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March 2008 - Zambian News

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  • Danger is My Middle Name...and Neil

    We left Chobe early - in fact we leave everywhere early - to take the ferry over to Zambia. This was utter and complete chaos with a backlog of lorries over a mile long waiting to get on it. Problem being it only took one lorry at a time. We actually got through relatively quickly as we were tourists. We were soon in Livingstone and were taken directly to Victoria Falls. You could see the spray from the falls miles away. It looked like a mini cloud. The falls were in full flow when we arrived and they are quite a sight. We all got completely soaked. Crossing bridges while having nature throw water at you makes one feel like you're in a Indiana Jones movie or on a boat in a storm. We then made our way to camp which would be our home for the next four nights. I upgraded immediately. The tents we use smelt of damp as if they'd had fifty old trainers stored in them. We then had a presentation on which activities we could do. One was a flight over the falls in either a microlight or a helicopter. After the presentation the woman who asks too many questions asked what the difference was between a helicopter and a microlight - even though both were shown in the DVD.
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  • International Thieves: Western Corruption and the Third World Financing of the Rich

    Pan-Africa and the Third World are certainly on the move insofar as the west's colonialist and racist perceptions of African and Third World people are concerned. However there are certain areas in which negative perceptions of African and Third World peoples are deeply entrenched, and will require specialized forms of informed and analytical critique to address them. Making these perceptions even harder and more complicated to deal with are tendencies within a few pockets of elites amongst African and Third World peoples themselves to pass on opportunities to address the global nature of some of the problems. The perception of corruption in Africa and other Third World countries offers one example where negative images of the global South persist, and are not adequately challenged by those endogenous elites in a position to make a difference. The story of the perception of corruption in Malawi, the staggering levels of capital flight from African countries, and the shortchanging of Zambia's copper industry serve to illustrate the injustice of Western institutions in their hypocritical indictment of Third World corruption.

  • Ludwig Sondashi Eyes MMD Presidency

    Former Works and Supply minister, Ludwig Sondashi, has declared that he will float himself as the ruling MMD presidential candidate at the party's next convention. Speaking at a Press briefing at his office in Lusaka yesterday, Dr Sondashi said he had the necessary credentials to stand for both the party and Republican Presideny. "I will stand as the MMD president and if adopted I will go for the Republican Presidency. I am the best suited and more relevant person to become president of Zambia," he said.
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  • Free riders...., 2nd Edition

    Henry Chipewo (Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport) has weighed in on the problem of infrastructure free ridership. Henry's radical proposal is for government to come up with a policy framework that will restrict the movement of cargo above a certain tonnage on roads in order to avoid damage to infrastructure : "The roads, railway and air transport have to complement each other. What the roads can't do, we expect the railway to do the job and what the railway sector cannot provide, the airlines are expected to offer the service.....Now what government should do is come up with a policy framework that will restrict the transportation of bulk goods on roads but through railway. This will reduce on the depletion of our road network which is already in a bad state...It is unreasonable to carry a bulk of copper, sugar or any other goods by road when that can be done using the railway lines.....There is no time that government will be able to reconstruct 80,000 kilometers of the road network in Zambia. For the country to be competitive in terms of trade, we require strong rail infrastructure because this is the most appropriate for the transportation of bulk goods"
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  • Ferry Your Own Maize, Zim Millers Ordered

    Zimbabwe's Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has ordered all millers in that country to organise their own transport to collect maize from Zambia in an effort to avert imminent starvation. According to the Zimbabwe Guardian of yesterday, in an effort to speed up the process, the ruling ZANU PF had dispatched youths to Lusaka to help in the loading of the maize onto Zimbabwe-bound trucks. Most parts of Zimbabwe have run out of maize stocks, with the little available stocks being sold on the black market. According to the paper, in Bulawayo, a 10-kilogramme bag of maize was now fetching Z$200 million instead of the stipulated Z$10 million. Zimbabwe's Minister of Agriculture, Rugare Gumbo confirmed the government had dispatched manpower to Zambia to help quicken the delivery of maize.
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  • ZESCO maths...

    Monica Chisela (Zesco Limited's PR Manager) provides some figures to ease our understanding of Zambia's energy problems: "The installed capacity of the Zambian electricity grid is 1,600 Mega Watts, of which 450 Mega Watts has been taken out for rehabilitation and up rating. Two machines from Kafue Gorge, each with a capacity of 150 Mega Watts and one machine from Kariba North Bank Power Station with a capacity of 150 Mega Watts, giving a total machine outage of 450 MW....The current maximum demand is estimated to be 1,300 MW and it is anticipated to reach 2500MW in the next five years. We also need to keep a reserve of 150 MW as a safety measure to prevent total black out in the event of system disturbance. During the evening peak, 300 MW has to be shed off in order to save the machines from total collapse should the demand exceed available supply". Not sure why the 30 Mega Watts is being lost in the ZESCO narrative, but hopefully you now have some confidence that ZESCO has a plan!

  • Doin' it for Dorothy!: Iwe [Oh you rogue]!

    Since I arrived in Lusaka I've found myself caught in exchanges with local Zambians where I've felt completely awkward. It has usually centered on being asked for something, or being singled out because I'm white and female (or so I think). But, over the last week I've worked hard to get over my discomfort enough to experiment with different strategies in these situations, and it turns out I've found the antidote to my awkwardness! Below I'll share 5 stories from last week, and I think you'll learn (as I have) that Zambians are always at least 86.4% joking in these situations. *Note: statistics used in this post are only accurate 73.4 + 8.5 % of the time* 1. SASSY STUDENTS When I was walking home from work yesterday, I passed 2 students on the sidewalk (Recognized by their uniforms, all students wear uniforms to school in Zambia). As I passed I heard one of the girls say something in Nyanja in a mocking tone that ended in "muzungu", the word for white person or foreigner. So I turned to her and said, "Muzungu? Where's the muzungu? Can't you tell I'm Zambian!" Her and her friend had to stop walking for laughing so hard. I think out of surprise that I recognized they were talking about me, but I'd also like to think it was because of the supreme hilarity of my joke. The other girl said, "You're Zambian!? Iwe!!!" [Iwe, pronounced ee-way means, "Oh you! You're killing me!"]
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  • The Credit Crunch in Zambia

    Commercial banks - mostly subsidiaries of foreign banks - are the most dominant financial institutions in Zambia. The banking system is comprised of 14 commercial banks, holding 90 percent of financial assets. Foreign equity participation is significant, accounting for three quarters of the banking system capitalization with regional leaders such as Standard Chartered, Barclays or Stanbic controlling a sizable part. However, a financial sector diagnostic carried out by the World Bank Group noted that by the end of 2005, credit to the private sector by banks represented only 8% of GDP in 2005. Furthermore, only 5,000 people hold 90% of loans, and just 8% of Zambia's adult population had a bank account as of 2005.
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  • Ha-Joon Chang on Bad Samaritans

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  • Zambia cancels 1.2 billion dollar deal with South African bank

    Zambia has ended negotiations with South Africa's largest bank to finance a 1.2 billion dollar (762 million euro) oil import deal after disagreements, state radio reported Thursday. Zambia's energy ministry permanent secretary, Peter Mumba, told the state-run Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation that his government failed to reach a deal with South Africa's Standard Bank. The bank had been selected to finance crude oil imports from Kuwait. "The government is not happy with some of the conditions the bank had proposed," Mumba was quoted as saying by the radio. He declined to disclose what these conditions were.
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  • Chess in a Bar - Lusaka, Zambia

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  • Quote of the week (Levy Mwanawasa)

    "We have taken what appears to be harsh measures. We attained the HIPC (Highly indebted Poor Countries) completion point and we had all our US$ 7 billion debt written off.....We would rather be remembered as having performed.....Now it does not matter whether you are a minister or not; you will be exposed and prosecuted....We know a good number of cases have been exposed and it appears our opponents are taking advantage (to say) that there is corruption," - Levy Mwanawasa (Daily Mail 21/03/2008)

  • Zambia receives Japanese grant for fertiliser, agro-machinery

    Japan has given Zambia a grant of K11.6 billion ($3 million) for the importation of 4,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser and 60 tractors and trailers to help the country increase food production in the 2008/09 farming season. , said this in Lusaka yesterday during a grant assistance agreement signing ceremony at the ministry. "The tractors will be for sale to eligible small scale-farmers who are registered in accordance with Government's regulations," said Minister of Finance and National Planning, Ng'andu Magande.
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  • Katey Harris in Zambia

    Medical student Katey Harris (02-05) of Seattle, Wash., is in her third year of medical school at the University of Washington and is currently participating in the WWAMI Rural Integrated Experience in Libby, Mont. The program allows medical students to spend 20 weeks in a rural setting completing training in family medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry and internal medicine. She is working at The Libby Clinic, an outpatient ambulatory clinic. When she graduates, Harris hopes to become a family doctor in either Montana or Alaska.
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  • Luapula Province Micah Challenge Launch Report

    Micah Challenge Zambia was launched nationally in Zambia on 4th August 2007 in Lusaka.This was followed by a Copperbelt launch on 27th August 2007 and North Western Province on November 20th 2007. This report contains the contents, process and outputs of the launch of Micah Challenge in Luapula Province on February 4th 2008. The provincial launches are meant to introduce the work of Micah Challenge to the churches and to lay a foundation of District Steering Committees. District Committees will be the main vehicles to advocate for the achievement of MDGs at district level. Then their efforts will be picked up by Micah Challenge to ensure that the government knows what is happening in districts. Luapula province is located on the northern part of Zambia and lying between latitudes 8 degrees and 12.4 degrees south. It covers 50, 567km/sq of land and mass. And it has five main physical features; plateau, the lake, rivers, the valley and the swamps; altitude ranges from 900m above sea level in the valley to 1,300m on the Kawambwa plateau. The land is well watered with a normal rain season which runs from October to April.
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