John Mashaka Ni Mbunge Mtarajiwa!

[Steve Dii]

SteveD,

Ma pundits wa kule kwa Michuzi waki mu-endorse, let's say, Mhe. Waziri Ali Juma Shamhuna au Mhe. Waziri Celina Ompeshi Kombani kugombea Urais wa Jamhuri 2010, watu ambao labda hujui wasifu wao au hata hujawahi kuwasikia, na wewe utadandia hilo bandwagon la wachambuzi wa kwa Michuzi ?

Kama huyu mtu yuko "well connected," according to hao ma pundit wa kwa Michuzi hicho kitu hakiendana na spirit ya JF ya kulaani "vimemo culture," na political patronage na influence peddling na mitandao ya vilaza, na corrupt alliances nyingine zozote. Tuambiwe lingine. Lakini so far, uchambuzi wa credit crisis wa huyu "mbunge mtarajiwa kutoka Wallstreet," hauendani na wasifu wake.

....na ndipo hapo Kuhani ninamwomba Pundit wetu apokee samahani yangu kwa yale niliyoandika na kumkwaza ili atuchambulie tujue punje na mchele kwenye hiyo article ya Mashaka.

Thanx.

 

[Pundit]

While the writer must be noted for his attempt at serious financial journalism, and raising the bar, there are some disturbing issues, both substantial and presentational with the piece.

The piece would not be as disturbing if it was from our run of the mill paparazzi, prone to errors and short on facts. For sure it would still be disturbing, but not as much as when the piece is hailed as coming from the best of our minds, a US based "Social Activist & Investment Banker"

I would expect better exposure on the issues discussed, I would expect a world caliber analysis, I would expect economy of diction, I would expect a concise and coherent presentation.

If you think I am being too harsh just remember the bar has been raised to reflect the touting. Theopportunity to get in the mind of a leading US based investment banker shall not be wasted.

Lets get started

At this point, many of you are aware of the Economic turmoil that has rocked the global economies. From the NYSE, LSE, to Hong-Kong Stock Exchange the cry is the same, and the pain is being felt in all sectors ; manufacturing, energy, agriculture etc.

At this point, many of you are aware of

Assuming "many of you are aware" is rather presumptuous, some of us have been to Mkuranga getting down with some charcoal burning fro the past month, or visiting bibi in Malampaka why don't you break it down from top? Are we not part of your audience? If we were that informed we would be reading "The Economist" and no time to read you, why the assumption?


Economic turmoil.... unnecesary capitalization

rocked the global economies... does my man know the difference between the definite and indefinite articles and the proper use of "the" ?

Even though the problem may have started as Mortgage crisis in the US, and many thought it would have ended there, the reality is rather different, and the truth is painful and scary to hear. The data that has been available for almost two years now, pointed to the very situation we are in today. Middle analysts detected the problem raised their eye brows, but then their voices were too low to be heard by money hungry, bonus driven Wall-Street executives.

No conciseness at all, no economy of words, poor linkage of similes, one would entertain the idea that the voices could not be heard because the analyst had a peculiar habit of trying to raise their voices with eyebrows

so saying

Middle analysts detected the problem raised their eye brows, but then their voices were too low to be heard

is ugly because

1. There is no conjuction or comma between problem and raised
2. A better illustration would be "raised their voices/ concerns but could not be heard"

The big shots at the Wall-Street

Again my man cannot tell a definite from an indefinite article

You can say

1. The Wall Street big shots
2. The big shots at Wall Street
3. Big shots at the Wall Street firms
4. The big shots at the Wall Street firms (although kinda ugly with the double "the", grammatically correct)

But not

"The big shots at the Wall St"

He sound like the bad interpreter I was talking about on the post by chlande, only the other chap is excusable because of the understandable level of the Queens lingua in Tanzania, now this chap is a Wall Streeter, so we must cook up and cock some Cockney accordingly.

, driven by greed continued to cook their deals; duped European Bankers with bogus deals, who in turn spread the rotten credit deals in all global markets.

Somersaults and acrobatics on top of sommersaults.Hivi ni lini tutaflow?

An investment banker confident enough to write an article lacks even the intelligence to have his piece proofread before exposing his lack of basic communication skills? Writing with no proper punctuations? I can understand if it is just Pundit blurbing at JF, but for something to be published in a paper?

by greed continued
a comma is missing between greed and continued

cook their deals; duped European Bankers with bogus deals
That semicolon is totally unnecessary it looks like a typo, I hope it is.

Factual error, American Bankers did not "dupe" Europeans Bankers with bogus deals.Everybody was into the game.What caused the entire structure to collapse was based on two facts.

1. The assumption that the real estate values would continue to climb in the US.
2.That the risk associated with such mortages will always be transferrable to other parties through complex risk management devices

the European banks were certainly not duped, but attracted by high profits.The one party that was duped, sadly not elaborated, are the homeowners with subprime mortgages and adjustable rates, most of them financially not well informed, indeed a good chunk first time homeowners and or minorities who could bother to read through the piles of mortgage paperwork.

A New York Times article from last week (I forgot the date) has an article of a German bank CEO who did some high wire act with American mortgages, while concealing the real risk of the deals to his shareholders, made some 500 million dollars, moved the circus all over Europe from Germany to Ireland, retired to his orange farm in the south of Spain and watched everything explode in his retirement.This is very representative of what went down between the American bankers and their cousins in Europe, yet our Wall Street guru wants us to believe that the European bankers were "duped".If there was any duping, it was a transatlantic top down duping, not one divided by the pond.

