Greetings.
It is the last Friday of the year and that makes this the last article of the year. As such, I am inclined to wrap up the year with a word of gratitude. The support I have received from Richie Online Readers has been overwhelming and I have learnt to appreciate the value that all of you have put on these articles. Every Friday I do get reminders that I need to provide a read in the form of a Richie Online article and while others have made it a norm to be reading every Friday, there are some who have confessed that they let the articles accumulate and read three or four in a row. That is all awesome and it fuels the team to provide the best it can. You have all been awesome, and I guess it is high time we made you all “Fact-based Opinion”, “Richie Online” and “I am the Venomous Hope” t-shirts with a link at the back.
Today’s read…
My observation has it that people still haven’t calmed the festive season hype. With the New year around the corner, people are still moving barbecue stands around in readiness for the New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations. I on the other hand am disappointed with the Mayor of the city of Blantyre who has remained mum on how the city is going to transition into the new year. The people of Blantyre miss Noel. Away from the celebrations, however, I have noticed a general sense of readiness for the year from my circle.
I happen to be part of the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) Class of 2016 and this is a class that joined the College of Medicine on the 6th of December in the year of 2010. I like to think of me and fellow members of this class as people who have been walking a pretty much predetermined path for the past 7 years and counting, having had to finish the studies and complete internship to be eligible to practice. For me and a few others, 2018 offers us a chance to spread our wings and fly as it is the year that most will finish their clinical internships. Outside the class of 2016, the other members of my circle are also making a lot of plans ranging from moving out through changing jobs to buying cars. All this makes me think that 2018 is one of those years that a lot of people are looking forward to for all the right reasons.
Interestingly, 2018 will see us move to within a year closer to the 2019 elections. This entails that there will be more than enough politics for us to enjoy or loathe. Both the opposition and the ruling will be in full campaign mode with or without the official opening of the campaign period by the electoral commission. We will see a lot of conventions and enjoy the drama thereof. I am still not sure if the whole period will contribute anything to our thought processes and help us make informed decisions in the 2018 votes. On the other hand, I feel like the coming year offers us a good platform for observing and listening to our potential leaders as we await for what I think will be yet another interesting election after the 2014 one.
The end of the year has seen an eruption in memes about failed goals and appeals of what shouldn’t go into the new year. The most popular of these things have been about those people who received promises or prophecies of good fortune (and marriage) from their spiritual leaders. Many have gone on to produce nicely designed picture messages and some have even recorded videos to mock those who have received such prophecies. I am not too sure as to whether we should be throwing out mean memes to our friends for whom prophecies did not come through, but I think we have a lesson or to to learn from such experiences. Some of these lessons have something to do with how we manage our expectations and how we gauge who to expect one from. I know that this is a sensitive one considering that there is the involvement of a Supreme Being and “His servants“ but I guess we all know that not all of us who are shouting the name of God are doing it for Him.
There has been another group that has been throwing out unsolicited advice on what we should leave behind in the year 2018. The interesting one was about slay queens (probably normal HD-happy girls too) having pre-birthday, birthday and post birthday photo shoots along with luncheons, dinners and swimming outings just for one birthday. We all saw those pictures and on a couple of times they were accompanied by praising captions for the birthday girls. On some occasions, pictures of similar situations always had the hashtag #SuadGoals in the caption. This hater who made this post was talking about how people celebrate these birthdays with so much hype as if the birth of the people in question brought us salvation from the frequent blackouts. Someone also made a post on how we need to quit some of the time wasting habits like unnecessarily attending gatherings like rallies, funerals and weddings, spending too much time on social networks and spending too much time on football or political chats among others. This one was probably more solution oriented although some may find it impractical.
Looking at the things that people are proposing change in and people’s goals for the year, one would wonder whether the changes are programmed to change the moment the 7 at the end of the calendar year number gets replaced by an 8.
The main point here is just that if we want our fortunes to change in the coming here, we should change the way we do things. On the other hand, significant changes like those do not happen overnight and they need to be planned over a period.
I am sure that this has been too long a read. I am wishing you a Happy and Prosperous 2018. I do hope that you have attached feasible plans to the goals and aspirations you have for the year.
By the way… I want to be in a squad too. I mean… Who doesn’t want to go out to Kamuzu View for a braii in a custom squad t-shirt?
Friday, 29 December 2017
Friday, 22 December 2017
Lessons from a Wasted Year
Greetings.
It is the 22nd of the month of December in the liberal year of 2017 and a quick check of the calendar shows that after this one (Friday) we have one more Richie Online Friday. This is the reason that I have decided to give the year a closing article in case I will be incapacitated next week. I mean.. I wouldn’t give the Rabbi (Venomous Hope) a chance to write the last article of the year. Got to say thanks to him for covering me up and giving us things to read when being a doctor morbidly took the better part of me though.
Having come to the end of the year like this, it is not rather unusual for every normal human to sit down and reflect upon the year’s highs and lows. I am pretty sure that most of Richie Online readers have already starters and that some will join in this reflection exercise. Rather interestingly, I will not be part of the bandwagon this year and this has happened for the simple reason that I do not have a yard stick for that kind of reflection. To make it simple, I for some reason did not have any plans (written or otherwise) or goals for the year. In view of that, I feel like I have no gauge for measuring my achievements or failures in the year. Whatever happened happened and whatever didn’t happen didn’t happen. On to the next one.
Some of you might have seen a couple of my social media posts dubbing the year as a year of liberals. What I was trying to say was that it was a year which was not bound by any sort of self-regulatory measures.
Talking of achievements and failures, I have wavered between the extremes for most of the year and this year has been flat with no significant crests and troughs. There have been no significant changes in my life in the year (apart from kusintha nyumba kawiri ndi kusintha ma department katatu). Walked in broke and I am still broke. Walked in single and I am still single. Started the year and intern Medical Officer at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and I am still working at the same hospital. The lack of significant changes coupled with the fact that I had no written plan for the year sort of makes me think that this has been a wasted year. While it might not have been completely wasted, something tells me that it probably could have been better had I scribbled some blueprint for the year.
Being a medical doctor, I spent most of my time a work. The four major departments I have been in have taught me an interesting lesson about purpose and selflessness. To be honest, medical work can be hectic and in as much as I had not expected it not to be any less tougher than it is, I can confess that I am not fully used to the hectic schedules of hospital work. I have at some point considered quitting blogging in order to redeem some personal time as my schedules keep getting more and more hectic by the day. Rather interestingly, it is through the same hectic work setting that I have learnt the importance of a good work ethic and the importance of commitment. I have had to overstay in the hospital when I could have left because I just had to sort out a thing or two on a number of patients and this has always been fed by the joy of seeing people recover from their ailments and return to normal function. This has in turn taught me that “small” as I may think I am, my little action can bring a major difference into someone’s life, be it at work or otherwise. Thinking about that makes me smile but at the same time it gets me scared when I think about the potential of negatively affecting people through the same reflexive actions of my daily life.
Away from work, I did not have much of a personal life to celebrate through the year. I spent much of my life in the routine of the same old places. I was either at home, work, church or at some place cooling the night of while listening to some live band. It wasn’t much of a progressive life if you look at it from my angle. While I was busy with my routines, there were many people who were making actual progress in their lives. Some of my friends opened successful businesses and others graduated from this thing of riding a couple of minibuses to work and got their own metal horses. While some of us were toiling in our singleness, others were proposing (and posting HD photos of the events), getting engaged and even getting married. Away from such, a look at my account balance didn’t really tally with the fact that I had spent about half a year receiving some sort of salary. At some point I snapped out and began to ask myself as to what I had been doing with all the days, weeks and months of the year thus passed. The reflection didn’t last that long as I quickly remember there none of that was in my plans for the year; or rather that I had no plans at all for the year. The guys who were doing it all probably spent a lot of time and money in the background planning whatever we saw in the open. I might have dwelt on these thoughts to console myself but these thoughts made me re-evaluate the importance of forging my own path and moving at my pace in my own lane. More often we tend to beat ourselves by rating ourselves using other people’s achievements as our yardsticks. This year has taught me otherwise. While it is good to look at others and emulate the good they do, it is important to make our own life paths with clear goals. If we are to be beating ourselves for lack of progress, it should be based on our own set goals and life plans.
The last big lesson I learnt this year was one on independence and self-reliance. When I was starting work in December last year, I was still a spoon in my parents’ house. Three days of into work, I decided to leave my parents place in Lunzu. At first, I settled with one friend of mine but I later moved into a lonesome less than a month later (sanandithamangitse but he left for school in SA). I enjoyed the lone wolf mode for about 6 or 7 months after which I joined forces with Lord Isaac in our conquest of the Brookside Flats where we happily live now. There was something interesting about the time I was living alone. Having worked for a period without any salaries, it was difficult for me to sustain life and more often than not I found myself knocking at my parents’ door seeking financial bailouts. That, of course, changed with time as I got to pick myself up along the way after making that determination to be financially independent. Looking at life in retrospect, I realize that financial independence was probably the least of my worries then as I had another issue I needed to settle; emotional independence. Rather unfortunately, it is a bit difficult to explicate this situation without stepping on a few toes but in short, there was a time that being away from dating got the better part of me and made me feel incomplete. That almost made me fall into a chain reaction that would have led into a downward spiral. Surviving such a situation has made me graduate into someone who appreciates completeness of the self. If you are to ask me what I have learnt from such situations, it is that everyone needs to strive for financial, social and emotional independence as it is important to oneself and people around.
Here we are in the very last days of the year 2017. If you are to ask me, this has been a wasted year and I have hardly done anything worth showing to myself. On the other hand, I feel like there might be some people who have looked at me and thought that I was doing the right things. Indeed, it might be a wasted year, but I have learnt a lot of lessons on living for others, defining one’s own life and living by the definition and lessons on self-reliance.
It is my hope that your year has been better than mine and that you have done more than I have. More importantly, I hope that we (you and me) will achieve more in 2018 as we move in our own self-defined lanes as we chase our dreams.
Merry Christmas to you and all the best as you make your 2018 yardsticks.
Richie
It is the 22nd of the month of December in the liberal year of 2017 and a quick check of the calendar shows that after this one (Friday) we have one more Richie Online Friday. This is the reason that I have decided to give the year a closing article in case I will be incapacitated next week. I mean.. I wouldn’t give the Rabbi (Venomous Hope) a chance to write the last article of the year. Got to say thanks to him for covering me up and giving us things to read when being a doctor morbidly took the better part of me though.
Having come to the end of the year like this, it is not rather unusual for every normal human to sit down and reflect upon the year’s highs and lows. I am pretty sure that most of Richie Online readers have already starters and that some will join in this reflection exercise. Rather interestingly, I will not be part of the bandwagon this year and this has happened for the simple reason that I do not have a yard stick for that kind of reflection. To make it simple, I for some reason did not have any plans (written or otherwise) or goals for the year. In view of that, I feel like I have no gauge for measuring my achievements or failures in the year. Whatever happened happened and whatever didn’t happen didn’t happen. On to the next one.
Some of you might have seen a couple of my social media posts dubbing the year as a year of liberals. What I was trying to say was that it was a year which was not bound by any sort of self-regulatory measures.
Talking of achievements and failures, I have wavered between the extremes for most of the year and this year has been flat with no significant crests and troughs. There have been no significant changes in my life in the year (apart from kusintha nyumba kawiri ndi kusintha ma department katatu). Walked in broke and I am still broke. Walked in single and I am still single. Started the year and intern Medical Officer at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and I am still working at the same hospital. The lack of significant changes coupled with the fact that I had no written plan for the year sort of makes me think that this has been a wasted year. While it might not have been completely wasted, something tells me that it probably could have been better had I scribbled some blueprint for the year.
Being a medical doctor, I spent most of my time a work. The four major departments I have been in have taught me an interesting lesson about purpose and selflessness. To be honest, medical work can be hectic and in as much as I had not expected it not to be any less tougher than it is, I can confess that I am not fully used to the hectic schedules of hospital work. I have at some point considered quitting blogging in order to redeem some personal time as my schedules keep getting more and more hectic by the day. Rather interestingly, it is through the same hectic work setting that I have learnt the importance of a good work ethic and the importance of commitment. I have had to overstay in the hospital when I could have left because I just had to sort out a thing or two on a number of patients and this has always been fed by the joy of seeing people recover from their ailments and return to normal function. This has in turn taught me that “small” as I may think I am, my little action can bring a major difference into someone’s life, be it at work or otherwise. Thinking about that makes me smile but at the same time it gets me scared when I think about the potential of negatively affecting people through the same reflexive actions of my daily life.
Away from work, I did not have much of a personal life to celebrate through the year. I spent much of my life in the routine of the same old places. I was either at home, work, church or at some place cooling the night of while listening to some live band. It wasn’t much of a progressive life if you look at it from my angle. While I was busy with my routines, there were many people who were making actual progress in their lives. Some of my friends opened successful businesses and others graduated from this thing of riding a couple of minibuses to work and got their own metal horses. While some of us were toiling in our singleness, others were proposing (and posting HD photos of the events), getting engaged and even getting married. Away from such, a look at my account balance didn’t really tally with the fact that I had spent about half a year receiving some sort of salary. At some point I snapped out and began to ask myself as to what I had been doing with all the days, weeks and months of the year thus passed. The reflection didn’t last that long as I quickly remember there none of that was in my plans for the year; or rather that I had no plans at all for the year. The guys who were doing it all probably spent a lot of time and money in the background planning whatever we saw in the open. I might have dwelt on these thoughts to console myself but these thoughts made me re-evaluate the importance of forging my own path and moving at my pace in my own lane. More often we tend to beat ourselves by rating ourselves using other people’s achievements as our yardsticks. This year has taught me otherwise. While it is good to look at others and emulate the good they do, it is important to make our own life paths with clear goals. If we are to be beating ourselves for lack of progress, it should be based on our own set goals and life plans.
The last big lesson I learnt this year was one on independence and self-reliance. When I was starting work in December last year, I was still a spoon in my parents’ house. Three days of into work, I decided to leave my parents place in Lunzu. At first, I settled with one friend of mine but I later moved into a lonesome less than a month later (sanandithamangitse but he left for school in SA). I enjoyed the lone wolf mode for about 6 or 7 months after which I joined forces with Lord Isaac in our conquest of the Brookside Flats where we happily live now. There was something interesting about the time I was living alone. Having worked for a period without any salaries, it was difficult for me to sustain life and more often than not I found myself knocking at my parents’ door seeking financial bailouts. That, of course, changed with time as I got to pick myself up along the way after making that determination to be financially independent. Looking at life in retrospect, I realize that financial independence was probably the least of my worries then as I had another issue I needed to settle; emotional independence. Rather unfortunately, it is a bit difficult to explicate this situation without stepping on a few toes but in short, there was a time that being away from dating got the better part of me and made me feel incomplete. That almost made me fall into a chain reaction that would have led into a downward spiral. Surviving such a situation has made me graduate into someone who appreciates completeness of the self. If you are to ask me what I have learnt from such situations, it is that everyone needs to strive for financial, social and emotional independence as it is important to oneself and people around.
Here we are in the very last days of the year 2017. If you are to ask me, this has been a wasted year and I have hardly done anything worth showing to myself. On the other hand, I feel like there might be some people who have looked at me and thought that I was doing the right things. Indeed, it might be a wasted year, but I have learnt a lot of lessons on living for others, defining one’s own life and living by the definition and lessons on self-reliance.
It is my hope that your year has been better than mine and that you have done more than I have. More importantly, I hope that we (you and me) will achieve more in 2018 as we move in our own self-defined lanes as we chase our dreams.
Merry Christmas to you and all the best as you make your 2018 yardsticks.
Richie
Friday, 15 December 2017
FILIBUSTERS, 50+MY VOTE and ZION
Some long paragraphs by the Venomous Hope
This latest ad hoc Friday sermon has come about because the blogger has, what he calls, 'a very tight schedule,' something usually peculiar to DziPPani cadates and bootlickers who applaud the president for gracing whatever function in spite of his so-called infinite roster of engagements. It will be convenient, however, to start by congratulating Super League relegation candidates Masters Security Fc for defying logic by entering the CAF Confederations Cup in spite of the axe on their neck that will see them out of the elite league. We can safely speculate that it took sniffing a large dose of weed produced illegally in Nkhotakota to make the club hierarchy decide joining the continental competition when they are well aware the calibre of players at their base is not up to scratch. I will hope they're planning to overhaul the squad and possibly poach top players at Bullets and Silver Strikers, assuming they will be able to pay them as grumbling about unpaid allowances from this club featured prominently in the news than their wins.
Many a soul will agree that Masters Fc's madness is not an isolated case in as far as public decisions are concerned in Malawi. Earlier this week the Minister tasked with confusing the public released a statement that pretended to deflect media reports that government's most senior servant wanted to upgrade his Spartan office to something more exquisite and elegant, all to the obscene tune of K67m. Not bad if we take Dausi seriously that the current office furniture was the same that the likes of Justin Malewezi have used in their capacity as Secretary to the Cabinet, mpando mwina mukubisala makoswe ausinthe. However, the fact that the company hired to do the renovations is also owned by the secretary raised eyebrows on the veracity of the minister's statement. This unprecedented level of corruption is, like Masters Security, relegating the country beyond the failed state category. Indecisive action from a myopic administration has enslaved Malawians deep into the shackles of poverty to the extent that the same poverty is used as a campaign tool by the same overrecycled politicians when they come in our streets to seek a new mandate.
Many have cited high illiteracy levels as a crucible for high level of incompetence that has become a norm in Nyasaland.
