Zambian Chronicle

The President was transferred to Percy military hospital in France after being treated for mild stroke in Egypt. He was rushed to hospital on Sunday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh just before an African Union summit. A statement from France’s Foreign ministry also said the President was still recovering in Paris. 

Please keep the first family in your thoughts and prayers; they need them more than any insinuations and innuendos right now. Honoring and praying for those who are ill is the most honorable Zambian thing to do …

Get well soon, Mr. President; can’t wait to fly you back home so you can continue kicking some butt, you got a lot of work cut out for you. Live Long & Prosper … thanks a trillion. 

Brainwave R Mumba, Sr. 

CEO  & President – Zambian Chronicle

Copyrights © 2008 Zambian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Zambian Chronicle content may not be stored except for personal, non-commercial use. Republication and redissemination of Zambian Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Zambian Chronicle. Zambian Chronicle shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, interruptions or delays in connection with the Zambian Chronicle content or from any damages arising therefrom. 

Zambian Chronicle is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microplus Holdings International, Inc.

Copyrights © 2008 Microplus Holdings Int., Inc

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LUSAKA, July 3 (Xinhua) — The Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ) has warned that the country is expected to experience increasing air, water pollution and land degradation due to more mining activities, Zambia Daily Mail reported on Thursday.

    Joseph Sakala, manager for the northern region of the ECZ, warned that with such a development, the country would also see involuntary displacement of people in some areas with mining potential.

    Zambia has not yet seen the best of copper or other minerals yet such as in Mkushi and Chongwe Copper belt among others, he said.

    Sakala was presenting a paper on environmental management in Zambia at a meeting in northwestern province of Solwezi.

    He said the country was experiencing problems in the provision of clean water and improved sanitation.

    He expressed regret at the way through which anthills were being exploited in Solwezi and the Copperbellt for construction of houses, which he said was causing environmental problems.

    Other environmental problems in the country include the management of plastics, e-waste, utilization of anthills for moulding bricks and mining of radioactive ores such as uranium, according to Sakala.

    Richard Zyambo, Kansanshi Mining Plc Environmental Manager, told the meeting that the mine had planted 100,000 jathropa trees within the mine area apart from empowering communities surrounding the mine with seedlings.

    He said the mining firms are willing to help individuals or groups of people who would be interested in growing the plant.

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LUSAKA, July 4 (Reuters) - Zambia has demanded that South Africa explain why President Thabo Mbeki announced publicly that Zambian leader Levy Mwanawasa had died, state television reported on Friday.

South Africa’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday saying there was a misunderstanding after Mbeki said he had been informed by the executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that Mwanawasa was dead.

Mbeki had called for a minute’s silence while attending a remembrance ceremony in Pretoria for victims of a recent wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

Zambia’s information minister told the nation on Thursday Mwanawasa was in stable condition in hospital, dismissing media reports that he had died.

“Foreign Affairs Minister Kabinga (Pande) has demanded an explanation on why South African President Thabo Mbeki said President Levy Mwanawasa had died,” Zambian state ZNBC television said.

Pande sent a letter to the South African government asking why Mbeki announced Mwanawasa’s death before verifying it with Zambian authorities, said the television.

Mwanawasa, 59, an outspoken critic of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, was rushed to hospital on Sunday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after suffering a stroke just before an African Union summit. He was later transferred to Paris for treatment.

Zambia’s high commissioner to South Africa Leslie Mbula said on state television that Mbeki had personally telephoned him to apologise for his remarks.

“President Mbeki expressed remorse and regret over the incident where he announced the passing on of President Mwanawasa. He apologised for calling a moment of silence,” Mbula said. (Reporting by Shapi Shacinda; editing by Ralph Boulton)

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia on Friday vowed to continue with a prudent macroeconomic and monetary stance despite the serious illness of its President Levy Mwanawasa, amid concern over the future of economic policy.

Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande and central bank Governor Caleb Fundanga moved to assure investors nothing would change in Mwanawasa’s absence.

“The president’s illness will not change anything because we have in place solid reforms, procedures and systems which have given confidence to many people,” Magande told Reuters in an interview.

Zambia, a major copper producer, would continue with prudent fiscal and sound monetary policy.

“I can’t see that because we are unable to say ‘Good Morning’ to the president, then the Bank of Zambia will break down, or the finance minister will fail to perform,” he said.

Zambia’s kwacha weakened to 3,390 against the U.S. dollar on Friday from 3,150 on Tuesday when the seriousness of Mwanawasa’s illness became clear.

“Personally, I see nothing to worry about because the kwacha has had these movements before … I don’t see any problems. In fact, we have sufficient reserves to do business,” Fundanga added.

The southern African country’s leader was rushed to hospital on Sunday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after suffering a stroke just before an African Union summit.

He was later transferred to Paris for treatment and the government was forced on Thursday to dismiss rumours and reports that he had died.

“JITTERY AND ANXIOUS”

Mwanawasa, 59, is a favourite of the International Monetary Fund and other Western donors, who extended billions of dollars in debt relief after he cracked down on government spending and launched an anti-graft drive.

His policies have helped usher in strong economic growth, which averaged 5 percent over the last six years, while inflation declined to single digits in April 2006, for the first time in over three decades.

“Offshore investors are looking at reducing their risks in the Zambian kwacha until there is proper clarification about the president’s health,” said a treasurer of a commercial bank, who declined to be named.

“The markets are not comfortable, they are jittery and anxious.”

Another senior manager of a separate commercial bank said he expected the currency to strengthen once there was “concrete and positive news” about Mwanawasa’s health.

“What is key is positive news on the president’s health and concrete assurances that there will be no change in government economic policy,” the bank manager said.

“The jitters are temporal in as far as we are concerned because the investment climate is intact.”

Magande said Mwanawasa’s ministers were given the scope to implement policy without interference.

“The reforms are imbedded in government policy. The president has not been supervising the minister of finance or the (BoZ) governor. But he has instructed us to carry out government policy.”

This included efforts to meet a target growth rate of 7.5 percent growth and to keep inflation within single digits, he said.

Growth in 2008 is forecast at 7 percent.

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.

This is according to highly placed family and government sources and until our most reliable sources confirm otherwise, we encourage all the smart people of the Zambian Enterprise at home and abroad to continue praying for his quick recovery. 

The President was transferred to Percy military hospital in France after being treated for mild stroke in Egypt. He was rushed to hospital on Sunday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh just before an African Union summit. A statement from France’s Foreign ministry also said the President was still recovering in Paris. 

Please keep the first family in your thoughts and prayers; they need them more than any insinuations and innuendos right now. Honoring and praying for those who are ill is the most honorable Zambian thing to do …

Get well soon, Mr. President; can’t wait to fly you back home so you can continue kicking some butt, you got a lot of work cut out for you. Live Long & Prosper … thanks a trillion. 

Brainwave R Mumba, Sr. 

CEO  & President – Zambian Chronicle

Copyrights © 2008 Zambian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Zambian Chronicle content may not be stored except for personal, non-commercial use. Republication and redissemination of Zambian Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Zambian Chronicle. Zambian Chronicle shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, interruptions or delays in connection with the Zambian Chronicle content or from any damages arising therefrom. 

Zambian Chronicle is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microplus Holdings International, Inc.

Copyrights © 2008 Microplus Holdings Int., Inc

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3 July 2008
Posted to the web 3 July 2008

Top Zambian officials are denying reports that President Levy Mwanawasa has died, news agencies reported Thursday.

Mwanawasa was transferred to a French hospital after suffering a stroke in Egypt on the eve of this week’s African Union summit.

A Johannesburg radio station said on Thursday that a Zambian diplomat in South Africa had confirmed Mwanawasa’s death, but Reuters reported later from Lusaka that Vice President Rupiah Banda had issued a statement saying the report was not true.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) said Zambian Information Minister Mike Mulongoti made a special radio and television broadcast in which he said: “We spoke with the people at Mwanawasa’s bedside a few minutes ago, including his wife, Maureen, who said President Mwanawasa was still alive and breathing.”

However, dpa quoted other, unnamed Zambian sources as saying the reports were true and Banda had called a special cabinet meeting. Mulongoti said the government would issue another bulletin on Mwanawasa’s condition early Thursday evening.

Source: allAfrica

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Elisabeth Behrmann, Dow Jones Newswires | July 01, 2008

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SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) — Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa was taken to hospital with chest pains on the eve of an African Union summit in Egypt on Sunday but was in a stable condition, medical sources said.

