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• January 07, 2009
• 23:32

  Saytam: India’s Enron

   » ‎ Kenyanentrepreneur.com

  Tags:  India  

  There’s a very interesting story on the worlds third largest outsourcing company collapsing because one of it’s founders has admitted to cooking the books for years.  According to the article: “50.4 billion rupees, or $1.04 billion, of the 53.6 billion rupees in cash and bank loans the company listed as assets for its second quarter, [...]
• 23:32

  Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com ...

   » ‎ Kenyanentrepreneur.com

  Tags:  General  

  Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

• 21:27

  Visiting home and feeling the foreign pinch

   » ‎ Kenya Imagine

  Tags:  tourism  

  New Year’s Greetings, I am reading Christine Stephanie Nicholls’ Red Strangers: The White Tribe of Kenya. The makeda calls lighter skinned black people yellow and my brother was once told that he was so light he was turning yellow. Red strangers, yellow people. This younger brother, who is at school in cooler climates is home for the holidays, this time he has brought someone with him, a foreign someone, and such visits being what they are, it turned into a touristy holiday- show the visitor around the house.
  Read more on my brother's nightmare as he visits home.

  

  

• 19:24

  Medieval Politics: Leaflets and Rent-a-Mouth

   » ‎ You Missed This
  That the more things change the more they remain the same wouldn’t have been more apt adage in describing the Government’s desperate move to lift itself out of the deep hole it plunged into. Alfred Mutua has re-invented his Turbo-charged mouth in creative leaflets authored to EDUCATE Kenyans on the merits of media censorship.
  
  True, desperate moments calls for desperate measures. But Mutua and his masters must have been blinded by their cheap optimism that Kenyans will buy their gimmick. Granted, the media is not without blemish but no leader ever successfully fought the fourth estate. Only in Kenya can politicians shamelessly re-invent the non-circular wheel and ride on the falsehood. If anything, the global time–tested and tried practice of media self-regulation militates against speedy economic returns.
  
  We are back to political medieval times. What with rent a mouth youths on the ready to congratulate the king on how immaculately he is dressed in his birthday suit. Now we understand that not only here at Kumekucha do we have easily excitable Kenyans. They are in good company ready with oiled lips and joints to dance themselves lame to old lyrics from a broken record.
  
  There are leaders and spineless politicians. Forget the hollow defence from Kibaki’s apologists that he did what he had to do after the MPs handed him the bill. There is leadership and responsibility and above all else having the hindsight to act in tandem with national mood. A responsible parent will not serve a hungry kid poison to calm him down.
  
  Impunity patented
  One Lucy must be still be enjoying her sleep after receiving the sweetest and most priceless New Year present from her sweetheart. Her nocturnal escapade at the newsroom has been taken a notch higher and what is more, it is LEGAL. That is a personal war won at the altar of royal expediency. The media must be ruing their antics to paint ogres in all the rainbow colours.
  
  Signing the Communication Bill amounts to institutionalizing our pricey national vice of IMPUNITY. Kenya has her gate keepers and damn the IDP families who are spoiling the party in demanding decent burial to their loved ones. True entrepreneurship includes doing commerce with corpses. And why not expand the virtue if carpenters can do it honestly at the lower end?
  
  But Kenyans must remain realistic and alive to the truism that no progress can come out a leadership singularly defined by deception. Fraud begets only more fraud and its derivatives. We are back to the starting point and the torturous circular journey continues. We better sample the Arabic wisdom in having smart mouths that never invite stinking flies by knowing when to shut up.
  
  Hot product tips from Kumekucha: Have you seen the latest brand new Nairobi Wi Fi Hotel?
  
  Hot product tips from Kumekucha: Have you had lunch at this unique Nairobi upmarket African dishes restaurant yet?
  
  Basic SEO training tips made simple

• 14:29

  Novelty in the airline industry - airtime for flights!

   » ‎ Rants, Raves & Reviews

  Tags:  Rave  

  Will it survive (buy airtime & redeem for flights!) but leave the private sector to think of ideas... smart or dumb... who is to say?
  www.flyairtime.co.za
  Government bureaucrats would never allow for real progress! Simply no imagination!

• 14:20

  Asiyefunzwa na mamaye, hufunzwa na ulimwengu.

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  burudani  

  

  As twittered earlier, these books shall enhance my chances for a seat at the Kenyan parliament (no work, taxfree income, free car) - or at least raise my mzungu status within the Kenyan blogosphere.

  Now, would you please excuse me, I’ve got to teach some Kiuk to other Exilkenianer who were forced to leave home in 1982….

