Happpppy
American Independence Day to everyone!!!! I hope everyone is having a fantastic
day J I would just like to start this post off
with a short snippet from our country director that was in the monthly newsletter
that Peace Corps Kenya sends out.
Martha says “quality of life, by definition, must be founded on liberty
and personal freedoms, as well as the simple pursuit of happiness. We have all acquired that privileged
birthright as citizens of the United States, inalienable rights that sometimes
let us slip into an entitlement mode – taking our good fortune for granted.
…The majority of people in the world do not enjoy a daily existence based on
these three pillars: the right to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. … When I did my Peace Corps service
in rural Ecuador in the high Andes, widespread poverty ensured that personal
liberties were scarcely evident.
People in my community hardly had any interest in free press and freedom
of speech with such basic human rights such as potable water, health care and
education eluding them. …As you celebrate this Independence Day, count
yourselves among the fortunate ones.
You are here because you need not worry about these basic rights that
should be the birthright of all humans on the planet. You are living the dream: presented with choices and pursuing your path. …
Remember: To whom much is given,
much is expected.” I just thought that a really good note to remember today. We
are so lucky to live in America and have so many privileges right from the
start.
Ok, we are now
officially 10 days into the teachers strike here in Kenya. It’s been a
stressful week but thankfully it’s almost the weekend and I’m visiting friends!
I’ve been buying the newspaper every day but there hasn’t been much new news
related to the strike. On Monday or Tuesday the court ordered the teachers to
go back to school. KUPPET (the union for secondary school teachers) ended their
strike on Tuesday or Wednesday following court orders but KNUT (the primary
teachers union) didn’t comply. They’re waiting it out to get the money they
were told 16 years ago was theirs. It makes sense to me but it’s tough on the
kids everywhere in Kenya and for their sake (and my sanity) I hope it ends well
soon! We’ll see if anything happens tomorrow or over the weekend.
There wasn’t much
to update about the strike but since I’ve been buying the paper and now have a
lot more time to read it, I found two interesting articles I’d like to share
with you wonderful people J
The paper
recently has been filled to the brim with stuff about Obama’s trip to Africa
and many Kenyans were upset when he didn’t put Kenya on his list of places to
visit. However, they still followed his every move and gave us all the details
everyday on where he was/where he was going next/what he said. He made a
promise to Kenyans that he would visit before his 2nd term was up
and most seem to be excited about that. One thing he said that didn’t go over
well among the leaders of Kenya was about something he said while in Senegal
pertaining to gay rights. (The following quotes are all from ‘The Daily Nation’
newspaper). The article says “at least 10 Jubilee Coalition MPs have condemned
Barack Obama for advocating for gay rights in Africa. The MPs said it was not
only un-African but also unacceptable for the US President to call on African
countries to give gay people equal rights when he was aware that African
culture abhorred same sex relationships. The lawmakers said they would fight
against any attempts by America and other Western countries to impose
un-African culture on the continent”. Those first few lines alone threw me for
a bit of a loop. I didn’t realize equal rights to everyone were ‘un-African’.
Huh. But wait, it gets better. A Mr. Sudi, one of the lawmakers, was quoted
asking “How can President Obama defend gay rights when he himself has two
beautiful daughters who would wish to be happily married when they come of
age”? That was followed up shortly with a question by a different lawmaker, Mr.
Korir who asked “Who will marry our daughters if men start looking for fellow
men as partners”? Right, because that’s how it works. Once Kenya is ok with gay
rights, all of the men will immediately start looking for other men and all of
the women will be left in the dust. The article ended with some more
enlightening quotes. “A group of elders, while terming homosexuality un-African
and evil, said it was wrong for Mr. Obama to rally Africa in supporting
same-sex relationships. The group said there was no way Africans could support
or accept gay relationships”. Then came the kicker at the end with a quote from
the leader of the group saying “Indeed, we are very happy that Mr. Obama
declined to visit Kenya after his tour of Senegal where he spoke about gay
rights. He would have brought a ‘curse’ on our land. We condemn Mr. Obama’s
sentiments that we in Africa accept gay behavior, the behavior is evil and
wrong”.
A few days ago I
read some articles online about DOMA begin defeated and Prop 8 and how things
were moving along for gay marriages and rights in America. It’s exciting that
many more states have recently changed their laws so marriages of love can
happen for everyone because as we all know, love actually is…all around J I have many good friends who are gay and
thinking about them not being able to marry the one they love is incredibly
sad. I love getting updates on equality happenings from my wonderful friend
Walky telling me about stuff going on in the USA! And then I buy the paper here
and read things like this. I know that the laws are currently against gay
rights in Kenya, and other African countries but hearing high people in the
government say that gay rights are ‘un-African’ still took me by surprise. I
also know that things seem to take longer to get here and sometimes I feel like
we’re in the 80s or 90s with fads or things occurring, I mean I hear a loooot
of Celine Dion, Shania Twain & Shaggy. It took a while for gay rights to
get their foot in the door of the law in ‘Merica and I know that good things
take time. I have faith that change will eventually happen. It’s a cultural
perspective that I’m trying to understand.
Lastly, I
leave you with something awesome to end this post J In the paper today I read about a bicycle
called ‘XploreAir- Paravelo’. It’s a bike that can fly!!! Have you all heard of
this? It can take off from anywhere and once in the sky it can go “25 mph for
up to 3 hours and it’s propelled by a fan using a biofuel 249cc motor and
parachute. Yannick Read and John Foden’s XploreAir X1 can reach altitudes of
4,000 ft but doesn’t require a special licence to operate.” How sweet is that?!
A flying bike powered by biofuel! I want to see them make tandem bikes that fly
next and then have a carpool lane in the sky! Hahaha and then maybe all we’d
need is for them to create a flying VW Bug and I’d be set J
Many red,
white & blue kisses to everyone,
Lizabeth
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