Politicians play on the ignorance of majority of Malawians to advance their mediocre agenda, and at the same time, hide their grave sins by sacrificing the pawns (where's Loot-e-pal?). A rare voice of reason, usually from the opposition, who don't have a choice anyway if they can ever wrestle the throne, and the Civil Society organizations- mostly briefcase ones with hidden agenda to be handed that big fluffy scone at some point in time before they retire, is only heard in urban centres, where a small portion of the citizenry resides, on media platforms that operate as opposition parties themselves. In this vein, the large peasant majority's only media choice is the antediluvial MBC Radio 1 found using juju on medium waves as there's no FM signal. And for them, these blackouts only have a borderline impact on their daily lives. That's why all ruling caste managed to ignore the noise from Public Affairs Committee (PAC) and others who waged a war on over the legislation of Electoral Bills, government knew it could easily fudge the opinion of a large cross section of voters. The goal posts this time around changed because PAC flexed its spiritual muscle by cajoling her member religious bodies, more especially the Catholic Church, to endorse PAC's planned demonstrations. That move flickered a wave of fear into the brains of DPP as they were sure the news would reach to remote places where you can only find a borehole because there's a Church nearby or a primary school because some monks felt sorry for the kids in that village. We all know how the DPP sweated in the run up to the scheduled 13th demos on fake Churches, prophets and excommunicated reverends and paraded them on our wretched state run MBC tv and radio to counter the views of PAC and it's allies. We all saw petitions from pitiable chiefs and Civil Society organizations on DPP payroll- all trying to confuse us so that the Electoral Reforms Bills should continue gathering dust in the name 'nationwide consultations.'
When that was apparently going to fail, the DPP played it's remaining ace, obviously by cheating it's way in parliament. Bringing all the 6 related bills to parliament was a calculated risk for it prayed to whichever gods available that the demos should no longer have a moral agenda and they should be able to shoot all of the bills down in the chamber. By crook, it has achieved both as the planned demos were postponed indefinitely owing to 'government's good faith' in accepting their demands. It also bribed majority of independent and PP eMuPs whose only clever act was knowing they're on the last leg of their terms and will never be elected again, ofcoz unless they find a world-class witchdoctor. These idiots allegedly accepted a small fortune of 200grand from the state house to help shoot down all these Bills prepared by the same DPP cabinet and presented by it's own minister. What is folly is how the minister turned himself into a filibuster by indulging into long winded speech in urging legislators to support these bills when it was just a ploy to achieve the opposite. He will enter into record books as the most incompetent minister who failed to sell his own bills. But we cannot blame him, it's the 50+1 that is hated conscientiously by DziPPani.
When one gathers the pieces of the arguments around the so-called 50+1 electoral principle, they all lead to the idea that implementing it will significantly ameliorate problems that hang around every election, especially questions about legitimacy of the winner. Proponents think that if at least more than half of the voters choose a certain candidate then he or she will be widely accepted and embraced unlike the current First Past the Post (FPP) where the incumbent Sanjika tenant got the keys by scooping a meagre 37% or something thereof. DPP still thinks that an obvious strong run in the southern region coupled with kugawana mavoti in the centre if 15 presidential candidates will enter the fray (Umodzi Party will come to the party I here), then they will get another mandate as they can be confident of stealing some votes kwa Wimbe in Kasungu. The proposed legislation will be hard for them as grumbling Malawians will go for a lesser evil in the event that no clear winner was found in the initial ballot. Weighing the two systems 50+1 is better as it reduces the impact of tribal or religious lines being defining factor as we have witnessed in all general elections in the country, but it is not a solution to that can ensure our democracy is bearing positive fruits for a largely neglected society drowned by poverty.
For any average Malawian like me, my vote doesn't have the necessary impact on policy and economic transformation as we still thieves masquerading as public officials swimming in the luxuries sprinkled from our sweat. What people want to see is a government that is willing to do the bidding of its citizens as per campaign promises. Now, the electoral reforms will only change the dimension of electing leaders and not winnowing trash leaders from the few honest ones. It's no longer a secret that people enter politics not serve but as income generating scheme amidst lack of employment elsewhere. To cut the chase, Malawi can benefit more of it followed a proportional representation model like South Africa where parties (and not individuals) compete and whichever entity gets most seats is allowed to form a government. Not that this system is 100% perfect but it ensures a number of things.
Firstly there's no buying of votes in Parliament nor you can find some idiots saying 'anthu kwathu andiuza ndigwire ntchito ndi boma' so joining the bandwagon of beggers at Sanjika. Secondly it ends all talk of so-called independents. Seriously there's no independence in politics, either you support the government or you hate them- more than 20 Mps in Nyasaland won on independent ticket which is a blow to the numbers of those in opposition for checks and balances as these people are easily swallowed by DziPPani. Voting parties will ensure intraparty democracy as it ensures vibrant party systems, tactics, well meaning manifestos and vivacious political alliances osati (mbofyo ya migwirizano which has seen Udiyefu buying a casket). Crucially, this system can help take the ruling party to task because the president will be expected to answer for the sins he and his compadre have committed. Aristotle in his 'Politics' treatise wrote that the principle of justice is what should be the underlying maxim for any political system, and our political system with it's unaccountable flaws has promoted injustices, poverty, and underdevelopment. Even if 50% plus my vote comes into play we will just be divorcing a devil and marrying his brother.
And finally across the ocean one Donald Trump chose to disturb the peace in Zion by unilaterally declaring that the USA will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a country imported after World War II. Palestinians who had lived in the Middle East since the destruction of the Jewish temple by Emperor Nero in 70 AD were forced live in tiny Gaza Strip and infertile Westbank when United Kingdom and other western powers, 'on humanitarian grounds,' decided to rally all Jacob's descendants to return to their promised land where Arabs were already thriving. The bone of contention since the occupation of Jews has been Jerusalem which is seen by 3 major religions as a Holy City, don't know about anzathu a Mpingo wa Aroni. Yaser Arafat negotiated a two state solution that is yet to be endorsed nor implemented and so was the city of Jerusalem which for decades has been divided between Arabs and Jews and everyone seemed happy. Until Trump. He has let the can of worms out and violence is now order of the day. The military might of Israel through American support has always intimidated Palestinians and they can't do anything other than claw in fear and wear masks and suicide bombs to blow up anything that looks like 'made in Israel.' Trump must desist trash talk if he will get the respect of us here in Chilowamatambe otherwise he will end up like Chaponda.
So NASA says they've discovered a new planet that is closer to the sun, let's make our first lady an ambassador of that new planet.
Enjoy the weekend folks
This latest ad hoc Friday sermon has come about because the blogger has, what he calls, 'a very tight schedule,' something usually peculiar to DziPPani cadates and bootlickers who applaud the president for gracing whatever function in spite of his so-called infinite roster of engagements. It will be convenient, however, to start by congratulating Super League relegation candidates Masters Security Fc for defying logic by entering the CAF Confederations Cup in spite of the axe on their neck that will see them out of the elite league. We can safely speculate that it took sniffing a large dose of weed produced illegally in Nkhotakota to make the club hierarchy decide joining the continental competition when they are well aware the calibre of players at their base is not up to scratch. I will hope they're planning to overhaul the squad and possibly poach top players at Bullets and Silver Strikers, assuming they will be able to pay them as grumbling about unpaid allowances from this club featured prominently in the news than their wins.
Many a soul will agree that Masters Fc's madness is not an isolated case in as far as public decisions are concerned in Malawi. Earlier this week the Minister tasked with confusing the public released a statement that pretended to deflect media reports that government's most senior servant wanted to upgrade his Spartan office to something more exquisite and elegant, all to the obscene tune of K67m. Not bad if we take Dausi seriously that the current office furniture was the same that the likes of Justin Malewezi have used in their capacity as Secretary to the Cabinet, mpando mwina mukubisala makoswe ausinthe. However, the fact that the company hired to do the renovations is also owned by the secretary raised eyebrows on the veracity of the minister's statement. This unprecedented level of corruption is, like Masters Security, relegating the country beyond the failed state category. Indecisive action from a myopic administration has enslaved Malawians deep into the shackles of poverty to the extent that the same poverty is used as a campaign tool by the same overrecycled politicians when they come in our streets to seek a new mandate.
Many have cited high illiteracy levels as a crucible for high level of incompetence that has become a norm in Nyasaland.
Politicians play on the ignorance of majority of Malawians to advance their mediocre agenda, and at the same time, hide their grave sins by sacrificing the pawns (where's Loot-e-pal?). A rare voice of reason, usually from the opposition, who don't have a choice anyway if they can ever wrestle the throne, and the Civil Society organizations- mostly briefcase ones with hidden agenda to be handed that big fluffy scone at some point in time before they retire, is only heard in urban centres, where a small portion of the citizenry resides, on media platforms that operate as opposition parties themselves. In this vein, the large peasant majority's only media choice is the antediluvial MBC Radio 1 found using juju on medium waves as there's no FM signal. And for them, these blackouts only have a borderline impact on their daily lives. That's why all ruling caste managed to ignore the noise from Public Affairs Committee (PAC) and others who waged a war on over the legislation of Electoral Bills, government knew it could easily fudge the opinion of a large cross section of voters. The goal posts this time around changed because PAC flexed its spiritual muscle by cajoling her member religious bodies, more especially the Catholic Church, to endorse PAC's planned demonstrations. That move flickered a wave of fear into the brains of DPP as they were sure the news would reach to remote places where you can only find a borehole because there's a Church nearby or a primary school because some monks felt sorry for the kids in that village. We all know how the DPP sweated in the run up to the scheduled 13th demos on fake Churches, prophets and excommunicated reverends and paraded them on our wretched state run MBC tv and radio to counter the views of PAC and it's allies. We all saw petitions from pitiable chiefs and Civil Society organizations on DPP payroll- all trying to confuse us so that the Electoral Reforms Bills should continue gathering dust in the name 'nationwide consultations.'
When that was apparently going to fail, the DPP played it's remaining ace, obviously by cheating it's way in parliament. Bringing all the 6 related bills to parliament was a calculated risk for it prayed to whichever gods available that the demos should no longer have a moral agenda and they should be able to shoot all of the bills down in the chamber. By crook, it has achieved both as the planned demos were postponed indefinitely owing to 'government's good faith' in accepting their demands. It also bribed majority of independent and PP eMuPs whose only clever act was knowing they're on the last leg of their terms and will never be elected again, ofcoz unless they find a world-class witchdoctor. These idiots allegedly accepted a small fortune of 200grand from the state house to help shoot down all these Bills prepared by the same DPP cabinet and presented by it's own minister. What is folly is how the minister turned himself into a filibuster by indulging into long winded speech in urging legislators to support these bills when it was just a ploy to achieve the opposite. He will enter into record books as the most incompetent minister who failed to sell his own bills. But we cannot blame him, it's the 50+1 that is hated conscientiously by DziPPani.
When one gathers the pieces of the arguments around the so-called 50+1 electoral principle, they all lead to the idea that implementing it will significantly ameliorate problems that hang around every election, especially questions about legitimacy of the winner. Proponents think that if at least more than half of the voters choose a certain candidate then he or she will be widely accepted and embraced unlike the current First Past the Post (FPP) where the incumbent Sanjika tenant got the keys by scooping a meagre 37% or something thereof. DPP still thinks that an obvious strong run in the southern region coupled with kugawana mavoti in the centre if 15 presidential candidates will enter the fray (Umodzi Party will come to the party I here), then they will get another mandate as they can be confident of stealing some votes kwa Wimbe in Kasungu. The proposed legislation will be hard for them as grumbling Malawians will go for a lesser evil in the event that no clear winner was found in the initial ballot. Weighing the two systems 50+1 is better as it reduces the impact of tribal or religious lines being defining factor as we have witnessed in all general elections in the country, but it is not a solution to that can ensure our democracy is bearing positive fruits for a largely neglected society drowned by poverty.
For any average Malawian like me, my vote doesn't have the necessary impact on policy and economic transformation as we still thieves masquerading as public officials swimming in the luxuries sprinkled from our sweat. What people want to see is a government that is willing to do the bidding of its citizens as per campaign promises. Now, the electoral reforms will only change the dimension of electing leaders and not winnowing trash leaders from the few honest ones. It's no longer a secret that people enter politics not serve but as income generating scheme amidst lack of employment elsewhere. To cut the chase, Malawi can benefit more of it followed a proportional representation model like South Africa where parties (and not individuals) compete and whichever entity gets most seats is allowed to form a government. Not that this system is 100% perfect but it ensures a number of things.
Firstly there's no buying of votes in Parliament nor you can find some idiots saying 'anthu kwathu andiuza ndigwire ntchito ndi boma' so joining the bandwagon of beggers at Sanjika. Secondly it ends all talk of so-called independents. Seriously there's no independence in politics, either you support the government or you hate them- more than 20 Mps in Nyasaland won on independent ticket which is a blow to the numbers of those in opposition for checks and balances as these people are easily swallowed by DziPPani. Voting parties will ensure intraparty democracy as it ensures vibrant party systems, tactics, well meaning manifestos and vivacious political alliances osati (mbofyo ya migwirizano which has seen Udiyefu buying a casket). Crucially, this system can help take the ruling party to task because the president will be expected to answer for the sins he and his compadre have committed. Aristotle in his 'Politics' treatise wrote that the principle of justice is what should be the underlying maxim for any political system, and our political system with it's unaccountable flaws has promoted injustices, poverty, and underdevelopment. Even if 50% plus my vote comes into play we will just be divorcing a devil and marrying his brother.
And finally across the ocean one Donald Trump chose to disturb the peace in Zion by unilaterally declaring that the USA will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a country imported after World War II. Palestinians who had lived in the Middle East since the destruction of the Jewish temple by Emperor Nero in 70 AD were forced live in tiny Gaza Strip and infertile Westbank when United Kingdom and other western powers, 'on humanitarian grounds,' decided to rally all Jacob's descendants to return to their promised land where Arabs were already thriving. The bone of contention since the occupation of Jews has been Jerusalem which is seen by 3 major religions as a Holy City, don't know about anzathu a Mpingo wa Aroni. Yaser Arafat negotiated a two state solution that is yet to be endorsed nor implemented and so was the city of Jerusalem which for decades has been divided between Arabs and Jews and everyone seemed happy. Until Trump. He has let the can of worms out and violence is now order of the day. The military might of Israel through American support has always intimidated Palestinians and they can't do anything other than claw in fear and wear masks and suicide bombs to blow up anything that looks like 'made in Israel.' Trump must desist trash talk if he will get the respect of us here in Chilowamatambe otherwise he will end up like Chaponda.
So NASA says they've discovered a new planet that is closer to the sun, let's make our first lady an ambassador of that new planet.
Enjoy the weekend folks
Friday, 8 December 2017
Action: The Missing Piece
It t is a wonderful fly day (or Friday as you all call it). Some of you were probably thinking that we were not going to have a read for reasons ranging from the surprise Wednesday article through my busy working schedule to my Friday habits. All those have been defied and I have managed to create time for my readers who I love as much as I love my dear spouse.
On to the day’s business.
About a month or so ago we had something called UMP Awards and UMP festival. UMP may not be known to many so I will do a bit of explaining. The acronym stands for Urban Music Party and it was started by Zizwa and Kabuzi, the guys who formed the Biriwiri duo of the Daily Daily fame. The UMP is a company (or just a brand, really) that organizes yearly award shows for artists, producers and all those outstanding people who made music happen in the year.
To be honest, I never took interest in the festival in the early days of its inception. This year, however one of my friends got nominated for a category and I was very keen on helping him win. I sacrificed a couple of hundred kwachas and gave him a couple score votes in a bid to make him win against the heavyweights. The interest in the voting process got me flipping through the other categories and checking if there was anything or anyone worth voting for. Zinazi ndiulula. I ended up voting for Mizu Band for the band of the year category, BFB for producer of the year and Apse Mtima as song of the year. Those were probably useless details, but anthu amenewa anaitha this year anyway.
The reason I am talking about all this hibber jabber is the chain reaction of thoughts that emanated from some cyber discussions that I had with my friends about the Awards. At some point, one popular radio DJ in his neutrality posted about the awards urging his fans to vote in the process. Instead of picking up their phones and sending texts to the designated numbers to vote, the guys began voting in the comment boxes. Some keyboard warriors got on with it and said they were not going to vote because the awards were not credible. One would understand if they considered the people who scooped awards in some categories in the recent past. What they had forgotten was that it was probably their lack of voting and the winner’s campaign skills that had made their favorite lose. Being the keyboard warrior I am, I gave a sarcastic comment and told people to go and vote other than complain about something they had power to influence. Got a few likes and positive replies with that comment.
That discussion ignited a memory of how our very own Nyau King has never gotten the most in terms of awards from the international nominations he gets year in year out. I must admit that I am not Grin’s biggest fan but I feel like his hard work needed to get him more than what he has now. Here is what happens. He gets a big nomination on the African stage. He even goes on to organize and host a party where he woes the half-drunk patrons to vote for him in the awards only to get below satisfactory results. It is interesting how some of us have wanted our boys to get these pieces of polished metal when we have done nothing to make it happen.
Reflecting upon all this made me realize that this whole thing of not voting for things like music awards (which are rather trivial) is a reflection of an even bigger problem that we have as Malawians. We simply do not like to work for what we want.
Translating this whole issue of choice into the political scenery, there are some who opt not to choose national leaders despite having a candidate of near similar attributes to their ideal leader. I have even heard of people who would want not to vote in 2019 just because they are feeling the pinch of living under the DPP government. Sad for them, if they carry on with such an idea what they will end up doing is to passively re-elect the same folks they wanted out. More often than not, this whole premise to ideas of apathy originates from the fact that people think that their action or effort is inadequate. In these cases, people like to think about the cup and lake analogy. What someone made me realize recently is that a few cups into a big space do not matter much, but if the 17 million of us (or at least people who were able to out of that) were to pour a cup into Lake Malawi, the level would change significantly. Well. In a way.
