The fool on the hill

I agree with the feeling that its wrong and arrogant to assume that we are smarter today than man has ever been. One has to be very intelligent to figure out that rubbing sticks together or striking certain stones together will give you a spark to start a fire, or to figure out the wheel. We rely on both those basic inventions for almost every modern amenity we have...but are most of us smart enough to have invented the wheel. Can we really compare the genius of Tesla, Bell and Edison with Steve Jobs?  I don’t say this to undermine the modern day genius, but to undermine our sense of intelligence.  We laugh at early man who observed the sky and saw everything moving around the earth and made a reasonable assumption that the earth was the centre till Galileo came along with his telescope and observed something that changed that fundamental assumption.  Trust most of us would have gone along with the earth was the centre of the earth theory.  We know more because we came later and we’ve had time to learn from the few who actually do achieve ground breaking progression.

Thomas Edison

In my waking moments I realized this as I thought about a number of things, the fact is most of humanity couldn’t invent a sharpened stick, we’re creatures of what has come before us, and here’s  the challenge I tend to have with any theory that assumes we’re smarter today than we were yesterday because the observational evidence simply isn’t there.  (I will grant I’ve not done a certified scientific study on this) but you see it in small things.  I get plenty of credit in my place of work for problem solving and being creative…Truth is I’m not, I’m just smart enough to realize on a planet populated by billions its highly likely a good number of people have had the same problem and felt the need to post it on youtube and google.  If we were all as smart as the dude who figured out how to build a fire ask yourself how come its taken 5,000 odd years of written human history for us to make the super conductor.  Surely at that level of intelligence internal combustion should have been developed a few hundred years after the invention of the wheel and fire.  It hasn’t because most of us are only smart enough to work with the information given (which is all you need to survive really) meaning were it not for Galileo and the people bothered to research the heavens we’d probably still be content believe that the earth was centre of the universe.

Nikola Tesla

This isn’t a random rant, but rather I think we should realize having an education doesn’t give you any real right to call someone backward. Yes they may be ignorant but they’re working with the information they have as you are, because without education you wouldn’t have the wherewithal to rub two sticks together to make fire. I’m not calling modern man dumb, he’s just not as smart as he may think.  On a more practical level we should show a great deal more patience with those who’ve not had the same opportunities in education. Most of all it should stop us from taking condescending positions when it comes to dealing with people. Recently they discovered a Genius in the UK who at 4 years old has 1 IQ point less than Einstien and Hawking, its interesting that most of the geniuses found by Mensa are from the west. This would make a fool falsely assume that people in the west are smarter or more prone to genius.  My question to them is would the guy who discovered the wheel be considered an innovator today? As Africa our smartest people today may not be theorising the intricacies of quantum mechanics however they are doing plenty in addressing issues that close to Africa’s heart. This lot may not get the money of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates or the platitudes of Stephen Hawking however this will not undermine their contribution to humanity. After all, most of the world has no idea who Nikola Tesla is but we stand on his shoulders every time we flip a light switch.  

Genius

More about Kenya...

Alight I had promised one of my “Ma-fans” a blog entry which has been years in coming. Ok... not a fan, more like a dear friend but everyone is entitled to their delusions of grandeur.

Not quite how the request happened

I had an interesting conversation a while back where I argued that Kenyans need to be less political and more focused on the economy.  I also argued partly one of the reasons we’re so political is we’re idle.  Of course those statements had me feeling like a goat at Christmas but i still see them as true.   What I meant by this that firstly we’re not all that involved in politics, we’re at best “observer participants” who feel that voting once every 5 years makes us patriotic and doing something for national good. I argue that is the formula for bad politics (and we’ve seen the evidence). I think democracy is like a child, in that it requires a great deal of attention when it young and as it grows it requires less attention.  We still have a very young democracy, and to expect good leadership by merely showing up on Election Day is a bit like expecting a child who hasn’t bee socialized properly to behave well.  This demonstrates that we forget that we have a large legacy of bad leadership to overcome which won’t be done by being “active” for a day. The legacy and the infancy of the democracy demands more action on our collective part such that the leadership is truly held accountable on regular basis, no only after a few years when they have amassed enough resources to buy themselves out of any gaffes and indiscretions. Our expectations and standards must be at a level we accept responsibility for ensuring that day to day the leaders are held to account by those who chose them. Showing up on Election Day after 5 years of reading the newspaper and watching news isn’t patriotic, it isn’t even noble instead its lazy and counterproductive. Most of us wouldn’t give birt/sire a child and leave it to its own devices only to show up  one day every few years, so why do we do this if we really care about our democracy? We’re at an interesting cross-roads in our country but if we don’t start saying now, the elite political are going to consolidate and tell us who among them we shall “chose.”

will this really secure our future? 

