Mwankole Kumushi Kulishani

Ta- Lakata by Zindaba Nyirenda - A contra positive to Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid.

2010-01-13T22:56:00.004-06:00

Book Review - Part 1

In this book Ta Lakata (we are dying) Zindaba Nyirenda expresses at times painfully, what many Africans belabor, the quest for self-identification, personal conflicts with modernity and our collective anguish and inability to prevent the loss of so many lives to disease and poverty.

Using her native tongue Tumbuka, where English fails to give full meaning, she explains her lineage and personalizes Zambia’s fate under colonial and post independence governance. What emerges is picture endemic in all of Africa, that the colonialists, as do multi national investors now, only needed the collusion of a few rulers to gain unfettered access to Africa’s wealth of natural resources.

But rather than outline Zambia’s decent through the prism of poor Zambians in urban settings, she unlike Dambisa Moyo (Zindaba’s cousin, contemporary-author of Dead aid) takes the reader to rural Zambia, remembering her place and time in a village setting. She paints a graphic mosaic of life in Lundazi, a poor part of the eastern province where she and Dambisa Moyo trace their family trees; it is representative of most of rural Zambia. Now as then, it lacks clean water, basic shelter, adequate health centers, schools, and roads.

The lives of rural Zambians have, in large part, been the melting pot between western ideals and local interests; dating back to a time when colonial masters imposed head taxes on poor villagers, to force them into mining labor.

What is the best way to bring their daily lives within the norms of 21^st century livelihood?

That is at the heart of this book and “Dead Aid” by Dambisa Moyo- is the answer curbing exploitation by western entities or stopping the theft and waste of public funds by corrupt governments?

Zindaba would like to start from the genesis of western involvement in Africa, she wants a meeting or indaba with agents of the principals from the 1884 Berlin meeting, that set in motion the colonization of Africa. To reset, the terms of western engagement in Africa and demand restitution for plundered resources. She takes particular aim, at the Rhodes scholarship, which was founded with funds from Cecil Rhodes estate, but has only benefited (3) three Zambians since it was started in 1902.

She contends that, since the Rhodes scholarship fund consists of proceeds from mineral resource exploitation from Northern Rhodesia (named after Cecil Rhodes), it should therefore benefit more Zambians. By contrast, 39 Americans have received Rhodes scholarships. Though Rhodes intended recipients to meet the highest academy requires, southern Africans should have a comparative advantage over other regions whose resources were spared by his untimely death - Cecil Rhodes is said to have once remarked

“I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race...If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is paint as much of the map of Africa British Red as possible...”

Zindaba also, bemoans the poisoning of rivers and the pollution of air as a result of poorly regulated mining activities of western firms since the 1920’s. She attributes the high incidence of respiratory diseases on the copperbelt to polluted air and poisonous metals dumped into the Kafue River. To redress this she, calls for educated Zambians to return from Diaspora, to oversee environmental intervention programs, monitoring and restoration of water systems.

After the Trial: A Case for Tort Reform in Zambia.

2009-11-20T10:57:00.001-06:00

Now that reason has prevailed in the frivolous case, against Zambian journalist Chansa Kabwela., it is perhaps time to reflect how we got to this point

I found BBC ‘s Jo Fidgen’s comment after observing the whole charade most telling;

“It seems to me that Zambia's social conservatism is in tune with a Britain that no longer exists.” she said.

Against strong attempts to avoid drawing a post hoc ergo propter hoc conclusion, I wonder -

Was there ever a time, when Zambia’s social conservatism was ever in tune with Britain?

It seems to me that her majesty’s forgone empire has always cast that awful spell in all her former dominions that taught even coerced her subjects - to present an appearance and behavior of a British social system.

In Zambia as in much of the former colonies, keeping up that appearance is still more important than the substance of daily life.

So sacred is the legacy of that British law as it was handed down that we can not bear to amend it in the slightest, to right modern day wrongs. Even draconian laws that were specifically conceived in the colonial period to enforce public order, in the face of legitimate insurrections for freedom by the natives are still preserved, in a present day independent Zambia.

The case of the “porn journalist” poignantly displays the dilemma of a present day Zambian stuck in a system framed for a different time.

The actual victim in the case, the wronged woman whose baby and privacy were fatally assaulted, can not sue. There is no legal remedy for her against this vicious affront perpetuated by the hospital and the state.

While in Britain even the NHS constitution provides remedies to make a claim for judicial review if you think you've been directly affected by an unlawful act or decision of an NHS body, and receive compensation if you've been harmed, the Zambian system still returns a fatal attraction to the fidelity of colonial law.

I think it time, for Zambian legal minds to write and enact laws that will address the challenges of modern day Zambian lives. My I suggest the current Zambian penal code and Tort law as the starting point.

Attention all Africa - Good Governance wanted!

2009-10-22T23:27:00.010-05:00

In his recent interview with the BBC, Mo Ibrahim explains why no ex-leader has won the award for good governance this year. You can see the interview here

Mo Ibrahim interview on BBC

This comes with no surprise to me, the state of global leadership much more in Africa, has over the years been in limbo, till the advent of Barack Obama. In the last era, most Africans could name a few prominent continental leaders, the likes of Nelson Mandela but now that he is no longer active politically there is none standing up to his statue.
In the book Prince by Machiavelli, he states there are two ways a prince or leader is made- by preparation or good fortune.
Those that have been prepared over a life span by mentors, education and experiences are most likely to posses the ability to lead and be successful. However those that find themselves installed as leader by the good fortune of benefactors, soon find themselves without ability to govern the masses and are left prone to the whims of their installers.

This sadly is the state of most leaders in Africa today, they have been installed by external influences to cater to outside interests rather than the needs of those they govern. In Egypt President Mubarak is retained to preserve geo-political stability, while the west ponders a peace deal for the Israeli -Palestinian conflict.
In Nigeria a corrupt political regime is tolerated to keep the oil flowing, while in Kenya Kibaki a tyrant by all measures rules as we all hold our nose under the pretense of avoiding civil war, this also applies in Zimbabwe.
In DRC as in Zambia, accidents of death by design in one case and fate in the other have installed ill equipped novices, to govern masses with severe needs.

As I listened to Mo Ibrahim make the case for want of good leadership in Africa, I couldn't imagine but wonder how long it will take for Africans to get their act together. How long before we realize, we can not put up with cronies any longer?

Another critical factor, highlight in the interview, was the absence of relevant statistical data for most African states. What is known of measurements of important elements like poverty, education health etc are crude estimations of western visitors that do not bear the remotest semblance to the conditions or state of so many Africans.

It is essential, that Africans know and understand for themselves their immediate estate, rather than continue to validate western perceptions.
As Sun Tzu writes in the art of war, one must posses the knowledge of one's strength and know that of one's adversaries, in order to succeed in any endeavor . In this regard, it is not always external influences that impose adverse conditions of poverty and under development upon so many Africans. Cultural adherence and often a lack of personal drive for self improvement are as much to blame, especially in parts where violent conflict has been absent.

Africans must demand more from our current system of governance, we must ensure basic systems exist to collect social indicators; a basic structure to track life from the cradle to the grave.
Inadequate clinics, schools, roads even insufficient legislative representation stem not so much from a lack of resources as from the lack of useful data to match population needs to infrastructure capacity. This can not be allowed to persists at a time, that a goat herder on slopes of a remote hill in Kenya, can receive a money transfer to his cell phone from any part of the world.

It is only when more Africans begin to take a keen interest in creating and maintaining an accountable system of governance that more Africans will begin to seize the opportunities that exist to exploit African resources for our own benefit rather than external interests.
Just as, Mo Ibrahim was able to envision an opportunity to sell more than 25 millions phones across Africa, more African entrepreneurs may begin to envision other opportunities to exploit.

Justice by executive order – The Era of Bwezani Banda

2009-08-17T19:16:00.006-05:00

“It took me five minutes from when Mr [William] Harrington asked for the tribunal to be set up and the judge-in-charge of that phoned me in my office here to say that we have had a citizen who has come to request for a tribunal to be set up in order to answer certain questions regarding Dora Siliya. It took me less than five minutes to say please go ahead.....” (President Rupiah Banda press conference – 24th June 2009 Transcript of Q & A Session -The Post).

By his own admission Rupiah Bwezani Banda exposed how he can fix or influence any case brought under the Zambian judicial process. Whether by design or fate, his chilling admission in that ill-fated press conference during which a monkey peed on his presidency, he on his part exposed how an overbearing executive can pee on the Judiciary.
The justices it appears cannot do anything without consulting the almighty Bwezani for approval or are they been made to check with the almighty before adjudicating important cases.

If that is the case, it is no wonder why Ndola High Court registrar Jones Chinyama had to postpone his verdict in the Frederick Chiluba case last Friday, only to come back today with rumblings that consumed more than six (6) hours yet ended with a bizarre acquittal of Chiluba. He obviously spent the whole weekend consulting President Rupiah Banda.
And for all the support Chiluba has given Rupiah Banda, in the elections and on key decisions like selling Zamtel, Bwezani could not allow Magistrate Jones Chinyama to send Chiluba to jail.
Despite the overwhelming evidence presented, which in some bizarre fashion was sufficient to convict his principal accomplices Faustin Kabwe and Aaron Chungu to 3 years of hard labor prison sentences, Chiluba come off without the slightest pretense of a reprimand. Chiluba was the President in charge when Kabwe and Chungu were stealing; further the evidence for all intents and purposes points to the duo carrying water on Chiluba’s behalf.

Doesn’t he bear some responsibility, if not all? Does the buck not stop at plot one?

None of that matters in the era of Bwezani, just like we’ve heard of the return of smelly hospitals, strikes, university closures, and patients on hunger strike, wait that’s a first.
Even under the latter horror of UNIP, patient could at least find refuge in hospitals, what kind of hostilities are now forcing patients in Zambia, to go on a hunger strike?

As I have bloviated before, the executive wing of the Zambian government needs some of it’s power clipped off, the Zambian people through several constitution reviews including the on going NCC, have consistently demanded a reduction of the current excessive power and untoward influence being exerted the President.
The executive under the current system is sucking all the oxygen in the room; he decides how much pay nurses and doctor get, even when their pay should go up. He decides how much allowance and when university students should get it; he decides how and to whom companies like Zamtel should be sold to and he can ever sway the outcome of any election in Zambia.
You may wonder really?
How is that possible?
Well, it took five minutes for Rupiah Banda to weigh on a private citizen’s petition to setup a tribunal to investigate Dora Siliya.
The chief justice under section 13 (3) of the Parliamentary and Ministerial code of conduct act, chapter 16 of the Laws of Zambia is duly authorized to constitute a tribunal if the petitioner or complainant presents prima facie evidence for all the essential facts of the case. Yet in less than five minutes the chief justice had exhausted all his legal authority and independence, the almighty Rupiah Banda had to know about this case, he had to approve whether the case proceeds or not.
Proof that it is not the weight of evidence that determines the outcome of significant legal cases in Zambia; it is the executive that calls the shorts.
It therefore follows, that Magistrate Jones Chinyama had to buy himself more time before passing judgment on Chiluba, a whole weekend to consult the almighty Rupiah Bwezani Banda. He then had, come up with 6 hours long blah…blah, that let loose without so much as a slap on wrist, one of Zambia’s most unscrupulous plunderer simply because the current plunder did not want a precedent set.

“ki mitolo-it’s taboo” – The reign of the village idiot.

2009-08-07T23:22:00.000-05:00

The tone of discourse in Zambia has so riled my soul; I cannot bear it anymore.
The President is caught up in a “yo mama” like childish tirade with Michael Sata talking about whose more ugly than the other and the judiciary is forced to adjudicate whether breeched birth pictures are pornography or a sad telltale of the state of medical facilities in Zambia. Add a first lady collecting pay for work she is not doing and a monkey pissing on her husband during a press conference and you would have the script for a funny comedy but for the 12 million poor Zambians caught up in the middle of all this, all the time, every single day battling the effects of debilitating poverty.

I have always tried to hold our leaders in high esteem but when events so clearly betray that confidence, am reminded of an old proverb –
“a foolish man may be known by six things: Anger without cause, speech without profit, change without progress, inquiry without object, putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends.”
President Rupiah Banda is angry at the media for exposing the people’s suffering during the recent strikes but rather than view himself as the leader elected or selected to resolve the problems in Zambia’s medical sector he has chosen to portray himself as the victim of an overzealous media. Pooh he moans incessantly about the Post manufacturing lies, pictures unless doctored almost never betray facts.
Culturally it has always been accepted that when women are pushed beyond social norms, baring all is the only nuclear protest move left, mama Chikamoneka did it before a British envoy, mothers have bared when their children leave them no recourse so why does the Zambian government prosecute a journalist for forwarding, the protest of woman whom our social net badly let down?
It’s a case of a fool getting angry if you ask me, where was the President for a week before this event unfolded. It’s always better to get ahead of a crisis, manage it, set the terms do not let the crisis set the terms for you but Rupiah Banda let the crisis evolve to the current specter – the whole world now laughs.
Rupiah Banda does not possess the knowledge nor is MMD party machinery structure comfortable near him, he still reeks of UNIP and it’s horrible tendencies, so he deals with any potential contenders for 2011 candidacy, by letting strangers/foes like Tentamashima and Mangani run them off with threats of violence.
The sad tale of a fool putting his blind faith in foes is all too obvious whether it’s Prof Clive Chirwa panning all his hopes on a few women singing “Chirwa uli wa mano (Chirwa you are intelligent)…ni iwe wine fye (you are the one)… presidential material.” when he joined the MMD in 2007 with hopes of making the MMD 2011 Presidential candidate or King Cobra thinking his “eagle eagle” boys will carry him to plot one. The truth has always been stirring wide eyed, poverty is a grim pathetic dehumanizing condition that makes any people say or behave however you please.
When captured through the lens of a camera however it is impossible to escape the fact that a child died because his would be breeched birth occurred during doctors/nurses; strike under the reign of the village idiot.
When Rupiah Banda suddenly found himself President of the republic of Zambia after the death of Mwanawasa, he quickly moved to make himself appealing to the MMD party machinery by increasing cabinet ministers and MP’s salaries – they were after all the primary king makers without them he could not have survived politically or otherwise. If Rupiah Banda has any real agenda to relieve the suffering of the Zambian people, it is hard to say right now, what is apparent is his desperate ploys to stay on in spite of his age and lack of wisdom to manage mundane crisis’s like a workers strike.

What would a wise leader do for the average Zambian woman, well he would or perhaps some day she will certainly save us from the horrible specter of a Zambian woman ever having to throw herself on the ground to welcome a politician at airport or having to give birth on the ground in public view. My soul sinks into despair when I hear tales of what women in childbirth had to endure during the nurse’s strikes, how can such cruelty ever unfold in my homeland. Many have been moved to tears by the retelling of the 2000 old nativity story, the birth of Jesus in a manger, how can a women in modern day Zambia suffer a more cruel fate?
The cruel irony is that Rupiah Banda was in South Africa getting his knee checked out, yet when he returns to Zambia he still fails to address the fundamental needs of Zambian women, he instead leads a government lynch mob in prosecuting a female journalist who dared to expose the sad plight of Zambian women.
Ovarian cancer has afflicted so many Zambian women, I applaud Maureen Mwanawasa for prevailing on her late husband to set up a cancer treatment center at UTH, I would readily forgive our current first lady for taking pay without work if she, would at least whisper to her husband to drop this sad case against the post female journalist.
But that’s all far fetched, it’s the reign of the village idiots, the discourse and central preoccupation is about Sata’s red eyes scaring kids and Sata for his part responds that he finds Rupiah Banda ugly and fat, the needs of the Zambian women will have to wait for now.

Dambisa Moyo's "Dead aid" - Africa's PR disaster

2009-04-04T15:44:00.010-05:00

Dambisa Moyo is on a TV book promotion circuit appearing largely to audiences in the UK and the US, who are also Africa's most charitable benefactors and in some part Africa's most unscrupulous lenders.
Her appearances on TV, as her book attempt to call attention to the failure of some aid programs in parts of Africa, to lift the standard of living for most Africans to about half that those to whom she is selling her book "Dead Aid".

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cDambisa Moyo comedycentral.com

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NASA Name Contest

While I agree that some aid programs have failed to meet their intended goals, I fear the narrative Dambisa's appearances and book has generated have now turn out to be a PR disaster for Africa and more specifically Zambia's charity program needs.

It may not be what Dambisa set out to do, but in this case the message and the messenger are gravely tainted. Dambisa has worked for the World Bank and Goldman Sachs in the past, if she views these two entities activities in Africa as charitable or aid, she may have taken to much boardroom cappuccino and whisk. Most of the 1 trillion Dollars she keeps bringing up was made out in interest loans to newly independent countries beginning in the 1960's.
It is important to remember the prevailing circumstances in much of Africa in the 50's
the rate of illiteracy, access to health care, clean water,decent housing, roads even food security etc. The status quo in Africa may seem out whack for Dambisa after her Wall street boardroom experience,but surely all money spent in Africa was not in vain. As a former Munali secondary school graduate, that spent a considerable amount of time learning in classrooms which we popularly called "World bank" because they were built with funds from a World Bank loan to the Zambian government, I take her generalization of mass aid failure with a pinch of salt.
It may be a case of where one is standing, while looking at the glass or in her case what she is selling, I wonder if she had worked with USAID or World vision instead of the World Bank, would she still have had the some perspective?. There are certainly, always better ways of spending money especially when looking at things in hindsight but "dead aid".

In Lusaka, Zambia for example Irish aid and Jica ( Japenese aid) programs to improve access to clean water in peri urban areas, have had more success than the impact of German loans to the Lusaka water sewage company to do the same. It important for Dambisa especially in her TV appearances to make a qualified distinction between aid funds and loans, she then needs to explain the difference in impact on Africa's social development.
Contributions to aid organizations like the Red cross, one world etc have already being negatively affected by the global financial crisis, Dambisa 's narrative of "dead aid" will do more harm to operations of aid organizations in Africa, especially now, when many need the most help.

Dambisa's book has put Africa's western benefactors in a difficult position, should they withhold aid until the last corrupt African government develops better structure for managing programs effectively or continue the much needed aid with the knowledge that, as Dambisa puts it, that it will be "dead aid". It is like the case of "two mothers and one baby" brought before king Solomon in the bible, Dambisa in her quest to sell her book, may have chosen to have the baby die rather than bear the risk ending up in the wrong hands.

The curse of illogical progression.

2009-01-11T20:40:00.003-06:00

As did many people around the world, I start this year with a firm resolution to cut down expenditure and to save as much money as possible. The months ahead will be exceptionally challenging. The US economy lost more the 2.6 million jobs last year, yet unemployment is projected to hit double digits soon.
I have been desperate for any good news from home, to cheer the somber outlook, I keep hearing from President Elect Barack Obama. So imagine my discomfort at the pain and hubris that scream out from the article below.

“Police stop Chipata residents from slashing RB’s maize fields The Chipata Municipal council has suspended the slashing of maize on hill slopes until further notice .
The action follows the action by some Chipata residents who yesterday went amok and wanted to slash maize at President Rupiah Banda’s farm after Chipata Municipal Council slashed their maize fields.
Chipata mayor Sinoya Mwale said the council will not continue the program until it convenes a meeting with the affected residents.
Residents whose maize was slashed by the local authority yesterday went on rampage stoning a Hummer belonging to Chipata central Member of Parliament Lameck Mangani, a shop in Navutika and the house belonging to the mayor.
Quick action by Zambia Police who rushed to the area, prevented the irate residents that wanted to protest by slashing maize at the president’s farm.”

In the normal scheme of life, it is inconceivable that a municipal council that develops plans for land use and zoning, would ever find itself slashing the food crops of its impoverished residents, yet here we have all that and a GM Hummer in the picture.

There in lies the curse that affects many African nations, we have a vicious craving for modernity and luxury that can hardly be reconciled with poor circumstances.
Planning for one’s food needs is a basic and fundamental aspect of our existence; the municipal council in this case, should have designated a proportionate area for the growing of food crops. Yet the council and the legislative representative that have failed to establish these basic premises reward themselves, in the case of the representative with a Hummer- US 71,000, 9MPG, a gas guzzling SUV.
In the newly sworn US congress, there is a representative who sleeps, on a camp bed in his congressional office, to save his family and constituency money.
Zambia is projected to experience a food supply deficit this year, imagine how this US congressman would react, if the Hummer driving Zambian Member of Parliament should ever appear before him to appeal for food aid.
Ironically, the CEO of GM the makers of the Hummer had to dump his corporate jet and drove to Washington D.C in a hybrid car from Michigan, on his second visit to ask for a bailout.
As I, therefore, scale down my own expenditure, I wonder if others like the Member of Parliament Mr. Lameck Mangani might be considering scaling down too.

Merry Christmas and a happier new Year.

2008-12-25T16:13:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas and goodwill to all.

As the year ends, there is much cause for anxiety, a global economic recession causing jobs losses everywhere, in Michigan and Luanshya. Yet we can, still be hopeful .
As the new year dawns, there will be new opportunities, the sun will rise still and we will surmon again that universal courage to overcome, the small and great challenges that confront our daily existence.

Have a blessed and happier year in 2009.

To bail or not to bail: the parallel between Detroit’s auto makers and Zamtel.

2008-12-13T15:57:00.005-06:00

The debate over the wisdom of government investment in a company is primarily focused on an argument over whether it's viability is of such public import and neccessity that it's loss would be unbearable for the entire nation.

For years Detroit’s auto industry has provided the back born of the US manufacturing industry. The industry has given the middle class more than 13 million direct and indirect jobs.
And for more than 30 years, Detroit auto makers have successfully lobbied government to protect their market share against foreign car makers and tougher fuel efficiency standards.
However, as fuel prices spiraled ever upwards US consumers began to prefer foreigner cars especially Japanese cars with higher mileage.
Detroit therefore, began losing its market share and some southern states begun hosting Japanese car makers to meet the growing demand for foreign cars.

Last year, the feds finally increased the fuel efficiency standards after thirty years. The timing could not have been worse as the US economy had entered a recession leading up the crescendo of the current credit crunch that has brought Detroit, to the brink of bankruptcy.

Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel) has also enjoyed government protection from foreign telecom operators for years. It has successfully lobbied the Zambian government to maintain exclusive control of the international gateway, and the domestic fixed phone lines market.
Like Detroit auto makers, Zamtel has offered Zambian consumers poor phone usage with very low mileage against spiraling charges. Consequently, Zambian consumers have preferred the efficient services of foreign telecom operators and now Zamtel hangs on the brink of insolvency.

Unlike the debate in the US where the debate is whether the US government should bail in with public funds to save Detroit and millions of US jobs, the debate in Zambia is whether the Zambian government should bail out of Zamtel ownership.

There are passionate views in both debates, as the auto bail out bill fell in the US Senate, senators across party lines shared fears of the demise of Detroit.

“I believe we must work swiftly to allow the domestic automotive industry to gain access to emergency assistance…..the risk in doing nothing is too great,” Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio).

“There are national security implications here, these companies also make the axles used on our military vehicles…. we have already yielded electronics and textiles….do you want to outsource the manufacture of tanks.” Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan).

Despite ideological differences there is growing consensus that despite, it’s past mistakes, Detroit can not be allowed to fail. The Whitehouse is now expected to use part of the initial financial system bail out money to save Detroit auto makers.

In the debate to save Zamtel, there are differing views; there are proponents of unbundling and privatization while others favor further government recapitalization with restructuring.

While Zamtel‘s troubles stem from government ownership and the associated inefficiencies of government ownership regaining it’s viability is not contingent on the loss of its’ exclusive control of the international gateway. International investors might find, acquiring Zamtel more lucrative if the company retains control of its domestic and international infrastructure.
Zambian consumers are also, more likely to derive more mileage for their money spent on phone usage and the Zambian government would have cheaper means of addressing national security concerns if the company is retained as a single private entity versus unbundling.

The reign of the vulgar gives way to a wise gentleman.

2008-11-09T16:01:00.003-06:00

“It is a demand of justice that there should be a reasonable correspondence between the social hierarchy and the natural hierarchy “Leo Strauss, 1968.

This has in part been, the premise of neo-conservatism as adapted by Irving Kristol the godfather of neo-conservatism and father of Bill Kristol of the weekly Standard, that those who have gained through inherited wealth the most opportunity to education and financial success, have the best right to rule and govern the affairs of the nation.

Much further neo-conservatism at its core demands a preservation of social and economic inequality through taxation and limited government expenditure on social programs. The outrage of conservatives like Bill Kristol and Sean Hannity, at the prospect of an Obama presidency is explicitly rooted in the fear perceived or real of the demise of this inequality.

While, I embrace some conservative values such as preserving personal freedoms especially in respect to religion and family; I find reprehensible the conservative agenda to maintain extreme economic disparity through tax policy and government budgets.
The unifying of all Americans was first credited to Republican President Abraham Lincoln; however it is the Republican Party’s use of its taxation policy that maintains economic and social disempowerment especially among African Americans given their history.
The Republican Party has always formulated tax policies that favor the protection of wealth over the accumulation of wealth. While Republican tax policy has protected income from inherited wealth by enacting zero or minimal estate, capital and dividends taxes they have subjected income from labor to higher taxes (i.e. income and personal).

In the last two months I have volunteered my time and money to the Obama campaign, because I believe, the Obama Presidency is certain to turn part of the conservative paradigm on its head. First the belief that the privilege to rule is the preserve of the elite and second that the free market should disproportionately reward wealth more than work.

It is not that I want affirmative action or communism, but as President Elect Obama has articulated, pragmatism in the way government taxes and spends public money.
Republicans in the past have attempted to starve government, by cutting taxes and social programs, the beast (Govt) they claimed was demanding more, more and swallowing every resource. This spanned well, when government did not have the burden of wars or infrastructure development, now the Iraq and Afghan wars plus crumbling infrastructure has outstripped government income. The Republicans would have the middle class bear the brunt of funding the federal budget and expand expenditure through war expenses while resisting increases on capital gains or estate taxes.

The two bizarre celebrities that emerged from the Presidential race, Sarah Palin and Joe the plumber exposed the underlining hypocrisy of the conservative agenda.

Conservatives took two people, who in truth should have been held out as victims or the resultants of the failed conservative policies but they held Sarah and Joe as the embodiment of conservatism. When both begun to show cracks and disintegrate before a national audience, it was the last nail, we needed before burying the caricature the ideology has become.
Sarah Palin it turned out was an example of past and future results of the no child left behind / home schooling policy that fails to fill the enormous knowledge gap because Republicans have withheld federal funds to provide schools and parents more resources.
Joe the plumber is neither the entrepreneur nor the limited government proponent they made him out to be in fact; he is not even licensed to work as plumber and has been a recipient of government social program benefits.

So what will the reign of the forty-fourth President look like?

President Elect Obama has broad, almost unprecedented support; he embodies the diversity of America and the world both figuratively and literally perhaps this why most people feel a personal connection. He has offered to put government on the side of working people, to give the middle class a tax relief and expand opportunity for social and economic empowerment to all.
His outlook and governing philosophy leads confidence to social and economic policies that will bring into the mainstream, those Americans that have existed on fringes social development over the years.

“Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House--a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity.
Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends ... though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn--I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too.” President Elect Barack Obama.

Zambia's future:Old dog new tricks vs old tricks young dog?

2008-09-01T16:25:00.011-05:00

Against the order of age old traditional values, a political battle is already raging to succeed the late Mwanawasa before his body is even laid to rest. Caught at the heart of the battle is his grieving widow who had to part with tradition and raised her voice to state her late husband's preferred successor - finance Minister Ng'andu Magande.

Yet

" (MMD) in six provinces out of all the nine have endorsed Acting President Rupiah Banda as candidate for the forth-coming presidential by-election, MMD co-founder member Mbita Chitala have told Zambia News and Information Services.

Provincial executive committees in Luapula, Northern, North Western and Copperbelt have unanymously endorsed the candidature of Banda in the November polls, he said." (Xinhua)

If Rupiah Banda is the old dog, in this battle for succession, figutively speaking, he has certainly learnt a few new tricks otherwise how did he win the party people and keep the master's confidence at the same time?

While Mrs. Mwanawasa may not have taken to Rupiah Banda as a potential successor, a significant number of party powers seem to have fallen for the old dog charm, unbridled generosity. While Magande is urging financial discipline, Banda like grandpa is offering higher wages and increasing allowances for political leaders across the board.

"The MMD in Lusaka has endorsed the candidature of Vice President Rupiah Banda as the presidential candidate in the forthcoming presidential by-election with more joining in the calls.

MMD Lusaka Province secretary, Cleophas Chimembe said in a letter to the party’s national secretary Katele Kalumba that the provincial executive committee supported the application of Mr Banda as the most preferred candidate."

“We further state with conviction that Mr Banda is the right candidate for the job and we acknowledge the respect and confidence the late beloved President Mwanawasa had in him by appointing him to the office of vice president,” he said. (Times)

Magande is a relatively new political player and may have kept his master's voice and promise to fight corruption and waste but a party structure and public that are eager to satisfy immediate needs may not be attuned or pay attention to such noble yet causes that take a long time to bear benefits for all.

Magande, graduated from UNZA in 1970 with a degree in economics and mathematics, then added a masters in Agricultural economics from Makelele university. He has tremendous international experience, working for the World bank, ADB and ACP-EU. He has clearly used his immense economic and international experience to assuage Zambia's economic troubles, so why does he seem to be losing the battle even with the explicit support of Mwanawasa's widow?

Is old age and experience a greater charm than relative youth, excellent academic and professional credentials?

As in the US Presidential race, where Barack Obama faces a similar challenge from an old and experienced Mc Cain, old politicians apparently are more adept than old dogs in learning quickly and employing new tricks. They have both created just a little excitement amongst their political base to detract from the real issues of the campaign. While Rupiah Banda used money and more money to induce support, Mc Cain enlisted a beautiful woman as a running mate.

It has been said politics is a game of dirty tricks, new and old, I wait to see how this battle rolls out.

Rupiah Banda:unsavory consequence of Machiavellian Politics?

2008-08-01T09:05:00.007-05:00

In his influencial book The Prince 16th century political thinker Niccolò Machiavelli describes the arts by which a Prince (a ruler) can retain control of his realm. Among other bold means of maintaining power, the prince need only carefully maintain the institutions that the people are used to, preserve the the status quo, as more appealing than change; a new prince will have a much more difficult task since he must stabilize his new found power and build a structure that will endure. The execution of this task requires the Prince to be publicly above reproach but may privately require him to do unsavory things, in order to achieve his goals.
Machiavelli also notes that it is wise for a prince not to ally with a stronger force unless compelled to do so.

This kind of political strategy has increasing, gained prominence in modern day politics. In Zambia's political history, former Presidents have sought to carefully manage and retain institutions in a form that further rather than challenge their power. There has been untoward resistance to the reform of the institutions like government, parliament, electoral council and the judiciary.
Despite several constitutional reviews including the on-going NCC, there is still opposition to the reduction of executive authority, specifically, attempts to mitigate the power to appoint key members of the judiciary, the electoral council, government boards even government owned companies.
Perhaps more Machiavellian has been nature of appointments to the office of Vice President, in the recent past, we have had Nevers Mumba (2003/4), Lupando Mwape(2004/6) and present Rupiah Banda. All of whom had to be nominated to parliament and held no viable party position in the MMD. Essentially, they are outsiders brought in so close, to the principal power- the President, so that he has always remained more powerful, more appealing, less transient. In making such appointments, he may have employed the more important virtue of Machiavelli - having the wisdom to discern what ventures will come with the most reward and then pursuing it courageously.

In the US presidential race John McCain was asked what he thought the most important job of the Vice President is - " it is to inquire daily on the President's health" he said and " In my case , this is going to be very important". McCain is expected to appoint a more able running mate.

Sadly, it is the cruel hand of ill health that has brought Zambia, to the current political and constitutional limbo. In our case, Ruphiah Banda is hardly prepared nor appropriately positioned within the MMD, to continue the transcendent role of governing and managing the state.

Mwanawasa 'is not dead'

2008-07-05T18:13:00.002-05:00

A Zambian minister has accused South African media of "malice" after they issued reports - later retracted - that Zambia's president had died.
Information Minister Mike Mulongoti said the reports had caused "panic and damage" for Zambians.
President Levy Mwanawasa, 59, is in intensive care at a hospital in Paris after suffering a stroke at an African Union summit in Egypt last weekend.
Vice-President Rupiah Banda said Mr Mwanawasa's condition was stable.......

South Africa's leader has retracted comments in which he said that Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, 59, had died.
President Thabo Mbeki asked for a minute's silence on Thursday but his office later said reports of Mr Mwanawasa's death were "not true".
Zambia's Vice-President Rupiah Banda said Mr Mwanawasa had had a "satisfactory night" in Paris.
He was flown there from Egypt, where he had suffered a stroke on Sunday ahead of an African Union summit.
South African radio earlier quoted a spokesman who said he was from Zambia's High Commission as saying Mr Mwanawasa had died. ( BBC)

Alas Mwanawasa is gone.....

2008-07-03T04:35:00.003-05:00

Zambian President Mwanawasa has died -report
Thu 3 Jul 2008, 8:12 GM
JOHANNESBURG, July 3 (Reuters) - Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa died in a Paris hospital on Thursday after suffering a stroke earlier this week, South Africa's Talk Radio 702 reported.
The radio quoted a Zambian High Commission spokesman as saying that Mwanawasa died earlier on Thursday morning. Mwanawasa was taken to hospital in Egypt just before an African Union summit on Monday and Tuesday and then transferred to Paris...

This makes for very sad reading, indeed, we pray for peace and a graceful mourning of our most eminent Leader.

My condolences to the first lady and the family.

God bless our beloved nation.

Political posturing: The dynamics of post Mwanawasa politics.

2008-07-02T17:50:00.007-05:00

For the last hour my blackberry is buzzing with (sms) unconfirmed information from Zambians in the US, that President Mwanawasa has died in Paris, though no news outlet has posted this information.

Bloomberg has this....

"July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa was flown to France last night for specialist treatment after suffering a mild stroke in Egypt on June 29, Vice-President Rupiah Banda said.
Mwanawasa was moved to a Paris hospital where he will undergo ``further medical treatment,'' Banda said in a statement in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, late yesterday."

My prayers are for our beloved Mwanawasa to recover, as grim as the prognosis of suffering two strokes, any other outcome is hard to come to grips with and indeed casts doubt on the future of our nation and the constitutional, political, economic and structural progression Zambia has made under Mwanawasa.

Vice President Rupiah Banda hardly strikes me as a reformer, he has certainly had his time from the UNIP era to a period of retirement. He lacks the necessary grip on contemporary and future challenges Zambia faces, in the wake of recent government and economic restructuring.

Would he provide the leadership Zambia needs to rein in the mines in order to bring Zambians benefits through taxation and fair employment opportunities?

Would he follow through with government restucturing, to make service delivery to average Zambians more responsive and effective?

Would he deliver the constitution, we have being crying out for?

On the opposition side, Michael Sata is equally ill equiped for our time in both health and idealogy.

UPND's Hakainde Hichilema may have youth and progressive ideas but his party lacks the grassroot framework and support to deliver him the presidency.

It maybe to the outcome of the battle between the old and the young Turks in the MMD to carry the mantle.

As Cho the Zambian economist/seer has outlined here the levers of our current constitution are clear.

Within MMD, Prof Clive Chirwa and Dr. Nevers Mumba may have to prove between them who has the grip and proximity to the MMD party machinery.

For this moment however, my duty as every Zambian is to pray for our President Mwanawasa and our first lady Maureen and the family that is our beloved nation.

Came the man, came the moment!

2008-06-04T04:23:00.002-05:00

ST. PAUL—In a moment bearing history's weight and the future's promise, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois claimed the Democratic nomination for president Tuesday night to cap a grueling but ultimately successful quest to be the first African-American candidate to lead a major party's bid for the White House.The career trajectory of the man who only four years ago was serving in the state legislature in Springfield has been as rapid as any in American politics, featuring a blend of celebrity, youthful appeal and gift for rhetoric that could attract crowds by the tens of thousands across the nation.His rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, kept her campaign alive, telling supporters in New York that she would "be making no decisions" on Tuesday and pledging to meet with allies and party leaders to figure out what to do next. She hinted at accommodation but sounded notes of defiance, and her supporters sent signals that she would like to run for vice president with Obama. (Chicago tribune)

Desperate Hillary cites Zim elections in Dem primary.

2008-05-22T16:41:00.007-05:00

Hillary Clinton is pushing harder and harder to convince the DNC to count the votes held in Florida in Michigan. And with reports suggesting that she is just going through the motions of the election, Clinton has apparently decided to ratchet up the rhetoric. During a rally in Florida yesterday, she not only compared the current situation to the 2000 election, she also referenced rigged elections in Zimbabwe:

Desperate to get attention for her cause to seat Florida and Michigan delegates, Hillary Clinton compared the plight of Zimbabweans in their recent fraudulent election to the uncounted votes of Michigan and Florida voters saying it is wrong when "people go through the motions of an election only to have them discarded and disregarded."

"We're seeing that right now in Zimbabwe," Clinton explained. "Tragically, an election was held, the president lost, they refused to abide by the will of the people," Clinton told the crowd of senior citizens at a retirement community in south Florida. (AP)

Though the political system in the US bears the wholemark of a fully developed democratic structure, Hillary has served as a reminder that politics are the same everywhere, that at the core is a desperate quest for power sometimes regardless of the price.
Social harmony and relationships that have developed across class and race over many years are as much at risk in US as in Zimbabwe.

Indeed, Kashikulu can see at little of Mugabe's traits in Hillary Clinton-

i) that failure to percieve a loss of resonance with the majority of voters.

ii) that desperate tenacity to potray self as the only viable candidate.

iii) that annoying chick to paint opponents as weak, as traitors to common values.

And sadly here, as in Zimbabwe, the average citizen alone will bear the long term consequences of the strife and resentment churned out by an individual politician's quest for power at any cost.

Prof Clive Chirwa - Power or Influence?

2008-05-06T21:28:00.008-05:00

In the play "Kafuti the brazen serpent" by Zambia’s acclaimed playwright Mulenga Kapwepwe, Kafuti the main character asks the age old question – which is best power or influence?

I imagine Zambia's Presidential aspirant Prof Chirwa has mused over this question too, would his influence on participants in Zambia’s political system yield more benefit or does he need to be the principal power to effect the change average Zambians so desperately need?

In the play Kafuti finds herself inclined to choose influence, for she reasons- influence the ability or clout to persuade others to get things done without the direct responsibilities of titular power as in the case of the American Enterprise or Oprah is far more enduring and beneficial than the transient power of a political title.

Political power would, readily avail Prof Chirwa the potential to allocate resources, make and enforce decisions but even Presidential authority relies on the power of persuasion and influence to rally important and effective players for government to deliver benefits to the public. More importantly, to gain political power he must first, persuade and influence the Zambian electorate to vote him into office.

In their books Robert L. Dilenschneider’s ‘Power and influence’ and Rudy Giuliani’s ‘Leadership’ both stress that seizing the power of governmental organizations and using it appropriately differs greatly in contrast to private sector companies.
Giuliani offers the following advice;

i) prepare relentlessly for the day you become boss
ii) Under promise then over deliver.
iii) Surround yourself with good and effective performers.

