MCA offer to Tanzania was a trap to send military to Somalia

By Nyasigo Kornel

The delay of US in offering money from Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) has raised skeptical look on their aids to Tanzania, some thinking that their aids are always win-win synonym, says Government official from Ministry of Finance whose name is closed for anonym.

He says that the hidden intelligence behind Tanzania being selected among the few African countries that would benefit from MCA was United States’ lobbying to trap Tanzania in sending military to Somalia.

“Contrary, there wishes have been blocked, President Jakaya Kikwete knowing its negative side effect only offered military cadet training to Somalia transition government, this does not please US, there is silent withdrawal from their MCA promise to Tanzania,” says the official.

Last year Tanzania had a visit of Vice President of Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) John Hewko with other MCA delegates of which prior to their visit Tanzania had already selected among the countries qualifying for MCA.

Arrival of MCA vice President and directors, with such a military budget of US, Tanzania and other African countries will wait for MCA money until the third millennium.

Stop waiting for MCA and start working on your own; of course United State thought that by promising Tanzania that amount of money we would send military to Somalia.

Bravo Kikwete, these are satanic money that may bring curse to the nation.

Editorial in the Times newspaper challenged President Bush for having chosen to spend billions on tax cuts for wealthy for Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and huge military expenditure instead of keeping America's promises.

The paper reports that US’ new military budget for the year 2007/8 is USD 480 billions which is bigger in 10 per cent if to compare with last year budget.

This budget is 120 times Tanzania’s budget for the year 2006/2007.

At the same time US request more money for Iraq, Afghanistan and antiterrorism operation.

The paper reports that last October Bush requested USD 100 billions and in new financial year he requested more USD 145billions, this means that for only one year and half they are going to spend USD 245 billions for Iraq, Afghanistan and antiterrorism operation.

A total military spend is USD 726 billions that is equivalent to 940 trillion Tanzania shillings.

He is also facing challenge over his military budget spends that increases yearly despite of doing away with cold war that has been a great worry to US.

Pro. Masero Sylvanus a retired scholar in Afro-American affairs says that the so called poor countries like Tanzania have their eyes attentive to get the MCA opportunity, alleging that poor countries may not get the promise out of the money for US is already overloaded with its military budget.

He says that President Bush pledged billions of dollars in aid to poor countries when he created Millennium Challenge Account five years ago, the MCA is between a rock and hard places for there are more countries, less money and transformational challenge, yet it remain a development myth to African countries.

Robert Borosage is an analyst and person who campaigns for the future of US reported saying that US Congress answered the President's call by enacting the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) proposal into law in June 2003, appropriating $1 billion for MCA activities in 2004 and $1.5 billion in 2005. The great promise of the Millennium Challenge Account was met with tremendous hope and anticipation by the international community and the developing world.

Robert Borosage worries that the current thinking in Washington on US military spending is largely shaped by an elite policymaking community, which includes the president and the executive branch, the Pentagon, Congress, policy analysts and, of course, the media.

He says that since the end of the Cold War, America's policymakers have debated about the proper role of US military forces in the world and the appropriate level of US military spending.

Budgetary pressures have amplified the call for defense cuts, but the Clinton administration has said defense spending is "off the table," while the Republican Congress has pushed for actual increases in military spending; now it is flying over and over, that skeptics question of what is this burden?

Meanwhile, the American public has been largely a silent partner in this debate.
Borosage admits that a quick look at the top ten military spenders reveals that the United States far outspends the rest of the world. Most of the countries in the top ten are, in fact, US allies.

Worldwide military spending has steadily declined from a high of USD1.3 trillion in 1987 to USD840 billion recently, he says.

Currently, the USD 726 billion US military budget is a staggering one-third of the worldwide total, and it is going up. The Pentagon plans to steadily increase military spending through the year 2007.

But what are the threats to US security that justify increased military spending?
Policymakers often point to the so-called "rogue states," such as Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Syria and Cuba, as potential adversaries. However, when compared to the military budgets of potential adversaries, US military spending dwarfs the spending of all of them combined.

The rogue nations, the ones the Pentagon points to as supposed threats like Iran, Iraq, Cuba, and North Korea collectively spend about USD15 billion on their military each year.

Borosage says that US spends over USD 726 billion. None of them have a weapon its allies except perhaps Cuba have a weapon that can even reach our shores. So, there is no threat that justifies this military spending if your concern is the defense of the United States.

Another area where the public differs from policymakers on military spending is the Pentagon's post-Cold War strategy. For decades, the United States positioned large numbers of troops in Europe and Asia to contain the spread of communism. Today, the threat of the Soviet war machine is gone, yet US troops remain stationed abroad at their Cold War era outposts.

For instance, the United States keeps 100,000 troops in Europe and another 100,000 in Asia as part of the Pentagon's two-war strategy. This strategy calls for the United States to be prepared to wage two large-scale wars at the same time.
Americans want to keep the strongest military in the world and, of course, have it, by far. One of the problems with that is that, of course, it then allows other countries to be free riders, and we're seeing that increasingly where our allies really don't maintain a fair share of the burden. And there is this, quite generalized phenomenon where countries are happy to allow Americans to carry a lot of the weight.

Borosage raises awareness of the public that if US sustain this course and the projections are we will sustain military spending at about this level, he thinks over the next decade, you will see more and more our economy paying the price for having schools that are not top-notch, for having sewer systems that don't work, for having roads and bridges that are inefficient, for not doing the research and development that keeps US ahead of the curve economically.

Grade-grubbing undergraduates are darkly comical in education

By Nyasigo Kornel

GLANCING at the desk of Dr. Safari Josephat, an education consultant with African Education Research Alliance (AERA), you will see bunch of papers, at once you may thinks he is one of those careless dads who place anything anywhere, however, this is an arrangement of a skeptical scholar who scrutinizes different graduate certificates who scores high class and try to see whether the quality of certificates matches their performance.

The man says that his research has found the relation between what graduates score and what they score in career performance.

“Scoring A’s make papers and certificates look beautiful, for many students ‘A’ looks like ladder on which one has step on for the better, unfortunately most of those who get these A’s do not look like it, some even look like F’s,” says Dr. Safari.

The research result reveals that of 100 students who scored first class at the University level 90 perform their job within their career very well, but the worse enough is for their counterpart who get second class upper where only 20 students out of 100 hundred who got the class satisfy the needs of their employers.

Dr Safari says that even mere scholars who haven't yet taught know what undergraduates are like: they think they are much smarter than they are, they feel entitled to A's without having to work for them, they party all the time, they get their money from Daddy and don't have to work. They cheat and lie to lecturers. They just want grades and aren't interested in learning.

“We have graded reams of god-awful written assignments, received grade requests where a student admits they didn't fulfill the assignment but doesn't feel it's fair to take off as many points as the rubric specifies, and seen students come in hung over and sleep through class and come into office hours wearing expensive clothes, mini-skirts or cash into their lattes, making colleges a place where PCB should investigate for corruption,” says Dr. Safari.

Dr. Kimaro David is also lecturing various Universities in Tanzania, he says he is a flying lecturer because the course he is teaching has few professionals making him a hot cake, he says that they have caught students in blatant cheating attempts and suspected them of others, but lacked the evidence to prove anything.

Dr. Kimaro says that Universities have classes where the only thing students ask about a particular topic is whether it will be on the test.

“The above are stereotypes, but stereotypes with grains of truth throughout. My own undergraduate experience fit poorly with the above. I care deeply about learning, but was not so naive as to overlook the importance of grades,” says Dr. Kimaro in sad face with patriotic look.

In his lecturing experience and methods, he thinks that for many of the lecturers he spoke with, attention to learning and attention to grades were either or; discussion of grades and attempts to get clarification on grading standards and expectations, were often interpreted as grade-grubbing or as attempts to get lecturers to commit to certain grades before turning in assignments. Dr Kimaro found this frustrating and confusing at the time.

Steven Mwatepa is a second year student at the University of Dar es Salaam taking bachelor degree in laws, in his academic experience at the Mlimani he says that being a freshman at the college and trying to adjust to college was difficult and anxiety-producing.

“For my first year, I quite literally was studying or in class whenever I was not sleeping, eating, or attending to personal hygiene, and found the lack of support for improving my academic skills unexpected. The disparity between my freshman exhaustion and the stereotype of the partying, grade-grubbing undergraduate was darkly comical,” Mwatepa testifies.

Prof. Festo Matambo is just back from Califonia State University in USA where he used to teach Afro-America Affair at the Department of International Relations, he is now a colleague to Dr. Safari Josephat, trying to make his retirement as consultant AERA, in this account he says that students vary widely in their motivation, skills, and expectations. Some students want A’s with as little work as they can get away with and view student-teacher goals as antagonistic; some students want good grades and want to learn and expect a cooperative, mutually-trusting student-teacher relationship.

Although the former may outnumber the latter (this is an empirical question), meaning "members of the first category" when we say "students" unnecessarily punishes members of the second category, who display the behavior we want to encourage, and increases poor behavior among students who may feel that if they are going to be treated as entitled grade-grubbers, they have little to lose from actually being so.

Students, of course, also have stereotypes of teachers, and specific stereotypes of teaching assistants. Teachers are pushovers or overly strict (and, sometimes, fair); they may tell you are stupid if you ask them questions.

“Teachers are clueless, disinvested in teaching, unintelligible, haven't taught enough to be able to help students, and sometimes just behave inappropriately. I have experienced some of these myself, and heard enough representative stories to know that these stereotypes are about as accurate as teacher stereotypes of students,” says Prof. Matambo.

He says that in both situations, students and teachers are on uncertain ground. Both know that their performance in and outside of the classroom affects their careers; both know or suspect that their abilities may not be sufficient to meet their goals.

Prof Matambo advices that stereotyping the other party can help reduce blame, and stereotyping while in a group can help you bond together and attribute potential failures to lack of commitment on the part of the other party, which creates anger and resentment but can allay anxiety.

Zamoyoni Mashaka is education student at the University of Dar es Salaam and having studied at old age after being a teacher for years, he says that what the similarities between students and teachers do not change is that teachers genuinely have more power in the classroom than students, and though teachers may be unprepared and stressed and frustrated, the power to reduce mutual stereotyping is more theirs than anyone else's.

He says that still more involve remembering that many freshmen enter college socialized into identifying who they are with getting A's, who may have little else to base their sense of self on, who are entering an environment that threatens to take that away, and who have not had the time or experience necessary to develop socially appropriate ways to deal with that and who may be grasping for straws to keep that together.

“Many freshmen are also dealing with mild culture shock; high school culture carries a different set of expectations for performance and sometimes a different set of norms for appropriate behavior (including, unfortunately, plagiarism), says Zamoyoni.

