The Value of the Life of a Zambian Miner Measured In Chilean Units

ICISAPATO

During their trials and tribulations our forebears devised ways of preserving themselves. When calamity befell them or any member of the their community, they assembled pa nsaka not to lay blame or belittle each other but ukupandashanya amano. For instance when they lost their crop to swarms of locusts, which was more frequent than never, they found out that mulenge, sepa, icifulu, etc., would prevent loss of life. Through consultations and ukwetetula, they discovered that makanta which ate their food was actually edible. They added makanta to ifinshonko ne nyense.

Responding ku cipowe flowing from crop failure or invasion by makanta required sober minds; rational thinkers. Had there been insufficient flow of creative juices in their heads, they would have died of hunger and we would not be here to tell of their triumphs. They were methodical in their approach and surgical in their execution. Specifically, they devised what today's management gurus have termed the ABC's of decision making. Notice how creative they were; they used imisanse to prioritize issues and weight the individual perceptions of urgency applying the following framework:

A: Critical - Life sustaining (must be done)
B: Important - should be done
C: Relatively trivial - could be done

All activities falling under category C were the preserve of ba kalume. All issues of significant importance in category B were done by impalume. Ever heard that never send a boy to do a man's job? Our forebears had it in practice before it was reduced to words on paper. If ba kalume did not do their jobs well, their parents, impalume, scolded them. And when impalume missed a target for whatever reason, they had some serious explanation to do before the elders. It was the responsibility of imiti ya mpako and mpalume to find solutions and outline the modus oparandi for issues falling under category A.

Apparently most managerial concepts that are being repackaged and peddled in seminars all over the industrialized world, we can say with confidence, have their origins in our heritage. To this day, scholars, politicians, and philosophers are continuing to harvest from our rich indigenous cultures very powerful success concepts (Jacks, 2006). At the time Mrs. Hillary Clinton was selling her universal health care proposal, she used insoselo ya kuti, "It takes a village to raise a child." Some people thought she coined the phrase. But that is how some of us were raised; by women who knew that "every child is my child." As a child, you expected that any woman would feed you when you were hungry. Conversely, any woman would pich your cheeks if you acted silly in her presence, just like your mother would. And you knew it.

At another time Dr.Peter Senge popularized the concept of ubuntu, which simply means "ndi muntu pa mulandu wa kuti uli muntu." What a powerful way of acknowledging and valuing each other! Affirming the strength of the spirit of togetherness and actually seeing the good in everyone. People had responsibility to themselves and to each other. And each time impika arose, they all put their arms around it no kuikaulula. Collective action and individual responsibility were an ideal by which everyone lived.

But somewhere between then and now, we lost our sense of self importance. In today's lingo, akuti "ti naitaya." Back then, impika were umwando that bound us together. Today, the same impika are used as excuses for exclusion and factors of divisiveness. Political stripes determine whose voice will be heard and who should clam up.  The voices of Rational thinkers are drowned in the milieu of retrogressive diatribe. Is there a chance that we can recapture or reconstruct our ability to think rationally and live our lives that way? What would it take, really?

Events around the world are a constant reminder of what we have lost. The Chilean mine accident and subsequent rescue operation could not hit more closer to home. It is a well known fact that Chileans and Zambians share a common characteristic. Their economies are based on mining. And one thing one can be sure about regarding mining is that it is prone to accidents. However, the manner in which a nation responds to an accidents defines it's character.

The big world watched with keen interest as Chileans struggled to find the sure-fire method of getting 33 miners from the depth of roughly 700m where they had remained for 68 days. As our forebears would have thought, this is a critical issue calling for swift response. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera understood the gravity of the matter; it was not something a responsible and rational president would commit ku minwe ya mabuta mputi. Lives were in danger. He realized that was something he needed to work on with impalume ne miti yampako, wherever he could find them. So, he na kabungwe, consulted wide, deliberated and ultimately selected an option, among many, that had high probability of success. The operation was surgical; all 33 men were reunited with their families and Pinrea was there to make sure the operation was done according to plan. He hugged everyone of them as they emerged from the cage.

