Malawi-CIA Factbook 28/05/2007

Background:
Established in 1891, the British protectorate of Nyasaland became the independent nation of Malawi in 1964. After three decades of one-party rule under President Hastings Kamuzu BANDA the country held multiparty elections in 1994, under a provisional constitution which came into full effect the following year. Current President Bingu wa MUTHARIKA, elected in May 2004 after a failed attempt by the previous president to amend the constitution to permit another term, struggled to assert his authority against his predecessor, culminating in MUTHARIKA quitting the political party on whose ticket he was elected into office. MUTHARIKA subsequently started his own party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and has continued with a halting anti-corruption campaign against abuses carried out under the previous regime. Increasing corruption, population growth, increasing pressure on agricultural lands, and the spread of HIV/AIDS pose major problems for the country.

Economy - overview:
Landlocked Malawi ranks among the world's least developed countries. The economy is predominately agricultural, with about 85% of the population living in rural areas. Agriculture accounts for about one-third of GDP and four-fifths of export revenues. The performance of the tobacco sector is key to short-term growth as tobacco accounts for more than half of exports. The economy depends on substantial inflows of economic assistance from the IMF, the World Bank, and individual donor nations. In 2006, Malawi was approved for relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) program. The government faces many challenges, including developing a market economy, improving educational facilities, facing up to environmental problems, dealing with the rapidly growing problem of HIV/AIDS, and satisfying foreign donors that fiscal discipline is being tightened. In 2005, President MUTHARIKA championed an anticorruption campaign. Since 2005 President MUTHARIKA'S government has exhibited improved financial discipline under the guidance of Finance Minister Goodall GONDWE


Disputes - international:
disputes with Tanzania over the boundary in Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) and the meandering Songwe River remain dormant


Population:
13,603,181 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2007 est.)

Windows Shortcuts

Windows Shortcutssource: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/compshortcuts.mspx

Useful Shortcuts:

Start + M: Minimizes all open windows
Start + Shift + M: Maximizes All Windows
Start + E: Runs Windows Explorer
Start + R: Open the RUN Dialog Box
Start + F: Open the Search Results Dialog box
Start + CTRL + F: Opens the Search Results-Computer dialog Box (if the computer is connected to a network)
Start + Pause (Break): Opens the System Properties Dialog BoxWindows System Key

Combinations:

F1: HelpCTRL + ESC: Open Start menu
ALT + TAB: Switch between open programs
ALT + F4: Quit program
SHIFT + DELETE: Delete item permanently

Windows Program Key Combinations:

CTRL + C: Copy
CTRL + X: Cut
CTRL + V: Paste
CTRL + Z: Undo
CTRL + B: Bold
CTRL + U: Underline
CTRL + I: Italic

Combinations for Shell Objects:

SHIFT + right click: Displays a shortcut menu containing alternative commands
SHIFT + double click: Runs the alternate default command (the second item on the menu)
ALT + double click: Displays properties
SHIFT + DELETE: Deletes an item immediately without placing it in the Recycle Bin

General Keyboard-Only Commands:

F1: Starts Windows Help
F10: Activates menu bar options
SHIFT + F10: Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object
CTRL + ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)
CTRL + ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT+F10 for a context menu)
ALT + DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box
ALT + TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window)
SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature

A SMATTERING OF LONDON

Why Movies about africa require white saviours

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Tarzan's children: Why movies about Africa require white saviors.

