100th Post - Yeah Baby!

Man, though its been a long time coming, i can't believe this is actually my 100th post! Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Najipongeza!

my original 100th post was hijacked at the WSF yesterday so i'll call this my 100th post part I! i decided rather than bashing the forum for what i consider to be NGOism laid-back-no-actionism, i'd go to the venue (this time uhuru park) nijionee kile hawa watu wote walikusanyika kwayo. a stone-throw from my place, i got there in the middle of the raining sun, hottest at its peak. impressive, there were like several thousand jamaz braving the heat to listen, demo and chat. Niliwasili just in time for nobel laureate Wangari Maathai's speech and went ahead to take a few snaps courtesy of the podium access from my man Blaze. this woman is phenomenal, standing there, saying such simple words but whose meaning sink to the depth of your humanity and you suddenly feel the rush to stand up and do something!

i talked WSF with a few people and some wreckon it might fade off into some social jamboree gathering of some kind, whilst others truly believe in its ability to change and shape social policies. am kinda in betwixt the two sentiments. there is some impact that has been derived from the WSF, notably the voice that has gotten to the (near) cancellation of third world debts, boycotting of slope-sided economic agreements etc, yet some of the major issues like poverty, sanitation, corruption seem unabated. to my surprise, i imagined the WSF to have been "the place to be" for all the "bonos" trying to do something about the world's social ills. the absence couldn't be more deafening. all in all, there was a cauldron of great people there and i managed kujiingiza miongoni mwao, felt different - among them my fav Bongoflava artist Prof J, Danny Glover (in yellow), Kenneth Kaunda, Soul Force, Eric Wainaina, Nyota Ndogo and the list went on and on.

someone argued we don't need celebrities to have a meaningul WSF, but i think it could do with the high profile PR. i mean, don't we see all these social events they appear in making the needed impact? ok, forget about madonna and the adoption, am talking nas "i know i can".

WSF, WAPI 8 & Other Stories

The World Social Forum started in Nairobi on Sato, 20^th and thousands of colourful activists were everywhere wamebeba mabango with different social messages. Each group had their own focus area, albeit some seeming opposing. The sight of hundreds of participants at Uhuru Park for the opening ceremony brought back memories of the “Make Poverty History” campaign with the Live 8 concert at its culmination. Anyone remember what happened to the “promises” made on that? If you ask me, things in Africa seem worse than when they held that much-publicized event. I wonder whether they question if they made anything history apart from the memory of the event!

So I beg the question, do these forums live up to their billing? The WSF has been around for what? 6 years? Feel any influence yet? If this was a competition; which it should be, for the benefit of peasants across the world, the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the other divide could have long taken the cup home. It seems to have all the clout (and muscle) to bulldoze its agendas on every government on earth. So instead of having something on the table to eat, debts and slope-sided economic agreements are shoved down our throats. And we say money ain’t everything. Moreover, when the WSF has over a thao concurrent events focusing on diverse (often divergent) issues, within a space of 4 days, how the hell do we expect a unified voice on resolutions discussed there?

Funny that all these social-focused organizations engage in multi-million dollar campaigns with little of the messages hitting home. Doesn’t it make more sense to go to some village in the middle of Rachuonyo and just dish out the money, built some latrines, buy the residents scones or dentures, do something! Make a difference, not just clamor about it!

The 20^th was also the date for the 8^th WAPI dubbed Mwananchi, gathering together underground artists, poets etc to display and perform. I had 3 artworks to showcase this time round and as the theme determined, they had to be all political. Because I have little to write about this time round, I’ll let the images do the talking.

On other news, this past week I rediscovered an important lesson. If you don’t jua where a jamaa is coming from, why the hell would you let them lead you where they are going? I don’t know if it’s the tv’s or people are just becoming overly wanna-be’s. I can’t think of a scenario where am caught up in an act that deep down am not even feeling just to “flow with the clique”. Get your own road and follow it! Tafuta barabara yako na uifuate!

Lastly, I decided to continue the “Complexities” series from my next blog so watch out for that – it’s a self-reflecting look at complex stuff that make up my life and the unspoken and unwritten resolutions to resolve them. Not to mention that will be my 100th post!

Protecting the Police

I tell you if you're kenyan, everyday is a comedy. The politicians are maddening like the 7 in the year was an aphrodisiac and everywhere you look, people are engrossed in ........ i don't know what. They are just engrossed.

So the other day, these 5o who escort cream to the banks decided to down their tools. They wanted "better protection". A serious matter that is almost laughable. Police wanting protection!

Ngai! If cops want protection, what would we ask for? Only God can help us now.

They want protection from the automatic-revolver-totting gangsters who by every raid become bolder and bolder. Them - the 50, are stuck with rifles that you need to cock before it realises there's a bullet inside. And so begging the question where does all the tax money we pay go to? Clearly not security. Neither can we say its roads, we have potholes huge enuff to be called craters. We can't say health either, you only need to ask how many hospitals we have to realize that. Can't the gov't get better equipment for the police force? The irony with this situation is that, among the things they escort is the taxpayer's cash to the banks from KRA! And we wonder why robberies increase...

Now, am thinking, so who would protect the police? Private security firms?...........

Constant State of Unfulfilled Desire

Someone once quipped a new year with a new job don’t go. They never met me.

So I quit my job last December for various reasons. It felt like the right time to move on. It had become this one gigantic monotonous bore and the fact that there was zilch job security made it not quite the ideal environ to work for nor the ideal job to keep. Then there was the inner voices enticing me to jump into fresh waters and make something out of working – besides the mid-morning coffee and the free broadband internet! Thus, I quit to pursue that dream. The dream of fun, contentment and self-discovery, regardless of time. Year in, year out.

Pursuing your individual dream is not an easy thing to do. You’ve got all these bunch of negative people haranguing you on the bad choice you’ll be making, that you should be comfortable with what you’re getting at the end of every month. What happens if you’re really not comfortable with that? Most of them want more out of life too but are just afraid to step up to the open stage. Most of us want to be able to say “I LOVE my job”, “Am doing exactly what I want and love every bit of it”. But how many say that? Could we even if we wanted to? Could we dream of saying it sometime, maybe this year, maybe next?

Then there’s the obstacles (read challenges) that you face trying to pursue what you love doing. More often, they deter you from realizing your dreams. But the most precious diamonds are made from the most intense pressure. So, keep pushing, year in, year out.

Most of us are blinded by populist thoughts and can hardly dare peep outside our cozy little boxes. We get caught in the cookie-cutter profiles of what others expect of us. We desperately desire happiness & contentment and search these in material things without realizing that the newest Sony Ericcson or the 4Gb ipod won’t give us that. Every month, there’s a new colorful catalogue churned out to fuel our desires of happiness. Soon we realize we need another item and yet another to make us feel whole, all the while we remain incomplete. Year in, year out.

I’ve taken the first step to becoming complete. I’ve envisioned what I want to be and stepped forward to meet it and be shaped by its lessons. And that’s nothing like the feeling of contentment with thyself.

In short, you better get your act right this year!

Shout out to all my blogmates, Fanyeni Mambo!