It is not often that you hear that one is an art predator, an enthusiast or aficionado maybe but not predator and this is what made me become very curious about Alley’s blog where she confesses her love for art.

This is what she says of herself:

Coleridge defines the aesthetic as that which engages the whole soul. Art Predator prowls for that which engages her soul and yours too, covering literary, visual, performing and culinary arts, environmental and social activism, outdoor pursuits including camping, hiking, biking, skiing, and climbing, and festivals including Coachella, Lightening in a Bottle, and Burning Man.

In her blog, one will find her poems, information on upcoming art activities as well as many other things that are of interest to her. Perhaps one might find the title of her blog a bit prudent as the artsy stuff gets lost in most of the other posts but this is her diary to write all her experiences whether arty or otherwise.

Her poem on a professor quite interesting.

The Professor had all the
Big Words on his side
of the plate.

And he was pushing
pushing pushing her words
around with his fork.

It remains to be seen
what it was they were
really arguing about it

It always starts with the words
and goes downhill from there.

Read the full poem here

Injete Chesoni is a multitalented artist with an entrepreneurial edge to cap it all. She has 2 blogs, one of them is Poetry and Art by Injete Chesoni. It features her creative expressions i.e her poetry, stories and art.

Injete also runs poetry Gifts, a blog for gifts ideas, gifts and poetry gifts. In this blog, she offers advice on how one can create poetry gifts as well as an introduction to Ekphrastic poetry.

She also features a range of products like poetry posters, books, magnets and even scary poems for Halloween

We sample one of her scary poems, Mystery in Old Town Mombasa

She had an air of mystery about her
as she sat in the window and stared
I was walking in Old Town Mombasa
and I remembered what they said
That ghosts haunt this town
and things are not always what they seem
There are genies dressed up as cats
and men in women’s bui-buis
So I stared in her eyes and scurried
Even as my mind paused to think
Was she really a woman in clothing
Or a supernatural being

Hon. Mwangi S. Muthiora has quite a lengthy title for someone his age, he is the Junior M.P, Githunguri National Youth Parliament in Kenya.
Born in 1982 in a family of nine, Simon Mwangi Muthiora is a member of Kenya National Youth Parliament and is the Junior M.P. for Githunguri Constituency.

Muthiora is also a writer and has written several Short stories, tenths of poems a full length Play among others. He writes for pleasure and his blog is a true testimony to this bold claim.
Two Hours Before is the name of his blog and this is how he arrived at the befitting blog name;

IMAGINE TWO HOURS FROM NOW HOW THE WORLD WILL HAVE CHANGED, OR WORSE STILL IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN OR THE EVENTS THAT WOULD FOLLOW YOUR DEATH “TWO HOURS FROM NOW.” WELL, DON'T POSE AGAIN, “TWO HOURS BEFORE” WILL KEEP YOU ENTERTAINED. KENYA'S NEWEST POET IN THE HOUSE.

His kind of poetry is bereft of the emotional torrents that most poets venture into when writing love poetry. He speaks out on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Wife battery, death, wife inheritance, war among many other vices that are in Kenya, Africa and the world in general.
Sample his poem on FGM, A Woman's Meat

A WOMAN’S MEAT

Early in the morning
Before the birth of the sunlight
And the death of the moonlight
The old gypsy woman appeared
Her motive open
Clad in the humor of guilt
For a woman’s meat
Was all her target
In the name of cleanliness

Grinning, she closed in
Ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha……..
“It is not painful granddaughter”

Read the rest of the poem here

Kojo Bafoe is a man, a father, a son, a brother, a husband, a friend, a poet, a writer, on a quest to make sense of this reality, with words. He lives in Johannesburg South Africa.

Kojo runs two blogs, Imperfectpoetry which is purely dedicated to his poetry and kojobaffoe a wordpress blog where he writes his ‘ramblings’ as he calls them. The latter features anything from sports, to technology to poets who inspire him and encounters with Neo soul music.

His Imperfectpoetry blog gives one an insight to Kojo who renders himself as an imperfect poet who writes imperfect poems, quite a humbling self assessment which prods one to read his poems more keenly to see the imperfections.

