Arsene Wenger: A 1 Man Tribute

True or false: the reason's why we love Arsene Wenger

Let’s play a game. It is called “True or False” and this week’s subject is Arsène Wenger. Here goes . . .

1) Wenger is fluent in five languages, including Japanese.

2) He is 6ft 1in tall.

3) The club he supported in his youth were Borussia Mönchengladbach.

4) He won a French league title as a player with Strasbourg in 1979.

5) He is teetotal.

6) He has a degree in engineering and a masters degree in economics.

7) His late father, Alphonse, was forced to fight for Germany during the Second World War.

8) He has an asteroid named after him.

9) He is on the payroll of Castrol.

10) He is married to Annie Brosterhous, a former basketball player.

11) He fielded three teenagers and only one player over the age of 30 for Arsenal against Manchester United on Saturday.

The point — there is always a point, even when it might seem otherwise — is that, more than 12 years after he was appointed Arsenal manager, Wenger remains an enigma to the British public and the media. We seek to define him, but the labels we stick on him are contradictory: urbane and sophisticated yet one-dimensional, with few known interests outside of football; charming yet a charmless loser; ruthlessly competitive yet Corinthian to a fault; warm and compassionate yet cold and clinical.

We may never fully understand Wenger and in particular his devotion to football philosophy that he described this season, in a rare interview, as “an interesting experiment, an idealistic vision of the world of football”. Idealistic is one word for it; quixotic is another. Some might even go so far as misguided.

In adhering so firmly to his beliefs — in youth, in football as an art form rather than a contact sport — Wenger has left himself open to the kind of criticism that rained down on him until Arsenal struck back by beating United on Saturday. Because his belief in that philosophy is total, every victory is sweeter, every defeat hard to stomach. He is a purist, a hopeless romantic, at times perhaps even a romantic without hope. But, deep down, romantics always have hope. It is why we love them.

OLIVER KAY

Barack Obama Wuod Luo - A trully great Kenyan

Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain.

Sen. McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.

I congratulate him; I congratulate Gov. Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama.

Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House.

And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.

And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best -- the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.

To my chief strategist David Axelrod who's been a partner with me every step of the way.

To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

Barack Obama Wuod Luo - A trully great Kenyan

Hello, Chicago.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain.

Sen. McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.

I congratulate him; I congratulate Gov. Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama.

Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House.

And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.

And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best -- the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.

To my chief strategist David Axelrod who's been a partner with me every step of the way.

To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

Government In Business and 21st Century Economics

In the past week I gained from two learning events which though unrelated in occurence, are very much linked to the past as well as the future. Who sets prices? And pricing is to whose interest?

When it is the buyer that increases the price does it negate fundamental economic laws of elements of markets and pricing in particular? Questions have been asked whether at all there exist a price level that reflects the true value of commodity. Is it always statistical arbitrariness resulting from desperations by over fraught buyers at some point and contented lot with deflected priorities at another?

I stand to question the assumptions on which proponents of perfect competitive markets (at instances) base their arguments because in reality markets are surrounded with all manners of imperfections (not necessarily proving the theories advanced for imperfect markets) and uncertainties with so limited time too short for a buyer to make her considerations of available options if any on pricing. Even if it were not so, there are myriads of data and information to process, while the whole time the costs of such processing is enormous in time, acquisitions and interpretation.

That being true, buyers are therefore subjected to constant mis-expenditures where there is no real bargain even when the seller says so. Meaning that all the laws economists have set in their research corridors have no relevance in the streets, from Wall Street to Kimathi Street. There are all those, cartels, monopolies and other similar forms whose dealings do not have to conform to any competitive theories in provisions of basic commodities at all levels from the international oil markets to retail fuel sales at gas points.

The effects of unions and interested bodies and groups with common interests that get it all wrong by trying via crude methods to correct the wrongs and the misconceptions of the economists’ laws that have left the consumer without reliable weapon to fight back the disproportionate effects of deregulations and belief in the efficiency of the ‘invisible hands of markets’.

When the big brother speaks without leaning on a proven theory or law and gives you no option at all on whether to proceed with subsidizing processes of production and marketing, or setting quotas on aspects that balances the considerations of source and destination without depressing the stability of local dependable dynamics and formations, everyone is left to wonder what happens to the left hand – as a rule.

