Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Habiba Chirchir

It has taken me awhile to write here because the past month I was finishing my thesis. On finishing I decided to read one classic “Around the World in 80 Days” Jules Verne. This book was published in 1873. The book opens in London with the main character traveling around the world (technically it is not around the world) in 80 days with his return to London. It is about a wager (bet) made by associates of the lead character- Mr. Phileas Fogg- the wager itself was that Phileas Fogg could not travel around the world in 80 days and if he could there was a cash price of 20,000 pounds to be won by the winning party.

This bet was made in a gentlemen’s club in London, Phileas Fogg bets that he can travel the world in 80 days and as soon as the wager was on, he went to his apartment collected his traveling kit and together with his servant a French man by the name of Passepartout set off for Europe, Asia, North America and back to Europe. Keep in mind that this is a time when the main means of transportation was by water ways or trains. Also keep in mind this is the time when British Imperialism was at its peak which facilitated his travel (e.g Suez Canal, India, HongKong were controlled by the Brits). They get to Suez Canal smoothly and on to India where they faced challenges including rescuing a princess that was about to be sacrificed by burning following some traditions.

Another challenge he faced was that of a British detective who held Mr. Fogg as a bank robber and followed them to the end of their journey only to learn that it was truly a wager among gentlemen that Mr. Fogg was pursuing. From India they sailed to HongKong, on to Japan and to San Francisco. With many setbacks including an attack by native americans, a breakdown of the train, they made their way to New York where they had missed their ship. But thankfully Mr. Fogg was a man of means so he hired a private boat to take him back to Britain. In summary he won the wager but having spent so much on the journey gained nothing monetarily but gained a wife (the Indian princess he had rescued) who traveled with them from India.

This is an easy read, at first the story does not take off because the first few pages describe the wager and the servant’s background. However, as soon as the journey begins the book holds your attention (with intriguing moments of delays and different exciting encounters).

I had only heard about this book since it is considered a classic and I really enjoyed.

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The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Habiba Chirchir

This is such an easy and quick read, its about the four high school girlfriends who share the same pants over their summer holidays. These four girls agreed to share this one pair of pants during their holidays one would wear it for a week and mail to the next person and then the next and so on. The pants was symbol of friendship and sisterhood and had rules, one had to do something or experience something significant while wearing the pants, the pants were never to be washed, pants were never to be one with a shirt tacked in and so forth.

It is a funny and entertaining story, the pants travel to Greece when Lena and her sister are sent by their parents to visit their grandparents in Greece. The pants were mailed to Baja, Mexico where Bridget was attending summer athletic training. To North Carolina where Carmen was visiting her father and back to DC where Tibby was staying with her mother, she didn’t travel over summer.

I would also recommend it for teenage girls, it describes teenage life including crushes on boys, difficulties with parents, the loss of pets e.t.c. Or read it when you tired or just want something easy to take you to slumberland.

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The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux (Part IV). The final…

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Habiba Chirchir

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I apologize that it has taken me awhile to complete the final part of this book. I have been extremely busy working on my dissertation revisions. While it is an ongoing process I decided to take a break from it and finish up this review.

I left off where Theroux had traveled through Fiji and is moving onto Tonga, Western Samoa, American Samoa, Tahiti, Marquesas, Cook Islands, Easter Islands and Hawaai. These islands are quite rich in culture and history and I cannot do justice to Theroux’s travelogue (who knows I suspect Theroux himself never did justice to the history and culture of these islands). At any rate, he provides a background of each of the islands which forms the foundation of the current inhabitants. For instance he flew from Tahiti to Easter island which takes five and half hours! the giant carved sculptures for which the island is known are called  moai  meeting  with the various cultural preservation authorities he learned about the founding of population of the island. He talks about the island’s unfortunate history of being raided “The history of Easter Island in the nineteenth century is a long sad story of foreign raiding parties (mainly American and Spanish), of slavery and plunder, leading to famine, venereal disease, smallpox outbreaks, and ultimately the ruin of the culture- the place has been demoralized and depopulated”.

He concludes his voyage in the big island of Hawaai where he gives a nice history of the island geographic and historical/archaeological. The current inhabitants and the habitual stereotypes but above all he stayed in Hawaai so long he made it his home!

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Dissertating

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Habiba Chirchir

Hi all,

I have been spending every waking hour working on my dissertation, please bear with me for not updating the blog. I will be back as soon as the work quiets down.

Thanks for your patience.

 

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The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux (Part III)

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Habiba Chirchir

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I pick up from where I left last week, Theroux next travels to Meganesia- the Trobriand Islands,  Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. He flies into Papua New Guinea where the spoken language is pidgin English e.g. “You tingk dispel bot?” translates to “This fellow is a boat”. Just as a note Papua New Guinea’s people are some of the indigenous folks around that world that have faced extremely harsh treatment from intruders/foreigners. They have been pushed to the most remote parts of their country to keep away from the expansions, much like the indigenous Brazilians and Ecuadorians that I wrote about awhile ago see these respectively http://habibasbookshelf.com/?p=131 and http://habibasbookshelf.com/?p=236 .

Theroux boards the plane from New Guinea for the Trobriands, I read about the Trobriand Islands during my Cultural Anthropology classes in undergrad, we read Malinowski’s various retrogressive sounding publications on the pacific including  Crime and custom in savage society, Sex and Repression in Savage Society, The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia. All the while Malinowski the ethnographer describing the inhabitants of this island in the worst possible language as was done throughout the world in the early 20th century by ethnographers. In a mild way I feel that Theroux propagates this notion here is an excerpt after he arrived in the Trobriands “We were served by two bare breasted girls in grass skirts, who managed to look demure…The food was unappetizing and uneatable-fatty meat and boiled white tubers, served with hunks of Spam.” At any rate this is where he puts together his kayak to paddle around islands, locally called “Waga.Waga”.

He writes of missionary influence on the islands, the children all learning “Sunday school” type songs, the culture that Malinowski wrote about is mostly eroded just as is the case in most African countries. No more Kula ring  as described by Malinowski- The kula ring is a gift exchange system that the islanders practiced gifts were traded from island island mostly beads (cowries) of most value (of course not monetary value) and there were festivals involved in this process of gift exchange.

From the Trobriands he paddles his way to the Solomon Islands, where he describes visiting the egg fields of Savo Island, there is a bird that lays its egg and hides it in the sand. This egg is highly treasured, early in the morning the islanders visit these fields to dig up the eggs. Next he travels to Vanuatu, which is most infested by missionaries and has been for years, and times of old they told stories of cannibalistic behaviors with books with titles such as “Cannibalism Conquered”, “Cannibals Won for Christ” being published based on some of the peoples of Vanuatu’s culture.

Next stop is Fiji “Fiji is a christian country” says one of the inhabitants of the island, as many parts of the world that adopted christianity wholesale some of the inhabitants are troubled by their own traditions- who would have thought? Theroux paddles the two big island of Fiji with more foreigners (New Zealanders mainly and Australians). He says he was most at peace paddling the pacific in Fiji.

I have a great desire to visit Fiji, I’m not sure I will be able to do it but its on my list, its dear to me because I learned about it early in my primary school years, there was a description of Fiji in the daily paper with some exercise questions for primary school pupils. Thanks Daily Nation how would I have known of Fiji’s existed at such an early age without you?

Till later, I will write about Theroux’s final leg of the trip in Oceania.

 

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The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux (Part II)

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Habiba Chirchir

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Last week I left off the review with Theroux heading to Australia, he writes of his travels and interactions  (not at length unfortunately) in the cities and goes in search of “Aboriginal Australia” so to use his words. Theroux dwells on Australian impressions more than telling us about his experience in Australia. I found this part of the book a bit bland although its well written. He also decries Australians’ struggle to find a national identity. Again, there are a lot of generalizations and stereotypes especially regarding the  ”drunk Aussie”.

At times there is a lot rambling in Theroux’s writing, attributed to the unhappy place in life that he was in when he made the trip apparently he had just gone through  a divorce and was dealing with health issues. He describes his book interviews that he appeared frustrated with since some people were unfamiliar with his work. This comes across as unhappy or outright lack of patience.

I think of the whole book the least I enjoyed was his Australia trip because he does not convey to the reader what kind of place Australia is like other than that Aussies are nagging and drunks.

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The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux (Part I)

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Habiba Chirchir

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It’s always a delight to read one of Theroux’s travel books, in this one he travels throughout the Pacific- actually paddles from island to island in the Pacific (New Zealand, Australia, Trobriand Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Samoa, Easter Island and Hawaai). I am going to subdivide my reviews into four sections, today I will review part of his trip to Meganesia- from the word Mega (large) refers to New Zealand and Australia. I am not sure I will do justice to Theroux’s book since in the classical Theroux way he describes his experiences in detail, the people, his feelings on the environment and culture sometimes in a very non-chalant manner especially in describing Pacific Island cultures. Readers may be forgiven if they  are outraged by his lack of political correctness especially on his perceptions of the people of Oceania. At the same time one would appreciate his descriptions and a few times his candor when acting as a pseudo anthropologist.

At any rate, in New Zealand which only forms two chapters of the book, he describes his visits to the two islands that make up the country i.e. the Long Island and the South Island. He starts out with funny descriptions of New Zealanders’ attire ” Most New Zealanders seem to wear old shapeless hats. You see a lot of beards and knee socks. And Sweaters.”    He touches on New Zealand politics where the prime minister had left his wife and ran off with the speech writer. Another talk of New Zealanders’ demeanor and not accepting compliments (sort of like the Brits and Aussies I am told) “If you spoke about their well maintained cities they said they were actually disorderly. Tell them their mountains were high and snowy they retorted that yours were higher and snowier. If I said New Zealand seemed prosperous they claimed it was dying on its feet”.  ha!

He also provides some natural history of the South Island where there large flightless birds because there were no predators. The Maori arrived from Cook Islands ca. 10th century bringing along dogs and rats, and these new inhabitants hunted down the big birds to extinction and introduced new species. He climbed mountains and biked in Christchurch- who wouldn’t want that. Theroux is a great travel writer always providing the reader with context and referencing present going ons in a witty manner that the reader learns and laughs. Stay with me as we fly and paddle in Oceania with Paul Theroux.  Next stop Australia!

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Thoughts on “Africa’s booming economy needs modern trade routes” by Wadi Halfa

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Habiba Chirchir

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I hope everyone had a great week and valentines day. I was a lucky recipient of the above beautiful orchid and for that I’m thankful- its the small things that matter as they say. On to the matter at hand, I would like to pontificate about an issue raised in an article appearing in the latest copy of  The Economist (Feb. 16th-22nd 2013), but first I should say I’m not a fan of The Economist, the quality of articles appearing in there are not what one would think of a respectable magazine. However, this article titled “Africa’s booming economy needs modern trade routes” is quite apt. The thesis of the article is that Africa lacks a reliable transport network which makes it impossible to trade. First there is not much connecting the north and the south other than taking a ferry along the Aswan to get from Egypt to Sudan and even after you get through the Sahara, for the rest of the continent there are no railroads to connect the vast continent and the road network is pathetic.

According to a World Bank report “Africa can help feed Africa” if farmers were able to get produce across borders.  This is a continent wide assessment of transportation but I would like to get to country level and in this case the Kenyan situation which none of the presidential contestants is talking about in the ongoing campaigns. One of our major problems is that farmers cannot get their produce to markets in a timely fashion if at all. Produce goes bad at home and if it gets to the market its can no longer compete with fresher produce. In this case, I think of my rural home where farmers rely on milk production to a large extent but of course, you can produce all the milk you want but if you do not have a means of getting it to the market because the roads are deplorable then the farmer’s hard work is an effort in futility. If Kenya had a good road and rail network we would not have the famine and starvation that recurs every year.

My challenge to the so called presidential contestants: why should we be discussing vision 2030 (with unrealistic goals such as getting subway systems in Nairobi) if we have not found a sustainable means of ensuring that famine ends? I am extremely disappointed that the presidential candidates are not addressing this critical matter of ending starvation/famine by improving our road and rail networks, a means of building a food reserve for the country and including an elaborate plan of ensuring farmers can improve food production e.g. increased mechanization, subsidies for seeds and fertilizer e.t.c.  In my mind, this is the foundation of improving citizens lives especially in rural areas and consequently improving our economy because by and large we still are an agriculture dependent economy.

