Mashada Blogs » August 21, 2008

Kenyanentrepreneur.com: Undersea Fiber Optic Cable: When?

kenyanentrepreneur — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:06:11 -0400

Once again, I want to get back to this topic about the coming undersea fiber optic cable that is supposed to finally deliver high speed internet services to the East African shoreline. White African has a good summary post on this cable line and I got this image from his blog. The white [...]

For Love and Money: Business As Usual

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:22:00 -0400

Business As Usual

You Missed This: Kibaki is not Mugabe, So Tsvangirai Move on

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:06:00 -0400

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai may have meant well calling on Kenya to seek first hand experience in Grand Coalition Government negotiations and formation. However, the MDC leader would be better advised that the dynamics in the two countries are very different. The similarities and differences almost balance each other albeit on grand different premises.

For starters, Tsvangirai must accept the fact that Mugabe exhibited utmost civility in ALLOWING win the first round of Zimbabwe election in March. But he must not have been naive to imagine that Bob would just sit back and wish him well like that with so much at stake. Mugabe only did the most logical thing in bettering Kibaki’s script by mating MAXIMUM and unrestrained IMPUNITY that automatically pushed poor out of the run off in June.

You see Kibaki is not Mugabe. Here in Kenya we tally votes in advance and swear in pronto unlike coward Bob who made history with his patience by counting votes for a whole month. Poor Tsvangirai also appears ignorant to the fact that Mbeki is not Annan save for the striking physical resemblance. He lost the plot by playing by the rules which allowed Mugabe to assume the reigns of power and hence negotiate from unequal premise. But again may be MDC would have better imported ODM gang if only for Zanu-PF’s bludgeoning.

Grand impunity perfected
That said, similarities galore between the Zimbabwe and Kenya political predicaments. Already Mugabe is destined to convene parliament in breach of SADC’s MOU. That must make our rush to name half the cabinet familiar. Add that to the fact that Arthur Mutambara of the breakaway MDC is waiting on the wings salivating to fill the void should Morgan continue to play hard ball. And for the records Simba Makoni is still around for Bob's attention.

Poor Tsvangirai is in very unenviable position. He is sandwiched between the political hell and the dark blue sea. He must be alive to the fact that the executive power he is demanding remains a very emotive and hot issue even in our six-month old GCG. Meanwhile Bob must be laughing all the way to Grace’s belly secure in the knowledge that he is in good company within our continent. Surely we are mere tenants on these geographical entities we can our countries. Our countries have their owners lest we forget.

Black Looks: Black August, birthdays, prisons & assassinations

Sokari — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:32:00 -0400

Nehanda Abiodun celebrates her 58th birthday in Cuba. Like her friend and fellow activist, Black Panther Assata Shakur, Abiodun has been living in exile in Cuba where she set up a branch of the Black August Hip-Hop project. Black August was set up to honor Black Panthers San Quentin Six - [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Black August, birthdays, prisons & assassinations", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/08/black_august_birthdays_prisons_assassinations.html" });

Afromusing: 419 - Faith Orphan Home

AfroMusing — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:05:58 -0400

These 419 scam emails are often the source of much hilarity….This one cleverly appeals to your concern for Orphans and apparently emphasizes that you are a child of GOD, and inheritor of the orphanages’ late founder?! Who falls for such ploys?

I’m the Director of Faith Orphan Home charity and humanitarian foundation. This letter comes to you simply because of the circumstances surrounding the death of our late founder we need your help to save the life of this children and i know as a child of GOD you will handle this process with me in one faith.
He established this foundation to help less privileged minority people and orphan children in our society which we were doing marvelously before his unfortunate death in 2005, i have been called upon to conduct a standard process and to provide the beneficiary to our late founder since he was a foreigner i will need your help on this process with the Bank here in Ghana.

This involves private funds deposited in a foreign currency account with The Bank in Ghana, as a miracle from God the bank contacted me a month ago as the director of this foundation and a trustee to recommend a next of kin to the funds since he (Our Late founder) died intestate and nominated no successor in title over the fund deposit made with the bank amounting to (Nine Million United States Dollars) The essence of this communication with you is to request that you provide me with information/comments on any or all of the issues below as regards nominating you to inherit the fund left behind since you are a foreigner hence eligible to stand for claim of the funds.