  (I am really excited that I eventually managed to bring some of my books to Frankfurt - all in all 4 huge bags full of books, language material and other goodies I can’t enjoy online or via my computer. nice!).

• 11:52

  Being True To Myself

   » ‎ For Love and Money
  Being True To Myself

• 6:19

  Milking The Rhino - Screenings in Africa

   » ‎ Afromusing

  Tags:  Africa  

  Happy New year!

  Late last year, I wrote about the film Milking The Rhino, and promised to update once a screening of the film is confirmed in Nairobi.

  

  I am pleased to invite you to the premiere film screening of Milking The Rhino

  Tuesday January 13th 2009 at 5 p.m

  Goethe Institut - Corner of Loita/Monrovia Street Maendeleo House
  Nairobi.

  Cost: Free

  The film will run for 85 minutes and there will be time for discussion following the screening. Some special guests featured in the film will likely be in attendance, Dr. Helen Gichohi, President of the African Wildlife Society in Nairobi and if possible, a representative of the Lewa Conservancy. Do join us for a discussion on community conservation, environment and film.

  I will have some cool MTR buttons to hand out, and believe me, it would be well worth your evening to attend this screening.

  You can RSVP on the facebook event page if you will be there.

  January 28th 2009 - Accra, Ghana

  EcoLab Conference
  Hosted by The Society for Conservation Biology and Ecological Lab Unit of University of Ghana. MTR will be screening with a reception to follow.

  *Many thanks to KikuyuMoja, Barbara Reich of Goethe Institute, Xan Aranda of Kartemquin films, William Deed of the Mara Conservancy and last but not least Jeannie Magill the executive producer of MTR for making this happen.

  Do come and milk the rhino!

  For info on other screenings in US and the rest of the world, please check the MTR website.

• 6:12

  Ghana Highlife

   » ‎ Black Looks
  Congratulations to the people of Ghana who today celebrate the inauguration of their new President Professor John Atta-Mills. Unlike their neighboruing colossus, Nigeria, the Ghanaians were able to carry out their elections without any violence and other squalid activities. This time last year violence erupted after the Kenyan elections in December 2007 [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Ghana Highlife", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/ghana_highlife.html" });

• 5:20

  Kenya Ferries Ltd - Ferries stall - Deja Vu

   » ‎ Rants, Raves & Reviews

  Tags:  Rant  

  I told you so... yes, I, coldtusker, warned Kenyans... "Warped Priorities at KFS"
  
  2 of the 3 ferries were out of order at Likoni today... And trust me... the way things are going, I expect one to sink soon... which is bad news for tourism...
  
  Solution:
  
  - Either privatise KFS which means charging the passengers (or subsidizing the KFS).
  - Build a bridge or tunnel asap!!!

• 3:31

  Help!

   » ‎ Memories, Sentiments, Rants and Raves
  
  [www.geocities.com]
  
  I can’t seem to get enough sleep since the beginning of December ’08, which was good at first since I could stay up reading for the exams. Then I completed my exams and had a few days off and all I wanted was to sleep. I got to sleep at 3am watching videos or the business channel only to wake up the next day by half six in the am. Now that the holidays are done with I want my sleep back, still have the same problem only that now I can’t seem to wake up on time to get to work. Guaranteed that the alarm goes off at six am but then am tired and sleepy. Thanks to Google and my mothers wise words I have tried all the tricks: hot chocolate before bed, hot shower, reading before bed, clearing out my mind, light meals for dinner still to no avail and the heat at night doesn’t help at all. The next day, is filled with yawns that am trying to cure with hot water, mints. Sleep aside, what happens once am asleep is the other issue. I have this dreams that I could swear are real, seriously erotic dreams(whole other post)*blush*. No I don’t need some, am not getting any but really if my subconscious is trying to send a message I already got it loud and clear.
  
  The upside to this whole story is I have had time to listen to music I have collected over time. My friend says it must be the music that I have been playing while trying to sleep that is the cause of my dreams. You tell me I have been in the company of Marvin, Lenny Williams,The King Coles, Gershwin, Ann Nesby, Billie Holiday, Teddy Pendergrass, Bessie Smith(thanks Stephen Bess), Dave Coz, Meshell Ndegeocello, Al green, Norah Jones(thanks 31337),Isaac Hayes, Barry White, Kenny G, Etta James, Ella F, Some Neo Soul,90s R&B(brownstone, xcape,SWV) just but a few.
  Anywho, I need to sort this sleep and dreams thing. Any ideas?
  
  Ps: Pray your year is filled with God’s favor.

