HiPipo Money

You are indeed in love; your hearts are all for one another, but all you do is weaken them every other time when you want to be happy together. You want to take her to noisy clubs, cinema halls etc. Do something that is environmentally friendly for your couple, you will taste the difference. Below are 10 tasted ideas of how you can have an environmentally friendly date;

Play Board Games

When the roads are muddy and it is cold since it rained, have sometime home together. Stay in your house, play board games you enjoyed when you were a Kid, Games like ludo, draft , chess are great for a couple.

Visit a Craft Shop

You fear CPS for nothing, hey, that road has gold on it. Take time and visit the craft shops at that place. You will see amazing creations your couple had never imagined. You have good time touring your own city, but learning great tips to keep you happy. Better still; visit the national theatre shops on a Saturday afternoon.

Plant a Garden

You don’t need to plant a huge garden; it can be small in tins. Get those nice flowers you liked from childhood, plant them together and make it a point to take care of them together regularly.

Have Breakfast at Sunrise

How often do you get up and enjoy the sunrise? In Uganda, many people leave home early at 6 am and return late at 6pm daily. On a Saturday morning or public holiday, prepare breakfast for your loved one and get him/her from bed just to take it together out at the sunrise.  You’ll feel like you are on vacation in Bwindi Game Park!

Check out the Library or Bookshop

If you enjoy reading, watching still pictures, get sometime and visit a bookshop or library. You don’t need to go and buy. You can even read a whole book from Nakumat or Arisitoc for feel. A friend of mine told me, he has read more than 30 (500 pages) books from a bookshop in K’la for free! Why not have time together there with your love?

Visit a Prayer/Worship Place

This best works for couples that share a religion/belief, once in awhile, have time together, go into that church or mosque. Make your couple promises midst evident GOD presence. You will never lie to each other.

Go to a Kids Park

I know this sounds a little childish, but I mean it. Just make sure kids don’t find you at their play park. For instance, Uchumi has a good one around town. Don’t mind what other people think; play as long as you both like the idea. It is all at no cost to you.

Play Tourist in Your Own Suburb

Kampala is so small, but so congested, you need to know your place. Visit the different corners of Muyenga, Bwaise, Nansana, Buzinga wherever you stay. Make sure you do this on foot, you will learn more things you never knew about your residence and people.

Visit a Local Market

You can decide to visit Owino this week and go to Nakasero next week. Go visit those markets with second hand shoes, clothes, etc, even if that’s not your class. Just to learn and have fun seeing those people doing business. You can also visit a farmers market to buy some fruits, vegetables etc.

Go to a beach or Park

Almost everyone thinks of the beach first when they want to take their loved ones out. But this is specially for a couple to have good time and talk as they look at the amazing flowing water waves, eat fish and enjoy beach chips. You can also visit a game park once in a while.

With these 10 tips, you will have 10 weekends of your relationship well utilized, with lots of lessons. 

Over the past few years there has been a growing boom in the Internet market seen with several entrepreneurs setting up classifieds websites.  Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge. For so many years, classifieds advertisements in a newspaper have been typically short, as they are charged for by the line, or column. The internet makes it possible to overcome the paper limits and have classifieds with photos, video, and maps if needed.  In the USA and worldwide http://www.craigslist.org is the major classifieds website that happens to be among the top 10 USA websites.  In UK http://www.gumtree.com/ is one of the leading classifieds website and is among the top 50 UK websites.

In Kenya http://dealfish.co.ke/ has seen significant growth having about 117 600 ads as of April 2012 and ranking among the top Kenyan websites. Dealfish with a vision to be the leader in several African markets has seen lukewarm growth in Uganda and Tanzania.  On the other hand Google trader for Uganda and Kenya is seemingly gaining ground with a visit to the classifieds portal showing active recent posts for autos and housing among others. http://kampalamart.com with over 3500, posts as of April 2012 is the other active player. Several other players that opened shop in Uganda do not seem to feature much growth in terms of number of classifieds posts.

In general the classified business is still seeing slow growth in Uganda. May be one of the reasons could be the culture of Ugandans that tend to be more trusting of the seller if they visit a shop physically or when they see an advert on paper. Many may still be a little skeptical about the validity of online classifieds and their effectiveness. Nevertheless the growing trends on Google trader and Kampalamart in Uganda are a good sign that more Ugandans are going to embrace this way of selling and buying. 

Biggie is a man of surprises and often pulls off shocking moves.  Tanzania’s Hilda and Julio and Zimbabwe’s Teclar and Menata Housemates were up for eviction on Sunday just before they could settle in the house. Julio moaned that “It’s unfair, We’re just getting acquainted”. The nomination for eviction this time round was done by the new random nomination mechanism

Meanwhile the housemates are plotting to get naught and looking for ways to hide from Biggie’s cameras. They want to set up so called safe spot for which they suggest names such as ‘Shagging Spot’, ‘Dark Spot’ and ‘Black Hole’ .

