The Need to Change Some Laws

There was a news item on one of the local Radio Stations on the Copperbelt recently. It was about a minor who was nearly defiled by a youth in one of the townships.

Twelve year old , Angela (not her real name) was sent by her mother to go and purchase some groceries from the market.

The market is a distance away from the girl's home. She had to walk on a footpath, that passes through a small patch of bush and grass for about three hundred metres, before she could reach the market.

As she was walking on the footpath, she sensed that someone was following her.

When she looked back she saw a young man of about twenty five hurrying to catch up with her.

Sensing danger, she started running away from him. He soon caught up with her and forcefully dragged her into a nearby bush.

At this moment, the girl started shouting for help at the top of her voice.

The brute forced her to the ground and was soon on top of her. He started to undo his zipper whilst attempting to stop her from shouting by gagging her with a piece of cloth.

He was about to defile her when three men and a woman, who had heard the shouts of the girl, arrived on the scene.

They pounced on the young man and dragged him away from the minor before he could do any harm to her.

He was slapped hard on the face by the three men.

As a result of the noise from the commotion, a crowd soon grew around the scene.

Some people were about to lynch the young man for his evil intentions.

After some heated debate amongst the people in the crowd, a decision was made to take him and the girl to the nearest police station.

The mother to the girl was informed about the incident. She rushed to the police station in great shock.

The young man was locked up in the police cells and the girl's mother was told to take her to hospital for a medical report.

The medical report indicated that the girl was not sexually violated in any way.

The young man was released from police custody the following day, after paying an admission of guilty charge.

The people of the township were incensed with the police decision of merely charging the young man with "conduct likely to cause breach of public peace".

The following day, a group of angry people from the neighbourhood, where the girl stays, converged on the police station to protest.

They demanded to know why the young man was freed.

They had expected him to be locked up in remand prison awaiting court trial for an offence of attempted defilement of a minor.

The police allegedly told them that there is no such criminal offence as "attempted defilement" !

The crowd was not happy with this explanation. They soon became unruly and were about to riot.

They were warned that their action could result in them being locked up for "conduct likely to cause the breach of public peace."

When one ponders over this case, it looks very unfair to the poor girl and her mother.

Did it require the offending man to actually sexually penetrate the girl for him to be charged with the intended criminal offence ?

Why is it that attempted murder is a criminal offence whilst attempted rape and attempted defilement are not ?

Were the police in order to charge the man with an offence of conduct likely to cause breach of public peace ?

If the family of the minor decided to sue the man, what is the appropriate law that would apply?

It is high time our law makers made a review of some of the laws that are not protecting the rights of vulnerable people like women and children.

When the Lord is in your Favour

I was at our church's weekly prayer meeting recently. The theme of the meeting was "When the Lord is in my favour
the devil loses direction".

In the holy bible, there are many accounts of the men and women of God who were persecuted for serving the Lord.

There is the story of Daniel who was thrown in the den of lions after he defied a thirty-day decree banning anyone from praying to any other god apart from the king.
"So the king gave the order, and Daniel was brought and thrown into a den of lions. The king consoled Daniel by saying, "Your God whom you continually serve will rescue you!"" (Daniel 6:16).

The Lord surely rescued Daniel from the lions which paid no attention to his presence in their den .

There is a story of the prophet Jeremiah who was thrown in a dungeon and later released because the Lord was with him.

King Zedekiah was warned by Jeremiah to evacuate the city before the arrival of the Babylonian army. The king was stubborn and did not listen to Jeremiah's advice. Instead, Jeremiah was thrown into a deep well full of mud to die, for demoralising the defending army.

Jeremiah was rescued by the Lord after an Ethiopian court official , Ebed Melech, appealed to the king to release him.

The king was later captured and tortured by the Babylonian army.

(Jeremiah 38 , 1 - 15
Jeremiah 39 , 15 - 18)

When the Lord speaks to your heart , do not be swayed by human influence.

In our own lives we encounter many challenges where human reasoning does not help at all.

I recall one experience when I was very young. There was famine in the land after the heavy rains of 1957.

People were forced to eat all sorts of edible items such as tubers and maize chaff.