Tracing the history of the 'White folks to the rescue!' genre, from Tarzan to 'Blood Diamond.'
By Joe Queenan, JOE QUEENAN writes frequently for Barron's, the New York Times Book Review and the Guardian.
January 14, 2007

THE RELEASE OF Edward Zwick's majestic "Blood Diamond" is a bittersweet moment for film buffs, bringing to an end the stunning "Just Let Bwana Do It!" series that began with "The Interpreter" and "The Constant Gardener." In each of these movies, beleaguered black folks marooned in forlorn, blood-drenched African nations get to see justice done because of the heroic efforts of some truly fabulous white people."White Folks to the Rescue!" is a glorious tradition that stretches back at least as far as the Tarzan movies, in which a selfless Caucasian — for mysterious self-actualization reasons — has taken up residence in the bowels of the primeval forest and repeatedly ensures that truth and justice prevail in sub-Saharan Africa, something the local black community has been unable to effectuate. In all these films, the underlying theme is the same: If you're black and you're poor, and your nation is torn by horrendous strife, and your neighbors are dropping like flies, there's no reason to get down in the dumps because sooner or later the Great White Hope will come through for you. Which, of course, is exactly the way things happen in real life.

For those unfamiliar with recent film history, a recap may be in order. In "The Interpreter," Nicole Kidman plays a perky United Nations translator who is one of the few white people on the planet who can speak the esoteric southwestern Africa tribal dialect of Koo. (Angelina Jolie and Madonna, not appearing in the movie, almost certainly speak Koo, as do Bono and Martin Sheen.) Overhearing a sinister plot against the evil but freely elected black president of her country, Kidman puts her nose to the grindstone and does a pretty classy job of bailing out the millions of hapless black people from her native land who also speak Koo but never land jobs at the United Nations. Message: White folks care.

In "The Constant Gardener," the fetching Rachel Weisz plays a selfless political activist who is butchered because of her opposition to drug companies that use hapless black Africans as guinea pigs. Things look really bad when she is murdered early in the film because "Just Let Bwana Do It!" movies usually only carry that one good white person on the roster, but luckily Ralph Fiennes, a truly swell British chap, has been held in reserve, and he gallantly steps in to fill the breach. At the end of the motion picture, after Fiennes has laid down his own life for his fellow hapless black man, the rogue Big Pharma merchants of death are brought to justice, their nefarious henchmen in her majesty's government are disgraced and the black citizens of the country can once again tip their hat to the superb white fellow who has sacrificed everything for their well-being. "Blood Diamond," the final entry in the series, offers up the most ingenious plot twist of all. This time, hapless black victims of genocidal warfare inflicted by their fellow, somewhat less hapless black men receive succor from a genuinely unexpected source: a murderous, racist Rhodesian mercenary and diamond smuggler (Leonardo DiCaprio) who spends most of the film acting like a murderous, racist Rhodesian mercenary and diamond smuggler. Armed with an accent powerful enough to alter the course of the mighty Zambesi, DiCaprio finally realizes that diamonds are not forever, that there are some things more important in life than locating a precious stone worth eighty hundred million trillion billion dollars, and that you have to give back. Once again, good triumphs over evil, satanic diamond merchants are trundled off to the hoosegow and hapless black Africans can breathe a whole lot easier thanks to the ministrations of a "White Man Who Cares."

Film scholars and ethnic statisticians feverishly dispute the roots of the "Just Let Bwana Do It!" series. Some say that the "Pasty-Faced African Messiah" tradition is a subset of the American "Three Cheers for Whitey!" genre that has long thrived on these shores. Following their logic, there is a direct line from Gregory Peck's heroic Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird" to Gene Hackman's "Racist FBI Agent With a Heart of Gold" in "Mississippi Burning," and the tradition has continued in recent years with films as varied as "A Time to Kill" (white lawyer goes to bat for poor Southern blacks) "Finding Forrester" (curmudgeonly old white academic teaches the meaning of life to hapless black teen protege) and "Glory Road" (white coach with great hair leads all-black basketball squad to the NCAA championship over horrible white coach hamstrung by absurd facial prosthetic). Nor can we overlook "A Change of Habit," in which Elvis Presley played a "Doctor with a Conscience" who practices medicine in the inner city. If there were ever a movie that tapped into the theme of "Three Cheers for White Folks!" this was it. Elvis, of course, was reputed to have once said that the only thing black people could do for him was to "buy my records." What he really meant was: "The only thing black people can do for me is to take three aspirins and call me in the morning."

