If you're suffering from the Credit Crunch... and who isn't! And you've suddenly noticed that the price of your food has gone up dramatically (as the price of all staples have here in West Africa) then you need a remedy or an antidote.
If you're lucky enough to live in Europe or North America you can make the most of the great outdoors by going to pick your next meal for free! Out there in the wilds you have well over 100 plants that are either edible or provide edible components (if you don't believe me then take a look at this Guide to Wild Foods).
I've lived in the UK and sampled many of them and most are quite delicious if cooked in the right way. Maybe it's because I'm West African and used to eating bush foods, but going and gathering plants in the wild to eat at home isn't new to me... During the Middle Ages and even the 19th century it was common in Europe too (it's still common in Eastern Europe and Northern Italy and Greece) but Britain and America most notably have lost their taste for and ability to, go our foraging.
It's not even about having an encyclopaedic knowledge of plants. Rather, it's about being able to spot a few very common species that can make a wonderful addition to your plate. Indeed, some of the very commonest weeds (like chickweed) are edible and some even used to be grown commercially in the past.
So, go whet your appetite here's a West African stew that's been adapted for use with European and North American wild greens.
Curried Wild Mustard Greens with Beans
Ingredients:
200g wild mustard greens (or you can use any strongly-flavoured greens eg kale, collards etc)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp mustard seeds (preferrably black)
1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp freshly-grated ginger root
3 birds-eye chillies, finely chopped (de seeded if you don't want it very hot)
1 400g tin of beans (butter beans, barlotti beans, black beans etc)
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp curry powder
80ml double cream
Method:
Wash the mustard greens, remove the stems and cut into strips. Bring a large pot of lighly-salted water to a boil, add the mustard greens and blanch for a two minutes or so. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain and rinse under cold water to prevent further cooking.
Meanwhile heat the oil in a large pan and add the mustard seeds. Cook until these begin to pop and flavour the oil then add the onion and fry until gently browned. Stir-in the ginger and chillies then add the spices. Now mix-in the beans and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook gently for 5 minutes before stirring-in the mustard greens and cream. Continue cooking until heated through and serve on a bed of rice.
(Adapted from the Celtnet Curried Wild Mustard Greens with Beans Recipe, with permission.)
And if foraging for wild greens doesn't turn you on, here's a wild mushroom soup recipe (you can substitute shop-bought mushrooms if you're not adventurous enough to go hunting for your own).
Chanterelle and Cobnut Soup
Ingredients:
500ml double cream
450g chanterelle mushrooms
200g cobnuts
5 large garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, chopped
700ml chicken or rich vegetable stock
1 tbsp brandy
salt and black pepper, to taste
chopped fresh chives to garnish
Method:
Place the cobnuts on a baking tray and roast in an oven pre-heated to 140°C for 15 minutes. Allow to cool enough to handle then husk them. Reserve 10 and chop the remainder.
Add the cream, chopped cobnuts, mushrooms, garlic and onion in a large saucepan and heat, stirring continually, until the liquid has reduced appreciably (about 20 minutes). Allow to cool, transfer to a liquidizer and purée until smooth.
Add the stock to a pan, bring to a boil then stir-in the mushroom purée. Season with salt and pepper before adding the brandy. Return to a boil and cook for 5 minutes before taking off the heat and cooling. Strain through a fine-meshed sieve and return the strained liquid to a pan.
Heat through, ladle into warmed soup bowls, top with the reserved cobnuts and chives and serve.
(Adapted from the Chanterelle and Cobnut Soup Recipe, with permission.)
You can find many more mushroom recipes at the Mushroom Recipes page. If you want to make the most of wild foods and how to cook them then you really do need to check out the Wild Food Recipes guide pages.
If you would like to know more about wild mushrooms and their uses then check-out this article on Amazing Spring Mushrooms and Wild Mushrooms for your Plate.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Article Marketing 101
Why submit articles to Submission Sites? After all it's these sites that make advertising income on the back of your efforts... right?
Well, that's true. But the better article directories also provide a service. Not only are they giving you a system in which you can place and publish your articles, they also provide a place where others can gain access to your articles and publish them on their own ezine, blog or site.
Most importantly, however, Article Submission Sites, such as Celtnet Articles are important hubs on the web. They tend to have lots of visitors and lots of page rank. In return for your article submission you typically get to write a short 'about the author' entry at the bottom of your article.
