Baldwin apologizes to passengers, not airline

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alec Baldwin issued an apology Wednesday to fellow passengers on an American Airlines flight that was delayed by his refusal to stop playing a cellphone game — but stopped short of apologizing to the airline or the flight attendant he later mocked on Twitter.

The "30 Rock" actor's note, posted to the Huffington Post (http://huff.to/sENHR2 ), instead lamented the state of modern air travel. Baldwin noted the financial struggles of airlines, saying the result is that air travel has devolved into an inelegant experience, akin to riding a Greyhound bus.

Baldwin said the level of service on U.S. carriers has deteriorated.

"Filthy planes, barely edible meals, cuts in jet service to less-traveled locations," Baldwin said.

Baldwin writes that increased security on commercial airplanes post-9/11 has resulted in a "paramilitary" aura around air travel.

"September 11th was a horrific day in the airline industry, yet in the wake of that event, I believe carriers and airports have used that as an excuse to make the air travel experience as inelegant as possible," Baldwin writes.

Baldwin's letter is the latest volley in a dustup with American Airlines, with the airline taking to social media Wednesday to maintain it was following federal regulations when it booted an "extremely vocal customer" from a flight for refusing to shut off his cellphone.

The airline, which earlier cited passenger privacy in declining to discuss the matter, said on its Facebook page it decided "to provide the actual facts of the matter" after Baldwin stated publicly he had gotten kicked off the flight.

The company never cited the "30 Rock" TV star by name.

Baldwin took to Twitter after Tuesday's incident at Los Angeles International Airport, saying he was asked to leave a New York-bound plane after a "flight attendant on American reamed me out" for playing a game on his cellphone. Baldwin said he was playing "Words With Friends" while the plane sat at a gate.

American said on Facebook Wednesday that Federal Aviation Administration regulations require that cellphones and other electronic devices be turned off as soon as the airliner's door has been closed. The company said Baldwin refused to comply.

"The passenger ultimately stood up (with the seat belt light still on for departure) and took his phone into the plane's lavatory," American Airlines said. "He slammed the lavatory door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed, even with the cockpit door closed and locked. They immediately contacted the cabin crew to check on the situation."

The airline added that Baldwin was "extremely rude" to the flight crew, calling people "inappropriate names" and using offensive language.

Baldwin's spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik, said Wednesday it was the flight attendant who acted inappropriately. He said other people on the plane were violating the regulation and that Baldwin was singled out.

"The plane was already delayed half an hour at the gate when Alec was playing 'Words with Friends,'" Hiltzik told The Associated Press. "Other passengers who tweeted flagrantly violated these rules without any repercussions — proving that they were obviously selectively enforced."

Airport police have said they did not respond to the incident.

Baldwin deactivated his Twitter account and all of his previous tweets were removed. Hiltzik said that was because the actor was setting aside his Twitter activity to concentrate on "30 Rock."

At least one other celebrity came to Baldwin's defense on Twitter.

Boxing great Oscar De La Hoya, who was on the same flight, tweeted that he thought the flight attendant overreacted.

"(at)AlecBaldwin was doing nothing wrong but playing 'words' on his phone," De La Hoya said.

Baldwin boarded another American Airlines flight to New York after Tuesday's incident, but said he wouldn't fly with American again.

In the tweets that have since been removed, Baldwin mocked American Airlines as a company "where Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950's find jobs as flight attendants."

He also called "Words With Friends" an "addicting" game. Players compete online to score the most points by building words with tiles on a Scrabble-like game board.

Baldwin plays the role of the vain executive Jack Donaghy on the NBC sitcom "30 Rock" and played an amorous ex-husband to Meryl Streep in the 2009 romantic comedy "It's Complicated."

He also is featured in a series of comical TV ads for Capital One credit cards. In one spot Baldwin strolls through an airport and luxuriates on an airplane while surrounded by a coterie of assistants.

Press release: Umuntu Media relaunches the next version of www.iZambia.co.zm

Umuntu Media has launched the next version of the iZambia lifestyle portal, in the next step to deliver up to the minute local content that is immediately relevant to the needs of Zambians. iZambia.co.zm was launched in January 2011 and quickly grew to attract a significant following in the country.

iZambia was the first in a series of portals containing up to the minute information about entertainment, property, jobs, accommodation and news specifically relevant to people across Zambia. On the new iZambia you can find:

• Top local, internation, sport and entertainment news
• LIfestyle: Fashion, Food, Gadgets, Gossip, Health, Movies, Music, Relationships, Travel and TV
• What's on section
• Jobs: Manage your CV online, apply online, setup job alerts
• Property to buy and to rent
• Resturant guide
• Accomodation guide with online bookings
• Business directory
• Games
• Music and videos
• Social platform where you can create events, groups, share photos and video or find the love of your life

All this in your own portal for Zambia. Visit www.izambia.co.zm today.

