The training has now ended with nice speeches and everyone raising a toast with bottles of soda. The last day was basically spent by working on the blogs and Maggid Mjengwa showing the participants many new features, such as posting pictures and adding comments to other blogs in order to network and create debate. Many thanks to Maggid again for a great session that was much appreciated.
Some of the participants have also published their stories on the final, more challenging research assignments.
Here’s the background feature by Marko Gideon, IPS News and MISA, about the so called Economic Partnership Agreements, or simply EPAs, that the European Union wants to sign with the African countries by the end of this month. These free trade agreements can be dangerous in many ways and actually destroy the local economies here by opening up the markets to subsidised agricultural products from Europe.
Marc Nkwame, Daily News, chose to write a commentary about a short story, “He’s My Brother”, by the Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina, published online on the travel website Travel Intelligence. Binyavanga’s story itself is a beautiful narrative on the Tanzanian hospitality he experienced during a one night’s stay in Dar es Salaam when he was travelling back from South Africa to his homeland Kenya.
Participants could also choose to write about the impact of climate change in Tanzania, but only few went for that topic.
I also reminded the class that it is strictly forbidden to copy and paste directly from other websites. It is not good journalism, and in most cases it is illegal. In other countries, journalists would get fired if they are found doing it. For more about this, I recommend a very good and reader-friendly website, Plagiarism.org.
At the end of the training, most participants posted their comments about the final day and the whole training.
Seif Jigge from ORS FM writes about the eye-opening experience of blogging. Also he reminds us about the need to follow the ethics of journalism in our blogs too, as they are a new media outlet just as radio, TV or newspapers.
Marko Gideon says that five days in front of the desktop was not an easy task, but according to many participants, it has been the most interesting training they ever had :-)
Hamida Khalid of Tanzania Daima in Manyara says she is happy because she now knows how to search for information to her stories through the internet. Nebert Mramba, Business Times, wishes that the training could have been even longer. Marc Nkwame says the training has been fruitful and was “a very good investment to all.”
For more comments in Kiswahili, see the good summary of the last day by Mohamed Msoffe, MC and radio presenter of Radio 5 Arusha. Here’s the feedback from Nakajumo James of Habari Leo, and here the comments of Swalehe Kiluvia, Radio Arusha One.
And if you want to visit a new Tanzanian photo blog, please go to the site of Mussa Juma, Arusha correspondent of Mwananchi. For many more pictures, see the Kilimanjaro blog by Salome Kitomari, Moshi correspondent of the rival Kiswahili newspaper Nipashe.
Finally, I would like to warmly thank all participants for active participation and the good mood we’ve had in class all through the week. A big hand goes to Cecilia Mng’ong’o from MISA for excellent coordination of the training arrangements again. Thanks also to UCC Arusha for the IT support at the venue and to the catering team for the regular wali nyama with fresh salads and fruits.
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