Nyerere, 10 years today since he went away

Today, 14 October, is a public holiday in Tanzania to mark the passing of The Father of Nation, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere.

Such a vision for this country that Nyerere had, if things had gone the way he had in mind, Tanzania might be an economic giant, at least among neighbouring African countries. He had correctly figured that with lots of arable land, growing cash crops that would bring in the much needed foreign exchange was the way to go. This was coupled with industries to process those crops, in the process creating wide employment base.

While still in power, Mwalimu saw the industries failing one after the other, and farming going down. Certainly the reason was, the persons given mandate to run the country, the industries, oversee agriculture etc did not share the vision that he had, and misinterpreted appointments as some kind of present to be shared with relatives and friends.

Time pressed on, different leaders took over, each with own style, but none seemed keen to bring the country back to track Mwalimu had intended. More recently there was massive privatization whereby the state-owned industries and businesses were offered for a song to would-be investors, mostly foreign companies. Even industries that were performing well were put up for sale.

Today we are seeing such a situation that very few individuals own a large chunk of national cake, salaries are dismal, crime rate, prostitution and other society vices are on the rise, schools grow in number and sizes but the education these kids get leave lots to be desired. That is not a problem for nouveau-riche who plundered industries and entered into warped mining contracts, stashing away dollars in Swiss banks: their kids receive quality education outside the country, and they have a cheek to brag about it in public, as if they deserved the thieved spoils.

Throughout the week, radios and TVs had been playing clips of Nyerere speeches, and they all address the things that shouldn't happen but are now happening. At least they will haunt the bad people who shot down the Nyerere vision, and, meanwhile, someone from rank and file is bound to come up, action packed and lead this great nation to its rightful place up front: who would have known that Obama would be US present today a year ago? Who would have even in wildest dreams imagine two weeks ago that Obama would get Nobel Peace prize?

Go Google Go! Eleven already.

The graphic is google's image to signify its turning 11.

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Today Google turns 11, eleven years of laying golden eggs, eleven years of providing soooo much to the world for little or nothing.
Google experience makes me come up with the following observations

A business concept may be a win-win situation for both provider and customer

Non-intrusive ads that make Google income also help their businesses to prosper, and the world to learn, communicate, share.

Geniuses are God-sent to easily unravel what other mortals would manage with difficulty.

Dr Brin and Dr Page are just two out of the whole lot of them on the time axis, from the days of Noah of the Ark: Newton, Faraday, LaVoisier, Euler, Einstein, LaPlace etc are few among these people.

Joy of giving

Google are among prominent philantropists. Some of their work in this area feature on the GOOGLE.ORG. Other such blessed individuals like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Michael Jackson have generously supported charities.

Internet is 40

CNet, September 2, 2009 1:13 PM PDT
At 40, the Internet still reshaping history
by Stephen Shankland

At the time, it would have been hard to predict which of these events 40 years ago would prove to be most momentous:

• Humans step out of a spaceship and walk on the moon.
• The Woodstock concert becomes a seminal cultural moment for the baby-boomer generation.
• A New York City police raid leads to the Stonewall riots and modern gay-rights movement.
• A handful of engineers at UCLA send some data from one computer to another.

You may disagree, but in my opinion, it's the last of the list: four decades ago today, the Internet was born.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say some important seeds of the Internet sprouted with that data transfer on September 2, 1969. There's plenty of debate about when the Internet was actually born, but one thing is certain: it's been a constant work in progress.

It began as a Defense Department-funded project called Arpanet that drew on plenty of research elsewhere. It grew to offer a useful electronic mechanism to send mail, then the virtual real estate of World Wide Web, then a backbone for commerce, and now a core part of globe-spanning social activity. And it's well on its way to becoming the foundation for how the world's population uses computers.

Woodstock embodied the rising power of a new generation. Stonewall opened the door to a radical reshaping of morality. Men on the moon showed us how small the Earth is. But the Internet changes everything--and it will be instrumental in the next chapters of humanity's future.

The global community
I've been moved since childhood at how Apollo 11 photographs of Earthrise as viewed from the moon make my planet seem a single entity rather than a bunch of squabbling factions of humanity. But because of its practical effects, the Internet has done more to unify the world.

That's because the Internet has enabled communities based on interests, not geography. Latin speakers, macro photographers, Philip K. Dick fans, and college roommates can stay in touch with their respective peers. Jets, phones, and letters made this possible before, but the Internet builds it into daily life so it's as ordinary as going shopping.

Likewise, the Internet has given a megaphone to many who had none before--protesters in Iran and Myanmar are recent examples in which the people were able to comprehend what was going on in hard-to-see parts of the world and decide for themselves whether they liked it or not.

The Net has enabled more than just talk, of course. The Net powers a huge amount of commerce, whether it's buying songs over Apple's iTunes, hiring cheap labor through Amazon's Mechanical Turk, or managing the supply chain of inventory used to build cars.

In its early years, there were objections to the arrival of the profit motive on the Net, but that transformation out of academia has been one of its greatest assets. Economic ties are powerful and often durable, and corporations are willing to pay real money to make sure the infrastructure they're using stays up and running.

There now are 226 million Web sites registered for use.

There now are 226 million Web sites registered for use.
(Credit: Netcraft)
Technology tour de force
The Internet itself is a mind-boggling complex overlay of technologies that spans every level from steering photos down a glass fiber to showing where your friends are on a dynamically generated map. But the first half of its 40 years were spent largely in obscurity.

Its early years involved just a relative handful of computers sending data to one another over increasingly large distances. The 1970s brought a key innovation, the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) that governs how data is broken down into packets, routed across numerous networking devices, and reassembled into their original form at the other end of the pipe.

In the 1980s, e-mail started blossoming in earnest as a killer application for the Internet, and the World Wide Web arrived in the 1990s. These innovations vaulted the Internet from academia into the mainstream. Exploding popularity led to companies that sold Internet access, equipment, and services--and the first dot-com bubble.

The bursting of that bubble was cataclysmic in the industry, but it was a mere blip in the Internet's history. According to Netcraft, there were 226 million Web sites in August, nearly 10 times the number around when the bubble burst. Google filled the void left by the collapsed start-ups with a powerfully profitable business making sense of the Internet's information chaos.

What's perhaps notable about the Internet is how organic it is. In the short term, there are plenty of disruptions as one company or another suffers problems or technology can't match new demands. But in the long run, the system continues to function as researchers, computing companies, standards groups, and start-ups constantly upgrade the infrastructure and offer new reasons to use it.

The next phase of growth is through cloud computing, in which people use software that's housed on the Net rather than on their own machines. Giant farms of servers house the applications people use, making them available to personal computers and mobile phones today and in-car computers and other devices tomorrow.

