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Showing posts from January, 2024

Getting frank with Frank - I'm my own person

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  Frank Mutubila Pictures: Chishimba Bwalya   JACK ZIMBA WITH a career that bestrides seven presidents, two political systems and generations of reporters, Frank Mutubila is definitely the last man standing, outlasting all his contemporaries in the game, and outliving most of them. And yet the 71-year-old broadcaster, who is fondly known as Uncle Frank, is not about done. No. He actually has an after-life plan for his career. “Retiring? No. I can’t think of it. I may slow down, but I will keep on broadcasting. And even when I go to Heaven, I will be broadcasting there,” he says. But the broadcaster, who won one of the highest medals from the President for distinguished service to the nation in 2022, did not start as a broadcaster. In fact, his mother wanted him to grow up into a preacher like his father. Frank was only nine when his dad died, but he says he left a lasting impact on his life. “He impacted me greatly. I was actually in awe of this man, he was a...

Travelogue: Unforgettable Delhi

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  According to government figures, Delhi has as many as 60,000 stray dogs. Delhi has millions of automobiles on its roads, that are also responsible for the air pollution in the city. JACK ZIMBA New Delhi, India AFTER driving for over three hours under a misty blanket on the Yamuna Expressway from India’s capital, Delhi, we finally arrived in Agra , in the state of Uttar Pradesh. And after weaving through an endless stream of human traffic, we finally entered the grounds. And there, under the warm glow of the morning sun, the magnificence of the Taj Mahal shone like a pearl rising out of the Yamuna River, on whose bank it sits. At that point, my dream should have ended, but this was no dream at all. I was standing before the Taj Mahal. It is hard to describe the Taj Mahal without running out of superlatives, or running the risk of losing one's journalistic objectivity (if one must REALLY be objective in describing a masterpiece). Standing before the Taj Mahal, I got that sam...