Stop Waiting Already!!!

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"Follow your inner moonlight. Don't hide the madness."

~ Allen Ginsberg

Around this time last year, Ex-Tee, Dee, Ceke and I were chill stunting in the living room, reminiscing all the good and bad times we’d had in 2011, discussing what we’d like to do different in 2012 and what we’d like to accomplish - mostly in relation to our education. For sometime I had been contemplating starting a blog of my own where I can just rumble on and share my thoughts with those interested as well as learn through other people’s dissenting views. I knew I loved writing, in general (those who I talk to often can attest to this). I swapped phones with my sister over the summer and ended up moving from a keypad to a touch screen (such a drastic change for me that was). I was so used to a keypad that I could type messages so fast but this new technology stopped me from pouring my heart out in my texts (yeah, I’m kinda old school). I guess my friends noticed this too. In fact yesterday a friend told me I used to write such long messages that he chose to reply selectively. Talk of being rude!!! 

But hey, I guess that’s a weakness my friends have learnt to live with. 

I think I just got a little carried away there, my bad! :p back to my interest in blogging… As we were sitting, I started browsing through some old pieces of poetry and articles I had written on my computer, told the girls I was contemplating starting a blog and asked to read one of the articles to them to get an opinion on whether it was ‘blog worthy’ or so to speak. After all, if thousands of people have gossip blogs, this couldn’t be so bad right? 

If there’s one thing I am thankful for and blessed to have (apart from my family), are honest friends. Friends that will not watch me walk into a fire and remain quiet or discourage me from doing something out of malice. So when I asked for Ex-Tee’s, Dee’s and Ceke’s opinion, I knew they’d be honest with me. If my writing were crap, they’d definitely tell me and if it were any good, they’d do the same. They all gave me a go sign and needless to say, that’s how I started blogging and I can tell you that this blog has been one of the best things I did this year. It has encouraged me to want to learn more, a sort of hunger for knowledge you can call it if you like. Not only has it been a good thing for me, with some of my work getting published, and in shaping me more into the person I want to become, it’s also served as an inspiration to a few people out there, or at least that’s what they say.

Now there’s this illusion that comes with a new year. I had to wait till the 1st of January 2012 to start my blog. Somehow that date signified a new chapter for me. A new year is seen as the time to make change, when really, every day is a chance to do something different, something you’ve always wanted to do, something you’ve always wanted to say or somewhere you’ve always wanted to go. Well, it’s that time of the year now. You know, that time you’ve been waiting for, saying “I’ll start doing … in 2013” or “I’ll change … in 2013”. 

I guess the point of this blog today is to encourage you to go on and do whatever it is you’ve always wanted to do but kept waiting on a new year as a justification for why you never did it. Most importantly, do it for you. Do it because it’s what you love. For a minute there, forget the world because people will always try to make something out of you, be it good or bad and not everyone is going to like you because you can never please everyone. That’s just the way this life works. To one person your good deed may be deemed evil and to another, your evil deed, deemed good. And that’s fine because at the end of the day, we all have our own perception of things, different characters, different values and different ways of doing things. It only becomes a problem when your actions are not in line with your thoughts and the person you really are inside; when you do and say things, not because they are in line with your character but because it’s what others ‘expect’ of you. At the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, it’s what YOU make of yourself that will really matter. 

With that said, I would like to thank all of you who take the time to read and share my blog, all those of you who leave comments and send me messages of encouragement. It really does mean a lot! So once again, thank you very much and I wish you all a blessed new year! 

On a final note, As we all celebrate and welcome the new year, let us remember to pray that this year not only brings blessings to us, our families and our friends, but that it also comes with blessings and peace for the people of Gaza, South Kordofan, Nuba Mountains, Darfur, Congo, Afghan, among other areas largely affected by completely unnecessary wars and occupations. You might not be related to the strangers on the TV but you must relate because any of them could have been you. May we learn to love and appreciate each other more, despite our differences, this year. And may the art of giving become an all too well practiced craft.

And oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEE!!! I mean whose born 5mins before newyears? Doesn’t that make your birthday somewhat irrelevant to the main occasion people are counting down for? I guess that explains why it just crossed my mind at the last minute. All I can say is OOPS… Wait, did I just make you relevant? Oh no, please, no need to thank me, after all that's what friends are for ;) LOL XD Much love!

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RESPONSE: Why an Obama loss in the elections would be good for him and the world

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"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."
~ Desmond Tutu

This is my response to a very interesting article I just read on "Why an Obama loss in the elections would be good for him and the world" (Read it here) I was initially posting a comment, then realised I had too much to say so I decided to link a blogger response instead :)

I have a lot to say about this article, but the bottom line of my argument comes down to a couple of issues I believe are most important; Why is it that we, in Africa want to dwell so much on foreign aid? Why is it that this Article, though reasonable in the issues highlighted to some extent, dwells so much on what/how good Barrack will serve the rest of us if he loses as opposed to winning and being a "good leader" for the U.S citizens? 

See, we spend so much time trying to get people outside of Africa to pay attention to our problems, but the real question is, WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT THEM? It is true that there is no African at the moment in the league of all those mentioned in the article, in terms of their international influence, but Africa did produced the likes of Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, John Garang De Mabior and Wangari Mathaai, among others, so why do we always act like we don't have hope? We have so many Africans with the ability to change our situations in terms of leadership, economy and education. 

Our focus, should not be what good Obama's loss will serve but rather how to get all those in Africa with the ability to change things to look at the situation, not from a distance, but as a problem of their own. How to get us, to support all those striving to make a difference in our continent. We need to get rid of this beggar mentality and build our futures through hard work. Therefore, instead of focusing on what Obama can do, ask yourself what are YOU(author of the art.) as an educated person with the ability to voice messages through your writing to a good deal of people, doing with that influence?

As John Berger puts it, "The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing."

