Call it Solomonic wisdom or whatever you fancy but that is exactly what James Murdoch did to shut a more than Century old newspaper in Britain in attempt to weather a storm caused by its reporters desperate for scoops at the expense of the victims.
To put the whole picture in perspective just imagine the Sunday Nation folding up because of a public backlash. Well that is the fate that befell UK's largest selling newspaper News of the World (NoW). And trust the Murdoch Empire to spring an unprecedented surprise to give itself room for reinvention.
Here is a recap for the uninitiated. Britain's best selling tabloid known for scoops on celebrities and politicians falls on its own sword by hacking phones of DEAD victims going as far as deleting messages to create room for more. Well, there comes a time when those with DISPOSABLE income for cheap talk cannot take such toxic gossip.
Give it to Rupert Murdoch's son James for sacrificing a whole institutions of 168 (yes one hundred and sixty eighty) years to please a populace suffocating from cheap gossip. But give credit where it is due, at least NoW showed some element of sensitivity albeit plastic. It is no brainer to see the Sun going the extra day to fill the smartly created void.
I couldn't fathom it when my students (remember the PENSIONER?) solicited my opinion on the merit of sacrificing a whole newspaper (NoW) to save its CEO Rebbekah Brooks. And there comes the common thread sewing politics across continents - POLITICS. Ms Brooks was the editor when all this hacking broke out early last decade and even testified on the same under oath. What is more, current UK PM's first director of communication - one Any Coulson - is the one who succeeded Ms Brooks besides the face that David Cameron himself was a social guest of Brooks sometimes back.
The moral of the present bombshell at NoW is that politics is the same evil across continents. Expediency is common denominator as evident in Rupert Murdoch's transparent gimmick to pull wool on the British's collective face while he schemes to buy BskyB later in the year.
In a nutshell when economics clashes with morals, there is only one winner an unfortunately it is not the later. Same game of deceit and fraud except played abroad. Let conspiracy theorists go overdrive to mint their stuff with regards to the present UK media Tsunami.
We just "met" Juvenal and "asked" him what he "thought" of this spectacle.
ReplyDeleteHe laughed very loudly and as the laughter went down, he told us, it just BREAD and CIRCUSES.
In other words, just another DETRACTION from the REALITIES and the GAME PLAN.
Anyway, since we passed thru Babylon, which Bob said HAS NO FRUITS, we thought it nice to listen to the Babylon System:
Babylon system is the vampire,
Me say: de Babylon system is the vampire, FALLING EMPIRE,
Building CHURCH and UNIVERSITY,
DECEIVING the people CONTINUALLY,
Me say them graduatin' THIEVES and MURDERERS;
http://is.gd/rKJiRS
xxx
And, by the way Taabu, the way things are going, you may have to end your retirement and head back to WORK.
Which work, and where, and what pay, we do not know. Good luck brother!
I have always had great respect and admiration for individuals who have managed to pull themselves up by their bootsstraps and went on to better their lives and influence the world around them.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the question on many people's minds is how did a mere secretary manage to rise up the ranks only to become the first female editor of a newspaper like 'The Sun'?
And then later went on to become the chief excutive of the News International without ever having earned a college degree in journalism or in any other discipline of sorts?
The woman has done a lot of deservice to all women who have managed to break the glass ceiling as well as millions of women oout there who are still struggle to break through the glass ceiling.
I am sure from now on she will forever remain a cautionary tale in the corporate world with regard to "How Not To Quickly Promote Some Individuals Up the Corporate Ladder" without necessary (minimum) qualification.
On the other hand, the tsunami of a scandal may end up causing a lot of collateral damage in its wake, as more details emerge.
I would be busy looking over my political shoulders if I were in David Cameroon's shoes, especially when it comes to the old saying, show me your friends (the company you keep) and I will tell you who you are.
It's a fact that she's skilled in the art of befriending upward, another way of stating that she overly compensated for some unresolved childhood issues as it were.
BTW, she can't deny that she didn't know what was going behind the scenes, why?
Either she's complete incompetent, or she knew about it in one way or the other.
Anyway, Good riddance is the best way to put! And those responsible must not only be "named and shamed" but prosecuted as well.
After thrying to delete this comment a couple of times in vain, pensioner Taabu has decided to bury the whole article with another one about the woes of our colonial masters. Who gives a (expletive)!!
ReplyDeleteHere is what they dont want you to read:
The DECEITFUL Ida Odinga
When it was fist reported in 2008 that the VP and PM spouses were to get a monthly allowance, the latter sent this statement to the press;
Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s wife Ida Odinga, has declined the Sh400,000 monthly allowance offered by the State. Mrs Ida Odinga, however, thanked the Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura for recognising the public responsibility she shoulders by virtue of being the PM’s wife
See story here: http://www.kenyalondonnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2323:ida-declines-state-allowance&catid=41:kenya-headlines&Itemid=44
on the other hand, the VP's wife Pauline accepted the allowance for her charity work.
Well, 3 years down the line, it has emerged that Ida has silently been receiving the allowance.
The enraged MP's who are on a revenge spree after it emerged that they will start paying tax have threatened to withdraw the TAX FREE allowance that Ida Odinga and Pauline Musyoka have been enjoying. Mt Elgon MP Fred Kapondi said: “We are going to deal with this hypocrisy and double standards exposed by these leaders whose spouses earn more than MPs in allowances which are not taxed.”
While Kenyans have been used to politicians cheating openly in the public, Ida deeply betrayed many Kenyans who believed in her words and thought she empathised with their suffering.
Full story here: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/MPs+threaten+Kibaki+and+Raila+over+taxes/-/1064/1195938/-/5g4n52z/-/index.html
Update:
Amb. Muthaura has confirmed that Ida and pauline have been receiving the monthly allowance since 2008. When asked about the public rejection of the same by Mrs. Odinga, Amb. Muthaura smiled and said that public policies are not made or broken through media statements but through official channels. He said that he personally wrote to Ida in 2008 asking her to send him an official letter to reject the pay but until yesterday his office has not seen any.
