Maravi

Lack of social, economic, political language

Lack of social, economic, political language
By Jeff Kalembe
Tuesday May 29, 2007 [04:00]

Sunday's sermon by a priest as Catholics celebrated the feast of pentecost (when disciples received the Holy Spirit) drove one candid point home. This country despite having abundant resources is miserably poor - and poor in every sense of the word. Poor in our politics, in our morals, in the constitution-making process, in acquiring wealth without corruption, in the way employers treat employees; in the way service providers treat customers and so on.

Surprisingly, this is a country whose companies reap the highest profits especially for those that have branches in other countries; it is a country that helped liberate the whole region, and is a Christian nation. The question is why is it so? One of the main reasons is our lack of common voice/language.

Zambia is a country that lost the ability to speak with one language after Independence. Before then the country was able to speak one language, and worked as a unit under the able leadership of the freedom fighters to wrestle this country from the colonists.
But after that, we have lacked one social, economic or political language to give this country direction. On every subject anyone can think of, one is bound to find very divergent and almost irreconcilable positions which make progress a very slow and tedious process.

You just have to look at what it takes to constitute a commission, collect views and to come up with the road map for a constitution, to see this retrogressive stark reality. Civic leaders have their language. those in government, opposition, the church, and the rest of the people also have their own voices.

What is sad is that this country is 43 years old. Imagine if this country were human being, what sense do you get? A very irresponsible middle aged man or woman? A man who spends time talking loudly about everything and yet doing nothing. This is epitomised by political leadership full of malicious and good-for-nothing politicians.

You sense a people that do not want to serve this country and its people. A leadership that spends money to buy colourful clothes that leave them stressed by all colour of pressure that comes with their stupid tastes.

We have a 43-year-old country with so many political parties that it takes the whole day to count them, yet it takes only a minute to know what they are about - personal ego. We have a 43-year-old country with so many churches, one wonders what the almighty feels about all this. We have so many unions for a very small formal workforce and yet workers are exploited left, right and centre. The question each citizen must ask themselves is: Is my contribution towards this 43-year-old being called Zambia appreciated.

Fortunately, The Post offers that which some Zambians lack, the decency of confronting that which is wrong. The moral responsibility to confront those that lie, the thieves, the dictators, the people that bore us with the desire to go to state House but are clearly just " loud tins" . The Post offers direction to a lot of employers on how you can professionally run an operation. The Post confronts the moral decay of society which most church leaders find hard to clearly talk about.

Zambia, wake up and grow into a responsible 43-year-old!




http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=27163

Economic problems
By Chali Chewe
Tuesday May 29, 2007 [04:00]

We have had three presidents so far. Our second president has just been found wanting according to the recent London judgment and our current predicament in terms of economic turmoil has been attributed to his having plundered the resources of this country.

Our founding president KK is said to have presided over a clean goverment where theft of public funds was never tolerated yet the economy of this country during his tenure was in a worse off situation than in FTJ’s.

Our current president has been riding on the wave of fighting corruption and its offshoots and yet more public funds have gone missing according to his own admission and the poverty levels which still remain unshaken.

My fellow country men and women, where then lies the problem that we cannot get ourselves out of this economic quagmire? Are our leaders simply playing on our minds or is it we the citizens who have failed in our duties to hold our leaders accountable for their ommissions and obligations to us?

This brings me to another matter concerning the presidential retirement benefits. Let us be serious as a nation, we have no capacity to lavish individuals with the kinds of extravagancies that obtain in our current constitution. As we review our constitution, I would suggest that one of the qualifications for somebody to run for office of president, one must have own accommodation anywhere within Zambia. It was shocking to look at the construction costs of Dr Kaunda's house. It is unbelievable.

We all know that KK had a house at Shambalakale farms in Chinsali, and that FTJ owns about two houses in Ndola.We also know that Mwanawasa apart from Teka farms, also owns a fine mansion near the old airport in Lusaka. Does it make sense for the tax-payer to still spend billions of kwacha to construct mansions for former presidents?



http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=27164

FTJ, keep quiet
By Wilson Pondamali
Tuesday May 29, 2007 [04:00]

The editorial comment of Sunday Post of 27th May cannot pass without comment of appreciation. Indeed I also don’t find anything wrong with Chiluba being likened to a monkey in charge of a maize field.

I appreciate you for taking a bold decision to indicate that Chiluba should drag you to court as publishers of Hakainde’s statement, epashili pakuleka bane!

It is not the people’s statements that should worry Chiluba but his appetite for stolen property.

I am meant to believe that Frederick Chiluba has taken the 10.5 million people of Zambia for granted.

Chiluba claims to be a Christian but his actions do not match up to that. Stop your threats, get well quickly and face the law.

Labels: CHILUBA, ECONOMY, LETTERS

posted by MrK @ 4:56 AM