Coming back to my satirical he-said-she-said piece on Pirate Party Kenya, I think there’s 80% truth in it and that Kenya could also use such a modern political party. And this although I also believe that democracy as such still isn’t the best option for today’s Kenya, at least not when it comes to the way it has been implemented in the past and when we look at the historical structure of societies in East Africa.

I am not a member of the Pirate Party Germany because I am trying to be independent and have in the past also contributed to Germany’s first hyperlocal project frankfurt-gestalten.de (which is similar to Mzalendo.com, but for (the City of) Frankfurt am Main only and is more about republishing open data (e.g. hansards from the local parliament) and capturing citizen voices) and have as such tried to keep a neutral position.

I have, however, voted for Pirate Party during the last two local (German) elections because of the following reason(s).

I also voted for them because I am convinced of their concept. You’ll have to understand that about 95% of the German media are currently trying to brand us floating voters as “protest voters“, who voted for the Pirate Party out of protest. This is SO wrong and I am strongly opposed to this limited point of view! The problem is: most of the media didn’t get it. As much as they never understood the need to update their views on the law which regulates the use of (online) content. What’s a free and open media when they are too stupid to understand a completely different approach to politics? A new approach that also requires a different benchmarking system if we are to compare the new option with the traditional alternatives. And please remember: Germany already saw the introduction of the Greens Party (“Die Grünen”) in the early 1980s, so our society here is already familiar with new approaches.

I am calling the Pirate movement a modern party because I strongly believe that their structure is the logical consequence of what the internet has brought us so far. Such as an international and timely response on open issues that have in the past only been dealt with by a relatively small group. I see it as a response to the success of the internet – this world wide network that is as revolutionary as letterpress, radio and television combined. The understanding of the impact the internet has on all of us probably is something that many of the critics do not really want to acknowledge. As such, with new structures that introduced a completely new concept in communication, it’s also about time for a new and different system. Either way, it just happens, whether you like it or not. I also don’t like everything they put on Wikipedia, yet I often use it like many others.

What makes Pirates Party special to me is the integration of modern tools and a completely different understanding of grassroots democracy – something we already know from the internet. “Liquid feedback” is such a system and piece of software that collects voices and forwards votes to a person in the system that has more competence on a particular subject. Everyone can cast his vote on all issues or delegate his vote to someone else. It’s still a relatively new approach, but the one that makes the difference to me.  This alone – the different understanding of TRUE democracy – is reason enough for me to give them my vote.

It is also this understanding why I just laugh at critics who are asking me on “how can you vote for the Pirates – they don’t even have a political agenda next to their internet stuff??! 1!11″. Most critics just repeat what they read somewhere.

And the Pirate name? Well, both in Kenya and Germany, many if not all political parties seem to have names that don’t hold true to 95% of their daily business. Maybe the Anarchist Pogo Party of Germany (founded in 1981 by two punks) is one of the few that is as consequent in their approaches as the name dictates.  So either way you may want to interpret the name and how it qualifies for a better marketing strategy (given that it sounds a bit anarchic to most conservative voters), it probably only matters for marketing reasons and as such, it isn’t the worst.

In a recent election in two different states within Germany, the German Piratenpartei scored between 7 and almost 9%, thereby securing a few seats in local parliaments. They currently have over 23.000 (!) members in Germany, which is quite a lot for such a young party. Something tells me that a) they are doing it right, b) the interest to engage in local politics isn’t dead and as important as it has always been and c) not all of their members are the stereotypical IT folks with long hair who are into Terry Pratchett and/or have a paranoid fear of everything Google Inc. does. All these members, rich and poor, old and young certainly aren’t engaging for the protest only.

It is for these reasons alone, but also for many unmentioned more that I would to see politics adopting more structures that correspond to the technological framework we currently experience on our planet. New structures that enable crowdsourced project approaches, something that will hopefully also change the way we perceive to live in urban communities (e.g. a modernized infrastructure that plays along with our needs, not the other way round as it has been in the past). Pirate Party as such may not be the best option with all its typical start-up problems, but it’s the one that works and that’s all that matters to me at the moment. If we could have the same in Kenya, I’d be very happy!

