Edwin's Corner

Sourced from Change.org In ancient days, when Persian Kings would travel across their vast kingdom, one of the most important social activities was the giving of gifts. Royal gifts created an essential link between the receiver and the giver. Loyalty was committed to the King and he in turn received the submission of his subjects. When it came to governors and leaders of vanquished territories, they were expected to lavish the king with exquisite gifts including jade, silk and ivory. The main purpose for this was to pay respect, pledge allegiance and show submission to the monarch. Refusal to present such gifts was taken as proof of insubordination . Ivory has always been highly regarded and prized. As we look at history and retrace the ascent and descent of empires that ruled the world across Europe and Asia before the 6 th BC, it is exactly because of the wealth of these empires that the populations of elephants in North Africa, Chin...

Justice is served I bow and stride into the City Hall Magistrate’s court on a warm Friday morning in the center of Nairobi. Court is in session. A subdued silence inspires me to pay attention to the cases being mentioned. As I sit down on a cold antique bench, I am reminded of archaic British furniture. I am here to observe the wheels of justice grind along and more importantly soak up why the common man is so disgruntled by the country’s justice system. There hangs a coat of arms patched high behind the magistrate and right below it is a wall clock that has stopped working. I assume its part of the décor.   In hindsight those two are very symbolic of the state of the justice system in Kenya. Let me explain, for one the coat of arms was predicated on the royal coat of arms, which appeared in every courtroom in England and its extensive empire. It demonstrated that justice came from the monarch. This is why lawyers and court officials bowed when they enter...

One of the hardest things to embrace and accept in Kenya is that the public education system that a majority of us have gone through is a failure in its entirety and no matter how many patches we apply, or clutches we give it to stagger on, it still is a failure. Typical Classroom in Kenya Don’t get me wrong it worked fine in another century and a different generation, but its usefulness ended a long time ago and just because factories are producing typewriters it doesn't mean every person has to learn how to use one. Let me clarify that statement, the problem with the public education system is that it is predicated on mechanical mass production where people go through a moving conveyor belt called the education system. They are grouped by age and expected to go through higher and higher levels of indoctrination so that at the end of the production line, they conform to a specific ‘quality’ assurance criteria that renders them ready to join other similarly standa...

Soldiers in Trenches in WW1 As men from across the world fought side by side in the 1 st World War, an insidious disease was mutating in the trenches of the Western front-line. Late in the spring of 1918, the Spanish wire news service Agencia Fabra, sent cables to Reuters’ service headquarters in London, stating the nature of the disease. The 1918 influenza epidemic had originated from China, mutated in United States and exponentially transformed in the close quarters present in the battlefields of the war in Europe. It is noted that after it was over, 50 -100 million people across the world, as far as the remote Polynesian Islands had died.   Men in War Hospitals in WW1 Strangely it was called the Spanish Flu, not because it originated from Spain, but because Spain a neutral country had a more independent stance while reporting about the war.   During the war information was carefully selected, distributed, emphasized and framed to serve the ...