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19:00
Bloggers Nigerians unite for human rights
» Black Looks After spending three hours on Tuesday listening to some 30 African women asylum seekers testify about their treatment by the British government, many of whom had been imprisoned in Yarl’s Wood detention Center, I thought I would write a general piece built around their stories. However before I started I received an email [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Bloggers Nigerians unite for human rights", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/05/bloggers_nigerians_unite_for_human_rights.html" });
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12:28
Social Networking, Data Portability, When does it all end??
» dkFactor 
I’m finally back after a 6 month hiatus from blogging and I want to start by addressing a very nagging question but I’ll get to that in just a moment. No doubt you’ve experienced social networking in one form or another (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, Twitter etc etc), and if you haven’t you’d better quit living in the 90’s. It’s all about creating and sharing information with friends, colleagues and basically everyone. The last 3 years especially have been witness to an explosive growth in the size and influence of these social networks. “Individuals finally have the power” - wow! (btw, that wow is supposed to be sarcastic).The proliferation of social networks has led to a new fad… Data Portability. Data Portability is the ability to share information across multiple interfaces and web platforms using open standards. Once the data is accessed, it can repackaged, remixed, right-clicked… you name it. Basically your Facebook profile content for instance could appear on other social sites, and the flickr photos from your phone in return could appear on a google map. The basic idea is to mash together the infinite amounts of shared data (cue the scrolling Matrix code) and attempt make sense of it.
My nagging question is - does it all end? Mashing all this information together has led to an avalanche (more like a storm) of information that we have to deal with daily. For instance a news item can be mashed together with related YouTube links, google maps, flickr photos, message boards, stock ticker information, blogs and what your friends on Twitter think… the list is endless. By the time you’re done reading you’ll know all there is to know about Myanmar.
I have two problems; First can the human mind deal with the coming onslaught of information? Secondly, where does privacy begin and end, or should we just give it up altogether? Personally, I’m afraid that a super machine in the very near future will have the ability to assimilate together all this information, decipher it and draw very precise social patterns for every individual.
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12:04 A Cause for Celebration: Have a Great Day!
» The Displaced African Enclosure: [download]
I interrupt the scheduled festivities to say two things:
1) Thanks to Majonzi for sharing my contact details with Kenya Imagine ( www.kenyaimagine.com ) .
2) After speaking to “Kenya Imagine”, we are now at a stage where I may very well end up becoming a regular contributor to that site.
What makes this so school is that this so far is a phenomenal week:
a) Displaced African readership has grown this week.
b)I am getting that feeling that the Displaced African is becoming its own mini-web community
c) I am going to see the Soweto Gospel Choir this Friday (click on the link and listen to them croon) and;
d) One of my favourite thinkers is in town, Erwin Mcmanus.
In short, I’m in a helluva good mood right now, so make sure you have a fantastic day, week and lifetime. OK!!!
Be blessed and bless others,
Mwangi
Update: Please make sure you check out an experiment very near and dear to my heart, Seinlife’s 30 day attempt at clean eating (and she has colourful pictures too
)
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11:46
Breaking News: Cabinet Minister's Son Killed In Crazy Freak Accident
» You Missed This News just in is that the son of a prominent politician and cabinet minister in the grand coalition government was killed just a few hours ago in a crazy freak accident.
The 23 year old lad was killed by a falling helicopter that hit him and then dragged him several meters before finally trapping him under the intense heat of the burning fuselage. Apart from the 3 occupants of the helicopter who were all killed, the young Kenyan was the only person on the ground killed.
Eyewitnesses say that the victim was not able to hear the falling helicopter because he was listening to music on stereo earphones. Apparently he had just stepped out for a walk.
The accident occurred in Cranbrook BC, Canada.
The dead Kenyan was identified as Isaiah Otieno (23) who was a student at the College of the Rockies. Isaiah is believed to be the son of cabinet minister Dalmas Otieno. As you read this the parents are said to be making hasty arrangements to fly out to Canada from Kenya. My sources in Kenya close to the family say that he is the son of one of the politician's younger wives.
What are the chances of being hit by a falling helicopter? One in 10 million? It is for this reason that there is no doubt that tongues will be wagging overtime in Nyanza with all sorts of mambo jumbo conspiracy stuff and superstitious theories. How insensitive Kenyans can be sometimes.
I take this opportunity on behalf of myself and all Kumekuchans to communicate our deep and sincere condolences to the family and friends of this young Kenyan who no doubt had a lot of promise before him. Our prayers go out to those who were close to him at this time of shock, disbelief and inconsolable grief.
