A cure for my Nervous Condition. An ode to my beloved African Continent and its People. Global pop culture. Sports. Movies. Fashion. Music. Gender. Race. Youth. Self and Communal Empowerment. Technology. Nonsense. Anything insightful or otherwise that I think you will enjoy ;}
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AMASHIWI
"Culture is the heritage of us all. some may be more interested than others in the treasures of the past, but no one can fail to take a pride in his country's participation in the story of mankind, as represented in carvings, sculpture, music, paintings and the other arts. And there is a personal commitment to this, for no man can really say he is alone: we are all joined through our identity, with the cultures which are part of the mainstream of life"
- Simon Kapwepwe, Zambian Independence Freedom Fighter
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm"- Winston Churchill
"Try to be the rainbow in someone else's cloud"- Maya Angelou
"Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinion drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition"- Steve Jobs
Showing posts with label Mobile Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mobile Technology. Show all posts
1. introverted, stay at home in the comfort of sweats, hoodie, and fluffy slippers mode;
2. motherl , loyal and caring side of me;
3. inner voice that stops me from being too crazy, makes sure I take care of myself.
NGangsta (n) - play on Ngosa and gangster (gansta/ G)
1. vivavious, up for anything, spontaneous, open, crazy, outgoing side of me;
2. boldy express myself through my appearance. Don't for anyone else though, but if you enjoy my look hey...
3. leads me into trouble sometimes, forgets to check in and make sure I'm not overworking coz this is the side that fuels the hustler, the boss: the Ndhlovukhazi Storyteller and gets me out and about .
My professional life brought out the curmudgeonly side of NG-ma for most of the year.
Connect with me on SnapChat @whoops.c
At the last minute have bailed on things, or just have flat out hidden away for months at a time in order to recharge and reemerge better, stronger and Ngangsta lol. These past few months I have been able to actually been the kind of present and supportive friend, Ndhlovukhazi Storyteller, and member of my community that I have been wanting to evolve into for the past couple of years.
A photo posted by Ngosa Whoopi Chungu (@whoops.c) on
Also, just about finding the sweet spot to the balance between NG-ma and Ngansta: the ying and yang, the right ratio of indivudual and simultaneous expressions of these extremes in my personality as that is what fuels my creativity. My writing, in particular, suffers acutely when things are out of wack. My family also suffers as my cooking tends to taste like poison and not love when I'm not regulated. Repatriating has been really hard on me these last 5 years. The opportunity cost of not living in the West has had a huge effect on my support systems, my engagement with the world, how I process life, and how I express myself. I am finally able to be comfortable in my own skin and with the things I still need to work at. I am finding the joy in imperfection again, as life is best lived in the pursuit of happiness, success and growth despite our flaws, the challenges we face and the pitfalls ahead.
A photo posted by the A.C.E. project (@aceprojectzed) on
Wishing you a happy Monday and hope that you find the motivation in your own life to keep calm and carry on, and that you are at peace with yourself, even if things aren't quite where you would like them to be right now!
To keep up-to-date daily with the epic battle between NG-ma and Ngangsta follow me on Instagram, and Twitter.
As you can see I spent a lot of time in the bundus.
This was my first day of shooting in Kalomo,
Southern Province, Zambia.
Though I did make a quick post in January, Happy New Year for the blog always starts with the Top 10 of the year before. So Happy New Year seeing as I don't really believe in new year starting on the 1st of January coz sometimes you just aren't ready. This year I had a lot more to contend with. Finally got traction in my professional life and got more than I bargained for, so from November 2012 to March 2013 I was somewhere in 8 of the 10 provinces in Zambia researching, script-writing and filming the Today with Zamtel show. After that was working on my documentary film project, then I went on a social media break and then I fell ill. So forgive me he he he he ;}.
Yes traditionally things commence anew in January but let's face it, some of us are not organised enough to be ready to start afresh when the Gregorian calender dictates, and seeing as this blog's new year technically is in May, as it was founded in that month in 2010, starting when ready has become a bit of a (bad?) habit. Last year we (yes I am using the Royal we) were together by February and what I said then still rings true now: It's not when you start, it's the starting that's important.
Luckily I am recovering well and can get back into the swing of things and get back writing for me not for anyone else. So without further ado here are the Top 10 Posts of 2012 with my favouritest first of course:
Check out the two MUNTUs I was able to post about too: Duncan and Towani.