Today's cloud computing applications are primitive compared to PC-based equivalents, but the browser is evolving to meet the new demands with accelerated graphics, much of the native power of a PC's processor, and maturing programming tools. That increased power fuels the arrival of more sophisticated applications.

The dark side
The Net is by no means perfect or universally beneficial.

The ease with which it's enabled communications has led to a series of new conduits--e-mails, instant messages, blog posts distributed over RSS, tweets, and Facebook updates. That's handy for keeping in touch, but it also means people must grapple with a constantly shifting collection of oversaturated communication conduits.

Sifting the signal from the noise can be nearly impossible--and that's before dealing with the spam.

The Net also has brought with it plenty of new crime, facilitating identity theft and financial scams. Stalking has never been easier, and distributed denial-of-service attacks by armies of compromised computers can cripple a business' operations.

I acutely feel the financial pains of journalism that arrived when the Internet brought an oversupply of news. Arguably, the ever-shrinking number of reporters is offset by the arrival of new voices and the ease of tracking what's going on, but I share the concerns about the waning power of the press to uncover corruption or other problems.

The Net also has fueled the globalization that led to job losses and resentment as expensive labor in wealthier countries was replaced by cheaper workers elsewhere.

The most worrisome issues I see stem from problems people themselves have adapting to social interaction on the Net.

It seems our brains are hard-wired for a social circle about the size of a tribe, but now parts of our lives are on display to the whole world. Just closing your curtains now won't get you privacy, and good luck teaching Facebook's information sharing mechanisms to somebody not steeped in the subtleties of the social graph.

The Internet can abet governmental censorship and propaganda efforts, too. My gut instinct tells me that the Net's power to disseminate information--especially when augmented by technology such as Google Translate--ultimately will prevail, but it's not a sure thing.

So the Internet poses plenty of problems. But it's only gaining in importance, power, and reach, so my advice is to embrace it and try to shape it for the better for the next 40 years.

Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank.

This blogger, me

It's quite some time since I posted, and prior to that I was mostly relaying bits of news, verbatim, read here and there. I also really moaned the passing of Michael Jackson--I am still.

Recent addition to my blog has been a sidebar with my tweets (which also post on my Facebook)--easlily kept up with because I post from my mobile.

For my age, qualifications and standing, more should be expected of my blog. Some while ago I spoke of launching an e-zine here on the blog or elsewhere. That good intention is still there, the delay is likely because of the fast-changing landscape of my dear subject, Information Technology.
Many things are happening around me that could contribute to even multiple posts per day. I've set myself a target of posting weekly in the least.
Although photo blogs are growing popular around here, photos should be on my Facebook and Flickr (while yahoo leaves it on--been shutting services lately) profiles.I prefer being analytical within a variety of subjects that includes engineering, design, wood, metals, health, hiv/aids, CMS, SMEs, knowledge management, electronic marketing, market research, education, research and many others.
My target is to maintain posting habit of content that gets appreciated by peers and other professionals: when I make it to the pinacle noticeable on technorati and such other metering services.

Michael Jackson

On my bedside table I do have this small radio which I usually leave on, tuned to the BBC with volume turned very low. If there is a piece of news that would be of significance to me, I am jolted awake--I don't know how this phenomenon works, but it has happened many times. I guess ears don't quite turn off when one is asleep.
It is thus I got to be one of the first to learn of Michael Jackson - The King of Pop - had just completed HIStory, had passed. The rest is history--not HIStory.
I recall the old days when we didn't have FM radio stations, even radio cassette players were few and far apart. Audio field was ruled by vinyl disks (I still have about 100 albums, very well preserved, I'm gonna see how to get this Sony vinyl album player that can help lifting music onto hard disk of computer, then on CD). There was The Michael.
Michael's is one sad story- from being walloped by his dad while still a little boy so that he could make him money by performing, to his well-meant slumber parties with kids, misinterpreted and seized by gold-diggers. Like Pink Floyd sang in Crazy Diamond, it was Michael they had been singing about: what about being caught in the crossfire, childhood stardom, random precision and several other descriptive clauses!

The Michael was a gifted talent like no other. He was a genius. To me any of his songs is superb, I'd go crack to try to figure which I like more.
Bye Michael. You done me proud. You showed the way: you were there on the podium long before The Kobe, The Shaq, The Oprah, The Tiger, President Obama.

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond "

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!


[ www.azlyrics.com ]

History repeats itself in a way you wouldn't imagine

Black girl escorted to school, 1960:
On November 14, 1960, nearly 49 years ago, 6 year old Ruby Bridges faced hostile crowds, and had to be escorted by U.S. Marshalls , because she was the first black child to attend previously all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans , Louisiana . Ruby was 6 years old. (The Great Norman Rockwell created the painting above depicting that event.)

That morning, she had only been told by her mother that she was going to be attending a new school that day and 'had better behave.' Little did little Ruby know that she would be bombarded with jeers and even death threats; and that she would end up being the sole

child in her first grade class because all the other children were kept home by their parents. All because Ruby was Black.

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Black girl escorted to school, 2009:
On January 5, 2009, nearly 49 years after Ruby attended her school, 7 year old Sasha Obama, faced cheering schoolmates as she is escorted by her Mother and U. S. Secret Service Agents to Sidwell Friends Elementary School in Washington, DC. Her Mother, the current First Lady of the United States of America , had Secret Service escort because Sasha's daddy is now the 44th President of the United States , Barack Obama.

