SNAKE IN A POT

While reading Dr. Clarke’s column in this week’s Sunday vision (The Sunday Vision, 9th October, 2008) there were a couple of arguments that I found rather blemished – which is quite curious, considering that he is one of the most balanced columnists (and my favourite) that still remains in the Ugandan print media. Firstly, Dr. Clarke opined that people in a sub-Saharan African country would have not voted a person of mixed race like Obama into office if he were to stand for presidency. To put it in his own words ‘chances are that he would not even have been considered’. While I don’t agree with his view, I found it interesting. For once, here is a white person living among black people insinuating that black people (the biggest victims of racism in Europe and America) may actually be the biggest racists living on planet earth. Whether he is correct or not, is another story which I am not ready to delve into without statistical data. The second argument I found strange was when Dr. ...

It is totally a different experience and I did not regret a single minute for having signed on to the London Marathon. Before 2003 I had never run any thing longer than 5km although I remember that in my early school days, long distance running was my favourite of all the different disciplines of athletics. In 2004, armed with enthusiasm and a fully bloated man’s ego, I registered for the 10 km race of the Nairobi Marathon. 2 months earlier I had been dared by my wife to run the race and beat her finishing time of the previous year’s race. I run the race and completed it in 45 minutes, which of course was far better than her 1hr 20min of 2003. It is only after then that I realized that despite being in my fourth decade on planet earth I probably still had a knack to run long distances. I immediately promised my self to run the 2005 marathon and even raised the bar to half marathon. Unfortunately I did not run the Nairobi Marathon in 2005 (instead ran the 10km race of the MTN K...