A’s may make a people feel that a student is a intelligent, but good practical performance may make most feel that he is genius.

Pros and cons of the Da Vinci Code to Christianity

By Nyasigo Kornel

Author: Dan Brown
Genre: Religion, Thriller, Crime, Fiction, Mystery novel
Publisher: Doubleday (U.S.) & Bantam (UK)
Pages: 454 pages
ISBN: 0-385-50420-9
Year: 2003

The Da Vinci Code has helped perpetuate popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the history of Christianity. According to the premise of the novel, the Vatican knows it is living a lie, but continues to do so to keep itself in power.

It is a worldwide bestseller with more than 60.5 million copies in print (as of May 2006) and has been translated into 44 languages. It is thought to be the thirteenth best-selling book of all time.
As explained by Leigh Teabing to Sophie Neveu, the figure at the right hand of Jesus is supposedly not the apostle John, but Mary Magdalene.

According to the book Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ and was in fact pregnant with his child when Jesus was crucified.

The absence of a chalice in the painting supposedly indicates that Leonardo knew that Mary Magdalene was actually the Holy Grail (the bearer of Jesus' blood). This is said to be reinforced by the letter "V" that is created with the bodily positions of Jesus and Mary, as "V" is the symbol for the sacred feminine.

The apparent absence of the "Apostle John", under this interpretation, is explained by identifying John as "the Disciple Jesus loved", allegedly code for Mary Magdalene (see also Second Apocalypse of James).

The book also notes that the color scheme of their garments are inverted: Jesus wears a red blouse with royal blue cape; John/Mary wears a royal blue blouse with red cape — perhaps symbolizing two bonded halves of marriage.

Also, if you move John/Mary to Jesus's right, you will see his head fits perfectly onto Jesus' shoulder as if to lay her head on his shoulder.

According to the novel, the secrets of the Holy Grail, as kept by the Priory of Sion, are as follows: The Holy Grail is not a physical chalice, but a woman, namely Mary Magdalene, who carried the bloodline of Christ.

The Old French expression for the Holy Grail, San gréal, actually is a play on Sang réal, which literally means "royal blood" in Old French.

The Grail relics consist of the documents that testify to the bloodline, as well as the actual bones of Mary Magdalene.

The Grail relics of Mary Magdalene were hidden by the Priory of Sion in a secret crypt, perhaps beneath Rosslyn Chapel.

The Church has suppressed the truth about Mary Magdalene and the Jesus bloodline for 2000 years. This is principally because they fear the power of the sacred feminine in and of itself and because this would challenge the primacy of Saint Peter as an apostle.

Mary Magdalene was of royal descent (through the Jewish House of Benjamin) and was the wife of Jesus, of the House of David. That she was a prostitute was slander invented by the Church to obscure their true relationship.

At the time of the Crucifixion, she was pregnant. After the Crucifixion, she fled to Gaul, where she was sheltered by the Jews of Marseille. She gave birth to a daughter, named Sarah. The bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene became the Merovingian dynasty of France.

The existence of the bloodline was the secret that was contained in the documents discovered by the Crusaders after they conquered Jerusalem in 1099 (see Kingdom of Jerusalem). The Priory of Sion and the Knights Templar were organized to keep the secret.

The secrets of the Grail are connected, according to the novel, to Leonardo Da Vinci's work as follows:

Leonardo was a member of the Priory of Sion and knew the secret of the Grail. The secret is in fact revealed in The Last Supper, in which no actual chalice is present at the table. The figure seated next to Christ is not a man, but a woman, his wife Mary Magdalene.

Most reproductions of the work are from a later alteration that obscured her obvious female characteristics.

The androgyny of the Mona Lisa reflects the sacred union of male and female which is implied in the holy union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Such parity between the cosmic forces of masculine and feminine has long been a deep threat to the established power of the Church. The name Mona Lisa is actually an anagram for "Amon L'Isa", referring to the father and mother gods of Ancient Egyptian religion (namely Amun and Isis).

A number of different authors also speculate about the possibility of Jesus becoming a father. There are at least three children attributed to him, a daughter Tamar, born before the Crucifixion, and two sons Jesus (the Jesus Justus from the New Testament) and Josephes, both born after the Resurrection. Their names are now part of the common culture of conspiracy writers, however only two decades ago, when Holy Blood, Holy Grail was written, the names were never mentioned.

The royal descents that lie at the heart of The Da Vinci Code mysteries centre on the family of Josephes, who is supposed to be the grandfather of Aminadab del Graal, first of the "Fisher Kings". However the genealogies that are quoted in Grail lore appear to record too few generations, with children regularly being born to fathers in their 40s.

The mystery within the mystery

Part of the advertising campaign for the novel was that the artwork in the American version of the bookjacket held various codes, and that the reader who solved them via the author's website would be given a prize. Several thousand people actually solved the codes, and one name was randomly chosen to be the winner, with the name announced on live television, Good Morning America, in early 2004. The prize was a trip to Paris.

The five hidden puzzles reveal

That the back of the book jacket conceals latitude and longitude coordinates, written in reverse, light red on dark red. Adding one degree to the latitude gives the coordinates of the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Northern Virginia, which is the location of a mysterious sculpture called Kryptos. The coordinates were taken from part of the decrypted text of part 2 of the sculpture (part 4 has never been solved). When Brown has been asked why the coordinates are one degree off, his reply has been, "The discrepancy is intentional".
There is a secret message hidden in the text of the book flaps. The message: Is there no help for the widow's son (a reference to Freemasonry).

