It is the last Friday of 2019 and we had to cap it off with an article despite being late for it. It has been a busy day and local man could hardly get the time for it. Well. Here he is at 20:46 hours, writing about the year thus gone while cooling himself with a cold one.
A couple of days ago, one human posted a WhatsApp status update prompting us to share what 2019 taught us. For some reason, I went on to write “parte after parte” after the popular song, titled Party after Party. My response was ignored for a very good reason, but the rude response didn’t mean I did not learn anything this year. In fact, I learnt one very important thing; moyo siophweka. If I am to put it in simple English, life is not straightforward.
Those of you know me in an up close and personal, you would know that I am that one person who like to get everything I want the way I want. Not getting it implies frustrations on my end and this year had been punctuated by little frustrations with little victories to dampen them out. All in all, I would say that this was a very good year because beyond my own little achievements I have seen my friends rise to the point where they are getting better livelihoods. Getting better jobs, getting married, having children, getting post-graduate admissions, graduating with all sorts of papers, quitting (and starting for others) alcohol and everything else that can be celebrated.
I will share a little recap of the year for me as that could give me a very good ground for setting pace for the article. This year I changed houses twice. I will let you think of whether that was good or not. At the end of this year, I have made a decision I never would have imagined a couple of years back; I will be hanging up the stethoscope for good to nosedive into the jungle of research. This, however is something that has just popped out. For those of you who follow these scribblings, you will know of the article in which I mentioned that on a day like this, last year I posted the three things that I would want to do in 2019; quit alcohol, lose weight and get married. If you have been following what I wrote in the first paragraph, you could note that I have miserably failed on the first one; with an explanation. I feel a bit fat from all the Christmas eating, but I think that can be sorted after the festivities. Let us take a minute to discuss the more important issue of getting married, though.
Of course I did not mean that I wanted to get married in its literal sense when I made that post. You do not start a year and get married before it ends, in my view, unless otherwise. I will leave you to imagine the “otherwise” part. The bare minimum I wanted was to get someone I can marry in 2023. I have come to realize that I have miserably failed in that because with a few days remaining in the year, there are days that pass without me getting a phone call or the important “I wanted to check on you” text from a potential suitor. I was about to start complaining about this but I was silenced by people who have since pointed out that I am not very good with communicating my feelings with others and so I might remain single for the next five years if I do not put a whole lot of effort in my social endeavors. That brings us to the first class I had along the moyo siophweka lines.
Communication is not as straightforward as some of us might think. You might think you are sending a perfect message that will be perfectly decoded in the same way you packaged it in your frontal cortex. For some reason, that same message may be perceived in its perfect opposite sense at the point of reception. I have had struggles with this issue both as a sender and recipient of communications this year. At some point, I found myself looking at some people as “not-so-friendly” humans only to understand what their raised voices meant well… but months later. I have sent hostile messages to people, showing them the exit door from my life only to see them coming back with an irresistible smile. Then there is the painful part; trying to be chocolate nice to people only to be perceived as someone who doesn’t care.
Then there is the issue of interpersonal relationships. The complexity of the interaction between two people is already interesting. Add a third on to the mix, it reaches gargantuan proportions. Some of you might relate to this thing that you have friends that leave when your other friends leave. That is why we have this whole term; anzawo a anzathu. Friends of our friends. I am not saying that you need to make friends with all the friends of your friends, but they do not need to be enemies. This year of ruin, 2019, left me in a situation where I ended up being out of favor with some of my friends for siding with others and this messed up some of my most important relationships. At the end of the day, you tend to wonder whether you could have done something differently, but life has to go on, anyway.
Under the same issue of interpersonal relationships is the issue of personal expectations from friends. I have seen people go out of their waters to help me when I least expected it and when I thought I did not deserve it. I have also seen people not come through on what I expected from them despite a serial lowering of my personal expectations from people. Great expectations create frustrated men, they said. You have to believe that to a greater extent. Nkhani ija ndiyoona. I am pretty sure I have been on both ends of the spectrum on this one too; been on the side of not meeting expectations for some and been on the overkill for others. I guess such is life.
There is this other issue of managing finances> I am not too sure how others manage to work this out but somehow this seems to be something that is very difficult to juggle. Others have written that the natural instinct of a human is to increase spending once income increases. It gets to be surprising that someone who knows this and is supposedly equipped with the mind tools to counter the same would happen to be struggling. I seriously need tips on this from those of you who have mastered the art of financial management. Books are welcome.
Having said all that, the lesson that life is not as straightforward as we would want it to be will go a long way in helping me plan my accidents and expect surprises from all angles of life. Having sat down to reflect on all this, I have come to the conclusion that I will leave the new decade to manage itself with its twists, curls and turns. No fancy plans about life other than the regular things. It is about going to work, church and repeating; fitting the gym and the pub in the mix wherever necessary. Friends? Well. Let’s see who will be there and who will not. And of course, who we will be there for and who not. No deliberate efforts to cut out people. I mean, it might be a new year and new decade but I don’t think there will be much of a change in everything else. Nonetheless, those of you who would like to make “calendar-based” changes for the better, are welcome to do so.
Friday, 27 December 2019
Friday, 20 December 2019
Chronicles of a Loaner
A wonderful Friday.
It has been some time since I came on this platform to write
about something. Part of it might be because I lost the motivation and drive
for writing. That is a story for another day but I will tell you what motivated
me to write this time.
Apart from the fact that I am a victim of people who take my
little money in the name of borrowing, with no intention whatsoever of giving
it back, I wanted to write because of two people who unintentionally played the
guilt card on me. Akuti for being silent on the blog. One of these humans
happens to be a known keen follower who has a bad habit of replying with the letter
“x” (apparently that is shorthand for “thanks”, she tells me). She jumped on me
all guns blazing last night asking me why I have been silent before following
it up with that it would take for me to get back to my keypad warrior ways.
Turns out that the answer was “nothing” but I am back here, anyway.
When I was gallivanting later in the night I met this
wonderful human being who I learnt was a keen follower of what happens on Richie
Online. Now, I happen to meet secret followers once in a while but this one was
a bit of a surprise. Turns out he checks out the blog each and every Friday as
he doesn’t get the links from me. I actually did not have his number until last
night. Now that one chat with Phil was enough to make me retire from retirement
and talk about all of you who get other people’s money without having the
decency of paying back.
In 2019, many consider Facebook as an obsolete social media
site with a preference to Twitter for banters, Instagram for pictures and
WhatsApp for chats. Nevertheless, Facebook has remained popular for some of us
because of one thing; groups. Prior to the 2014 general elections, a group
called My Malawi My Views rose to popularity. It died a natural death after
some time and it was succeeded by a number of groups which did not blow up like
it did. In recent days, however, we saw a group called Stress Free Malawi come
to the limelight. Now, if you are on Facebook and you like a good laugh, this
is one group to check out. There will be those ones who will not joke without
offending someone but hey, it is fun on the most part. Stress Free Malawi has
endured a test of time but lately we have seen a utilitarian group that has the
potential of displacing it as the most popular Facebook group in the land; Bwalo
Loitanitsira Ngongole.
You may not be there but I think from the name you get the
idea. If someone owes you something and they are not paying back, you post them
there and tell them to pay back. I am wondering whether the group will be
achieving its primary objective of helping people to recover their monies. At
best, I think it is just a naming and shaming group and at worst I think it is
pretty much the same.
The Malawi social media circus has its own heavyweights. If
you go to Facebook, for example, you have people whose opinions are highly
regarded. Talk of the Kelvin Sulugwes, the Thandie wa Pulimuheyas and the Henry
Kachajes, these are people who have a huge following with lots of comments and
shares to their posts. And then there is the Twitter Malawi community which has
its own popular humans. One person of interest in this whole thing of this
forum for calling out people who owe us money is one Nyamalikiti Nthiwatiwa. If
you follow local poetry, this is the man behind the popular dziko liri mmanja mwa
agalu poem. He is also an adept director of ceremonies and writer. On the inception
of the group, Nyamalikiti wrote a long post on why he agreed with the whole
thing of calling out names of people who have no remorse when they owe others
money. He argued that the fact that people lend out money to friends does not
actually mean that they have it in excess but rather that they care. If we do
not give back, he said, we end up jeopardizing the plans that others have with
their money. He concluded with saying that calling out to such people is
necessary. Well. That was a strong opinion spiced with facts.
