Chamblee54

One part of life taken for granted in America is indoor running water. You turn on a faucet, and get what you need. There are concerns about the future, and fussing about water rights. In Kenya, a person walks to a water vendor to buy a 20 liter supply of water.
Kibera is euphemistically known as an informal settlement. It is located in Nairobi, Kenya. A land mass 75% the size of New York’s Central Park is home to a lot of people. “More accurately, Kibera turned into an unauthorized settlement after Kenya gained independence in 1963 and the new government made illegal certain forms of housing. Nonetheless, landlords rented out cheap properties to impoverished Kenyans who could not afford legal housing, and has since earned the reputation of being one of Africa’s largest urban slums. Importantly, the precise population of Kibera is hotly debated and remains uncertain. Some estimates are as high as one million and others as low as 170,000 (e.g, 2009 Kenya Census). Estimates are difficult because Kibera is made up of residents who are extremely mobile, and often prefer to remain in the shadow of the law.”
Very few of the residents have running water. Every day, people have to carry a 20 liter jerrycan to a water vendor. Often, there are shortages, and the price goes up. The water is often contaminated. There are water mafias, which create artificial shortages to boost the price.
“If the root of water problems in Kibera centered on price and supply it may be more manageable, but issues of water quality substantially complicate clean water delivery systems. Most water pipes in Kibera run above ground and are made of plastic (due to issues with theft of steel pipes), which are highly fragile and easily manipulated. These pipes will often crack or break (either accidentally due to traffic or intentionally by competitors), allowing sewage to seep into drinking water. Indeed, water sources that are generally clean can easily become contaminated without notice. This is reflected in public health data—infant mortality rates and bloody diarrheal infection rates in Kibera are more than three times the average of Nairobi as a whole (UNDP 2006).”
Stanford University is setting up a program to use mobile telephones to help people find water. Evidently, mobile phones are more common is the slums of Kenya than clean water. The program is called M-Maji, which is Swahili for mobile water. A database will have information about who has water for sale, the price, and the quality of the water. This information will be available to water users via mobile phones.
HT to Bloggingheads.tv. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. The spell check suggestion for Kibera is Liberace. This is a repost.

The car radio died a slow, lingering death. It would play, and then cut off with a loud pop. Sometimes it would come back on. More often, it would not. Eventually I decided to replace it.
The first place I went was a warehouse space near the house. You go in. The room is crowded with merchandise and equipment, in no particular order. The gentleman said he could do it, and quoted a price. He said to come back at 4pm. At 3:30 I called the shop, and nobody answered the phone. When I went by at 4, nobody was there.
The next stop was to a retail store. We will call this place retail1. I went in, found the car audio, and looked at merchandise. Nobody came to wait on me. After a while, I left.
There was another small, independant shop in my neighborhood. It was in a small shopping center, in the space formerly occupied by a 7-11. You go in, and see merchandise strewn throughout the space. The man quoted a good price, and asked how I planned to pay. His credit card machine was broken. He would only accept cash.
Retail2 was the same mall-adjacent company as retail1. Again, nobody came over to wait on me. Retail 3 was a bit different. A salesman came by right away. He did not know how much they would charge for installation. Please come back tomorrow, and talk to the installer after he gets in.
The next day, I drove towards the installation area. A delivery truck from the company pulled up, and partially blocked the installation area. When I went into the area, the truck driver said he wanted to buy my car. Don’t put a radio in, just sell it to me. The installer quoted a price, and told me to go inside. I was to buy a unit for installation. I had other plans.
I was beginning to get frustrated. I went online, and found another independent company. When I went in, I was greeted promptly. The man I talked to knew his business. I agreed to let them put a unit in. Afterwards, the salesman showed me a few things about how to operate the unit. I noticed that the controls were small, with impossible to read labeling. I decided to cut the unit off, and figure it out at home. The manual said to cut the power off at the SRC. I had no idea what an SRC was. I cut the sound down, and drove home.
Learning to operate a JVC kdt700bt was frustrating. The controls were poorly marked. With the unit in place, it was next to impossible to see the tiny labeling. After a few minutes looking at the chart in the manual, I decided which button was the SRC. I held it down for two seconds, and the unit cut off. Next, I cut the unit back on, and programmed the buttons for the radio stations I wanted.
Next was putting a cd in the changer. It starts to play automatically. How do you cut it off, and how do you eject the cd? The manual was no help at all. Finally, I went inside, googled the device, and found an instruction manual. There was a place where you could type in a question, to an electronic tech rep. This is when the fun starts.
Pearl Wilson,Technician’s Assistant: Welcome! How can I help with your electronics question?
You: how do you eject a cd
Pearl Wilson: Who makes your speaker or sound system?
You: how do you eject a cd
Pearl Wilson: The Audio/Video Technician will be able to walk you through that. What have you tried so far with your sound system?
You: answert my question
Pearl Wilson: Anything else you want the Audio/Video Expert to know before I connect you?
You: how do you eject a cd
Pearl Wilson: OK. Got it. I’m sending you to a secure page to join JustAnswer for only $1 (fully-refundable). While you’re filling out that form, I’ll tell the Audio/Video Technician about your situation and then connect you two.
Finally, in the online manual, there was a chart, showing where the eject button is. A call to the 800 number told me to hit the volume knob to pause the cd, or mute the radio.
There is a menu of services… pandora, spotify, etc. … that I have no intention of using. You hit the SRC to go from FM to AM. If you want to go back to FM, I have to scroll through this list of services-that-I-will-never-use. According to the lady on the 800 number, there is no way to turn this off.
You can’t make this up. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

