Saturday, August 09, 2008
Obama's Original "Yes, We Can" Speech
Here is a video of the original "Yes, we can" speech which Barack Obama made following his Democratic nomination defeat in New Hampshire by Hillary Clinton, whom she had defeated in Iowa.
Obama Girl Returns For Iowa: Video
Here's another video of the Obama Girl, with a minor adaptation of the Rocky movie; the theme being that good guys can come from behind (or nowhere) and win.
Obama's Yes We Can -- Musicalized
Here's a rendition of Obama's "Yes, We Can" speech, in a black-and-white video.
Glad to share it, if you've not yet heard it.
Glad to share it, if you've not yet heard it.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Mama Mariana: RIP
On the opening day of the Olympiad,
As the world revels,
The angels have opened Heaven's Gate
For her. And she alone.
What a day she has up and gone!
There,
Awaits her all the goodness
Of the
Afterlife.
Having herself been good -- in this.
There's never a day to go,
Never a good day.
It's never the day.
Never a good day!
As the world revels,
The angels have opened Heaven's Gate
For her. And she alone.
What a day she has up and gone!
There,
Awaits her all the goodness
Of the
Afterlife.
Having herself been good -- in this.
There's never a day to go,
Never a good day.
It's never the day.
Never a good day!
Obama v. Heckler: Pledge of Allegiance
Click here for a video of Obama reciting the US Pledge of Allegiance, upon being challenged, at a town hall meeting, by an accredited journalist turned heckler.
You can also link to this site for a text narrative of what actually happened at Baldwin-Wallace College, in the state of Ohio, on August 6th.
What do you think about this episode?
You can also link to this site for a text narrative of what actually happened at Baldwin-Wallace College, in the state of Ohio, on August 6th.
What do you think about this episode?
Thursday, August 07, 2008
University of Nairobi: ISO 9001-2000 Certification
The University of Nairobi received its ISO 9001-2000 certification this morning, at a feel-good ceremony in Taifa Hall. The Vice Chancellor, Prof. George Magoha, presided over the proceedings, at which the Guest of Honour was Dr. Sally Kosgey, Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology.
In attendance were, among others, the University Chancellor (Dr. Joe Wanjui), the Chairman of the University Council (Mr. John Simba), two former Vice Chancellors (Prof. Francis Gichaga and Prof. Crispus Kiamba) and the two current Deputy Vice Chancellors. Professor Kiamba is the current Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Higher Education , Science and Technology.
Taifa Hall was full: with invited guests, the university's academic (including yours truly) and non-academic staff and students. The ceremony lasted just over an hour, after it got started at around ten.
The speeches were warm and good-natured. Everyone was in a celebratory mood, and wanted to have fun -- such as could be had. The Minister renewed acquaintances with her former colleagues here, mentioning in her speech Prof. Odingo and Mr. Jasper Okelo. She taught history here for a time some 28 years ago. Citing a recent encounter in Canada, the Chancellor, I thought, wanted to spur the university to help, in some way (which way I did not quite get) to clean up Nairobi River, which flows nearby.
The VC reported that the university's next cohort of graduands (due to graduate in December) would be the first in the university's history (did I hear him right?) to complete their studies without any interruption (due to previously common university closures occasioned by chronic student strikes). I have not checked the records, but that would mean, for the first time, four academic years of uninterrupted campus peace -- a period which roughly overlaps with 67% of Prof. Magoha's tenure as Vice Chancellor.
The Great Court was full of great white tents, and most of the celebrants proceeded there for refreshments after Taifa Hall. It was a warm sunny day.
Following so soon after the July 2008 Webometrics report, which ranked UoN first in the country, second in East Africa (after the University of Dar Es Salaam), and 25th in Africa, the ISO certification was reason enough for Prof. Magoha to assert that the University of Nairobi is the premier university in the region. I thought the Minister agreed. I agree.
The challenge will be to maintain the ISO certification -- with reviews being undertaken twice a year. I believe the university is up to the challenge, but sight must not be lost of the need to include academics more collegially and dialogically in the university's governance system -- and of the fact that they are both service providers and service users.
In attendance were, among others, the University Chancellor (Dr. Joe Wanjui), the Chairman of the University Council (Mr. John Simba), two former Vice Chancellors (Prof. Francis Gichaga and Prof. Crispus Kiamba) and the two current Deputy Vice Chancellors. Professor Kiamba is the current Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Higher Education , Science and Technology.
Taifa Hall was full: with invited guests, the university's academic (including yours truly) and non-academic staff and students. The ceremony lasted just over an hour, after it got started at around ten.
The speeches were warm and good-natured. Everyone was in a celebratory mood, and wanted to have fun -- such as could be had. The Minister renewed acquaintances with her former colleagues here, mentioning in her speech Prof. Odingo and Mr. Jasper Okelo. She taught history here for a time some 28 years ago. Citing a recent encounter in Canada, the Chancellor, I thought, wanted to spur the university to help, in some way (which way I did not quite get) to clean up Nairobi River, which flows nearby.
