Reforms; Blessing or Curse?

Social media is awash with criticism of some of the things the Malawi government is implementing. Reform is the word that is being used here but from what I have seen not many are happy with the undertakings, or at least some of them. Pretty much everyone has one or two things that he or she is not in agreement with. My theory has it that it is because we have heard about so many of the reforms in a very short space and because they have been accompanied by so much of "bad news" from the media (best we don't talk about that).

We have seen and heard a lot about the radical reforms in the education and health sector but while I agree that the implementation of the same will have a lot of negative effects on  a lot of people, I have to point out that some of these implementations were long overdue and they just had to be done. Underline some (for there are some I don't agree with).

In case you don't know what I mean when I say some of these implementations were overdue, let me cite a couple of examples. Fees for teachers training. Some of you might hate me for this, but truth be told, it was not sustainable for the government to be training teachers solely on taxpayers' money (and yes, I pay tax). In as far as teachers are important, we just had to reason and calculate the cost of keeping a student in the TTC and make sure both entities involved (government and trainee) contributed. It is that simple.

Now somehow we have come to our senses and decided that enough is enough and people are complaining. I mean, this might just be the same issue of the spirit of entitlement Malawians have just been raised into. I could say the same about the loan bill, the issue of introduction of user fees in hospitals, hiking of school fees in secondary schools and tertiary institutions and many other which we have seen, but before you cast the first stone you have to hear out what I have to say.

While some of these changes are necessary and worth giving a nod, I am worried about the way in which they are being implemented. I don't know about the way people think, but in my view, things like these are sensitive (they could cost someone the sort of thing they call "political capital") and need prudence in implementation.

I am obviously not the most intelligent man on the planet and neither am I the wisest but I believe there was a better way of making these adjustments. One word  comes to mind on this one; gradual.

An example from my secondary school on fees hiking. When I was starting fees were around K7000. We struggled with that but for the next year they "adjusted upwards" to around K8000. Later that year we moved to around K9000 then a whooping 5 figure number of K10, 000 and before we knew it fees were at K15, 000; two times the figure we started with (its slightly more than two times, isn't it?)

I hope you are already getting my point here. I might not have noticed the toll of the hikes because the fees were not coming from my pocket, but obviously the slow adjustment made it easier for the ones paying the fees to cope. That was St Patrick's Secondary school. Our government ministries? Move from zero to 40 grand. Now that's the sort of thing we call "from the Simama League to the CAF champions league". It simply doesn't work! I am surprised that someone didn't see this coming or probably chose to ignore the anticipated reaction.

The other issue that is making this more of a highlight is the fact that we usually are not good with continuity and perhaps we shouldn't point our fingers to the government on these issues. Someone up there is probably thinking that these changes have to be made before they leave office for the good of this country (just thinking) because if they put a long term plan on this to gradually make the changes someone might come in and undo them along the way to gain political capital. I don't know. Malawian politics. Not my field of interest.

The second big issue (and this one directly concerns me) is the way in which I am told the government is handling the hiring of much needed professionals like teachers and medical personnel. While everyone knows that there are shortages in the fields one tends to wonder why we have so many "qualifieds" sitting at home without being deployed (I am told this is about to get worse). Too bad for the one who joined the health and education training with hob security as a motivation.

My thinking is that we are making adjustment at a pace so fast that many will not be able to adapt normally. This process had to be handled like weaning a baby from breast milk. You don't just stop it but first you introduce other feeds and then slowly take them off the breast milk.

Looking at this whole thing has just made me realise one thing that the process of doing something matters. In as much as the "what" of change is important, the "how" matters too.

I think now I understand why with the same input of studying some pass and some fail; why with the same input of dating some reap happiness while others misery; with the same process of agriculture some countries earn a lot of forex while others don't have enough to feed themselves. The process matters. The "how" part of it matters.

I cannot write a letter or an e mail or whatever people write to Capitol Hill (or is it Capital Hill? Whichever) to tell someone to reverse these decisions. All I can write, dear reader, is this message to you, telling you to brace yourself for times are changing and the world we are venturing into might be a bit more challenging more than it already is.

