Yet Another Friday!

One thing that many Kenyans struggle with when they come to the States is the fine art of tipping. You see back home there is no set formula per se when it comes to tipping. You either do it or you don't. You do it if you like the place, if it's high class or you are a regular there and have a good rapport with the staff. It's a whole different ball game in the States where most people in the service industry are paid far less than other professional so tips are a major part of their income and also a way of showing appreciation for their work.
Unfortunately many people don't realize that so I have gone out to eat with friends and have people look at me weirdly when they see me doing some quick math in my head before leaving a tip while they either wouldn't or would just leave any loose change that was gathering lint in their pockets. But on the other hand I do admit that the issue of who should be tipped and who shouldn't be tipped is rather complex and confusing. I read this article for some guidance and came to this fine conclusion, I'll carry my own bags, make my own coffee, buy food from the drive through, drink at home and do my own hair! It's too expensive out there for a man like me.

I know some rap/hip-hop lovers are going to try and hunt me down but I'm going to say this anyway. Lil Wayne's voice gets on my nerves, yes the dude can rhyme but there is only so much of his voice I can take in an hour. I mean listen to this song and tell me you can sit down and listen to that for an hour straight?

If I wasn't so apathetic about everything, I would blog about my workplace is slowly but surely turning into a bad episode of The Office. Well as that slowly happens I am slowly turning into one of the subsets of employees I once learned about in a class about Personnel Management. The character in question is called the Conserver. You see Conservers know how to do their job as fast as possible with the least needed effort and in the optimal amount of time (not too long, not too short). In addition to this I have also learnt that in my organization innovation results in more work for you but more credit to someone else usually a superior ( I learnt this the hard way). But let it be known that this Conserver did not go to school for all those years for nothing, I have also mastered the fine art of dissuading superiors from appropriating other organizations' concepts and putting me in charge of it by appealing to their fiscal sense of responsibility. So in a nutshell I do what I'm paid to do and keep my head down, that's pretty much it; anything else will cost them extra......


Before I leave, time for a PSA. A good friend of mine is doing a 3 day walk to raise money for Breast Cancer research. I know this issue affects and has affected many of us, so if you can please make a donation or give moral support! Thanks!

TGIF and bon weekend!

Behold Hump Day Is Upon Us!

After reading this article in the Nation about the depths that Kenyans have now stooped to in the aim of Westernization and to make money, I was extremely shocked and appalled. Yes Kenyans have sex, but remember just a few years we were the same people who were scandalised about sex related issues like AIDS being discussed openly. It seems that conservative nature of Kenyans that had local magazines like Men Only banned deserted us faster than I thought. We have slowly changed from the kind of people who would drop an old newspaper in front of a new vendor and signal him to slip in an issue of a Ugandan smut magazine to the kind of people who would star in local porn and with no shame buy it in the mail or at the nearest exhibition.

What worries me even more is that in our haste to embrace all that is Western. Sex isn't a Western concept but taping it and selling it for public consumption is unless someone out there has a research that tribe xyz used to have their local artist watch people have sex, inscribe it on scrolls and barter trade it to the village over the next ridge; I'll stick with that idea. As I was saying, even the seemingly boundless porn market in the West has regulation, checks and measures. The "performers" even have associations that look after their welfare. I highly doubt there is anything of the sort in the fledgling industry.

Anyway given the epidemic like spread of these videos, I doubt the underfunded and archaic Kenyan censorship board shall be able to do much about it. Also given the close knit nature of Kenyan society it's only a matter of time till the performers in these videos get recognised as they walk down the street. That kind of fame is hard to shrug off, so I hope they can handle the consequences of being stars of the small screen. 

It would have been foolish and idealistic of me to think that this day would never come but still I cry for my country.

Several minutes later, wipes tears, looks around and whispers...."Does anyone have one of those videos.....I want to watch one for research purposes only" 

My Head of Department and the CEO are out of the office for the next 2 days. Hello late arrival and late lunch! When the cat is away.....

Due to public demand (or should I say Eclipse), I have decided to wake my weary bones and attempt to finish the Drama Post series....