This is what you get for not counting me…

So the National Population and Housing census is well underway, started on Monday night and we even got a public holiday out of it. We, here refers to everyone else, I had an exam to do. But it got me thinking, what is the relevance of all this? There’s controversy over the tribe question being as we’re only just starting to recover from the trauma of post-election violence. We being the folks in Nairobi… There’s places outside the city where the violence is still all too real… Every 10 years, money goes into counting people. Money that could be used in other ways, like for example, to make the said people’s lives better… Like this guy, a pensioner and retired teacher that doesn’t see the value in him getting counted.
Ok, while I se the value, being as I have done a bit of population dynamics and planning for populations (both first-year environmental planning units), it could have been planned better, even with a diary.
For one, the exercise should have been put on a Friday, so that the weekend can eb used to ensure that people are at home, rather than putting it on Monday then forcing a public holiday… And it’s been done before, that’s how they did it in ’99…
There’s the contentious question of tribe. I for one, do not want to be identified by my tribe. As a result of circumstance, I have no father. I don’t speak my mother’s language. I was born in MP Shah Hospital and have lived in Nairobi all my life. As such, for me, the idea that my tribe defines who I am is a fallacy. I have been identified alternately as Generation X, the dot com generation, the 90′s generation, the future and many other random things… But ultimately I am part of an increasingly frustrated generation, with potential denied and such. I’m the one they’re planning for. The next census expects to find me settled, employed and with my own household to do a survey on. The future is no longer as safe a haven as it once was. The way markets are collapsing and such, investments lost, it will be increasingly liquid. And jobs will be hard to come by as well… Now I want the planning minister to tell me what he’s going to do with that info.
And I still haven’t been counted…

You will be # 1 in the world…

So that you don’t look at me funny, I start with what has to be the creepiest lolcat ever…
Ok, now that I’ve started with that, I just wanted to creep you out. Cats are evil. And soft and warm at the same time… It’s a niche market, the perfect conspiracy. Make them nice and cute, but with a sprinkling of evil, and soon they shall yield. But this one wins.

I concur, having watched Disturbia. Thank goodness we don’t have one of those, both the cat and the basement.

So yesterday I was thinking about the way we strive to climb up the hierarchy, become the best of anything. And just as you get to the top of the pile, you realise that your pile was at the bottom, supporting a host of other piles. Which begs the question, is the pursuit of number 1 really worth it, seeing as number 1 is all the way up there, and you’re all the way down here?
Now I’m not saying we should just settle with the status quo, no. I’m saying it’s good to have ambition, the desire to be better. but how much better? Better could be the first one in your family to go to college, or the first millionaire, or something as mundane-sounding as surviving to see your great grandchildren.
A story is told of a fisherman in some sleepy backwater in Mexico, he was asked why he just settled with being a fisherman while he could do so much more with it, like say, hiring people to fish, selling the fish, expanding, getting a bigger enterprise, making enough money to retire to some sleepy backwater where he could fish all he wanted…
The guy got to the end, not by following the marked road, but by realizing that he was happy with just settling. So either follow the road and enjoy the trip or identify an end and take the shortest way there…
Maybe that’s the secret to being happy. All that matters is whether you’re well and truly happy.
Then there’s t shirt distractions like this one, not half bad

Get thee behind me…

So all that matters is that you’re happy, as long as you’re not happy at someone else’s expense.
Don’t worry, be happy. Simple.

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