ON PURGING AND OUR FILTHY COUNTRY
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Filth kills. Dear reader, the poorer you are, the more likely you are to die.
By the time they had brought him to the health facility, he had lost much of his weight, he could hardly walk on his own and he was delirious.
He couldn’t remember what time of day it was. Neither did he know where he was. He was disorientated.
He was in what medical science calls an acute confusional state. Repeatedly, and enigmatically, he claimed to be Jesus of Nazareth.
‘Ni ba Kalaba aba,’ correcting his confusion, his wife said, informing the medical practitioners about his illness, tears forming in her eyes, sensing doom. ‘Batampile mailo ukupolomya nokuluka. Apa nomba nabaamba ukusabaila.’
He was from Kapoto Compound located in the city of Kitwe. Filth being everywhere, he could have been from anywhere in Zambia.
For instance, he could have been from Kanyama Compound, an unplanned human settlement only about five kilometres from Zambia’s own State House, its seat of power.
Evidently, country and town planning is not a cultural staple of Zambia. In case you needed proof, the continual mushrooming of unplanned human settlements is the required testimony.
Dear reader, it is not always that power saves lives. His death is a clear illustration of power failure.
This explains why people must always have power over their own lives. They must never give power away to one individual.
For example, citizens should never delegate the management of their lives to a republican president. A republican president should remain a utilitarian instrument, a listening, pliant and obedient servant of the people, employed by the people, always at their beck and call.
The health workers did all they could, left no stone unturned as they say, to save his life. IV fluids were even infused into his body to address his severe dehydration.
His condition had reached the tipping point, the point of no return. His condition too advanced, the man suffered irreversible multi-organ failure.
Her shrill wailing pierced the ears of everyone within range, causing goose bumps to form in all those that heard it. Her loud cry was so touching that even the health workers quickly understood the significance of her loss, what the man had meant to her.
It was as if her life had ended. And in a sense, it did.
He had been the apple of her eye. He was the only breadwinner she knew. Alone, she was lost. How am I going to raise the six children he has left me with? Cibusa wandi lelo waya! Nashala neka ne mulanda ne! Mayo nanaka mukulila!
It was clear that her cry reflected her stark fear of her future, a future now bleak, without the reliable support of her only pillar of strength, a future without a husband.
In 2019, I made a sincere submission to the Lusaka City Council. The aim of my application was to contribute, from a private sector perspective, to the wellbeing of the city and its inhabitants, by focusing on cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation. As history now records, my civilisational efforts were rejected.
I called them Public Health Sanitation Spots [PHSS]. Designed by a professional architect, the modern ablution structures comprised water points/taps, shower cubicles and toilets. Using brick and mortar, they were to be constructed by me at strategic sites in the city. Yes, me.
Besides being the required measure towards the elimination of faecal/oral diseases, they were intended to create jobs for youths, and generate income for everyone. You see dear reader, I possess the admirable talent of being able to see in the dark.al Dear reader, note that the state of any city in the world is a reliable reflection of the quality of thought of its inhabitants. And Lusaka City, the capital city of Zambia, badly needs an upgrade, it needs to be re-done.
Lusaka City as it is presently is a veritable cesspool of disease and death. That much of it is primitive in design is a mirror view of the status of civilisation of its citizens, especially its leaders.
She was inconsolable. You will meet him again in heaven, they lied to her, as they tried to soothe her. She wanted him here on earth. Then and not later on. Of what use is he going to be to me in heaven? It hurt so bad for her to think those thoughts. As if possible, I want him back, she wailed.
Zambia is unclean.
Though safe water and sanitation are vital for human survival, a must-have, and should be available to all, ‘17% of schools in Zambia lack basic sanitation. In addition, 32% of all households lack basic water access. Further, 60% of all households lack access to a basic water service, with 64% of all households lacking basic sanitation.
The stats show that, over the last three years, more than 500 Zambians have died from cholera, a faecal-oral disease. Fathers, mothers, children, workers, breadwinners.
The man from Kapoto Compound was only one of them. Others were from Sinia in Ndola, Misisi in Lusaka, Kasumbalesa in Chililabombwe, and so on.
Worth noting is that at one time during this period, nearly every district in Zambia had a reported case of cholera. Cholera indeed is a national issue in Zambia.
Fearing the spread of the contagion, they didn’t allow her to bury her husband. It was as if to say that the State has killed him so let the State bury him.
The stats further show that from October 2023 to sometime last year, nearly a thousand Zambians contracted cholera. And as I write this article, a Zambian somewhere in its capital city is battling the disease.
Over the same period, Zambia spent millions and millions of US dollars to control the outbreak of cholera, funds which could, for instance, be better used constructing primary schools where more thousands of Zambia’s children would receive the required life-saving basic skills. Arising from emergency response to loss of productivity, it is estimated that cholera costs Zambia about K1, 500 per person.
In these primitive parts like Zambia, many people think that street vending causes cholera. No, it doesn’t. Street vending should be encouraged and regulated. It causes the per capita income of citizens to rise and is a significant fixture for ending household poverty.
Neither does the rainy season. Cholera occurs when an individual swallows water or food that is contaminated with the germs that cause it, commonly found in faeces.
Cholera is a disease of filth. It is a disease of poverty. It arises from failure of hygiene.
You see, cholera is easy to prevent. Whatever it is that you will eat or drink, ensure that it is clean and safe, first wash it, peel it, boil it, warm it, cook it or leave it, and that’s it, cholera will not occur. Prayer alone doesn’t work.
No, rain, floods, or trade don’t cause cholera. It is poor hygiene which does.
