The Kenya Uniform Is Back

A few years ago, to be precise, at around 1997 and 1998, there was a certain long skirt that came into fashion. The striking thing about this skirt was its height. It was almost ankle length and wow, who thought gals in Nairobi would wear something that made them look like nuns.

Surprise, gals went into a frenzy and bought the skirts in droves. Everywhere you turned, you met this spectacle of multi coloured long skirts criss crossing all over town. They were so many, with a variety of colours and the only difference they had was size, since the wearers were all different sized too.

Zoom in to the year 2006 and a new breed of skirts have come. They are the same long winding skirts, but this time round, they are one colour. White!

In regards to them, someone said, "these skirts make you feel like you are meeting the same person again and again, only this time, that person is a different size"

Aren’t We All Mercenaries!

Kenyans will always have something strange and exciting to ponder about. The current hot cake is the mercenary saga of the Arturls. One thing that came out very strong is that these guys are loaded. And loaded guys just know how to show it. One of the guys said Kenya cannot be able to pay them if we hire them for the mercenary job. Duh, we as the whole of Kenya are not that poor. Kwani how much money will they demand as payment for which we will not be able to pay them!

The word mercenary has two meanings depending on whether you are looking at it from its noun form or its adjective form. The noun form means “a hired soldier’ while the adjective form means “a person who works for profit or merely for money”

So, let us take it that Kenya does not need some guy from Armenia to come and sort out our problems. Furthermore, why would we hire a guy all the way from Armenia just to come and take some computers from a media station and destroy some property at some newspaper printing plant. That is a job that a normal Kenyan can do. So, lets just say that the guys were not hired as mercenaries and enjoy the shows that they give us.

Its free entertainment that we get especially on our tvs when we watch them do stunts very bravely. One of them actually bragged that he spends up to one hundred and fifty thousand per day on expenses. Our conclusion, either he is just too loaded or a spendthrift.
Lets take the mercenary meaning as one who works solely for money. Don’t we all work for money. I hear you say, well aahh ummm not really, are you sure? Okay, if you don’t work solely because you get paid for it, you either relate very closely to Mother Teresa’s beliefs or you own the company, if you fall in the other category, just admit it, you are a mercenary.

The Strength Of A Woman

It was Shaggy who wondered, in comparison to her strength, whether God was a woman. In his song, Shaggy enumerated the astounding strength that a woman has. However, society has branded her the weaker sex, but a woman is more than that. She is a strong person and her strength has nothing to do with her ability to achieve tasks through use of her hands.

The strength of a woman can be determined more so from what she can handle, the things we often see but take for granted.

A woman can be all in one. A worker, a wife, a mother and be able to balance all these attributes.

A typical day for such a woman starts with her preparing her family, being busy in the office and back to her house to take care of her family again. She is self sacrificing, always putting the interest of her husband and children before hers.

In the office she handles her duties with diligence and charisma, and who gets the praise, the boss.

In the community be it the neighbourhood or the church, she always participates in enriching activities without greed for recognition or reward.

A woman’s heart can bear a lot. There are women who are abused in their houses, discriminated against at work, despised by society, viewed with disdain by the public and generally looked down upon, but notwithstanding all this, she still comes out strong.

A woman will overlook faults and seek the best from others. She will cover her husband, she will protect her children and will always wish the best to those close to her heart.

A woman can walk with her shoulders held high even when the world is crumbling on her. She has the patience to persevere, the attitude to push on and the optimism for good things. A woman, is a strong person.
To all women, as you think of the international women's day, know that you are very strong people!

Learning To Live Without Blaming

We as human beings have a weakness in finding fault with others. Worse still, the people we harshly judge the most happen to be the ones closest to us; our spouses, relatives, colleagues and closest friends.

How many times have you seen parents scolding their children, especially for faults that are trivial or innocent. How many couples are fighting all the time? How many times have you thought evil about your friend and asked yourself questions as to why they didn’t do this or that?

One thing that we should all look into is the motive behind the action that we see as wrong. Our actions are usually a reflection of our individual character and the faster we learn the character types of each the easier it will be to deal with each person at their level.

For example if a person promises to call, and does not call, the next time you talk to that person, do you accuse them of not keeping their promises, do you ignore and assume there was a good reason as to why they didn’t call or do you ask them politely about it.

Think about it. Before you blame someone, before you get angry at someone, before you talk negative about anyone, before you make a decision that will affect your relationships with someone, what would be your motivating factor! Sometimes we see more than the actual facts are. Create in your heart a place called "I also have some faults as a person : why am I so aggravated with others' faults!"

Remember, love does not keep a record of wrong doing.

You've Got Spam

Zoom back to the year 1960, a friend of yours calls you and tells you that he went to his inbox (the one at posta) and found that someone had sent him spam. Here is how the conversation goes:

"Hi, just got some spam sent to my inbox"
"What? Who would do such a gross thing?"
"The usual suspects"
"I really wonder what method he used while getting it, how he had the guts to wrap it properly and even more guts to send it to you."

Well, according to this conversation, the two guys are obviously talking about two different things.

Fast Forward, to the year 2006, and the same conversation would mean a different thing, now that we know what spam really is.

But, wait a minute, the largest of the toothed whales happens to be the sperm whale. It was named after the milky-white substance spermaceti found in its head and originally mistaken for sperm.

During mating, sperm whales lose quite a huge chunk into the sea, could that be the reason the sea is salty!

Scramble For Kengen Shares

Anyone who is keen to watch the NSE and see the way the stock prices dance up and down must have surely reckoned that the latest thrust that is just about to happen, is a force too strong to ignore.

The media blitz that Kengen generated aroused and awakened our minds to the fact that its shares are something we cannot just let slip our fingers. So, existing stock holders, having stocks that have marginally gained in value with low prospects of dividends and a bleak outlook on growth, decided to sell them and keep money ready to grab Kengen.

So, what happens in such a case, where supply outstrips demand, share values dip, and inexperienced shareholders curse the market while the real players, who also happen to have some lots of dosh with them, dash to buy the now lowly priced shares. That is the stock market, and that is how it works.

If you have some money in a savings account, and such money reduces with time, rarely grows, or even if it does, usually the growth is less than the inflation rate, or "chama" or can get some from "mwethia" or even rob, get your hands on that money and buy the Kengen shares. If you will still be alive in 2008, come back to this blog and we will calculate how much money your shares will have made for you, as you sit on your usual chair! And as my school teacher used to say, “sitting there warming the chair” and I add, while my shares add value to my money and my life!