Teachers of the Truth vs teachers of falsehood

2 Timothy 4:3

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

Never be quick to conclude that every “man of god” who teaches what you want to hear is truly sent by God. We have teachers who have answered the call of God and others who have answered the call of ITCHING EARS. Those who answered God’s call will always teach you what will build the nature of God in you, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. While those who’ve answered the call of ITCHING EARS are so cunning to discover the things you are desperate for. They will feed your ears with falsehoods while exploiting you of everything you’ve got for their personal gain.

As a child of God, you are safe when you decide to live by the will & nature of God, & not your own.

Learn to guard your heart from worldly desires! Be thirsty for the things that lead to eternal life.

Be careful of what you let in or out

Where are you going?

What will it take for Africa, a land of numerous opportunities, most of them yet to be exploited, to come out of perpetual economic woes, even as most of her neighbors have made reasonable strides in recent years?

Of course, from time to time, all countries may go through some economic problems, but not perpetually. Sometimes it is easy to find comfort in the fact that you are not the only one going through hard times;  but going into some difficulties from a reasonably good position is not as bad as from bad to worse.

Sometime back I was listening to a radio business programme, and I learned something very interesting about monkeys. It is said that when monkeys do something right, they remember it and are able to repeat it; but when they get something wrong, they don’t remember. Which had me conclude that they don’t learn from their mistakes. This means that they are likely to keep making the same mistake over and over again, and of course, they are also likely to keep repeating that action that brought them success over and over again.

I laughed myself out on two accounts: When one looks at the problems we are facing, very few of them are new. this means that we have either accepted that there are some issues we cannot overcome or we are not able to remember what mistakes we may have made to get ourselves into problems in the first place.

On the other hand, I tried very hard to think of what we have done very well in the last fifty years or so, which we can do again to replicate that success. For a moment, in this respect alone, I wish we had the abilities of monkeys, to be able to remember and repeat the right things we may have done in our lifetime.

But in life, it is very rare that opportunities for success easily present themselves that much repeatedly. The trick is to be innovative by building knowledge and learning from your mistakes and avoiding them altogether.

I am very sure that there are times when something positive or good may have happened to an organization, but because of poor management information systems, information may not be able to figure out exactly what may have triggered or changed to bring about that success.

When such is the case, that organization may be in a worse position than monkeys, as monkeys, at least according to this particular radio programme, are able to remember the positive things they may have done to trigger success, and so, be able to repeat them.

There are also times when things really get bad and organizations cannot figure out what hit them. In such a case, just like monkeys, this organization becomes vulnerable from its failure to detect the cause of negative results. Many organizations claim that they are learning organizations, meaning that they are able to acquire knowledge and use it to respond to respond accordingly to survive and thrive in a changing and competitive business and economic environment.

Otherwise if not, then the phrase “quo vadis” which literally translates to “ where are you going?” would apply to that organization for it would be like an organization that has left its direction in the hands of fate.

Minimum Wage not at all realistic !

While the global economic crisis has had an effect on wage growth in many other countries around the globe, Southern Africa is a unique prototype, especially when compared to other regions on the continent.

For instance, Malawi has the highest inflation in the common market for East and Southern Africa, and it also boasts of one of the lowest minimum wage standards on the continent. This essentially means it is a daily struggle for the average Malawian to finance basic needs, especially considering that any slight change in fuel prices means a corresponding increase in the cost of goods and services.

Again the cost of living continues to escalate, and has been made worse by policy decisions such as changes to the VAT (Value Added Tax) Act which only serves to punish the poor even more. According to the Centre for Social Concern, an average worker needs not less than MWK 100,000 to meet their needs in a month, but there is a wide disparity between this requirement and the government recognised minimum wage which is currently at MWK 687.70 per day.

With this wage standard, government essentially says people working 30 days a month are entitled to a starting salary of MWK 20,640; which in reality is barely enough to meet the cost of basic necessities such as water and electricity. The poor weather conditions also lead to an increase in the prices of other important food items such as beans, tomatoes, onions and vegetables. As the Kwacha has continued to depreciate and lose value, any wage increments have not really been able to offset the gap.

