Yesterday, we let our subscribers know about the $36 million loan that China has extended to Zimbabwe for “projects.”

One subscriber was concerned that with the Zimbabwean economy as bad as it is, and unemployment being so high, Zimbabwe shouldn’t be taking loans – that is, how will we pay it back?

Unsurprisingly, however, given Zimbabwe’s joblessness, a number of other subscribers were curious how they might benefit from the loan for their own projects.

Some of the feedback we received includes:

• Do any one enter into the loan?
• How will the applicants be considered for these loans?
• How could i get that loan
• Are these projects open to every one of the public
• Iam interested with the China loan how do I go about it many thanks
• Messge ndaiona saka zvakamira sei  pamaprojects acho (I saw your message – So how do things stand with these projects?)
• How can i get to be consideree
• May you kindly shade more light on the loans.
• Looking for projects to help unemployed youths give advice
• How can i get a loan of $500 to start a pig project?
• Hw do i excess the youth loan

I note the Herald article about the loan says that it is for “various projects.”

Since the Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Saviour Kasukuwere, just said on Wednesday that social media helps him interact with young people ~ those at the core of his ministry, I’m asking him via this blog (which I’ll also draw his attention to via Twitter) if he can shed any light on the China loan scheme and the projects it is intended for.

Minister Kasukuwere, two questions:

1) Are there any plans to extend some of the project support the new loan from China will provide to individuals’ or communities’ income generating projects?

2) How may youths (and other Zimbabweans) looking for support in income generating projects access other government support facilities?

In pursuit of Robert F. Kennedy’s dream of a more just and peaceful world, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Europe officially launched the RFK International House of Human Rights based in Florence, Italy.  The training center is housed in the Le Murate, which used to be a former prison but recently went through some renovations. It also hosts offices for RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights’ European branch. After going through a major facelift the building still maintains its prison features as a reminder of its past history of torture and other human rights abuses. In an official opening speech by Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, she said that in pursuit of her father’s dream the Center will be a place where digital dissidents will get training from technology experts on how to use technology in promoting human rights.

Specialists from Tactical Technology Collective (TTC), Global Voices Online, OneWorld Digital Security Exchange, Witness.org, Electronic Freedom Frontier and Human Rights Watch shared their knowledge with the first group of digital activists who were selected from various countries including Zimbabwe, Mexico, Pakistan, Myanmar, Philippines and Sri Lanka. The one week training programme focused on adopting the latest technology tools in digital activism, use of social media to promote human rights and also provided a platform to share experiences with other human rights defenders. Coming from different backgrounds human rights defenders at this year’s training session were exposed to the best practices in implementing human rights work and the latest technology tools, which will help transform and overcome the day-to-day challenges of promoting human rights.

What is Zimbabwe’s equivalent?

How Phone Messages Helps Eritrean Revolutionaries
Some have called Eritrea Africa’s answer to North Korea and it is indeed the seemingly most repressive country on the continent. Revolution is practically unheard of and the country’s jails overflow with critics, opponents and dissenters. But you can’t keep liberty down, writes The Economist: for the past two years an expat protest group has been making calls to Eritreans, telling them to “Start asking questions”, or “Don’t take this lying down”. But in order to reach as many people as possible, the campaign recently turned to that most-hated of telemarketing tricks: the RoboCall. Using this automated technology, the group says it is reaching over 10,000 people a month with small but important messages encouraging change in this police state. – Source, MSN

It is always interesting, well, for me at least, that many leaders, African or otherwise, while apparently extolled elsewhere, are often “unwanted” and face harsh criticism in their own countries.

And this has nothing to do with the hiding-being-religion motif of a prophet being unwelcome among his own people. Far from it.

I have been thinking about this in the past few days that when our President was heaping praises on Zambian President Michael Sata for literally feeding Zimbabwe with 150,000 tonnes of maize, university students in Lusaka were protesting, taking to the streets demanding that their “crazy president” resign.

The students were protesting against something that resonates with Zimbabwe’s tertiary education students who however would never dare bum rush the streets in the manner seen in Lusaka.

That was not the end of it.

Jobless youths reportedly joined in the protests demanding jobs, and a comment attributed to one youth summed up the mood: “Let them come and arrest all the young people for speaking out on the wrongs that are beng done by the government. This is a government that has lost popularity so early and we cannot wait to vote them out. They don’t want to listen to people who voted for them and since they have closed their ears, we can take to the streets because that is the language they want to understand.”

One of the accusations leveled against President Sata was that he had become “arrogant and insensitive to the plight of the people.”

And we await here the day when students can get on their soapboxes and speak their minds about their wretched circumstances.

Yet because student activists will tell you there are spooks who sit through lectures pretending to be students, this has crippled any militancy you would expect from an impoverished aspiring academic.

But we read that President Sata’s response was typical of an African leader who is antithetical to the right to protest: LOCK THEM UP, he is alleged to have instructed cops.

That was not the end of the crackdown. Police have in past few days also locked up Zambia’s own protest poets for music critical to Sata.

The offending lyricist when translated went something like: “You were lying ‘Tata’ (old man). You promised cheap fuel; you said you will construct roads but you were lying as people are still sleeping in tunnels.”

We are in good company hey? Thanks for the maize.

As the world starts to open up its doors to you that is when you realise the importance of learning as many foreign languages as you can. My father spoke three languages and I used to think he was trying to show off, not realising that because of his quest for greener pastures he had to adapt to new environments fast, and being comfortable speaking many languages was essential to job hunting. After learning English in school my belief was I that I could conquer the world not realising that the world doesn’t work like that!

When I was in Firenze recently I went to a restaurant and ate something that I didn’t order. Amongst our group nobody knew how to speak Italian. On the menu there were some English translations but we decided not to order the obvious and went for something different and Italian. I was the first to place my order and the waiter who was serving us also had language challenges. All I could hear from her was “Signo, Poi and Prego”.

Every meal you take in Italy you have to complement it with wine. So whilst I was waiting for my meal I was sitting in front of two bottles, one of red wine and the other of olive oil. I was in Italy to learn not to get knocked in the middle of the day so two glasses were enough for the occasion. By the time the main meal came I thought there was going to be some more coming not realising that I was eating the main course! To me it looked like a starter or something. The order I had placed was in Italian so I got grilled meat in tomato paste. It tasted good but sounded strange to me to eat meat with tomato paste. That’s when I realised that the world works well for you if you master the local language – red meat in tomato sauce could have been avoided if I had managed to read the menu well in Italian! The next time we went to the same restaurant I could see waiters switching so that we got served by the English speaking waiters.

So here I was in the middle of this Italian town that English speaking people prefer to call Florence but actually it should be pronounced Firenze.  One thing I noticed from the day I set foot in this town was the church buildings. If you studied the Roman Empire in school you would know what I am talking about.

This a town where people just love art, art is everywhere. From buildings to the streets and even on the toilet paper I got in my room, art is just part of the day-to-day life in Firenze.

When I was walking around I saw this couple on honeymoon sitting in front of this artist having their picture drawn. They call it caricature.

Its summer in Italy right now so day light time stretches up to 11pm and this kinda affected me so much that I could find myself in the middle of the city after midnight, something I wouldn’t do in Zimbabwe. I would get back to my room around 2 am!

During my stay in Firenze I was living with about 8 friends from different parts of the world. The fear of getting lost was almost to none as the people there were helpful in giving directions and the motorists respect pedestrians so much unlike some places I know – Zimbabwe!