DOMO rules in Africa

If Jacob Zuma is the Next President of South Africa then apparently DOMO rules. The down side of a man who lacks formal schooling are many. Populist vs elitist, populist will always find themselves in presidency then it is down hill from there. I hope it doesn't happen in Kenya.

 

aT tHe KiJiJi

Nairobi just like Babylon, is a mixture of Splendor and squalor. Sometimes you would be forgiven to think you are in a different part of the city (seeing there is city in the sun and city in the garbage) Maybe the contrast can be seen between the Nairobi Tom Mboya street and just down at the Kenyatta Avenue.

So this past weekend i went to the kijiji to do braid my hair. I really don't have a problem trodding these areas but somehow i always have that hidden fear like something would happen. Anyway accesibility to the kijiji (slum) is not as easy as one would like it be, you get off a good estate road and start walking down to a place where lights, tarmack, toilets, water are a distant dream.

Stupid me didn't even wash my hair (water is a luxury), and i had my hair washed rinsed with just one bucket.I am used to gallons and gallons of water washing my head but anyway really it made no difference.

Now thats is no of real interest to me. What jazzed was the number of guys passing through the salon just to chat (do people still do such things) The guys who we were warned rather loudly to take care of our belongings because those guys were thieves. So i looked up, though i have been mugged once i never ever got to see the culprits. I saw how thieves look like. The guy went on to say

"Kazi yangu inaanza saa sita but mi siwezi kukuibia coz nakujua"

Thats the closest to a confession i have ever hard.

So he would look at guys passing and start saying ati so and so has such a nice phone, bad thing i know her (Dayum).

The curious thing is these people look like they co-exist very peacefully, understand each other's profession and the fact that someone knows you is enough for them to leave you alone. Even thieves have honour!

The guys entertained us, they is even a corrupt version of some Kenyan song ati "ti ti shika matiti" It didn't though leave my conscience that these guys were confessed thieves. They talked though of some tough cop called Ndombolo who has slayed many of their friends caught stealing from the residents.

Politics
Somehow i have not see any active campaigns where i live. But this kijiji is a beehive of activity, all sorts of politicians were even on foot campaigning. There were vehicles with all colours and manner of parties. The good thing was there was a level of tolerance. Except for Kibera, intolerance has been absent this campaigns but that kijiji was spectacular in their level of tolerance. No insults or anything just campaigns and supporters moving from one part to another. It hit me campaigners do actually know who needs Hope and to be given hope and promises however empty those promises are. The residents of the kijiji decided that they are not voting anyone who is not giving them money, coz they know anyway thats the last time they are seeing those guys (what a pity!).

So when it was time to go home, it was almost dark and most of the residents were trooping back from where they do their various menial jobs. I asked why Esther Passaris had not visited and i was told that its not possible because the residents usually pull the electricity from the poles.

I went back home and forgot our brothers and sisters of the Kijiji.

In pursuit of happyness

My 2007 end of year post, cue from Gishungwa

Now, I am one person whose overall objective in life is to be happy. Everything i do, is based on "It will make me happy" and i have not disappointed myself. To get happy then you have to view everything from a point of LOVE. Love brings happiness and there is nothing in life than loving what is thrown your way regardless of the suscipicions you have of them. My ability to love has been tested on very high levels;

1. Usually not every one returns love or appreciates it. If you find me smiling, it is not because i have been through the best but it is because normally smiling is natural for me than it is for others.

2. In the middle of thick of things it is hard to love. For most of this year, i have been on the jobless train. Though i got a lot to do on the side that gave me quite to live on, things were not ok. Thanks God, i managed this one and not tell everyone who cares to listen the way things are. Needless to say i am without a doubt confirmed that it is best to plan for the future and i am not taking that with a pinch of salt. When you are blowing away all your cash in Java outlets and pubs always think twice; plan and save for that bad day. People will not rescue you and worse still they will not call you for all those plans they used to. I have lost many friends than i care to count during that Jt period.