Umuntu Media's iPortal series was born in response to a lack of local information that is immediately relevant to the people of Africa.

Johan Nel, CEO and founder of Umuntu Media says of the relaunch: "The relaunch of iZambia consolidates our position as the fastest growing online publisher in Africa. From the start we saw tremendous growth in uptake of the portal, clearly demonstrating the need to generate comprehensive, updated and locally relevant content to people across Africa.”

Umuntu Media will soon be launching Mimiboard, a social media tool designed in Africa by Africans for Africa. The platform will be launched in alpha version in January 2012.

-ends-

For more information, contact Johan Nel, Umuntu Media, johan.nel@umuntumedia.com

About Umuntu Media

Umuntu Media exists because we love Africa, we love technology and we have a passion for local content.

With just one registered domain per 10 000 people on a continent with over a billion people, we are filling a significant gap in Africa.

With a background in media and online publishing, our CEO and founder Johan Nel saw that gap while researching local information for a family holiday in Namibia in 2009. Our journey started with a very simple mission: to deliver relevant local content on world class platforms across the continent.

In September 2010, with support from the Dutch investment firm, eVentures Africa Fund, our business plan expanded from a single portal for Namibia to multiple portals across Africa.

The winning iPortal formula encapsulates our passion: to bring relevant local content to people who want to know what’s going on in their area, all day, every day. Keeping true to our promise of getting Africa online, we remain focused on our ambitious growth plan to deliver thirteen local content portals by April 2012.

We are also rolling out Mimiboard, a mobile communications platform created in Africa, for Africa, designed to cater for Africa’s local content needs.

Our business is driven by certain key principles. Always question the norm. Never be boring. And always embrace new technology to directly serve the market that wants it. After all, a publisher that owns a tech platform is the publisher of the future.

About eVentures Africa Fund

eVentures Africa Fund (eVA Fund) is dedicated to mobilize capital and experience in the Netherlands/Europe to invest in small and medium sized African internet and mobile related companies. eVA Fund focuses on development in terms of capital and business development support, i.e. knowledge, experience, access to proven business concepts/applications, and network.

The target region is sub-Saharan Africa. Website: www.eva-fund.com

WEDNESDAY BOYCOTT

Airtel Zambia this week showed arrogance and ignorance when over 15,000 subscribers boycotted Airtel services. Instead of responding to the specific issues that the subscribers raised, which were communicated to them and were also aired on radio, television, in the newspaper as well as on the internet, it was interesting to note that all Airtel management could say was, “we will call you back” and in another instance all they could say was “we value the opinions of our subscribers.

Indeed, everyone’s opinion is to be valued and there’s is no law against that. But when you are dealing with a group of subscribers who pay you for a service, it is no longer an issue of opinion, but an entitlement of the subscriber that you respond with an explanation for each separate issue raised, unless of course you deem yourself as doing the subscriber a favor.

As I sat on my laptop in my house in Kafue, I read the comments of discontent subscribers and I realized that the problem with Airtel is that they do not value the customer. They just want money. However, that has to change. Because we are already paying them money, we just have to sit them down and show them what we want till they oblige.

We need to see an improvement in Airtel’s overall customer care policy, going beyond lip service and actualizing those promises to ensure that customers feel that they are not being cheated out of their hard earned cash by this Indian corporation.

A piece of advice to Airtel is that if you continue to underestimate and disparage the source of your income, we the people have the capacity to incapacitate you and help you pack out of business. It should be understood clearly that Airtel was not here before, and tomorrow we can make sure that it no longer is here. This is a subscriber’s threat.

Airtel is not the “boss”. The subscribers are. If they complain about the quality of service that they are receiving and those issues fall on deaf ears, there are two things that will most likely happen. Firstly, the subscribers will continue to de-campaign Airtel and probably move to competing providers.

Secondly they can sue Airtel for obtaining money by false pretences. Airtel has misrepresented promotions, products, and services hence collecting large sums of money through talk time use and cash purchases. It must be understood further that the idea of suing Airtel would be supported by many thousands of people who have witnessed these misdeeds on the part of Airtel.

Some of the issues that subscribers have raised include the competitions such as the one where subscribers are promised that one of them would win K10m each day if subscribers would enter a competition by sending a text message to a certain short code. Those text messages cost about K3000 each. It is believed that no one has ever won that competition hence Airtel has been pocketing that money from the competition.

Airtel is in the habit of changing the terms of competitions or promotions such as Cheza without explicitly communicating to subscribers who have opted in with the ulterior intention to make more money from the same unsuspecting subscribers. Recently Airtel increased the charge on Cheza from K2 to K5 without informing the subscribers explicitly. Airtel claims that they had places adverts in the newspaper. The question is how many of the 4 million subscribers read the newspaper that carried those announcements?

Airtel further contended that they were giving 100 sms over weekend for the numbers that are enrolled for the Cheza program. However, subscribers wondered what an individual needs 100 sms for over 2 days especially that you can only sms the same number. Hence the justification given by Airtel’s customer care crew that visited my house in Kafue on Tuesday 8 November was flimsy and inordinate.

Internet bundles are also excessively expensive on Airtel. Meanwhile their 3G is slow and below world class standards. This is unacceptable in a country that is desperate to develop and reduce the cost of business in order to promote wealth creation.

I have written on this BlogSpot before how that Airtel’s 100MB is 3 times more expensive than Cell C’s 100MB bundle. My internet connection for instance is unlimited for which I pay $87 on Microlink. This is still very expensive compared to similar services in other countries. However, with my average usage of 8 to 10GB per month, I would be paying in excess of $250 on Airtel accompanied with an unreliable delivery and poor service support.

That brings us to the quality of customer care services that Airtel subjects it customers to. This alone would warrant suspension of the operating license of this service provider in developed nations. Customer care is the epicenter of customer satisfaction but it seems that Airtel use that for customer provocation.

Their customer care crew is clearly untrained and has adopted an attitude that is designed to provoke customers and cause increased dissatisfaction. The complaints related to bad customer care experiences are so many that believably, if sorted, that alone may indicate willingness on the part of Airtel to make its customers happy.

However, it is understandable that they would not have the capacity to do that, as we saw in their response to the last boycott that they just don’t really care about us.

This is why the Wednesday Boycott will continue this week 16th November, as we grow numbers, get more on to the ground get more organized and continue to demand for investors to deliver a morally acceptable service both in terms of quality and in terms of pricing.

The mission of this Wednesday boycott is to press an order for quality services of a world class standard at the price that is right regardless of the sector in order to promote development and raise Zambia’s standard of services in general.

To Airtel the world is watching, the customers are standing up, and the nation is listening.

Boycott Airtel services on Wednesday, 9th November, 2011

Thousands of Airtel subscribers have agreed to boycott Airtel on Wednesday 9th November, 2011 in order to force Airtel improve its customer care services and it’s pricing. Check following link: FACEBOOK EVENT

In this press release therefore we inform the nation that all customers of Airtel are being called upon to join this boycott which we believe will force Airtel to improve their services. The boycott will start at 08:00 hrs and run for 9 hours until 17:00hrs.

If Airtel does not pay attention to our civilized action, we will use word of mouth, social media, sms, and every means possible including conventional media to raise public awareness and support every week, every Wednesday until Airtel eventually listens.

As customers we feel that ZICTA has not done enough and they will probably not do anything to enforce fair service delivery from Airtel in this regard unless they realize that customers themselves are serious about getting what is good for their money.

Among many issues affecting Airtel customer are high cost of internet bundles, poor customer care services, hidden as well as unjustified charges such as charges placed on finding out your missed calls, unexplained technical errors and failures among a myriad of service irregularities.

We appeal to individuals as well as companies that use Airtel services to simply NOT make any call or send any sms during the stipulated time. If you have internet bundles you may continue using Airtel internet since it will be wasted if you do not use it.

In order to make phone calls, please if possible simply get an MTN or Zamtel simcard for the day (and for the future boycotts should Airtel not pay attention). You may also keep your phone on in order to receive phone calls.

Thank you for your supportFor world class services

Coach Brian Matambo

0979360027

Why Zambia is desperate for ICT

Communication underpins democracy and economic growth. The problem with the world economies today is ignorance. People prefer cooking up figures and projections that can be supported by an academic formula as opposed to acquiring truth. That is “by the way". However, truth, transparency, freedom of expression, knowledge, conversation, information, communication and technology today is vital to economic growth and to democracy.

