Archive for the '2012-10' Category

October 2012

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A Million Years of Heritage

The LuangwaValley- those three words evoke images of elephant, lion, leopard or perhaps a carmine bee eater.   Whatever your wildlife preference, the Valley is renowned for its natural beauty, and rightly so.  Less well-known is its long and rich cultural history.  Did you know that people have lived in the Valley for at least one […]

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Cookie Cutter

There are two major sides to the ‘biscuit’ story in Zambia, one that relates to the frightening levels of child stunting and malnutrition and the other that is about sharp business acumen and an eye for opportunity.   Shortly after independence our school children received milk in a school feeding programme. Linked to this was […]

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Steady As A Rock

This month, as we celebrate Zambia’s forty eighth year of Independence, we look at another Zambian symbol – Mulungushi Rock of Authority.   As a child and teenager, we often heard about Mulungushi Rock on the news, always in the context of a UNIP meeting. Not being much interested in politics, I never thought too […]

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Protecting Kasanka’s Bats – The Necessity Of Tourism Policies

The annual migration of straw-coloured fruit bats Eidolon helvum is regarded as one of the greatest wildlife spectacles in the world and it takes place in Zambia’s Kasanka National Park. For example, CNN recently listed it as one of the 20 “must-see places in the world” and in his latest book “Ultimate Wildlife Experiences”, esteemed […]

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Electric Light Orchestrated

Once again, suppliers of electricity, ZESCO, have submitted a proposed tariff increase, to become effective November this year. At press time, this application was still in the hands of the Energy Regulation Board (ERB), the date for submissions from the public having expired.   I don’t believe that there is even one ZESCO customer in […]

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Out Of Your Tree

Kabwe, almost exactly half way between Lusaka and Ndola, is not a town where one would plan a weekend away (unless it’s at Mulungushi Dam). For most of us, it’s a ‘dirty little town’ on the road between Lusaka and the Copperbelt, a town where we know that Zacaria Phiri is going to be out […]

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Fool On The Hill

Oh dear. It was two years ago exactly that the Fool on the Hill column was all about crime and keeping yourself safe inLusaka, and here we are again. Certainly in the New Kasama / Leopards Hill area there has been at least one armed robbery that due to good luck and cool heads concluded […]

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Mole in the Hole

The Heterogonite Caper   For some days now, the gates of Chambishi Mine had seen a queue of lorries, laden up with sacks of material, with their drivers and hangers on sat about the place, cooking up nshima and smoking rolled up cigarettes that had no tobacco but something far better in them! I had […]

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Book Review

A Wake of Vultures by Mary Earnshaw   This is a book that draws its excitement from the hazards, isolation and intrigues of life in the bush. Mary Earnshaw locates her novel in the South Luangwa and her characters and set are believable for anyone who has had the opportunity to visit one of our […]

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Post Dated

In today’s world with an estimated 294 billion emails being sent and received daily it is hard to imagine that only one hundred and twenty years ago, in today’s Zambia, mail was carried by ‘runners’ who set off from one place to the next carrying a bag of mail over their shoulder.  With 9 October […]

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Birds, Bugs and Bushes

The Flap Necked Chameleon (Chamaeleo dilepis)   It was the ancient Greeks who called them chamai leon, “dwarf lions”. When surprised, a chameleon will inflate its body, open its mouth to show its bright orange palette, hiss and lunge forward. Such behavior that is intended to confuse, surprise and frighten any attacker regardless of size, […]

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In The Garden

October … heat … sun … and in the garden, time to mulch! Try to shield all bare soil from the direct sun. You can use tree bark, leaves, stones, even shredded newspaper. But the best is to plant a groundcover. A groundcover plant is an effective protection and is usually the most attractive to […]

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Eating Out

Eating out with children is often quite a stressful time and one which can lead a parent to wishing they had left their brood behind and sneaked off for a quiet coffee by themselves.  We all have stories to tell of badly behaved children at restaurants and cafes, but it’s different when they are yours!  […]

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Time Marches On

Time marches on and in this case, time is marching on for David Reeve and his team who are working on getting David to Dakar. In the past month, David’s bike that he will be riding in the Dakar has arrived, it has been customs cleared and registered.   Last week, David was in Namibia […]

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