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Post by amunra on May 4, 2012 21:50:58 GMT 3
This is quite telling besides kenyas foolery in foreign policy. for all intents and purposes not to be invited to the US white house is surely an unfortunate snub Why?
1. Kenya 'pretends' to be the hegemony of the region, it therefore needs both the west and easts patronage. (look at ug and tz they still maintain good relations with both and growing faster than KE)
Those Claiming that the east will supplant the west in Kenya as a way foward need to Check as to who kenyas trade partners are(carefully tho?) Kenya imports more from the east but it also exports more to the west
Kenya main exports partners are UK, Netherlands, Uganda, Tanzania, United States and Pakistan. Kenya imports mostly machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products, motor vehicles, iron and steel, resins and plastics. Kenya main import partners are India, China, UAE, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United States and Japan From the little economics i know it is the exports that are most beneficial to our economy.
2. In regards to the invite to camp david on food security, whenever hunger and famine strikes within the horn Africa region, isn’t Kenya usually the main hub for all relief agencies(WESTERN) and govts that facilitate the process? Fact it is the west year in year out that feeds the region including Kenya.
I could speculate that probably the west may want to find an alternative in TZ for that food security facilitation process,(i.e. better ports, stable nation etc)
Ps:The EA region is a neo colonial region, there is no need for Kenya to pretend that they will ignore the west and deal with China. C’mon.
thats in my humble opinion. enjoy fri everyone.
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Post by jakaswanga on May 4, 2012 22:51:00 GMT 3
I’ll ignore the lazy and disingenuous comments (above) - some which deride invitations to the White House while celebrating State visits to Shanghai (essentially a despotic police state). Isn’t it frankly idiotic to look at the Chinese as being any different from the Mzungu Colonialist. In any case, there’s little difference between Kibaki, China and the Mzungu (colonialist) in as far as fleecing poor Kenyan masses is concerned. Some even declare we can go it alone! People sometimes go too far high fallutin' impractical niceties and oxymorons while trying hard to impress - for instance a corrupt, election-rigging, despot like Kibaki being praised for wielding obtuse dignity that spews temerity to turn down a White House invite! Gud lawd folks! Why can't we just be real. About talking to birds and food sustainability- did you Jakaswanga know that Kibaki (with his obtuse dignity) has already given away tens of thousands of hectares of fertile Tana Delta land to those friends in the middle-east? Are they going to grow food for us, or their own brethren? Like Roughrider, I don’t ascribe to the fallacy of restricted trading zones. Why Look East and ignore the West? Why not trade with all sides. That should be the pragmatic route. Kibaki has been running away from traditional trading partners in the West because these countries generally tie trade deals with disclaimers such as; anti-corruption measures and monitors for human rights and democracy. It's as simple as that! No ifs, ands or buts. Nothing about obtuse dignity! China and most East Asian countries care less whether their African bilateral partners are corrupt, anti-democratic or autocratic. They make more from us in the skewed deals anyway. They dump their cheap (& counterfeit) products into our country, while we export very little to them. Try a Chinese battery and say Amen! FACT: Because the Kibaki administration has entrenched corruption and election rigging, Kenya is losing lots of opportunities. We can’t even have the guts to start discussing debt relief for stolen monies ( Goldenberg, Turkwell-Gorge plant, Anglo-Leasing, Ken Ren, Grand Regency, FPE funds, AIDS funds). We have to squeeze our own taxpayers to fund an expensive security counter-al-Shabab operation and refugee burden. Unlike Tanzania for instance, our students are missing out support into prestigious programs in American Universities – ranging from health, environment, energy (oil) production, and such. What better investement is there than knowledge and skills transfer (to Kenyan youngsters) from these top-notch institutions? Kibaki’s corrupt police (security) force that lets in mercenaries (like Artur brothers) through our porous international airports has virtually stalled the Open Skies Agreement with the U.S. to allow for direct Kenya-U.S flights. Our flower & horticulture farmers, fish and turkey exporters, beef and poultry exporters, garment manufacturers, tea, coffee, and pyrethrum farmers, would be exporting their produce in a 13-14 hour direct flight to Atlanta by now. East, West, North or South, there’s a lot of good things a working President can secure from the Obama White House – to the benefit of his/her people. THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY .. that is my favourite film for analysing politics. Obama is too overstretched in his country's priorities to be of much use here. Only yesterday Putin and Jin Tao told him off against a tough line on North Sudan which is bombing the south in violation of all international law. And you have not heard him again. ..But... The issue here Job, look at your headline -- duly snubbed, is actually apart from a moral judgment, a distribution of patronage which distinguishes the punished, Kibaki-Kenya, from the rewarded darlings, Tz and Addis. Otherwise in pure punching power, the economy of Kenya outguns those miserable two, so if it were on competence and sophistication [technically speaking] in dealing with the food agenda for sure, Kenya would be right up the guest list! Therefore, from your letterhead, it looks like Obama is using these invitations as presents [and in a wider sense as incentives to the rest], to show who is his darling and who not --just like my late grandfather would, managing his harem in the evenings! Only wuod Kogelo is not aware trips to American president invites are no longer what they used to be. Something to do with the real politik of changing power relations. On China, I have yet to read an African who says China has some moral politics in her trade relations. Consensus is Beijin is pure business.[/b] Whether the dictator kills his people or rigs election, that is none of their business as long as business is profitable.