When one reads his poem ‘Just words’ one feels that he had understated his poetry abilities. The brevity and precision in his poem has not hint of imperfection.

He has been running the blog for 3 years now and though his last post was in February this year, one need not ask what has been keeping him distracted when they read his other blog. Every once in a while, one does need to ramble.

In the field

Tracking climate change impacts generally starts in the field. James Balog, a photographer, has been to Alaska, USA, to record time-lapse ice cap melting. You can see the stunning results of his photography in this video:

If you don't have expensive cameras and spare-time to journey to Alaska, another approach would be to read the experiences of people on the frontline.

On the Frontline of the Climate Change is a project cataloging first-hand stories on the impacts of climate change, in indigenous communities, on small islands, and other vulnerable communities. The forums contains numerous recent contributions by email, mostly from South Asia and Africa. One contributor and consultant for African development, George Katunguka, writes from Uganda:

The impact of climate change has not received much prominence in my country Uganda but such changes and its effects are painfully being felt. In 2025, Uganda is likely to experience water stress according to recent report on water resources. People are dying of starvation and hunger like the recent case in Teso Region, Eastern Uganda; there are changes in water ecosystems like the dwindling levels of Lake Victoria; unpredictable seasons, loss of soil fertility and loss of agricultural output and hence increased household poverty and its implications. What are we doing to avert this looming catastrophe?

From outer space to Google Earth

Observation from the field can be double-checked from high ground. Space is the lookout from which to observe and analyze earth as a whole. It's difficult to get a seat on a spaceship, but fortunately, it's easy to find online satellite images from above.

Besides space agencies and companies offering their services to NGOs, scientists and common people, the United Nations Environment Programme created an online atlas indexing the changes occurring in different parts of the world through decades. All the satellite pictures can be viewed on Google Earth's virtual globe, as their official blog reports:

In collaboration with the Danish government and others, we are launching a series of Google Earth layers and tours to allow you to explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet and the solutions for managing it.

Many more resources can be found on blogs and websites of international organisations. Readers, feel free to add your own sources in the comment section.

Science for decision makers

Observation is a core issue for decision makers. Governments initiate surveys to understand the phenomenon and how to mitigate the impacts.

The European Commission and European Space Agency initiated a space program in 1998, called the Global Monitoring Environmental Security (GMES), to sketch real-time changes from multi-source data. The project is due to report back in 2014, with an annexed security segment.

Developing countries impacted most directly by climate change, have taken a similar steps like the recent satellites launch by India to study climate change. Such information can help countries plan for new environmental and economic policies.

In South Africa, a new economy-oriented tool has been created for exactly this purpose. AllAfrica reports :

Now, an analytical tool based on a study, Mapping South African Farming Sector Vulnerability to Climate Change and Variability, has been developed to help policy-planners identify the communities most vulnerable to climate change and help them prepare for radically different farming conditions.

Blog Action Day 2009 was an online event organized by Change.org. It was a virtual gathering of voices discussing climate change. Bloggers from a sampling of countries in Sub Saharan Africa were among those who posted their thoughts, and in this post, we get to listen to their voices.

Kenya

The blogger at Theatre of Inconveniences reminds readers to also think about wildlife and the species threatened with extinction due to climate change. The blogger also looks at the extreme weather situation in Kenya, with a drought that has lasted many months and the expected heavy rains.

In Kenya recently, prolonged drought – and we can not rule out the effects of climate change as the cause – first killed livestock, then pushed the livestock into wildlife habitats, then killed the wildlife. Now Kenya is – ironically – waiting for El Nino rains to settle in so that it can save people, their livestock and wildlife. But the El Nino could be made more severe by the effects of climate change. So more people, livestock and wildlife will die. Iregi Mwenja, a Kenyan bushmeat researcher posted pictures of the onset of the El Nino rains in Voi today. One of the casualties of the big water was a masai goat that died in the floods.

The blog Sukuma Kenya took UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) to task on its use of gas guzzling SUV's that release more CO2 into the atmosphere than smaller cars. The blogger wonders whether for one day, the UNEP officials would heed their own advice to cut CO2 emissions.

