The emirate tactfully weaned it’s economy from relying entirely on dwindling oil supplies and transformed itself into a major financial and tourist destination serving as a gateway to the Middle East, Southern Asia and Africa and eventually becoming an important transportation hub to many parts of the world.

This phenomenal growth attracted investors, long-time residents and a building boom followed. Investors from South Africa to North America invested in Dubai, purchasing rental homes, investment property or vacation homes catapulting Dubai’s real estate market into one of the hottest in the world.

Underneath all this jet-setting vibrancy, however,  lies a conundrum for the leaders of this tiny Emirate; how to balance core Islamic principles without disrupting it’s reputation as a cosmopolitan, modern destination.

A British couple were arrested last November when an Emirates mother with her kids beside her, felt offended by the couple’s open kissing and touching each other, called the police and had them arrested.

The couple, Ayman Najafi and Charlotte Adams, appealed and are expected in court next month to defend themselves.

There are several stories of foreigners caught in compromising situations and promptly thrown in jail. Each time, the world press blasts the stories all over the world.

A British man working  in Dubai, jealous of his wife’s new lover, called the police and had them arrested for having an affair outside marriage after they were caught red-handed.

Local residents apparently support this heavy-handedness but the leaders must surely find themselves in a fix. It will be interesting to see how they navigate through this to keep Dubai a true “oasis in the desert”.

photo: Financial Times and Getty Images

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Makerere University

Two Kenyans attending Makerere University were shot to death by an armed security guard after two rival groups, one believed to be mostly Kenyan students and the other, Ugandan, clashed while campaigning for their candidates to fill the guild president seat at the university.

photo: Bruno Conquet

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Wangeci Mutu. Photo - Alusainc - http://alusainc.wordpress.com

Murray Whyte, a Canadian art critic and entertainment writer attached that label on Wangechi Mutu when he reviewed her solo exhibition, “This You Call Civilization?” currently underway at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

He considers the red carpet reception that AGO has given Mutu, a waste of resources for a “mid-career African artist living in New York….”,  “….who’s yet to receive blue-chip status on the international circuit” while there are other more deserving up-and-coming Canadian artists.

It’s obvious that Toronto-based Whyte is as far removed from African culture as Tom Delay is from New York  yet he comes from a city that prides itself as one of the most multi-cultural in the world.

In fact, Toronto has a thriving black art scene so his insensitivity to a prominent artist of color visiting his neck of the woods is a little puzzling.

I spent a good part of last weekend going back through Whyte’s reviews and I’m yet to come across any review he has done of an African artist.

No, I take that back. I did find his review last year of another African artist, Candice Breitz,  a couple of years older than Mutu. He certainly did not seem to think that the resources devoted for her survey exhibition, Same Same, should have been directed to deserving, younger Canadian artists like he does for Mutu. In fact he says that Breitz has not given her best yet and is “capable of more than that” (of what she had produced for that exhibition).

About a decade ago, he thought a bunch of 40 plus year-old Canadian artists were up and comers; well on their way to the world stage.

I honestly think his review of Mutu is insensitive – written without depth or much thought.

Wangechi Mutu is an accomplished, confident artist who has overcome a lot to reach where she is today and might have a thing or two to teach Whyte about appreciating African art if he ever cared to meet her and actually opened his mind a little wider.

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photo:

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Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Canyon, TX

Here in the Dallas Fort Worth area, there are countless ways to keep the kiddos mesmerized but it costs money and a lot of times, leaves you with a not-so-pleasant thought in the back of your mind that you’ve managed to steal a few hours to yourself while some jaded teenager pretended to be so happy to have you drop them off.

With the economy looking the way it is, it might be helpful to find more fulfilling ways to spend with them without breaking the bank and having a real chance at bonding and working out at the same time with the family while enjoying the great Texas outdoors -  especially during this time of the year.

Last weekend Dallas Morning News did a roundup of trails (hiking, walking and biking) that you can drive to right here in Texas and immerse your young urban-dwellers in some fun, exercise-filled adventures far from the madding crowds.

Check it out, it might be worth more than the registration hassle required to read the article. Be sure to read the comments as well. Many readers point out what the writer missed – similar destinations within an hour of the Dallas area.

But then again, that may have been the writer’s point – finding destinations AWAY from Dallas.

Photo by Humpalumpa

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Paramedics were called and he was rushed to Advocate Condell Medical Center. All attempts to revive him failed and he never regained consciousness. Ongige is suspected to have died of a heart attack.

