well, here i am in kenya.

subtitle: 2 American women were car-jacked and shot and killed today just outside of city centre, and i watched Blood Diamonds and Howl’s Moving Castle.

for life to be like what many of us are accustomed - with manufactured products and food from somewhere other than where you are right at that moment and materials that need to be dry-cleaned and even a democratic system, ie a Western lifestyle such as what is lived in most parts of the US and what is being aspired to and replicated throughout the world including Nairobi - all of that requires a certain amount of machinery. Machinery with lots of gears and squeaky parts, machinery that requires a lot of labor and just as much blood.
So in many parts of the US, it is possible to live with the manufactured products and imported foods and dry cleaned materials and voting rights, and not see the machinery. There is sufficient padding between (many) folks and the machinery, and we can ride along on top and enjoy the scenery, and the grinding gears fade into white noise, and if we want a thrill we can peak under some of the layers of padding and see in and either use economic theory to justify the people sweating down there among the gears or we can say tut and talk about reforming the machinery.
In a place like Kenya, the machinery we’re riding along is a lot smaller than in US cities/societies, and patched together even more haphazardly. Fewer of us are on it, too. And there surely isn’t as much padding. It’s not southern Sudan, where there is almost no padding at all (unless you count the UN’s air conditioned stations), and it’s not even Uganda, with less padding. But there’s less padding in Nairobi than there is in Washington DC or New York or Scottdale PA. Bumpier ride, and it’s a lot harder to forget that you’re on this machine, and that there are people being ground into the gears and reaching to grab onto you to pull themselves out or pull you in.
and i guess to stretch this already painfully stretched image, our machinery here in Kenya is connected to that in the US, and the EU, and all those other countries, and we’re getting some of the waste products of all those imperfect machines.
so that’s it. I don’t know what the answer is - do we pull the whole machinery down and start over again (i guess the anarchic types at the World Social forum would prefer this), do we try to tinker at the machinery and over time change it, but without messing with the gears so much that it stops moving forward (i guess the oxfam-ish types at the World Social Forum would prefer this)

hmm.

ps: wrote this several weeks ago. The police are now blaming the notorious thug that they recently gunned down (see previous post) for ALL of the unsolved car-jackings and killings. Seems a bit Convenient.

Last night I watched For a Few Dollars More – the middle film of Sergio Leone’s trilogy of spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood. I know, I know, I’m pacifist. Clint is a bounty-killer in the old Southwest. But still, I really dug the movie. I like Clint’s style – all poncho-wearing, beard-growing, cigarillo-chomping. (Not that I would really dig such a person in real life. This isn’t that kind of Valentine’s Day blog) And I love the movie’s style – great music, good evil guy (same actor was the bad guy in A Fistful of Dollars, I think…), close-ups on Clint and he’s all squinting his eyes and wearing a good hat.

After watching the movie, I turned to the 9pm news (I am trying to patch up a patchwork quilt that I inherited from MCC – all the green patches have dissolved. Between having to iron my clothes for work, hemming curtains, and doing mending I’m starting to feel quite domesticated! Anyways, struggling to patch up a quilt is a good excuse to watch spaghetti westerns). Other than Kenyan politics (elections are at the end of this year), the main news for the last few weeks is the “crime wave” sweeping Kenya. In the past 3 months, over 60 people have been killed in violent crimes – usually robberies or car-jackings. That, of course, does not include the many “suspects” who have been gunned down by police. The US recently put a travel advisory on Kenya because of the “rising insecurity” (I guess US citizens are advised to travel at their own risk? something like that. The Kenyan government responded by saying that it wasn’t so bad, and the US must have some ulterior motive for wanting to hurt Kenya.)

So getting back to the news, the anchors spoke about a guy who is believed to have killed multiple times now. There is a bounty on him. And in the village, neighbors attacked his father and maimed his leg (punishing the father for what the son has done). Another main story was about what happened at a funeral recently – a politician was making a political speech (this happens at funerals), and someone claiming to be from a rival party flew down in a helicopter, got out, and started handing out money to the crowd. Of course, this caused something of a riot, and he started to get crushed, so he went back to the helicopter and I think he might have thrown down some money as he was leaving. The other stories on the news were all related to Kenyan politics.

Now, there are lots of reactions one could have to this whole situation. But what struck me last night were the parallels between Clint’s world and Nairobi.
- shoot to kill
- bandits are wanted Dead or Alive, but usually Clint just shot them
- some of the police in For a Few Dollars More are complicit in the banditry
- a sense that killings are rampant

Not so many people wearing ponchos or smoking cigarillos here, though.

ps – Don’t worry about me. I’ve been more careful about walking home well before dusk, not being out by myself at night, trying not to travel at night, etc. But ultimately, there’s only so much you can do to protect yourself. The main thing is to relinquish everything quickly. In that sense, it’s like being back in Portland with all those meth-heads. pps – Yes, you should still visit me. Ignore the travel advisory
p.p.s - I wrote this a week ago. A few days ago the police shot dead the "bandit" and an "accomplice," it is debatable whether he was attempting to turn himself in peacefully. Certainly, he wasn't wearing anything other than a pair of blue boxers. It was 1am in the morning.

Well, there has been a spate of bank robberies over the past few months, and within the past 3 months there have been 50 violent deaths related to carjackings or muggings. This is more than usual. The people perpetrating the crimes are rarely caught, and those who are tend to be gunned down by police and killed.

So what’s the connection between Kenya’s crime wave and the fact that elections are due this December? Is it becoming a campaign focus? Is it related to general feeling of unrest or tension between communities? Sad to say, the widely held theory is that the bank robbery winnings are going towards politicians’ campaign funds.

That’s right. The politicians are hiring thugs (“thugs” being the popular term) to rob banks in order to fund their campaigns. At least, that’s the view of the folks I know and trust.

What isn’t as clear is why all the violent muggings and car-jackings, many of which do not end in death, but some of which do, quite senselessly. Some people think this is also related to campaign time. I’m not so convinced that it is going to campaigners’ pockets - it seems like a piecemeal way to raise funds. But I can easily believe that politicians are stirring up ethnic tensions which are exacerbating existing tensions and contributing to an atmosphere in which violence is more acceptable.

New Blog!
Actually, you are right, I’ve not done such a good job of keeping up on this one. Like, this is the first time I'm posting in over a month (although that's partially the fault of the World Social Forum and lately I haven't been able to log on. anyways.)
So, why start another blog?
Because that’s one of the great things about the wide open spaces of the internet - there’s lots of room for making dubious decisions. And also, I’ll actually keep up this one, because it’s on BOOKS! That is, books that I’ve read during my time in Kenya. Not all the books, but most of them i reckon.
I’ve been keeping track of what I read since I came here, initially because books were some of the only life-giving things in my life. Then when I was in-between secondments and I had a lot of free time to sit around and mope, I read a lot and started writing comments on the books just for kicks. And then getting a library card got me all excited about continuing to keep track.
I haven’t written about all of the books, and although I’ve gone back through and added some comments, I haven’t done that for all of them.
And then, I like to know what my friends are reading, and what they think about what they are reading. I have no idea if my friends want to know what I’m reading, but that’s the other great thing about the wide open spaces of the internet - you don’t have to venture into some shady areas if you don’t want.
Anyways, here it is: http://booksinkenya.blogspot.com. maybe you can comment on the books that you have also read! or suggest your own! or I set you up as another user so you can post your own blogs on books on the site! Or none of the above, and I happily keep on keeping track for myself. Yep!