NEW OFFICE BEARERS ELECTED FOR S.I.D TANZANIA

The Society for International Development (SID) Tanzania Chapter on Saturday 18th June 2011 elected new office bearers for its chapter.

Mahmoud Thabit Kombo, pic coursey, Issa Michuzi

Mahmoud Thabit Kombo has been appointed chapter’s President while Richard Kasesela will serve as Vice-President. June Warioba becomes the chapter’s Secretary General, Muhidin Issa Michuzi, Programs Officer and Yasmin Said Chali is Treasurer.

Blogger Issa Michuzi

The following were elected members of the Executive Council: Ally Masoud (Kipanya), John Ulanga, Fatma Alloo, Salma Moulid and Chambi Chachage.
SID Tanzania is one of chapters of SID International and acts as an independent platform organisation, bringing together policy makers, academics, NGOs, the private sector, journalists and others to drive forward the development debate in Tanzania, and subsequently influencing the policy discussion.
Ambassador Juma Mwapachu, Vice President of SID’s Global Governing Council, said: "We are thrilled to have such thoughtful and knowledgeable members to lead SID Tanzania during this challenging period."
“We need to provide a forum for individuals and institutions that are seeking long-term solutions to issues such as good governance, food security and agriculture and gender in development to name a few” he added.

Tanzania and developing countries need better infrastructure...
(Pic courtsey Full Shangwe blog)

On his appointment, the in-coming President thanked members for the honor to serve SID Tanzania. “More than ever, we need the kind of forum that SID provides for enhanced collaboration, informed debate, and a steady focus on learning and innovation. I look forward to working in these areas with other members.”
“My colleagues and I are committed to broadening the dialogue on crucial development issues and promoting effective economic growth for our people” said Kombo.

An advert in London's underground station to attract tourists in Kenya. Jambo means hello in Swahili...Jambo means business too. Pic by F Macha

Mr. Kombo succeeds His Lordship Chief Justice, Mohammed Chande Othman.
Founded in 1957, SID is an international association of individuals and organizations concerned with sustainable economic, social and political development. SID has over 3,000 individual and institutional members in 125 countries and over 65 local chapters worldwide, including in Tanzania.

The SID meeting in progress

For more information on SID Tanzania, contact:
June Warioba,
Tel: 0782/0655 004436
Email: sidtanzania@gmail.com
sidtanzania@yahoo.com

Latest: Nkwazi's Thought Provoking Blog

Mhhh...
An interesting writer with alot to say about present African society.
I have just been reading his blog and find it extremely thoughtful and interesting. Ideas, views, thoughts and nail biting political analysis. Nkwazi Nkuzi Mhango calls his blog Free Thinking.

Some of you might have read his articles in This Day.
Check him out. You might learn a thing or two.
My favourite take on this guy's work is the balance between good language and catchy content.

Time for Bloggers to Help fight Internet Hoaxers...

There is this sad story of a chap who died recently.
In his last years he was a walking dustbin. He was picking stuff from litter, sleeping rough and mumbling to himself. A sorry sight. Prior to this deterioration I had met him a couple of times and he always showed me cuttings from international lottery brochures. They included photographs of ordinary men and women who previously poor were now wealthy so and so’s …spending holidays in huge private ships in the Caribbean, St. Lopez and Rio, like our celebrity stars and idols.
I will call him Mangi, which means Chief, in my native language, Kichagga.
Mangi thought he was a king in waiting, in other words he dreamt, walked, danced, jived and lived The Dream. It began in the mid-1990’s when he received through his letter box (in the days that spam tumbled through the door, nowadays called junk mail) Lottery letters from Hong Kong and Australia. All he had to pay was a mere Ten pounds to win 30 thousand million Dollars, tax free. Who wouldn’t want that kind of money? Even monks and the extremely religious would love it and hand it to charity. US$ 30,000,000 Tax free?
And how did I first meet Mangi?

The gorgeous, attractive wife of Mangi was sleeping with a friend of mine, who does not live in London anymore (in case you were wondering), and by the time Mangi was Sectioned and a spent case, they would openly attend functions as any other normal couple. She had given up hope with Mangi because ( he was past listening) and was spending all the money on the Australian and Hong Kong lottery; they were not even sleeping together, and she desperately wanted children and she was young and she was desperate and his ear was only glued to the lottery, the lottery, The Lottery…
In between these chimes and bells my pal introduced me to Mangi.
I was the instant friend.
“They think I am going crazy…” He confided.
“The world is so unfair, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is Freddy; they don’t believe in trying, in dreaming in winning.”( I was wondering who were They, but didn’t dare ask. Jittery folks are extra sensitive)
“Have you won anything, yet?”
He spread the sheets on the table. Lottery brochures. Many photographs of previous and current winners. Loads.
“Which one is yours?”
He sighed; tightened his lips “My time will come…”
“When?”
“Don’t doubt me Freddy. We will soon be eating with Bill Clinton (those were the pre-Bush years, before September Eleven), rocking to Mick Jagger and the Spice Girls.”
(We? Was I suddenly a Mangi too?)
As he bling bling blinged and blung blung blunged, his wife and the man who was shagging her behind his sorry ass made faces; it is still pitiful, painful panorama, recalling a decade later.
Of course Mangi the Chief never won anything and as times rolled by he wallowed further, diving deeper into the misfortune of paying, sinking into this dreadful international lottery scam.
Today these hoax lottery cons have penetrated the digital technology and as you all know it is getting more and more ferocious. It has meandered through well written spam emails telling stories about deposed world wide leaders. It sucks into topical tragedies and uses these sad events, to beg and exploit our conscience.
“Don’t share this secret with anyone, I only need your bank account to hide this money…”
Utter yak.
We all know these emails. Extending further than during the days of the late Mangi, back in 1997. Yahoo Mail winners, Spanish lottery, Amsterdam what not, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria…the desk of Ahmed Bello, the sister of former Ivory Coast Minister…Halleluyah!
The hoax letters are so ridiculous in their promises (that) it is an insult to our intelligence. The point is while those living in rich countries do not believe in this hype, it is the vulnerable poor from underdeveloped societies who are starting to believe in this ONGOING shit. I receive desperate emails (all the time). The other day a young Tanzanian student accused his uncle and parents of not helping him with a small loan to secure his sudden win.
“I have told them to just lend me 50,000 Tanzanian shillings; that I will repay them soon. What is 50 thousand shillings in front of 30 million Dollars?”
The poor boy believed he could liberate himself paying the inflation rigged East African Shilingi to win the American Dream. When Anne Lennox was singing about sweet dreams in the 1980’s she meant a Fighter's dream not this gangster led sour dreams.
I think it is time bloggers went on the case of this emotional blackmailing. This internet racket is exploiting the feelings of the poor and the vulnerable. Let us all help stop it.

Why Blogging Is Important to Us All...

WE want to shine "light on places and people other media always ignore.."
What a quote.
It comes from a non profit organisation called Global Voices and you know what? I met it's co-editor last Friday afternoon.

The lunch was fantastic. The talk was great. The ocassion... beautiful. So many adjectives.... because it was about blogging and writing.
After a one hour chat, it was camera time. Yes the visitor to London was none other than GV co-Editor, Solana Larsen, third left. To share the moment was Paula Góes, Brazilian blogger / GV Portuguese translator (second left) and Saidi Yakubu, BBC-Swahili London broadcaster and blogger from Tanzania, first right. Recognise the guy with red pants and a grin?
Global Voices is based in the legendary Harvard Law School at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, USA.

Saidi, shares food and talk with Paula and Solana. All three run some active blogs and are keen to make Global Voices' crucial, monumental work succeed.