thirdworldcitizen

Nairobi South seems to have been forgotten by the Nairobi City Council, or worse they have no idea it exists. I am specifically referring to South B area. I am not and will not in future sideline this particular part of the city, for this is a wonderful place where “things go down” quoting a random guy at a bus station. Surely things do go down here, directly on to public roads. And these things are amazingly beautiful pieces of plastic bags, used gloves, needles, plastic bottles and lots of shiny biscuits wrappings. This beautiful scene of man made heaven is coupled with an aroma that will linger in your nostrils for couple of hours after you leave. See, the little vegetable stall owners, random citizens and car wash guys are all environmental conscious lot. Why would one waste a pile of rotten vegetables by keeping it in trash bins when you can throw them on public land where it can ferment in heat, attract flies that one can mistake for drones? No, instead they let it be a fre...

Let me paraphrase one of the famous quotes by an individual whose name I do not recall, it goes something like this "There is nothing like stupid question". Well, I do believe that a person who asks question he/she does not know an answer to is actually an inquisitive lot. On the other hand, there are questions that do not show curiosity but sheer ignorance or something closer to that.  One term that makes me think more than I actually do is "undiscovered Africa". Africa, apparently is undiscovered, a term that is overused. And Africa in this context may not necessarily refer to a continent but any country within the continent, you see its easier to say Africa than Burkina Faso or its Capital Ougadogou. I honestly cannot say what are the expectations of non-Africans when they plan to come and pay the continent a visit. However, I can say that I have had a share of interesting questions that Google has an answer to directed towards me. See, ge...

Being a citizen of a country grouped in the so-called Third World category comes with its stereotypes, benefits and of course challenges like reliable internet connection. Well, for sure there are things that I am sure the so-called developed countries envy, like, tropical fruits and little probability of nuclear threat from enemies my state made. With the world politics dominated by nuclear threats from North Korea, I am much more concerned with internet provision in my country. Surely after being the top on the continent in tech and consumer friendly services like mobile money that some of the so called developed states do not have, reliable, fast and cheap internet connection is like citing a rare breed of bird. The problem is dominance by mobile phone companies that charge in bundles. Why data should be limited by providers is beyond me considering that the whole nation is going digital soon, including our primary schools. For example in Azerbaijan, I paid 15AZN (equivalen...

Not many would like to be in the shadow of a strong popular person, object or animal for that matter and states are no different either. Talking of states,  a lot of us will think of Canada in the shadow of US, New Zealand in that of Australia, and Portugal in that of Spain. Well, state popularity contest aside, lets talk about New Zealand for a while and the recent stories coming out of that far away place. New Zealand might be seen by some, especially by Aussies, as the country in their backyard that is in the shadows, let me debunk this myth. In my world, Australia is in the shadow of New Zealand and not vice versa. One, All Blacks rugby team can make any country proud if they played for them, they might have lost to countries like Fiji, Samoa but whenever they play they leave memories behind that makes rugby fans yearn for more....... and lets not even mention the performance which of course will not be complete without Haka dance. Second, it is in New Zealand where y...

Let me paraphrase one of the famous quotes by an individual whose name I do not recall, it goes something like this "There is nothing like stupid question". Well, I do believe that a person who asks question he/she does not know an answer to is actually an inquisitive lot. On the other hand, there are questions that do not show curiosity but sheer ignorance or something closer to that.  One term that makes me think more than I actually do is "undiscovered Africa". Africa, apparently is undiscovered, a term that is overused. And Africa in this context may not necessarily refer to a continent but any country within the continent, you see its easier to say Africa than Burkina Faso or its Capital Ougadogou. I honestly cannot say what are the expectations of non-Africans when they plan to come and pay the continent a visit. However, I can say that I have had a share of interesting questions that Google has an answer to directed towards me. See, geography is simp...

There is something quite interesting to do with Mars and nothing to do with Mars at the same time. Well, let me just say Mars is now the centre of attention, I haven't heard all this drum beat since Pluto was declared "not a planet", in my World, Pluto is still a planet, and a name of goofy dog created by Disney, and yes, the dog is not Goofy the dog either! There were two dogs, one was less smarter than the other, :-) Back to our Galaxy, Mars Rover landed, cool, then we saw one of  NASA guys with cool mohawk and then the doodle apparently drawn by rover on Mars which begun circulating a couple of days ago. Now with this kind attention to stuff like this, one cannot help but feel, jeez, do we really deserve this planet? We took the image left by rover and carefully deciphered it as stupid as we can and belittled the bigger picture here, the actual fact that humanity now has samples from Mars and it is being tested, good job. Forget about monkeys in space, Iranian...

There is something about cats that makes a lot of us just want to pet them, on the streets, in our neighbour's corridor, or even the one we encounter on our way to campus near that stinking pile of garbage. With their cuteness overload these feline creatures have fought their way to human heart, thanks to their massive presence on youtube. I am not here to blame cats for most of Earthlings sheer ignorance and lack of knowledge  on  whats happening around the World. You see, cats are adorable, they make us laugh foolishly and share with our virtual friends these videos that their "owners" post online  (PS. Just like we don't own humans, no one should own cats either ;-).  I know it will be impossible to stop cat lovers from sharing all these cute videos with the rest of the World, and I am for sure will be looking forward to more of it, it is an addiction. Just like we find kittens extremely adorable, even though some of them are ridiculously unattractive (G...