Mashada Blogs » September 10, 2008

Kenya Imagine: imagine diaries

2008-09-10T22:03:00-04:00

Mkosakabila on a book that she is reading. Blessed Unrest: How the largest movement in the world came into being and why no one saw it coming
Stephen Wanyama on how every daft head has decided Ida Odinga good, Pauline Musyoka badPauline's Gift. Pauline's Gift

Kenya Imagine: Palin vs Obama (in Kenya)

2008-09-10T21:27:00-04:00

For a minute let us compare these two political candidates and assume that they were running for office in Kenya. Let us also assume that identity politics don't matter, and that Kenyans will not flock to Obama because he is black and male and "Kenyan", and that women will not support Palin because she is a woman and a mother who has been running against the boys' club.

Kenyanentrepreneur.com: The Coming Economic Tsunami

2008-09-10T20:48:04-04:00

I was having dinner with a good friend the other night and she mentioned that her 401K was taking a hit. This is the second time she’s mentioned it. I’m sure others have observed the same thing with their 401k’s. I was talking to yet another friend (who I consider to be a semi-expert on finance) [...]

Kenyanentrepreneur.com: [nt]

2008-09-10T20:27:55-04:00

Kenya Imagine: Elderkin vs Throup

2008-09-10T19:33:00-04:00

It isn't news that the Standard isn't a neutral paper. Two instances - their reporting of Balala's remark, and their reporting of the International Crisis Group's report on Kenya - serve to establish that claim. If you followed the Kriegler Commission's hearings, and you should have, you ought not to have followed them via the Standard, because some of the commentary on the hearing was egregiously biased. I'm referring, as you might have guessed, to Sarah Elderkin's pieces on the 17th and 24 August.

Read more from Daniel Waweru here.

Kenya Imagine: What Can the Exit Poll Tell us About the Kenyan Voter?

2008-09-10T19:30:00-04:00

Exit polls, surveys taken of voters as they leave polling centers, provide the most comprehensive information on the issues, perceptions and attitudes that matter to voters selecting candidates for office. They are used worldwide to help scholars, politicians, parties and citizens understand these important characteristics of the electorate. First and foremost, exit polls seek to understand what determines why a person votes the way they do. What factors, including demographic characteristics and evaluations of government, contribute to the choice that citizens in a democracy make about their elected leaders? These matters are especially important in Kenya, where the transition to democracy has been long and hard-fought.

Read more from James Long.

Kenyanentrepreneur.com: The Saga at The NSSF

2008-09-10T19:07:42-04:00

During Moi and Biwott’s time, the NSSF was used as a personal piggy bank to finance their political operations and in the case of Biwott, to fund his various private businesses. The worst thing about this, is that the NSSF contains people’s retirement funds - money that people are hoping to rely on when they [...]

Kikuyumoja's realm: Gcompris

2008-09-10T17:29:03-04:00

I’ve played with Edubuntu on the office laptop today and came across this nice suite for kids & boys like me who like to play smart games:

If you have access to kids ;-), think they should learn something about computers and don’t want to buy any extra gadgets/toys, then GCompris may just be what you’re looking for.

“GCompris is an educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10. (…) Currently GCompris offers in excess of 100 activities and more are being developed. GCompris is free software, that means that you can adapt it to your own needs, improve it and, most importantly, share it with children everywhere.”

“In order to promote the use of GNU/Linux, the windows version has a limited number of activities. It is possible to access all the activities for a fee” - which is 20,- EUR. Best option is to use the LiveCD version, or - if you can - try Ubuntu with the Edubuntu add-on package.

Edubuntu has really improved since I’ve first blogged about it in 2005. Nice! My new boss has 3 kids who often play in the office. So I thought about giving them an older laptop with Edubuntu + a mouse and see how far they’ll get with it.

Kikuyumoja's realm: he who travels…

2008-09-10T17:01:08-04:00

…gets to see really strange stuff:

Mzee smurf stuffed into a Rentner-Mercedes (~trolley).

Religion? Image!

Scary!

…tbc…

White African: Linking the “Other 3 Billion” to the Web

2008-09-10T16:43:59-04:00

I admit, I’m a little confused.

Yesterday Google, HSBC bank and Liberty Global cable company launched O3b Networks (which stands for “other 3 billion”), a satellite service to bring high-speed low-cost internet connections to the world’s poorest people starting in 2010 - many of them in Africa.

On the Google Africa blog, they state:

O3b plans to deliver fiber-like Internet backhaul service using a constellation of medium-orbit satellites. This means data can be quickly transmitted to and from even the most remote locations such as inland Africa or small Pacific islands. The O3b satellite constellation will provide high-speed, low-latency backhaul services at speeds reaching into the gigabits per second.

The Good

This is the type of technology chess move that makes me sit back and truly laugh out loud. It bypasses inefficient, greedy or corrupt government bureaucracies and gives power to the local people. I’m absolutely thrilled with it and wish them the best of luck - hoping that they can execute on the deployment.

The Confusion…

The founder of O3b is a certain Greg Wyler. You know, the guy behind the big “wiring of Rwanda” initiative with his company Terracom. Well, his record hasn’t been stellar, and so I wonder why he is leading this whole initiative?

It might very well be that they’ve learned their lessons from Rwanda. I’d rather have a guy who has tried and failed and LEARNED from it, than some wide-eyed idealist. Let’s hope that’s the case here.