[Fredslist] Letter From Kenya

[Fred Klein]

Remember the T-Mobile woman?  Well here's an update from Lisa Mueller Welsien from Kenya. 
Sent via BlackBerry from EarthLink Wireless.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Lisa M. Welsien" <lmwelsien at gmail.com>

Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:29:17 
To: Fred Klein<fklein at kleinzelman.com>
Subject: Re: Emailing: IMG_5771, IMG_5772


Fred,
I have been back in Kenya for a little over a week and no longer have
jet-lag; it took a few days to readjust to the altitude and more so to the
heat, as we are in the long, hot, dry season of the year.  Mornings and
evenings are like the perfect spring, but afternoons are blazing hot, which
does not make a very pregnant woman like me feel so great!

As an update to Gotham on what's going on in Kenya, right now the country is
facing a severe shortage of food.  The shortage is the result of a few
things:  first, a severe drought after the last two cycles of rain
essentially failed in many parts of the country; additionally, because of
the post-election violence last year many farms were burned and the usual
crop was not planted (therefore, it was not harvested); finally, the
government had the opportunity to purchase maize from Tanzania in July to be
able to provide assistance to the country now and they insisted that such an
intervention was unnecessary and did not do so.  So, while in Nairobi
expatriats like us can easily go to the big grocery store and buy all the
food we want or can eat at our very nice restaurants, average Kenyans are
struggling a great deal, with 10 million Kenyans at risk of starvation.
 Sigh - it certainly seems unfair.

One of the problems we continue to see in the Kenya is the government's lack
of forward vision with the best intentions of its people.  Kenya is a highly
politicized nation, with national politics often held hostage by the
politics of local communities or, often more so, tribal politics.  We have
noticed that while we were away for 5 weeks, in Nairobi there was noticeable
improvement in infrastructure (roads), but mostly only in more well-off
neighborhoods and suburbs of the city.  We also noticed that security has
been increased throughout Nairobi.

Unfortunately, another bit of news in Kenya these days is rather
disappointing.  The president recently signed into law a controversial bill
that gives the government power to essentially censor the media, by allowing
for the random raiding of media house, the confiscation of broadcast
equipment, and the implementation of media blackouts when the government
feels that media reporting is threatening the safety and security of its
people.  While Kenya has previous been considered a leader in democratic
media principles in Africa, this is a huge step backward for the country and
the continent (and can be felt as a direct result of last year's political
violence).  There are all kinds of efforts underway by special interest
groups, etc. to overturn this law and to create media protection measures in
the Constitution which is going through a revision process at this time
anyway.  We watch with eager interest to see what this government does.

Other than all of that, Kristoffer and I continue to prepare for the baby's
arrival in about 45 days.  I am nesting and resting for sure, and he is
working very hard to ensure that food is distributed to the neediest schools
in the country for feeding about 1 million children in the country who,
without the World Food Programme's intervention, would otherwise not eat and
would not likely go to school.

Hope all is well in NY.  We watched President Obama's inauguration last
night with some American friends and I felt so, so proud to be an American.
 It was an incredible moment for the whole world to embrace.

Take care,
Lisa
http://welsien.blogspot.com


On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 7:39 PM, Fred Klein <fklein at kleinzelman.com> wrote:

>
> Lisa
> The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link
> attachments:
> IMG_5771
>
> IMG_5772
>
> Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent
> sending or receiving certain types of file attachments.  Check your e-mail
> security settings to determine how attachments are handled.
>
>
> __________________________________
> Fred C. Klein
> Klein Zelman Rothermel LLP
> 485 Madison Avenue, 15th Floor
> New York, NY 10022
> (212) 935-6020
> fklein at legal.org
> http://www.kleinzelman.com
> http://www.gothamnetworking.com
> (See attached file: IMG_5771.JPG)
> (See attached file: IMG_5772.JPG)***This e-mail is covered by the
> Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. Secs 2510-2521 and is
> legally privileged. This e-mail, and any documents attached, may contain
> confidential information belonging to the sender which is protected by the
> work product and/or other privileges.
>
> This email is intended only for the use of the individual(s) named, and may
> contain confidential and/or legally privileged information.  If you are not
> the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure,
> copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance on the
> contents of this email is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this
> email in error,  please delete the email and notify the sender if we are
> sending you  materials in error.
>
> Circular 230 Disclosure Notice. To insure compliance with requirements
> imposed by the Internal Revenue Service, we inform you that any tax advice
> that may be contained in this communication (including any attachments) is
> not intended or  written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of
>  voiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or any state or local tax
> law to which a  governmental requirement similar to Circular 230 applies.***
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.gothamnetworking.com/pipermail/fredslist/attachments/20090121/0898acc6/attachment.html