Review of the African Blogosphere – April 30, 2009

Shoot condemns the complacency of South Africa towards the Swine Flu outbreak:
“Gauteng seems to me to be far too complacent. The media, the government, the authorities. If a Phase 5 is announced (and it's probably imminent) we are going to see a lot of people rushing around for food and facemasks. Even the news bulletins are only now putting Swine Flu first up. There needs to be a lot of heads-up information, and people should start to think about stocking up in case of a global lockdown. When there is one single swine flu case in South Africa there is likely to be an unprecedented response. Local authorities ought to behave with the sort of urgency as though this had already happened.

The topic needs to be openly discussed and regularly updated.”

Using the Bird Flu outbreak of a couple of years ago as a reference, Aloysius Agendia, in the article Upstation Station Mountain Club, warns not against complacency, but against misinformation and overzealousness in dealing with the Swine Flu:
“Two years ago, the government of Cameroon without carefully examining the causes and the most adequate methods of preventing any bird flu quickly raised a terrible alarm which sent poultry farmers panicking. The press private press was no better because of the irrational relay of information on the disease from various western and other media organs. These media organs presented Africa as too vulnerable...
In Lebialem, a village in the Southwest province of Cameroon, the divisional officer… called on villagers to kill all their live stock so as to prevent any epidemic. It was a pity...
Poultry firms lost billions. Thousand of trays of eggs were destroyed, same as chicken. Some poultry firms went bankrupt. Many employees were laid off... All this because information on the disease was not well managed. Instead of embarking on prevention/ education measures, government and a badly equipped press in Cameroon disseminated information which caused more harm than good.”

A Nairobian's Perspective! revisits last year's killing and maiming of albinos in Tanzania:
“It was indeed sad to see the killings were being done under mistaken advice by witchdoctors that magic portions made from skins of persons impaired by albinism could make one rich. The clamour to get rich fueled the trade and even persons impaired by Albinism in Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi even came under threat from the "lucrative" trade!

…While it is true that the killings and murders have abated and that the Tanzanian Government was firm and took stern actions against suspected perpetrators... the truth is that the issue is a social problem that affects many Countries within the East African region. It is sad that in so many ways persons with certain disabilities continued to be discriminated against or even ignored by the Governments.
As we look back at that spate of killings it is imperative to ask what can be done to ensure that a repeat attack or an underground trade in human body parts of albino impaired persons does not flourish? You and I have a part to play no matter where we live or originate from!”

In Welcome to Kumasi Enoch Darfah Frimpong comments on the floods that have inundated Kumasi in recent weeks:

“Last week, residents were at the receiving end of yet another torrential rainfall, which caused serious damages to properties amounting to thousands of cedis, as a result of poor planning and the bad drainage system of the city… Kumasi was not prepared for the floods…

Residents have meanwhile blamed city authorities for allocating lands on waterways to private developers, thereby preventing rivers from flowing freely anytime there is a heavy downpour.

The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), have in the past warned residents in the metropolis about the devastating effects of rains and cautioned against building on waterways…”

Inari Media wonders whether Kenyan bloggers can earn a living out of blogging:

“The Kenyan blogosphere is both international and local. The most popular blogs are written not just by those in the country but also in the Diaspora… This presents a problem when looking for advertising. Although a blogger may be willing to gamble that their audience is primarily Kenyan, there’s also the question of where the audience is reading from. Should they sign up to an ad network that caters to a Western or Kenyan audience?

I’ve noticed quite a few Kenyan blogs running on the Blogger platform that take advantage of AdSense with no overhead, and there are also those who run Google ads on their own domains. At the same time, other Kenyan blogs run “local” (Kenyan based) ads, while others still seem to prefer the sponsored post option. Are they making any money from their blogs? I can’t say. What I do know is that there isn’t likely to be any real opportunity for Kenyans to earn money from blogging until there is an ad network that can take advantage of the dual-aspect market that Kenyan bloggers cater to.”

Scribbles from the Den publishes excerpts of a recent interview by Cameroon's Minister of Communications who is under investigation after he deposited funds meant for the media coverage of the Pope's visit into his personal bank account:

“It is February 26, 2009… That afternoon, I was expecting a treasury check [from the Minister of Finance]…. Instead of the treasury check, three brawny fellows delivered a bag containing 250 millions Francs CFA to my office...

I freak out at the thought of having that much money in my office. My desire is to get that money out of my office and to secure it as quickly as possible…

Where the hell did they want me to put this money? If I wanted to embezzle the money, I would have hidden it in my village…

I am serene. I did not kill anyone. Perhaps I committed a management error... but I have explained what I did with the money, and people saw the results. I am untroubled… if the legal system of my country considers that I have committed a crime, I am right here.”

* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org/