Dalle Abraham

I wrote about Negotiated Democracy for @theelephantinfo "To call what is happening “democracy” is to elevate it to a higher plane of transactions, to cloak it in an acceptable robe. A better term for what is happening would be “mediated elections”; theelephant.info/long-reads/202…

The 1st Bonaya Godana Distinguished Lecture welcomes HE Abdulqawi Yusuf, ICJ Judge President Emeritus, for a historic session in honour of late legal luminary Dr Bonaya Godana. The lecture will also be broadcast live. youtube.com/live/Qi3K07ykA…

@RAbdiAnalyst Is this Map AI generated? What names are these?

The numbers have finally been crunched. And the prognosis is bleak: devolution has failed in Kenya's Northeastern. Billions of shillings meant to develop impoverished ethnic Somali-dominated region unused, wasted or stolen to build flats and gleaming malls in Nairobi. What a tragedy !

The US does not possess infinite political capital, bandwidth, military capacity or economic resilience. Every resource expended in Iran represents energy diverted from the true tectonic challenges defining the 21st century. My take:

Unpacking the World: The Maverick Ugandan Writer Who Maps Cities by Bicycle Comes to Nairobi When he first arrived in Nairobi a few days ago, my Ugandan friend (I will call him DMZ for now to allow him privacy to do his work) didn’t hail a taxi or board a crowded matatu. Instead, with the practised grace of a seasoned nomad, he unfolded his life’s most constant companion: a simple, well-travelled bicycle. He is a brilliant and wonderfully alternative soul, a writer and cultural researcher who approaches travel as a silent conversation with the pavement and backstreets. To see him weave through the chaotic and vibrant streets of Kenya’s capital is to witness a special kind of wayfinding. He creates a map of stories and alleys that remain invisible from the window of a passing car. He travels everywhere this way. He breaks the bike down, packs it into a case, and checks it into bus holds or as accompanied luggage on flights. The moment he touches down in a new country, he reassembles it and disappears into the horizon. Recently, he took his bike to India, cycling through one of its sprawling metropolises to uncover untold stories, and he found "whole Indian communities with East African roots" in places like Goa, he says, and "buildings that are copies of several that they built in Nairobi, Jinja, and Kampala". He has traversed historic avenues of Europe the same way. I could have listened to him all day. His insights into the "hidden Nairobi" would leave even the most seasoned veterans of the city breathless. “You can’t stop, make notes, take photos, and talk to random and authentic folks when you are in a car or motorcycle,” he tells me. “I have walked through alleys, leaned over, and been hit by the smell, so I have a guttural sense of many places.” His must be the most travelled bicycle in Uganda. They truly don't make them like my friend anymore, people who understand that to truly know a place, you must touch it with two wheels and prod its trenches with a stick. He has a book in the pipeline. It will be something. We will make an early reveal on these streets when he's good to go. -Photo/AI visualisation.

John Gerrard's "Western Flag" is probably the most relevant work of art right now.

The intensity of the rains in the last 48 hours has been unlike anything we've seen since 1997 El Nino. Drainage channels are saturated which intensifies the flooding. Expansion of Nairobi and Mathare rivers has increased capacity to handle floods. Dandora Falls in full flow.

A Chinese student built an interesting app using vibe coding that visualizes nearly 5,000 artifacts in the British Museum from 99 countries around the world. The app shows: • When these artifacts arrived • Which country they came from • And how the distribution would look if all artifacts were returned to their countries of origin.

WHY BOOKS ARE EXPENSIVE IN AFRICA. Thread. In 2022, I was commissioned by a representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture to conduct a desktop study on how nations successfully commercialise literature and write recommendations to their ministry.

Just listen to this absurd BBC bias on the US-Israeli war on Iran. You'd never know this was an illegal war of aggression.

