Yeah. Friday.
This week has been a hectic one as work has been on my neck. The wonderful thing is that I survived it and came out unscathed save for the few kilos I lost running around the corridors of Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. Anyway. That is my calling and I cannot complain. It’s this sort of work that makes you appreciate the beauty of a Friday night and the nice cold drinks that accompany the supper on it.
The state house and the opposition have all been under the radar this week and as such we don’t have any politicians on whose toes we can step on. I will leave the guy with the K69m wedding alone because its his money (or so I think). If you have proof he got it through dubious means, you may arrest him. Do it after his honeymoon, though.
This whole issue of the multimillion kwacha wedding has raised a lot of eyebrows. Some are busy talking of how lucky the bride is. We all know how money loving people are nowadays, anyway. Even Namadingo has done a song about it. The whole idea of people thinking that someone is lucky by dating a particular person has reminded me about some chat I had over lunch with a good friend of mine who will be referred to as DMC for the purposes of this chat.
Having been filled with Superior Halaal’s Hungarian hotdogs and some fizzy drinks, we got ourselves into trying to answer some difficult questions for no reason. We got ourselves wondering of why we have things happening in certain ways when it comes to love and relationships. Interesting cha, isn’t it?
Scenario 1; there are so many nice young gentlemen or ladies who are in what you would call broken relationships. Commentators (wachitatu osokoneza uja) would always ask them as to why they are sticking to such a partner who always brings them nothing but pain. Sometimes they would even ask themselves as to why they are stuck in the trap called a relationship only to find themselves clinging to it the next moment. One would wonder whether it is an issue of insecurity that comes with aging (or an aging relationship).
Scenario 2; Mr Perfect meets Miss Perfect and they start an awesome relationship. Everything gets all rosy and they get to the phase where the relationship reaches its climax. They can’t keep it to themselves so they decide that it is the “let the world know” moment. Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp and every other social network gets flooded with the pictures of the lovebirds and years pass by with people waiting for that “save the date” message. All of the sudden people just get to hear that the relationship is over for no convincing reasons. One would wonder whether dating the same person sort of causes fatigue. Koma zikuchitika ndithu zinthuzi.
Last scenario? Here is my favorite as it is the most puzzling. It is probably something that emanates from 2 and 1. There are so many objectively good young ladies and gentlemen who are single on the premise of the lack of the lack of the best from the other species. Why are the nice ladies not meeting the nice gentlemen and vice versa. Why is it that we are ending up with the “good” ending up with the “not so good”? Or is it our biased judgment?
Our one hour or so chat failed to provide answers to these important questions. Perhaps some of you may have some plausible explanations but the idea is that the issue of relationships is not as easy as most of us thought it was. Some crazy friend of mine wonders as to how people nicely combine work and a relationship without having to drop the other. While that might be an exaggeration, I understood him taking it from the fact that it is hard to maintain such things as modern day relationships in the transition between college period and work or in the early stages of one’s career. That is my observation, anyway and you have the right to question it.
The issue of the longevity of relationships raises another question of whether we still have that thing called commitment in our midst as young people. Without fear or favor, I should point out that there are some men out here who are out there for trophy hunting as they aim at hitting as many ladies as they can just as there are ladies who are willing to let any guy do anything to them for reasons ranging from pleasure to financial benefit. That is why Twin M’s “Single” song started with the “mkazi ndi mfiti, mamuna ndi galu” line. There are many are living in the fear of being used and dumped or being robbed in the broad daylight in the name of a relationship. I don’t even know if there is a cure for this sort of paranoia.
Then there are those that are waiting for God’s time. And then there are those who start a relationship only to end it a week later after discovering that they are in it with the wrong human. There are also those who have never been single for more than a week ever since they tasted their first relationship when they were 15. Won’t talk about those who cheat. There are those who give and receive green lights with no tangible results. Nonsenu tikukuikizani mmapemphero.
Lessons? As you can see, I do not have answers to these things so I can hardly share lessons here. The little I can say is that a better society starts with you. If you are in a relationship, cheating is a non-starter. Try to make it spicy one day at a time while building up to the big thing. If you are old enough to be reading a Richie Online article, you should know that this “wadya balalikani” rampant sex thing is not for you. If you are single and still haven’t spotted a potential target like yours truly, I must say that you are in a bit of trouble and you need to be seriously thinking about plan B. Some of you will take this for granted but Richie was serious when he was writing this.
