A BATH WITHOUT WATER...

Hi Everyone,
Its another amazing Tuesday and a really great opportunity for me to first celebrate on my blog, one of the people I love the most in this world. Many Happy Cheers to my younger sister, Felicia Eyang (Sisi Calabar), as she adds another great year. Sweetheart, YOU ARE SO PRECIOUS TO US AND TO GOD. HE WILL LIFT YOU BEYOND YOUR BIGGEST DREAMS AND MAKE YOU A 'THOUSAND TIMES' MORE THAN YOU ARE!!! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH DARLING!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!



.. And to my dear readers, I sincerely love you too for allowing me one paragraph away from what I have prepared for you today. Its an invention you may find interesting - One you probably would not have thought existed. It is DRYBATH... Yes, a bath without water.

L

udwick Marishane from South Africa was 17 years old when he invented DryBath - the world's first germicidal Bath-substituting skin gel made from a blend of cleansers and moisturizers. This unique idea, borne out of a friend's lazy bath day has become one very relevant to meeting the needs of billions of people around the world lacking access to sufficient water.  DryBath has also provided a bathing alternative to campers, soldiers in fields, prisoners, disaster relief charities and average household consumers wishing to 'save water' on some lazy days.

In 2011 and at 21 years, Ludwick Marishane was named the 2011 Global Student Entrepreneur of the year at the 2011 GSEA Global Student Entrepreneur Awards). His interview with Carol Roth (Huffington Post) last year, about his winning product and company gives great insight to his arrival at such unique innovation. 

Carol Roth: What is DryBath and what problem does it solve?

Ludwick Marishane: DryBath is the world's first and only bath substituting skin gel... you apply it to your skin, then you don't need to bathe. I invented it to benefit people from the poorest communities in the world and for people in the developed world. 

For people without water, Drybath provides empowerment as an affordable tool to achieve lifesaving personal hygiene without having to be dependent on stagnant community water infrastructure development. For wealthier communities, it offers a convenient way to save time and decrease their unhealthy practice of unnecessary daily bathing (which is proven to cause continuous  drying of the skin), while achieving adequate personal hygiene. In both situations, precious water is saved, which can be put to better use.

Carol Roth:  How did the idea for DryBath come about?

Ludwick Marishane: The idea came to me in the 11th grade in 2007. It was a cold winter's day; i was sunbathing with some friends of mine when one of my best friends had to go bathe. After we nagged him to hit the shower, he eventually said, "why doesn't someone invent something you can just put on your skin and avoid the need to bathe?"

A light bulb went on as I realized that I would be willing to pay money out of my pocket to buy such a product. Bear in mind that we were in the middle of the rural Limpopo province, with almost non-existent resources. I went home that day and used my web-enabled basic cellphone to research if such a product existed. My research showed that the product didn't seem  to exist and there was a huge market of 2.5 billion people in the world without proper access to water who were in dire need of such a product (that number doesn't include the billion more like my friend, who were lazy to bathe). Coming from a poor background myself, I felt compelled to create a product. It took 6 months and endless time on Google and Wikipedia to do it.

Carol Roth: Tell us a bit about your background

Ludwich Marishane: I am the only child of Stanford Malatji and the eldest of 2 sons to Lovemore Marishane. My dad achieved financial freedom and has been able to provide me with great schooling and the ethic way of always pushing myself to do more; while my mom lives on the economic margin of society and has provided me with the emotional development necessary to seek improvement for the poor community I spent half my life growing up in. My dad ignited my entrepreneurial passion in my first year of high school and my love for science allowed me to indulge my curiosities of coming up with inventions for different opportunities I saw. In 9th grade, I formulated my own biodiesel fuel, invented a healthy cigarette; and in 10th grade I authored a mobile dictionary and attempted to publish a nationwide security magazine.

Carol Roth: What is the pricing of the product and how many units have you sold to date?

Ludwick Marishane: We're selling Drybath sachets to corporates at around USD 1.5 per sachet (1 sachet contains 25ml and replaces one bathe). For each sachet that corporates ppurchase, we provide a free sachet to our charity partners for distribution through their humanitarian work. We sell DryBath sachets on the retail market in poor communitis for USD 0.50 each, with an aim to lowering this price in half when we reach economies of scale. We have sold 162,000 sachets to date.

