The training course on Internet for Editors and Journalism Lecturers at Tanzania Global Learning Agency (TaGLA) started 11^th and end up today Friday 15^th February. The training was given by Finish expert Mr. Piek Johansson. The training was supervised by MISA-TAN and VIKES.

It was an exclusive training, in fact we learnt and gain allot. The usefulness of the training can not be expressed. I would like to say it was the right class in the very right tine.

I am now capable to do all what I have been taught by my trainer Mr. Piek Johanesson. I wish it could be even more classes.

What is very important, the class was too practical to the sense that every trainee knows how to practice it. Also I noticed that through much practices even a person with minimum understanding can get it.

In this final day we learnt much on how to get facts through E-book, and plagiarism as well.

We also learn how to upload pictures and images from different sources both from computer files and from the Internet sites.

Conclusively; I can not express my thanks to all who contributed to this very exclusive training to us both editors and journalism lecturers. Thus my thanks go direct to MISA-TAN, VIKES, Finish government, without forgetting our trainer for giving us very good training. Finally, to Sister Cecilia for her good care throughout all five days.

Late Muammar Gaddafi, African Great Herro of his Age

China an African Friend Enemy in Production

Any fake product is now nicknamed “mchina”. It is very famous term in our country Tanzania.

The Chinese investments in Africa based on minerals, construction and trading in most cases, it has been noted. She has also invested in energy security in order to support its long term growth. As oil is a major import for China, it has been investing in refinery projects across the African continent. “Algeria, Sudan, Chad, Niger and Nigeria all have oil refinery projects funded by Chinese firms, with the Nigerian project worth $23bn alone” said Tarling-Hunter.

In the other direction, China's growing thirst for raw materials lead African state-owned enterprises to the country them natural resources, such wood and minerals (like those from the Gabonese forests). By the end of the 1990s, China had become interested in African oil, too.

Over time, African laws adapted to China's demand, laws intended to force the local transformation of raw materials for export. This led to a new kind of manufacturing in Africa, managed by the Chinese, with African workers producing exports for Chinese.

In trading China export read made goods of very low quality in Africa. In most cases she export to Africa products such cups, forks, cellular phone, radio, television sets and umbrellas to Africa Indeed, African society has a screaming need for cheap goods in large quantities. China's manufacturing industry is truly complementary to African markets, often producing more cheaply than most African manufacturers can, and with better quality. Cheap Chinese clothes and cheap Chinese cars at half the price of western ones allow African customers to suddenly rise up the purchasing power.

In the other direction, China's growing thirst for raw materials lead African state-owned enterprises to the country them natural resources, such wood and minerals (like those from the Gabonese forests). By the end of the 1990s, China had become interested in African oil, too.

The business between China and Africa is doing better, during the year 2011; the trade increased a staggering 33% from the previous year to US $166 billion. This included Chinese imports from Africa equaling US $93 billion, consisting largely of mineral ores, petroleum, and agricultural products and Chinese exports to Africa totaling $93 billion, consisting largely of manufactured goods.

Outlining the rapidly expanding trade between the African continent and China, trade between these two areas of the world increased further by over 22% year-over-year to US $80.5 billion during the first five months of the year 2012. Imports from Africa were up 25.5% to $49.6 billion during these first five months of 2012 and exports of Chinese-made products, such as machinery, electrical and consumer goods and clothing/footwear increased 17.5% to reach $30.9 billion. China remained Africa's largest trading partner during 2011 for the fourth consecutive year (starting in 2008). To put the entire trade between China and Africa into perspective, during the early 1960s trade between these two large parts of the world were in the mere hundreds of millions of dollars back then. These data are according to wikipedia.

Chinese also invested more construction companies in Africa. They are good tender winners in most of African big constructions such as roads, bridges and buildings and many others. In Nigeria they constructed a railway line from Lagos to Kano, which cost US$ 8.3b, 11,000. In Angola and Zambia they constructed Benguela railway line built with the British and linking Zambia and RDC's copper mines to Angola's Atlantic port of Lobito, was to be rebuilt by the Chinese company CIF (the project was canceled after US$3b disappeared). China is the world largest consumer of copper; In Guinea 2006, a free of charge industrial 'packtage' including: one mine, one dam, one hydroelectric central, one railway, and one refinery was proposed to the Guinea bauxite/aluminum industry by China, funded by the EximBank, which will get repaid by purchasing alumina at apreferential price. In Algeria they constructed a 1,000 km freeway. Tanzania and Zambia decades ago, the 1860 km Tazara railway is completed in 1976, with 47 bridges and 18 tunnel made by 50,000 Chinese workers. In Sudan, Chinese constructed a pipeline and oilfields; Port Sudan completed within 2 years. And in Congo they constructed barrage d'Imboulou. Information is for the assistance of Wikipedia.

The opportunities to Africans

China's oil purchases have raised oil prices, boosting the government revenues of oil exporters like Angola, Gabon and Nigeria, while hurting the other oil-importing African countries. At the same time, China's raw materials purchases have increased prices for copper, timber, and nickel, which benefit many African countries as well.

The challenges to Africans following China-Africa relations are on the fake products. The products do not stay long, and in most cases they have inside effects to the users.

Challenges

Many Africans do not afford to buy highly quality products from Europe and America despite the fact that they are quite sure the products are bests. These are the great challenge because they need product while they don’t have enough money to buy the standard ones as the result they rush for Chinese ones.  

Thursday Assignment

It was good day actually, the class based on how you can search a very specific information from google search.

Our trainer gives us ways on how you can get specific information from the general one. He also taught us on how we change language through different ways and options from the google site.

I like the lesson very much, because I had no idea how to search for the specific information from search engines. So, now I know how to search specific information, changing language, time, and search a category of news, general or otherwise.

