Life Tracking Events

When the Trumpet of Change is blown, dear Kenyans, do not be left behind

2009-05-18T13:47:00.001+01:00

I read with a bit of amusement as one my facebook friend updated his status congratulating Mr. Rajoelina of Madagascar after taking power through the back door. Another closer friend made a more worrying comment, encouraging any of our DJ’s back home, including DJ Simple Simon, to also come forward and redeem the people.

This has pushed me to think about the plight of the Kenyan electorate, I am including myself in this case. Kenyans elect their parliamentarians today and tomorrow we lift up banners and burn effigies demonizing them.

The major question that we good Kenyans and respected members of electorate need to ask ourselves is why we elect the same same people who have caused earlier problems.

I come from Limuru and despite our mistakes with George Nyanja , Kuria Kanyingi and now Simon Mwathi, we tend to change them (MP’s ) with years, definitely going for individuals rather than what they promise. Big problem probably, is that we end up on the opposition or government back benches and therefore no sort of developments come under our way. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am not complaining, Limuru shall definitely change, what I am more worried about is the whole of Kenya, the very many parts that make up the sum of the whole.

I would like to propose to the incoming leaders, aspiring ones, to seek to form groups, i.e. community level groups that will educate the public on what to look for when it comes to good leadership and governance. We should try to teach people to think with their brains and not through their stomachs. I understand times are hard but we can help redeem them by creating awareness and looking forward for better leadership.

When the trumpet sounds, dear readers, the young Kenyans, should not let it burn, at a time like this when most of our peers have young children, other’s with kids way up in school and others aspiring to have families, I support that we unite and do away with impunity, We should be the voice of change, we should be able to make a good future for the young ones, its us that the constitution really bounds and hence we should push for its implementation and institutions that work.

I do not encourage unconstitutional government changes, but the will of the people should prevail, we as Kenyans should observe keenly the August house and most of the leaders engaged in corruption and deals which are non benefiting to the mwananchi should done away with.

To borrow a friend’s phrase, my name is Jonathan Mwaura and I am a Kenyan.

On war in Gaza

2009-01-07T21:29:00.001Z

No, No, I don’t like this killings going on in Gaza, even in the name of self defense, it has an acrid distaste in my mouth. Probably having experienced death of a loved one, I don’t like death all together, yet I don’t hate it, how can I hate death when it takes suffering and pain away so very well, yet in itself leaves an emptiness, sorrow and revenge. The Zionist are wrong this time, but I am not at all speaking for the Hamas, all radical terrorisms activities are wrong in just and civilized societies, Hamas should be stopped from firing rockets and whatnots to Israelites houses, its wrong, its barbaric and denies women and children and men good and secure living.

Yet having said that I am bound by humanity to say that the killing of the innocent lives happening in Gaza is wrong, the destruction of lives, putting young children in danger and denying them of their childhood. This sort of thing happening only creates fear, revenge, distress and bad neighborliness for tomorrow, when the war is over, this same young generation will seek revenge and more destruction will come.

I watched last night as the UN security debated about having a truce on the war, people need peace, humanitarian aid has be to allowed to pass. Denying innocent lives a passage to places where they can be safe is sad and sadistic. The border crossing has to be opened up for the people of Palestine, for not opening them is akin to watching a house burn while the occupant are inside, The innocent have to be allowed passage to secure refuge in West bank , in Jordan and in Egypt, I do agree that a lot of interviews would need to be carried out to stop the combatant and terrorist from escaping as they would need to face justice but its only fair that the innocent civilian, the elderly to be allowed to seek safe passage.

I do not want to retaliate what so many people have talked about or what we have all read about but the destruction is wrong, the occupation is wrong, the Palestine should be allowed a right to life just as Israelites have, their livelihood is essential just as everyone of us. I feel that the UN Security Council has taken so long, for ten days is such a long time and so many lives could have been spared if the situation was contained.

I seek to ask every one to think deeply and to talk their leaders about the need for the war to stop. The world desires peace. The British secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr. David Miliband spoke very well, condemning Hamas yet not removing an iota of blame from the Israelites, yet on the other hand, the US Secretary of State spoke for the Israelites as if not feeling that innocent lives are being lost. I feel that for USA to be a true leader of democracy and justice should try to govern from right and from left, not appearing to favour for the agitator can easily be seen from all corners.

Citizens of the world should raise their voices, let no more lives be lost in unjust war.

Jonathan Mwaura

Exeter,UK

The beauty of the Giver

2008-05-08T01:17:00.003+01:00

Wondering about the natural light today and the beautiful daffodils, blossoming flowers, greener than green trees and the wonderful hills covered by green grass, I silently thanked providence and wondered about the god of rain, and of fertility and of everything that grows, lives , reproduces for its own continuity and then dies off to allow its offspring’s to prosper. It’s within sudden thought of the death of organisms that nagged me deep to want to write.

