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• October 29, 2009
• 21:00

  The Curse of A+O+O, Hollow Pride in Poverty

   » ‎ You Missed This
  Why do hitherto brilliant brains MUTATE into porridge once in government? Lord Acton must have been a genius with his time-tested adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely. A look into our cabinet would leave the late Rogue Ambassador Smith Hempstone turning in his grave for wasted efforts to protect pretenders for champions of good governance and democracy.
  
  So it appears Obama's utter contempt for Kibaki's protest letter is to send an Assistant Minister to deal with Kenya. And our chief diplomat Wetangula has threatened to reciprocate the humiliation to President Kibaki. Maybe Renneberger will be declared persona non grata soon.
  
  But Wetangula appears to know something we don't when he names Fidel Castro and Ahmednedijan's trip to UN despite their respective hostility America. His comparison leaves you wondering who is the Kenya's equivalent of the two and if he is a target of BAN.
  
  It must have sounded intellectually stimulating and sense of pride for Weta to mention Nairobi, Geneva, New York and Vienna in the same sentence. We are sovereign and independent, so what? The US are doing what ordinary Kenyans would wish to do were it not for saffocating IMPUNITY. Any form of pressure to release us from the yoke of impunity is more than welcome. Well, apologists will rush to the next rooftop to shout neo-colonialism.
  
  The US pressure for reforms has been reduced to the predictably PNU vs ODM tiff. The hitherto champions of good governance shifted the goalposts immediately they tasted power. As one PKW noted here in the previous post the political foot is now squarely stuck in the other foot. Flashback to 2000 and see Kibaki and the present brigade lambasting Moi on imperial presidency and now?
  
  Edible sovereignty
  The latest poverty index has shamed the national lie about phenomenal growth during the 2002-7 period. The increase in poorer Kenyans is once more living testimony of the resulting embarrassment of living a national lie. Anything premised on this vice is simply unsustainable.
  
  Wetangula and Mutula's rush to see every criticism directed at the ruling class as an agenda to embarrass the president smacks of sycophancy of yore. Speak of hollow pride from a beggar who cannot feed himself while living in darkness.
  
  Meanwhile the pressure is on and the lid may not hold it any more when Ocampo lands within our shores next week.Kumekucha

  
  

  

• 18:02

  Twitter new Feature: Lists

   » ‎ All about Africa and specifically Kenya
  Twitter is testing a new feature called Lists, and it seems they are using the Google method of just having a few people receiving the feature.  I was not lucky with #Googlewave and i am still looking for the invite up to date. But lucky for me for the Twitter List, i happen to be [...]

• 11:16

  copy-paste heavy! FUNNY but TRUE stuff.

   » ‎ make mine a double espresso...
  -more often than not, when someone is telling a story, all i can think about is that i can't wait for them to finish so that i can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me
  
  -nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument where you realise that you are wrong.
  
  -have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you were supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy for randomly switching directions on the sidewalk
  
  -i totally take back all those times i didn't want to nap when i was younger.
  
  -do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it woudln't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem? Every kid did that. But how did we know how to fix the problem? there was no internet message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft!
  
  -there is A GREAT NEED for a sarcasm font.
  
  -sometimes i'll watch a movie that i watched when i was younger and suddenly realize i had no idea what the hell was going on when i first saw it
  
  -i would rather carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take two trips to bring my groceries in
  
  -LOL has gone from meaning "laugh out loud" to "i have nothing else to say"
  
  -i have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger
  
  -how many times is it appropriate to say "what?" before you just nod and smile because you didn't hear a word they said?
  
  -while driving yesterday, i saw a banana peel on the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it... Thanks Mario Kart!
  
  -bad decisions make good stories
  
  -whenever i'm facebook stalking someone and i find that their profile is public, i feel like a little kid on christmas morning. 546 pictures? Don't mind if i do!
  
  -you never know when it'll strike but there is a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day
  
  -i think the freezer deserves a light as well
  
  -as a driver, i hate pedestrians, and a pedestrian, i hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, i always hate cyclists!
  
  -"do not machine wash or tumble dry" means i will never wash this ever!
  
  -i hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching t.v. There's so much pressure! 'i love this show but will they judge me if i keep it on?' 'i bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this' 'it's only a matter of time before they get up and leave the room..., will we still be friends after this???'
  
  -i find it hard to believe that there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

• 9:58

  Financial Times Special Report on Kenya

   » ‎ Kenyan Pundit

  Tags:  Kenya  

  The Financial Times has just put together a special feature report on Kenya.   The FT has done a number of great articles on Kenya this year so I’m looking forward to reading the report – includes articles on the wave of kidnappings to hit Nairobi (just heard from a person in the know that the incidents are actually seriously under-reported); the Mau Forest; and the dithering stock exchange.

