Shall not the oppressor cease?

The provocations we see in Kenya today (they can not be otherwise characterized) bode ill for Kenyans. The powers that be have discarded any pretense of goodwill.  They dare their opponent to war, they have "horses, chariots, armed men" beyond number, and plenty of wrath with which to enforce their will.

As evidenced by the repressive brutality against university of Nairobi students on 28th September 2017, their manifest modus operandi is to stamp out all dissent whether legal or illegal, irrespective of whether the stamping itself is legal or illegal, proportional or not.

They will also sweep these black events under the carpet in their haste to proceed with business as usual. They expect, without explicitly stating it, that the message has been sent, and will stick in the memory, though the official record will not mention it, neither will any public official go on record to deny or affirm it. But their will be reiterations of the message as frequently and as emphatically as they will deem fit. Care will be taken only to ensure that it is not spelt out in crude words, but in blood and theft and molestation.

And thus in effect goes the message soon to be widely felt rather than heard:

Let all communities from now henceforth submit to a garrison in their midst.

The garrisons will clobber whom they will, seize property on whim and rape whomsoever their lusts can seize.

The garrisons will not cease until all faces are uniformly subdued in quiet desperation, and even then, they will not cease.

Many "heroes" will die.

Their grip on power will not slacken.

Professional Constraints

She walks past
I catch myself staring
Creepy puppy dog stare
I'll be damned if I can help myself
She pretends not to notice
Her waist sways her hips
Looks away
Flees
Later
A corridor, a staircase, a desk -
Fortune likes to play games
Tension like dusk descends
Desire is concealed in niceties

But the inferno that rages within
Is an urge to seize her shoulders
Shake her to the brink of reality
And from her lofty cliffs of pride,
Sprayed by her stormy depths of confusion,
Expose her to my icy blast of Hatred,
Which she, rightly identifying as Desire,
wrongly characterizes as
Affection.

Of Prophets and War

Predictions abound. Even your stockbroker earns his keep by pretending to be able to forecast your stock performance and advise thereof.  The weather forecaster somehow maintains a straight face while talking fast about how your skies will behave at a future time. Here in election-year Kenya we are overwhelmed with the stargazing antics of "political analysts".

In a general sense, prophets of doom have become quite vocal of late. They speak literal Armageddon, the end of the world. Unfortunately, quite aside from the shock value inherent their statements, the evidence is on their side - for the most part. They have the precedents of history on their side. They also see the logical end for modern culture's current moral rot.

Just one fragment of evidence
In the real world there are rumors and realities of economic hardship. Right now, it coincides with near-global militarization (Syria, anyone? Russia? US? Israel? Iran? China? Anyone?) Historically, economics and war have gone hand in hand. Money funds wars, wars win money. Many of the grievances that sparked off wars in the past had an economic aspect of some sort. A simplistic blueprint: when society can no longer pretend that "Central Bank" has all their money SOMEWHERE, we rush the banks, then inflation happens, then squalor prevails, until government finds us an enemy to fight - whatever the pretext.

All the signs point to economic collapse in progress right now. Greece? Spain? Rumors of Italy?

There's a lot pointing to war. Unfortunately, nobody who can do anything about it will do it.  

The system is not broken, it was DESIGNED that way.

The Other Camp
 There also happen to be false prophets who, in the face certain destruction, are assuring the world of peace and peddling prosperity (rather than preparedness) to their followers.

Pay no attention to such. The blind leading the blind both fall into a ditch.

My Two Cents
It's quite a time to be alive. Keep faith alive; cling to hope with all your all.

Psalms 37:7
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

Warlike Thoughts

I savored the rare privilege of watching a World War II documentary. It strove to recreate the keynote events of the war through the memoirs of the soldiers and civilians who lived (many who died) through it all.

Unsurprisingly, the program reproduced the usual obfuscations to obscure the real motivations behind the war. Someone needs to teach us some real history. Another big failure of the program was the tendency to minimize the “gore” of war, for example by giving D-Day a relative whitewash, a mere mention. Which serious review of World War II can afford to ignore D-Day? to Photoshop the events of Normandy? FAIL.

However, despite its shortcomings, the documentary made an effective, full-color exposition of one fact: “War is a dirty ugly rotten business.” That was a quote of one young American soldier fighting in the Pacific "theatre". Another wondered what he, a farm boy from the American heartland, was doing thousands of miles away from home, killing Japanese.

Death and destruction stood out vividly the footage of blitzed London, ruined Stalingrad, burning German cities, firebombed Berlin. Makes you wonder what could possibly justify so much desolation.  

I’m not the only nut on the internet predicting dark days ahead, and I’m not pulling it out of my socks either. If World War III is gonna happen (highly likely soon), then, judging by the way WWII went… let’s just say we have a problem.

Aluta Continua

Sometimes I can't bear to hear myself defending the truth. God knows I've contradicted myself too many times, drinking other than what I was preaching when my self-interest entered the picture.

Sometimes, even though there is a second chance, I hesitate to take it; self-conscious of past failure, and weak.

Sometimes, a believer comes to that place where they confuse their faith with a heavy burden. Many also are mockers quick to review decisions made in faith with a sneer of contempt.


Still, the truth is such that it demands to be expressed, expounded, lived. It's real. If I keep it quiet in my heart it burns, it pokes at the conscience. I find myself fighting to conceal the truth within. It would be easier to forget it, kill the conscience, move on; except that I would know it was a lie.

It's not every day that the truth wins that battle over my ego. Still, the war continues.

From watching my friends, I know that killing the conscience is the first step down the downward spiral of depravity. A dead conscience opens the door to insensitivity bordering on insanity. Lies pile on lies every day, until truth is entirely lost sight of, and self-destruction looms ever larger.

Unfortunately, today's world seems to require a dead conscience, or one on life support. You can see it in the movies and mass media, where some sort of compromise is aggressively sold.

Stand for truth. Pray for courage to do it.