WHAT LUPITA AND PHIONA HAVE IN COMMON

Its quite interesting to write about two young women, both from the East African region, who took the world by storm. These two women have lots in common: They are both black, both superstars in their own rights. While Lupita has had huge successess in Hollywood, Mutesi has had just the same on her mastery with the chess game, becoming her country's Grand Master of the Game.

The two sparkling women are soon to be featured  alongside in another Hollywood movie titled "The Queen of Katwe", which will be filmed in South African and in Katwe, Uganda, her impoverished home slum where she was born in 1993, which she has now become its Monarch. The film is based on a book by Tim Crothers and the movie will be directed by Walt Disney director Mira Nair.

Mutesi's story, unlike Nyongo's, is by far a nursery book fairytale. She grew up in the streets of Katwe, with no hope or future. By age 9, she was pounding the beat constantly looking for something to eat.  She found her ground by a stroke of luck, when she stumbled into a local church where chess was one of their favourite past times.

Hanging out there more out of her desire for free grub rather than the sport, she ultimately found interest in what was to be become her life saver. By 18 years, she became her country's ambassador of the sport, by competing in chess Olympiads in a number of international platforms, where she was given the Woman Candidate Master ranking by the World Chess Federation.
Overseas, Mutesi has also played against Garry Kasparov, Russian former world champion and  Grandmaster of the game

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DAY SECOND 26 JANUARY

Day second took off on a rather low note, but picked up gradually as we learnt a number of tips and ways of how to easily search and access the internet for relevant data. We were asked to attempt snappy searches from the population of Iringa municipal, to the highest mountains in Tanzania, financial records of Precision Air, to football players and their currrent top scoring tallies. We were also given assignments to write a few lines on selected topics and I chose to write on Lupita Nyongo and Phiona Mutesi, two African girls I find fascinating

MY FIRST DAY

Okay we are winding up our first day. I have already created a blog with my pseudonym I can really call my own. My first impression is that this training is really worth a damn. I ve gathered and put together things I never imagined to connect. Peik's down to earth approach and his simplistic prose using layman's terms to complex topics, was quite a breakthrough. You need to be dead to get bored, let alone not understand. But am still looking forward for the remaining two days to make my final analysis. As for  day one, Ive made a home run, a slam dunk

EXPECTATIONS

I have always harboured this feeling of uncertainty about the limitless stuff one can easily access on the internet. Perhaps this has been a result of my early childhood filled with norms and endless traditional values. The internet for one, has been so resourceful with all kinds of  information, you name it. But I also feel it has been such a tool of all sorts of disinformation, which Im not sure if it is maliciously intended to be by its founding fathers at the Silicon Valley or not.
My greatest expectation during this three day session is to have a litmus to what is fact and what is fiction as far as the information superhighway is concerned.

MY MEMORABLE MONDAY

My name is Masoud Masoud and I am attending a three day workshop on investigative journalism on the internet in Dar es Salaam. I work for the national broadcaster on both radio and television.
I have met former colleagues from the early days of climbing up the media ladder and have shared old and past, mostly interesting times. We are just back from a sumptous lunch break and our first task is  to publish our introductory entries on our newly created blogs.
I have just been able to create my first ever blog. And I have titled it MANJU WA MUZIKI, because that is the name I have been always been using on all my radio and television programmes. That name is derived from my traditional ethnic vernacular, the word  synonymous with the art of understanding music and conducting.