I have a fond memory from a Monday a month or so after my mum died. My friend Deb’s son, then three years old, was playing hide and seek with my daughter of the same age. He picked a delightfully impressive hiding place, wedging himself into the bottom of my floor-to-ceiling shelves. He was wearing camouflage print and against the usual domestic detritus on our shelves proved genuinely difficult to find. Quite a feat.

I properly laughed, for which I was truly grateful. It had been quite a while since I had laughed like that. Deb was there to deliver dinner for us all; something she had promised to do a few days earlier. A family meal, every Monday, for the next few weeks.

“That is beyond nice of you, but way too much of an ask,” I said.

“OK, but you’re not asking, I’m just doing it,” she replied. “Just accept and enjoy while you get through the grey.”

Grief can come in many shades. For me, there was the glowing red panic of my mum’s cancer prognosis that was falling off a cliff so fast we could barely keep up. Then there was the searing white heat of her actual death, and the blinding fame that comes with being the bereaved at the centre of a tragic circus. And then came the grey. That point when I was due to get to back to normal life, except everything was entirely abnormal because how could it possibly be anything else? A meteor had struck and left a gaping abyss in my world which I was somehow meant to avoid falling into.

Deb intuited Mondays were my greyest days. The day of the week that I was solely responsible for my three-year-old and not quite one-year-old. The day of the week my mum had called her “Abigail Mondays” because that was the day she would devote to me and my children, ever since I had moved back to my home town to be closer to her 18 months earlier. After her death, I was a shell of a person by teatime on a Monday, struggling to function with two young children relying on me for their care. That is when Deb knocked on with dinner.

Friends and family did so many wonderfully kind things for me at that time, each act of compassion like a thread of a safety net they collectively sewed to prevent me from freefalling into the abyss. Deb’s Monday meals-on-wheels were a particularly robust bit of net that I will never forget.

So we asked you, our readers, for the good memories of your worst of times. For some, it is a lifelong friend who ran to their rescue; for others, a perfect stranger who showed them extraordinary kindness when they needed it most. From grand, country-crossing gestures to just listening, all of them acted as a balm to souls at their weariest. Like a homemade meal for your family on a grey Monday.

When I met Caroline (not her real name because, honestly, I really don’t remember it), I was at a party in Toronto. I had had a stillbirth in the spring and this was summer. My family and friends could only stand so much of my grief. Somehow Caroline and I ended up sitting with each other in a private corner away from the noise and I told her about giving birth to Tabitha at eight months, already knowing that she had died in utero. She listened to me without interrupting, her quiet attention giving me space for my stumbling, anguished words. And then we sat. Still, quiet, letting the story of Tabitha have yet another moment. She’ll maybe not know how grateful I was/am for that. I will never forget it.
Vivien Stollmeyer, Trinidad and Tobago

When I was at university, I struggled with my mental health. One of the most acute spikes of anxiety and depression coincided with exam season. In the midst of this crisis, I volunteered at a local charity shop. When I started my shift one of my fellow volunteers presented me with an entire bag of home-cooked meals, enough to last me a week, “so you have one less thing to worry about”. It remains the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me. The food was delicious, and I ended up doing well in my exams, too.
Declan Cochran, Worthing

My husband died on Christmas Day when I was 35. My first birthday without him was six months later; our daughter had just turned three, and so I was up early making her breakfast. When I drew back the curtains I discovered that my sister had been to my house (very early) and stuck “Happy birthday” and “We love you” signs up on my windows. It really lit up a dark morning.
Rebecca Messenger-Clark, Leeds

I was one of the unfortunate people kept in draconian Australian hotel quarantine during the second wave of Covid. My dad had a sudden heart attack and instead of being able to fly to his bedside, I ended up alone in a windowless room three hours’ drive away. It was hell. But one of my oldest friends, Thomas, really went above and beyond. Every day I woke up to a coffee delivered by an alien in PPE and him standing under my window, ready to talk. Over the two weeks he organised letters and treat boxes from my friends, exercise plans, books – things to let me know that I wasn’t alone. My dad died while I was in my Covid prison, but Thomas kept showing up: he reminded me that friendship, as Coleridge said, is a sheltering tree.
Sophie Mathisen, London

It was the late 1980s, at Christmas, and I was living in Norwich on my own. I knew I wasn’t getting any presents because I didn’t really know anybody there, but a woman I had met by chance left a wrapped Christmas box for me. It was beautifully done with various gifts inside – a book, bubble bath, chocolates, some really nice tea and gorgeous biscuits. I was on benefits at the time, and I was very ill and barely making it financially each month, but she didn’t know this. It was an act of kindness.
Sarah Lionheart, Whaley Bridge

Shortly before the Manchester riots in 2011, I was robbed at knifepoint by an intruder in my flat. Fortunately I was not injured, but the experience shook me up. My friend dropped everything to be with me and joined me for my police interview, and later, my attendance at court. She was there for me every step of the way and this made our friendship even stronger.
Harry

I’m currently going through cancer treatment, and things are very uncertain. With too much time on my hands, I have sometimes felt very lost in frightening thoughts. I mentioned to a friend that I was running out of courage. A parcel arrived with a beautiful soft toy lion inside, with a message: “Here’s some extra courage for you.” I sleep with the lion – if I am wakeful in the night, this little toy soothes me but also connects me to the loving support of my friend.
Leigh, Wiltshire

I have travelled frequently on my own, but since my father passed away, I’ve never had a friend or partner meet me at the airport at my final destination. I mentioned it once to a friend, then thought no more of it. Over a year later I went to meet her in India, and she surprised me at the airport with flowers and a silly welcome sign. Such a simple gesture but it meant so much.
Lilly Crick, Brighton

My husband of 20 years died a little over a year ago after a heart-wrenching struggle with type 1 diabetes and end-stage renal disease. To chronicle my grief, I tried a new medium, TikTok. I put my grief into short, one-minute capsules, hashtagging #widow. I received thousands of comments from other widows who were watching my raw pain. Laurie reached out to me in a private message about her own loss – her husband of 17 years had died in a motorcycle accident. She was broken like me. I took a risk and gave her my phone number. We shared our experience of love and loss. She was able to understand me in a way my friends could not, and never tried to fix me or expect me to “move on”. On the one-year anniversary of my husband’s death, which I was dreading, she bought a ticket from Rochester NY to Los Angeles to hold my hand. My godson dug a hole in the garden for me to plant a gardenia bush and mix my husband’s ashes into the roots. My new friend was crying, too. She didn’t speak. She didn’t have to. She was there.
Carole Raphaelle Davis, Los Angeles and Nice

During the terrible 2017 California fire season, our entire neighbourhood was threatened by multiple wildfires. From our house, we could see the fire line and the planes dropping orange-coloured retardant; power was cut off and the police toured the area warning residents to evacuate. With some difficulty, because cellphone connections were bad, my wife and I rented a lovely, if expensive, house in San Francisco, one of the few still available. The owner greeted us and as soon as I told him about our circumstances he stated emphatically: “Stay as long as you need to. There will be no charge for your stay.” His kindness is seared into my memory.
Gabriel Baum, Sonoma

I was at work when I heard news that my dear dad had taken his own life. I called my friend and, worried about me driving after hearing such news, she offered to pick me up in a heartbeat. She drove me 45 minutes to collect my mum and brother and brought us back to my home so we could begin to process what had happened. To bravely support us all in the immediate aftermath was heroic.
Anonymous

The Guardian, UK

Nigeria’s naira weakened for a ninth straight day against the dollar, making it the worst-performing currency in the first half as a steep devaluation, insufficient dollar liquidity and market volatility hampered efforts to stem its rout.

It’s weakened 0.2% to 1,510 per dollar by the close on Thursday, FMDQ data compiled by Bloomberg show. The losing streak is the longest since July 2017 and takes the decline since the start of the year to 40%.

Nigeria's Naira Leads First-Half Declines Against the Dollar

The currency has depreciated 40% against the dollar in 2024.

The naira’s performance is the worst among global currencies tracked by Bloomberg beside that of the pound in Lebanon, which is undergoing an economic crisis and witnessing dollarization.

“While the naira is undervalued and has seen significant adjustment, the supply of dollars needs to improve for the currency to be supported,” Samir Gadio, head of Africa strategy at Standard Chartered Bank Plc in London, said by email. “Portfolio inflows have yet to pick up, even amid still-attractive local rates.”

Nigeria has faced years of acute foreign-exchange scarcity and instability arising from lower crude production and a lack of economic diversification. The local unit has lost about 70% of its value against the dollar since June 2023, when President Bola Tinubu’s government introduced policy changes to lure inflows to help revive the economy.

The currency was volatile between mid-April and May due to the imbalance between demand and supply for the greenback, before the swings moderated in June on an improvement in dollar inflows.

Central bank Governor Olayemi Cardoso said this week the lender believes the currency’s volatility may be a thing of the past and will work to promote investor confidence. Since assuming office in September, he has increased interest rates by 750 basis points to 26.25%, cleared a foreign-exchange backlog and negotiated multilateral dollar inflows to help prop up the currency.

Besides the naira, Egypt’s pound and Ghana’s cedi were the world’s other worst performers in the first half.

“Adjustment and rebalancing in 2024 after years of a heavily managed and misaligned currency regime,” account for the currencies weakening, Gadio said. For the naira, “what will matter going forward is whether it can stabilize on improving foreign-exchange inflows and perhaps see some appreciation,” he said.

Bloomberg

The United Nations humanitarian agency is struggling to secure funding to combat severe food insecurity in Nigeria's insurgency-hit northeast, raising fears of mass hunger and deaths, its resident coordinator warned.

In April, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) launched a $306 million appeal alongside Nigeria on behalf of 2.8 million people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, states ravaged by a 15-year Islamist insurgency, during the lean season, a period of peak food scarcity.

