Turning 37...

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the Light gets in.

Leonard Cohen

On Truth & Justice

True Justice is not about punishment, but restoration and rehabilitation. Marietta Jaeger

And before that restoration of spirit begins, first perhaps, there has to be acceptance – at the very least of the act that occurred. If we continue to carry the emotional charge around the event that occurred, then perhaps we can never really create the space in which our own healing can begin.

Compassion and forgiveness are spoken of often enough – acting out compassion and forgiveness is another thing altogether. It means that first and foremost, I need to accept things as they have come about to be – and this means reconciling myself to the acceptance of loss – whether it is the loss of a loved one, or of my possessions, or of my dignity, or my health. This is a great challenge, because I would have to ask myself how I will now live without that which was important to me.

Once I can accept that life from this moment is going to be irrevocably different for me, and once I can start to come around to what that will mean for me, perhaps this is the point when I can now start to look at the occurrence from a different perspective.

And this is perhaps the first inclination towards forgiveness – Neale Donald Walsh writes that in forgiving someone, we are saying to them “thank you for-giving me this experience”. This may hard for some to swallow – after all, how could one possibly thank the murderer of a loved one for giving them the experience of heart-wrenching loss, and for taking that person away from them forever?!

But I would say that in doing this, we are not going as far as thanking the perpetrator in saying this – what we are doing, perhaps, is to shift our perspective and to accept that at this stage, what has happened has happened, and neither hell nor high water can change that. It’s tough to do that. Gratitude for an experience can take a long while to come about – it is only with hindsight that our vision is 20-20 – it is only after the fact, and maybe a long while after the fact, after we have learned various lessons associated with the experience, or after perhaps we have grown from the experience, that we can look back and perhaps start to introduce gratitude for what we have gone through.

Some are able to do this better than others – some will succumb to the pain of the experience in such a way, that it is only the imbibing of substances that will help them take their attention away from the pain – and sometimes, this is the only means that they will ever use to help them cope.

But there are some that will, in a moment of surrender, take a moment to pause, and to open their hearts a little wider.

It is in doing this, I believe, that we start to create the space for compassion – that all-healing, alchemising vibration that literally, in and of itself, starts to melt away the lower vibrations of anger, and pain, and indignation, and humiliation.
Perhaps in coming into acceptance, we are reconciling ourselves with a little of Truth – in facing our demons, we acknowledge them and we recognize them for what they are. We recognize that an ‘injustice’ has been brought about; a loss of dignity has come about. It is perhaps at this juncture, that we can also realize, that we have a choice with regards to what we can do next.

If I live for ‘an eye for an eye’, I may demand at this stage that the one who has harmed me be put through the same level of pain that s/he brought about to me. I may feel at this stage, that in doing so, I am ‘taking responsibility’ to ensure that the perpetrator is also ‘held responsible’ for his / her act. This is the premise that the death penalty is based on. It would be interesting to know just how many witnesses to executions feel genuinely redeemed or ‘better’ after having watched the killer ‘put to sleep’.

I could, on the other hand, realize that having this person killed will not ultimately take the sting of my loss away – my anger will abate, but chances are, I will not feel any less wretched. In this instance, I will embark on an entirely different process – an introspective one, where I will have to make peace with my pain in an entirely different way. And this is perhaps where forgiveness starts to seep in – in attempting to understand in a small way the who and the how and the why, and then perhaps, with ultimate grace, forgiveness of myself, and of my own sense of wretchedness.

On the notion of Justice, there is a very interesting story I came across. In the absence of anthropological details and fact, I will relay it as a story:

There is tribe that exists in some part of the world, which has a unique manner in which the members mete out Justice to one of their own that that has killed another. They tie up the person’s arms and legs, put him into a sack, dump him into a boat which as a small hole in it, and they push the boat out into the furthest and deepest part of the village pond.

The rules are this: All in the village must come to witness the punishment. All in the village must stay and watch the entire process unfold, no matter how traumatic it gets. As the boat starts to sink, and as the water fills up the boat, and as the perpetrator starts to struggle, and to drown, it is ONLY the family of the victim that is allowed to take any further steps – they can therefore let the person drown in front of them, or decide to swim out and rescue him/her.

One may argue that in contemporary society, we can’t possibly all start using ponds and sacks to bring about justice – but consider this – even the families of the victims who are allowed to witness executions, are shrouded from the ultimate horror of watching someone die a long and painful death in front of them – we’ve developed the lethal injection and the more horrible but efficient electric chair to ensure a ‘quick exit’.