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She is the daughter of the late Ibrahim Guya and Julia Odera Guya of Sare, Awendo (Kenya) and sister to Phoebe Olwal, Francis Olilo, the late Moses Guya, the late Berry Guya, Aloys Obunga, David Oweke, Elizabeth Omondi and Anne Guya.

She leaves behind a daughter, Salama Shorts also of Los Angeles, California.

Please join us in supporting the family in prayer and financially during this trying moment. There will be a fundraiser on February 27th,2010 at CCFS at 2pm. For more information, please contact one of the people listed below;

FUNDRAISER:

Date: Saturday February 27^th 2010

Time: 2.00pm
Venue: CCFS
Address: 649 East Albertoni St, Carson 90746
Contact Person:
Phone: Clement – (310)639-1084

For those who can’t make it to the fundraiser, a bank account has been opened to help the family and daughter offset funeral expenses:

Bank Name: Wachovia Bank
ABA Number: 122287170
Bank Account Number: 1010246144528
Salama’s Phone No. : (213)568-3526

Thank You for your support and May God bless you all.

Salama Shorts, (Daughter)

For additional information, please contact:

Millicent Nyauke- (310)639-1084
Elisha Ochola – (818)364-0653
Clement Nyauke – (310)639-1084
Fred Anguka – (909)851-7362
Charles Apudo – (727)254-3220

MEMORIAL SERVICE:
Date: March 6th, 2010
Time: 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Venue: Inglewood Mortuary Chapel
Address: 1206 Centinela Ave. Inglewood, CA 90302
Contact Phone: (310) 677-8137

BURIAL:
Date: March 6th, 2010
Time: 1:00 pm – 1:45 pm
Venue: Forest Loan Cemetery
Address: 6300 Forest Loan Dr, Hollywood Hills, CA 90068

For additional information, please contact the Funeral Organizing Committee:

Millicent Nyauke – Phone: (310) 639-1084
Elisha Ochola- Phone: (818) 364-0653
Clement Nyauke-(310) 639-1084
Fred Anguka- Phone: (909) 851-7362

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Lew Sterret Jail, Dallas TX. Photo by strangelv on Flickr

The most feared three-letter acronym for most Americans is I.R.S. (Internal Revenue Service). If you are a non-documented resident of the US, the three letters you most likely fear most are I.N.S. Even though the agency went through an overhaul a number of years ago and is now referred to as the USCIS, the phrase ‘INS’ still carries a lot of weight if you happen to fall under their legal umbrella for whatever reason.

The New York Times has an interesting article today about what really goes on behind the scenes when a non-documented resident of the US is arrested by the USCIS.

This information was not given willingly by the various agencies who overlook the nation’s immigration law enforcement. It had to be forced out of their clutch through the freedom of information act.

One thing is clear – do not get arrested on an immigration charge. If you do, make sure you have a damn good lawyer (not easy to do because they are not cheap), or opt for a quick deportation.

Unfortunately, most choose to fight and in the process spending months and sometimes even years in jail.  Fighting immigration judges is almost always a financially and emotionally no-win situation for most.

The lucky few that are able to ‘beat’ the system either got a lawyer who knew what he or she was doing or was on his or her deathbed as we have observed in a couple of well-known cases here in the Kenyan-American community in Dallas Fort Worth when they were released.

If you are new to this country, stick to it’s laws. This is especially important if you happen to not have completed your paperwork to be legal here. While the cost of being arrested on immigration charge places an unnecessary burden the whole community, the real danger is that it could cost you your life.

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There is no debate that Kenya’s coastline boasts of some of the finest beaches in the world.

From Lunga Lunga in the south, Funzi Island, Mombasa, Kilifi all the way to Kiunga in the Lamu archipelago, hundreds of kilometres of beautiful sandy beaches richly adorn the Kenyan coast, like an accessory on a woman.

Yet in these very beaches thousands of young Kenyans are now exposing themselves to early pregnancies, HIV/Aids and STIs, all in a span of three merry filled weeks.

Breaking News Kenya learnt of this disturbing fact and decided to investigate and find out just how deep this rot has run in Kenya’s version of Brazil’s Copa Cabana beach.

Our first stop was the Jomo Kenyatta public beach, 6 miles from the Mombasa city centre northwards on the Mombasa – Malindi highway, where we found the beach packed to capacity, teeming with people as young as 8 months on their mothers’ straps, to randy teens, to men and women over 70 years of age.

