Secrets Of My Hearts

by Mazuba Mwiinga

May the joy and happiness be with you. Its been a long while from my last posting. I was busy coming up with something that has made me so happy and proud.

My treatise Secrets Of My Hearts is finally done. At least at the manuscript stage. Its my baby; my life and my destine. These stories anchors my being, brighten my life and shines my goals. My happiness lies here and this drives me everywhere, anywhere with the power no one can get from me.

When the heart reveals the potential within you, you can be anything. This magic, daily performs miracles in me. This is a copy you will have to collect in your book shelves.

I am back on the blog....more next soon.

Your lovely friend,

Mazuba

Secrets of my Heart

What you resist persists

by Mazuba Mwiinga

Have you never wondered why stubborn children who always get smacks from their parents or teachers because of their behavior never change despite being whacked time to time?

It’s simple. We focus all our attention on their stubbornness and how we detest it and hate it so much. And the more we try to push them away, the more they go ahead with their behavior, hating us even more.

Philosopher Carl Jean (1875 – 1961) says, “What we resist persists”. Look around the world today. How many Anti-AIDS organizations do we have? How many Anti-Smoking Groups do we have? How many Ant-Alcohol Drinking Clubs do we have? How many Anti-Terrorism Squads, do we have? So many; and have we managed to fight these vices we want to wipe away? No.

The more we try to push away AIDS by talking about it so much, the more people get infested and die. The more we talk about bad habits of smoking and drinking, the more people become smoking addicts and alcoholics. The more we talk about terrorism the more terror deaths occur.

Why? It’s because the formula for happiness and peace is not to push away that which we don’t want to see or to have. The formula for peace and happiness is to focus on the goodness that we want to see and not on the bad that is happening. The more we talk about these bad things the more we are telling the mind that this is what we want to be seeing. This is so because the mind doesn’t care what we feed it. It accepts and transforms it into reality. When we talk more and more about AIDS, it stores AIDS messages and turn them into reality to society.

The late Mother Theresa once said that, “If you invite me to an Anti-War rally I won’t come. But if you invite me to a Pro-Peace Rally I will come”.

This is the logic of things. Mother Theresa knew how the mind works. She was only going to support a Pro-Peace activity and not an Anti-War activity. This is so because when you talk about Peace always your mind quotes peace and gives you peace. If you talk more about Anti-War, the mind will quote war and give you more war.

So if you want to fight War, be Pro-Peace. If you want to fight Hunger, be Pro-Having A lot of Food for everyone. If you want to fight AIDS be Pro-Health and not Anti-AIDS because the mind will always be quoting AIDS and give you more AIDS incidences around you.

Do you know why The Post newspaper succeeded in making sure Mr. Sata won the elections? They just focused on being Pro-PF in their reporting and forgot about being Anti-MMD or any other Party. And the natural law of nature gathered and gave them what they supported for; PF.

This applies to all our lives. The people we hate and dislike are the people we always meet and talk to because we talk a lot about them. The situations we don’t want in our lives continue to happen to us because we often think about them and talk about them so much. We tell people how we don’t like them or how we detest them or how we wish they could go away. We resist them in our lives; but the more we push them away, the more they recur to us.

What we need to do, is to focus on what we want and not want we don’t want to happen to us. The more we focus on what we want and ignore those things that we don’t want; we will find that what we don’t want falls away on its own.

Have you ever experienced a situation whereby, you are talking to your friend, then someone else tries to join you and you ignore him; what will he do? He will leave without being told. But if you give him an ear, he will join you even when you haven’t invited him. That’s how nature works.

You can’t shout, “No!”, and expect the “No”, to turn into “Yes”. When you say “No”, to something, it won’t go away because “No” means don’t go.

