studies – Page 4 – Kikuyumoja

the keyword dilemma

Mbuzimoja asked me about some present figures on the water & sanitation situation in Nairobi, so I took this opportunity to superficially scan all those various pdfs, docs and xls files I had gathered on my computer for any information which might help her on her current project.

“Linking sustainability with demand, gender and poverty”, it said on one document.

Ati??!

Maybe I am just way tooooo simple and naive, but whenever I open a document where I read keywords such as MDGs, sustainability, gender, poverty, Worldbank, UN, UNxxx, stakeholders, policy, NGO, framework, indicators, capacity building, community, etc. etc. – I scratch my head and wonder about:

a) who’s supposed to actually read all these papers? *yawn*
b) does the production of these papers with the theoretical outlining change anything in affected areas?
c) what do the authors feel about their work?
d) how come no one complains about all these keywords if, in reality, maybe about half of the world’s population doesn’t even know what sustainability actually means?

Sure, it’s good to have a plan and/or a strategy, but real change – in my opinion – comes with actions. Think of Wangari Muta Maathai and you get the picture. Did she ever require sexy keywords to get her message across although she’s dealing with different stakeholders on different levels? No.

I had this professaaa in universitiy who used to be the Senior Advisor to Martha Karua when the latter one was still in charge @ Maji House, and I once told her straightforward that I just couldn’t stand all these theoretical models on how to tackle environmental issues. In this complex world, where problems relate to each other and address different levels, there’s no holistic model which could explain everything. Instead, I think, we already know what to do (like Wangari did) and just start somewhere. After all, actions speak louder than words. But then, the culture of debating issues and elaborating various plans is something, some folks in Kenya have brought to perfection.

Point is: development aid is a business. And so are these useless, keyword-enriched papers whose only purpose is to keep the money flowing.

I urgently need my own business. Yeah, now that’s my dream :-)

p.s.: i am currently dreaming about a business plan that comes without any sexy keywords. something simple that instantly sells to investors…

Askarideneier

Weiß jemand was Askarideneier sind?

Eben.

Steht aber so jetzt in meiner aktuellen Hausarbeit zum Thema “Umgang mit Klärschlamm unter Berücksichtigung der Wertstoffrückgewinnung”.

a.k.a. “Wie schreibe ich eine Hausarbeit innerhalb von 5 Tagen, die mit einer total unbedeutenden Benotung nicht mal ins Diplom eingeht – mich in ihrer Themenstellung aufgrund des schön erdigen Geruchs von ausgefaultem Klärschlamm aber immer wieder an das Praxissemester auf der Kläranlage Bremen erinnert?”. Klärschlamm ist einfach sexy. Jaa, musste mal gesagt werden.

joke of the day:

being around…

I just realized it’s only four (4) more weeks for me over here in Germany. Jessas! How time goes by these days….four more weeks of working on some papers and studying for an exam in hydromechanics. Four weeks left to vacate my current flat, to pack my stuff up again (relocation No.11), to give away half of the stuff that has been accumulating here and has never really been used (so why keep it?) and to repaint the flat. Four weeks that will get me away from here and back on the road again into UHURU – freedom and independance. A lovely, scary feeling!
And then?

GrÃ¶Ã?enÃ¤nderungSANY7345.JPG

Embu, Kenya. For at least 3 months until some time in January 2007. Doing an internship @ a state office on behalf of a German Agency. Will keep you updated on this as blogable content comes up – I am really dying to cover this on my blog as it involves some form of nation building, something with a meaning and hopefully a win-win situation for both sides involved: Kenya & Germany. For my partners at the office, and for me as a student.

The Tana river in Kenya has the biggest catchment area – and Kenya being a country of various landscapes, it will be particulary interesting to see how strategies for integrated water resource management can be implemented in reality and how to scale these complex and sometimes also confusing dimensions on a local level. Consequently, my approach on this isn’t the “mzungu coming to Aaaaafrika to change everything” attitude, but to listen and learn and help where I know an answer.

Now, for others wazungu that have come to Kenya (~you are prolly aware of the stereotyped pic), this might just be a single step on their career, but as for me – I really tried hard to convince the involved agency in placing me to Kenya (and not somwhere else) as I would like to take this opportunity to contribute something from me to the place where I grew up. And let me be honest – the “Kenyan part” in me of course asks why I should leave my comfy nest with 24/7/365 electricity, warm water and broadband inet for such a job. Well, why? Because I can. Because I was given this chance to learn more. And I think that’s reason enough.

Now, enough turgid words – let me go back to my papers and see how this adventure turns out…(yes, I am a bit scared :-)

(Ati, four weeks? Haiyaaaa…..*gulp*)

the scientific dilemma?

Speaking of “bridging the gap”, I am currently compiling a small paper on the recovery/recyling of nutrients in municipal and industrial waste water – and while searching the internet and other resources for useful information, I often come across huge websites by universities or companies that apparently haven’t really understood the meaning of “applied sciences”.

While I understand that there might be a need to document the modus operandi in order to obtain proper funding, the world – my dear scientists – does not benefit by many of these little papers and documentations, base and feasibility studies as well as assesment reports that apparently have no other meaning than to reconfirm your R&D needs and so often end up in a drawer somewhere.

Instead, what I would like to see realized, is the actual implementation of much more practical work – something that we – the consumers – can work with. As a good example, let me mention this website I found today on a team of two scientists that diligently described on their website how they are going to “search the internet for publications” on a certain subject and compile reports out of these trouvailles…

Hello? Why don’t u guys just sit down, check out free webspace on the internet, download a free and open Wiki or CMS software, install that on your website and put that information right in there? I mean, it isn’t THAT difficult!

Argh….this scientific approach so often bugs me big times. And although I sort of feel them on their documentation needs, I would like to see more interactive information being published – something that takes us from A to B – and NOT just this kind of one-way-information.

Please?

kibaazi

This might be of interest to you, Irena:

“A selection of useful trees and shrubs for Kenya / Notes on their identification, propagation and managament for use by agricultural and pastoral communities”, International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), Nairobi, 1992;
ISBN 92 9059 096 3

=> sabuni…. (~ think of FightClub :-D)

the marketing pool

While googling for the keyword “Eldoret” (a fast inet connection and random keywords make up for perfect time-wasters which of course are always prefered to work which would actually put some food on the table..), I once again realized how many different ngo projects are done in Kenya.

I am SURE many of you can instantly name a few initiatives and NGOs that are dealing with water, energy, health, general environmental issues, IT, social work, etc etc and there sure are many we have never even heard of.
On the other hand, there are many qualified, jobless young Kenyans dying to get a decent job if only they knew where to apply.

To make it short: is there any website or office in Kenya that tries to a) lobby the NGO’s work and b) tries to get all NGOs to round table talks (as a problem seems to be that many NGOs differ in political orientations, funding and other strange variables).

As a start, I am thinking of using a free Wiki software to at least document all NGOs willing to publish their work on a single website. The idea of such an informative website is to get an overview of what has been implemented so far, what kind of policy the GoK has on certain matters, the people’s view and the typical approach strategy NGOs use to get their messages conveyed.
A website that sums up ALL different opinions and gives the public an overview (at least) of how they can be involved. You know, there are active forums like Mashada & Co, or even the vivid kenyan blogosphere, where ppl communicate on a daily basis. Why shouldn’t this be possible on a matter of national interest?

Natujenge taifa letu
Ee ndio wajibu wetu
Kenya istahili heshima
Tuungane mikono pamoja kazini
Kila siku tuwe nashukrani.

Only words?

I found this website that tries to do cover the above mentioned idea – however, did YOU know it?

Demotech

For all you DIY-freaks & makezine readers out there, check out this interesting “construction manual for a Bathroom Toilet unit” provided by Demotech. It is an online DIY manual that shows how to build a shower-toilet-combination for use in villages…Their website isn’t about toilets only, so there might be something else of interest to you.
The idea behind blogging this is to show that the technology and creative imagineering are already available – what we need to do is to actually build these projects and see if ppl are ready to accept such technologies.
ME I WANT, I WANT, I WANT… :-)

wiki-san

About half a year ago, Mzeecedric of m.zung.us finished his final diploma thesis on the “potentials of WiKis on the Intranet” (in german) for use within companies and discovered that this technology or rather: this approach to streamline transferable knowledge is still in its early years in Germany. CG, please correct me if I am wrong on this one, but still, when I – the bloody beginner – think about WiKis and their perfect use for any environment, I come to think of these two basic advantages:

1. WiKis provide a good way to share work.
Whereas publishing of content normally takes time (~ converting Word documents into PDFs or even HTML), anyone can register on a WiKi and edit the content. The benefit? Distributed working. Why should it all be left to one person if at the same time these things could be shared with the whole world?

2. The ease of accessing informations.
Imagine this scenario: you are an engineer or doing some consultant job and are looking for a solution to a bugging problem. It could be a technical issue, or maybe some legal advice that needs to be adjusted to the local scale? Back in the days, this required us to go through different literature. The amount of time spent for doing research on given facts (and let’s say googling isn’t always the best solution) sometimes exceeds the amount of energy pepole want to put into a problem to find a comprehensive solution. Not everyone is a student like me who enjoys doing research or spending 2hrs on Google trying to track down the required information.
Now, with the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies which includes tagging articles and thus information with trackable keywords / tags as well as centralized information pools like WiKis, it seems to become much easier to find what you are looking for. Think of the “click-through-ratio” we know from analyzing company websites and you get the picture – how many clicks do I have to make, how many pages do I have to load until I get my answer?
The next generation of users isn’t used to go to libraries and do some scientific research. The MTV generation is focussed on retrieving information the moment they need it – no one reads all these different PDF files to get an answer. I don’t know if that’s good or bad in the long run, BUT!, it sure is an interesting trend/development and hence our information pools have to be adjusted likewise.
You’re out in the field and there’s no internet access available? Yeah, well that’s the reality. There’s this good friend of mine who did an internship in South Sudan and needed to retrieve some basic information that he normally finds online. However, out there in the desert, there’s no internet available. What to do? ==> Download the Wiki and have it on CD/DVD. Simple as that :-)

The reason I am mentioning all this is because I am looking for good Wiki software that I can use free of charge. My plan is to get this Wiki plattform for EcoSan on the internet. As far as I know, something like that is in the pipeline, but who knows WHEN these websites become available.
My advantages: a) I am a student, I can take time for this and b) I am very passionate about it, so I want this thing to become reality. Let’s see…