Righteous Indignation & Compassion Fatigue. Huh?

It's about the kids dummy!

Well today marked the last day for this group of Malezi kids and their computer education at the generously donated and quite magnificent General Electric IT lab in Karen, Nairobi. Six new Malezi kids will take their places next week and hopefully get the same great benefit from this wonderful program. My gratitude to Ksenia for getting this program going and also Teacher Grace and Olivia for their tireless efforts in maintaining it. Also many thanks and kudos to the other volunteers who show up as often as possible to lend a hand.

Access to all that Internet information is wonderful though it's not a substitute for industriousness like Alphonse's' notebook pictured here on the left. On the outside of a sheaf of paper, he has hand stitched some thick brown paper discarded from something. It protects what is likely one of his only prized possessions. And as I worked this week on a separate project, I read and gave thought to the term "compassion fatigue". The notion that people are bombarded with information about the world's shared tragedies, and like a rubber band that's been in the junk drawer too many years, it doesn't stretch to where it once did. I vow to not let compassion fatigue get the better of my humanity. People like Alphonse, who strive to do great things must depend upon others. It reminds me of my favoriterest quote by Theodore Roosevelt;

 Righteous Indignation

I'm pissed off that 5 years after the last East Africa drought and the deaths in Somalia we are again seeing people dying of starvation. I am and want to remain Righteously Indignant in the face of such a cataclysmic failure on the part of governments and Aid Groups to attend to the worlds poorest. In Somalia in 2011  - 10 million were impacted and of that 250,000 died horrible deaths. Many - children.  At a meeting of the top Humanitarian Aid providers recently I listened as excuses were made about why we can't help these people. Terms like - no access - insecurity - insufficient funding  - unexpected. We are now faced with an even larger crisis than Somalia 2011 and I would add terms like uncoordinated efforts - poorly planned response - lack of operational effectiveness - lack of cooperation - and lastly fat bastards sitting on their hands doing fuck-all to earn their god-damned money.


Well how do you not see a drought coming? All the well meaning people of government and Non-government organizations and actors who are charged with this weighty responsibility need to do better. I unfortunately must share in the hand-wringing and excuses but I refuse to yield to compassion fatigue and commit to being righteously indignant and in fact outraged when faced with the world's anemic response to such an horrific and largely preventable tragedy. I urge you to learn what you can about this tragedy and what you can do to help both now and in the future.




Next weekend is the summit attempt of Mount Kenya and I can feel the uncertainty and concern starting to invade my consciousness. Not fear... just niggling concerns that don't go away. Ahhhhh sheesh - it's simply a couple days climbing up a mountain. I've been doing this since I was a kid!  What could possibly go wrong?
Brief memories of Kilimanjaro flit through my mind... those moments were I wanted to give up.. where I thought I didn't have the strength to reach the summit. The nausea and headaches, the fatigue and pain all coming back to me. It's all coming back to me now. Eiiissssshh!!!
A close friend of mine Frank once said "instead of doing something so tough - why not just hit yourself repeatedly over the head with a stick...then stop...you'll definitely feel better". Well - this is different. You climb because you can 😁











Thanks for reading ........Layno !