Category: studies

sense of delight

Who designed the old KBL/Tusker logo? How illuminated are Nairobi’s streets nowadays with those adopt-a-light lamps? How much does a Coke cost nowadays? What isn’t availaboool @ Nakumatt? What’s the normal fare for taking No. 23 from Kangemi to City Centre? What’s the ecoscan situation in Kenya? In which state are those sewage treatment plants? What are Bertiers, Katarikawa, Kangethe, Maube, Oswaggo and other (older) artists doing these days? What are my friends doing? What do they look like now? How much is 1minute of internet access in a cybercafé? How fast is the average ADSLine in Nairobi? What does the average mobile phone in Kenya look like – will it have a WAP browser or just simple sms functions? Any new joints/kantini I need to discover in NBO? How much money will I need to survive one day in our expensive Nairobi? Will there be any thugs trying to steal my beloved mobile? Will I be aboooool to eventually obtain this novice licence from ARSK for my 5Z4 call sign? What, where, when, who….

These and other questions will hopefully be answered soon, especially since I booked my flight to Kenya. May 9th until 31st, 3 weeks in May that will hopefully secure me an interesting placement/internship for my final (diploma) thesis. YEAH! :-)

World Water Day 2006

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  • 1.1 billion people lack sufficient access to safe drinking water.
  • 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation.
  • 6,000 children die every day from lack of safe water or poor hygiene.
  • On average, African and Asian women have to cover 8 kilometers a day to get fresh water.
  • The average African lives with less than 20 litres per day while the average European consumes more than 150 litres daily and the average North American more than 300 litres.
  • 4 billion hectares, representing 1/3 of the emerged lands of the globe, are threatened by desertification.

Today is the World Water Day 2006 and I will take this opportunity to inform my esteemed readers of a water related project to contribute my share on this topic:

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is this years UN agency to coordinate events surrounding World Water Day (WWD) around the world – and this years theme is "Water and Culture". Well, water and culture? What does that mean?

According to the director general of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, "technology alone will not lead us to viable solutions" on the world’s urgent water problems but instead "we must better understand the complex interactions between societies, water and the environment". And he goes on saying "water management itself needs to be understood as a cultural process….(…) …The nexus between culture and nature is the avenue for understanding resilience, creativity and adaptability in both social and ecological systems."

Or, to put it in my words: in order to have a positive impact on the world’s urgent water problems, we can not just apply various technologies while hoping that things might work out. Instead, we first of all need to comprehend the connection between the environment and our social systems. Of course, a relatively simple approach – which is still often neglected.
The basic idea behind this is to identify a causal framework which will help to deal with the various and complex water problems the world is facing today and in the future. And this is where the UNESCO’s programmes come into limelight:

The UNESCO, which btw celebrates it’s 60th anniversary, started developing international projects and programmes to improve our understanding and management of the earth’s resources.
One of these projects I would like to focus your attention on is the "from Potential Conflict to Co-operation Potential" initiative – which is one of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP) contribution to the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) in cooperation with Green Cross International (GCI).

Conflicts?
Over 260 river basins are shared by two or more countries. To date, the UNESCO’s International Shared Aquifer Resource Management project (ISARM) has inventoried over 150 shared aquifer systems with boundaries that do not correspond to those of surface basins. Approximately one third of those basins are shared by more than two countries, and 19 involve five or more sovereign states. Of these, one basin – the Danube – has 18 riparian nations. Five basins – the Congo, Niger, Nile, Rhine and Zambezi – are shared by nine to 11 countries. The remaining 13 basins – the Amazon, Aral Sea, Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna, Jordan, Kura-Araks, Lake Chad, Mekong, Neman, La Plata, Tarim, Tigris-Euphrates and Vistula (Wista) – have five to eight riparian countries.

The PC-CP project addresses the challenge of sharing water resources and its role is to help water resources management authorities to tip the balance in favor of co-operation potential away from potential conflict.

