New Culture

Last week i got introduced to a new culture - America's St. Patrick's day. My two new colleagues and friends who have just arrived from the US did the honours of ushering me into this new culture. They were so excited that their parents had sent them stuff on the St. Patrick's day - candy, green hats, shades, and lots of other funny things. The Kenyans around will agree with me that this is an unheard of holiday here in Kenya, yet it seemed so big a deal to my friends. There i was, being dragged into something i had no clue what it was. I enjoyed the fun of it though. The taking of crazy pictures in all of the crazy paraphernalia. I must admit i was successfully initiated into the St. Patrick's day thing.

Then there was this piece on news about who will save Kenyans from themselves!' At first i was like why do we need someone to save us from ourselves?! But as i listened, i got to understand and totally agree that we need to be saved from ourselves. For instance, when a passenger throws out trash from their windows in the middle of the road, really, they need someone to save them from self destruction. Otherwise before we know it our whole country will be trash. When someone sets a whole forest on fire in this dry weather so as to shelf off farming land, when we harvest trees in our farms to produce timber and in turn sell it off for cash leaving our lands bare, when saloonists empty their dirty water with all the chemicals on the streets, when we have all of our shopping in many little plastic bags that end up in drainages or on dumping sites - the examples are endless. Kenyans need a saviour. Someone who will take to the hell of a destroyed environment and bring us back with a testimony of what the destruction can do. I once thought when Wangari Maathai said we had grieved mother nature and she was surely going to pay us back, we would step back and do self-analysis/evaluation. Think of what we have done wrong, what we can correct and start acting in that direction to apeace mother nature to have mercy on us in her wrath. What have we done instead, we have shaken the statement and seeming realities off and are walking on with much more destruction every other day. Can we arise and salvage what we have left?! Can we retrace our steps and try to make right our wrongs?! Is it possible for us to start somewhere as we wait for our real saviour?! Otherwise it might just be too late for us. Ever read of the Bible story about Lazarus and the rich man?! The rich man wished he would have an opportunity to come back and give testimony of what real hell was but had no opportunity. Lets preserve our environment, lets save our land, lets save our lives!!! It calls for a concerted effort.