Anyway,the damage has been done,

Rather colloquial and conversational.You say "Anyway,the damage has been done," when you are either talking to someone or writing in a tabloid that does not know the difference between the conversasational "Anyway" and the more formal "In any case"

and now faced with a reality of controlling the pain! And must consider the impact of the problem; how is it going to affect the common man in Tanzania, Kenya and elsewhere in Africa!,

On the content side

who exactly is faced with this stated reality? The piece does not say, so I am left to guess.The Wall St big shots? The Tanzanian government? The AU? The reader?

The presentation

Totally jumbled, this part exhibit the common thread among our presentation.This issue was identified in Clhande's post, that one can see that this chap has something to say, and he probably has all the words and ideas in there, but everything is mixed up. Sometimes I think this has a lot to do with thinking in Swahili and writing in English.

In Swahili we say "Jina langu ni Pundit"

In English they say "My name is Pundit"

This thinking in Swahili and writing in English business will have you write

"Jina langu ni Pundit"

as

"Name mine is Pundit". If you are a Swahili speaker you may not even notice the difference, because it probably will be like the way a fish cannot notice water, it swims in water so much it does not even recognize water.We are so used to people thinking in Swahili and writing English with a Swahili flow, that sometimes we do not even notice that the order of arrangement of words is totally off.

Millions of people in the US who invested their lifetime savings in the stock market have watched their funds melt in their own eyes.

Some people count the words in an article, and that number is justified by the content.If you have an unnecessarity lenghty article the environmentalist may rise up in arms for unnecessarily cutting trees by proxy, they can even tell you how many trees by the number of circulation.I will show you what conciseness and economy of words is.I can rewrite the same thing more concisely and just as comprehensively.

Millions of people in the US who invested their lifetime savings in the stock market have watched their funds melt in their own eyes.

Millions of US investors with lifetime savings in the stock market....

Plus, investors cannot watch "funds melt in their own eyes", if the funds melt in their own eyes, which eyes are you referring to? The funds eyes? the investors eyes? We know funds cannot have eyes, so it must be investors eyes, but if investors watched funds melt in their (investors) eyes, what did they use to watch those funds? Surely it couldn't be their eyes since their eyes must have been burning with all the funds melting in them!

A man or other a client,

What is this guy, in the singularity's sake, referring to?

A man or other a client, for Pete's sake, what is this will somebody tell me? I know some of you must think I was splitting hairs up there, but this? This guy is worse than some of the kids I know going to those English media schools.

who invested his savings in the stock option plan, in one of the now gone companies,

An investor with savings in a stock option plan of one of the kaput/ defunct companies...

A man or other a client, who invested his saving in the stock option plan, in one of the now gone companies,

I don't believe in hell, but to an English Lit type, this must look like it.

lost $4 million in less than a year;,

For an investor my man is not very good with numbers, less than a year can be a nanosecond second or 365 flat days. I can easily accept less than an hour as a reasonable timescale when it comes to investment assesment as in "The Dow tumbled a percentage point in less than an hour" in fact for something with a known net value, I can even take less than a year, but I have to know at least in rough figures what is the loss as a fraction of the whole for example in percentage terms. If Bill gates with his 60 Billions lose $ 4 million in a year (remove the less than because it complicates everything) then he is doing very well because that is a very small percentage of his net wealth.More than a year and less than a year are both tending to infinity or at least the less than ayear is tending to the Plank scale of time while the more than a year is tending to infinity.I doubt if he know that equations do not like the two extremes.

People are loosing their jobs,

Grammatically incorrect, people are losing their jobs, not loosing their jobs

Even the bots at Goggle know the difference, try them.

many businesses closing their doors,

many people are closing their doors

Why put the are in the first part but not in the second? If you don't want to write the are, you can simply write

"With people losing jobs, many businesses closing their doors..."

people can no longer afford paying their once owned expensive assets. Banks and many financial institutions are collapsing at an alarming rate. Millions around the world are rapidly depleting their savings.

I am seeing more of the "thinking in Swahili and writing in English plague".More than that, he is long on narrative and short on data, if he is aware that a number of his readers must be aware with the basic details of the meltdown, what is he adding to that knowledge? Some statistics? Some data? No, just something that any Tom Dick or Harry in high school can write as an Economics essay, in fact Tom Dick or Harry can do much better with a few google searches and fling down some convincing charts and data coutresy of Wikipedia, this chap cannot even do that.

Even though the Central Banks around the world have taken aggressive and swift measures to curb the problem by cutting interest rates and pumping almost a Trillion dollar rescue packages into their respective economies, so far the effort have not calmed the anxiety, the problem seems very deep entrenched than many thought.

A trillion dollars, however large it is, is not spelled with a capital T.

You cannot say "a trillion dollar rescue packages"

It is either a trillion dollar rescue package or rescue packages to the tune of a trillion dollars

You cannot say "the problem seems very deep entrenched"

You can say "the problem seems deeply entrenched" note very and deep together are redundant, and if you want to use entrenched, you must use deeply, there is no such thing as deep entrenched.deep is an adjective, deeply is an adverb.i wonder if my man knows enough about parts of speech.

That means, the meltdown was not limited to the Sub prime, it is in the credit, manufacturing and even retail.

Is the meltdown over? If it is this is news to me, if it isn't why is it being referred to in the past tense?

When major banks cannot meet their Liquidity requirements

Again unnecessary capitalization, I know some words sound gravely important, but that does not mean they have to be capitalized.there are rules of capitalization, if you cannot follow these in a published article I will begin to wonder if you can follow complex banking procedures and rituals.

as in the case of several fallen US banks, when Short term lending

The other chap was overdiagnosed with dyslexia, I am at a loss as to what this condition is.

becomes a problem, when commercial paper is not attainable, the economy goes into its knees.

a problem, when commerial ...

can be more eloquently morphed into

"a problem and commerial..."

or "when short term lending becomes a problem, commercial paper is not available..."

Many companies depend on these short term instruments to finance their day to day operations, short term projects, as well as meeting their payroll needs. And when they can't secure these instruments, it means they stop their operations.

They they they their

where are anecdotes to illustrate your point?

Likelihood of companies letting their employees go

The likelihood of.. this guy puts an indefinite article where a definite article should be and a definite article where an indefinite article belongs!

due to payroll problems are very real.

Due to payroll problems are very real? Are you kidding me or confusing "Due to" with "Because"? These are not interchangeable you know.

This guy is turning out to be worse than Jackie Chan in them Rush Hour movies!

You can say

"Due to some very real/ pronounced payroll problems"

Or

"Because payroll problems are very real"

But not

"Due to payroll problems are very real"

LIBOR, a system used in the UK and partly in the US for inter-bank lending

What is LIBOR? for non financial professionals writing in full London Inter Bank Offered Rate can be very descriptive and helpful in elaborating what this LIBOR beats is, once you define this beast, you can keep abbreaviating as much as you like, but not before you write it in full.

One would be excused for thinking that the writer is trying to say that this LIBOR beast, which is used in the UK, And partly in the "United States for inter-bank lending"

who is this "United States for inter-bank lending" where is he?

The more appropriate sentence would have been

LIBOR, an inter-bank lending system used in the UK, and partly in the USA....

whose rates have gone up,

By how much? over what period? what is the usual rate increase/ decrease over the same comparable period?

shows that we are in for a long and tough ride,

Are we to take your word on faith or start searching for the exact information you are referring to? Then what is the point of reading from you?

raising the inability of Banks to issue loans to individuals and companies lacking highest ratings in the ratings circles.

Case in point? Surely we are in a meltdown and fishing for an example to beef up your point should not be that hard, so why the lazyness?

The Global Markets are plummeting, due to the fact that, investors are worried, no individuals or companies want to put their investments in the risky market, and many (millions) are pulling out their investments. Consumers are scared to spend, and this is leaving experts without any cure to the disease, that is spreading globally.

This sounds like a shallow non specific details starved description of a generalist, is this the best you can offer? I know this already, tell me how this interconnects with the tuition loans, municipal finances, the auto industry and how that is going to start a domino effect, with every auto industry job supporting some 12 other jobs etc etc.tell me how exactly this will roll down to Silicon Valley, and what that will mean to Tech jobs and immigration to the USA and even remmittances to Tanzania.

Many of you know that Wall-Street or other financial markets are driven by speculation

Or is not the right word there, are you sure about WALL St or not? Are you confusing AND with OR? Logically these two words mean very different things, did you take a glance at set theory by the way? It may help enlighten the nature of AND and OR.

as you witnessed early during the year

As you may have witnessed is more like it.I may have been too engrossed in my Vodka, or up in the wilderness or anywhere but in the midts of following the markets.

when energy prices went off the roof

Unless you are talking in the social science sense, as in "the price of loyalty" and the price of truth" there is no such thing as energy prices, there is gasoline prices, kerosene prices and energy costs.this is an American bastardization of the English language gulped by "US based Tanzanian Investors" with no clue.

in the Western World; this was fueled by speculation of war outbreak in the Persian Gulf, Economic boom in Asia Pacific, and India. Now that economic boom has taken a downward trend, so has the demand and the prices. Speculation has now turned into fear for the worse,

Asia Pacific is not a country or continent, it is a region.Just as you had to specify "in the Persian Gulf" you also must specify "in the Asia Pacific region". Moreover, India, though categorized as a subcontinent, is still in Asia and therefore included in Asia Pacific, so "Asia Pacific and India" is double counting India.I wonder if you only double count countries, or even dollars.

The role of speculation is overrated anyway, and I would expect a knowledgeable Wall St type to enlighten the masses on this.It sounds as if you are parroting the populist rhetoric of John McCain than dishing out sound and original Wall St thinking.Demand is what drive speculation, curb demand and speculation will die a natural death, one has to only look at the gyrating price of oil to know that.

These are symptoms of an economic recession, and even though further bear the hallmarks of the 1929 great depression, we are optimistic things will turn around before we get into a similar economic tragedy.

Did you mean "and though they...."

To our people,

Can you be specific? You a jet setting Wall St type now, who are "our people"? do you mean Tanzanian peasants? The Tanzanian middle class? Wall St investment bankers? Tanzanians in the diaspora?

fear is the worst enemy of any human being.

"To our people, fear is the worst enemy of any human being"? If this applies to any human being, why start with "To our people"?

Do not fear or panic in these uncertain times. Go about your daily activities, and please.

First do not fear

• Abstain and cut OFF completely, all the unnecessary spending, and purchases

I can get this advice from a grandpa type in the village, I don't need an investment banker for this.tell me something I don't know.

• Do not rush into the bank to remove your deposits, because you will create an environment in which banks liquidity runs to zero, hence a collapse.

OK, do not fear

• Make sure you ask from your bank how much money they insure with the central bank as those in America and Europe, be assured that, All your deposits are safe. Bank of England and European Union Central Banks are currently in charge of all deposits

Totally worthless advice in Tanzania

• Constantly check with your Bank to see how things are moving in terms of the safety of your deposits

Any websites or bodies (such as FDIC in the US) that can give me an unbiased input? I know my bank is just gonna bs me, yopu really suck maan!

• I know many cannot afford depositing their monies into precious metals, but for those with excess cash, may want to consider this option as an alternative to safeguarding their most liquid assets (cash) and these valuables can be deposited in most of the banks, this will ensure economic continuity in the economy.

First don't fear, then safeguard all your asset, contradiction.

• Be careful, and not fall a prey of con artists with cure to any economic problem. Your trusted licensed banker and government monetary officials entrusted with the task should be the only persons to deal with.

You got that right, but an uninformed advisor like you can be worse than a conman

Economists, policymakers and monetary experts in our country have perhaps taken measures, or have aggressive plans in place that will safeguard your savings, you must therefore be optimistic, at the same time must be cautious not to be caught off guard. Since many of our third world countries are dependent on the West for Tourism, Export, and Aid to subsidize their Budgets, the impact may be soon be felt. The IMF has pointed for a deep recession. Either way, how prepared are we?

I thought you were the expert!

John Mashaka
The Writer Is a US Based, Social Activist & Investment Banker, of Tanzanian Origin.

 

[Mama]

Asante kwa uchambuzi huo baba. Mjomba JM atakuconsult soon muexchange ideas.

 

[Steve Dii]

While the writer must be noted for his attempt at serious financial journalism, and raising the bar, there are some disturbing issues, both substantial and presentational with the piece.

The piece would not be as disturbing if it was from our run of the mill paparazzi, prone to errors and short on facts. For sure it would still be disturbing, but not as much as when the piece is hailed as coming from the best of our minds, a US based "Social Activist & Investment Banker"

I would expect better exposure on the issues discussed, I would expect a world caliber analysis, I would expect economy of diction, I would expect a concise and coherent presentation.

If you think I am being too harsh just remember the bar has been raised to reflect the touting. Theopportunity to get in the mind of a leading US based investment banker shall not be wasted.

Sawa, tunakubaliana na shukrani kamanda kwa kuona umuhimu wa kuichambua.

Lets get started



At this point, many of you are aware of

Assuming "many of you are aware" is rather presumptuous, some of us have been to Mkuranga getting down with some charcoal burning fro the past month, or visiting bibi in Malampaka why don't you break it down from top? Are we not part of your audience? If we were that informed we would be reading "The Economist" and no time to read you, why the assumption?


Economic turmoil.... unnecesary capitalization

Sawa nakubaliana nawe, ila nadhani ulitakiwa kuweka comma hapo katikati.

rocked the global economies... does my man know the difference between the definite and indefinite articles and the proper use of "the" ?

Naona ni kuchapia tu, lugha aliyotumia yaweza kuwa secondary.
Hiyo "?" hapo juu mbona hukuiweka ndani ya mabano pamoja na "the?"

No conciseness at all, no economy of words, poor linkage of similes, one would entertain the idea that the voices could not be heard because the analyst had a peculiar habit of trying to raise their voices with eyebrows

so saying

Hapo juu nukta ingefaa zaidi mheshimiwa.

is ugly because

1. There is no conjuction or comma between problem and raised
2. A better illustration would be "raised their voices/ concerns but could not be heard"



Again my man cannot tell a definite from an indefinite article

You can say

1. The Wall Street big shots
2. The big shots at Wall Street
3. Big shots at the Wall Street firms
4. The big shots at the Wall Street firms (although kinda ugly with the double "the", grammatically correct)

But not

"The big shots at the Wall St"

Naona mkuu umeishia kumsahihisha grammar. Mimi nilifikiri utaleta hoja za kiekonomia zaidi.

He sound like the bad interpreter I was talking about on the post by chlande, only the other chap is excusable because of the understandable level of the Queens lingua in Tanzania, now this chap is a Wall Streeter, so we must cook up and cock some Cockney accordingly.




Somersaults and acrobatics on top of sommersaults.Hivi ni lini tutaflow?

An investment banker confident enough to write an article lacks even the intelligence to have his piece proofread before exposing his lack of basic communication skills? Writing with no proper punctuations? I can understand if it is just Pundit blurbing at JF, but for something to be published in a paper?

Concurred.

by greed continued
a comma is missing between greed and continued

cook their deals; duped European Bankers with bogus deals
That semicolon is totally unnecessary it looks like a typo, I hope it is.

Haya makosa ni magumu sana watu kuwakosoa na kusema kuwa wewe huwezi kuyatenda. Haswa pale mtu unapoandika kwa nia ya kuyakosoa.

Factual error, American Bankers did not "dupe" Europeans Bankers with bogus deals.Everybody was into the game.What caused the entire structure to collapse was based on two facts.

1. The assumption that the real estate values would continue to climb in the US.
2.That the risk associated with such mortages will always be transferrable to other parties through complex risk management devices

the European banks were certainly not duped, but attracted by high profits.The one party that was duped, sadly not elaborated, are the homeowners with subprime mortgages and adjustable rates, most of them financially not well informed, indeed a good chunk first time homeowners and or minorities who could bother to read through the piles of mortgage paperwork.

Now you are talking.

A New York Times article from last week (I forgot the date) has an article of a German bank CEO who did some high wire act with American mortgages, while concealing the real risk of the deals to his shareholders, made some 500 million dollars, moved the circus all over Europe from Germany to Ireland, retired to his orange farm in the south of Spain and watched everything explode in his retirement.This is very representative of what went down between the American bankers and their cousins in Europe, yet our Wall Street guru wants us to believe that the European bankers were "duped".If there was any duping, it was a transatlantic top down duping, not one divided by the pond.

Finding the date would have helped to solidify your argument. Nonetheless, mifano kama hii ndiyo ingefaa zaidi kwenye ku criticize kazi ya mwingine professionally.

Rather colloquial and conversational.You say "Anyway,the damage has been done," when you are either talking to someone or writing in a tabloid that does not know the difference between the conversasational "Anyway" and the more formal "In any case"

Nakubaliana nawe.

On the content side

who exactly is faced with this stated reality? The piece does not say, so I am left to guess.The Wall St big shots? The Tanzanian government? The AU? The reader?

The presentation

Totally jumbled, this part exhibit the common thread among our presentation.This issue was identified in Clhande's post, that one can see that this chap has something to say, and he probably has all the words and ideas in there, but everything is mixed up. Sometimes I think this has a lot to do with thinking in Swahili and writing in English.

