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23:40
From: assidous
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I was watching Vitimbi on KBC last night. They haven't lost much of their act but when Mama Kayai the veritable Matriarch doesn't make an appearance in whole episode, one feels short-changed. At least thats what i feel. With Mwala poached by Citizen, the Mogaka fellow has quite some big shoes to fill into and his efforts to ape ace comedian Nyambane falls flat! But thats comedy for us in Kenya. But i digress.
I have beef, what or who to direct it at is the problem. The programme producer or the advertisers, am lost.
For the keen observers like this blogger(but do i say), the cameraman focus was last night taken from the actors and directed to the programme sponsors' products in the setting. The first time i noted ws when the cameraman zoomed on the wall clock in Mwende's house which is a 'Postal Directories - Yellow Pages' souvenir.
The second time was in Ojwang's restaurant where the cameraman again zoomed on the Royco container for close to 10 seconds!
Am not sure if there is a logical explanation to this but it shows how unprofessional the production department can be at times. Also, the advertising house which handles the accounts for Royco and Postel Directories serioUsly need some advise on advertisement placements especially so if the products are being used by a cast like Vitimbi. By doint it the way the did it yesterday, it cheapens a rather well thought out story.
But thats KBC for us, instead of watching the programmes, we watch the adverts and view the adverts instead of the other way round! How do you fix 8-15 adverts in a 20-30min programme?
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18:43
From: Kikuyumoja's realm
Read This Entry & More At Kikuyumoja's realm
System Rush: Evolution (DEMO) bietet zwei Hacker-Level. Dabei steuert der Spieler sein Fahrzeug durch die beiden 3D-Level und gewinnt an Geschwindigkeit, wenn er mit dem Bit-Stream zusammenstößt, den Energie- Brocken, die der „Keeper“ zurücklässt. Nutzen Sie den Bit-Stream, um den „Keeper“ einzuholen, und zerstören sie ihn, indem Sie seine Energie absaugen. Dank des intuitive Designs zum Steuern von Spielfunktionen mit nur einem Daumen können Sie Ihr Fahrzeug mit der Richtungstaste steuern, bei Gefahren schnell reagieren und über den Bit-Stream des „Keepers“ selber noch schneller werden.
Ist auf jedem phone vorinstalled, und kann man sich sonst anytime von der Nokia website herunterdownloaden. Oder noch besser: das Game ist playable on the phone wenn es heruntergedownloaded ist.
In der Knowledge Base von Microsoft steht tatsächlich das Wort “gedownloaded”.
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17:16
From: KenyanMusings
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Usually I don't mind it. Going to the bushes. As long as I have sunscreen, water, apples, crackers, wet wipes, hand sanitizer (for all the hands I cannot avoid shaking) a translator, security and I travel in comfort with a driver who will not talk toooo much like that M***, Ngutness! he never shuts up, kila saaa stories stories.......UGH! *gasps for breath* Seriously I am so not like some people who need to travel with their sijui bags full of make up ........*shrugs* For what now vile there is not even a place to shower or electricity or chaps to impress sijui with Long lash Mascra...how now?? This one though was the harshest harshest trip eeeeeverrrrr. For 2 days I did not eat vile *gaaaaag* and on the third day, close to breakdown, I closed my eyes and ate something. Mi Casa. The roof houses only like 50003 bats with human like faces that hang like pendulums on the roof...ewwwwww, they don't fall in..there is a mesh but they make munching sounds and all. Eeeek! and the whole house reeks of bat poo. Cool bananas! How fast can you say Hardship? Per diem?  This Fugleee *smh* I started calling him/it Abdullahi because it lived in the compound and everytime I got out of my hut, it would be there in all its fuglee glory yukk! Eating soil!!!! and I would yell at the dude who wanted to convert me into Islam so he could marry me *shrugs* he does not have enough head of camel to sustain my town habits me....to come take it away and Abu would just saunter off with his tail at a 90 degree angle.
