Senseless Statistics....to suffering youths

OUr Presidents do not need any educated character like Dr. Francis Chigunta to tell him about the extent of poverty and economic decline in Zambia. He should not listen to the World Bank or the IMF because they have never been trusted when it comes to poor countries. They are sophisticated international economic criminals.

For isntance if president Banda wants to see the faces of poverty in Zambia, he just needs to take a walk to the northern side of the main gate at state House. About 50 metres away, he will see the real Zambia. Those dirty ramshackles where State House workers are packed represent the true picture of the Zambian economy. It stinks. People are suffering. They have no food.

They have no money to send their children to school. They did not celebrate Christmas or New Year because they had no means. When politicians and foreigners were wishing each other a prosperous new year over expensive food and wine, the majority of Zambians including workers staying in the State House compound were yawning with hunger. It’s not fun. President Banda and his praise-singers ended 2009 and entered 2010 saying they have done a good job. They claim that the Zambian economy has recovered. Recovered from what? The Zambian economy has been sick for decades. The Zambian economy is like a person with full blown AIDS. He or she has a lot of opportunistic diseases because of his/her generally weak body. Today s/he is sneezing and tomorrow s/he has swollen legs. It does not mean that once the sneezing has stopped, the patient has recovered. The virus is still in the body and in Zambia’s case, the HIV lives at State House.

You can’t say that the economy has recovered because it has gone back where it was in 2008. How was Zambia’s economy in 2008 for you to be so proud? How many employable people in Zambia had no jobs? How many people were turned from hospitals to go and die at home because there was no medicine in the hospitals? How many people went to bed on empty bellies? Is that the status you want to measure your performance on? And if at all any gain has been made, was it on account of the present government’s competence?

We are told that the mining sector was hardest hit due to decline in the copper price to about $2,800 dollars per tonne. Towards the end of 2009, the price rose to 7,000 dollars. Has the Zambian government has any control over this? Is it not true that even if I was the one in State house the price of copper would have behaved the same? How many people have been employed in addition to those who were labouring in the sector before the good excuse of credit crunch began? How much money will go to Zambians under the new high prices of the commodity? What the present regime is saying is that they are proud to have taken back the economy to the status quo we have always lived under.

If there are any minor gains anywhere in the economy, it is not right for president Banda and his friends to go on roof tops and praise themselves. That is against Biblical advice. Since president Banda said he will maintain that questionable declaration of Zambia as Christian nation, then when we can safely assume that he believes in some of the Bible verses including the one on self praise. “Let another man, not you, praise you’ that is what the Bible says. What this means is that, president Banda does not need to hire clever-for-nothing writers to enumerate the economic gains which we can’t see for our selves.

If there is progress, we shall see it in our own lives. Our children will have schools places and money to pay. Our graduates will have jobs and or access to loan facilities to establish their own businesses. Our retired elders will access their packages immediately they sign off unlike the current situation where most of them die from depression because they can’t access their money. Our peasant farmers will have ready market for their produce instead of being conned out of their year’s sweat by thieves at Soweto market. The social delivery service system will be functional for those of our relatives who need the facility. Politicians will leave politics and go into business without regretting unlike now where they go direct into poverty. Why do you think ministers worship the president?

What does a single digit inflation mean to street kids who are exposed to all sorts of life’s abomination every day? If the economy is improving, why are prices of basic needs like salt and maize meal not reducing? How do you measure three per cent growth when people who live just outside you fence have no food? Why do you think there is so much focus on the presidency and politics in general? People know that it is only politicians who are eating well.

The best way to ease tension in the country is to improve the economy for every one.
Zambia has a small population of 12 million which is very ease to budget and cater for. The problem is that the people at the top are only interested in themselves and their relatives. The money spent on one cabinet minister in month is enough to build two state of the art clinics in any given compound. Those goons at Bank of Zambia and Central Statistical office should stop being lazy and go into the filed to gather actual statistics on real people. Just because they can afford to get a loan to buy a car and build a house on a plot obtained through bribery does not mean that all is well with everyone.

They have nothing to lose by producing statistics that show the real picture on the ground. The problem is that such people spend most of their time in their properly furnished offices and can’t see the world out there. When they go to gather data, they still stay in lodges and have no time to mingle with people. Unless of course in night clubs. That is why most of them have AIDS. In conclusion, the government just needs to work and work without blowing its own trumpet. The people will see for themselves. Not every one is malicious as to choose not to see development which is actual. As it is, the statistics we have been given are not motivating Zambians. They are annoying and stupid. We shall not eat statistics. We need food. We need access to clean water.