One Henry Kachaje (that entrepreneurship coach) has on a number of occasions given examples of how people get excited about his seminars. He shared on how people marveled when he taught them how they could make their first million with K10 000.00 (plausibility ya iyiyi tidzaikambiranabe) only for them to sit on the ideas. The year is going towards the end and most of us will be drafting resolutions and 2018 goals but very few of us will take action to make those happen. We will find ourselves thinking of what a wasted year 2018 was a year from now when all we needed was action to bring our dreams to reality.
Lately, I have observed how much young us young people like to talk about how other people are succeeding. We like to discuss the Range Rovers so and so drive and the sort of houses they live in but not of us get into a serious discussion and get to enquire as to how they got there, so that we can learn from them and forge our own paths from such. Just like the people who wanted some artist to win the artist of the year award without for them, we expect to gain that academic excellence without sweating for it. We want to have the perfect relationship without putting out much of an effort. We want to be “there” spiritually without doing what it takes to be so and we want to get that fat account without getting our brains to work and hands dirty. We want to have things change in our lives and in the world when we are not willing to take that baby step in changing them. We lack this spirit of being people of action.
There are people all over preaching about how we need to dream big. Perhaps what we need to now focus on is the action bit. I am pretty sure that there are a lot of people that are dreaming in color but the only thing standing in between them and their dreams is the lack of action. There are many who know how best to solve our problems as a nation, but the reason we are still here is that they are sitting on the know-how of the same.
Someone once said that if you want to change the world, you need to start with making your bed when you wake up. What he was trying to say was that it is starting out to doing the simple small things that fuel us to do even bigger tasks that can make a lasting change in our lives and the world at large.
Think about it…
You probably have a thousand ideas of how you can make your life or your country better. Lets forget about the 999. What if all of us set out to work on one idea at a time? Perhaps its not about what we dream but the action we take.
Have a wonderful weekend.
On to the day’s business.
About a month or so ago we had something called UMP Awards and UMP festival. UMP may not be known to many so I will do a bit of explaining. The acronym stands for Urban Music Party and it was started by Zizwa and Kabuzi, the guys who formed the Biriwiri duo of the Daily Daily fame. The UMP is a company (or just a brand, really) that organizes yearly award shows for artists, producers and all those outstanding people who made music happen in the year.
To be honest, I never took interest in the festival in the early days of its inception. This year, however one of my friends got nominated for a category and I was very keen on helping him win. I sacrificed a couple of hundred kwachas and gave him a couple score votes in a bid to make him win against the heavyweights. The interest in the voting process got me flipping through the other categories and checking if there was anything or anyone worth voting for. Zinazi ndiulula. I ended up voting for Mizu Band for the band of the year category, BFB for producer of the year and Apse Mtima as song of the year. Those were probably useless details, but anthu amenewa anaitha this year anyway.
The reason I am talking about all this hibber jabber is the chain reaction of thoughts that emanated from some cyber discussions that I had with my friends about the Awards. At some point, one popular radio DJ in his neutrality posted about the awards urging his fans to vote in the process. Instead of picking up their phones and sending texts to the designated numbers to vote, the guys began voting in the comment boxes. Some keyboard warriors got on with it and said they were not going to vote because the awards were not credible. One would understand if they considered the people who scooped awards in some categories in the recent past. What they had forgotten was that it was probably their lack of voting and the winner’s campaign skills that had made their favorite lose. Being the keyboard warrior I am, I gave a sarcastic comment and told people to go and vote other than complain about something they had power to influence. Got a few likes and positive replies with that comment.
That discussion ignited a memory of how our very own Nyau King has never gotten the most in terms of awards from the international nominations he gets year in year out. I must admit that I am not Grin’s biggest fan but I feel like his hard work needed to get him more than what he has now. Here is what happens. He gets a big nomination on the African stage. He even goes on to organize and host a party where he woes the half-drunk patrons to vote for him in the awards only to get below satisfactory results. It is interesting how some of us have wanted our boys to get these pieces of polished metal when we have done nothing to make it happen.
Reflecting upon all this made me realize that this whole thing of not voting for things like music awards (which are rather trivial) is a reflection of an even bigger problem that we have as Malawians. We simply do not like to work for what we want.
Translating this whole issue of choice into the political scenery, there are some who opt not to choose national leaders despite having a candidate of near similar attributes to their ideal leader. I have even heard of people who would want not to vote in 2019 just because they are feeling the pinch of living under the DPP government. Sad for them, if they carry on with such an idea what they will end up doing is to passively re-elect the same folks they wanted out. More often than not, this whole premise to ideas of apathy originates from the fact that people think that their action or effort is inadequate. In these cases, people like to think about the cup and lake analogy. What someone made me realize recently is that a few cups into a big space do not matter much, but if the 17 million of us (or at least people who were able to out of that) were to pour a cup into Lake Malawi, the level would change significantly. Well. In a way.
One Henry Kachaje (that entrepreneurship coach) has on a number of occasions given examples of how people get excited about his seminars. He shared on how people marveled when he taught them how they could make their first million with K10 000.00 (plausibility ya iyiyi tidzaikambiranabe) only for them to sit on the ideas. The year is going towards the end and most of us will be drafting resolutions and 2018 goals but very few of us will take action to make those happen. We will find ourselves thinking of what a wasted year 2018 was a year from now when all we needed was action to bring our dreams to reality.
Lately, I have observed how much young us young people like to talk about how other people are succeeding. We like to discuss the Range Rovers so and so drive and the sort of houses they live in but not of us get into a serious discussion and get to enquire as to how they got there, so that we can learn from them and forge our own paths from such. Just like the people who wanted some artist to win the artist of the year award without for them, we expect to gain that academic excellence without sweating for it. We want to have the perfect relationship without putting out much of an effort. We want to be “there” spiritually without doing what it takes to be so and we want to get that fat account without getting our brains to work and hands dirty. We want to have things change in our lives and in the world when we are not willing to take that baby step in changing them. We lack this spirit of being people of action.
There are people all over preaching about how we need to dream big. Perhaps what we need to now focus on is the action bit. I am pretty sure that there are a lot of people that are dreaming in color but the only thing standing in between them and their dreams is the lack of action. There are many who know how best to solve our problems as a nation, but the reason we are still here is that they are sitting on the know-how of the same.
Someone once said that if you want to change the world, you need to start with making your bed when you wake up. What he was trying to say was that it is starting out to doing the simple small things that fuel us to do even bigger tasks that can make a lasting change in our lives and the world at large.
Think about it…
You probably have a thousand ideas of how you can make your life or your country better. Lets forget about the 999. What if all of us set out to work on one idea at a time? Perhaps its not about what we dream but the action we take.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Wednesday, 6 December 2017
51
A lovely Wednesday it is.
I decided to throw in a surprise article in a bit to apologize for a crime I probably did not commit. You see… I failed to send something last Friday for reasons related to work and my personal laziness. I probably should have listened to my friend Max and said goodbye to all of you considering the irregularities that will hit the flow of Richie Online articles. We might try to bring them every Friday, but let it be known to you that it may not always work. Ku Gulupu kwavuta.
Interestingly enough, the Friday on which I failed to nourish readers happened to be a very important one as it was World AIDS Day (I love the way the French name this disease; Syndrome Immuno Deficitaire Acquis, with funny accents in the words, of course). I actually wanted to write a long article (backed with scientific facts and statistical models) on why it is stupid to assume and aim for an HIV free planet in 2030 in line with the fact that some deluded folks have set that goal. We are way past World AIDS Day but the one thing I would like to share is the loud echo of some semi-structured chats and random Facebook posts.
A shallow look at the historical epidemiology of the HIV pandemic shows that the disease took away a lot of lives in the 90’s because people did not know about it. Most of the people who had enablers for procuring sex (along with their spouses) got the virus as they were caught unaware. In those days, people used to do whatever they want sexually as they felt that the only thing they were susceptible to were the treatable sexually transmitted diseases everybody knew about. This is probably we have a lot of “90’s men” who are infected and affected by the virus. The point I am driving home is that these people were taken and are infected with something they were not aware of. You and I know about HIV and AIDS and we hardly have any excuse for contracting the virus or not receiving treatment adherently when it’s due. Let’s act civilized and play it safe.
That is enough HIV for now. This article wasn’t meant to be about HIV, anyway.
I have lately become increasingly interested in local politics following the boom in interesting developments in the local political scene. Malawians sleep, eat, drink and dream politics, anyway and as such I had to be trendy and begin to follow politics. Lately there have been rumors about an unusual alliance between the blue and orange parties. We got some interesting comments from some corners of the society while we were treated with some deafening silence from others. The brainy people told us that the idea of the alliance was conceived by the ruling party in a bid to ensure the amassment of a majority of the votes should 50%+1 come to light. Good strategy considering the 5-1 defeat to the black rooster, right? Somehow. As a Malawian, I feel like we should be worried about this. We have always talked of the yellow, blue and orange camps as the UDF group of parties and if they finally become a thing, they may actually end up getting a landslide victory leaving the country at the mercy of recycled politicians who have mastered the art of plundering public resources (I said it). Anyway. That is a topic for another Wednesday or Sunday or whatever day the other article will show up. Let us talk about 50%+1.
If you have been paying attention to anything in the country, you might have heard about the Electoral Reforms Bill. I am no lawyer but from the little I know this is a new proposed legislation governing electoral processes in the country. I am not sure of what else is in the bill other than the much touted 50%+1 clause. What basically that means is that for someone to be declared winner in the national elections, they have to scoop no less than half of all the votes plus one vote. Akuti akatero ndiye kuti the candidate has been chosen by the majority of the people. Should that not happen, the two leading candidates go for a re-run. M’mene ndaimvera inetu. Correctors are free to do so in the comment box.
Some have accused me of being a DPP sympathizer owing to my lack of support for the 50+1 thing. If you do not get my argument, you might also paint me with the same brush but if you think about it critically, this system is useless and a waste of time and money for a nation like ours. This country should be run by the guy who gets a simple majority of the votes as has been the case since the advent of democracy. Period.
My brainy friends who are also against “51” have used interesting arguments beyond the comprehension of my loosely folded brain. People have talked about resources and some have added the possibility of voter apathy in run-off elections. Others have provided even more complex arguments that I tend to forget upon getting. I on the other hand have a simple thought that has got me asking myself whether this whole thing is good and what we are trying to achieve by re-defining “majority” in electoral terms. Of course my answers were nothing and nothing.
Here is the idea. Bringing in the 50%+1 system may mean that the CEO for our country will be chosen by the majority of the voters in the country but the thing has no effect whatsoever on the quality of the leader(ship) and governance in the country. If you think about it, it will be the same politicians who will be competing and whether they are voted in by the majority or not, they will still remain with the same traits in as far as leadership skills and passion for the people are concerned. If they are egocentric, they will not change just because they were voted in by a majority. Our leaders are not accountable to us, anyway so we should not have false hopes that things will change when we introduce the new system.
In as far as I am concerned, the problem we have as a nation is that we do not have leaders who have the interests of the nation at heart. Some of you might say a lot and tout about your party leader but I hardly believe that they would be any better given the mandate for one term. If anything, I feel like we shouldn’t be investing too much time, money and emotions into the process of replacing one thieving dictator with another in our fake democracy. If someone has gotten more votes than everyone else, let them get the seat at Casterly Rock (Kamuzu Palace) and plunder when they can. If they do anything helpful and praiseworthy, let us clap and make them life President like Yoweri Mu7 and soldier on; ignoring any imperialist lectures on how we should run our democracy.
I have not talked about how desperate some will be to make a win out of one run ending up with extreme measures like rigging or costly alliances like the one we heard is cooking on the sidelines. Zonsezi tizidziganizira ndithu.
I am told that people (with full blessings and encouragement from men of the cloth of course) would like to hold peaceful demonstrations in a bid to push parliament to table the reforms bill in this sitting. Richie Msowoya wakanitsitsa kuti he will not allow bills to be bulldozed by some “mob” into his house and I am told that some law experts are saying that the bill is not ready for parliamentary debate. This may just be a delay tactic for all we know but if it is true, we might want to avoid adding some half-baked hibber jabber into our constitution.
If you are planning to be part of the demonstrations, you have the full blessings of Maharaja Richard Kamwezi but what you should know is that you will be fighting for a change in how you choose the leader; with very little if any change on who gets chosen. That change will be meaningless, if you are to ask me.
The whole article in one sentence?
The process of reforming the electoral processes will mean nothing if it has no bearing on the quality of leaders that will be chosen... and so far this seems to be the wrong direction we are headed.
Anyway. This is politics. I am just a humble Medical Officer intern at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. Let me go back to serving… Zinazi zitichedwetsa.
I decided to throw in a surprise article in a bit to apologize for a crime I probably did not commit. You see… I failed to send something last Friday for reasons related to work and my personal laziness. I probably should have listened to my friend Max and said goodbye to all of you considering the irregularities that will hit the flow of Richie Online articles. We might try to bring them every Friday, but let it be known to you that it may not always work. Ku Gulupu kwavuta.
Interestingly enough, the Friday on which I failed to nourish readers happened to be a very important one as it was World AIDS Day (I love the way the French name this disease; Syndrome Immuno Deficitaire Acquis, with funny accents in the words, of course). I actually wanted to write a long article (backed with scientific facts and statistical models) on why it is stupid to assume and aim for an HIV free planet in 2030 in line with the fact that some deluded folks have set that goal. We are way past World AIDS Day but the one thing I would like to share is the loud echo of some semi-structured chats and random Facebook posts.
A shallow look at the historical epidemiology of the HIV pandemic shows that the disease took away a lot of lives in the 90’s because people did not know about it. Most of the people who had enablers for procuring sex (along with their spouses) got the virus as they were caught unaware. In those days, people used to do whatever they want sexually as they felt that the only thing they were susceptible to were the treatable sexually transmitted diseases everybody knew about. This is probably we have a lot of “90’s men” who are infected and affected by the virus. The point I am driving home is that these people were taken and are infected with something they were not aware of. You and I know about HIV and AIDS and we hardly have any excuse for contracting the virus or not receiving treatment adherently when it’s due. Let’s act civilized and play it safe.
That is enough HIV for now. This article wasn’t meant to be about HIV, anyway.
I have lately become increasingly interested in local politics following the boom in interesting developments in the local political scene. Malawians sleep, eat, drink and dream politics, anyway and as such I had to be trendy and begin to follow politics. Lately there have been rumors about an unusual alliance between the blue and orange parties. We got some interesting comments from some corners of the society while we were treated with some deafening silence from others. The brainy people told us that the idea of the alliance was conceived by the ruling party in a bid to ensure the amassment of a majority of the votes should 50%+1 come to light. Good strategy considering the 5-1 defeat to the black rooster, right? Somehow. As a Malawian, I feel like we should be worried about this. We have always talked of the yellow, blue and orange camps as the UDF group of parties and if they finally become a thing, they may actually end up getting a landslide victory leaving the country at the mercy of recycled politicians who have mastered the art of plundering public resources (I said it). Anyway. That is a topic for another Wednesday or Sunday or whatever day the other article will show up. Let us talk about 50%+1.
If you have been paying attention to anything in the country, you might have heard about the Electoral Reforms Bill. I am no lawyer but from the little I know this is a new proposed legislation governing electoral processes in the country. I am not sure of what else is in the bill other than the much touted 50%+1 clause. What basically that means is that for someone to be declared winner in the national elections, they have to scoop no less than half of all the votes plus one vote. Akuti akatero ndiye kuti the candidate has been chosen by the majority of the people. Should that not happen, the two leading candidates go for a re-run. M’mene ndaimvera inetu. Correctors are free to do so in the comment box.
Some have accused me of being a DPP sympathizer owing to my lack of support for the 50+1 thing. If you do not get my argument, you might also paint me with the same brush but if you think about it critically, this system is useless and a waste of time and money for a nation like ours. This country should be run by the guy who gets a simple majority of the votes as has been the case since the advent of democracy. Period.
My brainy friends who are also against “51” have used interesting arguments beyond the comprehension of my loosely folded brain. People have talked about resources and some have added the possibility of voter apathy in run-off elections. Others have provided even more complex arguments that I tend to forget upon getting. I on the other hand have a simple thought that has got me asking myself whether this whole thing is good and what we are trying to achieve by re-defining “majority” in electoral terms. Of course my answers were nothing and nothing.
Here is the idea. Bringing in the 50%+1 system may mean that the CEO for our country will be chosen by the majority of the voters in the country but the thing has no effect whatsoever on the quality of the leader(ship) and governance in the country. If you think about it, it will be the same politicians who will be competing and whether they are voted in by the majority or not, they will still remain with the same traits in as far as leadership skills and passion for the people are concerned. If they are egocentric, they will not change just because they were voted in by a majority. Our leaders are not accountable to us, anyway so we should not have false hopes that things will change when we introduce the new system.
In as far as I am concerned, the problem we have as a nation is that we do not have leaders who have the interests of the nation at heart. Some of you might say a lot and tout about your party leader but I hardly believe that they would be any better given the mandate for one term. If anything, I feel like we shouldn’t be investing too much time, money and emotions into the process of replacing one thieving dictator with another in our fake democracy. If someone has gotten more votes than everyone else, let them get the seat at Casterly Rock (Kamuzu Palace) and plunder when they can. If they do anything helpful and praiseworthy, let us clap and make them life President like Yoweri Mu7 and soldier on; ignoring any imperialist lectures on how we should run our democracy.
I have not talked about how desperate some will be to make a win out of one run ending up with extreme measures like rigging or costly alliances like the one we heard is cooking on the sidelines. Zonsezi tizidziganizira ndithu.
