Beer Tales
Those of us who occasionally enjoy the good brew will undoubtedly be familiar with such brands as Corona, Heineken, Bud Light, Budweiser, Samuel Adams, Michelob light, Coors Light amongst many other beers. I was mildly surprised to find out that Corona, a flagship brew of the Grupo Modelo in Mexico is the number one imported beer in the world. It is also number one in sales in the continental United States. My guess would have been Heineken. You can easily see why; by my estimates, approximately 60% of Kenyan beer drinkers prefer Heineken. I actually believe we spend more cash on Heineken than we send back home to help folks as a group. That’s an issue for discussion at some other time though. Take a look at any photos of us cavorting at one of our many party places. There will be the ubiquitous two-finger salute (what is up with that!), the guy clumsily holding a heineken flashing his brightest smile without a care in the world, scantily dressed women and the camera man might capture the odd jokestar with the “Nairobi City Council” t-shirt or the Jamhuri high school uniform.
My interest in beer was sparked by a conversation I had with a Mexican lady friend a couple weeks ago at a get together. I had just gotten myself an ice cold corona, you know how we do, trying to put the slice of lemon in. She approaches and tells me I’m doing it wrong. Apparently, you need to cut the lemon slice just thick enough to slip into the bottle and hold it upside down till the sucker gets to the top (bottom). We talk mostly about similarities between Kenyans and Mexicans. I say Mexican food is as close to Kenyan food as you’ll get out here unless of course you go to a predominantly Kenyan restaurant such as Safari in Washington DC or Nai Lounge in Dallas, if you ask me. The rice and beans, the way they make chicken, what they consider salsa in some cases we would call “kachumbari”. The Mexican lady, I’ll call her X, says Kenyan food is very easy to make, turns out she can make chapatis. I am not a big chapati fan but from what I tasted, they were pretty good. She can also make “mokimo” which is my favorite dish.
We talk beer again, this time though I interject that Kenyan beers are far much more superior in quality and taste. From memory I am able to recount several Kenyan brews such as Pilsner Ice, Tusker, Tusker malt lager and others. Like Kenya, Mexico has myriads of local brews in addition to the aforementioned Corona; there is also Tecate, Dos Equis, Estrella, Noche Buena and the likes. I sampled Dos Equis once, I believe I will not be sampling Dos Equis again. I had always been a Pilsner Ice drinker till I went back home and tried Tusker malt. My boy Wawesh introduced me to it when I visited and I loved it. Having gotten back to the states, I decided to perform research on what Kenyan beers were available here. I was surprised to find that Tusker was actually being sold at a liquor store close to my home, I bought some. This was indeed the worst tasting beer I have ever tried. It rivals comparably to sisal juice (not that I have ever drunk sisal juice and any stories of such an event are just malicious lies from those out to finish me). Of course there are worse tasting beers in my opinion. If you drink bud ice, mad-dog 20/20, B-40 Bull Max, Old Milwaukee, Bootie Light, Busch Lite or the crap that is Miller lite you might want to try something else.
The Zimbabweans are here
Today as we mark Zimbabwe’s 27 years of freedom, I looked through a myriad of articles commemorating this and spoke to some Zimbabwean friends about what they thought of their country. For one, Zimbabweans are a brilliant, outspoken lot. They speak of their country with pride and highlight recent happenings and reports of discontent within Zanu-PF, the ruling party, as the proverbial straw that will slowly break President Mugabe the camel’s collective back. Rather than speak on it, I came across this article by Justice Malala, a media consultant from South Africa on life for the average Zimbabwean in South Africa as he reflected on their independence day that I wanted to share, here’s a snip:
The Zimbabweans are not Coming: The Zimbabweans are here
Justice Malala
It is the small things that get you. Like, Nathaniel’s wife is six months pregnant. He is a young man who, anywhere else in the world, would be making his way up the corporate ladder. She is somewhere in the deep dark depths of Mutare, Zimbabwe. He is working as a gardener in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. He cannot go home. The last time he went home, in December last year, it took him two months to get back into South Africa. He crossed the Limpopo River, like so many thousands of his compatriots every day, on foot. He was arrested and sent back home. Failure is not an option for people like Nathaniel. If he does not get to South Africa, his wife and child will die of hunger. So he made the perilous trip again, carrying only a 500ml bottle of water. This time he succeeded, arriving in Johannesburg bedraggled, gaunt and thirsty.
