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Kikuyumoja's realm

• June 24, 2008
• 18:35

  Knowledge Centres for sanitation and waste management

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  east Africa  

  Just a short note on an interesting e-mail I’ve received today on the ecosanres Yahoo!Group on ecological sanitation: The (dutch NGO) WASTE “on behalf of the Programme Board of the INTEGRATED SUPPORT FOR A SUSTAINABLE URBAN ENVIRONMENT (ISSUE) programme” puts out an open tender for Knowledge Centres with tasks related to sanitation and waste mangement.

  This is an invitation for a bid for the provision and distribution of ‘knowledge’ for the implementing partners of the ISSUE programme for a period ending on December 31, 2010. …Interested parties who have the pre-requisite experience in running and managing Knowledge Centres are requested to submit technical and financial proposals and any other supporting documentation not later than 1 August 2008.

  Why is this interesting?

  1. “Countries specifically asked to respond are: India, Vietnam, Benin, Kenya or Tanzania, Malawi or Zambia”
     Please note the “or”. As in: “one regional office will do.” Kenya vs Tanzania. Obviously, an opportunity for Kenyan experts.
  2. You may probably know that I am an admin at the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (website, whose link i will not repeat because our website is currently being relaunched and still too shabby to be shown around…*cough* *cough*) and we or at least I quite frequently come across ppl who are willing to do something but are lacking the adequate funding and/or don’t know how to apply for funds. Neither do I! However, what I do know is that funds - as limited as they are - will be made available once there are suitable local partners. So, what is actually required (I think!) are much more local networks that will help those funding agencies to approach a local market. And with “funding agencies” I am not only talking about the usual suspects aka dev aid orgs who make a living out of “helping” the poor. Instead, think of businesses from abroad, companies from the US and Europe who would like to invest into an African market and often don’t know whom to approach at first hand. Such a “knowledge centre” for the reproduction and dissemination of knowledge could be a perfect incubator (ok, now that is vc lingua already) for healthy businesses.
  3. The assignments runs from 2008 till 2010, the end of the ISSUE
     programme. The total budget (3 years) for each KEN will be approximately:
     Latin America (Costa Rica):   235000 Euro
     South East Asia (Vietnam):   170000 Euro
     South Asia (India):  145000 Euro
     West Africa (Benin):  145000 Euro
     East Africa (Kenya or Tanzania):  170000 Euro
     Southern Africa (Zambia or Malawi  140000 Euro

  Guys, what I am talking about is this upcoming market of sustainable toilet facilities that will rock communities across the globe in future. Just think of the Adopt-A-Light initiative (and what the GoK did to them once they realized there’s money to be made).
  “Knowledge Centres”  - to me - are local networks that provide much more than just a nice budget for a two years period. Hence this open tender is a first qualification programme to see who will be able to pool other consultants/manufacturers in and who will prepare the market for the future.

  In other words: THERE’S MONEY TO BE MADE FROM “WASTE”. Think about it next time you toss out stuff out of your car window or go to toilet.

  (disclaimer: “sanitation as a business” is my favourite subject ….pole :-)

  AOB: Link of the week - PicLens - an advanced image viewer plugin for FF that will provide you with a “haiiaaaaaa”-effect. Try it!

  

• June 18, 2008
• 17:00

  Daifuku Mochi

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  chakula  

  What you see here is my more or less successful attempt at making Daifuku-Mochi - “a Japanese confection consisting of a small round mochi (glutinous rice cake) stuffed with sweet filling, most commonly anko, sweetened red bean paste made from azuki beans.”

  

  You know I’d found Mochi from Taiwan on sale at an Asia Shop in Seville, Spain the other day and was wondering why it isn’t sold in Germany as well (the red bean paste is sold though).

  I used to make Mochi myself as a child - don’t ask me what kind of mochi that was (Japanese name for it?), but basically I would just mix glutinous rice flour with water, literally pound it until it becomes a homogeneous mixture and then form small balls which would then be thrown into boiling water. Once they’ve changed their colour from white to semi-transparent and floating on top, they’re ready. Just leave them to cool off and then dip them into a mixture of soja bean flour & sugar.

