Reflections 2.10

By Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda *

Africa has a quarter of the world’s arable land but produces only a tenth of our food. On the eve of a pan-African conference on food security, Lindiwe Sibanda asks how African farmers can turn things round.

One week from now, 200 agricultural experts from across Africa and around the world will meet in Namibia at the annual regional food security policy dialogue of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (Fanrpan) to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing the African continent.

One month from now, a UN summit will take place in New York to discuss the upcoming five-year deadline for achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs), the successes gained so far and the new priorities that must be supported.

However, in today’s world these discussions need not, and should not, be confined to those in Namibia or New York. This is why I am asking readers of this website to create their own dialogue here about the issues we are addressing and the potential solutions available. Read the rest of this entry »

Nelson Mandela

This Sunday, 18 July 2010 the world will gather to celebrate a man who has come to define resilence, conviction, persevrance and brute determination.

Nelson Mandela, turns 92 and celebrates 67 years of service to humanity(and his fatherland/mother land if you will).

Without pretending to know the history of South Africa or the full details of the struggles that make Mandela what he has come o be known for, or attempting to recreate information that already exists and can be easily gleaned from many sources, I’d like to state Nelson Mandela is a model of conviction and determination.

As part of celebrations, may civil society actors/groups have teamed up and are campaigning that we contribute 67 minutes of ur time on Sunday 18, July 2010 doing service to humanity.

Read about the 67 minutes campaign on the Every Human Has Rights website.

Image courtesy of: loyapower.files.wordpress.com

I grew up around stories that the earth can no longer support man and we have to look for a new abode.

Where? Where will man make his new home?

I asked these and many other related questions many times and the usual and confusing answer – coming from mostly my pre-teen peers as confused as I am – is space.

My appropriation of space then was something in the clouds – today, many, ok not so many years after, it still is. And dateline for our ultimate transition to the cloud, man’s new abode was the magic year 2000.

Today, grown – yes, if I go by counting the number of hairs on my chin- and a lot more appreciative of the challenges that face man’s continued habitation of the earth, I smile when I think about those years.

Indeed man has not relocated to the clouds, but his data has – or more appropriately is doing so.
Increasingly, the cloud is housing our data – whether or not we like it. And going the way of the cloud seem the most sustainable approach to data management and storage.

Nerds and those who pay them, believe so much in the concept of cloud computing – which in its most literal interpretation stands for computing suspended or housed in the skies/clouds, but in its real  and most basic sense stands for shared computing  resources accross boundaries of geography (and if you will time and spac) - that entirely new technologies have been and are being developed to manage what exists and create new avenues for  enabling and entrenching the concept.

Infact, there are such things as privately owned cloud – yes a piece of the sky – and public clouds and a lot of in betweens. This concept promises a lot of benefits and a lot of reasons to be (or not to be) concerned. Benefits largely includes:

• lower/low costs of ownerships and;
• in some cases no ownership as hardware  and software can be/are now provisioned as services and on demand service too meaning you use and pay for what you have used
• universal remote access – you can reach and manage your assets in the cloud from wherever you are –yes even from space if you happen to be on a Virgin Galactic’s tour of space in 2017
• little or no dedicated expertise – yes, most cloud computing features at the moment downplays the need for a huge IT staff

The many reasons for worry and for which many people are working without sleep to remove include:

• Cloud unfriendly government regulations – OMG! Yes, I don’t know of many, but the Canadian government forbids the storage of data generated in Canada anywhere outside its borders. True I do not know the depth of this regulation and also the exceptions should there be any.
• Security! Yes, good old security! How in the world am I certain that my data is not been stolen, corrupted or…?
• Bandwidth – or what I have come to regard as the cost of reaching your/the cloud(s), but with the recent finish example embargoing telcos in the ISP business to provide nothing less than 1MBPS data to all citizens (whether or not they need it I guess) there may be hope of fast and optimal access to the clouds, but whetehre that will be affordable or not we are yet to see.

Well, no matter your reservation(s) for the cloud – I hate going to live on the cloud myself, valuing the safety and reassurance of the solid ground beaneath my feet – we have all been involved one way or the other with the cloud, except of course you are not reading this online (yes, a copy of it will be in my collection of essays and that well, offcourse will be printed online only ) , or you do not use email, social network or  have an hosted website. And for those of us who already benefit from the battle for supremacy between the giants Microsoft and Google and the smaller giants, we already enjoy free storge, Software as a service and some who are extrememly perfect at milking situations, already own our own private cloud and guess what it is free of charge.

Oluwakorede Asuni, was a 2008/2009 Microsoft Anti-Cyber Crime (MISSPIN) Ambassador in Nigeria , founded and managed the technology consulting outfit ‘Korede Asuni Consulting which provided IT services to small enterprises and non-profits in Nigeria. He currently works with CIVICUS an international non-profit based in Johannesburg South Africa, where he happily lives with his MacBook:) !

Dear Sir,

It was shocking-very shocking-to learn of your demise last night.

Whilst I join others to wish you a safe trip to your next destination, I can not help but wonder how in humane man can be. I remember clearly how they flew you in (though we still have doubt you were on that flight) and smuggled you into Aso Rock even though Aso Rock did not provide the life sustaining medical equipments you needed.

I also remember how they wickedly rouse you from sweet (and possibly healing) coma to make you sign the 2010 Appropriation Bill (that I guess is the name for the annual budget). My friends here thinks i should not have been suprised at the inhuman treatments you suffered from your wife, aides and close allies in your last five months on earth, they argue that you have always been a subject of such treatment, at least they argued, you were forced against your will to contest the 2007 elections (and made to cu short your well needed medical pilgrimages to Germany during the campaign).

Sir, so long since we met – actually since I met you – sad we will no longer hear from you, but please do keep in touch with members of the various cabals ruining our nation and remind them sir of their mortality as humans…please share with them tales from where you are, perhaps they may have a change of heart and allow us common people (I don’t know what that really means) have the Nigeria we desire and deserve!

All the best in your new endeavours.

All the best,

Some concerned Nigerian

Titans  from the academe, industry, civil society and the in betweens (we cannt always categorize everybody)  are gathered amongst the pyramids of  Egypt at the IGF 2009 conference to discuss the future of information managment and sharing – hope google is represented!

As should be expected, in a gathering of such magnitude there will be many anecdotes, rhetorics, statistics, pitches, puns etc. embeded in long papers/presentations and I have decided to share my reflections (and may be some pun too) here.

This post will sure grow as I will update as facts emerge from the conference. Read the rest of this entry »