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20:52
Pink Pistol-Packing Lesbian Gangs are Terrorizing the Nation
» Black Looks Also, visit me at: kameelahwrites ____ I came home from class and did my usual blog checking and I came across to an interesting post entitled “Beware: Lesbian Gangs Terrorize Men with Pink Pistols” over at Grits & Eggs. Grits & Eggs is described as A forum for five exceptionally ordinary people: a Black woman who loves [...] -
Old and new states of women’s rights in Africa
» Black Looks A number of African governments have finally chosen to implement women’s rights legislation including laws against gender based violence such as domestic violence, FGM and child marriages as well as make abortions more accessible to women. Sierra Leone has outlawed domestic violence and guaranteed women the right to inheritance and customary marriage [...] -
Time Limit campaign
» Black Looks In Britain there is a law which places a time limit on disclosure by abuse survivors. The law at present is 3 years for negligence and 6 years for assault. For children time runs out at age 18 which gives them until 21 and 24 to disclose. [...] -
Serial Link Dispatch: Translating Blackness, Ventriloquizing the Dead, Blindspots, and Racism in Surround Sound
» Black Looks Also, find me at kameelahwrites ____ via RaceWire: “Culture of Disrespect,” Ebony Magazine takes on bad words RaceWire asks: “So 32 pages on the n-word and its cousins, ho and bitch. Is it time to move on?” Maybe so…I wonder if Ebony would ever spend 32 pages on the Prison-Industrial-Complex or Hurricane Katrina. And, why is Ebony taking [...]
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18:33
Strawmen, Liars and Matches
» Kenya Imagine Vitalis Oyudo takes us on a civics lesson questioning Kenyans who will not vote for Raila because of his tribe. In his assessment of ODM-K, Oyudo advises:
Read more here.Now, there is obviously going to be competition in ODM-K, but this will have to be conducted wisely if the party is to survive in any form at all. The only victory that can come from the current state of affairs will likely leave even the victor badly hurt, much like our one-eyed neighbour above. Negative campaigning of the sort conducted against Kalonzo Musyoka all year does nothing but demean its proponents in the public eye. He certainly does not seem to have done anything to deserve it, and with a negative stereotype already attached to Raila, the keenness of this crusade against Kalonzo will only make the Mwingi MP look more like the under-dog, prevailing against the oppressive forces that far outnumber and outpower him. For many of us, Kalonzo has been turned from an outsider to a heavyweight challenger merely by the fact that Raila and his crowd hate him so much. We are now being forced to ask, to what is it they are so violently opposed?
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Raila does not deserve this kind of treatment
» Kenya Imagine Mwangi Muiruri assesses "undue" criticism on presidential candidate Raila Odinga. He says ODM-K, while with a large following, is headed the wrong direction with the wrangles for power at the top.
Read more here.When the chips are finally down, ODM-K may go into the annals of history as the party with had the largest following, but squandered its huge advantage and lost a general election it. True, the referendum may have been a different ball game, but there is no denying that the momentum it initially gave ODM-K, has for most of the year simply been unassailable.
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Boeing, Airbus and African Airports
» Kenya Imagine Kimani Njoroge on the global aviation industry.
Read more here.The global aviation industry is up for a shake up. This follows the introduction of new planes by both Boeing and Airbus, and the entry of BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) into the civilian aircraft manufacturing industry.
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Quick Links
» Black Looks It seems like weeks since I have journeyed through the blogosphere and visited old friends and spaces - here are a few posts I thought of mentioning. I read this post on No Longer At Ease which provides a reality check into what ordinary people want and what they think of democracy. But what [...]
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12:35
Is Stephen Muiruri In Trouble Again Over A Mere Letter To MPs?
» You Missed This archive
Within a few hours of publishing former Nation crime editor’s letter here, it seems that the whole episode has stirred up a hornet’s nest.
Personally I find this whole episode ridiculous and rather strange, especially when we know that the same letter we published here was sent to all MPs. So what is the fuss all about?
Kumekucha has been contacted by some desperate-sounding persons claiming that top policemen are plotting to arrest Muiruri again or at the very least harass him over the letter which certain interests are extremely furious about. More so the ones he exposes in the letter.
Had I not received this other communication, I would have dismissed the following comment as something from one of the nuts who linger around this blog. However based on the information that I now have I sense that there could be more to this strange comment which I have reproduced at the end of this post (the original can be found at the post of the Muiruri letter to MPs.)
What does Muiruri know that makes these guys go ballistic every time he writes a harmless open letter? Would Mr Stephen Muiruri dare to shed light on this?
So what is my opinion on the proposed Media Bill, Phil asks? I agree with the readers here who make an interesting observation. That getting a conviction based on the bill would be highly unlikely because it contradicts several key constitutional rights.
But my attention is drawn to a bigger question;
Why is the government so keen on a media bill so much so that other much more important and pressing matters have been swept aside to make room for the passing of this media bill? Even key constitutional reforms are not as important as the medis bill. WHY??? What is the government frightened of? Another scandal about to be revealed that is bigger than Anglo Leasing? (keep your eyes on this space)?
Still the fact that Stephen Muiruri has been harassed by a hypocritical mainstream press who want press freedom for the mainstream media and then turn round and condemn the very alternative press where they get some of their best leads from is worth noting. Sometimes these “respectable” media houses even go out of their way to ask their members of staff to stay away from Kumekucha. With this in mind, maybe it would be a good idea for the Media bill to be passed so that it hinders the work of the hypocritical and highly selective mainstream chaps. We can then all start fighting for press freedom all over again and this time without hypocrisies or double standards. Sometimes when you build a house and it has major flaws, the best way round the problem is to bring it down and start over.
Anonymous said...
