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20:22
From: More to Life
Read This Entry & More At More to Life
Every now and then someone says something to me that sends my head spinning. I know I've mentioned how badly Hillary Rodham Clinton (from here on referred to as HRC)has been getting on my nerves. But for someone, anyone, to call me an opportunistic feminist?! Bamboozled, yeah, that's me. Wth? I ask. Let's get a few things right. I am not a feminist. never was. In fact even when I was much younger, I was opposed to the Beijing conference, simply because I believe that at some level, no one can give you freedom, you just rise up and take it, claim it or utilize its availability. I'm not one of those women feeling trapped or victimized or disadvantaged by my gender. Sincerely, I've never felt it. I'm one of those women, who recognize I might meet a few men who doubt my capabilities, but I'm confident enough to know that I'm as great as any other human being at what I fix my mind on, male or female, is not a detail that occurs to me. So just what the hell is an opportunistic feminist? Well, apparently since I am one of those people, not women, people, who are very vocal, forthright and perhaps blunt, many think I am a feminist just because I am a woman wearing a man's personality (who gave out gender to personalities, if I may ask?)I'm aware my very unemotional analysis of things and events makes me unlike many or most women. That's all fine. I'm just inclined to reality, truth and facts more than feelings. And what does this mean? That I should shut up and take a submissive role unless I'm going to be a feminist? What the hell are women still fighting for? Women have led countries, companies and institutions. It's too late to play victims. We might have a steeper climb sometimes but by goodness, its all over. We can do whatever we want. we've been free and liberated since I've been born and I'm not going to sit here and pretend to have an issue I'm not suffering from. I'm female and very empowered, very capable and with access to everything and anything I set my mind to. Now, this does not negate the fact that I recognize attitudes within the society that disenfranchise and disadvantage women. Especially with unequal pay for equal work. However,women need to rise to the occasion and acknowledge that we need to sharpen our negotiation skills and research our worth before accepting proposed salaries. There are plenty of women out here making more than men just by perfecting these two things. The trick, is to leave the emotions out of it, and approach all this with facts and evidence. let me put it this way folks, being female is not a disability! That's why I don't get all the seats in parliament that need to be set aside for women? Kwani? What about all the women who've gotten there without freebies? They had what, 3 hands 4 legs? No no. they had what it takes to get in and become what they wanted. we want to get ahead women, we need to shed these outer coats of expected female ideals and instead cultivate the values we need to get to where we want. That's why I cringe when HRC starts cooing at females with the notion that this is their time. Its been their time! Recall Margaret Thatcher? She is female despite not being American. This link should offer everyone a link as to just how old elected female leadership is and has been in this world. It's not a fight. It's been won. The war is over. Now we can just be. Hence, Thatcher is not alone. Less democratic nations have elected women as leaders and its old news. Lets move on. What I don't need is being questioned about how women just sit and allow emotions to rule over common sense. such as when HRC starts to describe McCain as capable but Obama... err...; "well, ask him," despite being a democrat. Sure it could be tactical, so she can run in 2012 (because anyone who understands math knows this race has been over!) Still, she raises the question as to whether she ( representing women, dunno who said so) has the capability to separate her emotions from her realities. These are the situations I don't need to be put into by women who have appointed themselves as fighters for some cause that somehow liberates women further. My preference would be that all women represent themselves and their affiliations, and not us, the gender. I for one do not need representation on that level. I feel that we're just fine. We just need to get in and get dirty so that we can achieve results. Opportunistic feminist?! definitely not me. And women, get out and take your freedoms! Don't waste any more energy on fighting wars that have already been won. - please. My 2 cents to you my gender mates.
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18:14
From: Kikuyumoja's realm
Read This Entry & More At Kikuyumoja's realm
Although - or maybe because - I diligently clean my HP nx8220 laptop on a regular basis (sometimes even with Isopropyl acohol), the rubber on my laptop’s touchpad today went into early retirement.
Nothing to worry about, but then… you know there are some things in life that have a 1a priority - and my machine here apparently has that status.
A quick search on eBay revealed no luck in finding the right spare part - and it’s a pity because I recently had another HP nx8220 here where I exchanged some parts with my current machine and somehow missed to change the touchpad as well. Stupid.
So what do you do if spare parts aren’t available and things keep on bugging you? Right - fix it in a jua kali way:
Now where would I be without my Leatherman Wave? Ahh….priceless.
Removed the touchpad from the laptop, opened it, cleaned it, swapped buttons (!), removed the rubber “hole” and reassembled it. Quick fix, took me 15 minutes. Not as pretty as a used & cleaned touchpad from The Bay, but works fine and once I’ll get around a decent spare part, I can still exchange it.
Now, I really have to think about limiting my daily usage to avoid any further damage. Can’t be that I’ve already ruined a keyboard and now this touchpad within a timeframe of almost 2 years. HP Compaq built quality? HP = huge problems, high price. But still the best laptop I’ve ever used. Except for my landlord’s ThinkPad X41 of course. :-)
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16:08
From: What An African Woman Thinks
Read This Entry & More At What An African Woman Thinks
It's ten after midnight.
I'm still at my desk.
I've just finished working on a project that has a deadline of tomorrow, noon. I had ample time, really, but I procrastinated.
And so, here I am. It will not do.
I'm hungry and tired. My eyes are red from staring at the screen.
So I'm posting this stick-it note here to remind myself how I feel right now.
How faint I felt when I tried to convert the final document into PDF half an hour ago and Word said it couldn't open it. Twice.
And how all this needn't have happened this way. Really.
I know better. I'm annoyed with myself mostly. And disappointed.
Have an organised weekend.It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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15:42
From: The Displaced African
Read This Entry & More At The Displaced African
First of all, thanks to Acolyte for giving me the idea for this post.
I will tell you what this article is not. This IS NOT an article where I talk about the ills of drinking and alcoholism or give you reasons to stop. I have already spoken about my opinions on drinking and think its of no use to you if I repeat what I’ve already said.
Instead, this article is about helping YOU figure out why YOU get pissed and why people you care about drink…..so much?
Why Would I Care About Why I Drink if I Am Not About to Quit?
Anytime you figure out the reason why you do something, you gain one thing that’s absolutely priceless: self-awareness.
If before every sip, you can look yourself in the eye and know why you’re about to take that sip, with all B.S. aside, now that’s power.
Or rather, latent power that can easily be converted into something even more priceless (?!oxymoron, me thinks): self-control. This self-control can extend far deeper than every Friday night.
In a land where we agree that it’s easy to get distracted and lose focus, how valuable is self-control? You with me?! Let’s begin
Based on My Observations and Experiences
Based on my observations and experiences, I have observed the following 10 reasons that someone ingests the inebriating fluid:
1) Stress
This is the one I have heard most often, and I’m willing to bet it’s probably the one you’ve heard said the most as well. Anytime you feel like life is getting too tough and you need some way to escape briefly from this constant tension, you drink. You don’t like being away from home? You are not enjoying your new job? You’re university assignments are piling up and overwhelming you? Sip your sorrows away.
