Another awesome Friday…
I will start this with a confession. In case you did not notice, last week’s article was dug from my archive and it was originally posted on the 28th of August, 2015 if my memory serves me right. It is my favorite article, so I guess I will be forgiven for having reposted that without alerting people that it was an old article. Some readers noticed and questioned me on behalf of the whole readership but I guess that is just another bygone. On another note, the name “Lady Richie” that appeared in the article can be explained by the date of the original posting, so I guess we should all cut the questions about that.
I was tempted to write on a couple of hot topics that I run my head through in the past few days. The most prominent ones were the issue of the disciplinary action against some private lawyers in the country and some semi-structured chat I had with a friend of mine on sexuality. All of those are pretty interesting and I could write a lot, but then I have remembered that one guy posted a very controversial question which raised a very hot debate on Facebook.
To avoid being partisan (I am one of those non-partisan idiots who are afraid of committing to one political party), I will reconstruct the whole post in my own words. This guy asked people to mention any major developments that have taken place ever since we re-ushered the blue administration into the driving seat in Malawi. That question got my mind stalled for a moment and that was not only because I had no immediate answer but rather because no one had asked it 3 years after we had voted. The answers? Many said there was no major development while someone else ignited a hot debate by saying that one major development that has taken place was the construction of community colleges across the country. I know that some of you have already figured out as to where the debate came from, but if you haven’t yet it came from the question as to whether community colleges are a major development. Now that is one question to which even the all-wise Richie of Richie Online does not have an answer to. All in all, I think I have personally seen some roads being fixed and have heard of some community colleges being constructed. I will leave the judging as to whether those are major developments to the readers.
While I applauded the guy who asked this question about what has transpired since we voted for a new party into power, I was quickly drifted into wondering as to where the opposition (which was supposed to be asking these sorta questions as opposed to appearing only and only after these not so cool SONAs) has been all along. On the other hand, the very fact that the opposition has to be asking these questions means that we have been reduced to a country that has no development agenda. That entails that we have people from different political parties coming in with their ideas on how best we can develop this country with no long term development plan or consideration of continuity beyond a five year term in place. If that does not break your heart, then I would guess you are a typical Malawian who is part of the problem as opposed to the (possible) solution.
Talking of development, I must say that what I have seen in the few years I have been around has been more of maintenance of already existing structures and systems than erecting new ones. That in itself is a big problem as it is not in keeping with the increased demand for new structures and systems that we get from the ever-increasing population.
The lack of a proper and visionary development agenda has also led us into introducing things that we cannot sustain. I tend to wonder whether we thought we would be able to sustain a free healthcare system, free primary education and farm input subsidies going forward. I am not too sure of whether these things are being sustainable by every definition of the word, but I think our think tanks could have done a better job by not introducing some of these if not for altering the way they are rolled out.
Having said that, I will turn away from those we call atsogoleri a dziko or whatever and look at you, my dear readers. Some of you have been given the responsibility to lead in different platforms. True leadership entails innovation as opposed to maintenance of operations. Our measure of leadership shouldn’t be how many things have been maintained but rather how many new things are introduced in a particular leadership mandate.
Going back to the issue of whether the blue camp has developed the country enough in the three years, I will throw that back to you. If you are in opposition, it is your job to police the government on these matters and if you are in the “informal gaffment” it’s your job to reason with your bosses on the need for a long term and non-partisan development agenda which cannot be discontinued simply because the background of the presidential portrait has changed from orange to blue.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Alipo akukwatira kapena kukwatiwa weekend you ngati?
Friday, 26 May 2017
Friday, 12 May 2017
Another One for the Health Systems
It's another Friday and I am under enormous pressure today. Some of you might have guessed the reason. We are coming from a Friday where the Venomous Hope dropped a nuke of an article addressing a lot of important issues in a rather fluent manner. This pressure gave me the temptation of leasing the blog for yet another week to one Chikondi Sato, but my experiences at work made me think otherwise.
