TEDx Nairobi 2010 Event Photos

Check out photos from the just completed TEDx Nairobi held at the Leakey Auditorium at the Nairobi National Museum. In the above photo TEDx Nairobi Host Juliana Rotich interviews Nairobi’s X FM
radio host Rabia.

Click for photos from Africa Knows – TEDx Nairobi Flickr Set

Click for photos from Zulu Safari

TEDxNairobi 2010: Going Green with the Web

It’s 2010 and TEDxNairobi is back and this time, we’re going green!

The signs of the times are clear. Our lifestyles and the choices we’ve made as the human race are having a degenerative effect on our planet. For this reason among many others, and because TEDx is in the spirit of ideas worth sharing, spreading and acting upon, we’re dedicating the next TEDxNairobi to challenges, ideas and innovation for our planet.

Green means different things to different people. Some will agree it’s lifestyle changes, some will say it’s what you eat and others will say it’s the only way our generation will preserve the world for the next.

Whichever way you look at it, we’re promoting and talking about all things “Green” at the next TEDxNairobi on the 18th of September at The Leakey Auditorium, Musuem Hill, time just from 1400-1830hrs.

Here’s where you come in.

You may be:

• A Blogger
• A Tweeter
• A Facebooker
• A Googler (yes, you right there)
• An “Online Citizen” (who are these people?)
• All of the Above
• None of the Above

No matter which of these categories you fall into, we want to challenge you to Go Green with TEDxNairobi.

How you can get involved:

• Grab a Blog Badge & Tweet about it!
• Nominate TEDxNairobi e-mbassadors who are Green
• Pick a Green Challenge for the next 3 weeks
• Write a blog post
• Propose ways to be green with our #GreenCityInTheSun hashtag

We’ve put together a page where you can Get Involved and let us know what sustainable ways you can go green with us. We want your ideas, but more than that we want you to actually pick a Challenge or propose one and DO IT! Pick a partner to motivate you and share the journey. So whether it’s taking the stairs for the next month. Deciding to share transport, skip all elevators and take the stairs or use an instant shower (or a cold one brrrr) we welcome all ideas and want you to pick one and chronicle how it is changing your lifestyle. Start with proposing your Green Challenge so others can pick up inspiration and join you here.

Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook for updates, mentions and inspiration.

It’s not what TEDxNairobi can do for you, but what you can do for Nairobi!

A Case Study on Twitter and TEDx Nairobi

Twitterbility of the Developing World

Engaging Conversation on Conservation in Africa.

Paula Kahumbu speaking at TEDx Nairobi

A self-confessed tree hugger, Paula Kahumbu opened by reminding us how extraordinarily privileged Kenya is as a country as far as diversity is concerned, and how most times, it’s taken for granted by Kenyans themselves. By demonstration when she asked to see those in the crowd who had been to a National Park in the last month, only a handful inferred to the affirmative. It brought life to her statement!

She shared on how Kenya has one of the world’s largest diversities of bees – over 1500 species. We assume the Maasai Migration is going to be around for generations (for those who’ve not seen it already.)

Her second confession was that she didn’t have a television. Her veranda is her television from her home on the edge of the Nairobi National Park and you can always follow her amazing tweets and extraordinary wildlife pictures.

Paula elaborated her reason why she’s a wildlife conservationist and set out to make a case. “We’ve often been told that wildlife is crucial to the economy and our economic development. However, we’ve been misled to believe that it is important for tourism alone.”

“The world’s current population is 6.9 Billion people. We’re far too many people for the planet…,” as Paula showed and while we’re now aware of our carbon footprint, we shouldn’t forget our ecological footprint. We’re using the earth, our forests, our seas and changing the landscape faster than it can regenerate itself.

“Over 1000 species are disappearing every year,” she stated. Adding that two-thirds of these species have named, they’re yet to be classified and already disappear off the face of the earth. 25% of our mammals are facing extinction. A sad reality to come to terms with.

Paula went on to share information from a recent study done in the United States where scientists conducted research and studied how valuable insects were to the economy. As insects performed basic services for human beings and the value in a year is $57 Billion and that’s a service that is free; remarkable.

