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Showing posts from 2011

Why South Africa should deliver that world hope

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South Africa must be the luckiest country on planet during the current global financial upheavals.It is hosting the Conference of the Parties(Climate Summit 2011) in Durban,barely a year after hosting  a successful World Cup last year.Earlier this year,SA was invited to join the emerging economies club usually known as BRIC(Brazil,Russia,India and China).Well,perhaps this was an informal motive of having an African representative on board,and when it comes to Africa's voice,no one does it better than this powerful African Nation.But it goes without saying that Africa is not treated as  a continent,but as  a country.This is ridiculous.Africa is  a continent with 56 Countries and one size does not fit all;having a single mouth piece is not doing her any good. So,the Summit will be revisiting the Kyoto protocol which was passed almost 20 years ago in Kyoto,Japan.The treaty has a commitment of wealthy countries to cut their carbon emissions by 5 per cent since the 1990s to next year

Imagine there is no pizza

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I am not a great pizza consumer neither am i one of its greatest fan ,but once in a while,i do try one at Pizza Hut's especially when there is a 'buy one get one free' promotion.I am a lover of freebies especially if whatever is at stake can make me save a few euros to see me through the month. I am not worried about my pizza unconsumption,but if what the Grandfather pizza guru cum Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain says is something to go by,i think i will advise my man to consume more of pizza. This is what he had to say; “The more toppings a man has on his pizza, I believe the more manly he is, because the more manly man is not afraid of abundance.” “A manly man don't want it piled high with vegetables! He would call that a sissy pizza.” Now this guy has not only a passion for pizza, but also a penchant for women.Just a few days after declaring his interest of occupying the White House,Cain has been accused of  sexual harassment by five women,the sixth

Parenting;What we are never told.

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Chambon -sur-Lignon,Haute -Loire, France Agnes Marin,a 13 year old College student at an Elite Protestant French College had a great vision for a bright future.Described by her college mates as warm,sociable,kind,bold,intelligent and  hard-working,Agnes wanted to become a FilmMaker.But that was never to be;her young life and ambitions were cut short on wednesday 16th Nov 2011 by a 17 year old student,Mathieu,who was in the same college.It was only two days later after an intensive search that her lifeless body was found in a thicket.It was actually Mathieu who led the anticrime squad to the scene of crime,and confessed to having murdered Agnes.It was all clear now;he had first raped her before killing her and setting her body ablaze. Loreto Convent Msongari ,Lavington,Nairobi 29th July 2011 was a fateful day in the life of this prestigious,well reputed learning institution.About 80 pupils that were travelling to what was supposed to have been a great excursion in Samburu w

Our House/Home Bubble, the Kenyan dream,has been shattered

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Kenyans are known for their hard work and determination towards  prosperity.They believe that success is determined by an individual's ability and achievement,a clear indication why many school mottos stress on hard work  and success.It is for these reasons why many struggle towards attaining a better and richer life by seizing any viable opportunity. The country also has a high number of self made millionaires,who,surprisingly started from very humble beginnings.These millionaires,mainly businessmen the likes of Njenga Karume,Chris Kirubi,S.K Macharia amongst many  have inspiring stories that are sought after and true to this,a lot of self made entrepreneurs have been born and are doing great. Why many Kenyan struggle to achieve can therefore be attributed to their backgrounds,the humble backgrounds where you grew up seeing others living a good life in big houses,and therefore kept saying 'when i grow up,i will build a house like that one of Mr so and so'.Some people

Digital Footprints;A Looming Danger or Advantage?

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Recently,i received inboxes from my virtual friends on Facebook inquiring about a message i had supposedly sent to them.Many were as furious,giving rude feedbacks about the unintended message,but none dared tell me what the context of the message was.The thing is,i never at any time inboxed anyone on anything whatsoever,not to the best of my knowledge.Apparently,i am the only one privy to my password,and i have a habit of opening mails on my laptop only,almost all the time.How the hackers got privy of my Facebook account and details of my friends still remains a querry,but to say the least,i am getting concerned by the rate at which this internet technology is making and breaking the world at the same time. Every internet consumer can bear me witness of having been at one a time  a victim of this hacking business;and it even gets worse when a sexual video of yourself is circulated to all your friends.This is especially dangerous since some of us have our bosses,parents,children, spou

