the unbearable notice is; that you've to make up your mind to be the difference and not the other way round else people will misjudge you even though you're not that person.
About 2/3 of the world’s population consumes potatoes as its staple food and nearly 50% of potatoes are used as the household staple food or vegetable.
#Potatoes provide accessible and nutritious food and improved livelihoods in rural and other areas where natural resources, especially arable land and water are limited and inputs are opulent.
The crop’s versatility and ability to grow in a variety of conditions make it an advantageous crop choice. Potatoes are also a climate friendly crop, as they produce low levels of greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to other crops.
Potatoes are also a climate friendly crop, as they produce low levels of greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to other crops.
In the past decade, the global production of potatoes has increased by 10%, leading to growth in employment and income, but more work still needs to be done to harness the full potential of the crop to end hunger and malnutrition globally.
There are over 5,000 improved varieties of potatoes many of which are unique to their original location in Latin America
The 150 wild relatives of the cultivated potato show a wide genetic variation with a range of traits, including the ability to adapt to different production environments, resistance to pests and diseases, and different tuber characteristics.
Drop a 🥔, If potato is your favourite vegetable.
Watch this movie and let’s have your opinion expecting all ya’ feedback👍
Watch this another amazing skit coming from one of the OG’s in the industry.
I. Prologue of Perfidy MTN, once heralded as the golden child of telecommunications in Africa, now stands accused in the court of public accountability.
Cloaked in branding brilliance and armed with influencer backed deception, they market connectivity but deliver captivity.
Their creed is not connection, but consumption of wallets, of trust, of digital dignity.
II. The Great Data Mirage How does 1GB vanish like mist in the Harmattan sun? MTN claims usage; we claim daylight robbery.
Background Data Drain: Users report hemorrhaging megabytes even while idle ghost apps, or ghost billing?
Stealthy Auto Renewals:
A cunning trapdoor packages renew without prompt, often seconds before expiry, charging the user even if balance is insufficient, plunging them into silent debt.
Night Data Shell Game: Night plans supposedly valid from midnight till dawn but access throttled or denied until 2am.
Fraud disguised as fair use.
“I’ve just subscribed for the 33th time after first subscribing #9000 for 45GB 30Days plan in the same month👹”
Another Concerned User Layers Issue As A Classified Fraud;
III. The Unholy Tariffs Data pricing on MTN is not just high; it’s high handed.
Biased Bandwidth Economics: MTN Nigeria’s average price per gigabyte towers above what #MTN charges in South Africa or #Ghana.
Same brand, same servers different rates?
That’s regional exploitation, not localization.
Punitive PAYG Billing: Accidentally fall out of a bundle and your airtime vanishes in seconds with no warning.
Billing at “standard rates” is code for sanctioned theft.
IV. The Customer Care Masquerade You dial 180 and enter purgatory.
Bots Before Humans: Conversations go in loops.
You’re passed from chatbot to cold line like a hot potato in a dead zone
“We’ll escalate this issue” becomes a mantra of delay problems disappearing into a black hole of broken promises.
Agents Without Authority: Even when you reach a rep, they lack the mandate to reverse charges or correct wrongs.
You’re stuck in bureaucratic limbo.
V. Network Tyranny They boast
“Everywhere you go” but what they deliver is “Nowhere you flow.”
InsiderNotes
Intentional Throttling? Peak hours see speeds drop to a crawl.
Meanwhile, premium users whisper tales of smoother streams.
Are we witnessing a class system in the cloud?
Selective Congestion: Some apps (read: high bandwidth or competitor friendly ones) mysteriously lag.
Others tied to MTN partners? Lightning-fast.
VI. The Final Accusation: Digital Colonialism This isn’t just about poor service.
It’s about gatekeeping access in the digital economy.
“MTN’s grip on infrastructure gives it a monopoly on our online lives”
A Concerned User Complains Bitterly;
They shape what’s fast, what’s slow, what’s possible while raking in billions from the very economies they throttle.
This is more than profit seeking; it’s a subtle form of control of a 21st-century telecom tyranny masquerading as connectivity.
VII. Epilogue: The People’s Verdict We do not seek pity, only parity.
We demand transparency, fairness, and a fundamental reset of digital ethics.
Until then, let the people rise switch providers, expose shady practices, and rewire the narrative.
