Move them to Lusaka

The September 25th Washington Post , www.washingtonpost.com, published an article, "Zambian Hopeful Takes a Swing at China", which focused on Michael Sata's campaign for president of Zambia versus current President Levy Mwanawasa.

The "Background: Zambia" graphic in the article caught my attention which noted that Zambia is slightly larger than Texas and that copper production dominates the economy. Mr. Sata's campaign is focused on the growing influence of China in Africa which needs Zambian copper to fuel the Chinese economy so we Americans can buy more widgets to fuel our own growing economy which is now dominated by mini-storage units it appears :-)

Aside from the geo-politics this article focused on the one factoid that caught my attention is that the life expectancy for men is 38 years and for women it is 37 years primarily due to poverty and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. This touched me personally since I turn 41 years old later this year which means I would be an old man in Zambia today -- pretty scary since it took my first 40 years years to get life figured out!!!

Instead of serving as a forum for the propaganda speeches of podium-loving dictators like President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela perhaps the United Nations should devote a day to discussing the human condition/quality of life in current day Zambia don't you think?

Even better let's finish cleaning up New York City by moving the United Nations headquarters to the capital of Zambia -- Lusaka -- so the U.N. bureaucrats can be first hand knowledge of the developing world.

Now that is reform,

Todd