Last year, I met an old guy called John in Hargeisa. John had just come from the bush with a camera, a sketch pad, pens, pencils and notebooks. He also had a big illustrated book that talked about the birds of the Horn of Africa. John was a bird watcher and was updating a book about the birds found in Somalia. He informed me that he goes to the bush for months at a time to study birds. He had sketches of various birds which he could easily distinguish from colors, shapes and sizes of their different parts. He was quite excited to show and tell me about a new discovery of a rare bird he had spotted while in the bush. He told me that once you learn to use your senses in the bush, bird watching can be as interesting as watching racing horses. Not being a bird watcher or horse enthusiast either, I just took his word for it. When I came back to Nairobi, I moved into my current house and set up my work area next to a window facing a huge tree. From where I sat, I could observe the activities on the tree which comprised mainly of a group of weaver birds building their nests. As time went by, I realized that I spent my breaks from work observing the birds. True to John’s words, it becomes quite interesting even when I just applied two of my sense organs – eyes and ears.

Have you ever observed a bird’s feather minutely? It’s amazing to see how the colors change with the angle of vision, or how the grays and white, the blues and greens, blend into each other with magnificent artistry. It’s almost surprising to learn that contrary to what one might imagine, a single feather is structured more like a leaf than like a broom.

Many birds usually pair up as couples and take turns, with one attending to the eggs or the chicks while the other is on the lookout. Whenever the lookout bird senses danger, it gives warning screeches in order to alert its mate. They are always on the look out for cats, snakes, larger birds and other predators. If you ever walk near a bush and a bird starts to hop around excitedly while making unusually loud and discordant noises, it most likely has a nest with eggs or babies nearby and is alerting its mate of impending danger.

When a bird’s chick hatches, it is blind and its skin is almost transparent – you can see its organs through the thin skin of its distended belly! It looks like one of the characters from ‘Sesame Street’ or perhaps ‘Muppet Show’?

It is difficult to imagine that in a few weeks time, it will be able to fly and look like its parents.

The parent bird usually looks for food and carries it back to the nest where it drops tiny morsels into the eager open mouth of the hungry chick. The chick will continue to rely on its parent to feed it even after it can fly. You can always tell that the chick is still begging for attention from its parent by noting its behavior: the chick ruffles its feathers and makes shivering motions as it chirps in a high continuous pitch.

A while ago, I watched an interesting confrontation between a weaver bird and a group of tiny birds. Each time that the weaver bird would go for materials while constructing its nest, the tiny birds would move inside the incomplete nest. When the weaver bird returned, it would chase them away and they would fly to watch it from a distance. When the weaver bird went for more materials, the tiny birds would again move into the nest. This went on for a few days and I suppose the weaver bird got tired of the drama and went to build another nest. With the weaver bird out of the way, the tiny birds started rebuilding the nest. One of the most notable additions was a second entrance. So now the nest has two doors.

The tiny birds usually operate as a flock. They often whirr off together after sunrise and return several times during the day to perform some activities inside the nest. I suspect they have eggs or chicks inside there. Each time they come back to the nest, several of them go inside while another group hangs around scouting for danger.

I recently bought a pair of binoculars and am now able to spy on the birds more intimately. The first thing that I observed is that when they are not flying, or singing, or cuddling, birds just sit on the tree and groom themselves.

One more bird I can tell you about is the ‘snoring bird’. I call it by this name because it sings continuously through out the night. I figured out that its night song might actually be its snore, and hence the name. I suppose John would know the name and might even have a photo of the ‘snoring bird.’