Now therefore what role does mobile phone technology and internet play in economic growth? Zambia is a great democratic example to the world. But it is still an economic pity. After improving our credit rating to lower middle income, and after recording year after year statistical economic growth, and after holding the inflation rate in single digits, why is it that these positive achievements do not seem to trickle down to people either in the streets and worse still in the rural areas.

The problem with Zambia is basically communication. Successive governments have failed to put up policy that would exploit the economic potential of the ICT sector. ICT is the critical vehicle of creating, communicating, delivering, and harnessing economic development.

There will be several reasons that economists and academic analysts will point to, but with careful consideration, we can safely say that the wider maximization of ICT would largely answer those questions. For example, ignorance and lack of education can be answered by delivering world class education to children in the rural that is accessed by any child anywhere else in the most developed world using ICT.

Lack of tertiary and skills training due to lack of financing can be solved by delivering training in remote places using technology. Small businesses that cannot afford large marketing budgets can use ICT platforms such social media to grow their brand and be well on their well to growth and profitability.

There are very few questions that information technology will not be able to answer positively today. It is still shocking that the Government does not have a clear ICT policy. Particularly the PF government does not have any real plans to exploit ICT for education and business.

Even though people are now not too sure if President Michael Sata is really allergic to corruption, the people of Zambia have long enough been disadvantaged by corruption at all levels. Corruption will not be dealt with effectively unless we employ technology in ensuring transparency, accuracy, and standard.

Zambia development capacity will move considerably and significantly the moment we have ICT policies in place.

Who is going to be the first one to make things right: Airtel, MTN and Zamtel?

Airtel has lately being at the receiving end of customer and public rebuke following network service failure such as airtime top up, royalty points, the promised 3G internet service among other things. On the other hand MTN and Zamtel seem to benefit from the problems that their competitor is having as customer claim switching to from Airtel.

QUALITY OF SERVICE

The quality of service in the mobile phone sector leaves much to be desired.

To start with, some of these service providers make promises that they end up failing to fulfill. For instance, the royalty programme by Airtel is a complete sham. Most people with gold level points have not received their gold status cards and hence they are unable to enjoy the benefits of being a high user on the network as promised by the service provider.

These days it is nearly impossible to get your points redeemed into sms or minutes. It appears the system is experiencing terminal failure. Unless you call (and get lucky to be answered), your need for redeeming sms or reward minutes would expire whilst you try in futility.

Faults are normal in any technology based business, but communication with clients in such instances can mitigate a crisis of customer infuriation. This is where our service providers worsen the problem.

Zambian mobile service providers need to improve their customer care services. It is rare that your call to 111 would be answered within 2 minutes. You will have to try several times before you are placed on hold for longest possible time, and if the call doesn’t cut then you may manage to speak to a customer care assistant, who will most likely not solve your problem but instead ask you to try accessing the service in question after 2 hours.

In the 21^st century, in a liberal economy, driven boldly by the market, service providers carry on heedlessly exploiting customers. If these companies do not make changes their days are definitely numbered. The question is who is going to get 90% of the market by doing what customers want. Who is going to leverage the grievances of the customer to gain a larger market share?

COST OF SERVICES

The cost of mobile phone services in Zambia is a perfect reflection of social and economic injustice. Most of these providers are too lazy to expand their market reach and hence they want to maximize the smaller segment they service for exorbitant profits. This kind of exploitation has adverse effects on the economy.

The cost of a call is still essentially high. The cost of data on the other hand is even worse. At a time when we should be broadening the use of ICT and data services in Zambia, our service providers seem not to understand the simple economics of it. If it’s affordable people will use it. But just because people are using it doesn’t mean you have to make it more expensive.

ZICTA must intervene and demand an outright reduction for data services costs as well as an improvement in the delivery of the same.

Cell C of South Africa offers 100MB at US$6.18 which is valid for 30 Days. Airtel Zambia offers 100MB at US$17. Why is it that Zambia, where the income levels are lower than in South Africa, and where the market is widely untapped, is where the cost is over 175% higher than South Africa? In the USA you will receive unlimited internet plus download for a month at US$15.

Why are Airtel, MTN, and Zamtel exploiting Zambians?

THE IMPORTANCE OF PUTTING THINGS RIGHT

We are at a time in Zambia when we need to reduce the cost of doing business and the cost of living. That is the only way we are going to improve the standard of life in this country. Communication is vital for business, education, industry and development. It is probably going to take one of these service providers taking service delivery to world class standards and making the cost level with the developed world that those who have been shunning data service will begin to jump on course.