Science tells us that planets are created when clouds of particles and dust orbiting around a star begin to pull together with larger objects attracting smaller objects until there a planet is formed.  I tend to presidential elections in this way. Where larger and more “attractive objects” are able to pull smaller object in to their gravitational pull thus making a viable challenge (planet)   Some parties are inherently unstable and are susceptible to collapse, as is the case with the asteroid belt in our own solar system. Its interesting in this political cycle that what we would have expected is the strongest candidates pulling together other players to make a strong case for candidacy.  Opinion polls aside we’re seeing instead is a super nova in progress where everything is falling apart.  I’m curious as to why nobody currently seems able to build at the moment. It makes me wonder if we’re really at the point of seismic shift in our politics where we may witness wholesale changes in the elite political landscape. If so what does this mean for us as we move forward?

Tangent!

On another tangent, I saw that the UK is developing a kit to get kids to start coding as early as standard 2 or 3.   As we try to “push” this Sillicon Savannah concept, we have to get on the ball early you can see what the competition is doing, trying to get a big head start, and if they succeed it will make our foray in to developing a substantive IT sector all the more difficult.  I appreciate what the leadership is trying to do with the Konza idea, but I insist there needs to be a parallel program ensuring that interested Kenyans at any age, have access for software and hardware development tools.  Remember that some of the most successful people in IT have done it by starting in their parents’ home trying to do things with little training.  Surely we can borrow a leaf and give our innovators the tools they need to innovate.

Those who are charged with policy implementation

War! What is it good for?

I’ve often laughed my fellow country men’s patriotism, first of all it seems that Kenya is a very unpatriotic country aside from the odd rhetoric (of saying “I’m patriotic”) and the harambee stars and Kenya rugby T-Shirts, there’s a distinct inability among many to talk positive about Kenya. If we were patriotic I suggest we’d have clear times when we circle the wagons and dedicate ourselves to matters greater than ourselves and our differences to the greater good of Kenya. Not to say the opportunities have been lacking, we’ve had a number, most recently Migingo and the Merile incursions. Our lack of patriotism in those cases may have been slightly advantageous to the government as they were able to seek out diplomatic solutions, but the aggressors never felt the threat that our government was holding back an angry and defiant people who jealously defended their territory. Kenya is by no means a big country; 1 hour in any direction on a jet engine plane will remove you from Kenyan territory. This is all we’ve got and we have to put a highest price on it, and it appears that we have with the recent military engagements in Somalia against Al Shabaab. In brief my opinion of the whole matter is doing the pursue up to the border and no further is it is myopic in the approach and plays in to the enemy’s hands, the enemy has no respect for the integrity of Kenyan soil in its operations, limiting our military to the border does little other than afford the enemy a tactical advantage. This situation is unlike the issue of Migingo and Merile there isn’t a government to engage in negotiation therefore the country was left with little option. But that’s beside the point, the greater issue here is how some have been proven wrong. In a recent editorial Charles Onyango-Obbo highlighted the difference between the Kenyan military and those of our neighbours which reminds us that in our own way Kenya is exceedingly capable militarily. As Kenyan we shouldn’t assume our government’s long standing policy of diplomacy first as a sign of inability; rather the fact that we have been successful enough diplomatically suggests we have enough to dissuade others from the viewing the military option as viable. The least we can do is to support the boots on the ground, they’re not the ones that make the decisions they are carrying out orders. Feel free to criticize the government but give your last ounce of support to the guys who are asked to put their lives on the line so that you can sit and talk, type and live your life as if nothing has changed other than the exchange rate.