Rudy Giuliani who recently lost the Republican Party nomination might have been the greatest beneficiary of his own advice, had he prepared relentlessly for the Presidential campaign, sharpened his promises and surrounded himself with good people he might have gained the ultimate power of leader of the free world.

Yet, Giuliani has now devoted his efforts to influencing government policy through his lobby firm Giuliani Partners. Think tanks like American Enterprise and lobbyists have become more brazen and effective in influencing government policy, it now appears political power has lost some of it’s clout.
In a way Giuliani’s case illustrates the influence versus power dynamic, does power guarantee influence or is influence that gives way to power? Like the chicken and the egg, the two are interdependent; therefore it is folly to attempt or seek a political career/power without influence.
Would Prof Chirwa therefore, be more effective and beneficial to the average Zambians by creating a policy influencing think tank or lobby firm that would influence the Zambian government to allocate resources more effectively, to make and enforce decisions that are pro poor?.
Prof Chirwa has vast aviation technology expertise and has formed important relationships with leading global companies, investment firms and leaders, he would use this influence (which is widely unrecognized in Zambia) on these players to derive benefit for Zambians.

Presidential office may provide the ultimate power to get things done, however it also confers absolute responsibility. The probability of Prof Chirwa’s international influence been enhanced by political office is significant but also real is the possibility that it may be scared.

Prof Chirwa must therefore weigh heavily, whether he prefers influence or power over Zambia’s current political system, I would that he would choose influence!

Mugabe's cronies completely lose it!

2008-04-28T03:32:00.006-05:00

It has been speculated that Hitler may have suffered from a mirage of psychological issues, he was an ideologue with unshakable convictions........ He did not use language for the purpose of interaction with others, but only for the purpose of dominating others. He endlessly engaged in long-winded and pedantic speeches, with "illogical arguments full of crude comparisons and cheap allusions.

As in the case of Hiltler, I find that Mugabe's direct reports, especially the army chief are pandering to the whims of a mentally ill man.

Much worse how do these policemen beat up their fellow countrymen for voting against Mugabe, during the day and go back to their homes at night, in the very neighbourhood where the people they beat up live?

BarryBearak.

New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak, who was jailed earlier this month in Zimbabwe where he was reporting on the country's elections, has a lengthy piece in Sunday's Times about his experience. Bearak was released on bail a few days after being taken into custody, for, as he writes in his Times piece, the crime of "committing journalism:
I had never been arrested before and the prospect of prison in Zimbabwe, one of the poorest, most repressive places on earth, seemed especially forbidding: the squalor, the teeming cells, the possibility of beatings. But I told myself what I'd repeatedly taught my two children: Life is a collection of experiences. You savor the good, you learn from the bad.

I was being charged with the crime of "committing journalism." One of my captors, Detective Inspector Dani Rangwani, described the offense to me as something despicable, almost hissing the words: "You've been gathering, processing and disseminating the news." NYTimes.

Zimbabweans driven beyond despair.

2008-04-21T03:42:00.004-05:00

ALONG THE SOUTH AFRICA-ZIMBABWE BORDER — Sarah Ngewerume was driven to the river by despair.
Seeing South African military truck, two women, with their babies, fled back to Zimbabwe after trying to cross into South Africa.

More than 1,000 people cross the border from Zimbabwe into South Africa every day.

She said she had seen gangs loyal to Zimbabwe’s longtime president, Robert Mugabe, beating people — some to death — in the dusty roads of her village. She said Mugabe loyalists were sweeping the countryside with chunks of wood in their hands, demanding to see party identification cards and methodically hunting down opposition supporters.
“It was terrifying,” said Ms. Ngewerume, a 49-year-old former shopkeeper.

Mariella Furrer for The New York Times

It has been said the strength and morality of a nation, is revealed by the fate and circumstance of the weakest among them.

I therefore must ask - Is there indeed, no conscience nor sense of a higher purpose among the men of Zimbabwe?

How be it that this sad fate of women and babies, fails to arouse the valor of any man in Zimbabwe?

How can the fate of an 84 yr old man be more important than the future, of millions of Zimbabwe's children?

To borrow from Mathew Arnold's "Dover beach" -

How can a nation- that lay before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And now Zimbabweans are before us, as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Post-election Zimbabwe and it's impact on the Region.

2008-04-02T13:13:00.001-05:00

With official Presidential results from last Saturday's elections still unclear, Zimbaweans are looking at a very long walk to recovery from the political, economic and social upheaval of the Mugabe years.
That Zanu-PF still maintains a considerable number of seats in Parliament will make it particularly hard to reach consensus on future economic and political reforms needed to put Zimbabwe on a new path.

The US and the World financial institutions are currently pre-occupied with averting a US and global economy recesion, whatever the form and nature of the new Zimbabwe government, it will certainly find it hard to raise funding for economic and social recovery.

As Afghanistan's post taliban government has learnt there is a vast and increasing gap between pledged and actual funding received .

Zimbabwe's parliament results show no clean break from the past because Zanu-PF maintains more than a third of parliamentary seats, this though a result of a democratic process, may actually prove the people's worst enemy. The degree of Zimbabwe's current economic and political troubles require a government with a sound and convincing mandate, to adress. Whatever ambitious economic or political reform programs MDC has will require the cooperation of the Zanu-PF members of parliament to pass; a real challenge given the level of animosity between them.

This also gives Mugabe, though he lost the Presidential vote, leverage to negotiate an exit on his terms; as in the Kenya situation, Zimbabweans may be looking at a bitter complex of a government of the new and the old.

Because of this long walk to recovery, countries in the region, especially South Africa may still have to put up Zimbabweans crawling through their border fences for a breath of fresh air and a chance at real money.

Zimbabwe Independent results center show MDC lead.

2008-04-01T16:12:00.000-05:00

Presidential	Constituency

PRESIDENTIAL RESULTS
Morgan Tsvangirai	1,036,939	50%
Robert Mugabe	895,717	43%
Simba Makoni	148, 887	7%

Seats

MDC

53%

ZANU-PF

42%

MUT/IND

Constituencies reported 192 (91%) - Zimbabwe Independent Results centre.

The last throes of the rigger!

2008-04-01T11:58:00.000-05:00

Nothing could be more telling of the degree of greedy and tyrany that has consumed Robert Mugabe as his desperate attempts to delay and rig Presidential results through his diehard cronies at ZEC, in the face of defeat.

This disgraced and senile tyrant who has stretched the tolerance of the people of Zimbabwe to breaking point, has neither the presence of mind nor the sense to discern the end of his hold on events, now unfolding in Zimbabwe.

He can have himself another day or a few more hours of sleep in the cocoon he has conjured up but the reality is the heads of security agencies will have to salute and yield to the will of the people of Zimbabwe.

"How they are rigging the election at this very moment
Mugabe's spies are using a simple but effective technique to rob Tsvangirai of victory - and not be caught doing it
Harare, Zimbabwe, Tuesday, April 1, 5.0 pm
Sources within the fearsome Central Intelligence Agency (CIO) have told me this afternoon that the Zimbabwe security chiefs, who nearly came to blows yesterday, have reached a compromise - and instructed the CIO to finally fix this election in Mugabe's favour.
The CIO's task is to falsify the voting figures in a way that appears to give logical and expected results, and thus becomes unchallengeable. With the eyes of the world on this election, the power men know that any fraud has to be virtually undetectable.
The technique was explained to me by my source, who told me it is being put into effect at this moment. This is how it works.
In the case of the race for the position of President, votes are being stolen from Tsvangirai. The votes have to be credited to another candidate, to keep voting numbers correct. But they are not being given to Mugabe. They go instead to Simba Makoni.
Why? Because there are some areas - Bulawayo is a good example - where Zanu-PF parliamentary candidates have made such a poor showing that any extra votes recorded there for Mugabe, the party leader, would seem illogical, and rightly condemned as evidence of rigging.
But by diminishing Tsvangirai's vote total and giving the difference to Makoni, Mugabe gains overall, and no-one will query the higher total for Makoni, who in any case was expected to do better than he has.
If this technique is applied across the nation, it will certainly be sufficiently effective to either give Mugabe an overall victory, or at least ensure a runoff.
Virtually the same technique is being applied to fix the parliamentary elections. Only in this case votes are taken from the candidates of the Tsvangirai faction of the MDC, and added to the totals of candidates from the smaller faction led by Arthur Mutambara.
Once again it is Zanu-PF that benefits by cutting down the votes for the Tsvangirai candidates, and giving the seats to the Mutambara faction.
The plan can be seen working already in the so-called official results. The Mutambara faction failed dismally in early returns, but has recently mysteriously gained ground against the Tsvangirai faction, and now commands, for instance, five seats in Matabeleland.
That's the joint plan to fix these elections, put as simply as I can. Those who wonder why the results are being held back and released so slowly need wonder no more." (Zimbabwe Today.)

The end of disgrace and tyrany in Zimbabwe?

2008-03-30T11:23:00.000-05:00

Morgan Tsvangirai, garnered 67 percent of the 30 percent of votes so far counted, Secretary General Tendai Biti said in an interview today from Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. The MDC leads in Mashonaland Central province and won a majority in the province of Masvingo, both strongholds of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party, he said.

``This is just an example of what we're getting from every province,'' Biti said. ``Barring a miracle, Mugabe can't win.'' Bloomberg

Robert Mugabe may have played a vital role in the liberation of Zimbabwe, but what people will remmember about him, is the ruin he has brought to a people and a nation that was like a city on a hill. Zimbabwe was the bread basket of southern Africa, it's schools, hospitals even roads were the evy of the region, now Zimbabweans are crawling through razor wire to escape the mess Mugabe has unleashed.
Those that claim that forcebly grabbing land from white farmers was a patriotic and noble thing, need to realise Mugabe only played this self destructive move to foster his grip on power and to prolong his overdue stay in power. His poor choices and policies over the years had already put Zimbabwe on the path to this ruin, the land issue was meant to divert people's attention.

He is indeed a disgrace to the memory of the many that fought and died for the emancipation of Zimbabwe. That fight was to ensure a better destiny for Zimbabweans not 100,000% inflation, not empty shelves, not unemployment, not police brutality and certainly not economic exile!

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday branded Zimbabwe's president a "disgrace" to his people and to Africa, and expressed concerns about verifying whether the country held free and fair elections.
Rice, in the Mideast for peace talks, made the harsh comments after voting Saturday in Zimbabwe that presented Robert Mugabe with the toughest challenge to his 28-year rule. The main opposition party on Sunday claimed an early lead; preliminary results were expected by Monday. AP

Zambian Governments begins resettling isolated populations.

2008-03-28T15:22:00.000-05:00

While watching ZNBC TV today, Kashikulu learnt with happiness that the Govt is resettling people living in areas that are remote and at a high risk of experiencing disaster to safe areas closer to public infrastructure. As I have discussed here, recent floods in Zambia have overwhelmed government’s disaster intervention capacity and the specific challenge of widely dispersed and remote population concentration in rural Zambia has made intervention extremely challenging and expensive.

The Disaster management program under the National Society program support plan 2008-9 had planned for a population size of only 100,000 for disaster intervention.
However the floods impacted more than 1.5 million with an estimated 300,000 people needing immediate intervention to relieve food, water and shelter needs.

The Zambian government has an ambitious program of reducing rural poverty from the current 68% level to 20% by 2030; however this and other long term goals can be achieved through a holistic approach to our current challenges.

The absence of specific population planning for both rural and urban areas is particularly troubling for me. There appears to be no long term plans for where the houses, schools, roads, hospitals or cemeteries for the projected population growth or the 40% expected to be lifted from the current 68% poverty quota.
The chaos associated with the expansion of the city of Lusaka is a poignant symptom of the failure to plan for the future. The city’s latest building boom Meanwood has houses at various paces of construction in the Chamba valley area without specific plans of how water and sanitation will be addressed by Lusaka water Company currently failing to ensure water supply to nearby Kaunda square township or electricity from ZESCO currently unable to supply uninterrupted electricity to the city.

The city has allowed unplanned residential areas to thrive for years and the consequence is a vast population living is squalor rife with crime and diseases like cholera with unmatched number of schools, clinics or roads.

And if failure to plan at community level brings forth such chaos in urban Lusaka,what calamity does failure to plan at family level bring forth in rural Zambia?
Early marriage, which sadly entraps the rural population in a vicious cycle of poverty; Kashikulu is glad Government has promised to prosecute parents that force their children into early marriages. However here as elsewhere, real impact can only be achieved by population planning and re-evaluating the impact of customary law. I have argued that some aspects customary law undermine our development goals by fostering early marriage and traditional roles over the education of boys and girls.

Obama’s policy trajectory on Africa more pragmatic.

2008-03-21T17:23:00.000-05:00

“But we have to look at Africa not just after a crisis happens; what are we doing with respect to trade opportunities with Africa? What are we doing in terms of investment in Africa? What are we doing to pay attention to Africa consistently with respect to our foreign policy? That has been what's missing in the White House. Our long-term security is going to depend on whether we're giving children in Sudan and Zimbabwe and in Kenya the same opportunities so that they have a stake in order as opposed to violence and chaos”. Barack Obama

In case you are wondering why Obama has gained prominence on this blog, Bill Richardson who endorsed Obama today, put it best; “you are once-in-a-lifetime leader and above all a President who brings this nation together”.

Beyond, holding the best for America’s domestic troubles and ending this war that has consumed the current administration, to the detriment of Africa’s long term needs, Obama may be the best for Africa too.

The current Bush administration’s policy towards Africa, the essential thrust of which is captured by the motto: ‘Forget the rhetoric and boost the geopolitics’. Has being a measured approach that includes the strategic imperative of cultivating strong links with Africa's leading regional powers, most notably Nigeria and South Africa, harkening back to the Nixon administration's strategy of relying on such powers to ensure regional stability; limited effort building upon the Clinton administration's success in promoting US trade and investment with African countries, with a special focus on oil-producing countries; and underscoring the need for Africans to ‘do more for themselves’ in the realm of conflict resolution, suggesting a low-profile Bush administration approach to involvement in either peacekeeping or peacemaking operations.

The Clinton administration on the other hand, attempted to deal with a complex array of challenging African issues -- security, conflict resolution, democratization, human rights, trade, AIDS, and the environment. Its agenda was more broad but deficient in depth and obligation. With limited interests at stake in the post-Cold War era, he perceived no compelling reason to rally the world community for a genuine African Renaissance. The result is a tendency toward activism without follow-through. The Clinton team reacted to immediate challenges but lacked an overarching policy framework for coping effectively with the continent's long-term problems of conflict, disease, and poverty.

Barack Obama believes that strengthening weak states at risk of collapse, economic meltdown or public health crises strengthens America's security. Obama will double U.S. spending on foreign aid to $50 billion a year by 2012.
It is this trajectory of policy, that is more pragmatic, not only focusing on Africa when a crisis arises or when US interests are in danger. Obama ties US long term security goals to affording children growing up in Africa, better opportunities for life in the global world.

Traditionally republicans are less generous with people development programs that democrats but Obama has already written a law signed in 2006 that provided $52 million in US assistance to help stabilize the Congo, and he worked to approve $20 million for the African Union peacekeeping mission. Obama also worked with Sam Brownback (R-Kans.), writing an op-ed in the Washington Post criticizing the Bush administration's failure to stop genocide in Darfur.

He will help developing countries invest in sustainable democracies and demand more accountability in return. Obama will establish a $2 billion Global Education Fund to eliminate the global education deficit. He will reduce the debt of developing nations and better coordinate trade and development policies. (source Obama campaign).

Aftermath of Obama speech on Race.

2008-03-19T12:28:00.000-05:00

It is indeed a historic and important speech, no one has ever dared verbalized the pain of both black and white Americans as they both grapple with the legacy of slavery and segregation.
Until the element of race suddenly gained traction Obama appeared unstoppable. In the days leading to the Ohio primary Hillary‘s campaign launched a smear strategy in which everything was thrown at Obama including the Kitchen sink.
Instead of his hopeful and coalition building tone of his speeches, Obama has been forced to explain his dress code in Kenya, the Ferraro assertion that his candidacy is only succeeding because of affirmative action and the ultimate knockout or as many now believe was the moment the kitchen sink hit was publicizing of his pastor’s controversial remarks.

The genius of this speech is that Obama rolls up all the bad stuff and with an understanding of the core of the issues that is rare in Washington; he repackaged it all into a speech that appeals to America’s better angels to look beyond his color and come together to change America and secure a more perfect union for her children.

The setting could not have been perfect, Pennsylvania where the Governor Ed. Rendell a key Clinton backer said there are some whites here who will not vote for a black man.

However, university of Pennsylvania Political Science Professor Rogers M. Smith said this after the speech – “Pennsylvania is one of the places where Obama had to be careful not to appear to be "dissing" the black church, particularly outspoken clerical leaders, while he nonetheless did have to distance himself from the despair about white Americans and American progress that he discerned in some of Wright's sermons. The focus on Wright's comments and Obama's stance toward them was not helpful to him here, so it was risky but also wise to address the issue head on as he did,"

And for those still cringing at Rev Wright horrible words and are still reluctant to cut Obama some slack for attending his church Rev Huckabee a former republic candidates offers this.

"[Y]ou can't hold the candidate responsible for everything that people around him may say or do," Huckabee says. "It's interesting to me that there are some people on the left who are having to be very uncomfortable with what ... Wright said, when they all were all over a Jerry Falwell, or anyone on the right who said things that they found very awkward and uncomfortable, years ago. Many times those were statements lifted out of the context of a larger sermon. Sermons, after all, are rarely written word for word by pastors like Rev. Wright, who are delivering them extemporaneously, and caught up in the emotion of the moment. There are things that sometimes get said, that if you put them on paper and looked at them in print, you'd say 'Well, I didn't mean to say it quite like that.'"

Later, he defended Wright's anger, too:

"As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say 'That's a terrible statement!' ... I grew up in a very segregated South. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm gonna be probably the only conservative in America who's gonna say something like this, but I'm just tellin' you -- we've gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names...

Obama addresses race.

2008-03-18T16:39:00.000-05:00

Keith Olbermann Slams Clinton on Ferraro

2008-03-12T22:05:00.000-05:00

Tonight, as promised, Keith Olbermann attacked Senator Hillary Clinton in a ten-minute "Special Comment," saying that he was not endorsing Barack Obama but that "events insist" that he speak and stand against her "tepid response" to the controversial remarks of Geraldine Ferraro wherein she said that Obama wouldn't have been as successful if he were not black. Last night Olbermann decried the statements as "clearly racist"; tonight, he followed up with a doozy in which he accused her of "campaigning as if Barack Obama were the Democrat and you were the Republican." In so doing, said Olbermann — in letting the opportunity to forcefully oppose Ferraro's comments pass her by — Olbermann said that Clinton had "missed a critical opportunity to do what was right." Huffington Post.

"http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/23601329#23601329"

Obama vs the Tide of Race and the Establishment!

2008-03-11T20:18:00.000-05:00

Obama has just been projected winner of today's Mississipi primary, however the focus tonight as has been since men and women of African descent, sought equal standing and opportunity in these the United States of America is on race and status quo.

In the Democratic race, Mississippi voters were strongly polarized by race, even more than in most other states that voted this year. Seven in 10 whites voted for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, while 9 in 10 blacks voted for Sen. Barack Obama. Clinton won among both white women, a group she normally carries, and white men, a key swing group in this campaign. Clinton's margin among whites is about even with her largest margin among the group to date, which was in neighboring Alabama. Obama's margin among blacks was his second best showing with the group, after his home state of Illinois. About half of the voters in the Democratic primary were black.... AP

Ferraro.

