Perspectives.

My childhood was spent in Kenya, East Africa.  I was born in Mombasa which is a port that dates back to the 1500's when a fort was built by the Portuguese.  The Arabs had been trading along the coastline of East Africa for many years before that and as a girl I would visit the Old Harbor and go on board the dhows that carried goods that were traded between the Arab world and Africa.  The dhows were wooded sailing ships with a captain who would usher us to the bow to sit and drink coffee.  Coffee was served from a brass kaffir into small brass cups which would be stacked into a long row and as the person serving would release them and then stack them they made a tune much like ringing bells.  The men wore a white cap and long white robes.  I never felt afraid of them but recognized that they were culturally different from us as we sat cross legged on the floor of the deck in the blazing African sun.  My father was an engineer with the East African Railroads and Harbors and enjoyed cultural diversity as we later visited a colleague who was a Seik when we moved to Nairobi.

My father's job was to build railroads and tunnels where ever the government wanted to go and that meant that we lived in remote regions of Kenya.  When a project was begun the big machines would tear down the bush and leave the reddish earth bare.  I always felt sad when I saw nature stripped of its life and now realize the impact of the death of one plant on the chain of organisms etc. as they all play a delicate balance in nature.  Orchids were my favorite plant and when climbing trees I would find orchids growing in the elbow of a branch on the trunk of a tree.  The site was quite noisy and dusty as the excavation took the jungle down to a level field of dirt.  My father's most trusted and loyal friend was Vestas who was a native.  My siblings and I loved he and his wife Mary.  My sister and I used to walk over to their house sometimes to visit Mary when Vestas was working hard building railroads with our dad.  We would eventually get through the bush to an open area where railroad tracks were already built.  Once across the tracks we reached their small one story corrugated roofed home.  Inside was always clean and linens hanging from the ceiling separated compartments for living.  Mary taught my sister and I Swahili which is the native language.  I felt as close to Mary and Vestas as I have with any close family friends or relatives.  My parents never taught us to be prejudice.

The era of the Mao Mao was scary for settlers in Kenya, mostly from Great Britain but also from other parts of Europe.  They were decent people who wanted to work and loved Kenya.  It is my birthplace and home.  My father died when I was nine and a half years old and is buried at the Langata Cemetry which is just outside the National Game Park in Nairobi.  We lived in a banda which is a wooden framed house sometimes with mud siding and a thatched roof.  My mother always had help at home and there was a sense that you never quite knew how much to trust these people not to hurt you because they could be members of the Mao Mao.  Jomo Kenyatta who became the first Kenyan president was from the Kikuyu tribe that lived in the Rift Valley region.  His influence was extended to all tribes to unite them together in one cause - to oust the Colonials whom they felt had made themselves rich at their detriment.  The Africans used a knife to cut down the bush and other chores called a panga which is like a machete.  There were many reports of families being murdered by Mao Mao who struck them with pangas in their sleep.  My father started to keep a gun at home at this point.  We had an escare or policeman who sat at the top of the road leading to our home all night long with a fire to keep him warm during the chilly temperatures of winter which coinsides with our summer. 

Occasionally we would have a jeep come to the house to pick us up and take us to an hotel that became a compound for the safety of Europeans who might be attacked.  On one particular occasion my brothers who were allowed the freedom to go out on the racing bikes hadn't returned from being gone all day when a jeep came to pick us up.  We could hear the Mao Mao rioting at a nearby police station.  My parents decided to stay and wait for my brothers and sent my sister and I ahead to the hotel.  After the emergency was over my brothers came home on their bikes and when questioned said that they had been with the Mao Mao stoning the police station.  My brothers were adventurous and unfraid.

A few years ago I attended a meeting where a African American psychiatrist invoked the name of Jomo Kenyatta in prayer and said blessings for him.  I realized then that I could forgive and bless this man who liberated his people.  I agree with Mahatma Gandhi's methodology of gaining freedom for India more but such has been the tragic history of violence in Kenya at least as evidenced in recent elections.

When Barrack Obama shares his feelings of admiration for his father's political views and involvement perhaps in the uprisings I would just like to express that there is a different point of view.  As citizens of Great Britain and decent people it was not right to terrorize young people who looked on Kenya as home.  Now terrorism has moved to the United States and again it is not a good thing for the people especially the young who have had no part in creating the problems that their parents and older generations are accused.  Somehow the terrorists always come out looking the small cowards that they are.  Not much to be admired.  It's interesting that Obama keeps insulting our integrity by demanding that we become tolerant toward Islam.  We are a Christian country and it is because of our faith and teachings that we hold our arms out to all those that God the Father forgives through his Son our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I came to the United States because I believed that I would be able to achieve my goals as an individual and earn the money that I wanted.  High taxes and redistribution is not the answer and I hope that all Americans wake up to the fact that Marxist doctrines should be stopped in their tracks.  We deserve better than the leadership that somehow got elected.  Let's go into November and watch voter fraud.  Don't be silenced by the threats of this administration and a president that doesn't refrain from singling individual citizens out.  The Chinese were active in supporting governments in East Africa and sending specialists to help develop their newly found independence.