Source: Anon

Zitto Kabwe: Seeing tanzania political landscape in perspective

12 June 2009

12th June 2009, 06:27 PM

Zitto

Re: Zitto Kabwe atangaza kung’atuka - Maelezo yangu Wana JF , Mwanzoni nilipoona mada hii na majibu ya baadhi ya watu hapo awali sikuona umuhimu sana wa kujibu kwani ni mada ya zamani sana, mwaka 2007. Nilisema kwa mara ya kwanza kuwa sitagombea ubunge mwaka 2010 mwezi September mwaka 2006 na kuripotiwa na gazeti la SundayNews. Nilirejea tena kauli hiyo mwezi March mwaka 2007 nikiwa Wilayani Maswa mkoani Shinyanga na kuleta mjadala mkali sana katika JamboForums wakati huo. Mwezi March mwaka 2008 nilihojiwa na gazeti la The EastAfrican na kusisitiza kuwa nia yangu ni kutumikia kipindi kimoja tu cha Ubunge na kupumzika kwa miaka mitano kabla sijarudi tena Bungeni...... soma hapa ...allAfrica.com: Tanzania: Zitto Kabwe - The Country's One-Man Backbench (Page 1 of 2) Mara zote nilisema kuwa sababu kubwa ya kuamua kuwa Mbunge wa kipindi kimoja ni kurudi kusoma zaidi na kupata fursa ya kufanya kazi maana toka nimemaliza shule nimefanya kazi mwaka mmoja tu (Shirika la Friedrich Ebert Foundation) na hivyo kujiona kuwa ninakosa 'some skills' za uongozi ili kutumia kipaji changu 'to the fullest' na kutumikia nchi yangu. Hata siku moja sijawahi kutia shika nia yangu ya kutumikia Taifa. Lakini siku zote nimekataa kuwa carrier politician. Ninapenda nikimaliza kazi zangu za kisiasa niweze kuwa na uwezo wa kufundisha katika vyuo vikuu taaluma yangu nitakayobobea. Baada ya kuwa Mbunge kwa takribani miezi 9 tu (na hasa baada ya kikao cha bajeti cha mwaka 2006/2007) niliona dhahiri kuwa kwa Bunge letu hili, mabadiliko ni nadra sana. Hivyo nikasema mapema kabisa kuwa nitakuwa Mbunge wa 'term' moja. Nilisema mapema ili watu wa Kigoma Kaskazini wenye mawazo ya kutaka kugombea wajue 'incumbent' hatagombea. Nilifanya kwa nia njema kabisa. Ninadhani nina uhuru wa kuamua kutogombea kama nilivyoamua kugombea bila kusukumwa na mtu. Mimi sikuombwa kugombea ubunge. Niliamua mwenyewe. Sasa kuhusisha uamuzi wangu huu nilioutoa miaka mitatu iliyopita na kununuliwa ni ufinyu tu wa mawazo ya baadhi ya watu wenye malengo yao. Kwanza nimesema mara kwa mara kuwa sinunuliki. Hakuna kiwango cha fedha cha kuninunua. Nimejiwekea misingi ya maisha ya kusema kile ninachoamini. Sasa kama ninachoamiani unakipenda, ninashukuru. Kama hukipendi kikatae. Nimejieleza sana kuhusu suala la Dowans. Niliunga mkono ununuzi wa mitambo ile ili kuliokoa shirika la Umeme - tanesco. Nilisikiliza maelezo ya watu waliopinga na kuyaheshimu. Nilipinga kutukanwa na kuzushiwa kuwa nimehongwa (wengine mpaka wamesema kiwango cha hongo - mara VX mpya, mara dola 70,000 na leo nimeona kuwa nimewekewa pesa katika yangu ya Stanbic sh 800 milioni) - Nimekuwa Mbunge miaka 4 sasa. Kweli siwezi kuwa na pesa za kununua VX mbili tatu nk? Mwaka 2007 nilinunua gari ya kifahari kabisa (pamoja na msaada wa marafiki wa nje) aina ya Hummer, nayo nilihongwa na nani? Nimekuwa mjumbe wa Kamati ya Afrika Mashariki kwa miezi 6 nalipwa kila siku 200,000 shs. Pia nimekuwa mjumbe wa Kamati ya Madini ya Bomani kwa miezi 4 na nusu na kulipwa 350,000 kila siku. Kweli ndugu zangu nishindwe kununua VX ya 60m, tena second hand pale AfriCarriers? Mbona mnanitukana ndugu yenu? Nimesomea kiasi cha kutosha Biashara ya Kimataifa na kufanya kazi za 'consultancy' Wizara ya fedha na wizara ya Biashara na Viwanda kuandaa mkakati wa nchi katika mazungumzo ya Economic Partnership Agreements dhidi ya EU. Nimekuwa nikilipwa vizuri tu. Nimefanya kazi kwa Mwaka mmoja na Rais Kohler kuhusu mpango wa Ujerumani kuhusu Afrika. Nimefanya consultancy na EU kuhusu nafasi ya Zanzibar katika Biashara ya Kimataifa....... Kweli jamani, hata kama mtu ana ajenda ya siri, siwezi kupata fedha za kununua gari ninayoipenda? Hivi sasa nina gari 5 - Prado 2 (zote sasa nimezigawa kwa Wagombea Ubunge watarajiwa wa CHADEMA mwakani, Nissan Patrol 1 ambayo inatumika Jimboni kwangu, Prado 2 moja anayotembelea Jacquiline, my partner na VX ambayo ninaitumia mimi kwa ziara ndefu za Chama. Gari zote nimeziorodhesha katika fomu za maadili na zile za kuzitoa nitazitoa baada ya kubadili umiliki. Ninapenda kurudia kusema kuwa sikuhongwa kutaka TANESCO wanunue mitambo ya Dowans. Sijawahi si tu kukutana na mmiliki wa Dowans, bali hata mlinzi wa kampuni hiyo na kufanya hiyo dili inayosemwa sana humu na baadhi ya watu kutaka kuamini bila hata ushahidi. Nimeshangaa sana watu kuhusisha kuacha kwangu Ubunge na mambo hayo ya Dowans kana kwamba hiyo kampuni ili ilikuwapo September 2006 wakati ninatangaza kutogombea. Watu kadhaa hawakukubaliana na sababu zangu za kutogombea. Ninaheshimu mawazo yao. Wengine ni watu ninaowaheshimu sana kama Mzee Mtei na Dkt. Salim (ambaye, nitamke kwa mara ya kwanza, aliplay role kubwa sana kunifanya niwe Mbunge). Wengine ni mazoea tu kwamba unaachaje ulaji? Yaani unaacha mshahara wa 12m kwa mwezi Zitto? Wengine hawaamini kuona Bunge bila Zitto. Basi kila mtu ana sababu zake. Kitu kimoja kinaniumiza sana. Licha ya kutekeleza asilimia takribani 75% ya ahadi zangu Jimboni na kuilazimisha serikali kufanya miradi mikubwa ya maendeleo jimboni kwangu (leo barabara ya kwanza ya lami katika Mkoa wa Kigoma toka nchi ipate uhuru imezinduliwa na Pinda Jimboni kwangu - Barabara ya Mwandiga Manyovu), ninatumia muda mchache sana kuwapo Jimboni. Hii inaniumiza sana. Kwa siasa zangu, siwezi kuwa parochial MP, hivyo hili linanifanya nione uamuzi wangu wa kutogombea uendelee na kwamba hata nikirudi Bungeni baada ya miaka 5 au Kumi, ninadhani nitagombea Jimbo mojawapo la Dar es Salaam kwani ninatarajia kuendelea kufanya siasa za kitaifa. Ninaacha Ubunge nikiwa nimefanya mambo ninayojivunia sana. Nimesababisha mabadiliko makubwa katika uendeshaji wa Bunge kupitia mabadiliko ya kanuni za Bunge, niliufanya mjadala wa sekta ya Madini kuwa mjadala wa kitaifa na kupelekea kuundwa Kamati iliyotoa ripoti nzuri sana na nimekuwa mstari wa mbele kuhakikisha kuwa ripoti hiyo inatekelezwa, kwa mwaka mmoja ambao nimekuwa mwenyekiti wa Kamati ya Mashirika ya Umma mabadiliko makubwa sana yanatokea na soko la Hisa la Dar (kwa juhudi zangu) sasa liktakuwa na Kampuni nyingi sana 'listed', nimesimamisha zoezi la kubinafsisha mashirika mpaka tathmini ifanyike, nimepelekea uchunguzi mkali kufanyika kuhusu mashirika kadhaa ambayo yalibinafishwa kiharamu ikiwemo uchunguzi wa kampuni ambayo ilinunuliwa na Rostam Aziz ambaye wengi humu mnaamini kanihonga, nimechangia kwa kiasi kikubwa kufanya mijadala ya Bunge kuwa yenye uhai na hata kuamsha wabunge wengine ambao hawakuwa wakisema licha ya kuwa Bungeni vipindi vingi, nimechangamsha siasa za nchi wakati ambapo chama tawala kina zaidi ya asilimia 80 ya wabunge. Mara zote nimeweka maslahi ya nchi mbele kiasi kwamba Dola, narudia Dola, haina wasiwasi na 'eventuality' ya mimi kuongoza dola nikitaka kwani maslahi ya nchi hayatakuwa na mashaka. Nimejenga imani kubwa na civil service na parastatal heads na hivyo kuwa na machinery muhimu za kuongoza nchi. Sitagombea Ubunge. Ninakwenda kusoma 'Resources Economics' na nikimaliza nimeanza mchakato wa kuomba kazi ama somaliland au Southern Sudan ili nishikrika katika ujenzi wa 'institutions' kwa nchi hizi. Ninaamini kuwa maarifa na uzoefu nitakaoupata vitanisaidia sana nitakaporudi kwenye siasa. Ninaamini pia kuwa kuna Watanzania vijana wengi sana wenye uwezo mkubwa wa uongozi lakini hawana fursa kama niliyopata mimi. Nitawasaidia hawa ili watoe mchango wao katika kujenga Taifa letu zuri sana. Nimetimiza wajibu wangu. Ninajivunia sana rekodi yangu ya kazi ya Ubunge mpaka sasa. Mtu mmoja humu amewahi kuandika kuwa wengi humu hamumuelewi Zitto. Nakubaliana nae sana..Wengi humu mnaniunderestimate sana! Save this thread........ mtahitaji kuirejea huko mbele.....

