Haven’t we been here before?
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13891595
What happened to NAADS and PMA? What have they been doing for the last 5-10 years? What have they got to show for all the billions of shillings that have been ploughed into agriculture?
Seems we’re still concerned with food security rather than moving past that to economic development.
Just in case we though that Omar Bongo was the last of the big men holding sway in the continent, have a look at this review. It was surprising that there are still so many men (all of them) who have enjoyed the top job for so many years.
Well, it looks like East Africa is finally getting onto a fast cable which will introduce some better/cheaper internet speeds to the region. Finally!! Good to see some Kenyan tax cuts thrown in for good measure.
So, greed and corruption is not just in Africa then. First hit by the ‘greedy’ bankers, then the politicians get their snouts in the trough. Not necessarily in that order…
UK gets first one hit, then another
What are the arguments pro and con for the ownership of country code top level domains (ccTLD) by governments? Some would say that commercial entities that have managed ccTLDs up till now have been doing a good job (have there been any cases of abuse?). However, countries in Africa are now flexing their muscles and pushing to gain control of these ‘national’ assets.
http://www.computerworld.co.ke/articles/2009/05/04/mauritius-finally-gets-back-mu-domain
Possibly the precedent of the Tuvalu TV ccTLD domain makes many governments rub their hand. As documented, they have signed an agreement with Verisign to exploit this domain commercially and pass back some revenues. Nice little earner!
Those who use ADSL may know that the speed of your internet at home is intimately connected with the number of people who use the same service providers in your local area AND the distance between you and the telephone exchange. It seems the signal attenuates/degrades more the further away you are from the telephone exchange and this may lead to slower speeds.
Well, here’s one solution to this problem, assuming you have the bucks!
The solution for the rest of us, make sure when you are buying a new home, that it is close enough to the telephone exchange to give you fairly good browsing speeds!
I’m wondering whether NEPAD (which was recently invited to attend the G20 London Summit) is of much use to the African continent. Alternatively, it is just another bureaucracy that is there to provide a living for those who are employed there and not much else? I admit that I’m not a close follower of that things that NEPAD does and says, but they’ve been missing in action as far as generating news is concerned. I tend to hear much more about the AU and other regional organisations like SADC, COMESA and ECOWAS and the African Development Bank.
I recently checked the NEPAD website as I was interested to know what had been delivered recently. It was surprised to see a time gap on the news page on their website of over 1 year! take a look:
The is a gap between May 2007 and Feb 2009. Also, not much going on in March or April 2009! What that is when the G20 summit took place to which they were supposedly invited! Mmm - makes one think. 
Whilst I can see that piracy is a phenomenon that has been around for a long time - it looks like things have just been racketed up with the story that movies that have not even been released have started being released onto the internet. It looks like the organised pirates are beating the movie studios at the game!
I wonder would such a thing be allowed to happen in some of our ‘democracies’? I.e. a vote where elected representative vote on principle? There’s been so much mismanagement of resources and policy over the pass 10 years of global boom that surely a few more heads should roll?
This is welcome news indeed that a man of African descent will be leading one of the worldest largest and most profitable insurance firms.
Well done Mr Thiam. Something for us all to aspire to.
http://www.powerful-media.com/power_list.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/oct/05/britishidentity.race
Mr Thiam