Hippo offering a ‘worm’ motherly kiss to its calf is not intimidated by a ‘mare’ sound from a catfish

EVERY Saturday the Daily Blog carries a feature titled “In the Wild”. There would be an article telling us one thing or the other about animal behaviour in the wild savannah.


I find these articles very educative as well as entertaining. So, this weekend, we savour how the writer delivers his message about the animal world.


I have three articles in front of me carrying the following titles: “How catfish mysteriously benefit leopards” (10 January); “Serengeti annual migration best in the World” (31 January); and, “The Evolving Hippopotamus of African wetlands” (February 7). The articles are accompanied by fantastic photographs of animals doing this or that action.


I like the photograph of mother and baby hippo apparently showing affection to each other. This is how the caption under this photograph reads: “The deadliest animal in Africa ‘offer a worm motherly’ kiss to its calf”.


We are used to see adult birds feeding their young ones on worms but do young hippos, or adult ones for that matter, feed on worms?


The article does not tell us. We however believe that mother hippo is not offering a worm kiss. What the writer wanted to write about was “a warm motherly kiss”, not “a worm motherly kiss”. “Worm” and “warm” should be included in the forthcoming edition of Longhorn’s Students’ Companion, under the category “Words Liable to be Confused”.


The list in the current edition is short but includes words such as: “adapter and adaptor”, “alley and allay”, “altar and alter”, “ascent and assent”, “bare and bear”, “beach and beech”; “cheap and cheep”, “boy and buoy”; “dye and die”, “course, coarse and cause”; “fare and fair”; “feet and feat”; “flea and flee”; “heal and heel”; “guerilla and gorilla”; “grate and great”; “ingenious and ingenuous”; “key and quay”; “cue and queue”; “rain and reign”; “shear and sheer”; “sore and soar”; “sum and some”; “son and sun”; “stationery and stationary”; “ware and wear”; “week and weak”; “woo and woe”; “wreak and wreck”; and many others.


“Warm and worm” should be included on this list in the book since they are currently missing. The caption accompanying the photograph should read:


“The deadliest animal in Africa ‘offers a warm motherly kiss’ to its calf”. The story about the catfish is characterised by the writer missing out on putting an “s” on various words, where this is a must.


Describing the catfish, the writer had this to say: “These are elusive ‘fishes’ ‘who’ live mysterious life which ‘enable’ them feed the leopard when antelopes and other herbivorous ‘mammal’ migrate to greener ‘pasture’


………


In savannah during dry season sunrays heat the ground for a ‘longer’ time leading to most seasonal streams, rivers and ‘swamp’ to lose big amount of water through evaporation which also ‘make’ the remaining amount to be inhabitable to marine ‘creature’ because of contamination and lack of oxygen”.


My re-write of the above quotation would go along the following lines: “Catfish are an elusive fish species which live a mysterious life which exposes them to be fed upon by leopards when antelopes and other herbivorous mammals migrate to greener pastures ………


In the savannah, during the dry season, sunrays heat the ground for a long time leading to most seasonal streams, rivers and swamps to lose large amounts of water through evaporation which makes the remaining amount of water inadequate for habitation for marine creatures because of contamination and lack of oxygen”.


In order to protect themselves from predators such as leopards, catfish take protective action: “When catfish notice any danger they will stop and miraculously produce drumming sound which can terrify people like me or you but the feline will not be intimidated by ‘a mare’ sound, and they will continue with a night feast to their satisfaction”.


A mare sound? Not likely. A mare is an adult female horse. The adult male horse is called a stallion. Our conviction is that by ‘a mare sound’ the writer had “mere sound” in mind.


The writer tells us some dangers facing catfish: “Some catfish die when they fail to manoeuvre through difficult terrain covered by sticking mud as a result die through suffocation and become food for ‘staving’ scavengers such as ‘vulture’ and ‘hyena’’. “Staving scavengers?” No. These scavenger animals are short of food. Therefore we are talking of “starving scavengers”.