I have therefore contacted you to be legally nominated as next of kin (inheritor) to Our Late founder after all inquiries and investigation even with the relevant embassy has yielded results showing that there is no known or living next of kin. You are required therefore to answer this questions to enable me make my recommendation to The Bank in Ghana

Can you confirm your willingness to accept this inheritance if you are legally and legitimately nominated through my recommendation to the bank and approved to stand as inheritor to this funds, Would you agree to donate 50% of this inheritance to our charity organization for the continued upkeep and securing of a better future for the orphans in our care, if you are officially recommended to the bank in my powers to stand as the Inheritor?

Please write and let me know your interest towards the issues mentioned. You must appreciate that I am constrained from providing you with more detailed information at this point. Please respond to this mail as soon as possible to afford me the opportunity to provide you with more information on this matter and upon your consent proceed with the recommendation to the Bank as the inheritor of the funds.

Thanks for your care.

Pastor Samuel Kojo

White African: Blogging and the Problem of Asymptotic Growth

HASH — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:09:00 -0400

Paul Jacobson is a lawyer and long-time South African blogger. He wrote a post today, “Blogging is, like, so 2007″, that triggered some thoughts I’ve had on blogging and growth. In it he talks about how the there are many more ways to publish your thoughts to the web other than your blog (lifestreaming), and how that fractured state leads to less value being placed in blogging.

Asymptotic Growth in Publishing

I think there’s more to it than just the number of ways to communicate, it’s also about the number of new people who come online each year with their own blog, Twitter comments, Facebook Note, etc. Each year there is more content being put online and so your own voice matters less relative to the sum of all noise out there. This applies to niches, and the web in general, and I refer to it as asymptotic publishing growth.

Put another way, even if your blog grows more readers every year, it shrinks in relation to the whole.

This is particularly apparent to first-movers in any new platform. At first you have an inordinate amount of “voice” in a specific sphere, which seems to erode over time.

Islands of Influence

One of my theories on what happens as these environments mature is that as they grow and there becomes more and more options for readers, that there tends to be a coalescing or readers around a certain few blogs or publishers. Though every one of the publishers is likely growing in size, there are certain “keystone” blogs to each niche that have an inordinate amount of influence relative to the general blog in that space.

For example, as a technology blog reader, I might visit 10 blogs every day. However, three of those are likely the same as everyone else.

I compare this to teen hangout locations. There are a lot of places to hang out, and everyone tends to go to a few of their favorite places. However, everyone knows the place to be on Friday night, and that’s the place where the majority of teens go.

In Summary

There will always be more noise in the blogosphere, or whichever publishing platform is your choice of the moment, than when you first started in it. However, those that provide the most value to the readers will continue to grow and also garner a greater relative audience than their peers.

Basically, asymptotic growth is a truth that we all have to live with, but there will always be islands of influence.

Memories, Sentiments, Rants and Raves: Are that somebody?

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:25:00 -0400

Long post ahead but see if you are one of them?

(Ref: Men who can’t Love by Steven Carte and Julia Sokol).

Commitment phobic men/women may display SOME or MANY of the following behaviours:

1. They usually have a history of short relationships and they may never have been married - there is often an excuse that they haven’t met the right woman, or they justify their history by saying they still have plenty of time to settle down as they can have children at any age. A favourite line is "someday".

2. If they have been married it is likely to have been for a short time, or, if they have been in a long term relationship or marriage, they will usually have a history of infidelity.

3. They want a relationship but they also want freedom and space so they are often attracted to long distance relationships and busy independent women.

4. They are fast to move in on a woman they are attracted to, and they pursue ardently until they win the woman over.

5. They are very charming. They say and do all the right things and they can be very romantic. They are very good salesmen to get their own needs met, but in reality they have very little concern for the woman’s feelings, as they are always operating from hidden agendas.

