(no title)

Time Is of The Essence. No it isn’t, TIA baby

May 22, 2012 in Business, Life, Lifestyle, My opinion, Zambia | Tags: africa, TIA, time management, Work, Zambia | Leave a comment

The reality of working and living in Zambia is finally hitting home – big time. When I first moved back, just over a year ago, I loved the fact that I had a work-life balance – well, that I had a life altogether!

But now I realise that I might have more of a life and less of a career. Welcome to Africa they say, or my personal favourite TIA (This Is Africa). Time is anything but of the essence. You can spend days on end waiting for feedback, approvals, quotes, suppliers showing you their work, and anything else you need to actually make anything happen.

We signed a contract with a new client in January, which was supposed to end at the end of July, out of the four deliveries, we have just delivered on one thing, while we wait in vain for feedback to allow us to move forward – the downside of being consultants or an agency, you can’t move ahead without an approval to do so!

This waiting game means that you lose the momentum, and in some cases the drive to do it. My boyfriend laughed at my two hour gym sessions – saying it would be hard for me to find the time to do it during the week – but the joke’s on him. I can take 2 hours off – say lunch time to be on the safe side (as if), and still come back to find myself still waiting.

Yesterday someone remarked that working in Zambia is like being on holiday. Yes that it is. But the frustrating thing is that once they give their approval, they expect the product/service to be delivered the next day! Really?

And this is why I think it is important to run a business with products or services you control – because you’ll have the time to!

But seriously if this behaviour of slow moving work-place environments continues is it no wonder we’re lagging behind in development (when we used to be ahead)? Or that employees are unmotivated to function productively?

I am glad I can go spend hours in the gym, or wander the mall at lunch time, or not work on weekends etc but you know what they say about an idle mind (and idle hands!). Plus it breeds frustration on my part. I’m not used to not doing stuff, not using my brain, not… functioning. But now that I’m getting used to this sad reality, I’m working on using the time constructively – not just seeing what’s going on online (besides I keep finding stuff on Kim-Ye, which is just boring), or catching up on twitter and facebook, I’m using it as an opportunity to develop my own stuff – stuff that is time-dependent only on me.

No point in sitting around complaining is it? The world is our oyster and only we can determine our future and our legacy – go out and take it!

May 18, 2012 in For fun, Lifestyle, My opinion, Zambia | Tags: corruption, driving, licenses, police, roadblocks | Leave a comment

My saturday mornings pretty much start the same – the overwhelming dread of the possibility of the road traffic police at the checkpoint on the Great East Road.

At some point or another most people in Zambia dread these encounters with the road traffic police and the checkpoints. The problem isn’t only that there are too many unlicensed drivers (or drivers who lost their licences or licences got expired and never been renewed – my excuse! really it is…), but because of years of the police abusing their power to corruptly get money from motorists, people have forgotten that they are legally in the wrong too!

It makes me laugh when I hear people complain about the police harassing them, because they haven’t gotten round to getting their driver’s licence, let alone taken the test! Rarely do they stop to remember that technically, the police are right to stop and fine them. Yet it is seen as another way for the police to harass citizens and use it as an opportunity to extort money from them. Sadly, more often than not this is true.

The other day my sister and I were having a conversation about this – after a friend’s usual run in with the cops (obviously not me!) – after this friend told them that she didn’t have the money to pay the fine (she finally admitted that she didn’t have a Zambian licence – she had a European one, which they didn’t even ask to see), and they threatened to take her to the police station where the car was to be impounded and she was to be thrown in jail until someone could pay the bond. Knowing she really didn’t have cash on her and wanting to do the right thing, she asked which station would she be taken to so she could call someone to meet her at the police station with the bond money. The police officer instead told her to return later that day to the same checkpoint to pay the fine.

Sounds fishy? You could say perhaps it wasn’t worth the police officers time or paperwork to take this lady to the police station, but if procedure is procedure it should be followed, regardless. Plus does it make sense to fine an unlicensed driver or even a driver who fails to produce their driver’s license and then let them go on their merry way? Is this perhaps why Zambia has such a high level of road traffic accidents? All these unlicensed drivers who don’t know the road traffic rules driving around, could be quite dangerous.

With police officers using their position of authority to intimidate and therefore extortion people, it’s obviously why residents have little respect for the law, and see the police officers more as a nuisance than respect them for the work they have to do. Changing the head of the police department will not change this problem – does he know what’s going on at every checkpoint in the country?