Our biggest problem, as Africans, is that we have lost our sense of UBUNTU and as a result, we have created a big gap between the 'rich' and the 'poor' as we have all become individualistic, we have allowed tribalism to blur our judgements and forgotten what the saying "I am because we are" envisages. A better future can only be guaranteed by the actions of every single one of us. Influential or not. It's not like you couldn't feed a hungry child today, build a home for some homeless children, or sponsor one child's education if you made that choice. Now imagine what difference we could all make, if only we made that conscious decision.

In a TEDx talk, Drew Dudley said 

"As long as we make leadership something bigger than us, as long as we keep leadership something beyond us, as long as we make it about changing the world, we give ourselves an excuse not to expect it everyday from ourselves, and from each other. Marianne Williamson said that 'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us'. And my call to action today is that we need to get over that. We need to get over how extraordinarily powerful we can be in each others lives. We need to get over it, so we can move beyond it. And our little brothers and our little sisters, and one day our kids, or our kids right now, can watch us start to value the impact we can have on each others lives, more than money and power and titles and influence." 

Today, I ask you ALL, to take time to understand and reflect on what side you're on. The oppressed, or the oppressor? After that, make a choice, make a choice to DO something. STOP WAITING ON THE WORLD TO CHANGE AND ON OTHERS TO BE THAT CHANGE. Waiting on the world to change simply means one thing, THERE'S A PROBLEM WITH YOU! You need some fixing too! Once you fix YOU, you will fix the world, you will realise you are the change this world needs, you will be that change, you will begin to change the world one article at a time, one poem at a time, one protest at a time, one life at a time, one drawing at a time, one song at a time, maybe one dance at a time. Stop waiting on 'SOMEONE' and acknowledge the 'I' in the equation.

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Your Ignorance Offends Me.

***

"Every generation needs a revolution"

~ Thomas Jefferson.

The world you live in works in perfect harmony no?...

Wait, so you're telling me there are problems?...

Oh right, they are not YOUR problems and there is nothing YOU can do anyway. I see...

Well, since we are being honest, YOUR IGNORANCE OFFENDS ME.

Last month, a 14 year old girl was shot in Pakistan for being vocal about living under the Taliban rule. An attempt to silence her simply because she believed girls had a right to education. At this very moment, somewhere in Gaza, a palestinian family just lost their father to the bullet of a gun, shot by an Israeli soldier. A bullet shot simply because "they can". And in just a few minutes, somewhere in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, a child will die of hunger. Starved to death simply because the government refuses to allow humanitarian aid into the region. 

Funny where our priorities lie don't you think? We can send mankind to the moon, spend hours airing how a man will free fall from space and borrow tons of money for war but we cannot send children to school, spend hours airing and speaking out against all the injustices going on in our world or borrow tons of money to end war. Now if you don't see anything wrong with this situation then you represent one of two things; you either represent the monotonous messed up system that's been in control for decades or you are the ignorant one this is addressed to. You have simply accepted to 'co-exist', accepting that good and bad exist and you will therefore just 'live and let live'. Your sister is receiving a good education, you live in a region with no conflict so you don't have to worry about gun shots that might leave your father gasping for breath and you are definitely not starving so no need for concern.

But then again, maybe you're sharing and liking photos/status updates of all these atrocities behind your computer desk which makes you somewhat informed and against them right?... As a friend correctly put it to me once, "we live in a time of what Naseem Talib refers to as 'cosmetic revolutionaries'; being a part of a revolution by wearing a t-shirt or walking bare foot or changing a status update". You see sharing is informative and very important but after that, what are you doing to change that situation you empathised with? What further steps are you taking to make the slightest of a difference? The problem here is, we have substituted our feelings, thoughts and actions, for buttons. We have allowed 'sharing' and 'liking' to rob us of expression. Not only do we lack expression and the ability to speak out against issues, we only act on virality. A sort of ripple effect in the sense of, "if everyone is sharing it on my timeline, I will too". A FEAR OF BEING WRONG. We are too scared to share our opinions and thoughts or act on what we believe because we fear we might be wrong or that others will disagree. But aren't these arguments and debates what help us move forward? If we are ever going to solve any of the world's problems, then we need to be wrong more often instead of pretending to know it all.

As human beings, we grow taller, allowing us to reach heights we couldn't reach as infants(no matter what your height, it is definitely not the same as when you were younger). This only goes to show one thing, the aim of life is to develop, to keep striving to move forward and reach greater heights... Perhaps we are meant to create a global society. In fact, we ARE meant to create a global society. We have evolved from villages to tribes, from tribes to clans, from clans to cities and from cities to countries/nations which are all classified under various continents. We have witnessed the development of International Law and the UNHRC which set forth rules and principles binding on all countries (Although a number of countries have gotten away with breaking these, namely Israel under the protection of the U.S... But hey, that's a topic for another day). The creation of a global society here is therefore not the question, as it is inevitable. The real question however, is how will we shape it and in what way?

If it is to be shaped correctly, and made a place where we are all existing as humans, it is the acts of every single person, you and I, that will make a difference. More often than not, two arguments are represented by the two sides of a coin, and the side facing up on it's landing wins. Basically, we depend on luck to solve our problems, and others may tip the coin in their favor with the use of firearms, tanks, snippers or bulldozers. But It is time we took a different approach as human beings if we are ever to build the right global society, where your neighbour isn't really your enemy because you differ in thoughts or look different or share different religious views or a different ethnicity, it is all a matter of understanding. We need to stop depending on luck, or force to land the coin to heads or tail, but instead, reach an understanding to buy butter with that coin for the benefit of the two parties involved. Doing so begins with us not waiting until the problem is in our backyard, not waiting until it is your sister being denied an education, your father being brutally shot or yourself starving to death, to act. 

We must take advantage of all we have at our disposal(social media, our education, our material well being) and use these as stepping stones to uplift society. We need to speak out, and loudly at that, against all atrocities around the world, because silence is complicity. It has been said that "one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel", so if you're waiting for the problem to come knocking on your door,  you won't have to wait too long, believe me. So why wait? We mustn't allow ourselves to be a failed generation. Let US build the right global society and leave behind a society we can proudly look down on and say "I helped shape that".