The service provider who adheres will get more customers moving over to get a better quality service at the right cost.

The country will benefit because now the economy can see resources released to enhance business and education, resources that are currently stifled because of poor internet at high costs. If not, people will soon move to fixed internet (with the advent of fibre optics) and mobile phone providers will be white elephants. After all VOIP at high speeds can render mobile phone services unnecessary, unless otherwise.

Google picks Mobile as model for mobile business

Google Inc. went far from its California headquarters to make an Alabama city its model in a new campaign to help businesses build better websites for mobile devices. The alliteration, Mobilizing Mobile, was simply too good to pass up.

It doesn't matter that mobile and Mobile (moh-BEEL) are pronounced differently.

Google spokeswoman Sandra Heikkinen said some executives in Mountain View, Calif., are still practicing the pronunciation of the city, but "we love the alliteration."

The search giant is planning a series of events and workshops in Mobile from Nov. 14-16 to help businesses build a presence on the mobile Internet and get new customers. Participants will have the opportunity to have their desktop websites developed for portable devices like smart phones and tablets the same day as the workshop. It can tell potential customers their location, phone number, hours of operation and other information designed to drive business.

"Someone can find them that afternoon," said Jason Spero, Google's director of mobile advertising for the Americas.

For Google, it's part of an international effort, GoMo, to get more businesses using mobile sites.

For Mobile, it's an opportunity for businesses to get their sites developed and hosted free for a year. It's also an opportunity for the city to turn a digital search disadvantage into an advantage.

Leigh Perry Herndon, vice president of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, said people who type Mobile into an Internet search often get more information about telecommunications companies than they do the port city in Alabama. But now that spelling problem has brought Google to the city.

"This is one of those benefits of having a name that sounds like something else," she said.

Google executives said that while Mobile's name made it attractive, research made it a cinch. They found a city with a diverse range of businesses and a tech-savvy population with heavy broadband use, but lots of potential for development with mobile devices.

Herndon said many Mobile businesses have developed websites aimed at desktop computer users, but they have not adapted to the small screens of smartphones. She said Google is giving businesses a way to get with the latest trend in finding business information.

"You have an opportunity to get on board or you find your website outdated," she said.

Spero figures people with smart phones in Mobile are like people everywhere: They carry their phones with them all the time and they want to navigate the digital world from their phones.

"I truly believe this is driving a sociological change," he said.

Internet: A human right

Communication is the basis of human interaction. We know this to be inherent. But in an age where information is leveraged for advantage definitely communication is fundamental. This is probably one of the main reasons why the U.N.’s Commission for Digital Development aims to have broadband available to half of the world’s developing countries by 2015.

The call to make broadband accessible to minimum of 40% of the population must not fall on deaf ears here in Zambia. Zambia must act decisively to be one of the best implementers of this challenge.

There are three main challenges internet service delivery faces in Zambia.

1. Cost of broadband is prohibitive in Zambia. Users pay an average of US$25 per gig per month. Internet costs go up to US$600 per month for speed around 125kpbs. Hopefully this will be solved by ensuring that more that 40% of the population has access to broadband internet.

2. Speed of internet connectivity is in Zambia is believed to be the 4th slowest in the world. This is another factor depriving users of a standard online experience. Government must prioritize the laying of fiber optics as this may solve the speed problem.

We need to be a country with our own internal fiber optics network to promote hosting of websites locally and enhance local connectivity.

3. Zambian content on the internet is scarce. This scarcity deprives users looking for information for business and education. This also needs to be sorted out expeditiously.

Reflecting on the message that the UN is sending on the need to acknowledge internet as a human right, it must be understood that internet is government’s duty. Internet is the way to reduce the cost of business. Internet can help curb corruption and enhance transparency. Internet is a must in order to give citizens access to information.

Suggestively, members of parliament must be trained regarding the importance of internet and broadband. Law makers must understand that should government maximize broadband, development can be delivered better, faster, and more effectively.

Government should not only embrace ICT. It must lead in making Zambia a connected nation. There has to be more than political will. There has to be policy in place to ensure that Zambia is a country that is in step with ICT.

The benefits of a connected nation transcend the simple ensamples of providing people with access to research material for business and education. Connectedness means that companies will be able to reduce their marketing cost, reach a wider market, and even improve delivery. Individuals will be able to study online, stay connected with family and friends, whilst also find and exploiting business opportunities.