The words "only WW knows" can be seen on the back cover. This too is a reference to part 2 of the Kryptos sculpture.

A circle with numbers, when combined with text from the book, reveals a secret message.
There is reverse writing on the cover of the book, which is the riddle for the first cryptex.
Brown, both via his website and in person, has stated that the puzzles in the bookjacket give hints about the subject of his next novel, The Solomon Key. This repeats a theme from his earlier novels. For example, Deception Point had an encrypted message which, when solved, said, "The Da Vinci Code will surface".

In the simplified Chinese version of The Da Vinci Code, the cover has a secret text; however, this text can be easily seen. It reads: "13-3-2-1-1-8-5 O, Draconian devil! Oh, Lame Saint! P.S. Find Robert Langdon." This is the multiply encrypted clue written in invisible ink next to the dead body in the museum which kicks off the plot of the entire novel.

David A. Shugarts was the first to expose this in his book 'Secrets of the Widow's Son: The Mysteries Surrounding the Sequel to The Da Vinci Code'.

Direct inspiration

The novel is part of the exploration of alternative religious history. Its principal source book is listed as per the court case, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince's The Templar Revelation, as well as the books by Margaret Starbird.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail was stated by Dan Brown not to be amongst his primary research material for the book.

It has been claimed that The Da Vinci Code is a romanticised version of this work, which was itself based on a series of documentaries that ran on the BBC in the 1970s, all written and/or directed by Henry Lincoln.

The main similarity includes the idea that the Merovingian kings of France were descendants from the bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. In reference to Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent (two of the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail), Brown named the principal Grail expert of his story "Leigh Teabing" (an anagram of "Baigent Leigh").

Brown confirmed this during the court case. In reply to the suggestion that Lincoln was also referenced, as he has medical problems resulting in a severe limp, like the character of Leigh Teabing, Brown stated he was unaware of Lincoln's illness and the correspondence was a coincidence.

After losing before the High Court in July 12, 2006, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh appealed, unsuccessfully, to the Court of Appeal. Following the trial, it was found that the publicity had actually significantly boosted UK sales of Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

Brown has reworked themes and characters from his own earlier novel Angels and Demons, specifically the main character, Robert Langdon.

European readers and critics noted some striking similarities between the "Da Vinci Code" and a Norwegian novel, "Sirkelens ende" ("Circle's End") by Tom Egeland, published in 2001 (two years before the Da Vinci code).

Like the "Da Vinci Code", "Circle's End" involves an ancient mystery and a worldwide conspiracy, the discovery that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and an albino as one of the central characters.

Indirect inspiration

Umberto Eco's earlier Foucault's Pendulum also deals with conspiracies, codes, a chase around the monuments of Paris, including the Holy Blood conundrum (which is mentioned in passing) and the Knights Templar, but does so in a more critical fashion — it is in fact a satire about the futility of conspiracy theories and the people who believe them. Foucault's Pendulum has since been dubbed "the thinking man's The Da Vinci Code".

Foucault's Pendulum itself is reminiscent in plot, theme and structure to the earlier The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, published 13 years earlier.
Opus Dei was then cast in the role of the "evil opposition", used to destroy the bloodline. As the bloodline has never proven to be real, but merely a theory proposed in "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail", there is no direct inspiration for this.

It is believed Opus Dei's alleged controversial past allowed Brown to weave the organisation into his novel. On a symbolic level, the Priory of Sion (male and female membership and leadership, "good") and the Opus Dei (male-only leaders, "bad") are at opposite sides of the scale.

The latter is thus depicted as the attack dog of the Catholic Church, seeking to destroy the former and maintain the status quo. According to the novel, man needs woman for wholeness and, in fact, for experiencing the divine by means of sex (see the Hieros Gamos ritual)--for example, in one's orgasm, there is a short period of time when a person's mind is completely empty, when one makes contact with God.

Criticisms of The Da Vinci Code

The book generated criticism when it was first published, due to speculations and misrepresentations of core aspects of Christianity, the history of the Catholic Church, and descriptions of European art, history, and architecture. The book has received mostly negative reviews from Catholic and other Christian communities, as well as historians.

On Febrary 22, 2004, an article titled "The Last Word: The Da Vinci Con" appeared in the New York Times by writer Laura Miller. Miller attacks the Da Vinci Code on multiple levels referring to it as "based on a notorious hoax", "rank nonsense", and "bogus", as she points out how heavily the book rests on the fabrications of Pierre Plantard who in 1953 was arrested and convicted for just such frauds.

Dan Brown himself dilutes the suggestion of some of the more controversial aspects being fact on his web site: "The "FACT" page makes no statement whatsoever about any of the ancient theories discussed by fictional characters. Interpreting those ideas is left to the reader".

However, it also says that "these real elements are interpreted and debated by fictional characters", "it is my belief that some of the theories discussed by these characters may have merit." and "the secret behind The Da Vinci Code was too well documented and significant for me to dismiss." It is therefore entirely understandable why there would continue to be confusion as to what is the factual content of the book.

US Catholic bishops launched a website rebutting the key claims in the novel. The bishops are concerned about what they perceive as errors and serious mis-statements in The Da Vinci Code.

What Tanzania's entrepreneurs lack is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

By Nyasigo Kornel

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that organizations, especially corporations, have an obligation to consider the interests of customers, employees, shareholders, communities, and ecological considerations in all aspects of their operations. This obligation is seen to extend beyond their statutory obligation to comply with legislation.

