It’s so sad to read some remarks that the President of Zambia makes in public. During his first days I used to give him the benefit of the doubt that the media had just caught his out of context words and that he was more on the humorous side.

I have picked two remarks made by Sata, which I found to be rather disturbing.

At the Rio+20 world conference on climate change and sustainable development in Rio, Brazil, President Sata who was inviting delegates to the United Nations World Tourism Conference next year had this to say:

“Come to Zambia and see what we have. We will waive some visa requirements and give you a visa on arrival. We have enough water for everyone, including the Greeks and Italians. We have wild animals and there is a lot more to see. The only thing we do not have in abundance is whiskey and that is because whiskey pollutes the environment.” Read story here

On a visit to Zimbabwe to officially open the 53rd Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo, and having arrived at State House for a State Banquet, President Mugabe asked the First Ladies Grace Mugabe and Dr Christine Kaseba to join them for a photo shoot. But President Sata retorted: “Let them wait. After all they joined us later in our lives.” Read story here

Does Zambia have a clown in their state house?

A group of people reading newspapers for free at newspaper vendor stacks has become the order of the day in Zimbabwe. However, with the display of notices like this one, the free reading habit is most likely going to come to an end.

A sit-in protest in Bulawayo by members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) in Bulawayo led to the arrest of 100 of its members. The protests were organized to push for devolution of power, an immediate release of the constitution and expose the disrespect to the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo whose statue is still to be put up in the city.

The police in Bulawayo arrested over 100 members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) pressure group, as they conducted a sit-in protest on Wednesday calling for the immediate release of a draft Constitution. According to WOZA, many members in custody were handcuffed, which is a violation of women’s rights protocols.

Over 100 members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) are in custody at Bulawayo Central Police station, many are handcuffed in violation of women’s right protocols. Riot Police ran wildly around the Main Street and 8th Avenue intersection on orders of their Officer Commanding Bulawayo who was present to demand they arrest members.

Lawyers have been denied access on three separate occasions. Those in custody include WOZA leader Magodonga Mahlangu, three minor children who are not members of WOZA and 3 breastfeeding mothers in custody. WOZA national coordinator Jenni Williams was not arrested.

Ten protests were due to start at 11am Wednesday 27 June 2012 but Riot police had already arrested 40 members and by-standers by 10:30am. Only 3 of the ten protests made it to the sit-in location will be the road surrounding the space where the memorial statue of late Joshua Nkomo should be.

Four additional protests were conducted after 11:30 am marching from the Statue to the Bulawayo Central Police station. Riot police were deployed to refuse them entry into the police station and threatened to beat them before dispersing them from handing themselves in.

Read more here

Government has put an end to the distress of mothers who after giving birth could not foot their medical bills. Some women who face complications while giving birth at clinics are usually transferred to hospitals and this results in them facing a higher medical bill than they had budgeted for and most likely beyond their reach. Thus after giving birth, the joys of holding your newborn are sometimes not enjoyed by many women in Zimbabwe because of the financial constraints they faced in paying for their medical bills. In some cases women would be detained at the hospital or clinic until their bill was cleared or in the worst scenarios have their belongings confiscated. But alas, this is going to be a thing of the past as rural clinics and hospitals have scrapped maternity fees. Next week this same waiver will be introduced in provincial and central hospitals as reported by Newsday.

Newsday today reported that some children haven fallen ill after getting vaccinations under the just ended immunization week for children under 5 years. The children received vaccinations for measles and polio and in addition they received vitamin A supplements. In 2009 The Standard also reported that vaccinated children fell ill under such an immunization programme.

Being a parent or a guardian you tend to panic when you learn of such reports or worse still when you experience this actually happening to your child. A child falling ill after being immunized is very frightening and it calls for the Ministry of Health to carry out investigations.

From my personal experience in the first few months I had to take my son for shots, I was very worried and would dread taking him. I would procrastinate but eventually I would find myself at the clinic. And after a few days those side effects, like fever would creep in. As a first time mom it took time for me to learn and really appreciate how immunization and vaccinations work. I would therefore, like to share a few insightful and educative sites with parents and guardians out there.

On the UNICEF website they describe how immunization works:

“Immunization works by tricking the body into believing it is experiencing a full-scale invasion by an infectious agent so that the immune system can fortify its defenses. During vaccination, a harmless version of a germ is introduced to the body and the immune system responds by producing antibodies to attack the intruder. Thereafter, a memory of this “invasion” remains so that the immune system can quickly recognize and neutralize disease-causing agents when they appear.”

Thus a child is likely to fall ill while the vaccine is at work. It is also asserted that some vaccines can even cause symptoms which seem to be very similar to the symptoms of the disease they are supposed to prevent. To get more understanding of how vaccinations are made and how they work in the body you can click on these links below.

How vaccines Prevent Disease – Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
How do vaccines work – Healthy Children.org
And to understand more on illnesses that occur after getting shots click here

Don’t forget that even adults need to get shots once in a long while. A tetanus booster is required periodically throughout life!

It’s a big congratulations to Star FM for making it into Zimbabwean history for being the first private radio station after 32 years of independence. But I still feel nothing goes further than passing a congratulatory message at this stage because the station seems to be an extension of the existing state owned broadcaster. The radio station, which was officially launched yesterday, is owned by Zimpapers, which is state run. Initially the radio station got the license under the name Zimbabwe Talk Radio and no explanations have been given on the change of name.

Nhalnhla Ngwenya who heads Misa-Zimbabwe said, “So while it is good for Zimbabwe that we now have another player in the broadcasting industry, we doubt that its content will translate to an alternative platform form of communication. It would have been good if new player was going to bring diversity.”