A Tribute to the Great Harry Belafonte

 

In giving his and his country’s tribute to Harry Belafonte, former President Barrack Obama says Belafonte was a barrier-breaking legend who used his platform to lift others up, adding the Jamaican American singer and civil rights activist lived a good life – transforming the arts while also standing up for civil rights.

That may as well be said by everyone who knew this great man and even those who did not know him but were the beneficiaries of his trailblazing work as an accomplished black actor in the 1950 and 60s, starting from every black actor who graced the large and small screens ever since.

The New York Times has a great tribute of this great man you can read here

Some years ago in early 2000, I was in Ottawa, Canada on a business trip. Trying to find something to do for that weekend, I decided to go and watch a live performance at Ottawa’s National Arts Center not too far from the hotel where I was staying at.

As I was leaving for the concert, I happened to see a bunch of people milling around the lobby and all seemed to want to shake hands with this towering figure I had no idea who he was.

Curious, I asked one of the hotel staff who told me he was surprised that I did not know it was Harry Belafonte!

Embarrassed, I, too, started milling and waiting for a chance to shake hands with this obviously famous person I knew by name but never met before.

If you have ever met a famous person, few look the same when you meet them in person and that is true of many “regular” folk you may know from TV or acting.

I have previously written when during one of the National Prayer Breakfasts at Safari Park when I found myself standing next to this lady who I was scratching my head where I knew her from as she looked very familiar—like a distant relative you have not seen for a long time.

She was talking on the phone as we were waiting to mill to the lunch section. I was about to say hello to her only to notice two clearly burly security agents standing behind her—it was now Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru.

I found out because now late General Nkaisery who I knew come-by and as we were having a small talk, I asked him who that was he, too, like the hotel staff, was surprised I did not know that was Ann Waiguru!

You can read what I wrote about that breakfast here

Back to Ottawa, even before I got my turn to greet Belafonte, the star beamed with his signature smile looking directly at me over others ahead of me as if to say, “come on; don’t be afraid to shove these white folks aside and make your way as you’re the only black dude here!”

I did not, but I made it to him when my turn came, shook his hand, and said something possibly incoherent as I am wont to do under those circumstances, he took it in well, asked me where I was from and this is always a double-barreled question because I could say I was from Maryland, USA, which would have been correct, or I am from Kisii, Kenya, which would have also been correct.

I learned which one to use to answer that question back in the mid-80s when I worked for a company called Metagram America as an assistant branch manager in Fort Worth, Texas. At a corporate event attended by regional management, I greeted our company’s president and as a btw, he asked me where I was from. I told him I was from Kenya.

“I mean, which of our offices do you work?” shot back the boss not much caring that I was from Kenya. I henceforth dropped the idea of saying I am from Kenya unless the context is very clear that should be the response.

Back to this great man, we had a brief chat I do not recall much of it other than he told me he liked Kenya and enjoyed every time he visited. This was before the proliferation of smartphones where taking photos is only a fingertip away but luckily there was a photographer who snapped a photo of us.

I am now going blank where that photo is but is somewhere in this house I must dig it up and frame it in memory of this great man.

During intermission, I was walking back to the theater, and walking opposite me was none other than the great man I quickly had a one-second debate about whether to say something or just bow my head in acknowledgment and keep on moving as I went past him and other milling around him.

Before I could settle the debate, the great man once again beamed the smile he had earlier this time more like “you can’t believe we are meeting again; can you!” and with that, he stopped and we had another brief chat, he bade me off saying he will be at the NAC’s restaurant after the concert and that I should come by.

After the concert, I made my way to the restaurant and found him seated with several others who I assumed were his hosts and quickly decided I better not even think about intruding even though he had invited me, so I simply walked by, waved at him, and said “I’ll see you later,” which he acknowledged and back to the hotel I went.

Since I was staying at the same hotel he was staying in, I figured I could just call him in his room (ok; in his suite) and maybe arrange to meet him before I left the following day.

I should have known it is not that easy for I was told by the receptionist in the morning when I tried to call he had his DND on and of course, they could not provide or tell me his room number.

I tried one more time before leaving, the same thing so I left without seeing this great man and felt stupid I did not ask him for his number that time I was talking to him for he was very welcoming and so down to earth I am sure he would have given it.

Oh well, it was not meant to be but I am very happy to have met the man, and now that he has left the world, his good deeds, who he was, and what he accomplished is a legacy worth emulating by us all, and for me just being as welcoming and warm as he was to me, was good enough to know he was a great man for that is a great character to emulate no matter what your status is in life, especially one of this great man’s stature.

Compare this great man with the one-term, twice impeached accidental president of the United States and you’ll know all that has gone wrong with America and cannot be allowed to be, even as the man many of his own senior staff openly called a moron still wants to become president again!

If the world had leaders who were as down-to-earth, humble, compassionate, and caring half as much as Harry Belafonte was, the world will be a better place.

Fortunately, there are many like him, and the more the better.

Try to be one of them.

May he Rest in Peace.

 

 

Against Wishes of Even Many of His Supporters, Biden Launches Bid for Reelection

The professor of politics in Kenya (Moi) once told us he looked around and couldn’t see anyone who could succeed him so he tried to shove Uhuru down our throats despite there being many better and more capable leaders Moi could have easily groomed as his successor.