I am told that people (with full blessings and encouragement from men of the cloth of course) would like to hold peaceful demonstrations in a bid to push parliament to table the reforms bill in this sitting. Richie Msowoya wakanitsitsa kuti he will not allow bills to be bulldozed by some “mob” into his house and I am told that some law experts are saying that the bill is not ready for parliamentary debate. This may just be a delay tactic for all we know but if it is true, we might want to avoid adding some half-baked hibber jabber into our constitution.
If you are planning to be part of the demonstrations, you have the full blessings of Maharaja Richard Kamwezi but what you should know is that you will be fighting for a change in how you choose the leader; with very little if any change on who gets chosen. That change will be meaningless, if you are to ask me.
The whole article in one sentence?
The process of reforming the electoral processes will mean nothing if it has no bearing on the quality of leaders that will be chosen... and so far this seems to be the wrong direction we are headed.
Anyway. This is politics. I am just a humble Medical Officer intern at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. Let me go back to serving… Zinazi zitichedwetsa.
Friday, 24 November 2017
HONORIS CAUSA, BLOODLESS COUP AND RED HERRINGS
with the Venomous Hope
I have to raise a glass (obviously containing thobwa) to this rarefied blogger who also on his time upholds the Hippocratic oath at one of the referrals, for giving me another opportunity to scribble some sentences which I hope will make sense. Some spooks have mentioned that this landlord is enjoying some sort of vacation, and, like everything weird in Nyasaland, our largely useless ACB must deep their fingers and find out who ordered this holiday. Have to say I asked to write last Friday's article because I couldn't wait to flex my undoubted prophetic muscles and declare the inevitable fall from grace of Zimbabwe's nonagenarian leader. Withal, some deacons, pastors, sorcerers and apostles with funny churches and strange gods have already scored one on that such that I will have to register another angle concerning the Comrade.
It's always hard to separate myths about Robert Mugabe to those rare published substantial bits of his mysteriously long life, obviously he himself created a dark fog that elevated his persona to a semigod. He thought he will rule forever as do some misguided African leaders. An exclusive club of dictators like Paul Biya, a diety who has ruled Cameroon for more than 35 years, Teodore Obiang Ngwema who thinks he has divine right to rule Equatorial Guinea for more than 38 yrs, Denis Sasou who has been worshipped in Congo Brazzaville for a good part of 30 years, and that devil incarnate Yoweri Museveni who keeps extending presidential terms, need to be retired permanently. Countries like Chad, Rwanda, Algeria, Djibouti and DRC also seem ironically to agree that more than 20 yrs their leaders have spent on the thrones is not enough. You can't fool everyone forever, Mugabe coup is just a warning to them. Mugabe could have ruled forever, perhaps one thing that isn't fuzzy about him is the level of analytical skills he possess, something that made him survive at least 2 assassination attempts and allowed him to lord over the Shona and the Ndebele for close to four decades amidst Western sanctions for his wife to shop in Paris. Probably his literature and administration degrees earned while he was being smoked out by the colonialists is a testament for the kind of knowledge he was able to consume and make use to stay afloat at the palace. But we cant discount the role of the iron lady that parroted his philosophy as if its a Litany for avoiding Gehena, his renegade wife. Since they say behind every dictator there's a voluptuous Jezebel, Mugabe's second wife,
Ntombizodwa Grace, fits the bill and is renowned for being very passionate about politics and emotional rather than giving coherent logical arguments. Unlike poles always attract. But then we can only speculate how she left the kitchen and warmed up her way to nearly landing the hot vice presidency seat, along the way silently eliminating those deemed as malevolent to the president, Joice Mujuru and Emerson Mnangagwa being just some of the famous casualties. Mugabe must have made some of the dubious Zanu PF orders while intoxicated by her extravagant bedroom perfumes, and possibly 'made in' North Korea beddings. One online newspaper article has come clean to declare Grace Mugabe as very dull first lady. Leaving propaganda aside, she wasn't that dull to have been personal secretary for Mugabe in the early 90s, her job description surely must have been classified as top secret even to Mugabe. She graduated from Renmin University of China in 2011 after studying the Chinese language, but everyone knows she can't give more than 3 sentences in Chinese without consulting a Sinitic dictionary. Then, her husband, an eternal Chanchellor, awarded her the top doctoral degree of Sociology in 2014 after spending an interminable two months at the University of Zimbabwe, quite a genius but there's no trace of her thesis, the CIA are still searching for it.
The moral here is that despite all the riches one may accumulate Africans still feel like they're just a bag of sweet potatoes if they do not own that enviable graduate paper.
Muammar Gadafi created himself Doctor of Pedagogy, just to piss off fellow gunslingers for lacking tact. It's a tradition among leaders to accumulate useless honorary degrees and step on the toes of poor people. I'm not saying some of these are not deserved honors, but the problem comes when those fake papers are magnified to make one look like a brainiac when he is just a toad. Fact that majority of Africans do not have an iota of arithmetics in their heads apart from counting coins is exploited by these so-called well learned gurus who wave their papers in our faces as if they can solve even a sewer spillage in Area 18. We are gullible if we think that if one was a professor somewhere then he is as close to a messiah as we can ever get. Perhaps that's why we give them names like Mose, Njanji, Joshua, Lazaro lol. I remember during the time of Atcheya, one of his calling cards was that he has been acclaimed 10 times with Honoris Causas by universities that you can't now find on the map unless you are wearing something yellow. And some public university here in Nyasaland did not waste time to give our good First Lady an honorary doctorate for leading the fight against refuse on our bumpy streets. And her elevation was capped off this week by that Chinese professorship MBC has helped everyone to memorize. Well it's not her problem to generously be on the receiving end of international recognition. Nanga afanane ndi Dr Nyangatayani? What about her husband, the good professor of international law who in 2016 was conferred a doctorate of Human Letters by University of Addis Ababa made in recognition of 'his impeccable leadership and selfless contribution to Africa,' whatever that was... This was inflated on loud speakers later in the same year when a mere London blog called African Leadership Magazine awarded Mapwiyha a deserved 'Medal of Honor for Development' for his outstanding economic transformation people of TA Mtwalo have ever seen, and a long list of Bingu and JB accomplishments is then listed to make support his case. We all know these awards are merely used for political tantrums and should not be taken seriously otherwise I would have visited a barber today. Africans are obsessed with empty recognition from bogus organizations and colleges, and in turn we award mediocrity. I'm sure that Malawians will not be swayed by these lettered souls in 2019, they are all supported by Jezebels and stop calling anyone a professor, its blasphemy to those who really earned it.
Funny thing for most African countries is that they always go for a lesser devil available. R.G. Mugabe is gone and he is being replaced by someone who has seen it all with the former president, and is rightly nicknamed a crocodile for being behind much of atrocities associated with Zanu PF led government. Mnangagwa is a guy who has shown his colors by masterminding a 'bloodless' coup that culminated in the resignation of his boss. He was frustrated to be left out in the cold by Grace Mugabe's G40 cadates and risked quickly decelerating into a political corpse. We are looking at a crocodile amangwetu, a cunning animal that bid its time before circling it's prey for a final flourish. The former VP used his army connection and public anguish to paint himself a new face, something more appealing and considerate. Zimbabweans will be fooled to think he is different to what they had, he will initially feed on the popular support and win himself a long term and then he will get out of his hiding shell and act like a normal dictator. For 37 years surely there must be someone better than a war veteran, a war of which 80% Zimbabweans never saw. It was obvious Mugabe had outlived his usefulness and was supposed to retire like two decades earlier but getting Mnangagwa even in interim role is similarly extending that old dynasty. Probably Mugabe will be laughing that his friend is taking over. The so-called bloodless coup was well calculated to make the military still relevant. It must be said that soon after the political triumph of the Comrade in 1978, his guerrillas living in the bush were incorporated into the new national army. This gave Mugabe, their commander, confidence to snore peacefully on the throne without worrying about any would-be usurpers, and he consolidated his power by swallowing main challenger, Joshua Nkomo's party. The veterans have ever since amassed innumerable amount of wealth and grabbed estates under the watch of Mugabe. It was vital that the likes of Morgan Tsangirayi and Tendai Biti should never go near the presidential palace as it spell the end of their lofty benefits. Mnangagwa is one of their own, he speaks their language and will be useful. The change of guard will mean nothing to ordinary citizens if these recycled veterans are still leeching public resources like overgrown vultures.
The dramatic turn of events in Mashonaland should not mask the stench of incompetence that we're smelling right here in Nyasaland. On numerous occasions if you religiously follow this blog I have lamented how dire our level of governance and policy implementation is. Some cadets have already whispered to the big Kahuna to declare himself as one of the youth at a ripe old age of 79 and in 2019 he will surely grace the first line on the ballot paper. I won't bore you with what he has achieved or not to warrant a new lease at Sanjika but one thing is clear Malawians are are going towards the Zim situation. When you tune in to state run propaganda stations, you will wonder on which planet they're living. How can we tolerate a full day of blackout and go on about our business as if all is ok. There's no commitment from those in gaff'ment to ensure that critical services are served. The touted month of December is nigh and they've already started talking about January as a new deadline to end power woes through gensets. Cadets at National Statistics will vouch irrelevant numbers like dwindling interest rates and low inflation but reality is that we have a crisis. All macroeconomic indicators show to that poverty is on the rise and unemployment is at all time high. After three years and half in power, DPP seems like a Chitipa Utd, a club without ideas on how to avoid relegation from the league. Instead of solving problems it has mastered the use of propaganda and repel criticisms whenever Wandale breathes loudly. When a leader blames some guy who is rotting in his coffin or some woman who is loitering around the globe instead of doing the needful to take responsibility as it why people voted him, just know we're heading for disaster as a nation. We can moan all day, the story will be the same. The systems of forcing our leaders to account for incompetence is not noxious for those leaders which is why they keep lying to us every chance they get. In countries like the USA, leaders are grilled for not tucking in the shirts, but here a politician implicated in a maize scam is still enjoying all the benefits without even being suspended from the party. One Saulosi Chilima at a public rally said 'njoka saweta,' to mean those whose slippery tongues have never let slip profanity in the ears of the president. What worries most is that we are fed Red Herrings so much so that real issues are ignored. For example, instead of tackling issues raised by Chakwera in response to the out of touch president's parliamentary statement, the president himself is worried about how Chakwera is demeaning and insulting his office. He goes on to call for psychiatric help towards the MCP leader- innuendos that only reflect at the calibre of leadership we have in Malawi. Way forward is to agitate for change. We must desist from hearing same tune, it's like we are happy with our poverty. Zimbabweans left it very late but they embraced change and couldn't wait someone to die in office when he can't even hold a pen because of old age. The message to leaders has been clear if we take that by election demolition job into consideration; people no longer clap to any trash thrown at them- ati osawazimitsira magetsi nthawi ya kampeni. It's a slow start but a start anyway. Zomati tamanga nsewu should no longer be considered a major development amangwetu, but most importantly give us lights as soon as yesterday apo ayi tigawanapo dzikoli...
I have to raise a glass (obviously containing thobwa) to this rarefied blogger who also on his time upholds the Hippocratic oath at one of the referrals, for giving me another opportunity to scribble some sentences which I hope will make sense. Some spooks have mentioned that this landlord is enjoying some sort of vacation, and, like everything weird in Nyasaland, our largely useless ACB must deep their fingers and find out who ordered this holiday. Have to say I asked to write last Friday's article because I couldn't wait to flex my undoubted prophetic muscles and declare the inevitable fall from grace of Zimbabwe's nonagenarian leader. Withal, some deacons, pastors, sorcerers and apostles with funny churches and strange gods have already scored one on that such that I will have to register another angle concerning the Comrade.
It's always hard to separate myths about Robert Mugabe to those rare published substantial bits of his mysteriously long life, obviously he himself created a dark fog that elevated his persona to a semigod. He thought he will rule forever as do some misguided African leaders. An exclusive club of dictators like Paul Biya, a diety who has ruled Cameroon for more than 35 years, Teodore Obiang Ngwema who thinks he has divine right to rule Equatorial Guinea for more than 38 yrs, Denis Sasou who has been worshipped in Congo Brazzaville for a good part of 30 years, and that devil incarnate Yoweri Museveni who keeps extending presidential terms, need to be retired permanently. Countries like Chad, Rwanda, Algeria, Djibouti and DRC also seem ironically to agree that more than 20 yrs their leaders have spent on the thrones is not enough. You can't fool everyone forever, Mugabe coup is just a warning to them. Mugabe could have ruled forever, perhaps one thing that isn't fuzzy about him is the level of analytical skills he possess, something that made him survive at least 2 assassination attempts and allowed him to lord over the Shona and the Ndebele for close to four decades amidst Western sanctions for his wife to shop in Paris. Probably his literature and administration degrees earned while he was being smoked out by the colonialists is a testament for the kind of knowledge he was able to consume and make use to stay afloat at the palace. But we cant discount the role of the iron lady that parroted his philosophy as if its a Litany for avoiding Gehena, his renegade wife. Since they say behind every dictator there's a voluptuous Jezebel, Mugabe's second wife,
Ntombizodwa Grace, fits the bill and is renowned for being very passionate about politics and emotional rather than giving coherent logical arguments. Unlike poles always attract. But then we can only speculate how she left the kitchen and warmed up her way to nearly landing the hot vice presidency seat, along the way silently eliminating those deemed as malevolent to the president, Joice Mujuru and Emerson Mnangagwa being just some of the famous casualties. Mugabe must have made some of the dubious Zanu PF orders while intoxicated by her extravagant bedroom perfumes, and possibly 'made in' North Korea beddings. One online newspaper article has come clean to declare Grace Mugabe as very dull first lady. Leaving propaganda aside, she wasn't that dull to have been personal secretary for Mugabe in the early 90s, her job description surely must have been classified as top secret even to Mugabe. She graduated from Renmin University of China in 2011 after studying the Chinese language, but everyone knows she can't give more than 3 sentences in Chinese without consulting a Sinitic dictionary. Then, her husband, an eternal Chanchellor, awarded her the top doctoral degree of Sociology in 2014 after spending an interminable two months at the University of Zimbabwe, quite a genius but there's no trace of her thesis, the CIA are still searching for it.
The moral here is that despite all the riches one may accumulate Africans still feel like they're just a bag of sweet potatoes if they do not own that enviable graduate paper.
Muammar Gadafi created himself Doctor of Pedagogy, just to piss off fellow gunslingers for lacking tact. It's a tradition among leaders to accumulate useless honorary degrees and step on the toes of poor people. I'm not saying some of these are not deserved honors, but the problem comes when those fake papers are magnified to make one look like a brainiac when he is just a toad. Fact that majority of Africans do not have an iota of arithmetics in their heads apart from counting coins is exploited by these so-called well learned gurus who wave their papers in our faces as if they can solve even a sewer spillage in Area 18. We are gullible if we think that if one was a professor somewhere then he is as close to a messiah as we can ever get. Perhaps that's why we give them names like Mose, Njanji, Joshua, Lazaro lol. I remember during the time of Atcheya, one of his calling cards was that he has been acclaimed 10 times with Honoris Causas by universities that you can't now find on the map unless you are wearing something yellow. And some public university here in Nyasaland did not waste time to give our good First Lady an honorary doctorate for leading the fight against refuse on our bumpy streets. And her elevation was capped off this week by that Chinese professorship MBC has helped everyone to memorize. Well it's not her problem to generously be on the receiving end of international recognition. Nanga afanane ndi Dr Nyangatayani? What about her husband, the good professor of international law who in 2016 was conferred a doctorate of Human Letters by University of Addis Ababa made in recognition of 'his impeccable leadership and selfless contribution to Africa,' whatever that was... This was inflated on loud speakers later in the same year when a mere London blog called African Leadership Magazine awarded Mapwiyha a deserved 'Medal of Honor for Development' for his outstanding economic transformation people of TA Mtwalo have ever seen, and a long list of Bingu and JB accomplishments is then listed to make support his case. We all know these awards are merely used for political tantrums and should not be taken seriously otherwise I would have visited a barber today. Africans are obsessed with empty recognition from bogus organizations and colleges, and in turn we award mediocrity. I'm sure that Malawians will not be swayed by these lettered souls in 2019, they are all supported by Jezebels and stop calling anyone a professor, its blasphemy to those who really earned it.
Funny thing for most African countries is that they always go for a lesser devil available. R.G. Mugabe is gone and he is being replaced by someone who has seen it all with the former president, and is rightly nicknamed a crocodile for being behind much of atrocities associated with Zanu PF led government. Mnangagwa is a guy who has shown his colors by masterminding a 'bloodless' coup that culminated in the resignation of his boss. He was frustrated to be left out in the cold by Grace Mugabe's G40 cadates and risked quickly decelerating into a political corpse. We are looking at a crocodile amangwetu, a cunning animal that bid its time before circling it's prey for a final flourish. The former VP used his army connection and public anguish to paint himself a new face, something more appealing and considerate. Zimbabweans will be fooled to think he is different to what they had, he will initially feed on the popular support and win himself a long term and then he will get out of his hiding shell and act like a normal dictator. For 37 years surely there must be someone better than a war veteran, a war of which 80% Zimbabweans never saw. It was obvious Mugabe had outlived his usefulness and was supposed to retire like two decades earlier but getting Mnangagwa even in interim role is similarly extending that old dynasty. Probably Mugabe will be laughing that his friend is taking over. The so-called bloodless coup was well calculated to make the military still relevant. It must be said that soon after the political triumph of the Comrade in 1978, his guerrillas living in the bush were incorporated into the new national army. This gave Mugabe, their commander, confidence to snore peacefully on the throne without worrying about any would-be usurpers, and he consolidated his power by swallowing main challenger, Joshua Nkomo's party. The veterans have ever since amassed innumerable amount of wealth and grabbed estates under the watch of Mugabe. It was vital that the likes of Morgan Tsangirayi and Tendai Biti should never go near the presidential palace as it spell the end of their lofty benefits. Mnangagwa is one of their own, he speaks their language and will be useful. The change of guard will mean nothing to ordinary citizens if these recycled veterans are still leeching public resources like overgrown vultures.