It’s possible that you are using drinking as your way of coping with any feelings of stress or overwhelm.
2) The Opposite Sex: Men
I can tell you for a fact that this is 90% of the reason that I drank. I began drinking on a semi-regular basis in my early teens so I could have enough courage to approach and bed women.
I remember when I was still in film school I tried to make a documentary (while drunk no less) on why people drink. A lot more men gave this as the reason than I would have thought.
Hey, if Kenyan President (legitimacy notwithstanding), Emilio Stanley Kibaki needed booze to convince the firecracker that is his wife, then I am sure many men with lesser power have done the exact same thing.
3) The Opposite Sex: Women
Now when it comes to drinking and women, it’s an entirely different ball game. Sure, there are women who drink so that they have the courage to approach men they fancy for love or lust, but in my experience if these women have enough guts to do it when drunk, they can usually do it when sober.
Women tend to drink so that they have a scapegoat and can absolve all responsibility for ‘anything that may happen’ between her and a particular Mr., or Mrs., to herself and her friends, who she fears may call her the woman with the Red Sea for legs.
Now, few women will admit this openly, but a lot of women drink so that if they wake up the next morning next to someone they don’t particularly care for they can say,
“The booze made me do it, I’m still a good person!”
4) To Magnify Positive Emotions
This is the other major reason I drank. If I was ever in a good mood and I drank my good mood would multiply. This may happen when you have had a good day and feel that alcohol is the best way to treat yourself. Or it may also occcur at celebrations, get togethers and gatherings. This brings us to the next reason:
5) It’s What Other People Do
The power of social proof will never cease to amaze me.Other “normal” people go to the bar after work, so will I. “Ordinary” people drink whenever they get together or have a celebration, so will I. “Everyone” drinks in their teens and early adult years so will I. Another one not many people will admit. If so many “normal” people didn’t drink, would you ever have started?
6) The Stories
This justification also intertwines with the previous one. In bars and house parties all over the world, we love people who start stories with:
I was so high/ We were so wasted that……….
Usually such stories have outlandish but ridiculously exciting plots. Some of us take great pride in being the one with such a story week after week after week or day after day after day.
7) Movies and the Media
This one doesn’t need too much explaining. A lot of people we consider ‘cool’ (we need a new word for cool, it’s cliche, ice cold?….perhaps…) in the movies and music drink. We love them so much that what they do we do.
We want to order martinis like Bond. We want to indulge in Cosmopolitans like Carey. We want to drink scotch neat like another protagonist from such and such film.
Do your favorite TV, music, movie or video game characters drink?
8 ) Scapegoat Version 2
Women are not the only ones who use alcohol as a scapegoat. A lot of us drink so we can tell people WHAT’S REALLY ON OUR MINDS, without having to suffer the huge consequences we would suffer if we did it in the sober light of day.
I have a family member who takes pride in using a lot of his drunk time to tell all the people he hates (for the weirdest of reasons) why he hates them. He takes this time to start fights with people he wants to start fights with because he knows once sobrierity comes he is back to being a responsible (well relatively) individual.
9) I Drink So I Have the Courage to Do X
The X in the headline above can refer to anything really. I drink so I am brave enough to give a speech. I drink so I am brave enough to face other people. I drink so that I can go to the shops without feeling pangs of agoraphobia.
It doesn’t apply to just courage either. I heard of a young man who in his primary school days, used to drink so he could cope with the boredom of being in the classroom all day long.
10) Energy to Continue
Though alcohol is technically a depressant, for a lot of people, it has the opposite effect and gives them jolts of excitement and energy. There are some people who use these jolts to get them through days when they have triple shifts to do on absolutely no sleep. There are some people who are so tired and weary from working 27 hour shifts, 9 days a week that the only way they know to switch their body on is to inject it with some alcohol.
So there you have it. All the reasons I can think of. Do you fall into one of the above categories? Is there a reason I may have missed?
Take this time to really get to know yourself. You may be pleasantly surprised by just why you drink. This self-awareness may lead to a level of self-control that may shock you even more.
If this article, got something brewing in your brain then make sure you stay on the blog’s RSS or email update list because I have new ales of useful, applicable wisdom coming out every day.
Have a self-conscious (in a good way) day,
Mwangi
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11:15
From: White African
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 Unfortunately it looks like TED Africa won’t be taking place in September of this year. A lot of us were looking forward to this, so it’s very disappointing.
I hope they can get this to work in 2009.
Here’s the email from TED curator Chris Anderson:
Dear Friends of TED,
Regretfully, we’re having to suspend plans for our TEDAfrica event scheduled for the end of September 2008 in Cape Town.
As you may know, we sought to launch this event under the control of a local team, operating under a license. The goal was to build on the full impact and quality of the TED conference held in Tanzania last year. But after reviewing progress with our licensees, we have mutually agreed that that is not going to be achievable in the available time. Our licensees did all they could to deliver on an ambitious plan, and I commend their efforts.
We apologize to those of you who are disappointed or inconvenienced. TED remains 100% committed to continuing to serve its growing and passionate African community. We are considering a number of options, including holding an event in 2009, and expect to make a further announcement soon.
If you have any specific questions or concerns, please write to my colleague jane@ted.com. Meanwhile we will continue to promote content from the Arusha conference online and to work on Neil Turok’s amazing TED Prize wish: that the next Einstein should come from Africa. Please take a look at the nexteinstein.org website just launched by TED partners Avenue A/Razorfish, as well as this recent TEDBlog post celebrating the new AIMS Research Centre in South Africa.
Sincerely,
Chris Anderson
TED Curator
If you’re looking to take part in another conference in Cape Town, Gareth Knight is putting on Tech4Africa, which was supposed to be right after TED Africa.
 
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10:36
From: Cock And Bull
Read This Entry & More At Cock And Bull
Here is a thought provoking email forward I received from a friend that I would like to share with you:
The Scout’s Prayer
My son Gilbert was eight years old and had been in Cub Scouts only a short time. During one of his meetings he was handed a sheet of paper, a block of wood and four tires and told to return home and “give it all to dad.” That was not an easy task for Gilbert to do. Dad was not receptive to doing things with his son. But Gilbert tried. Dad read the paper and scoffed at the idea of making a pine wood derby car with his young, eager son.
The block of wood remained untouched as the weeks passed. Finally, mom stepped in to see if I could figure this all out. The project began. Having no carpentry skills, I decided it would be best if I simply read the directions and let Gilbert do the work. And he did. I read the measurements aloud, the rules of what we could do and what we couldn’t do. Within days his block of wood was turning into a pinewood derby car. A little lopsided, but looking great (at least through the eyes of mom).
Gilbert had not seen any of the other kids cars and was feeling pretty proud of his “Blue Lightning,” the pride that comes with knowing you did something on your own. Then the big night came. With his blue pinewood derby in his hand and pride in his heart we headed to the big race. Once there my little one’s pride turned to humility. Gilbert’s car was obviously the only car made entirely on his own. All the other cars were a father-son partnership, with cool paint jobs and sleek body styles made for speed. A few of the boys giggled as they looked at Gilbert’s, lopsided, wobbly, unattractive vehicle.