6. These men are usually very affectionate and loving. This is because in their mind the relationship is not going to be long term, so they feel free to give affection and love, knowing it won’t be forever. It isn’t long though before they suddenly start rejecting the woman, by not ringing or not wanting to see her for days, or not including her in weekend arrangements etc. This is because they subtly want to give the woman the message that they don’t want a long term committed relationship.

7. Severe commitment phobics play the seduction/rejection game. They can’t make the decision to give totally to the relationship, but they can’t commit to walk away either. They feel trapped by both choices. They feel love for the woman when they don’t see her, but they want to run away when they become involved again.

8. Commitment phobics love the chase but they don’t want the kill. This may happen after 1 night, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months or 1 year. They may start sabotaging just as they are about to get married, or just before or after there's a decision made to move in together.

9. They spin stories to justify their contradictory behaviour, and when the woman threatens to leave the relationship they may make promises to change, but they never do.

10. They tend to treat the woman like a mistress rather than a real girlfriend.

11. They tend to limit the amount of time they spend with the women and treat her as a low priority.

13. Commitment phobics behaviours announce subtly…“You will be special for a short time, but it won’t be forever”.

14. They often choose women who are not the type of partner they are looking for, for example they may be much older, much younger, married, or they may have different interests. They use these differences as excuses to end relationships.

15. They can have a history of frequent career change and often work in environments where they have a certain amount of space and freedom.

16. They treat requests for respect as demands and become, angry, obnoxious and rebellious.

17. Severe commitment phobics avoid events or outings that may include the woman's family or friends.

18. They know an ongoing sexual relationship often leads to commitment so they choose to run when things start to head in that direction.

19. They like to feel in control and create time frames that suit them, often treating the woman like a puppet on a string.

20. They don’t like structure, particularly in their personal life.

21. They tend to compartmentalize their life and keep their work environment, friends or family off limits. They can create wonderful excuses why the woman shouldn’t meet these people.

22. When they get the feeling they need to run, their words and actions are full of mixed messages. They play mind games.

23. A commitment phobic won’t allow the relationship to grow and they have no intentions of ever doing so.

24. They can be moody or aloof and blame the woman for why they are acting so bizarrely.

25. They may withdraw sexually and blame it on the woman for being demanding, or on work fatigue, or illness, or anything else that they can think of.

26. They can have a history of unavailability and inaccessibility .They can be hard to contact, and they are often unpredictable when it comes to returning phone calls. They can even avoid answering calls completely.

27. They lie, or they are evasive and secretive about where they are and what they are doing to create space.

28. Their living arrangements may be rather off-beat. They may have an apartment but they may rarely stay there, preferring to stay at friends places, with parents or ex-girlfriend’s.

29. They hate planning ahead because that means commitments.

30. Severe commitment phobics may have very little furniture, not own property or a car, as these represent commitment as well. To some buying a car can be as big a decision as deciding to get married - it can be all too much for them as they don’t want to feel stuck with anything.

31. They often don’t invite women to their home because of their peculiar living arrangements, but they have no desire to change their situation. Even if their home is comfortable it exudes the feeling that they want to be alone. It is not welcoming to the outside world.

32. They are often unreliable, late and sometimes they don’t turn up at all. They are like this with family and friends as well, although this is not the case in their working environment.

33. They are often unfaithful in relationships.

34. They can be overly committed to their work or to their children to avoid spending a lot of time with a woman.

35. Severe commitment phobics rarely lower their defences because they don’t want to get too close to a woman, or vice versa. If they do, they usually only give little pieces of their soul in well- planned instalments, except if they are having an affair. Affairs are perfect for commitment phobics as they feel completely safe to disclose and to chase, as commitment is not an option while they are in another relationship.

36. If a man has been married he may void putting his divorce papers through as he can use this as an excuse to keep a woman at bay. This helps him to feel safe from the possibility of ever getting married again.

37. Behavioural inconsistencies are very noticeable with these men when they find themselves getting too close. They become argumentive and abusive, or they create distance. A lot of uncaring sabotage behaviours surface eg. working long hours, taking on extra projects, creating space, not ringing, being late, finding fault with the woman etc

38. They often choose to travel a lot for work, to play a lot of sport, or be involved in many projects to create distance.