China trades with anybody in equal measure. [As should be for any country and as you and RR correctly uphold.] Indeed China would sell weapons both to Kiir and Bashir at the same table, as they talk peace at the same table, if that made them more money. Karl Marx has colourful description of this stage of capitalism. I will dust my books and find it for Jukwaa. The phase where capitalism fears morality more than it fears making a loss! --China would rather risk a business freeze with the USA than let a blind activist go free! ========= NB: As for Kibaki running away from the west because of the moral preconditions and interrogations, that, Job, no longer holds. (see my last footnote)
The hypocrisy of the West -- supporting some of the most hideous and corrupt dictators to the full, while reading others moral sermons, is what some are not ready to stomach anymore.
Some anecdotes from recent African history: 1. A story is told of Sani Abatcha while killing Ken Sarowiwa, and the director of Shell oil-corp came calling because Moral West wanted Shell to be ... well ... moral in Nigeria!
Abatcha leaned back and asked one question. Is Shell withdrawing from Nigeria today or tomorrow? If in your briefcase you do not have the divorce papers for us to sign now. Don't waste my time!
Next is Angola. Dictator Eduardo dos Santos was on a rampage after rigging Savimbi and was now out to kill all opposition. George Bush snr --Savimbi had his connections, delegated the chairman of exxonmobil to tell Santos to tone down. [Off shore Angola is where Exxon has her most expensive and best running operation, and the Angolan elite feasts like flies on dung].
But what did Santos say: he asked the oilman to use his CIA connections to locate the GPS position of Savimbi {through the phone Ronald Reagan had given him!}. The Angolan army would do the rest. Or do we start looking for a buyer and exploiter of that oil rig?
Moral of the tales: the morality of the West is not something to bring to book in international trade. I am appalled you fall for this gimmick!
Who is the banker of all monies stolen by african head of states in the post independence period? There are no angels in the global business.
You saw how Hillary washed off her hands that blind chinese dissident who was seeking to get to the land of the brave and free yesterday?
footnote: And Job, inspite of Kibaki's record of horror you retell so well, when he rigged the elections in 2007, it was the americans who stuck most with him! And I don't buy differences in foreign policy between republicans and democrats!
--[oyieyo chami to kudhi! Obama bende pod mana oyieyo ndeti to kueyoni!] --predators which inject you with tranquilizers before they make a meal of your body parts!
Obtuse pride: When Gordon Brown called him on the telephone without prior warning, he asked that the british premier be told he, Kibaki, was too busy! [rumour has it at that time Njenga Karume was cracking a joke about the day Michuki ate so much nyamochoma and nyuki he vomited on his date in his car!
And did he not the other week remind the french ambassador that he was too junior to have a face to face with PORK!
Those are the examples of obtuse pride which humour me in Kibaki!
All the others I can see them withdrawing from their peaking conjugal obligations to answer a telephone call from a drunken western ambassador!
The good, the bad and the ...
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Post by mank on May 5, 2012 4:28:35 GMT 3
If i was to censor threads on jukwaa this the kind of thread i would dig out from the roots. We can discuss Kenya - us politics without personifying it. The thread is more about name-calling than issues. Or does it deal with anything other than hate/love for obama/kibaki? Have we spread hate enough within that we now must spread outwards.? Are you folks confident that any deconstruction of kibaki is construction of Raila.? Its a foolish idea.
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Post by moesha on May 6, 2012 19:41:29 GMT 3
I think that our arguments would have made more sense if we actually knew the basis upon which the countries were invited. As it is, we don’t know how they were selected. In other words everybody is just guessing. The issue of being “rejected” because we are looking Easter wards is farfetched to say the least. Currently, there are only a few countries in Africa that have not turned eastwards. Tanzania and Ethiopia are the number one culprits worse than Kenya. As for Obama, I think just keeping an eye on Kibaki is enough. If he had not done this, the man and the clique around him would have done some major looting of the government coffers. My observation is that many American presidents never do anything for Africa while in power. They only try to influence things after they have left office. Good examples are Carter and Clinton. These two have done more for Africa after leaving office. I don’t think that Obama is going to be different. Apart from that, he inherited a country that was on the brink of economic collapse. That alone keeps him busy and I don’t think that he even thinks of Kenya. Lastly, we have to have a pro-active president, a go getter who can confront and get something out of Obama. Just sitting there and hoping that Obama will provide for Kenya because his father is our brother is a joke of the highest order. @mzeeVery well put. Kenya and Africa as a whole has enough resources to sustain itself and to sit there and hope that Obama who inherited a country on the verge of economic collapse would focus his attention on Kenya's problems is indeed quite a joke. The man has his hands full with problems in his own country, he is being slammed left, right, and center, how can we expect him to concern himself with whats going on in Kenya? And like him or not, he has done more for the US in the short time that he has been president than most of his predecessors, and under the worst of conditions. Whether its because of Kibaki or not, I am actually glad Kenya was left out, its time we start focusing on getting our own house in order instead of constantly looking to the outside for help.
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Post by barmasaiengkeiyo on May 7, 2012 22:50:19 GMT 3
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Post by jakaswanga on Aug 26, 2013 18:36:52 GMT 3
www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/1967128/-/iy2qq2z/-/index.html Buffaloman Makau Mutua aint pulling no punches these days. And that is when he is at his best. He is loosed, and the anarchy of his mind reigns supreme! I enjoyed the read: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) THE SECOND COMING Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand; A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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