My $0.02 Take on Stato's Siasa

I am no US political commentator or expert but I hate the way the GOP is using terrorism and war as a political weapon. McCain use of his Vietnam POW experience is getting tired with me. He apparently used the term 'fight' 25 times at his nomination acceptance speech, with little in the way of what he will do to solve America's current problems.The last part of the speech ended with something like 'stand up and fight! fight! fight!' to a very enthusiastic crowd. At one point it felt like I was watching the Olympics with 'USA! USA!' everywhere. Almost like its the dems vs USA. Obviously I favour Obama but I may be biased seeing as it is his father was Kenyan. Not that it matters. If I were American at this point in time, I would vote for Obama. Primarily because the economy is screwed up, things are so worse off than they were during the Clinton time and it so feels like he has a plan to make America strong.

But as a Kenyan, I'm all for someone who can ship them jobs to Kenya or any other developing country for that matter. Outsourcing, and democrats hate that.That, plus really free (and yes, fair too, too, it doesn't have to be either or) trade, would do more for development than more years of aid. It's always interesting to see what side of the political divide seems to really care about global povery and how they plan to deal with it. As part of the international community, I favour America drilling oil on her own land. Juu if the war in Iraq (assuming it was about oil, not wms) and conflicts in many other oil-producing countries is anything to go by, I think 'drill baby drill' combined with renewable energy would do more to end such conflicts than the current energy situation in America. Well, at least as far as Stato is concerned?

Can't end without one more rant-did they (have to) go all the way to Rwanda to get someone showcase Cindy's personal commitment to charity, or did they look for her here? I'd hate for my unfortunate calamity to be used like that.

Independent Consulting/Cheaper Short-Term Housing in Accra

Some history is in order. 27 calendar days after hiyo siku, I signed a three month contract with an organization that does precisely what I had been looking for. A dream contract, if you may. Yes, prayers do get answered. I'd like to think they liked what I did after the three months juu they extended it for another five months till the last day of my OPT visa (allows you to legally work in the U.S. for a year after graduation). When the season came, I tried to persuade them to file for my H1-B (work) visa, even offering to pay for kila kitu including immigration lawyer fees. My immediate mdosi jaribud but word from huko mbele was that it's simply against the company policy. So I decided to do the jobo and have fun while at it. And fun it was. I loved the experience, met 'big' people, and even made a few important contacts for laters.

Sometimes before I left, ( my last day was a week ago) they floated the idea of sending me to Ghana to complete the final phase of the project. Bwana si I was excited. So the mpango right no is to get to Nai, work kiasi off-site, halafu go to Accra for like 2 months and then back nyumbani. Thing is, I am going as an independent consultant, that means sina benefits. Initially I thought it meant that I'm bila life and health insurance and the 401 (K) plan, but eventually as were talking it dawned on me that I'm gonna be meeting my housing expenses. Swali ni is this standard? If yes, anyone know of cheaper short-term living arrangement in Accra? Last time I was there, people talked of being required to pay a year's rent in advanced. If it turns out bad, shauri yako. I get to keep my daily U.S. rate lakini at the rates I saw for a decent hoteli two months ago, and with the Ghanaian cedi almost at par with the U.S. dollar, I would be giving way too much of my hard-earned $ to housing alone. I love the job, actually it has been my dream job, and I want to have been there a complete year. One way would be to work from Kenya till I absolutely have to be in Ghana. Help a woman out!

Thirty is the New Thirty

I hit the big 3-0 this past Saturday. I can't quite remember how I felt a decade ago, so I can't say a thing about the 30 is the new 20 (age-escapism?) fad. I think that's one lie that's given people in their thirties an excuse to behave like they are in their early 20s.

Growing up, birthday celebrations were not a huge part of my life, until about 3 years ago when I came to the U.S. I have pictures from my first birthday celebrations, then life happened and that was about it as far as celebrations and associated records were concerned. Mum would occasionally make chapos to mark a birthday for one of us, i.e me, my siblings and youngest uncle who is two years older than me. Sometimes slaughter a chicken but other than that, no deliberately planned parties. Friends of mine celebrated my 23rd, then the 28th and the 29th when we hooked up later over here. The 30th goes without saying. Looking back, it looks like the past 30 were exciting. It sort of feels like I've lived several lifetimes (may be an exaggeration, but that's how I feel), from growing up in shags, going to boarding school, colle, stato and now excited about soon becoming a manzi/masa wa Nairobi. I even remember when death was such a big deal in my shags, then AIDS became common place and it was like "So and so died" "O, really? OK". People even started eating at funerals.

I looked for signs of aging on Sato. Other than one white hair that seemed to disappear as soon as I'd spotted it, I think I'm fwine. Looking forward to what the next 30 will bring. Baby siz's b/day is this week. Bro apparently came early and was born late July. May have some positive correlation with the fun of December. I thought of mentioning that to the concerned but we are old school.

Anxious

If I had a Bible handy, I'd look for the place JC tells me not to freak out about anything but let God know about it instead.
It's less anxiety and more like overwhelming excitement at seeing the possibilities vis a vis where things are, and worrying about finding my rightful and fulfilling space in it all.
Kenya is where my heart is, I'm just not sure why the 'decision' to go back feels like such gambling with my life. The worrying is getting out of control and getting me worried about it. Tons of the energy is going there instead of into what I should be doing to straighten things out.

We'll see.

That GEMA 'Leaders' Get-Together is Not Sawa

OK, OK! One more political rant and I promise myself to be (almost?) done with politicians and the stuff they do for a living. It was with great disgust that I learned that the GEMA community 'leaders' recently got together to discuss 'our' political future. We aren't even done mourning those who died, nay, were brutally murdered during the tribally charged post-election violence, or tried the perpetrators, and these people are already at it, including (former) Church leaders?

Much as I respect people's freedom to associate with whomever they choose, I think in this context it does our country more harm than good. I long for that day when we shall be united and divided by our ideologies and opinions as Kenyans, not loyalty to our tribes. I understand it's gonna be a while before we totally divorce ourselves from our history, but my humble opinion is that tribal alliances for political mileage should be disbanded kabisa. As in illegalized. Down to making tribal chiefdoms illegal political tools. Yaani if you are a tribal chief, be one huko kijijini but do not represent your tribe politically huko mbele. The business of tribes voting as blocs stinks and should be done away with. This does not apply to GEMA pekee, as we all know. Remember the way we were mostly in agreement that there should be no special Muslim interests in a political party, or in the constitution? How about making these leaders ashamed of the tribal interests they represent? Where are the Christians that took to the streets then?

Full Disclosure: I'm still proudly Kikuyu, probably will always be. There is precious little I can do about that- just don't ask me to vote as GEMA, or Kikuyu. We are a country of 42 or so micro-nations with diverse backgrounds but we can peacefully, happily and proudly co-exist as one. It can be done people. But most certainly, not by killing all Kikuyus :-)

Disclaimer: This piece shall not be taken as proof of defection or an endorsement of 'other' politicians. My political perspective, if ever I had one, still holds.

Random Thoughts on Beauty

I do wear hair extensions once in a while. Sometimes someone will comment on how good my hair looks and I'll say "Thanks, I bought it at the beauty store across the street". But juzi someone at work told me about a documentary that was made recently about 100% Indian hair. I think it's usually very expensive to wear that 100% human hair. Apparently, the Hindu women whose hair is sold normally shave it as a form of religious devotion, halafu the monks sell it to Hollywood and the rest of the beauty industry. Ati asked if they would sell their hair, the women said hapana, and would not cut it if they knew it ends up in the beauty industry. I've never worn any human hair, but that thing is giving me a complex. I think the hair dye (most prefer to call it highlighter, as in it's not meant to cover up greying hair, but to highlight natural hair colour) industry is huge for white women, but I have no idea where their 100% human hair extensions come from. How come most of the beauty stores are owned by Asians. Maybe the answer is globalization.

Nature-we need to be proud of our natural/native looks right? I love that, it's all good. But as far as hair goes, it's not as easy for me. My natural hair is kiasi hard to keep neat, leaving me with the option to wear braids, cornrows, or dreadlocks to have a semblance of nature. Or go bald. Braids and cornrows are a bit expensive to keep up with. Dreadlocks? I hear it costs like $3 a month to keep those neat, but I don't want to lock myself in one look till I cut my hair. I don't have the shape of head that'd look cool when bald either. So I alternate between braids, cornrows and chemically straightened hair. Not the most authentic African hair, for all my pride.
Make-up. It's meant to enhance the beauty one already has? I've never seen a black woman blush, why do black women wear blush?

Hair and scalp lotion, face lotion, lip balm, hand and body lotion, moisturizer, and whatever for the feet-Ifound a product that rolls all these into one-shea butter. The Burkinabe (if that's what we call people from Burkina Faso) woman who sold it to me claimed to be 55 but looked like 35 so it must work. So far it's working for me.

Weight-now that. Funny thing to note that men in Kenya (at least where I come from and especially my cousins) prefer(ed?) larger women, but huku hivi every woman is trying to shed weight.

African models-they are very beautiful. I wonder if Alek Wek would still be beautiful if she was not 'discovered' in London. Say, by African standards. Better still, I wonder what are or were the African standards of beauty.

$1 Per Citizen, or One $100 Laptop Per Child

I hadn't put the governments salaries dollar terms, but saw the light when I did. The long and the short of it is that it amounts to about$30m (as in thirty million US of A dollars!) a year for a cabinet of 40 Kenyan ministers . I'm not sure that includes the P and the PM salaries. For a country of about 30 million people, that's like each Kenyan citizen is coughing up $1 a year to pay the cabinet. Or better still, for the the salaries of the 40 thieves, each Kenyan could be earning $1 a year. If we can afford this, surely why would we even need donations for 1 ($100) laptop per child? Not that Kenya is on the list of countries interested in it. Maybe that just doesn't fall within any 'steak ministry' .

Talking of which I finally saw it much debated about gadget. Its criticism notwithstanding, I thought it is a REALLY cool gadget, one that can get kids easily initiated into the computer culture and getting creative with it. Got me wondering what Kenyans in the Diaspora would think of if someone suggested that they get interested and donate the dollars, and in return decide where the laptop goes, like your village or former school? Lets not kid ourselves, we are so far behind the 'information age' curve that we need to do all we can to even feel like we will catch up some day.