These songs take me back to good days, and bad days alike. Enjoy!
See how an Atlanta, GA (USA) based Kenyan entrepreneur took his business from a small two page newsletter into the largest newspaper serving Kenyans living in the States.
The commission that was appointed by Museveni to look at the fees hike at Makerere and other universities in Uganda is now out.
The commission unearthed corruption, embezzlement of funds, bad governance as well as commercilsation of education at East Africa’s premier education faculty now aged 85.
The 35pg dossier also cites lack of professionals to an extent that some faculties are managed by assistant lecturers instead of full professors. The report also adds that the accounting processes used are archaic creating loopholes for embezzlement. There was also a difference noted in the budget and the report figures that couldn’t be accounted for.
The institution also failed to account for all the monies generated as income to the university and also failed to explain the lack of professionals as well as the internal strife in the leadership ranks.
There is an urgent need to address the problems facing this institution and Museveni’s act is a step in the right direction.
Makerere has an alumnus that reads like who is who of East African leadership to world academia that should all rally around the university and support this sleeping giant.
It would be a terrible thing to waste.
I am a self confessed radio fan. Indeed the only thing I miss about the UK apart from the proper broadband bandwidth at affordable prices is BBC Radio 5 Live a talk radio station from the BBC that focused on news, politics and sport, yeah it’s like they built it for me. 5Live is not broadcast outside the UK unless you listen online so I’ve converted to the BBC World Service.
The BBC World Service is, in my opinion, Britain’s best export. It is certainly one of the widest exports, in every part of Kenya you can catch the BBC World Service on a local FM signal although some people seem to only tune in for the football updates! This is one of the reasons why the BBC World Service is not funded from the compulsory license fee that every British household pays but instead receives direct funding from the British government.
If you have ever lived in a war zone where news is restricted or indeed anywhere that has a less than independent media or a single media source you learn to appreciate it more. In Ethiopia in the 1980s everyone had one of those short wave radios where you can catch radio stations from around the world and everyone started their day with the BBC World Service. It was a routine, 6am switch on the World Service for the news. Then after that some would turn to hear what Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale or Portuguese news stations had to say, but you started with the BBC. You also hear of many resistance fighters/warlords/revolutionaries that refuse to speak to anyone apart from the BBC because they believe that only the BBC will report what they say accurately.
For a few years I used to call CNN’s Inside Africa programme “Inside South Africa”. It seemed like every other story was on South Africa. South Africa economy, South African art, South African music, it seemed like the rest of the continent got around 5 minutes. These days things are different although to be honest I have watched an episode of Inside Africa or indeed an hour of CNN since I moved back. When listening to the BBC World Service these days I am sometimes tempted to call it the BBC Nigeria and India and a little bit of the rest of the world Service. I have learnt more about Nigerian and India in the last 6 months than I have in the last 20 years. But since a lot of the comments and calls seem to come from those two countries I guess it is only fair. Which came first eh? The chicken or the egg?
Alan Graham Johnston is a BBC World Service journalist. He was born just down the road and across Mount Kilimanjaro in Lindi, Tanzania. He was kidnapped by an unknown group of gunmen in Gaza on March 12, 2007. Some feel that with all that is going on in Kenya and in Africa it can be hard to give a toss about some mzungu journalist that was captured gallivanting across the Middle East. I however appreciate the work these journalists do bring us stories from many different places. I also appreciate that this world is truly becoming a global village, and what would be the point of me having a blog if I did not engage with issues outside my daily routine and life? I also remember how bloggers and activists from all over the world rushed to help the Kenyan blogosphere publicize the attack on the Kenyan media by official thugs led by the so called Artur brothers. The Alan Johnson button will go up on my blog, I hope you put it up on yours too.
© Mentalacrobatics for Mentalacrobatics, 2007. | Permalink | 6 comments
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What inspired you to become an author and begin writing about Africa’s entrepreneurs?
My wife and I were guests of the people of Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia for two weeks in August 2000. We found ourselves impressed by the beauty of Africa and the hospitality of its people. The Ethiopia of 2000 reminded me of South Korea as it was in 1962 and 1963 when I had the pleasure of serving in Korea as a lieutenant with the U.S. Army’s Transportation Corps. Our suppliers were from the private sector in South Korea, and it was the local entrepreneurs who became the engines of growth for the future development of South Korea. Having graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1961 and having spent my business career (1964–1988) as an entrepreneur in Kansas, I found myself becoming interested in the opportunities for entrepreneurs in Africa. Upon returning to the United States, I began researching for this study. In my search for successful entrepreneurs in Africa, I became aware of the opportunities and roadblocks that the cultural, economic, social, political, and physical environments provide in Africa. This newfound awareness has led me to search for actual or proposed projects and policy changes that are or could be of great benefit for the people of Africa and the entrepreneurial environment.