The world you live in works in perfect harmony no?...
Oh ok, so you know there are problems?...
Oh right, you still think they are not YOUR problems and there is nothing YOU can do anyway. I see...
Well, since we are being honest, YOUR IGNORANCE OFFENDS ME.

***

Power To The People

***

"Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds."

Gordon B Hinckley

What does your country, mean to you?...
I mean really, what does the continent Africa mean to you?...
What's your nation; Sudan, Kenya, Liberia, perhaps Burundi worth to you?...
No really, what is Africa's worth to you?...

So the iPhone 5 was just released. I know, I know, I want one too. But here's the problem, the phone costs £529 and living on a student budget, that's not really an option. Good thing about life, is that there's always another option. In this case, the Chinese clone, which I could probably bargain for, because there's no way I could possibly walk into an Apple store and start negotiating a price change at the cashier but I know for a fact I could walk to any ordinary phone vendors and buy a dual sim iPhone 5 at a satisfactory price which wouldn't clean me out of my last penny. 

Let me to tell you a story about two farmers. One spent time on his farm, weeded it before planting the seeds and after planting he made sure his plants were watered regularly. When harvesting time came and it was time to go to the market to sell his produce, the man understood the hard work he had put in to get to this point and he would rather come back home with his crops, than sell them at a throw away price. The second, simply threw in the seeds, hoped it would rain and when harvesting time came, he took what had grown of his crops and was off to the market. He knew his crops were not the best in the market and would sell them to the first buyer for pocket change.

Now there's a reason our governments manipulate our daily lives. There's a reason in Africa we accepts deals that only benefit the other parties and not our nations or continent. Governments have managed to incite ethnic clashes, tribal wars, religious wars, among others. They have failed to listen to the people and instead based their decisions on self interest. Recently oil companies have come into Africa and many have been left homeless after promises of being resettled so that oil can be extracted from the lands they were living on.

Take a minute, and think about this question. What makes up a country?

A nation is made up of three main factors. THE LAND. THE PEOPLE. THE GOVERNMENT. The land is of no use if the people aren't growing, building and developing it and the government is there to work for the people because without the people, there is no government. The people have the power to vote in leaders and impeach leaders so when all these politicians are up there standing, speaking to you saying how they will do this and that for you, sounding like they are doing YOU a FAVOR and you turn around to the next guy saying how "he's a nice guy", no my friend, it's his duty.

See the reason that farmer would rather come back with his crops than just sell them at give away prices, is because he knows the worth of his hard work. The reason I respect the iPhone 5 and know I can't even try bargaining for it, is because I recognise the hard work Apple have put into developing it. Apple have set their standards, like it or not, you will buy the iPhone 5 at the given price in whichever country you are in or just rock your Nokia phone. So why haven't we, until now set our standards for our nations?

Until we, as a people, realise and are conscious of the fact that these are OUR countries and that Africa is OUR continent, and work hard to build our nations, together, selflessly and without prejudice against one another, we will always remain a "third world" continent. It doesn't matter how much oil, diamond, gold or iron we have, they will never be of benefit to the African children until the day we realize our worth. The day the future of our countries, our people and our continent matters more than our selfish interests and prejudice thinking, we will surely know our worth, we will have the power to say no to rotten deals, say no to rotten governments and yes to the future of the African child. When you know your worth, others recognise it too. Our governments will no longer play us and traders will no longer lay one sided deals on the table for us.

So again I ask,

What does your country, mean to you?...
I mean really, what does the continent Africa mean to you?...
What's your nation; Sudan, Kenya, Liberia, perhaps Burundi worth to you?...

NO REALLY, WHAT IS, AFRICA'S WORTH TO YOU?

***

Human Excellence

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"The tragedy of human life, is its past, the challenge to human life, is what to do to move forward. This is what made the likes of Mandela, they took the challenge instead of hanging on to the past. We must recognise the need to not necessarily forget the past, but to forgive, in order build a new society."

Yasir Arman.

There was once a time in America, when the black man did not share the same voting rights as the white man, he could not use the same bathrooms or live in the same neighbourhood. In the bus, the black man had to sit at the back or stand on the bus and give up his seat to the white man, while waiting for a train, they did not share the same waiting area and his kids, they could not go to the same schools as those of the white man... In South Africa, the year 1948 saw the enactment of Apartheid laws, which put racial discrimination into full force. The black man did not have the same job opportunities as the white man and a marriage between the two was prohibited by the laws passed, among others. Simply put, the black man, was a second class citizen. December 1, 1955 would mark the beginning of the great movement to end legal segregation in America. This was the day Rosa Parks, tired of giving in, refused to give up her seat on the orders of the bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white passenger, and, after years of struggle and defiance of the apartheid laws, the ANC under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, led South Africa to it's first multi-racial elections in 1994. 

The likes of Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Chris Hani, Malcolm X, Mahatma Ghandi, Ismail Meer, Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King, among others, all fought for one similar goal, EQUALITY. Fair treatment of all individuals as human beings and the sharing of equal rights by all. They fought to see the day no man would be above another, the day the black/coloured man would be free and the end of "white supremacy". Nelson Mandela and the ANC's vision at first is said to have been limited, only seeking to unite and gain independence for the African people, but with the help of Ismail Meer, they developed the understanding that others were not different, it did not matter that one was not African(coloured, indian or white), at the end of the day, they were fighting for the same cause. As a result they became open to the idea of working with the coloured and Indian people. 

These heroes did not fight for the supremacy of one race, but for the equality of all race. After years of standing for what they believed in, they succeeded in doing so and it is as a result of their persistence that I, as a black person, can freely share my views and opinions on this blog today. This now brings me to the point of this post. I'd be the most ignorant person to claim that racism doesn't exist anymore, sure it does, but how you deal with it is what matters. Today i'm not here to talk about white on black racism, but instead, black on white racism. 