In the course of the year, I have had people come to me to
ask for some soft loans in the same way I have asked for the same from friends
when things got tough. It is supposed to be simple. You get a few thousand
kwachas from a friend and once you get back on your feet financially, you
repay. For some reason, this has been a problem with a lot of people (even with
me once, although I actually told the person I was not going to give back her
30k easily). People would actually get your money, give you a day when they are
going to give back, then not return it. Some would have the courtesy of giving you
an excuse but others would just go silent.
The excuses? I did not get the payment I was expecting. I
had another emergency. Tikuonanibe, and the list goes on. I understand that
there are times that people find it hard to return money because they are in
financial trouble but on the other hand what I have learnt is that there are
some people who just don’t have the umunthu for this. Examples. Some guy pops
up in your WhatsApp asking for some 100k and says he is going to return it at
the end of the month. It is the fifth month of the year and the sixth and
seventh go without him returning the money. And what does he do in the eighth
month? Ask you for another 50k which he supposedly plans to return along with
the 100 at the end of that month. I understand some of you can relate with this
kind of experience. It was not surprising, then that someone came up with a
saying that in Africa, when you borrow your friend money, you end up losing
both the money and friendship. I have a few friends who are Pentecostal ministers
and I have seen them write warnings about “kuwabwereka ndalama abale a mu
mpingo”. To them, it is a bit safer to loan out money to a “non-believer”.
Despite the bad experiences I have had with people who are
keeping ti ma 5 pin tanga, I have had some good experiences with people who
owe me money too. Talk of this family that somehow ended up owing me a lot.
They ended up giving me assurances that they will give me as soon as they are
able to get it. Knowing how much of a financial struggle they were in, I
decided to keep away from pushing for the money. Guess what happens? Each and
every time they find a little something they give me a call and ask me to pass
by to collect. At the rate they are going, it is going to take a year and ten
installments, but I will at least get my money back. This is the kind of umunthu
that we need to have from 2019 moving on.
So… People are not giving back what they owe. What have I resolved,
then? Simple solutions. For those who took mteleshede and never gave back, they
will never get any loans from me. They do come back, anyway and even when I
have some to spare, I don’t feel the drive to help. Unfortunately, these other people
have hurt me and I will have to bleed on others… if you know what I mean. I also
fall for the temptation of not giving back, so I will restrain myself from
borrowing. Kupewa maudanitu. Perhaps I should make use of the group and call
out the annoying people who are not showing any signs of willingness to give
back my money.
All this being said, we all fall into financial hurdles and
we need help from others. Timabwereka ndithu. We all do it. Let us have it in
us to give back what we owe others. Tisamadane chifukwa cha ngongole, hetini? Not giving back money you owe someone, to me, amounts to stealing. On that note, amene ndikusungira zake tionane kuseriku.
Friday, 15 November 2019
You are what you Read. Or are you?
It is a Friday. A cold Friday, or so I think. If it is not,
I am probably harboring some unwanted bacteria and viruses which are making me
feel funny today. Nevertheless, I dragged myself to work for a number of
reasons and having found a bit of a breather, I have found myself writing this
post. Again, for a number of reasons.
In recent days and weeks, I almost made a resolution to
abandon this blog and stop writing because I felt like it was hardly of any
benefit. The readership has dropped drastically from the peak of over 150 views
per article to a very miserable number I will not mention. If you have been
reading, you would understand that a drop in the number of hits on an article
is not enough to keep my fingers on the keypad considering how busy my brain
can get at the end of the week. That brings us to the actual reason I wanted to
do this. I have always used the blog as a hole in my brain; a vent through which
thoughts, toxic and “non-toxic” alike would go through, nourishing others with
wisdom on a rare occasion. Venting out my frustrations and sorrows through
writing used to feel good, but of late I have lost the urge to do the same.
I spent the last two weeks in which I was absent from the
scene thinking of writing an article aimed at disseminating the results of my
abandoned social experiment. I however did not write it because I felt like I
had not built up enough anger that would make the words come out in the best of
arrangements. After a bit of introspection, I realized that the reason the
anger did not come in was that it was not necessary in the first place. There
we go, then. The results of the abandoned social experiment will never go to the
masses and that will be three weeks of research wasted. That is not important,
but the main point is just that I have lost the urge to vent. For a number of
reasons.
