OPPO SHAKES UP ENTRY LEVEL CAMERA PHONE IN KENYA WITH 16MP CAMERA AND LIGHTNING FAST TOUCH ACCESS

OPPO has announced entry of another selfie focused Camera phone the OPPO A57 in the Kenyan Market, aiming to bring users a flagship-level of 16 MP front camera, a lightning-fast solid-state fingerprint reader, a long-lasting battery, and OPPO’s meticulous design. This comes after making headlines last year with the ‘’Selfie Expert’’ F-series which featured a 16 megapixel front camera and a 13 megapixel rear camera with an advanced beautify mode.

Sky Li, OPPO VP and Managing Director of International Mobile Business say the initiative has been widely accepted and the OPPO A57 will be serving the mid-range budget segment as well as the high-end customers looking for highly sophisticated gadgets. “When we saw the demand for the great 16 MP Selfie camera on the F1s, we set out to bring that experience to an even wider range of users.” “The A57 brings consumers premium photography and advanced features, like the industry-leading fingerprint reader, that go well beyond the conventional boundaries for this price segment.” He added.

OPPO A57 sports a 16 MP flagship-level front camera – a signature feature that appeared first in OPPO’s F series devices, propelling them to become OPPO’s most popular devices ever. The camera comes up with a New Beautify 4.0, a Screen Flash and an f/2.0 aperture which will ensure bright, vivid shots even in low-light and back-lit conditions. Meanwhile, the new bokeh effect and gesture-activated shutter features add a new dimension to the photography experience offsetting the subject of the photo with a blurry background. It also upgrades OPPO’s signature palm shutter function for taking selfies. All you have to do to snap a selfie is either open your hand in front of the screen, or flash a peace sign, leaving you free to get your shot just right and avoid the shake caused by pressing the shutter button. You can also activate the camera by simply saying “cheese!” The device is based on Android 6.0, ColorOS 3.0 which makes it seamlessly responsive, providing a smooth, steady and lightweight experience that optimizes power use and keeps users cruising through the day. Having a 3GB RAM and octa-core 64-bit processor enable powerful performance and seamless multitasking, what’s more with the 32 GB of onboard storage is that its expandable by a further 128 GB, giving plenty of room to stock up the phone with up to 6000 songs/ 15000selfies/35 HD movies to be viewed on the 5.2-inch HD (720p) LCD display with 2.5D curved glass.

A57 supports connectivity via Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v401, GPS, GM radio and micro USB v2.0. The phone weighs 147 grams and its dimensions are 149.1 s 72.9 x 7.7 mm. With the release of the phone in the Kenyan market OPPO which has now been ranked fourth globally by market share seeks to replicate its success in Kenya which is one of its strong hold by introducing products that never fail to inspire and excite. The brand has promised to give a remarkable technological breakthrough that will change how the world sees the Smartphone photography by looking forward to release a series of Smartphone that will provide even more solutions to photography.

JOURNALISM : POLITICS AND THE ART OF NAME CALLING.

Your name should be, to you and even others, the sweetest and most important sound in any language. In journalism, names are very important, and as journalists we are always encouraged to call and refer to every person by their name, ensuring that you also do not misspell their names in writing. An error of names; getting someone’s name wrong, misspelling of names, and any other mistake of names is very unfortunate, and media houses must correct such errors and sometime publish an apology. That is how important names are. In politics however, that may really not be the case. Every election year, we are always treated to humor and a war of words when candidates attack each other’s political positions. Political platforms quickly turn into a stage for jokes, bantering, and for trading insults among its participants, and it is a tradition anywhere in the world. It is so interesting to listen to the pitch and catchy phrases used by politicians in such platforms, and it even gets funnier and most memorable how they enthusiastically and confidently trade names among themselves, funny names.