If you religiously follow the blog you might have noted that I have always kept "Richie Online" and "Dr Kamwezi" from meeting except for one time that I wrote about our ailing health system. That, I have always done out of my professionalism. I have known myself to be verbose and I avoid mixing my health profession and my semiprofessional writing for the fear of spitting too much. On the other hand, I think my dear young and innovative readers need to understand some of the bright and dark sides of our systems as they are scaling up their efforts to make a better Malawi.
A few days ago, my friend Max (Dr Maxwell Abraham Ayaya Yohane) tagged me in a post on Facebook. This post was something he had shared from a very grateful person who was suggesting that we all need to stop whining about the shortfalls of the public health service as it provides every basic need to every patient in this nation. The whole post got me tempted to respond with paragraphs of explanations but having seen the comments, I decided to hold my peace for the reason that there was a steep gradient of knowledge between the satisfied guy and me, a front-liner in the health system.
The issue of lack of resources is not much of a surprise in our health service. We hear about stockouts of essential drugs and important diagnostic equipment day in day out and that is the norm of the day. We have lost lives to curable diseases because of lack of basic things in the public health service and we haven't seen much change despite the numerous cries from the concerned. The problem is that the problems occur both centrally and peripherally. Meaning? While we have problem with lack of resources at government level, the same resources, little as they may be, tend to be abused at every level. One Peter Kumpalume once wondered as to whether he needed to be going to every district or health facilities. Having all this in mind, we can comfortably conclude that a majority of the problems in our health services are man made and easily preventable.
Away from the financial resources, the issue of shortage human resources is another major issue that needs sorting. Malawi has one of the worst doctor to patient ratios on the planet and the statistics are not better when we look at the nursing side. Result? Overworked and underpaid health workers. This problem of an understaffed system comes from the fact that we have only one medical school and a handful other health worker training institutions which can't keep up with the ever increasing demand for health workers in our hospitals. The solution is as good as you can guess and the only question we are left with is that of whether we will have more medical schools be it public or private to sort out the issue. One would also wonder whether the locally trained medical personnel will opt to stay amidst the seduction of the better working conditions elsewhere.
Leadership in the health service is another issue that needs to be put under the microscope. To avoid saying much about this topic, I will divert your attention to the things the WHO calls the building blocks of a health system. The World Health Organization (whoever that is) states that for any health system to function there is need for infrastructure, personnel, resources and along with that leadership and policy to govern the running of the system. There is so much that needs to be done on the policy and leadership part of the system in Malawi. I shouldn't say much on this because I might be too idealistic as I am a fresh graduate who hasn't been there yet. In my thoughts, however, we could use better policies.
The other big issue on the system is that of financing. This is the elephant in the room as it raises hot debates that seem to have no conclusion. Our public health system is completely free of charge for all patients and that includes the costs of all the expensive things like laboratory studies, imaging, surgery, intensive care admissions and outside referrals for the lucky few. Some might question this statement as a few of the services I mentioned might be offered at a small fee (especially some lab tests). That makes me wonder as to whether we need to introduce user fees in the hospitals to make some services just a bit more sustainable than they currently are. Those who are pro-user fees play the sustainability card while those who are against the fees go by the availability and accessibility argument. All those are valid but in view of the cost of services, we might consider bringing in something of the fee sort for some if not all services. My only worry is about how centralized these fees could be and how we could make sure that they work for the intended purpose.
Resources aside, I think one other bad think that we have as Malawians is that we are more passive and reactive as opposed to the ideals of being proactive with issues to do with our health system. There are very few of us who care about what goes on in the hospitals and how best things can be improved. We all worry about waiting time but we hardly do anything about it (send your child to medical school, maybe). We all look at the condittions of our infrastructure going down but we hardly do anything. Then there is this issue of theft of public resources which hasn't spared health facilities. Apart from all these, there is another issue which has had me thinking about how passive we have been in making our health system a better one.