My birthday is coming up on Monday, anyway. We are accepting gifts from today to the first of June. Cookers, smart phones, kitchenware…. Chilichonse ndithu. Gold, myrrh and frankincense, eti?
Happy long weekend.
Friday, 28 April 2017
Saturday, 22 April 2017
Random Thoughts on Music
It is a Friday (well, was a Friday when I was typing this part of the article) and it is that day of the week that I have to stress about what people will read about on the blog. It is always an interesting struggle especially when it is my turn to scribble something. Life in the hospital seems to be taking me away from the real world and as such I tend not to know when people are trespassing against humanity and thus I cannot take swipes at them. One day I will put down my stethoscope and join front line politics. The content of this blog will change drastically in those moments.
In my struggle for finding what to write today I found myself wondering why I have not written a piece on something that I love so much; music. Those who know Richie beyond the blog’s link know that he is a bit of fanatic when it comes to music. I am everything from a dancer through wannabe producer to critic. I like to call myself “someone who has an ear for music” and that is why I decided to share a bit about Lucifer’s brainchild with you.
Talking of the Malawian music industry, it has evolved from the times when we had very few musicians selling analogue tapes on the market to the present day when people are just in it for the fame; a few songs and a Malawi music profile. One would easily notice that the increase in the number of so called artists in the country has affected the quality of music to some extent as people do not sit down to conceptualize and produce good music. What we have nowadays are artists who try to copy everything about Nigerian, South African or American music including art work and photo shoot styles for the artists in the mentioned industries. It is not bad, but it is not good either. The interesting thing is that this has created a listenership that easily gets satisfied with poor quality music without objective analysis of the pieces on their decks.
While it is a fact that not many would agree that the quality of music is going down, the few who understand the value of good quality pieces pick up a few artists from Malawi while their playlists are dominated by exotic artists. If you are to ask me, that has its own pros and cons. There are two sides to the same coin. If you look at the scenario in which someone has to choose between a South African banger and a Malawian song, it is mostly an issue of choosing between enjoying while promoting a foreign artists or being bored while promoting a local one. That is at least in most cases. I am not saying that our music is totally trash, but if you think of it, we have more Nigerian music playing in our clubs and homes that we have at home. We have more American gospel songs in our playlists than we have Malawian. One Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo once wondered if we had Malawian musicians having heard only a combination of Nigerian music and the Malawian versions of it. Our artists are losing it and so are the listeners. Evidence? People do not appreciate the originality effort that is put into good music.
Our gospel music industry, though good is not without flaws. To be honest, there is a lot of talent in the gospel music industry. We have people with good voices and the one gospel show I patronized tells me we also have a lot of good stage performers. The one thing we do have? Lyricists. We have a good music industry of people who sing songs focusing on how God sets a table for them in the midst of their enemies and rather interestingly on how their enemies will feel the heat when God delivers them from their current sufferings. While there is nothing wrong an artist or two doing a song around these concepts, I find the dominance of these themes wrong. I once happened to meet Hamilton Jucha Chapomba at a show, and he talked of how artists nowadays struggle to write songs worth of God because they are not close to the one they write about. That could be another explanation and while refraining from putting a direct comment to that, I like to think that there are other themes of gospel music that we overlook in thanksgiving, praise, salvation and many others you can think. And then there are these misaligned lyrics and song arrangements that come from ma artist obona kumene. I won’t say much on this one.
The issue of substandard lyrics and poor concepts has not only hit the Gospel music industry. There are very few secular artists who write some on point lyrics nowadays. I am just wondering whether it is a thing with new music from all over the globe. Being a guy who listens to all the weird music from most corners of the globe, I can generally say that the quality of lyrics is generally going down as people seem to be concentrating their energy (if there is any energy at all) on party music. One friend of mine once posted of how one famous American artist uses the same three words; party, Miami, dance (might have been a different word here) on every song but still gets awards. Comedian Chris Rock once lamented on how the lyrical quality of hip hop music has gone down to an extent that one has to defend himself when listening to such music. Back home, any new school random song’s lyrical quality is hardly comparable to Billy Kaunda’s Mphinjika or Saleta Phiri’s Ili mu Ufa.