Geraldine Ferraro Hillary Clinton's Finance chairperson told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

Mainstream America, may portray a perception of equal opportunity for all. The truth, however is, that perception is only possible by regulation and enforcement of equal opportunity legislation. There is still in most aspects of American life, an auto restraint on people color. That preset limit, of how far African Americans can go in corporate America, journalism, academia and politics.
When a person of color attempts to scale beyond the preset limit of progression, the matter of race suddenly gains significant traction. Then it does not matter the level of schooling, the goodness of character or record of achievement one has, the color of skin becomes a major restraint against progression.
The current generation of Americans may be more accepting of a diverse and multi cutural America, but those little kids in the photos from America's dark past, that witnessed the abuse and suppression of African Americans are still active participants, in the sphere of American life. It is especially these blighted aging white Americans that threaten the rise of Obama.
In Pennslyvania an upcoming primary, some have blazenly declared they would never vote for a black man.
Without refering to my own experience in this the land that Ronald Reagan called "a city on a shining hill", land of liberty; Kashikulu observes with a heavy heart that it may be to the hand of time and the grace of heart to turn a leaf on matter of race.

The Dark side of Mwanawasa?

2008-02-13T13:10:00.000-06:00

The following comment, is on BBC talking point have your say discussing “Are poor deals crippling your country”

Added: Wednesday, 13 February, 2008, 12:26 GMT 12:26 UK

African leaders could avoid catastrophic deals if only they could deter themselves from getting involved in business deals for the sake of tips. Like in Zambia we have witnessed a situation where the president got involved with a bank run by a close business associate to procure oil without following tender procedures. Insurance contracts for all the government ministries have been given to the same guy. Almost all the government ministries have shifted their accounts to the same chap's bank. Hon George Mpombo, Masaiti source BBC

Is this a case of a Minister trying to out the corruption in the current presidency or might this be George Mpombo’s double?

Former President FJT has made similar claims in the recent past and I know Mr. Rajan Mahtani Finance Bank founder, has given unprecedented monetary support to MMD which may have influenced a decision to move GRZ accounts to the bank.

It’s been said that a lie will travel half way around the world while the truth is still putting on her shoes, I truly hope there is no lies being peddled in that comment.

The Irony of Mwanawasa the corruption terminator being overtly involved in the worst form, is too grave to stomach. Albeit in a world of stranger ironies, we have seen the likes of Evangelical leader Rev. Ted Haggard and former republican congressman Mark Foley in the US, breathe fire and brimstone in the light of day against gays only to embrace the lifestyle in the dark.

But what fate would Mwanawasa expect to face, after parading the king maker FJT’s underwear and shoes before courts and cameras in his brazen attempt, to convict FTJ of the same crime?

Mwanawasa is already rigged with poor health, but this would not earn him any sympathies against the wrath his culpability might, rouse. The fate of Saddam and Hitler may have met a few tears among the core of their diehard fans, but this Mwanawasa was unpopular when he, became President. He has had to assuage people’s dislike and lack of faith in a man, most thought was at least half brain dead, how could he now, betray their reluctant faith in his fight against corruption.

I would say, if the claims in the comment are indeed those of one George Mpombo, the same man that recently knelt before Mwanawasa;he has no diehard fans but more sad still, the people of Zambia have no friend, no help nor leader in government.

My abiding faith in the Bright side of Mwanawasa!

2008-02-09T12:14:00.000-06:00

My past criticism and/or praise of our most learned President has always been rooted in the abiding hope that good education especially the study of Law, will always give birth in the bearer, that insatiable desire to right injustice, to do what is moral, to advance the general welfare of men, among other virtues. Albeit a good education does not necessarily preclude someone from being evil, nor does lack of education prevent one, from doing good.
Indeed, at height of the multi party movement in early 90’s Mwanawasa’ effective use of the injunction clause in our laws did a lot good for the movement. And perhaps as a testimony to his good conscience, he resigned from Chiluba’s corrupt administration.
Since becoming President he has fought corruption with brazen vigor, there is now growing confidence in a public service delivery system that was once openly corrupt.
His recent surge in efforts to leave Zambians, a good constitution is admirable, though he should not have waited till his final term (A good chef must be first to taste his own cooking).
He has also tried to inspire Zambians to do more, to be more productive…. Whatever became of the winter maize project?
It is however, this recent move to bring in more ordinary Zambians in the mining equation, that rekindles my faith in the bright side of Mwanawasa. Nothing has given me as much grief as the marginalization of ordinary Zambians as far benefits from mining are concerned. It has always been a limited elite, in collusion with foreigners that have derived the most benefit from mining, especially gemstones mining. Those that were privy to, mining exploration data got licenses for interest areas and have kept this information and the tremendous benefit from the sell of Zambian gemstones out of public domain. Zambian emeralds account for 20% of global gemstone sells; this is why Kashikulu would like to give three cheers to our most learned president for this statement –

…There are more than 380 gemstone mine owners and over 80 other small scale mining license holders with accumulated unpaid area charges in excess of K10 billion contrary to the law," he said.
President Mwanawasa called on the defaulters to clear the area charges adding that the new mining cadastre system, which will be opened to the public soon after March 31st, 2008, will not accommodate and recognize holders of mining rights who are not compliant with the Mines and Minerals Act.
Government is determined to open up the Zambian landscape to investors.
"We are cancelling licenses not complying with the Mines and Minerals Act regardless of whether the defaulters are holders of large scale or small scale mining rights. This will be done before the new mining cadastre system opens to the public after 31st March, 2008," he said
On the fiscal regulatory reforms for the mining sector President Mwanawasa said there will be no discrimination between owners of the old privatized mines and the new investors... Zambia Daily Mail.

Magandenomics 101 – How far does $3.6 Billion go!

2008-01-26T07:33:00.000-06:00

As the wheels of the global economy, grind growth to a near halt under the weight of a slump triggered by the US sub prime mortgage crisis and high oil prices, there is debate among economists on how to jump start economic activity. Whether to implement trickle down policies that give tax breaks/other incentives to the wealthy with the hope that their quest for more wealth, will motivate them to invest more; or the trickle up policies that give monetary incentives such as tax refunds, grants, food stamps etc to the poor and middle class with the expectation that their propensity to spend will create more demand leading to more productivity in the economy.

Given the size and rigidity of the Zambian economy, this year’s national budget of 13.76 trillion kwacha reflects Mr. Magande’s attempt at making the most of both the trickle down and trickle up approach to unlock Resources for Economic Empowerment and Wealth Creation.
Reducing VAT by 1.5% may have the effect of giving some relief to both the consumers and producers putting 21.6 billion at their disposal but does this go far enough?

On the other hand, new tax measures for the mining sector which include corporate tax at 30 per cent, mineral royalty at three per cent and a variable profit of up to 15 per cent on taxable income will increase government revenue.
However might government’s continued borrowing of 1.2% of the national budget from BOZ possibly keep interest rates at uneconomic rate and erode gains from reduced VAT.

The revised Pay As You Earn (PAYE) increases the non-taxable monthly threshold income from K500, 000 to K600, 000 while those getting over K4 million per month will be paying 35 per cent instead of the previous 30 per cent effective April 1, 2008. This is another attempt at trickle up and ZK100, 000 or $26 may go some distance but is it enough to achieve a significant impact on increasing productivity in the economy.
In other aspects of the national budget Mr. Magande promised ZK 120 billion for a Citizens' Economic Empowerment Fund, however do these measures go far enough to uplift the majority of Zambians who have had no real opportunity for economic empowerment?

With unemployment over 70%, the only real relief/empowerment for these people in this year’s budget maybe the VAT reduction and this economic empowerment fund. Mr. Magande needs to do more to create jobs and more private enterprise.

Indeed, ZK 13.76 trillion or $3.6 billion maybe a small piece of cloth for our ever bloated national suit, this is essentially why am glad, Mr. Magande is learning to cut with a little bit more precision and care.

O that we might see!

2008-01-22T22:11:00.000-06:00

It’s only Zambians who can make a difference, not foreigners. But we need to have good projects to capitalize on these resources that we have. If we fail, we run the risk that others will come. And this risk around Lusaka is very apparent. Why is it that foreigners are flocking to this country in large numbers if there is nothing to be gained? I think that is the warning signal. These people coming have seen that the opportunities are there. So let us seize these opportunities ourselves before we lose what we have.' Caleb Fundanga

As I read this most poignant statement of the Zambian condition, I can indeed, envision Zambians waking up in 50 or less years to find themselves a population without means or recourse against increasing poverty.
If that is a possible future fate, what does our past look like? When westerners, first came to the land without a name, at the time over a hundred years ago; they found then as Equinox, Vedanta and others have now, a land indeed that flows with milk and honey, whose indigenous people lacked then, as now the clarity of vision to fully appreciate or exploit the wealth or opportunity before them.
Confronted with cotton clothing, new crops, horse drawn wagons etc our ancestors by assimilation enhanced some aspects of life as they had it known for generations primarily because they could see that western culture had developed the means for a better way of life. However, there appears then as now, a failure to directly see in Zambia’s abundant natural resources the real and present potential to enhance our personal lives.
I have discussed before, how a young Abe Galuni came to Northern Rhodesia penniless, yet in less than forty years he owned more land than is owned by the entire Zambian population in present day city of Lusaka (residential areas). Foreigners own more and benefit from precious stone mines than ordinary Zambians.

How can indigenous people who have lived in Mapatizya, Chama, and Mushili fail to see and recognize the potential to enhance their personal lives, gemstones in these areas have?

A friend of mine once said perhaps if one (1) million Zambians were put on plane and sent to a city like New York US, to live there for six months then flown back to Zambia, maybe then we would have a revolution!
Is that what it might take to give sight to the multitudes living in abject poverty in a land, Caleb says is so God favored and lucky or might we be blind still as in the story of –

An Old Woman having lost the use of her eyes, called in a Physician to heal them, and made this bargain with him in the presence of witnesses: that if he should cure her blindness, he should receive from her a sum of money; but if her infirmity remained, she should give him nothing. This agreement being made, the Physician, time after time, applied his salve to her eyes, and on every visit took something away, stealing all her property little by little. And when he had got all she had, he healed her and demanded the promised payment. The Old Woman, when she recovered her sight and saw none of her goods in her house, would give him nothing. The Physician insisted on his claim, and. as she still refused, summoned her before the Judge. The Old Woman, standing up in the Court, argued: "This man here speaks the truth in what he says; for I did promise to give him a sum of money if I should recover my sight: but if I continued blind, I was to give him nothing. Now he declares that I am healed. I on the contrary affirm that I am still blind; for when I lost the use of my eyes, I saw in my house various chattels and valuable goods: but now, though he swears I am cured of my blindness, I am not able to see a single thing in it.

The Long-lasting fallout of Shock & Awe – Lumwana Mine.

2008-01-15T16:25:00.000-06:00

Shock and Awe is a term recently invigorated by the Bush administration’s initial military strategy in Iraq. The term defines the show of great strength and the rapid dominance that will

"Impose this overwhelming level of Shock and Awe against an adversary on an immediate or sufficiently timely basis to paralyze its will to carry on . . . to seize control of the environment and paralyze or so overload an adversary's perceptions and understanding of events that the enemy would be incapable of resistance at the tactical and strategic levels."

The Lumwana mine project may not be a military maneuver, however its design and execution smacks of the shock and awe strategy.
After acquiring financing that the mine managing director Hurry Michael calls

“ the largest debt finance package in Africa, five international financial institutions from different countries which include South Africa, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and Canada have agreed to lend us US$584 million for the development of the project," Post Zambia ( I think this is an overstatement, there are bigger debt package by the Chinese and others).

Equinox the foreign owners dominate the land and copper deposits in Lumwana by a hundred percent and have brought in the largest means to extract the copper.

Michael says Lumwana mine would be among the largest copper mines in the world as evidenced by the equipment that would be used at the mine.
This mine will have the largest mills and to run these mills we will need 18 mega watts of power to run each mill, three times power consumption of the of Solwezi.

In the face of this huge display of shock and awe by Equinox, Solwezi district commissioner Albert Chifita and the local people, indeed have much to be fearful of -

"The Kabwe scenario would not be repeated in Solwezi, as you may be aware that the closure of Kabwe mine in June, 1994 brought the economy of the town to its knees and everything in the area changed drastically." ALbert Chifita

The poor are at some risk of not participating in the economic opportunities of mining while bearing many of the costs as well as risks that result from the introduction of a mine in an undeveloped area such as Lumwana.

Chifita explains that government knows that minerals are wasting assets and cannot be relied upon forever adding that government was trying to diversify the economy by emphasizing on agriculture and tourism as a mode of diversification.

Mr. Chifita may be a noble pragmatist in hoping the local people should look into agriculture and tourism as the long term economic activity for the area; however the sheer scale of this mining activity in the area ensures that this remains as the current and future counterpoint of the local economy.
Agriculture, Tourism and other economic activity may thrive during the lifespan of the mine but will they withstand the absence of the multitudes that have been drawn to the area by this huge short term mining activity?

The region lies vulnerable to fallout of shock and awe - the choice of quick profit over sustainable progress.
The rapid construction, commencement of mining and associated population increase does not allow the local to plan or develop sufficient capacity to ensure long lasting benefits from this interaction. Instead the more immediate and transient demands of accommodation and consumables like food, shops etc have boomed.
Because of scale it is usually beyond the capacity of local businesses to meet the demand of high cost business needs like equipment and recurring business needs; hence supply of these needs is outsourced, giving the real business opportunities to outsiders.

Despite Mr. Michael’s pronouncements of good intent that measures will be in place to protect people and the environment from the negative effects and risks of large scale mining, the local people must always be mindful that the implementers of shock and awe have little attachment to local causes and always preclude themselves from legal liability of environmental disasters such as accidental river pollution.

Unless the Zambian government or the local administration take bold and decisive measures to regain dominance –

i) In regulating the framework of business activity between the mine and local economy and ensure local businesses are not marginalized.
ii) Regulate and enforce environmental safety standards now and post mining period.
iii) Local land administration - zoning and property taxes collection to ensure local population also access utilities water, energy.
iv) Support local capacity to develop agriculture, tourism and craft/art through grants and resource personnel.

The people of Lumwana may yet find themselves as the Broken Hill people without copper or a mainstay economy in forty years.

Mwanawasa - King or President?

2008-01-04T16:04:00.000-06:00

Mwanawasa’s recent statement regarding Prof Clive Chirwa’s intention, to contest the MMD presidency are a sad reflection of the infancy of democratic governance in Zambia.

"Now, let me give a timely warning to people who have been outside. They have been outside living in a foreign environment. They come back to the country and think that we are all foolish; we are all incapable of providing leadership and now they are God sent people,". Mwanawasa.

Does a Zambian citizen lose the rights and privileges of the constitution just because one lives abroad for a period of time?

Might this, also be a symptom of a culture or perhaps politicians, still evolving from the traditional administrative structure of chiefs to the constitutional structure of political leadership elected by universal suffrage.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with an incumbent President endorsing a preferred successor, however in the Zambian scenario, it is the personal ownership of the Presidency that Mwanawasa and Chiluba before seem to claim and enforce that sparks grave concern.
This suck up to me, kneel before me, acknowledge my slightest gesture or movement and by all means ask my permission mentality, is what I as Prof Chirwa find unpalatable.
This mindset sadly, also underscores the reason Mwanawasa and others before him seem to play games with the constitution review process.
What will become of King Mwanawasa’s ego and need for patronage, if the Zambian constitution limits the overreaching powers of the current presidency?

Of course I do not advocate disrespect of the President; on the contrary I believe the office of President is owed no more respect than prescribed by the Zambian constitution.
The Zambian people through several constitution review commissions have stated the need to reduce the executive authority of the president. We need to end the reign of this era, in which a President’s personal views or preference are deemed supreme to the constitution, such that grown men like George Mpombo and Tentamashima are so willing to sacrifice their dignity to the point of kneel or die.

Our national constitution must prescribe and guarantee,

i) Equal standing of all Zambians everywhere - men and women in the bill of rights.

ii) Appropriate due authority and autonomy to key institutions like the electoral commission.

iii) And most importantly prescribe the limit of presidential authority.

I pray that the NCC currently engaged in the review of our constitution will adopt these key recommendations- perhaps then we can see an end to the marginalization of the electorate especially women and Zambian citizens abroad, ineffective institutions and the abuse of presidential authority!

Merry Christmas and Goodwill to all!

2007-12-25T06:13:00.000-06:00

This day is unprecedented in its ability to bring joy and good will to people everywhere in this vast world. We may not share in the same language, culture even belief but somehow the world on this day shares universal joy and goodwill.

No event is perhaps more poignant than that Christmas during the first world war when warring men ceased hostilities and met on the front line to share in the joy and goodwill of Christmas!

As on the next day after this event, hostilities and suffering continues in this world, we all share yet I and many will forget our universal troubles on this day.
I will embrace joy, hope and goodwill to all mankind.

Merry Christmas and have a prosperous new year!

State of despondence part 3 – How long before Zambia attains the age of enlightenment?

2007-12-17T17:12:00.000-06:00

The lack of rationality in the manner Zambians continue to view both their constitution and national resources might evoke the question – how long before our nation attains the age of enlightenment?
How long before the correlation between the individual and the state is widely appreciated?

There is perhaps no better demonstration of the popular expression “insanity is doing the same thing over and over yet expecting different results each time” than Zambia’s constitution review process. We have had the
i) Mvunga constitution review in 1991,
ii) Mwanakatwe constitution review in 1996,
iii) Late Lucy Sichone’s call for a constituent assembly,
iv) Mung’omba constitution review in 2003,
v) Levy Mwanawasa’s Indaba 2003
vi) And now National Constitution Conference.

I expect at this point, that an eminent citizen like John Mwanakatwe or Wila Mung’omba would spearhead an intellectual movement of the Enlightened and advocate reason as the primary basis of authority and straight talk to average Zambians to end this insanity!
We know what Zambians want and expect in their constitution, why should an authoritarian president continue to trample on the greater rights of common Zambians.

On the other hand, against the run of logic and rationality a matter deserving of at least one commission has received none and as a consequence theft, corruption and wanton exploitation of Zambia’s natural resources by foreign interests continues with average Zambians fighting over leftover crumbs.
A more telling example is this recent lament of
“Former Zambia Privatization Agency (ZPA) director James Matale says the destruction of the public enterprises during the Chiluba regime that accounted for over 80 per cent of economic activity was an act of unprecedented vandalism."It surpassed even the destructiveness of the definitive Attila the Hun. Zambia lost economic investments and assets accumulated over a period of 100 years," he says."A large proportion of the famous K7 billion debt was attributable to investments in assets and operations of the public enterprises. For instance, with the destruction of Zambia Airways, Zambia lost the entire stock of civil aviation technology that she had acquired over 30 years at a great cost. I think that, in the fullness of time, when all the numbers are finally tallied up and the last statements recorded, the Zambian privatisation programme will rank as the biggest fraud in economic history."So what went wrong with Zambia's privatisation programme?Matale offers a rare insight into this monster of a programme whose benefits some Zambians have been questioning over the years.Matale explains that the programme faced resistance and opposition from several critical stakeholders.He also explains that there was a deliberate effort by powerful business interests in the government to treat enterprises and assets lined up for privatisation as goods fallen from the back of a delivery truck.The donors too had their own invisible hand on the process.” Extract from Maravi

Also troubling is capitulation of men like James Matale and others like John Mwanakatwe, Alex Chikwanda, Wila Mung’omba, and Prof Mvunga and many other distinguished, well read and educated Zambians.

How can there be, such a disconnect to the affairs of nation?

I admire the courage of Prof Clive Chirwa; and understand his indignation with the status quo. However, like many well educated Zambians before him, that have held positions where they could have at least helped influence rationality in the minds of Zambians- I wonder!
Might he not be a lone voice pushing a nation stuck in a cultural drag with roots stemming from it's past?

The Third Term reinvented!

2007-12-12T15:54:00.000-06:00

The prospect of Bill Clinton who served two terms in the white house going back there if Hilary wins the next election, amounts to a third term in the minds of many Americans. There is mounting aversion to a growing trend of leaders who have had their time in office, crafting clever ways of retaining political power after their legitimate time in office expires.