Though educating people on the law would help. Do you pay your fine at the checkpoint or is it to be paid at a police station?

How do we make it easier for people to get driving licenses so that everyone who drives can get one – seriously full medicals are long! Making legal documents easier to get would help for sure i.e. in the UK you fill in a form with the necessary paperwork and mail it off, within 7 days or so you get your license – viola! And then understanding the road traffic laws would be the next obvious step.

Proper procedures, which don’t really inconvenience people would help reduce corruption I’m sure, and then police officers can focus on real and necessary duties than just harassing ordinary citizens! But knowing that you can just bribe any police officer who stops you, doesn’t really inspire anyone to become compliant or to respect the law… Just saying…

Lusaka Living: The Law

May 18, 2012 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

My saturday mornings pretty much start the same – the overwhelming dread of the possibility of the road traffic police at the checkpoint on the Great East Road.

Though educating people on the law would help. Do you pay your fine at the checkpoint or is it to be paid at a police station?

Special Needs, a challenge for Zambia

May 16, 2012 in Life, Zambia | Tags: children with special needs, downsydrome, education, Zambia | Leave a comment

My younger brother was diagnosed with Downs Syndrome when he was born – 22 years ago. At the time we were living in London and he was able to access services to help improve his quality of life.

When he was three years old we moved back to Zambia, and that was pretty much the end of services to improve his life.

There was a school at a local hospital which was for kids with special needs, but whether it was understaffed or not properly skilled workers, Kwangu (my young brother) seemed miserable there. Though he couldn’t (and still doesn’t) speak, there were way we could tell that he was not thrilled to go to that school.

It was also a challenge for my mum, as it was soon clear that he couldn’t be left at the school alone. This meant that she had to spend her day there, making it difficult for her to have a job – at the time we were all kids, so was necessary for my mum to work so both my parents could provide for us five kids that were home at the time.

Sooner rather than later Kwangu left that school. My mum and other concerned parents formed the Parent’s Partnership for Children with Special Needs (PPCSN) in an attempt to provide the necessary services that were missing for their children, all with varying special needs.

It was admiral, but really it was a bunch of (mainly) women, older women, who had no real clue of what to do. They decided they wanted a school that could properly serve the needs of their kids and that of the community, especially as reports would suggest, the policy to provide education to children with special needs was only reaching approximately 10% of the kids that needed it.

PPCSN actually did research, funded by Save The Children Sweden, that was quite astounding, regarding the numbers of kids that had a mental disability. At the time (circa 2003), they found 1,334 children in the nine wards of Lusaka district that had a disability and 96.4% of them received no assistance from government or any other social institution. Slightly over 50% of those eligible to go to school were not in any school. Further to that, it was found that within their own communities:

87% had no access to special education
89% had no access to skills training
63% had no access to rehabilitation
69% had no access to assessment
69% had no access to special care
70% had no access to recreation
46% had no access to health care

That may have been nine years ago, but I doubt very much that a lot of that has changed. If anything there might be more kids living with special needs.

However, my mother and her group, despite those statistics and virtually no source of funding soldiered on. I remember some of the stories my mum would tell us, about parents in the townships who had to chain their child to a tree to ensure they didn’t wander off, while they went to work as they couldn’t find anyone to care for the child. Chain a child like a dog!

It didn’t help that mental disabilities is not a well understood illness and people felt that it was related to witchcraft, which scared them even more to have anything to do with children with special needs. I felt that first hand when my brother had to go into hospital and my parents were out of town at my uncle’s funeral. The nurses were even too scared to give him his medication. My sister and I ended up providing the care that the nurses were supposed to provide.

Eventually PPCSN were to have their school! After some fundraising walks, a fundraising premiere of GI Joe (thanks to the folks over at Paramount Studios), and some goodwill from private citizens, a small community school – Hidden Voice – was established in one of the high density areas of Lusaka.

The school still can’t provide enough for its students, let alone the vast number of kids that could benefit from the services, but it’s a start.

My kid brother is now too old to attend the school, and we have tried to improve his quality of life as much as possible, but he is an example of how bad things can get for kids with special needs when the services just aren’t there. There’s very little we can do for Kwangu now that will improve his educational and skills needs, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop championing for the services for other kids like him.

I just hope that sooner rather than later people will understand the need to include children with special needs when they refer to access to education for all.