The one thing I loved to follow when I was into music videos was this whole thing of conspiracy theories surrounding the link between western music (and musicians) and Satanism. People have produced a lot of documentaries on that, some more convincing than others. Looking at the issues and evidence raised in such documentaries, one would wonder whether some of our local artists have joined their western counterparts in Satanism as there has been some questionable content in a couple of Malawian music videos I have seen. At the end of the day, these issues may not be anything beyond theories, anyway. Let them not give us headaches.
Having written all of this, even I am wondering why everyone should read this. Having given it a thought, I think there is a little lesson from this. Music is good for the soul, but not every piece is. Good music is good for the soul. People who studied psychology say that music has an influence on one’s thought processes and with that in mind, there is got to be a good thought given when choosing a song for addition into the playlist. Izi zomangomvera nyimbo zodandaula umphawi and the like will not take us anywhere. We also never know if we are slowly descending into Satanism by listening to songs by these artists labeled as Satanists so we got to be careful there.
That being said, I am not saying all the music industry is bad. We still have some Malawian artists killing it. To the rest of you, we can do better. We can’t just be singing old childhood songs, party music and poverty laments. Tidzitolere
In my struggle for finding what to write today I found myself wondering why I have not written a piece on something that I love so much; music. Those who know Richie beyond the blog’s link know that he is a bit of fanatic when it comes to music. I am everything from a dancer through wannabe producer to critic. I like to call myself “someone who has an ear for music” and that is why I decided to share a bit about Lucifer’s brainchild with you.
Talking of the Malawian music industry, it has evolved from the times when we had very few musicians selling analogue tapes on the market to the present day when people are just in it for the fame; a few songs and a Malawi music profile. One would easily notice that the increase in the number of so called artists in the country has affected the quality of music to some extent as people do not sit down to conceptualize and produce good music. What we have nowadays are artists who try to copy everything about Nigerian, South African or American music including art work and photo shoot styles for the artists in the mentioned industries. It is not bad, but it is not good either. The interesting thing is that this has created a listenership that easily gets satisfied with poor quality music without objective analysis of the pieces on their decks.
While it is a fact that not many would agree that the quality of music is going down, the few who understand the value of good quality pieces pick up a few artists from Malawi while their playlists are dominated by exotic artists. If you are to ask me, that has its own pros and cons. There are two sides to the same coin. If you look at the scenario in which someone has to choose between a South African banger and a Malawian song, it is mostly an issue of choosing between enjoying while promoting a foreign artists or being bored while promoting a local one. That is at least in most cases. I am not saying that our music is totally trash, but if you think of it, we have more Nigerian music playing in our clubs and homes that we have at home. We have more American gospel songs in our playlists than we have Malawian. One Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo once wondered if we had Malawian musicians having heard only a combination of Nigerian music and the Malawian versions of it. Our artists are losing it and so are the listeners. Evidence? People do not appreciate the originality effort that is put into good music.
Our gospel music industry, though good is not without flaws. To be honest, there is a lot of talent in the gospel music industry. We have people with good voices and the one gospel show I patronized tells me we also have a lot of good stage performers. The one thing we do have? Lyricists. We have a good music industry of people who sing songs focusing on how God sets a table for them in the midst of their enemies and rather interestingly on how their enemies will feel the heat when God delivers them from their current sufferings. While there is nothing wrong an artist or two doing a song around these concepts, I find the dominance of these themes wrong. I once happened to meet Hamilton Jucha Chapomba at a show, and he talked of how artists nowadays struggle to write songs worth of God because they are not close to the one they write about. That could be another explanation and while refraining from putting a direct comment to that, I like to think that there are other themes of gospel music that we overlook in thanksgiving, praise, salvation and many others you can think. And then there are these misaligned lyrics and song arrangements that come from ma artist obona kumene. I won’t say much on this one.
The issue of substandard lyrics and poor concepts has not only hit the Gospel music industry. There are very few secular artists who write some on point lyrics nowadays. I am just wondering whether it is a thing with new music from all over the globe. Being a guy who listens to all the weird music from most corners of the globe, I can generally say that the quality of lyrics is generally going down as people seem to be concentrating their energy (if there is any energy at all) on party music. One friend of mine once posted of how one famous American artist uses the same three words; party, Miami, dance (might have been a different word here) on every song but still gets awards. Comedian Chris Rock once lamented on how the lyrical quality of hip hop music has gone down to an extent that one has to defend himself when listening to such music. Back home, any new school random song’s lyrical quality is hardly comparable to Billy Kaunda’s Mphinjika or Saleta Phiri’s Ili mu Ufa.
