Thanks for the well-intentioned post. This is helping spur a bigger conversation. I hope this can be a first step to systemic change. It’s a small step, but a necessary one nonetheless!

Thanks again!

tmsruge´s last blog post..Celebrity stunts of altruism are killing livelihoods in Africa

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Tommy says:
October 26th, 2009 at 7:20 pm

I agree with You, If He has a heart for Africa, he should send the 10,000 mosquito nets to Africa without preconditions. His idea is only to collect followers on twitter and make ore money. It’s a pity. Thank You

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I disagree with you Clement, these are celebrities and this is what they do. Madonna, Jade Goody. People are following him because he (and his wife, Demi Moore ) is a famous hollywood actor whose films we have been watching for years. Fans are following him the same way they follow premiership teams. They spend money paying DSTV, buying jerseys and precious hours watching matches.
SUMMARY:
1.He is famous with millions of fans worldwide (It’s not about the nets-by the way CNN are matching him)
2.This is how celebrities promote their brand, it’s how they make their bread and butter.
3.This was just a game and people played it not because of the nets.

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Clement Nyirenda says:
April 17th, 2009 at 6:32 pm

@Fredrick: If he is a celebrity and that he is popular, why did he just contest against CNN without putting the Malaria problem in Africa into the equation? Did CNN use the same bait? I have seen so many tweets encouraging folks to follow him by saying that if you follow him, you are helping in the fight against Malaria in Africa because he will donate 10,000 nets to Africa. I know that there is a bunch of people who are following him because he is a celebrity. But you can also agree with me that there is a large group of people which is following him simply because it thinks that by so doing it is helping Africa. At the end of the day, the glory is his. The money that he will make out of this will be much more than the the amount that will be spent on the 20,000 nets. The folks who are suffering in Africa are being used for his games. Promoting his brand and buttering his bread by portraying himself as someone who cares about Africans is uncalled for. Let people follow him for what they like about him. Take Africa out of the equation.

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I agree entirely with you about the self seeking motive of AK. I hope that there is a groundswell of opinion like yours forcing him to change his tactics.

About the other matters on Africa, many have had bad experiences with payments etc in most parts of Africa, particularly in Nigeria. Everyone is just being careful.

Nicole Price´s last blog post..Pamper Yourself… At a Discount

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Clement Nyirenda says:
April 18th, 2009 at 8:43 am

@Nicole: Much as there some bad experiences with payments, I can assure you there are some good ones as well. The problem is that people tend to talk about the bad ones only. And the media is full of negative stories about Africa.

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got your point, but as celebrities … this is what they do and these things will keep them in the news for a while. not ethical, but that is what they are.

azwan´s last blog post..A WordPress Plugin to Manage Your 125X125 Button

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Clement Nyirenda says:
April 18th, 2009 at 8:46 am

@azwan: And I will always speak out against these unethical tactics. Why ride on the backs of the dying poor in order to reach his goal?

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Aww come on now clement! thats tantamount to policing donations, and why would you moralize? what have you done to earn the moral highground? wrong call mate, and while you were at your post a fw days ago, the milestone was cornered. Lighten up mate, you are taking things way too seriously. Life would be boring if the world were that uhmm…. anyways dont become an extremist

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Clement Nyirenda says:
April 18th, 2009 at 7:24 pm

@Tate: I am neither policing donations nor am I standing on a moral high ground. All I am saying is that it is unethical to use the plight of the folks who are suffering in Africa as a bait in his pursuit for personal glory. This is not extremist at all. If he had a genuine interest in the Malaria problem in Africa, he should have just sent the nets without all these Twitter jokes. I don’t care about him reaching the milestone. By the way, he will make much more out of this than the price of all the nets that will be sent to Africa combined. It is a cheap publicity tactic which has to be condemned.

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Wow your post may have been well intentioned Clement but you couldn’t be further from the mark.

Ashton Kutcher doesn’t need to donate 10,000 nets to Africa or $1 to anyone to raise publicity for his goal of reaching one million followers on Twitter. He could have done that without you, without the nets or anyone else.