Internet is resourceful-how did we ever survive without the www?

Awhile back I sadly observed Yahoo was about to kill Geocities. Around that time I had a feel on a certain free open source CMS software (Drupal). For this I had to install it on localhost... another free suite of webserver, database and scripting language installed as xampp.

The two events are signs of the times. Whereas to make a webpage on Geocities one needed to know at least the basics of html, one wouldn't need to have a little bit of knowledge of html or scripting language to build quite a complex website, blogs etc on Drupal.

The relationships on web use is what could be described as symbiotic association: A website owner would place ads on their websites announcing someone else's product. Web users would be brought to the site for information they want, likely to be enticed (not conned) by ads there. When they visit the link on the ad, whoever is selling a product or service becomes happy, someone is appraising their mechandise. The website owner is happy, a click has registered on their adsense. Google or other adserver is happy because the advertiser is happily paying . It is a win-win situation.

There are other services too which are so cool such as Wikipedia, MIT-OCW it is a big miracke that they are there. Webmail too, with their virtually unlimited capacity mailboxes: how were we surviving with a 2 MB mailbox as recently as 5 years ago?

The word of hardware has its own tale to tell, but that would be a subject of another post.

Oh, GM has filed bankruptcy!

Announcement sounded like a clap of thunder. General Motors has been bobbing atop Fortune 500 list for ages. So this is a shocker, a real one. One would expect a company of GM's girth to deploy whatever resources to sidestep the slippery time slice the world is going on. Seems whatever they tried to do didn't quite work out.
It might be the sign of the coming times. Environment-conscious Planet Earth is shuddering away from the fuel-guzzling SUVs which, anyway, wouldn't run on battery-powered electric motors. Jobs--blue- and white-collar alike--are going down the grain. There won't be much to spend. Where the jobless get unemployment cheques, they will start learning taking subways, cleaning up environment even more.
While auto industry, (airline and several others too) are going through hard times, we are told of some growth in technology businesses. Here are people who were able to work out miracles with miniaturization: the other day I bought a 4 giga memory card for my camera for quarter the price I'd bought a 1 giga card about six months earlier. What's that joke of exchanges between microsoft and GM on their industries' growth comparison that was going around the net sometime ago?

Geocities is closing. Oh!

It was in the IT news this week. Troubled Y! has sighted Geocities as one of the services to be dropped in the ongoing rationalization exercise.
Many of us who ever coded a page a little while ago (that's to say more than 10 years) likely used Geocities.

Geocities was supposed to make money from ads that would appear on these free website. There was also possibility of getting rid of ads by upgrading. (With my blog--successor of Geocities-like web presence--instead of lugging provider ads, I place my own Adsense links).

I wouldn't be surprised if the younger generation has never heard of Geocities. Now with a myriad of social networking web services such as Facebook, Myspace and blogs, life is easy for page owners, plus, it's quite easy to link to friends etc, share stuff while having fun. Emergence of these web 2.0 services rang the death knell of stiff-upper-lip services that couldn't conform with changing times. Freeservers and Tripod are likely to be next.

The one hosting service that offers free registration that seem almost too good to be true, Awardspace, got me hooked and am now owning a paid hosting that offers hundredfold more for a song. Now this is nice and proper. With it comes database, PHP, server-side installers of a handful of utilities (Zacky tools installer) etc.

I'll say bye to Geocities, it did us lot of good while it lasted. I'm still having my older sites on Geocities such as my resource page. Time I moved them elsewhere, I guess.

Karl Marks predicted cash-hard times coming...

"Owners of capital will simulate working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which have to be nationalized, and State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism" Karl Marx, 1867 in "Das Kapital"

Abolition of Boarding O-level Govt Sec Schools!!!

This is outrage!

The decisions being made in the Ministry responsible for education are dissapointing to many a Tanzanian. I suspect the government is too full of old, old men who pretend tightening the purse string to education but ulterior motive is to get trip to India or elsewhere out of country for annual medical checkup.

The Guardian article...

Abolishing boarding schools at our own peril

2009-02-09 10:21:19
By Issa Mcholo Omari

The abolition of boarding O`level Secondary Schools will exacerbate quality deterioration, increase Inequities, and compromise our regional competitiveness.

It has transpired, with evidence, that from 2009, regions have been instructed to select and allocate deserving students only to day secondary schools, predominantly community and ward secondary schools. No schools with Form V and VI will receive Form One entrants anymore. Exceptions are made for the five so called special schools, about 8 technical schools, and 15 designated zonal secondary schools which enroll students with various disabilities such as visual and hearing impairments.