We also leant how to use google map.  We checked different places through google map and how we go from point one to point two.

Source of poverty in Africa

The African culture of dependence from developed countries is the source of poverty in Africa. In the book ‘Dead Aid’ by Zambia Scholar Dambisa Moyo, has noted that, the current African poverty is the result of dependence from developed nations. In her book Moyo comments that African countries are poor because of aids. “African countries are poor precisely because of all that aid”

Moyo insisted that, the receipt of concessional(non-emergency) loans and grants has much same effect in Africa as the possession of a valuable natural resource: it's a kind of curse because it encourages corruption and conflict, while at the same time discouraging free enterprise.

To solve African economic problems, Moyo gave four solutions. She said in order for the African countries do developed they must, First, African can governments should follow Asian emerging markets in accessing the international bond markets and taking advantage of the falling yields paid by sovereign borrowers over the past decade.

Second, they should encourage the Chinese policy of large-scale direct investment in infrastructure. (China invested US$900 million in Africa in 2004, compared with just US$20 million in 1975.)

Third, they should continue to press for genuine free trade in agricultural products, which means that the US, the EU and Japan must scrap the various subsidies they pay to their farmers, enabling African countries to increase their earnings from primary product exports.

Fourth, they should encourage financial intermediation. Specifically, they need to foster the spread of microfinance institutions of the sort that have flourished in Asia and Latin America. They should also follow the Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto's advice and grant the inhabitants of shanty towns secure legal title to their homes, so that these can be used as collateral. And they should make it cheaper for emigrants to send remittances back home.

Moyo recounts some of the- more egregious examples of aid fuelled corruption. In the course of his disastrous reign, Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko is estimated to have stolen a sum equivalent to the entire external debt ofhis country: US$5 billion. No sooner had he requested a reduction in interest payments on the debt than he leased Concorde to fly his daughter to her wedding in the Ivory Coast. According to one estimate, at least US$IO billion - nearly half of Mrica's 2003 foreign aid receipts leave the continent every year.

She explains about political issues as another factor for African economic problem. On the political side, some 50 per cent of the continent remains under non-democratic rule. According to the Polity IV database, Africa is still home to at least eleven fully autocratic regimes (CongoBrazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, The Gambia, Mauritania, Rwanda, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda and Zimbabwe). Three African heads of state (dos Santos of Angola, Obiang of Equatorial Guinea and Bongo of Gabon) have been in power since the 1970S (having ascended to power on 2 December 1967, President Bongo has recently celebrated his fortieth year in power). Five other presidents have had a lock on power since the 1980s (Compaore ofBurkina Faso, Biya ofCameroon, Conte of Guinea, Museveni of Uganda and Mugabe of Zimbabwe). Since 1996, eleven countries have been embroiled in civil wars (Angola, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Guin"ea Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Uganda).8 And according to the May 2008 annual Global Peace Index, out ofthe ten bottom countries four African states are among the least peaceful in the world (in order, Central Mrican Republic, Chad, Sudan and Somalia) - the most of anyone continent.

There is a school of thought which argues that recipient countries view loans, which carry the burden of future repayment, as different from grants. That the prospects of repayment mean loans induce governments to use funds wisely and to mobilize taxes and maintain current levels of revenue collection. Whereas grants are viewed as free resources and could therefore perfectly substitute for a government's domestic revenues. This distinction has led many donors to push for a policy of grants instead of loans to poor countries. The logic is that much of the investment that poor countries need to make has a long gestation period before it starts to produce the kinds of changes in GDP growth that will yield the tax revenues needed to service loans. Indeed, many scholars have argued that it was precisely because many African countries have, over time, received (floating rate) loans, and not grants, to finance public investments that they became so heavily indebted, and that aid has not helped them reach their development objectives.

From what had been said by Dambisa Moyo, are almost all true. We as Africans there is no way we must avoid aids from developed countries if at all we need economic development.

It is aids that make us not to think bigger for future our continent. If will consider what Moyo suggested on four solutions to African economic problem, we must step forward.

The third day of training

On Wednesday which was the third day of our training, there were many practical exercises which merely based on fact finding through Internet. Actually I like it because the trainer gave us different ways on how one can get facts from the Internet. To be honest I dislike nothing, this is do to the fact that every thing I learnt was useful.

Another thing which is very important is making ‘link’ which many bloggers especially in Tanzania do not know. It was very good training that you can link your blog to other site. This lesson was very important cause I did not new it before therefore will be very useful on my side.

On making research, our trainer gave us assignments how to go around it. We search different facts. He gave us assignments about inflation rate of Tanzania, relationship of former Finish president to Tanzania, population of Iringa and phone number of Barrack Obama. The challenge was when we were searching for the president of Mali. During that assignment most link were providing previous one. Nevertheless at the end our trainer had shown us how to prove fact from the Internet.

Murdoch fears new age media

Rupert Murdoch who is one of the greatest world media owners addressed editors in America concerning digital age. He insisted that the coming of new media is a challenge to old media. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I come before you today with the best of intentions. My subject is one near and dear to all of us: the role of newspapers in this digital age’.

He also challenged editors to be current and cope to new media technology, the use of internet I news production and dissemination. He said there is no way journalists can escape from using new media as market needs us to do so. ‘Like many of you in this room, I’m a digital immigrant. I wasn’t weaned on the web, nor coddled on a computer.’

Murdoch stressed that, most audience nowadays do not rely on newspaper stories instead they get news from the Internet. ‘Instead, as the study illustrates, consumers between the ages of 18-34 are increasingly using the web as their medium of choice for news consumption’.

On the side, Murdoch was worrying whether media practitioners are able to make necessary culture changes to meet the new demand of the audience especially young generation between 18 – 34 years.