This treatise shall be carved not in stone but in tweets, blogs, and viral threads.
A Global Citizen from Nigeria, Jeremiah, reminisced on how the $Twitter crackdown impacted the community:
“The sudden ban of Twitter, now referred to as X, several years ago sent shockwaves through communities, significantly affecting not only individuals’ ability to connect and share but also disrupting businesses and revenue streams dependent on the platform.”
He added: “It highlighted the interconnectedness of individuals and businesses in the digital realm, where disruptions to online platforms can have far-reaching consequences on livelihoods.”
In 2024 Senegal is experiencing Nigeria’s history, as civil society organizations are taking the Senegalese government to the ECOWAS court regarding internet shutdowns that took place in June, July, and August 2023 as presidential elections were meant to be en route and popular opposition leader (and fierce critic of President Macky Sall) Ousmane Sonk was criminally charged and held in custody.
The blackouts not only limited the right to access information and the freedom of expression of everyday citizens, but it also limited the work of journalists on the ground.
Speaking to Global Citizen on the internet blackout in Senegal, the African head of the International Federation of Journalists, Louis Thomasi said: “Political interference is really putting a dent in qualitative journalism.
If you look at what’s happening in Africa all over, it is now a norm that during election periods, the internet will be cut off.
Even yesterday again [13 Feb. 2024] in Dakar, in Senegal, the internet was cut off.”
“It’s a deliberate attempt to suppress freedom of expression and media freedom in general,”
Louis Thomasi/African head of the International Federation of Journalists
Internet shutdowns and crimes against humanity
We’ve already mentioned that there’s an ongoing war in Sudan and the country has had its internet cut off several times in the face of the civil war.
Sudanese Global Citizen, Mazen, explains what having online access means to them: “Nowadays, the Internet means life.
It makes you aware and connected with the world.”
Internet blackouts in the country have heavily impacted people’s lives, but their impacts are a lot worse than you can imagine.
The loss of the internet has also meant that conflict-related atrocities can continue without being reported.
Advocacy organization, Access Now, has consistently kept tabs on the violent impacts of shutdowns in Sudan.
The organization noted that in 2021, the day before a pro-democracy protest was to take place, the internet was cut off along with phone and SMS services.
The protest continued regardless.
With citizens having no ability to transmit information inside or outside of Sudan, authorities took the opportunity to crack down physically on protesters.
At least 17 people were killed, and 250 people were injured as a result.
“The internet blackouts are doing their job and providing cover for the military’s violent takeover and hijacking of a possible democratic future for Sudan,”
“I have experienced natural disasters such as earthquakes, social unrest causing violent protests, terrorist attacks, all sorts of events that caused or forced involuntary internet shutdowns,”
“The one thing I missed the most in any of those instances was critical services and the ability to connect with my loved ones. This is what the internet means to me.”
Rwandan Global Citizen Gabriel
It’s futile to deny the importance of online access to people across the continent.
However, for as long as the internet exists, there will be ways to exploit it for the use of harm towards everyday citizens in African countries, and around the world.
Since 2011, the United Nations has called for universal internet access as a human right, however, this has not been implemented across countries despite the growing call for it
Right now what Global Citizens can do is remain informed about internet shutdowns and their impacts on communities, and spread the word about them so that their impacts do not go unnoticed and underreported.
As Sudan experiences a civil war where one of the most severe hunger crises of 2023 (and 2024 so far) is ongoing, access to humanitarian aid is both dire and scarce, and innocent lives are being scraped off the planet every day authorities added insult to injury by shutting the internet down when citizens needed it most.
It was mid-February 2024, almost a year into the ongoing violence, when Sudan’s internet would be disrupted for around 10 days.
While the current civil war has been ongoing for over a year, violence and conflict have clung to Sudan’s back on and off for years, and throughout, internet shutdowns have been the norm.
“Because of the internet shutdown, we are unable to communicate with our volunteers, we are unable to buy food, medicine and deliver these services to those in need.
Most of our soup kitchens in the greater Khartoum are cut off and therefore not working.”
A civilian expressed: “Due to war, using online banking apps for transactions has gained popularity given the lack of liquidity.
Now, however, we are almost starving because of this shutdown, as we can’t even buy food and medicine.
All my interactions, including business and online courses, have come to a stop too.”
