Feeds
8988 items (0 unread) in 56 feeds
Welcome to Mashada Blogs! Read all your favourite blogs in one place.
«
Expand/Collapse
Recent items
-
3:31
From: Memories, Sentiments, Rants and Raves
Read This Entry & More At Memories, Sentiments, Rants and Raves
 (http://www.geocities.com/happyfreakshow/insomnia.jpg) 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
From: Kenyanpoet
Read This Entry & More At 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
From: What An African Woman Thinks
Read This Entry & More At 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 nest 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.
-
-
23:24
From: Startups in Kenya
Read This Entry & More At Startups in Kenya
Some will call me a hater, but I am not, and I can no longer keep quiet about this. As a compulsory requirement to completing a law degree at the University of Nairobi one must attend an 8-week clinicals programme during the second year of study. At these clinicals you intern under a civil law and criminal law magistrate for a month a piece. If you get a good magistrate you will get to write judgments for the cases you sit through (not that they will be implemented) and have plenty of Q&A time with your magistrate. I was fortunate enough to be assigned to one of the two Senior Principal Magistrates at Nairobi Law Courts where I sat through several high profile cases. I also got to write judgments on two accused persons (which were totally opposite to what the magistrate delivered), and saw the justice system in action first-hand. I learned many things during these clinicals but I remember two clearly. First of all: DO NOT commit a crime, or even be caught in circumstances where there is reasonable suspicion of committing a crime. The criminal justice system is painfully slow and you can take even two years before your case is heard, meanwhile you are languishing in a god-forsaken remand system. Secondly is that court reporters are hopelessly incompetent in reporting on legal matters. I learned this second lesson after reading the next day's newspaper's reporting of cases I had sat through. In all instances the reporters (or their editors) had twisted the actual situation to create an impression of something that was not. For instance in one case where the chief magistrate was taking a plea, the accused person seemed confused on the charges, and in such instances the chief magistrate enters a plea of not-guilty. The reporter at hand chose to leave the confusion part out and indicate that the accused had simply entered a not-guilty plea. While this may appear a small editorial choice, in terms of law it is not. It is with this prejudice that I started reading the media's opposition to what they wrongly dubbed the Media bill, actually called The Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill 2008. Cognizant of my prejudice I made sure to read on my own the entire bill before taking a position. In fact I went as far as amending The Kenya Communications Act 1998, with this Amendment Bill in order to comprehensively understand the proposed new law. At the end I was justified in my prejudice; not only has the media completely misinterpreted the new law, it seems they have deliberately (and maliciously) created an impression that the law if passed will give the Minister 'godly' and 'draconian' powers in 'suppressing media freedom' and 'controlling the media'. This simply put is a bunch of BS. Here's the reality: 1. On the issue of the Minister seizing communication apparatus in the case of a public emergency... that law already exists, it has been there since 1998. In fact whether this new Act was passed or not, that law would remain in force. 2. On the issue of the 'government' controlling program content; this is not true. Yes, the CCK can force a broadcasting station to implement a programme code BUT ONLY if that station does not already adhere to a programme code set by an organization it belongs to i.e. the Media Owners Association. It is a fail-safe law, one that applies only where there is failure to self-regulate. Plus some obvious omissions on broadcasting should give heart to media owners, for instance SMS broadcasting does not seem to fall under this new law; and any decent analyst of the industry should know, that there lies the future of the industry. OK, let me not be a law professor, I challenge you to read the law yourself. You can get a free copy of the bill online here and the Kenya Communications Act 1998 from here. If you do make it to read the law, you will discover though that it creates great opportunities for netpreneurs, vigourously protects computer data and makes hacking illegal, improves greatly standards and processes for e-commerce by legalizing electronic signatures and certificates, and generally promotes the environment for people who are in the business of doing business online. As an addendum I read with disgust this morning, Musalia Mudavadi's comments yesterday during a press conference with the Media Owner Association. His political posturing is sickening, making statements like "The Government has a responsibility to amend the Act", "focus should not be on who was or who was not in the House when the bill saild through but on the nature and motive". Come on... for Chrissake, you're a member of parliament and a freaking Deputy Prime Minister! The Cabinet is collectively responsible to the National Assembly for all things done by or under the authority of the President or the Vice-President or any other Minister in the execution of his office. Please people, read the Constitution ( available for free here) and see how a law is passed. These fellas are pretending as if they were not party to passing this law. Even if the law was bad (which IMHO it is not), these statements from the DPM are highly offensive and disgusting. The truth is that opposition to this law is about MONEY. The media owners are terrified of the restrictions on cross-media ownership, particularly Nation with their recent expansion of their broadcasting division. Watch those shares free fall.
