Way-C Tablet: the First African iPad Rival

Way-C, the first African tablet, was invented in the Republic of Congo by 26-year-old Verone Mankou under his company, VMK. The Way-C tablet, an African rival to the iPad, went on sale in the Republic of Congo on Jan. 30, 2012. The Way-C, which means "the light of the stars" in a dialect of northern Congo, is sold for just $300. Though the Way-C was designed in Congo, it was assembled in China, to keep the price low and because of a lack of factories in the central African country.

On the official Way-C website, Mankou who said "originally the idea was to design a low-cost computer to bring Internet access to as many people as possible," describes the tablet as being affordable without being a cheaply made product, and filling a gap in the market for a device catering specifically to Africans. According to him "in technological terms, this tablet is equivalent to all those to be found on the market." The Android OS tablet is a little smaller than the iPad, and weighs 380 g. It has a 1.2GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory and supports wifi. Battery life is 6 hours. Further specs include a 7-inch screen and a version of Android dubbed "Kongo" (based on Gingerbread 2.3.5). Mankou's aim is to keep the tablet accessible for the African market and says that although the tablet is for "emerging markets" it will be available globally. The Way-C can't compete specs-wise with the dual-core, 64GB monster from Apple. Well the good thing is that the Way-C doesn't have to. All it has to do is to grab a foothold on the African tablet market.

Tablets for emerging markets seem to be all the rage. India started the trend with its Akash tablet, and now the Republic of Congo has its own cost cutting touchscreen device. This is a monumental achievement for the Republic of Congo because if there was anybody expecting an African tablet this early it would have been from countries like South Africa, Egypt or Tunisia. My Question is "where is the so called 'Giant of Africa' in all these?"

Mali, the Coup d'état and the Tuareg's Declaration of Independence

"We, the people of the Azawad," they said in a statement published on the rebel website, "proclaim the irrevocable independence of the state of the Azawad starting from this day, Friday, April 6, 2012."

"The Executive Committee of the MNLA calls on the entire international community to immediately recognise, in a spirit of justice and peace, the independent state of Azawad," Billal Ag Acherif, the MNLA's secretary-general, said on its French-language

Their independence declaration cited 50 years of misrule by the country's southern-based administration and was issued by the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (NMLA) whose army is led by a Tuareg senior commander who fought in the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's military. Nomadic Tuaregs have nurtured the dream of secession since Mali's own independence from France in 1960, but have little foreign support for a move neighbours fear could encourage other separatist movements. The rebels that captured the North of Mali comprises: the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNAA), the Islamist Ansar Dine which is closely tied to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and which is demanding the imposition of Islamic law in northern Mali and the secular Tuareg nationalist Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) which is seeking an autonomy, if not a completely independent homeland.

The rebels' advance capitalized on confusion in Bamako after a March 22 coup by mid-ranking officers whose main goal had ironically been to beef up efforts to quash the rebellion of the rebels. Tuareg rebels in the country's north launched incursions deeper into Mali, seizing towns and bases formerly held by government forces fighting the conflict that caused the coup. As military forces have been engaged in consolidating their hold on the capital, the rebels have been able to push southward with little opposition. The Malian coup d'état began on 21 March, when mutinying Malian soldiers unhappy with the management of the 2012 Tuareg rebellion attacked several locations in the capital Bamako. The soldiers, who now call themselves the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR) led by Captain Amadou Sanogo, declared that they had seized power from "the incompetent regime of Amadou Toumani Touré" and said it would look to hand over power to a new democratically elected government. The coup was followed by the swift loss of northern Mali to Tuareg forces, leading Reuters to describe the coup as "a spectacular own-goal" for the CNRDR.

The coup d'état was "unanimously condemned" by the international community and as for the declaration of independence by the rebel, the African Union said in a statement Friday that its commission chairman Jean Ping "firmly condemned" the declaration, which it said was "null and of no value whatsoever." And the French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said "a unilateral declaration of independence that is not recognized by African states means nothing for us."

