I didn’t know until today 11th Aug 2014 that i could blog. I’ve always thought it was for writers the likes of Biko or fashion stylists like Sharon of this is ess, i love her style, she even makes something as simple as a scarf look great. Anyway, i sometimes post long updates on Facebook depending on how i feel or what i am going through. One of my friend’s who has been following me closely suggested i should blog and tell my story, he think’s mine is a great one it needs to be told, hmmmm. For sometime now i have been brushing off his suggestion and going on with my life. Well today when i posted another long update i knew i should just start and hopefully my life will inspire someone to greater heights while overcoming the limitations of life, trying new stuff coz you know…
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This is just fantastic!
In a fit of anger her majesty Queen Elizabeth II issued the following letter to the citizens of United States of America
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
In light of your failure to financially manage yourselves and inability to effectively govern yourselves responsibly, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).
Your new Prime Minister, David William Donald Cameron, will appoint a Governor for the former United States of America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the…
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Al Kags no longer lives here. He has moved to his own permanent house at http://www.alkags.com. This blog has been set to self distruct on March 31 2008. Please sycronise your blogrolls.
Progress!!!
This is a call out for entries into the sixth part of The Quarterly Colour Series of Poetry, Indigo Smoothies. The Quarterly Colour Series of poetry are a series of free ebooks, published by Al Kags every three months. The first five ebooks of the series are Gray Spots, Blue Smudges, Red Streaks, Green Piece and Brown Steps that read by over 185,000 people worldwide. The ebooks are spread virally over email as well as posted on different blogs and web sites for Download. Feel free to download them from https://alkags.wordpress.com or http://www.scribd.com among other web sites.
The rules are, that you can download them for free, share them, enjoy them, republish the poetry in there – literally anything you want to do with them: just be sure to acknowledge the author and the ebook.
The theme for Indigo Smoothies is dialogue. In many parts of the world – from Pakistan to South Africa to Kenya to the US, there are important fundamental conversations that needed to have been had. In most cases having these conversations – about discrimination, about class barriers, about racism and tribalism and all these -isms would result in lasting peace and prosperity for the people there. But these conversations must be cordial and positive – they must not be filled with hate and bitterness and they must be sober. We call upon poets from all over the world to submit their poetry of such conversations and engage the world in dialogue – positively.
Please send your poetry in a word document to poetry@alkags.com. Be clear about your name (in the case of Stage Name preference). The selection of the poetry to be published is entirely at the discretion of the Al Kags editorial team
All entries need to be in by March 1 2008. Thanks, all of you that have sent us your poetry, and supported the series by forwarding widely and we are glad that you all have pushed the poetry to such great heights.
Many Thanks
After watching the rerun of the 2007 BET awards on TV, a special friend of mine and I got into a discussion on the phone that went on late into the middle of the night. The discussion was centred around the concept behind the statement, “I’m black and I’m proud” as well as the other seemingly similar but apparently different statement, “I’m proud to be black.”
My issues were and remain that I do not see the point behind black people globally needing to affirm out loud their pride in being black. Essentially, I can understand pride in being a part of a race, tribe and whatever other mass of people that form the community you are part of, but I fail to really see the point in affirming it out loud, for other people to hear it.
I understand that the statement, “I’m black and I’m proud”, which one has seen in magazines and T-shirts and a whole lot of other places is meant to be part of this campaign that is geared to instilling into the so-called black nation some pride in their blackness.
But then ask the average black person who spews this statement, on the back of the time-worn argument that black people have been discriminated and marginalised and God-knows-what-else and you find that they are unable to break it down and describe exactly what this campaign is about.
And so, I shall then ask pointed questions in the hope that someone will break it down for me in simple easy to understand concepts what the point of this marketing campaign (make no mistake: it is one) is for.
I ask you:
- What are the values that blackness comes with?
- So people feel proud to be black. What is their character thereafter? That is, how do they behave differently from the way they behave now that fits within the above character?
- How does the change in their behaviour affect the competitiveness of black people globally as a nation?
- How is the world meant to therefore behave in the face of this proud black people?
- Will there come a time when this marketing campaign of instilling pride in people, will be irrelevant (because it will have been successful)?
I think a community can only be proud of its successes. The larger the community the more the number of successes in everyday life that are required to instil long term pride into their people.
The more black people who will excel – despite the odds – to positions of influence and leadership, positions that the world takes seriously (therefore outside of showbiz and entertainment, where black people have excelled) then the better the chances of black people having real stuff to be proud about.
Besides, for now, the field is as level as it is going to be for a while. The legislative process globally has been made politically correct to deal with whatever discrimination there may be. Enforcement of these laws remain the purview of normal individuals, whose biases can only be dealt with in the face of success.
It is when children in black communities stop being inadvertently stopped to be competitive in the so-called “non-black” areas such as speaking proper English because it is connoted to be “white” (true in America and in many parts of Africa) and sciences and other areas; when black people do not hinder each other’s growth or their own for fear of standing out that they shall truly be competitive.
I dare say here, Emancipation is largely complete. The next hurdle is competitiveness.
i am very romantic… i can show you – check this out. I come over to your place in my jalopy to pick you up, give you some bourgan villea flowers, walk you to my car and get it and wait patiently while you struggle with the door. eventually, i even lean over and give the door a jab and when it sends you sprawling i even yell pole and only snigger quietly as you pick yourself up and hop it.. as we drive, i romantically rub my hand against your knee as i change gears.
i take you to njuguna’s – an upmarket nyama choma joint if there ever was one – in lavington after all, right? i find us a discreete corner somewhere inside and after the smoke from the nearby jikos proves to be too much, i move us outside where we sit on logs across under the stars…
Wanjiku the barlady comes and gives me a kiss as a squeeze her ass and in a friendly manner ask us what we shall have. I order a very well done rump steak with assorted bone marrow (Muguu choma) and as a starter, some chicken kidney and other assorted bitings…for drinks i order a Tusker (what else) and for you i order a soda kingfisher (you are a girl!)