Personally, I am not so sure that the "Bwana" films have a homegrown American pedigree. To my mind, the series has its roots in 1951's "Cry, the Beloved Country" (mean old white South African guy builds new church for poor old black minister whose thuggish son killed the mean old white guy's truly fantabulous son). The tradition can also be seen in "The Ghost and the Darkness," in which Val Kilmer (great white hunter) and Michael Douglas (not-so-great white hunter) go gunning for a pair of marauding lions that have eaten half the population of the Sudan. Again, the underlying theme comes through loud and clear: If things are looking black, just sit tight and wait for the white folks to show up. Sooner or later, Val Kilmer will get those lions in his sights. It might take a while — the lions apparently ate about 150 Africans — but it will eventually happen. Just be patient. Whatever the case, I for one am sorry to see this string of movies come to an end. Hopefully, as with such beloved, long-running series as "Star Wars," "The Godfather," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Jeepers Creepers," the producers of these magnificent films about Africa can be persuaded to put together a few more movies to lift the hearts of black people everywhere. I personally would love to see a movie about a washed-up South Philadelphia Italian American heavyweight fast approaching 60 who flies to Nairobi just to help a hapless black African champion roughly half his age prove his mettle by facing the ultimate challenge: Going the distance with a washed-up South Philadelphia Italian American heavyweight fast approaching 60 who probably stands about 5 feet 8. But maybe that would seem too farfetched.

OF INSURANCE JARGON

Insurance being a technical occupation by virtue of the basic contracts created between Insurer and the Insured has a wealth of technical terms that the ordinary person/ 'person on the Clapham omnibus' would term as confusing and unnecessary 'jargon', brought about to confuse the insured and used to repudiate (oops! that's another one! turn down/disown/decline) insurance claims.

As an asides but in fact the EU and the UK in particular have recognised the technical nature and uniqueness of the insurance contract by exempting Insurance contracts from The UNFAIR CONTRACT TERMS ACT of 1977 and having a separate and distinct section under FINANCIAL SERVICES AUTHORITY as empowered by the FSMA 2002 which mentions the ICOB (Insurance Conduct of Business) as the regulatory domain of Insurers.

I happen to be on both sides of the rail here (Insurer and Insured) and not to take it on the chin as as an Insurer would want to explain two terms that have come to mind being 'VIS MAJOR' famously known as 'ACTS of GOD' and the term 'THIRD PARTY'.

ACTS of GOD/'Vis major'

From a layman's point of view, this has been promulgated by the masses (unfortunately from an uninformed point of view) as being an excuse by Insurers to repudiate claims by inserting it in their policies as an exception. Actually the confusion comes from the 20th Century tort of Negligence which is insurable but within its legal context has a number of defences such as 'vis major', whereby a claimant can not claim from the 'alleged tortfeasor' on injury, damage or loss that they have suffered as a result of an unforeseeable natural occurrence not within the control of the alleged tortfeasor.

Insurers cover sudden, unforeseeable and unintended losses but on some policies, a case in point being the Sub-Saharan Africa Fire named peril policy exclude perils like Earthquake, Tsunami, Bushfire (ha ha ha!) etceteras for one reason or another but mostly for historical purposes (such as adopted policy wordings left behind by original insurers from the UK that specifically excluded these items), in practice whilst most of these items are not originally included in the Fire 'named peril' policy they can be included on a 'buy-back' basis (on payment of additional premium) to make the cover applicable more comprehensive, that is you can add 'earthquake', 'riot and strike', 'malicious damage', 'sprinkler damage', etceteras cover to your basic Fire insurance cover.

The key is to use knowledgeable insurers and intermediaries (brokers), knowledge in insurance is not by virtue of company registration or to be judged by the quality of a suit the insurer/broker is wearing, it is by acquired knowledge by examination and experience, so to protect our hard earned property/assets it is recommended and advisable to used qualified insurers/brokers who would advise expertly prior to cover inception, during the cover period and when a loss has occurred. Using professionals also entitles the layman with the legal capacity and tool to sue the so called expert for Professional Negligence (breach of duty of care- Negligence Tort) if they advise you erroneously or omit to advise you effectively and you on reliance of their professional advice and as a direct consequence thereof suffer a loss which can be measured in financial terms.