Chris, am a police officer based at Police Hqs, Nairobi. I attended a meeting where the issue of Muiruri's letter on the media bill, which you have posted on your blog was discussed. I had to sneak from the office to go to the cyber to read the letter. Compo (Ali) is very mad with the article and Muiruri might fall in deep trouble soon. Please do something to save this guy. He used to be the solo voice of police officers when he was at Nation but all those he left behind have been heavily compromised by Compo and the press if full of lies these days. Police officers are suffering now there's no one to speak for them. Crime has sykrocketted and all the media happy to report are lies. We are not happy when our colleagues and Kenyans are being killed. Use your influential blog to save Muiruri.
Why Is Hon Michuki bullying his youthful challenger?
The photographs Kumekucha feared to publish.
Horror of Kenyan with female sex organ sharing cell with men at Kamiti Prison
Are you a Kenyan? Do You love your country? Join in this noble campaign to change things. Do something instead of just complaining. -
The 4th President Of Kenya
» You Missed This archive
The charade in Mombasa involving presidential hopeful Kalonzo Musyoka and a highly charged jeering crowd and the rest of the high drama revolving around ODM's selection of a presidential candidate is really occupying many Kenyans. One of the reasons for this is that many believe that if ODM sticks together and supports one candidate for the presidency, they will win the presidency hands down.
What we have all failed to do is to soberly look at the work that needs to be done so that we may seek the candidate best suited for the office of president. Many Kenyans choose to be "realists" instead and in the process we fall neatly into the plans of the political ruling class. I urge all you "realists" out there to spare a moment to read this article and also our guest post by a Michael Mundia Kamau. It is my hope that your eyes will be opened.
At the very least I beg you to think outside the box. Because we have some extraordinary challenges and problems facing us in Kenya just now, which cannot be solved using the same old tricks which have failed us in the past.
Many times, my ideas here have been dismissed and I have been called a dreamer. And yet the saddest thing that can ever happened to a human being is for them to stop dreaming. I once met an old man in his late 60s at a jua kali garage where I had taken my ramshackle of a vehicle for repairs. It was a time in my life when I was facing so many problems and auctioneers were around the corner waiting to pounce on my car at any time. The man looked at my car admiringly and said to the mechanic in Kikuyu that in his entire life he had never owned a car. That’s statement struck me and I realized that every little kid dreams of owning a car, but what happens along the way? Many of them become "realists" and they lose the dream and in many cases the chance to own their own car. I hope I am not getting too deep when I say that life gives only that which you demand and nothing more, nothing less. What a man can dream of having, deeply desire and even imagine having, life will always give. But "realists" true to their realism receive only what is within their realistic reasoning.
My question here has always been; even after the harsh reality and hard knocks of this life, can you dare dream? Are you man enough to dream of something bigger than a car? Can you dream big dreams? Like a just government led by a fearless courageous president (preferably not older than 45) ready to give all for the cause of a better Kenya? Can you dare dream of playing a part in installing such a president as the fourth president of Kenya?
But let us start with a job description. What is the job on hand waiting for the 4th president of Kenya? Here is a short list;
1) Must be courageous enough to constitute a truth and reconciliation commission to bury all the skeletons in Kenya's closet because that is the only way we can have a truly new beginning.
2) Be courageous enough to take some tough decisions that will be politically unpopular but will be for the greater good of the country, like 1) above which will mean various popular tribal chiefs confessing their terrible sins and thus destroying their future political careers to stay out of prison. Others will refuse to confess and will have to be jailed or punished according to the law.
3) Be courageous enough to end corruption from the top. President Kibaki sounded very determined making his acceptance speech shortly after being sworn in as the 3rd President on that unforgettable December day, 2002. So what happened after that? I will tell you. Powerful forces came into play and the president had to survive. He had to abandon the dream and be a realist. Kenya cannot afford a repeat in the fourth president, we are rapidly running out of time here.
4) Be courageous enough to tackle tribalism head-on. For starters by appointing persons from as many different tribes across the country as possible to key positions. And also by passing laws that will clamp down hard on tribalism and any future administration that will "want to do things the way they have always been done."
5) Courageous enough to tackle the huge land crisis which is a time bomb waiting to blow this country into many tiny fragments if it is not dealt with quickly, like yesterday.
6) Courageous enough to implement new creative (out of the box) ideas that will make use of the resources that we have in plenty lying idle in the country while Kenyans suffer. Resources like lots of idle land and idle labour (Kenya's labor force is the most highly skilled and qualified on the continent today). We also have plenty of sun that can be turned into electricity. Enough rain to end all our water problems with the right rain harvest and storage strategy and policies etc.
7) But most of all courageous enough to start their administration with one priority. To get Kenyans working whether it is abroad or locally, to create laws and policies that encourage existing employers to employ more people and also to grow small businesses dramatically with a lot of help from the government because small businesses are the largest creators of employment in the world (not big foreign investors establishing factories in Kenya. Did you see what happened with the EPZ's.)
With all due respect to my dear readers and their preferred presidential candidates, let us remember that what we are doing here is not the same thing as naming our favorite soccer striker in the English premiership. Or our favorite ice-cream flavor. This is a matter of grave importance. A matter of life or death for many ordinary voiceless Kenyans. In fact the lives of millions of Kenyans hangs on it and that of your children and great grand children many generations to come. We cannot afford to get it wrong this time. Resigning ourselves to 2012 is suicide because one wrong move and we will not have a country left by 2009 let alone 2012. Can't you see the writing on the wall?
With this in mind I respectfully disqualify the following candidates;
Raila Odinga: does not qualify because despite his demonstrated courage, there is no way he will be able to deal with corruption with the current structure in ODM because many (if not all) of his tribal chiefs he is relying on to corner votes in various parts of the country are suspects of grand corruption. William Ruto should tell us how he made his wealth. Sally Kosgei whom Raila has been warning up to also has scandals linked to her. Musalia Mudavadi knows a thing or two about Goldenberg (the single scum that impoverished and killed the largest number of Kenyans in the history of our country). The same thing that happened to President Kibaki's resolve is bound to happen to his come March 2008 when the pressure will be unbearable.
Kalonzo Musyoka: I do not want to repeat that it is a fact that he hid in the National assembly toilets to avoid voting on important matters of national importance in parliament. Mr Musyoka told the Sunday Nation that he is a revolutionary. I'm sorry but that is laughable. These are not the Kanu days when mere words and slogans were peddled countrywise as the gospel truth and Kenyans were forced to swallow it hook line and sinker or else… I have tried very hard to look for something courageous that this fellow tribes-mate of mine has done in his life and the only one that comes close was his attendance of the controversial ODM rally in Mombasa last weekend. And the fact that he asked a hammer wielding charged, emotional man in the crowd to pass the hammer to him. That was brave.
I can't imagine this guy driving out the influential drug Lords who control Kenya at the moment and have made the country one of the major transit points in the world for all sorts of illicit drugs. Or saying "No" to the corrupt moneyed and very dangerous individuals who are the real rulers of Kenya.
Let me stop there and drop names of two individuals who have proved their bravery and ability to risk everything on a matter or principal. This is what we badly need in Kenya today.
John Githongo: John Githongo's Dad is a close friend of the President. Imagine that! Githongo was so principled that he was willing to say "No" to his own family and close friends. In fact many Kikuyus view him as an enemy instead of the national hero that he is. Believe me it would have been very easy for John to just turn the other way and play ball and he would have been a very wealthy man today and comfortably living in his own country instead of in exile. And amongst other things his father's outstanding bank loan would have quickly been paid off a long time ago. It is not an impossible dream to get John Githongo elected the 4th President of Kenya. It can be done. All we need to do is agree and the means will be found quicker that you think.
I dream of a Githongo presidency that will give Kenya the true new beginning that we all seek.
Stephen Muiruri: The former Nation crime editor is an example of the kind of character that we should be thinking of for this high office. Don't laugh. Remember we agreed to think outside the box here. If you carefully study the kind of wars this brother of ours is fighting, you will begin to understand where I am going with this.
The 4th president will need to be a courageous fighter. This is not the time to dream of long motorcades and everybody calling you "your excellency" which is what the ODM brigade and everybody else is dreaming about.
I bet you none of them are thinking about the ordinary Kenyans who have lost all hope and now have to face the prospect of losing their head even when they are desperately confronting the challenge of putting food on the table amid record economic growth figures.
Somebody has put it in the minds of Kenyans, and sadly including readers of this blog that to be president somebody needs to be very well known and already a politician. I put it to you that as per the current constitution anybody can become president. ANYBODY. All he needs are votes. Al we need is a people-driven wave to sweep our chosen candidate to victory. We can put anybody we want on that seat as long as enough of us have unity of purpose. All we have to do is reach across all the imaginary tribal boundaries like we are starting to do in this blog and seat down and agree.
I dream of a situation where the Nark-Kenya brigade will be busy fighting amongst themselves over parliamentary seat nominees for the party as ODM holds endless discussions over which one of them will be the party's presidential candidate (the reason why they can't decide is because of GREED, nothing else) and meanwhile we ordinary folks say enough is enough and make our own plans. After all it is we who have the voting cards, is it not?
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
There is nothing, which the mind of a man can imagine and dream about that cannot be turned into a reality.
Most of all my friends, I dream of the day when all of you will abandon your preferred presidential candidate for us to join together to change our country.
Why Is Hon Michuki bullying his youthful challenger?
The photographs Kumekucha feared to publish.
Horror of Kenyan with female sex organ sharing cell with men at Kamiti Prison
Are you a Kenyan? Do You love your country? Join in this noble campaign to change things. Do something instead of just complaining. -
Mungiki Violence Continues: Line Between Organized Crime, Big Business And Government Is Extremely Blurred
» You Missed This archive
Guest Post By Michael Mundia Kamau
P.O. Box 58972
00200 City Square
Nairobi, Kenya
President Mwai Kibaki’s Madaraka Day outburst against the Mungiki sect was an act of escapism and hollow bravado, geared at glossing over much deeper and wider societal problems. Even in passing, his Madaraka Day remarks cannot be treated with any shred of seriousness, given the failure of his Government to take any action on the perpetrators of the multi-billion shilling Anglo-Leasing scam of 2004 and equally, the failure of his Government to take action on the criminals who caused damage to the offices and press of the Standard Group in the high profile March 2006 raid, among just two still outstanding matters.
Two of the alleged masterminds of the Standard Group raid, foreigners no less, continued to operate with impunity in the country thereafter, before being belatedly deported following another high profile holdup at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta Airport, yet the president chose to insult the people of Kenya on Madaraka Day by declaring that his Government would not tolerate or harbour any kinds of criminal activity. Were Anglo-Leasing and the Standard Group raid the work of "Mungiki"?
Moreover, and tragically so, Mungiki is just part reflection of the near absolute manner in which this country is now overrun by marauding gangs and murderous militia, whose actions are seldom known to
the wider public. Just before the crush of KQ 507 in May of this year, a gang of thugs gunned down 11 people near Kitale town in inexplicable gangland manner. This matter was quickly overshadowed by the KQ
507 plane crush, and has not been addressed since.
Incidences such as this have in any case been happening in all parts of the country for several years now.
Numerous militia now control and administer different parts of the country, terrorizing, maiming, stealing and raping, and are no different from Congo based militia such as "Intarahamwe" or "Banyamulenge". The security apparatus in all parts of the country have
been heavily compromised by these gangs and militia, or are overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude, in areas where the security apparatus has resisted being compromised. A case in point are the July 2005 killings in Marsabit district where there stands proof of repeated memos to the central Government, both describing a deteriorating situation and appealing for assistance.