He directed the media to Mrs. Odinga who so far is not willing to talk to the media.
Taabu, you forget to address one of the thorny issues that has existed since the first newspaper came off the press without a hitch.
ReplyDeleteCall it what you will, but it's the buying of information, paying for inside sccop and bribing anonymous sources within the police force in order to gain an egde over the competition.
Imagine for a second, how many times information has been bought or traded for a price within the Kenya police force and other sources given our extreme cultural predisposition to corruption.
I guess we learned from the best, our former colonial masters and the institutions they left behind after Great Britain could ill afford its one time glorious global status as a mighty royal power to be reckoned with.
Anyway, let the lawsuits against Rupert Murdock's empire begin for all they worth.
In the meantime, pop goes the weasel for a man who could groomed any one of his very intelligent and capable daughters to ran and eventually the take over the publishing dynasty's empire.
But instead, he allowed patriachal countertranference to get the best of him, and gave the Trojan Horse (you know who!) the opportunity to exploit and consequently destroy what could have been a very successful family business empire.
How true of the Thomas theorem that "If men define situation as real, they are real in their consequences."
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
What goes around must come around, and Rupert Murdock didn't learn from his empire's past mistakes. So he just went on and made another one of those "most terrible" blunder in its history.
ReplyDeleteThe late Ian Robert Maxwell must have already rocked his final resting place with a very loud crack of posthumous laughs - "GOTCHA! IT'S YOUR TURN TO TASTE THE TOASTING FORK!.
Now we know why Taabu envy with bitter jealousy those who are in diaspora. What has New of the world a trashy British tabloid newspaper got to do with Kenyans?
ReplyDeleteThis got to show how much Taabu want to be British! Sorry you should have migrated there long time ago before doors were closed.
"News of the world" that name is very misleading and I guess this is why the writer of this post thought it is newsworthy. NOT! News of the World is a crappy Newspaper that feeds on scandals, rumours, character assasisnation and "exclusives" in the most brutal way. I don't see why the death of a tabloid newpaper far away in a foreign land got to do with Kenya. And to make the matter worse, this is one newpaper that would NEVER report anything about Kenya, both good and bad.
ReplyDeleteIn almost 2 decades i have lived in this country (UK) it has never crossed my mind I should buy this trashy piece of paper!
Will definitely miss NOTW (News of the world) and especially their investigations into the scandals of the high and mighty.
ReplyDeleteThey used to have an undercover reporter called Mazher Mahmood whose investigations helped put nearly 200 criminals into jail.
This reporter's identity is private and highly secret due to the sensitive nature of his work and the so many threats on his life by criminal underworld. He has never stepped into the newsroom, even his colleagues don't know him. To read more about him, check:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazher_Mahmood
Some people like to comment both anonymously and using their well known handles he he he.....
ReplyDeletecontd..
ReplyDeleteUpdate:
Amb. Muthaura has confirmed that Ida and pauline have been receiving the monthly allowance since 2008. When asked about the public rejection of the same by Mrs. Odinga, Amb. Muthaura smiled and said that public policies are not made or broken through media statements but through official channels. He said that he personally wrote to Ida in 2008 asking her to send him an official letter to reject the pay but until yesterday his office has not seen any.
He directed the media to Mrs. Odinga who so far is not willing to talk to the media.
The only good thing this paper did was to expose several English premier league footballers and their cheating/marital unfaithfulness ways.They were very good at that, and that's the job they excelled in with honours.
ReplyDeleteThe only media group not owned by Jews!
ReplyDeleteStudying why daily newspapers around the world are successful (or not) has been my favourite hobby for over 20 years now and this news comes as a shock to me.
ReplyDeleteThe newspaper that popularised "bonk" journalism in Britain. As one of it's past lady editors once put it when complaining about how boring press releases on celebrities were; "I want to know who is fu**ing who." And she proceeded to tell her readers exactly that. Indeed that has always been the mantra of this famous (or shall I say infamous) tabloid.
Well you can't argue with profits and the bottom line can you? It is no secret that The News of the World and the equally notorious sister newspaper the daily THE Sun (the first newspaper in the world to carry a page 3 girlie photo where she was completely nude-b4 that they at least wore swim suits) for many years gave owner Rupert Murdoch a staggering 80% of his total profits worldwide and the man at the timw owned many many newspapers all over the place. The last time I checked NOW was the highest circulating Sunday newspaper in the world hitting 8 million copies at one time while The Sun held the same accolades for dailies easily selling well over 4 million copies daily for many years. Yep, Britain has been very kind to the Australian-born Rupert Murdoch.
And yet there is another long forgotten chapter of the history of The News of the World. Namely the early struggles where at one point a hat had to be passed round the room to raise sadaka cash to keep things going.
But truth be told the Murdoch empire will miss nothing with the death of NOW. Technology is rapidly sending the newspaper as we know it to it's death bed and as we wait for the funeral of the newspaper the void will be filled by The Sun (as Taabu suspects) extending beyond Saturday.
Thanx for this one Taabu, although many Kumekucha readers and Kenyans will be wondering what the hullabaloo is all about, this is indeed shocking news.
Chris Kumekucha
P.S. Let me try and explain to Kenyans what kind of newspaper The News of the world was. Imagine that raunchy monthly magazine called Seen being turned into a weekly Sunday newspaper and disguising what it really is by interspersing the titillating articles with a few very brief political stories and then being marketed the way the Sunday Nation would be marketed.