The same black people who a few years back and at some parts of the world still seek equality and a break away from racism, have become racist themselves. On YouTube, a lot of times I see black people take it upon themselves to leave racist comments, and it really raises just one question, are you any better than any of these individuals out there that you call racist? There are songs out there speaking out against "black on black murder", claiming the black man is not your enemy and when you kill the black man you're taking down someone "who looks just like you". So does that make black on white murder ok because you look different? Some people feel that our past, gives us the right and justifies such low actions, I'm here to tell you IT DOESN'T! Your history should seek to make you a better person, it should inspire a move away from the things that caused suffering in the past. Besides, Two wrongs, have never made a right!

As one Shakespeare MwAfrica said, "...this life is too plastic, the woman or the clothes?", people have chosen to focus on appearance, rather than substance. In an interview with Ebony Magazine, Samuel L Jackson said, "I voted for Barack because he's black. 'Cause thats why other folks vote for other people, because of they look like them... [Obama's] message didn't mean [bleep] to me". So Jackson, could have been voting in another Hitler, Jong-II or Al-Assad for all he knew, but obviously this didn't matter as long as he looked like him(got to respect his honesty though). On Tumblr, one individual chose to rant on about how "one of the white guys" was holding up the Kenyan flag during the 2012 olympics ceremony and that this was wrong because Kenya is a "black nation", completely disregarding the fact that these were professional swimmers who had earned their place in the Kenya olympics team. (via. I AM KENYAN PROJECT)

People, black people, still hold on to the mentality that the white man is your enemy. We must understand that the era where the world was dominated by one race no longer exists. We need to stop dividing ourselves racially, and start looking at one another as one race, the human race. Most importantly, we need to realise that we are, our very own greatest enemies by taking the time to look at some of the problems we have caused ourselves, through our own actions. Take the Rwandese genocide, the Kenyan post election violence or the Sudanese Civil war for instance. Were these atrocities committed by a white man? 

We need to put an immediate end to xenophobia and stereotyping. The Iraqi war, for example, was not caused by the white race, it was caused by a few individuals with power, the power to manipulate the the masses into believing an attack had been launched against the U.S and that they were simply defending themselves and their honor by sending troops into Iraq. World politics is now wrapped around the hands of few individuals, they are those individuals that you will never hear about, or if you do, it will be years after a tragedy. The rest of us, well, we are all just victims to the same system that seeks to manipulate mankind so we must wake up because we must build a new society and not repeat the same mistakes of the past. 

Now don't get me wrong, I am by all means encouraging you, and insist that you must take pride in who you are and where you come from but in the process, do not overlook others. Instead, acknowledge their existence, as people of equal being and look at that as the beauty of the world we live in. Let us learn from each other, educate each other on our different cultures, have a laugh together at how the Brit guy says "Jambo" or how the typical African guy says "pot'ah'to"(potato) and take pride in these things. Let us find unity, in diversity. 

You'd be surprised how much easier life is when you simply appreciate the things that come your way instead of digging deep for things that are completely unnecessary. For a wise man once said, "No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin... People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite"... So don' be a hater :p   

FIGHT THE SYSTEM, RESPECT THE RACE :)

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11 YEAR OLD ARRESTED

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"An oppressed people are authorised whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters"

Henry Clay

I will make this very simple. Please read on. 

If you have been on twitter recently or FaceBook, there's a popular hashtag #SudanRevolts that's been going round. After 23years of oppression and Human rights violation, the people of Sudan have decided to stand up against the dictatorial Regime of President Omar El Bashir that's committed mass atrocities. In the past three weeks there have been protests in the country. Friday the 30th of June 2012 saw a great number of women, men, students among others take the streets of Sudan chanting "Al Shaab Yurid Inzgat Al Nuzam", roughly translated as "the people want the fall of the regime". Protesters, activists and journalists were arrested (over 1000) and the police were violent. This is not a new thing when a revolution is taking place, but this is:

"...We waited for a while until a truck arrived carrying around 120 people, all in their twenties. Inside the courthouse, 4 judges were awaiting them. We noticed a little boy get off the truck - he looked to be about 11 years old; he was crying, and stumbling as he walked. At first, we assumed him to be ill. A man asked him: 

“What’s wrong with you, boy?” 

“The police arrested me for no reason” 

“What do you mean they arrested you for no reason? Weren’t you at the protests?” 

“I was on my way from AlDuroshab on my way to my grandmother’s house in Hillat Hamad when they arrested me” 

“Why are you stumbling around like that? Are you sick?” 

“I’m hungry, i haven’t had anything to eat since Friday” 

“They didn’t give you food?” 

“No” 

“Who from your family is here today?” 

“No one. My parents think I’m in Hillat Hamad, and my grandmother didn’t know i was coming, so they weren’t expecting me” 

My friend ran and got him a sandwich from a nearby shop. The man who was asking him the questions decided to post bail for him and, despite the judge’s persistence, took him home to his family. The boy’s name is Hussam, from alDoroshab, and was born in 2001." 

I'm sure you all agree that this is completely outrageous. Now although given the facts, it is difficult for media to cover the #SudanRevolts from the grounds, the people in Sudan have been putting up youtube videos and tweeting updates but it has not gotten enough media attention. I believe media attention is what my people need to be able to take back their country from this bloody regime! 

This is what I am asking you to do, simply tweet all the media houses that you can think of(small or big), the hashtag "#SudanRevolts" or post "Twitter: #SudanRevolts" on their Facebook walls or any other sites to raise awareness on the Sudan Revolts. 

By doing, this you will be empowering the protesters in Sudan as they will get international attention and help bring to light what they are currently enduring, and hopefully through that, they will be successful in overthrowing the regime. On friday they are planning a mass protest and your tweet/share could help their cause succeed. 

Thank you to every single one of you who will do this and kindly share this post(spam pages, spam inboxes - I hate it too but desperate times call for desperate measures) or simply copy paste the above on your blog, Facebook note, websites, send messages, emails and anything else you can think of. While the media is busy covering Tom Cruise's divorce, a whole nation is being oppressed(no offence I love Tom cruise, but this is more urgent), so let us change that. Thank you once again. 