For its current 2nd phase, PC-CP has determined the following operational objectives to strengthen the capacity of the target audience in dealing with potential and actual water conflicts :

  • The development of educational material related to conflicts and cooperation in the field of shared water resources;
  • The development of appropriate institutional frameworks for the anticipation, prevention and resolution of water conflicts;
  • The development of methodologies for conflict prevention and resolution;
  • The improvement of legal tools for the management of shared water resources;
  • The development of a comprehensive information system on water conflicts and cooperation;
  • The dissemination of results and best practises at a global level.

So the bottom line to all this is that there are good and well elaborated programmes and projects in the pipeline that include a more holistic approach to today’s water problems. I am specially interested in the development of a comprehensive information system, and maybe today’s blog on this matter has slightly contributed to informing the public about these issues.

Please don’t miss today’s launch of the 2nd United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR2) in Mexico City, Mexico. Thx! :-)

(deutschsprachige LeserInnen seien an dieser Stelle auch noch auf folgenden interessanten Link zum Thema Weltwassertag hingewiesen)

sanitation is dignity

gto2.jpgThe german print media recently covered the interesting initial public start of an international organization – the German Toilet Organization (GTO) – here in Germany which main objective is to lobby for more (public) toilets and improve access to clean sanitary needs worldwide (the pic to the left shows the recent “sanitation is dignity” exhibition on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany as organized by the GTO – pls click to enlarge).

Toilets, choo, restrooms, latrine, lavatory – you name it.

Well, you name it? What kind of words do people use when they try to express their need to “take a natures call” or have to relieve themselves? The problem starts with the fact that we – we as in people world-wide – don’t even like to talk about these issues. It’s a taboo that keeps on being ignored, yet going to toilet is just as natural as eating or sleeping. And in order to improve the sanitary situation worldwide, first thing we need to do is to start talking about this issue.

The shocking truth is that, according to the WHO and UNICEF, roughly 2,6 billion people (around 42% of the worlds population) don’t have access to a working (read: adequate) sanitary system – and with an ever growing population and a clear need for an improvement, something has to be done. Soon.

“Proper sanitation protects water resources, increases health, provides dignity, increases agricultural production, can be an energy resource”….wait! It increases agricultural production? How come?

The problem with waste water treatment in huge treatment plants starts with the initial problem that we – the users – flush down virtually anything down the toilet. Out of sight, out of mind? Maybe… However, the results of these daily actions are that we get to have this huge mixture of waste and nutrients that require a lot of process engineering and energy to be separated.

==> We are using electrical energy to treat our waste. How crazy is that?

Now, what’s with that argument that an improved treatment could increase agricultural production? Let me please (try to) explain:
Instead of re-thinking complicated and expensive ways on how to separate this horrible mixture, let’s directly go to the root of the problem and separate the urine from faeces and greywater where they are being mixed up: at the toilet. There are some toilet designs out there that come with a built-in separation system – just think of a bowl that has an extra outlet for the urine and you get the idea.
By doing this, we receive an almost homogeneous, separated material out of which we can then recover nutrients, trace elements and even energy. Think of phosphor, this fertiliser stuff we put on our fields & gardens: the world-wide resources are limited, yet some countries (like Nepal) still invest a lot of money to import it although we could just recover up to ~40% of that phosphour from our urine.

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In fact, the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ) started (among others) an initiative to promote this idea of closing nutrient loops some years ago and have shown great progress in promoting this much needed approach to fulfill the Millenium Development Goals set by the UN. They call it ecological sanitation (ecosan) and to emphasize a systematical approach to this paradigm shift, they have published a source-book (PDF, 9 MB) as well as other useful information material that will help to promote this great idea of ecological sanitation.
Mind you – ecosan isn’t just a technology or a technical approach to bugging issues. It’s a philosophy and understanding for the challenge which we’ll have to face in the 21st century: closing biological cycles/loops. Among the key issues of ecosan as documented in the so-called Bellagio Principles, we find the following definition:

Waste should be considered a resource, and its management should be holistic and form part of integrated water resources, nutrient flow and waste management.

