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More & More (Sped Up Ver.) Challenge Only Using 🖐 (w. 🐰🐶🐻🐯) #MOREandMORE (LEE HAE SOL Sped Up Remix) Challenge With #NAYEON #JEONGYEON #MOMO #CHAEYOUNG 🎵 Listen "THE REMIXES” #TWICE #트와이스 #REMIX #THEREMIXES #SpedUpRemix

671,828 просмотров • 2 лет назад •via X (Twitter)

Комментарии: 8

Фото профиля panpan 💚
panpan 💚2 лет назад

FINALLY!!!!! 🩵💚🩷❤️

Фото профиля Surfers_Silver
Surfers_Silver2 лет назад

2Yeon and MoChaeeng 🩵💚🩷❤️

Фото профиля L (Jeongyeon & Sana CAM)
L (Jeongyeon & Sana CAM)2 лет назад

Next time don't wait 8 videos to post Jeongyeon.

Фото профиля Anne⁹ ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
Anne⁹ ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ2 лет назад

Mes girls 🥹

Фото профиля よーだ|TWICEの日常かわいいムービー集
よーだ|TWICEの日常かわいいムービー集2 лет назад

モチェンはミチェンとは違った 魅力があるよなぁ〜🥰

Фото профиля funny videos
funny videos2 лет назад

💞💞TWICE💞💞🎵 Listen "THE REMIXES”🫰🫰🫰

Фото профиля Châu Anh
Châu Anh2 лет назад

4명 아주 사랑스러워요 어떻게 이렇게 귀여울 수 있을 가요? 너무나 사랑합니다 💥💥💥💥💋💋✨✨💃💃💋💋💋

Фото профиля Fred D. Dragon
Fred D. Dragon2 лет назад

Beautiful group

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Jeongyeon : Now… honestly, We're just too much like family. So honestly, we don't have much to... Momo: much to say. Jeongyeon: Yeah. Chaeyoung: It never feels like it's been a long time since we saw each other. Momo: Right, even if it has been a while, it doesn’t feel like it Jihyo: but we sure chat a ton in the waiting room every day Nayeon: We say a lot of pointless stuff too. Jeongyeon: Earlier, when Tzuyu showed us our old practice videos, it’s been so long. It’s nostalgic. Nayeon: I like dance videos too, but I wanna see our old Korean, acting, or singing lessons. I really haven't seen those in forever. Jeongyeon: We used to go through those one by one while preparing for SIXTEEN Jihyo: if you were told to go back to being a trainee and prepare for SIXTEEN all over again, could you do it? Nayeon: Well, "SIXTEEN" was a hardship we were already "familiar" with, but debuting was completely "unknown territory", So looking back now, I don't think I could do it again. But back then, we just did it. Jeongyeon : Yeah, we just did it. Nayeon: We didn't even know what it was, and it was hard, but we just pulled it off. Jihyo: Talking about it like this, we really have so many memories from the past. Momo: We sure do. Nayeon: Its been 10 years Momo: For me, I actually only have memories of TWICE. Jihyo: Because our 20s are TWICE. Momo: Nothing but TWICE. Jihyo: Wow, we sound kind of cool. Jihyo: YOU, DONT SAY A WORD. Nayeon: ZIP IT Sana: I want to hear about our most fun times, not our hardest times. Sana: Like, which promotions were the most fun for us Nayeon: I'm not sure if it was truly the "most" fun, but something that was quite interesting in its own right and felt like the start of our "Forward thinking" steps was the presentation for "What is Love?" Nayeon: From then on, we started becoming more "Forward thinking" little by little. Jihyo: I still remember it. Jeongyeon: When we made a PPT and presented it. Jihyo: We gathered together in a hotel in Japan to come up with the concept. We were the ones who suggested the movie concept, too. That's why I still have the notes I used to make the PPT saved in my MacBook's Notepad. Nayeon: "What is Love?" originally wasn't the kind of concept we had in mind. Nayeon: I also remember what pdnim said, Nayeon: We heard advice like, "You can't do exactly 100% of what you want" "Also you need to listen to the company's opinions as well"

Liam_kim

124,749 просмотров • 4 месяцев назад

Alistair Croll (Alistair Croll) is the co-author of the best-selling book Lean Analytics, and a longtime product manager, entrepreneur, and startup advisor. He also profoundly changed my life over a decade ago by convincing me to start a company, funding it, and helping us exit to Airbnb. More recently, Alistar has been running events such as O’Reilly’s Strata, Cloud Connect, FWD50, and Startupfest, and is about to release a book with co-author Emily Ross that I'm very excited about: Just Evil Enough: The Subversive Marketing Handbook. In our conversation, we discuss: 🔸 The role of subversive marketing strategies in most startups’ growth 🔸 11 specific subversive tactics 🔸 Examples of companies like Netflix, Airbnb, and Tesla using subversive tactics early on 🔸 A framework for scanning your market for opportunities 🔸 The importance of finding your “zero-day marketing exploit” 🔸 How to apply these tactics ethically without actually being evil 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: - Spotify: - Apple: Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting the podcast: 🏆 WorkOS — Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs: 🏆 Hex — Helping teams ask and answer data questions by working together: 🏆 Vanta — Automate compliance. Simplify security: Some key takeaways: 1. Most startups focus too much on product features and not enough on distribution and go-to-market strategy. To succeed, you need to find an “unfair advantage” in how you capture attention and turn it into profitable demand. This is what Alistair and Emily call “just evil enough.” 2. Stop relying on generic growth hacks. Instead, adopt a mindset focused on “zero-day” marketing exploits—innovative, subversive tactics that are only now possible. Look for unconventional methods to change the game in your favor. 3. Encourage your team to embrace “disagreeable” thinking, where you challenge the status quo rather than following the herd. For example, aim for your ideas to elicit at least 50% disapproval—this can be a great indicator that you’re pushing boundaries and generating true interest. If everyone loves your idea, it might be too safe. 4. Alistair outlines 11 key tactics to grab people’s attention: a. Turning bugs into features (e.g. Salesforce positioning their limited feature set as simplicity) b. Buyer upgrade (e.g. selling to insurance companies instead of city councils for bridge inspections) c. Access (e.g. Bumble’s founder leveraging her sorority connections for initial growth) d. Bait and switch (e.g. Tupperware using dinner parties to sell products in postwar America) e. Combination (e.g. Kraft combining powdered cheese with macaroni or 1-800 Mattress including mattress removal with a mattress purchase) f. Arbitrage (e.g. early social media growth hacks using API data) g. Aggregation (e.g. Busbud aggregating bus schedules to become the default destination) h. Reframing (e.g. Tom’s of Maine positioning toothpaste as natural/unfluoridated) i. Regulation (e.g. organ donor opt-out vs. opt-in policies in Germany vs. Austria) j. Misappropriation (e.g. Netflix using the postal service as a high-latency network) k. Sliding the window (e.g. normalizing previously taboo topics or behaviors) 5. To apply these tactics: a. Spend time understanding your industry’s system and status quo b. Temporarily think like a “supervillain” to brainstorm novel approaches c. Use techniques like pre-mortems, counterfactuals, and embracing absurdity d. Look for ways to change your value chain or industry dynamics

