ZAMBIA'S FORMER PRESIDENT CHILUBA DIES

SECOND Republican president, Frederick Chiluba is dead.

The late Chiluba's spokesperson Emmanuel Mwamba confirmed the death of the former president who died at his resident in Lusaka's Kabulonga area shortly after mid night on Saturday morning.

According to Mwamba, Chiluba had a normal full day and in the afternoon had meetings with his lawyers and later with some members of parliament.

He said after the meetings, Chiluba complained that he was not feeling well after 18:00 hours prompting the family to call his personal physician.

After being attended to by the doctor, he was asked to rest and insisted he was alright but went to bed around 19:00 hours.

Later in the night, his doctor was called again that his condition had worsened and was pronounced dead shortly after mid night.

His body is laying at Ambassador St. Anne's Funeral Palour.FREDERICK Chiluba is gone. His journey on this earth has ended. No one can add anything or take away anything from Chiluba today. This is how final death is. It is a definitive end of the process we call life.

All human beings must die, but death can vary in its significance. The ancient Chinese writer Szuma Chien said, “Though death befalls all men alike, it may be weightier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather.” To die having served one’s people selflessly is weightier than Mount Tai, but to live a selfish life is lighter than a feather.

Death is a mystery and yet is as real as life itself. We may not like to think about it but it is as real as the breath we take. It is only a matter of time before the announcement is made that this one or that one has died. Yesterday, it was an announcement about Chiluba’s death.

One day this announcement will be about each one of us. It is no wonder that some say that death is a great equaliser. You may be rich or poor, great or small, politically powerful or weak, but death will harvest all of us. The passing of somebody that we have known in so many ways – pleasant and unpleasant – and probably taken for granted, calls for serious reflection and deep meditation.

Sometimes, there is nothing one can do to save something that must die. And we are reminded in Ecclesiastes 2:1: “Everything that happens in this world happens at a time God chooses.

He set the time for our birth and a time for death …” We therefore have to be comfortable with the fact that one day we will die. This will help us to have a realistic view of the things that we do. It will help us to learn to value things that are important and ignore things that are not important in this life. A correct view of our mortality helps us to direct our energies in the most productive and beneficial way, in the service of the common good.

If we know that we are just passing through this world to do our small part in the relay of life, we will try our best to do those things which are good, which are useful, which are productive, which are enduring.
Although death is a difficult subject to think about, an inevitable reality that is often difficult to accept, it has a sobering effect on all of us.

Death helps us to have helpful attitude towards material possessions, how we acquire them and use them. What is the use of doing all sorts of wrong things to acquire wealth when you can leave it the very next day? None of us can guarantee that we will be around to enjoy the wealth we have acquired for ourselves. This is why it is foolish to be a thief, a plunderer, to be corrupt.
[Sydney] an  extract from THE POST

The day Hector was killed - In the words of his sister Antoinette.