Fellow Kenyans,
ReplyDeleteThose of you living in the foreign western capitals should celebrate the fall of such media publishing houses which made their livelihood out of destroying the lives and careers of countless nobodies
Thank God here in Kenya the media has not yet reached such ridiculous levels of hypocritical double standards of "reporting" on completely useless and trivial issues such as footballers and their clandestine activities. The western world is mad with white man's disease of indignity-
nothing is sacred anymore to our "wazungu" friends, from women's dressing through to the behavior of their children who kill for fun in gangs on the streets, pop babies out at high teenage pregnancy rates and as we saw in America recently, mothers killing their children because they want to have "fun"
Fellow Kenyans, let us not ape and imitate the west blindly.your culture and values are too rich, keep them
Of all other people I can't believe Chris you are celebrating the "death" of this newspaper. You and I know very well nothing dies in British culture. Everything that dies always come-back but in a different name. It's called a culture of re-inventing, re-branding, re-naming and re-cycling or sometimes comes with title "under new management". The idea to close this newspaper was a cynical move and already a new domain was registered few days ago under the sundaynews.co.uk
ReplyDeleteThis is the newspaper that was obsessed in exposing the English footballers and members of Royal family. I am sure they must be believing in Karma now.
ReplyDeleteThe paper notoriously published love letters of Princess Margaret (Queen's sister) and her several affairs. It also published "Camilla-gate" tape which exposed Princess Charles affair with Camilla, exposed Princess Diana affairs, Fergie (Duchess of York) affair which led to divorce from Prince Andrew and more recently Prince Harry escapade with a lap dancer.
If there is anyone to celebrate the death of NOTW it should be the Royal family.
Thank God here in Kenya the media has not yet reached such ridiculous levels of hypocritical double standards of "reporting" on completely useless and trivial issues such as footballers and their clandestine activities. The western world is mad with white man's disease of indignity-
ReplyDeletexxx
It is called, CRIMINOGENIC Society/Civilization.
So, children, please repeat loudly, CRIMINOGENIC society/civilization. Good.
As we have repeated countless times, such a society, is organised to:
(a) plunder, and
(b) destroy.
So, if this is the chief end of the present civilization, why are we shocked every time we hear these things??
Don't we understand ourselves? Didn't the ancients teach us that, KNOW THYSELF is the first rule?
xxx
Lest the "children" be shocked next time, always bear this in your minds:
(a) When mere riches, or court-favour, are supposed to constitute rank, the mind is misled from the
consideration of qualities on which it ought to rely.
(b) in such a society then, the magnanimity, courage, and the love of mankind, are sacrificed to
AVARICE and VANITY,
(c) as such therefore, the individual considers his community so far only as it can be
rendered subservient to his PERSONAL ADVANCEMENT or PROFIT.
He/she therefore, situates himself in competition with his fellow-creatures; and,urged by the passions of emulation, of fear and jealousy, of envy and malice, he follows the MAXIMS of an ANIMAL destined to preserve his separate existence, and to indulge his CAPRICE or his APPETITE, at the EXPENSE of his species.
Anyway, since this Greek, let us retreat and listen to words like these:
So they build their world in GREAT CONFUSION,
to force us the DEVIL'S ILLUSION.
http://is.gd/q69GPr
Mwarang'ethe,
ReplyDeleteSpot on. But your take is better understood together with the different ETHOS in each society. It may be cheap to dismiss everything existing or western before hand but putting them in context may shed plenty of light, ama?
You must have known something called DISPOSABLE INCOME (forget the abstract historical economics!). With that you will appreciate that a TABLOID cannot thrive locally where unga is scarce.
Flip side: imagine Londoners waking up to your SCHOLARLY posts every morning as a newspaper. Would they buy or even understand? Your guess is as good as mine.
Life is not an exam and you only take it so seriously to regret missing the fun.
News of the World was brought down by another media group called Guardian which is owned by Jews. Guardian is the most leftie "liberal" newspaper in Britain. You will find people like our very own (here in Kumekucha) Daniel Waweru contributing in Guardian newspaper.
ReplyDeleteThis is the only newspaper that reports stories from Kenya and one of the few newsapapers with permament correspondents and journalists based in Nairobi.
Mwarang'ethe,
ReplyDeleteSpot on. But your take is better understood together with the different ETHOS in each society. It may be cheap to dismiss everything existing or western before hand but putting them in context may shed plenty of light, ama?
xxx
We have not dismissed everything existing from the West brother.
We have problems with their IMPERIALISM. Period.
Which side are you on this brother?
xx
You must have known something called DISPOSABLE INCOME (forget the abstract historical economics!). With that you will appreciate that a TABLOID cannot thrive locally where unga is scarce.
xxx
Have you heard of something called:
(a) DEBT ridden society?
In other words, DEBT is not WEALTH.
More so, have ever heard of:
(a) imperialistic society which creates DISPOSABLE INCOME via MURDER, ROBBERY, FRAUD?
To understand these, you may require a bit of historical ABSTRACT economics brother.
xxx
Flip side: imagine Londoners waking up to your SCHOLARLY posts every morning as a newspaper. Would they buy or even understand? Your guess is as good as mine.
xxx
They will not buy, or, even understand because as it was in the ancient world:
(a) elite are EDUCATED, and
(b) the PEASANTS are TRAINED to enjoy bread and circuses.
So, how does understanding (a) your own mind and (b) your own society become scholarly?
If it is scholarly to understand the two, how then do you solve problems you do not understand? Oh, we know, by taking OPIUM.
xxxx
Life is not an exam and you only take it so seriously to regret missing the fun.
xxx
If there is anyone who is having fun it is Mwarang'ethe.
As we have noted many a times, there is nothing as humorous as studying human mind.
By so doing, you can see the human follies and have a lot of fun while doing that.
Let us return to some fun with UB 40: Homely Girl:
http://is.gd/Ysxrlh
... Taabu wants to be British!
ReplyDeleteThat's a new one. So, why would Taabu of all people want to become an Anglo-Saxon when there are so many Brits dying to become Canadian citizens, American citizens, Australian citizens, Swiss citizens, Dutch citizens and even Scandinavian citizens?
To the best of your recollection, has Taabu ever wanted to be part of the nyeusi population who still dream of becoming third class subjects of The United Kingdom of Great Britain, only to remain as such for the rest of their lives in a heavily stratified British society?
FYI, no offense intended to the south Asians (formerly "Kenyan-Indians") and "ethnically black African-Kenyans," the economic immigrants (refugees) who are now part of the 29,000 Kenyans who have become legal and loyal British subjects in the last past decades.
