Comments on: Kenyans peering at their belly buttons – fiddling while the place burns

By: Bev Trayner

Bev Trayner — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:26:26 +0000

The scale of smugness depends on where you live.

These “normal laws of violent conflict somehow do not apply to us because we are different” applies to lots of smug middle-class people all over the globe, both in relation to what is happening in Kenya, to what is happening in their own country, and to what is happening all over the world. It’s what happened in Nazi Germany.

That’s why it’s SO important NEVER to be smug. Sooner or later it could happen to anyone. We have to keep examining our assumptions and know that violence – and all things human – lies in every single one of us.

And btw – thanks for your blog, that is a significant part of how I make sense of the world.

By: viv

viv — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:49:22 +0000

The reason the elite can ignore it is because they believe its happening there and wont touch us here. Thats why as violence erupted, the young elite were still going clubbing, its a mystery to me how one could block out the situation in the lives of fellow kenyans and go out to have fun, spending thousands to get drunk while thousands of Kenyans dont know where their next meal is coming from.

Until the rich start feeling the pinch, then and only then is change gonna come.

Lets pray and hope

By: Philip Roy

Philip Roy — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 06:52:11 +0000

If the middle class in Kenya does not rise up and say enough is enough, there will be no Kenya in years to come………

Let your voices be heard……….

The Elite are driving our country into the ground , while the poor are fighting on their behalf…………

By: daniel waweru

daniel waweru — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 05:11:04 +0000

Oh, and welcome back. I’ve missed you terribly.

By: daniel waweru

daniel waweru — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 05:09:48 +0000

Now, now Mato. Don’t be so censorious – apparent smugness could just as easily be motivated by fear as by obliviousness. These are difficult times.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 17:22:10 +0000

There is little comfort in knowing that there’s many of us on the same slow road to a sure hell.

This blog I really like. Here I discover alot of things that I didn’t know I knew (that’s a compliment). It’s not so much the facts you state as the way you state them.

By: Ken Thumbi

Ken Thumbi — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:10:38 +0000

‘Smug knowingness characterizing the so called elite’, now those are terms i have been trying to find for some time…and I personally find it very very frustrating being in the same vicinity as such individuals especially during this critical(and very very sad) time in our history…

Great Blog and keep up the good work!