The dramatic turn of events in Mashonaland should not mask the stench of incompetence that we're smelling right here in Nyasaland. On numerous occasions if you religiously follow this blog I have lamented how dire our level of governance and policy implementation is. Some cadets have already whispered to the big Kahuna to declare himself as one of the youth at a ripe old age of 79 and in 2019 he will surely grace the first line on the ballot paper. I won't bore you with what he has achieved or not to warrant a new lease at Sanjika but one thing is clear Malawians are are going towards the Zim situation. When you tune in to state run propaganda stations, you will wonder on which planet they're living. How can we tolerate a full day of blackout and go on about our business as if all is ok. There's no commitment from those in gaff'ment to ensure that critical services are served. The touted month of December is nigh and they've already started talking about January as a new deadline to end power woes through gensets. Cadets at National Statistics will vouch irrelevant numbers like dwindling interest rates and low inflation but reality is that we have a crisis. All macroeconomic indicators show to that poverty is on the rise and unemployment is at all time high. After three years and half in power, DPP seems like a Chitipa Utd, a club without ideas on how to avoid relegation from the league. Instead of solving problems it has mastered the use of propaganda and repel criticisms whenever Wandale breathes loudly. When a leader blames some guy who is rotting in his coffin or some woman who is loitering around the globe instead of doing the needful to take responsibility as it why people voted him, just know we're heading for disaster as a nation. We can moan all day, the story will be the same. The systems of forcing our leaders to account for incompetence is not noxious for those leaders which is why they keep lying to us every chance they get. In countries like the USA, leaders are grilled for not tucking in the shirts, but here a politician implicated in a maize scam is still enjoying all the benefits without even being suspended from the party. One Saulosi Chilima at a public rally said 'njoka saweta,' to mean those whose slippery tongues have never let slip profanity in the ears of the president. What worries most is that we are fed Red Herrings so much so that real issues are ignored. For example, instead of tackling issues raised by Chakwera in response to the out of touch president's parliamentary statement, the president himself is worried about how Chakwera is demeaning and insulting his office. He goes on to call for psychiatric help towards the MCP leader- innuendos that only reflect at the calibre of leadership we have in Malawi. Way forward is to agitate for change. We must desist from hearing same tune, it's like we are happy with our poverty. Zimbabweans left it very late but they embraced change and couldn't wait someone to die in office when he can't even hold a pen because of old age. The message to leaders has been clear if we take that by election demolition job into consideration; people no longer clap to any trash thrown at them- ati osawazimitsira magetsi nthawi ya kampeni. It's a slow start but a start anyway. Zomati tamanga nsewu should no longer be considered a major development amangwetu, but most importantly give us lights as soon as yesterday apo ayi tigawanapo dzikoli...
Friday, 17 November 2017
Of Loving, Liking and Reciprocating
Warning: Title and article may not match.
It is another Richie Online Friday and here we are with another piece. I have forgiven you if you are disappointed with the fact that this article is not about Zimbabwe. We cannot talk about Zimbabwe because even the military which gsot things rolling is pretty unsure of what they are doing. Let’s leave Zimbabwean issues for Zimbabweans to worry about.
Earlier this week, I found myself pondering upon the mystery of love and its role in shaping marriage and relationships. It probably would not be a very good idea for me to reveal why I got into such thoughts but once again I got to wander through the part of my thoughts jungle where I ask myself as to what love is and what being in love really entails. These reflections led to a chain reaction of thoughts and I got to ask myself as to which one was the best between being on the giving and the receiving end of love. Having answered the question, I got more curious as to what my friends thought about the same. It was at that point that I posed the same question to my Whatsapp friends through a status post (some of you might have seen and responded to it). “Who would you rather be with? Someone you love or someone who loves you?”
To be honest, I did not expect many to respond but the number and diversity of the responses was just overwhelming. While few decided to give me a lecture of how complex the situation I was asking about was, some decided to give a plain answer to the question, citing the reasons why they would rather be either with someone they love or someone who loves them. The former pointed out that for some reason love is a nice thing when you are on the giving end and that sometimes with just enough love you tend to get the person you love to reciprocate. The other group was rather interesting. Most of the people who opted for the person who loves them were about avoiding the risk of not being loved back and some just wanted that extra security. The most interesting point from this group was that of being in control. For some reason, someone felt like thy can pull the strings of the relationship when they are the “loved one”. Somehow, that is how people think about relationships.
As I earlier mentioned, there were some that opted not to answer but to rather give a lecture on how complex the issue I was asking about was. That was a fair point to raise but what people overlooked was that I was asking a crude question without contextualizing it and immersing it into the imaginations of the realities we all live in. You might agree with me that it is (almost) stupid to assume that all people one loves do not love them back or the other way round. In some (if not most) cases, the feeling is mutual in varied proportions. More often than not, however, there is a significant difference in the levels of commitment between spouses or hopefuls in any relationship and this is where the question applies the most. Who would you want to be with? The person who contributes 8 out of 10 and leaves you to do the two, or the person who lets you do the 7 while sluggishly contributing the 3? Rather interesting but that is far from being it when it comes to the full understanding of these things because there also comes the issue of subjectivity and objectivity.
We all at one point have heard or used the saying, “love is blind”. I must admit that I have just gotten to fully understand this saying lately and I am still trying to decide whether it is true or not. In essence, the idea behind the blindness of love entails that someone can easily fall for a person despite their status, background or character. The interesting thing, however is that these attributes cannot be completely dismissed if one is to get into a relationship with the slightest degree of seriousness let alone marriage. What I have come to conclude is that subjectivity and objectivity have complementary roles in the making and sustaining of any relationship. Example? You might get into that thing called love at first sight with the person of your dreams and get along for a moment only for you to discover that they are uneducated, they are broke or they do not like you receiving links to Richie Online articles; consequently forcing you to back out. The other way might be that you might find this nice church-going and respectable potential spouse and like them from the start only to discover that your heart doesn’t really tickle for them when you get closer. There we are with two verbs, then. Loving and liking.
I strongly believe that for any relationship to work there has to be a bit of loving complemented by liking and this is what I would call the complementary nature of subjectivity and objectivity. The blind and subjective nature of love allows people to get together despite their attributes but it is the objectivity (liking) that allows people to stay together by correcting and adjusting to one another.
The problem we have nowadays is that we have become a society of either left wing or right wing extremists who are either too objective or too subjective. While this may be dictated by circumstances, I still believe that there is a way of getting around it. In other words, I do not think it is entirely wise to take in someone based solely on how you feel about them in the same way it is not nice to just pick someone because of their status. The danger with such is that such relationships collapse when you run out of the juice of feelings (in the case of following the bling thing called love) or if the status of the person changes (classic example is when a spouse whose money you followed gets broke).
Solution? While we all have to fall and report to our feelings, we need to employ a certain level of objectivity and decide what kind of spouse we want to settle for. It is important because of the complementary nature of the two things; your feelings and your spouse’s nature. If you are not happy with the way you feel about them, you tend to stay because of what they are and the other way round. Those are two things acting like ESCOM power and a diesel generator, if you want to think about it that way. Every relationship has to be fueled by a bit of both loving and liking.
We probably do not give much thought to these things but I think they are important especially for those of you who have never tasted a relationship. Ma veteran inu you know better than this. Things to consider? Loving and liking, what end of the equation you want to be at and the possibility of reciprocation. Looking at these prior to the conception of a relationship could save us a lot of breakups… Or so I think.
It is another Richie Online Friday and here we are with another piece. I have forgiven you if you are disappointed with the fact that this article is not about Zimbabwe. We cannot talk about Zimbabwe because even the military which gsot things rolling is pretty unsure of what they are doing. Let’s leave Zimbabwean issues for Zimbabweans to worry about.
Earlier this week, I found myself pondering upon the mystery of love and its role in shaping marriage and relationships. It probably would not be a very good idea for me to reveal why I got into such thoughts but once again I got to wander through the part of my thoughts jungle where I ask myself as to what love is and what being in love really entails. These reflections led to a chain reaction of thoughts and I got to ask myself as to which one was the best between being on the giving and the receiving end of love. Having answered the question, I got more curious as to what my friends thought about the same. It was at that point that I posed the same question to my Whatsapp friends through a status post (some of you might have seen and responded to it). “Who would you rather be with? Someone you love or someone who loves you?”
To be honest, I did not expect many to respond but the number and diversity of the responses was just overwhelming. While few decided to give me a lecture of how complex the situation I was asking about was, some decided to give a plain answer to the question, citing the reasons why they would rather be either with someone they love or someone who loves them. The former pointed out that for some reason love is a nice thing when you are on the giving end and that sometimes with just enough love you tend to get the person you love to reciprocate. The other group was rather interesting. Most of the people who opted for the person who loves them were about avoiding the risk of not being loved back and some just wanted that extra security. The most interesting point from this group was that of being in control. For some reason, someone felt like thy can pull the strings of the relationship when they are the “loved one”. Somehow, that is how people think about relationships.
As I earlier mentioned, there were some that opted not to answer but to rather give a lecture on how complex the issue I was asking about was. That was a fair point to raise but what people overlooked was that I was asking a crude question without contextualizing it and immersing it into the imaginations of the realities we all live in. You might agree with me that it is (almost) stupid to assume that all people one loves do not love them back or the other way round. In some (if not most) cases, the feeling is mutual in varied proportions. More often than not, however, there is a significant difference in the levels of commitment between spouses or hopefuls in any relationship and this is where the question applies the most. Who would you want to be with? The person who contributes 8 out of 10 and leaves you to do the two, or the person who lets you do the 7 while sluggishly contributing the 3? Rather interesting but that is far from being it when it comes to the full understanding of these things because there also comes the issue of subjectivity and objectivity.
We all at one point have heard or used the saying, “love is blind”. I must admit that I have just gotten to fully understand this saying lately and I am still trying to decide whether it is true or not. In essence, the idea behind the blindness of love entails that someone can easily fall for a person despite their status, background or character. The interesting thing, however is that these attributes cannot be completely dismissed if one is to get into a relationship with the slightest degree of seriousness let alone marriage. What I have come to conclude is that subjectivity and objectivity have complementary roles in the making and sustaining of any relationship. Example? You might get into that thing called love at first sight with the person of your dreams and get along for a moment only for you to discover that they are uneducated, they are broke or they do not like you receiving links to Richie Online articles; consequently forcing you to back out. The other way might be that you might find this nice church-going and respectable potential spouse and like them from the start only to discover that your heart doesn’t really tickle for them when you get closer. There we are with two verbs, then. Loving and liking.
I strongly believe that for any relationship to work there has to be a bit of loving complemented by liking and this is what I would call the complementary nature of subjectivity and objectivity. The blind and subjective nature of love allows people to get together despite their attributes but it is the objectivity (liking) that allows people to stay together by correcting and adjusting to one another.
The problem we have nowadays is that we have become a society of either left wing or right wing extremists who are either too objective or too subjective. While this may be dictated by circumstances, I still believe that there is a way of getting around it. In other words, I do not think it is entirely wise to take in someone based solely on how you feel about them in the same way it is not nice to just pick someone because of their status. The danger with such is that such relationships collapse when you run out of the juice of feelings (in the case of following the bling thing called love) or if the status of the person changes (classic example is when a spouse whose money you followed gets broke).
Solution? While we all have to fall and report to our feelings, we need to employ a certain level of objectivity and decide what kind of spouse we want to settle for. It is important because of the complementary nature of the two things; your feelings and your spouse’s nature. If you are not happy with the way you feel about them, you tend to stay because of what they are and the other way round. Those are two things acting like ESCOM power and a diesel generator, if you want to think about it that way. Every relationship has to be fueled by a bit of both loving and liking.
We probably do not give much thought to these things but I think they are important especially for those of you who have never tasted a relationship. Ma veteran inu you know better than this. Things to consider? Loving and liking, what end of the equation you want to be at and the possibility of reciprocation. Looking at these prior to the conception of a relationship could save us a lot of breakups… Or so I think.
Friday, 10 November 2017
Escomites
It is a Friday and once again we find ourselves reading on Richie Online. It has been an eventful week with the whole issue of blackouts taking the centre stage.
Without wasting time with unnecessary pleasantries and introductions, I should point out that this article is about the Escomites and the drama surrounding their blackout supply operations. The social media is awash with complaints about 36 hour blackouts. Ironically we find ourselves using electronic gadgets to complain about electricity in the same way we use the internet to complain about the poor internet. Truth of the matter is that the service provision of Escom is way below the acceptable levels. Someone once calculated that at the current blackout rate, it is estimated that we get electricity for about five months out of the twelve in a year. Some might think that it is an exaggeration but looking at the rampant power cuts, that duration (or something lower) might be equivalent if not close to what a majority are getting.
There are a lot of questions as to why we continue to suffer with blackouts despite the money that escomites make in profits from power generation. One can indeed not help but wonder why we keep on having the same excuses of "anyani ozimitsa magetsi" and low water levels year in year out as if those are issues that cannot be dressed. To an extent, it makes me think that this is more of a political will issue than it is about anything else. In other words, if people were willing to institute that much needed change, issues of blackouts would have been an issue of the past.
Historians like to tell a tale of how Nkula hydro electric power station was commissioned a long time ago when the nation's population was a mere quarter of what it currently is in the present day. The increase in the population entails an increase in the demand for electricity and thus the need for the expansion of the generation capacity to stay up to speed with the exponentially increasing demand. Obvious as that may sound, there has hardly been any action done along those lines. We have not taken any serious initiatives in increasing our generation capacity and one would wonder whether that is the fault of some ESCOM CEO or someone else higher up.
Talking of the issue of the relationship between electricity supply and politics, we often find ourselves comparing between the Orange and Blue monarchies, preferring the former as it is thought as one that had the political muscle that pulled strings to make power available 20 hours a day and 6 days a week (za enawo sitikamba). I have, for a long time been in doubts as to whether it was really the woman's tricks that sorted out the power but some guys in an opposite corner to some auditorium gave me the answer. According to them, the Orange president had some project going on in which some of the nation's power supply was coming from Tanzania, relieving our old machines, thus making them function at an optimum. The continuity issues we have in our (not unlike other African nations) country meant that the project was discontinued and the Tanganyikas pulled out their cables from Kameme or wherever on earth they connected them. I am assuming that this is something to go by, otherwise I haven't been able to find any plausible explanation for the significant difference.
Many of us have been throwing heavy barrages of criticisms at the management of the power supplier and the energy ministry (and its boss and his boss) for failing to do something. Despite all these blaming fingers, little or no solutions have been offered or enacted. Interestingly there came the move to split ESCOM and come up with ENGENCO, the logic of which some of us are yet to understand as we are yet to be bailed out from the problems the split was supposed to solve.
Rather interestingly, amidst the noises of cry babies came a voice with a solution. Major Prophet Shepherd Bushiri of the Enlightened Christian Gathering stood on a pulpit somewhere in the rainbow nation and told the world that he could solve our electricity woes within a record 48 hours. Boldness. While I am left with the question of how that can be achieved, I must say that I would have loved it if people had let him try. It would have been great to see him succeed and gain more philanthropic (and maybe political and prophetic) points but on the other hand it would have been fun watching him fail (nane ndine m'Malawi so don't judge me). Of course that offer came amidst the spread of a clip in which the prophet was claiming that he had previously offered our electricity generator some financial help, a claim which the PRO for the company vehemently denied. Ndi pa Malawi pano. You can't know who is lying and who is not. Tidzamva pa tsiku lomaliza lipenga likadzalira if there will be time for such.
Of course there were also those 12 people who took it to the streets and peacefully demonstrated against the blackout supply corporation's poor services. I am not sure if their demonstrations were just aimed at making a difference or just showing their anger. Truth of the matter is that whether we demonstrate naked or not, we may never have the power we need because the people who are holding the keys to the solutions of these problems are not willing to do it. Instead they are busy providing funding to city sweepers, tribal groups and political parties as part of the appeasement policy. They are busy getting hefty bonuses and buying poshy cars from the profits of the overpriced electricity as opposed to embarking on a venture that would see you and me in the dream "power all day everyday" setting.
I am told that it took some people's court action for escomites to add the word "towards" to their "power all day everyday" slogan. We should probably take some action to force them to change because from what is happening, we don't seem to be going towards power all day everyday. Talking of what happened yesterday, I am not convinced that firing the CEO of the parastatal and hiring another one would miraculously change the state of power provision in the country. I might be wrong but surprise visits and firings hardly do anything in this country.
Solution?
Gulani power bank ya solar, gas cooker (or mbaula) and any other alternatives to escomite power that you can think of. It will save you the stress.
Have a lovely weekend.
Without wasting time with unnecessary pleasantries and introductions, I should point out that this article is about the Escomites and the drama surrounding their blackout supply operations. The social media is awash with complaints about 36 hour blackouts. Ironically we find ourselves using electronic gadgets to complain about electricity in the same way we use the internet to complain about the poor internet. Truth of the matter is that the service provision of Escom is way below the acceptable levels. Someone once calculated that at the current blackout rate, it is estimated that we get electricity for about five months out of the twelve in a year. Some might think that it is an exaggeration but looking at the rampant power cuts, that duration (or something lower) might be equivalent if not close to what a majority are getting.