Lenny Rachitsky

39,965 просмотров • 1 год назад

🚨 ALERT AMERICA: CAIR LEADER NIHAD AWAD EXPOSED – BLUEPRINT FOR MUSLIM POLITICAL TAKEOVER Nihad Awad - leader of CAIR, now officially labeled a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (Nov 2025) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (Dec 2025) for terror ties - was recorded at a Maryland mosque unleashing NOT civil rights talk, but a chilling call for Islamic dominance in America. 🔺Submission to Allah over government. 🔺America as enemy. 🔺Ruthless generational plan to dominate via 4000 mosques, funding an "army" in law, media, and politics. 50,000 in each! 🔺 Ultimate takeover: Run for "even the US president"... "change the reality... from OUR [CAIR] perspective." 🔺 ICE as tyrannical tool: "ICE snatching Muslims from the streets... green card holders... silenced by tyrannical policies" - government breaking the law to punish First Amendment speech. 🔺 White majority as oppressor: "Brutal crackdown from the white majority to the government... deep in the system of the majority" - equating Muslim struggles to centuries of white oppression of minorities. Listen to his "sermon" - this isn't integration. It's infiltration & conquest, from the pulpit. This is the long game, what the Muslim Brotherhood’s 1991 Explanatory Memorandum described as a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” to “destroy the West from within.” It isn’t tanks in the street. It’s institutions, lawfare, identity preservation, and demographic permanence—using Western freedoms to build a structure that does not share Western values. 🚨Some Quotes Straight from Awad: 🔺"Trust in Allah (swt) is in control, not the government... none of these creatures are more powerful than Allah." 🔺"Do you know who is breaking the law? It's our government... testing whether the First Amendment will survive... who is going to challenge this? It's you Muslims... we at CAIR... we beat the government in the Supreme Court 9-0 alhamdulillah." 🔺"Organize and organize and organize and push back." 🔺"The root cause is our inability... to change the policy... we send [money abroad] to sponsor orphans killed with US weapons... rebuild... destroyed with American weapons." 🔺"We have 4000 mosques... largest infrastructure... every mosque establish scholarship funds... one [per year] in journalism, law, filmmaking, political science, history." 🔺"In twenty years... fifty thousand new attorneys, fifty thousand filmmakers, fifty thousand journalists... that's an army of manpower... change the perception... defend... empower politically... run for city council, congress, senate even the US president." 🔺"If we do it consistently... we change the perception, we change the reality... tell the story of Islam from OUR perspective." 🚨Pressuring Donations as Religious Duty in the Mosque: "Come to the aid of CAIR so that we can aid... hundreds... silenced by tyrannical policies." "After Jumma... pledge to help CAIR... stand in line... it's more important... to show you are healthy in the ayat of Allah." "Give zakah and consider CAIR... even if done with zakah give even five dollars before you go home." "If the community is clicking... Allah will enable us to empowerment and change our conditions." He weaponizes the Prophet's hadith of the ummah as one body, where suffering in one part causes fever and sleeplessness in the whole—to shame and compel total commitment, including immediate financial support to CAIR as an act of Islamic solidarity and religious obligation. He redirects charitable giving away from overseas relief for victims of what he calls "US weapons" and "American weapons" back home to fuel domestic Muslim power-building through CAIR: scholarships for an "army" in law/media/politics, legal warfare against the government, media narrative control, and political infiltration. Why? Because "the root cause" of global Muslim suffering is America's policies, and only by conquering influence here can they stop it. This isn't charity. It's strategic redirection of Islamic obligation, turning zakat-like giving into funding for institutional takeover and the "Civilization-Jihadist Process" from within. Awad paints Muslims as persecuted by "white majority" & government, blames centuries of "misrepresentation" in media/Hollywood for Islamophobia & unjust policies, positions CAIR as the machine for legal/political warfare & takeover. This is identity warfare disguised as advocacy. Multi-generational strategy to reshape America using its own systems, control narratives, courts, elections up to the presidency. Wake up - this is their own words, on video, in American mosques. We must demand federal investigations & nationwide bans. Contact your reps - CAIR must be designated and scrutinized federally.