It is believe that despite the declaration of independence made by the NMLA, they are not in total control of the situation in the north of Mali.

"I heard the declaration but I'm telling you the situation on the ground. We barely see the NMLA. The people we see are the Salafis," said the young man, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. "I can't tell which group they are exactly, but we know they are the Islamists because of their beards. They are the people in control of Gao.

"They do not speak any African language as far as I can tell. In fact, I don't believe any of them are African ... Even the ones that speak Arabic, speak an Arabic that doesn't come from around here," said Halle, who explained that their dress and appearance leads him to believe that they are likely foreign fighters recruited by the al-Qaida franchise.

The situation on ground and the involvement of Al-Qaida in all these makes me believe that this is the beginning of another African long civil war that will be hard to end.

World Bank Presidency: does Okonjo-Iweala have a chance?

On Friday 23 of March, the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank drew the curtain on nominations for the position of World Bank President, as Robert Zoellick plans to step down in June. Three candidates: Jim Yong Kim, Jose Antinio Ocampo and Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala have been short-listed.

  

Mr. Jim Yong Kim is a Korean born US national and President of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. The Korean-born Kim represents a break from the financiers and bureaucrats, who have run the World Bank. He is seen as a very smart man and has many of the characteristics that anyone would look for in a World Bank President; however, he lacks recognition among the world's development community. More importantly, he lacks the experience and knowledge of finance and broad-based development that will be essential as the world continues to recover from the global financial crisis and works to prevent its recurrence.

   

José Antonio Ocampo on the other hand is a Colombian national and professor at Columbia University, New York. He is a US-trained economist, who has excellent credentials in academia, national politics and at the United Nations. He has held posts as Agriculture Minister, Planning Minister and Central Bank Chairman in Colombia's government but has no support from his home government, which is looking forward to ILO Presidency.

  

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian and has a PhD in economic. She is a respected economist and diplomat. She has spent more than two decades in numerous positions at the World Bank. A much-heralded finance minister in Nigeria, she help the country to gain its first ever credit rating. Ordinarily, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, who until recently served as one of the bank's managing directors would be expected by experience to pick up the job but the chance of her becoming the next World Bank president is very slim.

   

The President of the World Bank is decided mainly by super powers led by America. It is a known fact that since the inception of the World Bank, the President has always been an American. This is   as a result of a tacit agreement between Europe and America that says when Europe has its citizen as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, the United States of America will produce the President of the World Bank. Emerging countries have gone on the offensive to put an end to this succession rule. Emerging economies such as the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have sought to use their growing economic clout to pry open the selection process for the heads of the World Bank and its sister organisation, the International Monetary Fund.

  

While José Antonio Ocampo has no backing from his country and Angola, Nigeria and South Africa in fact the entire African leadership has endorsed the nomination of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as a candidate to take over the leadership of the bank, when Robert Zoellick steps down in June. The US backed by Europe as usual is ready to force their nominee on member nations, despite the fact that he is the least qualified of the three nominees. U S argued that it does not head any other global organisation and that giving up the World Bank presidency will make it difficult for the White House to obtain funding from the Congress for the global lender, especially with lawmakers worried about mounting budget deficits. But this does not make sense considering the quality of their nominee. Kim's highest qualification as a former director of the World Health Organization's HIV/Aids department which is increasingly been recognized as a core development issue is not good enough for the position because beyond public health, the new World Bank president will face challenges in re-tooling global and national finances for development, food price volatility, filling the massive infrastructure gap and global climate change. Kim is not versed on these issues and lacks experience in managing the delicate global, national, and local interests in play. My opinion is that the U S careless about Kim's qualification all they care about is putting someone who they can control as the president of World Bank and if they are forced to withdraw their nominee they may prefer Ocampo who has a good working relationship with the US. Ocampo won points for collaborating with US on a clamp-down on drug-related money-laundering. Colombia is arguably the US's closest partner in South America and Ocampo has earned the trust of Americans at the highest level but If the decision is finally based on merit, as it should be, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is sure to be the next World Bank president.

