Sotho

…to http://basotho.wordpress.com (Sotho)

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Philips to Build Lesotho Plant

Thursday March 27, 12:43 pm ET
Philips Electronics to Build Energy Saving Lightbulb Plant in Southern Africa AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Philips Electronics NV, the world’s largest maker of light bulbs, said Thursday it planned to cooperate with the government and another partner on building a plant in the southern African nation of Lesotho.

The company did not say how large the investment would be, but said the plant will produce 15 million compact fluorescent lamps annually once it is fully operational.

Another factory, more jobs. I suppose we can boil it down to that. We need jobs in Lesotho, and they’re not coming from anywhere within the country but local-based foreign companies. So be it. Welcome to Lesotho, Philips. We hope you’re not gonna be a sweat-shop.

The LaunchPad: Where Is Lesotho?

Lesotho is a small nation that is surrounded by the country of South Africa. The King and Queen of Lesotho have invited Johannes Amritzer and Mission SOS to do a Festival for their people. The first Festival was held there in October of 07 and 17 new churches were planted.

This coming week, a second series of meetings will be held there. Here’s a video report of the October meetings and a reminder to pray for Johannes, Peter, and the Mission SOS team this week.

Did the King and Queen really invite these folks to Lesotho for a festival? They said it… what… on TV? They sent an email to invite them? Published the invitation in the paper? Picked up the phone and called them? “We want you to do a festival for our people!”

The clip shows Basotho being healed miraculously. The clip shows the visitors, the healers, through the grace of God, giving sick Basotho their sight back, their legs, their hearing. And it shows the healers insisting that the healees have now been forgiven and saved.

I do not disbelieve in miraculous healing. I have been touched by it. But I disbelieve healers, and this disbelief stems from my conviction that if there is a God, then God is not biased, and will not reveal Him/Herself to a bunch of people at the expense of another bunch of people. This goes to the root of what for me being is all about, and that is if I am and you are, then by God we are. As a result, you can’t have Knowledge and Power if I don’t, and vice-versa, because we are.

If there’s any healing that must go on, it’s not going to be through a bunch of rich visitors to a poor nation. If anything, if Christianity and religion have any meaning, then it must be the opposite, the materially poor must be able to heal the materially rich. Why would God bypass my local preacher and instil in someone I don’t know who comes from a place I don’t know the power to heal me? It’s senseless, albeit dangerous.

N.B: I wasn’t there so I can’t say if collection plates were passed around — but I’d love to know from those who were there.

I wonder if the royal couple did invite these people to Lesotho. If so, then they shouldn’t have. I doubt Basotho need more hoodwinkers at this stage, having enough on a political level as it is. What Basotho do need is the subject of another discussion, but I can stuff it into a nutshell as Work, Political Stability, Economic Vigour and Health and Hygienic Awareness. Plus a little luck from the skies in the form of regular rain.

Did the healees know that their healers have a profitable business behind their action? Who are “the unreached peoples?” And are their melanocytes rather active? (1) Is this about race? Have people with less active melanocytes been reached? (2) It doesn’t seem to be about race, as there has been at least one festival in a European country, Bulgaria. So is this about money? Why are these folks doing this? Do festivals occur in richer, “white” countries? France, England, Italy, America, Spain? If not, why not? Questions and more questions.

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Lesotho urged to free journo: Africa: News:

Lesotho urged to free journo 23/01/2008 08:19 - (SA) # PM to testify against journo # Journo held for subversion Vienna - The International Press Institute urged Lesotho to drop all charges against a local journalist arrested last year for allegedly making contact with violent government opponents. Thabo Thakalekoala, a journalist at the private Harvest FM radio station in the capital, Maseru, was arrested last June and charged with subversion after he read out on the air a letter said to have been written by members of the army denouncing Prime Minister Phakalita Mosisili as “the unwanted ruler of Lesotho”.
[more…]

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Former UNB Professor to Present About Education in Lesotho:

On Thursday, Jan. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Room 143 of Marshall D’Avray Hall at the University of New Brunswick, Marie Cashion will present A Journey Begun: Public Education in Lesotho, southern Africa. In 2000 the mountain kingdom of Lesotho initiated free primary (grades 1-7) public education, starting with Grade 1and adding a grade each year.

Twenty of these schools are supported to varying degrees by Help Lesotho, a small Ottawa based NGO. This past fall professor Cashion, who recently retired from the UNB faculty of education, visited 15 of these schools to advise Help Lesotho on how it can best assist the schools given their level of need and limited resources. Professor Cashion will describe her experience as well as her plans to involve some New Brunswick schools in creating interest among students here in helping the schools of Lesotho.

Admission is free and a reception will follow the colloquium in Room 225 of Marshall D’Avray. For more information, contact Emery Hyslop-Margison at (506) 458-7457 or ehyslopm@unb.ca.

Yay! We’ve got more time…

We’ve just gotten word that the deadline to make donations to Menu For Hope food blogger charity campaign has been extended through the weekend. So if you missed out in entering the raffle for our fantastic prize package, or any of the dozens of other prizes that are up for grabs, you still have time to do so.

If you missed it, now’s the opportunity to help some children in Lesotho. And you might win something grand in the process. Please visit: www.tasteto.com and www.cooksister.com for more details.

Health workers all revved up to hit the road and beat HIV - Times Online:

Not one baby in Lesotho will be born with HIV in 2010. That is the ambitious pledge made by Mphu Ramatlapeng, the new Health Minister in this tiny African kingdom, which has been ravaged by the virus. And Riders for Health, the international charity chosen by The Times for this year’s charity appeal, has a crucial role to play in her quest to conquer HIV-Aids.

In a unique partnership Riders, the Elton John Aids Foundation and the Lesotho Government will ensure that hundreds of nurses, doctors and health workers are mobile by the end of next year – essential if HIV is to be eradicated. The Elton John foundation will provide 120 motorbikes. Riders for Health will teach health staff how to ride and guarantee to keep the bikes on the road with its preventive maintenance programme.

“Not one baby in Lesotho will be born with HIV in 2010″ is a tall statement, but perhaps we need tall statements in Lesotho, as tall as the mountains of the Malutis, in order to get half that much done. This is a forward-sounding project, and we need forward-sounding projects to beat what we’re up against. What we’re up against is starvation, drought and AIDS/HIV, and finding good governance, which is in reality necessary to get tall statements and forward-sounding projects implemented successfully. How do you see it?

One of my fears is for this project to go the way others have gone before: start off well, peter out almost immediately, and line the pockets of a few people. Please see this post. This does not mean help to Lesotho should be halted. It means help to Lesotho should be increased beyond the money, it means we need the money given to help Basotho, and for that the sponsors and donors must keep the books of the money they give. Else we’re sunk, as will the money. I’ll take this opportunity to wish Basotho Keresemese e monate, le selemo se secha se tletseng tšepo, khotso, pula le nala. None of those can really happen without the other.

37 hours left to help feed Lesotho kids — and win great prizes:

by Bonnie P. @ 2:45 pm on 20 December 2007.

As just about every food blog has publicized already, Pim Techamuanvivit of Chez Pim is once again spearheading the epic online fund-raiser Menu for Hope to benefit the U.N. World Food Programme. In 2006 she raised over $62,000. This year’s donations — which just passed $55,000! — will be earmarked for the school lunch program in Lesotho, a small country landlocked by South Africa, as an extra incentive to encourage families to educate their children.

Details here: news.myspace.com/living/organicliving and here: www.cooksister.com. It’s a good cause.

The Hays Daily News:

A few examples of aid-funded projects in Africa that have failed

Eds: For use Thursday Dec. 20 with BC-Rethinking Africa-A Bumpy Road. Also sent yesterday.

By The Associated Press

The World Bank’s private arm, the International Finance Corporation, has found that only half of its Africa projects succeed, and many donors have not done much better. Here are a few of the development projects in Africa that went wrong:
——–

PROJECT: Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline to the Atlantic Ocean DONOR: World Bank COST: $4.2 billion WHERE IT WENT WRONG: The pipeline was the biggest development project in Africa when it was completed in 2003. It was funded on condition that the money be spent with international supervision to develop Chad. However, President Idris Deby’s government announced in 2005 that oil money would go toward the general budget and the purchase of weapons, or else oil companies would be expelled. Now Deby spends the oil money on regime survival and rigged elections.
——–

PROJECT: Lake Turkana fish processing plant, Kenya DONOR: Norwegian government COST: $22 million WHERE IT WENT WRONG: The project was designed in 1971 to provide jobs to the Turkana people through fishing and fish processing for export. However, the Turkana are nomads with no history of fishing or eating fish. The plant was completed and operated for a few days, but was quickly shut down. The cost to operate the freezers and the demand for clean water in the desert were too high. It remains a “white elephant” in Kenya’s arid northwest.
——–

PROJECT: Lesotho Highlands Water Project
DONOR: World Bank, European Investment Bank, African Development Bank
COST: $3.5 billion
WHERE IT WENT WRONG: The project to divert fresh water from the mountains for sale to South Africa and for electricity began in 1986. But the electricity proved too expensive for most people, and the diversion of so much water caused environmental and economic havoc downstream. The development fund raised from selling the water was shut down in 2003. The courts convicted three of the world’s largest construction firms on corruption charges and the project’s chief executive was jailed. Tens of thousands of people whose lives were ruined by the diversion are still waiting for compensation.
——–

PROJECT: Office du Niger, Mali DONOR: France COST: More than $300 million over 50 years WHERE IT WENT WRONG: The goal in 1932 was to irrigate 2.47 million acres to grow cotton and rice and develop hydropower in the Mali desert. More than 30,000 people were forced to move to the desert to work on the largest aid project attempted by French colonial authorities. The African workers largely ignored French attempts to change traditional agricultural practices. By 1982, only 6 percent of the region was developed and the infrastructure was falling apart. The World Bank took over the project in 1985 and has shown limited success with rice farming.
——–

PROJECT: Roll Back Malaria, across Africa DONOR: Multiple agencies COST: About $500 million WHERE IT WENT WRONG: Roll Back Malaria, established in 1998, aimed to halve malaria incidence by 2010. The program said Africa needed $1.9 billion a year to slow the disease, but by 2002 donors had only come up with $200 million a year. By 2004 the infection rate had risen 12 percent. Experts say donors rarely followed through with pledges and some programs were subject to political considerations, such as what kinds of insecticides to use, whether to buy cheap generic drugs or how much poor people should pay for mosquito nets.

I was attracted enough by the title of an AllAfrica.com article to resolve to read it. The title read: “Uganda: Africans Can Overcome HIV/Aids.” I wanted to know how we could do so. If Uganda can do it, then Lesotho can, also, I reasoned. Lesotho has one of the highest rates in the world. I went home this year after 7 years away, and found many of my friends gone, compromised to AIDS and the folly surrounding it.

But I was quickly disappointed by the article, even if it spoke some truths that I would agree with. Shunning promiscuity is one of those. But the author also says things like, “since the condom is about safe sex and safe sinning,” it cannot be Jesus’ approach. Now, I don’t know if it would be Jesus’ approach — my worry lies in the fact that the author thinks condoms are for sinning.

Condoms are for safe sex that should be had by any couple if one of the partners is infected. We must remember that infection does not equal sinning, and that infected people should not be stigmatised like it has been done before. There are many ways to catch a virus. And even if someone catches the HIV virus by fornicating, sinning, cheating their spouse, our job is to help them, not to hurl Biblical verses at them, not to cast the first stone. That’s what Jesus said to the mob that wanted to stone that woman accused of whoring, right? Who are we to pass judgement?

Condoms are also for birth control. If I have “enough” children, or if I don’t want to have children, full-stop, then naturally I use a rubber. There are many reasons why a responsible person would want to use a rubber. They may not want to infect their partner or be infected by their partner, they may want to control the size of their family, they may feel more comfortable having sex with a rubber than without, they may want to use a rubber in order to prolong the excitement of the act. And any of those are as valid as wanting to eat to live.

“Since the intervention of the condom hinders man and woman, whether married or not, to become one flesh, the sexual act that follows merely implies manipulation of among partners as conduits of sensual pleasure and masturbation. Thus the prevailing mistrust for abstinence and faithfulness among partners seriously betrays African cultural and Christian values in preference for secularism and utilitarianism.
[source…]”

I think it’s wrong to imply that who uses a condom sleeps around and cheats their partner (in bold in the quote above; the highlighting is mine). It is simply untrue. And the sexual act can be enjoyed only for sensual pleasure. It is an outlet of love that God has bestowed on us (and maybe on dolphins, too, I don’t know. And who cares?). The sexual act is the ultimate in acts of love. Ranks right next to dying for someone. Maybe that’s why they call it “the small death.”

I also happen to think that this is not a question for Christians, or Jews, or Moslems, or Atheists alone, but for humans. AIDS hits flesh and blood, not spirituality. So I think to look at the issue and make it Christian is beside the point. And that’s what the author is doing. HIV/AIDS is hot-blooded, and kills my Jewish neighbour as well as my Hindu friend. We need to address it in those terms. Go and tell their families what you think Jesus would want and they will tell you what they think their own saints would want. Where does that leave us, standing on this blue, vulnerable planet at the edge of a hostile environment? You tell me.

“The African solidarity with the infected and affected, augmented by the Christian story of the Good Samaritan will bring about the holistic physical and spiritual healing required.”

I dig that. But the article does not convey that meaning. The Good Samaritan stops to help without saying, “Huh, what faith is this one, and did they or did they not fornicate?” I’m a Christian brought up in a Christian home (It is true, but I have to say that here to give my point of view the benefit of being at least looked at by some. Much like running for President in the United States). But I don’t think anyone has the right to interpret either the Bible or the teachings of Jesus Christ for humanity. I accept the fact that there are other religions that do not necessarily agree with mine. I do not want to fight with followers of those religions (or those non religions), but would like to hold hands with them to face the difficulties facing our lonely, vulnerable planet. The only basic, universal truth here is that we’re in deep shit together. Now, how do we get out?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200712170390.html

TwinCities.com - Gates money leaving basic health care in dust:

MASERU, Lesotho - A neighbor shaved Matsepang Nyoba’s head with an antiquated razor. Blood beaded on her scalp. Tears trickled down her cheeks, but not because of the pain. She was in mourning, and this was a ritual. Two days earlier, her newborn baby girl had died in the roach-infested maternity ward of Queen Elizabeth II, a crumbling sprawl that is the largest hospital in Lesotho, a mountainous nation of 2.1 million people surrounded by South Africa.

One of the statements that caught and retained my attention is this one: “Many AIDS patients have so little food that they vomit their free AIDS pills.” In other words, we give them expensive medicine to cure them of AIDS, but they haven’t eaten in a while. Perhaps the money would be better spent feeding patients. Some of them haven’t got transport fare to reach hospitals to receive their free medication. It’s sad. What is the problem?

The problem is that money is pouring in to help cure AIDS and Tuberculosis, high profile diseases and high profile killers, it is true. At the same time, qualified personnel is driven from basic care toward these high profile killers (follow the money!) The result is that people are starting to die from asphyxia and malnutrition. A more thought-out solution is required.

Mountains of Hope:

Special screening of the compelling documentary Mountains of Hope. A fourth-year medical student at Boston University, Kara-Lee Pool, inspired by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation supported work of the Lesotho-Boston Health Alliance, produced this film to educate her fellow students about the health care challenges faced in resource-constrained settings, to raise general awareness about the situation in Lesotho, and to present a message that will help draw Basotho physicians and nurses back to Lesotho. Director Patrick Christell presents a compelling portrait of Lesotho’s human resource crisis and the people involved in turning it around.

A question and answer period will follow the screening with a panel of the documentary’s creators. Screening will benefit the activities supported by Global Primary Care, a non-profit organization supporting the work of the Lesotho-Boston Health Alliance to tackle the human resource crisis in Lesotho.

When: Monday, Dec 10, 2007 at 7:00pm Register at http://www.coolidge.org/node/1407
Where: Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline, MA.
Who: Open to General Public
Admission: $10.00 More Info http://www.globalprimarycare.org Contact BUMC klpool@bu.edu 617-414-6264

Cook sister!: Menu for Hope IV - spotlight on Lesotho: I’m sure you have all heard of the wonderful Menu for Hope event that is the brainchild of Pim and takes place once a year around Christmas.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the campaign involves food bloggers (and others) from around the world each donating something to be raffled off on-line for charity. This can be as simple as a cookbook or as elaborate as a foodie tour of a world-class city. It can be something you will lovingly make yourself (e.g. jams or framed photographs) or it can be something you have persuaded somebody else to donate (e.g. dinner at a smart restaurant) - see last year’s campaign to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

Once the raffle starts, members of the public can visit your site to read about your raffle items and then place a bid by going to Pim’s site. And at the end of the campaign, winners are chosen using a software application, after which the regional hosts will tell people the good news of what they have won. Surely this raises a lot of money, I hear you say? Oh yes - just over $60,000 last year! And what happens to the money? Well, like last year, the money will be going to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and this year’s campaign is going to be particularly exciting.

This is because the WFP has allowed us to earmark the funds to a specific program. We am thrilled to announce that we have chosen a school feeding program in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho - which is situated bang in the middle of South Africa!

If you can participate, do. it’s a beautiful initiative and, as I’ve always insisted, is an example of the kinds of action that will get us out of the quagmire and cycle of poverty, ill-health, and dying land. Please contact jeanne AT 501 DOT co DOT za to tell her what you’d like to raffle, or how you may participate.

Ha ene, ene, ka litloebelele, e hlatsoe mali a tšolohileng ,
A tšolohileng naheng ea morena bohlale khaitseli ea khotso.

Thlorong ea thaba, above the clouds
That streamed like a sea below me
I said, “That peak is the thought of 9th December 1982”

Why you Lesotho, Lesotho le letle labo Senate le ‘Maseeiso, why did they stage such a brutal butchery on this beautiful mountainous land?
The day we shall all remember, yes, 9th December 1982.

I speak of the great Kingdom of Lesotho, I speak
Of the majestic land of peace, I speak of the kingdom in the sky,
Yes, the kingdom near heaven.

I speak of naha ea bana ba thari, yes, children of the great Moshoeshoe.
Yes, the land that unites us today by the brutal death of the nationals of this Kingdom
and the children of the mothers of South Africa.
It was 12 midnight, somebody said, “Get up!!! Baloi ke baoo!!!
Ra phaphatheha joalo ka balisana ba matha lants’oekhe,
They came with their machine guns
They tortured helpless children, men and women.
They have sent them to jail, they have sentenced them to death, they have imprisoned them for life and yet they have found it necessary, Unavoidable, that they should come to Maseru because torture, imprisonment, persecutions,
killings have not changed the growth of the freedom fighters,
the offensive, the determination of the people and the fact that they face defeat!!
Yes, I speak of Pretoria Butchers, racists and imperialists over southern Africa.

Bana ba thari , this poem like many other poems we heard many many years ago, will speak of fallen comrades and unsung heroes,
In this poem you will hear names like,
Nombewe!!!
In this poem, I will call names like, Toto Biza, Dr Bantwini, Lizethile Dyani, yes, in this poem I will shout names like, Mzwandile Fazzie, Zwelindaba Gova, in this poem I will say out loud names of our fallen stalwarts now languishing six feet under ground, yes, I speak of Samson Kana, Sibusiso Khuzwayo, Nguboekhaya Maqhekeza, Lepota Marayi, Alfred, Mzukisi and Thandi Marwanqana.
Yes, I speak of those who have fallen to the bullets of a common enemy of the people of this land, yes, the people of South Africa, and the peoples of the world.

Ma Africa a matle, this poem will be incomplete if it does not mention names like, Joseph Mayoli, Themba Mazibuko, Bongani Mbuso, Sipho Mchunu, Lidwa Mdlankomo, Michael Mlenze.
This poem shall go down to the dustbin of history if it does not speak of, Phakamile Mpongoshe, Dumisane Mthandela, Mark Mvala, Cecil Ngxito, Sipho Notana, Faku Ntoyi, Trom Nyukile, Matikwane Seroto.