The expectation for a political campaign period that exhibit mutual respect among players, responsible management of differences and loads of necessary compromise is never the case. That has since been replaced by a political culture that is dominated by vicious attacks on motives, at the expense of reasoned debate. What is instead of name-calling and politics of trading insults, politicians should criticize policies? These slanderous claims against each other are just ludicrous and unhelpful more so in clarifying policy questions voters must understand. The time for campaigns I believe is that time when politicians should explain policies instead of trading names, but still they enjoy it at the expense of explaining their policies and all the plans they have for the people and the nation. Name-calling however is a nature of politics, and it is like politicians cannot do without it. They resort to it during their campaigns and or on public events with the intention of gaining advantage over an opponent or defending themselves. It gets more entertaining when it is among the presidential hopefuls and their supporters, as they get immersed in these blazing verbal battles. It is even more of interest when it is amongst people within the same political affiliation. This art of name-calling and nasty exchanges that dominate political discussions along the campaign trail only reveal nothing except the mean nature of the game, but then, the assumption always is that the more names you have the more celebrated you are by the public; it is a sign that people love you to give you so many names or that your opponents are so much worried about you that they try bringing you down with mere names. And if you do not end up with a nickname at the end of your political career, then you may not be considered a successful politician because you will be forgotten as quickly as your name, and the names given to you are no longer in the lips of citizens. During such period and sometimes forever politicians have to bear monikers, good and bad, attached to their names. We still remember the owner of the name ‘mapambano’, and all agree that it can easily be associated to the late Senator Otieno Kajwang’. In the last general elections we had the ‘Manzi wa Nai’ which was a name used by the women representative to gain advantage over opponents. We have always had ‘Sonko’ and we cannot forget that the Nairobi politics once had a ‘Kaa ngumu’. We still remember ‘Nyayo’, and who can ever forget ‘Baba Jimmy’? It will take so so many years to forget who the names ‘Baba’, ‘Tingatinga’, ‘Agwambo’, and most recently, ‘Jamaa wa vitendawili’ belong to. We also do have a ‘Hustler’ in the scene, and the political ‘Messi’ also known as ‘MaDvDs’ by others. And what of the ‘Watermelon’, we know whose name is that, yea? Well, we still expect to hear of so many more coming up more so as we near the campaign period. These bitter tones depicted by politicians over the campaign period always dissolve into smiles and hugs on a shared podium, an indication of no love lost among the politicians. This is when the winners of an election, those who played their wit in name-calling so well are finally announced as the winners of an election process, which also included the period of name-calling campaigns. They played their wit so well to emerge winners; maybe they applied the art of name-calling to gain advantage over their opponents, or maybe they were the victims of name-calling, with so many names attached to them. In either case, they are always the genuine winners.

THE PROBLEM WITH SKIN-LIGTHENING

“I am not going to teach them how to die. It is not a game, it is not a joke, it is your life. I want to share my story to help sufferers and their families from repeating my fate. Anorexia has made me lonely, unattractive, and repulsive for the people around me. My eating disorder has robbed me of so much. People don’t want to be around someone who is not in good mood or not upbeat,” these were the frightening words of the thinnest woman in the world who only weighs 4s 3lbs, that is about 26kgs, after years of extreme dieting. The desire for a ‘celebrity body’ for her child made Valeria’s mum curtail her diet for fear that her daughter would grow up obese like most of her relatives, and this was not helped by Valeria’s desire to become a model. Today though, Valeria Levitin is a walking skeleton after years of anorexia that reduced her weight to just around 26kilos. And in the same way, I tend to have a problem with a majority of our ladies today, who are very beauty conscious but ignorant of the dangers of the products they use to achieve ‘beautiful’ skins. We have a generation of ladies who seem to value lighter skins over dark skins, and are busy exposing themselves to these deadly whitening creams, lotions and deadly injections to acquire a lighter skin tone. This they do inconsiderate of the dangers they are exposing themselves to. Be warned that one day things may backfire on you, and the side effects may be deadlier than you expected, and you will regret never appreciating that you were born beautiful. And who really taught ‘black’ girls to hate their dark skin? I mean, black is beautiful, and black is swag indeed. So if you were born dark-skinned, it would only be better that you maintained that, because in the real sense skin color does not really determine who we are. You will never be judged by the color of your skin but by the content of your character and how you behave. And in the same way and for the same reasons a guy would fall for a light-skinned girl, they would still fall for a dark-skinned girl because their character and behavior suit one another. When you walk along the corridors of campus, the streets of our towns and also in the villages, one may wonder if there still existed dark-skinned girls. All you meet are light-skinned girls, and some wearing fake hair- weaves and developed an accent that can only bore you. Don’t we have dark-skinned girls in Kenya who are proud of their skin tone and appreciate being black? Skin-lightening among ladies highlight the deeper underlying inter-related issues among our ladies. In a generation that copies almost everything, our have chosen to internalized the Western-created cultural ideas rather that adopt and maintain our own, which at times are always inimical to the mental health of black people. We hate ourselves so much that we dare change our entire complexion; we change the tone of our skins to look better which is never the case, and, continue to dismally suffer from a race-based identity crisis. Have you ever met those ladies with significantly lighter facial complexions than that of their hands and feet, or, ladies as light as Europeans yes, but with very dark knuckles, ears, elbows, and knees?- I would probably laugh about the image created above, but this is not a laughing matter. Ladies while you use some of these creams, do you ever stop to think of the dangers you are exposing your bodies? One thing for sure is that you always are placing yourself at a higher risk of permanently damaging your skin. Some of these creams can even cause skin cancer, while the frequent use of some may even lead to death. We were all wonderfully and marvelously created by God, and no matter where we were born, no matter who we are, or where we come from, or the color of our skins, or even what we look like, we all are beautiful in the eyes of God. So ladies stop this nonsense of going through so much to change your skin tone, because that is an insult to God in the first place. Instead ladies go through so much maintaining God’s creation- your dark-skinned look, and do not let the beauty which has been stereotyped to light skin push you into bleaching your black and beautiful African skin. Naturally Africans are dark-skinned, and we have to see the beauty in that for our own psychological well-being. Malcolm X once asked, “Who taught you to hate yourself? Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the colour of your skin?” and to our dear beautiful and loving ladies, please do me a favour of having to answer Malcolm X Frankline Omondi, MMUST

