Love Nest

 

Here we are 2021 end of the year to be exact. There was the Glascow conference the other day and His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta attended. It is in such a draping that the bold men we see walk through camera flicks after a detailed board meeting, now wearing faded blazers and wrinkled faces. I suppose their glamour is gone, and it might be for good this time. The glossy suits and the waxy hair they wore to the work places before the Corona period are almost collecting dust in closed wardrobes. Work places are now open spaces with staff recollecting and sharing their experiences of the pandemic. More so, bosses have their ears on the floor ready to hear ideas they were used to. Nonetheless, they are friendlier primarily because of the work-from-home style. Maybe they realized they were not the ones running companies, sitted behind enormous desks with a secretary on the front lawn. They witnessed their staff working harder in the comfort of their homes.

The government on the other hand, simulated its functions to fit the pandemic bracket. Looking at our neighbours the Tanzanians, they are dominating markets initially owned by Kenya and Uganda. It was of recent times that the Ugandans, after their General Election, sought to fill the loopholes orchestrated by political tension raised by the two neighboring countries. It is quite unfair to the citizens of this nation to import eggs from Uganda simply because we are stuck in debt. It is fortunate that the country received Covid vaccines in time, and we should honor our President for this incentive. What we need is to harness a love nest, one with the stripes of an African country, and still raise our heritage and wear the colors of our flag with pride.

Africa is known to be populous and full of political mane. It is a sad affair that what we get as foreign aid is part of bilateral relations, which have us get close to 10% of our total input to the wellness of foreign nations. What should we do? I think it is time Kenya appreciated the efforts of current and former leaders in their efforts to sustain the citizens. It is in the United States where grants and aid are easily accessible to its citizens as compared to other developed countries. In this retrospect, handouts should be outdated to Kenyans. It is honorable that the Chinese are coming again into the country to assist us in realizing this dream. Then, the tale of Kenya being at par with the Malaysian economy in the 1990s’ should be in favor of us after the year 2021.

In Kenya today, women are now championing for equal rights in various sectors of the economy. We are seeing women leaders budding, and this is a direction to the right path. It was a laughable scenario in the past for a woman to vie let alone speak in a political gathering. We have had iron women such as the late Wangari Maathai and Martha Karua defy the chains of past regimes to champion for the welfare of the women folk.  It was yesterday 1/11/2022 where a woman was catapulting this campaign of them being public representatives in Parliament and other places of representation. I suppose after the pandemic and global economic instability, women folk are the best option in negotiating on behalf of government on international platforms.

A love nest is what the world at large needs, and it is through our women, that we get a better chance and opportunity to embrace change and increase chances of success to the citizens of Kenya at large. Women for sure are becoming epitomes of success in the society, as for us men, we should think of how Ugandan eggs should not cross our borders.

What Next Africa

 It is almost impossible to measure the damage the pandemic has left, after millions of lives were lost at the onset of the virus. Good grief! Those numbers surged on TV screens across the globe. Everyone was behind doors, literally, a prison on its own. Not leaving the house for a month! I can barely stay in the house without taking a stroll for two days in a row. At the start, Wuhan seemed a town in space. Months turned into days and the race of the clock ticked and tocked. Evenings became cold as neighbours and friends disappeared behind closed doors, quite ironic! Death became a typical phrase to streets in most parts of the country. It was either a neighbour or a close relative that was nabbed by the strong jaws of covid-19. It is a sad revelation to us Africans that those who pretend to give aid to the mother country in the guise of foundations bit their own tongues as death stank in the Western part of the globe. Mellissa Gates claimed that African streets were to be filled with dead bodies. I shake my head to this day as I keep on looking for the imaginary beings that the super-rich purport to have sentenced to dismay.

Africa, what a wonder, we survived this hurricane of a disease. I could have bet that it is within African spirit to fight an enemy. It is with this notion and in fact, a confirmed theory that perhaps one day, Africa could become one, A United States of Africa. With the dynamics of world order and natural happenings, survival for the fittest was the ultimate game changer in this hell of a maze of not dying. Wearing a mask, sanitizing your hands, keeping social distance, and coughing as one covers the mouth were the puppets that held the globe at a standstill. I mean, that could be a rare chance for aliens to visit earth and leave without anyone noticing, except the superrich of course. With everyone working from home, and covering the respiratory system with a mask could be a way out of the orchestrators of the virus way to surge energies across large tracts of land.  I being a Kenyan have seen the benefits of the lockdowns. For one, families have united and cleaned dirty linen they hid in their closets for who knows how long. Better hygiene is now observed and common diseases like cholera, typhoid, and malaria have down surged in the number of cases reported at medical facilities. Malaria found a vaccine; this should continue.

Malaria has devoured children and missionaries during times of pre-colonial era. It was known to kill voyagers in ships not leaving treacherous pirates that ruled the Seven Seas. There being a vaccine for Malaria in 2021 is a revelation for most global stakeholders. One could wonder, is it the curiosity to cure Covid-19 that developed an interest to conduct studies relating to Malaria, or is it that they found an old file while salvaging through old medicinal doctrines they found a lead to a shelved Malaria project? One could really wonder what happens behind those laboratories. It is with a profound sinister line of thought that in deed, the Corona Virus was formulated behind med labs under dimly lit rooms with malice written all over the face of that one scientist who wanted to take the world with them. Post Covid.