In areas such as Nairobi’s peri-urban Ngong division, it is a known fact that inebriated gangs operate in groups of up to one hundred at night and implore residents to scream as much as they want during break-ins. This only makes things worse, and co-operation is often the best defense. Numerous overwhelmed residents in areas such as Ngong have now chosen to either sell their properties, shift, leave their gates and main entrances open at night to lessen the damage, or opted to pay protection money to the gangs or militia. It is a state of futility that the vast majority find themselves in, and it is in extremely poor taste for President Kibaki to brush all this aside and instead make bombastic remarks about only part of a much more serious and much wider phenomenon.
In any case, groupings such as "Mungiki" are the result of extreme societal chauvinism, inequality, insensitivity and prejudice, going back several years.
They have grown from strength to strength, fueled by society’s failure to adapt to changing times and changing realities. The terms in generous use at the moment, such as "crush Mungiki" and "deal with Mungiki once and for all" are in themselves a grim and sordid reflection of how detached we are from reality.
"Mungiki" and other similar groupings, are the Kenyan equivalent of organised crime elsewhere in the world, such as the Sicilian Mafia, the Italian Mafia, the Mafia in America "The Mob", "Commora", the Russian
Mafia and "Yakuza" in Japan. These are powerful and lethal organisations with wide and far reaching tentacles. If the American and Italian Governments have been unable to "crush the Mafia" and/or "deal
with the Mafia once and for all," it is futile for President Kibaki to declare that he will squarely deal with "Mungiki".
The line between organized crime, big business and Government is in any case extremely blurred. One of the most celebrated cases of this involves the high profile Kennedy dynasty in America. The Mob played a
key role in the fortune that family patriarch Ambassador Joseph Kennedy made in the motion picture industry in Hollywood. Ambassador Kennedy also got heavy support from The Mob in the 1960 election victory of his son, former President John F. Kennedy.
It doesn’t stop there. Despite the Warren Commission’s dismissal of a conspiracy in the assassination of President Kennedy and the ridiculous adoption by the same commission of the zigzag trajectory of the bullet
that eventually killed Kennedy, a strong conspiracy theory of the Mafia’s role in the assassination still looms, the motive being that Kennedy had made up his mind to bring down the Mafia. What’s more is that Kennedy shared a mistress, Judith Exner, with then Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana, and Judith was said to be one of the key moles that the Mafia had in the White House. Besides, the Zapruder tape taken by an amateur cameraman on the day of Kennedy’s assassination, 22nd November 1963, clearly shows a clear shot to Kennedy’s head, the work of a high calibre rifle even by today’s standards, and certainly
the work of a professional hitman. There is no comparison whatsoever between Ronald Reagan’s attempted assassination in 1981, and John F. Kennedy’s assassination of 1963. Many of us reacted with scornful disbelief when the Kenya Government initially suggested that former Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko had committed suicide following his February 1990 demise, and it is clearly not just the Kenya Government that goofs. One would expect much better from any American Government. What’s more is that John F. Kennedy’s younger brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was known to have even less patience for The
Mob, and had to be stopped even before he became president.
Another example of the large presence of organized crime in society, is the intrigue surrounding the sudden unexpected death of Pope John Paul I in 1978, as captured in David Yallop’s bestseller "In God’s Name". In the said David Yallop classic, one detects a determined effort by Albino Luciano (Pope John Paul I), to rid the Vatican of any Mafia connections and dealings, such as Paul Marcinkus ("God’s Banker"), and collapsed Italian bank, "Banco Ambrosiano". Pope John Paul I paid for this with his life, and Churches in Kenya have no idea what they are talking about when they tell the Kenya Government to immediately crush
"Mungiki".
Comparisons of "Mungiki" with the Sicilian Mafia or the American Mafia do not however start and end there, and this is probably where our greater concern should lie. "Mungiki" clearly also has far-left political leanings and can in this respect be also compared to radical organisations such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Taliban, Tupac Amaru, Fatah al-Islam, Abu Sayyaf and Black September. Mungiki therefore has the combined features of an organised crime outfit such as the Sicilian Mafia, as well left wing rebels with a political cause, such as "Black September", and it is very unfortunate that we have chosen to ignore this fact.
President Kibaki, his Government and indeed all of us, should therefore desist from using terms like "crush" because we are clearly dealing with phenomenon that we clearly don't understand. We should rather engage the likes of Mungiki in talks and discussions, in the same way that the Israelis engaged the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), and in the same way that the Colombian Government engaged the Colombian drug cartels, including Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel.
"Mungiki" is not a fairy tale, but grim reality that can tear this country apart in ways that we never imagined. Half of this country is under the siege of "Mungiki" type militia and the other half has
put it’s money into collapsing pyramid schemes, and the best that President Kibaki can offer are hollow threats and a disputable 6.1 % economic growth rate. This country is in a terrible crisis and we are not helping matters by living in denial.
On Valentine’s Day 1929, another high profile, well known and ruthless Chicago mobster, Al Capone, ordered high profile executions on a rival gang, in what has come to be known as "The St. Valentine’s Day
Massacre", and what certainly ranks as one of the most brutal warnings and statements of intent of all time.
Mungiki has done precisely this with it’s recent beheadings and none of us should make things worse by further provoking them.
Michael Mundia Kamau
To post your article here; write it and send it to umissedthis@yahoo.com. We publish all views, just don't be boring. Write today and Kumekucha will give you the audience by publishing it here.
Why am I doing this? To promote a peaceful election and to start planting the idea in Kenyans that the thing to do to a person who has a different opinion from yours IS NOT to throw stones at him or wave hammers.
Why Is Hon Michuki bullying his youthful challenger?
The photographs Kumekucha feared to publish.
