DEATH IN BAGAMOYO

Death in Bagamoyo

To most people, this was a normal trip like any other. With lots of planning and anticipation the day was come and indeed the faithful left for a journey. A journey whose what lay ahead no one could tell.

A group of 84 faithful had sought to go for a mission at the heart of Tanzania. For them, this would help them relax, and more importantly spread the good news to the ends of the world.

Due to unfamiliarity with other routes, they opted to use the longer route that would see them spend more time in Kenya. Thus they chose to pass through coast, Mombasa to be precise.

It is said that the two drivers were heroic enough to proceed at dawn without a rest. But this as it turned out became the beginning of the nightmare of these faithful.

As they drove the two buses, the one a head lost control and the driver lost concentration and veered off the road. Then they did signal the other driver who came back to help in rescuing these bus that was off the road with no injuries. Not suspecting anything or overlooking certain road use principles, this bus was parked on the road side and the occupants left in a huff to help push the first bus that  was clearly off the road. Its in this when an on-coming trailer rammed on the parked bus throwing it and causing it to land on the women where 12 of them died on the spot.

The most astonishing bit about this story is this: as soon as this happened, it is alleged that the police were on the scene and instead of helping the injured, they actually drove off! The passers-by and curious onlookers did not help either. Despite the wails and shouts from women beneath the bus, the residents looked at them with overwhelming indifference to the whole thing. Form About 6am to about 11am there were bodies beneath the bus.

It is needless to say, majority died from mechanical force exerted onto them by the weight of  the bus. Others died from bleedings.

There are three fundamental questions that remain unanswered to date:

i)                    Why didn’t the drivers take a break and why did they choose to travel continuously on roads new to them?

ii)                  Why did the Tanzanian officials treat the casualties with such indifference to a point hereby the Kenyan Authorities had to send rescue in military helicopters/

iii)                What triggers this level of hatred and animosity between these neighboring countries which have never been at war? How else would you explain the allegations that the villagers were actually asking for money in order to rescue our poor women?

While this death comes with lots of pain, we must learn lessons and decide to act. We must know that when traveling to other countries, we carry the risks and no one actually loves our presence.

This death in Bagamoyo exposes the deep rooted hatred that has simmered since the times of our grand fathers. We must choose to resolve these issues once and for all.

To all the dead faithfuls, may you rest in peace. And to the injured, quick recovery. To the bereaved, may you find solace at this time of loss. Poleni sana.

NGO sector and its challenges

Way back before getting to understand how NGO work, these concept were mesmerizing. At times I used to imagine that there is a certain place with a mysterious account whereby moneys could be extracted without any hitch.
What did not occur to me was that people spent time day and night to solicit this money in order to meet the expectations of that beneficiaries and the society at large.
Another reality dawns; that even the well to do want to benefit from any little resources one may raise painstakingly!
That someone goes through the rigors of approaching and talking to potential donors, at time endures frustration and ridicule to raise a few coins to serve the least fortunate members of the society, this goes unnoticed.
And now that I am right in the game, running an infant NGO, the Human Face Initiative, I see things differently. I have developed tremendous respect to the men and women who have manged to stay afloat in the turbulent NGO world, been able to raise funds, meet their objectives and even share with other smaller organizations.

Parting short: there is always pleasure in giving, pleasure in seeing another person happy out of you efforts.
Lets strive to share the little that we have.
Asanteni Sana.
FK

THE EYESORE OF NHIF

In the recent past there has been a lot of talk about the newly introduced health care in Kenya, mainly targeting the public sector employees.
There have been very candid and specific questions asked; who oversaw the procurement process? was the due process followed? why were some facilities identified as existent whereas they were not? what is the institutional capacity to handle the traffic without compromise?
This saga is slowly turning into a scandle in the making. while valid concerns have been raised and questions asked, there seems to be no satisfactory answer.
Generally, we are witnessing a scheme by the government to effect double taxation on its employees. First, withdraw the meager medical allowance, then impose a reloaded deduction all  totaling to over 4,000 Ksh per month.
The manner in which this is handled qualifies it to be an eye sore in current Kenya where everyone is super vigilant at least going by the recent happenings in the Judiciary last week.
So, whose head is next on the chopping board?

Best of Luck!

SETTING OWN GOALS

EFFECTIVE WAYS OF SETTING YOUR GOALS
Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile.
A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!
Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality.
The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

Why Set Goals?

Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self-confidence, as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you've set.

Starting to Set Personal Goals

You set your goals on a number of levels:

• First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.

This is why we start the process of goal setting by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.

Step 1: Setting Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.
To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you):

• Career - What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
• Financial - How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
• Education - Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
• Family - Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
• Artistic - Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
• Attitude - Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
• Physical - Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
• Pleasure - How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
• Public Service - Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?

Spend some time brainstorming these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals that you can focus on.
As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants - however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)

Step 2: Setting Smaller Goals

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan.
Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.
Then create a daily To-Do List of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals.On the same,create Not To Do List-Things you shouldnt do today which distracts you from your lifetime goals.
At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.
Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Staying on Course

Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.
Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.)

SMART Goals

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants (some of which we've included in parenthesis), SMART usually stands for:

• S - Specific (or Significant).
• M - Measurable (or Meaningful).
• A - Attainable (or Action-Oriented).
• R - Relevant (or Rewarding).
• T - Time-bound (or Trackable).

For example, instead of having "To sail around the world" as a goal, it's more powerful to say "To have completed my trip around the world by December 31, 2015." Obviously, this will only be attainable if a lot of preparation has been completed beforehand!

Further Goal Setting Tips

The following broad guidelines will help you to set effective, achievable goals:

• State each goal as a positive statement - Express your goals positively – "Execute this technique well" is a much better goal than "Don't make this stupid mistake."
• Be precise: Set precise goals, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you'll know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
• Set priorities - When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by having too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
• Write goals down - This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
• Keep operational goals small - Keep the low-level goals that you're working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it. Keeping goals small and incremental gives more opportunities for reward.
• Set performance goals, not outcome goals - You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. It can be quite dispiriting to fail to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control!
• In business, these reasons could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of government policy. In sport, they could include poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck.
• If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals, and draw satisfaction from them.
• Set realistic goals - It's important to set goals that you can achieve. All sorts of people (for example, employers, parents, media, or society) can set unrealistic goals for you. They will often do this in ignorance of your own desires and ambitions.
• It's also possible to set goals that are too difficult because you might not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand quite how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance.

Achieving Goals

When you've achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Absorb the implications of the goal achievement, and observe the progress that you've made towards other goals.
If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve.
With the experience of having achieved this goal, review the rest of your goal plans:

• If you achieved the goal too easily, make your next goal harder.
• If the goal took a dispiriting length of time to achieve, make the next goal a little easier.
• If you learned something that would lead you to change other goals, do so.
• If you noticed a deficit in your skills despite achieving the goal, decide whether to set goals to fix this.

Feed lessons learned back into your goal setting. Remember too that your goals will change as time goes on. Adjust them regularly to reflect growth in your knowledge and experience, and if goals do not hold any attraction any longer, consider letting them go.

Goal Setting Example

For her New Year's Resolution, Susan has decided to think about what she really wants to do with her life.
Her lifetime goals are as follows:

• Career - "To be managing editor of the magazine that I work for."
• Artistic - "To keep working on my illustration skills. Ultimately I want to have my own show in our downtown gallery."
• Physical - "To run a marathon."

Now that Susan has listed her lifetime goals, she then breaks down each one into smaller, more manageable goals.
Let's take a closer look at how she might break down her lifetime career goal - becoming managing editor of her magazine:

• Five-year goal: "Become deputy editor."
• One-year goal: "Volunteer for projects that the current Managing Editor is heading up."
• Six-month goal: "Go back to school and finish my journalism degree."
• One-month goal: "Talk to the current managing editor to determine what skills are needed to do the job."
• One-week goal: "Book the meeting with the Managing Editor."

As you can see from this example, breaking big goals down into smaller, more manageable goals makes it far easier to see how the goal will get accomplished.

Key Points

Goal setting is an important method of:

• Deciding what you want to achieve in your life.
• Separating what's important from what's irrelevant, or a distraction.
• Motivating yourself.
• Building your self-confidence, based on successful achievement of goals.

Set your lifetime goals first. Then, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan. Keep the process going by regularly reviewing and updating your goals. And remember to take time to enjoy the satisfaction of achieving your goals when you do so.