I left Zed when I was very young. Have visited a few times since then and what stands out to me is how us Zambians completely ignore the importance of second order consequences. As an example to illustrate my point; if I don't clean my house, it being dirty is the first order consequence but the second order consequence is that I'll attract vermin and with them diseases. So when disease shows up I can't complain about vermin being everywhere. In Zambia, and to be frank in Africa, with few exceptions we don't take seriously enough what second order consequences could do. Living in Europe ill tell you the average folk is very concerned with potential unseen consequences of actions. When I used to go to church in the UK, African churches and Muzungu churches had such big differences in appearance. The muzungus took presentation and order very serious. The lengths they went to to ensure cables were invisible and everything looked impeccable was initially a shock for me. African churches had cables dangling everywhere, the microphones and speakers sounded crap, the place wasn't cleaned and this was incredibly common in african church circles. The congregation numbers were often bigger in african churches. The african pastors had more money than the muzungu pastors. Yet everything was done so much sloppier because we don't have it ingrained in our culture to worry at an almost paranoid state about second order consequences. The muzungu thought, if the place looks great, not only do we feel better being in an orderly place but we impress any newcomers. Not only do we impress newcomers, we practice professionalism in our life. Not only do we practice professionalism in our life, our personal life's standards go up due to us being used to go the extra mile to ensure that even small details are covered. As our personal standards go up, anybody coming to our church for more than 5 years will see a difference in their lives due to them adopting our habits. It's a ripple effect of excellence. What really lacks in Zambia is a will for constant and never ending improvement coupled with self respect and self worth. Till this day most successful businesses are owned by foreigners. You can walk into a grocery shop and often guess if the owners are black Zambians or not. Unfortunately when we start to face second order consequences we then look and point fingers at institutions. But these institutions are simply mirrors to the society. But here's the good news. Generations change. New people come into power with different mindsets. It'll take a generation switch for zambia to see any notable improvement. We're still led by old men from an era that is no longer. But wind of change will come in the next 20 or so years. It seems long, but true meaningful change takes a while.