3D SUCCESS

Russian’s invasion of Ukraine has made me watch international news channels such as Al Jazeera, CNN, etc in past 3 weeks than I have for most of my life. In this same period, because of the state burial, I watched our national broadcaster’s news and made an interesting observation.   This bordered on the level of adherence to the programming by international news channels as opposed to our local stations. Currently, global news has been focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine with 90% and sometimes even 100% content for every news broadcast. The rest of the news has been left to either appear as subtitles (delegated at the bottom of the screen) or completed removed from the programming. They have focused on the “important” content as opposed to trying to share all the news items they may have. As a result, they are mostly on schedule with no cancelling or delay of programs. Coming to our local broadcaster, even if the main item was the state burial, watching the news felt ...

On Friday 18th March 2022, as I followed proceedings of the burial of Zambia’s fourth president, Rupiah Banda on ZNBC, I could not help but be moved by the many sentiments said about the deceased. Family, friends, and people from all walks of life recounted the special moments they had with someone who was affectionately called RB. From the daughter who recounted the song she sang with the father so beautifully to the tributes of his statesmanship, unifier of the country, peace maker, etc. from others.   As I watched the news later that evening, a lot more tributes were made based on what each person remembered the most about RB. "BC!" This was the word which popped up in my mind as the day’s events unfolded. BC was a term which referred to the meal allowance paid to students at the University of Zambia (UNZA). The allowance was dispersed by the Bursaries Committee hence the name BC. During his tenure as president, RB answered the students long standing plea for impro...

One of the busiest periods of my life was the time I was at the University of Zambia (Unza). Doing a demanding program (Engineering), I barely had time to myself. Most of my life was focussed on engaging in academic work such as attending classes, doing assignments, studying, and attending lab sessions. I was either too busy or too tired to engage in any out of school activity and unless if it was watching my movie series, football, or occasional night outs with my friends, I would most certainly pass on other activities. And it was not because I didn’t want to do them but for reasons as; something might go wrong, don’t have clothes for the occasion, don’t have a girlfriend to go with, we will attend it next time, etc. But in fifth year, I found myself doing rather than giving excuses. I attended most events for the first time such as the popular annual drama; Kojo comes to campus, functions within and outside campus like school trip to Livingstone, school parties, industry talks, ev...