Sir Nigel's Journey…

This video spoke to me – truly inspired by this speech and indeed what the university he cofounded is doing in Ghana – www.ashesi.edu.gh

Simply inspiring…

Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God.
Painful moments, trust God.
Every moment, thank God.

 …the title is very misleading I assure you. Ha! I wanted to share and indeed give some sort of progress report on my blossoming love affair with this social media tool they call ‘Twitter’. I have to thank my dear sister for helping (well actually pushing) me join Facebook initially. Having said that though, I was an original hi5 jammer I must admit but never quite understood how this sort ‘online interaction’ was ever going to add real value to my life. Ha funny how that sounds now huh? I was young, rich, dangerous and naïve then. Now, well now I know. I have ‘met’ some very interesting and wonderful people whose daily musings I look forward to. Some inspire my very blog entries and many blog themselves – some extremely funny and thought provoking blogs I might add.

 I came across Twitter early last year, this time without the assistance of ‘dear sister’. I ventured out on my own and signed up as you do. It wasn’t until the second half of the year that I started to interact more with other Zimbabweans a.k.a. ‘Twimbos’ (in the Twitter world) that things started to get even more interesting. The Twimbo group and I say ‘group’ is spread across the globe with varying ages, occupations, socio-economic backgrounds and locations. This does present an opportunity for interesting discussions amongst say the ‘Twimbo’ community. Interestingly I believe Twitter has helped Twimbos themselves break down certain barriers (social, economic & otherwise) that exist in the ‘real world’ especially living in Zimbabwe where class still carries significant weight.. These same observations may also be relevant for any other group I belong to I might add. There seems to be a genuine camaraderie amongst ‘my people’ on Twitter. This is one of the aspects that I absolutely love about Lady T.

The other advantage is the ease at which information from all over the world is shared on one open source. I now receive my news updates from Twitter as opposed to the typical mainstream sources I used to use in my past life. I don’t watch as much SKY or BBC news as I used to. I simply follow them on Twitter. I am now able to add their ‘tweets’ to my favourites and read them at my leisure. This applies to any of my interests really. I follow the people and organisations that I want and need taking care to see who they in turn follow just in case this group could be of interest to me. In summary Lady T has been a blessing for our various business projects. This is one of the reasons why I love her so much.

What I find strange is the little attention Zimbabwean and indeed some African businesses pay to social media tools like Twitter and/or Facebook. It is the easiest and cheapest way to keep in touch with their customer base. It ‘really’ doesn’t take that much honestly. A coffee shop/retail outlet could be on both and tweet daily specials or updates and create a loyal following. Research has proven in an experiment conducted on a café in the US that Facebook in this instance didn’t add any new business but rather increased the number of visits by the existing customers. I have spoken to a few social media experts and I have been assured that the trend is changing and soon more Zimbabwean and African businesses/organisations will be in love with social media just as I am. With increased internet connectivity in Africa the trend will certainly shift. I look foward to the future…

‘MDC-T treasurer-general Roy Bennett was acquitted by Justice Chinembiri Bhunu on charges of terrorism, banditry, insurgency and trying to depose a constitutionally-elected government’ reads The Herald

My advice at this stage would be to let this issue lie and continue with work that actually matters to the country. I made a comment earlier this week about coalition governments in general (with reference to the newly formed UK government). Working together in such environments ie different policies, agendas is hard enough without this sort court case looming in the background.

Hopefully those in charge with see things my way. If not, then I am forced to continue with my usual mantra…

…Aluta continua

…and says these two powerful statements: -

“Democracy is not an event but a process, a process that cannot be stopped or diverted.”

“Africa’s opportunity is now…we must acknowledge & respect the fundamentals of good governance.”

ZimBizNews is born today…watch this space for more details.

I watched the WEF video posted on Friday night/Saturday morning and I have to admit that I was moved. I am excited with the recent events in and around Zimbabwe. I firmly believe that the future is bright – brighter than it has been for years. I also believe that ‘our’ moment is NOW! We must seize it.

Aluta Continua…

I thought this was interesting. Somali twins in New York City living their dream. Inspiring…

I found this on www.ted.com. I read about this Nigerian lady some time last year; the work she did and continues to do in Nigeria even to this day. Inspiring stuff really, I’m humbled after watching that. She made a number of points in her TED presenatation about some of the things I spoke about in my previous blog entry and/or Friday Tweets on Africa.