He lives in a room in a flat in Hillbrow. He is regularly arrested because he has no official papers and has to bribe the police with amounts as small as R10 to be let off into the seething suburb. He knows one thing: he travels with at least R20 in his pocket just in case he is stopped. He knows it is usually enough to get him out. I have known Nathaniel for three years now. Instead of things getting better, his problem just gets more intractable. He cannot buy fake South African documents - an identity document and passport, primarily - because the police ignore these anyway. They have managed to work out the accents, he says. Without these documents he cannot get a formal job, he cannot engage in any commerce, he cannot put his numerous talents out into the marketplace. He quests, and yet he is condemned to a dark, underground, desperate life. He is perpetually playing hide-and-seek with the law; gambling with his life as he attempts to get home through game parks and a crocodile-infested river..…
Truly, we have a lot to do. Zimbabwe’s problems are Africa’s problems yet our leaders see no need to even question Mugabe’s brazen human rights abuses, abandoning their responsibilities and making excuses for this dictator. They will be held accountable, sooner or later. You can catch the rest of this article here. As for today, happy independence day Zimbabwe, Hope is on the horizon, keep the faith.
Acting the Victim: The Don Imus effect
Excuse me if I come across as insensitive on this issue but I find it laughable that the ‘black community’ is outraged over one Don Imus’ comments about Rutgers women’s basketball team. If you have been living in a cave with blind fish then let me get you up to date:
4/4/07 – Don Imus, refers to member of the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy headed hoes” ( Consensus here is that he was not referring to the long-handled implement having a thin, flat blade usually used to break up the surface of the ground, destroy weeds e.t.c)
Between 4/4/07 - 4/6/07 – The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) highlights this comment and a firestorm is brewing
4/6/07 – Imus issues a statement of apology, some say dismissively.
4/7/07 – 4/8/07 – Firestorm brewing.
4/9/07 – Imus apologizes again and appears on Al Sharpton’s radio show. And yes, apologizes again.
4/10/07 – Imus apologizes to black people again and again, oh yes and again. Firestorm in full swing. Calls for his firing, sponsors are wary. (Imus has a show with a following of about 3 million listeners)
4/10/07 – Rutgers’ womens basketball team holds press conference, condemns Imus’ comments and adds fuel to the fire.
4/11/07 – Sponsors start to pull out in the midst of a firestorm. MSNBC pulls the plug on Imus’ simulcast show Imus in the Morning from its network.
4/12/07 – CBS Cancels Imus’ show. Imus meets with the Rutgers women’s basketball team to apologize face to face at the governor’s mansion.
Talk about celebrating the victim! Oh, those poor women of Rutgers. Poor black women. And the team itself reveling in this by submitting to it and taking part in the mediastorm that followed this. It’s a freakin pity party!
Don Imus’ didn’t call anyone anything that is not celebrated in hip hop today. He did not make up the phrase neither did he call anyone anything they haven’t heard before. BET pimps this message all day and all night long yet when Imus stupidly says something to the effect, we are hurt, outraged and upset? How pathetic. This goes on all the time in the black community yet we are ‘outraged’ when an ignorant 66 year old white man says it? What double standards!
Why don’t we hold press conferences when Nelly and Jay Z call women hoes and bitches in their music? Is Al Sharpton marching outside BMG and Virgin offices protesting against promoting and marketing the vile and misogynistic message in rap music? It’s disgusting how us – yes we, black people are willing to embrace the victim’s role.This is not a problem created by Don Imus, we created it, we need to deal with it. It’s time to Act different!
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About
Magaidi.com is the journal of the African kid. A diary of sorts, a collection of musings and a discussion point on the way forward for the motherland.
