The Reality of Kenya circa 2008

Apologies for the graphic image associated with this entry. Regular readers will know that I'm not one to exploit graphic and grisly images but after a friend living in Nairobi sent me this I felt it needed to be seen. She also sent another one that was even more heart breaking but I chose not to utilise it as it may have been too graphic - Take a minute to digest that.

I've been trying to keep apprised of the volatile situation in Kenya by making a concerted effort to read as many news sources on the escalating turbulence in my birth nation and they all have one thing in common - they dispense their stories methodically and clinically.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has called for military solution within Kenya to end the current violence. Quoted by Thursday's Daily Metro, Kagame suggests that a military coup would be the only way to save Kenya from a genocide like what was experienced in Rwanda in 1994.

Source: Africa News (Complete Article)

One can read volumes on the rioting, looting, burning, raping and killing and never ever get a sense the anguish the citizenry are experiencing. Even this single image will not convey the worst of the atrocities, but if it makes you turn away in shock then perhaps the message is getting through, even if ultimately you decide to ignore it and try to put it out of mind, it will not be easy, or at least, it should not be, it may yet stick with you.

Personally, I do not condone the use of shock tactics to send a message. I have always been of the mind, naive as it may be, that with enough time and patience, you can reach someone on an intellectual level, but I fear that Kenya and her people do not have the luxury of either. If doing this makes me a hypocrite, then so be it. I am willing to sacrifice my principles to draw attention to the plight of Kenyans.

To the "leaders" in Kenya, for the love of all that is near and dear to you please, for goodness sake, put aside your petty squabbles and begin healing what was once a good and true nation.

Those dying in Kenya are not the politicians, they are not the rich, and they are simple people whose only mistake is to belong to a certain tribe and not the other. And when all is calm and normal, the leader Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki will remain the leaders of Kenya whether now or in future.

Source: allAfrica.com (Complete Article)

This is a critical time. This is the time when damage can still be minimised. This is the time when the nation can still be saved. If you want to lead this nation, then make it a nation worth leading. There is still time to prevent Kenya from becoming Rwanda circa 1994.

H/T: Sameera K.

Noam Chomsky On CBC

I know I know... More videos, but when it comes to Chomsky, I just can't resist.

PART I


PART II

Noam Chomsky on "Concision" on the North American Media

I know I've been posting a lot of videos lately and I told myself that I would try to kerb that - then I came across this Noam Chomsky video. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - One of the smartest people I have ever come across. This is a must watch!

Didn't I tell you it was a must watch?

Barack Obama interview w/ Keith Olbermann & Chris Mathews

Need An Breast Implant?

Free Breast Implants - Okay this is a new one. This site will find men to donate money to women who want a boob job. And here's a short news segment about it.

Quoting... Atheists

Atheism: A non-prophet organization.
- George Carlin

Which is it, is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s?
- Frederich Nietzsche

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
- Albert Einstein

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi

It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.
- Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox.
- Christopher Hitchens

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
- Karl Marx (Always thought the quote was "Opiate of the masses")

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
- George Bernard Shaw

You’re basically killing each other to see who’s got the better imaginary friend.
- Richard Jeni

The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.
- Delos B. McKown

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish.
- Unknown

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
- Epicurus

There’s a phrase we live by in America: “In God We Trust”. It’s right there where Jesus would want it: on our money.
- Bill Maher

If I thought the Jews killed God, I’d worship the Jews.
- Bill Hicks

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.
- Isaac Asimov

1/2 of Caribbean Coral Reefs died in the last year

This just breaks my heart. While I was in Kenya on '05 I picked up my PADI. It was the first time I had been able to go down, up to thirty feet, (up until this point, I was limited to snorkelling and glass-bottomed boats) and see the East African coral reef in all its glory. I was astounded. It has been said that you can see more life in the coral reef in ten minutes than you can see in a tropical rainforest in ten days.

Kenya's coral reefs had been dwindling due to poaching; fortunately, the Kenya government were smart enough to realise that Kenya's bread and butter was vanishing off the ocean floors and banned any kind of poaching from collecting shells and starfish to fishing. I am happy to say that Kenya's coral reefs are in the midst of a resurgence. But now it seems all those effort will have been for naught. After having seen all the beauty the ocean has to offer, there is no other way to put this other than - Hearbreaking

Legislators vote fraud caught on video

While this is scary, it's hardly surprising. What probably concerns me most is how rampant it is and how the violators don't even bother being discrete.

935 Whitehouse Lies That Led To War

I'm surprised that no one had done this before. The Centre For Public Integrity has a searchable database of all the lies.

How Women Get Away With Farting

Tee Hee Hee

I Can't Think Of A Headline For This

I'm rendered completely speechless on this one.