NB: ["When used in a historical context, the term British people refers to the ancient Britons, the indigenous inhabitants of Great Britain south of the Forth."]
@Anon 6:45 AM
ReplyDeleteAnyone can be British even the pigeons (birds) nesting around London are also British.
Being British has a very wide definition. You don't have to be born in UK to become British.
You could be black Kenyan, Somali, Indian, Ugandan, Iraq...but still be British.
The indigenous people (Anglo-Saxons) are ethnically either called English, Welsh, Scots or Irish but collectively known as British.
Anyone who have sworn an oath of allegiancy to the Queen and the Crown (her country) is called British irrespective of the race, colour, religion or creed.
The News of the World of British Gossip fell on its own double edged sword when it was brought down by the hubris of two of its own bigwigs.
ReplyDeleteRubert Murdoch, a man with an outrageous ego and epitomizes narcissim at its worst.
Rebekah Brooks, a woman who thought that she had the chutzpah to delude herself into believing that she had finally arrived at last, and become ubiquitous within the exclusive circles of the British high society.
Although she may have been daring, cunning and resourceful, she didn't really have the much needed foresight as well as what it takes to lead and sustain the now bygone newspaper in the world of ruinous competition for sleaze in the United Kingdom.
The Guardian had nothing to do with The News of the World of British Gossip disgracing itself in many ways than mentioned by the rest of the international media houses.
As for Daniel Waweru, he's a moderate journalist (not a "leftist") who is known for his contribution of well researched and very objective articles in various international newspapers, magazines and journals as well.
Preaching to the choir.
ReplyDeleteRe: Anglo Saxon when used in the historical context and not in the present day economic immigrant (refugee) context.
FYI, thousands and thousands of Anglo-Saxons still acknowledge duty of allegiance and swear ancestral loyalty to their religious roots at Stonehenge, Woodhenge, and Bluestonehenge every summer solistice.
Folks,
ReplyDeleteBottom line? don't copy the western society blindly to the point of aping their every word/thought/movement forgetting that you have your own very valid and very rich nuanced culture, sub culture and communities which need to be given expression otherwise they also won't thrive or survive
It always amazes me when one African in the diaspora decides to "lose" their beautiful sounding natural God given voice accent and replace it with the nasal, rhasphy sounding high pitched accent of the particularly the Americans and to an extent the British
You don't have to go for to find examples of what i'm talking about. Look at Robert Nagila local NTV reporter here on our own TV screens.
You wonder why God wasted time giving you an Kenyan accent only for someone to toss it back in his face with insults and abuse. Its very funny though that western foreigners living in our country never end up sounding like Kamau or Musyoka or Otieno or even Tobiko
Kenyans stop being ashamed of your heritage. It is rich and colorful and to be envied
Anon 8:29
ReplyDeleteSorry but your comment is subjective. Unless you have lived in Diaspora to know how difficult it can get to find a job with your Kenyan accent, then don't make that stupid comment.
Preach to the Kenyan masses and leave the Diasporian alone. Life is difficult as it is here and keeping your Kenyan accent in the name of preserving your culture will only make it even more difficult.
If you are talking about keeping your mother tongue that's a very different story altogether but accent, it's a BIG NO!
Anon 8:55AM
ReplyDeleteWhy so defensive my friend?In the course of the job i do i have traveled widely and seen CHINESE with their BLOKEN EGRISH who work in all sorts of low to middle to high income blue collar jobs. People around them seem to make room for them despite their bad sounding accents, sometimes a translator is even used to communicate.But it seems i touched a raw nerve for you,is it because you had swallowed the lie whole that to impress the whites you have to speak like them?
Competence will always Trump Accent anytime. how come the Chinese/Malaysian/Nigerian/South Africans i meet and work with here manage to preserve their culture and keep their jobs? whats special about them?
Anyway you are free to Keep your American sounding accent, it is impressive to those of us back here by the way ever wondered how come the whites who marry Kenyans never end up adopting the Kikuyu/Luo/Meru accent let alone bother learning the language apart from the token greetings and polite platitudes?talk about brainwashing mmmmmmmh!
BTW, what is African about the English language if I may ask? You cannot eat your cake and have it.
ReplyDeleteLeave BRODAS out of this kitchen tiff, won't you?
No one here is talking about the innocent people who have to loss their jobs at the closure of the News of The World. Thousands will not have a job come next week while that witch CEO is keeping her job.
ReplyDeleteProvide Kumekucha with a two to three minutes segmented presentation of your God invested accent, before raising your accented finger against Robert Nagila and others in the Kenyan media, and let's be the judges.
ReplyDeleteBelieve or not, the general public or rather audience would surely prefer to listen to a presenter or person who is articulate and can be understood without the burden of having to constantly decipher a very heavy and deep Irish, Scotish, Welsh, Indian, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, Zulu, Tonga, Tswana, Bemba, Makonde, Sukuma, Nyamwezi, Haya, Nayaturi, Chagaa, Nyokole, Acholi, Toro, Alur, Teso, Samburu, Meru, Kamba, Luhya, Kikuyu, Luo, Kisii, Taita, Kalenjin, Tigrinya, Kaonde, or Texan accent or worse the United State's Southern drawl.
Folks like Robert Nagila, accent or no accent, hate them or like them, are doing a good very job, and one has to be understood by the majority in public spheres regardless of how lightly tinted our accents may be as long they are not so heavily coated unnecessary distractions.
Anon 10:35 AM
ReplyDeleteEmployees lose their jobs, laid off, and event get fired on a daily basis.
As sad as it is, we all never talk about it nor seem bothered when it happens.
Why should anyone care just because one more unethical and very obnoxious tabloid has been put out of its misery?
Man does not live by cheap village gossip alone.
News of the World was the only institution capable of bringing down the House of Windsor (British Royal family). It is a well known fact! In the last 30 odd years, NOTW has served as a 'thorn in the flesh' for the Royals. The paper has caused more heartaches and shame to this noble family more than anyone else in nearly 1000 years history of British Monarch.
ReplyDeleteThe Queen must be breathing a huge sigh of relief... at least for now.