With this humble poem we shall remember victims of 12th December 1985
Whose blood was shed on the soil of Mejametalana
Those who could not flee Leheshehese la bosiu, e, Pikapo ea SADF, yes,
I speak of Vuyani Ziba, the likes of Jackie Qiun, Vivian Mathe, Robert Leshoro, Glen Daries, Bongani Magaga, Lulamile Dantile, Mxolisi Mbali, Twandefika Radebe,
This poem shall be the living monument in remembrance of Leon Meyer, Joyce Modimeng, Jerry Modisane,
When we say this poem, we shall remember Joseph Mophuthing,
With this poem we salute you comrades,
Comrade Mazizi Magekaza, helplessly assaulted to death at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, by the SADF hit squad,
Amandla Maqabane!!!!

In this poem you will not hear the names of the architects of the Maseru massacre
Because their names belong to the museum of shame.

Bana ba Africa, Sulani ezonyembezi, nithathe izikhali zenu siye phambili because the freedom we have today is paid for by the blood of the fallen heroes.
© Mba

the run
from qoaling to grootvlei

by lantern light we snuffed out
when sound leapt at us
(or seemed to leap
as it does when the wind heaves forth)
we left, travelling the terrain wintered with contempt,
ears tuned for the sound of foot, boot, the snap
of dog on our tail.

beasts are oblivious to this, to
things that knot us, questing always for acceptance
surviving the dark.

I believe in the only spirit, the faces
of people who’ve walked this way.

as for us, we
held our lantern and crossed the river into azania,
knowing the order of the cycle:
winter turns to spring,
dead leaves make russet apple cheeks,
kernels keep internal life.
© Rethabile Masilo

the sun in winter turns its back on us
and, for smelting, goes back to the kiln
where ore from gold is separated.
when it leaves
it pulls the darkness of midnight, stretching it
at the cost of day, or it pushes dawn
the completely wrong way.

and I’ve found that jersey I wore
our first time, and hand-washed and towel-dried it,
laid it bare upon the broad bed. and now I’ll dust
and ready the fire-place so we can leave
fresh prints on the hearth.

in truth, I’ve never really
known whether I’d rather rake leaves or shovel snow,
but it’s a chore we must do each year to escort the sun
when it’s hurled beyond our world, the earth,
to the other side.
it is a time when
autumn leaves and winter comes to whisper to the caves—
at its voice the hills shiver.

and I must also wash and scent the quilt, and
chop wood for the weeks ahead: hibernating in the malutis
requires no less.
so what have you brought
for the night-table. anything should
more than be suitable, of that I’m sure.
© Rethabile Masilo

Read more about or see the Malutis:

1. travelblog.org
2. en.wikipedia.org
3. pbase.com/kitcrawford
4. kzn.org.za
5. ithaca.edu
6. en.wikipedia.org (2)
7. photos.linternaute.com
8. wordtravels.com

after lunch on saturdays
father would carry into the study
a stack of politics, and in wood
scent he’d sit and read till sleep
claimed him, or supper,
or that sparkle of sun sent
in rear windows,
blinding him out
to the awning of trees where
we hooked a hammock
and heaved him into the sisal
net, left him there resting
like a foetus. bringing him
maotoana* tea one day, there lay
on its back on the black earth
beneath him a note-book; row on
row of scribble glared at me,
some sort of theory on
the likelihood of a glad and
bounteous kingdom.
© Rethabile Masilo

* Rooibos tea in Sesotho

WHAT BASOTHO NEED

Great discoveries are often accidents. Roentgen was investigating something else when he realised that x-rays could project the skeleton onto a screen. An apple fell of Newton’s head and knocked him into understanding gravity. While what I’m about to say is no scientific discovery, and is no accident, the question remains: why didn’t someone think of it before?

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has completed a historic purchase by buying maize directly from a group of small-scale farmers in Lesotho. (1)

Simple, as most good ideas are. Less red-tape, fewer Maloti wasted on transport and storage, more benefits for the local population, more jobs for them, too. Why didn’t we do it before? I’ll venture a guess. It is probably due to the incompetence of the people in power, who usually just go with the motions without rocking any boats. As long as they are comfortable, that is. Their keyword is maintenance, not improvement. How do I know this?

I know because there is virtually nothing that has changed markedly in Lesotho since the country became independent from Jonathan’s regime. In fact, things seem to have doubled back and taken a step in the reverse direction. Nothing daring has been done. Oh sure, we’re having periodic elections. But the streets are dirtier. People are poorer. There are more dust-legged boys begging in the streets than there ever were: you can’t park your car without at least two of them fighting over helping you park, all for the prospect of getting a coin or two in return. These kids should be in school or apprenticeship situations. What are we building, here?

Since Leabua’s regime, Maseru is more confused, it seems, and the taxis (what I call buxis, and what Kenyans would call matatus) are amok all over town. And right there in town, people sell food or clothing from car boots. I know that the drought and the HIV virus have done much to deteriorate the situation, but they haven’t deteriorated it for everyone, see? Just for the vast majority of Basotho.

What is worse in my eyes is that in a little more than two years the world cup of football is coming to South Africa. South Africa is Lesotho and Lesotho is South Africa, but do you think we will “make a killing” from the fans that’ll be all over the region? Think again. One of our potential sources of money is tourism, but tourists don’t just visit places. They want to be assured that they’ll receive quality rooms, transport, food, that they’ll be safe and well looked after, that they’ll have things to see. We must clean up our act, otherwise we are going to lose out big time.

“This is a win-win situation,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran, speaking from the agency’s Rome Headquarters. “It helps provide income for small-scale farmers while saving money for WFP.” (2)

Damn right!

‘September 16, 2007 6:00 AM

The Lesotho Promise

MASERU, Lesotho — A 494-carat diamond, believed to be the 18th largest in the world, has been found at a mine in Lesotho, a government official said. The stone was a white diamond of exceptional quality, said Natural Resources Minister Monyane Moleleki. It has been sent to Antwerp, Belgium, for auction.

The diamond was found at the Lets’eng Diamond Mine, situated high in Lesotho’s mountains. The Lesotho Promise, a 603-carat stone, was uncovered last year at the same mine and sold for $12.3 million. A 215-carat flawless diamond found in January 2007 brought $8.3 million.

The largest diamond ever found, the Cullinan, was the size of a bowling ball at 3,106 carats in the rough. That finished stone is set in Britain’s Imperial Sceptre as part of the Crown Jewels. Lesotho is a mountainous country in southern Africa ravaged by high unemployment, poverty and AIDS.’
[source]

Is it just me, or the first line of this article and the last one do not go together? We know that “Letseng, in the high plateau of the Maluti Mountains, was owned by De Beers between 1977 and 1982 and closed after a tax dispute with the Lesotho government. JCI reopened it in 2004 [source].” Gem Diamonds took over in July 2006.

Here’s a question: what, or how much, does the Mosotho in the street gain from the discovery of the 18th largest diamond in the world? How much does the average Mosotho gain from the discovery of the 15th largest diamond in the world, when that diamond is found in that Mosotho’s land? Remember that “the Letseng mine is 70 percent owned by Gem Diamond Mining Company of Africa Ltd and 30 percent by the Lesotho government [source].”

NB: More to come on this subject…

Zoe, my brother, says “On this day, the 4th of September, in 1981, our home was attacked in the middle of the night by armed soldiers. The target was our father, Benjamin Masilonyane Masilo, who escaped the shooting by the skin of his teeth. It is truly a miracle that he survived the attack. Motlatsi however, his three-year old grandson and our nephew, was not so lucky. He died, presumably in his sleep because he was still in his position on the bed, when the bullets ripped his stomach open.

Lest we forget, and so that such things may not continue to happen to other people, we need to tell this story and those of others similar to ours, over and over and over again.” I say amen to that. I’d hate for what happened to us to happen to someone else. That’s because I know first hand the horror of it, and how much it can destroy a life, lives, not of the killed only, but of the survivors as well. Lest we forget, our job, all of us, is to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again. We must remind our leaders day and night, and we must be prepared to affront them with guts and integrity.

I refuse to wish anyone a happy 4th of September…

sun promise
for ‘Masekoja

if the sun continues
to shine, to glimmer
as it does on these hills
of Mount Moorosi
to Ha-Makoae, nothing
can really stop sound
that seeks air or ground
like your heartbeat when
I hold you/ if the sun
continues like on that day
you let me in/ and when
essence drops in rooms
we grit strength
to epic-end, and push
till light learns truth
not lies — till a marble
moon hangs above our
midst, and the mist itself
shimmers, and love yields
what it does when
I move toward you
on hut-hearted floor, lions
lie in grass listening to
darkness, for soon the curves
of night-time meet/
we hurl selves at gods, oh
god, till you tell the sun it
can’t stop and it does not/
from dawn’s loins we
whom such thought arouses
shag until born light arises.
© Rethabile Masilo

A free and independent media is essential to democracy. It is a fact. Harness the media, and you kill the whole idea of democracy (or you try). Especially in a country that has few outlets for public expression, like our beloved Lesotho. The government of Lesotho has just decided to withdraw its advertising relation with the newspaper The Public Eye, and some people are rightly wanting to know why.

The government of Lesotho is just about the only advertiser with The Public Eye and this action perhaps seeks to effectively shut down the paper through strangulation, but if the action does not seek to do so, the end result will still be death by strangulation. That immediately deprives the country of free and independent speech, it deprives some Basotho of their livelihood in a country that has a 45% unemployment rate (2002 figures), and it plunges Lesotho back into the abyss it is still struggling to get out of (where criticising the government resulted in a sure backlash).

Public Eye, an independent newspaper with the largest distribution and widest readership in the country, has recently lost its single biggest advertising client. That client is the Lesotho government, which provides 80% of Public Eye’s revenue.

Lesotho is so dependent on SA for commerce that there are few local businesses capable or desirous of taking out advertising space in a national publication. Public Eye thus has little prospect of attracting other business to offset its recent loss. It faces a significant reduction of operations and the people of Lesotho, in consequence, will have diminished access to independent news.
[source]

The newspaper has the largest readership in the country, so the motive does not lie there. According to the All Africa article quoted here, the government is reluctant “to support its recent decision;” it further says that if the motive, undisclosed, is to stifle the newspaper into silence or submission, then the action is illegal.

The Lesotho constitution, Chapter II-14, guarantees free speech when it states that “Every person shall be entitled to, and (except with his own consent) shall not be hindered in his enjoyment of, freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions without interference, freedom to receive ideas and information without interference, freedom to communicate ideas and information without interference (whether the communication be to the public generally or to any person or class of persons) and freedom from interference with his correspondence [source]”

In 2001 the Botswana High Court ruled that its government’s decision to cut advertising from two publications (that were critical of said government) was a violation of those publications’ right to free speech. It stands to reason. A government that cannot stand criticism, on the other hand, must toil to make sure there is no cause for it. Non-criticism by the populace and the media cannot be imposed… it is earned. Let it be so!

“Protesters blockaded the main road in the capital with stones and burning tyres
July 08, 2007, 08:00

Lesotho police say Maseru is calm after last night’s unrest. Protesters blockaded the main road in the capital with stones and burning tyres after soldiers re-arrested alleged mutinous security force members who had been released by the high court.

Pheello Mphana, a Lesotho police spokesperson, says while police were preparing to release the five men, soldiers surrounded the police station and demanded that the suspects be detained.

The men were handed over to police by the army last week after they were suspected of involvement in a series of attacks on ministers. Mphana says the protesters dispersed peacefully.”
[source]

My link in Lesotho says, “Hooray!!! Judge ‘Maseforo Mahase of the Lesotho High Court has ordered that Makotoko Lerotholi (a former soldier), the first man to be abducted by the masked men, be released to his family immediately.

Last evening Advocate Haae Phoofolo, a human rights lawyer based in Maseru, lodged an application before the High Court for an order demanding the immediate release of Lerotholi, pointing out that he was unlawfully arrested and has not been charged since. This came after the army had attempted to dump Lerotholi and Motlomelo, another abductee, into the hands of the police. The police agreed to take Motlomelo in (I’m not clear on the grounds yet), but refused to take Lerotholi into their custody citing the horrible condition of his health and self as their reason.

The respondents in the application were as follows: the Army Commander, the Minister of Defence (who happens to be the Prime Minister), the Commissioner of Police, the Superintendent at the Makoanyane Army Hospital and the Attorney General.

Visibly shaken and unstable, Lerotholi arrived at the High Court at around 21:00 hours led by members of the Lesotho Defence Force. He, through his lawyer, recited his story since the abduction at the entrance to Lakeside Hotel on the 22 of June 2007. He was taken by about ten heavily armed men, blindfolded and driven somewhere into the mountains. Along the way he was repeatedly gunbutted and kicked.

His abductors demanded that he tell the whereabouts of the armoury where the guns taken from ministers’ bodyguards was. His torture was systematically directed to the kidneys and genitals, and this has rendered his urinary system malfunctional.

The judge ordered that he be released immediately to his family and after condemning the whole saga, prayed to God that she never in her whole life presides over a similar case. We are continuously encouraged by such judgements and look at them as a good sign of sanity amidst the madness we live in.

The questions remain: why did the army deny any knowledge of the whereabouts of these men? Why did the government spokesman, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, deny any knowledge by the government of the whereabouts and condition of these men? If any wrong was done, why were the men not arrested by the police and charged, instead of being abducted by the army and tortured? Why? Why? Why?”

News from Lesotho is disturbing. Democracy and the rule of law are advancing backwards. Recently, a curfew was put up, after attacks were carried out on prominent politicians’ homes. That rings a bell. If you can link to this, or reproduce it on your blog, I would be most grateful. Or tell a friend over coffee. Or just read it and sympathise with us in spirit (or whatever deed). I know I sound desperate — I am. This needs to be talked about and shared. I have just received news from home that:

Thabo Thakalekoala of Seapoint in Maseru, a vocal and prominent freelancing investigative journalist, was arrested on Friday morning (22 June 2007) and charged with high treason. He is appearing in court today (25 June 2007) to be formally charged.

On the day of his arrest he had just read a letter over the air on his popular morning programme “Rise and Shine” on Harvest FM. The letter was supposedly given to him by a group of army men and requested to read it on his show. The soldiers vehemently denounced the rule of one Mosikili in Lesotho who they say is a foreigner and therefore is not elligible to hold such office. This comes after it was discovered that the PM holds a South African identity document (a fact he has publicly admitted), no wonder the rampant looting of state coffers by way of the 84% salary increments and the M4000.00 Kompressors and the M2000.00 Camrys.

We look back in sadness at the deaths of Mahlomola Motuba and Mike Pitso, two journalists who were killed for their brave and fearless reporting of unfairness and prejudice in the past regimes. We have been taken back decades in our learning curve, and are now starting from scratch to plant the seed of unity and true freedom. We take courage from the fact, however, that history has not been kind to dictators who parade themselves as democrats. ‘Nete ke tutulu ha e patehe, or “Truth is ‘unhideable’.” We call on the international media to take note of this heinous act by the Lesotho Government to gag transparency and free access to information, especially as state media is totally not accessible to anyone else but the ruling party.

Re sa lebeletse. Khotso.

Background information:
www.protectionline.org

UPDATE (26 June):
News from The People’s Choice FM: Written by Falla
People`s Choice FM Management, Mr. Motlatsi Majara & Mrs Kholu Qhobela paid a visit to the detained Media Insitute of Southern Africa regional Chairperson and Harvest FM freelancer, Mr. Thabo Thakalekoala yesterday.

The Main aim for the visit was to give support and courage to him as a brother, colleague and journalist at this trying time that he is going through.
Mr. Thakalekoala who is charged with high treason is in police custody and is expected to appear before Magistrate Court today, and on the hand the Regional Director of Media Institute is expected to be in the country today.

He is in the mean time refusing to eat anything (hunger strike), insisting on his liberty and justice.

Submitted by ‘Marafaele Mohloboli

---

Links:

• http://khotla.blogspot.com
• http://lesothoforum

Gardening lessons from Lesotho pupils
Jun 7 2007
by Abbie Wightwick, Western Mail

SCHOOLCHILDREN in Africa are helping to teach pupils in Wales how to grow vegetables. The charity Send a Cow has launched an educational resource for schools in Wales that aims to get children growing their own vegetables, with help from youngsters in Lesotho. [read more]

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Lesotho: I’ll Do Anything to Thump Lesotho - Massa
5 June 2007
Posted to the web 6 June 2007

Kampala
UGANDA Cranes’ goal-minting machine Geoffrey Massa has pledged to pull all the necessary stops to ensure Uganda makes next year’s Nations Cup finals as group three winners. The 22-year-old’s scorching assurance is being cultivated from the belief that Uganda’s group rivals Nigeria would struggle winning their remaining two qualifiers. [read more]

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Dual TB and HIV treatment key to Africa AIDS battle
07/06/2007 12:15
By Paul Simao

DURBAN (Reuters) - African, especially southern African, nations must link tuberculosis testing and treatment with HIV prevention programmes if they are to win the AIDS battle, a top World Health Organisation official said on Thursday. Dr. Kevin de Cock, head of WHO’s HIV/AIDS department, told the Third South African AIDS Conference traditional treatments for Africa’s rampant TB problem could worsen the AIDS epidemic and fuel the spread of the potentially fatal lung infection. [read more]

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New hope for the children of Lesotho
By Kate Silverton
BBC Breakfast

Combating the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa remains a challenge for the entire world. The issue will play high on the agenda at the upcoming G8 summit. UNICEF invited me to Lesotho to take a look at a new initiative to help pregnant women avoid passing the virus on to their babies. [read more]

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Rethabile’s Editorial:
There’s a new blog called Lesotho Practicum. Check it out. I read most of the posts and decided that the blog had room for improvement. If you read this, Kathy, what I mean is that your readers are probably more interested in how the Basotho are, not how they differ from Americans or Europeans, cultures that you are used to. Society, culture and language are usually good blogging topics when one’s in a new country.

There are times when I’m shocked by the poverty and undeveloped aspects of the country, and other times when it seems as if it could be a typical city in any part of the world. Some Basotho are dressed very modernly, with their leather jackets and high heels, and then there are others beside them wearing only the Basotho blanket. [source]

The blanketed ones are the real deal, it is them that are the Basotho. The others are a poor imitation of America and Europe. We don’t want Maseru to be like a typical city in any part of the world. No sir. We want it to be a city in Lesotho in southern Africa. Different from London and Los Angeles.

The hotel we stayed at was less to be desired. Apparently showering here is a rarity, as most places are not equipped with such things. I never realized what a luxury bathing on a regular basis was. [source]

That’s a low blow, Kathy, coming from someone who apparently left the very lap of luxury to go “work” with those who are less fortunate. For that is exactly what it is, luck. And even then I think it needs to be qualified, so let’s say it’s financial luck. My people are respectful, patient, understanding and helpful. I can’t say that much for yours. That’s why I felt I had to qualify the bit about luck. You’re rich, and I’m godly. I’m godly, and you’re rich. So what? Does that make one of us better than the other one? You think you’re godly, too? Think again. I at least will readily acknowledge that I’m not (financially) rich.

The reason “most places are not equipped with such things” is that we split dollars, and the bit that everyone has goes for food and other survival necessities. My advice to you is that you should stop criticising my country and feeling sorry for yourself. If you do so, you might learn something about life. I know how nice it is to shock friends back home with how dirty, poor, unequipped, non-western, ad lib, Lesotho is. But that’s not why you’re there, and as for your friends, they’d benefit more from your adventure if you cut out the sensationalism and talked to them about Lesotho and Basotho.

When I was in America (for 7 years straight), I never told my friends about the incredible wasting that goes on in that country, the food fights, the gas-guzzling ocean-liners Americans drive, nor about what I considered awful manners such as the ubiquitous belching, farting and spitting. I did talk to them about language (the southern twang), my host family, food, and other sociocultural matters.

So please start again, Kathy, and post consciously. If the people you’re living among and around read your blog, would they or would they not be hurt? And just so I’m sure it’s clear, saying we’re poor will not hurt us. But going on about how showering is apparently a rarity here will. See what I mean?

