Category: Lifestyle

{{The death of a spouse is one of the most tragic events in a person’s life, often causing an enormous amount of stress andaffecting even the health of the surviving partner.}}

Other extremely traumatic events, new research finds out, can literally break the heart of an individual.

The research, done at the University Clinic of Rostock in Germany, studied how heart-breaking experiences affect the heart conditions of subjects.

Distressed patients’ hearts force the body to pour out adrenaline and other stress hormones. This narrows the coronary arteries and disrupts normal blood circulation.

As a result, the rest of the body gets less oxygen and people tend to suffer breathlessness, pain and even the loss of consciousness.

The research team said it came across similar heart-related cases, adding that women, especially those who are post-menopausal, are most sensitive to stress hormones, although the specific cause remains unknown.

{{For years, wine drinkers have indulged without guilt, reveling in the news that red wine can help protect against heart disease. }}

Recent research shows that beer can also be good for what ails you, from reducing risk for broken bones to helping warding off diabetes and mental decline.

It can even increase longevity, a large study suggests.

However, the key to tapping into beer’s benefits is moderation, meaning just one 12-ounce beer per day for women and two for men.

Heavy drinking ups the threat of liver damage, some cancers, and heart problems.

Bingeing on brewskis can also make you fat, since a 12-ounce regular beer has about 150 calories, while light beer has about 100.

{{Stronger Bones}}

Beer contains high levels of silicon, which is linked to bone health. In a 2009 study at Tufts University and other centers, older men and women who swigged one or two drinks daily had higher bone density, with the greatest benefits found in those who favored beer or wine.

However, downing more than two drinks was linked to increased risk for fractures.

For the best bone-building benefits, reach for pale ale, since a 2010 study of 100 types of beer from around the word identified these brews as richest in silicon, while light lagers and non-alcoholic beers contained the least.

{{A Stronger Heart }}

A 2011 analysis of 16 earlier studies involving more than 200,000 people, conducted by researchers at Italy’s Fondazion di Ricerca e Cura, found a 31 percent reduced risk of heart disease in those who quaffed about a pint of beer daily, while risk surged in those who guzzled higher amounts of alcohol, whether beer, wine, or spirits.

More than 100 studies also show that moderate drinking trims risk of heart attacks and dying from cardiovascular disease by 25 to 40 percent, Harvard reports.

A beer or two a day can help raise levels of HDL, the “good” cholesterol that helps keep arteries from getting clogged.

{Imagine a 15-year-old girl who thinks she might be pregnant. This was her first sexual experience. It was unplanned. It was even unwanted, but now she thinks she may be pregnant and she doesn’t know what to do.
}

Now imagine another 15-year-old girl who is on her sixth partner this year. She’s been lucky; she has not got pregnant. She’s thinking of getting tested for STDs. She may be regretting her choices, maybe not.

What is the difference between their motivations and ours? There is really very little difference. The reality is that these girls are simply acting, to the best of their ability, to find a lover of their soul.

We are relational beings. We desire to know and be known. We crave intimacy. We all want to be loved, recognised and accepted.

Teenagers are also looking for acceptance and recognition, and without knowing it, they are looking for the lovers of their souls. They are going about it as they assume they must from the messages they are given from our culture. Sex is everywhere: TV, music, movies. Kids talk about it all the time. The casual way in which it is discussed gives you a clue as to how it is approached. Many of the ways sex is acted out among teenagers would shock you.

What we see are girls trying to fulfill relationship and intimacy needs as well as the need for recognition and acceptance with sex. They are looking for power and equality but do not realise that that is exactly what they are giving away.

Why do you think teenagers have sex? These are the reasons they give: boredom, nothing else to do, a way to pass the time, hormones, bragging right, goal setting, peer pressure, pressure from partner, curiosity, to get it over with, and sometimes, “they think they’re in love.”

They talk about sex, yet what they are most interested in is relationship skills. Most girls want to know how to tell a guy, “no” without hurting his feelings. They also want to know how to deal with the pain of a break-up (because they know a break-up is inevitable).

