Postcard from Zambia

Today we went up north, to the copper belt. We were given a tour of a copper mine, which was fascinating. Baffling in places, but fascinating none the less. Back in the capital, Lusaka, we met with representatives from Zambian civic society, to talk about democracy, accountability and media freedom. Transparency International said that they'd marked the previous President 70% for his anti-corruption stance. The new guy, elected in October, gets only 20%. But it's early days.

Tomorrow we're heading down to the Zimbabwe-Zambia (or Zim-Zam as it's known) border to see how Zambia copes with desperate people crossing the border from Zimbabwe. And we're meeting the Electoral Commission, the Auditor General and the Minister of Finance at some point too... or is that Friday?

Update on Zambia

Well so far it's taken me nearly 45 minutes to check a couple of important emails, get onto Twitter, and moderate blog comments. Has been a busy day today, mostly at the Zambian parliament meeting their Public Accounts Committee, their Information and Broadcasting Committee, members of their Commonwealth Parliamentary Association executive, the Deputy Speaker (a very impressive woman), and having lunch with MPs at the place they live.

Yes, that's right - Norman Baker would be delighted to hear that backbench MPs in Zambia all live in the same motel, paid for out of their allowances. Parliament sits for about 6 months of the year, and if they want to stay there when Parliament is not sitting, they have to pay for it out of their own pockets. Ministers have their own houses, which are provided by the Government too.

We also learned that Ministers are not allowed to venture more than 25km out of Lusaka without the permission of the President, as he wants them to be in the capital, working and available for him to see whenever he needs to do so. They even need his permission to visit their constituencies! Often they only make it to their constituencies a few times a year, and as a consequence are often not re-elected. There's a very high turnover of MPs in Zambia, partly also because party allegiance is not so strong. Basically there was the one party which split, so political differences are not that great.

Travel times make it difficult also for MPs to go back to their constituencies every week, as most of us do in the UK. The Deputy Speaker represents the most northern seat in Zambia, and it's more than 1000km (and not on motorways either!) Her seat has about 15,000 voters and is 200km wide. Some urban seats will have many, many more voters. They do have boundary reviews, but there's much more variation between constituency size than there is in the UK.

I met another MP, Vincent Mwale who was elected at the age of 27 and is still only 30, which makes him the youngest MP in the Zambian parliament. His background was in setting up an NGO working on HIV/ AIDS issues, and he became so well-known and popular through his work that he was elected to Parliament on the strength of it. We talked about Obama's election and how important removing the 'gag rule' will be to the fight against HIV/ AIDS.

Vincent told me he represents about 140,000 people but only 33,000 voters as many people don't have their national ID which allows them to register. They recognise this is a problem, but running electoral registration drives is very expensive.

MPs are on a salary of about 1500 pounds per month (no pound sign on this keyboard!) which is more than a civil servant but less than the private sector. It doesn't go too far as their constituents expect them to dip into their pockets all the time - even to help them buy coffins when someone in the family has died! Someone said they were regarded as 'a walking ATM'. Obviously this leads to problems, which is one of the things we're here to discuss this week.

My hour is nearly up. I will leave you with the words of one Zambian MP today: "Spaghetti doesn't stop being confused until you eat it".

Jetting off

Feeling a bit guilty about flying to Zambia later today, although it's very much a work thing. Still, at least I'm doing better than Prince Charles. And I will be leaving my entourage behind.

I normally travel very light but this time I've been given several England football shirts, some sports bags and some (deflated) footballs which take up half the suitcase already. The football stuff is for us to take out to a boys school, which is linked to the UK through the International Inspiration programme. As part of the 2012 Olympic bid we said we'd work with 5 countries, each on a different continent, to help promote sports amongst young people - Zambia was the African country chosen.

I will also be visiting a clinic, the Zim-Zam border, and an open mine. I think the copper mine will be fascinating, although slightly worried as they've just got in touch asking for my shoe size and coat size for the protective gear; I suspect there aren't many Zambian copper miners with size 2 feet. Even when I went along to the laying the foundations ceremony at Brislington school I had to wear size 6 wellies, which along with the protective goggles and the fluorescent lime green waistcoat (also several sizes too big) made for a particularly attractive photo op.

Being boring (2)

I'm in the Westminster office at the moment, having caught the 4.30pm from Temple Meads. Trying to clear the decks before I go away next week, so I'm wading through the post that has piled up during the last few weeks that I've been in Bristol. This includes a copy of "Yo-Yo", the magazine of the Simba Dickie Group. I have no idea who they are, but the covering letter includes an enticing P.S. "There's a special treat awaiting all fans of the BIG-BOBBY-CAR on the internet under www.simba-dickie-group.de." I am sure there's a good reason why they've sent me this.

I was meant to be going on an official delegation to Zambia next week but the president died and they're still in official mourning so it's been called off. The delegation was to have been led by Virginia (now Baroness) Bottomley, and included her successor as top Tory totty, Julie Kirkbride MP. (Am I allowed to say that? Am I allowed to say that if I make clear I'm being ironic? And do I actually mean ironic, or am I having a touch of the Alanis Morrisettes here?)

We all met for a briefing on the trip before recess. I'm rather scared of posh women who ask you lots of questions, so when Virginia said the Zambians wanted to talk to us about our Freedom of Information Act and we needed someone to swot up on it, and how about you Kerry?, I accepted rather in the spirit one accepts when the teacher asks if you want to be class helper. Anyway, it's not happening now, or not until December, maybe.