Restaurant Business Comes to a halt

Rumbidzai Mashayahanya (Zimbabwe), Nexi Dennis (Seychelles), Ahmed Yacoub (Egypt) 

Grahamstown Water Crisis 

Restaurant business comes to a halt 

The water crisis in Grahamstown is a never ending story which has brought both the business community and municipal authorities to their knees.

Introduction 

Grahamstown is located in the Eastern Cape, South Africa and it is governed by the Makana Municipality.

It is located inland in a valley and is positioned on the Eastern periphery of the Mediterranean rainfall area which covers the Southern Cape which means that rainfall does not occur seasonally but rather irregularly throughout the year.

During water outages the people residing on the slopes of the valley receive water outages first due to the lack of pressure in the pipes therefore the water is less able to flow upwards due to gravity.

Grahamstown receives approximately 466mm of rain per year; the chart below illustrates the average rainfall values for Grahamstown per month.

It receives the lowest rainfall (16mm) in June and the highest (63mm) in March.


Methodology 

Sampling frame was drawn from www.tripadvisor.co.za/Restaurants-g312557-Grahamstown_Eastern_Cape.html

With a total of 12 restaurants being selected randomly in the data gathering process.

In order to obtain the necessary information to complete the aim of this project the information gathered was analysed through the use of graphs such as bar graphs and statistics, which will include a presentation on Excel and Google Fusion Tables.


Challenges encountered 

 Data collected is based estimates and oral records
 We were unable to access official sources due to lack of time and nationality
 Lack of source diversity (But we were able to get information from local newspapers , Journals and YouTube)
 Information collected could not be presented using the desired software programmes (Tableau, Outwit) due to technical security reasons and the programmes which are more compatible with larger scale.

 Outcome 

 We managed to establish from the relevant sources that erratic rainfall patterns coupled with aging infrastructure, non-replacement of burst pipes, lack of skilled manpower and complacency of local authorities was the major reason for the water crisis in Grahamstown.
 Due to the limited contribution of the Eastern Cape to the country’s GDP the problems plaguing the town would not take precedence over problems in more productive provinces of the state. 

Conclusion 

We learnt how to produce a complete new tools on data journalism and we were able to use these tools in our project to process raw data into useful , more comprehensive and meaningful information. 

Our project can viewed on:

http://rumbidzai-mashayahanya.blogspot.com/2014/09/grahamstown-water-crisis.html

Grahamstown Water Crisis

Once upon a time.......: What makes the world go round?

Once upon a time.......: What makes the world go round?: I have always wondered what makes the world go round? I bet even you have a thousand questions that have remained unanswered and among them...

What makes the world go round?

I have always wondered what makes the world go round? I bet even you have a thousand questions that have remained unanswered and among them is the question, what really makes the world go round?

When you are still a child the answer would be simple; candy! But as you grow older and the world becomes more complex you will discover that it takes more than candy to make the world tick... for those well versed with their geography it would be simple to explain the various elements that make the world go round, swinging from one axis to the other, without missing any single turn.

For women who believe in vanity fashion is what makes their world go round and for the vain men its simple money and women. For hopeless romantics like me, its love and the happily-ever-after.

But for a mother who is watching her sick child on that hospital bed, what would make her world spin on its axis is to see her child's health restored and for that child lying there, they would give anything to be able to play in that sand box, to feel the sun shining on their faces and to chase around butterflies and other little bugs.

It hit me that all the money and riches in the world really do to matter if my health issues are not in order, so if you thought this was another love story sit back, relax and continue reading because this is a different type of a love story. Loving your health!

Music legend Oliver Mutukudzi once posed a question in one of his songs," He who has money and he who has good health who is the wealthier?" Most of us would probably answer obviously he who has money.

However this is not true, for he who is in good health is richer. What would all the money in the world mean if we do not have good health, all this would be nothing but vanity. Some people believe that health is more important than money, I also have the same concept as them. Money cannot buy health despite having the ability to acquire the best medical system however; money is earned through hard work. If our health is affected, how would we be able to concentrate on our work to bring back the bacon home? Therefore it is vital that we remain healthy so that we can focus on our work to put food on the table.
 
