Tutti Frutti: around the web in 72 hours

Oh, what goodies the internet has brought! Here's what's been on my multi-tab browser these past two or three days. I need to post this so I can close the damn tabs and open new ones. All content found through your tweets, emails, IMs, FB updates and various soc-med. High Five.

Vijana FM said they would do it, so they did it: crowdmapping the General Elections 2010 through crowd-sourcing. Ushahidi is running under the bonnet, but we have to gas the thing. It's YOUR country. Vote like you OWN it.

For those who believe that autocracy in Africa equal economic growth and a steady supply of Kitenge and prosperity and safe, affordable public transport and all the other good stuff? William Easterly says you are wrong. :).

In the arts: Dar Sketches is about to put on a show. Don't miss, the prints are way worth it and if you love Bongo you will have a great time. Also: FaceBook is on the big screen in the Social Media movie. Yup. FB, the movie. Just... yeah, I know. Lastly, The First Grader. The casting is appalling, yes, and the tear-jerking is unfortunate. But the story, the story... there might be something there.

And a little modern feminism: the little college that would. :)

Social Media and Politics: Nigeria

According to this week's Economist political news update,

"Goodluck Jonathan, the president of NIGERIA, announced on his Facebook page that he would contest the presidential election next January"

I guess that's one way to state your presidential aspirations... A little light on dignity for me, but whatever works, right?

Happy Holiday :)

It is so easy to live in Dar and forget to go to Zanzibar just for the pleasure of it, so imagine my delight when one day I opened Facebook and a seven-day holiday dropped into my lap from out of the blue. I am going to be here, doing this with these lovely folks for the next seven days*.

As I write this I am on the ferry staring out at flying fish and the traffic jam of ships waiting for space at the port. I am trying to calm down after being brutalized by our No Self Respecting Bongolander Ever Stands In Line If She Can Shove and Elbow Her Way Onto A Vessel policy. I don't know why, for such polite people, we turn into that girl from The Exorcist when there is travel involved.

'Twas a minor inconvenience in an otherwise awesomely-timed trip. The tail end of Eid el Fitr in Zanzibar? Partay! I remember tickets costing about 25,000 shillings last time I took the boat, but I only paid half of that for this trip. Even cooler: free complimentary breakfast in the waiting lounge. I think Azam might be running a holiday special, which is bogglingly decent behavior to observe in a business. In my experience public holidays = stratospheric price hikes in the transport sector.

This year we can thank Pastor Crazy for raising the issue of religious tolerance... and encouraging a few of us to do some interwebs reading on Islam. I don't suppose it was his intention to shine a light upon either issue or give anyone cause to ponder them. Heh. Evidently you don't have to belong to a faith to appreciate the good it has to offer in spiritual or mindful practice. You just have to be a half-way decent human being. Ukarimu is a rare quality, and a difficult practice for most of us, but it is beautiful at heart. One of my favorite things about living in Bongo is the way that Iftar is shared across faith and class, offered in generosity and friendship.

So a belated Eid Mubarak whatever your faith may or may not be, and I hope you have had a long weekend filled with generosity and friendship and excellent feasting. I sure did :)

*Lots more info on this in the next few days.

What the Face!

I've been debating the whole Facebook since about six months ago when I realized that FB had sold our collective souls to the commercial vampires by violating the notion of privacy. Having abdicated responsibility for the protection of our data, FB invented something called 'privacy settings' to make the individual user feel as though maybe, just maybe, fond memories of adventures past- which were diligently recorded by friends and oh-so-generously shared on Facebook- did not become a collection of double-edged visual mementos.

One strong impulse is to just scrap the whole project- which is actually very appealing. My inner hippie does believe in living the Great Unplugged Life if one can stomach it. But Facebook death is a major liability when one thinks of its potential- and that of other like social media- to enrich one's cyberlife... and for a blogger, FB death is perhaps a form of electronic self-amputation?

Anyways, if you are facing similar FB ambivalence and need some help cleaning up your page, my technical consultant* gave me this wonderful link. Too good not to share.

* I'm so embarrassed to need one, and it doesn't help that he responds to every request for help with a long and evil laugh before taking pity on me. I used to be the kid who took apart electronics in the house and then put them together again better than before... and now I am fossilizing long before my time. I blame technology- it's moving too fast for me to catch up.