Down the Memory Lane
Ladies and gentlemen, how great is it to be alive in the 21st century? Seriously! One day you should sit down and reflect, you will marvel at how glorious it is to be part of this century. I know you will try and fix the corona pandemic and all the bad inside that bracket but while at it make sure you use 100% as your locus point and give every other variable an equal degree of importance. I should also remind you that in this century alone we have managed to beat diseases like polio and ebola with so little attention. Maybe Corona is a challenge for the 22nd century and we are all here fretting.
Allow me to take you down the memory lane. If you are like me, you should take your childhood memories as a constant reminder of how far we have come from. It will also be selfish to look at it on an individuals perspective. Think of it as a national journey. How were the roads back in 1990s? Did you/your parents own a phone back then? How were the hospitals ? How many pupils didn’t have shoes? Can you name more that ten people who had cars? How many permanent houses were there in your village? What about people who were able to converse in fluent English?
Maybe I am not being realistic in my judgement but I am using what economists call the Human Development Index (HDI) and yes, I know more economics than I know football. You see, historians say, “The more things change the more they remain the same ” and I partly agree with this statement. Things change for good, some innovations are new whereas most inventions change how humans socialize.
Did you know that any ten year old today has consumed more information than what your great grandfather consumed in his lifetime? Just a random fact.
Its not even 10 years ago when we used to go to a cyber to update our Facebook status. *laughs in 2g*
I remember back in the day when we used to board this face me Matatus. *laughs* Those matatus were crazy, no seat belts, just benches and a pole in the middle for those who missed a seat, add on to the state of roads then and I tend to think were it not for the ones holding on the rails people will be hugging and kissing like crazy.*laughs in 1995*. I am not writing all this to show how ungrateful humans we all have been but to remind you of how great it is to be alive at this time.
One day as you order your food for delivery I want you to think of your grandfather who had to trek more than 50kms just to bring food home.
One day as you pay your water bill I want you to think of your hardworking grandmother who had to go miles and miles just to get cooking water and as you play Fifa or whatever video game you love think of all those men who wrestled lions and all sorts of wild animals just to keep the village safe.
I am not being blind to the fact that we have also fought serious battles on our own but ceteris Paribas *Latin for all factors being constant* ours will be a walk in the park when we compare it to what those who lived before us went through.
I recently got a privilege of going from Nairobi to Mombasa using the SGR and trust you me, that thing is better than how we banter it on social media. This journey reminded me of sometime back in early 2000s my Dad took two days from our home not far from Eldoret to Mombasa. Today you can sleep in a different part of Kenya and take dinner 580,367 km² away. Let’s appreciate the good guys! Let’s appreciate the good.
Today more families can boast of having someone who has graduated and doing well for themselves. Forget what they do for us, on the very least we all can boast that we have someone in our bloodline with proper education.
Sometimes I think that if I were born hundred years earlier in the same bloodline perhaps I would have been a chief. *no pun intended*. I come from a bloodline of leaders. Most born, whereas many assume leadership and wear that crown like it is their birthright. Its also funny to think, but I guess my brother would also have been a chief in his own right in the neighbouring chiefdom. Now the question is would I prefer being a chief 100+ years ago or the life I live now? Your answer is perfectly correct! Take me to KFC as I depart from this memory lane *laughs in streetwise*
As I conclude, I want to remind your forgetful mind that life is the only thing that the end will never justify the means. Walk on this streets shoulder high and always remember that your footprints will be backtracked generations to come, if you can’t leave this place better than you found it then you are doing more in tormenting those who toiled decades and decades to get us all this privilege we boast of today.
I will leave you here, open my Jumia food app and get myself a really spicy streetwise 3 from KFC courtesy of my ancestors who walked miles and miles to get food to the table . BINGO!
