I have become a New York times addict though some times it annoys me coz of its pro Hillary slant on things. Well I was making my daily rounds on the nyt.com when I came across this video. I like stories likes these. It is interesting that I came across it right after having been thinking rather intensely about the state of black America and the need for us to continue stepping up on every front, bring the hustle from the back streets, to main street and on to wall street.

You go Ginger and Robbi!

I have been looking though the web for some good new Kenyan music now that the political scene is cooling off a bit. I must say that I am quite impressed with the music that is being leased by Nikki of “Hi Ngoma” fame.

I wasn’t always into her music, mostly becaouse she was supposed to be Prezzo girlfriend and I think he is a douch, so I figured she must be a douch to. It turns out though the see does have some talent, a really nice voice and more often than not gets “the full package” right. By this I mean she can sing well, on a good beat and then come out witha good video that complements the track.

The more I listen to Kenyan music the more accutely aware I become of the fact that most artist who are considered good in Kenya only have one or two of the elements of the “full package” locked down. It takes a really special artist to consistently, I repeat consistently deliver on all three fronts.

I would argue that Nikki has shown that she can do so. Here is her latest track “Kipofu”

This was probably what one would consider her breakout hit, “hii ngoma”:

This is absolutely pathetic! What ever happened to respect for the democratic process? Its gone from trying to find out what the people want to trying to force your opinion on everyone! And democrats think its in their interest to keep this going?! They better wisen up quick and realize they need to bring their A game or else we will end up with another republican in office and they will have no one to blame but their own disorganization and dilly dallying

Hat tip politicalArticles

This is really sad, we really need a serious push for better sex education within the black community instead of hiding behind the false notion that if we don’t talk about it, it’s not there

My girl gets another accolade, I love this chick, shes amazing

This is Hilarious! totally brings Clinton’s big state argument into perspective

This is the kind of double speak that sickens me in politics. I still maintain that if I was given the opportunity to jail someone right now, or at least slap him across the face it would be this punk called Alfred Mutua. I wish we lived by Spartan law were “every man, even a messenger of the king, is held accountable for the words of his mouth”. This man would so have been kicked into that bottomless pit.

Update: An interesting analysis of the double speak by Darubini 

A friend of mine recently asked me to answer two questions for her. The first was, why I think the student population is so enthralled with the electoral process this time around. The second was, what issues are of particular importance to me during this election. Since I support the Obama campaign, it was only natural that my responses took on a pro Obama tinge Here they are:

” Whether people acknowledge it or not, the fact of the matter is that young people are more engaged in the political process than ever before because someone came out and not only told them that their vote counted, he showed them that it counted. That someone was Barack Obama. Before Obama people gave student and young people in general a patronizing pat on the back and mumbled something to “I care about you, vote for me”. The disingenuous nature of their statements were clear but quite frankly it didn’t matter because young people from both parties just did not vote. They had become jaded by a political process that never really sought to engage them.

This can be seen most clearly from the turnout in the very first democratic primaries, before everyone got shocked into action and jumped onto the band wagon. There were record turnout in these primaries and in some cases like Hawaii, turnout has doubled! When the incoming flood of voters is analyzed, it is clear that a significant number are younger votes and of these a significant number are voting for Obama, the candidate who got them “Fired up, and ready to go!!”

The main things that I am concerned with are the state of the educational system in America and Americas relations with the rest of the world. On both counts Obama wins out in my opinion. He has promised to provide each college with a $4000 tuition rebate each year in return for performing volunteer service, thereby making college affordable for more Americans. This is critical as more and more low-tech jobs leave the country.

Also I believe that Obama’s deplomatic streak will be a boon to US foreign relations especially as the balance of power shifts away from America. Economic factors are diluting Americas ability to dictate to the world and as this happens, the ability to rally opposing sides around a common agenda becomes more and more important. There is no one better suited for this job than Barack Obama.  “

SI SE PUEDE! YES WE CAN!

I recently performed a poem for Wole Soyinka, Africas first Nobel Laureate. The poem is about the state of affairs in Kenya following the recent botched Presidential election. Here it is:

And so we danced,
Like over filled balloons, our hearts swelled with uncontainable joy,
And like overfilled balloons, they burst,
Exploding with the thunder, of the dawn of a new day,
A day of hope,
Shimmering with the luster of new beginnings,
We danced, and sang, and hugged,
And raised our hands to the heavens,
Thanking god for a victory, we had not yet won,
The odds were stacked in our favor, and defeat
Was unfathomable, improbable and therefore impossible
And so our feet shuffled,
And our hips swayed
And our shoulders shook,
And sent our arms flying in every every direction
Our bodies bent into shapes that would make a contortionist blush
Our faces lit up with full smiles that pealed into laughter,
As we counted unhatched chickens by the dozen
And readied them for slaughter,
For in celebration, we had declared a feast!

And Democracy watched, and she wept, for she had seen tomorrow…

Oh but the fat ladies song had not yet been sung,
For as we rejoiced, with reckless abandon,
Our opponents plotted, with meticulous precision,
The great theft was set in motion
A robbery to shame all others
Her abduction was laid out on paper,
while she succumbs, to her assailants potion
A treacherous elixir
A kiss of death planted on honey-drenched lips
The abductor steals life… like the murderer
Self-help does not exist here
No twelve step to salvation
She walks the plank
Her twelve steps to the edge of oblivion
She takes ten steps down twelve steps that lead to darkness
With each step, she reaches a new hell
Dante’s inferno
But not yet the end

And Democracy watched, and she wept, for she had seen tomorrow…

And the architect stands over his table
with his tools laid out in all their splendor
Dexterous hands run over their fine features
His touch is familiar,
his weapons yield in their masters hands
living weapons dressed in blue and black
pitch black shoe and camouflage slacks
living weapons that carry weapons of their own
He sends them on a mission, to rape and kill their own
They come in the name of justice
to those who will never know what just is,
to stop the ethnic conflict
but their tongue and their heart conflict
fueled by hate their hearts burn and raise the landscape
leaving burning huts and no escape
Fires blaze
Darkness falls
chaos reigns

And Democracy watched, and she wept, for she had seen tomorrow…

I read some thing yesterday in accounting book that piqued my interest. I was a cost management approached popularized by Toyota called Kaizen. I’m not too interested on cost reduction methods in large factories right now, but the principles that the Kaizen method are based on can be applied to every day  life.

The aim is to effect significant change by making small and continuous improvements to the process that you use. I think I have been slowly drifting towards a Kaizen approach to change. I think I am innately a “reengineering” kind of guy i.e. I favor large drastic changes rather than small incremental ones. I am beginning to see the benefits of making small shifts though.

Lets see how it goes

No its not a three part post, its the first post of my third attempt at blogging. Hopefully this time I will find topics interesting enough to keep me going and some sense of consistency. Maybe it comes with age I’ll try to keep them sort and sweet. On with it then!

I have been discovering some really good music of late. I went to the lupe fiasco concert in Austin two days ago and though the band was acting as if they were i competiotion with lupe and the other vocalist for who could be loudest, it was a pretty good show. Ofcourse I think Lupe is a genious and his hardcore fan base know most of his tracks by heart so I guess most of us just imagined what he was saying and sang/rapped along.

I did discover a wonderful new artist called Nikki jean though (pic from the concert below). Not only is she physically breath-taking to behold, she is also incredibly talented as a musician. Check out her myspace. She did the vocals on a number of song on the cool including one of my favorites, ‘little weapon‘

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