The Dying Ability to Analyze

I get interested in topical issues in Zambia at any one time. In all cases, my interest is to see how people look at issues and their take on them. Sadly, every single time, I have ended up being given the political side. The famous words we use in Zambia being "you are being political". Some have taken this as an insult really - because they feel you have undermined their thinking. I believe this is the right term and happy it has gained following in Zambia. Let me explain.

If you try to get a definition of politics (simpler way is just to google "define politics"), it will give you definitions that involve views, power, etc and I'm yet to find one which says .... analysis ...., etc. Like the simple definitions are:

"the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power"

"activities aimed at improving someone's status or increasing power within an organization"

Which all point to that fact that analysis of issues are not the core issue of politics. The fields which have analysis at the core and "technocrat", "scientist", "expert", etc. So I expect these to have the issues analysed before they are brought to public consumption.

Honestly, the worst people in this are people who would make sure you know what qualification they have in the field and go on rampage to give opinions and claims with no analysis whatsoever! That is killing the nation because someone will pick up your lie and assume it is gospel truth and contaminate others. We have to be responsible in issuing claims or political statement. We should not mention qualification in an area or field is you will give a party position, mention the party or philosophy you subscribe to. Let people who will objectively respond to an issue or their expertise use their qualification.

I believe this will help people know who to listen to, and not any person who has been given a microphone to speak should be believed. In this same sense, I think the authority charged with higher education should also make it a point for people who have received honorarily degrees not to use them. I get confused to hear a "Dr Something" said something in which he deliberately ignored the facts or has no clue what the facts are. Further, we as a people need to realize that when one takes on the hat of politician, they want employment and will say anything they can to get that job regardless of what the truth is. They are politicians at the end of the day!

The effect of misinformation is so bad that certain sectors that rely on confidence would fail to stand regardless of what you do as a damage control measure! We may not clean up the mess in time. All for a position? Really?

I remember someone showing off after voting in the referendum in August that "I couldn't vote for that thing! It says the moment you get married, your wife will have more power than you in your home and marriage!". I was so shocked and I said "No! You didn't read it." He never said a word after that. I could see the guy fighting in his mind of what to do or say which would repair the damage. But what can you say when you have no idea on an issue you wanted to by pass without the facts? That is the sickening levels we have reached! This same person may have told all his family as a person who knows what he was talking about.

Then there are those twitter who say whatever their mate says and repeat it over and re-tweet as much as they can manage in a day. In the end, they don't realize they only speak about it among themselves connected by a political line which they can't think outside of. Really people, if you speak among yourselves with no outside endorsement, so to speak, what exactly are you doing - re-convince yourselves like a cult? You know you have a good position when other people not linked to your by that common line support your idea. Otherwise, it is meaningless in the world of building support. You will have the same people supporting you on the basis of the line you have.

The dying ability of people to analyse must serious be checked before it gets out of hand. We need to push to a position where we only speak if we know something but speak on what we have no idea. Zambia needs you to think, read and be exposed to an issue before you speak about it.

Effects Of No Electric Power On The Economy

I have ignored confronting ZESCO on the issues on power and what they are doing to this economy. But I have noticed, the more we ignore the issue, the worse the situation turns out to be.

So no ignoring and I have put on my fighting gloves as this issue cannot be ignored any further.

Electricity As Power In The Economy

One thing is for sure, in our country Zambia, the issue of power is important as it is the only source of energy for feed our hungry needs for economy progress. Not even our phones would work without power for a week. My laptop cannot be on without power for over two hours - maybe thats why I'm thinking of Asus Transformer with the potential of over 10hrs of no power!

I have bought a laptop charger for my car as I can buy fuel and charge whilst driving. That handles my problem - but only temporarily. The main problem is ZESCO. And since we are not doing anything about, it stays the same.

ZESCO Company or Baby Fed!

I have always wondered what is so special about ZESCO that makes it take us for a ride this long. Then I ask myself, if this company is a public enterprise, it should respect us as the owners and provide the necessary things or we may sell or shut it down. That it exactly what it means. Zambian people own it! So they should control it.

There are two things which shock me about how we handle business in Zambia. And until we find a way to stop this behavior, we will always be in trouble. 

Why? Just look at this:

• We negotiate taxes! We negotiate the birth right of being a nation so we can give people or foreign companies "incentives". The mere fact that this country is peacful and welcomes the investor is an incentive enough. But we go ahead and give then even the little we could have got from them. We need to stop this and move on progressively.
• We spoon feed a company (like ZESCO). It ends up depending so much on government. It gets loans with no plan of how it will repay them. And the debt is stuck on government. Because of that, it over charges the people while companies like mines get "favourable" rates. It may make sense to you but, it does not to me! If this was a company setup logically, it would put rates that make sense from the mines and not hammer the people.
  
  The sad part of this is that, mines get favourable treatment from all over, when they needed to be paying their equal share of the taxes. So you and I pay not only our taxes, but the mines' taxes and the salaries for ZESCO employees. Then power is taken away from our homes and put in the mines for the mines to rip even more wealth. Is this fair?

In doing the above, we have ended up being a failed generation. There is little we can show our children the positive contributions we made to the country. Zambia is in the state it is today because we don't do anything about it.

ZESCO's Tax Contribution

Do we know the tax contribution of ZESCO? I think we should know. We should also know how much loans they contract as we end up paying for this. I don't think it is too much to ask. We own the company. We should know how much taxes it pays, the dividends, then the amount of foregone customs and taxes that ZESCO enjoys. Then we should look at how much we are paying the workers. Its just fair and right for us owners.

Economy Effects
Without power, we can't power up our laptops and make reasonable income. We can't run servers from our houses to power up net-stations in Zambia. So we end up paying for server space in Europe or Asia. This is an out-flow of resources to other countries. Will government get taxes from that money? No way my friend. So we are probably the only country in the world without a ".com" community. And thats just 12-20 volts of power for our PCs and laptops. That partly explains why South Africa has almost every company with .co.za and in Zambia even government institutional websites have".com", ".org" or ".net". e.g. www.zambianconstitution.org (surely we are not even proud of .org.zm.

That is the cost of such critical elements in Zambia's economy like electricity and so on.

Computers people are all over the country. But have no means to be supported. All great .com companies are run and start from homes as it is cheaper and will give you time to start the busines, see the mistakes and then go on a full time scale. With ZESCO in existence, you will be in sane to even think of running your PC without a power backup system. All my websites are hosted in Asia. When they ask me why, I give excuses about not having time to configure and manage them all day. Truth - no there is now way I can run them here without paying through my nose to ZICTA and which ever of our 13 service providers - not sure who many actually host from the 13!

So my .com dream died when I looked at the cost of doing anything in that direction in this country with such power and expenses which favour foreigners and the rich.

Now imagine those with ideas of electronic inventions. Or manufacturing items. We are killed before we even start. Thats is the real effect of such power nonsense.

These are issues that should come into play for every company that receives such unwarranted favorable treatment. I know we all want this to happen to the mines, but surely, why not to every company that seems to know be doing the right thing.

I think we should be given a platform to do this. Not all of us can be politicians in order to put in place favorable business environments for our business. So we need to be looked at as well.

I am a Zambian I deserve Better! And ZESCO is not helping in any way. It should be made to do this just like all mines that feel taxes should not be paid coz they invested in the mines. Yes, but I am a Zambian, I own the minerals. You own the means to extract. If we disagree, you go with your means, I look for someone or I do it myself. But will you find the mineral I own? No! So I deserve better.

I am a Zambian, I Deserve Better!