In Swahili we say "Jina langu ni Pundit"

In English they say "My name is Pundit"

This thinking in Swahili and writing in English business will have you write

"Jina langu ni Pundit"

as

"Name mine is Pundit". If you are a Swahili speaker you may not even notice the difference, because it probably will be like the way a fish cannot notice water, it swims in water so much it does not even recognize water.We are so used to people thinking in Swahili and writing English with a Swahili flow, that sometimes we do not even notice that the order of arrangement of words is totally off.

Sawa hoja nzuri, lakini ingelikuwa nzuri zaidi kama ingehusiana na nakala ya mtu fulani aliyeandika kuhusiana na mambo ya uandishi.

Some people count the words in an article, and that number is justified by the content.If you have an unnecessarity lenghty article the environmentalist may rise up in arms for unnecessarily cutting trees by proxy, they can even tell you how many trees by the number of circulation.I will show you what conciseness and economy of words is.I can rewrite the same thing more concisely and just as comprehensively.

There is a bit of tautology in some of your explanations. You are unnecessarily using unnecessary and other adjectives.

Millions of US investors with lifetime savings in the stock market....

Plus, investors cannot watch "funds melt in their own eyes", if the funds melt in their own eyes, which eyes are you referring to? The funds eyes? the investors eyes? We know funds cannot have eyes, so it must be investors eyes, but if investors watched funds melt in their (investors) eyes, what did they use to watch those funds? Surely it couldn't be their eyes since their eyes must have been burning with all the funds melting in them!

I wished for more of this!

What is this guy, in the singularity's sake, referring to?

A man or other a client, for Pete's sake, what is this will somebody tell me? I know some of you must think I was splitting hairs up there, but this? This guy is worse than some of the kids I know going to those English media schools.



An investor with savings in a stock option plan of one of the kaput/ defunct companies...



I don't believe in hell, but to an English Lit type, this must look like it.

Same old same old brother!

For an investor my man is not very good with numbers, less than a year can be a nanosecond second or 365 flat days. I can easily accept less than an hour as a reasonable timescale when it comes to investment assesment as in "The Dow tumbled a percentage point in less than an hour" in fact for something with a known net value, I can even take less than a year, but I have to know at least in rough figures what is the loss as a fraction of the whole for example in percentage terms. If Bill gates with his 60 Billions lose $ 4 million in a year (remove the less than because it complicates everything) then he is doing very well because that is a very small percentage of his net wealth.More than a year and less than a year are both tending to infinity or at least the less than ayear is tending to the Plank scale of time while the more than a year is tending to infinity.I doubt if he know that equations do not like the two extremes.

Hapa atakukoma, maana utamtajia hata ma femtoseconds!! Lol

Grammatically incorrect, people are losing their jobs, not loosing their jobs

Even the bots at Goggle know the difference, try them.



many people are closing their doors

Why put the are in the first part but not in the second? If you don't want to write the are, you can simply write

"With people losing jobs, many businesses closing their doors..."



I am seeing more of the "thinking in Swahili and writing in English plague".More than that, he is long on narrative and short on data, if he is aware that a number of his readers must be aware with the basic details of the meltdown, what is he adding to that knowledge? Some statistics? Some data? No, just something that any Tom Dick or Harry in high school can write as an Economics essay, in fact Tom Dick or Harry can do much better with a few google searches and fling down some convincing charts and data coutresy of Wikipedia, this chap cannot even do that.



A trillion dollars, however large it is, is not spelled with a capital T.

You cannot say "a trillion dollar rescue packages"

It is either a trillion dollar rescue package or rescue packages to the tune of a trillion dollars

You cannot say "the problem seems very deep entrenched"

You can say "the problem seems deeply entrenched" note very and deep together are redundant, and if you want to use entrenched, you must use deeply, there is no such thing as deep entrenched.deep is an adjective, deeply is an adverb.i wonder if my man knows enough about parts of speech.



Is the meltdown over? If it is this is news to me, if it isn't why is it being referred to in the past tense?



Again unnecessary capitalization, I know some words sound gravely important, but that does not mean they have to be capitalized.there are rules of capitalization, if you cannot follow these in a published article I will begin to wonder if you can follow complex banking procedures and rituals.


The other chap was overdiagnosed with dyslexia, I am at a loss as to what this condition is.




a problem, when commerial ...

can be more eloquently morphed into

"a problem and commerial..."

or "when short term lending becomes a problem, commercial paper is not available..."



They they they their

where are anecdotes to illustrate your point?



The likelihood of.. this guy puts an indefinite article where a definite article should be and a definite article where an indefinite article belongs!



Due to payroll problems are very real? Are you kidding me or confusing "Due to" with "Because"? These are not interchangeable you know.

This guy is turning out to be worse than Jackie Chan in them Rush Hour movies!

You can say

"Due to some very real/ pronounced payroll problems"

Or

"Because payroll problems are very real"

But not

"Due to payroll problems are very real"



What is LIBOR? for non financial professionals writing in full London Inter Bank Offered Rate can be very descriptive and helpful in elaborating what this LIBOR beats is, once you define this beast, you can keep abbreaviating as much as you like, but not before you write it in full.

One would be excused for thinking that the writer is trying to say that this LIBOR beast, which is used in the UK, And partly in the "United States for inter-bank lending"

who is this "United States for inter-bank lending" where is he?

The more appropriate sentence would have been

LIBOR, an inter-bank lending system used in the UK, and partly in the USA....




By how much? over what period? what is the usual rate increase/ decrease over the same comparable period?



Are we to take your word on faith or start searching for the exact information you are referring to? Then what is the point of reading from you?