 Then you set off in search of human signs, babies to be precise or pregnant mummies...not that you can tell....what with the buibui and all? Stop to do pee pee on the way and take a shika kiuno pic...mwehehe, fret not ...no one cares that I have not had a proper bath in 3 days.... but when you get to where the people are you have to cover up....and the top too   Human signs.....yaaaay!!  And Looook!!!! A hospital!!!!  With a place where if you are bold enough to climb, you may get phone network... Network......NOOOOOT. And adorable Hawa not feeling too good and she walked for about 30KM with her mummy to come to hospital *sniff* Sometimes she walked, sometimes mummy carrioed her...*sniff*..... but she is going to get better  And when you get back to town....you can have henna on your feet by the woman who makes the brides pretty ......She would not let me tell her what to paint because we could not comminucate so she did her own things. Not too bad.  And some more Henna  Finished foot. It will fade off in two weeks so *shrugs* It looks very pretty though, I like it.  And a henna flower on my tatas...
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15:19
From: Kenyan Pundit
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- Challenges of getting Africa connected. What about an alternative (be sure to read the comments as well)? I’m just curious why I don’t see much attention on efforts to bring electricity to all African homes….well first, are there even focused efforts? If not, what’s the hold up?
- Nice [...]
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12:48
From: Black Looks
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While President Jean-Bertrand Aristide remains in forced exile in South Africa, his Lavalas supporters continue the campaign to bring him back to Haiti. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviews Randall Robinson (founder of Trans Africa Forum) whose book “An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President” was published [...]
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10:06
From: You Missed This
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archiveThe nation will mark the 25th anniversary of the failed Kenyan coup attempt of 1982 this August in the face of a number of unresolved questions. Amongst this is the fate of the dramatic broadcast by the de facto head of the coup attempt and Chairman of the self-styled Peoples’ Redemption Council (PRC), Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka. The said broadcast was made at 6.00 a.m., Sunday morning, 1st August 1982 on the General Service of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (then Voice of Kenya – VOK). It is unclear how many people across Kenya heard... Read more
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10:00
From: You Missed This
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archiveKumekucha has come across the chilling story on the Mathare massacre. The first-hand account of how the Mathare killings started is sickening to say the least and has been supplied by impeccable soures who also helped me cross check certain critical details. Other shocking revelations include: 1) How a well-known victim was abducted by a police squad, executed along Mombasa road and his body dumped in the Nairobi game park so that wild animals eat it, thus leaving no trace of him. 2) The crackdown on Mungiki has so far claimed more than 1,000 youths and majority of them are innocent! 3) Contrary to the figure of 27 given by the police, 60 youths were killed in the Murang'a massacre. Six of them were innocent pupils. Don’t miss this amazing Kumekucha exclusive, here tomorrow.
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8:57
From: Kikuyumoja's realm
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A friend of mine in Nairobi informed me today that my blog takes ages to load. Can anyone of you confirm this?
I already tested my website with the free webwait service (as pictured above), but I don’t know if this actually tests the speed time my website takes to load (~ server response time, scripts, etc.), or just how fast my site loads with my current connection (speed).
Any feedback on the download/accessibility/site-loading speed is very much appreciated. Thank You!
AOB: MSIE 6.029 sux. big times!
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8:38
From: My Africa Today
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 Swahili is the most commonly spoken African language — it is the chief trade language of East Africa and is the first language of at least 70 million people living in areas such as Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, and Uganda, according to the team working on Kilinux, the Swahili Localization Project. Alberto Pascual, the technical project coordinator for Kilinux, said the release is primarily focused at Tanzanians, as there are strong regional differences in Swahili, but the team is working with groups in Kenya to make modifications for Kenyan Swahili. A Microsoft spokeswoman said that Windows and Office are not available in Swahili at present. Infrastructure problems have posed more of a challenge to the project than have technical problems, according to Pascual. “Infrastructure is more of a challenge than the technical things,” said Pascual. “Internet access is slow and we have three power cuts every week.