Horror of Kenyan with female sex organ sharing cell with men at Kamiti Prison
Are you a Kenyan? Do You love your country? Join in this noble campaign to change things. Do something instead of just complaining.
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10:16
Post-Card From Kenya
» For Love and Money 
From the west coast of America and now at the east coast of Africa.
I’ve come across the second hotel with a telephone handset next to the toilet.
This hotel also comes with a television volume adjuster (Silver nob next to the telephone) for the bathroom speaker so that the room occupant can listen to the television while in the bathroom.
It just goes to show how the funds looted through the Anglo-Leasing type scandals are being put to good use.
Maybe after a few more such deals, they’ll install mini-televisions in the bathrooms.
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8:08 Slough 7s, 2007 - 7/7/07
» My Life is...Mochalicious! Enjoy these pics for now. Click here Mocha!’s TunePick: Bad Girl - Dave Spoon feat. Lisa Maffia
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7:52
Top 7 Questions to Increase Sales Using The 80/20 Rule
» Bizmambo Is your business falling prey to the Pareto Principle? Back in 1906, Vilfredo Pareto developed a mathematical formula to demonstrate the unequal distribution of wealth in his country where 20% of the people owned 80% of the land. Dr. Joseph Juran in the late 1940's wrongly attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto calling it Pareto's Law or Pareto’s Principle. Even though it may be misnamed, this is an effective tool to help move your company’s performance or even your own performance to that next level.
The 80/20 rule suggests that of your activity only 20% is vital or significant and 80% is trivial or insignificant. Juran's work in quality improvement identified that 20% of the defects resulted in 80% of the problems. Why this rule is important is that when you can identify the 20% of what is attributing to your business growth, you can then focus on that 20% with even greater clarity and purpose.Here are some questions that may help you gain greater focus as you wisely use this tool:
- Who are the 20% of my sales staff that produce 80% of my sales?
- Who are the 20% of my loyal customers that create 80% of my sales?
- What are the 20% of my products or service that produce 80% of my revenue?
- What is the 20% of my time that generates 80% of my results?
- What are the 20% of the business networking activities that product 80% of my sales leads?
- What products take up 20% of my warehouse and generate 80% of my sales?
- What is the 20% that I need to focus on to secure the 80% of the desired results?
Take action right now and answer these questions to continue to work smarter not harder if you truly wish to increase your sales leads and get to where you want to be.
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5 Great Business Audio Books you didnt know.
» Bizmambo For most of us in business, there is a continuous need to get better at what we do, do more of it and all of it in less time. Of course we usually don’t get given any extra time to do this - unless we are lucky enough to be sent on a course. But even then, studies show that most of what is taught on a course is not used - people just do not have the slack in their jobs to rejig their timetables when they get back to take on board the new ideas.
But there is an answer - audio books. There are audio books available in every possible subject you can imagine and they can be listened to whenever you feel like it. As a business person, I’m sure you can also see the amazing value audio books compared to the high cost of courses. What I find absolutely fantastic about these books is that they can be listened to when traveling, at your computer or when out working but the real value is in the daily ‘pep’ talk you give yourself. For me, the biggest reason I don’t carry out any good intentions I have from training courses is that I can’t readjust my work agenda instantly to use my new ideas and my good intentions evaporate. With audio books this is not the case.
Now everyone has their own favourites but if you’re not sure which specific business audio books to go for, her are 5 of some of the best that any business person would want:1. How to Win Friends and Influence People - by Dale Carnegie
An all time classic that ensures you keep the most important factors at the forefront of your business – people and relationships. As the title suggests, this is a simple guide to how you can communicate with people and build relationships that matter.2. Winning – by Jack Welch and Suzy Welch
This is such an easy ‘listen’ and is actually related by Jack giving it an extra dimension. It is full of anecdotes and at 11 hours is packed full of useful advice for anyone in business from a genuine winner.3. The On-time On-target Manager – by Ken Blanchard
Although ‘The One Minute Manager’ is a modern classic, I’m going for this alternative as it tackles head on what I think is the biggest problem of the modern business – procrastination. There’s always so many other things to do that it’s very easy to put the difficult things off until a ‘better time’. Told as a parable rather than a preachy ‘should do’ approach, at just 2 hours in length, it’s something than can be broken up and listened to on the way to work to focus your mind on achievement.4. The E-Myth Revisited – by Michael E. Gerber
This business classic is narrated by the author and looks at why most small businesses don’t work and what you can do about it. Given that well over 95% of all businesses are classified as small, this is a must-listen if ever there was one. Based on four fundamental ideas that will make or break your business, give this book a try if you think there’s any possibility that your business could be improved.5. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More – by Chris Anderson Described as ‘the most important business book since the Tipping Point’, this book describes how the Internet has changed business forever and explains how the idea of limitless choice changes the traditional business model as most know it.
These 5 audio books can give your career a massive boost but they can also give you an enormous advantage over your colleagues- how many of them will be using their time as well as you? My guess is that most will do what they have always done – listen to the radio, complain, read light magazines or papers. Just give it a try and see the effect it has.
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7:16
This is really stupid!
» Farmgal I came in to work today and heard that there was a huge argument yesterday.
There’s this chic who dates a muslim. She drinks lakini boyfie doesn’t. Then, we have this muslim jamaa who has some whack views. Ati coz she drinks and kisses the boyfie, apparently she’s forcing him to drink. He went ahed to tell the chic ati she’ll go straight to hell coz it’s a sin.
I was just wondering who should have a first class ticket to hell, the boyfie for buying the chic booze or the chic for kissing him after drinking.Now there’s this day we were talking about suicide bombers. I told this jamaa that those bombers find themselves in hell to their horror. (Despite the popular belief about the seven virgins) They must have the most shocked diabs when they get to the other side. lakini this dude reprimanded me for saying that coz he believes that they have ligitimate reasons for what they do. Even though alot of innocent civilians get killed by their actions.
ai …fokojembe
The wedding I went to was fab..I was still suffering from severe allergies and by sunday my face was swollen. I didnt take pics at the wedding coz I was the M.C ..imagine that. Apparently I did well.