Bill Cosby is one of the most respected African American entertainers and is viewed as a shining role model by millions of people of all races around the world. Bill Cosby was recently in the news voicing his anger at American rap musicians. He just does not understand; after so many years of sweat, blood and tears in the fight for the Black peoples’ liberation, rights and dignity in the American society”why rap musicians can go ahead to refer to themselves and other Black men as niggers. If you have listened to American rap music, you of course know what Mr. Cosby is hopping mad about. I remember a time – not so long ago – when rock music used to be considered as ‘music of the devil.’ But when you look at a rap video with Hennessey gurgling, bling adorned, gangster rappers and their harems of wild, semi nude, bottom wiggling party girls, the skinny jeans and t-shirt clad rock guitarists and drummers look like choir boys out on a Saturday picnic. Not surprisingly, the various churches in Nairobi are incorporating rock music as a major attraction for their congregations as they compete for members each Sunday.

If you are into conspiracy theories, you might be interested to hear that rap music is a covert government experiment on the population in the direction of mind control programming. A general agreement amongst the paranoid is that there is currently a social engineering effort that attempts to mold and shape the collective consciousness and general social reality through covert (and evil) manipulation of mass communication such as the press and the news media, television, entertainment. movies, music, and so on. For example, much rap music overtly exhibits extraordinary levels of negativity, hatred, sex, and descriptions of violence in their lyrics. The destructive impact of the lyrics to abuse (physically, sexually, and emotionally) could all easily be supplemented with a hefty dose of subliminal images through video.

Bill Cosby’s remarks remind me of a guy called Ben that I befriended in Namibia a few years ago. On an evening when Ben was thoroughly sloshed, he looked around his squalid home in Epako and lamented, “The whites not only colonized our country, they colonized our minds too!” In all parts of Namibia and Southern Africa, neighborhoods like Epako were established as a black township during the apartheid era. Next to Epako was a town called Gobabis that was exclusively for the whites. There was another neighborhood called Smalengland for the ‘colored’ people – meaning people of mixed lineage between the white and black races. Unlike the Epako ‘ghetto’, Gobabis and Smalengland were relatively well off neighborhoods. Unfortunately, not much had changed even after the fall of apartheid in Namibia in 1990. The whites are dominant in Gobabis town while Epako is still the black man’s hood. According to Ben, the Blacks were unable to improve their lot after independence because the Whites had colonized their minds. That evening, he was angry in his drunken state because the White man still had control of his mind.

Ben’s complaints are similar to those that were commonly reported when wife beating was common in the community. A woman would become depressed if she went without a beating for a long time. Apart from complaining to other women that her husband does not love her any more – reason; he not longer beat her – she would put up provocative gimmicks that would ensure that she got a thorough beating. As soon as the husband gave her a hiding, life would go back to normal and everyone would be happy once more. Incredible, but true!

And I wonder; is there a side to the human being that craves to be dominated such that when the oppressor grudgingly allows the oppressed to move one step forward, the oppressed willingly moves two steps backwards? Or maybe it’s just reverse psychology at work.

Currently there is a series of anti HIV/AIDS advertisements that are running on Kenyan TV. The adverts talk about how various attitudes that have been adopted by our society are encouraging the spread of the scourge. One such attitude is the one that concerns women and marriage. Our society put so much value in a woman having a husband, that most women will undergo tremendous suffering for the sake of staying in their marriage homes. Apart from enduring physical violence among other indignities, a woman will easily turn a blind eye as her husband engages in extramarital relationships so as not to upset her position in society as ‘somebody’s wife’. In the court of our society’s public opinion, a battering husband is only ‘teaching his wife a lesson’ while a philandering husband will always win against a disgruntled wife because the judges will rule that she does not posses the nature of ‘patience’. Many women who have tried to put up resistance against their husband’s behaviors have ended up being replaced by the very concubines they fought against. And so, the woman pretends that she does not know her husband is ‘eating out’ – as it is commonly referred – and crosses her fingers in the hope that he will not bring sexually transmitted diseases – including AIDS into their marital bed.

