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Home Opinion Columnists ESSAY | Here, comrades, is where 'Brand Zimbabwe' will either rise or...
ESSAY | Here, comrades, is where 'Brand Zimbabwe' will either rise or fall
A visitor waves the flag at Mtarazi, Nyanga: Zimbabwe has a bad image, but has a lot going for it
By Ranga Mberi
A few days ago, a friend who works for the government invited me to attend the launch of "Brand Zimbabwe" in Harare.
What was this about?
At the entrance, I got an orange pamphlet. It began by saying "over the last three decades Zimbabwe has faced a number of political, social and economic challenges including political instability" and that "the government and the People of Zimbabwe believe that the current status quo is undesirable and needs to change and give way to a more united, stable and prosperous Zimbabwe."
Fair point. So, is anybody doing anything about it, I wondered?
It went on: "In the coming in if the second republic, an effort has been made to change the image of the country with the implementation of political and economic reforms aimed at improving governance and creating an environment where the economy can grow and business can thrive."
Not the best branding 'excellency': a banner at the Brand Zimbabwe launch
So, Brand Zimbabwe, is the start of a process of consultation on how Zimbabwe should be branded.
The exercise will involve "Zimbabweans from all walks of life", the pamphlet said. Presumably not just the ZANU PF supporters who were packed into the hall. It will be a "nation's soul search exercise for self-discovery".
Well, as a lifelong card-carrying member of the "people from all walks of life", there is no harm in diving right into this "national soul search".
I will start in Chile.
After Chile got rid of Augusto Pinochet, the US-backed dictator who ruled from 1974 to 1990, the country set about trying to rebrand itself.
Chile spent a lot of money. Once, they dragged a giant iceberg halfway around the world to the World's Fair in Seville, 1992. In the end, what worked wasn't such stunts.
Jorge Cortes, a digital marketing manager who has worked on Chile's brand, put down Chile's successful rebrand to two factors: a long-term strategy, and getting citizens on board.
"It is essential to strengthen Brand Chile inside the country in order to effectively promote it abroad," he said in one interview.
The Chileans get it. We don't. At least not yet.
Here are a few points that those who will drive Brand Zimbabwe will need to figure out, before we all waste time and money.
One: "People from all walks of life" must believe in Brand Zimbabwe
"Each Chilean is responsible for this great task and is called to become an ambassador of the country's unique and positive qualities," Cortes found.
That's just it. Many governments, including ours, spend millions paying lobbyists to look good. But the biggest brand ambassadors are us, the "people from all walks of life".
When someone buys into a brand and it works for them, they are going to promote it, and defend it.
Once, when there was national crisis – a debilitating shortage of Cerevita – I am not ashamed to reveal that I may or may not have engaged in a WWE Royal Rumble with a lady in a Pick n Pay aisle for the last box of Choco Malt. Sorry, ma'am. Also, I intervene with acts of targeted violence when people slander Mazoe. Why? Because I believe in those brands.
If Zimbabweans feel that Zimbabwe – and its government – is working for them, they don't need to be whipped into marketing it. They have ownership and loyalty.
As Joshua Nkomo said, on July 7, 1983: "The people themselves will protect their government if they have full trust in it."
1. Brand Zimbabwe; my thoughts are that this nation already has a brand. Zimbabwe is a brand, with so many associations to it. You can't launch that brand at this point, but you can amplify, communicate, and tell the world about our features which make Zimbabwe attractive.
— Travel Guy (@PTChimusoro) September 6, 2022
Two: Government comms must be credible
In Zimbabwe, especially online, facts are often caught somewhere between two extremes.
On one hand is government and its rather dim propaganda. On the other hand, is a coterie of digital warriors who get a heat rash at the sight of the slightest positive content about Zimbabwe.
Why is this so? Well, of course while many may point out that negativity is good content for some, there is a bigger problem; State propaganda.
Now, let's be real. Just about every country on earth does propaganda. We just happen to do ours badly, really badly. It is too obvious, and too blunt. A case in point: how State media ran the "mega deals" stories from 2018. They could have covered projects calmly, as economic stories, and still reflected well on the government. Instead, they overblew it to the extent that even prospective investors were burnt, and any legitimate news of investment today is laughed at.
Today, when something genuinely good happens, there's counter fodder to discredit it.
Recently, John Basera, the Agriculture Secretary, posted aerial pictures of wheat fields under centre-pivot irrigation. He was illustrating the point that Zimbabwe has planted more wheat this year. The reactions? "This is not Zimbabwe…why are you just googling images from the internet".
The impressive pictures were, in fact, from Zimbabwe.
Somewhere in Mash East 8/6/2022.
Towards flour self-sufficiency. pic.twitter.com/3H5N92wYs9
— John Basera (@basera_john) July 8, 2022
Not all who doubt such pictures do so out of malice. For some reason, government platforms, including State media and officials, often use foreign pictures to illustrate local projects; a dam in Japan being used to show the Gwayi Shangani Dam, a road in Nigeria used for the Masvingo highway. It's a puzzle why they do this, when local images are just a click away.
So, when Basera, or any other person, posts pictures or news of any little progress, they must face a digital firing squad.
Now, if you're going to rebrand your country, you're going to do it with honesty, and a high degree of diligence. We have enough good content about Zimbabwe. We don't need to borrow it. We just need to package it better. Be credible.
Three: Does Government itself believe in Brand Zimbabwe?
At the Brand Zimbabwe launch, I listened to the Information Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, give a great speech.
"When you travel abroad, they don't care if you are Zanu PF, CCC or MDC. They just look at your passport," she said. Great, I thought. Now, if only this government believed this and lived it.
Now, how many times have you seen salespeople trying to sell a product, and you can tell they are just there for the job? They barely believe in the vegetable samosas they are selling. I use veggie samosas as an example, because they are, quite frankly, a waste of everybody's time. Nobody with working taste buds wants to see those.
When I see government communicators at work, or read what they say in the papers, I get a sense they hardly believe in what they are selling.
Our leaders wave their fists in the air and drape themselves in flags, but they are the least patriotic lot you will ever see. Their love for all things foreign – from cars to healthcare – is legendary.
They travel, a lot. How they travel across Africa, seeing progress around us, and still not feel even an itch to do better for their homeland is a tragic mystery. Months ago, I saw a government official in the crowd at the world-class Diamniadio Olympic Stadium, recently built in Dakar, Senegal. I wondered what he thought, coming back home to a country with no working stadium.
Our leaders must want our county to work, and they must do so to the point of desperation. It must keep them awake at night when our people are being humiliated next door by insecure xenophobes.
A nation that stopped believing
Once, rugby coach Pieter De Villiers, when he was coach of the Zimbabwe Sables, was asked what areas he felt he needed to work on the most. It wasn't the lineouts, our backs, or our work at the breakdown; "85% of my players play in Zimbabwe; they have low self-confidence." This wasn't just about the rugby players. It was about Zimbabweans, in general.
There's a reason why we are this way. It is not our fault. Sadly, it seeps into many parts of our national being; from how we consume information – we believe only the worst, even when it's fake – to how we perform on the sports field. We take any insults thrown at our country uncontested, even from the ashiest characters, just because we have come to believe that we deserve only the least.
This is one of many psychological walls that we will need to break down to begin internal rebranding, and it will take more than mere marketing.
I hope "Zimbabweans from all walks of life" will take part in the Brand Zimbabwe process. I hope it is open to all, including the many creatives who are bursting with ideas on how to promote their country.
First, must come honesty about what our "brand is" right now. For that, there is another Chilean lesson.
According to the writer Gabriel Marquez, once, on the street, Chile's leftist President Allende was once confronted by a protester carrying the placard: "Chile is shitty country. But MY country."
That is a mix of brand ownership and an honest brand audit. With that, must come delivery to the brand ambassadors – we the people.
As Cortes, the Chile brand manager says, one of the reasons rebranding worked for Chile is that it created a country that works for its people. It was not the branding dollars that did the trick: "Perhaps Chile's profile has improved simply because it has gone from a military dictatorship to a successful and open democracy with a growing economy…"
You do not repaint a broken product, wrap it in new branding, and then try to sell it. No. You fix it first. Then rebrand it. No amount of PR ever saved a perpetually defective product. Eventually, the market always finds out.
This, comrades, is where Brand Zimbabwe rises and falls.
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Body for Life is a Diet and Exercise program which lasts for 12 weeks. The founder of this exercise program is Bill Phillips, the former competitive body builder. This program is very popular through a book named the same. Body for Life makes use of principles which are widely used in body building process. Body for Life makes use of principles that have been widely known in bodybuilding. Its differences are in the way it has been packaged and marketed. It supports a widespread subsidiary industry of gyms, personal trainers and nutritionists.
Body for Life is a powerful exercise program and nutritional plan and it gives quick results because of it's intensity. According to the Founder, Bill Phillips, by following this program you can make a strong and the best body you ever had. This program involves training with weight for about 45 minutes for three days a week alternated with aerobic exercises for at least 20 minutes for three days a week.
The diet schedule of Body for Life program involves six small meals in a day for six days a week. The food items must involve vegetables, poultry, brown rice, fishes etc. In the end of the week you can eat any thing and avoid vigorous workout on that day. Innumerable attempts show the spectacular improvement of this program.
This list of authorized foods containing proteins, carbohydrates etc from which you can choose according to the availability.
Here are some sample meal plans for Body for Life and this is a model 1700 calorie plan.
Body for Life concentrates energy expenditure in addition to energy input. The exercise should include training to increase long term metabolism and should build more strength to skeletal muscles. This helps to increase the energy expenditure and fat loss from aerobic exercises. The exercise program of Body for Life is more complex than a normal diet program. It reccommends exercise for six days a week alternated with weight training and aerobic exercises. The last day of the week should be the rest day. For recovering the exercised muscles fully before training session weight training sessions should be alternated with upper and lower body.
Most of the weight training exercise can be done using a barbell, dumbbell, Smith machine, cable machine etc. with adjustable pulleys in a specialized apparatus.
(1) For chest; bench press, pec-deck, incline flye etc can be practiced.
(2) For upper back; pull-down, bent-over row, dumbbell pullover etc.
(3) For shoulders; upright row, shoulder press, lateral raise etc.
(5) For front arms; biceps curl, concentration curl, hammer curl.
(1) For front legs; squat, leg press, leg extension etc.
(2) For rear legs; leg curl, lunge, glute-ham raise etc.
(3) For Calves; standing calf raise, seated calf raise etc.
(4) For torso; crunch, reverse crunch, leg raise etc.
There are various aerobic exercises which are specifically designed to suit Body for Life. The common aerobic exercises include walking, running, swimming, cycling, rowing etc. These aerobic exercises can be done for a duration of about 20 minutes. In the first five minutes of the aerobic exercise the intensity increased. It is meant to increase the intensity of the weight training sessions. According the Founder aerobic exercises are effectively functioning at morning, because it raises the metabolism and heavily withdraws fat after the overnight fasting.
To accelerate metabolism and maintain steady energy levels throughout the day, six meals per day is best.
MyFit would suggest that people have protein and vegetables at every meal and save the complex carbohydrates for the morning.
Portion size of food items helps in the management of weight.
You can also refer to the Sunday Ritual in which you make many recipes for the week on Sunday night. This will help with food cravings and keep you on your path towards six pack abs.
During the comprehensive training you must be well hydrated. as it also helps with keeping your body burning fat.
High quality protein Myoplex® is essential immediately after your workouts. It increase the body's ability to refuel and build strong muscle. Myoplex contains a lot of protein and other supplements which your muscles need. We do not endorse myoplex as any complete protein and simple sugars will produce the same effect without the cost.
The only supplements needed on a diet are whey protein, fish oil and greens powder. Do your own homework to find out which brands are best.
This may be to look good on the beach or to fix a health problem. Either way, you need to refer back to this reason in a time of weakness.
This is a great tip. Perfection is almost impossible but if you stick to a list of foods you should be eating and ignore buying the bad ones you'll have less chances to eat the bad ones.
We think Bill has done a great job putting this lifestyle change together and putting emphasis on strength training and eating healthy. Where Bill falls short is his willingness to supply supplements and a particular brand. Myoplex is a great product but you can achieve a similar result through other products and food.