One would have expected Zambian politicians of all stripes to take lessons from the Chilean experience. Chile was not deterred even after being hit by a devastating quake. You can easily speculate somebdoy in the group must have declared, "icalo bantu and if abantu are at risk, we will spare no effort." Because that was a category A situation, they had to abandon everything that weighed relatively less on the list of priorities. Lives had to be saved.

It is not that Zambia has never faced a situation of that nature since the first copper mine, Kansanshi, was commissioned in 1908. Musuku (2005), reported that the first major mining disaster in Zambian history happened in 1940, when 16 miners, 13 indigenous and three 3 whites met their demise in a violent current of air-blast. In the years that followed, a series of minor accidents occurred but the next major one one occurred on September 25, 1970, in which at least 89 underground miners perished from in-rush water and flurries. The Kafironda Explosive disaster, a year later, claimed a significant number of Zambian lives. Recently, 51 people died in the Bgrimm explosion, in Chambishi. In the same space of time six miners perished at Mopani Mine, in Mufulira, when the rollers of the cage got off the rails.

In his conclusion, Musuku suggests that "Zambia needs mining names associated with legendary mining grand master, the likes of Harry Openheimer and Ronald Prain, whose mining legacies still remain hard to match nor to better." I understand what Musuku is trying to say.

I see Musuku's recommendation as being a direct result of loss of confidence in ourselves. A suggestion to call somebody else from outside to solve our problems turns us into Cannot-Do-People. But that is not who we should aspire to. When we are faced with situations that fit the profile of category A issues, as a matter of necessity, we must drop everything we are doing and pay attention to that issue. Find a lasting solution. It is normal to suffer another blow but it is a stupid nation that suffers the same blow twice.

Some incomparable but equally life threatening situations have arisen in Zambia many a times. Where and what were the politicians' responses? President Pinera did not jump on the presidential jet to some worthless function after being informed of the accident. It would have been not only irresponsible of him to do that but also insensitive. He became actively involved in coordinating the efforts, gathering ideas from all sources, consulting with NASA personnel, evaluating the options, etc. No idea was good enough until it was ratified by the president and his team of experts. There was no time for experimentation. Every detail of the operation was analyzed with a microscope and executed with surgical precision until all 33 miners were hoisted to the surface. It was a moment of pride for Chileans everywhere. After hugging the last man, Pinera made a short speech and then led the audience in a spirited anthem.

In that short speech, Pinera promised very radical changes to affect the health and safety of workers in mining as well as the transportation, fishing and construction industries. The areas of concern, once again, are similar to Zambia's.

The only difference is, Zambia has always responded to concerns in these areas with kid gloves. Initial partial privatization of the mines in Zambia, in 1970 and total nationalization in 1980, was meant to bring the rightful owners of the mines into the control room, to keep a watchful eye on the safety of their people. They both did nothing. The latter actually made things worse, managerially. It was followed by a spate of declining production levels, poor forecasts, apparent dysfunctional operations, giving lip service to the importance of health, safety and environmental impacts.

Folks, time for change is upon us. We need to stop trivializing life and life threatening issues. We need to take ourselves serious. Our economy depends on the mines and the safety of miners is category A issue. Because when the miners go underground to work, they are presumed dead as long as they remain under there. By the way the mode of lowering them in a cage, down to underground burrows, in a manner and solemn tradition is similar to lowering a coffin into the grave. This is not something our forebears would assign kuli ba kalume to address. It calls for the attention of imiti ya mpako, ba mpandamano - people whom time has prepared to think and source rational ideas in times of need.

In Chile, the 33 miners were pulled from the bowels of earth. Like babies from the womb of mother earth, they came out one at a time and one after the other. They came to life again.

