Ethiopian shoe bomber suspects: Where in Ethiopia do people have these special shoes?: "The detectives were investigating the three, who also had shoes that had switches and dry cells... A team of detectives sent to Ethiopia to investigate the wired shoes, switches and dry cells returned at the weekend.

They established that a number of people from the suspects’ locality had similar shoes but insisted on interrogating the three." [Uh?]

The definition of Christianism: [Thanks, John]

The definition of "dish monkey"

African Bullets & Honey: "I do not know of any Africans who wake up in the morning saying: 'Today I am going to engage in 'poverty reduction'!' This phrase, beloved by the international community, has no place in the vocabulary of the African citizen engaged in the everyday struggle to survive.

It is wealth creation that links the African struggle of yesterday, today and tomorrow. "

Vacancy: Sub-editor, Nairobi: "Under the direct supervision of the Editor-In-Chief, the Sub-editor will be responsible for editing copy generated by IRIN?s Nairobi newsroom, maintaining quality control and ensuring compliance with house style and standards of accuracy and balance, with special attention to maintaining the relevance of IRIN coverage."

Job: Photo Editor, Nairobi: "Based in Nairobi and under the direct supervision of the IRIN Coordinator, the Photo-Editor will be responsible for overseeing the usage, quality and acquisition of photographic images by IRIN, the management of public and internal image libraries, the development and management of a network of freelance photographers, and the enhancement of photographic skills and capabilities of staff."

ReliefWeb ? Professional Resources ? Vacancies: "VACANCY
Regional Media and Communications Officer -
Horn East and Central Africa
(Based in Nairobi)"

World Press Photo: "We are now accepting entries from professional photographers to the 2006 World Press Photo Contest. The deadline for entries is 12th January 2006. "

Home: "Power Up is an initiative led by the ICT industry, that aims to stimulate active interest in ICT with both decision makers and the public in five of Kenya's province towns. It also aims to promote active usage of operational ICT-based services in education, government, banking, trade, utilities, media, etc."

Position available:
Editor, International Office: "The Editor is an international position reporting to the International Information Coordinator and working closely with the MSF Secretary-General and is based in the International Office in Geneva, Switzerland. "

Tsunami aid snafu: "The response from individual Indians was generous but ?misjudged? in some cases, with unwanted clothes being donated. ?As well as blocking roads, wasting workers? time and taking up storage space, the unwanted clothing proved a hazard to local livestock, which tried to eat it,? it says. "

Jobs in Kenya: "Internews Network is currently seeking a Program Associate to provide technical and administrative support in our Nairobi, Kenya office."

IST-Africa: "IST-Africa 2006 takes place 3 - 5 May 2006 at the CSIR International Convention Centre Pretoria, South Africa. This is the first in a series of Annual Conferences supported by the European Commission, which will bring together delegates from commercial, government & research organisations across Africa and from Europe, to bridge the Digital Divide by sharing knowledge, experience, lessons learnt and good practice. "

TECTONIC: African free software developers to gather in Uganda: "Africa Source II, a week-long workshop that will bring together free software developers from across the continent, is to be held in January next year. The workshop will be held in Kalangala, Uganda, from January 8 to 15 next year. "

K B C (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation): "In Nairobi, the eclipse will be from 12.39pm to 3.55pm, Mombasa 12.52 pm to 4.03 pm, Kisumu, 12.32pm to 3.50 pm. In Nakuru it will be from 12.35pm to 3.53pm, Eldoret, 12.31pm to3.50 pm, In Machakos it will be from 12.40 pm to 3.56pm. "

GSM Roaming Latest Telco Step in Somalia: "The unique OTA feature allows any GSM subscriber from another network to roam on the Somafone network, utilizing their home network SIM card. The subscriber immediately receives a text message with a local Somafone mobile number upon the selection of the Somafone network, and can start receiving calls immediately without any operator intervention. The subscriber would simply need to purchase a prepaid voucher to top-up their OTA account in any denomination."

[Roaming access on the fly? Once again, Somalia shows the way...]

Mailing List subscription | LinuxChix Africa: "You can now subscribe to the chix@africalinuxchix.org mailing list by submitting your e-mail address using the Mailing List Subscription Panel on the right hand side bar."

UNON Vacancy: Deputy Chief, Publishing Services Section, Nairobi

Sikh: don't freak

Fw: Fw:
Originally uploaded by swampcottage.

Asian? Sikh of being treated like a terrorist?