The VC reported that the university's next cohort of graduands (due to graduate in December) would be the first in the university's history (did I hear him right?) to complete their studies without any interruption (due to previously common university closures occasioned by chronic student strikes). I have not checked the records, but that would mean, for the first time, four academic years of uninterrupted campus peace -- a period which roughly overlaps with 67% of Prof. Magoha's tenure as Vice Chancellor.
The Great Court was full of great white tents, and most of the celebrants proceeded there for refreshments after Taifa Hall. It was a warm sunny day.
Following so soon after the July 2008 Webometrics report, which ranked UoN first in the country, second in East Africa (after the University of Dar Es Salaam), and 25th in Africa, the ISO certification was reason enough for Prof. Magoha to assert that the University of Nairobi is the premier university in the region. I thought the Minister agreed. I agree.
The challenge will be to maintain the ISO certification -- with reviews being undertaken twice a year. I believe the university is up to the challenge, but sight must not be lost of the need to include academics more collegially and dialogically in the university's governance system -- and of the fact that they are both service providers and service users.
Bomb Blast of August 7, 1998: Tenth Anniversary
Today, Thursday, marks the tenth anniversary of the August 7th, 1998 bomb blast in Nairobi, and almost simultaneously in Dar-Es-Salaam. The Nairobi blast killed some 245 people, and injured and maimed some 5,000 more. As far as I cat tell, indeed, it was the single largest international terrorist attack in history, before 9/11.
I was on the third floor of Gandhi Wing, at the University of Nairobi, when the blast occurred at around 10.30 that Friday morning. It was so loud it couldn't have occurred much farther away than Lillian's, just across University Way, or so I thought in that instant. But it was also muted enough that, it did not necessarily sound like a bomb. In fact, my first thought had been that a very badly maintained bus, or some other vehicle, had grossly back-fired!
Soon enough, however, it became clear, as we went up and down Gandhi Wing, that the incident was farther away. As we gathered in small groups, we began to see smoke rising somewhere else, across town. At first we thought that the incident had occurred in the general direction of the industrial area, and then maybe the railway station, and then maybe somewhere in the vicinity of the station, or even NHC building. In hindsight, we were, unwittingly, skirting the issue -- the "epicentre."
From where we stood, we could see a scattering of rather agitated people running away from, and in the general direction, of the billowing smoke. Then we began to see pieces of paper everywhere in the smoky sky, over Moi Avenue and slightly to the east of it; and it seemed that some force kept releasing more and more paper into the sky. Clearly, some office had suffered a catasprophic blast, accompanied by fire. [Some of that paper eventually landed on the roof of Gandhi Wing; and when we went there to check, we found a slightly burnt photocopy of someone's national ID card and some other paper].
Before long, the quickly evolving story began to acquire clarity through word-of-mouth and such telephone calls as could yield concrete answers. That was before TV news kicked in with the facts, as could immediately be reported -- and it did not take long to do that. We heard of Ufundi Coop Building (which housed a teachers' SACCO) and Co-operative Bank House. We heard that the Minister of Education, Mr. Joseph Kamotho -- who was at that time engrossed (as I recall) in a tussle with the teachers' union -- was caught up in the blast.
This piece of news caused conspiracy theories to fly, including the one about the government of President Moi somehow having a hand in the blast -- with Kamotho as the target. What saved the day for Moi, and the nation, was the news which arrived very quickly out of Dar Es Salaam that there had been an explosion there as well. It would have been very difficult, otherwise, to exonerate Moi -- as the political atmosphere was quite charged at the time, as I recall.
The two explosions were quickly seen, then, as a coordinated terrorist act targeting US embassies in the two capitals. For a while, thereafter, we expected to get similar news from Kampala, but it never came. I think thast the realization that the country had been attacked by external forces helped to calm down the country, and to draw it closer. We were able to share in the grief of August 7th as one nation.
I did not visit "the site" of the blast that Friday, for it just did not seem to me the thing to do. Instead, I drove home at lunch time, having decided to defer my visit to the site, such as it could be, to Saturday. I did go on Saturday, and there were many Kenyan onlookers on that day -- as there were going to be for many of the days that followed. Police had cordoned off much of the blast area, as there was active search and rescue activity going on (including the matter of saving Rose). I would not, in fact, get the opportunity to stand at the base of the severely ripped-off Coop Bank Building, until three months or so later. And when I did, the enormity of what had happened at that place really sank in, even as I stood there those many days after the event.
That same weekend of the blast, I drafted a memo to my Vice Chancellor proposing a course in Disaster Management. Never got a reply. In the week that followed, I began to sell the idea of the course to my colleagues in the Department of Sociology, and to look into expanded possibilities. Soon enough, the idea of a course evolved into an entire Masters programme in Disaster Management -- and into a comprehensive Module II MA programme in the Department. From my base in the Department, I was quickly thrust into the Faculty's Curriculum Development and Income Generation Committees, where I spearheaded the crafting of what became the Faculty's Module II Programme. I was elected Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the end of 1998, but that's another story.
What I would like to emphasize here, as I conclude, is that the bomb blast of August 7th, tragic as it was, became the catalyst, in a very direct way, for the graduate programme in Disaster Management at the University of Nairobi. I can make that claim without any fear of contradiction. But it was also probably the main reason (a) I became Dean, and (b) the Faculty's Module II programme (from undergraduate to postgraduate) took off when, and with the singlemindedness, it did.
I was on the third floor of Gandhi Wing, at the University of Nairobi, when the blast occurred at around 10.30 that Friday morning. It was so loud it couldn't have occurred much farther away than Lillian's, just across University Way, or so I thought in that instant. But it was also muted enough that, it did not necessarily sound like a bomb. In fact, my first thought had been that a very badly maintained bus, or some other vehicle, had grossly back-fired!
Soon enough, however, it became clear, as we went up and down Gandhi Wing, that the incident was farther away. As we gathered in small groups, we began to see smoke rising somewhere else, across town. At first we thought that the incident had occurred in the general direction of the industrial area, and then maybe the railway station, and then maybe somewhere in the vicinity of the station, or even NHC building. In hindsight, we were, unwittingly, skirting the issue -- the "epicentre."
From where we stood, we could see a scattering of rather agitated people running away from, and in the general direction, of the billowing smoke. Then we began to see pieces of paper everywhere in the smoky sky, over Moi Avenue and slightly to the east of it; and it seemed that some force kept releasing more and more paper into the sky. Clearly, some office had suffered a catasprophic blast, accompanied by fire. [Some of that paper eventually landed on the roof of Gandhi Wing; and when we went there to check, we found a slightly burnt photocopy of someone's national ID card and some other paper].
Before long, the quickly evolving story began to acquire clarity through word-of-mouth and such telephone calls as could yield concrete answers. That was before TV news kicked in with the facts, as could immediately be reported -- and it did not take long to do that. We heard of Ufundi Coop Building (which housed a teachers' SACCO) and Co-operative Bank House. We heard that the Minister of Education, Mr. Joseph Kamotho -- who was at that time engrossed (as I recall) in a tussle with the teachers' union -- was caught up in the blast.
This piece of news caused conspiracy theories to fly, including the one about the government of President Moi somehow having a hand in the blast -- with Kamotho as the target. What saved the day for Moi, and the nation, was the news which arrived very quickly out of Dar Es Salaam that there had been an explosion there as well. It would have been very difficult, otherwise, to exonerate Moi -- as the political atmosphere was quite charged at the time, as I recall.
The two explosions were quickly seen, then, as a coordinated terrorist act targeting US embassies in the two capitals. For a while, thereafter, we expected to get similar news from Kampala, but it never came. I think thast the realization that the country had been attacked by external forces helped to calm down the country, and to draw it closer. We were able to share in the grief of August 7th as one nation.
I did not visit "the site" of the blast that Friday, for it just did not seem to me the thing to do. Instead, I drove home at lunch time, having decided to defer my visit to the site, such as it could be, to Saturday. I did go on Saturday, and there were many Kenyan onlookers on that day -- as there were going to be for many of the days that followed. Police had cordoned off much of the blast area, as there was active search and rescue activity going on (including the matter of saving Rose). I would not, in fact, get the opportunity to stand at the base of the severely ripped-off Coop Bank Building, until three months or so later. And when I did, the enormity of what had happened at that place really sank in, even as I stood there those many days after the event.
That same weekend of the blast, I drafted a memo to my Vice Chancellor proposing a course in Disaster Management. Never got a reply. In the week that followed, I began to sell the idea of the course to my colleagues in the Department of Sociology, and to look into expanded possibilities. Soon enough, the idea of a course evolved into an entire Masters programme in Disaster Management -- and into a comprehensive Module II MA programme in the Department. From my base in the Department, I was quickly thrust into the Faculty's Curriculum Development and Income Generation Committees, where I spearheaded the crafting of what became the Faculty's Module II Programme. I was elected Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the end of 1998, but that's another story.
