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12:54
Arrested Development
» For Love and Money Arrested Development
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5:44 A Roof is a Terrible Thing to Waste
» Afromusing (Via www.treehugger.com/business_politics/.)
A 650 KiloWatt Solar Array Completed in Hawthorne, California: “
Lithographix, Thinksolar, and Pacific Solar Energy
There are many green things you can do with a giant commercial building’s roof. From painting it white to reflect the sun’s rays, to building a green roof, to installing a solar array to generate electricity. Lithographix, a printing company, went for this last option and now has the first commercial solar array in Hawthorne, California.
…I can only dream of doing this one day… However, last month during the holidays, my uncles & aunts put together some money for a solar system for Granny C, pics and a more detailed post is forthcoming.
PS: Happy new year, may 2009 be truly brilliant.
Song of the Day: Nairobi by Sauti Sol, featuring Stan. Why? one line…’Nairobi, kuna solar sana! kijijini ni ku poa sana’
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4:45
The Dawn of the Obama Era: In Memory of the Ancestors
» Kenya Imagine The Obama era has begun. Like millions of people in the United States and around the world today I sat glued to the television watching the historic inauguration, relishing the man and the moment, its substance and symbolism. Tomorrow, of course the hard work starts and the harsh realities facing the new president will break today's magical spell. America's daunting challenges will puncture the bubble of messianic expectations invested in the young president. The extraordinary euphoria that has gripped this nation and parts of the world is obviously unsustainable, and it will inevitably evaporate in the predictable whirlwind of stumbles, setbacks, even scandals, not to mention the structural obstacles, the systemic imperatives of this mighty but beleaguered capitalist country and imperial power that will constrain bold changes, truly progressive transformation.
More.
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4:02
State of Kenya's Telecoms Industry
» KA-INVESTOR I stumbled upon a research report by Budde Communication Pty Ltd. on the state of telecoms, mobile and broadband in Africa in 2008. Though I couldn't access the full report due to the cost implication here is a summary of what the report said about the state of Kenya's telecoms industry:
Read more on other African countries here"Despite the civil unrest which cast a shadow on Kenya at the beginning of 2008, the fundamental transformation of its telecoms market continues. A consortium lead by France Telecom acquired a 51% stake in the national telco, Tekom Kenya. The IPO of the country’s leading mobile operator, Safaricom, went ahead very successfully in April, which is an encouraging sign for Telkom’s planned IPO. A new, simplified licensing regime designed to increase competition was introduced mid-year. Several competing wireless broadband networks and national fibre backbones are being rolled out, and several international submarine fibre optic cables are expected to launch from 2009. This will bring bandwidth prices down and open the Internet up to the mass market. The country’s GSM mobile market finally moved beyond a duopoly at the end of 2008 when Econet and Telkom Kenya launched services as the third and fourth players. Convergence is ever-present in this dynamic and fast growing market with voice, data and video/broadband TV (triple play) services, the introduction of 3G mobile services and mobile banking empowering the largely un-banked population."
On a light note: What exactly does Orengo mean when he says thisJust say it like it is Orengo!
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A Salute to Barack Obama's Father
» Kenya Imagine As I headed out the door to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44Th President of the United States, I thought about his late father. Much of what we’ve heard about the president’s “Old Man” has been from the president himself and others who knew very little about him. But the elder Obama’s is a story of the African immigrant — a story of a people who come to a new country and learn so fast to become the most educated group.
What follows is an except from my stand-up comedy set performed on Sunday at The African Inaugural Ball in Silver Spring, MD. Part true, part fiction, the account is based on my life and the stories of other African immigrants in the United States. Knowing what I know about the Old Man – and having grown up in the same area as he, I have no doubt he would have appreciated the humor.
Don’t hate; Inaugurate!
More?
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3:25
What Is Meant To Be
» Cock And Bull I stopped by Mambo’s shop this morning on my way to work when he invited me for a cup of tea. And while I was being handed over the tea in a blue plastic mug by his wife, Mambo was busy shoeing off an eagle that was circling in the air. The eagle had come dangerously low to the ground where several young chicks were busy feeding on some morsels of grain. And as Mambo came over to join me after scaring off the eagle, I inquired about the whereabouts of the mother hen. To which Mambo answered that it had been stolen. But before he could elaborate, a policeman from the local cop station passed by the shop and Mambo started exchanging morning pleasantries in a loud jovial voice as is common for him when any of his customers or person that he knows passes by. And at that point, Mambo’s wife picked up the story about the mother hen.
A while ago, the mother hen laid its eggs and when the time to brood came, it faithfully sat on them as is normal for a mother hen. Ordinarily, it would sit on them for three weeks, and then the chicks would hatch. However, the Mambo family was shocked to discover one afternoon that the mother hen was missing. This was 16 days into the brooding period. The mother hen had been stolen! They did not know what to do with the eggs since without the mother hen to provide warmth, the developing chicks would die within an hour.
But as fate would have it, their neighbor had a mother hen that was also in the brooding stage. And by another stroke of fate, the mother hen was without eggs to sit on since the neighbour’s family had eaten all its eggs. And so Mambo borrowed the neighbor’s hen and it gladly sat on the eggs and kept them warm until the chicks hatched 5 days later. The surrogate mother hen then was allowed to take care of the chicks for a few days before being returned back to its owner.
What struck me about the story was the happy coincidence of having another brooding hen at the neighbour’s. When a chicken lays its eggs and the brooding stage or time to sit on the eggs comes and there are no eggs to sit on, then the stage passes within 5 days. That is why it is easy to see the serendipity that brought the chicks to be.
