Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Things that make you go mmhhhh...

Several things in a day. Tons in a lifetime.

Work:
Sucker uppers! Can't believe how an educated, trained professional can turn into a rat, just to win favor with an idiot. An idiot where how he got into management is being discussed as the 9th wonder. Sucking up, sucks on everyone. Its wayyyy uglier on men! How emasculating. And I'm expected to respect this same person as a capable colleague? Surely, if so capable, let your work speak for you! Jeez! What beats that though, is when this sucker upper actually gets a promotion. How dumb can everyone in a company be? For me, that's soyanora time. I don't like to work for idiots!

Processes:
I respect and adore protocol. But its a thin line between love and hate. I abhore processes/protocol that undermine the end goal. Say for example, any process that requires me to fill in a form for like 15 minutes is just not worth it. Especially if the only purpose that process serves is none other than protocol. Ask "why this protocol" and receive an answer "Just protocol, for uniformity" Makes me wanna scream! Processes/protocol must be designed and implemeneted with reason. If they inhibit convinience and efficiency, their pros must outweigh these cons! Seriously, it's not rocket science!!! Forget going mhhh... Its going aaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhhh!

Relationships:
All kinds. Start with those from your parents. They can singlehandedly ruin your life. Move on to the "eros" type. What a sham! So why is society all gang ho on this relationship thing? Yeap! I'm convinced everyone is just trying to fit in. I can't be the only one who is totally exhausted by all this expectations to be attached with a theme towards forever. Forever is a long time to be compromising for 24 hours in a day people!!!Wonder why everyone after a year or two of marriage is singing how much work it takes? Of course it does! It's much easier not to share your money, space, ideas and decisions! You must have known that! But of course, if you're going to give this up, you better be sure there are benefits that outweigh the compromises one makes. Yes, I know! I have stirred the hornets nest. Sawa!

Pain:
I mean our bodies are just the ultimate intelligent design. I get that we need to feel pain to afford attention to ourselves, a good alert mechanism, granted. However, why isn't part of this intelligent design a trigger that goes off in the brain to let the pain know you've caught teh problem and you're on it. I hate physical pain. Once it's not serving a purpose its just being a nuisance. Intelligent design error number one. There are more. I'll fill them in as teh days go by. Having said that, I still believe this to be the most intelligent design ever and I know its unbeatable. Argue all you want. Its all hogwash to me.

Fat bum? Read on...

Well, here is another reason why you might want to watch your weight. Maybe not your weight. Just the size of your behind.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Basic stato political updates

So here are a few things that are going on. Well, there is the issue of Bush, Cheney with advise from their political advisors "fighting back" at Democrats for criticizing the war in Iraq. This was catchy coming from Cheney...

"Cheney called Democrats "opportunists" who were peddling "cynical and pernicious falsehoods" to gain political advantage while U.S. soldiers died in Iraq."


Couldn't help but think about pots and kettles and some calling others black. Or is it more like the biblical log in one's eye versus splinter in a neighbour's eye?

Anyway, more on what's going on. Woodard is talking. And what he is telling us is basically "Libby is a scapegoat" though not in those exact words. No? I hear no gasps? None whatsoever? Ahh well... Who are we kidding? We already knew that.

Moving on. Is it possible that the oil executives were amongst those people or groups of people that met with Cheney group in 2001,
as it prepared a broad plan friendly to oil industry interests. Environmental groups said they were mostly excluded from the discussions.
Tsk, Tsk, Tsk... Nope. Nope. Nope. Once again, not really feeling surprised. But what's interesting is that finally, finally, the democrats want to know more about it and are pushing for that information.

The way I see it is I could go on forever. So let me stop here for now. I'll continue or pick it up from here next time. But just one last tidbit of information. Yes, the US used phosphorous in Iraq. But not against civilians. And how did they come to admit this? No, they did not wake up and God was talking to one of them asking that they do what's right. No. It was an Italian report. You know what... here is the story. Will the UN respond to this? Oops, sorry, my bad. I forgot they work as the well known animal farm, and the US is the pig. More equal than others.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Solid unshakeable way forward

This article was just heartwarming. Some many years ago, I remember having this conversation/discussion/argument with a group of people. I recall that most of us agreed that as long as there were rivers that could be used for irrigation, villagers or people as a community needed to come together and find ways to irrigate if they lived in arid or semi arid areas. True, the local government should initiate and supervise all such things. Its food, a staple need for all, it's a trigger based of common sense, right? Well, not so. And people become empowered when they start to show those who ought to be working for them that by not doing it, they make their work harder, but not impossible. Still recall some people felt strongly that that was one way to encourage laziness from the government. Question is for how long do you argue with the truth? If the government is a non-performer, at some point, the fat lady has to sing about it.

Hopefully, two things come out of this. One, may teh locl government suffer form great embarrasment. It should have initiated this project. Also made efforts to provide tools to ease the difficult work. Yes, hoes will do the job. Imagine how much faster a caterpillar engine would be. Which brings me to the second point. I hope Kenyans learn that the power lies in their hands. True, the politicians suck from here to Timbuktu. They suck, doesn't mean everyone else has to. Find ways and means to work around them. It's a polite "you're incompetent" notice.

Kudos! Hope this project is a success and that many others are inspired by it. Nice to note financial assistance being provided for it by the government too. Still I wonder how much progress such a town would have seen by now if this had been done say 5, 10 years ago...

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Link to a great post on Black in America...

I came across this post on a blog. Written by what seems to be an American black. It's confusing to use African American when I'm about to talk about Americans (naturalized) that were born and raised in Africa, or those born here but raised in Africa. I guess all are African Americans but the African is in variations or degrees so to speak.

Anyway, its a great post, read it if you can. I just wish he knew how much worse it gets when you have an accent and they ask if you learnt English in the plane. Or worse if you were rescued from a refugee camp, or something even dumber, if you can imagine it, they ask it! And about talking white, what about you speak good English? It's not broken! And did you pick up your vocabulary at college? Worse, the "you're a fast learner" because they assume you learnt all you know in the US! I don't know who's worse, the people that ask, or the people that assume they know what they don't and make dumb statements!

And within this line of thinking, was anyone hounded by colleagues after Oprah aired her show on SA. Never saw that episode but I loathe it. Everyone was looking at me with sorry eyes, asking even dumber questions. I gave them a snappy education of their lives. Told them to flourish and shun ignorance. Advised them that a half educated person having been shown the projects during a drug bust and an ensuing police chase and shooting would ask the same questions of America if they had been shown nothing else of it. Told them to make of that statement what they would. Also told them ignorance was understandable because of flawed media coverage before the internet. But for them with access to the net for at least 8 hours a day, I advised they google "Africa" and learn something. One lady told me no one had ever explained that to her as clearly as I had just done.

What was it someone once said about unlearning all teh junk you have learnt so that you have a chance of learning something real??? Tell them all I said to think about that statement and to wear the shoe if it fits!