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22:40
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
Before Taabu or Chris rush in with some breaking news/stop press or shocker posts to blur this one, here is my opinion; if you have some money when the bell rings for the Safaricom shares today, buy. In most places, investment decisions are driven by fear and greed, but only in Kenya, by politicians’ whims. I feel like I’ve been preaching to stones but I will never tire of telling us to stop being held hostage by politicians every time Kibaki doesn’t budge. It’s been the norm for ODM to threaten the Kenyan government with mass protests every time the ODM side did not get what they wanted. Not that ODM goes to the mass protests. Last time I checked it was the ‘meat’, not ‘bones’ ministries that they wanted. And there seems to be no better means of getting them than asking you not to go to work (if you have a job, isn’t it sad?) but go protest on the streets. I want to ask you ODManiacs, what’s in it (protests, or boycotting the IPO) for you? Get this; Raila has not spoken against the IPO-why would he need to, he’s got what he wanted. The ball is now in all the wannabe ministers’ courts. Or rather the gun is in their right hand, and you are in their left.
Let me tell you why I think you should invest in Safaricom and telecommunication in general-it’s not only growing at the speed of light (OK, that is an exaggeration) , but the innovations in place are making even the developed countries gawk with awe. DO you know that mobile banking is a relatively new concept hukos? Less than 10 years ago, very few - and only rich- Kenyans could afford landline phones. In 2008, many, even the poor, have cell phones. That is development, no pun intended. Safaricom came in as only the second national operator and was able to sign in multiples of what Celtel had in a matter of months. As I write this, they are probably in their 8th prefix in the 8 or so years that they have been in operation. Their profits have been astronomical. Isitoshe, they have transferred billions of shillings to millions of Kenyans whom the banks could not profitably reach in their now 1-year old M-Pesa product. And you tell me I can’t own part of that growth if I could? Dream on.
Second reason; it’s your country, own as much of it as you can. You ain’t doing no one a favour but yourself. I just about puked when reading some of Chris’s advice; ati let the foreigners own Safaricom, but not Kenyans. With all due brotherly love, ndugu yangu, emancipate yourself from that colonial mentality. It’s what’s ailing us. Kenya ni yetu. If I have an opportunity to own part of it, me I tell you (!), I care less that you think foreigners have a better right to it. Kwanza that will give me the right to vote and my vote will tell M.J or whoever is in the drivers seat how to run that Safaricom of ours. If I had the chance I would rather vote than whine. You?
To the rumour mongers: No in my opinion, Safaricom never made any undue profits. They had the ‘second mover advantage’ that enabled them to learn what the then Kencel had not done right, and hit the ground running. While I’m proud of Kencel’s successor, Celtel as the baby of our very own Mo Ibrahim, they seem to think that Africa is one big market with no individual countries that are very particular (“Hello Africa! Tell me how you’re doing!” Sounds familiar?) in what they need. If my memory serves me right, Safaricom was the first to introduce the 100 bob credit that needed no scratch card. I first read it here that they just introduced a 20 bob scratch card that is within reach for most of its customers. Now that gets more people switching to Safaricom, increasing revenue, and yes - making profit. Add to that our peculiar calling habits, and again M-Pesa.
Did someone say that Safaricom is under investigation for fraud in the UK? That is a blatant lie. Safaricom has been trying to introduce M-Pesa to the Kenyan Diaspora in the UK so that even they can send money home via M-Pesa. There are payments and money transfers rules in place that must be followed, and that’s all that Safcom needs to get in place. Some have to do with Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism, others simply to do with ‘deposit’ taking. Safaricom had to do the whole drill with the Central Bank of Kenya before they could introduce M-Pesa, they will do it do it again with the UK’s Financial Aid Task Force and make more profits; do not be deceived, invest now.
So if you have some money, buy!If I could,I would. However, if you have some but would rather go mass- protesting because someone thinks on your behalf and you do the acting, well, honestly dear, I’d rather you just shut up and drink the kool-aid. But if you miraculously survive and, a few years down the line someone fails to be P, VP, PM, DPM, M or AM and you end up having a strong urge to burn Safaricom House or Telekom House because they are ‘owned by Kikuyus’, ask yourself who prevented you from owning them, then go burn his house.
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19:13
From: Eyes on Kenya
Read This Entry & More At Eyes on Kenya
And so you come and talk to me
About “Peace, Love and Unity”
Expecting me to agree
Parroting your parody
In my poetry:
Decorating your tyranny
With bouquets of perfumed words and imagery
To drive away the stench of your treachery
And hoodwink humanity.
