Joshua Njenga

https://www.joshuanjenga.com/Creative/Stories/Story?id=3106aefb-b3e8-4833-ebd4-08d9733bbc17&partId=1

Class Notes on Depression Causes, Symptom, and Support

IN TODAY'S CLASS

From the Durranis to the Talibans - A Brief History of the Afghan Conflict

Part 1 of 5: The Birth of Afghanistan

From the Durranis to the Talibans A Brief History of the Afghan Conflict

https://www.joshuanjenga.com/Creative/Stories/Story?id=9de2a398-0906-4aef-a0e5-08d74b444ad1&partId=1

The Missing Manager He Promised to Join Us, but We Never Saw Him Again

THE EVOLUTION OF KENYA'S BORDERS SINCE THE BERLIN CONFERENCE
By Joshua K. Njenga

If East Africa had retained its 1900 design:
- Kismayu would be Kenya's main port city;
- Naivasha would be in Uganda; and
- You'd probably need a visa to visit Mombasa.

In which country would your home be? Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, or Zanzibar?

The Evolution of Kenya's Borders Since Berlin Conference Kenya's Boundary Has Changed Several Times in the Last 120 Years

THE MISSING MANAGER
By Joshua K. Njenga

In corporate training in Kenya, the years between 2001 and 2010 are what I call “the decade of team building.” Most organizations were doing it and we trainers were busy.

Economically, it was a period of prosperity, and nearly every company had a budget for team building.

I was one of the pioneer team building facilitators, and there were only a few of us. The result is that most of my weekends were spent training.

That’s how, in 2009, I ended up doing team building for company X. It is a blue-chip company, the kind that every trainer would love to have as a client.

It had planned team building events for its eight departments, and all of them took place at a hotel in Naivasha.

Typically, a bus picked them up from their head office on Saturday morning, and they returned on Sunday afternoon.

We did the first seven groups without incident; but, for the last group, we left late.

Like all the other groups, we assembled at their head office at 7.00 a.m.on Saturday; and all employees were on time. However, we were asked to wait for their head of department who was still “finishing something” in the office.

I had met him a week earlier to discuss his department’s requirements, and he insisted we must depart on time. I found it curious that he was the one delaying us.

While sitting in the bus, waiting, his employees were gossiping about him; and I learned a few things about him from listening to it. For example, I learned that most employees liked him because of his easy-going nature; but he was a workaholic who spent long hours in the office.

He left the office past midnight every day, and he came to to work all weekends and public holidays.

All his life seemed to rotate around work, and he had not taken leave the previous three years. It seemed like there was always something for him to do in the office.

At 9:00 a.m. he came to the bus, and we all thought it was time to leave. However, he said he had not finished what he was doing.

He told us to depart without him, and that he would join us after two hours.

We got to Naivasha at 11:00 a.m. and got on with our program. However, by the end of the day, the manager had not yet arrived.

His team tried calling him but he did not answer. However, they said it was normal for him not to pick calls when he was busy.

His assistant called his wife, but she said she was not expecting him. He had told her he would travel to Naivasha with the team.

As is the case most team building events, evenings are spent making partying. There was plenty of alcohol, and the team had brought along a DJ. So, amidst the dance and the alcohol, everyone forgot about the manager.

The following day we had breakfast at 7:30 a.m., and we were getting ready to begin our events for the second day.

However, we returned to Nairobi after breakfast.

The call came in as were walking to the team building grounds.

Security officers patrolling the building had seen him in his office at at 3:00 a.m., and he was slumped on his desk. It was normal for him to spend nights in the office, so they didn't find it unusual. They had seen him resting in that position many times before, so they moved on to inspect other floors.

When they came back at 6:00 a.m., he had not moved an inch. They tried to open the door, but it was locked from inside.

That is when they called the Managing Director.

Somewhere along his busy day or night, he had suffered a heart attack, and it killed him.



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CHANT DOWN BABYLON - THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD "RASTAFARI"

My article on the origin of the word "Rastafari" (and the connection between the Rastafari movement and Ethiopia).

If you like it, share it.