Anon 10:36AM
ReplyDeleteNobody hates folks like Robert Nagila, or indeed many of the other anchors and news readers on our local television channels such as Julie Gichuru, Mark Masai, James Smat, Rama Nyang just to name a few of the well spoken and articulate young kenyan news reporters and journalists who make up our daily viewing quota; they are all doing a good job
But stop right there and allow me to ask you- Are you telling us that if we Kenyans whether from Nairobi County or Narok County or even NorthEastern parts of the nation, if we speak with the "God invested accent" to a mzungu we will fail to be understood by the majority in public spheres?surely?
Whether lightly or heavily tinted our Kenyan accents are by no means "heavily coated unnecessary distractions" in comparison to oh i don't know the Nigerians(particulary those from the Western part of that great populous nation), or the Chinese(all of them) or even the French, next door neighbours to the British!
Its all a mindset that stems from our innate inferiority complex as Kenyans. In the presence of a mzungu one Kenyan can even sing like a Canary bird due to the overwhelming sense of inadequacy we have instilled and inculcated deep within our psyche, and the need we have to prove to them that "we are also human like you"
The philosophy of that inadequacy has a mantra which simply states "Black is Back(wards), White is Right". Talk about modern day imperialism without all the usual hackneyed examples of televison/media/women/clothing
Whenever I come to Kenya to visit my family and relatives, I speak my mother tongue, here i speak with a perfect speeched English accent. Since I was not born here, the English accent did not come naturally and so I had to go to speech school to learn to articulate it. In this part of the world you have to lose any accent and speak like the natives if u want good social life and good career.
ReplyDeleteWhen Anglo-leasing came no body resigned.
ReplyDeleteWhen Goldberg came some became Christians but no one was charged. Some became friends of Gaddafi and turned to be very rich.
When they stole FPE funds they said they are junior officers who should take responsibility.
When Tritton came nothing happened. The minister got fatter cheeks.
They always have the slogan:
Everyone has to carry his own cross!
Can Moi carry his cross, can Kibaki do the same, Raila, Kiraitu, Ongeri, Ruto, Kalonzo, Mudavadi, Okemo, Jirongo, Gichuri, Uhuru, etc follow suit. We want a clean country.
London is showing us how it is being done.
There's nothing wrong with speaking like an American/French/German/British/Australian etc so long as you don't do it in deception believing that they wouldn't understand you if you spoke with your God invested heavy kikamba/meru/Taita/mswahili accent.
ReplyDeleteOurs is not as bad as say the chinese yet the same wazungu fall over themselves to do business/interact socially with them.
Ours is not as bad as say the chinese yet the same wazungu fall over themselves to do business/interact socially with them.
ReplyDelete7/8/11 1:37 PM
xxx
Simple. Individuals are not strong.
Individuals and their competency, brilliancy, education is not what matters.
What matters is the STRENGTH, ORGANISATION of the social groups the individuals come from. By social group we mean:
- families,
- clans,
- tribes,
- nations,
- races,
- religious organisations etc etc.
In other words, African come from the WEAKEST and the most DISORGANISED social groups in the world. If your name is Bush, you can become the USA president even if you know NOTHING. In the same USA, you may brilliant, but, u will never get there. Why?
In other words, Africans walk in this world as individuals. Other groups, walk as organised groups.
As such, it does not matter how intelligent you are, how smart you are, how good is you english, french etc, they always look at you as someone from the INFERIOR and DISORGANISED social group.
If you look back in history (we know some guys like Taabu, hate abstract history), you will realise that, the Chinese were treated like dogs in the West just the other day.
However, as they have become economically stronger, they have started to get respect in the West.
As such, a Chinese can speak rubbish english, french, but, he will get a job before an African who speaks like the Queen. As a matter of fact, Africans are highly qualified, but, it does not matter.
If you wanna see how the West treated the Chinese just the other day, see it here:
http://is.gd/WeFUGO
Just scroll down and see:
Execution of Boxers by BEHEADING.
xxx
For heaven's sake, understand yourself and stop wasting time with NOW stuff. It is not gonna help you.
mmmm, may be that too scholarly and not fun.
Anon 1:17 PM
ReplyDeleteThanks for having such a humorous bone in you on a soon to be early morning hours that have ushered in one of the worst weekend stormy weather in our semi-urban tropical village.
Congratulations and best of luck with your perfect speeched American/Canadian/Australian accent or perfect speeched British vernacular aka the Queen's language and the mother tongue of HRH Prince Charles and his royal sons HRH Prince William and HRH Prince Harry and all of their loyal subjects within the Commonwealth realms.
Taabu, why can't Ms. Brooks just resign instead of prolonging the pain, agony and embarrassment that will eventually befall her and crack her ruthless and egotistical self centered persona?
ReplyDeleteWell, hear ye hear ye hear ye from the horse's mouth; I am very angry at the people who did this and feel bitterly betrayed, although I don't plan on resigning [yet].
This is not exactly the best time of my life. I don't expect to be arrested - [[[because they know it and I know it that I have a lot of dirt, real dark dirt on 'Who is Who' in the high society. An asset that makes me untouchable not just for the being but for a long time to come]]] - but a particular part of the criminal investigation will lead to a very dark day for this company as we know it.
In a year you will understand why we made the decision to shut down News of the World of British Weekly Gossip.
How Will she manage to scare off the agents from the New Scotland Yard when they come for her before New Year's eve?
Wazungu fall over themselves to do busines/interact socially with them.
ReplyDeleteWachina are not addicted to the habit of blindly aping the wazungu culture. They have their own and have been proud of it for centuries.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Where is Kenya's or even Africa's equivalent of Lujiazui financial district of Pudong, Shanghai, the financial and commercial hub of modern China?
What about Africa's version of the ICBC - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd, one of the largest in the world, with a revenue of $68.68 billion, $1.724 trillion in total assets and 389,827 employees.
*Go fact check at ICBC.com.cn*
Wazungu will always go where there is good business to be made and then invest themselves in it for a profit.