I like the fact that most of these posts are Zambian themed. I think this marks me finally becoming connected with my national identity after decades of feeling constantly on the fringe, never really able to find my place in my country's society. YAY! I write this while also having a crisis of faith as I ponder moving to South Africa to be more creatively free. What would life be if there weren't such conundrums to torture one's soul...
Gilbert Mwiinga, BongoHive member and App developer, unveiling his Zambian Draft
Constitution Android App which he has since put on the Minister of Communications'
mobile phone. Photo by Silumesii Maboshe, Pencil Case Studios
On Monday 21st May, I attended the Launch of Mobile Monday Lusaka: MoMoLsk at TopFloor's Elunda 2, Rhodespark premises. The building is beautiful and TopFloor's facilities are amazing! They have a first and world class set-up with great conference facilities and a generally cool, hip, modern, innovative, youthful vibe which I'm sure helps to foster their goal to provide "business and technical Human Capital Development in Zambia." I digress, but what is new ;}. I will continue down this road of diversion as I need to get this off my chest before I continue. MoMoLsk sounds like a stammerer struggling to say mollusc and now all I can think of is snails while giggling to myself every time I say, write or read the acronym. For more about my love of silly, giggle-worthy and/ or witty names, read this post about Innocent Mugabe (yes that is the name of a real person).
MobileMonday is a global organisation that seeks to provide an "open community platform of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influential individuals fostering brand neutral cooperation and cross-border P2P business opportunities through live networking events to demo products, share ideas and discuss trends from both local and global markets. Originating in Helsinki, Finland in 2000, events are organised by some 300 dedicated volunteers from around the world and it has become an industry leading mobile platform. Chapters have held events in over 100 cities worldwide and [continues] to launch new locations monthly." The month of May was Zambia's turn to launch MobileMonday in Lusaka. The event was headed by Lead Organiser Gustaf Engstrand of Goe Consulting and was sponsored by BongoHive, Airtel Zambia, and TopFloor who hosted the event. Speakers included Airtel Zed's head honcho, former MD of Afri-Connect and one of the co-Founders of BongHive.
First we were treated to Airtel's charismatic Fayaz King, who absolutely marvelled with his presentation about how it's all about personalisation and the mobile phone being a lifestyle device with little calling and mostly entertainment and social media driving usage. As we move to 4G and beyond, it's all about getting a smartphone into Zambian hands that is less than $50 in order to migrate basic phone users who can't currently afford fancy communication technology. If you can read the sarcasm in my recounting, you are not imagining things. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed his presentation and his urging idea people and developers to come up with applications to give to Airtel and in return he would make them Appillionaires (millionaires from apps, get it, wink wink) with access to the 4 million customers in Zed and the 100+ million in Africa and the 250+ million in Africa and Asia if the App is really cool (I may have those numbers wrong, I am recounting all this from memory.) I write with sarcasm as I am talking about AirFAIL, I mean Airtel.
Unfortunately, because the presentations were so engaging, we weren't able to ask the panel questions as time ran out. If I had had the opportunity I would have asked Mr. King how exactly all this would happen, especially if he expects this to occur on his network which can't even make it to 4G, it's at 3.75 which is just weird. If I need internet access to develop my App and I use an Airtel dongle/ router that keeps cutting in and out how long will it take for me to get my work done? And all those customers he was talking about, will they even be able to access and use the App when even internet access directly from a phone is also prone to unreliability? If they are as frustrated as me by Airtel's blatant abuse of its customers, especially in Zed because Zambians are so complacent and are fine with being shafted and getting crap customer service, then Mr. King is deluded. So I say to Mr. King, you are a very passionate and smart man so can you please trickle some of that down to your irritatingly nonchalant people whom I've stopped talking to because they either don't answer the phone at Customer Service or say without shame or enthusiasm to make change that there is nothing they can do in-person at stores. Thanks. Then I will believe all you said in your presentation can happen...
The next presentation was by Mark Bennett: a hilarious and clearly ridiculously passionate and smart man who has been involved in the Zambian Telecommunications industry since 1985. He brought Africonnect to Zambia and recently resigned as Managing Director to focus on his medical, agricultural and educational websites. My favourite is iSchool, "a comprehensive online multi-media eLearning package designed to cover the whole of the Zambian School curriculum. This includes both full plans for teachers and interactive learning for students. iSchool has been built in Zambia using entirely local examples and all early grade material is available in 8 local languages as well as English. iSchool can provide all the resources necessary to make full use of the material anywhere in Zambia, including IT equipment, internet access, teacher training, mentoring and technical support." What's not to love: teachers having easy and free access to quality resources to teach our kids better, students of all ages being able to access material and the option to go back and catch up after years without schooling and most important, localisation of examples and voices. Local languages means that more of the population are included in education. Hearing a Zambian voice narrating in English is also really important as it helps to reverse the characterisation that if you have a certain accent then you are smart and if you don't you aren't. There are many a dumb person walking around speaking in posh British accents and some of those are faking it which is even worse. It also helps to show that we can do things we think can only be done overseas.