Fake military historians have suddenly emerged and have been waxing lyrical about how the incursion against Al Shabaab is doomed to fail, or set to succeed because of what the US did in Somalia, or what happened in Afghanistan. Its simplistic to look at the global hegemon/superpower and mark military success based on their activity, without understanding various factors of military import such as objectives, geography and proximity to name a few. Tactically we’re also not sure if Kenya has gone to war as the Russians have in Chechnya or like the Americans in Vietnam. We don’t have a great view of our military tacticians’ plans and strategy, and we have a fairly mute Commander in Chief who probably isn’t going to announce a Linda Nchi version of the Tet offensive so it is imperative that our speculation is borne out of fact and not out of mere conjecture. What I do hope is that we’re going in a similar objective to the US in the first Gulf War (the one they won) to slap Al Shabaab hard in the face and remind them not to mess with us, then bring our heroes home. Frankly the TFG is weak, and even if Kenya could eliminate Al-Shabaab there’s still a power vacuum in Somalia, and till that is sorted out Al Shabaab or any radical Islamic element will always have a foothold. I also hope we are working hard to lobby Middle East to support this Jubaland proposal, I know the hegemons don’t like it, but selfishly I think having a peaceful semi-autonomous buffer between us will benefit the country on several levels.

Rule of Thirds

The 1/3 Minimum is one of those things in the constitution we didn’t really think out properly. The new constitution guarantees 1/3 of elective seats are reserved for women. This was a noble attempted at gender equality but fundamentally one of the most undemocratic clauses of the constitution particularly if implemented incorrectly.

General principles for the electoral system81. The electoral system shall comply with the following principles–

• not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender;-
  constitution of the Republic of Kenya
  

First I must note that I had serious reservations about this particular clause in the constitution, I just didn’t know how it was going to be done. Second it made the assumption that gender imbalance will always favour men, I wont be around in 500 years but I get the impression that in Kenya its going to be a woman’s world sooner rather than later. Kenyan women = very aggressive go getter types
I also have problems with top down affirmative action, I’d have rather had stronger policies that guarantee girls education and strengthened our education system to ensure that a girl can grow up to achieve any of her dreams. Political theory tells us that there’s a close link between political and economic empowerment. It is much more practical to focus on empowering women economically, which means our affirmative action interventions must begin at the lowest levels. The there’s a wealth of information on the open data which seems to suggest that there’s a significant drop in girls attending high school and again moving on to tertiary institutions. That’s where the problem lies with lack in terms of gender equality. (You can see this on the open data website here or if you’re lazy I can email you the nifty little charts I made looking this stuff up.) If we feel we need to have women in position of leadership we better increase the “pool” of electable women by making sure our girls are educated, further more to that we need women not just in school but studying the right things. (I’m for a national 5 year moratorium on B-Comm degrees) Much of the farming that’s done in Kenya is done by women (who stay at home on the farm) then why aren’t we encouraging women to study agriculture? If you doubt that just drive around and see how many men you see in farms or selling agricultural produce on the side of the road. Men may own the deeds to the land but women are doing the farming as much if not more than men.
There has been a suggestion (in order not to create a constitutional crisis) have suggested that we “reserve” certain posts on a rotational basis. So for example in the coming election (2012) Tigania west may be reserved so that women may stand. That presumes 2 important things, first there is no incumbency. As an male MP what would be my lot if when as an incumbent my constituency was up for women only leadership? It also assumes the electorate want to elect a woman, or that in actual fact a woman is best for that seat. For example what if Obama had to sit out his senate run because it was a woman’s turn? I think what Kenyan women want isn’t necessarily to have a percentage of women in leadership but rather leadership that effectively addresses their issues.
Being forced to vote of someone smacks of the “single party democracy” of the Kanu era, where the party told us where to put our votes. I’m offended I’ll vote for anybody who will take our country forward and nobody else. And this is something tribal chieftain type leaders would abuse to no end to consolidate a power base. What this would create I think would be a great number of women who are nothing more than “yes women” in parliament who are there to rubber-stamp whoever helped them in to power’s agenda. This would in turn engender a lack of confidence in women leaders undermining the whole system, setting women back politically much more than the current environment.
Anyway I’ve talked enough about the problem, so what is the solution: My idea is simple, (Let democracy do what it does) let the voters decide who is the best person for their constituency, be that a man or a woman. Create instead additional seats (this already exists in parilament through the “nominated MP” system) that are for the express purpose of meeting the 1/3 rule. If women are popularly elected they’d be one less available nomination seat. Divide these seats as percentages for each party based on election results. So for example if ODM was to win the most seats then the party chooses 30% of the nominated WMPs, PNU comes second gets 20% so on and so forth until every represented party (up to a certain threshold of course) gets a number of WMPs. If the 1/3 rule is met via popular election then there is no need for nominated WMPs (saving the country money). I really don’t see why such a system wouldn’t work at least in parliament and simmilar bodies (senate, councillors, etc) and wouldn’t be beneficial for Kenya. Nobody feels like anything is forced on them; You’ve given women an arena to cut their teeth politically (it’s a direct form of capacity building), and most of all you’ve averted a constitutional crisis. I think our solutions to constitutional problems must envision a future Kenya where certain issues may have been addressed by the social development of the country. The biggest weakness if find for our current constitution is that I feel that its too detailed to make sense in 400 years time where if Kenya still exists will be socially and developmentally different from the Kenya of today. It’s very much a document for today and the near future, so the solutions we develop must bear that in mind and correct it such that our descendants also benefit from it fully and live in a greater more prosperous country.
Alright that’s more than long enough for the twitter generation. Let me go hide because I know there’s going to be hate from many for me having the audacity to talk about women’s issues (again).