A rewrite, is as follows: “Some catfish fail to manoeuvre through difficult terrain covered by sticking mud and as a result, die through suffocation and become food for starving scavengers such as vultures and hyenas.” Have a nice weekend.

State determined to see urban slums slump

THE government is determined to halve urban slums by 2025, according to Zanzibar Second Vice-President, Ambassador Seif Ali Iddi.

Presiding over a two-day regional roundtable by the Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development (UONGOZI Institute) in Dar es Salaam, Ambassador Iddi said the government is working on a number of strategies to achieve the target.

Facilitation of access to credit for urban real estate developers to improve the quality of housing, decreasing the cost of housing in urban and rural and creation of conducive environment for mortgages are some of the strategies the government is pursuing.

Ambassador Iddi added the government is facilitating the establishment of Housing Cooperatives at village and district levels.

“Critical to the success of these initiatives is the strengthening of the National Housing Corporation and the National Housing and Building Research Agency, where we intend to strengthen the skills for construction and management of human settlements development,” Ambassador Iddi noted.

In addition he said local government and regional administration are working with their local communities to facilitate regularisation of unplanned settlements.

“This is also being carried out in the formalization of informal businesses to provide them access to financial services that can help them protect and grow their businesses,” he explained.

He stressed that stemming and eventually reversing the development of informal settlements in the future is a major challenge that urban planners, designers and managers must address, underscoring the importance of involvement of citizens in the process.

“When organized and managed in this way, these initiatives and processes become capacity building programmes for inclusive urban planning and implementation,” he explained.

He said looking forward on how the public wants to live in 2015 or 2100, there is a need to reflect on the reality of urban livelihoods as they are today in 2015, since there is a growing housing shortage across the Eastern Africa.

“The growing temporary shelters or informal settlements are prone to natural disasters like flooding, as well as characterized by high levels of crime, insecurities, diseases and hardships,” he noted.

He said Tanzania is also in the midst of several comprehensive legal reforms for the inclusive registration and management of land, which will enable all citizens, both women and men, to have equal rights in land ownership.

The Uongozi Institute Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Prof Joseph Semboja said that the forum intends to look at and discuss the various challenges and opportunities presented by urbanization in the region and how African leaders can tackle them in an inclusive manner.

“An increasing proportion of Africa (and indeed the world’s) population is living in urban areas, adding to the congestion and pressure of housing, jobs and public services.

The forum is therefore meant to discuss how to address such challenges and imagine cities that reflect our desires,” said Prof. Semboja.

He said according to UNHabitat’s publication ‘The State of African Cities 2014’, East Africa is the world’s least urbanized but fastest urbanizing sub-region and by end of the current decade its urban population will have increased by 50 per cent and the total number of urban dwellers in 2040 is expected to be five times that of 2010.

“In fact urbanization and urban development are both positive products and forces for human development and economic growth -- if we can get them right.

And that is what this regional round-table is all about. To set us on the right course by identifying top priorities and key ingredients of progress,” added Prof. Semboja.

The high level participants of the roundtable hailed from governments, regional and international organizations, major cities, academia, private sector and civil society organizations of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Nobody has everything but everybody has something- Lulu

- See more at: http://bongo-daily.blogspot.com/2015/02/lulunobody-has-everything-but-everybody.html#sthash.3UEqYPU5.dpuf

Photos:Miss Tanzania 2012

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Huddah Monroe To Host AGA Awards In Malaysia – PHOTO

It seems that it is her time to shine because of late Huddah Monroe has not only been making great moves locally but internationally as well. On that note, Thee Boss Lady has flown all the way to Malaysia for business, leisure and pleasure as she likes putting it.
Well, for the business part of it, miss Monroe will tonight be hosting the Aga Khan Awards Nomination Party at Club HQ in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Here is the poster of the event she has shared on instagram.

