NOW PLAYING: IBA ONE & SIDIKI DIABATE

5.31.2014






Who: Malian rapper Iba One & kora player/singer Sidiki Diabate
Where to find them: Facebook


Review: Wet n Wild Megalast Liquid Lip Color

5.20.2014

I made another purchase! You all know how I love new lip colors, especially red. I've used the outlast from Cover Girl, just bitten from Revlon in the past. I wanted a creamy lip stain but that will last a long time with some shine.

I bought a Wet n Wild megalast lip color before, but I hated it! I didn't like how my lips feel and the consistency. later, I figured this was because I didn't how to use it. Right! there's a trick to it and once you master it you will fall in love with the colors just as much as I have.




Colors from top to bottom: red my mind, I can bare it and do I make you blush.

Tricks : Make sure your lips are exfoliated. One of my favorite Youtuber, MyRayeRaye tells you to proper exfoliate your lips here and be gentle. Apply the color to the top and bottom of lips. Whatever you do, DON'T rub your lip together. This is one of the most important steps. Let the lips dry completely and separately. Once they are dry, you will have super pigmented color on your lips that will last all day.

Heading out
The color at the end of the night...
The only thing I didn't like about the lip color is that it tends to be sticky. I was expecting a matte finish, but I would still recommend it.

Have you tried the colors? Yay or nay? Let me know in the comment below.



10 Women in Technology to Know

Times are changing and the technology business is not dominated by only men. These sisters are making there mark in a big way! Check it out...

1. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook: Number 6 on Forbes's list of top 100 most powerful women in the world, Sheryl is the COO of Facebook. This American has a Harvard education behind her and is known for bringing up the issue of feminism at the workplace in her bestselling book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. In the past, Sheryl has been Vice President, Global Online Sales and Operations, Google and Chief of Staff, United States Secretary of the Treasury.

2. Amy Hood, Microsoft: An MBA from Harvard, Amy Hood is the first female CFO at Microsoft Corporation. After a stint with Goldman Sachs performing roles in investment banking and capital markets groups, she joined the tech giant in 2002 as a part of its investor relations group. She held a number of positions in Microsoft including Chief of Staff in the Server and Tools Business and handling the strategy and business development team in the Business division. Earlier this year, the Executive Vice President of Microsoft took on the post of CFO. Forbes places her at the 63rd spot on its list of the top 100 most powerful women in the world.

3. Cher Wang, HTC: This Taiwanese entrepreneur earned her master's degree in Economics from University of California, Berkeley and went on work at First International Computer in 1982. With a bunch of partners, she founded integrated chipset maker VIA Technologies in 1987. Ten years later, she and some partners founded HTC. She has been the chairperson of HTC Corporation since 2007 and with her husband was ranked the wealthiest person in Taiwan in 2011. In 2012, Forbes featured her as 56th of the top 100 most powerful women in the world.

4. Sun Yafang, Huawei: This Chinese engineer has been heading Huawei as its chairwoman since 1999. After earning her bachelor's degree from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, she started working at the Xin Fei TV Manufactory in 1982. Three years later, she became an engineer at the Beijing Research Institution of Communication Technology. Having moved to Huawei in 1989, she became the top woman in the organization ten years later. Forbes recognizes her at the 77th position in its list of 100 most powerful women in the world.

5. Meg Whitman, HP: The President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard has an education from Princeton University and Harvard Business School behind her. She has worked at the Walt Disney Company as the Vice President of Strategic Planning and her experience includes stints with DreamWorks and Procter and Gamble. She has also been the President and CEO of eBay. The American has such a formidable presence in the US that she has actually run for the post of Governor of California.

6. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo: A veteran of the tech world, this American has spent a number of years with Google before becoming the President and CEO of Yahoo. One of the youngest women on our list, Marissa is a Stanford University graduate whose forte is artificial intelligence. One of the first people to join Google, she spent 13 years with the company becoming being appointed the President and CEO of Yahoo last year. Forbes lists her as the 32nd of the top 100 most powerful women in the world.

7. Virginia Rometty, IBM: Appointed President and CEO of IBM in 2012, Virginia has spent over 31 years with the tech major. She is best known for leading the acquisition of the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting for a sum of $3.5 Billion. Number 12 on the Forbes list of top 100 most powerful women in the world, the American has been educated at Northwestern University. She was ranked number 1 on Fortune magazine's list of 50 most powerful women in business last year and has been making the list consecutively for 8 years now.

8. Susan Wojcicki, Google: This American is a Senior Vice President at Google, handling product management and engineering. She has been educated at Harvard University, University of California, Santa Cruz and UCLA. Having been associated with Google ever since she received her MBA in 1998, Wojcicki is an old hand at the tech giant. Forbes calls her 30th in its list of 100 most powerful women in the world.