It is high time the government started to implement policies that will translate into an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive and in turn lead to an improvement in the working conditions of Malawians, and Africans as a whole

Quality and not Quantity needed in African universities

The front cover of The Economist dated March 3-28, 2015 was headed “ The whole world is going to university, and sub headed “ Is it worth it?”

The supplement on this topic is worth reading by all who are concerned with university education, academia and policy makers. Most developing African countries are part of the global economy; not only in terms of markets, but also in terms of education.

From the supplement we learn that China produces more graduates than the USA and India combined. One would assume that as far as education is concerned, China is self-sufficient but you will find thousands of Chinese students in western universities, especially the USA. China is sending so many of its students abroad because it is interested not just in quantity but also in quality. According to researches done by Chinese scholars on universities, about 70% of the world’s best are in the USA. Britain comes next in quality of universities. We are told by the Economist that governments want top-class universities because the modern economy is driven by human capital. The goal is to nurture people who will create intellectual property and clusters of high tech companies similar to those of around Stanford and Cambridge.

Recently, there were comments by members of the public to the effect that political parties have defaulted on their promise to build more universities. Was this fair and constructive criticism ? In the present circumstances when millions of people are in dire need of food, is it prudent to divert scarce resources to building extra universities when we already have quite enough, though whether they effectively cater for the needs of the country is another matter ?

What most developing countries in Africa need at the moment aren’t extra universities. Priority should be given to the quality of research in universities. Invention and innovations these days originate in university laboratories.

We aught to be discussing the more urgent problem which is to upgrade our universities to world-class levels. Universities are crucibles of what develops into technology, and technology is the indispensable factor of production. Let us not feel contented that we have people with doctorate degrees while some are professors. Are these people comparable in quality to professors of Harvard, Oxford or Sorbonne? It is not titles that enhance the reputation of universities, but contribution to knowledge. Let there be a policy of having visiting professors. We should avoid inbreeding; there must be intellectual cross fertilisation. Human resource is a nation’s greatest asset, and these assets are outcomes of quality education.

From the Economist, we learn that in countries like France the state meets full tuition for students in public universities, but at public universities in the USA a student meets part of the costs. I think the American system is better because it encourages the spirit of self-reliance among students and enables universities to admit more students because not all the money is concentrated on the lucky few.

For general effectiveness, there should be management by objective. Having made a decision at one point in time to upgrade universities, at a later time we should demand reports on the progess made. Open ended plans are of no value.

With regards to natural intelligence, it is no disadvantage to be born in a small country. In contests between world students of mathematics, science and reading, small countries like Singapore defeat giants liken USA and Germany.

If properly organized, many can contribute to innovations and inventions. The key lies in motivation. Nothing great was ever invented by chance!

Accidents and camera-happy societies

I was on my way to town on Saturday when the ramshackle of a commuter omnibus (others prefer to call them minibus or kombi) we were travelling in got caught in traffic. The jam was caused by a beehive of activity comprising of about 20 vehicles ahead of us, as good samaritans worked on rescuing a driver trapped in a mangled wreck, following a head on collision.

Naturally, the omnibus driver quickly packed his vehicle by the roadside and called for willing passengers to alight and join the rescue effort. It was all instinctive and humanity drove men and women into action. I saw determined men, like possessed machines, firmly working on metal entrapments on the mangled wreck. Ideas flew in the air on how to rip the metal apart. Team work ensued and progress was rolling in by the minute. I felt an enormous pride to be part of a society that values life.

On the downside, there’s a breed of useless people caught up in the petty frenzy of social media and its call for instant messages and updates. While others worked their hearts out to save lives, this band of lazy minds rushed to the scene with their phones held high in their hands, fighting for angles at which to take shots of the wailing victims for instant upload on social media networks.

Kindly picture my context: 20 years ago, upon arriving at an accident scene, the only sensible thing to do was to throw your jacket and tie on the edge of the road, roll up your sleeves and clench your teeth in determination as you ripped metal apart to rescue the trapped souls.

Yes, like salivating hounds, we poke our tongues out of the corners of our mouths as we steady ourselves to shove into the crowd for the silliest thing ever- a photograph.

During the weekend I saw one muscular guy pump up his chest like an angry gorilla ready for war, hastily cutting into the crowd for what we all thought was to help with the rescue. Alas! It was all to get as close to the wailing victims as possible so he could worsen the victims’ painful battle for air with his camera flash.

Minutes later when the victims had been rushed to the hospital, the photo-happy guy was by the roadside, running a library of pictures for those who were willing to see them. his day was made and he seemed happy. This is plain cheap! Society has turned utter stupid.

People at an accident scene nowadays need to get a life; they must own their heads and control the pulp that floats inside them. Life is larger than the camera viewfinder. We are better off as unsung heroes who sacrificed their jacket to warm a bleeding victim than that showy and silly camera-obsessed oblongata that screamed his way to the front to take pictures for instagram and facebook

Let’s develop our roots

I recently came across an article online about a very inspiring Malawian woman, who came up from nearly nothing to become a PhD holder & water sanitation expert, & advocate for clean water access in rural Malawi.
You might be moved & inspired as well:

From Poverty to PhD

As a child growing up 150 kilometers outside the urban center of Malawi’s Mzimba District—a rural region characterized by illiteracy rates of about 62 percent—Beatrice Chisenga spent her evenings poring over her school books, lit by the soft glow of a heavily fumed kerosene lamp.

Exhausted from fetching firewood, pounding maize, helping cook meals for her family, attending school and walking for hours to gather water, Beatrice hunched over the small table in the center of her family’s grass thatch-roofed home, her eyes heavy with sleep and her dusty feet firmly planted in a bucket of the day’s remaining water.

Her mother knew her children’s only ticket to the city—an escape from the vicious cycle of African rural poverty—was education.

By making her kids keep their feet soaking wet for long hours after the African sun slipped below the horizon, perhaps she could keep them awake long enough to study their way out of poverty.

As it turns out, her mother was right.

Nearly 40 years later, Beatrice lives in Manchester, UK, where she earned a PhD in Project Management from the University of Salford and now serves as the African Field Director for Christian humanitarian engineering nonprofit Design Outreach.

Those long nights in the books, those buckets of water she walked miles to fetch and her unrelenting ambition were the catalyst for a life dedicated to bringing hope and change to her native land.

Education Matters

In developing countries like Malawi, which is ranked the third poorest nation in the world according to the World Bank, education and access to clean water are intertwined. Without a safe water source near a village, attending school becomes impossible.

Worldwide, nearly 700 million people lack access to safe water, and women and children spend an estimated 125 million hours each day collecting water. Many have to walk miles to a water source—often a river, stream or open well—and much of the water that is gathered is so contaminated that a child dies every 90 seconds from waterborne disease

“It’s really hard to excel in school if you don’t have clean water,” says Dr. Greg Bixler, CEO and co-founder of Design Outreach, an organization dedicated to solving the world’s water crisis through robust and reliable hand pump engineering. “The distance to collect water … puts women and children in danger of being attacked by animals or bandits. The time it takes to fetch water several times a day affects the children’s ability to attend school, and walking long distances is tiring, so it also affects their ability to study.”

To complicate the issue, many rural communities place the burden of domestic responsibility, including the long treks for water, entirely on the women and girls. In sub-Saharan Africa, Beatrice says, women often work 18 hours in a day.

Beatrice Chisenga during her University years

Beatrice knows this firsthand. Because her mother suffered from illness, Beatrice and her sister did all of their family’s household work, while her brother was excluded from such chores. “Our culture had set high expectations for a girl child in preparation for womanhood,” Beatrice says. “My mother used to state that she would like to ensure we are well-baked so as not to be ashamed should we fail to be educated and continue to live in the villages.” However, her mother ensured they worked hard in school as well.

She remembers the exhaustion that swept over her those long nights spent under the light of a kerosene lamp, her feet soaking.

She also remembers the faces of old friends who were not as fortunate as she was.

“My friend Rose was very intelligent,” Beatrice says. “Rose always attained the highest grade in our first four years of the primary school. Because of the paternal system and placing responsibility on a girl child, Rose’s mother made her drop out of school to help her look after the younger siblings, even though Rose had an elder brother . … All my life I’ve been thinking, ‘If Rose were allowed to go to school, where would she be?’”

The Fight for Water

Beatrice was the third of five children born to two primary school teachers. As early as five years old, she remembers walking up to four miles each day to gather water. As a teenager, she, like most women, became so skillful that she could balance a 20-liter bucket on her head.

