African Diaspora for African Development

 A poem by Ali Balunywa

Chairman Pearl of Africa (www.pearlofafrica.nl)

 Recited at the Africa Diaspora Night in The Hague in honour of the Africans who an inspiration to others. 

The theme of the night is security and development

The consequence of that is stability and improvement

No security means conflict and disagreement

No development means instability and discontent

 

The members in the audience tonight

Are Africaners whose significance is their might

Their supporters full of radiance are in sight

And the organizers whose importance is great

 

A glance at the countries presenting tonight

Is a look at the continent’s fighting might

The peoples in these nations bleed from the conflicts

For the finances in these states fled with the politics

 

Billions are wasted as Ethiopia fights Eritrea           

Millions are executed as Sudan and Congo fight for Utopia

Clans exterminate each other in stateless Somalia

As Uganda and Burundi douse the tasteless hysteria

 

The average African lives in abject poverty

As the community’s lack of opportunity creates insecurity

And the population’s illiteracy leads to unawareness

Yet the citizen’s ill health is a sign of sickness

 

Europe and America enjoy peace, tranquility and security

Followed by development, growth and prosperity

Africa and some Asian countries wallow in conflict and obscurity

Followed by ignorance, disease and poverty

 

What makes the African Diaspora the solution to the glitch?

They’ve gained the skills and resources for combating the hitch

The experiences of the filth in the south and the best in the west

Qualifies them to engage the south in the development quest

 

Challenges of Development Cooperation organizations are applauded

Changing and reforming governance, socio-economic expansions

Through trade, not aid. Partnership, not handouts or contributions

And consolidation of achievements in security and development

 

The Africa Diaspora has now mastered the development lingo:

Mobilization, organization, migration, collaboration and communication,

Alliance building, capacity building, networking and monitoring

Subsidies, resources, remittances, estimates and results

 

Engagement, assessment, empowerment and involvement

And finally conferences, workshops, seminars and forums

All for the sake of looking for change in mother Africa

The change that we all believe in and God help Africa

 

Almere, September 20, 2009

 

 

Uganda gets Broadband

Uganda gets cheaper Internet

FARIDAH KULABAKO

Kampala

Ugandans’ thirst to get connected to the world through faster data transfer  and website updates without leaving the comfort zone has been quenched by the launch of broadband Internet service in the country.  

Seacom’s fibre optic cable that links East and Southern Africa to Asia and Europe through the Middle East, was intended at providing the East and South Africans access to the whole world through fast, affordable and reliable Internet services. 

Speaking at the Seacom launch in Kampala on Thursday, the company representative in Uganda, Mr Fred Moturi, said the undersea cable has a bandwidith which encourages volume discounts and large bandwidth growth unlike the satellite connections that have been dominating the country for the past years.

It is expected that broadband will reduce the cost of Internet connection by more than 80 per cent lower than satellite connection with a capacity of 1.28TB per second, to provide the much needed Internet connection capacity. 

Seacom broadband Internet which will be sold to the Internet service providers (ISPs) at $400 (Shs800, 000) is $6, 100 (Shs12.2m) cheaper than the satellite technology which costs $6,500 (Shs13m). “Since we will sell ISPs at a cheaper price, we expect them to provide it to the end users at least 75 per cent less,” said Mr Moturi.

The Minister for Information and communication Technology, Mr Aggrey Awori, said the cable will stimulate education growth, health, media and talent while spurring innovation and creativity. “We are going to use the facility as a platform to boost e-medicine, e-education and e-commerce,” said Mr Awori. 
Kenya Data Network constructed a 15,000km fibre optic cable linking Mombasa, Nairobi and Kampala and connects to the undersea cable of Seacom.

The project which cost $600 million (Shs120 billion) had 76.25 per cent of finances coming from African funders and the rest from Herakles Capital, a United States agency.

During the launch, Seacaom with Cisco jointly built a voice, data and video platform where the launch of Seacom was broadcast live via Internet protocol to five launch locations including; Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania.

The State Minister for ICT, Mr Alintuma Nsambu, said the government opted for this Internet to provide alternative cheaper Internet solutions to citizens.