The following planting reason, there was debate whether the maize seed that was available should be planted or be eaten.

A lot of people decided to eat their seed in order to avert imminent starvation.

Those who planted their maize seed, got a good harvest the following year. Hunger persisted amongst those who decided to eat their seed.

Perseverence in trusting the Lord in all situations, is like one taking a decision to plant the only grain available amidst hunger and starvation.

When the Lord is in your favour, the devil loses direction !

Praying for Peace

There are certain things that we take for granted on this earth. Life is the greatest thing that one can experience. But can one really imagine what it would be like when one's life is finally taken away at the deathbed ? Life is one mystery God has given us and no man has really come to fully understand it. Once life is taken away from a person, his physical presence on earth comes to an end.

On 28 October 1994, I was admitted into an intensive care unit of a hospital, after collapsing whilst I was at work. The cause of this was later diagnosied to be due to a severe internal bleeding from an ulcer I had in the big intestine. I lost close to two litres of blood of my body within hours. This resulted in me going into a state of shock followed by a coma.

Being in a coma is not an experience one can really describe by any means. It is a state where one is near death, and one can not recall what it is like.

One only feels that he has come back to life when the medical team brings him back to a state of consciousness. There is no feeling at all when one is in a comatose state.

For one to live on this earth one should have the three basic requisites to maintain it. These are food , clothing and shelter. Apart from these basic needs, one should live in a country where there is peace.

Peace, like life, is very difficult to appreciate whilst it lasts. When any country is at war (not at peace) there is a lot suffering of its nationals. This is because of the immense destruction of life and infrastructure.

War can breakout between two or more nations or within a nation. The latter is called a civil war in which the people of the same country fight each other.

A civil war usually breaks out after some time of internal disquiet due to political or ethnic differences.

This is usually caused by one group trying to subdue the other by fraudulent acquisition of political power or having a lion's share of the wealth of the country.

The peace of any country can only be maintained when there is brotherly unit amongst its citizens.

When any war breaks out it is only when it comes to an end, that one appreciates what peace is. It is just like when someone comes out of a coma to appreciate what life is.

Our Lord Jesus Christ reminds us of the need for peace in the following passage :

"Now when Jesus realized what they were thinking, he said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is destroyed, and no town or house divided against itself will stand." (Matthew 12:25).

Let us, therefore, all bow down in prayer everyday, to pray for peace between nations, peace within our own nations and peace within our own families. "With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:18). Amen !

The Shock After

I was watching a sermon, via satellite television, recently. The theme of the sermon was on "The Shock on The Day of Judgement" . This was according to scripture from Matthew: 7, 21 - 23 , Matthew: 25, 11 - 12 , Luke:13, 26 - 27 and 1 John: 4, 20 .

The Lord is telling us that it is not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" to Him that shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

There is a tendency to think that, by doing what is perceived to be "good" in the eyes of men, it will make one righteous. This is not necessarily the case.

A good deed maybe done in bad faith. For example, one can give you a gift (which is a good act in itself ) but with an intention to get a favour from you. The "gift" then becomes a bribe and is a crime which is punishable by law.

In the Bible there is a story of a man who died when he got hold of the ark of God as it lost balance whilst being transported.

The Lord had commanded that the ark was not to be touched at all .

"When they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and grabbed hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord was so furious with Uzzah, he killed him on the spot for his negligence. He died right there beside the ark of God." (2 Samuel 6:6-7).

A lot of people have been trapped by machinations of others which are intended to lure them into sin.

Consider the imaginary story of a couple that has been married for thirty years and has four children. The man is send for a six month course overseas. Whilst there, he falls in love with a woman who is a fellow trainee at the institution where the course is conducted.

For thirty years the couple was happily married, until when the man meets the other woman who lures him into sin. This is like the story of Uzzah who grabbed and got hold of the ark of God. His excuse ? "because the oxen stumbled" !