Apple scraps with War Child over charity album price | The Register: "Apple clashed with kids-caught-in-conflict charity War Child last week when it chose to go its own way on album pricing.
The iTunes Music Store initially sold the new War Child album, Help: A Life in the Day, for two pounds less than the price demanded by the charity. When the organisation made its displeasure known, the online store was forced to withdraw the record for almost a day while it corrected the error."

ReliefWeb ? Professional Resources ? Vacancies: "LPI wishes to recruit a suitable person to fill the position of Project Coordinator for its project work in Somalia. "

allAfrica.com: Kenya: Telkom Kenya Launches High Speed Internet (DSL): "Telkom Kenya has launched a new high-speed digital service for the internet."

Meskel Square: A weblog about Ethiopia by Andrew Heavens, a journalist. Contact andrewheavens at ftnetwork dot com.: "The Prime Minister, needless to say, was not impressed. If you want a summary of his thoughts, look no further than the headings of each installment:
Part 1: Easy to remove the garbage that has covered lumps of truth
Part 2: Guilty until proven innocent
Part 3: The grapes are sour "

This is Meles Zenawi's 13,000 word rebuttal of EU criticism of recent elections...

Imaging Famine Very good site looking at what kind of images come out of famines and what constitutes exploitative imagery.

Reuters AlertNet - Aid workers lament rise of 'development pornography': "Starving black babies pleading silently for help.
Twenty years ago, such images thrust Ethiopia?s deadly famine into the global spotlight, helping to raise billions of dollars in aid. But the pictures also sparked soul-searching among aid agencies who felt they reinforced debasing stereotypes of Africa and robbed the subjects of their dignity.
That soul-searching led to the development of voluntary standards on the use of images in charity fundraising and appeals, but now some experts say fierce competition for donations in a ballooning NGO sector has led to an alarming resurgence in shock tactics that critics call ?development pornography?. "

DOS A?OS DE GOBIERNO DE GUINEA ECUATORIAL EN EL EXILIO The "government-in-exile of Equatorial Guinea" is taking out Google ads...

Africa Diaspora Investment Week 2005: "Financial flows from the Diaspora on average contribute 5-10% of some African countries Gross Domestic Product and in a few cases over 20%. In a year alone it is estimated that the Diaspora invest over US$ 450 million, this excludes the estimated US$ 12 billion remittances sent by the Diaspora annually."

| Guardian Re design | Typophile: "Somehow, it signals a pandering to ?taste?, a movement away from a hard-line stance, whether or not that is the editorial drift." [Is a sans-serif font a sign of anti-establishment tendencies?]

Musikbase - Senait Mehari (Portrait) Interesting Eritrea singer based in Germany...

Think Pictures :: Kenya today Photo feature by Guillaume Bonn

Timbuktu Chronicles: The Africa Channel: "Co-founder of the The Africa Channel James Makawa states that '...Our network will serve an important cultural need while providing diverse, entertaining programing that demystifies Africa to the American television audience,' ...'We also want to highlight that there is a lot of good stuff going on in Africa...',"

RAP21 - 2000 Euro cash prize in award for most innovative website: "Submissions are encouraged for The RFI Net Africa Prize, hosted by Radio France Internationale (RFI), which honours Africa?s most innovative website or multimedia creation. Organised in partnership with UNESCO and the l?Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, the RFI Net Africa Prize 2005 aims to discover, encourage and promote projects that contribute to development in one the following areas: culture, health, education, solidarity economy, information, science, research, innovation and services."

ODI 2005 WebLog : Niger: Shared responsibility for a slow response: "Until very recently, the Niger government and UN agencies avoided free food distributions. The focus was on subsidised cereal sales, cereal banks, food and cash for work, subsidised fodder provision and preventative veterinary care. In part, the reluctance to accept a need for free food seems to have stemmed from concerns that it would disrupt markets, create dependency and undermine development efforts. As a recent HPG report argues, fears about dependency should not be a justification for not providing relief. "
Quality analysis from ODI on this and other topics...

Aljazeera.Net - Whales capable of cultural learning

Google: An Apology - ZDNet UK Comment Good retort to Google's ridiculous sulk when reporters researched its boss using Google itself.

