【正文】 ll call the medical worker. She was supposed to notify the medical worker, who would certify that there was a problem. Then the medical worker called the wheelchair repair panies to get the cheapest bid. Then the medical worker alerted the main welfare office at the state capital. They considered the matter for days while I lay in bed, unable to move. Finally, if I was lucky, they called back and approved the repair. When welfare learned I was making money on my cartoons, Suzanne started visiting every fortnight instead of every two months. She looked into every corner in search of unreported appliances, or maids, or a roast pig in the oven, or a new helicopter parked out back. She never found anything, but there was always a thick pile of forms to fill out at the end of each visit, accounting for every penny. There is no provision in the law for a gradual shift away from welfare. I am an independent businessman, slowly building up my market. It39。m an active worker, not a vegetable. I live near downtown, so I can get around in a wheelchair. I wonder what she39。m sorry, but I don39。m expected to bow before the caseworker. Deep down, caseworkers know that they are being made fools of by many of their clients, and they feel they are entitled to have clients bow to them as pensation. I39。m tired of men, he said, watching over his pile of onions. They give us so many promises, but they don39。t seeing things done for the munity, she said. It was a scandal— the donors39。s constitution and the procedures and theory behind a democratic political system. One veteran female political activist said that many women had not been taught the basics of political participation. They are taught to vote for the one who gives you a half kilo sack of flour, 200 grams of salt, or a loaf of bread during the campaign, said the activist. Women politicians and activists say they are fighting deeplyheld cultural traditions. Those traditions teach that African women cook, clean, take care of children, sow and harvest crops and support their husbands. They typically do not inherit land, divorce their husband, control their finances or hold political office. Yet, political activity among Kenyan women is not a new phenomenon. During the struggle for independence in the 1950s, Kenyan women often secretly provided troops with weapons and spied on the positions of colonial forces. But after independence, leaders jealous to protect their power shut them out of politics, a situation repeated across the continent. Today, men still have the upper hand. Women in Kenya make up 60 percent of the people who vote, but only 3 percent of the National Assembly. No Kenyan woman has ever held a cabi post. Against that background, Agatha Mbogo began her political career. After winning her council seat, she declined a spot on the education and social services mittee after a colleague called it a woman39。s groups and going from door to door, handbag in hand, spending hours at a time giving a bination of speech and government lesson. I was delighted when she won the election, because men elected her, said Lydiah Kimani, an Embu farmer and political activist. It was the answer to my prayers because it seemed to be a victory over this idea that 39。t help feeling Chaplin would have regarded this strange incident as a fitting memorial— his way of having the last laugh on a world to which he had given so many. The Political Career of a Female Politician Modest and softspoken, Agatha Muthoni Mbogo, 24, is hardly the image of a revolutionary. Yet, six months ago, she did a most revolutionary thing: She ran for mayor of Embu, Kenya, and won. Ms. Mbogo39。Neill Chaplin, he found a partner whose stability and affection spanned the 37 years age difference between them, which had seemed so threatening, that when the official who was marrying them in 1942 turned to the beautiful girl of 17 who39。s great edy. He also had a deep need to be loved— and a corresponding fear of being betrayed. The two were hard to bine and sometimes— as in his early marriages— the collision between them resulted in disaster. Yet even this painfullybought selfknowledge found its way into his ic creations. The Tramp never loses his faith in the flower girl who39。t be me. Is that possible? How extraordinary, is how he greeted the first sight of himself as the Tramp on the screen. But that shock roused his imagination. Chaplin didn39。t it? But for over half of his screen career, Chaplin had no screen voice to confirm his British nationality. Indeed, it was a headache for Chaplin when he could no longer resist the talking movies and had to find the right voice for his Tramp. He postponed that day as long as possible: In Modern Times in 1936, the first film in which he was heard as a singing waiter, he made up a nonsense language which sounded like no known nationality. He later said he imagined the Tramp to be a collegeeducated gentleman who39。t seem all that English or even workingclass. English tramps didn39。s childhood. But only Charlie Chaplin could have created the great ic character of the Tramp, the little man in rags who gave his creator permanent fame. Other countries— France, Italy, Spain, even Japan—