I have read many blogs i cannot even fathom why people are so unhappy sincere as it maybe. I am happy, not when i have the best job or best dress or best hair (ok a great shoe/handbag can do magic) but when i am most content with whom i am and not discovering who you are usually takes so much away the happiness you could have.

So how did i discover who i am?
By reacting to situations the way i think best or not according to why i should do something. I sometimes just want to sleep on the couch on a sunday afternoon unless i had planned to be out that particular sunday. Thats what i feel best and no matter how much tempting that afternoon at the bar is, i just don't do it. I don't want people around because how else will i get refreshed for a working week ahead.

Knowing what/who matters in my life. Most people hanging around my life turned out to be clutter i would do without. Though this has been a long journey of weeding out, it worked finally. Recently an ex pal of mine wedded without telling me though we had been friends for almost 10 years, it is then i realized i woulda have weeded out a long time ago. It is at times of betrayal that you realize all those little signs you had seen earlier should have mattered. If it doesnt matter, it is probably not worth your time. I see so many people carry baggage all their lives in terms of people who are not worth their time and its outright annoying.

Reading my books. I love my books, i couldn't live without them. Books teach you what nobody teach you. Enough said.

In good times i follow Oscar Wilde and give in to temptation. He said "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation" Oscar Wilde (from the picture of Dorian Gray).  Ok i mean temptation to eat chocolate and ice cream ha ha ha

Then i don't watch and listen to bad news. I am not obsessed with bad news. Don't even bother to tell me them unless they directly concern me. Recently somebody called me to tell me we should meet so that they tell me what somebody had said about me. Holy crap. Why should i? Look as a being i am likely to annoy some people and it is not important that everyone loves me or like what i do. For heavenly sake, i attempt to love everyone unless logic dictates i don't but something has to irritate me about someone and i can blubber about it aimless, that doesn't make it treason.

I even made a quote for myself "If days deem fit to move on, why shouldn't I?". It is Monday today, tomorrow will be Tuesday, so why should i be stuck in Monday. I don't carry forward events. If someone slipped or out of malice said something about me, that is past, there is nothing i can do about it. I cannever put back sand in an hour glass.

I avoid people/events which make me unhappy and concentrate on people/even't which make me happy. Unfortunately even a parent can make you unhappy, it doesn't mean you have to take it. We all have different lives and i don't think anyone should suffer another just because they are your folks or relatives.

So take a cue from there and write something about something.............

RIP

JOHN RUGANDA (2007)

African Timer

There is a song i like by Boomba Clan
African Timer you never keep time, you are just an African Timer unapenda kuchelewa.

I have no idea why Kenyans like me have this thing that if a function is starting at 8 it means 9 and if it is starting at 3, it means 4,5. Take for example

1. An event hyped by Capital Fm the Locomotive Cervical Cancer Awareness Trip which i attended. Thankfully my friend had won a ticket on capital so we didn't pay the 3,000 bob. We were meant to arrive at the Railway station at 7 a.m. I got late by 20 minutes and it is after i had ran through town. So i get there at 7.20 in panic mode. Then an hour later no word, another hour no breakfast no word.
Nobody knew what was happening. So later someone who i think must have been the Mc for the event came (she was a horrible public speaker btw) and told us breakfast is being served. They had been trying to get a train and it would be there soon. Breakfast was to be served i.e. a minute cup of Milo. Guys had not even had breakfast running to catch a train which was not there 2 hours later (someone musta been kiddin). So the train finally arrives and the coaches are so horrible i.e. the seats are torn and all and the organizers by then had managed to pull 6 buses i dunno from where and chose to use them. There goes locomotive.

Some guys at this point asked for refunds which i am sure couldn't be given.

Its amazing how people can be patient and tolerant, no dramaz were caused.

The rest of it went smoothly. So i wondered just what makes organizers think they can play with people's time and money. If you say locomotive shouldn't you go out of your way to make it locomotive, it cannot be the same again Drat!