The Death of Type A Personalities

May 7, 2012 in Life, Lifestyle, My opinion, Self, Zambia | Tags: ambition, mental health, success, type a personality, Zambia | Leave a comment

I write because it helps me express myself and how I’m feeling. Sometimes it’s easier than other times. I feel the challenge of being a Type A person – which I’ve never particularly thought of myself as being. Yes I’m fiercely ambitious and can (occasionally) be an over-achiever, and yes success (of the financial kind) is top of my list, and some people may call me a workaholic, or work obsessed, but I guess because nothing I do do I ever think is good enough, I’ve never considered myself Type A. Though coming to think of it, isn’t that the very reason why I probably am Type A? Constantly pushing myself to be better?

Anyway, my point was the last couple of weeks have been particularly challenging for me. Working in Zambia is probably not the best place to work if you have a Type A personality. The work ethics aren’t on the same point, there is not much of a go-getter attitude and really hard work isn’t actually valued or rewarded. In fact looking around – and I’d say thanks to the media (well they are the eyes and ears of the people) – there aren’t many examples of how hard work, drive, ambition and dreams can turn into success, wealth and personal growth/satisfaction. Instead we have examples of how doing the least amount of work and a poor attitude can get you by, and in some cases also succeed (though those examples are marred with potential corruption and scandal and other unworthy characteristics).

So it’s easy to understand why a company, despite how long you have worked with them, despite how much business you have thrown their way, to still treat you with disrespect and try to con you in some way or another. The attitude of ‘I don’t care if I lose your future business because I’m going to exploit you today to make a killing’. The saying a bird in hand is worth two in the bushes is totally lost on business in Zambia – from my experience that applies to both small and large businesses.

Also the limiting ourselves nature of people. When did we stop dreaming? Where is the can do mentality? Initially I found it amusing when one of our employees couldn’t say where they wanted to be in five years, then I thought that maybe it was because they didn’t want to tell us if their plan was to move on. But the more I talk to people, the more I observe people, the more I realise that loads of people don’t have a plan past today – and that’s probably to get home to some food and TV.

I have big dreams that I can’t limit just because of my gender, or my age, or the country I’m in, that’s ridiculous. From the age of 10 I started dreaming that I wanted to win an Oscar (best film and best director), I may not have that dream anymore, but I never thought because I was a girl born and living in Zambia that it wasn’t possible. My dreams may have changed, but they’re still big. And therein lies my problem.

My loyalties mean that I don’t want to leave anyone behind as I continue to move forward in my life (read career), but what happens when you feel those very people are holding you back? You feel as I do, a condition prone to Type A personalities (so I read), and that’s stress and depression. And if you dig further (ok do more google searches) you realise that depression is simply latent anger, which could be a result of frustration (that part I’m guessing).

And then it makes me think. Is it that there are no dreamers, or ambitious people in Zambia? Or did the frustration and challenges around them kill them? To be honest I can see why getting home to food and TV can be a hell of a lot easier and comforting than constantly working against the tide.

We’ll see how this chapter plays out.

The Business of SMEs

April 26, 2012 in Business, My opinion, Zambia | Tags: business, entrepreneurs, financing, growth strategy, Zambia | Leave a comment

After working for someone else for eight years, I do believe that the way forward for me is being my own boss, or at least working in a family business where my boss is someone I share the same bloodline with.

I do find the challenge of a start-up exciting, especially when it’s something you love to do. But it’s not easy, especially if you’re not blessed with buckets of money. Balancing the love of what you do and trying to make money from it can be a challenge. More so when you have to go to banks who only want to look at your financial statements to ensure you’re worth investing in.

I know the bottom line is the bottom line in your business, but understanding the vision and people behind a brand is just as important. I get excited when I talk about the work that I do and the opportunities for growth. But most of the financial institutions I was talking to weren’t interested in hearing about that. After awhile I thought, hold up, I might need the capital injection right now, but equally I need a bank or financial institution that believes in what we’re doing and wants to be there supporting our growth.

Too often SMEs, that is small and medium enterprises, are treated as unimportant, because their annual turnover is less than (by the standards of the banks I saw) $500,000. Though in a market where the majority of people live on less than $1 a day, I don’t think a turnover of $500,000 a year is not too bad. Plus there are so many examples of companies that were SMEs and are now the biggest companies in the world – pretty much all the biggest companies in the world!

The challenge of resource mobilisation can put a dampner on your mood and the mood of your staff in the office – if they ever get wind of what you’re going through. And that low feeling can suck the soul out of you. Yet your soul is exactly what you need to keep pushing forward.