Tea farmers have been the latest to walk the talk that they have threatened since four parliaments before. They are uprooting their crops and switching seeds. This looks like a wise decision because it too is an option to take if the other ain’t working. And it has never been working for the peasants because between them and the buyers are agents and millers and government who in a combined robbery take away 85% of the worth of the produce either as costs, commission or taxes.

This is the disease that has grounded Kenya’s once vibrant agricultural sector, which sadly, also happens to be the country’s only abundant resource, mainstay, backbone and direct employer of 70% of the employable population. Coffee, cotton, sugarcane, cashew nut, macadamia, cereals and all in their categories have traveled the same lost route to leave our food and foreign exchange requirements at dire deficits. Everybody has been monitoring the digression without making any intervention for what it might be worth until it is this late.

Whether it is the 700bln USD to resuscitate America’s (and world leading) financial and economic store that is the Wall Street functionaries that sucks coins from the public with no bullet proof on safety and control, or President Kibaki announcing an ambiguous 30% increase on the prices paid to corn farmers by the government owned National Cereals and Produce Board, something is bound to be seen hidden loose in laws and such policies that follow. With the same breath a dramatic proposal that tea farmers should take home 90% of the produce’s earning more or less show that there is a frantic uncoordinated effort to shake off the gadfly with a swat of a hair strand - a loose end. Not convincing when you consider that the unbearably congested route tea takes from the farmer through the mills to a consumer seated at a cafeteria in downtown Palermo is too enormous with all the many taxable points along that route. Or which 90% of what?

Lastly, it is time for the world to ponder about what sort of economics to deploy since we do not want to imagine that we have all been wrong all along in believing in theories and laws which are as naturally inconsistent as the hour of rain or path of the winds. Regulating a single commodity in a market has disproportionate effect not only on other relations, substitutes or complimentaries, but also indirectly on any other that attracts spending within that market. Correction of that anomaly calls for a delicate balancing act, that even though will be artificial and irresponsive in its solution, can tether the temporal spillages that arise from such unresearched interventions.

In the meantime, such events as of the Wallstreet and commodity situation in Kenya, and the resultant responses taken by the authorities will appal students of economics from their lecture halls and out on the streets wondering who is right - Big Sam or the Professor of Economics who was a little while ago quipping that "government has no business being in business". More puzzling would be the West's SAPs that weighed on the developing world to "privatize or be isolated".

Strikes are Revolutionary and Inevitable

Those Hockey players are morons. It was reported that they are going to be banned for five years by the Kenya Hockey Union. This means that they will not be able to represent the country or play for any club events. NOt sure what happens if they move to another country are they still banned from playing for clubs that are members of the national federation?
kim

Halo halo Kim,

I know you love hockey (and cricket) too and that is why it has concerned you to follow its activities. You mentioned it before and now your fear is being confirmed that Kenya might be banned and fined by IHF. And one Kiruma is banning the players on behalf KHF! You called the young lads 'morons'.

I know you have more information about this perhaps more than me (I only know what you have written here so far) and therefore you could be in an informative situation to make that moronic conclusion. I bet you do not agree with the lads nor do you approve of their actions as my track of your sentiments suggests to me.

Because you once related it to Chess and the upcoming Olympiad we find a link to relate.

Kim I think it is about where the line between a Public citizen and a Private one is drawn. The extent to which one can push a national agenda under the strength of patriotism. When to sacrifice in hunger so that you do not become a slave of greed. It is an idiom for 'them' or 'us' or 'we' or 'they' rather than 'me'. Kim in my opinion it is about the descriptions of 'The country is bigger than....' or 'There comes a time....'.

Under what circumstances shall we do it for others, for the country, for patriotism, for the red,green, black and white flag? How far does it go and who is included in the doing team? Is it the time for a player to do it for country and country? Do they also play hockey for pleasure like you and me do chess? Any other sport for pleasure these days?

Lets get the basics. Four years ago KFF was wrangling and FIFA was about to ban them. Then Kipchoge Keino was drafted from Athletics to head a transitional committee and Patrick Naggi was the appointed Secretary General. He ran to my shop as an old friend and asked me to fix for the 'National Team' two pairs of uniform because while the ban was not yet announced, they were due to play Guinea Republic in Nairobi and the outgoing Joe Kadenge had locked th offices where the teams uniforms were. I know they also bought some white uniforms striped on the arms from NSH and Harambee Stars honoured the match despite the national confusion. It was 20% due to my patriotism.

