Some problems we have back in Zimbabwe can easily be solved by simple innovations. I will be listing innovations (or maybe not necessarily innovations...) I see in everyday life in Malaysia which can be implemented back home
1. Instead of building owners or managers turning off their escalators to save electricity (like Joina City, Angwa City, CABS centre), they should put sensors at the point people step onto the escalator so that it starts moving up or down when it senses someone is there, and stops when noone to be moved. Having escalators turned off permanently gives the impression of a non functioning place.
2. It doesnt take much investment to have 24 hr self service petrol pumps where people pay with a prepaid fuel card (bought just like how you buy airtime in supermarkets, etc) or bank card
3. Maintaining roads without potholes is the lowest level of decency a country can have. We need seriously to resurface roads in our towns, at least in business districts, and highways and maintain them in reasonable (not necessarily super) condition. And to have proper road markings, kwete kungoba mari uchitambira $30000 per month and doing no work!
4. A functioning intercity and inner city electric train system could help. It doesn't need to be a bullet train, just a small electric passenger train that is comfortable and clean will go a long way in helping ease congestion in Harare. Say for Chitungwiza to Harare, Norton to Harare, Beatrice to Harare, Ruwa to Harare with a revamped Harare Central Station and some other stations which are major points people want to drop off in the city whilst enroute to central. This is how with the KTM System in Malaysia. The train system should also provide intercity links, for people going to Bulawayo and towns along the way and Mutare for example. I suggest that they dont put toilet in the trains because filth is one of the biggest reasons why people do not want to travel on NRZ trains (apart from being slow ancient trains)...how do people travel on minibuses and buses without trains? They relieve themselves when it stops at a shopping place or fuel garage with a public toilet...they can also hold it till they reach the next station where the train can depart after 15 minutes to allow for recess. KTM trains do not have toilets inside. Even a private company can establish an electric train system for Harare first and then the rest of the country using existing infrastructure! Its not complicated and it is a good business opportunity! The company would only need to buy appropriate coaches and renovate the train stations. With technology it might even be possible to do away with the age old problem of copper cable theft, who knows maybe somewhere out there theres a company which builds electric train coaches which do not need to be using copper cables, or perhaps generate their own electricity whilst moving. Think BIG Zimbabwe!
Read more about KL Central Station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_Sentral_railway_station
1. Instead of building owners or managers turning off their escalators to save electricity (like Joina City, Angwa City, CABS centre), they should put sensors at the point people step onto the escalator so that it starts moving up or down when it senses someone is there, and stops when noone to be moved. Having escalators turned off permanently gives the impression of a non functioning place.
2. It doesnt take much investment to have 24 hr self service petrol pumps where people pay with a prepaid fuel card (bought just like how you buy airtime in supermarkets, etc) or bank card
3. Maintaining roads without potholes is the lowest level of decency a country can have. We need seriously to resurface roads in our towns, at least in business districts, and highways and maintain them in reasonable (not necessarily super) condition. And to have proper road markings, kwete kungoba mari uchitambira $30000 per month and doing no work!
4. A functioning intercity and inner city electric train system could help. It doesn't need to be a bullet train, just a small electric passenger train that is comfortable and clean will go a long way in helping ease congestion in Harare. Say for Chitungwiza to Harare, Norton to Harare, Beatrice to Harare, Ruwa to Harare with a revamped Harare Central Station and some other stations which are major points people want to drop off in the city whilst enroute to central. This is how with the KTM System in Malaysia. The train system should also provide intercity links, for people going to Bulawayo and towns along the way and Mutare for example. I suggest that they dont put toilet in the trains because filth is one of the biggest reasons why people do not want to travel on NRZ trains (apart from being slow ancient trains)...how do people travel on minibuses and buses without trains? They relieve themselves when it stops at a shopping place or fuel garage with a public toilet...they can also hold it till they reach the next station where the train can depart after 15 minutes to allow for recess. KTM trains do not have toilets inside. Even a private company can establish an electric train system for Harare first and then the rest of the country using existing infrastructure! Its not complicated and it is a good business opportunity! The company would only need to buy appropriate coaches and renovate the train stations. With technology it might even be possible to do away with the age old problem of copper cable theft, who knows maybe somewhere out there theres a company which builds electric train coaches which do not need to be using copper cables, or perhaps generate their own electricity whilst moving. Think BIG Zimbabwe!
Kuala Lumpur Central Station. It is not an underground system its just how it looks at the station.
A KTM Commuter Train at another station not 'in town'
Read more about KL Central Station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_Sentral_railway_station
5. Harare needs one huge mega mall area, like Sandton City in Joburg, or Times Square/MidValley ++ here in Kuala Lumpur. Cant that be done by a simple development linking Joina City, to a roofed pedestrians only first street mall, joined to Eastgate Mall? In some cities malls are linked to create one huge mall. As for Times Square in Kuala Lumpur it is a single development however - read blog post Berjaya Times Square Kuala Lumpur. {Written before the great Mall of Zimbabwe in Borrowdale was announced}
6. Can Zimbabwe have a strong car manufacturing industry? Why not? We have a market of more than 5 million people one of their highest aspirations is owning a car and we are busy importing used Japanese vehicles! And another excuse we have, people have no money! There are cheap brand new cars for $10000...its possible to have them in our country too. The government can easily attract one of the emerging car companies from China by having an agreement with them to manufacture the car in Zimbabwe, in return for Zero Import tariffs for components, and low tax in return for employment, technology transfer and reasonable quality backed by a nationwide service and repair system. Employment, employment, employment...Read about Proton in Malaysia and what they did to have their own car manufacturer.
Proton Automobile - Malaysia's national car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(automobile)
7. **ZIMBABWE - A Regional Center of Tertiary Education read post http://southernafrican-inmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/05/international-center-of-tertiary.html
8. A young and fresh Christian music radio channel for Zimbabwe - thats not too difficult is it - and the market is there!
9. A hip urban Zimbabwean music TV channel on free-to-air satellite. People simply don't watch ZBC anymore - why should they watch SABC and some content they can barely relate to on free-to-air satellite and DSTV - when there is a lot of good quality music videos and other content coming from Zimbabweans based in the diaspora.
10. ZBC TV should just give it up and put its channels on free-to-air satellite if they want people to watch! They have lost it - people are really not tuning in (and most people cannot afford DSTV - they are watching BTVand SABC)
11. ZBC Radio channels on the internet for streaming - diasporans want to listen! Er erm - its not difficult at all!
12. I dream of a time when the highest status symbol for Zimbabwe's elite is constructing a high rise building in Harare CBD - not a car, not a concubine, not meaningless trips abroad. That is what truly rich people do in other countries - leaving a legacy - not pouring money down the drain. THINK BIG
6. Can Zimbabwe have a strong car manufacturing industry? Why not? We have a market of more than 5 million people one of their highest aspirations is owning a car and we are busy importing used Japanese vehicles! And another excuse we have, people have no money! There are cheap brand new cars for $10000...its possible to have them in our country too. The government can easily attract one of the emerging car companies from China by having an agreement with them to manufacture the car in Zimbabwe, in return for Zero Import tariffs for components, and low tax in return for employment, technology transfer and reasonable quality backed by a nationwide service and repair system. Employment, employment, employment...Read about Proton in Malaysia and what they did to have their own car manufacturer.
Proton Automobile - Malaysia's national car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(automobile)
7. **ZIMBABWE - A Regional Center of Tertiary Education read post http://southernafrican-inmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/05/international-center-of-tertiary.html
8. A young and fresh Christian music radio channel for Zimbabwe - thats not too difficult is it - and the market is there!
9. A hip urban Zimbabwean music TV channel on free-to-air satellite. People simply don't watch ZBC anymore - why should they watch SABC and some content they can barely relate to on free-to-air satellite and DSTV - when there is a lot of good quality music videos and other content coming from Zimbabweans based in the diaspora.
10. ZBC TV should just give it up and put its channels on free-to-air satellite if they want people to watch! They have lost it - people are really not tuning in (and most people cannot afford DSTV - they are watching BTVand SABC)
11. ZBC Radio channels on the internet for streaming - diasporans want to listen! Er erm - its not difficult at all!
12. I dream of a time when the highest status symbol for Zimbabwe's elite is constructing a high rise building in Harare CBD - not a car, not a concubine, not meaningless trips abroad. That is what truly rich people do in other countries - leaving a legacy - not pouring money down the drain. THINK BIG
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