Kenyan Promoters Killing FACEBOOk

Whats wrong with this picture?

Honestly I get hit up with almost 50 new invitations, from groups, from friends, from frenemies. Its ridiculous. FACEBOOK just got worse if you are a Kenyan out there.. Its like everywhere you turn the cheapest way to market your event is through facebook. So every mom and pop shop is pitching his ideas on facebook

Seriously look at that screen shot

Is South B the home of the hit makers?

First and foremost its important to note that there is a whole Facebook fans page dedicated to South B (Check our the South B Fans Page). With that in mind I think it would make sense that I dedicate an entire post to a small city or should we call it a sub district or a sub location? Am not sure how to classify South B because there are other surrounding neighborhoods around that area - Golden Gate, Planes view, Mariakani.... I think I will just call it a neighborhood.

I had a discussion today with Kimathi (of Jamhuri wear) about his friend Edward (DJ Edu formerly of homeboyz and now of BBC 1xtra in the UK). During this conversation it struck me that South B as an area really has consistently churned out hit makers? I mean realistically speaking look at this small list I compiled of all the people who lived or live in south B Nairobi:

Patrick Wanjohi (1990's rap phenomenon) - Zig Zag
Jeffery Kimathi - Jamhuri Wear Owner
Caroline Atemi - Singer (Afrou soul/ Afro Zouk artists)
David Mathenge (aka Nameless) - Singer (Benga, Afro Zouk artists)
Winnie Rosemary Kagwi (aka Wahu) - singer (Benga, Afro Zouk artists)
DJ Edu (lived in South B during his youth) - DJ in the UK BBC 1xtra
Francis, Lucas Bikedo(aka Ogopa DJs) - Producers and DJs

I am sure I am missing a few big names here but realistically speaking could we possibly be seeing the birth of a hollywood of talents in South B? You know funny enough maybe I should be on that list because I attended highway secondary school and spend majority of my time between Patrick Wanjohis house and school - that allowed me to meet akina Lucas and Edu (whose small brother was in highway secondary school). Which then by proxy would mean people like DJXP and the likes also hail from South B since we both attended the same school - although that would be a lie because our mentality is Buru Buru DAMU.

That said - I just wanted to this interesting insights about South B. If I think long and hard I would say South B is the home of the hit makers.

Remembering the Legends.

Am posting this here not sure how long I will let this video bum ride on this blog post. I recently acquired a home gym (bought it). I was paying too much attending Golds Gym which is just a few blocks down the street from where I live. The challenge however is that - I live on top of a hill, therefore going to the gym is never a problem, its coming back thats always an issue. Can you imagine jogging back up a hill when your body is all withered?? Disaster.

Isitoshe the other problem is with the economy now, paying about 50 bucks for a gym membership is a little steep. Regardless of the 20 bucks my company gives back as a rebate for wellness crap - it just doesn't sit right with me, so I figured spend a some money upfront bring the gym home, and you have solved two problems in one.

So the other day someone complained I was getting a little fat/big or whichever and I decided to make this video to show them that I am working towards getting back in shape...




Looking at this video apart from my one pack, I think am doing alright - but this kinda ignited some fond memories I had when I was growing up. I was always so inspired by Mikey Ragos - I am not sure how many people remember that name or the person, but reality is that Mikey was probably one of the most well known body builders in my youth. Mikey and some other guy called TIGER POWER (who never really lifted any weights but had stunyad and could pull cars, lorries and such things).

Today Mikey Ragos sits on the walls of RAMOGI Film studios (yeah they still process film from all those bike riding picture taking guys who take photos of your housies (Mboch)). And not really as the successfully ten time Mr. Kenya body building champion. However while writing this article and trying to get a picture of Mickey Ragos I stumbled on his sons MySpace profile... Damn its been years since I have seen Fred, the last I met him was when I was hanging out with one of my trainer friends - Lee Lehanda.

But its inspiring to see that FRED took after his dad and looking at his formation OL'BOY is looking like he ate a burglar proof or something.. DAMN...

Here are some images of FRED RAGOS



See how small boy has become such a big boy..




These were taken about 3 years ago...




and this one also.. about 3 years ago.. lets see if I can show you something more current..



Here we go.. something more recent.. What y'all think?





Big up Fred Ragos... I wish you all the best - Currently I understand he is the Mr. Kenya which means Lehanda fell off.... But Damn.... Big boys in Kenya are not playing around..

Do I want to be respected or feared

I spent the weekend with some of my friends up North and during dinner an interesting conversation ensued. To me this conversation was especially touchy because I have a 6yr old daughter whom I don't really get to spend so much time with but I tend to want to be involved with almost everything she does to define her upbring.

The interesting challenge was the question about fear vs respect, which we all generally agreed you have one vs the other and not necessarily both. To me it appears that most or many American brought up kids tend to want to respect their parents, but generally they are not scared of their parents. The idea has its different segways but the short of the story is that a child growing up in America really doesnt learn or develop the same value systems as much as a child growing up in Africa. With the keyword value being derived from the fear mechanism. (I could be wrong or maybe merely forcing issues here.. but follow my train of though if you must)

My American (Black) friends argued that growing up in Mississippi and or in the South you definately grew up scared of your folks. Majority of this fear comes from the way old school parenting would involve ass whopping, punishment and sometimes torture (year man torture - going without food for 2 days is torture man). But new school parents such as myself have so much to worry about, I am scared of losing my child if I touched her, I am scared of how she will think of me when she grows up, and I am generally just constantly trying to be her friend so that she can respect me.

The Question I have though is I think I turned out okay, I mean I have a few bruises here and there but I think growing up with fear there are definitely things that I didn't do because I was scared. However my neighbor has 3 awesome kids, whom she somehow manages like a SUPERMOM - to the best of my knowledge she hasn't hit any of them kids, but reality is that they are too polite, they listen, they wash the car, they stay home - they study, often go to bed in time. So I am just conflicted with what parenting style is normally the best.

I can tell you one thing for a fact, African fathers are naturally disciplinarians, you see your dad you run first and then try to find the caring emotion later. Most boys are close to their moms anyway but it doesn't help that very few African sons played soccer with their parents and or video games. I am one of the lucky few who had a somewhat close relationship with my dad, but I still feared him to some degree. There was no telling when shit would hit the roof, when I don't play by his rules. But am not trying to be like my dad - am trying to be like myself, and see if I can get some respect without having to be feared if that seems to work. But at this rate it seems I will just keep negotiating with my daughter for life - he he he he... honey if you don't do this I will do this, or if you do this then you will not get that... DAMN times are all crazy, back in the day there were no options, it was bed time or bedtime... Just the spelling was different but it meant the same thing.


Shoot I would get beaten for crying sometimes - c'mon man, how do you not grow up in fear with such conditions eh... Anyway I just thought this an interesting discussion and wanted to table it, because I think as an African man am losing my edge.. he he he ... maybe am becoming a softie

Uswahilini - Deployed

(A screen shot of Uswahilini.com)

I normally use this blog to post up non-work related stuff, but considering this post is semi-work, semi-pleasure and partly idea-concept, I think its important to post it here with my rationale.

I am international citizen, am one of those few people whose place of birth, place of residency, paternal place of residency and place of birth have little to do with how I live my life today. I've grown up in three different countries irregadless of where I was born so its often confusing even to myself to start calling myself an American, a Tanzanian, or a Kenyan.

One thing is for sure I carry bits and pieces of my different cultures wherever I go. As far as this post is concerned this is my Tanzanian blood speeaking, which allows me to keep close contact with the Tanzanian community, close enough that I know the challenges and how to overcome them - but not close enough to engage other Tanzanian developers and or thinkers, which is something I am constantly looking for.

I read different Tanzanian/ Swahili blogs to keep up with the news in Tanzania. Newspapers for me became difficult to read because either the news is skewed or poorly written. Although I spend about an hour a month on IPP media properties to figure out the pulse of the country. However blogs in general have become much of a Tanzanian phenomenon. It appears blogs have replaced what the Tanzanian publishers hoped to accomplish online. Tanzania has been a little of a slow growing baby in terms of Internet reach but its getting there slowly.

However BLOGS again like I said have taken the whole publishing industry in Tanzania to a whole new level. Tanzanians love to talk, Tanzanians love to gossip but most of all they love being in the know. Giving them the tools to create these public domains to put their words out has to have been one of the most enterprising ideas yet. I don't have exact numbers but each day there is at least a new Tanzanian blog being created. What I like about these developments is that most Tanzanian bloggers are journalist, so it gives them an additional or optional voice to their daily press clients that they maintain.

Currently the most popular blog is by a Photo Journalist called Issa Michuzi - http://issamichuzi.blogspot.com/. His blog is so popular that its officially sponsored by the largest Mobile network in Tanzania - Vodacom. He often has interesting updates and postings but the fact that the blog is so all over the place and unstandardized makes it unattractive to read and to browse through. There are variety of other meaningful blogs like Bongo Celebrity - which for me has replaced what I used to go to Dar hotwire to find... But again the biggest challenge here has been standardization and maybe some normalized UI experiences.

But that has been lackign in the Tanzanian blogsphere. It seems majority of these blogs were build by the MK Group which I have to commend for bringin up such an uprise - but the quality has failed to develop past the current stage on all these Tanzanian blogs. Apart from a few that are really trying to up their game.

so what I felt was that it would be important to start a small Blog aggregator to help address some of the UI issues (User Interface Issues). Some of the inconsistencies - For instance Michuzis blog has some red fonts, blue fonts, black sometimes green fonts. Its not really clear what the strategy is. Truthfully if you want to build anything for people to spend time reading don't use any other color apart from black text on white background. Bongo Celebrity is currently a good example of a come up site - they changed their UI, its now ten times better to navigate, its better to look at the colors are cool warm and friendly. and their consistency and relevance continues to grow. I salute the BC team - http://www.bongocelebrity.com/

I hope Uswahilini will help Tanzanians in the diaspora learn more about managing and developing online content. I hope that people will use it to read their favorite blogs in a more standardized format, without having to worry about jumping through pages, and or fuzzy text and annoying scrollers and marquee's. I hope that this initiative will bring me closer to a group of developers whom I can work closely with to improve on that experience and start building tools for local Tanzanian content.

After bashing the Tanzanian blogworld.. I present to you

USWAHILINI - Waswahili wanapokutana!