STORIES FROM MY HEART

This morning I was at Serena at 7.00 am to listen to perhaps one of the best economic orators I have ever listened to, the Group CEO of African Alliance, Tony de Castro. What makes him such as interesting man to listen to is little tidbits of knowledge so humorously said that you can only concentrate through out the presentation. No fancy projectors with numbers and other impressive details, just him and the crowd, nice and easy. So where are we, As African's in regards to the Global crisis? We have been affected no less, in the export market, commodities etc. But this creates space for us to rethink the way we do business, and make the best of this crisis (or in Obama speak not to waste a good crisis.) 2.5 trillion dollars is a lot of money to throw at the crisis, and as expected, stability checks in for the Americans. This does not mean the crisis is over. It’s like a shot of Morphine, whose effects only last a short while. The underlying currents are still at play, and that is t...

Of course they do, silly! But that’s my excuse for not buying a single pair of shoes while I was there. But I did get some leggy treatment. I bought a pair of grey leggings, the cold made me do that. But this blog is not about shoes. I went to Copenhagen for work. I am a business reporter and this time round I played the role of camera person as well, oh, the joys of working for TV. Ask a stranger to press the record button, count yourself down ,say take one, spell out your script, then wait for another stranger to record yet another piece to camera. I managed, and packaged a 5 minute feature on the report of the Africa Commission, which runs on this weekend's East Africa Business Report on CNBC Africa Just today I was reading a piece on the business daily written by Rwandan president Paul Kagame, titled ‘Africa must find its own road to prosperity. Question is: do we as a continent need foreign aid? The president says “no one should assume they know what is good for us better th...

Three days now, and I have not learnt a word of Danish, thy are interesting people the Danes, but they never get too close, and that's not a bad thing,really :-). I am here for work, and when I got the invite from the African commission I was excited. I had never been to a Shenghen country before and the history and architecture of Denmark is all that I knew from back in the day. The first step was to find the embassy and get a visa in two days. It worked. The Danish Foreign Ministry was our host so that was easy, though the Runda based embassy kept us for hours waiting for the visa appointment. It wasn't first class treatment, but guess that's not important is it? Even the aiport, security doubt you, or are trained to doubt you. I met some that spoke with a heavy Luhya accent. usually it's funny, not this time though. " can you please tell me your testination matam?" " Denmark" I say " where does the blane first lant?" he says "The pl...

Hello M-pesa, goodbye banking halls!!! I remember my very first account was with Equity bank, I had done an ad and was getting a cheque of 25,000 bob, and my was i excited! Kahara (old friend of mine)introduced me to Equity Building Society and for over one hour I stood with Mama Mboga's queueing to open my account with 500 bob. Just thinking of how far financial innovation has come. Now the Mama mboga's can take out a loan and wont have to put their veggies aside and take the queue to pay up. Cutting edge solutions like these are changing the way we do business, SME's will not have to battle with taking a bike from deep in the village to a banking hall at the nearest town. A step in the right direction, looking to see how Zap will measure up.

I must admit..I love to know what goes into a cocktail. Whenever I am out, I make a point to sit at the bar in a place that's known for super cocktails. My fave's Mercury at ABC, Havanna in Westie, Slims in Milimani and of course Tamambo. Usually I ask for a cocktail that I have'nt had before, or I ask the bar man to select one for me, after which i try to guess what's in the cocktail, That's the sweetest part, and knowing you can always create a new cocktail is pretty exciting too. Anyone who likes cocktails knows what goes into a bloody mary,But in case you dont: 2 tots smirnoff vodka I can tomato juice few drops of tabasco few drops of soy sauce. Mix well..and Happy National Bloody Mary Day (dont quote me on that though!) How's that to start your Monday:-)