The blogger on Katch up shares their experience climbing Mt.Kenya, one of the few snow capped mountains in Africa. The blogger mentions changes in the ice coverage as pointed out by the tour guide, and also notices other changes in the environment. A brief story from the blogger's mother illustrates just how fast the environment has changed.

I come from a cold place and my mother tells me how fast certain types of crops used to grow, rain was abundant, seasons were more than one and it was colder. Not anymore. Those days were definitely better and we have been losing.

South Africa

Rory of Carbon Smart writes about community empowerment and climate change. The effects of climate change on the majority of Africans will be severe, and any strategies at dealing with climate change should provide support to the communities.

In Africa particularly, stresses are already being felt - climate change is not something that relates only to the future. The most vulnerable communities are those who struggle the most, as they are living on the edge - quite literally on the periphery of economic activity, whether they are subsistence farmers or urban slum dwellers. In this position, they don't have ‘wiggle room', or the flexibility to adapt their lifestyles to the changes they are experiencing. As a result, strategies for climate change adaptation must ensure that communities do have the means and understanding and support structures to enable them to keep ahead of environmental changes. A key point to be made is that the answer lies not primarily in technology or aid, but crucially in building relationships - institutionally, socially and financially.

Poetry and Poesie shares a poem on global warming

The bergs look limp
to me nowaseasons,
I shouldn't read
National Geographic,
that once was a tree
now covered in blinding shots
of glaciers gliding all the more
readily
sweating in the gloaming -
a new word I coined
for global warming.

I don't need to read
journalistic twilight musings,
I can see when a bear
is panting to death,
I can see the whales flail
in the a-krillic blue sea,
I know the götterdämmerung
is going to be a hot event
Inuitively.

Uganda

Climate Change. Its not just Koalas.

Rebecca writes on Jack Fruity about her experience in the Global Change exchange program, that will be documenting the effects of climate change and partnering with established bloggers in the Global Voices community.

It can be easy to forget that climate change is about more than trees and cuddly animals and fish swimming around in some distant ocean — all of which I care about, don't get me wrong (especially the cuddly animals). But climate change also has real, physical effects on humans: it's altering weather patterns in unpredictable ways, causing crops to fail for lack of rain in some places while floods wash away entire fields in others.

Ghana

Jemila Abdulai writes on Circumspecte blog, she looks at the climate change deniers, and those who believe it to be a hoax, debunks their arguments and sets forth the lessons for Ghana and Africa. The lessons include Information, Education and Accountability.

Ghana and other African countries are relatively better-off (I think) when it comes to pollution. How can we reduce what pollution we have, and how can we prepare for the future?

We should be doing our research and looking at all these models (failed or otherwise) to inform our own policy decisions. If we don't keep ourselves informed, we will have a situation similar to our current economic systems; we'll have policies, laws and structures that do not work for us. Already, many multi-lateral companies get away with polluting our countries without so much as a slap on the hand for this. That's where our concern should be: strengthening our legal structures to protect our environment and consequently, our population.

A great roundup of Ghanaian blog posts on Blog Action day is done by Mac-Jordan of Accra Conscious.

We end with the voice of ‘cuppatea' on the blog A colourful life of a Gay Kenyan:

So in summary, stop polluting, plant trees and be nature friendly! It will save mother nature and planet earth and you'll make nature fans like me globally happy! The future generation depends on nature. Positive action today, Better tomorrow for future generations.

Note: For previous Global Voices posts, kindly see these links.
- Reading the world on Blog Action Day
- Israel: Blog Action Day for the Environment

- Rising Voices summarizes blog posts from its grantees.

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, which takes place today, seeks to change that by celebrating and supporting hospice and palliative care globally. While it's true that one day is not enough to create real change for the millions of people who rely on or need this type of care, it can help bring much-needed attention to the issue. Not only are these stories largely omitted from news headlines, one study finds that even online educational materials about the topic need to be revised to make them more understandable. Throughout much of the world there's a lack of understanding about this type of care, as well as a lack of access to these services.