But they will only go once on a safari to interact with four legged animals in the wilderness of the African continent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Paint all Wachina with the same brush at your peril.
First of all, how many well educated Wachina have you interacted with?
Then, how many highly qualified Wachina business men and women have you done business with?
Any Wachina friends, colleagues, associates, neighbours, etc on your quick dial or New Year's list?
Does it really matter in the larger scheme of things? Don't worry about it if it doesn't matter nor affect to your bottom line.
Anon@9:07PM
ReplyDelete......paint all Wachina with the same brush at your own peril..."
yet you paint the rest of us "Wafrica" with the same brush and also at your own peril-you assume that we haven't met and/or interacted with many well educated Wachina? Just because you may have not doesn't mean the rest of us don't, ask us and we will take you to so many of them, male and female,young and not so young, educated highly(PhDs etc) or "average" educated
We all have different experiences in life don't be quick to assume some of us are simply here commenting on Kumekucha as if we live on the moon.
......does it really matter in the larger scheme of things? Don't worry about it if it doesn't matter nor affect to your bottom line"
Nothing really matters in the larger scheme of things, after all whether you speak perfect english like Queen Elizabeth herself or with a heavy "God invested" meru accent like Kiraitu Murugi we will all die one day no matter how rich/poor/educated.
To show you how trivial your point is about nothing really matters just stop and ask yourself the following...why are Kenyans living in East Africa having a discussion about a white foreign tabloid newspaper in Britain which many of us have never heard of or even cared about till now?talk about lack of substance not mattering or affecting bottom line!
Fellow Kenyans,
ReplyDeleteNapoleon Bonaparte once said of China, "Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world."
some Kenyans and even Africans by extension are waiting for some white(not Chinese lol!) foreign aliens to make the same pronouncement about Kenya and by extension Africa so that we can magically begin to rise and shape the world like the Chinese (not the whites lol!)
As usual they refer to economies of African nations going up, doubling the average African's purchasing power etc.not accents and how American/European an individual sounds.
why are Kenyans living in East Africa having a discussion about a white foreign tabloid newspaper in Britain which many of us have never heard of or even cared about till now?talk about lack of substance not mattering or affecting bottom line!
ReplyDelete7/8/11 10:48 PM
xxxx
Thats how IMPERIALISM works.
You make the SERFS, PEASANTS, SLAVES and DUPES discuss IRRELEVANT things.
In other words, if you are going to be an imperial society, you must maintain the monopoly of what is discussed/MONOPOLY of DEFINITION of what is important and worthy discussing.
If you dare discuss anything beyond what the imperialists wants to be discussed, you will be accused of not having fun and bringing scholarly stuff into the lifes of busy PEASANTS, SERFS, SLAVES and DUPES.
To HELL with such satanic philosophy.
Anyway, let us continue having fun with Tosh:
Nowhere to hide
They are trying to find me
BABYLON charge I for ganja/being SCHOLARLY
http://is.gd/SfYHJl
Hooray for South Sudan!
ReplyDelete@Anon12:41 PM
ReplyDeleteI am sure you all heard of Steven Gerrad and Wayne Rooney (footballers). They are both Anglo-saxon British and ethinically from English tribe. But if these two were to move to London, the English Capital to look for a job, white or blue collar job, they would find it impossible to get one. Why you ask? Because of their accent! They speak with Liverpool accent which is not understood by Londoners especailly if you have to work with people (e.g sales, media, school, hospital, etc). Anyone coming from North of England (Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford, Birmingham, Yorkshire...etc) to London is recommended to lose the accent. So my friend it's not about Kenya people. Accents are not desired anywhere, you have to lose it!
*English* is a tribe, the indigenous (natives) people of England. The language English is derived from English people.
ReplyDeleteMwarang'the so what do you say when you write and speak with this imperiliast language. I am sure you like to impress you villagers with your perfect "imperial" language!
Queen's husband Prince Phillip is Greek! He's British by virtue of marriage to the queen. He was born and raised in Greece but became a British citizen after marring Princess Elizabeth as she was then. He also had to convert from Greek Orthodoxy christianity to Anglican.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand Queen's ancestors are German. This idea of "Queen English" is perfect is just a hogwash.
@Anon2:45 AM
ReplyDelete".......so my friend it's not about Kenya people. Accents are not desired anywhere, you have to lose it"
and yet when the same European/American/Canadians come to Kenya/African continent for holiday/safari/tourism you will find that the very same Kenyans(not the drivers/airportworkers/holiday agents but the ordinary plainclothes Kenyan walking aimlessly on the streets) some of whom do not even own a passport let alone have traveled from Nairobi to Limuru will automatically feel the need to speak to these foreigners and address them with the copy cat American/European/Canadian accent as they would in London
So what is it that makes them feel the need to speak with the same copy cat American/European/Canadian accent on Kenyan soil as if applying for a job interview?its simply low self esteem
even if you are speaking so clearly that the satellites orbiting in space can translate your words without needing to use subtitles you will still find that the Kenyan wants to sound like mzungu in perfect diction and elocution not to be understood but simply because "it sounds better and you look cleverer" in the eyes of the fellow tycoons around you
Low self esteem is the bane of African's existence
I know about 4 Kenyans who were exposed by the News of the World.
ReplyDeleteOne was obama's half brother who was involved in scandalous activities in UK. (around 2009)
The other one was a young Kenyan woman in mid 1990's who 'married' an under-cover NoTW reporter only to be exposed as a makaratsi bride.
Then there were these 2 Kenyan women living in Germany who accused several English footabllers of rape in Spain... but were later exposed as actually prostitutes. (this was around 2003)
Queen's husband Prince Phillip is Greek! He's British by virtue of marriage to the queen. He was born and raised in Greece but became a British citizen after marring Princess Elizabeth as she was then. He also had to convert from Greek Orthodoxy christianity to Anglican.
ReplyDeletexxx
Prince Philip and the Queen are COUSINS.
What do you make of this?
