If  you are new to tDA first up welcome, welcome, welcome

Secondly, apologies for a couple of reasons:

1) I recently had to completely delete and reinstall the blog due to malware and viruses and have been slow, to say the least, restoring the theme and backend stuff that made the blog sparkle. Rest assured, I am slow but steady in getting there.

2) If you have left a comment in the last couple of months, sorry. I logged in to find more than 900 comments that have yet to be approved. If any of my crew – you know yourselves – wish to help me as I go through these comments, shoot me a mail ( what a weird expression if ever we use one) and I appreciate your help.

3) Mwangi is not dead I am still very much alive and still a resident of Australia. If you have any questions or anything you want to know my contacts are all over.

4) I am working on the theme and the backend….promise

5) I don’t like spell checking. I simply love to write

B blesd and bles othaz,

Mwangi

As y’all will probably know, I am not necessarily a member of the Obamania club BUT that doesn’t stop his election from being a huge moment in history.

Here’s what I hope it’ll mean to African people:

1) That people will finally recognize that we are all equal and we are all human.

2) Other races and nationalities will stop looking down on us.

3) People will expand what they think is possible.

4) People will go after the impossible.

5) If someone ever tells you something can’t be done just look em in the eye and tell em

If Barrack Hussein Obama, son of a man from Kogelo, Siaya (thanks for the correction), Kenya can become the emperor of the world, then, dang, anything is possible!

I understand that in many parts of the world tomorrow is a public holiday so to y’all Happy Obama Day and y’all have a magnificent evening or night.

Mwangi

My goodness! One of the most powerful men on Earth is now an African American: WOW!

All politics aside, that is absolutely amazing….absolutely amazing!

Three quick things I just wanted to mention about the Displaced African podcast:

1) I finally fixed the technical issues so you can go back and download any of the Displaced African podcasts you want.

2) Because I have fixed the podcast tech issues you can also subscribe to the Displaced African podcast on itunes and get all the latest podcasts direct to your ipod using instructions in the video below:

3) Finally, I finally got my most popular podcast, Opinions on Melbourne from Children, transcribed so you can head on over to the post and read the text version of the podcast.

Any questions and I am right here to help.

Have one of those days that’s so super, it has a hero named after it,

Mwangi

Great message, smooth melody and even smoother video: Enjoy!

Click here for the interview I conducted with STL aka Stella Mwangi.

Hey folks,

As a lot of you will know, one of the things that sets
www.theDisplacedAfrican.com apart is the fact that it has its own
Podcast, the Displaced African Podcast:
www.thedisplacedafrican.com/category/displaced-african-podcast/

I am sure a lot of you have heard it and I hope its been of value
and use to you.

REQUEST FOR HELP

I am basically writing this email to see if anyone out there has
sound editing skills and is willing to help me out with the process
of editing the Displaced African Podcast.

You would help me get the insights of African experts from all over
the world, including Derrick Ashong, David Kobia and Benin Mwangi
from African Path (the next podcast coming up) and share them using
the podcast format.

If you are interested,leave a comment below or contact me and let me know.

Have a great one,
Mwangi

Hello Folks,

Following on from my request yesterday that you ask me questions, here we are on Day 1 of my answers to your questions. If you have any more questions or things to say, leave me a comment below or email me at masmilele(at)thedisplacedafrican(dot)com

Btw, a lot of the post isn’t spellchecked

Thomas Johnson asks:

Here’s a question – In your opinion, what is the best thing we can do to help prevent poverty in the world?

I know it’s a complex issue but I’m keen to hear your thoughts on the matter.  I might put your answer on my website if thats ok.

My Answer:

Before I give my answer let me give my caveats:
1) I am far from an expert.
2) This answer is a mixture of intuition, reflection, all the various schools of thought that I have been exposed to over the course of my life as well as facts and figures (which have never been my strongest area)
3) I am just gonna vent it out uncensored

Alright, what is the best thing we can do to help prevent poverty in the world?

If I was to give a technical answer to your question, i.e. how can you and I best help prevent future poverty in the world, my answer would be:

Cyclical Culture of Consumption

If you haven’t watched it, please go and watch the Story of Stuff . In it, one of the key ideas is that the West, in particular America, post World War 2 has had policies which pretty much accelerate a linear, non-stop type of consumption. Not only that, but there is something which I believe is called planned obsolescence.

When these two things merge it results in people who strip the Earth, consume its resources, put nothing back into the source of life and then quickly run to consume the next thing.

In addition to that, I did a semester of Sustainability at college and one of the great ideas I got from that is that, in order for the whole world to live like the West does we would need 3 planets to accomodate all the linear consumption, I have since heard estimates of 5 and 7.

Don’t Know Why This Part Popped into My Head…..

We need to focus on renourishing the Earth and repairing the damage done. Far from being just something to do because it feels good, or is the right thing to do, or any airy fairy justifications, the way we are consuming is resulting in global warming which is resulting in polar ice caps melting which results in some islands being flooded, resulting in environmental refugees….where are they gonna go?

If we slow down our consumption, this prevents any more people having to live in poverty or losing their homes just so we can have the latest model fashion accessory without putting anything back into its source

The Above is a Terrible Answer, But its the First Thing that Came to My Head, Take 2

The best thing we can do is support people who are working towards a few things:
1) All the organizations standing up to the World Trade Organization to demand that trade be fair and that a world that claims to be capitalist actually lives by one of the cornerstone capitalist principles, free trade. Not free trade with subsidy and tarrif caveats.
2) All the poor people like the shack dwellers of South Africa who are fighting just for dignity and land.
3) Organizations like the World Social Forum where the poor get together to exchange ideas, recipes and map out the future.

We can also try to affect policy within Western countries and get rid of subsidies and tarrifs. Aid is a sick pathetic joke. Tell me the day that a compound interest loan, the humiliation of having people of another country be in charge of your destiny and shove their way of life and ideas down your throat is charity and I will show you the day that a shower curtain is the perfect fashion accesory for any season.

I think the key is to remember that its always been the opressed who have gotten themselves out of their mess. Let’s help them out once they get started, get out of their way when they don’t need us and try to stop people from gettting in their way.

Finally, as a species we need to raise our consciousness to a place where we can actually co-exist with each other, without always trying to dominate and control one another on the one hand and with all of us taking responsibility for the individual and collective good i.e. loving ourselves and loving our neighbour just as much and not only knowing that intellectually but making decisions daily that are guided by that principle.

If we don’t, then we’ll just continue the cycle of empires rising and falling, rising and falling, rising and falling as opposed to all our boats rising together. For the first time, almost every one in the world can watch the same thing at the same time via the Internet, TV, satellites, mobile phones etc etc, if they can’t watch it they’re probably close to someone who can. Maybe we can somehow take over these avenues and use them to raise the global consiousness otherwise it’ll just end up being:

Greece-Egypt-Rome-Britain-America-X

Also a terrible answer but it’ll do. As I said, not my forte, but I hope this served.

tracyjones asks:

I’ve read about feedburner not working and yet you use it, there are whole sites devoted to telling me it is a load of rubbish.  How come it works for some and not others?

My Answer:

For those who don’t know what Feedburner is, check out this page explaining what it is, check out the Feedburner site or subscribe to the blog via RSS to see it in action (the subtly of that plug has to be seen to be believed doesn’t it )

I can only speak from my experience as I have never conducted in depth investigation into Feedburner. Personally I have never ever heard people complain about Feedburner’s ability to get the job done and in fact I have heard it recommended quite a few times BUT Feedburner definitely has a problem as far as consistency is concerned.

There are many times during the course of the week that I won’t have access to my subscriber numbers and what was once a subscriber number turns into a 0. However, in terms of showing me raw traffic numbers, with the exception of the time when I was transferring and changing themes over, which is understandable,Feedburner has been great as far as showing me how many people have visited my site over the last few hours and days.

Personally I recommend that if you people are going to ask people subscribe to your blog via email or RSS then you use Feedburner. If you want an email newsletter, Aweber.

Hope this helps. Any other questions, do not hesitate to ask.

This is day 10 of My 4 Hour Work Week Journey. Please make sure you read the rest of the articles that came before this one to understand where I am in the journey. Click here to buy a copy of the 4 hour work week and go on the journey with me.

Fortunately, considering I spend most of my time working from home alone, a lot of what is in this chapter doesn’t apply to me. But without further ado:

Questions and Actions: Interrupting the Interruptions

1) Create systems to deflect my email and phone availability: I created an auto-responder that states I will only check and respond to email at 5 a.m.

To be frank my email at present isn’t that big of a problem: I receive between 15 – 30 emails a day which it take me about 30 minutes to respond to.

This will probably matter a lot more as the blog grows and I try to do more things with my life so its good to set the foundation now.

Phone

I started doing this long before I ever read the 4 hour work week. I almost never get personal phone calls. At most maybe 1 or 2 a week. A lot of people now know that if they want to reach me, email is the way to go.

I leave my phone off or am away from it for most of the day (Right now it’s on my bed side table while I type this).From being a self-important young adult who camped by my phone and racked up $500 bills, I now only have a mobile phone because my cousin thrust a mobile phone in my hand as her way of contacting me.

As for professional calls, again, I don’t really matter enough to get that many a day.Almost everyone knows that email is the best way to reach me. If they don’t know, I guess the benevolent education begins now.

2) Get Very Specific When Communicating in Emails: I read the 4 hour work week and began applying this principle quite some time ago.

From day one, whenever I was emailing someone about interviewing them from a podcast, I always gave them my availability times and proposed a very specific time to conduct the interview.Now one thing I am going to add to that email is that I must obtain someone’s phone number and time zone in regards to GMT: GMT +10h, GMT -4h for example.

This proposing of an exact time has saved me countless back and forth emails and hours. In fact the one person I saw do it waayyyy more effectively than I did, wrote me an email that went a little something like this:

I read about your blog on X and I wanted to find out if you are interested in telling your story on (media outlet) at X time (Name of their city and proposed time). Let me know

My response was long and flowery:

Yes

and the deal was done. Specificity is a lost art.

It’s wonderful to be non-specific and ambiguous in social situations but not in matters of productivity and the work place, I think.

3) Batch Activities: If it isn’t an 80/20 activity, batch it together and create a regular time slot for it. An example:

I work with virtual assistants, freelance coders and writers and am also a freelance writer and blog consultant (aaah, what do you know, I DO have jobs with fancy titles).

What I recently started doing is sorting out all the emails and communication and work that needs to be done AS SOON as I get on the computer. Usually, this involves sending out an email or two, checking on something here, something else there and usually in a couple of hours I am done.

This is definitely better than my previous style of checking on them in 5 minute chunks here and there throughout the night and leaves me a lot more time to write blog posts, market the blog, respond to comments and test out monetization techniques.

4) Delegate More if You are an Entrepreneur and Request More Control if You are an Employee: Avoid decision-making bottlenecks and give individuals as much power and responsibility as you can while they work on a particular task.

I have been outsourcing blog functioning from day 1 and intend on one day bringing a writer or two onto the tDA writing team so I have little problem relinquishing control right now.

Ladies and gentlemen, with that we have eliminated the unnecessary and can now move on with laser like focus upon that which is important.

Now on to what you and I have been waiting for, Step 3: A is for Automation.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi

Pretty provocative title huh?

This article was provoked by a discussion I started having over at Kelly’s blog, (you know I think its the blog I have linked to the most times unless I’m mistaken), anyway, I’ll quote the little discussion we had below:

Kelly said:
Do you believe in divorce? – Yap!
If you are divorced, why did you do it? If you have not, are there certain circumstances under which you would agree to a divorce? – If any relationship is not working out, I don’t believe in struggling to make it work. Life is too short to spend it unhappy, fighting and stuff.

Mwangi said:
Do you believe in divorce?-Absolutely, totally, unequivocally not: Why make such a commitment and make some trust you when at the back of your mind you know you can break that trust. The fact that it exists, saddens me.
If you are divorced, why did you do it? If you have not, are there certain circumstances under which you would agree to a divorce?-Nope, she’d have to kill me. Even if she tried to (kill) me with a butcher knife,she is my wife and my gift from God, I have to take care of her until death parts us.

Kelly said:
@Mwangi: …….can I just say I love the way you’re passionate about the whole ’till death do us part thing’? For me, thats one part of the vows that I don’t plan to say IF I’m getting married cos I know, unfaithfulness, and several other things can do us part.

Mwangi said:
Btw (by the way for the unitiated), though I know this will severely limit my options once the time comes,if a woman believes in divorce she immediately puts herself in the buddy with benefits corner and no further than that. Ai, no, personality and compatibility matters a whole lot less to me than the knowledge that me and her will be together, forever through anything…..


Kelly said:
It’s kinda sweet but also scary to know the man you’re marrying would rather die than divorce you…

Mwangi said:
It’s a fear I am willing to live with, this is a lifelong thing…….

Val said:
Wah…mwangi..ati you’d rather death than divorce?? As PinkMM says thats tres scary..I believe in struggling to make it work..but only if both of you are committed to it..otherwise one sided struggles don’t do it for me

Mwangi said:
@Val: When one is young and the relationship is casual, keep it as casual as can be, no biggie, no problems there. But what I am not a fan of is people who lie to themselves and each other (telling someone you have known for a month or so I will love you forever, unless you bore me, do something wrong, make me feel worthless enough times, something better comes along etc etc) But if you look someone in the eye, and before God and a preacher make a committment to do something for life, you shouldn’t say something like that if you don’t mean it. If you do that, you’re lying to your spouse, the preacher, God, all the guests and most of all yourself. I don’t really want to be the type of person who has to lie to myself. Yeah, it’s not really as grave as it sounds, but when I decide to committ I intend on taking it very seriously. That’s why I was saying I know my way of thinking will severley limit my options: not enough people really believe in those marriage vows really, there is always a caveat (if I become unhappy, infidelity, my career, money problems, if it’s not working out etc etc) Hmm there might be a post in this somewhere we’ll see.

Mwangi, You’re Young Why are You Thinking About Such “Heavy Stuff” Now?

Well, the reason is because I deeply believe in the principle:

Begin with the end in mind

In spite of everything that I may or may not do while I am young, dumb and full of………, I must forever remember that when it’s all said and done I will eventually be blessed with the gift of a wife ( or wives ) and children who I will be responsible for every single day until I die.

So I think it’s important, from even the age of 15 or whenever it is that you gain some form of self-awareness for you to start thinking about the type of husband, father, friend, person you want to be. What you focus on is what you become? So please make sure you are in control of that.

Till Death Do Us Part!……..Unless……….

As you can see from the comments above, the mentality I am moving forward with and cultivating as I go along is that when I get married it’s till death do us part, full stop, exclamation.

In my mind I put no caveats on that statement: even if she tries to kill me I’ll stay with her, even if she bores me or doesn’t fulfill me emotionally I will stay, even if she tries to steal from me or cheats on me, I’ll stay.

Easier Said Than Done

Of course this is much easier said than done, but one thing that this life is teaching me is that in order to succeed in any field of endevour, you determine the desired outcome first and work on creating that rather than the “let’s wait and see what happens” mentality that a lot of folks chose to live by.

So Why Do You Think Like That?

I know a lot of you probably grew up in families where there were one or two people who were just black sheep through and through and through. Self destructive to the max and always bringing down the people around them.

I was so touched when I looked around at the times when this situation took place and realized that the family always stuck by the black sheep. That type of loyalty even during the hard times really inspired me.

In my first few years here, when I was an angry kid just trying to find my way, there were teachers in high school ( Mrs. S and Mr. K ) and relatives of mine who always tried to talk to me and guide me and mentor me and all through that period, my family was there. I never forgot that.

None of these people HAD to do anything. They could have thrown me out when I wasn’t-and still am not-the best person to be around. They could have ignored me or simply dismissed me as crazy, not always a bad thing, but they didn’t. They stuck by me.

