ALL HAIL THE EGYPTIAN UPRISING

Subduing a people's collective will, can only lead to one eventual conclusion. The triumph of the people's will, no matter the price of sacrifice that must be paid, even if this is measured in terms of human lives lost. That's why the victors in the Egyptian uprising can only be the Egyptian people.

Weary of the impact of social media, the Egyptian authorities have resorted to clamping down Internet connections. But stopping an idea, whose time has come can hardly be achieved this or any other way.

Thanks to the likes of Al Jazeera and the BBC, a minute by minute account of what is going on in Egypt is still being beamed across the world.

And political analysts are already starting to deconstruct the complex and more all less covert interests of the US and Israel governments, and their dwindling hopes of a continuation of a Mubarak-led regime.

The Arab World, some say, will never be the same again, thanks to the extra-ordinary courage of that frustrated Tunisian man, whose self-immolation set off the chain reaction that is now reverberating in neighbouring Algeria, Egypt and as far as Yemen and Jordan.

Hooray to the spirit of self-determination. Hooray to the people's will. Hooray to the dismantling of despotic regimes.

MIMICKING HUMAN NATURE: WHEN MEDIA BLOWS HOT AND COLD

Isn't it amazing the way the media blows hot and cold air at the same time? In Kenya, so much had been written about poor families not being able to give their children a decent education. But now that primary education has been made free, the same press is inundated with reports of how the quality of learning in public schools has gone down. What gives, or is the media just mimicking human nature?

The introduction of the Free Primary Education in 2003 was hailed as a milestone for Kenyans, majority of whom had been barely able to put food on the table, let alone paying school fees.

President Kibaki meets Bill Clinton

Both local and international media extolled the then government for initiating what was hoped to be a major element of redressing social inequalities. As a matter of fact, when former US President Bill Clinton was asked to name one person in the world he would like to meet, he said Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki, for this very reason of introducing free primary education.

And so the success story of free primary education for a time, dominated media attention. That is, until the press started awakening to the fact that teachers were overwhelmed by the exponential growth in enrolment, already dilapidated learning institutions were bursting at the seams and the performance of public schools in national examinations was in nose-dive mode.

So 8 year's on, the pioneering class of the free primary education has just received its KCPE exam results and perhaps not surprising, private schools have almost monopolised the top positions in the order of merit.

This trend of the media blowing hot and cold, it however appears, is a global phenomenon. A recent BBC story highlighted the fact that many more Britons were likely to reach the ripe old age of 100. But somewhere in the middle, the tone of the report ceased to be celebratory.

The advance in health care, largely responsible for prolonging the life expectancy in the UK, took a backseat. The dangers of having an ageing population, and questions of who would provide for the millions of pensioners, was thrust to the fore.

So yes. Contradictions abound in the media. But that is just but a reflection of human nature. Never being satisfied is the bane of humanity.

MUSEUMS SHOULD NOT PROFIT FROM 'STOLEN TREASURES' MR. BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

For how much longer should past colonisers continue to posses and profit from items seized from their former colonies? For eternity? This seems to be the view held by David Cameron, the British Prime minister.

According to a news report carried by BBC online, Cameron flatly refused calls for a prized diamond last worn by the late mother of Queen Elizabeth, to be returned to India, where it was mined.

And his cunning explanation apparently has more to do with the fear of opening up the way for other claims and less to do with a reluctance to admit any wrong-doing.

"If you say yes to one you suddenly find the British Museum would be empty..."

In essence, what the British Prime minister is saying is that his country knows too well that apart from the Koh-i-Noor diamond, there are other ill-gotten treasures, historical sculptures and ancient artifacts donning the many impressive museums scattered across the UK.

And many such institutions charge entrance fees, meaning the museums are deriving commercial value from possibly 'stolen treasures.' Isn't that supposed to be illegal?

Perhaps time is nigh for international laws to be drafted to compel countries like Britain to return what rightfully belongs to other nations, having had the misfortune of being colonised by plunderers.

If the BBC is truly not a government mouthpiece, it should perhaps have closely interrogated Cameron's remarks about the famous diamond, which has been part of the Crown Jewels for more than a century.

But trust them to prominently and extensively quote a historian, who questions the validity of India's quest to have the Koi-i-Noor returned to its rightful owners.

PUTTING SAFETY OF NEWS CONTACTS FIRST BEFORE AN EXCLUSIVE STORY

Journalists often go to great lengths to get an exclusive story or scoop. The pursuit of big stories at times puts them in grave danger. But it should not always be about their own safety. News contacts too need to be reassured that no harm will come their way.

It is rather unfair for a reporter to only concentrate on getting a story without a thought of the possible risk they could be putting the news sources in, by putting the story out.

A BBC report of a missing Chinese lawyer for example, scored highly in tracing a relative of Gao Zhisheng. But very poorly in leaving the brother quite vulnerable after securing his interview.

The BBC team managed to trace Ghao Zhiyi deep into Central China. Despite obviously being aware of the strict Communist regime, the subsequent story did not make any attempt to conceal the identity of the brother to the fiery critic of the Chinese government.

If the Chinese authorities take offence with regard to this story, which was aired in the UK and is still posted on BBC's website, they might easily direct their anger at the poor brother to the missing lawyer.

Once when I attended a media workshop organized by CNN in Cape Town, South Africa, I remember how speaker after speaker took a swipe at the repressive regime of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

Then a Zimbabwean photojournalist took the microphone and asked the participants to tone down their anti-Mugabe sentiments. The auditorium was soon after inundated with shouts of 'why...why...why?'

The young man's disarming argument was very simple. The more the international media criticised Mugabe, the more the local Zimbabweans' lives were made more miserable.

This might seem like an extreme example but it does make you think about how easy it is to mistakenly assume that the pursuit of stories ought to be the ultimate objective for a journalist.