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.