We were told there was going to be change at our school, that we would do maths and geography in Afrikaans. We were surprised, and the teachers weren't pleased about it. That winter in 1976 we thought, let's see what the first term is like. We did the first term tests, and they were disastrous.
The African National Congress and Pan- Africanist Congress were banned at the time but sometimes we would discuss the issue together and eventually they told us there would be a demonstration on June 16. Obviously everyone was thrilled.
The night before, we were so anxious, trying to come up with some banners that would have a big impact. We didn't have many, though "to hell with Afrikaans" was one example. We didn't want to tell our parents.
The day itself started normally, there was no sign of anything. Every day there would be an assembly, and we would be there singing and praying. While we were praying I saw students from Morris Isaacson high school.
I was excited but because we were praying I had to restrain myself. They were singing and chanting, they put us in the mood. Soon we threw our books down and got out our placards. Everyone was waving and singing in the streets of Soweto.
Our leader told us that the police were around the school and emphasised that we weren't to provoke them, otherwise the mission would not be fulfilled. As I was having a discussion with my friends, "bang", there was a shot. We had never thought there would be violence and we ran amok in confusion, hiding ourselves in nearby houses. Later on, when it was calm, we sneaked out again. It was like hide and seek - as soon as we heard shots, we'd hide and then when it calmed down, we came out.
I told my brother to stay next to me while I figured out how we could get home. While I was talking to him there was another shot. We ran back into hiding. When I emerged, Hector wasn't there. I said to myself maybe, because he is young, he is still hiding. The best thing to do, I thought, was to wait there, where I was talking to him, so that when he emerges, he will find me. Meanwhile, students were gathering at a scene. I wanted to go and see but couldn't because I was still waiting for Hector. But when I looked closer, I saw him there with the crowd, as if he was fetching something from them, because he was very tall. I was anxious. I could see the body frame and then I saw blood coming from his mouth. I tried to let them know that this was my brother: I have been waiting for him, can't you see he is hurt? We ran to the clinic, but we could see he was finished.
There and then I understood he was dead.
I tell myself now that I have forgiven but I won't forget. It's a part of me I cannot run away from, but I want to move forward in life. I always say those who died did not die in vain. Obviously there are going to be a few hiccups before we get there, but we are now in a process and I am hoping for the best.
(Antoinette Sithole – Sister of Hector Pieterson. Sithole,then 17,is the schoolgirl in the picture running alongside Mbuyisa Makhubo who is carrying the dying Hector, aged 12, in his arms)

AFRICAN CHILD DAY-June-16-1976-soweto-student-uprising

In 1974, the National Party led South African government passed the ‘Afrikaans Medium Decree’ which mandated that all schools be taught in both English and Afrikaans. Afrikaans had to be used for mathematics, arithmetic, and social studies from the 7th grade. English would be the medium of instruction for general science and practical subjects (homecraft, needlework, woodwork, metalwork, art, agricultural science). Indigenous languages would be used for religion instruction, music, and physical culture.
A 1972 poll had found that 98% of young Sowetans did not want to be taught in Afrikaans. The association of Afrikaans with apartheid prompted black South Africans to prefer English. The 1974 decree was intended to forcibly reverse the decline of Afrikaans among black Africans.
The decree was resented deeply by blacks as Afrikaans was widely viewed, in the words of Desmond Tutu, "the language of the oppressor". The resentment grew until and children went on strike, refusing to go to school. The students formed an Action Committee (later known as the Soweto Students’ Representative Council) that organized a mass rally for June 16 to make themselves heard.
On the morning of June 16, 1976, thousands of black students walked from their schools to Orlando Stadium to protest against having to learn through Afrikaans in school. The protests were intended to be peaceful. The students began the march only to find out that police had barricaded the road along their intended route. After scuffles between marchers and police, the police opened fire into the crowd. Colonel Kleingeld, drew his handgun and fired the first shot, causing panic and chaos. Students started screaming and running and more gunshots were fired, killing 23 people, including children.
This incident triggered the uprising, which lasted for days and resulted in the deaths of between 200 and 700 people, with over a thousand injured. Photographs from the uprising were broadcast around the world and the event is seen as helping fuel the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s which eventually brought down the racist apartheid regime.
Today as we recall the memory and sacrifice of these young people marking Youth Day, we remember the many in the world that continue to live under oppressive policies and governments. G.B Shaw once said, “We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.” Scenes such as depicted in the photograph showing the dying Hector Pieterson cradled in a fellow student’s arms continue to this date as is indicated by another similar photograph taken in Palestine.
Let us allow ourselves to be inflamed by the spirit of those students and may their courage, their awareness of injustice, their desire to do away with oppressive structures continue to fuel our own passion to fight for justice.

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY- 5th JUNE

World Environment Day (WED) is a day that stimulates awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and public action. It is on 5 June. It was the day that United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was from 5-16 June 1972. It was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. The first World Environment Day was in 1973. World Environment Day is hosted every year by a different city with a different theme and is commemorated with an international exposition on the week that 5 June is on.
Under the theme 'Many Species. One Planet. One Future', Rwanda will be the Global host for this year’s event which will celebrate the incredible diversity of life on Earth as part of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity.