African Designs - Africa, Art, The Web and The World

Mugabe declares himself President for Life

2006-12-15T09:32:00.000-12:00

An interesting snippet of news from the UK Independent:-

Robert Mugabe has effectively appointed himself as President-for-life in Zimbabwe after extending his present term by two years until 2010. The ruling Zanu PF party will this week endorse a controversial amendment that would maintain the 82-year-old's grip on power and prolong his country's status as an international pariah. Mr Mugabe has already given his assent for the presidential poll - currently scheduled for March 2008 - to be "harmonised" with the parliamentary elections in 2010. His cabinet, the Politburo, has already agreed, making a necessary resolution at the party's annual conference this weekend a mere formality. The proposal has also been adopted by eight of the ruling party's 10 provincial executives. The extension will take Mr Mugabe's rule up to 30 years, and put him among the select few of Africa's longest-serving despots - while scotching earlier hopes that he would step down in 2008 in order to concentrate on writing his memoirs. Under the leadership of the former school teacher, Zimbabwe has suffered a precipitous slide in living standards, life expectancy and economic output that has rooted the country at the bottom of global quality-of-life indices.

Given Zimbabwe's political, social and economic decline whilst under the rule of Mugabe, isn't it madness for us Zimbabweans to just stand by and let this happen?

Stunning views

2006-03-05T23:56:00.000-12:00

On Saturday 4th March we went walking/climbing for the afternoon. The weather was absolutely terrible - very unusual for Zimbabwe. Wet and windy, but what a lovely day it turned out to be. Our bush, hills and countryside are just so beautiful, it is hard to resist going out there, even with the fuel shortages. We initially intended to go to Domboshawa (Domboshava) but because it was so wet we thought the rocks would be too slippery. So we went out towards Ngomo Kurera, down the Domboshava Road and turned off after about 30km. We spent a lovely three hours wondering around the countryside. This is communal land so we came across quite a few people. The children were so happy and friendly which is great to see. There were some good mealie crops and lovely fresh tomotoes were being sold. A lot of the children spend their time guarding the crops from baboons, a real pest in that area. We climbed to the top of one of the gomos and having had some light refreshments proceeded to cross a small river then round the waterfall. After that we got lost but quite a few people in our party spoke Shona (the local language) so we were able to ask some of the farmers for directions back to the police station where we had left our vehicles. We had a visitor from Canada with us as well as a lady from Zambia and one from the UK, and they had a fantastic time and remarked how friendly the people were. Enjoy the pictures!

The Place for Templates

2006-02-27T00:19:00.001-12:00

There has been a lot of negativity in the industry with regards to the use of templates in web design. Critics claim a lack of creativity and churning out of hundreds of similar sites. However, I have found that it is often much more cost effective to purchase a template rather than start the design of a site from scratch. This can save you hours in time and reduce the overall cost of building the site - which makes your clients happy! This is particularly so in the case of small static HTML sites.

Some template sites that I have found useful are www.webdesignhelper.co.uk and www.webpagedesign.com.au for good quality photoshop templates. On both you can purchase a good number of templates for a small fee. One of our sites on which we utilised a template was www.chinangasafaris.com. It's a small HTML site and took a day or two to put together once I had received all the images from the client, who was on a tight budget and short timeframe.

Whilst I'm happy to use templates for smaller sites, there are a large majority of clients who have particular design requirements and who want something unique. In this case, a template will not do and you will have to spend many hours brainstorming with your teams to come up with a suitable "look and feel"!

Mozambique before and after

2006-02-23T23:00:00.000-12:00

Here are some interesting pictures taken of the Grand Beira Hotel, Mozambique from back in the "early years" and then some taken in the 1990s. I'm in Zimbabwe at the moment and we felt the tremors of the latest earthquake in Mozambique which was 7.3 on the Richter scale. Abosutely amazing as we don't get many earthquakes here. Our condolences and sympathy go out to the people of Mozambique.

We have had no power for five days now and when we felt the earth shaking we honestly thought it was some huge power surge meaning that we would get power back! Our maid was terrified by the whole thing and jumped out her window to run away from the evil spirits in her house. Just goes to show how naive we all are about earthquakes here!

Carjacking, Zimbabwe

2006-02-17T10:24:00.000-12:00

About 3hrs ago, I was the victim of an attempted carjacking. I sit here now, stunned, worried, sad and upset with two armed guards at the gate to my home. I was comming back from squash and as I stopped at the traffic lights, noticed an african guy 30ish, peering/next to my truck. The next thing I knew my window and bag had vanished! I screamed and held my hand on the hooter and "put foot" driving home, in a state of shock, two blocks away. I got home, phoned a friend and then opened my front door for some air, and there was an unknown vehicle parked at my gate! I panicked, had they followed me home? I called another friend, cancelled my bank cards and organised for a home check by the security firm - EPW Radio Monitoring THANK YOU FOR DOING WHAT I PAY YOU FOR!!!! I thanked my lucky stars this was NOT South Africa. In Zimbabwe they want your money or cell phone. In South Africa, they take your life. It is the economic and political parties of the current regime that has bought about the current extra curricula "activities". And the consequences. And civilians are the victims, as I was tonight. People have to eat. A damaged vehicle, a traumatised person (but normally I am okay!) and some thiefs who will live off the proceeds of their activities tonight. Not to mention the security firm who are now making a fortune because they are staked outside my house for the next 72hrs.

Anyway, I'm sure this blog doens't make much sense given my state of mind right now! But its better than sitting at home, VERY alone, waiting for the police and for the sun to come up. Thank you that I am still alive and that I can phone my mom tomorrow. Thank you that I was not physically hurt and thank you for making me stronger. Moments like these make me realise how blessed I am! All that was stolen from me tonight was my money and material stuff. At the end of the day they mean NOTHING. I have my life, family and friends. What more can anyone ask for? (Except that the criminals get caught, tried, convicted and sentenced duly!)

And by the way, Zim is still the greatest place to be - I might be mad but this is my home and its where my heart - bugger the politics!

Beitbridge - Musina/Messina Border Chaos.

2005-12-19T06:14:00.000-12:00

Just how the Limpopo Department of Transport can deny there is a problem with traffic in Messina, is beyond me. I spent four hours there in a traffic jam on Saturday - and moved about 100m during that four hours. The South African immigration authorities are on a go slow. We spent 2 hours waiting in a queue at South African immigration, drove out the border control area and joined the traffic jam about 10m out of the border on the South African side. The go slow means that all people exiting South Africa are being held up at the border for many hours and thus queues are forming, backing traffic up for at least 1km outside the border control area. I hear that customs officials assaulted the SABC camera crew who were trying to film the queues. Good old Africa! Outside the border, there are five lanes of traffic jammed onto one road - Look at these photos.

The South African authorities need to urgently address this problem - The "workers" at Messina are doing a great job of making peoples' holidays miserable. As for business travellers, forget it. The Zimbabwe side may be disorganised and corrupt but at least you can get through there in a reasonable amount of time!!! I for one will try never to use this border post again - it now has the reputation of being the worst border post in the world, and I can see why.

Arc de Triomphe

2005-09-02T03:49:00.000-12:00

arc-de-triumph,
originally uploaded by kermit33.

I know I've got the spelling of this wrong! Anyway, my flat mate and I visited Paris, France at the beginning of August via the Eurostar. We got one of their specials and ended up staying in a Best Western in the Latin Quarter. There is so much to do and see in Paris that we didn't actually fit everything in but it was really great. On the Friday night of arrival we went up the Eiffel tower, on the Saturday we did the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre and on the Sunday we visited Notre Dame and the Pantheon. Of course we did loads of other things like stock up on the French cheese and wine, wonder down the River Seine and generally had a great time. The people of Paris are very friendly and the transport system is easy to deal with - even if you don't speak French. The best advice I can give is to take a good guide book and just enjoy

Snowdon Climbing

2005-09-02T03:41:00.000-12:00

HPIM2934,
originally uploaded by Richard Byrom.

Over the August bank holiday we climbed Mt Snowdon. This is in the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. It is so beautiful, clean and peaceful. It's a very easy "climb" - or difficult trek but well worth a visit. And completely free as well

Bally Vaughan Game Park, Bird Sanctuary and Mwanga Lodge

2005-08-17T21:06:00.000-12:00

The website for Bally Vaughan is one of my "pro bono" web design projects. They're a worthy cause as they do a lot of good work for animals in Zimbabwe. They are located in Shamva, about 60km from Harare. I visit there quite regularly and stayed for the weekend at their game lodge, Mwanga Lodge a few months ago. They also offer elephant rides so I went on one and what an experience! It really is amazing being on the back of these majestic creatures. The elephants are friendly most of the time - but you always need to keep in mind that they are not domesticated and so can do unexpected things!

I'm working on some new photos for Bally Vaughan, so be sure to check out their photo gallery in the next week or so. I have some lovely photos of their cheetah, lions, servals and elephants. I even have one of Blossom, the Hyena, with her dinner.