Articles also allow you to promote yourself, your business, your product and your organization. It's also an extremely good way of building brand awareness and of establishing yourself as an expert in a certain area.
Your article should be original content, written by you and it should not just be a sales pitch. Indeed, a good article should be about something. It's all about pre-selling, about using your expertise in a certain domain or area to write something useful.
But if that's what articles are about, then what's in it for me? I hear you ask... Well, it's all about delayed gratification. It's all about the About the Author resource box which you get to write. In the resource box you get to include your 'pitch' and usually you get to include three URLs to any page of your choice.
The main reason that good articles only give you poor clicks is that you're not maximizing our use of the Author's Box. You've spent all your effort researching and writing your article and when you come to the 'Author's Box' it's incredibly tempting to write a little about you and just to stuff your link in a 'click here to find out more'. Now what's the point of that. The whole reason of writing an article is so that you get your readers to view your Author's Box and to act on it, to click the links that are there. If you have written an excellent article but have a ridiculously weak author's box then you've blown your only marketing opportunity. Just take the example above. You've written your article on ' Ten Benefits of Autoresponders' and it's well written, informative and maybe even witty. But in you're 'Author's Box' all you've written is: 'For more information on Autoresponders and their uses, click here'. Now, that really, really sucks. The whole point is to get people to click on the link you're providing. I admit that I'm not the best person at writing these, as I'm not a natural marketer. But I do know that you need to use: The Power of Curiosity The Power of Humour to hook your readers into clicking the link you're providing.
Write good articles then provide good links that make your readers want to click through to your site. If you really want to make your articles sell then read this article on: Writing Articles that Sell.
For more information on using traffic to gain in-bound links and to popularize your site or web page please read:
Building links to Hubpages
Site Promotion through Article Submission
Amongst the many hundreds of article submission sites I would recommend the Celtnet Articles site. They're small but growing fast. They have a better than 24 hour turn around and the articles are promoted via social bookmarking and via RSS feeds that are published every evening.
The site's proceeds also go to supporting charity, so you can help yourself and help a worthwhile cause at one and the same time.
Well, that's true. But the better article directories also provide a service. Not only are they giving you a system in which you can place and publish your articles, they also provide a place where others can gain access to your articles and publish them on their own ezine, blog or site.
Most importantly, however, Article Submission Sites, such as Celtnet Articles are important hubs on the web. They tend to have lots of visitors and lots of page rank. In return for your article submission you typically get to write a short 'about the author' entry at the bottom of your article.
Articles also allow you to promote yourself, your business, your product and your organization. It's also an extremely good way of building brand awareness and of establishing yourself as an expert in a certain area.
Your article should be original content, written by you and it should not just be a sales pitch. Indeed, a good article should be about something. It's all about pre-selling, about using your expertise in a certain domain or area to write something useful.
But if that's what articles are about, then what's in it for me? I hear you ask... Well, it's all about delayed gratification. It's all about the About the Author resource box which you get to write. In the resource box you get to include your 'pitch' and usually you get to include three URLs to any page of your choice.
The main reason that good articles only give you poor clicks is that you're not maximizing our use of the Author's Box. You've spent all your effort researching and writing your article and when you come to the 'Author's Box' it's incredibly tempting to write a little about you and just to stuff your link in a 'click here to find out more'. Now what's the point of that. The whole reason of writing an article is so that you get your readers to view your Author's Box and to act on it, to click the links that are there. If you have written an excellent article but have a ridiculously weak author's box then you've blown your only marketing opportunity. Just take the example above. You've written your article on ' Ten Benefits of Autoresponders' and it's well written, informative and maybe even witty. But in you're 'Author's Box' all you've written is: 'For more information on Autoresponders and their uses, click here'. Now, that really, really sucks. The whole point is to get people to click on the link you're providing. I admit that I'm not the best person at writing these, as I'm not a natural marketer. But I do know that you need to use: The Power of Curiosity The Power of Humour to hook your readers into clicking the link you're providing.
Write good articles then provide good links that make your readers want to click through to your site. If you really want to make your articles sell then read this article on: Writing Articles that Sell.
For more information on using traffic to gain in-bound links and to popularize your site or web page please read:
Building links to Hubpages
Site Promotion through Article Submission
Amongst the many hundreds of article submission sites I would recommend the Celtnet Articles site. They're small but growing fast. They have a better than 24 hour turn around and the articles are promoted via social bookmarking and via RSS feeds that are published every evening.