Joseph Campbell (1904 – 1987) said, “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls”. You need to be happy because inner joy is the source of success. Faith is trusting in the good. And fear is hoping in the bad. Focus on things you like most and those that you don’t like will vanish away.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 (15:23hrs)

Secrets of my Heart

When you visualize you materialize

by Mazuba Mwiinga

Martin Luther King Jr, once proclaimed of having a dream that one day, America will be ruled by a black man. It was not a night dream while sleeping, he was talking about; but a vision. He had visualized that come what, the oppression of the black Americans will come to an end, and a black man will rule the greatest nation of the world. Today, Martin’s visualization materialized the time Barack Obama became US’ first black President.

To visualize is to see in the mind’s eye that which you want to have in your hands. The eye of the mind turns into reality everything it sees.

Visualization is the anchor of all creation. When you visualize you materialize, as one quantum physicist once said. Those of you who have read the bible will stand witness to the fact that all prophesies talk of having seen visions; the future entered their mind and the mind was able to see what lay ahead.

Businessmen always tell us that we need to have a vision of where we want to take our businesses. It’s not just a statement you write on a book, but it’s a thought you enter in your mind. Schools write on walls: OUR MOTTO IS…….OUR MISSION IS…..OUR VISION IS…..but when you ask them what they mean by VISION, very often few will be able to explain to you. It’s so because; a vision is something that must enter your mind for it to happen. It’s not just something that must be on a wall or piece of paper. For a vision to materialize the mind must focus on that particular thing you want to happen and see it happening. If the mind doesn’t get involved in this vision, nothing will come to pass.

When you have that picture playing in your mind always dwell upon the end result; what is that which you want to do with your vision? For instance, if your vision is to see 20 of your pupils in grade 7 go to secondary school at the end of the year; visualize seeing these children celebrating, happy, carrying their luggage going to the station, boarding a bus, singing as they go, arriving at secondary happy, doing very well in class, being well behaved and always top of class, finish school and having jobs or go to college. This is the end result to your vision of these children as the eye of your mind is able to see. When you engage your mind in that manner, you are creating reality; you are materializing your vision. And nothing will stop that from happening.

The mind is so powerful that it shapes our thoughts into reality the very things that we want to achieve. That’s why someone said that THOUGHTS BECOME THINGS.

Buddha said that, “All that we are is the result of what we have thought”. We are creators of our own Universe and every wish we want will manifest in our lives when we engage our minds to visualize that which we want to happen to us.

Have you wondered why we are always requested to close our eyes when praying? It’s because they want us to visualize seeing the words of that particular prayer turning into reality. If you are praying for the sick, the mind must see the sick getting healed; if you are praying for rain, the mind must see raining pouring down. You put the words of the prayer into your mind, so that the mind is able to create reality. That’s how dreams come true.

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions”.

Monday, November 07, 2011 (10:24hrs)

Secrets of my Heart

You are what you think about

by Mazuba Mwiinga

“I am God”, declared a friend of my mine at a drinking resort one day. The room which was so rowdy with music and noise came to a standstill with thick silence. “That’s blaspheming!” bellowed a man seated on the corner of the room with a glass of wine in his hands. And everyone agreed. “We can be drunkards, but we always know our boundaries guys. You can’t say you are God!” shouted another man. “May be he is an atheist”, another one asked.

“But we are a Christian nation, so no such views in our nation”, the same man countered. “But it’s my Constitutional Right. I have the right to freedom of speech”, the man defended himself.

A debate ensued. Blaspheme or right to free thinking; it wasn’t my baby nurse as far as I was concerned. But come to think of it, I agreed with the man who declared that he was God.

In the beginning, God created the world, I thought; at least according to the Christian bible; then He created Man in His own image. So when I looked at this man who declared he was God, meant I saw the image of God; meaning I was looking at God Himself; just like the way I see my daddy when I look at his picture.

So if we are images of God, then we know God is God of abundance by the way we see ourselves being of different images. Some are dark, brown, yellow, light etc but still represent the one image of God. The question is, how possible?

Then I realized that, God’s declaration that He created us in His own image has nothing to do with our complexion or appearance. He actually meant that He created us in His own THOUGHTS. In Genesis God declares, “Let there be animals of the world, and creatures of the sea, and there they were. Let there be Man in our own likeness to look after the rest of all creation, and Man was there…”

Bottom line is that, creation was made out of God’s thoughts and Man was created with an extra power of representing these thoughts, meaning that, whatever Man can think about will always happen to his life because he is capable of creating things, and every time he engages his thoughts in any kind of thinking, he is creating real things in his life. By thinking about such things, he is telling his thoughts that, that’s what he wants to see.

