Mtaa wa Congo, kama nilivyoukuta jana. Hekaheka kama zamani … kupita ni lazima iwe ubavuubavu …

Tranforma katika makutano ya Mtaa wa Congo na Aggrey lilileta mtafaruku wakati nikipita pale, majira ya saa sita mchana. Kuna shoti ilitokea na kuunguza baadhi ya nyaya. Jambo hilo lilizua mtafaruku mkubwa. Katika umati huo … ilikuwa vigumu watu kujiokoa.

Wapo walioibiwa … wapo walioiba …

Ndivyo inavyoonekana. Kwa mujibu wa wafanyabiashara katika eneo hilo, tukio hilo la kulipuka halikuwa mara ya kwanza. Imetokea mara nyingi. Inafaa Tanesco wafanyie kazi jambo hili kabla matatizo makubwa hayajatokea. Tafadhali badilisheni transforma hiyo. Yawezekana muda wake umekwishapita na haifai tena kuendelea kutoa huduma.

Nimependa mchanganyiko huo wa rangi … kwa kutazama tu lakini. Mimi kuvaa … hapana. Ila ni ubunifu maridhawa. Nani anaweza kunisaidia iwapo hizo ni rangi za taifa fulani au ni kwamba imetokea tu mbunifu akabuni namna hiyo? Tuendelee kuwepo.

Zambia Insights

Friday, 13 January 2012

By Field Ruwe

They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished.

In this demes…ne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.

“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come.

When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.

“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.

I told him mine with a precautious smile.“

Where are you from?” he asked.
“Zambia.”
“Zambia!” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.”
“Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.”
“But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.”
My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.

“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked.

“Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.”

“Are you still with the IMF?” I asked.
“I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.”
“No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”
He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.”
Quett Masire’s name popped up.“Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.”
At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.
“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down. From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.“That’s white man’s country,” he said.
“We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.”
I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.”
He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.

”The smile vanished from my face.

“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”
“There’s no difference.”
“Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.”

I gladly nodded.

“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.” (Hii ni Kweli Afrika Kote Jamani!!!!)

For a moment I was wordless.\

“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”
I was thinking. He continued.

“Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.”I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested.

He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”

I held my breath.“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”

He looked me in the eye.“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure.

You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!”

I was deflated.“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure.

Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned.

“As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”He tempered his voice.

“Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand.“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something.

“Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies.

I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.
Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.

But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line.
I believe King Cobra’s reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our own car, he would throw me out.“Naupena? Fuma apa.” (Are you mad? Get out of here) Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter’s level let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters.

Let’s dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior. A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don’t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country.

Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It’s time to change our political culture. It’s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don’t be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining few of your beloved ones.

Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History

Biashara ya kuchongesha mihuri imeshamiri jijini Dar es Salaam. Wakati ambapo huenda ni biashara inayozua maswali mengi kuhusu nia za watu wanaotaka kuchongewa mihuri (jambo ambalo ni la makala nyingine), hakuna ubishi kwamba kuna kundi kubwa la vijana na wengine sasa ni watu wazima wanajipatia riziki kutokana na biashara hii. Muhuri mmoja unagharimu kati ya shilingi 4,000 hadi elfu 7,000. Inategemea uko maeneo gani ya jiji, haraka uliyo nayo, idadi ya maneno na ubora wa vifaa pamoja na kazi itakayofanyika. Ama kwa hakika, hii ni sanaa ya aina yake. Pengine ipo haja ya kuanzisha darasa maalumu kwenye vyuo vya ufundi stadi ili vijana wengi zaidi wapate kujifunza na kutumia maarifa hayo kujipatia riziki.

Mwuza karanga (kushoto) na mteja wake. Hii ni biashara nyingine ndogo inayoendesha maisha ya watu wengi hapa jijini. Dada huyu, jina kapuni, ana mwaka mmoja sasa tangu aianze. Ana mtoto mmoja. Anaishi kwenye nyumba ya kupanga. Alianza biashara hiyo kwa mtaji wa Shilingi 23,000. Hivi sasa biashara yake imefika mahali ananunua kilo kumi (10) ambazo yeye huziuza kwa siku mbili. Alianza biashara hiyo baada ya kuachika kwa mumewe. Kwa vile hakuwa na jinsi nyingine ya kujikimu yeye na mtoto wake, basi alianza biashara hii. Alijifunza kutoka kwa mama yake ambaye ameifanya kwa muda mrefu.