Just a tip. We noted before that, individuals are very weak. In other words, they are as strong/as organised as the SOCIAL GROUPS they come from.
xxx
On the other hand Queen's ancestors are German. This idea of "Queen English" is perfect is just a hogwash.
xxx
European ruling families are ALL Germans.
Just a tip.
When the Roman Empire collapsed, its territories were invaded by the GERMANIC BARBARIANS.
For instance, Franks occupied France and hence its name.
Remember the French Revolution? What did it have to do with this?
We may even add, they even instituted their BARBARIC feudal system as far as Greece.
NB: The BARBARIANS established a BARBARIC CIVILIZATION, which we now live in.
As concerns England specifically:
- Romans,
- ancient Britons,
- genocided by Anglo Saxons,
- genocided by Normans.
But, who were the Normans?
NB: Sorry for this abstract history.
However, if you do not have a copy of these "ancient" and "ABSTRACT" things, you will be mesmerised by NONSENSE.
Anyone heard of Ryan Giggs, manchester United footballer?
ReplyDeleteI am sure many of you would say he is 'white' British.
Actually Ryan Giggs is Welsh, from Wales. When playing football for his country he plays for Wales.
As of his race - that's a tricky one, he looks white but ethnically he is BLACK.
All his ancestors are black.
Rebekah Wade as she was known before marrying Mr Brooks was arrested by police in 2005 for hitting her then husband actor Ross Kemp. She is a hot-head woman just like her hair.
ReplyDeleteIronically at the time of this incident, Sun Newspaper was running a campaign against domestic violence. And from that point on, Rebekah Wade (Brooks) was referred to in Private Eye as "the slapper" (a pejorative word for a woman of loose morals in Britain, and a pun on the act of slapping).
This was big news then in 2005.
she was better known as "mama jama slapidu" at the time.
ReplyDeleteMwarangethe:
ReplyDelete"they are as strong/as organised as the SOCIAL GROUPS they come from."
The above sounds eerily familiar. Part of your *copy-paste* adventures, no? ;\
Imitation is the best form of flattery, as commonly said!
Stupid.
Mwarangethe:
ReplyDelete"they are as strong/as organised as the SOCIAL GROUPS they come from."
The above sounds eerily familiar. Part of your *copy-paste* adventures, no? ;\
Imitation is the best form of flattery, as commonly said!
xxx
Could you be married to your COUSIN as well?
Or, are you planning to do so?
Royals are called inbreds as they marry within themselves to preserve the 'blue blood'.
ReplyDeleteWhat Mwarang'the has said there is true. All the European Royal families are related to each other.
Regaarding the former son of Danny Wilson.
ReplyDeleteAnon 4:58 AM, you must be kidding aren't you? In this day and age of electronic media and slavish addiction to Premier League.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The "mzungu footballer" doesn't deserve any credit for his paternal ancestry.
This a man who has been very much afraid and so scared of being associated with anything "black African" to the point where he even avoided being seen in the company of three brothers - Anglo-Africans (South Africans of British descent) - who lived three blocks from his maternal grandparent's home, during his teenage years.
By all accounts, he's a "quarter black person" as it were, but it's his biological father - Danny Wilson - who is a version of 'Peter Kenneth' type.
The "mzungu footballer" has been known to have struggled so much with his side of his father's half identity since he was a teenager.
The issue of his paternal ancestry still unnerves him when its brought up or when he's confronted by it for whatever reasons.
As a teenager he was so bothered by his identity to the point where he decided "to pass" for a pure white mzungu, and went on to drop (rejected) his paternal name Wilson, and the rest is history.
The "mzungu footballer ("3-qtrs-mzungu") has never desired nor wanted anything to do with his grandfather's homeland.
Case in point, as an Ambassador UNICEF UK, he always opted to frequent projects Thailand and other Asian countries, but avoided going getting involved with any children's projects in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burkina Faso and Ghana.
One would assume that he must have been haunted a lot by the one-quarter-drop of Sierra Leonean blood (ancestry) that still flows in him.
BTW, most inhabitants of southern Italy have no clue about their a quarter-drop-blood of their ancient ancestry dating back to the era when ludi sustained crowds in the arenas of Capua.
That's a good one, "The News of the World of Weekly British Gossip."
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:38,
ReplyDeleteI don't know all the answers to your questions, but consider this, if a Londoner or anyone from South of England move up North to Liverpool or any other part of Northern England, that person is not expected to lose their accent. In fact the Southern accent including London accent is considered cool by the Northerners or 'superior'. So my friend, there is something about human race that I don't quite understand.
The accent from Southern England including London is only considered cool because that's an affluent and the most prosperous part of UK. It has been like this since the Roman times who made London the Capital.
ReplyDeleteThere is this aurgement in UK today about South and North divide, with the North complaining bitterly of neglect and under-development.
Exactly the same thing in Kenya. Nairobi, Central and parts of RV are considered cool and prosperous by other parts of the country and has been like this since British made Nairobi the capital.
Olympics are coming to London next year, this is something many Northeners cannot stomach. They feel South is favoured over them including the the fact the National Stadium (Wembley) is located in the South.
Talk of historical injustice!
NB: The Romans were only interested by areas surrounded by water. STRANGE. But the Romans only invaded countries around Meditereanian sea or anywhere near the waters.
Anon 10:20AM
ReplyDelete".........The accent from Southern England including London is only considered cool because that's an affluent and the most prosperous part of UK..........."
Similarly the accent of the American/European is considered to be more superior sounding by Kenyans, no matter how articulate a Kenyan may sound without imitating the wazungu.
I guess only God will ever know why He chose to give Africans such unfortunate natural accents which can't be understood outside their continent
"...I guess only God will ever know why He chose to give Africans such unfortunate natural accents which can't be understood outside their continent...."
ReplyDeleteAfricans DO NOT have unfortunate natural accent, I don't know where you got that from!
I would rather have any African accent than hear accents from India or Pakistan... or worse still like sleep-induced accent from Finland and other Viking countries!
".......I would rather have any African accent than hear accents from India or Pakistan... or worse still like sleep-induced accent from Finland and other Viking countries!"