That’s the reason why, people who often think of misfortune always get bad things happen to them. People, who are always scared, are always frightened. Those who think of wealth, always live in abundance. Those who think of hate are always angry and jealousy. Those who think can’t progress in life because it’s a family inheritance, always stay that way; in poverty. The brain which stores thoughts is the most powerful organ in man. What you tell it to store, it will store and turn that thought into reality.

So when this man at a pub declared that he was God, he wasn’t blaspheming the Supreme Being. He was telling us that he was given powers by the Supreme Being, to turn his life in any greatness he wanted to or into any worst he wanted it to be. By virtue of being created in God’s thoughts, he was himself a small god ‘legally’ mandated by the Supreme Being to create anything. That’s how people like Peter in the bible were able to raise men from death and heal the sick. That’s why healers are able to prescribe potent herbs that heal people and that’s why magic and miracles happen; because of a thought that faithfully envisions reality.

Think of men who created amazing things in this world; do you think they did it by chance? There is no such thing as chance or coincidence in this world. Everything that happens, happens for a reason and because it was meant to happen; because you yourself created it to happen consciously or unconsciously through your own thoughts. That’s the reason why, it’s always important to have positive thoughts, because if you have them consciously or unconsciously then only positive or good things will be happening to your life.

If you think you can’t do something, then you won’t do it. If you think you can do some sort of thing, then you will definitely do it, because nothing is impossible and everything is possible. Henry Ford (1863 – 1947) said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, either way you are right”, because whatever you tell the mind, whether negative or positive, it will give it to you that very way you thought about it.

W. Clement Stone (1902 – 2002) said, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve”.

So you are a Creator of your own life. God gave you those powers. It’s your power within you. Use it.

Sunday November 6, 2011. (14:12hrs)

Secrets of my Heart

The Power within you

by Mazuba Mwiinga

“Do you know why the small David of the Bible, bit the giant Goliath so easily?” My friend asked me as we sat on a restaurant table, chattering about the power within man.

“It’s because David was inspired and protected by the Holy Spirit of God”, I said. “Okay, if it was a class examination, I would have given you a full mark”, he said.

“Well”; I replied. “That sounds like I have gotten it wrong; hasn’t I?” I asked. “The answer my friend is simpler than what you have offered”, He said. “How on earth, can one miss to hit a Giant man like Goliath?” he explained. “When David came to where Goliath was standing, he was filled with so much happiness and declared that, ‘I will kill you Goliath because I cannot miss such a huge mass of body which I can see so clearly from where I am’. And David did kill Goliath because no one can miss such a huge mass of body standing before them, as long as they believe they can do it”, my friend taught me.

There goes the amazing story. The inner most core of our lives I have been told umpteenth time, lies within us. So often we fail to see the huge mass of challenges standing majestically before us, because we are too terrified to admit that this huge mass of a challenge is nothing but a big laughing stock ready to fall. We fail to turn this huge mass of a challenge into a defeat- able wreck, but rather become so paranoiac as thinking that; huge means hard to fight.

We fail to realize that actually huge means easy to spot and easy to hit. We fail to realize that, huge means easy to get tired and hard to run fast. We fail to realize that, huge means easy to get hungry and easy to get weak. We fail to see the weaknesses in the huge challenge and die of its huge mass before we even attempt to fight it.  

The power within us is more than the tiny fear we allow to occupy our thoughts, because one positive thought is more powerful than five negative thoughts; and the power within us to manifest the numerous wishes we want to have; more positive, courageous thoughts, will defeat any challenge no matter how huge it may appear to be.

A courageous heart, never feels pain; nor does it preview disaster. A courageous heart declares eternity, and fosters life of abundance. A positive thought coupled with a courageous heart, always has an inner joy that makes it create anything good it wishes.

