Mech Eng University of Dar-es-Salaam class of 86

Came across this precious print I'd scanned sometime back and all but forgotten about it. I am sharing it with the World. At that time I was six and twenty years of age, and no-one would have told me there would be time when I'd shave off my Afro, liked it so.

This picture was taken at the Silversands Hotel where the class had gone to hold a party just after finishing the final university exams. Every person on this day had something on his mind, because the results were not out yet, but they would be in the course of a day or two.

Anyways there was a happy ending, we all passed, no-one repeated a year, no-one was discontinued. As was almost habitual in those days, Mechanical class was all men, although no law barred women from choosing Mech Eng.

I guess what threw a scare to most of them was the story of grinding hard work of design class where sometimes we would spend the whole night standing on drawing boards working frantically for design visa. Visa? Yeah. Visa.

Maybe these days of SolidWorks and AutoCAD the toil has lessened. I'd like some latter-day Mech Eng Udsm graduate to comment on this...

Determination is it! Kudos Freddy Makundi

Let the world hear it, man!

My cousin, Frederick is in real estate by profession, holding a responsible position in a company that has branches in all regions of Tanzania.

That didn't deter him from pursuing what he had a craving for: go for a Laws degree.

The travail of squeezing study time in a tight workday and burning midnight oil paid dividends, and on Saturday 25 October 2008 he climbed up the podium to receive his LLB, an award from 4 years of hard work.

A reporter at the Biafra, Kinondoni grounds of the Open University of Tanzania caught this emotional scene of Freddy's daughter about to decorate his dad. This photo appeared on The Sunday Citizen of 26 October.

After graduation, in the evening when we gathered to toast Fred the winner, a few speeches were given, all aimed at encouraging all in the family and beyond to value education and pursue it in earnest, because in today's world education is everything, acquiring training in one's area of competence is necessary, must.

Michelle Obama, you done me proud, Ma'am

I did not watch the Larry King Live interview myself. I wish, though that I had. I read about it on the NY Times.

Now talk about a lady, here is one. Despite all the slime the Republicans had been throwing in against Barack Obama, you'd expect this lady to bristle and rattle. But to the contrary! I particularly liked the sense in her saying, “You can’t tear up the game so much so that, you know, you don’t leave people something to come back to,” she said. “You know, we’re going to need John McCain, we’re going to need Cindy McCain, we’re going to need independents and Republicans working hard to fix this crisis.”

I salute you, Ms Obama, You are going to be one great First Lady.

Tabora fatal recklesness

October 1 marked Idd el Fitr, a Moslem celebration of ending the month of Ramadhani where the faithful do fast for 28 moons. In Tanzania that day and following one are public holidays. These days are marked with overdressing, overeating and overdrinking in many communities. Dance hall reap, confectionery retailers alike. Fights and road accidents in the two days are commonplace.

What happened in Tabora is out of proportions, though. A dance hall was crammed with kids for afternoon boogie. It is said the capacity of that hall is 150, but on that eventful day, October 1st, it is said to have been packed with more than 1000!

Then something must have gone very wrong, but at the end of the day 19 kids were declared dead from suffocation. It would seem someone locked the dancehall entrance and drifted away for fun elsewhere when kids were having good time, then when air supply couldn't cope with close-packed kids, there may have been screams that were interpreted as fun itself. It seems after a while the place went eerily quiet--the younger ones (7 year olds were the youngest of victims, oldest were 14) slipped into unconsciousness. This may have been interpreted by their siblings as slumber before things grew worse. Meanwhile all were apparent prisoners here, the gatekeepers commonly referred as "bouncers" nowhere nearby.

I have heard how a person rescued from near-death caused by air foulness explains afterwards of having dreamed of happily floating around before being resusciated. Same stories were on papers, given by survivors who were interviewed. Three of the kids who perished were from one family, survived by recently-widowed father. I expect the bouncers who caused this have an explanation to give to Tanzanians.

It was a week. Palin blah-blahhed her way out of the VP debate (that I had hoped would see the end of her), Fosset crash site was discovererd, Tabora families grieved.