I refuse!
I refuse to enter my brain
And ask it to entertain
Even the sound of the idea, that our loves should entwine.
Because what by “Love” you define
Doesn’t tally with mine:
I love my heroes you ignore, persecute and kill,
You love my enemies who rob and enslave me still;
How, then, can there be love between you and me
When the beats of our hearts’ music are not in harmony
When our hearts pump in and out different colours of blood:
No! I refuse!
I refuse to sing your song of submission and despair
I will, instead,
Forge my own words
Which will cry out for my martyred heroes –
Past and present –
Whose blood and tears and death and toil
Gave life to the tree of the freedom of my soil,
Those who always sought
For freedom of speech and thought
And refused to bend or be bought;
Those whose faith never waned to call
For freedom to each and all,
Whose courage was their shield
And with their spear of truth they fought and killed;
Those who, with their lives, they swore
That, come what may, onward they will go
Till their humanity they restore!
Every day, every minute, I hear
The bones and blood of my heroes declare:
“There is a debt to square!”
Them, we have not forgotten
Them, we will always honour and mention.
With their memories we shall rekindle the fire
Spreading its flames of wrath and ire
To burn the roots of our oppression
And uncover your every evil intention!
How, then, can there be “Peace” between us?
How can there be peace between us
When I’ll never accept to bury the people’s anger in the tomb of my verse!
How can I forget decades and decades of my people’s suffering and pain?
Of tears and blood pouring from their limbs, like rain?
How can I ask them to sing your songs in high volume
To stifle the tormented sounds of those you torture and maim?
How can I draw veils over their eyes
To conceal and eclipse the scenes of numerous massacres?
I can still hear the echo of those dead proclaiming:
“Our Country!
Our wounded, mutilated country
Where the dead are not dead
And the living are not living;
Our Country!
Sculptured in fire and blood
Where the north is barren
And the south is hard;
Our Country!
In death we still bleed for you
For we have decided to fear death less
And decided to love death more
Because, if by living we are dying
Why, then, not die a little more
So that we can live longer?”
Should I ignore these voices
Of these noble daughters and sons of my land?
No! I refuse!
For it is their Unity I crave for,
Shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm we go
Not with you, whom we happen to know
That you take from a lamb and give to a lion more;
You, who have torn our house in two:
Ignoring the majority and favouring the few
But, “When the sun is darkened
When the stars fall and disperse
When the mountains are made to move away,
When the camels, ten months pregnant, are left untended
When the wild beasts are brought together
When the seas are set alight
When the souls are paired (like with like)
When of the infant girl, buried alive, is asked: ‘For what crime was she slain?’
When the records are laid open
And the sky is stripped bare…”1
And there is nowhere to hide,
You, who today judge, shall be the accused!
by Abdilatif Abdalla
London
October 1988
Abdilatif Abdalla, a Kenyan political activist and a Swahili language instructor at Leipzig University Germany, is the author of Sauti ya Dhiki, Utenzi wa Maisha ya Adamu na Hawaa, Kenya Twendapi? and other literary and political classics. He translated Vàclav Havels Die Vernissage (Uzinduzi).
1 The Holy Koran: Chapter 81, Verses 1-11.
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18:25
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
Kenyan politics is getting rather tiresome and exhausting, especially for yours truly. So let’s start this political post on the fringes. World super model Naomi Campbell loves the Kenyan Coast and that is where she spent the recent Easter holidays. Kumekuchans will remember that one of the most desirable women on earth had a case in 2006 where she was accused of throwing a cell phone at her maid. The supermodel has quite a temper. 
Naomi Campbell was In Malindi over Easter and issued a strange statement
This was hardly the first time the volatile Campbell, 35, has been accused of assault. Yet another employee said Campbell threw a phone at her during a tantrum in 2001. Then in 2004, Campbell’s maid claimed that her employer slapped her. Campbell pleaded guilty to an assault charge for beating yet another assistant in 1998. As the Americans say, Phew, some broad!! But even more fascinating was the fact that during her recent stay in Kenya, Ms Campbell released a statement from her Malindi hideout praising Kenya as a holiday resort and declaring it very safe for tourists. That was excellent PR for Kenyan tourism, especially after what has happened in the last two months or so. But wait a minute! Who organized that publicity? You will begin to understand what I am driving at when you realize where Ms Campbell was staying and who owns it. She was at the Lion In The Sun Resort in Malindi. A mere weeks stay at this private resort costs 36,000 Euros (don’t bother converting it into Kenya shillings, just know that it is a lot of money, actually close to Kshs4 million). 
Flavio Briatore It is owned by world renowned playboy Flavio Briatore. This man has been linked to the underworld. Need I say more, you all know the kind of Italian crowd that runs Malindi don’t you. My point is that you can be sure that Mr Briatore did not do this kind f favour to the Kenyan government for free. Of course the favor will be returned in some way and I leave that to your imagination. Hint: Mr Briatore is NOT an ice cream magnate. There have been rumours that Briatore and Campbell are... Read moreOther Interesting Articles Kumekucha Spotted Experts give you 18 foods that are guaranteed to make your skin glow
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13:36
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
 Twitter and Africa
Soyapi writes about the Potential of Twitter in Africa. Followed by a Twitter conversation of SMS and web costs in Malawi by Nchenga.
If you’re an African on Twitter, consider following the generic user “AfriTwit” to help us create an index of African Twitter users. Started by JKE of Kikuyumoja, see original post on AfriTwit here.
Mobile News
Ken Banks has informed me that FrontlineSMS has been selected as a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge, along with NMEM who used it to monitor the Nigerian elections. The Awards website should be announcing the finalists sometime soon. In a related story, Ken tells of how the UN is using FrontlineSMS to help with transparency in coffee markets in Africa.
The pan-African Blogosphere
Long-time activist African blogger Sokari of Black Looks has written a piece for the PBS MediaShift blog titled, “How Bloggers Covered Kenya Violence, Deal with Racism, Sexism“. It’s an interesting read and covers a lot of historical happenings within the pan-African blogosphere over the last couple years.
Finding the next Einstein in Africa
South African Neil Turok’s TED Prize wish to put 15 new African Institute of Mathematical Sciences opened around Africa. I’d suggest you watch the video of his talk, it’s an inspiring story and one that is happening right now and will soon spread throughout the continent.
Personal Stuff
I’ll be traveling to speak at the Global Philanthropy Forum, Web 2.0 Expo and Where 2.0 in the next couple weeks - all in the San Francisco area. If you’re there and want to talk African tech stuff, let’s get together!
Chris Schultz, a fellow white African, did an impromptu video spot with me a couple weeks ago where I talk about Ushahidi. Interestingly enough, I found out then that Vinny Lingham of Synthasite also used Chris’ Flatsourcing company to do some of their development work.
 
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13:14
From: Black Looks
Read This Entry & More At Black Looks
An ex Albanian sex worker and drug dealer living in Greece, defends her choices - injured husband, no papers, no insurance and a family to support. She goes on to give her take on who is selling what in the “business of sex” and NGOs that work with governments to maintain structures of domination [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "A different type of sex", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/03/a_different_type_of_sex.html" });
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12:59
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
 As Zimbabwean head to the polls on Saturday, Mugabe has warned Zimbabweans NEVER to dare do a Kenya on him. President Bob has promptly read the mandatory riot act to the opposition warning them of brimstone and hell should they dare protest in the event of losing the elections. Cut from the same cloth, the script is like a cut-and-paste from Major Ali’s warning to Kenyans banning any protest just before last year’s stolen elections? Trust Mugabe and his age mates to know a thing ordinary mortals don't - election results in advance. Theirs is coronation after a national ritual. African fossils for leaders all behave the same. After inviting hyper inflation to take permanent residence in Zimbabwe 84-year old comrade Bob still considers himself the most expensive gift God bestowed to the Shonas and Ndebeles. A hitherto breadbasket in Southern Africa has been steadily transformed to basket case. With 8 degrees to his name over 100,000% inflation (yes hundred thousand) is nothing but figures to Zimbabwe's tin god. Robert Gabriel Mugabe is leaving nothing to chance. He is still stuck with the old antics which Moi perfected here in Kenya. Mugabe has ensured none of the two opposition presidential candidates gets his adverts aired even after paying. What is more, no landing for their campaign choppers. But the icing on the theft-in-advance cake is printing 9 million ballot papers for 6 million registered voters. Ole wetu, we never patented the TOP-UP vice, or we thought we did? Patented top-up Behind every senile African leader lurks either a deranged or calculative first lady. Mugabe cannot afford to do anything against the wishes of his 37-year old former secretary-turned-wife. Grace Marufu cannot imagine life outside real power at that TENDER AGE. Having a whole Boeing Air Zimbabwe full of passengers wait for ONLY 18 hours as she shops elegantly in Cairo in no big deal either. Old is really wood, a very expensive timber. Mugabe's 300+ bedrooms palace is worth KES 800m and encircled by TWO man-made lakes. That is obtuse opulence for you in a land where policewomen and soldiers subsidise their paltry income with selling their bodies. No wonder the above half million Zimbabwean dollar isn't enough to buy a banana! Kenya doesn't have a monopoly to bad political manners. We are in good company albeit of the primitive variation. Political dinosaurs are our bane and we are stuck with them kama kupe as one Ivy loves telling us here at Kumekucha. The services of his Excellency Kofi Annan has never been in such high demand. Na bado.
