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23:37
Happy birthday, Marvin!
» Black Looks Marvin Gaye was born on 2 April 1939. Happy Birthday to him. © and photo credit: http://photo.sing365.com Stephen calls him a silky soul singer, which I think is a darn good description. He was born Marvin Pentz Gay, but stuck an “E” to his surname to avoid misunderstandings. Remember I heard it through the grapevine? He followed [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Happy birthday, Marvin!", url: "http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/04/happy_birthday_marvin.html" });
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21:20
Tibet, China, and the west: empires of the mind
» Kenya Imagine The sudden escalation of protest by Tibetans in Lhasa and elsewhere in March 2008 has been accompanied by vigorous rhetoric from the Chinese state reaffirming its sovereignty over Tibet and strong counter-arguments from Tibetans claiming the right to self-determination.
Read more from Dibyesh Anand here. -
Plot 10
» Kenya Imagine I lived in a two-roomed 'flat' that my mother had secured from a friend who was leaving the country for a while. The two rooms were connected by a single door and were part of a row of rooms collectively called a Plot as the whole building is built on a piece of land 1/8 of an acre.
Read more from Juliet Maruru here.
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20:55
Kenyan gov't is senile...
» Rants, Raves & Reviews Why are the Kenyan police tear-gassing peaceful demonstrations?
What is wrong with the government idiots - well, they are idiots... - that they order crackdowns of this nature?
Africa has a disease. It is the Big Man Syndrome. It effects are felt in Zimbabwe & Gabon. In Kenya & Uganda. In Libya & Egypt.
Who do they look upto? Pol Pot?
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15:43
Tackling Language with Technology in Africa
» White African My parents were linguists, they worked to create a written language for the Toposa of southeastern Sudan. From a young age the importance of language was impressed upon me, but it was academic… How many other 8 year olds do you know that are aware that there are 134 distinct Sudanese languages of which 8 are extinct?
Academic understanding of language barriers becomes real-life frustration for me as I try and cover the web and mobile space in Africa. For instance, I’d love to know more about, and do a write-up on the following:
- Ivoire Blog - The new blogging platform for Cote D’Ivoire
- Akopo - A social media and blogging platform for Cameroonians
- Mboasu - A new West African mobile remittance product
However, it’s hard for me to track, contact and write about services like these that are popping up in Francophone or Arabic-speaking Africa, simply because I lack the language skills.
Sometimes I come across what looks to be an interesting blog - usually due to visuals since I can’t read it. I then filter that blog through a tool like Google’s Translation service and get back a nicely garbled bunching of English words that I then work towards deciphering into usable chunks.
(did you know that approximately 50% of the African continent speaks French?)PALDO - An African Language Initiative
These types of thoughts were running through my head, when I got an email about an upcoming meeting (April 2, 2008) and initiative called The Pan-African Living Dictionary Online (PALDO). They are attempting to create an interlinked multilingual dictionary for African languages. It is being built upon the foundation of the well-known Kamusi Project, which developed a useful online Swahili/English dictionary.PALDO is particularly hoping for participation from programmers, linguists, database experts, lexicographers and past users with experience in other online dictionaries.
It’s encouraging to see that this is in partnership with Kasahorow, who is working to solve the problem of localized computer input methods for languages. Basically, create a keyboard that works for multiple language clusters.A couple years ago I wrote a post about technology versus tribal languages in Africa. It’s a HUGE hurdle to overcome when creating web and mobile platforms that you would like to take to the whole African market. It’s why so many companies do great stuff in their local market, maybe even their region, but fail getting pan-African adoption.
It’s unclear how PALDO will solve some of these issues. However, I’m always interested in seeing how aggregation and visualization of data can be used to create better products, or bring insight into areas where things are so confused.
One thing is for sure though, PALDO won’t solve my personal communications issues - what I need to do is go learn French and re-learn Arabic.