Kuna biashara ndogondogo za kila aina katika jiji la Dar es Salaam. Hii inatokana na ukweli kwamba idadi ya watu jijini inakua kwa kasi kubwa kuliko uwezo wake wa kutoa ajira rasmi kwa wingi. Kwa kuwa lazima maisha yaendelee basi watu hujishughulisha kwa namna mbalimbali. Na pengine hali hii ndiyo inayokuwa kivutio kwa vijana kutoka mikoani kumiminika Dar es Salaam. Ni wakati sasa Serikali ifikirie kwa makini nini cha kufanya, ikiwa ni pamoja na kufanya mazingira ya kufanya biashara ndogo yawe bora zaidi, kwa maana ya kuwa na vibanda vingi, vilivyo na standard moja, ili kulinda mazingira na kuwafanya wafanyabiashara wawe na anwani. Zaidi sana, Serikali itaweza nayo kujipatia kodi kwa kiasi kikubwa sana. Pengine kwa ongezeko la kodi kutoka sekta isiyo rasmi, kutaifanya nchi iachane na utegemezi wa wahisani.

Ni hayo tu kwa leo. Tukutane wakati mwingine.

Transport. Usafirishaji inazidi kuwa biashara kubwa nchini Tanzania. Kadiri shughuli za kiuchimi zinavyokua ndivyo sekta hiyo nayo inavyozidi kushamiri. Usafirishaji uko katika ngazi zote. Kuanzia mizigo yenye uzito mdogo kwa kutumia vyombo vidogovidogo vya usafirishaji hadi biashara kubwa. Kwa vile sisi ni nchi yenye bahari, kuna fursa kubwa sana za kuifanya biashara hii itoa mchango mkubwa zaidi katika uchumi wa nchi ikiwa ni pamoja na kutoa ajira nyingi zaidi kwa vijana wetu. Itazamwe kwa makini na kuwekewa mipango madhubuti ili kusukuma mbele taifa letu.

‘Nauza’ soka … bei chee

Nakaza msuli ili kujipatia maisha …

Na kuna wanaojipatia maisha yao ‘baharini’ … bahari ni pana, ni pana sana … tafuta nafasi yako, hutoikosa.

U.S. Bills Could Threaten the Global Internet

Written by Ivan SigalCountries U.S.A.

Ignoring the warnings of citizens and technologists, United States lawmakers are considering two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), that are a real and dangerous threat to the openness of the web everywhere in the world. In response, the Global Voices community has decided to join websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit and BoingBoing in “going dark”, and will black out the Global Voices Advocacy site for 12 hours on January 18, and display a banner on other Global Voices sites that provides more information about the proposed laws.
Print versionAt Global Voices, we understand that we, collectively, are the Internet. Our individual participation is what makes the Internet a global conversation of startling depth and variety, but this is possible only because of its open technical and legal structure. Unfortunately, there are powerful corporate and government forces who would prefer to see the openness and accessibility of the web restricted. They seek to deploy censorship and surveillance in the name of enforcing copyright, employing the very tools used to censor the Internet in authoritarian countries, such as China, Iran, and Syria.

Ignoring the warnings of citizens and technologists, United States lawmakers are considering two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), that are a real and dangerous threat to the openness of the web everywhere in the world. In response, the Global Voices community has decided to join websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit and BoingBoing in “going dark” and will black out the Global Voices Advocacy site for 12 hours on January 18, and display a banner on other Global Voices sites that provides more information about the proposed bills.

We are an international volunteer community dedicated to amplifying citizen media from around the world. In the last six years, we’ve produced more than 75,000 posts that link to blogs and other citizen content for readers in over 20 languages. Our content is free to use, and free to share. We rely on the open Internet to carry out our mission, and on social media and citizen media websites that allow for simple publication and sharing of content. Platforms like WordPress, Wikipedia, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Reddit, Tumblr, and many other online media production communities host content on which we base much of our work.

