it has to stop it has to stop it has to stop it has to

It's election year in Kenya. Kenyan women running for electoral office face a barrage of tactics designed to intimidate and terrorize them into withdrawing. The tactics range from threats and verbal intimidation, to harassment and obstruction as they campaign, to brutal violence.

Last Friday, Flora Igoki Tera, Parliamentary Candidate for the North Imenti Constituency in the Meru district of Kenya, was attacked and tortured by a gang of 5 men, near her Meru home.

They choked her. Scored her wrists with thorns. Beat her with iron bars, dislodging a disc in her spine. Shaved and tore her hair from her head, mixed it with feces, stuffed it into her mouth, and forced her to swallow it.

All the while, they repeatedly warned her against running for the North Imenti seat in the forthcoming elections. Before this, Ms. Tera had suffered another assault, a few weeks ago, by unknown assailants who burned her knuckles with cigarettes.

Of 222 Members of Parliament in Kenya, only 18 are women.

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

(1)

Send just ONE EMAIL. To Flora Tera, cc'd to the Electoral Commission of Kenya, whose job it is to ensure peaceful, free and fair elections.

Here's how:

A) Send an email to info@creaw.org with FLORA TERA in the subject box.

B) In the cc box, type, or copy and paste:
eck@nbnet.co.ke
This is the email address of the Electoral Commission of Kenya.

Your email [SUGGESTED TEXT BELOW] will go to the Centre for Rights, Education and Awareness for Women who will deliver it to Flora Tera. These messages are vital fuel for her healing and her courage, as she continues her campaign.

Your email will also go to the Electoral Commission of Kenya, putting international heat on them to take action.

Finally, I will forward the emails to John Michuki, Minister of Internal Security, here.

You can also post further messages at this site. The greater the volume of response, the better.

C) SUGGESTED TEXT [Feel free to substitute your own words, and add whatever else you'd like. But please include the info about groups cc'd and about the Electoral Commission of Kenya]:

Dear Ms. Tera,

I want to express my deep outrage and sadness at the terrible attack you have suffered. Please know that you are not alone, and this atrocity will not go unchallenged. People around the world are sending you their support.

[ADD YOUR OWN WORDS]

I am a member of the following groups / international listserves / online communities / networks, to whom I have circulated this information, and appeal for justice.

[LIST GROUPS]

I have copied this email to the Electoral Commission of Kenya. We call upon Mr. Samuel Kiviutu, chair of the Commission, to allocate resources IMMEDIATELY to security for women candidates in the run-up to the elections. We call upon the Commissioner of Police to take immediate steps to identify and prosecute your attackers.

We salute your courage, your political vision, and your determination to make a difference for the people of Kenya.

With heartfelt wishes for your recovery,

Signed:
Organization or Affiliation:
City and Country:


(2)

Post this info on all groups / listserves / online communities you belong to, that are concerned with global human rights, peace and justice.


Thank you for listening. For being out there.

If there is no struggle

there is no progress. Those who profess freedom and yet deprecate agitation are people who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will.

Frederick Douglass

joy is the engine of growth

Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

—Bruce Mau

Laugh or cry?

or just curl lip, and get on with the real business of political change?

And does anyone know what "autochthonous" means?

TANZANIA GIVES EAST AFRICA THE FIRST ASIAN AFRICAN NATIONAL BEAUTY QUEEN

By

Justus K. Siboe Makokha
Email: jmsiboe@yahoo.com
The writer is a cultural critic based at Kenyatta University. He researches the literatures and cultures of East Africans of South Asian descent


19-year-old, Richa Adhia was announced Vodacom Miss Tanzania 2007 at the exclusive Leaders Club in Kinondoni, Dar es Salaam last Saturday night. Richa, the reigning Miss Kinondoni led other Dar es Salaam beauty queens, Lilian Abel from Kinondoni who finished second, and Queen David from Temeke who finished third in the national pageantry that now gives her a ticket to represent Tanzania in the forthcoming Miss World pageantry.

Her historic win has elicited loud cheers as well as some jeers across Tanzania and the region due to the fact that Richa is a Tanzanian of South Asian decent. This is the first time in the history of the Tanzanian national pageant since its re-inception in 1994 for a Tanzania beauty of Asian extraction to clinch the coveted title.

The head of the Vodacom Miss Tanzania beauty pageant committee, Mr. Hashim Lundenga maintained that it does not matter that Richa Adhia who is Asian by ethnicity now carries the national title of Tanzania, an African country. He argued that Miss Tanzania as a title knows no boundaries of race, creed and any pageant who was a citizen of Tanzania was welcome to contest the title.

“Each good thing shall always have its critics and each good thing will always be interrogated for its weaknesses too. We as the committee of Miss Tanzania pageantry hold that any girl of good conduct and who is a Tanzanian, even if she is of European origins is a Tanzanian and is eligible for participating in the pageant.” Lundega said.

Richa Adhia took home a brand new Toyota RAV4 valued at 45million Tanzanian shillings, 8million shillings, other deals worth 4million shillings as well as a ticket to represent Tanzania in the Miss World pageantry this year.

Special commendations go to the judges of Miss Tanzania 2007. Members of the jury were Agbani Darego (chairperson), Prashanti Patel, Jacqueline Ntuyabaliwe, Irene Madeje, Sophia Dianaku, Salum Kombo, Leons Mtauna, David Minja, Christian Masiaga and coordinator of the judges, Ramesh Shah. They put aside the tradition view of African beauty as the beauty of autochthonous Africans and politically advised other judges in the region to factor in Other African aesthetics that contribute to our national traditions such as those from Western and Asian heritage.

Some fans were disappointed in the decision of the judges and used the basis of color to question the authencity or rather representativeness of Richa’s beauty in capturing the essence of Tanzania, an African country. However, Richa’s win brings to light the contributions of East Africans of South Asian descent who continue to make significant contributions to the development of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

Color prejudice has never been quite an issue of national discussion as is the case in Kenya and Uganda. There have been many Tanzanians of South Asian heritage who have risen to influential political office as is evident in the careers of Shamim Khan, the late Amir Jamal and the current Minister of Finance, Zakia Meghji. Richa was born and brought up in Kariokkoo,m Dar es Salaam. She was the Miss Earth Tanzania 2006, an office which enabled her make significant contributions towards environmental conservation across the city.

The Committee of the Miss Tanzania beauty pageant agrees Richa is a beauty of international stature. Their decision implicitly posit that the future conceptions of African beauty, especially in multiracial East Africa, will inevitably have to recognize the hybrid and ambivalent richness of our cultural heritage which draw from African, European, Arabian and South Asian sources.

She will represent Tanzania in the forthcoming Miss World Beauty Pageant which will; be held in Sanya, China at the Crown Beauty Theater on December 1st. Participants will arrive at the venue before November 2, 2007.

do I believe this?

"The solutions to problems of art are always technical. Meaning is technical. So is heart."

Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet