Friday 23 January 2015

TEACHER ALLEGEDLY DIES AFTER ZAMBIA LOST TO TUNISIA



A teacher at Chilonga Primary School in Mpika district of Muchinga province collapsed and died during the disappointing loss of Zambia to Tunisia in game yesterday at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) built for Equatorial Guinea.

This has been confirmed to ZANIS by Muchinga Deputy Police Commissioner, Bonny Kapeso, today in Chinsali district.

Mr. Kapeso, who identified the deceased as only Mwaba, said the deceased collapsed at home towards the end of the game soon after Tunisia scored their second goal to make Zambia 1 Tunisia 2.

He said the body of Mwaba is currently in Chilonga Mission Hospital mortuary awaiting burial.

Zambia is laying bottom of group B while Tunisia has topped the group B with four (4) points.

Thursday 22 January 2015

WHY THE SLOGAN 'AFRICA RISING' IS IN POOR TASTE AND UNHELPFUL



The main cheerleaders of "Africa Rising" are newspapers, aid agencies, investment banks,
and think tanks hailing mostly from outside Africa. After describing Africa as "the hopeless continent" back in May 2000, the Economist rebranded Africa the hopeful continent that now "has a real chance to follow in the footsteps of Asia" on December 3, 2011. The Economist was not yet done. In its February 28, 2013 issue, the paper claimed that "the next ten years will be even better." Time Magazine jumped on the bandwagon of Africa rising in December 3, 2012. And with a catchy title "Sorry, but Africa's Rise Is Real" Charles Robertson, chief economist of Renaissance Capital and Michael Moran, editor in chief of Renaissance Insights, dismissed critics of Africa rising in Foreign Policy of January 11, 2013.
Claiming that "Africa is the growth continent for the 21st century," Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Pascal Lamy, on May 22, 2013, said that "Africans today are more confident and hopeful in the future than ever before." The World Economic Forum held its Africa Rising session on May 8, 2014. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) held its own Africa Rising Conference on May 29, 2014. Africa rising is now something of an industry....
This Africa taking-off celebration generally goes like this: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has experienced two decades of GDP growth rates of 7 percent or more; this has resulted in impressive advances in economic performance; living standards have improved; and with sharply increasing foreign investments, SSA is in the footsteps of Asia and poised to do even better in the near term. This is Africa's turn to prosper.
The ambiguity of the term "rising" is striking. Advancing to maturity, or merely approaching a different level of development, or perhaps sitting on the runway, as in an aircraft preparing for a take-off? And is the entire SSA sub-continent comprising 47 countries with a population of 960 million rising in one go?
SSA is better assessed in a manner that acknowedges its extreme unevenness, unique histories, and its considerable challenges. These factors combine to show a more nuanced picture, thus shedding light on how different parts of SSA might transform.
Perhaps no two countries tell the complexities and differences in growth and development paths than SSA's oldest states, Ghana and Nigeria, which, respectively attained independence 58 and 55 years ago.
The two have a shared history of political instability that rendered consistent social and economic programs nearly impossible. There were six violent removal of government of the day in Ghana between 1966 and 1981. Nigeria experienced the same number of coup d'etats between 1966 and 1993. That is how the two countries fell victim to strife, corruption, and economic mismanagement well into 1990s when multi-party politics ushered in democratic governance that steadily deepened.
The past two decades saw both Ghana and Nigeria recording impressive GDP growth rates as celebrated in Africa rising. Both achieved middle income status. Nigeria overtook South Africa as the continent's largest economy. Its GDP of USD521 billion in 2013 towers over the former number one at USD350 billion GDP.
But behind the GDP statistics, Ghana and Nigeria tell a different story. Ghana's account features consolidation of democratic governance, strengthening of institutions, and building economic infrastructure that provides a foundation for long-term socioeconomic growth and development. Crucially, between 1993 and 2012, political power has peacefully changed hands four times, and between political parties twice, indicating maturity and tolerance. This is a successful democratic transition, an important ingredient in nation-building that still alludes nearly all SSA states.
Ghana can therefore rightly claim to be a model for political and economic reform in SSA. Good education is addressing the task of building its people. Political stability and reforms have resulted in stronger institutions. In December 2013, Ghana's second largest hydroelectric generating plant at Bui with installed capacity of 400 megawatts was commissioned. The country is well on its way to becoming a major power producer that overcomes chronic electricity outages that singularity hinder development across SSA.
Nigeria remains a deeply troubled giant, its economic achievements notwithstanding. After lurching from one military ruler to another, Nigeria achieved a major political milestone in 2014 -- 15 years of uninterrupted democratic governance. But its challenges appear to be multiplying. As Africa's largest oil producer and the world's fourth leading exporter of liquidified natural in 2012, revenues from these sources have not significantly improved lives. Boko Haram terror has worsened matters by wrecking northern Nigeria.
Meanwhile corruption and economic mismanagement continue to make global headlines. Last year Central Bank governor Lamido Sanusi accused the state oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), of failing to account for USD20 billion in oil revenue. Sadly, the country's infrastructure barely serves even the minimal of households and industries. The 2013 KPMG "Guide to Nigeria's Power Sector" indicates that grid-connected generating plants in operation have "a total installed capacity of 10,396.0 MW and available capacity of 6,056 MW."
This in a population of 167 million, the overwhelming majority of whom depend on traditional biomass for cooking. Ontario Power Generation operates plants that produce over19,000 megawatts of electricity for a population of 13 million.
SSA does not have only one but many stories. Countries such as Tanzania, Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, and Zambia are on a trajectory similar to Ghana's. They are making progress in political and economic reforms at different paces. Former high performers, such as Cote d'Ivoire and Zimbabwe, that took a wrong political turn appear to be on the rebound. In countries led by autocrats who have been in power between two and three decades, such as Angola, Cameroon, Uganda, Sudan, Eritrea, and Equatorial Guinea, systems of patronage supplant institutions. Other states range from fragile, conflict-affected to failed states. Here we can include Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo - Somalia being extreme illustration of this category.
To reduce this complex picture into Africa rising is not only in poor taste but unhelpful.

Tuesday 20 January 2015

UK GOVERNMENT 'MOST TRANSPARENT' IN THE WORLD



The UK government is the most open and transparent in the world, according to global rankings looking at public access to official data.
But web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, whose organisation compiled the table, says the country has "a long way to go" before it has a fully open government.
Eighty-six countries were assessed for how easy their governments make it for state information to be analysed.
The US and Sweden come second and third in the rankings.
The World Wide Web Foundation, founded by Sir Tim in 2009, accuses many governments of failing to honour their promises to ensure official data is available. It says that in more than 90% of countries surveyed, data that could help beat corruption and improve government services remained locked away from public view.
"There are a lot of countries that have promised to put this basic data out there, really valuable information to cement trust between the government and citizens, but a lot of them haven't followed up," says Sir Tim.
Kenya has fallen 27 places in the overall rankings, from 22nd to 49th position. The foundation says many had hoped the high-profile launch of an open data portal in 2011 would be followed by continuing commitment and a policy framework for open data. "No such framework has come into force," it says.
Developed countries
Emerging market countries
Developing countries
1. UK
21. Brazil
36. Indonesia (tie)
2. US
22. Mexico
39. India
3. Sweden
33. Hungary (tie)
46. Ghana (tie)
4. New Zealand (tie)
33. Peru (tie)
46. Rwanda (tie)
4. France (tie)
36. Argentina (tie)
49. Kenya



In contrast with the UK, the Republic of Ireland is in 31st position in the rankings, two places lower than last year and the lowest-placed European country. Mali, Haiti and Myanmar, also known as Burma, are at the bottom of the table.
“Start Quote
Just dumping data is not the answer, it ticks a box but it doesn't do the job”
Meg Hillier Labour MP
"Despite coming top of the rankings, the UK has a long way to go. The release of map data is something where the UK has lagged behind, and you'd think postcodes would be part of the open structure of the UK, but they're not," Sir Tim points out.
"The Post Office holds them as being a proprietary format. So, ironically, just a list of places in the UK is not available openly, for free, on the web."
Central to the UK's place at the top of the ranking is the data.gov.uk website, launched by the Labour government in 2010. The coalition government expanded the government files released on the site, opening up £80bn of government expenditure to public scrutiny.
However, Parliament's Digital Democracy Commission has warned that transparency is not the same as true accountability.
"There's actually a big difference between dumping data that's not easily understandable and actually having open data that clever people can use to help you and me find out the information they want about the subject they want," says Meg Hillier, a Labour MP who sits on the Commission set up by the speaker of the House of Commons.
"One of the things that MPs are trying to get government to do is to make sure data is released in usable formats. Just dumping data is not the answer, it ticks a box but it doesn't do the job."
464 gray line

BBC Democracy Day
  • Democracy Day takes place on Tuesday, 20 January, across BBC radio, TV and online
  • A look at democracy past and present, encouraging debate on its role and future
  • 2015 marks the 750th anniversary of the first parliament of elected representatives at Westminster
  • It also sees the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta - a touchstone for democracy worldwide
  • Go to the BBC News website's Democracy Day page, for analysis, backgrounders and explainers on the debate
464 gray line
Nevertheless, Britain can certainly claim to be far more open and transparent than many other countries. There are now hundreds of Whitehall civil servants whose jobs are linked to the digital revolution - social media managers and digital communications teams responsible for websites, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Many government services, including the rollout of universal credit, are designed to be "digital by default", prompting some to warn about a digital divide opening up between those online and the millions of UK adults who have never been on the internet.
"If you are saving money by doing things digitally, that does free up money and resources to support those who need old-fashioned systems," Meg Hillier points out. "Even in Estonia where everything is on digital they allow people to do anything they want on paper. We must always remember the digital divided and make sure they're not neglected."
For all its problems and challenges, Sir Tim believes the digital revolution should usher in a new age of open and accountable government.
"It has been this massive international collaboration of people that's been really exciting," he says. "People come out of the woodwork doing things because they're just excited about the final world that they're building. Those are the people that I'm proud of."
 BBC

Sunday 18 January 2015

PARTICIPATION OF ELIAS CHIPIMO IN THE FORTHCOMING PRESIDENTIAL BY-ELECTION

Late Elias Chipimo Snr with NAREP President Elias Chipimo Jnr

NAREP is saddened by the death of Mr. Elias Chipimo Senior. We mourn with the Chipimo family at this time of their loss and the loss to the nation of a champion of our freedoms.

We remind the nation that while the timing of the demise of Mr. Chipimo Senior coincides with our presidential by-election, it does not affect the obligation of each of our members, sympathisers and supporters to turn up and perform the national responsibility of voting for our preferred candidate.

Mr. Elias Chipimo Junior, remains on the ballot as a candidate in this by-election and needs your vote. Be assured that his commitment to providing leadership for Zambia has only been reinforced by the death of his father who made it clear that he did not want his son to give up but to continue to pursue the goal of restoring the values of our nation.

We urge every Zambian to turn up and vote and to be officially notified that Mr. Elias Chipimo Junior remains a firm contender in next Tuesday's election.