It is estimated that, every year, about 140, 000 people die from cholera worldwide. And about four million people catch it.
Dear reader, now pay attention. Remember these words always. Not every infectious or non-infectious disease occurs naturally. Yes, you heard me right. Flinch if you want.
Inspired by the pursuit of profit, war on enemy or targeted economies, manipulation and control of people, assertion of soft political power or nefarious ends such as depopulation, some emerging infectious diseases are deliberately created and spread by man.
Partly premised on Sustainable Development Goal number six, ‘the UN, through the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC), aims to reduce cholera deaths by 90% and eliminate the disease in at least 20 countries [including Zambia] by 2030 via the “Ending Cholera: A Global Roadmap to 2030” strategy, focusing on early detection, rapid response, and multi-sectoral interventions.’
Subsequent to this UN goal, Zambia, funded by a foreign organisation, sponsored a resolution at the UN, which made this target binding to its member states.
Following the adoption of this UN resolution, Zambia then developed, like many other countries, its own Multi-sectoral Cholera Elimination Plan [MCEP].
Though its emphasis is on water, sanitation and hygiene [WASH] among its selected and recommended public health measures, a measure which now receives inordinate attention, is the use of the Oral Cholera Vaccine [OCV]. An argument can be made that wouldn’t it be better if the Zambian government invested in developing a vaccine against filth and poverty?
Today, Zambia’s Republican President Mr Hakainde Hichilema is the global champion against cholera. And it is in Zambia’s Chililabombwe where this year alone, in the first quarter of 2025, nearly fifty Zambian citizens have died from cholera.
As if a badge of recognition of just how poor and filth his country was, he was designated as the Global Cholera Champion by the World Health Organization (WHO) and a SADC summit.
Then something strange happened, something that ought to be investigated by any informed and serious government. An event that raised the eyebrows of the guardians of the earth.
Almost as if a staged argument for the increase in global investment aimed at the elimination of cholera, as if to make the case for its elimination, following the successful adoption of the UN resolution, the development of country-specific cholera elimination plans and the appointment of a global champion, an unprecedented outbreak of cholera, an outbreak of monstrous proportions like never before, occurred.
All at once, nearly all the countries in the southern part of Africa experienced outbreaks of cholera. Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, DRC, Tanzania, name them, they all had cholera at the same time.
And though funds for the procurement and administration of the Oral Cholera Vaccine were made readily available by donor agencies or cooperating partners, the funds for infrastructure development and overall human development to sustainably end cholera were evidently not given.
Coincidence? Was this a natural phenomenon? You must ask. To the questioning minds, the jury is still out there.
Dear reader, note that, in life and nature, coincidences do not exist.
It makes good governance sense then that, in some cases, outbreaks of infectious or non-infectious diseases should constitute a matter of national security. As part of our national health security, our country level of suspicion, alertness and preparedness ought to be red or high indeed.
For instance, a deliberately caused outbreak of cholera in Livingstone would quickly wreck the economy of out tourism capital. Bookings would be cancelled, visits would reduce, bed occupancy would plummet, hotels and lodges would lay off their workers and poverty would then come to Livingstone. See?
In an unmarked mass grave, he was buried at the Chingola Road cemetery by State officials in Hazmat suits, suits which cost more than the price of hygiene. Whether headed for heaven or hell, what he doesn’t know is that many other Zambians are prematurely following him in a similar manner.
The human body is a really fine piece of art/work. It has a built-in survival mechanism called the immune system which acts without conscious control.
Through the mouth, when the body inadvertently takes in something contaminated, vomiting and diarrhoea will soon result in order to save the individual. Foreign agent identification for purposes of removal is soon triggered.
Why the body fights back and survives us without our conscious bidding should be a premise for your humility, dear reader. It is not always that you save yourself, dear reader. Sometimes, and commonly, hidden forces are behind your survival. Worth noting, and fundamentally important, is that not all human intelligence is conscious. The body, you see, is quicker in decision-making than the mind.
Vomiting saves lives. To purge is to get rid of something unwanted. Purging is cleaning. It saves.
It follows then that when as a people, we have elected, taken in leaders that are veritable contaminants, rotten bastards if you like, leaders that pose a danger to our own survival, leaders that fail to improve the livelihoods of people as promised, we as a people, collectively, must vomit or purge such leaders. Rotten eggs or nuts should be electorally spat out.
Bad leaders kill. Zambia must vomit or purge such people.
Either Zambia purges itself of leaders that are treacherous, unpatriotic, liars, tribal and the corrupt or Zambia will perish. Puppets, agents of foreign interests and domination, must be damned.
Dear reader, democracy is a purgative. So it is that next time you go to the polls to elect someone as your leader, you must remember that your voting is an opportunity to right your life and the nation by cleansing or purging the government, your own government, of lethal impurities.
Prematurely widowed, for solace, now she drinks beer like a fish. Her children malnourished, she is commonly found at the taverns in Buchi Compound, trading her scraggy bare ass for survival.
Cholera is a disease of filth and poverty. It is a dire indictment of dereliction of duty. And when it occurs near State House, it is a sure indicator of failure of leadership. It is a clarion call for change.
Cholera is a sign. Aside from it being an act of war, wherever it occurs, it clearly shows that its victims are veritable brutes, a poor, primitive and backward people, a people that require judicious leadership and urgent cultural improvement.
Dear reader, in pursuit of a Zambia greater than we now have, live or die purging. Get rid of the unwanted, the charlatans, the vainglorious, the swindlers.
Remain in pursuit of light, of cleanliness, of Godliness. Purge your environment. Then redemption shall come, and it will be yours.
Godspeed!
Send your comments to: bandacanisius@gmail.com
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