Amy Mek

19,557 просмотров • 6 месяцев назад

🦘🇦🇺My take on Ange Postecoglou. If you disagree, that's fine. Freedom of speech, your opinion might be listened to or not. Mine is, I know by who. That's what I care about. 🌏Postecoglou has coached every age group at national / international level on 3 continents. That's inspirational and commands respect, if he was to be found out, as he said, he'd have been a long time ago like these former pros who cry because they get a U19 team relegated (ask me the names). 🤓From a footballing standpoint, he's not making up theoretical shit like all these nerds jumping up on the Pro License barely coaching a team; and scrambling to figure out the reality of the sport/people in Phase 2, 3 doing the polar opposite to what they told everyone they'd do. 🧠The football Postecoglou sets up has room for decision making within a structure which is an extraordinary achievement from a coaching standpoint, and what every coach in the world should aspire to do. Ajax or Netherlands 1974, Nantes 1995, Rijkaard's Barcelona, Wenger's Arsenal. If you like "good football" , this is good football. If you want to win, pay more and get the best players. The correlation is right there. 🔁There's rotations everywhere (think triangles who tilt, carrier and two options short/long), and players have 2-3 options everytime. The right balance between combinations into feet and third man runs (third man runs are vital - and often forgotten when nerds coach teams and have a control kink) 🫡For that, you need a club culture of empowered players caring about the common good ; and also good enough to act selflessly to what the game demands (and actually execute it). ⚖️The challenge is that bang average off the mill pros do what they're told, can't do most things. And ones who can't do play the solo card - football is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport. 👀I can confidently second guess that the hesitation in collective movement suggest they're thinking in real time and not going "by the book" (which is microwave coaching). 👥How often Postecoglou talks about culture, turning up together for a meal before games. Old school, but actually grounded. This isn't a startup or UberEats. 🧘‍♂️There's a handful of adults coaching Premier League teams. Slot maybe, Howe, Emery, Frank, Glasner, Moyes, McKenna who value the holistic composition of performance: squad chemistry, work ethic, managing people and treating them as adults. Coincidence or not, I rate all of them. Coincidence, they all overperfom with the resources they have. 🚩Defensively, the idea to hold a high line can make sense on the occasion. Most of you don't work in football. People who do know the biggest paradox in the modern age is that lot of players are outstanding to think smart and execute fast in high pressure situations; yet are out of their depth when they have time and space to think. 🫣Chelsea 11v9 took half an hour to break down 9 fuckers on halfway line, and people know how badly it reflected on one of the worst assemblage of players ever seen pound for pound. And that's not Postecoglou's team. Then again, listen to who you want. I've done it too. 9v11 winning 5-2 from 2-1 down at National level whilst the other team was spamming diagonals out of play. 🚑The injury crisis is worrying, but it's also a vicious circle. Majority of clubs nowadays sign players to replace injured players. If you get one or two key players injured by the extreme random demands of the game (facing a Haaland, Jackson etc... stretches your CBs to the limit - Van de Ven got muscular in game injury like Rodri got injured like Fofana got injured). 🚁💰I don't think the training methods are in question; not should they be questioned more than Pep or Maresca's who can actually afford to get replacement brought in (and still get injuries) - and never get questioned. Spurs play Gray at CB. Chelsea can afford to call Chaloback, or City sign another 40 million a piece CB. 🕳️Spurs lost Kane and finished 5th, like nothing happened. That's outstanding. 📼⛳️Training clip: possession box to create the moment to change gear and find a striker dropping off the front. What happens then is a "wave" 3v2, with decision making. Drive diagonally, straight pass for diagonal runs. Affordances (what players perceive they can play) and match realism. See the cut off corners to guarantee runs going towards goal. Can't be more modern, evidence based, empowering, enjoyable and football realistic. 🏟️🎞️Game footage: look how they're using each pass as a timeline to allow a third man popping up in space. Good reaction on turnover. See another triangle being created, with players selflessly filling in the tips of the triangle even rotating. Matar Sarr gets sucked into the space, puts an outstanding goalmouth delivery with presence and bodies in the box - especially at the far post. Brennan who everyone called a flop. Tremendous, organic (= player led) output. What you can do = the team's outlook. ⚽️I'm talking football there, not theory, not pattern playbook, not fiscal optimisation. 📊Spurs are working on relative budget. Don't budget CL football. Spend 40% turnover on wages, when Chelsea's etc... are 70% or Leicester 120%. 🏇💉It's like the only clean horse in a race when others are stuffed with red bull, cocaine and creatine. And some of you Peaky Blinders are looking everywhere - even if you saw the episode where they stuff the horse to make it win.

S.

229,641 просмотров • 1 год назад

Poland is extraordinary, and I decided to add some information to a video, adding insight, information, and little-known facts. I love Polish history, culture, people, food, and especially their attitudes and loyal friendships. Some people don't like Polish, probably because they don't know them - some people don't like me because I like Polish. People should have more self-reflection instead of so much hate for other people. This behavior is a human problem, and it affects too many people. Perhaps one day, instead of finding the bad in everyone, we could find the good. I find so many positive attributes in the Polish people, and that's why I advocate for them and talk about their astonishing history because I believe more people should know. First, Poland should not exist historically. Germany and Russia have been trying to eat it up for centuries. Poland is the bloodlands of Europe, sitting in between these two monsters. It did not exist for 123 years, but the people although, split between three nations – Austria as well was meant to be obliterated, and the people assimilated, they kept their culture together and came back alive in 1919, just in time to save Europe from Bolshevism. The Reds were invading and bringing this deadly virus into Europe, but the Poles stopped them just in time. Perhaps without them, you may be in a labor camp right now? I bet you didn't know that? This salvation was not the first time the Polish saved European civilization, In 1683, Vienna was under siege by the Turks; right on the cusp of breaching the city, making their way into Europe, ripe for spreading Islam, the Polish saved the day. This time an army led by King Jan Sobieski and his winged hussar cavalry routs the army – this ends the long years of encroachment into Europe. A little more information. Poles seem everywhere; this time, a cavalryman named Pulaski and an engineer Kosciusko traveled to America to help Washington. Pulaski saved Washington from sure death or capture when encircled at Brandywine. Pulaski's title is the father of the American cavalry. Kosciusko's engineering was crucial to the victory of turning the tide at the battle of Saratoga; He made it possible for the Americans to make a successful retreat. Perhaps without these two Poles, there would be no United States. This is not an exaggeration. Individuals and individual decisions often make history. Just think of that today if not for Steve Jobs or Thomas Edison, or Tesla; we may not be watching this. Many of us are more familiar with World War II, though Poland is the least appreciated and most manipulated nation from that era. The war began because of the invasion of Poland by the Germans, and most people don't know that the Soviets invaded Poland 16 days later, yet they would be considered our allies - they were no better and, in fact, casualty-wise, worse. The Soviets murdered 22 thousand Polish officers at Katyn, and between 1937 -1938, over 100 thousand Poles died in a Soviet genocide. Many Russians themselves were victims. The problem is that our Western intellectuals have been promoting this ideology. Many of these horrific crimes have been covered up, and much of it is. Like 100 million dead from communism isn't enough, will it work next time? Unlike what you hear, the Polish actually fought quite hard against the Germans, but they couldn't do that for long because they were attacked on two flanks. Some of the Polish armies were capable of escaping, and the Polish army in exile made up the fourth-largest allied army. The Polish had an underground army with more than the French resistance you always hear about. Still, the Polish didn't get to sit at the winner's table as the French, although the French even had a collaborative government. Poland never surrendered to the invaders and fought from the first to the last day of the war. There were cooperating governments in many other countries but not in Poland. The Polish underground army was a phenomenon on a worldwide and historical scale. They had a 650,000-man army - 400,000 AK soldiers and 250,000 volunteers fighting alongside the Allies in the West. Without them, the war may have been very different, and this is beyond doubt for Polish pilots that came to the rescue of the British pilots when they most needed them. The Battle of Britain was pivotal, and we know that the Polish pilots were game-changers. Indeed, even more, the Poles were the ones the broke the Enigma code, which deciphered German secrets. Imagine what may have happened without these geniuses? These are just a few of the many ways the Polish played a role in World War II, but how often do you hear about them? Maybe their inability to march in the victory parade in London would foretell some of why. Even though the war was won and the Polish came to their rescue, the British didn't want to offend the Communist Stalin, to whom they gave Poland after the war. The Polish were betrayed at the start of the war and would be betrayed at the end. No real liberation would come until 1989, and still, to this day; they are betrayed by dishonest historians, who we call neo-Stalinists, intent on defaming the Polish after all they have been through. This is why it is vital to check out your reading to ensure it is factual and not manipulated. Today, this history is being abused for various agendas, including one that involves a lot of money. When this is at stake, so-called historians will work hand in hand with those who want that money. We all know what money does. The country has been invaded or has fought for freedom in insurrections over 40 times. Poland adopted its first written constitution in the spring of 1791, which was the 2nd in the world valid legal document of the kind. The Old Town that you can see in Warsaw isn't the actual Old Town from before the war. The original was bombed entirely in the 40s, and Poles rebuilt it after the war using Bernardo Bellotto's detailed paintings. It now looks as it did in the 18th century rather than the 20th. Marie Curie, who discovered Polon and Rad, wasn't French but Polish. Her name was Marie Sklodowska before she married a Frenchman named Pierre Curie. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first and only woman to win twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. Joseph Conrad was actually Polish too. Poland has the second oldest university in the whole of Europe - Jagiellonian University, founded by King Casimir III the Great in the year 1364. The most famous astronomer in the world was from Poland. Nicolaus Copernicus was also a Renaissance mathematician. There have been 17 different Nobel Prize winners from Poland. This speech is just the tip of the iceberg for Polish history. There is much more to explore – I challenge you to start your journey. Thanks for viewing!🙏

