Hard-ons, currency and large limousines

On this Kenyan Group blog, someone posted a badly edited image 100 shilling note with a picture of the prime-minister-designate super-imposed on it. Another someone then gets a hard-on looking at the currency note, that they wrote a blog post about it – the point of order being how dashing the prime minister looked on printed money, and would have certainly looked hotter¹ had it been a 1,000 shilling note ?!
I understand now the presence of cheer leaders for gigantic official limousines – its just l.o.v.e.

¹ – Keeping in mind currency-note-cheer-leader-man above, why is this guy still considered a deviant ?

Whats the offence ?

Some prostitutes from across East Africa were prevented from attending a workshop in Uganda.

What is more interesting in the above post is the apparent disconnect between the poster and commentators.

The intention of the poster was to highlight the criminalization of prostitution. A crime usually needs a victim, in the above example the only apparent “victim” appears to be a minister who took offense. (Apparently, a way of life is such a fragile thing that it needs protection under law)

The comments on the other hand, turn this issue into something else:

Maybe what the government needs to do is to find ways and means for women to support themselves so that they dont have to be prostitutes.

That when the women have really already found a way to support themselves. How about just legalizing prostitution ?

Religious abduction

One of our accountants has been trying to convert me. “Join me in Rapture….” he says, “…for the day of reckoning is not far…”. When Rapture occurs, he shall disappear into thin air, transported away miraculously by the power of the holy spirit.

“What about your stuff…does that go with you?”, I ask him.
“No..only the spirit shall be transported”, he says with some certainty.

“Can you leave your things to me then ?”, I said, thinking about his hat collection.

Magic and Racism

While I was at the Asian Party, I learnt a new racial epithet, commonly used by Asians in Kenya.

The term is “Jadugaar” – which in Urdu (or so my worn out english-urdu dictionary from Pakistan tells me) means “Magician”.

Strictly speaking its not a racialist word in the Western context of racism, which is oriented towards skin color and pigmentation and hence words like “nigger”, “negro”, “redskin”… etc.

“Jadugaar” appears to be aimed more at the traditional beliefs and practices of witchcraft. The “nigger” equivlent candidate would have been words derived from “Kaalaa” which means “black”. However “Kaaliaa”, “Kaaley” the singular, plural forms indicating black-person/persons are more commonly used as nicknames for people with darker complexion i.e. a pakistani or an indian with darker complexion can be nicknamed “Kaaliaa”.

Incidentally, in my home-town, “Negro” is still an acceptable word, anyone of African origin (most commonly Ghanaian boat people wearing sandals and selling hand-bags) is called a “Negro”. In my American mid-west town on the other hand, calling someone a “Negro” can put you behind bars.

More on Expats

I just saw this interesting post at the strangely titled aaarrrggg blog, which comments about a blog written by British expat wife living in Kenya. This is the essence of what the post says:

I’m idealistic and I’d like to think that for all the lavish lifestyles that expats enjoy in Kenya they have a keen awareness of their privileged location in an exploitative international economic and political system…..
Its just that I firmly believe that privilege brings with it responsibility to pay it forward and to undermine the very system that put you on top at the expense of others.

Why will someone (anyone, not just an expat) in a position of privilege undermine a system that has them tops? Is the desire to pay-it-forward natural, or is that an assumption?

I don’t think its natural, the numbers are stacked completely against it. So it has to be an assumption.