04/10/2015
http://athleticsinkenya.com/9-home-page-news/170-the-marathon-kenya-teachers-will-die-running
The marathon Kenyan teachers will die running
The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres ( 26 miles and 385 yards). The name Marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon . It is said that he ran the entire 26 mile distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming "we have wοn" before collapsing and dying.
The teachers of Kenya have been running a marathon over the last seventeen years. They must be care full to declare “we have wοn” and not collapse and die at the end of the race like Pheidippides.
Marathon deaths are in rare in modern marathon running but nonetheless they do occur. The cause of sudden death is said to typically be an undetected underlying health condition of the runner.
Even as it runs the marathon, the teaching fraternity has to be weary of a number of underlying conditions that could easily see them become victims of sudden marathon death. The biggest of these is the human frailties of the leadership. While the union leaders have done well so far, teachers must be aware that their leaders still remain vulnerable to intimidation and/or comprise. They must be willing to swallow a bitter pill in the event this condition was to manifest itself.
The other underlying condition, perhaps even worse than leadership frailties, is pecuniary embarrassment. This is a condition for which the teachers will need to swallow the bitterest of pills if they are to run the full marathon. Teachers must know that we don’t all get salary advances yet we somehow manage to pay fees when they send our kids home for fees. They must know that they won’t die if they don’t get their salaries for 2 or 3 months.
The environmental conditions under which a marathon is run also greatly affects runners and especially so those with an underlying health conditions. Hot and humid weather conditions are usually pretty challenging. Teachers must understand that they are running in terrible conditions- very hot and humid. They must be willing to sweat it out it out to the end.
They must also be aware that they are dealing with race organizers who have done an excellent job of inciting the spectators against them. They spectators have been made to believe that the teachers are cheats and they could fraudulently win the race becoming instant millionaires. They must soldier on despite the jeers and the boos from the spectators.
Ever wondered why the marathon is run over such a crazy distance: 42.195 kilometers ( 26 miles and 385 yards) and not a plain 26 miles or 40 kilometers?
For the 1908 London Olympics, the course was laid out from Windsor Castle to White City stadium, about 26 miles. However, to locate the finish line in front of the royal family's viewing box, an extra 385 yards was added inside the stadium.
There you go. Numbers were manipulated to please the royalty. The reason Serem and her utterly useless busy body outfit are lying that teachers’ salaries and those of other public servants appears are harmonized is to please the royalty. The young men who wrote Uhuru’s teachers strike speech tried to manipulate figures please the royalty.
Maybe Serem and these young men have such contempt for teachers because whoever taught them maths did a horrible job out of it. Simple maths would have told them that the numbers they gave king made him lie out rightly.
In his statement the president said “All public and state officers, myself included, number 680,000 … last year, KSh 568 billion went to pay our wages”
It is well documented that during the said period, TSC paid 280,000 teachers 161 billion. So 161 billion paid 280,000 while 400 billion paid 400 thousand public servants in essence meaning a teacher was paid an average sh 50,000 while other public servants were paid an average 100,000 per month.
So whatever the case the figures simply do not add up. Either Uhuru lied on the wage bill or he lied that the salaries are harmonized.
Serem is basically an overfed mother who is gobbling sausages while admonishing her baby for pushing away “ugali lala” and demanding bread explaining to the father(who is munching bacon) that she simply can’t understand why the brat can’t see the family cannot afford bread.
The teachers must refuse to eat “ugali lala” while their father, mother, elder brothers and sisters are belching from feeding on pizza bought with money from the family kitty.
Meanwhile, as the teachers wear out from their lengthy marathon, there is a serious sprint going on. Billionaire senior counsels are trying to out-sprint one another to most millions from the government in legal fees.
