Being a Maasai, I'm lucky that most of the people in Europe have heard of us. So when someone asks me about my "roots", the name Maasai usually rings a bell.
In Switzerland there's this lady known as "the white Maasai". Her story is that of a Swiss lady who went to Kenya, fell in love with a Maasai and left her comfortable life in Switerland behind. She wrote a book about her story. She's been back in Switzerland for quite some time now and recently released another book about a visit to her "Maasai roots". And currently there's a movie based on her story showing in theatres (not necessarily near you).
And I have just read this Standard article on a British millionare who is preparing to leave his posh lifestyle behind after being made a Maasai elder. This guy is probably more Maasai than me! I've never solved any inter-tribal clashes that led to my being named Siparo (the brave one). I also have to admit that I've never worn the traditional Maasai attire (and don't call me a fake Maasai :-). And I definitely haven't been chosen a Maasai elder.
I guess I've got some catching up to do...
Monday, August 29, 2005
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Bring 'em on!!!
Here we are three weeks away from the start of another champions league season. For me the football season started about a month ago with the beginning of the Swiss championship and more importantly the Bundesliga shortly thereafter. But the champions league is the serious stuff. And not only cause of the money involved. It's the chance to see the top European clubs with the best football players in the world go against each other.
Compared to the various national championships, the CL is fairly easy to follow. The teams and players involved are in most cases fairly famous. The attention given to the games by the media is very high (obviously due to the great interest by fans). And almost all the games start at 20:45 CET on Tuesday or Wednesday - prime time! After a hard day's work, watching Zidane and Ronaldinho with a few pals and beers is just the right thing.
And once in a while there is a surprise waiting. Whether it's a final between Monaco and Porto (!!) like two years ago or Liverpool's comeback from three goals down last year, it's always enjoyable. From the Swiss perspective, the surprise has already happened. FC Thun on Tuesday qualified for the group stage of the CL with a convincing 3:0 win against Malmö.
So now Thun gets ready to take on the elite - the likes of Real Madrid, AC Milan or ManU. Thun is a small town with 41'000 inhabitants. Theoretically, the big clubs could hold the entire population of Thun in their stadiums. Another big difference is the budget. In Thun, there's no Abramowitsch. Thun has a budget of about 4 million USD. This means the guaranteed money for participation in the CL is going to more than double their budget.
With FC Basel having failed to qualify against Werder Bremen, all eyes in Switzerland are on FC Thun. Everyone is looking forward to at least six games among the best. Thun and it's fans don't really care who they play. The bigger the club, the happier they'll probably be. Bring 'em on!!!
Compared to the various national championships, the CL is fairly easy to follow. The teams and players involved are in most cases fairly famous. The attention given to the games by the media is very high (obviously due to the great interest by fans). And almost all the games start at 20:45 CET on Tuesday or Wednesday - prime time! After a hard day's work, watching Zidane and Ronaldinho with a few pals and beers is just the right thing.
And once in a while there is a surprise waiting. Whether it's a final between Monaco and Porto (!!) like two years ago or Liverpool's comeback from three goals down last year, it's always enjoyable. From the Swiss perspective, the surprise has already happened. FC Thun on Tuesday qualified for the group stage of the CL with a convincing 3:0 win against Malmö.
So now Thun gets ready to take on the elite - the likes of Real Madrid, AC Milan or ManU. Thun is a small town with 41'000 inhabitants. Theoretically, the big clubs could hold the entire population of Thun in their stadiums. Another big difference is the budget. In Thun, there's no Abramowitsch. Thun has a budget of about 4 million USD. This means the guaranteed money for participation in the CL is going to more than double their budget.
With FC Basel having failed to qualify against Werder Bremen, all eyes in Switzerland are on FC Thun. Everyone is looking forward to at least six games among the best. Thun and it's fans don't really care who they play. The bigger the club, the happier they'll probably be. Bring 'em on!!!
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Of national importance...
I don't really know what to make of the government's admittance that they favoured the home areas of President Kibaki and ministers Raila Odinga and Kiraitu Murungi in the allocation of money for roads. Should they be applauded for coming out straight on this matter? Or should they be criticised for allowing these kind of things to happen despite their promises before coming into power?
In March I did a post on where I prefer spending my time back home, shagz or towo? In that post I talked about the ride from Nairobi to Loitokitok (my shagz) when schools closed. The thing is, the road from Emali to Loitokitok doesn't have tarmac. We've been promised tarmac since 1991 (if not even earlier, my memory only goes that far on this issue). Things were said to be looking really good when NARC came into power. But not because it was a new government. No, the reason was the exact same favourism mentioned in the news article above.
The late Geoffery Parpai was the MP for Kajiado South. Immediately he became cabinet minister, people started talking about how soon we would be getting tarmac (I remember cause I was home at that time). Unfortunately, Mr. Parpai came to pass away a few months later. I don't really know whether we would today have tarmac if he hadn't died. But even today, there still is talk about tarmac coming soon...
Part of me wants the road to stay as dusty, muddy and rough as I remember it from my childhood. But that's coming from someone who uses that road a maximum of two times per year. For the people who have to make that journey more often than I do, I hope that we will soon have smoother rides home.
In March I did a post on where I prefer spending my time back home, shagz or towo? In that post I talked about the ride from Nairobi to Loitokitok (my shagz) when schools closed. The thing is, the road from Emali to Loitokitok doesn't have tarmac. We've been promised tarmac since 1991 (if not even earlier, my memory only goes that far on this issue). Things were said to be looking really good when NARC came into power. But not because it was a new government. No, the reason was the exact same favourism mentioned in the news article above.
The late Geoffery Parpai was the MP for Kajiado South. Immediately he became cabinet minister, people started talking about how soon we would be getting tarmac (I remember cause I was home at that time). Unfortunately, Mr. Parpai came to pass away a few months later. I don't really know whether we would today have tarmac if he hadn't died. But even today, there still is talk about tarmac coming soon...
Part of me wants the road to stay as dusty, muddy and rough as I remember it from my childhood. But that's coming from someone who uses that road a maximum of two times per year. For the people who have to make that journey more often than I do, I hope that we will soon have smoother rides home.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Kenyan athletics
With the athletics world championships taking place in Helsinki this week, this is a time when we Kenyans can expect some positive mention of our country. Positive achievements by our fellow citizens to make us proud. Far away from the visa problems of ministers, corruption or the daily fighting in Kenyan politics.
Today, after day three of the championships, we are joint 15th in the medal standings with two bronze medals. Since quite a few medals have been awarded in technical disciplines like the heptathlon or high jump or in the 100m dash, our standings are not to worry. These are disciplines where we usually don't excel.
Our events are usally the long distance races like the 10'000m or "our" steeplechase. But even here, things are not as good as they used to be. Our main opposition traditionally comes from Ethiopia. The Ethiopians swept the women's 10'000m and took the gold and silver in the men's event, ahead of a Kenyan. Our other bronze medal came from the women's 3'000m steeple. The men's steeple has in the past been the only event where one could without a doubt predict the winner to come from Kenya. Let's hope it stays that way.
Our competition for medals is in future not going to only come from Ethiopia. Expect Gulf State countries like Qatar and Kuwait to challenge for medals in years to come. Unfortunately for us Kenyans, most of these athletes were born Kenyan and have only recently defected (and continue to) for money. This is probably one of the few times I agree with our president in his call on the athletes to put patriotism above all considerations, and resist the temptation to change citizenship for financial gain.
I believe that these athletes have a right to do what's right for them and their families. And I partly blame our government for not rewarding our athletes fairly, which makes it easier for them to be lured away by richer nations. Even though at the end of the day we couldn't keep up with the money these countries are throwing at our athletes, our government needs to do more.
At the same time, I'm also convinced that it's possible for these athletes to make "enough" money for them and their families to lead a fairly good life without necessarily having to change nationality. The money they can earn with good results during the normal athletics season and even at the big events like in Helsinki or in the olympics is still very good compared to the average Kenyan back home. But I guess it's safer to go with the Gulf states since with them the money comes even if the results are not the best. I can imagine it being very difficult to say no to a monthly wage of $5'000 and an additional $250'000 in the case of a world or olympic gold medal.
I hope that we can find a way of keeping our athletes happy so that they may continue to represent us the way the likes of Kipchoge Keino, John Ngugi or Moses Kiptanui did. But obviously, those were other times. Times when it was more about pure sports and there was less money involved.
Today, after day three of the championships, we are joint 15th in the medal standings with two bronze medals. Since quite a few medals have been awarded in technical disciplines like the heptathlon or high jump or in the 100m dash, our standings are not to worry. These are disciplines where we usually don't excel.
Our events are usally the long distance races like the 10'000m or "our" steeplechase. But even here, things are not as good as they used to be. Our main opposition traditionally comes from Ethiopia. The Ethiopians swept the women's 10'000m and took the gold and silver in the men's event, ahead of a Kenyan. Our other bronze medal came from the women's 3'000m steeple. The men's steeple has in the past been the only event where one could without a doubt predict the winner to come from Kenya. Let's hope it stays that way.
Our competition for medals is in future not going to only come from Ethiopia. Expect Gulf State countries like Qatar and Kuwait to challenge for medals in years to come. Unfortunately for us Kenyans, most of these athletes were born Kenyan and have only recently defected (and continue to) for money. This is probably one of the few times I agree with our president in his call on the athletes to put patriotism above all considerations, and resist the temptation to change citizenship for financial gain.
I believe that these athletes have a right to do what's right for them and their families. And I partly blame our government for not rewarding our athletes fairly, which makes it easier for them to be lured away by richer nations. Even though at the end of the day we couldn't keep up with the money these countries are throwing at our athletes, our government needs to do more.
