I went for TEDxNairobi yesterday.
It was incredible. So incredible that I've been inspired to start writing again, I actually started blogging in 2006, using this and my car blog Motogari, then I just focused on Motogari, and then facebook(I have 45 notes and 212 posted items) so I've dusted off this blog and I want to write again. I want to "earn" my membership into the amazing group of people who came for TEDxNairobi yesterday, I got many a puzzled look when I said I was an Auditor at TEDx.
It was nice meeting the people I follow on twitter, lakini twitter isn't why I know Bankelele or Aly-Khan, I've been reading what these people write for years, Twitter just brought y'all abit closer.
Anyway I think I'll start with what I thought of TEDxNairobi. Moses Kemibaro, well, its was the same old same old Fibre story we've been hearing since the cable landed, But it was a good presentation.
Jacquline Novogratz: I liked the bit about giving people the "dignity of choice", If you've read the works of Dambisa Moyo and Hernando de Soto, you'll understand how true this is, treating poor people without the dignity they deserve as human beings has been a problem with aid agencies for a long time.
The assumption that all a poor african wants is clean water and freedom from the tropical disease of the month has informed the attitude towards how aid agencies operate.
Crystal Watleys presentation picked up on that, She couldn't get funding outside of the normal themes of HIV/AIDS and certainly not to simply give people information, showing them that theres a life outside of their daily hardship, something they could aspire to beyond having clean water and managing HIV/AIDS, kudos to her and congratulations to he on winning the award.
Tonee Ndungu cannot be put in words that could accurately describe him up on the stage, live, I wont even try, that was an amazing presentation.
Aly-Khan Satchu, I wish we had more time.