Mwanawasa had been due to take part in meeting of the pan-African bloc’s Peace and Security Council on Sunday evening expected to be dominated by the crisis in his southern African country’s neighbour Zimbabwe.

But he was forced to skip the meeting after suffering acute chest pains which prompted his hospitalisation in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, medics and a delegate to the meeting said.

The Zambian government has had strained relations with Zimbabwe in recent months amid accusations from Harare that it has been in cahoots with Western governments in seeking to topple the government of President Robert Mugabe.

Unlike some other southern African heads of state, the Zambian president has taken a tough line against Mugabe’s regime, likening the economic meltdown across his country’s southern border to a “sinking Titanic”.

Mwanawasa, 59, has ruled Zambia since 2002. His predecessor Frederick Chiluba has since faced corruption investigations but the incumbent too has drawn accusations of nepotism and tribalism, even from within his own ruling party.

Copyright © 2008 AFP. All rights reserved.

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For our discussion we will define talent as your skills, your expertise, your technocracy, your athletic abilities, your competitive advantage or anything that sets you apart. If you want to pull the crowd, set yourself ablaze; Ed Louis Cole loved to say.

A former business executive who sat on many boards, an author and philosopher who wrote mind stimulating books like, the Potential Principle, Maximized Manhood, Communication, Sex and Money, and a mentor to me, the late Ed Louis Cole (MHSRIP) coined the above paraphrased subject line, quoted below verbatim.

“talent will take you to the top, but only character will keep you there …”

Now that we have defined talent, we need to define character. What is character, one would dare ask? I would like to call it the bedrock of your personality, that which defines who you really are.

I would like to believe it is that individual you really see when you look into the mirror; it is what you are when no one is looking and you are all by yourself, it is embedded in your genetic fiber, it is that private philosophy that determines your public performance, so to say.

I have been reading George Tenet’s book, “At the Center of the Storm, my years at the CIA” and one thing that keeps regurgitating itself in this book is how the world’s former chief spy’s Greek heritage seemed to shape his character. Character takes time to build, character can be developed.

As the longest serving CIA Director up to his time, sparing through both Republican and Democratic presidencies, each Commander in Chief, seemed to trust his judgment because his character set him apart. He writes of a scenario when things had gone bad at the CIA and he knew, he would be fired but there came a phone call from President Clinton telling him, he trusted his judgment.

Tenet explains how he felt after that call from the President. He told himself that every Jim and Jack was inconsequential, the only person that mattered in the entire world just called to let him know he was in his corner.

He describes another scenario during the run up the Iraq invasion, how President Bush called him to thank him after a serious confusion in one of the cabinet meetings that Tenet brought some level-headedness to.

It was not just his skills (George Tenet’s) that set him apart, his character did as well. He was reliable, consistent, dependable and trustworthy. He could be counted on and he was the go-to-guy when things got tough. Character, character, character …

Character uses logic, reason and defies emotion. There can never be great leadership without character; there can never be great breakthroughs without character. Character sees beyond short term fallacies that come at the expense of long term benefits.

We are not worried about talent, because everyone sees it; we are worried about character because only you know yourself best. Character is latent, it is invisible while its attributes are not – they are seen by everyone around you except yourself at times; character always comes up despite how disguised one may want it to be.

Here at the Zambian Chronicle, character is important to us … we know first hand why and how we have become the “Gold Standard” for any interactive site and blog for Zambians around the world and we would encourage you to take stock of yourself as well.

Character is the real you, so do you have a character problem? The good news is, you can change, you can shape it and you can rebuild the real you into someone the world would benefit from. Besides, you owe it to yourself because while talent will take you to the top, only character can keep you there …

History is full of stories of great athlets, movie actors, presidents and world leaders whose skills, expertise,  technocracy, athletic abilities, competitive advantage or anything that set them apart took them to top, but their character brought them down.

Do a personal audit today, check out your character and its flaws, we all can improve …

Live Long & Prosper; that’s this week’s memo from us at the Zambian Chronicle … thanks a trillion. 

Brainwave R Mumba, Sr.

CEO  & President – Zambian Chronicle

Copyrights © 2008 Zambian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Zambian Chronicle content may not be stored except for personal, non-commercial use. Republication and redissemination of Zambian Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Zambian Chronicle. Zambian Chronicle shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, interruptions or delays in connection with the Zambian Chronicle content or from any damages arising therefrom. 