Whether or not access to the internet should be considered a human right is no longer up for debate: it should be.
The internet has become a vital part of the engine that propels the world forward, and to block someone’s access to it is to block someone’s access to their already existing human rights.
Access to education, food, employment, health, and humanitarian aid, are all within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and because the internet has overwhelmingly become the means by which we access these rights, it should suffice that access to the internet itself should be a human right.
So when an entire region or nation has been denied the right to access the internet due to political agendas that are not always in the best interest of the people, we should be worried as a global society.
Internet shutdowns across the African continent are not only frustrating, but they are increasingly harmful.
Here’s what more you should know:
What are internet shutdowns?
We’re not talking about an outage here.
An outage is when an error or accident occurs and the internet goes off as a result, for instance in times of extreme weather where infrastructure is destroyed, or in the case of maintenance repairs.
A shutdown, on the other hand, is the deliberate turning off of the internet to control a population or the information flow surrounding a situation, and is often orchestrated by some form of authority.
Egypt’s authorities at the time caught on to the fact that demonstrators were using the internet to mobilize and multiply the protest movement, and so they shut off the internet directly impacting access to an open civic space for the right to protest and speak freely.
While it wasn’t the first internet shutdown in history, because of the magnitude of the Arab Spring protests, the world opened its eyes to how internet shutdowns can be weaponized.
A similar thing happened in the last African monarchy-state, eSwatini, in 2021, when pro-democracy and anti-police brutality protests erupted, the state shut down the internet citing “security reasons”, depriving children of their education, businesses of their income, and citizens alike of their free speech.
If it’s still not clear why these shutdowns are a bad thing, a Global Citizen from Ghana, who wished to stay anonymous, broke it down for us: “The internet means Information, which means power in the hands of the people.
The reason governments like to impose restrictions is so the information flow can be stagnant, robbing people of their power to be seen and heard.”
They can either rely on what’s called a routing disruption, which is to stop the transmission of information altogether, meaning people using the internet can’t connect to it, and information being sent will not find its destination.
This is largely what we’ve seen across the continent, particularly in the case of Sudan and eSwatini.
Global Citizen
The second is called packet filtering, where parts of the internet or specific sites are shut down, or specific content is targeted, for instance, Nigeria blocking access to Twitter in 2021.
In retaliation (or what the government referred to as protecting the state from “undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”) the government banned Twitter for the entire country.
At the time, Human Rights Watch and other organizations raised alarm about the impact of freedom of expression and an open civic space, however, these calls were ignored by Buhari’s government.
What’s more is that any use of Twitter, including by journalists and media houses, was deemed “unpatriotic”, and could result in persecution.
We’ll continue the rest of the discussion in our next blog, subscribe to be the first to be notified when it drops.
by Sai Educational Rural & Urban Development Society (SERUDS)
This project intends to give skills training in tailoring, embroidery, and fashion design courses for sustainable livelihoods to over 200 women.
With this vocational skills training, women will live with dignity by earning money themselves.
During this training, women will learn and develop skills in tailoring & embroidery to work on sarees and blouse pieces.
We provide sewing machines and tool kits to survive on their own and live with dignity.
Here Are The Challenges
Women are facing atrocities & harassment at work place and have no role in decision making due to lack of financial independence.
They are treated as second class citizens.
They are working as labourers in market yard, cleaners in hospitals, private enterprises & engaged in beedi (tobaaco) making, a hazardous profession.
Women charge lesser in terms of Economic digressions.
They stand a chance to hold the centre for anarchy in obligation.
They are socially & culturally ill-treated. They lack employable skills & sustainable and dignified livelihoods.
This tailoring & embroidery project intends to create economic development of women & break poverty.
Tailoring & embroidery training will provide self employment at their homes, can give them a daily income and can enable them to buy necessary medicines and make them capable to pay school fee for their growing children.
Investment in these women is a proven path to reduce poverty.
They are disadvantaged when it comes to employment, education, and work skills.
What Can We Do;
This tailoring & embroidery project intends to create economic development of #women & break poverty.
Tailoring & embroidery training will provide self employment at their homes, can give them a daily income and can enable them to buy necessary medicines and make them capable to pay school fee for their growing children.
Investment in these women is a proven path to reduce poverty.
