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In the news this week:
Verdict on MPs’ tax
High cost of flour inhuman, say MPs
PM’s office to cost Sh700m
I have finally come to the conclusion that common sense is not at all common to all and especially to the Kenyan MPs who have blatantly refused to be taxed (with the exception of less than a handful) on their hefty over 600,000.00kes allowances. They are claim that they use part of this money in harambees at their constituencies; and even worse saying that they have financial loans/obligations to meet! Now tell me Mr/Ms/Mrs MP, do you hear the rest of us whine when we manage to pay our taxes, loans, overdrafts, rents, fuel, food from our salaries on a monthly basis? I have deviated….
The other pressing issue in the news this week is that One (1) kilogram of Ugali flour is now hitting the 120.00kes mark and looking like it wouldn’t mind passing it to something more ludicrous! Note that at a time like this two years ago it was exactly half the price. But only today do we hear of a the government discussing the matter at length (or not)…
This committee should not only be meeting to sort out the flour issue but discuss how and why the overall cost of food has skyrocketed in the passed two years. They need to discuss the fact that there is no longer a guarantee of one (1) basic meal for a vast majority of the Kenyan population. If the average “living on less than a dollar a day” family did manage to buy the flour at 120.00kes they would still have to spend much more on other ingredients, kerosene, on top of paying rent and trying to get through their lives decently.
Well all need to wake up and see by our MPs paying the K.R.A the monies due on their allowance it would greatly greatly help in subsidizing the cost of food by a great margin; therefore making food affordable to the people who are forced to pay taxes on their meager earnings.
This comment is to Mr. Right Honorable Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who loves to use Malaysia as a benchmark (and whose office will cost a lavish 700M to build): Note that the one thing the Malaysian government strives to give its citizens is food that is both affordable and accessible. Can we first make sure that everyone can eat at least three (3) meals a day in 2008 before we give them access to internet in their homes before achieving all the things we visualize to be with us in 2030?
It’s very very simple: PAY TAXES, BUY FOOD.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you could be so kind as to turn to page 21 of your Daily Nation dated 26.11.08, you shall see a well executed Advert on your extreme right depicting an up-side-down image of a drink being poured from a bottle into a glass.
Now may I rudely interupt your admiration and curiosity of what is going on in this Advert by directing your attention to page 31 of the same publication to the top left article titled “Competition”. If you read this article it shall slolwy dawn on you that one is revealing the other.
Knowing how long it takes for the agency to painstakingly think up an appropriate & effective teaser campaign and to see Client being so careless with the Media just when we are approaching the reveal finish line… I just think it’s sad. I had actually been really captivated by the campaign only for someone to drop the ball…
A number of things cause major traffic jams in Nairobi City, but I shall discuss one or two in this post. One of main causes are when the Police take over the work of traffic lights at major intersections. The second is the same Police halting traffic so that the President and his Escort(s) can move.
Now I hear that the President actually never leaves at the time he is supposed to mainly because of security. Apparently there might be leakages in his security system enough to sabotage his travels due to explicit knowledge of his travel times.
Anyway that being besides the point… I was hoping that someone would suggest the President’s travel plans be printed in the National Dailies to serve as a small heads-up to the general public who would at that time be trying to “build the nation” in various ways and means. After very little thought of that idea I immediately saw the loopholes and therefore proceeded to the next best idea (of which I think I should earn a medal):
Innovative ways to reduce traffic pile up and increase security in Nairobi.
The President must now be with the times and therefore have teleconferencing sessions from his manor on the hill. I think that would reduce the stress of him traveling from point X to Z, which in turn would reduce the fuel cost, extra security, car maintenance et al that the tax payers have to foot. It also means that he can relax at home with a blazer, shirt, tie and a pair of shorts (as so long as the camera doesn’t veer away from the area that’s from the waist down) while addressing the meeting(s).
Such a move would also help everyone in Nairobi cut their fuel costs by some significant % and also save on the time wasted on the roads while we wait for him to pass. It will also save the Police the stress of standing on the streets busy stopping traffic and once they realize they are not needed on the streets to control traffic (mainly because the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan has done a good job installing hi-tech, 21st Century traffic lights that actually work) they will then be transferred to the foot patrol Police squad.