As the race began it was done in elimination fashion. You kept racing as long as you were the winner. One by one the cars raced down the finely sanded ramp. Finally it was between Gilbert and the sleekest, fastest looking car there. As the last race was about to begin, my wide-eyed, shy, eight-year-old asked if they could stop the race for a minute, because he wanted to pray. The race stopped. Gilbert hit his knees clutching his funny looking block of wood between his hands. With a wrinkled brow he set to converse with his Father. He prayed in earnest for a very long minute and a half. Then he stood, smile on his face and announced, “Okay, I am ready.”
As the crowd cheered, a boy named Tommy stood with his father as their car sped down the ramp. Gilbert stood with his Father within his heart and watched his block of wood wobble down the ramp with surprisingly great speed and rushed over the finish line a fraction of a second before Tommy’s car. Gilbert leaped into the air with a loud “Thank you” as the crowd roared in approval.
The Scout Master came up to Gilbert with microphone in hand and asked the obvious question, “So you prayed to win, huh, Gilbert?” To which my young son answered, “Oh, no sir. That wouldn’t be fair to ask God to help you beat someone else. I just asked Him to make it so I don’t cry when I lose.”
Children seem to have a wisdom far beyond us. Gilbert didn’t ask God to win the race, he didn’t ask God to fix the outcome, Gilbert asked God to give him strength in the outcome. When Gilbert first saw the other cars he didn’t cry out to God, “No fair, they had a father’s help.” No, he went to his Father for strength. Perhaps we spend too much of our prayer time asking God to rig the race, to make us number one, or too much time asking God to remove us from the struggle, when we should be seeking God’s strength to get through the struggle. [”I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13]
Gilbert’s simple prayer spoke volumes to those present that night. He never doubted that God would indeed answer his request. He didn’t pray to win, and thus hurt someone else, he prayed that God supply the grace to lose with dignity. Gilbert, by his stopping the race to speak to his Father also showed the crowd that he wasn’t there without a “dad,” but His Father was most definitely there with him. Yes, Gilbert walked away a winner that night, with his Father at his side.
- Author unknown
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1:35
From: You Missed This
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Yesterday an anonymous reader asked: “………Phil, I posed some questions to you and Chris, but you ignored me. Anyway, now Ruto is throwing the spanner in the works. Phil, what is going on in ODM????” Well, well….here is an interesting piece from the The People on Sunday. It has so far not been denied by ODM Secretary General Anyang Nyongo, neither has the ODM Spokesman Salim Lone said anything. I do not want to be the one to speculate, but since we know powerful people within ODM (and PNU) read this blog religiously, there you are. Isahakia Sabotaging Raila: The Man Odm Wants Out Recent media reports (The People On Sunday May 4, 2008) about a fierce war by officers at the Premier’s office barely scratch the bottom of what is really at stake for Raila Odinga and ODM. The man drawing discontent in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is Dr. Mohammed Isahakia, erstwhile head of the ODM Presidential Campaign Secretariat, former director of National Museums of Kenya and former Permanent Secretary (PS) whom Moi sacked severally under controversial circumstances and now the re-invented boss at the critical PM’s office. He is the only PS in the history of civil service re-appointed to public office while still facing misuse of office allegations in court in addition to being past retirement age. He is such a persona that his support base (Muslims) and party (ODM) fraternity do not want him near any decision–making but the Prime Minister is weighed down with him. He is also the “enemy within” that party bigwigs and strategists tag for spirited sabotage manoeuvres of the ODM electioneering campaigns, misuse of campaign funds, fiasco in cabinet portfolio balance in power-sharing negotiations and short-changing in public service appointments, but who has been planted on the PM as his closest minder. Recent reports of infighting within the PM’s office and disquiet within ODM hierarchy is but a tip of the iceberg as the PM faces credibility questions from his own party. Members of the Pentagon, cabinet ministers and large pools of professional support groups cite lack of integrity by officers in his office. Prime Minister Raila Odinga is indeed in danger of squandering an image build over the years as a man after real change in governance. Premier’s Office in Disarray The recent squabble might seem to be between Dr. Isahakia and Raila’s close political aide, the Secretary of Administration at the PM’s office, Mr. Caroli Omondi; but the gulf runs much deeper. On the PM’s instruction, Mr. Omondi wrote to the Justice Aaron Ringera-headed KACC asking for a brief on the controversially alleged handover of Grand Regency Hotel by Kamlesh Patni, of the Goldenberg infamy. Mr. Omondi, a lawyer and ODM liaison officer at the on-going Serena Mediation talks signed off as the “Chief of Staff” for the PM. Apparently upset that Raila had overlooked him in “protocol”, Dr. Isahakia is said to have appealed to newfound confidante - the Head of Civil Service Mr. Francis Muthaura - to put the record straight on the pecking order at the PM’s office. Motivating Isahakia was the desire to spite the PM amidst suspicion that the PM is already overwhelmed by appeals to cut him loose. In an offhand rude putdown to Raila and Omondi, Muthaura - in the now-famous insolent manner he has come to treat the PM - did not let his buddy down; he was least bothered with courtesies and official channels. He contemptuously let fly through the media his disdain for Raila; Muthaura was categorical that no one will bother with a reply since government structures had no “chief of staff” and only Dr. Isahakia could author such requests. This is despite the letter downright stating that “I have been directed by the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister…” Insubordination is the strategy to Muthaura has chosen to let the PM know his place. The relationship between Muthaura and Dr. Isahakia is intriguing and a source of great anxiety within ODM. In the heat of disagreements over portfolio balance, the two were used as point’s men by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila respectively in heated correspondence, when one-on-one meetings failed. Dr. Isahakia was the errand boy for ODM on “portfolio balance” in meetings with Muthaura for PNU. It through these engagements that the two developed a conspiratorial working rapport. The Saboteur Back to ODM portfolio balance negotiations, a red flag was first raised when media leaks begun to portray ODM as constantly conceding on its “irreducible minimum” in portfolio balance. Sources say that “coincidences were too many” when approved “portfolio balance” presentations to PNU were concisely substituted with new ones once in the hands of Isahakia. “It was baffling. For instance, the strategists would work on a document and fine tune it for presentation. But between Isahakia’s offices for the PM’s approval, the document would acquire different proposals. Of course the PM would assume that the changes were by the strategy team as it had been presented to him!” said a distraught official. He cited the leak that portrayed ODM ceding Foreign Affairs, Internal Security and Finance to PNU even before any discussion was held as a fake document that was traced back to an Isahakia sidekick at Pentagon House. It was determined that Isahakia had been “turned” in espionage to ensure a favourable deal for PNU because he was “too compromised” by his past. In his mole role, Isahakia was/has strategically been placed to feed Raila with misinformation. Henceforth Isahakia would not meet alone with Muthaura. He would be shadowed by Mr. Caroli Omondi, Dalmas Otieno and Amukowa Anagwe. However, Isahakia would pull a first one; he recruited Dalmas Otieno and Amukowa Anagwe into his confidence. At Sagana where ‘portfolio balance’ was agreed only Isahakia and Muthaura and the two