Ana 40 mins

I was up early. I wrapped my shins and stepped outside. As usual, there was this group of about five people doing something on the tarmac just before I exited the main gate. I noticed my gait wasnt good because I was leaning forward too much and was bent forward at the waist. I followed Tupacs advice, kept my head up and let my legs do the running. I ended up faster. I increased the distance. I did stretches, pushups, lunges, crunches, heel-toe walks, toe curls and toe raises and iced my feet. I rest tomorrow. Phew! My body kinda felt stiff and I am looking forward to resting kesho. Sato its 100mins run. Need to maintain proper form, its probably bad form thats screwing my shins.
Here is a runners group ready for a group sprint. Our group is growing. 7 potential members so far.

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And ana 38 - Rained on

New problem: my weight has stagnated at a point I dont want it to stagnate. I have been okay everyday for the first 12 houre everyday then at dinner time that is when my efforts are eroded.
So what can I do to change this:
1. When am not running the next morning, try and have something very light for dinner, like a fruit.
2. Take two glasses of water before dinner.
3. Cut back dinner quantities even further.

If it is weight, I will lose it. Come fire come water.

Today i was up earlier and was off by 5:20 but affer 20 mins, it started to rain. Lets just say I was rained on pretty well. I did stretches and other exercises in my living room, iced my shins and tied both of them. Tomorrow I will go for another 6K. Here is Chael Sonnen. Guts and grit.

Cheers.

38mins

I went for another 38 mins run. I have improved my speed but its far from fast. My shins still ache but my position is better compared to last week. As we say in MMA and chess, whenever you act, ask yourself whether your actions have improved your position. The answer is that my position has improved. Despite the pain.
Eye candy today is Junior Dos Santos and er, well, have a look and decide for yourself.

Keep working.
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82 Mins LSR

I went for a 82 Minutes Long Slow Run. My shins are better, particularly the right one. The left one seems to be waking up to the injury. I met several runners including GK. My speed is still nothing to write home about. I just want to get the injuries out of the way then I start speeding up and cutting more weight.
I have managed to be disciplined with my diet so the weight is dropping well.

Next Sunday, I plan to go for 100mins LSR. So far, so good. Just the pesky problem of splintered shins.

Meanwhile, in Milan, Italy - Kenyan Matthew Kisorio took the win improving his PB by seven seconds with 60:03 at today’s Stramilano Half Marathon which celebrated its 40th edition on a cloudy morning but otherwise with ideal weather conditions.
Kisorio, fourth at last week’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, beat his 18-year-old compatriot Eric Ndiema who finished second in 60:20 ahead of Dereje Deme Hailegiorgis, third in 60:25.

Cheers.
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38Mins - Courage and Spunk

I ran yesterday and today. My knees are out of any danger because I do the lunges faithfully. My shins are another matter altogether. They are splintered and even though I faithfully do heel-toe walks and toe raises, the pain persists. And today when I set out on the road, instead of telling myself "Just keep going", I found Paula Radcliffe's mantra "Tarmac Meet Courage" more appropriate because I was in some sort of pain. And the tarmac lay in front of me, daring me to run all over it.
My shoes are rather new so I know they are not the problem my weight is not making it any easier but that too, I will grind down with persistence and consistency and watching what I eat. I clenched my teeth and ran on. After all, I am experienced enough to know the kind of pain or injury I can run through and the type that I cannot run through.
It reminds me of 2008 when my shins gave me plenty of hell and I became friends with bandages and shin support but I was so determined and full of stubbornness I gritted my teeth and ran until the shin pain went away.
Only to be replaced by knee pain. But thats another matter.
So tomorrow I will give them a break as I strengthen my compartment muscles. My weight is behaving well and I expect to shed some more in the coming weeks especially if my shins get better and I pump up the volume.
Here is Jones, taking the UFH LHW belt from Shogun, by force and brutality in UFC 128.

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The Loliondo Wonder, er, Manure

 The Loliondo Wonder - The Jury is In 

24 March 2011

I probably shouldn't be posting this because it was my own fault. And now I am about to waste your time too. It was my own fault that I allowed myself to spend 25 minutes watching an NTV video on YouTube. And this stuff is so bad for the brain and such a waste of bandwidth that people should be banned from watching it. I should have known better. Now I have lost some 25 minutes I will never get back.

