Comments for What Zambia Needs in 2007 at http://www.bhmagazine.com , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://www.bhmagazine.com Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:34:10 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.bhmagazine.com/content/view/220/34/#comment-60 Trying to remove English as the national language is a sad attempt at Mugabe-like demogogary. English is the world\'s language now and does not belong to one nation as the Americans will tell you or one race as the Singaporeans will tell you. I sometimes wonder when this \'make the white people the scapegoat\' attitude will end here in Southern Africa. It is bad enough what is going on to the south - why this unfriendly noise here? Zambia is better than that. The leaders of all major political parties should stand up against racism of every sort and should pledge support of the civil rights of all people especially minorities whatever their colour. If both the MMD and all major opposition parties stood up for what was right and condemned what has been going on to the south and recognised the value of the contributions of minorities (including white people) it would mark Zambia as being different from the other countries that have a appeased the Hitler of our times. One Zambia! - D. C. Whelan Tue, 03 Apr 2007 04:28:43 +0100 http://www.bhmagazine.com/content/view/220/34/#comment-56 What bothers me the most is that the so called \"leaders\" are championing this language debate. Zambian languages are beautiful and unique, but alarmingly abundant. Hence, a globally accepted and spoken language such as English should counter any tribal or lingual superiority or inferiority debates that will obviously ensue such reckless ideas and opinions. I love my Nsenga and Bemba, but I think English is an equalizing factor when it comes to communicationing with my country people of all dialects and races. Nevertheless, a few of our politicians and/or \"leaders\" are much better off indulging in their respective vernaculars when they attempt to articulate their thoughts in the most atrocious english that can be spoken. I know the notion of a national languages like the \'Kenyans have\', or the \'Tanzanians have\', has a very romantic appeal. But they have evolved with swahili speaking the same way Zambia has evolved with the use of English. So how do you super-impose their history on to Zambias and make swahili a national language? So yuou reckon just train more than 12 million people to speak a language that has been chosen because it is one of our \'many\' dialects? Sorry, don\'t think so. We already have enough trouble dealing with tribalism. Let us all celebrate our individual languages with pride, but unify our Zambian identity with some soft spoken Zambian English. - Joe McZambia Wed, 21 Mar 2007 05:19:07 +0100 http://www.bhmagazine.com/content/view/220/34/#comment-48 The language situation is differnt. In Tanzania, Swahili is a national language (not official language)and this was possible because Swahili involved from many languages including Arabic, African and some Indian languages. Swahili is an equivalent of lapalapa - a language that developed because of trade between Indians and Africans. Swahili does not belong to anyone. If we a language to unify us, then Swahili will do. How many people know that Swahili is one of the 73 Zambia languages? - Situmbeko Sitwala Sun, 11 Feb 2007 18:30:52 +0100