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14:18
Kenyans teargassed for demanding lean Cabinet
» Kenyan Pundit Details from one of the people who took part in the march can be found here. I’m happy to see that civil society is keeping up the pressure. I hope other Kenyans, especially middle-class Kenyans and those who have the luxury (responsibility?) of shifting our political paradigm but who are only too happy to [...]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Kenyans teargassed for demanding lean Cabinet", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/04/01/kenyans-teargassed-for-demanding-lean-cabinet/" });
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12:40
Mugabe to Step Down, Mbeki Saves Zimbabwe
» You Missed This Following defeat in last weekend’s general election, President Mugabe is set to step down before the MDC opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai is formally declared winner by Zimbabwe’s electoral commission (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/ 7325286.stm). Predictably Mugabe is playing tough and using cronies to deny any deal and whether he will accept defeat is anybody's guess.
After playing delaying tactics in which he ordered ZEC to announce piecemeal neck-to-neck presidential votes’ results to stem celebrations and conflicts, President Mbeki has finally convinced Mugabe to step aside after the electoral humiliation. Mbeki’s prompt action in chairing a meeting with Mugabe’s advisers, military chiefs and the opposition leaders has saved Zimbabwe from going the Kenyan way.
Political dinosaurs
And that marks the political demise of another dinosaur. It only a matter of time before Africa gets rid of all despots who rape their countries I the misplaced belief that they fought for independence and ruling is a right by any means. Poor Tsvangirai has eventually realized his long fought dream. But the basket case country he inherits will challenge his capabilities to the hilt.
Poor Mugabe! The old man should have seen it coming were it not for his selfish cronies and so-called veterans who blinded him from reality. He didn’t have to wait for such an unceremonious exit. But again that is the language dictators know best. Following the collapse of the Berlin wall 20 years ago, Africa is on a swing to rid herself this decade of all despots.
Update 1:
Meanwhile minister for information has denied existence of any deal. Similarly the MDC has refuted reports of entering in any deal before ZEC announces official results. Exuding confidence demands to know from who has won. Well, the denial ritual sounds so familiar. All the speculation indicates something is cooking. It won't be long though before the truth comes out.
Meanwhile releasing results showing close contest sounds so Kenyaish. Birds of a feather or age mates sharing inverted wisdom?
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11:20
Abnormal Service Resumes
» What An African Woman Thinks I was browsing the New York Times and came across this. Three hundred thousand whooping thingamajigs.
Wow. I want. So now how? It’s enough to get you blogging again.
Well, almost.
So what do I have to do to get noticed anyway?
Life is back to a new kind of normal for me. I’ve picked up the dreams about leaving this daily slog and moving on to the next thing where I left off, sometime mid-December. If ever there was a sign that normal is back, there it is.
And, I’m back to school with Bata. At my age, school is hard. What was I waiting for, a bell?
But, hard aside, I’m enjoying it. Imagine it. Believe it. I have the funnest classmates in town. And the lecturers aren’t half bad either. I’ve been known to walk out of courses I’ve paid full fees for because I thought the lecturers were (fill in the blank). So far, these ones are almost worth the fees I’m paying.
In other non-news, plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose.
I hear there’s bickering about Cabinet Posts. I couldn’t say for sure because I’ve officially banned me from watching the news or reading anything even remotely related to Kenyan political news. For the sake of my mind. I've only one you see, and I'm intent on not loosing it.
It's interesting to see though, that despite the fact that the political class has not got much of its act together and there’s hardly much governing going on except by the perennial civil servant class, things seem to be chugging along just fine.
It would seem to me therefore, that the role of politicians in Kenya ought to be confined to “staying out of trouble and letting Kenyans get on with our business.” Full stop.
Constitutional lawyer anybody?
In the meantime, our once again mundane middle class lives have been set abuzz by the Safaricom IPO. The people, they are liquidating assets, I tell ya. And me, I'm with the people. Gotta get me a slice of that 10 billion-share cake.It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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9:22
Figure This Out!
» For Love and Money Figure This Out!
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9:12 How to Immigrate to Australia Within a Week: Introduction
» The Displaced African How to Settle Comfortably in Australia Within a Week
Who Is This Guide For?
