Mashada Blogs » October 15, 2007

Afromusing: Quick notes

AfroMusing — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:51:49 -0400

Just a note of thanks to all the African bloggers who joined in Blog Action day. I learned so much from all the posts, and i hope you find something in the globalvoices roundup that resonates with you.

Via muti and Justin Hartman on twitter
Press freedom in South Africa is under threat:

I write this having just heard that the editor of this newspaper, Mondli Makhanya, and its head of investigations, Jocelyn Maker, will be arrested this week. Their crime is that they published a story alleging that the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala- Msimang, screamed at hospital staff and drank huge amounts of booze while in hospital for a shoulder operation.

The minister, the custodian of our nation’s health, has denied none of these allegations. This newspaper also published allegations that Tshabalala- Msimang was a drunk and a thief. This story has not been refuted by the minister nor any other government official.

A Jaiku channel has been set up with updates on this developing story. You can read more about it here.

I am not that much of a politico but I realize the important link between democracy and free press. Being from Kenya where there’s always a tussle between the govt and the press, I can totally empathize with our fellow Africans in SA, and truly hope this gets sorted without members of the press being thrown in jail. Plus, bloggers are an opinionated bunch just like journalists, if they arrest a journalist one day, what’s to prevent govt’s from arresting bloggers?

On a lighter note: Here is a clip from the segment ‘Bulls Eye’ on NTV (Nation TV) Kenya. Elections in Kenya can be hilarious, and weird. ‘The pentagon?!’, day of thunder? and I dont even want to relive the whole Raila driving to parliament in a hummer. Sigh*

Kenya Imagine: The Jambula Tree and St. Morality

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:08:00 -0400

As East African journalists and editors craft hate pieces against local homosexuals, half a world away, an East African woman has received an award for a brave coming of age story on just this topic. The Caine Prize for African Writing was awarded to Ugandan Arac de Nyeko for a compelling Bildungsroman on the lives of two Ugandan girls as told in a letter from Anyango to the long lost Sanyu, exiled to far-off London by her parents.

Read here from Dorothy Adhiambo as she writes a review on her award tale.

Kenya Imagine: The anguished life of a Kenyan moan

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:57:00 -0400

A sometime volunteer teacher in Kenya writes on an acquaitance of hers, one blessed with better than average intelligence, a family that can pay his way through school, a job that looks to have the potential of a fulfilling career but who constantly complains about his life, how unfair it all is.

Read on here.

Kenya Imagine: The Grass is Singing

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:50:00 -0400

Last week, Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature.

"The Grass is Singing" is a psychological and social analysis on race relations in the old Zimbabwe, and an exploration of the dichotomy of culture and nature.

Read here as Annette Keino writes a review on her book, the Grass is Singing."

Kenyanentrepreneur.com: The African “Usher”

kenyanentrepreneur — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:33:08 -0400

From Kinshasa, Congo….. Fally Ipupa……. JAH Lives in Africa (now pass me some of that herb…) And of course, if you like this song, you can download it from Ares.com for fffffrrrrr

You Missed This: Interesting Times Are Here

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:56:00 -0400

Juja MP Mr William Kabogo (seated) receiving blessings from Bishop Maina Kegiao of the Grace Presbyterian Church at the Ruiru Stadium on Sunday. Later Hon Kabogo distributed 20 bicycles to area pastors.

Money or the box? All eyes on the price.

More to Life: Inconvenient Truths

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:37:00 -0400

I finally watched Al Gore's documentary. What an interesting and captivating piece. I felt totally enlightened. Gore earned that Nobel peace prize two times over! If ever there was an example of turning a bad situation into a good one. Perhaps there was a good reason why Gore lost elections despite winning them after all.I thought I had gone green but after watching that, I wonder how much greener I can get. You can be sure I'll be making a huge effort to get greener. I'm already what I consider almost extreme. take for example, unless in extremely unavoidable circumstances, I don't drink bottled water. Why? because it adds a whole lot of plastic waste to drink water that in its fine print says this: PWS. Meaning, public Water Source. Someone took the same tap water I drink, packaged it and sold it to me for more that it costs to buy gas. Not only does it offend my sensibilities, it harms the environment, so I just say no!

I noted that Gore mentioned Nairobi as becoming mosquito infested. I recall a doctor once telling me that there was hardly any malaria in Nairobi and people should not take malariaquin as it was harmful. Then, these drugs were still available OTC (over the counter). We had a good laugh over how rare a female anopheles mosquito was in Nairobi as he laughed when I told him how my entire family had once collapsed from malaria within 2 hours of each other. He had explained that that was the only way malaria occurred in Nairobi. Because there weren't that many malaria causing mosquitoes, you saw it as a significant wave and it was gone. His explanation had made sense then. I wonder how global warming will affect that balance.

After I watched Al Gore, i wondered what the impact would be on the medical expense budget should malaria become common place in Nairobi. Once upon a while back in this blog, I watched how a remote part of Kenya was struggling with malaria and the inability to afford its treatment. malaria would probably outbreak in the slums. that's where they have pools of stagnant water and other unhygienic practices glaring to the eye. This would cripple the entire medical system should cases of malaria start to increase and keep increasing exponentially.

So it started me wondering what about the future our presidential hopefuls were addressing. How much about the global issues do they become part of and incorporate into their messages? can Africa afford to turn a blind eye on all that is going on? Africa has been both blessed and cursed by being a developing continent in the face of developed nations. The bad about this situation is well known and could fill 4 days Worth of reading. But there is a good to this as well. And that is that we can learn from the mistakes of those that have developed before us. Aldo, we can benefit from their research. As the snow melts from Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya. what do we do to retain that tourism? Mark where the snow was for periods of years, just to make it worth visiting? Perhaps? Maybe, channel those visitors elsewhere. the problem with that is that it takes away from local traders who were benefiting from those tourists. Basically, we can all agree that these issues need to be addressed as they happen. this is where I call for effective media outlets. Who think outside of the noise being made and can engage politicians and force them to think outside the normal stagnating noises they make.

Genetically modified food. This issue just puzzles me. Why go there, Africa? There is enough research to show that this is a harmful route to take. It only benefits pharmaceutical companies. So again I ask, why go there? There are other ways to increase productivity and they don't include messing with God's work. If there is nothing else we are learning as the effects of technology start to be felt, is that no matter how much we as human beings think, "we got it", there is a perfect balance from a much more intelligent creator that we know little of but are prone to upset often. Our best bet is to work with things in their natural states. Plus cancers and MS and other weird painful diseases. All linked to modified foods. Not to mention the trend in the oceans. Fish now have both male and female parts and males are simply taking a path towards extinction, thanks to huge amounts of estrogen in our waters. bear in mind, that most engineering of foods has something to do with estrogen. And the issues that will arise include greater numbers of women with gonadic problems, from polyps to fibroids, worse to cancers both ovarian and breast. Why, oh why won't Africa, trailing behind, learn from those ahead of it? I surely hope they do.

I'm waiting to watch Sicko. the reason I haven't watched it yet is because I want to buy it and its not out on DVD yet. From this, I hope leaders in developing worlds will watch to learn what the possible entrapment of modernized medical systems, insurances and pharmaceutical companies tied into it, and device ways to avoid them altogether. I guess I'm a social capitalist, as Raila described himself to be. Off on a tangent, the whole entire NSE reaction to a Raila lead was surprising to me despite the fact that I have been fully aware of investors being very wary of a loss for Kibaki during the oncoming elections.I wasn't aware, however, that they were that nervous about it, enough to get out just because poll numbers indicated a possible loss for Kibaki. That was an interesting observation. And one that led Raila to eat back some unwise words he had uttered while in Atlanta. will the investors, trust Raila ever? I guess only time will tell.

I guess I'm wondering about which one of our presidential hopefuls worries enough about the global future to invest time and research so as to protect Kenya from some of the atrocities the developed world faces today. Why should we have to make the same mistakes? Can we afford to make the same mistakes? And to what extent should this matter in picking out a future leader?

You Missed This: Hoo Ndii Emm Woyee As Mystery Of The Mammoth Crowd Persists

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:12:00 -0400

It is a fact that PNU struggled to fill the 40,000 capacity Nyayo Stadium during President Kibaki’s presidential campaign launch just over 2 weeks ago. Some of the gymnastics that the party had to go through included helping to finance national delegates conferences for affiliate parties which were organized at about the same time so as to avoid at all costs the Stadium being embarrassingly empty.