Simunza Muyangana, who co-founded BongoHive with Lukonga Lindunda, then gave a history of how the organisation started, and how it has expanded and spawned a sister organisation, Asikana Network, which launched two weeks ago. It is scary that in Zambia people who say they are interested in technology do not know definitions of key terms. You want to be an App developer and you don't know what Android is?! As Simunza said, it was imperative to create a space to root out people with technological expertise to be able to pass on their knowledge and foster innovation and talent incubation for Zed to become an ICT hub. BongoHive, Asikana and MobileMonday are all great efforts to do this. I also liked his emphasis on Zambians finding solutions to our problems and utilising our resources. It is clear that Africa is the place to mine for content to put on the Internet and to pursue new opportunities due to our positive economic growth despite the global financial climate and the fact that we are underserved with regards to services. He went on to say we shouldn't complain if someone from the outside comes in and creates and exploits opportunities and consequently lament we have been robbed because we allow this to happen by not being proactive. There is so much potential, and we live in an era were you don't need much to start-up something due to the affordances of technology and mobile in particular. This ability to create solutions through technology was best exemplified by Gilbert Mwiinga, who then demonstrated his App.
Last week on Facebook I had posted this link about the Naija Constitution App and thought it would be great if a Zed version for the Draft Constitution was created. The Technical Committee and various other interested parties have been complaining that citizens are not engaging and it is because they either have to trudge to some office to get a hard copy or have to access a soft copy on a computer via the Internet. Luckily we have Gilbert Mwiinga, who even though has confessed to not having read the document, (and to be honest though I have posted it on Facebook, I have only read the parts that people have highlighted in posts), has now made the Draft Constitution easily accessible thanks to his App. It breaks the Constitution up into lovely bite-sized chunks that you can ingest if you are only interested in particular parts or you can read the whole document at your leisure. You can even search and it will bring up all the sections of the Constitution pertaining to your inquiry. You can also share chunks with your friends on social media platforms, through email and good old sms. Just brilliant! Such stories make me optimistic about my country. For all the people who continue to feed the problems, (such as the ones I mentioned in my mini Airtel diatribe above), there are people like Gilbert creating solutions and making things happen.
The event was the best function I have ever attended in Zambia. I was engaged the the whole time and each speaker handled themselves with charisma and aplomb. And the people who attended were equally engaging and I enjoyed networking afterwards, something I really do not enjoy doing.
You can connect with MoMoLsk (he he he he he he, I canna help myself), BongoHive, Asikana Network, TopFloor and me, Mwana ba Afrika on Facebook. If you haven't already read Part 1, about my BlackBerry's demise and my ludicrous attempts to use it even after it was beyond salvation, you can find it here.
The last time I switched on my phone hoping for
adifferent result after prayer and desperate hope
proved ultimately unsuccessful :(
It is a well documented fact that mobile phones are the number one technology in Africa right now. We love our phones. Not only do we on the continent adore and worship them, we hang on to them to the bitter end, till they die. Let's be honest, until they are beyond the grave really! This is because we have such faith in our phones, and we know that our love for them will resusciate them. They are so much more than a communication device and a must-have accessory. That and phones are expensive man, we do not have developed world deals that allow you to change your smartphone like your underwear. Having said that, I do hope people out there do not change their underwear once a year like many people do their phones. I digress...
My phone started its slow decent into unwanted obsolescence in the final quarter of last year, after its first birthday. I remember exactly when it happened, it was during a Whatsapp conversation with C-ZED and the e stopped working. The e would proceed to toy with me for a coupla months before finally disappearing, taking the number 2 with it (as on a BB to access the 2 when not in dial mode you have to press alt > e). This was an easy hurdle to overcome. I simply copied an e and adapted my thumb typing style. The QWERTY format was initially designed to ensure secretaries didn't type too fast so their bosses could change their words during a dictation session. Unfortunately, what was not counted on, is the power of human cerebral and kinetic adaptability. Our minds are so cool that once they learn the hodge-podge placement of our abcs, they are able to type at lightening speed with practice. This same mental and physical agility came into play with my BlackBerry.
