Gaaddzoooks! I am the fastest talking person I have ever listened to. Thank God I know this early, now I can learn-how-to-speak-slow, and I don’t have to learn this one day when I have a radio interview organized with the largest radio show in some country.
Anyway this is the guy who is teaching me how I can make a living writing the Displaced African (I can’t recommend Yaro highly enough.To learn more about Yaro check out his free book, Blog Profits Blueprint). Give me feedback on how I can improve my interview technique, I am currently in the process of trying to get into the media and I want to make sure I am the best interview subject EVER.
Now that you have seen my face, you are free to stalk me as long as you stalk me bearing gifts 😉
Back to Business: Brain Drain vs Brain Circulation
Check out this article from Out of Africa about Africa’s brain drain. I think the quote below definitely takes top prize as sobering thought of the day:
DESPITE a general upward trend in economic and social growth in Africa, massive brain drain continues to its take toll on the continent, with analysts claiming that it has the same effects as the slave trade and is worse than colonialism.
From the same article, I got this BBC news report: check out the ideas on brain circulation: yet another model worth emulating me thinks.
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Mwangi
Tags: Africa, Africa brain drain, brain circulation, Mwangi, the Displaced African, Yaro Starak
Sad story about brain drain. Despite the fact that as a country we are celebrating forex inflows by diaspora exceeding foreign aid, we remain disadvantaged because these guys could do so much more for us from here. Unfortunately, opportunity is the missing ingredient. Who should create it? Them, government, international organizations???
@mwasjd: As we have discussed in the article on foreign aid, my humble opinion is it has to come from where great changes have always come from, civil society coming together in great enough numbers over one cause.
Seriously? Remittances are greater than foreign aid? Where can I find articles on that?
Very cool interview! Talking slow is a good place to start. You are obviously well spoken.
Whats done is done, but here are my 10 cent: As far as the setting, it would be koolo if next time you choose a bright plain background and vaa some semi professional clad. I jua that your audience cares more about what you say than there you say it or how you look, but what you vaa and where you are matters to some people (1st impressions). Otherwise you did good! Hope i wasn’t too critical.
@rags: Thanks man! Criticism was what I was after and you did good. Enyewe I have never been a suit or formal man. Me thinks for any future interviews I need to pull something semi-official.
So, has blogging brought you some income?
@rags: I haven’t gotten to that stage yet…blog stucture first…..content second…..traffic third….and monetization fourth.
I am currently in stage 3. I should begin testing with Adsense among other things very soon so watch this space and help out when and if you can.
@Jim: Thanks for the tips man. I have shown the video to a few people and that seems to be the general consensus, that I need to slow down. About the Youtube channel thing, I am way ahead of you man, wait for a little something to pop up later this week. Thanks for the kind words man…..yeah, I will be posted up on kenyanzone.com where I am the question game champion ha ha ha ha ha (that was an evil victorious laugh btw)
@Jim: Sadly, I don’t live in that type of home, people around me have no problem telling me I suck at something (with love….I guess 😉 ). But I see your point, hence the reason I am asking for feedback from all of y’all.
Thank you for linking to my video from your site. For those who want to check out the link to my video find it here:
http://kenyanzone.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=279
Yeah, you do look Ethiopian! 🙂
@Kelly: Face to face it’s more like a Somali. Anyway, at least I am international in my flavour.
You do speak fast, LOL, good luck with Adsense, I earn enough from it in one month to pay for my hosting for about a year and I have two websites. 🙂
@Caustic: The perils of thinking quicker than you speak…Wow! That sounds good, you have inspired me to put up the Adsense ahead of schedule. I would love for this site to get to a stage where it’s paying for itself essentially.
I cant wait to get home and watch the clip. like i told u i dont have my earphones, cheap as they may be across the street. But also as you are aware it is exam time in Australia and I cant seem to do much nowadays apart from staying in the lib even if am not studying. I noticed even the clubs in Melbourne are so quiet. The cold weather and the fact that most spenders(students) here are busy revising make a bad combination for club business. But I digress. I ll get back to you as soon as I can.
@Mzeiya: From what I can remember, general activity just dies down around winter time….less clubbing, less house parties, people all just stay inside. You must get yourself a good pair of headphones man…actually, you know what, you not getting earphones is a brilliant tactic..saves you from distractions. Anyway, the feedback will be super appreciated……
Oh Mwangi I just watched your clip. It was pretty much ok. I believe you can take positive criticism and so I hope you wont mind if I suggested you use less hand gestures. And yah perhaps try and reduce the speed of talking. Otherwise I understood how much you are dedicated to nurture this blog. Cheers.
@Mzeiya: Yeah when I sent my younger sister the video she kept saying how I looked like I was shooing a fly all the time. Definitely something to add to the to do list especially when am talking into a webcam which is such a small limited space.
My days of being a speed racer on webcam I think have come to an end quite prematurely, thanks y’all the feedback has been awesome.
Good luck with earning on here, mate!
Also, I don’t think you have too many gestures; you might want to invest in another webcam as it’s probably the current one’s low resolution that makes the movements seem slightly pronounced.
@Mo Ma: Thanks for the warm wishes, I think as long as I keep writing stuff that folks read, the mula will arrive.
Yeah, the webcam was giving me a bit of a Neo effect….considering how cheap I am (the webcam has only been in use for 2 weeks) I think I’ll just have to keep my hands in my pocket a bit or just put some really trippy music in the background so that folks think they’re the ones hallucinating.
Thanks for the feedback!
woo hoo. You finally broke your youtube cherry. congratulations. Thought it was nice. Might wanna invest in a decent webcam if you wanna make it a regular. Looks like you’re performing Blane illusions.
Rambo bambo boom boom!
Hey man,
Thanks! I really wanted to declutter the site and create a theme design where that newsletter opt-in box could fit and so here we are….hopefully this one will stay for a helluva long time….or until I can afford to give tDA a crazy facelift.
@whome: Yup I have crossed the line of no return, I am a Youtube addict. That sucks that this camera isn’t perfect, it’s only 2 weeks old and most of all I am very….em….em….frugal, economically-conscious a.k.a. kinda cheap.
Didn’t wanna say anything about the new website look. Because I haven’t been on the site for almost a week. But since Jim broke the ice. Yea it looks good nice, plain and simple without being bland. I checked it out on internet explorer to because you mentioned it – by the way who still uses that. It looks good on IE too so kudos.
Now to read about african writing.
@whome: I can’t understand how anyone can still predominantly use IE when there’s the wonderful world of Mozilla…or even Safari on Apples. Thanks for the feedback, I am really loving the fact that everyone’s opinions are uniform and exactly in line with what I was trying to do.