
Zuckerberg in Lagos Land - veggiefits
https://backchannel.com/zuckerberg-in-africa-da3dabf74276#.owqamw9el
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M_Grey
Call him "Zuck" as many times as you like, show him in hoodies, or in
Africa... that's one man who's far too much of a known quantity for anyone
with half a brain to buy the spin.

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erikpukinskis
This isn't a very helpful comment. You are signaling that you know something
important about him, and that I am stupid for not knowing what you're talking
about, but that's about it. Please be more specific.

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M_Grey
That you decided to take my comment, directed at no one and certainly not some
random person I've never spoken to in my life, as an indictment of your
intelligence is surely not my problem, nor is it what I wrote.

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falloutx
Lets not kid ourselves, he is there for Free Basics & that shit. I am not
against Free Basics, a Company should be free to offer whatever they want, but
that also seems like a very cruel plan to offer poor people with shitty
internet.

Remember the time when he was in India for a week or even a month, but then
India decided not to allow Free Basics, and now he's doing the same with
Nigeria, which is soon going to be 3rd most populous country.

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dennisnedry
This reads like a PR article that Zuckerberg paid to have written.

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heymijo
I saw your comment before reading the article and, I get it. There's a cynic
in me too. However, after reading the article, I'm thinking, who cares?

I'm a sucker for a story about potential, especially in the underdog, and the
parts jumping out at me are all about the potential of the people in Nigeria.

I somehow ended up following Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, but it's Twitter so the
picture I get is very incomplete. To read that he got up at a formal demo day
ceremony during Zuckerberg's trip with the VP of Nigeria in attendance and
then criticized the country for being resistant to change is enthralling.

It's hard to be cynical about the article's puffery for Zuck, when it
illuminates the intestinal fortitude of entrepreneurs making a hell of a run
at it in a place that is infinitely less geared to making startups a reality
than Silicon Valley.

~~~
uola
I don't mind Zuckerberg going to Nigeria. I don't even mind the fluffiness of
the article. But the whole narrative of Silicon Valley saving the world by
showing up, is getting old. Zuckerberg isn't going to go home again and be
like _" You know what? We need to deploy ipv6, bring computer science
curriculum's closer to the real world, have a fundamental programming language
that lives up to the requirements of today, fix software patents and get
robust standards in place instead if reinventing everything all the time, so
these guys can catch up to us and build their own future"_.

~~~
M_Grey
It's an effective way to generate positive spin... hell the "on site guidance"
has been the major theme the Kims have used for three generations in North
Korea. It's a way to appear generous, helpful, and subtly signal your
indispensability at the same time.

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tedmiston
> [Founders in Lagos] struggle everyday against obstacles that are
> unimaginable to their brethren in San Francisco. .... For startups, there
> are particular challenges. Every hour or so, the power goes out. Most people
> do not have bank accounts or credit cards, so it’s hard to collect money
> from customers. Funding is elusive. The nearest Philz Coffee is 5,418 miles
> away.

Sometimes it's easy to forget how first world our own problems are.

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wehadfun
They should elect him president. I doubt most of the people running the place
have walked those roads or visited the start up hub