Case in point? Surely we are in a meltdown and fishing for an example to beef up your point should not be that hard, so why the lazyness?



This sounds like a shallow non specific details starved description of a generalist, is this the best you can offer? I know this already, tell me how this interconnects with the tuition loans, municipal finances, the auto industry and how that is going to start a domino effect, with every auto industry job supporting some 12 other jobs etc etc.tell me how exactly this will roll down to Silicon Valley, and what that will mean to Tech jobs and immigration to the USA and even remmittances to Tanzania.



Or is not the right word there, are you sure about WALL St or not? Are you confusing AND with OR? Logically these two words mean very different things, did you take a glance at set theory by the way? It may help enlighten the nature of AND and OR.



As you may have witnessed is more like it.I may have been too engrossed in my Vodka, or up in the wilderness or anywhere but in the midts of following the markets.


Unless you are talking in the social science sense, as in "the price of loyalty" and the price of truth" there is no such thing as energy prices, there is gasoline prices, kerosene prices and energy costs.this is an American bastardization of the English language gulped by "US based Tanzanian Investors" with no clue.




Asia Pacific is not a country or continent, it is a region.Just as you had to specify "in the Persian Gulf" you also must specify "in the Asia Pacific region". Moreover, India, though categorized as a subcontinent, is still in Asia and therefore included in Asia Pacific, so "Asia Pacific and India" is double counting India.I wonder if you only double count countries, or even dollars.

The role of speculation is overrated anyway, and I would expect a knowledgeable Wall St type to enlighten the masses on this.It sounds as if you are parroting the populist rhetoric of John McCain than dishing out sound and original Wall St thinking.Demand is what drive speculation, curb demand and speculation will die a natural death, one has to only look at the gyrating price of oil to know that.



Did you mean "and though they...."



Can you be specific? You a jet setting Wall St type now, who are "our people"? do you mean Tanzanian peasants? The Tanzanian middle class? Wall St investment bankers? Tanzanians in the diaspora?



"To our people, fear is the worst enemy of any human being"? If this applies to any human being, why start with "To our people"?



First do not fear



I can get this advice from a grandpa type in the village, I don't need an investment banker for this.tell me something I don't know.


• Do not rush into the bank to remove your deposits, because you will create an environment in which banks liquidity runs to zero, hence a collapse.


OK, do not fear



Totally worthless advice in Tanzania



Any websites or bodies (such as FDIC in the US) that can give me an unbiased input? I know my bank is just gonna bs me, yopu really suck maan!



First don't fear, then safeguard all your asset, contradiction.



You got that right, but an uninformed advisor like you can be worse than a conman



I thought you were the expert!

John Mashaka
The Writer Is a US Based, Social Activist & Investment Banker, of Tanzanian Origin.

Mkulu Pundit, nimejikuta nachoka, sikuweza kukosoa post yako yote kama vile ambavyo ningelipenda. Naona umeandika mengi kuliko nilivyodhania.

Kuhusiana na msamaha wangu natumaini umenisamehe.
Good night buddy and thanks for your response to the article.

 

[Abdulhalim]

Some people are sick and yet they don't know it..

Fumbo mfumbie mjinga..

Was'alaam

 

[Fundi Mchundo]

John Mashaka
The Writer Is a US Based, Social Activist & Investment Banker, of Tanzanian Origin.

Pundit, that was merciless.

Word to the wise, Mr. John Mashaka, the picture and the article stank! Bakia huko huko, mwenetu uliyewahi kuwa mtanzania. Kuna wakina Pundit wengi bongo na kwenye www na ukiingia kichwa kichwa hawatakubakiza na kitu. Watu wana hasira na watu wanao wa-take for granted.

Take a deep breath, lie low and concentrate on whatever you are doing out there in Obama land. Au kama bado unataka kurudi, badilisha jina maana hawa ndugu watakufuatilia sana baada ya kuiona hii article. And do dump the cap and shades. Most unbecoming for one who aspires to be an investment banker!

 

[Pundit]

Pundit, that was merciless.

Word to the wise, Mr. John Mashaka, the picture and the article stank! Bakia huko huko, mwenetu uliyewahi kuwa mtanzania. Kuna wakina Pundit wengi bongo na kwenye www na ukiingia kichwa kichwa hawatakubakiza na kitu. Watu wana hasira na watu wanao wa-take for granted.

Take a deep breath, lie low and concentrate on whatever you are doing out there in Obama land. Au kama bado unataka kurudi, badilisha jina maana hawa ndugu watakufuatilia sana baada ya kuiona hii article. And do dump the cap and shades. Most unbecoming for one who aspires to be an investment banker!

Fundi,

I hear the guy is in South Carolina, not even on the street, people on the street nowadays don't even want to brand themselves that label anymore.Apart from the SE, the street is a shell of its former self .The real movers and shakers are in Greenwich CT.

And that Social Activist & Investment Banker is such an oxymoron, what is he now, George Soros?

Stevie you cannot be serious, ngoma si lelemama hii, you don't want me to go off on you and expose holes in your cheap shots now. I doubt you can dig the elaborate analysis, every word is weighed

What is written and how it is written is not two separate things, it is two sides of the same coin.

Umesamehewa.

 

[Nyani Ngabu]

Fundi,

I hear the guy is in South Carolina, not even on the street, people on the street nowadays don't even want to brand themselves that label anymore.Apart from the SE, the street is a former shell of itself .The real movers and shakers are in Greenwich CT.

And that Social Activist & Investment Banker is such an oxymoron, what is he now, George Soros?

Stevie you cannot be serious, ngoma si lelemama hii, you don't want me to go off on you and expose holes in your cheap shots now

What is written and how it is written is not two separate things, it is two sides of the same coin.

Umesamehewa.

