Mumbai Under Terror Attack(Breaking News)

I am just going over CNN live pictures over the terrorist mayhem that has been unleashed on Indian trade hub Mumbai by islamic terrorist extremists and its quite shocking .More than 100 people are feared dead in attack currently being blamed on the group Deccan Mujahedeen.

Gunmen in small groups armed with Grenades and automatic rifles have unleashed terror on ten popular tourist sites including the epic and magnificent hotel Taj Mahal , hotel oberoi, train stations etc

The terrorists opened fire at nearly half a dozen places in south Mumbai at around 10pm on Wednesday, and soon took hundreds, including foreigners and businessmen, hostage. Gunmen opened fire from AK-47 rifles at the city’s busiest railway terminal, CST, killing nearly 20 people.

Fear swept through the city, as frequent gunfire was heard from public places. Explosive-laden vehicles, including a taxi near the international airport, blew up. The authorities decided to call in the army early this morning and sought additional commandos from Delhi.

Terrorists took hundreds hostage in the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels in south Mumbai, minutes after they had fired with their AK-47 rifles. They threw hand-grenades at the Oberoi hotel, setting two floors aflame.As we speak Police are still evacuating the building with sniffer dogs, sharpshooters etc engaged in the activity.Its scary!

What a sad affair for the world and a lesson to the security intelligence apparatus all over the world. I hope Kenya's anti terrorism outfit take a lesson that terrorists are morphing in their tactics and now are adopting a widespread sporadic shooting of civilians in public places most likely visited by tourists.This kind of tactic stretches the response team and can very easily overwhelm! CNN reported that Indian Police in Mumbai were overwhelmed by the well co-ordinated attacks and have had to call in the military. The question for Kenya's internal security apparatus is how long can it take for the Kenyan Military to be up and operationally responsive to such an attack and whether there is a strategic well co-ordinated response plan by the relevant departments including the health services, fire brigade, bomb squad, ambulance service etc seeing that islamic extremists groups from Somalia recently threatened the Republic.....The Threat is real! No one is safe the question is how do you respond when it begins?

For those Kenyans having relatives in Mumbai and eager to know their well being there are a number of new media bloggers responding to the crisis as seen at :http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/11/26/live-blog-mumbai-residents-online-community-react-to-terror-attacks.aspx where information is being shared.USHAHIDI can just be deployed there to crowd source information from first account witnesses. A sad day indeed for the World and something to learn from!

Bloggers Branding South Africa

The Kenyan blogging community is vibrant with its A-List bloggers such as White African and Kenyan Pundit,David Kobia, Eric Wesonga etc receiving international recognition and accolades! But the question remains whether with strategic partnerships with both Government, civil society and corporate companies they can be of more positive influence in Kenya's development ,branding and the realisation of economic growth as envisioned in Kenya's economic vision 2030 programme.

I believe that some of the industry players i.e. tourism sector could borrow a leaf from the immense sphere of influence that south african bloggers are generating especially in marketing and branding of South Africa as a tourism destination. Last week i came accross this intitiative featured in South Africa's Mail & Guardian Online where by top notch USA bloggers had been invited by the International Marketing Council of SA (IMC) alongside South African bloggers with intent to generate some highly entertaining and informative web content – words, pictures, audio and video - about the South Africa.Among the bloggers invited were :

• Renee Blodgett and Ray Lewis - of down the avenue Blog
  
• Zadi Diaz - ZadiDiaz.com
• Mona Gable - The Huffington Post
• John Gartner - Matter Network
• Chris Morrison - VentureBeat
• David Sasaki - Global Voices Online
• Eliane Fioret - Ubergizmo
• Graeme Wood - The American Scene, The Smart Set, TheAtlantic.com

According to the article " The IMC is in the business of promoting South Africa as a destination for investment and travel and as a source of innovation and high quality goods and services. It calls itself the custodian of Brand South Africa, but not, mind, the owner. Today, the owner of any brand is the consumer. Thanks to the internet and the blogosphere the consumer now wields more power than ever before in history".What a positive viewpoint and step in the right direction!

It is indeed beyond doubt that the internet especially blogging and social media is becoming an increasing force in the shapping and influencing of how people decide to spend their time and money!Therefore it is only prudent that the Kenyan corporate scene starts taking advantageof this medium by using succesful webprenneurs especially bloggers who have already carved a niche in the online market. To demonstrate this consider the following in a day my blog gets 60 to 70 new viewers most of whom happen to be foreigners and since i started monitoring my traffic with the geoblog this blog has received more than 23,000 site visits ; of these only 6,000 are Kenyans.As it is this blog is then a powerful advertisement medium as exhibited in the figures .Due to this the site was included in the crazy about Kenya website (recently featured in the BBC) linkroll as a news portal of some of the interesting news about our Country!