And as I finished my tea and walked away from Mambo’s shop, I knew that my belief that what is meant to be will be had just been affirmed once again.
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3:11
Is Africa cursed?
» Rants, Raves & Reviews While Kenyans are aghast at the pay packages of Kenyan MPs, president, ministers & their ilk... Ghana passed a retirement package like no other for their ex-presidents... The parliament did this on the last day!
(Hopefully, kibz does not get any ideas...)
Ghanians shocked by retirement package for ex-presidents
Compare Ghana vs US former presidents(Maybe former prez Bush might have been better off as an African prez!)
And you wonder why most of Sub-Saharan Africa remains dirt poor?
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2:20
Free Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship Workshop, KICC 14 Feb09 hosted by Ukoo Flani Trust & Junior Achievement Kenya
» Kenyanpoet UkooFlani Trust, Junior Achievement Kenya and the National Youth Violence Prevention Campaign will host a workshop on Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship at the KICC on 14 Feb 2009. This will be followed by a live debate on the same Subject on 20th February 2009 at the same venue
Please feel free to pass this information to all artists, groups in the Arts and organization (Actors, Visual artists, Musicians, Managers and Administrators etc).
Due to limited spaces groups and organization are to forward not more than five people on or before 5th February 2009. Registration is free.Female artists, Arts Managers and administrators are encouraged to register.
Refreshments will be served
RSVP
fgicharu(at)gmail(dot)com
jwali(at)jakenya(dot)org
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Gogosimo, Yunasi & Muthoni at Blanket & Wines, 1st February 09
» Kenyanpoet Blankets&Wine is the premier picnic style, Afro-based music festival in East Africa. Bring your friends and Family, some wine (or choice of drink), a picnic basket (or your choice of food) some maasai shukas/kikoys and join us as we share an afternoon of chilling on the grass, watching music and hanging loose:)
Muthoni MUSIC is very pleased to be hosting the following bands on February 1st, from 1pm - 6pm at the
Tayiana Garden SPa and Stables on Ridgeways Road
GOGOSIMO
GogoSimo was founded in Mombasa in 2001 by Susan Wanjiru and James Jozee and is now a 7 member band. Gososimo's music is a blend of coastal music, other African tempos and a sprinkling of western instrumentation and arrangement creating a unique East African Sound.
On their sophomore offering "Heshimu," Gogosimo is already attracting international recognition, collaborating with the world renown "Papa Wemba" on the tittle track "Heshimu". This band is sure to get you on your feet, dancing along to their rich sound. Blankets & Wine is
proud to host Gogosimo for the first time.
YUNASI
The winners of the 2007 BBC 'Next Big Thing' competition, Yunasi, is an exceptional band of 8 men from East Africa and a French woman. Singing in several languages including Swahili, English, French, Luo, Kisii and Luhya, Yunasi has developed a unique East African music style called SESUBE which is a combination of sega, isikuti and benga. It takes sounds and inspirations from local Kenyan communities, cultural styles and languages and fuses those sounds with a European component proving that East African music is not only strong, but is more inventive and vibrant than that from other parts of the continent! Blankets & Wine is pleased to host this widely traveled, critically acclaimed and accomplished band.
MUTHONI:
One of the most talented singers, songwriters, poet and performer to hit the East African music scene. Using a blend of rhythms,Muthoni’s music is a collection of conscious messages informed by the urban African experience. Her running commentary on Afro-politics, Love, Relationships and New Spirituality, delivered in song and a type of spoken poetry called "Floems" is entertaining and awakening. Blankets& Wine© is delighted to host Muthoni making her third appearance at the festival.
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0:53
Why Renneberger Must Leave Nairobi
» You Missed This Ambassador Renneberger disgraced himself.
Growing evidence has shown that Ambassador Renneberger was part of the colossal failure that was our elections. It is not a secret that American ambassadors are usually sent to foreign capitals to safeguard the interests of America, which include democratic ideals. The fact that Ambassador Renneberger could decide to go against what he was sent to Nairobi to do is a breach of the trust the United States government bestowed on him.
It is now clear that the ambassador was instrumental in misleading American agencies about the true picture of events in Kenya, both prior to and after the elections. It was because of him that the State Department hurriedly congratulated Kibaki when just about everybody with any common sense knew that the Othaya MP had not won the election. Indeed, according to exit polls by a Republican institute, Raila Odinga had beaten Kibaki by no less than seven percentage points. But through determined treachery, the ambassador saw to it that the polls were withheld till August last year. He asked that the poll results be sat on.
As if that were not bad enough, the ambassador followed this disgraceful act with a campaign of deceit that most Kenyans have not come to terms with todate. He was the man who made Jendayi Frasier look so confused when she came to Nairobi. He was the one who initially made Condy seem so out of the loop until she got a briefing from more credible sources than the partisan ambassador. It was this same ambassador who saw to it that the three-way structure that bundled in Kibaki-Raila-Kalonzo was put in place to calm the waters after he realized the scale of his screw up.
Whenever I meet Kenyans who praise Renneberger for saving Kenya I feel like throwing up. He didn't save Kenya. He set Kenya on fire. He made it possible for folks who'd rigged elections to find a safety valve. I can only hope that there are people with sufficient resources and the urge to find out the true role of this ambassador in the election debacle.
Until then, it is time for President Obama to ask this dude to pack up. And when he gets home, may he send our regards to George W. Bush should he pay a courtesy call on him in Dallas.
So long, Mr. Ambassador.