Ndugu Wainaina I call them so since they are used by people whose intergrity are questioned here. They will be seen attacking left right and centre without any point. Anyway lets know the truth about nationality but one thing I have known for sometime now is that Brian is not Kenyan and others who we also see being appointed to various boards Anyway I have noted your reservation with the term 'attack dogs' and will surely correct that. Thanks Alai On 12/3/08, Wainaina Mungai <wainaina@madeinkenya.org> wrote:
Thanks for your kind words...
May I request that we also agree not to call others "attack dogs" and similar terms? It may be more helpful if we all use polite language...and more preferable if we substantiate claims.
I have known Brian for long and have worked closely with him. I would appreciate if we would all be courteous enough to accord him the benefit of doubt for now since the jury is still out on his nationality?
Thanks again. WM
Ndugu Wainaina
Well argued. I think that your argument is very good. You know what makes people hate the foreigners, its when they are being used wrongly to attack the nationals. We love all foreigners including and not exclusive to Bill Lay, Michael Joseph, Rene Meza, Jean of Telkom Kenya, and many others. What makes people hate the likes of Longwe, and the other attack dogs used in this forum to attack people who question suspicious deals is how tehy behave. They think that people dont know whom they are. We respect all and I hhave benefited alot from foreigners and more so Malawians, Congolese, Burundians, Tanzanians and Ugandans and many others. But when I am in the respective countries, I tend to respect them and support the locals in every aspect and not be used as an attack Dog when people question the corrupt.
And if Brian Longwe wants to be Kenyan, due process of the law must be followed and not short cuts to serve interest of people. The interest we serve is Kenyan interest.
But I agree ndugu Wainaina that its true that if a foreigner is doing fine and helping in making a better place then he must be given all support and just the way wakina Janet Feldman in KCA are fighting for dual citizenship for Kenyans, I support it
Alai
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
On 12/3/08, Robert Alai <alai.robert@gmail.com> wrote: the
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
ICT 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 <kictanet-bounces%2Bbnowrojee><kictanet-bounces%2Bbnowrojee>=
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
such as two party/majoritarian systems rather than in multiparty/proportional systems where the cost of entry into the
osiea.org@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf limited, political
system is lower. Organisations which are the subject of entryism often react by attempting either to marginalise or expel the pratagonists.
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