principals were present. It is noteworthy that not even the highest decision-making organ – Pentagon - at ODM was aware of Sagana. Subsequently Isahakia would evade ‘his tails’ in meetings with his new-found villain Muthaura to fine tune the agreement and finalise appointments to cabinet and civil service that has became the source of fury in ODM. “It is uncanny how Isahakia connived to meet alone with Muthaura and agree on PS allotments and then tell a tall story as already plotted by them to the PM”, said an ODM MP. Plot to Fix Raila’s Reputation In a much Isahakia’s positioning is a source of ire, diehard supporters of the PM fear that it is an insidious long-term PNU plot to politically fix Raila. To begin with among the presidential candidates, it only the Raila Odinga who presented himself as “Mr. Clean” and on behalf ODM promised to fight corruption. In the campaigns, Raila would scold opponents as representing “business as usual” in reference to their alleged corrupt backgrounds in public perception. “It comes as shocking and alarming to supporters that the PM has within his office people with stained and dubious reputations”, said a professional from Nyanza. Supporters are worried that apart from Isahakia himself, the latter in complicity with Muthaura is busy recruiting into PM’s office wheeler dealer Tony Gachoka as a Senior Assistant Secretary for protocol and a Major Idris who left the armed forces procurement department under a dubious cloud as a Deputy Secretary. This is being done without following laid down procedures indicating the length head of public service, Muthuara is prepared to prop up his friend and go to have PNU-friendly insiders around the PM. Most of PM’s close confidants are lost for words that their interventions to have the PM cut loose Dr. Isahakia have hit a brick wall. Dr. Isahakia continues to call the shots even as he continues, according to ODM insiders, “to mislead the PM into PNU traps at every corner”. It is in this light that Raila is said to be quietly shifting political responsibilities to Mr. Omondi prompting Isahakia to wage insurgency in cohorts with Muthaura. “We sincerely do not know where the Captain got this man and why”, said an irate ODM Pentagon member when asked about Isahakia’s recruitment as campaign head adding he found the PS “lazy, manipulative and inopportune”. “He confessed to me that he knew nothing about managing campaigns and proved it”, he said. “I can tell you the man is incapable of writing a simple memo”, said a former minister whose sentiments were supported by a member of ODM strategy team who had to re-draft “juvenile” memos from Isahakia. “We don’t know this man’ However, insiders told us that Dr. Isahakia as the ODM Presidential Campaign Secretariat head was part of the deal in the contentious and debilitating “Muslim MOU” authored by NAMLEF, the Muslims lobby group that was at the centre of the debate during that 2007 campaigns. In the course of the campaigns, however, it transpired Dr. Isahakia abandoned the Muslim agenda and became a material broker for vested interests in the party nominations, especially Muslim parliamentary constituencies. Furthermore, the source claimed, campaign funds released to the area never reached the intended beneficiaries. They cite a case of Ksh.1m meant for a coordinator who only received Ksh200, 000 from Dr. Isahakia. “He is responsible for the fiasco that saw us loose ground in North Eastern to PNU as he substituted strategic parliamentary candidates with his cronies in the area for some consideration. Somehow, most of his recommended candidates lost to PNU”, said a party strategist from the region who sought anonymity. As if these were not enough, the Muslim community feels short-changed in the recent PS appointment by ODM which led to a delegation that asked the PM to fire his PS. Sources in NAMLEF say that Dr. Isahakia colluded with PNU to ensure that names for ODM Muslim appointees to PS positions, like the those from other regions, were replaced by PNU appointees. Players in the on-going saga who fear that there is a larger PNU plot to isolate the PM from his support bases point out that PNU is already using its manipulation of PS appointments to its advantage in ODM support areas. “I can tell you that other than one Secretary, none of those PSs with Muslim names are ODM supporters”, said an NAMLEF official. The story is the same everywhere; Kanu is busy taunting ODM in Rift Valley since all PS appointees are its supporters to the chagrin of ODM Kalenjin professionals. In Western, ODM was even upstaged by ODM-K and Ford-Kenya where they got one PS each to none for ODM! In addition, Kibaki retained his previous appointees. More recently, there are unconfirmed reports circulating among Muslims that ODM cabinet and PS positions were “bought” for as much as Ksh30 million and Ksh20, 000 respectively. ‘Dirty Hands’ The insinuation of dirtied hands at the PM’s office goes back to the campaigns. The issue of misappropriation of campaign funds is not new. At the height of the campaigns, the media cited conflict of interest in the award of tenders at Orange House, the party headquarters. To date, the party secretariat has not accounted for the millions that aspirants on the ODM ticket paid as nominations fees. What did not attract media attention; however, were the goings-on at the Presidential Campaign Secretariat headquarters then based at Dr. Isahakia’s private office at Titan House near Yahya Centre. Information now sipping out reveals that despite public perception that ODM was a well-funded machine; the presidential campaign had to operate from hand-to-mouth most of December as cartels at the secretariat under Dr. Isahakia’s command siphoned off millions in procurement deals that nearly derailed the campaign. “You had the ‘Isahakia boys’ inflate transport, publicity and security procurements while major needs were left bleeding for want of money. Their trick was to ensure that the logistics for members of Pentagon campaigns teams were well executed to blindside them from seeing the sabotage from within”, we were told by a regional coordinator from Rift Valley. He said Isahakia dillydallied with the roll-out for recruitment and training programmes for presidential agents in an act that many saw as sabotage. At the intervention of the strategy team, this task was personally delegated to Mr. Omondi by the presidential candidate. It is no wonder campaign tuff wars have been extended to the PM’s office. Fraudulent deals Another case darkens the clouds over Isahakia are revelations about an internal opinion poll that cost Ksh6 million. A member of the media team based at Raila’s private offices at Raila Odinga Centre (ROC) House in the Upper Hill area of Nairobi revealed that Isahakia recruited a former Kanu insider and PS Dr. Jeremiah Ngeno and made him “head of technical services”. Dr. Ngeno was meant to be answerable to the high powered strategy team based at Rainbow House in Kawangware but never shared any information with it, choosing instead to chain himself at Isahakia’s Titan office. It turned out that Dr. Ngeno never carried out any field work for the opinion poll. Instead, our source said, the couple (Isahakia and Dr. Ngeno) teamed up with Dr. Simbili current PS Planning ministry at the PM’s office, and used rehashed data from the national sampling agency from the ministry. The strategy team that used to advice on itinerary was shut out when it demanded to see the protocol for the poll, samples of questionnaires and tabulations. After evading the team’s demands Dr. Ngeno would secretly present “polling results” to the ODM candidate which was used to map out his campaign itinerary in the final days of the campaign. This ensured that the campaign was diverted into investing resources and time in useless trips to regions that had little added value. The heightened poll results showed PNU winning and thus panicked ODM into frantic campaigns. Too late it would be discovered that in fact Dr. Isahakia, Dr. Ngeno and Dr. Sambili actually used poll results earlier commissioned by PNU through the Ministry of Planning under Dr. Sambili’s direction to mislead the ODM campaign. All this time, just like it would happen during the post-election negotiations with Isahakia, that time the candidate would be presented with a fait accompli that Dr. Ngeno was an emissary of the strategy team. “Sack this man’ “At one time, people just got fed-up and told the Captain to fire Isahakia if he expected a win”, said a volunteer who worked at Rainbow House in the ODM strategy team. “However, to our dismay almost all senior staff at the secretariat were fired except Isahakia”, the volunteer said addicting that the PS’s management style by deception and double-dealing has served him well, and that “you do not get into a dog-fight with Isahakia and win”. Today, Dr. Sambili having been retained as PS Ministry of Planning in the Premier’s Office is working closely with Dr. Ngeno on harmonising party manifestoes for the Grand Coalition Government. A minister whom Isahakia have worked under in the public service says that “yeye ni mutu wa kukupotosha” (he misleads you) and then pretends to be the one solving the problem. “Isahakia uses bad-mouthing to the boss as a potent weapon. He has succeeded in isolating the PM from his trusted teams”, said a former PS now an ODM MP referring to the dismissal of long-serving Raila aides during the campaign ostensibly due to financial misappropriation. It is said Isahakia has mastered the art of passing the buck to his subordinates. He would set people up by goading them into a deal and then rush to “report”. In this way Isahakia is said to have managed to get rid of former Raila PA Dave Arunga, and Head of Campaign Finance and ODM party secretary general Tony Chege. This was after he had instigated fallout between Raila’s personal assistant Serah Elderkin on one hand and Raila’s daughter Rosemary Akinyi who was the deputy to Director of Communications Kibisu-Kabatesi on the other. The latter two had questioned the opaque use of publicity money. The bad blood between Isahakia and the strategy team, many whose names were dropped from PS appointments must be seen in this context. To completely obliterate the team’s central role in advising the Premier, Isahakia is lobbying that it be deployed to the party as departmental directors. Indeed, a source confirms that there is a plot to close Pentagon House, which is an important symbol for ODM. Indeed, the PM is now surrounded by gatekeepers who are Isahakia cohorts. Information indicates that Isahakia is currently up in arms against a new structure in the PM’s office that donors have agreed to support. That the recent snide accusations that foreigners are “babysitting” the PM by PNU are part of his counter attack strategy so as not to lose influence on the PM. Check out Kasarani.com, a new way to meet and keep in touch with Kenyans worldwide. You can even start your own blog on Kasarani! Click here to go to Kasarani.com now
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18:58
From: Kenyanentrepreneur.com
Read This Entry & More At Kenyanentrepreneur.com
I’m becoming increasingly curious about this guy Patrick Gakiavih, the owner/founder of Nyagan’ya Nyagah Stock-”biters”. The Nation has an interesting story about where he ”invested” all that stolen money: He loves his hometown of Embu because he bought a lot of land there.
According to the Nation article, he stole a total of about Ksh. 885 million or the [...]
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17:13
From: Black Looks
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Amy Goodman discusses the 60 years of Israeli occupation and Palestinian dispossession with Palestinian writer Ghada Karmi. The Dispossession,, Nakba displaced 750,000 Palestinians including Ghada Karmi. Her childhood memories of Palestine and her life as a refugee are chronicled in her book “In Search of Fatima” reviewed here and here.
I was [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: " Ghada Karmi on 60 years of dispossession", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/05/_ghada_karmi_on_60_years_of_dispossession.html" });
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12:57
From: You Missed This
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The Grand Coalition Government is one political animal that is too big for its nest. The truth is that the PNU-ODM marriage of convenience ended immediately it was consummated. Kibaki had his face on the pact but his heart and intentions still lie elsewhere despite spirited pronouncements to the contrary. He was dragged into the pact by both international and local pressure. Kenya is in EXTRAORDINARY state which needs EXTRAORDINARY leadership which Kibaki cannot offer. His apologists still shamelessly deride protesters who forced the THIEF to relent as uncivilized. Well, only myopia can sanitize fidelity to a skewed law. Kenyans are ahead of the THIEVES and PNU’s call to turn to the courts was a script delivered straight from political scoundrels. Fraudulent company Kibaki’s fraudulent mantra has loyal students in Mugabe and the junta in Burma. These are dinosaurs whose political relevance starts and ends with their marionette nature. Mugabe the independence hero was to Zimbabweans what Kibaki was to Kenyans in 2002. As soon as Kenyans delivered Kibaki to State House after two unsuccessful bids before, he embarked on unparalleled mission to TRIBALIZE Kenya than never seen before. So here we are a country crying for leadership but our tears is being mocked by a scoundrel ruling by proxy and cronies. Well, sitting on a fraudulent pedestal denies you any trace of moral authority to govern. And no CEO leaves his subordinates to run the show downhill without lifting a finger. It is even worse when the very subordinates are privy to your soft underbelly. Only a miracle can have people pulling in different directions move in the same direction. Kibaki's bane is traceable to his archaic mindset moulded in nostalgia of the 1950s. We belong to different generation and IMPUNITY and utter contempt of Kenyatta's time will be resisted with all the might and sweat. Kenyans demonstrated their might on December 27 last year only for the THIEF-IN-CHIEF to trash their democratic and birth right with all the bravado and impunity by stealing elections. Well, gloating you can but the time to account for collective and individual misdeeds is nigh. It is only a matter of when and not if. Air force man's crazy mzungu woman fantasy led to tragedyCheck out Kasarani.com, a new way to meet and keep in touch with Kenyans worldwide. You can even start your own blog on Kasarani! Click here to go to Kasarani.com now
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12:42
From: What An African Woman Thinks
Read This Entry & More At What An African Woman Thinks
Ok, I was trolling in cyberspace looking for something, anything to distract me from this most urgent thing that I really ought to be doing and I found this quote by Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo: We seem to have arrived at an equitable compromise: Sen. Clinton is staying
in the nomination race while Sen. Obama drops out to move on to the
general.
Cute. And Clever. Made me smile. Ok, those of you who called to wonder at my ode to Clinton, does this absolve me in your eyes?It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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12:04
From: The Displaced African
Read This Entry & More At The Displaced African
Africans never get enough sleep. From the moment they are twelve years old, their schools have 12 hour days, 6 times a week.By the time they are hitting the job market they have had half the sleep that the rest of the world has had.
For that reason, if you take a journey through African Facebook profiles, you may be baffled and surprised to find out that A LOT of African people put sleeping right up there amongst their interests, and even above reading in some cases (”I had enough of those things at school”). When Africans say they love to sleep they love to sleep.
Ask an African what their perfect day looks like and somewhere in that day there are long stretches of time where they “chew a comatose” (slang for catching some Zs (zeds not zis) or getting some shut eye).
Africans don’t need any fancy equipment or machinery to bring the sleep about. Give them a flat surface and lots of time and they’ll know what to do. It doesn’t matter if the mattress is so expired and worn out that they are receiving free massages from the bed springs, they’ll make it work. It doesn’t matter if the sheets have a thread count so low that they really should be called see-throughs, the African will grab some heavy clothing and get down to business.
