We have a great country, let’s appreciate it

Any of us Kenyans who have lived in Europe, America and all those other far off places know that one of the major cultural shocks one has to deal with is the process of coping with climate and seasonal changes.

In primary school, we read books that were written by our colonisers and so they were all talking about four seasons of the year that are known as Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

I was not too daft and so I got that. Little did I know that I had not quite understood the reality those seasons represented until I went to Europe when I was only 23 and lived there for some years.

In the resent times I have been watching international news channels and I see what is happening in the United States of America.

APPRECIATE

A major hurricane is causing havoc and making people’s lives unliveable. It is of course not the first time we have seen that with regard to America.

They have those things quite regularly and every time I see this I always thank God for the great country we have.

But do we really take to heart the reality of the kind of country we were given to live in and develop ourselves?

I sometimes think that we do not. Look at some of the harm we bring upon ourselves and our country through vices like selfishness, corruption and so on even on the part of our own leaders.

We have a great country and a great environment that a lot of other people whose environment is different from ours would want to own.

Is that not the reason why our colonisers put up such a big fight, punished and killed a lot of our people who claimed their land back?

TAX

That is a story for another day so now we have to focus on the events of the here and now.

There is a lot of talk about how much we must be taxed. There is nothing wrong with that if those taxes go into social security matters like healthcare and that sort of thing.

If on the other hand such taxes go into individual’s hands and, at some time, we ever have a disaster of any kind, we shall have to beg from someone who envies our environment and who might one day want to own Kenya.

I do not believe that China and others who may fund our infrastructure do not have a vested interest.

There is something they want and so even as we talk about four pillars we must relate those pillars to love for the Motherland and not just to love for mere politics.

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