Odyssey black history comes full circle

Courtesy of William Holland

Genealogical researcher William Holland, Atlanta on the left, next to the Queen Mother for the Ghanaian village of Adidokpoe-Battor (Center) and William Akpaglo. The two Williams share genetic markers, suggesting that they are distantly related.

By Alan Boyle

William Holland based on his genetic profile, considers himself a descendant of the noble families dating back more than a Millennium. Between then and now, however, his ancestors have been scattered around the African continent — and some of them were brought to America as slaves. That is the branch of the family to which they belong Holland and his family.

Now, the Netherlands is bringing the age-old saga of his family full circle by inviting his relatives disappeared to come from Africa to America. If the plan works out of Holland, African royalty will meet face-to-face with the descendants of slaves and slave owners in Virginia.

"It is something that has never been done before," Holland told me today, the last day of black history month. "It is something that should not be missed."

The genesis of the Netherlands dates back to trips that took last year to fill gaps in its genetic patrimony. Testing of the y chromosome has suggested that his ancestors were related to a Royal family in the West African nation of Cameroon, but also to a noble family in Ghana, hundreds of miles away.

"I am overwhelmed now," said Holland, who is the grandson of a slave who found himself at the service of the Confederate Army during the civil war. But the Netherlands isn't too overwhelmed to make some kind of sense out of his genetic tangled tale.

This month, during a visit to his genetic relatives in Ghana, Holland put together a story of a great migration. A comparison of his y chromosome markers with those families in Ghana and Cameroon suggested that their most recent common ancestor lived maybe 50 generations ago, or approximately 1000 and 1500 years ago. Ghana's guests, members of the family Akpaglo, said that their ancestors migrated southwards from Sudan and settled in the Oyo Empire. Holland assumes that his ancestors were part of the Cameroonian migration as well.

"From there, it disbanded," he said. An ancestral line eventually took root in Ghana, another in Cameroon. Holland was now of both Nations to trace his pedigree. Armed with the results of genetic studies has been started in two families of Africa.

In Cameroon, the Netherlands has been given a real name ("Ndefru"). In Ghana, family Akpaglo gave three names more Africans during a ceremony for seven hours. New Holland names include Togbe ("old wise man," Although the Netherlands is in her 40s) Korsi ("BORN on Sunday," that he was) and Degboe ("brave person who has gone away and return").

"I'm satisfied now — now that I have four names" Holland joked.

But he is not yet finished. Holland still wants to share the experience he had with his fellow Americans and at the same time give visitors a taste of African America. Holland says that some of her friends and family at home in Atlanta are bothered by the idea that somehow were sold as slaves from their African ancestors. His African friends and relatives say that is not the way it was. So the Netherlands is trying to organize a daylong seminar and reunion on May 22, in Virginia, where his ancestors has worked as slaves, Africans and Americans the opportunity to talk through their history together.

Holland has invited Fon hierarchy III, who heads the Mankon tribal group in Cameroon, as well as representatives of family from Ghana. He hoped that his relatives African-Americans, as well as the descendants of the family of Virginia, who held his ancestors as slaves will be available as well.

"Hope brighten your family on Africa and what happened in the slave trade," explained Holland.

Holland has already heard that "Fon" accepted his invitation, and he is pretty sure that someone from Ghana also will be coming. It is not a done deal yet, but if everything works the way the hopes of the Netherlands, seeking a man to find his roots family turns into a gathering of clans from across the oceans of time and space.

Holland says that his newfound kin africana can hardly wait. "You're past excited now," he said. All in all, not a bad way to end Black History Month.

Feel free to tell your own family research in the comment section below. For more coverage of Black History Month and beyond, check-in with corporate cousins of msnbc.com at TheGrio.com.

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Wane as the young Blogs comes to sites like Twitter

"I don't use my blog anymore," said Mr. McDonald, who lives in San Francisco. "All the people that I'm trying to reach are on Facebook".

Blog once had the choice for people who wanted to express themselves online. But with the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter, they are losing their fascination for many people — especially the younger generations.

The Internet and American Life Project, Pew Research Center found that from 2006 to 2009, blogging among children aged 12-17 have halved; 14 percent of children in these age groups who use the Internet now blogs. Among 18-to-54-year-olds, the project said in a report last year, blogging dropped 2% in 2010 from two years earlier.

Former blogger said that they were too busy to write long posts and uninspired by a lack of readers. Others said that they had no interest in creating a blog because of social networking has done a good enough job keeping them in touch with friends and family.

Blogging started his rapid rise about 10 years ago as services such as Blogger and LiveJournal became popular. So many people started blogging — to share stories, political rant about dieting and celebrate their love of cats — that Merriam-Webster dictionary declared "blog" the word of the year in 2004.

The definition of a blog is difficult, but most people think that is a website where people publish periodically the entries in reverse chronological order and allow readers to leave comments.

Yet for many Internet users, blogging is more personal and opinionated writing style. A number of news sites and comments started as blog before you grow into mini-media empires, like The Huffington Post or Silicon Alley Insider, which are virtually indistinguishable from traditional news sources.

Blog went largely unchallenged until Facebook redesigned the behaviour of consumers, with its multi-purpose hub for posting all social. Twitter, which allows messages of no more than 140 characters, has also contributed to the upheaval.

It is no longer a blog to connect with the world in need of Internet users. Instead, they could post hotfixes complain about the weather, links to articles that infuriated the them, comment on news events, share photos or promoting certain causes — all the things I wanted to make a blog.

In fact, small talk moved largely social networking, said Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder of BlogHer, network of blogs for women. Still, blogs remain a home further discussion meaty said.

"If you're looking for the conversation, you turn to blogs," said ms. Camahort page. "You're not going to find it on Facebook, and you're not going to find it in 140 characters on Twitter".

Lee Rainie, Director of Internet and American Life Project says that blogging is not dying, like moving with the times. Entrepreneurs have taken some publicized by blogging features and fabric into other types of services.

"The Act of telling your story and share part of your life with someone is alive and well — even more so than at the dawn of blogging," said Mr. Rainie. "You just morphing to other platforms."

The blurring of the lines is evident among users of Tumblr. Although Tumblr calls himself a blogging service, many users are unaware of the description and are not considered bloggers — raise the possibility that the decline in blogging within the younger generation is simply a question of semantics.

Kim Hou, senior high school in San Francisco, said she quit blogging, months ago, but he acknowledged that he continued to post photographs of fashion on Tumblr. "Is different from blogging because it is more easy to use," he said. "With blogging is to write, and this is just images. Some people write a few sentences or some quotes, but that's it. "

The effect is seen on the companies providing the blogging platforms. Blogger, owned by Google, has been less unique visitors in the United States in December that he had a year earlier — a decline of 2% to 58.6 million — although overall, Bloggers of single visitors rose 9%, to EUR 323 million.

LiveJournal, a blogging service, decided to emphasize the community. Connect people who share an interest in celebrity gossip, for example, provides social interaction that blogging "classic" is missing, said Its Rosenstock, a spokeswoman for LiveJournal, which is owned by SUP, a Russian online media company. "Blogging can be a very lonely occupation; Write the bottomless pit, "he said.

But some blogging services like Tumblr and WordPress seems to have avoided any decline. Toni Schneider, chief executive of Automattic, the company that sells the blogging software WordPress, explains that WordPress is mainly for serious bloggers, not the young novices who are abandoning social networking.

In any case, said bloggers often use Facebook and Twitter to promote their blog post to a wider audience. Rather than being competitors, he said, are complementary.

"There's a lot of fragmentation," said Mr. Schneider. "But at this point, who is taking seriously the blogging — are using different means to get a great deal of their traffic."

While the younger generation is losing interest in blogging, approaching people middle-aged and older sticking with it. Between 34-a-45-year-olds who use the Internet, the percentage that blog increased to six points, 16% in 2010 for two years before, Pew found. Blogging from 46-to-54-year-olds increased by five percentage points, 11 percent while blogging among 65-73-year-olds increased by two percentage points, 8 percent.

Russ Steele, 72, a retired air force officer and aerospace worker from Nevada City, California, says he spends up to three hours per day searching for interesting topics and write about them on his blog, NC Media Watch, covering local issues in Nevada County, northeast of Sacramento. All he wants is to have a voice in the community for its conservative point of view.

Although Facebook has signed up for this month, Mr. Steele said he did not use it much and said that he remained committed to blogging. "I would rather spend my time writing on a blog analysis than a whole bunch of short paragraphs, and then send them to people," he said. "I don't need to tell people that I'm going to the store".

Vimpelcom comes West: genius or madness? (Reuters)

Barcelona (Reuters) – as the cream of the best way to make money from mobile data telecommunications industry debates Alexander Izosimov to Vimpelcom only in betting its balance sheet over it in Western Europe outside fashion.

Vimpelcom Izosimov aims to make mobile phone company in the world, Fifth in competition with the likes of Vodafone and Telefonica after buying telecom assets of Egyptian Tycoon Naguib Sawiris for about $ 6 billion.

Company phone number two of Russia is bidding to buy emerging markets control focused Orascom Telecom and check of 100% of Italy's wind, although Egypt is not included in the transaction.

Izosimov, speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, was unrepentant about the annual strategy.

"Actually we will create a platform different to riding the wave of data growth starting from the West to emerging markets," said Izosimov.

The Italian market with its high smartphone penetration and margins close to 50% is perfectly positioned for growth data, said and added that she made her mind to pursue the deal with Sawiris mobile fair last year.

SOLO TRAILBLAZER

Buyers in emerging markets has fuelled telecom mergers and acquisitions in recent years as their own markets have become more competitive and growth has slowed to high single digits.

Not many leaders from developing economies are expected to follow Izosimov in Western Europe, where growth is much lower still, though.

"Vimpelcom is brave, going West, but Western Europe has a history of managing margins ... on a good day, you have 2-3 percent growth," said Mark Newman, chief research officer at Informa Telecoms & Media.

While other executives share the belief in the potential of mobile broadband--AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson described as the biggest transformation in his 28 years in the industry--most companies are still deciding on the business model to address it.

MTS, the largest mobile phone companies of Russia, thinks that obstacles such as the high cost of international roaming will be cap application for the mobile internet in the coming years.

"I'm not seeing big money going after again, mobile data," said MTS Mikhail Shamolin chief executive.

"Remember, people who have invested in the internet in 1998 have lost everything. What you expected to happen in 2000, did not happen until 2008. Vimpelcom may prove to be right (by moving quickly), but we are taking a more conservative approach. "

Rich cash Turkcell is planning on staying close to home, if makes acquisitions.

"We love our neighborhood and the North Africa, we realize in those regions," said Executive Director Sureyya Ciliv.

UAE Etisalat, also a profiteer prolific with the ambition of becoming a global top 10, it's cool on the Western Europe.

Jamal al Jarwan, head of international investments to Etisalat, is trying to take a stake in Kuwait's Zain for $ 12 billion, said companies need to approach M & A in a selective way to be successful at it.

"We've got serious in 2006, but to be honest at first we were shooting in all directions ... We looked at the Portugal Telecom, active in mature markets ... but decided that we needed a more focused strategy, "he said.

"M & A is sexy, but it is difficult to get your ABCs collection".

Etisalat's portfolio includes assets in 18 countries ranging from West Africa to Indonesia.

(Editing by David Cowell)