ARTUR MARGARYAN, SARGASYAN

The guys with the move




For a time now the Kenyan media has been replete with the Artur saga: Artur this…Artur that…Artur here…Artur there.
These brothers clearly got themselves a following. What with the media and ‘celebs’ alike giving them celeb status that they did not deserve{or did they?}

I am made to understand that one of them, Artur Margaryan, was an arrogant type.
He was given to shooting off his mouth at every possible chance and delivering a cocktail of ‘blue blistering barnacles!’.

He was an amorous type too. His fling with Winnie generated heated public debate. We are told that he had a way with ‘them’ ladies. Anyway, I wouldn’t blame them for falling for his money {first thing} and then his looks {second thing}. And with some of us in financial and pecuniary handicaps who wouldn’t anyway.

Then followed their ‘abracadabra’ stunt at the airport {JKIA} that really made us doubt the security even at our very door steps. They had the effrontery to brandish a gun {or how many guns had they?} at one of the presumably well secured areas in our Kenya.

What security, therefore, do you expect at Kayole or Mathare, for instance?

But still they got state security and some top guys in the Kibaki government threw their weight round about them. One of them was Michuki {the guy with rattle snakes in his pockets} who said they were ‘genuine businessmen’. What mid summer madness!!

This guy said ‘…rattling a rattle snake’ after the Standard raid which left many a Kenyan crawling and slithering and steaming and breathless and…hissing!

He came up with a new one ‘genuine businessmen’. Maybe that’s how he viewed them {Arturs} but whom should we blame for his hindsight?

Anyway, all said and done, they were deported. But you and I know it only too well: this was a belated action…belated deportation…belated everything.

Good riddance to the Arturs and we hope this is the last we hear and/or see them. We are already tired of our ‘indigenous’ Arturs. There is no need for ‘expatriate’ ones. But that’s a story for another day.

Winnie, please don’t knife me for making such scathing remarks about your guy, Margaryan. Suffer me this once.

Hail Ghana, Hail Africa

Ghana's goalie Richard Kingson in a merry mood after his team beat the Czechs 2-0

Ghana did us proud yesterday after beating Czechoslovakia 2-0 in their world cup group match.
Sure enough I felt a surge of exhilaration and relief as those goals whizzed past the Czech goalie.
I know that's the same feeling that went down the spines of Africans in the continent and the world over.
Hail Ghana, Hail Africa.
We are with you every step of the way.
Beat the US and you'll have done us a whole world of good.

Climb up that mountain. Go for gold! Go, go, go for it guys... http://www.bigfoto.com/africa/ghana/ghana-80.jpg

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Stop this sleaze; it is driving us mad

Journalists and other media practitioners have their specific place in the society. Without them there would not be balance and justice.

They can and do highlight events. By exposing attempts to cover up criminal activity, they help to restore law and order. The aim of the law is activated and faithfully watched in the formidable spotlight of the media.
Thus the term ‘watchdog of society’ fits it[media] like a ring.

Be that as it may, there is a dark side. Media professionals can and do abuse their freedom some of the time.

Media organizations can and are tempted to peddle lust under the guise of news and entertainment. The so-called “soft porn” [say sexually arousing dancing in music videos] is so rife nowadays that it is just a way of life, thanks to media outlets.

Our streets are littered with countless numbers of publications, newspapers and all, that regularly carry splashes of bare-chested or half-clad women leaving little, if anything, to the imagination.

The centre-folds and subsequent pages carry stories and pictures that are aimed at stirring sexual desire in their faithful readers.

Readers just pay a pittance to make sure that they[readers] keep coming for more of this deleterious, sickening filth!

The very instruments that are the watch dog of the society are the first ones to corrupt the minds of the people they invariably claim to protect.

To protect from what?
To protect from injustice of any kind and manner.
To protect, the young and old alike, from information that would poison the mind.

To allow only the right, clean information to be channeled to the multiple audience stake holders so they can up their minds about what to think.

This is the tall order of the media.

Journalism’s first loyalty is to citizens: always working for the good of the citizen; determined to stand on the roof tops and shout down any manner of moral vice – not trying to glorify the inglorious!

Pornography, in its raw and unexpurgated form, is being flaunted all around our towns courtesy of magazines, newspapers and the internet.

The outlets that release such stuff are increasing by the day. It leaves a question begging for an answer: is censorship an antediluvian, medieval idea that has no place in our present society? [Censorship in the sense of rooting out all manner of ignominy?].

I tend to think censorship is tricky business. In this age of freedom of expression, it is mind-racking to decide what should be blue-penciled and what should not.

The Late Pope John Paul’s Council for Social Communications summed it this way: “The presumption should always be in favour of freedom of expression, for when people follow their natural inclination to exchange ideas and declare their opinions, they are not merely making use of a right. They are performing a social duty.

“Freedom of expression is not an absolute norm. There are obvious instances – for example, libel and slander, messages that seek to foster hatred and conflict, obscenity and pornography, the morbid depiction of violence – where no right to communicate exists.”

The sure fire way to rid society of obscenity and pornography in our mainstream media outlets, that leave distorted minds in their wake, is for the government to use coercion in the censorship practice.

