On 12/3/08, Wainaina Mungai <wainaina@madeinkenya.org> wrote:

Only a month ago, Kenyans gladly accepted OBAMA's victory as a
"Kenyan" President of the USA. That was still the theme at the Ramogi
Night at Carnivore restaurant last Friday.

Should we not accord Brian Munyao Longwe (if he's not Kenyan) similar
treatment as we expected Obama to receive in the USA? Attempts were
made by conservatives during the campaigns to present Obama as
"muslim" or "Kenyan"...or simply, non-american. The lessons we should
have learnt from the post-election crisis and the US elections is what
Martin Luther King Jr. died trying to teach us. Do not judge a person
by their heritage...colour of their skin...etc etc...

Stretching the argument further, should Kenyans now reject "foreign
aid" that finances alot of our ICT issues (including KICTANet)...and
we may just be asking for some more now that we have a food crisis...

Should judge Kriegler have been Kenyan? Should we have kicked out Kofi
Annan?...a Ghanaian? Are we telling the world that it was okay for
Kenyans who were in strategic positions in RSA to be kicked during the
xenophobic attacks?  It started with M.L. King Jr....and Obama brought
the message home to the unconverted...let us not sprint backwards.

That said, we should instead learn to adopt Brian Longwe's of this
world (the non-kenyan ones) and giving them full Kenyans status. ;-)

All Kenyan, All the time ;-)
WM

On 12/3/08, Binaifer Nowrojee <bnowrojee@osiea.org> wrote:

> As a non-ICT person-just a KICTANET donor--I am compelled to add my two bits
> to the debate.
>
> To my mind, Brian Longwe's nationality is not so much an issue of entryism,
> but rather one of xenophobia, a phenomenon that we Kenyans appear have a
> high affinity to given our propensity to ethnic hatred and even violence.
>
> Xenophobia: an intense dislike and/or fear of people from other
> nationalities. It comes from the Greek

> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language>  words ξένος (xenos), meaning

> "foreigner," "stranger," and φόβος (phobos), meaning "fear." The term is
> typically used to describe a fear or dislike of foreigners

> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(law)>  or of people significantly

> different from oneself.
>
> To my mind, Brian Longwe's intelligent and valuable contributions to the ICT
> sector in Kenya far supercede the issue of his nationality as the key
> determinant of his contributions.
>
> I am a bit puzzled as to how the possession of Kenyan nationality is being
> automatically equated with positive contributions to the nation-as somehow
> if we have a Kenyan in the post that things will be done better.  This is
> particularly the case when I look around me and see a Kenyan Commissioner of
> Police who is happy to kill unarmed pro-democracy advocates; a greedy
> parliament (all Kenyan) that is happy to award themselves exhorbitantly high
> salaries without paying tax; and a Kenyan government that is renown
> worldwide for some of the highest levels of corruption.  Is their
> contribution to our nation calibrated solely on their possession of a piece
> of paper that labels them Kenyan?
>
> I believe we should judge a person's contributions to bettering of the
> nation by their actions, regardless of their nationality.
>
> As the debate for constitutional reform moves forward, I also wonder where
> this leaves the xenophobes.  We may soon have a provision for dual
> nationality.
>
> Best
>
> Binaifer Nowrojee
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: kictanet-bounces+bnowrojee=osiea.org@lists.kictanet.or.ke
> [mailto:kictanet-bounces+bnowrojee=osiea.org@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf
> Of aki
> Sent: 2008-12-03 13:27
> To: Binaifer Nowrojee
> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
> Subject: [kictanet] Entryism according to some dictionaries
>
>
>
> The net has some interesting views on this, something that came to mind
> while reading world politics a while back..
>
>
>
> Entryism is a political tactic in which an organisation or group enters a
> larger organisation in an attempt to gain recruits, gain influence or to
> take control of the larger organisations' structure. This technique is
> commonly used by groups from the far left or right of the political spectrum
> to enter more centrist institutions. This is experienced more frequently in
> arenas where opportunities for political activity at the fringes is limited,
> such as two party/majoritarian systems rather than in
> multiparty/proportional systems where the cost of entry into the political
> system is lower. Organisations which are the subject of entryism often react
> by attempting either to marginalise or expel the pratagonists.
>
>
>
>
>
>

--
Sent from my mobile device

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