   

Rather than listening to the Washington Consensus, many developing countries took matters into their own hands at the turn of the century. Since then the developing world has grown faster than the rich, reduced poverty significantly and avoided the worst of the financial crisis that originated in the US. It would be ironic for the US to dictate the appointment at the World Bank in such an environment.

Blackberrys's iPad aka BlackPad

According to the Wall Street Journal, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) is planning to release their version of the wildly famous iPad, a 9.7 inch iPad competitor, that may be running Android or BlackBerry 6 with the ability to be connected to a BlackBerry handset for 3G access/tethering.  Choosing to name it the BlackPad is another big issue. Yes, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) has already been notified and a legal junction is no doubt in the works. Black-Pad! Woow!! what do you think?

Is Blackberry Phone the Smartest?

Blackberry, the pioneer of smartphone boom with first of its kind hitting the market in 2002 has dominated smartphone user's world more especially that of business users for many years now. This is changing due to the release of Apple's iPhones and Google's Android operating system, which is being used by many mobile-device manufacturers. Blackberry, Canada's technology superstar own by Research in Motion (RIM) became a household name and gained the status of a corporate must-have smartphone because of its unique traditional features and services Blackberry though traditionally a business user phone has some consumer user services too. Since the entrance of iPhone in 2007 and Android operating system in 2010, Blackberry has lost a large part of its market. This may make people think that Blackberry is not as smart as the other smartphones. The answer to which device or platform is smarter depends partly on the device itself and partly on the needs of the person using it. Whether you are always on the road or someone who is sedentary, each person has specific needs when it comes to a mobile device.

Many users find iPhone which is blackberry biggest competitor to be trendy and versatile. This is because iPhone has almost successfully bridged the gap between the average consumer user and business user though it started as a consumer device. iPhone leverages a vast application store, which allows you to obtain apps for almost anything you can think of. Apple takes the cake when it comes to Web browsing on a mobile device. The use of Safari does a great job of rendering most Web sites and the large screen definitely helps the experience. Android prides itself on being open source and also boasts an extensive application store. It can also boast of numerous media-consumption applications. The younger generation who are mainly consumer-based users loves iPhones and Android phones. Android operating system which can be found on variety of phones, being open source allows vendors to develop platforms for their specific hardware. For this reason this platform containing thousands of free and paid apps for smartphones. Google Apps have seamless integration with Android smartphones,

RIM develops its own operating system on top of its own hardware like Apple does but unlike Android and Apple its applications are fewer and more expensive. This is because Blackberry does not have the kind of platform on which developers could create applications. BlackBerry, in comparison to the Android and iPhone platforms, provide the weakest web browsing experience. The iPhone succeeds in bridging the gap between the business and the consumer users, whereas the BlackBerry is still deeply rooted with the business community. To me this is an advantage, but many will see this as a weakness. The BlackBerry started as a corporate device, while the. The iPhone seems to have had an easier time making its way into the business environment, compared to RIM's battle of trying to make its way into the consumer market. Despite all this blackberry is the preferred device for business users overall, because of its in-built security, remote manageability and centralised enterprise and internet services which include email and corporate messaging services. It also have some consumer user services too such BlackBerry Messenger and Media Music (its iTunes rival). Blackberry provides the most optimal power consumption for the business user. Weeks of standby time, hours of talk time, and a removable battery (apple battery cannot be removed) all contribute to the BlackBerry taking the crown from a battery-performance perspective. The BlackBerry OS is one of the strongest platforms on the market. It has the best contact management, 'calendaring', and e-mail client of all the devices. BlackBerry is more rugged and reliable than iPhone and many Android devices especially with its renowned mechanical keyboards. RIM also offers freedom of choice, unlike Apple; you can purchase many different Blackberry in different form factors. For business I'd go with BlackBerry since it is much more encrypted, closed-off, and durable in the sense of hardware. RIM is reportedly planning on releasing a 9.7 inch iPad competitor, that may be running Android or BlackBerry 6 with the ability to be connected to a BlackBerry handset for 3G access/tethering.