Repetition is such a simple concept and/ or strategy, but one of the most highly effective ways of learning and pummelling one's way to success. After my thumbs had done the BB menu button > scroll to select paste for the e (and when needed the e would be temporarily substituted with a cut and paste 2 job) to appear on the screen, I was able to type as quickly as I had done before. Of course, this solution did have holes in it. Most importantly, e is one of the most used vowels and letters in the frigging English language! If I had typed the precending sentence I would have had to do perform the aforementioned action 9 times (plus if I was writing a professional email I would have had to search for a capital E for English if I couldn't go round it with spell check)! There are certain functions that do not allow this quick fix paste job. You can dial and paste, so calling new numbers or entering in credit top-up numbers was not a problem, but when using the phone keypad selection menu when calling in customer service or using USSD services like Xapit was not possible if navigation to the correct department or service required a 2. This was especially annoying when trying to do things with my mobile internet router and when trying to use my mobile banking account. In desperation I would temporarily steal my younger sister's or my mother's handset but this was not always possible.
My earring wall in the US 2009-10
So I decided to go to the BlackBerry store at Manda Hill and see what could be done. They told me that my keypad needed realignment and it would cost me K450 000 which is close to $100 or £70. What did I think about that: HELL TO THE NO! WTF! That's a decent Nokia phone or multiple basic functionality ones that come with a really cool torch or a pretty cool Samsung man! I might as well buy the second handset I have promised myself to reactivate my dormant simcard. This slight inconvenience was not worth that much, come to think of it, I could buy a pair of nice shoes with that. Or 45-90 pairs of earrings from the Sunday Market (to understand my love of cheap and stylish earrings read this post)! That is fuel for a month with deliberate and careful usage! That's three times as much as I spend on airtime and BlackBerry services per month . Jeez!
Things could only go downhill and they did in superb fashion. For the first four months of 2012 the trackpad would stop working and basically I would have to rub it so hard pretty much everyday, multiple times, to get it to start working again, and the same for the whole keypad. The only way I could turn off my phone was by taking the battery out as the off button retired unannounced and unsanctioned. Sometimes I would have to give the phone a time-out and put it in a corner with its battery out for a coupla hours till it learnt that hissy fits and petulant i'm-not-gonna-work behaviour was unacceptable. Every now and again the e would become the only letter working or it would teasingly reappear for a bit before deserting me again. Or I would press a key and get multiple iterations of letter(s) I didn't even press and/ or would barely touch the keyboard and a whole load of gobbledy-gook would appear on the screen and would refuse to be deleted. Instead more nonsense would appear. I became addicted to this vicious cycle and would be waiting with baited breath for my phone to malfunction and would get such a high from being able to fix it with my primitive ingenuity. I should have known the end was nigh when my phone would die for a day and I would have to take out the battery and let it rest for 24 hours as the corner trick was not sufficient in restoring funcionality anymore.
Thanks to social media documenting our lives, I can actually track the last days of my beloved phone:
3rd May: My phone has thrown one of its hissy fits so to the 5 people who have tried to call me, I cannot answer my phone and to SPORTS GUZA whom I assume is the person who whatsapped me I can't open up the app to check your message :(. Phone has been put in the corner till it calms down and rights itself. Please comment on this update or message me if it's for my eyes only...
SPORTS GUZA: not to worry, wasn't a personal msg, but dude it's now really time to get a new phone...
MbA: are you paying for it, right now the phone works enough for me to be able to get through the week. i have things to take care of with higher priority. if all goes well, i can upgrade in coupla months, if not i'm going to have to suffer with my diva phone!
4th May: My phone has died :(. Trackpad and keyboard have refused to resusitate themselves and so I have had to get a new BlackBerry. I blame SPORTS GUZA for my phone's demise. Usually a rest would do it but it sensed someone wanted it to cease living and it just gave up...Good news is I am reachable again...
SPORTS GUZA: about time too!!!!!!
So now I have a new BlackBerry thanks to a wealthy benefactor, aka my lovely Mother who felt sorry for me and had witnessed me struggling with my phone for months. I am however toying with getting a Android phone when things fall into place in order to take advantage of Instagram. I am an Apple-hater so have refused to join the i-family and so far have not suffered too much. Heard that Samsung have a coupla phones that I may like, and at the moment I'm really feeling their "Built for Africa" campaign. Them sponsoring Chelsea and having Drogba, Essien and Mikel in their ads doesn't hurt either. Their solar powered netbook is truly inspired! Nokia left the door open for new suitors to court me when they failed to upgrade with me as I moved from basic phone functionality to smartphones. I have been cheating on them for a while but as I have learnt in life, you never forget your first love, but you don't necessarily (have to) end up with them.