The theme for this year's World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is “Discovering your voice,” so organizers asked people from around the world to make their voices heard and submit their stories online. In response, people from countries ranging from Portugal and India to Malaysia reflected on the issue. Beatriz Thompson, for example, of Belize shares this account:

“This is the story of a brave little boy. His name is Julian Wohler. At the age of one and a half year he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. Julian fought this cancer for 4 1/2 years. He underwent 5 surgeries cycles of chemo and radiation in Merida Yucatan, Mexico. Julian had to travel 11 hours from Belize to go receive treatment every 2 weeks. When the tumor came back for the last time Julian told his parents he was not going back for anymore chemo or surgery. He wanted to stay home and enjoy himself.”

Hospice Casa Sperantei in Romania

“My disease began last year with partial paralysis. I did 10 sessions at the hospital and I felt like everything was changing for the good. Three days later, I was in the kitchen and I fell down. Since then no more stability and I am very weakened. Firstly it affected me in a psychological way, like I was being destroyed. I was on the verge of disappearing, I wanted anything to happen, just to escape, because it is torture, a very hard torture.”

Judi Chamberlin, blogging in the United States on Life as a Hospice Patient, also shares the ups and downs of having a life-limiting illness. She suffers from a chronic lung disease and lung infection, among other health problems. In this recent post, she talks about feeling discouraged and reflects on her father:

“I find myself saying so many of the things my Dad used to say in his final months–he used to talk about feeling weary, and now I know just what he meant. Everything, even the most mundane activity, like going to the bathroom, becomes a major production. When someone would point out some nice upcoming activity he would say “hallelujah” or “whoop-de-doo,” hating to be diverted with something that felt so minor in the grand scheme of things. And although he was eighty four when he died, and I'm not quite sixty five (my birthday is October 30th), I know just what he meant when he would say, “I've lived too long.” I always planned to live to a ripe old age, but that was only if it was an active, busy life–the life I used to lead, the life I loved.”

In addition to firsthand accounts of living with a disease, many palliative care-related blogs, videos and other new media also share the views of caregivers, health care professionals and family members of someone with a life-threatening disease. In Uganda, patratm, a doctor and hematologist, tweets about various palliative care issues. In South Africa, a video shares the story of Zodwa Sithole over images of hospice care. Sithole watched her sister die of cancer at a hospice and is now part of the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa.

Risa Denenberg, blogging on risa's pieces in the United States, is a nurse who looks after patients with life-threatening illnesses. In her blog she reflects on her experiences as a palliative care provider. In this post, she talks about the pain of losing a patient:

“Pager bleats its rising and lowering notes (de-da-do-da-de). Familiar as my name, but as I am wading from sleep to wake…It's the nursing home, telling me he has died. It's 2:15 am…

…The hardness was that he didn't want to die, wasn't ready, much too young, much too much undone, had just started over, this thing caught him in the neck and strangled him without so much as a warning punch. And the pain. Was terrible. Even on the highest doses of opioids I have ever prescribed. Pain mixed with fear, anger, angst. I think I loved him for these few weeks, a helpless sort of love because I couldn't make it better. I thought.

Daughter said to me: “He liked you. Really liked you. That's a big complement, you know. He sees right through shit, and you were real to him.”

shantanu.dutta, blogging on Mutiny in India, talks about a friend who died of cancer at a hospice. At the time, there seemed to be only one hospice in New Delhi, where space opened up when a patient passed away. He says he learned the value of hospice firsthand through that experience:

“The famous psycho-oncologist Buckman…said that “there was one missing chapter in Harrison's Textbook of Internal Medicine. The missing chapter was, ‘What do you do when all the treatment advised in all the other chapters fail?'

Palliative care is that missing chapter. It is missing in our planning, priorities and programs but is fast emerging from the shadows as an urgent necessity as we and our loved ones live longer and become more and more prone to debilitating and life threatening diseases that can not be perhaps be cured but with some a professional approach endured, and possibly endure well.”

Internet connections allow students in the most rural areas to augment learning through research. Academics can keep up with colleagues across the world. Social media may make it easier for people to organize themselves and facilitate the way immigrants send remittances.