Source: http://b45.tumblr.com/post/26378418882

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WOMEN... HUMAN BEINGS OR COMMODITIES?

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"Not respecting yourself, is the same as committing suicide at a slow rate."

- Unknown

Have you ever presented a great idea to someone? Ever notice how the more information you withhold, the more they want to know about it? Think of anything you're good at. Let's take arts for example(music, dance, drama...). If you are a good performer, you know that the less times you perform, the more people want to see you perform and if you are good but are constantly appearing on stage, you somehow wear out, or so to speak.

Let us now look at it in terms of business. The business world, is a tricky one, or so i've heard. I've not dealt out there but there is one thing I know. That is; you don't just present good ideas to every Tom, Dick and Harry. You first guarantee peoples complete interest by just mentioning your ideas, and letting them get back to you if they are interested and from there, everything is done under official terms. This way, your ideas remain original as you don't let out too much, making it difficult for someone to use them. 

This message is addressed to all young girls out there. However, it doesn't matter if you are a guy, a mother, a father or in your 20's because i'm sure we all have young people out there that we care about and would want to pass this message to. So please, read on! 

An illusion has been created that women need to sell themselves for attention. It's like we must get some sort of approval from society, in specific, men. This is an illusion, in desperate need of seclusion. I was just on Facebook a few hours ago and happen to have run into a couple of photos from various events around nairobi. Young girls(roughly aged 13-17) have developed a mentality that drains out all rationality from them. In order to look "sexy", you must walk out of your house half naked or in order to attract men, you must show off ALL your "goodies". This is not the first time i'm seeing this of course, but it's the first time i'm doing something about my observation. I choose not to talk about ages 18 onwards because I believe they do not need any guidance as they can distinguish right from wrong and it's therefore up to personal preference.

The point i'm trying to put across here, is that women, are NOT commodities. Women, are the greatest "piece of art". Treating yourself as an object, might give you the temporary pleasure of the spotlight, but the light's will dim out quick, and you will wear out faster than you know it. Women, are the most amazing "business idea", selling yourself out there, might get a million investors interested, but only so they can have what they need from you, then they are out.

Instead, be that "artist", that everyone wants to see perform, and be that "business idea" that everyone is interested in 'investing' in, but only the genuine ones, get to know about. If you treat yourself with respect, people will treat you with the same kind of respect and if you have no self-respect, what reasons do you give people to respect you? I am not simply referring to how you dress and all that artificial stuff, but also how you carry yourself around. Show that you're someone who doesn't take anything short of respect and that is what you will get.

At this point, many people have probably closed this post and if you are still reading on, GREAT because i expect 99% of people to call this nonsense and carry on with their lives. Anyway, back to the topic at hand... The reason I decided to write about this, is not to judge anyone, but to hope that through this message, someone's daughter, sister, niece, cousin or friend learns that they are not a commodity but are worth so much more. I am not a saint, and I haven't made all the greatest life decisions. In fact, if it wasn't for the kind of household I grew up in and the strict parents who brought me up, I'd surely have been that young girl in a photo a 19 year old is looking at and are wondering how to tell me that that is not what i'm worth. 

I write this because I have a 15 year old sister, and this is the message I want to pass to her and other young girls like her. I write this so every time she is tempted by the "fast food culture", she remembers my message to her. I'm really not different from these teenagers to be honest. I'm also trying to find my way in life, though from different angles, but I once had the same struggles. 

As my dad always tells me, "In life there are two schools, one is the one you are familiar with, the other is the school of experience. But you don't always have to learn the hard way, and that is the reason i share my experiences with you, so you don't have to trip before you find the path but instead use them as stepping stones to guide you into the right path". So I share with you this, as i said earlier, not to judge you, but to tell you that decency is the highest form of beauty out there and though it is true you grow wiser by the day, why wait when you could be wiser today?

With that said, I leave you with this...

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Bridging the gap between the "rich" and the "poor"

For the past three weeks I have been meaning to write something on an issue I really feel I must address. Now if you've read my blog before, you will realise that all my posts begin with quotations. This is because I get my inspiration to write from listening to or reading other peoples thoughts. There's always a line somewhere in their works that appeals to me and from that I sometimes develop a concept different from the context it was initially used and it wasn't until today when a friend put up the quote below on her Facebook status that i finally found the right one for this post.

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"Israel was founded on other people's land, never forgets to remind us of the holocaust but they are intolerant to immigrants."

Boniface Mwangi.

I am not here to criticise the issue of the immigrants and the complete violation of their human rights currently taking place in Israel, although it is really sickening, but I’m here to question what humanity, as a whole has come to and hope that through this post I manage to reach out to at least one person and change their perception of life and how they relate and see others. 

In the world we live in today, there are numerous problems and there is no need for me to list them, as we are all well aware of them. The root of all these problems has been watered down to one simple fact, GREED! We are all so focused on gaining more for ourselves that those who have, use their means to oppress those who don’t, in order to “have more” and as a result, the marginalised, take desperate measures to “have some”. 

There are two kinds of people in this life, and for the purpose of this post I shall refer to them as the “breakers” and the “bridgers”. I’ll tell you a little about these two kinds of people through a personal story based on two phases of my life. 

I grew up in an average family. My dad is big on education, so he did his best to ensure that he took me through the best middle and higher education systems. I socialised with people of the same background, meaning those who also studied at the same or similar kinds of schools and having grown up in Kenya, these would fall under the British/American system schools category. My parents would always tell me that I am simply fortunate for what I have and that I should never overlook others just because they lived in a different neighbourhood or couldn’t afford to go to private schools like I did. I took this advice to heart but although my actions were not physically discriminatory towards these people, they mentally were. I developed a mind-set where I wouldn’t be bothered to approach a kid from a public school because in my head he was classified as an “Obe” (swahili slang for thug) because of his lack of fluency in the english language or because his way of dressing was different from mine or simply because his Swahili was “ghetto” compared to mine, which was different because of the western influence from the schools I attended. As a result, I developed a stereotype for the kids who went to public schools, so whenever any of them would approach me, I had already developed a judgement in my head, denying them of the chance to feel indifferent and denying myself of the chance to learn that they weren’t different. I was a breaker. I helped create the divide in the society I live in. 