The US is facing a major crisis with their bees, having lost around 80% of their bees. Bees contribute about $15 Billion a year to the US economy and that brought home a stark reality of the situation, given that Kenya has one of the largest biodiversities of bees.

She went on to elaborate on the current drought in Kenya (which has since turned into rains, and occasionally floods in some provinces). The reason why this drought is hurting, Paula said, was because we have degraded our landscapes to such an extent and silt is filling up our dams and the water is unable to penetrate the soil and replenish the reservoirs.

The global cost of saving our protected areas is $45 Billion a year for the whole world. The estimated value of these protected areas in terms of ecological services is actually $5 Trillion. She jokingly asked Aly Khan Satchu what the return on investment was.She brought the point back to order that we’re losing the race with our environment and examined the situation in Kenya with the Kenya Government and she frankly admitted that we’re losing the race to conserve our wildlife.

She also told the amazing story behind Owen and Mzee, her award-winning children’s book about a hippopotamus and a tortoise. Paula was working for Bamburi Cement in the coast running a small sanctuary, using a rehabilitated quarry where they kept hippopotamus after the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami that hit the coast just outside of Malindi.

The story, involves a hippopotamus calf that was orphaned during the tsunami and had to be taken care of. The 1 year-old hippo mistook a Seychellois tortoise for its mother, and not longer after the first pictures were taken, they quickly became viral and were abuzz all over the internet.

People were soon calling, texting and emailing asking how the tortoise and baby hippopotamus were. By this time, they had both been named, the hippo; Owen, after the man who caught him and the tortoise; Mzee – a respectful Swahili word for elderly person.

So they started a diary, written by a man who had been working at the sanctuary for 25 years, Steven Twaid. He would show what was happening with Owen and Mzee as they played, swam and grew closer together. Soon, they had over 500,000 people reading and keeping up with the life of Owen and Mzee every month. From this, they developed the children’s book – Owen and Mzee.

The book has since sold over 1 million copies and is in 24 languages across the world. From this, her meeting with Dr. Richard Leakey lead to her running Wildlife Direct which has grown from 7 blogs to over 115 different blogs, each with its own set of bloggers, volunteers and fundraisers. They’ve since raised over $1,000,000 since 2007 and now, enable people all over the world to donate and adopt projects and conservancies as they support them.

An example she raised was in the Maasai Mara where, after the post-election violence, the Maasai Mara needed funds to sustain its conservation efforts to cover the shortfall due to the nosedive in tourist revenues. They raised $280,000 towards this effort.

She spoke of the Lion Guardians project with Anthony Kasanga, a 23 year old Maasai man who is a poacher turned Lion protector. The Maasai people, as a rite of passage, have their young men kill a lion. Anthony, together with the Lion Guardians, has been able to raise $28,000 and develop a strong international following as he educates Maasai in the region on how and why to protect lions.

Paula shared on a trend that Wildlife Direct began noticing – lions were being poisoned with a cheap over-the-counter pesticide called Furadan. Kenya’s already lost 85% of lions as a result of poisoning. The impact on tourism, if this trend continues would be devastating. Luckily, Wildlife Direct rallied support and was even contacted by the US-based manufacturer of the pesticide, who agreed to take it off the market in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

The challenges for Wildlife Direct include raising support, especially in this period of the recession and developing the technology from their base in Kenya. Changing perceptions from a reliance on governments to bring environmental change is something Wildlife Direct is set on developing in Africa

A key strength of Wildlife Direct is its transparency, where all support is accounted for and results are documented by the bloggers and every action is shown and shared. The tangible impact shown to the world, shows the potential of the model behind Wildlife Direct which can be replicated and applied to different fields such as poverty alleviation and education.

A Case for Animation Production in Kenya

Kwame Nyong’o made a compelling case for Africans to invest more in the animation inductry in Africa.

Actually the figures speak for themselves:

• The worldwide animation industry is estimated to be worth at least $45 billion currently.

• Animation is one of the fasted growing industries in the world, earning Japan more than its steel industry last year.

• The animation gaming industry has been more valuable than film in the USA over the last 4 years.

• In the late 90’s India had hardly any animation to speak of. Today they have hundreds of companies that employ thousands of people and brings in billions of dollars into their economy.