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12:15
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
As Ralph drove me to his rose farm in Enterprise Valley, some thirty kilometres outside Harare, he explained how anyone with access to foreign currency and local credit can become a Rockefeller in the new Zimbabwe. "I bought my farm in 2000 for the equivalent of $150,000 US dollars," he said. "Paid for it in Zimbabwean currency, of course. Borrowed the whole lot from a local bank." The bank charged thirty percent interest on the loan, which would be a lot if inflation weren't outpacing it by several thousand percent. A year and a half later, Ralph's debt had shrunk to the equivalent of USD$18,000 and he paid it off with the proceeds from a single truckload of flowers. Read more from Arno Kopecky here.
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11:37
From: The Displaced African
Read This Entry & More At The Displaced African
I once heard a very simple definition of unhappiness, and I paraphrase: Unhappiness is when your life conditions do not match your expectations. In other words, unhappiness occurs when you have certain expectations of the circumstances that will create happiness and the world around you does not reflect that.
Today let’s talk about just one element of that: Today let’s talk about expectations.
Expectations
According to Answers.com, expectation is The act of looking forward to something.
When you look at your life, your future, what do you expect to happen. Sure, the future is never guaranteed but I am willing to bet that in spite of that you still have certain things that you expect to happen in future. You expect the sun to rise and fall. You expect that the world air supply won’t run out and you expect that after what will hopefully be a long and fruitful life, you will die.
Now, if these expectations affect our level of happiness and satisfaction and there are few areas in life that are truly important and will truly affect the quality of life, then I think it would be fair for us to examine our expectations in a few of these areas.
Your Health
Now I know a lot of y’all have pretty substandard diets and there are many of you to whom exercise is a fairy tale told to children so they won’t disturb you. My question is, what do you expect will happen if you keep living this way? Time only moves forward and you are only getting older and older.
So what do you expect to happen if you keep putting junk into your body and not sweating it out? Look, if you want to eat that way, I can yap on for hours about how we need to eat healthy and all of that and thank God you can ignore me and call me full of it. You can put whatever you want into your body. All I am asking is, what do you expect to happen?
Relationships
A lot of us have fantasies about what our ideal partner looks like, sounds like, smells like (or doesn’t smell like) amongst other things. The question I have for you is, if you stay the type of person you are, what type of people should you expect to continue attracting into your life?
Low Self Esteem and Drama Queen Puller
I have a very good friend who basically keeps attracting the same type of woman into his life: women with very low self esteem.
The first woman I saw him with, had such a low opinion of herself that he could regularly call her the foulest of names and without any apology on his part still take her home for a romp in the sack.
The second woman was one who had tried suicide on numerous occasions and could turn just a lazy Sunday afternoon into a drama filled day full of LOUD shouting, crying, MASC posturing and believe it or not a make up romp in the sack.
The third woman became clingy after only knowing him for a couple of weeks. She hated everyone who came near him and took his attention and in addition to that had such high grade anxiety that it lead to all sorts of diseases and disorders and ailments.
Whenever anyone asks me about him, they ask, “Is he still playing around with crazy women?”
Make no mistake about it, a lot of the time, we are replaying the same script over and over again, especially in this area of relationships. We tend to get drawn to people who have the same characteristics and people with particular characteristics tend to be drawn to us.
So let me ask you again, being the type of person that you are, what type of person, would you expect to draw into your life? If you don’t like the type of people you draw in, perhaps change who you are and you can expect something a little different.