The course that was conducted in TGDLC on CSR is closely linked with the principles of Sustainable Development, which argues that enterprises should make decisions based not only on financial factors such as profits or dividends, but also based on the immediate and long-term social and environmental consequences of their activities.

Today’s heightened interest in the role of businesses in society has been promoted by increased sensitivity to and awareness of environmental and ethical issues. Issues like environmental damage, improper treatment of workers, and faulty production that inconveniences or endangers customers are highlighted in the media.

In some countries government regulation regarding environmental and social issues has increased. Also, standards and laws are often set at a supranational level like what is done by the European Union.

Some investors and investment fund managers have begun to take account of a corporation’s CSR policy in making investment decisions (so-called ethical investing).

It is important to distinguish CSR from charitable donations and "good works" (i.e., philanthropy, e.g., Habitat for Humanity or Ronald McDonald House).

Corporations have often, in the past, spent money on community projects, the endowment of scholarships, and the establishment of foundations. They have also often encouraged their employees to volunteer to take part in community work and thereby create goodwill in the community, which will directly enhance the reputation of the company and strengthen its brand.
CSR goes beyond charity and requires that a responsible company take into full account its impact on all stakeholders and on the environment when making decisions. This requires the company to balance the needs of all stakeholders with its need to make a profit and reward shareholders adequately.

This holistic approach to business regards organizations as (for example) being full partners in their communities, rather than seeing them more narrowly as being primarily in business to make profits and serve the needs of their shareholders.

The scale and nature of the benefits of CSR for an organisation can vary depending on the nature of the enterprise, and are difficult to quantify, though there is a large body of literature exhorting business to adopt measures beyond financial ones.

Orlizty, Schmidt, and Rynes found a correlation between social/environmental performance and financial performance. However, businesses may not be looking at short-run financial returns when developing their CSR strategy.

The definition of CSR used within an organisation can vary from the strict "stakeholder impacts" definition used by many CSR advocates and will often include charitable efforts and volunteering.

CSR may be based within the human resources, business development or PR departments of an organisation, or may be given a separate unit reporting to the CEO or in some cases directly to the board. Some companies may implement CSR-type values without a clearly defined team or programme.

The business case for CSR within a company will likely rest on one or more of these arguments:
A CSR programme can be seen as an aid to recruitment and retention, particularly within the competitive graduate student market.

Potential recruits are increasingly likely to ask about a firm's CSR policy during an interview and having a comprehensive policy can give an advantage. CSR can also help to build a "feel good" atmosphere among existing staff, particularly when they can become involved through payroll giving, fundraising activities or community volunteering.

Managing risk is a central part of many corporate strategies. Reputations that take decades to build up can be ruined in hours through incidents such as corruption scandals or environmental accidents. These events can also draw unwanted attention from regulators, courts, governments and media. Building a genuine culture of 'doing the right thing' within a corporation can offset these risks.

In crowded marketplaces companies strive for a unique selling proposition which can separate them from the competition in the minds of consumers. CSR can play a role in building customer loyalty based on distinctive ethical values.

Several major brands, such as The Co-operative Group and The Body Shop are built on ethical values. Business service organisations can benefit too from building a reputation for integrity and best practice.

Furthermore, if the argument that Branding is a form of production, than an image of being a socially responsible corporation means that productivity is increased.
Some critics of CSR, such as the economist Milton Friedman, argue that a corporation's principal purpose is to maximize returns to its shareholders, while obeying the laws of the countries within which it works.

Others argue that the only reason corporations put in place social projects is utilitarian; that they see a commercial benefit in raising their reputation with the public or with government. Proponents of CSR, however, would suggest a number of reasons why self-interested corporations, solely seeking to maximise profits are unable to advance the interests of society as a whole.

The rule of corporate law that a corporation's directors are prohibited from any activity that would reduce profits.

Other mechanisms established to manage the principal-agent problem, such as accounting oversight, stock options, performance evaluations, deferred compensation and other mechanisms to increase accountability to shareholders.

Supporters of a more market based approach argue that: By and large, free markets and capitalism have been at the centre of economic and social development over the past two hundred years and that improvements in health, longevity or infant mortality (for example) have only been possible because economies - driven by free enterprise - have progressed.
In order to attract quality workers, it is necessary for companies to offer better pay and conditions which leads to an overall rise in standards and to wealth creation.

Investment in less developed countries contributes to the welfare of those societies, notwithstanding that these countries have fewer protections in place for workers. Failure to invest in these countries decreases the opportunity to increase social welfare.

Free markets contribute to the effective management of scarce resources. The prices of many commodities have fallen in recent years. This contradicts the notion of scarcity, and may be attributed to improvements in technology leading to the more efficient use of resources.

There are indeed occasions when externalities, such as the costs of pollution are not built into normal market prices in a free market. In these circumstances, regulatory intervention is important to redress the balance, to ensure that costs and benefits are correctly aligned.

Whilst regulation is necessary in certain circumstances, over regulation creates barriers to entry into a market. These barriers increase the opportunities for excess profits, to the delight of the market participants, but do little to serve the interests of society as a whole.
The course was conducted in collaboration with TGDLC and World Bank recently.

Tanzania Development Learning Centre (TGDLC) is a member of the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) with over 120 networked development communication hubs globally. Its core function is to enable decision makers and mid-level professionals and practitioners to access and share the wealth of knowledge and experiences available in the world through the global communication system including video conferencing, Internet, Video, CD-ROM and Print.