I am pretty sure that most of us have heard about the gospel of blood donation on the radio or elsewhere. I for one haven't gone that side to be bled to save some 4 year old with malaria, some pregnant woman or some poor guy who was involved in an accident. This week at work has just shown me how irresponsible this whole "not donating blood" is as we had a total number of 17 patients requiring blood transfusions in a ward with a capacity of 60 or so. We are not talking of people with malaria or pregnant women or people who had accidents here. Interestingly enough, there were a couple of relatives who came over offering to donate blood and out of the many, very few admitted to having donated blood previously. These might be hard facts to get for some, but for me this is being reactive and it doesn't help anyone. Perhaps things would be better if a more of us could go and share that extra pint of blood with some sick soul on ward 3B at Queens. You never know who could benefit.
Having said all that, I should say our health system leaves a lot to be desired. Some have said that our problems are the price we will keep paying for having free for all health care and while they may have a point, I think the other building blocks of the health system are not to be looked at with a blind eye. We need sound policy to guide a motivated health workforce which will work in proper infrastructure with adequate resources, treating a nation of Malawians who care about and actively participate in the management of their system.
I still dream of the day when this will be a reality and I hope one day we will have a healthier nation.
If you religiously follow the blog you might have noted that I have always kept "Richie Online" and "Dr Kamwezi" from meeting except for one time that I wrote about our ailing health system. That, I have always done out of my professionalism. I have known myself to be verbose and I avoid mixing my health profession and my semiprofessional writing for the fear of spitting too much. On the other hand, I think my dear young and innovative readers need to understand some of the bright and dark sides of our systems as they are scaling up their efforts to make a better Malawi.
A few days ago, my friend Max (Dr Maxwell Abraham Ayaya Yohane) tagged me in a post on Facebook. This post was something he had shared from a very grateful person who was suggesting that we all need to stop whining about the shortfalls of the public health service as it provides every basic need to every patient in this nation. The whole post got me tempted to respond with paragraphs of explanations but having seen the comments, I decided to hold my peace for the reason that there was a steep gradient of knowledge between the satisfied guy and me, a front-liner in the health system.
The issue of lack of resources is not much of a surprise in our health service. We hear about stockouts of essential drugs and important diagnostic equipment day in day out and that is the norm of the day. We have lost lives to curable diseases because of lack of basic things in the public health service and we haven't seen much change despite the numerous cries from the concerned. The problem is that the problems occur both centrally and peripherally. Meaning? While we have problem with lack of resources at government level, the same resources, little as they may be, tend to be abused at every level. One Peter Kumpalume once wondered as to whether he needed to be going to every district or health facilities. Having all this in mind, we can comfortably conclude that a majority of the problems in our health services are man made and easily preventable.
Away from the financial resources, the issue of shortage human resources is another major issue that needs sorting. Malawi has one of the worst doctor to patient ratios on the planet and the statistics are not better when we look at the nursing side. Result? Overworked and underpaid health workers. This problem of an understaffed system comes from the fact that we have only one medical school and a handful other health worker training institutions which can't keep up with the ever increasing demand for health workers in our hospitals. The solution is as good as you can guess and the only question we are left with is that of whether we will have more medical schools be it public or private to sort out the issue. One would also wonder whether the locally trained medical personnel will opt to stay amidst the seduction of the better working conditions elsewhere.
Leadership in the health service is another issue that needs to be put under the microscope. To avoid saying much about this topic, I will divert your attention to the things the WHO calls the building blocks of a health system. The World Health Organization (whoever that is) states that for any health system to function there is need for infrastructure, personnel, resources and along with that leadership and policy to govern the running of the system. There is so much that needs to be done on the policy and leadership part of the system in Malawi. I shouldn't say much on this because I might be too idealistic as I am a fresh graduate who hasn't been there yet. In my thoughts, however, we could use better policies.
The other big issue on the system is that of financing. This is the elephant in the room as it raises hot debates that seem to have no conclusion. Our public health system is completely free of charge for all patients and that includes the costs of all the expensive things like laboratory studies, imaging, surgery, intensive care admissions and outside referrals for the lucky few. Some might question this statement as a few of the services I mentioned might be offered at a small fee (especially some lab tests). That makes me wonder as to whether we need to introduce user fees in the hospitals to make some services just a bit more sustainable than they currently are. Those who are pro-user fees play the sustainability card while those who are against the fees go by the availability and accessibility argument. All those are valid but in view of the cost of services, we might consider bringing in something of the fee sort for some if not all services. My only worry is about how centralized these fees could be and how we could make sure that they work for the intended purpose.
