Contador Harrison

Recently I learnt of a young bloke I knew who lost his life after consuming illicit alcohol tainted with methanol after what one of the family member told your blogger was the deceased appetite for experimenting different alcohol brands. As a kid from a wealthy family, a number of investigations, instigated by the bereaved relatives and friends of victims, made it clear that bar owner where he took the alcohol have been mixing or replacing legitimate commercial products with other forms of traditional liquor. Much of this is produced in unsafe stills that leave high levels of methanol in the products people consume. Worse still, some producers are believed to be adding industrial methanol to their products to increase their potency. Methanol and ethanol are metabolized very differently by the body. One of the family member told your blogger that from her more than three decades of drinking, alcohol does not in its self pose a health problem unless you are an aggressive alcoholic. But ...

Kidney failure is one of those diseases that leaves the sufferer with a range of emotions and those who get first hand stories about it, in disbelief. That is what happened to your blogger yesterday when he came across a person who was diagnosed by his doctor with a kidney problem. She was for many years unaware that her hypertension could lead to kidney failure. “I have high blood pressure, which I inherited from my mother,” said the 27-year-old, who first found out about his condition seven months ago. Although she controlled her diet and other activities, her hypertension was not properly treated for reasons she could barely understand as her hospital was one of the best in the country.It eventually led to chronic kidney failure, which had to be treated through dialysis.When the reality hit her, the young girl narrated how she went through a period of mourning for the loss of her kidney function. Many of her friends talked to her about grieving for their previous health, abilities a...

A new study shows there is a trend in Christian African countries of increasing religious disbelief and report show of no christian denomination that has steadily increased in the last five years . The study indicated that non-religious Africans comprised approximately 37% of the population aged below 35 years, an increase in the prevalence of religious disbelief due to several factors.One of the factor the study suggest is a general trend where the poorer the African country is, the higher the rate of religious belief. To account for this relationship, researchers have suggested that organised religion serves as a psychological response to alleviate the stress and anxiety of a dysfunctional socio-economic environment that so many African countries suffer from. The study also found that, generally speaking, a higher level of educational attainment was associated with a lower the rate of religious belief especially in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Ivory Coast and Kenya . ...

South Africa public sector, like any sector, is not immune to the serious implications of the digital economy . As a consequence, Pretoria government has to keep up with the increasing digital literacy of their citizens and adopt new ways of thinking. This demands a digital mind that is technology-agnostic, but focused on the impact of the digital economy. The government has in the past invited IT specialists from across the country to develop digital solutions to enable more efficient and transparent governance.As part of an incoming effort to realize ANC new leader Cyril Ramaphosa campaign promise of implementing e-governance, a South African tech researcher told your blogger that he is expecting the nationwide hackathons with the aim of crowdsourcing digital application concepts that will assist in the gathering of accurate data that could serve as a foundation for more effective policies to become common under Ramaphosa leadership .He said teams that stand to benefit are those tha...

Africa is facing a serious shortage of human resources in information technology including cybersecurity experts according to the latest data your blogger has seen. The shortage of cyber security professionals is impacting Africa as governments, corporations and businesses compete for talent, in response to an increasing number of attacks .According to 2016 data, almost 70 per cent of businesses experienced at least one disruptive security breach a month in 2016, compared to just 42 per cent in 2015.In a sign of just how urgent the skills shortage has become, major African companies are seeking a greater degree of involvement in education and training to ensure graduates are job-ready as soon as they complete their studies. Companies across a wide range of industries using IT are struggling to secure talented workers, while shopping and services are increasingly going online and the use of artificial intelligence is slowly expanding . If the issue is not addressed promptly, it may have...

The rate of change in the African telecommunications industry is moving quite fast and there’s a feeling that the boom years are either over or coming to an end . A researcher for telcos in sub saharan Africa told your blogger the tech sector in the region has seen enormous disruptive changes affect social life, politics and business. She however warned the accelerating pace of change makes predictions hard even for 2019 let alone 2020 and it is better to take a holistic approach when analyzing the market trends. Her work approach is that she doesn’t predict the most likely outcomes of the telcos market but illustrates what could plausibly happen in the industry and how market players might deal with the many uncertainties along the way. She was categorical that African traditional telcos may struggle to survive beyond the next decade unless they embraces the opportunity presented by digital .One thing she was clear about is how content is a vital part of the telco sector's future...

Australia with its growing proportion of aboriginal youths, is undoubtedly incarcerating them on petty crimes that non aboriginals won’t even get warned about. It is sickening that for example in the state of Queensland, Indigenous communities comprises 8% of the population for those aged 10 to 17 years, but shockingly consist of 53 per cent of those facing justice monitoring on a daily basis. How can it be, that only one race appear to commits crime? I have lived in different parts of Queensland in the past and know the cities in and out, the outback, the islands and there’s no way one can convince me otherwise . Young people between the ages of 10 and 24 years are supposed to be using their unprecedented position to harness Australia’s demographic dividend and accelerate economic progress but that doesn’t seem to bother those in power when it comes to involving the aboriginal communities. Government data shows that Indigenous youth are jailed at 25 times the rate of non-Indigenous yo...