Social Media — Ethnic Supplies

A little while ago I “met” Dr Sam Kawumi in cyberspace and many conversations later I found myself addressing an African Union Symposium at the University of East London on 14 Nov 2009 under the supervision of the Libyan Students Union here in the UK.

The Union of Africa is something that is dear to their President and a subject for discussion on this blog

Some of the highlights of the event covered the multi level governance, education for women, the law as well as the role of traditional leaders in modern day politics.

The weather on Saturday was dreadful consequently some people were unable to attend the event in person but listened in on a web based radio and here are their comments about the event

When I left the event I pondered the whole issue role of traditional leaders in modern day politics and started a discussion on facebook and here are the views of my facebook friends

Another conversation continued on twitter with @shiraabel, although I must admit we seemed to be speaking at cross purposes or at least didn’t quite understand each other.

I am always amazed at how technology makes it easy for us to have conversations about issues that matter to us without necessarily being in a given place physically as well as the opportunities that come with chance encounters on social media platforms.

On the subject of the role of traditional leaders in modern day politics, have you got a view either way? If so please share it

I don’t when or how I got into Face book and it doesn’t really matter. I don’t know all the tricks or ways of getting round it but I know enough to use it to communicate with people in my network and vice versa. Something that I never expected to gain out of being part of such a network happened a few weeks ago and I was really touched by it.

I received a connection request from Sam who is based in Uganda, I didn’t know Sam but at least 3 people I know were connected with him, so I accepted the request.

On or around 12 Jan 2009 Sam updated his status and in it he said he was launching a campaign to support/resettle a 12 year old girl who had been raped by her boss and had recently given birth

Please follow the rest of the story here

http://www.newvision.co.ug/detail.php?mainNewsCategoryId=8&newsCategoryId=13&newsId=667867

I was so touched by this that I dropped Sam a note asking what I could do to help. Sam responded that any money, clothes etc would be useful. I asked him for his number too and spoke to him on the phone later that day and learned the gory details of the case.

I told Sam that I didn’t have much to give, having only come out Christmas and the current economic down turn, but I would send £10 through a colleague who was due out to Uganda later that week.

£10 is not a lot of money to most us in the western world but in a country like Uganda where people live on £0.40p a day my contribution to this campaign was well received.

I was grateful that I had been able to contribute to the life of a destitute girl, that I would perhaps never meet and that a chance encounter online enable me to do this.

If you would like to help this young girl and her child please contact Sam Ouga at souga@newvision.co.ug

Ethnic Supplies

Africa Union Symposium

Face Book and the power of social networks