But most teenagers are verbally sexually active, meaning they talk about sex as if they are participants. And recent studies show that 13-year-olds are physically sexually active.

This is not only true of the “unchurched” crowd. At the our Pregnancy Care Centre, we see girls from the churches. And there are many we do not see. These girls take care of their unwanted pregnancy quickly and quietly so no one else will know. It is their big secret. Many times it is kept from their parents and even their friends. Secrets like that can be very painful and divisive, and can follow generation after generation.

Many girls are desperate for love. They feel they don’t have the option to say, “no.” And with today’s society so focused on sex and many girls so willing to accommodate boys’ requests, they may be right. To refuse to “put out” is to lose the relationship, and with the girls so desiring of relationship they feel to “put out” is their only option.

Sex has lost its sacredness and beauty and has become recreational and casual. It’s gone from being the culminating act of a loving commitment to a precondition, a tryout, for future involvement.

There is a frequent complaint that boys rarely ask girls out anymore. Instead they go to parties, drink, pair off and if the mood suits, have sex. Young women who feel as sexually free as it is possible to feel are still powerless. Girls like boys boast of their sexual experience, but are aware that their reputation have been badly damaged and that the boys lose respect for them.

Some girls meet their intimacy needs by creating their own families. They aren’t meeting it through sex. Sex is just the vehicle. They are using men to have children, and are creating their own “family” so they can love, be loved and be needed. They are creating their own “community.”

Then there is the gang community. When a girl joins a gang, especially in school, she is treated as the lowest on the totem pole. They have to be accountable to the gang and follow the rules. These rules are not for their own good as they would be in a family, but the girls join anyway. For attention and acceptance, these girls find they need to be down and dirty. They laugh at the same jokes, even the sexually degrading ones, and treat sex as a recreation, a conquest, not as an emotional commitment.

If you are a parent of a teenagers, what can you do to help them make wise choices about their sexuality?

Let them know your expectation of them in the area of sexuality. Be very clear about your own values and attitudes. Set definite boundaries for them in the areas of dating and weekend activities. Make them accountable to you as to their whereabouts and activities. Sometimes a lack of opportunity is all the help they need.

Help them see the discrepancies between the media and real life. Use time spent together watching TV or movies to facilitate a discussion on sex and dating.

Learn to listen. Start communicating early and often. Keep discussion open; don’t over or under explain. Avoid lecture format. Show them what good, responsible relationships should be.

{{Pop diva Lady Gaga has set a social media record by becoming the first person with more than 30 million followers on Twitter.}}

As of Thursday afternoon, she had 30,030,949 followers on the micro-blogging website, and is adding them at the rate of 30,000 a day, according to the Starcount.com website that monitors celebrity use of social media.

The 26-year-old — real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta — also passed the four million mark on Google+ earlier this week, and is in second place to only Britney Spears on the search giant’s social media platform.

“Paving the way for other stars on social media, Lady Gaga often interacts with her fans and has even set up her own social network for the Little Monsters with thousands of regular users,” commented Starcount.com.

“But it is Twitter that has given her the incredible social popularity that she currently has,” it added in a blog, noting that her Twitter takeover started two years ago when she passed Ashton Kutcher, Barack Obama and Spears.

“Since then, her domination on the network has gone unmatched — she was the first person to reach 10 million and 20 million followers and is keeping up the trend now with 30 million.”

Her nearest rival is teen pop sensation Justin Bieber, with 28.5 million Twitter followers, while Katy Perry has 27.2 million. Rihanna has overtaken Gaga on YouTube and Facebook, but has only 26 million followers on Twitter

{{On September 29th 2012, Events Africa and Illume Creative Studio present the launch of “A September Affair”, the inaugural dining event series that will feature a different theme every year designed to promote a product or activity to a select group of invited guests.}}

Guests will enjoy delicious cuisine, entertainment and will be able to sample products on offer—from wines , to clothing and jewelry, music and art.

This year’s theme is ‘Kigali Uncorked’ and the featured product is a collection of South African wines from the Mont Rochelle vineyards in Cape Town ,South Africa.

The Mont Rochelle vineyards were first planted in 1994 and were bought by the late Miko Rwayitare in 2001, making him the first black African to own a wine farm in South Africa.

Along with the wine, invited guests will enjoy a 6- course meal prepared by world class South African chefs, and be entertained by South African jazz musician Nomfundo Xaluva.

Xaluva is a rising star and her qlbum, titled Kusile, will be in stores this September.

“A September Affair” seeks to create an annual event to showcase international, regional and local products, introduce Culinary Tourism to Rwanda, and add to Rwanda’s social calendar of prestigious events.

An American couple Sayli and Jon Gibbs got married on Sept. 1 at Living History Farms in Urbandale in the State of Iowa, in front of close friends and family.

They expected that it would be a romantic day they would never forget. What they did not expect was that the barn they chose would also be the site of a last-minute rally for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

The couple was told that the president’s event, which started in the morning, may run past schedule, and that the parking lot of the venue would be closed to cars. So Sayli had to walk across the parking lot carrying her wedding gown.

Luckily for the couple, the president left on time, and he also left behind a special gift: a silver tray and a mint julep cup, both with the presidential seal, and a handwritten note that read, {{“Congratulations on the wedding. Michelle and I wish you a great life together. Barack Obama.”}}

Neither Sayli nor Jon is a registered Democrat; nonetheless, they were still delighted to receive the gift. Jon Gibbs said, “Love him or hate him, it’s a gift from the president.”

Photographer Loren Paul snapped a picture of the gift, and a friend posted it on Reddit, where it made the front page and received hundreds of comments.

One commenter questioned how the president had gifts like that on hand, writing, “I wonder if the President has a box of emergency presents, just for times like these.”

It’s not clear if the president carries around a stash of gifts, but one thing’s for sure: Sayli and Jon Gibbs will have an incredible wedding story to share for a lifetime.

{{A SOUTH African woman — who claims to be engaged to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai — has joined Ms Locardia Karimatsenga in seeking to have the premier’s wedding stopped.}}

Prime Minister Tsvangirai is scheduled to wed his fiancée Ms Elizabeth Macheka tomorrow at Raintree Lodge in Umwinsidale, Harare.

Ms Nosipho Regina Shilubane has instructed her lawyer, Mr Wellington Pasipanodya of Manase and Manase legal practitioners, to file an objection with Harare provincial magistrate Mr Munamato Mutevedzi.

Mr Mutevedzi granted the PM a marriage licence for tomorrow’s wed­ding.

The objection was filed yesterday morning.

Ms Karimatsenga’s lawyers filed their client’s objection papers before the same magistrate on Wednesday after­noon after the High Court dismissed her injunction.

Mr Mutevedzi is expected to deal with both cases today.
Lawyers representing the two women and those representing the PM and Ms Macheka briefly appeared before Mr Mutevedzi in his chambers at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts yes­terday.

The matter was adjourned to today to allow lawyers for the PM, Mr Inno­cent Chagonda and Mr Selby Hwacha, to study the objection papers.

Ms Shilubane claims to be engaged for marriage and that she was shocked to learn of the PM’s scheduled wed­ding.

In her affidavit, Ms Shilubane claims she first met the PM on September 5, 2009 at Monte Cassino Shopping Cen­tre in Johannesburg after being intro­duced to him by Pastor Lazarus Murir­itirwa of the Gospel Assembly Church.

The pastor, Ms Shilubane said, invited her to a hotel room where Tsvangirai was booked, on the pretext that his friend wanted to see her.

“When we were introduced at the hotel room, he (Tsvangirai) asked his pastor and his son Edwin Tsvangirai to give us some privacy and we remained the two of us in the hotel room.”

While in the room, the PM report­edly told the woman he was a widower looking for someone to marry.