It is even difficult to make a phone call.” Transferring the OpenOffice.org code over the Internet only takes minutes in Europe, but can take hours in Tanzania, as high-speed internet connections such as ADSL are not yet available. Instead Web users have to rely on slow dial-up connections, said Pascual. The cost of Internet access is also an issue. Cats-net.com, an ISP in Tanzania, charges around $36 per month for 33.6Kbps dial-up Internet access, according to the company’s Web site. This is more than 10 percent of the average income of an educated professional. Professors at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania earn $300 per month, Pascual said. Another challenge for the project has been translating computer terms into Swahili. Computer terminology is not included in the Swahili language and the team has found it difficult to find people who understand enough about computers to do the translation.
To translate terms, such as bookmark and download, the translators first needed to understand what the physical result of carrying out this action was and then find a word in the Swahili language which could describe this. “If you translated download directly it would mean to unload food from a truck,” said Pascual. “We needed to understand the concept, and then go back to the language and match the concept — this took a long time.”
The initial release of Jambo OpenOffice, which follows four months work, is a test version. This initial version will only work on the Linux operating system, but the final release, which is due in February 2005, will also work on Windows. Once the final version is available, the Kilinux team may have a difficult job explaining the advantages of open-source software as software piracy is rife, said Pascual. “People here don’t buy Microsoft licences, so free software is a difficult concept to explain as they think Microsoft is also free,” said Pascual. As Internet access is slow and expensive, distribution of Jambo OpenOffice is likely to be manual. The team plans to hand deliver CD-ROMs of the February release to primary schools, so that Tanzanian school children can use the software, said Pascual.
The Swahili localisation project has been funded by the Swedish International Development Agency and the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM). The project has been coordinated by the Department of Computer Science at UDSM, the Institute of Kiswahili Research and Swedish consultancy IT+46. Customize your mobile with your Complimentary Ringtone!
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8:08
From: Me, Life & Everything
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Rendezvous: 1608hrs
Prolixity: brief kaa zile nimevaa
Mood: sniffly
Whereabouts: kwa hao
Echelon: II
Track: End of the road - Boyz II Men, Boomerang.
Gish I heard you. Na wewe Jada, ngoja tu! Hiss!! SNIFF!! Aki this cold is NASTY. Now i am cold and i have a cold, UNFAIR. **sigh** Its been a while since i was last here, so [...]
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7:57
From: White African
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 Some of the greatest insights on this site have come from the individuals leaving comments. Someone by the name of “Goat Herd” left one of those comments today, on one of my favorite blog posts “The Dark Continent: It’s Still Dark” from over a year ago. Thank you “Goat Herd”, and thanks to everyone else who enriches all of us by leaving comments and keeping the discussions going here.
This comment is worthy of a post entirely to itself, it’s well worth the read:
I strongly disagree with most of Ishtar’s and Yishlie’s views. I grew up in rural Kenya. I went to school barefoot. After classes, I’d till the land, herd the goats, then walk miles to fetch water and find firewood. There was no electricity, No TV, No phones … just an old transistor radio that had VOK (Voice of Kenya). The nearest hospital was miles away and was poorly manned and stocked. If it rained … the roads were impassible… If it did not… starvation was imminent. … Yes, we did not try to subdue the environment, … The Environment subdued us. We were at its mercy.
Although by local standards were not that poor … by global standards we were very poor. Our lives were uncluttered by modern technological advances… but, like our forefathers we spent a lot of our time just providing for our subsistence. It was a hard life with no rest in sight.
Later I moved to the city and then on to America which exposed me to very different experiences. Some bad, many good. I witnessed systems that work (or at least work better than any that I had known in the past). I realized that some of the problems we face today had long been solved by others. All that was needed was for us to adopt (and customize) those solutions to suit our particular circumstances. And here’s my big disagreement with Ishtar and Yishlie. …
There is nothing romantic or idealic about being poor. Only a person who has never been poor can entertain such a notion. Ishtar also seems to suggest that human warmth and material prosperity (or technological advancement) are mutually exclusive. I think the people that Ishtar talked to in Niger, would be just as warm even after rising out of poverty.
It is true that the West (and the rest of the world) can learn valuable lessons from Africa. But it is also true that Africa NEEDS to learn a whole lot from the rest of the world (Not just the west). In Africa, there are still too many systems that don’t work, too too many children dying of curable and preventable diseases, too many “involuntarily” iliterate people and too many people living hand to mouth their entire lives. Other societies have faced these same problems and overcome them. We need to borrow a leaf from them.
