Calling a spade a spade

I remember when I was in primary and the teacher used to ask, "Class who will finish this saying call a spade a spade...?" and hands would shoot up with the answer - NOT A BIG SPOON!!! and at the time I had no idea what the saying meant I was like huh you know those primary school sayings you just knew how to complete but had no idea what they meant.Kina a rolling stone gathers no moss - what does that mean?? etc so anyhu 15 or so years later I can say today as I watch the Florida proceedings of Trayvon....lets call a spade a spade America and not a big spoon...Racism is still as obvious as the nose on my face and exactly one month ago the racist murderer who acted in "self defense" is still roaming the streets.What made me mad more than the act was the negligence with which the police force reacted to the whole thing after all its just another black kid roaming the streets...And what has even brought me the blog is reading online that Zimmerman was attacked by Trayvon who mind you looking at the pics looks half I think quarter his size - apparently he was slammed to the ground by Trayvon and his head slammed against the pavement.That he had a bleeding nose etc etc so many unanswered questions and thanks to the "stand your ground law in Florida" or whatever the heck its called he was able to shoot Trayvon and plead self defense hence was not and a month later has still not been arrested.The case has racial undertones to it and the worst is they keep stressing on his Hispanic heritage - shifting light away from his white roots.Today I even saw somwhere how now we are learning Trayvon had been suspended from school for having a baggie that contained marijuana and all these things am thinking its just trying to shift gear and bring it back to the stereotype of being a minority- I mean whether he was carrying mariujana or skittles to school the fact remains his life is just as precious as the little white / hispanic chap in the Prep school.And the worst thing is so many black young men with so much potential are born into the life of gangs and drugs that that is all they end up doing and being now to add on societies stereotyping - I mean I have a friend I remember when we just came to the States he had dreadlocks at the time and was walking down a posh suburb and am not kidding a cop pulled up beside him and asked where he was going - he did not have a car by then we were FOBs - Fresh of the Boat lol and he was going to work.I kid you not he is 100% sure someone called the cops on him looking out the window....ok am digressing my point if you have not watched Boy of Baraka you need to see it - I was crying at the end - its a project that used to take inner city at risk young black males twelve thirteen for a year in a rural area in Kenya - where they learned to read , am tellign you at twelve and learning to read, pushed them to start talkign about what they wanted to be when they grew up and my oh my after that one year they returned to Baltimore with such an ambition gosh but the program had to stop after the 9/11 attacks it was so sad as they showed the boys back in the Public School system in inner city Baltimore where the ratio of students to kids is 1:40 in a class and how after a year they were back to square oen running the streets.Here is a link its a must watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwNAPbX7gM4
Okay so back to Trayvon I think the stand your grand law should be repealed and a new law implemented in Florida called the Trayvon Martin Law that has specific civil rights clauses - ok I dunno what am saying but I feel justice needs to be done...

One of my favorite lines from Tupacs song changes, "The penitentiary is packed and its filled with blacks."

Of why I love CHAI

Okay so I am finally getting blog savvy - wow the blogosphere has changed in leaps and bounds - i think I am still the only one on blogspot.com...hey but whatever...soooo.I started m little gig at CHAI - its a one day thing but every time I leave I always feel a sense of wow this is the stuff that I love - that I want to be waking up to every morning ..When I told a rommie of mine she was like mmmh ebu jichunge you know Clinton loves interns lol
So here are just a few reasons I love my one day affair at Clinton Health Access Initiative:

1.)FREE vending machines yes like the only free thing in America - no strings attached - you just go press what you want and voila VEND..yeah my name is Penny and am a vending machine junkie.
2.)The staff are so relaxed - I am a VERY laid back perosn.The thought of rigid uptightness at work freaks me out - relax its never that serious....I think one main reason is coz they are well travelled - most have lived in Africa - my immediate boss - bless her heart she is an angel lived in Benin  - tiny little country in West Africa teaching English.So I guess its true when you travel you become more exposed to new experiences, new people, and you dust off that New England aire - not sure of the spelling air or aire?? mmmmh....
3.)The men and womens bathroom sign needs to be pulled down - no one really bothers to check which one they are entering - and when I asked I was told "we are family" no one cares who is using what.
4.)Work starts after nine and oh my favorite part - you do not have to punch in - do you know how I detest punching in - I used to loathe it at a job I worked in Lowell.I feel a sense of entrapment - as though I am under someone elses clock each hour is being monitored I like workign my own hours - it could be two hours today twenty tommorrow but either way I get the job done perfectly kapsish not clock in clock out when you say ...
5.)We do not wear name tags - another of my pet peeves...again name tags remind me of the Kipande system in colonial Kenya.I know sad but true - feel as though its this huge thing being used to identify me as just another person in this huge organizaion.I would prefer no name tag which makes you go the extra mile to remember my name next time we meet at the water cooler...
6.)I have parking - no like seriously where in Boston do you get FREE parking all day I mean I love this that i can drive into Boston at a time there is no traffic park my car and walk away - no train no subway no meter fees...
7.)This should actually be up there - the work the organization is involved in is my passion project in life - promoting equal access to basic health care for those who would otherwise not afford...the travel, the groundwork, the cultures I love it!
8.)It feels good saying am an intern at the Clinton Health access Initiative - even if my sister calls my work kanda ya moko I like signing off an email with my little self acclaimed title and of course for resume building

