I Want My Masai Cows, Dammit!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

There was the cutest article in the NY Times this morning (I can’t link to it, as I’m not registered with them online). It seems the Masai tribe in Enoosaen, Kenya, has just now heard what happened on Sept. 11 (the Masai don’t watch CNN as much as they might). They were just told of it by a tribesman who has visited the U.S. (he had to explain how people could die jumping from a building, as they have never seen anything bigger than a hut).

So they have presented 14 cows to the U.S. (a photo shows someone holding a sign reading “We give these cows to help you”). One cow donor said, “We had heard about a disaster in America but we didn’t know much about it. Now we feel the same way we would feel if we lost one of our own.” Another villager added that he would like to kill Osama bin Laden: “He’s a strong man so we couldn’t do it directly. We would surround him in the bush.”

Annoyingly, our Embassy head, Wm. Brancick, says he can’t transport the cows to the U.S. and will exchange them for jewelry! Well, *I want my cow! * I think it’s incredibly sweet of the Masai—I hope no one knows anything awful about them, because I am totally in love with them now. I will feed and pet my cow and give it a good home.
(italics code fixed – Uke)

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(Goddam italics code . . . I was so upset about losing my cow I forgot to preview . . . )

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Aren’t the Masai cows those sculptures all painted up funny like? I’d sure like one! I’ll put it in the front yard next to the Chevy on blocks!

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I seem to recall a Far Side cartoon in which a Masai tribesman is standing in a phone booth with a unhappy boy with a sack tied to the end of a stick standing outside, saying into the telephone “Mrs Connor? This is so-and-so of the Masai. Have you lost a little boy?”

Who knew it was based on real-life generosity?

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I almost got teary-eyed when I read this in the paper this morning. Amidst all the bad news, there’s this little gem! I, too, want the COWS!

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Ooooh, thank you, Ike, for the code-fix. I’ll let you come over and play with my cow.

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A petting zoo! That’s the answer to the question “What should be done with the WTC site?”

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The Masai would be pretty cool to have on our sides. I knew a guy (now deceased,) who drove a boat during WWII. He was carrying Masai warriors and families to Europe.

These guys would sleep all day, and at night they’d get up and skulk around the lines.

The guy told me about relaxing one night, and walking off for a leak when suddenly this hand goes around his neck holding a knife. The other searches for a dog tag, and when it finds them, the hand pats him on the head and lets him go.

He never saw who the hands belonged to, but they were huge, and black.

Apparently they didn’t have much problem with infiltrators, and setting some Masai skulking around the enemy lines to cut throats must have been a huge demoralizing factor.

I hear when a Masai reached adulthood, they give him a wooden spear and tell him to go out and kill a lion with it, and they do.

They’re immensely tall, and apparently recognized as people not to screw with. They don’t pay attention to things like borders and I hear another story of people lined up to a cross a border, and some Masai just walked across. Nobody at customs is willing to bother them.

I’m glad these guys are on our side.

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According to National Geographic Magazine, Discovery Channel, and other various sources, the Masai live totally with their cattle. Cattle are their unit of measuring wealth, and the main portion of their diet is cow’s milk mixed with cow’s blood. (The cattle are routinely bled for this purpose.)
So their offer of 14 cows is very significant from their standpoint.

Eve, when you get your cow, are you going to invite us over for a milk and blood party? :eek:

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I knew a Masai in college–they pool resources to send some of their children overseas to school, so they have people prepared to represent them in dealings with local (and foreign) governments. From what I know them, a gift of cattle is a remarkable gesture–cattle are their lifeblood, and the only thing they really regard as wealth. I hope the media is treating the matter with appropriate dignity (faint hope, I know).

They no longer actively hunt a lion as a coming-of-age ceremony (AFAIK–some may do it unofficially), but they do kill lions that threaten their herds. Yes, they do it with spears–“Spears never run out of bullets.” They’re a formidable and (if my college friend was any indication) remarkably kind and decent people.

