Friday, December 08, 2006

transvestites vs good hotel

coming to Brasil was to make sure i come out with an experience at the gay pub or street or whateve.
leaving on friday meant that i could go only on thursaday and witness the night life in SP.
Am not so much of a party animal and was wondering how i was going to rush through the nite.
but when we visited Beth, she invited us to dinner on thursday and i was torn in between.
Beth is a gracious lady and probably what i want to be when i grow up. Intelligent, she cheks her diet, dresses well and is ever elegant.
Lidia, he daughter, takes after her. Impressive!!

so i decided to go out to dinner and guess what, the best hotel in town.... nice food...tasty.
i would not however recommend it to my brother who thinks food is all about quantity not quality.

this hotel, i cant even remeber its name but its got a high ceiling making the room airly and the ambience perfect.

so, i enjoyed good food and good company, cant imagine hanging out at the gay pub and missing such an important dinner!!!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

claudia and becky



courtesy of Claudia, i enjoyed nice brazilian dish of pork, bacon and black beans, what in kikuyu we call `wairimu beans` rice and sukuma wiki though they have a local name for the sukuma.
the food was fantastic!!!

corinthians neighbourhood



SP is a football rich city, with current brazil champions Sao Paulo, Pele´s former club santos and now corinthians. in deed today, Ze Roberto (bayern Munich) was on TV donating stuff at Santos, i did not know the guy is a preacher too......
i remember Roberto Carlos was quoted saying that if he retires from Madrid, he can only play for santos.....

Corinthians FC



am not sure the stadium is well visible but thats where Edu, formerly of Arsenal now with Valencia, was playing. He was `discovered`by wenger in one of his many trips just like he found George Weah, Kolo Toure, Eboue and the like.

beth, steve and lidia



by the time steve left SP 25 years ago, lidia was a toddler...... now shes married!!!

beth, becky and lidia



i was happy to meet Beth and Lidia, from their office, i had a nice view of the Corinthians football club stadium


Steve was excited to meet the gal, playboy gal. the men on the streets were amused to see me take the pix. am sure they knew we are africans and there is no playboy here. atleast not in kenya.


at Avenue Paulista. One of the famous places. Thats where most of that banks are.

TANZANIA ENJOYS FRUITS OF CO-OPERATION

By Rebecca Wanjiku,

When Peter Ulanga was invited to visit Brazil, last year, he knew that something was going to change in the management of dot Tz country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD).

Ulanga, and a colleague, Peter Shilla, benefited from training offered by the Brazilian government on management of domain name registries using open source software.

Within two years of the training, Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority is ready to launch the dot Tz ccTLD registry. The domain has been administered by the University of Dar es Salaam and individuals.

`The training worked well, we have bought necessary equipment and we are ready to launch Tanzania Network Information Centre, TzNIC,` said Ulanga.

Ulanga says that the training was useful and the tests were successful. He added that it will now be easier to register domains and if there are any problems, then there is a central point to channel complaints.
Tanzania benefitted from the south/south solidarity spearheaded by the South American power house. Kenya was the first to train on how to use the software, Tanzania soon followed suit, while Mozambique and Sudan are lining up for the services.
The gesture by the Brazilian government was calculated to ensure that Africa can access the less costly open source software solutions and transform African registries from manual to automation.
At the on-going Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers(ICANN) conference, in Sao Paulo, renowned Brazilian Professor Hartmut Glaser could not hide his joy while confirming that he had been invited by the Tanzanian government to witness the fruits of his government´s generosity.
Apart from the training, Brazil offered technical assistance to the recipient countries in case of any problems with the software or even any technical hitches in their operations.
The drive to foster south/south cooperation started in 2002 when Brazil sent engineers to Togo to train local counterparts from more than 20 countries gathered in Lome.
Ends


Ann Rachel and Peter Ulanga from Niger and Tanzania respectively. Rachel was instrumental in AFriNIC formation. she is my big sister

Finding Unity in Diversity

By Rebecca Wanjiku
African participants at Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers(ICANN) meeting in Sao Paulo have formed a unified body that with articulate issues from participants drawn from various sectors.

Africa Regional At Large Organisation (AFRALO) will unite users wishing to articulate their issues to ICANN. AFRALO is expected to link Africa to the global At Large Organisation within ICANN.

Alice Munyua, a member of ICANN´s At Large Organisation says AFRALO will help Africa identify their peculiar issues and call attention to the global body.

¨Through the regional body, African users can identify their challenges and design ways to deal with them. For instance, if the fibre optic cable is laid, then more people can access the internet and then we can deal with other problems other than access,¨said Munyua.

With the growing mobile telephony and cutting edge technology that provides internet via mobile, Munyua says AFRALO will ensure that African voices are heard.

Though not officially launched, preparations of a Memorandum of Understanding are in top gear.

AFRALO is expected to face challenges of language and culture, multiplicity and diversity of digital challenges. Some countries are deemed to have developed ICT infrastructure while others have not.

Munyua expects all countries to meet and point out issues that affect all sectors and the changes they would like to see. The country representatives/ liasons will forward to AFRALO which will then link with the global body.

She recognises that it will be hard to reach consensus because of the diverse interests but she promises AFRALO will work hard to adequately represent african users.
Latin America and the Caribbean have already formed LAC-RALO ( Latin America and the Caribbean Regional At-Large Organisation) which is expected to maximize participation of user groups from the region
Paul Twomey ICANN president, told delegates during the opening ceremony that LAC-RALO will be the third Latin American organisation to help ICANN in its work. The other two are LACTLD (Regional ccTLD managers) and LACNIC (Regional Internet Registry for Latin America ).
Ends

in mar del plata, argentina



celebrating AFriNIC launch at the coastal city. Team Africa was very delighted.

Calling African Scholars

By Rebecca Wanjiku

African scholars interested in developing and preserving indigenous languages have been challenged to take the lead in the Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) debate.


Prof. Maxime Z. Somé, from the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso called on African linguists to actively participate in the IDN project.

`Scientists and scholars should constitute themselves as an exceptional authority in African affairs and move the project forward, said Some.

Some is concerned that Cambodia, Japan, China, Korea and Arabic countries seem to be moving at a faster pace and leaving Africa behind.

In his opinion, linguistic experts as well as scientists in Africa should work together and move the agenda forward. He added that the IDN project requires linguists to agree on the language and terminologies of a particular language and the scientists to work on the technological aspects.

After the agreement of the scripts and language tables, the UNICODE consortium, which consists of computer makers and other bodies, will be expected to integrate the languages into most computers sold to the Africa region.

In this regard, if I have a computer, I can choose the language to use, just like I select to use French or German. In the case of French, the computer inserts the right accents and other letters that may not be available in the English key board.

Asked whether this will lead to development of many key boards, Some says experts can work on some regional languages like Bambara, used in Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso or Fulani, used in Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritania and Mali.

`We know that this project requires a lot of financial commitment and big businesses are not going to invest if not assured of profits. That leaves governments, which have been very non committal, ` he adds.

But he maintains that scholars can jumpstart the process by learning from other countries where experts volunteered their services for the sake of development.

Some spoke at the ongoing Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) meeting in Sao Paulo, where the urgency of IDNs has taken
centre stage and its proponents are touting it as a solution to communication problems.

While there are workshops and follow-up meetings to discuss and update on issues relating to IDNs, Africa is stuck with the obsession of listing its numerous cultural and logistical problems as the hindrance to IDN progress.

In 2004, Adama Samassekou, head of the African Academy of Languages was quoted saying there was lethargy within African leadership to use local languages even at Africa Unity meetings Swahili was recommended in 1986
but was used at the AU meeting in July 2004. Swahili is widely spoken in 15
East and Central African countries.
Ends

Wednesday, December 06, 2006




outside Tom Brasil.....

at Tom Brasil theatre in SP




this is where i attended a live show by two Brazilian muscians. apparently there was no much Samba, contrary to popular belif that Brazil equals Samba. theres plenty. i enjoyed.

Loving yourself

spending a night at J´burg international airport is not one of the best thing except if you are booked at the Intercon.

i think the best is the massage palour, it has whats called ``aqua massage``. your body sprayed with water as you lie down.

not naked of course and not like those dingy joints in down town Nairobi where massage can be misataken for other things but pure massage.

its done in full view, though you have to enter into the machine that dispenses water and the whole ceremony begins.

there is also massage on the chair which is also good. so if you are stuck at the airport, make sure you have extra rands.

Loving yourself

spending a night at J´burg international airport is not one of the best thing except if you are booked at the Intercon.

i think the best is the massage palour, it has whats called ``aqua massage``. your body sprayed with water as you lie down.

not naked of course and not like those dingy joints in down town Nairobi where massage can be misataken for other things but pure massage.

its done in full view, though you have to enter into the machine that dispenses water and the whole ceremony begins.

there is also massage on the chair which is also good. so if you are stuck at the airport, make sure you have extra rands.

Tech Challenges

hey guys,
i have been unable to blog coz my blog had been hijacked by some Ghanians, so anything i posted went to their site.
but its ok now....
read on...

almost

hnnnhnhnhnh

Friday, December 01, 2006

The law is truly an ass

today the high court dismissed a case filed by a small girl seeking to strike out sections of the children's Act.

the girl, wanted the court to find that children born out of wedlock had a right to be supported by the father.

what the act does is oppressive to woimen because it places the burden of bringing up a kid born out of wedlock on women.

the court had been urged to make an order that the provisions favors kids in a family set up and discriminates aganist those out of wedlock. in case of divorce, a kid can compel the further to support but in case of illegitimate children......nothing.

high court judges Joseph Nyamu and Mohammed Ibrahim ruled that to strike out the provisions would be retrogressive and unforgivable.....

so you can forgive a father who adsonds his responsibility and heaps it on the mother...... truly an ass.....