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Or Mombasa.

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To whom, and of what content ?

I sent off an email -

Lets see what happens!

heights wrote:
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It makes me happy that someone else feels the same way I do! Thanks heights! You did good.

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Damn! Wassup with you Bro? Chill. We out......

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Using the slang term "dissed" is not helping the situation. It started as an inner city term and is now part of today's vernacular. There are other terms being used as if it were the norm. Such as "my bad, like", and more. I wish newspapers would stop printing this murder of the English language.

I wish more people would visit this area and see how much it has changed. I lived in the area for over two years and was amazed at the communities involvement in its development. While I am sad at hearing the Kenyan's initial perspective, I was happy to see how surprised they were with what was going on inside the church.

The international supermarket at the MLK station is still the best supermarket in JC. Its still the only place where we can get Ribena... There are now two new senior housing projects along MLK... again, keeping people in their community instead of shipping them out. The library, the post office, the proximity to Liberty State Park. Not to mention the store front grants are being utlized for the small business' urban enterprize zones along MLK. Flanked on the side of JFK, NJCU continues to improve and all those condo projects at the West Side Ave. Station have packed the light rail with young professionals.

Also, according to JC construction; the early child development center has already broken ground across from Burger King. Giving this community access to this resource is going to be huge.

I encourage anyone living in the area to contact their council member, the police dept. and keep pushing for positive development. Also, be street smart, but don't let fear inhibit you from experiencing this neighborhood. The people who live in the community are amazing. You can see this by entering the shops and the churches and the business'.

I hope hope hope this community keeps its heart and won't fall prey to gentrification as a result of many of the foreclosures happening in the area. I can tell you that much of its bad image comes from other areas; people coming in to hang out on the streets to try to live up to its former image.

The street used to be called Jackson Ave. And before the light rail stop it had very limited access to mass transit as well as not having a shopping center. According to my neighbors, since its opening in 2000, it has helped completely change the neighborhood. And hopefully it will continue to improve under the (fingers crossed) new president...

Obviously the author of this article failed to visit Camden or Newark!

Gotta agree with injc on this one. I've worked at Snyder and that particular stretch on MLK is damned poor. That entire side of the block across from the Burger King was empty lots and abandoned buildings. Still is, last I looked. Calling that area a tough neighborhood is accurate. Blunt, but accurate.

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A bit disingenuous of the JJ to feign indignance when one of their own columnists categorized the same neighborhood as a war zone less than a month ago.

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MACHARIA GAITHO is a SENIOR EDITOR at the Daily Nation.

You can comment right below the article. I bet he'll read it -- I see others already have made comments.

Also you might just try to email him at:
newsdesk@nation.co.ke
They will likely forward it to him.

http://www.nation.co.ke/InDepth/Ameri ... m/1/-/s1ds2x/-/index.html

Please post any response you get.

wow..... You can't be serious, I tried to find the authors email but couldn't.

Very disrespectful coming from people who haven't traveled all that much to make that assumption.

I don't see any "jabs at Jersey City" in this reporting.

It seems pretty accurate.

Why is JC "dissed"?

Perhaps because it doesn't conform to the expectations of what they've read about or seen on American TV. My grandfather thought the "streets were paved were gold" had some element of truth when he left Panama as a boy. The gap is only getting wider.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/22-7

And this coming from a guy who lives in a place where they hack each other to peices with machetes. Talk about bad press.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... e_daily_nation_which.html

Jersey City dissed by Kenyan newspaper's Web report

by The Jersey Journal
Monday October 27, 2008, 12:58 PM

The Daily Nation, which bills itself as Kenya's leading newspaper, apparently took a road trip to Jersey City recently and wasn't too impressed with what it found -- save for one location on Martin Luther King Drive.

In the community center at the Beth-El Seventh Day Adventist Church, Kenyans were meeting and speaking in their native dialect. The point of the report is how excited this group of people were about the prospects of Barack Obama being president. But the writer couldn't pass up the chance to take a few jabs at Jersey City.

"In a flash we were transported from one of the toughest US black inner-city neighbourhoods to a corner of Kenya," is the way the Web site report puts it.

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Kenyans in US involved in Obama campaign


By MACHARIA GAITHO in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
Thursday, October 23 2008 at 17:33

It looks like a typical storefront in a poor and black dominated part of any large city in the US. It is in a tough neighbourhood of Jersey City?and Jersey City is tough by American standards?and flanked by bars, liquor stores and other enterprises probably dealing in more disreputable activities.

