M-Pesa: Kenya’s Bank For The Masses?

Given that most Kenyan’s don’t have a bank account, can the mobile phone based e-banking firm M-Pesa already claim the title as Kenya’s “Bank for the Masses?

By: Ringo Bones

To the uninitiated, M-Pesa is a money transfer service and it is how most Kenyan citizens send and receive money and pay their utility bills using the country’s established mobile phone or cellular phone network. Currently, there are 28,000 M-Pesa shops across Kenya and given that only a few Kenyans have bank accounts and yet almost all of them have mobile and cellular phones or have ready access to the internet, it is no wonder why M-Pesa, as a service provider, is a runaway success throughout Kenya.

M-Pesa is the brainchild of Safaricom and was launched 5 years ago and is made possible by the introduction of high-speed internet in Kenya. Despite its popularity, service interruption still occurs – even days at a time – because cable theft is still a big problem in Kenya that could shut down the local internet service for days. Despite of the disadvantages, Kenyans swear by M-Pesa because it is the securest form of on-line and mobile phone based money transfer they have so far. Competing systems have yet to gain a foothold in the country.

And by October 2012 – M-Pesa could become more secure when Kenya’s communications commission will start a comprehensive ban on counterfeit mobile phones to avoid fraud that could compromise the country’s famed mobile phone based money transfer service. Mobile phone users will then be required to enter their authentication code to make sure that they are a genuine M-Pesa client and not someone out to defraud money from legitimate users. Are taxis, buses and hotels in Nairobi already accepting fares via M-Pesa? Some prospective tourists already want to know.

Breast-Enlarging Cellurar / Mobile Phone Ring-Tone

A Japanese scientist / part-time rock musician has created the mobile phone ring-tone that makes women’s breasts grow bigger. Revenge of the phone-hogging airheads?


By: Vanessa Uy


It surely sounds – if you pardon the pun – like a hoax, but a Japanese scientist whose main hobby is playing rock music really did invent a cellurar phone / mobile phone ring-tone that makes the breasts of women of childbearing age apparently grow bigger. It works on the principle of sending subliminal messages to the listener’s brain. The ring-tone subliminally presents the sound of a crying baby to the brains of anyone who hears it. Preliminary result of the study had shown that within 10 days, women of reproductive age listening to the prototype ring-tone on a regular basis up to 20 times a day manifested breast enlargement. On average 2 to 3 centimeters or more than an inch increase of the bust size was noted.

Dubbed the “Rock Melon”, the novel ring-tone had recently received extensive scientific scrutiny and peer-review studies due to the “inexplicable” result of breast enlargement. Even though the physiological effects of the “breast-enlarging” ring-tone might seem strange, other scientists studying the trials theorize that the ring-tone might be subliminally sending messages to the brain that caused it to send signals to the women listening to it to alter their hormonal balance. Thus the resulting increase in bust size.

Scientists in Japan are now searching / creating mobile phone or cellular phone ring-tones that stimulate hair growth in balding men, increase a person’s friendliness, increase memory and intelligence, even ones that deter shop-lifting in malls. Even though the Rock Melon ring-tone’s effects might only be “cosmetic”, it might also allow a side-benefit of making women more child-friendly by asserting their maternal instincts. Which could be very useful for professional nannies and part-time babysitters.

Blood Mobile Phones, Bloodier Cellular Phones

First, there was blood or conflict diamonds, now the vital innards of our mobile or cell phones are now being made by raw materials fueling the on-going conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ethical cell / mobiles wanted?


By: Vanessa Uy


After the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the US Government / Bush Administration finally acknowledges the dangers of conflict / blood diamonds after their “intelligence annalists” found out that these “diamonds” played a vital part in funding al-Qaeda’s terror operations around the world. Weird being that a few years hence when only black Africans are suffering, the Republican Party-ruled US legislature don’t even give a damn about conflict diamonds.

Fast-forward to 2008, and the slave mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo have ignominiously became the cheapest supplier of vital minerals necessary for the manufacture of very cheap Chinese-made mobile phones / cellular phones. Since the world market demands the cheapness factor when it comes to the latest in mobile phone / cellular phone technology, social and ethical concerns with regards to manufacture and labor tend to fall by the wayside.

Coltan, a combination or aggregate of two mineral ores: columbite and tantalite. Columbite – the black mineral consisting essentially of iron and columbium / niobium. The other one is tantalite, a valuable source of the metal tantalum. These two transition metals are very useful as battery and ultra-miniaturized capacitor components in the latest model cellular and mobile phones. Given that tantalum capacitors are also used in the Hi Fi industry, the corporate world’s tacit support for the on-going armed conflict in Africa – especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo – is surely despicable. Especially when majority of “hapless consumers” are tricked into underwriting their callous disregard for human lives.

Dismantling the “economic system” that made the trade in “blood mobile phones” possible is not easy. Congolese rebel leader / freedom fighter and ethnic Tutsi Laurent N’Kunda has earned himself a legion of loyal followers that would gladly give up their lives in support of his cause. Even his official Website – especially those that can be seen internationally – portray him as if he’s an African R&B heartthrob. Though Laurent N'Kunda was very instrumental in providing safe-havens for Tutsi's fleeing from the Rwandan genocide back in April of 1994, the incidence of rape by his troops and slavery in the coltan mines certainly makes his brand of "nation building" open to much criticism. This is truly a case where one man’s terrorist is another one’s freedom fighter. Probably only an arrest and subsequent trial in The Hague could dissuade his supporters and bring him to justice, as opposed to a US government underwritten assassination operation, which could raise Laurent N’Kunda to martyrdom status.

But we the consumers can do our part too by buying only cellular phones / mobile phones that are ethically produced by socially responsible corporations, instead of choosing the latest and cheapest ones with a history of unethical business practice. Even though these “ethical phones” will be far from cheap, at least we are doing our fellow brethren a world of good. Just remember and be mindful of that “Instant Karma” that John Lennon used to warn us about.