• Animation has become one of the six pillar industries to South Korea’s economy.

So how will Africa make sure it’s not left behind in another opportunity to direct the cultural tone and tell a new story to a waiting world?

After all the world has always been curious about Africa and there are some good examples of popular cultural products on Africa being produced by foreigners on the marketplace.

such as the Lion King and Madagascar….

Once again Africa is in danger of being cast in the supporting role of its own feature story, as the African proverb says “Until the lion learns to write, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter.”

Perhaps the lion is learning to speak, in Kenya at least, where there is a  a growing movement in visual arts in Kenya, such as the works of Cartoon Joseph and Gado

And there is a growing realisation that special talent for animation exists on the African continent now…….there have been some successes such as the award winning Kirikou and the Sorceress produced in 1999 by Michel Ocelot; and Tinga Tinga Tales by Tiger Aspect and Homeboyz being produced currently.

There’s also institutional support for African Animators, from large donors such as UNESCO who run animation training and production workshops. The British Council have also been offering support to animators in Kenya and Kwame is one of the key speakers.

The presentation ended with Kwame with an excerpt from Excerpt from UNESCO 2.0 “Toto’s Journey” (duration: 2 min)  by Alfred Muchilwa and Godfrey Semwaiko

Boniface Mwangi on a Better Kenya

Boniface Mwangi speaking at the inaugural TEDx Nairobi at Upper Hill on the 8th of August, 2009.

How would you want to leave Kenya for the next generation? This is the inherent question that CNN’s African Photojournalist of the Year, Boniface Mwangi seeks to address in his work.

In 2007, Mwangi covered the campaign trail for the regional publication East African Standard following the Kenyan opposition of Raila Odinga as he worked to win voters over. And all across the country politicians were preaching tribal politics using divide and conquer tactics to win voters. After the ill fated elections, violence broke out all across the country.

The Standard would censor some of the more graphical images submitted by Mwangi although that didn’t take away from what he had witnessed in the field. This experience drastically changed his life and how he viewed the direction Kenyan leaders were taking the country.

As a sign of protest, Boniface disrupted the president’s speech during a live national broadcast on Madaraka Day, which ironically recognizes Kenya’s self-internal governance, on  1st June, 2009 and was subsequently arrested. This occurred after four months of planning with friends and lawyers who supported his work. In contrast, his family thought he had lost his mind and asked him to cease his activities.

In response, Boniface set up an organization aimed to help the poor and Kenyan youth country wide within the areas where violence broke out. Picha Mtaani is an organization aimed at providing a platform for national reflection and building local reconstruction consensus through photo exhibitions and debate. Since most of the affected areas have been left out of the national debate and neither do they have a voice in driving policy and change within the country, Picha Mtaani will engage these audiences and turn them into citizens who are concerned about their lives and how to improve the reconciliation and national unity.

Boniface Mwangi grew up in a broken home with six siblings and five fathers. His mum died when he was seventeen. In the slums of East Africa, it was tough finding direction as the choices were either to join a gang or engage in drug use. As a high school dropout, Boniface didn’t have many options and used to hawk books on the streets. He later joined a bible school and while there came across a book by famed photojournalist Mohamed Amin on the Ethiopian famine of 1985.

This was a turning point in his life as he decided to pursue photography. Without a college degree, it was tough getting into any school. He managed to join an obscure school without camera equipment where he lasted all of five months. He dropped out, bought a camera and started shooting pictures about life in the slums of Eastlands where he grew up.

These photos were remarkable in that they offered a diverse view of life in Kenya. Mwangi got a job with the East African Standard where he became a photojournalist until he quit in 2008. His work during the post election violence earned him the CNN African Photojournalist of the Year award.

According to Boniface, Kenyans aspire to have a better country but sometimes do not ask if they are the best citizens of this better Kenya. A lot of people prefer taking shortcuts in order to achieve their dreams. With leaders bent on building tribal fiefdoms instead of preaching nationalistic politics, it is very hard for Kenya to become a successful country.

In response, Boniface wants to help Kenyans become better citizens and stop compromising on their ideals. He feels this is the only way we can build a better country for our children. Though Picha Mtaani is just a small tool we can use to help build a better country, it is a step in the right direction.