TGDLC is a public interest, non-profit organization, whose operations will in future be met from the income it generates. As such, the Centre will be driven by both social benefit analysis and cost-benefit analysis.

Myths and Facts about Sex Education and Condoms

By Nyasigo Kornel

Wonders of ICT in joining 10 African countries in voicing out

Although many myths abound about sex education, a large majority of parents and youth who managed to dialogue through the use of ICT at Tanzania Global Development and Learning Centre (TGDLC) agree that young people need information about both condoms and other forms of contraception and also abstinence.

Tanzania: Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs work.
Researchers done in Tanzania by Youth power Group who manage to present their opinion via ICT to other ten countries have identified no abstinence-only-until-marriage program that works to reduce sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or the incidence of pregnancy. Evaluations from 13 regions indicate that abstinence-only programs have no long term impact on teens' sexual behavior.

One program (virginity pledging) delayed the initiation of sex among pledge-takers by up to 18 months, so long as not more than 30 percent of students took the pledge.

However, once pledge-takers initiated sex and more than 88 percent of pledge-takers broke their pledge and had sex before marriage, pledgetakers had more partners in a shorter period of time and were less likely to use contraception or condoms than their non-pledging peers.
Despite later initiation of sex, pledge-takers' rates of STIs varied little from rates among their non-pledging peers.

Zambia: Sex education encourages youth to become sexually active sooner than they otherwise would have.

The counterpart in Zambia have sex education at hand where their research says that Sex education does not encourage youth to become sexually active contrary to what African society used to claim.

Analyses by leading national and international organizations—including the Zambia Medical Association, Zambia Institute of Medicine, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and World Health Organization, among others—found that comprehensive sex education programs do not encourage students to begin having sex. In fact, research shows that effective sex education programs help youth to delay the initiation of sex.

Tanzania: Teaching students about contraception and condoms encourages sexual activity and increases the chance that teens will experience pregnancy.

Teaching students about contraception and condoms does not encourage sexual activity. Instead, it increases young people's use of contraception and condoms when they do begin having sex.

Research shows that youth who use condoms at first sex are more than twice as likely to use condoms at most recent sex than are youth who did not use condoms at first sex. Several effective programs have both increased youth's use of contraception and condoms and also reduced youth's frequency of sex, number of sex partners, and/or incidence of unprotected sex.

Ethiopia: Contraceptives fail so frequently that we should only teach teens to abstain.

Research done by UNAID, WHO and Youth Alliance of Ethiopia managed to reveal that modern contraceptives are highly effective in preventing pregnancy. In a year of using no method, 85 in 100 women will experience pregnancy.

By contrast, in one year of consistent and correct use of oral contraceptives (combined or mini-pills), only three in 1,000 women will experience pregnancy; Injected contraception (such as Depo-Provera or Lunelle), only one in 1,000 women will experience pregnancy; Implants (such as Implanon), only five in 10,000 women will experience pregnancy.

The pregnancy rates for non-prescription contraceptive methods (like condoms and spermicides) are also much lower than the rates for using no contraceptive method: two in 100 women using male condoms or five in 100 women using female condoms consistently and correctly for a year will experience pregnancy compared to 85 in 100 using no method.

Even inconsistent and/or occasionally incorrect use of contraceptive methods protects women far better than using no method. Eight of 100 women using oral contraceptives incorrectly or inconsistently will experience pregnancy in a year; three in 100 women using injected contraception inconsistently will experience pregnancy in a year; and 15 of 100 women using the male condom or 21 of 100 using the female condom inconsistently or incorrectly will experience pregnancy in a year compared to 85 in 100 using no method.

Zimbabwe: Educators do not tell young people that hormonal contraceptives won't protect them against HIV and other STIs.

ICT is wonderful, it made Zimbabwe centre for youth share their knowledge with other 10 countries saying that educators and health care providers carefully and consistently advise youth that hormonal contraceptives do not protect against STIs, including HIV.

For protection against STIs, sexually active people must use condoms. In addition, sexual abstinence is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and the sexual transmission of HIV and other STIs so long as this method is used consistently and correctly.

Uganda: We shouldn't teach youth about condoms because they have high failure rates.
Remarked one of the Ugandan activity and medical doctor, Julian Rweganja that laboratory studies show that latex condoms provide an essentially impermeable barrier to particles the size of HIV and other STI pathogens.

Studies have shown that polyurethane condoms, including the female condom, also provide effective barriers against sperm, bacteria, and viruses, such as HIV.

In addition, studies clearly show that condom breakage rates in this country are less than two percent; experts say that most of the breakage and slippage is likely due to incorrect use rather than to condoms' quality.

Finally, only two of every 100 couples who use condoms correctly and consistently will experience pregnancy within one year—two pregnancies arising from an estimated 8,300 acts of sexual intercourse among the 100 couples, for a 0.02 percent per-condom failure rate.

Ghana: We shouldn't teach youth about condoms because they are not effective in preventing HIV.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a number of carefully conducted studies, employing rigorous methods and measures, have demonstrated that consistent condom use is highly effective in preventing HIV transmission. Moreover, condoms are the only technology currently available that can effectively protect people against the sexual transmission of HIV.

We shouldn't encourage youth to use condoms because they do not protect against human papillomavirus (HPV).