OCHA chief Mohamed Malick Fall told Reuters that, despite an initial $11 million commitment from Nigeria and another $11 million from the UN's central pool, the target remained far off due to reluctance among international donors.

"We are far from where we want to be. That is something we are confronted by even beyond the lean season which is that we have noticed that humanitarian assistance to Nigeria is shrinking," Fall said in an interview on Thursday.

Fall anticipates receiving only $300 million in the best-case scenario, a significant drop from the $500 million secured last year. He attributed the decline to the economic impact of Covid-19 on major donors.

Competition from new global crises has also diverted attention and resources.

"Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan have all emerged in the past two years which makes it difficult to maintain the same pace of funding," Fall said.

The situation is further exacerbated by Nigeria's worst cost-of-living crisisin a generation, with inflation exceeding 33% and food prices soaring above 40%.

OCHA warns of "catastrophic" consequences of food insecurity in Nigeria's northeast without immediate intervention.

UNICEF data from April already shows more than 120,000 children admitted for treatment of severe acute malnutrition in the region, exceeding the entire year's target of around 90,000.

"The cost of inaction has many folds with the most pressing being an excess mortality among children," Fall said.

Reuters

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued fresh guidelines on foreign currency deposits by deposit money banks (DMBs).

CBN made this known in a circular signed by Solaja Olayemi, its acting director of the currency operations department on Friday.

In the circular, the apex bank directed banks to transfer all excess foreign currency notes to its Lagos or Abuja branches.

The financial regulator said this is aimed at boosting liquidity in the foreign exchange market. 

According to CBN, each bank would be allowed a maximum deposit of $10 million threshold for $100 notes and $50 notes daily.

“In order to deepen the foreign exchange market, boost liquidity and attain convergence in the exchange rates of the parallel and official markets, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved that DMBs may deposit their excess foreign currency notes with Lagos and Abuja branches of the Bank,” CBN said.

“The approval is a response to the increasing demand by DMBs to deposit their forex cash with CBN for onward credit to their off-shore accounts with the correspondent banks.”

‘3 WORKING DAYS NOTICE FOR INTENT TO DEPOSITS’

The financial regulator said the banks should adhere strictly to its guidelines such as giving three days notice showing intent to deposit foreign currencies.

“Give at least three (3) working days’ notice of their intent to deposit forex cash, in writing to the branch controller, CBN Lagos or/and Abuja. This must be accompanied by the list of owners of foreign currency to be deposited,” CBN said.

“All deposits must be within the threshold of the following per day: (i) USD higher bills ($100 and $50) maximum limit of $10 million. (ii) USD lower bills (20 and below) maximum limit of $1 million. (iii) GBP notes a maximum limit of £1 million. (iv) EURO notes – maximum limit of €1 million.

“Two (2) representatives of the depositing bank must be present to witness and confirm the amount to be deposited.

“Deposits may be in $100, $50, $20, $10, $5, $1 and all GBP and EURO denominations. Each denomination shall be in separate boxes.

“The DMBs shall engage the services of only CBN-registered CIT companies for deposits of foreign currency notes.

“The time for accepting deposits shall be between 8am and 12pm.”

CBN said Abuja and Lagos branches would receive, count and authenticate deposits in the presence of the representatives of the depositing bank on the same day.

“The bank shall credit the DMBs account through their correspondent bank within the cycle time of T+5.” the apex bank said.

“The handling charge of 0.30 per cent of the authenticated amount should be recovered from the DMB current account with CBN.

“The Bank would not accept forex deposits from any DMB that fails to comply with any of the guidelines.”

On September 12, 2023, the CBN asked banks to stop utilising gains from the revaluation of the naira to pay dividends or finance operations.

The Cable

Israeli forces push deeper into southern and northern Gaza

Israeli forces pressed their incursion deeper into two northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip on Friday, and Palestinian health officials said tank shelling in Rafah killed at least 11 people.

Residents and Hamas media said tanks advanced further west into the Shakoush neighbourhood of Rafah, forcing thousands of displaced people there to leave their tent camps and head northward to the nearby Khan Younis.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Since May 7, tanks have advanced in several districts of Rafah, and forces remained in control of the entire border line with Egypt and the Rafah crossing, the only gateway for most of Gaza's 2.3 million people with the outside world.

One resident, who spoke to Reuters via a chat app, said some bulldozers in the Shakoush area were piling up sand for Israeli tanks to station behind.

"Some families live in the area of the raid and are now besieged by the occupation forces," he told Reuters.

"The situation there is very dangerous and many families are leaving towards Khan Younis, even from the Mawasi area as things became unsafe for them," said the man, who moved northward overnight.

More than eight months into Israel's air and ground war in Gaza triggered by the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Oct. 7, the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue to stage attacks on Israeli forces operating in areas over which the army said it had gained control months ago. The Palestinian groups sometimes still fire rockets into Israeli territory.

In a yard at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, mourners gathered with 10-year-old Belal Abu Hassanein, whose mother and brother were killed in an air strike that hit their house.