This week against the current run of analysis, Putin has endorsed Dmitry Medvedev, first deputy prime minister and chairman of the state gas behemoth Gasprom, as his choice to follow him as president in March. If Medvedev does take power, can he keep it?
His decision to ask Putin to be his prime minister if he becomes president is a public recognition that his authority depends on Putin, and that he will be circumscribed by him.

In Pakistan all General Musharraf had to do extend his stay in office was change his manner of dressing. Western concerns have eased, despite a clamp down on political opponents, the judiciary and the press - under a new ordinance, unilaterally enacted by Mr. Musharraf, television journalists face up to three years in jail for broadcasting “anything which defames or brings into ridicule the head of state”.

President General Pervez Musharraf Wednesday relinquished the charge of Chief of the Army Staff - handed over the coveted post to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani .

And what does all this mean for our African leaders who already have a traditional inclination to extending their stay in office?

Kashikulu hopes President Mbeki, if by some stroke of luck wins this month's conference that will decide who will lead the ANC going into 2009 national elections, will not pull up a Putin move as for Mugabe I truly hope he has not being following events in Moscow or Islamabad.

Hope in the face of HIV.

2007-12-01T18:35:00.000-06:00

When is a Picture worth a thousand words?
No words could ever convey the change on Silvia's face.
Vanity Fair sent photographer Antonin Kratochvil to Zambia in March this year, to do a before and after ARV story on HIV persons - in an effort to lobby for more funding, for cheaper drugs. The result could not have been more convincing!

On this World AIDS day, Kashikulu would like to encourage Zambians in Diaspora to continue supporting charity organizations like Red campaign , World Vision and others - it's amazing what $20 on your credit card every month can do!

Piety, Piece, Peace! – will we ever have it all?

2007-11-28T17:02:00.000-06:00

There is an intrinsic benefit that comes with constant inquiry and observation- a sound appreciation of those eternal facts of life on earth. How the human specie have gotten along with one another since Adam and Eve’s piety succumbed to a serpent incited lust for a piece of forbidden fruit turning the peace and tranquil of the man’s first habitat, the garden on its head.

You may not share this version of man’s history; however therein rest the facts of life – the goodness of heart that is required to give every man and woman on earth their fair portion in life so we can all live in peace is ever elusive. Every society has within it, those that are marginalized by circumstance or greed, they can not have their piece of land, of food, or rest - their peace is always threatened.

So as Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas, begin peace talks in Annapolis US, in an attempt to resolve the oldest conflict over of land, Kashikulu wonders if this latest effort has any real opportunity for success.

The Israelis by strength and strategy hold a bigger piece of the disputed land; do they have the collective piety or humanity necessary to give their Palestinian neighbors a fair share of the piece?
On the other hand do the Palestinians have the collective piety and humanity necessary to accept their Israeli neighbors’ right to a homeland and a peaceful existence after all they have been through?

I hope for some kind of agreement from the Annapolis talks; Abbas however has a bigger challenge to convince the Palestinians to accept whatever terms they agree. History has shown that Palestinians who were empowered by Israel did not last for long in power. The best example is the Village Leagues, a group that was established in the West Bank after Israel dismissed most of the elected pro-PLO mayors in the early 1980s. The heads and members of the Village Leagues were quickly condemned as traitors by their own people and some of them were assassinated. The group, which was supposed to pave the way for the emergence of a "moderate" alternative to the PLO, was eventually dismantled.

In Africa peace has been elusive, ironically not primarily because of the indigenous people’ failure to get along with one another; but because of the greed and lust of western corporations and interest for a piece of Africa’s wealth. Brutal and bloody diamond or oil driven conflicts have ravaged Liberia, Congo, Nigeria, Angola and Darfur.
In Zambia foreign corporations and investors lacking in piety or corporate responsibility refuse to give Zambians their deserved piece of proceeds from the exploitation of national resources such as copper.

On the other hand, there are many well meaning western organizations working for causes such as debt relief and ending hunger active in Africa, but will there ever be an end to exploitation?

Sadly my friends, after much inquiry and observation Mwankole affirms that despite humanity’s best aspiration we cannot all have piety, life’s fair piece and peace- there will always be some in our world that always have the least of one or all.

Can Prof Chirwa get down and dirty? – Lesson from the past!

2007-11-25T05:31:00.000-06:00

In the 2001 elections, Yobert Shamapande a former UN official (now adjunct professor at Columbia University) who returned to Zambia mid 2000, after many years abroad, high on a combination of audacity and hope (result of many years in Diaspora) dared to contest the presidency. After dispensing most of his pension fund while canvassing around Zambia in an effort to woo support, he only managed 9,481 (0.54%) votes of that elections final count. In hindsight, he blamed his dismal performance on a failure to resonate with the common voter and a late entrance to the Zambian political arena.

Prof Chirwa on the other hand may have time and the audacity of hope, as allies but can he resonate with the fisherman on the banks of Lake Mweru in Luapula or the marketeer in Chawama compound in Lusaka?

Can he speak the language of fish and impwa?
Can he pull up an Obama speech ?

I know Prof Chirwa holds impeccable credentials, however I have not heard his manner of speaking nor do I know his personality. I truly hope his bold declaration that “he will not be bruised” will hold true after the 2011 elections.

As Eastern province MMD chairman Mr. Mangani says
“Yes, he may be well educated. But politics are different from academic qualifications. In politics you don’t need to brag. Politics will terminate his education and become a nobody within a short period of time. It is very normal and this is what is happening in the Zambian politics and Africa at large,”

Kashikulu wishes the Profesori good luck and prays he has a very thick skin and very deep pockets indeed!

The Madness of Politics.

2007-11-10T15:45:00.000-06:00

It was former British Prime Minister John Major who said in criticizing the audacity of Tony Blair’s ambitious platform of change in 1997 – “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.

How odd that, those political leaders who start with the greatest resonance with the common man, almost always end their reign, under that haunting cloud of failure to live up to popular expectations. Sometimes there is such outrage at the end; it is hard to reconcile that failed political villain exposed by a term in office to the candidate that started off with overwhelming promise and potential.
This is certainly true, in the case of FTJ Chiluba of Zambia, whose rallying chant “the hour” raised such popularity that a former UNIP official who threatened to kill his own son who had succumbed and dared to recite the national mantra at the time, was told by his angry wife , you will have to kill the whole family. Now, those same people that were willing to sacrifice so much in 1990 want FTJ’s blood.
Tony Blair, who started his reign with his shoulders firm and his head in the clouds, may have succeeded in the devolution of power but he lead to and left his country the hell of the Iraq war and had to end his reign early under the awful cloud.

So when will Michael Sata’s political bubble burst?

Uka chenjenjela ma’anja ulyenawo (if you are clever and quick with your hands, you will eat with them) a Chewa proverb - Sata has certainly been quick with his political hand, having been a UNIP royalist and Governor in the Kaunda reign, a regime whose legacy mortally scarred all that fanned its suppressive wings yet Sata survived the blight. He went on to claim his share in FTJ‘s hour. And though, Sata was Chiluba’s dirty job man- sinking opponents and wooing cadres with brown envelopes, he emerged from yet, another corrupt and failed regime, still with enough political clout to form, his own party (PF). In the 2006 presidential and parliamentary, he came close securing his ultimate ambition - plot one.
Yet under scrutiny, Sata notoriously called King Cobra’ credentials reveal, a man with precious little formal education, an abrasive style of leadership and utter lack of the diplomacy necessary, for the role he so desires. Recently, he claimed to have lost his passport in a botched attempt, to conceal his long and deepening relations with Taiwanese business lobbyists.
In African politics, it is impossible to survive this ultimate political sinker, being branded a foreign interest crony. Despite this recent misstep, Sata continues to draw a large political following and an increasing footprint in Parliament.

What is it, about politics that makes the not so qualified thrive?

In the 2001 US elections, most Americans say they voted for George Bush because he appealed to them as “the guy most likely to share a drink with you at the bar” and “most likely to stop and help you change a tire”. Needless to say there is now, in the US substantial regret and disappointment for having set the bar so low.
In South Africa, Jacob Zuma, amazingly still has political clout among the average man despite surviving a sacking from office following strong allegations of corruption and rape. Like Sata, Zuma has little formal education, several wives and children. At rallies, he woos his large following by appealing to their militancy as he sings “mshini wami” which translates “bring me my machine gun”. Yet, he is a front runner to succeed Thabo Mbeki as President of South Africa.
And in Zambia, if HH for UPND and possibly Cosmas Chilala or Maureen (if Hilary wins in the US) for MMD, do not learn the tricks and get down & dirty by 2011 – The madness of King Cobra may yet have its worst qualities revealed.

Cry my beloved Zambia!

2007-11-04T12:23:00.000-06:00

The Tonga have a proverb buchente buliha kabi (poverty will make you, eat dirty things).
Last week, I spent some time reading the SCIAF report on Zambia (http://www.sciaf.org.uk/news/2007_news/don_t_undermine_development_in_zambia ) and weighing former finance minister Nawakwi and others’ rebuttal at accusations of participating, in the rape of Zambia’s most vulnerable. These reading in of themselves, make me sick with nostalgia, anger and brazen wrath at the likes of Nawakwi, Kalumba, Magande, Chiluba and Mwanawasa.

If vultures and flies can perceive and detect rottenness from miles away, how could these men and woman, to whom the Zambian people despite their abject poverty have availed every possible resource (hefty pays, slush fund, SUVs etc) to avert their abuse and exploitation, fail to see this coming?

Lumwana fires 100 workers
One hundred and two workers at Lumwana Mine's Group Five construction in Solwezi, North Western Province have been fired for complaining about excessive pay deductions. ZNBC.

The workers at Lumwana mine are the most vulnerable in Zambia, because the mine is a 100% foreign owned. It is as though this mine is standing on, no man’s land, right within the Zambian borders. How did such a thing, happen to a people whose right and privilege it is, to own and exploit this copper?
Ironically I have found out that, Equinox did not even buy the 49%, usually held by GRZ, directly from the Zambian government. No my countrymen, Equinox by 2004 only owned 50% of the Lumwana project, they later purchased a further 49% from a Zambian registered American corporation Phelps Dodge mining (Zambia) ltd. (http://www.infomine.com/index/pr/Pa272620.PDF)
And so, Kashikulu asks, did we as Zambians ever own or indeed lay claim to any part of this land in Lumwana on which so much copper resides?
If we as Zambians ever laid claim, how did we come to this low almost insignificant position in the Lumwana mining arrangement?

At this point, I remember the woman and her two year old daughter that sat and begged for alms, daily at the main post office in Lusaka, several years ago. The woman must not have been successful in begging because her two years soon took matters into her own hands and forcibly grabbed anyone that passed by with food or ice cream.

It appears the Zambian people in regard to their appointed guardians (Ministers and President) are at a similar crossroad; do we as Zambians sit by and starve as our weak government continues to beg and invite our abuse or should we as a people take matters in our hands and claim what is rightfully ours?

Even the World Bank, from whom our government has done the most begging and suffered still the most abuse, is now feed up…

WORLD Bank country manager, Kapil Kapoor has called for prudence in borrowing to ensure that Zambia does not fall back into another debt trap.
Speaking at a media breakfast meeting in Lusaka yesterday, Dr Kapoor said borrowing was not bad as long as the borrower had good intentions for using the borrowed resources.
He said Zambia must learn from other countries that had transformed their economies by prudently using the borrowed money.
‘‘It is very important that we know why we are borrowing, and once this is done Zambia will not go into a debt trap again,’’ he said. Times of Zambia.

When are we as Zambians going to get it, haven’t we suffered and cried enough?

The great trek - in search of the £!

2007-11-01T14:05:00.000-05:00

The Times of London had on Monday this week, an interesting headline-

House price gloom as the wealthy turn away.

House prices fell for the first time in two years this month, sending a shudder through millions of homeowners already hit by rising mortgage repayments and more expensive borrowing.
The outlook for homeowners is likely to worsen with news that the wealthy are losing confidence in bricks and mortar as an investment.

So as I reflect, on some of my conversations with the Zambian Diaspora in London, at the independence concert. I remember asking the extent of property ownership among Zambians in London, the answer to my inquiry could not have been more emphatic “we came here for the £”. Apparently, here as in the US, the greatest preoccupation for most Zambians abroad, is making money, more and more of it, by means of wages or salaried employment. Few Zambians have invested in real estate, perhaps with good reason the strain of rising mortgage payments, is too great a burden to add to a life, already rigged with stress. The standard of living may be high in the west but the prices is the loss of a better quality of life, the better work/life balance that we are generally, accustomed to in Zambia. So those abroad work hard and sacrifice weekends off, to pay the cost of a higher standard of living – Oyster cards, countless TV channels, multi feature phones, better health care etc. In most cases, after paying for these things, there is hardly any money for a mortgage payment. It is however, easy to send a few hundred pounds, back home every month and have someone trustworthy build one a house there, instead.
And so, like the Boers north-east migration in the 19th century, the great trek of Zambians to the UK and elsewhere in search of the poundie, will go on.

Mind the gap - A legacy of chaos?

2007-10-30T18:50:00.000-05:00

The London underground fondly revered as the tube, is one of the oldest and most extensive in the world. It therefore strikes me as odd that, the brilliant minds of British engineering would rather have the train driver shout "mind the gap" at every stop than correct this small difference in height between the platform and the train. In the US any slight injury, resulting from tripping over the gap despite the warning would trigger multi million dollar lawsuits against the city. How do the disabled, cope with this small inconvenience?
I noticed only the stations on the west side of the city provide, the most access for the disabled. I guess they just work around the system or accept their inability to reach some parts of the city as life’s portion.
The global legacy, from the British colonial empire, also bears this whole mark of intentionally left gaps. From the gaps in political and territorial integrity passed on to independent India that even, today are still the cause of sectarian violence and insurgencies, to the daily chaos of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict rooted still in the gaps the British left in their creation of the geo-political system for that region.
In Zambia, that infamous image of the chaos of countless blue and white painted minibuses, all trying to get out of the poorly planned road system of Lusaka town center at peak time, comes to mind. Outer London, like Lusaka has plenty land to spare, how could the planners have failed to anticipate a population increase or at the very least the prospect of wide vehicles.
I guess this explains why those early sailors from England and Europe that founded America, setup from the very beginning a system that is fundamentally different.
They must have been so irritated with the "mind the gap" philosophy, so much so they changed every thing from electricity, roads, trains, buildings, symbols, TV system, even the meaning of words.

Seasons of Change in London.

2007-10-30T01:11:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday, as the clocks in England fell back an hour at 2am, officially ending the summer season. Kashikulu was in the joyous company of the Zambian Diaspora in the UK at the New Connaught rooms in Holbon, at a concert celebrating our 43rd independence. There was so much to see and talk about with friends, former classmates and new friends. Listening to stories of their different experiences, it was as though a new season has dawned for Zambians in the UK.
For me and my wife, however it appears little has changed in London, the narrow roads are still clogged with impatient motorists (the average US driver, even in Chicago, rarely uses the horn as much), the trains in London still stop running before 2am on weekends (the trains in Chicago never cease, only reducing frequency from every 10min to 30min or an hour apart).
But, the least change for us, was at the hotel, we are staying in, which happens to be a US owned. Since checking in Friday, it has been my desire to blog from London, everyday while here, the hotel advertises, ibahn high speed internet in every room. I have called the hotel’s magic number to get the internet working for me, several times but, has received no magic service. Every time I call, the answering party, retorts my request with a series of impolitely spoken directions. I can read and I have followed the written instructions to the letter without success. This morning, I got on all fours and discovered the problem myself; the Ethernet port on wall does not plug-in securely. My wife’s request for extra linen, met a similar fate, until on the third call to the magic number; she offered to go pick it up herself. If this happened at a bed and breakfast, am sure one would be inclined to say “that’s what you get” but this is the Hilton, and this is in spite of the responsible Secretary’s plea for hotels in the UK to dump the fawlty tower image.
Today, David Cameron threw the immigration issue back on my mind; apparently immigration will be responsible for a 10 million population increase in the UK. He fears, the strain on public infrastructure will be immense, though Kashikulu suspects, as in the US where democrats and republicans are bitterly divided on this issue; there may be other fears also, at play.
We are leaving and checking out of Fawlty towers in a few hours, I will post more blogs about my pleasant talks with UK Zambians.

An incentive to stem Presidential Plunder & Waste?

2007-10-23T17:15:00.000-05:00

Mo Ibrahim is a Sudanese born entrepreneur, who founded Africa’s mobile giant Celtel - a company he later, sold to MTC of Kuwait earning him a huge personal fortune. But unlike, other African leaders who easily get entangled, into lives of personal luxury and waste, Mr. Ibrahim is using his wealth for good. He has set up a database on African governance (Ibrahim Index on African governance) and now inaugurated the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. The largest individual award in the world, it comprises:

• US$5 million over 10 years and US$200,000 annually for life thereafter

• Up to US$200,000 a year for 10 years towards the winner’s public interest activities and good causes.

The first recipient is Joaquim Chissano, the former President of Mozambique – Perhaps this will serve as an incentive to stop the plunder and waste of public money by African Presidents.
If only our presidents could stomach a simpler existence!

Here is a sample of African presidential extravagance-

Here's how the WaBenzi get around. Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi have motorcades that can extend a mile long. At the very minimum an African president needs at least 30 cars: the S600L for himself, perhaps a couple more identical vehicles to confuse assassins, outriders, ministers, yes-men and chase cars bristling with guns. Snarling police in advance vehicles force you off the road up to an hour before the big man zooms past……

When he's at home former Tanzania President Mkapa has his own motorcade, which in the last five years has been involved in three separate road accidents in which 22 people have died (including a child of three) and 47 others have been seriously injured. Most were pedestrians. Mkapa escaped this road slaughter without a scratch to himself, but no wonder he often chooses to fly in the £15-million presidential jet he used state coffers to buy in 2002…….

Last year King Mswati III of Swaziland went against the grain. He passed over Mercedes and went for a £264,000 Maybach 62 for himself plus a fleet of BMWs for each of his 10 wives and three virginal fiancées selected annually at the football stadium 'dance of the impalas'. Imagine if he continues buying BMW for his wives; his dad collected 50 spouses and 350 kids. In May southern Africa's Mr. Toad changed his mind about Mercedes and roared up to his rubber-stamp parliament in a new S600L limo. The total bill for his car purchases alone will be about £750,000, or three quarters of the annual figure for British assistance. Of the £14 million Swaziland gets in foreign aid, £9 million goes on the king's balls, picnics and parties - and cars. Yet 70 per cent of Swazis languish in absolute poverty and four out of ten have HIV/Aids, the highest rate in the world……..

Former Kenyan President Moi's package -
Monthly pension to amount to 80% of last salary
Six cars and seven drivers
34 workers
12-bedroom mansion
Three cooks and two housekeepers
Gym, swimming pool and sauna……

The judge reserved his most abrasive remarks for former Zambian President Chiluba, whose corruption trial in Zambia has been repeatedly postponed because of his ill health. He refused to give evidence to the court. Mr. Justice Smith singled out as "the most telling example of corruption" his $500,000 purchase of hundreds of suits and monogrammed shirts from an exclusive boutique in Switzerland, as well as 72 pairs of handmade, high heel shoes to extend his 5ft stature. "This was at a time when the vast majority of Zambians were struggling to live on $1 a day and many could not afford more than one meal a day. The people of Zambia should know that whenever he appears in public wearing some of these clothes he acquired them with money stolen from them."………

The International Crisis Group (ICG) says some Zimbabweans are in favor of a retirement package, which would be attractive enough for President Robert Mugabe to step down. It could include granting immunity to President Mugabe from prosecution while safeguarding his wealth……..
Yet, on and on he goes like a ...........

