Comments for dkFactor http://www.dkfactor.com Africa's Claim On The Future Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:56:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 Comment on Cloud Computing & Africa by Bookmarks about Scalability http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/68#comment-30316 Bookmarks about Scalability Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:30:09 +0000 http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/68#comment-30316 [...] - bookmarked by 5 members originally found by scottblake on 2008-10-22 Cloud Computing & Africa http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/68 - bookmarked by 4 members originally found by psychop13 on [...] [...] - bookmarked by 5 members originally found by scottblake on 2008-10-22 Cloud Computing & Africa http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/68 - bookmarked by 4 members originally found by psychop13 on [...]

]]> Comment on What Bono doesn’t say about Africa by Mwangi http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/53#comment-30315 Mwangi Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:03:28 +0000 http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/53#comment-30315 All is forgiven and accept my apology, it was tiny faux pas all round All is forgiven and accept my apology, it was tiny faux pas all round

]]> Comment on What Bono doesn’t say about Africa by ValleydelSol http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/53#comment-30314 ValleydelSol Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:14:59 +0000 http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/53#comment-30314 Dear Mwangi, OMG No, no, no! Misconstrued comment! That comment was to the writer of that article, William Easterly! He ended his article saying: Today, as I sip my Rwandan gourmet coffee and wear my Nigerian shirt here in New York, and as European men eat fresh Ghanaian pineapple for breakfast and bring Kenyan flowers home to their wives, I wonder what it will take for Western consumers to learn even more about the products of self-sufficient, hardworking, dignified Africans. Perhaps they should spend less time consuming Africa disaster stereotypes from television and Vanity Fair. I'm very sorry I did not include the comment in quotes as above, originally). There is no one trying to stop the media from showing exactly what he's complaining about. He'd rather gloat and 'wonder' as he's drinking coffee with his Nigerian shirt on because (why) He knows the truth and the rest of us are stupid because we give to organizations claiming to send our donations to Africa to help them? Has he done anything to bring this to light with the media? He doesn't sound much like a professor to me. Again, I apologize and hope you forgive me! ~ Dear Mwangi,

OMG No, no, no! Misconstrued comment!
That comment was to the writer of that article, William Easterly!
He ended his article saying:
Today, as I sip my Rwandan gourmet coffee and wear my Nigerian shirt here in New York, and as European men eat fresh Ghanaian pineapple for breakfast and bring Kenyan flowers home to their wives, I wonder what it will take for Western consumers to learn even more about the products of self-sufficient, hardworking, dignified Africans. Perhaps they should spend less time consuming Africa disaster stereotypes from television and Vanity Fair.

I’m very sorry I did not include the comment in quotes as above, originally).
There is no one trying to stop the media from showing exactly what he’s complaining about. He’d rather gloat and ‘wonder’ as he’s drinking coffee with his Nigerian shirt on because (why) He knows the truth and the rest of us are stupid because we give to organizations claiming to send our donations to Africa to help them?
Has he done anything to bring this to light with the media?
He doesn’t sound much like a professor to me.
Again, I apologize and hope you forgive me!
~

]]> Comment on What Bono doesn’t say about Africa by Mwangi http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/53#comment-30313 Mwangi Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:42:37 +0000 http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/53#comment-30313 @ValleydelSol: Your comment suggests that you are ignorant to one quintessential component of immigrant culture: the remittance market. While you're asking people not to choke on their coffee study how many African people are actually working two jobs to support their family back home....... I think the blame for the ignorance falls on our laps in not doing enough to educate our Western peers but that in no way absolves Westerners of responsibility. If you took some time to study why WTO talks keep collapsing, you would see that fair trade is one of the defining issues of the Global South. Heck just go to a typical educated African and ask them what's more important, charity or fair trade and see their reaction. Westerns have free access to information and chose it to justify being a global crusader who goes and creates charities in Africa rather than doing the high leverage thing of staying at home and changing the system that helped create the poverty, and helps maintain it, in the first place. @ValleydelSol: Your comment suggests that you are ignorant to one quintessential component of immigrant culture: the remittance market.
While you’re asking people not to choke on their coffee study how many African people are actually working two jobs to support their family back home…….
I think the blame for the ignorance falls on our laps in not doing enough to educate our Western peers but that in no way absolves Westerners of responsibility.
If you took some time to study why WTO talks keep collapsing, you would see that fair trade is one of the defining issues of the Global South.
Heck just go to a typical educated African and ask them what’s more important, charity or fair trade and see their reaction.
Westerns have free access to information and chose it to justify being a global crusader who goes and creates charities in Africa rather than doing the high leverage thing of staying at home and changing the system that helped create the poverty, and helps maintain it, in the first place.

]]> Comment on What Bono doesn’t say about Africa by ValleydelSol http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/53#comment-30312 ValleydelSol Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:52:56 +0000 http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/53#comment-30312 Don't blame citizens of the USA for not understanding the real Africa when all the MEDIA (TV) ever shows here are advertisements of the poor little hungry children with flies buzzing 'round their faces and the percent of Africans dying of aids and needing more medical supplies! The educational special of poachers killing elephants for their tusks is due to air in December. They always depict this country of great culture in extreme need of HELP! Who of us typical citizens in the U.S. would know that 'African cotton growers want to compete fairly in Western markets?'...Well, we want them to! Do we write our congressmen? Did you? Since we don't know positively what Bono's real motive is beside your suggestion of personal gain, are any of the donations of purchases doing any good to help the citizens of Africa? It's disheartening not to know what to believe. Hope you don't choke on your Rwandan gourmet coffee. DK in USA ~ Don’t blame citizens of the USA for not understanding the real Africa when all the MEDIA (TV) ever shows here are advertisements of the poor little hungry children with flies buzzing ’round their faces and the percent of Africans dying of aids and needing more medical supplies! The educational special of poachers killing elephants for their tusks is due to air in December. They always depict this country of great culture in extreme need of HELP!
Who of us typical citizens in the U.S. would know that ‘African cotton growers want to compete fairly in Western markets?’…Well, we want them to! Do we write our congressmen? Did you?
Since we don’t know positively what Bono’s real motive is beside your suggestion of personal gain, are any of the donations of purchases doing any good to help the citizens of Africa?
It’s disheartening not to know what to believe.
Hope you don’t choke on your Rwandan gourmet coffee.