Zambia reads instructions from the wrong pages of history because she seems to have no solution to recurrent problems of cholera, floods, inadequate  and substandard health care system, unemployment, political violence, street children, and HIV AIDS related diseases. These issues, our forebears would have thought, are category A and are devouring the nation while people who are supposed to find solutions to them are taking jolly rides in the sky. Zambians whose lives were negatively impacted by the Bgrimm explosion were given a mockery of compensation. The government has done absolutely nothing!

Latest
Three Chinese managers shot at protesters at a coal mine in Sinazongwe. Big deal, right? Not in Zambia. Where are imiti yampako? There is a crisis in Sinazongwe and the minister of Home Affairs was in parliament, representing whom? The vice president was in there too! It had to take deputy speaker of the House to compel the duo to go and find out what was happening. Parliament was now giving executive orders, but where was ba mwine mishi? Is this not a case of assigning ba kalume to critical issues?

Zambia Sambilila.     Zambia Sambilila.

Two UNZA problems, One simple solution

The University of Zambia, popularly know as UNZA, faces a disruption of classes and closure almost every year. Of well known causes, student protests precipitated directly or indirectly by political interference ranks highest. Those who were genuinely smart enough to get a spot on the program rosters at UNZA in the late 70s and early 80s, would remember the numerous times when the administration would be worried upon noticing silence in the student community. The UNZA administration would provoke the student by delaying their allowances or cutting back on their meals.

Considering that the majority of students at that time hailed from humble backgrounds, it was easy to show solidarity with the students. Students likened themselves to the downtrodden, the oppressed and the helpless workers or simply the proletariat. And that they needed to rise up and defend themselves against the tyranny of the bourgeoisie. They might have very well been right because, most of them came from the mining townships where their parents bali ni ba Chimbamabwe. They had a short life expectancy; you know ku malaisha, working hard and long awkawrd hours ne ncombolo. Others were sons and daughters of government workers. Now mwaKaunda, unlike nomba, government workers na ba Chimbamabwe earned peanuts. Except the apamwamba, ba Minister, na ba Makobo. These formed the group that Riki Ililonga sang about, Olemekezeka. Of course the track was banned after burning the airwaves for a couple weeks. That is how Kaunda and his unsophisticated shiftless bureaucratic Central Committee ran the show - very personal.

So, anyway, for the most part, students were on the edge. They learned to react to any slight provocation by politicians and the UNZA administration.They would block roads, smash widnshields in anger, overturn cars, and every once in a while burn a vehicle or two.As expected, Kaunda reacted to that kind of behavior with gusto - he curse a few times, 'stupid idiots,' (like there was ever a time when an idiot was not stupid) then he would deploy and a full load of an Ifa truck, armed police clad in riot gear to disperse the crowds. They would fire teargas canisters, mixed in with live bullets, at students and all hell would break loose.

If you really come to think of it, rebellion was not a Zambian practice until the self appointed chancellor of the great University of Zambia, Kaunda, embarked on a crusade to conscientize students, preaching about his newly discovered bombastic terms - Scientific Socialism. You had to know Kaunda as well as I did or better to appreciate how much he believed he was on to something. He literally shoved Sicentific Socialism down the throats of unsuspecting students until they choked on it. I hold him personally responsible for the behavior unbecoming of a learner, bordering on stupidity exhibited by UNZA students. It was not an easy sale. Did you know that UNZA students were required to memorize the Das Kapital like their life depended on it? For those of you who are spring chickens or who resemble them, look it up. Kaunda's communistic philosophies were not an option; they were a law and woe to he who would dare disobey. Very few people could afford to be rational in his day. So much for being THE father of the nation.

But I am not here to hold on to your coattails and drag you down memory lane about Kaunda and his vigilante boys he purposely denied education and enlightenment. Rather, I wanted to set the stage so you would understand the genesis of the kacha of turmoils that has has latched on UNZA like a smudge of umulembwe beta abati pimpo mwefu. The seed of trouble was sown in the Kaunda era, by his hand. Some rational thinking students did put up a fight, though. I will not mention names. But I will tell you that they ended up being expelled from UNZA and subsequently being blacklisted. It meant that they would never get a job in Zambia. Well, as long as Kaunda was president. And he wanted to be there umuyayaya. That is Kaunda for you.