Resources aside, I think one other bad think that we have as Malawians is that we are more passive and reactive as opposed to the ideals of being proactive with issues to do with our health system. There are very few of us who care about what goes on in the hospitals and how best things can be improved. We all worry about waiting time but we hardly do anything about it (send your child to medical school, maybe). We all look at the condittions of our infrastructure going down but we hardly do anything. Then there is this issue of theft of public resources which hasn't spared health facilities. Apart from all these, there is another issue which has had me thinking about how passive we have been in making our health system a better one.
I am pretty sure that most of us have heard about the gospel of blood donation on the radio or elsewhere. I for one haven't gone that side to be bled to save some 4 year old with malaria, some pregnant woman or some poor guy who was involved in an accident. This week at work has just shown me how irresponsible this whole "not donating blood" is as we had a total number of 17 patients requiring blood transfusions in a ward with a capacity of 60 or so. We are not talking of people with malaria or pregnant women or people who had accidents here. Interestingly enough, there were a couple of relatives who came over offering to donate blood and out of the many, very few admitted to having donated blood previously. These might be hard facts to get for some, but for me this is being reactive and it doesn't help anyone. Perhaps things would be better if a more of us could go and share that extra pint of blood with some sick soul on ward 3B at Queens. You never know who could benefit.
Having said all that, I should say our health system leaves a lot to be desired. Some have said that our problems are the price we will keep paying for having free for all health care and while they may have a point, I think the other building blocks of the health system are not to be looked at with a blind eye. We need sound policy to guide a motivated health workforce which will work in proper infrastructure with adequate resources, treating a nation of Malawians who care about and actively participate in the management of their system.
I still dream of the day when this will be a reality and I hope one day we will have a healthier nation.
Friday, 5 May 2017
Everyone Needs a Puludzu
with the "Venomous Hope"
I have to say I enjoyed more “apolitical” articles in recent weeks from the landlord of this blog. More especially last Friday when he dipped into the sauce of personal relationships, specifically to diagnose the difficulties of getting ‘that’ one partner with the right DNA, something only an exotic herbalist would understand. Going by the epistle, it was observed that getting the “perfect life-partner” is serious business that needs own month of Ramadan. It’s like going to war with sticks, someone reminded me, when the devils behind enemy lines have nuclear weapons in reserve. The adage that says “Mercy led to the execution of nsemamitondo” (in verbatim) has in recent years been earnestly applied by all concerned parties, that’s why others would implore spies to check every detail of the potential partner’s life just to be on the same page. Ena akumaitanitsa kaye ma CV with traceable referees. Well, the fact that we cannot exhaustively define “love” tells us that we can forgo a few personal inadequacies to accommodate those less privileged but in need of a warm embrace. I hope we won’t hear of World War III over the newly crowned Miss Nyasaland. Her charm has even entranced Sanjika who surely plan to fuel her winning vehicle in the service of the noble BEAM. Going by the cross-section of a few Zabwekas who graced the ceremony one can wonder the percentage of males making the contact list on the gadget Miss Malawi is using. One thing that is certain is that a handsome number of politicians who attended the State of the Nation Address (SONA) today have her number and saved it as “wampamba.” Congratulations are in order though to the new Miss Malawi.
Of the many better things in Malawi that I like most is when we complain about issues. Last Saturday, the usual African punching-bag which masquerade as Malawi national football team was booted out of the CHAN tournament by the Penguins of Madagascar. The result wasn’t at all surprising despite the presence of a hired mercenary with no sustained record of success in his homeland, an expatriate the media have christened RVG. The Flames is the definition of a utopian pathetic football team. This is the team that was to be abandoned a couple of months ago only for the gaff’ment to change heart when MAJOR 1 wanted to turn it into his charity bogey team. Anyway, the comedy at FAM turned into frenzy when its leadership acknowledged that they connived and printed “fake” tickets for the Charity match involving Bullets and Kamuzu Barracks and the tickets were sold at the venue. There is deafening silence on “what we should do” to these people who have audaciously confessed their sins. We pretend we are fighting graft and bribery, masanje enieni. In a normal country like my adopted North Korea, these sacred cows would have already been presented as burnt sacrifices. This brings forth what my article is about, MCP.
