Zambia: Help yourself and heaven will help you!

 

Beggars and proud!

         This is the title of the novel by Egyptian Albert Cossery (1913-2008) nicknamed the "Voltaire of the Nile" whose weft takes place in Caïre. Himself was quite a lazy, because speaking of him, he said: "Walk, walk, it's a chance to look in life. If I had an apartment and I had to think of the sheets, I'd be dead. "

         He has gone through life with irony to 92 years in his hotel room in Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris. Without knowing it, the indolence of his character concern not only Cairenes, but other peoples as poor Zambians. But he was a novelist, not a president of the Republic as Mr. Edgar Lungu Chagwa!

A country that has enormous resources, ... populous by  poors!

         Zambians are friendly and welconing, they have a country bursting with wealth in its subsoil (Copper, Cobalt, Manganese, Gold, Diamonds, etc ...), a tropical climate that allows all cultures ... but they have a sacred default or rather two: they are drunkards and idlers. And it's not that I thinks and says, because my education forbids me! This is the founding president Kenneth Kaunda of this country, still alive who once said. It was in the eighties. He then threatened to resign because he said he was tired of leading a nation of "idlers and drunkards." His speech shocked me because I found that after two decades at the helm of the country, he should teach his countrymen to work, instead of complaining about their legendary laziness! What have they done for the advice given by Jean De La Fontaine (1621-1695) in his fable “The laborer and his children?” I resumed full.

"The plougman and his children" (Jean De La Fontaine)

Work, take the sentence: This is the fund that lack the least.
Rich Ploughman, feeling his death
Brought his children, spoke to them without witnesses.
Beware, he told them not to sell the inheritance
We have left our parents. A Treasure Within.
I do not know the place; but a little courage
You will find: you will come to end.
Stir your field once you have been August.
Dig, search, Dig, leave no place
Where the hand comes and goes.
Dead Father, son returning the field
Below, above, everywhere; so that at the end of the year He brought more.
 No silver point hiding. But Father was wise
To show them before he died.
That work is a treasure.

When a people of drunkards and idlers returns to God!

         On Sunday, October 18, 2015, was declared national day of prayer and fasting in Zambia, where 85% of the population is Christian. The bars also remained closed until 18 hours as ordered by the president. In solidarity, the Zambian Football Association also postponed all scheduled matches Sunday. Former President David Kenneth Kaunda (91 years) has made her appeal to God to guide the current president. "Our God has heard our cries. He forgave us our sins and we're sure it will heal our country that faces serious socio-economic problems", said Edgar Lungu in Lusaka before some 5,000 Christians.
         Faced with the economic crisis that is hitting Zambia, the new president relied on God to "cure" the economy, saying "You all know that God is love and I call everyone to of you to do your best and leave the rest in the hands of God "
"God continues to help us find solutions to the problem that this young president might encounter in the future,"

         During the religious ceremony, Pastor Peter Ndlovu of the Evangelical Church of the biblical word (Bigoca) after imposing his hands on the head of Edgar Lungu (b 1956) believed that God could solve the economic crisis in Zambia. "To those who ask whether prayer can put the economy back on track, I answer yes". Because the Bible said that gold and silver belong to God ", he said.

The economic problems of Zambia have long been known: a currency disowned by a monkey!

         In October 2008, the predecessor of current Zambian President Rupiah Banda  (November 2, 2008 to 2011) who complained that the Zambian currency, the kwacha, was devalued again that this fall was that "growth prospects have declined so the expected gross domestic product was now revised down to around 4% or below". During this press conference, a monkey that had taken up residence in a tree overlooking his presidential office had urinated on him (in protest !!).           

Surprised and angry, Rupiah Banda publicly exclaimed: "Damn primate, you have urinated on my jacket. I'll give you for diner to Michael Sata! ". In 2011, Michael Chilufya Sata (1937-2014) after beating him in the presidential election was severely pay his remarks dragging him to court for embezzlement of public funds before unfortunately died without having rectified the catastrophic Zambian economy!

The real crisis in Zambia is basically "Policy".

          After trying to humiliate the interim president of Zambia, Sott Guy Lyndsay, the only Zambian of Scottish origin who had risen to the post, Edgar Lungu is now invoking God to straighten the Kwanza, which lost 45% of its value against the dollar since the beginning of 2015. Accustomed to successive periodic devaluations of their currencies since the time of Kenneth Kaunda (1964-1991)  Zambians transformed the Kwacha copper coins in jewelry for their wives! This copper which has always accounted for 70% of their exports. When the Anglo-Swiss Xstrata-Glencore company operating it decides to eliminate 3,800 jobs because of the decline in copper prices, Zambian economy plunges into the abyss. Add to this, the drought disrupts hydroelectric generation in the country and the devaluation of the yuan, the Chinese currency, which have invested heavily in Zambian agriculture ... There is not more than divine providence to boost economy and stop the fall of the Kwacha!

Flies to the rescue of your country Ms. Dambisa Moyo !!

         After invoking divine providence, Edgar Lungu hoped that "those who have brilliant ideas to present" to the government.

         I understand that the best World economic analyst called Dambisa Moyo was born in 1969 in Lusaka, Zambia. To attention of Mr. Lungu, may I present here her candidacy for the post of Minister of Economic Planning. If she wants to help his hometown course countries not to fall from bad to worse!

         Dambisa Moyo was born on February 2, 1969 in Lusaka, Zambia. After high school in Zambia, she obtained a Master in Finance and a BA in Chemistry at the University of Washington. She obtained a master's degree at Harvard University in the U.S.A. and a PhD in Economics at Oxford University in Britain. From 1993-1995, she worked as a consultant to the World Bank. From 2001 to 2003, she worked as a consultant for Goldman Sachs Bank from 2001 to 2008, where she held the position of head of economic research and strategy for sub-Saharan Africa. In 2009, she published a book translated into nine languages ​​which questions the relevance of ease development. In 2010, she became one of the 100 most influential thinkers, for "TIME Magazine". She is a member of the Centre for International Business and Management (CIBAM) of the University of Cambridge, and the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). In 2013, she received the "Lifetime Achievement Hayek Award."
She has published include:
-Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way For Africa, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2009.
-How The West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly and the Stark Choices Ahead, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2011.
-Winner Take All: China's Race For Resources and What It Means For Us, Kindle Edition, U.K., 2012.
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