Today's UNZA is relatively calm. The calmness flows from the incident where the police, who were supposed to be maintaining peace, shot and killed one student at Great East Road Campus, in cold blood, the frequency of provocation from both the political and the UNZA administration has since subsided. However, politicians have not gotten smarter. It is like they have nailprints of irrational thinking in the palms of their hands. They behave the same way their predecessors behaved in the 70s and 80s; doing basically the same darnedest things - being irrational with some of the quickest thinkers in the nation. That is what they spend time doing, buffing their thinking wheels. Whether what their minds bake at the end of the day is useful or less than useful is inconsequential.But one can count on the actions of the politico to prostrate naked before the eyes of the students each time they try to outsmart them. Look at this garbage:

Forgo one trip and pay for students, Mumbi Phiri urges Rupiah

By Agness Changala Tue 12 Oct. 2010, 04:00 CAT

PATRIOTIC Front Munali member of parliament Mumbi Phiri has asked President Rupiah Banda to forgo one trip and pay fees for the affected students at the University of Zambia (UNZA).

About 1,132 students have been withdrawn from 2010-2011 academic calendars due to non-payment of tuition fees as required by the 75 percent payment policy.

Phiri said even the money that President Banda used to pay for Amayenge Band to go and dance in Nigeria could have been used to pay for the troubled students and enable them to continue with school. She said among the students who were withdrawn, 38 paid half of their fees and were attending classes.

“So you can see that these students actually complied and some of them have remained with six months to complete. Honestly, how fair is it that one should be withdrawn?” Phiri asked.

“I am speaking as a parent and talking to parents. If that was their son, how would they feel?”

Phiri said some of the students were children to lecturers who retired as far back as 2004 and had not been paid their money, adding that it was not easy for them to pay for their children.

How can all three organs of the government fail to solve the financial problem of our two small universities? The Judiciary would scream, 'hey that is the purview of the Executive and the Legislature!' Well, learned ladies and gentlemen, when an irrational politician says the government this and that, it includes you. You may want to argue that the appropriate term is not government but administration. Well, why don't you make that argument. When will you for once quit being stiff necked and say something in defense of the people? As long as that term is used and you learned men and women in those Halloween-like gowns and, symbol of subservience to the British crown, blonde wigs stand idly by, you are co-conspirators and guilty as charged.


Solution

But seriously, the problems of allowances and unnecessary closures can be resolved permanently by taking the government out of the equation. I mean, all vestiges of the government including the ministry of Education. To them, UNZA should be a no go area. Unjustifiable closures would then become a thing of the past. But first the following has to happen:

1. Make UNZA autonomous;
2. Hire an accounting/management firm to administer bursaries; and
3. Make funding for UNZA cost-based.

The government should add a special expense line in it budget to cover the operating costs of UNZA or better still, all post secondary institutions. Such an addition should be enacted into law and subsequent appropriations made a responsibility of a parliamentary subcommittee.

Upon qualifying to an institution of higher learning, including UNZA, students would be expected to apply for a scholarship to the scholarship/selection committee of a private accounting/management institution. The management entity would lay out terms of eligibility, ratified by the parliamentary subcommittee. The government would not be involved in the day-to-day issues of UNZA, Evelyn Hone, etc. The UNZA administration would know its roles and responsibilities - chief among them to facilitate learning. And students would have one deterministic objective when they get to their various campuses - to learn and build professional networks. The accounting/management entity being private and apolitical, will be paid based on performance - defined simply how well it responds to the issues of the students. In other words, Expediency will be the name of the game for all involved. They will have to be perfect or they lose the contract.

My fellow Zambians, we cannot continue to condemn imiti ikula to the pit of poorly educated citizens. We cannot continue to dance cintako around simple issues like this. It's just unacceptable.