Green Kenya

Pursuant to our previous post, we have decided to move the entire Green Kenya initiative from GOOD to GREAT. That calls for site-wide changes, in order to attain our stated objectives.

Well, all through this month,  we are incorporating Green Kenya into the larger Complit Communications, to better accommodate many of our green initiatives.

As a first step, we have moved the blog to this new address.

Please update your bookmarks and RSS readers to ensure you never miss a thing.

We shall keep you posted on the other developments as they are implemented.

Straight from the Heart, Straight to the Point

Well, this is a quick blog post that carries so much weight, it’ll be replicated on the Walkabout as well as Complit Design.

Beginning July 6, I took time off because I saw the need to take a completely new approach to running things at Complit Communications. Much of this was partly inspired by the knowledge that The End of Something inevitably means the Beginning of Everything… if one takes the necessary steps to make that happen.

Good to Great

A more compelling reason to repurpose and refocus was reading ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins. I haven’t read the entire book, but its basic premise is that the curse of competence makes many people settle for just being good. That is essentially why many never become great – they are just content being good.

Additionally, I have been reminded that greatness is not a function of circumstance but a matter of conscious choice. That said, a great vision without great people is irrelevant. In line with this, I had to take time so as to decide on what needs to be done to realize greatness.

Less is More

According to Nido Qubein, “Nothing can add more power to one’s life than concentrating all their energies on a limited set of targets.”

For this reason, I’ve had to drop some projects. I need to concentrate more on that which makes more sense, matters most and I can be passionate about.

Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Being in the creative field, I believe that David Ogilvy’s advertising mantra pretty sums up what I have in mind:

Research: coming, as he did, from a background in research, he never underestimated its importance in advertising. In fact, in 1952, when he opened his own agency, he billed himself as research director.

Professional discipline: “I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance.” He codified knowledge into slide and film presentations he called Magic Lanterns. He also instituted several training programs for young advertising professionals.

Creative brilliance: had a strong emphasis on the “BIG IDEA.”

Results for clients: “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.”

Back to Basics

In the realms of greatness, I am keen not to lose sight of the fact that “the only way to remain great is to keep applying the fundamental principles that made me great.”

In days to come, we shall have posts that will add more value and which reflect this new purpose.

Thank you for your support, looking forward to your comments, suggestions and sharing.

To Learn and Share

When we started Green Kenya, our core mission was to highlight, discuss and share information on issues touching on how we interact with our environment, manage natural resources and lead healthy lives.

Times have changed, but we have not deviated from our stated objective. We continue to steadfastly lobby for increased use of renewable energy, water conservation, better management of waste disposal, healthy living and other ethical and sustainable practices.

Sustainable Initiatives

In line with this objective, we have written about green houses, biogas plants, photovoltaic installations, wind energy, seedlings, tree planting and other initiatives.

These posts have continually elicited enquiries both in the comments sections and via Email, from potential customers who would like to either get professional advise on how to set up a green house, plant trees, install a solar power or water heating system or generate biogas in their farms.

Connect with Highly Targeted and Qualified Customers

At Green Kenya, we strongly believe in learning and sharing. To this end, we  are setting up a directory of Agribusiness service providers, consultants and individuals or companies who do renewable energy installations. In addition, we shall frequently profile these service providers, for our readers to gain a better understanding of what services and/or products are offered.

Green Kenya prides itself in having a targeted global audience that is actively seeking, and intend to share useful information. Our readers also seek to make positive change in their lives by implementing some of the Green Kenya initiatives.

We are offering you a valuable opportunity to showcase your products and services globally, and to connect with this highly targeted audience.

Introductory Offer

Throughout July, we shall list all agribusiness service providers and consultants in the Green Kenya  “Service Providers” directory at absolutely no cost.

Additionally, we shall profile these service providers on the Green Kenya site.

Limited Time Offer

This free publicity is for a limited time only, contact us for more details:

Green Kenya
Complit Communications
Email: info@complitcommunications.com
Cell: +254-725122450, +254735122450

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Leaving the City

When I left Nairobi for shagz [rural home] in late 2007, I never knew just how much I’d enjoy living away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. Suddenly, life was very affordable, simple and much better in innumerable ways.

Much of what happens on this blog is a direct consequence of leaving the city. Otherwise, I was happily paying my electricity bills, using LPG gas and quite content with the single tree that I only saw within our plot while I took my clothes out to dry. In fact, I never once sat under that tree.

Open Spaces, Expanded Horizons

It is a fact that the rural areas actually sustain the cities. Food is delivered every day to the cities, from both small and large scale farms in the rural areas.

People who live in the rural areas would be more interested in green houses, biogas installations, tree planting among other initiatives. This is largely because they do have the farms to do these things or are forced owing to the absence of the conventional utilities such as electricity from the grid.

