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A friend on Facebook just shared this article on Tanzanian internet prices and I wanted to re-share it here (Thanks, Pernille !). The pre-text is the SEACOM project which has linked the Eastern Coast of Africa to a global fibre optic network. According to the article, the first problem is that "ISPs operating outside of Dar es Salaam still have a transmission problem", while some ISPs and mobile servicer operators in Dar-es-Salaam have been able to drop prices for their customers and increase speeds. The second problem is that one of the oldest main telephone service operators, TTCL, has top rights over the fibe optic backbone: "The government has given one company [TTCL] a monopoly power, which that company is using to monopolize the bandwidth transmission market, keeping Tanzanian citizens from enjoying the African bandwidth bonanza ." Read the full article here on ICT Works .

There has been a lot of theory since the 1940s about development. Considering the theory, and the emergence of media and communication technologies, I think teachers - especially those teaching early childhood - are in positions of incredible change-making power. More on this later.

Photo credit: Dunia ni Duara

According to the theory of false consciousness , deception is at work in almost every aspect of our daily lives. My question is what came first: The falsehood, or the consciousness to recognize falsehood?

Dar-es-Salaam and Stone Town, Summer 2011.

The New York Times Redefining the Meaning of No. 1 By DAVID J. ROTHKOPF Published: October 8, 2011 David J. Rothkopf is the author of the forthcoming “Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government — and the Reckoning that Lies Ahead.” HERE in America, we seem to be more interested in finishing first than we are in figuring out what race we ought to be in. The refrain is insistent, from President Obama on down. He, like others in both parties, urges us on — to build or educate or invest or cut the deficit — so that “America can be No. 1 again.” We want to be No. 1 — but why, and at what? The size of our economy is one measure of success, but it’s not the only measure. Isn’t the important question not how we remain No. 1 but rather, what we want to be best at — and even, whether we want to lead at all? But we are Americans and we seem to think the rest of the world looks best when framed in our rear-view mirror. We outstrip the world by many measures but lag, sometime...

I found this article on the WSJ yesterday. The reason I found it interesting was because it juxtaposed the incumbent president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who is Africa's first female president and former World Bank economist, with George Weah , a former national football star still very popular among the youth. Roosevelt Tule, a political science professor from Liberia's capital mentioned:"The Nobel Peace Prize is not quite known in Liberia, except among academia... What Liberians expect is basically food on the table." In the last election, Weah was scrutinized because of his lack of higher education. Since then, Weah went back to school and returns as a candidate for Vice President. Do our systems of " open governance " account for open opportunity? Or do they claim to mimick systems of open opportunity but only provide opportunity to those with the loudest voice?

Posted on Vijana FM | 30th September 2011 Amil Shivji is currently a 21-year-old Filmmaking student at York University in Canada. As a native of Tanzania, Amil has plans to work with film in East Africa, particularly with films that contain conscious messages. We caught up with him to ask him about his ideas and recommendations... 1. Compared to newspapers and radio, what is about films that interests you? Motion. The movement of images invokes a billion different emotions and allows varied perceptions. And at the same time a frame carries the power of a newspaper and the sound of a radio station. Juxtaposition of shots or certain image sequences tell an entire story and the best part is that it’s very personal. When I watch a film, I feel like I am having a conversation with the filmmaker. The shots are fragments of his/her visualization of the story and I am offered an insight into the filmmaker’s imagination. As opposed to newspaper and radio where I would be reading words or heari...