"I went to check out our rooftop, they struck us, I was bombed - I flew off the rooftop and fell," said Belal, who was laid on a hospital stretcher after being wounded in the attack.

"My grandfather started screaming ... He was telling us that there was a hit at our place. When I heard the word hit, I went to check the room in which I was sleeping," he said. "I found that my mother and brother had been martyred."

CEASEFIRE EFFORTS STALLED

Arab mediators' efforts, backed by the United States, have so far failed to conclude a ceasefire. Hamas says any deal must end the war and bring full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in fighting until Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is eradicated.

When Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel last October they killed around 1,200 people and seized more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Israeli offensive in retaliation has so far killed more than 37,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has left the tiny, heavily built-up coastal enclave in ruins.

In parallel, Israeli forces continued their new raid into the Shejaia neighbourhood in the northern Gaza Strip, into which tanks advanced on Thursday prompting heavy fighting with Hamas-led militants.

Medics said earlier that several Palestinians have been killed and wounded in Israeli bombardment and that medical teams have been unable to reach all casualties because of the military offensive.

The Israeli military said forces were conducting "targeted" raids in Shejaia, adding that the air force struck dozens of Hamas military targets in the area.

It said that one Hamas militant, who was operating from a humanitarian-designated area, was killed in a strike it launched in the Deir Al-Balah area in central Gaza. It said measures were taken to ensure no harm to civilians, accusing Hamas of systematically using Palestinian civilians as shields. Hamas denies that.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia delivers 17 strikes at Ukrainian military-industrial sites over week

Russian forces delivered 17 strikes by precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles, hitting Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises, logistics centers, army and foreign mercenaries’ deployment areas over the past week in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

"On June 22-28, the Russian Armed Forces delivered 17 combined strikes by precision weapons and attack unmanned aerial vehicles, hitting energy facilities of Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises, military airfield infrastructure, logistics centers accumulating Western-supplied armaments, and also assembly and storage sites for attack unmanned aerial vehicles and naval drones. The strikes also targeted temporary deployment areas of Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicts 1,560 casualties on Ukrainian army over week

Russia’s Battlegroup North kept advancing deep into the Ukrainian army’s defenses and inflicted roughly 1,560 casualties on enemy troops in the Kharkov area over the past week, the ministry reported.

"During the week, Battlegroup North units kept advancing deep into the enemy’s defenses and inflicted casualties on manpower and equipment of three Ukrainian army formations, a marine infantry brigade and three territorial defense brigades. The enemy’s losses amounted to 1,560 personnel, 12 armored combat vehicles and 43 motor vehicles," the ministry said.

In counterbattery fire, Russian forces destroyed 33 Ukrainian field artillery guns, among them seven foreign-made howitzers, three Nota and Bukovel-AD electronic warfare stations and two US-made AN/TPQ-50 counterbattery radar stations," the ministry said.

Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicts 3,230 casualties on Ukrainian army over week

Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicted roughly 3,230 casualties on the Ukrainian army in its area of responsibility over the past week, the ministry reported.

"The Ukrainian army’s losses in that frontline area over the past week amounted to 3,230 personnel, four armored combat vehicles, 40 motor vehicles, three Grad multiple rocket launchers and 24 field artillery guns, among them six US-made weapons," the ministry said.

Russian troops liberate Razdolovka community in DPR over past week

Russian troops liberated the settlement of Razdolovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the past week, the ministry reported.

"Southern Battlegroup units liberated the settlement of Razdolovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic in active operations and gained better positions," the ministry said.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian military says it captures eastern Ukraine village, Kyiv says fighting continues

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the settlement of Rozdolivka in eastern Ukraine, but Ukraine's military said heavy fighting was raging in areas around the settlement.

The Russian ministry said in a statement that Russia's "Southern" military grouping had taken up what it called more favourable positions after pushing Ukrainian forces out of the settlement.

Rozdolivka is located in Donetsk region, the focal point of Russia's slow advance across eastern Ukraine. It lies north of Bakhmut and Soledar, two localities brought under Russian control last year after being flattened in months of battles.

The Ukrainian military's General Staff, in an evening report on Friday, said Russian forces had launched 19 attacks in a broad sector that included Rozdolivka.

"Our soldiers resolutely held their defences and repelled 15 of the assaults," the report said. "Four armed confrontations are continuing."

Reuters could not verify battlefield accounts from either side.

Russian forces pressing forward along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front line have captured several villages in eastern regions since they captured the strategic town of Avdiivka in February.

Tass/Reuters

I am beginning to believe the common saying that “power corrupts” quite beyond its original context, either because of the exceeding and degenerative continuing trends of African leaders from forgetting the promises they had campaigned for and the background they had come from by ruling with a fierce hand and inconsiderate motivations. Sometimes, the belief has been that the right leader for the suffering citizenry should come from the group of those who have faced similar trauma. Well, the recent trend of African leadership had rendered such belief a mere lofty assumption.

