Kenyan president scraps bill to raise taxes after violent protests leave 23 dead

 William Ruto says he has listened to the people of Kenya, who gathered across the country to oppose the law

 

The Kenyan president, William Ruto, has withdrawn a bill to raise taxes a day after violent protests erupted around the country following its approval by parliament.

Ruto’s surprise decision not to sign the finance bill came after violent clashes between police and protesters at the Kenyan assembly and across the country left at least 23 people dead and scores wounded, according to medics.

“Listening keenly to the people of Kenya, who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with this finance bill 2024, I concede. And therefore, I will not sign the 2024 finance bill, and it shall subsequently be withdrawn,” he said in a press briefing in Nairobi.

The climbdown will be seen as a major setback for Ruto, who came to power vowing to help Kenyans cope with rising costs but has seen much of the country, led by youth, unite in opposition to his latest attempt at reforms.

In an attempt to further defuse the volatile situation, Ruto proposed a dialogue with young people, civil society, religious organisations and professional bodies on the bill.

He also directed austerity measures to reduce expenditure in his office, the executive, parliament, as well as in the judiciary and county governments “to ensure that we do live within our means, respecting the very loud message that is coming from the people of Kenya”.

The move will be considered a victory for the week-old protest movement that grew from online condemnations of tax increases into mass rallies demanding a political overhaul, in the most serious crisis of Ruto’s two-year-old presidency.

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Board Games...Remember Them?

  Board Games...Remember Them? 

Over the past few years I have tried several online games. I find them relaxing and addicting. I’m not sure if the addiction is to the games themselves or the de-stressing factor they have on me. When I am playing, I concentrate so much on the game I forget whatever is causing me stress. I’m sure it has the same affect on many and that’s why it’s so hard to stop. Right now I am hooked on Bubble Witch Saga and stuck at level 55. I suppose if I don’t succeed in passing that level, at some point my frustration will cause me to give it up. But, remember the old board games?

I woke up thinking about board games today, for no special reason. I was thinking of how some of them kind of prepared us for life. The game Life was one of my favorites. You could go around the whole board getting an education, a job, a spouse, kids. Adding kids was my favorite part. You could live a while lifetime in one game and I think it taught us a few things we would have to face in the future. Another of my favorites was Scrabble. I loved word games and I have a knack of being able to look at random letters and see words just out at me. It makes me great at the Jumble in the newspaper. Sometimes I get the answer without figuring out all the words. I got so good at playing Scrabble that eventually no one would play with me. And who could forget Monopoly? All that nice colored money and real estate! Houses and hotels, railroads, rent, the old community chest, jail, and the bank! It was great being the bank! Playing that game makes everyone feel a little like Donald Trump. Other games like Password, Trivial Pursuit, Concentration, Clue were also among the games I enjoyed playing. I wonder how many kids play those games today? There’s probably an online version of all of them, but it’s just not the same.

Board games were great for more reasons than one. They not only taught us a few things about life in general, but they brought people together to interact. Whether for a family game night or to play with friends, these games gave us an opportunity for social interactions. Maybe they weren’t as calming as online games. I’ve seen many a fight break out when someone had to pay rent and was out of money; or someone got nothing but vowels and could make any words, but there was also plenty of conversation and fun.

Even games designed for very young children, like Candy Land, teach turn taking and social skills. I got them for my kids before they even started school. It help them to learn how to be more gracious losers too as we taught them games are not really about who wins, but about having fun playing them. Over the years we have collected a ton of games and have gotten many a laugh out of them.

Maybe it’s time to dust off a few game boxes and bring them out again? It could be great fun to make a night of it with some special snacks. I think I will try to plan a family game night soon. It’ll be fin, especially if I win!

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Family Trees..

  In 1977 Alex Haley’s “Roots” became a miniseries on television. My brother and I watched every episode and loved it. But even after watching it, we could not shake the value of finding the roots of our own family. Someday I would have children and I would want them to know where they came from, the relatives who might be long gone before their arrival, and those who they might meet but would never remember as they got older.

My brother started asking questions and information from our parents. He got the names of our ancestors for as far back as they could remember, which was a little easier for us since our parents were first cousins and our tree was a little one sided. He got the names of all the relatives they could remember, including dates of birth, marriage and death and when they came to this country from Sicily. He put everything on charts and it looked quite impressive. But, he didn’t stop there. He sent away for birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates and passenger lists of the ships that brought our grandparents and their children here. We didn’t computers back then so he really did a great job collecting documents. He even wrote to the church in Sicily to get some of these documents from there. My father was born there and our parents married there.

By the time I married in 1983, he had a very impressive collection of facts and documents and he had made copies of everything for me. It was then that I decided to record all the oral history we had heard for years at family get-togethers and holidays. So many things had been discussed over the years and would be lost if not written down. I started with a list of all the family members and ancestors I had heard anything and those I knew personally while growing up. It was a labor of love. I wrote every night for days and included every little detail of every story I could remember. If I forgot something or needed my memory refreshed, my mother was only too happy to fill in the blanks. But, I didn’t forget much. These stories lived inside of me and just poured out on the blank page like water from a pitcher. When I was done, my words added flesh to the body of information my brother had collected.

We got two family tree books from Barnes & Noble. They were very inexpensive. We entered all our information on the new, crisp pages of our books. I typed up our oral history. It was quite and impressive piece of work. My husband saw and heard us working on this project and he decided to try to document his family tree for our children as well. He sent for documents here and in Europe. He wrote to Malta for information on his mother and her side of the family, because they were born there. He wrote to Austria to try to get information on his father’s side. He got passenger lists for when his mother and her family came to this country. And, he asked his parents questions and got as much information as he could on names and dates. It was very exciting for him to see the wealth of information he collected and he transferred all his information onto charts too.