Read the full story HERE
A recent photo of the late Isaiah Otieno
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10:44
Business Brief's: May 15
» bankelele Business Brief's: May 15
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10:32
smavazopakivalicous
» Kikuyumoja's realm A short tweet by fellow blogger Sascha Lobo brought me to smava.de and to the question if smava could also work in a country like Kenya?
In other words: do we have to leave this interesting market to the big players only - who are good at targeting Kenyans abroad (~ trips from StanChan & Equity Bank CoKE to the UK & USA etc.)?
(The German) smava.de is similar to zopa.com - a “social lending” platform, much like kiva.org but targeted at everyone - unlike kiva that “lets you lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty”.
So I was wondering: could zopa/smava also work in Kenya? As far as I’ve understood it so far, kiva is targeted at entrepreneurs in such areas where banks are far away and these kind of microcredits a good opportunity to obtain a loan to an otherwise non-existent alternative.
But what about zopa and smava that clearly depend on providing a risk assesment aka credit rating? Do we have such external rating services in Kenya for private customers?
Ati, I am not the mbeca guy here, but maybe you are and know much more about the prevailing conditions in the credit industry. In any case, please feel free to leave your comment below. Thx! :-)
As for me, I was just thinking about how the provision of such an online platform could help pull back assets from abroad in a much easier and probably also much more interesting way as you get to choose where to invest + won’t have to pay your bank for this. Is it really that simple?
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10:25
Commercial Break
» What An African Woman Thinks You know, sometimes I feel like the only way I'll get into heaven is by hanging onto someone else's coat tails and refusing to let go.
Faulty theology, I know. Let's not get into that.
Those of you who know what I do for a living will find this a tad ironic. Just so you know, I do too. I think my life is living breathing walking proof that God has a sense of humour. At least, I laugh. And somehow I think God let's out a chuckle or two too.
To segue in a different direction:
Anyone in their late thirties out there? If there is, are you increasingly experiencing the 'blurt effect'? (© R, 2008.)
You know, where you find yourself expressing thoughts you used to think but wouldn't allow yourself to share? And no, this is not a euphemism for rude. It's just, you know, a growing tendency to call it like it is.
I tell ya, these are the best of times.
(I'm high on I don't know what, and I still have a termpaper to complete. By tonight. Yikes.)It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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9:56
Maswali?
» Mount Kirima This post is not my usual cup of tea but just needed to get some divergent opinions on some issues that have been on my mind. When you are going out with someone when does it become exclusive? is it an agreed moment or is it up to one of them to point out that the relationship is [...]
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“Sweet Crude” the poverty of oil
» Black Looks Sandy Cioffi, director of the documentary “Sweet Crude” interviewed on Democracy Now! In this small region of Nigeria known as the “south-south,” something huge is happening. The adverse effects of oil exploration have been unfolding in the Niger Delta for the past 50 years. Now, the people have had enough. From environmental [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ""Sweet Crude" the poverty of oil", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/05/sweet_crude_the_poverty_of_oil.html" });
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8:15
WAPI Nairobi, Saturday 17th May - Phobia
» Kenyanpoet 
Presents
PHOBIA
Why Are YOU So Scared??
Hosted by multi-talented poet
POINT BLANK
featuring
Judge, Moroko, Grand Master Masese, Wenyeji, Neema Ngwatilo, Kama, Jaymo’s Band & DJ Joey
LIVE @ British Council, Upper Hill Road, Upper Hill, Nairobi)
Saturday, May 17th, 2008, 9am-3pmGRAFFITI BY UHURU, ESSEN, ABU, SHAN, HARI, SMOKILLA, BANKSLAVE & SCHEME
LIVE STREET FASHION BY IMANI FASHION HOUSE & URBAN PHUNK
LADIES & GENTS- Free Entry
WAPI EMSII GENIUS: PROMOTING POSITIVE THINKING THROUGH A SWAHILI RAP BATTLE THAT BUILDS LEGENDS, MANY PRIZES TO BE WON
“As to the pure mind all things are pure, so to the poetic mind all things are poetical”
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Kimunya's Budget: Daylight Robbery?
» You Missed This Following recent comments on this blog about skewed national resource allocation and suggestions to bloggers to send-in proposals to Treasury which they feel might be included into the forthcoming government financial year budget, the following is reposted here at Kumekucha for the benefit of the many Kenyan citizens and tax payers who visit this blog. This is an opportunity for patriotic citizens to show that they can also, in their own small way, play a constitutionally given role in shaping the destiny of this country.
NOTICE ON PROPOSALS FOR THE BUDGET FOR F/Y 2008/2009
This article was first published at Bungle La Mwananchi.
Mwananchi 2008/9 Budget-Put your Thumprint!
Bunge La Mwananchi proposes that the Government's budget should be balanced at 60:40 where 60% is development and 40% recurrent expenditures.