Sunday went to A&E (accident and emergency) and was given soem cream that helped. Was in bed most of yesterday.
Will post some pics as soon someone is kind enough to send me some.Happy tuesday!
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The Apocryphical Book of Enoch :The Lost Text
» My Africa Today The Apocryphical Book of Enoch
The Lost Text
“One of the most important apocryphic works of the Second Temple Period is Enoch.”
- Milik, Jazef. T., ed. The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4The Book of Enoch is “an ancient composition known from two sets of versions, an Ethiopic one that scholars identify as ‘1 Enoch’, and a Slavonic version that is identified as ‘2 Enoch’, and which is also known as The Book of the Secrets of Enoch. Both versions, of which copied manuscripts have been found mostly in Greek and Latin translations, are based on early sources that enlarged on the short biblical mention that Enoch, the seventh Patriarch after Adam, did not die because, at age 365, ‘he walked with God’ - taken heavenward to join the deity.”
- Zecharia Sitchin, When Time Began
“In the Book of Enoch the arcane wisdom is said to have been betrayed to mankind by fallen angels, but a Talmudic tradition claims that God whispered it to Moses on Mount Sinai. According to this tradition its secrets were then imparted to seventy elders who thereafter transmitted them orally to their successors.”
- David Conway, Ritual Magic“The Book of Enoch is a pseudoepigraphal work (a work that claims to be by a biblical character). The Book of Enoch was not included in either the Hebrew or most Christian biblical canons, but could have been considered a sacred text by the sectarians. The original Aramaic version was lost until the Dead Sea fragments were discovered.”
“The original language of most of this work was, in all likelihood, Aramaic (an early Semitic language). Although the original version was lost in antiquity, portions of a Greek translation were discovered in Egypt and quotations were known from the Church Fathers. The discovery of the texts from Qumran Cave 4 has finally provided parts of the Aramaic original. …Humankind is called on to observe how unchanging nature follows God’s will.”
- Milik, Jazef. T., ed. The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4Although the Book of Enoch is considered as apocryphal, it was clearly known to early Christian writers as the following quote from 1 Enoch 1:9 indicates:
“In the seventh (generation) from Adam Enoch also prophesied these things, saying: ‘Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners spoke against him’.”
- Jude 14-15“Prior to the eighteenth century, scholars had believed the Book of Enoch to be irretrievably lost: composed long before the birth of Christ, and considered to be one of the most important pieces of Jewish mystical literature, it was only known from fragments and from references to it in other texts. James Bruce changed all this by procuring several copies of the missing work during his stay in Ethiopia. These were the first complete editions of the Book of Enoch ever to be seen in Europe.
- Graham Hancock, The Sign and the SealThe Patriarch Enoch
“According to the biblical narrative (Genesis 5:21-24), Enoch lived only 365 years (far less than the other patriarchs in the period before the Flood). Enoch ‘walked with God; then he was no more for God took him’.”
- Milik, Jazef. T., ed. The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4“According to Sumerian chronicles of the earlier times, it was at Eridu’s temple that Enki, as guardian of the secrets of all scientific knowledge, kept the ME’s - tabletlike objects on which the scientific data were inscribed. One of the Sumerian texts details how the goddess Inanna (later known as Ishtar), wishing to give status to her ‘cult center’ Uruk (the biblical Erech), tricked Enki into giving her some of those divine formulas. Adapa, we find, was also nicknamed NUN.ME, meaning “He who can decipher the ME’s’. Even unto millennia later, in Assyrian times, the saying ‘Wise as Adapa’ meant that someone was exceedingly wise and knowledgeable….The ‘wide knowledge’ imparted by Enki to Adapa included writing, medicine, and - according to the astronomical series of tablets UD.SAR.ANUM.ENLILLA (’The Great Days of Amu and Enlil’) - knowledge of astronomy and astrology.”
“…It is almost certain that the biblical ‘Enoch’ was the equivalent of the Sumerian first priest, EN.ME.DUR.AN.KI (’High Priest of the ME’s of the Bond Heaven-Earth’), the man from the city Sippar taken heavenward to be taught the secrets of Heaven and Earth, of divination, and of the calendar. It was with him that the generations of astronomer-priests, of Keepers of the Secrets, began.”
- Zecharia Sitchin, When Time Began“The learned savant
who guards the secrets of the gods
will bind his favored son with an oath
before Shamash and Adad…
and will instruct him in the secrets of the gods.”
“Thus was the line of priests created,
those who are allowed to approach Shamash and Adad.”
- Sumerian tablet (W. G. Lambert, Enmeduranki and Related Material)“The legend [of Enoch] begins…with the Sumerian King List. This is a list of rulers before the Flood, and is preserved in several forms, including Berossus. Here one of the kings, often given as the seventh (as Enoch is in his list), is called Enmeduranki or Enmeduranna. He is generally associated with the city of Sippar, which was the home of the cult of the sun god Shamash. Moreover, in other texts this Enmeduranki was the first to be shown, by Adad and Shamash, three techniques of divination: pouring oil on water, inspecting a liver, and the use of a cedar (rod), whose function is still unclear. These were to be transmitted from generation to generation, and in fact became the property of the guild of baru, the major group of diviners in Babylon.