Post Covid is post covid as virus is just another English word in the dictionary. The year 2020 is now tagged the year the movie Home Alone could have had the same impact as Obama’s The Promised Land had last year. However, us being typical Africans we adapted to the lifestyle and it became our everyday life; wearing a mask under your nose with a sole purpose of avoiding an arrest. Typical is used intentionally to show also that African is another name in the English dictionary. It is with such that it is a label, driving us into stereotype in the sense that once the word African enters our ears, we rather set our mindsets into extremism thus, throwing our heritage to the toilet. We either go into trance of achieving the American dream or think of becoming this awesome professor teaching philosophy in an Ivy League University, or even embracing root heritage; this I believe, is living in history, an attribute that is not African. However, what mothers, sisters, aunts, and grandmothers have seen in the eyes of their sons, fathers, uncles, and grandfathers during that spited period of the Corona Virus is rich in African heritage. Mothers had sons at home before dusk, hot meals shared round tables, warm beds at night, and fresh bread in the morning.

What of the West? That gap is too huge for them to fill, especially with the broken linkages in generational gaps, the broken linkages in work places, the broken linkages in social settings. I believe the West is at a much advanced level as compared to us Africans. My personal extremist stereotype every time I hear African is a united front, A United States of Africa, but then, I think of becoming its first President, then I think, what of the varied Defense Forces, trouble to say the least if the continent became one. The West already done that, found a Malaria vaccine, and forged the US Army. Jumping from the African Powerhouse to the Reading Cube, I still ask, what is African? At least we know we are stronger in this Post Covid recovery. What else can an African person do apart from survive, adapt, and think of duplicating the West. What can an African person do in this 21^st Century? The quest continues…

Formula 1

 Valentino Rossi was once a champion in the Moto Gp Motorcycle series. In this new scope of thought process, it is humane and thoughtful to become competitive in matters affairs life and its other tags. In my days in the University, I loved formula and math simply because of these obscene rules and regulations that had one going about with numbers calculating and thinking of one correct answer. In class, I preferred this to what am doing right now; writing. It is in the sense that Formula 1 is a concept worth pondering on and peeking. Let me jog your mind a little bit, I chose math as a career subject over English, a subject I comfortably scored an A minus with math me having a B minus. It is in this captivating situation where I expound on the concept of Formula 1.

            Valentino Rossi is a speed freak especially in race events like those held in Dubai, Tokyo, and in New York. Those two wheels of his are the start and finish of his racing experience. It was the other day my moms’ became a driver and it was only yesterday she convinced herself to walk to the market only for her to use taxi on her way back. I suggest we adapt a finger print syndrome in the essence in this discussion of Formula 1. With replica of the herd immunity coerced during the initiation of defense mechanism against the virus, this formula 1 entity could rub off dirt from the earth, dirt like the world was ending, and Armageddon type of dirt. I could picture the synthesis of a technological hub such as Silicon Valley and the tech stuff going around that hub; similar to what NASA does with space? Btw, what happened after man landed in Mars? Any news? If any share the buzz. Ha-ha…

            In school, I disregarded my talent for writing, for my thought of my mathematical whizz, which was obviously off the charts. I this decree, I do strongly advice that a formula is much better than planning, and with reference to my tittle in the book Tha African Powerhouse, “Present Pays”, planning is sort of a hindrance to the obvious rewards and collections life has set in one’s path. I am happy I found my one formula and stuck with it even when the answer was not correct. When Rossi is on a corner, he gets adrenaline from putting his knee closer to the gravel with his fist wrapped round the gas gears at the front. That is a formula of beating a corner when using Rossi’s rulebook; you could see that he practiced this every time he cut a corner, every time. With my homework, it is so obvious that I should have picked one formula, the English formula, the correct answer. Here I am with my knees close to the gravel, rubber burning me cutting my last corner, cheers Valentino Rossi: Formula 1.

The Crisis Climate,

 History knows that children are the pillars of the society in ways more than just them growing taller and bigger every day. In the United States, one Greta is championing for climate change at a very young age, an age she should be getting to know boys, or maybe she is; kids, they grow up so fast. Globally, climate and other important atrocities such as drought and famine are marginalized by the very same government striving to improve livelihoods at the very basic unit, family. It is quite a concerning revelation that climate change can boost livelihoods and maybe the 21st Century folk could save the planet. We have heard the stories of world orders and that the Covid-19 is one of them, a stunt by the world stakeholder, countable men and women across the world, who fart and the world trembles. We, the people have worn masks for close to three years meaning, air circulation was cut worldwide! Worldwide i repeat. We have heard of the funny jokes that tamed animals in zoos were not tasting their freedom. Could this pandemic be the onslaught of a climate crisis, i wonder, and so should you. 

In Kenya, Wangari Maathai won the Nobel for her efforts in conserving forest cover. Then, maybe, the professor thought forests were at least a cover in the 1990s not forgetting there was enough green cover and the air was cold and sharp in the morning. Plastics were part of the garden, i remember ours, full of plastic and broken bottles. The ideal 1990s middle class. Is there a way out? We have heard of the G7 summit talk on the same yet little to no fruits. They find solutions in making clean energy and electric vehicles, nuclear energy and such. Us, acha turudi ocha tupande miti is all i could say. What if we planted a tree every morning before going to work? Us as Kenyans could elevate to the statuses of those thinking clean energy. The air could be colder again and sleep would be much sweeter. The global horn of climate crisis could be a thing of their own. Question remains, is the covid a climate crisis RPG?