2024 started with some bangs, and I don’t just mean fireworks. The most notable bang for me so far is Katt Williams broke the internet with his tell-all interview on Club Shay Shay (and possibly some people’s careers). Yoh!!!!! That thing got me snapping my fingers all day (because with two boys under 5, it took me all day to watch!)
Locally, meh! Our president is getting sued by Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni for imposing what he terms as unfair trade barriers, most recently stating that Kenya is “cheating” Uganda over fuel supplies. The lawsuit is to try and resolve the dispute. Kenya is yet to respond to this, and everybody is watching them with eyes wide open.
As if one neighbour was not enough, they done went and messed with Tanzania. They decided to ban cargo flights from Air Tanzania. Next thing we knew, Kenya Airways was locked out of Dar es Salaam airport. The tiff was later resolved and both airlines are back on their routes, but eish! I don’t want to mess with Suluhu. Not when we have Kenyans crossing borders to run their businesses because Zakayo is taxing us to deff!
As if that was not enough! Sudan is looking at IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) like, “Nope! Don’t wanna deal with y’all! Y’all play too much. We out here having a crisis. We been fighting for a few months, and you bring a militia dude to your big summit to discuss important regional matters? And we have official government representatives? No way! Y’all need a time out. We ain’t coming to your fancy pants meeting! In fact, we don’t even want to be in your fancy-pants club!” Yes, they suspended their membership. Mind you, Kenya is pretty influential on that platform, so we’ll still get flak for that.
I did not expect some of the stuff I learned when I resumed work. Apart from the national and regional stuff, day 1 was a blow! I got in and I was informed that people were leaving for greener pastures, there were new managers and departments on board, new systems being set up, I have to fill 3 different forms, and on, and on, and on. Two weeks into the year, y’all got busy! Those are new year resolutions on steroids! As long as I know where things are heading, it might be bearable. For now, though… I don’t know. We’ll see.
As for me, there are a number of changes going on. Working on change of address, change in my house management, change of status for my son as he starts school; and those are just the immediate ones. I have a few things in mind for later on in the year, but we’ll see how that goes. I might fill you in on some along the way.
I wanted this to be a short one, so I’ll just say this: change is as inevitable as death and taxes. I would recommend reading (or listening to) the book, ‘Who Moved my Cheese?’ by Spencer Johnson. The book basically talks about how important it is to be able to identify and adapt to change when it happens, because if you don’t you get stuck and starve!
I’ll give you the highlight reel. The basic premise is you have two mice and two little people in a maze. They spend their days looking for cheese. They find a spot with a good supply of cheese. Everybody gets happy and sticks around. Then one day, the cheese runs out. The mice move on looking for the next spot, but the people come and get surprised that the cheese is gone. Mind you, everybody could see it was getting low, but I guess they hoped it wouldn’t. They get frustrated, yell at each other and decide to stay put, hoping the cheese will come back.
Unknown to the men, the mice then find a huge cache of cheese and dig in. The guys are still waiting, getting hungry and irritable. One of the guys gets fed up with waiting and sets out to find cheese, after many unsuccessful attempts to get his friend to go with him. As he goes, he marks the trail for his friend. He eventually finds the new cache and the mice and waits to see if his friend has seen the light.
Moral of the story is, be alert, because the cheese will run out at some point. Will you be like the little guy who stubbornly stayed at the empty station, all surly and miserable? Or will you be like the mice who shifted as soon as the supply was done, and found something even better? Change is inevitable. Make it work for you.
Vicky's Tinted Spectacles 