1. ENCOURAGE IDEAS
The high cost of books in Africa is a de facto tax on ideas. Publishers in rich countries should allow African publishers to print a limited run of their books. If the authors forgo royalties and publishers co-operate, locally printed versions could sell at a fifth of the foreign price.

2. MAKE FOREIGN NGOS COMPETE
NGOs should work more with the private sector: much of their development work should be open to tender. Companies running large projects should include a social component (primary education or healthcare) that the voluntary agencies would tender for and operate.

3. THE PRIVATE SECTOR SHOULD BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE
In Kenya, the pot-holed Nairobi-Mombasa road should be rebuilt under a build-operate-transfer scheme. The construction company operates the project for an agreed period before handing it to the state.

4. CHARGE FOR PROFESSIONALS’ VISAS
Professionals who emigrate from Africa, whether doctors or dentists, engineers or lawyers, should have to pay a market rate for the privilege of a visa which allows them to work abroad. The money raised should be used in the emigrants’ countries of origin to train replacements.

5. CHOCOLATE MUST CONTAIN MORE COCOA
Double the minimum amount of cocoa required to make chocolate under current trade rules. Cocoa prices will rise and chocolate will taste better.

6. PROMOTE AFRICAN MUSIC
Africa needs a Nashville-style center to promote its music and attract more commercial backing. It would be a center for the production of great music and would train managers and musicians.

7. MAKE AID CONDITIONAL ON IMPROVING THE BUSINESS CLIMATE
The latest International Finance Corporation’s report on impediments to business shows that registering a company in Kenya takes ten times longer than in Hong Kong and requires five stages, compared to two. This is repeated across Africa, whether registering a business, selling property or recovering debt.

8. ABOLISH TAXES ON COMPUTERS EXPORTED TO AFRICA
Privatization, de-regulation and the emergence of democracy go hand in hand. Computers are critical to this development. In return, African governments would end import levies on computers.

9. FAIR TAXES ON COFFEE AND FAIR RETURNS FOR FARMERS
Imported raw coffee is taxed at a third of the rate of processed beans, the first stage in a trading system that ensures that less than 0.2% of the value of processed coffee is retained by the growers themselves. Reforming this tax will benefit Africa’s growers and their families, some 60m people. There should also be better marketing and packaging for Africa’s products. East Africa’s coffee producers now use attractive vacuum-sealed, foil packets but in Congo a fine soap made from pure palm oil is sold wrapped in newspaper and in northern Uganda, mangoes rot on the ground because no one can dry and package them to international standards. Foreign retailers should share their expertise with African traders.

10. GIVE POWER TO AFRICA’S WOMEN
Disenfranchise African men for 5 years.

( From www.kubatana.net )

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The $100 laptop is a grand idea – but maybe too grand. In my previous article, I praised the initiative, but after reassessing it on the eve of its launch, I think it’s time to determine its utilitarian value. Utilitarian value is determined by an items use or function in terms of its use for humans, such as for medicine or food.

I call the $100 laptop a paradox – a contradiction unto itself for a few reasons:

• Somehow laptop + hut + no electricity just seems like a very strange combination
• $100 can help a lot more people if used for something else
• Will villagers use this gadget for learning, or as a light bulb in their homes?

The $100 laptop is a warm fuzzy idea concocted by someone in far away place, totally disconnected from what really goes on in third world countries.

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Cameroon seems to have discovered a path to riches, by capitalizing on the fact that millions of people each day forget to type the ‘O’ in ‘.com’. You see .cm is Cameroon’s internet domain or top level domain (tld), and they have decided to point all those spelling mistakes straight to the bank ($$$). Here are a few good examples:

• www.microsoft.cm
• www.google.cm
• www.bbc.cm

As of this writing, the above links point to a site hosted by ‘agoga.com’ that has Ad driven links targeting travel, shopping, cars etc. The ads are less conspicuous on links with names owned by bigger companies that might take all this to offense. Domains belonging to those without high profile lawyers (like me for instance), have their sites redirected somewhere else… case in point – dkfactor.cm. See for yourself.

Camtel, the company that runs this tld for Cameroon has outsourced the management of this revenue generator to a seemingly clandestine operation that can be traced back to Vancouver. This whole thing really stinks… but I have to hand it to whoever came up with the idea for being wickedly brilliant.

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I just want to tell all the Kenyan blog pioneers out there to keep doing what they're doing. They're a true inspiration to people like me… and quite a few come to mind, but I'll save the details for later.

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