What are the gods that I refer to, the god that sets the laws that organisms will wither and die off for the prosperity and the continuity of their very own offspring’s, to the trained eye, one can marvel the wonders of mother nature. Because of all gods worth of remembrance and possibly creating a holiday for, Nature should be one, its nature that gives all that is and takes not, yet continues with a certain blessedness of a giver to give in bounty to its own. For we are all one with nature, nature as we perceive it exists because we do, that does not mean that nature is primarily there because we are, I am referring to our perception, which gives rise to what we feel and what makes mother nature what she is. With this thought in mind, it therefore means that our kind of nature cannot exists without us and vice-versa, the truth being we are ONE, this I believe was the key words of Jesus and should be acknowledged within Christendom, that we are ONE with God, whatever god someone subscribes to. This god, mine could be natural laws ,gives all and gives with some beauty that we can all marvel and stand in awe.

But perhaps I digress from the topic, we need to think about the beauty of the human giver, why are human beings inclined to give to fellow human beings, when the cyclone hits Myanmar and though a country with dictatorial rule, and of-course, not favored by the USA, why does the governments rise beyond all bickering and support their very own human race, It has dawned to me in the words of Khalil Gibran, in the Prophet;

I paraphrase key areas that humans should emulate

“You give but little when you give of your possessions.

It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?

And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?

And what is fear of need but need itself?”

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“It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;

And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving

And is there aught you would withhold?

All you have shall some day be given;

Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.

You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving."

The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.

They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.

Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.

And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?

And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.

Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;

For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father. ”

Go give and em-better your survival…Have a wonderful life!

The sin of Racism!

2008-05-05T04:06:00.000+01:00

Tonight my friend, Kariuki, and I went out to time piece, in Exeter, this club is fantastic and I think it should be honored as the International club of Exeter.

Tonight a band from Cameroun were playing, basically most of the music is Congolese or maybe I couldn’t tell the difference, we danced all through and for the seven months I have stayed in England, this I would say was my best night till something really bad happened. I am trying to recollect and write down the story.

We left the club and as we walked Kariuki was telling me the way Exeter has classy residents, who mind their fun with no regard to whoever is there or whatever they do..I cant even remember what his reasons for the statements was but I thought since we had a ten minutes walk to our residence, as an African man , he would tell me what he meant within his own time, I just love the way African men are not hurried, they say things when they are comfortable about it.

Now, going to the story, when we were about to cross the road, I saw a beautiful gal and well it being 2.30am in the morning and her walking like a model, I thought, why not? a lil flirt never hurts, so I asked her whether she considered modeling as a career, to which she said that she wasn’t so skinny to model, and that of-course was enough to make her stop and talk to me. So we started flirting and her telling me she is a combination of Scottish, Russian and English and that she was learning Russian. Then it happened, Kariuki had thought about it and new one day, just one day it would happen! Some white folks traveling in sports car threw rotten eggs at us and hit Kariuki at the eye, nose, shoulders and all, the eye became wet and very red and he started nose bleeding, I had to wipe him and good young Lady, gave him a hug to comfort him.

When I arrived at my residence, the door couldn’t open and stayed outside for about twenty minutes, then I spotted some-one’s light on and decided to ask them for help. It was a young lady from Thailand and a lad from China; they let me stay in the house till the estate patrol would come in to check the codes for my residence. The most important thing to note is that this two people have never seen me before but for the reason that I am a human being whether black or not, they asked me in to the place, asked me to warm by their gas and gave me stories as we waited. They used their phones to call the patrols and the only thing I had to do was to wait. What a wonderful lot. I narrated to them the story of my friend and they were so annoyed and hurt by the incidence.

I have learnt therefore, that human beings choose what to do and its our own actions that defines racism and what we do to others, the young lady form Thailand and the young man from China, could have just let me stay outside in the cold and wait and I would never hold them accountable for anything, but being so full of humanity they helped me. The English folks could have just driven by as we weren’t even concerned with them, but again they chose the other way, to show they are white and we are black or people of colour as they say. It was bad and I hope every person can see that. We all can choose to hearken to Bob Marley’s call, “Let’s get together and be alright!” rejecting all manner of racism or racism inclined behaviors, but again we are in England. The only thing that gives me peace of mind is that quite a number of people who have evolved their humane perspective of the world, reject racism and fight for the oneness of the human race.

Peace to All!

ANYTHING, NOTHING, AND SOMETHING

2008-04-03T21:55:00.000+01:00

Some days back, a close friend reminded me that I hadn’t written for a long time. The good ol’ me went ahead to inquire whether there was certain issues, this famed ally, wanted me to address in the blog. Luckily she went dumb and then said, anything, I raised my brow and she said again, Jo, write about anything.