I think dude is in the Queen City...Charlotte, North Carolina and works (supposedly) for either Wachovia or BoA...

 

[Kuhani]

Word to the wise, Mr. John Mashaka, the picture and the article stank! Bakia huko huko, mwenetu uliyewahi kuwa mtanzania. Kuna wakina Pundit wengi bongo na kwenye www na ukiingia kichwa kichwa hawatakubakiza na kitu. Watu wana hasira na watu wanao wa-take for granted.

Take a deep breath, lie low and concentrate on whatever you are doing out there in Obama land. Au kama bado unataka kurudi, badilisha jina maana hawa ndugu watakufuatilia sana baada ya kuiona hii article. And do dump the cap and shades. Most unbecoming for one who aspires to be an investment banker!

Ha haa haaa!! Lord have mercy!

Yani umeshtukia kwamba mwenzetu huyu ana tu take for granted na kwamba he is "aspiring" whatever he thinks he is. Hapo ndio ninapokoma na wewe mtu. Lol!

Naona bwana "Wall Street investment banker" wa North Carolina hajapasi acid test ya JF, manake kwenye mitovuti mingine watu wamemkubali mzima mzima na article zake za kiaina. Lakini ukimsikia kwenye interview yake na Daily News unamwona kwa kweli bado hayuko tayari kuwa Mbunge kama ambavyo amekuwa anointed na baadhi ya watu.

Hapa naona badala ya kuwa awed and wowed haraka na kuwarukia hawa weledi na wataalam, watu wame "kick the tires and pop the hood" kama unavyotakiwa kufanya kabla ya kununua gari lililotumika, usije uziwa mkenge bure halafu baadae ukaanza kulia lia, mbunge this, mbunge that. Ndio maana ukinipa business card yako kwamba wewe ni fundi magorofa au mpasua vichwa kabla sijaja unipasue ubongo au unijengee ghorofa nitataka kujua ulijuaje kupasua vichwa na kama ghorofa la uliyemjengea mara ya mwisho bado limesimama.

Nadhani abakie huko huko kwenye "Wall Street" ya Carolina, na ajifunze ku lay low, kama ulivyosema. But then again jamaa hajui ku lay low, na ana issues na ukweli. Alinukuliwa na gazeti la Salisbury Post akidai yeye ni Bushman ambae hataki kurudi kufukuza wanyama kwenye nyika za Africa!! You know, I don't wanna knock the hustle or anything, but if you gonna be pulling fast ones on some clueless Wazungus and you don't wanna be tracked then keep a low profile, ok, instead of showing up on Daily News cameras in front of the nation talking 'bout I'm an investment banker philanthropist, covering your face in big ol' black shades and pinky baseball hat looking like ashy head Jermaine Dupri doubling for teary T.O.

 

[Pundit]

but if you gonna be pulling fast ones on some clueless Wazungus and you don't wanna be tracked then keep a low profile, ok, instead of showing up on Daily News cameras in front of the nation talking 'bout I'm an investment banker philanthropist, covering your face in big ol' shades and pinky baseball hat looking like ashy head Jermaine Dupri doubling for teary T.O.

U sick son, just sick!

 

[Masanja]

Pundit heshima mbele! Wewe ni Professor wa English!

Mkuu inaonekana ulikuwa na hasira na bwana JM.

Anyway mimi sijui taaluma yako..lakini ulichofanya ni kukosoa grammer. Substantively you agreed with his ideas. Maana hukupinga content ya alichokiandika...rather umepinga presentation na construction ya alichokiandika.

Kuhani na Fundi,

Sidhani kama jamaa ameandika kwa nia mbaya au ya kujionyesha. Perhaps yes, perhaps no. But give him benefit of doubt.

Mimi siyo mchumi..lakini naamini he is good in his field.

StevD..umejitahidi sana kupambana na mzee wa kidhungu ;-)

Perhaps Pundit tupe mawazo yako hii financial meltdown inatuathiri vipi sisi wa fourth world..Thats what I would love to hear.

 

[SaidSabke]

Nyie naseni kwenye mtego wao..! na mimi nachukua popcorn yangu..!

HAHAHA!!!!!!!that is intresting is it a day dreaming or real.Ngoja nipate ka-wisky ili nisome toka mwanzo

 

[Mlalahoi]

John Mashaka hajatangaza kuwa anataka kugombea ubunge,isipokuwa mtoa mada ambaye kwa mtazamo wake anamwona Mashaka kuwa anaweza jukumu hilo.Kuungana mkono na mtoa mada au kupingana nae ni haki ya kidemokrasia ya kila mwana-JF.

Lakini,let's be honest.Pengine kweli Mashaka anataka ujiko,pengine anajikomba,na pengine....lakini give the devil his dues:anaelewa nini kinaendelea katika uchumi wa dunia na ameona si vibaya (hata kama kwa Kiingereza chenye makosa kama linguists wetu walivyojitahidi kuonyesha) kutoa mchango wake kwa taifa.Kwa nyie mnaomkosoa Mashaka (sio ktk suala la ubunge bali article yake kuhusu nini watanzania-WALIO TZ NA NJE) wafanye kukabiliana na credit crunch) hebu kaeni chini mjiulize mmefanya kipi kwa wazalendo wenzenu wasiojua A au B ya mambo ya uchumi?

Hii imenikumbusha moja ya busara chache za George W bush kwamba ukipata criticism kutokana na tendo au kauli yake,then inamaanisha imewagusa watu flani.Kwani isngekuwa hivyo wala wasingekuwa na muda wa kuijadili.Kukosoa si kosa lakini kukosoa kwenye manufaa ni kule kunakoendana na njia mbadala.Kama hukubaliani na ushauri wa flani kuhusu ishu flani,then kwanini nawe usitumie media zile zilezile alizotumia mkosolewa ili kuonyesha wapi amechemka na pia kuwapa wasomaji kile kilicho sahihi zaidi.