The site's proceeds also go to supporting charity, so you can help yourself and help a worthwhile cause at one and the same time.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
ClickBank Ads - How free ClickBank Ads can Make you Money
Did you know that there's a site on the web that allows you to construct and display ads based on the popular (and lucrative) ClickBank product range for FREE!
Yes, they're allowing anyone who wants to to construct ads in several formats based on ClickBank products. For anyone who doesn't know, ClickBank is a large marketplace of electronic products, each available for immediate download and each offering a commission of between 40% and 70% for anyone who makes a sale (typically that's £20 to $100 for each sale made!).
All you need to do to promote ClickBank products is to get a ClickBank ID (known in ClickBank parlance as a 'nickname', choose some products and start promoting). What the guys over at Celtnet have done is to make the process so easy that anyone can do it.
They've loaded each and every ClickBank product into a database which can be searched via the Celtnet ClickBank Marketplace interface (you can even create your own affiliate id from the results page!
But that's not the really cool feature for the lazy marketer. They've created several ad types and formats where you can just create the ad you want, copy a single line of code and paste it into your website!
The various ad types are:
ClickBank Contextual AdSense-like Ads (yes, just like Google's ads)
ClickBank Image-based Ads (Like Google ads, but with images)
RSS feed Ads (an RSS feed of ClickBank ads)
ClickBank search code
For each of the first three ad types you can define the area of ClickBank you want your ads generated for or you can use your own search text. This way you can fit the ads precisely to the content of your website. Easy! Copy the code you get, paste into your website and you're ready to go.
The RSS feeds need to be converted to JavaScript, put into a feed aggregator or displayed via PHP to get them onto your website (See this article on How to integrate ClickBank RSS feeds into Squidoo lenses.) But, because this is an RSS feed and therefore classed as 'news' you can include these Ads on your site along with Google ads (or any other ad type) without breaking Google's terms of service conditions. Which is excellent, you've just added a new revenue stream to your site. To learn the history and how you can use them see: Free ClickBank ads for All.
The ClickBank search system just gives you a way of letting your site's visitors search the entire ClickBank marketplace on the Celtnet server for products.
In all these products and feeds you enter your own ClickBank nickname so any money coming from sales goes into your ClickBank account. Well, the majority does and this is why I'm singing the praises of the system here.
8% of all ads displayed get Celtnet's ClickBank id and not yours. These are assigned completely randomly. But the other 92% of sales are yours and yours alone. (Most competing products take betwen 15% and 20% of all sales, so this is a bargain for you and all proceeds go to charity). If you would like to know more about the cause being supporten then go to the One Million People Campain page.
You should also know that the ads are created dynamically so each time an user refreshes a page of yours they will see a new set of ads. Also the ClickBank feed is updated every week so the ads always remain current with the products in the ClickBank marketplace.
So, what have you got to lose by trying these ads out... Apart from a great deal of money, that is...
Yes, they're allowing anyone who wants to to construct ads in several formats based on ClickBank products. For anyone who doesn't know, ClickBank is a large marketplace of electronic products, each available for immediate download and each offering a commission of between 40% and 70% for anyone who makes a sale (typically that's £20 to $100 for each sale made!).
All you need to do to promote ClickBank products is to get a ClickBank ID (known in ClickBank parlance as a 'nickname', choose some products and start promoting). What the guys over at Celtnet have done is to make the process so easy that anyone can do it.
They've loaded each and every ClickBank product into a database which can be searched via the Celtnet ClickBank Marketplace interface (you can even create your own affiliate id from the results page!
But that's not the really cool feature for the lazy marketer. They've created several ad types and formats where you can just create the ad you want, copy a single line of code and paste it into your website!
The various ad types are:
ClickBank Contextual AdSense-like Ads (yes, just like Google's ads)
ClickBank Image-based Ads (Like Google ads, but with images)
RSS feed Ads (an RSS feed of ClickBank ads)
ClickBank search code
For each of the first three ad types you can define the area of ClickBank you want your ads generated for or you can use your own search text. This way you can fit the ads precisely to the content of your website. Easy! Copy the code you get, paste into your website and you're ready to go.