The place I work in has a health and safety team that
advises us on a number of issues that range from how to sneeze in the cold
weather to how to extinguish a fire. My favorite from them is the advice on how
we should not remain seated on the desk for too long, and how we should walk
about in the office space in what they call health breaks. Naturally, I am the
kind of person that can hardly remain seated in one place for more than an
hour. Luckily, I am a Catholic and our mass service provides a bit of room for
standing and kneeling which means I do not have to sit still through all the
three hours of a high mass. At work, health breaks mean I can disturb a bunch
of friends. On one of those episodes, last week something caught my attention
when I visited a friend’s desk. He has a book with a title that suggested that
we are what we read. Now that was something, because someone suggested that we
are what we eat in those years. I am thinking that the contexts of these might
be different, so I will let it slide and focus on humans being what they read.
I have always been a fan of reading. This, I think was sparked
by the opening of a library at our primary school back in 2002. Now, this was
not your typical urban primary school. This was a pure rural school that people
liked to call Kapeya after the village in which it was built. Having a library
there was pretty exciting and I began to read books on a whole lot of different
topics; human geography books that described the lives of Eskimos in detail and
the growing of rubber in Malaysia, fictional books, science books, life skills
and pretty much anything people have been insane enough to put into a book.
Just not poetry, though.
My reading culture continued when I crossed over to St
Patrick’s, Mzedi. The place had a library which was stocked with books from old
curricula along with a load of magazines and other books that had little if
anything to do with school. In those days, they used to allocate periods for
library reading on the time table and that was our time to enjoy the comic
series “Tales from the Trigan Empire” from the nicely bound “Look and Learn”
Magazines. Useless things, but we enjoyed them, anyway. And then we had the stories
from the Step Ahead English language books that we had. By the time I was in my
third term I had finished reading all the stories in all the books in the
series. The other reads on the menu were the magazines from what we called the
Chaplain’s library, a small library full of religious material (ironically one
Harry Chikasamba was librarian in this one; if you know him, you know). Point?
I continued to read widely in secondary school.
The reading culture was thrown under the bus when I joined
the medical school. There the only non-academic thing I allowed myself to read
was a text from my girlfriend but otherwise it was all anatomy, physiology, medicine,
proctology, ophthalmology and things of that sort. But then college went and
once again I was at it.
Having known a lot of people who were sitting under
motivational speakers or were motivational speakers themselves, I had a lot of “good
books” pass through my recommendation basket. I managed to read through a few
of them and I liked the idea of reading about personal goal setting and
financial planning. Guess what I liked more? Watching a movie and then going on
to read a 300-page book about it. Over the years post-graduation, I have read a
few books many of which have little to do with my work in clinical research and
I think that is what makes reading fun. It reminds me of how I, at some point
found myself reading about the murder at Sarajevo when I had a French exam on
the next day and history wasn’t part of my subject list. I can be that careless
with what I read.
My current research job demands that I stay up to date by
reading the latest in the world of research. I have no issues with that and I
pick up papers on what I could call a good interval. On the other hand, I find
myself enjoying reading the Donald Trump Presidential Twitter Library (by Trevor
Noah) or the World According to Clarkson. That sort of material can be
captivating to read, if you know what I mean. That bring me to the other reason
I read that widely. One person once mentioned that a person who never reads
loses his ability to write and I think that is a vital point. I need to write
so I need to read.
I was talking about how I wanted to drop this article of feeding
a few readers with articles. Well. I got three reminders from people who were
very eager to read what was going on through my mind today. They probably
thought I was going to write about Suleiman or Mtambo, but those issues are too
topical for me. I may not like to vent anymore, but I sure like to keep my writings
more personal than topical. Here I am, writing article that will probably add
no value to the two ladies and one gentleman who pestered me for it.
My ladies, my lord. You are what you read. Is this article
worth it? Were your hostile text messages worth it?
All in all, the last thing I could say is that we all need to develop a reading culture. And if the "you are what you read" statement is anything to go by, you need to choose your books wisely... and follow this link.
Have a Cypress weekend, everyone.
Friday, 25 October 2019
From my Memories: Frozy
Greetings.
