Politics

The main topic of the day, as always in Kenya, is politics. EVERYONE here reads the political news in the newspaper, it's not even a class thing (is it in the U.S.? i feel like it is), and I see the janitor in my building pouring over the newspaper on his breaks (maybe that shouldn't surprise me?). So at lunch today I went to my spot and ordered Ugali, a Kenyan staple ("you can't not eat it and survive," a co-worker told me. side note: it tastes like Matzah balls w/o the soup. really. Rabbi Bienenstock would love it here see prev post). But anywayz, while I was eating it and not not surviving, I saw the Kenyan parliament broadcast on television. Some observations:

1) The bottom-right of the screen had a sign-language interpreter. I'm not a big C-Span watcher, but I'm pretty sure we don't have that.

2) The subject of the session were some "misappropriated funds" from the health/education funds that, miraculously, the Speaker claimed would not affect the budget. That's the kinda money i wanna have; the kind that when u lose it u still have the same amount u had before.

Other thoughts:

Obama's Kenyan father came up in convo, and I, being American, assumed they would take that as a source of pride (who wouldn't want to be associated with America? not serious.). In fact, the woman I was talking to said they were ashamed of Obama's father. Why? "Because he got a woman pregnant and didn't raise the baby. What kind of example of Kenyan fatherhood is that?" Never thought about it that way, but yea, totally. See prev post re: Love Child.

Lastly, a Somali friend asked me if I was Spanish. Now, over the course of my life I've gotten, "what are you?" and "what're you mixed with" ("baking soda," i usually respond) but this dude guessed my Chilean roots right off the bat. "How'd you know?" I said. "I watch a lot of futball," he replied. That doesn't really have anything to do with politics, unless you count Identity Politics. Which I do.