-
21:43
From: Kenyanentrepreneur.com
Read This Entry & More At Kenyanentrepreneur.com
This is a documentary recounting the clownish and buffonish antics of Idi Amin dada.
He once sent Nyerere a letter telling him that he loved him very much and that had Nyerere been a woman, he would have married him (inspite of the numerous white hairs on Nyerere’s head). However, since Nyerere was a man and [...]
-
8:16
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
It is often said that truth is the first casualty of war. Take the reasons offered for the ongoing bombardment and invasion of Gaza by the Israeli Defence Force. The right of national self defense is the oft-repeated mantra, the reasoning being that no nation can abide continued rocket attacks on its civilian population. More here.
-
7:04
From: tHiNkEr'S rOoM
Read This Entry & More At tHiNkEr'S rOoM
I really enjoy traveling. Really. There’s just something about being in totally unfamiliar surroundings, surrounded by totally unfamiliar people speaking an unfamiliar language that just appeals to me.
Being unknown in unknown surroundings is pretty much equivalent to a blank cheque. You can, for instance, enjoy yourself thoroughly by speaking with an accent. Don’t be boring by using an American or a British accent. If you want to cause much puzzlement and head scratching, nothing beats the sight of an African speaking with an Indian accent.
But I digress.
Much as I love traveling, I HATE AIRPORTS, and especially JKIA. I had to use that establishment’s services for a couple of times last year and I assure you that there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. I wept.
JKIA is big, poorly designed, stuffy and as comfortable as sand filled y-fronts. The broken, uncomfortable chairs in the departure lounges have to be seen (and sat on) to be believed. The facilities generally smell like a certain substance chemical symbol NH3, better known as Ammonia. The one time circumstances forced me to make use of the same (a litre of Coke, ladies and gentlemen, will eventually demand an exit) I went in a black haired man and emerged platinum blonde from the fumes. The security guards at the entrance are overzealous and have delusions of grandeur.
But despite this doom and gloom much merriment can be derived from the insanity.
Travelers by and large treat the 2 hour check-in period as an unnecessary and malicious complication. I freely confess to being one of these until a few flights have cured me of this foolishness. Kenyans will show up for a 7:30 flight at 7:20, fully laden with 3 bags, a ruck-sack, golf clubs, a baby and two teddy bears and expect to make it on time. Those two hours are for
- Allowing you to queue with the other 100 people on the flight, fill in nonsense forms and check in your crap
- Correcting the many issues that the airport/travel agent/airline/you have screwed up (no, dammit the flight is to Niger, not Nigeria!)
Travelers additionally have a strange habit of dressing to the nines to travel. I remember a flight some years back where there were four of us traveling to Uganda for some reason I forget at this juncture. There was an uncomfortable silence when I showed up at the airport in my faded t-shirt, track suit bottoms and battered sandals to find my other colleagues in suit and tie, complete wit briefcases. Needless to say I was taken aback and inquired if there had been a change of plan from our itinerary that was to travel to Entebbe, take a cab to Kampala and check in to the hotel and proceed to get a night’s sleep. I was assured there was none. Todate I am mystified why some of us insist on suit and tie to travel. Or perhaps I am playing roulette with the latex glove?
Travelers additionally carry large amounts of crap in and on their persons when traveling. Again I freely confess I used to be one of these. Last year I was with a fellow Kenyan on a return flight from South Africa and at the metal detector she filled two trays with the contents of her pockets, items ranging from money, sweets, biscuits, tulcum powder to sanitary pads and tampons. The male security guard did not shy away from examining the latter items in great detail.