Man Vs. Rooster a true story

They say that every man has an enemy, someone who for whatever reason is decidedly anti-you. I have never believed this, saying that enemies are made in this modern day by how you relate to people. This was until I met my very own personal enemy who hated me merely because I exist. The following post is how I happened to come across my enemy.

It all began innocently enough, the home has been full of children so hearing children crying is nothing of great concern, usually it’s as a result of disagreements which include declarations of broken friendships which are quickly amended within five minutes. Little did I know a terror as bleak as Siberia had spread its influence upon our peaceful yard!

So it came time for the little ones to head home, but the idea resulted in them bursting in tears and the declaration that sealed my fate; they were scared of chickens! My first reaction was fear that the next generation of our family was going to be more than chicken they were going to be scared of chicken! Family pride was on the line; I had to rectify this. So I called the group together and marched them towards home in full confidence after all what is a chicken. Now along the way there was a tap which I told the boys to wash their feet, and any chicken that came near I told them to tell it “kwenda!” which being normal chickens they did; they scurried off much to the pleasure of the boys and much to my happiness having taught the boys a life lesson…This I was soon to discover was a grave error, from in the distance a red and black flash was falling upon up with Spartan fury. Wisely the young boys fled, and I assuming nothing of the flash stood my ground. This was my second error which was necessitated by the first. The angriest rooster on the planet was racing towards me, in the decisive moment still thinking this was an ordinary chicken I too raced towards it calling its bluff. A real game of chicken was afoot the rooster armed with beak and talons, me armed with little else other than my wits. Having already put my family pride on the line I was not about to accept defeat easily, after all the nephews were watching from a safe distance with blurry tear and terror filled eyes. The battle was on! At the decisive moment I swerved to my left in order to give my strong kicking foot the necessary thrust of an intent filled swipe at the hateful rooster. Thinking even a miss would frighten the animal. The agile rooster read my intent and dodged and counter attacked claws first. I feinted again to the left and spun expecting a palpable hit and a round-housed rooster begging for mercy. However only the air tasted my fury and the rooster had no intention of retreating. The battle continued for a few minutes with attack and counter attack from both sides until finally the jogoo made a critical mistake of falling for my dummy kick and proceeded to attack where upon it met a fury laced kick to the head and fell back. Prematurely I declared victory but the rooster was no David Haye and again attacked, again I landed a kick to its chest the tide of battle had turned, feeling my advantage had been established I stepped back (not wanting to kill another man’s chicken) Though looking in the rooster’s eyes I saw abhorrence; maybe it has an idea what me and my kind (black folk) had done to millions of his people. Maybe it was just a hateful rooster, but even in its retreat, it still had the spirit to fight on, as a result a Mexican stand-off ensued. Each step was met with a counter, until I had moved far enough, from there the chicken ran off to do what angry chickens do. My next move was to quickly move the boys home which I did with relative ease though the threat of the rooster was ever present. Then I had to make my way back, In order to do this I enlisted my trustworthy dogs as my auxiliary should the battle of jogoo have a part duex, however I made it back without any problems, but knowing full well I now have a bitter enemy. What I didn’t know prior to the battle is the chicken had terrorized the children, having chased on, and jumped on another’s back, it also had a reputation of chasing everybody.

I now have an enemy; should I ever meet the angry rooster again in the field of battle, only one of us will come out alive, and to the victor goes the breast and thigh piece! I believe that the victor will gain the strength of the defeated by consuming the flesh! And on that day I will have my bottle of hawt sauce ready, and I’ll have my face painted for battle. I only wish death (and the coronel’s secret spices) to my enemy!