I blog here and at Poéfrika.
Technorati Profile

Locked in the ogre’s grip, she
Exhales vigour into its nerve
System, breathes in and breathes
Out, according to the season—
Time stands still. She wonders
How she’ll get power to chop
Off the creature’s fingers.
© Rethabile Masilo

Mosotho horseman

Lesotho’s national anthem’s first verse says Lesotho, fatše la bo-ntatà rona, or Lesotho, land of our fathers. The music was composed by Ferdinand-Samuel Laur (1791-1854) and the lyrics were written by François Coillard (1834-1904), two Frenchmen. The freshly independent Lesotho adopted the tune as its national anthem in 1967, a year after gaining independence from Britain. You can listen to the anthem on the government website.

The two French fellows who penned it did a pretty good job. I quite like the way it sounds. The mothers, though–there are no mothers? We’ll let that slide. Sometime in the future, though, we’re gonna have to tinker with that line so as to include our mothers, who actually do the donkey’s work but always get the lesser of everything. The issue is the same in almost every document written before, and even during, the twentieth century, partly because the majority of human beings believe God is a man.

Is Lesotho the land of our fathers? We know that our fore-parents came from up north somewhere. My very own ancestors, Bakhatla or Bakgatla, came from Botswana. I’ve always heard talk of Ntsoana-Tsatsi, a place where the Basotho supposedly came from.

“Ntsoana-Tsatsi” sounds like “From the Sun”, so it could mean the East or the North-East. When I was in Nairobi, Kenya, I met a guy from Zambia: Mukelabai XXXXXXX. What was funny was the fact that he would stare at my brothers and me when we spoke. We became friends and stayed in contact for many years after that, for Mukelabai was a Lozi and could understand almost everything we were saying.

The Balozi from Zambia, it turns out, decided to go down South, and eventually formed a big chunk of what is today the Basotho nation. At least that’s what one school of thought says. Mukelabai sings the Lesotho national anthem like it was the Zambian national anthem. Why? Because of François Coillard. The anthem author had adventures all over southern Africa, especially in Barotseland, and must have written the tune in Silozi / Sesotho. The group that stayed around Zambia still sings it, as well as the one that trekked south! So who are we? Do we own this land enough to call it Fatše la bo-ntatà rona?

What about the bushmen (Baroa in Sesotho, Basarwa in Setswana) we found there? Isn’t it the land of their fathers more than it is the land of ours? I think we ended up blending with Baroa, which would give all of us together some right to the land and justify some of that first verse, Lesotho, fatše la bo-ntat’a rona. Apparently

one important site of early settlement was Nts’oana-Tsatsi near present-day Vrede in the northern Free State. Archaeological investigations have revealed that this area was settled as early as 1350, probably by the Bafokeng clan. These were the pioneers of the Sotho groups who settled much of the Free State and Lesotho. They lived closely with the Baroa as well as with the ancestors of the Baphuthi, who were the first Iron Age peoples to settle by the Caledon River Valley. The northern half of the Free State is the true heartland of Sotho settlement. Lesotho, as we know it today, was the southern frontier of this civilization although the upper portion of the Caledon River Valley was very rich and fertile

The above excerpt also identifies Ntsoana-Tsatsi, which is where my mum had always taught me was the origin of the Basotho people. A myth by many standards. But judging by the age of the Basotho nation, I guess we do come from the North-East or the East somehow, and I guess we do have legitimate claim to this land and can go ahead and call it Lefatše la bo-ntat’a rona. The next verse is Har’a mafatše le letle ke lona, or Among worlds it is the most beautiful.

What does one say about one’s country but that it is the most gorgeous of all? I certainly am not going to say that it is the ugliest. Yet, looking at that second verse of the national anthem’s first stanza:

Lesotho, fatše la bo ntat’a rona
Hara mafatše le letle ke lona

I have often wondered what we mean to say. You and I have already agreed that yes, we can lay claim to the land and call it Land of our fathers, the first verse. Which gives us the right to make another claim: Among worlds it is the most beautiful, the second verse. We’re lying through our teeth. We’re lying to ourselves and we’re lying to the world, because we do not believe what we’re singing. How do I know? If we believed what we were singing and really thought our country was the most beautiful in the world, then

We’d do a lot towards keeping it that way.We would be selfless, and go out of our way to help unfortunate Basotho. We would plant trees all over the place, instead of uprooting them. We would not have burned down Maseru, the capital city, because we’d lost an election. We would not be running away and draining Lesotho of its grey-matter. We would not suffer from IPS, Inverted Pyramid Syndrome, but back and support everything local. We would not have killed other Basotho for political gain. We would not throw paper and other rubbish in the street but in the rubbish bin.

That’s how I know. And I hereby ask you, when you hear yourself chanting that second verse of the first stanza, to wonder what it is you are doing for Lesotho that gives you a right to proclaim its beauty before the world. As much as we have agreed that we can safely say the land is ours, I disagree as to its purpoted absolute beauty. Beauty, like love, must be maintained through deliberate action.

“I’m washing my car because I want it to look beautiful.” When you’re done washing it, then you drive it to town to boast, because at that instant you do believe it is beautiful, because you’ve done something to gain the right to believe that it is beautiful. Why should it be different when it concerns a country? You shine your shoes regularly, you whiten your “liteki” (sneakers) and iron your shirt to a crease. When you go out at night wearing those clothes you feel handsome, you feel that you can conquer love, you try to conquer love. Why should it be different when it concerns a country?

We’re lying to ourselves and to the world. One of our common goals must be to ensure that Lesotho remains or becomes the most beautiful we can make it. Beauty rarely comes with the package. How? Look at the list above and start making that 2nd verse of the 1st stanza true.

Lesotho, fatše la bo-ntat’a rona,
Har’a mafatše le letle ke lona,
Ke moo re hlahileng.

Verse 3 is pretty straightforward. We’ve already talked about verse 1, Lesotho, fatše la bo-ntat’a rona, and verse 2, Har’a mafatše le letle ke lona. This is therefore verse 3, Ke moo re hlahileng, or It is the place of our birth.

Why shouldn’t it be? I was personally born there, at Scott Hospital in Morija. My parents were born there, in the Quthing district on the southern tip. It is, it seems, the place of our birth. But we are supposed to have come from up north or north-east, if you recall. Ntsoana-Tsatsi, to be exact, and we found Baroa (Bushmen) inhabiting the area that is present-day Lesotho. In Sesotho, “boroa” means south, so that Afrika-Boroa is South Africa. Baroa means People of the South. They were there when we arrived! We were going down south and they were there people of the south.

We were born there but of course one of the prior generations must have got “naturalised.” Oh, it happens all the time. New-comers integrate their new societies frequently, and usually even become more nationalist than the folks that were already there. When the new-comers butcher the already established people, though, and grab their land, naturalisation it is not. New-comers to the American continent hacked and decimated the people they found there. I am told we lived and inter-married with the Bushmen so that we became one: Basotho. Ke moo re hlahileng.

Lesotho, fatše la bo-ntat’a rona,
Har’a mafatše le letle ke lona,
Ke moo re hlahileng,
Ke moo re holileng.

Verse 4 is in a way a continuation of verse 3. Ke moo re holileng, or It is where we grew up. I personally grew up and became a responsible and conscious human being outside Lesotho. But I don’t suppose that’s what the lyrics relate to, since they are more figurative than Cartesian. I believe that a non-negligible minority of Basotho teenagers either left of their own desire or were driven out¹. Either way they, just like me, grew up outside Lesotho. So what does the verse mean, then?

As far as I’m concerned, it is true that the most visible part of my growing up happened in exile, which means my voice deepened, I grew a beard, I almost doubled the size of my shoes, I got sloshed for the first time, and I became a hopeless fan of woman. But almost every seed was planted, and the seed-bed itself remained, in Lesotho. That’s where I first met hope, felt the joy of belonging, faced desperation, knew fear, and touched compassion.

Perhaps things like these happen in other places, too. But my own seed-bed was no doubt Lesotho, so in essence that’s where I grew up².

Mum and I were driving north up Kingsway, toward home, having packed the Datsun pickup van with stock for the family shop. I glanced at the clock. Maseru was unusually deserted for six p.m. Perhaps there was a curfew that we hadn’t heard about. Or perhaps it was due to the unfriendly looking clouds, stationed across the skyline as far as I could see.

–*It’s going to rain…,* I must have thought aloud.
–*What?*
–*Ah, it looks like it’s going to rain,* I said.
–*Don’t worry. We’ll have finished unloading with the first drops.*
–*I sure hope so.*

We drove past the bakery on the left and the new shopping centre on the right. There was hardly anybody even there! We zoomed past the hardware store where a woman was sitting in front on the pavement with small mounds of potatoes for sale, and headed for Mafafa and the Cathedral roundabout. And Mum jumped on the brakes and brought the rickety Datsun to a noisy stop, and me out of my dreamy stupor. She was looking at me, or rather through me at something I could not comprehend. It was my turn to say what. So I did.

–*What?*

She stopped looking at whatever it was in me or behind me, dipped her hand into her purse and gave me a zoka, a five-cent coin.

–*Get me some potatoes with this.*
For some reason I just took the money and got the potatoes, two mounds, without bringing it to her attention that we had several sacks of the stuff in the van. I did ask her a day or two later, because I was genuinely intrigued. And her answer placed me a step further on my way to becoming a responsible and conscious adult, without actually growing an inch³.

So, yes, in my case, and I suspect in many other cases, I did grow up in Lesotho, although I physically grew up elsewhere. And I suspect this of any place that has such a mixture of seed-bed and seed.

¹ There is no more driving out of Basotho. That nasty bit of our history petered out with the first democratically elected government.
² I’m not suggesting any correlation between this verse and how Basotho children are brought up or grow up. I just happen to believe that I actually grew up in Lesotho, although puberty came afterwards.
³ It is a true story, if you were wondering.

Lesotho, fatše la bo-ntat’a rona,
Har’a mafatše le letle ke lona,
Ke moo re hlahileng,
Ke moo re holileng,
Rea le rata.

Verse 5, Rea le rata, is not yet true. It translates into We love her, or She is dear to us.

1. Lesotho, land of our fathers,
2. Among worlds you are the most beautiful,
3. In you we were born,
4. In you we grew up,
5. You are dear to us.

Anything or anyone that man loves becomes an object of obsession. A car, a pair of shoes, a lover, the self. The latter are pampered and taken care of in unimaginable ways, but Lesotho isn’t on that list and Lesotho isn’t pampered in any way by any man, woman, girl or boy that I know. If you pamper Lesotho the way you pamper things you love, let me know. I’ll pin a medal of honour on your chest.

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Entirely within the letter of the law, Lesotho’s dominant parties have managed to massively manipulate almost a quarter of the seats in last weekend’s national election. Neither donors nor media seem interested in covering the irregularities. But the trouble is plain in the published numbers for all to see.

When Motorola joined (RED), they sought to work with companies in Africa and found Morija Printing Works in Lesotho to make the beautiful red packaging for their (RED) cell phones. After a visit to the Morija print shop two weeks ago, Motorola sent us some of these amazing photos of people at work and play, and also some candids of the print shop workers and their family members. You’ll also get to see some of the absolutely breathtaking landscape in Lesotho in these photos.

On Sunday elections were held in Lesotho. The small southern African “kingdom in the sky” was the continent’s first country to use a mixed-member proportional (MMP) system, in 2002. Sunday’s election was Lesotho’s second under MMP, and as I am not aware of any other African countries having opted for MMP (as opposed to MMM/parallel, which is used by several countries*), it must have been only the second African MMP election.

Lesotho politics is fraught with fallacies. There are even suggestions that the tiny mountain kingdom should be incorporated into South Africa before its tool late. In fact the only hope for the poor country is its big neighbour where there are more than 50 000 Basotho employed in the gold mines. Lately, its educated citizens are leaving in droves for greener pastures in the SA provinces. Is Lesotho becoming the next Zimbabwe? Is prime minister Mosisili taking after pres Mugabe?

The ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) is headed for a landslide majority as vote counts wind up after weekend parliamentary elections in the southern African country. With results returned in 75 of the 80 constituencies, the LCD party of Pakalitha Mosisili, Lesotho’s prime minister, had won 53 seats. The All Basotho Convention (ABC) of Tom Thabane was in second place with 17 seats. An alliance of smaller parties had won one constituency.

Mokha o tla loantsa khethollo ‘me o tla sireletsa litokelo tsohle tsa mantlha tsa batho joalo kaha li hlaha Molaong oa Motheo oa Lesotho le mehoong ea Mokhatlo oa Machaba a Kopaneng le Kopanong ea Linaha tsa Afrika. Mokha leha ho le joalo, o tla holisa likamano tsa oona le mekhatlo e meng kea kapa kae lefatseng ha feela eba likamano tse joalo ha li hohlane kapa hona ho thulana le sepheo kapa litakatso tsa Mokha.

As we sit round
the black tin stove
listening to stories
above the din of
dough ’mè thumps,
long before we go
to bed, we share
a sibling cheer.

Round the house
we hear winter
march, bark orders
to its men to crack
this bough, break
down that home.

After dinner on
mud floor we splay
an old snakes and
ladders, feeling gold
embers where
shadow of oil-flame
plays till bedtime,
never suspecting
that the frozen pane
will be ntate’s door
when death one day
yearns for us and all.
© Rethabile Masilo

Five opposition parties (ABC, ACP, BNP, MFP and LWP) have agreed to form a coalition. This, it is said, will give them 30 seats and qualify them to become the official opposition. They are going to sit down and decide on who will be the leader of the coalition and by this virtue, the leader of the opposition.

An ABC song goes…“Bonang le oele lerako, bonang le oele, bonang le oele lerako, lona le re arohantseng!”

The ABC has strived to convince Basotho to shed past differences and see themselves first as Basotho. My hope is that this coalition, more than its main objective of creating a strong, healthy and effective opposition in our parliament, is the first step in that direction.

The song says, “Look, the wall is down, look, it’s down, the one separating us!” This excerpt is from my pal in Maseru. A union! United we stand, divided we fall. Simple dictum, but it’s taken a while for us to understand it. Party politics is by definition counter to national politics. The wager of party politics doesn’t care about the nation, but about his or her own welfare.

You don’t have to look far. Bob in Zimbabwe was fine as long as he was at the helm, his party the government. When his party and his own bitter welfare were threatened, for the good of the nation as a whole, well, the rest, as they say, is history. I’m happy for this rapprochement of forces in my country. It is a good thing.

My friend in Maseru informs me that, “Stay away very peaceful and extremely successful. Abundantly clear is that LCD holds the political power by virtue of winning the election through the rural vote and ABC holds the economic power by virtue of winning the lowland (economic hub) vote. Compromise?

This besides the much awaited court cases which promise to reveal hordes of irregularities with unquestionable evidence. This also besides the questionable proportion by which seats have been allocated in parliament.

Though the administration of the injection is painful (bordering on the unbearable), the medicine would seem to be beginning to take effect, and in my opinion, our future and that of our children has never looked brighter. Praise be to the Almighty!!!” What I retain from the message is the explicit political power versus economic power conundrum. What I do not want to retain is the fact that every election in Lesotho since 1970 has been rocked by violence and dissatisfaction.

Let us invest all power in the king and be done with it. Or let us turn around and actually observe and abide by the rules of democratic elections.

Leaders and MPs of five opposition parties in Lesotho’s 120-member Parliament started an indefinite sit-in at the Parliament buildings on Thursday.

They have called on their supporters and the Basotho nation at large to stay away from work from Monday next week. [Source]

Déjà-vu? Smacks of something we’ve seen? The ballot, contestation, strikes, death. In Lesotho it’s like clockwork, it’s a national gift and an art handed down from generation to generation. We dare anyone to try and beat us at it. We double dare you!

Lesotho voted in February this year, in an election that almost everyone said was free, though most probably not fair. The poll is still up on the side of this blog. Perhaps I was waiting for something to happen, i don’t know, but there you are.

There are promises of police sternness toward anyone disrupting the proper functioning of government. What does that mean? The MPs who will sit-in will receive the wrath of the police? The population that is now surrounding parliament buildings will receive the wrath of the police? What does “disrupting” mean? Here’s what a friend in Maseru told by e-mail yesterday:

LCD made an alliance with NIP behind its leader’s back. NIP won 21 of 40 proportional seats (which are contested by parties and not by candidates) in parliament. The party was declared the official opposition.

Some of the LCD ministers who lost the election were allocated seats in parliament via the NIP, and returned to cabinet. What does opposition mean?

you wonder, madam,
why so much hate/
this endless talk of
colonial apartheid.

ever had bikes hurtle
down your back/ marbles
shot up arse/ rope
skipped, liketo tossed and
caught, stuffed socks
dribbled and scored,
imagination called, on
day of birth, to turn
red brick into plane,
truck, skyscraper/
has the fire of hope ever
burnt your sky into
slow sunsets/ all on
your fucking back?

i cannot do it, mevrou,
i just can’t delete
the past, the past is
buried on that street.
© Rethabile Masilo

This poem may be familiar to some of you. I always re-work my poems. All of them. And every single time, I go, “how the hell could I have said that!” It’s a learning experience. After every rewrite, I come off having learnt something.

This poem is about a street I grew up on in Maseru, Lesotho. But let’s not go into that. I really just wanted to tell you that liketo is a game played with pebbles. There’s a hole in the ground and the players have to throw up a pebble, while it’s in mid-air, they scoop another one from the hole, grab the falling one, then throw both into the air, and so on. It’s a lot of fun.

Mevrou is an Afrikaans word that means Madam; it’s a form of address to a Boer woman, not only by kaffirs, the Africans, but also by other Boers, as a form of respect. I hope that this clears up those two points. Never hesitate to ask me questions. I live for it.

In 2005 I talked of the concept of ABC…D for Lesotho. I still do.

Lesotho’s Test: Jonathan summarises the election with his trademark perspicacity. Check him out.

Selection		Votes
Probably	24%	54
Certainly	30%	66
I doubt it	23%	50
Certainly not	23%	52
222 votes total
Poll powered by Pollhost. Poll results are subject to error. Pollhost does not pre-screen the content of polls created by Pollhost customers.

Polling stations have closed in Lesotho’s general election. The Independent Election Commission says a voter turnout of 80% can be expected. Rethabile Pholo, a spokesperson, says the voting ran smoothly during the day after some polling stations opened late. Independent election monitors earlier indicated that the poll was free and fair. [Source]

Dear Deity… now what? This country of about 2 million people, independent since 1966 from England, with a 30 to 35% rate of HIV infection, one nation with one language and one culture, with a lot of water to sell in the form of electricity or just plain water, this country with some of the biggest diamonds in the world, this country is one of the poorest countries in the world, this country that is often described as “tumultuous” when it comes to politics, has seen its sons and daughters die for it, this country called Lesotho, surrounded entirely by another country, having the highest low point of any country on the planet…

…having copious snowfall (read Lesotho snow poem) and ski resorts in Africa, having a dinosaur named after it, and therefore ample dino prints, ample cave paintings left by its first inhabitant, the Bushman, this country that has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, as well as, arguably, one of the first novelists on the continent, as well as mountains that inspired the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, as well as the highest pub in Africa…

… and the Aloë Polyphylla, a plant found nowhere else on earth, this country is mine, and it deserves a break. For crying out loud, Lord, I said it deserves a break. There’s a lot going for us — help us capitalise on our resources and on our identity and on our culture. Amen.

A Tourist in Maseru
(summer valentine)

Love from the start was touch and go
when both our hands
at that
bazaar
opted for the sole, ripe mango/
we grinned, then
pandered to
a gay
valentine in my Sotho world/
after you left
with your
guitar,
ending summer, no single word
from you to me,
until
today

© Rethabile Masilo

Tags:
Valentine
homosexuality
Lesotho poetry
Global Voices poetry contest

Lekhotla la Basotho

 

My country, my home
(from 70 to 07)

Lesotho fatše la bo-rra, I sing you/ then and now
Each day I sing you/ from mountain to cave I truly
Sing you. Spring is dawning in the valley’s
Old venue for kingly things. Thirty-seven years my love,
Thirty-seven years, and promises-/- the gravestones of our
Heads are cool, too cool for upper rooms in top
Offices, where someone’s already polishing promises-/-

In my dream, hope like a mad river washes the low

Lands, clearing years away/ I hear mothers crying
Over fate/ their tears cleanse my feet and feed
Vrystaat, the fat serpent along Mohokare/ there are
Everywhere men on sticks in silent streets, eyes

Yearning for some sign/ there are faces, violated angels
Outlined in candour beside you, O world, O bright
Unicorn of splendour, prancing in the boorish night.
© Rethabile Masilo

Photo credit and © copyright: Yannick Girardeau

Selection   Votes is not welcome  23% 39 is welcome  34% 57 is highly desired  42% 70 166 votes total Poll powered by Pollhost. Poll results are subject to error. Pollhost does not pre-screen the content of polls created by Pollhost customers.

In October 2006, Tom Motsoahae Thabane broke off from the ruling LCD party to form the ABC party, or the All Basotho Convention Party. Why? That is the first, big question. The second one is, “Was that the best way of dealing with the answer to the first question?” Apparently so, judging by this poll (NB: it is non-scientific) and by what we hear here and there and everywhere. People want change, it seems. Third question: change from what?
What went wrong? We’re all ears.

Okay, I just had to come out with this one. Know the answer? Here’s the question: What place on earth inspired Tolkien to write his famous trilogy, Lord of the Rings?

I’m listening…

Marty informs us that the family of Leabua Jonathan, the 1st prime minister of Lesotho, is suing the new-born political party, Basotho Development National Party (BDNP) over the use of the former Prime Minister’s image.

I rest my case. We still haven’t got any politics in Lesotho. That is unfortunate. What we’ve got, and at a very high level, is leader worship. The leader has to be idolisable, otherwise there’s no party. This should indeed be the case, but there need be something else, for Christ’s sake, some content, some material to sink our teeth into, something else besides idolatry.

Leabua Jonathan was a political public figure. Why can’t his image be used? That’s question number one. Number two, why does the new party hold on to using his image, if there’s something else to offer. I think Basotho are listening and watching, and waiting for the one who actually has something worthwhile to offer. Or at least I hope so.

Then there’s this guy, and he might be well-meaning. He’s just discovered that we exist, and has put out a nice article about us in the newspaper he works for. The paper is The Sun Chronicle Online. Our friend didn’t really know these places: Andorra, Benin, Bhutan, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Comoros, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Maldives, Moldova, Myanmar, Nauru, Palau, Saint Lucia, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

“Why, they are all independent, free-standing countries in this great world of ours,” he goes on to say. “Where was I when the Bahamas became an independent country (July 10, 1973) and Cape Verde, too (July 5, 1975)?” I don’t know where he was. I don’t know where he was when we became independent on 4 October 1966, before The Bahamas and Cape Verde.

But wait just a second here, I think I finally understand, I think if you asked our friend about Basutoland, he’d snap up and say, “Yep, heard of it!” Or Dahomey or Bechuanaland or Borneo. Eh, another second, that can’t be an excuse. Many of the countries on his list have never changed names…

Basotho Democratic National Party. This much proliferation of political parties in such a small country scares me. I’ve already pronounced my sentiments on the issue.

Lesotho politician (b. Dec. 26, 1918, Teyateyaneng, Lesotho—d. Jan. 6, 1999, Bloemfontein, S.Af.), led government opposition both from inside the young nation and, for decades, from exile; in 1993, with the nation’s first democratic elections in 23 years, he became prime minister, serving until May 1998. Mokhehle graduated (1946) with honours from Fort Hare University, Alice, S.Af., and three years later earned an M.S.
www.britannica.com

That’s what an encyclopaedia says. Accurately, too. For me, however, as a child growing up in Lesotho, Ntsu Mokhehle was hope, and his name was synonymous with freedom, liberty and political power. I got that from the way my parents talked about him. And also from the way other people talked and sang about him at those political rallies my folks took me to.

The encyclopaedia is right, he was born on 26 December. That’s why I’m writing about him today. Happy birthday, dear Eagle. Ntsu is Sesotho for Eagle. He was an educated, politically apt, conscious individual who was able to lead his country only in old age. I often wonder where Lesotho would be today if he had become Prime Minister in 1970, as he should have. I know that I wouldn’t speak French, for one. And I’d probably still be in Lesotho. Happy birthday, ntate Ntsu (picture).

Futher reading (pdf): If you wanna see a nice photo of my father, roll down to “Where were you,” and look at the picture of Ntsu Mokhehle being arrested. The guy you’re directly looking at is Benjamin Masilo, my father. This picture probably got us in hotter water than we deserved.

Tags: Mokhehle; Ntsu Mokhehle; Benjamin Masilo

A Dutch aid worker was killed in an attack by unknown gunmen at the house of Lesotho’s trade and industry minister, police said Saturday. Police spokesperson Pheelo Mphana said that the 36-year-old woman, who has not been identified pending notification of next of kin, worked for the Clinton Foundation, which runs HIV and Aids programmes in the poor mountain kingdom.

The woman, her husband and two American aid workers arrived at Minister Mpho Malie’s house in a taxi late Friday. As they got out of the car, they were attacked by heavy gunfire, Mphana said.
http://www.iol.co.za

I have been overwhelmed with beauty a handful of times in my life. The train ride down Scotland’s coast, in between the blue seas and green fields. Driving through the Lesotho highlands. The fields of Joshua trees on the road to Monterrey, as their praying hands lead up to the Sierra Madres. The sahara sunrise. I think this flight could have beaten them all.
levantine18.blogspot.com

A three day hiking trip up to the waterfalls around Qhoasing in the Mohale’s Hoek district reassured me that the best thing to do in Lesotho is hike. And the best place to hike is in Lesotho. When will the rest of the world discover this?
gregalder.com/journal/blogs/index.php

Lesotho photo

Although the kids we met had no toys to play with and very little clothing, they all seemed really happy and loved to play and interact with each other and with us. They loved just sitting by us and observing what we were doing. They also loved eating ’sweets’ and were so excited if they got an empty water bottle to play with. Unfortunately, there are many, many orphans in Lesotho because of AIDS.
wrightadventures.blogspot.com

November 12, 2006
Posted to the web November 13, 2006 Washington, DC
AfricaFocus Bulletin

Search the World Bank’s website section on anti-corruption (http://www.worldbank.org/anticorruption) for “Lesotho” and you will get the following response: Your search - Lesotho - did not match any documents. No pages were found containing “Lesotho”.

But while the World Bank may not be paying attention, the small Southern African country has taken the lead in attacking corruption in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, a giant scheme financed by the World Bank itself.
[source]

Here’s why I’m happier today than I was yesterday: http://lifela-tsa-sesotho.blogspot.com

Hooray! Bloggers on Lesotho have just seen their numbers grow by one. Lesotho Forum has made its entrance.

Lesotho opposition parties forge alliance
Maseru, Lesotho 07 November 2006 11:20 

Three opposition parties in the tiny Southern African kingdom of Lesotho announced the formation of a new alliance on Monday to fight a general election which is due to take place next year. The Alliance of Congress Parties (ACP) brings together three parties –the Lesotho People’s Congress, Basotholand African Congress and Basotho Congress party — which split from the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD). One of the key figures in the new alliance, Basotholand African Congress leader Khauhelo Ralitapole, said the three factions ultimately wanted to become a single party rather than a mere alliance.
[source]

There you go. Instead of forming more parties, form one from many. That’s the sentiment I have about improving the political situation in Lesotho. Having said that, it seems that many Basotho are thrilled at the formation of the new party, the All Basotho Convention (ABC), formed some time ago by ex Foreign Minister Tom Thabane. Check the poll in the sidebar. Things are moving, it seems, and that’s good.

Many of these parties hold the same beliefs. Indeed many of them are “congess” derived, coming from the original Mahatammoho party of the late Ntsu Mokhehle, and I’m sure that the ACP in fact brings together three parties that have very few differences in ideology (if any). The separation is merely a case of who is to be top dog. In other words, if I can’t be leader, I’ll make my own party.

R150 seems a meagre amount, but it has brought an end to backbreaking toil and food insecurity for many of Lesotho’s elderly.

Two years ago the government of the small landlocked country started a pension system for citizens over the age of 70. Today, more than 76 000 people are receiving a monthly pension of approximately 150 maloti (R150).

Whereas such steps in Southern Africa are frequently taken at the behest of donors or the international financial institutions, Lesotho’s government introduced the grant in order to address worsening poverty among the elderly.
[more]

Selection   votes is great for Lesotho  67% 31 is unnecessary  22% 10 is bad for Lesotho  11% 5 46 votes total Poll powered by Pollhost. These results are subject to error. Pollhost does not pre-screen the content of polls created by Pollhost customers.

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The voters have spoken, and a majority of them say that Lesotho is right to have two official languages. My view is that it is necessary to have Sesotho and English as official languages, but not necessarily great. Let’s face it, it’s getting harder and harder to do commerce without the use of English.

The French can do so quite safely, for many around the world at least understand French. Not too many “get by” in Sesotho.

Despite our two official languages, we’re not bilingual. We speak English and Sesotho. Those Basotho that are truly bilingual have usually followed a path that veers from the usual one, either by studying abroad for a considerable period of time, or actually moving to go live and work there.

There is another factor, however, and it is cultural. And painful. Sesotho is disappearing — slowly but surely. Quick, in Sesotho how would you say, “Last year we borrowed money from the bank, but the interest rates were too high for us.” That’s what I mean. It is becoming easier and easier to speak a mix of both languages, and unfortunately it is English that is winning outright.

Some say, “Learn a new language and get a new soul” (Czech Proverb). True. But I think I’d rather (re)learn my own language and keep my soul intact.

Memory is unfathomable. It is a slate that cannot and will not be wiped clean. Perhaps it is because memory is built up from different stimuli, smell and sight and touch and taste and sound, which years later remain united enough to evoke memory as we know it. Sound is terrible. I can’t hear a 70s song without remembering and smelling Maseru during those years. Hugh Masekela’s “The Boys are Doin’ it,” Manu Dibango’s “Soul Makossa,” Johnny Nash’s “The Look in Your Eyes.” I will usually even feel the bump jiving.

Those times, however, were also rife with political tension, following the 1970 Coup d’Etat in Lesotho and the imprisonment of opposition leaders. My father was thrown in jail, we moved to a less affluent area of Maseru, and we skimped big time on clothes and on food. I remember that, too, when I hear that glorious music.

Smell can be pretty merciless, too, and roasted corn does me in. At six or seven p.m. on a winter’s night when I emerge from the Paris underground, after work, and see and smell roasted corn, I’m reminded of Maseru and Kingsway street; I’m reminded of blanketed women hovering over coal fires. Oh, the experience is almost always a passing flash, but a temporal knee in the groin it is, to be sure. And I don’t know whether I’d prefer to forget and not be reminded, or whether I couldn’t quite be myself without those oft torturous, regular flashes.

From the time I knew that my elder brother, Khotsofalang, wouldn’t be coming back, ever (it’s a long story), I got into the habit of studying young black men’s faces, in case one of them should happen to be his. In case what I’d heard was wrong. In case he’d in fact been brainwashed and just couldn’t remember where home was. I started doing so in Kenya, and continued in America and even in Canada, for the short while I was there. A cluster of black people, a group of young, black men, would be enough to have me ogling at and eye-balling people.

Nobody ever asked me, “What the hell are you looking at, dork?” What would I have said? It was a certain situation that would tell my mind to start eye-balling young men, a sort of subconscious stimulus, many black people, that reminded me of home, and had me believing that my brother might be among them. And as I say, the experience is usually over in flash. I’d stop ogling, but I’d be thinking about something related to him.

At such moments, for reasons beyond my grasp, I’d usually think of a particular day when we were at Peka High School, and there was a student strike. A strike meant the students weren’t going to class and were basically either beating up the teachers or burning buildings, or both. The local cops had already been called, and there was a stand-off, cops on one side and us on the other. A few friends and I were on top of a small building that housed the toilets, when out of the blue a few tear-gas canisters fell nearby and started hissing out their toxic smoke. I instinctively jumped off the roof into the cloud–the only possibility–landed on my feet, and heard, amidst the commotion and the confusion, “Rethabile!” My brother had been watching me? Over me? I hadn’t even known he was anywhere near where I was. “Rethabile!” he had shouted. I moved out from the cloud unharmed, and went back to the business of throwing stones at the cops.

I don’t know for sure when I stopped eye-balling young, black men. Perhaps it was after I had talked with my mum and found out that she was also doing the same thing.

Memory is a powerful force, indeed, and the five senses, plus the sixth, are there to make sure we can recall a lot of what has been influential and important in our lives.

A top minister in the Lesotho government has resigned. I can’t look into this immediately, but promise to do so as soon as I can. Here’s the announcement (Group Sotho) and a quick reflection I made concerning the resignation.

Links:

1. www.businessday.co.za
2. www.news24.com

‘Mohlabani Serobanyane: You may not pass this on but it’s good to read.

A friend asked me to pass the following article on and ask others to
pass it on so all Basotho, wherever they may be, can read it too and
make their comments on the issue:

“The Government of Lesotho, in response to a growing wave of public
outrage over the controversial sale of vehicles to Ministers and
Principal Secretaries by Imperial Fleet Services, commissioned a
high-powered delegation of six Cabinet Ministers to convene a televised
press briefing, supposedly to “set the record straight and diffuse
further misinformation” on this matter that has dominated national
discourse in recent times.

My own assessment of how the Ministers performed brings to mind a
beloved fairy tale that most children will know of The Three Little
Pigs. With all due respect, the Ministers huffed, and they puffed, and
they huffed again, and they puffed again, but they could not blow the
house down!! And indeed, they will never blow the house down because all
the huffing and puffing in the world cannot remove or erase the fact
that acquiring vehicles in this way is *fundamentally wrong. *I now wish
to present an irrefutable argument in support of this claim.

Imperial Fleet Services leases vehicles to the Government of Lesotho
(not Ministers and Principal Secretaries in their own person).
Imperial’s customer is therefore the Government of Lesotho. This is a
very important point. At the end of the lease period, Imperial Fleet
Services, being the owner of the vehicles, has the right of disposal.
One of the Ministers explained the fact that a clause was included in
the contract between Imperial Fleet Services and the Government of
Lesotho, such that at the end of the lease period, the State official to
whom the vehicle was assigned would have the right of first refusal to
buy the vehicle.

This is where the waters were muddied. The right of first refusal should
be and ought to be that of the Government of Lesotho, and *not *of
Ministers and Principal Secretaries in their own persons. *They are not
the Government of **Lesotho. *If the Government of Lesotho elects to
acquire the vehicles, it will then dispose of them through the systems
and procedures that govern the disposal of Government property.* *The
fact that the contract is framed as explained herein demonstrates a
serious weakness, which needs to be rectified as a matter of urgency.
*It is fundamentally wrong. *What is alarming, however, is that the
delegation of six Cabinet Ministers actually believes that it can sell
this misguided and crooked contract to the nation and pull it off, “to
set the record straight!!”

The price at which the Ministers and Principal Secretaries acquired the
vehicles from Imperial Fleet Services is also a matter of great concern.
One of the Ministers explained the fact that there are various methods
of depreciating assets, and that the price that Imperial Fleet Services
charged for the said vehicles was determined by the depreciation method
used by Imperial. Honourable Minister, and your esteemed colleagues,
depreciation is a *book entry *in the Income Statement of a company to
account for the erosion in value, over time and/or the useful life of an
asset.

The world over, the accepted basis on which companies and organizations
dispose of assets is *market value. *That is the only credible measure
of the fair value of an asset, and that is to say, what would the
*market *pay for the said asset. Book value, through whatever
depreciation method does not come into play at all.

The fact that Imperial Fleet Services has sold off vehicles whose market
value, at the very least, is M150,000 for *M4,000 *is alarming. The fact
that the beneficiaries of this sale are individuals who, through their
statutory positions in the Government of Lesotho, will individually and
collectively be the very people who *decide* on the contract between
Imperial Fleet Services and the Government of Lesotho, in terms of
renewal and whether or not Imperial Fleet Services should be the
supplier in the first place, is not only even more alarming, but corrupt
in the extreme. *It is fundamentally wrong.*

How will Ministers and Principal Secretaries *objectively *exercise
their statutory duties of due diligence when the issue of the renewal of
the Imperial Fleet Services contract is tabled before Cabinet. Are they
all going to recuse themselves in that all of them now have a conflict
of interest, by virtue of them having benefited so shamefully in their
own persons? In the first place, why should a contract between the
Government of Lesotho and a supplier, funded by taxpayers, be used by
Ministers and Principal Secretaries for them to acquire vehicles, in
their personal capacities, from the same supplier at give-away prices?
Once again, this is where the waters were muddied. However, once again,
what is most alarming is that the delegation of six Cabinet Ministers
actually believes that it can sell this misguided and crooked act of
sale to the nation and pull it off, “to set the record straight!!”

One of the Ministers who attended the briefing and who was very vocal in
the briefing, namely, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable
Monyane Moleleki M.P, holds the dual position of being a Cabinet
Minister and the Chief Information Officer for the ruling Lesotho
Congress for Democracy (LCD). In the latter capacity, the Minister
writes a regular column in the Party newspaper, *Mololi*. It is now
common knowledge that the Honourable Minister has an uncanny habit of
shooting from the hip. Excuse the pun, Honourable Minister, I know that
your recent personal experience has added to the growing list of
unsolved crimes in Lesotho.

Minister Moleleki has used his column in the Mololi newspaper to make
some unfortunate and irresponsible statements, coming from a man of his
position, on this matter that the nation views extremely seriously. The
Minister made statements such as ” *khalapa lia buseletsana*” {*Hands
wash each other/tit for tat/I rub your back, you rub mine*} and
challenged The Honourable Kelebone Maope M.P and Honourable Ntsukunyane
Mphanya M.P to state whether ” * bona ba ne ba tla li hana likoloi ha
ba li rekisetoa ka bo-chipi*”{*would they refuse cars if they were sold
to them cheaply*}. These callous statements by the Honourable Minister
confirm and endorse the very essence of why the public has such
deep-seated anger and revulsion over this crooked scheme, namely, it
represents corrupt behavior. *This is the truth of the matter, pure and
simple.* This again is where the waters were muddied.

*It is fundamentally wrong.*

It is apparent that the Minister has a very short memory, because in a
recent column of his Party’s newspaper, he cited the fact that people
holding statutory positions needed to be accorded a certain level of
respect, by virtue of the positions they hold. What is the level then,
Honourable Minister, that we as the public should pitch our respect for
you as a Minister of State, when you make such statements?

The Honourable Government Secretary (or Government Spin-Doctor, whatever
tickles your fancy) was given a mountain to climb by hosting a program
on Radio Lesotho to explain this crooked scheme. In his desperation,
since he was clutching at straws from the word go, he said not
verbatim):- ” *Mong’a rona* {*Our owner/boss*}(whoever he or she is) *o
ile a ea ho Imperial ‘me a re ho bona, re le Muso re le fa business e
ngata benghali, lona ha ho le tje le re etsetsa’ng?”* {*went to Imperial
and said to them: the government gives you a lot of business gentlemen,
what do you in these circumstances do for us?” *}

As he frantically tried to keep his head afloat, he descended to the
lowest level of integrity by relating the story of how he noticed a
former Minister of State when the National party was in Government
walking down the street wearing shoes that had deteriorated beyond
recognition, because he/she had left Government without owning a
vehicle. *The inference from his statements is that this crooked scheme
has been implemented to ensure that the current Ministers of Government
do not find themselves in this predicament when they are no longer in
Cabinet.*

An unfortunate program indeed, and the Honourable Minister of Finance,
in a later program, tried in vain to do some damage control by citing
the driving force behind this crooked scheme as being the clause in the
contract as mentioned earlier herein. Now the Right Honourable The Prime
Minister has sent the big guns, in the form of the high-powered
delegation of six Cabinet Ministers to deliver the knockout punch. This
certainly was the intention of Minister Moleleki when he stated that
those who have misgivings about this scheme are at liberty to resort to
the Courts of Law for recourse. Do you not think, Honourable Minister,
that to do so would be ” *ho qosa thokolosi lekhotleng la moloi*”? {*To
sue a hobgoblin in a witch’s court?”*}

This country has won international acclaim for its stance on corruption,
through the infamous Highlands Water Scheme case. This crooked scheme
has, with one brutal swipe, pulverized this legacy. It is funny that
currently, an official of the National Assembly has appeared in court
with a supplier for having inflated the price of an asset that was to be
procured for the National Assembly, for which the State argues that the
official would derive material benefit.

By the same token, the delegation of six Cabinet Ministers would have us
believe that the act by a supplier of Government, of *willingly*
deflating the price of assets for sale to individuals who are materially
important in deciding on its (the supplier’s) future in Lesotho, in
order to derive the benefit of assurance of continuity of its (the
supplier’s) business operations, is *not *improper. Conversely, the
delegation of six Cabinet Ministers would have us believe that the act
by a supplier of *unwillingly*deflating the price of assets for sale to
individuals who are materially important in deciding on its (the
supplier’s) future in Lesotho, in order to guarantee its (the
supplier’s) security of tenure, is *not *improper.

If indeed the delegation of six Cabinet Ministers *actually *believed
that they would sell this soppy story to the public, and that we would
believe their story, then, with all due respect, the Honourable
Ministers, and their cohorts, individually and collectively, are as
stupid as they are nave. Perhaps unintentionally, this is the record
that they have succeeded in setting straight. If however, which is the
more plausible possibility, the Honourable Ministers, and their cohorts,
know in their own hearts and minds that this crooked act is
fundamentally wrong, and their mission with the media briefing was to
tell the nation that “come hell or high water we are not going back on
this scheme and those of you who are bitching and moaning about it can
go to the nearest hell and back again”; then, with all due respect, the
Honourable Ministers, and their cohorts, individually and collectively,
are as insensitive as they are cold-hearted. Again, this is another
record that they have succeeded in setting straight.

At the end of the day, when the dust settles and the sun sets, all the
sugar-coating, spin-doctoring and bullying in the world will not remove
or erase the fact that the acquisition of vehicles by Cabinet Ministers
and Principal Secretaries of the Government of Lesotho from Imperial
Fleet Services in the manner that has happened is *corrupt and*
*fundamentally wrong, that history will judge that it was corrupt and
fundamentally wrong and that it will remain corrupt and fundamentally
wrong for all eternity. *Just as I started by citing a fairy tale, it is
fitting at this juncture to close with a well-known nursery rhyme that
goes like this;-

“The integrity and moral fibre of Lesotho’s Government sat on a wall
*Ministers and Principal Secretaries kicked it and it had a great fall*
*All the gold and silver that money can buy*
*Could not pay penance for the integrity and moral fibre that sadly, has gone by”.*
*A Concerned Mosotho”*

Thabo Andrew Motlamelle *
P.O. Box 12112
Maseru 100
Lesotho *

Phone: (+266) 2231 3704 (home), (+266) 6306 4440 (Mobile) ‘

[source]

Lesotho to unfurl new ‘peace’ flag to mark 40 years of freedom
By Thabo Thakalekoala MASERU

The tiny southern African kingdom of Lesotho celebrates its 40th anniversary of independence from Britain on Wednesday by unveiling a new flag to replace a martial one introduced after a 1986 coup.Deputy Prime Minister Lesao Lehohla said the flag — whose unveiling will cap national celebrations — showed “a nation at peace with itself and at peace with its neighbours.” The new flag has three colours: blue for rain, white symbolising peace and green indicating prosperity. It will also sport a cone-shaped hat, worn by the country’s indigenous Basotho people. [citizen.co.za]

We have been independent for forty years, Jack. Be nice to me, today. Gimme five. High five. Send me flowers and a cheque in the mail. Embrace me when you see me in the street. Pat me on the back. Kiss me, now, and wish me — us — luck in the coming years. “The road will be muddy and rough, but we’ll get there,” I feel like saying.

It has been forty years of petty thuggery and thievery for the most part, and killings and nepotic rule by some. But there have been flashes of real nationhood, and that is where we need to throw our weight and build from. We’ve caught and denounced big-company bribery, and we’ve had free and fair elections a few times in a row. In this regard Lesotho is a trend-setter.

But there have been many more low moments, such as the recent automobile fleet scandal, whereby ministers and other high-placed civil servants could buy government cars for less than nothing. That was wrong and was addressed by this blogger and others. Government officials should not be rewarded for serving the nation — especially when those officials are elected members of government.

It has been forty years of misery for many Basotho. We basically failed to heed the warnings coming from farther north, as Africa became independent. The words we used then were boipuso (independence), self-rule, self-determination, tokoloho (freedom, and my kid sister’s name).

But as soon as we became independent, we replicated the same, stupid mistakes, inevitably falling into the trap face-first. Funny, when one looks at it, though. Lesotho is homogenous. It is a one-people/one-language nation. But we had to fish for things to differ about.

It has been forty years of digging in the dirt to survive. Basotho men have traditionally worked in South Africa’s mines, living there for long spells without their families and sending money home. The effect of this was at least three-fold: men had no education, the HIV virus prospered, family life was broken, and the country’s economic woes worsened.

The mine-working men, of course, bought flesh and contracted AIDS, then went home and spread it around. Their spouses back home would sometimes sell flesh in order to make ends meet, and they, too, would contract the virus. Then South Africa decided to send migrant workers home. We suddenly had a terrible influx of hordes and hordes of uneducated men looking for and not finding work. Crime soared, and domestic violence shot through the roof. Then China entered the textile industry, effectively shutting out Lesotho’s own textile industry due to cheap labour. And that’s when the drought arrived.

We’ve gone through a lot, and we’re surviving. But that’s no excuse for shoddy governing. Lesotho has about twenty political parties. Looking at those twenty or so parties in Lesotho, one wonders whether we, as politicians, will ever learn. The lesson is that we need to live for the betterment of the nation and not for the betterment of self (and of a few cronies and family members). There is no justification that I see for that many parties, other than the desire for each leader of those parties to be at the helm, pull the strings, be the head honcho. I dare you to find me twenty different political points of view to justify the myriad of parties.

I’ve lived more than half of those years abroad. A painful experience, as any Mosotho living abroad will concur. I never wanted to leave my country and make my life elsewhere, I was forced to do so. Like many of my country-people who are away from home, I wanted to be successful at home, for home, through home.

During these forty years there have been killings and other thug republic tactics. I think we must hold reconciliation meetings in the fashion of South Africa’s own. I recently saw Bishop Tutu mediating between a former IRA combattant and family-members whose relatives the combattant had killed. Why not in Lesotho. The pain and bitterness won’t go away by themselves. As my mum would probably have said, Re iphapantse joalo ka beng ba lifariki (we’re looking the other way as if nothing had happened).

It has been forty years of squandered resources. Ask me, and I’ll tell you that for a country of 1.8 million people, Skiing, Diamonds and Water are enough to keep everybody happy and sated. I haven’t even mentioned other tourist related sources of income. If 1.8 million people can’t be kept happy and sated with these three resources, then we need to look upwards in the hierarchy and see where things aren’t happening right, and make them happen right.

The people do not need to reward elected government officials. Their job is to serve the people and go home at night. No applause, and certainly no bonuses of any kind. Otherwise, quit the public service and start your own company. Idland says this better than I do. Bookmark his blog.

It has been forty years of dashed hopes for many, and success for some. We want food and jobs, peace, and a little bit of land to live on and cultivate. Is that so much to ask? This request, in fact, is embodied in Lesotho’s motto, (Peace, Rain, Prosperity) Khotso, Pula, Nala. We are looking forward to nothing less, and not much more.

“Gem Diamond Mining Company of Africa Ltd (Gem Diamonds) has announced that it has received final shareholder approval from JCI Ltd (JCD) and Matodzi Resources Ltd (MTZ) for the acquisition of a 76% stake in Letseng Diamonds (Pty) Ltd, the operator of the Letseng Diamond Mine in Lesotho (Letseng).

Gem Diamonds now owns 76% of Letseng and the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho owns the remaining 24%. In terms of an agreement reached on the future operating regime for Letseng, the government will receive an additional 6% equity, which will result in Gem Diamonds holding a total of 70% equity in Letseng and the Government of Lesotho the remaining 30%.

Letseng is a well known mine in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho, famous for the quality of its diamonds. Since commencing operations in April 2004, it has achieved an excellent production track record, with 90% of diamonds recovered being of gem quality and a significant number graded as D, the top colour for a white diamond. Its revenue per carat is currently unsurpassed in kimberlite diamond mining.
[Sundaytimes.co.za]”

Ed’s note: Letšeng is written with an S-caron (š) for the purposes of the way it’s pronounced. I don’t know if journalists are unaware of this fact or if it is difficult for them to print Š.

1858 Cape Governor Sir George Grey arranges peace between Basotho King Mosheshwe and Free State at Aliwal North. [Pretorianews.co.za]

Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, a South African sangoma, insists that George Grey is “the founder of apartheid and racial discrimination in Africa in the mid 1800s.” On 29 September 1858, Sir George Grey arranged peace between King Moshoeshoe and the Orange Free State Boers at Aliwal North. “The peace brought to an end the First Basotho War or Senekal War with the Free State. [Sahistory.org.za]” However, the peace was short-lived and the second Basotho war or Seqiti war followed.

If you remember, Moshoeshoe is the founder of the Basotho nation, and a statesman who meted out justice with mercy, and encouraged his enemies to sit down and talk. He had previously met and befriended three French missionaries, Eugene Casalis, Thomas Arbousset and Constant Gosselin. It was the three young men who were exerting pressure on George Grey, through the central authorities in London, to negotiate on behalf of peace, which Moshoeshoe called his sister.

ROMA VALLEY © Copyright Lenka “Soare” Thamae

LESOTHO HILLTOP © Copyright Yannick Girardeau

It is not surprising to find [corruption] pervading almost every element of Government in a country like this one. [Source]

"This one" is Lesotho. Elsewhere in Wakanaka’s informative post is a link to a "proper democracy," that democracy being Canada. I love Canada, and I love maple syrup. And I love Wakanaka’s post about corruption in Lesotho. But I still wonder just what the phrase a country like this one means. Does it mean small? Poor? Black-ruled? Something else?

Small can’t be it, because one of the most above-board places on the planet is Belgium, the same size as Lesotho. Belgium boasts a surface area of 30,528 sq km, and Lesotho of 30,350 sq km. Besides, "au Canada, des politiciens et des hauts fonctionnaires associés à l’administration du Parti libéral du Gouvernement du Canada sont impliqués dans un scandale de plusieurs centaines de millions de fausses factures de programmes de commandites gouvernementales. L’argent était utilisé pour la ré-élection des candidats du Parti libéral [Source]." Canada boasts a whopping 9,984,670 sq km, or 329 times the size of Lesotho. So size has nothing to do with a country having corruption scandals.

Lesotho is poor. Understandably, poverty could be an incentive, driving those in power toward doubtful practises. You’re poor, and there’s all this money going through your hands, and your son wants those Nikes, and you want a better school for your son. But quite frankly, poverty is rarely the reason why people rot. Dick Cheney isn’t poor, yet the man is as rotten and scandal-ridden as they come. And he’s rotten on a higher scale, since what he’s involved in concerns unspeakable amounts of money, as well as people’s lives. So poverty has nothing to do with a country having corruption scandals.

As a matter of fact, both Canada and the United States are big and rich, yet that hasn’t stopped them entertaining corruption-related scandals. The Wikipedia article on scandals in the United States is an impressive list, indeed. It begins in the 1700s and runs all the way up to today. Here’s the list from 2000 on:

 

• Linda Chavez, nomination as Secretary of Labor derailed by past employment of illegal alien (2001)
• Enron collapse (2002) leading to investigation of Kenneth Lay, a top political ally and financial donor to the election campaign of President George W. Bush; Lay, who had been named as a leading candidate for Secretary of the Treasury, eventually indicted (2004). Attempts to link individual politicians with the Enron malfeasance have not been particularly successful, perhaps partly due to the fact that so many politicians of both major parties received campaign contributions (including 158 Republicans and 100 Democrats in Congress (as of 2001) [1]).
• Jim Traficant (D-OH) financial corruption conviction and expulsion from House (2002)
• Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) bribery scandal (2002)
• Trent Lott (R-MS) resigned as Senate majority leader amid racial controversy
• Bill Frist (R-TN), becomes Senate majority leader and is alleged to have been deeply involved in campaign finance improprieties. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating insider-trading issues in connection with Frist’s July 2005 sale of Hospital Corporation of America shares immediately before the stock’s value fell precipitously.
• Yellowcake forgery. Evidence alleged to be forged was presented in the case for 2003 invasion of Iraq (2003); related Valerie Plame affair (2004), eventually implicating Vice Presidential Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby (indicted 2005 for perjury)
• Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal (2004-2005)
• Tom DeLay (R-TX), reprimanded twice by House Ethics Committee and aides indicted (2004-2005); eventually DeLay himself was indicted (October 2005)
• Bernard Kerik, nomination as Secretary of Homeland Security derailed by past employment of illegal alien as nanny, and amid allegations of various other ethical improprieties (2004)
• Former Clinton administration National Security Advisor Sandy Berger pleads guilty (2005) to unlawfully removing classified documents from the National Archives in October 2003
• Bush administration payment of columnists including Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus (2004-2005)
• Downing Street Memo minutes of U.K. government secret meeting (dated 23 July 2002, leaked 2005) include summary of MI6 Director Sir Richard Dearlove’s report that "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and the facts were being fixed around the policy."
• Duke Cunningham (R-CA) resigned from the House of Representatives and pleaded guilty on November 28, 2005 to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud, and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004. Prosecutors said Cunningham admitted to receiving at least $2.4 million in bribes.
• Jack Abramoff, Republican lobbyist and key figure in Tom DeLay scandal, is indicted on wire fraud charges (August 2005). Representative Robert Ney (R-OH) is named as "Representative No. 1" in the indictment of Abramoff associate Michael Scanlon. Other members of Congress associated with Abramoff include Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), Rep. Don Young (R-AK), James Clyburn (D-SC), and Bennie Thompson (D-MS).
• Abramoff-Reed Indian Gambling Scandal A separate grand jury investigation involving Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist
• William Jefferson (D-LA) under investigation for bribery after the FBI seized $90,000 of a $100,000 bribery payment from Jefferson’s home freezer (August 2005)

So what does that mean? It certainly doesn’t mean that Lesotho ministers are right for buying "vehicles used by Government as soon as they are three years old, for the ‘residual value’ of those vehicles. [Source]" The action is despicable, and needs to be exposed for what it is. It is in stark contrast to the country’s so-called clean hands operation, and veers dangerously toward what has come to pass and continues to take place in other African countries: seeking power in order to line one’s own pockets (we have just seen that it doesn’t only happen in Africa. But it is Africa that concerns me here).

What it means is that I don’t understand the phrase a country like this one as it is used in the quoted context at the beginning of this post. And what about black-rule? I fail to imagine that it could be what the writer of one of my favourite blogs means. I just stall. Besides, we all know that colour has very little to do with anything, that people have a brain that functions in a certain way that is not influenced by the amount of melanocytes in their skin. What’s more, Cheney may be a ruler, but he isn’t black. So the colour of the ruler has nothing to do with a country having corruption scandals. And we’re back to square one.

It is indeed a sad thing for Lesotho, which had us all thinking it had come a long way. That prospect certainly had me going, and I was indeed rooting for the LCD. My country was a selfless democracy that cared about the interests of its populace. And suddenly it wasn’t. That’s a hard one to swallow. The Public Eye has been interviewing people in relation with the scam. One Ms Qabang says, "The vehicles should have been sold at market value and the money raised used to assist disadvantaged groups like orphans and HIV/Aids patients. Alternatively, if the government really thought the vehicles should be sold, they should have opened the offer to all civil servants. [Source]" Sounds like a better solution to me.

Lesotho: Land of Contrasts
21 Aug 2006 

"Even after being in Lesotho, I still find it a bit silly that it’s a country. It really seems as though Lesotho should have been "acquired" by SA by now."
Look who they sent to my country, Tarzan. Someone who thinks it’s a silly country. Someone who thinks my country should have been "acquired" by another. What the hell is that supposed to mean? You mean like you acquired the land of the Red Indian? Or like China acquired Tibet? Or like you acquired Iraq?

The Kingdom of Lesotho is there because Moshoeshoe said it was gonna be there. Many tried to "acquire" it, but were unable to do so. Moshoeshoe was both a warrior (he kicked British butt in 1851 and 1852) and a statesman (The most important role King Moshoeshoe played as a diplomat was his acts of friendship towards defeated enemies [Source]), and was reputed to have a weakness for the latter. He talked to and won over his enemies, if he could help killing them, which was most of the time. He wouldn’t have given you a passport into Lesotho. Now, Try this quiz, and tell me how you fare.

"As soon as you leave South Africa in any direction the roads just deteriorate and I always happen to be the person driving at that point. Electricity and thus streetlights are a luxury. So apparently are paved roads."
Yes, streetlights are a luxury in poor countries. Electricity is a luxury. Air-conditioning and midnight pig-outs on pizza and gas-guzzling liners on wheels and designer clothes are a luxury. But hospitality isn’t a luxury in Lesotho. Neither is respect, a lot of which I hope you picked up. Pride isn’t a luxury either. I’m sure you managed to see bunches of dirt-poor Basotho who greeted you with a smile, offered you something, and sang. No?

"I finally found the dirt road (and road being a term I use loosely) to the lodge we were staying at. Or at least that’s what the sign said. I absolutely hate driving in unfamiliar African rural countryside in the pitch black dark. After driving through farmers’ fields and across streams and over boulders we found the lodge (just go in the general direction of lights, in those rural parts not many places have electricity)."
Glad you found the lodge. But, say, what were you doing in Lesotho anyway, one of the poorest countries in the world, if you "hate driving in unfamiliar African rural countryside in the pitch black dark?" What kind of terrain did you expect to drive on? The 24 heures du Mans? And does that mean you looooove to drive in "unfamiliar American rural countryside in the pitch black dark?"

Did you not do your homework before leaving for Lesotho? I mean, surely you knew that it was a poor country, and that it had a lot of mountains… 70% of the country being rugged peaks called the Maluti and Drakensberg mountains. Surely you were aware of that! Did you know that Lesotho has the highest low point in the world? Yep. The lowest point in Lesotho is at 1400 m above sea level. That’s a mointain peak in many places. What did you think you were gonna be driving on? Route 66?

"All the people were dressed in their professional attire. Yet we were in rural Lesotho, so of course it’s just dirt paths everywhere. Everyone’s once nice shoes were quite dirty."
That’s just so terrible for the poor shoes! Good thing for some of the shoe-less locals, though. No dirt. What shoes did you wear that day? I bet they were of the dear kind… alligator or ostrich from southern Africa. That’s just like the unprofessional Basotho to hold a conference on dirt roads. 

"During one break I felt a bit out of place watching some traditional Basotho farm workers in the field covered in their blankets and walking along their donkey while I stood there in my nice clothes sipping some Coca Cola."
Exactly who are you, and why are you bent on insulting us? Coca Cola? And that’s your standard for sophistication? If I ever see you in my neighbourhood… No threats. If I ever see you in my neighbourhood I’ll encourage you to get out of my country and never come back.

"On Monday evening we were invited by the council of ministers from the SADC region to attend a little function of theirs. We were staying about 15 kilometers away and on the way there passed a few poor villages. These places didn’t have electricity, got their water from a well and lived in such small homes. The Lekahoe Club where this function was held was a different story – very fancy with free flowing drinks and food in abundance. After spending a day talking about the plight of the poor in Southern Africa, why not go see the government officials throw money at these sorts of functions where they try to convince the civil society sector that they really do care about the poor?"
Of course, African government ministers don’t care about the poor in their countries, but you do, n’est-ce pas, Mademoiselle Wanderingcrabb? That’s why you’re so concerned about the lack of electricity and other civilised things. That’s why those ministers should fix the road network, and that’s why you disliked the function at the Lekahoe [sic] Club, n’est-ce pas, Mademoiselle WanderingCrabb?