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Well, I think it is a huge insult for our Ambassador to sell the gift cows for jewelry, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the Masai are hugely offended and cut his throat. Why can’t we have our cows?! We could send 'em to the Central Park Zoo and set them up in a Masai Gift Cow pen. I’ll bet they’d be the most popular attraction!

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I also understand that a gift of 14 cows from the Masai is a deeply meaningful gift. I am awed by their generosity and thoughtfulness. Also, the offer to kill Osama speaks volumes about their bravery.

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Here is the article. If you’re not registered on the NYT site, use fritzxxx0 and fritzxxx for the user name and password. Very sweet story!

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Oh wow. That’s so cool!

Cows are cool. Hell, maybe we can train them to be killer cows, and they can hunt down Osama.

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Said Eve, “I’ll let you come over and play with my cow.”

So that’s what the kids are calling it these days. Will wonders never cease.

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There is a quote that goes something like…

If someone gives you a snake when you ask for a fish, it may be that a snake is all they have to offer. It is then generosity on their part.

I’ll have to look it up; I have it written down somewhere (so many scraps of paper…)

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It just now showed up on the AP newswire:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Willson Kimeli Naiyomah is a Maasai warrior, raised to respond to every emergency. But his upbringing was of no use Sept. 11, as he watched people crying in the streets during a visit to New York City. The feeling of helplessness stayed with Naiyomah, and when he returned to his village last month he told elders about the attack on the World Trade Center that killed more than 2,800 people. Many of the Maasai of Enoosaen, a village 250 miles southwest of Nairobi, had not heard of the terror attack. Captivated and saddened, they decided to show solidarity and on Sunday presented the American people with 14 cows, the most prized and sacred possession in Maasai culture.

Acting U.S. Ambassador William Brencick accepted the gift. He asked to give the cows back to the village in exchange for a beaded American flag made by local women and other traditional Maasai goods, such as braided belt worn by grieving women. “Most of these people like America, they associate what I have done with America,” Brencick said, referring to a project to provide fresh water to the village and building a school.

Naiyomah was in New York to visit Kenya’s U.N. ambassador. He is studying pre-med at Stanford University in California. “I felt helpless … people were crying in the streets, dying,” said Naiyomah, recalling the hours after hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center. “And there was nothing I could do.” He said that “as warriors, we respond to every emergency.” Naiyomah’s story began in Enoosaen, a small village that is mostly a collection of mud huts just outside the Masai Mara game reserve, where tourists go to gawk at lions and zebras. The village got electricity just a year ago.

“America has given me what I have, my education, my chance to become a doctor,” he said. Now, “my people shall forever be connected to America.” Sunday’s gift was more than the transfer of a few head of cattle. It took place in a Maasai “manyata,” a sacred place where warriors, such as Naiyomah, go through secret rituals to complete their transformation into elders. Foreigners are almost never allowed into a manyata. On Sunday, a few Americans received the cows in Enoosaen’s manyata, beneath an American flag that had been raised for the occasion. “We’ve spoken all along about how the events of Sept. 11 have brought people together,” said Peter Claussen, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. “Here is an example … a small village in western Kenya cares about what happened to the people in New York.”

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I had a professor in college who made a life study out of them. They always struck me as fairly straightforward, good people. Just be sure to be polite with them. Every once in a while, you hear of tourists being stabbed. No doubt for being jerks…

Besides, Americans wouldn’t know a good cow if it went flying through the air and smacked them on the head. Damn cornfed cattle…real cows are wasted on us. :slight_smile:

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Here is a link to an article about Masai cattle with some photos. They are very beautiful animals with large upswept horns. They come in all colors and patterns and the Masai are fond of composing poetry about their favorites. According to Masai religious beliefs, God gave all cattle to them exclusively. So it is truly a rare thing to receive a Masai cow as a gift.

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The LA Times also has the story here (free registration required): http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-060302maasi.story?null

The article add this: