OhMyZimbabwe

Motivational Quote of the Day

simplexbiri — Tue, 08 May 2007 02:50:57 +0000

“Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.”

- Victor Kiam

Motivational Quote of the Day

simplexbiri — Mon, 07 May 2007 09:59:38 +0000

“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead & rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.”

- Benjamin Franklin

Literary Journal Submissions

simplexbiri — Thu, 03 May 2007 10:51:02 +0000

Motivational Quote of the Day

simplexbiri — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:03:00 +0000

“All the adversity I’ve had in my life and all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me … You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in world for you”

- Walt Disney

Motivational Quote of the Day

simplexbiri — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:03:59 +0000

“Within you now is the power to do things you nevr dreamed possible.This power becomes available to you just as soon as you change your beliefs.”

- Dr Maxwell Maltz

Make Yourself Shine in a Crowded Job Market

simplexbiri — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 13:57:53 +0000

In a corporate world that is increasingly over-crowded, highly competitive and ever-changing, getting a promotion can indeed be a hassle. But, through deliberate, well planned steps, and a willingness to take initiative, you can put yourself at the front of the line for a promotion.

First things first: If you keep yourself sheltered away from the attention of your bosses, you will always miss the opportunity to climb up the corporate ladder. A promotion typically means having more responsibility.

So you have to position yourself as a person that has the aptitude, value and capability to meet the requirements of a potential promotion.

Develop career goals. You must be absolutely sure about where you want to go. Start maintaining a career journal where you write down your career goals. It’s important to make sure that the promotion is in alignment with both your credentials and personal goals. Develop long-term, medium-term and short-term goals that will keep you grounded towards a career upgrade. If you find it difficult to envision, consult a career coach to help you develop a clear perspective of what you want to do. A coach will help to expand your vision and push you to function at your peak.

Do your current job well and more. If you want to make it to the top of the corporate ladder, do your current job well. Demonstrate honesty, empathy, trustworthiness and an ability to be a team player. See every challenge and responsibility as an opportunity to shine, and to sell yourself to your organization. Always review what you are currently doing and identify gaps that can allow you to do more. The surest way to get promoted is to do more and better than is expected of you. Show the value in yourself and create a demand for your abilities.

Make a contribution. Start right away to contribute ideas and suggestions to improve processes, practices and profits of your company. To grant you a promotion, your company has to be satisfied with your value. Get all the facts about your ideas. Having more information will increase chances of your ideas and suggestions being accepted, and put you in favor to get promoted.

Keep a portfolio of your work. You must maintain a portfolio of work contributions that are directly connected to the position that you seek. Never make an assumption that your bosses know what you’re doing. Without being big-headed about it, let your organization know of your accomplishments. Gain visibility with your current job successes.

Review job descriptions. Be clear about the additional responsibilities involved in the promotion as well as the salary level. In your career journal, keep job advertisements that underline the major duties or responsibilities of the job you want to promote in. Make a note of the qualities, attitudes and outputs required for that upward career opportunity. After you have identified these attributes, the next step is to put them into practice to prepare yourself for a promotion. Update your resume. Take time to review your current skills and accomplishments, including what you’ve learned in your current position. Update your resume so that it reveals your talents and hidden skills. Make sure your resume is specific to the potential career upgrade. Remember: Highlight unique qualifications and background. A well-written resume can significantly improve your chances to landing a promotion.

Develop your skills. Identify areas that need improvement: don’t just focus on your strengths. In your career journal, make a note of areas of weakness and strive to improve in those areas that are critical to your promotion. In an ever-changing business environment, you must constantly update your skills to enhance your chances to get promoted. Consult and learn from experts in your field. Find out what they did to succeed, what they would do different, and steps that you can take to improve your chances of a promotion. Take Courses in Your Field. Many companies require a potential candidate for promotion to have an advanced degree. Like it or not, having an advanced degree exponentially increases your chances to move to the front of the promotion line. Target unique qualifications. Read books, join a professional association, attend seminars and do courses that will build your knowledge, skills and abilities.

Market yourself. Make full use of every opportunity to sell yourself. If you’ve got it, flaunt it and don’t wait quietly for someone to acknowledge you. Make sure that you demonstrate your ability to hold a higher position with flair and confidence. Also, show how your past achievements have contributed to the growth of the organization. When it comes down to the selection process, make sure to put your best foot forward, just like you did when you were first hired. Get networking right. If you want to fly like an eagle, then you have to stop taking lessons from chickens. Avoid co-workers and people that will pull you down through negative talk, and fill you with frustration over your desire to get a promotion. Associating with winners will fill you with a positive outlook on life and your career opportunities. Surround yourself with people that are success-oriented, and will encourage you to take the big leap forward towards a promotion.

Make yourself outstanding. There’s no doubt that polish and presence are critical ingredients for a promotion. Be open to new inputs and ideas. Become an expert in your field. Write articles or a book. Develop a dress sense that shows you are headed for the top.

Positioning yourself for a promotion at its most fundamental is an inside job. It’s a matter of finding what you want, and expressing that essence and character in everything you do. With hard work and an effective strategy, you can raise your stakes to get a promotion. So don’t let anything stop you.

O, my Love, my Land

simplexbiri — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:08:42 +0000

From afar, the dimming star of our love

Strikes chords that are so deepIt feels like the touch of frozen light bulb

Against my tongue

Awakening within me memories of raw earth

O, my land, my love

Whatever happened to the promise of the beginning

That kept us together in love’s embrace

With a hope of unturned tommorows

We could have become anything we wantedUnder heaven’s starry eyes

Yet, look -

Now, all we have to show is nothing but

Bags of bones and plastic promises

Baton sticks, and tear gas cannisters

And potholed streets pregnant with aborted dreams

How I wish we could run again my love

Far from the deadness of our soul

Into the milky brightness of the future

O, yes love, my land

Let’s exit the madness of our time now

And rediscover our lost love

Tomorrow is yours, Tomorrow is soon

simplexbiri — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 03:46:48 +0000

”Tomorrow is yours, Tomorrow is soon.”

- Trevor Huddleston

Zimbabweans must no longer despair because the writing is now on the wall. Tomorrow belongs to us, not to the hateful, myopic, limited, old and tattered perspetives of the current oppressive regime. They came, they did what they did, and they will disappear but tomorrow does not belong to them – no matter their machinations.This is not just dreamland thought – there’s no way that you can suppress the wishes of the people forever. It may appear as if they have scored some gains but the day of reckoningis fast approaching. A nation cannot be ruled with hate alone. A people need more than hate in their lives.Tomorrow certainly belongs to us though the night seems so long. In the meanwhile, we must not sleep or wallow in our depressed states. Instead, we must squeeze ourselves of all the energies that we have. We must start fighting for that ideal. In this night, we must dedicate ourselves with faith, hard work and integrity. We must teach ourselves and our children, constantly and consistently never to repeat the mistake of our fat-headed liberators.In this night, we must venture ito far away place, literally and otherwise, to search for the tools that we will use to rebuild the nation of
Zimbabwe.We must invest every ounce of energy into storing up solutions for the multi-faceted problems of the countryThe greatest tragedy of President Robert Mugabe is that, even if he were to leave office, the legacy that he bequeathes is that of hate and spite and historical crumbles.We cannot contiunue to define ourselves by what we are not.What that means is that tomorrow is now – the tomorrow that we seek must begin today, in this clouded night. When the future that we seek meets with the present that we have, an alchemy occurs that begins to drive us towards the realization of our dreams and hopes.It is at that time that our lost pride and consciousness can become restored. Indeed tomorrow is ours but it begins to unravel in this deep night.

Is Cutting the Male Appendage An AIDS Miracle?

simplexbiri — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 02:52:18 +0000

Male circumcision (the cutting of the foreskin from the male penis) is increasingly gaining currency among medical researchers as an alternative method to reduce HIV-infection. But will this solution really work?

Researchers say that if all men in sub-Saharan Africa — the worst HIV/AIDS affected region in the world — were circumcised over the next decade, roughly two million new infections and 300 000 deaths could be averted.

An additional 3.7 million new HIV infections and 2.7 million deaths could be avoided in 20 years. Put simply, while the benefit of male circumcision to an individual man is immediate, a large scale impact of the intervention will be realized in two decades.

Aids risk lowered by 60%

In fact, evidence from observational studies in sub-Saharan Africa has shown that circumcised men have a lower risk of acquiring HIV infection than uncircumcised men. A study in South Africa showed that male circumcision might reduce by about 60 percent the risk of men contracting HIV through sexual intercourse with women.

The study focused on 3000 HIV-negative, uncircumcised men ages 18 to 24 living in a South African township. Of these, half were randomly selected for circumcision while the other half remained uncircumcised and served as a control group.

For every 10 uncircumcised men who contracted HIV, about three circumcised men contracted the virus. Researchers believed the findings were so significant they deemed it was unethical to proceed without offering the option to all males in the study.

The argument is that the inner surface of the penile foreskin contains Langerhans cells, which have HIV receptors, and is also vulnerable to disruptions during intercourse. Second, an intact foreskin exposes a man to a greater risk of ulcerative sexually transmitted infections, which in themselves are a risk factor for HIV acquisition. Furthermore, the virus’ chances of survival might be higher in a warm, wet environment like the one under the foreskin.

How will it affect society?

The evidence that circumcision may protect against HIV infection is now considered strong enough that further trials evaluating the efficacy of circumcision as part of an HIV prevention program have been advocated. This could herald a new era in HIV-prevention methods. But the question remains: what are the societal implications of such a solution?

Male circumcision has been practiced extensively in some sub-Saharan communities in rites of passage ceremonies from boyhood to manhood. The gruesome circumstances under which such practices occur may be exacerbated in the light of this new evidence. Other communities have not practiced it at all.

However, qualitative studies in the Botswana, Haiti, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe revealed positive attitudes toward male circumcision in populations that do not traditionally practice it. From 45 to 85 percent of uncircumcised men in surveys expressed interest in the procedure if it is safe and affordable.

In spite of the interest in male circumcision, it is not a magic bullet in the fight against HIV-infection. To be effective, circumcision has to be promoted alongside condom use and faithfulness, long-established approaches in the fight against HIV/Aids.

Education and money will be essential

Some men may be tempted to engage in unprotected sex because they perceive they are protected by male circumcision. And some women may get a false sense of security when having sex with a circumcised man.

In itself, male circumcision provides little or no protection against urethral STDs such as gonorrhea and chlamydia and certainly cannot prevent unwanted pregnancies. This issue will need to be strongly emphasized in social campaigns.

To be successful, male circumcision will have to be complemented by a massive investment into education and counseling programs. There will be need for widespread and culturally sensitive dissemination of information that outlines the benefits and potential complications of male circumcision.

Another danger is that male circumcision can be risky or fatal if conducted by untrained personnel. There’s no doubt that with increased knowledge of male circumcision as a barrier against HIV, many men will try to perform it on their own. There will be obviously costs involved in getting circumcised which some people will try to circumvent.

Circumcising large numbers of adult men will be a major undertaking. If circumcision is not performed correctly it will increase the risk of infection. A major surgical system infrastructure needs to be developed. Who will fund this and how long will it take?

Also, most health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa are in a shambles and ill-equipped to perform widespread male circumcision. In addition, there’s also lack of social acceptability of circumcision in many of the sub-Saharan communities that have not traditionally practiced it.

Besides the safety and acceptability issues, perhaps the greatest drawback is the financial means required to undertake circumcision whole scale. Male circumcision will come with high costs through social mobilization efforts and upgrading of medical facilities. The more the men get circumcised, the more the success — and that’s tough ground.

Imagine the social message: If you’re a man, get cut today.

Motivational Quote Of the Day

simplexbiri — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 02:12:32 +0000

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.