To make sure that customers get full value for their money, broadband companies will be regulated by the Uganda Communications Communication for security reasons.

The Monitor Newspaper 25 July 2009

Harrowing Experience with the Danes

 In response to my 45 hour flight to Africa, Ziria Alizabasadha Ndifuna wrote about her experience with the Danes. Here she gives a 'brief' account of what happened to her when she travelled to Denmark way back in 2003.

The story;

The visit was organised by Uganda's development partners for the 7 members of the Local government Commission i was working for. However, due to individual circumstances and preferences, each of the seven members travelled seperately to Denmark from Kampala, honoring only the day of start of business. 

I travelled alone via Heathrow, Gatwick airports to Copenhagen - connecting for 2 days. My ordeal started when checking in at Copenhagen airport - customs. There were 3 queues clearly marked - one for residents, another for visitors from EU and America and another for other visitors. I took the appropriate line, and, on reaching the counter, the lady closed the counter in my face! I looked back at the other people lined up behind me and shrugged. We waited and since lines to other counters had dwindled, one by one people behind me ventured to the other counters and were handled. When i took cue and did the same, again on reaching the counter the attendant closed the counter! I saw other africans being served but for me it seemed like a syndicate not to serve me! I waited until another group of people from other arrivals came up and again I took up position in the middle of the line 'not to attract attention'! After spending close to one and half hours i was checked in. 

But wait, the drama was not yet over! As i was going through with all my luggage from the baggage rack - mind you I was supposed to be on 'fast tracking' because I had a club class ticket from British Airways - I was stopped by some 2 mean-looking officials. They ordered me to open my luggage for checking. I obliged and they literally started throwing out everying in all directions. Other passengers passed by wondering what was happening! After throwing out everything, they kicked my clothes with their dirty shoes and ordered me to put back the items and leave. I had been prior warned about these people's anti-black feelings, so I thought it better not to make a scene. Problem was, we were not being received by anyone so I had to be careful lest I sleep in jail! With all the anger and frustration, I put back my belongings in the suitcase and left dejectedly. I knew I was not welcome to Denmark but i was now a prisoner.

The actual stay there was not bad - we were in Copenhagen for 4 days and in Aarhus - the second biggest and industrial city for 3 days. I told my ordeal to one of the hosts and he apologized and said it was common to mistreat Africans at the airport.

My next ordeal was on departure. Again our hosts did not escort us to the airport. This time I was in the company of one of the other Commissioners. As we lined up to check in, on reaching the counter, the attendant confiscated my passport and ticket and declared that there was something wrong with my ticket - that it was not authentic. An officer from British Airways inquired and offered to crosscheck the ticket. She came back and said the ticket was alright and 7 tickets had been made to the Commission and all were verified correct. The danish officer refused to clear me and said it was his decision that I was not cleared to leave! I was told to stand aside and they serve other people!

I literally wept in frustration, and my colleague went through and had to leave me as the last call for boarding was made. I went back to the lady working with BA and she pleaded with the danish officials, and when they heard my name being announced over the loud speakers to hurry up as the plane was leaving immediately, thats when i was left to go. I was energyless after crying, but a BA official came and assisted me with my hand luggage and escorted me right up to the plane as he communicated on his radio. He apologized and told me they were also frustrated with the way the Danes mistreated passengers.

I hope I never have to go to Denmark again - I was humiliated and made to feel that I was not a human being! Talk about holding a Club class ticket - an African posing as a big official could have put them off I was told. But then the other Commissioners were checked in and out without incident! Is that bad luck or what?

New Vision’s Digital Revolution

Ali Balunywa in Kampala, Uganda

Robert Kabushenga is the Chief Executive Officer of the New Vision Group of Companies. The New Vision Group is the biggest multimedia house in Uganda. It publishes 8 newspapers and 5 magazines. It owns 3 FM radio stations and a television network. (www.newvision.co.ug). 

