Thursday, June 19, 2008

Be inspired

I have been following two great stories of human triumph over difficulties. Two great stories of sons of Lwala from Kenya and another of Kamkwamba from Malawi . Its just amazing what we humans are capable of!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

chase the fox ...warn the chicken

my condolences to the family of the ministers who perished yesterday in a plane crush.

having said that i beg to ask; aren't we having too many plane accidents lately? in an earlier discussion today with a friend of mine, it came out very clearly. in fact he was rather candid. That Kenyans like taking shortcuts, unfortunately, some shortcuts cost lives. However someone said that it was 'their day'. It was God's divine plan for the ministers to perish in the crush. i find that rather lame. but bottom line, something gotta give. we must become a little more careful and do things right.

And of Safaricom shares, what does one make of the scenario. high demand, low supply low price. beats all logic of economics!

another beaten logic has been advanced by lost white chick using one culture to analyze another behavior. its like someone wondering why the turkana go hungry yet they live in the shores of lake turkana when the pokot have decided to become Chinese and added rats into their menu. they will have to battle it out with cats now. I saw however that the people and their kids looked rather healthy. Rats must be good for you. By the way, are rats wild animals? if you kill and eat a rat, would the Kenya wildlife have issues like if you killed a zebra for lunch?

Friday, June 06, 2008

Change is posible

I had blogged here some time in 2006 about my misadventure at the University of Nairobi when i went to pay 500/= exam fees for a friend. That time i could not even get into the compound since i did not have a sticker. well just yesterday, i was back there again, to collect fees statement for my brother. first shock at the gate, the guard was unusually friendly. Only asked for my national ID so that he could record my particulars. Second , shock the parking lot! It has been sweetly paved with the 'cabro' blocks and in between the parking rows, beautiful flowers have been grown. at a glance i could not believe this was the same dusty parking we used to use some 2 years ago. The visitors parking lot did not look anything like a Kenyan University parking lot. maybe more like a company's yard. and mostly a company that respects customers. Ok so i park and start walking to G3 where such statements are obtained. 3rd Shock! on the sidewalks, the lawn has been done sweetly, its so even , green and inviting and flowers planted all around the lawn. then under trees, resting seats have been erected all over the place. it looks like some great recreation park. I could see the lucky students who obviously seem to have joined this institution at the right time, reading under those trees or whiling away the moment. some were lying on the nice grass in the compound. then i get to G3, and guess what, the place is all so different. its open siting for the staff and there is a clear queue for us. there is even a guard who helpfully shows you the correct queue unlike last time when you would be in the wrong line upto the cashier who would toss your documents away and tell you get to the correct one. then unlike last time when they closed on my face to go for lunch, they patiently served me and even helpfully gave me an updated fees structure, bound the thing and wished me a good day. I badly wanted to write an email to the VC to congratulate the dude for the good work, but i don't have his contacts. the different experience made me proud to be Kenyan really.

What did not make me proud though was the allocation for my safaricom shares. oh surely, i didn't think it would be this bad. So what am i to do with all that refund?