Is Kenyatta charming and harming?

Be a harmless dude without the charm and we will get on just fine! But charm me first and begin to harm me later, then you will have opened a chocking can of tasteless, deceptive, and untrustworthy worms. That’s what democracy has sometimes come to mean in the world where candidates engage in a charm offensive making several sexy promises (not literally) and then going back on their words or simply planning to do something totally different.

Don’t blame the apathetic public that naturally has become weary of the charms of the likes of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump in the US long drawn electoral process, or the crisscrossing of the world by the Egyptian president Adbel Fattah el-Sisi or the Presidency-demystifier Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya for whom Swipel will devote the rest of this blog.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has enjoyed the trappings of success from birth. Son and heir to his father Jomo Kenyatta, an ex-president and founding father of the Kenyan nation, Uhuru Kenyatta is one of the wealthiest men in Africa. Despite being born with a silver spoon in his mouth, this University of Massachussetts Amherst graduate has had to work hard to study at that level. He seems to have a vision; he is eloquent; and someone whose people-oriented approach has demystified and therefore humanised the presidency.

‘Will he or won’t he stand trial at The Hague for the country’s post electoral violence some years back’ has always been hanging over him and that matter was settled when the ICC dropped the case against him. That aside, the spotlight of the recent visit by the US president Obama to his father’s home land has certainly rubbed off on president Uhuru who was already basking in a good dose of popularity given his hands-on approach not only inside Kenya but also with regional matters in Burundi and South Sudan though with varying degrees of success.

In yet another normalising move, a casually dressed up President Kenyatta made an endearing Church appearance catching other worshippers on the coastal city of Mombasa by surprise . As if to say, ‘I’m the same as you all in the eyes of the Lord’ (full story here). Just a few days ago, he used his twitter account to relay his message asking each and every citizen to think about ways Kenya can further the dreams of the country’s forefathers. How charming! Then it’s the Kenyan government reportedly seeking to curb the powers of the attorney general who has just found out that only 1.2% of the US $ 10 billion, yes 1.2% of the $10 billion of the defence budget, was lawfully spent (Click here for full story). As if to say, some members of my government and I are not the same as the rest of you in the eyes of the law. How harming!

Tafdhali, tafdhali, tafdhali (Swahili for please, please, please) ask President Kenyatta to come out and clarify, set the transparency record straight and reassure the public that it is part of the dream of the Kenyan forefathers that budgets of state services are accounted for. Swipel would take this opportunity to remind its readers that the Kenyan dream is also an African dream that you can read about by clicking here.

Is Le-sotho becoming Burn-sotho?

Even a baby being encircled by its mother’s womb won’t do to guarantee its safety! Oh well, maybe the womb has that effect of shielding us from harm but that’s only if you are a baby. Lesotho is not a baby country and South Africa is not the mother country either. But the former is landlocked and encircled by the latter which might make one think, albeit naively, that the envelope’s privacy and safety are guaranteed when it’s sealed off. Well think twice!

South Africa’s pregnancy that is Lesotho doesn’t do twins, triplets, etc., but a whopping over 2 million people enjoy excess watery veins, vast grazing land and abundant agricultural produce. A few minerals under its belt and you have this heavily pregnant lady peaking to add further joys to the rest of Africa.

No, no, no, Le-sotho seems to have chosen a different course of actions, that of Burn-sotho instead, and send its land and people up in smoke. What should be Africa’s hideout under the gaze of beautiful mountains is becoming a frying pan that’s making its citizens crispy hot in fear for their lives.

Led by already Prime Minister for 12 years up to 2012, Pakalitha Mosisili has been in office again since March 2015. The coalition governments since 2012 only resulted in acute political rivalry and intolerance that continue to grip Burn-sotho to the point that assassinations and violence have become all too common.

From the giant (land wise) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the miniscule (land wise) of Lesotho tensions run high and the old argument that countries become ungovernable because of their size seems redundant now. Organisation seems to be what is lacking here; and even beyond that, men and women of good faith and integrity are what Lesotho needs right now. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) led by South Africa will of course step up efforts to restore some sense of normality, after all some of those countries stand to lose in the transport, water projects and many more that Lesotho can offer.

Whatever happens, Basotho just need to remember that the fear that you feel now will only increase if you fear more. And to those holding power, the power you retain now will only slip away when you seek to retain more of it at all costs. Swipel recommends Ubuntu leadership and citizenship! Click here to read what Swipel thinks are the terms of that Ubuntu leadership and citizenship.