Yeah so I love chai - no but really I do love tea...;)

Kony or Corny???

So last night - 1thirty a.m to be exact I was on face book and a video catches my eye - its an organization calling itself the Invisible Children and I had seen so much hype about it all day as it had to do with the Ugandan  rebel leader Joseph Kony adn how he was abducting children to join the LRA and how by liking the page and creating this media sensationalization Kony would be brought to his knees and trust me in a night the organization had been able to make 38 million people watch the video....- yeah you can already tell where am going with this...Initially I was like wow this is the stuff social media should be all about , this is what defines social justice, equality for all, humanity at its best etc etc..However as I went to bed my mind started doing a double take....Okay so I lived in Uganda from 2000-2003 well let me change that in between Kenya and uganda and I think this was the time the Lords Resistance Army led by rebel leader Joseph Kony and his croonies were tearing Northern Uganda apart.The little town of Gulu was a war torn zone - women were being abducted raped , children being murdered and recruited into the army wih shoot to kill orders...In short Kony wanted to take over Uganda and be president at the time - there were elections I think in 2002 if I recall and he wanted to use guerrila warfare or bette ryet stage a coup but Museveni stayed put.So the long of the short Musveni has still been in power since - ten years later - Joseph Kony retreated into the forest where he yes still runs the streets however he is very much toned down - he kind of threw in the towel....Okay fast forward March 8th 2012 the power of viral videos - ok do not get me wrong like I said this organization has done soem outstandign work bringing to light the atrocities that face(d)the people of Northern Uganda HOWEVER :

1.)The picture that has been created of Uganda is this war torn country under one man and for the (pardon my language) ignorant Westerner that is the same image that keeps being portrayed of the whole of Africa over and over again in all these relief agency commercials - as this poor nation - not even continent that cannot take care of its problems that has poor government officials who are just sitting back driving their prados eating the wealth and this same nation  needs the big bully of the world (cough cough) to intervene by getting people to "like" a video.

2.)Which is my biggest issue and actually what makes me so mad and actually brought me back to the blogosphere - the one minute euphoria and emotion that social media creates and I mean wow tommorrow somethign else will be getting us all teary-eyed.I applaud the great stuff that social media has done my goodness very good stuff however why are some stories more popular than others?Why do some videos generate more likes than others?and what happens on the ground after you and I  like and re-post the video?I think of the people who are being slaughtered in Syria DAILY - children hidding from bomb shells as I type this - why are we not so sensitized to this? why cant we say hey guys lets start a group and take down the government that is killing people.I think of the earthquake in Haiti yes we were all hyped up and raised billions and then moved on to the next story, look at the drought in Sudan - the euphoria was there for a while and then bam Kim Kardashian and her 72 hour wedding took over....my point is I do not believe in a Band-Aid approach to healing a wound - just the way they used to patch the roads in Kenya - throw ona  little tar and voila you cover up the pothole.
Instead of getting all emotional and upset for a minute, we as the international community should stop sitting back and waiting for a crisis to act - to donate, to like a video - we need to step and step in and take action as the world is bleeding.

So thats my little spill on Kony - below is a video of a lady who put it so well - such intelligence and knowledge of the subject matter - am writing from recall she is writing from the ground ..enjoy and watch the invisible children video and share your views - who knows maybe am joining the ranks of Rush Limbaugh...Its even so hilarious she says he has not been in teh country for a while - who knows maybe he is in Jamaica sipping a margarita thinking , " Mmmmh whats all this?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLVY5jBnD-E&feature=share