DISHONEST POVERTY

 

There was a report in yesterday’s paper of three deaths in Western Province by people drinking methylated spirit as if it were alcohol. This unfortunate trend follows the banning of packaging and selling of sachets of cheap spirits known as tujilijili. Following these and other deaths there is an increasing demand for a curb on sales from unlicensed stalls (Tuntembas) or stores. Despite strong pronouncements from local Churches and authorities on temperance and public drunkenness, Mwandi is plagued by the arrival daily of two opaque beer tankers, bowser-sized, from Livingstone peddling their wares which are sold on in unlicensed informal yard bars; an income generating scheme for many single mothers. Two recent stabbings locally were drink-related.

 

Despite steady growth from macro policies, a stable inflation rate, increasing direct investment still half the Zambian population lives in extreme poverty and cannot meet basic needs. Inequality and injustice are obvious with the growing gap between rich and poor. Too many girls still don’t finish school, one shocking statistic is that 30% of 14-19 year old girls have been impregnated and have at least one child. Most rural youths remain jobless and spend their time loafing around. Even if in school Zambian youth also continues to suffer from poor quality education, a recent UN figures suggests that only 10% who enter Grade 1 emerge at Grade 12 - a 90% attrition rate.

 

A UCZ minister from the North has squarely laid the blame at the door of the selfish and greedy elite in leadership in government and the administration, who are entrusted to manage public affairs for the common good but instead show their indifference to the plight of the majority of our population, living in abject poverty.

Zambia is endowed with abundant wealth and natural resources yet many people are still living in perpetual and abject squalor below the poverty datum line. This can only be addressed when the national cake is shared more selflessly by those at the top.

 

Last Saturday morning we were on our way to the opening of the new Maternity wing at Masese Clinic. This has been built by Irish donors through the Arthur Cox Foundation. At the Mulobezi junction a briefcase commodity dealer company had set up a fenced compound and was offering spot cash to local farmers for their maize - cynically enticing those in need with a price, less than the floor price, before the Food Reserve Agency opens for business. The difficulty is that although farmers get the floor price for their maize from FRA they often have to wait some considerable time before they receive payment, so many are tempted to take the lower price.

 

We do most of our purchasing in Livingstone and the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection notes that the 15 basic food items for a family of 5 in Livingstone in June has risen to K940.54 and to K2 684.01 if essential non-food items are included. Livingstone is the third most expensive town after Lusaka (K3 684.46) and Solwezi- a still rather inaccessible mining boom-town, (K3 013.65).
Divide by 5, 6 or 8 to get the approximate rates in US$, Euros or GBP respectively.

 

The Council of Churches in Zambia, the Zambian Episcopal Conference (RC) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia all agreed at a recent meeting that mining investors have not really helped the country’s poor communities but in fact have made things worse by the way they conduct their business. Mining is a social justice issue because the associated environmental pollution, which impacts negatively on agriculture, rivers and air and the consequences of this contamination was borne disproportionately by the poor.

 

Statistics suggest 42% or 5.4m of the Zambian population lives in abject poverty this rises to 84% in Western Province. Moderate poverty accounts for another 2.4m people or 18% of the population. Despite valiant attempts at diversification in agriculture, tourism and other services, mining still remains the mainstay of the Zambian economy.  80% of export value comes from minerals and of that 90% is copper. That is 5.1% of GDP and 64% of the balance of trade.

 

But mining still makes a comparatively small contribution, especially since privatization, to the Zambian tax authorities. The multi-national conglomerates that make up most of the mining companies are well-resourced and have cutting-edge technology available to them. They are powerful and have been able to lobby and use influential individuals in both the political and civil spheres to work for their mutual benefit and for that of their shareholders. This has all happened at the expense the poor, illiterate and vulnerable.

 

Christ teaches us to remove the rock of offence and take away the stumbling block. The Church has its own interest too in the elimination of poverty. Poverty is not the ally but the enemy of the Gospel. The Gospel will not flourish amongst the submerged. The poor still have the Gospel preached but poverty and hunger can bar the way to the entrance of the Word.  Scripture reminds us that expectancy of the poor for better times and things will not always be doomed to disappointment. Psalm 9:18: For the needy shall not always be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.  

Progress and Development

Last weekend  was the Heroes and Unity long weekend, our major winter public holiday. We have just said farewell to another American Surgery Team who have spent the last week doing operations. The solar lights have been installed at Sikuzu School and the staff latrines there are complete, however, still minus their doors.


Our bank in its wisdom, decided that in their catch-all measures to prevent money-laundering and in the interests of customer service improvement, we now needed an ATM card to make withdrawals from the account we have had with them since 2004. It has taken over two weeks to get the card and has taken another three days of phone calls to get it activated. Actually by issuing everyone with ATM cards, I suspect all they will be doing is shifting the problem. So that now instead of patiently queuing behind 20 people inside the bank to reach the two overworked tellers, you will queue outside the bank behind a similar number of fatalistic customers trying to reach the single over-worked ATM machine!

For the first time in 20 years we now have drinking water in our house from a tap. Before this at Mwandi, we had taken river water and boiled it, then we had let the water cool and poured it into a metal water filter with ceramic elements that claimed to remove algae, rust, sediment and other suspended solids to say nothing of e-coli, shigella, giardia, salmonella and guinea worm! A Livingstone water pump and solar power business had an offer on a water purification system whose spare parts were low cost and easily available. The river water goes through spun fibre to remove solid particles, then carbon grains followed by a carbon block to remove organic material and odour, it then passes through ultraviolet light to kill bacteria and other microorganisms. It can produce 15 000 litres before needing to change the filters and yields 4 litres a minute.

