For about two weeks, as I write, there has not been a blinker of electricity in my neighbourhood.

A momentous change in political leadership would be heralded next Thursday September 21, 2017 in Angola when the former Defence Minister, retired general João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço would be sworn in as its third President. Lourenço takes over from Africa’s second longest serving President, José Eduardo dos Santos who grabbed power on September 10, 1979. Dos Santos, a Soviet-trained petroleum engineer had a firm grip of Angola with iron fist for 38 years after the death of the first President Antonio Agostinho Neto.

Monday was the 16th anniversary of 9/11, the day the whole world woke up to witness the full horror of man’s inhumanity to man. Today, six days after this indiscriminate and irreligious destruction of innocent lives was also the 16th anniversary of my own version of 9/11; the day I and my family witnessed at close range, the horror of man’s inhumanity to man. It was the day I was shot point blank as they say, disposed of my car, and dumped in a secluded side road to die. It was also the day, paradoxically, that I witnessed the good and bad sides of humanity.

Zambia shook the globe in far away Kwangju, South Korea when they pounded Italy 4-0 at the Seoul’88 Olympic Games. All four goals were scored by the Bwalyas. Kalusha, one hitherto unknown youngster from Cercles Brugges, Belgium, turned superstar overnight for the hat-trick.

Differences between reforms and restructuring are not only coarse but obvious for all to see; yet they appear completely lost within the unwholesome din of the latest restructuring discourse in the country today.