He decides to divorce his wife of thirty years because of the alleged infidelity. He engages a divorce lawyer so that the woman he met overseas is able to marry him as soon as he comes back from training. The couple which is about to be divorced, had married and made their vows before God in a church. This comes as a shock to fellow christian members. His reason for divorce is an allegation that the wife has been unfaithful to him whilst he was overseas. He even got some photos taken by a "private detective" showing his wife in the company of other men at late hours. These photos are actually doctored to suit the alleged unfaithfulness.

On arrival at the airport from overseas, the man and his fiancee are not received by any family members. They do not approve of the marriage .

A $10,000 wedding is planned to take place within a month of their arrival.

They decide to stay in a rented flat where they are to stay for sometime before they buy a house to live in.

Their wedding is attended by a handful of people. The church to which the man and his wife had been members for many years of their lives has nothing to do with it.

On the day of the wedding, they are struck by a bolt of lightning, moments before they make their vows before a priest, who was hired to marry them.

The priest survives and is hospitalised for thirty days as a result of burns he sustains from the bolt of lightning.

The lesson we learn from this fictious story is this :
"If anyone says "I love God" and yet hates his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." (1 John 4:20).

Christianity is about following the will of God, not the whims of men.

The Quest for Survival

On 16 March 2010 council authorities, for Kitwe City situated on the Zambian Copperbelt, demolished some illegal makeshift market stalls at Kabala Shopping Centre which is in Nkana East township.

This is the second time this has happened, the last time was in June 2009.

Word going round is that the plot on which these structures were put up has been bought by a business enterprise who intend to build a modern supermarket.

We are not going to discuss about the pros and cons of this action by the city authorities.

What is in mind is, how can these marketers, who have a desire to make a living be assisted to make this dream come true ?

A walk around in most African cities and towns reveals a horde of street vendors selling all sorts of merchandise varying from fruit and vegetables to electronic gadgets. Some vendors even sell charms which they claim can improve the libido of men , cure all sorts of illnesses and even bring luck to their customers !

Most of these marketers are poor and have no other means of livelihood apart from selling in the markets or on the streets.

A good number of them are coming from families with problems brought about by loss of employment due to the world economic crunch of 2009 or the death of the bread winner.

In an effort to minimise the number of illegal marketers the Governments, through local authorities, have built a number of markets from which they could operate from.

Due to their poverty, a lot of these are not capable to operate from these markets due to rental fees which are beyond their ability to pay them.

There is also some accusation, from some quarters, about the alleged corrupt way in which market stalls in these modern markets are allocated.

Due to increased unemployment, the number of people who have resorted to selling goods has increased to a level that even the markets being built by the local authorities can not accommodate all traders. This is what has brought the accusation of corruption.

When I visited Europe in the mid 80s I was impressed with the way street vending was organised. In most cities the city square was used as a market on designated days.

People selling goods would converge on the city square and sell their goods from mobile stalls such as caravans . At the end of the day, all traders would clear the city square leaving it spotless clean.

Due to the higher levels of unemployment in Africa, this arrangement may not work.

However, when I visited Tanzania in 2008 , I found that one part of the city of Dar-es-Saalam called Karioko was a huge marketing compound. All sorts of traders are found in this area and one can buy anything one is looking for. They are allowed to trade during the day. They have to clear the streets around 20 hrs. The marketers are required to put all the rubbish left from their trading in huge refuge collectors.

These are cleared by council workers during the night. I noticed that the marketers were very disciplined as far as cleanliness was concerned.

Because of the large number of people trading in Karioko market compound there is a security risk. The authorities have put in place measures to ensure the security of the traders and customers.

The issue of street vending is not unique to any country .

Authorities should put in place measures to ensure that it is controlled. This will result in minimum harassment of the marketers who are entitled to make a living.

Living with Gadgets

When we were young boys between the age of six to twelve , we used to make toys such as cars, aeroplanes, bicycles, cattle and so on from natural clay , stripped maize cobs, stalk and reeds. The making of these toys was quite fun for us as each one was made to stretch his mind of creation to the limit.
I remember the making of a self propelled gadget which was called the "Kadalala". This device was made from the wooden drum of a cotton reel. My mother used to throw these away, after the cotton was used by the domestic science class she used to take.
The Kadalala looked more or less like an imitation of a road construction Roller. I can't recall how this invention came about because none of us has ever seen the Roller before.

