Boycott news

Wakenya Mpo?

In Kenya today, there was a boycott on fuel and its products as was called by the National Civil Society Congress. All Kenyans were called upon to walk to work if they must be on duty, all private sector players asked to let their employees be at home or not penalise them for not going to work, all fuel run industries to desist from operating, and all public service vehicles to park in protest over the high prices of fuel.

I just got here to do this blog, having walked over ten kilometers. And the three groups of people I talked to on my way were rather interesting. Most said they heard of it in media but since they had to go to work anyway, and the civil society or the media does not pay their keep, it was none of their business. Some laughed at my call for us to walk and the rest wished me luck with a few asking me how much i was being paid to walk.

So what is a boycott?

The etymology of the word boycott has its origins in Ireland: See the short passage below from Wikipedia;

"The word boycott entered the English language during the Irish "Land War" and is derived from the name of Captain Charles Boycott, the estate agent of an absentee landlord, the Earl Erne, in County Mayo, Ireland, who was subject to social ostracism organized by the Irish Land League in 1880. In September that year protesting tenants demanded from Boycott a substantial reduction in their rents. He not only refused but also evicted them from the land. Charles Stewart Parnell, in his Ennis Speech proposed that, rather than resorting to violence, everyone in the locality should refuse to deal with him. Despite the short-term economic hardship to those undertaking this action, Boycott soon found himself isolated—his workers stopped work in the fields and stables, as well as the house. Local businessmen stopped trading with him, and the local postman refused to deliver mail.

The concerted action taken against him meant that Boycott was unable to hire anyone to harvest the crops in his charge. Eventually 50 Orangemen from Cavan and Monaghan volunteered to harvest his crops. They were escorted to and from Claremorris by one thousand policemen and soldiers—this despite the fact that Boycott's complete social ostracism meant that he was actually in no danger of being harmed. Moreover, this protection ended up costing far more than the harvest was worth. After the harvest, the "boycott" was successfully continued. Within weeks Boycott's name was everywhere. It was used by The Times in November 1880 as a term for organized isolation. According to an account in the book “The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland” by Michael Davitt, the term was coined by Fr. John O'Malley of County Mayo to "signify ostracism applied to a landlord or agent like Boycott". The Times first reported on November 20, 1880: “The people of New Pallas have resolved to 'boycott' them and refused to supply them with food or drink.” The Daily News wrote on December 13, 1880: “Already the stoutest-hearted are yielding on every side to the dread of being 'Boycotted'.” By January of the following year, the word was being used figuratively"

(source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott)

Today a boycott is generally used to refer to "a form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of protest, usually of political reasons"

Several people walked to work, some stayed at home, but the majority of Kenyans are trudging on with their daily chores, uninterested in this and totally refusing to link this noble action to their high taxation, to the fact that they have lesser resources, to the fact that many more youths will not be going to school, the fact that they pay - daily- a higher fare to and from work, to the fact that the price of unga is high and to the fact that most of them may not afford festivities in the coming Christian festive season.

This is perhaps the greatest tragedy of our times: the inability or rather refusal by all of us to see the connection between issues.

But the cause is not lost, not with the kind of energy I saw in the Huruma sports grounds yesterday with the various communities and over 74 groups performing in celebration of their traditional foods and their culture and congregating to light candles to celebrate the 60th anniversarry of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They petitioned the government on such issues as unga housing environment among others and supported the Kriegler and Waki Commissions' recommendations.

The highlight of the day was when a police officer, who had been sent to find out about the meeting was forced to join the group in lighting the Amnesty International trademark candle!

May this land prosper, and may we mobilise and mobilise, for the time will come when we will all beleive in the interconnectivity of things/happenings and we shall all boycott our leadership and its machinations of the armed forces and the multi- and trans-national robbery agenda!

12/12/08: May the Unga revolution go on in all public spaces!

Them: Haraaaambeeeee!

Us: Unga!