Whis brought up an important issue on the last post – CFLs in Uganda. Namely that CFLs contain mercury, a heavy metal that is quite toxic and dangerous if not disposed of properly. A common concern is mercury in fish which results in the advisory for pregnant women to avoid eating fish. I decided to buy a CFL since my desk lamp light blinked out and in the process try to answer Whis’ question about disposal. Home Depot, $5 dollars for 1 40watt bulb and i was set.
CFL front

CFL back

Desk lamp with CFL

And voila! Light!

What i was able to find on the package no less, is that in North America, lamprecycle.org is a great resource, it has the state and EPA regulations for disposal of spent lamps. It also points to Earth911 where you can enter your zip code and it gives you the location of your local recycling center.

As for Uganda: I am afraid Whis i do not know…couldnt find a website for now, the other ministries appear to have a site but not the Energy ministry. Info from anyone there on the ground is greatly appreciated.
Daud in Kenya also pointed to the launch of PANARECC

Panerecc Launched at the Grand Regency on Thursday 26th April 2007

The Parliamentary Network on Renewable Energy and Climate Change (PANERECC) is a proposed Parliamentary network to promote renewable energy and climate change policy and particularly the synergy between New and Renewable Energy (NRE) as a tool for combating climate change

As of this posting I am getting a 401 error on their site, so check it again later.

Other Stuff

Tech/Internet – Its a bad URL world out there i.e malicious code can found on the URLs of sites …so get Finjan secure browsing addon for firefox. (Yes i know that attempt at channeling 3-6 mafia was lame oh i will say its maxi priest “Uuu baby its a wild world ” Bugger, that aint it either, i am leaving it in the post despite its hobbliness.)
Econ -2 links to articles by James Shikwati, he is one of the speakers in the upcoming TED Global. Link 1 on harmonisation of tax laws in the EAC with the somewhat hilarious question �??Will the East African Federation increase the size of matoke on our plates?�?� Link 2 – “Urbanizing Kenya to fight poverty”. Speaking of urbanization and poverty, Atanu Dey has excellent posts on this very issue.

Music and TV (Diaspora US): VH1 soul has a cool program One Planet One soul, airs on sundays. Soul from Africa and aroung the world. Likes of Les Nubians, Somi etc. This was also mentioned over at Annansi Chronicles, a very cool blogger and designer, check out the blog here and the cool afrocentric tshirts here. If you arent subscribed to Benn Loxo yet and you are a world music fan…what you waiting for?! Gems on that site i tell you.
Annoyances: SMSs asking you to not buy gas/petrol on May 15th. Here is the snopes entry debunking that urban legend.
Last but not least, thanks for reading this far… and Happy Mothers day to all moms, especially our fellow bloggers who are new moms, KP, Mrembo and Medusa.