Archive for January 2008
Where are the happy African stories?
Posted by: evesreflections on: January 23, 2008
- In: Books| Life
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I’m not what you’d call an avid reader. However, last year in November, I decided that I needed to read more African stories, preferably told by Africans. So I started on a journey that took me to nearby Uganda, not so near Rwanda, and distant Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Reading the stories, I felt drawn to those countries. I [...]
Too much civic education, too little peace education?
Posted by: evesreflections on: January 21, 2008
One month before the elections, I participated in a series of strategy meetings. Also present was a friend who works in peace building. He came with one message, which he didn’t tire of passing on. Conflict sensitivity should be part and parcel of any programme planning that an organization does. By the second day of [...]
Which ethnic group do you belong to?
Posted by: evesreflections on: January 21, 2008
- In: Kenya
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It takes at least two somethings to create a difference. (…) Clearly each alone is – for the mind and perception – a non-entity, a non-being. Not different from being, and not different from non-being. An unknowable, a Ding an sich, a sound from one hand clapping.
Gregory Bateson (1979: 78)
In spite of being united by [...]
Of Kivuitu and his instincts, or lack thereof…
Posted by: evesreflections on: January 4, 2008
- In: Kenya| Life| Politics| violence
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Instinct is a powerful thing. 10 minutes after Kivuitu chose to ignore his, he had effectively changed the course of history. We trooped patriotically to our polling stations, braving the scorching sun and torrential downpours. We voted peacefully, and those of us endowed with televisions and radios proceeded back to our homes to watch ECK [...]
Riot policemen confront protesters
