How 18 Million People Die From Preventable Causes. My Hypertensive 24hrs.
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It’s 3:53 AM, just left my wife’s cuddle — even with her disapproval, told her I’m gonna watch TV to distract my thoughts but instead picked my phone to type this.
This might be a little long because I & now my body can no longer hold it back — but 14 minutes spent saving a life(s) is something to be proud of. I went to bed at 10 PM but after trying everything I’ve failed to control my thoughts. The Doctor prescribed panadol won’t even stop my headache, I feel mild pressure pain in my left hand and arm, and it’s been hurting some parts of my feet all night.
This 3-day headache took me to hospital earlier in the day and it’s because of as the doctor said “a bit high blood pressure” — 140/80. But my brain can’t stop thinking because a workmate died in January this year — his high blood pressure led to kidney failure. This’s why am writing this short, just in case my body succumbs to HBP.
Seif was a caring and warm father of two who wanted a good home, car, career, fun, etc — he wanted success just like me and you. But his job income wasn’t enough, so he invested his savings in forex trading for an extra income. It was a disaster, he was defrauded and lost all his savings — to someone who also wanted faster success. The following years would be utter distress for him and led to his High Blood Pressure.
So when the doctor says my blood pressure is a bit high, I can’t take it lightly. He told me to manage my stress as we monitor the pressure. But the memory of Seif’s swollen limbs, helplessness, and quick demise just worsened everything. I’m not defrauded by a forex trader, so, what is stressing me? I will hit this right on its head; it’s FAILURE.
I haven’t succeeded in convincing anyone to join me coupled with the energy and excitement I get listening to aligned folks like those in the video on an idea that I strongly believe is a potential solution to what killed Seif, kills 18 million people every year over preventable causes, and is threatening me as well. If you’ve had anxiety before you might have an idea what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, these Merriam Webster …
It’s now 5:14 AM: and ooh God!!, I have to pause this for a hot teacup — on/off headache, mild pain in arms.
… definitions will paint a picture of the anxiety I mean.
b: mentally distressing concern or interest.
c: a strong desire sometimes mixed with doubt, fear, or uneasiness.
The first episode of these headaches came after watching youths' energy, concern and the urgent quest for solutions to the failures greed, exclusiveness, and neglect of capitalism in this Doha Debates episode. Capitalism must evolve; climate action; inequality; immigration; corruption, plutocracy, endpoverty; left-right polarisation; SDGs; low productivity; predatory interest rates; effective altruism; radical markets; circular economy; unemployment; bitcoin; violent crime; gender; refugees; war; hunger; water etc. etc. — these are routine cries and calls to action all over the internet.
I watched it on 26th Oct Saturday at around 10:00 PM and was over-pouring with thoughts and anxiety. They made me feel I am on the right track but was failing to reach this demographic with the same concerns and interests as me and you. I’m failing to launch, test, learn, refine; test, learn and refine again and again “with them” the solution they are looking for. It’s this urgent need to introduce, know, see, how the solution works out that caused my anxiety, thoughts and the now ‘above average blood pressure and headaches.
How am I failing you ask? For a year now, I’ve reached to several start-up programs, friends, individuals — some are mentors, wrote emails, applied to fellowship programs, etc and the message I seem to always get is something like ‘you’re crazy’ ‘you alone’, ‘this can’t work’. One mentor said, ‘I was looking for something concrete, not this “wishful thinking”’. Another well-meaning friend rightly said, “people here — meaning the Netherlands — just don’t know those problems”. But I’ve never been negative all my life and still believe this can work, and I’ve data — below and emotional signals from millennials and Gen-Z.
So what are the problems and what is this wishful thinking?
6:05 AM: I have to prepare my boy for school.
We have built a system where nothing gets done without money yet the same system financially uplifts a few and dooms the many. This is why this project seeks to build a system that auto-generates funds to urgent but neglected social/environment issues.
7:42 AM: tried to get some sleep but the headache and pain in the arm won’t let me. Sent for another painkiller.
8:28 AM: taken ACTION painkiller — it has worked for the last 3 days. I hope it still works.
You already know that infamous statistic of the top 1% owning 45% of global wealth.
Here are the details
https://medium.com/@asemakula/a-marketplace-connecting-products-and-consumers-directly-to-grassroots-impact-b093669bafdc
9:07 AM: I will take another teacup.
09:17 AM: I will try a nap now.
09:38 AM: I just won’t sleep, I will now go to check the pressure again and continue to the office and see if I can complete and upload this.
10:02 AM: pressure checked B/P — 142/94, p — 140 b/m — the heart rate is over the roof because of anxiety to know the result. This is what ‘wanting to know the result’ of something important to you does — which am failing for the project mentioned above.
10:19 AM: waiting to see the Dr.
10:27 AM: Dr. says the pressure increased by 2; gave me sleeping pills to also control my thoughts.
11:07 AM: Leaving hospital for office to finish this up or upload.
I made a promise to myself that I have to upload this, done or not; because it’s the one thing that might finally calm my thoughts, pressure, and anxiety. One other reason I fail is I always want to launch perfect products even when I’ve severally read that launching products early is good entrepreneurship — you learn quickly and improve. Not Today; I will upload this in its imperfect, unproof-read form just to see your response.
11:32 AM: reached office, talked to a colleague — Davis, — he advised me; “in your current situation, avoid being alone” then thoughts will reduce. I am hoping I can get some company and solidarity from you guys; — even if it’s a share, comment, advise, critique or a like on social media.
12:24 PM: I will now patch up everything I’ve done for the last 18 months — some are still incomplete but like I noted earlier; my heart can’t wait any longer to see what this can turn into — that is why it’s pumping up my blood pressure.
13: 49 PM: I will have lunch now and take another ACTION — painkiller
Let’s test this!!
Below is the link for the first prototype — it’s still as simple as it gets. The listed causes are failed crowd-funding uploaded to gofundme.org and then kiva.org for microcredit — and will receive the funds if collected. Kiva.org told me to remove them but I have no other way to test this so might not because they are already in the public domain — if they’re already loaned, am sure they can use an extra $$$ for their role in this testing.
14:38 PM: Pain on and off in the knees, arm headache unrelenting
The Ask
These are the most beautiful words on the internet or at least on TED.com; Adam Grant says;
“if we can make it safe to ask for help, if we can protect givers from burnout and make it OK for them to be ambitious in pursuing their own goals as well as trying to help other people, we can actually change the way that people define success. Instead of saying it’s all about winning a competition, people will realize success is really more about contribution.
I believe that the most meaningful way to succeed is to help other people succeed. And if we can spread that belief, we can actually turn paranoia upside down. There’s a name for that. It’s called “pronoia.” Pronoia is the delusional belief that other people are plotting your well-being. “
18 million people, 6 million of them children — UNICEF, die every year because No One is plotting their wellbeing because capitalism defines success as winning a competition rather than contributing to social/environmental wellbeing. This project wants to change this definition so that you see your daily social impact from your purchases on your phone at no extra cost to you.
I’ve promised 8 groups of women and other small-businesses that we will give them interest-free loans, help them improve the quality of their products and with digital marketing — we even filmed some but it’s now a year and I can only ignore their regular calls for status on my promise. Paranoia is what am feeling, it’s what is burning me out; I googled it just to make sure;
“Paranoia is an instinct or thought process which is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality.” As I write this, I am like; ‘this’ great’, ‘am out of my mind’, ‘it's stupid’, ‘it will work’ and until I put to you I will remain paranoid, anxious, and HBPed!!
I’m now asking you to contribute anything; a dollar, euro, bitcoin, technical help, connections, share on social media or other popular networks, like, comment, and just about anything else — otherwise I’m burnt out.
The funds will be used to test, develop, test, learn, improve perfect and popularize a new system/platform that redefines Success from the one that killed Seif, kills 18 million people every year to one Adam Grant describes — people will realize success is really more about contribution.
NB: I’m coming to you the consumers and possible users of this platform after failing to convince mainstream funding options. I think, they just can’t see this working and for good reason; Nelson Mandela says “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” I still have a long prospect list of people, institutions to contact, but I will ditch it for you because they aren’t really accessible — which is the gap this project seeks to close. Your contribution isn’t just a fund, it’s mostly a message that this can work, that capitalism can evolve to be distributive and circular, and most importantly brings the world together to fix its future.
The biosphere functions like an indivisible organism where living creatures and the Earth’s geochemical processes interact to sustain each other. If you let a cancer cell unattended to, the whole body will fail after a few years.
Arnold Schwarzenegger says; don’t have plan B — because then you are planning to fail.
You, yes you are plan A — I don’t have plan B for my anxiety, capitalism has no plan B to be inclusive, and millennials and gen-z have no plan B to change the world, and I dare say bitcoin/crypto’s benefits have no plan B to go massive but your contribution.
16:01 PM: headache starting again, I feel a little chest pain, I think the heart rate just run up a little, pain in the arms and thigh.
How you can contribute:
1. Buy anything from amazon from the link: http://wayout.world/ and a 60% percentage will go to the listed causes — and the balance to this project; — this is exactly what we want to test, learn and improve — so this is the best and more sustainable way you can contribute. — maybe we shouldn’t use amazon but yeah, it’s just a test.
You can also directly, contribute with.
2) Money
Paypal: asemakula@elmot.ug
Payoneer; asemakula@elmot.ug
Wire USD: Account number 4013290508030, Routing (ABA) 061120084
4) Technical Help, ideas, networks, etc.: email me asemakula@elmot.ug
17:12 PM: Power just chucked — yeah, we still have load-shedding.
18:34 PM: finally managed to take a short nap until the power came back.
19:39 PM: Another hot teacup –
20:38 PM: Wifey calls, to find her at the hospital — our 9-month girl has a cough and low appetite. I will have to cut short my expectations for the day.
20:36 PM: still pain in left arm mainly, headache getting better.
20:43 PM: uploaded draft on medium.com — catch — up tomorrow.
31/10/19
10:12 AM: Thank God I Had a good night’s sleep.
I’m now at the office, and my perfectionism kicks in — forcing me to improve on a few things before promoting this. But I know the further I delay to put this out there, the higher the anxiety and the blood pressure. I checked yesternight and it had reduced to 136/80. The last thing I want is for this to be consistently high — Dr. said that is the determinant measure and if that happens for a week or two then it’s drugs for the rest of my life!!! I am positive this won’t the case.
14:21 PM: still patching up stuff for upload — the pain in arms and limbs is gone but feeling a little hotter. I know I need to cut my need for perfect things and just do it.
16:53 PM: took another ACTION for the starting headache. A mild chest pain.
This regular updating is a key feature in the #worldneeds AI. It will update you on your impact progress — of course, if you choose so.
Talking of technical help:
I need a good animator — to visually illustrate the flow of wealth in the current extractive capitalism on one side and the proposed distributive capitalism on the other. So, it shows;
Extractive capitalism: Most wealth circulates around the upper and even more to the top of the wealth pyramid — the top is overflowing with money — but it can’t burst to flow downwards — some wealth is even squeezed from south to north. But tired people at the bottom migrate, some turn to violence, uprisings like we see in Chile and Venezuela — it’s chaos at the bottom but the top is threatened as well — wars, terror, climate, disasters, its pillar are tumbling down.
Distributive capitalism: More wealth flows to the bottom. Lifts more people up the pyramid, they contribute to more wealth production, consume more — so more wealth goes up as well, then more wealth comes down — now that innovators & investors target these newcomers, and everyone — well more people are happier. It is success defined by contribution to helping others.
19:06 PM: Anxiety up again, can feel heart rate increasing; — need to start promoting this ASAP — will a teacup in the meantime.
21:25 PM: And I haven’t started promoting this, still hellbent on first improving a few things; I am such a chronic procrastinator — one of the other reasons I’ve failed for so long. But I take solace in Adam Grant’s other TED talk; his student said, “I have my most creative ideas when I’m procrastinating.”
21:32 PM: My colleague — Davis just called and followed-up on an earlier joke; “Have you made your will” already? :)
21:45 PM: I feel more activity around my heart, headache starting again. I think I have to go now — procrastinate to tomorrow — I hope more ideas don’t creep in for me to procrastinate again. — see you then.
01/11/2019
07:35 AM: Good Morning, just reached office — had a fair night, mild headache and chest pain — now feeling the same mild pain in the back i.e. behind the heart. On my way, I peeped at the hospital and pondered taking another HBP check, but didn’t — I think over checking increases my thoughts and chances of HBP remaining high. — I should start promoting this ASAP.
17:37 PM: Completed filling a campaign on kickstarter.com only to learn it is limited to US residents. I have a US bank account and thought that was enough — now reaching out to people I think might be interested. Completing a t-shirt store on teemill.com. No headache but chest-pain increasing.
09:22 PM: received my first critique about this from Rhys Lindmark thank you dude, it’s impossible to improve without critique; here is what he says;
Hey Semakula,
Thanks for reaching out and for your kind words! It’s cool to see your vision for a marketplace. My quick suggestions:
-Get on Twitter and start connecting with “aligned folks” there. Both folks like https://twitter.com/sabelonow?lang=en, NGO folks, crypto for good folks (https://twitter.com/alegw?lang=en), etc.
- Begin to validate your idea by searching for paying customers.
- Also, be deeply skeptical of using crypto. Why not M-Pesa or other mobile money?
- My favorite crypto learning resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o3JvatFpXBHL_czZxBwAt_LDHBbpEV27qaTJpjAHcZI/edit
- Your long-term goal is to show lines not dots: https://bothsidesofthetable.com/invest-in-lines-not-dots-611f36491d73For your actual proposal:
- Lots of interesting detail in there
- I’d want to make sure your scope/focus is tighter. Seems like you’re trying to do too much.
- How is this system different than other micro-finance platforms? Why would I use it over Kiva or GiveDirectly?
Hope this helps and good luck! Feel free to ping me in 6 months with an update. Thanks,
02/11/2019
15:37 PM: Had a great night, mild headache on and off now, no chest pain.
17:14 PM: Working on Rhys’s critique, but Headache on the increase — but want to avoid too many painkillers in my blood.
04/11/2019
18:04: No major headache, but more anxiety as i’ve finished setting up a store on https://teespring.com/stores/wayoutworld and Amazon to as advised validate this idea. Now working to create crowdfunding campaigns for the development of web and mobile apps, #worldneedsAI and an API for merchant websites.