My firm has never been paid that 90,000 since 2005 and every sports official know about it. I have since written it off as a bad debt. If you ask Keino he will tell you that all the expenses incurred during his time were settled. I also learnt that in sports managment in Kenya you never know who actually owes you - the sports council, the ministry, the federation, the secretary general, the chairman or the international federation?

The moral of the story is that 'they better finish with you before you finish with them' - the reason is that they tackle events and budget for the events - they do not have running expense accounts which can owe you!!!!! Two, is that you might not make the next under something team or the coutry might not even qualify for you to find a chance and logic to dun the past. The officials know this so they approach you as a 'use only once' material on its way to scrap bin.

Those who have been owed 'outstanding allowance' will tell you that you do not stand a chance of being paid unless you get another opportunity to hold the Federation (and country) at ransom at another time when they need your service. Depending on which sport you are in you have a choice to comply, strike or take the next flight back.

The problem is not with our country or players but with the officials we put to run our affairs. They have learnt the art and know they have to 'finish with themselves before they finish with the players and others'. No federation official has ever complained of outstanding dues. Fabisch through to Mulei and Lama in football all quit for that. Actually Mulei was still walking to Nyayo stadium in search of his past allowances long after he returned from APR. It is the officials who are morons and who should ne banned and the IHF step would be in the right direction.

The reason I supported Oliech on dissenting on his team at the penultimate hour once before is because they will use you in the slogan of 'the country' when they need you and noone will ever mention you sacrificed something to do it. A sportsman's life is just this limited and I'd rather I change my name and fly a Qatari flag that I know is not o my own rather than be met at the Airport by the likes of Okeyo or Kasuve.

If you want something from me why not give me what is due to me with the left hand and I honour you with the right? Is Kenya (the country) to which we should owe our talent, allegience and be ever patriotic too poor to pay young hockey players their allowance in full when MPs get theirs even before they attend parliamentary sessions? Or is it that they did not trust the players to keep their side of the bargain and had to make a 'downpayment pending...'

In summary Kim. If Ben Nguku qualifies ahead of other available Kenyans to represent the country in the next Olympiad and CK pledges allowances for his representation and speculated opportunities forgone by that commitment then he should be paid as agreed. Incase in the course of it he suspects that there a CK game play with his allowance, I will support him if he choses to think of 'himself' first before his country and if he withdraws and flies back to attend to his more profitable commitments (earlier forgone) that should be his right and CK can only but select another Kenyan who can fit in to take his place. It does not make Ben a moron - odawise how else would you refer to you and me who remained behind to pump our own selves?

The hockey players did the right thing if past experiences are anything to go by. KAAA has never succeeded in banning runaway athletes and I think KHF only has this little to manouver in the absence of the players' blessings.

So allow me to disagree with you on the condemnation of the Hockey players and the 'moron' term, to allege that you are aware how pathetic hockey players even at club level are suffering. I have a second-hand experience on that.

Let us impress upon sports officials to represent the country well by doing their work whether or not 'patriotism' is an element of consideration. Have a good look and review at CK and formerly at KCA and see if 'what you deserve is what you get in the absence of negotiation'.

Let justice be our shield and defender not mere slogans of patriotism!

Have a lengthy striking day won't you.

Soulman

Solman I actually managed to read your Tolstoyian length email...in your own strange convoluted way you make alot of sense

Thanks Mehul.

But my thinking is in line with Kim's that if you are a celebrity sportsmen than that aura of fame gives you rights, unwritten in the constitution but visible to everyone, to complain as you feel fit. If you aint up there what the hell are you crying for?

E.g if some weak player like Mathioya or Hesbom started making noise about allowances etc, assuming these weak guys actually made it to the team, then who are they to make noise. But if it were the Ben's and Peter G like guys they have bragging and noisemaking rights. It is very easy to be a weak player but very difficult to be a strong one.

Someone has hit Hesbon below the belt!!


My God this is serious....was this the title belt? And who hit him over the belt? Violence in any form off the chess board should not be tolerated. I suggest, Nguku as checkmates club chairman you petition the CK chairman to investigate into this matter.