Blowing a borrowed horn!

In the horn of Africa sits a country called Ethiopia that is on a perilous course of actions that only transparency will determine whether it was worth it after all.

This landlocked nation with a population of above 94 million people is currently run by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who assumed power since 2012. With a history of conflicts with its neighbours such as Somalia and Eritrea, the country has also enjoyed world sympathy especially after the famine that ravaged the nation resulting into the Live Aid concerts organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1985.

The country is slowly gaining the respect of a few observers thanks to some visible improvements in transport and education infrastructure. That said; Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations located in the poorest region, which is Sub Saharan Africa, on earth. It is heavily dependent on outside financial help to provide basic services to its citizens. Raking over £300 million in aid from the British government this year, the country has raised some eyebrows in the way that it has chosen to spend its resources. It is spending $3 million on a space programme to allegedly improve its farming projects.

The reason advanced seems quite visionary in terms of its long term oversight to ensure that the country is self-sufficient and no longer dependent on aid. But common sense still wonders how a country with urgent immediate needs could blow a borrowed horn in such a way while people are dying of hunger and lack of basic healthcare somewhere in the country side!

One can either go up in arms about it or sit back and trust that the leaders and citizens of this sovereign country that is Ethiopia will deliver on their promises. Swipel reckons the best way to proceed is to demand transparency. Ethiopians need to demand transparent processes, its not-so-friendly neighbours need to demand transparency and tax payers of donor-nations need an account of how well their money is being spent to avoid the blown horn goes out of tune!

 

Getting swollen by a black hole?

Not science fiction! The universe we living in has a black hole which sucks countless information never to be recovered by us. To that, the acclaimed physicist Prof Steven Hawkins says ‘if you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up. There is a way out’ (25/08/2015 the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden). He was of course referring to the strong possibility that things sucked into the black hole have a life in a completely alternative universe.

Swipel will stop short of using the brains of such a high ranking scientist to convince doubters of something called heaven or afterlife. After all, that alternative universe has not been proven, YET.

But doesn’t it ring true with life in general? That sometimes you have to take a plunge deep down the hades (some kind of black hole) for you to bounce up to the firmament (an alternative universe)! The time we take from the plunge to the bounce varies from one person to another too; and that we often pick up on how quick or slow one has transitioned with statements like ‘I’m at ease with it’ (US President Jimmy Carter reporting about his recent health situation) or ‘it has been a long journey…’ (from friends, family we have met and strangers we never will see). Was Prof Hawkins indeed using his lecture on a serious point about the scientific universe as a metaphor to make an equally serious point about his own personal experience of plunge and bounce?

Whether the story ends the way to wish or not, whether it conforms to some cultural agreed standards that we have picked form birth, I guess Prof Steven Hawkins remarks is a reminder to us all that there is an alternative purpose to living, and that there is an alternative bounce that we can experience whether that for you is…cherishing your loved ones, doing something new, mending a broken relationship or closing that page, …

…easier said than done I know but when and how we get to that alternative bounce as long as we don’t make it the norm for everybody…then getting swollen by a black hole is just a transition point to the alternative bounce/alternative purpose to life.

(Click on the small pop up at the bottom of your screen that says ‘follow’, enter your e-mail address to receive e-mail alerts when a new post comes on)

Too little too late but do it anyway!

Imagine a rule that wasn’t broken by you; it wasn’t even broken in your own time; and that the location the rule was broken seems a very long distance away from where you think you originate. And yet you are the one that is expected to step up and apologise for the breaking of that rule. Politicians do it and now the Catholic Church can’t stop doing it. The most recent one is that of the head of Scottish episcopal conference, apologising to the victims of child abuse cases that he qualified were ‘criminal and sinful’. Now, why on earth apologise?

It’s exactly because of the human tendency to connect with and share, though not absolutely, in the pain of the victims. ‘Too little too late’, ‘hollow apology’ would be some people’s reactions but not doing it would only highlight an institution’s indifference to the dehumanisation of the lives they have always claimed to serve. It is therefore better to apologise than not.

But one should not dismiss the views of sceptics especially when the abuse reports, though reported on a grand scale by the media thanks to the courage of some victims to step forward, did not go unnoticed by those in positions of power. Many in the Church hierarchy then overlooked/covered up the pain of these victims presumably in fear that it would tarnish the reputation of the holy institution (Church). This is where the resounding bells of apologies that are acknowledged by ‘us all’ should not only be a way of putting the victims at ease in order to redeem the institution. Instead, it should be a reminder to all the other leaders of the (Catholic) Church or other religious organisations in Scotland and elsewhere to publicly own up to various misdeeds and draw a line in the sand.

