"Exterminate all the Brutes"

ICT is considered a critical tool in preparing and educating students with the required skills for the global workplace. It educates students so that they can continually adapt to a work world of continuous technological innovations and makes it easier for students to access knowledge. ICT is regarded as an engine for growth and tool for empowerment, with profound implications for education change and socio-economic development.
Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) is a constituent college of the University Of Malawi (UNIMA) which has two campuses in Lilongwe and Blantyre, separated by a distance of about 300 kilometres, and major clinical sites in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu. Traced back from 1965 when it was called a National School of Nursing, and then upgraded to a full constituent college in 1979, the college has been offering a variety of courses in the fields of Nursing and Midwifery.

KCN has an intake of students 120 every year, and it will increase to 200 students enrolled this year, as far as KCN is increasing intake it has challenges of resources in which it has, one of them being access to computers. KCN has two computer lab in Lilongwe, one 20 seater lab and the other 45 seater lab. It also has a 20 seater computer lab in Blantyre 300 Kilometers away. Due to student congestion and scramble for use of the few computers, the college thought it wise to seek help to Alex Antener who, together with the support of e-vision (founded by da.tu.ma AG) and IT point, was providing 40 thin client computers and servers.
This project is being named “Exterminate all the brutes”, currently the servers and thin-clients were bought and delivered to Kamuzu college of Nursing. The servers were mounted on the rack, and Ubuntu was installed on them with LTSP service inbuilt, the service was tested and works perfectly.
Currently the Network accessories and the monitors are being procured by the college.

In my next blog I will do a technical step by step on how we installed Ubuntu and LTSP in IBM servers

Here are some pictures of KCN campus and a few key people around:

Without giving a reason Bingu Wa Mutharika, the current President of Malawi, dissolves his Cabinet with more than 40 ministers and deputies. The crisis, which peaked 20th of July this year, still does not seem to be solved. Many foreign countries and organisations have suspended development aid.

External articles:
Nyassa Times
Radio Netherlands Worldwide – Africa

“Peace is returning in most parts of the country”
Source: Twitter @Malawi2014

[Update: 24th July 2011 1:06 pm]
Chat with a friend:

W.U.: “Malawi is fine now,things are back to normal”
Lx: “good to read. and what about the investigations? is malawi going to investigate about the dead manifestators in Mzuzu?”
W.U.: “I dont thick so nothing has been said on that.what i hear is the NGO have given him 90 day to answer most of the conserns raised during the demo”
Lx: “and when is Bingu going to resign?”
W.U.: “The guy is adamant he cant now,but am sure if by those days he fail to deliver and people goes to street it will be massive and the guy will have no choice”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=easwYbMlJY4]
Link

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBy6gLYW3GA]
Link

Now the demonstration are in Limbe branch. As of now the branches have closed. Am told the president want to speak on Radio this afternoon. The riot now has now involved the police and the Army to force the people out of the roads. But it seems the march of today is tense as compared to that of yesterday.

The following photos document the raided FMB Branch in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.

FMB Bank Malawi

Good people of Malawi!

Regarding this alarming and critical issue on internet blocking policies, MACRA Act and media control, I would like to suggest to connect and exchange information in a more reliable, less controllable and more accessible way, which is “good old IRC”! 😎

There is a channel #malawi on irc.freenode.net. For those who are not familiar with IRC (Internet Relay Chat), the easiest is to get an IRC Client and connect to the server chat.freenode.net, then entering the #malawi channel (e.g. command /join #malawi). One can also use the web frontend.

All the best, Lx

P.S. For those of you who’d like to know how to easily access the internet anonymously with a simple SSH tunnel, I’d like to recommend this blog post.

Quote:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As a minor stakeholder in the information society; I was wondering that the regulator which was empowered under the Communications Act 1998, ordered Zodiak Broadcasting to stop live broadcasts and any updates to the events taking place across the country.

I have not seen the directive but somehow; instead of attending the public lecture at the Statehouse; one of the senior public sector officials wrote the directive. The point I am making here is that in the day and age where there is Internet with all the modern communications means including Facebook; Twitter; Blogs; Buzz, Youtube among the conventional media technologies; some of the policy implementation agencies could imagine a public black out to information. A birthright!