If it is any consolation, this post will save you your 20 minutes and you can feel free to use me as a cautionary tale. 

Anyways, I was told yesterday that NTV aired a story about people being healed in TZ. I usually watch Citizen so I missed that and I thought that was the end of it. But today, when I was settling on my desk I was asked again whether I watched it and I said No. And I was told guys are getting healed in TZ from some water from a tree and even Helicopters are taking people there to be healed and the drug costs 20/=. I said TZ has low literacy levels and lots of poverty so from the demographic alone, it is no wonder that buggers are getting fleeced by some equally illiterate guy. "You want to tell us that even those people with big cars are illiterate and poor?" I was challenged."Those hundreds of people can’t be wrong."

I said I was dubious about the story but okay, let me check it out so I can comment meaningfully.

So I made a cup of tea and got to YouTube and found two videos titled The Loliondo Wonder with parts I and II each is about ten minutes long.

It is a product of investigative Jounalsim by John Allan Namu of NTV.

The Loliondo Wonder is a story about a faith healer called Ambilikile whose base is a place in Tanzania called Loliondo near the Kenyan Magadi border. He has become famous recently because people believe that he can cure incurable diseases. He is very categorical that he deals only with AIDs, Cancer, Diabetes, Epilepsy and Asthma. He advises people to go to hospital for other diseases. But when he realizes that can close business from other potential customers, like this barren woman wanting a baby, he says if u take the medicine and pray, you can get a baby/be fertile.

Ambilikile says that one day God revealed to him the medicine in a tree, plus the dosage to dole out and the number of days. He makes a drug from allegedly boiling the roots of a tree called "mgamriaga" or whose scientific name, Allan says, is antaraya intoxicana and which is known to be poisonus. There is no such name as antaraya intoxicana in Botanical dictionaries or encyclopaedias but that is another story for another day.

People are making pilgrimages to Loliondo and paying 25/- for a cup of the brown liquid. 10/= allegedly goes to the Lutheran church. 5/= to Ambilikila himself. 5/= for paying his workers. Of course no accounting records are offered, no receipts Lutheran Church minister to acknowledge or deny. There is a 7-12Km traffic jam of people queuing to see this wondrous healer. Some o those stuck in the jam have children who are not sick but have brought them to prevent future diseases. They believe they will be cured in the name of Jesus.

Ok, who has he cured? There is a guy who is holding a defaced, altered and unclear Hospital card (presumably) who claims he had Glaucoma and got cured. He doesn’t say whether he got drugs from hospital or did not or whether he relied on Ambilikile’s drug alone. Who else? Well, there was once a throat cancer patient. They never confirmed whether he got cured. Okay. What do doctors think? Can he cure diabetes? They bring a Dr. Richard Ole Nkapi. A confused man who preaches about God instead of giving a medical opinion. Alright. What else? Well, dispensaries are closing due to lack of business and there is a guy who says he suffered from diabetes mellitus and his blood sugar level has normalized since he visited the faith healer. They don’t tell us about what other treatment he chose, his activity level, his diet etc so we really can’t nail his reduction of blood sugar to specifics and whether he indeed even had Diabetes in the first place. And there is an old woman suspected of having lung cancer. She believes she can be cured of hereditary diseases. 

Suspected? Yes just suspected. Meaning we don’t even know what she is suffering from. She is probably just old. And oh, there is another story of a neighbour whose kid had epilepsy-like symptoms and got cured and stopped taking drugs. Non-verifiable. No names, no hospitals. No medical records. Convulsions can be caused by all manner of medical conditions, not epilepsy alone. Duh.

A helicopter hovers overhead. Even though it has not landed and we don’t know where it is going, they talk about its occupants being more patients headed there. Okay. What else? The faith healer is guarded by armed forces and transport companies allegedly donate one van out of every ten to ferry people to Loliondo. At the same time, people pay 6K per seat for the trucks.

And Oh, I forgot. The alleged drug does not work outside Loliondo. So you are given and you gulp it down there and then. If you need 7 days of daily intake, you either camp there or make seven trips. What? Yes of course people in nearby townships are opening hotels, selling water to thirsty pilgrims and hotels are making booming business. As we ponder all this, a chronically fatigued guy takes the drink. He is hopeful. As the night falls, some people are settling to sleep on the ground. It is said that some politicians allegedly take their constituents to Loliondo to gain popularity. 