I think maybe we should wait to see what the KHU say about the details. I think the problem in the hockey team shows up very clearly in the current riot in our school. Our social fabric has been worn out by the corruption in our leader and the ease at which drugs and alcohol are available. It is still a great shame for the country that our players boycotted the event. Why get on the plane then?????. In Elista chess players had been promised a lot more money than what the player got but hey nobody went on strke.

I just feel sorry for my tax payers money going down the tube sending these pathetic ungrateful hockey players to Cairo. I wish that $400 had been used to buy malaria medicine in our hospital at least 5 babies would not need to die from malaria. Over to you Soulman........... how about that.............

One good thing might come out of this. The Kenya Universities Sports Association intends to run a hockey league. This is great news for the grass root development of the game. Perhaps CK could link up with the KUSA to set up a uni league??!!
kim

KIM: I just feel sorry for my tax payers money going down the tube sending these pathetic ungrateful hockey players to Cairo. I wish that $400 had been used to buy malaria medicine in our hospital at least 5 babies would not need to die from malaria. Over to you Soulman........... how about that.............

MYSELF: All these are matters of opinions. None of us is wrong. But I think if we really looked at the root causes of these things then we can face the future with calm. Strikes for any sake is always an end result to a very bad thing which has not got a solution - a disagreement where nobody wants to compromise with the other. Yet in some instances from such strikes solutions are got. Kim the adage that 'some people work best under pressure' is true. If you suddenly misplace/lose money you start slotting all manner of use you could have put it into. These is because anything for that money would be better than the zero in your pockets.

There is usually just 'this much' that one can disagree with but still take but beyond which he will do otherwise. I know you have been in such situations before. Whether you take it or not depends on the BIGGER PICTURE. My question is whether the BIGGER PICTURE, say Kenya/Country looks to everyone the same size? And from experience is it really big? Whatever KHF decides to do is 'up on them'. The players must be ready to live with the results of their actions and KHF has the opportunity to draft in 'other' Kenyans to consider the big picture.

I would like to see malaria medicine in hospitals but I think it should not be the burden of the hockey players accepting oppression, abuse and misuse to have Kenya by them. That it might not be true that the players went to Cairo solely to strike and come back. Standing up to defend your rights by refusing to do what is expected of you does not make you weak. It is the right thing. Someone once said 'Give me liberty or give me death'.

Lastly Kim old boy, Kenyan sportsmen especially those in hockey are already pathetic, what can they be grateful about? Let us change our country by asking people to do what they ought to do. Your old man did the right thing to stand up against what he disagreed with by flinging that chair!

MAGANA: You sound horribly hurt and its like you looked around for appropriate 'throw back at'. Luckily I got nine lives and you only caught a lesser package. I suspected the 'convolusion' in that typical paragragh needed a second check - actually if you do that you will realize that it is neither condemning, accusing, attacking or ridiculing you. It does not paint you with any dirt or bad picture. Sorry I used you as a live and active example - but only that Mehul set it off earlier.

I do not want to approve or disapprove your immense (insert space here) to chess in Kenya. Actually you are already in the Kenya Chess history books. Only one thing. Nobody has done anything to chess in this country and if you doubt the correctness of my assertion then give me a single line of fact t counter it. Because Chess in Kenya has gone nowhere.

The BIG PICTURE is true in caps. But it depends on who is looking at it. The real size is tested by time and by how many are seeing a common size.

What I may need to repeat is that when an individual (or a group) decide to 'play ball' it depends on how big the picture is to them.

Lastly, while chess is an individual game by its nature, progress in it require that it be a team game.

Dangerous Waters

It is like swimming in the Atlantic at Lekki Beach when the tides are up and waves are awash as they build, rise and break on the great boulders deliberately erected to stop another 'may yet come' catastrophe. When you are in the water, and having a human eye and nose your senses of smell and hearing are highly varied yet still you rely on them to take control of your aquacy. As opposed to the 'never so clean' waters of the lake and rivers from which I learnt to 'float like a butterfly' the Atlantic waters are cleaner and clearer.

But aquatic life has never been human at all. That is why while swimming at Lekki Beach you would like to believe that the 'waters are safe' from all the beasts, ogres and grisly dangers that lurk within the belly of the earth that is the big mass of water. Your eyes will not assure you of the safety neither will your ears but you still go ahead and try out the strokes you got left as long as you can only beat the water, until something solid come your way, and that it is land - any land.

