Simply Me

When i was young, i wanted to be a pilot. My friend awino wanted to be an engineer. In our primary school, we all wanted to either be a pilot, a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer. It was as if there were only four careers. I dont know how many attained those dreams but certainly me and awino havent, at least not yet.

Watching news yersterday made me remember my childhood dream. The news item was the release of the results of KCPE(Kenya certificate of primary education) Exams. The top achievers were being intervieweid. You can guess what they wanted to be when they grow up. Just one of the four careers mentioned above. The interesting part was when they started showing adult prisoners who had passed the exams. All but one wanted to be doctors. Is it a stage we all pass through? I got the feeling that if i take my grand ma to school right now, she'll want to be one of the above when she grows up. To make my sample more unbiased, I called my two nephews and asked them what they wanted to be when they grow big...one a pilot, the other one a doctor.

I cant understand why the dreams of the kenyan children are convergent....why our dreams were countable. Is it a case of parents living their dreams through their children? Could be, i certainly know of kids whose parents want them to be what they never managed to be. Or is it because our young minds options are limited to only those careers which are perceived to be well paying here in kenya?

Somalia isnt my country but as a somali i feel for it. I love it and i constantly weep for it. Today, the amharic vultures descended on it so as to remove the ICU, the wadaads who have brought a semblence of law and order to Xamar. I hope the ethiopians are slaughtered en masse...I pray that they be mudered till the body bags run out...

I loved this poem that is written by Mahamud Siad Togane. Full poem and post in somalilife; Click here for full poem

In one of his most memorable letters to the British, The Sayyid did not mince words, bluntly and boldly he spoke Truth to the arrogant and ignorant British imperial power.

He wrote:

I want to rule my own country. I want to protect my own religion....

All you can get from me is war, nothing else….We ask for Allah’s

blessings. Allah is with me as I write this. If you want war, I am

happy; if you want peace, I am also content . But if you want peace,

go away from my country to your own.



Today the leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts

The inheritors of the mantle of Sayyid Mohamed Abdille Hassan

Have delivered the same message

To the Tigrinyan Tosspot

To the Tigrinyan Totalitarian

To Mickey Mouse Melles:

If you want peace, go away from our country to your own.

Don’t listen to what Yay & Ghedi are whispering in your eager ears.

This land is not yours!

Our creed

Our country

Are not for sale.

Just like the days of the Sayyid

Just like the days of yore

Just like the days of lore

There are two types of Somalis:

The foolish faithless few traitors who let themselves be led astray

Like Yay

Like Ghedi

Who have treason in their blood.

These Melles minion mental mules are a minuscule minority

Without merit

Without muscle

Without marrow

Without mind

Without might

Without main

Without moxie

Without marbles.

Yellow Yay & Ghastly Ghedi are on The Road to Damnation:

It is their lot

To limp along the road to hell led by the nose by Mendacious Melles

To trot in terror behind the enemy alien honky Kaffir infidel

To understand nothing

To be condemned to Madness

Like Bush

They are full of bushwa

Like Bush

Like Blair

Like Melles

It is their lot

To hate Islam & Muslims

To despise the Sharia Divine Law

To be the children of the Devil

...


Posted in somalilife.com by 1_somali.

After a suprisingly easy exam today, the class' chief comedian asked a silly but thought provoking question;

If you have forced carnal knowledge of a prostitute, is it rape or robbery/theft?

Just a year ago, a cabinet minister made a joke about how the US govts pressure on its Kenyan counterpart about corruption was "like raping a woman who was already too willing..." That botched joke landed him in all sorts of problems with women and women groups...so you can understand our trepidation when we just kept queit, waiting for the one girl present to bring the sky down on him but since she just broke into a smile, we had a healthy and humurous debate... that of course ended in a stalemate thanks to the one woman present. What do u think, is it rape or robbery?

Exam season is here again for me. For the next two weeks i have to labour and try to pass. The only consolation is that with these exam, i say bye to university exams( I dont want a postgraduate degree, i have suffered enough).

As i prepare for this final exam, am asking myself if exams serve a noble purpose, if they have a noble purpose at all. Are they just for sifting the maize from the chaff, for separating the 'bright' from the 'stupid'? Can a single or even collective test score be considered our measure of intelligence? I tend to think that exams defeat their purpose. They never pick out the best. How else do you explain the fact that a person so good in exams becomes a total failure in work. Exams also aid the establishment of status classes in society, at least here in kenya. The rich kids go to the best schools, where they are then literaly drillied to pass exams. In this schools, one is thought to pass exams...no need to know because of knowledge, just pass the exams and then go get an ivy league education and come back to kenya to take your dads job. All these time the poor kid, who has a real appetite for knowledge doesnt get the necessary resources to do well in exams. At best, (s)he goes to a mid level college, otherwise its just another statitic, a drop out, for the rich guys to read about.

Perharps its a case of Hobson's choice. Perharps the system is not to blame. Perharps there is just no other way of testing one's creativity, imagination, innovativeness, effort and personality. But there is no consolation that exams fail to capture any of those attributes.

"You're a wonderful human being, but the tests don't show it."
Educator Chuck Lavaroni to Gilbert Medeiros after telling him he shouldn't plan to go to college as a result of his test scores. Chuck later met Gilbert at a party in Marin County, only to hear that Gilbert got a law degree, worked as vice president for a large real estate firm, owned and ran 5 different companies

Yesterday was world aids day. I didnt know these till i watched news late at night. So, to wish aids a belated 25th sad birthday, i have decided to place these banner. And go red too.



I am a happy man that the AIDS scourge hasnt affected somalis as much as it has affected the rest of Africa...but my country, Kenya, is bleading. I weap for Kenya. But despite all the gloom, there is good news. I am told in 3 years only, the Aids prevalence rate has dropped from a high of 13% among Kenyan adults to 5.9% these year. That is good news. I dont want to dwell on the AIDS statistics, they are appaling. They are shameful...its a pity. So, i'll do what i can. I'm starting by joining red today and hope to raise awareness among people.



Lets join (red) and make aids history.
Keep the promise.