TEDxDAR 2010 Live Blogcast

Hi Folks-

Salaams from Masaki. I am sitting at the back of the tent at TEDxDAR, cursing the forest of tall men sitting in front of me getting in the way of the screen and trying to hear over the sound of the three massive fans behind me. It's going to be an interesting ride. I hope to take you along with it, in this the first liveblogging event for the Mikocheni Report.

Nadeem Juma has just welcoming us all to the event, introducing the organizers (big up Kathy Bomz) and taking care of some housekeeping. I am slightly distracted by the rain- sitting at the back of the tent it is hard for me to ignore the fine mist that is messing with the computer...

This place is IT'd to the teeth. We're talking livecasting, blogging, tweeting, texting, not to mention the usual recording and stuff. Unfortunately, the rain wasn't factored in and this means we're pausing a little bit as the people up front figure out how to protect all this sensitive electrical equipment from the ultimate enemy- water.

In the meantime, waiting on Peter Mhunzi whose talk, titled 'The Need for Bilingualism' has just been demonstrated quite nicely by our host :) Seriously, this is a topic close to my heart as well. I'm listening, more later.

Sports Doping, African Style, and Another Bad Question from the BBC

I was sitting around being mildly hypnotized by the variety of Kiswahili accents on BBC Idhaa ya Kiswahili when I tuned back in for this story: a FIFA anti-doping official type was in South Africa attending a conference on traditional practices (read: witchcraft and herbal medicines) that are used to enhance footballers performance.

The challenge? Some of the substances consumed by African footballers might actually give them an unfair advantage on the pitch. But how does FIFA test for this variety of unknown substances. Heh. I wish them the best of luck.

Then the Beeb brought down my intellectual high with this stupid-ass question: "Can coups in AFrica be a good thing? Are they bad, or can they achieve something good?"

Hold up, now, Beeb. How patronizing can you get? A coup must, by its very nature, use illegal means to change the balance of power, thereby suspending democratic processes and placing everyone in that polity at the mercy of the perpetrators of the coup. Whether or not outright violence is used, who in their right mind can support coups as a viable regime-change mechanism?

Does the Beeb think that the British might enjoy a coup or two, perhaps? No? Then why the hell should Africans do so? Institutional racism sucks.