Africa-Press – Zambia. This past week, Zambia was in the news here in the United States and then across the world.
This is because the U.S. State Department announced that it had initiated a pilot program requiring citizens applying for B1/B2 tourist and business visas to pay a bond of up to $15,000.
A B1/B2 visa is a non-immigrant visa for individuals seeking to enter the United States for temporary business (B1) or tourism/pleasure (B2) purposes.
It’s a combined visa, allowing for both business and leisure activities during a single trip.
This measure, starting August 20, 2025, aims to reduce the rate of persons that travel on approved visas but overstay in the USA.
The shock came with the announcement that the pilot project will begin with two African countries; Malawi and Zambia!
What was odd with the State’s choice is that there are 195 countries in the world and over 53.7million foreign nationals in the US.
Zambia has a paltry figure of about 2,000 individuals living in the USA.
The two countries identified and picked for the pilot project do NOT even make the top list of their nationals overstaying.
Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Haiti, Myanmar, Yemen, Chad, Congo (Brazaville, Sudan and Djibouti) are recorded as among the highest number of countries that record higher figures of overstays.
So what criteria was used?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Anyway..
So I went out to eat and ordered a meal and on the side to the meal-chips.
But when the food came , the side served were what we popularly call as crisps!
When I protested and explained in detail what I wanted, the Waiter quickly realized the misunderstanding and exclaimed; “Oh you wanted French Fries!”
That’s the thing about the difference in British English which commonwealth countries like Zambia use and United States English.
For example when I was asking about a flat, the estate agent went blank.
I again attempted to give a descriptive lecture, and the young agent said; “Sir you should have said you are asking about an apartment.”
So you quickly learn the differences; cookies refer to biscuits, a truck refers to a van, candy is sweets, vacation is a holiday, sidewalk is pavement, garbage can is the rubbish bin and the parking lot is car park, car trunk is the boot and so it goes on.
We take for granted that because we speak English, it may appear like we speak the same details of the language.
This is before the misunderstanding caused by accent differences, kicks in.
Then comes the units of measurements. It is more confusing.
While we use the metric system,they use the US Customary Sytem.
For capacity or volume, they measure using: cups (c), pints (pt), quarts (qt), and gallons (gal), while temperature is measured in Fahrenheit (°F).
We use millimeters (mm), centimeters (cm), meters (m), kilometers (km).
and for weightbwe use milligrams (mg), grams (g), kilograms (kg) and for capacity or milliliters (ml), liters (L) and temperature, we use Celsius (°C).
When you are at a gas station, they use gallons.
A gallon is equal to approximately 3.785 liters.
Delimitation Causes Uproar in Texas
In the week I was struck by a civil disobedience action and decision by Texas state representatives who traveled out of State to Illinois, to prevent the Texas legislature from achieving a quorum, a necessary number of lawmakers required to form quorum and conduct official business.
This tactic is being employed to block the passage of a controversial new congressional map by redistricting ( similar to the delimitation of the constituencies), backed by former President Trump, that critics argue is designed to favour Republicans and could add several seats to their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
By breaking quorum, the Texas Democrats aim to delay the vote on this redistricting plan, until the legislative period lapses.
The Texas Democrats involved in this action have stated they are willing to stay in Illinois until the end of the special session to continue their protest.
Texas Republicans, including Governor Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, are actively working to compel the return of the absent Democrats, even exploring legal avenues and have issued civil arrests and seeking assistance from Illinois courts.
However, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has indicated he will not allow federal agents to arrest the Texas lawmakers in Illinoi.
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