While her family moved from one place to another as her parents’ jobs dictated, finding water to drink was always a challenge. Whether it was an open well, the closest river or a borehole, it was a task that took hours, and the risk of water borne disease was an ever-present threat.

One of the first drinking water sources she remembers was a river—the same river they washed their clothes and bathed in. Much of the river water closest to the bank was thick with mud and silt.

“(We thought that) as long as it was clear, that meant it was hygienic,” Beatrice says. “(So) we stepped in deeper because that was the ‘clean’ water.”

Around 1975, Beatrice’s father was transferred to a new location, Kacheche, where she saw a borehole for the first time. As promising as it seemed, the borehole was located more than a mile from the village near an agricultural station, where the government trained farmers in crop and animal management. This was the same borehole used to water the chickens, pigs and cattle.

“That water was very silty, and it was even very hard to get water from that borehole,” Beatrice says. “We waited one or two hours before the pump could produce water. Before we filled two or three pails, it was pumping dry, which meant we had to wait again for the underground water to replenish. It was very usual to be at this borehole the whole afternoon.”

Because the borehole seemed to be more trouble than it was worth, many in the village resorted yet again to water from the Kasito River, increasing vulnerability to deadly cholera and dysentery.

Like the borehole near the agricultural station, many pumps do not reach far enough into the ground to provide a consistent flow, and dysfunctional pumps are a common problem that plagues rural communities in developing countries. Some estimate that a third of the world’s hand pumps are no longer functional, leaving remote villages like those Beatrice grew up in without a reliable source of clean water.

“There was another borehole that was farther,” Beatrice says. “My mother used to wake (my sister and me) up as early as five o’clock in the morning. Most of the times we found a long queue at the borehole. We would sit down and play. You would expect to wait at least an hour at most. By the time we were back home, we had been away at least two and a half hours.”

The Shadow of Death

While waiting for water robbed villagers of their time, contaminated water threatened to take their lives. In the late 1970s, shortly before her father passed away, Beatrice experienced her own brush with death.

During this time, the Malawian government endorsed campaigns to educate local people about the importance of boiling water to combat dysentery and cholera.

“I remember the songs sung on an immunization campaign under a tree,” Beatrice recalls. “The songs were sung with passion pleading with the women not to be deceived that children are guarded against whooping cough and dysentery and deaths with African herb-medicated ropes tied around the necks or waists of the children, but boiling drinking water and treating the children with oral hydration, homemade sugar-salt water, as a first-aid measure for diarrheal diseases. Although the messages had good intentions, women who were illiterate could not comply to the sugar-salt solutions ratios. Making wrong combinations had devastating effects on the dehydrated children.”

Despite the campaign efforts, Beatrice and her family succumbed to an outbreak of dysentery, a waterborne illness that ravished their small community. For Beatrice, the disease induced months of enervating illness that almost took her life.

Even after the initial diarrhea and vomiting subsided, the illness became chronic and was so debilitating that six months after its onset, Beatrice was still unable to take that year’s final exams.

“I remember my father hired a young man with a bicycle to take me to Jombo Health Centre,” Beatrice said. “Between our school, Kacheche, where we lived and Jumbo Health Centre is a big river called Kasito River with wide banks, and often in the rainy season people were washed away and died in the river, as there was no bridge by then. My legs were tied to make sure I did not slip off. The guy managed to cross me over the river safely. When we reached the health center, I was given an injection of procaine penicillin, as I had even started coughing by then. … Despite being treated, … I never recovered. My parents started to lose hope as I could not eat and had missed going to school more than three months by then.”

As her condition deteriorated, her parents began to contact close relations, who persuaded them to seek help from African doctors. Beatrice remembers being given porridge made of water soaked in tree roots as a last-ditch effort to save her. This, too, was fruitless. At that point, her uncle decided it was time to take her to the Mzuzu city mission hospital known as St John’s.

“It was a long journey in a full bus when we arrived in Mzuzu,” she says. “I do not remember how I managed to get to the hospital, but all I remember was that I might have collapsed because the next thing I saw was (that it was) evening—it was the first time to see electricity—and nurses were handing over that I was the most critical ill patient in the ward.”

