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Showing posts from June, 2006

Of Civilization

Now, whenever people think of or mention civilization , the 'developed' world is what comes to mind; and yet just a few hundred years ago - people in most of these so called developed world, were living like semi-savages on the outskirts of the civilized world and they would have been pronounced obviously inferior; inferior to people of: Egypt, Ethiopia and Babylonia. Most history books on ancient history I read, imply that only one race has been responsible for civilization, culture, progress and all other good things. The one race is of course the white race, and particularly that branch of said race known as Nordic or Aryan. Note: the writers of most of these books are Aryan or Nordic. I still recall when growing up in East Africa, during my primary school education in particular - how this was stressed. Then, everything good and developed seem to have come outside of Africa; even the Egyptians, of whom very little was mentioned, were portrayed as people who were not African...

Soccer: the model!

I am not much of a soccer fan, but - the World Cup is some thing else! Like soccer or not - one feels it: the World Cup! Large screens have been placed in several public places around Mukalla; some one tells me, Germany provided the screens and projectors - I don't know if that is a fact. A few days ago, I decided to watch the second half of the Tunisia-Saudi Arabia match on one of the screens; as both teams are Arab, most viewers found it difficult to side with either. And it was sort of strange, watching most viewers simply cheering both sides. But, it is last nights matches that I have so far, found most interesting. Two African teams, were involved: Ivory Coast and Angola. I could not help thinking of the situation back in Africa where the teams came from; Angola, rich with oil and other minerals - has, still, most of its population living in poverty and disease, with most of Angola's 13 million people living on less than $2 a day and one child in four dying from a prevent...

Google Analytics!

Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. You'll be able to focus your marketing resources on campaigns and initiatives that deliver ROI, and improve your site to convert more visitors. Now almost two weeks on, with Analytics , I just love it! It is just awesome! I would love my friends to to try it! Analytics gives you all the information you need know about your site and much more; and best of all - you can track all your sites from there! Try it!

Olivier!

Some times, it is a mistake watching the news! A few days ago, I was watching CNN; Jeff Koinange appeared with this very disturbing and harrowing report on the DRC (Congo)! I was so shaken and disturbed, that I haven't been my normal self ever since! The most disturbing part, was that about Olivier! Fifteen-year-old Olivier was sitting down to dinner with his family when the front door of their house was smashed in. Olivier's father was the first to be killed followed by his mother, right in front of the children. They then raped Olivier's three sisters, and when he tried to fight them they turned on him. One at a time, more than a dozen in all, he said. "I will never forget what happened to me," he said. "How does one forget something like this? Only revenge can make me forget what happened to me." I can not comprehend how any sane person can do this! I can not think of any other animal, however destructive it is, doing any thing close to this! Or Hadit...

Africa And The Web

East African countries are leading the African continent in the growth of Internet connections, with Tanzania recording a 150 per cent rise in users in the past year, a new report says. In Kenya, this figure is 200 per cent with the number of Internet users having now hit the 1.5 million mark, up from 500,000 users just a year ago. Uganda's are well over 200,000. Tanzania's Internet connections now stand at 300,000. Across Africa, Internet penetration has now reached 4 per cent, up from just 2.6 per cent in 2005, says the report by Research and Markets, an international investment consultancy firm says. Kenya, together with Nigeria and Morocco, present some of the greatest opportunities for growth in the near future. The highest Internet penetration on the continent is found in Reunion and the Seychelles, where 20 per cent of the population has access to the worldwide web, followed by Mauritius and Morocco. This compares to penetrations of over 50 per cent in most developed cou...