serene

It is that time again when we renew our resolutions and promise ourselves that this time we will be true to them.

This new years, I pray for the gift to be thankful for all that i have been given and the ability to look beyond what i think is not satisfactory to all that which has been amazing, i pray for such humility.

So my new year resolution is to hold on to these words that make a simple prayer whose origin i do not know but its destination will hopefully be my heart:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

May this be the year when not only do we get peace and love but a year when we understand and will be willing to fight for the same.

power and corruption

You know about 24 years ago a military lead a coup d'etat in guinea. He did so, according to him, to safeguard the integrity of the nation of guinea and the prosperity of his people. he went as far as as to make a solemn promise that he will relinquish his newly acquired power in two months to allow for the democratic due process. This man was president Conte, he ruled guinea until his recent death.

24 years later we have another military man who has lead a coup for the same reasons and promises to hold a general election in two years.

I think this could rightly be reffered to a dejavu. A Re-take but with the main actor changed does not make the script different and it can rightly be assumed that the climax will be the same.

Captain Musa, the man in charge in guinea, has sought to assure the international community of his good intentions and is courting their support. If his intention was to only hold on to power until corruption in his country is booted out and crisis averted then he would'nt be taking steps that are clearly meant to legalize his regime and at the same time he wouldn't be giving himself a two period in power.

The danger that i think we are all likely to face if this regime is recognized is that we will be having some crazy man in uniform with a desire for power thinking he could wrestle the same from the people without any backlash from any quarters.

I am more than sure that after Captain Musa has tasted the advantages of being the boss, he will never want to go back to being just another man in the country.

The reasons why politics should not be mixed in with military service is the same reason the same should not be mixed with religion absolute power corrupts absolutely. These were not just words spoken but a truth that has been a reality.

So i hope that i am wrong and this man who is the cause of guinea men and women jubilation will turn out to be a man of change, good change. I laugh but i hope not for long!

lucy's story

i think that like most of the people in the world(this is a complete guess on my part),i learn about love from songs. Okay i admit that it is not necessarily true of the world which probably depends on the fairy tales which by the way i believe in.

If there is a topic in the world i am unqualified to write on is love and politics and science......Okay fine! I am unqualified in a lot of things but let me share my inexpert thoughts on love today.

First of all i totally disagree, one can not fall in love because one decides to be in love. I mean seriously think about, the people we are with are the people we decided to be in love with; it is not like you just found yourself with them one day!

Oh and don't get me wrong, cynical i might be but i am a total romantic as well. Am sure whoever is reading this is thinking she is never been in love and you will be right i have as yet not made such a decision. I think that is partly what qualifies me to just be bold and say it as it is.

I know of plenty of people who at first were unsure of the love offered to them but once they made the decision to try it out then in love just fell in and amazing started.

And what is all this crap about the need for one to be in love for life to somehow be validated?! i had a very good friend the other day tell me that she hoped i have someone in my life at least!
And i am wondering as opposed to what???

I am not one those unbelievably feminist women but i have never really thought that it is fair for a woman to be judged so narrowly and for the judging to be done by the women is just disappointing.

I absolutely believe that one should try love before chucking it out but i do not think that you should let that be the only criteria that others use to pin you down.

And of course if you find that special one please stop running, slow down if not stop and take a chance. It might just pay off!

And if it doesn't live to love another day because there is so much else that makes your life other than a man or a woman in it.

will history show?

The other day i was reading about the comments that were made by berlusconi the Italian president on president bush. His comments were along the lines of, down the line the world is going to regard bush as having been a great leader.

I got to thinking about leaders and the decisions that they make.
I mean we never really know what is it like when you carry the problems of your nation on shoulders, when all expect you to be right and not just right but right as they think right is and when spend all your time hoping that what you decide will bear positive fruit.

I personally think that bush made mistakes that have done irreparable damage to the very fabric of society but do we really have the right to condemn this man?

When i was in high school i was a prefect and believe me i know that this does not compare to being a leader of a nation but that was one of the hardest high school years for me.

You had to find a balance point between maintaining a friendship and doing your duty assigned to you and you had to be tough take in the hostility and the enmity.

There were tough decisions that you made hoping for the best but you knew that your friends will not accept because they did not understand the reasons behind this and not the other decision.

So as i thought about all the heat that bush has had to take and the expectations that is heaped on him, i wondered if perhaps he needs a break, a little compassion.

politicians drama part 1(waki report)

you know i think the joy of voting is found in that hope that the leaders you are voting for are going to put your concerns above their own.

