DR MANDA: THERE IS TOO MUCH CARELESS DRINKING AMONG WOMEN

Urologist Francis Manda says there is too much careless drinking among women in Zambia.
He said some Zambian women had lost their cultural values because of the manner in which they conducted themselves at functions such as bridal ceremonies.

“Some women embarrass themselves in the presence of their children by shamelessly drinking to the point where they urinate in their pants or make arrangements with their boyfriends to pick them up, cheating their husbands that they are still attending the function,” he said.
“At functions such as kitchen parties, that is where a lot of alcohol is taken. Especially some married women because they feel that they are enjoying their freedom of being free, and they don’t just consume one type of alcohol but anything as long as it is beer.”
Dr Manda said the vices had led to some women and mothers failing to be role models to their children as some of them shamelessly misbehaved in the presence of their children.
He said such women were promoters of illicit behaviours that were steadily increasing among the youth.
Dr Manda also urged traditional counsellors who were preparing women for marriage to advocate the abolishment of alcohol consumption during bridal functions if future brides were to respect and honour their matrimonial homes.
“If you are only teaching that bride to be immoral and carelessly drink, how do you expect her to take care of her future home?” he asked.
Dr Manda said high alcohol consumption was among the major causes of poor health in Zambia.
He explained that the rampant intake of alcohol had the capacity to damage the liver due to the chemical substances that alcohol contained.
“I am not saying one cannot take alcohol once in a while. But people should know that high alcohol consumption derails a person’s thinking capacity and this does not augur well for a parent who is looking after children,” he said.
Dr Manda said a human liver would get poisoned by alcohol contents once a person was intoxicated beyond what his body could take.
He said once a human liver was damaged, it would pose a negative challenge to the smooth functioning of the body.
Dr Manda added that high alcohol consumption had the capacity to degenerate particles of the grey matter in the human brain.
“Once some sensitive parts of the brain are damaged, they cannot be replaced as some of them do not regenerate and it is very hard for alcohol to get out of the brain matter,” said Dr Manda.
Meanwhile, Umoyo natural health managing director Kim Otteby said high alcohol consumption had the potential to disrupt blood sugar balance that a human body was designed to contain.
She said alcohol also contributed to high sugar levels in one’s future.
She added that high alcohol also had the potential to reduce mineral contents in the human body and could lead to high acidity levels in the body.
Otteby added that habitual alcohol drinkers were at high risk of suffering from depression.
“Our bodies were not designed to be alkaline and this is very dangerous for human beings,” she said.
Otteby also urged expectant mothers to desist from taking alcohol as it had the potential to cause mental disorders to their unborn children.
According to a recent World Health Organisation report, alcohol kills 3.3 million people worldwide each year, more than AIDS, tuberculosis and violence combined. The UN health agency further warned that booze consumption was on the rise.

JEALOUS LOVER EATS RIVAL’S HEART IN S. AFRICA

A jealous lover in South Africa stabbed a rival, cut out his heart and ate it with a knife and fork, police and media reported Thursday.

Police were called to the gruesome scene at a house in Cape Town’s Gugulethu township by frantic neighbours, spokesman Frederick van Wyk told the Cape Times.

“On the scene they found a suspect, a Zimbabwean national, busy eating the heart of a human with a knife and fork,” he said.

The woman at the centre of the love triangle told police that her former lover had visited the house where she was living with her current partner and they had chatted together before he gave her money to buy liquor and she left.

When she returned she found her partner, 62-year-old Mbuyiselo Manona, had been stabbed, Van Wyk said.

Neighbours alerted by the commotion said they had peered through the house windows to see the man cutting out Manona’s heart and eating it.

“The whole situation was crazy. We were shouting at him to stop, but he did not listen,” one neighbour said.

“Even when the police got here… the guys were scared to go in. They had to call for back-up.

“You can’t really blame them — how do you go into a room with someone dripping another person’s blood out of his mouth?”

Western Cape deputy police commissioner Sharon Jephta said the motive for the murder was “definitely a love triangle”.

The suspect was arrested and is expected to appear in court soon.

The Zambezian 

TEARGAS AND STUN GRENADES USED IN DURBAN MARCH

Police used teargas and stun grenades on Wednesday during a march in central Durban by the KwaZulu-Natal Transport Alliance (KZNTA).