Zambian Chronicle is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microplus Holdings International, Inc.

Copyrights © 2008 Microplus Holdings Int., Inc

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By SARA KUGLER

UNITY, N.H. (AP) — Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton sought Friday to turn the page on their bitter, history-making fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, declaring the next chapter is about beating Republican John McCain.

Choosing a small New Hampshire community aptly named Unity for their first joint appearance since the campaign ended, Obama and Clinton stood on a platform before thousands of cheering, shouting supporters and took turns praising each other and urging party solidarity. She called the nominee-in-waiting a standup guy and he declared: “She rocks. She rocks.”

They came together in this hamlet where each won 107 votes in January’s primary. Body language rivaled campaign rhetoric as attention-getter of the day. And a pair rendered distant by a marathon campaign acted like teammates, alternately exhorting the rank-and-file to put any recriminations behind them.

Clinton noted that they had stood “toe to toe” against each other in a primary season fight that began almost two years ago and declared the time has come to “stand shoulder to shoulder” against the GOP. They seemed equally determined to regain a White House that their party hasn’t seen since her husband, President Clinton, left at the start of 2001.

“To anyone who voted for me and is now considering not voting or voting for Sen. (John) McCain, I strongly urge you to reconsider,” said Clinton, beseeching her supporters to join with Obama’s “to create an unstoppable force for change we can all believe in.”

In turn, Obama praised both Clinton and her husband as allies and pillars of the Democratic Party.

“We need them. We need them badly,” Obama said. “Not just my campaign, but the American people need their service and their vision and their wisdom in the months and years to come because that’s how we’re going to bring about unity in the Democratic Party. And that’s how we’re going to bring about unity in America.”

Moments earlier, the two snaked their way through some 6,000 people who gathered in a wide-open field and overflowed some bleacher seats in this town of 1,700.

Obama is seeking to become the country’s first black president; Clinton had sought to become the first woman to win the White House.

The reunification of these campaign rivals wasn’t without its awkward moments.

Despite the praise and smiles between the two, some in the crowd still sensed a space between them. Their embraces were slightly awkward, and Clinton stood with her hands clasped formally in front of her as Obama spoke.

Eileen Quill, a 64-year-old retired teacher from nearby Sunapee who had supported Clinton, said: “I think she’s usually a wonderful public speaker, and so is he, but she looked a little stiff and the whole thing wasn’t entirely comfortable.”

Aides said the atmosphere on the bus from the airport to the rally was “festive,” but said the two avoided talking about the campaign for the 90-minute ride. As they and their staffs ate a lunch of sandwiches and salads, Obama and Clinton made small talk, at one point commiserating and comparing stories about how difficult it is to live life under a microscope, as public figures do.

Friday’s joint appearance capped a turbulent Democratic primary season and tense post-race transition as the two went from foes to friends — at least publicly. This was the most visible event in a series of gestures the two senators have made over the past week to heal the hard feelings — between themselves as well as among their backers.

“Unity is not only a beautiful place as we can see, it’s a wonderful feeling, isn’t it? And I know when we start here in this field in Unity, we’ll end on the steps of the Capitol when Barack Obama takes the oath of office as our next president,” Clinton said from a podium as Obama sat next to her on a stool, coatless with his white shirt sleeves rolled up. She wore a powder blue pantsuit; he wore a light blue tie.

Wasting little time pressing Obama’s case, Clinton noted that McCain and the GOP probably hoped she wouldn’t join forces with Obama.

“But I’ve got news for them: We are one party; we are one America, and we are not going to rest until we take back our country and put it once again on the path to peace, prosperity and progress in the 21st century,” Clinton said to cheers.

Echoing Obama’s pitch, Clinton said McCain offered nothing more than a continuation of President Bush’s policies.

“In the end, Sen. McCain and President Bush are like two sides of the same coin, and it doesn’t amount to a whole lot of change,” Clinton said. “If you think we need a new course, a new agenda, then vote for Barack Obama and you will get the change that you need and deserve.”

“I’ve admired her as a leader, I’ve learned from her as a candidate. She rocks. She rocks. That’s the point I’m trying to make,” Obama added, responding to cheers from the crowd. “I know firsthand how good she is, how tough she is, how passionate she is, how committed she is the causes that brought all of us here today.”

Each needs the other now.

Associated Press Writer Beth Fouhy contributed to this story.