New favourite song.

Why not.

To have a smart phone is no longer a luxury for the elite only but a solution to the exorbitant charges of sending a short text message (SMS) using the services of the cellphone network service providers in Zimbabwe. It costs 9 US cents to sent a local SMS and 23 cents for an out of Zimbabwe SMS chat. Running on economics partly sustained by remittances from abroad most Zimbabweans had to rely on SMS to avoid the high long distance call tariffs when chatting with loved ones abroad. The introduction of chat applications like Whatsapp on mobile phones is now forcing people to switch phones to the latest smart phones compatible with chat apps. My last visit to a local cellphone dealer shop in town gave me an impression that when buying a phone it’s no longer about the looks but the service and functions the phone can give to a customer. I was told the first thing a customer now asks before making a purchase is whether the phone is compatible with Whatsapp. Apps like these have made it easy to chat with people outside Zimbabwe, send pictures, audio and video files for as little as less than US0.10. The young with technology at heart in schools or out of employment have been the major consumers of these social apps because of the cheap charges. The benefits of the chat apps could be small to network service providers in terms of data usage but to an ordinary person with less than 23 cents in his/her phone itching to make contact with someone it’s a huge success. The latest to adapt to the new communications trends are the upcoming entrepreneurs who are still battling the liquidity crunch in the country are also enjoying the benefits of reaching out to potential clients at low costs.

From Atlantic and Flavorpill …

Creative thinkers often have some unconventional impulses: Immanuel Kant liked being wrapped up like a mummy, and Charles Dickens lived with a bunch of animals.

D.H. Lawrence
D.H. Lawrence found it stimulating to climb mulberry trees in the nude. It is not clear why he found the mulberry more alluring than, say, the maple. Presumably during his extended stays in Mexico Lawrence climbed saguaro instead.

Anton Chekhov
Chasing butterflies like Nabokov, raising peacocks like Flannery O’Connor, keeping bees like Ted Hughes—yawn. A real Bohemian needs a mongoose. Chekhov called his Svoloch and described it in a letter as “a mixture of rat and crocodile, tiger and monkey.” He kept it for about a year and a half, but, citing a need to travel, he then donated it to the Moscow zoo, which he had fiercely criticized as an “animals’ graveyard.” The mongoose lived in captivity for two more years. The average lifespan of a captive mongoose today is about 20 years.

Friedrich von Schiller
Friedrich von Schiller kept fruit flies. Rather, he put rotten apples under his desk to inspire him with memories of the orchards of his youth. When he faltered for the right word, he took a quick sniff, and it materialized. His younger friend Goethe was amused by this practice—and later kept on his desk a skull he believed to be Schiller’s.

Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore was presumably not obsessed with automobiles, but she was asked by Ford to come up with inspirational names for new ones, on the logic that nobody knows words like a poet. Sadly the company did not take her up on “Mongoose Civique” (would it run for 20 years?), “Resilient Bullet,” “Ford Silver Sword,” “Varsity Stroke,” “Pastelogram,” “Andante con Moto,” or “Utopian Turtletop.” They went with Edsel instead.

Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol was passionate about opera, which is not an unusual obsession. However, Shostakovich made an opera out of Gogol’s story, “The Nose,” which was first performed in 1930, around 80 years after Gogol’s death. In 1931 Gogol was disinterred by Soviet authorities for removal to a different cemetery, and he was found lying face down in his coffin. Presumably he heard the music and did the conventional thing. Or else he had been buried alive.

Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant required an assistant to get out of bed each morning because he couldn’t sleep unless completely mummified in blankets. This operation commenced precisely at 5 a.m. every morning—though eventually, the assistant was dismissed for having acquired a habit of excessive drinking.

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens had two ravens, two St. Bernards, two Newfoundlands, a spaniel, a mastiff, a Pomeranian, a cat, a canary, and a pony. Their names, respectively, were Grip I, Grip II, Sultan, Linda, Don, Bumble, Timber, Turk, Mrs. Bouncer, Williamina, Dick, and Newman Noggs. Dickens had Grip I mounted after it died from eating lead paint. It is now in the Philadelphia Free Library, and is thought—via Barnaby Rudge—to have inspired one of Dickens’s American contemporaries to pen a well-known poem.

Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter kept a brightly painted Mexican pine coffin in her apartment during her later years (she reached the age of 90). She enjoyed startling visitors by standing in it and commenting on the fit. This was part of her longstanding interest in death—she was administered last rites twice in her 20s. Interestingly, she was not ultimately buried in that coffin, which is now on display in the Katherine Anne Porter Room at the University of Maryland Library.

Jeremy Bentham
Philosopher Jeremy Bentham decreed that his remains, after meticulous dissection, should be stuffed into one of his good black suits and seated in his usual chair and displayed publicly at University College London with his old cane in hand. He’s still there, although his head has been replaced with a wax replica, because the original defied various attempts to preserve it.

Happiness is love. Full stop.

Read about what makes us happy according to the Grant Study. Via Atlantic

Consultant: Livestock Project Baseline / ActionAid
Deadline: 1 May 2013 at 1700 hours

Location: Harare/Mbire
To Start: 6 May 2013
Contract: 1 – 2 weeks

Purpose of the Position
To carryout baseline for proposed livestock development project in Mbire district

Key Strategic Performance Areas
-Quantitative and qualitative benchmarks for the    indicators outlined in the log frame.
-Provide business plans for sale pens, abattoir and the tannery.
-Review current practices that contribute to livestock production and marketing looking at the policy/legal framework governing this sector.

A detailed Terms of Reference will be made available to shortlisted candidates.

Minimum Requirements

Qualifications
Minimum MSC in the following areas Social science , Agriculture, Veterinary science, with experience in livestock and social science research.

Other Essential Requirements
-Substantial experience in livestock issues, policy analysis and development programming in Southern Africa. .
-Experience working in rural areas in areas of livelihoods.
-Proven experience in livestock business, development, policy analysis and value addition initiatives.
-Experience in conducting reviews employing participatory methodologies
-At least 5 years relevant experience in livestock development issues
-Research companies and organizations that might be interested should have the required personnel with requisite skills.

Applications
To apply submit your updated CVs, work plan and detailed budget and at least three referees to The Human Resources and Organizational Development Manager, Action Aid International, 16 York Avenue, Newlands, Harare

Or email: jobs.zimbabwe [at] actionaid [dot] org

NB: Whilst all applicants will be assessed strictly on their individual merits, qualified women are especially encouraged to apply.

Please note: Although we value all applications, we can only respond to short listed candidates.

Zimbabweans want to come home. The Government of Zimbabwe needs to resuscitate our local industry and create jobs. If you need a chef, maybe Obvious is your man … let us know and we’ll put you in touch.

Hi guys please am looking for a chef position. Am here in Cape Town, South Africa but I really need a chef job in my home country and I need to make a difference in hospitality industry. I believe I do have all it takes to make a change for our country. Am ready to come down to my home country as soon as you guys got something for me.