  Note to myself: this is one of those recipes where Mr and Mrs Calories will come during the night and pull out their sewing kit to work on your clothes. Bad.

  Anyways, this time I tried a Daifuku recipe I’d found on the net and mixed 150ml of glutinous rice (flour) with 150ml of water, stirr it in a heated pot until it changes its colour and then let it cool down. After cooling, form little balls (~ hush puppies) and fill them with red bean paste. Didn’t work out that well. I will stick to my old method in future and mix everything once it’s still cold, then boil it et voilá. There’s nothing more sticky than glutinous rice…

  (Talking about calories, the current schedule is 2x/week running and 1x/week swimming - how plausible is this disclaimer btw? :-).

  

• 15:52

  the FF3 map

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  kompyuta  

  There are those maps out there which are based on statistical data - assumed, accumulated and unproven figures that may indicate a certain trend and/or just show what the situation has been when the data was collected.

  When we look at today’s map of Firefox 3 downloads worldwide in just 24 hours (for a world record):

  

  …I really wonder what ppl will say about this in future, and also how many organizations will take THIS as a basis for their future planing on the availability of internet access, the spread of alternative internet browsers (such as the Firefox 3 suite) and what kind of internet-saturation (?) it takes to actively participate in such a call for a world record (read: the request to download FF3 on this particular day was imho promoted through the blogosphere? If so, it could be a nice indicator for the blogosphere).

  However - 8,9 million downloads in just one day are just impressive!

  

• June 15, 2008
• 19:25

  49 minutes

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  mazingira  

  …on why waste = food.

  “The goal is very simple and technical. And the goal is a very delightfully, safe, healthy and just world with clean air, soil, water and power, economically, equitably, ecologically and elegantly enjoyed.”

  Enjoy! :-)

  (disclaimer: a) just found this while searching for the Silent Spring link on my previous post, b) Braungart is (was) my professor @ varsity, c) I’ve already mentioned their philosophy aka the Cradle-to-Cradle approach a few times here on my blog since 2005. I really believe in the C2C idea and took up my work within ecosan because it’s one doable way to close the loop. Oh, and thx 4 this documentary!)

  

• 18:25

  well…

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  mazingira  

  I’ve (eventually) just watched “The Inconvenient Truth” for the first time and learned that:

  Apple MacBooks (Pro) seem to be great.

  Seriously, what’s so special about this documentary?

  [The film's director] Guggenheim, who was skeptical at first, later saw the presentation for himself, stating that he was “blown away,” and “left after an hour and a half thinking that global warming [was] the most important issue. . . . I had no idea how you’d make a film out of it, but I wanted to try,” he said.
  (source)

  Sorry folks, but - as much as I appreciate activism and Al Gore’s commendable approach to inform ppl “city by city” - I think the film’s main purpose is to inform ppl about an already happening climate change and that they themselves can and have to do something about it. I think he even says that during the film.

  If it takes such an approach - fine, good job, Mr Gore.

  But where’s the news*? Oh, wait - someone just told me: “THAT already IS big news for the USA.”

  Ok, now I got it.

  (*here = putting these alternatives or positive aspects in focus instead of just showing what’s so bad about climate change. Me thinks we’ll need more documentaries on how change has already been implemented by normal folks like you or me and what we can do to further improve it.
  Also, I’m just surprised that the whole world (ok, ./. the USA) is already talking about these issues since the publication of “The Silent Spring” in 1962 and yet only through a much celebrated and half-baked documentary this important issue is put in front of iPhone-loving consumers in the US who apparently need a multimedia slide-show to understand the danger of a climate change and on the other hand - as a majority - hardly ever question the impacts their industrial progress has had on the environment in the past.
  I also think that the environment will not only be saved by reducing our emmissions, but also by changing our products and the way we consume stuff every day. Such an important message though isn’t conveyed in the documentary, so my criticism is towards this and that Al Gore or rather the filmmaker didn’t use the opportunity to even provide much more “what YOU can do to help”-approaches/messages once everyone is already listening/watching. For instance, this “run for congress”-appeal is only shown in the end titles /credits of the documentary. Why?).