The power within us is the most powerful instrument this world has ever offered to man. But few of us, know we have this power to create our own lives the way we want it to be. As someone says, the Universe is like a catalog from which we can choose whatever we want to achieve in life; all we need to do, is have a positive thought coupled with joy in our hearts; that’s why Faith is defined by someone as; ‘a trust in goodness’. How do you think miracles and magic happen? It all comes from a positive thought that visualizes a reality and finally creates that which a thought wants to see. Robert Collier (1885 – 1950) said, “All power is from within and is therefore under our own control”.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847 – 1922) said, “What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists”.

Sunday November 6, 2011 (13:21hrs)

Damn Zambians dumb over Rupiah’s parentage

 By Mazuba Mwiinga

Haven’t we been likened to a second hand goods kind of a nation before? And haven’t we been before labelled as an evasive and complacent people? Where we are expected to act with nobility, we sink our heads in sand with shameless incapacity. Where we need to be sensible and show restraint and tolerance we bark like drunken Condors. What sort of species are we anyway?

Does anyone care about the Rupiah parentage issue? From my pigeon hole, a complacent nation with its evasive citizens, I see no one getting interested. Is it because a couple of us fall under Article 34 of the Constitution? That our parents or one of them is damn foreigner? That we don’t want to throw stones at some one because we live in glass houses?

Do we even know what allegiance to your nation means? Or learning from our ugly past gives us today? Only yesterday we were throwing tantrums on FTJ because of his atrocious leadership; reason, he was highly and over whelming suspected of being a foreigner. Where did it leave us? A leader with two faces and compromised allegiance. But we stand aloof and think this whole matter is political. Well, political it may be; but do we know that politics can either rule or ruin our lives?

A true son and daughter of a nation always take each matter that arises on a Constitution with great interest. A legally embedded mind always looks at the scale of justice, no matter how bad the law may seem to be to society; and speaking of the Supreme law of the land; the Constitution, no single person need to get away with it, until specks of suspicions are cleared.

Rupiah’s parentage is being challenged, but no sane Zambian seems to have interest in what is going on. Its only when the court will decide in favour of the complainant that someone will say, “Oh, so he wasn’t qualified!” Zambians with their attitudes towards patriotisms sucks.

Just a few months ago, world hero, Barack Obama was on hot rocks with his birth. He had to produce his birth certificate to satisfy the American populace that indeed he was qualified to lead the great nation of the World. Hasn’t he done that, the presumption would have remained that he was illegally ruling US and the road to impeachment would have been drawn.

Seemingly simple matters have destroyed nations because its citizens were so careless in reading between the lines. Allowing the un-allowable to happen is excusing bigger problems in future, because everyone will be referring to precedence. We need to know, and know very well whether Rupiah’s father was a Malawian or not.

History has it that in Malawi, late Hastings Kamuzu Banda ruled that country for close to 30 years, and it was only revealed after his death that in fact he wasn’t Malawian. And when you look at the kind of leader he was, you would cry with dreadful memories.

We have said it before, that making laws that hinge on personalities is setting traps that will hook you or your friends in future. And that’s what Rupiah’s friend late FTJ did in 1996 when his government pasted this parentage issue in the Constitution just to bar KK from intending to go back to State house.

Zambians need to seek the truth now; for it’s only now and never. Keeping mute and as dumb as a dumb just shows how insensitive this nation is over important and precarious matters.

read also on:
www.mazuba-mwiinga.blogspot.com
www.sites.google.com/site/mattersarising2011/updates
www.africanews.com/525

Burden of proof on Rupiah’s parentage

 by Mazuba Mwiinga

Hasn’t one wondered that pertinent issues in President Banda’s parentage case aren’t being addressed logically? More so, perplexed am I that even learned lawyers like Wynter Kabimba tend to wander like blind bats over the matter which has a clear passage to follow.

On the other hand isn’t it so immaterial for those lying on the table of debate that President Banda has been around as a civil servant since time immemorial, so he can’t be questioned about his parents now?

