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Letter from the Editor |
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Dear JCTR Bulletin Readers: For many years, for the whole of their life times, the majority of Zambian, Malawian and by and large the rest of African people have been unable to meet basic needs. Basic needs in the form of decent housing, food, clothing, access to quality education and health care, etc. Certainly a number of reasons account for this state of affairs. By and large the reasons have included a prevalence of non-performing political systems that have given birth to incapable and irresponsible leaders. This non-performing political system has also found expression in misplaced national resources which together with some international factors such as the huge debt and imbalances in global social, political and economic governance have resulted in economies in Africa that have failed to respond to the needs of the people. But it is also true that there had been and continues to be some elements of an attitude towards work that have not helped in ensuring that the social system becomes a lubricant in enhancing human welfare. One would also argue that our education system in addition to just being wrong in some ways has not blended well or responded accordingly to societal challenges. Our education has not found fundamental expression in our society. While these problems have been in existence, there has not been an absence of blue-prints, in some cases well thought out blue-prints. For example, Zambia has had a series of national plans from the time of Independence, especially from the period following the 1974 oil crisis and a decline in copper prices that set in motion Zambia’s socio-economic problems. For the plans just after Independence the focus was on expanding opportunities for the people. But the plans after the oil crisis focused mainly on redressing the poor economic performance. |
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