I believe that if we truly honest without selves, and if we were to engage with more compassion in our systems of jurisprudence, then perhaps we would be willing to let go of our own sense of vindication, which often takes precedence over anything else, and substitute punishment for a more reconciliatory and rehabilitative approach.

In Kenya, we are currently grappling between sending our post-election violence perpetrators to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, and subjecting them to the enquiries of a local Truth and Justice & Reconciliation Commission.

Well, if they are willing to look into the eyes of the people whose lives they have destroyed, and in the interest of Truth, completely come clean and describe in detail how they set about planning the violent and horrific death of the loved one of the person they are sitting in front of, then perhaps we can allow the person they have harmed to decide whether s/he is going to going to let them sink, or swim. But Reconciliation can only come about if we are prepared to face our demons with the greatest of courage, find the magnanimity of Spirit to initiate the process of Forgiveness, and engage with each in the most authentic manner possible.

Anything less, will Just not do (pun intended).

On Power

With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility.

What Power is NOT……

Power is not Force – it is not about imposing one’s Will – rather it is about having the strength and Presence of Mind to bring about Enrollment into a Higher Ideal.

Power, in and of itself is not harmful – it depends on the quality of Intent behind the channeling of Power.

Power is not Gender specific – it is not Masculine. It is not qualitatively anything. It can, however, be infused with masculine or feminine qualities through intent, to influence a situation.

Power is not Exploitation – It is not ‘at the expense of’ – exploitation can only come about as a result of Free Will deeming it so – Power unto itself is not exploitative. It can be directed by Free Will or Choice to exploit, but in and of itself is not exploitative.

Power is not rigid. It is Free Will that holds power to a position. Power in and of itself is not stagnant or still – it is ‘pulsating’ in nature – power is channeled and directed and is radiating. Power is harnessed by Free Will and Choice to retain and maintain the structure of a system. This is why Free Will is so powerful – it can harness the movement of power into rigidity. Power in and of itself is not rigid – it is Free Will and Fear that uses Power to bring about rigidity.

Power is not Exclusive – Power does not discern, Power just IS. It is available for and to everyone. It is the intellect that is able to identify and discern the presence of Power and the benefits of holding Power, and then to use Free Will to hold on to Power for exclusivity purposes.

Power is not Greedy, or Discriminatory. Power is used by greediness. It is Free Will and greed that causes an individual to want to harness more Power. It has nothing to so with Power in and of itself. It is the human instinct that manipulates Power and succumbs to greed that causes the desire to harness more Power.


Power is available to anyone and EVERYONE. It is YOUR Free Will that will determine how YOU will use Power to your advantage and for the benefit of ALL.

How do YOU choose to use Power???

This magazine is 'Loaded'

The latest issue of Wajibu Magazine, a journal of Social and Ethical Concern is out now.



Click Here for a look at the contents in this issue.

TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN GET A COPY, PLEASE CONTACT DIPESH PABARI AT dpinkenya@yahoo.co.uk

Click Here to access the Wajibu Webite

Leadership my Ar** - Nothing's Changed

I posted the following post in February last year. Absolutely NOTHING has changed - in fact it's worse. Out of sheer frustration, I am posting this again.

___________________

I just cannot help feeling angry at the way our future is currently being horse-traded. Keeping my optimism levels high is becoming more and more of a chore and extremely difficult to do.

To you, Mr. Politician, I wish we could tell you to your face how we really feel about you.

I wish you could see the disdain and the lack of respect with which we regard you. I wish we could somehow find a way to let you go, and not waste any more of our precious energy resting our hopes with you - always hoping and praying that you’ll do the right thing.

What exactly is it that we owe you? Why do we even look up to you? Why did I even bother allowing myself to be momentarily uplifted by your fake and deceitful promises? Why did I invest any faith in you?

You, all of you who claim to lead us today, have, as a GENERATION have failed us. You have allowed our communal values to disintegrate. You have allowed us to become a people divided by greed, self-interest and exclusiveness.

While we wait out every day with bated breath, you continue to haggle with each other over who will retain the most power, trying to ensure that you maintain your upper hands and your control. You’re STILL not seeing the real picture – you are so blinded by your self importance, and your inflated egos, and you really don’t give a damn about what happens to millions of us.

Oh how I wish there was some way to get rid of the lot of you. How I wish we all felt more empowered, more able, more confident, more enthusiastic, more determined, because if we did, trust me – you wouldn’t stand a chance. But you know that already, don’t you? It’s why you use what you use to oppress us, to keep us down, to make us fearful, to make us insecure and uncertain. You try to destroy our strength every opportunity that you get.

What goes around, comes around. No power lasts forever. No family is always safe. The sins of the fathers will always be revisited on future generations. Maybe you’ll keep your children safe, but perhaps you’ll be around to see the legacy that you left your grand-children. You will only have yourselves to judge.

So go ahead – fill your bellies to bursting, steal as much as you want, fulfill every self-serving desire, because your grandchildren will be the ones to inherit a world that is so bursting with poverty, that they will not be able to step out of the safety of the palaces that you built for them because their security will be threatened with every step that they take. They will not be able to step out of their palaces because the environment that they live in is so filthy that a mere breath will make them ill. They will not be able to walk and live freely because there will be no concept of neighbourliness – you had them all killed.

Their lives will be filled with boredom, because you eliminated diversity when you brought about your divisive thinking.

So go ahead – negotiate, horse trade, make your deals, and stick with your myopic and petty thinking.

You will pay the price, and no amount of cash is going to help you settle the bill and you certainly won’t have built up any credit.

Enough said.

Earth Hour 2009 - A Billion Voices for Climate Change!

Earth Hour 2009 is a global initiative by the World Wide Fund for Nature which acts as a worldwide call to action to every individual, business and community to take a stand against Climate Change.

To show your support, sign up now and commit to switching off your lights for one hour on Saturday, March 28th at 8:30pm. Originating in Sydney, Australia in 2007, the Earth Hour initiative proved more than worthwhile when it witnessed 2 million people coming together to switch off their lights for one hour for this vital cause.

Following on from this success, 2008 saw an estimated 50 million people taking part. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.

This year, 2009, Earth Hour will see the lights go out on some of the most recognised attractions on the planet, including Cape Town’s Table Mountain, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Merlion in Singapore, Sydney Opera House, the iconic 6-star hotel, the Burj al Arab, in Dubai, Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and the world’s tallest constructed building, the Taipei 101.

Earth Hour 2009 has one major aim: to unite the citizens of the world in the fight against climate change in order to convince governments and world leaders that our planet cannot wait any longer. There simply isn’t enough time, and therefore 2009 is a colossally important, if not the most critical year, to take action on climate change. 2009 is the year we decide the future of our planet.

An Open letter to and eleven point demand for the President and Prime minister from Kenyan citizens and civil society organisations

Delivered through a meeting with the Prime minister on March 9, 2009


We, the undersigned Kenyan citizens and civil society organisations, have sought this meeting following the assassinations of Kingara Kamau and George Paul Oulu of the Oscar Foundation and a student last week.

We note that these assassinations come in the context of non-implementation of Agenda Items One and Two of the mediation process last year—that is, ending the violence and disarming and demobilising all armed groups and militias and restoring fundamental rights and freedoms;

On Agenda Item One, ending the violence and the disarmament and demobilisation of all armed groups and militias, we reiterate there the position of the human rights movement that the heavy-handed security approach is insufficient for the task and has also allowed for the security services to stigmatise young, un/deremployed males in low-income rural and urban areas leading to the disappearances and extrajudicial executions of the same. It has also allowed for the security services to extort money from the public on threat of the same;

On Agenda Item Two, the restoration of fundamental rights and freedoms, we reiterate the position of the human rights movement that the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of assembly, association and expression have been suspended since last year, allowing for the security services to harass, assault (including sexually assault) and illegally detain many human rights defenders seeking to legitimately and peacefully protest various government actions and inactions;

We further note that we raised these concerns at a meeting with the minister of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs last year, who promised us she would seek audience for us with the minister of Internal Security on the same—a promise that has not been honoured;

We finally note that last week’s assassinations have occasioned, as we believe they were intended to do, an atmosphere of fear and threat among human rights defenders who have consistently tried to demand that these concerns be addressed. As we speak, several human rights defenders who have documented, with evidence, these disappearances and extrajudicial executions, have received verbal threats, have had to move to safe houses within the country and have even had to leave the country;

This atmosphere of fear and threat has been fostered by the repeated statements of heads of security services, their spokespersons and the supposed government spokesperson linking human rights organisations themselves to armed groups and militias—accusations for which evidence has never been tendered to the public to support or formal charges brought against them in court;