Famous former Kenyan blogger, techpreneur and writer Kahenya Kamunyu today announced the formation of Pirate Party Kenya.

In a festive event at Tribe Hotel, Mr. Kahenya said that Pirate Party Kenya has now been officially registered according to Chapter 7 (a) of the Political Parties Act as a Political Party in Kenya.

Pirate Party International

Pirate Party must not be mistaken for the Eastleigh-based Pirates Ransoms Association (PRA) or the Give Enough Money Association (GEMA), but is instead a Political Party which has of late been successful in different countries such as Scandinavia or German.

Mr. Kahenya today said that the motivation for the formation of the Kenyan branch of Pirate Party came from reading the late Wahome Mutahi’s “How to be Kenyan” which reminded him of the core values within the Kenyan society: good leadership, quick wins and a rich nation.

According to an Internet database, the Pirate Parties support civil rights, direct democracy and participation, reform of copyright and patent law, free sharing of knowledge (Open Content), data privacy, transparency, freedom of information, free education and universal healthcare.

Pirate Party Kenya will be the first Pirate Party branch in Sub Sahara Africa, with Morocco and Tunisia being the other two Up Sahara African countries where Pirate Parties exist, albeit unregistered. This will make Pirate Party Kenya unique on the continent and will underline the important role it will play for the region, Mr. Kamunyu said.

Interested members of the public and all members of Kenya’s famous tech incubator iHub are asked to join and register with Pirate Party Kenya as of today, Mr. Kahenya said.

Upcoming elections

Mr. Kahenya also said that he is going to run for the presidential seat in 2012.

After a quick enquiry via the Nation’s Social Media back channel Twitter, many Kenyan Twitter celebrities welcomed this announcement and said they will support Mr. Kahenya and even vote for him in the upcoming elections.

Twitter is an instant message service similar to SMS and has recently been announced as the official successor to SMS by Safaricom’s pleasant CEO Bob Collymore. In a press announcement via Twitter earlier this week, Mr. Collymore said that his company will offer special Twitter packages and is already in talks with Twitter Inc. in California for a zero costs access service.

Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth

Pirate Party Kenya, Mr. Kamunyu said, will also focus on bandwidth problems which have of late been an issue in the upcoming ICT industry in Kenya’s striving capital Nairobi. “We will actually work for bandwidth“, Mr. Kamunyu said. “Interested IT companies will receive a reduced membership fee for their employees and are also encouraged to pay via stable bandwidth, airtime credits or local content“, he said.

“Pirate Party Kenya will also advocate for Free and Open Software in Kenya and ask the Government of Kenya to introduce a secure web-based email service for all public servants. This will also ensure productivity at various parastatal offices which are often affected by malware and other security issues.”, Mr. Kahenya said.

Mr Kahenya also said that “in a country where you can already pay your rent, your electricity, internet and water bills via mobile payment systems, it is about time to have a modern political party which addresses the needs of all stakeholders. Pirate Party Kenya will stand for these rights and will ensure that Kenyans are prepared for the global competition.
Furthermore, we encourage everyone who is fed up with the current political spectrum to give us his vote as we also provide democracy at a very basic level. All our members can directly vote for a candidate and it is this democratic basis that ensures stability in the long run”.

In a direct response via Facebook, famous Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina said that he will name one of the characters in his upcoming novel “Kahenya”. Mr Wainaina is currently crowdsourcing fictional characters for a novel on a Kenyan who becomes a Swahili star in popular Nollywood movies. It is said to be the first true piece of pan-African fiction after the remains of Muammar al-Gaddafi’s diaries (“United States of Africa”) where found in a sewage pipe in Sirte, Libya in October 2011. Binya, as he is commonly known among his fans, said that “I support Kahenya Kamunyu’s introduction of the Pirate Party system in Kenya because Pirate Party Kenya will play an important role for the acknowledgement of Intellectual Property Rights which have always been an issue in most African societies due to historical reasons.”.

Meanwhile, the website of Pirate Party Kenya could not be reached at the time we went to press. “We are currently experiencing technical problems with the load balancer”, Mr Kahenya said in a telephone interview. “This, however, also is a good sign as it clearly shows the demand for a Pirate Party in Kenya”, he said.

1. “Der Aufstand der akademischen Klasse wird für Guttenberg zur Gefahr”, hieß es Anfang der Woche von Franz Walter, Politikwissenschaftler an der Uni Göttingen, in diesem trefflich beschriebenen SPON Kommentar.

“Aber seinen Stuhl und Posten wird der fränkische Edelmann womöglich am Ende deshalb räumen müssen, weil er die meritokratischen Ansprüche und Stellungen des hiesigen Bildungsbürgertums elementar gefährdet.”

Gutti ist bisher mit allem durchgekommen, aber erst durch die sich androhende Verwässerung der deutschen Promotion ist die sonst so ausgeglichene akademische Welt auf die Barikaden gegangen und konnte sich erfolgreich durchsetzen. Erst als es um ihre eigenen Werte ging, um die Abschwächung der eigenen Leistungen kam die für einen Protest kritische Masse zu Stande.

Gerade hinsichtlich der Frage “womit können wir unsere Mitbürger erreichen?” finde ich dieses Ergebnis sehr interessant.

2. Die immer noch andauernde Popularität zu Guttenbergs ist sicherlich nicht nur der Medienpräsenz oder seiner Arbeit zu verdanken, sondern vor allem den fehlenden Alternativen, die sich ähnlich gut verkaufen können.

Ein ewig grinsender Ministerpräsident Bayerns – geschenkt. Eine Horde vollkommen glanzloser Beamter in Berlin – geschenkt. Eine in der DDR und post-DDR sozialisierte Kanzlerin – geschenkt. Ein unmöglicher Aussenminister – geschenkt. Eine noch unsympathischere Ministerin für Arbeit und Soziales – geschenkt.

Nein, nicht die Regierung, nicht das Bundeskabinett trägt hier die Mitschuld, sondern auch die so schwache Opposition.

SPD? Grüne? Linke?

Sicherlich ist die Politik ein gnadenloses Geschäft mit einem großen Maß an Rhetorik, aber wer nur solche Personalien in der Führungsetage anzubieten hat, darf sich meiner Meinung nach nicht über die große Beliebtheit zu Guttenbergs wundern.

Ich finde es geradezu erstaunlich, wie sich bei Diskussionen mit alt und jung, von arm bis reich, von links nach rechts immer wieder herausstellt, wie beliebt dieser zu Guttenberg bei den Wählern “doch eigentlich” ist. Und wie gleichzeitig über die “unmöglichen” Kandidaten aus der Opposition gelästert wird. Insofern wundert es mich überhaupt nicht, dass der zu Guttenberg so weit kommen konnte.

Allein, es gibt viele andere – gute – Kandidaten mit ähnlichen Qualifikationen (Fremdsprachenkenntnisse, small talk Fähigkeit), und so wird es meiner Meinung nach (vielleicht ähnlich wie bei Obama seinerzeit mit seiner social media campaign) zukünftig vermehrt zu solchen Kandidaten kommen, die diesen vom Ehepaar zu Guttenberg vorgelebten Glamour für sich übernehmen und ausnutzen wollen.

(filed under: politics – obwohl es hier überhaupt nicht um politische Inhalte geht)

Wenn jemand eine so lange Anfahrt aus dem Saarland in Kauf nimmt um sich mit Leuten auszutauschen, die er/sie vielleicht sonst nur “von Twitter” her kennt, durch die eine oder andere Session inspiriert wird oder einfach nur schaut was beim BarCamp los ist, dann spricht das wohl schon für die Qualität der sehr guten Organisation und vielleicht auch der Teilnehmer.

In fast jedem Fall empfand ich diese 2 Tage (von 08:00 bis 18:00 Uhr) in einem Gebäude der Deutschen Telekom in Darmstadt als gelungen – entsprachen sie doch genau meinen Vorstellungen vom BarCamp, wo es übrigens jedem Teilnehmer überlassen wird, durch einen eigenen Beitrag eine sog. Session zu gestalten und die Diskussion/Austausch zu einem Thema zu fördern. Außerdem verwahrlost man als selbstständiger “was-mit-IT/Web/Medien”-Worker leicht, so dass dieser zwanglose Austausch bei den Stammtischen, Webmontagen, Ignite-Abenden, TEDx[Stadtname] und jetzt diesem BarCamp eine wirklich angenehme Alternative darstellt. Ein BarCamp empfinde ich dabei im besten Fall immer als eine Art Weiterbildung – auch wenn man meint, vieles zu kennen, gibt es doch immer wieder neue Kontakte.

Ich habe auch so eine (sehr gut besuchte – thx!) Session gestaltet heute morgen, direkt als Erster um 10:00 Uhr, zum Thema Afrigadget & Softwareprojekte / Startups in (Ost-)Afrika. Das war eigentlich gar nicht geplant, aber Wolfgang Weicht vom Kombinat für asiatische Schwarmintelligenzforschung sowie Jan Eggers vom HR hatten mich dann dazu gebracht, dass ich in der Nacht auf Sonntag vor allem vorm PC saß und diese 93 slides zurechtgebastelt habe, die einen Einblick zur Arbeit bei/für AfriGadget & Co bieten sollen:

Eine ähnliche Präsentation hatte ich vor 8 Monaten schon einmal vor einer kleinen Gruppe bei der Socialbar Frankfurt gehalten – seinerzeit aber ohne diese eigentlich wichtigen Ergänzungen zum Thema Ushahidi/Crowdmap und iHub Kenia. Unser Gruppenblog Afrigadget.com ist sicherlich ein nettes Technikblog mit sozio-kulturellen Beobachtungen im afrikanischen low-tech Kontext, die wirkliche Innovation in 2010 in Ostafrika stellt für mich aber das iHub Kenia dar, das eine Fülle von neuen High-Tech Möglichkeiten bietet, und noch viel mehr – wie der bekannte GlobalVoices/Geekcorps Blogger Ethan Zuckerman jetzt auch nochmal feststellen konnte (und, wie er schreibt, am liebsten dort bleiben würde).

Über den Nutzen eines Open Source Crowdsourced Mapping Tools wie Ushahidi im Bereich der Nothilfe mag man sicherlich geteilter Meinung sein, aber mir ging es jetzt vor allem darum, dass ein technisch auf Weltniveau mitschwimmendes, aus einem Entwicklungsland wie Kenia stammendes Tool auch in Deutschland für ein interessantes Projekt eingesetzt werden sollte. Der Alex Boerger, Designer/Kommunikations/Mediendingens, kam dann auch gleich mit einem interessanten Projektvorschlag rüber: Ushahidi nutzen, um den Leerstand von Büroräumen in Mainz zu tracken. Die Idee finde ich super! Ganz abgesehen davon, dass der Alex auch ganz andere coole Ideen hat, freue ich mich natürlich sehr über diese Wahrnehmung des Ushahidi Potentials. Etwas gut zu finden und es dann auch einzusetzen sind zwei komplett verschiedene Dinge.

Sehen kann man das auch bei unserem Feierabendprojekt “Frankfurt-Gestalten.de” (FG), für das wir massiv Postkarten ausgelegt und den Vertretern von Namics und TripleSense für die direkte Ansprache wohl eher Unannehmlichkeiten bereitet hatten (man möge mir dies verzeihen). FG basiert auf dem Content Management System Drupal, das zwar eigentlich total genial ist und eine wunderbare Flexibilität bietet, aber auch seine Tücken hat. In einem Land wie Deutschland, in dem die Profis gerne auf Typo3 als “bestes CMS” verweisen, fühlt sich die gemeinsame Einarbeitung in Drupal auch irgendwie gut an. Im Ausland ist Drupal bekannt und beliebt, nur in Deutschland….

Und dann auch noch bei einer Diskussionsplattform zur Lokalpolitik, wobei diese beiden Begriffe hier eigentlich nicht wirklich zutreffen – auch nicht der Begriff “Internetforum” (wie die FNP schrieb) – und auch bei mir eher Erinnerungen an Begriffe wie “Diskussionsbedarf” aus Asta-Zeiten hervorrufen. Das alles soll FG eigentlich nicht sein, sondern in erster Linie eine Übersichtsseite zu den Aktivitäten der Lokalpolitik nach Stadtteilen geordnet, und virtuelle Anlaufstelle für die Probleme der Bürger mit der Möglichkeit, eine eigene Initiative zu starten (ohne den ganzen Quatsch, den man mit einer Iniative sonst vielleicht verbinden würde – wer will sich heutzutage schon öffentlich engagieren, wenn er dafür nach Stuttgart oder Gorleben fahren muss?). Nein, FG ist für uns auch Neuland, dass es in dieser Form erstaunlicherweise bundesweit noch nicht gegeben hat. Insofern lassen wir uns gerne überraschen und freuen und auch über die zugesagte Mitarbeit einiger heller Köpfe im Rhein-Main Gebiet, so dass sich Frankfurt-Gestalten eigentlich nur nach vorne entwickeln kann.

Gefreut habe ich mich auch sehr über dieses Make: “The Best of instructables, Vol. 1″ Buch aus dem Hause O’Reilly – einer Spende zu den regelmäßig stattfindenden Webmontagen, die ich als Gegenleistung für einen kleinen Tweet erhalten hatte (und dafür schäme, aber die Neugierde beim Bücherangebot war zu groß). Ich bin nämlich ein leidenschaftlicher Bastler, habe mir in der Vergangenheit auch schon das Makezine gekauft und lese die O’Reilly Bücher idR auch online bei PaperC – der Plattform für Fachbücher. Lohnt sich. Heißen Dank!

Bedanken möchte ich mich auch bei den Sponsoren und dem Orga-Team für das super organisierte BarCamp – vom Ticket, über die Verpflegung hin zu den T-Shirts war da wirklich alles dabei. Einzig das sehr wackelige & umständliche WLAN im Gebäude der Deutschen Telekom fand ich etwas seltsam und Netzempfang der anderen Wettbewerber war dort auch fast unmöglich innerhalb des Gebäudes. Später funktionierte dann der Fonic Stick, war dann aber nur noch für Twitter von Bedeutung. Fürs nächste BarCamp wünsche ich mir daher entweder ein besseres WLAN, oder gute Empfangsmöglichkeiten bei den Mobilfunkanbietern. Das klingt jetzt vielleicht etwas kleinkarriert, aber mittlerweile laufen bei solchen Veranstaltungen nicht nur der back channel über Twitter, eine gute Netzabdeckung ist daher schon recht wichtig.

Die hier verlinkte Spiegel Anzeige, für die gerade Spenden gesammelt wird, empfinde ich zwar als nicht so gelungen, aber dennoch: irgendwo in Europa müssen wir mit dem Atomwahnsinn aufhören. Ich möchte damit aber auch nicht behaupten, dass ich AKWs ausserhalb Deutschlands als betriebssicherer und weniger gefährlich empfinde.

Alleine schon die Nicht-Verfügbarkeit eines geologisch sicheren Endlagers für Sondermüll, wie ihn Atommüll darstellt, sollte Grund genug zur schnellstmöglichen Abschaltung sein. Und natürlich aus vielen anderen guten Gründen. Bald. Nicht erst in 20 Jahren.

Das oben verlinkte Bild entstand vor fast genau einem Jahr und wurde seinerzeit um Westerwilli und Smithers ergänzt.