Personally, I have opted to use a combination of solar, wind and biogas energy because I am persuaded that it is the right thing to do. Electricity is less than 100m from where I live, but I still opt to make the investments into the aforementioned energy sources for ethical reasons. Having an advantage of time, I hope to live long enough for these investments to pay back… but I digress.

Living far from the cities accords those who are interested, a rare opportunity to actually try out all the things one can possibly do to live a simple, albeit self sustaining life. It is for this reason that we feel that there is need to look at the development of rural areas as a direct result of these initiatives.

Rural Development

I have always maintained that a very effective way to reduce poverty and empower young persons is making it possible for them to earn without necessarily working in towns and big cities. Let me give one example that has worked really well.

The rural electrification project that was started in 2003 in Kenya has really localized development in the country. Young men can now engage in gainful self employment such as kinyozis, welding, selling and repairing electronics, rearing chicken, and many other activities that are primarily driven by electricity.

In Finland, it became a legal right for every citizen to access broadband internet beginning last week. This essentially means that those who live in the rural areas can get things done online without expensive and time consuming commute to the cities where speeds are obviously higher.

The Neglected Masses

The majority of any country’s population live in the rural areas. These are the guys who work behind the scene and make the cities and those who live in them carry on in life.

This series of posts focusing on rural development will  highlight the gains made so far in developing our rural areas, as well as mentions of what needs to be done.

We look forward to your thoughts.

The UNESCO MAB Programme

The UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme, seeks to improve people’s relationship with the environment throughout the world. It was launched in 1970.

This is achieved through establishment of protected areas that represent main ecosystems of the planet in which genetic resources can be protected, with research and monitoring being carried out.

The George Wright Society web site has full details on the UNESCO MAB Programme.

The 2010 Laureates

At a meeting held in Paris from 31 May to 4 June, the laureates for the 2010 Young Scientist awards and the Michel Batisse award were announced by the International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere programme (MAB).

They are:

Maria Jose Lopez (Argentina): Attitudes of the population towards environmental conservation in the Parque Atlantico Mar Chiquito Biosphere Reserve;

G. Fifanou Vodouhe (Benin): relations between tourism and biodiversity conservation in the Pendjari biosphere reserve;

HaiQian Li (China): A model of sustainable economic development involving different stakeholders: a comparative study of the Lake Heilongjiang Xingkai biosphere reserve and the Miyun water resource reserve in Beijing;

Fiby Adib (Egypt): a comparative economic assessment of two Ramsar (international Convention on wetlands) sites and the Omayed biosphere reserve;

Amélie Le Ster (France/Argentina): participatory management of a biosphere reserve, pilot study in the Yungas biosphere reserve (Argentina);

Alex Asase (Ghana): Impact of land use change on plant diversity and carbon storage in the Bia Biosphere Reserve;

Ari Kurnia (Indonesia/Malaysia): contribution of the Tasik Chini biosphere reserve to the development of the local economy;

Joachim Makori (Kenya): impact of climate change on the Malindi-Watamu biosphere reserve;

Salama El Fatehi (Morocco): evaluation of the genetic resources of a threatened legume species (Vesce vicia ervilia) in the Mediterranean Intercontinental biosphere reserve (Morocco-Andalusia/Spain);

Llewellyn Foxcroft (South Africa): Non-native species as a driver of global change: unravelling the dynamics and risks of plant invasions using molecular techniques.

Green Kenya takes this opportunity to congratulate the above laureates, as well as wish them well in their future endeavor at making the world we live in a better place.

We do make special mention of Joachim Makori, who is both personally known to this writer as well as a fellow Kenyan. You can connect with Joachim on Facebook.

Playing our Part

We all need to play our role in conserving the environment and making the planet more sustainable.

Such simple acts as using renewable energy, planting more trees, conserving energy and better use of natural resources all go a long way towards this end.

If we each do a little more, we all do a lot more.

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Back in the Day As a kid, I was totally fascinated by the fact that bicycles fitted with dynamos would produce light at night as the owners rode along. Growing up, I remember reading many Science books, and gaining priceless knowledge that has largely influenced my lobbying for widespread use of renewable energy sources. Connecting [...]

Hedges vs Fences Yesterday, I spent all day at the farm planting a hedge. When I told a friend about it, they suggested that it’d be better and safer to erect a fence instead. As I worked, I considered this unsolicited advice, in light of several things: I live on a farm away from the [...]

My Green Energy Dream For a many years, I was unrelenting on my quest to use solar energy for both my lighting and computing needs. My plan has always been to complement this with some wind energy and ultimately, cook using biogas. Having been away from the farm where I wanted to set all this [...]

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