Kenya's 2008/9 budget year (commencing 15th June, 2008) is almost here!
Bunge La Mwananchi (Kenya People's Parliament ) is working on delivering a MWANANCHI BUDGET before Hon. Amos Kimunya gives us the GRAND POLITICAL BUDGET.
In this regard, we are currently studying previous years' budgets to identify trends and priorities in Government expenditures so as to bring those areas into sharp focus. Bunge La Mwananchi proposes that the Government's budget should be balanced at 60:40 where 60% is development and 40% recurrent expenditures.
Let me give you a sneak preview of some of the things we are discovering:
For the last 5 years, the State House budget allocation for transport has been as follows:
Firstly, State House is said to have 149 official cars. This is not easy to establish, but for argument's sake we will work with the figure of 149 cars. Further, each car is budgeted to consume 114 litres of fuel per day. Surely, besides maybe the President's Limousine, there is no car in Kenya that has the tank capacity of over 100 litres of fuel. Even further investigation reveals that all that is required to account for the 114 litres of fuel used per day, is for one to produce a receipt for that amount of litres from any petrol station. A rather dubious accounting mechanism that raises alot of questions in any self respecting audit. To qualify that, the account's receipt doesnot show the automated fuel pump's reading.
Taking it further, we will recall that in the last 5 years, save for the Referendum and the General Election which were ostensibly not Government affairs but political parties affairs, President Kibaki did not travel from State House much. If you do some quick math of amount of fuel allocated over that period of time (149 cars X 114 litres of fuel per car per day X 365 days X 5 years) you will arrive at a whooping 30,999,450 litres of fuel. Take it a step further and translate that into shillings at an average of 65/= per litre... K.Shs. 2,014,964,250. Yes, it is over K.Shs. 2 billion...
And that is only one area of one government department's expenditure. A literal tip of the iceberg. You would be shocked if you dug deeper into other departments and contextualized the findings!
The billion shilling question is, where did all this fuel really go? Who might have spent the EXTRA money and on what?
Fellow Kenyans and friends of Kenya, we must not allow this kind of loop holes in the management of our taxes and resources to go on unchallenged. General save face statements from the Finance Minister in assessing past financial years must no longer be accepted unaudited. Bunge La Mwananchi urges you to consider looking at our previous budgets, especially the last 5 years and find out areas where we should expose the Government's fraudulent expenditures so that we can identify mis-allocated resources and earmark priority areas in which to put to use the "recovered" money in developing Kenya.
Bunge La Mwananchi envisages an adjusted and practical budget that results in the national Constituency Development Fund (CDF) receiving a boost of as much K.Shs. 200 billion for the 2008/9 financial year and thereby allow each constituency to receive at least KSh. 1 billion for constituency
We urge you to study the previous budgets, make your proposals and leave your thumbprint on the 2008/9 budget. Let us also utilize Bunge La Mwananchi website www.bulamwa.co.ke discussion forums to further deliberations.
In the setting the agenda for our leaders,
George Nyongesa
Bunge La Mwananchi
+254 720 451 235
www.bulamwa.co.ke
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Update on Eudy Simelane - tactics employed by defense attorneys
» Black Looks Photos from the 7-7-7 Campaign The five accused of the murder of Eudy Simulane reappeared in court today. The hearing was initially delayed because accused number 5 was appearing in another court on charges of rape and robbery, which he was out on bail for . Once proceedings began, they were further bogged down [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Update on Eudy Simelane - tactics employed by defense attorneys", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/05/update_on_eduy_simelane_-_tactics_employed_by_defense_attorneys.html" });
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3:03
Africa Day is not Socialism Day!
» The Benin Epilogue Part I: Africa-Ready for Business Every year, Africans mark May 25th as an official Africa Liberation day. The date is celebrated to push for an onward progress on the liberation movement and symbolize the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation. A casual observation of many groups that celebrate this great day reveals that we are still entrenched in the mindset of entitlement - the belief that some other entity owes us, due to past misdeeds. Our problems and challenges are of our own making: talk of press freedom, bungled elections, food crisis... Read MORE
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2:18
No More Celtel
» KA-INVESTOR 
Celtel International, a leading mobile telephone service provider across Africa could be in a major re-branding strategy before the end of this year. The move could see the company drop the Celtel brand and adopt a completely new identity - Zain. The new name is used by celtel’s parent company MTC Group in other nations except the African market.
MTC group says the re-branding is meant to re-invent the regional brand into a global brand. Experts described the new logo as too dark and moody. The re-branding process has reportedly begun in Kuwait and is expected to spread to other MTC-branded operations in the Middle East then Africa.
Brandscape has more discussions on Celtel re-branding and other branding issues.