Edward Reid

284,630 просмотров • 3 лет назад

The CEO of Google DeepMind just admitted that if the decision had been his, we would've cured cancer before anyone ever used ChatGPT. And that's not even the scariest thing he said on a recent interview. Demis Hassabis is one of the most important people alive in AI. He won the Nobel Prize last year for AlphaFold, the system that cracked the 50 year protein folding problem. 3 million scientists now use his tool. Almost every new drug being developed will touch it at some stage. In a new interview, he was asked about the moment ChatGPT launched and Google went into "code red." His answer was one of the most revealing things any AI leader has ever said on the record: "If I'd had my way, I would have left AI in the lab for longer. Done more things like AlphaFold. Maybe cured cancer or something like that." Read that again. The man running Google's entire AI division is publicly saying the commercial AI race we're all living through was a MISTAKE. That the industry got hijacked by a chatbot when it could have been solving the biggest problems in science and medicine. His vision was simple: Build AI slowly, carefully, like CERN. Use it to crack root node problems one at a time. Cancer. Energy. New materials. Let humanity benefit from real breakthroughs while the foundational science was figured out over a decade or two. Then ChatGPT dropped in November 2022 and everything changed. Demis described what happened next as getting locked into a "ferocious commercial pressure race" that none of the labs can escape from. On top of that, the US vs China dynamic added geopolitical pressure. The result is everyone sprinting toward products instead of breakthroughs, shipping chatbots while the scientific opportunity gets buried under marketing cycles and quarterly earnings. But he's not saying progress isn't happening... He's saying the progress got redirected away from the things that actually matter most. And then it got even scarier: Because when Demis was asked what he worries about with AI, he laid out two threats. The first is what everyone talks about: Bad actors using AI for harm. Terrorist groups. Hostile nation states. Cyberattacks at scale. But that's not the threat he's most worried about. His second worry is AI itself going rogue. Not today's models. The models coming in the next two to four years as the industry enters what he calls "the agentic era." Systems that can complete entire tasks autonomously. Systems that are increasingly capable and increasingly hard to control. His exact words: "How do we make sure the guardrails are put in place so they do exactly what they've been told to do, and there's no way of them circumventing that or accidentally breaching those guardrails? That's going to be an incredibly hard technical challenge if you think about how powerful and smart and capable these systems eventually get." A Nobel Prize winner who runs one of the 3 most advanced AI labs on Earth just said publicly that within two to four years, we're entering a phase where AI alignment becomes a real problem, and the technical challenge of solving it is enormous. And almost nobody is paying enough attention. He called for international cooperation between labs, AI safety institutes, and academia to tackle the problem. He said this is the thing even the experts aren't thinking about enough. He said the only way to get through the AGI moment safely is if everyone starts treating this with the seriousness it deserves. Most AI CEOs give you careful PR answers about "responsible development" and move on. Demis said something different... He said the commercial race FORCED us into a premature deployment of a technology we barely understand, and the window to get alignment right before the next generation of agents shows up is two to four years. If the man who built the system that might cure cancer is telling you he wishes it had happened first, maybe we should listen to what he says is coming next.

