Maravi

Chipolopolo, iyeee; Chipolopolo iyeee...

Chipolopolo, iyeee; Chipolopolo iyeee...
By The Post
Mon 13 Feb. 2012, 12:30 CAT

"YOU can get it if you really want, but you must try, try and try. You'll succeed at last... But the harder the battle you see, it's the sweeter the victory..." sang Jimmy Cliff in a reggae rhythm. Our hearts should expand on this day, which calls to memory the conquest achieved by determination over despair.

Determination and hard work is to rejoice on this day, and useful to reflect their own; so that we rejoice the real, and not imaginary, good; and reflect on the positive advantages we achieved last night in Gabon, and those which it is ours farther to achieve.

For this - for the wonderful result achieved and yet in store for our country -let us rejoice! But let us rejoice as reasoning beings, not as ignorants or idiots going around destroying things, causing accidents and killing ourselves. So shall we rejoice to good purpose and in good feeling; so shall we improve the victory once last night achieved.

Close to 19 years ago, we lost our entire national soccer team in a terrible plane crash off the coast of Gabon. We have never had a tragedy like that. We know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like that happen.

It's all part of the process of trying to move forward. We picked up the pieces and soldiered on. And last night we did it in Gabon - we honoured the lives and memory of those dear ones we lost close to two decades ago in Gabon.

Truly, the future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave,
the determined, the hard working, those who never give up. Those who perished in Gabon were pulling us into the future, and we have continued to follow them. And last night we did so in victory. We won. Hold your heads high now. We have won.

We must not lose ourselves, in everything that we do, including our politics, to cynicism, pessimism and despair. We can win and we have won. Wherever you are today, we challenge you to hope and to dream of a better future, a better country, a more just, fair, humane and prosperous Zambia. Don't submerge your dreams.

Even in the gutter, dream of the day that you will be upon your feet again. You must never stop dreaming. It is said that today's dreams are tomorrow's reality; yesterday's dreams are today's reality. We have no alternative. We must continue dreaming, with the hope that a better nation, a better Zambia will become reality in the same way our soccer dreams became a reality last night in Gabon - as it will, if we keep struggling. We should never give up on our dreams, our utopias. It is that struggling for utopia means, in part, building it.

We have seen many of our dreams of the past become reality. And, since we have seen this, we have the right to keep on dreaming of things that will become realities someday, both in our country and in the world as a whole.

If we don't think this way, we would have to stop struggling, for the only logical conclusion would be to abandon the struggle for a better Zambia, a better world, and we think that no honest, sensitive or caring person ever abandons the struggle for a more just, fair and humane society, just as they never stop dreaming of such a society, of such a world.

Face reality, yes. But don't stop with the way things are; dream of things as they ought to be. Dream. Face pain, but love, hope, faith and dreams will help you rise above the pain. Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress, but you keep on dreaming.

Dream of a peaceful and prosperous Zambia. Dream of a Zambia where every child who wants to kick a ball has access to a ball. Dream of a Zambia where every child has the possibilities or opportunities of making themselves what they want to be - a Chris Katongo, an Emmanuel Mayuka, a Kennedy Mweene, and so on and so forth.

Dream of a nation where the political leadership is honest and incorruptible, is caring and loving, is hard working and thrift. Dream of a nation in which
teachers teach for life and not for a living. Dream of a Zambia with medical doctors who are concerned more about public health than private wealth. Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice than money. Dream of preachers who are concerned more about prophecy than profiteering. Dream on the high road of sound values.

Dream of a Zambia that refuses to surrender to corruption, abuse of power,
intolerance and other vices. Go forward in the Chipolopolo way. Zambia must never surrender to malnutrition. We can feed the hungry and clothe the naked. We must never surrender.

We must go forward. We must never surrender to illiteracy. Let's invest in our children so that we can have more Rainford Kalabas, more James Chamangas, more Isaac Chansas and so on and so forth. Never surrender; and let's always go forward in the Chipolopolo way. Don't give up. We know its tough sometimes. It took a little more effort to get there last night, to defeat Cote d'Ivoire last night.

We cannot forget 19 years ago when our backs were against the wall, when we had so many coffins to put in the ground at Independence Stadium and Michael Sata was the one assigned to be in charge at that burial site. But as usual, painful as it might have been, he took it well and could crack some jokes here and there.

Don't you surrender and don't give up on your dreams, on what you want your
country to be. We have done it in soccer. We can do it in other things. Of course, soccer is one of the things - one of the sporting disciplines - in which our country and indeed Africa as a whole is rising to demonstrate her excellence, for too long latent in her womb.

We will do it in other things as well. Together, we will lift up the standards
of our governance. Together, we will improve our economy and ensure that the basic needs of our people are met.

We have won. Let's celebrate. Chipolopolo, iyeee; Chipolopolo iyeee, Chipolopolo iyeee ...

Labels: FOOTBALL

posted by MrK @ 3:23 PM