Not very far away young men in hoods, sagging jeans and expensive sneakers lounge around, while older men with little better to do sip from bottles concealed in brown paper bags.

But the particular address on 215 Martin Luther King Boulevard seems an oasis of peace in a rough and tough neighbourhood. Entering the Community Services Centre of the Beth-El Seventh Day Adventist Church on last Saturday afternoon, the Nation team was in for a cultural shock.

In a flash we were transported from one of the toughest US black inner-city neighbourhoods to a corner of Kenya.

All the people in the room were Kenyan and the language one heard was not just Swahili, but Kisii. Even when English was spoken, it did not come with the American drawl but distinctive Kisii accent. Even the food was traditional fare, with some twists because of the ingredient available.
Elders of the Church were just finishing of their lunch after a service and were preparing another meeting to plan their activities.

Upstairs, the younger people were holding their own meeting, and also discussing church and community matters. It was only at the younger peoples meeting that one heard various American accents ranging from the black inner city to the white mid west drawl and the cultivated Ivy League. But every so often as the conversation got animated some vernacular, or at least the accent, would break into the conversation.

Jersey City has one of the largest concentrations of Kenyan?s in the US, but what makes it most peculiar is that a large majority of them are from Kisii, turning some neighbourhoods into virtual Kisii enclaves. The particular church is in fact a branch of the Maxwell SDA Church of Nairobi?s Milimani Road.

When the Nation visited, excitement was in the air because many of those at the meeting are also actively involved at the community and local level in the Barack Obama?s campaign for the US presidency.

They shared their motivation:

RICHARD MABURI

I?m President of the Kenyan-Americans Community Association Inc in New Jersey. It?s a good year for Kenyan-Americans because we have Barack Obama running for president. He?s making history as the first African-America making a serious bid for election and he?ll make history as the first one to be elected.

He is Kenyan blood, but it is policies that motivate young people to register as voters and to join his campaign for change.

I have been working as volunteer with the campaign, making telephone calls, sending e-mails and raising funds.

There is a Kenyan-American community of at least 5,000 in New Jersey and they are all excited by Obama?s message for change. Many have given donations ranging from $5 to $500.

SHEM ONDITI

I have been voting in the US for many years. Now I am busy canvassing and helping mobilise voters for the Obama campaign. Presently I am concentrating not in the section of Jersey City where I reside, but in the neighbouring Essex County ?where are many Republicans we need to win over.

I support Barack Obama because this is the chance for change. Obama is offering much more for change than McCain, and his ideas are more relevant to ordinary people. I don?t support Obama just because of the Kenyan connection or because I am a Kenyan-American. This is not a Kenyan issue; it an issue for all we Americans.

ZACHARY MOITUI

I am a high school teacher in New Jersey. I am involved in the campaign because Barack Obama is the best hope not just for African Americans but for all Americans.

This country has gone wrong in the wrong direction. The eonomy is tanking, people are losing their homes and job losses are increasing. As a Kenyan-American it is my moral duty to work for the change America needs.

We have in our organisation of school workers Union in Jersey City of 1,800 many of whom are volunteering for the Obama campaign.

On voting day, November 4, I will wake up early and go cast my vote at 6.30am. Luckily the Board of Education has given us the day of, so I will then be helping transport young people to make sure they vote.

DOUGLAS BONUKE

I am Secretary of the Kenyan-Americans Community Association and I?m involved in mobilising voters for the Obama campaign. I have been sending out e-mails, making phone calls and knocking on doors. I also compile and maintain a data bank of Kenyans we are reaching out to to become a part of this campaign for change by volunteering their time as campaign organisers.

HARON OMWAMBA

I am working with students, sensitising them on the importance of voting. We are tired of the same old things and are working towards change for the better.

WYCLIFFE MUGOYA

I am a Kenyan-American and have been in the US for 15 years. I was first attracted to Barack Obama when I watched him make the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Party Convention that nominated John Kerrey. I related to that and connected with him.

His views on the world are the same as mine, and I like his policies on support for young people.

The economy has done badly under George Bush and Obama represents the hope for change.

On election day I will vote early and afterwards have a party at my house.

http://www.nation.co.ke/InDepth/Ameri ... m/1/-/s1ds2x/-/index.html