Lesotho is a country that has had to fight, most times literally, to exist. But we have never eliminated another people (you have), we have never conquered another country (you have), we have never declared war on another country (you have), we have never nuked anyone (you have), and we have never subjugated another race or ethnic group because of the amount of melanocytes in their skin (you have). Perhaps that’s why we don’t have tarred roads and electricity and you do? I’m just curious, what does your travelling companion, Corlett, make of all this poverty and lack of electricity in Lesotho?

When you decided to go to Africa, were you hoping to see Tarzan? You know, overflowing rivers gorged with greedy crocodiles and a white man clamping their awesome jaws with his bare hands — something the natives can’t do. But like Richard Pryor so rightly said,

"Tarzan wouldn’t last a week in Africa. They’d probably just call him ‘Crazy White Man.’ You’d go, ‘Where’s Tarzan?’ They’d say, ‘You mean the Crazy White Man? Eh.. he’s up in them trees with the baboons.’"

A three-night ordeal for eight people trapped in their cars by snow in the Thaba Tseka mountains in Lesotho has finally come to an end.
www.iol.co.za

Maseru - Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates will this week make his first visit to Lesotho in the company of his wife and former US president Bill Clinton to visit various Aids projects. [www.iol.co.za]

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Lesotho mountain angels get tested
For such a little beautiful place with so much AfriCAN [sic] ponential [sic]. They go first. There are Angels in the mountains of Lesotho! Leaders in Lesotho have embarked on a revolutionary strategy to reduce the spread and the impact of the HIV/Aids epidemic: test everyone for the virus. M&G [http://despoticktock.blogspot.com]

The Role Urban Agriculture in Solving Problems of Food Insecurityin Lesotho
Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, is an overcrowded city located in the lower lands of this mountainous country. The night I arrived in the city I was only able to hear the incessant noises of taxis honking at pedestrians, as if they all needed one. But it was the first morning while driving around this city that I realize how most of the houses have productive gardens. It was amazing to see how Basotho are growing tomatoes, spinach squashes, and maize in pretty much any available space around their homes. [http://agdes.blogspot.com]

AIDS decline in Uganda
I have heard Uganda Christian leaders declare that the reason for such a drastic decline in AIDS in Uganda is because of the present Christian revival. Does anyone have further in-country information or insight? Uganda, which once lead the world in HIV/AIDS cases, is now categorized by UNAIDS as the only country in Africa to turn a major epidemic around. According to UNAIDS, Uganda, whose current prevalence rate is estimated at 8.3 percent, is performing better for adults living with HIV than Botswana (36 percent), Swaziland (25 percent), Zimbabwe (25 percent) and Lesotho (24 percent). [www.smartchristian.com]

Madness in the mountains
i spent the last 5 days in the berg with my family and friends and the invisible but very scary…BABOONS, staying at the golden gate hotel. we drove up to Lesotho and went snowboarding and sking for a day, then i went horse riding for the first time and it was amazing!!! we rode for about three hours in the mountains, it was like one huge cool western, then sasha got violently kicked off her horse haha!!! but the day ended well despite our paining asses from the two days of adventure in snow and mountains… it was an amazing weekend and im very tired now….will post some pictures sooon. [http://blog.myspace.com]

Business is back
IRIN has an interesting look on the re-emergence of Lesotho’s textile industry. [http://americanafrican.blogspot.com]

Fatal Flaws in the Last 0.25%
A civil engineer told me a while ago of a road that was being built in Lesotho (a mountainous kingdom that is entirely landlocked within South Africa.) The road was to provide a vehicle-passable access to the hinterland, as an alternative to the existing pass which was a mountain track traversable only on horseback. Work commenced and proceeded well ahead of schedule. There was a difficult section right at the top of the mountain, but the engineers assumed that they would be able to work around it. Investigations of this portion continued while construction progressed up the slopes below. [www.robmillard.com]

Just test us all
Here’s a scary thought - "Lesotho does not know the true extent and character of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, so the leaders in Lesotho have embarked on a revolutionary strategy to reduce the spread and the impact of the HIV/Aids epidemic: test everyone for the virus." With enough volunteers, it’ll probably work - to find out the true extent of the problem that is. Prevention on the other hand is going to take a LOT MORE than testing everyone. Because there are other problems. [http://allensays.blogspot.com]

“Lesotho Returns to Ottawa After 10-Year Hiatus: Ottawa’s diplomatic community just got bigger as the Kingdom of Lesotho re-opens its high commission with the main goal of increasing trade with Canada.”
[www.embassymag.ca]

“Moshoeshoe, when hearing of the trekker settlement […], stated that ‘… the ground on which they were belonged to me, but I had no objections to their flocks grazing there until such time as they were able to proceed further; on condition, however, that they remained in peace with my people and recognised my authority.’ [www.biography.ms]”

They did not.

Why do we build dams? Do the advantages of having dams outweigh the drawbacks, or vice-versa?  The WorldWatch Institute (many thanks to Sokari for directing me to the article) wants to know, or rather tells us that the pros do not outweigh the cons. Humans normally erect dams to provide drinking water, generate power, ease navigation, facilitate irrigation, help control floods, and make sailing and other water activities possible. The list is not exhaustive. But to fulfil it, need we overlook dwindling fish stocks, moving human populations from home and land, disrupting the ecosystem, encouraging disease, paying through the nose for the maintenance of dams, high costs of potable water that is of lower quality, and being at the mercy of droughts?

"The positive and negative impacts of dams in the Africa/Middle East region" [www.dams.org] have been debated on many occasions, the dangers have been stripped bare, both for humans and for local flora and fauna. So why is Lesotho in the process of building a five-dam system, including the 182-metre Katse Dam for the benefit of the advantages listed above, with seemingly no regard for the disadvantages, equally listed and well-known? To be sure, Lesotho is hardly the only country building
dams.

In the African region there are at least 1 272 large dams, whose main purpose is irrigation, followed by water supply. South Africa has the most dams in Africa (539), followed by Zimbabwe (213) and Algeria (107). [www.dams.org]

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always looked at Lesotho’s water, together with diamonds and tourism, as the route out of poverty. The dam network project unfortunately seems to have further impoverished the population, though not the top layer — the fat cats — which has actually become richer. I’ll say this for Lesotho, though, the law sensed cheating and backhanding, and the law acted accordingly. Lesotho’s diamond mine has recently reopened, yielding some fat kimberlites as expected. Its future as the saviour of Basotho is, however, unsure, as it is being sold.

Two of the project’s five proposed dams, the recently completed 182-metre Katse Dam (the tallest in Africa) and the proposed 145-metre Mohale Dam, have already been funded by the World Bank. The latter is expected to “flood some of the most fertile land in Lesotho, where agricultural land is extremely scarce and food security a serious issue [http://lists.isb.sdnpk.org].” What can the government of Lesotho do? More important, though, what can displaced farmers do?

Some have suggested that the 1986 Apartheid government in South Africa encouraged a military coup d’étât in order to get its hands (its mouths in this case) on Lesotho’s water. They go as far as calling it the Lesotho Water Coup. If it is true, the question remains, what was South Africa to do? There’s this small country with lots of water, and then there’s the thirsty South African industrial region (Gauteng).

South Africa sought greater access to Lesotho’s water supply.1 The South African province of Transvaal faced critical water shortages, and, despite 30 years of negotiations, the South African government could not reach an agreement with Lesotho for water rights. Within months of coup, the two governments agreed to the Highlands Water Project, which diverts water from Lesotho’s mountanous regions to South African farms and industries. The timing of the agreement suggests a close link between South Africa’s involvement in the coup and the dispute over access to water. [www.american.edu]

Korinna Horta, an environmental economist with the US-based Environmental Defense Fund, says, "The LHWP is likely to overwhelm Lesotho and determine its political economy for generations to come. The sheer size of the project diverts attention from any other possible development programs for
Lesotho" [International Rivers Network Lesotho].

And then there’s the government which, in dire need of cash, had to act. Lesotho does have nothing but water, diamonds and manpower. Lesotho’s tourism industry is begging to be developed. South Africa has recently established quotas for manpower from Lesotho and other nations. Many Basotho suddenly found themselves out of work almost overnight. Mind you, I’m not saying the government’s hands are tied; the government must find solutions, must give diplaced folks compensation. If you’ve got ideas about how to get around this seemingly unsolvable problem, I’m all ears. And I’m sure I won’t be the only one.

Suffering and Scavenging at the Tour de Lesotho
The Tour de Lesotho is billed as “Africa’s toughest cycling challenge”, and involves four major mountain passes and some 2100m of vertical ascent. The short version is an 84km route with “only” 1000m of elevation gain. [http://wakanaka.blogspot.com]

Philanthropy At Its Best
Logos Global Ministries has an exceptionally successful program going inside the little nation of Lesotho, Africa. Hundreds and hundreds of children are receiving such TLC through our program that it is literally keeping them alive. [http://lesothochildren.blogspot.com]

Lesotho: Govt intensifies efforts to help rape survivors
The Lesotho government is to improve medical care provided to sexual violence survivors after rape cases reported in the first three months of this year climbed to almost the total number for 2005. [www.irinnews.org]

Harry launches new charity
Sentebale which means “Forget me not” in Sesotho, the […] language of Lesotho. The prince, once dubbed the royal ‘wild child’ for his youthful drug and drink antics, said of his new charity “As far as I am concerned, I’m committed.” [http://claudette.pdpress.com]

Africa’s Kingdom in the Sky
This week we drove up to Sani Pass, which is in Southern Drakensburg, about 2-hours from Pietermaritzburg. We took a day trip hosted by the Backpacker’s lodge we were staying at that drove around Sani Pass and up into Lesotho, “Africa’s kingdom in the sky.”` Lesotho is over 2000-meters above sea level, and in order to get there from Sani Pass, you had to use a 4X4 because the roads are gravel and very steep and winedy. [www.dogooder.ca]

Lesotho Angel
Canadian Russell Armstrong, hospital administrator at the Tsepong Clinic in Lesotho, discusses the realities of the AIDS crisis in Africa. NB: There’s a video to watch. [http://despoticktock.blogspot.com]

Learning to Swim
The river wasn’t even flowing, but there were rock pools, and in one pool the size of a small car I saw the maroon dress and black sweater floating motionlessly. It must have been an elementary school girl, already dead, drowned. People watched as if it couldn’t have been helped. I cussed to myself. [www.gregalder.com]

The airport in Lesotho, South Africa
It is also super dumb to say […] the airport in Lesotho, South Africa. Where in the world is that? I hear this kind of thing a lot and it gets up my nose. Why does nobody ever say, at the airport in Zambia, Zimbabwe? Or at the airport in France, Belgium? At the airport in the USA, Mexico. At the airport in Argentina, Venezuela. At the airpot in Malaysia, Taiwan. It’s silly. I was having a translation of my papers done once when the translator (a sworn and legal one at that), said, “What’s Lesotho?” [http://sotho.blogsome.com]

European Diamonds finds 2 large gems in Lesotho
European Diamonds PLC said it discovered two large diamonds at the Liqhobong kimberlite mine in Lesotho. The gems weighed 29.2 carats and 24.3 carats. They were found less than a month after it discovered a 27.7-carat stone in the same site. Separately, the miner said it sold 16,500 carats of the Liqhobong diamonds for 691,000 usd in Antwerp recently. [www.lse.co.uk]

I miss home…

I’m home-sick…

sick…

sick.

• Bono in Lesotho, 18 mai 2006
  As someone who travelled to Lesotho not too long ago, it was cool to hear that Bono … “Bono is due to announce a new initiative to fight HIV/AIDS in Lesotho’s … The Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight AIDS (ALAFA) project will ensure ….
  [http://marklee.typepad.com]
• Angola wins their friendly against Lesotho, 2 mai 2006
  Hello! Anyone at home in IRIFF?! Angola just “kicked Butt” in a friendly against Lesotho. Are we going to get a game with someone, anyone, anytime soon?
  [http://iran.worldcupblog.org]
• The Bana Project of Lesotho, 8 mai 2006
  The country of Lesotho was recently in the news as Prince Harry announced a new charity … But as many of you know, they are not the only beacons of hope in Lesotho. The Bana Project of Lesotho continues to be a vital, growing project ….
  [http://allensays.blogspot.com]
• Lumela / Dumela, 22 mai 2006
  Lumela / Dumela Lumela in Lesotho and Dumela in South Africa are the Sesotho greeting. Literally, the word means….
  [http://sesotho.blogspot.com]
• Maseru, Lesotho, 17 mai 2006
  We arrived in Maseru, Lesotho at 1pm, checked into The Lesotho Sun Hotel before we drove to the factory, Precious Garments, where the Gap (RED) t-shirts are being manufactured. The factory has 4500 workers, 85% of whom are women….
  [http://joinred.blogspot.com]

‘Crusading pop star BONO put his six-nation Aids campaign in jeopardy when he was halted at the airport in Lesotho, South Africa because of his bulging passport. The U2 frontman, who was scheduled to jet to Rwanda and Tanzania from Lesotho, was shocked to discover there were no pages left in the document for any more onward travel. The Irish Embassy rushed to Bono’s aid, issuing him with an emergency passport. Press photographer KIM NAUGHTON, who is chronicling the singer’s African odyssey, stepped in to help, capturing Bono’s image - without his trademark wraparound sunglasses - as a makeshift passport snap. He said, “I can’t believe we’ve been so stupid.”
22/05/2006 17:37 ‘ [http://breakingnews.iol.ie]

It is also super dumb to say the guy was stopped at the airport in Lesotho, South Africa. Where in the world is that? I hear this kind of thing a lot and it gets up my nose. Why does nobody ever say, at the airport in Zambia, Zimbabwe? Or at the airport in France, Belgium? At the airport in the USA, Mexico. At the airport in Argentina, Venezuela. At the airpot in Malaysia, Taiwan. It’s silly. I was having a translation of my papers done once when the translator (a sworn and legal one at that), said

“What’s Lesotho?”
“It’s a country in southern Africa.”
“Let’s see this…” Consults worn encyclopaedia… “It’s in South Africa.”
“No, it’s near South Africa,” I whined.
“It’s Basutoland?”

And on and on we went. I left thinking I’d convinced her, but when I came to get the translated documents, I was suddenly born in Basutoland (Afrique du Sud). Just like that, with the Afrique du Sud in parentheses for good measure. I paid her and left, but I was fuming. On another occasion, I’d just had a motorcycle accident. When I came to, in the middle of the road, I was surrounded by cops and paramedics and sapeurs pompiers. They gently picked me up and transported me to one of the flashing ambulances on the side of the road. Once inside, the questions began: Date of birth? Address? Age? Country of birth? Ad lib…

“Lesotho,” I said.
“Pardon?”

So I went into my well-oiled speech about where Lesotho is and that it’s not a province of South Africa but an independent state, and that though Lesotho has no embassy in France, it does have one in England, in Belgium, in Switzerland, and in many other countries. And the guy who was filling the form went,

“Je vais marquer Afrique du Sud quand même.” Or, “I’m gonna write in South Africa all the same.”

Today if you look at my accident report, it says that I was born in South Africa. Fine, but I won’t accept the same treatment from a journalist. Those paramedics didn’t have Google at their disposal, and it is in any case less their business than it is for a reporter. Gets up my nose.

I just found an extra place for Lesotho news. It is a section of the radio station PCFM. What I was really after was some Sesotho to listen to. Anything. But I was glad to discover this news nook, because as you probably know, Lesotho news is hard to come by. The link is: www.pcfm.co.ls.

We still have the old and unreliable Lesotho news sources. Old because the news is usually stale, and unreliable because the sites are often down. Nevertheless, for the sake of thouroughness on my part and encouragement for the said sources, here are the links again:

0– http://allafrica.com
0– www.topix.net
0– www.lena.gov.ls
0– www.afrol.com
0– www.irinnews.org
0– www.africaguide.com
0– www.publiceye.co.ls
0– www.panapress.com
0– www.leo.co.ls/media2.htm

Idland has recently brought up the subject of Basotho mistreating other races in Lesotho. “Billions of blue blistering barnacles,” as the captain would have said. The top question is of course, why? Why would Basotho, of all peoples, do so?

Most of the ill-treatment is directed at the Chinese population, and consists of muggings, robberies and property degradation. It comes as a surprise to me, because as far as I can remember there’s always been a Chinese population in Lesotho, and an Indian one (Makula), and a Portuguese one (Mapotoketsi), and an Italian one (Mataliana). Any racism had mainly come from some members of these groups, and rarely the other way around. But today we hear that,

Sadly, racist attitudes are not limited to people of poor education, or even to locals, but also find regular voice among wealthy expatriates, many of whom are happy to tell you that the Chinese are the same around the world: rude, careless, cheap, etc. [wakanaka.blogspot.com]

Why? Are the Chinese really rude, careless and cheap? Isn’t that what other ethnic groups tell us, black people, when we reside in those people’s countries? Isn’t that what white Americans say about black Americans? How do we, Basotho, imagine we can get away with taking people of the same origin and lumping them into the same behavioural bag?

Not all white people are racists, yet we’ve known white racists just across the border, haven’t we? Not all African men are male chauvinists, yet we’ve known a fair share of those on our continent. So how can we turn around today and smear an ethnic group with collective labels, as some of our country people seem to be doing? We have fought against such practices in the past, when they were directed at us. We must fight them again today, when we direct them at others.

We have so far only considered the moral and common-sense aspect of the issue. There’s an economic angle. Carrying out hate crimes (if that’s what they are) against foreigners will only

• invite potential investors to back off and to go look elsewhere,
• speed up the closure of foreign controlled but job giving businesses,
• create a climate of instability that is incompatible with a healthy economy.

1. http://kdiga.blogspot.com: Last night, I came back from a two day trip of an amazing view of another part of South Africa called the Drakensburg. It is this amazing range of mountains with a completely flat top and green covering all around the ‘burg.
2. http://www.boingboing.net: An American evangelical franchise is plastering posters around the poorest areas of Lesotho, promising “miraculous” cures for AIDS. Headed by Ohio-based preacher Ernest Angley, the flyers effectively equate “salvation” with medical treatment.
3. http://mapleleafpolitics.blogspot.com: This is the kind of thing that gives Christianity a bad name. This guy, out of Ohio, and his “ministries” are in one of the poorest parts of Africa - Lesotho - telling people that he can rid them of their AIDS and other health problems. Now Rev. Angley may actually think that prayer will help these people, but he is doing much more harm to them than help.
4. http://worldin4months.blogspot.com: Yesterday we got a tour around the facilities here and got to meet Neo. He was abondoned by his mother and came to the hospital when he was 9 months old. He is now a little over a year old. He is HIV negative. They don’t have an adoption serivce here in Lesotho.
5. http://axlinafrica.blogspot.com: Last Thursday Roxie took to the road once again, this time heading to the southern Drakensberg. Our plans included a slightly elaborate trip for Saturday just across the border into the Sehlabathebe National Park in Lesotho.

Courtesy of Nguni.com, who holds all the rights to the snap.

“Lesotho’s ‘Know Your Status’ campaign, the first of its kind worldwide, will offer confidential and voluntary HIV testing and counselling with the aim of reaching all households by the end of 2007.”
http://www.alertnet.org

Yes, know your status. Are you HIV-positive or are you not HIV-positive? If you are, then what are you gonna do? The sangoma isn’t your best bet, because (s)he will tell you to have sex with a virgin. Be aware that sex with a virgin only spreads the virus; it does not and will not cure you. So what are you gonna do?

If you’re smart you’ll inform yourself on the virus and the affliction. Ask medical doctors and nurses what they advise. Take any medicine you are given. White people may have hurt black people before, but they did not make condoms to curb the black population. Condoms actually protect you, if you’re HIV-negative, and they protect your sexual partner, if you’re HIV-positive. Condoms do not reduce your manhood. Wear a condom.