Entrepreneurs can help stimulate the economy, not only because they are willing to take risks and innovate in markets that might not be stable, but they can also create jobs and new technologies to develop markets. This is something that the west is more comfortable pushing, but in Africa, where we didn’t even have the bulk of the economic recession, we’re still of the mindset that entrepreneurs are too risky to invest in.

In a market with limited job opportunities and a defunct welfare system and virtually no pension plan, what is there for the mass market to do if not to create their own employment? And if that employment can create more employment and stimulate the economy, the government should be investing in that. And the smart, creative and risk-taking banks should also be driving that opportunity.

It’s funny that even now, when there is more competition among banks, with European, American, Zambian, South African, and Nigerian banks in the market, they still act like there is nothing to compete for – like they are the only players in the market. I’m big on loyalty, so if I find a bank that is good to me now when I’m in need, I’ll be loyal and stay true to them. But that requires working with a bank that is like-minded, and preferably one that can make decisions locally. It doesn’t help me if your bank makes its decisions from the UK, where they only care about businesses with an annual turnover of $1 million.

So I’m trying to stop getting frustrated with the banks, but rather re-think my strategy, I’m not looking for a bank who can help me, I’m looking for a bank who I can work with to grow my company, and therefore their business too.

I may ‘only’ be an SME today, but as Chris Bridges said, here’s a binoculars and look out for me!

Peace and love

B+

April 19, 2012 in Life, Lifestyle, Self | Tags: life, personal development, positivity, stress, Work | Leave a comment

I was watching an edition of Extreme Make Over: Home Edition where this kid said that after being diagnosed with Leukemia and discovering his blood type was B+ he decided to make that his life motto. In my mind I thought he was talking about the average grade you can get, and didn’t really understand it – is it my over-achieving mind that led me to that? Of course he meant your attitude in life should be positive.

I’m always inspired by people who don’t seem to let anything affect them. They always see the glass as half full and nothing else. Truth be told I pretend those people irritate me, but I guess I kind of envy them. I don’t think I’m a negative person per se but I’m definitely not one of those eternally optimistic people either. Partly, I think it’s my disposition, I’m a problem solver and very driven, I don’t see challenges as an exciting hurdle to cross but yet another problem I need to solve. I guess I drain my own personal resource by doing this and frequently feel down.

My boyfriend is one of those people that never seems to let things get him down – he says that it is what it is so there’s no point getting down about it, it resolves itself always. And I can see why he’s right. Even in our relationship he says I need to focus on the positive and not think about the small negatives (which the positives far outweigh).

Running your own business it is hard to take the negatives (or challenges) and just roll with them, because there are a lot of them that can impact the success of your business. But at the same time, constantly worrying about them doesn’t help either. Every once in awhile you need to check out of whatever you’re doing and take a step back to look at the bigger picture – so that you can remember to stay positive!

Last week I did just that by going to Livingstone with some girlfriends. I didn’t take my laptop – which was a big deal for me – and I pretty much turned off my cell phone – even scarier than not having my laptop!

The next couple of days were spent exploring the mighty victoria falls – what an amazing natural beauty and so powerful. We jumped off a gorge, a 58km drop in 3 seconds – crazy, and then did a sunset cruise to observe the wildlife along the banks of the Zambezi river while enjoying a cold beverage. It was bliss. I may have been a little too social for my own good coming back exhausted but far less stressed than when I left.

Where you drop into the gorge!

Back in Lusaka and back in the office, it occurred to me how much the energy of the management team affects the rest of the team. My positive, more relaxed demeanor also allowed the team to be more relaxed and excited about the weeks ahead, and looking at our task list, it’s important to keep this attitude up as there are long days and hard weeks on the horizon.

My boyfriend and I got to a hurdle in our relationship, one that we (ok me) discussed for hours, but also kept me awake as I thought about what to do. In the end, I decided to trust him and myself and to not make the issue bigger than it was, I decided to be positive and have a little bit of faith. Was it the right decision? Only time will tell but at least I’m feeling happy and that’s what counts.

I’m still going to join the gym though – it requires a lot of energy and will power to have a positive attitude!

A Family Affair

April 5, 2012 in Life, My opinion, Self | Tags: business, family, start-ups | Leave a comment

I’m addicted to watching Brandy and Ray J’s reality show “A Family Business”, not only because I like Brandy as an artist, but because there is so much to it that I can relate to. The fights, the love, the tears, the laughter, the support, the division. Running a family business is a reality show on it’s own!

I have always liked the thought of being part of a family business, because I am so family oriented and I like working for myself, and why shouldn’t the money be kept in the family? But I didn’t realise how hard it would be, especially after you’ve been apart for so long.

