I had lunch with a reclusive Tanzanian billionaire last month.

74 now, he's been in business since he was 14 years old.

Here are 10 things he shared with me: 1. It is not the mountain to climb that wears you down, it is the pebble in your shoe.

John Doe told me half the job is managing your distractions; which can be plenty. The mountain in front of you isn't the trouble, the things to distract you along the way are.

There's something fundamentally troubling about how our culture is raising us now, particularly girls.

It is this;

We are shockingly transactional in our relationships, especially romantic ones.

Being lavished with money and gifts is now synonymous with being loved. The dating landscape is a minefield now. Money is the currency (pun intended) driving relationships.

"Either pay up or I won't be with you. Find someone else."

Girls aren't even shy or subtle about this anymore, they say it straight to your face.

Simply, love is a commodity.

Figured a few things out on Twitter over the years. Here's one of them;

The way to get a discussion going with Zambians is rarely by way of asking a question. We aren't really given to that.

You don't ask, you make a statement and let them respond.

Here's what I mean by that. "What are your thoughts on homeschooling?"

It isn't the sought of question to pique our interest much. We process a certain way. Here's what to say instead;

"Schools in Lusaka are just terrible. There's no point sending kids there. Pulled mine out of 2 and teach them myself."

So yesterday the Socialist Party announced it would throw its weight behind Bowman Lusambo and Joe Malanji in the looming by-election.

Wished that statement were quite literal, because then it would mean a certain outcome.

I digress, however.

Hoped reports were inaccurate. Went out looking for the press conference announcing that decision and found it on Facebook. The video broadcast.

I was gobsmacked.

All of Musumali, M'membe and Mwikisa sat to address it.

They spoke on principles, the reasons they made the decision.

Last year, I went to Manda Hill late in the afternoon, got into a Bureau De Change, and did a monetary exchange.

As the teller was stacking my money into an envelope, I glanced outside and saw a rough looking man staring straight at me from the corridor. He quickly disappeared. I put the money into my backpack and stepped out. Looked at my watch and realised the bank was closed.

Decided to carry it home and make a deposit the next day. Drove to Waterfalls Mall to meet someone, had the bag in the backseat with a laptop. Stepped out, and locked the car.

More on this.

I now take the view a Member of Parliament having the clarity to fully represent constituents would likely have to be independent.

Whereas solutions to problems often require bipartisan approaches, MP allegiances are largely seen to be partisan.

Will explain.

1/

https://twitter.com/LankyObserver/status/1406172187069927426

At adoption for party sponsorship for the MP, one of the party requirements is that adopted candidates represent the best chance of garnering the highest number of votes for said party's Presidential candidate.

In short, one could win the seat but not be 'popular enough'

2/

There will be 21 days of mourning in Zambia, for Kenneth David Kaunda.

To remember KK is to get intimate with the facts of his long life, much of it lived in and given to public service.

To do that is to tell his story in all of its layers, complexities and nuances.

(Thread) To the world, Kenneth Kaunda was a Pan-Africanist. The embodiment of Africa's struggle for self-governance, as well as its aspirations in the grand affairs of the globe.

To Africa, he was the all weather friend in times of need.

It is in Zambia where his legacy becomes complex.

If we don't turn up in our numbers and vote next year, the economy will only go from bad to worse.

Here is how:

In 2008, we had reserves in our coffers.

The Levy admin had been planning an infrastructure programme to be executed in phases. This is what became #LinkZambia8000. Link Zambia 8000 was a planned road infrastructure development programme for over 8000 kilometres of road network.

The idea was to open the country up to investment, thereby enabling access to markets for remote areas.

Unfortunately, Levy died and what happened happened. PF won

The rap marriage gets on here.

You would think there are no happily married folk.

Distrustful of the demonisation of any one thing to the exclusion of considerations or evidence to the contrary.

There are benefits to marriage many don't talk about.

https://twitter.com/amgodiva/status/1310136729144303616

For instance, the evidence is abundant in so far as children being raised by two (happily) married folk having better life outcomes than single parent kids.

There's a stability to having 2 committed parents together hard to find outside of that union.

Now watch the whataboutery

A short story on this.

Earlier, discussed what it was like living in what was just a rung above a hut as our first family home. Dad built that when we were broke as church mice. Fond memories.

Anyway, we moved to a better house a few years later－to some strange things.

1/

https://twitter.com/Fidimukulu/status/1309357459253985281

We were the only house in say 500 metres of the next one.

Deforestation wasn't what it is now back then, so we naturally had lots of vegetation in the habitat.

This one time, we heard a thud on the rooftop late at night, as if a projectile had been hurled onto it purposefully.

Will answer this with an extended response, just to be clear.

I'm not a politician in the Zambian mould. That is, I am not looking for a career there. My primary interests at this stage in life lie elsewhere.