To turn a leaf - Does climate impact innovation?

2007-10-21T20:33:00.000-05:00

This is for Kashikulu is a life long quest and I will tread very, very carefully least I vilify or justify ill intent or injustice. But I have wondered why people of color all around the world never quite seem to turn the leaf on poverty and underdevelopment.
From the Aborigines in mainland Australia, the vast population in Africa, the inhabitants of the slim islands of the Caribbean to some of the inner cities of North and Latin America- people of color generally experience a life of poverty or underdevelopment.

The Bemba have a proverb uulwele pamala uwolwa necibi (necessity is the mother of invention).
In researching whether climate has an impact in motivating innovation, I found that except in limited instances of coercion or scarcity of land, people of African descent live in fairly favorable climatic conditions. Robert W. July in his book - The history of the African people notes that -

"The history of mankind has always shown the deep mark of environment; put another way, man’s development can be seen as a struggle for freedom from the limitations of man’s surrounding, that might control and direct his environment rather than suffer its restraints…
The geographic location of Africa has contributed to its tropical climate which is warm but extreme only in certain locations and which lacks the violent fluctuations in temperature found for example, in North America. More significantly, Africa’s geographic position affects the pattern of rainfall which in turn has a profound influence on African ecology and history."

Is it possible therefore, that the climatic conditions in Africa, Australia and the tropical islands of the Caribbean served as a lesser motivation for the innovation to develop the means to alleviate living conditions such as better housing, agriculture, transport etc. in pre colonial Africa and Australia or even free Haiti (first independent black republic in the Caribbean that gained independence in 1804).
The earliest history available on Sub Saharan Africa shows its prominent figure Shaka Zulu pillaging with primitive weaponry at the same time that, Beethoven is composing his best symphonies in Europe. On the other hand, the Africans forcibly removed from Africa into North America; through slavery are the cornerstones of mankind’s most invaluable innovations such as the clothes dryer by G.T. Sampson in 1892, first open heart surgery by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams in 1893, automatic traffic lights by Garret A. Morgan in 1923 etc.
And so, with the majority of people of color in Africa, Australia and the Caribbean yet to have a clothes dryer in most homes, a surgeon for every 100 people or a traffic light at every intersection, Kashikulu continues to wonder, would a hostile climate in these places have changed anything?

State of Despondence part 2 - Lessons for Zambians

2007-10-20T14:55:00.000-05:00

World's Most Expensive Homes 2007
by Matt Woolsey
Thursday, October 18, 2007
provided by

Along Australia's Gold Coast and across the French Riviera, they sit above the beach offering extraordinary views of the sea. In the U.K. they are palaces that humble the Queen's Belgravia mansions.

Others range from landed estates throughout continental Europe to nature preserves in Zambia. Forbes.com

For the past two years Forbes has listed Chaminuka as Africa’s second most expensive house. The preserve is on the market for sale, the asking price $ 20 million (twenty million US dollars). How did Andrew Sardanis who arrived, a penniless teenager, in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) build this pricey piece of real estate in a country whose average homes look like this?

Zambia abounds with immense resources and opportunities; nonetheless it appears as though the ability to perceive, craft a vision and act on it, in order to exploit and benefit from this resource is an ability that Zambian people lack. A few Zambians may boast of a few riches but none can equal the legacy of Andrew Sardanis or Abe Galuni.
For these two Zambian legends, arrived in Zambia penniless teenagers yet in less than forty years, they had amassed tangible treasure and wealth, enough to trickle down and preserve three or more family generations.
Sardanis a Cyprus-born journalist cum politician cum businessman had the particular genius to place himself, at the centre rather than the peripherals of Zambia’s freedom struggle and immediate post independence economic development. He crafted a friendship with Kenneth Kaunda, that he has natured through the rough turbulence of their political and philosophical differences.
When he arrived in colonial Rhodesia, he had the vision to perceive and exploit the business of trading cattle for slaughter between the western province and the booming mine towns. Though catering to the nutritional and other needs of the colonial masters, he had the good mind to support Zambian’s freedom struggle. After independence, Sandanis was appointed Chairman of industrial Development Corporation (Indeco). He oversaw major national investments at the same time, advancing his personal fortune such that, when the rift of his differences with KK caught up with him in 1970, when he resigned his position, he was able to incorporate his own firm in the UK with a capital of 250,000 pounds.

Sardanis has clearly used his political and economic capital over the years; his influence on Zambian politics and business is enduring, he has also written a few books about his early experience in Zambia.

A fatal bond to a valley of death.

2007-10-18T20:14:00.000-05:00

This report http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=32103 on the daily challenges of the people of the Gwembe valley in southern Zambia, who were displaced in the 60’s to pave way for the construction of the Kariba dam is heart breaking. The area development chairperson had much to complain about poor roads, lack of electricity, schools, clinics, food and dry land. Yet despite the Zambian government’s failure to address these needs for the past forty seven years, the people of this hostile valley will not even consider relocating. In fact they are still angry at their initial displacement from their traditional habitant –

"Culture was destroyed during that period. People were taken to areas new to them meaning their beliefs and way of life were affected,"Mweemba Area Development Association chairperson Edson Sikalongo .

In an attempt to understand this fatal bond to a valley, that causes so much pain in the daily lives of these people and yet like a child sitting on nail but won’t consider getting up to end the resulting pain yet continues crying out loud. I found the Hualapai and Havasupai the native Indian tribes who were also displaced from their traditional habitant - the Grand Canyon, Arizona USA.

The Havasupai consider themselves the traditional Guardians of Grand Canyon. With the establishment of the Grand Canyon National Park in 1919, the tribe was restricted to a reservation at the southwest corner of the park.
Just as the Tonga of the Gwembe valley, the Havasupai have complaints against the US government, poor roads, high unemployment, and loss of their ancestral land and the destruction of their culture. The road to Havasupai is paved all the way though some parts are in need of resurfacing.

It is believed that by A.D. 1300, semi-nomadic, non-puebloan peoples also occupied the river corridor of Grand Canyon. These Pai and Paiute hunter-gatherers had a stable subsistence economy based on combined agriculture and hunting and gathering, supplemented by trade. Dispersed settlements included wick up rings, rock shelters, extensive roasting complexes that included ceramics and abundant flake stone tools and debitage. It is also believed that these hunter-gatherers made use of perishables such as baskets, mats, sandals, and twine. These ancestors of the present day Hualapai and Havasupai continued to seasonally utilize both the rim and river corridor until interdiction by the U. S. Government.

Recently the tribes lost an attempt to prevent the building of this skywalk on their ancestral land.

To Turn a Leaf.

2007-10-17T21:01:00.000-05:00

“The concept of self-improvement has undergone dramatic change since 1911, when Ambrose Bierce mockingly defined self-esteem as "an erroneous appraisement." Good and bad character are now known as "personality differences". Rights have replaced responsibilities. The research on egocentrism and ethnocentrism that informed discussion of human growth and development in the mid-20th century is ignored; indeed, the terms themselves are considered politically incorrect. A revolution has taken place in the vocabulary of self. Words that imply responsibility or accountability — self-criticism, self-denial, self-discipline, self-control, self-effacement, self-mastery, self-reproach, and self-sacrifice — are no longer in fashion. The language most in favor is that which exalts the self — self-expression, self-assertion, self-indulgence, self-realization, self-approval, self-acceptance, self-love, and the ubiquitous self-esteem. ”
Ruggiero, 2000

when I came to the US a couple of years ago, I was struck by how consistently structured the social order is laid out, in major city after city, coast to coast. I observed that while, mainstream Americans embraces and espouse a diverse and multi ethnic existence –there is always in America’s major cities that large concentration of people of African descent, almost always in the western and southern parts of the city.
The differences between mainstream and Westside/Southside residential areas are stark and glaring. The phenomenon of general decadence, scorched lawns, dilapidated building with wood instead of glass as windows, paint peeling off and uncollected garbage is a common sight in the Westside and Southside residential areas. And ironically, Kashikulu observed also that our people in Westside/Southside, Chicago USA as our people in Mutendere, Lusaka Zambia do not get into the house when the sun sets but linger on the dark streets for hours , children playing until all strength is guzzled up then and only then do they into the house to sleep.
You see over the years, Kashikulu’s job takes him from the sub-urban of Chicago land to the inner city on many nights and days. That is how seeing that much disparity, Kashikulu still high on some of old Bashikulu’s mantra
“Five areas of human endeavor …..Human dignity, social justice, fair play….”
Began wrecking his mind with puzzling questions as he drives from the green lawns, Starbucks on every block and quiet streets in the suburban; to the parched lawns, liquor store on every block and buzzing streets on the Southside.

How can the minority sector of the population account for the majority population of beggars in downtown Chicago?
The majority population of welfare recipients, of the uneducated, the unemployed, the incarcerated..... …..
Then I stopped and reflected, this is just a part of the big picture-
What is the general welfare of the descendants of Africa in the world?

From the desolate tribal lands of the Aborigines in Australia, awash with alcoholism and pornography causing Premier Howard to consider effecting a six month ban, to the multitudes on Continent whose daily lives are a bitter complex of underdevelopment and massive debt, the semi-isolated yet poverty smitten lean islands of the Caribbean and the slums of inner cities in both North and Latin Americas - the dignity of Africa‘s descendants yearns for restoration.

In the coming posts, I will bloviate possible causes of the general state of Africa’s descendants - from the early civilization at the banks of the Nile, dispersal of the African population through slavery and now immigration, the scramble and now exploitation of resources, the loss of culture and identity etc…

Zamtel Issues in the US!

2007-10-16T19:00:00.000-05:00

If you thought frustrations with inefficient service, was a preserve of Zamtel customers, you may take comfort that our national service provider may have an equal in the US. For the past two 2 weeks I have had problems with cable, phone and internet service at home. I have that bundled package that is meant to save me a lot money but sadly I have now discovered its hidden price - a lot of pain, inconvenience and possibly loss of money (in charges due to missed online bill payments).
I called the service phone number and was immediately challenged by their interactive voice system –
Please say or enter your phone or account number.
Because of my first language interference and that resultant special accent (having to first think in your mother tongue then mentally translate to English). I have long given up speaking to these systems; I just punch in the account through the telephone keypad then dial 0 for a live operator and pray they have patience and very good ears. This time however, my luck run out, the interactive system had more questions that did not have the option to punch in a number on the keypad –
Now how can I help? You can say trouble with service or …..
I tried to repeat trouble with service as best as I could but the system could not get it, after several attempts, a few torn nerves and increasing frustration on my part the system gave up and finally said –
Let me get someone to help you (a live human operator).
It’s not just Kashikulu having trouble with interactive systems; many native English speaking Americans have complained about these systems. They have also complained about having to talk to customer support staff in India that service some US service companies. Kashikulu however, finds Indian support easier to deal with - we are on the same footing language wise.
When the human operator came on the line after a 45 minute wait in queue, I explained my problem without difficult, I had great difficulty however with the time frame the operator proposed to begin addressing my service issue. She said the earliest available dispatch appointment was nine (9) days from that day - So you are telling me that, I will have to wait nine days before a technician can come round to look into the cause of ALL service disruption into my home?
Yes sir that is the earliest date I have available for your area and make sure someone is available at home when he calls or there will be another delay and a charge.

And so, yes my fellow countrymen complaining about Zamtel’s inefficiencies albeit on a different scale, I spent all in all eleven days without TV, telephone and internet service at my home in Chicago - in a country that has sent astronauts to space and back in less than 9 days.

Ghost Working

2007-10-08T22:37:00.000-05:00

Motorists abandon work as fuel shortage worsens
By Times Reporter
THE acute fuel shortage that has hit the Copperbelt and various parts of the country yesterday worsened forcing some Ndola motorists to abandon their work spending long hours on queues in a bid to buy the commodity. Times of Zambia.

This article, just reminded Kashikulu how flexible and accomodating the work culture in Zambia is - I remembered how my former workmates and I would report for work late, only to hang a jacket on our chairs then disappear into towncenter and show up 10 minutes before 17 oo hrs - just in time to knock off. We still collected the jusifiably meagre monthly salary and complained the most when the salary was delayed.
Those days of an easy laid back work culture are for Kashikulu now a far cry, the American work culture is such that how one gets to work whether it rains, snows or very hot is a very small matter the details of which your employer is not remotely interested in.
So it struck me how funny now that headline sounds for Kashikulu, yet for my former workermates it is still a very very good reason for missing 8 maybe 16 hrs of work.

And look what Kashikulu has to deal with now, before making it to work on time and working a full eight hour work day.

Recapitalization without subjugation.

2007-10-03T21:37:00.000-05:00

Related to this is the argument that modern science and technology were bound to convert the whole world into a global village. Twentieth – century science and technology had become too expansionist to have left Africa untouched. If this body of expertise could reach the moon without colonizing it, why could it not have reached Africa without subjugating it?
What follows from this is the conclusion that European colonization of Africa was not the only way of Africa’s entry into the global system of the twentieth century. Africa could have made such an entry without suffering either the agonies of the slave trade, or the exploitation of colonization or the humiliation of European racism. (Ali A Mazrui The Africans -a tripleheritage).

The Bemba have a proverb mumbwe pakubosa nishi pali uko ashintilile (implies people don't always make empty statements)

And so, do those us that espouse economic policies that seek the recapitalization of our bankrupt companies without the subjugation of national interests have a leg to stand on?

When Mr. Agarwal the majority shareholder of Konkola Copper mine Plc, through his parent company Vedanta - founded the company in 1979 he was a scrap-metal merchant with ambitions to own a cable-making company. By the early 1990s, when India embarked on the liberal reforms that were to enable him to make his fortune, he was battling to establish a modest copper smelter. But in the past two years the market capitalization of Vedanta—named after Mr. Agarwal's mother—has increased fivefold to $10 billion. Recently 20% of the group's flagship company, Sterlite Industries, one of India's biggest producers of zinc, copper and aluminum, was floated on the New York Stock Exchange for over $2 billion—the biggest overseas sale of shares by an Indian company. Vedanta has turned over $6.5 billion, an increase of 76% on the previous year, and nearly half of it profit through is operations of assets in India, Australia and Zambia. Agarwal plans to build Vedanta University, India's answer to Stanford, in eastern India; he has pledged $1 billion.

If a scrap metal merchant found options on the international money market, to recapitalizie his family business to extent that he now owns Zambia's most productive mine;
The Zambian government should have and must now, begin to examine the options for transitioning ownership through the use of leveraged recapitalizations, typically referred to in industry parlance as a recap. Many business owners and their professional advisors often overlook this viable alternative when considering a transition in ownership. With today's improved merger and acquisition market and increased valuations for privately owned companies, many business owners are considering selling their companies to gain liquidity for the asset that usually represents the majority of their wealth.
In Zambia today, the most successful state owned companies like Zamtel or Zesco may have a near equivalent worth of their book value. This higher value or "going concern" value is attributable to a company's ability to generate consistent earnings and cash flow growth over an extended period of time. A recap can be a feasible alternative in the right circumstances to access this value. A recap can be a very attractive option for Zambian owners ( the people thru GRZ) who are bullish on the future of their businesses and want to retain a meaningful ownership interest with the opportunity to receive yet another payoff in the future when the financial sponsor (private equity firm) sells its position. The proceeds from the recap and subsequent sale can often exceed the value obtained through a sale. In addition to obtaining substantial liquidity to diversify investment, the business owner (the Zambian people) will continue to operate the business with considerable autonomy (many sponsors will even accept minority ownership positions) and gain access to capital needed to support future growth. Simply put, a recap is a restructuring of a company's balance sheet. The financial sponsor will arrange new senior bank debt and perhaps subordinated debt in addition to providing the bulk of the equity to consummate the transaction. The owner's stock will be exchanged for cash and a portion of the capital stock of the newly capitalized entity. The end result is a substantially different capital structure for the company going forward.

Crimes Against Humanity?

2007-10-02T14:59:00.000-05:00

A few months ago a Caucasian workmate, who holds very strong conservative views expressed what I thought was a really extreme ideology- he thought the situation in Africa where the weakest in society are disposed of by the mightiest in the battle for survival is an ideal condition, necessary for the long term wellbeing of the human specie. He wished also, the western society would stop extending welfare benefits to members of society that would, otherwise develop the capacity to meet their own needs or succumb to the inevitable consequence of their weakness. He further stated that the weak in society always threaten the general welfare of the whole society by drawing the energy and resource to sustain their lives from, the strongest members of society instead of adding to the capacity of the whole.
And so, as I learned of the slaughter of UN peace keepers in Darfur by Sudanese rebels, I wondered if the initial slow response by the west; to the killing of thousands of helpless and weak members of the Darfur society was, some how or in part rooted in this extreme view.

The US state department had the following response to the recent killings in Darfur.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the punitive measures could include travel bans and financial restrictions on individuals.
Human Rights Watch has described the killings as a war crime, and has called for an immediate investigation by the AU and UN. BBC

Sudanese rebels have killed thousands of innocent civilians, more than killed in Lockerbie and 9/11 events put together, so why are the Janjaweed and their sponsors (Sudanese Government) not on the US state department terrorist list?

How long will it take, for a travel ban and financial restrictions to curtail the ability of these rebels to kill and displace the weak and helpless in Darfur?

The quest for Virtue

2007-09-30T21:36:00.001-05:00

Since that day, when the earliest man eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, men have sought virtue. And for loss of virtue, man gained that day the insatiable quest for knowledge; and to recognize those that achieve a certain level of knowledge and expertise in a field of study, universities have bestowed a very special recognition.
President Mwanawasa having already received, such recognition from the University of Zambia is perhaps the most deserving Zambian leader, to ever receive an honorary degree.

More noble and virtuous however, is the promise Dr. Levy Mwanawasa made to Zambians in New York, to leave no stone unturned in the quest for a people driven constitution in Zambia.

And thus Kashikulu congratulates our most learned leader on the occasion of this new recognition and his promise of a good constitution for the people of Zambia.

"The president said he is aware that in his quest to give the people a good constitution, some sections of society will throw spanners but such actions will not stop him from bringing a good and people driven national law.

"Even if some people might think that I am trying to bulldoze the constitution making process, I will not stop doing that which I think is good for the people," Dr. Mwanawasa said. " ZNBC

"Educating for a sustainabe future?"

2007-09-28T18:57:00.000-05:00

The ancestors of Africa are angry….it is as if the ancestors had pronounced the
curse of cultural sabotage. This generation of Africans is hearing the ancestral
voice in no uncertain terms proclaiming….

Warriors will fight
scribes for the control of your institutions; wild bush will conquer your roads
and pathways; your land will yield less and less while your offspring multiply;
your houses will leak from floods and your soil will crack from drought; your
sons will refuse to pick up the hoe and prefer to wander in the wilds; you shall
learn ways of cheating and you will poison the cola nuts you serve your own
friends. Yes things will fall apart. (The Africans – A triple heritage by Ali A. Mazrui).

How ironic therefore, that the call and validation for returning to a natural coexistence with nature in Africa should come from western society; from whence comes also, the horde of tourists and plunderers that have turned Africa’s ecological balance on its head.

The Africa-America Institute's 23rd annual awards Gala (New York) paid tribute to the People of Tanzania for the East African nation's significant progress in education, environmental conservation, and in creating a business-friendly environment for entrepreneurs and investment. (AllAfrica.com)

And so while, we congratulate the Tanzanian government for soothing the wrath of our ancestors a little; the Zambian government must take heed and give up its unrestrained policy of welcoming all manner of mining explorations, sale of national parks and state land without considering the impact on our culture and natural balance.

A case for diversity and inclusion.