THIRD PARTY

Why a third party? simple this one although not always obvious, the insurance contract has two parties; the Insured (1st Party) and the Insurer (2nd Party), the Insured may be more that one individual/firm but jointly insured therefore still one party.

The Insurance Contract is not to be confused with the tripartite relationship of the Insurer, the Intermediary and the Insured.

As far as the Insurance contract is concerned therefore, any party other than those legally privy to the contract that would want to benefit upon it or from it are a Third Party.

Happy Birthday Son

Frank you turn 8 today, thats awesome son! Daddys proud of you and loves you very much!

THE CAMERA PHONE INVENTOR

May 21, 2007

The chilling sounds of gunfire on the Virginia Tech campus. The hateful taunts from Saddam Hussein's execution.
Those videos, shot with mobile phone cameras and seen by millions, are just a couple of recent examples of the power now at the fingertips of the masses.
Even the man widely credited with inventing the camera phone in 1997 is awed by the cultural revolution he helped launch.
"It's had a massive impact because it's just so convenient," said Philippe Kahn, a tech industry maverick whose other pioneering efforts include the founding of software maker Borland, an early Microsoft competitor.
"There's always a way to capture memories and share it," he said. "You go to a restaurant, and there's a birthday and suddenly everyone is getting their camera phones out. It's amazing."
If Kahn feels a bit like a proud father when he sees people holding up their mobile phones to snap pictures, there is good reason: He jury-rigged the first camera phone while his wife was in labour with their daughter.
"We were going to have a baby and I wanted to share the pictures with family and friends," Kahn said, "and there was no easy way to do it."
So as he sat in a maternity ward, he wrote a crude program on his laptop and sent an assistant to a RadioShack store to get a soldering iron, capacitors and other supplies to wire his digital camera to his mobile phone. When Sophie was born, he sent her photo over a cellular connection to acquaintances around the globe.
A decade later, 41 per cent of American households own a camera phone "and you can hardly find a phone without a camera anymore," said Michael Cai, an industry analyst at Parks Associates.
Market researcher Gartner Inc. predicts that about 589 million mobile phones will be sold with cameras in 2007, increasing to more than 1 billion worldwide by 2010.
Mix in the internet's vast reach and the growth of the YouTube generation, and the ubiquitous gadget's influence only deepens and gets more complicated. So much so that the watchful eyes on all of us may no longer just be those of Big Brother.
"For the past decade, we've been under surveillance under these big black and white cameras on buildings and at 7-Eleven stores. But the candid camera is wielded by individuals now," said Fred Turner, an assistant professor of communications at Stanford University who specialises in digital media and culture.
The contraption Kahn assembled in a Santa Cruz labour-and-delivery room in 1997 has evolved into a pocket-friendly phenomenon that has empowered both citizen journalists and personal paparazzi.

