Although there has virtually no mention of this effort in the American Media there is currently an effort to delay justice in Kenya after the horrific aftermath following the Presidential Elections of January 2008.

Since the reaction that resulted in scores of Kenyans dead, millions more internally displaced and a Coalition Government comprised of the long ruling KANU (Kenyan African National Union) and the relatively new ODM (Orange Democratic Movement).

At this time there are still concerns regarding Corruption with the Government in Nairobi. But I digress back to the concern. One of the Actions taken by the Coalition Government was to address the causes of the violence in order to prevent such an occurrence from happening again.

The Situation would also be investigated by the International Criminal Court as well. This is where the problem would begin earlier this month.It starts on January 7 in Nairobi. At that time an Opposition Member of Parliament and some Human Rights Advocates held a Press Conference to raise some concerns. The reason that was given was that they had concerns that someone was trying to stop the ICC (International Criminal Court) from properly Investigating what happened in Kenya. And then events started moving quickly.

Within 48 hours two briefs were filed with the ICC at The Hague. One was by the IADL (International Association of Democratic Lawyers). The Motive behind this brief is unknown. This is their first ever involvement with Kenyan Politics ever.

Those on the Conservative Persuasion will realize that in their view they take on what would be considered to be Left-Leaning Causes. The Other brief was filed by two American Professors. Their brief contends that the ICC overstepped their boundaries as Kenya does currently have an internal mechanism to investigate the violence.

The Other Reason why they filed their brief is that they don’t think that Crimes Against Humanity occurred but that it was a matter of civil unrest. When the US Undersecretary of State Jendayi Frazier went to Nairobi in an effort to stop the violence she believed that Crimes Against Humanity did actually take place there.

At this time the ICC Prosecutor recently wrote Kenyan Authorities to express his concern abokut some witnesses to the violence being intimidated. It appears that someone has decided to cover their tracks as best as possible and delay justice to the People of Kenya. The earliest action on these briefs can be taken on Feb. 11th or 12th. The week before the ICC Prosecutor will be in Washington. Hopefully the efforts to promote Justice in Kenya will be able to move forward.

The Author Publishes Confused Eagle on the Internet and Comments on US Policy Towards Africa.

When I joined the education for life Programme, I was not clear on my values, but with help and soul searching, I realized that one thing that has the greatest influence in my life, a value I cannot trade for anything, is my faith, which is directly related to my spirituality. Spirituality is the aspect of being concerned with religion or the human spirit (Hornby A.S 2000). Religion is something of great influence and very important in our lives. I am aware of the many religions of the world, but I can only speak from a Christian point of view, as I consider myself one.

Spiritual wellness is one of the major health components and they are all interrelated. For example, your spiritual wellness will probably contribute to your social wellness, which will contribute to your emotional wellness, and this may ensure physical wellness as well. To achieve this one needs a high sense of discipline and above all make it a personal responsibility. Having identified spiritual wellness as a major contributor to good health, I would like to look at some of its benefits.

First of all the church has values, which help and guide us in our daily life. An example is the church advocacy for abstinence before marriage. This, if followed, will help reduce the spread of HIV/Aids and as a result maintaining good health by avoiding infection.

Secondly, getting in touch with ones spirituality gives one peace of mind, which albeit everyone needs. However, you can only have peace of mind if you can easily and effectively make decisions, and this can only be possible if you have clearly spelt out your values. It is important to ensure that your values are based on Christian principles. The other benefit of spiritual wellness is that it helps to form our thought process. The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, we are created in the image of God and that our body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. This gives me a positive self-image and I regard myself as a beautiful creature, thus relating well with people around me in confidence. As a result, I promote my social wellness, which might boost my emotional wellness. With such a positive image, I will not do anything to harm y body, I will relate with people in such a way to present the image of God, thus promoting good health.

These are just a few of the many benefits of Spiritual wellness. However, it takes time and discipline to achieve this.

I would like to pose a challenge to all of us. We spend most of our time taking care of other aspects of our health: physical, social and emotional health leaving out our spiritual wellness, forgetting that, all these aspects are interrelated and they need to be balanced. Are we going to uplift our spiritual wellness?Secondly, how are we going to go about it? Think and do something about it. Remember your health is your responsibility.

Millicent  Atieno

Yes! If you would be loved, love and be lovable (Franklin).Love, only a four letter word yet so big. No one has quite been able to define it. Everyone has their own definition for it. When two people, a man and a wife, finally become one in holy matrimony, they are said to have shown an outward commitment of their love for each other. A one Disraeli said, ‘we are all born for love . . . It is the principle of existence and its only end.

There is no greater feeling of content than that brought about by acts of Love. This experience though, is an on going and ever growing process-at least it should be. I will not talk about the married though since I am not yet myself.

