Going home

I am so excited that I will be going home( Zambia) to visit my family today. My flight is booked and I have printed out my e-ticket.

I have missed home so much. Here is the thing…for the past three years, I have gotten used to the British basic necessities for instance, no uninterrupted power 24 hrs a day, let alone hot water when I want it without power cut.

Home is home, atleast it is sunny everyday all I have to do when I land is slap on some sun-screen lotion to protect my skin from any sun damage.

Adios

load shredding

Load shedding and power cuts have became part and parcel of the Zambia people. Without electricity no work gets done. A lot of damages through daily power cuts is destroying TV sets, freezers etc.

There is no proper explanation for the recurring nightmare of power cuts from both Zesco and government. The rehabilitation of the power plant has been going on for as long I can remember with no significate improvements.

Fake doc faces arrest

Lusaka Magistrate’s court issued a bench warrant against a Lusaka teacher and was charged with impersonating a medical doctor and allegedly administering fake HIV/AIDS drugs to unsuspecting Lusaka residents at a fee of K5 million.

The accused was allegedly injecting HIV/AIDS patients with a mixture of amino acids claiming that he was injecting them with a drug called tetrasil.

I was alarmed when read this on the  Times of Zambia website that people with HIV/AIDS were being duped by this man who obviously has no conscious.

I thought that the Zambian government provided free medication to HIV/AIDS patients.

Zambia police beat up journalist

A senior reporter from Times of Zambia last month April was assaulted and detained for over an hour at Chipata Central Police for taking pictures of police officers who were manhandling a cyclist for allegedly breaking traffic rules.

This kind of violence by police is depressing. How can the police who are supposed to uphold the law behave in such a manner?

condoms

It is worry that people can not control themselves when it comes to sex. The necessity of encouraging the use of condoms in the fight against HIV and AIDS cannot be overemphasized.

Continuing to reject the use of condoms will make the spread worse than the current situation. I think condoms should be used whenever there are sexual relations to aviod infections such as STI’s.

According to the Zambia Country Report of January 31, 2008 reports that a significate increase was observed in the use of condoms for sexaully active young people.

Binge drinking

I thought binge drinking was a British problem. My thoughts have changed now. It is so sad to see Zambian teenagers are abusing alcohol and drugs. I believe that the alcohol and drug abuse has become a worldwide problem.

I blame the parents and teachers for the abuse of alcohol and drugs among teenagers. It is worrying to see teenagers drinking alcohol with their teachers who are supposed to setting a good examples to the teenagers who are our future.

I remember in my school days, some of my friends abused alcohol to a point where they would be drunk during lessons. They often bribed teachers with expensive alcohol which they stole from their parents. Who would have thought that this would get out of hand? How does a teacher discipline a teenager if the teacher is setting bad examples?

Parents at home are forever sending their teenage children to buy them alcohol and cigarettes from pubs.  The law should provide stiffer punishment for bars owners who allow teenagers to drink beer or buy from their premises.

 

 

Visa fees

Forgive me for commenting on an old article by Telegraph which run in March this year. The article was condemning Zambian government for the high visa charges.

I am foreign student living in London. My family has paid a lot money for me to be here. Before I was granted a visa, I had to go for a medical check up at a clinic that the British embassy had picked where I paid for tests and the cost was about £50 and the visa by then was about £101. This is not a guarantee that the visa will granted. The money paid to the UK embassy is non refundable.

The night before the interview, I had nightmares because I heard stories the interviews were horrible and that the immgration ask so many questions demeaning questions like ” that zambia is poor nation and that you will over stay in the UK” but what me thinking that if Zambia was so poor why do they still have an embassy in Zambia. I am sure that British government gaining somehow by still in the country.

Please note that British government have increased the visa charges more than once past three years.