Those who think employment need to find better ways of marketing themselves and seeking jobs. Those who do business need to find better ways of flourishing in business and most importantly those who would like to make a difference in this world need to think in line with the changes. These solutions might not be elaborate enough but they might just be  the ones that will make a difference in our lives and the lives of others.

The Concept of Fact-based Opinions

Something I am introducing. I did not bother searching on Google for this because I am sure no one has ever explored it although it is something few use on a daily basis. I would have made this concept part of my undergraduate dissertation (that's what they call it at Chancellor College, right?)

Before I get to the concept, I would like to tell you why it has showed up in the firsr place and it is directly related with the very existence of this blog.

Dear reader, this page started a couple of years ago. It was a mere experiment made out of the desire to have my name for a website link (you probably didn't have to type the whole name of mine since you followed this from Facebook or Whatsapp, n'est pas?) Worked well. I had my site going.

Site made. The next thing was that it needed content. Immediately something came to mind. Yes. And automatically it was about God. I was a new convert to real Christianity from mere churchgoing, so I decided to write about God. Nice stuff, right? Atheists are nodding in disapproval at this. But that is okay. Nzabhobho. Till you join us. Your nod of disagreement is one of the readons the content sort of flipped, anyway. Well. Reason number 10 out of 10.

I switched to writing the way I write now for a couple of reasons. If I am to summarize them into two, here is how I would say it.

1. I knew there were some people who would do it better than me. Writing t
he spiritual things, that is.

Truth be told, I have around me people who know the word; priests, pastors and name it (I don't have any prophet friend, though. If you know any, hook me up). I thought that if people are there who can do something better than I can, I need to pave way. At the end of the day we need results, anyway.

2. I thought I was better at something else. Now this is something feedback from people but a bit more importantly from myself. Positive feedback has been on the rise since I began writing what I write now. And the other part of it is that it is easy to write the way I do, anyway. What I need is a K55 bundle, 20% battery power in my phone and 20 minutes. Good to go and a blog is updated for the 10 or so keen followers (or are there more? Whatsapp me).

There we are. One factor pushed me from where I was and another welcomed me to where I am.

Now to the concept. I talked about how the writing is all spontaneous nowadays and that is mainly because I just write it off the dome (if I am allowed to use rap language); no need for references whatsoever. Again, it is easier that way. I want to write and whatever comes goes.

In the later day, what I mostly write is what I think about a particular subject. I have received some feedback from one influential friend of mine who once told me to include citations and references to show that I also read what other write. Truth be told I wouldn't manage that. That would make me divert from the sort of writing I do now and make it a tiresome job to write. So I will keep doing what I do.

Ideally, saying that I write what I think would entail that I write opinions while citing would mean that I am selectively writing facts. But I am Richard and the world is not just black and white. It has many shades of grey, so it is not just about facts and opinions; the two converge at some point and something called a fact based opinion is bred. Again, you won't find that in books because no one was bright enough to write this before me (zocheza koma zoona).

One would argue that the facts based opinion I am talking about is just a variant form of an opinion. Not too important, that argument. Here is the thing. As I am introducing this concept which is the backbone of my writing nowadays, I also want to advocate for an improvement in the way people argue cases (including but not limited to those in courts).

We have for long been a people who rant on issues using empty opinions with little facts if any. I don't know who has infected the other, between the masses and the MPs we have in the August house because honestly I am not impressed with the quality of debate that side. Anyway. That aside. Main point, you wanna have a strong opinion on something, make sure you got facts backing it up. Logical.

Having said this, some might wonder why I write then. Truth be told, I write just because I like to share a piece of my mind. But there is a bit more to that anyway. More importantly, I think I have something to share.

Here is the thing. I have had my share of the thing called experience in this world and I have been through the bad and the good. Issue with me is that these things have grossly re-wired the way I think and act and I think through my pains and joys I have learnt one or two things worth sharing.