The passage of SOPA and PIPA by the United States Congress and Senate would force social media platforms and other web sites that host user-generated content to pro-actively monitor and censor users to prevent them from posting words or images that may violate copyrights. It would raise the cost of participation on these sites for all users worldwide, and could force many social media projects to shut down, especially smaller websites and businesses.

We are concerned this law would will inflict broad damage on the work of digital activists living under repressive regimes, as well as restrict basic speech freedoms around the world. Current copyright laws are occasionally misused in the U.S, and can result in de facto speech restrictions. In countries with less independent judicial systems, abuse of copyright law to repress activism is both simple and frequent.

Global Voices contributors in many countries face increasingly aggressive surveillance and censorship. Several are in prison or exile because of their online activities. Passage of these bills will send a clear message that the US government believes it is acceptable to monitor and censor citizens to identify “infringing activity” which too often is equated with political and religious dissent. Passage of SOPA and PIPA would also give the United States government a disproportionate amount of power to determine the course of the Internet. The result will be a more dangerous world for bloggers and activists, and less free speech for all.

Even though the current version of SOPA was put indefinitely on hold this week, PIPA, the Senate version of the bill, is still alive. And the issues and forces that are driving the passage of a law remain. For this reason, Global Voices is joining the Internet blackout on January 18, 2011.

Recent Global Voices Advocacy posts on SOPA/PIPA:

Trevor Tim, ”How PIPA and SOPA Violate White House Principles Supporting Free Speech and Innovation”
Katitza Rodriguez, “SOPA undermines the U.S. in its negotiations for a free, open Internet”
Weiping Li, “For Chinese Netizens, SOPA is Another Great Firewall”
Yoo Eun Lee, “Stop Online Piracy Act: The Fight Continues”

Other resources for understanding the effects of SOPA/PIPA:

Joi Ito and Ethan Zuckerman, “Why we need to stop SOPA and PIPA”
“Internet Blacklist Legislation“, Electronic Frontier Foundation, EFF’s email campaign against the legislation and EFF guide to meeting with your representatives. EFF also explains how SOPA/PIPA will hurt open source software creation.
Dan Rowinsky, “What You Need to Know about SOPA in 2012“,
Wikipedia, “Stop Online Piracy Act”
Rebecca MacKinnon and Ivan Sigal, “Online piracy laws must preserve Web freedom, CNN.”
What you can do:

If you are an American citizen, Americancensorship.org can help you to quickly communicate with your elected representatives, or help you to join the strike. Learn more about the strike at www.sopastrike.com.

“I am writing to you as a voter in your district. I urge you to oppose the Senate version of S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act. The PROTECT IP Act is dangerous, ineffective, and short-sighted. The House version — just introduced by Rep. Goodlatte — is far worse.

Over coming days you’ll be hearing from the many businesses, advocacy organizations, and ordinary Americans who oppose this legislation because of the myriad ways in which it will stifle free speech and innovation. We hope you’ll take our concerns to heart and oppose this legislation.”

Tuungane kupinga upitishwaji wa Sheria hiyo na Congress ya Marekani kwani ni sheria inayolenga kukandamiza uhuru wetu wa kutumia Internet na kuwasiliana kama watu huru, wenye haki ya kupata habari na kutoa habari kikamilifu pasipo kuwekewa masharti. Pinga SOPA. Pinga SOPA sasa! Ungana na wanaharakati wengine popote walipo ulimwenguni.

Tukijitosheleza kwa shibe … maendeleo mengine yatafuata. Ni muhimu tuhakikishe tunazalisha chakula cha kutosha na hata kuwa na ziada. Siku hizi nimekuwa nikisikia msemo huu: Adui yako, mwombee njaa. Nadhani kuna hekima kubwa nyuma yake, kwani tunaweza kuugeuza msemo huo na kusema ‘Tujiletee fanaka ili kuwa na fanaka zaidi’. Chakula. Kilimo kwanza. Kilimo cha kufa na kupona. Kilimo ni uti wa mgongo. Sasa MANENO pembeni na tufanye KAZI!

What’s this?

We all like news, don’t we? Ignoring even money on the side!

Where our money is … the question is ‘how safe is it there?’

The harbour view …

… it’s not only the water that’s meant to flow through the tunnel … we must consider all other things that come with it … tree branches, the dirty, mud and so much more … that is … if we want our bridges to be safe from flush floods …