Turnout of voters during the recent elections in Germany. (source)

Map of Federal German States in 1957. Blue = West, Red = East
(source)

Harambee, harambee, tuimbe pamoja… yeah, right. WTF.

[via]

After having read this interesting book by Michela Wrong, written in a similar style as “In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo” (which I really liked) – I am still confronted with some open, or rather: resulting questions this book has generated.

And this although the issue itself – the bogus deals by the “Mount Kenya Mafia” – have been debated elsewhere numerous times. I chose so call it “elsewhere”, as Michela Wrong also mentioned the (Kenyan) blogosphere where John Githongo’s seemingly sudden departure from the official job & disclosure of cosa nostra secrets had been ripped apart in the usual manner. I am yet to see a German publication where the German blogosphere is taken into account with so much attention. This, however, may be related to their media and German sceptism which doubts anything that’s not published or confirmed by numerous sources.

I take it that a lot of readers of my blog with an interest in Kenyan affairs also read, or at least read about this book, and have their own opinion of it.

Another reason for blogging about this – already closed? – chapter of contemporary Kenyan history is that I can somehow relate to the described silver spoon upbringing of JG in a sense that a) discussions and intellectual discourse where part of the family life and b) that our generation – JG is 10 years older than me but I think most of you are just as old as I am (>30) – still enjoyed this limited or filtered view of the world, where everything new was sucked up with great interest for the lack of multiple media resources that would otherwise constantly penetrate your brain with “news”. I actually enjoyed this part the most during childhood – being forced to live in an environment where news would only dribble in, instead of showing up on the web-based RSS feedreader. Why? Because it enables you to take your time for your own development and dreams. I consider this a luxury that I am not taking for granted. Michela also mentioned this part where listening to the BBC World Service (instead of the montonous “HE DT arap Moi today said…” on KBC) was part of the daily habits. And I wouldn’t limit this to a family’s financial status as most Kenyans actually read more newspapers than e.g. Germans.

Sooo…..my first question is: why was such a book written by a foreign observer? Why not by someone in Kenya or in the diaspora? Because of fears? Or because life is so hard & busy that there’s no time for such excursions? Or is it because of the culture which is so much forward-driven, with a focus on things to come instead of those that already happened?

After the first 100 pages into the book, I thought it is a bit too Kikuyu-centric, but then, again, I think it’s Tucholsky who once said it is best to view your own country from the outside – and if these stereotypes (she even mentioned the jokes) are what it takes to draw a rough picture of this group for the uninformed world, then so be it.

Which effect did this publication have on Kenyan society (within and outside of Kenya)? What’s with the role of a whistleblower (anyone still remembers David Munyakei?) in today’s Kenya and what about that anonymous reporting tool introduced @ KACC two years ago? What do you think about JG’s actions (as described via the book)?

“Kenyans tend to quickly forgive or forget”… in the light of the post-election violence, a corruption scandal may not be that interesting after all.

I also wondered how Kenyans would feel about this book + the story it tells. The way it was written, the examples used to explain historically-based feelings inside ethnic groups, the readership it was written for… questions that pop-up between the lines, how it feels to read about your own people, friends and known public figures.

Michela also mentioned the network: “..he became aware of a delicate cobweb of expectations, obligations and duties tying him down” which makes Kenyan politics so interesting to me. It’s like having half of the Kenyan blogosphere / diaspora as friends on Facebook and Twitter, and then publishing opinionated status updates in a Koigi wa Wamwere manner. And, again, comparing Kenya to Germany (which is an on-going mission of this blog, I think), I am yet to see an interesting book on a contemporary German politician. Most of them are just as boring as their political agenda – which is also why Angela Merkel will most likely win the upcoming elections in Germany and remain Chancelorette for the next legislative period. Not because she’s any better or because she’s a woman (only positive reason, it seems), but because she has a network where she remains the queen at the center of the beehive. This is btw the same woman who once refused to meet with Barack Obama and later on licked his boots just because his network is so much more influential then hers.