As I progressed further into my high school education, I began to live by the principles and values that were being instilled in me by my folks. I began to socialize more with people of different backgrounds, different cultures and so forth. I realised we were all one and the same and it was my duty to show my appreciation for what I have, by giving back to society and instead of creating a difference, I started to show indifference. I realised there is a unique story to every person and was interested in knowing it, if they were interested in sharing. This way I became a bridger. Bridging the gaps between different people by treating everyone as a human being who was not defined by anything other than the fact that we had the same colour of blood flowing in our veins and striving to make the lives of those around me better. And it wasn’t until then that I truly grasped the meaning of the saying, “the happiest people do not have the best of everything, they make the best of everything”, hence the reason why I put the words rich and poor on the title, in quotations. Because true happiness is not defined by material well being and therefore, the words rich and poor are relative. 

Now apply this to life in general… How you create a stereotype in your mind about that guy seating next to you in the bus by holding on tightly to your phone just because his clothes aren’t too clean and this makes him “suspicious” or the guy who was shot last night by the police because he had dreadlocks and therefore he must have been a criminal. The human mind I believe is always stereotyping but what makes the difference between the breakers and the bridgers is that the bridgers do not base their judgement on what the mind creates, but rather approach every situation and every individual with an open mind. Once you learn to brush off the immediate assumptions, you begin to be more and more open minded. 

People are normally categorised into groups because they are similar. You are a Maasai because you share similar character traits with the Maasai’s but somehow you are tribalist towards another yet you call yourself a Kenyan, which is quite ironic because it means that you also share similar character traits with fellow Kenyans regardless of tribe. You show love for your fellow Israelis and discriminate against other races, yet you say you are human and are a part of the world. Don’t you then contradict yourself by not showing love to humanity as a whole? There’s a reason you weren’t placed on an island outside of this universe, but instead are part of a greater body known as humanity. 

We human beings are complicated. The irony of our actions cannot be understood and does not need to be understood because there shouldn’t be any in the first place. If there is one thing the Egyptian revolution taught us, is that change can only be achieved when people stop looking at their differences and instead focus on what they share in common.  The good news is, WE share a lot in common :D! You and I and oh yeah... that other guy too. 

The breakers are the ones killing the efforts of the bridgers and when we begin to look at each other as human beings who anchor to but are not defined by our skin colour, racial backgrounds, gender, class, languages or geographical borders, we will truly start living. Only then will we be able to claim to be rich because humanity will become a help cycle where no one will feel the need to kill or steal out of desperation or watch a child dying of hunger on their 42” screen because your neighbour, will be no different from your brother or sister. One people, One universe. 

BRIDGE THE GAP, ERASE THE STEREOTYPES!

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A revolution of intelligence.

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"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

Nelson Mandela

The term Revolution is derived from the latin word "Revolutio" which refers to a turn around in a certain order or system. Throughout the years, the world has seen many revolutions. The Industrial revolution saw a turn around from manual labour to machine based labour, the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's, the American Revolution of the 18th century,  the French Revolution of the 1780-90's among others, saw a revolution through fire arms and other weapons. The Egyptian revolution of 2011 was seen through non-violent civil resistance. And the list goes on... In my earlier blog on Kony 2012 (find it here) i talked about education being the key to solving Africa's problems. Empowering African people and in turn avoiding exploitation that comes in with the "aid" mask.

I recently read a very interesting blog post which was not only very insightful, but also helped me understand on a wider scale the huge impact the LAW i have been studying for the past two years can have. The big difference it can make as a cornerstone to developing African economies. I will now paste below part of the post from Miss Tessy Cherono Maritime's blog. To see this and other posts, click here.  

“Trade or aid – what offers a brighter solution for Africa? And as Africa’s economies develop, what role can lawyers perform in helping more people in Africa benefit from economic transformation?” 

by Tessy Maritim

The trade and aid debate often forms the primary focus of forums on economic growth in African countries. Aid has been viewed as an effective short-term solution for emergency and small-scale development purposes. However, aid often proves fruitless for African economies largely due to corrupt governments, inefficient administrative frameworks and lack of transparency. A leading African economist, Dambisa Moyo postulates that: “Western aid keeps African countries in poverty rather than ease the results of it.” A study on the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) illustrated that efforts to curb the negative effects of aid were insufficient. Free trade is often seen as the solution to these problems due to its long-term, sustaining and independent nature. Unfortunately, trade is sometimes used by developed countries to exploit economies abundant in resources. Considering that not only has the debate on trade and aid existed for long, it also seems to consist of the same gist of ideas. It’s time we rethink the argument from a different perspective. Neither aid nor trade can be said to exist independently because they complement each other. In light of this, we must consider what role lawyers can play in establishing a robust and independent legal framework through which trade and aid can actually be used for its desired purpose. Therefore, this submission will focus on the outcomes of an effective legal framework and how it would help African economies maximise on the benefits of both trade and aid.

The first Millennium Development Goal aims to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty. Trade is a method through which this goal can be achieved. Empowering communities to sustain themselves through entrepreneurial aid schemes and microfinance projects will enable them to kill the proverbial two birds with one stone; commercially, by availing their products for trade and sustainably, as they cater for their families’ needs. Examples of such projects include the Kenya Women’s Finance Trust which is a financial services provider for women. However, such initiatives often fail because of a dysfunctional legal system. Aspects of an efficient legal framework such as intellectual property rights, an independent judiciary and professional government offices are non-existent so it becomes difficult to enhance trade. Governments plagued with corruption, nepotism, bureaucracy and lack of transparency make it almost impossible for citizens to engage in business transactions. A partial judiciary means that when settling disputes the judgments, particularly involving large money sums, are biased due to manipulation. The solution to these critical issues is a legal framework ringed by basic rule of law precepts. Firstly, good governance structures are needed, consisting of technocrats who can exert their knowledge to improve the system. Secondly, the judiciary should be composed of independent individuals who ensure justice prevails. This would bolster investor confidence and a multiplier effect on opportunities for trade and aid."