We therefore demand:

In the immediate and short term:

1. That the government, through the President and the Prime minister, publicly reiterate their commitment to full implementation of Agenda Items One and Two—and the rights of all Kenyans to life, safety and security of the person, the freedoms of assembly, association and expression as well as the freedoms to be assumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law;

2. That, concretely, the President and the Prime minister, demonstrate that commitment by offering financial support to the families of those assassinated with respect to funeral expenses and livelihood losses;

3. That, concretely, the President and the Prime minister, demonstrate that commitment by enabling the demonstration planned by University of Nairobi students for tomorrow, march 10, to protest the assassinations to proceed peacefully, with full support of the security services and with no negative consequences such as the closing of the University of Nairobi;

4. That the government, through the President and the Prime minister, publicly reiterate their commitment to human rights defenders by ensuring that all dis/misinformation being peddled to the public about them cease and by guaranteeing their protection from the increased levels of risk and threat resulting from last week’s assassinations;

5. That, concretely, the President and the Prime minister, demonstrate that commitment by proceeding with the independent investigation into the assassinations, for which the United States of America has already offered the services of its Federal Bureau of Investigations;

6. That, concretely, the President and the Prime minister, demonstrate that commitment by immediately dismissing from office, the Police Commissioner, the Police Spokesperson the head of the Criminal Investigations Unit, the Provincial Police Officer for Nairobi and the acting Officer in Charge of Police Division at Central Police station among others—who all bear direct political accountability (if not legal accountability) for the harassment, assault (including sexual assault) and illegal detentions of human rights defenders;

7. That, also concretely, the President and the Prime minister, release to the public any information it has regarding the supposed linkage of human rights organisations, such as the Oscar Foundation, with mungiki, by bringing charges to bear in a court of law against such human rights organisations;

In the medium to long term:

8. That the government, through the President and Prime minister ensure the release to the public of any proposed laws and policies to address matters of security sector reform—such as those announced recently by the minister of Internal Security—to allow for public debate and discussion of the same;

9. That, concretely, the President and the Prime minister, push forward not only the laws and policies required for security sector reform, but also the core, critical and fundamental demand of the reports of both the Commission of Inquiry into the Post Elections Violence and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions—that for impartial, independent internal and external accountability mechanisms for all security services and the utilisation of those mechanisms to achieve individual legal accountability for all disappearances and extrajudicial executions of all individual security service members involved in the same;

10. That, concretely, the President and the Prime minister ensure the delivery to the public of a benchmarked and timebound plan of action on implementing the security sector reform proposals of the reports of the CIPEV and the UN SR;

11. Recognising the manner in which Kenya’s security agreements with bi/multilateral bodies (notably the governments of the United Kingdom and the USA as well as the European Commission) on matters ranging from anti-terrorism to training to piracy and regional peacekeeping capacity contribute to the apparent sense of impunity and lawlessness of our security services, that the President and the Prime minister arrange tripartite discussions between the government, such bi/multilaterals and civil society on the same to ensure that legitimate security interests being so pursued are not at the expense of fundamental rights and freedoms.

In conclusion, understanding that some of these demands need consultation and discussion within the government, we request a further meeting with you on the same within a week’s time at which the President and the minister of Internal Security are also present.

We thank you for your public statements on the concerns raised to date. We stress our willingness for dialogue with the government on these concerns (including constructive criticism on both sides). And we look forward to full implementation of Agendas Items One and Two of the mediation process.

(end/Kenyan citizens and csos/lmw/09)


Signed:

Akiba Uhaki
BidiiAfrika Network Group
Bunge la Mwananchi
Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD)
Centre for Rights Education and Awareness (CREAW)
COBADES
Constitutional Reform and Education Consortium (CRECO)
Fahamu
Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK)
Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU)
International Centre for Policy and Conflict (ICPC)
Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
Legal Resource Foundation (LRF)
Mazingira Institute
Muslim Consultative Council
National Council of Non-Governmental Organisations of Kenya
Pambazuka News
Partnership for Change
Release Political Prisoners (RPP)
Social Reform Centre (SOREC)
Youth Agenda
P Gitonga
Philo Ikonyo
Maina Kiai
Oikya Omtatah Okoiti, Concerned Citizen
Anders Sjogren, Political Scientist, Stockholm University
Rose Wanjiru

With the support of:
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)