At the same time, I'm also convinced that it's possible for these athletes to make "enough" money for them and their families to lead a fairly good life without necessarily having to change nationality. The money they can earn with good results during the normal athletics season and even at the big events like in Helsinki or in the olympics is still very good compared to the average Kenyan back home. But I guess it's safer to go with the Gulf states since with them the money comes even if the results are not the best. I can imagine it being very difficult to say no to a monthly wage of $5'000 and an additional $250'000 in the case of a world or olympic gold medal.
I hope that we can find a way of keeping our athletes happy so that they may continue to represent us the way the likes of Kipchoge Keino, John Ngugi or Moses Kiptanui did. But obviously, those were other times. Times when it was more about pure sports and there was less money involved.
Monday, August 01, 2005
Switzerland
1. August is the Swiss national holiday. They celebrate that it's on this day in 1291 that the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden signed a charter to form the Swiss Confederation. This date and an e-mail I received last week are the reason for this post. A fellow Kenyan wrote to me asking whether I would recommend this country for her graduate studies.
Disclaimer: This post contains the innocent views of the author. The author is aware that situations may vary from one person to another. The author also apologises for any misinformation about legal issues - the author didn't feel like cross-checking his statements :-)
In general, I can't complain about life here. I told this fellow Kenyan that she should be careful with my words since I have been here since I was 12 and have gone through the normal school system, fluently speak one of the four national languages (German) and am now working. The situation is bound to be "more difficult" for someone coming in their 20s and having to stand on your own feet from the beginning.
Negatives
- Language barrier. Either German, French or Italian are necessary. Most universities are either in the German or the French speaking part of the country.
- Permit issues. It's very hard to get a job with "only" a student's visa. And in general, part time jobs are hard to get.
- Cost of living. Yeep, Switzerland is an expensive country. Rent, food, public transport, general shopping, etc. (At the same time, salaries are higher than in neigbouring countries).
- Racism. It's almost everywhere, isn't it? A lot of "negative publicity" for all foreigners due to criminal activity by some people from Ex-Yugoslavia and some African countries. Africans especially active in the drug business. A black guy is "expected" to be doing drugs and a black woman is very easily considered a prostitute or at least "easy to get".
- Cold winters. I wouldn't say the winters are much colder than in your average European country. (I've heard that the winters in Canada are worse).
- Kenyan community. Much smaller than in the UK, States or Canada.
- Travelling. Since Switzerland isn't in the EU and not yet a Schengen state (referendum in September), Kenyan citizens require a visa to go to any European country. The whole process is tiring and pretty much cancels out last minute trips.
Positives
- Public transport. Excellent system with good connections to almost every part of the country. (Fairly expensive though).
- Swiss people. I have found the average Swiss to be very friendly. This goes especially for those with higher education or in the cities.
- Clean and quiet country. (Though sometimes almost too regulated and "too perfect").
- High level of security and good health system. (Though very expensive, especially dentists).
- Standard of living is fairly high with good living and working conditions.
I would highly recommend Switzerland. Just make sure you at least speak German or French. And though this may be a diffcult task, try and have the right papers so that you don't have to live in constant fear of being deported.
Disclaimer: This post contains the innocent views of the author. The author is aware that situations may vary from one person to another. The author also apologises for any misinformation about legal issues - the author didn't feel like cross-checking his statements :-)
In general, I can't complain about life here. I told this fellow Kenyan that she should be careful with my words since I have been here since I was 12 and have gone through the normal school system, fluently speak one of the four national languages (German) and am now working. The situation is bound to be "more difficult" for someone coming in their 20s and having to stand on your own feet from the beginning.
Negatives
- Language barrier. Either German, French or Italian are necessary. Most universities are either in the German or the French speaking part of the country.
- Permit issues. It's very hard to get a job with "only" a student's visa. And in general, part time jobs are hard to get.
- Cost of living. Yeep, Switzerland is an expensive country. Rent, food, public transport, general shopping, etc. (At the same time, salaries are higher than in neigbouring countries).
- Racism. It's almost everywhere, isn't it? A lot of "negative publicity" for all foreigners due to criminal activity by some people from Ex-Yugoslavia and some African countries. Africans especially active in the drug business. A black guy is "expected" to be doing drugs and a black woman is very easily considered a prostitute or at least "easy to get".
- Cold winters. I wouldn't say the winters are much colder than in your average European country. (I've heard that the winters in Canada are worse).
- Kenyan community. Much smaller than in the UK, States or Canada.
- Travelling. Since Switzerland isn't in the EU and not yet a Schengen state (referendum in September), Kenyan citizens require a visa to go to any European country. The whole process is tiring and pretty much cancels out last minute trips.
Positives
- Public transport. Excellent system with good connections to almost every part of the country. (Fairly expensive though).
- Swiss people. I have found the average Swiss to be very friendly. This goes especially for those with higher education or in the cities.
- Clean and quiet country. (Though sometimes almost too regulated and "too perfect").
- High level of security and good health system. (Though very expensive, especially dentists).
- Standard of living is fairly high with good living and working conditions.
I would highly recommend Switzerland. Just make sure you at least speak German or French. And though this may be a diffcult task, try and have the right papers so that you don't have to live in constant fear of being deported.
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