President William Ruto of Kenya had climbed his way to the top through the impossibilities of the African political classes and bought the hearts of the people with the various problems he faced on his way up. He was voted with the people’s conviction that they had voted a “Hustler-in-Chief” in office. I mean, he had had to hustle the sales of chicken on the roads. People should have seen that he was far from being a hustler, as he claimed after his political assignments in the country and the corruption allegations against him. But the Kenyans were further persuaded by his determination and relatability; he had said, “We want everyone to feel the wealth of this country. Not just a few at the top.” The campaign’s points against his opponent, Odinga, at the election was that he represented the image of the Kenyan hustlers against the Odinga dynasty and was only convinced to “put food on the table” of the Kenyans. I am not sure many remember that he started his political career under Moi, receiving money to purchase votes and launder images.

Like many of the average politicians in Africa, Ruto quickly lost sight of the plight of the people and stiffened the air that the poor breathed. Having this background imprinted on the back of the minds of the people, the expectation of the people as to what Ruto would use his good office to do was either to make the situation better or to ensure it does not get worse than it is. One would not blame the citizens. Perhaps the people failed to notice that his game was to serve the interests of Washington D.C. to the extent that he damaged the name of his country in support of genocide, incurring curses from those who lost their lives in the Mau Mau struggles. In enjoying the red carpet treatment offered to him by the U.S., travelling there in a charted plane paid for by nameless friends, Ruto is too naïve to remember the policy statements as enunciated by Henry A. Kissinger:

To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal. America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.

We should ask Ruto: is it true that there were American observers in the Parliament on the day they voted for the Finance Bill 2024? Maybe your political enemies made up the story. Could it also be true that parliamentarians received bribes before they voted for the bill? Another rumour? Other rumours, but who is driving the obsession to drive the bill? If the country needs to pay its debt, why not shift the burden to Ruto and his friends, who are already enjoying so much?

The task of a government is torn between the need to satisfy state realities and the welfare of the people they govern. Often, many African governments have tilted towards these economic steps without considering the welfare of their people at the very moment. They unknowingly separate the people’s wishes, experiences, and priorities from those grand economic plans and realities they claim to address. Well, leaving out the different shenanigans of the politicians in Africa and those in Kenya, policies are created without reading the room.

Ruto and his cohorts have been making policies upon policies with the claim to stabilize the economy and other supposed grand schemes for the nation. The government’s Finance Bill was supposed to cover the next financial year from July to June, giving the skeletal financial framework of the country. The Bill intends to solve the country’s many economic and financial crises by putting heavy loads on the people without thinking outside the box.

The bill increases the taxes on commodities, such as bread and annual returns on vehicles. The bill puts the Motor Vehicle Tax at 2.5% annually with a minimum benchmark of KES 5,000 and not more than KES 100,000, which is safe only for government vehicles and ambulances. Multinational enterprises are put on a 15% tax, and their annual turnover is 750 euros. This also includes digital service tax increments, adjustments to withholding taxes, digital content, and VAT. The bill introduced a 16% tax on bread and an excise duty on consumables like cooking oil and other basic items. The SMEs are faced with more taxes and liabilities than in previous years.

The supposed reasoning of the government is to generate more revenue to enable it to service the numerous debts it had incurred over the years. It targets about $2.7 billion from the taxes to service the budget deficit and make provisions for the supposed running of the government. Another justification was that the increments would allow the government to meet the IMF requirements and recommendations for Kenya’s economic restructuring and efforts to stabilize critical public services like healthcare, infrastructure, and education.

While the justifications behind these policies might appear convincing, the policies, forming the means, are way off the track to achieve any. You can not tax people out of poverty because no one gives what he does not have: Nemo quo dat non habet. At the moment, more than 36.1% of the total Kenyan population lives below the poverty line of the country, and the statistics of those living below the $1.90 per cent daily earning have been of regrettable concern as of 2023. The country maintains an unfavourable unemployment rate with a projection of an increment of 2% before the end of this year and with about 2.9 million persons unemployed. Aside from these many problems, the rate of job losses across the country has been increasing lately, with more than 70,000 job losses recorded between the end of 2022 and 2023.

You see, every act and policy of any country must gain validity from the will of the people and the welfare of the same. With the long history of suffering the people, one Ruto claimed to have hustled through, and the contemporary complications on the survival possibilities of the people, the primary objectives of any reasonable government should be to make the people as comfortable as they can get. Imposing a 16% tax on bread and oil that people find difficult to buy or any common food they long for is an evil disguised in the name of doing good. Why not limit them to eating two meals a day and drinking water for dinner?

This begs the question of why the people must be suffocated at every point of governmental inconvenience. The task is not to make policies in a vacuum but to primarily alleviate the suffering of the people at best or to ensure no complications at least. It is quite unfortunate and unfair that the poor, whom Ruto had claimed to have hustled with, are left to bear the burden while the rich and influential bask in pools of Kenyan commonwealth. The allegations of corrupt practices in the Kenyan government have been at an alarming rate, and one wonders why the government has not looked at the sabre-toothed cankerworms that eat into the economic sanity of the nation.