On the otherhand i would like to challenge my bloggers to vere off from covering politics(dissapointing realm) and stress on positive attributes of Kenya, Sights to see, places to visit...the big five animals of Africa,products and innovation, human resource etc.Posts that will both add value to themselves and their site visitors.Indeed from the foregoing i challenge among others the Kenya Tourism Board to take the cue!

Pamela Jelimo-Kenya's New Wonder Gal !

Born on December 5, 1989 in Kapsabet Kenya's new 800 metres Beijing olympic Gold medalist Pamela Jelimo is destined for greater heights as she is poised to be crowned the 2008 IAAF Woman athlete for the year tommorow in Monaco at the World Athletes Gala.

Jelimo has become overly famous more so for her use of interjectory words "perhaps, actually, maybe i can say....Jelimo(Dubbed Kapsabet Express !) has fast become one of Kenya's favourite and perhaps(SIC)most entertaining athlete!

Her feat of victorious wins in the 800 meters race especially after bagging the coveted US $1 Million Golden League jackpot at only 18 years of age this year just make her the favourite athlete to watch for the IAAF Awards tomorrow nite!Among the finalists of the 2008 world athletes of the year include:

Men :1.Kenenisa Bekele ETHIOPIA 2.Usain Bolt JAMAICA 3. Dayron Robles CUBA
Women :1.Tirunesh Dibaba ETHIOPIA 2.Yelena Isinbayeva RUSSIA 3.Pamela Jelimo KENYA

Here at Nairobian we wish her all the best in her astounding career and accomplishments!

UPDATE: Jamaican Usain Bolt and Russian Yelena Isinbayeva emerged the victors yesterday night after being Male & Female Athletes of the Year! Pamela Jelimo won the Revelation of the Year Award..!

Sex Craze Hits The Nation !

It is often said sex sells but little is said of how sex kills....perhaps this attitude may just be behind the sex craze that is apparently beginning to manifest itself outrightly within the republic!

Note the following interesting items that have just hit our media portals of late!

• Today morning one of the news items on alocal radio station was that a study conducted in a Kenyan Church revealed that 1 out of 10 married Kenyan men are having an extra marital affair...now thats not a figure you would expect to get in a church but again factors as to the size of the church come into play.
• The Standard today reports that annually around 1,000 Kenyan women are trafficked to Germany for sex trade ,ponography and other illicit acts.CRADLE Kenya a Human Right 's(youths at Kenyan party) NGO reports that child abuse/Defilement cases of youths aged between 10-14 years has increased in middle class neighbourhoods such as South C, Buru Buru, Kilimani, Utalii, Ridgeways,Westlands etc
• Wednesdays Morning Maina Kageni's talk Show on Classic 105.2 Fm featured an advert on one of the local dailies classifieds about a prostitution den in Komarock /umoja where one can get to witness one, two, three or even five Lesbian girls having sex at the price of Kshs 5,000(about 70 US Dollars) per hour.And what was shocking was that this live sex act shows were prevalent in almost all the middle class neighbourhoods within Nairobi.Most of the participants being young teenagers.
• Both prominent Local Dailies Nation and Standard Newspapers had to pull out the personals and beauty classified sections afer the same featured brazen adverts for escort services, massage parlours, prostitution(gay,lesbian,bi sexual services) ,local ponographic adult DVDs, Kenyan Swingers website links ,Sex enhancement products etc.
• But what show s the extent of moral degradation and corruption that has been embraced as normal is the fact that posters don the city centre advertising local adult DVD's (to make it more raunchy they describe them as featuring Lughya, Kamba ,Kalenjin, Taita Girls) available for home delivery complete with phone number at almost every corner on Kimathi Street, Moi Avenue , etc.Church Kesha's with savvy gospel music have in some instances been the precipice for orgies(happened with the Israelites when they adopted Caananite festivals and danced under the large trees and before the disgusting images of baal of peor that featured the male and female sexual organs,They even had an official temple prostitute remember-there is no new trick that Satan uses, just same old, same old !)