Most importantly government itself in this connectedness policy will be able to consolidate its data and manage information better.

Here are the 5 points of the Broadband Challenge

1. We call on world leaders to ensure that at least half the developing world’s population and 40% of households in developing countries are using broadband Internet by 2015. Consumers in all countries should have access to affordable broadband Internet services, including in developing countries.

2. We call on industry to develop innovative business models needed to realize this vision.

3. We call on governments to make broadband policy universal and to develop the enabling policy and regulatory frameworks to ensure that industry has a stable regulatory space in which to operate, flourish and harness broadband for sustainable human development.

4. We call on governments to develop policies and targets for online health and education at the national level to stimulate demand for broadband services.

5. We call on governments and civil society within a fully inclusive and consultative process to stimulate local content production as well as the development of local language services and applications for an inclusive digital world.

Friend request

The high cost of doing business is a massive hindrance to the success of Zambia’s commerce and industry more especially for small and medium enterprises. Of course the lending rate in this country is inconceivably humongous. It is impossible for a Zambian entrepreneur to compete with a South Africa or American counterpart.

However there are more challenges that the Zambian businessman faces. Some of the high costs include marketing and communication costs. Without contest it is the responsibility of the government to create systems that enable business success.

Social media is a great opportunity to reduce communication and marketing costs. Hence Governments must begin to provide infrastructure to ensure that social media is not just a social time wasting experience, but it becomes a tool leveraged to reduce costs of doing business.

In Zambia there are 162,460 people using Facebook, which is 0.77% of the population of the country. Facebook usage in Zambia has grown by only 1.68% in the last one month. There are other social media platforms that are popular in Zambia but clearly Facebook is by far the most used service. It is important to note that the major problem in Zambia is accessibility to internet.

This has not been understood to be incapacitating economic growth in Zambia. Believably that is why we have not seen much political will in efforts intended to increase accessibility to internet. As long as government does not prioritize ICT, we will be a pre-hi-tech nation if not only a post stone age country for ages to come.

In the event that Government effectively facilitates the implementation of fiber optics connectivity to all universities, schools and homes, SMEs would be able to reach their customers in easier cost effective ways. The cost of placing an advert on conventional media is too high for a small business to afford especially during startup. Social Media provides a cost relief for marketing budgets.

Communicating within the company can only get cheaper with Skype, Gtalk, Whatsapp, or G+ messenger among others. With Skype you can make voice and video calls between mobile phones such as the Blackberry, Android phones, Nokia and desktop computers. Gtalk from Google also provides a voice service. On Whatsapp contacts can share video, photos, and audio and text for free as long there data service is active or the mobile device is connected to the internet via WIFI.

All you need to reduce the cost of some of your business processes these days is a data plan with Airtel, MTN, or ZAMTEL and a WAP enabled phone or Internet enable device. You can pay for a fixed internet service and link your WIFI device at your office or home. There are various companies offering fixed wireless internet service such as Coppernet, Microlink, iConnect, Zamnet, Realtime, among others.

The problem is that we are limited by the cost of installation of even availability of service in some areas. That is why government should take it as its responsibility to provide accessibility to internet, the same way it is their responsibility to provide roads and energy. This agenda should not be left to the private sector. In this age it is a core responsibility of the government to provide internet infrastructure.

When we have the internet infrastructure in place, all users will have to do is send a friend request in order to do business. This as simple as it may sound social media is potent with economic boom for Zambia and for many countries in the world.

Steve Jobs the Book

"Steve Jobs" (Simon & Schuster), by Walter Isaacson: "Steve Jobs" takes off the rose-colored glasses that often follow an icon's untimely death and instead offers something far more valuable: The chronicle of a complex, brash genius who was crazy enough to think he could change the world — and did.

Through unprecedented access to Jobs with more than 40 conversations, including long sessions sitting in the Apple co-founder's living room, walks around his childhood neighborhood and visits to his company's secretive headquarters, Isaacson takes the reader on a journey that few have had the opportunity to experience.

The book is the first, and with his Oct. 5 death at age 56, the only authorized biography of the famously private Jobs and by extension, the equally secretive Apple Inc. Through Apple, Jobs helped usher in the personal computer era when he put the Macintosh in the hands of regular people. He changed the course of the music, computer animation and mobile phone industries, and touched countless others with the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, Pixar and iTunes.