What about other doctors? Dr. Julius Mbuya, a Gynacologist and another Doctor say that some of their patients have been to Loliondo and not cured. Diabetic and HIV patients. And they say the Tanzanian govt knows this and has not intervened. At the end of the story, Allan Namu says he can't decide whether it is gullibility, blind faith or just the need for hope that is driving people to Loliondo. But he knows it is not about being healed. 

So, the upshot of it is that we have claims of healing from some faith healer in TZ and buggers are trudging there in carloads like that is the new Mecca for miracles. And tour operators don’t hesitate to publicize the story and make it sound real so that they get more pilgrims and make roaring business. And I am so mad that I have wasted time on this utterly inane story. 

What is plastered all over that wasteland are images of faith, not cure. His story sells to the gullible and mostly Christian patients because it has a foundation in actual Christian belief. Jesus is said to have healed miraculously and Moses picked a snake and it became a staff. People will always want to believe in the mystical because it makes life so much more interesting. But, sadly, it is all humbug. 

30,000 people cannot be wrong as my friend asks? Well, Galileo Galilei said the world was not flat and the millions of people who disagreed with him, excommunicated him from the Church. Appeal to numbers is a logical fallacy. Only facts matter. And the fact is that diabetes is an insulin/hormonal problem and epilepsy is a neurological problem and AIDS is caused by a virus and cancer is caused by cells that are screwed up. And there is no chance in hell that you can find one drug that can cure all these diseases at the same time. That would be like finding a snake that is human, a virus, a web browser and a tree at the same time. That is the degree of breathtaking inanity that this manure of a story is. Pure unadulterated, Grade A, Prime crap.

This ignorant TZ old man is neither the first nor the last faith healer. They are all frauds. You don’t even need to examine his methods, take his fingerprints or his mental health. History is littered with them from Africa to Asia to Europe to the Americas. And it is because faith healers don’t deliver and have never delivered that we rely on Western Medicine. Those who don’t understand how nature works, how disease is cured and who don’t understand human nature and the desire to believe in miracles are likely to lend credence to the claims made by the pilgrims heading to Loliondo.

Darrel Bristow-Bovey said in his book I moved Your Cheese that "The world is awash with guff, with humbug and bushwash and just plain dumbness, and it is a full-time job to wade through it all without becoming so tired that you just want to lie down and let it roll over you and become one with the dumbness." And that story is plain dumbness walking on two feet and moving in plain sight. And I had the misfortune of being embraced by it for 25 minutes.

The Loliondo scene is a throwback to the dark ages when mankind believed only magic could address problems that they had no immediate answer for. And it is a shame it is happening in 2011 when mankind has made so much progress. Poor Africa.

Next time I wont waste time over such manure.

The Loliondo Wonder  Part I  

The Loliondo Wonder  Part II

Aliet

36Mins - 15K groupe run planned for 10th April

I went for a run on a new route. A much better route. My shins still painful but better. We have planned a 15K run on 10th April. Here is da map. Wanna join us?

1 Hour Run

I discovered a better route and did a one hour run on it. Its got hills baby! Shins are not so bad after the 63mins run. About 9.5Kms. Next Sunday I will do 75 mins.
Meanwhile Vivian Cheruiyot won the women's IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain leaving the 2nd place to Linet Masai.

The Men's race was won by Ethiopia's Imana Merga. Paul Kipngetich Tanui (KEN) and Vincent Kiprop Chepkok (KEN) followed him.

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Another Run but ICC matter is here. The Jury is in on Chamber II

16 March 2011

By Jacob Aliet

Does the Judge’s Dissent Offer a Ray of Hope to the Suspects?

Judge Hans-Peter Kaul of the ICC has recently gained wide media coverage because he issued a minority dissenting opinion against issuing summons to Kenya’s top six ICC suspects as picked by the ICC prosecutor. The judge explained the reasons for issuing his dissenting opinion in a recently published nineteen page document which is available at the ICC website. Does his dissent provide a foothold for the defence lawyers of the Occampo six? Many are inclined to believe that this dissent offers a weakness that can be used to undermine the entire case. But does it?

Generally, dissents are a simple declaration of disagreement with the majority. They may instruct, prod, scold, or otherwise urge the majority to consider the dissenter's point of view. But they carry no precedential weight and are not relied on as authority in subsequent cases. However, lawyers and judges sometimes consult them to understand the dissenter's analysis of the majority opinion. But in the vast majority of cases, courts do not readily admit errors or overrule past decisions. The principle of stare decisis (“let the decision stand”) has a powerful influence on courts. 

