It would be ridiculous to just tweet and believe its enough.Our mothers are very important pillar of strength and on such a day even calling might not be enough, you need to something special and nice for mother.
Well that's a huge disadvantage; I had to ask someone to pay for my domain. Telecommunication companies are in a position to offer such a solution. I heard Telecel,Zimbabwe has been working on such a solution .
Even though Africa is less homogeneous than Europe, it's roughly divided into two halves, the English speaking and the French speaking countries. I would like to believe it's still homogeneous if you look closely. I think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mxit have managed to scale , with over 40 million users and still counting.
Much contrary belief, I agree with you that there is a lot of talent. These developers are very talented and intelligent; they lack the experience and exposure. Given time and the right investment, there won't be much difference with the rest of the world.
The South Africans and Kenyans have already built a strong technology scene, so really it's not far fetched. The market is already there and still pretty much open for most products. The talent is available to kick start the industry, a lot of computer science graduates lying around doing nothing. All that is left is for the government,the corporate world and other stakeholders to take advantage of this opportunity. I would also like to point out that telecommunications companies like Econet and MTN have also contributed a lot to their countries' GDP. While the drawbacks you mentioned are significant; they can be solved if everyone involved can share the same vision.
Definitely spot-on. You don't have to give up on your dreams, no-matter the hardships. Whatever your circumstances, someone in much worse situation have succeeded.
When I started writing I thought one needed to be an expert to write good stories but I was wrong. My first article,http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3840706, generated a lot of interest. The article was full of grammatical errors, but people didn't mind. I have since improved and learned a lot of things through writing. I would encourage people to try it.
I haven't had kids of my own but I hope to take up all this advice some day. Being an entrepreneur and a father is not easy but one should strive to strike a balance. Good article.