[quote][/quote]
[/quote]

Yes I know. Many of the youth rioting believe it is worth dying for a cause and Raila epitomizes that cause. But is it? Would you Tycho be willing to die for Raila or Uhuru?

The fact is is most of these youth are deluded children, who don't even understand that they are mere pawns in a naked game for power, to be forgotten even before their corpses are cold.

Anyone who plays with peoples lives in this manner is not a leader in my book and should be told so in no uncertain terms.

[/quote]

And which is the lesser evil; accepting that they are accursed people who can never hope for a better life? Or even a life at all?

[/quote]

No. The lesser evil is to tell them that their lives have meaning, even at this, their lowest point.

That politics is a game, not a zero sum life and death battle (complete with soldiers and generals as the crap ODM ideology of 'risai moja' would have it).

That no politician is worth losing life or limb for.

That conceding defeat is not a weakness but a strength.

That their lives are important and no one, NO ONE, has call to ask them to lay their lives down for them, no matter what the stakes are.

That the winner is not the one who dies but the one who lives to fight another day.

Why is it so hard for Raila to get this?

[/quote]

No. @Wakanyugi. It's not about telling. It's about effecting a living. In a world of violence and the threat of violence you can only effect a living at the battle front.

Isn't this the narrative that sustains many of us?

Let's take that it's only Raila who is refusing to concede; what could prevent him from doing so? A sudden burst of madness? [/quote]

You can only effect a living if you preserve life, your own or another. Recklessly confronting armed men is no way to guarantee this. Similarly allowing deluded young men to be so reckless in your name is to me an abdication of leadership and humanity.

I would not say Raila is mad. But then his oversize ego is a well known handicap, so much so that Jubilee built a strategy to beat him based largely on the assumption that he can never overcome this negative character flaw. It worked.

But then again maybe this is what madness is like. After all, to misquote Euripides, or Ola Rotimi: "He whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make proud'

[quote=Wakanyugi]
[/quote]

No. @Wakanyugi. It's not about telling. It's about effecting a living. In a world of violence and the threat of violence you can only effect a living at the battle front.

Isn't this the narrative that sustains many of us?

Let's take that it's only Raila who is refusing to concede; what could prevent him from doing so? A sudden burst of madness? [/quote]

You can only effect a living if you preserve life, your own or another. Recklessly confronting armed men is no way to guarantee this. Similarly allowing deluded young men to be so reckless in your name is to me an abdication of leadership and humanity.

I would not say Raila is mad. But then his oversize ego is a well known handicap, so much so that Jubilee built a strategy to beat him based largely on the assumption that he can never overcome this negative character flaw. It worked.

But then again maybe this is what madness is like. After all, to misquote Euripides, or Ola Rotimi: "He whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make proud'

[/quote]

So you're simply saying that Raila is refusing to concede because he has an over sized ego. I'd bet that there's enough evidence to show that indeed Raila has an over sized ego.

For me, I wouldn't want to go for over simplicity even to the extent of neglecting available evidence. One would be hard pressed to show the 'over-sizedness' of Raila.

All thinking @Wakanyugi can only be systems thinking. And it's only when we place Raila in a context of our system as a country that we can even begin to understand his and our behavior and start making amends where needed.

[quote=FRM2011]
The banality of evil

I recommend the above book for @Angelica and @obi. They are still shocked that fellow wazuans whom they have always regarded highly have lumped them together with the troublesome Luos who are giving Uhuru a hard time to govern. As such, the violence meted on them (Luos) is because their leader has refused to concede. Had Raila conceded, the poor policeman in Kisumu would not have been forced to clobber 6-month old pendo.

When Adolf Eichmann was snatched by an elite team of Mossad from a street in Argentina and taken to Israel to face trial, many people were scared of looking directly to his eyes. He was the closest one would get to the devil. Here was the man tasked with executing the "final solution" of finishing off the jews.

Top universities in the world sent their best professors and psychologists to understand the mind of a psychopathic monster. What they found was shocking.....

"These psychologists found not only no trace of mental illness, but also no evidence of abnormal personality whatsoever. One doctor remarked that his overall attitude towards other people, especially his family and friends, was "highly desirable", while another remarked that the only unusual trait Eichmann displayed was being more "normal" in his habits and speech than the average person "

And thus the emergence of the phrase banality of evil.

"Evil deeds are, for the most part, not perpetrated by monsters or sadists. Most often, they are perpetrated by seemingly ordinary people like Adolf Eichmann, who value conformity and narrow self-interest over the welfare of others "

Psychologists observed the same when dealing with the Rwandese genocide perpetrators. I was fascinated by the actions of the three top women;

1. Pauline Nyiramasuhuko - Min of Family Affairs and Women’s Development
2. Agnes Ntamabyariro - Minister of Justice
3. Sister Gertrude Mukangango and Sister Julienne Kizito of the Sovu Monastery.

All educated and well traveled but for two months between April and June 1994, oversaw unspeakable atrocities on fellow women.

Felicitee` Semakuba deserves special mention. She was pregnant during the genocide but her sadism shocked even the judges. In one instance, her victims were too many she would kill hundreds of them with bullets and grenades until she got exhausted. She could go back home and come again the following morning to continue. It lasted three days.

Psychologists confirmed she had no mental illness. She was an average person. Incentivized by the genocide. There is a latent Nazi or interhamwe in each one of us.

Any observant Wazuan would have noted this by now.[/quote]

@FRM2011 I don't think its that bad here, I am just a bit surprised by some here. Now, I didn't challenge other peoples passions for supporting their preferred candidates before elections, that was understandable, but the open hatred after winning honestly surprised me.

Now I interact with Kenyans from various backgrounds and I have to be honest and say that politics when discussed is generally subdued when the group has people with an opposing views, I am therefore struggling to picture any of my friends or acquaintances who I can liken to some here. Many after the results started trickling in simply accepted them as they were, filtered out the political noise and reverted to more relevant topics. No hard feelings, no taunting etc.

Wazua seems to be stuck on the election timewarp. Must be differing circles

[quote=tycho][quote=B.Timer]Orchestration is almost certain.
The following link seems to point to part of the chain.



http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Ma...056870-cjb3es/index.html[/quote]

@B Timer: When one works with the assumption that violence is being created or orchestrated then it's easy to expect conflict to be inter-tribal 'Rwanda' kind of thing.

And when a population as Kenya's is involved we can't discount false and alarmist ideas springing up.

Case in point is how witnesses alter their accounts to fit popular imagination as presented in the media.

We must be aware of these factors when judging what's happening. [/quote]
Hi @tycho
your sentiments have been duly noted.