PENGINE BADALA YA KUANGALIA MASHAKA AMEFANYA MAKOSA GANI YA KISARUFI KATIKA MAKALA YAKE AU HOJA ZAKE ZINA MAPUNGUFU KIASI GANI NI VEMA KUJIULIZA WEWE UMEFANYA NINI KWA WATANZANIA WENZAKO KUHUSIANA NA HICHOHICHO ANACHOZUNGUMZIA MASHAKA.Kwa lugha nyingine,sio jamaa amekosea nini bali wewe umepatia nini!

 

[Abdulhalim]

Kuna watu wapo slow sana kupata 'picha'..

 

[Kaa la Moto]

Wasomi wengi Tanzania wametu betray. Mambo mengi ya ajabu ajabu wahusika wakuu ni wasomi wenye Masters na Phds zao.
Usomi hautusaidii kwa maana hiyo. Tumeshakata tamaa na wasomi wa nje na ndani.
Nisaidieni hivi tufanyeje jamani? Tuendelee kumuamini kila msomi atakayekuja na kadegree kake na kutuambia katuletea muarobaini wa matatizo yetu?
Lakini tukimwambia 'we msomi kafanye mkataba na wazungu kwa niaba yetu sisi ambao hatukusoma' utashangaa kilichofanyika.
Mwisho hata JK akawaambia wazungu sisi hatuna wasomi wa kuelewa sheria za mikataba (shame).
Wacha tuchaaguane sisi hapa hapa tuliozoea matatizo yetu kama wakina zitto na Dr Slaa. Hawa wakuja ni shida tu. Watatufanya tuendelee kupiga kelele jf.
Ebu sikia alivyoanza kumsifia mkulu wakati hajafanya la maana lolote! Huyu atatusaidia nini?
Hivi mnamkumbuka Amani kabarou wa kigoma? watu walivyomuaminia kama mkombozi wa wana kigoma mjini? Leo nenda ukaangalie kigoma mjini jinsi ilivyo; na msikilize akisifu kuwa sasa sisiemu imebadilika na kuwa nzuri! utaelewa nini nasema. Kalambishwa visenti na Makamba na kasahau hata nini alikuwa anaona mbele!
Hapa hatuhitaji mtu kutoka nje kuwakilisha matatizo yetu. Tuliopo hapa tunatosha.
Mashaka endelea kukaa huko huko na tusaidie kwa jinsi nyingine na si kwa ubunge. Ubunge tuachie sisi hapa!
Mtu asinihukumu kwa maoni yangu haya.
MF

 

[Mama]

MF

pole sana, ni kweli baadhi ya wasomi wametulet down. Lakini sio wote, je hakuna msomi yeyote aliyewahi kuleta mabadiliko chanya hapo nchini?

Binafsi ninatoa wito kwa vijana wote hapa JF, wenye sifa za uongozi, hima mrudi nyumbani mkalikomboe Taifa. Tanzania iko njia panda, mwananchi wa kawaida amekata tamaa, hana wa kumlilia. Waliodhaniwa watawafuta hawa wananchi machozi; wameendelea viwafinya vifinyo vikali huku wakichekewa na kupambwa kuwa waendelee kulia hata kama ni machozi ya damu ili kudumisha amani na utulivu.

Shime jamani, jitokezeni. Msiogope critics, hakuna maendeleo pahala pasipo na critics.

 

[Kitila Mkumbo]

Kazi ipo, Mashaka atarudi kweli?

Masanja: Soma tena analysis ya Pundit, amepiga vyote: content na style.

Yes, I agree with Pundit when you decide to 'drop' a seemingly intellectual piece in a forum that cares about attention to details, such as JF, surely you need to get it right. Otherwise, waungwana watakuteremsha! Hapo KH hajasema kitu, akisema je?

 

[JokaKuu]

Kitila,

..i wont be too strict on John Mashaka. the article was presented at issa michuzi's blog. why do we expect it to be so rigurous and intellectual? no one here is paying Mashaka for his "work" , so we should just accept it as it is.

NB:

..lakini hata mimi ile kofia yake na miwani ningemshauri aachane nayo. no serious person, with a clear sense of who they are, would dress like.

 

[deny_all]

Kwani kila Mtanzania anayefanya vizuri lazima aingie kwenye siasa!?
Prof Sarungi alikuwa anafanya vizuri sana pale Muhimbili kama Mkurugenzi Mkuu wa Muhimbili na alikuwa kipenzi cha kila mfanyakazi wa pale. Sifa zake zikavuma 'vingunge' wakamwambia akagombee ubunge matokeo ya yeye baada ya kuingia kwenye siasa tunayajua. Mwacheni aendelee kufanya vitu vyake na msitake kumuhusisha na mafisadi.

Ni kweli unaweza kuwika sehemu fulani na kwingine ikawa kinyume. Ushauri tu kwa bwana Mashaka asidhani siasa za bongo na Afrika kwa ujumla ni rahisi hivyo kama kweli nia ni kuingia kwenye siasa.

 

[Mama]

Kwani hao wanaoweza ni kina nani na wana nini. John Mashaka eeh, hiyo miwani na kofia isiwe tabu eeh, hebu vua then kajichanganye kwenye siasa huko nyumbani. Mjenga nchi ni mwananchi, mpeni moyo mwenzenu kwa kudhamiria kurudi home kuwaongoza wananchi. Haya Kuhani na Pundit na nyie wengine, mwenzenu huyo anaonyesha njia. Mfuateni mkachuane huko mkasome mikataba na kuwachallenge wale wazee wanaolala kule bungeni.