DK in USA
~

]]> Comment on Solar Power - From The Deserts by Paul http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/36#comment-30256 Paul Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:23:37 +0000 http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/36#comment-30256 Hello again, idea: work on the techonolgy to have solar arrays in space, then beam the concentrated power(laser or some other power source) to a collector on earth. This way we won't use up the land here and no atmosphere will dramatically improve solar performance. (kind of the reverse of the Tesla 'death ray'- call it the 'life ray' LOL- please, no malfunctions with the beam though! Sounds 'out there' I know, but we need to think big to get big results. Hello again,
idea: work on the techonolgy to have solar arrays in space, then beam the concentrated power(laser or some other power source) to a collector on earth. This way we won’t use up the land here and no atmosphere will dramatically improve solar performance. (kind of the reverse of the Tesla ‘death ray’- call it the ‘life ray’ LOL- please, no malfunctions with the beam though!
Sounds ‘out there’ I know, but we need to think big to get big results.

]]> Comment on Solar Power - From The Deserts by paul http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/36#comment-30255 paul Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:08:57 +0000 http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/36#comment-30255 Keep at it solar folks- we need to get that efficiency vs cost in line, then we will see them take off from a market standpoint.(And the cost come way down) We are almost there! We can do it! Also, one application we use in our industry is natural gas fired ovens. There is a possibility to use some of the heat to convert to steam then to electricity. Does anyone have any info on solid companies that can construct steam generators/ electric convertors? Keep at it solar folks- we need to get that efficiency vs cost in line, then we will see them take off from a market standpoint.(And the cost come way down) We are almost there! We can do it!
Also, one application we use in our industry is natural gas fired ovens. There is a possibility to use some of the heat to convert to steam then to electricity. Does anyone have any info on solid companies that can construct steam generators/ electric convertors?

]]> Comment on Vertical Farming, A Radical Vision For Africa? by cicero http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/71#comment-30249 cicero Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:05:44 +0000 http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/71#comment-30249 I think that is a little extreme a measure and not necessary at the moment. Our current lack of food security is not as a result of inadequate farming space but rather an ineffective use of available resources. What is being done to conserve the environment? Are we protecting the water catchment areas? Are we fully harnessing natural resources for food production? Soil conservation? Environment friendly irrigation practices? If we make sure that we are doing enough to make the best out of what we already have, then we can start exploring sky scrapping gardens. But as it is, we are not doing even employing the simplest commonsense practices to ensure maximum food productivity. I think that is a little extreme a measure and not necessary at the moment. Our current lack of food security is not as a result of inadequate farming space but rather an ineffective use of available resources. What is being done to conserve the environment? Are we protecting the water catchment areas? Are we fully harnessing natural resources for food production? Soil conservation? Environment friendly irrigation practices?

If we make sure that we are doing enough to make the best out of what we already have, then we can start exploring sky scrapping gardens. But as it is, we are not doing even employing the simplest commonsense practices to ensure maximum food productivity.

]]> Comment on Vertical Farming, A Radical Vision For Africa? by Mwangi - the Displaced African http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/71#comment-30238 Mwangi - the Displaced African Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:02:09 +0000 http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/71#comment-30238 My instinctive reaction is that since human beings began manipulating their environment, beginning with the agricultural age, forward through the industrial age and now in the knowledge age, we have manipulated the natural essence of something quintessential to life waaayyyy to much. I think we need to reel things back to the way nature intended them to be and formulate policies around that rather than formulating more policies around greasing the capitalist machine with even more excesses of wealth compared to excesses of poverty. Hope that makes sense.... My instinctive reaction is that since human beings began manipulating their environment, beginning with the agricultural age, forward through the industrial age and now in the knowledge age, we have manipulated the natural essence of something quintessential to life waaayyyy to much. I think we need to reel things back to the way nature intended them to be and formulate policies around that rather than formulating more policies around greasing the capitalist machine with even more excesses of wealth compared to excesses of poverty.

Hope that makes sense….

]]> Comment on Cloud Computing & Africa by Dean J. Garrett http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/68#comment-30235 Dean J. Garrett Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:22:54 +0000 http://www.dkfactor.com/archives/68#comment-30235 The best recent trends in the cloud computing space, specifically SaaS is all the smaller vendors like www.HostedDatabase.com and others, who offer simple-to-use and low-cost apps that appeal to non-U.S. (especially African) customers. The consumers of these apps benefit from the simplicity and low-cost. The best recent trends in the cloud computing space, specifically SaaS is all the smaller vendors like http://www.HostedDatabase.com and others, who offer simple-to-use and low-cost apps that appeal to non-U.S. (especially African) customers. The consumers of these apps benefit from the simplicity and low-cost.

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