If you ever supervise an African in the workplace or are a teacher or lecturer of children of the soil, you might be surprised by how much they love you if you say something to the extent of:
“Kwame/Achieng, you are a great worker/student/human being. You look like you haven’t been getting enough sleep.Why not go home and get some sleep….on the company’s dime/without it affecting your attendance?”
Don’t be surprised if this statement results in uncontrollable crying and so many thank that you think you are in downtown Japan. For the next few weeks the African will put all their complaints aside (tough job but they’ll do it) and instead brag to all their friends how they are such good workers that they were rewarded with the greatest reward of all: a really long sleep in the middle of the day.
To learn more about what African people like subscribe to the site via email to receive the latest articles in your inbox or via RSS to receive the latest articles in your feed reader.
Catch some sweet sleep tonight,
Mwangi
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11:58
From: Kenyanentrepreneur.com
Read This Entry & More At Kenyanentrepreneur.com
Someone just emailed me this article that appeared in the British Magazine, the Spectator. The article is written by a Kenyan based journalist name Aidan Hartley. The article begins like this:
” I want to say Kenya is a victim of negative press. Shady characters called bloggers are nicknaming the President’s new Peace cabinet of ministers [...]
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8:30
From: My part of the world.......
Read This Entry & More At My part of the world.......
 "You people," was a phrase I got to hearing often when I was working in Customer Service. I almost wanted to tell customers that I was not part of some anonymous corporate mob. Anyway I worked for a credit card company for a few months doing customer service and I came to one conclusion, most American customers are either crazy, stupid, entitlement whores, rude, impatient, inarticulate, stubborn, cheap or a combination of all the above and more. This is not to say that the company never used to mess up, at times it used to and during that time I for one used to understand customers getting mad. But 85% of the time, whenever a customer used to call about something going wrong it was their fault one way or another. I recall dealing with some winners during my time there. There was this one girl who had one of those starter credit cards with a limit of $500 and she had maxed it out. So she calls in; Girl: Hi! How come my card keeps on being declined? Aco: Hi! Well you see your card is over the limit, you have to pay the balance and you can keep on using it. Girl: I thought every month that I get a new $500 to spend? Aco: No, you have to pay some or all of the balance every month. Girl: -Clueless silence - Er, ok..... Yes many parents here don't educate their kids when it comes to financial matters it seems. Another contendor; Lady: Hi! Why does my daughters credit card bill have a fee for returned checks? Aco: Hi! One moment please (goes over account) Well you see Miss, when you daughter got the credit card; it came with some checks that she could use to pay things off at a lower interest rates. She used one of those checks to pay off the credit card. You cannot use one of our checks to pay us since they are both the same account. Lady: You see she is only 17. Aco: Thinks to himself, 17 and stupid I'll see what we can do Miss It doesn't end there. There are the wonderful people who call to ask their balance and then want you to go over each and every single item they bought, the price, date and location. It's okay when it's around 10 items but when its 40 items and they want you to go back months that's too much! One day I had had it and this dude called and asked me to read out a few months worth of items for him and it was one minute before I was to leave, I told him that we could fax him the statements and he refused, I volunteered to send them to him express mail and he refused. When the minute hit for me to leave, I transferred him. I have no apologies for doing that at all. I'm special, I have to get it now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was another special breed too. I remember that you could get a PIN number for your credit card, so you could withdraw cash. Stupidest thing you can do due to the interest rates for cash transactions on most credit cards, but remember people here want things now and will worry about the cost later. So now the catch was to get the PIN number, you either had to ask it to be mailed to you and wait for it to get to you; or you could use the automated system and get it if you had a landline phone. Of course the latter did prove to be problematic, for security reasons the company wouldn't let people use cell phones since this led to much fraud in the past, add that to the large number of people with cell phone numbers and this would lead to much drama. Someone would call and ask for their PIN, you put them through the automated system and since they were using a cell phone they would be sent back to a rep and some reps weren't smart enough to figure out what the problem was so they would be sent back into the system several times and of course by the time they get to you, they are mad as hell. So now you ask them if they are using a cell phone and they say they are and you break the news to them that they have to wait to get their PIN via mail and all hell would break loose. There was this friend of mine who was working late and our call center was the only one open so sadly she ended up dealing with the same man twice, the third time the dude comes online he screams; " I want my PIN now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" My friend sighed and said, "Okay, 2478," just to get him off the phone. I shudder for the rep who talked to the dude after his card was captured by the ATM. Still on the topic of PIN numbers, you have the morons who think that we store them all so they try to use the guilt approach. " Why won't you give me my pin? don't you want my children to eat today?" No dear, it's your financial mismanagement and not reading the PIN procedure that led to this. And for those who got their PIN numbers, this would lead to a different set of problems in the future. You see if you ever read the back of your credit card statement, it clearly says that payments are put towards the balances in the categories with the lowest interest rates and then to those with the higher interest rates. So cash transactions have the highest interest rates so whenever you pay to your card they get paid off last. The easiest way to deal with this is to pay off your card in full or not to have cash transactions, or you could call and moan like a bitch and hope the rep takes those finance charges off for you. I used to be a brute, no negotiation on finance charges over $100, anything less we could talk esp if you were nice. Anyway all the rules on that is not only on the back of your statement but also in your terms and conditions. Case in point..... Lady: I just looked at my statement and I'm very upset! Aco: No empathy on my part How can I assist you? Lady: I have been having finance charges of $XXX for the last one year, it's making it hard for me to pay off the card. Aco: Let me take a look please goes back several months. Miss, you see in month X of year Y, you had a cash transaction of $ABC and this has an interest rate of XY%. Lady: But I made a payment of $ABC the following month. Aco: Yes Miss, I see that but when you make your payments they are put to the balance with the lowest interest rates and then those with the higher interest rates next. Since you had purchases on your cards, that's where they went. Lady: What?! Nobody told me! Aco: Miss, if you look at the back of your statement; it's shown there. Lady: Who reads the back of their statement?! Aco: It's also in your terms and conditions which you received when you got the card. Lady: I don't care, I don't want to get anymore interest on that and for all my payments to go to that section. Aco: I'm sorry Miss but when you began to use the card those are the terms and conditions you agreed to. Lady: I want you to close my account. Aco: Yes, go ahead and cut up the card blah blah blah. Of course what she didnt know or want to know is that even if you close the account you still continue to accrue interest at the same rate lol. There are quite a few tales I'm going to share soon but here is a PSA. Credit card companies don't exist to make you happy, they exist to make money first. If you don't want to get screwed, read over the small print before you open and account and get educated. Don't go swiping your card over town, pay the minimum payment each month and then wonder why you are drowning in finance charges and high interest rates. Anyway let me get back to my customer free job.........