  

• June 13, 2008
• 19:04

  CP-218

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  burudani  

  What’s this?

  

  

  Right, it’s Nokia’s CP-218 wrist band that currently sells at 7,99 EUR and moves your (GPS enabled and mp3 playing) phone to one of your arms/wrists.

  With such a dead simple design, it’s almost crying for a DIY approach. But then….why bother if you can buy it?
  Comes with an extra hole for headphones and just adds value to any portable device you’ll want to carry around while doing sports.

  AOB: LINK OF THE DAY! ==> Opera@USB , a portable version of the popular Opera browser for use on your USB / flash drive. Totally awesome speed, comes with great features and is a must-have on my collection of portable tools on a flash drive.

  

• June 11, 2008
• 18:57

  Yes We Can

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  FFM  

  How do I explain this?

  Those tables full of bananas should be interesting enough for a blog post (at least to me), but maybe I should start with my own little story:

  Last year in March upon returning from Kenya, I realized I should cough up some mbeca and invest them into a good pair of running shoes - which I actually never had before, only “cross trainers”, which are like heavy weight shoes used for a firm stand while playing tennis (@ Impala Club when that membership fee was still affordable).
  Shortly after their purchase, they quickly started to rot in the darkest corner of my closet, even though I took them with me to Frankfurt. Keeping your running shoes around is a perfect reminder that will nag on your conscience: Yeah, I should do more sports and well…oh…there’s something online I’ll still need to check out…oh…I am too tired today.

  Some days ago, I reactivated my almost new running shoes and started jogging. I did this because a) it feels good, b) I am slightly overweight *cough* *cough* and c) I’d registered for the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge 2008 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany - which is “an annual series of 3.5-mile (5.63 km) road footraces” taking place in 12 different cities worldwide.

  Mind you, I may be good at other things, but I am bloody beginner when it comes to doing sports (ok, tennis back in the days and some beloved swimming from time to time), but it also started way back in school when I used to be the last one selected for teams. You know it yourself how mean kids may be - if you’re bad at sports, you’ll always be an outsider in some way, especially if your sports teacher is the same who teaches you mathematics. This teacher actually advised me after graduation not to study any scientific subject and, fortunately, I didnt listen to him. Obviously, there was still an open issue on this for me and I needed to prove it to myself that my teacher was wrong in 1996. A personal affair, if you will.

  Now, running. Damn, it feels so good. The last time I had tried that was in Nairobi, trying to find a good route without potholes. But still, running never was THE sport for me, and this although it’s just very simple and you won’t even require proper shoes or other equipment. Just start, set yourself a target, see how it works, et voilá.

  Ok, back to the JPMorgan Chase. When I came to Frankfurt in June 2007, I didn’t have time to register for the 2007 Chase and consequently had to witness it from the sidewalk. I did see a lot of other - overweight - ppl taking part, and - considering the relatively low 5,6km distance - realized that IF these ppl are taking part, I should also try it.

  So here you go:

  

  What you receive is a bag with a T-Shirt, your starting number, some free magazines on running and some glucose. Approx. 10% of your starting fee will be donated to a charity organisation and you get the chance to actually run together with the CEO of your company (cool guy, btw, he beat me by 4 minutes) and around 73.718 other ppl from 2.589 (more or less competing) companies.

  

  RUN LOCAL WORK GLOBAL - our motto (sic!)….

  

  and too….

  

  …many…

  

  …runners.

  

  73.719 runners are A LOT!

  

  They actually had two starting points due the huge amounts of ppl. The Chase started at 7:30pm, but I only managed to cross the line at 8:20pm….