He reportedly proposed to Ms Shilubane.
The woman claims she was given a business card and the following num­bers for communication —0027718972979, 00263772383532 and 00263772383593.

The PM allegedly invited the woman to Zimbabwe and she stayed at Pastor Muriritirwa’s house in Borrowdale, Harare.

Ms Shilubane said the PM bought her an air ticket for the trip to Zim­babwe.

She claims that he would visit her at the pastor’s house where they had their first sexual encounter on September 19, 2009.

“After my first visit, I returned to South Africa and he phoned me and asked me where I was staying.

“I advised him that I was staying in Yeoville and he expressed disgust say­ing ‘how can you stay in that hell hole; you need to get a nicer place in a loca­tion where I can come and see you in an uptown area’.

“I looked for a place and I found a townhouse in a place called Buccleuch in Johannesburg North near Sandton at No.53 Northfields, Fife Street, Buc­cleuch.

“R13 000 were deposited into my Standard Bank Account Number 026640473 by Morgan. I paid for the place and moved into the new place at the end of November 2009,” she said.

On December 28, 2009, Mr Tsvangi­rai reportedly met Ms Shilubane at OR Tambo Airport in the company of his twin children Millicent and Vincent and they proceeded to Seychelles for a holiday.

Tickets for the trip were pur­chased through Ms Zodwa Mtunzi of Traverse Travel Agency.

“We were intimate throughout the holiday period (12 days) and we always had unprotected sex as he had asked me to go on family planning medica­tion.

“He said he did not want to have anymore children,” said Ms Shilubane.
“Whenever he went to a foreign country, he would pass by South Africa and I would go to whichever hotel he would be staying.

“We would be intimate and make love two or three times on each occa­sion,” she said.

On November 19, 2010, Ms Shilubane claims she followed the PM to Gaborone, Botswana, where he said “he was distressing, and he missed me and wanted to make love to me”.

Ms Shilubane said she eagerly fol­lowed the PM and they “stayed together at his hotel making love”.

It is indicated in the court papers that the PM spent another two weeks in Singapore with Ms Shilubane and photographs were taken during the holidays.

The holiday that Ms Shilubane called “love cruise” was on a boat called “Leg­end of the Seas”.

The PM allegedly visited the woman in January last year in South Africa say­ing he was now serious about the rela­tionship and wanted “to throw her in the kitchen”.

During the visit, he had a motorcade and Ms Shilubane said at times PM Tsvangirai would visit in South African Police Services motorcade vehicles.

He asked to marry Ms Shilubane, which proposal was accepted and he promised her a wedding ceremony in Zimbabwe.

The PM, according to the papers, promised to talk to the pastor who would make the wedding arrange­ments before promising the woman’s children better education and a house.

Ms Shilubane said in January this year, her family members convened a meeting and waited for the PM to come and pay lobola and negotiations for a customary wedding ceremony, but he did not turn up.

PM Tsvangirai, Ms Shilubane claims in her papers, said he could not attend the meeting due to some Government commitments.
He had reset the customary wedding date for December 2012.

While she was expecting a custom­ary wedding in December, Ms Shilubane said she was shocked to hear of the planned wedding to Ms Macheka.

Herald

{{An interview is an opportunity to meet your possible future colleagues.

They’re not the only ones making decisions – you’ll also be sizing up whether you want to work with them.}}

It is the first real opportunity you’ll have to start to build a relationship with people who may be pivotal to your career success for many years to come.

Sarah Rozenthuler has coached hundreds of people over the last 10 years to perform at their best during high stakes interactions. Here is what she terms as the small things that make a big difference.

{{Create a ‘to be’ list}}

Entry is everything so think about how you want to “show up” at the interview. What qualities do you want to demonstrate? Decide in advance how you intend to come across – for example as confident, reliable or dynamic.

For example, to show confidence, make sure you can talk fluidly about your strengths and successes without bragging.

{{Make it more of a conversation}}

The more you can make the interview a two-way exchange, the more likely you are to relax. Make the most of this opportunity to gather information, get to know your prospective colleagues and catch a glimpse of the way they do things.

Come to the interview with some insightful questions prepared. Don’t trot out the same old questions that every candidate is likely to ask such as what the opportunities for promotion are.

Read the company’s website and research their performance, whether on the stock market or the league tables, so that your lines of inquiry are on point.

Body language, eye gaze and gestures all play their part in an interview. If you find it hard to look someone in the eye, you risk being judged as untrustworthy

{{Be comfortable talking about money}}

Even if the job comes with an advertised salary, you may be asked what your salary expectations are. Anticipate this question and, off-line, practise saying your answer out loud.

If you want to be paid more than the ad suggests, be prepared to give your reasons, as you’ll need to justify your request.

{{Know your strengths}}

Be prepared to articulate your ‘unique selling points’. Give this question serious consideration. Think about your own combination of strengths – for example, are you that rare individual who is creative, proactive and reliable?

Before you go to the interview, complete this sentence, ‘I am someone who…’ Write down your answer and reflect on your response. Think about feedback you’ve had from friends, family and other people who have affirmed your sense of who you are.

{{Be prepared to talk about your weaknesses}}

Anticipate being asked about your shortcomings. This is a sensitive subject that needs a careful response. Don’t be insincere, such as saying you’re a perfectionist if you’re not.

{{This time its not about political disagreement between Prime minister Morgan Tsivangirai and President Robert Mugabe…}}

Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo(in photo above) an ex-lover to MDC strongman, filed the claim at the civil court in Harare September 5.

Its about a private matter of Tsivangirai involving his lover who is demanding US$15,000 as monthly upkeep because the MDC strongman abandoned her and is planned to wed a new woman.

Tsvangirai is said to have traditionally married Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo in November 2011. However, this lady fell sick and was admitted to a hospital in Neighbouring South Africa.

In a court case file Karimatsenga says; “The respondent (PM) is my husband. He married me on the 21st of November 2011 and has been supporting me until I was discharged from hospital in South Africa.

“The respondent proposed to marry me in September 2011. I accepted the proposal and he then made arrangements to meet my parents and to pay lobola(dowery) in terms of the African customary tradition,” she said.

Karimatsenga said after the PM paid lobola, he requested permission for her to stay with him, which was granted.

“He also requested for permission to have a white wedding, which was also granted . . . and satisfied the requirements laid down by my parents.”

Karimatsenga wants Tsivangirai to contribute towards her upkeep and accessories, as she has been accustomed to.

This comes barely a week before the premier’s wedding with Ms Elizabeth Macheka on September 15.

In her claim, Karimatsenga says she is customarily married to PM Tsvangirai after the latter paid lobola to her parents.

“The respondent (PM) is my husband. He married me on the 21st of November 2011 and has been supporting me until I was discharged from hospital in South Africa.

In terms of the African custom, Karimatsenga claimed, she was sent to PM Tsvangirai’s village in Buhera where she stayed with his mother for about two months.

PM Tsvangirai, she claimed, later requested her to rejoin him in Harare after he had found accommodation.

“I moved to the house and there was a double bed only. He gave me money to buy all the household goods, which ran into thousands of dollars.

“By that time, I was already pregnant and we lived together for a couple of months until I was seven-and-a-half months pregnant.

“I had problems with my hypertension, which was very high.
“Respondent advised me to get the best medical attention and sent me to Johannesburg, South Africa, where I was attended to by specialists.

{{(In this photo Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his new partner Elizabeth Macheka)}}

{{MORGAN TSIVANGIRAI RESPONCE}}

FOR the past two weeks, I have been a subject of frenzied media coverage regarding my relationship with Ms Lorcadia Karimatsenga.

Indeed as is normal, there was both a positive and negative reaction to this development.

Regrettably, both reactions were misplaced.

However, I feel that the people of Zimbabwe deserve to know my position on this matter, which to a large extent has damaged not only the reputations of the two of us involved in this relationship, but equally so the public image of the Tsvangirai and Karimatsenga families.

Indeed I had a relationship with Ms Locadia Karimatsenga. At a certain stage, she claimed that she was pregnant and that I had to be introduced to her family to own up and accept responsibility according to our culture and tradition.

Following this development, and like every cultured Zimbabwean, on Friday, November 18, 2011, I sent a delegation to the Karimatsenga family homestead to perform traditional and cultural rites.

But since the day I sent a delegation to the Karimatsenga family, everything has been played in the press and I have become an innocent bystander.

I have become a spectator and things are happening too fast, on camera and without my knowledge. This has led me to conclude that there is a greater and thicker plot around this issue which has undermined my confidence in this relationship.

I was reported to have been there in Christon Bank when in fact I was in my office. Other inferences were equally stated as fact when on the contrary these were false representations.

There have been several developments since that day which have been deliberately planted in the media and which I have had to read in the press; developments that would have taken place without my involvement and knowledge as an interested party.

The cultural rites that took place received wide, well arranged publicity clearly giving rise to a legitimate enquiry on the motive of this publicity, including the choreographed media capture of Ms Karimatsenga while she was supposedly in Buhera.

While I accept that as Prime Minister I live a public life, I believe I reserve the right to define my relationship.
I have opened up communication lines with the Karimatsenga family and they know my position regarding this matter.

I do not wish to publicise the nature and extent of my communication to them.

Ms Karimatsenga is also aware of my position on this matter.
Added to this, there is now an underhand and active political hand that is now driving the processes and this has resulted in everything regarding this relationship now taking place in camera, with the public media journalists in tow.

Everything is so well choreographed. The intention is clear: to inflict maximum damage on my person and character for political gain. This has caused me to have serious misgivings as to whether this will be a perfect union that will inspire young couples and reflect marriage as the noble and respectable institution that it is.

I am committed to serve my country with honour and distinction not only as a national leader, but as a respected family man who owned up to his responsibility by following cultural and traditional procedures.

There are many things I have learnt in the process and one is that with the benefit of hindsight, I could have done things differently.

In this regard, I apologise to every single Zimbabwean for any discomfort caused by any of my actions.

Having been happily married for 31 years, I also realised that sometimes when you are searching for a partner especially after losing your wife whom you so dearly loved, there are many stakeholders in the process some of whom have their own ulterior intentions and agendas.

I want to admit that the last two weeks have been particularly bad for me, my children, my family and even ordinary Zimbabweans who have sought to find meaning to this sordid saga.

Reputations have been bruised and mutual trust upon which such relations are built and maintained has been lost.

Marriage is a serious proposition arising out of mutual trust, intimacy and respect. When these values are undermined, that relationship is irretrievably doomed from the start.

My genuine intention has been betrayed and hearts have had to search long and hard to the true meaning of this well-choreographed drama that has now been hijacked to cause political damage on my person and character.

As has been evidently demonstrated by these past well-ochestrated events, it would be inconceivable that a normal marriage relationship can be consummated.

However, I want to assure the people of Zimbabwe that this dark patch in my private life will not dampen my commitment to serve my country and to deliver real change to the people.

I remain unfazed by this sad chapter which will not in any way deter me from my national responsibility to serve Zimbabwe.

I will not expose the people’s struggle for democratic change to machinations of infiltration.

May God bless Zimbabwe.

Morgan Tsvangirai

Prime Minister of Zimbabwe

{Zim Herald & New Zimbabwe}

{{The crown Miss Rwanda 2012 has announced plans to moblise Rwandan youths in efforts to contribute to the Agaciro Development Fund.}}

Over Frw7billion has so far been deposited into the Agaciro Fund.
Kayibanda Mutesi Aurore didn’t not give details of her proposed new moblisation plan.

She says,“my first objective is to moblise youths to contribute to Agaciro Development Fund as a way of showing youths how to accord themselves diginity.”

Miss Kayibanda is a student at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).