I am a diplomatic aide in the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. My job is logistics. When two countries that cannot speak to each other need to speak to each other, I book the rooms. I prepare the briefing materials. I make sure the water glasses are the right distance apart. You would be surprised how much of diplomacy is water glasses. Too close and it feels informal. Too far and it feels like a tribunal. I have a chart. We had a very good month. Since January, Oman has been mediating indirect talks between the United States and Iran on Iran's nuclear program. The talks were held in Muscat and in Geneva. The Americans would sit in one room. The Iranians would sit in another room. I would walk between them. My Fitbit says I averaged fourteen thousand steps on negotiation days. The hallway between the two rooms at the Royal Opera House conference center is forty-seven meters. I walked it two hundred and twelve times in February. This is good for my cardiovascular health. It was less good for my knees. Both are in the service of peace. By mid-February, we had something. Iran agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium. Not reduced stockpiling. Zero. They agreed to down-blend existing stockpiles to the lowest possible level. They agreed to convert them into irreversible fuel. They agreed to full IAEA verification with potential US inspector access. They agreed, in the Foreign Minister's phrase, to "never, ever" possess nuclear material for a bomb. I have worked in diplomacy for seven years. I have never seen a country agree to this many things this quickly. I made a spreadsheet of the concessions. It had fourteen rows. I color-coded it. Green for confirmed. Yellow for pending. By February 21 the spreadsheet was entirely green. I printed it. It is on my desk in Muscat. It is still green. That phrase took eleven days. "Never, ever." The Iranians initially offered "not seek to." The Americans wanted "will not under any circumstances." We landed on "never, ever" at 2:14 AM on a Tuesday in Muscat. I typed the final version myself. I used Times New Roman because Geneva prefers it. The document was fourteen pages. I was proud of every comma. Here is what they said, in the order they said it. February 24: "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity." — The Foreign Minister, private briefing to Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors. I prepared the slide deck. Slide 14 was the implementation timeline. Slide 15 was the signing ceremony logistics. I had reserved the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Room XX. It seats four hundred. We discussed pen brands for the signing. The Iranians preferred Montblanc. The Americans had no preference. I ordered twelve Montblanc Meisterstucks at six hundred and thirty dollars each. They arrive on Tuesday. February 27, 8:30 AM EST: "The deal is within our reach." — The Foreign Minister, CBS Face the Nation. He sat across from Margaret Brennan. He said broad political terms could be agreed "tomorrow" with ninety days for technical implementation in Vienna. He said, and I wrote this line for the briefing card he carried in his breast pocket: "If we just allow diplomacy the space it needs." He praised the American envoys by name. Steve Witkoff. Jared Kushner. He said both had been constructive. I watched from the Four Seasons Georgetown. The minibar had cashews. I ate the cashews. They were nineteen dollars. The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten. But it was a good morning and we were within our reach. February 27, 2:00 PM EST: Meeting with Vice President Vance, Washington. The Foreign Minister presented our progress. Zero stockpiling. Full verification. Irreversible conversion. "Never, ever." The Vice President used the word "encouraging." His aide took notes on an iPad. The aide did not make eye contact for the last nine minutes of the meeting. I noticed this. Noticing things is the only part of my job that is not water glasses. February 27, 4:00 PM EST: "Not happy with the pace." — President Trump, to reporters. Not happy with the pace. We had achieved zero stockpiling. Full IAEA verification. Irreversible fuel conversion. Inspector access. And the phrase "never, ever," which took eleven days and cost me two hundred and twelve trips down a forty-seven-meter hallway. Every American president since Carter has failed to get Iran to agree to this. Forty-five years. Not happy with the pace. February 27, 9:47 PM EST: The Foreign Minister's flight departs Dulles for Muscat. I am in the seat behind him. He is reviewing Slide 14 on his laptop. The implementation timeline. Vienna technical sessions. The signing ceremony. The pens. I fall asleep over the Atlantic. I dream about water glasses. February 28, 6:00 AM GST: I wake up to push notifications. February 28: "The United States has begun major combat operations in Iran." — President Trump. Operation Epic Fury. Coordinated airstrikes. The United States and Israel. Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Nuclear facilities. IRGC bases. Sites near the Supreme Leader's office. Israel called their half Operation Roaring Lion. Someone in both governments spent time choosing these names. Epic Fury. Roaring Lion. I spent eleven days on "never, ever." They spent it on branding. The President said Iran had "rejected American calls to halt its nuclear weapons production." Rejected. Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling. Iran had agreed to full verification. Iran had agreed to "never, ever." Iran had agreed to everything in a fourteen-page document that I typed in Times New Roman. The President said they rejected it. I do not know which document the President was reading. I know which one I typed. February 28, 18:45 UTC: Iran internet connectivity: four percent. — NetBlocks, confirmed by Cloudflare. Ninety-six percent of a country went dark. You cannot negotiate with a country at four percent connectivity. You cannot negotiate with a country that is being struck. You cannot negotiate. This is not a political opinion. This is a logistics assessment. February 28: The governor of Minab reported forty girls killed at an elementary school. I do not have logistics for that. There is no slide for that. The water glass chart does not cover that. February 28: Lockheed Martin: up. Northrop Grumman: up. RTX: up. Dow futures: down six hundred and twenty-two points. Gold: five thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars. An analyst at AInvest published a note titled "Iran Strikes: Tactical Plays." The note recommended positions in oil, defense stocks, and gold. The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten was nineteen dollars. The most expensive pen I have ever ordered was six hundred and thirty dollars. The math suggests I have been working in the wrong industry. Defense stocks do not require water glasses. Defense stocks do not require eleven days. Defense stocks require one morning. February 28: Israel closed its airspace and its schools. Iran launched retaliatory missiles toward US bases in the Gulf. The Supreme Leader promised a "crushing response." Israel's defense minister declared a permanent state of emergency. Everyone is using words I recognize in an order I do not. I recognize "permanent." I recognize "emergency." I do not recognize them next to each other. In diplomacy, nothing is permanent and everything is an emergency. In war it is the reverse. February 28: The Foreign Minister has not made a public statement. The briefing card is still in his breast pocket. It still says "within our reach."