The one thing I loved to follow when I was into music videos was this whole thing of conspiracy theories surrounding the link between western music (and musicians) and Satanism. People have produced a lot of documentaries on that, some more convincing than others. Looking at the issues and evidence raised in such documentaries, one would wonder whether some of our local artists have joined their western counterparts in Satanism as there has been some questionable content in a couple of Malawian music videos I have seen. At the end of the day, these issues may not be anything beyond theories, anyway. Let them not give us headaches.
Having written all of this, even I am wondering why everyone should read this. Having given it a thought, I think there is a little lesson from this. Music is good for the soul, but not every piece is. Good music is good for the soul. People who studied psychology say that music has an influence on one’s thought processes and with that in mind, there is got to be a good thought given when choosing a song for addition into the playlist. Izi zomangomvera nyimbo zodandaula umphawi and the like will not take us anywhere. We also never know if we are slowly descending into Satanism by listening to songs by these artists labeled as Satanists so we got to be careful there.
That being said, I am not saying all the music industry is bad. We still have some Malawian artists killing it. To the rest of you, we can do better. We can’t just be singing old childhood songs, party music and poverty laments. Tidzitolere
Friday, 14 April 2017
Random Thoughts on Housing
It is yet another beautiful Friday. Unlike most Fridays, I didn’t have to struggle with what to write because of the past week’s eventualities of my personal and professional life. I have had to resist a lot of temptation to finally come up with this article on housing.
Some of you who know me personally (unlike achina Robin Sinsamala who only know me as Richie Online) know that I finished college in May 2016 and went on to start my work (clinical internships as some demeanors would call it; shut up) in the month of December in the same year. That was all good and everyone was so happy about it until we remembered about where I was stationed. It was the same sort of thing that happens when the first born in the family gets selected to a national secondary school. People celebrate wildly and then become silent when they begin to think about the source of the fees.
That was a digression.
I am stationed at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and I was, at the time staying with my parents in Lunzu (which I am told is in Blantyre). Due to issues to do with public transport (among others), I was not too keen on extending the 23 year old stay with the parents and I wanted to move out from the word go. Sadly I was out of Blantyre in the period surrounding these transitions from waganyu to a civil servant on probation. On the other hand, I though it was still wise to start my house hunt and being a cyber human, I decided to do the unconventional. While I had one of my guys running on the ground in Blantyre, I decided to complement (someone needs to text me if I got this one right) their efforts by doing my own search. Turns out I was both wrong and right at the same time because neither their search nor mine brought something to point at in the end.
The house hunt began on some Facebook called Blantyre Property Solutions. Some of you know this Facebook. It’s that group where one agent (Isaac Gent, Sestino Simbani, Lusungu Nyondo and the others that I can’t remember now) post about all the nice houses they know to be free. The way it works is that you call them on the numbers they drop and you go to see the house you like, pay them the viewing fee. I am told you have to cough up some extra aloe’s when you finally get the house too and that they also get something from the owner. Clever people, huh?
Someone posted a good picture of a nice house in Zingwangwa and got me excited. It was newly built (yoti ndikaiyambe ndekha), nice design and secure. Above that the rentals were reasonable. I quickly called this agent and told him I was interested. To cut this whole story short, after a long discussion with Agent Impatient I got to realize that the house still had some finishing to do and it was not ready for use for another three weeks at the very least. I had been counting on this fella and all of the sudden he broke the bad news via a phone call when I was in Lilongwe en route to Blantyre from wherever I was that day with the hope of kukalowa nyumba yanyawani. No house for me.
For the first few days of my work I was operating from Mwanza (Lunzu) and it wasn’t that pleasing. I somehow managed to get a room in the house of one good Samaritan called David. That is where I stayed until December 26. I later moved to Chitawira and now Manja where I am living in my lonesome. No agents were involved in both transfers and I found these places through friends of mine.
The long boring story was just about painting a picture of how it is not so easy to find suitable and affordable accommodation in our cities. I might have been lucky to find a place in Chitawira and then Manja in the first place but many who sailed in the same boat with me in college are still struggling with the same issue. We have substandard pieces of accommodation with far-fetched rates.
