AFRICA: FAMOUS FOR THE WRONG REASONS

How I long for a day that an African (who resides and works in Africa, not relocated to other continents) or African firm could start a scientific revival that will be praised and heard overall the world. Historically, Africa has never witnessed or been involved in a scientific research at first hand and that statement can be proven by taking a look at written history record to date to confirm it.

But all along, Africa has been known for the wrong reasons in general and it is the purpose of this piece of work to highlight some of the 'famous for the wrong reasons' the continent of Africa and its people are known for. May I state that, experimental researches conducted on African have not been put in account when writing this article, because those researches used African as tools or experimental objects, not as brains engineering the research.

On the 4^th of June, 2014, a British newspaper carried a story of a Ghanaian watch doctor claiming to have caused footballer Cristiano Ronaldo's knee injury. The watch doctor who is believed to be so influential in his line of operation, is believed to have planned the injury four months ahead, because his native country Ghana was to face Portugal at the world cup. The story was a 'big shot', but a joke in the sense that, it exposed Africa’s weakness in not wanting competition and people's finger were crossed with curiosity of wanting to see what the end results of the game.

Therefore, after weeks of speculation, on the 26^th June, 2014 Ghana was beaten by Portugal by 2 goals to 1 and to everybody's amazement the 'bewitched' Cristiano Ronaldo was on the score sheet with the decisive second-half winner goal. For now I believe readers out there can agree with me that sometimes, African are made famous for the wrong reasons and I am willing to prove more on the topic at hand.

Furthermore, in line with the above topic, not long ago, the Malawian's Weekend Nation newspaper carried a story that made a shocking revelation on the 16 of August that led to some people being arrested as a result. According to the revelation, it was believed that some local brewers are producing traditional gin known as 'kachasu' by fermenting maize husks with antiretroviral drugs (ARV).

More to that, it was also discovered that chicken farmers too were part of this scam of feeding their chickens with the antiretroviral drugs (ARV) meant for only HIV positive patients. This revelation is so shocking and sad because most parts of Malawi and Africa at large have been experiencing a shortage of this much-needed drug commonly known ARV for patients. And in my own analysis, this story does not only qualify to be on my list of 'famous for the wrong reasons' countdown, but I believe this story exposes the ignorance and drug insecurity in our hospitals.

And at this point I believe this article is incomplete without mentioning some of our leaders such as Idi Amin or Mobutu Sese Seke. To cut the long story short, Idi Amin indeed is famous son of the continent, though he is famous for the wrong reasons. It is believed that, during his reign they kind of leadership was characterized by corruption, nepotism, political oppression, tribal persecution and economic mismanagement.

Despite his brutal attitude and lack of humor, at least Idi admin was once famous for his official state claim of being the uncrowned King of Scotland even though he was an African who knew less about his beloved kingdom of Scotland and I will be considered a failure if I went ahead writing this article without mentioning his official title which is, 'His Excellency, President For Life, Field Marshal Al Haji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular', a beautiful title that signifies strengthen and maturity, but Mr. Dada lacked the responsibility of his title.

Yet again, I must say Africa as a continent has won itself a crown 100 times in a row or even more, for being famous for the wrong things in 2014. With a population of 1.11 billion, Africa has done it again in 2014, not only did we have Ebola the second biggest epidemic from the motherland after AIDS. Terrorism and economic security made headlines with two groups Al-Shabaab flaming east Africa while Boko Haram bombarded West Africa Nigeria in particularly. This in all aspects was a crisis because the image and potential of the continent was damaged.

In a nutshell, Africa has potential to be a global powerhouse, if only the African people realize their worth and endure a positive change that suits the 21^st century and empowers its young hungry generation, then the concept of 'famous for the wrong things' will be eliminated completely.

Compliments of the season, a special thank you to all the readers of this blog, you are the inspiration behind every article written on this platform. May God richly blessed you. Have a Happy Merry Christmas and a Happy new year. Thank you for reading and supporting this blog.