His biography, therefore, serves as a chronicle of Silicon Valley, of late 20th- and early 21st-century technology, and of American innovation at its best. For the generation that's grown up in a world where computers are the norm, smartphones feel like fifth limbs and music comes from the Internet rather than record and CD stores, "Steve Jobs" is must-read history.

Isaacson, whose other books include biographies of Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger, uses anecdotes from friends, family, colleagues and adversaries to illustrate sometimes deep contradictions in Jobs.

Given up for adoption at birth, the young Jobs would go on to deny his daughter Lisa for years. The product of 1960s counterculture who shunned materialism, he'd go on to found what would become the world's most valuable company. Deeply influenced by the tenets of Zen Buddhism, Jobs rarely achieved the internal peace associated with it and was prone to wild mood swings and mean outbursts at people who weren't living up to his expectations.

But it's these contradictions that make the out-of-this-world Apple magician human to a fault. And it's his uncanny ability to meld art and technology, design and engineering, beauty and function that allowed him to put the Macintosh, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad into the hands of millions of people who didn't even know they wanted them. Jobs changed our relationship with technology because he understood humanity as well as he understood chips and interfaces.

"I'm one of the few people who understands how producing technology requires intuition and creativity, and how producing something artistic takes real discipline," Jobs tells Isaacson in one of the extended passages in the book that are in his own words.

These longer interview excerpts pepper the book like rare gems. In them, Jobs offers eloquent, no-apologies explanations of why he did things the way he did and what was going on in his mind amid decisions at Apple and in his own life.

Apple fanboys, tech geeks and encyclopedic-minded journalists will likely comb the book for previously unknown details about Jobs and Apple. I went into it with only a little more knowledge than the average reader, and a tenuous, nostalgic connection to him through having attended high school with his daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs. I found myself combing the book not for secrets about Apple, but secrets about Steve Jobs the man, the father, the son.

With little patience for technical details, I found myself skimming through some of the book's passages detailing the creation of the Apple I computer, the Macintosh and the i-gadgets of Jobs' later years. It's in these passages, though, where the reader might find explanations for why the iPhone's battery is not replaceable, why Macs cost more than PCs and why the iPod's headphones are white.

The intimate chapters, where Jobs' personal side shines through, with all his faults and craziness, leave a deep impression. There's humor, too, especially early on when Isaacson chronicles Jobs' lack of personal hygiene, the barefoot hippie who runs a corporation. And deeply moving are passages about Jobs' resignation as Apple's chief executive, and an afternoon he spent with Isaacson listening to music and reminiscing.

"Steve Jobs" was originally scheduled to hit store shelves in 2012. Its publication date was moved up after Jobs died. As such, there are bits that might have benefited from another round of editing. There are anecdotes, for example, that Isaacson repeats as if introducing them to the reader for the first time.

In the end, it's a rich portrait of one of the greatest minds of our generation.

At 47 years old, the solution is corruption

A colleague this morning intimated that she would be “killed” by taxes. She is importing lingerie and for only a small consignment she is being charged an exorbitant total.

Continuing her lamentation, she swore to sale them at an extremely high price to recover her cost. I made a suggestion to her that the solution was going to have to be corruption. After all, that way, her clients will not repudiate tender her enterprise and she can still keep her business alive, and eventually keep her family fed.

This sounds rather absurd. How can corruption be a solution? Well we live in a world where we want to good things including a “corrupt-free” social and business environment. But we are seldom willing to make relevant sacrifices that change demands.

High taxes in this country have simply stopped adding value to our lives. To start with, government doesn’t account to us how they use the money we pay in taxes. Moreover, in a liberalized economy it is the government’s obligation to make the cost of doing business low enough to encourage industrial innovation, and growth. This not just for the large corporations but more for small enterprises.

Secondly, the higher taxes do not lead to the buyer enjoying access to high quality, low cost products. Instead it worsens the negative price constriction, an effect that causes economic coronary failure.

It is no rocket science that higher taxes are negative to the economy. Quality cannot be preserved or maintained in an economy where the taxes force people to either resort to second hand or low quality products or just as well to the solution of corruption.

Corruption can solve your problems, help you continue running your business on profits and putting more money in your pocket (hence arriving at the same objective the PF government espouses for the people of Zambia).

In Zambia second hand products are taxed as if they were luxurious first hand products. This puts both the client and the tax collecting agent on a podium of temptation. For instance recently a ZRA employee was jailed for asking to be bribed and for being bribed in order to give the client “due” advantage.

