Tanzania: Off to Dar’s Magical Beaches

The Monitor (Kampala)
COLUMN
October 14, 2006
Posted to the web October 13, 2006

By Angela Nampewo

If it weren’t for the endless stretch of ocean, there’d be no magic in Dar-es-Salaam. Anything exciting that happens in Tanzania’s old capital seems to have some link with the beach and the waterfront.

The hotels, the restaurants and even Dar’s offices are located at the beach. It’s a laidback town, as if it’s always time for siesta. Dar, or Bongo as it is informally referred to, is East Africa’s next Mombasa without the crowds.

Kenya : Tanzanian Seized With 40 Snakes

The Nation (Nairobi)
NEWS
October 14, 2006
Posted to the web October 15, 2006
Nairobi

Police yesterday arrested a Tanzanian and seized more than 40 snakes he was trying to smuggle out of the country.

Fellow travellers on the bus from Nairobi told the Nation that the reptiles were kept in two bags. “Everything seemed normal until I saw a snake slithering out of one of the bags,” one of them said.

He added that he alerted other passengers, but they did not believe him until the bus reached a road-block on the Kisumu-Busia highway.

An extensive search

“The police were informed and on conducting an extensive search, they discovered the various sizes of snakes hidden in the two bags,” said another.

This caused fear among the passengers who scampered off the vehicle.

The 27-year-old Tanzanian, identified as Ramadhan Mshewa, quickly came forward when the officers asked for the owner of the bags.

He was then arrested as he had no permit to transport the snakes, although he protested that he did not know that it was illegal in Kenya to keep snakes.

“In Tanzania, it is allowed to hunt for snakes and transport them from one place to another,” he said. “I did not know that it’s not allowed in Kenya.”

He said that in his business in the Tanzanian lakeshore town of Bukoba, he sells snakes to zoos at up to TSh5,000 (about Sh300) each. He was taken to the Maseno police station

The Concept of Messiah in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran

An Examination of the Person and Work of God’s Anointed One

Sam Shamoun

The Hebrew Bible paints a picture of a redeemer, a ruler to come from the line of king David who will usher in universal salvation and peace. As time went on the Jews identified this salvific figure as the Messiah (Hebrew: Ha Mashiach, Greek: Ho Christos) or the Anointed One. Initially, the word Mashiach (Christos) was an adjective (“anointed”) that later developed into a substantive or noun (i.e., “an anointed one”), which eventually became a technical generic term (i.e., “the Anointed One”). In the Intertestamental period the word developed even further into a term referring to the hoped for Anointed One, that is a specific individual who would be the fulfillment of all of God’s promises to David. This One would be the embodiment of what David and all the righteous kings of Israel typified, since they served as shadows of the reality embodied by the One to come.

Both Christians and Muslims believe that the Messiah came and his name is Jesus:

Uganda: Bomb Kills Two People in Amuria

By Nathan Etengu
Kampala

AN anti-aircraft bomb on Thursday killed two people and injured seven others in Amilimil parish, Kuju sub-county in Amuria district.

The bomb suspected to have been left behind by fleeing LRA rebels, exploded as it was being used as a chisel to drill a hole in an axe.

The dead included John Otim, a bicycle repairer who had asked for the warhead that he earlier used successfully in hammering harder metallic objects. The 4:00pm incident occurred in Moru village on the Amuria-Obalanga road.

The LRA frequently used the area as a crossing point to reach kalepebyong county.

Kenya: New Rights for Women in Sh9.6Bn Land Plan

By Tony Kago
Nairobi

Women will be given the same rights over land as men under a Sh9.6 billion package of land reforms announced yesterday.

The radical reforms will see wives granted the right to own land jointly with their husbands.

And daughters will have equal rights with sons to inherit their parents’ land, contrary to some traditions which allow only sons to take over property, providing Parliament passes the policy.

Also slum dwellers will be given the land they occupy – and pay taxes on it – absentee landlords lose their plots, owners of idle land pay rent, and the Commissioner of Lands loses the power to allocate land at will.

This is Solar TECHNOLOGY

Photovoltaics (PV) convert sunlight directly into electricity. Photons in sunlight interact with the outermost electrons of an atom. Photons striking the atoms of a semiconducting solar cell free it’s electrons, creating an electric current. The Photovoltaic effect was first discovered in the 19th century, and was used by Bell Labs in 1954 to develop the first PV solar cell. PV found its first applications in space, providing electricity to satellites. These early PV cells were produced in small quantities from exotic materials. While early cells were inefficient, converting less than 1% of the incident sunlight into electricity, they quickly increased to 6% when researchers experimented with crystalline silicon, the principal component of sand. Current conversion efficiencies have surpassed 30% in the laboratory, and 15% in

Safaricom Kenya, MTN Uganda and Vodacom Tanzania in talks to create border-less network

Kenya’s biggest mobile operator, Safaricom, is in talks with MTN Uganda and Vodacom of Tanzania to help it launch borderless services in order to facilitate regional expansion.

MTN UgandaThis comes barely two weeks since Celtel, the only operator with a presence in the three East African countries, launched a common service for the region.

“We are not going to sit still and watch. We are in advanced negotiations with our partners in Uganda and Tanzania,” Michael Joseph, the Safaricom chief executive officer, told the Daily Nation last week.

Last month, Celtel unveiled a seamless service called One Network, which allows subscribers in the region to make calls at local rates and receive calls free of charge while in another country in the region. Subscribers can also top up while in any of the three countries.

Safaricom KenyaMTN Uganda’s chief commercial officer, Eric van Veen, said the companies have been in talks for sometime, but did not say when the plans will be implemented.

‘It is true. We have been talking for two months now, even before Celtel launched One Network. We have not finalised the deal, so I am not at liberty to say when it will kick off,” he said.

Safaricom has about 4.7 million subscribers in Kenya, while MTN Uganda has about 1.3 million. Celtel has bigger numbers in Tanzania.

Industry sources said that since the launch of One Network, Celtel has already realised about 10% growth.

However, what will happen when Safaricom, MTN Uganda and Vodacom Tanzania unveil a similar service is unknown.

- New Vision / Mobile Africa