The color theory is near and dear to me. It’s time to bring back color. IG:newconsciousworld

A collection of Radio Adverts written and produced when I was a copywriter, 1999 to 2009. soundcloud.com/mwarv/albums Let's just say radio advertising has evolved over the years.

People who can't make love make money. James Baldwin

KAMUKUNJI MP @MPyusufhassan has castigated @Meta for curtailing the freedom of speech and the press following Facebook's censorship of Kulan Post over its coverage of Kenyans expressing solidarity with the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza strip. "I am really sorry about this," noted the former BBC broadcaster, who also served as Senior Policy Adviser for the UN Secretary General in New York in 2002 and the head of a UN news agency in 2006. He continued: "I express my support and solidarity with Kulan Post. This poses a significant threat to our democracy and human rights, constituting a grave violation of fundamental rights, including freedom of the press and free speech. "These deliberate actions aim to censor and muzzle the media, concealing the truth. Such unilateral and arbitrary measures are subjective, intrusive, and utterly unacceptable. "It is even more surprising that these sentiments are coming from those who advocated for the principles of democracy, human rights, equity, social justice, and the rule of law. The idea that they would practice these kind of double standards and they would deny these fundamental rights to the oppressed people of Palestine and their supporters is indeed preposterous." Read more about the controversial censorship story 👉 bitly.ws/34yDF

No vaccines, no bathing, no spraying, no training, no feeding. Just pushing life and attending weddings and funerals😭…..

How do women sustain trade and livelihoods in conflict-affected borderlands? Ep. 4 of the Beyond Series explores women’s work and cross-border trade in #Somalia and the #Mandera Triangle, drawing on @XCEPT_Research. Listen: tinyurl.com/BeyondXCEPT4 More: xcept.riftvalley.net

Are we questioning how Mombasa city is being planned? Haven’t we been questioning how rent has become a daily struggle? Haven’t we been questioning why the urban heat in Mombasa is increasing? These questions are connected. It’s planning. It’s policy. It’s priorities.  #HousingChronicles|Stories behind Kenyan's Urban Development

Alar!

Someone has generated a simulation of a transport system that would have worked perfectly in Nairobi!

Very shameful!