Could it be love in the air? A Namibia and Kenya Hook-Up, Malonza and Junia Kiss

From their Diary Session, Jannette and Kyle are hoping the housemates don’t punch each other by the end of the first week citing a case where housemates were headed to blow up over diamonds argument. Seydou and Zainab Fight

Diary Session, Jannette and Kyle

Many times people tend to misunderstand happiness and richness. Majority think that money is source to all sorts of happiness, but some rich people that have made the much money don’t necessarily live a great life of happiness. This could be due to natural, social, physiological and spiritual factors among others. Below, I explain the different situations of happiness, wealth and unhappiness.

Happiness

Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or enjoyable emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.

Money

Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context.

Huge Money can be accumulated through different channels such as hard work, innovativeness, discovery and implementation of new great ideas, luck, gambling and crime. Above all, the blessing of GOD though this doesn’t come without hard work.

Money usually comes to those who are prepared and have worked for it.

Who is rich in Uganda?

In Uganda, the rich are classifieds into many groups and the abilities of the rich also differ from one class to another as there is a big difference between the richest and the normal rich.

Anyone who owns a business, car, house, and can pay bills such as school fees, hospital can be considered rich in our community. But this doesn’t rule out the fact that there are those individuals who own mansions in different estates, fleets of cars, businesses and their daily earnings are millions of times greater than the normal rich Ugandans.

Unfortunately, happiness is not for all the rich, contrary to the state of the richness, it is true that many poor Ugandans live a happier life than the rich, much as the rich have more power and influence to do things the way they wish.

It should be noted that, richness is sometimes a concept measured according to one’s initial dream of success.

What makes the rich unhappy?

Many rich people take time in the coolest places such as hotels, bars, beaches, casinos to have fun etc but they never seem to get happy, maybe because they earned money through crime or those that worked hard to earn the money, become busier since they need to maintain their success and others never seem to get satisfied with the levels they reach at.

In the short run, the gamblers and criminal earners become happy since they didn’t work hard for that money, but have no plan B, after loss of money. Most times they end up in court, prison and dead when they are discovered.

The rightful earners remain striving for more riches instead of enjoying what they have earned and end dying before enjoying the fruits of their sweat.

Barbz and Prezzo had a little bitter exchange after Prezzo referred to Barbz as “Miss Mademoiselle” and “Tyra Banks” to which Barbz didn’t take kindly. Prezo in his words said that “She doesn’t know me, if she pushes me, she’ll see me,” Prezzo told Goldie. He added that the words “sorry” and “I love you” don’t come easy for him so there was no way he would apologize to Barbz. “If it’s US $300 000 she wants, she must talk to me nicely and I’ll hook her up,” he said about Barbz.

Is Prezzo Mr Money Bags? Does he even need or want the US $300 000?

Wants Exit?

Angola’s Esperanca volunteered to exit Big Brother StarGame due to personal issues. Biggie gave Esperanca 24 hours to rethink her decision and suggested that she gets the other Housemates’ views on her decision.

Will she change her mind? Shall we miss her if she goes? Let us wait to see if she sticks with this decision by the end of the 24 hours.

Who has a Crush on Who?

There is rumour that Keagan has a crush on Eve. Will Junia pursue things with Ola or will she go back to Alex and Malonza?  Will Keagan pursue anything with Eve?  It could be early to tell but something could be cooking.

“Stupid Idiot” are some of the words people online are using to describe Esperanca following her want to exit Big Brother House. What it inevitably means is that her Angola partner Seydou will have to exit the house as Biggie made it clear that this is a “Pair Game”…your partner can and will mess you as we see already. How do you describe Esperanca?????? and this situation?

According to Internet usage statistics for Africa as of December 31^st 2011, Uganda is the eighth biggest Internet user in Africa with an estimated 4.2 million users.   Nigeria with 45 million users and Kenya with 10.5 million lead the top 10 list for Sub Saharan Africa countries.  

The figures from  Internet World Stats http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm  vary from those of Communication commission of Kenya statistics that put the total number of Kenya internet users at 17.3 million combining all mobile and data internet subscribers, terrestrial wireless subscribers, satellite subscriptions, fixed internet connections, fiber optic subscriptions and fixed cable modem users. There is also a variance from the figures of Uganda Communication commission which range in the region of 5 million.  The Internet penetration for Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania is reported to stand at 12.1 %, 25.5 % and 11.5 % respectively whereas Facebook usage as of March 2012 is estimated to be 387,080, 1,325,020 and 437,040 respectively.