One would wonder as to why we have this problem of housing in our cities. Well. I have a thought or two on that. The first issue is that we have an exponentially increasing number of young graduates who are coming to work in the cities. You have to understand that these are not just your Blantyre, Lilongwe or Mzuzu guys. They are coming from all corners of the country to the commercial capital or to any other city for work. What they mostly need is this nice piece of self-contained accommodation where they can keep their startup kit and sleep. That has proven to be too difficult to find. If you know much about Blantyre you would know that the sort of houses I am talking about are concentrated in the Chitawira-Nkolokosa area and all of them are full of people who are not planning on leaving anytime soon. The others that are not are currently housing students from the MIJ-Poly-MCA-COM college belt. In other words, there are so many people who need these places in town and the demand is ever growing.
The other side of the same issue of the growing demand is that there is nothing being done on the supply part. We are not building. I am told we have a housing corporation or something of the sort but of late there hasn’t been much to show for it save for the rampant and dubious selling of houses to crooked politicians. I am yet to be notified of new structures constructed by the same in recent years. Their function now is probably that of collecting rentals from clients and selling more houses.
There we are, then. We have an ever growing demand for housing and a stagnated supply. If we continue at the rate we are going, the gap between the two will continue to widen to the dismay of many. The only people who will celebrate this will the agents who get the viewing fees for showing one house to seven hopeful clients, six of who will end up not liking the house with the most desperate one having to top up a ridiculous amount for the rentals and fee for the agent.
Having said that, I think it is high time we did something about this as a nation. I will dismiss you if you are thinking of malata subsidy. This is an issue of urban housing and I am afraid that if we are to sort this out for good we might have to use something that is more focused and a bit less political. I would suggest that we get the MHC to work but that is a statutory corporation. We at Richie Online do not have that much trust in those so this goes back to us. I have a lot of optimistic friends who always talk of thinking solutions and not problems. I also have a lot of friends who like to say that and entrepreneur is that guy who makes money from solving people’s problems. Well. World changers and entrepreneurs, here is your challenge. Isaac Banda is still looking for a house and while you may not help him now, you may help my little bro Andrew when graduates from medical school. Making money while solving problems; isn’t that the deal?
As for the rest of us house hunters, things will remain tough whether we use agents or not. We better get connected in town and up our searching game. Unfortunately I don't have proper tips on this one. Befriend Maradona Kanyenda on Facebook, maybe. I am told he is an honest agent. And probably Matthews Fatty Joe Gomani too. Who knows? They may just come through.
Your thoughts?
Some of you who know me personally (unlike achina Robin Sinsamala who only know me as Richie Online) know that I finished college in May 2016 and went on to start my work (clinical internships as some demeanors would call it; shut up) in the month of December in the same year. That was all good and everyone was so happy about it until we remembered about where I was stationed. It was the same sort of thing that happens when the first born in the family gets selected to a national secondary school. People celebrate wildly and then become silent when they begin to think about the source of the fees.
That was a digression.
I am stationed at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and I was, at the time staying with my parents in Lunzu (which I am told is in Blantyre). Due to issues to do with public transport (among others), I was not too keen on extending the 23 year old stay with the parents and I wanted to move out from the word go. Sadly I was out of Blantyre in the period surrounding these transitions from waganyu to a civil servant on probation. On the other hand, I though it was still wise to start my house hunt and being a cyber human, I decided to do the unconventional. While I had one of my guys running on the ground in Blantyre, I decided to complement (someone needs to text me if I got this one right) their efforts by doing my own search. Turns out I was both wrong and right at the same time because neither their search nor mine brought something to point at in the end.
The house hunt began on some Facebook called Blantyre Property Solutions. Some of you know this Facebook. It’s that group where one agent (Isaac Gent, Sestino Simbani, Lusungu Nyondo and the others that I can’t remember now) post about all the nice houses they know to be free. The way it works is that you call them on the numbers they drop and you go to see the house you like, pay them the viewing fee. I am told you have to cough up some extra aloe’s when you finally get the house too and that they also get something from the owner. Clever people, huh?
Someone posted a good picture of a nice house in Zingwangwa and got me excited. It was newly built (yoti ndikaiyambe ndekha), nice design and secure. Above that the rentals were reasonable. I quickly called this agent and told him I was interested. To cut this whole story short, after a long discussion with Agent Impatient I got to realize that the house still had some finishing to do and it was not ready for use for another three weeks at the very least. I had been counting on this fella and all of the sudden he broke the bad news via a phone call when I was in Lilongwe en route to Blantyre from wherever I was that day with the hope of kukalowa nyumba yanyawani. No house for me.