Young people fall in love. It is a beautiful necessity of our nature to love something. So how can we have rich and healthy love relationships? How can we realise this love?

First and foremost, I think it is important for young people and those intending to get married to be aware of the stages involved in establishing love relationships. I realise that we are all unique and there are no two relationships that are quite similar. However, healthy relationships have some things in common. Importantly each partner in a healthy relationship must have a positive self image. Once you feel strong and sure of yourself, you are better able to know what to look for in a partner. Then you need to be aware, always, that love develops in stages.

First of all there is the attraction stage; something about the person catches your attention. You are attracted to each other. This could be anything from they way they carry themselves around, who they associate with, how they talk, the list is endless. Secondly is the casual friendship stage; you and the person who interests you enjoy activities together, for example you may enjoy movies, games together and even organise such activities together. Here you explore more on each other’s characteristics. At this stage everyone is on their best behaviour and commitments are not appropriate at this stage yet. As you get to know more about each other, your friendship moves to another stage, the close friendship. As you spend more time with each other you get to learn about each other’s feelings and values. You begin to discover each other’s emotional and spiritual tendencies. At this stage the relationship may progress or retreat. The intimate stage is where the friends now start to reveal their faults. They let down their masks of best behaviour. By this time each trusts the other’s acceptance because the true self of each-complete with faults-has been seen by the other. At this stage a couple may decide to “go steady” or may relax back to being close friends. Finally is the stage of mature love. In this stage all the initial hurdles are past. Each partner continues developing socially, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. The degree of closeness of mature love makes conflicts likely, but the partners learn to resolve conflict in healthy ways.

I decided to mention these stages because, they help you judge at what point you are in your relationship, and if you are ready to move on to the next stage or not. Healthy intimate relationships grow in stages that should not be rushed.

Relationships and in this case romantic relationships are important. But it is only satisfying if it is done the right way and with the right person.

When we talk of the right way and the right person, what is it that can help us realise this? Values. I know in the current commercialised world, this is something that is not so much emphasised, but it is of great importance. Having a partner with whom you share the same beliefs and values, in fact makes it easier when it comes to certain decisions. For example a partner who values abstinence is better off with someone who believes in the same. I know sometimes people are caught up in the pressures of life and end up making hasty decisions. However, if you find someone who shares in the same values as you do, and if you take a relationship through the necessary stages of developing a love relationship, then you will be all smiles at the end of it all, when you finally say ‘I DO’ and seal your love in the Holy matrimony.

“It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. –Tennyson”

MILLICENT ATIENO

In life we draw our motivation and inspiration from various things. Some read inspirational material; books, articles and they find a reason to keep going on. Others get their motivation through sharing and listening to people’s experiences. Sermons are also a great source of motivation and inspiration for many believers. There is undeniably some power in all this sources of motivation.

The same goes for music, one of my greatest motivational sources. I believe there is power in music, or should I say I believe in musical power.

I have loved music since I was a very little girl, I would stop just to listen to people sing. Then I would feel so calm. There are times when I am so down, I put on encouraging music, and you know what, I feel so encouraged, that I am ready to get back on my feet.I honestly think music is therapeutic. Have you ever at one point in your life felt you have lost sense of direction, you are emotionally down and do not want to talk to anyone? Well it has happened to me severally, especially when I was not getting along with my parents and I did not want to hear advice from anyone. I would put on some music, depending on my emotions, if I was feeling angry I would put on some fast music.

When I felt stressed I would put on some slow music. During this time I would not talk to anyone and this would go on for some few minutes after listening to the music. By this time I would be totally healed and would talk, but softly though, to the person who hurt me. I cannot quite explain what happens, but I know music has and still helps me cool off and relax. There are those times you just do not want to talk to anyone or struggle with something, well, listening to music is not a struggle you do not have to say anything you just listen.

Music is such a powerful way of passing a message, when sung. They say song is the highest form of expression because it is the most direct expression of the emotions of the soul. Whenever I have felt a strong emotion over an issue I write a song and sing it out to my self or the nearest person available and I feel contented. Better still I try to find a song that expresses my feelings and play it.

Instrumentals-without words and songs- with words, work well for me.I wonder if some artists realise the power of music. And what effects it has on people, myself as an example. Surely if they thought about this, then they would take time to write music that uplifts rather than destroy. And am just wondering what would happen if the very sick patients in hospital could get a chance to listen to soothing music and not lie down in a lonely quiet hospital bed! Would the power of music make a difference!

