Google Glass

We’re miles away from even being able to provide fast, uninterrupted broadband wifi to all rooms and Guests at our lodge. How I wish we were able to consider stuff like this from Larry Mogelonski at Hotel Interacitve.

“No doubt you’ve heard about Google Glass by now. If you haven’t, you better do your homework. As well, I highly recommend you scope out a tech gathering near you so you can try on this piece of hardware and learn firsthand about what it can do. I was amazed when I had the opportunity to wear a pair in late June.

As Google segues from search engine hegemony into all other areas of tech, one item in its scope is your glasses, beaming information about your surroundings directly onto the inside of your lens. A bit sci-fi, yes. But rest assured, this multi-billion-dollar company is making it happen.

Helping them usher in this new fashion age is Virgin Atlantic Airlines that is rolling out a plan to equip their flight attendants and check-in teams with Google Glass headpieces alongside Sony Smartwatch accessories. The idea: speed up service delivery and heighten its personalization. The technology integration will give passengers the latest updates (flight times, weather, local events, etc.) as well as assist with other potential areas of conflict like language translations.

So, if companies like Virgin Group are trying out this new device, why not your hotel? Yes, Google Glass isn’t the most fashionable ornament for your face, but it’s the concept behind it that is important – utilizing new tech to heighten the guest experience.

Google Glass is still in the early adoption phase, which means there are still some bugs to work out. Nonetheless, it might just be the ‘next big thing’ for your front desk, butler or concierge team. By projecting information onto glasses, it will allow your hotel staffers to maintain a better rapport with guests for two main reasons.

First, eye contact; using Google Glass ensures that team members are better able to actually converse as opposed to constantly flitting their eyes onto a computer monitor. Second, by providing a heads-up display for basic information, it leaves more room for interactivity, like both guest and staffer looking at the same website on a big screen or desk clerks leaving their posts to personally direct the visitor somewhere without missing a beat.

There are a ton of possibilities to investigate here. And even if it isn’t Google Glass that suits your fancy, surely another snazzy new device will. I mentioned above the term ‘early adoption’, which implies that Google Glass is still in its infancy. This also means that you can make a serious impression on your guests, whereas once it’s mainstream (if it reaches that point) that ability will no longer be available.”

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The Dutch Experience!

Meet Michelle de Moor and Bram van Veen from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay-Hillz. The Experience is our weekly radio show airing at 20.30 hrs CAT every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station.

Bram and Michelle told listeners that they’d met in Cape Town some seven years ago when they were both on internships at the end of their respective degree courses. At that time people in South Africa told them they should take time to visit other African countries including Zambia, and they had made up their minds there and then one day to do just that and here they were! They revealed that although they’d been together all those seven years and owned property together in Amsterdam. they were not yet married. “What are you waiting for?” We wondered. “Errr um err” said Bram while Michelle just ‘rolled her eyes’!

This lively, funny very Dutch couple explained that Michelle was a social worker and Bram a sales manager, but both had given up their jobs in Holland before setting off on their ‘trip of a lifetime’. They’d been travelling for the past six months and had already visited Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi and Mozambique before arriving in Zambia. They’d been to the Lower Zambezi for a canoeing trip but laughingly told us that within five minutes of boarding their canoe they’d ended up in the Zambezi, soon faced by angry and indignant hippos! What a start! They went on to tell listeners that of all the places they had been in Africa, the Lower Zambezi was probably the most beautiful, and they were both firmly against the establishment of a new copper mine planned for the area. They told Milli Jam that they’d arrived in Livingstone by coach from Lusaka a few days before our show.

The music on the show was good. We opened with tracks from Rixton and Nicole Scherzinger. Jay dropped tracks from Tank and Zambia’s very own K’Millian. ‘For You’ is his latest hit. Milli Jam chose Nicki Minaj and Roberto for his selections. Our oldie of the week was Sinzia by Nameless. We give a prize of a dinner for two at the lodge each week to the first person to text us the name of the artist on our oldie and this week the prize was won by Innocent. My pick of the week was John Legend’s ‘You and I’.

At the end of the show we played Diamonds by Rihanna, a special dedication to Edward Chanter’s late special friend Tanya Johnson who had passed away in England during the week. She had loved Rihanna and we felt this was an appropriate song. She was indeed a ‘diamond’.

While in Livingstone Bram and Michelle had visited the ‘amazing’ Victoria Falls and had loved the cheetah walk at Mukuni Big 5. They told us that from Zambia they would proceed to Namibia where they would hire a car and tour around that country for a while. They had no satisfactory answer when Milli Jam asked them why Holland had (again) been unable to win the World Cup. Bram, an Ajax and Manchester United supporter at this point wanted to start talking about England’s World Cup efforts, but we weren’t having that kind of red herring! Michelle told us her favourite band is The Killers and that they both like rock music.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years from now, Bram said he wanted to be in a canoe on the Zambezi, as opposed to being in the water, Michelle wanted to be a mother. Would Bram be the father of her children we wondered, “yes” she said. It doesn’t get much clearer than that!!

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Friday Funnies!

Friday Funnies – thanks to Judy in Australia!

If people from Poland are called Poles, then why aren’t people from Holland called Holes?

If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?

Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist, but a person who drives a race car is not called a racist?

If it’s true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?

If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, then doesn’t it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?

What hair colour do they put on the driver’s licenses of bald men?

Is it true that you never really learn to swear until you learn to drive?

Why do we press harder on the remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?

Why do banks charge a fee due to insufficient funds; when they already know you’re broke?

Why is it that when someone tells you that there are one billion stars in the universe you believe them, but if they tell you there is wet paint you have to touch it to check?

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The K9 Experience!

K9? You wonder? Meet Kenan Chisenga (above), Livingstonian, entrepreneur and singer/rapper whose stage name is K9! Kenan was our Guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay-Hillz. ‘The Experience’ is our weekly radio show airing from 20.30-21.30 hrs CAT every Sunday on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Kenan told listeners that he was born and brought up in Livingstone, partially by his grandmother, as he had lost both his parents, his mum in 2003. An only child, Kenan had been forced to fend for himself. He explained that his mum was Toka-Leya by tribe from Chief Mukuni’s village.

Milli Jam asked Kenan how and when he had started in the music field and he revealed that it had all kicked off in 2010 when he had met and started working with ‘The Shaker’ aka Rodger Kabwiko, well known artist and music producer. K9’s first single had been ‘Monga Mpepo’ (‘like air’). “It was for my girl friend and told of her being as important in my life as the air I breathe!” K9 explained. “Is she still around?” I wondered. “Errr ummm eish” the reply! Kenan said that it was difficult to make a living from music in Zambia, therefore he was also a businessman, importing and selling hi fi equipment. He had not yet produced an album but felt that his live shows were more important in terms of fund raising, due partly to the high level of music piracy in Zambia.

We featured one of K9’s tracks on the show ‘Niwe Weka’ (‘you are the one’) and very good it is too! We also featured tracks from Will.i.am, Zone Fam (a hot local outfit), Pharrell Williams, and 5SOS, as well as Ariana Grande. Our oldie of the week was by John Legend, and the prize we give of a dinner for two with drinks at the lodge, to the first person to text us the name of the artist on the track, was quickly snapped up by a certain ‘Brian’.

Milli Jam wanted to know who was Kenan’s favourite local artist and he mentioned Hip-Hop Crisis and PJ. Internationally he favoured Dr Dre. His favourite Livingstone club was the New Fairmount and bars at Bee Hive and Dry Manzi. He revealed that he had been white water rafting but had never done the bungee jump. He felt Holland would win the World Cup and loves Manchester City, especially the Ivorian Yaya Toure. Had he played any shows during this holiday weekend we wondered? “Yes with Ruff Kid at Eastpoint on Friday” replied Kenan. On being told that there were K9 T shirts available as part of his branding, I asked for one for my son Henry who was present in the studio getting his first taste of our show! A promise was made!

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing ten years from now, Kenan told listeners that he would like to be an investor in Livingstone making money!

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Inspired By The Zambezi – David Lisle Whitehead

A new book “Inspired by the Zambezi” by David Lisle Whitehead has just been self-published.
It can be purchased for ZKW 150 from The River Club or from Zig Zag in Livingstone. The book costs US$20 from Elephant’s Walk in Victoria Falls.

The book – a “must read” has been very favourably reviewed by Tony Weaver –

“David has written the most delightful memoir about his life in Barotseland, and his lifelong fascination with the Lozi people and the Bulozi kingdom. Titled Inspired by the Zambezi, and sub-titled Memories of Barotseland and a Royal River – the mighty Liambai, it is one of those gems that anyone travelling to the region simply has to beg, borrow, buy or steal – preferably buy, as all proceeds from its sale are going towards building a school near Makusi Village on the Zambezi in Sesheke District.

It was a remarkable upbringing, all the more so given that David went on to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, studying under Nobel laureate, Prof Hans Krebs – even I knew who Krebs was, having learnt about the “Krebs cycle” in high school biology.

As he says in his memoir about growing up in Bulozi, “relating my experiences in Bulozi will, I hope, serve to illustrate how lucky I was to grow up in such a magical, friendly world dominated by the fantastic Zambezi River. We lived amongst an amazing tribe, the Malozi, from whom I learned many lessons while imbibing their colourful language as if it it were my own. I even used to dream in Silozi; and sometimes I still do.”

The book is populated with colourful characters, some of whom went on to become household names in Southern Africa – the Meikles brothers, after whom the famous Meikles Hotel in Harare is named, the Susman brothers, founders of the modern day Woolworths, and the various members of the royal families of both Bulozi and Lesotho (Constantine Seeiso, later to be King Moshoeshoe II, was his Oxford tennis partner).”

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Ryan Kelly

Ryan Kelly (above), a second year graduate school student in forensic psychology at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, was our Guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay-Hillz. That’s our weekly radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, which features chat with a Guest of the week, a great selection of latest international and local music, as well as news from social media sites and pop chart updates. Airs every Sunday at 20.30 hrs CAT. We also give away a prize of a dinner for two with drinks at the lodge to the first person to text us with the name of the artist on our oldie of the week. On this particular occasion the prize was not won – due to network problems the text messages were late to arrive!

Ryan told listeners that he had been in Zambia for a month, in the capital Lusaka, as a volunteer with the Advocacy For Child Justice, a Non-Government Organization that uses an issue-based approach to advocate for the rights and best interests of children who come into conflict with the law. Ryan briefed us about the work of ACJ. He had learned a lot from his time in Lusaka and felt that the experience blended well with the course he was undertaking back in the States. It was his first time to be in Zambia and indeed Africa. “Was Zambia what he had expected?” We wondered. “Yes and no……” The cautious response.

The music on the show was good. We featured tracks from Avicii, Oliver Heldens, Example, Whitney Houston, Taio Cruz, Austin Mohone, Krytic, DJ Clock, JK and Sam Smith.

Ryan told us that he had been busy since he arrived in Livingstone on Friday. He had spent a whole day with Abseil Zambia on Saturday and had abseiled, swung the gorge, and performed the flying fox but not the bungee jump. He had thoroughly enjoyed the day and praised the Abseil Zambia staff. He had also loved the sunset cruise on Lady Livingstone and was very much looking forward to white water rafting the day after the show, before travelling back to Lusaka the following day, then flying back to America that night. “Will you come back to Zambia?” Milli Jam wondered. “I certainly hope so!” Said Ryan.

Jay wanted to know if Ryan though the USA would win the FIFA World Cup. “Not really”, but he was proud that his team had progressed to the last 16 for the second consecutive World Cup finals tournament. He professed a keen interest in American football. The Boston Patriots is his team. Music wise Ryan told us that he loves Sam Smith. “So do we!” We said. He’s also a fan of Imagine Dragons, Disclosure, and more especially Eric Clapton and Cream. He had enjoyed a local concert in Livingstone featuring some Zambian bands and music. He had also had nights out at Fez Bar and Cafe Zambezi while he’d been in Livingstone.

Ryan is single, free, and comes from a big family, he has a twin brother as well as step brothers and sisters and half brothers and sisters. “They’re all just brothers and sisters in Zambia!” I commented. Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing in ten years’ time Ryan told us that he’d like to be wherever he would be happy and doing what made him happy too. He did not rule out an academic career or returning to Zambia!

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The Barker Experience!

We were delighted to welcome Mariann and Gary Barker (above) as Guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz – our weekly radio show on Livingstone’s local radio station Zambezi 107.7fm. Mariann and Gary told our listeners that they were staying at Chanters Lodge for the weekend to celebrate their 48th wedding anniversary. “How did you meet?” We wanted to know, and Gary explained that they had been together at high school in California, their home state in USA. “So you were high school sweethearts?” I surmised. “No!” They said “We met up again later after high school when we both went to the same college and that’s when we started dating”. “Awwwww!” We said and congratulated them on their anniversary thanking them for choosing Chanters Lodge for their celebration.

Pastor Gary, to give him his correct title, told listeners that he and Mariann live in Choma in the Southern Province of Zambia and are the founders of Grace Baptist Church located in the showgrounds at Choma. Gary also teaches at, and operates, the Baptist Bible College and Institute of Choma where pastors are trained on a four year programme. The current number on training is seven. The couple have lived in Choma for seven years and Gary has been a pastor for some 33 years. The mission was founded in 1930 and has about 1200 missionaries worldwide. The missions are funded largely by individual donations leading to great interaction between the missionaries and the donors, and Gary told us that Mariann does a great job in sending photos and other information about their work in Choma back to donors in USA. “They love to see that lives are being changed in Zambia!” Said Mariann.

The music on the show was far from classical or gospel, this couple’s stated preference. We opened as usual with ‘Hey Brother’ from Avicii before dropping tracks from 5 Seconds Of Summer and Gorgon City. Jay and Milli Jam gave us numbers from Brinky ft Kantu, Casper Nyovest, Ne-Yo, Slap Dee and 2 Pac. No-one won the prize of a dinner for two with drinks at the lodge we offer each week on the show to a listener who can answer a simple question. Gary revealed that wife Mariann had been a brilliant drummer in her youth!

Mariann told us that the couple have three grown up children, four grandchildren and two great grand children back in the USA and that they miss them a lot! They were happy that Bart, their son, a policeman in California operating with a police dog, had been able to visit them in Zambia earlier this year with his family. The family had loved all the tourist activities they had been able to do at that time, including the one day safari to Chobe, the lion encounter and the microlight flight. Mariann had drawn the line at any member of the family being allowed to do the bungee jump! They also revealed that they were friends with Jo Brooks, proprietor of the Livingstone Crocodile Park although Mariann does not like going there! Gary revealed that Jo had told him ‘plenty of stories’! We moved on unsurprised – Jo was a Guest on our show a while ago so we could just imagine!

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Mariann wanted to be back in America with her family, Pastor Gary wanted still to be ministering and to be close to his family at home.

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Franchise Loans – Zambia

This caught my eye:

 By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA –

THE Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) has set aside a total of K6 million for the establishment of the Zambian tourism franchise. Players in the local tourism sector would be eligible to access the loans through CEEC to set up tourism franchising.

CEEC Head of communication and public relations Glenda Masebe said the funds would be used to promote a special initiative for international standards in Zambia’s tourism industry by supporting targeted citizens to establish franchise tourism businesses.

In a statement issued in Lusaka, Ms Masebe said the commission would consider investments in tourism which include hotels and lodges, restaurants, water sports, theme parks, take aways, travel and tours, cinema, and any other. “This special initiative will be implemented initially in Muchinga, Southern and Western Provinces and each province has an allocation of K2 million to citizens wishing to tender for franchising support. “The maximum loan repayment period for this initiative shall be 5 years at an annual interest rate of 12 per cent,” Ms Masebe said.

She said the provision of collateral would be a strict requirement for this facility and that the applicant will have the responsibility of proposing a franchise business they wish to invest in.

A franchise is an agreement where the owner of a trademark or brand allows someone else to operate a business that sells their products and/or services under license. The one that issues the licence is called the franchisor while the one receiving the licence to operate is called the franchisee.

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Zambia’s Copper

By Firat Kayakiran

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FM)’s deal to buy Lumina Copper Corp. including the Taca Taca deposit in Argentina will curb reliance on Zambia, Barclays Capital said, after the African nation threatened to double taxes on mining. The acquisition of Lumina for about C$470 million ($430 million) “comes as a surprise,” Ian Rossouw, an analyst at Barclays in London, wrote in a note. This “continues to diversify the production base away from Zambia.”

First Quantum, the largest copper producer in the country, said in February it was “concerned” about taxation in Zambia after Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda said the contribution from mines should double. Zambia is withholding as much as $500 million of value-added tax repayments to mines owned by First Quantum and others, saying they must supply import certificates from countries where their copper ends up. The miners say they sell the metal to traders and don’t know its final destination.

Chikwanda told state ZNBC TV in January that mines in Africa’s biggest copper producer contribute less than 5 percent to the national budget, compared with about 11 percent in South Africa. First Quantum, investing more than $2 billion in a Zambian smelter, copper mine and nickel project, produced 270,724 metric tons of copper and 167,395 ounces of gold in the nation in 2013.

Lumina shareholders will get cash, stock or both, the Vancouver-based companies said yesterday in a statement. Those that choose cash will get C$1

First Quantum, which last year completed its purchase of Inmet Mining Corp. to add the Cobre Panama project, plans to invest $6.43 billion in Panama to produce an annual 320,000 tons of copper from the first quarter of 2018 to seek to become the world’s fifth-largest producer of the metal.
0 a share, 28 percent more than the closing price a day before the announcement, the companies said. “The project should come into production once Cobre Panama has been ramped up, adding to an already exciting development pipeline to take production to over 1.3 million tons per annum by about 2021,” Rossouw said.

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The Gane Experience!

We were delighted to welcome Annette and Peter Gane (above) as Guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay-Hillz. ‘The Experience’ is our weekly radio show airing at 20.30 hrs for an hour every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Annette and Peter were staying at Chanters Lodge on holiday from UK, and told listeners that they lived in Somerset, in the south west of England. “Not far from my village!” I told Milli Jam and the listeners.

“What made you choose Livingstone for your holiday?” Milli Jam wondered. Annette, a nurse by profession though now retired, revealed that in 2008 she had spent one month as a volunteer with African Impact in Livingstone, amongst other duties helping out at Maramba Clinic as well as at an orphanage in Maramba, a sprawling low cost housing complex in the Livingstone suburbs. Annette had loved Zambia so much that she convinced husband of thirty years Peter, that he must come this year and see the place for himself although he had in mind a holiday in Antarctica!

Annette also explained that during her time as a volunteer she had met Trevor Maluta, an eighteen year old orphan, who in 2008, was about to be evicted from the Maramba orphanage on the basis of age. She had helped and befriended him ever since. Annette and Peter had visited Trevor in Kitwe at the start of this trip, further revealing that he was now happily married, about to become a father and busy working in IT support for a firm of mining consultants on the Copperbelt. “Congrats!” We said. Peter told us that they hoped to welcome Trevor to their home in UK for a visit later this year when he would be in their country for further training.

The music on the show was good and featured tracks from Ella Henderson, Rayleigh Ritchie, Beyonce ft Jay-Z, K’Millian, Ruff Kaida ft P-Jay, Miley Cyrus and Brandy – a great selection of international and local tracks formatted by Milli Jam and Jay. We usually give a prize of a dinner for two for the first person to text us the name of the artist on our ‘oldie of the week’. On this show I asked a World Cup related question that took everyone by surprise, nevertheless Jacki won the prize. My pick of the week was the number one in the Norwegian Top 40, ‘Younger’ from Seinabo Sey. We closed with ‘Wasted’ from Tiesto. Peter said he likes classical music whereas Annette is a fan of Paloma Faith amongst others, including Queen.

Peter told listeners that he was retired, before which he had worked in finance in the corporate world – which he does not miss! He revealed that he is now a trustee on the board of various charities and is also involved in the administration of one of the local schools in his area. The couple have three big dogs and seven grand-children. During their time in Livingstone they had enjoyed the lion encounter, an elephant safari, a one day safari to Chobe NP in Botswana, as well as a river safari on the Zambezi the very afternoon of the show. They were still looking forward to high tea on Livingstone Island at the end of their itinerary, before they flew back to England later in the week.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time, both Annette and Peter said they would like to be alive, healthy and happy!

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