End of Year Note

This happens to be the last Friday of the year 2016. As Richie, it has been an eventful year but above that, this year's has been awesome for the Richie Online blog. Those of you who started following from last year or before would agree to the fact that this year has seen Richie Online grow in terms of diversity of articles and whatever else. This, dear reader, would not have been possible without your clicks on the blog, your feedback, your article requests (for some reason some people requested that we write about some things, and sometimes we did comply) and the articles for those who did that sort of thing called guest writing.

The other positive thing that we have registered is the increase in the number of followers. When we write we need people to read and the boom in the number of followers comes as an encouragement to those who put the pen to the paper. Simply that. If you are a follower of the Richie Online blog on Facebook or if you are the sort of person who clicks the link first thing upon receiving it (like TNO), or any other time, really (Achina George Liomba ndi Stephen Macheso amawerenga Saturday and Sunday respectively), feel it that You are awesome, even by Richie Online standards, which I must say are mean.

Ideally people would expect me to be writing something about preparing for the new year and writing down goals. We discussed that last year and I had a discussion with one reader called Ian, who upon reading the article in which I recommended buying a diary went straight and bought one only to come back and ask me on how to use it.

All in all, goals were set for 2016. When I look at the 10 goals I set, I think they have been fairly achieved, but worth noting was the fact that my success rate when is comes to achieving goals has dropped in the year 2017. Some of you might be wondering why I am personalizing this whole thing, but as usual, despite every personal or stupid thing I say or write, there is always a moral. Well. Almost always. Not always.

When I look at the goals I have achieved, they were the sort of goals that I was working on alone; no help, and (minimal or) no involvement of other people. No examples Will be cited, but worth noting is the fact that I have miserably failed to come to the realization of  all the goals that involved external parties... if you know what I mean. I probably would have been in the US now and probably married, but the people I counted on didn't come through. Here I am, a bachelor languishing in Chitawira, with nowhere to watch the night's English League games. The moral is that you shouldn't count on people too much, because they disappoint. Almost always. Do I sound bitter? Adopt the rest of the article. I will allow you to maintain your views on this chunk only.

Some of you have seen the Whatsapp message of Henry Kachaje's Facebook post which actually says we shouldn't think things will change for the better just because of the mere fact that 7 is replacing 6 on the year number or something. While that may be true, I still believe in 2017 Ambuye atisinthira nyengo. If pastor said tibooleza, who is Kachaje to say no? Breakthrough, basi.

We could say a lot of hibber jabber here, but the point is that for 2017 to be the year we want it to be, it has to be nicely calculated. Nkhani ndiyomweyo.

As CEO of Richie Online, I am thinking of bringing in some innovations. We could probably have a Whatsapp group for this and maybe t shirts. Who knows? Some of you have suggestions for the improvement of this whole thing. Bring them over, because this isn't just a one man show as we have seen lately.

One little favor. Would you please vote for the article you liked the most this year?

Management is preparing an e book of Richie Online 2016 writings and it will contain all the articles we published including some of the unpublished views on the abortion bill (analemba achina Nandi Nyirenda and they sent them ndilibe airtime yopangila post).

I am wishing you a wonderful weekend and above that a Happy New Year.

Consider this an Epistle.

Much love from Richie.

Power Banks

It is yet another Friday as we go towards Christmas and the new year. Other people who have similar platforms are probably writing about Christmas in a time like this. If you were expecting the same from the Richie Online blog, you are in for a shocker. I don't think there is any one on the list of writers here who would write something about Christmas at the moment. The thing with articles in the festive season is that they are too predictable. If I were to write such an article, it would have a few verses just to drive home the fact that Christmas is a religious thing and it has to be treated as such. It would have another line and possibly a backing paragraph that would emphasize on the second coming of our Lord or something like that. And then there would be the issue of prudence with finances and alcohol when having Christmas fun. Nice and easy. You all know that, anyway.

A lot has been going on in the political sector and those who like to comment have commented about it. The Chakwera vs Peter "failed state" feud. The new K2000 note is among us and I haven't yet seen it giving us trouble in minimises contrary to my initial fears.  The Access to Information Bill and the politics surrounding it. All of those things have given some of us reality checks and reminders that we are Malawians, people who reside in a country that needs some serious fixing.

While people in many areas are complaining of hunger, we in the urban areas are complaining of things like water and electricity. I don't want to be one of those people who seem the issue of electricity and water as trivial because I have been on the disadvantaged side when it comes to the two. This is why I, contrary to my stubbornness succumbed to the pressure from ESCOM and bought a power bank. Very important device, that one. Especially if you are the type of person that doesn't like to have a corpse of a phone in the pocket after hours of heavy browsing have coincided with a power cut.

The concept of a power bank is not a new thing. I remember having met a vendor who was selling some sort of mobile charger that used an AA size battery. It was a good alternative to the whole thing of going to a socket and plugging your phone in. Obviously also a better option for those who don't have electricity and do not want bother their neighbour with charging issues.

In the later day, power banks are being sold at the as those yellow buns as they are being sold in all sorts of places ranging from big shops to the window of your minibus at Shoprite in Lilongwe or Mibawa in Blantyre. With the popularity of the product has of course come an influx of counterfeit products and obviously some have gotten ma power bank a Kanengo. Welcome to Africa. All in all, I should repeat to say that these devices are important.

The concept of having backup sources of power has been hugely replicated and upscaled. Large buildings (like Livingstone Towers in BT) have a whole huge space dedicated to a backup power unit. It makes noise in town, but it powers someone's laptop and air conditioner (Achina Edmond Kachale). In other words it keeps work going. I have also worked on a research team that had dedicated 2 TB hard drives for storing the data we had collected despite having uploaded them on some server and in everyone's laptop. This concept, in my view should give us all a lesson on having a well laid plan B in case our initial plans fail.

I have for a long time been an idealist whose things have always worked at the first attempt, but one of the things 2016 has practically taught me is that we cannot always have it in life and we need to sort have draft backup plans for each and every single thing we do. Those of you who were spoilt in the same way as me could borrow a leaf.

I found a strange application of backing up stuff when I was chatting with my lady friend this other day. We were asking each other about how our relationships were going on (then) and she told me something interesting; her relationship with bae was not okay but that day she was going on a date with her "power bank".

There you are, people with spouses. You are ESCOM and when you black out your other half might be the type that taps into a power bank. That might explain a certain statement that I heard from some buddies of mine who once told me that ever since they started dating, they have never been single for more than a week. In other words they move from one relationship to another. That sort of makes me wonder as to whether the relationships they move into are an effect of the breakup or rather the cause of the same. Zimenezo sitikudziwa, but there might be an element of having a power bank in the whole thing.

Two sides of the same coin, right?

Ndi zimenezo za ma power bank. If you don't have one, do buy. You won't regret. I am talking about the one we use to charge phones, though. As of the other things, every reasonable plan needs a backup but we at Richie Online do not agree with the whole thing of backing up a spouse.

A Merry Christmas to you all.

By the way, my dwelling place does not have power and this article wouldn't have been made possible without some involvement of a power bank. That's how significant these things are.

RHETORICAL NONSENSE

with the failed prophet, only known as Hope

It's always a pleasure to, again, contribute on this forum, myself being an avid reader of innumerable informative and educative snippets pasted here every Friday, and most recently, on odd days.

Only some few 360 hours to run down the 2016 clock, it dawned on me of how incredibly these few remaining hours occupy a large chunk of our exciting yearly moments. The inevitable Christmas razzmatazz is allowed to penetrate deeper into many a worker's fat pockets, which a few days before were screaming with useless pentangular coins. Everyone knows that Christmas is an invaluable ritual that should not only be observed with an antipathetically arranged but tithing rewarding Church services but also with a crate of Kuchekuche; thus  a few days of rest after a tiring year won't kill. Perhaps more for those who are noble workers of the largest employer, the government. They will have to rest their limbs for a good three weeks, according to a hastily-edited press release from Kamuzu Palace. And we hear the  squalling of the briefcase Civil Societies and renegade opposition political zealots to  any ear that cares [Zodiac always care for these renegade and has paid a terrible price to MACRA] to listen that public service delivery is at the lowest ebb of mediocrity. And social-economic statistics by various financial whipping organs like the IMF have painted a gloomy tale that our agro-based economy is planets away from salvation. Briefly, the economic policies and social service delivery have not yielded anything to improve the life of someone living in a shanty hut kwa Mtopwa. Seriously, why do you give a civil servant a fortnight of snoozing when in fact he will knock on the HR manager's  door to claim his legitimately 1 month rest as per normal labour laws in the coming months? What we want to have is a government that rewards workers but also stands tall to gas out any benefits if the input rendered has not been satisfactory. Satisfaction is when civil servants have telescopic contracts that evaluate regularly their performance for efficiency. For example, I was by default watching MBC news last week just to get on the same page with the robust activities of   our dear DPP gaff’ment, and one senile looking Headteacher was commending efforts by a private company which had bought some pine wooden desks for the souls who digest the books there. He proudly highlighted that the donation will improve the quality of education and that both teachers and pupils are geared to improve an ancient record of not producing even a bare pass in Maneb exams. And this fella and his comrades will make noise when the paying master overlooks their accounts by just a couple of days, yet with minimum resources they can’t remove the cobwebs in the cerebrums of peasants’ children. Such lackadaisical workmanship should be arrested and uprooted. I also mean that the civil service should get rid of our grandfathers who should have retired at the dawn of multiparty but are still gnawing their toes as if they are the eighth wonder of the world. Retirement age has never been enforced in Malawi, perhaps because we are used to the idea that there is wisdom in ancient things. No wonder we voted for an old man who had been forced by laws to retire in America.