After two weeks of tests and treatment, Beatrice was sent home. Still very weak, she slept constantly and continued to miss school. As a final effort to save their daughter, Beatrice’s parents decided to take her to Ekwendeni Hospital, a Presbyterian mission under the Church of Scotland UK. “It was believed that people got better at this hospital because Dr. Irvin, a Scottish missionary and medical doctor, used to pray for patients,” Beatrice says. “This was a rumor known almost everywhere in the country by then.”

After weeks in this hospital, the doctor determined that the dysentery Beatrice had contracted caused her to develop septicaemia, a serious infection-related complication characterized by systemic inflammation and poisoning of the blood, as well as malnutrition.

Beatrice eventually recovered from the infection, but long-term effects have lingered. To this day, she is deaf in her left ear.

“Many people did not believe how I survived after being heavily hit,” Beatrice says. “I am what I am by the grace of God. Many of my fellow children did not survive who were critically ill as well.”

Changing the Story

Despite the waterborne disease that threatened to take her life, Beatrice always excelled in her studies. She and her friend Eliza, who are still close today, were the only girls to be selected by the government to attend secondary school education since their primary school opened two decades earlier at Euthini.

Beatrice (second from left) with her cousins. Embangweni Mzimba District, Malawi. 2012

“I was ambitious,” Beatrice says. “With all of that  work I was involved in (at home), I started making decisions: ‘I must get educated and get out of the rural area because I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough of carrying firewood, I’ve had enough of fetching water, I’ve had enough of pounding maize.’ … My ambition was to get educated so I could get a good job and live in the city.”

The school was called Mary Mount Secondary School and was a reputable girls’ Catholic institution in Mzuzu, a city in northern Malawi. During her time there, her mother’s “harsh” methods of teaching her the importance of education and studying stuck with her. By this time, though, she didn’t need soaked feet to keep her alert.

“At night, the prefects used to switch off all lights as per school policy at 2200 hours,” Beatrice says. “We used to sneak out and sit outside the classroom, reading using security lights in the cold. … Many times, a few of us would be reading outside … until 2 a.m.”

During her time at Mary Mount, she served as a senior student prefect and a leader of the student interdenominational Christian fellowship called Scripture Union.

Right before her final exams, her mother passed away, leaving her an orphan. Though she had always dreamed of following in her parents’ footsteps, her grades did not qualify her to go on to get her teaching degree university. Instead, she was accepted into a university dedicated to training nurses and midwives.

The nursing and midwifery diploma required completion of a four-year program, which she finished in 1989. She then worked with the government in the Mangochi District, mainly in the maternal and child health section.

“I noticed that diarrhea remained the highest killer of the children in the children’s ward as well as in the community,” she says. “I had passion and many times reflected on how I barely survived with the complications of dysentery whilst a young girl at Kacheche.”

She went back to the university to get her BSc in nursing, with a specialty in community health. “Improving the livelihoods of the rural has been my passion,” she says.

Inspired by the need for improved health care in rural communities, Beatrice worked with key international NGOs at the operational as well as managerial level to improve rural health, including safe drinking water.

The fervor she developed as a nurse led her to work with NGOs that dealt with rural health programs. Because there was no Master’s program for community health in Malawi, Beatrice moved to the UK to earn an MSc in project management and later a PhD with a focus on examining factors that influence maintenance of boreholes in a rural context.

“The particular interest arose because of the experiences of the borehole at Kacheche which is so vivid in my life,” she says. “Now, in Manyamula in the late 1980s, we saw a great development as World Vision had constructed a borehole about 1 mile from my grandfather’s house. When we went again, the borehole had broken down, and my grandmother used to say, ‘The World Vision borehole has broken down. We have gone back to draw water from the dam.’ These two lived experiences facilitated me to explore the factors that influence the maintenance of boreholes.”

Beatrice Chisenga (white blouse) in the home of her grandfather with village relatives. Manyamula, Mzimba District. 2014

Knowledge to Action

In July 2015, Dr. Beatrice Chisenga and Dr. Greg Bixler just happened to be at the same conference at Loughborough College in England, the 38^th International Water, Engineering and Development Center Conference.

After hearing Beatrice present her PhD research on how the government and NGOs can improve water supply in rural communities, Greg introduced himself and shared with her the mission of Design Outreach.