This guide is written for two groups of people. First and foremost, students who have received their invitation letters to come study in Australia and are now wondering, “What happens between now and my first University class?” This guide was written to help you get settled. By ‘get settled’ I mean: transition from adult life within an African society to African life in this Western society and that entails:
a) Being fully prepared to engage as a student without having to worry about tieing up any loose ends
b) Having a consistent source and constant access to income so as to support yourself.
c) Being in touch with your family and friends back in Africa.
d) Forming new and fulfilling relationships here.
e) Having a place of worship (sorry, here I can only speak from experience as a Christian but will try to guide everyone else appropriately)
f) Having a roof over your head
g) Being able to get around
Secondly and to a lesser extent, this is for the skilled migrants coming into Australia. Whereas not every tip in this guide will apply to you, most of them will and it can also act as a great guide for how to get some of the stuff I have described in the dot points above.
This guide is written from my personal experiences, anecdotes and observation of my friends, family and acquaintances. It is not an official guide , but rather a human being trying to guide another through the murky waters of immigration.
I want this guide to be like Wikipedia: done for us by us. So if there is anything missing out of this guide or you want to add a little flavor to the guide, please feel free to get in contact with me or leave a comment and let me know. I would also love to hear about your experiences using this guide so please let me know about that as well.
Below is a dot point check-list that I shall work through over the coming days to ensure that no stone is unturned in the process of getting you settled. So, tomorrow we begin with the most important tip of all……suspense music plays……….
The Check-List
Before Arriving in Australia
When you arrive
- Get yourself a mobile phone line–Optus
- Apply for a permanent address that your mail goes to.
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Attend a driving school if you have enough money to and/or will need to drive around for any reason.
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Once you have a permit, some ideas about where to get work from.
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English problems
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Relationships
- Text books, stationery and accesories
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8:07
Jamani???
» My Life is...Mochalicious! Jamani??? Originally uploaded by Mocha! Yaani….some mamis are just an embarassment to other women. Take a look at this mami…..I have to admit, as a chic….I acknowledged that she had a timam body, but this pic brings new meaning to….”If you got it, flaunt it.” Chic was a [...]
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8:02
Fair And Handsome
» tHiNkEr'S rOoM Prousette found something interesting in this weekend’s paper
Few are unfamiliar with the Fair and Lovely brand. Fewer still would be unfamiliar with their ad.
This features an unfortunate maiden, handicapped not by education, brains, wit, binocular vision or bipedal motion, but by the curse of skin that is a rich ebony. This chocolatey skin serves her during job interviews the same way a dangling rat’s tail from the side of her mouth would. She is dismissed with nary a cursory glance by the interviewers upon ascertaining she is not the complexion of the average foolscap.
On the dating scene matters are just as grim. Tall dark and handsome strangers pass her in the street as if she was simultaneously suffering from leprosy and gangrene.
Until of course an ever helpful friend gushingly tells her of a new product … Fair and Lovely.
Within weeks (says the ad, accompanied by time delay photos) our maiden’s face and hands become lighter and lighter. I assume the rest of her becomes lighter as well. We can’t have the mask and glove effect, can we?
It is only with her light skin that she is able to wow interviewers with her charm, intelligence and natural wit. A leering doofus in the next cubicle leers some more. On her way out suitors at attention line up.
Ah, what magic a little cream can do!
It would seem that men are laboring under similar yokes. They fail to get jobs, attention, dates because of their unnaturally rich chocolatey skin. This is a theorem I welcome with open arms as I find it fully consistent with my self esteem issues.
Good news my fellow brethren! Fair and Handsome is here.
Apparently men’s skin needs to be fair because it is
- 3 times more exposed to the sun
- 5 times more exposed to pollution
- 2 times more exposed to stress factories
Let me start you off with the opening lines
Emami, in collaboration with Activor Corp, USA, herbalists and dermatologists from India has created a unique fairness cream for Men with a breakthrough Five Power Fairness System to make skin fair and handsome in 4 weeks. It also helps in relieving stress and fatigue signs - gives men’s tough skin a firmer look. Emami Fair And Handsome World’s No.1 fairness cream protects men’s face from sun’s UV Rays.
Right on!
For more fun get there and enjoy.