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7:20
From: Walk of Kings:
Read This Entry & More At Walk of Kings:
Surprise Me! ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download READ: Ephesians 3:14-21 “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. —Isaiah 55:8 When our family went out for an ice cream cone, my dad would ask my mother what flavor she’d like. Often she would reply, “Surprise me!” She told me she was rarely disappointed in his choice. Do you like surprises? Would you ever dare say, “Surprise me!” to God? A lot of us are a little scared to do that. Yes, we have faith that God is good and that He loves us. Yet we’re afraid we won’t like what He chooses for us. Throughout the Bible we read that God delights in doing the unexpected. Sometimes it’s folding back the waters for His people to cross a sea on dry ground (Ex. 14:21-22). Or forgiving and embracing those who repent of their sin (Ps. 130:1-4). Jesus’ time on earth was filled with amazing events that pointed people to His Father—He turned water into wine, calmed storms, healed the sick, and raised the dead. What kind of God do we serve? One who is not confined by our finite imagination (Eph. 3:20). God’s thoughts and ways are not like ours (Isa. 55:8), and He wants to bless us with far more than a special flavor of ice cream. He delights in His children who trust Him and are willing to say, “Surprise me, Lord!” — Cindy Hess Kasper O Lord, give me the grace to be
Content with what You give to me.
No! More than that, let me rejoice
In all You send me—it’s Your choice! —Anon.
Those who let God provide will always be satisfied.
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4:22
From: You Missed This
Read This Entry & More At You Missed This
Guest Post By Sam O. Okello Fellow Kenyans, The other day I heard Martha Karua speak eloquently in support of Kalonzo Musyoka's contention that those who committed crimes against humanity during the horrible weeks after the stolen elections must be punished. I fully agree with these two characters, but only if everybody is indeed punished. I don't need to go over the manner in which the election was stolen. The arrogance and impunity speaks for itself. What Kenyans need to remember, before we embark on the administration of justice, is that there are levels of responsibility in the manner in which events unfolded. Here is my list of the levels. 1. President Kibaki. This man, back in 2002, was elected by Kenyans to unite the nation. His presidency brought Kenya tribal hatred, an economy skewed against the poor and an election that he refused to concede. Now, the reason Kibaki should face punishment before anybody else is...he was the head of state. He was the one whose security apparatus presided over the killing and maiming of innocent Kenyans. Had he chosen to walk away after losing the elections, nobody would have died. For him to now turn around and blame others for the mess he orchestrated tells us a lot about this man's character. What a shameless goon! 2. Samuel Kivuitu. This man presided over a sham election. He knew that Kibaki had lost the election and yet went ahead to declare him the winner. Did Kivuitu hope that Kenyans would just fold up and accept a stolen election? And just how much was he paid to swing the thing Kibaki's way? It's my contention that had Kivuitu not accepted a bribe, and had he not called the election for Kibaki, Kenyans would not have needlessly died. For him to still occupy the chairmanship of the ECK speaks to what kind of a man he is. How dumb! 3. John Michuki. This man was in charge of internal security. He led the police force in brutalizing Kenyans, killing men women and children. If it can be proved that he coordinated efforts with the Mungiki, then indeed this is the man who killed Kenyans. He is responsible for the atrocities the forces committed against Kenyans. For him to sit out there and pretend he is innocent makes a mockery of the judicial system in Kenya. Idiot. 4. Uhuru Kenyatta. I watched this man in Nakuru at the height of the election violence. He was on a track, ostensibly on a mission to bring peace to Nakuru. But his body language spoke about his true intentions. He was in Nakuru to cheer the murderous Mungiki on. What does he know about the Mungiki? What does he know about how the election theft was planned? What made him insist he was going to be in government several months before the elections? To the extent that Kenyans died, Uhuru Kenyatta cannot escape blame for helping orchestrate the game plan that led to the death of Kenyans. 5. General Ali. The police commissioner is a man I pity. It's now clear that he so deplored the tactics employed by the Kibaki people that he resigned. But he was marched back to work. He catches blame because as the man who is responsible for the actions of his officers, he should have stopped their murderous campaign. If he feared for his life, like I'm aware he was, he should have fled the country. Honor is a great thing, General. Guys, that's my list. Now, I know there will be people who ask why Ruto's name doesn't make my list. It's for the same reason I leave out the Mungiki and the Kalenjin warriors who raided an Eldoret church and fought like hell to drive out the invading Mungiki. What I'm saying is that The Mungiki and The Kalenjin warriors were responding to events that were planned by the five culprits I mentioned above. Did you expect the Kalenjin warriors to sit by and watch the wholesale slaughter of their children and wives? Did you expect the Mungiki to watch as their community in the diaspora was decimated by the rest of Kenya? I don't think so. These brave boys all fought to protect their people...even if they did it for the wrong reasons. By fighting like they did, they fought other people's wars. They fought a war planned by Kibaki's people. So when the time comes to punish the evil people, we must start with Kibaki and go down the chain. This situation where the people who planned the evil are excused and the small man who valiantly fought to defend himself is blamed will not stand. It may now, but as sure as the sun sets in the east, it will only breed more discontent and will bring us the next implosion. Is anybody listening? If you are, here is my proposal. Punish Kibaki and his team, the people who led us down this path, or let the boys in prisons across Kenya go. We will not allow the fat cats to dump their foolishness on the small man. And to the small man, the time has come to think of Kenya in different terms. Aren't we tired of fighting the wars of these tycoons? Why do we kill each other for them? I ask the Mungiki leadership, the young Luos around the world, the Kalenjin warriors, the youthful Luhya Brigade and the Coastal Vijana to rethink their political and economic situation. Maybe the time has come to worry about a future beyond these people. Maybe Luke Mboya is right to ask for a shift in our thinking. Maybe only younger leaders will save us. Terrible secrets from rich Asian householdsCheck out Kasarani.com, a new way to meet and keep in touch with Kenyans worldwide. You can even start your own blog on Kasarani! Click here to go to Kasarani.com now
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0:49
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
I had the honor of closing O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 Conference today, where I gave a talk on “Activist Mapping” and some history on our Ushahidi project in Kenya. A couple people have asked me to make the slides available, so I’ve embedded the presentation below.
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I’m not sure how useful those images are without the context of me speaking to them. Since I generally type out my notes, I’ve added those below after the “more” button. The notes are not verbatim what I said, but will give you a general indication of what I talked about.
More after the jump! (warning, this is long as it’s a 20 minute talk)
This is my transcript for the talk, follow along as you can…
Where 2.0 Talk on Mapping and Digital Activism
Intro
I’m here to talk to you about real-world usage of your work. Specifically, in the world of causes and issues, where (usually) unpaid civilians use your tools to further their causes: Activists.
My name is Erik Hersman. A short intro on me that will help you understand some of my personal history and motivations will give you some context before you hear about what I did a little later in this talk. I grew up as the son of linguistic missionaries in Sudan and Kenya, only moving back to the US to go to college. I write two blogs, White African is my personal blog where I like to talk about high-tech mobile, web and PC issues pertaining to Africa. AfriGaget is a group blog that I started a couple years ago that focuses on low-tech ingenuity in Africa.
