Its an awfully beautiful Sunday afternoon, regular visitors to my house would he surprised to see me here and this is not only because I rarely spend my Sundays home but also because I am here in the front house trying to do up the landscape. It’s such a peaceful sight yet the same cannot be said about what is going on in my mind. Dear friends the thing is, when you watch the news and see kids that have been molested, like in my case, it doesn’t really make any sense until it happens to one of your own.
Allow me to take you back to that fateful and most recent Friday night, naturally after a long week I would link up with a couple of friends around our lovely Lusaka to hide somewhere in Rhodespark to hear the latest and to simply unwind the week. And so it was on the Friday that I linked up with ‘the usual suspects’ on what started off be to a promising evening. Little did I know that the next few minutes would paint a very grim picture.
I got a call from my little cousin and my first thought was an eminent invitation to one of those salsa dances around town, oh boy how was I wrong. Her message was simple yet thought provoking, ‘you better get home, my dear’. It wasn’t a prank; my kid sister was reported to have been raped. I obviously never really grasped the reality of that message until I got home only to see my aging mother turned into a sorry sight.
This prompted my quick arrival at woodlands Police station where the police officers on duty charged in response to my dismal temperament. Before I realized it, I had four officers at hand to withhold my anger. I looked at my twelve year old sister and couldn’t entertain the fact that some insane men had taken her advantage of her. As I peered deeper in her young eyes, a lot of thoughts came in my mind. I thought about the emotional trauma that this kid was obviously going through, I thought about the possibility of her contracting HIV, I thought about how this experience would affect her sexuality in future. Trust me; you wouldn’t want to be in my shoes.
The night earned itself some credit as the worst night ever such that as I made my way to the children’s section of the University of Zambia, I didn’t know whether it was more important for me to be angry with the culprits or to sympathize with my kid sister. I could deploy all my available resources to making sure that the culprits have been brought to book but what would that change about my sister’s fate? I have too many questions with but a handful of answers. I guess you just never know, until it happens to one of your own!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
RETHINKING THE FOOD SITUATION IN ZAMBIA
It’s only natural that the issue of food is top of the mind for most people and certainly for me, I fail to perform to expected levels when my stomach is not tightly gripped; I choose to believe that most of you share this view. You many not really understand the food crisis in this country until like me you meet the likes of Justin Mwemba, a taxi driver in Lusaka I met the previous week. Aside from struggling to make for his cashing markup, I got to learn that Justin is also father to two and a husband of one wife who lives with his family in Bauleni compound. The man vividly put the deteriorating hunger situation in the country, describing the cost of living and the price of meali meal in particular as unattainable for most average Zambians.
True to the word, in the past year, the issue of meali meal prices has been one of great interest to most Zambians and it was only a few weeks ago when we were told that Zambian will experience a poor harvest this year, alarming isn’t it? Yet this is the order of the day- year after year. The price of meali meal is negatively affected by ill government food administration, low agriculture output as much as it is affected weather patterns.
I need not overstate the fact that Zambia has a special God-given capacity to feed itself and its neighbors seeing as I would like to zero in on a few ideas that could work to solve the food crisis. I may not have the magic solution but I hope that this pierce of writing saves a start to devising workable solutions to address the current crisis.
Despite countless efforts made to urge government to put agriculture on the center stage of their undertakings for both internal food security and foreign exchange purposes, there has been little done in this area. Today agricultural news is still rocked by unattainable fertilizer prices and maize grain price scandals. It is obvious that the system being used to make these much needed agricultural inputs available is not working. And this is not only embarrassing but detrimental to aspirations of ensuring sustainable food security and making Zambia the ultimate food basket in Africa.
Firstly there is a lot of mismanagement, low innovation and lack of priority that characterizes operations at the FRA. In frantic efforts to know what the problem is, I was shocked to learn that both commercial and subsistence farmers find it more profitable to sell the maize to opaque beer brewers or foreign nations rather than the government simply because alcohol brewers for instance offer to buy the grain at double the price. Why can’t government rectify this anomaly? I suggest that deliberate regulation be effected to woo farmers to vend the grain to the FRA by offering attractive prices and terms, and smart economic measures such as high taxation and regulation be effected to discourage farmers from selling their maize to ‘opaque beer brewers’.
Secondly, Government needs to take more deliberate action other than relying on selfish private commercial farmers who would rather sell their maize grain to the Congo than the FRA. I suggest that the state identify key farmers so as to equip and position them in strategic locations for the sole purpose of achieving food security in our beloved country. These strategic state aided farms should be equipped with state of the art farming equipments, inputs, an all season irrigation system that enables winter farming (Tapped from the numerous mighty rivers we are endowed with) and objective government supervision to ensure that food shortages and crazy meali meal prices are a the thing of the past.
