A Test Of Faith

I always wanted to attribute my christianity and faith(which I would want to believe is undivided to God) to my rural upbringing. Something for which I owe so much to the village where I was born and raised. Ironically though I never really attended formal sunday school classes as other kids would because I would always sneak into the main church where the elongated service was held. Maybe I just liked being there as a way of mischief but one thing was for sure, I wasn't getting bored with doing that each and every other sunday service. My grandparents, with whom I lived with then always said they were fascinated by my perpetual interest in the church and more so the main service. It was a Presbyterian church and now that am at it I still can't explain how I held up a 4 hour service as that was how long it would normally take. The time never really seemed to a bother at that time of my childhood. As I grew up and was now well into my youth my heart didn't seem disinterested enough by the prospect of church-going although like every other kid at such tender age, it did pose some questions whether to go or not. I have always found comfort in having to congregate in church my reasons nice and simple; a quiet place to worship God and grow. Faith in God to me to me is something I believe is personal and depends so much with every individual's attitude. My upbringing did contribute a considerable deal to me being as pious as I would want to think I am but also it was only keeping the habit up by my own discretion and no duress ever forced me to do what I did. If there are things in life that really matter, I think the upbringing of kids should be on top of the list. It gives me joy to proclaim God's love and continued support in all these things because of course he is the maker of all things and the graceful one here. It has been a while since I sat and wrote something so i really hope this one is worth the while for now. Until next time that was "Something That Mattered". DAVID KINYUA

Why Debian?

Debian, The Universal Operating System, is one robust and amazing open-source distribution I consider the best running GNU/Linux. The reason I would ditch the TV for it are simply much more that just the eye candy, and in brief, a secure experience, the vast software resources, vibrant mailing lists and community to learn from, fast and slim flux box window manager besides the widely used gnome desktops, full and flawless support for most of the programming languages I am keen to put my mind to, ability to run on very old hardware that is also low on memory and with basic video and sound cards leave alone an old wireless card that needed some few hours to just get recognised, amongst many other reasons.

Its been almost 3 years using Linux and I can finally say that this is where I finally wanted to be, running a robust, multiple desktop, clean partition Linux. The succession was Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, OpenSuse, Ubuntu and now comfortable at Debian 5.0 with kernel 2.6.29 on 32bit 17GB Toshiba laptop which must be 5 years old now.

It has been almost 6 months on Debian Lenny and the experience is just one of a kind. Being able to survive a clean upgrade from Etch to Lenny with just a few weeks after my first ever install of Debian was just like water-boarding for me but luckily enough I survived it and learning so much more from the Debian community.

Just being able to cleanly run Debian that plays flash well, compiles C code neatly, roams and catches wireless networks without hitches, sounds clear with the sound servers all souped up for comfort, can Skype, telnet, putty or ssh to Uni, has my own style in fluxbox not forgetting to mention transparent aterm, hibernates properly(had to get 2.6.29 for this), xnests just fine, social-networks fully with Pidgin, can Compiz on gnome when feeling lazy but with my video card I wouldn’t normally want compiz slowing me down so I just have it off amongst other things is just amazing. And at this rate I am about to convince all of my friends to get their tux on. And I haven’t even talked about the server side of things. Xorg for now gets me happy!

Peter Schiff on Inflation, Fed, Rule of law

Tackling the Mungiki Menace;We need action Mr President

Assuming that what is reported in the Kenyan mass media is only a fraction of what is happening in the ground, the Mungiki case to me qualifies to be one that needs serious urgency Mr President sir. Can anyone educate me otherwise because this to me is what I would call damning ridiculous: the fact that nothing is being done. At one instance some weeks back 29 villagers were taken down by this "outlawed" sect. And their reason, well, who really bothered to investigate?
Maybe the political instability after the elections might have helped legitimise this bloody group but I would be so intrigued if they actually closed their eyes (if in case they have any) did it on purpose

If I recall right, what I learned a government to be(a democratic one for the sake of this argument) is one that represents the people that voted it in. According to my understanding, a government seeks to protect its people just as importantly as it should its general sovereignty. When a sect like Mungiki gets out of hands and seems to be as strong as if they have some atomic weapons is completely puts me off. If the worst is this why should not help from the army be invoked as it seems the Kenya Police appear to be comprised(then again I understand this is not star-trek but there seems to be mixed feelings here and possibly some dirty tricks which we as the citizens of Kenya have not been told about but have been left to the evil hands of speculation.

When people die at the magnitude they are dying at the hands of Mungiki and yet a president does nothing to inspire some hope physically to me indicates a hole in the bag. I can not abstract this issue further since I am not on the ground but what the hell is Kibaki waiting for. I am only loking up to the president because as of now Mr Odinga has been given no such powers to be capacitated to turn things round and if I were Odinga I would really reconsider issues. Where on earth does a government fight its own. Just why will not fellow party members agree to support Raila for once for the sake of the Kenyan majority.

Democracy I say is at a huge test here and unless someone does something real quick, alternatives will sure have to crop up but I dare spare that thought for the benefit of my sanity. The government needs to step up real quick before these anti-Mungiki vigilantes take their missions too far out.

Coming to terms with religion

Am just a little distressed at the fact that it seems the more 'civilised' things and people seem to get, the more separated they are becoming to their spiritual affiliations. As this 'civilised' group is mostly composed of the youth, I guess where am pointing at is the seemingly religious emancipation that the young generation is tending to be struggling to achieve.

The only viable explanation I can come up with at the top of my head would be a stronger peer pressure this time coming from a wide variety that the internet and technology as a whole has brought along.

While this is one topic that no one can say they have mandate over referring to people's choices about who or what they believe in, it also brings to great question the moral spiritual judgment and uprightness that I suppose ought to be there and which ought to be taken more seriously if that was the case. When people are left to decide what to do with their freedoms of having to choose whether or not to recognise a greater being, supernatural in being to bring the point home, given the magnitude of the current revolution of globalisation, what I am most afraid of is a supersonic  degradation of Christianity in general. Of course am being too pessimistic generalising everything this way but to me it seems the wholesome thing to do.

For now, my message to Christians is for them to keep strong of their belief in God and remain faithful for I believe it is not in vain. Those who have faith and earnestly seek him, as I paraphrase from the Bible in Hebrews 11:6, will be rewarded