Condoms do provide some protection against HPV and HPV-associated diseases such as cervical dysplasia and cervical cancer.

In fact, recent studies showed that newly sexually active women who used condoms for all sex acts were significantly less likely to acquire HPV than their peers who did not use condoms consistently; and women already diagnosed with a pre-cancerous cervical condition and who used condoms consistently were much more likely to have a healthy cervix at follow-up and/or to have cleared HPV from their system than were inconsistent condom users. Among men, consistent condom users were less likely than inconsistent users to have penile HPV or HPV lesions.

The way to a greater project management revealed

By Nyasigo Kornel

To make the entire Tanzania’s generation excel in competitive world the knowledge of project management is very crucial, knowing this Tanzania Global Development and Learning Center (TGDLC) conducts course in Project management using ICT where by tutor lectured as far as abroad.

The tutor who seen on the screen with high clearity tone started his the topic on project management where he defines what the term mean. He says that Project Management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources in such a way that these resources deliver all the work required to complete a project within defined scope, quality, time and cost constraints.

He says that the first challenge of project management is to ensure that a project is delivered within defined constraints.

He admits that the second, more ambitious challenge is the optimized allocation and integration of inputs needed to meet pre-defined objectives. A project is a carefully defined set of activities that use resources (money, people, materials, energy, space, provisions, communication, quality, risk, etc.) to meet the pre-defined objectives.

A project manager, according to him is often a client representative and has to determine and implement the exact needs of the client, based on knowledge of the firm he/she is representing. The ability to adapt to the various internal procedures of the contracting party, and to form close links with the nominated representatives, is essential in ensuring that the key issues of cost, time, quality, and above all, client satisfaction, can be realized.

In whatever field, a successful project manager must be able to envisage the entire project from start to finish and to have the ability to ensure that this vision is realized.

Like any human undertaking, projects need to be performed and delivered under certain constraints. Traditionally, these constraints have been listed as scope, time, and cost. This is also referred to as the Project Management Triangle, where each side represents a constraint.

Another approach to project management is to consider the three constraints as finance, time and human resources. If you need to finish a job in a shorter time, you can throw more people at the problem, which in turn will raise the cost of the project, unless by doing this task quicker we will reduce costs elsewhere in the project by an equal amount.

Cost to develop a project depends on several variables including (chiefly): labor rates, material rates, risk management, plant (buildings, machines, etc.), equipment, and profit. When hiring an independent consultant for a project, cost will typically be determined by the consultant's or firm's per diem rate multiplied by an estimated quantity for completion.

Requirements specified for the end result. The overall definition of what the project is supposed to accomplish, and a specific description of what the end result should be or accomplish. A major component of scope is the quality of the final product. The amount of time put into individual tasks determines the overall quality of the project. Some tasks may require a given amount of time to complete adequately, but given more time could be completed exceptionally.

Over the course of a large project, quality can have a significant impact on time and cost (or vice versa).

Together, these three constraints have given rise to the phrase "On Time, On Spec, On Budget". In this case, the term "scope" is substituted with "spec(ification)".

Project objectives define target status at the end of the project, reaching of which is considered necessary for the achievement of planned benefits. They have to be formulated as S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, with Measurable (or at least evaluable) achievement, Achievable (recently Acceptable is used regularly as well), Realistic and Time terminated(bounded).

The evaluation (measurement) occures at the project closure. However a continuous guardance on the project progress should be kept by monitoring and evaluating.

Project Management tries to gain control over variables such as risk:

Potential points of failure: Most negative risks (or potential failures) can be overcome or resolved, given enough planning capabilities, time, and resources. According to some definitions (including PMBOK Third Edition) risk can also be categorized as "positive--" meaning that there is a potential opportunity, e.g., complete the project faster than expected.

Customers (either internal or external project sponsors) and external organizations (such as government agencies and regulators) can dictate the extent of three variables: time, cost, and scope. The remaining variable (risk) is managed by the project team, ideally based on solid estimation and response planning techniques. Through a negotiation process among project stakeholders, an agreement defines the final objectives, in terms of time, cost, scope, and risk, usually in the form of a charter or contract.

To properly control these variables a good project manager has a depth of knowledge and experience in these four areas (time, cost, scope, and risk), and in six other areas as well: integration, communication, human resources, quality assurance, schedule development, and procurement.

There are several approaches that can be taken to managing project activities including agile, interactive, incremental, and phased approaches.

Regardless of the approach employed, careful consideration needs to be given to clarify surrounding project objectives, goals, and importantly, the roles and responsibilities of all participants and stakeholders.

Project control is that element of a project that keeps it on-track, on-time, and within budget. Project control begins early in the project with planning and ends late in the project with post-implementation review, having a thorough involvement of each step in the process. Each project should be assessed for the appropriate level of control needed, too much control is too time consuming, too little control is too costly. Clarifying the cost to the business if the control is not implemented in terms of errors, fixes, and additional audit fees.

Regardless of the methodology used, the project development process will have the same major stages: initiation, development, production or execution, and closing/maintenance.

The initiation stage determines the nature and scope of the development.

If this stage is not performed well, it is unlikely that the project will be successful in meeting the business’s needs. The key project controls needed here is an understanding of the business environment and making sure that all necessary controls are incorporated into the project. Any deficiencies should be reported and a recommendation should be made to fix them.

After the initiation stage, the system is designed. Occasionally, a small prototype of the final product is built and tested. Testing is generally performed by a combination of testers and end users, and can occur after the prototype is built or concurrently. Controls should be in place that ensure that the final product will meet the specifications of the project charter.

