Last week, we cackled at the candid, undiplomatic tone of letters by British representatives abroad. This week saw the arrival of America’s Johnnie Carson. Even after distancing himself from remarks he was about to make and blamed his principals — Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — Foreign Minister Moses Wetang’ula still found a barb to hurl in his face. He called the US approach "Megaphone Diplomacy". Ouch! Carson’s remarks must have stung somebody, somewhere.

Palaver does not wish to get caught up in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, but even as Kenyans fashion their plans around a weather phenomenon called El NiÒo, a report by Amnesty International that Israel is denying Palestinians access to clean, safe water, is worrying. In fact, the restriction in the occupied West Bank is straining an already ailing water and sewage system. In Nairobi, the now you see it-now you don’t water has spawned a cholera outbreak. Please start talking to each other rather than at one another.

It’s not just Kenyans displaying homophobia. There have been splits among Anglicans over homosexuality and ordination of women. The rift widened after the election of an openly gay bishop and the blessing of same-sex unions. Now, if Pope Benedict XVI’s Vatican is practicing an open-door policy for ‘defectors’, where does that leave homophobic Kenyan Roman Catholics who have also suffered recent defecting ‘married’ priests?

At the risk of saying ‘I told you so’, it is safe to remind Zimbabwe’s neighbours that we criticised their misplaced optimism when they hurriedly embraced Robert Mugabe’s offer of a unity government with foe-turned-partner Morgan Tsvangirai. We urged them to learn from the Kenya debacle. They listened, but did anyone really hear what we were saying? No! Now Tsvangirai’s MDC has been left holding the coalition baby’s bathwater? Elections in Africa remain a winner-take-all affair. No hybrids will do. Amen.

And finally...

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali told us: "The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life." Why have we failed to learn from the decade-long law review debate? And how did we get back to starting point 2002?

—palaver@standardmedia.co.ke