Why did this Judge dissent on the decision of fellow judges and on what issues and on what grounds? First of all, he agreed with the other judges and the ICC prosecutor on many issues. For example, he agreed that abhorrent crimes were committed, that Joshua Sang spread propaganda instigating violence against the non-Kalenjin populations and calling for their eviction from the rift valley. He is convinced that William Ruto and Henry Kosgey distributed or otherwise provided money to attendees of meetings and distributed money for training purposes.

He also agrees that Uhuru Kenyatta was the principal contact between the Mungiki gang and the duo of Francis Muthaura and Mohammed Ali. Mr. Ocampo refers to Muthaura, Ali and Uhuru as “the principal perpetrators.” The principal perpetrators, the judge is convinced, had agreed to attack civilians perceived to support ODM in order to maintain PNU in power. He is also satisfied that the Kenyan Police Forces in Kisumu and Kibera committed crimes by using excessive force and that the police did not intervene to stop crimes committed by Mungiki members in certain localities.

So what does Judge Hans-Peter Kaul disagree with the other two judges about?

He differs with them on a small matter that nonetheless influences various facets of the case as presented by the prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo. Just one word; the meaning of the word organization as contemplated in Article 7 (a) of The Rome Statute of ICC, which is about crimes against humanity.

The judges all agree that "attack directed against any civilian population" in that article means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a state or organizational policy to commit such attack.

The dissenting judge objects that “the network” used by Messrs Ruto, Sang and Kosgey entails an organization. He denies that the crimes that were admittedly committed by Police occurred pursuant to the policy of a State or an 'organisation' within the meaning of the Statute. He also faults the majority judges for not regarding any of the other actors (besides Mungiki) mentioned in the prosecutor's application, such as the Kenyan Police, to be part of the 'organisation'. Whereas he agrees that the Mungiki and pro-PNU youth led attacks in Nakuru and Naivasha and the Kenyan Police Forces led the attacks in Kisumu and Kibera, they together with other PNU politicians and wealthy PNU supporters (financiers of the attacks) do not constitute one organization.

The Judge clearly sets out his understanding of the essential characteristics of an 'organisation' in terms of membership, duration, structure, the capacity to impose the policy on its members and the capacity and means to attack any civilian population. Hence, he concludes firmly, an 'organisation' could not have existed in which the primary actors were the Mungiki gang and the Kenyan Police Forces, who are fundamentally antagonistic.

He admits that even though the Mungiki and police cooperated through a series of meetings organized by “the principal perpetrators”, he argues that because that opportunistic partnership of convenience was temporary and ad hoc, it does not qualify as an organization.

Because the crimes committed were not embedded in an "organizational policy", the judge maintains, the Court has no subject-matter jurisdiction (ratione materiae) in the Kenyan case.

All this sounds good like a well-grounded dissent until one considers the preponderant evidence and interpretive framework that the majority judges rely on to concur with the prosecutor that the court has a jurisdiction in the Kenyan situation. 

Whereas the prosecutor relies on his own understanding for the meaning of the word organization, the majority judges rely on the case against Katanga and Ngudjolo Chui who were Congolese warlords, the case against Jean-Pierre Bemba of the DRC, the case against Clement Kayishema and Ruzindana of Rwanda and a raft of court documents to conclude that the absence of governmental or organizational action cannot be used to argue against the existence of an organizational policy and that the policy need not be explicitly defined or formalized. 

The final nail on the coffin of the dissent comes from the Appeal Judgement of Yugoslavia’s  Dragoljub Kunarac, which abandoned the requirement for a formal policy. In that case, the court held that neither the attack nor the acts of the accused need to be supported by any form of "policy" or "plan." And the majority judges add this plank to the pillars supporting their ruling that the Kenyan case is within the ICC’s jurisdiction.

It is clear therefore that the grounds for the dissenting judge are considerably weak and it is not wise to think that the dissent offers any avenue for attacking the prosecutor’s case because the majority judges are on solid ground on the matter of ratione materiae. The defence attorneys would be well advised to seek other aspects of the prosecutor’s case to poke holes in.

The writer is an antifragilist and system integration expert interested in randomness.