I personally consider this to be a very good angle from which to tackle the problem of HIV/AIDS. I also wish that the same approach – change in attitude – can be taken against the problem of alcoholism. Currently, very few voices are being raised against the problem as more and more people, at an age younger than ever before are sucked into alcoholism. It is not a secret that as Kenyans, we consume more than a fair share of the pint compared to people from other countries. In fact, just the night before last, our major brewery posted a record turnover in profits in its past financial year. Among the strategies it employed to come to this level of profitability is introducing cheaper brands of alcoholic beverages – to ensure that anybody can afford to get intoxicated – and aggressive advertisement which includes competitions where people win millions of shillings.

I said that very few voices are being raised against excessive consumption of alcohol since unlike HIV/AIDS, it still is not being considered a disease, or even a problem for that matter. And one might not consider it as such until he or she finds themselves in an unmanageable situation that they cannot easily get out of at will. In fact, prior to that stage, a person might consider each session involving excessive consumption of alcohol to be a heroic feat.

To illustrate my point, I will tell you my experience while growing up in a Christian family where drinking was generally considered to be undesirable. However, during family gatherings – say Christmas – the men in our family would huddle together in a small group away from the rest of the non-drinking family, mainly consisting of women and children. Of course everyone pretended not to know that alcohol was being consumed in the household. As young boys, we would observe our fathers, favorite uncles, and other distinguished guests sitting in their corner and talking about things that one is entitled to hear only when he becomes a man. And we would just hang around hoping that we would be noticed and be given any task to perform – that was real honor. All the while, we would observe the bottle of beers being swigged and look forward to the day when we would grow up and be able to drink like that.

When we finally grew up and were able to drink like that, the challenge turned to how much one could drink. I remember a time when any of my friends who drank less than six bottles of beer (3 liters) was considered to be unworthy of hanging out in a bar with. Anything from nine beers upwards was something to talk about and one would brag, ‘I got so high last night!’ and then hope for someone to ask, ‘How many bottles of beers did you drink?’ While in college, going into an alcoholic coma otherwise known as ‘chewing a blackout’ was something to laugh about. On the next drinking spree, the guy who narrates about sitting in a bar one minute and waking up with an intravenous drip going into his body the following morning would be the toast for the evening.

On becoming a grown up adult, one learns how to drink responsibly. That means; no more blackouts, no more embarrassing outbursts of drunkardness, and most importantly, making sure that one does not lose a job on account of alcoholism. At that point, the drinking curve is flat until the day that the Good Lord touches you to quit drinking, or calls you to join Him in heaven. No one talks about being addicted to alcohol since no one will admit that he or she is addicted. But when one tries to stop at will, they realize that it is not that easy. If they asked a professional, they might then hear about addiction.

I can confirm to you that not much has changed in an ordinary Kenyan man’s drinking metamorphosis: As a boy, one looks forward to the day they will drink like the adults, as a teenager one drinks himself to stupors, as an adult one mentors that future drinking generation. One more thing, the boys have now been joined by the girls since the advertisements now say that it is a cool thing to drink alcohol. And it is quite easy for anyone to make the decision to drink since now there is a drink for anyone: from the lager in the half liter brown bottle for the seasoned drinkers, to the apple flavored alcoholic cider suitable for the teenage school girl drinking for the first time.

If we hope to bell the cat of alcoholism in Kenya, we need to go back to the basics and consider a change of attitude towards the consumption of alcohol.

Each time I visit the bank ATM , the Kiswahili phrase ‘Pesa ya jini’ or ‘Genie’s Money’ comes to mind. I learnt this phrase from my friend Dan in 2000. Dan had heard this phrase from two naÃ?ve looking boys who approached him along the streets of Nairobi on a Saturday morning. Judging from the red dust that shrouded their shoes and lower end of their trousers and hesitant Kiswahili, Dan could easily tell that they were from far out of town. And while he was at first distracted and impatient since he expected them to ask for directions, he soon gained a healthy attention for the boys after they told him what was on their minds. The boys showed Dan a lottery ticket and explained to him that they had won the jackpot. When they realized their good fortune, they discreetly borrowed money from a relative and traveled to Nairobi to collect their winnings. Unfortunately, they were informed that the lottery ticket does not work on weekends, and that is how they ended up as strangers in the streets on Nairobi with no money at all. They continued to tell Dan that they would not have bothered him but for the fact that he looked like a decent man. They had become wary of the people in Nairobi when the first man they approached with their request took them to a corner and attempted to give them some ‘genie’s money’ for their ticket. They had run away and walked round in circles until they decided that Dan looked like a good person. Now, they needed money desperately so that they could get back to the village before their ill tempered father realized they were missing.