Imagine that instead it was a shark's fin that you touched - non other thab a Great White!

Then it dawns on you that you should have been weary of the 'unknown'. So it gets tricky as the days goes. House cleaning and an impending signature. Balances, documents and reversals. One move through is accomplished by an irreversibly activity. Then the message is that 'your hand either was never there or has been archived' but you can feel it when you look for it with your feet. Your hand is either under the water or is still attached to your arm but the fear of the thought of the Great White still taking its sweet time with you as it swims along leisurely somewhere in the water, blanks and darkens your day.

I remember those dreams when I was young when I would be chased by a lion and I would be unable to move forward. I would either slip and fall or some force would pull me backwards. And what about those fights that I would be throwing punches that wouldn't go. A dream to the morning. It all means I slept well.

It is not me but the road you drive me through that will dictate how I close and open my windows - and of course which car I'll feel comfortable in. Nobody has ever explained the real issues necessitating the clean-up that has been going on beyond 'environmenta' and that is why I wouldn't know which broom to use. So how would I clean a Systems Applied Problem house that has got so many rooms? Its an ERP!

They sold and distributed some merchandise and their values to various rooms which they all forgot to clean. Now they say the people who initiated the merchandise should clean it. But why should they when the merchandise are in order and in their places? Phew. Mini master came in but I still see some merchandise and values where maybe they are no longer needed.

But what will happen when the tides 'go down', will there be more Great Whites or others like the Blue Whales shall spring up - real or imaginary. The foundation blocks still remain but without mortar and metal to hold. Will it be built from here? What next?

I haven't seen the 'While you were away' for Lucky but I bet its gonna be interesting - when chicken come home to roost - and I need Manucho here just to see him hold his nose and say 'Aaaaah that one.....'

Swim in the waters you know.

Of “God’s Great Missionaries” and Us.

This is an inspection into the lives of those great men of God - like John the Baptist, the Apostle John, the Apostle Peter, the prophet Daniel, and others.Truly these men (and women, just as deserving) were indeed “faithful” to the Lord. Their life stories are a great encouragement to us today.
However, the Lord Himself never called any of them “great.”
In fact, take Moses for example, the “servant of the Lord”: the Lord never called him “great.” The Lord honored him highly for his fidelity; but the Lord never said a word that would encourage Moses to become proud of himself.
In fact, in all these stories of so-called “Great Missionaries,” the Lord seems to take their fidelity for granted; for them to be “faithful” is just duty.
Jesus explains this principle in Luke 17: “When you have carried out all you have been ordered to do, you should say, ‘We are servants and deserve no credit; we have only done our duty’” (vss. 9, 10, NEB). In other words, we should say, “We do not deserve to be called ‘great.’”
Does this sound like the Lord does not appreciate our faithful service? No! When at last He says to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant: ... Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord”(Matt. 25:21), you will feel that He is praising you to the skies! (And that is true!).
But the Lord considers that all your faithfulness, all your hard work and self-sacrifice, is just the proper response of any honest heart to the “much more abounding grace” of the Lord Jesus; no big deal. ...
The Lord went to hell to save your soul; for you to respond by giving Him your heart, your life, your all, is no big deal to get proud over; it’s just the proper response of any believing heart to the cross of Christ!
This is explained clearly in 2 Corinthians 5: “The love of Christ constraineth us” (vs. 14). Paul says he knows some people will think he is crazy; here he is pouring his very life out in unselfish service for Christ, and still doing so long after “retirement age.”
Why doesn’t he get himself a nice little villa near the Mediterranean Sea, and rest from his long life of grueling service? We have lots of retired pastors and teachers, today; but Paul could not “retire” because that love (agape) of Christ kept tugging at his heart; was he a better man than we are?

No; he had simply seen something that day when he was on his way to Damascus to try to destroy the church of Christ—he saw Jesus, and Jesus spoke to him and said “it is hard for thee to kick against the goads.”
Paul never forgot that!
We can still let self be crucified when we “retire,” and although we may grow some roses, etc., we can keep ourselves dedicated to the Lord.
The Holy Spirit is giving you and me individually, personally, our own little “vision” of that love [agape] of Christ. The final movement is coming suddenly; let us be ready to welcome the Lord’s leading.