Carol Roth: How did you decide to participate in the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards?

Ludwick Marishane: I heard about the competition in 2009. During my first year of university, i entered and lost the South African regional. In 2010, I entered again and made it to global finals; and in 2011 I gave it one last shot and I'm glad to have brought it to African soil.

Carol Roth: How much prize money did you win and what will you be using those funds for?

Ludwick Marishane: I won USD 10,000 in cash, and more in in-kind prizes. I will be using the funds to finance my global marketing endeavor to secure contracts with armies, airlines (to put Drybath on long-distance flights). hotel groups (to save water), and to other travel industry services. These corporate markets will increase economies of scale to make the product cheaper on the retail market and allow DryBath to be a cheap commodity product democratically consumed by both poor and rich. It will save lives, time and water.

Carol Roth: Why do you think you won?

Ludwick Marishane: Mine was more than just a business and a product...it was a story about the journey of one kid who is in pursuit of changing the world and has committed 4 years to it thus far.

Carol Roth: What do you think are the most important factors that will make DryBath a success?

Ludwick Marishane: Great Marketing and sharing the common global dream of the impact that DryBath hopes to achieve with society.

Carol Roth: What words of advice would you give to other student entrepreneurs?

Ludwick Marishane: Find what you love doing, and exert all your effort on pursuing it. 

Do as much as you can on your own and always ask for help when you need it. Embrace failure, because you will only ever experience it if you give up, not if you try and fail to succeed. I plan to use the title of Best Student Entrepreneur in the World to start the world's first entrepreneurship league and to roll this out globally over the next 5 years. I am dedicating my life to enabling the world's youth to follow their dreams and I urge other entrepreneurs to do the same...by first following their dreams!

...And we sure will Ludwick! 

I hope you were intrigued by such unique innovation. I still am. Ludwick didn't sit back on such an idea, he produced it.

So, do you have an idea?

Would it solve a problem?

Have you tried producing it?

More information on Ludwick Marishane and Drybath could be found on his website, headboy.org. 

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-roth/social-student-entrepreneur_b_1222586.html

http://headboy.org

http://www.one4marketing.nl/blog/bid/151325/Badderen-zonder-water-3-marketinglessen-van-Ludwick-Marishane

http://www.dw.de/south-african-student-invents-water-free-bath/a-16035598

...Naming, Shaming and Jailing!!!

"I'm sorry I cannot show you my face, because if I do the bad guys would come at me"

 - Anas Aremeyaw Anas, TED2013

Anas Aremeyaw Anas at TED2013 - How I named, shamed and jailed (Ted.com)

Anas' opening words at the TED Conference, filmed February 2013, best explains his attempt at hiding his identity with this wired mask. As an undercover journalist, Anas is well known in Ghana for bringing many criminals to justice - some of which include smugglers, spiritualists, government officials, police officers, and prison administrators. His methods are based on three set principles - Naming, Shaming and Jailing.

A journey which began about fourteen years ago, Anas remains determined to "shine light in the dark spots of society". He demonstrates this through his numerous disguise tactics and usage of hidden cameras to document what he calls 'hardcore evidence'. Through these methods, Anas exposes corrupt and illegal acts enabling grounds upon which perpetrators are placed behind bars. According to him, "If I say you have stolen, I show you the evidence that you have stolen. I show you how you stole it and when.”

Anas' tactics to obtaining evidence may seem extreme, but he certainly understands the hazards of his profession and willfully immerses himself in it. In his most recent project he deliberately arranged circumstances through which he was taken to court and imprisoned. At Nwasam Prison, Ghana, Anas covered shots exposing the unhygienic conditions inmates were subjected to - How they were fed and how they queued up for the 'toilet' (a hole in the middle of the yard, around which four men squatted back to back). His hidden camera also revealed shots of a room within the prison piled high with dead bodies.

A few of his other projects/stories show the great impact he is making whilst exposing wrong-doers within society. 

Spirit Child is one of his major undercover stories on the ritual killing of deformed children believed in some villages in northern Ghana to be possessed by evil spirits and not good enough to live in society. These children were given concoctions to take which killed them. Anas built a prosthetic baby and went into the village pretending that this baby had a deformity. He had found that he could buy the life of his decoy son for 75 Ghana Cedi. Having gathered the "concoction men" one morning in preparation to do the killing, Anas alerted the police, who were already on standby. As he relays the story (TED2013), these men have been arraigned before the court awaiting their fate.

Another key project relating to the Spirit child phenomenon is Spell of the Albino, revealing atrocities faced by children born with albinism in Tanzania and considered unfit to live in society. These children had their body parts removed and used to make concoctions believed to carry powers of luck and wealth. Anas went undercover again with a prosthetic arm and using a hidden camera,  filmed the men who carried out these acts. Thankfully, the Tanzanian government have taken action towards this practice, of course not without the help of such 'hardcore evidence'.

Other stories include Chinese Sex Cartel, where in 2009, Anas busted King James Xu Jin, the boss of the Accra-based Chinese sex cartel (named Peach Blossom Palace). Here, he posed as a bartender and filmed the hotel where Xu Jin ran the business. His hardcore evidence again produced grounds on which Xu Jin, along with his wife and brother were found guilty of sex trafficking and sentenced to a combined 41 years in prison.


Ghana's Madhouse Story is another one where Anas went undercover for seven months as a baker, taxi driver and finally a mental patient in and around Accra Psychiatric Hospital. He found unbearable conditions, extreme neglect and abuse by nurses and the heavy use and sale of narcotics by patients and staff. In one scene, Anas shows a body in the last stages of decay being carried away in the same van which transports food to and from the hospital. No doubt, his feigning as a mental patient and taking prescribed drugs throughout his stay made him suffer some setbacks leaving him impotent for a week after he left the hospital.


More of Anas Aremeyaw Anas' stories could be found on his website, anasaremeyawanas.org. He also has many followers on his twitterhandle, @anasglobal. Today, he has gained international recognition for his selfless heroic deeds towards curbing illegal practices and corruption even within the police force. 

Indeed such acts deserve great praise and reward. 

So, DO WE HAVE SUCH PEOPLE IN NIGERIA?

CAN OUR CORRUPT SYSTEMS SUCCESSFULLY ACCOMMODATE AND UTILISE SUCH 'PRIVATE EYE INVESTIGATIONS'? 

Please post your comments below.

Watch Anas on TEDtalk:

Sources:

http://www.ted.com/talks/anas_aremeyaw_anas_how_i_named_shamed_and_jailed.html

http://blog.ted.com/2013/06/05/4-must-read-stories-from-anas-aremeyaw-anas-the-journalist-exposing-unthinkable-crimes-in-ghana/

http://anasaremeyawanas.org/

http://news.peacefmonline.com/news/201112/83727.php

MEET THE YES MEN!!!

Hello everyone and welcome to Colour-me-Amba's weekly blog-post.

Today's story is one I believe may astonish and perhaps amuse you. It's the satirical acts of two men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, girded with the mission to ‘Fix the world'. These men could be called activists, but they bring an entirely new dimension to activism. Having impersonated the World Trade Organisation, big multinational Corporations and US Federal government on Television and business conferences around the world, one can't help but marvel at their courage and swift but thoughtful representation of public hoax aimed at what they call ‘Identity Correction'. 

Dear readers, meet the YES MEN!

I first learnt about the Yes Men in 2011 and their jinx on Dow Chemical Corporation (an American Multinational chemical company) in relation to an industrial disaster which killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India, 29 years ago. This is a summary of what happened: 

On the night of December 2nd, 1984, a Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking 27 tons of the deadly gas- Methyl isocyanate. With no operational safety system available to contain such a leak, the lethal gas spread quickly throughout the city of Bhopal, killing thousands exposed to it.

Today, over 25,000 people have died as a result of such exposure and more than 120,000 people suffer ailments such as blindness, extreme difficulty in breathing and gyneacological disorders caused by the accident and subsequent pollution at the plant site. Since this time, the site was never properly cleaned up and till date, its dangerous components continue to poison local ground water, causing cancer, brain-damage and birth defects for the present residents of Bhopal.

In 2001, Michigan-based chemical corporation, Dow Chemical, purchased Union Carbide, thereby acquiring its assets and liabilities. However, Dow steadfastly refuses to clean up the accident site, provide safe drinking water and compensate the victims as it denies responsibility for what happened there.

(Outside the ruins of the Alpha Napthol plant, a heap of brown 'rocks' lies exposed to the elements. The rocks are pure Carbaryl. If they caught fire, they would release MIC, the gas that leaked in 1984. Thy have been two major grass fires in the factory in recent years).

