Humanitarian crisis - Kenya, where are the leaders?!

One of Africa's last standing remnants of anything resembling a stable democracy, Kenya, could be on the verge of self-destruction at the dawn of this new year. Though pitiful when compared to the more advanced first world nations, Kenya is a leading giant among its East African counterparts and a more than respectable country as far as third world countries are concerned. It is not the leaders who are to blame but rather the lack thereof. Ever since independence, the sovereignty has been plagued with a terrible disease - no leaders. In place of leaders, Kenya has immature greedy men who seek nothing but the accumulation of wealth. To build their Swiss bank accounts and not to build a nation. They fill the hearts of wananchi, citizens, with hope with the same dexterity they fill they pockets with looted money. Well, the past few days wananchi in the lake port town of Kisumu decided to follow the "leader(s)" so to speak and go on a shopping spree of their which consisted of reigning terror on the shops unsuspecting business owners. They looted the whole city, an estimated goods worth millions of dollars, in a single day. All in the while burning hallmarks and quite a few shops in the city. A Hilton Hotel, one of the longest standing ones in the country, est 1979, was not spared either, the only remains are the ashes from the fire. Infuriated by the policies of the government in power, the Kisumuans began evicting anyone suspected of being in favor of the government from their town, threating them with death and in fact killing a good number of them. The next few days saw the same process being duplicated by people in areas all over Kenya.
Just like the government, most of its supporters are from Kenya's majority tribe, the Agikuyu or Kikuyu as they are normally referred, comprise 40% of the 30million Kenyans. Unfortunate it is for anyone belonging to this tribe cause the hostility is mainly being target towards them regardless of their political affiliation. It is evolving into somewhat of an ethnic cleansing. The government protesters are demanding for the current president to step down from power immediately for the bloodshed to stop. In response, the president and his government have shown no signs of doing anything of the like and have vowed to restore order and protect citizens from violence. The police have been stationed at areas of unrest all over the country. Curfews have even been announced for the highly stubborn towns; In Kisumu the police have the go ahead to shoot on sight anyone violating curfew schedules. The city center at Nairobi has been shut down and is for the first time in over a hundred years become a ghost town. Police have sealed it off to protect businesses from the ruin of potential looters. Over 300 people have lost their lives in the skirmishes, many of whom are women and children. 70,000 and counting have been displaced, no home, food, or shelter. Its approaching 7 days that these people have been forced to endure at such conditions, if nothing is done soon the death toll will rise to the thousands. Most of the afflicted are Kikuyu. It has been reported that the comotion was triggered by rumours of shady affairs on the governments part after some very peculiar delays, inaccuracies and other occurences were noted during the election process. A good number of notables in the electoral department along with the Commissioner himself have hinted at the involvement of government in the delays and irregularities that occured. The Commissioner, S. Kivuitu, even admitted to succumbing to the pressures of the government in releasing the questionable and skewed results. Another electoral official went as far as outrightly stating that ," I am putting my life on the line. But my conscious will not allow me to sleep knowing the things which occured during the process......" and he goes on about narrating his account with the corruption he witnessed the government undertake in the tallying of the votes.
All in the while the "leaders" are henpecking and finger-pointing at each other over the results of what was a flawed election. Despite the multitudes of people suffering, none of the "leaders" is yet to stand up and sacrifice his struggle for political power and avail their services in a honest effort to achieve peace. A leader is one who is willing to accept the responsibilities of saving his people's lives regardless of his or her political aspirations. Life comes first. In this respect the opposition leaders are a letdown mainly because of the fact that they are neglecting the responsibility to ensure safety for all Kenyans; why should you be president of a nation when you don't display any effort to aid dieing citizens whether or not they voted for you? The government in power is ultimately to blame for the lack of respect for democracy and free will they displayed by consciously cheating the electoral process and in turn Kenyans and the whole international community in general. The winner of the 2007 Kenya presidential elections was Raila Odinga and through underhanded tactics the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, and his government stole the election. Is it reason enough to go and kill someone cause he/she/her or his parents voted for Kibaki? The violent protestors need to brought to justice and pay for their crimes to the full extent of the law. It is never acceptable to kill innocent people, the election was democratic and free, meaning voters have the right to pick whom they may without fear of incrimination or any form of persecution. It is my wish that the killers will see how badly they have sinned and stop before they cause more harm. Fighting fire with fire only creates a big fire. And the leaders of the opposition in my opinion should stand ashamed for allowing their supporters to behave in such a manner without even making an effort at trying to tranquilize them. Kibaki and his government by their actions have lost the confidence of the whole international community. Kenya may have some men who are will better exemplify leadership qualities than others but it is yet to experience what it means to have true leaders, or even one true leader.