Your Identity
Where do you see yourself in this world and in this fabric of reality. Are you a blessed son of an Almighty God? Are you a victim who is always being brought down by the world around them? (btw please click here for a great article on victimhood) Are you a conqueror who will create a beautiful, magnificent empire while here on Earth? Are you a hustler who is struggling to get by? Are you simply a parent and a good citizen?
With this view of your place on this Earth, what type of life should you expect. Do you want a different type of life? Maybe change the way you define yourself and your expectations will change to.
Your Life Abroad
Let me just dispel one very big myth right now. This place, WILL NOT mean an end to your problems in life. Once you come abroad you will just have a different quality of problems. Instead of dealing with insecurity and bad roads you will be dealing with trying to find work and pay your bills. Instead of worrying about your neighbors meddling in your business you may have to deal with the loneliness of your neighbors not giving a damn about who you are.
If I am to give you one great expectation to live by while you live abroad, especially here in Australia: life here will be what you make it and nothing will happen until you make it happen.
I know people who have been here for eons and still work the minimum wage factory jobs that most Africans get when they first show up here.
On the flip side, I also know someone who completely, and I do mean completely, embraced the African American lifestyle from the way he walks, talks, thinks, acts and who he hangs around and upon first glance you would never guess that he isn’t from D.C. This guy though had to work at it, he had to watch the tapes, find people to hang out with etc etc etc
So, don’t come here expecting the red carpet to success, unless you are going to sew it and lay it out yourself…..unless of course you come from a wealthy family, in which case, you can live it up as much as you want. But please, do it within the rules and the law and try not to get deported. And remember: nothing feels quite as good as the sweet fruit of your labor.
Be blessed and bless others,
Mwangi
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10:01
From: You Missed This
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Why you are extremely corrupt if you buy into Safaricom sharesThe other day I found myself 'inadvertently' eavesdropping on the conversation of some two young men. They were talking about Aids, sex and marriage. One of them was saying that men (quite an outlandish generalization!) cannot do without sex. He went on to say that as long as a man is 'functioning' then sex is the sure release of his building pressure. Then the insalubrious 'party pooper' was brought into the picture: Aids. They fear Aids (who doesn’t?). Talking of Aids as if talking of the weather is sheer madness (what I learnt from what they were saying). They said that with Aids lurking somewhere in the shadows of 'after sex' then a tricky situation had plunged headlong onto the scene. One of the two (a bachelor, I learnt) said that with Aids marring the beautiful picture that once gleamed in the light, marriage had become a no-tread zone to many a young man. He said that he would 'marry' for two or three years and, after getting a kid or two, tell the woman (read wife), "Your time's up. Pack your bags and leave!" He would retain the children (with that, he would have accomplished his goal in life!). They viewed sex as a way of letting off 'steam' and marriage as a 'factory' for making children; after that: to hell with it! My TakeThis is a dim view of reality. Sex and marriage are beautiful things created by God. Sex serves its purpose divinely in the context of marriage. And marriage is more than just 'where children are made' but rather where we learn to use our God-given talents to benefit each other (the married) in exciting ways that increase the gushes and torrents of love. Still on the issue of marriage, sample what Bishop T.D. Jakes has to say to the married and the ones aspiring to be married one day. What it means to be Married:"To the one you are marrying you are saying: when my time comes to leave this world, when the chill of eternity blows away my birthdays and my future stands still in the night, it's your face I want to kiss goodbye. It's your hand I want to squeeze, as I slip from time to eternity. As the curtain closes on all I have attempted to do and be, I want to look into your eyes and see that I mattered. Not what I looked like or how much money I made, or even how talented I was. I just want to look into the eyes of someone who loved me and see that I mattered."This is quite a huge price tag attached to the marriage institution and certainly the missing piece in the jigsaw. Spouses out there 'for better or for worse' please don't do this to your partner.
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7:46
From: Walk of Kings:
Read This Entry & More At Walk of Kings:
1 Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. 2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. 3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing. 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God, 6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever. 7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free, 8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous. 9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. 10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the LORD.
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6:36
From: Black Looks
Read This Entry & More At Black Looks
Thousands of Zimbabweans are to face forced removal back to Zimbabwe after the elections. So far 500 failed asylum seekers have received letters asking them to leave voluntarily or face deportation but the eventual numbers could be as many as 7000. In 2005 the courts ruled in favour of Zimbabwean asylum seekers on the [...]