First off, since I’m the last speaker, and since I’m one of those tech guys on the far end of the spectrum that Jesse Robbins talked about earlier, I want to cover some of the really cool things that I saw here that could be hacked/simplified and used in crisis, disaster, and relief scenarios.
Things I’m excited about!
Geotate - imagine this kind of device used by bloggers/reporters in a hot zone
AfricaMap open source project by Harvard
Bug Labs device
DIY Drones - think what you could do with cheap UAVs in a post-disaster scenario.
The tools you create, and the work you do to map the world digitally, are incredibly useful. The world is only now beginning to wake up to the power of the digital, social and living map.
Okay, on to my real talk!
The Ushahidi Story (Summarized)
So, the reason I’m here is due to the fact that I stood up and did something during a time that I wish had never happened. Some of you might be aware that in January of this year in Kenya there was a disputed election where the incumbent (President Mwai Kibaki) claimed a win. There were some gross irregularities, and the opposition (Raila Odinga) refused to accept the questionable results.
What started out as a political fracas quickly devolved down ethnic lines where Raila’s supporters displaced and killed many of Kibaki’s tribe (Kikuyu), while the same happened in Kibaki’s area and the ethnic groups around that area (Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin).
Government forces and civilians battled it out in the urban slums and rural Kenya. It was crazy, somewhat unexpected, and few were ready to report what was happening. Speaking of reporting, as soon as Kibaki swore himself in to a second term, he simultaneously created a media blackout. The only way to get news now was via non-traditional news sources, like blogs. Internally, though there was only old TV and radio show reruns, though rumors and messages were still flying via SMS.
In the midst of it were a couple members of what would soon become the Ushahidi team. Juliana was upcountry and used her blog, Twitter and Flickr to get news out. Ory was in Nairobi, and her blog quickly became the focal point for the international Kenyan diaspora as they tried to get information about what was happening back home. Ory was hearing stories and reports that were not being told outside of Kenya, and many not being reported at all. On one blog post she said,
[Quote slide by Ory]
When I read that, I quickly contacted my Kenyan tech friends.
Our goals were to:
- Create a way for ordinary Kenyans to report in what they saw
- Create an archive of news and reports
- Visualize what’s happening on a macro level, and then drill into the details
Building Ushahidi
- Detailed geospatial data is hard to come by in Africa
- How much should be web-based in a mobile phone culture?
- Mobile phones - getting a full report in 140 characters is not easy
- What data points do we need?
[Ushahidi Calendar]
A loose affiliation of Kenyan technologists and bloggers banded together to create this tool, with the initial goal of aggregating citizen and news reports of violence in real time. 4 days later we had Ushahidi.
It was a way for everyday Kenyans to report in incidences of violence via SMS, email or the web. It was very simple, but it worked, and that was what was important. The Kenyan diaspora, especially the blogging community, rallied around this cause and made people take notice. It ended up being a community action that led to whatever success Ushahidi had.
[Main page] - Demo the site live
[Report detail page]
[Timeline feature]
Let me give you just a few examples from an active day on Ushahidi during the crisis. On January 17th the following things happened:
“Protesters gathered in groups and attempted to walk into the town centre; police fired live shots and tear gas canisters to disperse them. Three protesters were seriously injured and one shot dead.”
“Police battled youths who set fire to roadblocks; the police shot indiscriminately, “targeting anyone on sight”; one man was shot in the stomach as he stood in front of his house.”
“A 13-year old boy was laid to rest next to his uncle´s house; the burial was attended by hundreds of residents who wailed and lit up bonfires.”
What we realized was that we were receiving a lot of information, but we didn’t have a way to track what happened afterwards. We heard anecdotally about how the information was used for good, but we had no way of knowing all of the time.
Results
Lessons Learned
- The importance of mapping accuracy
- Data poisoning - what happens when your antagonist starts using it?
- Verification and authentication are difficult
- Clarify why it was created and make sure that is inescapably obvious
- Create a feedback loop back to end users
- Know why you built it. Is it for advocacy, security, monitoring or information gathering? (we did it for information gathering at Ushahidi)
An Enemy Around Every Corner (Really?)
Thoughts on this issue evolved out of discussions I had with a gentleman in meeting we both attended about tools for digital activists. Ushahidi was still fresh, and up until that point we had been so focused on just getting the site up and getting the word out about the project that we hadn’t thought about things such as security of our information, how it could be used by “bad guys”, or how we could verify all reports.
Map Accuracy
- How do you deal with this in a relatively unmapped regions?
- How important is accuracy when raising awareness vs using that data for human rights violations?
Verification
- Is the source trusted?
- Data poisoning
What we learned after development was that data sources and accuracy are very important. What you do with your data, the verification process, and how accurate the data is represented on the map all play a huge role in credibility. More so, how that tool is used by friendly and non-friendly organizations has large repercussions for both the tool and the people you are trying to help.
What’s next
Ushahidi ended up being a prototype that we’ve learned a lot from, and which opened the door for us to learn what organizations and everyday people are looking for when trying to share their data in a map-based setting during a crisis. We were approached, about creating an easy tool that can be used in early warning or conflict mapping scenarios by the public. We think we’ve learned a thing or two about that, but still have a long way to go on it.
We finally incorporated Ushahidi as a US-based non-profit last month. We have some initial funders, which will allow us to create a simple, useful and powerful tool for activists and NGOs around the world. It’s an Open Source project, with over a dozen international developer volunteers so far. If you’d like to know more about this, talk to me afterwards.
On Activism
Activism is a funny thing, because what you care enough to be active about might seem mundane, stupid or even like enemy actions. It covers the gamut - political, societal, land rights, environmental, etc…
It also turns out that activism is very subjective. Your idea of who an activist is and what they do can span the spectrum.
- Bra burning women of the 1960’s (fact or fiction?)
- Anonymous (vs Scientology)
- G-8 protesters
- Support Your Local Brewery!
- Minutemen on the US border (for & against)
As seen in the last example, there’s always an “enemy”, due to the fact that on the other side of an activist’s issue is another person. For better or for worse, they’re the antagonist.
Activists are just a cross section of society, so they’re not always technologically proficient. If you ask yourself later why ever single example I show you of activist mapping is using Google Maps or Google Earth, I can tell you that it’s most likely due to the simplicity of just getting something to work quickly.
Examples of activists using maps around the world:
I’d like to end by giving you a speed-run through other examples of maps being used in creative ways around the world by activists. You can find much more on their individual websites, and I will have the whole presentation available for download on my blog (white african) and it should be available on the Where 2.0 site after the conference as well.
A few points to end with.
- Mapping for human rights violations vs mapping for activists are different things. Activist are not the authority.
- What can you do? How can your skills be used to impact issues that are important to you?
Finally, a digitally connected world not only grants us a front row seat to the rest of the world, but also the power to influence events and create change in a way that was impossible just a few short decades ago. So that events that may occur thousands of miles away are in fact - quite literally - in our digital backyard. Which makes it a lot harder to just sit back and watch.
 
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19:00
From: Black Looks
Read This Entry & More At 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
From: dkFactor
Read This Entry & More At 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. | |