“These details show how the biblical portrait of Enoch may have been compiled from Enmeduranki: each is seventh in the antediluvian list; the biblical 365 preserves the affinity to the sun, rather than the sun god; walking with God (or perhaps, ‘angels’?) suggests the intimacy between god(s) and man. The final connection links not with Enmeduranki, but with a fish-man (apkallu), with which each of the first seven kings associated and from whom they learnt all kinds of knowledge. Enmeduranki’s apkallu, called Utu’abzu, is mentioned in another cuneiform text, where he is said to have ascended to heaven. This last link remains provisional, but at all events, the writer of Genesis 5:21-24 appears to either have created Enoch as a counterpart of Enmeduranki or, equally probably, to have alluded to an already existing Jewish tradition about Enoch, already modeled on the earlier figure.”
- John Rogerson and Philip Davies, The Old Testament World“One cannot rule out the possibility that, as Enmduranki and Enoch, Adapa too was the seventh in a line of sages, the Sages of Eridu, and thus another version of the Sumerian memory echoed in the biblical Enoch record. According to this tale, seven Wise Men were trained in Eridu, Enki’s city; their epithets and particular knowledge varied from version to version. Rykle Borger, examining this tale in light of the Enoch traditions (’Die Beschworungsserie Bit Meshri und die Himmelfahrt Henochs’ in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 33), was especially fascinated by the inscription on the third tablet of the series of Assyrian Oath Incantations. In it the name of each sage is given and his main call on fame is explained; it says thus of the seventh: ‘Uta-abzu, he who to heaven ascended’. Citing a second such text, R. Borger concluded that this seventh sage, whose name combined that of Utu/Shamash with the Lower World (Abzu) domain of Enki, was the Assyrian ‘Enoch’.
“According to the Assyrian references to the wisdom of Adapa, he composed a book of sciences titled U.SAR d ANUM d ENLILA - ‘Writings regarding Time; from divine Anu and divine Enlil’. Adapa, thus, is credited with writing Mankind’s first book of astronomy and the calendar.”
- Zecharia Sitchin, When Time Began“And I saw there something horrible: I saw neither a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible. And there I saw seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire. Then I said: ‘For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?’ Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: ‘Enoch, why dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth? These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.’ And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of fire: neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture. Then I said: ‘How fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!’ Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: ‘Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?’ And I answered: ‘Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.’ And he said unto me: ‘This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.’”
- Enoch 21:1-10Enoch’s description of the punishment prepared for the fallen angels has clear parallels with the chaotic void in the Necronomicon.
“…The Book of Enoch has always been of great significance to Freemasons, and…certain rituals dating back to long before Bruce’s time [1730-1794] identified Enoch himself with Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom.”
- Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal“Enoch was the first who invented books and different sorts of writing. The ancient Greeks declare that Enoch is the same as Mercury Trismegistus [Hermes], and that he taught the sons of men the art of building cities, and enacted some admirable laws…He discovered the knowledge of the Zodiac, and the course of the Planets; and he pointed out to the sons of men, that they should worship God, that they should fast, that they should pray, that they should give alms, votive offerings, and tenths. He reprobated abominable foods and drunkenness, and appointed festivals for sacrifices to the Sun, at each of the Zodiacal Signs.”
- HebraeusAccording to Masonic lore, Enoch was the inventor of writing, “that he taught men the art of building”, and that, before the flood, he “feared that the real secrets would be lost - to prevent which he concealed the grand Secret, engravnen on a white oriental porphyry stone, in the bowels of the earth.”
- Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia“In his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus writes that Adam had forewarned his descendants that sinful humanity would be destroyed by a deluge. In order to preserve their science and philosophy, the children of Seth therefore raised two pillars, one of brick and the other of stone, on which were inscribed the keys to their knowledge. The patriarch Enoch….also constructed an underground temple [at Moriah] consisting of nine vaults, one beneath the other, placing in the deepest vault a triangular tablet of gold bearing upon it the absolute and ineffable name of Deity. According to some accounts, Enoch made two golden deltas. The larger he placed upon the white cubical altar in the lowest vault and the smaller he gave into the keeping of his son, Methuselah, who did the actual construction work of the brick chambers according to the pattern revealed to his father by the Most High. In the form and arrangements of these vaults Enoch epitomized the nine spheres of the ancient Mysteries and the nine sacred strata of the earth through which the initiate must pass to reach the flaming Spirit dwelling in its central core.”
- Manly P. Hall, Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical PhilosophyMethuselah ” took the object back to Sippar. Enoch remained at Moriah, to become the old man on the mountain. He lived 365 years, according to Genesis, and then he died. Or did he vanish into thin air?”
- Brian , “ENOCH The Greatest Story Never Told “Enoch’s “name signified in the Hebrew, INITIATE or INITIATOR. The legend of the columns, of granite and brass or bronze, erected by him, is probably symbolical. That of bronze, which survived the flood, is supposed to symbolize the mysteries, of which Masonry is the legitimate successor from the earliest times the custodian and depository of the great philosophical and religious truths, unknown to the world at large, and handed down from age to age by an unbroken current of tradition, embodied in symbols, emblems, and allegories.”
- General Albert Pike, Morals and DogmaThere was a substantial Zoroastrian Influence on Judaism when Jewish exiles were exposed to the Persian religion during the Babylonian captivity.
“Some Jews adopted Enochian tradition in Babylon during the Exile and brought it back to Canaan when Cyrus gave them leave to Return. The Enochian Jews were detested by the priesthood in Jerusalem, and they were forced to ‘flee’ into the desert before 300 BCE. Naturally, they supported the Maccabees during the uprising of 165 BCE. The Enochians at Qumran ‘updated’ the text to include Judah the Hammer in the big story.”
“The last of the Essence stragglers buried it [the secret book] in Cave IV at Qumran c.70 CE. The urban Christians and Jews of the Near East rejected it. The authors of the Apocalypse rewrote and retitled it, but they didn’t understand the heptadic structure of the original lines, the arrangement of sevens. (The Revelation of St John is pure gibberish, a sloppy rehash of Babylonian myths and legends.) Only the students of the Merkabah (in Babylonia) possessed the key to the Enochian mystery.”