The role ICTs plays in human development is being debated and discussed at a Sept. 23- 24 Harvard University forum, ICTs, Human Development, Growth and Poverty Reduction.

What about the backlash against computers and the fear of technological devices? If the promise of ICTs will lead to poverty reduction, how will technophobia affect this mission? Technophobia certainly remains a global issue. With the influence of ICTs role in development, however, does the fear of technology and misunderstanding of its uses disproportionally affect the developing world? If so, what are people doing about it?

Here are a few examples of fighting and understanding technophobia in Africa. (If you’ve got more, we’d love to hear them. We’ll also be trying to write this issue in other parts of the world, so please pass those ideas along, too.)

Technophobia in Africa, like elsewhere, takes many forms. Resistance to technology by teachers has been cited (.pdf) as a problem of computer expansion in Kenyan classrooms. Both hospital staff and patients in Uganda list “cultural adaptability” as a constraint in implementing ICTs in health centers. Girls around the world view cybercafés – in many places, the only gateway to the internet – as strictly boys’ territory.

James Kariuki, an E-learning specialist from Cape Town, South Africa relates a story of a well educated friend having difficulty with adapting to new technologies. This is from his blog Elearning in Africa:

I engaged with a friend today and he was lamenting about the speed at which the technology is moving. I could see the agony in his face when he told me that he was scheduled to do a presentation in a hall, and the only thing in that lecture hall as a visual aid is a computer and a projector. The old-fashioned overhead projectors have been replaced by these new technologies. The pain of having to redo his presentation, and scanning his images so that they can be used on the computer was profound. I asked him whether he has considered attending any of training sessions:

Most of us have a phobia for technology and most of the jargon used in the training leaves us more confused than we were before training. I know of a number of professors in my department who have the same feelings about the technology and they cannot attend training.

I asked him, is this reasons that some lecturers never use the technology in the lecture theatres? He said:

Yes, and more to that there is a cultural bearing. They should have involved an anthropologist to study the culture of the prospective users of the technology so that they can advice them about what need to change first [in terms of culture] for the technology to be successfully used.

Here I see a problem where the technology is being provided but the constituency that should benefit from it is not. I am not sure of the best approach to dealing with technophobia, especially in situations where the individuals [with the phobia] have all the resources and support and training but they cannot still use the resources available. If you have a clue, feel free to let me know.

In a comment, Neil J says we should all be expanding our definition of technophobia — because each of us have a bit of it.

I suppose, as you said training is the best way to deal with this. I am currently doing a university assignment into technophobia. I think we all have elements of technophobia:
- the anger we display when a computer crashes
- fearing that computers will replace our jobs
- fear that we are being watched!

The digital divide is not just rural versus urban or rich countries versus poor. Gender remains an important factor, says Ore Somolu, writing in The Networking Success Project from Nigeria.

Women face a number of limitations to be able to freely use technology, Ore continues, including lower disposable incomes, limited time for technology use, average lower literacy levels. One solution includes starting technology lessons for girls at an early age.

Young women need to become more involved in science and technology from an early age. This could be formally (primary or secondary school, computer school, after-school program) or informally (learning from family or friends, summer camps with computer classes). The Gender Team at KnowledgeHouseAfrica organises the FOSS Women Bootcamp Workshop, which equips young women with the skills necessary to train other women to use FOSS* (Free and Open Source Software). Fantsuam Foundation offers scholarships to qualified and interested women for ICT training.

Mothers are a big influence on their daughters and if they display feelings of technophobia, some girls may unconsciously adopt similar feelings. It is important that encouragement comes from the home, through introduction from a young age to incrementally more complex forms of technology.

Lauren Clifford-Holmes, a student at Rhodes University in South Africa, at one time felt that ICTs were not living up to their promise because few projects created tangible results. She lists a few examples of best practices when using ICTs to augment development. From her blog, The Soap Box:

What struck me about this story were two key nuances: firstly that dumping technology in a community is useless unless the skills are taught for the consumption of and production using this technology. Secondly, this case study emphasised the importance of focusing on schools and introducing students to technology which can aid their learning experience, and teach them the skills they need to thrive in the knowledge economy/ information society.