For the first few days of my work I was operating from Mwanza (Lunzu) and it wasn’t that pleasing. I somehow managed to get a room in the house of one good Samaritan called David. That is where I stayed until December 26. I later moved to Chitawira and now Manja where I am living in my lonesome. No agents were involved in both transfers and I found these places through friends of mine.
The long boring story was just about painting a picture of how it is not so easy to find suitable and affordable accommodation in our cities. I might have been lucky to find a place in Chitawira and then Manja in the first place but many who sailed in the same boat with me in college are still struggling with the same issue. We have substandard pieces of accommodation with far-fetched rates.
One would wonder as to why we have this problem of housing in our cities. Well. I have a thought or two on that. The first issue is that we have an exponentially increasing number of young graduates who are coming to work in the cities. You have to understand that these are not just your Blantyre, Lilongwe or Mzuzu guys. They are coming from all corners of the country to the commercial capital or to any other city for work. What they mostly need is this nice piece of self-contained accommodation where they can keep their startup kit and sleep. That has proven to be too difficult to find. If you know much about Blantyre you would know that the sort of houses I am talking about are concentrated in the Chitawira-Nkolokosa area and all of them are full of people who are not planning on leaving anytime soon. The others that are not are currently housing students from the MIJ-Poly-MCA-COM college belt. In other words, there are so many people who need these places in town and the demand is ever growing.
The other side of the same issue of the growing demand is that there is nothing being done on the supply part. We are not building. I am told we have a housing corporation or something of the sort but of late there hasn’t been much to show for it save for the rampant and dubious selling of houses to crooked politicians. I am yet to be notified of new structures constructed by the same in recent years. Their function now is probably that of collecting rentals from clients and selling more houses.
There we are, then. We have an ever growing demand for housing and a stagnated supply. If we continue at the rate we are going, the gap between the two will continue to widen to the dismay of many. The only people who will celebrate this will the agents who get the viewing fees for showing one house to seven hopeful clients, six of who will end up not liking the house with the most desperate one having to top up a ridiculous amount for the rentals and fee for the agent.
Having said that, I think it is high time we did something about this as a nation. I will dismiss you if you are thinking of malata subsidy. This is an issue of urban housing and I am afraid that if we are to sort this out for good we might have to use something that is more focused and a bit less political. I would suggest that we get the MHC to work but that is a statutory corporation. We at Richie Online do not have that much trust in those so this goes back to us. I have a lot of optimistic friends who always talk of thinking solutions and not problems. I also have a lot of friends who like to say that and entrepreneur is that guy who makes money from solving people’s problems. Well. World changers and entrepreneurs, here is your challenge. Isaac Banda is still looking for a house and while you may not help him now, you may help my little bro Andrew when graduates from medical school. Making money while solving problems; isn’t that the deal?
As for the rest of us house hunters, things will remain tough whether we use agents or not. We better get connected in town and up our searching game. Unfortunately I don't have proper tips on this one. Befriend Maradona Kanyenda on Facebook, maybe. I am told he is an honest agent. And probably Matthews Fatty Joe Gomani too. Who knows? They may just come through.
Your thoughts?
Friday, 7 April 2017
PRISONS OR DEATH TRAPS?
With the Richie Online Resident Lawyer.
Civilization of a society is measured by how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable members (Alexious 2015). Ramcharan a human rights scholar argues that the way a society treats its vulnerable members reflects its social health and conscience. Apart from women and children (girls and boys; emphasis added on male children) being a vulnerable group, those in prison are a vulnerable group. This is the case because in incarceration one is under the control or mercy of jailers/state and so they are a vulnerable group deserving protection. Talking of prisons and well-being of prisoners, raises furious reactions usually because the majority feels a prisoner’s welfare should not worry us when the citizenry are dying due to lack of medicine, hunger and many struggling in dire poverty. Why then should we worry of those in prisons when the innocent are suffering? These thoughts reveals the hypocrisy of a self-satisfaction oriented being who is blind to the fact that to really raise the living standards of people, a holistic approach is needed; thus no sector of society should be left behind. Again, that human rights are inalienable entitlements to human beings by virtue of birth, as such a fight for human rights include the fight for prisoners’ well-being. It is in my belief that this piece will open space, if not to raise a movement towards improving conditions in prisons, at least to create a platform for discussion on this matter of national interest.
There are many reasons why prisons are an essential part of our society wealthy our energies. Firstly and commonly of all, prisons are places where those that have done evils, that’s finding themselves in the wrong side with the Penal Code for committing crimes, are incarcerated. This not only serves as a punishment, but also prevents the confined from committing other crimes thereby keeping the society safe. For those with a chance for parole, it gives them an opportunity to change and retract from doing similar conduct once released. Of importance also is the fact that it acts as a deterrence for would be offenders. There can be a lot of reasons why prisons are vital, but one common aspect of it is that the person incarcerated remains a human being, as such entitled to human rights. But also not all the people serving sentences in prisons have really committed crimes whereas others have committed crimes whose punish was not suppose to be custodial. The challenge in Malawi that leads to others being convicted is the lack of legal representation mixed with ignorance of the law (or general illiteracy).
While others find themselves in prisons convicted wrongly, or given stiff punishment due to inability to afford legal advice, others are in jail awaiting trial. Others have been in prison for 10 years awaiting trial. A Decade. Yes, while the argument for giving a blind eye to prisons welfare mostly tends to till towards the reason that the culprits breached the law knowing the conditions of prisons, many people are languishing in cells on remand awaiting their trial. So, if you do not believe in human rights or you believe in selective enjoyment of human rights, those that are innocent awaiting for the courts to decide their fate, at least even to you do deserve humane conditions. Now the naked truth is that we can not be proposing for improved conditions for the remand section not only because the contact of the two groups remain an unavoidable reality, but also it would be an unspeakable and atrocious path to take against our common conscious and humanity.
Being a member of Community of Sant Egidio gave me an opportunity to understand many things on life in prison. Miraculously, I feel I found true freedom through being in prisons. Visiting the prison once every fortnight makes us convinced that most that argue against improving the conditions have neither been to the prisons nor witness the life a Prison in Malawi. And in our invitation to new people it has manifested as upon acceptance of our invitation, it is usually their first time and they are shocked by the poor poverty of impoverishment (For emphasis). So one wonders where do they get the courage and the wisdom to oppose the drive to reach out to our fellow mankind in prisons? On the other hand, there are those that were and have been in prison before, the likes of Bakili Muluzi, Lucius Banda, Sam Mpasu, Peter Mutharika and most politicians who have experienced life in prison. This group is usually quit and exercises a silence of conviction that nothing can be done. Is it that just because they are out then it does not matter anymore? How many others have not made it out due to the inhumane conditions (probably hundreds)? Shocking is the lack of will by most of these politicians. While it is easy and simple to condemn those in jail, thinking of it everyone can find himself/herself in prison whether on crime commission or mere suspicion.
Selective application of the law continues to be a drug that is sending our democracy to a deep slumber. Our Constitution is clear on the right to human dignity, right to health and right to life among other rights, yet the conditions in prisons continue to violate these rights. Specifically, the law in Gable Masangano v Attorney General, a Constitutional Case No. 15 of 2007, demanded the state to improve conditions of prisons not as a privilege but an obligation. Since 2007, the conditions of prisons have gone from bad to worse. This is a clear breach of the law and so the recent news of Maula prison being the mosquito of Tuberculosis is a slap on the wound. Yet such is business as usual as far as life of those in prison is concerned. In our prisons, when there is no electricity it means they will not be given food, that is when the food supply is available. So even the one meal of M’gaiwa with peas is not given when there is no electricity, and how many times do we have black-outs. In Malawi we have Death Traps not prisons as such these institutions sometimes raise monsters in their quest for survival at all cost. If not for our respect for the rule of law and pursuit of human rights realization, may we fight for urgent improvement of prisons for the sake of our social health and common conscious as well as respect for humanity.
By…ALEXIOUS KAMANGILA…..Private Legal Practitioner and Volunteers for Community of Sant Egidio
Civilization of a society is measured by how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable members (Alexious 2015). Ramcharan a human rights scholar argues that the way a society treats its vulnerable members reflects its social health and conscience. Apart from women and children (girls and boys; emphasis added on male children) being a vulnerable group, those in prison are a vulnerable group. This is the case because in incarceration one is under the control or mercy of jailers/state and so they are a vulnerable group deserving protection. Talking of prisons and well-being of prisoners, raises furious reactions usually because the majority feels a prisoner’s welfare should not worry us when the citizenry are dying due to lack of medicine, hunger and many struggling in dire poverty. Why then should we worry of those in prisons when the innocent are suffering? These thoughts reveals the hypocrisy of a self-satisfaction oriented being who is blind to the fact that to really raise the living standards of people, a holistic approach is needed; thus no sector of society should be left behind. Again, that human rights are inalienable entitlements to human beings by virtue of birth, as such a fight for human rights include the fight for prisoners’ well-being. It is in my belief that this piece will open space, if not to raise a movement towards improving conditions in prisons, at least to create a platform for discussion on this matter of national interest.