- Brian , “ENOCH The Greatest Story Never Told “The Secrets
“At that hour, that Son of Man was given a name, in the presence of the Lord of the Spirits, the Before-Time, even before the creation of the sun and the moon, before the creation of the stars, he was given a name in the presence of the Lord of the Spirits.”
- 1 Enoch 48:4The Messiah “first appears as preexistent in the apocryphal First Book of Enoch, which was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic about 150 BC. From that period on, the concept of the Messiah who was created in the six days of Creation, or even prior to them or who was born at variously stated subsequent dates and was then hidden to await his time, became a standard feature of Jewish Messianic eschatology.
- Raphael Patai, The Messiah Texts“From the beginning the Son of Man was hidden, And the Most High has preserved him In the presence of His might, And revealed him to the elect.”
- 1 Enoch 62:7“Written both as a personal testament and as a historic review, the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, whose earliest title was probably The Words of Enoch, describes his journey to Heaven as well as to the four corners of Earth.”
- Zecharia Sitchin, The Stairway to Heaven“And after that I saw all the secrets of the heavens, and how the kingdom is divided, and how the actions of men are weighed in the balance. And there I saw the mansions of the elect and the mansions of the holy, and mine eyes saw there all the sinners being driven from thence which deny the name of the Lord of Spirits, and being dragged off: and they could not abide because of the punishment which proceeds from the Lord of Spirits.
And I saw the chambers of the sun and moon, whence they proceed and whither they come again, and their glorious return, and how one is superior to the other, and their stately orbit, and how they do not leave their orbit, and they add nothing to their orbit and they take nothing from it, and they keep faith with each other, in accordance with the oath by which they are bound together.”
- 1 Enoch 41:1-2, 5b -6a“In the Book of Enoch it was the archangel Uriel (’God is my light’) who showed Enoch the secrets of the Sun (solstices and equinoxes, ’six portals’ in all) and the ‘laws of the Moon’ (including intercalation), and the twelve constellations of the stars, ‘all the workings of heaven’. And in the end of the schooling, Uriel gave Enoch - as Shamash and Adad had given Enmeduranki - ‘heavenly tablets’, instructing him to study them carefully and note ‘every individual fact’ therein. Returning to Earth, Enoch passed this knowledge to his old son, Methuselah.”
- Zecharia Sitchin, When Time BeganThe knowledge granted Enoch included:
“All the workings of heaven, earth and the seas, and all the elements, their passages and goings and the thundering of the thunder, and of the Sun and the Moon; the goings and changing’s of the stars; the seasons, years, days, and hours.”
- The Book of the Secrets of EnochAccording to the The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, “it seems that when the prophet Enoch was ‘taken up’, he saw the air and then the ether. Then he reached the first heaven, where ‘two hundred angels rule the stars’ and where he saw a sea ‘greater than the earthly sea’.
“The second heaven was gloomy. In the third heaven, he saw the Tree of Life, with four streams, of honey, milk, oil, and wine, flowing from its roots. The Place of the Righteous is in this heaven and the Terrible Place where the wicked are tortured. There was also the ‘place on which God rests when he comes into Paradise’.
“In the fourth heaven, he saw luminaries, wondrous creatures, and the Host of the Lord. There were many ‘hosts’ in the fifth, and in the sixth he saw ‘bands of angels who study the revolutions of the stars’. Finally, in the seventh heaven he saw great angels and he got a distant glimpse of the Lord on His Throne.”
- Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know - God knows. And I know that this man - whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows - was caught up to Paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.”
- 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 (the apostle Paul describing his own experience)“Enoch’s third heaven…seems very similar to the region known as Ilavrta-varsa, which is described in the Fifth Canto of the Bhagavata Purana. Thus, in Ilavrta-varsa there are four gigantic trees, and four rivers flow from their roots, including a river of honey. There is also a city called Brahmapuri, which is visited by Lord Brahma and which may correspond to the ‘place on which God rests when he comes into Paradise’.”
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The Venerable Bede, an eighth-century English theologian and historian, wrote that “the seven heavens are (1) the Air, (2) the Ether, (3) Olympus, (4) the Element of Fire, (5) the Firmament, (6) the Angelical Region, and (7) the Realm of the Trinity.”
“According to the Fifth Canto of the Bhagavata Purana, Brahmapuri and the residences of eight prominent Devas [administrators of the Universe] are situated on the top of a mountain in Ilavrta-varsa called Meru, and therefore Mount Meru corresponds to the Greek Olympus. Thus, if Ilavrta-varsa corresponds to Enoch’s third heaven, then it is also reasonable to say that this third heaven corresponds to the Greek Olympus.”
- Richard L. Thompson, Alien Identities
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I Found This In My Email Inbox: Very Funny
» You Missed This Raila, Kibaki, Ngilu and Martha Karua are traveling in a train.
The train suddenly goes thru a tunnel and it gets completely dark. Suddenly there is a kissing sound and then a slap! The train comes out of the tunnel. Ngilu and Raila are sitting there looking perplexed. Kibaki is bent over holding his face, which is red from an apparent slap.
All of them remain diplomatic and nobody says anything.
Ngilu is thinking: "These men are all crazy after Martha Karua. Kibaki must have tried to kiss her in the tunnel. Very proper that she slapped him."
Martha Karua is thinking: "kibaki must have moved to kiss me,and kissed Ngilu instead and got slapped."
Kibaki is thinking: "Damn it, Raila must have tried to kiss Martha Karua, she thought it was me and slapped me."
Raila is thinking: "If this train goes through another tunnel, I could make another kissing sound and slap Kibaki again."
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Dunda Mtaani Festival!
» Kenyanpoet Dunda Mtaani Festival!