philosophy - Al Kags — Strategist, Social Entrepreneur, Writer

May 22, 2020

The lessons of the Sand Mandala: What can you do with a billion that you can’t do with a hundred million?

In my meditations this morning, I reflected on the Sand Mandala, an ancient sacred practice of sand painting done by Buddhists - Tibetan Buddists in particular. I learnt that the sand mandala is an intricate focus of meditation that monks train in, sometimes for as long as ...

September 18, 2018

I make my interns and mentees wash cars – here’s why.

(Featured image, courtesy Kwalimwar) As a leader in my organisation - well, as a leader in general, I am passionate about mentorship and passing on what I know to others in generations that follow mine. I think it is tragic that so many people, older than ...

October 30, 2017

The challenges of being non-partisan and the pursuit of objectivity

Throughout this electioneering period I have remained generally silent. I have allowed this blog to go quiet and I have generally kept my views to myself. In matters politics, I have strived to maintain a balanced stance within myself - and in these partisan times, ...

April 19, 2016

#OdeToYouth Lesson 11: Be the great person you are supposed to be – NOW.

I often enjoy listening to the BBC World Service in traffic as a means of engaging my mind. I started listening to the World Service while I was still living in that servant's quarter room I told you about earlier. One of my favorite people ...

October 30, 2015

#OdetoYouth: Lesson 1 – Learn hard, Make a brave choice

I left Malindi, where I grew up for a major part of my life on January 6th 2000. I knew that moving to the great big city - at a time that my parents had different ideas of what I should do after high school, ...

October 7, 2012

Make it okay to fail, and maybe development will fail forward

Blog post #2 from the Open Africa Summit, Zanzibar Until today, I had never met Rakesh Rajani, the great man who leads Twaweza. I knew of him by reputation and we came close to meeting on a number of occasions but today, we met at the ...

August 5, 2012

Random thoughts from dowry negotiations

Today I attended a wonderful ceremony – a Gikuyu traditional dowry negotiation. In this age, such things as dowry have been given bad connotations laced with greed, backwardness and a lack of regard for human life (particularly that of the woman). I would not feel ...

July 31, 2012

Dreams of our sons & daughters, dare we imagine?

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend half an hour with a 85 year old man who moved to Washington DC in August 1980 - the very month I was born. I had just finished a really heavy day at the ...

June 2, 2012

Long live the Diamond Queen, Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II is celebrating 60 years of her reign of the United Kingdom and its 15 territories. I have no real idea how this affects me - certainly it has not direct bearing in my life that I can see, but I, like many Kenyans ...

September 13, 2011

Fire. Again. With Political Melodrama (yawn.)

I'm sorry, I am completely unable to feel distraught or more than passively chagrined by the unfortunate events at Sinai slum in Nairobi. I am a little annoyed with the government and Kenya Pipeline Company because I hear (and I really haven't read much about ...

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