And Some Things Stay the Same...

The first morning of the CALA conference as we gathered for breakfast a number of the Kenyan librarians had already gathered at the tables. In the middle of some of them was a small radio that was blaring the buzz of the day (this day it happened to be about the Kenyan Minister of Transportation being banned from flying upon any British airline as his visa had been revoked--quite a buzz). As I listened to the hosts requesting callers and repeatedly asking what people thought of the "crisis of the moment" I was struck, again, on how things are not that dissimilar. There are differences--good ones, mediocre ones, and bad ones--but many things are similar. And, if they are not similar to us in the US they are similar to some other unrelated part of the world. We have the same business on the radio that they do and vice verse. It could be that they are learning from us and if this is the case I don't want to hear the Kenyan version of Rush Limbaugh or Al Franken. Lord, save me!!
Another thing that is not too different, in many ways, is the access that those with resources have to obtain more stuff. Here is one of the shopping malls in Nairobi. It is just around the corner from the dentist the Penney's use. I've been here twice. Charles Nandain, the librarian from NIST used to work here when he moved to Nairobi from his village in 1985. He said that his job was to make duplicates of recently arrived movies from the States. He said he didn't know then the problem with this. He was glad when he got to move to another business in the building.
This is like any mall in the states. It does have a large supermarket which are very new in Nairobi--a supercenter of sorts. I'm sure the influence of the West can be seen in the consumerism, but I'm sure that this is human nature as much as anything. Humanity has wanted more since the days of Eve and Adam. It was the initial temptation--do you know that there is something that you don't have and it may even be being kept from you????? Not a sermon, but a reminder to ask, is it necessary? Is it a need or a want?