The RSS feeds need to be converted to JavaScript, put into a feed aggregator or displayed via PHP to get them onto your website (See this article on How to integrate ClickBank RSS feeds into Squidoo lenses.) But, because this is an RSS feed and therefore classed as 'news' you can include these Ads on your site along with Google ads (or any other ad type) without breaking Google's terms of service conditions. Which is excellent, you've just added a new revenue stream to your site. To learn the history and how you can use them see: Free ClickBank ads for All.
The ClickBank search system just gives you a way of letting your site's visitors search the entire ClickBank marketplace on the Celtnet server for products.
In all these products and feeds you enter your own ClickBank nickname so any money coming from sales goes into your ClickBank account. Well, the majority does and this is why I'm singing the praises of the system here.
8% of all ads displayed get Celtnet's ClickBank id and not yours. These are assigned completely randomly. But the other 92% of sales are yours and yours alone. (Most competing products take betwen 15% and 20% of all sales, so this is a bargain for you and all proceeds go to charity). If you would like to know more about the cause being supporten then go to the One Million People Campain page.
You should also know that the ads are created dynamically so each time an user refreshes a page of yours they will see a new set of ads. Also the ClickBank feed is updated every week so the ads always remain current with the products in the ClickBank marketplace.
So, what have you got to lose by trying these ads out... Apart from a great deal of money, that is...
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
African Recipes eBook Makes a Difference
It's nice to see that some people still do care and that the Internet really isn't the cold and sterile place it's sometimes made out to be.
Anyone reading this Blog for a while will know that it actively supports the One Million People campaign to help educate the children of Liberian refugees forced to flee their homeland by civil war and who are now displaced to Senegal, West Africa.
A number of Sites now seem to have picked-up the story, or at least one aspect of the story, as you can see:
Hubpages: African Recipe Book Aids Refugees
Squidoo: Review of The Recipes of Africa
Celtnet:Recipes of Africa eBook
In some ways it's a shame that it's the Recipes of Africa eBook that's been causing a splash... But it's also a good thing. The eBook is truly an amazing culinary feat and it really does go towards supporting a great cause. I just hope that it's the cause and not the eBook that gets the attention. But, if the money comes in, who cares?!
So, what's the fuss all about. Well, the African Recipes Collection is all the work of one man. He's collected together recipes from each and every country in Africa and as well as making many of these available through the African Recipes website he's also gathered the recipes, information about their conutries of origin and information about the five regions of Africa into a single eBook.
The book weighs-in at over 500 pages and provides recipes for over 800 dishes. Most amazingly there are representative dishes in there not only for each region in Africa but also for each and every country! Name an African country and you will find several recipes originating from there for you to make and try at home.
You get traditional recipes, restaurant-inspired recipes, family recipes, colonial-inspired recipes, modern African fusion recipes as well as feast recipes. All the recipes you need for cooking any and all types of African food.
Just as everything else in Africa, it's food and cooking has for far too long been ignored by the world outside. This eBook goes quite a long way to redressing that balance. Now you can find out a about the typical recipes and means of cooking from anywhere in Africa. You can learn new techniques and new recipes and you can bring these techniques and recipes into your own home.
There is nothing else like this eBook out there today. I truly urge you to get yourself a copy now. Learn something new about food whilst helping those less fortunate than yourselves. The Recipes of Africa collection is the one must-have eBook of 2008!
Anyone reading this Blog for a while will know that it actively supports the One Million People campaign to help educate the children of Liberian refugees forced to flee their homeland by civil war and who are now displaced to Senegal, West Africa.
A number of Sites now seem to have picked-up the story, or at least one aspect of the story, as you can see:
Hubpages: African Recipe Book Aids Refugees
Squidoo: Review of The Recipes of Africa
Celtnet:Recipes of Africa eBook
In some ways it's a shame that it's the Recipes of Africa eBook that's been causing a splash... But it's also a good thing. The eBook is truly an amazing culinary feat and it really does go towards supporting a great cause. I just hope that it's the cause and not the eBook that gets the attention. But, if the money comes in, who cares?!
So, what's the fuss all about. Well, the African Recipes Collection is all the work of one man. He's collected together recipes from each and every country in Africa and as well as making many of these available through the African Recipes website he's also gathered the recipes, information about their conutries of origin and information about the five regions of Africa into a single eBook.
The book weighs-in at over 500 pages and provides recipes for over 800 dishes. Most amazingly there are representative dishes in there not only for each region in Africa but also for each and every country! Name an African country and you will find several recipes originating from there for you to make and try at home.
