Vaughan Rivett's Blog

After a break for about 3 months I decided it was time I got back onto my bike to do some training for the Wattyl Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge road cycling race.

Well, my excuse has been that the weather has not been very good, but I have decided that if it is going to rain everyday (that's Auckland for you), then I will just have to get use to it.  When I started out on my bike it was sunny but the road was still wet from rain a few minutes earlier.  About 10 minutes into my ride it started to rain again which made things rather cold.  However,  I have to get out there and so it.  No more excuses!

I have installed Lotus Traveler onto my own server and am now using it from a Windows Mobile mobile phone (iMate Jamin).  I have found that even though this phone is only on GPRS, the Lotus Traveler application is very reliable.

I also have a Blackberry and a BES server.  I have not used my Blackberry in some time now as I preferred to use my Nokia phone.  However, after good use, my Nokia decided that it didn't want to work for me anymore, so I was forced to look into some other options.

I had used my iMate in the past for a job I was doing whereby the client required about 80 iMate's.  As it is about 2 years old (put hardly ever used), I am now using it as my main phone.

When I compare Lotus Traveler to my Blackberry, I would say, go for Lotus Traveler.  It is able to do the primary features of what a Blackberry running with BES can do.  I doesn't have the ability to set your "Out of Office", but who really cares!

Also, Lotus Traveler is a lot cheaper to run.  I am not sure about other parts of the world, but in New Zealand, Vodafone charges about (NZD)$40.00 per month just to have the BES connectivity, as well as regular line costs etc.  Also, BES requires you to have licences at the server end.

I have just been working on Lotus Traveler and thought that I would put some feedback here on my blog while I sit at Wellington Airport waiting to board my flight home.

All I can really say is that I was impressed by how well the system actually works the first time you install it.  I have clients who have been trying for some time to connect up to their Lotus Domino Servers from their Windows Pocket PC PDA's without too much success.  However, from what I have seen, pocket PC changes all this.

I am pleased that this product is now available as I have a client who I know will place a Purchase Order to move from Microsoft Exchange to Lotus Notes within a week of seeing a demo of Lotus Traveler.

Well done IBM!

As normal, I will make the installation of this into a video clip for people to watch.  Just give me a few days to get the time to be able to do it as I have a heap of work on at the moment.

I was forwarded a copy of this document which I thought needs to be available to the the rest of the world.  If you are able, please post it on you blog also as a way to make the world aware of the great injustices which are going on in Zimbabwe.

 

By Andrew Malone
Last updated at 12:35 AM on 05th July 2008

His Excellency was perspiring, even though there was frost on the ground. In the palatial gardens of State House, the oak-panelled home of former British colonial rulers, Robert Mugabe's face glistened with sweat as he was declared President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. He pulled at his cuffs and glanced over his shoulder.

After 28 years of bloody rule  -  and two hours before the election results were announced 'live' on state-controlled TV  -  Mugabe appeared anxious as he was sworn in for a record sixth term this week. His opponents had been killed or forced at gunpoint to vote in rigged elections.

Yet it wasn't the international outcry over this that worried him. No, beneath the megalomania, what he must know is that he has already lost power, not to the persecuted opposition Movement for Democrat Change (MDC), but to a bloody  -  and secret  -  cabal.

Sitting behind Mugabe at the ceremony, as Chinese-built fighter jets screamed overhead, six men glowered and followed their dictator's every move.

Thickset and bursting out of their heavily decorated military uniforms, the watching men were The Generals  -  a group of cold-blooded killers who have seized power in Zimbabwe and revel in nicknames such as The Butcher and The Son Of God.

Dubbed the Dirty Half-Dozen or The Gang Of Six by Zimbabwe's traumatised people, The Generals have formed a military junta with terrifying plans to 'eliminate all opponents'. They forced Mugabe to hand over power to them at a meeting in State House, his HQ in Harare, the capital, days after he lost the first round of elections on March 29.

In a chilling turn of events, they arrived in a fleet of black Mercedes on April 5 and issued the President with an ultimatum: withhold the election results, stand aside and let them do their work to ensure they never again face a challenge to their lucrative, blood-thirsty rule.

Faced with exile and disgrace after this unthinkable defeat, not to mention the threat of being tried by the UN for war crimes, diplomats say Mugabe could see no way out.

He could agree to the deal in return for staying on as a figurehead president  -  or face the wrath of men responsible for some of Zimbabwe's bloodiest massacres, where pregnant women have been cut open and their unborn babies thrown down wells.

According to palace insiders, even Grace, Mugabe's wife, has turned against her husband. She was working as a security guard at State House when the President first spotted her and she officially became Zimbabwe's First Lady after Mugabe's first wife died. Grace relished the role, commandeering the country's aircraft for shopping sprees in Paris, London and Milan.

Now, however, she is furious at the prospect of losing the perks of office, which include five mansions and the delivery of boxes stuffed with millions of U.S. dollars to her home each month. She told Mugabe, 40 years her senior, to accept the deal offered by The Generals. Reluctantly, he agreed.

Mugabe ceded power to men schooled in torture and political assassinations at the infamous Chinese military academy in Nanking. At meetings held under their junta  -  called the Joint Operational Command (JOC), which controls the secret services, army, air force, police and prisons  -  The Generals decreed 'they will never give up power'.

To keep their promise, they have created a highly sophisticated state terror apparatus to quell future dissent. They are led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, a founding member of the notorious Crocodile Gang, who tortured and murdered white farmers during Mugabe's guerilla war against white rule in the late Seventies.

But Mnangagwa's cruelty was not confined to attacks on whites. He was also notorious for his role as director of intelligence during Operation Gukurahundi ('the rain that washes away the chaff'), a genocidal campaign against a breakaway guerilla faction led by Joshua Nkomo during the war of independence.

After being jailed during the days of white rule for his part in atrocities, he rose through the ranks of the ruling ZANU-PF party following independence in 1980. With an elaborate network of informers, Mnangagwa was responsible for directing the paramilitary Fifth Brigade against black enemy targets, particularly the supporters of Nkomo in Matabeleland in the south-west of the country.

Trained by North Korea and armed with the latest weapons, the Fifth Brigade has been blamed for the deaths of up to 20,000 people during the Matabeleland Massacres between 1982 and 1986. Many were killed at public executions. After being told to dig their own graves, with family and friends forced to look on, the victims were shot. Others were burned alive in their huts. Women and babies were thrown into boreholes used for water.

 Along with Grace Mugabe and others in The Gang Of Six, Mnangagwa  -  who calls himself The Son Of God and claims to be accountable to no one  -  made millions by ordering troops into the Democratic Republic of Congo during the late Nineties.

In a war that claimed more than three million lives, the soldiers battled for control of the Congo's diamond mines  -  and Zimbabwe's state airline was used as part of an elaborate gem-smuggling operation that made an estimated £5 billion for those involved.

All this has made Mnangagwa  -  who has replaced Mugabe as chief of the Joint Operational Command  -  the wealthiest man in Zimbabwe. He has a magnificent walled palace in Harare with a helicopter pad, and a sprawling ranch.

His chief partner in crime is General Constantine Chiwenga, the head of Zimbabwe's defence forces, who lives in a sparkling white villa with swimming pools and servants' quarters, in splendid isolation on a hill overlooking the squalor of Harare.

Brusque and with a volcanic temper, Chiwenga led the Fifth Brigade during the genocide against Nkomo's Ndebele tribe. Known as The Butcher Of Matabeleland, he is reputed to have thrown suspected Nkomo supporters out of helicopters.

The behaviour of Chiwenga's wife, Jocelyn, a former prostitute, has not done much for his recent mood. She shops with an entourage of soldiers to push the poor out of the way  -  and once shouted at Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition, that she would 'take his manhood' when she spotted him in the street. She has also seized two farms from white owners, saying she would 'taste their blood' if they refused to hand over the land.

Along with Augustine Chihuri (head of the police), Paradzai Zimondi (head of prisons), Perence Shiri ( airforce) and Gideon Gono (in charge of funding), these are the men who intelligence sources in Harare say are in control of the country and 'running a regime within a regime.'