Well in Kenya you would think wrong!

the politicians got the positions they have by outright if not outrageous lying and then once they get into the positions they want they shed all sense of decency and honor.

i mean i am sure that there are a number of politicians in Kenya who do not fall into this category but as yet they are unknown.

the latest in the politico-drama season one, other than then refusing to get their salary taxed because they sponsor chicken fight or whatever in their constituencies or really do not want to be as miserable as those they represent, they have decided to reject a report that they themselves sanctioned and advocated for.

you would think the drama ends there and again you would be wrong, the story line deepens.

this report has not been rejected because it is found wanting i mean they would have to read it to find that out, but their rejection is based on the names that have been inserted to further investigated as regards their role on the post election violence.

i mean i answered the whole one can not persecuted unheard and that is why the names are to be investigated and not just hanged unheard.

oh and did i mention the English twist, the European union are threatening to pull aid from the country.

i mean this would be a great idea if it actually worked i mean haven't anyone learned from that lunatic in Zimbabwe.

you deny aid to the country so you take away a little bit of that money from some of our dear corrupt politicians but more importantly it hurts the poor innocent mwananchi who already is battling with hunger, disease, unemployment and much more of the worlds sadness.

so i ask what are we to think or to do because the only sure thing is there is an upcoming part two to this drama!

why kelly clarkson

I am actually listening to kelly clarkson at this very moment and it occured to me that this woman can not sing a bad song let alone awful.

So why do i love this womans songs apart from the obvious that i love her so i love her songs?

A bit strange but every song that kelly has sung seems to be about my life or at least what i think it should be.

Every time i listen to addicted my heart actually bleeds or at least feels like it is and then when i listen to because of you i feel the tears creeping towards my eyelids and then behind my hazel eyes speaks to my fears.

If you ask me, kelly's songs are every girl's diary and if it is not you need to listen again!

What makes you think of it all?

what i dont understand

you know this country like many others across the world was liberated by blood. and so as kids we were taught that the color on our flag symbolized the blood of those who lost their so we can be free.

so i was watching the news the other day and they had this segment on congo and the crisis there. and the rebel leader who is leading an uprising against the government was talking and what he said had the most chilling implicatons for me
he implied that the killing of several thousands is but a small price to pay for eternal freedom.

it begs the question are the people of congo not free? because last time i checked they were people in their own right with their government.

and who appointed this so called saviour?

and when did torture, murder and rape lead one to eternal freedom.

i think somewhere down the line, the line between freedom fighters and crude murderers got blurred. here was a man who advocated such atrocities on his own people in the name of fighting for freedom.

if this man was gaining some form of freedom that was not afforded to him before, i would understand but what he desires is power and in its purest form.

its sad that in a continent so devastated we choose to multiply the suffering of our own. and it is even sadder that the young that we expect to lift our continent to greatness are the same ones who are working so hard to destroy it.

so i say laurent is no saviour!

the audacity of hope right here

I, like every other person on the planet, was captivated by the just concluded US elections. but probably unlike most, kenyans felt a particular kindredness in it.

So what was the object of our passion: obama

I have to admit, i had never heard of this man until he joined the american senate and all kenyans could not stop talking about this kenyan in the US.

His kenyan roots and yes he has them, was what peaked my curiosity but i eventually like all, i joined the obama school of thought.

But understand at last the fever pitch emotion that he awakens when he was just projected the president elect on wednesday morning. i watched the world reflected in peoples faces. they cried, they wailed and some just stood still not yet believing.

When he gave his speech and as i watched the intensity in people, i was not only excited but i was humbled for i understood. here stood a myriad of people of different races, different creeds, different religions and different preferences choosing to believe that they can do all they set out and achieve all they work hard for. This was a reminder of that little message that we all hear all our lives but the worlds problems turn us deaf to it....once again we were reminded 'yes we can'

But i was saddened also, because this was a man who dared to believe but in his eyes he carried such sadness and his voice such pain for he like all of us had wanted to be able to have the people that always reminded him that he can and worked so he will be able to, to be there in his hour of triumph.
My tears came then for he had lost a lot to give so much. But i hope that he knows that a father only dreams of what his son will surely achieve and he knows of what has come to pass.

As i walked the streets of Nairobi later through the celebrating throngs of people, i thought the world would probably not understand or even think us a little stupid to put such importance on a man that is an American. we understand that but we remember that he is of the same soil and we celebrate. Their is so much that should bring the people of this country and this continent down but you will never find a happier people than in Kenya and in Africa.

So we take time off and we celebrate because we have and always will have the audacity to hope, and how could we not, a son of kenya has done what others thought was impossible and so we choose to hope, yes we can.