• 7:17

  Tribal Democracy of one man one vote and one Kilometre one vote

   » ‎ Kenya Imagine

  "One man one vote" is not an unreasonable request, so GEMA should have it, but GEMA should accept a federal system with regional assemblies catering to the needs of the other communities, two houses of parliament, the current house which is reorganized to reflect "one man one vote" and an upper house with equal representation from all regions. This should be modeled in such a way that while the main tenet of universal suffrage is adhered to, the rights of some Kenyans are not trashed in favour of others.

  Salah weighs in on Kenyanness and the representation debate.

• 3:19

  BEFORE YOU INVEST IN BOND MUTUAL FUNDS…

   » ‎ Kenyantykoon's Blog
  The previous post was about municipal bond mutual funds, a member of the larger bond mutual funds and so it is just logical that we tackle the bond mutual funds today. Quite a while back, I did a post on fixed income mutual funds and I said that bond mutual funds are a member of these [...]

• 3:11

  WTF????

   » ‎ Media Madness
  Listening to Classic 105 this morning…I heard an ad by Sarova Stanley inviting people to their Fruit art event this weekend. ‘Watch live SALAD tossing’ is a line from the ad WTH?? Kiss Creative maaan mko downest!
• 3:04

  A big comeback in the works…

   » ‎ Media Madness
  Remember Dee and Kay? They used to host Drive on YFm back in the day. Well word is they might be soon working together on a new radio show!! Can’t wait!!!
• 2:43

  One to watch…

   » ‎ Media Madness
  His name is Steve Biko. His debut on Kenyan radio was on Baraka FM. Dude is bubbling with talent but someone at Capital doesn’t want him to go on air because of their own insecurities! WTH? Maqbul speakes doucheness and he’s on air. It’s not fair!! Biko impressed CK so much he was hired on the [...]

• 2:17

  Rules for Kenya Internet Trading

   » ‎ bankelele

  Tags:  Nairobi Stock Exchange  

  Rules for Kenya Internet Trading

• 0:43

  Of political terms and ICANN community

   » ‎ REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG

  Enclosure: [download]

  what comes into your mind when you hear the term "bridging the digital divide"? I bet its the idea of connecting rural schools with computers, government policy , mobile phones for the poor, huge donor funding and that kind of stuff.
  
  Well, the same term appeared in the ICANN strategic plan and was quickly short down. Why? After all, there is no argument that there exists a gap within ICANN, between the developed and developing countries, especially in Africa.
  
  The term bridging the digital divide has political connotation within the ICANN community and evokes memories of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) where the International Telecommunications Union discussed ways of taking over management of the internet from ICANN as a way of giving power to the governments.
  
  So, you will understand the ICANN faithful when they say that the term should belong to other circles and not the mainly technical and business oriented group.
  
  After all, most of the people who attend ICANN meetings have all the internet infrastructure needs and the idea of an unconnected business in Giathi village in Gatundu, where I come from does not resonate with them.
  
  Maybe the idea of a country not having an internet exchange point or a non performing country code Top Level Domain e.g ,ke. .ug, .za seems remote, but these are realities in Africa.
  
  I think the gap within ICANN for instance within the ccTLDs can be bridged through sharing resources and ideas. I recall Michuki Mwangi explained to me that Kenya got copies of root zone files because of his contacts within ICANN.
  
  Michuki met root operators and was able to get the root zone files, which is probably why internet in Kenya is faster than in Uganda, even though we both have the fiber optic connectivity.
  
  Michuki also benefitted from training offered by the Brazilian tech team, the guys who operate the .br registry. The Kenic infrastructure, which is open source, has heavy contribution from Brazil.
  
  So, can the actions of Hartmut Glaser in Brazil, who invited Michuki be termed as bridging the digital divide? I think so.
  
  In my opinion, ICANN community needs to do something, and am sure so many people here would help if they knew about the challenges and ways their technology share can help.
  
  The problem is in the political correctness of the term "bridging the digital divide". Maybe they can come up with another term but the experiences can yield greater benefits if taken seriously.
  
  Of course, for the global community to help, African internet infrastructure must rise from the chaos. The ccTLDs must resemble a sense of normalcy. They must sort out the issues of who operates the domains and have operational registries. Then we can start talking about ways of improving the services.
  
  Perhaps that is the reason why we do not have many Africans contributing in the public forums; because of the apparent gaps.
  
  Political terms or no political terms, something needs to be done. I will not stop saying that Africa needs to act but so is the global community.
  
  Ends