And they are as determined as any dictator that they will not give up power. As well as being wanted for war crimes, they suffer none of the hardships faced by millions of Zimbabweans every day. While many are reduced to killing wild animals and living off berries, The Generals live in Borrowdale Brook, an exclusive development in the north of the city.

At their own exclusive supermarket, stocked with goods smuggled in by road and air, the families and relatives of The Generals browse through a selection of fresh seafood, including lobster and tiger prawns, as well as the finest French wines and cheeses.

At a clandestine meeting with one dissident Zanu-PF source, down a dirt track surrounded by elephant grass that had grown to head height, I was shown documents purporting to outline the junta's 'final solution' against enemies of their regime.

In a strategy with chilling echoes of the Matabeleland Massacres, the documents reveal that the killing has only just started  -  and provide conclusive proof that ballot boxes were stuffed all over the country, 'watched by death squads with orders to kill opposition MPs'.

Of course, we cannot be sure that they are genuine, but they also apparently reveal that if Tsvangirai's MDC had not pulled out over fears of a bloodbath, the election 'results' would not have been released and he would have been charged with treason and hanged.

They state that the killing must continue even after Mugabe has cheated his way to power, 'with terror to be unleashed after the elections . . . [With] voting patterns to be assessed to determine where terror should be unleashed'.

As Tsvangirai remains in hiding at the Dutch Embassy after threats on his life, his supporters are on the run in the face of a brutal new crackdown. With foreign journalists banned and radio broadcasts from neighbouring countries blocked, the strategy is designed to ensure the scale of the onslaught does not reach the outside world.

Doctors at hospitals I visited reported a harrowing new medical phenomenon: the kidneys of victims 'exploding'. 'The blood cells burst during prolonged beatings, clogging the kidneys, which can't cope,' one doctor said, to the background noise of screaming from victims in the wards.

'The kidneys collapse and the patients die. It's horrible. It's ugly and it's getting worse. The Generals have killed and killed and killed. It is crude torture with horrific consequences. It's like there is a war  -  with only one side fighting it.' Lovemore Zilika, 47, was asleep at home when a gang high on drink and drugs started throwing rocks through his windows.

They pounced when he went to investigate, beating him using crude clubs with nails sticking out. Lifting his dressings to show masses of red, shredded flesh, Lovemore also had both legs broken in 20 places. His legs are in plaster up to his groin and they may have to be amputated.

'These people are killers,' he said. 'They only left me because they thought I was dead. As they beat me, they kept asking why I wanted to support the MDC. These people are not human.'

One woman said she was beaten and taken to a hut in the bush, where she was repeatedly raped. 'There were ten,' she said, weeping.

Another victim, a 42-year- old man who gave his name only as Gudzai, told how he was dragged from his home at night. As his arms and legs were broken with iron bars and rocks, he kept slipping into unconsciousness. 'They would throw water over me to make me come round,' he said. 'Then they started beating me again.'

This has prompted warnings that the people will rise up  -  and wreak awful revenge on their rulers, with the country sliding into civil war. Yet even the most committed MDC activists were last week in hiding fearing the 'final solution.'

After being called late at night this week, I was taken to a safe house  -  one of dozens used to hide 'enemies of the regime' before they can be smuggled out of the country. After a raft of elaborate security precautions, I was introduced to three MDC officials whose names are on death lists distributed by the junta. 

Kimberley, 26, was held at four torture camps last week. He was forced to simulate sex with a hole in the ground and beaten with logs. He was put in a cell with two rotting bodies for 24 hours and was denounced by fellow opposition supporters, who had been beaten for hours into submission.

'They kept shouting at me that I was a sell-out,' he told me, grinning despite his injuries. 'They burned my home and those of my relatives. They blindfolded and tortured me. I was eventually dumped in the bush. They thought I was dead. I couldn't walk, but villagers helped me.'

The interview was interrupted. A car had been heard. Kimberley told me to go before 'they' came.

Asked if he had a message for the West, he said: 'The world needs to mobilise to get rid of these people. I have a baby daughter and I want her to grow up without fear. That's all any of us want.'

But The Gang Of Six has too much to lose. As one Western diplomat told me before I slipped out of Zimbabwe: 'These men will not give up power. They are in too deep. They have too much blood on their hands. They have shown they will stop at nothing to keep what they have got.'

Pity the brave people of Zimbabwe. For I suspect that even the removal of Robert Mugabe will not be enough to save them.

Due to the popular success of my online training video's for Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino Server, I have decided to try to a series of Online Lotus Notes Training Seminars.

The first in my weekly series will be online at the following time (depending on your time zone)
8:00am, Friday 27th June 2008 (GMT +12)

1. Lotus Notes client navigation
2. Creating an email in Lotus Notes
3. Replying to and forwarding an email in Lotus Notes
4. Questions and answers

This seminar is free of charge.

If you wish to attend please email me for the details which will allow you to get connected online.
vrivett@rivettassociates.com

For some time now the price of oil has been going up and here in New Zealand it is now at an all time record high.  Now it is at the point whereby I have to ask myself if I really need to use the car.  In the past few weeks I have even made use of the "Car Pooling" idea.

I remember about 4 years ago, I was pushing for the use of IBM Lotus Sametime as an alternative to having to use a car to have meetings with clients.  It meant that there could be cost savings by cutting down on the use of fuel as well as not having to sit in the traffic for hours each day.

Around the time that I was trying to push Lotus Sametime in this way, there wasn't too much interest in the technology that it has to offer.  I am about to do an experiment now that the cost of fuel is so high to see what will happen.  Will more people be interested in Lotus Sametime?  I wonder?

I will keep this blog up to date with my progress.

It is with interest that I have been finding that Planet Lotus is a far more helpful resource than IBM.  Even though I live, breath, eat, cry and ......... all the rest IBM, I hardly ever hear about what is doing on in the world of Lotus Domino Server anf Lotus Notes client.

It is with interest that I am learning about what's new through Planet Lotus and the blogs that are represented there.  For example over the last few days I have been reading articles about Xpages.  To this day I have not heard about anything like this from IBM New Zealand.

I am on my way to see a client who is wanting Lotus Notes.  This is a great sale to make because the client only has about 4 staff.  However, with Lotus Notes he is going to be able to make use of databases which will enable him to provide a better service to his clients.

Every time this company gets a new client, he has to get them to complete a form about their medical and health conditions.  The completion of this form takes a few minutes.  To help streamline things he wants to have the form online for that the client can complete it before being treated by him.  Therefore, when the client arrives onsite, the form can be printed and be ready for signing.

Yes, I am going to be moving his email and everything else across as well.  

The other day I was at a conference which had nothing to do with computers, but I meet someone from Microsoft who provided all the entertainment that I needed for a few weeks!

The story goes like this:

I was talking to a young guy in his early to mid 20's.  He asked me what I do for a living so I told him a little bit about the software that I work with from IBM called Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino Server.  I mentioned how good the software was and how it is a IBM is a lot better than Microsoft because you could use IBM products and still have a choice about things like the Operating System it should run on, their compliance with Open Standards etc.

As the conversation went on, I found that a group of about 7-8 people began to gather and listen to the conversation.  After I had said most of what I could think of about how great Domino is, I asked him, "What do you do for a living"? (at this point I had no idea who he was).

He responded by saying "I working in the marketing department at Microsoft".  Everyone around me just burst out laughing, even I did.  Then I made a comment.  I turned to the crowd and said "At this point I should be embarrassed and red in the face, however I am neither!  This is because I stand by everything I just said".  The guy from Microsoft looked a bit put out by that comment!

Oh the joy of winning an argument against someone at Microsoft.  He just could not think of anything to say.

I wonder what stories other people have like this???

I have just downloaded the full release of Firefox 3.0.  It seems to be working a lot better than the beta versions with the likes of Lotus Domino Web Access.

Also, I have found that a lot of my old plug-in's now have updates which work with this new version.