Independent Online Edition > Somali? Eritrean? Guessing?: "Police named the bomber who tried to detonate his device on the Tube at Warren Street on 21 July as 24-year-old Yasin Hassan Omar. The two men are thought to have been in Britain for several years, although they are believed to be of a Somalian background and their terror cell has links with east Africa. The Home Office refused to disclose whether they were living in Britain illegally."

channel4.com - News - special report: My friend the suspect: "One resident says three weeks ago she saw would-be bus bomber Muktar Said Ibrahim, who's believed to be from Eritrea, loading around 50 cardboard boxes into a lift with the help of another man called George who has lived in the flat for some years. "

Foreign Policy Association - Job Board: "To service and help coordinate the PWYP campaign in Africa in collaboration with national coalitions, the International PWYP Coordinator and other NGO partners."

Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship | The Skoll Foundation - "Investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs" | Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship: "Skoll Awards provide second-round, or mezzanine funding, structured as core support in the form of grants, loans or a combination of the two. Qualifying organizations will be led by a social entrepreneur and will have:"

BBC NEWS | Africa | First Ethiopia poll results drawn: "Nomads are due to vote in mobile polling stations in August to elect 23 MPs from the Somali region. " So Region Five holds the balance of power?

List of Missing Persons from London Bombings

allAfrica.com: Uganda: World Bank Gives $56m for Kiboga Website: "KIBOGA district will go online following a $56m (sh98b) World Bank grant for creation of websites, Paddy Galabuzi, the district planner, has said."

This figure just has to be wrong...

Balancing Act News Update - African internet developments Some more revolutionary demacracy in Ethiopia:

"- The Ethiopian government has blocked the sending of SMS messages on Ethiopia's mobile network. Subscribers can still receive (from outside Ethiopia) but cannot send. The reason given for this is that the opposition party and others were using SMS to incite demonstrations and riots a couple of weeks ago when the government announced the delay in finalising the election results. The SMS ban will continue until after the planned July 8th
announcement of those results."

Bird flu: we're all going to die | The Register: "Too bad - the latest results (reported by New Scientist; limited-time free access) suggest that Tamiflu isn't effective against H5N1. And anyway, New Scientist reports, the UK's order for 14.6 million five-day courses of Tamiflu treatment will take its patent owners Roche two years to fulfil. The company is still trying to develop ways to synthesise it from scratch."

United Nations - OCHA IRIN | Vacancies: "IRIN, the news and information service of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is seeking a dynamic managing editor to head up its West Africa service. The successful candidate will have a minimum of 10 years professional experience in international journalism, previous experience of Africa, a keen interest in humanitarian issues, be an effective communicator and manager, and be fluent in English and French. Knowledge of Portuguese would be an advantage."

IPDC/UNESCO Prize for Rural Communication: Call for Nominations: UNESCO-CI: "Nominations are now open for the IPDC-UNESCO Prize for Rural Communication, which is to be awarded for the tenth time. The IPDC-UNESCO Prize, consisting of a sum of US $20,000 is awarded every two years. This year deadline for submission is 1 October 2005.
The Prize is intended to recognize a meritorious and innovative activity in improving communication in rural communities, mainly in developing countries. "

Royal African Society - African Interpreters wanted

Safaricom boss on Sambaza service: "

The following article appeared in Face the Facts on Wednesday June 8, 2005 : 'There is a new thing in Safaricom called Sambaza and it is a good thing but it is also a dangerous one. It allows people to share credit the way you would share a piece of bread. These days, beware who you lend your phone to 'To just send a message.' You might find your entire airtime gone. "

Sambaza is the future of banking and seems to have instantly entered the nairobi re-purposed vocabulary...

Jobs: Nairobi-Division Finance Director (East & Central Africa)

Waether Insurance in Ethiopia: "So why shouldn?t Africa?s subsistence farmers protect themselves from the weather in the same way as an energy company, which takes out insurance against mild winters when demand for heating falls?"

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Body parts fall from SA aeroplane: "'The remains of a human body was discovered upon landing in New York. We presume this person got on board in Dakar,' said SAA's Onkgopotse Tabane.
The body parts fell onto Pam Hearne's garage and then landed on the grass. "

Kenya Jobs: Regional Media and Communications Officer Nairobi: "Are you ready to act with poor people as a force for change in addressing the causes of poverty, suffering and injustice, and alleviating their symptoms? We are looking for someone like you to fill the position of Regional Media & Communication Officer

Working together with the Regional Media and Advocacy Coordinator, you will support the development and delivery of media and advocacy strategies within Horn East and Central Africa through media work. Your role will also include writing press releases and stories for Oxfam?s programme, advocacy and campaigning work. You will follow a diverse range of issues from conflicts in Uganda, DRC and Sudan, trade policies in East Africa and campaigns to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. "