It feels good to get back to writing ways after a week of
absence. The circumstances that kept me from swinging the pen have been dealt with
and I am back now. My only worry is that this article may not have the
patronage it needs as I will not be able to share it on usual platform namely
WhatsApp. Again, I have dealt with the reasons I am not on WhatsApp currently
and my absence on the popular social network is just a matter of choice. It is
good to take breaks from some social platforms, however inconvenient that may
be.
I happened to be looking at my social feed earlier today.
For some reason, Facebook has decided to give us an opportunity to revisit our
memories from way back by recycling our posts. Probably one of the nicest
features and one of the reasons I still find FB relevant to date.
So… What did I see? You are probably cooling down with a
Fanta or Thumbs Up as you are reading this but you might remember the time that
one drink took the market by storm. Yeah. Frozy. It was in 2016 when the drink
made its debut on the market and quickly dislodged the traditional soft drinks
as the best-selling drink. The reasons were simple, really. “Fulo” was an
affordable drink which made it relatable to many. Who doesn’t like a cheap
drink? And then there was the packaging. A nice 500 ml plastic bottle which
could easily be reused to package a good dose of thobwa. The distribution?
Well. It was as easy and straightforward as it could get. People could easily
import it from Mozambique through whichever border and supply to vendors at
their local trading center. Just like that and people from all walks of life
were able to enjoy a nice drink from or neighbor in different flavors.
For some time, I had been skeptical to take the drink. My
first time with it came when I met one Joe Wire (also known as Dr Joseph
Mkandawire or Bambo Mkandawire) who was visiting a lonely soul in Lunzu. This
was the time when we were transitioning from being medical students to being doctors.
Long boring “holiday”, that was. Joe, for some reason was feeling hot after a
long walk in the October sun and he couldn’t resist the urge to buy the two of
us “Frozy wa green”. If my memory serves me right, he did not finish his drink
and he ended up giving half of it to a kid who was passing by. For security
reasons, I will not mention what happened to mine. Long story short, I managed
to have a taste of the drink.
I was talking about what I saw on my Facebook memories feed
this morning. Pepani, but I just had to introduce the issue before talking about
the memories. I will continue digressing so that the memories can tie it all together.
Shortly after the introduction of this Mozambican drink on the market, there
were calls by the Malawi Bureau of Standards to ban it. Issues? Incorrect
labelling and unsafe quantities of citric acid in the drink. Sounds familiar,
right? Same here. Following the ban, MBS instructed all wholesalers and
retailers to declare the amount of the drink in their custody for collection
and proper disposal. Having known the trail from the manufacturer to the user,
I doubted there were any people who made such declarations and that there was a
single bottle of Frozy that was disposed through the bureau.
Following the ban, many took it to the social media to
express their anger; the first group towards the ban of the drinks and the
second towards the first group. The reason this came out for me is that there
were three people from three different professions that commented on the drinks
issue. Everyone drinks, anyway.
I will start with the programmer (or systems developer, as
he may like to identify himself). He argued that the whole ban was a joke. In
his view, MBS is not accredited on the international scene and had no say on
such a thing as a Mozambican drink. Whether that line of reasoning was right or
not should be left for another day, but to add some humor to it, he went on to
say that what the bureau had done was more like an ugly guy calling an ugly
girl ugly. Whatever that means. Hypocrisy, maybe.
Then came the other two who were in support of the ban,
first the journalist (who I am told is on his way to the bar (judiciary thing,
eti?) He came in and drummed support for the bureau of standards arguing that
the guys are the ones who have been protecting us from substandard foods all
along; and that if they said there was something wrong with the drink, then
there was something wrong. He went on to say that if we needed some soft
drinks, we could go on and buy the Fanta we had all been drinking for the past
few “centuries”. To finish off, he called on MBS to ban Manica and Impala alcohol
brands from Mozambique. We cannot be sure as to whether he was sober when
drafting the post or whether he would own it to date, but he wrote what he
wrote and somehow it made sense. We can argue as to whether MBS really protect
us this evening when ESCOM loan us back the power we deserve.
The most relevant person to comment on this happened to be a
nutritionist and ironically it happened to be the shortest of them all. In his
two sentences, he talked of how MBS was only there to protect the lives of Malawians.