I spoke to Robert in his offices at the New Vision headquarters in industrial area in Kampala at the end of May 2009. The appointment was made towards the end of my research on the impact of the digital culture on the print media in Uganda 

Robert was very passionate while speaking about the new media. He actually congratulated me on my choice of research. According to him, the media’s operational aspect of content generation is to share information, acquire physical networks and have the ability to store data. With this, the possibility of real time access to what is happening elsewhere is possible 

To Robert, the New Media has helped the New Vision to leap frog literally from manual to digital technologies in a short time. The technology revolution has closed the digital gap in the last 10 years. The new vision’s digital use is now at the same level as Europe or America. The speed might not be the same in terms of infrastructure, but the tools are similar. He gave an example of owning cars everywhere, but the West has good roads, yet the south has poor ones 

In terms of efficiency and convenience of operations, the new media has gone a long way in ameliorating working conditions at the New Vision, according to Robert. Regarding hardware, he talked of how the computers and mobile phones had eased communications especially in this part of the world.

He added that the development of the digital camera had made sharing, transmitting and taking photographs easy. Before, the photo developing and printing process was constrained by use of films and long time taken to get the end product, which had to be scanned and fed into the newspaper layout process. 

The new Media has also made it possible for the media houses to be truly multimedia. There is so much content generated, but most of it goes unused because there is not enough space to use it all. With new media, the capacity to absorb all content is increased many times over. 

Robert added that the new media has had a liberating impact on the media in Uganda and has also freed innovation. Business has for example shifted from being only a newspaper to a multimedia house, which includes online and hand held devices for delivering content. 

To facilitate this shift, the price of the computer has come down nearly one-third the cost of a typewriter. This has had a big impact on gathering, processing and producing news content. For journalism it has also had a positive impact on the financial side of investing in the media.  This is manifested in the way, the New Vision shares were oversubscribed when they floated them on the local bourse.

Meetings dominate Robert’s typical day. This is the culture of the New Vision and in this part of the world. Decision-making is consensual. All management must own a decision in order to effectively execute their duties. To Robert, the best way to coordinate different facets of group professionals to get the best content outcome is through meetings. 

Competition is rife among the different sections of the group. The finance, editorial, marketing and broadcasting sections have all to be well coordinated to produce their products without clashing. 

Robert like all other senior staff is on call 24/7. He starts his day quite early and finishes late. By 8.00am he is in office, at 12.30 goes home to have lunch with the family and returns by 2.00pm. He leaves office art around 8.00pm. 

The administrative work of the New Vision is accomplished using new media. Foe example, all company records are now in soft form. Minutes in meetings are typed on a laptop as the meeting is proceeding and are circulated immediately after the meeting. Even those who fail to attend the meeting are instantly updated on what transpired. 

More information is shared in advance to ease decision-making and to make contributions to meetings more informative. New Media has made the processing and distribution of information in advance much easier. Even if people are unavailable physically, they continue being involved in decision-making. 

All the group’s financial transactions are now made online. With or without bank signatories’ physical presence payments can be made despite the inaptness of the bandwidth. Still however, the New Vision has the largest bandwidth in Uganda. And hopefully, this national problem will be sorted out before the end of the year with the completion of the undersea cables. 

Mobile money technology has also made payments much easier. People in the rural areas who wish to advertise or distributors remitting money to the New Vision can use mobile money to pay the New Vision. Advertisers too can send their adverts by mobile telephone texts or SMS. 

New Vision can also make payment to its contributors, writers and correspondents in the rural areas using the same system. Mobile money is a money transfer service being operated by the two biggest mobile telephone companies, MTN and Zain. 

In spite of New Vision being the leader in ICT use in the media industry, it was with great regret that face book; twitter and you tube were disconnected. They used to slow up the whole system and make the journalists lazy to do their work and instead waste time on those social networking sites. 

In the spirit of embracing the new media, all senior staff at the New Vision was provided with a company Blackberry telephone handset. Middle level management staff is also furnished with a company telephone and credit. All these people are supposed to be in touch 24 /7. Breaking news can be coordinated as it is happening by telephone or email.

The New Vision is investing in new technologies to remain the leading innovative media in Uganda. The online newspaper edition is currently being revamped. All editorial staff will be encouraged to blog once the website is refurbished. All the regional papers will have a presence online in the local dialects.

In conclusion, the New Vision wishes to do it the Rupert Murdoch way of having a strong presence on every media platform in Uganda. No wonder Robert and Rupert rhyme!