As a matter of fact having been in the government for along time before does not give Mr. Banda immunity from prosecution or investigation to ascertain whether or not his parents were foreigners.

The law of our land reads in black and white that if your parents were or are not Zambians, dare not aspire as a republican President because your credentials fall short of what is expected of a Zambian president.

To say why didn’t Rupiah’s critics bring the issue in 2008 when he stood as a republican president is like putting a theory that; “since I wasn’t caught when I stole last year, so why should I face litigation today when you have suspected me of stealing”.

Breaking the law with impunity without being questioned or caught does not warranty you from future prosecution when you are caught or suspected of having committed the same crime as previously. So whether or not no one questioned Rupiah’s candidature in 2008 is immaterial now as long as he has a case to answer.

Shock however slashes my back with pain to note that one Kibamba seeks the indulgence of the International community like UN, AU and SADC over a matter which is wholly domestic. Even when Kabimba feels our legal system is inadequate to help solve this matter, the AU, SADC and UN will never be better organs to bring sanity to the situation.

Zambia may be a signatory to many accords and instruments under such international organs, but these signatories aren’t domesticated into out local laws for them to be effected in our courts of law. This therefore stands as painting graffiti on the wall to see how one is frustrated over something.

Kabimba should be in a very better position than most of us to know that, the burden of proof over this matter lies on him and his PF to bring forward evidence that will stop Rupiah from successfully filing in his nominations next week.

Its not up to AU, SADC, UN stop Rupiah from contesting; Kabimba knows that, this is just a scare crow tactics to make some damn cadres shiver; neither is it in the hands of Rupiah to prove that his parents were Zambians because the rules of natural justice demands that he who has a cause against someone, need to prove his case with concrete evidence either beyond any reasonable doubt if it is a criminal case or on a balance of probability if it’s a civil case.

Making press briefings is a sheer waste of time and resources because that time and resources need to be spent on un covering the evidence and bringing the matter to court for Rupiah to stand trial in defending himself against any evidence that may be deduced there upon.

Absence of such evidence will be a clear successful nomination for Rupiah and subsequence re-election if voters decide so come September 20.  

read also on:

www.sites.google.com/site/mattersarising2011/updates

Zambia: Opposition to block Banda's nomination

by Mazuba Mwiinga

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As Zambia’s tripartite election campaigns get tense, incumbent President Rupiah Banda’s nomination bid for re-election under the ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD), gets more shock waves from the opposition.

Opposition Patriotic Front (PF) Secretary General Wynter Kabimba, has now stretched his bid to stop President Banda from contesting the presidency by writing to SADC, AU and UN.

Speaking to journalists in Lusaka on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 Kabimba said that President Banda need to clear his parentage controversy before he files in his nomination to stand as a Presidential candidate for MMD.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) has set August 7 to 10 as period for the presidential nominations.

The Zambian constitution allows only a person whose both parents are Zambians by birth and descent to aspire for the highest seat in the nation. The PF and other critics of Mr. Banda claim that his mother was born in Zimbabwe where his father used to work as a Miner in the colonial days.

But MMD Secretary General Richard Kachingwe speaking to State television, ZNBC said that Mr. Kabimba’s sentiments are ‘baseless and have no substance’. He wondered why the PF is bringing in the issue now when Mr. Banda has worked in various positions in government before and that no one challenged his candidature during the 2008 presidential by election.

Mr. Banda’s press aide, Dickson Jere talking to journalists in Lusaka said that Mr. Banda will not stand in the way of anyone who wants to challenge his candidature but wondered why the PF want to seek legal redress from outside when Zambia has its own legal system they can seek help from.

The parentage clause in the Zambian constitution was put in 1996 when former president Kenneth Kaunda intended to stand against former late president Frederick Chiluba. Kaunda’s parents were from Malawi and this clause barred him from contesting the presidency in a country he ruled for 27years earlier.

