Friday, October 09, 2009

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize


Our man in the States woud Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize! Obama becomes only the 3rd sitting US president (and 2nd person of Kenyan ethnicity) to win the coveted prize. He also becomes the 2nd African-American, after Martin Luther King Jr., to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

According to the official Nobel Prize website http://nobelprize.org, Obama was handed the award, "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for giving the world "hope for a better future" with his work for peace and calls to reduce the global stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Obama has called for disarmament and worked to restart the stalled Middle East peace process since taking office in January.

"Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said in a citation.

It awarded the prize to Obama less than nine months into his presidency. Despite setting out an ambitious international agenda, he has yet to score any breakthrough on the Middle East or Iran's nuclear program, and faces difficult choices on the conduct of the war in Afghanistan.

Last month Obama chaired a historic meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which unanimously approved a U.S.-drafted resolution calling on nuclear weapons states to scrap their arsenals.

This award comes after a week that has seen Obama come under increased pressure from the Republican-backed media because of his failure to 'secure' the hosting rights for his home city Chicago for the 2016 Olympic games.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Who Does AY Think He Is?

Last Sunday...that was the day that AY threw the gauntlet and dared all MC’s in the region with a bold statement. What’s this am going on about? During the M-Net Big Brother evictions, AY performed on stage while cladded in a t- shirt that boldly proclaimed, “I Run East Africa.” Is AY the King of East Africa? Really?

Mojoh Sojoh

Well, I wouldn’t blame AY for proclaiming himself the undisputed King of East Africa, especially as he is probably the only artist who thought about it in the first place. The title was up for grabs anyway. Of course, there are a couple of artists who can openly dispute this move by the Bongo guru, possibly the likes of MwanaFA, Professor J, Fid Q, Ngwair...(notice, no Kenyan MC mentioned). Whatever the case, or opinion, I’m with AY on this one. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Kenyan music, but look at the titles we give ourselves, ahem, Jua – King wa Genge, Nonini – Godfather wa Genge, Collo – King wa Rap... these are what I would refer to as “mini titles.”

Possibly, the only Kenyan musician who has not dubbed himself with any of these random titles is Redsan. He’s also the only one who can be bold enough to make such a proclamation – at least from a dancehall perspective that is. And yet, even calling him a Kenyan artist seems a bit demeaning coz he’s got such an international outlook to his music and business.

Ok, maybe if we weren’t to look at it from a purely Kenyan perspective (courtesy of the intensifying Genge-Bongo rivalry) we’d see things entirely different.

East Africa is made up of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda (and lately Rwanda...but they’re yet to make any impact musically speaking). These countries in the region happen to have different kinds of music... let’s call them genres. These different genres have their ‘kingpins.’ So, can AY justify his claim of running East Africa? I think he can. One; he’s a great MC. Two; he’s got the hits to prove it. Three; he’s got a series regional hit collaborations under his belt. Four; the title was up for grabs, and well, he grabbed it. All AY can wait for is the MTV MAMA Awards to crown him as the president of the region.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Nu Dance From Jamaica

Mr. Vegas releases new music video...