9. Chua Sock Koong, Singtel: Currently sitting on the 91st spot in the Forbes's list of the world's most powerful women, Koong is the Group CEO of Singtel. This Singapore citizen is a trained accountant and was the treasurer of the company before earning her current position. She sees the future of Singtel in establishing itself in the digital space by developing apps for smartphones and cloud computing. Before becoming the CEO in 2007, she held the positions of Deputy Group CEO and Chief Financial Officer with the company too.

10. Annie Mathew, BlackBerry: One of India's best talents, Annie is Director, Alliances and Business Development, BlackBerry. Educated at the Indian School of Business and the TKM College of Engineering, University of Kerala, she has held a number of key posts at Satyam including General Manager, Corporate Strategy Group and Head, Global Alliance Program at Mahindra Satyam. Before becoming a Director with BlackBerry last year, she was heading Alliances, India for the tech giant since 2009.

Source: Know Your Mobile


Angola Reportedly bans Islam

First country in the world to ban Islam--By popular demand, Angolan authorities have taken pre-emptive action and decided to ban the Muslim religion, which they consider a cult, NOT a religion. They see what Muslims are doing to non-Muslims, especially in Africa, and are taking steps to prevent the same from happening in Angola.

In early October 2013, the Muslims living in Luanda in the municipality of Viana Zango were shocked to see the minaret of their mosque dismantled into pieces on the ground without permission. On Thursday 03 October in the morning, the Angolan authorities decided to destroy the mosque Zango located in the urban district of Viana 17 km. The governor of Luanda Bento announced in a radio spot that radical Muslims are not welcome in Angola and the Angolan government is not ready for the legalization of mosques in Angola.


Tuesday, November 19, the Minister of Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva said. “Regarding Islam, the legalization process has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. Therefore all mosques would be closed until further notice. “ It should be noted that the Angolan government has made closing of all mosques a priority. The only two mosques located in Luanda have already received a warning document signed by the mayor of the municipality of Viana José Moreno.


Click here to read more.

The Meaning of African Culture


Ignorance has always been a variable in interpreting contexts and concepts. We rely on flawed and often hypocritical analyses in defining “African culture” and dismissing any label we consider as “foreign” or “alien to us”. Backhanded defences of Africa by those who like to think of themselves as “conservatives” romanticise obvious inelegancies as “the beauty of Africa”. To these conservatives, Africa is literally a civilisation of unrefined people dressed in caftan, adire or kampala and living in, perhaps, mud-built huts of various exotic shapes.


In their conservativist defences, they pander to obvious contradictions. First, what these African culturalists label fixedly as “African” are a developing or evolving facet of a human civilisation. It’s actually an unprogressive mind that would in this day and age consider riding on donkeys to farm African and not what it really is – backwardness! But among them too, there is a conflict: in their clamour for what qualifies for the African, certain traditions of the foreigners who introduced Abrahamic religions are assimilated. Thus, they betray their touted aversions to influences. The main ignorance here is the inability to tell the Western apart from the Modern. Though the West leads modern civilisation, it’s inaccurate to lay all claim to ownership of this world of machines to it. What we call western civilisation is an evolution of the collective efforts of renowned scientists, explorers, inventors and scholars from different races and continents. The Whiteman, for instance, didn’t know what paper was until the Chinese invented it.

So I’m a child of the modern civilisation, a civilisation that replaced the ink-pot with fountain pen. A civilisation whose people are an unprogressive collective that cannot manufacture an ordinary car has automatically lost my membership. Culture is the way we live, which is why anything that eases the way I live must be embraced. Which is why I abandon hoes for tractors to feed a larger number of people. Which is why camels and donkeys are abandoned for cars and aeroplanes to make living easy. I wear clothes in the style that the billions of people on earth, having criticised and eventually found practical, endorsed. This is what culture is all about, a continuous intercourse of ideas, concepts and creativities!

My culture is anything that redeems my identity, not the  primitive emblems that reduce and mock my intellectual and artistic abilities. I’m open to influences that can redeem my humanity. I accept the education introduced by the Whiteman just as I accept the religion introduced to Africa by the Arabs. I accept to learn English Language to ease my academic pursuits in this anglophone entity just as I study Arabic Language to understand my Islamic faith. Doing so does not mean that I have lost pride in my African being, it doesn’t mean I have lost my pride in being a black man. It just means that they are valuable for assimilating the evolving culture. It doesn’t make Englishmen and Arabs more important than the black race. It doesn’t make English and Arabic more important than my mother-tongue. Our culture is now defined by all the things we domesticated from the zoos of alien creations!

It is however unfortunate to see heavily influenced Africans screaming “this is not African!” in a market-square of foreign concepts. You lack the moral rights to decide what is or is not African unless you renounce your “foreign” religion-channelled worldviews.

