Wednesday, 22 July 2009

'Emergency' Planning and Camel Milk Chocolate

Yenyewe I just have to rant yet again. OD was talking about the water shortage in Nairobi which is of course accompanied by stima rationing, which of course means that some people are not working as much as they should, and that others have had to increase the cost of working/doing business and contributed to pollution by using diesel powered generators. The likelihood of cholera and other dirty water-related diseases breaking out is not unrealistic.

Now most people have turned to God for the rains, which is all cool. I pray, too. But praying is the least we can do. I was telling OD that if the Almighty sends the rains right now, and there's flooding, we'll be back asking him to send a little sun our way. We'll be very surprised, though we had lots of time to build dykes and all. And the roads will be impassable, though we could have worked on them while the sun shone. We could and should invest in alternative sources of energy for when the Ndakaini dam runs dry, but somehow, we beleive it will be there forever, it seems.

Shida kubwa is that we as a country/region rarely plan and love to blame someone else for our shidas. Like I said, praying is great, but the Almighty has in fact given us power to rule our universe, but we've mess it up and it's very unforgiving; it messes us up back. I somehow understand how it is that it's God who makes the rain, but I'm not lost on the fact that we don't do our part. We don't plan for much other than elections. Yaani after '02, folks start scheming for '07, after that '12, but nothing for the other stuff in-between. It's like somehow, the rains will come, and there will be food. It's amazing how drought surprises us when it happens, which is becoming once every two-three years. There was draught in 97, 2000, 2006, and now 2009. Meaning it's predicatable, and we can and should plan for when (not if) it occurs. It's likely to happen again in the next 5 years, but we're likely to be oh so surprised when it does.

What would we do if we were the ones who had long winters and super hot summers, die? What if we are the ones who lived in desserts? As I write this, someone is exporting camel milk chocolate from Dubai. I don't love to hate myself or be too hard on myself, but maybe we are the way we are because we don't have these extremes.

7 comments:

odegle said...

In fact there will be el nino! am sure we are not yet ready but Denis my good friend tells me to get water tanks ready. Water harvested from a 2 bedroom house for one week of good rains can last a small nuclear family one whole year! thats great savings on water bills as well

Shiko-Msa said...

El-Nino is coming. Plenty of water, floods and possible loss of life and livelihood. No planning, no nothing, just waiting to give dire statistics.

tumwijuke said...

Banange I haven't been here in so long, I had no idea you were blogging again. Kakati, let me catch up.

S said...

It's all but a viscious cycle. . .

PKW said...

OD: and plots Ngong are going for?
Shiko-Msa: Nakwambia, like we can eat the stats!
Tumwi: Yeah, I'm bek! Pole about Murchinson Falls
Sibbie: It can be broken

KR said...

I think we have a fatalistic kind of existance and if you try and break it by planning then "you do not have faith in God" or you are "courting disaster by preparing for it"

We just do not get the "seven fat cows seven thin cows" dream. I just hope I do like OD's friend.

Great post!

PKW said...

KR: Asante. A friend once told to not hope but to plan. To attempt quoting him, hopes can get diminished, but plans get accomplished (of course you make changes along the way). Like Nike, Just Do it!