• inputs should be reduced so as to promote efficiency and water and environmental security
• exports of waste should be minimised to promote efficiency and reduce the spread of pollution
• wastewater should be recycled and added to the water budget

And yes, I am very passionate about this subject and as I’ve mentioned earlier, the challenge I see for us in the 21st century will be to re-design the products and technologies we’re using on a daily basis so that every material remains in a biological or technical loop / cycle. No more end-of-pipe technologies but cradle-to-cradle designs with materials that remain as nutrients to future generations. There is so much technology out there and it starts with generating an awareness for the biological cylce – something our forefathers already knew and we apparently forgot with todays products. Also, this isn’t just one of those ideas for the drawers of development aid – this is an approach on a global basis that sees various implementations in e.g. Europe as well as in Asia or Africa. The technology is already applied – even in Kenya – and in fact, I am planing to promote this even more when I am back in Kenya.
(@GTZ: I AM YOUR MAN ON THIS…hint, hint ;-)

Coming back to the toilet issue, please have a look at the website of the World Toilet Organization to find out what YOUR options are to make a change – now. Thank you!

a proposal…

Without any proper scientific proof at my hands right now, I would still like to focus your attention to an urgent problem that keeps on arising and needs to be tackled soon: Africa, I think, has become the landfill for the West. And East!

Remember China’s interest in various African countries? Not that they only exploit the continent of natural resources – in return the markets are flooded with cheap products that end up somewhere on a landfill. All these plastic items, be it useful buckets or just toys, eventually end up as rubbish and need to disposed of (one way products). Recycling is an option, yes, yet in most cases it’s a downcycling process (material quality deteriorates) and just a delay on its way to the landfill. In the end it’s still waste.
And of course it isn’t China only. I’ve just watched this youtube video of an NGO that helps schools in Uganda going online. Nice! However, to look at backgrounds – isn’t it that most of those computers are 2nd hand and thus disposed of to countries like Uganda?
Or Kenya: ever wondered why there are so many plastic bags flying around? People grew up with organic products, they were used to goat bones and maize/corncob that would eventually decompose over the years. And with those plastic bags and batteries? No one told them that those items are polluting the environment (ok, except for schools). And no one wants to be responsible. People applauded Dr. Wangari Maathai for winning the nobel peace prize but it seems they never really got the message – which I think is taking fate into your own hands and starting to change something without waiting for others. No wonder Kenyans are more into political discussions than in identifying leadership. Dito Germans, btw, and in many other countries. People, it seems to me, are more into living a pleasant life and securing their amenity values. Business and maximization of profits is valued these days – whereas commendable professions like teaching or serving jobs like in the civil service aren’t really honoured. But I digress…


waste on the streets in Nairobi, Kenya // instead of better waste management, wouldn’t it be better to avoid all this waste in the first place by using more intelligent products?

Please don’t get me wrong – capitalism per se isn’t that bad and mandatory for progress. Only, what we’ll need to have are sustainable, eco-effective products that won’t have any negative effect on the environment and that only become better the more we buy/consume/produce. And we’ll need to design them in such a way that we don’t need to depend on the intelligence of people/users.
E.g. if 9 out of 10 people care for the environment and only 1 of them continually ignores all product handling directions by let’s say throwing batteries into a river, all others have to suffer. And since there will ALWAYS be someone violating guidelines (we can not change anyones behaviour), we have to change the products themselves.

Look for solutions, not problems. (Dan Eldon)

I’m not the typical theoretician that tries to lament on problems, writes reports on various subjects and has many different IF/WHEN/THEN-solutions to a problem. What I want is action, and I want it soon.