Some critics say that, to say Mr. Banda has been around in government is immaterial and that all the PF need to do is prove that Mr. Banda’s parents were not Zambians. This matter is likely to intensify as the nomination date gets closer.

read also on:

http://www.africanews.com/site/Zambia_Opposition_to_block_Bandas_nomination/list_messages/39376#reacties

https://sites.google.com/site/mattersarising2011/updates

Rupiah’s Presidential nomination on watch

by Mazuba Mwiinga

With Zambia's election date already on the calendar, and the Presidential nomination period now set for August 7 to 10, high expectations are on the wait as to whether incumbent president Rupiah Banda will be allowed to stand as his nationality has be questioned in the recent past.   

In a statement to the media on July 30, 2011 ECZ director Priscilla Isaac says that the Presidential nominations will take place at the Supreme Court before the Chief Justice with each aspiring candidate backed by 200 registered voters.

“Aspiring candidates will be required to pay K10 million ($2000) non-refundable nomination fee. Each aspiring candidate may have not more than two election agents per constituency for the presidential election,” Isaac said.

She said that Presidential aspiring candidates will be expected to lodge complete and attested statutory declaration, oath/affirmation of Zambian citizenship and nomination papers subscribed before the Chief Justice.

According to Article 34 (3) (b) of the Zambian Constitution a person can only be qualified to be a candidate for election as President if both his parents are Zambians by birth or descent and himself has been domiciled in Zambia for more than 20 years among other requirements.

But Mr. Banda’s critics have been urging the Law Association of Zambia to petition the Chief Justice in investigating his parentage claiming that his mother was Zimbabwean. Mr. Banda himself is on record as having said he was born in Zimbabwe where his father worked during the colonial days as a miner.

Article 34 (3) (a) of the Zambian Constitution requires one to aspire as a President if they were citizens of Zambia and for one to be a citizen they must have attained the age of 21 and legally registered by the Citizenship board and have been in Zambia for more than 10 years.

Mr. Banda have served in many government portfolios including that of diplomat in the independence government of former president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda from the 60s till the late 80s when he went into retirement. He was called back into active politics by the late Levy Mwanawasa in 2006 as vice President and attained the Presidency after the 2008 Presidential by elections after Mwanawasa demise.

His MMD Party speaking on ‘continuity with change’ is facing Micheal Sata’s Patriotic Front (PF) campaigning on a platform of ‘change for more money in your pockets’, and the United Party for National Development (UPND) of Hakainde Hichilema campaigning on the ‘real and meaningful change for a better Zambia’.

Whichever change will ring a bell in the ears of the electorate this is likely to be Zambia’s most highly contested election since independence in 1964. The three major Parties will have to share the five million plus registered voters captured by the ECZ.

read also on:
Africanews.com http://www.africanews.com/site/list_topics/525

The Muckracker  https://sites.google.com/site/mattersarising2011/updates

Levy was clever – he fixed the elections date

 by Mazuba Mwiinga

Levy was such a clever President and sharp lawyer. Don’t you think so? Intelligently he told Magande to fix the period when the National Budget should be presented in Parliament. And the set up believe me you; dictate that general elections must always be held before October of an election year.

Wonder shouldn’t be at your neck. According to the Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) Act No. 20 of 2009, Article 117 (1) states that, “The Minister responsible for finance shall, subject to clause (2), cause to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly, not later than the second Friday of October, before the commencement of the next financial year, estimates of revenue and expenditure of the Government for the financial year”;

It simply means that by the second week of October, Government must present its budget for the following year in Parliament every year.

Clause (2) of the same Article gives time for this process in case a new government in comes during an election year. It states, “In any year where a general election takes place and the estimates of revenue and expenditure of the Government for the next financial year cannot be prepared and laid before the National Assembly as specified under clause (1), the Minister responsible for finance shall cause to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly, within ninety days of the swearing in of the President, estimates of revenue and expenditure of the Government for that financial year”.

The Article gives a new government 3 months to prepare the budget; and the question that may arise is that can therefore elections be held at any time in an election year since clause 2 doesn’t specify? The answer is no.