He concluded by lamenting on how Malawians failed to grasp a thing or two about
something as simple as food standards.
Despite some noises (there were no demonstrations and
petitions, then), the ban remained sustained and the drink was taken off the
market. People made video clips that showed them mourning the demise of Frozy,
but that was all. Carlsberg Malawi raised the prices of soft drinks but with no
competing Mozambicans sales remained relatively stable. It was later in February,
2017 that the ban on the drink was lifted, probably following adjustments to
the labelling and citric acid content. The drink, however, did not bounce back
with the same momentum it had initially come with on the market initially. That
was probably due to the love of citric acid and other harmful chemicals in
beverages by the local Malawians.
From my memories, I brought you a story of the politics and
safety surrounding food and other products on the Malawian market. If you
follow the activities of the bureau, you could also talk about the issue of selective
application of regulations. I will not talk about that but this sort of relates
to the last article on facts and opinions. It also related to the many times
that I have used this pulpit to preach standards. Eeetu. Probably the most
lesson deficient article in recent memory, but it has its own relevance.
Looking at a couple of online articles I have learnt a few things on business,
regulation, politics and safety. I cannot share those but I will leave it to
you to figure them out.
Have a lovely weekend and for the few of you that will get
this article through whichever means, do share it with others.
From the stone age (where there is no WhatsApp), I bring you
dear reader… Frozy!
Friday, 11 October 2019
Of Opinions and Facts
It is another wonderful Friday and once again I had to put
something together. I have to be honest with you that I had to force myself to
put this together because of the surrounding negative energy. It is kind of
hard to think of writing something positive when some things are not moving the
direction you want them to move and when people are butchering each other in
the streets. Nevertheless, I will use the remaining of my energy to shine a
light on the darkness that is engulfing our country.
The papers and online news outlets are awash with news that
members of parliament have passed the national budget that is pegged at around
MK1.7 trillion. There were congratulatory messages extended to the members of
parliament for passing the budget. I had my reservations when I heard the whole
issue of the passing of the budget. In my view, this was just another effortless
activity in which more than half the people who were involved rubberstamped a
document, implications of which they do not understand.
A day before the passing of the budget, I had passed by my
friend’s desk at work and found him looking through the health budget. When I
stopped by, he started highlighting sections of the health budget statement
that he considered dodgy; the military hospital, referral hospital in Balaka,
purchase of ambulances, the completion of Phalombe district hospital and a few
other votes. At the end of the day, I found myself patting me in the back for
having not opened the budget statement which remains gathering dust in some
folder in my computer; awaiting some general cleaning day when it will be
deleted along with other documents that will be considered obsolete at the
time.
Back to the issue of the passing of the national budget, I
found myself wondering later last night, as to whether it was normal for me to
have such resentment towards the passing of the budget. I mean, it is the
national budget and that is what will fund state activities. It shouldn’t be
held up that much and if anything, we should all be happy when it passes because
only then will my parents who happen to be civil servants get paid. I found
myself lacking the euphoria or neutrality that should come with the passing of
the budget as I generally think that the debating of such a statement is
cosmetic and hardly keeps the budget proposed by the authorities responsible in
check.
Then there was the issue of the police officer who died in
the line of duty while controlling rioting crowds at Msundwe in Lilongwe. Now
this was an issue of people who closed the roads off, supposedly in a bid to
block DPP supporters from going to the rally by HE at Kamuzu institute of
sports. Worth mentioning is that on top of that, the Msundwe brigade as they
are also called started to ask for money from passing motorists, creating panic.
This is when the police stepped in to disperse the “demonstrators”.
When the pictures of the gruesomely murdered policeman,
comments started to fly around in the social media. That was to be expected,
anyway. We like to comment on things as they happen. The general observation,
however was that every comment that came seems to be colored with less of
humanity and more of political colors; or so some people thought.
The first to comment were those who thought that murdering
police officers was not a good thing and we need to tone down and cut down the
violence. It was the logical thing to say and life is sacred, after all. I was absorbed
in the same thoughts, wondering what this police officer had done despite wearing
his uniform and discharging his official duty, to earn him the gruesome death
when I read some comments on comments. For some reason, others thought
condemning the violence amounted to being a blue-eyed cadet. You did not condemn
violence when it happened Blantyre, they said with little to no evidence of the
same. You beat us when we were demonstrating and we are revenging, they added.