Chant Down Babylon - The Origin of the Word "Rastafari" They believe Haile Selassie is the Messiah referred to in the Old Testament

An average salesperson persuades the donkey to drink water; but the star salesperson makes the donkey feel thirsty.

MANSA MUSA - THE WORLD'S WEALTHIEST PERSON OF ALL TIME WAS WEST AFRICAN
By Joshua K. Njenga (Twitter: )

Imagine yourself so wealthy that when you visit the capital city of another country, you spend so much that inflation hits the roof, and the economy of the whole nation goes into recession.
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In a lunch-time conversation yesterday, most of my colleagues seemed think that Aliko Dangote is the wealthiest African in history. Most were surprised when I told them that the world's wealthiest person of all time was from West Africa, but that person is not Aliko Dangote.

I told them that this man was wealthier than Augustus Caesar (the wealthiest European of all time), Genghis Khan (the wealthiest Asian of all time), and Zhao Zhongzhen (the wealthiest Chinese of all time).

Mansa Musa was the emperor of Mali between 1312 and 1337; and he is famous for converting his West African kingdom into world-famous Centre of commerce, learning, and architecture.

The Empire of Mali was a huge territory that comprised present-day Mali and Mauritania (and parts of present-day Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad).

During his reign, the city of Timbuktu became an important destination of traders from Middle East, North Africa, and Europe; and the University of Sankore (the first university in what we call Sub-Saharan Africa) became one of the most sought-after institutions of Islamic learning in the whole of Islamic world.

Most accounts of the extent of Mansa Musa's wealth do not give an exact figure - but they prefer to just say that he "had more wealth than anyone could count."

At that time, the gold coin was the world's common currency; and his kingdom was the world's largest producer of gold.

The legend of Mansa Musa's wealth became most pronounced during his pilgrimage to Mecca between 1324 and 1325. This trip is said to have caused economic recession (that lasted decades) in most nations along his path. In fact, the economy of Egypt nearly collapsed because of his extended stay in Cairo.

His procession comprised 60,000 people and 300 camels. Each person carried 4 bars of gold, and each camel carried 100 kgs of gold dust.

Along the way, he donated some of it to the poor, exchanged some of it for souvenirs, and built a mosque every Friday.

However, as generous as his actions might seem, his trip devastated the economies of most of present-day North Africa and Middle East. The sudden over-supply of gold eroded it's purchasing power, leading to a currency crisis in most of the nations along his path.

After this trip, the story of Mansa Musa and his lavish spending was told to kids in living rooms throughout North Africa, Europe, and Asia. When traders in North African and Middle East heard about it, they organized caravans and they traveled to Timbuktu to make their fortunes in the Empire of Mali.

This trade is largely responsible for the spread of Islam in most of West Africa.

Now you know.

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OFFICE 365
Many people have it, but they don't use some of it's features.

With Office 365, you can make your PowerPoint presentations from Android phone (or IPhone) directly from your cloud drive. You no longer need to carry laptops or flash disks to your meetings.

The phone plays the roles of laptop and pointer; and using it makes you look cool and trendy.

To learn how to make compelling PowerPoint presentations, look out for my training calender for 2019. It'll be out second week of December.

THE DEATH OF CLASSROOM TEACHING
By Joshua K. Njenga

Formal education will be one of the biggest casualties of technology. Not long from now, schools, colleges, and universities will become museums.

Technology is changing the way people learn, and the old classroom lecturer-student type of learning is on its deathbed.

In coming years, mobile devices will become the primary medium of teaching, and, just like we longer go to banks to withdraw cash, to cinema halls to watch movies, or to malls to do our shopping, children will not have to go to school to learn. Education will be available on mobile phones and tablets, similar to Equity Bank, Netflix, or Jumia apps.

The result is:
1. Children will use mobile devices to learn from the comfort of their bedrooms. They will not need to go to school.

2. National educational curricula will collapse. They will be replaced by private international curricula delivered over the internet.

3. The new mode of learning will reduce the number of years children spend learning. It will be possible, for example, for children to become doctors, lawyers, or engineers by the time they are sixteen.

4. The job of a “Teacher” will cease to exist as we know it today.

5. Academic papers will cease to be an essential requirement for employment.