So the big mystery that almost every Kenyan on the street is talking about is how the 8% party managed to attract such a mammoth crowd to Uhuru Park.

All sorts of rumours are flying;

Read more

The top 5 most popular articles on Kumekucha between 7 and 8 pm today (Kenyan time).

You Missed This: Why PNU Is Working Itself Into A Tight Corner

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:09:00 -0400

Both Raila Odinga’s presidential campaign and that of Kalonzo Musyoka are working hard to steer this campaign in the direction of issues. PNU on the other hand are determined to reduce this campaign into a tribal insult-hurling contest.

After Finance Minister Amos Kimunya told Kenyans that the stock exchange has lost a staggering 200 billion because of fear amongst investors that Raila may end up being president, the ODM candidate made a surprise appearance at the Nairobi Stock Exchange this morning and reassured Kenyans that his government would embrace the NSE and its objectives as a way to empower more Kenyans to participate in the economy of the country.

Meanwhile the PNU crowd have not responded to claims from both Raila and Kalonzo that they are preparing to rig the forthcoming polls. Nobody has moved to reassure Kenyans even after the appointment of a brand new inexperienced Vice Chair to the electoral commission. Something rather strange to do when we know that the chairman’s Samuel Kuvuitu’s tenure is bound to expire before the polls. So why would the government want inexperienced commissioners handling the most complex election in the history of Kenya? This is something that rattles investors much more than the face of one Agwambo, that you can be sure about.

So as Raila and kalonzo continue to raise issues and avoid insults, the PNU train is bound to run out of steam pretty quickly. This kind of thing needs a response to remain oiled and to run properly and so far the opposition have denied the government that.

It really is fascinating watching a government that ran out of ideas a long time ago, also run out of ideas for its’ campaign. In my view this thing of the president’s daughter...

Read more

The top 5 most popular articles on Kumekucha between 7 and 8 pm today (Kenyan time).

You Missed This: The Heat Soars in Premier League

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:08:00 -0400

As the English Premier Leagues takes a two-week break for international fixtures a reflection of the action so far reveals mixed fortunes for both clubs and teams. The biggest absentee in during this break is of course ‘the special one, Jose Mourinho.

Like him hate him Jose brought a unique character to the game of football. His catchy quips always whetted the appetite of the English press. The impact of Jose’s absence at the Stamford Bridge is loud and the lack of spark and thrill is all traceable to this. Chelsea nose-diving performance has opened wide the doors to the mythical top four in the table standings. Terry’s cheek fracture only helped compound a bad situation.

Arsenal is the new kids on the block. The Gunners are surely harvesting the positive effects from selling their domineering ex-captain Thiery Henry. You cannot take away the fact that Henry was a refined striker. But the fallacy that a club perishes with one player starts from that disillusion. The demise of Henry’s shadow has let Fabregas and Van Persie to showcase brilliant football that has anchored Arsenal at the top of the table, a feat they have not achieved in a couple of years.

But the Gunners must count of luck and smile form their gods for a relatively ‘easy’ start to the season. Starting next month the young side will either prove pundits wrong or will simply sink when they meet Manchester United and Liverpool in successive weeks. With the defending champions breathing fire immediately behind them with a two points’ difference they Arsene Wenger’s lads have all the reasons to worry.

Over to Anfield, the honeymoon seems to disappear as fast as the vows were pronounced. The brilliant start of the season for Rafa’s men appears to desert them so fast. Is the ‘magical’ Torres perishable? The Reds need time to gel and Rafa’s limitless tinkering with his first XI under the facade of optimal rotation may be his undoing.

Resumption of action next weekend promises some thrillers as the league enter a defining moment. By December the surprise package in Manchester City lying in position three shall have stamped their presence and authority or dissipated as fast as Sven arrived in the North West.

In the meantime, whether Jose weaved himself into Chelsea’s middle name only time will tell. Roman Abrahamovich may be paying the piper but must he call the unpleasant tune? You cannot buy a legacy or history, or can you?

The top 5 most popular articles on Kumekucha between 7 and 8 pm today (Kenyan time).