2. Sometimes when i get home early,  i go to a local gym. So, jana was such a day. The aerobics start at 7 so i checked in a bit early so that i could make sure i didnt miss any minute of the class.
What surprised me was that the instructor came by and then left. 7.10 no instructor, 7.20 no instructor, 7.25 instructor comes. By then some guys who have gone for the classes and even know better than the instructor had started instructing us, but then everybody was feeling cheated. Hereby you are paying for an hour and yes 25 minutes have gone and there is no reprieve and she comes acts like nothing had happened.

That's some of the reasons why we will not be saying goodbye to the mkokoteni economy.

It reminds me of several things
The days we would open campus and the lectures would begin 3 weeks later.
And even then the lectures would shortchange us by doing half the time they are supposed to be in class.
The long queues endured every place, the banks, KRA, safaricom customer care desks, because of failure of efficiency, did somebody ever study simulation?
Empty counters at the banks

To be honest there is terrible service at every corner of this country.I call it the Makanga principle. The Makanga can do anything to woo somebody to their buses or matatus but after that the passenger is treated like Dirt.

Randomness as usual

I have no any logical system of thinking thats why i cannot unleash those long posts that make you grab a cup of water.
Now, i am just wondering

If J.J. Kamotho was still the Sec Gen of LDP and KJ joined ODM, would they have a discussion as to whom the real Kamotho is.


I used to think Kenyans are forgiving and forgetful, not until i heard someone repeat the "scandal" in Kenyan modeling history. Naah its not a scandal it was Yolanda Masinde saying Mariah Carey was her role model. Ok, good peoples lets forget that part of Yolanda and remember that she was the Most Beautiful Miss Kenya whutz that they have these days. As Oyunga (yes him) says beauty queens are not supposed to have brains, what would the rest of them (read us) do?

I can't believe it

Celtel Wins the Best New Product category Marketing Awards @ the MSK Warrior Awards (Which one?). Celtel always remind me of a good product very badly packaged. If i remember well Celtel used to chuck a new Tariff every week and litter town with fliers.Anyway the BD didn't even find it fit to run a story on the awards. What a shame!

 

And then here are the Highest paid Actresses. Courtesy of www.perezhilton.com

1. Reese Witherspoon — $15 million-$20 million
2. Angelina Jolie — $15 million-$20 million
3. Cameron Diaz — $15+ million
4. Nicole Kidman — $10 million-$15 million
5. Renee Zellweger — $10 million-$15 million
6. Sandra Bullock — $10 million-$15 million
7. Julia Roberts — $10 million-$15 million
8. Drew Barrymore — $10 million-$12 million
9. Jodie Foster — $10 million-$12 million
10. Halle Berry — $10 million
 

I have no idea why www.perezhilton.com hates Britney that much. Meithink its LOVE.

 

Now how? Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore (top 10 earners?) I can't believe someone can earn that much for being a blonde. But then again this is America.

 

America builds you and then destroys you in equal measure.

 

Finally who will help Esther Passaris OF Adopt A Light?

 

She has chosen to fight City Council and it's not going well. Before Esther Pasaris there was darkness and to (not be blasphemous) sure just like Jesus upon her arrival to street lighting there was light. Infact i remember her marketing slogan was ( AFRAID OF THE DARK, ADOPT A LIGHT). While at it she made mad cash.

 

It is bad for Kenyans to know you are making cash. It is hard to look at the lighting in the streets without thinking of Esther. Infact when Mwai Kibaki tells Kenyans of his achievement and cites lighting the city and John Gakuo uses the same to measure his success they must always think of Adopt a Light.

 

Few Kenyans can do a job well, you just have to look at our roads to know that especially a public one. Adopt A Light has in all honest done their part. They have been losing one court battle after the other. 

 

Things Esther should know

Law suits are expensive

Lawyers are more expensive

Losing suits is even more expensive

Joining an opposition party openly while doing business with the government is totally expensive.  

It is good to separate business ownership with the management. This is a typical example.