I am not saying that we should adopt everything western… No. We shouldn’t “copy” from them, we should “learn” from their experiences. There’s no shame in adopting solutions from others. This is not a contest to see who is “better” or who is more “original” between the west and Africa. This is about adapting to a changing world. … And we must adapt or perish.
Yes, I believe we can be prosperous and technologically advanced while still retaining our human warmth.
Ishtar suggested that we should get rid of corrupt governments and psychopathic bankers… I agree that we should … but …How do you do that ?
- You can have a bloody revolution …
or
- You can find ways to circumvent the corrupt government and psychopathic bankers
…. I believe that “White African’s” main point was that … The “African Digerati” is in a position to cause change by finding ways to circumvent corrupt governments, unnecessary red tape, bad banks and other barriers …
I will enumerate afew of the “projects” that i am currently aware of that a section of the African digerati is trying to implement.
- Promoting the use of “Open Source software” in Kenya.
A group of Kenyans here in the US are currently recording video lessons on how to obtain and use various open source softwares. They intends to distribute the DVDs for free (or almost free) to high schools, colleges and cybercafes. The goal is to expand the awareness and expertise in such software to a level where most business would be comfortable ditching their expensive softares for the cheaper open source.
- Another group of Africans from Ghana has set up a money transfer system that allows them to send money back to Ghana for way less than they would using regular banks… The results… the local banks have had to lower their charges.
- There’s a Kenyan selling organic food in Kansas. The food is grown by his fellow villagers in Kenya. Due to the ease of communication and funds transfer made possible by modern technology, he’s managed to start a mini-industry all alone without involving the government.
- … and many others
… White African’s point … We can no-longer continue blaming corrupt African government and “evil ” multinationals for Africa’s woes without doing anything about it.
Now, at an individual level, we have the very real potential to cause significant positive social- economic changes . The beautiful part is that we can achieve this without having to make monumental personal sacrifices.
 
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6:41
From: Bizmambo
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As business owners I'm sure you recognise the power of publicity and how positive media coverage can have an impact on your business. Free media exposure has a lot more credibility than advertising. In fact it's said that publicity is seven times more effective. However you may also think that you don't have the skills or knowledge to gain publicity and maybe you're not in a financial position to hire a PR firm (yet!). But if you follow my 10-point plan I'm sure that you'll soon experience the power of the press. 1. Gain the appropriate skills and knowledge to become an expert in your field. Experts on specialist topics are sought after by the media. Become a qualified member of your industry's association, as this will give you credibility when the media choose to profile you. 2. Be clear on what your message is, know what you want to say. Understand that you need to have a point of difference or something interesting to say and that you need to get that across in an entertaining and informative way. Summarize your message in short, succinct, sound bites. 3. You need to have an audience to listen to your message. Do some research on your ideal customer, perhaps a survey. Look at whom your competitors are talking to. Zero in on your target. 4. Reach out to your target audience through the media. Research the most appropriate magazines, newspapers, on-line media or TV shows for your story. Build a database of media contacts or buy a media directory. 5. Approach the media. Send out a well-written media release, follow up with phone calls. Submit articles to magazines. Submit articles to on-line sites. Follow up again. Make sure to be consistent with your media liaison. 6. A picture tells a thousand words. Send out a professional and creative photograph with your release or ring the media outlet and suggest a photo opportunity. Stage a creative film opportunity for television. Media is entertainment and most people are attracted to strong visual images. 7. Be persistent. Keep on submitting media releases and articles. But learn to take no for an answer and don't be a pushy publicist. You need to build good working relationships with journalists. 8. Be prepared for media interviews. Prepare beforehand possible questions and rehearse the answers. Prepare a few points you want to get across and stay on track. Again think of sound bites and memorable phrases to convey. 9. Build up a portfolio of information about you. Your media kit to include on your website as an online newsroom and for meetings with journalists. 10. Consolidate your expertise by publishing books, CD's and DVD's and reap the rewards of successful public relations.
Read the complete article at
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