I Want to Be…

I want to become the type of man who does that for my family. I never ever want my child or spouse to be in question as to whether or not I’ll leave or betray them. I never want to doubt myself or my ability to live up to the principles and standards that I set.

I view my spouse(s) and whatever kid(s) I may have as divine gifts from God that I am responsible for until the day that I day and I want to live that viewpoint through my actions.

Let’s Talk About Love

Now as many of you know, I am not at all a fan of building a life long marriage upon feelings of infatuation (what other folks called love) and that I don’t tend to view love the same way that other individuals look at it.

But will I be looking to get married to someone who infatuates me, of course. Will I want an absolutely gorgeous, curvaceous, bottom-heavy (African men know what I’m talking about) woman who I can converse with and who I feel I can bring something to? Of course!

BUT, I do not want our union to be based upon how much she infatuates me today. Sure I want to cultivate and work on passion so that I go nuts for her (I am easily entertained and excited so this shouldn’t be too hard) for the rest of our lives. But if she doesn’t drive me nuts, I don’t want to be the type of man who leaves in pursuit of the next thrill.

I don’t want my child to question their own worth because daddy can’t somehow find a way to navigate around the fact or solve the problem of the sexual spark being gone.

In Conclusion

And so I’m just letting you know, and in fact if this blog will still be around then, I expect you guys to hold me accountable, that when I go before a church, God, my family, friends and that minister, look a woman in the eye and tell her:

I will be there in sickness and in health. The good times and the bad. From this day forward you and whatever children we may have are my divine gifts that I will serve, love, protect and live for, TILL DEATH DO US PART!

You best believe I mean that. Of course it’s kind of scary, this is a lifelong journey with no guarantees: I would be scared for you if that didn’t make you a little nervous.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi

As a lot of you know, I was born and raised in Kenya. I have been to South Africa and all over Kenya. I have hung out with Zims, Tswanas, Ghanians, Naijas, Tanzanians, African Americans and other children of the soil from all over the place. What have I learned from all of this?

1) Keeping It Real:

By keeping it real, I don’t neccesarily mean honesty, because any African will tell you that Africa has it’s fair share of liars. Instead, I am talking about wearing your heart on your sleeve.

Yesterday I was in a social gathering here in Oz (Australia for the uninitiated): When I got home, I realized how subtle our interactions were. Sure on the surface level, it may have seemed quite simple and easy, but there was so much sub-text: when to talk, who to talk to, when to move on, when you lost someone in the conversation, when you gained someone else, who had the power, who didn’t, who is attracted to you, who did you just turn off and so on and so forth.

And none of this was really ever discussed in the open or brought to the surface and its something that a lot of folks can really miss unless they have interacted with people from Oz for a while.

I cannot tell you how much grief I have seen because of completely misunderstanding the sub-text or underlying rules of an interaction or not setting the rules early on.

Sure in Africa there is still sub-text but people are much more open about how they feel and much more expressive in the way they speak. Most of all they speak sub-text that I understand. Considering I learned a lesson something as important as this in the school of hard knocks and not in a classroom you quickly realize:

2) Education Isn’t What it Promised to Be:

There are many articles out there that constantly remind members of the African diaspora that we are some of the best educated folks around.

As far as I am concerned, the fact that you have a degree means diddly squat. Don’t get me wrong, I bow to your intellect for being intelligent and hard working enough to go through more than a decade of school and end up in an outstanding course in an outstanding University. I salute and have a deep respect for you after enduring the rigours of the unstructured University life and coming out strong, Lord knows I dropped off on the side. BUT all this love and respect, is aimed AT YOU, not your degrees.

Anyone who was around Kenyans around the post-election violence of last year quickly realized that a University degree (and even chronological age) isn’t a guarantee of maturity, or wisdom, or restraint, or love, or compassion or even intelligence really. So all this stuff we were sold as kids that education is the be all and end all to making us well rounded people of substance: Not so! And by the way the same thing applies for:

3) Hard Work:

Africans are hands down some of the hardest working people around. I come from a family where one half of the two person team that made me was the best woman in the country when her high school results came out. I have watched both my folks slug it out for 8+ hour days 6 days a week, starting business after business after business. And here’s the thing: that work ethic is pretty much standard procedure in Africa.