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Q: Can a Windows network issue remain undetected by the ping command? Is it technically possible that a problem with a Windows Network does not manifest itself as packet drops when the ping command is used?
If yes,
What are some other ways to detect it?
Reason I ask:
We have suspected network issues in our web application hosted over a windows intranet from time to time, but each time, have been unable to follow up with the network team as the ping stat between the computers showed 0% packet loss and no latency.

A: Yes, there can be further issues with the networking that ping would not be able to detect.  Ping is just a tool that normally tells the user "Yes this device can communicate with the other device and it takes this long to do it." or "The other device did not respond to my requests in the amount of time that was allotted."  Ping isn't really designed for much more than that.

Reason I ask: We have suspected network issues in our web application hosted over a windows intranet from time to time, but each time, have been unable to follow up with the network team as the ping stat between the computers showed 0% packet loss and no latency.

If you can occasionally communicate with the server the way that you want to, then your IT team will probably tell you that there's nothing they can do, because they can't.  The reason for this is that it's more than likely an issue with the web application that is running on there that's having an issue.  You could probably ask them to check for performance issues with the server that the app is running on to see if that's the cause of your problem.  If that doesn't work, then your web app is having issues.
If your web app is HTTP based, then you can try to use Fiddler to see if it can help you track down what's wrong.  You can find it on their website.  It's free too.  If Fiddler doesn't work for you, then the next tool that might be able to help is called Wireshark.  It's an advanced program though, so you may need someone else to help you use it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


These day, contemporary wall art might be great decoration for people that have planned to enhance their wall art, this decor style maybe the best advice for your wall art. There may generally numerous design ideas about wall art and interior decorating, it could be tough to always modernize your wall art to follow the most recent themes or designs. It is just like in a life where interior decor is the subject to fashion and style with the most recent trend so your house is going to be generally stylish and new. It becomes a simple design and style that you can use to complement the stunning of your interior.
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As we know that the colors of contemporary wall art really affect the whole themes including the wall, decor style and furniture sets, so prepare your strategic plan about it. You can use various paint choosing which provide the brighter paint colors like off-white and beige paint colors. Combine the bright color of the wall with the colorful furniture for gaining the harmony in your room. You can use the certain colours choosing for giving the design and style of each room in your home. The several colour schemes will give the separating area of your interior. The combination of various patterns and colors make the wall art look very different. Try to combine with a very attractive so it can provide enormous appeal.
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It is usually important to discover contemporary wall art that may useful, functional, gorgeous, cozy and comfortable products which show your existing layout and merge to create a perfect wall art. Thereby, it is very important to place your own taste on this wall art. You would like your wall art to show you and your style. For that reason, it is really advisable to purchase the wall art to beautify the look and experience that is most essential to your room.
Your contemporary wall art should really be beautiful and a suitable parts to suit your house, if you are confused where to get started and you are searching for inspirations, you are able to check out our some ideas page in the bottom of the page. So there you will find numerous photos regarding contemporary wall art.
When you are choosing contemporary wall art, it is essential to think about conditions such as for example specifications, size and visual appeal. Additionally you require to consider whether you want to have a theme to your wall art, and whether you want a modern or classical. If your room is combine to the other room, it is in addition crucial to make harmonizing with this room as well.
A well-designed contemporary wall art is fabulous for all who use it, both family and guests. The selection of wall art is critical with regards to their design decor and the functions. With all of this goals, lets take a look and pick the right wall art for your room.
Last of all, take a look at these 20 inspirations, these could be lovely options that you can decide if you prefer relaxed and lovely wall art. Remember to take interest around similar wall art and decoration tips below, so you will receive a totally marvelous designs regarding to your personal appearance.
Related Post "Contemporary Wall Art"


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Q: Javascript - time delay between spawns I have this function ( feel free to use it if you guys need it) that generates monsters for me in random positions outside the play area. After the monster is generated, the monster then follows a way to the character.
But, the problem is that, the monsters are generated all at the same time. What i am trying to do is put some time delay between spawns. Like, 1st monster is generated at the start of the game; second monster i want to be generated after 1 second. Any ideeas how can i achieve this?
I've tried making a time variable that iterates and then spawn an enemy if counter > time. But that dosen't seem to work proprely

function init(){

}

function update(dt){

}

function signal(name, value){

    let x1 = 6;
    let x2 = -6;
    let y1 = 20;
    let y2 = 1;
    let cadran =  Math.floor(Math.random() * (+4 - +1)) + +1;
    if(value){
        for(i=0;i<5;i++){

            if(cadran == 1){
                monsterGenerator(this,x2,x1,y1 ,1);
            }

            if(cadran == 2){
                monsterGenerator(this,x2,x1,y2,2);
            }

            if(cadran == 3){
                monsterGenerator(this,y2,y1,x1,3);
            }

            if(cadran == 4){
                monsterGenerator(this,y2,y1,x2,4);
            }

            cadran++;
            if(cadran==5){
                cadran = 1;
            }
        }
    }

}

function monsterGenerator(ob,min,max,stat,rand) {

    let assetName = ob.attribute('Asset Name');
    let ent = ob.scene().create(assetName);
    if(ent == null) error('Asset "'+assetName+'" does not exist');
    let pos = ob.entity().worldPosition();
    let rot = ob.entity().rotation();
    let scl = ob.entity().scale();
    let random = Math.floor(Math.random() * (+max - +min)) + +min;

       if(rand==1){
        ent.setPosition(pos.x = random, pos.y =stat , pos.z);
       }
       if(rand==2){
        ent.setPosition(pos.x = random, pos.y =stat , pos.z);
       }
       if(rand==3){
        ent.setPosition(pos.x = stat, pos.y =random , pos.z);
       }
       if(rand==4){
        ent.setPosition(pos.x = stat, pos.y =random , pos.z);
       }

    ent.setRotation(rot.x, rot.y, rot.z);
    ent.setScale(scl.x, scl.y, scl.z);

}