Therefore with the right independent legal bodies, trade will be legit, and the rate of corruption will decrease. This will lead to successful African economies which will in turn avail better opportunities to the African people  including education consequently resulting in the independence of Africa. Although this post relates to the impact of Law, the point i'm trying to put across is much greater than simply law. Let us not underestimate the power of education. Whether you do business, architecture, sociology, medicine, you name it, at the end of the day all these can impact in different ways respectively and put together create the perfect balance. My dad always tells me, "there's more to life than you know. Your life is a gift, not only to you but to the world. What will have been your purpose if you do not make a difference in this life? You should live humbly and strive to leave life better than you found it".


Up until today there is nothing as amazing as the pyramids that were built by the Ancient Egyptians in Egypt. Question is why? Back then they didn't have all the machineries we have today. This goes to show that it is all a question of mind over matter. It is time for a different kind of revolution. One that can only be achieved through the liberation of the mind. A revolution of intelligence. We have got all resources well within our reach and are fortunate to go through some of the best education systems. If  successful, we could produce the world's most exposed/learned generation. Instead of talking about the Africa we dream of, we need to work towards making it. It will take hard work, it will take commitment, consistency and dedication. But it is not impossible. You just have to decide whether the Africa you envision and hope to see one day is something worth fighting for. Remember it's AfriCAN with a big CAN! 

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A woman's biggest flaw...

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I was on my usual YouTube adventures when i came across what I think is one of the most beautiful poems I have ever heard. I might have missed a couple of things in the lyrics so feel free to point that out. I believe a woman's biggest flaw is that she forgets her worth. Won't say much about it because Rudy Francisco says it all. In just under 3 minutes he sends across a veeerrryyyy powerful message.  So "this is for the strong women" and a reminder to the rest.

Enjoy!!!

"You are the prefix to our first breath. And you breathe sunshine on days that are darker than the Great Depression. You whisper floodlight when rolling blackouts disconnect the power to our dreams. You see men, we are like towers erected over crowded streets. Women, you are like the steel beams in the building that hold us in place, but often, we forget that we can’t stand without you. 

Sometimes, we just don’t remember that you hold the key that opens the entrance to the earth. We openly worship these earthly things instead of the gate keeper that open the door to let us in. So this poem is for the strong women. 

This is for every woman who knows that it’s far better to be single than have a man that will never understand your worth. This… This is for the women who are not afraid to cut a man loose if he’s not doing his job. This… This is for the women who get hated on by girls with insecurities tattooed to their faces. Sweetheart, they hate you. They hate you because their confidence is crippled. They got handicapped thoughts and self esteem has never, ever, ever been any compliant. This is for the strong women. 

This is for the women who will never dance half naked in a hip-hop video because they understand how sacred their bodies are. This… This is for the women who look in the mirror and see the closest thing on this earth to God. I said this, is for the women who remind me of my mother. 

Remember, this world wasn’t built for you. So if need be, you tear it to the ground, resurrect it in your image, and make sure it’s just as beautiful... As you are."


RUDY FRANCISCO - FOR THOSE WHO REMIND ME OF MY MOTHER.


P.s YouTube the rest of his works :D 

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KONY 2012. The right approach?

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"Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil." 

Jerry Garcia

So in the past couple of days a film by Jason Russell highlighting the atrocities of Joseph Kony, a Ugandan warlord has gone viral on all social networks. A popular Facebook status describes him as “THE WORST LIVING CRIMINAL. He abducts children and makes them use guns to kill their own parents. He takes girls and forces them to be sex slaves. He calls his abducted children the Lord’s Resistance Army, AKA the LRA. He has abducted over 30,000 children and forced them to be child soldiers in Central Africa.” 

Joseph Kony is a Ugandan rebel, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army(LRA), a militia terrorising Northern Uganda since the late 20th and early 21st centuries. An arrest warrant made public in 2005 by the ICC accused him of human right violations. This comprised of some 10,000 murders as well as the capturing and enslavement of over 24,000 children. 

There is no denying in the fact that Joseph Kony is an evil man or that the invisible children have a genuine cause and that this is indeed a problem that must be addressed. He is definitely a man the world needs to be aware of and a man that MUST be stopped. However, the Invisible Children Organisation just does not cut it for me. I am not talking about the most famous criticisms on its finance because that is the least of my bothers. 

I believe that the IC have, by all means, done a great job raising awareness to the problems faced by the child soldiers abducted by Kony and his militia as well as the atrocities committed by them i.e. murders and rape among others and I applaud them for that. My problem is the approach this organisation is seeing to be the best solution. 

To begin with, the IC is in support of military intervention, therefore supporting the Ugandan armies among other military groups. So every time you buy that kit, you are helping provide arms and supporting the very military group that has been accused time and time again for raping, looting and killing people. Of course if you believe that battling evil with evil is the solution when dealing with the “bad guys” then you are totally right in supporting the KONY 2012 movement. But it has also been said that “an eye for an eye only leads to more blindness” (Margaret Atwood - "Cats Eye"). 


Let us also not forget how President Yoweri Musevini himself got into power. His means were just as Brutal. He also used child soldiers. In Museveni's exact words, he said "In africa here, even by the age of four, you learn how to fight. This is our tradition if you don't know. Fight with sticks, with spear, with arrows that's the tradition. So if you are trying to think that this may disorient them psychologically and so on, that is not the case". So this leaves me curious? What exactly is Museveni fighting against? Opposition perhaps? His reasons for taking down Kony are definitely not the same as yours.

Above is a picture taken by Glenna Gordon of 3 members of the IC with the SPLA on the Sudan-Congo Border in April 2008. 