What I would like to emphasize here, as I conclude, is that the bomb blast of August 7th, tragic as it was, became the catalyst, in a very direct way, for the graduate programme in Disaster Management at the University of Nairobi. I can make that claim without any fear of contradiction. But it was also probably the main reason (a) I became Dean, and (b) the Faculty's Module II programme (from undergraduate to postgraduate) took off when, and with the singlemindedness, it did.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
A Grumpy Turn in US Presidential Elections
In the last two weeks or so, the US Presidential campaign season has taken a decidedly grumpy turn, thanks to Sen John McCain and his campaign team. Right now, energy is probably the big issue. Before that, McCain had tried, with considerable initial (two-week?) success, to turn Obama's celebrity status, following (and even during) his Grand Tour (some chose to call it World Tour), into an issue and a liability. In between, there was the matter of race.
Just as he recently trivialized Obama's tour, McCain is intrivializing the energy debate. And he is doing so to the point of, in effect, trivializing his own candidacy, and -- worst of all -- US Presidential elections (and the very Presidency to which the elections pertain). He seems, in this, rather like a Third World leader who has no respect for logic, reasonableness -- and civility. There's plenty of those around. HE should be different -- for Pete's sake!
As I see it, amid all the buzz, he has roughly a 50-50 chance of being the next US President. Alright, let's correct that to an eventual 47-53 chance, or thereabouts. Consequently, leaders around the world must have begun to wonder -- they would be wondering despondently were it not for the general thrust of those stats -- if that is the same style (if style it be) he would use in prosecuting US foreign policy, and in particular dealing with world leaders who may happen to have strongly held opinions different from his own. What do you do with a President who believes, indeed who has claimed publicly, that he knows how to win wars -- when no one can remember any military war that he has won, or even really led.
Will he seek to demean -- and even to intimidate -- them. Can he succeed? Will they let him? His first challenge might be Iraq itself, where the leaders are likely to call, in the name of national sovereignty, for a specific timetable for US troop withdrawal, to be completed (as they have already suggested to Obama) by the end of 2010. McCain has argued on TV that Iraqi leaders will NOT insist on such a deadline. Presumably they wont if it is McCain in the White House; and presumably if it is the kind of Iraqi leaders a President McCain will insist on having after January 20th.
McCain seems inclined, in a dangerously self-defeating way, to ignore Truth even when Truth stares him in the face -- or to accept it most grudgingly. As President, he would portray the US as mean-spirited and even small-minded -- except that the US is so consequential in world affairs (just as China is about to become) that the rest of us can ill afford to give up on her.
What would await such a one, in a world increasingly interdependent and increasingly self-assured? Certainly something more consequential than a Paris Hilton chide (and shine!); and perhaps a world less at ease with the US President, and with itself, than it already is.
As things stand now, the world no doubt takes comfort in the unlikelihood of such a one -- that is, let's be blunt, in the likelihood of a McCain defeat in November. But does the world matter to the US? Of course it does. And if not, it should; and if shouldn't, it will!
Just as he recently trivialized Obama's tour, McCain is intrivializing the energy debate. And he is doing so to the point of, in effect, trivializing his own candidacy, and -- worst of all -- US Presidential elections (and the very Presidency to which the elections pertain). He seems, in this, rather like a Third World leader who has no respect for logic, reasonableness -- and civility. There's plenty of those around. HE should be different -- for Pete's sake!
As I see it, amid all the buzz, he has roughly a 50-50 chance of being the next US President. Alright, let's correct that to an eventual 47-53 chance, or thereabouts. Consequently, leaders around the world must have begun to wonder -- they would be wondering despondently were it not for the general thrust of those stats -- if that is the same style (if style it be) he would use in prosecuting US foreign policy, and in particular dealing with world leaders who may happen to have strongly held opinions different from his own. What do you do with a President who believes, indeed who has claimed publicly, that he knows how to win wars -- when no one can remember any military war that he has won, or even really led.
Will he seek to demean -- and even to intimidate -- them. Can he succeed? Will they let him? His first challenge might be Iraq itself, where the leaders are likely to call, in the name of national sovereignty, for a specific timetable for US troop withdrawal, to be completed (as they have already suggested to Obama) by the end of 2010. McCain has argued on TV that Iraqi leaders will NOT insist on such a deadline. Presumably they wont if it is McCain in the White House; and presumably if it is the kind of Iraqi leaders a President McCain will insist on having after January 20th.
McCain seems inclined, in a dangerously self-defeating way, to ignore Truth even when Truth stares him in the face -- or to accept it most grudgingly. As President, he would portray the US as mean-spirited and even small-minded -- except that the US is so consequential in world affairs (just as China is about to become) that the rest of us can ill afford to give up on her.
What would await such a one, in a world increasingly interdependent and increasingly self-assured? Certainly something more consequential than a Paris Hilton chide (and shine!); and perhaps a world less at ease with the US President, and with itself, than it already is.
As things stand now, the world no doubt takes comfort in the unlikelihood of such a one -- that is, let's be blunt, in the likelihood of a McCain defeat in November. But does the world matter to the US? Of course it does. And if not, it should; and if shouldn't, it will!
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