To make a start, I would like to tell you about this product idea I may have been talking about before and which I choose to blog instead of keeping it in a drawer somewhere. Besides, some companies may already be thinking about it, so anyways, here you go:

While working on this sewage treatment plant some time ago, I came across a huge pile of Q-TIPS® (cotton swabs) in the sewage sludge. The cotton part of them would dissolve in the wastewater whereas the plastic stick in the middle would remain and end on the sludge landfill. Those plastic components also contributed to a lot of mechanical problems on the treatment plant by destroying various pumps and other intergrated machinery.
The first question that arises of course asks for the dumb users that throw cotton swabs (among other things) in their toilets. According to what I’ve encounterded a lot of people do that. Out of sight – out of their mind(s)?
Whatever. You can not change them.

What I CAN do, or try at least, is changing the products they are using. I thought of re-designing those Q-TIPS®/cotton swabs in such a way that the plastic stick will be substituted by a material that is made of (corn) starch, chitosan, plant fibres or other biomaterials. This biological material could then dissolve in the wastewater or decompose on the landfill after use and people could continue throwing their waste into the sewage system without harming the environment that much.

I think some companies are already doing r&d on these products and it will only be a matter of time until customers are informed enough to ask for more and more sustainable products. The different approach, though, is that this shouldn’t be only focused on those that can afford to buy “good” products – the African continent with it’s still traditional and comprehensible view of nature and biological cycles should play a leading role in these (not so new) new technologies and I think it’s about time for more and more companies to start focusing on this instead of just copying various technologies/industries from the West.

This might just be small idea for progress, but at least it’s a start, or? What do you think?

being mobile

urlaub.jpgWhat are the three major issues I have with mobile computing?

1. access to a network (inet et al)

2. access to static data

3. consistent power supply

 

Lady Mbuzimoja, this particular friend of mine who has her own notebook but not her own blog ;-), today reminded me of getting my own notebook. I think she said that because she wants me to be a bit more mobile….

Some years ago, when the term "technomad" wasn’t yet defined, I had an Acer 513T notebook (ok, laptop) which helped me get going. Upon settling here, I realized I wouldn’t need it anymore and sold it to another friend. Although I actually enjoy being without a notebook/mp3 player/pda/etc (owning = obligation to use it!) and my Nokia 6230 (mp3!) being enough in terms of mobile devices for the moment, I am often tempted to look out for really kewl gadgetimojas that I should get one day.
On the other hand – didn’t I just mention that there are some issues with mobile computing that irritated me a lot in the past? Hmmm…

1. Let’s pretend an all-area-access to networks is being worked on at the moment – be it Cable, DSL, WLAN, GSM/GPRS, packet radio, etc – all these access technologies are being deployed and since you can already send an sms from the top of Mt. Longonot in Kenya to almost any other GSM network in the world – why worry? In fact, here’s a nice how-to-install guide for your own (rural) wireless network.

2. The networks being deployed and flash/portable memory becoming more and more available, users aren’t forced to keep all their programs and static data on their computer’s HDD. Instead, computers are regarded as workstations only and if they brake, we just exchange them without the loss of any data.
Operating systems like Windows or Ubuntu are pre-installed and the hassle of adjusting this and that is gone. Just switch it on and use it. Who knows? Maybe in a few years time, computers will have fixed OS like PDAs have or our good old homecomputers had in the 1980s.

3. Despite of all sexy advantages a mobile gadget has, I think the quest for consistent and almost infinite power supplies is still the biggest problem. Of course, there will always often be a socket nearby where you can recharge the batteries inside (be it at home, in the train, on safari via solar energy or a local duka that normally recharges mobile phones using an ordinary car battery, etc.) – BUT! – what if we could find a way to recharge the batteries / generate electrical energy the moment we need it? I think that’s still the most interesting part of it. Generating the energy when we need it – thus changing battery design.
Users are human beings and we have lots of kinetic and thermal energy that goes wasted. What if we could find a way to turn that into electrical energy? Imagine, there are even ways of using the heat of waste water to generate energy!
I say: if we can produce energy out of human excreta (not only Biogas!), there sure has to be an intelligent way to propel our mobile gadgets with such alternative energy as well.