The Kenyan judiciary has been charged with different levels of corrupt practices, leading to some faceoff between the stakeholders. The misappropriation of the KES 20 billion that was supposedly planned for the Soin-Koru Dam restoration, The KEMSA scandal pointing to the misappropriation of health funds, including illegal awarding of tenders to the tune of about $72 million during Covid-19, the heavy lootings by Kenya Public servants to the tune of $3.8 million just by the end of June 2023, and other lavish lifestyles of officials are some of the disgraceful issues and instances that have quickened the spirit of the people against unfavourable policies. Amid this crisis, Ruto, the supposed Hustler-in-Chief, without relating with the plight of the people and failing to show that the country is in urgent need of funds, decided to charter a private jet to both Atlanta and Washington D. C at a cost of about $1.5 million. $1.5 million on a trip when his people suffer? So, can Ruto impose a tax on sanitary pads to recoup? Is the menstruation blood needed for some kind of ritual to remain in power?

It is reasonable that when perseverance becomes too difficult, every human being will resist. This was the case in the Kenya population’s resistance to the Finance Bill 2024. If the government fails to read the room to understand what the people face, it will start a war against its citizens. After the announcement of the Bill, Ruto and the parliament have faced severe opposition and protests, and from June 18, 2024, protests had intensively started from social media and Nairobi and spread to Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa, Nyeri, and Eldoret. On June 20, 2024, the protest had escalated to a national crisis.

The highlight of this discussion rests on the government’s response to the expression of agitation among its people. The government faced the people like it was fighting its enemies. Some reporters claimed that about 22 people had been killed, 300 injured, and about 50 people arrested by the security operatives as of June 26, 2024. In fact, the President had claimed that the protest had turned into a threat to national security, and many “criminals” had pretended to be protesters, intending to terrorize the government. How can Ruto call the citizens he governs criminals?

The same way the economic issue is handled wrongly is how the protest escalation was handled carelessly. The arrogance of the government has blinded its eyes from the need to expediently respond to the plight of the people and catch the protest at its early stage by taking preliminary steps at achieving and not being apprehensive with the same people that put him in office. I believe that the Parliament’s insensitive attitudes that made them go ahead with the Finance Bill is an affront to democracy, which is obvious evidence of their inability to understand the people’s claims. In addition, the latter concession of the President, refusing to sign the bill, is equivalent to medicine after death. Kenya would not be erased from the map if it suspends the passing of the Bill in order to achieve peace and for a more diplomatic approach.

It is more disheartening that the treatment of the people in their biggest moment of vulnerability has come from a man who has claimed to have once been like them. A man who had promised to make their lives comfortable and one who promised to bring sanity to their welfare care. It is important that if there will be anything to savage at all, it is pertinent that Ruto and its government drop the arrogance and show more intentionality about promoting peace without violence. The first solution is not to impose more taxes on people who can barely survive: once again, you can not tax people out of poverty.

“Hustler-in-Chief” treat your people with respect and do not suffocate the suffocating citizenry anymore.

"We'd go to the mall for a few hours, grab something to eat, walk across the street to the theater and see a movie, then have someone pick us up or take us to late-night bowling or roller skating. We were hardly home!"

Recently, members of the BuzzFeed Community shared how they had fun before the internet, and the responses were both wholesome and VERY nostalgic! So nostalgic, in fact, that they inspired even more people to share their experiences. Here are some of the best responses:

1. "Sitting by the radio for hours to wait for the ONE song I wanted to record on a cassette so I could listen to it on repeat. Hanging out at a bowling alley every Friday night to not even bowl (because no one had money) but just drink pop and hang out at the tables and cause a ruckus."

Shanina / Getty Images/iStockphoto

—tundra28

2. "Cosmic bowling, followed by Denny's until 1 or 2 a.m.! Or, because gas was so cheap, we'd just drive around for hours with the windows down, blasting the radio."

Fotografia Inc. / Getty Images

—karileah143

3. "I have I think 18 cousins on my mom's side alone, so we spent summers outside in our grandma's yard just going nuts. Wiffleball, kickball, frisbee, made-up games, picking cherry tomatoes and green beans from the garden, and picking honeysuckles and berries off bushes by the fence. On days we had to stay inside, there were a few board games we could play, but we mostly liked playing different versions of the alphabet game, or playing restaurant where we drew up all the menus ourselves...just like basic '90s kid stuff."

Maskot / Getty Images/Maskot

—purpletruck35

4. "Our greatest games included lawn ornament swaps where we’d find adjacent yards with lawn ornaments and switch them around, getting free pizzas by ordering Domino's then running the two blocks to the train tracks and completing the circuit so the lights would flash and the arms would go down, making the pizza delivery over 30 minutes, and the most fun one: there would be 5-6 of us walking down the street, we’d see a cop and just scatter in different directions. Inevitably, we would be chased because, obviously, kids who run are up to something. And we were. We were up to screwing with them because why not?"