However, I cannot remember a time I was not politically awakened.

1/

https://twitter.com/KomzKamanga/status/1309205515940102146

Also can't seem to divorce myself from constant indignation about the status quo and our people's suffering.

So to answer the question, if I did enter politics, it would be reluctantly. Will not rule it out, however. A lot can happen in a lifetime.

I might run for President

2/

This is nowhere near true, Dennis.

If anything, saying a self-made person comes from privilege may be something of an oxymoron.

If they are privileged, they couldn't possibly be self-made.

The vast majority of wealthy folk on any rich list today are self-made. Came from zero.

https://twitter.com/kiddtic/status/1266606028927447041

The message this is a knock on privilege may inevitably have been communicated with this tweet.

Listen, I don't care for privilege. If you have it, you have it. Good for you.

It is simply to say many have trouble believing a person can come from the dirt and succeed gloriously.

So, Buumba Malambo is a child rights activist. Speaks out on issues affecting kids in the home, at school, in the community. She also tries to do her bit for women.

All very good.

Something about her posts concerns me, however.

She posts stories about alleged abuses publicly. These stories include names of alleged abusers. In instances, victims too.

Here is my concern;

If you post something like that about someone to the Internet and it turns out you did not get the facts right, what does that mean for those you have named?

Should Zambians elect a new President from a different political party next year, it would only promise a long and rocky road to economic recovery for the 17 million plus population.

A chance at redemption, but also failure.

History teaches if we care to listen to her.

Thread. In 1991, FTJ Chiluba swept to an emphatic victory over his tired opponent, Kenneth David Kaunda.

The Trade Unionist promised big changes and a departure from the misrule characterising the UNIP administration over 27 years.

Goodwill was plentiful, as were the nation's hopes.

When I said a lot of us are functionally illiterate, some thought it an incendiary thing to say.

Now, will admit I'm not the world's greatest diplomat. But the evidence is there for all to see. I stand by those words.

Today, let us talk about our savagery and lack of empathy. Here is an observation I have had over quite a number of years now;

Bashed dogs and cats left to die on the road.

If you drive around any town, you see this.

An animal with its brains on the floor, dead. Decays over a few days, as every driver circumvents it in disgust.

Lots of interesting responses to this.

Mine is Tribert Rujugiro, Chairman of the Pan African Tobacco Group.

The Rwandese industrialist fled war in his native country for Burundi, leaving school in Grade 8.

Got a job as a clerk at the Post Office, where he worked a few years.

https://twitter.com/Fidimukulu/status/1306639201451024384

At 29, he left his post and started a transportation outfit with a second hand lorry. Soon realised it wasn't for him and switched to trading.

Started selling soft commodities－sugar, salt, cigarettes, flour etc. Quickly expanded his business, acquiring a coveted import licence.

The United States of America isn't a perfect society, but a big part of what makes it great is its respect and encouragement of large scale thought, ambition and application across every sphere of its social space.

Nothing is deemed too outrageous, outlandish, nor audacious. Met with a friend that spent (and continues to do so) significant amounts of time over there.

He was sharing the adjustment he's had to make to his expectation and outlook in this regard settling back into Zambia.

Essentially said ambition here is viewed with much suspicion.

Leaving this here for the culture.

The Great One seeing off A.S Roma circa 2003, with a routine hat trick.

You had forwards, and then you had Thierry Henry.

When you are so good it isn't even cool to act cocky anymore.

Diego Maradona?

No.

Just Thierry Henry doing Thierry Henry things.

Annihilating Inter Milan, 2003

GBM is back to rabid tribalism on the campaign trail in the North.

He & Chanda Nyela repeated divisive tribal sentiment to largely young and impressionable people as they drummed up support for the PF candidate in Lukashya.

When Tupac Shakur coined THUG LIFE, it was an acronym. The Hate U Give Little Infants F**ks Everybody - THUGLIFE.

Nobody is born hating another, we learn that somewhere.

Similarly, nobody is born a Supremacist. We pick that up somewhere.

If people can learn these things, they can be taught love and unity too. But we choose hate.

❤" this tweet and I will write something about you. 12. A closed open book.

I think you have a lot more going on than you let on. Bit of mystery there, but all by design. What's up with that?

Very smart and perceptive. We should really do lunch or coffee sometime.

Also, are you really Socialist or is this a phase?

The Socialist Party has launched a Countrywide literacy campaign.

The Fred M'membe literacy program (men always want stuff named after themselves, don't they?) aims to equip educators (at school and in the community) to begin addressing our high illiteracy levels with education. Must say I buy the Socialist Party's approach to education, and take the view it represents the most viable option in truly confronting the gnawing problem of illiteracy, the lack of a quality education among those deeming themselves educated in our country, and attendant ills.