Nothing Beats The Power of Good Ideas

We promised Nairobi an ‘idea storm’ and a hurricane was produced instead and that is probably why this post is rather untimely. We are all still reflecting and making sense of the ‘brew’ that was formed. It was all over the place,  like an ‘Alphabet Soup’ of the NSE; Nairobi Stock Exchange as Aly-Khan candidly put it, at times it was cool and unorthodox as Tony ‘Skim’ the graffiti artist demonstrated. Martha Ndungu the spoken word artist clearly demonstrated the power of ideas in magnificent poetic fashion.

Moses Kemibaro attributed to the future being here, only that it not evenly distributed while Kwame Nyongo seemed to bridge the future and current to the past, by passionately linking animation to Africa’s rich cultural heritage. Apparently music is for everyone, its a sort of universal identity. Classical music may not have originated in Nairobi but Liz Njoroge clearly demonstrated that we can make it ours and it is so much easier than figuring out to whom Migingo belongs to. Musila Nyokabi showed us that there is art in science and science to art, its like a self replicating duality.

A chap called Tonee Ndungu raised eyebrows! And not only from the spelling of his name, but he charmingly showed us how clever and efficient use of technology can be used to do extraordinary things, think of it as an ‘ideas virus’, apparently it exists and it could infect a mobile device near you. Crystal Watley candidly put into perspective the value of the youth and their relevance in the present as most importantly in the future.

The story of Owen and Mzee was relayed to us by Paula Kahumbu. Its an amazing true story about an orphaned baby hippo that was adopted by a tortoise. Now if different species with a fraction of the intelligence endowed to us humans can co-exist in harmony and overlook their differences we were later left dumbfounded by Boniface Mwangi‘s account of the barbarism conducted during the post election violence exhibited after the December 2007 elections in Kenya. It was clear that our problems have been shoved under the carpet and are yet to be resolved.

That evening the artist, the scientist, the social scientist, the futurist, the creative catalyst, the dream engineer, the polymath, the visionary and pretty much everyone else went home knowing that all  is not lost, for in good ideas the future is certainly bright. This was brillianty enthused by Muthoni’s closing performance.

TEDx Nairobi | 8th August 2009

The much anticipated launch of TEDx Nairobi will take place on the 8th of August 2009 at the British Council Auditorium on Upper Hill Road between 1330-1800 hrs. Watch this space for more information.