“She seemed really interested in what we were doing,” Bixler said. “I just had a gut feeling. How many people have left the village and done (what she’s doing)? It’s just amazing.”

Their initial connection led to a series of Skype conversations and the development of “a high level of trust,” Bixler says.

As a result of those conversations, Beatrice became Design Outreach’s African Field Director and is now serving as liaison between Design Outreach and the local Malawi government in a joint effort to provide improved water access for rural communities—specifically, the LifePump in Malawi and beyond.

Designed to reach depths of up to 325 feet, more than twice that of other hand pumps, the LifePump is a robust, ergonomic hand pump that makes pumping water efficient, reliable and easy for everyone—from young children to pregnant women to the elderly.

Based on a progressive cavity design, the LifePump produces water almost immediately and is still working reliably more than two years after installation in some communities. Because some traditional hand pumps are known to fail after as little as six months of continuous use, the LifePumps’s durability is crucial.

While the pump’s resilience is critical for long-term impact, the Design Outreach team also understands the importance of providing a sustainable solution through proper maintenance training and a readily available supply chain.

“Design Outreach is focusing on a very critical priority problem at an international and in-country level,” Beatrice says. “Improvement of technical capacity and the supply chain is very important. Most NGOs aren’t even involved in the supply chain. If pumps break down, there’s no spare parts. Design Outreach is interested in improving the supply chain.”

Dr. Beatrice Chisenga’s childhood is proof that a long-lasting solution is needed to prevent debilitating illness, provide opportunities for children to attend school and begin to break the cycle of poverty, particularly in the rural communities that are so close to her heart.

“Providing a sustainable LifePump is actually a great thing for the rural areas, improving their lives,” she says. “The pump is more durable and has a greater lifespan than ordinary pumps, and the fact that they have come up with a pump that can retrieve water up to 100 meters (325 feet) is a great asset.” Beatrice believes she has the knowledge and skills to help the Lifepump project excel in different countries by negotiating for sustainable project management principles, which encompass a top-down community-based management approach as proposed by UNDP.

Thanks to Dr. Beatrice Chisenga’s understanding of Malawian culture and the inner workings of the government, as well as her web of connections in her country, she has already helped Design Outreach pave the way for the LifePump to become the government standard in Malawi. “This is important for policy negotiations and strategy for introducing the LifePump in the country and beyond,” she says. According to Bixler, “that would open the door for hundreds of pumps in Malawi alone very soon.”

Beatrice says she has always been motivated to use her knowledge of improving world water access to change the story for countless people in her native land.

Now, without question, she is.

Beatrice (Left) Chisenga and a village relative. Embangweni Mzimba District, Malawi. 2014

Reflecting on her story—both the trials and triumphs over devastating illness and a male-dominated culture—Beatrice sees God’s hand at work in her life. “I was very down that I failed to (meet the requirements) for the teaching degree, but when I look back, I feel it was God’s perfect plan,” she says. “It was in 1981 when I was assured that Jesus died and saved me as a person. Since then, I have been persuaded to imagine that God had a purpose for my life, especially that I escaped death in Kacheche.”

Perhaps now, because of Beatrice’s story and the work of Design Outreach, children in rural Malawi will be influenced to have the energy and health necessary to dream big, to study hard, and to live a life drastically different than those who went before them.

Perhaps now they can find their ticket to a better life through a sustainable supply of safe drinking water provided by innovative, durable technology such as the LifePump.

– Source: http://www.doutreach.org/the-lifepump-the-story-of-a-40-year-journey-part-2/#comment-8079

Business Ethics called to question: Thieving your own

When economic conditions are tough, we expect businesses and individuals to be creative, innovative and more industrious, in order to survive. However, it would seem that while businesses are trying, if they are at all, to be more creative in finding solutions to growth and profitability, some of their employees are busy looking for ways to “steal’ from the very sources of their livelihood.

This habit has now spread to almost every type of business: shops, hotels, bars, workshops, restaurants, entertainment places, fuel stations etc. Workers at these places are on the alert, ready to grab every opportunity possible, to get something for themselves, either from their employer, or the customer, “by hook or crook.”