You get traditional recipes, restaurant-inspired recipes, family recipes, colonial-inspired recipes, modern African fusion recipes as well as feast recipes. All the recipes you need for cooking any and all types of African food.
Just as everything else in Africa, it's food and cooking has for far too long been ignored by the world outside. This eBook goes quite a long way to redressing that balance. Now you can find out a about the typical recipes and means of cooking from anywhere in Africa. You can learn new techniques and new recipes and you can bring these techniques and recipes into your own home.
There is nothing else like this eBook out there today. I truly urge you to get yourself a copy now. Learn something new about food whilst helping those less fortunate than yourselves. The Recipes of Africa collection is the one must-have eBook of 2008!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
New Blog on the Refugees of Liberia
If you have been following this blog then you know that I am supporting the Liberian refugees now in Senegal with my website Celtnet. I now need to bring your attention to a new blog on this subject:
Aid for Liberian Refugees. The message here is very important and please, have a look at it.
Also I would like to bring your attention to the One Million People web page. This gives you a chance to donate $1 or $0.50 to the Liberian Education campaign. For your $0.50 (or $1 you get to add yourself to the list of contributors, along with your website's URL. You also get to add your website address, an image of yourself and your profile. This is your chance to very cheaply publicize yourself whilst also getting a cheap SEO-friendly link to any website of your choice.
This is my 'thank you' to you for donating to my charity campaign!
Aid for Liberian Refugees. The message here is very important and please, have a look at it.
Also I would like to bring your attention to the One Million People web page. This gives you a chance to donate $1 or $0.50 to the Liberian Education campaign. For your $0.50 (or $1 you get to add yourself to the list of contributors, along with your website's URL. You also get to add your website address, an image of yourself and your profile. This is your chance to very cheaply publicize yourself whilst also getting a cheap SEO-friendly link to any website of your choice.
This is my 'thank you' to you for donating to my charity campaign!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Now in the Visa Fetching Process
With Stefan's passport now secured we're into the final leg of the journey, getting an UK spouse visa so that she and our son, Zogo can finally come to the UK to be with me. Stefan is currently dashing around Dakar to get the final things ready to submit the visa application and I'm trying to get a few last documents together (phone records, records of Western Union transfers where I've paid for my wife's rent) so that I can send them to her by the middle of next week.
It's all getting rather exciting and I'm getting a bit anxious as well. I have all the documents together, I love my wife very much and I want us to be together as a family, but the whole visa process is a bit of a 'black box'. I don't know what goes on, or what influences the decisions made. I do know that applications are denied and at the same time applications are granted. I know that I've done everything I can but it's so frustrating now having everything in someone else's hands.
I suppose after the middle of next week all I can really do is to continue with my postings on this and other blog sites, to continue with my work on my main website and to do everything I can in my campaign to aid the other Liberian refugees in Dakar, Senegal.
To this aim, I how have RSS feeds based on ClickBank products (you can see an example on the left, here). As part of my ClickBank Ads Createion I'm offering everyone the chance to create these ads so that they can use them as an aid to monetizing their website or blog. It's completely free to get your own set of ads and I've just updated the codebase so they look and work even better.
In addition I've now just added a Free Article Submission directory to my site where you can add your own articles for free and help your SEO by adding links to the articles' resource box. The article list is pinged to feed aggregators every evening so your article is sure to be seen and the site is being aggressively marketed so the PR (page rank) will increase very quickly. Any profits from this site will go towards the Liberian refugees of Senegal, so you can help your own site's PR by posting articles whilst aiding my charity campaign at the same time. I hope to see you at the article site very soon.
It's all getting rather exciting and I'm getting a bit anxious as well. I have all the documents together, I love my wife very much and I want us to be together as a family, but the whole visa process is a bit of a 'black box'. I don't know what goes on, or what influences the decisions made. I do know that applications are denied and at the same time applications are granted. I know that I've done everything I can but it's so frustrating now having everything in someone else's hands.
I suppose after the middle of next week all I can really do is to continue with my postings on this and other blog sites, to continue with my work on my main website and to do everything I can in my campaign to aid the other Liberian refugees in Dakar, Senegal.
To this aim, I how have RSS feeds based on ClickBank products (you can see an example on the left, here). As part of my ClickBank Ads Createion I'm offering everyone the chance to create these ads so that they can use them as an aid to monetizing their website or blog. It's completely free to get your own set of ads and I've just updated the codebase so they look and work even better.