• 2:06

  Musical Concert: Norwegian - Kenya Piano Concert @ Alliance Francais, 8th Jan,09

   » ‎ Kenyanpoet
  The Norwegian Embassy invites you to a Norway - Kenya musical concert at Alliance Francais on Thursday 8th Jan,09 @ 6pm
  The professional opera singers will be:-
  
  Nini Ritzau, Soprano (Norway)
  Rhoda Ondeng Soprano (Norway/Kenya)
  Knut Jorgen Moe, bariton (Norway)
  
  Pianist: Paul Nduati ( Kenya)
  
  There will also be highlights from a classical repertoire and folk music from Kenya and Norway.
  
  Entrance is free

• 0:04

  I Don’t Believe in God, but, They Need God Over in Africa

   » ‎ What An African Woman Thinks
  As usual, we the Africans, and our problems, which are many, I concede it at the outset, are the subject of someone else’s diagnostic discourse.
  
  Matthew Parris doesn’t believe in God but that doesn’t stop him from arguing that Africa needs God to get it past “the crashing passivity of its people’s mindset.”
  
  Africans need Christianity because belief in and communion with a personal God supplants an outdated belief system, enhances our engagement with the world, and encourages a positive individuality in stark contrast to a suppressive collective superstitious belief system.
  
  As it happens, I do believe that active engagement with a personal God can and does have a transforming effect on the individual life. He could have made an argument about fatalism and ideas having consequences that would have left me a tad uncomfortable but more resigned and less apt to argue with him.
  
  But he didn’t. He went and cast his nets overboard and fished out collectivism and went on to ascribe to it failings not necessarily its own.
  
  Which is why I now feel obliged to call him out on three false assumptions he makes stroke odd misconceptions he holds on his convoluted path to being patronising.
  
  First, I do not see a doctrinal foundation for the claim about Christianity’s ability (and or propensity) to transform a collective culture into an individualistic one. I could, however, quite easily make a biblically-based argument for movement in the reverse, from individualism to collectivism.
  
  Before we even get there, however, why have we drawn a double yellow line between individualistic cultures on one lane going one way and collective cultures on the other lane going the other way and awarded all the pluses to the one side and all the minuses to the other side and ne’er the twain shall meet? How does he make the tenuous jump from collective culture to superstitious people cowed into passivity? Is he saying, and are his commenters agreeing, for the most part, that there is nothing good to be found collective cultures and nothing whatsoever bad about individualistic cultures? Really? As in it’s all black and white?
  
  Second he implies that hailing from an individualistic (and therefore by Parris’ implication a proactive) culture inspired Edmund Hillary to climb a mountain simply because it was there. On the other hand, hailing from a collective culture, which is elsehow known as a passive culture, makes the faceless, nameless, all of us because he is one of us African not climb the mountain because first it is just there, and second of all, because nobody’s ever done it before.
  
  Here’s the thing I’ve always wondered: why does everybody assume that no African had ever climbed the mountain before the adventurous foreigner came along and did it, and taught him how? (For porter’s sake, of course.) Who’s to say, definitively and conclusively? So the lion hasn't published his memoirs, is that ample basis on which to conclude that the hunter was always the victor?
  
  Third, I’m puzzled by the way in which he clearly links the advancement of the Christianity in Africa to foreign missionaries in the present time. When he speaks of the catalyst for spiritual transformation in Africa, he clearly has foreign missionaries in mind. The Africans are changed, certainly, but they are changed in large part by their interaction with missionaries and their being objects of missionary activity.
  
  Case in point: when he recalls how he travelled through Africa when younger, he remarks that the people who had changed were the people they encountered when they ‘entered a territory worked by missionaries.’ I come to the conclusion that these missionaries are foreign because African Christians don’t live in secluded missions unless they’re working for or with foreign missionaries, (all the more to impress Matthew Parris). What African missionaries there are in Africa typically live among the people they are ministering to, blending into the crowd, whether it be in city, town or village.
  
  This underlying assumption on the part of Matthew Parris is puzzling especially as Christianity is growing so fast in Africa that the tide of mission should be returning to whence it came, with the African church sending envoys to strengthen the dwindling pulpits and pews of the very Churches that sent the first missionaries of the modern era to her, beginning about a century and a half ago.
  
  It raises the question of what value he places on second third and even fourth generation Christianity made in Africa, by the Africans for the Africans. Will this kind of Christianity yield the same value for the Africans as the Christianity brought by the foreign missionaries? Or is theirs a generic low cost version which creates a perpetual need for the foreign premium product?
  
  (And this I say not to disparage every modern day missionary to the continent. Hardly. I’m determined not to do stereotypes, (even though Mwangi wants me to seriously consider them)).It's my window, but I don't own the view.