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Showing posts from October, 2011

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

He is IDead,I am ISad

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Last night I was thinking about Shakespeare's famous quote in the 'Twelf Night';"Be not afraid of greatness:Some are born great,others achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust unto them". I had one person in mind who have achieved greatness,and was looking for the other two.I asked my best friend whom he would recommend(in my Country).I am not sure we even got the conversation going!But as usual,death has answered another of life's query! Let us apply this quote to some of the world's greatest who have left us in 2011. Born Great- Steve Jobs  1955-2011 On Monday 3'rd October 2011,Thomas Cook,the new Apple CEO launched the new IPhone 4S,the first since his appointment. Many Investors were disappointed since they were expecting radical changes on the new IPhone.Some did not even approve of Cook's public appearance(or is it his name ,'Cook',that sounds ridiculous compared to 'Jobs'!!)This saw Apple loose more than 3% of its

Ujinga ni.......

Everything in Kenya seems to be changing so fast;so fast and furiously too. Kenyans are changing too with changing times.The last time i visited Nairobi,i had a feeling that Paris and other big cities would look like a big joke alongside Nairobi:the beautiful mushrooming up-class suburbs,the numerous car models one observes snarling up in a traffic jam,the sophisticated young men and women,business executives ,the mobile phones and other flashy electronic devices that still remain luxury in developed countries too;the list is just endless! Having stayed out for only two years,i looked the old one out in almost everything;take my phone,for example.I am one lady who believes that a mobile phone's work is to make and receive calls.It therefore doesn't matter whether it still croaks like a frog or hisses like a snake to alert me of an incoming call.My Kenyan friends were disappointed on seeing what i had in the name of a phone,given that i now claim to be living in one of the mode