Closing includes the formal acceptance of the project and the ending thereof. Administrative activities include the archiving of the files and documenting lessons learned.

Tanzania Development Learning Centre (TGDLC) is a member of the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) with over 120 networked development communication hubs globally. Its core function is to enable decision makers and mid-level professionals and practitioners to access and share the wealth of knowledge and experiences available in the world through the global communication system including video conferencing, Internet, Video, CD-ROM and Print.

TGDLC is a public interest, non-profit organization, whose operations will in future be met from the income it generates. As such, the Centre will be driven by both social benefit analysis and cost-benefit analysis.

Youth demand greater role in AIDS war

By Nyasigo Kornel

Eleven-year-old Jasmin Abdalah of Tanzania has been an HIV/AIDS activist and educator since the age of four. She would carry placards highlighting the causes and prevention of the disease, along with her journalist mother, at different HIV/AIDS awareness events.

Jasmin graduated to a chant leader at the age of six before rising to her present position of a public speaker at bus stops, hospitals and open markets. Today she is also a member of Stop Child Poverty (SCP) that is linked with Tanzania Non-governmental Organization (TANGO), a Tanzanian network of non-governmental organizations working for the uplift of children in her country.

Sharing her views and experience shortly after Video Conference held at Tanzania Global Development and Learning Centre (TGDLC) that is done every Friday and combine youth across Africa in dialogue, she says, “As a member of SCP, I use music, dance, poetry, chat shows and other forms of art to create awareness on HIV/AIDS,” the young advocate told Grassroots Features with a confidence that belies her tender years.

Annasteria Whileric, 24, of Tanzania is a broadcaster to PRT radio under RTD that broadcasts midday program about the rights of children all over Tanzania, she was also in the dialogue answering to why this is not child labor.

“I want to ensure that our voices are heard and included in government policy,” she asserts.
Twenty-four-year-old Frida Rwegashora of Bukoba felt her world crumbling when diagnosed HIV-positive six years ago.

As she lay recuperating at a recovery centre AMREF, Frida was devastated imagining the future living with AIDS.

'I was ready to give up my life,' she confesses.

'But then I got thinking of what my future held living with this disease, and eventually this motivated me to get informed about HIV/AIDS.'

Her resolve not to let the illness defeat her led her into AIDS response among youth and hence used as role model in AMREF.

Frida worked with the AMREF, an International NGO, from 2001 to 2007.
Jasmin, Grace Masanja and Frida were among a large group of young leaders from across Tanzania that converged in TGDLC during the regional youth AIDS Conference held from early in April.

Their aim was to get a firm commitment from world leaders to involve youth as equal and effective partners in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

As members of the TGDLC youth and HIV/AIDS program, a wide-ranging coalition of many organizations from 10 countries supporting meaningful participation, integration and inclusion of young people at the conference, these young advocates sought the support of governments and decision-makers for youth initiatives.

Through the TGDLC youth and HIV/AIDS program, these young people seek to be active participants and build meaningful youth-adult partnerships with scientists, programmers and decision-makers to facilitate the exchange of ideas and bring about policy change.

The young ambassadors were brought here to help figure out what can be done collectively to reach a 2015 target whereby 60 percent of youth in Sub Saharan Africa would know of HIV transmission.

Current UNAIDS statistics report that only one in three young men, and one in five young women, have knowledge of how to prevent HIV transmission.

Youth specific programs, youth-led workshops, youth organizations and youth delegates took the TGDLC Conference by storm as they advocated issues around comprehensive information and access to care and prevention services.

The three key messages of the youth force were: Involve us in decision-making that affects our lives and provide us with fully funded programs to protect ourselves; as HIV is mainly spread through sex, we need access to condoms and comprehensive sex education to protect ourselves; and we need youth-friendly health services including prevention, treatment, voluntary counseling, testing and access to harm reduction programs.

These messages were brought up in every session moderated by the youth leaders. The question they asked of each adult was - what are you going to do about it?
Natasha Diala of Zimbabwe narrated how she accidentally got infected with HIV after donating blood at her school.

Despite the conference's attention to promoting access to testing, Natasha challenged people to think about how 'it's just not right for people to be able to test for HIV if they don't have access to treatment.'

From the human rights perspective of living with HIV/AIDS to the elimination of stigma and discrimination and access to funding, the youth made it clear that it was time to deliver on providing solutions to wide-ranging challenges.

Marco Sayari, a Zambian living with HIV, highlighted the vital importance of funding in order to give HIV positive youth access to treatment, peer education and support networks.

Marco Sayari, observed that young people under 25 make up half of all new HIV infections, yet they are often excluded or ignored as key players in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

For youth leaders like Grace Masanja, a key solution is increased awareness through peer education programmes.

Acknowledging that the practice of unprotected sex is very common in her country due to poverty and illiteracy, she says: 'We should acknowledge that we are poor, and take charge of our sexuality'.

Tanzania Development Learning Centre (TGDLC) is a member of the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) with over 120 networked development communication hubs globally. Its core function is to enable decision makers and mid-level professionals and practitioners to access and share the wealth of knowledge and experiences available in the world through the global communication system including video conferencing, Internet, Video, CD-ROM and Print.

TGDLC is a public interest, non-profit organization, whose operations will in future be met from the income it generates. As such, the Centre will be driven by both social benefit analysis and cost-benefit analysis.