You know it’s a bit hypocritical to openly wonder about politics & corruption in an African state when at the same time Europe comes up with dictators leaders such as Silvio Berlusconi in Italy. You can write a book about just another African economy that has been corrupted in the past by the Hippo Generation and a laissez-faire mentality in society, and it will sell quite well. But a book on a corrupt European leader? No. Makes me wonder where our priorities are.

Another detail or theme that I’ve been wondering about is the change on Kenyan culture. Yes, Kenyan culture. As paradox as it may seem – and I am not talking about books like “How to be a Kenyan” by the late Wahome Mutahi, the national dress once artificially invented by the Nyayo regime (Nyayo car??!) but rather this new Kenya which developed along with Moi’s last years, NARC and the 2002 elections and the spirit it brought to society since then.

The appreciation of a society for cultural values – their own + shaped style, language, habits, new communication tools – has so often been an indicator to me of how a country actually performs. Please correct me if I am wrong on this, but I think that Kenya has in the past 10 years eventually found its own roots somewhere out there where local stars have become more interesting than foreigners, where the City of Nairobi is actually (& eventually!) regarded as a cosmopolitan place (despite frequent power failures & water shortages) and where there’s much more nationalism to be found these days which is not based on Obama’s Kenyan roots or just another sports athlete. And it’s not that Nairobi has never been that progressive before – only: the speed of growth seemingly increased tremendously, it seems (to me).

Taking this new Nairobi as an indicator (! – pole for the NGO lingo) for things to come, where do these worlds of the old and new mix up to the bigger picture? When will we see the political change in Kenya the electorate voted for in 2002 and 2007? A new Kenya where power failures are a thing of the past, where broadband internet connections will help the youth stay in rural areas (vs. urbanisation), where water bodies are actually protected and land grabbing reversed for the sake of a growing nation? Where education and proper health care are top priorities?

Questions which probably won’t be answered any time soon, but I secretly wish that integre characters like John Githongo are now using the time building up their support on the basis. Bottom-up instead of top-down – maybe that’s the new strategy these days – loosely joined forces that have a nation in mind and not their own pocket, where qualifications are more important than cosa nostra networks.

Politics. I actually decided not to blog about politics anymore since January 2008, and this isn’t even meant to be book review. I’d love to read about your opinion of this book though, and maybe also find some answers to my given questions above and other things I’ve most definitely left out for various reasons. Thx!

Not a question of the location, but rather: from which movie is this?

Der Deutsche Bundestag fordert die Bundesregierung auf,

…

2. dafür zu werben, dass in der internationalen Zusammenarbeit zukünftige Trinkwasserprojekte immer eine Sanitärkomponente enthalten;

…

4. dazu beizutragen, dass die lokale Bevölkerung in Angelegenheiten der sanitären Grundversorung und Trinkwasserversorgung angemessen informiert und beteiligt wird;

5. eine Strategie vorzulegen, wie die Kompetenzen deutscher Unternehmen…….im Bereich der Sanitärversorung stärker genutzt werden können….

…

14. den Ecosan-Ansatz auch bei internationalen Organisationen wie der FAO und regionalen Entwicklungsbanken bekannt zu machen und seine Anwendung einzufordern;

Na, das liest man doch gerne.

Gefunden in der Drucksache 16/11204, einem Antrag (vom 03.12.08) verschiedener MdBs um die sanitäre Grundversorung international zu verbessern.

Eigentlich erschreckend, dass hierfür eine Große Anfrage nötig war, um die Aufmerksamkeit der Bundesregierung auf dieses wichtige Thema zu lenken.

“God bless you, my friend”, he gratefully replied, “God bless you!”.

Obama is much more than a candidate for the 44th presidency in the United States of America.

When we look at today’s web editions of both leading newspapers in Kenya (The Daily Nation, The Standard), we see the following news items (Obama and other US-election related news are marked yellow):

The Daily Nation:

The Standard:

When was the last time you didn’t associate war, terror, fear with the USA?