The metal detector is another item that still mystifies. A typical scenario is a feller, call him Bill, walks through the detector. It beeps. Guard asks Bill if he’s carrying or wearing anything metallic. Bill denies both counts and walks through again. It beeps Bill then empties the coins in his pocket into a tray and tries again. It beeps. Bill then takes the guard’s suggestion and removes his belt. Bill then walks through the detector with his belt in hand. Unsurprisingly, it beeps. Finally after removing belt, gold teeth, suspenders and assorted rings and putting them in the tray, Bill finally goes through, after wasting 5 minutes of everyone’s time.
What is the point of those ridiculous entry and exit forms? I don’t get it. They are a colossal waste of time. After all, the same information is scanned from your passport to why force us to fill them? I make sure I use my worst handwriting and if I can find one, a luminous green biro. If I have time some Morse code on the back in dots, dashes and pluses will keep immigration officers busy. Let their immigration and intelligence services earn their money trying to break my code.
Anyway, happy new year my friends. Here’s to 2009!
© M for tHiNkEr'S rOoM, 2009. |
Permalink |
One comment |
Add to
del.icio.us
Post tags:
   
-
6:57
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
Blogs continue to grow as alternative news sources, in Kenya and around the world. !-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> Blogging, I think is the new frontier of information, opinion and news in our local society. Here we have a pool and a variety of news and information from different people on a wide range of issues. Victor Ngeny highlights Kenyan bloggers here. The list is not conclusive, add your blog in the comment section.
-
6:55
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
As a journalist, it is very easy to be swallowed into the bandwagon calling for actions to amend the Kenya Communications Act, which the media hoped it would not be signed. But most of us shouting from the top of our heads do not even know much about the history of the process. It has been a long process since 1998 when the Kenya Communications Act came into force. The ICT policy was published in 2006 and since then the amendment Another journalist takes on the media's reaction to the Media Bill. Read more.
-
6:13
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
In the days of retired president Daniel arap Moi, every move he made was analyzed and re-analyzed to try and figure out what he was up to. And true enough a few weeks later or even a few months later it suddenly became clear what Moi's game plan was. It is emerging (and has just dawned on yours truly) that the biggest mistake political analysts in Kenya are making these days, including this blogger is to attempt to analyze the political moves of one Emilio Stanley. How do you analyze blunders? Take the signing of the recent controversial bill aimed at clipping the wings of the media ahead of the post election violence trials. Why would Alfred Mutua suddenly wake up one morning and start distributing anti-media leaflets on the streets of Nairobi? (Nairobians just glanced at them and threw them down, littering the clean streets of Nairobi.) Is this not a clearly an attempt at damage control after the blunder has already happened? If truth be told, Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki will go down in history as the most blundering president Africa has ever had. Can you think of another one? (Even Idi Amin with his broken English was decisive and made very few mistakes). If you review the Kibaki administration right from the day one, it is a long, boring, repetitive chronicle of political mistakes and blunders. So what is the big deal? After all human is to err one would say. Sadly it is not as simple as that in this case. The problem we have here is that the Kenyan presidency is so powerful that the consequences of a single blunder can be catastrophic, let alone several in a row. Take the big mistake made to go ahead with the referendum in 2005? That mistake led to the fiasco of December 2007 than left thousands of Kenyans dead (the official figure is still sic hundred and something. Huh!!!) and hundreds of thousands homeless. I have asked several times in this blog what the cost of stealing an election is and nobody has dared to venture to give a figure. Actually it runs into billions and the bills are still piling up even as you read this. The tragedy of Kenya today is that the country is stuck with a weak, indecisive blundering leader who has got powers in his hands that young King Mswati (of Swaziland) and King Charles (before Cromwell) would envy. The kind of powers that have made his predecessors often confuse themselves with God. Now giving that power to a blundering politicin who has made a career out of NOT making decisions is more than tragic. It is almost like leaving a child with a loaded revolver. The bottom line, my sources assure me, is that the president did not expect the kind of troubles that he now has in his hands when he signed the Kenya Communications act last Friday afternoon. Just like he did not expect the troubles we saw in January when he made the decision to steal the election. What will he do next without fully appreciating the consequences? Kazi iendelee wacha wale wanataka kuropoka waropoke Could this story about the sacking of journalists over the media bill be true? I was not able to verify from my sources at the time of making this post. But I am still digging around and will get back to you guys. Hot product tips from Kumekucha: Enjoy the latest brand new Nairobi Wi Fi HotelAfrica has come of age on the web and clear evidence of that is the availability SEO Africa
-
3:10
From: Black Looks
Read This Entry & More At Black Looks
The other day I was reminded of this post on “Walls around the world” I wrote 18 months ago by a friend and I promised to post it again. Now there are even more walls. The whole of Gaza has always been a walled enclave in the midst of stolen lands. Now it is surrounded [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "World Walls [update]", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/world_walls_update.html" });
-
-
22:52
From: Hapa Kenya
Read This Entry & More At Hapa Kenya
Little is wrong with the Media bill, but there is definitely something bigger, that is wrong with the Kenyan Media. We can blame Kibaki all we want, but the truth remains, the media and the Politicians played and equal role in the so called clashes n death during the past election. The media published unchecked stories,they were biased in their reporting prior to the elections. They relayed to the public irresponsible statements by the political class. There is a great danger in letting the two groups go uncontrolled, let the politicians watch the media and let the media watch the politicians. Personally, I got no quarrel with the Communication bill. Please, Kenyan Media, be told, the hullabaloo abt this bill is getting into my nerves now. You have made too much noise, and the fact that Kenyans can only hear what the media wants to talk about is quite irritating. To kibaki, if you ever log in to this blog(I doubt), gag all media houses talking about the communications bill.Raid their houses, take away their equipments, arrest all of them coz this is tantamount to public incitement that might lead to civil unrest. To the ODM brigade who are playing saints now. The last time I checked, you had the majority in parliament! I believe the rules haven't changed, and the will of the majority rules the parliament. All bills brought to the parliament are first circulated to each MP's pigeon holes. Raila is still the best at marshaling support. You could have shot down the bill if you wanted! Stop playing with Kenyans minds.The bit that is wrong with the said bill is there because of your own omission or commission. Sad that none of the ODM MPs is willing to introduce an amendment bill to correct it as such. Stop playing saints where you are not! I would just wish to put on my radio and listen to music without the now common inciting interruptions about how the media is being gagged and how its gonna be bad for me. I am tired of the communication bill issue being the headline everyday, am sick of watching news full of media this media that. I am tired of the listening/reading/hearing just what the Kenyan media wants me to. Blogged with the Flock Browser
-
11:20
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
I've just tried to watch the 9pm news tonight and mostly failed, the first twenty minutes went to the media bill, choreographed a little with an interview type session within the news talking about how draconian and evil the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill, now Act, 2008 is. The interviewee has been pitched as someone close to President Kibaki or to the Government. He begins by saying that the lengthy statement issued by Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua in today's dailies was a waste of public funds. More?
-
11:17
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
This media bill.... has anyone read it anyway or as usual, are we just commenting on things we know very little about? I am beggining to think it isn't such a big deal anymore....don't get me wrong, I think if the media was really 'gagged', we would be in big trouble, and me being a journo, it wouldn't be good for me, so a gagging is the last thing I want. But for me, this is no longer about the media bill.... there is much more to this..... Yesterday, I attempted to go through some literature on the bill. I still haven't seen the amendment bill, but I think from what I have gathered, I have a good idea on what is going on. Allow me to dissect, and please feel free to contribute. More.
-
8:28
From: dkFactor
Read This Entry & More At dkFactor
It’s only fitting for me to get back on the blogging bandwagon with a “Why I blog about Africa” post, as I was tagged by Kaushal in a blog meme. The simplest explanation of a meme that I could find was: “An idea, project, statement or even a question that is posted by one blog and responded to by other blogs.” This particular blog meme was started by Théophile Kouamouo, a blogger based in Côte d’Ivoire.
So why do I blog about Africa? Africa is a continent of extremes - extreme good and extreme bad, extreme hope and extreme disappointment, a roller coaster of emotions and a complete spectrum of the human experience. Sometimes I wonder just how smart aliens are, for traveling many light years across the universe and landing in the least important places. The most succinct introduction to the human race can only be found in Africa, not New Mexico!