39. These men know on some level that they are deceptive and cruel to women.

40. The word “forever” terrifies these men. Love doesn’t scare them; rather it is what love represents to them that scares them. This is due to their negative belief system about love and relationships.

41. They usually end up behaving worse and worse, and they sabotage more and more because they want the woman to end the relationship as they feel too anxious and guilty to do so.

42. Severe commitment phobics can also suffer from claustrophobia and/or a personality disorder.

The Displaced African: Listen as Mwangi Becomes a Radio Star

Mwangi — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:05:05 -0400

Well sorta!

Last Sunday morning, I did my first regular show on SARFM radio in New York.

This show will be regular and every third Saturday of every month, me and “Pammy” will get on the show to discuss diasporian issues.

For those who want to know when to tune in, the time will be:

Third Sunday of every month at 5 a.m. (Melbourne time which GMT +10h). For those who need help converting time zones please use Time and Date’s Time Zone Converter

Before I Get into What We Covered on the Show

THE DISPLACED AFRICAN IS 200 POSTS OLD!

This is my 200th post and I may or may not do a post on this in the future. But anyway I just wanted to celebrate this milestone with y’all. Thanks to all the folks who continue to subcribe to the blog and welcome to all the new subscribers.

Thank you also to all the folks who have subscribed to the Immigrant Survivor Guide Newsletter. If you haven’t please do and if you are a subscriber to the newsletter: FEEDBACK! I want it to be as relevant and actionable as possible so please send me feedback.

You can join the newsletter by putting your first name and email address into the boxes below and clicking on: “Free Instant Access”

My Show with Pamela Stitch from SARFM Radio

Download audio file (Mwangi on SARFM Radio 17th August 2008.mp3)

To check out my African Loft page where I will be uploading this interview, please visit: Masmilele African Loft Page.

I will also upload this interview to the Displaced African media and press releases page.

Highlights from the Show

1) I spoke about why I wrote the article, the Empty Symbol that is Barrack Obama and go into more depth about that article.

2) We talked about why we as African people don’t record and share our successes as much as we could.

3) What is the tall poppy syndrome?

4) Are we as African people humble with our success?

5) Should we as African folks share success with each other or be humble with our successes while we are abroad?

6) I give a small example of the power of sharing successes with each other.

7) “I’ll do me and you just do you” vs “I am because we are”

Tips for recording and sharing your successes with others.

9) Tips for someone who has just arrived in the diaspora on how they can immediately get a job.

10) How to get a job when you finish college and you want a nice, solid career job instead of a minimum age job.

11) Would I recommend that people go into the welfare system?

Overall, I think it was a good show. I SPOKE SLOWER! And I also feel I gave a lot more useful information than in my previous interviews.

I still have a lot of growing to do in this area but let me send a lot of thanks and love to Pammy of SARFM, the folks at African Loft and everyone who has featured me in their media and will do so in future. As it would be said in Kiswahili:

Asanteni sana,

Mwangi

You Missed This: PNU Now Walking Same Doomed Path KANU Walked in 2002

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:22:00 -0400

Uhuru handed PNU ticket as Kalonzo retreats to ODM-K!

In 2002 KANU was a powerful political machine but the disgraceful management of the Moi succession ended its 40 year grip on power. We are now in 2008, KANU is virtually dead and signs are that we shall be going to an all important constitutional referendum in 2009 and possibly a general election shortly thereafter followed by Kibaki’s retirement.

Recent reports indicate that the PNU succession structure has been finalized and not so surprisingly, the so called president’s principal assistant, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has been upstaged by KANU Chairman Uhuru Kenyatta as the preferred torch bearer of post Kibaki PNU. Not totally unexpected, but ever since Kalonzo was persuaded to pressure the ECK into announcing controversial presidential results on the premise that he would be given the Vice President’s docket plus several cabinet positions for his party ODM-K, he has fallen over himself wooing the GEMA voters. He has visited Central and Upper Eastern provinces at any given opportunity in the mistaken belief that the rich GEMA vote basket would be his for the taking following Kibaki’s retirement. It brings back memories of 2007 when Kalonzo persistently and unsuccessfully attempt to court the Rift Valley vote through the AIC church.

