Tek no lo ji

Nairobi, my city

If one pronounces the word 'technology' in my local accent, it sounds like 'tek no lo ji' and it has a completely different meaning. It is a whole sentense. Ask any dholuo speaker and you will laugh!

“I have become amused, I’ve become blind…I’ve became what I know not….” those are words of PM Dawn, in one of his songs whose title I forget. And that is exacly what 'tek no lo ji' does to me at times.

PM Dawn should have called himself AM Dusk! All the same, I identify with him because I have become something that I know not. It the hustle and bustle of life, I have become a robot, and I barely have time for myself or my assignment.

I wanted to write something on blogs…and when I did a Google search, I discovered so many ‘bytes’ and even ‘cookies’ have been dedicated to this topic already.And suddenly I am hungry. For both the cookies and the bytes in their real meaning! Stuff like “Genre and Gender variations in weblogs” where the author talks about some “gender genie” which investigates the language, gender and genre in weblogs and computer mediated communication. And there is more! Such as conversations in the blogosphere… and others. I had no idea that a simple concept would elicit so much attention from researchers!

Maybe it is because of the nature of blogs. Yes, they are online. That is why probably, most research on them is posted online. Then they are new (at least to us back in the third world)

Speaking of new technologies, one of my colleagues has been mesmerized by a new (at least to us) program called Google earth. We literally toured the city of Nairobi, on our desktops! I actually accessed my (rented) house, from my office. I also accessed my village, on the shores of lake Victoria…and now I am aware that big brother is actually watching. All I can say is that, we are excited. And we need to find ways of using these technologies to ensure no more starvation in the north eastern parts of Kenya – or even bandit attacks and cattle rustlers. Could we use this technology to monitor cattle rustlers in Samburu, Pokot and all those other prone areas?