Let me take a turn to ICT and say, a government anywhere in the world, today, in the 21^st Century which does not have a clear road map to ensure that ICT is given unprecedented advantage because of its impact on all sectors, would be lacking not only vision, but wisdom as well. So far, I have not seen anything that suggested that the PF government will be pragmatic about the ICT sector and embrace it as top priority tool for achieving development and progressing our economy.

A suggestion worth taking a second look at it is this that taxes on computers, computer accessories, and internet enabled products including phones and palmtops should be reduced practically to ZERO. This will stimulate the ICT industry and conjure its growth. This would in turn make it possible for ICT companies that are able to develop systems that can help curb corruption do so in order to lead to a corrupt free nation.

Let me explain. If all systems are computerized and security in place, ZRA can demand to be partner to most of the suppliers in the world whose products find route into Zambia. As such whenever a purchase is made, a buyer can notify ZRA and a copy of receipt is sent to them without a chance of manipulation.

This can only be possible if Government to start with doesn’t privatize its responsibility of ensuring that communication (just like roads) is provided for every citizen. Government must lead in ensuring that every urban home is fitted with high speed internet, and also ensure that computers are accessible for every home.

If this were the picture, there would be no need to travel to the border to negotiate the rate of tax. Tax would be calculated at the point of purchasing and probably even paid for, at that point, to the revenue authority. This seeming incoherent superstition of my analysis is believable and practical.

A computerized and normalized system (where you pay tax based on the real cost of product), as well as a bearable tax regime, would in fact wipe out counterfeit, secondhand, polluting, poor quality products from our market. Most importantly Zambians will not turn to corruption and hence the President’s dream will become reality.

The president in his address on the eve of Independence Day reiterated a Zero tolerance agenda against corruption. Truth is, that intolerance towards corruption it will only make people find other ways of making sure that they are not caught. Not that we should tolerate it, if ever corruption will be a thing of the past, people must not be squeezed to the point where the only way they can afford is by corrupting someone in the system.

Finally, unless we employ the full power of ICTs in Zambia we will be talking about corruption and underdevelopment a 100 years from now.

As you may agree, this is going to be a profound premise to argue taxes on technology. Then again it's a profound view on why Zambia is extremely corrupt. The question is, will Zambia still be dealing with these causes of corruption in the next 10 years. Happy 47th Independence Day.

What Is Zambia’s Technology Agenda?

We are a landlocked country that should be leveraging the high number of neighbors for some sort of economic benefit and nothing could be better than being a center of technological advancement.

We are living in a hi-tech world, and truth is we are never going to go back to the Stone Age. Things are going to get more advanced and more competitive. This is why as a nation we must develop a clear practical and pragmatic agenda for our technological advancement especially in science and information and communication technology.

Talking of information and communication technology, I want to kick off this blog by saying that this is one sector that has the potential to bring large and ever increasing amounts of investment. Government needs to put policy in place that will set this sector into fast track motion. We need to think big and to be visionary.

Anyway, that said. It is pleasing to see ZICTA make a stand on fake phones. We cannot continue to be a dumping site for low quality products in Zambia. However, we need to ensure in this country that we pay the right price for these gadgets. We are really ripped off. The starting point is the tax system. The import tax that you pay on these gadgets is ridiculously high. As such the cost is shifted on the buying user.

The cost of a Galaxy Tab P1000 which is GSM capabilities is K2.6m in the United Kingdom. In Zambia that same device is sold at K4.3m in the Samsung Shop at Manda Hill. Zambians are buying this gadget at 100% higher than their counterparts in Europe. This is the case with most gadgets that are brought in from the west or indeed from the east.

This trend has a negative domino effect on the ICT sector and the economy at large. These prohibitive prices means only a few people will afford and hence saturation is low and the prices still up to. What the further means is that we become locked down into the past whilst our friend advance technological.

We need to bear in mind that ICT greatly reduces the cost of doing business and we have to be tactful about our economy if we have any hope of developing as a nation.

Imagine if people have original multimedia phones, they could do their banking on the mobile phone reducing the cost of paper and congestion in banks. If people could have access to Internet enable smart phones they could send their emails and communicate more cheaply and hence more money in their pockets in the end.

If students have access to tablets for instance they can do their research without struggling for internet access in their universities and colleges, or looking for money daily to do their research in internet cafes. You see, the cost of ICT gadgets has impact on the nation in various ways. We need to understand this as fundamental in the 21^st century for education, development, and financial success. As a matter of fact we need to understand it as the epicenter of growth.