In honour of my first BlackBerry, here are links to mobile posts in 2010: TIA: This is Africa, Testy-Testy 1-2-3 ;}, and all mobile posts can be found here. You can find Part 2, about the Mobile Monday Lusaka Launch here.
I have been obsessed with the TED Website since a friend of mine suggested that I use it to learn when I complained of boredom. I had viewed talks before but since finishing my masters I have been all educated out. But learning while passively listening is addictive and now I can't stop. I now watch a TED talk to accompany my lunch at work everyday. I came across this talk by Elizabeth Pisani and now have a girl-crush on her. She's so smart and witty and just cool! Most of all she talks a lot of common sense, something that I think is lost on the world. We do not trust ourselves to just go with our gut and what just makes sense even if you can't explain it with research, graphs, charts and formulae. Part of life is just knowing and doing. She is a little off-kilter so I warn you that you may be put off by the way she presents her thoughts. I quite enjoyed it, I love subversive humour and presentation but can fully appreciate how it may make some uncomfortable or could offend.
If you like her style, right now you can download her book for free here. This offer is only good for the month of December.
Her talk got me thinking about the recent study that showed that partners of HIV+ people could protect themselves from contracting the disease if they followed a drug regimen consisting of an ART cocktail. I am all about realistic, sensible prevention. Let's be honest, humans are sexual beings and telling them to abstain is not the most sustainable and moreover commonsensical way of getting people to think about protecting themselves consistently. Most people have a modicum of control at best. I am not cynical or pessimistic, I've just lived enough in the world to know that the average person is quite illogical and careless and have little control when it comes to the bumptibump. As you know I am a proponent of prophylactics and if you can get them to be part of the everyday routine of a person like taking a pill with their daily vitamins, I think that is great. Now we need to concentrate on halting the pandemic through transmission rather than just having it under control through treatment once positive. Both are required for success.
Speaking of the lack of the commonsensical, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga's recent speech only serves to push the gay minority further underground, further encouraging risky behaviour which will lead to this groups further marginalisation through the double-stigma borne from their lifestyle and if they contract HIV. I am so disappointed in all the African nations, and in particular Uganda, that further are hampering Human Rights and AIDS progress by targeting the gay community with misinformation and fear tactics for political ends. Enough with the nonsensical!!! UNACCEPTABLE!
And the same goes for women. We are just depicted as a helpless high risk group and really, not enough is being done to get to the root of the problem. Yes our biology means that we are more likely to contract the disease and there is nothing we can do to alter the way we have been designed, but there are social factors than be dealt with. The typical African story of girl raped by an uncle, grandfather or family friend to cure himself of HIV/AIDS is something that should not be allowed to happen. UNACCEPTABLE! Women to afraid to have candid conversations with their husbands about cheating and condoms is still rife in African society. UNACCEPTABLE! Educating people about how they contract it and what can be done to prevent or manage the disease is still something that needs to be done better. And the issue of gender-based violence in Africa is something that needs to be dealt with. I am ashamed that Zambia is one of the countries where men are really foolish about why they abuse their spouses, defending themselves with reasons to do with expressing love. UNACCEPTABLE!
However, I am very happy that I received a text from my Zambian mobile service provider that read:
"Guard against gender based violence vices and where such vices occur please do not hesitate to report to the appropriate authorities."
This pleasant surprise makes me happy as it shows how mobile technology can be used to educate the masses on the African continent. And it is a great example of corporate social responsibility. So easy to do and the social effects can be huge if the message is received on a regular basis. I know a lot of people have been talking about mobile marketing and this puts people off. I don't want to receive a text from sleazy marketer but getting a text about my well-being with no agenda is a welcome use of an opportunity to speak to a large group at little cost. I think this kind of community outreach in Zambia has been spurred by recent efforts from Government to make concrete change through a bill that is ready to be presented to Parliament. I hope that they will not lose momentum as happens with a lot of these efforts. It made me think of Ms. Afropolitan's post and how I had no idea that there was a day for Gender-based Violence and how it just slipped by. Some of these issues need to be tied together and maybe there should be a week that tackles all these interlinked diseases and human rights abuses rather than having them scattered about the year with some getting more attention that others.
BTW, if you happen to be in New York, the Access to Life Exhibit is currently showing at the UN Headquarters until the 17th of December.