To make the Kadalala , a piece of rubber strip was secured on one side of the drum by a locking wooden pin. The rubber strip (from an old motor vehicle tube) was then passed through the central hole of the drum. On the other side the rubber strip passed through a piece of soap cut to be slightly smaller than the diameter of the drum. Thereafter, the rubber strip was secured in tension by a piece of wood which was made to run from the middle of the drum and was some five centimeters longer than its diameter. This piece of wood was used as the crank of the toy.

To put the Kadalala in motion, the crank was wound several times using the right hand to twist the rubber strip whilst the drum was held by the left hand. The toy was then put on the ground and the drum would then roll on its own for several metres. This was to our great amusement.

We used to hold competitions amongst ourselves to get a champion whose Kadalala would move furthest than that of the others.

Over a period we learnt that the stronger the rubber strip the longer the toy would travel as one was able to wind it more times. The rubber strip would snap if it was over wound !

As adults, we own gadgets that are manufactured in modern factories from all over the world. These include cameras , cell phones , computers, televisions and music centres. The sophistication of these gadgets is growing year by year.

Let us consider the cell phone.

In 2000 I owned my first cell phone. It was a Bosch make with a green monochrome screen. It was very bulky and had to be secured in a pouch worn around the waist . In terms of functionality, it was a device with a phone, an alarm clock , a calendar and could send and receive SMS. At that time the Cell phone provider Telecel did not provide the SMS facility. The price of the phone ($150 ) was equivalent to a quarter of one's monthly salary. To buy the phone I had to commute some leave days into cash !

Today, I own a Nokia 6300 cell phone which cost me some $290 in 2007. The same phone is costing less than $200 in 2010.

The Nokia phone is a multimedia device with more than 10 functions which include a web browser, a music player, voice recorder , a camera, a radio, etc.

An equivalent of my first Bosch cell phone which I had in 2000 , is today costing $20 . This is some 13% of the price I had to pay then.

In 2000 people who owned cell phones in the country was limited to the middle and upper income group. Today a lot of people in the lower income group like, school going children and villagers own them.

The price of electronic gadgets is falling at a faster rate than the rise of their sophistication. Some individuals in the higher income group who have to buy the more expensive gadgets in order to maintain their status quo in society, have a challenge to keep up with the higher technology coming with them.

A number have a tough time using them. I had a light moment recently, when a colleague of mine requested me to save a phone number of someone who has just called him in his N95 Nokia phone. He confessed to me that he has not yet mastered how to use it. He only knew how to make a call and send an SMS. He had no idea of using the browser, the bluetooth, the radio and music player, etc.

Why not buy something one is able to comprehend ?

The Quest for Good Life

We all seek to have a good standard of living on this planet .
In order for one's life to be sustained one must have an adequate supply of food , clothing and and a secure shelter.

Throughout our lives we seek ways and means to sustain a good life.

As one given the task to raise a family, an individual is expected to ensure that the three essentials of life are provided .

Depending on the society one is brought up in , a family could be one's spouse , immediate children or distant relatives. Life becomes bearable if one plans it well from the onset.

A good education and a well paying job or running one's business are ways of ensuring that a good life is maintained.

Life of an individual is good as long as it is maintained.

The problems of an individual start once one tries to go beyond the limits of what it takes to maintain a good life.

Maintaining life is like driving a vehicle on a busy highway. One must be fit , both mentally and physically, observe the highway code and ensure that the vehicle is in good condition.

The attainment of these three conditions is not realised over short period of time. It takes time and effort to achieve anything in life.

The tragedy of some people is the greed to attain wealth using underhand means by a flash of time.

We have heard of individuals who have lost their lives being shot by security forces whilst running away with booty . Some have swallowed illegal narcotic drugs in foreign countries with the view of avoiding detection. Some of them have died from the poison of the drugs after unintentionally digesting them during transit. A number have been caught by alert security agents on arrival in their own countries.

The greatest gift a living person has from God is that of life. Just imagine what would it be like if one was not born at all ?

A very close friend of mine recently said :
" Don't expect everything in your life to come like a flashlight at a flick of a switch ! ".