At the beginning of the week ZESCO (Electricity Company) arrived and installed our domestic pre-pay meter. They gave us 50 units free as a starter till we could get to Livingstone and have the swipe card activated, so that we can pay for our electricity in advance. So, on Wednesday, from the bank, I next visited ZESCO, they said they would work on activating the account and return in the afternoon. This I did and after a short wait was able to put money into our account. You receive a till receipt with a number you punch into your meter which charges it with the number of units you have paid for. Interestingly, in all these developments - the solar panel, inverter, water filter and electric meter; the parts were Chinese-made. At least, our Shanghai Electric Company meters are being assembled in Zambia.

Finding decent jobs the world over is a major problem with so-called flexible forms of work with atypical or non-standard employment becoming more and more usual. These jobs are often part-time or are short fixed-term contracts with an on-call / zero-hours component. Those working in the Third Sector and Healthcare are only too well aware of this, with the health and safety dangers, the uncertainty, stress and risk of poverty that these jobs bring. With this type of employment it will not be difficult to fall into the trap of undeclared work.

Just as there is nothing illegal with tax avoidance, so there is nothing illegal in offering these forms of employment, but morally and ethically from a Christian point of view one has to ask is it right that ordinary people have no effective right to life in this world unless they can sell their skills and labour at the lowest price possible to a company whose only interest in them is to make the greatest profit possible out of them?

As Christians we see our efforts producing something that would otherwise not exist and we cooperate to support all human life: and in doing so, tackle dangers and difficulties and add to overall human happiness. In shops, mines, factories, schools, hospitals and offices people are organized to make the world a better place to live in, working with others on this world, God’s creation. Another value Christians discern is that working with others increases solidarity since what you are doing is done primarily for the good of others. We see society as a system of services in which we all take part. Work also brings dignity and allows people to put love in their lives. Our love and all it grows into in the new creation, we take with us into eternity, so fellow human beings are not just another commodity or natural resource to be exploited by a rapacious few. To deny someone decent working conditions is to offend against their humanity and against the image of God in them.

The arrogant, powerful and oppressive rich who make the law, then set themselves above it and use it deliberately to harm the poor will be held accountable one day. They actually condemn and murder innocent people who are not opposing them. The book of James says that they’ll need buckets for their tears when the crash comes, when the riches they relied on evaporate, the corrupt money, designer clothes and greedy luxuries. The excessive profits they made should have been used to pay fair wages to employees. All they will have to show for all their looting is a fatter corpse than normal.

A Fairly Civil Disorder

I was in Livingstone again yesterday visiting the bank. I was paying the next instalment on the new High School furniture and in the interests of economy I went in by bus.

I was surprised to see on alighting from the bus, police in riot gear squatting on the backs of pick-ups and patrolling up and down the main streets. Had the turmoil in the Middle East now reached Zambia, I wondered?………. Not quite.

At 0930h there was still a tense atmosphere in town, and the noisy altercation was being observed from a distance by engrossed spectators, offering commentary on the proceedings despite the occasional whiff of teargas wafting through the air; a vain attempt by the police to disperse bus conductors, drivers and taxi operators who had blocked town centre roads in protest against a rumoured rise, in various fees and fines by the police and Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA).

As I passed the Post Office the Police were somewhat prematurely and optimistically starting to remove stones and other street debris that had been used by the protesters to block the roads in the town centre. The Livingstone Police, unlike their Mongu colleagues, thankfully only fired tear gas at the mini bus and taxi drivers. This resulted in retaliation by the protesters with rocks being thrown and rolled to block the road, and a tirade of insults and catcalls launched at the Police, prompting bystanders to scatter and take temporary shelter in less exposed areas. Things were now getting serious; even business at the Zimbabwe Market in the town centre came to a standstill.

Meanwhile officials at the RTSA office denied knowledge of any hikes in fees, saying the agency was still charging ‘old prices’. The police then asked the drivers who had gathered along the main street, Mosi-Oa-Tunya Road, to disperse and go back to work as this was an illegal assembly but that the Government would address their concerns.

It was a blessing that that common sense prevailed in the end and no-one to my knowledge was beaten by truncheons nor was any police officer hit by stones. Irene and Dorothy both have relatives who are women police officers in Livingstone.

A by-stander informed me, as we crossed the road together, on the way back from the Finance Bank, that the main gripe was the cost of renewing PSV licence, the fees were to be increased to K1 million (GBP140 or US$220) from the previous charge of about K200,000 (US$45 GBP30). There were also loud complaints from two taxi drivers behind us that the Livingstone Police allegedly pursue and fine motorists unnecessarily to help supplement their low pay. No other city in Zambia it is said is subjected to the same number of ephemeral roadblocks mounted by the Livingstone Police within the city limits.

Taxi drivers the world over are an opinionated and independent-minded group of people. Zambians are no different. Most drivers that we have met are decent and honest family men, very willing to help and trying very hard to scrape a living in order to feed, clothe, house and educate their family. The drivers are not usually the owners of their vehicle and competition for trade is stiff, so life is not easy. They are also expected to raise a minimum amount each day for the owner. The proposed rises were unreasonable and would have been almost impossible to meet. Some street wit suggested because it is election year and because of all the trouble caused, it looked like RTSA (a Government Agency) was ‘decampaigning’ the MMD, the ruling party!

As regards Livingstone City Council charges, apparently taxi drivers were paying K2,000 (45c or 30p) per day while mini-bus drivers were still paying K5,000 per day with large long distance coaches paying K80,000 per trip. These charges have not increased for some time.

It all seemingly ended later in the morning with the Southern Province Permanent Secretary Gladys Kristafor asking the Ministry of Home Affairs to direct the police and RTSA to revert to old fees charged to motorists.

Business was back to normal as we left Livingstone on 1430h bus to Mwandi.

*Decampaigning – a Zambian English neologism meaning to campaign against political opponents.