately, whereas I sympathise with all the other foreigners that we invited into our tumultous business at the beginning of the year and who are now suddenly being lectured in black and white all over our daily dose of newsprint about their condescending and interfering ways, I find that I cannot come to their defence. (Sorry Jendayi Frazer et al. Rest assured though, I feel your pain.)
You know me, I’m a fan of the homegrown solution.It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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2:30
Cynthia McKinney & Rosa Clemente represent the kind of politics we all need to see in our own countries
» Black Looks “I cant cast a vote but I will feel the consequences” therefore I need to speak my piece. I read the other day that Toni Morrison will be voting for Obama. A couple of weeks ago it was Alice Walker writing what I described as “driveling bullshit.” and one more example of the mainstreaming of [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Cynthia McKinney & Rosa Clemente represent the kind of politics we all need to see in our own countries", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/11/cynthia_mckinney_rosa_clemente_represent_the_kind_of_politics_we_all_need_to_see_in_our_own_countries.html" }); -
For Humanity’s sake?
» Black Looks Putting the human back into humanity is something worth exploring especially if you happen to be of the LGBTI and have at one time or the other suffered the indignity of having your very humanity questioned. I remember some of the comments one of my posts provoked especially one that came with the suggestion that [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "For Humanity's sake? ", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/11/for_humanitys_sake_.html" });
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