The Story Behind the Book called "Snares of a Deceptive Society".

In our lives we undergo so many trials and temptations. My life has not been an exception to this experience.

Before I come to the book, I would like to give you a short history of my life, where some of my experiences are narrated in the book.

I was born a first born son of five children of my parents on 18th December 1953.

This was in the village called Moonga in the Mongu district of the Western province, then called Barotseland Protectorate.

My father, was a Head Teacher at Nakato School, which is some 60Km East of the village.

I was born on a Friday, so my mother initially gave me "Friday" as my first name! However, this was changed later when, my grandfather, gave me the name "Henry" in honour of one white man at Sefula mission.

I understand this white missionary was very kind to my grandfather at the time he was growing up. (Read the previous Blog post called "Blood Lines").

In 1956 my father was transfered to Namachaha School, which was on the Barotse flood plain.

I started school proper in 1960, though I used to attend class from 1959 as a "listener" in a class where my father was teaching.

This was after I insisted that I should start school at an age of 6. During those days the average age to start school was 8 !

As a result of this, I was amongst the youngest in all the classes that I attended from primary up to university. I started to work when I was only 24 and got married at the age of 25.

In 1964 I transferred to Liunga School, which is some 4 Km south of Moonga village. I stayed with my grandparents at the village, since I had to attend my upper school classes which were not available at Namachaha, which was a lower primary school then.

In 1965 whilst I was doing my Standard 4 class, the Government announced that from 1966 there would be no more "Standard" classes.

School used to start in Sub Standard A, then Sub Standard B, Standard 1 up to Standard 6.

This meant that the primary school had 8 classes. These were replaced by the current Grades 1 up to Grade 7 classes. Which means I did Standard 4 in 1965 which was followed by Grade 7 in 1966. Our class was the first ever at Liunga School which previously had classes up to Standard 4 only. Standards 5 and 6 classes were before that only available at the Sefula mission, where my grandfather and father had attended school.

I did my secondary school education from 1967 to 1971 at Sefula Secondary School, which was a co-educational and boarding school.

I did my tertiary education at the University of Zambia in Lusaka from 1972 to 1977,where I awarded a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in October 1977.

I joined the mining industry in 1977 where I worked at four operating divisions on the Copperbelt and one in Lusaka. I worked for a total of nearly 33 years, before retirement in January 2010.

Just after my retirement I underwent through a lot of hardships, as a result of conmen and swindlers.

My house in Lusaka, which I bought under the mine employee home ownership scheme in 1999, was almost lost to an organised group of conmen.

As if that was enough I was swindled by different individuals who cheated me that they would go into business with me or give me employment.

I wrote the book "Snares of a Deceptive Society" from March to September 2010 whilst I was undergoing torment.

The title of the book was initially supposed to be "Lamentations of Life" but this was changed after a vision was experienced in June 2010.

You may read the book online for free at:-

http://www.slideshare.net/hmsialex/snares-of-a-deceptive-society

My original idea was to have it published in 2010 but a deal with one Publisher proved to be another nightmare where I ended up losing thousands of Kwacha in revenue.This may call for writing another book !

I am praying that the book will be of some benefit to society and I am planning to incorporate it into an online community based Website and Blog where individuals will share their experiences and educate others on how to cope up in this deceptive world.

Stay blessed !

Beware of Conmen !

Conmen are becoming more and more tricky and sophisticated !

Yesterday at about 10 hrs. I received a telephone call which looked coming from an international source. The number was in the format : +256 312 xxx xxx.

The "x"s representing some other numbers.

I replied to it and I was connected to an automated answering machine.

The recorded female voice on the other side welcomed me to some survey which I did not clearly understand. However, I was given three options.

Press 1 to continue
Press 2 to call later
Press 3 to quit the survey

Out of curiosity I pressed 1 to continue.

I was welcomed to the "Survey" and was asked to give my details.

At this time, my six sense warned me that I was about to fall into a trap of confidence tricksters. I ended the call without giving any information about myself.

At 10:38 hrs. I again got a call from the same international number. This time I pressed the "Reject" button on my mobile.

I thought I had got rid of the conmen!

At 11:10 hrs. The same international number called again. This time I followed the instruction and chose the "Press 3" option to quit the survey!

Dear friends be warned that Conmen are becoming more and more sophisticated.

Do not allow yourself to participate in any lotteries or unsolicited surveys.

Once you give your details, you are on the route to the hell of torment !

I hope this will be of help to someone.

Stay blessed !