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.