Changed Priorities Ahead?

Happy World Information Society Day everyone! AKA WIS Day, this great holiday was designed (last year) to commemorate the establishment of the International Telecomunications Union on May 17, 1865. The ITU is arguably one of the most successful international governance regimes in the history of international governance regimes as it has overseen world-wide television, telephony, radio, and other communications for almost a century and a half. However, governance over the latest communications technology, these-here-internets, threatens the viability of this regime and the holiday is as much designed as a reminder of the work still to be done.

Despite not getting the day off work and having an internet connection that is haphazard at best, I suppose my current work is an integral part of the above mentioned WIS. With this in mind, I’ll take some time to describe what I’m doing here in Kampala:

Basically I work for the new CEO of bridges.org. Prior to this position, he ran a successful business in Kampala that focused on organizing an annual conference here for ITish people. It was very successful. He was only 22 years old. That almost pisses me off. He decided, however, that his operation wasn’t very diversified and he started a number of for-profit and not-for profit businesses/organizations, all with an ITish theme. Now, he has quite an operation and has lots of folks who have since taken over his assorted projects at the office. I’m working on a few of these projects.

My main duty is writing an evaluation of and guide for a project that uses Internet and Communication Technologies to facilitate knowledge sharing among Ugandan farmers, with a focus on female farmers. It’s pretty cool: they (www.brosdi.or.ug) organize ‘knowledge forums’ of small farmers where ideas are exchanged and best practices for local agriculture methods and techniques are established. This creates a network of farmers who are then connected on the local level by a “Local Knowledge Broker” who receives these tips on a weekly basis via a text message to their cell phone (not all Ugandan farmers have cellphones, but there’s usually one per village). We also run a radio program; produce newsletters and How-To Guides; create instructive DVDs; keep a database of the network and the information; all with an aim of disseminating this information, which will hopefully improve farming methods and livelyhoods for small scale rural people, especially women.

I’m tasked with writing a guide that evaluates this project and presents it as a model for integration of ICTs into other development projects based on principles espoused by Bridges. It’s a ton of reading thus far, but a valuable education in how this is all achieved. The guide will definitely be published online through Bridges, and will hopefully have some further hard-copy distribution. I promise advanced copies on this blog.

Ok, back to the love for Kampala:

Got my haircut – kind of glad pictures are out of the question right now. Well, it’s short, but not that bad. Getting your haircut in another country is like a friend’s mom cooking when you’re a kid: It’s not necessarily gonna be bad, but it’s definitely not gonna be good.

I’ve talked about the minibuses I’ve encountered throughout this trip, but not about their names, which are often proudly displayed across the front and back windshields. A friend of mine told me about a play she saw in Durban, where writers were sent to explore Durban and write about it as part of festival. One writer produced a drama about the Minibuses, playing off their names and dramatizing the vast and complex social interactions that take place on their wild rides. I love this idea because, as I’ve said before, the minibuses are a great symbol for whatever African country they operate within and are quite unique to this region. Even Channel O, Africa’s MTV, uses minibuses and conversations that take place on them for their ad campaign: “If you’re African, you get it.” Another ad in this series follows the career from boy band to gangster of a musician named Jack Michaelson who manages to turn black over the course of his chaotic career. This is clever stuff, South Africans are some of the best marketers on the planet.

Where was I going with this? I wanna start to accumulate the names of the minbuses I see here. In Kampala the minibuses are actually called taxis or sometimes Matatus, which comes from Kenya – what Americans would call a taxi is known as a special here, as in ‘special hire.’ Of course, the Boda-bodas or motorbikes are big here and many of them have names, which can’t be as well displayed, but are just as creative none the less. I also like to think of these ‘tags’ as the last thing you’ll see before one of the minibuses or boda-bodas runs you over.

Ok, here’s the first installment. I’ve divided them into relevant categories. Religion is not a category because, well, as you’ll see, they’re all religious in a way:

The Daddys:

Big Daddy

Puff Daddy

Jesus Daddy

Home Boys

Call The Dr.:

The Doctor

Dr. Jesus

Sport (All Footballers – the kind who use their feet):

Joe Cole

Louis Garcia

Ronalhino

John Terry

Arsenal

Barcelona

Manchester United

Believe in Chelsea FC

Straight Preachin:

God’s Blessing Is His Wish

New Life

Let Them Say

Jesus is Driving

God Is Great

U'll Never Walk Alone

I [Heart] Samona Jelly

I [Heart] Jesus

I [Heart] My Job

Jesus Reighns (Yes, that's how it was spelled. Yes, I probably would have misspelled it anyway)

Jealous People Never Win

Fact of Life

Baby Talk:

Sugar Baby

Baby Andrew (personal favorite)

Baby Queen

Baby Face

Um...

White Cock

Niggah

Yes, these are all actual names for vehicles, I will continue to add to the list as I see them. On a related note, two of the most popular names for hair salons (oh yeah, from Botswana to Uganda, people pronounce ‘salon’ as ‘saloon’ – really gets to me) are Whitney Houston and Queen Latifah.

Saw a funny road sign today too. I think it’s an attempt to convey sidewalk work ahead or something, but it simply reads in white letters over a red background:

“Changed Priorities Ahead”