YOUTHS SHOULD NOT SIT AND WAIT FOR JOBS

We live at a time when youths in the world face many challenges, and among all the challenges, it is unemployment that remains one of the most acute problems affecting them, more so in Kenya. It is not only youths that are affected by this but also the development of the nation is largely affected because the youth form the majority of the population in the nation and should create the largest taskforce. It has even reached a point where unlike before, not even graduates are assured of getting employment opportunities once they get out of school. This not only affects the future and stability of youth but also their self esteem and poses a serious danger and an economic burden to the nation. With the formal economy being unable to create enough employment opportunities to absorb the constant supply of labor-seeking youth to which we are part of, what then can we do as the youths of this nation? It is quite inevitable that employment opportunities are few, and what matters is what we do or what we are doing to deal with that. I would urge my fellow youths therefore that they consider working as volunteers first from the moment they finish school instead of just sitting at home doing nothing as this may increase their chances of getting an employment. Remember, nothing comes on a silver platter, and employment opportunities will not come to us while we are seated in our rooms or in our parents’ living rooms idling and playing all sorts of computer games but through the little things we may involve ourselves in doing. Consider volunteering in a company immediately after school, and when they will be recruiting new staff you may simply be considered for that job since you are already working with them. Is that not an employment opportunity that we must all take as youths? Through frequently volunteering and participating in community service we help build ourselves, it creates great opportunities for employment and, it just has many benefits. For instance, as a vibrant youth volunteering in a company or different places, you are able to create contacts and make rich networks with many people including potential employees. These people study you and would not hesitate to recommend you for employment whenever an opportunity arises. Also, we get the desired job experience by volunteering for a given job. Youths have always complained that they always become reluctant to apply for certain jobs in most cases because they are put off by the requirement for a given number of years of experience in that field, but have you ever volunteered for that job at some point to gain experience? What if we could also begin to think differently to create employment opportunities for ourselves as youths? It is during this stage in our youth that we are most agile and most productive in our lives, and when we spend most of that time seeking for employment and working for others then we only end up giving the best part of our lives; our entire productivity to others and somewhere else rather than do something useful for ourselves. It is the youth who have the solutions to their own problems and are masters of their own destinies; we therefore must make the right choices. We need to use our own productivity for our own good and it is first by realizing that when cases of unemployment among the youth would be very minimal and unheard of among the youth of this nation. The choices and decisions we make in the youthful years are very critical in our lives, and as such, we must aspire to always make the rightful decisions that will benefit us. Let us all decide to invest in our worthiness, let’s build our nation rather than waste our productivity in things like drug abuse and other poor choices. The responsibilities to change our status as youth, to live better lives, and to improve the way we live today all lies within us. We must all change our ways of thinking, we need to be ourselves and work for ourselves, and this nation also needs to depend on u as its backbone when it comes to developing ideas and solutions to our problems. It is us that will ensure our economic development is enhanced. We must realize that we hold the key to the solutions to our challenges, and that what we do as the youth will count so much. Let’s all not sit and wait for employment opportunities to come to us but instead, go for them. And as Francis of Assisi once said, “let’s just start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly we will be doing the impossible”. Engaging ourselves in acts of volunteerism and participation in community service and also, ideas for job creation for ourselves may be the solutions to our challenges. We must make ourselves better citizens of this nation.