INSIDERNOTES
Here Are The Solutions
The income of these women will be enhanced and they will be independent.
They need not depend on any one else.
With this skills training women will be self reliant and live happily.
mompreneurship is another level of independence and a leak to societal development.
The economic development of women will increase and they participate in decision making process.
They will teach these learnt skills to other woman who are in needy position.
Women all over the world not just in #India, deserves to be given the same measure of attention and proficient supplies as due to anyone promoting useful standards in the community, they deserve to be treated with respect & dignity, equity and not trials.
by Sai Educational Rural & Urban Development Society (SERUDS)
This project intends to give skills training in tailoring, embroidery, and fashion design courses for sustainable livelihoods to over 200 women.
With this vocational skills training, women will live with dignity by earning money themselves.
During this training, women will learn and develop skills in tailoring & embroidery to work on sarees and blouse pieces.
We provide sewing machines and tool kits to survive on their own and live with dignity.
Here Are The Challenges
Women are facing atrocities & harassment at work place and have no role in decision making due to lack of financial independence.
They are treated as second class citizens.
They are working as labourers in market yard, cleaners in hospitals, private enterprises & engaged in beedi (tobaaco) making, a hazardous profession.
Women charge lesser in terms of Economic digressions.
They stand a chance to hold the centre for anarchy in obligation.
They are socially & culturally ill-treated. They lack employable skills & sustainable and dignified livelihoods.
This tailoring & embroidery project intends to create economic development of women & break poverty.
Tailoring & embroidery training will provide self employment at their homes, can give them a daily income and can enable them to buy necessary medicines and make them capable to pay school fee for their growing children.
Investment in these women is a proven path to reduce poverty.
They are disadvantaged when it comes to employment, education, and work skills.
What Can We Do;
This tailoring & embroidery project intends to create economic development of #women & break poverty.
Tailoring & embroidery training will provide self employment at their homes, can give them a daily income and can enable them to buy necessary medicines and make them capable to pay school fee for their growing children.
Investment in these women is a proven path to reduce poverty.
INSIDERNOTES
Here Are The Solutions
The income of these women will be enhanced and they will be independent.
They need not depend on any one else.
With this skills training women will be self reliant and live happily.
mompreneurship is another level of independence and a leak to societal development.
The economic development of women will increase and they participate in decision making process.
They will teach these learnt skills to other woman who are in needy position.
Women all over the world not just in #India, deserves to be given the same measure of attention and proficient supplies as due to anyone promoting useful standards in the community, they deserve to be treated with respect & dignity, equity and not trials.
Reacting to today’s passing of a bill in Greece recognizing same-sex marriage and, as a result, allowing same-sex couples to adopt, Amnesty International Greece’s Campaigns Coordinator, Despina Paraskeva-Veloudogianni, said:
“This law represents an important milestone in the fight against homophobia and transphobia and a hard-won victory for those who have led that fight”
INSIDER
It gives same-sex couples and their children the visibility and rights that they have long been denied.
While the law will bring very significant changes, it stops short of allowing full equality for non-biological parents and does not recognize identities beyond the gender binary.
“Greece has today become the 21st European country to introduce same-sex marriage”
INSIDER
It fails to facilitate access to assisted reproductive technology for same-sex couples, single men, transgender and intersex persons.
It also fails to amend a provision that prevents changing the name and gender of a transgender person in their children’s birth certificate.
The Greek authorities must not only take steps to ensure the swift and effective implementation of the new legislation but should also introduce further legislative changes to guarantee full equality for LGBTQI+ people and families.
Background
The law was adopted with a majority following an intense debate in Parliament and beyond and against a backdrop of very public homophobic and transphobic speech.
254 MPs voted and out of those 176 voted in favour of the law.
Despite repeated calls by civil society groups advocating for LGBTQI+ persons’ rights, the failure of the authorities to introduce certain amendments on the “presumption of paternity”, civil partnerships, medically assisted reproduction and legislation on legal gender recognition perpetuates multiple forms of discrimination against LGBTQI+ persons.
Love & Desire pushes Julian to become a mastermind planner on how to eat your cake and have it back, but, nemesis like swirl sweeps back and front. Watch this interesting movie “You Got Served” a RJ Picture TV Production. Ft Bryan Emmanuel/Frank Tana/Ugo Onebunne and many others.
45'MEDIA 