[EDIT]

Thanks to Al who established that this is a hoax. I was debating whether or not to leave this here, but after he said:

So I suppose the funniest part of this whole ordeal would be that Faux News did a segment on something that doesn't even exist.

I chose to keep it.

The Corporate Machine

It's sad because it's true

Mr Ranneberger, The Wise.

So I was perusing The New York Times web-site and came across an article about the violence and post-election riots in Kenya. Here is the opening few paragraphs of that article, the bits in Bold are the parts I would like to draw attention to.

U.S. Envoy Wants Political Pact in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya — The American ambassador to Kenya said Wednesday that his deepest worries about the postelection crisis here were not about Kenyans rampaging in the streets or killing one another because of ethnic hatreds, both of which have claimed hundreds of lives.

Possibly even more dangerous, he said, were the deep rifts among the country’s opposing politicians, who seem “entrenched” and surrounded by “hard-liners.”

“You can never underestimate the ability of just a couple of people to tear a place apart,” said Michael E. Ranneberger, the ambassador, during an interview at his home in Nairobi, the capital.

He said his chief concern was whether Mwai Kibaki, the president, and Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader, were “prepared to rise above themselves and put the interests of the nation ahead of their own personal or their group’s political interest.”

“That is still an unanswered question,” he said.

Source: The New York Times (Complete Article)

Mr. Ranneberger, sir, truer words were never spoken. May I suggest you speak them to your own government?

Violence In Kenya ***Update***

Maybe I've been out of Kenya for too long. Maybe I've lost touch with pulse of my birth nation - actually there's probably no maybe about it. I have.

Regular readers are aware of my attempt to go visit Kenya three weeks ago. Since, I have tried to keep abreast of the goings on in this now struggling East-African nation.



While I'm not privy to the initial trigger of the violence I can't help but ask what the Kenyan Populace is thinking. I understand the frustration of the locals. I grew up under Daniel Moi's regime. I still remember the growing up under all the limitations imposed by the government - true, I was probably still too young to be directly affected by government policies, but I still remember.

At least on some level, I would like to think I can empathise with the Kenyan people - while I do, I don't understand the tactics the understandably disgruntled citizenry are employing. What seems like random and ethnically based violence does so very little for the country as a whole.

A country whose chief source of foreign currency is tourism should hardly be creating the sort of violence that triggers travel advisories.

Kenya was once hailed as a bastion of stability in an otherwise unstable region. It pains me to say this is no longer. Kenya was on the way to becoming a strong nation, both economically and socially and now it seems that this once promising nation has been set back decades in less than one month.

I truly wish the Kenyan people put their frustration in check and try to see the bigger picture of a country called Kenya.

Canada Are Pussies ***UPDATE***

Canada Are Pussies

Canada FM regrets 'torture list'

Mr Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment the manual caused The Canadian foreign minister has apologised for including the US and Israel on a list of states where prisoners are at risk of torture.

Maxime Bernier said the list, which formed part of a manual on torture awareness given to diplomats, "wrongly includes some of our closest allies".

Mr Bernier insisted the manual was not a policy document and did not convey the official views of his government.

The listing was criticised by the US and Israel, who demanded it be changed.

Source: BBC News (Complete Article)

That "headline" is one of the toughest things I've had to write. I hated writing it. However, it had to be written.

I really love this country and I really hate that Canada succumbed to US and Israeli pressure so quickly and easily. Actually it wasn't even really pressure; all it took was moral outrage and indignation. It didn't matter that the US at the very least have conducted state sanctioned torture... discomfiture tactics... enhanced interrogation techniques or what ever the hell euphemistic term they choose to use - all they essentially said was, "How Dare You?" and Canada responded with "Hmm, you present a strong and valid argument, we shall reconsider, after all how can we argue with such well thought out and poignant rhetoric?"

I don't know how it happened or when it began but why do nations just bow to this notion that the US government is beyond reproach? Instead of US outrage stemming from being associated with nations like China and Iran, the outrage should come from them being on that list, associated with China and Iran. And the only way off that list should be from the cessation of torturous activities not the diplomatic equivalent of holding one's breath.



A clip from Fox & Friends talking about Dick Cheney and water-boading.

Jesus & Mo - Piety

Here's the latest from Jesus & Mo. If the image is fuzzy, click the image for clarity.

What the...?

This is an advertisement for the Razr 2 cellular telephone by Motorola. If you haven't seen it, the commercial is enclosed for your convenience.