The other day a non-Muslim friend of mine saw a Muslim lady dressed in hijab, and asked to know why she would be so dressed in that hot afternoon. Ironically he was a clear definition of what puzzled him, being also dressed in three-piece suit which was way thicker! “Why are you dressed in suit in this heat?” I asked. “I’m just returning from the office!” He said. I replied, “You wear yours in fear of your boss, she wears hers in fear of her God. And she has her brains to choose a culture or life that comforts her.” The worse contradictions were the reactions of some Igbo Christians to the recent conversion of an Igbo monarch to Islam, which to them was against the culture of the Igbo – when did Christianity become the culture of the Igbo? Amadioha must not hear this!

Civilisation is not built by our nostalgias and histories alone, but in our criticisms of identified drawbacks and letting go of them. Modern African culture must not be a romancisation of the simply old and dated. Certain things are more useful in museums and history books. The irony is, even our fabrics which we wear like testimonials of accomplishments to international events or foreign trips were either produced in the countries – or with machines manufactured in the countries – we seek to intimidate with what we mistake for our inventions. The last time I checked, even what we refer to as African wax was actually started in Indonesia by English and Dutch merchants. May God save us from us!

By Gimba Kakanda, published in Flips of Commonsense

WHEN I MET NELSON MANDELA

His name was everywhere in Mali. People spoke about his bravery, humbleness, generosity, and love for his fellow Africans.  As a child, I did not know much about Mandela besides what I heard around the house and the soulful songs Miriam Makeba sang in his honor.  All I knew was that the man named Mandela spent a long time in jail. That was it. This was about to change. One afternoon in the hot sun in Bamako, I saw a limousine driving by slowly with many police cars, passing by our house.

Our house was not far from the road to the airport, so when a politician or someone important is visiting Mali my neighborhood was always the first to see the cards driving by. I loved this about our home in Kalaban Coura because I would always come out of the compound just to watch.

I had just gotten home from school. I wanted ‘bonbon’ (candy) from the corner store and my mother did not want me out in the sun.  She was busy packing some of her designs from her boutique and I snuck out to get my candy.  This day, the number of police cars and limousines was more than I had ever seen. I went closer to the road just to see who was visiting Mali this time. I saw a man standing in a one of the limousines and he was waving to the crowd, since most of my neighbors had come out by this time to see Mandela.

I, however, did not recognize that man waving to the crowd. I assumed most of the people waving knew who he was.

Growing up I was very nosey and I would always get in trouble for that (sorry mom!).  According to my mom, I was always on the hunt for a ‘story.’ This day, I was not hunting for a story. I just wanted candy and I also happened to be at the right place at the right time.

The limousine with Mandela was slowing down as the crowd grew.  Some were getting close to the limousine to check his hand. I followed. I got really close and shook Mandela’s hand. I was eight years old.

My mother said it was March of 1996 when Mandela paid his first visit to Mali to address the national assembly.

Back to the house, my mother was still packing clothes. I told her that I just shook a hand of some “big man.” Out of nowhere she picked me up and started screaming. Confused, I was! She said, “that was Nelson Mandela Cheche.” Cheche is a nickname she gave me.  I was very excited and started telling everyone.  My mother grabbed me and we ran back out to the scene but it was clear at this point (she was disappointed!). Only the neighbors and some street vendors were still at the scene talking about Mandela’s visit.

That night, footage of me shaking Mandela’s hand was one of the b-rolls of the evening newscast. I was just happy to be on the ‘journal’ (news).

The following month was my birthday. I received The Illustrated Long Walk to Freedom as a gift and my world opened up.

My fascination with inspiring African figures started from there. I became interested in African stories- before and after European Colonization.  I wanted to know my people, what they went through, and how we got to where we are. My interest in learning more about Sundiaka Keita’s life grew even more.

As I read about Nelson Mandela’s life story, I was inspired. I found it truly amazing for someone who has gone through so much like him, was still able to put a smile on his face and inspire everyone he has come across.  Mandela electrified every crowd he was among.

“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” - Nelson Mandela

May his soul rest in perfect peace.



US-Africa Synergy's African Cultural Evening 2014

Us Africa synergyUS-Africa Synergy’s second annual African Cultural Evening is underway! US-Africa Synergy is a non-profit whose mission is to harness intellectual, social and financial  resources in the United states and in Africa to build youths’ leadership and entrepreneurial skills and uphold women involvement in decision-making in Africa.

I had the pleasure of dancing at the first annual African Cultural Evening and it was a blast!  The evening showcased the diversity and beauty of the African culture and recognized the cultural awareness of African youths.  The exemplary African leaders were also acknowledged and it was a full house.


For the second annual African Cultural Evening, US-Africa Synergy is looking for poets, singers, dance groups, instrumentalist and any activity related to the arts.  Talent registration deadline is January 13th, 2014 and auditions will be held January 15th & 16th, 2014.



This  event will benefit US-Africa Synergy’s African Women LEAD Program.

For more information about registration and auditions, please contact: ace@usafricasynergy.org; bbocoum@usafricasynergy.org or call (917) 500-9514.