I have also accumulated little fact which helps me analyse what goes on around the world for people, so there we are. I write. Partly to cure my verbal diarrhoea but also for you, dear reader. Not for the fame or whatever people think this is for. In other words, I write because I am a writer and not the other way round.

That got too personal. Thing is that of fact based opinions here. You wanna argue, base your opinion on facts. Improves the quality of argument and the situation as a whole.

I will continue sharing my fact based opinions here. In fact I will change the motto of this blog (or whatever you call the thing at the top of the home page; just below the words "Richie Online") to Fact based opinions, because that is what this page will be all about. I must say some of the posts will be radical, but I guess that is okay.

All in all, radical or not, these will just be fact based opinions. Someone once said we see things not the way they are but the way we are. This is how I see things and it might be different from someone's view. Same facts. That is why we need fact based opinions because their diversity brings beauty. I will be having mine here. Share yours in the comments if you feel like. Or on your Facebook timeline. Or Twitter (this one is better for short, radical and controversial opinions). Just make sure they are fact based.

Word to all who have something worth sharing; SPIT IT OUT. We need it.

Some Little Football Talk

Let's talk football. Talking football doesn't hurt, so its best that we do it.

I must say that this post has been prompted by one guy who told me to write about football. A Manchester United die hard (just like my dad and my lady who also happen to be Bullets FC fans locally).

I ideally follow football but not as attentively as some of my soccerhead friends do which at times makes me wonder whether all the trouble that we go through because of football is really worth it.

If you were to ask me as to whether I like football, it will not be a straightforward answer. I like football but I have an outlook that is very different from the people who are considered as the greats when it comes to following football, be it at home or school.

It is not strange that people do not even know that I follow football. Half of the people do not even know that I am a Chelsea fan and it is probably because I hardly show up for matches. People do not know which team I support in the TNM Super League because I got none (after the sad relegation of my beloved Zomba United).

Anyway. Too much of personal stuff. Truth of the matter is that I too have my share of football. Truth of the matter is that I have a favorite in all the major leagues and much as I might not show up for soccer matches in the TV lounges, I follow every single match one my lovely Live Scores app. I am a busy man, anyway.

I started seriously following football in 2010. That was the time when I could watch back to back matches for 10 hours without blinking. Good old times. It is probably coming to college that got me weaned because of limited time. People usually do not watch the games I like anyway, because I prefer La Liga to the EPL.

The thing I have noted to be the difference between the typical soccer fan is that they follow too much of the football action of the pitch. Wanna know what I mean? People are always looking at who is on the bench and who is not. Who is injured and who the club wants to buy. Who should have played and who should have been substituted. Who is on top of the log table and who is the contender for the too four. To be honest, much as those things have a bearing on my soccer habits, I should say that they do not matter much. To me what matters is the action there and then. If Schkodran Mustafi (Google the name) is dribling and passes to Alavaro Negredo who scores, to me that's it. Whether that puts anyone in the Europa or Champions League is the story for the nerds. I don't think too much about that. To me there is not much of football outside of those 90 minutes or so.

Jerseys. Another difference between me and the typical. The normal supported would have a couple of jerseys for their team. They usually have the home and away kit and renew them every season to stay up to date. I feel like that is abit unnecessary. Perdoname. I don't have a Chelsea jersey (my excuse being that they are not my first love) but I got an old Valencia kit. The sort of jersey they used when they were in Korea for a preseason tour. Anyway. That was my best shot because those jerseys are hard to find. The other thing is that you can find me in a rival team's jersey. I mean, when I have a reason to put one on and find one, why should I not? I am flexible.

Now I want to talk about the big one and this is about the reaction that we get from football results. I am the sort of person who shouts to the extent of losing my voice whenever my team wins, just like any other Jim and Jack (Richmonds?). The difference with me is that I don't shed a tear like anyone else when my team loses. I mean, why should I when it is only football?

This is what will take us to the main point of the post. I think people in this world are letting football take too much of their lives that it is making them lose focus for a good 90% of their weekend which is too much for me. Don't judge. This is an opinion which came from one head which is mine.

In my view football is a distraction and for those of you who associate the word distraction with negativity, think twice. I can't manage to live without my distractions, so some football becomes necessary at one point or the other. I just make it a point that I enjoy it not the other way round.

There is always emotion associated with the beautiful game but I think it is good to filter. As a positive thinker, I think it is good to have some selective attachment to a team. When it wins it is good to shout on top of your voice until everyone hates you. When it loses, however, its not worth the trouble to use your energy... well; waste your energy, being worried about the team. I do not mean you should disown the team, but its possible to live with the loss of the team and not be depressed. I am a Chelsea fan this season, and I am a Dortmund fan who lived through last season. My local team, Zomba United, got relegated 3 seasons ago and I still miss the services of ESCOM FC in the league, so I know what I am talking about. Zapansi pompano izi.

Having said what I said, no people should hate each other or fight because of football played in a country we will probably never have a chance to visit. There is not rational explanation for that. Dzombe limenero litheretu. I mean.. It simply doesn't make sense. You are not exempted from this if you are wa Maule, Nyerere, Bankers or a Tigers fan (if those do exist).

Lastly, there are costs associated with football fanaticism. By this I am not talking about gate fees or the money we pay for DSTV and what not. Neither am I talking about the money we use to buy jerseys (which become too heavy when our teams lose). I am talking about the sort of thing called betting. Some of you have lost too much cash (where too much shall mean any sum above K100) in the name of your belief in Arsenal or whatever team you support. For who? For what? For where? For when? Again, not a wise thing to do.

Too much ranting in one post but to sum it up, football is good and that is why someone decided to call it the beautiful game. What he meant by that (he probably didn't know he meant that) was that you should be happy when your team wins but you should not get depressed when it loses. That is the point, otherwise whoever made football was doing it for happiness and not sorrow. Let's be happy with soccer, otherwise some of these expesense, financial and emotional alike, that are made in the name of soccer are not worth the trouble.

By the way, the Champions League is about to start. Enjoy it, if you watch that sort of thing.

Some pastor has said watching football is a sin, by the way, so you might want to follow my philosophy as a way of moving away from football little by little.

Flames woyeeeee!

Note: The author supports Chelsea in the EPL, Borrussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, Valencia in the La Liga and Juventus in the Serie A. He currently has no team in the TNM Super League.

The Ignored Concept of Good Leadership

Pretty much every organisation or entity needs leadership. Leadership, much as it is prominent at national or international level starts within the family and as such its importance cannot be overemphasized.

Important as it is, there are some standards that have to be followed by all leaders at all levels. The unfortunate thing, however is that many people have not grasped the concepts of leadership which has so many negative effects on both the leader and the followers.

Some little experience with leadership coupled up with some reads have left me with a couple of insights as to how leadership should be. I must say I enjoy leading, but with a diverse range of followers, leadership can be a challenging thing as some of the people seem to be frustrating you for the fun of it. Another part of me thinks that it is lack of knowledge which leads to the sort of frustrations that come to leaders from followers and this has led me to thinking that the whole concept of leadership is grossly misunderstood and that it does not receive the attention it deerves. This is probably because people think that issues to do with leadership are for a certain group of people and not others. Truth is, however, that everyone needs to understand leadership in order for our families, societies, organizations and nations to move forward at the pace and above all in the direction that we all need to be moving.

Perhaps one of the things that has led to the leadership crisis that we have is the lack of understanding of the sort of leadership that John Maxwell advocates for. John Maxwell once said that a leader is the one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.

This quote could use some cracking, so let's get to it. Leaders know the way. What this means is that for every entity someone is leading, there has to be a clear direction of where the organization is going. The leader just has to know that whether everyone else knows it or not. The key of this whole thing is direction and vision. Any organization needs a vision which might need to be redefined from time to time to be in keeping with the ever-developing and changing world. Leaders have to be there to define the vision and to redifine it constantly if necessary.

Going the way. This is about doing the things that take the organization and the people in it to the vision or ultimate goal. The leader simply has to do what it takes to reach the goal and this becomes important when it comes to showing the way. Particularly important for religious leaders for obvious reasons.

Showing the way is all about showing the people the way to the goal. The interesting part about this is that way back people used to respond to authorities but in the later day what we have learnt is that people can be resistant to change for the better even for things that can benefit them. This, from my little experience is the biggest challenge of the 21st century leader and it is even tougher for a leader in Malawi where people promise to do one thing and do the exact opposite. To be honest, there is no single formula for circumventing this taking it from how dynamic leadership is. I will let the critical thinker figure it out. Musova.

Having talked about that, we might think that the problem is only with people who are in leadership positions but are either clueless (do not know the way),  hypocritical (do not go the way) and uninspiring (do not show the way). That is not the case. In fact it is those people who define themselves as followers who frustrate leaders and delay development or achievement of goals.

If we are to look at leadership from the perspective of the wording, it will not take a professor of linguistics to define that a leader is a person who leads. Some people who are lazy misdefined this and decided to think of a leader as a person who does every single thing in an entity. The result is that there are people who are followers by definition; the sort of people whose most important contribution to anything is destructive criticism.

What everyone who reasons has to understand is that leaders are there to initiate things and to help everyone move towards the goal, and not to get the burden of having to do all the work themselves. After all, in every leadership system there has to be some sort of succession or mentorship of new leaders, which means everyone needs to be actively involved as they are also potential leaders. Above that, we need to understand that there is a "dormant" leader in every passive follower.

One misconception that we also have to put out is the one that leaders are those in positions. If I am to use my sort of language, I would say the definition of a leader includes but is not limited to a person in a position. There are many leaders who are not in positions but because of how they know, go and show the way a lot of lives are being transformed. Something a lot of us should learn. We can lead without a position. In fact I think that is when leadership becomes more enjoyable because there tends to be less of the binding obligations.

With everything that has been said here in mind, I think the most important thing is that leadership should be goal directed. It should not just be about enjoying the benefits of being a leader but rather something that should see an entity, be it a family or a nation go to another level. It shouldn't even be about credits even though credits might be important at one time or the other. The 21st century leader has to be the one who can groom some future leaders and make himself unnecessary for the sustainace of the entity he is leading and that is for continuation. Good leaders are not power hungry.

There is one inspirational leader that comes to mind when I think about the issue of credits, which I think is one of the stagnators of development in this country. That is Jesus Christ himself.

A story is told of how His disciples found some people who were not official members of his "cabinet" driving out demons in His name (Mark 9:38-40); and of course like a typical person would have done, they tried to stop them from using their Rabbi's name to cast out demons. Jesus' reaction? "Don't stop them. If they are doing that they are not against me."

Now that I have understood some of these principles, I have come to imagine what was going through the mind of the Master. You probably have too.

Some important man (just forgotten the name) once wondered how much we could achieve if we did not do things for credits.

That is the challenge to true leadership. The 21st century leader has to understand all this to be good. He has to be goal directed, to know the way to the goal, walk it and bring along others who can walk with him to the goal. He needs to rise above personal benefit and mediocre routines to make a positive and lasting impact and that is what will make a good leader in our age.

I hope you will be one.

Extracts from Semi-structured Chats

Over the end of year academic year holiday for last academic year I had a chance to attend the Youth Inspiration Movement's Night of Impact. The main speaker for the night, Dr Chithambo, was a bit of a surprise to me but he gave me a couple of lessons that turned my life around.

Apart from all those lessons, I liked the way he emphasized on the fact that we intellectuals need to see the world the way it is. He was especially telling those who had recently graduated and those of us who are about to about the world we are about to graduate into; one where people employ based on surname, color, denomination and everything in that line and not the thing that matters; the ability. He told us of a world in which people cook figures when writing reports in order to look like they are working when the things on the ground are not as good and that provoked a lot of thoughts in me. I just hope it had the same effect on the other young minds I shared the platform with.