This article in The Economist raised issues that are pertinent to Africa’s growth and “development” if you will, but more so, matters that Kenya particularly has to address. Otherwise, how long shall hunger and famine plague us? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

 

 

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Its time Kenya’s government invested in science research

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Habiba Chirchir

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I read an article titled “Islam and Science the road to renewal” in the latest issue of the Economist (January 26th-Fembruary 1st 2013) and it made me think about the state of science in East Africa and more so in Kenya. The article describes the state of science in Arab countries and how it has been relegated to the backbench for a long time since religion does not agree with scientific theory and thinking. The article provides a nice background of science in the Islamic world in the dark ages when it was thriving “ Between the 8th and 13th centuries, while Europe stumbled through the dark ages, science thrived in Muslim lands…In the ninth century Muhammad al-Khwarizmi laid down the principles of algebra, a word derived from the name of his book, “Kitab al-Jabry”. The article goes on and gives some of the statistics of funding towards research and development (which of course includes science) in a few countries. In 2005, 57 countries in The Organization of the Islamic Conference spent 0.81% of GDP on research and development; the US spent 2.9% and Israel 4.4%. Now leaders are realizing the economic value of scientific research, at present Qatar is bumping up research investment from 0.8% to 2.8%. Universities in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are seeking professors from the USA, of course willing to commit large salaries to get the best of them.

These statistics made me think about East African countries and what this means for the future of our country and for our development. I don’t have the numbers for research investment in Kenya but I know that universities cannot afford to provide internal research funding to their researchers. Additionally, there is no government kitty that funds science research that scientists can apply to. I know many scientists have to obtain external funding from international sources competing with the whole worldwide or the occasional local foreign embassy for funding.

Unfortunately, the conversation has not even begun. How do you develop a country when basic statistics and records are not available? For instance, how does one begin to address a nation’s problems when the data of annual rainfall and corresponding harvest is not available through local institutions (i.e. e universities) and only have to rely on an International Organization for such a database? The point is that we need “African solutions to African problems” and if so then we need have to have local researchers involved, collecting long-term data that would help us address the problems we are facing.

To do that there has to be financial support from the government, and this support should be for researchers to apply competitively and receive awards based on scholarly merit as opposed to “do you know anybody”. It might not be top of the agenda in comparison to healthcare and provision of basic education but I would like to hear politicians talk about building our research and development, building our knowledge base consequently finding local solutions to local problems. For how long shall we wait for the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to collect data on malaria? Of course they are doing an excellent job but we can increase their efficacy by contributing with our own data and not waiting to be hired as consultants to get huge salaries. For how long shall we wait for CDC (Centers for Disease and Control) in Nairobi to collect data on HIV aids and treatment? How about the various cancers and their variations that occur only in the region not common elsewhere who will do that for us? We have to start with collecting our own data (just recording what we observe) then get on to laboratory work (i.e. make hypothesis based on observed trends).  Our government needs to step up and allocate an annual substantial budget to research and development.

My goal is start the conversation (the first step), if you have thoughts on this please share your thoughts and keep the discussion going.

 

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The Monster of Florence: A true story by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Habiba Chirchir

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The Monster of Florence documents murder crimes since 1974 in Florence, Italy, continuous murders of women until 2007 with the death of Meredith Kercher (the British student whose murder made headlines throughout the world) and the subsequent charges brought against Amanda Knox for the murder. It is about the detailed accounts of the investigations of the various murders that have been left unsolved in the Italian justice system. These cases often involved the murder of young lovers, Mario Spezi an Italian reporter carefully followed the stories in trying to decipher who the killer would be. Douglas Preston was introduced to Mario Spezi by a mutual friend and was fascinated by the stories of the murders that went unsolved.

In their investigations which make up the bulk of the book, they found out that the case of bangled police investigations, poor prosecution and generally an unreliable justice system.

The story is intriguing and if you are into crime novels this is your book. The book delves into the reports of the murders, subsequent investigations, trials and the sensationalistic journalism that contributed to no convictions. The authors’ own investigations for the book get them into trouble eventually being charged and threatened while in prison despite their innocence a form of intimidation.

The book at the end discusses the Amanda Knox vs. Meredith Kercher situation which appears to have run the same course that many of these cases that the authors write about ran. Poor police investigations, a nearly corrupt judicial system that disregards the available evidence as well as a public and journalists that play into stereotypes.

Although sometimes chilling to read the graphic descriptions of the murders, it is a page turner.

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