She reports on an example that promotes the right kind of appropriate technology, the Intel Teach Program.

Mthebula High School was donated computers by Telkom a few years ago, but none of the teachers were incorporating the technology into their instruction. School language teacher, Mercy Ntlemo, attributed this to most of the teachers lacking “the specific knowledge and training to integrate technology in any substantive way”. This meant the computers were gathering dust, barely used beyond basic information retrieval and simple word processing.

This example speaks to the larger debate within ICTs and development: development needs to happen on a multitude of different levels. It makes no sense to think you are aiding development by donating free technology like computers to those who lack the skills to utilise this technology effectively.

In this particular case, Ntlemo underwent the Intel Teach Program, a professional development program designed to help teachers integrate technology effectively in the classroom with the objective of helping students build 21st century skills. Ntlemo felt she really benefited from the training and following her success, many other teachers did the program, to help “conquer their technophobia”.
This training program exposed the teachers to new approaches for creating assessment tools and aligning lessons with educational learning goals and standards. Additionally, they discover new ways to incorporate the use of the Internet, Web page design, and student projects as vehicles for powerful learning.

As a result of the Intel Teach Program, Ntlemo says that technology is now an integral part of the curriculum at DZJ Mthebula High School, and project based learning is the norm. The training program revolutionised the way the teachers used the computers – a wonderful resource which until then were being completely underused. Ntlemo says the program “has revolutionised the way we teach.”

So what does a story such as this one teach us? It teaches us that we need to have a wholistic approach to development, and that development occurs within a particular context – such as lack of digital literacy. We need to understand the contexts of the communities needing developments in ICTs so that development does not become a worthless endeavour but rather a meaningful process of change.

The show has already generated discussions online as it happened with Big Brother III.

Accra Conscious posts basic information about the show:

Bedtime will never be same again as all 14 contestants vie for a peaceful night of scheming on how to get their hands on the US$200.000.00 prize!

More information on the new BBA Revolution.

• The prize money for this year’s Big Brother Africa has been doubled – it is now US$200 000, a ‘winner takes all’ fortune.

• The new season has almost twice as much sight and sound capability as seasons 1, 2 or 3: there will be 40 ‘all-seeing, all-knowing’ cameras, and 100 microphones.

• The old rules banning conspiracy in the house have been lifted and contestants will be free to forge alliances, discuss strategy openly and play the game in an entirely different way.

• This year, audiences will be asked to vote for the housemates they want to see remain in the series rather than the housemates they want to see leave the house.

• This year there will be 14 housemates, compared to the 12 of the past; this year will include housemates from Mozambique and Ethiopia. The other 12 countries are: Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Rafiq writes about free SMS service for voting for housemates:

When it comes time to vote on Big Brother Africa 4: The Revolution sending many SMS messages or phoning could be pretty pricey expensive. Luckily there are alternatives you are able to vote for Big Brother Africa housemates via the web and… *drum roll* MXit.

This is a quick and easy way for the 14million and change MXit users to vote for their favourite for Big Brother Africa 4 housemate. I see this as huge win for MXit on their never ending quest to reach more users throughout the African continent. I am going to try and get some before after stats from all the 14 countries the Big Brother Africa contestants are from and see if the MXit numbers really grow within those regions.

David Ajao is not happy with celebration of promiscuity on the show:

My reservation about Big Brother Africa has always been its celebration of promiscuity.

Noni thinks that this edition of Big Brother sucks:

BIG BROTHER SUCKS THIS YEAR! THE BOYS ARE UGLY! WHY BIG BRO MUST U DISSAPOINT US? NOT EVEN AT LEAST 2 OR 3 GOOD LUKIN BOYS IN DA HOUSE! IM DISSAPOINTED

Mika analyses house members:

Jeremy from Kenya looks cute, and Itai from Zimbabwe looks like he has a huge pipi… Cant wait for shower hour. Hannington from Uganda looks like a queen, he describes himself in 5 words as “I am a god among men”…Ummm Okay sister! I wonder how many other guys are gay? Closet case…? Anyways, Quinn, from South Africa was in the top 4 search for YFM’s White Boy DJ.

So does Rafshizzle, a blogger from Uganda:

Hannington Kuteesa Kavuma – he’s a son of Judge Steven Kavuma and Member of Parliament Ruth Kavuma. He has just returned from Malaysia where he has been doing a course in IT. You can’t believe we were with this chap at the Kampala Rugby Club and he couldn’t tell us anything, well, good luck to him.Meanwhile, the other Ugandan is called Filbert Okure and we’re still collecting information about him so keep it right here. (They tell us, Hannington will leave, mbu).Anyways, Zimbabwe has sent Itai Makumbe – the 31-year-old loves politics. And you guessed right, most politicians bore except for guys like Ken Lukyamuzi, President Museveni and Idd Amin (RIP).Kenya also has two in Edward Muthusi aka Teddy and Jeremy Ndirangu.Nigeria has sent Kevin Chuwang – who is a 27-year-old unemployed chap.From Botswana: is Kaone Ramontshonyana – I honestly failed to understand the chap.First-timers Ethiopia is being represented by Yacob Yehdego – he promised to be himself, a thing that almost every Ethiopian says. His nickname is Yac. Need to wait…The hosts South Africa have a Mzungu called Quinn Silder – at 21 years of age, the charming white is the youngest in the house; plus he’s a DJ and radio presenter so he should be in the know of how to entertain people.Other first-timers Mozambique sent 23-year-old Leonel Estevda.

Pen Powder criticises this year's Revolution concept:

I was starting to enjoy the exciting twists in the Big Brother Africa Revolution but after seeing the elimination of Ras Wayo and no introduction of a Ghanaian female housemate, I think the concept of the revolution was not fully thought through and rather unfortunate.Some of the twists are pointless to the core: why are there more housemates from certain countries than others when in fact the idea of having a continental show was to bring the various countries together. With the introduction of 12 female housemates into the house on Sunday, there are now 4 Nigerians, 2 Kenyans and other multiple entries for some other countries while Ghana has no rep at the moment. Is this all in the interest of exciting viewership? Or are some countries better represented in the house because M-net/DStv stands to gain more from those countries?One funny thing is that Big Brother has allowed ‘voting conspiracy' this season and most likely alliances are going to be formed along nationalities. This would most likely create a lot of antagonism among housemates and yet M-net came out boldly to say that they changed the voting rules this year so people would vote to save their favourite instead of voting out their least favourite to promote ‘positivity' instead of negativity.In a surprise announcement, Ghana's representative, Ras Wayo became the second Housemate to leave the BBA House during the show's first Eviction Show. Wayoe entered the stage to a crowd chanting his name to a Reggae tune. He told IK, the host, that he was not surprised to have left the House and does not think his Rastafarian way of life played a part in viewers not voting for him.Well Ghanaians aren't surprised either because his Jamaican patois became an issue immediately when he was introduced into the house. So why was Ras Wayo chosen to represent Ghana in the first place? M-net and the producers of the show chose someone whom in their view would over the best entertainment value for viewers from all participating countries.

Narcissus asks, “is it just me or is anyone else of the opinion Itai’s totally gay?”:

These little factlets sent my gaydar to full readings: One of his favourite shows is, wait for it, America’s Next Top Model (I know!). One of his bad habits include, stealing glances of himself in the mirror (helloo narcissism, ahem). Lastly, and by no means least, should he win the grand lotto, he intends to use it to finance trips to London, Paris, New York and LA, seriously? Come on!
These two are the only reason I ‘may’ watch the show. I do hope the house stocked up on plenty of lotion, and Geisha which ‘’lasts and lasts’’, coz it’s going to be a long week for the boys, lol. Quite frankly though, I did expect more of a ‘’revolution’’, and not a re-enactment of an idea already applied in Spain on their version of Big Brother.

