Varsity Press: A Letter To My Son6

By Charl Chotto(budddingmind@gmail.com)

Live Coverage of the British Royal wedding in Kenya?Citizen TV Should Give us a Break

Prince William His bride Kate Middle

Dear son,

Son,for days now I have been noticing the advert on citizen TV informing the public that on 29th this April they will be showing live the" exciting wedding of the century" proceedings from London of one Kate Middleton and one Prince William.And I am thinking is Citizen TV directorship insane!.Who tells them that the Kenyan public is interested in following the wedding proceedings live as if we have all the time in the world to in the face of the demanding life that our existence has become.The "most exciting wedding of the century"?Who say so?The importance with which Citizen TV is treating this wedding makes you feel that this is the most important thing to ever happen to humans in the 21st century.It is like God has finally decided to come down from wherever his home is to come and get a wife from one of the shags in Kenya.

This is gross over assumptions of what the viewers need.I don't want to preempt what other Kenyans might think of the same but the like minded Kenyans like me will agree with me that we don't give a damn about the wedding.It doesn't touch me and it wouldn't add any value in my life nor will it make any difference in a world plagued by high cost of living,unemployment,HIV/AIDS,Malaria,war and other socio-econo-political problems.

It is so disappointing to think that a glamorous TV channel like Citizen can give importance to this wedding simply because it is royal wedding and as if it matters a lot to Kenya and as if the wedding of other humans never matter.Only colonized minds will still hold colonial masters who made our fore fathers suffer in their own country for no crime committed.The royalty as a matter of fact is only a societal construct and it makes no body special in any way.Prince William is no extra ordinary man and he benefits from the privileges of a creation of the the few rich and powerful in the English society who promoted inequality in the society by reducing others to lesser position to serve their interests.There is nothing in royalty or nobility beyond the fact that it is a state of mind and status that has thrived on the machinations of the bored rich who want to be above others.So I am thinking,the live coverage might be for the rich Kenyan upper echelons of the society who have the comfort of fancying such extravagant weddings that are financed by the British wananchi.

Son,It makes me wonder if this live coverage will be of help to the Nairobian and the generally deprived and over-burdened Kenyan people who are feeling the pinch of economic disability as a result of the rising cost of living.Or is it going to be an escape into the other world to remind us of how much lesser beings we are than the royal family of the inequality ridden England.Nairobi has become a hot place of place to live in what with the high prices of goods and services as a result of arrogant increase of fuel pump prices by the Energy Regulatory Commission which is a state organ that is expected to protect the peoples interests.But strangely the well off are comfortably driving their fuel guzzlers without ever feeling the pinch and not at any time would you ever see them on the streets carrying twigs in a demonstration even if Atwoli called one today.

Today if you sit by the pharmacies in Nairobi it will be strange to notice that these medicine dispensers are making a kill at this hard time.Many people are going for drugs to relieve anxiety and kill headaches that have become common due to pressures of financial constraints.And this problem is not being felt in the capital alone.It is even worse in the rural ares where majority of the people have no income generating activities and wholly depend on land which with unpredictable weather pattern has become unreliable.

Such times have been there before such as the drought periods when food lack but even then life wasn't as expensive as it is today and the Kenyan Government has never put measures in place to cushion wananchi from the effects of rising oil prices and its subsequent high cost of living.Such times of hardship in these times you had only one meal in a day.And as children we ended up overeating when the meals came since it was the only meal of the day and you knew it would take long before you get another meal.Over eating itself was another problem in itself ,son.So then the broom in the house apart from sweeping and providing readily available toothpick got its third use:you swept your stomach with it to reduce the discomfort.But it never helped.However the fat from obtained from the milk used to do wonders.They would massage your stomach after which you went to the bush and your problems were over.But today son,even this opportunity to over it isn't there since even getting this one meal is just to hard.And even when it comes the majority of our families have too many of mouths to feed the one meal is like a drop of water in an empty pot.The rich can afford to eat,they can drive their big cars and they can afford to watch the "exciting wedding of the century" of the exceptional mortals of their ilk and so Citizen TV should give us a break.Let those who want to watch the wedding talk planes to London because they can afford it or even crash even crash it if they want to.We have too much on our hands top worry about.And did you know,consumer inflation rate in Britain is at 4.4%which means the average house hold in Britain are feeling the pinch but do you how much is going to be spent on the royal wedding?