Kai’s definition of true broadband – being able to do what you want, when you want to online, and without bandwidth restriction. He is on a mission to (hopefully?)  change the market’s perception of data operators as being out make money of the common mwananchi at all costs.

On local content he likened the submarine cables to ships bringing grain from abroad to Kenya (and the rest of East Africa). We should be worried though, as what will happen to the ‘grain’ farmer in Kenya.

For good ideas, reasonable partnerships are possible with KDN.

He also mentioned licensing models, and said that ideally there should broadly be infrastructure licenses and service licenses. Rolling out infrastructure is expensive thus these licenses would be pricey enough to discourage gold diggers. However service licences ought to be free. In Kenya, it is a unified license which is a bit tricky when it comes to empowering startups and encouraging local content.


Isaiah 33:15-16 (NIV)
He who walks righteously and speaks what is right,
who rejects gain from distortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes,
who stops his ears against plots of murder
and shuts his eyes against contemplating eil -
this is the man who will dwell on the heights,
whose refuge will be the mountain fortress.
His bread will be supploed and water will not fail him.
Protection, provision for those that walk righteously. Lord give me strength.

Last Sunday’s preaching on the Kingdom of God was quite powerful for me.

In terms of application to Kenya, these things clearly came out as being against the Kingdom of God:

  • A lack of work ethic – There is too much of cutting corners. No one wants to do a job properly, and many times when the odd person attempts to be thorough, they are mocked. Just think of the many collapsed buildings we have.
  • Inability to follow rules – The classic example – Nairobi roads.  How many of us have broken a traffic rule today :) –  (I dare say most if not all of us).  Speed limits are rarely followed, using indicators when switching lanes, overtaking at junctions, the list is endless…
  • Tribalism – A lot has been said and written about this, but we do not seem to learn, even after the clashes during each election period for the last decade or two that culminated in the worst outbreak of violence that Kenya has seen early last year. Even so tribalism is still alive and kicking in Kenya.
  • Greed – He remarked that it is interesting that most of the people involved in mega scandals were not paupers. It was not people stealing so as to be able to feed themselves and their family (this is not to say that this is right either). It was so as to have more and more (and more..).

All this is against the Kingdom of God. More evidence that the 80% Christian statistic for Kenya does not reflect people who are actually in the Kingdom. One must be reconciled with God to become part of the Kingdom.

I did a little looking up and found out:

  • About work, the Bible says:

Proverbs 22:29 (New International Version)
Do you see a man skilled in his work?
He will serve before kings;
he will not serve before obscure men.

There’s also 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 and Ephesians 4:28. This is an interesting post on work ethic.
  • Inability to follow rules -> I think the Bible is pretty clear on following rules. After all we have the ten commandments that are a basic set of rules that if we actually followed, we would not have any problems following other additional rules. The only possible exceptions are any ‘man made’ rules that go against God’s commandments.
  • Tribalism -> We are all created in God’s image. If only we followed Matt 7:12 -
Matthew 7:12 (NIV)
‘So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.’

Matthew 22:34-40 is even more powerful, especially vs 39
Matthew 22:39 (New International Version)
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

 

  • Greed – The Bible is clear about Greed
Ephesians 5:3 (New International Version)
“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people”
(Emphasis mine)

It looks like Apple have revamped their macbooks.

www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html

They certainly look good now… @ $999

It cannot be a coincidence  that this is just before Microsoft releases Windows 7…


The last few months has seen activity with several notable entries into the online classifieds space:

N-SOKO – Done by the Nation Media Group (which unfortunately is rather graphics/flash heavy and thus mobile unfriendly). The fact that they already have a sizeable online audience makes many sellers flock there.
Kenyan Craiglist – It remains to be seen if the classifieds model that has worked so well in the west will work in Kenya (and developing Africa) where perceptions and mind sets are quite different.

There’s several other online classifieds. Try performing a random search on google for ‘Kenya Online Classifieds’.

maduqa

One of the more recent entrants to the fray is MADUQA

MADUQA is a service that lets you to advertise your products and services; and also place buy requests online for FREE. Maduqa hopes to have surfers meet, sell, buy, chat, discuss and review products at maduqa.

It is generally a well done website though I have not tried it via a cell phone. With online classifieds however, the greatest challenge will be the generation of traffic to the website. This is where a site like N-SOKO has a sizeable advantage over maduqa.com.

Mobile & Classifieds

I think the eventual leaders in this space will achieve this by specifically developing a mobile version of their online classifieds – this is Africa and there’s more and more people going online with their cell phones than with computers.

Moses Kemibaro also did  a post on n-soko & craigslist.


I wonder how many people in Kenya, particularly those in positions of leadership practice non-situational integrity.

Here is what Dr Dennis Waitley has to say on this.

It means you don’t base your decisions on being politically correct. You do what’s right, not fashionable. You know that truth is absolute, not a device for manipulating others. And you win in the long run, when the stakes are highest.

Read more on this subject: http://www.mypureprofit.com/integrity.html or watch this http://www.candogo.com/search/insight?i=1960



iWarrior

14Oct09

Hash has a new post on iWarrior, possibly one of the first games developed in Africa for the iPhone.


Some few facts on the Bible first:

  • The Bible – 31101 verses
  • Old Testament – 23145 verses
  • New Testament – 7956 verses
  • The Bible Society of Kenya has the following translation ongoing projects:

    -Kikamba (New)
    -Oluluyia (Central)
    -Lukakamega/ Lutirichi
    -Kiembu-Kimbeere
    -Kalenjin Revision

    It costs about Ksh 480 (about US$ 6.4) to translate each Bible verse. This means that to complete a translation in a particular language, it costs roughly Ksh 15 Million (about $20000) and takes about 15 years.

    One of the ways that one can support Bible translation efforts is by adopting a language for translation:

    200 verses – KSh 96000
    100 verses – KSh 48000
    50 verses – KSh 24000
    25 verses – KSh 12000

    More information is available from the Bible Society of Kenya’s website.


    1, originally uploaded by jmugambi.

    I have been continuing with my photography education so here is some natural beauty from within Kenya…

    More photos here


    Lake Naivasha

    01Oct09

    Is Lake Naivasha drying up ?

    Posted by Picasa


    Follow

    Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.