In response to the criticisms raised by this photo Jason Russell, on the IC’s official website states that “Let me start by saying that that photo was a bad idea. We were young and we got caught up in the moment. It was never meant to reflect on the organization. The photo of Bobby, Laren and I with the guns was taken in an LRA camp in DRC during the 2008 Juba Peace Talks. We were there to see Joseph Kony come to the table to sign the Final Peace Agreement. The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) was surrounding our camp for protection since Sudan was mediating the peace talks. We wanted to talk to them and film them and get their perspective. And because Bobby, Laren and I are friends and had been doing this for 5 years, we thought it would be funny to bring back to our friends and family a joke photo. You know, "Haha - they have bazookas in their hands but they're actually fighting for peace." The ironic thing about this photo is that I HATE guns. I always have. Back in 2008 I wanted this war to end, like we all did, peacefully, through peace talks. But Kony was not interested in that; he kept killing. And we still don't want war. We don't want him killed and we don't want bombs dropped. We want him alive and captured and brought to justice”. 


Really? Finding humour in the same kind of weapons used to capture and terrorise the people you are trying to rescue? For some this may be a justified explanation and maybe we shouldn’t be too judgemental. I am still not sure what my stance is with regards to this and will therefore leave it to you to decide. 

The film briefly highlights the situation. The problem is more complicated than this. I personally believe you cannot tell a story by starting with the end. You must take the audience through a time line. Begin with the cause, get to the effects and then provide a solution. People need to understand the roots of the problems in Uganda. I cannot personally claim to understand it myself and for this reason I choose not to jump on the bandwagon by simply sharing a video, putting up posters, buying a kit or updating status'. When did you ever feel like you can pass an exam when u did not actually take time to prepare for it? In such situations you depend on luck and luck is for the unprepared. You cannot put the lives of people on the line dwelling on luck! There are so many ways military intervention could go wrong. Let us also not forget that Military intervention means fighting the same children you're trying to save as they serve as Kony's 'bodyguards' or so to speak. They  will see the military army as an enemy and not some sort of lifeguard. Besides, we also need to know and hear from the people on the ground. THE UGANDANS and what THEY want.

IC say that “The KONY 2012 campaign is calling for U.S. leadership to address both problems. It supports the deployment of U.S. advisers and the provision of intelligence and other support that can help locate and bring Kony to justice, but also increased diplomacy to hold regional governments accountable to their basic responsibilities to protect civilians from this kind of brutal violence. Importantly, the campaign also advocates for broader measures to help communities being affected by LRA attacks, such as increased funding for programs to help Kony's abductees escape and return to their homes and families”. My question is, say KONY is found and brought to justice, the US troops return home, how many other KONY’s do you think are out there? Ok fine. Say this should serve as an example. Did the capturing and death of Osama stop the likes of Kony and other leaders like Omar Bashir of Sudan from committing atrocities? The US and the west in general are not the solution to Africa’s problems! AFRICA IS THE SOLUTION TO AFRICA’s PROBLEMS! 

Africa is clearly not a priority to the West (to be clear I am not downplaying all the assistance they have given us). The West’s priority is THE WEST. If the US today got caught in a great war, all the troops in Uganda would immediately rush back home to fight for their own countries. Kony has been a problem for the past 20 years or more, the situation was more serious than it is now, but the US did not feel the need to address it. There have been peace talks of course and yes he is a wanted criminal on Ocampo’s list but exactly what was being done before this to ensure he is brought to justice? Could their intentions also be exploitation. I mean Uganda just discovered its immense oil and last year plans with China to get it out were made. The US is definitely interested in countering China's influence in Uganda and itself getting a piece of the cake. The difference between US and China, is that China works hand in hand with the people. They sign agreements and are straight forward. So its a win-win (though there is still an aspect of exploitation considering the fact that it is not fair trade). As for US they use the "aid" mask to exploit. When did the US ever intervene and "help" in a country that had no resources and where they have no gain whatsoever? For 8 years, as stated in the film, the US had refused to intervene and then all of a sudden as a result of "pressure" they sent troops. Marriage of convenience perhaps?


The whole Triangle/Pyramid theory, in relation to this issue, i believe is a mind game. It's one of those situations where you are made to believe you are in control, but really you are simply being used. I do not for a minute doubt Jason Russels intentions and beliefs what i am sceptical about is America's  timing on when to get involved.

The problem is not as simple as it looks and by supporting this cause we are all just joining the hype without understanding what it is we are supporting. You cannot fight for a cause you do not believe in and do not fully understand because then it is just an empty cause. When i say understanding the cause, i mean including the simple issues such as the geographical factors. One being that Uganda is not in "Central" Africa as claimed, but in East Africa! Simply posting up, sharing and putting up posters raises awareness but does not solve the problem. I mean look at the Darfur Relief Concert. Awareness alone is not a solution.

As the Chinese proverb goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. What Africa needs is not intervention every time we have a problem. What Africa needs is EMPOWERMENT because it is not that we are incapable as the film suggests. So let us have campaigns to build schools in Africa, improve the resources and let us all support these campaigns. One reason for the capturing of this child soldiers was commuting at night in the villages and I believe recently this problem has been somewhat addressed. By empowering the African people, educating them, they are more aware of their rights, their roles and can by themselves put pressure on their own leaders to bring men such as Kony to justice. The IC has also contributed immensely to the development of education. For that I give them credit. 

I could go on and on, but with all this said, I would like to make it clear that I don’t think capturing and bringing Kony to justice is a less pressing issue. I want Kony to be captured. Hell, I want justice to be served, I want these children freed and I want families to be re-united but it needs to be done the right way. What is the right way? That is the challenge to all of us. Jason Russell has shown us one thing; one man can make a difference, raise awareness and even get the support of millions. So think of a solution, write about it, make a film, do it in form of art, sing about or whatever best appeals to you. But don’t be drenched in emotions from watching a short film and jumping on a bandwagon without knowing what it is you are signing up for. Emotion is important but not at the expense of rationality. 

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