The Know Your Status campaign will not succeed without your willing participation. Get tested, and encourage your friends to get tested, too. We have the third highest rate of AIDS infection in the world. That’s a lot. Forget the witch-doctor (listen to your medical doctor), wear a condom (or abstain), and get tested.

A horse trail in Lesotho stands out as the first time in my life that I have ever developed blisters on my behind. By the time the trail came to an end, four days later, there wasn’t a part of my body that did not ache.

For days, that bony pony, with the unlikely name of Snowy, rolled me through mountain passes and down ravines, where a slight movement meant a drop of 3 000m.

At the completion of the trail, I felt as if I’d conquered Everest and from the look on Snowy’s equine face, it was obvious he felt he’d conquered me. Which he had. For at least a month afterwards, I walked with my legs apart.
http://www.int.iol.co.za

The Lesotho Highlands scheme supplies South Africa with millions of cubic metres of water per year, while people living in the lowlands of the tiny mountain kingdom struggle to find water for domestic consumption. Young women and children queuing with containers, waiting to draw water from boreholes or public taps, are a common sight in many parts of the country.
http://www.alertnet.org

An interesting analysis by the Head Heeb reminds us of the dire situation Lesotho is up against. Lesotho is up against dry hunger, widespread and entrenched. That calls for a minute of silence. The picture that goes with the article did me in. It reminded me that the phenomenon is not new, and that from the late 1960s Lesotho has been sending topsoil to the ocean via South Africa. Lengope. That’s the name of what you see in the picture. One lengope, two or more mangope. Lesotho has tons of mangope, which have even become part of the culture. They serve some purposes and can be anything from a village frontier to a herdboys’ loo, or both. The English name for lengope is "donga." One of the most interesting aspects of the Head Heeb’s analysis is the part about solutions. How do you stop your top-soil from doing a bunk! And has anybody bothered to find out and implement whatever answers are out there?

Wind erosion may still occur even if preventive measures are taken. Dry soil, poor snow cover, poor residue cover from low-yielding crops, and persistent strong winds make controlling erosion a formidable challenge. It takes only one serious wind erosion event in 20 years to negate all the careful management of the intervening years. Emergency controls are used when wind erosion is imminent or has started. Increasing the surface roughness of a field or covering the soil with straw or manure are the two basic emergency measures. Increasing surface roughness A rougher surface reduces wind speed at the soil surface so the wind is less able to move soil particles. Ripping clay soils: Ripping clay soil using spikes will usually bring up non-erodible clods to create a rough surface. If the clods are likely to break down quickly, then the distance between passes should be about 5 m (15 feet). This way, the procedure can be repeated later on the untreated strip if necessary. Ripping is an emergency measure to reduce wind ersosion on clay soil. Listing sandy soils: Listing is used for sandy soils because they do not produce durable clods. Listing ridges the soil and brings up firmer subsoil. It must be perpendicular to the eroding wind, and should always start on the upwind side of the field. Treating the entire field will greatly reduce erodibility. Lister shovels are only mounted on the back gang of a heavy duty cultivator. Lister shovels (either 33 or 38 cm (13 or 15 in.)) are commonly used in irrigated potato production in southern Alberta. Properly listed, the flat surface of a field can be changed so that ridges are 25 to 30 cm (10 to 12 in.) higher than the troughs, and about 90 cm (36 in.) apart.

I found that in under two minutes flat. So the conclusion is that the Authorities found it, too, and are onto the problem. The characteristics of erosion-prone terrain that are mentioned above are exactly what Lesotho is, right down to the poor snow cover bit. There was no snow in Lesotho last year, which also means that there was no melting snow to feed the rivers. But I’m beginning to carry on where I shouldn’t. The Head Heeb has raised many of these points and put them side by side with their respective "solutions".

This is some scary stuff…

UPDATE: The link I provide above is dead. Here’s a functioning link (http://allafrica.com)

“Styles Phumo’s side not only failed to defend the Cosafa Cup in Durban at the weekend, but they also lost their pride after crashing out in a penalty shootout with Lesotho after a goalless semi-final.”
http://www.news24.com

“I urge all Basotho to know their status so that they can be able to manage their lives and receive treatment in the case of those affected.”
http://www.fortwayne.com

The Lesotho Parliament has launched its site, and I’m all excited because it is an important step toward educating citizens about the workings of government, which in turn is important because democracies must remain transparent. The launching of a parliament site does in no way mean that a state is democratic, don’t get me wrong. My point is that it is normal for such a state to bare its cog-wheels and the machinery of its activities to the people who voted it into power in the first place. Their FAQ says

What is Parliament? Parliament is a law-making institution composed of the King, the Senate and the National Assembly. People sometimes refer to parliament buildings as “Parliament”.

What is a Bill? A Bill is a written proposal for a law that is being discussed by either the National Assembly or the Senate.

What is Royal Assent? A Royal Assent is a written approval by the King for a Bill to be law. When the King gives this approval, the Bill becomes an Act of Parliament and a law for Kingdom of Lesotho.

What is an Act of Parliament? An Act of Parliament is a law that has been passed by an elected Parliament. Each Act of Parliament is published by the Government Printer in a gazette that can be purchased by the public.

How are laws made by Parliament? A law begins its journey as a written proposal in the National Assembly. This proposal is called a Bill. When it is approved by the National Assembly it is forwarded to the Senate for further discussion. When agreement is reached by the two Houses, the Bill is signed by the King and becomes law.

What happens when the Senate and the National Assembly do not agree over a Bill? The views of the National Assembly prevail.

Can the King refuse to give the Royal Assent to a Bill passed by the two Houses of Parliament? The King may not refuse to give the Royal Assent to a Bill passed by the two Houses of Parliament. When there is disagreement between the two Houses, the King will give the Royal Assent to the Bill as passed by the National Assembly.

What are Standing Orders? Standing Orders are the rules of procedure used by the Houses of Parliament. The National Assembly has its Standing Orders and the Senate also has its own Standing Orders. There is however great similarity between the Standing Orders of the two Houses.

What is the “Speech from the Throne”? The “Speech from the Throne” is the speech delivered to members of the two Houses of Parliament by the King at the beginning of a new session of Parliament. It is written for him by the Government and gives an outline of the Bills that will be presented to Parliament and the policies of Government.

What is an Order Paper? An Order Paper is the written daily agenda of the National Assembly or the Senate prepared by the Clerks of each House.

How many women members are in the National Assembly? There are sixteen elected women members of the National Assembly.

Lesotho is a small country, in size. With the present AIDS scourge, it’s becoming small in population size, too. And with the ongoing and relentless drought, it’s becoming even smaller economically. Many in the world are beginning to wonder if the AIDS/Drought combination will not cripple the country completely, making it sparsely populated, unproductive and ungovernable. Perhaps they’re right.

Otherwise Lesotho is a big country of blanket-clad, horsepeople smiling down at you, literally. It’s a proud country with an amazing number of firsts, or of onlys. The last first is this month, where the government decided to test the whole population for HIV, the AIDS-causing virus. It’s big in that unmistakable but unmeasurable way. I guess everybody’s country is big in that way, too.

With Thabana Ntlenyana (beautiful little mountain) at 3482 m, Lesotho is the highest point in southern Africa. Lesotho is landlocked and therefore has a coastline that is 0 km long. Lesotho had the Lesothosaurus, and today the country has plenty of dino footprints to show off. In 2004 more than 30% of Basotho were afflicted with the AIDS virus, making the country the third most affected in the world.

Wait, there’s more. It has been alleged that on 16 September 1995 a UFO crashed in Lesotho and that there was a subsequent cover-up by authorities. I don’t know of a similar “incident” in sub-Saharan Africa, so even there it looks like we’re unique. Lesotho has the highest diamond mine in the world: the mine is Letšeng-La-Terai (3200m). Lesotho’s lowest point is the junction of the Orange and Makhaleng Rivers at 1400 m. It is the highest low point of any country in the world. In other words, Tibet and Nepal have lower altitudes than Lesotho. In still other words, no part of Lesotho is below 1400 m. Central Lesotho boasts the highest waterfall in southern Africa, the Maletsunyane Falls near Semonkong (Place of Smoke), which pours down from a height of 192m.

That’s a lot of first country in this and only country in that, but it isn’t nearly all. Lesotho is the only constitutional monarchy in Africa. 85% of Lesotho is mountainous terrain. Lesotho has the highest pub in Africa: the Sani Top Chalet (2874m). Lesotho is one of the rare countries in which more girls go to school than boys. You can ski in Lesotho in winter, from mid-May to early August. In fact, Basotho are the only Africans who are accustomed to living part of the year in snow. The Aloë Polyphylla is indigenous only to Lesotho and does not naturally grow anywhere else. Sesotho is one of the first African languages to be expressed in writing. The first written form was worked out by French missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Mission whom Moshoeshoe I welcomed in 1833. Lesotho has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa:

At 83%, the literacy rate in Lesotho is amongst the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, at 93% the female literacy rate is well above that for men (72%)

What will you do?
Well, I want to tell you that I am now the proud sponsor of a 5 year old girl from Lesotho, named Mathapelo. She sent me a letter the other day–she drew a cat and a girl and a house, and it made me cry.
http://inexorablyloved.blogspot.com

Mosisili in Beijing for China visit
Lesotho’s Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili arrived in Beijing Wednesday afternoon, kicking off a 7-day official visit to China.
http://english.people.com.cn

Lesotho 2005 - Nic White Biking
There is a road through Lesotho. It is the highest road, 260km long, that I have ridden over, in Southern Africa. Ten riders joined me and my friends and spent four days riding this road over ‘the Roof of Africa!’
http://www.supercycling.co.za

Tsunami Money Could Be Directed Toward Africa, Clinton Says
Money left over from donations to help the areas of Asia devastated by the tsunami in December 2004 could be directed toward crises in Africa, such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic, former President Clinton said.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org

Lesotho to launch door-to-door AIDS tests
The tiny African kingdom of Lesotho will launch door-to-door HIV tests to mark World AIDS Day on Thursday
http://www.alertnet.org

Lesotho struggles to fight Aids
The tiny southern African kingdom of Lesotho is one of the world’s worst Aids-hit countries with a 27% infection rate
http://www.news24.com

1. Lesotho is one of the world’s poorest countries, with a per capita income of £340
2. Lesotho has the third highest HIV rate, with a 29% infection rate for people between 16 and 49 years of age
3. In 2003, 29 000 people in Lesotho died from AIDS/HIV-related causes
4. Lesotho’s entire population is to be screened for HIV
5. Lesotho is the first country in the world to offer HIV tests to its entire population
6. King Letsie III is likely to become the first monarch to take the test publicly
7. Life expectancy in Lesotho has dropped from 52 to just 34 years since 2000
8. The brain drain drawing Africa’s nurses to the West has also been blamed for exacerbating the problem
9. In Lesotho, all members of the population over the age of 12 will know their HIV status by the end of 2007
10. Tests cannot be mandatory under international human rights law
11. The simple act of testing could have as important an impact as as a moderately effective vaccine
12. The test is simple and only requires a finger-prick of blood that takes 15 minutes to show the if the virus is present
13. The idea of testing is going to be introduced within each community through village chiefs at a pitso
14. Only 21 000 people in Lesotho took an HIV test in 2004
15. 40.3 million people in the world are living with AIDS
16. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst affected part of the world with 26.0 million sufferers
17. The highest rates in the world are in Swaziland (39%), Botswana (37%) and Lesotho (29%)

[Source]

U.S. aid to African states hits $150 million in food: The latest U.S. donation includes beans, peas, lentils, maize meal, corn-soya blend, sorghum, millet, vegetable oil and bulgur wheat, expected to start arriving in the region in January. The food will be distributed across Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
http://www.buffalonews.com/

PREFERENCE EROSION UNDER NAMA-Bangladesh to be the biggest loser: Lesotho, Madagascar and Haiti may lose to the tune of $49.6, $48.7 and $40.3 million respectively.
http://www.bangladesh-web.com

Eskom electricity cheaper for SA’s neighbours: There are other countries bordering South Africa, and further north, which are charged more by Eskom. According to Erwin, Zambia is charged 21.45 cents, Zimbabwe 21.17 cents, and Lesotho 56.88 cents for each kilowatt-hour they use.
http://www.int.iol.co.za

Aid agency warns of southern Africa food shortages: Failed rains are a common trigger across the region, but underlying causes include chronic poverty, weakened agriculture and health sectors due to widespread HIV and AIDS, political inertia and inappropriate agricultural and economic policies. Other countries affected by the food crisis are Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland.
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk

Malaysian PM to attend dialogue in Lesotho

(more…)

A young couple has experienced the responsibility and reward of teaching life-sustaining skills to people of a Third World country — and made dear friends at the same time.

Leaving those acquaintances behind, after serving two years as Peace Corps volunteers in Lesotho, a nation on the southern tip of Africa, is the only unpleasant memory held today by Adam and Stephanie Springer of Manhattan.

Adam, 26, is the son of Randy and Diane Springer of Gas and a 1997 graduate of Iola High School. He and his wife, who he met while a student at Kansas State University, were in town Sunday to visit his family and speak to the congregation at Grace Baptist Church in Iola about their Peace Corps service from August 2003 through this fall.

Stephanie, 25, and a Manhattan native, recalled later in the day a dinner ceremony held in the Springers’ honor as they were preparing to leave the country. The governor of the area where they had lived spoke of the importance of their work in his country, as well as their continuing mission for mankind. (more…)

I have created quite a lot of quizzes on Lesotho, Basotho or Sesotho. You can access them here: My quizzes in English.

They are however all in English. Here’s the first one I’ve ever penned in French: My first quiz in French. (Pre-registration).

Watch the film, then please tell us about it.
UPDATE:

Here’s the TV program for today, as it appears on the Daily Dispatch site. Hurry and turn your TV on!:
THURSDAY PICKS

1. King Moshoeshoe (SABC2, 9pm): Documentary on the life and legacy of King Moshoeshoe I, the founder of the Basotho nation.
2. Binnelanders (M-Net, 7.30pm): Roelien is sent flowers and everyone wonders who they are from.
3. Known Gods (M-Net, 8.30pm): Bruno names Deetlef’s successor and Fest spends time with Grace and Rebecca.
4. FILM: Mickey Blue Eyes (e.tv, 8pm): An Englishman proposes to the daughter of a Mafia kingpin but there are certain favours to be done first!

I know the quality of football (bolo) in Lesotho. I played it for a long while there. There is an enormous amont of talent, but there’s an enormous amount of talent waste as well. Take a good player in Lesotho and place him in South Africa, and he fits right in! FIFA rates South Africa 46th, and Lesotho 147th. What gives? I’ve already gone into some of the reasons.

136 Palestine 0 332 -9
137 Fiji 2 329 -5
138 Solomon Islands 0 326 -10
138 Tahiti -1 326 -11
140 Kazakhstan 6 320 16
141 Myanmar 0 311 -2
142 Burundi 0 308 -3
143 Tajikistan -3 304 -10
144 Sri Lanka -2 301 -10
145 Mauritius 0 299 -7
146 Maldives -4 292 -19
147 Lesotho 0 289 -9
148 Vanuatu 0 285 -8
149 Grenada 0 278 -3
150 Madagascar 0 263 -10
151 Surinam 0 262 -7
152 Kyrgyzstan 0 258 -4
152 Luxembourg 3 258 12
154 Antigua and Barbuda -1 251 -1
155 Chinese Taipei -2 250 -2
156 Nicaragua 0 244 0
157 San Marino 4 239
[Source]

What is Lesotho doing in this spot, surpassed by Palestine, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Burundi, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and the Maldives? Gimme a break. Is it a question of coaching? A question of funds? What? I fail to believe it would be anything else.

Six hours from Johannesburg and several wrong turns later, Lexington resident Tara Loyd and UK medical student Nirmal Ravi inch through the Lesotho border after sunset.

This seedy town near Ficksburg, South Africa, resembles hundreds of nameless border towns: dilapidated tin-and-plywood shacks line the dusty, cracked asphalt and groups of curious bystanders hunch into faded wool blankets, their faces hidden in shadows and their eyes lit from the fires of trash barrels. (more…)

Last month, Hurricane Katrina sent the city of New Orleans staggering backward to the extent that many deemed it at a “third-world level” of development. Estimates now suggest that approximately 700 people died because of the catastrophe, riots and looting were widespread, and economic shocks rippled throughout the world thanks to the destruction of oil and gas refineries.

At the time, I was in Lesotho, a “third-world” country in south Africa. This landlocked country, about the size of Maryland, is home to over two million Basotho, one of the most ethnically homogenous populations on the planet today. The country itself is beautiful, with majestic mountains, brilliant blue skies, and some of the most amicable people I have ever met.

Of course, Lesotho is home to a few minor problems. Average lifespan has nearly halved to approximately 37 in the past quarter-century thanks to HIV, with official UN estimates stating that one in three Basotho is affected by the disease. Food production is falling because of overgrazing, climate change, and a lack of understanding about the effects of monoculture. Land degradation is an enormous problem, especially since 86 percent of the population survives on subsistence agriculture. Wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few urban businessmen and politicians, while the majority of the people lack clean water and electricity in their homes.

Officials estimate that the population of this country will actually fall by 200,000 in upcoming years because of this combination of problems. While such losses would be almost 300 times greater than those of the United States, a vast majority of the human tragedy could be prevented with the introduction of basic technologies. What happened in the United States was a natural disaster that could not have been prevented; what is happening in Lesotho and much of southern Africa is an avoidable humanitarian crisis.

What sort of “technologies” could prevent such a disaster? I do not refer to the latest and greatest innovations that many here at MIT are perfecting but instead highlight appropriate technologies that address local needs in simple and effective ways using local skills and materials. Consider the following technologies:

¶ A stove that uses a reduced amount of biomass to cook, preventing further solar erosion and land degradation while reducing the amount of time the owner spends collecting wood.

¶ Simple processes that can be used by rural farmers to preserve food during the harvest season so that it is available for consumption at other times of the year.

¶ A system of small loans that would allow local entrepreneurs to secure the capital needed to start their own business (more commonly known as microfinance).

While such products or ideas may seem exceedingly trite, they would allow the rural poor to advance economically to a healthy level where they can be a productive resource for rather than a hindrance to their developing country.

Here at MIT, we do not spend our time focusing on such technologies because they are far distanced from us. The benefits of turning our attention to such solutions are large.

First, many of the problems being considered in developing countries are practical ones that could easily be addressed by undergraduate students. Such projects are small in scale and reinforce key concepts learned in the lecture hall. By using one’s hands in addition to one’s mind, a student learns how to practically apply otherwise useless theoretical knowledge.

Second, the end-user of the technology must be directly involved in the problem’s solution to make it culturally appropriate and effective in the long-term. Technology development would be a rare opportunity to develop communication skills and an awareness of global cultures.

Third, 90 percent of the world’s engineering is currently being done for 10 percent of the world’s populace. Therefore, products that are marketed to the currently underserved rural poor stand to sell at a high rate. Think of the potential profits to be gained if a product that serves the rural poor could be effectively marketed and sold at high quantities. Finally, there is an intangible social reward that results from helping others to advance themselves.

The one remaining question is how to get involved with such projects. Recent program introductions have made it much easier for the undergraduate student to contribute today. Classes, such as Amy B. Smith’s D-Lab and the Edgerton Center’s Public Service Design Seminars, allow students to learn about international development, appropriate technology, and engineering for the developing world.

Service UROPs and public service fellowships give students funding to continue the work started in those classes. The new International Development Initiative helps provides a repository of information about such opportunities at MIT. There are no longer the excuses of distance and inaccessibility that once prevented many from getting involved in the development of appropriate technologies.

While President Bush’s response to the crisis in Louisiana that killed so many may have been delayed, there is no excuse for you as a student to wait any longer to assist those who need our help. Get involved today.