This is a major policy shift, with tremendous impacts, but it is curious as to why it is done so silently, or is it secretly. The reasons given for the shift are two:

First, it is said that the government has no money to feed boarding scholars, given the exploding enrolments.
Secondly, it is said to be a good strategy to open up space for the expansion of Form V and VI where the country is experiencing great constraints, especially for science and mathematics students.

However, both of these reasons are either not true or not strategic enough. First, it is not true that the government has no money to feed its own children, and for that matter, many parents have not failed to contribute to feeding their children. It has to be noted that Tanzania is dedicating only about 19 per cent of its total annual budget to education while neighbouring countries allocate between 25 and 30 per cent of their annual budgets.

Similarly, Tanzania utilizes only about 5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product while others are spending 6 – 7 percent of even larger GDP. Thus, it is not an issue of ability to pay for the education of our children but willingness to pay for it. It is an attitudinal thing which is quite pervasive for quite sometimes now. Our priorities are just skewed.

If the government can look for funds to bail our ailing and grossly inefficient parastatals, it can surely also look for funds to give our children good quality education. It is now firmly known or established that many children in developing countries are underperforming because of nutritional deficits. Thus, the state should be happy and keen to ameliorate this desperation. It is very possible for such costs to be happily shared rather than seeing these children as a burden. They are national assets for the future of this otherwise beautiful and greatly promising country.

It does not seem that the national political elite is aware of the fact that, for now, the educational system is suffering from a serious paralysis of stagnation and any policy shifts should be for resustation rather than exacerbation of the deterioration of the situation. The second reason regarding the expansion of Form V and VI is not strategic at all. It is expedience being substituted for good educational principles for educational development.

First, many of our schools are quite small so why not expand them to accommodate more A`level students, and in more appropriate structures specifically designed for that level of schooling. Alternatively, build new ones. In addition, there is a lot of synergy and economies of scale that accrue when A’level and O`level students school together, ranging from sharing scarce resources such as laboratories and some textbooks, modeling and tutoring, to the use of good teachers.

It is now firmly clear that there is a great shortage of good teachers in various key subjects in many countries, and the separation tend to saddle O`level teaching with mediocre and under-qualified teachers who will produce bad products for the A`level tier. Consequently, the good A`level teachers, especially in mathematics and sciences, end up doing remedial instruction rather than their true pitching.

However, the worst part of the policy shift is in the consequences. ll the data, over the years show that boarding government schools outperform all other categories of schools, except for the few Christian seminaries. For instance, in 2007, while 9.70 per cent of students in government secondary schools scored first class, only 2.9 per cent in community secondary schools got that grade.

The differences are basically due to key inputs such as quality teachers, textbooks, but most significantly, time use and nutrition in boarding government schools. Boarding scholars have more time to study.

Thus, the abolition of boarding schools is likely to negatively affect the quality of schooling outcomes which will have serious reverberating effects in all other types and tires of education in the country.

The equity impacts are even more worrying. It was settled legally in 1954 in the USA that different schools cannot be equal so any form of segregation is inherently unequal.

We also know from numerous studies that any school system which relies on community ability and willingness to pay is inherently inequitable since the communities greatly vary, both in welfare and motivations. Thus, children of the poor in their own community schools will never see light of the day as are doomed to perpetual failure.

Boarding schools facilitated cross breeding, and a window of opportunity for the poor to benefit from quality education. In addition, boarding schools were good for national unity and integration as children from different tribes socialised together from early in their lives.

More cleavages will emerge such as rural-urban disparities, religions seminaries disparities, and girls will be the greatest losers as are known to perform more poorly in community day secondary schools. They do their best in boarding and semi boarding schools.

Furthermore, it is self evident that children of the rich and more informed parents will never go to these day schools. Given the emerging rampant corruption in selection and placement of pupils, such kids will go to either the special schools or private ones.

In the final analysis, it is Tanzania`s competitive ability in the region which will be greatly endangered. Our concept of quality education, both at secondary and higher education level, is highly compromised.

Some universities are worse than glorified secondary schools.

Some secondary schools are in the same league—glorified primary schools!! The net effect, in the long run, is to produce poor human resources that cannot compete for jobs in the SADC and the East Africa Community, and who, in the labour market will have lower productivity indices, and thus making goods produced in Tanzania less competitive as well.

Tanzania needs to change and invest in the education enterprise more heavily and reverse current trends which are worrying indeed.
The last point that need to be made here is about the role of the state.

There is a dangerous but tacit inclination in Tanzania, to think that the private sector will bail out the state in the provision of education. This is a dream.

It can only complement but not be a substitute. To date the private sector is small and quite weak in quality assurance and control, resulting in substandard outcomes.

Data, the world over, suggests that education in most developing and developed countries belongs to the state.

One World Bank report in 1995 had the following data regarding state percentage share to the education enterprise: Canada (90.1); Denmark (99.4) Finland (92.3) UK (80.0); U.S.A (79.0) Holland (98.0) India (89.0) and France (80.0).

It was only in Haiti where the state share was 20 percent, but of course no country wants to be like Haiti where voodoo and ``jujumanship`` are more valued than science, technology, and education. Thus Tanzania is only neglecting increasing its share of the budget to education at its own peril. The abolition of boarding schools is surely a strong dose for a disaster. It should be reconsidered soon rather than later.

Issa Mcholo Omari is a Professor of Educational Psychology and Research at the University of Dar es Salaam

• SOURCE: Guardian

Tanzania and corruption: a run-away

From a blog quoting Sunday Observer article:

I posted some stuff on the above in some of my earlier messages such as this one. Nothing has happened on the home ground regarding the matter, it's life as usual. But media and British Govt investigators have kept right up.

Here we are, right in the midst of vigogo grab-grabbing, then living expensively from the plunder proceeds, and go brag-bragging in the circles of friends about his kids studying in American universities, four SUVs of latest models in his mansion garage, etc etc. and no-one seems to say anything except a briton thousands of nautical miles away (investigating fraud by british firm, at that; and in the course, opening up our can of worms). Even them the discussion takes form of gossips in blogs and online forums while Umma suffers.

With the global village of www, will the situation remain like this all the time? I doubt it.

My Wish to Obama: Supressing Arms Trade Will Reduce Conflicts

Obama came into the White House from afar, beating all odds. Indeed even before presidential race he had ascended into the Senate, which was odd-beating too.

Like any change, a change from the age-old pattern of US presidency naturally had to have its fair share of opponents (stereotyped by one bullish governor from a cold place). When it was obvious that this is the man America wanted, the population chunk in his support grew steadily until crescendo, demonstrated in Chicago and, later, DC during inauguration.

The contrast between Obama and his predescessor was as stark as vision when one gets outside into bright sunlit street from a windowless room. (I heard someone recounting his feeling on the BBC regarding former President Bush--GW, going something like, "With bush, we just had to live with him, just like some people live with cancer").

I join the thousands of bloggers who welcome President Obama and look upon him as a person Fate sent to correct the many wrongs of the US and the world. He starts the task facing an uphill task of tackling-

• reeling world economy;
• hate and suspicion of many against US
  
• worsening environmental crisis; and
• several localized armed conflicts.

We are already seeing real effort addressing the world economy and environment. Plus, one of the earliest executive orders signed was the closure of the Guantanamo jail, Bush initiative of locking in the suspected enemy.

The conflicts in the many places, however, are being fuelled by arms that roll out of some industrialized countries, including the US. They kill and maim thousands of innocent persons in what is referred to as wars, but indeed most of such conflicts are engineered to create and sustain markets of firearms and other fighting hardware.

I have read books by Le Carre, Forsyth and others which are very factual fictions. Give some hobo a few dollars, a couple of cartons new-smelling tunics and a dozen uzis, and you've succeeded starting a "liberation war". The brute who initiates such war never steps anywhere near the battleground, although he may teach "his boys" a few "patriotic" songs and crash courses to his boys (some of whom may be as young as 13) on how to take apart an uzi and ambush little girls going to school.

Without arms manufacturers (and remnants of cold war maybe) there would hardly be conflicts in many places. The arms and munition plants are military contracts shrouded with all the mysteries including operational costs that, instead of aiding failing economies, continue syphoning unaccountable dollars for "special operations". Those "operations" may mean, furnishing travel papers and return air ticket to some African warload to jet to some obscure European town to sign a contract.

How to carry on, I don't claim to have answer, but Team Obama may have something handy on the way--why, i just read on the newsfeed that catepillar are cutting workforce by 1500. What's better, producing a catepillar that drives construction industry and provides jobs to thousands or producing a tank that ...?

How my 2008 fared

We saw a new year drive into our lives, hang on there, and would drive on into history, leaving another year in place after 365 days. Today is the 24th of December, christmas eve. In 6 days time, this year shall make way for the other.
I look back at the occurences that stood out
The localhost and open source content management system
It's been said best things in life are free. Studying some forums and other web resources I "discovered" Xampp, Joomla and Moodle. The last time I was so excited was during compilation of my first FORTRAN codes.
Awardspace
This hosting service is without doubt the greatest whereby even with a free hosting account, the user is given lots of goodies. Frankly Awardspace drove me to acquire debit card account for making online payment where I got even better goodies.
Debit Card account
Some really good stuff is available for little payment on the Web, but is inaccessible if you don't own a means of online payment. Having acquired the powerful plastic card, I am now head and shoulder above an average crowd, and I like it. I'm able to enjoy a domain name like danielmakundi.com...
Windhoek
I attended an international conference organized by Information Society Technology for Africa, an EU-FP7 project. Held in Windhoek, Namibia for three days, I met many people, built new network of professional colleagues, and, yes, had a peek of South Africa from Joburg Airport during one day wait during transit there on way to Dar-es-Salaam.
Obama
The incredible happened. America said Yes to Barak Obama. I have an earlier post taking my hat off for Michelle Obama, and am repeating here that with the two in the White house, things can only go right, and may Gof bless them!
Albino deaths: The most deplorable
Here in Tanzania we have abject poverty mixing with ignorance and plain stupidity creating automatons of unbelievable actions. Armed with deception that organs from albinos (unfortunate brothers and sisters whose skins are without pigment that's resistant to sunshine, making them vulnerable to sunburn and skin cancers) could make them rich. Many albinos have been killed, others maimed. Thanks to public reaction, some arrests have been made by now.
Obituary
Hassan Shamsi, a workmate and one of the finest electrical artisans I've ever known.
Isaac Hayes, a voice like a rumble of thunder, a phenomenon in Shaft etc

Mabadiliko ya Makatibu wakuu

Saturday, 29 November 2008

KIKWETE AFANYA MABADILIKO (MAKATIBU WAKUU)

Rais Jakaya Kikwete amefanya uteuzi wa makatibu wakuu wapya, kuhamisha wengine na kuteua manaibu katibu wakuu wapya. Kwa sasa, Mgonja ambaye yuko katika likizo ya kustaafu, amestaafu sambamba na makatibu wakuu wengine watatu na Naibu Katibu Mkuu mmoja kati ya Agosti na Novemba mwaka huu. Katibu Mkuu Kiongozi Philemon Luhanjo katika taarifa yake Dar es Salaam jana, aliwataja wastaafu wengine ni Katibu Mkuu, Ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu Vincent Mrisho, Katibu Mkuu Wizara ya Ulinzi na Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa, Abel Mwaisumo, Katibu Mkuu Wizara ya Ushirikiano wa Afrika Mashariki, Bakari Mahiza na Naibu Katibu Mkuu Wizara ya Mambo ya Nje na Ushirikiano wa Kimataifa, Balozi Charles Sanga. Luhanjo alisema kutokana na kustaafu kwa makatibu wakuu na Naibu Katibu Mkuu huyo, Rais Kikwete amefanya uteuzi na uhamisho wa makatibu wakuu na baadhi ya manaibu makatibu wakuu. Aliwataja makatibu wakuu wapya ambao wote walikuwa ni manaibu katibu mkuu ni Ramadhani Khijjah anayemrithi Mgonja, awali akiwa Naibu Katibu Mkuu Hazina. Wengine ni Dk. Florens Turuka anayekuwa Katibu Mkuu wa Wizara ya Habari, Utamaduni na Michezo, akitokea Wizara ya Viwanda, Biashara na Masoko; Joyce Mapunjo anayekwenda Wizara ya Viwanda, Biashara na Masoko, akitokea Maendeleo ya Miundombinu na Andrew Nyumayo kusimamia Wizara ya Ulinzi na Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa, akitokea Ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu. Aliwataja Manaibu Katibu Wakuu wapya kuwa ni Dk. Phillip Mpango (Wizara ya Fedha na Uchumi) ambaye awali alikuwa Msaidizi wa Rais (Uchumi)-Ikulu, Selestine Gesimba (Wizara ya Elimu na Mafunzo ya Ufundi), akitokea Mkurugenzi wa Sera na Mipango ya Wizara ya Mawasiliano, Sayansi na Teknolojia. Mwingine ni Seti Kamuhanda anayekwenda Wizara ya Mambo ya Nje na Ushirikiano wa Kimataifa. Awali alikuwa Msaidizi wa Rais (Hotuba) Ikulu; na kabla ya hapo, alikuwa Mhariri Mtendaji wa Kampuni ya Magazeti ya Serikali (TSN), inayochapisha Daily News, Sunday News, HabariLeo na HabariLeo Jumapili. Katika uhamisho huo, Luhanjo aliwataja waliohamishwa na sehemu wanazotoka na wizara walizopangiwa katika mabano kuwa Peniel Lyimo (Ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu kutoka Kilimo, Chakula na Ushirika); Dk. Ladislaus Komba (Maliasili na Utalii kutoka Kazi, Ajira na Maendeleo ya Vijana) na Kijazi Mtengwa (Wizara ya Kazi, Ajira na Maendeleo ya Vijana kutoka Habari, Utamaduni na Michezo. Wengine ni Mohammed Muya (Kilimo, Chakula na Ushirika kutoka Mambo ya Ndani; Patrick Rutabanzibwa (Mambo ya Ndani kutoka Maji na Umwagiliaji); Dk. Stergomena Tax (Ushirikiano wa Afrika Mashariki kutoka Viwanda, Biashara na Masoko); Wilson Mukama (Maji na Umwagiliaji kutoka Afya na Ustawi wa Jamii); na Blandina Nyoni (Afya na Ustawi wa Jamii kutoka Maliasili na Utalii). Aidha, Luhanjo alisema rais amemhamisha Naibu Katibu Mkuu Fanuel Mbonde kutoka Ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu (Tamisemi) kwenda Ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu. Katibu Mkuu Kiongozi alisema uteuzi wa makatibu wakuu na manaibu katibu wakuu hao unaanza mara moja.
(Source - Colleague's blog)

Mramba-It didn't have to come to this

Yesterday, a bombshell of political news shook the country: Basil Mramba, an iconic respected MP and former minister of various portfolios appeared in court (along with another former minister called Yona) charged with several counts of abusing office.
Now, Mramba earned much respect as a leader who delivered. Perhaps his most outstanding performance was that of being the first executive of the Small Industries Development Organization, an institution that grew and achieved a lot.

How did it happen? How would a man of Mramba's moral standing be caught in such a quangmire, have his systematically built reputation undone?

The likely explanation is, there seemed such confidence of untouchables who were much aware that they were not doing the right, moral thing - we all do have conscience, don't we? Here, then, we had my hero, Mramba, loyally supporting the boss man, Mkapa, who was termed, albeit wrongly by Father of Nation "Mr Clean". And getting reassured that nothing would go wrong.
It didn't have to come to the scenes above, that Kisutu court scenario, the big man himself sitting on a hard bench, not very different from the ones they sit willingly once per week every Sunday morning), and the cheering masses ("rubbering crowd" as O Henry would put it).

Did Mramba benefit financially from this abuse of office activities he is being charged with? Maybe, maybe not, but definitely he knew he was abusing power. What he was (wrongly) sure of was, he might be prosecuted for his actions.

The Alex Stewart Assayers scenario that was central to the accusations against Mramba as Financial Minister during Mkapa (at-CHOOOO!) era was largely unknown to the public. But the cheering crowds in the picture above most likely are those who remember Mramba reacting to protestations about Tz, a poor country, spending lots of foreign exchange to procure a totally unnecessary new presidential jet, publicly announcing a new jet for President would be bought no-matter what, even if it would lead to people eating grass. The jet deal, it would be found out later, was badly weighted, likely corrupt--that one and air traffic control radar.

Mramba-It didn't have to come to this.

This is what Africa needs

Why donors fear Kagame's war on graft


The Botswana Gazette

13.04.2005

http://www.gazette.bw/tbg_buhead2.htm

by Andrew M. Mwenda

  

Last week I was in Kigali, this time at the heels of a cabinet decision to impound all luxurious four wheel drive vehicles bought at government expense and driven by ministers, security and military chiefs, foreign experts and their local handlers. In a morning crackdown, all the big men and women of this republic woke up to find that police constables along the main roads were stopping and taking away their vehicles and leaving them to walk to office.

The international donor community, known all over Africa for its corrupt and profligate life styles which they indulge in the name of fighting poverty, was this time caught with their pants down. They claim to fight poverty while riding in luxurious four-wheel drive vehicles, sitting in opulently furnished offices, earning obscene salaries and living in executive mansions. In a bold act of defiance, Rwanda impounded even those vehicles belonging to donor projects. After cleaning his own government of corruption, he has now taken on the profligacy of the international aid industry and its experts are now scared.

In a discussion with President Paul Kagame, he told me that he had looked at some of the "poverty reduction" projects and they smelt bad. "There are projects here worth only $5m and when I looked at their expenses, I found that $1m was going into buying these cars, each one of them at $70,000.

Another $1m goes to buy office furniture, more $1m for meetings and entertainment, and yet another $1m as salaries for technical experts, leaving only $1m for the actual expenditure on a poverty reducing activity. Is this the way to fight poverty?" he asked as I shifted with glee in my chair.

Already, the government is auctioning these vehicles and so far has gotten over $3m from the sales. Mr Kagame has now issued a new directive, saying government should not purchase cars for its officials with more than 2,500 cc. But there is more: the government has placed a ceiling on mobile telephone expenses for all its ministers, military and security chiefs to 50,000 Rwanda Francs (Shs150, 000), and also ordered MTN Rwanda to cut off their international roaming access.

The directive also stops the holding of workshops, seminars and conferences on poverty reduction in posh hotels like the Intercontinental, Mille Collins etc, insisting they should be in government owned buildings at no cost. The order also requires all government ministries; departments and agencies to move from privately owned buildings where they pay high rents to government owned buildings.

I told Kagame that whereas some of the most highly skilled Africans are going to Europe and North=2 0America to clean streets and toilets, our development partners send us Œtechnical experts on these projects at individual monthly salaries of between $10,000 and $20,000, a salary that could pay 12 Africans of better training and experience and save this continent from severe brain drain. In fact, most of these so-called experts are a miserable, career-stranded lot in their own countries, but are dumped in Africa and other poor countries through foreign aid protocols.

Donors never shy from lecturing our governments on fiscal frugality, yet their aid driven projects are the most profligate. Of total project aid to Uganda's ministry of Health, 93 percent of it goes into technical assistance (i.e. salaries and allowances for the experts) and overheads (i.e. four wheel drive vehicles, opulent office furniture, computers, stationary, tea and cakes).

Only a miserable 7 percent of this aid goes into purchase of drugs. Now you understand why, in spite of a huge health budget, our people cannot find drugs in hospitals. We in the media have been shouting ourselves hoarse against government corruption. It is time to expose the worse forms of profligacy, which forces our governments to pile up huge sums in debt.

In fact, of the total money from the Uganda government budget to the ministry of Health, 98 percent reaches its intended beneficiaries, clearly showing that in spite of its corrupt ways, the government of Uganda is a better evi l than donors. Of total project aid to Uganda, 68 percent goes into overheads and technical assistance. Only 32 percent to its intended beneficiaries.

A few weeks ago I presented the above facts to President Yoweri Museveni and asked him to act. My heart bleeds to say he is so deeply discredited by his inability to tackle corruption in his government, and his own profligate public administration expenditure that he lacks moral authority to take on donors.

The other reason is that his regime lives off this coalition of mutual deceit with donors that both are fighting to eradicate poverty in Uganda. Kagame, however, is able to act boldly because he occupies a moral high ground in fighting corruption, has ensured fiscal frugality and also because his government pursues strategies of survival - not necessarily dependant on donor approval.

In Rwanda, ministers and other high ranking public officials resign and or are fired by the week because of allegations of corruption. From the lowest clerk in a government office to the most powerful minister or military or security chief, no one is immune to jail when they steal; none close to the president, none distant from him. You steal, you get jailed.

If there is some prima facie case that you stole, but there isn't not enough evidence to convict you in a court of law, then you are asked to resign or get fired. What a tough guy this Kagame man is!!

Tanzania Higher Education Students Loans

The system of issuing loans for students to pursue higher education--who would pay back later when employed or running businesses--is nothing new, being applied in many countries.

To Tanzania it was an introduction of change that was very much unwanted: the new loanees would ask, "why us?, Why did our parents etc receive free education but not us?" The question has a convincing answer, so the loan thing came to be accepted as a way of life, an expense like foodstuff and fuel.

The problems of implementation began. After the first faltering steps, it was apparent that the numbers going for loans was overwhelming. Off the list went those pursuing postgraduate studies. Yet the applicants were more than budgeted funds. The Board morphed its criteria by limiting beneficiaries to only those who got Division One. This was not the minimum qualifications set out by the universities, by the way. It proved disastrous--aspirants of tough UG courses such as Meidicine and Engineering figured the chances of scoring Div I with good grades in those subjects, and opted to study for easier humanities subjects. Long-term effect? A nation with short supply of professionals but full of "artists"--lawyers, linguists, historians, librarians etc etc. As employment chances are dwindling compared to number of graduates, one of the alternatives to employment would be enterpreneurship, and who would be in a better position to start an enterprise than a professional?

Then came the concept that the Board would be in a position to help more students if those with well-to-do families could receive less loans (60 - 80 percent of total financial requirement for tuition, subsistence etc). Based on a set of questions on the application forms, the Board would decide who would receive 100, 80 or 60 percent. The system seems flawed, likely from the massive paperwork resulting from the applications, and actual loans are not reflecting on true student social status. Study they must, so some students have been known to pay for the tuition using their subsistence allowances and going around campuses like beggers or surviving on unrealistic rations.

The Board had also figured a trick of making money on the side off the prospective students. They would charge TZS 10,000 (a bit less than USD 10) as a processing fee for every application form submitted. The trick lies here: the applications are required to be submitted well before the high school results are out, with candidates not even sure whether they'll meet minimum qualifications to enroll. This money is not refunded. It is a cruel little scheme, because all parents think their child is a genius if there was any genius in the world, and would gladly pay for the fee. If some study were to be done, it would reveal the Board has been making a bundle this way.

Another problem that featured around blogs/forums awhile back was that of one student being listed for lone in as many as 4 different institutions. So manual is the processing system of applications that they allow such error arising from multiple applications.

It therefore came as no surprise when students from a number of universities and colleges rose as one protesting against partial loan that has lead to much anxiety, insecurity, and more. A little girl who left her upcountry home to come pursuing a degree courses might find herself unwillingly drawn into love affair and possible dire consequences included STIs and single motherhood.

The state organs rolled anti-riot gear to campuses, donned face masks and fired tear gas at the kids. Even as this was happening in one campus, the other were coming onboard. One by one the institutions closed and students sent home. This was after the Minister in the troubled Ministry of Education had issued an announcement on media, "All students should be in their classrooms tomorrow at 7 a.m." I reflected during my entire higher education stint of several years if there had ever been a timetable where one should be in class at 7 a.m., I drew a blank. And this gentleman is a professor, no less!

I am throwing my lot with the protesting students:

• the 7 a.m. ridicule stated above is part of it.
• the other reasons is the apparent unwillingness to refuse acting by logic, through negotiations between students government and the responsible ministry.
• I also am pretty convinced that the responsible ministry has not sought funds realistically to cater for bigger enrolment and hence more loans. We know how co-operating taxpayers can be towards a good cause. Road toll levy on fuel pump sales helped building kilometers of roads. similar levying could be aimed at boosting the loans pouch--several people would like to do their postgrads if loans were availed to them, and most students who met minimum qualifications to enrol would like to do just that.
• Tanzania is the last in East Africa region in tertiary institutions enrolment figures. What did other country do to achieve that, while they all have less populations compared to that of our country?

Obama US President-elect: Long way coming...

Racism is an old-fashioned fad. The few who still clutch it could be regarded as peculiar. Possibly, looking at history of such persons it might be proved that their minds were warped by teachings of older generations (parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, their "role models"-ugh!). This sad chunk of humanity isn't much different from children who are afraid of spiders.

Black persons have been prominent world over for a long time. Those in sports has a following of a multitude of fans. Jesse Owens, Mohamed Ali, Arthur Ashe, down to today's Brian Lara and Tiger Wood. Entertainment world has Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy and a million more.

When a black person does a good turn, reporting of such story carefully shrouds anything about his origins, his colour. A Tanzanian colleague working in Silicon Valley some three years ago was awarded an information technology patent, something about routers, IP and DNS (computer jargon). We only got to know about it because of email forum with a large following of Tanzanians in diaspora. When a black person makes a hiccup, the world will hear about it. At about the time of patent I just described, another Tanzanian had slaughtered a couple of goats in his apartment in the US, some neighbour rang the cops from the noises the goats made, and prompt arrests were made. The story hit the wires and was all over the place about an African from Tanzania who murdered goats in cold blood showing high degree of cruelty to animals. Some goats that had not yet been slaughtered were "rescued".

Now, by Americans deciding solidly to elect Mr Obama, I can only say, yes, the playing field is getting level. And it is not merely campaigning for one year by Camp Obama. The trail leading to thawing of sinful souls from the days of slavery was long, hard, disherartening. With occasional spikes like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, time moved steadily on towards Obama 2009.

The tiles on that road include Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Richard Roundtree, Diana Ross, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Isaac Hayes, LeVar Burton, all. Any person of colour that threw in their lot to receive recognition of the World. Not limited to America too. We have had Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Asha-Rose Migiro, Olushegun Obasanjo, Miriam Makeba (recently deceased, RIP). African soccer stars world over has done a black man proud over years.

I'm feeling good. Things will never be the same again. The Change We Need Is Here!