While wealth is on the wish list for many people through out the world, having a healthy longevity is their top wish. To grow to a ripe old age to see your family tree grew is a memorable.

Money is also known as the source of evil, it can cause dispute among family member when a sum of money is left behind without a will. Unlike money, it can do quite the opposite effect when a love one is gravely ill family member instead of quarreling over the asset instead show love, concern finally yet importantly Care. 

With the rapid growth of competition in the market as the world is constantly changing, people are fighting to keep their jobs and solve their bread and butter issue forgetting how important their health in a stressful environment. Being Overworked can lead to health problem such as fatigue, increase chance of having hypertension and other health problems. 

But there are some health problem that is incurable take Human immunodeficiency Virus(HIV) despite nations pouring money into research, they are yet to find a cure. 

Money can be use for one personal lifestyle such as building a mansion with a swimming pool but if one is in poor health can it be built?
 
Although money can bring joy to some people, health is more important than money without any doubt.

The glue that makes it stick....

The glue that makes it stick....

By Rumbidzai Mashayahanya

So I have been wondering what really makes any relationship work. Is it just about the personalities of the two individuals being compatible? Is it the deep gnawing need of wanting to be needed or is it about the sex?

The underlying concept of any relationship is not about his/ hers, it is about a partnership of compromise and accommodating each others differences. It is a subtler form of general mathematics that simply adds up to the magic.

Relationships are based on optimism, even though this seems like a skewed view on the subject, it is in fact true. When one is in a relationship of any sort, the one thing we all hope on consciously or sub-consciously is that we wake up the next day in the hope that our partner still feels the same way they felt before they went to bed.

Real relationships take lots of work and time. It is not about borrowed lines and scenes from the pages of a fairytale book, “And they lived happily ever after!” though it is a phrase we all love to hear, it is not as simple as Disney puts across. It is not as easy as Beauty; a damsel in distress is rescued from the evil fire breathing dragon by a handsome prince, and bam! They are married. If you were viewing the world in this starry eyed version, then this is your wake up call to see the true realities of hoe relationships work

What is important and what I have learnt from my own experience is that, the key to making it work is to stop trying to fix the other person, they are definitely not broken and neither are we.

We spend too much time trying to improve the other person such that it slowly becomes an obsession and we begin to spend more time trying to find flaws and focusing on what is not right in the relationship or with the partner.

Instead of being a brutal character critic, why not channel the energy in appreciating the other and thinking of new and exciting ways to make them happy, respecting their opinions, ideas, taste, religion, in short having respect for who they are and what they stand for. True happiness and fulfillment in the relation therefore becomes transient when it is controlled by outside circumstances.

Trust is an essential element in life. It is the most essential ingredient for any long lasting relationship. And in the words of relation expert Stephen Covey, it is the foundational principle that holds all relationships.  

Without trust it is difficult to create a successful relationship and without trust, it is hard to love!

So at the epilogue of all of life’s catharsis, where do you begin to have the glue that holds any relationship together?

If there is no trust in a relationship, there is no love. For trust and love operate in the same manner as faith and hope.

Trust therefore become the grand symbol of stability and knowledge and this is not merely a tool used by some abusers of love and trust as an illusion and facade to sugar-coat casual sex in acceptable terms!

woman of virtue........

