Self-esteem;

This article was written for the second issue of Belles Magazine Kenya, Women's Publication...

Amugasha Kalengeka

A very thin line separates an achieving woman from the rest of the crowd that has not much to floss about Amugasha Kalengeka reflects on the making of a power woman…

Do you like what your mirror tells you? Do you care or retain too much opinion about what other people think about how you look? That is not your problem; it is their problem, right? I would not give a hoot either.

Power women are built around their self-esteem. They ooze of confidence, soar with the eagles and no amount of negative comments and cynicism can sway their feel good image of self.

If you think you cut below the mark, take this as your homework; get acquainted to any woman at the helm of things out there and she will tell you that getting comfortable in your skin is a major step towards your personal growth in various facets of life. Be it your career, relationship, business you name it.  

Women with sleek sense of self-esteem strike and maintain contacts with ease, get promotion or cut lucrative deals for selves and their organization.

 These, they accomplish while their peers spent  much of their time on the mirror b**ching about things lipsticks as the rest fall unconscious from hunger (apparently to slim up).

Ok, I haven’t seen anyone who has managed to run out of their skin. It is the feel good air that you create around yourself that rubs on the people around you. If you think of yourself as beautiful, voila! beautiful you become! You don’t ask people for approval ,like if  they think you are too plump or too dark because you know that you can be only you and nobody else ,and appreciate it just right.

Not everyone has to think of you in their terms.  What some people will see as a butterfly some people struggles to see the inherent caterpillar. Others that give not so appealing complement might just be doing so to cover for their personal feelings of inadequacy. By pulling you down, they feel sufficiently elevated. Smile and walk away.

So, being tall, dark, short, light-skinned only strikes from the angle you want to gloss about. It hasn’t  ever defined anyone’s destiny unless one want it to.

Forget what a guy thinks of a lady. If he is the dumb type, today he will be infatuated by curvaceous looks tomorrow he worships and kisses the exact opposite.Mmmm?!

Observe your diet; hit the treadmill to keep yourself fit and not to please a mortal soul. Wear that sexy lingerie, keep the mascara not to earn anyone’s approval but feel good about self.

When you are comfortable with self, you direct your energies and resources towards other worthy course. You have no time musing over what other find to be inadequacies. You are in control, you prosper and they call you power woman.

Will Rwanda dethrone Kenya as the next big thing in East Africa?

Rwanda is now stable. Economy on the rise and some pundits think it is on its way to claim a place in the bargain of nations-and while at it, dethrone Kenya as the East Africa’s economic giant. That’s a blatant lie.

Rwanda acquires a new constitution in a semi-democratic referendum that clearly hoodwinks a section of’ international community’ and a majority of voting Rwandese masses.

Let’s first be clear here, ‘international community’ especially the US had no business in telling Kagame whether he was right or wrong in seeking to extend his term. It is none of anyone’s business except the Rwandese public.

Yes, that referendum was well choreographed to suit the incumbent president’s interest is a fact. And that the pro-new constitution campaign was a well- oiled state machinery is unquestionable-it is standard practice anywhere in Africa …and yes again only Rwanda says and decides if they want to die by the firing squad or mercy killing.Either way they already had elected themselves to die.

In any case, if international community (if there is such a thing at all as international community, since this term is construed in many context to mean the west and its lynch mob)  had the heart to assist an ordinary Rwandese, should by matter of help only have funded public education done by Rwandans themselves  to elaborate on contentious issue. Or even encourage a healthy public dialogue on whether to adopt or not to adopt the new sets of laws.

 Not telling Rwandans what they need to do! Who the f**k is US to Rwanda anyway? A messier? A brother? No, just a lousy capitalist protecting its interest.

No two economies share the same dynamics, it is therefore preposterous for  Uncle Sam and other cry babies to demand methods  that they think should work for Rwanda. This is outright, uninvited interference into the running of a sovereign state.

That is where the west lost the plot to China. Nations are no longer easily duped by promises of a big brother’s protection. They engage in give and take like equal partners and if this is not the case, everyone walks to different directions.

In the illusion of peace is a deep seething anger of the Majority Hutus who unenthusiastically stay under the government of a former Tutsi rebel fighter. There is fear of each other rather than the requisite respect. And at the slightest trigger-well, fireworks! The poor Hutu have no choice but to be bought into submission by the affluent and politically well-positioned Tutsis.

For a landlocked country barely the size of a Kenyan county, Rwanda is still a toddler in its diapers and cannot match the economic clout of veteran wheeler dealer that is Kenya.

Kenya is power broker, a nasty competitor who won’t be bullied by seasoned powers in quest for what she wants. She ventures into the wild, beat her nemesis silly, strangle her and display on the roadside as warning for would be detractors. With the aid of an unassailable intelligence and counter-terrorism mechanism, Kenya walked into the murky waters of global terror with umpteenth success. And to smash rotten eggs on the faces of the west, dared into the domain of Al Qaeda that the US with all hullabaloo of its military strength failed miserably.

The East African bully does not rely on aid and grants like Rwanda. Funded by a budget purely from it pocket, boast of a growing number of middle class population, has increased energy production and has a well defined foreign policy that defines its terms of engagements.

Kenya’s multinationals are reaping big in the African market and its technological might is at par with the best in the world.

So can Rwanda take Kenya’s space? Not in the next century. Rwanda is in the league of South Sudan and other Banana republics. Kenya is flexing its muscles against the best of the world powers and can only play in a friendly tournament with Rwanda but not the same league.

Rwanda has first to learn its steps. Learn to bite, chew  and swallow before he can partake into competition with dirty fighting Kenya-just ask the least developed nations that were at the WTO summit. They were into a bargain for a common voice with Kenya as the lead prosecutor for their course.But what happened? Kenya spit into their faces and told them that it is not about a group of nations- it was individual effort. She went for the juggler of major powers, got her cut of the deals, sealed and walked away-as the rest waited for father Christmas to hand them goodies. Forget it! You gotta have your own balls to impregnate the fair damsel.

That is Kenya for you, the world's next big thing!.