In addition I've now just added a Free Article Submission directory to my site where you can add your own articles for free and help your SEO by adding links to the articles' resource box. The article list is pinged to feed aggregators every evening so your article is sure to be seen and the site is being aggressively marketed so the PR (page rank) will increase very quickly. Any profits from this site will go towards the Liberian refugees of Senegal, so you can help your own site's PR by posting articles whilst aiding my charity campaign at the same time. I hope to see you at the article site very soon.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Internet Scams an Senegal
Over the past week there's been a crack-down on internet scammers in Senegal. Especially Nigerians using the internet for scamming in Dakar. Unfortunately this has had knock-on effects. The police have been particularly interested in those records written in English and have been breaking into accounts and demanding access to anything deemed suspicious (which, for the most part seems to be anything not written in French.
This crack-down had led many internet cafes to close for the duration. Of course, we all applaud attempts to defeat internet fraud (see here for a list and break-down of the most prevalent internet frauds and scams) but, as always there are unforeseen consequences. As my wife lives with the Liberian community of Dakar, and most of the local internet cafes cater for Liberians (who predominantly write in English) most have been closed during this time as they don't want to be raided by the police. Even those internet cafes that are open are shunned by the Liberians as they do not want their emails or internet activities examined by the police.
My wife was saying that there have been many arrests and quite a few of those were of quite innocent internet users. There seems to be a culture of fear pervading internet usage and my wife's been trying to access me via a friend's laptop, rather than using the internet cafe as she normally would. This has made communication between us rather stilted to say the least. The mobile system where my wife is is flaky to say the least so the internet is the only sure means of communication. And with VoiP being offered as well as video conferencing the internet is actually a good and sensible means of communication.
Like everything you only notice it when it's gone and the lack of internet connection for the past week has had a real profound influence on our lives. Despite being so far away, the internet did bring us much closer together and now that's been taken away from us with some significant consequences for both of us. It's also affected the schools and children's education as anyone with English based communications is running scared at the moment. It just seems like one further problem affecting the Liberian refugee community.
If you would like to help support the Liberian refugee community in Dakar, Senegal (to educate the children of the refugees) then please have a look at my recipe eBooks page. The money gained from all these eBooks go towards the refugees. If you are a website owner or have a blog then you can monetize your website or blog with my free ClickBank Ads where you can get RSS feeds, Google like AdSense ads and image-based ads to monetize your website. These ClickBank Ads are offered free to all (and you can make from $30 to $100 into your own account from any sale made) where 8% of all sales go to aid the Liberians of Dakar (other similar products want you to register or pay a monthly fee or they take between 15% and 20% of all proceeds). Why not monetize your website with some worthwhile tools, whilst also helping a worthwhile charity.
This crack-down had led many internet cafes to close for the duration. Of course, we all applaud attempts to defeat internet fraud (see here for a list and break-down of the most prevalent internet frauds and scams) but, as always there are unforeseen consequences. As my wife lives with the Liberian community of Dakar, and most of the local internet cafes cater for Liberians (who predominantly write in English) most have been closed during this time as they don't want to be raided by the police. Even those internet cafes that are open are shunned by the Liberians as they do not want their emails or internet activities examined by the police.
My wife was saying that there have been many arrests and quite a few of those were of quite innocent internet users. There seems to be a culture of fear pervading internet usage and my wife's been trying to access me via a friend's laptop, rather than using the internet cafe as she normally would. This has made communication between us rather stilted to say the least. The mobile system where my wife is is flaky to say the least so the internet is the only sure means of communication. And with VoiP being offered as well as video conferencing the internet is actually a good and sensible means of communication.
Like everything you only notice it when it's gone and the lack of internet connection for the past week has had a real profound influence on our lives. Despite being so far away, the internet did bring us much closer together and now that's been taken away from us with some significant consequences for both of us. It's also affected the schools and children's education as anyone with English based communications is running scared at the moment. It just seems like one further problem affecting the Liberian refugee community.
