By Charles Ngoma
The difference between the Developed and the Underdeveloped countries
Order
Sometime ago, a well-known media personality in Britain recalled how while visiting some remote post in the North Western province of Zambia, she was concerned about issues of sanitary and sewerage nature. In that remote area, she was surprised to find a lavatory, nicely lime white washed and almost unused. On enquiring, how this lavatory had come to exist amidst this environment, she learnt that the toilet had been built specifically for a British Royal visitor. It was okay for the locals to use the bush to answer nature’s call, but unseemly for one of British Royal blood to do so under the camouflage of vegetation! I cannot verify the truthfulness of this story, but it opens up the subject of this paper – ORDER.
Address
Give a visitor to any developing country a particular home address and let them find it without asking for directions, they are bound to get lost. Road signs will be missing, houses will be un-numbered and one is lucky if they do find a road at all! Much of the orderly infrastructure that exists was what the colonial rulers left behind. The younger a country is the more ordered the infrastructure. Many people in the world are actually ‘of no fixed abode.’ It does not mean that they do not have homes, or that their homes are shacks, no, but there is no way that one can geographically locate their home. There is no home address. Many people use Post Office boxes to collect their mail and post, because that is the surest way there is. There was a time in Zambia when mail was delivered to a house! The Township Management Boards (T.M.B.) collected the mail from the Post Office and delivered it to the house under their jurisdiction. Later, everyone was required to ‘collect’ their own post at the T.M.B. After that, the T.M.B’s disappeared and every one had to have their Post Office box or Private bag. The home address disappeared.
Sign Posts
Like with addresses, there is a bigger problem of sign postings. No one can know where the Accident and Emergency department is as they approach Lusaka from any direction. It is taken for granted that everyone knows where the University Teaching Hospital, the largest Health facility in Zambia is situated and how to get there. Other hospitals do not even indicate whether they do take Accident and Emergency victims at all. Recently, I looked at Google Earth. I was surprised that Google has named several thoroughfares in Zambia than anyone can know, even those who actually live there! This goes to show that somewhere in the Town Planners’ offices, everything is in order, but on paper, and not on the ground.
Emergency Services
Imagine you are involved in a road traffic accident as a stranger in the country. Who would you call? Emergency services are non-existent. The high death toll on the roads is partly due to lack of road side medical assistance. Those who may survive the accident may die due to manhandling by the ‘good Samaritans.’ Others will reach a health care facility, but it is not capable to handle ‘Casualties.’ Any high rise building is potentially a towering inferno waiting to cremate its occupants. There are no facilities at the hand of the emergency fire services to handle certain situations. The Police service is totally incapacitated. Many a time, the Police officers will hitch a ride with the complainant to get to the scene of the crime. An Ambulance service is not just ambulating patients, it is supposed to provide first medical aid to the victim. If the ambulances are not equipped and the crew are not trained to do so, the vehicles are worthless and are more likely to endanger life or at least permanently maim people.
Behaviour
How often does one see ‘disorderly’ behaviour even without the influence of alcohol! Alley ways are stinking with human excrement. There are hardly any public convenience bath rooms or toilets available in the crowded city centres. If you do find one, even flies think it is too dirty! The last person to use the facility does so without any thought for the next person. That is disorderly behaviour. They say that charity begins at home, and it may be true to say that this pattern of behaviour comes from someone’s background. I hear that Livingstone is changing, and this is in anticipation of visitors to the UNWTO summit. It looks like we do well ONLY when we are expecting visitors. We built the Lusaka International airport and Mulungushi Conference centre, for the Non-aligned conference. Hopefully, the people of Livingstone will be well behaved not just for the time of UNWTO, but for ever, to keep Livingstone clean. It is strange that visitors who do not vote are the ones who get the good facilities!
Street vending is not wrong in itself. However, the way it is conducted in Zambia today is a clear sign of disorderly behaviour.
Time Keeping
Now this is going to hurt. How many of us keep to time? This seems to be the problem in every under-developed country! If things do not go according to time, there can be no development. Monday to Sunday, every day, people are late. Late for work, late for wedding, late for church, late for everything, and un-ashamed! How many projects go according to schedule? Over and over again, we ignore this dimension of life. Time is as important as length, breadth and height! You cannot open a door with a key that is 2 mm longer than it should be. Similarly, you cannot progress in life if you pinch 2 minutes from every appointment.
Record Keeping
Where does one get statistical information in Zambia? If there is statistical information available, how accurate is it? In the developed countries, records have been kept going back to hundreds of years. Our record keeping is so bad that even contemporary ones do not survive. Computers are a modern invention, so it is not the lack of computers that leads to loss of information, but carelessness of those who are engaged to do so. Our history is short and records should be very readily available. Good record keeping is necessary for good planning.
Laws of the Land
Laws are passed to allow for orderly existence of a society. From traffic to anti-corruption, from town planning to retail and wholesaling, from taxation to human rights, all laws allow for a predictable state of affairs that leads to peaceful co-existence of people. Predictability is crucial for development. How do I know how to behave if I do not know the law and rules of behaviour? How does one relate to another if they do not know the grounds of that relationship? Our Legislators pass the laws of the land, but where is the execution?
There are many more examples that I can point out on the matter of ORDER in a country. These few will suffice for now. The most important thing to remember is that DISORDER is costly. We will remain a poor country if we cannot put the house in order. The country has laws at national and bye-laws at local government levels. We must obey these laws if we are to progress as a nation.