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Hanging Out With The Generals
» For Love and Money Hanging Out With The Generals
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6:04
BREAKFAST WITH MUGABE by Fraser Grace
» Kenyanpoet BREAKFAST WITH MUGABE by Fraser Grace
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The Real Face Of The IDP Problem In Kenya
» You Missed This Last night I went to bed a very sad woman after watching a special presentation on IDPs on TV. I won’t say I was shocked at the fact that there are IDPs in Kenya, but I will say I was disturbed at the stories they had to tell. For the most part we talk of them as a group. As the aftermath of a bungled election. It’s when their personal stories are brought to the fore that it really hits home. Kenyans are suffering big time. Their tired haunted faces are evidence of the trauma they have gone through after voting for leaders who are now too warped in power games to engage in any thoughtful reflection of their plight. The heavens have finally opened and the camps are cold, wet and damp. The ladies are lacking the much needed privacy that every woman needs sometimes. And let’s not forget the couples who crave a few moments of privacy for obvious reasons. This crucial God given part of their lives is virtually no more – at least for now. And as if that is not enough, in some camps the dark cloud of possible forceful eviction hangs over their heads every time of day.
Teresiah Wairimu had managed to rebuild her life in Burnt forest after her property was destroyed in the 1992 tribal clashes. Now she’s living in Kirathimo camp in Limuru and has lost track of her daughter and 2 grand children. She remembers painfully her house, sheep, cattle and all the other farming activities she undertook and that meant so much to her. She doubts that she can go back to Burnt Forest to risk a third round.
Kioko grew up in Mathare and knows no other home. He was the breadwinner and used to pay rent for his mother and school fees for his younger sister. During the post election violence, everything he owned was destroyed and his one hand was chopped off. His mother and sister now live in an IDP camp and the hitherto able bodied and hard working young man now looks up to friends for shelter and upkeep.
There was a lady whose name I didn’t quite get. She had built a life for herself and her children in Naivasha. After the violence she went back to her ancestral home in Siaya. She cannot go back to Naivasha since everything she owned was burned to the ground. She recently lost her last born daughter to pneumonia. She and the rest of her children are unwell too.
This is not to take you on a guilt trip for having 3 square meals a day and sleeping on a comfortable bed, but rather to highlight the suffering that our fellow Kenyans are going through. The hope they felt when the peace deal was signed on February, 28th is turning into frustration as it slowly hits home that the deal was about political maneuvering and lust for power and money. The possibility of going back home further dwindled with reports that leaflets are already circulating in some areas warning them against it. As Chris says, some of the farms already have new owners as witnessed by the young boy who sneaked out of a camp in Eldoret to go and fetch his beloved bicycle. Their worst fear is that in the new found peace, the momentum will slow and they’ll be forgotten as soon as they’re given iron sheets and nails.
It is not all doom and gloom though. Some people have gone back to their homes to start rebuilding afresh. Artists in Kibera are using their painting talents to preach messages of peace, love and brotherhood. Nakuru residents declared that they’re ready to accommodate everyone regardless of tribe, and help them rebuild their lives. There are individuals like Mary Chepkwony, popularly known as Mama Amani in her area, who along with fellow women is spearheading peace and reconciliation initiatives her own small way. Thousands more Kenyans are making small efforts. Anything anyone does will not be in vain. It will all add up to the bigger picture.
The Red Cross and other groups can only do so much. We need to keep the accelerator jammed to the floor and step up the pressure on the government until the very last one of them is resettled. As much as patience is also a form of action, it can only stretch so far.
Kumekucha is very jealous, why is everybody talking about the hottest new gossip site ever seen run by some lady called Joan? Joan kitu gani? Rumour even has it that it has overtaken Kumekucha in terms of traffic. But that is impossible? How?!! It is only 4 days old. HOW?? Check it out for yourself HERE.
P.S. But please come back and keep it Kumekucha.
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ECK Internal Report on 2007 Election
» Kenyan Pundit ECK is basically absolving itself of any wrongdoing as far as the presidential vote tallying. The full report is here. A summary of the disparities in the report (in comparison to what observers reported) can be found here. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "ECK Internal Report on 2007 Election", url: "http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2008/04/01/eck-internal-report-on-2007-election/" });
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2:47
IPO Train: full on board
» bankelele IPO Train: full on board
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[nt]
» Kenyanpoet