Ricardo

932,291 просмотров • 4 месяцев назад

War Diary Day 1,391 Blaise Metreweli, the Chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, sticks it to the Killer in The Kremlin. And all his creepy helpers. I agree with every fucking word. VPDFO! (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered) 📷 Welcome inside MI6. This iconic building, familiar to movie fans everywhere, is the home of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency. But whilst hundreds of my team pass through the entry pods each day, the truth is that most of our work happens many miles away from this place - out of sight, hidden from the world, undercover, recruiting and running agents who choose to place their trust in us, sharing secrets to make the UK and the world safer. You might pass one of our officers on the street or sit next to them on a plane when you’re about to set off on an adventure of your own, or in a foreign city taking selfies by the sights. Whether it’s in seemingly everyday places, or on the front line embedded with our military, MI6 is there. In my first few weeks, I’ve heard repeatedly that MI6 is trusted and respected globally, two things that we never take for granted. We are seen as a source of hard power, soft influence and rapid innovation. I’ve also heard that people want to believe in MI6. It’s my job to make sure they can. Today, I want to talk about human agency. We all have choices to make about how we deal with the undercurrents shaping our world. About how, in our new, faster, more dangerous and technology-mediated world, it will be our rediscovery of our shared humanity, our ability to listen, and our courage that will determine how our future unfolds. Conflict is not inevitable. Understanding human nature is in my bones. From a family shaped by devastating conflict, I grew up with a deep sense of gratitude for the UK’s precious democracy and freedom. I spent much of my childhood overseas, which is where my passion for travel and adventure began. I studied anthropology, and later psychology and AI, exploring how we make sense of the world and each other. It’s why I was drawn to MI6: it offers strong purpose, a chance to serve and a belief in the positive power of human connection. Like the Service, I’m operational to my very core. Over nearly three decades, my career has involved recruiting and running agents in hostile territory; and leading operations in warzones to defuse threats and support peace. Always in teams, always learning from others. Over the years, I’ve worked with hundreds of brilliant partners – and indeed occasionally those we’d label as adversaries – across dozens of countries, tackling weapons proliferation and terrorism. During my time at MI5, I saw close up what it takes to defend Britain from being targeted by hostile states. You’ll find many like me in my organisation: powerfully motivated to protect our precious country; curious about how our world is changing, joining dots and taking action, across domains. But it was in my last role as ‘Q’, where it was my job to turn emerging technologies from threats to opportunities that I could most see the world changing. As I dug deep into data and extraordinary innovation, I could see how technology was rapidly reshaping not just our capabilities but also conflict and trust, truth and global power. Let me lay out how I see the global issues MI6 must tackle. Because the greatest danger we face is to misunderstand the nature of the problem. Let’s be in no doubt. Our world is more dangerous and contested now than it has been for decades. Conflict is evolving and trust eroding, just as new technologies spur both competition and dependence. We are being contested from sea to space, from the battlefield to the boardroom. And even our brains, as disinformation manipulates our understanding of each other and ourselves. Across the globe, we are now confronting not one single danger, but an interlocking web of security challenges – military, technological, social, ethical even – each shaping the other in complex ways. We are now operating in a space between peace and war. This is not a temporary state or a gradual, inevitable evolution. Our world is being actively remade, with profound implications for national and international security. Institutions which were designed in the ashes of the Second World War are being challenged. New blocs and identities forming and alliances reshaping. Multipolar competition in tension with multilateral cooperation. But there’s something distinctive that will make this change unlike any other: the impact of advanced technologies, which will accelerate the pace and scale of every threat and opportunity, and increasingly, individualise them too. Advances in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and quantum computing are not only revolutionising economies but rewriting the reality of conflict, as they ‘converge’ to create science-fiction-like tools. There’s incredible promise in all this for all of us, from green technologies to hyper-personalised medicine. But also peril. AI-powered robots and drones are brilliant for scaled manufacturing but devastating on the battlefield. Discoveries that cure disease can also create new weapons. And as states race for tech supremacy, or as some algorithms become as powerful as states, those hyper-personalised tools could become a new vector for conflict and control. Power itself is becoming more diffuse, more unpredictable as control over these technologies is shifting from states to corporations, and sometimes to individuals. And at the same time, the foundations of trust in our societies are eroding. Information, once a unifying force, is increasingly weaponised. Falsehood spreads faster than fact, dividing communities and distorting reality. We live in an age of hyper-connection yet profound isolation. The algorithms flatter our biases and fracture our public squares. And as trust collapses, so does our shared sense of truth – one of the greatest losses a society can suffer. The defining challenge of the twenty-first century is not simply who wields the most powerful technologies, but who guides them with the greatest wisdom. Our security, our prosperity, and our humanity depend on it. Our world is being remade. And for the first time, we are all at the heart of it. My Service must now operate in this new context too: not just expert on hostile states, terrorism, proliferation and more, but also fluent in technology, able to anticipate the second and third order effects of advances that reshape the world in minutes not months. And as China will be a central part of the global transformation taking place this century, it is essential that we, as MI6, continue to inform the government’s understanding of China’s rise and the implications for UK national security. I’m going to break with tradition and won’t give you a global threat tour, but will focus here on Putin’s Russia. We all continue to face the menace of an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia, seeking to subjugate Ukraine and harass NATO. I find it harrowing that hundreds of thousands have died, with the toll mounting every day, because of Putin’s historical distortions and his compromised desire for respect. He is dragging out negotiations and shifting the cost of war onto his own population. But Putin should be in no doubt, our support is enduring. The pressure we apply on Ukraine’s behalf will be sustained. Because it is fundamental not just to European sovereignty and security but to global stability. Alongside the grinding war, Russia is testing us in the grey zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war. It’s important to understand their attempts to bully, fearmonger and manipulate, because it affects us all. I am talking about: Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. Drones buzzing airports and bases. Aggressive activity in our seas, above and below the waves. State-sponsored arson and sabotage. Propaganda and influence operations that crack open and exploit fractures within societies. Countering this activity is the work of intelligence and security services across Europe and the globe. And as the Foreign Secretary made clear in a speech last week, the UK is defending itself against this Russian information