There are a lot of questions as to why we continue to suffer with blackouts despite the money that escomites make in profits from power generation. One can indeed not help but wonder why we keep on having the same excuses of "anyani ozimitsa magetsi" and low water levels year in year out as if those are issues that cannot be dressed. To an extent, it makes me think that this is more of a political will issue than it is about anything else. In other words, if people were willing to institute that much needed change, issues of blackouts would have been an issue of the past.
Historians like to tell a tale of how Nkula hydro electric power station was commissioned a long time ago when the nation's population was a mere quarter of what it currently is in the present day. The increase in the population entails an increase in the demand for electricity and thus the need for the expansion of the generation capacity to stay up to speed with the exponentially increasing demand. Obvious as that may sound, there has hardly been any action done along those lines. We have not taken any serious initiatives in increasing our generation capacity and one would wonder whether that is the fault of some ESCOM CEO or someone else higher up.
Talking of the issue of the relationship between electricity supply and politics, we often find ourselves comparing between the Orange and Blue monarchies, preferring the former as it is thought as one that had the political muscle that pulled strings to make power available 20 hours a day and 6 days a week (za enawo sitikamba). I have, for a long time been in doubts as to whether it was really the woman's tricks that sorted out the power but some guys in an opposite corner to some auditorium gave me the answer. According to them, the Orange president had some project going on in which some of the nation's power supply was coming from Tanzania, relieving our old machines, thus making them function at an optimum. The continuity issues we have in our (not unlike other African nations) country meant that the project was discontinued and the Tanganyikas pulled out their cables from Kameme or wherever on earth they connected them. I am assuming that this is something to go by, otherwise I haven't been able to find any plausible explanation for the significant difference.
Many of us have been throwing heavy barrages of criticisms at the management of the power supplier and the energy ministry (and its boss and his boss) for failing to do something. Despite all these blaming fingers, little or no solutions have been offered or enacted. Interestingly there came the move to split ESCOM and come up with ENGENCO, the logic of which some of us are yet to understand as we are yet to be bailed out from the problems the split was supposed to solve.
Rather interestingly, amidst the noises of cry babies came a voice with a solution. Major Prophet Shepherd Bushiri of the Enlightened Christian Gathering stood on a pulpit somewhere in the rainbow nation and told the world that he could solve our electricity woes within a record 48 hours. Boldness. While I am left with the question of how that can be achieved, I must say that I would have loved it if people had let him try. It would have been great to see him succeed and gain more philanthropic (and maybe political and prophetic) points but on the other hand it would have been fun watching him fail (nane ndine m'Malawi so don't judge me). Of course that offer came amidst the spread of a clip in which the prophet was claiming that he had previously offered our electricity generator some financial help, a claim which the PRO for the company vehemently denied. Ndi pa Malawi pano. You can't know who is lying and who is not. Tidzamva pa tsiku lomaliza lipenga likadzalira if there will be time for such.
Of course there were also those 12 people who took it to the streets and peacefully demonstrated against the blackout supply corporation's poor services. I am not sure if their demonstrations were just aimed at making a difference or just showing their anger. Truth of the matter is that whether we demonstrate naked or not, we may never have the power we need because the people who are holding the keys to the solutions of these problems are not willing to do it. Instead they are busy providing funding to city sweepers, tribal groups and political parties as part of the appeasement policy. They are busy getting hefty bonuses and buying poshy cars from the profits of the overpriced electricity as opposed to embarking on a venture that would see you and me in the dream "power all day everyday" setting.
I am told that it took some people's court action for escomites to add the word "towards" to their "power all day everyday" slogan. We should probably take some action to force them to change because from what is happening, we don't seem to be going towards power all day everyday. Talking of what happened yesterday, I am not convinced that firing the CEO of the parastatal and hiring another one would miraculously change the state of power provision in the country. I might be wrong but surprise visits and firings hardly do anything in this country.
Solution?
Gulani power bank ya solar, gas cooker (or mbaula) and any other alternatives to escomite power that you can think of. It will save you the stress.
Have a lovely weekend.
Friday, 3 November 2017
Extracts from Semi-structured Chats 3
Greetings, Reader.
It is another Friday and once again we get to feast on some uncommon sense from this blog. I do hope that you have had a good week and that you will have a restful weekend.
Those of you who have followed these reads for a reasonable period might remember the articles under the same title as the one above. If my memory serves me well (which it is), I wrote two of those articles and they were more of a lament on how we as a nation seem to be going in the negative direction when it comes to development despite the solutions to our problems being obvious to many. Those articles are among my personal best when it comes to Richie Online articles and once in a while I go back to take another peep. Tonight we are treated to the third of the series as we reflect on yet another chat.
About a month or so ago I attended the Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Society of Medical Doctors (SMD). To be honest, my attendance had nothing to do with the agenda of the conference as I had no intention whatsoever of contributing to the discussions at the conference (I somehow ended up contributing, anyway). I had gone because I had heard that the conference was going to take place at Sun and Sand Holiday Resort and I thought this was a good shot at spending my first night at the place (ndimafuna nane nditakagonako). On a more serious note I decided to head that side because I knew that the big people in the profession were going to be at the conference and that their presence provided a good opportunity for interaction. The other important reasons? Attending meant that I would miss work on Friday and that I would attend a cocktail party at Nkopola Lodge. Who doesn’t love a day off at work and an open bar, anyway? Of course there also was the possibility of reuniting with mates from the MBBS (Doctors) Class of 2016 ndi ziwanda zawo.
As per design, we arrived on Thursday, a day before the start of the conference. I found myself having dinner in the company of four young doctors from the my medical school class, a pack which was later joined by the young District Health Officer and District Medical Officer for Mangochi (Henz ndi Stallin). We had a long casual chat about a lot of things before Henry of them posed the question as to whether we (the five of us) were the only ones to attend the conference from the Class of 2016, the answer to which was a yes. Out of this chat came a long conversation from which I learnt a lot of things.
The very first important thing I learnt from this talk was the importance of finding oneself in places and with people that matter. As I mentioned previously, we had been asking one another about whether we were the only ones from the crop of young and recently graduated doctors. This question conceived a chat around the importance of networking in issues of career development. As professionals (or students) in various fields, we all aim for career advancement and more often than not, we tend to have people who have gone before us as pacesetters in the career. A once in a while chat with such guys comes in handy as you can tap into the wisdom of how they got where they are as you aim at crafting your own means of getting where you want to be, figuring out the do’s and don’ts from the stories of those who are experienced. In this regard, one ought to jump at every opportunity to interact with such experienced people in their fields in a bid to get some wisdom but there is a second catch to it. More often than not, it is these old gurus who have the best ideas as to where you can get the best when it comes to training opportunities and satisfying jobs. Back on that cold evening one of us once pointed out the importance of having a good network of people that matter. It is probably something that a lot of you (like me on that day) already know. What I had not given a serious thought was this thing about the difference between knowing people who matter and being known by people who matter. While most of us would focus on knowing people who matter, the more important thing tends to be being known, as such people can always have your back in your time of need; as opposed to when you just know them (in which case you only have a means of reaching out to them, with no guarantee that they will come to your aid).
Having talked of networking, we switched to something else important and this was about the choice of career paths. As I earlier pointed out, this thing we were attending was the conference of the Society of Medical Doctors which meant that everyone who was in attendance was a doctor of some sort. The beauty of the conference, however, was that it brought together all sorts of doctors from different types of work environments. There were those who were in the academic sector, those who were in administrative posts and those who were in clinical practice. Of those who were in clinical practice, there were gynecologists, surgeons (those who cut people and patch them up again for a living), pediatricians, pathologists, physicians, orthopods and many other kinds of doctors along with undifferentiated doctors (those who are not yet specialists) like me. The lesson this intraprofessional diversity gave us was the importance of paying attention to the unlimited possibilities in our and any other career. Owing to our limited exposure and opportunities, most of us hardly think beyond the first degree and the civil service when it comes to education and work respectively. The discussion we had enlightened us to do otherwise and shed light on the importance of breaking the bonds of conventional career paths. Rather interestingly, the sentiments we shared on our chat were echoed at the conference when one of the most respectable doctors in the country rose up to point out that for the good of the health system, some of us needed to take off the white coats and drop the stethoscopes to explore other avenues like administration and management and economics. The rationale was simple. There is need for administrators and economists (among others) who have an understanding of what it is like to work in the hospital. I am pretty sure that the same would apply for the many if not all fields around. This speech also reminded me of how we had discussed the issue of the choice of a career paths with regard to the desired number of working days or hours, the returns, field saturation and job satisfaction as well as what it takes to get to one’s dream job. It was an interesting discussion after which we concluded that we all needed some serious reflection with the choices of our career paths before nose-diving into a lifetime of misery, dissatisfaction and financial trouble.
We left the restaurant for the bar at around midnight for our rooms having talked about our careers and other important things. I will be nothing short of a liar if I say the chat ended without some dirty jokes and the mention of a couple of girls and discussion of some college scandals, but to a greater extent we discussed things that mattered. The next day saw the start of a conference at which a lot of important things pertaining to your health were discussed. There was a lot of interaction and yours truly came back to Blantyre with a couple of important contacts having participated faithfully in the swallowship of the solids and liquids on offer at the conference. At the end of it all, it was a fruitful conference as it offered some lessons and reminders of how to build and use one’s network to the benefit of the career and pocket.
This was just a narrative, but I hope you have learnt a thing or two from this.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Namapopa Richie.
Friday, 27 October 2017
Random Thoughts on Marriages and Family
It is yet another Friday. Been an eventful week and we have seen a lot of things worth a two page article. We heard of issues of women on woman violence, HE’s surprise visit to ESCOM and the establishment of the new state of MUST. If you are a normal human, in which case you like to read articles from our substandard online publications and the social media, you might be fed up with the ripples and echoes of the mentioned stories. It is in the light of that fact that I have chosen to divert from all those current affairs to focus on something that people may not want, but surely need to read about. That is how considerate I can be at times.
A couple of days ago I found myself reflecting upon the future of the concept of marriage and families. I am not sure as to whether these reflections came from the fact that I have been watching a TV Show with dysfunctional families or from the fact that I had been reading something on the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage. I am pretty sure that it might have been a bit of both. These thoughts triggered a chain reaction of thoughts and got me thinking about how there are many young people who are not too keen on making or sustaining a commitment to such an institution as marriage. I pondered upon many possible causes of this anomaly but I stuck to one to an extent that I ended up turning into a Whatsapp status post. The reason? Lack of model families that one can look up to. I know I have to defend myself here.
I might not have been around God’s green earth for long but I think I have been around long enough to have noted that there have been some changes in the way people value and handle marriage. I would not comment much on the issue of enduring marriage versus enjoying it. In as much as I think that there are many that are moving into and staying in marriages of convenience (as my friend Edmond calls them), I do not think that I have sufficient evidence to write a full paragraph on this. You, however, could look around your own community and identify those who got married or are staying married just because it is convenient to do so and not because it was/is the best thing to do. This is not a very good thing considering the fact that some of us who look at this from the other side of the wedding bridge like to think that marriage ought to be enjoyed as opposed to being endured. On the other hand, I have come to learn that a good fraction of the marriages we have are just for mere appearances and not for the real purpose. Showbiz. People are investing more into weddings than they are investing in marriages and as such what we are ending up with are dysfunctional families which do not last as long as people promise (on the altar) they will. Divorce rates are escalating and people are getting more liberal with their ideas towards marriage. For us Catholics, our leader likes to tell us that the liberal ideas that are coming in the modern day are part of the Devil’s attack on the institution of marriage. He continues to say that families are being attacked because with dysfunctional families come dysfunctional communities and so on (achina Hope mukonze malamulo a chingerezi apa). I find this true, to a greater extent.
A couple of scenarios…
Pretty recently I found myself chatting with some gentlemen who happened to be waiting for a lady workmate of theirs (amafuna andipatse through ball, if you know what I mean). When the lady in question arrived, she appeared troubled and without being asked she started narrating how she had met her sister’s husband as she was driving from Chilomoni. I didn’t mention the time it was but this was around 2100 hours on a Friday night. Reason for being troubled? She knew her mlamu had another lady there. I don’t know whether she was seeking opinions from us or just thinking out loud but she ended up asking us if she should tell her sister about what she had just seen. The friends in question, some of whom are married gladly offered their advice that she should keep her mouth shut and avoid ruining her sister’s family over what they called “a single episode of cheating which her sister probably already knew about.”
A chat with another friend also brought up the excuses that people make for cheating. The most interesting one was this feeling that men have that whenever they have extra money that their immediate family cannot use, it ought to be spent on other women. This has seen people with moneys have chains of girlfriends and friends with benefits.
Before we blow the issue of cheating out of proportion, it is important to note that it is not the only thing that is ruining the quality of families around. There is this thing of the commercialization of marriage that has ruined the perception and behavior around marriage. This is probably related to the mentioned of point of men cheating because they have “enablers” (money, rides) but there comes an interesting point when we factor women into the equation. There is this belief that circles around some women that the moment they make it financially they do not need a man. The interesting thing is how this belief affects marriages at various levels. For those who do make it before they cross the bridge, it is hard to sustain meaningful relationships with people who are seemingly worse of financially regardless of their financial potential or character. In the end they end up going for the anything that comes their way akatopa ndi kudikira. This also applies with education (ngati ine ndili ndi masters atandikwatire ndi wa PhD) and spiritual life (akazi akufuna ma prayer warrior) and pretty much many other attributes. The interesting thing is how things get complicated when women rise in marriage. Such cases have seen women undermining their husbands, situations that have led to breakups.
Away from all that, I also like to think that the other reason that we don’t have the best and admirable when it comes to marriage is the poor or lack of preparation for the same. As I already said, people are more about making appearances than they are about working out what matters in their relationships. Modern day couples in courtship would rather spend time on a photo shoot putting on “soul-mate” t shirts than on hour planning their future. Modern day couple would rather spend time planning a wedding than they would planning their marriage. It’s all about the HD photos nowadays and what comes out of all this is a picture perfect but unsustainable relationship. And then there is the issue of choice of partner. This, again gets complicated when comprehensive objectivity is substituted by appearances… Ma slay queen ndi ma rich nigga amenewa.
Having said all this, I must say that I do believe in the importance of functional families; the best ground for raising responsible future leaders. I believe that good families are far more important for the society than modern philosophies make us believe. Those of you who grew up in nice families can relate and so can you if you did otherwise and with that we all have the noble obligation of making and sustaining the best families we can get. This goes down to issues of preparation and good choices of a partner that are more objective than they are subjective. It goes down to a good and utilized courtship period in which people can know (if they can live with) each other before making a commitment. Following that should be a period of sticking to the promises of marriage and sticking to the one (s) you are committed to without looking to the left or to the right. Some would say it is easier said than done, but there are people who are doing it out there. If you can’t do it because of your religious beliefs, do it because your moral campus guides you to. As I say sometimes, umunthu ndi uMulungu udzititsutsa 2 minutes inayake. And can we take money as the means for exchange of goods and services that it is please?
Ali ku Salima kuno andipeze kumbuyo kwa stage….
A couple of days ago I found myself reflecting upon the future of the concept of marriage and families. I am not sure as to whether these reflections came from the fact that I have been watching a TV Show with dysfunctional families or from the fact that I had been reading something on the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage. I am pretty sure that it might have been a bit of both. These thoughts triggered a chain reaction of thoughts and got me thinking about how there are many young people who are not too keen on making or sustaining a commitment to such an institution as marriage. I pondered upon many possible causes of this anomaly but I stuck to one to an extent that I ended up turning into a Whatsapp status post. The reason? Lack of model families that one can look up to. I know I have to defend myself here.
I might not have been around God’s green earth for long but I think I have been around long enough to have noted that there have been some changes in the way people value and handle marriage. I would not comment much on the issue of enduring marriage versus enjoying it. In as much as I think that there are many that are moving into and staying in marriages of convenience (as my friend Edmond calls them), I do not think that I have sufficient evidence to write a full paragraph on this. You, however, could look around your own community and identify those who got married or are staying married just because it is convenient to do so and not because it was/is the best thing to do. This is not a very good thing considering the fact that some of us who look at this from the other side of the wedding bridge like to think that marriage ought to be enjoyed as opposed to being endured. On the other hand, I have come to learn that a good fraction of the marriages we have are just for mere appearances and not for the real purpose. Showbiz. People are investing more into weddings than they are investing in marriages and as such what we are ending up with are dysfunctional families which do not last as long as people promise (on the altar) they will. Divorce rates are escalating and people are getting more liberal with their ideas towards marriage. For us Catholics, our leader likes to tell us that the liberal ideas that are coming in the modern day are part of the Devil’s attack on the institution of marriage. He continues to say that families are being attacked because with dysfunctional families come dysfunctional communities and so on (achina Hope mukonze malamulo a chingerezi apa). I find this true, to a greater extent.
A couple of scenarios…
Pretty recently I found myself chatting with some gentlemen who happened to be waiting for a lady workmate of theirs (amafuna andipatse through ball, if you know what I mean). When the lady in question arrived, she appeared troubled and without being asked she started narrating how she had met her sister’s husband as she was driving from Chilomoni. I didn’t mention the time it was but this was around 2100 hours on a Friday night. Reason for being troubled? She knew her mlamu had another lady there. I don’t know whether she was seeking opinions from us or just thinking out loud but she ended up asking us if she should tell her sister about what she had just seen. The friends in question, some of whom are married gladly offered their advice that she should keep her mouth shut and avoid ruining her sister’s family over what they called “a single episode of cheating which her sister probably already knew about.”
A chat with another friend also brought up the excuses that people make for cheating. The most interesting one was this feeling that men have that whenever they have extra money that their immediate family cannot use, it ought to be spent on other women. This has seen people with moneys have chains of girlfriends and friends with benefits.