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Many of you out there have already been talking about Negroponte’s $100 Laptop for kids and I guess that’s also because of the useful and integrated wind-up mechanism that generates enough power to run this machine without connecting it to any electrical socket. To my mind that’s THE best part of it – despite the aim of introducing the computer world to future generations.
How about if we could have a wind-up handle / dynamo system ready for our current laptops/pdas/mp3 players/mobile phones (thx Bwana Baylis:-) ? I know there are some available already, but the market isn’t really that huge. And this quest for alternative energy resources isn’t just about buying solar panels or fixing dynamos to our gadgets – it’s about getting electrical power instantly – whenever we need it.
I think batteries should only be used as capacitors but not as primary energy resources. However, any interim solution like solar/dynamo is better than being dependent on power sockets.

Meanwhile, Lady Mbuzimoja’s notebook has a dead battery which needs to be replaced. She can’t get that battery in Kenya and instead of going for a sustainable and intelligent power supply, she has to settle with just another Li-On battery.
How come manufacturers are putting so much effort in making all those mobile gadgets more and more powerful while at the same time ignoring to answer questions on sustainable, reliable and intelligent power supply systems?

Kashionimoja

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my old CASIO fx-85v calculator

Isn’t it ironic?
Just when my studies are coming to an end and most arithmetic exams already written, I eventually realized today that I could actually go and substitute my beloved and almost rotten CASIO fx-85v calculator with a new one. Mind you – I’ve already reserved a few stickers for the cover of any new calculator – so this flag & car stuff will remain (Kiku’s style :-).
I think I got this one in 1992, and according to what other people use, this machinimoja here is old kabisa. SO OLD! The keys have a very soft, almost spongy pressure point, there’s no 2nd DOT display to double-check the last entry and some functions are missing.

Being a bit perfectionist on all buy-technology-matters, there’s this gap between the decision to buy a new calculator and the actual decision on which model it should be. I think I will go for this CASIO FX991MS CASIO FX-991ES scientific calculator, however, I just can’t decide…
Any recommendations? Thx!

Update:

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my new CASIO fx-991ES calculator

The difference between Mama fx-85v and Kijana fx-991ES is like driving my old Tembomoja compared to a 2006 Lexus GS. Both will get you from A to B, but using the new one is just much more convenient.

map-o-rama

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(click on image to enlarge)

"Maplecroft maps is a highly visual web-based resource which contains detailed country information for over 200 states and maps key social, economic, environmental and political issues and their significance to business and society.

The interactive map enables users to view an issue individually or in combination with other issues in order to illustrate the relationship between two or more associated topics.

This innovative tool is designed to raise awareness amongst corporations, government and non governmental organisations, academics and students of how an organisation’s operations interact with wider society, and how the risks and opportunities generated can be responsibly managed through stakeholder engagement and partnership.

For each specific issue, the map features:

    In-depth analysis – emphasising its impacts and significance to business and society in general, as well as providing a framework for action;

    Country shading – illustrating the pervasiveness and risk ranking of the issue being mapped;

    Traffic light system – applied to indicate whether the indicators relevant to the issue have increased, decreased or remained the same as in previous years;

    Hotspots – specific areas are identified that are currently severely affected by the issue;

    Case studies – positive and negative examples of how companies have managed the challenges that they have faced, in particular with respect to the interface between business and civil society.

The interactive map tool itself will be regularly updated with new features to make it easier and more enjoyable to use. New issues will be added to the tool at regular intervals, as well as enhancements and updates to existing issues, adding depth by incorporating new research, data, case studies and policy developments as they become available."
(source: http://maps.maplecroft.com/)

This is SUCH a great tool – in fact, I’ve been planing to do something like this (a web-based GIS overlay map) for the internet but these Maplecroft maps already contain all I ever needed. Great!!

[hat tip Black Looks!]