Tag Archives: article

e-Africa Commission

I came across this article from Voice of America about the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). They launched a new project called called the Broadband Infrastructure Network with the goal of bringing broadband internet access to all of Africa. As stated in a previous post, only 5.5% of the continent has access to the internet, so this is a big endeavor.

As I am just learning about the e-Africa commission I am going through their site and seeing lots of really good stuff. Look at this quote from NEPAD e-Schools praised as the key to bridging the digital divide in Africa:

“We recognise that this NEPAD e-Schools Initiative holds substantial benefits for all African people. Through the use of ICT, we can raise the levels of our educational standards and improve the education and skills of our young people. And above all, we can address inequality, poverty and unemployment in our countries.”

She noted that taking this initiative forward marked the beginning of meeting the challenges of bridging the digital divide.

I love it, I love it, I love it!!! The whole article is actually great, so it should be read in its entirety. I’m mad I hadn’t heard of this commission before. It looks like the VOA article might be about something that started a while ago, and I’m not seeing any recent activities on the site, but it is definitely something I will be watching closely from this point forward because it is trying to do something big.

Burkina Faso, France and Africa

[caption id="attachment_298" align="aligncenter" width="567" caption="Map of French West & Equitorial Africa"]Map of French West Africa[/caption]

I read a news story today that has me asking “did French West Africa ever dissapear or was it just reborn?”… The former République de Haute-Volta, now known as Burkina Faso, has reached an agreement to let some sans-papiers work in France if they have a legal work assignment. I am trying to make sense of it all.  It seems that from both sides, experience in France and French involvement is seen as a conduit to success.  It is one of those interesting side effects of colonial past that ended less than 50 years ago (in 1960).

Apparently there are over 4,000 Burkinabè in France (both legally and illegally) and they will be giving out 500 work cards out. Here is a partial quote from Brice Hortefeux, Minister of Immigration, found in the article:

Selon M. Hortefeux, Paris délivrera 500 cartes professionnelles par an pour permettre à des Burkinabè de se rendre en France « dans la légalité et la transparence » pour bénéficier de « qualification et d’expérience sur le territoire français ».

The parts that are directly quoted make me cringe and I really want to find the whole quote… “in legality and transparency”? to benefit from “qualification and experience on French soil”… I’m not sure why it makes me cringes. I understand both sides really. I guess I wish that the standards for success could be different. But, as I said above, it is less than 50 years after independence and things take time.

Now, the reason I am asking about French West Africa being reborn is, this story introduced me to l’Uemoa (Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine)
. It is basically a bunch of West African countries that have come together for the economic betterment of the region. When you think of the French colonial expansion in terms of the silly civilizing mission myth (sorry, not buying it) and from the economic standpoint of expanding markets and work forces, it looks like it is the same old song. With economic growth in the region, the civilizing aspect was rendered moot, because people had to learn the language and customs of commerce, thus they learned French language and customs, and are still using them for their advancement, and France is still investing in the region with groups like Groupe Agence Française de Développement. It is all, very interesting to follow.

Anyway, that is it for random thoughts brought up by that article. I am looking forward to seeing how the region continues to grow and define itself.

Le Cran and Obama

So much has changed since I have been out of school.  In November 2006, Le Conseil Représentatif des Associations Noires (CRAN) was formally created.  It is more than 120 organizations of all sizes throughout France to fight anti-black discrimination and racism (this is all according to their website).

They succinctly pinpointed the problem of being black in France, in their opinion, with the following from their question section:

4. Nous disons que “Les Noirs de France sont invisibles ” : que cela signifie-t-il ?

Avoir la peau noire en France hexagonale, n’est pas, a priori, la meilleure manière de passer inaperçu ! Le paradoxe est que les Noirs de France sont individuellement visibles mais ils sont invisibles en tant que groupe social. D’abord en tant que groupe social, ils sont censés ne pas exister, puisque la République française ne reconnaît pas officiellement les minorités, et ne les compte pas non plus. On pourrait se réjouir de l’invisibilité des populations noires, ou en tout cas considérer que cela ne pose pas problème en soi si certaines difficultés sociales spécifiques qui les affectent étaient mesurées, connues, reconnues. Or ce n’est pas le cas. Aussi l’invisibilité, plutôt que d’être la conséquence paisible d’une absence de problèmes particuliers, devient un tort.

Their Translation (yay less work for me):

4. When one says that ” in France Black people are invisible”, what does it mean?

In principle to have a dark skin in metropolitan France is not the best way to go unnoticed. The paradox is that as individuals, Black people in France are visible and yet as a social group remain invisible.

As a social group it seems as if they were not supposed to exist: the French Republic doesn’t officially recognize minorities, and doesn’t record them as such. One could be satisfied with invisible populations, or at least see no problem with it, as long as social and specific difficulties concerning them be recorded, identified, recognized. However it is not the case. And instead of remaining a quiet and normal status, invisibility is wrong.

Anywho, they are starting a new campaign that features a Barack Obama look alike (video above), to raise awareness of “racial profiling”.  Basically, visible minorities in France are stopped by the police more than people who look… white.  They have chosen Barack Obama because, well, he is a global inspiration for black people and he has admitted to being the victim of this type of racial profiling.  It is very interesting to me.  I can’t wait to see more of the videos (I’m assuming there will be more).  I am also mad this organization wasn’t around when I was getting my Master’s (even though there website is pretty bad).

My Eartha Kitt Post

My life is beautiful because every day is a wonderful experience.  I can’t stand still spiritually or intellectually.  Every day I want to feel as if I had more to give than the day before.

-Jet Magazine Word of the Week November 2, 1967

There have been so many posts and news stories about Eartha Kitt all over the place since her death that have said so much. So, I am writing this really for my own benefit so I can bookmark the info below. I would like to say that the thing that I always loved about Eartha Kitt was how fun she was to watch. She always brought so much energy to everything she did and she genuinely seemed like she was enjoying herself while she was performing.

Here are a few performances:

C’est si bon

I Want to be Evil

I went through and found a bunch of articles about Eartha on Google Books, until they accused me of being a virus and blocked my access.  There were so many short paragraphs through the decades about scholarship funds and outreach projects she was a part of. She was an interesting lady for sure. The articles below are some of the interesting longer ones.


I love digital archives. I am glad that this information exists in a medium where it can be accessed so easily. For serious. RIP Eartha. You will be missed.

Nollywood and the digital age

I just came across and article from Tuesday in 24|7 about Nollywood titled Strife and poverty fail to stem $700m Nigerian film industry. They interviewed Peace Aniyam-Fiberesima (google says it is Peace Anyiam-Fiberesima), a Nigerien producer for the article. I love her quotes!

Quote 1

Digital technology has helped us a lot, developing the quality, and the equipment. We’ve been able to show that we can drive an industry by just shooting on a digital camera and editing on a laptop.

Quote 2

…Many of the international festivals do not accept films other than celluloid. We are moving to the digital age and the world is at an economic crunch; how many people who want to make films and express their creativity can afford to wait forever to get huge amount of funding to their projects.

Yes! I’ve said it in the past and I’ll say it again: If there is a market that would be great for an online film festival that could have global reach, this is it. Anyway back to work & reading the news. I just didn’t want to lose these quotes.