Before we blow the issue of cheating out of proportion, it is important to note that it is not the only thing that is ruining the quality of families around. There is this thing of the commercialization of marriage that has ruined the perception and behavior around marriage. This is probably related to the mentioned of point of men cheating because they have “enablers” (money, rides) but there comes an interesting point when we factor women into the equation. There is this belief that circles around some women that the moment they make it financially they do not need a man. The interesting thing is how this belief affects marriages at various levels. For those who do make it before they cross the bridge, it is hard to sustain meaningful relationships with people who are seemingly worse of financially regardless of their financial potential or character. In the end they end up going for the anything that comes their way akatopa ndi kudikira. This also applies with education (ngati ine ndili ndi masters atandikwatire ndi wa PhD) and spiritual life (akazi akufuna ma prayer warrior) and pretty much many other attributes. The interesting thing is how things get complicated when women rise in marriage. Such cases have seen women undermining their husbands, situations that have led to breakups.
Away from all that, I also like to think that the other reason that we don’t have the best and admirable when it comes to marriage is the poor or lack of preparation for the same. As I already said, people are more about making appearances than they are about working out what matters in their relationships. Modern day couples in courtship would rather spend time on a photo shoot putting on “soul-mate” t shirts than on hour planning their future. Modern day couple would rather spend time planning a wedding than they would planning their marriage. It’s all about the HD photos nowadays and what comes out of all this is a picture perfect but unsustainable relationship. And then there is the issue of choice of partner. This, again gets complicated when comprehensive objectivity is substituted by appearances… Ma slay queen ndi ma rich nigga amenewa.
Having said all this, I must say that I do believe in the importance of functional families; the best ground for raising responsible future leaders. I believe that good families are far more important for the society than modern philosophies make us believe. Those of you who grew up in nice families can relate and so can you if you did otherwise and with that we all have the noble obligation of making and sustaining the best families we can get. This goes down to issues of preparation and good choices of a partner that are more objective than they are subjective. It goes down to a good and utilized courtship period in which people can know (if they can live with) each other before making a commitment. Following that should be a period of sticking to the promises of marriage and sticking to the one (s) you are committed to without looking to the left or to the right. Some would say it is easier said than done, but there are people who are doing it out there. If you can’t do it because of your religious beliefs, do it because your moral campus guides you to. As I say sometimes, umunthu ndi uMulungu udzititsutsa 2 minutes inayake. And can we take money as the means for exchange of goods and services that it is please?
Ali ku Salima kuno andipeze kumbuyo kwa stage….
Friday, 20 October 2017
Towards 2019
Awesome day, isn't it?
Last week the Venomous one wrote a whole lot about blood suckers and the issues surrounding the response to the local vampires. I was tempted to write an article around the same issue in line with the looting and whatever else is happening in Blantyre and the ugly scenes. I however have realized that what is happening in urban Blantyre is just an excuse for looting. The real blood sucker problem is something that is happening back home in the Lhomwe Belt. Nkhani yakumtundu iyi. We and our mweene will discuss it shortly when we hold the Mulhako wa Alhomwe annual festival. As of those people who are looting and stealing, I am told the Police and Military have something cooking for them tonight.
Lero I will talk politics and if you are thinking that the MCP victory has triggered this, you are more than just right.
Over the week we had by elections for members of the August house and ward councillors. These were tightly contested elections which generated a lot of hype from Malawians from all walks of life. The reason for that is simple. These by elections were more like a foretaste of what's to come in 2019. Or at least that's what most of us are thinking. This was more of a DPP-MCP duel than it was a proper by election. For MCP, this was also a test of how firm the MCP grip was exerted on the lower states. Well. We had the elections and people voted. People dubbed it MCP's 5-1 victory over the DPP (or DziPPani as the Venomous Hope calls it). The MCP had won all the 5 constituencies that were up for grabs and the DPP walked away with the victory of a ward. People were ecstatic about the whole thing. Pictures of the front page of the Daily Times paper (which had coined the outcome "5-1") were shared all over the social media and there were a lot of memes that were generated from the same election result. The social media nation was and still is excited about the MCP victory.
One would wonder as to whether the excitement in the social media is a true reflection of the the national opinion. We probably haven't had much of experience with the social media in relation to the forecasting of General elections but one thing that I know for sure is that the proportion of Malawians that are on the social media is minute as compared to the one that is not. While we might get excited about what the 16 percent or so are sharing on the social media, we need to remember that the rest do not have the platform for expressing their opinions of the same. Kongeresi might be popular among those of us who are on Whatsapp but Umodzi party might be very popular among the masses in Kameme, Mphonongo and Kalimezako where the average dude does not know what Whatsapp is. This may mean that in as much as people might be excited about the new dawn in the social media, someone else who may not be popular on Facebook or Twitter may end up carrying the day after convincing (or maybe fooling) the masses come 2019. This makes 2019 elections more interesting, in my view.
Another interesting thing to think about before projecting the parliamentary by elections to the general elections in 2019 is the issue of the 2014 voting pattern and how people made a clear demarcation between voting for a political party and a person. Here is a curious case of Zomba Central constituency. In almost all centers, people voted for the DPP presidential candidate and People's Party parliamentary candidate. Reason? They were fed up with the DPP member of parliament and PP president. In other words, they were looking for change in those areas. They did not care about the consistency when it comes to political parties. This begs the question as to whether the choice of the presidential candidates had more to do with their personal potential or their party affiliation. It also begs the question as to whether we should generalize the parliamentary by elections to the general elections which include the choice for "el jefe" of the whole nation. We probably shouldn't be too excited.
There is another thing that is to be kept in mind in line with the elections is the current state of the contenders for the elections. The DPP had of late been associated with acts of violence. Gonapamuhanya. Remember? That scandal will surely cost them come northern votes. I saw a recent clip of DPP guys beating some random guy in the presence of a district governor. Reports also have it that some cadets from the same party took it as far as destroying the tarmac road in lower Shire, with the premise that Chakwera, whose party a certain constituency has voted for, should come and build another tarmac road.
The MCP, on the other hand has it's own intrastate squabbles which have seen some prominent members silenced. That is bad for business considering that cutting out some of the prominent leaders means chopping off votes.
Last but not least, we need to consider the fact that the election outcome is not always decided by the people who vote, but rather by the people who count the votes. No further details required.
2019 is coming slowly and with it are the most interesting and anticipated general elections. On the other hand, I am looking forward to the year because it is the year I will get engaged to my long time sweetheart. I will also be on a good and satisfying job, earning a decent seven figure salary. I admit. I am looking forward to the elections, but my personal life has more to offer in the year, or so I think.
I can't wait for the year 2019.
Did I mention that it's my mum's birthday?
Taking gifts on her behalf, at the moment.
Have a lovely weekend.
Last week the Venomous one wrote a whole lot about blood suckers and the issues surrounding the response to the local vampires. I was tempted to write an article around the same issue in line with the looting and whatever else is happening in Blantyre and the ugly scenes. I however have realized that what is happening in urban Blantyre is just an excuse for looting. The real blood sucker problem is something that is happening back home in the Lhomwe Belt. Nkhani yakumtundu iyi. We and our mweene will discuss it shortly when we hold the Mulhako wa Alhomwe annual festival. As of those people who are looting and stealing, I am told the Police and Military have something cooking for them tonight.
Lero I will talk politics and if you are thinking that the MCP victory has triggered this, you are more than just right.
Over the week we had by elections for members of the August house and ward councillors. These were tightly contested elections which generated a lot of hype from Malawians from all walks of life. The reason for that is simple. These by elections were more like a foretaste of what's to come in 2019. Or at least that's what most of us are thinking. This was more of a DPP-MCP duel than it was a proper by election. For MCP, this was also a test of how firm the MCP grip was exerted on the lower states. Well. We had the elections and people voted. People dubbed it MCP's 5-1 victory over the DPP (or DziPPani as the Venomous Hope calls it). The MCP had won all the 5 constituencies that were up for grabs and the DPP walked away with the victory of a ward. People were ecstatic about the whole thing. Pictures of the front page of the Daily Times paper (which had coined the outcome "5-1") were shared all over the social media and there were a lot of memes that were generated from the same election result. The social media nation was and still is excited about the MCP victory.
One would wonder as to whether the excitement in the social media is a true reflection of the the national opinion. We probably haven't had much of experience with the social media in relation to the forecasting of General elections but one thing that I know for sure is that the proportion of Malawians that are on the social media is minute as compared to the one that is not. While we might get excited about what the 16 percent or so are sharing on the social media, we need to remember that the rest do not have the platform for expressing their opinions of the same. Kongeresi might be popular among those of us who are on Whatsapp but Umodzi party might be very popular among the masses in Kameme, Mphonongo and Kalimezako where the average dude does not know what Whatsapp is. This may mean that in as much as people might be excited about the new dawn in the social media, someone else who may not be popular on Facebook or Twitter may end up carrying the day after convincing (or maybe fooling) the masses come 2019. This makes 2019 elections more interesting, in my view.
Another interesting thing to think about before projecting the parliamentary by elections to the general elections in 2019 is the issue of the 2014 voting pattern and how people made a clear demarcation between voting for a political party and a person. Here is a curious case of Zomba Central constituency. In almost all centers, people voted for the DPP presidential candidate and People's Party parliamentary candidate. Reason? They were fed up with the DPP member of parliament and PP president. In other words, they were looking for change in those areas. They did not care about the consistency when it comes to political parties. This begs the question as to whether the choice of the presidential candidates had more to do with their personal potential or their party affiliation. It also begs the question as to whether we should generalize the parliamentary by elections to the general elections which include the choice for "el jefe" of the whole nation. We probably shouldn't be too excited.
There is another thing that is to be kept in mind in line with the elections is the current state of the contenders for the elections. The DPP had of late been associated with acts of violence. Gonapamuhanya. Remember? That scandal will surely cost them come northern votes. I saw a recent clip of DPP guys beating some random guy in the presence of a district governor. Reports also have it that some cadets from the same party took it as far as destroying the tarmac road in lower Shire, with the premise that Chakwera, whose party a certain constituency has voted for, should come and build another tarmac road.
The MCP, on the other hand has it's own intrastate squabbles which have seen some prominent members silenced. That is bad for business considering that cutting out some of the prominent leaders means chopping off votes.
Last but not least, we need to consider the fact that the election outcome is not always decided by the people who vote, but rather by the people who count the votes. No further details required.
2019 is coming slowly and with it are the most interesting and anticipated general elections. On the other hand, I am looking forward to the year because it is the year I will get engaged to my long time sweetheart. I will also be on a good and satisfying job, earning a decent seven figure salary. I admit. I am looking forward to the elections, but my personal life has more to offer in the year, or so I think.
I can't wait for the year 2019.
Did I mention that it's my mum's birthday?
Taking gifts on her behalf, at the moment.
Have a lovely weekend.
Sunday, 15 October 2017
Mother's Day Reflections
So...
It says it's Mother's Day on the Malawi Calendar. I have been thinking about what was circling in the mind of the one who proposed this holiday. Unlike some of those half relevant holidays we have in January and in March, I think this one makes more sense. Mothers need to be celebrated. Well. Some mothers.
The discussion as to how important a mother is to one's life is not relevant. Many would tell you as to how much their mothers are their heroines taking it from the input and investment in their lives. Perhaps those efforts are overlooked as we all just dismiss it with the feeling that it is every parent's duty to take care of their child. Recent observations, however, have shown me that it is not every mother who has that tender and caring touch.
A couple of months ago I happened to be walking home from work when I saw a woman with a baby on her back. As this woman was continuing with her journey (along the road near where I was putting up), she tripped and fell. Immediately my doctor instincts kicked in and I went over to check on her. In as much as she was still struggling to get to her feet, the face she made and the incomprehensible words she uttered gave me a clear impression that my helping hand was not welcome. I left. Sitikakamiza zinazi. Moments later I heard some noise and when I peeped through the window I noticed that people had gathered around the woman. From what they were saying, she had made a name out of her habit of going on drinking sprees with her baby. To those who knew her, this wasn't the first time she had been found off her feet with her baby on her back. I had missed the fact that she was drunk from our short encounter. While some men were slapping her, there were some women who were helping her unbundle her baby while some were proposing that they take the baby away from her as she did not have a motherly character. It is such encounters that make me appreciate the role our good mothers have played in our lives. I do not think that there are too many mothers who have gone too wayward with negligence of their children. In as much as these scences do pop up once in a while, our mothers are generally disciplined and they raise us into the good Richie Online patrons we are (if you get these articles it means you have made it in life, by the way).
We have been granted the opportunity to celebrate with our mothers. Our presence would probably be of value to the ones who raised us on a day such as this.
I happened to be listening to a radio program and some random human was giving a recommendation of how we ought to celebrate Mother's Days. He said it was a day for parent child interaction; a day in which children out to spend their time with their parents. He also said it is the ideal day for reconciliation between parents and children should there be squabbles. I liked the latter because it is a rare and useful piece of wisdom. I mean... we have heard these other things of buying them zitenje for a long time. It's almost a reflexive tout that everyone says year in year out.
More often than not, I am bothered by the question of whether we should also count fathers in on this day. My old man has at some point asked me what I was planning for him "pa tsiku la anakubala" only for me to see him buy my mum some Mother's Day chitenje. Confusing, right? We should probably have a public holiday in honor of fathers, a day on which we can buy our fathers some Nigerian outfits which we will be unveiling over a casket of wine or veremuti la kachasu. That could help with the confusion. As it stands, we can freestyle through this and deal with the parents as we see fit.
I do hope that those of you who are posting pictures of your parents on Whatsapp spent some time with them today. The benefits of doing that do outweigh the costs. I am heading to my parents' as I type this. I am almost empty handed but I will go back to Mandala with some goodies, having left some happy parents at home. Kuba, right?
If you are to ask me, a millennial, I would tell you that makolo asamaphweketse. Tikawatengera zinthu kumene.
My boss at work once asked me as to who would take care of me if I got seriously sick. The question reminded me of how my parents took care of me when I was down with malaria a few months before. It was my mum who spent that night on the bedside. We laughed at the whole thing and my boss ended up telling that it was time for me to marry. What I learnt? Parents will be parents, whatever level you are at.
It's a day to celebrate with parents, but at the end of the day every day should be Mother's Day. Celebrating with parents should be done but not be limited to this day.
Happy Mother's Day to all mothers... and of course to all mothers to be.
It says it's Mother's Day on the Malawi Calendar. I have been thinking about what was circling in the mind of the one who proposed this holiday. Unlike some of those half relevant holidays we have in January and in March, I think this one makes more sense. Mothers need to be celebrated. Well. Some mothers.
The discussion as to how important a mother is to one's life is not relevant. Many would tell you as to how much their mothers are their heroines taking it from the input and investment in their lives. Perhaps those efforts are overlooked as we all just dismiss it with the feeling that it is every parent's duty to take care of their child. Recent observations, however, have shown me that it is not every mother who has that tender and caring touch.
A couple of months ago I happened to be walking home from work when I saw a woman with a baby on her back. As this woman was continuing with her journey (along the road near where I was putting up), she tripped and fell. Immediately my doctor instincts kicked in and I went over to check on her. In as much as she was still struggling to get to her feet, the face she made and the incomprehensible words she uttered gave me a clear impression that my helping hand was not welcome. I left. Sitikakamiza zinazi. Moments later I heard some noise and when I peeped through the window I noticed that people had gathered around the woman. From what they were saying, she had made a name out of her habit of going on drinking sprees with her baby. To those who knew her, this wasn't the first time she had been found off her feet with her baby on her back. I had missed the fact that she was drunk from our short encounter. While some men were slapping her, there were some women who were helping her unbundle her baby while some were proposing that they take the baby away from her as she did not have a motherly character. It is such encounters that make me appreciate the role our good mothers have played in our lives. I do not think that there are too many mothers who have gone too wayward with negligence of their children. In as much as these scences do pop up once in a while, our mothers are generally disciplined and they raise us into the good Richie Online patrons we are (if you get these articles it means you have made it in life, by the way).
We have been granted the opportunity to celebrate with our mothers. Our presence would probably be of value to the ones who raised us on a day such as this.
I happened to be listening to a radio program and some random human was giving a recommendation of how we ought to celebrate Mother's Days. He said it was a day for parent child interaction; a day in which children out to spend their time with their parents. He also said it is the ideal day for reconciliation between parents and children should there be squabbles. I liked the latter because it is a rare and useful piece of wisdom. I mean... we have heard these other things of buying them zitenje for a long time. It's almost a reflexive tout that everyone says year in year out.
More often than not, I am bothered by the question of whether we should also count fathers in on this day. My old man has at some point asked me what I was planning for him "pa tsiku la anakubala" only for me to see him buy my mum some Mother's Day chitenje. Confusing, right? We should probably have a public holiday in honor of fathers, a day on which we can buy our fathers some Nigerian outfits which we will be unveiling over a casket of wine or veremuti la kachasu. That could help with the confusion. As it stands, we can freestyle through this and deal with the parents as we see fit.
I do hope that those of you who are posting pictures of your parents on Whatsapp spent some time with them today. The benefits of doing that do outweigh the costs. I am heading to my parents' as I type this. I am almost empty handed but I will go back to Mandala with some goodies, having left some happy parents at home. Kuba, right?
If you are to ask me, a millennial, I would tell you that makolo asamaphweketse. Tikawatengera zinthu kumene.
My boss at work once asked me as to who would take care of me if I got seriously sick. The question reminded me of how my parents took care of me when I was down with malaria a few months before. It was my mum who spent that night on the bedside. We laughed at the whole thing and my boss ended up telling that it was time for me to marry. What I learnt? Parents will be parents, whatever level you are at.
It's a day to celebrate with parents, but at the end of the day every day should be Mother's Day. Celebrating with parents should be done but not be limited to this day.