This would subsequently mean that more police would be manning the streets and therefore the random CBD Terror Hold-up Gangs will be once and for all caught and/or shot dead. This basically means that we would have a safer, traffic jam free Nairobi City.
All this if only the President would teleconference.
As the Obamania starts to die down (or not) I hope President Elect Barack Obama has managed to squeeze in some 40 winks because I suspect in the next eight years (yes I said eight not four)… he won’t get much of it.
Meanwhile, while we celebrate, I am really wondering if we really understand the true implications of his victory. I don’t know if you are sensing, as I am, that the stakes have risen drastically. That we as a black people can no longer rest on our laurels blaming colonialism (of all forms) and the white man for our woes! That we can no longer cry to the world that that we have no chance to make it because so much was taken away from us and many barriers lie ahead of us! I know for sure many will now flee our continent in droves; claiming that success, wealth and the good life can only be found in the West as proven by the Obama story.
While instead we should realize that opportunity is everywhere, and it’s about what you make out of what you’ve got. That African societies must invest more time and money in creating channels of opportunity for the next generation. We should learn for ourselves and be able to teach the youth is grab on to every opportunity that comes our/their way. We need to emphasize that that good grades are not the end all & be all of success but that one should be creative, ambitious, street smart, curious, and entrepreneurial if they want to make it in this life. We should encourage those behind us to pursue their talents rather than grades as future careers, which in turn will create more jobs for those behind them.
If these (and more) aren’t the fundamental lessons you and I learn from the Obama story… then our celebrations will be in vain.
“This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change.”
I shall take this opportunity to congratulate President Elect Barack Hussein Obama for the fight he fought, the race he run, the victory he gained and the hearts he won.
Last night I slept soundly while others did what they had to do – staying up all night adding up the electoral votes one-by-one. But despite not having the Obamania flu I knew I wasn’t going to miss his acceptance speech in the early morning.
As I listened to him speak through the exhaustion in his voice my heart swelled. Here was a man, who represented everything we crave and struggle for and I’m not talking about wealth, fame, fortune, riches, but plain and simple r-e-s-p-e-c-t!
Honestly when you command audiences across the world because they believe in the fight you have fought… then you have achieved. Yet in his speech he made it clear that he had not reached… instead there is more work to do, more heights to attain…
I remain awed and inspired.
As much as I don’t feel the whole Obama mania I guess it would be a shame to let this day go without a post from me. Here is to the greatest day on earth… when a Kenyan American becomes the first black President of the biggest nation on earth…
The following hypothesis has yet to be proved in a reputable institute of research but until then it shall remain as such…
When a woman asks that dreaded question… she is most likely asking the man as a lover and not as a friend. Now the man on the other hand on hearing that question, assesses and decides that the best way to answer is as a friend and forgets to be tactful in his answer as a lover should. Hence when the lady hears the answer… she gets offended that her lover doesn’t think she looks good enough. This therefore creates the perpetual and everlasting dilemma of that being a universally accepted trick question.
As a confessed tomboy who is slowly coming into her feminine ways, I have hang out with a number of boys/men in my small short social career. It’s fun on the most part but it does get tricky at the point where you end up becoming one of the boys. Honestly it’s a frustrating place to be as you face the risk of your identity being swallowed up; and the problem with that is now the boys get very comfortable and end up treating you like a guy… but you aren’t. At the end of the day a brash comment that a man would be able to brush off might not be taken well by a lady; and the cracks start to form in that particular social group. But as I’ve learned one can slowly extract themselves from such a bind by hanging out with the boys in smaller doses but that entirely depends how much you value the individual relationship(s).
I can safely and honestly say that we all from time to time make mistakes in our communication when we don’t recognize to whom we are talking to and how we are talking to them. For example as teenagers our parents probably talked to us like children, when we really wanted to be addressed as adults and this offended us and made us rebel. The same thought to the one of the boys situation it’s all about being sensitive… otherwise we are at a risk of misrepresenting our ideas and selves. Meanwhile creating an oppurutnity of loosing out on great friendships.
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