There are many reasons why prisons are an essential part of our society wealthy our energies. Firstly and commonly of all, prisons are places where those that have done evils, that’s finding themselves in the wrong side with the Penal Code for committing crimes, are incarcerated. This not only serves as a punishment, but also prevents the confined from committing other crimes thereby keeping the society safe. For those with a chance for parole, it gives them an opportunity to change and retract from doing similar conduct once released. Of importance also is the fact that it acts as a deterrence for would be offenders. There can be a lot of reasons why prisons are vital, but one common aspect of it is that the person incarcerated remains a human being, as such entitled to human rights. But also not all the people serving sentences in prisons have really committed crimes whereas others have committed crimes whose punish was not suppose to be custodial. The challenge in Malawi that leads to others being convicted is the lack of legal representation mixed with ignorance of the law (or general illiteracy).
While others find themselves in prisons convicted wrongly, or given stiff punishment due to inability to afford legal advice, others are in jail awaiting trial. Others have been in prison for 10 years awaiting trial. A Decade. Yes, while the argument for giving a blind eye to prisons welfare mostly tends to till towards the reason that the culprits breached the law knowing the conditions of prisons, many people are languishing in cells on remand awaiting their trial. So, if you do not believe in human rights or you believe in selective enjoyment of human rights, those that are innocent awaiting for the courts to decide their fate, at least even to you do deserve humane conditions. Now the naked truth is that we can not be proposing for improved conditions for the remand section not only because the contact of the two groups remain an unavoidable reality, but also it would be an unspeakable and atrocious path to take against our common conscious and humanity.
Being a member of Community of Sant Egidio gave me an opportunity to understand many things on life in prison. Miraculously, I feel I found true freedom through being in prisons. Visiting the prison once every fortnight makes us convinced that most that argue against improving the conditions have neither been to the prisons nor witness the life a Prison in Malawi. And in our invitation to new people it has manifested as upon acceptance of our invitation, it is usually their first time and they are shocked by the poor poverty of impoverishment (For emphasis). So one wonders where do they get the courage and the wisdom to oppose the drive to reach out to our fellow mankind in prisons? On the other hand, there are those that were and have been in prison before, the likes of Bakili Muluzi, Lucius Banda, Sam Mpasu, Peter Mutharika and most politicians who have experienced life in prison. This group is usually quit and exercises a silence of conviction that nothing can be done. Is it that just because they are out then it does not matter anymore? How many others have not made it out due to the inhumane conditions (probably hundreds)? Shocking is the lack of will by most of these politicians. While it is easy and simple to condemn those in jail, thinking of it everyone can find himself/herself in prison whether on crime commission or mere suspicion.
Selective application of the law continues to be a drug that is sending our democracy to a deep slumber. Our Constitution is clear on the right to human dignity, right to health and right to life among other rights, yet the conditions in prisons continue to violate these rights. Specifically, the law in Gable Masangano v Attorney General, a Constitutional Case No. 15 of 2007, demanded the state to improve conditions of prisons not as a privilege but an obligation. Since 2007, the conditions of prisons have gone from bad to worse. This is a clear breach of the law and so the recent news of Maula prison being the mosquito of Tuberculosis is a slap on the wound. Yet such is business as usual as far as life of those in prison is concerned. In our prisons, when there is no electricity it means they will not be given food, that is when the food supply is available. So even the one meal of M’gaiwa with peas is not given when there is no electricity, and how many times do we have black-outs. In Malawi we have Death Traps not prisons as such these institutions sometimes raise monsters in their quest for survival at all cost. If not for our respect for the rule of law and pursuit of human rights realization, may we fight for urgent improvement of prisons for the sake of our social health and common conscious as well as respect for humanity.
By…ALEXIOUS KAMANGILA…..Private Legal Practitioner and Volunteers for Community of Sant Egidio
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