The last time I checked, Kalonzo was playing amateurish politics assembling Dubai bound councillors and telling that he had no qualms with them undertaking the Harun Mwau sponsored trip as if he has any powers to stop them in the first place. Kalonzo further assured councillors that ODM-K would sponsor a motion in parliament proposing a salary raise for civic leaders, forgetting that only a few months ago, millions of Kenyan workers were denied their annual salary increase during Labour Day celebrations by none other than President Kibaki! Many political observers believe Kalonzo and Uhuru’s moves to dissolve ODM-K and KANU is being driven the fear that these two parties cannot pass the acid test that is the Political Parties Act 2007 The two politicians have been singing the unity song since the formation of the grand coalition.

Now it emerges that the blessed PNU succession line-up features Uhuru as 1st Vice Chairman (read presidential torch bearer), a very reluctant Moses Wetangula as 2nd Vice Chairman (read running mate – words that have no meaning in Kenya’s volatile politics), Mutula Kilonzo as Secretary General and George Nyamweya as Organizing Secretary. The Treasurers position is being reserved for rebels and all of the top PNU positions are to have two deputies.

With a retirement bound Kibaki being given the Chairman’s post, Kalonzo’s name had initially been proposed for the high sounding Deputy Party Leader post, but events on the ground became too hot forcing PNU to abandon the Party Leader post and in the process left Kalonzo without any significant party position. Clearly, the PNU structure has been crafted with Kibaki succession / general elections in mind and with the political parties act hovering above their heads, there is no other option but to call for the dreaded grassroot elections.

Interestingly, the PNU top line-up does not feature FORD-K, FORD-P, SHIRIKISHO, SAFINA or any of the other numerous parties that supported Kibaki’s bid for the presidency in 2007.

To complicate the PNU succession equation even further, KANU ‘owners’ led by ex-President Moi have disowned Uhuru’s move to dissolve the independence party by flatly refusing to join the PNU bandwagon.

Even more significantly, Mzee Moi is said to have finally accepted that Agriculture minister and ODM pentagon member William Ruto is now politically superior to himself and his favourite son Gideon Moi in so far as Rift Valley is concerned. In other words, Moi is using the elders to send an olive branch to the ODM, especially Raila Odinga who many observers opine will be the man to beat in the next general elections.

Mzee Moi is keen on rehabilitating his son Gideon back into the national political platform through KANU, a party that has been lying on its death bed since the December 2007 general elections. Given Moi’s strong emotional attachment to KANU, rather than have the independence party dissolved like Chairman Uhuru Kenyatta appears to have decided, the senior Moi recently invited Kalenjin elders to his palatial Kabarak home to apologise for his mistakes in 2002 (read backing Uhuru) and 2007 (read backing Kibaki).

In the meantime, George Saitoti and Martha Karua are watching events in PNU with a keen eye. Saitoti is planning to use his massive wealth to sponsor candidates in the PNU grassroots polls so as to have an upper hand when the PNU National Delegates Congress is called to choose national officials and the party torch bearer. Saitoti is banking on Kibaki to endorse him as successor due to their closeness and also by virtue of being the senior most of all PNU presidential contenders.

Martha Karua, whose popularity in Central Province is worrying Uhuru Kenyatta, has declared that her interest for the presidency is real and that NARC-K will not be dissolved for the sake of PNU unity. Karua’s chances of mounting a serious presidential bid is largely influenced by her long time association with the civil society and if James Orengo’s experience is anything to go by, then Karua will be in for the shock of her life when election results are announced. As it is, she lacks the prerequisite resources in terms of finance and the vital grassroot representation at the district and locational levels. Her defence of ECK and PNU earlier in the year makes her an instant enemy in most parts of Kenya and she would require to shelter under the massive political umbrella of Raila Odinga’s ODM to be gradually accepted nationally.

The game is on, will PNU survive or will it go the KANU way?

bankelele: Plane Moments

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:52:00 -0400

Plane Moments