Letter to the "Independents"

Dear Reader,

The past couple weeks have seen the absence of the blog owner with dominance from Guest bloggers (who in other words are just fellow lazy people who do not want to commit to having their own platforms despite possessing a good command of written English). This letter just comes as an announcement that I am still alive and kicking (can't say alive and well in this state for a couple of reasons).

There are a lot of excuses that I can give for my absence the first of which was the availability of the already written articles which I got on blog day two weeks ago. Couldn't leave those unpublished and being the lazy guy I am nowadays I could not get those published mid week. You see, reader, times have changed. Despite the whole thing, I got caught up in a couple of things; work, Independence celebrations, a flu, transfers, weddings and church stuff. I had long wanted to write a holiday special on the Independence day, but that couldn't work because of mentioned. Those of you who don't like too much of guest writers will pardon me although I am inclined to believe that the quality of the articles that were thrown on this page was beyond satisfactory. That thing by the Venomous one and then the article by the young medic. All that was just good and thought provoking.

To the independence celebrations....

There were people who were asking me as to why I did not write about the stampede at the Bingu Stadium. The whole thing got enough media coverage. I actually got to see it on the BBC the day after it happened and as such we didn't have to talk about it here. What has resurrected the buried issue on the blog is the way things have been handled by the "authorities" following the incident.

About a week ago I got to see a copy of a letter from the President of the Society of Medical Doctors to the office of the Oumbudsman. This letter was a call for thorough investigation into what led into the fracas and how best such incidents can be prevented. In my professional opinion, I think it was a drive towards improving the organization of such events and the importance of having medical teams on site in the cases of emergencies. In as much as we can talk about the late opening of the gates and the unnecessary use of teargas at the stadium, the whole thing of not having first responders on the scene might have in a way contributed to the casualties.

I digressed. We were talking about the response by the government. Rumor has it that the person who was responsible for managing the stadium (or something of the sort) has been transferred to Karonga. Transferred, dear reader. I know that some of might not have a problem this because we hear it a lot, but elsewhere when something half as messy happens, (even when the mess was not a direct responsibility of the one in charge) people either resign honorably or get fired. I have heard of a guy who once resigned as Minister of Energy after a 30 minute power failure in some corner of a city in South America. Here, dear reader, it's a different story. Things happen and people do not take responsibility. As if that is not enough, the best action authorities provide is that of transferring those responsible and giving them an equally heavy responsibility. That is the state of our nation at 53 years of "independence". I was told the officers who were manning the stadium were to be interrogated at the Police headquarters at Nankhaka this very day. I am not sure as to whether that has happened or not. The best thing we will hear is that those officers have been transferred to some Police unit in Dowa or Ntchisi or some place of the sort.

While there was fracas in what was meant to be a national celebration, Blantrye City Council pulled off a nice event in the celebration of the same Independence Day. I would say that this was one of the positives from the whole thing adding to the fact that there were national prayers and all. The BCC fireworks were staged at the Independence Arch, right in the middle of the Masauko Chipembere Highway, and in the middle of the night but other than a few people tripping and falling over there were no serious adverse events on site. The presence of the live bands, DJ and brass band coordinated by lively hosts made sure patrons had a continual supply of entertainment and the heavy presence of security personnel made it pretty comfortable to take selfie and make calls without the fear of having your phone snatched by some thug. People enjoyed responsibly with their families and went home with good accounts of the day. Organizers of events like these should probably borrow a leaf from Blantyre City Council along these lines.

Talking of the independence day itself, there was a lot of debate as to how relevant the day is. One outspoken Kelvin Sulugwe posted "Ufulu odzisaukira tokha" on his Facebook timeline, entailing that the freedom we have is the freedom to make ourselves poor as opposed to that of  self-governing.  While some may say that it was a harsh insinuation, it is also easy to point out that as a nation we are not truly independent in the areas of socioeconomic, cultural and political development. There are a lot of fields you could add to that. I will not waste time trying to justify why I said we are not truly independent. Dear Reader, dzuwa salodzerana. At the end of the day the government might as well be  justified in trimming the budget for the celebrations and not holding a "mega party" in celebration of what we don't really have (despite giving a different reason). Ndi zabwinobwino koma.

On the last but not least note, I have heard a lot of you pointing out the things that are wrong with this country and saying Malawi at 53 at the end. This has been our way of saying that at 53 years we ought to be doing things differently and in a better way. Each and everyone of us is aging and with growing up we need to be constantly improving in everything. If Richie turns to point a finger at the nation which has little to show at 53, he needs to have something to show at 24 lest he be called a hypocrite. This should be the new thinking for us who get nourished by the weekly perusal of Richie Online articles.

Enjoy your Friday and the rest of the weekend.

Yours alive,

Richie.