2007-09-27T21:12:00.000-05:00

Last year, I attended a company hosted conference on diversity and inclusion; the conference featured a 15 minute video of Mauritius. The video outlined how the diverse population of this small Island, has worked together for national development and social cohesion against diverse origins, religion and culture.
It is therefore no wonder that the Ibrahim index of African governance has ranked Mauritius, as the best governed state in Africa.
Zambia has many diverse ethnic groups however I can not state without doubt that Zambians value, the different attributes each group brings to the national table.
Perhaps it is the size and geographical challenges of our vast land but, extreme differences in rate of human development i.e. public institutions and infrastructure among diverse tribal areas, lends credence to fears of marginalization and exclusion of others.

Just as a company with a diverse workforce, is best suited to meet costumer needs and consequently more successful in business; a nation that values diversity and the inclusion of its diverse population groups in national representation and development is most likely to achieve a higher rate human development and social cohesion.
As Zambians deliberate and seek the ever elusive consensus on the content and nature of our constitution, it is imperative that no section of our population is marginalized or excluded in this all important process.

There goes Mugabe!!!

2007-09-26T20:03:00.000-05:00

Like watching a drunk man walk down a steep flight of stairs against all pleas of caution, from sober onlookers….

Zimbabwe's ruling party has pushed a bill through parliament giving local owner’s majority control of foreign-owned companies including mines and banks.

The ZANU-PF party led by Robert Mugabe, the president, pushed through the bill on Wednesday after members of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) walked out in protest. ( Al Jazeera)

How can Mugabe, possibly think handing out companies and banks to his cronies will redress economic decline and put food in Zimbabwe’s hungry tummies.
If the farms he grabbed from white farmers have not produced any consumables since they were localized, what gives this senile man any hope, localizing companies will change anything.

Mugabe was in Zambia, teaching at Palabana training college in the 70’s; when Kenneth Kaunda’s Zambianisation experiment, was crumbling. There are many more lessons from history, how can there be no sane voice in the entirety of the ZANU-PF membership.

Am at loss for words, I can only empathize with the pain Zimbabwe’s children are being put through; the adults have their own conscience to grapple with.

President Mbeki - burying his head in sand?

2007-09-25T17:13:00.000-05:00

Last week President Bush, when hard pressed to explain the lack of pragmatic leadership in Iraq, posed this question.

"Now, where’s Mandela?” Well, Mandela’s dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas." (President Bush).

Of course Mandela, the most virtuous pragmatist out of Africa, still lives. It is his successor’s lack of pragmatism that validates belief in the death of pragmatic leadership in the world.
Mbeki refuses to acknowledge the decimating impact of HIV/AIDS on poor South Africans. Much further, he prefers to deal with Mugabe, with his head buried in sand.

If Mbeki really cared about Aids, he’d do more than recall defective condoms, says A.H Smyth
South Africa's government is recalling 20m condoms and prosecuting their manufacturer - Latex Surgical Products - after a Bureau of Standards (SABS) official was accused of taking bribes in exchange for approving sub-standard products.
With 1,000 Aids-related deaths per day and a national infection rate of more than 20 per cent, the recall and the prosecution are commendable…….But the government's laudably prompt response will doubtless be used to mask bigger, political problems in South Africa's embattled health service. The corruption of a middling official endangers a relatively limited number of lives; the ANC's persistent refusal to acknowledge the scale of the Aids crisis threatens the entire nation. (The First Post).

And the First Post further speculates, that Mbeki may have his own personal reason for dealing with Mugabe with kid gloves…

How long will it be before South Africa produces its own home-grown Robert Mugabe? Only so long as the Almighty spares Nelson Mandela, since it is his miraculous influence that has stopped such an inevitable calamity already happening. (The First Post)

The Right to dissent.

2007-09-24T15:01:00.000-05:00

“If the whole world was of uniform opinion but one, the world would be no more justified to silence that one voice than he if he had the means to silence the world.”

And thus came to Columbia University the Iranian President….
Mr. Ahmadinejad strode onto the stage in a packed auditorium, smiling slightly. Before he sat down, he held up his hands to the crowd, to some applause.
He then gave a speech that meandered from topic to topic, from science and religion, to creation of human beings, and the misuse of wisdom. But it was during the question-and-answer session that he was confronted with some of his most controversial positions.
He said that as an academic, he questioned whether there was “sufficient research” about what happened after World War II. “We know quite well that Palestine is an old wound” for 60 years, he said at one point, in the earlier part of the question-and-answer portion.
“We need to still question whether the Palestinian people should be paying for it or not.”
He was also asked to answer directly whether he or his government seek the destruction of Israel. He did not. But he said that to solve the “60-year old problem,” “we must allow the Palestinian people to decide on its future itself.” (nytimes).

There are now fears of a backlash against Columbia University especially because Mr. Ahmadinejad used the platform to extraordinary effect even receiving loud applause in a country that has branded him a leader of a terrorist state. Mr. Ahmadinejad seized the opportunity to highlight the unresolved fate of Palestinian refugees; he also explained the Iranian position and intention of its nuclear ambition.

Whatever the pit falls, it is clear that free expression especially the right to present a dissenting opinion is indeed - a right and benefit all governments must support especially African governments.

Beautiful Zimbabwe - lost again?

2007-09-23T02:52:00.000-05:00

I found this interesting video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYDg3ofh7dM&mode=related&search=) from Zimbabwe’s past, I think I was made by former settlers forced to leave Zimbabwe at independence.
How ironic that almost 30 years later Britain, the USA and Sweden find themselves at loggerheads with the regime in Zimbabwe. And the inhabitants of the beautiful land are again, forced to leave their country, as a result.
Particularly poignant, is the closing caption of the video.

Rhodesia!
Once a friendly, civilized nation. Built by brave men of good quality.
It was threatened by Britain, USA and small nations with stupid politicians, like Sweden who was in the front to create a black communist banana republic of Rhodesia.

Rhodesia was defended by brave men of good quality, but they lost.

Zimbabwe!
A result of support from former super power , communist Soviet Union, communist China, communist North Korea, socialist Sweden and other nations with irresponsible politicians and governments of poor quality.

Very costly seats!

2007-09-21T23:50:00.000-05:00

From the conspiracies and jealousy sparked by Miriam and her brother Aaron in the earliest Jewish establishment when Zippora wife of Moses took a seat of prominence (in the leadership of the establishment causing the influence of Miriam, and her brother Aaron to wane) to the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus – people of color have paid a very high price for a seat at the table of prominence.

So much time has passed since those infamous events, so why would thousands of black people in the US, hold protests all week after a recent event under a tree?

The tree on the Jena High School grounds is known as the "white" tree where only white students congregated. When a black student asked the school principal if he could sit under the tree; he was told that he could sit anywhere he liked. The day after a group of black students sat under the tree with their white friends, three white students hanged three nooses in the tree as a warning to black students. The three white students were suspended, however the superintendent, who is white, diminished the incident, calling it "a youthful stunt" and overturned the suspension.
Two months later, a white student in support of those who hung the nooses got into an argument with six black students, which led to a fight in which the white student suffered a bruised face. Although the white student was not hospitalized and even attended a school function later that night. The black students were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy. One of the students Mychal Bell, 17, was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery, which could have led to 15 years in prison. But his conviction was thrown out by a state appeals court that said he could not be tried on the charge as an adult because he was 16 at the time of the beating.
Today, a judge denied a request to release the teenager while an appeal is been reviewed by a juvenile court, effectively denying him any chance at immediate bail. He has been in jail because his bail was set very high at $ 90,000.

Who would imagine that a seat under this Jena high school tree, would cost six blacks students more than 20 yrs in jail?

Such events underscore the importance of celebrating those of our people like Prof Clive Chirwa who have secured through their courage, endurance and exceptional wisdom a very costly seat at the table of prominence in the western world.

A region held to ransom?

2007-09-20T18:50:00.000-05:00

That Mugabe a senile 83yr old man, now threatens to hold the welfare of the entire Southern African region to ransom, for his continued stay in power, can only happen with their compliance. I have been excruciatingly puzzled by the elasticity of the Zimbabwean people’s tolerance of this cruel tyrant.
How much economic, social and political ruin can one man wreck, before these people realize it is their duty and obligation to remove a leader or government that threatens people’s welfare in the manner Mugabe has?
More shocking is this buttress statement, from a man who just recently stated Zimbabwe was like the sinking titanic.

President Levy Mwanawasa says he will boycott the European Union-Africa summit in Portugal if Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe is not allowed to attend.
Mr. Mwanawasa who is also SADC Chairman said the purpose of the summit will be defeated if Mr. Mugabe is barred from attending the meeting scheduled for December in Lisbon.
He has suggested that leaders who have anything against Mr. Mugabe should utilize the summit to dialogue and iron out their differences. ZNBC

Mugabe even thinks he can stand in Zimbabwe’s 2008 Presidential elections – What will his campaign platform be 6 (six) digit inflation???
There is a point where dialogue yields to action, I think we passed that point a couple of summits ago!

State of despondence Part 1 – Unemployment

2007-09-19T22:25:00.000-05:00

At the fall of the socialist model driven by Bashikulu Kaunda in 1990, the unemployment rate in Zambia was 22%. After more than a decade of a liberal economic model that effected the privatization of over 80% of the national economy, the rate of unemployment is now 85%.
The national economy had been, in a state of decline for many years when the Chiluba era adopted free market economics famously referred to as Penzanomics ( after the late Finance minister a major proponent of the model).
The free market model immediately eased commodity shortages that had been chronic before the model was introduced in Zambia. The Free market model continues to ensure equal supply for market demand. However, many blame frantic liberalization and hasty privatization for increasing unemployment in Zambia.

I believe, the hysteria and lack of critique that accompanied the implementation of the free market model and the privatization of key industries caused conditions; for missed opportunities to develop local enterprise and corruption that have served to exacerbate unemployment in the long term.

When ZCCM was unbundled and privatized, the former IT department seized on the opportunity; to morph into an internet service provider CopperNET that continues to provide employment. If such opportunities were explored in other sectors for example aviation (Zambia Airways) perhaps Zambia may have had a much lower unemployment rate by now.

Unemployment the condition of willing workers lacking jobs or "gainful employment" has many causes, including globalization. In Zambia, government outsourcing of capital projects and unregulated imports of cheap products specifically undermine local enterprise efforts to ease unemployment in urban cities.
Before industrialization unemployment was not recognized as an issue in rural areas, despite the "disguised unemployment" of rural laborers having little to do, especially in conditions of poverty. In rural Zambia, seasonal farming is the only pre dominant occupation activity available.

In order to address high unemployment, the Zambian government needs to undertake systemic changes in
1. Economic policy

Structural unemployment is a result of the dynamic changes of a capitalist economy (such as technological changes and capital flight ) — and the fact that labor markets can never be as fluid as financial markets. Workers are "left behind" due to costs of training and moving, plus other inefficiencies in the labor markets. Government therefore, needs to streamline current economic policy to mitigate these effects and seal opportunities of vulnerability especially in negotiating conditions for the implementation of donor funded capital projects.

2. Trade regulation

Government needs to review bilateral trade arrangements and its tariffs. Policies that are simply meant to meet commodity demand will not work to reduce unemployment.

3. Vocational Training

Government needs to enhance national capacity to provide for new specialized training, to support willingness to switch into the available jobs and for those lacking the legal requirements of other professions.

4. Art and Craft

Government must support and promote arts and crafts for the rural population. There is a market for Zambian paintings and traditional crafts in the west. Government, through its missions abroad must identify these markets and link producers to the market.

UNZA cash troubles!

2007-09-18T15:17:00.000-05:00

The University of Zambia (UNZA) Great East Road Campus has never had its financial accounts audited since 1997. Zana

I wonder how GRZ will finally realize; UNZA is running on a deficit budget, if UNZA has not looked at its income vs. expenditure reports since 1997?
May explain why GRZ still thinks, they are sufficiently funded.

Build our rebuilt national team a worthy home!

2007-09-17T17:12:00.000-05:00

It has been months since ....

The game's governing body Fifa has declared the Independence Stadium unfit to host the World Cup qualifying games.
Football Association of Zambia (Faz) president Teddy Mulonga has accepted the situation and is hoping that government will address the problem.
"We are facing prospects of playing home matches away from home if the Independence Stadium in not ready by February," Mulonga said on national television. BBC

And if , there was any doubt remaining, Chris Katongo has finally sealed the last hole in bucket of hope, that our national team could ever retain its lost glory and strength. Now, we need to build a national stadium that is a worthy home for our national team. If Zambia is to ever host the 2011 Africa games, the government needs to quickly source the necessary financial resource to build the new stadium.
Do you think the current government can build the national team a worthy home?

Is Zamtel headed down this path?

2007-09-16T17:13:00.000-05:00

The Gambian government has sold off its shares in Gamtel the national Telecom service provider in Gambia. Its services have deteriorated and remained stagnant despite a boom in population and business..

"The Government of The Gambia has decided to find a strategic partner for Gamtel/Gamcel so as to inject the necessary capital to increase coverage and improve quality of service. Gamtel over the years has deteriorated greatly in terms of service provision, service quality and accessibility. It experienced stagnation in network expansion at a time when population increase, boom in business and transforming the economy into a technology driven one requires robustness, dynamism and strong competitiveness for any operator in the business of telecommunication". FOROYAA Newspaper (Serrekunda)

Uuh! It’s not just the names of the country and company involved that sound similar to Zambia and Zamtel – that performance report sounds uncomfortably familiar - Mwankole please check up on our beloved Zamtel!

Zambian democracy under scrutiny.

2007-09-15T14:18:00.000-05:00

"I have read this to mean if 51% of the population elect a Member of Parliament, genuine democracy means that that person should reflect the will of the people, and not vote according to his will. Assuming my interpretation of your position is correct, then there are indeed areas of difference. The question of whether the electoral system is democratic is divorced from the question of whether that ‘democratic system’ correctly ensures that the person who is elected reflects the will of the majority." Cho

The way this scenario plays out in Zambia, evokes the most puzzling doubts about whether democracy is really still in play – I may be too simplistic but what would you think if –

You went to dinner in a group and after a discussion between the choices of a steak or seafood restaurant. The group finds that the majority prefers the steak restaurant; they then decide on a menu and choose a representative to make the order. But because the representative feels seafood may be a better diet for his health, he orders seafood for the group and brings the bill along for the group to settle.

Does the order still represent the will of the majority?

During general elections, candidates present themselves under one party and sign a social contract with the electorate to undertake specific development programs. However, after securing the initial votes, some MP's switch parties or deliver programs usually at the bottom of the electorate's priority list.
Results of by-elections show a much lower voter turn out even when the same candidate wins under a different party.
Besides the financial loss suffered by the electorate forced to fund another election, do low turn outs also convey a loss of the majority support or will?

Is Political freedom absolute?

2007-09-14T16:01:00.000-05:00

My good Zambian blogger Cho raises an interesting point of view in his recent post
http://zambian-economist.blogspot.com/2007/09/quote-of-week-2nd-edition.html discussing recent political vacillations in Zambia.

However, in reaching that conclusion, we also have to accept that Mr Msika actions are part and parcel of democracy - the ability to freely choose which organisation you wish to join and even the freedom to change your mind after 48 hours! The challenge for political parties, is how to build parties that are resilient in face of this politics of poverty. Cho

Rather than justify such behavior as a preserve of a democratic system, I think this presents an opportunity for Zambians to right the cause of this expensive practice- that is a gross misunderstanding of democracy and the subsequent failure to define a political ideology or position.

The word Democracy comes from two Greek words: demos, meaning "the people," and kratein, meaning "to rule." These two words are joined together to form democracy, literally meaning "rule by the people" (Pious). There are democratic systems around the world functioning satisfactorily without the multitude of political factions (I choose to not to call them parties) that we have in Zambia.

In most systems, representatives form an independent ruling body for an election period charged with the responsibility of acting in the people's interest, but not as their proxy representatives—i.e., not necessarily always according to their wishes, but with enough authority to exercise swift and resolute initiative in the face of changing circumstances.

How diverse are the interests of the Zambian people, to justify so many political factions?

Not so diverse, I submit that, the average Zambian wants no more than two political entities. One to govern based on a popular vote the other to keep in check, the governing party to avoid excess and abuse of national resources.
In most developed democratic systems there are two political ideologies, conservative and liberal, Right and Left or like, I to put it - those that can govern and those that need to keep talking about how they would govern.
If Zambians demanded every politician or political party to define themselves in these more restrictive terms and not the current broad almost unlimited terms, we would as a nation save our meager financial resources been wasted on;
· The printing of multiple ballot papers representing each of the many political factions and candidates in general and by elections.
· Forced by- elections due to defections.
· The attendant high costs of running a parliament filled of several different political factions.
· And avoid the risk of violence having so many political factions generates.

The United States, a major driving force of the spread of democracy, did not start off with that many parties. Though composed of diverse immigrants from the beginning, the first two political parties in the United States were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. These later evolved into Democratic and Republican parties, the two major political ideologies. Further, in case one does not agree with either platform, there is the option of independent. However, there is only one independent senator in the US congress - Joe Lieberman, who was actually a democrat but was forced to run as an independent because of his support of the Bush position on the Iraq war.

Political freedom is not absolute, Mr. Msika or any other Zambian politician’ ability to freely choose which organization they wish to join and even the freedom to change their minds after 48 hours ends at the point where that freedom begins to cost Zambians tax money that could go towards national development projects instead of been wasted on unnecessary by - elections.

Witchcraft in Politics

2007-09-13T13:23:00.000-05:00

Witchcraft is widely understood to encompass attempts to harm others, not only by magic but also by covert means of established efficacy such as poisons. Traditionally, witchcraft has been a common explanation for diseases of which the causes were unknown. Although traditional indigenous religions often include or accommodate belief in the efficacy of witchcraft, they generally approve of harmful witchcraft only for defensive or retaliatory purposes and purport to offer protection against it. US State Dept Report by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

There is a general belief that some of Africa’s long serving leaders, only manage to hold on to political power that long, on the sustenance of the magical powers of witchcraft. Examples of such leaders though few and rarely established include Zimbabwe’s Mugabe. The case of Zambia’s Katele Kalumba who hid in a rat size hole at his farm, while on the run from police is well documented in the press and police arrest records.

Katele Kalumba, former foreign minister, vanished for three months after his arrest was ordered on charges of plundering the nation's resources. Despite the best efforts of a large team of police and reported sightings from as far as Belgium, he was living undetected in a tent on his farm in north-western Zambia.
Police say witchcraft lay at the heart of his elusiveness and they displayed an assortment of "magical objects" found in his tent when they finally caught up with him. UK Telegraph.

Katele Kalumba still faces, criminal charges of corruption and evading arrest. Do you believe President Mwanawasa’ patronage of Katele Kalumba and his continued active participation in politics may be rooted in witchcraft?

The high price of Dissent

2007-09-12T15:25:00.000-05:00

Archbishop Pius Ncube's announcement of his resignation, which he made here today in Bulawayo at the Makokoba Cathedral, was one of the most bitter moments yet in our painful struggle for justice in Zimbabwe. We have lost a champion, and we are the poorer and weaker for it.
It was not an unexpected blow. Ncube broke his Roman Catholic vow of chastity with a married woman. When this became public he had no alternative but to go.
He was, of course, the victim of a government-inspired honey trap. Mugabe had grown impatient with him. Ncube had never minced his words when it came to denouncing the Zanu-PF regime for what it was. He bravely exposed its appalling record on human rights. The First Post.

In Zambia, information Minister Mike Mulongoti recently warned public media journalists to avoid criticizing the government. The case of archbishop Ncube may be multi facted - however will governments in Africa ever face up to any criticism without exerting retribution on those that dare speak up?