Sometimes in life you meet up with difficult situations
Some of them we are their architects
Others are just a matter of fate,
A destiny one thinks they can never change.
What one doesn’t realize though is that words have power
They have the strength to build nations, to build empires, to shape an individuals destiny
Words are a tool that can change our lives.
Having the power to say a word and standing by it takes great courage
The road to building your dreams is never easy,
But you have to walk the whole yard without fail.
I look back at my life and cast stones at myself for the mistakes I have made
But today I look back and reflect on those mistakes as teachers,
Teachers who have given me a wealth of experience,
I shun not my mistakes, but I embrace them as having taught me about the real world.
The road of pain and suffering have I walked alone.
The tears, self mockery and contempt I have endured.
But as the new day dawns on me and I know that God has given me another chance.
A chance not to cry all over again, not to renege on the choices I have made but
An opportunity to start anew again.
I have no doubt that we are our own worst enemies; we are our own nemesis,
We allow situations to reign lord
Yet we have the power to control them in the hollow of our hands.
We are weak but we have the strength deep inside our fragile heart
I now know for sure that I shall not be an engineer of my destruction,
I shall not be an architect of those elements that will hold me down.
I shall take each day as it comes and be glad that I am alive
I shall embrace all the things that have shaped me into being the woman I am today
A true warrior, a woman of virtue.
Many will go down and right all the ills I have done in the books of history, but like a tornado I shall rise, like an eagle I will rejuvenate into a new creation.

......................and now the poet speaks
 

tru african poets corner

Can we just be friends?

It is an old age question that every couple battles with: Is it possible for two people, male and female just be friends with no strings attached? Can two people just be friends without being romantically involved? 

These questions have constantly been the subject of debate in different societies today. The answer to this no one knows, but there are definitely some pointers that people should be wary of in such types of friendships.

It is true that opposite sex friendships stand on shaky ground half the time but the evidence that men and women can never be just friends is too overwhelming. 

In the movie "When Harry met Sally", actor Billy Crystal said that men and women can not be friends because the sexual attraction part always gets in the way.

It is not just about the movies but also various studies that have been carried out show that opposite sex friendships account for 15 percent of affairs in married couples.

If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, it may help to explain why men and women can never be friends.

A friend of mine told me that all the blame should be put on any red-blooded, heterosexual man and woman. Point to the jealous that plagues any rational person when a significant other befriends someone of the opposite sex.

But can we take this juvenile line of thinking associated with teenagers and say truly a man and a woman can never be just friends?

Wrong, the belief that men and women can never be friends comes from another era in which women were at home and men were in the workplaces and the only way they could get together was for romance.

However society has changed and the paradigm shift has now seen the the two sexes working together, sharing interests and socializing together.

This cultural shift has helped people to see that though it may be tricky, men and women can successfully be close friends. What is more interesting  is that there are more good reasons for the two parties to do so.

In our African culture, our societies have long pointed out that the only relations that are approved between opposite sexes are romantic ones because they are productive and people have babies which continues the life cycle. True, but absurd!

Part of this confusion over the relationships stems from the way the media portrays these relationships. In "When Harry met Sally" what the movie successfully did was to convince a whole group of moviegoers that sex always comes between friends.

But that is not the only movie, almost every time you see a male-female friendship, it winds up in a whirl-wind romance. take our local drama Studio 263, Vimbai Jari was befriended by Tom Mbambo and where did it end? Talk about The Bold and The Beautiful's Taylor and Chip, on Generations Sharon and Samuel. the list is endless.

These cultural images are hard to overcome and this is why society looks at any relation between opposite sexes to lead to romance.

A popular saying that says everything under the sun is marked and approved by society caught my attention as  I was going through an interesting novel just the other day and I realized, if these beliefs had been cultivated by the media into society then the situation could be reversed. 

So if one is truly to assess all the evidence and ask again if men and women can be friends, the answer would be absolutely!

Men and women can be friends, it depends on the different stages the individuals are in their lives or the practicalities involved such as marriage and living too far apart.

Often when men and women are friends, they have already diffused the sexual energies that they used to generate and they often find themselves at ease with each other.

Sometimes some people would have worked closely together, or met through families, or have simply known each other since their childhood. Whatever the circumstances, the familiarity makes them feel like brother and sister. They can be themselves with each other.

Should you however find yourself in an exclusive relationship, and you do not want to introduce your new friend to your mate, you have to ask yourself, "Is this just friendship?" or is he or she a friend with possibilities?

Attraction and compatibility are the building blocks for close relationships, ,so the bridge from friendship to romance is already built. The big question is when, if ever, it will be crossed.

The bottom line is that men and women can be friends, but the bridge to romance and the possibility of crossing it always exists.