Dallas, Freakonomics, Zim$

Crime Freakonomics
Am now reading Freakonomics, the fascinating book about an economist interpreting everyday questions with unique perspectives. Driving home though a traffic jam yesterday it got me thinking about traffic police and roadblocks in Kenya. Some Q’s to consider;
- Do police actually help the flow of traffic? I’d argue not and that they make it worse on some routes by holding up traffic for 10 minutes on some roads while letting others pass.
- Do road blocks actually help reduce crime? Some do and I know people in hijacked matatus who have been rescued by police. But many more road blocks are simply cash points that target matatus and lorries where random checks are lax and since they are usually stationed at the same points every day, crooks know to avoid them.
- Are the man hour’s armed policemen spend at roadblocks and check points better used elsewhere? They should be used in roaming patrols or undercover work and the police should hand over traffic control to another body like national youth service (NYS).

One less bell
Kengeles Yaya is no more. There will be a new restaurant opening up there soon with new owners. Good luck buddy!

The problem with shared ATM’s
Barclays Bank ATM’s were not working for most of Saturday and Sunday, inconveniencing the weekend social activities of many of their customers. Barclays run their own network and outsiders can only use their machines with visa branded cards. But what if the same happened to another large network like KCB, Co-op, Kenswitch or Pesa Point? I used to use a Kenswitch and if the network was down, ATM’s of all the member banks would dispense cash (if they could) based on the previous days’ account balances. Anyway it’s important to know your bank network and have at access to another system for emergencies.

Zimbabwe Goldmines
Was chatting about my SA trip and some of the recent troubles in Zimbabwe which I shared. A frequent traveller buddy then offered a tip that we should travel to Zimbabwe with US$ and buy up real estate, minerals and other commodities in Zimbabwe which are greatly under-valued owing to the currency crunch in the country. Once the political situation improves in a few years (we hope & would be taking a huge risk) the investments will give tremendous returns. Oh and suddenly everyone what to know what a blog is that can get one to South Africa gratis

Arsenal for sale
Someone is buying up shares shares of Arsenal FC at about ₤5,000 pounds each i.e. 700,000 shillings per share

Standard
Is someone at the Standard reading this blog? Recent speculation here about Safaricom’s next product appeared in the newspaper today.

mimi Couch 'Tato pia
KBC is going to show re-runs of the TV show Dallas i.e J R Ewing & co, starting tonight and on Wednesday nights. How will the show fare, how has it aged, and how much of its lustre has gone? KTN have a comedy block on Sunday that runs back-to-back episodes of Different Strokes, Sanford & Sons, and the Jefferson’s. Between them, I'd say that Sanford has held up the best and is still watchable, with the Jefferson's slightly behind because it was being copied so much and no longer seems racially revolutionary, while Different Strokes has aged the worst because of what happened to the kids (in real life) when they grew up.

True or False?
In a case of extreme cost cutting at an investment bank, employees will pay more to use the staff canteen for the convenience of being able to eat closer, the bank has installed a sprinkler system which will drench anyone smoking for more than five minutes and toilet cubicles doors will automatically open five minutes after staff have entered to do their business.