Happy Birthday Kenyan CEO

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Kenyans are really wonderful people.Besides boasting of one of the best well educated human capital in Africa,we also have probably the best innovative and smart brains.As i have mentioned earlier in my blogs,many Kenyans have been working with genius Companies such as Apple and not forgetting one of our own,Liz Mucheru who almost made it on the Apprentice Today,our funny,somehow laid back President is turning 80,and what has Kenyans done?The have composed him a birthday song or poem or whatever they may call it.This poem has been doing rounds on the web since this  afternoon,and it has a full message that Ubako should receive on such a day.If you haven't seen it,here it goes; Happy Birthday Mwai Kibaki may you live to blow 1001 candles. too bad we can't bake you a cake, the gas is finished n price doubled too bad we can't cook you stew, kerosene imepanda mbaya too bad we can't come visit, the fare just got hiked, too bad we can't call you, calling rates zi

Confucius Confusion

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I am not afraid when i am not understood,but i would be very worried if i did not understand others . Confucius 551-479 BCE I always make this joke that just 10 years ago,American parents wanting to motivate their children to eat would tell them, Darling,finish your plate because if you dont,a child from India/China will take it , Today,the same parents  are telling their children, Please Darling stick to your job because if you do not,someone in China is waiting to take it . How things change.  Currently  in my Campus, 60% of International students are from China,and about 12% from the rest of Asia.I am pretty sure that less than five years from today,the College will  purely have a Chinese population,not here to study Science,but Business Courses and learning foreign languages. I have not been to China but from the little i have gathered from my Chinese Collegemates, very few foreigners dare do their studies in China,not even a semester on Exchange is attractive enough to woo you

Jobs Genius Saw Him Design Almost Everything ( High Tech,)But Not A Mother

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Either, the brains behind Apple is Kenyan or Steve Jobs was a 'Kenyan at heart with a foreign face'.Why i say so is due to Apple's love for Swahili words;Its number one browser takes the name 'Safari' which means ' An overland journey by hunters (especially in Africa).Its newest Application in form of ' a personal assistant' who  lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more is called 'Siri',again a Swahili word meaning 'Secret'.Well,it could have some other origins as well,eg Scandinivanian where Siri means 'beautiful and victorious' or in India where  Siri is a girl's name meaning 'God's gift of love' .Whatever the origin,it still  is amazing why it had to be a Swahili name,once more. This prompted me to study a bit of Jobs life.This man who was known as 'a mad perfectionist' was not what we may think he was.With all the money and the genius  of designing prod

Good Leadership:Kenya's Solution

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Our Country seems to be having a myriad of problems,from poor planning, poor management,lack of respect for one another, poor communication to lack of honesty. Good leaders are those who lead by example,bearing in mind that example is not the main thing in influencing others;it is the ONLY thing.They also know that they cannot lead their followers any further than they have gone themselves,therefore they are more careful and concerned with every action or deed.Good leaders will also focus on creating more leaders,not followers.They are also traders;they trade hope. Bad leadership is what is causing us all this trouble;it is not about our economy being shattered,not about the Kenyan shilling losing value.It is all about our value system.Thesaurus dictionary defines value system as " the principles of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group. Most of these values are traditionally adopted from families,social institutions or from communities we g

All good men are taken-Where will i get one?

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I have heard many men say to women that there is no formula or trick to find the right man.Men further site the greatest weakness in women of putting the agenda before the man;by wanting to get married before even finding a man.They argue that women should not even think of finding a man,leave alone dreaming about one since we are so indecisive to make the right choice.We are so overcome by fear of picking the 'wrong one',so,men think,and even quote the Bible;It is a man that findeth a woman,and not the other way round. Women on the other hand are  busy doing what the men say we shouldn't do;finding for the right one.In cases where they didn't find 'the right one',women will take to Murphy's Laws of Love,those that go further to give reasons of why it is not possible to find a good man."All good men are either taken or gay" is one of these Laws that women have added to their Love Commandments. Before you add one more of Murphy's Laws of Love

Weak Shilling:Perhaps We need a Layman's Approach,

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I have been following the debate about the Kenyan economy keenly albeit my limited economic know-how.Perhaps I am more concerned with the duration that it has taken to solve this problem,given the CEO of the country is an economist himself. The man who is entitled with the responsibility of maintaining Consumer & Investor Index  at CBK doesn't seem bothered neither;i have watched him smile and fidget with his seat as he talks about the weakening shilling.I think i am more in love with his dimples than with his approach towards this crisis. But what exactly could have caused this almost hyper-inflation?  If we define the Inflation in Kenya as a general rise in price levels of goods & services,what caused it then?Let us try to look at some causes of inflation. 1.Change in Value of production of goods. Oil is one of the most important commodities of production in an economy.A supply shortage is likely to skyrocket prices of goods since producers transfer high cost prod