Jena Ardell / Getty Images

—trishmcdermott

5. "I was a '70s kid, '80s teen. Lots of hanging out at the library reading everything, puzzle books, messing around at the park, reading the newspaper (comics! sports stats!), partying, going to concerts and plays, and honestly watching way too much TV (highlighting the TV Guide every week)."

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—shelleye

6. "My friend and I (and the three younger boys who lived next door to her) would spend every day in the woods around our subdivision. Our subdivision had been built on an old, ruined monastery, so we found a lot of religious paraphernalia (statues of angels, vials of holy water, crosses, etc.) but we liked finding animal bones. Further away was a river but going there meant dealing with a gang of wild turkeys. Their territory was an old rusted car, and they hated us getting near it. So we'd go there to pay our respects to our turkey lords but otherwise leave them alone."

Pekic / Getty Images

—lacjiba

7. "We would walk up and down this long downtown street that runs through three towns (including my hometown) and we would pop into stores, run into other friends, and flirt with boys we would meet, lol. And you could get away with your parents not really knowing where you were — all I had to do was have a quarter and I would call my mom from any random payphone to 'check in.'"

Jena Ardell / Getty Images

—cute-as-ducks419

8. "My best friend and I lived about two miles apart, so we'd call each other and agree on a time to start walking and eventually meet somewhere in the middle and figure out plans from there. We kept ourselves busy with stupid photo shoots on disposable cameras (and then wait a WEEK for the results), or if we were being really fancy, we'd beg her parents to drive us to Applebee's so we could go flirt with the cute boys that worked there. We explored vintage and thrift shops, once went horseback riding with some random kids we met, and countless other things our parents had zero idea we were doing. What a time to be alive!"

Marco_piunti / Getty Images

—andreau

9. "One night in high school, my buddies and I bought a bunch of $1 tubs of cotton candy at Walmart and were eating them in the little park oval in the middle of our town. We saw a cop car drive by and dove under the benches like we would get caught for doing something illegal? Totally sober, just eating cotton candy at 1 a.m. in the old colonial village town park."

Vitalii Puzankov / Getty Images

—deutschenheimer

10. "The summer was all about the public pool. I spent hours there with my friends every day, picking up diving sticks, playing hide and seek, having handstand competitions, learning flips, eating at the snack shack, and playing tetherball."

Jena Ardell / Getty Images

—lizk41ced1621

11. "During the day, there would always be a basketball game, baseball game, or football game being played somewhere in my small town. If there wasn’t, there was always riding bikes around the neighborhood or walking along the railroad tracks catching frogs. Then, at night, we would usually play hide-and-seek on our block until everyone had to go in when their parents yelled out the front door for them to come home."

Jena Ardell / Getty Images

—blueshield54

12. "I am in my late 60s, so we didn’t have internet or computers. After school, we would ride bikes and play in the canyons around our house. Lots of us would go down the canyon when it was raining and climb up the hillsides and go mud sliding all the way down to the bottom. We'd spend the whole afternoon doing that, it was a blast. We would go to the movies on Fridays, sometimes we would go to Ferrall's Ice Cream Parlor to eat ice cream and hang out."

Vincent Besnault / Getty Images

—awfulmeat26

13. "I had a cool neighborhood of over 10 kids. We would play ‘kick the can’ and touch football, riding our bikes for endless miles."

Lisa5201 / Getty Images

—lisas4bb382393

14. "There were a lot of kids growing up in Sotel, California, a small neighborhood in West Los Angeles. When we were young, we’d hang out at the beach all summer, riding bikes, mopeds, or rollerblading. As we got older and had cars, we would meet up at the local gas station and jump into cars and go anywhere from the beaches, to Sunset Boulevard, to the Hollywood Hills. Lots of wild fun. Got into some trouble but I wouldn’t change it for the world."

Jena Ardell / Getty Images

—savoryorca28

15. "We had dial-up when I was a kid, but we barely used it because it was so slow. I lived in Florida, so we did lots of swimming. By high school, we had real internet but spent most of our time hanging out at the local Sonic in town or at someone’s kitchen table. On our wilder nights, we would go to Walmart and dig around for the best stuff in the $5 bins, or we’d play hide and seek in the store (which I’m now sure the employees hated)."

Jena Ardell / Getty Images

—runner1399

16. "As a teen in the mid-late 90s, the 'strip' of my small town was bumper-to-bumper traffic on Friday and Saturday nights! Every vehicle full of teenagers, just riding around town from a gas station at the city limits to the Dairy Queen and back! And only a few people had car phones at the time, so if u wanted to talk to someone in another vehicle, you would flash your lights or pump your brakes at their car to get their attention to pull over. Now, it's basically a ghost town after dark…gas being expensive doesn’t help matters either! Kinda sad, as some of my fondest memories were made just riding the strip."

Jerome Tisne / Getty Images

—georgiajaymes

17. "Before malls and rollerblading, I remember one local skating rink. Big nights were Friday and Saturday. Our parents would drop us off."