If you would like to help support the Liberian refugee community in Dakar, Senegal (to educate the children of the refugees) then please have a look at my recipe eBooks page. The money gained from all these eBooks go towards the refugees. If you are a website owner or have a blog then you can monetize your website or blog with my free ClickBank Ads where you can get RSS feeds, Google like AdSense ads and image-based ads to monetize your website. These ClickBank Ads are offered free to all (and you can make from $30 to $100 into your own account from any sale made) where 8% of all sales go to aid the Liberians of Dakar (other similar products want you to register or pay a monthly fee or they take between 15% and 20% of all proceeds). Why not monetize your website with some worthwhile tools, whilst also helping a worthwhile charity.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Returning from Senegal
I've just returned from Senegal and am trying to catch-up with my website and the Help Stefan Charity Campaign. Whilst in Senegal I managed to present enough money for two of the Liberian refugee children to have an education for a year. So, a big 'thank you' to everyone who generously donated. But there is still more to do this year. If you can, please visit the Help Stefan Charity Campaign page and donate what you can. All I ask for is $1 because if enough people donate $1 then it soon mounts up into something really meaningful. All it takes is $350 to give a child an education. It really doesn't take many of you to help make a real difference.
Whilst there, I had a chance to study my wife's cooking and to grab a whole load of recipes. My wife's recipes are now chronicled in the Stefan's Recipes page of the site and this is presented as part of my 'Help Stefan' campaign, both to add fresh content and as part of my wife's 'thank you' to everyone who's already helped and who are going to help throughout this year.
You can also help the campaign by purchasing any of the Cookery eBooks presented. All the money goes towards the campaign... And that's guaranteed. Otherwise, if you're not into cookery, why not look at my extensive collection of other eBooks and other products in my eBooks store. Everything is very reasonably priced and all proceeds, once again, go towards the 'Help Stefan Campaign'. If you're after free stuff then I've added over 250 new recipes to the African Recipes page. With the bulk of the recipes this time coming from East Africa and North Africa.
Whilst I'm writing this I'm feeling very alone and isolated (and very cold). My wife is many miles away and I'm waiting desperately for her visa application to go through. My way of keeping going to to redouble my efforts in the charity campaign. Even when we are together I still must do my best for the Liberian community of Dakar, so keeping this blog up to date and adding more products and more services so that I can get the money to make other peoples' lives so much better.
Remember, just go to the Help Stefan Charity Campaign where just a $1 donation really will make a difference to someone else's life.
Whilst there, I had a chance to study my wife's cooking and to grab a whole load of recipes. My wife's recipes are now chronicled in the Stefan's Recipes page of the site and this is presented as part of my 'Help Stefan' campaign, both to add fresh content and as part of my wife's 'thank you' to everyone who's already helped and who are going to help throughout this year.
You can also help the campaign by purchasing any of the Cookery eBooks presented. All the money goes towards the campaign... And that's guaranteed. Otherwise, if you're not into cookery, why not look at my extensive collection of other eBooks and other products in my eBooks store. Everything is very reasonably priced and all proceeds, once again, go towards the 'Help Stefan Campaign'. If you're after free stuff then I've added over 250 new recipes to the African Recipes page. With the bulk of the recipes this time coming from East Africa and North Africa.
Whilst I'm writing this I'm feeling very alone and isolated (and very cold). My wife is many miles away and I'm waiting desperately for her visa application to go through. My way of keeping going to to redouble my efforts in the charity campaign. Even when we are together I still must do my best for the Liberian community of Dakar, so keeping this blog up to date and adding more products and more services so that I can get the money to make other peoples' lives so much better.
Remember, just go to the Help Stefan Charity Campaign where just a $1 donation really will make a difference to someone else's life.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Real Problems of Stefan in Sierra Leone
Life is hell... It certainly is if your wife is 5000+ miles away and attempting to get a passport for herself in a country just emerging from civil war. My wife, Stefan, has travelled across land from Dakar in Senegal to Freetown, Sierra Leone to get a passport to which she is entitled as a Sierra Leonian citizen. She had paid the fees and was expecting to be able to gain a passport after a few interviews.
Then it turned out that they refused to give her a passport in her new married name (Stefan Lloyd Evans). Then it took her five weeks to get anywhere as she was forced to go from one ministry to the next all to no avail. She has been very ill in the meantime due to the local lack of sanitation. Now she is being forced to pay £280 or the passport will not be delivered. Or, to tell the truth, I am being forced to pay this. It's basically extortion on a grand scale. Her passport is being held to ransom. Basically they know that she has no future without this document and they can charge whatever they like for it.