Ms B considers herself a “shameless fan of this manufactured reality show.” She talks about female members' make-up:

The make-up was ridiculous,no black woman on mother earth has rosy cheeks!!!None!!I dare you to find one!!!The drag queen had eyelashes that could swat a fly and Nonhle had yellow nail polish on which had nothing to do with her outfit.I know fashionista's sometimes mismatch to match but she just looked like she wasn't sure what to wear.Sigh,we cant all be Rihanna now can we?
I hate it when women do that!aint nothing attractive (to me anyway) about looking like a clown.Make-up is supposed to enhance your beauty,not hide it.Keep it simple stupid!!!!And these women are representing other African women when they go out there,oh lawwwwd!!!

However, the system is facing opposition from the taxi industry (mini buses). Traditionally, taxis have largely met the demands for transport in South Africa. The industry developed during Apartheid, and exists outside of the formal economy.

The taxi industry feels that the BRT threatens their business, and protests against the new system started many months ago. In march of this year, several highways were closed down by drivers blocking the entire highway refusing to move. More pics.

Reactions to the taxi rivalry

In this post we will cover some view points and reports by bloggers.

Road Safety Blog reports:

The taxi industry had tried an eleventh hour court application to the High Court in Pretoria on Friday to prevent the launch of the BRT, but the judge did not give them the go-ahead for an urgent interdict to stop the buses.

Further:

But taxi operators say government has developed BRT on routes taxis took decades to develop, threatening their livelihoods.

Ndebele said the national joint working group on the project would continue to talk with the taxi industry in efforts to draw up a memorandum of agreement.

“Everything we do in public transport must ultimately benefit the commuter,” he said.

Zapiro a South African political cartoonist who always manages to capture the essence of a situation, drew this:

Malocoda feels the BRT implementation is just another example of broken promises by government he writes:

We are seeing a few, not surprising, broken promises from the King Chameleon.

How about the Taxi drivers, they firmly believed they would be accommodated within BRT System. Doesn’t seem too much chance of that now, does it?

Ruth at Believer writes about her experience using the BRT on the first day:

Trying to get to work this morning was a mission. Think more than one hundred people trying to fit in a single decker bus, mission impossible. So one had to settle with standing and sometimes hanging in between butts, while one passenger was trying to get through the door.

Gunfire and recklessness

The first few days of the launch of the bus system was marred by a drive-by shooting in which occupants of a taxi, shot and wounded two people who were riding a bus in Soweto.

Lefty writes about the incident:

Now I read in the news today (Link) that certain taxi drivers are not exactly satisfied with the new BRT system. So dissatisfied indeed, that they have shot 2 people. One of whom, if I understand correctly, was a cop.

Further, he writes:

But how can you justify shooting at folks in order to make an objection? I am 100% in favour of BRT, it's gonna benefit all of the people (except the taxi drivers, of course).

And to Mr John Q Taxi Driver, you murdered a girl on her way to school earlier this year. You mutilated a student. You endanger my life every single day with your reckless driving and your blatant disregard for the law. You sir, please take your Fritos and get the fuck off of my roads. If you're looking for sympathy, you may find it in the dictionary between shit and syphilis.

Charles takes a look at some of the problems in the industry, he writes

Is it about taxi drivers losing their jobs or taxi bosses losing some revenue? From my outside view of the industry, it does not look very healthy at all. If we look at the physical conditions of many of these vehicles it seems safe to say that the maximum amount of profit is extracted from the industry without any serious concern for the safety of the cash cows. If we look at the over-utilisation of capacity we can infer that the actual comfort of the passengers never really features in any decision process. From my point of view this looks like gaps or otherwise known as opportunities, in the market
….
Is it really acceptable for a certain group to claim ownership of an industry or a part of an industry to the exclusion of everybody else? Where does this sense of entitlement come from?

Jeanius writes

They threaten to hold communities, industry and government at ransom.

Commuters have been waiting for the BRT system for many years and no role-player or stakeholder can claim ignorance of the plans to implement this system. It has been 10 years or so now that commuters are waiting for the BRT and if the taxi industry is still unready, they will never be ready as long as their unreadiness would prevent the system’s implementation.

The main players of the taxi industry are street-wise and well informed with regard to legal processes. If they truly believe that their rights are impinged upon they have both the money and other resources to access court to enforce their rights…but a can of worms of such magnitude will be opened up that most do not want to go this route.

They prefer intimidation.

The situation is entirely intolerable.