Not being one to miss an opportunity, Dan examined the lottery ticket and confirmed that the number corresponded with the winning number posted on one of the many lottery ticket kiosks in the city. After a hurried discussion with the boys, they struck an unbelievable deal. For a quarter of the lottery money, the boys could go back home and leave him with the ticket so that he could claim the money when the lottery office opened on the following week.

It was in this excitement that Dan found me, showed me the ticket, and convinced me to lend him some money – better still, ‘invest’ in the opportunity of a lifetime. And so, I gave him some money as my share of the investment, he paid the boys and we went drinking for our good fortune. We were particularly tickled by the notion that anyone would refer to the ATM machine as a genie!

Come Monday, Dan reported early to the lottery office to make our claim. Later, a dazed Dan told me that as soon as he presented the ticket, a handful of detectives descended on him and took him to an interrogation room. There, it was to emerge that the ‘naÃ?ve boys’ were part of a racket that was printing fake winning lottery tickets and conning people like us. Ours was the seventh case in one week. And so, we ended up investing good money for a silly phrase. Fortunately, the investment came with a practical lesson for another phrase that we had heard many times earlier, ‘If the deal is too good, think twice.’

Two weeks ago, I was held up in a traffic jam on the way to visit a relative who was in hospital. When I finally crawled to where the bottleneck was, I saw a pickup truck being towed from a ditch on the side of the road where it had landed after running off the road and hitting a tree.

While walking out of the hospital after visiting with my relative, I saw a man being assisted from the emergency room, and I correctly guessed that he was involved in the accident that happened just a short distance from the hospital. The man had a heavily swollen face, a bandage at the top of his head, and was walking with difficulty. He must have been in his early fifties and his nice clothes were torn, bloodied, and exposed part of his bulging lower belly. Though our eyes met for a while, I do not remember reading any expression or emotion from him. My hospitalized relative was to inform me that a few minutes after I left, she heard a flurry of activity in the corridors involving a medical emergency. She later learnt that the man collapsed and died soon after that.

It is these kind of unexpected events that lead me wonder about the way life works. For instance, later that day I too was involved in an accident. The car I was driving was rammed from the side by a pickup truck similar to the one I had seen being pulled from the ditch. Luckily, apart from a few scraps, no one was seriously injured. We were all thankful considering that my passengers included my sister and four of my nieces.

According to the driver of the pickup, his car failed to stop when he came to a junction. I happened to be passing at that particular moment and hence the collision. I suppose that is what we call a coincidence.

One thing that has been said over and over again, by various wise men and women, is that everything happens for a reason. However, it is difficult to see the reason especially when whatever it is affects you negatively – when the pain is overwhelming and one can’t seem to get over it. And over the ages, people have fought with themselves, with others, and even with God as they seek to understand the ‘Why?’ For example, why should a sex predator not only rape and kill an innocent child, but go ahead and leave a horrible last memory of the brutalized kid for the parents to live with forever? Hard questions that beg desperate answers come up as one tries to come to terms with the magnitude of the catastrophe and understand the reason why it happened.

When my small sobbing, trembling niece came face to face with the driver of the pickup, she asked him, ‘Why did you do it? What did we do to you?’ when he attempted to apologize. And at that point, I realized that the search for the reason why things happen the way they do starts long before we are even aware that we are on the trail.

The man who died on that day probably got into his pickup truck to run an ordinary errand on just another normal day. I hope his loved ones will be able to come to terms with their loss and understand the reason why it happened.