Everton easily beat Wolfsburg in first Europa League match of campaign

Everton’s traditional Z-Cars anthem was rudely interrupted by the Europa League theme tune before kick-off, but the teething troubles went no further for Roberto Martínez’s men against Wolfsburg. Goodison Park hosted a display of clinical efficiency on its first European night in five seasons. Everton have returned with clear intent.
The final scoreline suggests a comfortable night’s work for the victors but there was defensive resilience as well as superior finishing behind Everton’s triumph. Tim Howard was by far the busier goalkeeper and the home side were gifted a penalty for their third goal when Aiden McGeady was tripped outside the area. Wolfsburg had 24 attempts to Everton’s 11, 12 on target to Everton’s five, but not the cutting edge or solidity of their Premier League hosts.
“We weren’t smart enough, we were naive,” seethed the Wolfsburg coach, Dieter Hecking. “I wonder if my players listen to me with the performance they put in.” His Catalonian counterpart, by contrast, revelled in the maturity the players displayed on his European debut as Everton manager. “The scoreline doesn’t reflect the difference between the two sides, both were similar,” he said. “We had to defend well and every time we went forward we were very clinical. It was a very satisfying performance. It felt really natural. The environment was incredible, with European football back at Goodison. It was everything you could expect and more. The fans were special and the performance was full of dynamic play from both sides. But we wanted to be ourselves and our performance showed real maturity.”
Having declared his ambition to win the Europa League, the Everton manager backed his words by naming an unchanged team from the weekend win at West Bromwich Albion and was vindicated with an opening goal based on intuitive understanding between his players. Wolfsburg started well with their four-man midfield controlling the opening exchanges, pushing Everton deep and allowing Brazil’s anchor at the World Cup, Luiz Gustavo, time and space to dictate the play. But the difference between the teams was illustrated in Everton’s first attack, a move to savour.
Goodison was enraptured as Leighton Baines combined with Steven Naismith, Naismith found James McCarthy, McCarthy flicked a glorious return ball to Baines with his back to goal, and the left-back drew the German defence before squaring to the Scot. The former Switzerland international goalkeeper Diego Benaglio got a hand to Naismith’s low shot but the ball squirmed under his body and took a final touch off Ricardo Rodríguez en route to the net. Uefa credited Rodríguez with an own goal, yet there was no detracting from the quality of the build-up. It also provided a rare glimpse of McCarthy’s creativity in the final third and should prompt Martínez to demand more from the Republic of Ireland midfielder.
Everton extended their lead on the stroke of half-time when they again prospered against the right-hand side of the Wolfsburg defence. Benaglio could only parry a dipping Kevin Mirallas shot into the path of Baines, who turned the loose ball across goal for the incoming Seamus Coleman to head his second goal of the season into the Park End net.
If there was a touch of fortune about Rodríguez rolling the first Everton goal into his own net and Baines managing to find Coleman for the second, there was a gigantic dollop attached to their third. McGeady capitalised on a defensive error seconds after the restart and was clearly fouled as he attempted to beat Robin Knoche, albeit contact was outside the box. The Italian referee, Luca Banti, having looked to his assistant, immediately pointed to the spot and Baines ignored the understandable German protests to send the Wolfsburg keeper the wrong way from 12 yards.
“It was outside the area and a fault by the referee,” said Hecking. “At 3-0 the game was lost.” His team’s response suggested otherwise as they exerted pressure on Howard’s goal but either found the US international in commanding form or their precision deserting them in front of goal. Daniel Caligiuri, Gustavo, Maximillian Arnold and the substitute Aaron Hunt all sent presentable chances at the Everton keeper, who produced a fine save to thwart a Rodríguez free-kick towards his top corner.
The Swiss left-back finally broke Howard’s resistance with another superb free-kick in stoppage-time but by then, with the again impressive Samuel Eto’o sending Mirallas sprinting clear for the fourth, Everton were home and dry. “Tim was magnificent and didn’t deserve to have that feeling at the end,” said Martínez. “In my eyes Tim’s performance was worth a clean sheet and that’s the way I’m going to keep it.”