Lastly, Zambia also suffers from a self inflicted addiction to maize- somehow we believe that the only thing worth being called food is maize meal- nshima. This is not the case; there are other foodstuffs like rice, cassava, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, that can supplement maize as the staple food. Government needs to take deliberate action to fight this stereotype and promote other foodstuff to combat hunger in this country. I will give you an example of Cassava, a crop I am most familiar with because my grand mother in Kapompo grows the crop. Cassava is cheap and convenient to grow; it is rich in carbohydrates and will not let you down should your basal metabolic rate be higher than the average Zambian. Yet it is very drought resistant, doesn’t need fertilizer and can grow in various soils with minimum supervision. The advantages that Cassava has over maize are immense and I see no reason why it should not be promoted as a staple food of choice.
We need to see more inspiring deliberate action and more government innovative regulation to ensure that the country has maximum food security so that Justin Mweemba and his family are well fed. This in my view is the government’s primary responsibility and there is no room for excuses.
True to the word, in the past year, the issue of meali meal prices has been one of great interest to most Zambians and it was only a few weeks ago when we were told that Zambian will experience a poor harvest this year, alarming isn’t it? Yet this is the order of the day- year after year. The price of meali meal is negatively affected by ill government food administration, low agriculture output as much as it is affected weather patterns.
I need not overstate the fact that Zambia has a special God-given capacity to feed itself and its neighbors seeing as I would like to zero in on a few ideas that could work to solve the food crisis. I may not have the magic solution but I hope that this pierce of writing saves a start to devising workable solutions to address the current crisis.
Despite countless efforts made to urge government to put agriculture on the center stage of their undertakings for both internal food security and foreign exchange purposes, there has been little done in this area. Today agricultural news is still rocked by unattainable fertilizer prices and maize grain price scandals. It is obvious that the system being used to make these much needed agricultural inputs available is not working. And this is not only embarrassing but detrimental to aspirations of ensuring sustainable food security and making Zambia the ultimate food basket in Africa.
Firstly there is a lot of mismanagement, low innovation and lack of priority that characterizes operations at the FRA. In frantic efforts to know what the problem is, I was shocked to learn that both commercial and subsistence farmers find it more profitable to sell the maize to opaque beer brewers or foreign nations rather than the government simply because alcohol brewers for instance offer to buy the grain at double the price. Why can’t government rectify this anomaly? I suggest that deliberate regulation be effected to woo farmers to vend the grain to the FRA by offering attractive prices and terms, and smart economic measures such as high taxation and regulation be effected to discourage farmers from selling their maize to ‘opaque beer brewers’.
Secondly, Government needs to take more deliberate action other than relying on selfish private commercial farmers who would rather sell their maize grain to the Congo than the FRA. I suggest that the state identify key farmers so as to equip and position them in strategic locations for the sole purpose of achieving food security in our beloved country. These strategic state aided farms should be equipped with state of the art farming equipments, inputs, an all season irrigation system that enables winter farming (Tapped from the numerous mighty rivers we are endowed with) and objective government supervision to ensure that food shortages and crazy meali meal prices are a the thing of the past.
Lastly, Zambia also suffers from a self inflicted addiction to maize- somehow we believe that the only thing worth being called food is maize meal- nshima. This is not the case; there are other foodstuffs like rice, cassava, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, that can supplement maize as the staple food. Government needs to take deliberate action to fight this stereotype and promote other foodstuff to combat hunger in this country. I will give you an example of Cassava, a crop I am most familiar with because my grand mother in Kapompo grows the crop. Cassava is cheap and convenient to grow; it is rich in carbohydrates and will not let you down should your basal metabolic rate be higher than the average Zambian. Yet it is very drought resistant, doesn’t need fertilizer and can grow in various soils with minimum supervision. The advantages that Cassava has over maize are immense and I see no reason why it should not be promoted as a staple food of choice.
We need to see more inspiring deliberate action and more government innovative regulation to ensure that the country has maximum food security so that Justin Mweemba and his family are well fed. This in my view is the government’s primary responsibility and there is no room for excuses.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Education for Today and Tomorrow
It’s every school-leavers huddle, when you finish your grade twelve, its either you are lucky enough to enter any of the three universities, you will have to hope your parents will have enough financial muscle to keep in you in a private college or that maybe somehow by some supernatural intervention- you will fit in the society. Well even if you thought of getting a job, I would say tough luck, especially when even the university graduate does nothing other than roaming the streets while his/her credentials rout on a sitting room wall. Year after year, month after month we cast dozens of school-leavers on the streets with no direction and little hope to a successfully life what so ever. Who doesn’t relate to this?
I need not emphasize the fact that Zambia’s educational system is a shoot in the dark. My assertion is that there is need to conceptualize and design the entire educational system so as to breed successful minds that are armed to address the challenges of the 21st century.
I would like you to tell me what Zambia’s education philosophy is? What is the conceptual backdrop to what kids are being taught in schools? What are we doing to prepare the kids for the competition that exits in today’s globalized world? I am sure you have no answer- my point exactly.