ANIMALS HAVE FEELINGS

We need to preserve animals (and plants) to maintain a balance in the ecosystem. Right now an equilibrium is far from being reached and thats why we have a lot of noise about Global Warming, the Kyoto protocol, rise in water level, more rains, floods, more intense hurricanes.. Am neutral on this. More like a mediator. If I can call myself that. And your right about this. No one is thinking straight. Govts are oppotunistic. Environmentalists are extreme and sometimes make no sense. We need to preserve our environment. But our safety and needs (not wants) come first. Or sooner than later the human race will be extinct. Scientists say man will die from drowning. Just like the interesting fable about how dinosaurs died from hunger because they destroyed their environment. If we need to create cities from settlements then we might as well be fair to the animals and resettle them elsewhere. They say 'animals have feelings too'. I believe they do.

The West vs. Islam on Women

I feel this is a largely unscathed topic in need of clarity. I also feel it deserves to be a topic on its own because its scope covers a lot of diverse issues that at first glance may not seem related to it.
It would suffice to say that in concurrence with the objectives of western governments, the media has tainted our view of the Muslim world. So much to the point that even the word 'Islam' itself conjures up images of oppression and totalitarianism. How ironic it is that the translated meaning of the word 'Islam' is peace.
The religion, although a much younger faith, bears within it the same teachings found in Judaism and Christianity, its "sister" faiths. Indeed all religions, even those of Afro and Asiatic origin teach the same principles. The stories, characters and traditions may differ but the core instructions are virtually one and the same.
And hence for one to say that Islam oppresses its women simply because they are required to wear head scarves and other type of clothing designed to hide their flesh(buibui-kiswahili) is absurd. That is like a Muslim man saying Christian males are mistreated cause they are not allowed to have as many wives as they can afford. Or a Jew saying the Hindu practice of cremation is stupid.
It is unfair and illogical for one to base his/her argument solely on his private experiences and beliefs. It is a very limited and stupid point of view to use when trying to ascertain facts about other cultures.
Muslim women are treated with a lot of respect and have enjoyed many privileges that most western women are only beginning to realize. Prophet Muhammad's wife for instance was a wealthy and respected merchant before and during her union with Muhammad. It was and still is not uncommon to see many woman holding very honorable positions in their community in the Arab and Muslim world. Contrary to what western popular thought may imply, Islamic women experienced the fruits of gender equality long before such ideas were even conceivable by westerners. It was only until the past century that women's rights started being evoked in the West.

THE ENVIRONMENT

A lot of the problems we face right now are because of people actively pursuing a "greener" planet! Their actions have directly and indirectly caused the death of millions upon millions and still continues to do so. One example in Africa is the strings that come attached with foreign financial aid. Countries like the US and many European countries usually give a lot of money to Africa. However, this money comes with a heap of conditions mounted upon it. One of the most outstanding limits on the use of this money is the prohibition of the building of dams and leevies across water bodies. The purpose is to keep the "natural flow" of the water, one of the goals of environmentalists. These is supposed to ensure the sustanance of wetlands and thus save plant and animal life. However the consequences to the inhabitants of such areas are fatal, literally. Malaria is very prevalent in the consequential areas and is responsible for countless deaths hitherto. Also the so-called natural flow of the water means seasonal flooding for many areas and thus reaking havock upon the crops and homes of their inhabitants. Malaria is an ancient disease that should have be nothing more than a distant memory, however our environmentalist friends have decided to make sure it does not become extinct.
95% of the species that once existed on earth are now extinct. The earth/environment is cruel. It is not our friend. We have mastered the environment and that is why we have been able to survive so long. All these synthetic and modern stuff we have invented are our way of coping with the harshness of nature. We are able to keep wild animals that would otherwise prey on us at bay, we are able to utilize natural sources of energy efficiently to make our lives easier;cars,aeroplanes, medicine, etc. We have eradicated numerous diseases and greatly increased our life span.
If we continue to adhere to environmentalists we will soon be extinct. Look at the Hurricane Katrina fiasco. There are countless cities built on sea shores. One of the risks is hurricanes, however to solve this many cities have employed the use of leevies/dams as barriers to the water surge of hurricanes. However for reasons of "natural beauty" and "natural flow of rivers/oceans" or God knows what, environmentalists have been persistent in their actions to stop leevy building and even destroy formely built leevies. A good example is in New Orleans where their efforts were successful and just like nature would have it, the hurricane struck and reaked havoc on many lives. They will say "see, global warming is causing hurricanes" but the reality is hurricanes have existed since the formation of the earth and are part of nature.
We have to be reasonable in our approach to conserve nature cause the reality is as much as we may love to think of its beauty we are just another insignificant spec of living species to nature. Life on earth has, can, and will go on with or without us!
One day we will be extinct. We can't do anything about it. Trying to "save the environment" though will definitely make that day come sooner. It is not always safe to listen to politicians, they just want to manipulate voters into electing and re-electing them till they retire and for that purpose they will say anything dramatic to capture the imaginations and draw masses. The media is also responsible for using the same antics. The news today is mostly about dramatizing and wowing the audience. We are in the era of attractive news casters and sugar coated media and dramatization. News media is entering the entertainment media. Watching CNN is like watching a movie sometimes. One has to take it with a grain of salt.