Labour considers staking all on saving the NHS

Labour is debating whether to make a bold commitment to extra spending on the National Health Service the centrepiece of its election offer, raising the profile of the service, which is the party's single strongest issue and possibly its best route to forming a majority government in May.
The alternative being discussed is to claim that reform of the NHS, including integration of health and social care, as well as reversal of "government privatisation", will release sufficient funds.
However, a commission for the influential Kings Fund thinktank concluded that while integration of social care and health was necessary, it was unlikely to create large-scale savings.
Polling this week by Ipsos/Mori found that health was the third most important issue facing voters, sitting at only two points behind the economy, which topped the list, with asylum and immigration coming second. Labour has a huge lead over the Tories on health, and it is the issue which forms its dominant lead.
The Guardian reported this week that the NHS  was facing a mounting financial crisis with more than half of all hospitals now in deficit and the service likely to end the year almost £1bn in the red.
Separately on Tuesday, David Prior, head of the NHS regulator, the Care Quality Commission, warned that treatment provided by hospitals and GPs was so "dangerously" variable that poor care killed up to 10,000 patients a year.
In an election briefing issued on Tuesday the Kings Fund warned: "The next government will arrive in office with the NHS facing financial meltdown and social care in crisis."
Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, has already ruled out earmarking a 1p increase in national insurance contributions to help fund the NHS, saying people felt they were already paying too much tax. He has also ruled out an inheritance tax to pay for an integrated health and social care service.
But other sources for temporary funding have not been ruled out, including a "sin tax" on public health polluters. Revenue from tobacco duty in 2011-12 was £9.55bn, up from £8.09bn in 2007-08. The equivalent figures for alcohol duty were £10.04bn and £8.3bn. The Treasury estimates that these taxes each represent 9-10% of NHS spending for those years.
More sin taxes, or a windfall tax, has been proposed by the former Labour health minister Lord Warner, who has suggested that a range of such taxes could reach £25bn by the end of the decade.
New research for Progress magazine, the centre-left Labour journal, prepared by Peter Kellner, the YouGov president, and given to the Guardian shows voters are evenly split on whether they would like to see income tax rise to fund the health service.
YouGov tested four areas of government spending and asked people whether, all else being equal, they would prefer income tax to increase so that more money could be spent, or see income tax fall with less spent, or keep the present balance.
The status quo was the most popular option for three of the four areas: welfare benefits for poor families, state schools, and (more narrowly) state pensions and social care for the elderly.
Only with the NHS did a majority opt for higher tax – though only by a three-point margin ("higher tax/more spending" had 42%; "keep the present balance" had 39%).
The poll also showed that higher tax for spending on the NHS was only a popular option with Labour voters, with 60% supporting the proposal. Only 29% of Conservative voters backed the idea. There have been other polls, including one by ComRes in the summer that found that 49% of people were prepared to pay more tax to help fund the health service, though one in three (33%) of people said they would not be ready to do so, and 18% did not know either way.
By contrast, a more recent Populus poll for Reform, the centre-right thinktank, found that only 33% were willing to pay higher income tax to fund more spending on the NHS, with 67% of voters saying no. A large majority thought the NHS needed reform, not more money.
The danger for Labour of going into the election highlighting the NHS without a funding pledge was pointed out by the Kings Fund.
It said: "The NHS is going through the biggest financial squeeze in its history. Since 2010 its budget has effectively been frozen, increasing by just enough to cover inflation. While this is generous compared to other areas of public spending, the increasing demand for care means services are under huge pressure.
"The NHS has responded well to these challenges, but financial pressures are growing, with more than a quarter of hospitals reporting deficits in 2013-14, and many more set to follow suit this year. Meanwhile, cuts in funding have led to a reduction of more than a quarter in the number of people who receive publicly funded social care.
"Unless significant additional funding is found patients will bear the cost as staff numbers are cut, waiting times rise and quality of care deteriorates.
"Some emergency support will be needed for otherwise sound NHS organisations that are in financial crisis as a result of the unprecedented pressures on their budgets."
It proposed that the next government established a ring-fenced health and social care transformation fund – of up to £3bn – to be used to develop new community-based services and to cover double-running costs during the transition between old and new models of care.
The idea is attracting some Labour health thinkers. But some Labour strategists are also concerned that politicians' pledges are simply discounted.