Now that we don’t care that one is using a walking stick so long as he can deliver a well memorized speech to maintain his post, just last week our esteemed Finance and Economic Planning minister, was celebrating becoming an octogenarian. His head, which should have been preserved at the museum, is now tasked with regurgitating the failed economic policies he learned when Sir Glynn Jones was governor of Nyasaland and apply them on the sinking ship we proudly call the warm-heart of Africa. He is still viewed as an authority in the sector but that respect will dwindle into ashes as the try and error policies the government is using keep backfiring on their noses. We still remember he is the same guy who confessed that our economy is in the hands of God and we should consider 40 days of  fasting to resuscitate it. Various commentators challenged him and asked him to resign, the rhetorical machine, however, twisted to say it was just a slip of a wine drenched tongue. No one protested further. He should have been retired. It is certain that we are  passive Malawians and  seemed to be extra redundant especially when the propaganda machinery has been employed. We seem to accept rhetorical nonsense that they can throw in our ears. I won’t talk about that long winded speech by one good fake professor, the Reverend president. His impassioned well articulated sermon will fall on the deaf ears once again, and we have already seen how the DPP have paraded some misguided chiefs, ungodly fellow reverends, social analysts from recently unaccredited colleges and recycled politicians to MBC to find errors in the speech, chasing shadows.

Well Access to Information Bill that awaits the Big Kahuna's signature will surely change the tone of misinformation we are used to now. The Bill should have been one of the few things that the country should have taken to the streets for and not recent big walks about abortion and same sex marriages that infested major streets of Malawi. We spent a lot of time discussing trivial things, with all due respect to the cause. Abortion or no abortion is something that needs sober reflection rather than to go beyond our priorities, which are just too many. That the government want to amend the law is a fact, but our religious institutions seem to have realized their moral teachings are falling on deaf ears. Instead of forcing the hand of government they should adapt their dogmas to reflect the changing worldview. This is not 100 AD by the way. That as it may, the political spectrum of our country hasn’t evolved much to suit modernity. It’s high time the citizenry became vigilant and denounce neo-ethnic political structure taking root.

It’s only in Malawi where a Bill prepared/reviewed by the same government is vehemently trampled upon by the same entity because they realize they will be under scrutiny if it see light of the day. In other words, they feel their own manifesto is not palatable for the country. Looking closer at the ATI Bill, only 3 eMuPs for the government sided with opposition while the rest felt the bill is not good for the country. And usual innuendoes were echoed by  a shameless misinformation minister claiming that the government was all along supporting the bill. The point is that we care to talk a much about mediocrity and allow dunderheads to clarify statements that are already lucid. Our failures in Malawi are largely due to ineffective policies that are well publicized but lacking critical mechanization for implementation. We have spent the year talking about issues without showing the same zeal to talk of solutions. The year which at tail's end, we spent weeks  lamenting Escom's failures, days went by mourning the killings of albinos, argued for hours on the definition of ‘robust health,'  and cried on the skyrocketing prices of goods and taxes. By the way, no one cares that sugar prices have been revised by 9.9%. All because we would rather laugh at one Billy Mayaya for demonstrating on his own against Escom, or better call Winiko a lunatic for his comedy of nudity. Yet we throng en masse with our spiritual fathers and prophets to rue over homosexuality. We crave to get the worst services available and applaud  nonsensical rhetoric explanations.

Going forward, its good to write or talk what you can’t do, but changes should always begin with you. This past week, the Vice President, whom I’m informed, drove himself to and from the stadium to watch Wanderers triumph in a small bonanza, sent some few district officers away because they came very late and that some did not wear clothes befitting the function. Reforms they say. Its something we can learn from, discipline is important for a successful endeavor. Similarly, if we can discipline our ears and get rid of those comrades who have nothing to say but just waste our time, we can forge ahead in life. Gossip is a vice

Good weekend folks.

Sorry readers, but management doesn't know much about Hope. All we know is that he have us articles on the Friday Sobriety and Trump's victory. We are yet to know why he hides his real identity.

OBFUSCATORY “SAFE ABORTION” DISCOURSE

with Alexious Kamangila.

Malawi has been through an active as well as passive debate on whether abortions should be legalized or not. Seemingly the Pregnancy Termination Bill being handled as a “Top State Secrecy” matter, aims to legalize restrictive abortions which would be a ratification of the protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women. The Anti-Abortion camp argues that Life begins at conception making extraction of a foetus equal to killing a human being. Such understanding categorizes abortion in the same realm as taking away the life of a human being. Abortion defies the universally accepted concept of the sanctity of life, that no one should never be allowed to take it away as it’s sacred. No civilized nation should legalize the act of taking away life intentionally or harming it without punishment. It is from this background of an existing Bill that this article advances the Anti-Abortion agenda by discussing the arguments of Abortion proponents. Obfuscator

The pro-abortion camp always refer to the act of legalizing the extracting of the foetus from the womb as the path towards having safe abortions. What is essential to note here, is that abortion is a medical procedure, and just as any medical procedure has room for error and complications, abortion is no exception. An abortion can result in many medical complications such as; ectopic pregnancies doubles, miscarriage probability increment and pelvic inflammatory defamation, just to mention a few. Now the argument here is not to say because a medical procedure may lead to complications then you should not venture into it. Not at all. Rather it is to denounce the pro-abortionists who present abortion as an all rosy option. Such misleading information is actually unacceptable.

Strong arguments are raised in support for abortion in cases where a woman is pregnant as a result of a criminal offence such as rape or incest. In the instance of rape and incest, medical care and psychological support can ensure that a woman recovers from the trauma and learns to cherish the pregnancy. For all resentment, why pour the vengeance on the innocent unborn baby instead of punishing the criminal. This is a clear misdirection of vengeance and a clear sign of disgruntled ignorant solution. In any case, where the mother can not live to see the baby, the state has an obligation to create institutions not only support the pregnancy but most of all to take the baby from the mother who does not want it or can’t stand it (cater for medical expenses). The thing about arguing for outright abortion in instances of rape or incest is that it is blind intentionally I suppose, to the fact that going through an abortion is also traumatic. Now for someone who has gone through the trauma of such heinous experience, for instance of rape, to go through another traumatic experience is atrocious. Again what does it mean to say abortion should be legalized so that when people get pregnant from rape or incest, they should not be forced to keep the baby? Are we saying the solution to such horrendous acts is to allow the victim to abort? Seriously, the Pro-abortion movement needs to find better reasons to enhance their agenda.

The issue that is at the centre of human rights advocacy for abortion, is the principal of human autonomy upheld in Roe v Wade (A case that legalized abortion in USA). This prophesizes that a woman, as a human being should be allowed to make decisions independently more especially about her body/health. After all the baby is a parasite and she is hosting it as such if it is an inconvenience whether in health, academic, career and what have you, then as an autonomous being a woman should be allowed to abort. What is interesting is that this argument is made as if autonomy is absolute without responsibilities or consequences. It is a crime to make attempts to take one’s life despite one’s autonomy. The Penal Code of all civilized nations penalizes a human being who attempts to take one’s life. This stems from the universally accepted norm that life is sacred that no one should be allowed to take it away, not even one’s own life. Now, if such is the case, why should the pregnancy be treated with an extreme autonomy without responsibilities? Just as an attempted suicide is a crime, so should abortion.

A further analysis of Roe v Wade would reveal the hypocrisy surrounding the freedom to terminate pregnancy.  In Roe v. Wade the Court said that a fetus is not a person but "potential life," and thus does not have constitutional rights of its own.

The Court also set up a framework in which the woman's right to abortion and the state's right to protect potential life shift: during the first trimester of pregnancy, a woman's privacy right is strongest and the state may not regulate abortion for any reason; during the second trimester, the state may regulate abortion only to protect the health of the woman; during the third trimester, the state may regulate or prohibit abortion to promote its interest in the potential life of the foetus, except where abortion is necessary to preserve the woman's life or health. The question is, why should a state have interest in a potential life where such remains a private affair? If a foetus is not a life to be protected just a potential life, then the state should continue letting private affairs be private. The potential life as described in Roe v Wade arises throughout the pregnancy hence State should have interest from the time fertilization happens to delivery, rather than shift allegiances.
Usually, those that fight for the legalization of abortion argue that abortion should be legalized because where the pregnancy is a threat to the mother, then the mother should be saved. Medical practice does not work substitution method or prioritizes one life over the other even where the other life is not complete (foetus). Medical practitioners in instance of pregnancy complications, work or should work towards saving the life of both the mother and the unborn child. Don’t medical practitioners already take the safest path in times where mother’s life is at stake and the survival of the unborn is of least probability if not impossible?  Finally, the statistics of pregnancy termination (done or supposed to have been done) as a result of medical complications is never brought out to light or discussed. Such tells a story.

The main issue surrounding abortion, which is rarely discussed, is the denial of responsibility. Every action has a reaction and sexual intercourse among other things results in pregnancy. Sexual Intercourse is a responsibility but most times, it is treated as a mere source of pleasure to the extent that even what results in it is nothing but an inconvenience. It is essential that all ages, with emphasis on young people, should be acquainted with the value of life and resistance to acts leading to unwanted pregnancies. Of importance is the empowerment of the girl child who when empowered cannot be [easily] victimized to rape or incest. This also goes together in State combating crime such as rape and defilement as well as bad cultural practices. The Church on the other hand, needs to stop its hypocrisy and slumbering. It is hypocritical for the Church to come-out and condemn abortion just because the issue is being considered for legalization, when everyday Pharmacies are selling thousands of pills to inhibit zygote’s growth or Banja La Mtsogolo clinics are terminating pregnancies. The danger in this Church’s slumber lies in that the rich and well to do get the services at a cost as they can afford, while the poor are condemned to reprimands of the law. This is unacceptable. Churches should be defenders of the poor not perpetrators of unjust treatment. In another script, this sounds/looks like the Church would rather have abortions take place in secrecy and private and enjoyed only by the haves than all citizens in an organized and recognized systems/platforms.

Abortion is the act of ending the development of a human being inhibiting that progress to prevent the foetus from becoming a full and autonomous human being. To argue for abortion on the substantive point of promoting the autonomy of a human being, is clearly Ironic. While a woman has rights, when exercising such rights, she should not be allowed to exercise them at the expense of a foetus. Whereas the life of the woman matters, the survival and full development of a foetus matters too just like #BlackLivesMatter. Fighting against the law to legalize abortion is very recommendable, but the Church in Malawi has to do more as far as saving the unborn is concerned. The slumbering efforts taken to fight abortions perpetrates injustice against the women living in poverty as it sentence them to unsafe abortions. Efforts need to go beyond fighting legalizing abortion to fighting premarital sex, unwanted pregnancies and abortions (secret) where one gets pregnant. Of great importance is fighting stigma against girls or women who get pregnant in school or outside wedlock. Such is as powerful as eliminating secret hot-spots for pregnancy terminations.  There is no Cause worthy standing for more than the Pro-Life Movement whether against Death Penalty or Abortion, as the sanctity of life needs no further decoration for approval. Abortion is never Safe, whether medically, morally, spiritually or in whatever context as such Safe Abortion campaigns have no nod in human race.

By Alexious Kamangila; Private Legal Practitioner (Naphambo&Co.), Feminist.

Random Thoughts on the Abortion Bill

with Richard Kamwezi... who we presume you already know.

Another Friday.

Ever since I started sharing the views of people on the Termination of Pregnancy Bill (and even before that) people have been asking me what my views were. Rather interestingly, some have been asking me for my “professional opinion” taking it from the fact that I come from the health profession. I found that pretty interesting because the last time I went into a debate on the Abortion Bill, I was in a meeting of the Society of Medical Doctors and a rather hot debate emerged. At the end of the day, even the Society of Medical Doctors did not reach a conclusion as to what the stance of medical doctors on the legalization of safe abortion is. This is probably why such a thing as a professional opinion would be rare if not non-existent as it all goes back to personal beliefs and convictions.

There has been a surge of reactions to the abortion bill following the demonstrations organized by the Episcopal Conference of Malawi and the Evangelical Association of Malawi. The social media is awash with comments on the issue of abortion and some of the comments make me wonder if people know what the new bill and its implications.

So, how did we end up with the bill that has divided Malawi’s elite into pro-life and pro-choice? The Malawi government decided to review its policies on termination of pregnancy and there were special “people” (I think they call them commissioners or something) who were chosen to review the draft. The commission comprised of lawyers, religious leaders and rather necessarily a gynecologist (only one). I would have had the names of the people who were on the commission if I put some effort into it, but I doubt that I would have had the courage to put them in this article with the heat around the issue. The job of these people was to draft a new bill on the termination of pregnancy for tabling in parliament. As expected, they came up with the document we are all reacting to and referring to as the abortion bill.

In short, the bill talks about the circumstances in which termination of pregnancy can be allowed, who has to do it and under what conditions. I have reasons to believe that most of you have some vague knowledge of some of what I have said. I personally would say that I understand the viewpoint of the people who drafted the bill. Looking at the conditions that abortion can be allowed I the country as stipulated by the bill, one would note that the rules have been loosened. The possible reason for this, however might be that people might have seen the need for bringing in the safety for those people who would like to terminate pregnancy for reasons like incest or rape. Their reasoning might be that whether it is done in the hospital or not some of them still go on and procure abortions and that some of them do it in the “unsafest” of places. The interesting thing is that they later present with post-abortion complications using up government resources, human or otherwise.

On the other side of the same coin, I know Malawi as a country where regulation of pretty much anything is a bit of an issue. While the termination of pregnancy issue has conditions on when termination of pregnancy should happen, I am inclined to think that the legalization of the termination of pregnancy as stipulated by the bill will equate to the legalization of abortion on demand. Every person who has been in Malawi for at least a year would understand this and it is because people have their own way of manipulating the system. This is the same fear that people who have labeled themselves as pro-life are using as one of their arguments (only that they are not presenting it the right way). On the other end of the spectrum, we have people who are realists; those who acknowledge that abortions are happening in the country and that we just need to bring the safety to those who need them. The two groups have gone on to copy western faction system where we have pro-life people on the “holy” end of the spectrum and the pro-life on the liberal side of it. I find this very faulty for the issue at hand and this is why I am not commenting on whether we should legalize abortion or not, but rather on what it wrong with the bill. This should not be a debate on whether the bill should be passed or not because MPs are the ones who have the constitutional power of waiving or shooting it down. What we should soberly be discussing (and not debating) is the issue of what should be changed in the termination of pregnancy bill to make it more practical so that it should do more good than harm. I am bringing this up because I have seen an intersection of arguments and that what all people want; whether pro-life or pro-choice might just be the same thing at the end of the day; a healthier nation.

I have heard people who are campaigning against the legalization of the termination of pregnancy putting up arguments that even in situations that endanger the life of the mother, termination should not occur. What we are failing to see here is the fact that if we lose the mother in pregnancy we also lose the child whose rights we claim to be fighting for. I am not sure as to whether to comment on the issues of rape and incest because when I look at those, I find myself in agreement with the pro-life; there are other ways of avoiding pregnancies resulting from such and we should capitalize on them rather than push for legalization of termination. One might argue that things are not always perfect and that we still need to make a provision for when things go wrong. While that might be a valid point, our bill is very loose when it comes to who authorizes the act of termination unlike in other countries like Zambia where after obtaining a police report, two specialist gynecologists have to sign for you to get your termination. The level of effort people have to put in acts as a hinderance and people do not terminate as frequently.

The pro-choice are putting a lot of emphasis on the fact that we need to promote safe abortions whose unsafe versions are already happening in the society. It is a valid point if you look at the complications of abortion that we treat in our hospitals on a daily basis. We could probably save a bit of money we spend on treating these post-abortion complications and we could prevent loss of life if we were providing safer options for our women and girls. When I look at the potential abuse this may face, however, I find myself wondering why we should divert our attention from other issues to start providing the termination of these potentially avoidable pregnancies.

I find myself partly agreeing and partly disagreeing with both the pro-life and the pro-choice. That tells me that we do not need these factions. What we need to do is to sit on the same table and to see what can be allowed into the bill to make it accommodative while making it abuse free at the same time. We have to look at each other as allies not as enemies. What we have to know is that abortions, whether necessary or not, are happening in our hospitals and in our communities. I find it faulty to be fighting against necessary terminations that are aimed at saving the lives of the mother and I suggest that we focus our attention towards the discussion on the other conditions for the termination of pregnancy.

While pondering on what is best for the bill and for the country, think of the 14 year old girl who has no proper support system and is pregnant having been a victim of rape. Would you be inclined to provide termination to save their life? Or would you overlook the complications of pregnancy and childbirth ahead? I do not have the answers, but these are the sort of dilemmas that people will have to deal with when the law is passed.

There are a lot of people who are arguing based on religious beliefs while others are arguing based on science and statistics. I think there is a provision for merging the two and we can come up with a solution that is appealing for both. The commission that came up with the bill we are debating had both ends plus people from the legal profession. I am sure that could be replicated as we aim at amending the bill.
Final word? The issue of the termination of pregnancy bill should be a discussion more than it should be a debate. The bill is a necessary thing but I would want to see it amended before it is passed.

Pro-life and pro-choice fellas. Let's get off the extremism and get on the discussion table. It is not easy, but this bill can be fixed.

Oppressing a silent majority, the fight against safe abortion

Views on the Abortion Bill with Chikondi Mwale

The poor continue to be denied access to the much needed services they seek

Those who can afford abortion in Malawi, do manage to get safe termination of pregnancy. Those who can't afford it come to Government hospitals with complications of their  unsafe  abortions.

I think you get my stancce. It is those who can't afford it, that are being denied this  service regardless of whether it is legal or not. The rich/middle class abort safely whenever and however they want. Funny enough they are the ones protesting in the streets.

The poor and those who really need it are being silenced by the well to do religious leaders.

Chikondi Mwale is a medical doctor at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi.

"Let's Sort the Real Issue"

Views on the Abortion Bill with Morgan Kamanga.

I truly believe that this whole abortion thing is being handled in a wrong way. I would not give you the “it is a sin” argument considering that we are from different religious beliefs and after all we are all sinners. I take Abortion as a symptom to a bigger problem in the society. Legalising it will just be the same as giving painkillers to a malaria patient and expect them to get better. I have asked some of the advocates of abortion why they believe killing innocent babies is okay and should be protected by the law. Some argue that some of the women have been raped and any child born from it would be a constant reminder of the horror and would derail the future of the woman because she now has to be taking care of a baby she did not plan for. What these people fail to see is that the problem is the rape. Why can’t we focus on dealing with rape issue to protect the women so that they wouldn’t have to make this horrible choice of ending the life of the unborn?

In all scenarios most of the women, if not all, resort to abortion because they did not want the pregnancies they have. I believe if we could do a sober reflection on the issue and try to find the root cause of these unwanted pregnancies by any of the numerous root cause analyses either the Five Why’s, the fish bone analysis or any other, and deal with the real cause, the “malaria”, we would be in a better position. If we can focus on reducing or even eliminating the number of the unwanted pregnancies we wouldn’t have to worry about abortions. For example, if we punish rape harder and encourage those who have been raped to report in time, which is in less than 48 hours, they could get help to prevent the pregnancy.

To those who argue that we spend more on treating the incomplete abortions or complications of the unsafe abortion, I bet we have spent even more on other preventable conditions, okugwa mu mtengo wa mango, drunk drivers, those who have destroyed their liver on ma sachet and many more. I have never heard of anyone suggesting cutting down all the mango trees to save money for P.O.Ps. It’s somebody’s life not ours. We can’t put a dollar value on life, never. Am telling you, you can drink as much as you want, smoke every leaf on earth and if you get cancer or any other disease from it the so called free health system will pay for your hospitalisation until you die. And you are telling me let’s kill the babies in the hospitals to save on the MK 900.00 course of antibiotics, be serious.

Not to lose focus, it is not like if it is done in the government hospitals people will automatically stop doing it themselves, they are a lot of factors and it will take a lot of convincing for someone not to take some pills she got from a friend to go to a hospital. With the already strained health system this would be a nightmare to handle all the abortions. Ku pewa kuposa kuchiza. Let us, as a nation focus on eliminating the root causes of the unwanted pregnancies. The only people who will benefit from these mass-baby-killings will be the pharmaceutical companies producing the drugs used in abortion. It has never been about protecting our women, that’s why they never talk of eliminating the rapes or help in making family planning accessible to everyone. Politicians from the countries they force us to adopt this get campaign money from these companies. Let us not loss focus and remember abortion is advocated by those who have themselves, born. Let’s fight for those who can’t.

Morgan Kamanga is a pharmacist who practices at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.

Let God Do the Job

Views on the Abortion Bill with Louis Kaitano


Well, our country is already morally bankrupt as such I wouldn't impose my choices on some else. We are not a ' God-fearing nation as we claim.

I heard some people marched today claiming to be Pro-Life and Pro-Family, well good for them. I would love if they did the same thing against the many ills that have befallen us. Our brothers and sisters born with albinism were/are hunted in broad day light nobody gave a rat's bum.

We have our so called elected leaders who are emptying government coffers of our hard earned money. Nobody gives a rat's bum.

Our universities remain closed for some SIMPLE reasons. These universities happen to be led by the very learned idiotic good for nothing professors. You mean a learned professor can't find a common resolution with the grieved when faced with a crisis?? Come on even my drunken Group Village Headman can solve these problems easily without requiring sophisticated formulations

Any my point is, let's not be hypocrites when it comes to Abortion and Gay Laws. Our society is rocked with so many vices, what have we done as the youth, women, the clergymen, leaders etc deal with them.

We are so foced on anti-abortion, but how do these women and young girls get pregnant in the first place?? As a healthcare provider I have been approached on several occasions by girls who seen to abort after being impregnated by over libidoed pot belly idiots who promised these girls the world but left them after gushing their seeds into these unsuspecting girl and women. These women are left helpless with shuttered dreams. Hence seek abortion.

The Bible says we shouldn't judge. So, let the "MAN" above do his job.

Louis Kaitano is a regular reader on Richie Online. He practices as a Pharmacy Technician in the southern District of Nsanje.

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Random Thoughts on Education

Greetings, good people.

It is yet another wonderful Friday and we get to read something. While of you never give a thought to what happens in the developing of an article and the level of effort people put in writing these things (si milandutu), some have asked about how long it takes to write and how these topics are chosen. I do not think that this is the best platform for answering such questions, but I have to point out that writing these articles has its own challenges. There are times that you sit down with ideas streaming down to the fingers and down to the keypad and there are times that the same article takes you years because you do not have some juice to add to it. There are times that you have to dig around to find what to write on and there are times like today; times when you have a lot of people pouring champagne on other people’s cereals (if you know what I mean) thus giving you something to write about.

When I was thinking of something to write about today, a number of topics came to mind. There was that move by the National Council of Higher Education to discredit come colleges and there were the Doom anointing issues. I also had some filed experiences that I could have shared. All those had some lessons for everyone, but for some reason I have decided to tell you about my secondary school graduation.

25th September, 2009. That is the day that me and a bunch of other equally interesting people officially bade farewell to St Patrick’s secondary school. It was a colorful ceremony and I could write a book about how I injured my right hip (still hurts) while playing football against staff members, the special meal we had and the disco. Those, however, are not good for a Friday so I will talk about the speech by the Guest of Honor instead.

The man in the spotlight on the day was one Dr Isaac Munlo. I can’t remember what capacity he was acting in then let alone which international organization he worked with then (or now). While we all loved the proceedings, we all hated the delays that came with the speeches as we looked forward to the special meals and the all-men disco that followed. This was no exception and s soon as Dr Munlo was done bragging about what he had done and how much goodies he had accumulated half the hall went to sleep.

Anyway. The speech.

Rather unusually, Dr Munlo chose to title his speech”Education for What”. I still haven’t figured out whether that was a question of statement but that is probably not important. The speech focused on the main purpose of education and gave hints on why we all should treat education with the seriousness it deserves. I didn’t get much from the speech because it was probably too big for my 16 year old brain then, but he touched on a couple of crucial areas. He talked of the different viewpoints that people have when it comes to the perceived benefits of education and how some just go through it aimlessly as one of those routines. He also talked of how others have gone beyond looking at education as a means to good earnings to enhance self development in all areas of life i.e. social life, spirituality and many other areas you can think of. Sadly, I did not pay attention to the whole of the speech, but I guess he concluded with words of encouragement and told us to make the best use of education for our good and the good of those around us and the country. I am pretty sure that he said that. Definitely. Maybe.

The memory of that speech and recent experiences make me wonder as to whether more of us need these speeches. It reminds me of the rude expression, “educated savages” and makes me wonder as to whether we have too much of those around here.

One would tend to wonder why people study medicine and still get sick; study economics or other finance related “courses” and still be poor. Well. That is an extreme way of looking at the application of education, but there are times that such radicalism makes sense because on the other extreme we have people who do not have anything to show for their education outside their workplace.

On one particular day, I happened to be walking with a friend from college. He had some papers in his hand and for some reason he decided to tear them into small pieces and to throw them all over the road. When I asked him why munthu wakusambira like him was doing that, he gave me a statement I have come to relate with my experiences. He said, and I quote “sukulu imatichotsa umbuli koma siimatichotsa uchitsiru”. Ca veut dire, “school takes away our ignorance, but it does not take away our stupidity”. It is probably true, to an extent, but I am pretty sure that all of the people who feed on these articles are better than that.

I, like Dr Munlo, do believe that there is more to education than we see. It is probably why we can comfortably close universities because some plumber failed his job somewhere and that a college had dry taps. It is probably why we are busy discrediting institutions instead of creating environments that would help make them world class institutions that can fill the gap that the public universities have left. Our lack of seriousness with issues to do with education is the reason our school curriculum has little to apply in real life and it is the very reason some would rather use the money they have been given for fees to buy a gadget or drinks.

In the midst of all this, what does education mean to you?

It’s a call to all of us to use the education we have, however little to positively transform our lives and to transform the lives of others around us. Who knows, maybe we could transform the country.

Chronicles of a Traveller

Itis yet another Friday.

I would guess that a lot has gone on ever since I last wrote. I actually haven’t had the luxury of following current news so the only things I know are that the NCHE has done something terrible and that Parliament is now in session. This article would have ideally been about the proceedings in the house we call our parliament. I am pretty sure that there were a couple of blunders worth a paragraph or two there but since I failed to capture that, I will tell you about my week instead.

I, for some reason happen to be writing from some place (which I won’t disclose for security reasons) far from the usual Lunzu.
I have been moving around the southern and eastern parts of the country trying to gather some facts for some international organization called World Vision. I never saw myself acting in the capacity of a data collector, but here we are. It is not so bad, after all. I have actually learnt a couple of things that I wouldn’t have known if I had stayed at home over this period.

I guess I would do you good if I paid you the courtesy of telling you what I am doing in the middle of nowhere. World Vision has worked with communities in the country for 15 years and the mentioned period accounts to a “phase” of some sort for them. The completion of such a period called for an evaluation of the projects and that is where brilliant people like me came into play (yeah, I said it). Here we are, on what was supposed to be a nationwide tour. That is it in a nutshell.

Evaluating the interventions of an organization as big as WV required a huge work force and that invited people from all walks of life. Well. We got together and right from the training some people reminded the rest on how not to act when in a group; unnecessary comments and questions, overdressing, pestering women and all the other bad things all Richie Online readers shouldn’t do. The first week introduced me to some of the greatest fishers of attention that I have ever seen. Some people just want to be noticed wherever they go and they would do anything to achieve that. In this case? Weird dress codes, those comments we talked of, unnecessary questions, jumping into chats and many other things I didn’t observe.

What happened during training wasn’t important, though. The period was just full of lessons of how not to act around people, like I said. The past week, however, has brought me in touch with some realities that I think I will live to keep in memory.
The first thing that I have come in contact with is the extent and magnitude of poverty in the country. I have written a number of articles about poverty but I did not know what it was like out there. The conditions that people are living in out there are not fit for anything human and people should be ashamed when they say that the economy is growing or whatever they say, because the situation on the ground is just not as reported. We have people who lack basic things like food and housing and that makes me feel like I am very privileged to be in the position of complaining about electricity. Words cannot describe it all, but readers, anthu akuvutika. The worst part about it is that the very same people lack the most basic social services and some have to cycle for more than two hours to get to the nearest health center. People are getting into primary schools with o idea of where they will end up after the eight classes. I think it is time we changed the approach to eradicating poverty, and after seeing what I have seen, I am afraid I don’t know what sort of approach we can take.
On a lighter note, interacting with people from different places has been a great experience. I come from a profession where talking to people is a daily thing and some of you who deal with people in your professions know how fun it is to chat with people. There are those times that you go out as a know-it-all only to learn a lot. Point? Never undermine anyone because you never know how much they have to offer to you.

I guess we left the sad stories bit a bit too early, because the week just taught me of how unprofessional people can be. Most organizations and projects have standard operating procedures to ensure a certain standard of the output and it is amazing to learn how people break these rules for no apparent reason at all. I have written about how people shouldn’t work solely for money and while I agree that money is the motivation for most of the work we do out here (except for writing on Richie Online because people don’t get paid for writing here), we should learn to have the aims of the person who hired us at heart. The spirit of workmanship has disappeared from many and it probably one of the most important reasons we are not progressing as a country. People just don’t care about the work, so long s they get the money. So many examples I would have cited, but I guess they are not important. I would probably be talking about the same things you do in your college or workplace, anyway.

This has been a hectic but rather fruitful week. The week has given me a reason to remind you that our country is still economically poor and that you and I need to do something about it. It has also given us all a reason to reflect on workmanship and to work the way we would have wanted someone we hired to work, even when the work we are doing doesn’t directly benefit us. I didn’t mention this but one of the things I have observed is the alarming rate at which the environment is being degraded. It is high time all of us became part of the solution.
By the way, we had trouble in Zomba early this week because people thought we were somehow connected with the mysterious blood markings that were found on the walls of some houses in the Chingale area in Zomba. You just got to love supersitition.

Happy Friday and blessed weekend everyone and a happy birthday to Charles Lipenga.

Chi-Trump

Today is  wonderful Sunday. The sun is almost at full intensity in Zomba and it looks like we will be having a hot day today. I hope the weather will be “stand-friendly” as I look forward to the all-military soccer game between Red Lions and Moyale Barracks. Those of you who know me know which one I will be supporting.

Before I continue my hibber jabber I have to extend a word of apology; not for not brining an article on Friday, but rather for not telling you why. In short, forces combined and put me out of the writing business for the past two days. I was not certain they would settle so I did not want to promise anything. I just wanted to throw the link when it was ready. It will probably happen again, but be sure it won’t be intentional. Sori.

Last week someone spent some time talking about how Trump defied the odds and won the presidency when prophecy had stipulated otherwise. I must say that last week’s article was one of the best I have read on this blog. I hope you agree.

The US elections brought in a lot of controversy and attracted a lot of attention (not mine, of course). Immediately after Trump’s victory we saw a lot of Trump-related things circulating around the social media. Of course I had some favorites namely the Trump Bar and the video of the President elect beating sanity into someone outside a wrestling ring (looks like WWE Smackdown, but I am not sure). That is just one of those things, anyway. We all circulate these things and more. Some of you have even been all over sharing a video of my daughter, Angie (now known as Abiti Frozy) on Whatsapp.

The Trump fever coincided with the announcement of the ne K2000 note and when the names for the note were suggested (others being nyamakazi, robust, Frozy etc) the Trump name seemed to outclass the others when it came to popularity. I will not be surprised if “chi-Trump” becomes the official name of the K2000 note come 19 December. That reminds me of the Osama Bin Laden milk scone in the early 2000’s.

Let’s talk about the new note, shall we?

Just when I thought they went too far with the notes when they released the aloe vera, the Reserve Bank has released the K2000 note.  The announcement has generated a lot of reaction and I just want to point out what a couple of criers said and why they deserve to be heard. 

The first group is that of the praise and worship team for the country; those people who speak in favor of every proposed change from the “gaffment” side. As usual (like with the issues of the flag change) they have gone on and praised the Reserve Bank for the new note citing that it will relieve the burden of carrying cash for those who need to. Sounds like a valid argument. Chi-Trump will allow you to carry almost two times the amount of money in almost the same space you carry the aloes. Sounds like a fair deal, but I don’t think they considered the possibility of losing the money. I remember the fear that came with the K500 note (we didn’t have much of it when the K1000 note, but this K2000 note will have the same effect, I am sure). My parents stopped sending me to the market for a while for the fear of having me lose the big note. Valid concern, considering my track record. Imagine losing the K2000 note. That is a KFC meal, or a 1GB bundle or food for one week or a return ticket from Zomba to Blantyre depending on whether you are mwana ofewa or not. I wouldn’t want to lose it, so I would rather not have it. I mean, I will continue to take my chances with the bulky aloes.

The other people who commented on the new note are those who need to give change a lot and conductors in particular are worried about what is coming their way. We pay K150 between Chirimba and Lunzu and someone will throw the joker and pay the big note for the same distance. He will need his change in no time and I am not sure the conductor will be able to provide it in a short time. That is just one of the situations and I am sure you know other examples.

On a more serious note, the new note is an indication that the value of our money is going down. Bingu probably saw this when he fought the devaluation. We will soon wake up to a K5000 note if the trends continue and that will be a bad indicator from my little knowledge of economics. I hope we will not get there.

All in all, the coming of the K2000 note should be a wake-up call. The value of our money is getting down and now that our highest note has just been succeeded by something two times its value, we probably need to find strategies for making two times the money we make now. Just to keep up, you know….

Happy Sunday, everyone.

OF TRUMP, PROPHETS AND OPINION POLLS

It's great to be accorded another opportunity and share some thoughts on the trending local and global issues via this Blog. I still enjoy reading your positive feedbacks when I wrote back on this same platform.

Not officially verified but it is certain that one name has been widely spoken, tweeted, pasted and snarled than most over this fading week, Trump. Donald J. Trump's monolithic triumph against perhaps the most over-qualified candidate in recent years, one Hillary Rodman Clinton who was backed by both the media,  Hollywood Celebs, zombies, Pop stars,  Silicon Valley billionaires and of course even former enemy, the Bush clan. Mr Trump has reignited the feeling that an impossible mission can sometimes be a cakewalk if your trumpcards also contain  both jokers (the e-mail scandal and, just being a Killary- don't mind this one). Many Russian sponsored media outlets are salivating with the win calling it a mark of holy triumph over the evil establishment that had relegated Russian influence to a miniscule millipede. Some have even put his accidental road to the White House as resemblance of how Leicester City hoodwinked the so-called giants and eased to their first title in a century. It's a waste of time for an African, especially those of us shunted in the earthly hell of Nyasaland to start arguments on whether his win was merited or not. Our plot in the south-east of Africa (some historians still think Malawi is in Central Africa) ergo, will be affected by the events of last Tuesday in the US. Many have put it that Clinton's win was as good as delivered as was a feeling of most Golden State Warriors bandwagon fans when they took a commanding 3-1 lead in the NBA final last July. Most Malawians I know rooted for her, in a way of avenging their loss that self-exiled former presidente who failed to nail down her toes at Sanjika after being handed a life line by the sudden death of one fake Ngwazi. Well Hillary was thoroughly defeated even in previously Democrats' stronghold states. She has failed to join an ivy league of women leading big economies that include Britain's Theresa May, Berlin's Tsar Angela Merkel, and of course scandalous South Korean's Park Geun-jung. She miscalculated her chances, and Trump will go on to calculate our mediocrity and try to arrest the vice bleeding billions of Kwachas into bottomless pockets of local political cronies.

Well, in his usually trashed campaign rhetorics, Trump promised to evaluate USA's position and aid to Africa after noting that most of the green bucks were being channeled to other  eensy-weensy projects (I'm afraid if I will not forget BEAM Trust windfall from NAC). Trump said Africa need to be recolonized to remove the vice of greedy useless western educated professors with a longer than usual CV that include Karate lessons. There will come a time when having a green card will be a requirement for one to stand (we should start using to sit or walk) for president in Nyasaland. Trump is hated by Africans political Hitlers...

Well maybe not only the country rats are dreading the iron-fist rule of the grey haired fellow. The election razmatazz  also fascinated both seers, Popes, Sangomas, Prophets, Apostles and not forgetting archBishops. It's not surprising especially in Africa, where we have more Churches than there are hospitals, that religious leaders took the opportunity to cement their invincibility in as far as professing heavenly oracles is concerned. Some even challenged their toung-speaking audiences that the sun will rise from the West if their man/woman fails to stamped into the marble house in Washington DC. The name of Mbona/Yahweh/gods was used to emphasize authority over their oracles. To devastating effect, a large number of these seers have lost their reputation, if at all an iota of it was still there. In one reply to the BBC, one Ntaba speaking on behalf of his master conman in Lagos reiterated that there was a misspelling mistake over their written official prophecy, civic-educating that "it should have read Woolman not Woman... " refering to the grey hair of the winner. Fantastic. I have to say there is a thin line seperating a prophecy and a prediction which our fellow spiritual fathers and founders have exploited. Trump didn't need a prophecy to pass through a Hillary test, she was the worst candidate of the two in my opinion so much so that it would have been a mud and waterslide victory had Trump checked his mouth over many months of the battle. Officially I'm prophesying that Trump will be inaugurated on the 20th of January 2017.

And worse than prophecies were opinion polls and popularity indexes manufactured by various media outlets. We still remember the Afro-barometer which invaded the land in 2014 by producing two opinion polls in a month with varied results. Another creditable NGO hoarded everyone who could care that PPM was destined to an obvious triumph so long as the Axa bus fairs remained affordable, myopia at best. All celebrated Western Media polls gave Hillary Clinton an easy win, amd she maintained a healthy 10% exit-poll lead over the billionaire if you trust the CNN. We were meant to believe that the Republican Party had messed up big time to nominate hot bloodied Trump for a post as big as this. They have eaten their words. The media can be bought, that has always  been a fact, and Mrs Clinton was primed to a futile victory by CNN, Fox, BBC, CNB, C-Span, VOA and Dzimwe Radio in Mangochi. Its a lesson for our own half baked broadcasters to mantain integrity and not check popularity index at a mental institution.

Enjoy the weekend folks.

Random Thoughts on Communication

Another awesome Friday.

There hasn't been much going on around me and as such I actually had no one to pour a rant on. That makes writing a bit hard because like every other Malawian fault finding is all I am good at. Luckily enough, I still thought of something important to share.

We recently had issues with the rumours surrounding our leader's health to an extent that some sections of the social media killed him. One guy was so sure about the death that he actually offered another a K10 000 sum to be produced if the president showed up alive. He actually showed up in not so robust health anyway, but I don't think any 10 grand exchanged hands following his return.

A lot of people have done a lot of finger pointing over this issue of the rumours. Some have blamed this Malawian spirit (or is it African) of killing our leader's before they are actually dead. The side I stand with, however is the one that blamed the secrecy surrounding the presidency. I personally believe that a president is "public property" (forgive the choice of words) and us such the citizenry is entitled to the knowledge of his whereabouts and probably about his health. While me might not need to know if he has a brain tumor or a urinary tract infection or nyamakazi, we are entitled to know if he is not feeling well at the very least. The whole secrecy is what leads people into rumour-mongering.

I believe in proper communication in every setting and lackof communication has a lot of negative effects.  This whole "killing the president" issue is just one fish in the sea of examples that many of us have seen and it should probably teach us to say things the way they are when we need to. There are a couple of elements of communication that need to be examined from this story.

The first thing is that of the negative side of secrecy. I have every reason to believe that if we had been told where our dear leader was we wouldn't have had any reason to speculate and post on the social media about his death. We would have had no basis, but the deafening silence gave people some informal justification, however unwarranted to say whatever they wanted. It was probably just a way of squeezing the truth out of those responsible, anyway.

The same clouds of secrecy surround many people and they do not open up to others to share whatever is going on in their lives. Good things are hardly ever concealed and even if they are, no one suffers much for not sharing (except for those that get bewitched, if you believe in such things). The hard stuff that is not shared, however, eats people from the inside if not let out and that is probably why people invented the expression "suffering in silence". It is probably the grandiose attitude that people have or the fear of burdening others that sees people on the wrong side of this whole thing when they shouldn't.

The second element? Unnecessary mouthing. There are many of us who speak when we actually should stay silent. Badmouthing, providing unsolicited comments and advices, rumours, gossip and all the other things. From the look of things some people just feel compelled to be heard even when there is something to be heard. The worst of these do it in groups, probably just to grab some attention and on the other end of the group are those people who tell their stories and air their problems to anyone regardless of whether they "qualify to hear them" or not.

A look at these two sides of the same coin gives a rough idea that while it is important to talk to people about issues to avoid having a mist of uncertainty and a sense of unreleased pressure within, it is good to be cautious in choosing who to share our lives and their secrets with. One person once said that it is not wise to share problems with people because 80 percent of the people do not care that we are in trouble and 20 percent are glad we are in it. No one way of going about it, right? Yeah. None. Just like everything else. This is probably the animal called wisdom comes in (my friends who like Bible language, I am talking discernment).

The levels of communication in a family, society and any other entity determines how things because if people are able to communicate, they are able to give each other feedback and to advise one another on the way forward. No or poor communication leads to broken families, societies and countries. Some of you can relate to this because you have had people expecting you to do something without actually telling you to do it only to hear from a third party that someone expected something you could have managed when it is too late.

We have heard stories of people sitting on communications for others in institutions, consequently making them miss important and life changing opportunities. We have lack of transparency and accountability that is costing foreign taxpayer's money which is siphoned into people's pockets through NGOs because they do not tell us the whole truth of what they are doing in our areas. I shouldn't talk about the access to information bill.

On the same practical side, we need to know that there is only so much freedom we have when and if we are to talk and there is only so much we can say to particular people in particular situations. Judgemental and emotional statements are some of the things that need to be erased from our mouths along with profanity and derogatory comments. It might sound obvious to some of you, but for the rest, it is possible to correct someone who has gone wrong without calling them an ignoramus or any related word.

This piece of writing could go on and on, but the main point is that we shouldn't find ourselves in the loud or silent ends of communication. The middle does everyone good and it is probably where everyone should be. As usual, some will continue to be in the extremes because they haven't read the wise writing of the great Richie. Bear with them and patiently show them the way to the middle.

Nice weekend to all.

Random Thoughts on Public Transport

Friday.

Last week the desk got a bit messy and ESCOM people did not help much when it got cleared. Unfortunately there was no guest writer to rescue the tradition so we had to go without an article. There was a promise of a mid week article, I guess. It turns out that Richie is not a man of his word as we all thought. Those are bygones, anyway. We are enjoying the article today.

I have every reason to believe that every reader here has had a feel of public transport. A lot is happening around public transport and the thought of writing this made me wonder why I haven’t written 9 articles about this already.
I was not born a long time ago, and I happened to be raised in the country; Mulanje (ndakulira pa Chisitu), Zomba and Chiradzulu. In such areas, I did not get to experience much of a certain element of public transportation as we know it now; intra-city travel .On the other hand, I had my fair share of Stagecoach, Tuwiche, Yanu Yanu and Zisintha rides. A bit of Shire Bus Lines too.

By the time I got to secondary school, buses were close to non-operational on the Blantyre-Zomba road the only option I had was to take minibuses (or m’dula moyo as the late Twaliki Hassan Wisiki aka Adha Mhone used to call them on Malawi Night) to Mzedi where I was for four years. I didn’t have much of a bad experience with those. I have known a great deal about public transport in the past two years and honestly I do not have fond memories of it.

Those of us who have taken our local buses between the cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe can relate to the delays that take place when you travel this distance. Up to now I still do not get why a bus from Lilongwe to Blantyre takes 40 minutes to travel from the depot to Bunda roundabout; but that happens on a majority of the buses, anyway. When you are on the reverse journey, you have those annoying stops at Kameza, Lunzu, Lirangwe, Mdeka, Zalewa and Mwanza turn-off. As if that is not bad enough, once in a while you can get a treat of more stops in some undocumented areas around Manjawira and Phalula. Some would tell me off and tell me to get a coach instead, but it is important to realize that not all of us can afford to “go the distance” with Premier Coaches or to get on that AXA coach, whose fare from Blantyre is equal to that of a return ticket for the same distance on a Zonobiya bus. You will even have some change for dry chips at Ntcheu and some money for the Area 12-Kauma or Chilomoni-Nthukwa minibus, depending on your destination.

The buses we have for intercity travel leave a lot to be desired in terms of reliability and punctuality and it is not unheard of to have a breakdown or something of the sort. The whole idea of inter-city travel freaks some people out just because of the quality of the means of transport between our cities. In fact you cannot plan to go travel between BT and Lilongwe in specified times if you are on our local buses
Just like inter-city travel, travel within our cities on public transport leaves a lot to be desired. Delays are the order of the day and distances that can be covered in 20 minutes on a normal drive can take thrice as long. I have paid dearly for putting too much faith in our public transport and at one time I failed to make it when I had an important appointment. If you think I was negligent, I left home in Lunzu  90 minutes early for an appointment in Ndirande, only to get there an hour and forty minutes later. Then there are the rude conductors who always seem to forget who has given them what bank note. If you get a minibus along the Limbe-Chirimba-Lunzu axis around 6 in the evening you are almost guaranteed that you will hear or be involved in a squabble involving change. I once got involved in such and made it a resolution that I never hand a “Kamuzu” to a Chirimba-Lunzu conductor.

Caller boys have their own way of adding to the trouble of a minibus ride. I am told the whole shouting thing got outlawed, and as such we do not have the typical caller boys, in as much as we still have some who masquerade as something else. A generation of people called “a timing” has risen and these are fellas who get on a minibus to give you the impression that it is almost full, so that you can jump on it. I am told that these guys have developed an extra trade of fishing cellphones and money out of unsuspecting people’s pockets in the town of Limbe. I personally wasn’t surprised to hear this. I guess we all know what to do in such situations, anyway.
While these shunting minibuses have a lot of issues, you do get to see a good side of them once in a while; for the wrong reasons of course. Once in a while you do meet that clown or drunk who puts everyone in a jovial mood and gets everyone to chip in with a comment and laugh at something that doesn’t concern them. Then there are those sunny conversations between the driver and the conductor, or the radio program commenting on minibus operators’ behavior. Such would make you think you don’t have to part with the beauty of public transport for a moment.
I have travelled a bit and I think our public transport could use a bit of organization. The idea of advance tickets and fixed departure and arrival times on our local buses is not something we would call far-fetched and our buses could use more polite operators and routine maintenance. The biggest challenge to this, however, would be the cost that would come with the services.

A friend of mine who has been to Amsterdam once told me that you just need a fiver (5 Euros) to get a ticket that will allow you to get  on any bus of that company within a period of 24 hours. That is an equivalent of about K4000 to travel any distance; Kachere to Mpemba, Lunzu to Chilobwe, Chilomoni to Chigumula. While this may be a fair deal to those who travel a lot, some would think that it is a waste. Out there this is a great deal used by many (grab a tip if you want to visit Amsterdam).

Intercity travel is dominated by trains out there, and you would pay an equivalent of K20, 000 or so to travel a distance equivalent to the Lilongwe-Ntcheu one. For that you get a nicely fixed schedule, no unnecessary pick-ups and comfort. I am not sure if we have people who would be willing to pay such amounts here, but it is such costs that are helping people get the nice services elsewhere.

So…

What are we saying? Public transport out here leaves a lot to be desired, and while it is bearable, all of use could use a more comfortable option. Prescription? Y’all guys should buy cars, because gone are the days when cars were deemed luxurious (if you have one and you think it is a luxury, contact me for special prayers. While waiting for the day you will walk into that BeForward of CFAO office, at least get a coach when travelling between the cities and jump on a taxi when moving within, for comfort's sake. When you have some extra to spend, that it. Other than that, we still have national bus company and our minibuses. They are not that bad, anyway.

Shout out to anyone reading this while on Public transport. You are a survivor.

Special shout to readers Alfred and Mphatso who are getting engaged this Sunday. All the best, lovebirds.

Handling Money

It is another Friday.
There is a lot going on in the country and more than half of those things should not be happening at all. Blackouts are still haunting us and getting worse by the hour as promised by the power supplier a couple of months ago. The leader of the nation is nowhere to be seen and at some point not even his Minister of Information had sufficient information about his whereabouts and when he is coming home. People are leaving such crucial information about a public officer to our imagination and blaming us when we paint him with diagnoses and worse. Anyway. Such is life, I guess.

The other big thing going on is the Mother’s Day Holiday. So much talk around the day and there are a lot of things people plan to do for their mothers. With my account being in the red zone, I can only stand and watch my sisters bring some goodies for my mum while I wonder whether to leave home (to relieve her of my presence for the big day because I am a bit of trouble) or to stay home and bore her with my long stories (complaints about being unemployed, mostly) because she deserves more of my time. I guess I have some hours to figure that out, but to those who have means, let us surprise our mothers (where mother includes but is not limited to biological mother) on their day.

This whole Mother’s Day holiday has reminded me of the messages that circulate in the social media in similar seasons; about how other people spend so much on MG2 when their parents hardly have anything to it. The messages always have this funny ending citing the punishment that it reserved for those; some lightning strike or something. It is something that is circulated for fun but from it all of us have how and what we spend on to learn. Reflecting along the same lines got me thinking about spending and handling money in general.

Money is one of the most discussed subjects across the globe and the most interesting thing is that whenever we are talking money, most times we tend to be discussing things to do with how to make it. I mean, the whole cash gate and IFMIS thing; that probably took some meetings in some nicely air conditioned room by the beach in Mangochi or Salima, right? Just thinking. The point is that money drives a lot in this world and being a Malawian you have at least two problems that somebody is cashing out on. Fact.

While the making of money is a widely discussed issue, little attention is paid to the handling of money. I was once ambushed with a difficult question by one speaker in a church meeting. He asked us as to what we would do if we were to find all the material resources and money we ever dreamt of in our possession in an instant. The answers that we had were not that convincing as most of us had a more self centered attitude towards money and all we wanted was to have billions in dollars without a clear idea of what we wanted to do with them. While this might have  changed for me and and most people who have had the time to think about this crucial topic, not everyone thinks about this and that has cost a lot of people some opportunities to do something positive or make a difference in their own or other people's lives.

If you take a look at cash gate convicts, you will hear that some were caught with millions in cash in the trunks of their cars. They had enough to use at home and elsewhere but that money just had to stay there, to be taken out a million at a time whenever they had figured something to do with it out.

The other batch of people? Young graduates of course. These are the people who find some jobs with an actual salary after toiling with school. They are in the late 20's or early 30's and they have no dependents whatsoever. A 32' screen is already at home with DSTV subscribed. Fridge is full (if at all anthu mukumaikabe zinthu mu fridge) and everything is well with a six figure sum in the account to spare. What do they do? Drink themselves to death, of course. While I personally do not condemn drinking, I think there are good and tolerable levels to it and people just shoot through the roof with this thanks to excess money. And then there is this thing of renting a house in a small township just for sexual endeavors. Zikuchitika ndithu and while it is not everyone doing that, there are people doing that. And I am not only talking about the young graduates.

The two examples cited above just show how sometimes money can change people and it is worthwhile to note that not everyone has gone that trail. There are a lot people who haven't lost their heads despite having fat wallets and accounts. That in itself begs the question as to what leads to some of these things people do because of money.

A lot of abuse of money comes iin due to the fact that some of the money people get is not earned. No hard work whatsoever and then someone has millions all of the sudden. Ndalama yatsoka or ya minyama, some have called it and interestingly enough it happens because the handlers in question didn't have a clue of what was coming their way and thus did not prepare for it. We all have done that, at some point. This is a thing others have called getting rich without going through the process of getting rich.

The other reason is some mere lack of planning. That needs no explaining. If you do not see beyond 10 years from now saving and investing seriously do not resonate at the same wavelength with your thought processes.

You might have your own reasons and theories on the reasons that read to the same phenomena of mishandling money, but I think on the most part it is because most of us have never reflected on the question I was asked; on what we would do if we had all we dreamt of. The solution to that is of course simple and you can start reflecting on it now. The interesting thing is that the thought of such things brings in some discipline and positivity in one's spending habits. Try it.

If you are the sort of person who believes in the significance of discipline with spending, you should also pay attention to the way you make money. Generally people who get money through dubious means end up blowing it on "nothings" (apart from the few who have built mansions in Lilongwe). People who have earned their money on the other hand, are more prudent with the fruit of their sweat and exercise discipline with the way they spend. Again, there are some exceptions to this and they have to be acknowledged.

Take home message?

There are some rules of money that people have written and sold books about. While you might not have time to read all of their writings, it is important to understand that there has to be a bit of discipline exercised in the earning and spending of money; and that the two are linked.

During my orientation week at the College of Medicine, one Dr Cornelius Huwa (Hi, Coach) who was talking to us about financial management told us that the reason most of us do not progress financially is that we spend most of our time learning trades that help us to make money, while we have no knowledge of how to manage it. Probably high time everyone invested in the knowledge of financial management.

Management is wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and potential mothers on the Richie Online readers list.

Random Thoughts on Standards

I read a lot of things in these social networks and here is one of my favorites from the past week. It is about electricity of course.

"Nkula Hydroelectric Power Plant has a design capacity of 124 MegaWatts. The first unit was commissioned in 1966 and the last in 1992. Tedzani Hydroelectric Power Plant has a design capacity of 92 MegaWatts. The first unit was commissioned in 1973 and the last in 1995.  Kapichira Hydroelectric Power Plant has a design capacity of 129 MegaWatts. The first unit was commissioned in 2000. Wovwe Mini Hydro has a design capacity of 4.35 MegaWatts. Mzuzu Diesel Unit has a capacity of 1.1 MegaWatts. Likoma Islands Diesel Units have a capacity of 1.05 MegaWatts. Chizumulu Islands Diesel Units have a capacity of 300 KiloWatts.

The total pojected installed capacity for the ESCOM system, inclusive of standby thermal plants is around 353 MegaWatts, however the present distribution is 288 MegaWatts.

Initial plans in 1966 was to produce 300 MegaWatts for a projected 30 year period to 300,000 homes and industries. However, 50 years later it seems no plans were made after the 30 year period elapsed to improve the infrastructure or increase the electricity generation.

At the moment Malawi requires 1 GigaWatt (1,000 MegaWatts) of electricity generation capacity for a projected 1 million homes, including industries. The reason there are massive blackouts is due to the fact that ESCOM can only generate 288 MegaWatts instead of 1,000 MegaWatts. That's a whopping 712 MegaWatts shortfall."

Well. Some of you are wondering why I am posting that. I am not working for ESCOM, by the way and I am just sharing something I saw on Facebook and later on WhatsApp.

Some of you might think that I would like to take a swipe at ESCOM yet again. Not at all. I just dragged ESCOM into this because I wanted a relatable example.

When the above "statement" was posted on Facebook in the so called My Malawi My Views group, it attracted a diverse range of views. People were divided into two groups; pro-ESCOM (those who heavily defended the supplier) and pro-electricity (those who still questioned why we still have blackouts). Of course there were some unclassified fellas who were calling for the head of Peter Mutharika. We always have some votes turning out to be null and void during general elections, anyway. I guess these are the people.

The people that caught my attention from the discussion were those that were pro-ESCOM. Some argued rationally to say that the supplier had a limited capacity and cannot make up for the deficit as it is. These has the voice of reason and what I had for them was the question as to why they were not finding the means to make up. They failed to give convincing answers, anyway, because the question was probably way above their pay grade.

The other group that came to the party provided the lamest arguments I have ever heard in any of the electricity talks anywhere: "There are people out there suffering with wars around them, hunger and disease outbreaks and all you can complain of are blackouts?" That statement and other similar expressions got me worried about the adults we are keeping in this country and if you are with them on this, I am worried about you too.

I have a problem with that argument because what we have here is that we either we have someone trivializing the issue or rather that someone has no  regard of something called a standard.

Since the coming of civilization, man has made many important advances that his life easier and more comfortable. That is very important and I consider electricity to be one of such important inventions. I actually think that everyone should have access to electricity (as opposed to electricity having access to people which is the case in many low income countries including ours). In fact to me electricity is a basic need for everyone but just as some inventions like the plough haven't yet found many of us after thousands of years of being used in ancient civilizations, more than seven tenths of the nation is yet to have access to the commodity. The rest of the people have intermittent access to electricity; 18 hours of darkness and 6 of lights everyday. Pretty much.

That has me wondering as to why someone would have the courage to go on a public forum to say that we should not voice our views on the lack of power because we are enjoying peace. No one said that you can only have one of these, anyway and there are some countries where a consistent and universal power supply nicely coexists with national peace.

There is a spirit of lack dwelling among us and it cries out loud to justify the mediocrity around us. While the challenges we have around us may be inevitable, we should always acknowledge that they are challenges and they need to be addressed for us to have a better life.

We have grown in a country where we have a lot of challenges but we need to rise above our challenges when defining the standard of life for ourselves. There is something called a standard in life and all of us need to define that of our own and for the people around us. We need to create our own worlds for us and for others in this so-called failed state where a basic need will be such. It is probably the only way through which some of our friends and family will get to live the best lives they can live.

Back to the ESCOM statement, I like to believe that knowing a problem is the first step to solving it. I hope that the same rule applies to dear ESCOM otherwise I only see problems being highlighted there with no accompanying solutions. Worrying. Very worrying.

Random Thoughts on Change

The blame game
I have been doing a lot of Facebooking recently. Pretty expected for a guy who is not on a full time job, right? It's not bad in fact. You get to see the same old things you thought that people stopped doing. People complaining about what others are doing in their inbox. Others complaining about the government and people trying to hide on neutral political ground online while throwing partisan jabs at others and campaigning in the background. Tikuziona ndithu and those are normal trends. Zathu zomwe.

Of late, however, there has risen a generation of facebookers who have given themselves the mission of holding the government accountable. I need to put the word government in perspective here. In Malawi when we talk of government, we may mean two things. The first one is the technical government which resides in Capitol Hill. Always has. The other government is the political one which may be in Mtunthama, Kapoloma, Goliati or Malosa depending on the people running it. These "accountants" in question have put themselves in the position of sorting out the political gaffment by questioning and blaming.

Blaming the gaffment is no new issue. I have done it before in the Joyce Banda era. That was probably because I was irritated with her globetrotting and unceasing local travel; ng'ombe here, mwala wamadziko there. Those complaints, however had no basis. She had not campaigned to me and told me in the face that she will cut spending by not moving around a lot. The "accountants" however, are ripping off pages from the nice DPP 2014 manifesto and pasting them in the open. Now that is some perfection there. "You told us you will fix energy and mining, but why do we still have rampant blackouts?" You just got to love the modern Malawian young person. Good, there.

While others are busy with the manifesto and all, some have still not perfected their blame game and are still calling the President names and everything else. Silly, right? He probably isn't on Facebook and the people who report to him lie to him, anyway. So whether you call him names (a thing the Bible which I subscribe to doesn't approve), it probably won't have an impact. Interestingly, the perfect thing of trying to hold the government of the day accountable by waving their manifesto in the public doesn't work either. At least not in the short term. The reason is the same that they don't see it but in case you think you are going to send the your complaints with the manifesto as your reference to some big shot (in either the government or the gaffment) and get a positive response, you need a high five to your face to wake up from the slumber which is giving you those sweet dreams.

What's the point of all that? Am I taking a swipe at politicians? Obviously not. I have done that for a long time, openily or otherwise but have seen little benefit. The point there is just that whether we complain or not or whether we try contact and dialogue things will hardly change. One person once complained about how things are handed to the youth (on a rare ocassion, anyway) by the Ministry responsible without the youth having a say on what they want. Some big shot at Capitol Hill probably saw that and just said, "so what?"

The reality of the ground is that our complaints and big fat black blaming fingers to the government may help relieve us of the heat of anger but they will do nothing to change anything in the government systems. Are they still worth it? Your answer is as good as mine.

The point I have today is that of telling you what you already know. This country is not in the best of conditions and it needs fixing. Fact, right there. Undeniable fact. What you may not know is that it will not be the government that will fix that so instead of fixing the government system like Allan Ntata is, I guess we have to focus directly on fixing the country.

Ambitious? Yes. Possible? Yes. Easy? NO!

While we all have thought about how "governments" can change the countryfor the better, we also have ideas on what things can have an immediate positive change on the people who are around us, be it at family or community level. Some of us work in parastatals and in the private sector and have innovative ideas that can transform this state of ours. High time we got in pursuit of the things we think are necessary and feasible.

While things may not be the same for those in the public sector, I think the civil service still leaves some room for small improvements. I believe that all these things are possible and can make a difference, however little in the state of things in this country.

We have a reasonable fraction of humans that think mindset change is the way to go for Malawi. It is only fair that those of us who believe in it begin to change the mindset of those around us and beyond. Some do believe that it is entrepreneurship and job creation that will see this country through the abject poverty that we are in. Well, there you go then. Train people in the ways of entrepreneurship and help them secure the loans for the thing. Release them and let them do the necessary.

Malawi is a blessed nation and it has what it takes to move forward. What it needs the most are agents of change who can convert the potential we have into something tangible. Mind you, we do not need people who know about how not to run the government and how to post about it in the social media and online publications. We need people who realize that the government is but one institution through which change can be effected and that while it is the main player, there is something however little that we can do to see a better Malawi.

Will people still complain and blame the government? Obviously. You do not have to join the bandwagon, though. Let's think of ways and act. Start where you are with what you have.

Random Thoughts on Fundraising

Today is a Tuesday.

Honestly I did not want to write today and I only did it because I want to maintain my reputation as "a man of his word".

So, what do we have on a Tuesday evening? More fault finding, unfortunately. Don't worry, though because if is not about politicians. Some of you here have labelled me a budding politician. Ndakukanani.

Ideally, I wanted to write something about making a difference and all that. Productive stuff, but just as I was to start drafting ESCOM did their thing and that (believe it or not) disturbed my line of thought. It brought me to the memories of the not so perfect country we live in and switched me back to the fault finding mode. Or witch hunting mode if you like.

On Saturday I happened to be in Limbe. I was actually waiting for my friend from the Lower States who was in town and wanted a meet up. I was waiting for him at the Post Office (ndipamene anthu timakumanirana mu Limbe) and was lost in scouting for nice cars in the one way Churchill Road when an uninvited guest aroused me from my important activity.

Here was some middle aged man, fairly dressed (was a relief, the dressing). Kind man. He greeted me nicely. Towards the end of the greeting he produced an envelope out of nowhere and began to introduce himself as someone who works for some 'ministry' that does charity works in some areas around what Vincent Wandale would call the Traditionalist Republic. We all know where this went, right? Yeah. Asking for money.

As I said, the guy was moving with some documents. They had some official (District Commissioner's, I think) stamp and they were some sort of authorization for soliciting of funds from random people. There was one catchy thing about this authorization, though. It was written "Chakuti Chakuti" International Ministries. The word international got me wondering whether this was just a scam or whether it was just another grouping abusing the word "international" (mukudziwa ma international churches tili nawo mmagandafuta mmenemu). My mind raced and I got myself matching the word international with the standard of the mode of fundraising that was at play and the scope of the work the money was supposedly going to help in (I think there was a mention of 12 orphanages). Something wasn't right about this, because if I was to help, I wouldn't have contributed anything beyond an aloe vera. Sadly for this man I only had K600 in my pocket; K400 forbmy transport to Lunzu and K200 contingency in case I stepped on somebody's tomatoes (we all need that, plus I got really big feet that could misbehave anytime). I unfortunately didn't help and one unanswered question that keeps coming is that of what I would have done if I had the money.

This was just one of the stories about what we could call second generation solicitors. These are not the "ndikuchokera kuchipatala" type, but they do come in with stamped papers coming for help. Cancer patients looking for money for chemo, teens looking for fees, choirs looking for equipment and people looking for money for orphanages. While I agree that these are good causes, I have every reason to disagree with this mode of fundraising. Why? Firstly it is inefficient and secondly it is suspicious. I wouldn't have to explain the second point but I think I should for the first.

I do not have experience with running an orphanage, but my assumption is that it would be an expensive activity. It would involve providing food and possibly clothing to a reasonable  number of children and personally I do not see how a form in town, where people would mostly contribute change would suffice. I might be wrong. Choir looking for a PA system? After a number of rounds with a 20 member team, maybe. Not an efficient and dignified means, in my view.

On this being suspicious, well, it always is suspicious, isn't it? How sure would you be that the money is indeed going to the supposed cause? Someone could be coming and telling you they need chemotherapy in Tanzania and truly so, but how sure are you that someone hasn't yet covered the bill and the guy is only using the papers to dupe you? Difficult to know, right? Fundraiser for a local church? You may sign your name against the amount you gave, but how sure are you that the money and your signatures will head the right direction without diversion? Suspicious.

Having said that, I do not mean to dismiss everyone who is out there asking for money. My point is that there is a need for a reasonable approach to some of these things and while they may work, it is important to realize that there are better options elsewhere.

Most of us are people who like to make a positive change and that is something to be hailed. Some of us are in desperate need for financial help and that is something that can happen to anyone. It is good to realize that there are individuals and organizations who are willing to help in such areas. I have been helped by some of those. Draft a nice proposal and put it in an envelope. Drop it in person at the company and convince the Public Relations Officers of Marketing Managers or whoever it is. Go to that Overseer at that church and approach that rich and nice individual in your area and pitch the need, otherwise izi zoyenda ndi mapepalazi is just not fit for a Richie Online reader. At least organize a big walk and write the big companies to support. If this works, it is cool. Very efficient and doesn't make you sweat more than you are suppose to. If it doesn't, on the other hand, it spares you a bit of negative emotion.

Ndiye wina ndimuone akupanga zomwezi. Ndimumenya khofi ndithu.