I will not pretend that I know that much about the intricacies of ndale zaku Malawi but even a novice will acknowledge that MCP is the only thing giving DPP Cadets sleepless nights. Perhaps all opposition parties should have rallied behind MCP to form a formidable block insurmountable to the ruling caste. However, as we approach 2019, numerous so-called political parties are resurfacing with renewed lies and dreams, the kind of we have heard since 1994. Just this week one well known political migrator Frank MwenIfumbo was unveiled by the decayed Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) in Mzuzu as its new catch from parliament. This is a regional family party that had around 40 MPs in its glory days of Chakufwa Chihana but has been was swallowed by bigger fishes and its influence never went beyond Jenda roadblock. Some bigwigs in UDF still think they have something to trade for the people of Mangochi and Machinga following their greedy marriage with DPP. This club of amateur politicians still thinks it basks in the glory of Atcheya, that guy who brought to Malawians the Mutharika dynasty after overlooking the likes of Aleke Banda, Malewezi, Harry Thompson, Mpinganjira, among other UDF Kahunas in a bid of dreaming ruling from pakaliyala. Amangwetu, UDF should be applauded for one thing; limiting the number of contestants who would potentially take MCP votes in the Eastern region. The other group with a clout to be called a party is PP, and its members are scattered like sheep without a shepherd, searching for very greener pastures, Msonda and Kutsaira fits anywhere on this bill. PP lost the plot with cashgate, bedgate, and miyala yamaziko imaikidwa daily. This party will never recover from ICU. Nowadays, its few noisemakers are being harassed with all sorts of misdemeanors, Salima mouth spin “Doctor” Uladi Mussa is alleged to be involved in passport syndicate, Kamlepo is wanted by MRA because he bought cars without duty, JB’s sister co-authored Chilima’s resignation letter, and the mother of the party herself uses a corrupt deodorant and is in hiding. That leaves Chakwera to go it alone and smoke out dissidents in his web.
It’s not surprising some DPP cadets are hiding in MCP, literary. After all the party has a very dark history which has over the years tainted any glimmer of hope that it will ever win a presidential election. With almost all old faces retired or dead, some forces are still at play and have tried hard to make MCP darker to accommodate those who want to be concealed and create doubts among voters. Every day we hear of infighting, suspensions, sackings, press briefings, among other nasty things, MBC does well to keep us informed on every sin. The party should have been quiet this time around, playing the lesser evil tag, and plotting their way to the elusive state house. Unfortunately it has allowed itself to be embroiled in muddy waters of tg to get rid of an outsider, Chakwera. It’s unfortunate because the poisoned chalice of Congress was made usable with the arrival of the Reverend in 2013; otherwise the party would have been in oblivion had it remained a puppet of the cunning JZU. The argument is that without Chakwera MCP is just as useless as the Nsanje “World Inland” Port. The witch-hunting that has seen key members like Kabwira, Jumbe and Njovuyalema being sidelined has not helped anyone. And the few paid up DPP members hiding in MCP, those same breed who lost a court case to force the party to hold an early convention, should be thoroughly uprooted. Not like it is going to happen. MCP especially Chakwera has failed to calm the waters. He should swallow his pride and invite JZU to mediate. This is the guy who commands the respect of almost anyone associated with the Tambala Wakuda. A vibrant opposition is good for this nation because it takes the government to task. Only someone with a dark heart and a sorcerer’s tongue like “puludzu” can shut the ex-district chairmen and remind them of the four party cornerstones. Without sounding like a paid apologist, the problems in all political parties in Malawi have far reaching consequences for a better economy, it’s the genesis of the mediocrity we are now used to because even if MCP inherits the government today, they will make the same mistakes their friends are doing.
