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Thursday 19 June 2008

Xenophobia in South Africa

At the end of May in South Africa, a lot of violence erupted, apparently targeted against other black africans by fellow black South Africans. Meeting other Nigerians, almost all of them, given a little time, bring up the subject. I found myself having to apologise for the violence, and make some explanation of it.

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Monday 9 June 2008

OLPC and Intel Classmate PC in Nigeria

Sugar - Network view Today, I visited two schools in Abuja, Nigeria, both of which were pilot schools for the new low cost laptops targeted at schools in the third world. One Laptop per Child started in Galadima Junior school, in Abuja Model Village, and Intel launched 'One laptop per teacher and child' at Jabi Junior Secondary school, in Jabi district, Abuja.

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Friday 30 May 2008

Nigerian infrastructure

Flag of Nigeria Abuja, Nigeria, the capital city, suffers from lack of infrastructure. Potholes, no landlines, power cuts every day.

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Sunday 11 May 2008

Launch of AIMS Research Centre, Muizenberg

Stephen Hawking On May 11, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences opened its Research Centre. Present were a host of dignitaries, led by Stephen Hawking, Michael Griffin, the current administrator of NASA, and Nobel prize-winners David Gross and George Smoot. A lineup indeed.

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Monday 14 April 2008

Zimbabwe - Thabo Mbeki and Aziz Pahad

Flag_of_Zimbabwe.jpg Since the election itself, we have watched, in slow motion, the frantic backpedalling of ZanuPF to steal the elections after the fact.

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Wednesday 2 April 2008

Rock, Paper, Scissors

250px-Flag_of_the_Movement_for_Democratic_Change.svg.png Zimbabwe went to elections last weekend. The Movement for Democratic Change use the open hand as a symbol, ZanuPF the cockerel. ZanuPF were so bereft of ideas that their slogan was "Get behind the fist" - a clear counterpoint to MDC's open hand. That makes international opinion the Scissors - unable to conquer the Rock.

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Thursday 20 March 2008

Habeni Primary

Computer room Habeni Primary school is in Zululand, and has recently acquired a computer lab. Courtesy of Kelsey Wood and Wizzy Digital Courier, it also has Internet.

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Friday 7 March 2008

Khekhekhe's First Fruits ceremony

Python In 1999 I visited Khekhekhe with Graham, to negotiate a price for National Geographic to do a piece on him. I wrote up that encounter at the time. Khekhekhe held a ceremony on the 23rd of Feb every year - which he called the First Fruits ceremony. It seemed really to be a time for the old Mthethwa Sangomas to get together, Khekhekhe to show his prowess with snakes, and some beasts to die for the table.

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Sunday 17 February 2008

Ancestry testing through genetics

Mitochondrial DNA TreeI recently had a genetic analysis done to determine my ancestry - courtesy Ancestry24, the Medical Research Council, the National Health Laboratory Services and WITS University. It was a free test, and it came with an informative booklet to explain the results.

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Sunday 20 January 2008

2007 Kenya Election

Flag of Kenya I have watched the election crisis in Kenya unfold from the beginning, and am angry at the lack of concern the leaders have for the people they claim to represent.

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Monday 24 December 2007

Aftermath of Polokwane

Zuma T-Shirt The Polokwane conference was a triumph of process, and a disaster for results. Much negotiation remains to be done during the last 18 months of Mbeki's presidency.

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Tuesday 18 December 2007

A Zulu Wedding

Wedding Party A traditional Zulu wedding is a step back in time, with cellphone cameras in strapped next to leopardskin loincloths. The ancestors are remembered, and the age-old tradion of Lobola is observed.

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Thursday 29 November 2007

Zuma for President!

Jacob Zuma All the indications are that Jacob Zuma will be elected as ANC president at the 52nd annual ANC conference in Polokwane from December 16 through December 20.

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Wednesday 14 November 2007

ANC elections - the Eye of the Needle

ANC Logo The next president of South Africa will be chosen this December at the December ANC conference in Limpopo. This is a tiny subset of the electorate that make this important decision.

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Tuesday 23 October 2007

Wikipedia fund drive

Wikipedia has started its regular fund drive with a video from the founder, Jimmy Wales. He starts by expounding the knowledge-for-everyone mantra of wikipedia, and in particular promoting wikipedias in third world languages like Swahili.

Tuxlab screenshot Andy on Wikimedia video Shanaaz on Wikimedia video

The video finishes up with clips of people around the world talking about wikipedia, how it has benefited them, and how they contribute, including people typing articles in on cellphones ..

There is a clip of me, at Lavender Hill Secondary school (at a township close to Muizenberg more renowned for its gangs) talking about my placement of a complete copy of wikipedia down at schools that have no daytime internet access, and also the Lab administrator Shanaaz talking about her wish for more content on the Afrikaans wikipedia.

Check it out, at the Wikimedia foundation or the Youtube mirror.

Tuesday 9 October 2007

Schoolwan

As an update on the Wizzy project, a fair bit has been happening. Panel Antenna

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Sunday 3 June 2007

Mzoli's Meat

Guguletu has a gem of a restaurant tucked away off Klipfontein Rd. Directions can be a little tricky in the townships, so here is a Google Maps URL And for those of you with a GPS that translates to -33.976415 S 18.569694 E.

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Tuesday 15 May 2007

African Institute for Mathematical Sciences

I have been working at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences since December 2006. It is a pleasant work environment, the work I do has direct applicability to the work I do with Wizzy, and I get to listen to some really great lecturers from universities around the world. I have taken an interest in Cosmology and Quantum mechanics, a field that has changed so drastically in the last 10 years that I can happily forget most of what I knew before ..

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Wednesday 9 May 2007

One Laptop per Child

The One Laptop per Child project has got a lot of attention, has prototype hardware, and a lot of open source software. What are its prospects in Africa ?

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Tuesday 24 April 2007

Nigerian Elections

Recent elections in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa have been declared flawed by the country's own monitoring committee.

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