2008 articles

Fallacies of Economic Development and Simple Development Formulae

The one notion that repeatedly comes up in development debates is that the government has a central role in creating both the impetus and oil for the development machinery to function. While superficially sensible, I think it fails miserably for the primary reason that the government cannot be held accountable except, …

Breaking the Rut of Africa's Poverty

If you're plumply tucked against your Korean sofa and expect Africa's liberation to arise from Africa's present leadership then you'll die a cold death. The African Union, while the de facto representation of Africa's political will, cannot be relied upon to bring to her what she needs. It's like high-brow …

Path to the World

Internet is like the butter of computers. If you are running a stand-alone computer you are sorely missing out. But given that we are still awaiting a fiber link at the coast to link us to everyone else at blinding speeds the challenge is to find a reliable and cost-effective …

Ports: at last!

Now, I don't want to seem like a block-head but I'm sure that's what anyone who reads this will think. It has taken the longest time to finally grasp the idea of what ports (in TCP/IP) are. If you are like me you will probably gain; if not, you might …

The Pivotal Role of Modelling in Education

It has just distinctly come to my mind that the education systems we deploy are designed with a built-in weakness.Most disciplines are structured in such a way as to require understanding of several fundamental phenomena. While I was at the University of Nairobi, I took what, at the time …

Where Education Systems Fail: Immediate Relevance

I think understanding is enhanced by starting with examples and I'll do just that.Yesterday, I finally appreciated recursion. For those of you who are not into programming and logical problem solving, recursion is defined as applying a series of steps used in solving a problem (algorithm - applying an …

Passive Learning

Extreme frustration!!! I'm not making any headway in French. i can't put my finger on what I have learned at the end of every class. So, what's the point? There has to be a better way... or no way at all!I think the human mind is amazing in the …