The Country seems to be pre-occupied with sex and its trade at almost all levels of society,the music, the entertainment, the adverts,the tv shows, local mini -series you name it one would think that we have just discovered sex!Nude bars/table top strippers are now not a preserve of the West but right at the heart of the City Centre as entertainment joints(I.E Liddos and Apple Bees etc).And they have the audacity of advertising on local media despite stringent criminal and prohibitive legislation such as the Penal Code!What is perhaps disheartening is the fact that the many school going teenage girls and boys are being recruited into this vice when they can hardly make an informed decision.Further is the fact that due to unemployment, rampant and high competition for the limited university employment...wanton sex and drug abuse has become the pasttime for many youths.

Like Bernie Mac would say:KENYA ! RIGHT THERE YOU ARE SITTING ON A PROBLEM!the challenge now falls primarily on parents, the religious leaders,Society, the Government etc in that peking order!
CallingAmerica.com Free USA Calls !

Afrodizzia TV Launches Online Website

Afrodizzia the local weekly African music tv show have expanded their global presence by going online.Th Afrodizzia website is up and running and the layout is quite impressive with a feature that will allow local upcoming talent to upload music videos and thereby get global exposure.

The weekly music round up show often features great African music maestros and musicians from the continent. This move is readily welcome and will prove an added gusto to the African music fraternity. The website features an online social community,interactive forums, latest African entertainment news updates, music videos,artist interviews....and more! Im happy to create the buzz for them for their show is definately mind blowing! Kudos Afrodizzia for premere-ring exquisite African Music talent and Diversity!


Log on at http://www.afrodizzia.tv to experience great African Music!


a product of SoundAfrica ... East Africa's leading recording, music distribution and artiste management company.

Iconic Singer Miriam Makeba Is Dead !

I have just come across quite some saddening news that the iconic South African Singer Miriam Makeba died yesterday night in Italy after a concert for Roberto Saviano, a writer threatened with death by the Mafia. The BBC link is here ....(Click).South African singer Miriam Makeba has died aged 76 after being taken ill near the southern Italian town of Caserta following a concert
SMiriam Makeba was the first black African woman to receive a Grammy Award which she shared with folk singer Harry Belafonte in 1965.I really loved her powerful voice and good songs such as Patapata...She was a great African voice with a great heart and concern and will be surely missed !

An Inspiring Moment -Obama Wins USA Elections

AN INSPIRING MOMENT !

The Government of Kenya has just declared tomorrow a public holiday immediately after the Republican Nominee John MC Cain conceded the election and Barrack Obama was declared President Elect according to a CNN Presidential elections result tally.It was a landslide victry for the Obama"and Joe Bidden Ticket with oBama garnering 338 to Mc Cains 155 electoral votes.

Kenyans immediately erupted to celebrations with some newscasters and radio talk show hosts popping champagne bottles!Obama's victory speech delivered in Chicago Illinois was truly inspiring as he reached out to Americans who may not have voted for him and reminded them of the challenges that first were and that lay ahead...truly inspiring !The moving victory speech left Jesse Jackson crying...histry has been made!

Africa & Obama- Frenzy Grips Africa!

From Capetown in South Africa to Cairo in Egypt....Obama is the most frequented name in Africa as America goes to decide in less than 24 hours.For many an Obama Presidency seems to be an emancipation for Africa .In Kenya the frenzy is now at an all time peak.A commissioned poll indicates that 94 % of the Kenyan populace endorse Barack Obama over Mc Cain! Bill boards are being set up from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Kisumu and Kogelo-Senators Obama's ancestral home.Workers are taking leave from work in order to monitor the elections tomorrow with al Jazeera news network vowing to update the African audience on the American Presidential results 12 hours non stop from the USA.Local media stations sent their journalists on the campaign trail and they will be updating their viewers on the early poll results as they trickle in!


There is definately a flurry of Activity in Kenya.Foreign Journalists are arriving in droves in Nairobi to capture that moment when (with all likelihood) Senator Obama is declared the President of the United States of America.In South Arica posters and banners are being put up stating"GOBAMA".In Uganda a road has been named Senator Barack Obama Road,Africans are doning t-shirts with emblems and photos of Obama, from TV Shows to Radio Talk Shows,Daily Newspapers Africa is Obaminicland for the moment full of Obama mania!

In the African Blogophere and on the internet Obama is the most popular search keyword.The times,All Africa.com, Africanews, Mail & Guardian online (South Africa) feature articles on Africa's expectation of an Obama Presidency.From Andy in Malawi, For the Love of Money Blog,Asad's blog ,Kenya's popular blog Kumekucha ec...posts are being churned by the minute on this great person.Its all Obama over the place!

What great hope is being put on a fellow human being.Unfulfilled expectations will result in equally great loss but thats a risk that one too many are willing to take yet again and again.Will there really be Change that one can believe in? Time will tell!