With all this in mind, one realizes that enough can’t be said about Africa. I was lucky to be born on a continent so diverse in culture, climate and a thousand and one other things - Where the earth finds it difficult to contain its treasures; treasures that perhaps, have been the source of Africa’s pain.
I want to write about a continent struggling to find its place in a far less interesting world. A continent that has been maturing like a fine wine in a dark cellar waiting to be uncorked. Why would I blog about anything else?
-
8:09
From: Kikuyumoja's realm
Read This Entry & More At Kikuyumoja's realm
Standards vs. ergonomy
The main entrance door to the Deutsche Post branch office at Frankfurt railway station.
There’s a fire safety regulation in German law which says that such doors have to open to the outside so that in case of emergency, the panic crowd may escape without any obstacles.
Despite of this regulation and although most doors in shops and offices are designed to this standard, many customers stil PUSH the door to the inside until they realize it opens by pulling the handle. There even is a sticker that says ZIEHEN (= pull).
Always reminds me of Gary Larson’s “School for the Gifted“.
Our future is in Africa
An election poster for the upcoming elections in the Federal State of Hessen. Instead of the usual mugshots of fugly politicians, these guys came up with the image of a tractor, OPEL logo, the Transrapid, a nuclear power plant and some messages that are supposed to attract floating voters.
While I think that Europe and Africa should team up and support each other, the “Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität” (BüSo) is in fact a very small right wing party with quite extreme ideologies. Germany, Europe, the world may indeed need to rethink what really matters - but voters should also inform themselves about the political parties and understand the real message behind such propaganda + how they are being lured into the world of extremists.
Their candidate talks about the “Africanisation” of Germany - e.g. how living standards have deteriorated over the years, similar to many African states (sic!) - and how the German economy nowadays relies on products from the outside.
While most parties actually suck and have similar concepts, it’s still much better to have a working democracy instead of fashists from the US who try to undermine Europe. Somehow similar to what Declan Ganley does in Ireland, but on another level.
paper world
Paris Hilton on the cover of “intelligent life“, a lifestyle magazin by The Economist.
Are you bored enough to read or at least page through any lifestyle magazine these days IF instead there’s something else called internet?
And two more questions on the traditional media (e.g. print):
a) How often do you, as a reader of this blog, read printed lifestyle magazines? And where? Do you buy them?
b) From my perspective as an internet geek (or “internetty”, as a colleague called it one day): where do you read, hear, see the general news? Do you read a (daily) newspaper on a regular basis and supplement this with some extra magazines? Or have you completely moved your news-addiction to the onlinesphere?
Am asking because I think that it’s especially the older generation that still prefers print editions + have been wondering on how this impacts on society in general.
  
-
7:10
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
-
7:03
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
-
6:57
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
-
6:52
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
Read This Entry & More At REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
The match was highly attended, with posters saying all manner and sorts of things, I am imagining Israel would have come out with e huge poster saying; WE HAVE A THICK SKIN.
I was just impressed by the amount of money that had benn put in place and the energy shown by the demonstrators.
Surely it made a point to the PM
-
6:38
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
Read This Entry & More At REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
  Ever wondered why many premier league encounters dont get cancelled coz of frozen pitches? Apart from underground heating, they have artificial sun...every day...
-
6:26
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
-
6:17
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
-
6:13
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
Read This Entry & More At REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
As a journalist, it is very easy to be swallowed into the bandwagon calling for actions to amend the Kenya Communications Act, which the media hoped it would not be signed.
But most of us shouting from the top of our heads do not even know much about the history of the process. It has been a long process since 1998 when the Kenya Communications Act came into force. The ICT policy was published in 2006 and since then the amendment
We do not even know that the media owners did not consider it as priority then, to send high level officials from the media houses to the multi-stakeholder forums.
I recall at one time we were laughing that the only media official, apart from those who were covering the event, was from DSTv.
Of course my stint at the Kenya ICT Action Network allowed me to engage with the ICT industry in regard to the ICT policy and the subsequent law.