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4:46
From: Farmgal
Read This Entry & More At Farmgal
One thing you won’t fail to notice when you get to Nairobi is the madness on the roads! Almost everyone’s got a car! While our driving population has increased significantly, our roads have not changed much, our politicians have come up with crazier ideas (read muthrwa!) and everyday more and more people are buying [...]
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4:13
From: REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
Read This Entry & More At REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
With debate going on about OOXML and Kenya taking a neutral position, Dorcas Muthoni breaks down the technical jargon for easier understanding.
What is an Office Document Standard?
A standard file format that would allow office documents such as spreadsheets and word processing files to be opened by applications from different vendors.
Why Open Standards
Creating an open office file format suggests that documents created in an application that supports that file format could be opened in other applications that support it as well. E.g. A document written using OpenOffice for example, could be opened in Ms Office without affecting the layout or formatting.
With an open standard;
You can choose any operating system or application and still be able to read and edit all your old documents e.g. whether it is Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Unix.
You can collaborate with others regardless of which software they are using e.g. whether it is LotusNotes, OpenOffice, Ms Office, StarOffice, GoogleApps .
You can use any software of your choice to exchange documents within your organization, with your clients, partners, government and everyone else.
The goal of an open standard is to free corporate data from proprietary file formats so they can be accessed for years to come no matter what office software a company or government is using. Companies and governments are currently saving data in proprietary file formats, such as those written in Microsoft's Office software (.doc, .xls, .ppt, and lately .docx, .xlsx, .pptx), and locking themselves into using that software indefinitely.
A relative example is, we all develop our websites and expect to successfully access them using various browser software (Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Safari, Internet Explorer etc). We successfully manage to do this because of HTML, XML and Browser open standardization.
The same should happen for office documents and hence definition of open document standards.
What is ODF
ODF(OpenDocument Format) an ISO standard created with the aim to provide an open XML-based document file format for office applications to be used for documents containing text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphical elements. ODF is defined via an open and transparent process at OASIS ( The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) and has been approved unanimously by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as an international standard in May 2006. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel ODF reuses established standards like HTML, SVG, XSL, SMIL, XLink, XForms, MathML, and Dublin Core.
ODF leaves space for all present and future vendors do implement it and makes sure that end users won't suffer from any sort of vendor lock-in. In contrast to earlier used binary formats which were cryptic and difficult to process, ODF's use of XML makes accessing the document content simple.
ODF guarantees long-term viability. The OASIS ODF TC, the OASIS ODF Adoption TC, and the ODF Alliance include members from Adobe, BBC, EDS, EMC, GNOME, Google, IBM, Intel, KDE, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat, Software AG and Sun Microsystems. Since June 2006 the ODF Alliance has already more than 300 members.
What is OOXML
A format proposed by Microsoft that comes closest to ODF in function, but it fails the test for an Open Standard in various ways, including an unclear legal status as well as inclusion of and reference to proprietary technologies. It has all signs of a vendor-specific format that only Microsoft will be able to implement completely.
Microsoft, which dominates the office software market with its Office suite, is a member of OASIS and was fully aware of the technical committee that came up with ODF. However, they opted to make Ms Office 2007 heavily reliant on XML and also initiated a parallel technical committee to develop a standard file format the MS OOXML.
Ms Office 2007 does not support ODF. What Microsoft has done is to push MS OOXML through a fast track process to have the standard certified by ISO. The standard is being reviewed by technical committees (TC) formed through national standards bodies. The TCs pass a vote through a ballot process. The ballot resolutions are then forwarded to ISO, if the outcome is greater support for MS OOXML, then the standard will be passed.
Why should we reject a proprietary standard like OOXML
We live in a digital age where paper documents increasingly get replaced by electronic records. We may even see the day we no longer use paper and pen to keep records. In this situation long-term data becomes critical. This is especially the case for legal contracts and government documents which stay valid and relevant over decades, or even centuries. Just like there were many vendors supplying paper and pens through out the history, and not a single one, so do these formats and applications which are used to make them need to be vendor independent. That is the only guanrantee of long-term access to data, even if companies disappear, change their strategies or dramatically raise their prices.
The Kenyan technical committee (hosted by KEBS) reviewing the MS OOXML standard was inappropriately constituted and is highly imbalanced. Microsoft recommended business partners to this committee and the first vote returned a yes resolution because of this imbalance. On March 19th 2008, the committee passed an Abstain resolution which Microsoft is now strongly appealing against.