I have for long been thinking about what is wrong with our country, Malawi and what it would take for us to turn things around. Each and every time I begin to discuss it with friends we end up with tons of ideas on how we can change things and we spend loads of time on this sort of discussion and brilliance comes out of the talks. This has left one unanswered question on my mind but before I get to that and theorize the answer to the question, let me get to the contents of some the chats that I just talked about.

For some reason I have decided to call these semi-structured chats. You don't really plan to be discussion this sort of thing, but when you get to start it it flows in an almost formal way and you almost begin to take notes.

Recently I had a chat with some friend. Now this is some former secondary school classmate of mine who happens to be a project officer for some non-governmental organization working in the agriculture sector in the country. We had a chat on the farm input subsidy thing and he told me of how their organization was trying to develop an electronic system for farm input distribution which would improve transparency and reduce fraud. I actually got to read up on that a couple of days later.

Good development? Yeah. I thought so too, but you and I might not see this come to light and the issue is that someone somewhere might decide to shoot it down; just because as Malawians we like it manual, are resistant to change and the other reason I will not mention (for you know it already). That was just among the things we discussed but I just put it out here because it is something that is costing the Malawian taxpayer a lot but delivering less with time, contrary to the rational expectation.

Moving from agriculture to something else. I also had another chat with a fellow COM student and this was about the financing of tertiary education in the country (I referred to it in my article on the closure of the Polytechnic). Well. This one had some information I did not have and I was shocked to hear about the radical changes that are about to hit the higher education environment in the country.

Some of you might know about the loan bill the Government just effected. I do not know it in details, but the thing is that if one feels like they are need they need to complete some big form and submit it to the loan office secretariat whatsoever to get the money for fees, upkeep and stationery allowance.

Previously I was worried about the form, but having heard what I have heard now, the form is now the least of my concerns because it turns out that a good percentage of the people who will sweat applying for the loans will do it in vain ad the funds are hardly available for everyone. I don't want to get into the Mathematical details here, but from what I hear (and this is not a secret) there is K 1.5 billion allocated to this cause. What you probably didn't know is that some of that money is to be used to establish the Secretariat of the loan trust or whatever it is called.

Well. There we are. Agriculture and education; two sectors that I believe are so important for the development of this country and that is what we are doing with them. The thing is that when us young people discuss these issue we have some brilliant ideas on them and we propose some viable solutions.

The World Bank recently organized an essay competition for young Malawians and I had a chance to read a couple of  entries from some friends. Truth be told they were actual minds of young Malawians spat on paper; two thousand or so words of brilliance and hope. Thinking about my "chats" and the essays then brings me back to the question I talked about.

If there are young people who can think of brilliant and practical solutions to our problems as a country, should we assume that the people who are responsible for these things do not think the way we do and see these potential solutions? If it is that they think the same way as us, why are they not effecting the same and propelling the country? And if they do not think this way, why are they handling the sort of responsibilities they are handling?

These questions might sound bitter and every bad adjective you can describe them with, but those are the things that bother me whenever I sit down and think about what we can do as young people to turn the tables in this country.

Someone might think that I am talking about politicians here. Yes, a politician or two might have contributed something to our downfall here, but I think it is the technocrat who has failed to inform the politician who has failed this nation a more.

It is on this note that I wish to announce that so many young people have given up hope that the nation will prosper and have resorted to just elevating themselves because they think the country is damaged beyond saving. This is a sad development because it is creating a vicious cycle. If you think of it, these great young minds think that the country cannot be saved because there is a spirit of self enrichment and there is nothing that can be done about it. In the end they resort to a different version of the same self enrichment in the name of going out of the country to look for greener pastures and every other thing you can think of.

I am not sure if that is the solution and I have to admit that this country will take more than a politician or a technocrat to save. I just hope that the two will one day sit on a table a discuss issues for the greater good, otherwise we will continue to have these problems which I do not regret to say that I think they are man made.

God bless my country, Malawi.