What would have happened, if Linus Gitahi, Nation Media Group CEO and other media heavy weights were there from the first day of the multi-stakeholder deliberations? What if all those concerns were tackled at another level, maybe the wording would be different.
Since December, the media owners have met more times than they have probably met in the last three years. Too bad the result did not go their way.
This should be a lesson to the media owners, to be more engaged not only in covering the functions but in the deliberations. Yes, the process can be tough and involving, and to some extent full of gibberish but it saves a lot of last minute troubles.
In my opinion, this was a fight more for the media owners than ordinary journalists. The open sides that radio stations took during last elections was more of an issue of editorial policy than individual journalists. I mean the policy that the owners come out and say we support certain parties, not the story done because the journalist received a handout. The debate has been going on for sometime.
For us journalists, we can not even champion our own cause. How do you walk out to protest against a bill that affects telecommunications equipment when you can't protest against rubbish wages and crappy working environments.
What would happen if we wanted to protest against a media house that fires 60 journalists without notice, you go to work one day and you find a letter and a cheque and instructions to the security team that they should not let you in. Just because the media house has enough money to pay off three months salary, there is nothing you can do.
If the journalists wanted to take to the streets, would the media houses even cover the event?
That is why Gitahi and his team needed to take to the streets and protest if they felt aggrieved. It is true that if the equipment is confiscated, then journalists will be out of a job media houses don't need such drastic measures to kick journalists out.
I see this as a battle for the media owners because if they perceived it as important, they would have allocated a team from all the media houses to deal with the issues.
It is also easy to be led to believe that these rules do not exist elsewhere, I was reading the Tanzanian Act and it is far more stringent than what we are complaining about.
UK, Australia and majority of the EU have these rules, and that is why you see there is no much of convincing cries from the international community. This is because there is need for some level of regulation.
-
3:14
From: Black Looks
Read This Entry & More At Black Looks
RN from Squatter City has started a new blog “Stealth of Nations” which reports on the global informal economy. In this latest post he reports on the sale of shoes under Eko Bridge in Lagos
The Abassa Alakoro Market in Lagos, Nigeria. If Max Weber was right that “the ‘city’ is a market place,” then [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The shoe as a political statement", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2009/01/the_shoe_as_a_political_statement.html" });
-
3:09
From: What An African Woman Thinks
Read This Entry & More At What An African Woman Thinks
I know what Christmas is supposed to be about.
It is about that for me.
But, it’s about other things as well.
It is when I get to spend extended time with family, talking and laughing and fighting and making up and just generally doing family.
I love to hang out with the Mother—we call her MotherNice. (And with the Father too-we call him DaddyCool.)
MotherNice is such the story-teller.
She regaled us, once again, with stories of her colourful, event-crammed childhood.
How when she young she was practically the village urchin, her mother having passed away soon after her birth and her father being in politically-motivated detention.
(Mau Mau. Emergency. You. Join. The. dots.)
How when she passed her Common Entrance exams and was offered a place at Embu Girls, an agricultural officer, (so and so’s grandfather, you know so and so), tried to cheat her out of her place by arm twisting the headmaster of the local primary school she had attended to replace her name with his daughter’s because who was there to pay her school fees for her, really, her father was in detention and her family was poor, so who?
How my aunt Tabitha used to go to so and so’s grandfather’s house, you know so and so, and taunt him and tell him whether he liked it or not MotherNice was going to Embu Girls and she was going to learn to eat with a fork and knife, so there!
How MotherNice did not have two clues to rub together about what boarding school was because, really, how could she, she was so young and all she knew to do was to follow the older kids around the village and wreak havoc.
How aunt Tabitha’s husband, Uncle Josphat gave her a ride to school all the way to Embu on the back of his bicycle because they couldn’t afford the fare but she was going to go to school, she was, because aunt Tabitha said so, and you should meet aunt Tabitha.
How she soon became a force to reckon with because she could and would beat up just about anyone, even the head girl, what with her particular upbringing, rough and tumble and all.
How Miss Dunford, the headmistress, loved her anyway and was absolutely blind to any wrong she did because when she wanted to, she could turn on the charm, MotherNice could.
How she made herself loads of money in school weaving mats and baskets for the teachers so she always went home with presents for everyone.