Pornography, in its every sense, makes horrid gaping holes in the right and correct perception of sex.

According to the National Coalition Against Pornography[NCAP], whose offices are in Nairobi, pornography affects all and sundry: men, women, children, marriages and society.
It corrupts and pollutes the invariable user such that impure thoughts constantly flood the mind.

Pornography depicts a woman’s value as solely to provide sexual gratification.

Early exposure to pornography may lead children to promiscuity, criminal sex or even bestiality.

Porn kills marriages. It creates unrealistic demands about sex frequency, specific styles/acts and a woman’s response to sex.

Porn endangers society. Statistics show that most rapists, child abusers and serial killers are insatiable porn consumers.

In these days of HIV/AIDS we cannot afford to continue basking in media ignominy that is otherwise known as entertainment. We have to forcefully extricate ourselves from this abyss. Surely, Africa, if we are to rise up against all odds, then we have to take matters of utter import seriously. Otherwise our children, marriages, youth and literally everything we are and have will forever be lost in this quick sand.

If the media lives up to what it should be, then the society represented will be a well-guarded one.

Someone once said: The press is the people’s university.
How very true. People of all walks glean snippets of knowledge and information from the press that go a long way in influencing them to form personal judgments and opinions.

Information that gives no hoot about moral credence breeds opinions and judgments of the same strain and nature. Journalists have a specific brief. Why should their special mandate be sacrificed on the altar of compromise and complacency?

Let’s take a stand on this and refuse to be blown about by every foreign wind that blows our way.
And that’s the bottom line.

Corruption: miry bog of all manner of scam in Africa

Corruption has been seen as the mainstay of African countries. Many African leaders have soiled their hands with it; Corrupt dealings and corrupt everything...

It pains me, especially, when I think of the many people whose hard-earned money is taken and used by corrupt officials. This is, as they say, to grease their hands so that whatever is being pursued can be accomplished in half the time.

But should people 'pay' for services that are their right to receive without paying for them?

There is also what we call 'high-level' corruption.
This one takes place in the background. This is to say,the players in this game are well cushioned against any kind of detection, especially by the man in the street.

This is corruption that takes place in the 'high' offices; and the stakes in this game are big time!
Paper, pen and computer files do all the 'stealing' of precious tax payers 'coins'.

This really hurts the common man who has entrusted his 'life' to the leaders who engage in such kind of turpitude.

This is the same feeling that drove me to 'scribble' the poem below when I heard and read about the Anglo Leasing scam Kenya recently.


In the days of yore kenyans' political ken suffered such dearth,
Political simulation, stimulation incomprehensible,
Legion political 'achilles heels' looming large in stormy seas,
Such was the tune, of such no panacea promised respite.
With the advent of a new regime,
Political turbulence 'seemed' to be 'burnt to a frazzle',
Hodge-podge politicking was thrown out the window,
Magnified promises to the masses graced the billboards.

Time flew fast and with it came a 'new' breeze,
A recrudescence of past ills set in on our soil,
Power wrangling, 'power fisticuffs' so to speak,
Were replete in our mainstream press.

Then it came our way, a giant two-headed bug,
As it set in, a loud bang ensued,
Then silence, a silence reminiscent of a calm in a storm,
The 'eye of the storm' spinning in murderous frenzy.

Everything in disarray, in shambles,
As the bug wend its way into the coffers,
Lining many a ministers insatiable pocket,
With dollars, pounds, Euros, shillings.

Anglo Leasing's the giant bug,
That has sucked the blood of the 'common mwananchi',
It 'engulfed' my hard-earned supper yesterday,
And cast me a look that bespoke penury in my posterity.

Let's roll our sleeves and do what we ought to

History has shaped us; moulded us to be precise. The present is shaped by the experiences of the past and expectations of the future.

So it goes without saying that if our history{ read past} was not too appealing, then, if we are not careful, the present will 'trudge' in the direction that characterised the past. And, boy, how many of us are caught in such a precarious situation!

Likewise, if our expectation of the future is not focused and intertwined with prudence, it would be preposterous to expect greatness in our posterity.

Be that as it may, methinks it's time to change history. Why have you cast me that icy look?! Yes, I mean change history. Instead of waiting for history to shape us, we should endeavour to shape history, nay, mould it. You catch the drift.

As young people, we should take it upon ourselves to practically change the time-worn cliche "the youth are the leaders of tomorrow". In actuality the youth are the the leaders of today.

What happens in our country affects us too. And in effect we react by doing what is expected of us. By so doing, we are dicharging our responsibilities in our different capacities. Isn't this what leaders ought to do?

JohFitzgerald Kennedy said it so well: Don't ask what your country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country.

We, as the youth, must take matters of education seriously. Education trounces the most gargantuan of mountains and routs many a fiery battle. As a bottomline: to the lame, education's a crutch.

Armed to the teeth with this tool of utter import, education, we can courageously face almost all the ills that have constantly dogged us in our society: Aids, unemployment, poor governance, ignorance, mediocrity and many other disconcerting 'eye sores'.

Let's sit back and take stock of the status quo. Reflection will help in the selection of the best course of action as we roll our sleeves to face our most formidable enemies.