Matthew R. Zedler is a member of the Class of 2007 at MIT. For those interested in the current technologies being considered in Lesotho, The MIT-Appropriate Technology Services collaboration Web site (http://web.mit.edu/ats) contains project descriptions and methods for contacting engineers and students working in Lesotho.
[Source]

The third world. Why third? But that’s neither here nor there. Mr. Zedler brings up interesting ideas, some of which I’ve touched on before. Money being in the hands of the few is one. Simple technology to uplift lives is another. I’d vote for solar appliances.

I’d also like to point out the fact that Lesotho isn’t in South Africa, but is in southern Africa. The former is a country, while the latter is a region.

The article reminds us of startling facts: we live to be forty, then we croak, thanks to AIDS and malnutrition; soil erosion is rampant, thanks to overgrazing and regenerative burning; and we have neither running water nor electricity in our homes. Don’t we produce our own electricity? Yes, we do. Can’t we import extra electricity from our neighbour, South Africa? Yes, we can.

Perhaps the lack of infra-structure is an insurmountable burden for the government. Digging through the Maluti mountains to install water pipes to villages, or erecting pylons through mountainous terrain are perhaps more expensive than we imagine. The fact remains, however, that we lack these basic services that most today take for granted. It falls to the government of Lesotho to see to it that we get them.

We cannot talk about development if these services are inexistant, and one of the dilemmas is whether we should go ahead and push for more modern things like e-education, while some citizens still don’t have electricity. Sounds self-defeating, doesn’t it? Which brings us to another one of my worries: only the already rich will participate in and benefit from any e-services put in place, since they are at present the sole sector of the population with electricity and computers and the fixed-line telephone. So what comes first? The chicken or the egg? In this particular case I say the egg must come first.

Mind you I’m not particularly suggesting that we dig up the whole country installing technology that is becoming obsolete by the week. I’m suggesting that we use the technology of today that we can afford. With wireless possibilities and ADSL, who wants the 28.8 modem? Only a nut would. Last time I was in Lesotho, everyone had a cell phone, although most didn’t have fixed-line connections. That’s the kind of thing I would like to see more of. We need to skip steps as much as possible.

“I had decided to visit the new Afriski skiing resort at Oxbow, high in Lesotho’s Maluti mountains. My timing was poor.”

Were we really the first to recognise Nelson Mandela with an honorary degree? According to the article reproduced below, and others, we were. It was on 29 September 1979 at the National University of Lesotho, and Ntate Mandela was still on Robben Island.

On his behalf Alfred Nzo, the then General Secretary of the ANC, received the degree. Funny that I do not remember the event, although I was at the National University of Lesotho in 1979. Perhaps my brain has chosen to remember inside politics, which at the time were on the brink of spilling over, threatening to erupt and disrupt. The end result was the murder of some Basotho and an attack on our home. And the screwing-up of the lives of many Basotho.

It is also funny that a government that felt it could honour Ntate Mandela thus and at risk, also felt it could kill its own citizens and carry out a quasi reign of terror. The two actions do not match, when one doesn’t know that the government at the time was sucking up to North Korea and Cuba. All that was a long time ago, but one does have a hard time forgetting. Never mind that the then government of Lesotho may have been thumping its nose at the big, bad Apartheid regime and trying to get closer to the Eastern block, the move was good, and it set off a world-wide avalanche of honorary degrees for the famous prisoner. Here’s the article: (more…)

‘The French call it covoiturage. The prefix “co” of course signifies a twosome, a sort of pairing or sharing; “voiture” is French for “car,” so that one might be driven to think the equivalent word in English is “coautomobiling” or something of the sort. It is carpooling or carsharing. A hardcopy, underground French daily (”Metro,” 20 septembre 2005, page 2, “L'’alternative Covoiturage”) states that 8 out of 10 drivers are alone in their cars. It’s a shame.

But perhaps the French are rich enough and can afford to be alone in their car. Can we, in Lesotho? Hardly. When I was growing up, one of the hardest things in the morning was finding a taxi to go to work or to school. In Kenya they call such taxis matatus. I call them buxis. Buxis, get it? They were always full. Always. Then you’d see some guy going by alone in his car.

Carpooling in this case would solve a number of problems, both for the car owner and the buxi riding folks. Petrol doesn’t come cheap, and sharing its price certainly brings the said price down and saves money for the car owner. The buxi riders in turn get a sure ride to work and probably pay less for the benefit. Organising such a venture would be the key to its success. Tariffs would have to be decided beforehand, and only people who know each other or are good neighbours would go into such partnerships.

But even more than that, carpooling would reduce pollution and unclog roads in and around towns. We need to keep our atmosphere and our ecosystem clean if we know what’s good for us. But what about the buxi owners? As well as I can remember, there were too many potential clients anyway, so many that some just walked the five or six miles into town and back, without bothering to wait for a buxi.

As I announced a few days ago, Lesotho is looking into how ICT, information and communications technology, can be introduced into the country successfully. More Basotho than not should welcome the move, whose driving force is centred in the desire to improve Basotho lives through technology. But where are we today? And will the project be a success?

Lesotho isn’t the only country considering e-governance and e-administration, as well as other e-things such as e-learning and e-surgery. France for example is right in the midst of implementing its e-gouvernement and téléservices programs. In that direction, France has already done more than Lesotho, but less than the United States, for example. On a French e-administration site a nota-bene says,

Cette rubrique vous donne accès à des services en ligne qui vous permettront d’effectuer, sans déplacement, tout ou partie de votre démarche auprès d’une administration.

Then the page goes on to list the services involved: Documents, Taxes, Employment, Family, The Civil Service, Justice, Housing, Retirement, Social Security, Non-governmental Volunteers, with each of these headings having the relevant links below it. It seems to me that such a list would be decorative in Lesotho if efforts are not first directed at basic considerations, like first supplying the material in order to better place that ubiquitous “e” in front of the word “population.” It stands to reason.

Basotho will not use technology to pay their taxes if they don’t already use it to order pizzas. Technology has to be popularised first; and for that to happen, the government and its friends have to put their hands in their pockets to extend the broad-band network to the remoter towns and villages, make sure schools have computers and teach information technology, but wait… even before then, the government has to make sure that everybody can get electricity and have a telephone in their home, because without them nobody will be able to run a computer or hook a modem to it. Unless using newer technologies, such as WiFi, can be a short-cut to this ideal.

Wi-Fi (or Wi-fi, WiFi, Wifi, wifi), short for “Wireless Fidelity”, is a set of standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN) currently based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications. New standards beyond the 802.11 specifications, such as 802.16 are currently in the works, they offer many enhancements, anywhere from longer range to greater transfer speeds.

Wi-Fi was intended to be used for wireless devices and LANs, but is now often used for Internet access. It enables a person with a wireless-enabled computer or personal digital assistant to connect to the Internet when in proximity of an access point called a hotspot.
[ Source… ]

In May 2000 I went home to Lesotho after an extended absence of ten full years. I had initially run away in 1980, then visited in 1990, and was then visiting again. I was astounded at the high number of people using “cells,” or mobile phones. Everybody just seemed to have one, and in many homes, there were still no fixed-line telephones. And I seem to think there never will. Basotho had in fact jumped a step, going from no phone to mobile phone, without having to first cable the country for fixed-line networks. We’d jumped a step and saved us a lot of money and headaches. How do you network a mountainous country if you’re not Switzerland? You don’t. You find an alternative technology. Could this approach help Basotho get accustomed to using computers and the Internet, much as the GSM technology has provided them with cheaper and faster telephoning technology?

Can we really “e” everything? E-learning? E-justice? E-voting? E-bar? E-sex? By the e-time we’re e-through, e-very E-nglish e-word will e-begin with an “e.” If we can’t really do that with words, perhaps we can with actions. In practice, therefore, we’re able to study by means of WBT, or web-based training, and call it e-learning. In some countries, votes can be cast through a web-browser in an undertaking known as e-voting. We use “e” because it stands for electronic. That’s great for Latin-oriented folks like speakers of English (Yes) and French and Spanish and Italian and so on. How should non-Latin oriented people like speakers of Urdu and Sesotho and Swahili and Amharic and so on tackle the situation? That initial letter, however, is slowly dissociating itself from its mother word, and is moving toward full independence, in which case we, too, can stick it in front of any of our words and know exactly what it means.

What’s E-justice? Here are some of the objectives of Lesotho’s E-justice Group: “To facilitate putting in place an efficient and effective case management system that will avoid loss of court records and dockets, misfiling, misplacement of records and dockets and coordinate the police, prosecution, the court and prisons officers in handling court cases and administering justice; to facilitate provision of an Intranet system in the court of Appeal, High Court and all Subordinate Courts. All ten districts of Lesotho will be provided with a computer network system in order to facilitate information flow on matters of administration of justice, decided cases and improved communication on legal issues by the legal fraternity and the public; to facilitate training of personnel in Law Enforcement Agencies, including Judges, their Secretaries, their Registrars and all Judiciary Staff that uses computers on case tracking, downloading of case information and general intra communication among courts.”

The goals are convincing enough but I expect the group, as well as other e-government departments, to come up against obstacles, or at least an obstacle. Traditionally, Basotho live in such and such a village, not at such and such a number on such and such a street. Some people live on streets, to be sure, but the vast majority of Basotho live in villages. That compromises the issue of technological identity to a considerable extent. Where do you send a bill? Where exactly does the bearer of an identity card live? Where does the pizza delivery person take the double-cheese order? And what hut will the police swat-team target?

In short, most of this e-stuff is more than welcome, but aren’t we flushing money down the loo by not preparing deeply enough for such a change? Let’s identify everybody first, let’s name the streets and number the huts first. By making it possible to analyse and classify legal documents, by making it simpler for common folk to access such documents, and by encouraging communication among legal authorities, an E-justice system can actually reinforce the rule of law. So, thumbs up, Lesotho, go for it. But please do so only when potential trouble spots, like the above-mentioned identity issue, have been duly identified and eliminated.

When you look at it hard enough and long enough, introducing ICT into Lesotho successfully is as simple as ABC… D. In other words, the procedure must go from A to B to C to D before we can say we have successfully reached E, or the e-world, with its e-learning, e-government, e-voting and so on.

The Lesotho government must first provide ADSL for all. That’s the first step. ADSL stands for "Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line," which just means a fast method of moving data over regular telephone lines. We say it’s asymmetric because downloading (theoheliso) is accorded more bandwidth than uploading (nyololiso). If the people for whom the ICT program is intended have no phone lines in their homes, the rules of the game require the program manager, hence the government, to first connect them. We may indeed have to start not with A for ADSL but with T for telephone.

The ICT program in question must necessarily be for Basotho, the people of Lesotho. That seems obvious, but what I mean is that it must not be for show or for the IMF or for whatever body but the body of the citizens of the Kingdom of Lesotho. Any such endeavour that is not based on the requirements of the Basotho people is doomed to failure even before it begins.

The C may be the most important piece of the puzzle, because a puzzle it is. The intended users and beneficiaries of the ICT program must be able to afford it. I’m afraid that means it must be dirt cheap. If it isn’t, then the B part remains unfulfilled. Only the rich would then access the eventual services. And we would have wasted energy and resources in providing a service to people who can afford to buy it or who have already bought it. Let the ICT program be accessible to the entire population of Lesotho. Find ways of making it cheap. Dirt cheap.

With its 30,355 sq km, Lesotho is a small country. But the distance between two points can actually be farther because of mountainous terrain and lack of speedy transport. Any ICT program worthy of the appellation must first proclaim, as one of its aims, the bridging of the distance between Basotho and services. For example, distance education would be a good thing to shoot for. It suddenly becomes easier to take the classroom to the village square, instead of transporting the village into the classroom. E-voting is another aim. Take the voting booth to the remotest parts of the country, and even all over the world. Allow all Basotho to vote. Being one of the those who live abroad, I fall into this category, but see no difference between a villager on a mountain-top in Lesotho and me. We both just need to vote, full-stop.

And only then can we start talking about e-this and e-that. We cannot reach that stage without going from A to B to C to D. Getting an ICT program to function and be beneficial to Basotho and Lesotho is as simple as ABC… D.

Perched at 3200m above seal-level, Letseng-la-Terai is the world’s highest mine. It had been closed for over twenty years, but has recently opened its… shafts…, after several South African investors pumped money into the venture. I wish it well, and I hope that it’ll take the employment load off the government and off the sweat-shops.

Links:

1. Business Day link
2. Business Report link
3. Africast link

One of the reasons why the newspaper business is not so vibrant is that the Basotho do not have a reading culture because most of them are illiterate. With a population of about 2,2 million and 80 percent of the population living in rural areas, access to newspapers or other mediums of communication is very low.

That’s what Ms Bertha Shoko, Journalist, says about Lesotho and Basotho. The percentage of Basotho who can read and write is 84. And it is a well-known fact that Lesotho, with this figure, has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa. Basotho don’t have a reading culture because they can’t afford the damn newspapers. Say that it is because Basotho are poor, idle or non-chalant, but not because they’re illiterate. They are not.

In a paper on the need for an editors forum in Lesotho, Newsshare Foundation director Lawrence Keketso said there were many reasons for the absence of such an organisation in the country despite the fact that the country is one of the pioneers of the print media in Africa (Leselinyana la Lesotho -1863). Chief amongst these was the fact that the country, unlike other colonial countries, was never planned to become an industrial or commercial center but a supplier of cheap and disciplined labour for the South African mining industry, thus the reluctance of multi-national corporations to invest in the country even after independence. The fact that the country’s economy is relatively small, not offering a lot in terms of media survival has contributed to establishments being born at sunrise and disappearing with the sunset. Though the media is usually referred to as The Fourth Estate, in Lesotho were it to be ranked, it would probably fall below tenth because of the perception with which it is viewed locally. "The media is always last to be allowed in for some important national events", Keketso said. [ Source… ]

Max du Preez is ticked off. A poll that was recently organised and conducted in South Africa, he says, proves nothing beyond the fact that white South Africans have phones. Mr du Preez says that "it was a good idea. It could have helped South Africans so much in their process of trying to identify with a shared past. Instead, the SABC’s programme on the hundred greatest South Africans has turned out to be a huge embarrassment for the public broadcaster.

The only thing it proves is that white South Africans have telephones. Not that it’s the SABC’s fault, really. It was the fault of the silly producers who thought one could do an experiment like that in the South Africa of 2004 by asking the public to vote. It was skewed even before the voting started: most white South Africans do have telephones, cellphones and access to the Internet; most black South Africans don’t.

I’m trying to be generous here, but really, Eugene Terre’Blanche, Steve Hofmeyr, Brenda Fassie, Hansie Cronje, DF Malan and Hendrik Verwoerd among this nation’s one hundred greatest citizens? In our entire history?" When one sees the list of those who made the cut, it is hard not to agree with the writer. Eugene? Hendrik? Mr du Preez calls them "newsmakers, not great people. And if we wanted a list of newsmakers, where are Eugene de Kock, Dirk Coetzee, Wouter Basson or Gideon Nieuwoudt? What about Andre Stander, Colin Chauke or some of the serial killers and rapists of the past few years?

These popularity contests can’t be taken seriously. On some levels, this kind of popular democracy doesn’t really work. If all South Africans were asked today whether most white farmers’ land should be taken away and given to landless blacks, my guess is two thirds would say yes.

Yet the list of Great South Africans tells us a lot about our society. Few of those who bothered to vote sat back and thought about South Africans as one nation, trying to figure out who had made a difference, a contribution over the past 400 years. Rather, people voted to get their "own" in the list.

We had better vote in our thousands for "our" leaders, otherwise we will be marginalised, they thought. This seems to be especially true of white Afrikaans-speakers. On the other hand, if it is true that mostly white people voted, then it must also follow that a lot of them voted for Thabo Mbeki, Desmond Tutu and Winnie Mandela, all among the top ten. It is depressing to see how people mostly voted in racial blocs. We are clearly a very long way away from identifying with the same heroes of our past." In the comments section of this post by Conrad Barwa on "The Head Heeb", Jonathan Edelstein, referring to results of a poll published and conducted, amongst its audience, by the London-based New Africa magazine on the 100 Greatest Africans, says that

what the New African’s editors may be overlooking is that Africans aren’t "a people," and that any given African will know much more about the precolonial and colonial history of his own people and country than that of other regions. I think Moshoeshoe I should be on the list, for instance, but how many people outside Lesotho (and maybe ZA) know of him? Post-colonial political leaders and newsmakers have much wider name recognition outside their own country and will draw more votes in this kind of poll,

which dovetails snugly with the point Mr du Preez is making: "To me, the most surprising omission from the list of 100 was King Moshoeshoe of the Basotho. I spent the past few years researching his life and philosophies for a documentary film for the University of the Free State - to be broadcast on SABC2 at the end of October - and for a popular book on South African history to be published in the same week. I know a bit about the man. I can’t imagine anyone more suitable for all South Africans to associate with and vote for. Any person who really understood Moshoeshoe’s role in history would have voted him number two on the list after Nelson Mandela. Moshoeshoe was the Mandela of the 19th century. It was Moshoeshoe who stabilised South Africa after the tremendous upheavals of the early 1800s, sometimes referred to as the Lifaqane or Mfecane.

 

It was a time of great droughts, of social instability, of conquering chiefs and encroaching colonialism. Chiefdoms and clans attacked each other from the east coast right up to the highveld, creating a domino effect and incredible human suffering. Moshoeshoe was the only leader of the time who did not partake in the violence, but took an approach of defending, making peace, rehabilitating and gathering people around him. Moshoeshoe was a revolutionary diplomat and an extraordinary innovator."

It’s hard–very hard–for me to disagree with that, and I won’t. I’ve been trying to say it long enough. My awe and respect of Moshoeshoe I, however, does not erode the same awe and respect I hold for other leaders, like Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe, Beyers Naudé, Bishop Tutu and Bram Fischer. The actual list is much longer.

Moshoeshoe "was never beaten in war, not by the British, the Boers of the Free State, or by the forces of Matuwane, Mzilikazi or Sekonyela. More than anyone else at the time, he had reason to be arrogant and authoritarian. Yet he remained humble, serving his people with a sense of democracy virtually unknown in the world at the time. He embraced new ideas and technology, yet cherished his people’s culture and customs. In every way he was a man the whole of Africa could look up to - even today. He was a one-man African Renaissance. But the citizens who voted for the SABC’s programme regarded Steve Hofmeyr and Eugene Terre’Blanche as greater contributors to our nation than King Moshoeshoe.

There are other great men and women who should have been among the top 20 who never made it on to the list at all. The great Boer War general and guerrilla leader Christiaan de Wet, for instance. The Khoikhoi leader Autshomao. The extraordinary sage and philosopher Mohlomi

[Added by Rethabile Masilo: Mohlomi was Moshoeshoe’s mentor, and the shaper of the future king’s forgiving and diplomatic mind. Somebody else says: Moshoeshoe (Moshesh, Mosheshwe or Mshweshwe – pronounced MOH-SHWAYSHWAY) was a prince of the Basotho, born in 1786. As a young man, he was angry and impatient. So his father sent him to Mohlomi, a famous chief who taught him self-restraint, patience and leadership. Moshoeshoe learned the value of hard work, that the powerless merited justice, and the poor, compassion. These lessons served him well, under the most extreme circumstances a ruler could face. After a great drought brought on the mfécane or lifaquane, Moshoeshoe withdrew with his people to the fortress of Buta-Buthe. When the overwhelming Tlokoa tribesmen invaded, he withdrew with a few survivors to Thaba Bosiu or Bosigo (Mountain of the Night), from which he would never be dislodged again. His warriors captured Tlokoa cannibals who’d eaten his grandfather when he straggled during the retreat. Moshoeshoe forgave them and gave them land so they would give up cannibalism. He said he had to revere the resting place of his grandfather]. The world-renowned palaeo-anthropologist Philip Tobias. The writer JM Coetzee. Activists Bram Fischer and Helen Joseph. We missed a great opportunity here. This initiative could have meant so much to us as a nation. We will simply have to explore other ways of finding common historical figures we can all identify with. [ Source… ] NB: Nick agrees, and says so over at NjaloNjalo UPDATE (21/10/2004): South African TV show stirs up a storm