The last time I visited Bally Vaughan, I took some friends' kids with me and we went to the touch farm. There, the kids can actually play with some animals - like tortoises and rabbits - and they get such pleasure out of this. We also took some underpriviledged people and that was also incredible in that they had never seen half the animals that we take for granted - and they live in the "rural" areas. They had never seen a crocodile and this is one of the commonest forms of wildlife in Zimbabwe.

Bally Vaughan has been greatly affected by the economic problems of Zimbabwe in that costs have sky-rocketed and the food for the animals is difficult to obtain. If you can get the fuel I would urge you to go out and have a look as your small entry fee helps them cover costs. They have a little tea garden and its perfect for granncy and the kids during school holidays. If you can't, then there are details of how donations can be made, on their website.

If you'd like to make a weekend out of it, book into Mwanga Lodge which is next to Bally Vaughan. They have some beautiful thatched A frame chalets which are well maintained and offer game drives, elephant rides and canoe trips.

State of the Zimbabwen Blog

2005-08-16T08:29:00.000-12:00

Zimbabwean Pundit has written an interesting article on the state of the African Blog. I'm more interested in Zimbabwe in particular at this point in time, given the draconian media laws which threaten the safety of Zimbabwean bloggers. The other problem the bloggers have though, is that whilst blogging is on the increase in Africa, internet access is very expensive for 80% of the population. And given the high cost of computers and software, the only option for many bloggers is to use internet cafes or their work place facilities. So, not only are they under threat from the Zimbabwean government and security forces, they could also get fired for "illegal" use of the internet during working hours.

This brings me to what can be done to increase internet access. The first thing obviously is to reduce costs in relation to earnings. But given that the Zimbabwe dollar is now worthless, you can earn millions and still be broke! And given that telecomms parts are paid for in hard currency, how can the cost of this be reduced?

My latest quote (obtained today) for broadband was just over 3 million Zimbabwe Dollars. And that was for a 128k link only as higher capacity is nigh impossible to get. So that equates to about US$60 per month. Please tell me, how many people in Europe or America pay that amount for their broadband access - and its probably a 1mb link!! You then have to look at earnings in relation to these exorbitant costs. Although I've been out the country for a few months, I would say that most average Zimbabweans earn between US$50 and US$70 a month. And who in their right mind would spend their entire salary on broadband access? OK, there is nothing else to buy...............but seriously, people do have to eat and pay their mortgages and educate their kids!

I know that there are cheaper options and this usually entails dial-up access. But you're lucky if you have a working phone line as once they breakdown or are hit by lightening, the telecomms provider, NetOne has no money to fix the line - or their staff are on strike for higher wages. This leaves the internet cafes, but would you honestly go in there and write your "sensitive" articles and express your opinions on a p.c. that could be being monitored by the CIO?

I really admire anyone in Zimbabwe who has the patience and, mainly, the courage to blog on political and economic areas - so please keep it up, I sure intend to.

Euston Rd, Central London on 21 July 05

2005-08-04T07:26:00.000-12:00

HPIM0082,
originally uploaded by kermit33.

Taken from 21st July incidents in London on Euston Rd. I usually get off at Warren St but not on that day!

London Bombings four weeks after

2005-08-04T01:32:00.000-12:00

Like most Londoners, I was a little bit nervous travelling in this morning. I survived the 7th July bombings and 21st July attacks with only a few photos and longer commute to show for it (which I've shared on flickr). Thank goodness for that. I am one of the lucky ones that was not injured or killed as, by sheer luck, I was running a few minutes early. However, since that day, my regular commute has been severely disrupted. Not just because of the tube lines being closed but also because of the countless security alerts every five minutes. I cannot believe the number of bags, packages etc. left unattended - people are so careless and irresponsible - and its the likes of me that end up suffering. I get paid by the hour so when I'm late in to work because some idiot left their gym bag behind on the train, I lose money!

On that selfish note, the British Police are doing a great job with the high levels of security on the tubes and trains. Their presence is reassuring but a little unnerving at the same time if that makes any sense? I know people here aren't used to armed police so it must be even worse for them. In Zimbabwe and South Africa the police are usually armed all the time so it doesn't bother us as much - Although those bright yellow jackets are a bit much on the eyes first thing in the morning after a heavy night out. Good on you guys, keep up the good work.

The Beginning

2005-08-02T01:58:00.000-12:00

The charges against Morgan Tsvingarai, leader of the MDC in Zimbabwe, have been dropped. He was found not guilty of treason charges back in 2002 as well. The Zanu PF government, led by Robert Mugabe, seem to spend a good part of their time trying to "blacklist" Morgan whilst ignoring the bribery and corruption and possibly treason? that goes on in their own party.