A bit of background to this will be to mention that at independence, Zambia adopted the British education system which was mostly designed to produce ‘office people’, the accountants, managers and lawyers. This particular system created some stereotypes which made office work look more special and the more hands-on type of work more inferior- little wonder this kind of work was left to the natives. Worse off, this system of education was created to address the challenges of 1950s, 60s and 70s and has not been adjusted since then. Today by the time a kid completes grade twelve, he/she is very ill prepared to face the challenges of ‘society’ as school leavers fondly make reference to life after high school. In the present day kids learn is Biology, chemistry and so forth; in my view, these subjects are very impractical and add little value to a child who wants to be a carpenter or a footballer.
If you want the kids to be well grounded and very knowledgeable, all those environmental sciences and a lot of math is only necessary until the kids reach grade 9. But in the finals years of high schools, we need to start preparing the kids for society. Let them specialize in one major trade. Let the kids choose what they want to be and train them to excel in that particular field and should you want them to have options, give them a minor major. You will find that this way kids will be smarter and more focused other than when you bombard them with a million subjects and expect them to excel in all of them.
The current education system is also biased to white collar careers, but one thing these so called education administrators forget is that not all kids are the same and working in an office is not everything. I wonder if they have ever heard of people like Muhammad Ali, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Kalusha Bwalya and the list is estimable. I am putting across the fact there are other avenues of progress in this world such as sports, art, fashion, drama, film, music, the media, innovation, science, social work and what in recent years has proved to be a very lucrative career- preaching. The role of teachers or mentors should be to identify what a child’s potential is and develop the child’s aspirations further. By 10th grade, a kid and the parents will have to choose a particular trade and focus on being good at what they want to do such that by the time the kid completes grade twelve, they are al least ready to face ‘society’ because we would have equipped them with life skills. This is especially critical since universities and colleges are few and expensive.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have our own education system that’s tailored to suit our needs! It wouldn’t hurt to borrow from the Americans and create something called the Zambian dream, ‘you can be anything you want’. Let’s tell these kids that Zambia is a country of winners! It’s special to be Zambian! Let’s encourage them to be innovative, to enterprise, to work hard, never to quit- yes all things are possible if you put your heart to it!
A little more hope, a little more belief, effort and we are there!
I need not emphasize the fact that Zambia’s educational system is a shoot in the dark. My assertion is that there is need to conceptualize and design the entire educational system so as to breed successful minds that are armed to address the challenges of the 21st century.
I would like you to tell me what Zambia’s education philosophy is? What is the conceptual backdrop to what kids are being taught in schools? What are we doing to prepare the kids for the competition that exits in today’s globalized world? I am sure you have no answer- my point exactly.
A bit of background to this will be to mention that at independence, Zambia adopted the British education system which was mostly designed to produce ‘office people’, the accountants, managers and lawyers. This particular system created some stereotypes which made office work look more special and the more hands-on type of work more inferior- little wonder this kind of work was left to the natives. Worse off, this system of education was created to address the challenges of 1950s, 60s and 70s and has not been adjusted since then. Today by the time a kid completes grade twelve, he/she is very ill prepared to face the challenges of ‘society’ as school leavers fondly make reference to life after high school. In the present day kids learn is Biology, chemistry and so forth; in my view, these subjects are very impractical and add little value to a child who wants to be a carpenter or a footballer.
If you want the kids to be well grounded and very knowledgeable, all those environmental sciences and a lot of math is only necessary until the kids reach grade 9. But in the finals years of high schools, we need to start preparing the kids for society. Let them specialize in one major trade. Let the kids choose what they want to be and train them to excel in that particular field and should you want them to have options, give them a minor major. You will find that this way kids will be smarter and more focused other than when you bombard them with a million subjects and expect them to excel in all of them.
The current education system is also biased to white collar careers, but one thing these so called education administrators forget is that not all kids are the same and working in an office is not everything. I wonder if they have ever heard of people like Muhammad Ali, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Kalusha Bwalya and the list is estimable. I am putting across the fact there are other avenues of progress in this world such as sports, art, fashion, drama, film, music, the media, innovation, science, social work and what in recent years has proved to be a very lucrative career- preaching. The role of teachers or mentors should be to identify what a child’s potential is and develop the child’s aspirations further. By 10th grade, a kid and the parents will have to choose a particular trade and focus on being good at what they want to do such that by the time the kid completes grade twelve, they are al least ready to face ‘society’ because we would have equipped them with life skills. This is especially critical since universities and colleges are few and expensive.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have our own education system that’s tailored to suit our needs! It wouldn’t hurt to borrow from the Americans and create something called the Zambian dream, ‘you can be anything you want’. Let’s tell these kids that Zambia is a country of winners! It’s special to be Zambian! Let’s encourage them to be innovative, to enterprise, to work hard, never to quit- yes all things are possible if you put your heart to it!
A little more hope, a little more belief, effort and we are there!
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