PG came across a link. The post was: What comes to mind when you see her headscarf? Let’s look at what your mind is seeing. Technically, this is about the hijab, pronounced eeJOB. If you google hijab, you will have the opportunity to buy one.
The article talked about the unspoken assumptions people have about a woman with a hijab. For PG, these are going to be mostly positive. Most of the Muslims PG has known are great people. The turmoil caused by aggressive Jesus worshipers is absent when dealing with Muslims.
Much of the article deals with “unconscious bias.” You are given the chance to take a “test your unconscious bias and find the areas of your perspective that need a little extra TLC.” PG is not sure that he trusts “Psychologists from Harvard, UW, and UVA.” Still, the only cost for taking this test will probably be damage to his mental health.
Before you start, there is a disclaimer. “IP addresses are routinely recorded, but are completely confidential.” There is a difference between confidential and anonymous. Big brother knows about PG anyway, so this test probably won’t make much difference. You are asked to agree to the following statement: “I am aware of the possibility of encountering interpretations of my IAT test performance with which I may not agree. Knowing this, I wish to proceed.” Fasten your digital seat belt.
Next, you choose a test. The first page has 15 options: Sexuality, Native American, Weapons, Arab-Muslim, etc. PG chooses “Weapons (‘Weapons – Harmless Objects’ IAT). This IAT requires the ability to recognize White and Black faces, and images of weapons or harmless objects.)
The first thing to do is answer a questionnaire. You are asked how warm or cold you feel towards white people, and black people. There is a list of statements that you agree or disagree, slightly, moderately, or strongly. Some of these statements are: I think of myself as someone who has an assertive personality, I have considered being an entertainer.
The heart of the test uses photographs. There are pictures of black people, and pictures of white people. There are pictures of weapons, like a bayonet, a historic pistol, a hand grenade, and a battle ax. There are pictures of harmless objects, like a water bottle, tape recorder, camera, and can of Coca Cola. Many of these could be used a weapons; a can of Coca Cola could be thrown at someone. Many Police consider a camera a weapon.
The pictures are flashed on the screen. You hit the e key for the left side, and the i key for the right side. At first the two choices are kept separate, i.e. you choose black or white, weapon or harmless. Then the two groups are combined. The choice is left side black weapons, and right side white harmless. Then they shift sides, to black harmless and white weapons. You are shown a picture, and choose which category to put it in.
The last questionnaire is the demographics. Annual family income is not considered. Ethnicity refers to hispanic/latin, or non hispanic/latin. Religion, age, “political identity,” gender (only male or female,) and education are considered, among other factors.
The result: “Your data suggest a strong association of Black Americans with Weapons compared to White Americans. … The interpretation is described as ‘automatic association between weapons and White Americans’ if you responded faster when weapons and White American images were classified with the same key than when weapons and Black Americans were classified with the same key.”
Whatever. Maybe PG should take another test for comparison. Maybe this time, choose a subject where hateful judgement is not in your face everyday. Since the seminal article is about the hijab, maybe … “You have opted to complete the Arab Muslim – Other People IAT.”
The opening questionnaire is different.”I attempt to appear nonprejudiced toward Arab Muslims in order to avoid disapproval from others, NO spontaneous prejudiced thoughts come into my mind when I encounter an unfamiliar Arab Muslim.”

This test is different from the race test. Instead of photographs, words were used. For the two groups of people, we have names (seemingly all male.) Examples: Arab Muslim – Akbar, Ashraf, Habib – – Other People – Benoit, Philippe, Guillame. The other categories are Good and Bad. Examples: Good – Joy, Love, Peace – – Bad – Agony, Terrible, Horrible.
PG made more mistakes in the fancy part of the Arab test. He took a couple of breaks to take screen shots, one of which is included in this report. At times, he felt himself automatically blaming the Arabs for bad things. This did not happen, consciously, in the race/weapons test.
The result: Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Other People and Arab Muslims. … This new test was prompted by the events of September 11, 2001. Suicide pilots, identified as Arab Muslims, crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. killing about 4,000 people.
While this may have some value to the ivory tower crowd, it does not tell PG much about himself. Arguably, IAT says more about the researchers than it does the respondents. It is doubtful that these tests will “find the areas of your perspective that need a little extra TLC.” This is a repost. Pictures from The Library of Congress. These pictures were not used in the IAT studied today.