So the price of sugar has hit the roof with smugglers holding out for K1000 per kg. Accordingly, the same packet is equivalently sold at an affordable K500 in Tanzania, and even lower when put on the shelves of Gauteng. In the name of protecting local manufactures, our governments sold SUCOMA to a South African company, and placed an embargo on foreign-made sugar which is very cheap. Paja Nyamilandu ndiwaku Illovo? We create our own mess. In a capitalist poor economy like Malawi, you need to allow competition whether foreign or domestic because there is no way the government can subsidize the price to reduce the number of us tikudya phala lopanda sugar. The small salaries an average Malawian makes per month is cannot sustain expenditure in the midst of higher prices to crucial items like sugar which is obviously an ingredient of numerous food products including kachasu. Flooding the market with competitive alternatives offers people a chance to sample different tastes and be able to budget. However, when only we let one company to dictate the wholesale price it creates panic when the item is in short supply. If we can persist with this, the government need to create a price cap like it does on fuel and maize- mbiyangambe zingadandaule kuti veremuti wakwera.
Have a great weekend folks.
I have to say I enjoyed more “apolitical” articles in recent weeks from the landlord of this blog. More especially last Friday when he dipped into the sauce of personal relationships, specifically to diagnose the difficulties of getting ‘that’ one partner with the right DNA, something only an exotic herbalist would understand. Going by the epistle, it was observed that getting the “perfect life-partner” is serious business that needs own month of Ramadan. It’s like going to war with sticks, someone reminded me, when the devils behind enemy lines have nuclear weapons in reserve. The adage that says “Mercy led to the execution of nsemamitondo” (in verbatim) has in recent years been earnestly applied by all concerned parties, that’s why others would implore spies to check every detail of the potential partner’s life just to be on the same page. Ena akumaitanitsa kaye ma CV with traceable referees. Well, the fact that we cannot exhaustively define “love” tells us that we can forgo a few personal inadequacies to accommodate those less privileged but in need of a warm embrace. I hope we won’t hear of World War III over the newly crowned Miss Nyasaland. Her charm has even entranced Sanjika who surely plan to fuel her winning vehicle in the service of the noble BEAM. Going by the cross-section of a few Zabwekas who graced the ceremony one can wonder the percentage of males making the contact list on the gadget Miss Malawi is using. One thing that is certain is that a handsome number of politicians who attended the State of the Nation Address (SONA) today have her number and saved it as “wampamba.” Congratulations are in order though to the new Miss Malawi.
Of the many better things in Malawi that I like most is when we complain about issues. Last Saturday, the usual African punching-bag which masquerade as Malawi national football team was booted out of the CHAN tournament by the Penguins of Madagascar. The result wasn’t at all surprising despite the presence of a hired mercenary with no sustained record of success in his homeland, an expatriate the media have christened RVG. The Flames is the definition of a utopian pathetic football team. This is the team that was to be abandoned a couple of months ago only for the gaff’ment to change heart when MAJOR 1 wanted to turn it into his charity bogey team. Anyway, the comedy at FAM turned into frenzy when its leadership acknowledged that they connived and printed “fake” tickets for the Charity match involving Bullets and Kamuzu Barracks and the tickets were sold at the venue. There is deafening silence on “what we should do” to these people who have audaciously confessed their sins. We pretend we are fighting graft and bribery, masanje enieni. In a normal country like my adopted North Korea, these sacred cows would have already been presented as burnt sacrifices. This brings forth what my article is about, MCP.