I was genuinely shocked when I arrived in Oz and realized there were things like minimum wage and maximum daily working hours.

When most folks here complain about being worked to the ground from 8 hours of work, 5 days a week, I can’t help but think: isn’t the idea of stress relative?

The Australian workload would be kinda like a vacation for a standard African worker. That’s part of the reason that I don’t write much about the need for hard work: a lot of Africans intrinsically know this and live it. Sadly that’s partly because:

4) Africans are Unashamedly Materialistic:

A lot of people in the West are materialistic. A lot of Jones out here want the fancy house, big car, a lot of money, pretty girls/boys etc etc. However many people out West are taught, and even believe that,

“Money isn’t everything. There are things more important than money.”

Not the African. Many Africans would sell their soul at discount prices to get money. There is nothing more important than money to a lot of Africans and material possesions not only define you, they are the cornerstone of who you are. One of the reasons I created the Stuff African people like series was to poke fun at a seriously high level of materialism that we as African folks have at the expense of other things.

Don’t believe we are materialistic: pay a visit to the homes of African politicians and welathy businessmen and tell me they don’t easily trump 90% of homes in Europe: I mean I was certainly disappointed by the houses here when I first showed up. It’s pretty interesting though how there is so much similarity right now between the homes of Melbourne and where I grew up in Nairobi. In truth:

5) Westernization is Powerful:

If anyone ever wants to start a think tank that talks about the power of Westernization and how to keep that sucker on a leesh and under control, I am behind them 100%.

We are on the road to being one huge homogenous global society, controlled from Washington, speaking English and liking and doing the same things from Auckland to California.

For me to say that I never spoke anything other than English regularly before I came to Australia is a travesty when one considers that just over 40 years ago I would be living an entirely different life with an entirely different set of beliefs and values.

We are not in control of Westernization and it is hitting Africa like a tidal wave, the good sides (human rights, respect for women and people from other cultures, shared commonalities with people from all over the world) and bad ( relationships breakdown, drug habits, lethal eating habits, confusion and lack of purpose, manufacturing of a majority of humanity living in poverty, linear models of insatiable consumption etc etc etc).

I am not saying that Westernization is good or bad, I am a result of it. I am saying, we need to control it and not be a slave to it. As Westernized as we Africans arel, I was quite surprised to discover that most Africans are:

6) Africans are Socially Conservative:

It’s been said many times and it will be said many times in future: white people are crazy. I love it! A lot of white people are unashamedly out there and willing to try out things that would make the average African absolutely squirm.

Whether its experimenting with things like religion or relationships or business or even endangering their lives in pursuit of something that to many looks like a pipe dream fantasy that will never come true, people from the West do it.

Africans tread with care and wait for a path to be beaten before jumping into it. We hold on to whatever societal rules have been passed down to us and are rarely willing to question for fear of failure and alienation.

White people go beat the path naked with a carrot in one hand and an idea in the other.

But I Digress

Just as a side note, don’t you find it interesting that out of the whole African blogosphere, there are only like maybe 10 or less of us who actually use our real names and/or have pictures AND almost all of us who do aren’t in Africa. I know there is a point to be made there somewhere, I just don’t know what it is.

7) Some People are Just Mean:

The old adage that good will always prevail over evil is a lie. Many brutal, callous people have existed and gone about their narcissistic work all life long going from success to success. Just look at African dictators. Some of these fellows will do evil all life long and will die not having experienced any more stress than the normal man who does good. Good doesn’t always prevail over evil. It only prevails when people who believe in it fight for it day after day after day.

So there, off the top of my head are 7 things that growing up in Nairobi and being around a lot of Africans from all over the world has taught me in my life.

If you want to hear more about my experiences and insights, make sure you subscribe to this site via RSS or email to receive regular updates.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi