Did some1 @ Kimathi St. do this 4 the Standard?

So the Israelis are expected by all and sundry to constantly pursue the much-loved path of diplomacy!

Over the years, I have come to expect some editorial slants on some local and international issues from sections of Kenyan and global media.

I know there are stories, for instance, only the Nation Media Group will touch much in the same way as there are those only the Standard Media Group will touch (mind not the other low-level media players on some big stories of the day).

I also know that there are some slants I should expect from either media stable each day, again for some very obvious reasons.

Except for the time when one of its local bureaus was attacked for what was later understood as having been religious reasons, I fail to understand why the Standard would want to beat the Nation at being so “diplomatic” on the Middle East question.

*****

Just a thought: If I were in the Kenyan government or civil service (in whatever position), I wouldn’t hesitate using our disciplined forces to curb the never-ending enemy incursions across our Northern frontier, something well perfected along our porous Kenya-Somalia border as well (it’s so easy to come into and leave Kenya without worrying about doing an Artur anywhere).

I wouldn’t also hesitate to put our war-mongering MPs from such hotspots into their place, local and national political dynamics notwithstanding.

Of course that would go hand-in-hand with concerted efforts to develop the region.

Similarly, I wouldn’t be so foolhardy as to imagine that Al-Qaeda has no presence in Somalia as sections of its fragmented leadership have been saying lately.

To that end, and to the extent and proportion that international financial transactions these days – as indeed much else (including communication) – are open secrets, I would want to examine a little more keenly the possibility that Al-Qaeda elements in Somalia could be using genuine Somali and Kenyan businessmen to run their dirty money through local financial institutions.

Finally, I would want to sup with anyone involved in the Somalia question using a long wooden spoon…and while I’m at it with them, carry my big hugging stick.

All that should not be so difficult for our famed diplomatic services and intelligence community, unless the situation reports before them read much differently from each other as well as from the realities on the ground.

Your prayers won’t get off the ground

Via the Biblegateway

Isaiah 58

Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground

1-3 “Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!
Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,
face my family Jacob with their sins!
They’re busy, busy, busy at worship,
and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—
law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’
and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?
Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’

3-5″Well, here’s why:”The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
won’t get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:
a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like?

6-9″This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places

9-12″If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.13-14″If you watch your step on the Sabbath
and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
Yes! God says so!