Further, the MS OOXML standard is defined in 6,000+ pages and with the fast track process, it is barely possible to review the standard comprehensively. This standard must be reviewed via the regular standard process.
MS OOXML is a proposed parallel standard without a justification.
OOXML has patent issues
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1:39
From: You Missed This
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God made a Kenyan Kenyan made the Kenya shilling The Kenya shilling made the Kenyan mad, mad, mad I am certain most of you will go out and buy Safaricom shares like crazy. But make sure that you remember to look in the mirror after applying for your shares. That is if you want to see a corrupt Kenyan Live (or livu as my Tanzanian brothers like to say) and at very close range. And if you are against corruption then it is a good idea that you start your fight against the vice with the person you see in the mirror. That is one person who has the power to stop corruption dead in its’ tracks and what better place to start than to cause the Safaricom IPO to fall flat on its’ face. In case you are able to sober up from your money-mania high for one minute, here are some 7 solid reasons why you should not even touch the Safaricom prospectus. - Shares have to be purchased through stock brokers. Already two have gone bust, the latest being Nyaga Stock Brokers. Both collapses have had one thing in common; the stock brokers were trading in their client’s shares without the knowledge of the said clients. The hurred computerization of the NSE has made these games so easy, it is unbelievable and a big scandal on its’ own. And Safaricom will be the ideal share to play this game with, especially in the first few weeks of trading. Do you want to cheat yourself that only Nyaga Stock Brokers were playing the game of trading in client shares? In law two witnesses saying the same thing confirm a thing. In my book two brokers dealing in client shares confirms that this “disease” is rampant on the NSE. Right now there are 130,000 very upset Kenyans who may never recover their hard earned life savings which they handed over to Nyaga stock brokers in good faith. It is sheer madness that the government and Kenyans have ignored those 130,000 Kenyans in their greed to get to Safaricom shares. It is obvious that the thing to do would be to fix the rot within the NSE first before doing anything else, least of all launching the largest IPO in the history of Africa north of the Limpopo river.
- By purchasing Safaricom shares you will be putting money into the pockets of the corrupt ghosts who own Mobitelea. We all know them.
- The entry of Safaricom shares in the NSE will affect all other shares currently there negatively, because of the sheer size of the offer. (Picture what happens in a village market when somebody floods the entire place with cheap but very sweet oranges. It will affect all other commodities in that market) The elite club within the NSE have already prepared for this and have carefully positioned themselves to make a killing as you struggle to make your few shillings from your few Safaricom shares. In other words you are being used as a pawn in other people’s schemes while cheating yourself that you are making a wise investment and that you will make a killing.
- Investing in the Safaricom shares is a statement from you that Turkwell Gorge was clean and so was Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing. Actually you will be saying that corruption is OK as long as you make something. Incidetally this is what got us into the crisis of last December in the first place. A sizeable number of Kenyans decided that it is OK to vote for corrupt governments and individuals as long as those people come from our tribe. In other words you are surely a tribalist if you buy Safaricom shares, because it is proof that you think very selfishly.
- Buying Safaricom shares will be a powerful vote against reform and against a new constitution from you. Thank you for voting, the government will happily hear you, because you will have spoken loudly and clearly.
- Those planning to get in quickly and then swiftly get rid of the shares soon after at a much higher price had better think twice. Do you think it will work with maybe a million other Kenyans planning to do exactly the same thing? People make money from stock exchanges by swimming in the opposite direction which is exactly the direction the fat cats will be swimming. I am talking about those guys Kenyans want to make even richer but already, to these guys, Kshs 10 million is loose pocket change.
- If you apply for those shares before the grand coalition government is in place, you will be making a very significant statement. Figure it our for yourself.
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0:43
From: Kenya Imagine
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Knowledge is power or so the cliché goes. Tyrannical governments the world over - from apartheid South Africa to the Moi regime in Kenya - introduced emasculating systems of education. In South Africa, Bantu Education taught the black population to be efficient slaves to their white masters. In Kenya, the 8.4.4 system of education taught us to be God knows what. Read more from by Njoroge Matathia here.
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0:39
From: Kenya Imagine
Read This Entry & More At Kenya Imagine
I am not yet willing to give up on the concept of tribe. I am unwilling to grant that colonizers were right in their claims that tribe was a limited concept that had no place in the modern world. I am unwilling to accept their definitions that my history and heritage are small and uninteresting, lacking in depth and complexity, beauty and joy. Read more from Keguro Macharia here.
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