Archive for October, 2005
Cell Phones in Africa
October 19th, 2005 Dan Chou's Story of the Week
Cell phone usage to me used to represent affluence. Every rich kid in high school had one, and my family eventually got them too once we were sure we could afford them. Thus, this article came as a surprise to me, because Africa is not typically considered as an affluent place.
Nonetheless, this is an amazing article on just how cell phones have started making their place in the lives of African people. It has been able to touch multiple aspects of people’s lives, from buying groceries, to selling fish, to tracking elephants.
Technology has been seen as only something available to those that can afford it. But this article clearly shows that technology can help everyone, and thus should be widely made available. “We are developing unique ways to use the phone, which has not been done anywhere else,” says South African Michael Joseph, chief executive officer of Safaricom, one of two service providers in Kenya.
Initially, they assumed that landline use was low and so cell phone use demand would be low as well. However, cell phones free up all the problems that land line usage had in Africa. Because a few people were able to think out of the box, “providing African solutions to African problems,” the continent of Africa may finally be able to make some serious progress.
Young Adult Retreat 05
October 17th, 2005 Entries
This past weekend was awesome! It was probably the weirdest retreat that I’ve ever gone to, because we didn’t even open our Bibles in the group setting until the very last day for the message. So I guess it really was a retreat from everything, and very much appreciated especially after a long week of midterms. And there was a lot of insanity. Hopefully this will just be the beginning of more getaways in the future.
Everybody on the last day!
Our table after the “wedding banquet” at JR Seafood. LOUD NOISES
Us at Souplantation afterwards for lunch. Why do we always have to talk about relationships
This is a YOUNG ADULT retreat. This is a YOUNG ADULT photo. This is how YOUNG ADULTS pose.
And… don’t forget to turn it up to 11!
Note: Yilin and Sandy have more photos from the retreat too, in their own albums in Gallery. Go be nice and look at their pictures.
Forget GDP, It’s All About the GNH
October 12th, 2005 Dan Chou's Story of the Week
Jigme Singye Wangchuck is the king of Bhutan, a small Himalayan kingdom. And he has a radical idea about what his country should care about the most.
Instead of focusing on the GDP (Gross Domestic Product for those who don’t know), he has been promoting Gross National Happiness as his nation’s priority since 1972.
It is an idea growing all around the world, as other leaders are taking into account not just money, “but also access to health care, free time with family, conservation of natural resources and other noneconomic factors.”
The article makes for an interesting read, about this new idea. But most importantly, it just emphasizes how money just can’t satisfy. It is refreshing to see a country, albeit incredibly small, caring about well-being instead of putting dollars into their pockets. And most importantly, how such a small country could have such an incredible impact around the world, with all this new research going on.
Money isn’t all there is to life. But I’m pretty sure there’s much more to just being happy all the time too.
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