Hilary Clinton delivered a great speech during the first day of the President's Forum for Young African Leaders. It inspired me to finally start a new blog feature, AMASHIBI, (a-ma-SHI-bvi/ wi), which means words. She described the continent as a place "brimming with potential" and the fact that 60% are under the age of 25 means that there is a really opportunity for us to be leaders. With poverty and child mortality on the decline, even though it may not seem we are not making progress due to the fact that there is a systematic focus on negativity when reporting on the continent, Africa is set to fulfill its "promise of becoming a leader."
She said it was time to focus on the "gains" not on the challenges to help inspire people. She commended the elections in Ghana, Botswana and SA as "models of freeness". She quoted Obama who had said in Ghana last year that "Africa's future is up to Africans." She then acknowledged that the US needs to view its relationship with the continent differently - it needs to be partners with it, not the benevolent dictator. She called for expanding trade agreements to be more conducive to bilateral exchange and to encourage intercontinental trade as well. She also called for full female participation and mentioned the African Women's Entrepreneurship Program that kicked off in DC on the 26th of July and is moving to Kansas City tomorrow. She talked about needing to take climate change seriously too.
She also brought up the need to continue to educate Americans about Africa. She talked about how when she had made a visit to the continent in the late 90s as First Lady, she realised she needed to be proactive in this regard. This was confirmed when a reporter asked her "So what's the capital of Africa". Oh dear! Oh dear dear dear dear...As LOLZ likes to say "Africa is not a country, its a continent." It inspired a lovely T-Shirt I know have that was made for Africa week for my undergrad's African Students Association that had a little Africa filled in solid at the front with the country bit and then large Africa that covered the back with all the boarders outlined and the continent part of the quote. I decree that this should be an initiative the American government takes up: passing out free t-shirts to the public like the ones we had ;). Although an African American once told me she was led to believe that Africa was a country because the map was presented to her as the outline of the continent with the country borders inside and this was the same way they presented America to her with the state borders so she assumed that that what in actuality were countries were in fact states. Quite a logical deduction when you think about it. So the word continent has to be featured on the back in LARGE LETTERS with the outline in order for this initiative to really educate ;}.
She also touched on how we are pioneers in Information Technology. It always blows my mind how people do not know that we had mobile phones too by the mid-90s and by the year 2000 our adoption was exponential. My "proudly" Canadian friend told me about an aid worker's joke that plays on the fact that the difference between Manhattan and Northern Ghana is that they can get reception in the remote area in which they were stationed :). Clinton mentioned Ushaidi, meaning testimony in Swahili, an application that was originally pioneered in Kenya using google maps to alert people on their phones as to where violence was occurring during the 2008 elections. It has now been used in Burundi, South Africa, DRC, Sudan, Namibia, India and Haiti. She also mentioned Apps-4-Africa, an initiative to foster application development for mobile phones. Winners are to be announced in September. She believes that this will lead to being able to implement e-government in African countries. We know how to use "good ideas [to] leapfrog technologies and borders."
For the amount of times she mentioned Africa holistically, you would think North Africa was represented. You are talking to Sub-Saharan Africa, not the whole continent. Let us be clear about that. Still very annoyed about this. It irked me even more when she talked about the separate entrepreneurship program aimed at Muslim countries which included Eygpt. She made it seem like they weren't serious. I would gander they were skeptical because of US sentiment towards Islam. The only low point in what was a very inspiring speech.
Tomorrow The (US) President's Forum with Young African Leaders kicks off. 115 attendees from 47 Sub-Saharan Africa will be engaged. Already spotted a problem. The North and everything South of that divide is being perpetuated. Why are they not engaging North Africa at the same time? The whole continent has been connected for millenia. I know it is to do with the whole Middle East crisis where the majority of Northern African countries have a majority Muslim population and somehow this negates their Africaness! They had special colonisation tactics for Muslim populations, and this sort of thinking is being perpetuated every time that Sub-Saharan divide is enforced. Sub-Saharan Africa is not all the same, diversity amongst regions and within countries is very evident and some of that diversity comes from Muslim populations. So systematically singling out North Africa really is quite unfounded when dealing with the continent as a whole. Africa's problems will not be fully solved without cohesive, inclusive and interconnected plans. Alienation is not the answer.
However, I am sure that positives will come from this conference. It is definitely important to keep building bridges. To follow what is going on you can watch things live at US State Department's blog, DipNote, as well as read news as it comes in. Here are some articles of interest that have already been posted on DipNote: youth empowering citizens, investing in female education, and mobile technology and development.