I will not pretend that I know that much about the intricacies of ndale zaku Malawi but even a novice will acknowledge that MCP is the only thing giving DPP Cadets sleepless nights. Perhaps all opposition parties should have rallied behind MCP to form a formidable block insurmountable to the ruling caste. However, as we approach 2019, numerous so-called political parties are resurfacing with renewed lies and dreams, the kind of we have heard since 1994. Just this week one well known political migrator Frank MwenIfumbo was unveiled by the decayed Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) in Mzuzu as its new catch from parliament. This is a regional family party that had around 40 MPs in its glory days of Chakufwa Chihana but has been was swallowed by bigger fishes and its influence never went beyond Jenda roadblock. Some bigwigs in UDF still think they have something to trade for the people of Mangochi and Machinga following their greedy marriage with DPP. This club of amateur politicians still thinks it basks in the glory of Atcheya, that guy who brought to Malawians the Mutharika dynasty after overlooking the likes of Aleke Banda, Malewezi, Harry Thompson, Mpinganjira, among other UDF Kahunas in a bid of dreaming ruling from pakaliyala. Amangwetu, UDF should be applauded for one thing; limiting the number of contestants who would potentially take MCP votes in the Eastern region. The other group with a clout to be called a party is PP, and its members are scattered like sheep without a shepherd, searching for very greener pastures, Msonda and Kutsaira fits anywhere on this bill. PP lost the plot with cashgate, bedgate, and miyala yamaziko imaikidwa daily. This party will never recover from ICU. Nowadays, its few noisemakers are being harassed with all sorts of misdemeanors, Salima mouth spin “Doctor” Uladi Mussa is alleged to be involved in passport syndicate, Kamlepo is wanted by MRA because he bought cars without duty, JB’s sister co-authored Chilima’s resignation letter, and the mother of the party herself uses a corrupt deodorant and is in hiding. That leaves Chakwera to go it alone and smoke out dissidents in his web.
It’s not surprising some DPP cadets are hiding in MCP, literary. After all the party has a very dark history which has over the years tainted any glimmer of hope that it will ever win a presidential election. With almost all old faces retired or dead, some forces are still at play and have tried hard to make MCP darker to accommodate those who want to be concealed and create doubts among voters. Every day we hear of infighting, suspensions, sackings, press briefings, among other nasty things, MBC does well to keep us informed on every sin. The party should have been quiet this time around, playing the lesser evil tag, and plotting their way to the elusive state house. Unfortunately it has allowed itself to be embroiled in muddy waters of tg to get rid of an outsider, Chakwera. It’s unfortunate because the poisoned chalice of Congress was made usable with the arrival of the Reverend in 2013; otherwise the party would have been in oblivion had it remained a puppet of the cunning JZU. The argument is that without Chakwera MCP is just as useless as the Nsanje “World Inland” Port. The witch-hunting that has seen key members like Kabwira, Jumbe and Njovuyalema being sidelined has not helped anyone. And the few paid up DPP members hiding in MCP, those same breed who lost a court case to force the party to hold an early convention, should be thoroughly uprooted. Not like it is going to happen. MCP especially Chakwera has failed to calm the waters. He should swallow his pride and invite JZU to mediate. This is the guy who commands the respect of almost anyone associated with the Tambala Wakuda. A vibrant opposition is good for this nation because it takes the government to task. Only someone with a dark heart and a sorcerer’s tongue like “puludzu” can shut the ex-district chairmen and remind them of the four party cornerstones. Without sounding like a paid apologist, the problems in all political parties in Malawi have far reaching consequences for a better economy, it’s the genesis of the mediocrity we are now used to because even if MCP inherits the government today, they will make the same mistakes their friends are doing.
So the price of sugar has hit the roof with smugglers holding out for K1000 per kg. Accordingly, the same packet is equivalently sold at an affordable K500 in Tanzania, and even lower when put on the shelves of Gauteng. In the name of protecting local manufactures, our governments sold SUCOMA to a South African company, and placed an embargo on foreign-made sugar which is very cheap. Paja Nyamilandu ndiwaku Illovo? We create our own mess. In a capitalist poor economy like Malawi, you need to allow competition whether foreign or domestic because there is no way the government can subsidize the price to reduce the number of us tikudya phala lopanda sugar. The small salaries an average Malawian makes per month is cannot sustain expenditure in the midst of higher prices to crucial items like sugar which is obviously an ingredient of numerous food products including kachasu. Flooding the market with competitive alternatives offers people a chance to sample different tastes and be able to budget. However, when only we let one company to dictate the wholesale price it creates panic when the item is in short supply. If we can persist with this, the government need to create a price cap like it does on fuel and maize- mbiyangambe zingadandaule kuti veremuti wakwera.
Have a great weekend folks.
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