So I figured that I should actually write about anything, lets start, what’s anything, well that could be the hardest word to describe in the English vocabulary, why you might ask, because there is no way you can afford to omit the word ‘any’ in the definition or repeating subsections of the word, my English teacher taught me that when defining words one should not repeat the same words. Oxford English Dictionary describes anything as a pronoun which means then that anything is a thing of any kind, no matter what, that’s very lame right! And it actually confuses me and makes me doubt my English teacher’s wisdom. In this light; it’s not worth for us to write about. Probably we shouldn’t go into description of what a thing is, I am sure to lose you to the argument on what a thing should not entail.

To satisfy my close-to- heart friend I qualified that nothing as well as something is actually anything, so I decided, why not? I should write about nothing, but again what’s nothing? In my junior years, I would shout that its absence of a thing, someone is laughing, so what exactly would you say a person who says that s/he believes in nothing, actually believes in? This is driven by the idea that vacuum cannot exists, meaning that a believer of nothing, is actually believing in something? Quite a jargon of words , but what does the famous Oxford dictionary say about nothing, well this word is either a pronoun meaning not anything or something of no importance or nought but the word can also be used as an adverb to mean not at all, I bet you will agree with me that there is no crazier language than English on this one, so Nothing is Not anything but is definitely something of no importance, of course the importance part of anything or something should be seen in its own context. In this kind of thought, I am figuring that my lovely friend wants me to write about a thing of importance that would benefit you my blog reader as well as let her heart be full of joy and bliss. So Probably I thought that I should write about something.

Well, my dear reader, we will talk about something; to get us going, we might need to know what something entails so that we do not end up writing about anything or more vaguely and probably worse, about nothing. Well, the good dictionary describes something as both a pronoun and an adverb, the adverb is quite informal, and so we will ignore the adverb and see what the pronoun says. Something as a pronoun would mean unspecified or unknown thing or unspecified or unknown amount or degree. Well that’s so many words but they all mean what we all know, that if we were to write about something without any other qualifying noun, then we should write about anything which according to its definition cannot guarantee us safe passage to any formal thing and as well it could mean that we should talk about nothing. This is because for all the three we need to speak about a thing which is an unspecified object or could even be an activity.

This means, you dear reader, that after considering all this, I chose not to write and hence I have not written the article, because if I wrote, what would you say I wrote about? And why?

Have a great day, won’t you?

A visit to the Dartmoor Park

2008-02-24T18:55:00.002Z

Today looks like a superb day to write yet another blog.

One of my favorite activity is to hike, hikers normally travel a lot...hadn't actually thought that if you travel as a hobby then you more or less has the tendency to hike.

So after the service today, the priest mentioned that there would be a hike to the Dart moor park off in the country side. Being one of those people, not to be left out in a thrill, I decide why not...of-course to the neglect of my calculus reading, which means, I will spend the whole night recovering.

The trip was worthy it though parks in the sense of England is actually nature trails as compared to Kenya where a park will be full of animals and scenic beauty to gape at. We saw a deer, well that was good..piece of wild life ..u might retort. Other animals present were the sheep..oh God and two girls in the party sang Berber Black sheep..have u any wool.....reminds me of my kindergarten classes.Dart moor as I learnt through a friend has a huge history behind it that stretches back to the 12th century...yes through the Medieval times and stone age. Someone can actually see the trenches dug when those people mined tin and I believe just as Cornwall, there is lots of tin ore buried in the surface...too bad the demand is so low now that they had to close. I have to commend the council and the National Park commission for the effort in maintaining the park. Consider visiting http://www.devon-online.com/towns/dartmoor/Welcome.html

To crown the walk ...we had cream n tea...that was nice..though I am certain that it wasn't worth the price ..not at all..and u dear reader..don't conjure a picture that I am a miser, Its only that England is expensive on what would be considered cheap things in life.

I am back home to do justice to the calculus text and see whether life can be rebuild...

Who makes what Decisions?

2008-02-24T10:25:00.002Z

I think its always fun to work in a pub or a discotheque, particularly if your work involves mingling among the patrons and taking their photos.

Well, I do not say this Particular because of the many kisses that u end up receiving, numerous phone exchanges and all, but you end up learning more and more on who in a couple makes decision on most matters.

I have been working at Arena, a club in Exeter, UK and my work, done on weekends involve taking pictures and processing them for clients. What I have learned so far is the girls, or a wife, in case of married couples makes a decision whether the picture will be bought or not. Well, men are known to please the other sex, but am talking of a different thing all together, in this case, men are bulldozed either to buy or not, even while they are interested or otherwise. I am really sorry for the young English folks coming up. This learning has of-course led me to be a good business person, knowing who to approach, but its always hard, coz where I come from, men call the shot!! quite a contradiction or maybe this is the culture shock I never hard when I came to Europe.
Last night was terrific, always up and down and well...I am getting involved with my life..as never before.