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Category: Commentary

  • Lost Generation

    by Jon Reed

  • Google Chrome

    The new browser from Google is here in all of its simple goodness. Seems to work well in Vista Ultimate x64. Can’t wait for the Mac version to come out.

    Download it here www.google.com/chrome
    Chrome a small download and takes almost no time to install. That’s gotta be good for the overall speed. Oh, and get this, each tab gets its own process, which means it should work really well with my Quad core. True multi-threading for the age of the multi-core processors.
    Looks like the browser wars have heated up to a red-hot tempo.

  • What Lies Beneath

    Things have not changed here. Everyone is hoping that the peace talks will succeed. Hoping and praying for a miracle. No one is sorry for what has taken place so far. The same people that have been chased from their own homes are not hesitant to chase others from their homes.

    If there is nothing that comes from the peace talks that satisfies everyone, soon, Kenya will definitely go through round two of all the violence.

    A news article that caught my attention:

    NAIROBI, Kenya: (Associated Press) Kenya’s opposition on Wednesday threatened mass protests within a week if the government fails to start work on changing the constitution to pave the way for any type of power-sharing government.

    Parliament must convene within a week to enact constitutional changes that will be needed to restructure the government in a way that will divest some of the power from the presidency, said Anyang Nyongo, secretary-general of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement.

    “If that does not happen, ODM hereby gives notice that we call our supporters to mass action within one week,” he said.

    Another senior party official, Najib Balala, said any such action would be peaceful. However, previous political protests have turned violent and deteriorated into ethnic clashes.

    Weeks of violence sparked by the flawed Dec. 27 vote have left more than 1,000 dead and forced some 600,000 to flee their homes.

  • A goat for a slap

    Sun 17 Feb 2008, 11:55 GMT

    NAIROBI, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Kenyan elders have demanded a goat from President Mwai Kibaki as compensation for an alleged assault by First Lady Lucy Kibaki, local media said on Sunday.

    The government denies the allegation by member of parliament Gitobu Imanyara who had threatened to sue Kibaki’s wife. Imanyara said he was assaulted last month at State House.

    The Sunday Standard newspaper said a council of traditional elders, the Njuri Cheke, met on Friday and decided to take up the legislator’s case.

    “They have demanded a fine of a he-goat and an unreserved apology from the First Family.” The paper said the elders wanted the matter resolved according to Meru tribal customs.

    Kibaki is wrestling with a crisis over his disputed re-election that has triggered widespread ethnic bloodshed.

    The Presidential Press Service said Lucy’s lawyers would take action against Imanyara’s “wild allegations”, which it said bordered on character assassination, blackmail and were part of a wider political scheme aimed at tarnishing her office.

    Kibaki’s wife is known to be fiercely protective of her husband and has courted controversy several times. In December, local media said she slapped an official who called her by the name of a woman widely reported to be Kibaki’s second wife.

    On Monday, Kibaki is expected to meet chief mediator Kofi Annan again, and also U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose visit is meant to shore up the Annan-chaired talks aimed at finding a solution to the Kenyan crisis. (Reporting by Daniel Wallis)

    I find something like this is, at the least, interesting. If high Kenya government officials are so concerned about a slap on the face and a goat… What are the chances of them being able to reach a peace deal?

  • Quiet in Kenya

    For the last several days, things have been generally quiet here in Nakuru. But there is no reason to believe that things are peaceful. Everyone is on edge, scared, wondering what the next disaster will be and where. Rumors of planned violence abound.

    There was another Minister of Parliament killed on Thursday. He was shot four times in the head by a policeman, within 36 hours of the first one. These events are highly suspect in the eyes of the opposition as being straight up assassinations. The policeman that is being charged with the murder is scheduled to be tried in the High Court of Nakuru. Yesterday, when they read him the charges, he expressed surprise at being charged with murder. Oh and get this, in an “unprecedented move” the media was not allowed to be present in the chamber for the charge or the cautionary statement. I am smelling the proverbial rat.

    The killing of the MP sparked more riots and unrest in the towns of Eldoret and Kisumu. We have another mission compound in Kisumu, so it was really unsettling for the missionaries that were caught away from home. Some of them even had to spend the night out in the country-side because it was not safe to go into town. There were “thousands” of people on and alongside the road. They covered the road with stones in order to make it impassable. Here is a picture taken by one of the missionaries from Kisumu, showing the road before it was cleaned off.

    Sometimes you wonder if Mr. Kofi Annan and the other peacemakers are kidding themselves. Sometimes you wonder if Democracy will ever work for a nation that has tribes and all of the prejudices that come with tribalism. Sometimes you wonder if mankind is any different than it was 4,000 years ago. The hoodlums don’t care if the person that they are killing is their childhood friend, or even a child for that matter. Killing him only because his name is not right. The official statistics put the death toll in the hundreds. I would not be in the least surprised if it was actually in the thousands. I have heard too many stories of bodies lying around, getting eaten by dogs.

    How can you have peace in your country if no one in your country has peace in their heart?