Divorce and Child support

2007-09-10T16:16:00.000-05:00

In Zambia, as in many other countries divorce is a difficult process, especially when there are children involved. In the west, the United States for example, the department of family and child protection services ensures that, the needs of the children involved are adequately met by both parents, especially the father. It is fairly common, for the department to seize the income of fathers that neglect to cater, for needs of their children. In Zambia, the judicial system provides the only platform for redress, when a father neglects to provide for his children. However the court system is not easily accessible, especially for rural women. It is also plagued by the following;
i) An overwhelming back log of criminal and non child related cases,
ii) Lack of institutional capacity to enforce and monitor its alimony decisions.
iii) Corruption

This desperate yet, unholy attempt by the woman in the story below to sell her child; is no option any mother should ever have recourse to. It is also, the most clear and urgent call to revamp a system that has so miserably failed to protect children.

A 23-year old woman of Kabanga village in Samfya has confessed to having attempted to sell her two-year-old son for K3 million to a businessman because of poverty.
Marjorie Nkandu said she decided to sell her two-year-old son because she was failing to provide for him and his other two siblings.
She said she started having problems to support her children after divorcing, her husband early this year. The single mother said does not receive any support from her former husband or family. ZNBC (http://www.znbc.co.zm/media/news/viewnews.cgi?category=8&id=1189250376

Weekend treat - Intambi! (Morality)

2007-09-08T12:57:00.000-05:00

Mwankole brought these two interesting news items for Kashikulu, as a weekend treat.
How interesting to note that , while desperation threatens morals back home, to the point that a Zambian would accept a job to kill people abroad, in the US this week , evidence that perhaps morals at least in matters of dressing, are beginning to come back to the western world.

In a country where most people have no job, and those who do are rarely paid, you would expect a horde of applicants for an occasional position that requires only basic skills and pays US$3,500 a go, plus a nice house to live in and a Lexus to drive.
But the job's been vacant for 12 years. Finally the government has given up searching for an applicant at home, and has gone abroad to find someone. And its search has been successful.
From this week, Mr Jonas Chilembe, 34, of Zambia, is the official Zimbabwean State Executioner.
Mr. Chilembe will not find himself that busy. There are only seven condemned men on our death row at present, even though no-one has been executed here since 1995. Source The First Post ( http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=8509 )

Kyla Ebbert, 23, was about to board a plane to Tucson from San Diego when a Southwest airlines customer representative approached her. He told her that she would have to change her outfit before boarding.
Ebbert, a Hooters waitress was wearing a mini-skirt and a tank-top covered up by a summer sweater.
She explained to the representative that she had no clothes to change into, that she was heading to Arizona for a doctors appointment. Still, they insisted that her outfit was inappropriate.
What was inappropriate, she asked. All of it, he replied.

Abc15news ( http://www.abc15.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=f6ab4dd1-bb88-4cd5-9d03-73df425dda73 )

The Therapy of Music

2007-09-07T17:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, humanity lost a voice of exceptional depth and quality. The tenor voice of the late Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti struck, even in Kashikulu’s heart, that rare resonance of the understanding of human pain, anguish and sorrow that only music can relate, across diverse people, language and culture.
It struck me also, how music invigorates and soothes the troubled lives of so many people that live in poverty or oppression, around the world. In Zambia, the lyrics of Chibaya baya by the late P.K Chishala come to mind;
Nangu Bali nechlilo tukaya basansamunsha (even in mourning I’ll entertain them)

Oh how many hungry souls those therapeutic words have soothed to sleep, under the skies of those dark African nights, light up only by the brilliance of stars in the heavens.

Last May, my wife and I attended a concert given in Chicago, at the Allstate Arena by André Rieu a gifted Dutch violinist. It was evident at this concert that even here in the land of plenty, there are still many suffering anguish and sorrow that only music can help soothe.

Mwankole assures me, there has been a renaissance of Zambian music back home, this is very good news indeed. And I hope, even the Lusaka Music society that I was a member of, still manage that occasional concert especially for Christmas.

The Hidden Costs of Doing Business with China

2007-09-06T19:11:00.000-05:00

The scene when Kashikulu walks into the Wal-Mart store in his neighborhood in Chicago USA, may be far cry to scene the Kashikulu would encounter, when walking into City Market in Lusaka a few years ago. The origin of the majority of the products on sell in both markets however, is ironically the same; they all bear the famous Made in China label.

In the past weeks, Wal-Mart has pulled hundreds of thousands of toys with the label made in China- off its shelves. Mattel the largest, US toy distribution firm has recalled the toys supplied to Wal-Mart stores, because their Chinese manufacturers used lead based paint on the toys. Americans are so fearful, of the serious threat, lead poisoning poses to their children; they have spared no effort to curb this threat.
My former roomie in Lusaka reliably informs me, there is no talk or action on such fears in Zambia. In fact my roomie continued, our President Mwanawasa has created such an enabling environment that, Chinese businesses have taken on every manner of commence and trade including mines, shops, roads repairs even poultry farming. POULTRY FARMING!!! Kashikulu exclaimed, yes said ba roomie - bafya abantu naba Mwankole kumushi! Kashikulu responded.
Am, no expert in poultry farming, but don’t poultry farmers use hormones and steroids on chicks to enhance growth and prevent disease?
The international media is awash with reports of some Chinese doctors manufacturing and administering fake hormones and anti biotics to human patients. Is there a chance, some of these Chinese poultry farmers in Zambia, might source and use these fake and dangerous Chinese hormones or anti biotics on the chicks they are raising in Zambia.
Think of the impact and threat this would introduce, to Zambia’s food chain. I do not mean to alarm anyone, but the medical symptoms of exposure to such factors may take a long time to manifest and our hospitals may not even have the expertise to correctly diagnose the cause.
Its not just humans at risk in Zambia, Mwankole your life is also at stake here- you eat chicks too. Please tell the Zambian Government there is a global buyer beware advisory for Chinese products, they need to begin looking into the safety of Chinese imports into Zambia.

The Odd Politicians!

2007-09-06T14:58:00.000-05:00

Last night, the Republican presidential candidates for next years US elections, held an interesting debate on the Fox news network. I could not help but, notice how similar the business of politics, across diverse cultures - The old proverbial Bemba saying, pansaka tapabula chiwelewele has some application even, in the grand old USA.

The leading candidate Rudy Giuliani outlined strong and popular views on US national security, the economy (taxation), civil liberties and immigration. However just like our Newstead Zimba he struggles on family values. Like Mr. Zimba in that famous ZNBC news exposé by Lackson Nthani (I wonder how he’s doing these days), Giuliani is on his third wife. When a young man sitting and having a meal, in a restaurant asked Giuliani a question on family values - via live TV feed linked, to the venue of the debate, University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore center (My good Zambian blogger Cho, will love the role ICT played here) you could sense the man’s anguish and frustration, at having the substance or his lack of family values been brought up in a public forum.

Then there is, the always odd but sometimes wise Ron Paul, he some how reminds me of the late Zambian politician Mr. Chama Chakobomka. Ron Paul has as bad a chance in wining the US presidential elections as had Mr. Chakobomka in that Zambian election. And yet, one can not help but pay attention to what this man is saying. Though he holds pretty radical and unpopular views such as abolishing or reducing the role of the FBI and CIA, curtailing presidential executive privileges and ending the war in Iraq, immediately. In last night’s debate, he probably drew the most applause, especially when he said;
We have warrantless searches, we’ve lost habeas corpus. We’ve had secret prisons around the world and we have torture going on.
That’s un-American, and we need to use the power of the presidency to get it back in order, in order to take care of us and protect this country and our liberties. (www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295886,00.html)

Does that not sound like the views, one late Chama Chakobomka would hold (God rest his soul), what do you think?

Zambian Government turns down US base – Missed opportunities Part 2

2007-09-05T12:30:00.000-05:00

My favorite English teacher at Munali secondary school once admonished me to avoid using flowery and complex words in composition – I am still trying madam. In honor of her timeless advice - let me attempt to explain the opportunity, Zambians have missed, in terms perhaps, every Zambian will understand by using a simple hypothetical example;

If the management of Manchester united and Arsenal football clubs in the UK, decided to build a stadium in Lusaka Zambia, the size of old Trafford. When the stadium is complete, they then, fly half their combined English fans to Zambia, to watch the two teams play a game every day for the next twenty years.

Is there anyone in Zambia that would object and resist this?

Does anyone in Zambia, see National Airports Corporation hiring more traffic controllers to deal with the numbers of flights, that would land at Lusaka international airport?

Does anyone see the car hire and hotel businesses in Lusaka, make a kill and expanding their capacity to meet customer demand?

Does anyone see producers of food, bottled water, beer etc increasing their production and employing more Zambians?

You can replace the stadium and fans in this example; with a holy shrine and the heaven on earth crew, if you like ,the fundamentals will still remain the same, the turned down US base was an opportunity lost!

How I wish, one Kashikulu had said, wait a minute Zambians, lets analyze this idea- when the guy that talked about oil from grass came to Zambia in 1980’s. Biofuel is now, big business. Our friends in Brazil are no longer dependant on Middle East oil, while our Indeni fuel refinery is rusting for want of crude oil, that Zambia can no longer afford to buy.
See this video Virginia Farm Bureau - Biofuels in Virginia about farmers in Virginia, USA benefiting from bio fuel production- http://youtube.com/share?v=0xMt-No1aeE

Mwankole tells me, Bashikulu has weighed in, on the topic. I hope Bashikulu’s advice to Zambians this time will help, redeem the lost opportunities that have earned our once proud nation the titles of the World’s poorest and now because of Kabwe lead poisoning the most toxic.

Kashikulu on Mwanawasa' Challenge to Zambians Abroad

2007-09-04T17:02:00.000-05:00

President Mwanawasa has called on Zambians living abroad to consider investing back home to help boost the economy.
Mr. Mwanawasa said Zambians living abroad should help improve the country's foreign exchange earnings by sending financial capital resources into the national economy.
The President challenged the Zambians to emulate other foreign nationals living in Zambia who are externalizing resources, to their countries of origin for investment. Source ukzambians.co.uk

Today marked the official end of summer in the US, it has been so hot this year, temperatures have scaled beyond previous records of summer highs. I was just beginning to calm my nerves and catch my breath, after discussing how Zambia missed an opportunity when our President refused to host a US base – when Mwankole brought news of this challenge from President Mwanawasa.
I am beginning to get really concerned, about the perception back home; about the life Zambians in the west live. I won’t speak for every Zambian abroad, but I have been in the US long enough to capture this general scenario.
So, after saving money over many years of working for the Government of the republic of Zambia at pittance; might I add that they could not even pay the poor salary on time, sometimes for months on end, one uncle western-union managed to buy an air ticket to America. Upon arriving in the US, uncle western-union had to navigate the lengthy and elaborate immigration process to acquire a work permit. This process would have been easier, maybe shorter if uncle did not have to repeat himself four maybe ten times to immigration officers before they could understand what he was saying. You must understand English is not uncle’s first language, his poorly paid primary school teacher (am still very grateful Mrs. X) made things even worse by teaching uncle the wrong pronunciation of very useful words like queue (she would say it as kwe -oo).
After getting through immigration, uncle had to find a job fast; he is the only Zambian in this strange neighborhood. The landlord would not buy his promise, to pay his rent the next month; bills were quickly piling up on him. Fortunately, uncle had learnt how to survive on very little while working for GRZ; he soon got his welfare improved. The day he bought his first TV, changed everything, as he was flipping through the channels he saw a report on Zambian orphans by World vision. They showed this young girl in Kasama that relies on the sponsorship of a US family to make ends meet- uncle was so moved. He picked up the phone and called his extended family in Zambia to inquire on their health. Since that call his phone has never stopped ringing, his cousins, nieces and nephews use their Celtel and Cell Z mobile phones to page his home phone. They don’t even care about the time difference, they just want uncle to go to Western union and send them money for food, uniforms, transport you name it!
Unless our President wants Zambians abroad to emulate other Africans, running internet fraud scams, that trick Americans into wiring money to their countries - Mwankole, please tell bakateka Kashikulu is already sending more than 50% of his income to Zambia.

Zambian Govt turns down US base - A Missed opportunity!

2007-09-03T15:37:00.000-05:00

The Zambian government has turned down a request by the United States to establish a military base in the South African country."As Zambia, we will not be giving sanctuary and I think I can speak on behalf of the SADC region that none of us is interested,' said President Mwanawasa, while rejecting United States' plan to establish a military base in his country.In addition, as the chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), The Zambian president however added that each country has its own authority to decide on strategic matters. Source UKZambians.co.uk
Is it just me or does anyone out there sense the folly of that statement by our President. Are not these words from the same mouth that was just recently in Washington and London, desperately begging for any kind of foreign investment into Zambia. This in my view is talking from both sides of your mouth and I think Zambia just missed an opportunity for long term investment and the needed attention of the World’s greatest superpower. (Apatebeta Lesa Tapafuka ichushi).
I feel the President, his cabinet and the Zambian people should have given this request a sober reflection perhaps in the old traditional setting of an Insaka. In this insaka setting, am sure strong voices would have been raised in disgust, at the US created nightmare in Iraq by zealous middle aged men, recovering from the hangover of the failed grandeurs of the old soviet era. This opinion maybe legitimate in the interim, as survey after global survey shows more people in the world are less favorable and fearful of US dominance and increasing presence in the world.
Then a much younger, but even more zealous loud voice high on the toxic lyrics of Kanye West, T.I, T-Pain and Beyonce would rise in praise of the good old USA. How the US is the most beautiful country in the world, where every dream comes true. This voice would rant about the beauty of democracy, how free people are more successful in governance, business, education and live happier lives. In fact the young voice would continue, so many people want to immigrate to US, so much so the US government has reasoned it is cheaper and perhaps better to bring the US model to the rest of the world than have everyone come here - this is exactly what the US is doing in Iraq.
After an earful of the two voices talking, an older and much wiser voice, would rise from near slumber and ask the all important questions;
What would a US base in Zambia, really mean for the average Zambian?
What long term benefits would this base bring?
What threats would Zambia face if this base was built there?

My dear young and middle aged voices, our country Zambia, was once strong and important. In those days, before you were both born, the world was at war, as it is in a way now, our copper sold for a lot of money- believe it or not a single unit of our currency was even worth two British pounds. So much has happened since those glorious times, our country is now afflicted by a debilitating poverty that threatens so many lives. Our once productive industries have collapsed, businesses are choked by high interest rates and inflation - public institutions are under funded and overwhelmed by a growing population.
A US base may not fix everything but the presence of 20,000 to 50,000 US servicemen in Zambia would generate a lot of business. These servicemen would need so many services food, fuel, telecommunications, roads, hospitals and schools for their families. They would employ so many Zambians directly, and many Zambian businesses ranging from building, repairs, cleaning etc would suddenly have more customers. If our government, negotiated the contract in the interest of the Zambian people, the US base would continue to use Zambian businesses for many years to come. Our economy would get the constant push it needs and the benefits would be felt everywhere, even in Solome village in Mpika.
Would Zambia then, be the target of Islamic fundamentalists burnt on hitting US interests anywhere, maybe but rememmber because Zambia is a declared Christian nation, they already hate our nation. The benefit the base would bring to our nation outweigh any threats out there, in fact the real threat, poverty that this base would assuage, kills so many Zambians daily.
I only hope, the mwankole(bird) that brought this news of this missed opportunity to my house in Chicago, makes another fly by State house in Lusaka and gives President Mwanawasa, Kashikulu’s reaction to the news from home.

Factors of Zambia's Settlement decisions

2007-09-02T12:18:00.000-05:00

These two articles on Afrigator Zambia caught my attention.

1) Chief Sandwe appeals for help on roads, water By Christopher Miti in Chipata Thursday August 30, 2007 [04:00] CHIEF Sandwe of the Nsenga people in Petauke District has appealed to Msanzala Member of Parliament Peter Daka to help address the problem of roads and water in the area. In an interview, chief Sandwe said his area had a lot of problems that needed to be addressed by the government….

2) Sinazongwe hunger could worsen - chief Mweemba by Tovin Ngombe in Sinazongwe Thursday August 30, 2007 [04:00] SENIOR chief Mweemba of the Tonga people in Southern Province has said the hunger situation in Sinazongwe District could worsen next month if the government does not send relief food….
Chief Mweemba said Kafwambila, Siampondo, Muuka, Denganza, and Kanchindu were the most affected areas. Chief Mweemba said people living in Siameja had no land to cultivate on because the area was too rocky. Source Afrigator Zambia.

Reflecting on what factors determine the choice of population locations in Zambia, I found myself musing over our history. There are several diverse population groupings across Zambia, with a dormant tribe in each region, the Lozi in the west, the Tonga in the south, Ngoni in the east, and the Bemba in the north. The ancestors of these major ethnic groups settled the regions they dominate in the 18th century with initial intentions to;

i) Escape other warring tribes
ii) Acquire virgin land.
iii) Establish their own traditional administrative system consistent with their custom.

Since then population growth, interaction with other cultures, adoption of western values, systems of governance and land administration, advances in education, technology, agriculture and information sharing have changed the dynamics. Now, more than 80% of the Zambian population lives, in or near urban cities. Why then do some still choose to live in areas that are too remote - cut off from easy reach of public service infrastructure, that in some cases, areas that can no longer sustain safe human habitation.
Resettling people from some of these areas that are too remote, to other safe and available locations closer to public infrastructure would make it easier for government to provide basic services and emergency interventions when needed. It would also enhance national development by leveraging governments costs for providing basic universal services such education, medical, agricultural etc to large concentrations of population vs. remote, diverse and sparsely distributed populations. For example Govt recently allocated ZK 24bn to build two high Schools in the eastern province. In Chama there was debate among two remote population groups (Mangwere and Manga) on where to build the schools, in the end the population in Manga won the debate, they argued that Mangwere is more remote and is inaccessible during the rainy season (http://maravi.blogspot.com/2007/08/eprovince-gets-k24bn-for-construction.html). The impact of this decision on the population in Mangwere is continued isolation and further marginalization.
Would you support a move by the Zambian government to resettle people from locations that are too remote, whose only valid reason for staying there is their sentimental attachment to their traditional land against constant threats of starvation caused by non arable lands, constant disease, lack of water, medical and education facilities?

Lead poisoning in Kabwe

2007-09-01T22:53:00.000-05:00

Zambia' s economic outlook is slowing getting better, however the ghosts from its past economic failures - stretch their terrible shadows everywhere. In Kabwe the threat from the collapsed lead mining venture is present and needs desperate attention from ALL Zambians abroad. We can NOT just express dismay or disgust as children and adults expose their fragile bodies to lead poisoning. Lead poisoning has grave effects including reduced IQ, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, behavioral problems, stunted growth, impaired hearing, and kidney damage. At high levels of exposure, a child may become mentally retarded, fall into a coma, and even die from lead poisoning.
Al Jazeera has this recent report by Yvonne Ndege.....

Kabwe is a wasteland full of the remnants of Zambia's once glorious mining past.
Decades of unregulated mining, however, have turned Kabwe into Africa's most toxic town.
Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege travelled to Kabwe, about 150km north of the capital, Lusaka, and filed this report.
Abandoned by industry in 1994, former workers still come to Kabwe in search of lead and other metals to sell, to scrape a living.
Exclusive report
Watch Al Jazeera's report on Zambia's toxic town Alex, a father of four has been working here illegally for years. He thinks he already has lead poisoning and that, eventually, it will kill him.
"It's dangerous," he said. "But its just to help our family to survive."
Mines in Kabwe were built and operated without health and safety concerns or environmental regulation. As a result, Zambia's people are now facing the consequences.
Families in the area have been warned not to drink water from wells in their garden. Source Al Jazeera

Zambians in the US, UK and other countries can take the following actions;

Initiate written or verbal petitions with Zambian mission to cause the Zambian government to condone off the Kabwe mine deposits by whatever means necessary including police deployment.
Begin purchasing Lead poison testing kits to send to Kabwe through Zambia mission.
Initiate fundraising projects to support safe income generating ventures for those affected.
Lobby international agencies that might support cleaning up the mine deposits.

Please feel free to add other ways to help, you can make a difference for the children in Kabwe.