The situation is appalling. No wonder there are such horror stories about corruption in Africa. I know that there's a concerted effort to stamp this kind of thing out in next-door Liberia but Sierra Leone still seems a den of bandits and thieves. This is a real kick in the teeth for me as I've been very active trying to get money to support the Sierra Leonian/Liberian refugees currently displaced in Senegal and to have this done to us by Sierra Leonian passport officials seems particularly galling. But what should I have expected?!
I am feeling really pissed-off about this and the money I'd hoped to spend on my family over Christmas is now going to line the pockets of a functionary in Freetown. I contacted the Sierra Leonian High Comission in London to see what they have to say about this. Of course, they will make more money out of us once again as both my wife, Stefan, and our son, Zogo will need to get new passports in their married/adoptive names. This is so completely unfair and unnecessary. But it seems to be the way things work. I am apalled, however, as I'm attempting to work for the benefit of Sierra Leonian refugees on one hand whilst being stabbed in the back by Sierra Leonian official functionaries on the other.
I'm also afraid for my wife as she has become ill due to the unsanitary conditions she's living in and the amount of time that she's been forced to stay there (a process that should have taken 2 weeks is now extending into 6 weeks and may go further if they decide they can extort even more money from us). Then there's her return journey to Dakar which is becoming potentially more hazardous by the day as rebel activity increases on the border with Guinea.
I'm feeling down now, because I have to find this money on top of everything else and I still need to keep my program to aid the refugees going. I'm definitely feeling like kiving up. But I've just produced and published a new tool which will allow anyone with a website to make and display ClickBank Ads with Images to aid monetize their website or blog. Now this is really cool technology and the first time that these kind of ads have been made available anywhere. I urge you to go and play with them...
I've also put together the various recipe and recipe-related eBooks that I'm promoting in the 'Help Stefan' campaign into one place. If you can spare the time then please visit the Recipe eBooks page. If you buy any of these eBooks, or even just make a donation then this will go towards helping people who really need your assistance.
Then it turned out that they refused to give her a passport in her new married name (Stefan Lloyd Evans). Then it took her five weeks to get anywhere as she was forced to go from one ministry to the next all to no avail. She has been very ill in the meantime due to the local lack of sanitation. Now she is being forced to pay £280 or the passport will not be delivered. Or, to tell the truth, I am being forced to pay this. It's basically extortion on a grand scale. Her passport is being held to ransom. Basically they know that she has no future without this document and they can charge whatever they like for it.
The situation is appalling. No wonder there are such horror stories about corruption in Africa. I know that there's a concerted effort to stamp this kind of thing out in next-door Liberia but Sierra Leone still seems a den of bandits and thieves. This is a real kick in the teeth for me as I've been very active trying to get money to support the Sierra Leonian/Liberian refugees currently displaced in Senegal and to have this done to us by Sierra Leonian passport officials seems particularly galling. But what should I have expected?!
I am feeling really pissed-off about this and the money I'd hoped to spend on my family over Christmas is now going to line the pockets of a functionary in Freetown. I contacted the Sierra Leonian High Comission in London to see what they have to say about this. Of course, they will make more money out of us once again as both my wife, Stefan, and our son, Zogo will need to get new passports in their married/adoptive names. This is so completely unfair and unnecessary. But it seems to be the way things work. I am apalled, however, as I'm attempting to work for the benefit of Sierra Leonian refugees on one hand whilst being stabbed in the back by Sierra Leonian official functionaries on the other.
I'm also afraid for my wife as she has become ill due to the unsanitary conditions she's living in and the amount of time that she's been forced to stay there (a process that should have taken 2 weeks is now extending into 6 weeks and may go further if they decide they can extort even more money from us). Then there's her return journey to Dakar which is becoming potentially more hazardous by the day as rebel activity increases on the border with Guinea.
I'm feeling down now, because I have to find this money on top of everything else and I still need to keep my program to aid the refugees going. I'm definitely feeling like kiving up. But I've just produced and published a new tool which will allow anyone with a website to make and display ClickBank Ads with Images to aid monetize their website or blog. Now this is really cool technology and the first time that these kind of ads have been made available anywhere. I urge you to go and play with them...
I've also put together the various recipe and recipe-related eBooks that I'm promoting in the 'Help Stefan' campaign into one place. If you can spare the time then please visit the Recipe eBooks page. If you buy any of these eBooks, or even just make a donation then this will go towards helping people who really need your assistance.
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