It’s COLORWARS2008 on twitter, so please come and join (the) Afriteam!
“Ati?! Corraarrwaaas?” – “Atiriiri…..” – “..but why should I join this team?” – Well, because a) why not? and b) let’s show them some *pamoja spirit* and what we‘re capable of. 2008 will be just another great opportunity for the Afrisphere.
p.s.: you won’t need an iPhone for twitter, not even a phone, just 2 minutes to register @twitter and join the @afriteam. Very simpooool.
Just a short note to let you know of “Africa Investment Day” on December 11th 2007 @ Frankfurt am Main Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 09:00 am – 06:00 pm. (PDF)
Germany’s Heise Online (IT news) carried this not-so-new-news today about the ALEUTIA E1 Desktop computer which is said to consume only 8W and comes with a 200 MHz CPU, 128 MB SDRAM, 2 GB CF card, 3 USB 2.0 ports, 10/100 NIC, VGA up to 1280×1024 and an interesting carry-on size. Best features though are that it runs on Puppy Linux (2.14) OS which looks similar to what experienced users may be to used to from the MS-Windows environment.
This machine is based on the eBox-2300SX “Mini Green PC” and has – in my opinion – just been equipped with some sexy marketing keywords (Africa, rural, internet, power supply, solar, etc.), although these guys behind Aleutia have indeed found the right arguments to promote their product.
So….no matter what technology you prefer (given the many different systems we have been blogging about during the last two years), my question is:
would YOU buy this for your folks back home @ shaggs*?
Yes?
My other question is: IF these computers are so much better – how come they are never bought by dev aid agencies who are supposed to know the disadvantages and unreliability of a MS-Win machine in most office environments all over the world and who actually have the political and economical power to stir such purchases in this direction?
I know that in most cases, money is just given to someone who then arranges a deal with a local HP, DELL, IBM representative + WinXP + the usual setup. So instead of talking about sexier computer solutions that may be more reliable in unstable working conditions (power supply, heat, dust, many users, malware, etc.), how about some political will from top-down that directly promotes the purchase of such computers in future?
(*i think that most ppl will just have an older MS WinXP laptop which is then forwarded to younger members of the extended family and which will presumably die after the first half year in use due to an unstable power supply, some heat problems or malware and/or missing WinXP recovery CDs…now IF i was much more into IT and an unemployed graduate of any varsity, I’d buy these used computers from KTs and refurbish them with a stable X release and then sell them to folks upcountry. but hey – that’s just me thinking loud…)
We’ve been talking about this some time ago over at Hash’ website: the unknown? potential that gets lost while ppl are busy developing (double) content for something I would like to describe as the anglosphere and the francosphere.? Two worlds that co-exist and? ? generate their own dynamics.
Is it so?
And if so, will there be any attempts within the blogosphere (at least) to unite these two worlds separated by language barriers?
I don’t know how they solve it in West Africa (comments plz), but when I look at Europe alone at this given moment – Germany, France, England – although neighbouring countries and empires for ages, the language barrier still exists. Especially when it comes to the folks on the ground – bloggers, for instance. How many bloggers in Germany or the UK actually read french blogs? Yes?
And given my assumptions are true, what do you – dear readers – think? Should there be any umoja-styled website for “all Africans”? Not because of any false & ancient? “Africa is a nice country”-perspective, but because of the missing potential that gets lost whenever smart brains contribute similar content in their own languages.
The beauty of running a private blog is that I can actually cover various topics, without being forced to please anyone with a certain quality of content. As time goes by and rants pass through the fingers, different stories have been told so far and it was on the commuter train this evening at 8 pm when I realized my blog is 2 years old.
I started blogging in June 2005 because of a) Mzeecedric, who encouraged me to do so, b) i had an idle website and c) another community website refused to publish a story of mine (much unlike the Kenya Times :-), so I opted to publish my stuff on my own website. And although I sometimes feel the urge to write in my mothertongue, most of my entries have been in English so far.
That’s 2 years of this still burning desire inside to share a lot of small and a few huge things with the world out there. Sharing, and also a desire to write about people, describing situations, often, not always, trying to portray a glimpse at another world. A subjective view, my thoughts on a few things of interest.
My favourite entries of course are these DoItYourself (DIY) projects like the water filter and/or the hinge issue with Irene’s notebook – both entries I am still getting lots of hits for on a daily basis.
Interestingly, the water filter issue – as I sometime later on realized that there’s another NGO in Kenya actually promoting the filter system I built – served as another hint for me to formulate an idea I’ve since then been working on. Have you ever wondered about the work of some NGOs, active in the sector of environmental protection, that just reaches a few selected groups? Capacity building, as they so often call it, still is an interesting subject.
But I digress.
I think it’s the silence of these warm summer nights, paired with the reflective mood on the train tonight that made me pull out my (paper!) notebook and put down a few lines I wished to directly type into a still non-existing PDA instead. And it may also be influenced by the book I am currently reading:
Michela Wrong’s “In the footsteps of Mr Kurtz” – a book I’ve bought in July 2001 and had left in the shelve since then, waiting for the perfect reading moment to arrive.
“New Zaire Inn” in Garissa, Kenya, later on renamed to D.R.C….
While Michela has a disputatious way of reporting her stories and apparently isn’t always welcomed by her hosts, I like this particular book. She actually describes the scenery in old Zaire pretty vivid, and what I – of course – love is that special part about les sapeurs – these men who dress in expensive fashion clothes and aim to be different any given moment.
The Congo.
As a blogger, I of course associate this with “007 in Africa” and am reminded of those hectic days in 1996/97 when a completely confused former president Mobutu, who had for long already lost any reality for his role as president of a nation that has always been in the waiting line, flew into exile. Ahhh. Memories.
That’s 10 years ago! It feels like yesterday.
Waiting 6 years before eventually reading Michela’s “brilliant account of Africa’s most extraordinary dictator” (the Economist) wasn’t such a bad idea afer all. The distance provides the needed room which is required to enjoy movies like this one.
For those of you who love this particular tape culture from the continent, pls head over to “Awesome Tapes from Africa“, activate your delicious playtagger javascript bookmark/Browser button and tune into lots of fine songs.
Thank you, Brian!
It really makes me happy to see how blogs have actually caught up and started providing it’s readers & listeners with some fine mp3 which otherwise would have been forgotten as these tunes from the continent from ~1950 – 1990 are a bit lost sometimes. Musicblogs and pop-archives such as youtube that cover this era are some of the sweetest things for me on the internet.
[via Andreas]
The irony about browser compatibility issues, I think, isn’t about adjusting a template or css to fit each and every browser, but being forced to create rubbish code to please those freaks who coded the browsers in the first place.
I updated another blog based on wp late last night and encountered nothing else but trouble with the installed template and a very much annoyed content publisher. And this although I had diligently planed this update for 3 weeks and tested it on my own blog.
But what do you do when the majority of the site’s visitors still use MSIE 6.0 – which is known for various bugs? Tell them to switch browsers? Of course not.
In this case it’s also due to a rather old template which is still based on WP 1.5. However, most modern templates we’ve tested so far don’t provide the same simple layout characteristics we’ve appreciated about the old one.
In the end this whole internet thing is just a beautiful waste of time… :-)
Have a nice day, eh?
Pan-Africanism is… when you save & share your bookmarks via del.icio.us and come across recommended tags by other users who have already saved that page, tagging it with the word “Africa” when it comes to describing websites from e.g. Kenya.
Africa, nothing else but Africa.
(to be continued…)