Coca Cola’s Novida; Alvaro in a smaller bottle

So Coke introduced Schweppes Novida into the Kenyan market this week after brewing giant EABL’s Alvaro nearly cannibalized its market.

And I tried the pineapple. There’s Apple and Tropical as well.

For full disclosure, am an Alvaro fanatic. The Novida pineapple tasted EXACTLY LIKE ALVARO! Only 30ml less than Alvaro that comes in 330ml.

So what’s the deal with that?

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.

RIP David Too

Source: The Standard online edition

Like the kind people in a certain newspaper reminded us, another ODM MP was killed within 36 hours of the murder of the first one.

Conspiracy theories aside, Rest in Peace David Kimutai Too.

By now, you should  be connvinced, like I am, that there is something terribly amiss in our democracy. OK, demo-crazy(you should be able to get at least two meanings from that corruption)

Facebook in 50 years

There is a piece I did about Facebook coming up on the new phat site Haiya.co.ke (you need to get there). That was until I stumbled upon this furiously funny(!) image on Justin Hartman‘s site, who also got it from somewhere else.

(Original image here)

Now isn’t this funny? If you are on Facebook, you will know why. Actually, its PensionBook.

Stay safe, will you?

Million madness

I am very concerned and it has everthing to do with what you have probably seen already. Everyone seems intent to swing me a million shillings. It is even more the serious because much as I would do with the said million, I didnt ask any of these people offering!

See, it has been said all over the place that we live in a materialistic society but no one time is this proved more than at Christmas ironically. The idea that this is a period when giving should be top on the agenda has been overstated and I will not bother with it here.  I just want to know why marketers insist that I must buy their products and stand a chance to ‘lose’ a million and my credit.

Of late, say in the last week alone, I have counted at least seven that are sure that I need their money badly, for some reason I cant just understand. See, if I have brand lloyalty to your product, I will buy it whether you promise me a car or fifty of them. It all depends on what advertisers call ‘share of love.’ Somebody please tell all those marketing novices that no amount of persuasion will convince me to buy your damn product.

AM outta here for now, more coming soon. Holla!