The Real Achievers are in Sports!

As as a matter of principle and practice, I do not usually republish my pieces published elsewhere in my blog. However, I will make an exception for this particular opinion from the Daily Nation of Friday 11th April 2008. So here goes:

THE 14th US CHIEF JUSTICE, Earl Warren, was quoted by Sports Illustrated in 1968 as saying: “I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.” Of late, with the political temperatures in the country at fever pitch, I have come to a new appreciation of both the quote, and the truth in it. And after paying closer attention to the back pages of the papers, I was pleasantly surprised to note  that a great deal is happening in the world of sports. But, naturally, these have been eclipsed by the cat-and-mouse game played by politicians as they figure out how best to run our country down. It is as though they have not already done us the worst possible damage with their two month-long blame game. In fact, I now hold the view that even if the Cabinet issue is finally resolved, it won’t be too long before they find something else to disagree on with equal gusto. You will be amazed at the tomes of useful information tucked away in the last pages of newspapers. Believe it or not, the much derided Kenya Football Federation may be making more progress than our Government has done in the last four months. The Kenya Premier League matches are now being beamed live to a continental audience thanks to a unique partnership with continental pay-TV channel, Multichoice. This will be on for the next four years, at the end of which, the standard of Kenyan football is expected to be much higher than it is today. CLUBS ARE EARNING MONEY OUT  of the deal, and locally, football is now going professional. Coaches, players and fans are all upbeat about this development and the only reason why it probably didn’t make headlines is because we were all transfixed on the words ‘‘stalemate’’, ‘‘collapse’’, and their respective derivatives. Kenya’s rugby has never been better. The Bamburi Rugby Super Series just ended a very successful run last weekend with the Lions franchise taking home the crown. Not that it wasn’t contested; it was bitterly fought over. The newly-formed Nguvu Sharks side that brought together Nairobi-based universities posted  an impressive showing to emerge third overall. Now, that is what I call achievement. Internationally, the Kenyan seven-a-side team made great showings at both the Hong Kong and Adelaide outings. They fought gallantly, taking some deep bites and cuts and giving a few of their own in games that were certainly entertaining. It is for all of these reasons that the whole idea that President Kibaki and Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga are unable to agree on a Cabinet appears like pure balderdash. After having hammered out the more contentious National Accord that ushered in peace, the small matter of who gets appointed to help in healing this country should be a walk in the park. At times like these, calls like those appearing on Facebook to privatise government are not only plausible, they may even turn out to be desirable.

I had a space to fill, so I wrote

Hey people,

I have been away for a long time, from June 5th to be exact. A lot has been happening in my life. That post must the only one I ever did while I was working where I was.  Yaani, in my four month’s foray into the Financial Services Industry, I only did one post. The experience itself was much more thatn that. To be precise, it would fill the whole KBW Aggregator for days or better still, in American fashion, a good book on how not to run a bank. Hey, come to think of it, a book like Save bank XYZ Now! would find quite a few readers, wont it? I am not saying which, or why I left so soon unless you really armtwist me into it.

In blogging matters, my post What happened to Free Sms sites? of March 7th remains this blog’s most popular yet and most interesting.  In fact, it has turned out to be some sort of discussion forum on free sms and other things unrelated. Check it out and see for yourself.

In some information that would not ordinarily get into your fold, I came across the site for RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) founded in “…in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan.” It’s founder Meena met her death 10 years later in what the site describes as “Her active social work and effective advocacy against the views of the fundamentalists and the puppet regime provoked the wrath of the Russians and the fundamentalist forces alike and she was assassinated by agents of KHAD (Afghanistan branch of KGB) and their fundamentalist accomplices in Quetta, Pakistan, on February 4,1987″

 Speaking of which, I have been scouring the internet, like I always do and I will share with you all about my discoveries in later posts. In the mean time, you can trace the direction of my friend Jesse Masai’s campaign for the Cherangany seat and for justice and political change here.