It was spotted in Nairobi yesterday, blocking almost half the street. The next time there is a riot in the city, I would encourage the arsonists to torch this car in lieu of a soda kiosk / matatu / railway line. A reward of an all steel Chinese bicycle (black colored, metal brakes) will be offered on visual confirmation.
I don’t mean touring the capital’s biggest slum in a $50,000 4×4, and a flashy suit.
I am talking about the style of reporting, why is it so bad?
The photograph above talks about a prime-ministerial peace tour of Kibera. Yet the primary subject of both the pictures is a Land Cruiser 4×4. Maybe for the next elections the various parties should propose automobile marques as candidates : Hummer for President!! Mercedes Benz for Prime Minister!! BMW for Vice President …and so on.
Also in the same paper, the “letters to the editor” section usually occupies a whole page, which strikes me as odd, given that there is always a letter praising the editorial standards of the newspaper.
Today, while driving back from work, I saw a man walking past wearing a typical second-hand(“mitumba”) hooded jumper. Across the front of the hoodie was printed the name: “JIM”, and in the rear-view mirror I saw the words “CROW” printed across his back. I stopped the car immediately, leaped out, and ran after the man, intending to purchase the hoodie off his back. After all, where does one find a Jim Crow t-shirt but in Kenya ?
But, the man upon hearing my footsteps, looked back at me, and sprinted away into the distance, yelling “FBI !!”, “FBI !!!”.
(Admittedly I was wearing a black jacket, and sun-glasses, and the man I think I had been on an entertainment diet of Hollywood thrillers)
is easily the worst car in the world. Even in the US, the country that has turned bad taste into a commercial enterprise, Hummer dealerships were subject to arson, and one was even burnt down, so much hatred did this one vehicle generate.
My friend from the Big Apple said: “The only thing that beats being an asshole, is driving a Hummer”.
America’s ugliest export(ever) has found a loving home in Kenya, or so I discovered when I went to service Mugithi’s car at a local auto dealership.
While the car was being checked and cleaned by a swarm of men wearing overalls, I had a soda with the middle-aged but sprightly customer support guy. Conversation turned to how is business and so on. Business is picking up – lots of interest shown by Members of Parliament in their premier model — the Hummer. The guy at the dealership seemed to think it was normal to aspire to such bad taste, or maybe it was just his sales pitch, I don’t know.
The soon-to-be-crowned prime-minister has one (Warning: fawning, adultery adulatory video coverage ahead):
The video is from last year during the opening of parliament session – but it is indicative of why the media is not to be given any serious consideration.
I have yet to see a newspaper report tabulating the purchase cost, running cost for a Hummer (or equivalent) for a full term of a Member of Parliament, broken down costs for each Member of Parliament. If not that, even a general statement against bad taste would do.
People willing to express their condemnation of bad taste are urged to direct their vomit-inducing submissions on this site : FuH2.com (f*** u and your hummer)
There is this channel called K24. Its not bad really. First there is the funny talking anchor, then there is the rampant unedited footage without any background commentary (I know pictures speak for themselves, but…. we were born with ears). However, they are trying to cover stories from different angles. You have to give them that.
I witnessed a recent example of a news story being covered from a different angle. Literally:
An intrepid K24 reporter conducts an interview in an IDP camp (an IDP = Internally Displaced Person, the newest addition to the long list of gazetted tribes). The interviewee is identified as a “IDP woman”. Woman doesn’t want her identity to be revealed, so the reporter smartly turns the camera down to her chest – and proceeds to conduct a question-answer session with the interviewee’s breasts.
When you have a pair of breasts filling up the screen, whispering answers into an intrusive microphone - responses like: “I was forced out of my home”, almost acquire a new dimension.
(Clearly, the reportage was inspired by Philip Roth’s audacious novella about the loss of identity: The Breast, where a learned professor wakes up one day to learn that he has been transformed into a gigantic breast.
Though this novella in turn has its inspirational roots in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis)
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