The Church here is being called to be a ‘repentant’ Church first for it to regain its ‘Holy’ Church status. Unfortunately, this has been viewed as either a ‘Western’ or even a ‘white’ problem when in fact ‘abuses’ come in many kinds and magnitudes.

The courage of Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow and of course of the Catholic hierarchy right up to Pope Francis must be commended. But other fellow Bishops and Archbishops in other parts of the world such as Africa have conspicuously been silent which only reinforces the assertion made in the previous paragraph: that abuse is a foreign problem.

Could they be sitting on many abuse cases that are making the Catholic Church lose credibility in Africa and partly the cause of the mushrooming of several sects full of disaffected believers from the main Christian Churches? Swipel suspects so and if the Church has anything to learn from the string of apologies beyond sharing in the pain of victims is when you wait to apologise only when an inquisitive media and courageous victims would not let you hide it any longer, no wonder some would respond to the apologies with: ‘too little too late’!

For an institution that has confession as one of its sacraments where it expects believers to repent as a matter of principle before they are caught out, it is time for the institution itself to show leadership and preach by example. Swipel is therefore calling for a date on the Church’s calendar to be put aside as the Church’s repentance day. That would allow Church leaders to come clean on whatever abuse has come to their attention on a regular basis and reassure the faithful on what is being done. Without that level of transparency, trust could seem an allusive commodity.

 

Early stats

Since its launch early this month, Swipel has cut across 19 countries worldwide from US through UAE to Australia and from Finland through Rwanda to South Africa. We are grateful and hope that new and old followers will like, share, talk about and even challenge the points raised. Part of Swipel’s appeal is the commitment to offer a unique, clear and perhaps comprehensive commentary on current as well as age old topical subjects. Soon to appear is Swipel’s take on yet another apology from a high ranking Scottish Catholic Bishop about child sex abuse cases.

You are welcome unless of course you are a Muslim!

Sounds strange? But that’s exactly what the Slovakians, according to ‘Foreign Policy’ (think tank) report, are saying is the country’s goodwill gesture to the migrant crisis irrespective of human moral code, basic human rights enshrined in the UN charters, not to say irrespective of the basic sense of logic.

Let’s put it in another way, ‘you are welcome to help yourself to these cookies unless you are not hungry’. Confused? You may not be but I myself am. But just think of it a little: feeling hungry is an inside feeling that one can decide to exteriorise by moving their arms (or not) to reach to the jar or bowl full of cookies. Religion or faith is similar. The clothes we wear; the songs we riff; and the food we eat only come as a way of expressing an inward belief. In the order of needs, we are capable of making an internal reshuffle and exteriorise what is of prime importance at one given time in a given location.

First, a run-away migrant will not carry an identification card and if they did, it will be destroyed on hearing that will be held against him/her; he/she can buy your typical Slovakian shirt and trousers to fit in and from a perspective of human adaptability, the Slovakian approach seems bafflingly ludicrous.

Second, those major incidents of terrorism, that have attracted the world’s attention, have been so indiscriminate that even Muslims have been and continue to be victims in what appears to be a cycle of violence opposing one brand of Islam against another in Syria, Iraq and many other parts. So, to suggest that the DNA of a Muslim is intrinsically terror-making is out of touch, fear-mongering and heartless. It simply fans the flames it seeks to extinguish!

Third, it also proves that Slovakia, a country full of migrant people (according to the history of settlements in present day Slovakia), is not honest enough to recognise its travelling past for one reason or other and respond to this issue in a fair, reasonable and measured way.

Swipel seeks not to absolve extremism of any kind, whether it is from terrorist organisation intent of maximising casualties, whether in Bangkok or Pakistan, or a state, according to the Foreign Policy report, that seeks to tar all people with the same brush.

Just imagine how it would sound/feel like if someone/business/country said ‘you are welcome unless you are black, white, yellow, French, Slovak, etc?’

‘HELL’ IS THE ONLY WAY TO ‘HEAVEN’

We often put on a brave face and sometimes rationalise the world we live in by assuming, hoping and believing that ‘good actions will lead to good outcomes’. And so the religious man/woman and the wise person around us would advise us with words like ‘the only way to love is through love’ and then sacred texts are cited to hammer in the message of ‘be good here to reap the rewards in the hereafter’.

Now if we bracketed the ‘hereafter’ (the heavenly world) and simply looked at the ‘here’ (the mundane world), sometimes the only way to love is NOT through love, hell is indeed the only way to Heaven. The above picture, that would be the focus next, has just come to Swipel’s attention. For the residents of Ojola in the heart of Luo land/Western Kenya, the story behind this picture illustrates just why ‘hell is the only way to heaven’.

In an increasingly deteriorating state, the residents and especially the motorbike taxies went to see the authorities from the head of the ward to the constituency’s Member of Parliament (MP). They were met with promises that would never materialise and in the process they discovered that the road could have been done long ago had it not been because of some unethical practices by local politicians.

Fed up and angered, the motorbike taxi drivers armed themselves with spades, hoes etc., and dug up the road from both ends leaving a small path in the middle for their two wheeled vehicles and those legging it. Luckily for them, the non-repressive authorities did not cite (number 123456789-Swipel’s invention) country’s law against vandalism to hunt the road diggers down and lock them up. The inconvenience it caused to the 4 wheel driver of Sir and Madame somebody did prompt some action. They took the hint and now have announced that they will upgrade the infrastructure in the area. ‘HELL IS THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN!’

Now, is that the way ahead? What is the story out there?

‘Youth’ is the new ‘Old’

When a crowd of youths was asked ‘who is part of the youth?’ Me, me, me were the replies. When asked individually ‘how old are you?’ the age spectrum ranged rather from “I’m 14, I’m 22, I’m 34 and I’m 66 but young at heart”

Now you see, there are those who claim the title ‘youth’ on the grounds of the small mathematical number since they were born and others who would defend the season’s title on the basis of their refreshing, un-downputable and vigorous character and nature. And there is a reason Swipel has chosen to post this blog just a day after the International Day for youths. It’s to point to the simple fact that the clock started ticking since yesterday and that you may not be mathematically that young anymore. What might be important is for us to wake up refreshed for the next day and life of youthfulness.

There is country in the world where over 60% of its population is made up of youths aged between 24 and 35. Let’s say the other 30% is for the people below 24 and 10% for those above 35. That’s worrying you might say and you are right. But it also goes to show that for some, youthfulness is the new old age and vice versa. Ideally though, we would all want our physical environment to be so good which would make our spirited youthfulness last as long as possible. True!

And a good starting place would be to reflect and share our thoughts on two key questions: ‘Does our environment have to be brilliant to feel youthful or do we have to have a youthful spirit that would push us to improve our environment?’ and ‘what are you and others out there doing about it?’

Just how ‘indigenous’ are you?

In the previous blog ‘From Diaspora to Slavepora’, it was suggested that we are all migrant races. As a reminder, what that means is that we have all moved either individually or as a race away from the place that most people would associate us with. That movement is accentuated by globalisation today which makes it plausible to suggest that we haven’t only moved geographically but also in terms of language, culture, food, music and you name it.

And yet Sunday 9^th August 2015 is the International Day of the world’s indigenous people and we just need to pause for a moment and absorb what the word ‘indigenous’ means. Some variations of the word point to the meaning of ‘native’ and ‘original’. Now contrast this understanding with the idea that we are races ‘on the move’ then you begin to wonder ‘just how indigenous are you?’

Swipel is in favour of people affirming their identities that we believe are no longer purely native and original but on the move albeit at varying degrees. With little knowledge about the Australian Aboriginal people, let us comment about the African Pigmies that some might claim to be natives and indigenous people. They too, it is argued, are semi-nomadic (Rozzi and Sardi 2010) and are increasingly coming into contact with other people’s culture which is bound to affect them somehow.

Leading up to the 2015 general election in England, a country that is made up of people that migrated from different parts (Celts, Picts, Angles, Romans, Jutes, Normans, Saxons, Vikings, Jewish descent following WWII, commonwealth, refugees, migrant workers) at different times, there were incidents where some political party figures were not deemed ‘indigenous’ enough (Wintour 2014). Clearly here, the longest occupants become the indigenous, the native and the original forgetting that they once moved either geographically or culturally.

It will therefore not come as a surprise that Swipel would be calling for a rethink of ‘indigenous’ which can no longer be defended as ‘original’ or ‘native’ as such a term has become more divisive and used to discriminate. Share your views!

References

Rozzi F & Sardi M (2010) Diversity among African Pigmies, In PLOS One, 5, 10,

Wintour, Patrick 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/24/ukip-member-broadcast-suspended-racist-tweets