  It really is a huge events, even with half-naked Brasilian ladies at the road side doing some samba for those who like it… some companies also seem to invest a lot of money into this event and equip their staff with shirts and other corporate things. Actually, it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

  

  After around 40 minutes, I eventually managed to pass the finishing line. Not bad for a beginner, if I may say so. With such a huge amount of ppl on the road, it really isnt that easy to run with no obstacles in the way, but still, great fun, some sports and:

  

  Lots of waste….

  

  Lots of empty bottles…and….

  

  BANANAS from here up to the end of the world.

  Now you know where they are eaten.

  

  My plan actually included providing you with a link to the fabulous Nokia Sportstracker website and my profile there, but do to the narrow roads in downtown Frankfurt, GPS reception was a bit distorted on my N95, so Sportstracker didn’t work. If you own a modern Nokia S60 phone and enjoy running, this little utility really adds value to your phone. Used it the other day to track my speed and distance.

  

  After the Chase, we enjoyed some good beers and watched Turkey scoring a 2:1 against Switzerland. What you see in the pic above is the illuminated opera of Frankfurt. Liked the colours.

  Ok, the JPMorgan Chase was great fun and I think I’ll be at it again next year - and in the meantime, I’ll have to train for October, because that’s when I’ll have a little 10km competition with members of my extended family. So yes, if you want it, you can do it.

  n.b.: other positive side-effects of a regular running habit: you get to sweat much less and/or start sweating at a much later point while walking around under the sunshine. In other words, this whole ecosystem inside my body has improved and will certainly continue to improve. For a non-sportive person like me, this improvement is the biggest advantage.

  

• June 05, 2008
• 13:55

  World Environment Day @ work

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  Ujerumani  

  So today is World Environment Day and I had actually planed not to cover this special day as I am dealing with environmental issues almost every day and would actually have to blog on it every day then. Just similar to what World Water Day means to me (not much as a *special occasion* from my very own pov, that is).

  However, as I went for lunch with my colleagues today, we found the following flyer(s?) on our tables and I instantly thought: hey, i’ve gotta blog this. ..

  .So, here you go:

  

  And? What’s the message?

  • Locally grown carrots produce less carbon dioxide emissions than avocados that were imported via airplanes.
  • Argentinian beef steak has a (calculated) carbon emission of 6,79kg/kg if transported via ship.
  • Energy saving / compact fluorescent lamps of 11W save an equivalent of 469kg of carbon emissions when compared to conventional bulbs @60W and a life expectancy of 15.000h.
  • Take your bike to work and contribute to a better environment
    (which would be ~ 12 km one way for me).
  • …and: calculate your own carbon footprint - which takes into account ALL data. Average carbon emission of Joe User in Germany (according to this site!) is around 10t/a, and I was just below it with ~ 8t/a. Still, lots of room for improvements. My colleague had ~ 25t/a! What’s yours?

  Lesson learned: everything is interconnected, interwoven to a huge network of reasons and causes. Eating expensive and imported avocados from Kenya that cost at least 1,- EUR each and come at the size of an egg (sic!) are much more problematic than local food.
  It prolly produces even more carbon emissions than the printing and distribution of such flyers to a staff / target group that is already sensitized for the world’s burning issues (health, water, sanitation, energy, transport, urbanisation, HIV, Malaria, war, greed, etc. etc.). …

  No, seriously, World Environment Day is here to remind all of us that environmental protection starts with our own environmental awareness and that we can not just sit back and wait for some Messiah to come and give us a working solution. Rethink your actual behaviour and identify the potential.
  (And this, although I am a strong defender of the Braungart/McDonough theory, e.g. how nice it would be to have a 2nd - green - industrial revolution where the reduction of *bad behaviour* isn’t a solution (= consuming less is still harmful), but instead identifying and using materials whose biological and technical nutrients remain in an loop. Ecosan is one of such approaches….but that’s another story :-).