Yours

Sishumba Musanda

FOCUS ON ZAMBIA 3.0: GAME OF THRONES AND OTHER ELEMENTS

Dear readers, having observed and analyzed political situation from a young age to date, does not make me a genius in my writing, but I believe this must set out to be motivation for anyone who believes in the power of contribution to nation issues through God-given talents such as my writing. And in this episode of 'Focus on Zambia 3.0', we shall discuss the games of thrones and other elements that has characterized the Zambia political scene ever since the death of His Excellency Michael Chilufya Sata. Furthermore, I believe it will be wise enough to discuss the topic of 'games of thrones', but looking at each political party separately before giving out a generalized opinion.

Party	Initial
Patriotic Front	PF
Movement for Multi-party Democracy	MMD
United Party For National Development	UPND
Alliance For Democracy And Development	ADD
Forum For Democracy And Development	FDD
Heritage Party	HP
Agenda For Change Party	AFC
United Liberal Party	ULP
National Restoration Party	NRP
National Democratic Party	NDP
Zambia Republic Party	ZRP
Zambians For Empowerment And Development	ZED
Alliance For A Better Zambia	ABZ
Green Party Of Zambia	GPZ
Poor People's Party	PPP
United National Independence Party	UNIP
National Restoration Party	NAREP

POLITICAL SYSTEM

Currently, these are the political parties in Zambia, even though most of them are unknown because most of them being 'One-man party', therefore to name the key players we need to include the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and the main opposition which are United Party For National Development (UNPD) and Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) While ADD, NAREP and FDD also play an important role.

To shade light on Zambian political system and its funding to those who are not familiar with it, please observe that political parties funding is characterized by the following; lack of public funding of political parties, dependence on personal wealthy by members, well-wishers or donors and no regulation on how much to be spent on campaigns, which is hard for some parties to contest elections. Unlike other countries that sponsor political parties, Zambia's late President Levy Mwanawasa opposed to the motion of 'state sponsorship of political parties' in 2005 when it was brought into debate in Parliament.

And below I will highlight more on the 'Games of thrones’ through examples in relation to the current state of affairs, though not all political parties are mentioned. Dear Readers, the decision to skip some parties in this article is not as a sign of favoritism or discrediting any political establishment, but it is done to focus on the theme of our article which is 'Games of throne' or 'Inner party fighting' and the author of this article is 'non-partisan'.

PATRIOTIC FRONT (PF)

The Patriotic Front (PF) the 'crème le crème' of Zambian politics, turned out not to be the best, because when they were in opposition the champed a movement that seemed visionary and focused on fighting corruption but it turned out the 'crème le crème' were caught in their own web of confusion fused by unprofessionalism and shortsightedness. And the is no doubt, that the is a leadership crisis in the ruling party and this can be observed through the ill-mannered they conducted themselves after the death of His Excellency Michael Sata and the indiscipline, they displayed I believe will follow and haunt them during their candidate adopting process.

Despite the current confusion the Patriotic Front as the ruling party stands a better chance of re-election, but if the party infighting continues then the 'crème le crème' of Zambia will be defeated at the polls and will go down in national history as the visionless, if not order less party that fought and caused its own death like a headless chicken.

MOVEMENT FOR MULTI-PARTY (MMD)

In focus on Zambia 2.0, I wrote about the rumored Rupiah Banda comeback and if am not mistaken I recommended the former head of state to remain in retirement so that he paves way for a new breed of leaders, but I think Mr. Bwezani is a man of his words because his comeback to politics displaced the MMD's president Pastor Nevers Mumba leaving the party divided. With the theme of our article in mind 'Game of thrones', I believe you can agree with me that MMD 's leadership confusion is somehow an exposed point of weakness that leaves it unstable and wounded.

CONCLUSION

Zambia's political cycle will never be the same, though I pray that the political curse of Zambian which is the spirit of ‘forgetting fast' will be broken in the next elections set for the 20^th of January 2015. As for the inner part fights, I believe political parties have to iron out they inner conflicts before under estimated inner fights turns into a national crisis.

And for the voters, vote wisely MOTHER ZAMBIA needs true leadership and that true leadership can be chosen in the next election, remember your vote is your choice and strength.