We have some conversation where i describe the problems I have been having with my jalopy, my pigs especially the process of assisting one’s birthing and other animals that I have in my kashamba (actually 770 acres of prime highland), my last drinking escapade with my mates and others.
It is as I mention my friends and others that Muturi my close pal comes over with his ka-ravle (ka-lovely) and so does Kachamba and his and they of course join us.
The meat comes as we are enjoying the meal and the conversation which has gone into many areas from Wanjiku’s endowed bossom to kibaki and that other one – no one ever says raila – and we dig in with gusto. I keep asking you why you are so quiet before jabbing you in the ribs and joking at how sexy you look when you are quiet like that – to the hearty amusement of everyone there.
We leave at your urging and we drive you home. I am feeling quite amorous and enquire whether we should stop somewhere and relax a while “I know a good rodging” and I don’t understand why you are so emphatic with the no. I guess you have to be at work early or you are playing hard to get.
We get to your house and i lean over for a kiss. you move away rather fast so i am forced to place it on your bossom. not bad. you hastily get out of the car and promise we’ll talk tomorrow and I understand. Your father must be kali.
I put the toothpick in my mouth and drive away with a smile on my face leaving you in the dark fumbling with the chain on your gate.
Now, my dear Esther, can you now fail to call me romantic?
One of my close friends recently became saved – and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of his life. He had been coming towards this point of his life for a while and this was no surprise. We had lunch recently and just so that I could understand how not to contradict his faith, I sought to know from him what his parametres/ bounderies are in terms of the changes that his lifestyle goes through.
See, I know many people who became born again and as such their lives changed differently. It was minor things. Some who are saved, would go out on the rave but not drink beer, others feel that wine is ok, beer isn’t and yet others feel like beer too is fine – just don’t get drunk. One school of thought would have it that just dabbling in anyway in these things constitute compromise and usually things go downhill from there.
So for all you born again christians out there, this is a question for you: It will aid in my own journey which is fueled by more understanding.
The day you ask God for forgiveness is an event. But it is an event that, as I understand it, starts a part of your life where you live your life differently – more in line with God’s wishes. You accept that you may occasionally veer of the path but with God’s help, you will maintain your focus on the path.
My question is this, is doing the right thing a firm standard according to the bible and christian practice or is it a matter of interpretation?
Both the people who have told me that all drinking is wrong and those who have suggested that some drinking is wrong (wine is ok, beer isn’t) and other variants to the point, have used the bible as a basis of their position. How do you know as a born again christian, what is actually right?
How do I, who is not born again – and who could become born again, know how to live my life day to day the right way – if the different credible people who have been born again, teach so many mixed messages based on the bible? How do I discern the truth? How do you?
Great artists become great because they were nurtured in some way by some woman or women somewhere, in the same way that great people become great because some woman somewhere cared. As she cooked and cleaned and bathed and rebuked and spanked and worked and pointed out where the other sock was, she had the presence of mind to make sure that that great person was safe and warm and cared for – so much that that great person became educated in the ways of life and gained the confidence that that great person needed to be great. It was her, that that great person ran to when that great person was afraid or hurt, her that that great person leaned on when there was no food or water or health or wealth or joy. It was some woman somewhere, who stood behind the scenes and ensured that that that great person not only became great, but remained great. And she did this, while walking many kilometers to find a health centre or water or firewood, while spending whole long days tilling the land then going home to cook and clean and pick after that great person and everyone else. She did this even when her spirit was low and her body was sore, she went out to work at the crack of dawn where she found she had to work harder than everyone else, prove herself at every juncture just so she could stay afloat and get ahead. It was her who made the great sacrifices, all the time, every time, and on the back of her sweat and blood and tears, that great person became great and remained great. She has throughout her life been the pillar that everyone leaned on and spit on, she was the cement that held it all together, whatever it was.
Wife, mother, sister, aunt, teacher, nurse, preacher, leader, friend – she made you great, all the while standing up straight, with a smile on her face and an uncanny grace in her step because…
She was, she is and she will always will be,
Essentially Woman.
I can now officially confirm that Nairobi is well on its way to being a 24 hour city – Nakumatt by Nakumatt. it started a few months back when Kenya’s leading department store, or hypermarket as we call them here, made the small Nakumatt Ukay (well, small by the other Nakumatt standards) a 24 hour supermarket.
Finally nocturnal shoppers like me had somewhere that they could shop quickly and hustlefree, without having to wait in line. I really like to be able to shop efficiently – that means fast, without having too go round too many shoppers and their brats, and check out in a speedy fashion. My monthly shopping takes me 15 minutes – and its a lot of stuff to buy.
As a marketing person to be able to look at some of the emerging brands, check out how they are doing becomes easy because the attendants have a bit more time – and also they pay more attention since they do not have the whole world to deal with.
Anyway, I digress.
Today, Nakumatt on Ngong Road (Prestige plaza), one of the larger hypermarkets, stayed open past closing time – and all night they will be to be sure. The thing about it is that Nakumatt in nairobi is a lifestyle centre – you get to shop then have some fun in most of their locations. As it is, at Prestige plaza, the businesses over there will have to stay open all night as well.
One has. Mo movies, one of the businesses that are in prestige plaza- really great video library – one of the first to deliver to your home, is working 24 hours as well, so one is able to pick up some movioes regardless of how late it is.
On a wider scale, this is a clear indication that:
1. nairobi is a safer, better town to live in.
2. Nairobi’s economy is becoming more dynamic by the day
3. I gotta get me some Nakumatt shares when they come up. These guys define me.
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