It is not uncommon for shop assistants, salesmen, mechanics and many others, to suggest to a customer, in most cases s total stranger, to be part of their scheme to defraud a business. A typical example includes a salesperson offering a customer the requested services, and then suggesting charging them for less. The difference is then shared between the customer and the salesperson.

While this may look attractive initially, in the final analysis the customer realizes that he or she may have taken part in a serious crime, but for very little reward, considering that in the first place, he or she was prepared to pay in full for the service or product. In some cases the customer loses, as the salesperson may be lying, especially in the case of services that they have offered more than the customer has paid for.

Customers should walk away from such offers, to avoid being involved in stealing  from other people’s businesses. You should ask yourself: “ What if this were my business, would I be happy to have my customers conniving with my staff to steal from me?” What if you are caught? How would you feel being embarrassed for taking part in theft of something which, in the first place, you were prepared to pay for ?

In most cases, the initial move is made by the sales staff, especially when a customer asks for a discount or a lower price. A person asking for a discount is not asking someone to steal.

From their side, businesses should ensure that they have adequate controls in  place. They should not leave junior staff to execute a complete transaction on their own. There should be adequate checks by responsible supervisors. I emphasize the word “responsible”, as in some cases these acts have been conducted with the support of supervisors; and such supervisors to me are not worth the name!

Controls and paying reasonable salaries can deter some staff from initiating or participating in these fraudulent activities. Training staff in ethics and the operations of a business may help them realize the importance of every Dollar to the survival of the business, which is the source of their livelihood. Although these acts can be associated with the current economic hardships, it may not be easy to root them out when things get better. the crimes will only get bigger.

Learning and Growth: Entrepreneurship

We can all think of the names of some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, Richard Branson; Steve Jobs; Larry Page; Warren Buffet etc. There are several key traits that these guys mostly share in common with each other. This might surprise you…

A familiar image of some of the more outspoken entrepreneurs  of our generation is that they do what they want, regardless of others’ opinions. Those that have read anything about Steve Jobs have heard about how difficult  he was to work for, and how hard a time he had letting go of control.

What people miss, however, is that even Jobs had a team of advisors and extremely talented employees helping power all of his decisions behind the scenes. Richard Branson named listening as one of his three most important leadership principles. The point here is that you have to listen more than you speak. While you will never be a success if you are totally reckless, you do need to take risks along the way and accept that there will be failures, as well as successes in life. Nearly every successful entrepreneur has some failures in their back log of life.

Even though Steve Jobs is no longer with us, he certainly left behind a legacy at Apple. However, many people have forgotten that at one point the Apple board, who disagreed with his decisions, ousted him as CEO. It was only after he spent time developing NeXT and Pixar, that he made a triumphant return to Apple. Steve Jobs did nit lose the heart when he was dumped from the successful company that he built. Be prepared and ready to embrace failure.

Curiosity is a fundamental trait of any successful person. Alas, too many people make their way through life without ever discovering what they’re truly passionate about. Not only do successful entrepreneurs determine what their passion is, but they make an all-out effort to ensure that they wholeheartedly follow that passion. Most entrepreneurs spend long hours running their businesses. It is much easier to devote this time if you are doing something you love.

A common misconception about successful entrepreneurs is that they are often arrogant and believe they know everything. You are likely to  find that most genuinely successful, self-made entrepreneurs are not anywhere near arrogant. However, its the vocal minority that gets all the attention. Most successful entrepreneurs are the first to admit that they do not know it all. The more they learn, the more they discover what they do not know. To truly succeed, you have to learn from your life experiences. You need to keep an open mind, and be prepared to handle criticism the right way. Remember that learning and leadership go together.

Business managers and owners find that they have enormous demands on their time. There is a real danger that you can burn out if you attempt to micromanage your business. Truly successful entrepreneurs can see a multitude of opportunities for their business to take. More importantly, they can also see that it would not be beneficial for them to pursue every opportunity that comes their way. they need to be selective and concentrate their focus on only those ideas with the greatest potential. You have to know when (and how) to say no. Truly successful entrepreneurs know that there is much more to life than just running their business. they spend quality time with their families. They take breaks and vacations. In some cases, this is an example of their learning from their past mistakes. You hear about entrepreneurs working horrendous hours; and many that do, end up experiencing eventual health problems.

