Kenyans Are Not Resilient, They Are Resigned

Firstly, let me say that anyone who has any hope in politicians implementing policies that will help this country is a fool. When, in the history of ever, has there been a politician in this country who has worked for the good of the country. Isn’t it always about achieving power and maintaining division among the population?

And that is why it easier to focus on the drama, the theatrics and not on policy. Beyond knowing that politicians and government is only concerned with enriching themselves and nonsensical talking points, I do not know what Kenyans think will happen to the country at the rate we are going.

We can lie to ourselves all we want but there is a sense of helplessness in the country. We can feel the decay, it has seeped into the soil. There is a sense of resignation in the air.

How else do you explain how we treat each other? How else do you explain the anger we exhibit on the roads? How else do you explain how we liter and not care about our environment?

If you were to be honest, do you think Kenya is moving ahead? Developing? Are people’s lives better? The only time Kenyans come together is when people from other countries talk negatively about Kenya. We couldn’t even come together to decide on a National Outfit surely.

Sometimes when we talk to each other, it is so obvious how resigned we are. You know that saying “You aren’t living, you are just existing” – that is pretty much how living in Kenya is like. We put our heads in the sand, pretend we are busy, working hard to make sure we aren’t dependent on the government. Oh what a shame this country is despite all the potential.

And it is by design – they (political class) want us to lose hope so that they then can continue to run rampant. We only need to look around this beautiful continent to see countries led to despair on purpose to keep those in the political class in power.

So what do we do?

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Music I’m Listening To

Before you read this post and catch feelings, read what I wrote yesterday.

Sometimes you can be listening to an album and at the end of it you look around like “is that it?”

You start second guessing yourself and decide to listen again.

That was me after listening to Bensoul’s new album The Lion of Sudah.

TO ME, the album is mid.

The vibe from the album is like he had a vault of songs he had previously recorded, collected a couple of them to make this album.

The track order threw me off as I was listening (from a song about loving someone new to two songs about weed was definitely a weird choice), it is almost like we should listen to the album on shuffle for a better experience.

I find the number of featured artists unnecessarily many. 11 out of 15 tracks have a featured artist. The album should be “Bensoul and Friends” at this point.

It is very mish mashy. And maybe that is the point because truly, it is quite a forgettable album. PERSONALLY, I don’t even feel like there is a song that stood out. And it felt too long which is usually not an issue for me (I enjoyed the length of Okello Max’s album for example which is longer).

Please, for clarity’s sake, I haven’t said anywhere on this post that the album is terrible. I said it was average. Best song is Chizi ft Xenia Manasseh.

What Makes An Album Good: A Personal Opinion

“Albums — remember those? Albums still matter. Albums, like books and black lives, still matter.”

Prince

I have been listening to albums with intention. I find that streaming lends to more listening of singles as opposed to albums. So I make a very intentional decision to listen to albums.

The thing is an album is a body of work that is made of parts. The parts need to work together to make the whole a good experience for those listening.

  • The songs should make sense together
  • The songs should have consistent mixing and mastering
  • Solid Lyrics
  • The order of the tracks should be such that there is no dud – a smooth transition between songs
  • The featured artists have to make sense, add value
  • Songs have to be worth remembering or have re-listening value.
  • The album needs to be vibey
  • And this is even more of a personal opinion, an album needs to say something. The different songs come together to tell the listener SOMETHING.

Christianity, Cults and the Promise of a Heaven

I was watching “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” on Netflix and I have written about cults before but I had a thought this past weekend.

Of course the post has spoilers in case you want to watch the documentary.

I think what is common in almost all the cults is the power the leaders wield, sex and money. Those three things were common in the four cults featured and in really most, if not all, cults (and religions if we are to be honest).

What made me think about Christianity, because it is the religion I was brought up in, is how congregations are compelled by their leaders to do something that is so obviously antithetical to what is written in the bible.

In one of the cults in the documentary, the members killed people because they were told to by the leader. Even someone with only a basic understanding of the bible knows this shouldn’t happen. However, they went ahead and did it.

It’s the same way christians are told/taught to hate others and they do it despite one of the basic tenets of Christ’s teachings being about love.

And it is because at the end of the day, christians don’t care about loving their neighbours – they care about going to heaven. And to them, getting to heaven appears guaranteed if they listen to the religious leaders.

If there was no hell, what kind of person would you be?

It is also why they don’t question their religious leaders even when they are blatantly being reckless or even when they are being greedy and corrupt. Like, Christ said no business in church but somehow….. they have been able to explain this away.

But it has been made to seem like questioning the leaders is questioning God. I find it all to be unchrist like.

Christians PERFORM goodness because of the promise of Heaven.

Recent Musings

No one can convince me that most of the jobs we do aren’t “bullshit jobs.” It truly is something to hear someone whose whole personality is the work they do (and by extension the money they make from said job). And by “truly something” I mean that I am bored.

There is a way Kenyan women talk about food that makes it obvious they have a messed up relationship with food and/or have an eating disorder. The ease with which someone will talk about missing meals to lose weight is troubling.

I find it so weird that when I die, my husband’s family has more of a say on the funeral than my own family. It is so weird. Good thing I am being cremated.

The focus on the aesthetic or the way things look is why knickknacks are being sold with fervour. We really don’t need most of these things being sold as “space savers” etc. Like everytime I see someone move their spices to those clear containers my first thought is “unnecessary” followed by “how will they know expiry dates?”

Social media has really convinced people that whatever it is they want to say they can just say it as though it is profound. My brother in Christ, you are a buffoon.