Africa Jobs: Writer/Editor: "The Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonprofit public policy institute committed to finding and promoting practical, innovative solutions to security challenges, seeks a full-time Report Writer/Editor.
The Report Writer/Editor will work under the direction of the Academic Dean at the Africa Center for Security Studies. "

Regional Director for Eastern Africa IUCN: "The Regional Director leads the strategic development and effective implementation in Eastern Africa of the regional component of an integrated global programme, as well as contributing to the global management of the Union. This position requires competencies across a broad spectrum of subjects ranging from organizational management and financial planning to biodiversity and ecosystem-based resource management strategies and policies. The regional programme is implemented in collaboration with IUCN members and partners."

Reuters AlertNet - Submarines to boost S.Africa's peacekeeping role: "PRETORIA, May 10 (Reuters) - South Africa's new submarines will boost its increasing peacekeeping role in Africa as well as help combat smuggling, piracy and poaching, the country's naval chief said on Tuesday.
In addition to three new German-built diesel submarines due to become operational between 2006 and 2008, it hopes to ramp up its amphibious capability to intervene in the continent's conflict zones, Vice Admiral Refiloe Mudimu said."

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Concern over rise of 'happy slapping' craze: "Welcome to the disturbing world of the 'happy slappers' - a youth craze in which groups of teenagers armed with camera phones slap or mug unsuspecting children or passersby while capturing the attacks on 3g technology. "

DFID | News | DFID funded project develops groundbreaking anti-landmine device: "The project looked at the development of a system for destroying mines once found. There were two aims. One was to find a cheap and simple mechanism for destruction itself. Dragon, which is a fiercely burning torch will cause it to detonate and render it harmless. The second aim was for this device to be capable of manufacture in the mine affected country using ingredients that in themselves are not dangerous."

allAfrica.com: Kenya: Parliament Passes Castration Motion: Is "chemical castration" even possible medically?

Foreign Policy Association - Job Board: "NetAid, a New York-based non-profit organization that fights global poverty, is seeking an energetic, intelligent and enthusiastic intern to assist our dynamic communications team."

Foreign Policy Association - Job Board: "Project Manager - Kenya
Center for Global Health and Economic Development/Columbia University"

Internet & ICTs for Social Justice and Development News - APC: "The APC?s ?Community Wireless Connectivity? project is ambitious. It?s looking to connect unconnected communities by skilling them to build their own wireless networks. The project covers the development of training materials and workshops that will be localised for different environmental, regulatory, language and climatic conditions. With four regional workshops in Africa this year, we?ll be training up to 100 possible future trainers, and producing materials in at least three languages that can be used by anyone to do training.

The first workshop took place in March this year in Mtoni, Zanzibar. A range of East African electronic networkers ?telecentre workers, civil society systems administrators, technical staff from existing internet service providers, and other IT skills-sharers- attended a week-long hands-on training. They covered everything needed to plan, budget, set up, manage, maintain and develop a fully-functioning wireless network, that can be used by a local community. "

UG-Commercial Director: "Our client is a leading international provider of consumer services to a number of African states.

The Position
Working within one of the Group?s operations in Africa you will take overall responsibility for the day to operation of the operation?s Commercial Department. "

Find a Job in Africa - Hot Job:: "The Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (IBAR) is one of the specialised technical offices of The African Union that is being developed as a centre of excellence with a continental mandate of spearheading programmes on animal resources within The Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (REA). Its offices are located in Nairobi, Kenya. "

Africa Club: "It is estimated that the total annual amount of remittance flows through formal and informal channels to the continent increased from $ 5.8 billion in 1980 to $ 11.2 billion 2002."

LinkedIn: Call Center Manager at KenCall EPZ Ltd: "The Call Center General Manager would have a unique opportunity to build out and grow the first international call center business in beautiful Kenya (the first in East Africa). The position will require the candidate to live in Nairobi. The opportunity will be to build the work force to international standards and to help the business grow through client retention and improvements in productivity. The call center currently runs 45 people on two shifts serving clients in the UK and the US, but the principals of the firm have designs to build the facility to several hundred agents doing inbound client support, outbound sales and BPO work. The position requires someone with 5 years experience leading a call center. The position requires maturity, flexibility, leadership and motivation skills."