I would argue that the fight against disorder is more urgent than that against corruption. In actual fact, it is disorderliness that allows corruption to go unchecked. Poor record keeping, means that thieves get away with murder! It does not take billions of dollars in aid to be orderly. We do not need President George Bush to travel 10,000 miles (spending thousands of dollars, polluting the environment) to come and paint a wall in Livingstone! Next time you see a piece of paper on the road, pick it up and throw it into the bin. Train your children to use toilet facilities and to use them properly. If there is urine on the floor around the toilet pan in your home, rest assured that there will be worse in a public toilet. Train your children to make their beds, to wash up after a meal and to wash their hands before they handle food. These little, little measures will go a long, long way in developing the country.
Good read, well done.
Thanks
Good read indeed Mushota. Most of this DISORDER is more due to acceptance of mediocrity than lack of resources. Zambian attained self rule earlier than most of our neighbours but we have VERY LITTLE to show for it, and this is so disgraceful. Since 1964 our leaders and others in positions of power have been visiting developed countries more with the note tin of enjoying themselves that getting ideas of how to develop our country. How can one ever explain any of the following:
1. Only one traffic intersection bridge in the country(at Zesco Lusaka), yet our roads remained so necessarily clogged with vehicles due to poor planning.
2. Government engineers and architects who approve designs of buildings like Down Town mall or those new govt offices poorly classed with aluminum plates? Etc,…
Sorry, I meant: “…… More with the INTENTION of enjoying themselves ….”
“….. Poorly cladded with aluminum plates…”
well writen article,,but why did he use a UPND protest photo.. why not use UNZA protest or black friday protest photos… Is the author politically biased or he is a PF silent cadre???
@Mushota
Bet you didn’t read it.
Are you trying to remind us of where we are or laughing at us or complaining? You are just stating the obvious.
Good article. Apart from time-keeping all you have written applies only to Zambia. in Southern Africa. Namibia, Botswana, South Africa have order, signage, address, emmergency services, record keeping and laws of the land. We are thousands of miles away. We need to work hard. Something is wrong with our education system. Look how Grade 12 school leavers have been exposed on the R4 M programme. They can hardly express themselves. Who is teaching Zambians to replace R for l and vice versa? There is also this educational broadcast programme on MUVITV by UNZA. Please discontinue this programme and do proper research first. Its mediocre. A lady reading through a powerpoint presentation, how does that help a viewer . Should be more engaging.
It’s Not Rocket Science, & unless we begin to behave differently, as this article has beautifully highlighted, we shall always be Poor, Underdeveloped, with infrastructure only befitting that of a FAILED STATE. The unfortunate issue is, unlike some failed nation’s, Zambia is potentially wealthy. Good Governance, & correct attitudes from us it’s citizens, should enable us to prevail from this current sad state of hopelessness. To summarize Corruption should be an offence carrying consequences- LIFE IMPRISONMENT, – irrespective of who’s found wanting. No more selective Justice!!
Very Well Written and sadly very true. I recently visited Livingstone and was looking for a particular house on a Street, there were no Street Names or House Numbers. I asked lots of people and everyone sent me in a different direction, I gave up in the end! Public Toilets often dont have running water, why?? Time keeping is terrible in zambia, I have seen people arrive a day late and think nothing of it, as if it is acceptable! Litter, its a huge problem, plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose and people just discard it anywhere! However, we still love Zambia, its home!!
I joined politics for the very reason of this article and unfortunately the whole of Africa has mishandled Independence and why we become Indepedent. When the British were here, there was order bt now you feel sick and hopeless on wht we do to ourselves and our Country. Thy were very few so called educated pipo bt there was order bt now I wonder if we are really educated or we just speak english. We can do better and we need radical change in implementation of wht we already know.
Because of our disorder we even vote for people like Sata…
well written sir.
The problem is post Zambian leadership,they related order to colonialism.After independence it become free for all.
good article. just out of curiosity have they now put waste bins in and around towns in zambia? i am asking because not so long ago driving through one prominent town with my family from south africa, we stopped to have some snacks. my 8 year old son after eating his started wandering in all directions looking for a bin to throw his waste with i must say very little success. this was apparently very intiguing for some onlookers who impatiently told him to throw it apo! the poor boy could not bring himself to do this and got back in the car with his waste. i guess he must have been brainwashed by the ‘backward. south african teachers that you cannot litter!
Zambia’s value system is still traditional and based on superstition. The country should adopt Judeo-Christian values (e.g. keeping one’s word, time, respect of rule of law, cleanliness and leading by example) as stated in the Christian Nation declaration!
This article is well written, correctly researched and analysed. I can only add this: I recently travelled to the DRC, and it was like being in Zambia. This is how bad Zambia the state of our country is. There is no need to rush to build shopping malls when the country’s infrastructure is literally non-existent, institutions are not working or work for the 1% of Zambians who have benefited or enriched themselves from the poor tax-payers, through aid monies, or corrupt means. The hospitals and schools are in dire straits, no libraries, no parks, no recreational facilities. Private hospitals have sprung up, run by surgeons instead of physicians. In comparison to our southern neighbours, in Bostwana, Namibia and South Africa, Zambia is at zero. Maybe it is no wonder we despise them.
Well articulated piece.Folks live in unkempt homesteads,they trade in filthy mkts and take bribes to earn easy cash.To me all this disorder is a reflection of a populace unwilling to do any hard work yet they want “the good life”.What folks need to realize is that everytime you cut back on hard work you also cut back on your rewards and success never obeys your short cut ways- it is you to obey the rules of success.Zambians have to learn to be meticulous if they truly want success but its obvious they prefer disorder.Tis why i always tell zambians that poverty is choice.
HH and his tribesmen will go on a rampage if SATA could lock up anyone peeing in public like his Excellence did when he was governor/minister of Lusaka.
Even our students at higher institutions of learning destroying property is Disorder.
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