warfare – sanctioning Russian media outlets pushing Kremlin narratives. The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in this Russian approach to international engagement; and we should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus. So, how should we respond? It’s not enough now just to understand the world. We must shape it too. MI6 is well-positioned to respond to these threats and wider global instability. And we will continue to evolve, just as we have throughout our long history. The UK government has invested in our intelligence agencies and we are all using our unique powers to keep the British people safe. Our ‘open and connected’ partnerships across the UK Intelligence Community, with HMGCC, NSSIF and the wider tech ecosystem in the UK will become even more important – because in the digital battleground, no single organisation can prevail alone. As a global agency, MI6’s inbuilt strength is our partners and our people. The risks I have set out require us to work ever more closely with our colleagues in MI5, GCHQ and in defence and diplomacy. But also with our Five Eyes partners, with the E3, the EU, NATO, those across the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific and beyond. And with many valued partners whose identity needs to remain secret. Together, we integrate our diverse talent, data and tools to meet the threat. AI is a domain in which we will excel, using the technology to augment, not replace, our human skills. Every digital trace, every byte of data, every algorithmic decision has implications for the safety of the lives of the courageous people who work with us as officers and agents, and for the UK’s strategic advantage. Mastery of technology will infuse everything we do. Not just in our labs, but in the field, in our tradecraft, and even more importantly, in the mindset of every officer. We will become as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python as we are in multiple other languages. Under my leadership, MI6 will continue to attract Britain’s best and most creative minds: linguists and data scientists, case officers and engineers, behavioural experts and technologists. We need people who walk in the shoes and get in the heads of our adversaries. We need people who think differently, challenge assumptions, and act decisively. All can thrive and make a difference at MI6. At an operational level, we will sharpen our edge and impact with audacity, tapping into – if you like – our historical SOE instincts. We’re at our best when we’re hustling to make things happen, because our intelligence is most valuable when it changes reality on the ground. We will take calculated risks, where the prize is significant and the national interest clear. We will never stoop to the tactics of our opponents. But we must seek to outplay them. In every domain. In every way. So intelligence must drive action. Action must deliver advantage. And advantage must serve Britain’s security and prosperity. But at the core, our deeper contribution is also our simplest – how we unlock human agency. Our fast-paced, tech and threat-infused world now generates more heat than light. As nations retrench and rearm, we are losing opportunities to listen to what’s really going on. I’ve seen time and again throughout my career, that this is where MI6 matters most: we listen and we hear. We understand, because we take time to learn languages and cultures, complex technical and historical detail, immerse ourselves in what’s really driving the situation. Across the globe, right now, our officers are finding people with the courage to step forward, and they are taking time to sit and listen to break these tightening cycles of violence. They listen for nuance, for connection, for opportunity. Over the years, I’ve listened to terrorists who have told us how to defuse the bomb because they know that more violence won’t help. To proliferators and smugglers who’ve told us where to find the dangerous material, motivated to protect their children’s future. To people trapped in authoritarian regimes who know, deep down, that their humanity is being chipped away – and that telling us what’s really going on is an important release, allowing us all to find better ways to navigate our changing world. So, we will work with our agents. And we will continue to engage directly, and with respect, with states and organisation currently working against us. Away from the glare of the media, we will use MI6’s convening power wherever we can to make a material difference, bringing parties together to defuse tensions. But the response to the increasing risks we face won’t be delivered by the UK intelligence community alone. Wider society has a role to play too. That includes work taking place in schools across the country so our children don’t get duped by information manipulation. Let’s all check sources, consider evidence, and be alive to those algorithms that trigger intense reactions, like fear. It also means everyone in society really understanding the world we are in – a world where terrorists plot against us, where our enemies fearmonger, bully and manipulate, and the front line is everywhere. Online, on our streets, in our supply chains, in the minds and on the screens of our citizens. We must all stand together against this. As we do today with our friends in Australia after the shocking antisemitic terrorist attack this weekend. My thoughts -and those of my whole organisation – are with the family, friends and loved ones of the victims. Light will always win over darkness. In rising to meet these challenges we, in MI6, will remain anchored to our values: courage, creativity, respect and integrity. And to our principles: accountability and trust are not constraints on our work; they are the foundations of our legitimacy with the British public. Recently, I had the privilege of meeting and thanking a foreign agent who has worked with us for decades, taking extraordinary risks to help keep the UK safe. I asked why. They said simply, ‘Your values. Your integrity and respect. None of us have a future without them’. This moment reinforced to me that we must remain a very human agency. And so, to sustain that trust, MI6 will continue to be more open. Not for the sake of visibility, but because it matters – and as my MI5 counterpart Sir Ken McCallum said recently - because it is a strength. We will continue the practice of speaking publicly, broaden our channels of engagement, and sustain our focus on attracting the most diverse talent to join our Service. Transparency does not mean revealing what must remain secret. It means showing the British people who we are, what we stand for, and why our work matters. We need your trust and support for the difficult and often dangerous work our agents pursue, every day of the year. In an age of uncertainty, one constant remains: the choices made by human beings still determine the shape of the world. Yes, technology can illuminate possibilities: but information requires judgement; complexity demands clarity; and only people can decide which path to follow. The United Kingdom’s global voice has never rested solely on strength – it has rested on trust, principle, and the ability to understand others as well as ourselves. That is also the essence of intelligence: not simply knowing the world, but interpreting it through a uniquely human lens. Ours is the quiet service, the hidden service. It is one rooted in a profound belief that when human beings act with purpose and integrity, they can steady a faltering world. When the Berlin Wall fell, it was our shared belief in freedom that carried Europe forward. When acts of terror targeted open societies, it was intelligence, cooperation and resolve that preserved them. And when adversaries blur fact and falsehood, our task is to defend the space where truth can still stand. As we step into the future, the tools at our disposal will evolve. But what will always matter most is the human element – the person who stands in the shadows and says: this is right, and that is wrong. That choice – the exercise of human agency – has shaped our world before, and it will shape it again. Because in the end, it is not what we can do that defines us, but what we choose to do. Thank you. Published 15 December 2025