In third grade, my daughter was assigned a project for the year, to create her family tree! We took out all the documents and oral history. We found pictures of the relatives mentioned. We took pictures of her grandfather’s medals from WWII and her grandmother’s jewelry that had become family heirlooms that she would one day inherit. She made up questions and interviewed all four of her grandparents to included in her album. The project was fun, she learned a lot about her family that year and I have to say her project was the best. They had a year-end luncheon at the school and displayed the class’ work for all the parents to see.
I always say we are a product of our experiences, and we are. But, we are also a product of those who came before us. I am so glad my brother and I decided to act on our impulses and went out to gather and record all this information. We will now leave my girls, their children and all future generations a legacy of family history that would have surely been lost.

It’s a new year, a time for new beginnings. Maybe there will be time to search out “old” beginnings of your family?  You will never be sorry you did, it’s a rich and rewarding experience. And, when your children get older, they will thank you.

*****

 

Since I last wrote this, my older daughter has picked up where I left off researching our family tree. She is journaling her experience in her own bog, "Tracking Them Down" at http://trackingthemdown.wordpress.com/

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All 8 CBS-Owned The CW Affiliates Are Going Indy

 All 8 CBS-Owned The CW Affiliates Are Going Indy 

The eight The CW affiliates in the CBS-owned group will become independent stations in September. They are WPSG Philadelphia, WUPA Atlanta, KBCW San Francisco, KSTW Seattle, WTOT Tampa, WKBD Detroit, KMAX Sacramento and WPCW Pittsburgh. 

The stations will continue airing The CW programming through August. As of September, CBS Stations will have 13 independent stations alongside the 14 CBS stations.  

“We look forward to reimagining these stations as independents while leveraging the considerable value of their primetime real estate in each of the markets,” said Wendy McMahon, president and co-head, CBS News and Stations. “It’s an exciting time to look at new opportunities to add local programming, including live sports, and shows from across the Paramount Global brands. We are also grateful to have been part of The CW for 17 memorable years and wish our partners at Nexstar continued success.”

More and more live sports are moving back to broadcast TV as cable regional sports networks hit tough times. 

In October, Nexstar Media Group completed its acquisition of 75% of The CW. Dennis Miller was named network president, succeeding Mark Pedowitz. Nexstar said in a statement, “Since our acquisition of The CW Network last October, we have known that Paramount Global might transition the network affiliations of eight of its company-owned stations later this year. We are prepared for this possibility and confident that The CW Network will continue reaching 100% of U.S. television households without interruption.”

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Leçons de vie de Carl Jung que les gens aimeraient connaître le plus tôt possible

  Leçons de vie de Carl Jung que les gens aimeraient connaître le plus tôt possible 

 Leçons de vie de Carl Jung que les gens aimeraient connaître le plus tôt possible 

Carl Jung était un psychiatre et psychanalyste suisse qui a fondé la psychologie analytique. Carl Jung a créé certains des concepts psychologiques les plus connus, notamment la synchronicité, les phénomènes archétypaux, l'inconscient collectif, le complexe psychologique et l'extraversion et l'introversion.

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Making It - Amy and Nick Play "Smell That Wood!" (Digital Exclusive)

Making It - Amy and Nick Play "Smell That Wood!" (Digital Exclusive)
Making It - Amy and Nick Play "Smell That Wood!" (Digital Exclusive)

I once watched a really long video of Nick Offerman building a canoe. It was incredibly entertaining, and I remember at the time wishing that he had a show where he just built stuff. Dreams do come true.

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Glestore Polo Sport T-shirt MT1030 Uni Homme M L XL XXL

Glestore Polo Sport T-shirt MT1030 Uni Homme M L XL XXL

Glestore Polo Sport Homme

Design raffiné, il est la meilleure interprétation du tempérament stable male, soulignant le côté capable et courageux.

• Caracteristique:
• Tissu: 95% Coton et 5% Élasthanne, tissus couple. Ce produit a passé le test PTC. Vous pouvez compter sur la qualité du textile.
• Taille: M, L, XL, XXL. Voir la photo de détail en haut, choisir l'un le plus adapte à votre taille.
• Couleur:Blanc, Noir, Bleu foncé, Gris, Orange, Bourgogne, Vert, Rose.
•  
• 95% Coton et 5% Élasthanne, passed la détection PTC
• Type de col: Button Down
• Taille normale(la photo de taille detail)

Prix :

	EUR 45,00
Nouveau Prix :	EUR 17,99 & Retour gratuit pour certaines tailles et couleurs.
Économisez :	EUR 27,01 (60%)
	Tous les prix incluent la TVA.

Aviable at Amazon

• 
  
  
  
  

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Sweat Unisexe Homme Femme Flocon de Neige Rodolphe Noël 2018

Description du produit

Envy Boutique - Sweat Unisexe Homme Femme Flocon de Neige Rodolphe Noël

Pull Garçons Filles Rudolph pingouin Noël gai

- Pull d'hiver pour Noël
- Long jusqu'aux hanches
- 73 cm environ de l'épaule à l'ourlet
- Manches longues

• 
  
• 100% acrylique                                          
• Afin de maintenir le produit en bon état                                                                                               , s'il vous plaît suivez les instructions de soins sur le cousu dans l'étiquette d'entretien.
• Taille normale
• Taille normale
• Manches longues
•  Prix :

  EUR 8,01 - EUR 12,99

Tous les prix incluent la TVA.

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