When we consider what can go wrong in one day, and see all the good things that happen to us, we should be humbled, especially when this amazing grace extends to our loved ones, relatives, friends, and even countries. And take a moment to thank God.

Aunty Nelas is the one in the middle in a dark suit

Last weekend, I was at a celebration to mark the graduation ceremony for my Aunty Nelas. Just like any other happy occasion that I have told you about before, there was plenty of eating and drinking, singing and dancing, getting together of relatives and friends, long and short speeches, all conducted in a manner that will leave this day etched in our memories for ever.

At some point during the occasion, I was asked to make a speech. Not having been warned that it would happen, I talked about what came to my mind first. And so I said what an inspiration Aunty Nelas is for having the will to go back to school to earn her first degree – International Business Administration (IBA) at the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi. This is despite having a full time job and a family consisting of a husband and three children. Now, one week later I realize that I if I could do it all over again I might talk about an old memory that came to mind when I looked at the graduation photos.

It happened at the time when I was baptized in church and given the name ‘Kenneth’ to mark the occasion. Though I was less than 10 years old, Aunty Nelas was not quite happy with the name. She said ‘Dr. Kenneth Njuguna’?Dr. Kenneth Njuguna,’ several times and it did not sound right in her ears. You see, Aunty Nelas always wanted me to be a doctor and talked constantly to me about it. Apart from my Dad who wanted me to be a Civil Engineer, Aunty Nelas was the only other person whose career advice I remember vividly. But as it turned out, I did not become a doctor and ended up following my Dad’s career choice.

I am sure you have noticed that when we pray to God, He sometimes gives us results that are different from what we asked for. But I believe that the reason why God works this way is that He knows what is best for us. I imagine that He uses a criteria based on the purpose for which He put us in this world. So, if you are a hammer and you ask God for a job, He will most likely give you a nail to pull out of a wall. Now, imagine if you made your prayer based on the work of your friend who happens to be a screwdriver. What will happen when a hammer tries to screw a nail into a wall, when it is supposed to pull it out? Of course a tremendous amount of effort will be wasted, the task will be thoroughly ridiculous, and the job will not be done correctly. And that is why it is important for everyone to make an effort to know the purpose for which God put us in this world. How? By asking God – using one or more of the mysterious ways through which He works, He will lead you to the answer.

As I said earlier, I did not become a doctor as Aunty Nelas would have wanted. And neither do I practice Civil Engineering as my Dad had wanted. The paradox is that it is because of them that I have been able to make choices that have led me to what I do today. I am lucky to have had and continue having the care and support of many such people as I go through my life.

One major consolation is that Aunty Nelas’s wish can come true in a more satisfying way than she could have initially imagined. She intends to pursue post graduate studies and I look forward to some day soon, when she will be Dr. Nelas after acquiring her PhD. And as a bonus, Aunty Nelas’s son Owen is at the University pursuing a degree in medicine that will make him a doctor.

When we ask God, He leads us to the answers to all our questions – including the all important issue of career guidance for our children. And we should always remember to dream big. It requires as much effort to think about a mouse as it does to think about an elephant!

“In violence, we forget who we are.” – Mary McCarthy

Andrew Schneider describes violence as an issue of power. People become violent when they feel powerless. Violence is used as an inappropriate way of attempting to re-establish one’s own sense of power over whatever or whomever is perceived as a threat.

The antidote to violence in ourselves and in society is empowerment. We need to empower people to live out their best without fear. When people feel strong and able within themselves, they do not see themselves as potential victims. They do not have to struggle against others in order to feel secure. The curriculum for empowerment is learning and loving.

“Never use violence of any kind. Never threaten violence in any way. Never even think violent thoughts. Never argue because it attacks another’s opinion. Never criticize because it attacks another’s ego. And your success is guaranteed.”

- Mohandas Gandhi

From www.higherawareness.com