Despite the variance with the locally released figures from the communication commission, there is a steady growth of internet usage in Uganda, Kenya and the rest of Africa and hence a good sign of opportunity to tap into this internet market.

Tablets running windows 8 are slated to arrive on market in 2012. There will be 4 versions of windows 8 with one of the biggest difference being if they run on ARM processors or Intel processors. Versions for Intel are Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise. Windows RT is the official name for the version designed to run on low-powered ARM processors, which are used in a lot of tablets today.

Entry-level Windows 8 tablets are expected to be under $300 and high-end models, with specs comparable to the latest iPad will cost around $1,000 which pricing will enable Microsoft to compete the iPad and Android tablets. The flexible pricing is good for developing market where more affordable tablets devices are needed.

According to BusinessInsider.com Windows for ARM, now called Windows RT, will run a special version of Office, designed for touchscreens. It won’t run older Windows apps. App developers have an option to write one new app that will work on both Intel and ARM versions of Windows 8.

Windows 8 will come with a bunch of pre-installed apps including mail, calendar and links to its cloud SkyDrive which includes freebie cloud versions of things like Word, Excel, PowerPoint.  The rest of the Windows 8 apps will be found on Microsoft’s app store.

Intel expects the first crop of Windows 8 tablets to have 9 hours of battery life, and expects them to come in two form factors: a 10-inch regular tablet, and an 11-inch “convertible” that turns into a regular laptop computer with keyboard. 

Other specs: less than 1.5 pounds (like the iPad), 9mm, includes near-field communications which can be used for wallet-like payment apps, will use WiFi Direct to let them connect to each other in addition to a WiFi network.

LinkedIn is a community of over 150 million and mostly professionals hence worth time for business networking.   There are still scanty statistics of Ugandans and East Africans on LinkedIn but LinkedIn is among the top 10 most visited websites in Uganda and East Africa hence a sign that there is a big enough community on the network. Among the tips to grow your LinkedIn community and stay on top are.

1.       Update Your Status Frequently and Consistently. This may require about two to five daily updates. Ensure you do this on the actual website itself and not use third-party tools

2.       Share and comment on the updates of your network connections.

3.       Invite more people to your network.  

4.       Start and/or participate in LinkedIn Group Discussions.

5.       Follow companies and engage with comments on company profile updates.

6.       What You Share Matters

Remember to share in an engaging way with questions the news, articles and insights that are relevant to your connections if you want to attract and grow the right audience.

How has your experience with LinkedIn been?

Google has released  Zeitgeist Young Minds, winners. Of the 10 inspiring young people selected from around the world 5 are from Africa. (call it the Africa wow momentJ)

The winners as per the Google announcement are:

·  Ada Umeofia, 19 from Nigeria WeBuilt: Africa is a design-centered social enterprise that redesigns and constructs market stalls for poverty-stricken Africans by recycling found building materials in slums. View the video:

·  Joel Mwale, 19 from Kenya Skydrop Enterprise Inc has brought safe drinking water to a community of 5,000 and has become a profitable enterprise from selling bottled water across Kenya and Uganda. View the video:

·  Jordan Ridge, 23 from South Africa Made by Mosaic is a job creation project for women in South Africa addressing the challenges of economic development in the townships. View the video:

·  Sibusiso Tshabalala, 20 from South Africa Developed reading clubs and a library renovation programme in South Africa to encourage critical thinking and thoughtful debate within local high schools. View the video:

·  Simeon Oriko, 23 from Kenya The Kuyu Project trains school children on how to use social media for social change and promotes digital literacy. View the video:

We congratulate the winners and we take very keen interest in Simeon Oriko, The Kuyu Project.  Uganda needs similar initiatives to enlighten schools children about social media and the massive benefits it comes with.  We hope some creative young mind in Uganda will pick a leaf.

Mountain Dew has officially announced their dedicated sponsorship for UMC and the Motocross Championships.

On an event that was presided over by Timothy Luzinda the Pepsi Brand Manager, Mountain Dew announced a UGX500M two years sponsorship for this passionate and amazing sport.  This follows their previous 3 years sponsorship that has helped promote this sport massive.

Upon signing this big money deal, Motocross Race Track Garuga was rebranded. Motocross race track, Garuga, is now ‘the Mountain Dew Extreme Sports Park’.

Winners in this sport will now receive cash prizes cutesy of Mountain Dew.

At a press conference held at Quality Cuts Hill in Nsambya, Uganda Motocross Club (UMC) chairman, Stephan Duyck expressed his fascination on the new deal that will most certainly attract new fans and riders to the sport.