Yesterday I spent part of my morning with an old man as he moved around in a field searching for traps that he had laid to catch mbeba (field mice). He is well past retirement age. He has no pension. He has no income.
He owns one bicycle. His only source of accessible protein and carbohydrates is the few mice he traps each day and the little rain-fed maize he managed to farm on an illegal plot of land.
How did we get here? 50 years since we completed our nation’s walk to freedom, we are facing a major energy crisis, our kwacha has weakened to the lowest levels in our history, costly by-elections continue to rob our treasury of scarce resources, joblessness haunts the average home. We are now accustomed to living with poverty, poorly educated children, an outdated constitution, a bloated civil service, a huge and ever growing national debt, corruption on a scale hardly seen before and a political system that concentrates power in the hands of the few who routinely abuse it with impunity.
[pullquote]instead of working for the nation, PF ministers spend their time camped in the field campaigning to win every by-election.[/pullquote]
Given this background, it is amazing that there are not more of us running through the land looking for field mice.
How many more jobs need to be lost before we realise how serious the load-shedding has become? How many more trees need to be cut down to provide charcoal for the millions of homes that no longer have regular power? How many more businesses need to lose money before we wake up to the reality of life under the Patriotic Front?
Judging from their responses, the PF seem to feel that everything is alright. Earth to PF:
– people are being laid off because of the unstable power supply
– the cost of living is rising because of the high costs brought about by our failing kwacha
– by-elections have robbed the nation of the money you have been borrowing on behalf of our children and grandchildren
– instead of working for the nation, your ministers spend their time camped in the field campaigning to win every by-election.
In the middle of all this, you dare to arrogantly complain about the opposition attacking your incompetence?
NAREP may not have money to dish out to every voter whose support we need but we have a power more potent than the money and corruption that seems to pervade our land. We have the power of prayer and the conviction that one day, God will answer the prayers of the silent majority and give us a leader who truly fears Him.
A leader who will put country before Party and nation before self. A leader who will seek to truly empower his people not because of the riches and fame he he can gain from being elected but because of the selflessness and sacrifice he is personally willing to undergo in order to deliver on the fading hopes of our nation.
Elias C Chipimo
President
National Restoration Party
25 August 2015
“In the middle of all this, you dare to arrogantly complain about the opposition attacking your incompetence?”
Hot darn that’s a good line! Godfather “You question me on the day of my daughter’s wedding…” slips to second place. Must find a use for this in my household…
Africa my beloved continent! The curse of our senior citizens many of who fought for our independence will haunt us after they all die. They tried their best only to be treated like secondhand citizens. In Africa, a man-eat-man continent, it appears getting old is a crime. May God intervene.
…and that leader is Mr. HAKAINDE HICHILEMA!
We love Monitor lizards in the west. The love Mbeba in the East. Who destroyed Zambia? Ask yourself this. Who are the people from independence that did not set up independent enterprise. They alluded to one party foolishness. Once you answer and tackle that, only then will Zambia start moving forward.
Whomever decided a one party state is he best for Zambia, caused all the nonsense you see today. Plain and simple.
In any case Mr. Chipimo, I hope you had the good sense to give that old man a chicken or two as compensation for using him in your article. And a bag of unga as a bonus, would have been nice too.
Elias chipimo is just a lousy cry baby. after failing to solicit for a job in gvt ,he can write whatever he wants…. ask that old ***** he writes about, where did he take his pension?stupid failure to plan for retirement.
Mr Chipimo, puleeeez. It is alright to point out all these problems, and we have known of their existense for 50 years. In 1962, Kaunda campaigned to eradictae these same problems and became Prime Minister. He then went on a spending spree and squandered $3 billion from the reserves, when the population was only 4 million people. In 1992, MMD took over with a population of 11 million and Zambia ranked among the poorest countries in the world and $4 billion debt. Today, the population is 13 million and the problems are still there! SOLUTIONS, SOLUTIONS PLEASE!
If anyone is complaining of electricity, they should blame MMD that failed to improve the facilities during their fifteen-year reign. If anything, it was only Mwanawasa who came in sober, and it was brave of him to even prosecute his predecessor, Chiluba over corruption. The ten years of Chiluba were wasted on plundering the country of the resources till he could no longer milk the thin cow. Privatization brought Zambia to its knees (Hakainde was there, and he could have advised the president to reinvest the money to power). He was there between 1991 and 2001, when Zambia became comparable to Malawi and other very poor contries, but all was well with HH.
Is he talking now because he wants to become president?
There is no culture of sustenance and maintanance in Zambia hence a lot of things and live go off the hinges according to age. Nothing and no one ages gracefully in Zambia because of this. While we are furtively trying to convince our population about low levels in the Kariba dam owing to poor rainfall we are forgetting that not too long ago we admitted that the wall of that very dam were in urgent need of collapse and hence could not hold as well as before. NOBODY is giving thought to this very fleeting statement but rush to agree to low levels of the dam which were a result of letting excess water out! See, Zambians, you will never win by pretending… The truth will out!
There is no culture of sustenance and maintanance in Zambia hence a lot of things and live go off the hinges according to age. Nothing and no one ages gracefully in Zambia because of this. While we are furtively trying to convince our population about low levels in the Kariba dam owing to poor rainfall we are forgetting that not too long ago we admitted that the wall of that very dam were in urgent need of collapse and hence could not hold as well as before. NOBODY is giving thought to this very fleeting statement but rush to agree to low levels of the dam which were a result of letting excess water out! See, Zambians, you will never win by pretending… The truth will out!
…walls of the dam were in a state of disrepair and imminent collapse and in urgent need of repair…