Mutimba Web 2.0

Hello there,

HTML turns out to be a vital tool for the Web 2.0 audience, including bloggers and other social network users.

Below is my attempt at the same:

Hello there,

Between the wet season and me is the opening of Parliament by Republican President Rupiah Bwezani Banda.

A prestigious opening parade was displayed for him: I thought the Queen of England was visiting!!

But a few kilometers from parliament buildings, the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), an institution founded to help end health woes the country was facing after independence, faces urgent needs.

But it looks like the UTH's days are over. Wherever you look, except the new cancer ward, everything else stinks. For example, to get a bed in the so-called 'filter' ward, you have to bribe someone.

Everywhere you look, a person is laying down awaiting medical attention they won't receive. It's as if the hospital is about to be closed. Dead bodies lay on the floor unattended.

I asked a friend of mine where doctors got their motivation from and all he could do was laugh.

If what I saw at UTH on January 17, 2009 is the true meaning of responsible healthcare, I must then be living on borrowed times!!

I am hoping someone, maybe the media or the donor community or some responsible person will walk into the corridors of UTH and grab the president's attention.

How was Dr. Chituwo managing? Which parts of UTH re more important than others??

MM

Hi,

Events at one of India's leading outsourcing giants are taking a new and bitter twist: Three directors have quit after a failed 1.6 billion dollar acquisition failed to materialize.

Add insult to injury, the World Bank has banned the organization from doing any business with it, citing Satyams 'improper' benefits.

Industry analysts have been quick to downplay the damage such action will have on the outsourcing giant, but recent events are an indication Satyam may have to do more to launder its image

I hope to hear from fellow readers about how they see Satyam's future

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Mutimba

Hello there,

Merry Christmas to all out there. Its been a long year, one whose main event of interest has seen the election of an African-American to the presidency of a superpower, America.

Despite a lot of talk about his youth and lack of experience, Barack Obama defied the odds and rose to the leadership of the US empire.

But maybe that's history: The latest news has been the credit crunch, which an Obama Administration has to face.

Here in Zambia, an unpopular president, Rupiah Bwezani Banda, came to power. The outspoken Michael Sata, also known as King Cobra, lost an election that had to take place because of the death of Levy P. Mwanawasa.

I am aware that in terms of local politics, there has been strong criticism of the president for taking a break for about 10 days. The argument is that with the nation in such a deep crisis of high mealie meal prices and miners losing jobs, no one should rest!!

Wait a minute, this is Christmas, says the president. Every citizen should rest.

Whether you agree with that or not depends on how you take the latest news from the technology giant Google.

The current economic crisis requires us to be more conservative about how we spend our money, says Google in a memo to its employees

The giant is giving its employees Dreams in lieu of the usual $1,000 year-end bonuses. Those employees resident in countries where the Dream is not available shall be entitled to $400, which is the Dream's cost.

When I say Google, I am not playing games. I am talking (or writing!) about a company with a market capitalisation of over $150 billion dollars!

Our president, on his way out to his Christmas holiday in Mfuwe, said that the government would ensure jobs were found for the 1,500 miners that would lose jobs after the closure of Luanshya Copper Mines. He did not elaborate.

But pressure for explanations will grow. I am informed even Microsoft, which employs 91,000 people, is planning to shed 10% of its workforce.

The crisis is global in nature. No politician has all the answers. Even Obama's promise of 'change you can believe in' will sit on deaf ears for a moment. People will need to be patient.

Hello there,

With the central bank panicking due to a fast-depreciating kwacha, the two government owned papers have found themselves quoting the same source, but offering conflicting details.

Initial reports in The Post of December 18 were that the central bank had injected about $5 million dollars in order to stabilise the the free-falling kwacha.

The kwacha has been fast depreciating, not only due to market forces, but also weakening exports.

In the Times of Zambia of December 19, 2008, the central bank governor is quoted as agreeing with media reports of December 18. Dr. Fundanga is quoted as saying despite the $5 million off-loaded on the market to rescue the falling kwacha, the rescue would have no impact.

A sister newspaper, The Zambia Daily Mail, distances the central bank from the $5 million dollar injection.

Hello there,

Outgoing US George W. Bush seems to attract foes wherever he goes.

But the incident in Iraq in which a journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, threw a pair of shoes at him could go down in the history of diplomacy as the worst experience of any head of state giving a press conference.

Now, an American citizen, tried repeating the act by trying to stone public officials at a hearing.

“I was very much inspired by that courageous Iraqi journalist who was protesting the occupation of his country by the American and British oil companies and their governments,” Mr. Millies said.

I hope shoe-throwing does not get adopted as a way of airing grievances around the world.

MM

Fellow Countrymen,

It is almost a year since the former British High Commissioner to Zambia Alistair Harrison told a Radio Christian Voice programme, Meet the Diplomat, that the economy wouldn't suffer even when copper prices fell on the international market.

"I think that the way in which the copper industry in Zambia is going about with its business suggests that if copper prices were to drop again, there would not be the same disaster to the Zambian economy due to a number of reasons. First, because I think the Zambian economy is not dependent on copper as it used to be," he said (The Post, Monday, February 12, 2007)

Well, that has turns out to have been a false prophecy: The kwacha has actually been suffering the deepest plunge since 2005.

Former High Commissioner Harrison's sentiments, if they were not diplomacy aimed at pleasing the host government, have taken a hard beating this year.

The government, panicking and desperate to look responsible, has turned to asking mining companies to cut down on expatriate workers.

The Minister of Labour and Social Security is quoted by the government media (Times of Zambia, Mon, December 8, 2008) saying the Government told mining companies that reducing on the number of expatriates would help maintain Zambians in their jobs as the salary of an individual expatriate would cater for more than 10 Zambians (Oops!! I did not know that expatriates made so much money!)

And how can they even send their expatriates back home? The US has shed some 533,000 jobs, the worst in recent history.

Credit Suisse, an elite investment bank, is cutting 5,300 jobs. What jobs will these miners find in their countries?

The good news for now is that copper has risen to $3,315 per metric tonne in London trading, according to Bloomberg reports.

Such reports may excite companies eager for quick economic recovery, but will disappoint producers, especially those that were starting addicted to the once-high price of about $6,700 per tonne.

This are lessons even for economists: The world economy, in its currently globalised form,is prone to tectonic shifts.

Hello,

Now I see why I, in McCain's language, 'screwed up' Here is the link gives you access to interesting Slate videos.

Thanks,

Mutimba

Hello,

I enjoyed this brief video by Slatetv.com.

Frankly, efforts to embed the video proved futile.

See the link

Thanks,

MM