Jaliet_2000@yahoo.com

Another Run.

I was up at 5.20 and did my run. I met many runners. I did about 35mins. Then I did heel-toe walks, about 120 lunges and pushups then I did some toe raises which feel even more effective than the heel-toe walks as far as strengthening the compartment muscles is concerned.
Tomorrow I plan to rest but if I feel great I will just go for an easy one. Why not?
In what's shaping up to be the hottest event on the ticket, Asbel Kiprop will square off against David Rudisha in the 800m at the Sydney Track Classic on Saturday.

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I am ok

I did a 48mins run yesterday and virtually felt no ankle-related pain after it. So I think I am healed. My shins and knees are also better. You dont know how exited I am about this. On Sunday I will do a 60 mins run and can now consider myself on the path to attaining this years athletic goals. I want to revenge in Mwea and want to go back to Ndakaini, test Sotokoto and meet my goals in Stanchart. What I know is that I have to do SEVERAL two hour long runs. And then I have to work on my explosiveness and speed.
This month, my main goal is to establish a routine. I ran 3X  last week. This week I want to do it 4X. Then I will average it at 5X with Mondays and Satos being rest days.
Here is Shogun. Huge fight coming up this weekend.

Huge fight.
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Ana 35 mins

I did another 35 mins run. The situation with my ankle is unclear but I am nervous about it. I will know tomorrow morning whether it has improved or worsened. My shins gave me hell and are clearly splintered but I know the medicine for that. My knees appear out of danger. My weight is not doing well so I plan to cut down what I eat even further.
Today we have Anand. You do know Anand, dont you?

 

Cheers.

Ana 34 Mins

Still rolling. I want to get into a routine. I may need to start carrying a flashlight coz there is some 1Km stretch w/o street lights that is quite dark. Its a rough terrain and I could step onto a stone and get an injury. Otherwise its safe coz there are a number of people walking who are up and about.
I iced the ankle. Want to observe it today and tomorrow.
I have stayed disciplined about my diet and will be dropping some Kilos shortly.

I have Begun

Today I have begun my 2011 marathon journey. I ran for 30 mins today. All is well. I am just cautious about my knees, shins and the injury.
Meanshilw, IAAF says that in Otsu, Japan - Breaking away from Deriba Merga after the 38th kilometre, Kenyan Wilson Kipsang won the 66th annual Lake Biwa Marathon on Sunday (6), an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, clocking 2:06:13.

Wednesday, I give it another shot.
Cheers.
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Good Signs

Despite the 2 hour run, my pain has not worsened. That is a good sign. I didn't manage to clear day 3 of week 4 today. After a burial I am having in two days, I will resume week 4 day 1. Cheers

Situps Exhaustion test 30 mins

I did my exhaustion test for the 200situps challenge and managed to do 90 consecutive situps. So I happily move to week 5 and the last column. For the 100 pushups, I will do day 3 of week 4 tomorrow. I dont expect problems there.
After the exhaustion test I went for a 30 mins run. It was good. It felt great. Then I did lunges, leg extensions and heel-toe walks. Then I iced my ankle and now will monitor it for 4 days before I run again. Tentative is the word. Progressive is the byword. So far, no pain. I hope to kick serious ass this year.

Meanwhile, my running hero, Sammy Kitwara, beat a top class field and Ethiopia’s Sentayehu Ejigu made a successful debut over 10Km to take the top honours of the 14th World’s Best 10K, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, on Sunday (27) afternoon on the Teodoro Moscoso bridge in the Puerto Rican capital.
With a temperature at 25 C and 62% humidity, the race started at 5:25 pm and the Kenyan runners immediately took control of the race. Ebuya led a pack of 12 African athletes and covered the first kilometre in 2:43. The pack kept the tempo, passing the second and third kilometres in 5:27 and 8:12.

At the half way mark, covered in 13:43, the leading pack had shrunk to four Kenyans (Kitwara, Komon, Ebuya and Masai) and two Ethiopians.

Masai was the first to be dropped by the sixth kilometre (16:25) and shortly later, Ebuya, Kitwara and Gebremakel left Komon and Desisa behind to lead the proceedings.

Ebuya could not keep up with the pace and it was down to Kitwara and Gebremakel. They ran side by side until the eighth kilometre, when the 2009 champion changed gear to move 20 metres ahead and sped up to secure the victory.