ENTER THE YES MEN! 

In 2004, which marked the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal tragedy, BBC World Television sought a Dow representative to discuss the company's position so far. Knowing Dow's history of gross negligence through the years, and their possibility of continuing same, the Yes Men stepped in to ‘help' Dow do the ‘right thing'. As they couldn't afford to go to London, they asked to be booked in the BBC studio in Paris, where Andy Bichlbaum lived. There, Andy would present himself as Mr. Jude Finisterra, Dow's official spokesperson.

On the day of the interview, these two guys wake up early and put on their thrift-store suits. Andy nervously memorizes his answers once more while Mike fumbles with cameras. Later, both arrive at the BBC's Paris studio as "Jude" sits in front of the green screen and waits. At 9am GMT, Dow's spokesperson, "Jude" appears live on the BBC World service in front of the Eiffel Tower. He is excited as he makes his announcement:

"Dow will accept full responsibility for the Bhopal disaster, and has a $12billion dollar plan to compensate the victims and remediate the site. The corporation would provide a sense of closure to the victims and push for the extradition of Warren Anderson, former Union Carbide CEO to India which he fled following his arrest 20 years ago on multiple homicide charges". 

As "Jude" finishes his announcement, the studio technician is happy with what she has heard. "what a nice thing to announce" she says. "I wouldn't work for Dow if I didn't believe in it" Andy replies candidly. 

It eventually took Dow two hours to notice what had happened (This being top story on news.google.com and Dow stock losing 2 billion dollars on the German exchange). With the BBC realizing "Jude Finisterra" was a fake, the story was promptly retracted. Again, the retraction topped google story for the rest of the day. 

As Andy and Mike discovered the retraction, they again helped Dow be clearer about their feelings by mailing out a more formal retraction: 

"Dow will NOT commit ANY funds to compensate and treat 120,000 Bhopal residents who require lifelong care…Dow will NOT remediate (clean up) the Bhopal plant site…Dow's sole and unique responsibility is to its shareholders and Dow CANNOT do anything that goes against its bottom line unless forced to by law." 

So, did Dow Corporation sue the Yes Men for misinformation and misrepresentation? NO THEY DIDN'T. They were wise enough to avoid direct confrontation to such a carefully planned hoax. 

Did such news present false certainty and later, abrupt disappointment to the people of Bhopal who had waited 20 years for Dow (Union Carbide) to come to their aid? Absolutely. 

For Andy and Mike, ' an hour of false hope was nothing compared to 20 years of unrealised ones'. They understood the risk they were taking, as they hoped that this could somehow force Dow's hand, but most importantly focus a great deal of media attention on the issue especially in the US where the Bhopal anniversary had almost gone completely unnoticed. And it did. The BBC called them back to the studio for another show. This time, to explain what had happened, as the news about Bhopal and Dow had spread speedily throughout the US. 

Andy and Mike were trying to present the possibility of another world, but Dow showed by its steadfast refusal to do anything, what 'corporate social responsibility' really meant. Today, the people of Bhopal continue to suffer ailments, disorders and deaths caused by an accident which occurred 29 years ago. 

A FEW OTHER INTERESTING PRANKS 

GILDA THE GOLDEN SKELETON

Only months after Andy's face had been on most UK tellies, he appeared at a London banking conference as Dow representative, "Erastus Hamm," this time to explain how Dow considers death acceptable so long as profits still roll in. A life-sized golden skeleton named Gilda helped explain to the bankers that just because something like Bhopal is a "skeleton in the closet," it isn't necessarily a bad one: it may be quite lucrative, i.e. "golden". Read about it here.

NEW YORK TIMES

The Yes Men (along with the Anti-Advertising Agency) also claimed partial responsibility for a prank on November 12, 2008, where approximately 80,000 copies of a fake edition of the July 4, 2009 edition of The New York Times were handed out on the streets of New York and Los Angeles. The fake edition shows their ideas for a better future with headlines such as "Iraq War Ends" and "Nation Sets Its Sights on Building Sane Economy".. The front page contained a spoofed motto, "All the News We Hope to Print" from the famous phrase "All the news that's fit to print". Read about it here.

POSING AS EXXON MOBIL EXECUTIVES

On June 14, 2007, the Yes Men acted during Canada's largest oil conference in Calgary, Alberta. In front of more than 300 oilmen, the National Petroleum Council, NPC was expected to deliver the long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. When the Yes Men arrived at the conference they said that Lee Raymond (the promised speaker) was unable to make it due to a pressing situation with the president. The Yes Men then went on to give an outrageous keynote presentation in place of Lee Raymond. Read about it here. 

WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION PROPOSES SLAVERY FOR AFRICA

At a Wharton Business School conference on business in Africa, World Trade Organization representative Hanniford Schmidt announced the creation of a WTO initiative for "full private stewardry of labor" for the parts of Africa that have been hardest hit by the 500 years of Africa's free trade with the West. The audience included Prof. Charles Soludo (Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria), Dr. Laurie Ann Agama (Director for African Affairs at the Office of the US Trade Representative), and other notables. Read about it here.

NIGER DELTA HOAX

On March 28, 2010, a video was released on YouTube with the title "Shell: We are sorry". A man called Bradford Houppe, from the Ethical Affairs Committee at Royal Dutch Shell gave a four minute long apology to the people of the Niger Delta for ruining their land, water, and communities. This video was created in response to the numerous environmental problems and human rights violations that have occurred in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria since Shell began oil exploration in the region decades ago (watch video).





You could read more about the Yes Men on their webpage, yesmen.org. Their videos are also available on Youtube to amuse you.

I really do find their approach to be creative though full of mischief. But the main objective behind their acts appear to be rational. As they say, they are trying to show that another world is possible.

Do let me know your views on this. Is the Yes Men's approach on "correcting identities" a relevant one?

Do we need such pranks to make our national and corporate governments "sit" up?


Would such pranksters even succeed here?


Please leave your comments and reactions below.


SOURCES
www.theyesmen.org http://theyesmen.org/hijinks/bhopalpressrelease http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men www.bhopal.org http://www.dowethics.com/risk/launch.html
http://m.ibnlive.com/news/bhopal-gas-tragedy-plea-to-increase-convicts-sentence-declined/392984-3-236.html

MUST WE WIN?

In the past few months, I have been quite observant about Taxi Drivers and the way they usually operate.  First, they value their time. Secondly, they value their money (and petrol), And thirdly, they appear to be very familiar with the routes their passenger is heading, so confidently overtake other drivers along the way.

Similarly, I have observed the way average business men (and women) operate, and find it really interesting.  First, the business man knows his business and recognizes how he needs to go about it. Secondly, he sees himself as a hustler. One who seizes opportunities and aims at survival. And thirdly, he acknowledges he is not the only one in the game. The competition is fierce, its about overtaking. Its a race to finish ...and win!

I therefore find these two groups of people to be similar in many ways:

1. They value time and money.
2. They appear to be familiar with where they are heading or what they are doing so are usually more confident than others who aren't.
3. They recognize competition and hustle to win.

So then, the question is, 'MUST WE WIN'?

Before you think this through, please read this brief but fascinating story:

On December 2, 2012, Spanish athlete Iván Fernández Anaya was competing in a cross-country race in Burlada, Navarre. He was running second, some distance behind Kenyan race leader Abel Mutai (bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the London Olympics).

As they entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner - the certain winner of the race -mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the finish, thinking he had already crossed the line. Fernández Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting Mutai's mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed behind and using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him cross first.

"I didn't deserve to win it," says 24-year-old Fernández Anaya. "I did what I had to do. He was the rightful winner. He created a gap that I couldn't have closed if he hadn't made a mistake. As soon as I saw he was stopping, I knew I wasn't going to pass him."

Fernández' supporters may not have totally approved this, but to him, doing this was more important. According to his coach, Martín Fiz, "It was a very good gesture of honesty, a gesture of the kind that isn't made any more. Or rather, of the kind that has never been made. A gesture that I myself wouldn't have made. I certainly would have taken advantage of it to win."

Through this selfless act however, there is no denial that Fernández Anaya earned for himself a name rather than a trophy.

So then, here are the main questions:

As 'taxi drivers' and' business men and women' taxiing round our daily routes, businesses and societal interactions, should we always act like Fernández?

Would you?



Please leave your comments below. ColourMEamba would love to hear your thoughts :)








Source:
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/12/19/inenglish/1355928581_856388.html