Tags & Folksonomies - What are they, and why should you care? | Threadwatch.org: "Tags, or folksonomies are actually a lot simpler than much of the acedemic debate surrounding them. Put simply, they are a user defined method for organizing data. Im going to try to explain what they are, why they are important to marketers and web devs and suggest some ways you might use them. Follow the title link above for the full post."

A VC: del.icio.us: "del.icio.us made tagging popular, but others have used it with incredible results. The most obvious example is Flickr. I believe that tags and RSS feeds of the tags has made Flickr vastly superior to other photo sharing sites. " Communal taxonomy (folksonomy) is quite an attractive idea, given the stress of deciding how to categorise things in a single hierarchy... Flickr made it make sense for me...

BBC NEWS | Africa | Obelisk arrives back in Ethiopia

New Yorker again dominates magazine awards: South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "The New Yorker won the public interest category for a series of three articles by Seymour Hersh on the now infamous Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq. It also won the reporting prize for an article by Samantha Power on Sudan; profile writing for an article by Ian Parker about a kidney donor; reviews and criticism for three reviews by Adam Gopnik; and it also won the overall excellence award for its circulation category."

Job: Head of Communication and Information Services (Nigeria): "The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), with headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria, invites applications for the position of Head of Communication and Information Services.
IITA is non-profit organization with over 130 internationally recruited scientists. The Institute has programs in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa. IITA scientists from about 35 countries work in partnership with national agricultural agencies to increase food production in tropical Africa, and ultimately to raise the productivity and income of small-scale farmers in an ecologically sustainable way."

International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) - Conflict prevention and resolution: "International Crisis Group
Africa Program
The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, multinational organisation, with over 100 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.
Central Africa Project Director
Crisis Group is looking for a new director to head the Central Africa project who will be responsible for overseeing Crisis Group projects and leading research in the Great Lakes "

Winners and Finalists

Business for Africa - Riches at the Bottom of the Pyramid: "For years, large national and multinational companies have overlooked BOP markets because they fail to see how people making less than $2 per day can afford a $100 television, a $50 cellular phone, or even a $4 pack of cigarettes. Rather than viewing the $2-a-day threshold as a barrier, companies must find ways to innovate around it, and create the capacity for those earning so little to consume the firm?s products. Selling cell-phone minutes for as little as $0.03, or shampoo for $0.01 gets around the barrier. So too does selling cigarettes singly, an element of the informal economy across Africa."

IWMF Programs, IWMF Public Health Fellowship: "The IWMF Public Health Fellowship program offers women newspaper editors and radio producers who cover public health issues in eligible countries the opportunity to receive on-the-job training with top media companies in the United States. The fellowship also requires that a fellow conduct a public health journalism project in her home country.

Two fellows will be selected in 2005 for fellowships that begin in August 2005 and end in January 2006."

Development Gateway Award: "Washington, DC, November 23, 2004 -- The Development Gateway Foundation is seeking nominations for the second Development Gateway Award. The $100,000 award will recognize outstanding achievement in using information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve people's lives in developing countries. "

More on muguka: "A constituent of the miraa that is sometimes confused with miraa is mairungi, mairungi are a somewhat bitter leaves but not exactly miraa.
Chewed over a long period and consistently, mairungi have also the capacity to give you a feeling of 'drunkenness' and a 'high sensation.'
In the same class with mairungi is muguka. Muguka are generally miraa 'residue' leaves that act as a substitute for real miraa leaves.
Over the last couple of years, miraa chewers of less able means have resorted to muguka because it is a lot cheaper and, more or less gives you the same sensation. "

allAfrica.com: Botany: Muguka - stronger leaf than miraa: "'Manze hii something ni poa, yaani steam yake ni noma sana kushinda ya veve..steam yake inakutake world ingine - .(This thing is so cool, its maximum effect is more vicious than that of miraa (khat), it carries you to another world)."

International Center for Journalists: "The Scripps Howard Foundation Semester in Washington internship program brings three international students per year to Washington, D.C., to work at the Scripps Howard News Service for 10 to 14 weeks each. The internship is designed to give international students an opportunity to cover events in the U.S. capital, as well as to report and write feature stories for the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire. Stories written by Scripps Howard interns may be published in newspapers across the United States."

rss2javascript There can never be too many RSS to Javascript widgets, imho.

Revenue Watch: Oil Revenue monitoring: "Revenue Watch is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of three books addressing the management of oil, gas, and mining revenues in natural resource-rich countries. Each publication and its shipping are free of charge. The books will be published at different times within the next year; tentative dates are indicated below."