The 300-strong crowd delivered a memorandum to the city's mayor James Nxumalo at the Durban City hall. He was surrounded by heavily armed security officers.

The alliance members then marched from the hall to Pixley ka Seme Street (formerly West Street).

Stun grenades and teargas were released as police officers chased after groups of taxi drivers taking part in the strike. It was not clear what caused the chaos.

A number of taxi drivers had hammers, sticks, and clubs in their possession.

All the shops in the street were closed.

Colonel Jay Naicker said the march began at 11:00. The taxi operators were protesting about routes.

"At this stage the police are monitoring. No property damaged or injuries reported," he said.

Earlier, the eThekwini municipality called for a peaceful march.

"The municipality urges the event organisers to advise their members to refrain from vandalising council property or causing any disturbances during the march," spokesperson Tozi Mthethwa said in a statement.

The municipality was aware of the reasons for the KZNTA's march.

hese included the issue of operating licences, laws being in English, and the alliance feeling "shut out" by the municipality.

Mthethwa said the province was working on moving the licensing function to the city.

"The city and KZN department of transport engages with the taxi industry on this matter on a regular basis."

The laws being in English was not an issue as officials always explained matters to drivers in their preferred language, she said.

"In instances where a driver indicates that he or she does not understand English, the officers always get another officer to explain to the driver in a language that they understand."

She said drivers who were charged were given the opportunity to go to court and challenge fines in their own language.

"The reality is that the drivers do not pay the admission of guilt [fine] or go to court to make a representation to challenge the offence they have been charged for, often resulting in them being in contempt of court and warrants of arrest being issued against them."

Mthethwa said claims that the city was shutting the alliance out were "unfounded and a misrepresentation of facts".

On 14 February, the municipality signed a memorandum of agreement with the taxi industry, she said.

"The MOA spells out the principles as to how the municipality and the industry will engage with the taxi operators so that they can be part of the Go!Durban project."

The Go!Durban project is the city's own integrated rapid public transport network.

The marchers dispersed by late afternoon, leaving stones and rocks lying around.

news24 

LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS: NO 'SHORT-TERM MARRIAGES'

The days of traditional donors doling out money to poor nations as mere beneficiaries, and international organizations telling them how to solve their problems — rather than listening to them to figure out what the true needs are — are definitely over.

Participants at the Devex Partnerships Forum in Manila agreed on Tuesday that local partnerships are without a doubt not just the future, but already the present of doing good, especially in Asia-Pacific, where the development landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade and many developing nations are graduating to middle-income status.

With that in mind, the question is not anymore whether to “go local” — it’s how to get it right, make it truly sustainable and thus achieve local ownership of development programs.

For instance, the U.S. Agency for International Development has committed to spending 30 percent of its funds on so-called “local solutions” as part of the USAID Forward reform agenda.

“USAID has heard you,” said Denise Rollins, the agency’s acting assistant administrator for Asia, explaining that USAID has “made a dramatic shift in the way we do business” by now pursuing an “aspirational” target for at least 30 percent of all its funds to go to local partners.

However, some local partners are more suited to this goal than others. Find out more in the below Google Hangout.

And not only donors are fully “going local” these days — multilateral institutions like the Asian Development Bank and implementers like RTI International have been doing it for many years.

“For us it’s different, because our shareholders are the countries themselves,” noted ADB Vice President for Operations Stephen Groff, while Paul Weisenfeld, vice president for global programs at RTI, said that “everywhere we work, partnerships help us fill gaps.”

RTI, Weisenfeld added, always looks for long-term, strategic relationships in its local partners with a special focus on innovation, no “short-term marriages” like the development community used to support in the past.

Solid links are furthermore even more important now in the region, where many poor countries are graduating to middle-income status.

“Ultimately, our money is just a drop in the bucket” for these nations, commented Paul Hutchcroft, lead governance specialist at the Australian embassy in Manila. Rollins agreed and gave the example of India, where USAID is encouraging high-net worth individuals to become more engaged in charity.

So keeping all of this in mind, where do these experts see localization 10 years from now?

After a representative from Engility suggested a future in which international organizations will deliver specific professional services to governments, Rollins predicted that USAID will likely focus less on service delivery and more on technical assistance, but that will depend on their partner governments and how the agency engages with them.

“Our strategies are not developed in a box,” she said.

Devex