Clause 2 is a blanket clause that gives a lee way to a new government to relax and get prepared. But Clause 3 of Article 117 is the focal point on which an election period stands. It restricts the rules of this game. It states that, “The National Assembly shall, subject to clause (2), approve the budget not later than the thirty first day of December”.

This means that by December 31 of an election year, Parliament must have approved the new budget, whether it’s a new government or not for this is the Constitutional deadline.

Mathematically in case of a new government to achieve this Parliament must convene at least 3 months before December, that’s October meaning an election must happen at least 4 months before December in order for the deadline to be met successfully; bringing in an anchor that, whatever happens elections in Zambia can only be held before October and holding them after October would be un constitutional and illegal.

That’s why President Rupiah Banda had no choice but to bring the election date to September 20, 2011 in order to meet constitutional provisions of submitting the budget to Parliament by whichever government is ushered in on this date.

This is how Levy’s shrewdness has been. He indirectly set the period of having elections in Zambia, unlike in the past when the seating president would have a leverage of announcing the date at any time in the year mostly in the rainy season when it would be so hard for the opposition to reach some impassable places due to logistical problems.

Someone may be so hurt by this Levy innovation because it puts the political playing field much flatter than we have experienced before. This is the direct befits of having good leaders in power who put good laws that protect the nation and its people rather than specific individuals. Very few knew this until now and when Constitutional Amendments are made in the future, caution must be taken to make sure such clauses are not repealed by selfish and scared Presidents.

This is a land mark Constitutional law for our democracy. 

read also on: https://sites.google.com/site/mattersarising2011/updates

Journalists and FOI – need to read

 By Mazuba Mwiinga

Knowledge is always presumed to be kept in journalists. Where the public doubts, journalists are at all times expected to provide the right answer through the right information. Where a journalist is caught red handed in the act telling a lie, in the eyes of the public its un forgivable sin, because the public cannot have the right to right information if the conduit of that information is damn unreliable.

And that’s why it pissed my head off its electrified connection when I heard journalists biting their tongues in an effort to appear knowledgeable over the Freedom Of Information Bill (FOI) during a forum at Capital Theatre in Livingstone on a topic: Role of the media in a democracy.

Defensively the journalists, who appeared at the forum, went round the bush speaking totally of a thing no one needed to doubt them, and in as a matter of fact, ended up just pleading for the public’s help in the fight so that FOI gets a Presidential assent so that their work becomes easier. Lie!!

This was a clear show that some of our journalists, despite their good skills in reporting and news writing, lack the skills of taking time to know what they are talking about.

The FOI Bill that has been a very controversial piece of legislature between the media and Government is not a document that is created just for journalists. Do you think the Government is such a coward of the media? This battle has come this far just because the Bill enhances the citizens’’ right to information when they need it. The Bill actually reduces the job of a journalist of informing the public on what the Government may have been hiding because, it gives powers to the public to directly seek that information on their own.

The preamble to the Bill states, “An Act to establish the Public Information Commission and define its functions; to provide for the right of access to information; to set out the scope of public information under the control of public authorities to be made available to the public in order to facilitate more effective participation in the good governance of Zambia; to promote transparency and accountability of public officers; and to provide for matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing”.

It does not mention of journalists in particular but the public. And to insinuate that lack of this Bill as an Act hinders the journalists access to information in public institutions is just a mere act of scapegoat on the part of the journalists; because if others can, and has been accessing this information without this legislature, how then others fail?

It has to be known that, the work of a journalist is not that of hand-to-mouth kind of task. A journalist needs more than just a mere piece of legislation to get the information to the public. He has to work an extra mile to get this information, and get it right and deliver it to the right people. The only weapons a journalist has are ethics, a notebook/recorder and a pen, the rest are added unto him.

The perception that was being made in this forum that this Bill once it becomes law, will be making journalists work easier because they will be just walking into an office, demand for information and get it; is much more lying than what it stipulates.

Section 23 (1) of the Bill states that, “A request for access to information may be made orally or in writing and shall be addressed to the head of the public authority or any other authorised person: Provided that a person may request the Commission to obtain the information from a public authority on that person’s behalf”.