ReplyDeleteyou are alone in your delusions. before you thrown stones at me just switch on any of local TV stations right now which are showing the 9pm news and tell me which of our young male or female Kenyan journalists/reporters/news anchors are actually speaking in a normal Kenyan accent without trying to intonate and enunciate like a mzungu.
Take your time finding just one example, and don't rush
"....just switch on any of local TV stations right now which are showing the 9pm news and tell me which of our young male or female Kenyan journalists/reporters/news anchors are actually speaking in a normal Kenyan accent without trying to intonate and enunciate like a mzungu...."
ReplyDeleteSorry all my local TV stations are all Mzungus and few black and Asian faces who ALL speak with the same accent. They do not imitate anyone.
As of your local stations, yes i did hear (the last time I was in Kenya) your journalists trying so hard to sound different like that woman you call Julie Gichuru.
She's just sounds terrible. Probably the worst of the kind... I dare imagine if there are others like her.
She does not speak with any accent I can recognise but I bet Kenyans thinks she speak with "British" accent. WRONG! That's a forced accent, God knows from where!
Maybe you should just stick with Swahili language. That's your national language and it's African.
ReplyDeleteWhy the hell would anyone want to speak someone else tribal language? English is a tribal language for English people, the natives of England.
As of Canada, Australia, US and New Zealand, it is the same people Anglo-saxons aka English people who migrated to those countries centuries ago and maintained their tribal language.
Here's your answer Mwarangethe:
ReplyDelete"Royals are called inbreds as they marry within themselves to preserve the 'blue blood'."
Very simple--no cut and paste. Heh-heh!
Anon 12:36,
ReplyDelete".....Maybe you should just stick with Swahili language. That's your national language and it's African...."
how verbose yet so ironic? why don't you just re-type your comment in Swahili and practise what you preach?
don't drink water and preach wine-no using the online internet language translators IF you can
Anon 12:51 PM
ReplyDeleteYou should go to Muscat in Oman and hear your national language (Swahili) being spoken there without any objection. Don't they just love speaking fluent Swahili in Oman!
I was in Turkey few weeks ago, Istanbul aka Constantinople, the former capital of Roman Empire and Ephesus(biblical one) the capital of East Roman Empire, and astonishingly I found evidence of Swahili language everywhere. (Of course Turkish language is mixture of Arabic and Turks).
So my friend be proud of your Kiswahili, speak it and speak it eloquently and with pride!!
Anon 2:11 PM
ReplyDeleteLest we forgot the influences the Persian and Ottoman empires have had along the coast of eastern Africa, from the Port of Aden to Maputo.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIf you thought UK is an equal country...then think again.
North-South divide in UK:
xxx
"Say what you like, our Queen reigns over the greatest nation that ever existed."
"Which nation ?" asked the young stranger, "for she reigns over two ... two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners and are not governed by the same laws."
"You speak of" — said Egremont hesitatingly.
"The Rich And The Poor."
Disraeli’s Sybil, 1845.
NB: Cut and paste. Not fun. Scholarly. Abstract historical.
Anyway, as Burning Spear would sing:
I admit we go to SCHOOL
But we never FINISH
Not UNTIL we reach upon
The soil of Africa, where in
I and I can be teached by AFRICAN TEACHERS
O yes I and I can be teached by African Teachers
http://is.gd/FTqiqJ
The last copy of News of the World was printed last night with the title "Thank you and Goodbye"
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time ever a national newspaper has stopped circulation.
Died at the age of 168 years!
RIP
1843-2011
CHECK OUT THIS NEW BLOG!!!http://kenyangirlsrelationshipblog.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteNow you know why the United Kingdom has always lagged behind in modern era, it's because they are myopic, provincial and can be very pretentious at their own peril.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, the UK has never emerged from the a time when the 'British Historical Society' was the mouth piece of the whole kingdom and set the timeline for every major event under their royal ruled skies.
The Brits missed the boat when it came to investing into what the Wright brothers were busy trying to do in terms of being ahead of the times.
They also failed when it came to "sending a man into space" let alone "putting a man on the moon."
They have also failed miserbaly in terms of making inroads in the world of the internet technology trends, digital photography, modern medicine, auto industry, culinary, et al.
Seems as if the whole kingdom is still trying so hard to figure out what really sank the RMS Titanic on 15 April, 1912.
Anyhow, if a 168-year-old - yes one hundred and sixty eight year old - paper can all of a sudden be sank down the gossip drain, or be "brought down by a scandal that is rocking Britain and threatens the empire of a" so called "previously unassailbale mogul" - an egomaniac who had pimped the now dead newspaper into apulpit for bulling, blackmailing, arm twisting, vindictiveness, power games, personal greed, and unethical political gain rather than for sake of informing the general public and at the same time maintaining journalistic standards, then one wonders what is next in line to be sank or will be brought down by one or several of the other unassailable moguls in the United Kingdom.
As it has been said before, those who live by goosip and profit from it, get brought down by the very same vicious cycle of village (national) gossip.
Adios and vaya con gossipos
They bigger they think they are, the more difficult it is for them understand how harder they will fall when their time is due.
ReplyDeleteSuch is now the case with one red haired Rebekah Brooks, an individual who once thought that she was above the law, she well connected to the door knocker at 10 Downing Street, she felt that she was untouchable, and worst of all, she thought that by being mixed with some few bad apples at the Scotland Yard, she would always be ahead of any media or political deluge.
Unfortunately, so many victims of her senseless but disgustingt hacking games, former emlpoyees, ex-friends who had been left by the roadside over the years and a few good men in the British police force and the Scotland Yard had already sung dirge without music in her name several years ago.
And the collective curse seem to have taken effect now that Rebekah Brookes, a one time one of the most powerfula and feared women iin the United kingdom is under arrest like a common criminal from East London of the early 1970s.
May the legal system throw the book and her as well as lock her up for years and throw the keys away, so that she can rot in prison for the next thirty years or more.
What a top furious b.tch she has been in the world of British journalism, and for all the wrong, unethical and very evil reasons.
Good riddance!