Happy Mother's Day to all mothers... and of course to all mothers to be.
Friday, 13 October 2017
Vampire Republic
by the Venomous Hope
I owe one bottle to the proprietor for giving me another bite of his blog so that I can write again, perhaps more today as it is Friday the 13th, some 24 hours that are historically considered to contain mishaps. There's some mendacious history that this infamous day became reverent due to the fact that there were 13 people during Jesus's Last Supper on the 13th of the month of Nissan. The subsequent crucifixion of Christ a day later added some superstitious ingredients to this unusual Friday, and just as well did the death of some talent-stunted Italian music composer on Friday the 13th in the 1800s. Well, its folly to adhere to a silly rumor that misfortunes are bound to hit on you today just for the nature of the day, and more folly are the rumors circulating in the Lomwe districts of Mulanje, Phalombe and Chiradzulu and in some parts of the country, about fabled blood suckers. These rumors have led to the mob killing of at least 7 people who are believed to have been loitering around the villages like hungry owls of Somalia with a thirst that can only be quenched by blood.
Mob justice has always been considered as an injustice because emotions rather than reason play a huge part in the adjudication, and for the fact that the punishment meted out is usually not proportional to the misdemeanor committed. Perhaps, the departed former president Bingu 'wa' Mutharika was right to say that we have a devil firmly sitting on our backs, translated- 'Satana anatikhalira pa nsana.' For those who have memorized the scriptures, there's a passage in John 8 about a woman caught in adultery and they (leaders of the law, pharisees, Saducees, the mob, and mahopu) brought her to Jesus to seek his opinion. The mob was about to exploit their prejudices and stone her to death in accordance with their archaic laws instituted centuries before. Nevertheless, Jesus quelled the situation by asking the crowd to examine their moral inequities before anyone can cast the first stone. Now this is an important element that has to always be in the back of our mind before forcing someone to kick the bucket. The element of self-examination especially about whether we are fit to cast the first stone can help us go back to the normal levels of justice and fairness, more especially when making decisions about someone's life. Its amazing how a few misguided individuals can take the law into their hands on the basis of unfounded rumors, pure evil people. Malawi has always been a 'god' fearing nation... a country built on the foundations of taboos can never thrive, I quote myself.
Not that anyone has cared to do an "AfroBarometer" on the number of Churches this country has, but surely there must be more Churches in a square mile than there's a borehole or Sukulu ya Mkaka. We claim to be a gods fearing nation to the extent that we spend a good chunk of our time doing incantations, meditations, fasting, intersessions, dawas, and pilgrimages. Only in cash strapped countries like Malawi that the need for men of gods is as invaluable as our need for drinking water. It has now become impossible to go on with life without consulting these men in collars and strange silky gowns; as a nation we don't have any other hope of getting out of dire poverty than wait with open arms for the elusive miracles. Religion indeed has become an opium for our eternal problems. Uganda's President, himself doesn't know the date he was baptized, has urged his subjects, whom he is about to rule forever, to curb on the time they spent swimming in spirituality and use this time for more productive things so that they develop themselves and their country. "We lax too much," he is quoted, "and for any funeral, a week of doing nothing follow." Maybe, we are blessed with the sprouting of technologically savvy prophets, Apostles, Pastors, evangelists, Reverend Cardinals, and even fake Popes and Ana a Zeruah. Interest in religion and receiving miracles nowadays is just at the tip of one's Tv remote and cellphones that don't go beyond freebasics webpage. Every monger who can regurgitate a few verses and had once dreamt sitting on the verandah of a mosque will suddenly bellow on top of their voices that they are real men of gods and can interpret the Bible just as well help lost souls to get past the formidable St Peter on the gate of paradise when the Armageddon will arrive. We live and breath religion and spirituality, we crave for the fulfilling life and to being embarrassed with Godly blessings. But we still believe vampires still exist and they roam in our muddy streets.
There's a reason we mix fetishism with religion; it is dire ignorance. High levels of illiteracy for Malawi are alarmingly embarrassing for a country that has been independent for more than half a century. No wonder we are near the bottom of every notable index about human and social wellbeing. Nowhere but in Malawi in 2017 people will lock themselves after seeing a police car for fear they are coming to suck the tainted solution with cells that give us BP.
The response from the government has been very appalling. During a useless decade under Atcheya, these same Lomwe districts, and especially Chiradzulu, became notorious for news about body mutilations such that one could think it was a fertile land for these private raw materials. A number of women were found dead and people were afraid to go out even to gulp the usual pot of kachasu. The rumors escalated because the government had been silent at that point until when the president decreed that he will personally behead those responsible for these horrific homicides. No one was caught but the killings mysteriously discontinued, perhaps the market had closed by then as well. The Chiradzulu deaths are not similar to the mob justice on suspected blood suckers but notoriety is the same, just as well the muted response so far hasn't worked. The president should have taken immediate responsibility upon arrival from his otiose New York trip and not empty tantrums with political connotations we have heard from his lieutenants. The Big Kahuna has left it very late to make a visit to that part of Malawi when the rumors have gone beyond myths and people have lost lives. To cut the chase, I find the blood sucking fiasco as baseless and perhaps it's a diversion tactics from the ruling party to mask real issues like blackouts, unemployment, and other things on a long list of Malawi's beging bowl. If that is the case, the propaganda goofed big time. As I have alluded above, the issue has escalated because of illiteracy. A whole village, for example, could gang up to stone an ambulance or chase a suit-wearing education supervisor, suspecting them as hiding some blood milking equipments. Very idiotic and utter ignorance. But one would ask, so the whole district including Akweni Mayi Career-tea can be ignorant enough to bake up a story as dangerous as about vampires? Well, a surgical look of the arguments leave gaps that feels like these blood suckers are more also using magic, sakugwidwa chifukwa akumasanduka mileme lol. Really, then why attack government officers doing their work. We will never know. The damage these few districts have done will be hard to repair. The NGOs that have withdrawn from these areas will think twice when coming back especially this year, and as a result development works will continue to stagnate. Perhaps we should allow the Lomwe belt to form their own government, after all His Excellency Mr Vincent Wandale is contemplating leading Mulanje and Thyolo to sovereignty. It's a vampire republic and it must be led by vampires.
I can't sign off without commenting on the recent publication of a research conducted by a western firm which has found, well nothing surprising, that the current President is very unpopular among Malawians (that's why it is imperative for his cadres to ferry vendors all the way from Ndirande to political rallies in Lilongwe just to fill a football ground), and that the ruling DPP is heading to a sticky end in 2019. Among countless sins that Malawians (can be Chakwera who was interviewed) who responded to their questionnaires were that there's rampant corruption and theft at all levels of the government, there's an element of nepotism especially in senior positions appointments (we shouldn't worry, 60% of Ministers will become citizens of MUST by 26 October and will be expected to resign), and lack of clear direction in driving the economy out of it's eternal abyss. Obviously, these are not new problems for anyone associated with our wretched country, Malawi is a failed country even dogs know bearing in mind they usually don't find food in our bins nowadays. Today, I accidentally tuned in to the popular Times Radio program which is also beamed on their TV, the Hot Current, and it is hosted by one time PP sympathiser Brian Banda and it featured Times editor Kasakula and Minister of Misinformation Nicolas Dausi. The central argument was about whether DPP is indeed becoming something like a nasty name among the general public as per claims of the report, I wasted my time hearing more of malafides and innuendos than real constructive arguments, anapindiranamo ma shati I presume. Well, it's a mystery that even those in government accept that there are deep problems but there's nothing being done about them. You will hear a minister praying for normal rains in December so that Nkula can resume power generation. 20 researches can be conducted and results will be the same, that we are in deep poverty than during the time of Akafula. We seem to like making noise and offering solutions that will never see the light of the day. Dausi blamed the opposition for not doing anything in their 31 years of government, as if he wasn't Kamuzu's personal bodyguard and loyalist. When you see the caliber of politicians in high positions, it doesn't offer any hope for an average member of the society because these are the same people who have been tried and then recycled while wearing something yellow, then reused again when they joined DPP. The president is an accomplished academician if we are to believe the inflated 40 paged CV he has but he is not a leader. Everyone knows how he managed the Chanco academic freedom saga when he was minister and when he was foreign affairs he looked sideways when some diplomat was sent parking for calling a spade by it's name. But some 39% chose him and we have to endure him. We expected the opposition to have been taking advantage DPP's failings by offering practical solutions. All you hear is noise and same old recipes that have failed before. Chakwera honestly has never said anything to quench our political thirst, he will only win because he is the lesser devil, he should bless his previous job. The political landscape needs new blood and we can accomplish that by changing the laws to accommodate more brighter new brooms. MCP's thinking is not so much different to that of the DPP that's why they roped in Sidik Mia and others. The azungu report will be the same in 2022, saying that MCP is becoming unpopular. All this is because we entertain mediocrity and accept less than we deserve. It's the same across the society, one day we will elect a 97 yeard old zombie as a president because we have only changed the phenotype while the DNA is still old MCP.
Have a great weekend folks!
I owe one bottle to the proprietor for giving me another bite of his blog so that I can write again, perhaps more today as it is Friday the 13th, some 24 hours that are historically considered to contain mishaps. There's some mendacious history that this infamous day became reverent due to the fact that there were 13 people during Jesus's Last Supper on the 13th of the month of Nissan. The subsequent crucifixion of Christ a day later added some superstitious ingredients to this unusual Friday, and just as well did the death of some talent-stunted Italian music composer on Friday the 13th in the 1800s. Well, its folly to adhere to a silly rumor that misfortunes are bound to hit on you today just for the nature of the day, and more folly are the rumors circulating in the Lomwe districts of Mulanje, Phalombe and Chiradzulu and in some parts of the country, about fabled blood suckers. These rumors have led to the mob killing of at least 7 people who are believed to have been loitering around the villages like hungry owls of Somalia with a thirst that can only be quenched by blood.
Mob justice has always been considered as an injustice because emotions rather than reason play a huge part in the adjudication, and for the fact that the punishment meted out is usually not proportional to the misdemeanor committed. Perhaps, the departed former president Bingu 'wa' Mutharika was right to say that we have a devil firmly sitting on our backs, translated- 'Satana anatikhalira pa nsana.' For those who have memorized the scriptures, there's a passage in John 8 about a woman caught in adultery and they (leaders of the law, pharisees, Saducees, the mob, and mahopu) brought her to Jesus to seek his opinion. The mob was about to exploit their prejudices and stone her to death in accordance with their archaic laws instituted centuries before. Nevertheless, Jesus quelled the situation by asking the crowd to examine their moral inequities before anyone can cast the first stone. Now this is an important element that has to always be in the back of our mind before forcing someone to kick the bucket. The element of self-examination especially about whether we are fit to cast the first stone can help us go back to the normal levels of justice and fairness, more especially when making decisions about someone's life. Its amazing how a few misguided individuals can take the law into their hands on the basis of unfounded rumors, pure evil people. Malawi has always been a 'god' fearing nation... a country built on the foundations of taboos can never thrive, I quote myself.
Not that anyone has cared to do an "AfroBarometer" on the number of Churches this country has, but surely there must be more Churches in a square mile than there's a borehole or Sukulu ya Mkaka. We claim to be a gods fearing nation to the extent that we spend a good chunk of our time doing incantations, meditations, fasting, intersessions, dawas, and pilgrimages. Only in cash strapped countries like Malawi that the need for men of gods is as invaluable as our need for drinking water. It has now become impossible to go on with life without consulting these men in collars and strange silky gowns; as a nation we don't have any other hope of getting out of dire poverty than wait with open arms for the elusive miracles. Religion indeed has become an opium for our eternal problems. Uganda's President, himself doesn't know the date he was baptized, has urged his subjects, whom he is about to rule forever, to curb on the time they spent swimming in spirituality and use this time for more productive things so that they develop themselves and their country. "We lax too much," he is quoted, "and for any funeral, a week of doing nothing follow." Maybe, we are blessed with the sprouting of technologically savvy prophets, Apostles, Pastors, evangelists, Reverend Cardinals, and even fake Popes and Ana a Zeruah. Interest in religion and receiving miracles nowadays is just at the tip of one's Tv remote and cellphones that don't go beyond freebasics webpage. Every monger who can regurgitate a few verses and had once dreamt sitting on the verandah of a mosque will suddenly bellow on top of their voices that they are real men of gods and can interpret the Bible just as well help lost souls to get past the formidable St Peter on the gate of paradise when the Armageddon will arrive. We live and breath religion and spirituality, we crave for the fulfilling life and to being embarrassed with Godly blessings. But we still believe vampires still exist and they roam in our muddy streets.
There's a reason we mix fetishism with religion; it is dire ignorance. High levels of illiteracy for Malawi are alarmingly embarrassing for a country that has been independent for more than half a century. No wonder we are near the bottom of every notable index about human and social wellbeing. Nowhere but in Malawi in 2017 people will lock themselves after seeing a police car for fear they are coming to suck the tainted solution with cells that give us BP.
The response from the government has been very appalling. During a useless decade under Atcheya, these same Lomwe districts, and especially Chiradzulu, became notorious for news about body mutilations such that one could think it was a fertile land for these private raw materials. A number of women were found dead and people were afraid to go out even to gulp the usual pot of kachasu. The rumors escalated because the government had been silent at that point until when the president decreed that he will personally behead those responsible for these horrific homicides. No one was caught but the killings mysteriously discontinued, perhaps the market had closed by then as well. The Chiradzulu deaths are not similar to the mob justice on suspected blood suckers but notoriety is the same, just as well the muted response so far hasn't worked. The president should have taken immediate responsibility upon arrival from his otiose New York trip and not empty tantrums with political connotations we have heard from his lieutenants. The Big Kahuna has left it very late to make a visit to that part of Malawi when the rumors have gone beyond myths and people have lost lives. To cut the chase, I find the blood sucking fiasco as baseless and perhaps it's a diversion tactics from the ruling party to mask real issues like blackouts, unemployment, and other things on a long list of Malawi's beging bowl. If that is the case, the propaganda goofed big time. As I have alluded above, the issue has escalated because of illiteracy. A whole village, for example, could gang up to stone an ambulance or chase a suit-wearing education supervisor, suspecting them as hiding some blood milking equipments. Very idiotic and utter ignorance. But one would ask, so the whole district including Akweni Mayi Career-tea can be ignorant enough to bake up a story as dangerous as about vampires? Well, a surgical look of the arguments leave gaps that feels like these blood suckers are more also using magic, sakugwidwa chifukwa akumasanduka mileme lol. Really, then why attack government officers doing their work. We will never know. The damage these few districts have done will be hard to repair. The NGOs that have withdrawn from these areas will think twice when coming back especially this year, and as a result development works will continue to stagnate. Perhaps we should allow the Lomwe belt to form their own government, after all His Excellency Mr Vincent Wandale is contemplating leading Mulanje and Thyolo to sovereignty. It's a vampire republic and it must be led by vampires.
I can't sign off without commenting on the recent publication of a research conducted by a western firm which has found, well nothing surprising, that the current President is very unpopular among Malawians (that's why it is imperative for his cadres to ferry vendors all the way from Ndirande to political rallies in Lilongwe just to fill a football ground), and that the ruling DPP is heading to a sticky end in 2019. Among countless sins that Malawians (can be Chakwera who was interviewed) who responded to their questionnaires were that there's rampant corruption and theft at all levels of the government, there's an element of nepotism especially in senior positions appointments (we shouldn't worry, 60% of Ministers will become citizens of MUST by 26 October and will be expected to resign), and lack of clear direction in driving the economy out of it's eternal abyss. Obviously, these are not new problems for anyone associated with our wretched country, Malawi is a failed country even dogs know bearing in mind they usually don't find food in our bins nowadays. Today, I accidentally tuned in to the popular Times Radio program which is also beamed on their TV, the Hot Current, and it is hosted by one time PP sympathiser Brian Banda and it featured Times editor Kasakula and Minister of Misinformation Nicolas Dausi. The central argument was about whether DPP is indeed becoming something like a nasty name among the general public as per claims of the report, I wasted my time hearing more of malafides and innuendos than real constructive arguments, anapindiranamo ma shati I presume. Well, it's a mystery that even those in government accept that there are deep problems but there's nothing being done about them. You will hear a minister praying for normal rains in December so that Nkula can resume power generation. 20 researches can be conducted and results will be the same, that we are in deep poverty than during the time of Akafula. We seem to like making noise and offering solutions that will never see the light of the day. Dausi blamed the opposition for not doing anything in their 31 years of government, as if he wasn't Kamuzu's personal bodyguard and loyalist. When you see the caliber of politicians in high positions, it doesn't offer any hope for an average member of the society because these are the same people who have been tried and then recycled while wearing something yellow, then reused again when they joined DPP. The president is an accomplished academician if we are to believe the inflated 40 paged CV he has but he is not a leader. Everyone knows how he managed the Chanco academic freedom saga when he was minister and when he was foreign affairs he looked sideways when some diplomat was sent parking for calling a spade by it's name. But some 39% chose him and we have to endure him. We expected the opposition to have been taking advantage DPP's failings by offering practical solutions. All you hear is noise and same old recipes that have failed before. Chakwera honestly has never said anything to quench our political thirst, he will only win because he is the lesser devil, he should bless his previous job. The political landscape needs new blood and we can accomplish that by changing the laws to accommodate more brighter new brooms. MCP's thinking is not so much different to that of the DPP that's why they roped in Sidik Mia and others. The azungu report will be the same in 2022, saying that MCP is becoming unpopular. All this is because we entertain mediocrity and accept less than we deserve. It's the same across the society, one day we will elect a 97 yeard old zombie as a president because we have only changed the phenotype while the DNA is still old MCP.
Have a great weekend folks!
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