Instead what he chose to do was use the occasion to make a very significant donation to a very worthy cause. You should be very grateful he chose a cause close to your heart instead of someone else or none at all.

Further more he just raised awareness of this problem to not just the one million people who followed him on Twitter, but the millions more who watched him on Oprah and all the publicity raised on CNN and every other news outlet in the world that covered this story.

This may have been the biggest publicity this cause has ever received and it all due to Ashton Kutcher. Yes he could have given the money to buy these nets without ever mentioning it. He could have given the money anonymously. He certainly comes off as the type of guy who would do just that. But if he did that what would you have? 10,000-nets. No millions of other people now being aware of this problem and donating $5 and $10 here and there. No world wide publicity raising awareness of this issue.

What Ashton Kutcher did for the children of Africa was far greater in value than just give money; he gave you something very few people in the world could.

And what is his reward for doing so? You didn’t just look this gift horse in the mouth, you spit in his face.

I humbly suggest that you seriously rethink your position.

Rick Calvert´s last blog post..Job Seeking? Social Networking Can Help!

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Clement Nyirenda says:
April 20th, 2009 at 10:55 am

@Rick: My position will never change. This was a well calculated move. He knew that the World Malaria Day, the day when the attention of the world is shifted towards Malaria, was fast approaching. And he knew that if he uses anything to do with Malaria in his pursuit for fame, things would work out for him. If he did not bring the Malaria problem into the equation, it would have been very difficult for him to beat CNN. To underscore my point, I have seen a large number of retweets asking people to follow him because he will buy nets for Africa e.g. KillCreek: RT @kevinrose Help @aplusk reach 1M followers, he’s buying 10,000 anti-malaria mosquito nets if he beats CNN to 1M (great cause).

I know a few people who are following him simply because of these retweets. I am sure there are many more out there. To ignore their effect on his victory over CNN would be wrong.

If he wanted to create awareness for the Malaria problem, he should not have gone for this self centered approach. This is self promotion. He will be remembered as first person to have amassed 1M Twitter followers but nothing will be said for Malaria problem in Africa. And let me repeat, he will make much more money out of this PR stunt compared to what he has given.

Furthermore, where I come from, a donation is not supposed to be conditional. The moment you use the word “if”, it becomes something else.

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[...] Nthambazale Nyirenda, blogging from Malawi on Clement Nyirenda’s blog world, says that the Twitter competition is more about Kutcher's ego than about malaria. “I, for [...]

I can’t believe this! My jaw literally dropped when I read it. Unfortunately, I’ve known who Aston Kutche was for some time, and he always seemed like a jerk. Now I know he’s a total scum bag. I can’t believe he would try to leverage the suffering of others for his own personal gain. I will spread this article around and try to inform others.

Joe´s last blog post..The Importance Of pH In Our Diet

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You act as if Ashton had zero followers when this race started and that by offering to give to charity all of a sudden he got a million followers. He brought a TON of media attention to a cause that sorely needs it. He donated and got others to donate as well.

Let me ask you this, because I heard of of Malaria No More via Ashton Kutcher, should I not donate to them?

Ashton would have reached a million followers with our without promoting the cause. Honestly, I would have followed Ashton just to help him win so I could watch the ding-dong-ditch of Ted Turner’s house.

John Hawkins´s last blog post..Ashton Vs CNN on Twitter

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Clement Nyirenda says:
April 25th, 2009 at 10:52 am

@John Hawkins: You miss my point completely. Please read some of my earlier comments. All I am saying is that more of the attention is for himself than for the Malaria problem. He is using the Malaria thing as a bait. At the end of everything, everyone will know more about him as the King of Twitter. Noone will talk about the Malaria problem in the same way as they will talk about him as the biggest Twitterer. The fact that you have known about Malaria No More through him and you are willing to donate to them does not justify what he has done. Actually, he will make more money out this publicity stunt. Where I come from, a donation is not supposed to be conditional. It comes with “if”, it becomes something else.

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You know he would donate them either way.

By offering the donation he is just building excitement.

Its smart marketing.

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Clement Nyirenda says:
April 25th, 2009 at 10:43 am

@John: Malaria is a serious disease not to be used for building excitement in his Twitter games. There are a lot of simple things that he could have used in order to build excitement.

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This issue is simple for you guys in the West but for people who are really suffering in Africa it is a big mockery. As AK is creating his hype about his donation people are dying, who could have been saved. Malaria is just as bad in Africa as HIV/AIDS and every act of help should be done with urgency in order to save lives.
If AK wants to raise his profile, it should be on something else and not on this. Dont play with peoples lives.
This is not one of his “Busted” programmes.

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Take a look at each Hollywood celebrity and you will find one thing in common – the greed to be more famous than their counterparts anywhere on the planet.

The only good news in the entertainment industry right now is – Singing sensation Susan Boyle’s performance on Britain’s Got Talent may soon go on to top the most-viewed YouTube video list.

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I totally agree with your position. I cannot even find the words I need to express the disgust I feel for celebrities who are using African for publicity.
The suffering in Africa has now become some kind of joke to some people. You see celebrities on TV now almost every day…making music videos with”real” Africans,adopting “African” babies,making sure the news outlets know before donating anything.All so people can say “oh so and so is so kind let’s go see their movie,buy their album” etc etc. Yes we know people in Africa are suffering…yes we know we need help….and no we don’t want you to use our suffering for your own gain. If you must give…if you can give..just give without all the drama and publicity. We may be poor but we also have pride. Ashton Kutcher used Africa for publicity for whatever project he has coming up and it’s a damn shame. I guess the whole drama over Demi Moore wasn’t enough to keep his mediocre efforts at “entertaining” in the spotlight.

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It´s only marketing,is´nt it?

LTE-Ralf´s last blog post..Netzausfallversicherung “Prepaid”

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Great point of view at this. This is indeed a big problem, because people like Ashton with such and similar intentions, actually look like they are playing game with other people’s life. Sad story.

George´s last blog post..A Budget Orlando Vacation

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Ashton Kutcher is sweet for winning and donating!

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I like his movies even tho he is weird.

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Ashton Kutcher needs to save millions for the sake of his wife Demi Moore because the day her plastic surgery falls apart (it always does for Michael Jackson) millions of dollars would be required to resurrect her falling chin.

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On Oprah~ is this donation coming from her pocket? why do other countries bitch about when American/Americans give them something?
why believe they have motives, c’mon now!

Don’t hate Appreciate-damn already!

harleyblues´s last blog post..Cedric the Entertainer on Smokers and-

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Please don’t give Ashton Kutcher attention. He’s stupid. Just let him send the nets and don’t think about him. Pretend that the nets fell from space. We can be happy that they’re there at all.

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Gah! I heard about this a while ago and I thought it was pretty low. Maybe it’s because I already thought Ashton K. was a jerk. I know a lot of people are saying that he’s okay and that he’s not just shamelessly promoting himself, but if that’s the case, why didn’t he make a twitter for @malariaepidemic and try to get THAT account to have a million followers? You know why he wanted his personal account to get a million followers? Because it’s all about him. I mean yeah, it’s amazing that he’s giving the nets, but did he have to twist it into something that would directly benefit himself? What happened to being selfless?

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He’s not the type of celebrity I would Love..
If you think that he is using the people of Africa just to gain fame from it, it’s obviously right.

A form of Marketing? yeah that’s what i mean.

Ferlyn Adison´s last blog post..LeAnn Rimes on Stalking Allegations

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Donating something should not be done on promises, but it comes from inside. We should stop supporting him.
David´s last blog ..Best Wedding Dresses 2009 – The Latest Trends

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This is hollywood marketing scheme. In the end he’ll donate, but for the moment he settles with the publicity.

John
Sleep Insomniac´s last blog ..Sleep Headphones with Binaural Beats CD have cured my insomnia

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Any update on that? Who won? CNN or the celebrity guy? I haven’t joined twitter yet. But your post makes it sound interesting. Will join soon.
Gouri´s last blog ..Pangrams

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Clement Nyirenda says:
November 11th, 2009 at 11:57 am

The celebrity guy won.

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If he wins he should provide them regardless as a show of good faith and because it is the right thing to do.

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