  

• 12:18

  die Schreibschutzschalter Story (rant)

   » ‎ Kikuyumoja's realm

  Tags:  whatever  

  Wenn man bei einem Büroversand (”Büroartikel- und Schreibwarenversand für Firmen und Gewerbetreibende mit breitgefächertem Warensortiment”) einen bestimmten Artikel bestellt und dieser wiederholt falsch geliefert wird - was denkt man sich dann?

  *Ärgerlich*?

  Es gibt bei den zZt angebotenen USB Sticks am Markt ungefähr 2-3 Modelle, die über einen Schreibschutzschalter verfügen. Da meine Kollegen hier öfters verreisen und dabei auf internationalen Konferenzen Dateien über USB Speichersticks austauschen, habe ich hier eingeführt, dass wir nach Möglichkeit nur noch Schreibgeschützte USB Sticks verwenden, um zumindest das Infektionsrisiko durch Malware zu verringern. Ebenso hatte ich angeregt, als Austauschplattform ein freies OS von LiveCD (~ Ubuntu, etc.) laufen zu lassen, auf dem sich malware vom Speicherstick nicht vermehren kann.

  Bestellt hatte ich dann den HAMA USB Fancy 4 GB Stick, der an der Seite über einen Schreibtschutzschalter vefügt und damit sein Manko - eine lahme Geschwindigkeit - wieder einigermaßen ausgleicht:

  

  Aufgrund der Tatsache, dass es hier so ein halbstaatlicher Verein ist und abrechnungstechnisch nur gegen Rechnung bestellt kann, hatte ich dann bei o.g. Büroversand drei Stück bestellt.

  Geliefert wurden am nächsten Tag 3 SanDisk Micro Cruzer 4 GB, mit ätzender U3 Software und natürlich alles ohne Schalter.
  Retour, Ware wurde wieder abgeholt und neu versandt. Dieses Mal kamen dann tatsächlich drei HAMA USB Fancy Sticks - allerdings ohne Schalter.

  Klar, zwischen der Bestellannahme und dem Disponenten im Lager gibts meist keine direkte Kommunikation. Schade. Denn wenn die Bestellannahme in einem extra Infofeld der Lagerfachkraft mal eben mitteilen könnte, dass der Kunde einen Schreibschutzschalter am Gerät wünscht und hierfür extra einen lahmen und überteuerten USB Stick von HAMA bestellt, dann könnte sich der Typ auch mal 10 Sekunden Zeit nehmen und durch die Blisterpackung deutlich erkennen, ob das Gerät einen Schalter hat. So etwas wird aber nicht gemacht. Stattdessen geht meine Arbeitszeit dafür drauf, falsch gelieferte Ware nachzubessern (von der Umweltbilanz ganz zu schweigen).

  Ärgerlich.

  Bei HAMA gab es vor einiger Zeit aufgrund von falsch gelieferter Ware eine Rückrufauktion, die sich endlich der allgemeinen Qualitätsproblematik bei USB Sticks annahm, wie sie hier auch schon an anderer Stelle erwähnt wurde.
  Ein kurzes Telefonat mit der Serviceabteilung bei HAMA und innerhalb einer Woche wurden alle schalterlosen Sticks (die ja nicht defekt waren, nur eben keinen Schalter hatten) kulant ausgetauscht. Fein! Problem gelöst. Vorerst.

  Vorgestern hatte ich dann noch zwei weitere USB Sticks mit Schalter bestellt, es kam sogar einer mit Schalter - der andere kam heute und war ein schalterloser von SanDisk.

  Ärgerlich.

  Es ist für mich absolut unverständlich, wieso es mittlerweile so wenige USB Sticks mit Schreibschutzschalter gibt. Gerade in großen Firmen, die oft nur einen unzureichenden Malwareschutz haben und ihre Firewall hauptsächlich in Richtung Internet aufbauen, ist ein verantwortungsvoller Umgang mit USB Sticks Voraussetzung für ein sicheres Arbeiten.
  Irgendwie ist das Thema “Schreibschutzschalter” noch nicht bei allen Verantwortlichen ankommen.