Families are still made up of individuals. These individuals might have different values, work ethics and perspectives from each other, which obviously can cause challenges and friction within the business.

As a family we’ve never been good with confrontation, we shy away from it and hope that the problem with resolve itself, without us having to do anything. But like with any conflict, resentment and frustration is bound to build. The good thing about a family is that you can overcome these feelings, because your love for each other usually is the over-riding factor.

However, from my experience over the last 11 months I’ve been in the company, I’ve also come to realise that the things people love about a family business can also be it’s downside. There are certain things you allow people to do because they are family, whereas if that was done in a public owned corporation for example, they’d be fired for. I always remember one episode in A Family Business, when Ray J rocks up for a management meeting late, drunk (or possibly hungover) and completely derails the meeting by either falling asleep or strumming on a guitar (I can’t remember which). We haven’t had exactly the same experience but similar…

I think for any start up to flourish – family owned or otherwise all the business partners must be committed and have a shared goal or vision (more than to just make money) and have to put the time and effort to realise that vision. If you don’t all do it, then that’s when the resentment starts to build and you have to nip it in the bud before it overcomes you.

Know each other’s strengths and respect it, but make decisions based on what is best for the business and not what is best for the individual, there might be an m and an e in team, but there really isn’t an I. Sometimes as the ‘team leader’ these decisions seem hard but you can’t afford to bury your head in the sand, not if you want your business to grow. And other times you have to let go of the business, because it might be the right thing to do for your health and your sanity. Find like-minded people to work with, who will want to succeed as much as you and put in the effort to do so.

These are my learnings from my own family business – there are so many successful ones out there so it’s best to learn from those to really grow and be sustainable. But always remember that the business should be before the family – unless the business is just a hobby for the entire family!

Dating in your 30s

March 19, 2012 in For fun, Life, My opinion, Self | Tags: love, relationships | Leave a comment

I read somewhere (a UK newspaper) that the 30s in women is described as flirthysomethings. Supposedly life is the happiest at this age. In our 30s we women seem to have ‘found’ ourselves, or at least we’re more accepting and comfortable with the women we’ve become – flaws and all.

What it also means is that we’re also at our sexual peak – there is a definite co-relation between confidence and sexual behaviour. But we’ve also had some practice to realise what we like and what we don’t like. Probably the best time to be in a relationship – you know what you want as a fully developed person.

The downside is that we have that very real biological clock ticking as well as the social pressures that come with being an unmarried woman in her 30s. Just the other day my mum remarked we needed to be nice to our relatives as we’d need them when planning my kitchen party – I ignored the comment.

However, now that I am in a somewhat stable relationship these two issues can’t help but rear their annoying heads. Kids? Well my partner has enough for both of us, but do I want my own, one that grows in me? Erm, not really. Call me selfish but I’m just not ready to turn my whole life upside down for anyone else, I like my life just as it is, and I like spending money on fun things, like shoes and parties, and not on real life things – diapers, school fees etc (I don’t quite make enough money for both). Marriage? Now that’s a tricky one. I really want to wear a wedding dress, I think they can be so pretty. And I am a romantic at heart, I like the idea of spending the rest of my life with someone I love (doesn’t everyone though?).

It’s definitely too early to even consider marriage with my current partner, but somehow in your 30s you really do start thinking about all these grown up things. Time becomes more precious – do I really want to invest in a relationship that might not be going anywhere? But at the same time, I don’t want to walk into a relationship analysing everything to see if he is husband material. Hmmm so dating really doesn’t get any less complicated in your 30s does it? I guess I’ll wait to see if it gets any easier in my 40s – though I do have awhile to go before I get there.

Shuga Official Music Video

March 17, 2012 in HIV/AIDS, Media, young people | Tags: Banky W, Bon-eye, Clarence Peters, Kenya, L-Tido, Shuga, Wizkid | 2 comments

I absolutely love the theme song for Shuga: Love, Sex, Money by some of Africa’s biggest talent – Banky W, Wiz Kid, L-Tido and Bon-eye – a great collaboration from West, South, and East Africa (sweet! – and i never say that!). And directed by supremo music video director of the moment, Clarence Peters.

I was on the set for the last few scenes so I’m so excited to see the end product that finally premiered on MTV – super excited! Watch it and let me know what you think!

Shuga: Love, Sex, Money Official Music Video from mtv staying alive on Vimeo.

Blogroll

Blogroll

Follow “”