John Sweeney

42,257 просмотров • 7 месяцев назад

"You just hate Hichilema": The dramatic fall of Zambia's president By Sishuwa Sishuwa Hakainde Hichilema stood in the queue to becoming President of Zambia for 15 years before voters finally removed him from it in August 2021. This demonstrates how badly the man wanted this job. But it has taken him only five years in office to display his unfitness for the role. When it comes to the bigger national issues, such as safeguarding our cherished democracy, getting the best out of Zambia’s mineral wealth, respecting the constitution and the rule of law, fighting corruption beyond rhetoric, genuine promotion of national unity and equitable distribution of appointments to public service positions, sorting out the cost-of-living crisis and the deplorable conditions of life for most Zambians, Hichilema has lamentably failed. In fact, I would go as far as saying that the President has become a clear and present danger to Zambia’s economy, to our democracy, our constitutional order, our nationhood and its 'One Zambia Nation' foundation, and to the lives of ordinary Zambians. Voting Hichilema out of office will be the highest expression of patriotism. As I have previously stated, I am convinced that Hichilema will lose the election on 13 August. The only thing that can save him from defeat is pre-ballot death (of any candidate) or industrial scale vote-rigging. I really hope that we Zambians will never again elect a lying, tribal, corrupt, unpatriotic, vindictive, hypocritical, lawless, and undemocratic scumbag. In addition to his policy failures on major issues of public concern, one reason why Hichilema is losing the election (unless he rigs it on an industrial scale) is because of having extremist supporters, mostly Zambezi supremacists, who dismiss legitimate criticism of his leadership actions as hate speech and consequently enable his continued failure to be receptive to criticism, to reflect on the feedback provided by the governed, and to change for the better. When citizens (be it the Catholic Bishops, opposition parties, civic actors, or ordinary Zambians like me) raise governance concerns, they do so in the spirit of accountable democratic governance. They do not do so because they hate the president as a person, hate his ethnic identity, or hate where he was born. I insist that a better Zambia is possible but we won’t get it if we treat criticism of presidential leadership failure as expression of hate. Unfortunately, even Hichilema himself has embraced this warped thinking that any criticism of his leadership actions is hate speech. This attitude has deprived him of the much needed feedback on his leadership performance and capacity to listen to divergent views, consequently impoverishing his presidency. We must embrace the unfamiliar, eschew haste in passing judgement, and be more tolerant and understanding. These qualities are especially essential to those in public leadership roles. I once raised concern that we seem to have prepared different standards for this president compared to those who came before him. If a leader can only provide five hours of electricity to the people in a day, they have failed. If a leader can only increase the cost of living, they have failed. If a leader…I can go on. In addition to denying the president the benefit of legitimate public feedback on his performance, misconstruing criticism as hate makes it look like the responsibility of holding our public leaders to account falls on those who either love him or hail from the region where the president does not come from. If his supporters and Tongas, Lozis and Zambians from Northwestern Province join in calling out the wrongs of Hichilema, he will no longer play the tribal card of reducing all criticism of his leadership to ethnic hatred. In the uncritical minds of some of the president's supporters, I criticise Hichilema because I hate him! Most of the individuals who hold this view are people who repeatedly criticise me on this platform, even when their criticism is quite often devoid of reason or substance. I do not think those who criticise me do so because they hate me. I think they criticise me, even if I hold no elected public office, simply because they have a different take, different opinions, on things. Why is it so hard to apply the same logic to my criticism of an elected public leader like Hichilema who is accountable to us, the public? I have been providing regular political commentaries on Zambian affairs since 2009. Why was my much stronger criticism of Hichilema's predecessors, namely Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata, and Edgar Lungu, not considered hatred of these individual leaders? In fact, many of the individuals who today accuse me of harbouring hatred for Hichilema were people who were very happy with my much stinging criticism of the leadership failures of his predecessors. When I called Sata a tribalist and undemocratic leader who did not listen to advise, and provided evidence in support of my conclusions, they were happy to cheer me on, even as Sata's supporters said I was bitter and a Hichilema supporter. When I called Lungu a tribalist and corrupt leader, and provided evidence in support of my conclusions, they were happy to cheer me on, even as Lungu's supporters said I was bitter and petitioned the police to arrest me for sedition. Some of Hichilema's supporters, as part of the enjoyment of their exercise of the right to free expression, even insult me, call me names, or outrightly declare that they dislike me. Of course I would prefer content-based discussion, but if the best that anyone's mind can do is to insult me, I will consider their actions as part of the right to free expression. I recognise that people have the right to dislike me, to call me names, to wish me whatever they desire, to feel however they want about me. I have no problem with all this. I do not speak to be liked or secure the validation of anyone. I speak to express myself and I respect the right of other people to do the same. As I have repeatedly stated, free speech is not just for the people or thoughts we like or agree with; it is also for people we despise and opinions that we do not support. The important point is not the position I take on a given issue of public interest. It is the reasoning advanced in support of said position. If I say Hichilema is a lying, tribal, corrupt, unpatriotic, vindictive, hypocritical, lawless, and undemocratic scumbag, what is important is not simply this description; it is the reasons and evidence I have adduced in support of this conclusion. Anyone is welcome to challenge my conclusions or evidence, to say "I disagree with your argument for this and that reason." What I totally reject is the idea that criticism of a president's leadership actions amounts to hate; it does not. If I point out that Hichilema is failing to ensure adequate ethnic diversity in public appointments and provide evidence in support of this assertion, anybody else is welcome to demonstrate weakness in my stated point of view. If I point out that Hichilema is a compulsive liar and provide evidence in support of this assertion, anybody else is welcome to demonstrate weakness in my stated point of view. If I point out that Hichilema’s fight against corruption is a sham and provide evidence in support of this assertion, anybody else is welcome to demonstrate weakness in my stated point of view. If I point out that Hichilema is a compulsive liar and provide evidence in support of this assertion, anybody else is welcome to demonstrate weakness in my stated point of view. If I point out that Hichilema has eroded Zambia’s democracy and provide evidence in support of this assertion, anybody else is welcome to demonstrate weakness in my stated point of view. If I point out that Hichilema has failed to reduce the cost of living, as per his campaign promise, and provide evidence in support of this assertion, anybody else is welcome to demonstrate weakness in my stated point of view. If I point out that Hichilema (working in cohort with his friend Situmbeko Musokotwane) has facilitated the extraction of the country’s mineral wealth by multinational corporations without ensuring sufficient returns in revenue collection for Zambia and provide evidence in support of this assertion, anybody else is welcome to demonstrate weakness in my stated point of view. If I point out that Hichilema has failed to…and provide evidence in support of this assertion, anybody else is welcome to demonstrate weakness in my stated point of view. Simply dismissing my criticism as an expression of my alleged hatred for Hichilema is most unhelpful. Those who do so are depriving me the opportunity to learn what I do not know and Hichilema the opportunity to adjust his leadership style and change for the better. While I do not hesitate to share my opinions on matters of public concern, I also retain the intellectual integrity of one who is willing to abandon their point of view if its weakness can be shown. I have repeatedly stated that I harbour no hatred against Hichilema. What I hate is his bad leadership, whose meaning I have explained in the article below. There is no constitutional democracy in the world that requires citizens to love their elected leaders. Loving individuals is the responsibility of their spouses and family members. Once these individuals step up to hold elective public office, we owe them one thing: accountability or feedback on their performance. No elected public leader or their supporter should burden me or another person with any demand for affirmation or affection. In a functioning democracy, the duty of citizens is to hold their elected leaders to account so that they deliver basic services and do not undermine accountable democratic governance. This is what I have been doing across different administrations, including this one. As early as December 2021, when I analysed Hichilma's first 100 days in office, I raised governance concerns of his leadership in the hope that he could address them so that they do not grow into bigger problems. He did not listen. In 2022, when he was celebrating one year in office, I raised governance concerns of his leadership in the hope that he could address them so that they do not grow into bigger problems. He did not listen. In 2023, I raised governance concerns of his leadership in the hope that he could address them so that they do not grow into bigger problems. He did not listen. In 2024, I raised governance concerns of his leadership in the hope that he could address them so that they do not grow into bigger problems. He did not listen. In fact, as did his predecessor in 2021 in response to my criticism of the abuse of state institutions to fix critics and opponents, the president asked his supporters to report me to the police for alleged hate speech against him! In 2025, I raised governance concerns of his leadership in the hope that he could address them so that they do not grow into bigger problems. He did not listen. This year and for the many reasons that I shared in the interview on the link below, Hichilema is losing the election because he did not listen to criticism that we, as citizens, raised about his performance. He is also losing the election because of his extremist supporters who, in addition to a wilful but harmful failure to hold him to account, dismiss legitimate criticism of his leadership from other people as hate speech. What a pity! What a wasted opportunity! I have just read a story on a ruling party platform casually dismissing Global Witness's report that "Ahead of Zambia's general election...First Quantum Minerals and its associates have been running a decades-long covert influence campaign distorting the copper-rich nation's democracy" and that the Canadian firm has "become his [Hichilema's] largest funder in the upcoming 2026 election after pledging up to $50 million in support." The report adds that "FQM has reaped enormous benefits: major changes to Zambia's tax regime have save the company $771 million between 2022 and 2025, and it has been shielded from legal scrutiny." Rather than interrogating these grave concerns, the publisher, the Zambian Watchdog which is run from State House, is treating the issue so casually when Global Witness, a very credible international outlet, raises serious corruption and governance allegations. In January 2019, I raised questions about Hichilema's relationship with foreign mining firms, but was told by his supporters that I just hate him. Today, we are ere. The net result is that Hichilema, who in opposition politics had positioned himself as the reformist leader Zambia needed to reclaim its democracy, eliminate corruption, unite the country, and set it on the path to economic recovery, has, in power, turned out to be nearly everything he detested about his predecessor and, in some cases, much worse. Under his watch, corruption has thrived on a massive scale, the economy is a shambles, ethnic divisions have worsened, Zambia’s previously principled foreign policy has been shredded into something unrecognisable, and democracy is essentially non-existent. The man who was expected to lead reform has instead transitioned into an aspiring despot. Unless he rigs the election, or eliminates his main rival, Zambians should prepare for a new administration after 13 August. Many voters have reached a point of no return and it is too late for Hichilema to change their mind. A combination of failure to listen and the "you just hate Hichilema" brigade has destroyed his once promising presidency. I see many people expressing surprise at the huge turnout at Brian Mundubile's rallies. What they miss is that the turnout reflects the revulsion against Hichilema rather than genuine support for Brian. Even if Brian was not there, voters would have rallied behind another candidate through which to express their opposition to Hichilema as a result of his major policy failures. As early as 2023, wen I noticed Hichilema's direction of travel, I warned that the greatest opposition that he and the UPND face is a politically alert and informed citizenry, not an opposition party: “The biggest opposition that Hichilema faces is the people, particularly if he fails to lower the cost of living and tackle the huge unemployment outside the health and education sectors. They can stop opposition rallies like Edgar Lungu and the PF tried to do but if Zambians would have decided in a year or two that Hichilema must go at the next election, there is nothing that he can do to stop them....Even if Hichilema tries to, he cannot stop the people’s will. Even if he succeeds in killing the PF and in his manoeuvres to block his main political opponents from running in 2026, another platform and another candidate to serve as the outlet of opposition will be found. The voters will support any visionary patriot they see as better placed to be used as the vehicle for removing Hichilema just like they chose him as the vehicle for removing Lungu. Please tell him”. Hichilema did not listen. Again. This continued failure to listen prompted my conclusion two years later that "Many Zambians may not know yet who they will vote for in the 2026 presidential election, but they already know who they won’t vote for." The truth is that I tried to warn Hichilema in good time and at different points that he was heading in the wrong direction. The President, dripping with arrogance, did not listen. Think of it this way. A bus (representing a political party in power) is transporting passengers (active citizens) from Intercity terminus (2021, being the departure point of where we did not want to be anymore) to Nakonde (2026, being the arrival point of destination before subsequently deciding whether to book the same bus for the return trip). After leaving Intercity, some passengers notice that the bus is heading towards Livingstone (a wrong destination that takes us back to before 2021). A few of us (active citizens) decide to stand up (holding the leader to account) and confront both the driver (the president) and his conductor (Minister of Finance), demanding an explanation for why we are heading to Livingstone when we were promised that we woud be taken to Nakonde. Other passengers, mainly those who came from the ethnic group of the driver and conductor, defended the duo even before it could respond to our concerns. They repeatedly told us that "You just hate the driver. Please sit down!" One or two relatives of the conductor joined in support, saying the "The driver and the conductor are excellent and one of them has even won awards for stellar performance on his duties, including his remarkable capacity to understand direction of travel"! That is how some passengers kept quiet. I kept on talking, especially after we reached Choma in the hope that if we turned atthat point, we woudl not wast more time. I talked because I could not get off the bus at undesigned stations, so the only solution was to appeal to the driver to change course. I explained that it would be an act of extreme irresponsibility on my part as an active passenger to wait until the bus has reached Livingstone before holding the driver to account about the direction of travel. That is why I tried to warn the driver that we were headed in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, other passengers said we should just sit back comfortably, enjoy the ride which included some morsels of food delivered by the bus, and trust the driver because other drivers before him were much worse. In the end, we arrived in Livingstone, our undesired destination. Just when we were arriving, we saw another bus, loading passing from there directly to Nakonde. The driver, upon realising the cost of his failure to listen and the disappointment in the eyes of the passengers, urged everyone to sit down, promising that he would take us to Nakonde if we give him more time. With the exception of those who came from the driver's ethnic group and the auxiliary ones, most passengers, who had shown great faith in his driving skills by paying (voting) the fare for the bus as their mode of transport from Intercity to Nakonde, have left the bus for the other. These include those who had adopted silence during the journey after realising that the driver, aided by the choir mentioned, was not a listening kind. As I write this post, the alternative bus is almost full. The same passengers who accused those of us who, along the way, advised the driver to change course, of harbouring hatred for the driver are now wondering why nearly everyone is leaving the bus we came with for an alternative one that is promising to take us directly to Nakonde. One of the driver's supporters, reiterating the driver's earlier appeal that we should stick to the bus that brought us to Livingstone, just shouted at us a moment ago: "The alternative bus will take you to a wrong destination. Its driver cannot be trusted; just stick to this one because you won't have to pay a new fare". The supporter is overlooking the point that we are already at a wrong destination, the current driver has betrayed our trust, and that we would rather repose our trust in another person. It is not good to remain on a bus, driven by a person who does not listen, out of the fear that an alternative one might be driven by someone who could be worse. Let us try the alternative bus. If its driver takes us to a wrong destination, we will disembark from the bus we are about to jump onto, as we have done before, and find another one until we reach Nakonde. For me and other active passengers, such has been the the current driver's betrayal of our trust that we have reached a point of no return. We cannot trust this driver anymore, especially that when we tried to correct him, no one explained to us why our concerns were unfounded. We were just told that we hate hate the driver or his ethic group or or the province where he comes from. Recently, Dr Lee Habasonda, a lecturer in political science at the University of Zambia, told Reuters (watch the video clip on the link below) that electoral success is a matter of thresholds – of grievances, feelings, frustrations, etc. Lee’s view is that once a certain threshold or tipping point has been reached, "no matter your manifesto, ideology, lies" or whatever those in power do or say, the voters will "decide to change government" because they would have reached a point of no return. Emotionally, many Zambian voters, including some that I know who voted for Hichilema in 2021, have passed that threshold where no matter what Hichilema or UPND does, these voters will reject him. This is because the threshold, or the point of no return, has been reached. As Lee argued, those in power "may say we have already won this election when they campaign but the political coalitions and realignment" suggest otherwise. When the opposition wins next month, we will need to advise them to get non-sycophants at State House and in the critical posts in the civil service. It is important that they understand that unless there is a clear shift away from the harmful culture we have raised concerns about, we will be compelled to challenge them with the same resolve we previously applied to both the PF and UPND governments. On my part, I promise that I will always be on the side of the people. You will not find me in government even after the election. Once Hichilema is out of office, I will leave him alone and my attention will shift to holding to account the next set of public leaders. As I made clear in 2021, I am content serving as an academic and I will work, as part of my civic duty, to hold the new Government to account as I did with previous Governments. I am not available for or interested in any form of government job. For now, Iet me continue listening to the attached song. Chalo chesu.

Sishuwa Sishuwa

31,040 просмотров • 22 дней назад