How they used to sing “God Save the Queen”, so that she would continue “long to reign over us”. (And then she and my Uncle laughed. And my uncle remarked that he couldn’t believe he’d sang that song just twelve days before Kenya gained her independence.)
How they used to recite, for exam purposes, all the advantages British rule had brought to Kenya. Among them:
i. Christianity.
ii. An end to tribal wars
iii. Health
iv. Education
v. Civilization
How on December 10th, two days before Kenya gained her independence, Miss Dunford packed her bags and hightailed it out of the country and back to her beloved England because she couldn’t imagine what would come of blacks ruling themselves.
I love sitting at the feet of MotherNice.
Such the Living History.
I think everyone over 50 should write a brief history of their lives for their family's consumption.It's my window, but I don't own the view.
-
2:54
From: In Excess
Read This Entry & More At In Excess
However it’s not very active, the farming season is not at its peak hour and the tractor is aware that the landmine infested areas are on the increase. This makes it worse for the rotor which always has to be told to chill by the tractor control system, especially when the rotor sees some very [...]
-
2:47
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
The Government of Kenya's Communication Office has put out in yesterday's (Sunday) papers paid advertisements in which it aims to dispel the fears raised against the so called Media Bill, recently signed into law by the President. We republish that paid advert here (for free) noting that it has been available on Dr. Mutua's website for a while now, the date on the website is 19th December. Kenyans would likely have been less surprised by the presidential assent if they had read this opinion then. Want more?
-
2:09
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
 This past weekend has been the most eventful politically for a very long time. In a way we have opened 2009 in much the same way we opened 2008 with a lot of fear and anxiety flying around—amongst those who can read politics pretty fast. Although this time there is no bloodshed (at least not yet). Those who think that this is just about the Kenya Communications bill signed by the president last Friday need to think again. Fascinating whispers are emerging and as the saying goes that there is no smoke without fire, Kenyans cannot dare to afford to ignore what is being whispered. There is too much at stake for us to simply sit back and ignore “the rumours.” Interim Military Government Will Be PNU’s Bargaining Chip - Shocking Whispers From Insiders Claim Firstly it is emerging that the signing of the said controversial bill, that the media is up in arms against and which has triggered off the heat with the coalition government unity now quivering and threatening to collapse, was timed perfectly. It is no accident that the bill was signed late Friday. Meaning that those holding the carefully choreographed plan in their hands have had time through the weekend to take in all the reactions and intent of all those they are watching carefully who could not take any real action until today (Monday) and were therefore doing a lot of talking instead. ODM have brought forward their crisis meeting over their future in the coalition to today. Secondly the provocative act of signing the bill has been done at a time when no electoral commission exists. According to the national accord in the event that the coalition collapses it can only be replaced by an interim government pending elections. The fact that we do not have an election body in place and the major players are already squabbling over the composition of an interim one means that no elections can be held in a hurry. Then we have the President’s men who insist in private that the Kenyan constitution is supreme and in the event that the coalition government was to collapse, then the president can re-constitute a new government on his own because he is the “duly elected president.” Let us stop before you start getting dizzy because as a commentator pointed out in the last post, this is a legal minefield where lawyers from both sides can argue until the chickens come home without coming anywhere near a consensus. In short the intention behind the signing of the media bill was to re-assert the president’s authority as the sole executive power in the land and to bring an end to the coalition government, having carefully laid plans already in place. As you read this reports are filtering in to me that the government is circulating anti-media leaflets on the streets of Nairobi. Further whispers that may sound far-fetched insist that the PNU side of government will propose the compromise of having a military government as an interim government until elections are to be held. This will be done knowing fully well how Kenyans fear and loath a military administration which the country has managed to avoid thus far, save for the 30 minute administration of air force Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka on 1st August 1982. The idea is to have Kenyans surrender themselves to the grand PNU plan. Now the most dangerous thing in all this circus are the two principals. If Kenyans were to be honest with themselves, there is very little difference between the two (Kibaki and Raila) and 2 selfish, spoilt kindergarten kids refusing to give an inch as they punch each others noses bloody in a nursery school yard. None of the two are interested in the greater good of the country because if they were, both w | |