In between there was a healthy mixture of tourists, beach boys and traders hawking different wares from beverages to floaters made out of used tyre tubes.

Yussuf Katana*, is a beach boy at the public beach. He scours the coastline looking for opportunities to hook himself a female mzungu (white female tourist).

On ordinary days, he would date no other lady except a white tourist. But Christmas and New Year festivities means that these are NO ordinary days.

“Juzi nilikuwa na msichana wa Kikikuyu pale kwenye kile kichaka. (Two days ago I had sex with a Kikuyu girl in the bush),” Katana tells me, pointing to a small bush on a mouth of a seasonal river, just next to a popular beach bar called Surfside, “Alikuwa kitu! Nilimpa mbili za haraka. (She was a beauty! I did her twice.)”

How did he meet the girl?

Katana tells me the lady was lost and did not have accommodation as her friends with whom she came with from Nairobi had vanished. She wanted help and directions and above all company. Katana was ready to offer all these.

The next words that Katana uttered, sent shivers up my spine.

“Hatukutumia mpira. Tungeutoa wapi, brazza!? (We did not use a condom. Where could we get one in those conditions, brother!?”)

This is shocking. That two teens meet from two completely different lifestyles, hook up and have sex on the beach with no protection, with no care in the world as to the implications of that act…and with very minimal chances of ever meeting again.

The beach boy tells me that Angie* (the girl), is not his first local conquest on the beach. He confides that just a day prior to his act with Angie, he had sex with another 17 year old student at a local high school. This time they did the act in the ocean.

“Nilikuwa namfundisha kuogelea, yeye na wenzake watatu kutoka Kiembeni.” (I was teaching her swimming in the company of her three colleagues from Kiembeni, a suburb of Mombasa), Katana tells me.

This is one of the cunning ways that sexual predators lure their prey on Kenya’s public beaches. The promise of a free swimming lesson is too sweet to miss, making hundred of girls fall into a trap where getting out of is next to impossible.

After identifying the girl he wants, Katana tells me, he takes her deeper into the ocean, rendering the girl at his mercy as she now becomes fully dependent on him for her survival as she can’t swim.

This is when he asks for the sexual favour and the girl complies, not out of love and attraction, but fear of the consequences of rejection.

Katana is not alone in these morbid sexual escapades. He told me just like Tsavo lions are forced to survive on rats and hedgehogs when the pickings are lean, so are the beach boys, forced to prey on local desperate girls while awaiting the elusive tourist.

Jacob ‘Man-Mani’ is another beach boy. He has been on the beach for 3 months now, but already his list of ‘conquests’ is impressive, as he tells me.

“I have slept with about 13 girls, with 7 of them right here on these sands,” Man-Mani tells Breaking News Kenya. “Wawili walikuwa vajos” (two were virgins).

When I asked him to tell me whether he is aware of his HIV/Aids status, he looked forlorn, then said: “Tulipimwa some months back. Niko sawa. (we were tested some months back. I am alright).”

I wanted to know exactly when they were tested and who tested them. I met a hostile stare and I knew my time was up at the beach.

As I walked on the Jomo Kenyatta Public beach early Sunday the 26th December, I marvelled at the sheer number of used condoms, littering those secluded corners and some hung up high on the high tide water mark.

A further scan revealed panties, lost and found shorts, empty wallets, empty bottles of cheap and expensive whisky and a number of assorted items whose owners are unknown.

As the government and donors sink millions of Kenya shillings in the fight against HIV/Aids, maybe the focus ought to be shifted to these innocent sandy beaches during the holidays.

Sure enough in the streets of Mombasa, Nairobi and Malindi you will find billboards warning of the HIV/Aids scourge…but sadly in these beaches not even a single poster offered that last minute crucial warning to this merry makers.

Not even a National Aids Control Council Kiosk is present. Its like even the HIV/Aids campaign has gone on a brief holiday…for a fully charged comeback in January, when it will be too late for thousands of girls, boys, men and women.

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The last time Texas saw a real white Christmas was 80 years ago. So as all things historic go, this was a rare surprise – a real White Christmas in Texas. It started Christmas eve with gusting winds accompanied with ferocious snowflakes and rain.

Last minute shoppers like me were in for a rude shock Christmas eve at the neighborhood Walmart (Uchumi) where there was a traffic jam just to get out of the parking lot. It took almost an hour to get out of the parking lot.

Some frustrated drivers tried to muscle their way out of the traffic and ended like this (below);

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