Powerofforever / Getty Images

—grumpydaredevil93

18. "Magazines, circling things in clothes catalogs, like Delia’s and J. Crew, and waiting six weeks for them to arrive. Fashion and brands weren’t available for kids who didn’t live in a big city. I talked to my friends on the landline for hours a day and memorized their numbers. I still know them as a 39-year-old."

Catherine Mcqueen / Getty Images

—princesscansuelabananahammock

19. "My teen years were like a study in geek chic. Nintendo while consuming mass quantities of Mountain Dew and Little Caesar’s; spending hours at the arcade in the basement of the mall; seeing the latest sci-fi movies and sneaking in snacks (I still have my ticket stubs from Stargate and Independence Day!); gathering at a friend’s house to watch Deep Space Nine or Voyager; playing Magic the Gathering until the wee hours of the morning; riding my bike EVERYWHERE. The internet is a good thing, for the most part, but I think kids are really missing out when it comes to childhood."

Imgorthand / Getty Images

—awkwardsmoothie20

20. "We would sit on the deck all night in high school with cigarettes, Diet Coke, and a package of Oreos. And let’s not forget, chili cheese Fritos! We would talk about everything and nothing. Also, a group of about 10 girls would get into this huge mud fight in the local lake they drained for electricity purposes in the winter. So fun, but so cold!"

Bernd Vogel / Getty Images

—bougielegend71

21. "We'd go to the mall for a few hours, grab something to eat, walk across the street to the theater and see a movie, then have someone pick us up or take us to late-night bowling or roller skating. We were hardly home!"

Kiwis / Getty Images

—friesfriesfries

How did you pass the time as a kid/teen before the internet? Share your story in the comments! Or, fill out this anonymous form. Your response could be featured in a future BuzzFeed Community post.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) secured N284.26 billion from eager investors during its latest Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTBs) auction held on Wednesday, June 26, 2024. According to results from the Debt Management Office (DMO), the auction drew substantial interest, with total subscriptions reaching N773.98 billion, significantly exceeding the initial offer of N228.72 billion.

Treasury Bills serve as a key tool for the CBN to manage monetary policy by controlling money supply, and they also provide the government with short-term funding to bridge budget deficits. The recent auction marks a notable increase of 417.1% in the amount offered compared to the N44.23 billion offered in the previous auction on June 13, 2024. Additionally, total subscriptions saw an 89.8% rise from N407.76 billion, while total sales surged by 414.7% from N55.23 billion.

The auction featured three tenors: 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day bills, all of which saw strong demand that surpassed the offer amounts, reflecting robust investor interest.

Auction Details:

- 91-day bills: Offered at N29.83 billion, received subscriptions worth N36.29 billion, and allotted N28.15 billion. Bid range: 15.98% to 24.00%, stop rate: 16.30%. Maturity: September 25, 2024.

- 182-day bills: Offered at N30.67 billion, received subscriptions worth N40.58 billion, and allotted N36.44 billion. Bid range: 17.00% to 21.00%, stop rate: 17.44%. Maturity: December 25, 2024.

- 364-day bills: Offered at N168.21 billion, received subscriptions worth N697.11 billion, and allotted N219.67 billion. Bid range: 16.00% to 25.00%, stop rate: 20.68%. Maturity: June 25, 2025.

The significant subscription rate and robust demand across all tenors underscore the continued appeal of Treasury Bills among yield-hungry investors in Nigeria.

The national assembly has passed the bills seeking the extension of the capital component of the 2023 budget and the Supplementary Appropriation Act.

The federal lawmakers granted an extension from June to December, following a request by President Bola Tinubu.

The senate and house of representatives passed the bills on Thursday after considering their clauses at the committee on supply.

The passage was preceded by a rowdy session at the house of representatives.

The president, in a letter read by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house, asked the green chamber to extend the implementation of the capital components of the 2023 budget and Supplementary Appropriation Act from June 30 to December 31.

After Abbas read the letter, some lawmakers opposed the call for the debate of the president’s request.

Julius Ihonvbere, majority leader of the house, moved for the debate of the bill, saying the amendment does not alter the content of the bill but just the date.

Kingsley Chinda, minority leader of the house, expressed concern that the two budgets are running concurrently.

He said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration was criticised for lacking a clear budgetary cycle, adding that the current administration is potentially repeating the mistake.

The ranking legislator demanded that the bill be stepped down to enable the government to “go back to the drawing board”.

Sada Soli, an All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker from Katsina, opposed Chinda, saying the PDP lawmaker was “playing to the gallery”.

“I admire the PDP for playing to the gallery. You cannot extend the supplementary budget without the main budget,” he said.

His comment prompted vocal protests from the lawmakers.

Reacting, Ado Doguwa, a ranking APC member from Katsina, said: “I agree with the submission made by the minority of the house.

“Even though it is legal, it is unprecedented. That moral question will always be raised.”

He, however, appealed to his colleagues to support the bill, saying the president would understand the body language of the lawmakers.

Following the bickering, the lawmakers moved into an executive session.

The Cable