If you intend to be a successful entrepreneur, you will very quickly discover that you cannot do everything by yourself. It is a physical impossibility, and you would certainly burn out. Also, any human being, no matter how intelligent, educated and experienced they are, is unlikely to have the full skill set needed to run a successful company by themselves. None of the entrepreneurs have become successful solely of their own accord. They have all built a team of loyal, creative and skilled people. To be a successful leader, you need to know how to delegate. you need to be able to allow others to become involved, and make decisions in their areas of responsibility.

China is milking Africa dry..

China’s relations to Africa are likely to get stronger this year as the world’s biggest economy appears poised to once again double its investments across the fast growing continent.

In July, China celebrated its trade with Africa anniversary in Malawi, as a sign of its integration agenda between China and countries in Africa. But has this relationship been as good for Africa as it has been for China?

As the poster child for economic growth in recent decades, China has been increasingly keen to spread its wealth and influence around. Even though the country is suffering from a slow down and is expected to achieve only single-digit growth rates in the coming years, it remains one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Its success has been, in part, the result of it being the recipient of huge amounts foreign direct investment. Another contributing factor is the BREXIT which has stirred up most of the major Euromarkets and economies.

In addition to investment projects, China has quickly become the continent’s biggest trading partner, with trade volumes of above $160 billion in 2015. As it gradually embraces the roles and responsibilities of the world’s biggest economy, China is increasingly reversing cash flow, and is expected to surpass the USA as the largest investor in other countries.

But despite the substantial investments, most of them have been routinely cast as detrimental to Africa’s overall competitiveness. The projects are dependent on deals made at the highest political levels. They lack competitive and transparent bidding processes, and most of the work force employed at these ventures has been Chinese. Promises of job creation have not been fulfilled. Further, when Africans are hired, local rules and regulations are often flouted, leading at times to poor safety.

For instance, at Chinese-run copper mines in Zambia, employees must work for two years before being eligible for safety helmets. Ventilation below ground is poor, and deadly accidents occur very often.

Adding on to this, jobs are lost to Chinese employees who are ferried to Africa for projects. An example of this may be seen by the growing Chinese presence in South Africa, which may have cost the South Africans over 60,000 jobs from 2011 to 2015. In Nigeria, the influx of low-priced Chinese textile goods has caused 80% of Nigerian companies in this industry to close.

Perhaps making matters worse are the kinds of goods that the two partners trade with each other, which have done little to change such perception. Whereas China buys natural resources (minerals and metals) mainly from Africa, African countries primarily import finished products from China, which range from machinery and electric goods, to plastics and rubber. Such an arrangement could benefit both parties, but its more often seen as China exploiting Africa’s natural resources to feed its need for industrial output.

At the same time, by exploiting cheap manufactured goods to African countries, local African companies not only become less competitive, but they also grow increasingly dependent on China. A good example of this can be seen by the crippled Zimbabwean economy (excluding other factors such as political instability, European sanctions etc.). Research has also suggested that Chinese presence has failed to bring significant skill developments, adequate technological transfer or any measurable upgrade to the productivity levels in the African part of the world.

Recently, China has become more tactful in its approach to Africa, trying to preempt the perception that its presence in Africa may be one sided only. Contrary to what many believe, China’s investment is not concentrated in countries with inadequate rule of law. the biggest recipient is in fact South Africa-though the Chinese presence is often more visible in other countries from which Western governments have shied away. (Zimbabwe s a good example here!)

Researchers have pointed out that Chinese investments are not only concentrated in natural resources: Services are the most common sector with significant investments in manufacturing as well. This suggests that China is now doing more to help African countries to build up their competitiveness.

The key is ensuring that Chinese companies operating n Africa comply with local rules and regulations. they also have to change their views of the locals, so that the latter are seen as equal business partners.

Only making such fundamental shifts can China capture people’s hearts and minds, and not just their mines.

Friday night….

There’s nothing more soothing like a well prepared fresh cup of freshly ground coffee to kick start the weekend, especially after a hard day’s work of crunching numbers and balancing accounts.

The sweet tantalizing fragrance of the freshly ground cocoa seed welcomes you as your lips make their way towards the…. (get your own cup & experience it for yourself !)