I have read the act in full and have participated in drafting the replacement act among other legal instruments that will guide the information sector. I could not understand the justification and basis. I was also surprised that there was no condemnation of the perpetrators of the violence against Zodiak in which a few vehicles were damaged and set alight.

My suggestion is we should leave politics to the politicians and act within the professional mandate for the sake of our beloved country and information sector.

If anyone is closer to the justification for the blackout and why MACRA and not law enforcement agencies; please keep me in the know.

Thanks and good luck.

Source: ITMalawi mailinglist

Further information: see Malawi Communications Act 1998 document.

Also read Malawi Voice article “MACRA bars demos broadcasting, Police beat up journalists”

[Update 9:29 pm]
Quote:

S*** thats imprtnt point MACRA shld knw that we stil in touch of events evry min’guys lets raise an alarm for this i hope as AOB ma bwana mwayitana ku AGM wo akauzidwe info is birthright.

[Update 11:09 pm]
Quote (reply):

Good people,

Does anyone know the policy for blocking Nyasatimes? I have observed the site is sometimes blocked and at times it is accessible. Does anyone know whether the blocking is done by ISP or at IXP level. As of now it is not accessible. It can only be opened through another site e.g. http://www.anybrowser.com/siteviewer.html. What surprises me is that similar sites such as http://www.malawivoice.com are not usually blocked.

Thanks,
B.

[Update 21th July 2011 10:29 am]
Quote (reply):

S******,

They said it was for national security reasons. You and I know that MACRA is more or less a political in spite of what the Act governing it says.

Why MACRA? Media houses fear them more than any other institution because they can suspend or withdraw their licence.

Justification? I believe they didn’t want people the live updates of violence in other parts of the country to encourage those in others to follow suit and flame the fires.

F.

[Update 21th July 2011 12:56 am]
Quote (reply):

With due respect, why are people so emotional to a point of missing issues of reason. Management at MACRA should/must not work like robots that should be programmed to follow the act by letter. Sometimes when its necessary,y necessity must shape their way of thinking. Rwanda was in a mess because radio was not well regulated during a crisis.

I do not blame MACRA at all because some stations were being emotional and that reflected on the masses behaviour. People in different towns were trying to out do each other.

[Update 22th July 2011 9:15]

Yes this topic is relevant in this forum because it concerns ICT. The reason that MACRA gave was just a cover up and they are not the real reasons for stopping live reporting and switching off transmission all together. We all know MACRA is government tool of making sure any anti-government news DON’T reach the public. Am sure if MACRA had a technical way it would block
some websites life facebook, nyasatimes and the like.

[Update 22th July 2011 9:23]

very relevant topic: ethics in the IT profession.

Part 1 Introduction

Part 2 The Story of From Kamuzu then Bingu

Public Lecture Pt01 Preamble

Public Lecture Pt02 The Yoke of Colonialism

Public Lecture Pt03 Political Independence

Public Lecture Pt04 Sovereignty

Public Lecture Pt05 Human Rights and Civil Liberties

Public Lecture Pt06 Governance

Public Lecture Pt07 Policy Proposals

Public Lecture Pt08 Governing Malawi

Public Lecture Pt09 Honest Government

Public Lecture Pt10 Forex Problems

Public Lecture Pt11 Zero Deficit Budget

Public Lecture Pt12 Fuel Problems

Public Lecture Pt13 Energy Supply

Public Lecture Pt14 Conclusion

Public Lecture Pt16 Panelists Closing Remarks

Public Lecture Pt17 Bingu Closing Remarks

Source: Malawi, the warm heart of Africa

=^.^=

[Wednesday, 20th of July 2011 9:18 am]
Today Malawians started rioting in Blantyre, burning cars and marching. They ask Bingu Wa Mutharika, the current President, to resign.
More information on
Malawi News
Malawi Voice

[Update: Wednesday, 20th of July 2011 11:28 am]
A few radio stations are sending news updates:
Malawi Institute of Journalism
Capital Radio Malawi
Zodiak Malawi

[Update: Wednesday, 20th of July 2011 01:56 pm]
Quote:

Blantyre
People from all walks of life across the country have defied court orders and filled the streets to demonstrate against government’s policies despite an injunction granted to two people by the Blantyre High Court last night.
Source: MIJ