Kenyan mother names son "Air Force One"

This could be old news to Kenyans, but it came to my attention only recently.

When I read recently that a mother in Kenya named his son Air Force One, born during President Barack Obama's visit to Kenya I thought that was odd. Odd, but culturally understandable.

Throughout African societies, naming tradition is influenced by significant events. And if a Kenyan parent decides that a US president's visit is significant, she has every right to think so. In Tanzania Chausiku is the name given to girls born at night. The name Abidemi in Yoruba is given to a child born during the father's absence. Esi in Akan means born on Sunday.

So if a mother gave birth as Air Force One was touching down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport recently we might raise eyebrows on the choice of name, but as far as African naming tradition goes, it is perfectly in order.

So I was surprised to learn that some Kenyans squirmed and cringed in reaction when a Kenyan news anchor ululated as she introduced President Barack Obama and his host President Uhuru Kenyatta at a Nairobi meeting.

Julie Gichuru of Citizen TV ululated, as many Africans do on festive occasions, as she ceded the floor to President Obama and her action drew some criticism from some Kenyans. I suspect it reminded these critics that Kenyans were Kenyans; that Africans are Africans. And that act, to those who embrace and extol other cultures, was the the most damaging act she could have projected to a world-wide audience.

The interesting part is that anyone who watches American audiences will notice that, they too, utilise a form of ululation, as a positive reaction to speakers, and at sporting events.

Not surprisingly, besides the criticism, I have seen some praise for her high-pitched welcome from other Kenyans.

My kind of politics

It's a long way to 2020, but already Zitto Kabwe has reportedly announced he will be one of the presidential candidates. Kabwe is chair of the Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT - Tanzania). I do not not have a strong reason yet to support any single political party but I commend his move.

Zitto Kabwe addresses a campaign meeting in Musoma of the CHADEMA party in the 2010 elections.

Foremost, it provides an opportunity and ample time - five years - for voters to monitor his words and actions and decide in 2020 whether he deserves to become the next president. The current practice of presidential candidates revealing their presidential ambitions in final moments leading to an election is wrong, in my opinion.

Voters should have ample opportunity to assess the various candidates over a much more prolonged period. It is not enough to gauge the performance of a politician only during the several months leading up to the elections, and only, in my estimation, on how well the sponsoring party and image consultants project the candidates to the voters.

The Political Performance Indicator lists four qualities for judging the personality of a politician: rationality, authoritativeness, adventurousness, and inspiration. I am surprised they have omitted integrity, the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. All the four listed qualities would be worthless if a leader lacks integrity. Perhaps it is assumed that integrity is a default quality among candidates.

There are undoubtedly some good apples in the political basket but integrity is the single most important factor that leaves many voters searching aimlessly for credible choices in contemporary Tanzanian politics.

The President doesn't earn $192,000 per month. How much does he earn?

State House has refuted claims that President Jakaya Kikwete earns $US192,000 as salary per month. I thought the statement would say how much he actually earns. It did not. That, apparently, is within the legal protection enjoyed by public servants that maintains that salaries of public servants is confidential information.

Despite that, I note that the press release mentions that the newspaper that published the erroneous information could have used proper channels to obtain accurate information. And that is a change from the past when it appeared to me that any citizen inquiring about a public official's pay would have been told to find some other work to do.

Opposition presidential candidate Edward Lowassa is promising to slash the presidential salary considerably if elected in October's general elections although I do not know whether voters should read more politics than resolve in his promise.

I thought I should write something about my attitude on the secrecy surrounding these salaries but realised I had already written about it in 2013. Here's what I wrote then. What is your opinion?

Max Graham mixes up two Arusha Declarations

Max Graham, writing for The Independent, mixes up two Arusha Declarations; he erroneously cites the 1967 declaration instead of the 1961 declaration in his article.

The latter one was a political statement of intent; the earlier one - made at the eve of Tanganyika's independence - a declaration to protect and preserve the country's wildlife heritage for all humanity.

The Arusha Declaration is normally use to refer to the 1967 declaration, while the earlier one should have been referred to as the Arusha Declaration on Conservation.

A street in Arusha.

Both declarations are cited and mentioned regularly by those interested in conservation and politics. If you are not Tanzanian and have no interest in neither conservation nor politics you might have be excused for not having heard of Arusha. Wikipedia describes Arusha well.

Hard disk crash blues

I kept postponing backup of my data until it became too late. My hard disk crashed and I lost crucial data on my netbook.

The technician in Mwanza who replaced my disk was matter-of-fact when I asked him why disks crashed. He asked me how long I had used the laptop and I noted that he was calling it a laptop, instead of a what it is, a netbook. I assume "notebook" has not been readily accepted even by the experts.

I said: "three or four years." And he told me that is about the maximum life expectancy I should expect from my hard disc.

I plan to set up more regular data backups now.

The data loss includes a large selection of my digital photos and that means I cannot continue with posts on my 2013 in review series.