It has prompted lawsuits - a student sued campus police at the University of California Los Angeles for alleged excessive force after officers were caught on cell-phone video using a stun gun during his arrest; and been a catalyst for change - a government inquiry into police practices ensued in Malaysia after a cell-phone video revealed a woman detainee being forced to do squats while naked.
On another scale, parents use mobile phone slideshows - not wallet photos - to show off pictures of their children, while adolescents document their rites of passage with mobile phone cameras and instantly share the images.
One of the recipients of Kahn's seminal photo email was veteran technology consultant Andy Seybold, who recalled being "blown away" by the picture.
"The fact that it got sent wirelessly on the networks those days - that was an amazing feat," Seybold said.
Kahn's makeshift photo-communications system formed the basis for a new company, LightSurf Technologies, which he later sold to VeriSign. LightSurf built "PictureMail" software and worked with mobile phone makers to integrate the wireless photo technology.
Sharp was the first to sell a commercial mobile phone with a camera in Japan in 2000. Camera phones didn't debut in the US until 2002, Kahn said.
Though Kahn's work revolved around transmitting only digital still photographs - video-related developments were created by others in the imaging and chip industries - his groundbreaking implementation of the instant-sharing via a mobile phone planted a seed.
"He facilitated people putting cameras in a phone, and he proved that you can take a photo and send it to someone with a mobile phone," Seybold said.
Kahn, 55, is well aware of how the camera phone has since been put to negative uses: sneaky shots up women's skirts, or the violent trend of "happy slapping" in Europe where youths provoke a fight or assault, capture the incident on camera and then spread the images on the web or between mobile phones.
But he likes to focus on the technology's benefits. It's been a handy tool that has led to vindication for victims or validation for vigilantes.
As Kahn heard the smattering of stories in recent years about assailants scared off by a camera phone or criminals who were nabbed later because their faces or their license plates were captured on the gadget, he said, "I started feeling it was better than carrying a gun."
And though he found the camera-phone video of the former Iraqi dictator's execution disturbing, Kahn said the gadget helped "get the truth out." The unofficial footage surreptitiously taken by a guard was vastly different from the government-issued version and revealed a chaotic scene with angry exchanges depicting the ongoing problems between the nation's factions.
Kahn also thinks the evolution of the camera phone has only just begun.
He wouldn't discuss details of his newest startup, Fullpower Technologies, which is in stealth mode working on the "convergence of life sciences and wireless," according to its website.
But, Kahn said, it will, among other things, "help make camera phones better."
AP

INTERESTING SWAHILI WORDS

Its been a while, in the meanwhile left Dar es Salaam, through the Libyan desert, Mediterenean sea into Europe, the UK to be precise, ushered into the 'health lounge' proved I had no TB (!!!*???) and was allowed entry through Heathrow, the London welcome as usual- a well of dark suited people in Terminal 4 on a Friday evening after the baggage claim, clambered into the underground train to Cockfosters and found a travel lodge in Hammersmith after a short ride on the black london cab with a very friendly Brit. Into Leicester for 2 weeks courtesy of Carol and Brian, 2 very kind and generous home folk who gave me a roof and a soft place to lie on, I am forever grateful, there are some kindnesses you can never repay....... but the Swahili language lives on in me and the following were of interest:

Machinga- means vendors in Tanzania but not in a derogatory manner. Would our Machinga district be named after vendors who Arab slave traders from Zanzibar encountered on their way to Mangochi where they briefly settled and introduced Islam?

Nywele- human head hair in Swahili, well back home the likeness is oh God! something else.

Viatu- shoes, we call them nsapato in Chichewa, obviously from the same roots- Arabic!

Ugali- nsima in chichewa but ugali in Mangochi, again straight off the east african arabs.

Kaka- Brother in swahili, same in the Nkhotakotalese! again came with the arab influence of the slave trade era, refer to Jumbe who had his slave fort in Nkhotakota.

Malaika- well I had sung along to the Mirriam Makeba song for so long but have only known recently that Malaika means angel, 'Malaika, nakupenda malaika' means 'my angel, I love you my angel'.

Ngozi- skin, not accident!

Ulimi- tongue, not farming!

Barua- letter or kalata or what some age in Malawi calls 'chibarua'.

Kupinga- to oppose.

and the rest you can guess try macho (maso), ndege (ndege), njia (njira), usivute sigara (usasute fodya), Kingereza (chingelezi), Mkate (Buledi), Mchuzi (nsuzi), vumbi (fumbi), kaputula (kabudula), kidonda (chironda), jua (dzuwa), kisonono (!?..), maji (madzi), mdomo (mlomo), Tumbo (mimba as in stomach), jino (dzino), Ua (lua), Misumari (misomali), mbwa (galu, imbwa), fisi, nyoka, kuku, nyimbo and the similarities go on............we share ancestry......definitely!