President Joe Biden is saying the same thing, namely, he can’t see any Democrat who can take over the mantle from him in 2024, not even his VP Kamala Harris but, unlike Moi, he has a point. So, Biden launched his campaign for reelection this morning, casting the upcoming election as a battle to secure Americans’ fundamental liberties.

In a digital video clocking in just over three minutes, Biden makes a direct-to-camera appeal over clips of himself and VP Kamala Harris traversing the country during their first term interlaced with scenes from the Jan. 6 insurrection, abortion rights protests, and the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. It’s a good backdrop but the duo will need more than that to beat the horde of right-wingers determined to take America backward.

Hard to believe but Democrats have not a single person who can seriously contend the presidency, let alone even defeat the twice impeached, one-term failed former accidental president aka trump.

Only Biden can and will if magas nominate the madman as the GOP flag bearer again which is very likely.

I used to think the other madman from Florida DeSantis could give Democrats a run for their money and beat anyone, including Biden but not anymore.

The dude can’t even beat The Moron in their primary and at the general elections, he’ll be exposed even more as the empty suit he is when it comes to anything other than what takes the country backward.

So, wishing Biden good health and the energy to go past November 2024. After being sworn in 2025, he can work from home P/T and let Kamala hopefully reinvent herself to succeed him in 2028 all God willing.

 

Lessons for Kenya to Draw From Sudan Forces Fighting

My oped this weekend

 

 

Clarance Thomas Should Resign Gracefully

In my last year of law school eons ago, one of my favorite professors and mentor the now-late Hal Braff invited me to attend an event at Princeton University organized by the American Inns of Court, an organization I would later join as a member. The keynote speaker at the event was Justice Clarance Thomas. At the conclusion of his speech, he was taken to a photo-op area where a line quickly formed for attendees to take a photo with him.

I didn’t think about it even for a moment; I was not going to take a photo with this justice many of us can’t stand for his taking a knife and stabbing blacks and other minorities and stabbing them on every occasion he has had the opportunity to rule to make a difference in their lives for the better. I knew of him then, and still know him to be nothing but a rubber stamp for the conservatives in the Supreme Court.

I was therefore not going to bother to take a photo with him as it would have no value or meaning to me.

However, my friend and mentor Hal grabbed my hand and told me to follow him my protests notwithstanding and being one of the organizers of the event, we went straight to the justice skipping the long line, and just like that, Hal who of course knew the justice introduced me to him and, we shook hands as the photographer was doing his thing and, surprisingly, I found myself quickly warming up to him in the short small talk we had for a minute or two. The justice asked me to come to see him at the reception to follow the event.

I just could not gather enough courage to do so, so that became the one and only time I met and interacted with Clarance Thomas. 

Ever since his controversial nomination and appointment to the Supreme Court more than 32 years ago, Clarance Thomas has done nothing remarkable either on or off the court. Beginning 2020, however, the media and others started taking interest in Thomas because it was found out that his wife, Ginni Thomas, is a Trumpian cult member who in late 2020 described an unknown number of American citizens who she hoped would be “living in barges off GITMO“ in accordance with the QAnon-affiliated conspiracy theory that President Biden, his family, and thousands of state and county elections officials, administrators, and volunteers orchestrated a vast conspiracy to rig the 2020 elections across thousands of administrative districts or wards.

There was public outrage when Ginni Thomas’ activism within trump world became known and the likelihood of such QAnon-style conspiracy theories influencing a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court was widespread enough that President Joe Biden was asked whether Thomas should recuse himself from any January-6-related cases. Biden replied that the answer was for others to determine, mentioning the congressional investigating committee and the Department of Justice. 

A petition to impeach Thomas, hosted on MoveOn, had gathered more than 1,245,000 signatures by July 29, 2022, after the U.S. House Select Committee on January 6 Attack requested that Ginni Thomas testify about her reported connections to Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

However, given Republicans, who are now the anti-government, pro-lawlessness party, control the House, one may as well forget impeaching Thomas being even a remote reality.

This does not mean Thomas is home scot free. Rather, there is mounting pressure for him to resign. 

Attorney Philip Allen Lacovara, who was deputy solicitor general of the United States for criminal and national security matters, and counsel to the Watergate special prosecutor has penned a great piece on the Hill online urgingClarance Thomas to resign gracefully much like another justice did years ago when faced with similar financial scandal.

It is a call soon to become a chorus but given trumpism which as so corroded the country such that ethics, rules, law and morality mean nothing to a large swath of the population, Thomas may just feel at home ignoring the calls to resign knowing fully well he cannot be impeached either.

The outcome: a yearning for voters to go to the polls in 2024 and completely getting rid of this trumpism by routing Republicans from the House as the majority party, boosting Senate Democratic party control and of course the Democrats keeping the keys to the White House by re-electing Biden or electing whoever Democrats put forth as their candidate in 2024.

Anything else will see an acceleration of the collapse of one a once great nation.

 

 

Why Ruto Is Right on Office of Opposition

My column this weekend in the Star

 

Ruto Making the Right Moves, Adjustments