Okay. Now you've seen it. I'm sorry I had to put you through that. I truly am. I saw this on commercial television and I don't get it. I just don't get it and I used to be in advertising. I get that the phone is so thin it's Razr sharp, but I don't get it. Can someone please explain it to me? Maybe I'm not in the demographic that this advertisement is targeting. What is the point of the ad? Every time I've seen this commercial, I have found myself cringing... Someone... anyone... please tell me what is the point of this ad?

Nobody Gives A Shit

Quoting... Vicomte de Chateaubriand

You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.
- Vicomte de Chateaubriand

And the hits just keep on coming...

It seems, the powers that be decided it wasn't enough that I would be at the epicentre of all the brats on a flight out of Toronto, or that I wouldn't even make it to Kenya, or that I would barely make it back to Canada - I guess for a lark, they thought let's hit Shay with a viral infection in the sinuses! Something fun that would keep him coughing all night long, unable to sleep with a vicious headache, congestion, stiff neck, hips and knees - this is shaping up to a just a wonderful fucking year! Feel sorry for me...

Horrible Impression Of Canadian Immigration

Upon my return to Toronto after my very short trip across the pond, I had to go through an extra checkpoint to explain the brevity of my trip. I don't blame them. When it comes to "terror suspects", I hit the trifecta. I was an unshaven Indian chap with a Kenyan Passport who had been out of the country for less than twenty-fours so I don't begrudge the officials for doing what probably needed to be done.

Here is my qualm with Canadian Immigration officials - there was a Nigerian gentleman ahead of me in line who, for whatever reason, walked past the "Wait Here" sign and one of the officials, in a tone seething with sarcasm told him to wait at the "Wait Here" sign. She went on to say the sign was after all, big enough, to laugher from her co-workers.

After my turn at the counter, being unfamiliar with this area, I asked how to get out of there to which the official replied in a tone I can only describe as snarky to follow the big "Exit" signs that were across the room obstructed by security people loitering right in front of them.

Think, for a moment, someone who has never been to Canada before, is greeted in such a manner. What are the chances they would come back? How many would recommend Canada to their friends and relatives as a friendly nation to visit, or worse still, how many would tell their friends and family not to come to Canada?

I always thought Canada to be better than that. Sure, not all officials are like that, but these people represent Canada, more than that, they represent people's first impression of Canada. There is no excuse for this sort of shoddy attitude.

Quoting... Sir Winston Churchill

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
- Sir Winston Churchill

Offensive Drawings

Kids Today!

I'm really beginning to hate kids, more than that, I'm really beginning to hate their parents.

While waiting for my flight to Amsterdam, there were literally a dozen or so screaming children running everywhere by the boarding gate. There were kids crying. There were kids running in to other passengers and there were parents who were simply sitting idly by.

I don't know what it is about parents, but they have this ability to tune out tantrums by their children. I, on the other hand, not being parent, cannot! If anything quite the opposite my ears tend to focus on the noise until if feels like a drill boring in my head.

Once we got on the plane, I had children at my twelve o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock and six o'clock. The child in front of me was as children are supposed to be, seen but not heard. The child at my two o'clock was running up and down the aisle seriously inhibiting the flight attendants - his parent did nothing. The child to my three o'clock was screaming and crying and throwing everything from her colouring book to the food containers in the aisle obstructing the food and drink carts. The flight attendants were forced to play nanny to this spoilt child by cleaning up after her - her parent did nothing. The child behind me had a never ending tantrum, screaming and crying and kicking the seat in front of her which was occupied by a elderly gentleman. After a few minutes of seeing this poor man being jerked forward after every kick, I turned around and politely, but firmly, asked her parents to kindly restrain their child, until I did this - her parents did nothing.

Now I'm not that old. I was born in the mid-seventies and I hate those "when I was kid" type differentiations, but when I was kid, there is no way in hell I would have gotten away with anything like this sort of behaviour. I was raised the way, in my opinion, children should be raised - quietly.

While I dislike gross generalisations, even more, I dislike gross generalisations based on race - I have found that is the children of Africans and Indians who are the worst culprits - Indians more so.

These aren't one time observations, I have noticed this pattern all over the city, but unlike the city where I am able to remove myself from unruly children, an aeroplane is a different matter entirely.

Not being parent, or even being an older sibling to anyone, I can't say I have any solutions that on how to handle children like that. What I can do, is offer what worked for my Mother - a tight slap!

A tight slap on the bottom or my face was always constructive to my social behaviour. Yes, here in North America one would probably be incarcerated for administering such discipline, something I vehemently disagree with but seeing as how the majority of the next generation are being raised, I think it's a policy the government ought to re-think because till this day, I am grateful to my Mother for being the disciplinarian that she was.

Are children getting worse, or are parents getting lazy? It's probably cause and effect. Lazy parenting leads to this kind behaviour.