Lunchtime blog Version #1 - SCALPING

I have dry skin: no, dry is an understatement! My skin rivals the Atacama Desert in Chile which hasn’t had rain for thousands of years dry; ‘have I been rolling around in a fire pit?’- ashy. Its one of those things that ensures that by noon my elbows look like they’ve seen a ghost, but that’s not of bother. I’ve learned to manage it in a properly manic way of either completely ignoring at times and on other occasions walking around with a travel size bottle of lotion. However the part I can’t stand is dandruff, which only shows up when I go to the barber. I gets so bad the dude starts singing Christmas carols as he gives me my cut, continued with a joke about “snow in the tropics” etc. (I am thankful that I don’t “shed” during other times, because it’s hard to look serious at a meeting when you have snow drifts on your shoulders.) Now solutions I’ve been given thus far:
1. Stop using anti-dandruff shampoo which may be too hard on your delicate scalp (the fact that the word “delicate” was used clearly this was a woman’s advice) …yeah WRONG!
2. My barber who told me hair food was the solution. Yup! I have hair fuller and softer than a Somali but my scalp is still the testing ground for vehicles that are designed for harsh desolate environments.

Maybe it’s the water and I should behave like those Nouveau riche types and only use Perrier to wash my hair, but that would mean wearing a shower cap which is generally against man-laws and common sense. Furthermore I don’t think my scalp is that valuable to warrant going broke…So yeah point is I’m in the market for solutions, nothing expensive and nothing nasty like washing with egg yolks!

True Patriots vs the Blogosphere

Ok,
I’ve been simmering for a minute and decided to go ahead and look hypocritical and rant on the internet.
Kenyans! We have a beautiful country in so many ways. A look to our neigbours shows how blessed we really are, if you don’t believe it look at this! In Uganda when people threatened to protest the high cost of living the government response what to unleash the shield and truncheon. Ours faced with such a threat reacted by reducing duty on the most essentials (sorry folks petrol is not essential, however diesel and kerosene is critical) And it is my hope that more steps will be taken to shield us from the external factors creating inflationary pressure on our country. There are still criticisms of this government but this case was pretty impressive knowing the rate which government works.
However I have mad beef with the blogosphere- facebook-twitter “I’m mad at what the politicians are doing” crowd. First we and the government know for sure that that’s all they’ll do, create an angry facebook status. This is no Egypt people can be bought for cheap! The worst thing you can ask someone whose “arrived” is to get out of their vitz and be democratic. No democracy is not voting, that is a democratic process within the overarching system. I get mad frustrated when people somehow think I’m not being patriotic by refusing to vote at a general election but really it’s hardly my right if I didn’t even involve myself in other parts of democracy (and who’s to say I don’t love my country if I don’t believe in democracy anyway?). The FBTC (facebook twitter crowd) miss this and imagine that going to the ballot box on Election Day and voting somehow will propagate a free and fair system when in fact all it does is guarantee the corruption of the system. You leave the poor masses to make the decision for you and you’re shocked that the choices are not up to scratch. Let me put it like this; if you were babysitting a child and let them decide what they wanted for dinner, you can easily guess the choices the child will make; Chips, Pizza, Candy, all the above most of all no vegetables (YUCK!). However when it comes to our voting habits we do the same thing, we let the idle and uneducated chose the menu at the primary level, then come to the table to eat on election day feeling very democratic with our kenya rugby or harambee stars t-shirt and get "surprised" with what is on offer. Well truth is the collective stomach ache is your fault, you know better but haven’t done much beyond a bird song about it. You want change; blast your MP’s mail box with letters. If you want our politics to become issues based, join an issues based pressure group and bother your representative. If you want the IDPs to be resettled stop saying “Kenyatta has land” and shame the government in to doing something. Ultimately the failure of Kenya will be in the fact that those who could (ie middle class…and if you’re reading this you’re there!) did nothing while the rich manipulated the poor for their ends.
I keep hearing the mantra that somewhere in Kenya there’s a leader who will bring us out of all this; the Moses of Kenya, lol What we don’t realize is Moses was created by God, He learned to govern in the house of pharaoh and Jethro, both as a political and spiritual leader…lesson here we still need the institutions to bring up that so called Moses, are your angry tweets and status updates going to do that?
Like I said I’m about to look like a hypocrite but #justsayin true patriots are the cats out there doing it, the rest of us need to stop stepping in their shine and shut up or back up our anger with action.