And the person who has requested for this information must wait for a maximum of 14 days for the information to be provided before he can take an action of complaining for non availability of this information.

Lacking all such pertinent data on this Bill by the Panellist journalists is clear indication of how un knowledgeable they were on the Bill they claimed was so important for them. Wonder is in me, as to how they would even use it if they don’t know how it operates.

Journalists are regarded as a data base of information; and need to research and read thoroughly on any information of public interest. They need to equip themselves before they transmit such to the public. Biting their tongues when they were asked to state what the Bill says was such an embarrassment to journalism!

Of journalists and Stomachs

 By Mazuba Mwiinga

If you put a crop of journalists and a politician to debate the role of the media in a democracy; who do you think would give you a far reasonable exegesis? No prizes for guessing right of course.

I have very little saliva to wet my mouth right now when I come to think of it. I have traded the journalism line for a couple of years, but never have I been so ashamed to listen to one so called journalist paint my trade with false colours.

The day was Friday July 22, 2011. Place was Capital Theatre in Livingstone City. The theme was: The Role of the media in a democracy. The panellists were 4 journalists; two from Zambezi Fm, one from Radio Mosi-o-tunya and one from Muvi Tv and the other was the Deputy Mayor for Livingstone City.

Wasn’t I shocked more so, worried with the calibre of journalists we have, if these represented the average rate of an average journalist in the City? I eat a humble pie if this pricks one’s skin with pain, but truth be told my friends had nothing to offer to the theme at hand. If they thought they were right; knowledge begs their time.

The presentations were either skewed towards the ‘types of media’ we have or it was blabbered on mis-carried concept of media ethics and media house rules or on the types of governments found in a democracy. It was saddening hearing wick-wacky thoughts coming from people who were supposed to know better than the average common man.

Kudos though, to the Deputy Mayor; He was straight and to the point; as distinct as the role of the media must be; and congratulations to him for frankly stating that most journalists nowadays are losing their status as a fourth estate; to inform truthfully, honestly and objectively; to entertain creatively and to educate intelligibly.

And here is where the shock of my night struck. One journalist from Zambezi Fm defends himself saying there is more to journalism than can see the eye; that where a journalist was supposed to think with his head, he now uses his stomach. Money! That a journalist has a family to look after therefore, where the money calls he goes, despite having a duty to report the truth to the people. What a callous shame?

Aren’t we today producing second hand journalists in the name of media diversity? Journalists are born and not made; if one wakes up today and says I want to become a journalist just because I like how Mazuba reports or because I want to be appearing on Tv, tell them to consider farming and not waste people’s time with their fancy nightmares.

Journalists are accountable to the people and not any power that may be. Giving an excuse that the journalism classroom is different from the industry is hiding behind the reality of who a journalist is. If you are a coward better choose to be a receptionist and not a journalist. Every media organisation must be founded on journalism ethics; and any media house rule that abrogates the universal journalism ethics, remain null and void; and a journalist must only follow that which he was taught and that which protects his integrity – ethics.

A journalist who doesn’t follow journalism ethics in the name of media house policy is not worthy the name of a journalist. One has to know that there are no ethics for private media journalists and another set of ethics for the public media journalist because journalism ethics are set for all journalists regardless of the media house they are working for.

A journalist who thinks with his stomach and not with his brain is as useless as a sack full of holes and tasked to draw water using it.

It was such a disappointing forum on the part of the quality of knowledge these journalists had on the topic. Even accusing non availability of the Freedom of Information Act in the nation is a lame excuse that has no base because none of them could even articulate correctly what the FOI Bill contains!! The little information they have was wrong and dangerously incorrect because the FOI is not just a Bill for journalists alone, but the entire Zambian citizenry. I am more than sure none of them had taken time to peruse through this document to see what it contains.

Cracking my head on this, petrifies me even more; how on earth sure could one reduce himself to be a media bootlicker by losing his morals and ethics just for money and leave his job he was trained for? Journalists are accountable to the people and not to their bosses. Period! Those that think with their stomachs are parasites and weeds and need to be sprayed off and weeded out.