Millicent Atieno

As radio Waumini celebrates its fifth year of radio ministry and evangelization, the catholic Kenyan community has been called to support the radio. Popes representative to Kenya ALAIN PAUL LEBEAUPIN says, participation in the mission of Christ guiding in guiding faithfulls and the whole community to eternal life, has to be based on the will of the Lord who presents himself as gentle and humble in heart. In his homily at Mji wa furaha during the celebration of radio waumini’s fifth anniversary yesterday, The NUNCIO called on journalists to use well their powers by developing a Christian sense of serving for the truth and work for progress. He however challenged the media at large to be instruments of peace, not to be oppressive and to avoid setting goals for personal gains.

Article by Rose

My philosophy on grades is simple. Our society is based on competition and ranks. In business corporations that are economically secure do not lose their competitive edge. They stride to not only be profitable but to be on the top of the corporate ladder. I do not find grades important or essential for the same reasons as our society does.Understanding how competitive our society is I find grades to be important to prepare students for competition in the corporate world and to understand that in order to be the most successful you need to rank superior amongst your peers. I do not believe grades can provide motivation simply because I myself am a student, I understand the popular beliefs on grades and I also understand the importance of grades. As a student I have an idea of what grades do for Students. A high grade can give the students confidence. Confidence is a horrible thing in education and business. If you are confident then you are not as focused as you should be. A low grade gives a student the illusion of failure, It pushes them down mentally. “F” Students become satisfied with “D’s”. In no case should anyone be satisfied with being ranked and thought so low of. I believe without grades Students would be even more motivated. A student who has been looked down on in the past would not look to just get by. The Student would know the school or teacher has no concept of how poorly he/she did in the previous school year. It would give them a new turn to prove themselves, and they would always feel the chance of success is there, simply because they have nothing permanent that records how unsuccessful or below average they were previously.A grade measuring the intelligence or popularity of a student is crazy. I do not even believe an IQ test could adequately measure someones knowledge, but to believe a grade could is absurd. Different Teachers/Instructors grade students differently; they grade students on a combination of their personal scales and the schools. A high grade in English with one teacher may be easier than a high grade in English with another teacher. So if 2 equally intelligent/hardworking students enrolled in two different English classes it would be safe to assume that even though they possess the same knowledge one might come out with a higher grade than the other, therefore grades being a scale used to measure intelligence would be completely inaccurate, therefore I believe it to be a myth.

I have never placed a high grade over a better education. I have never needed to be forced to learn things. Everything I do is out of my own free will and judgment, I will not let a grade tell me I need to study more or that I can take a break. I start a class focused and I remain focused even if my grade is high to a point where I know I can skip a few assignments. My conclusion is this: Grades are important but they do not motivate students to learn like they are believed to do, and Myths such as grades measure the most intelligent,favorable, or that grades teach students to do what they are told are completely false.Grades do not teach anything or measure intelligence. Grades only show one thing, and that is success a Student has had in a particular classroom with a particular teacher

An Article By Alvin,  Bay Area, California

Children develop along four streams: intellectual, physical, emotional (psychological) and social. In classrooms, the smartest kids tend to be left out of more activities by other children than they are included in. They are “odd,” they are the geeks, they are social outsiders. In other words, they do not develop socially as well as they may develop intellectually or even physically where opportunities may exist for more progress.Their emotional development, characterized by their ability to cope with risky or stressful situations, especially over long periods of time, also lags behind that of the average person. Adults tend to believe that intelligent kids can deal with anything because they are intellectually superior. This inevitably includes situations where the intelligent kids have neither knowledge nor skills to support their experience.

They go through the tough times alone. Adults don’t understand that they need help and other kids don’t want to associate with kids the social leaders say are outsiders.As a result we have many highly intelligent people whose social development progresses much slower than that of most people and they have trouble coping with the stressors of life that present themselves to everyone. It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of prison inmates are socially and emotionally underdeveloped or maldeveloped and a larger than average percentage of them are more intelligent than the norm.Western society provides the ideal incubator for social misfits and th those with emotional coping problems. When it comes to happiness, people who are socially inept and who have trouble coping emotionally with the exigencies of life would not be among those you should expect to be happy.This may be changing in the 21st century as the geeks gain recognition as people with great potential, especially as people who might make their fortune in the world of high technology. Geeks may be more socially accepted than in the past, but unless they receieve more assistance with their social and emotional development, most are destined to be unhappy as they mature in the world of adults.People with high intelligence, be they children or adults, still rank as social outsiders in most situations, including their skills to be good mates and parents.Moreover, they tend to see more of the tragedy in the communities and countries they live in, and in the world, than the average person whose primary source of news and information is comedy shows on television. Tragedy is easier to find than compassion, even though compassion likely exists in greater proportion in most communities.

Internally displaced people are held ransom by politicking of members of parliament from rift valley. Their argument is they were not duly rewarded for their role in the elections and therefore they are not going to make it easy for the IDPs to be resettled. However Kenyans are wondering isn’t it time we saw beyond our “time to eat” mentality?