This was said as if the commentators were the police who had beaten them (not
sure under which banner they were speaking).
The people who were speaking against the condemnation of
violence started arguments of their own. The backed themselves saying that they
had been provoked in their backyard and they had the right to retaliate. From
the comments, the people seemed to be pro-opposition and HRDC.
Over the past few days, we have seen different political
leaders from the civil society and political parties condemns the violence that
was orchestrated by what has been dubbed as the Msundwe brigade. The president spoke
against it and his sentiments were echoed by the two major opposition parties,
the MCP and the UTM. The organization that has been leading the anti-Jane Ansah
demonstrations, the HRDC also came out to condemn the violence and rightly so.
Naturally, some might think that the president condemned the
violence because it was his children, ana adadi that were attacked (might be
true considering the silence that was from the ruling party when a reverse feat
happened) but the fact that opposition and civil society added their voice to
this should speak a lot to anyone who has a few ounces of brain left in them;
or so I think. The issue that violence is no way of sorting differences is not
one we should be debating on. What I am wondering is why we have sunk so low to
let tribal and party lines divide us to an extent that we cannot think about
the sanctity of human life. Perhaps one thing we might have forgotten is that
the police officer who was injured was a father, brother, husband and son to
someone. He had a life and dependents whose lives will never be the same,
thanks to the loss of his.
I understand that I might have had an extreme opinion on the
passing of the budget in the same way that people have theirs on the violence
that is in the country. In some of the articles I wrote, I tried as much as I
could to remain neutral over certain issues like the fees hike in public
universities. In those times, people used to come to me after reading, just to
ask me to pick a side. I would always chicken out and tell them that I was
neutral. Lately, I have learnt that being neutral is an abstract and almost
non-existent concept. Most times when I said I was neutral I was just trying to
keep my views to myself for different reasons. On the other hand, opinions need
to be guided by reason and a bit of facts to avoid extremism that condones
things like violence.
In as far as we live in this country and on this rock, we
will always have differing opinions. We should, however keep our thoughts in
check and respect the affiliations and opinions of others. What we have seen
over the past few months is political and tribal intolerance of the highest
order and if this is left unchecked we might be in for worse.
There have been questions on who the root cause of whatever is
happening is. Some would point to the opposition for not accepting the results.
Others would point to Jane Ansah for mishandling the elections and refusing to
resign following the post-election fracas. And then there are those who would
point to the president for not providing the much needed leadership out of this
mess and not extending an olive branch. Perhaps that was why one Major Prophet
Shepherd Bushiri called for calm and acceptance of the outcome of the court
case. Akukudziwani kuti mulibe khalidwe anthu ake inu and you will let your
opinion of what should have happened in court come at the expense of national
peace.
All in all, we are entitled to opinions but we should try to
keep them in check.
Been a rough week and I am glad we are going into the
weekend. I am told there is something happening at Jacaranda Cultural Centre
and that that the Black Missionaries are performing at Namacha Village. Perhaps
those will be good places to empty the negative energy after work and church.
Have a lovely weekend. And if you have time do visit the
author over the weekend. Nane ndimafuna kuyenderedwa. Zikomo.
Friday, 4 October 2019
The Journey Thus Far
Milestone Friday! Well. We can call it that because when I
pasted the link wherever you got it from, I was, for the 200th time
sharing a link to the content of this blog. I obviously did not author with
some crazy humans like the Venomous Hope coming onto my podium and accusing me
of being a weed smoker. And then there was that time I punched the blog open
and allowed an influx of opinions on the termination of pregnancy bill. All
in all, the blog has seen a lot of articles from different writers who have
flowed with and propelled the vision.
I, last week mentioned that the blog started out as a pulpit
but due to metamorphosis of sorts it ended up as a bleeding towel for wiping
different sorts of opinions oozing from my punctured brain. What developed from
that swollen brain was a blog with different articles on health, sports, music,
life, rumors, politics and my favorite topic of romance and relationships which
people have dubbed “the Richie Online Love Curriculum”.
I have on a couple of times attempted to make a vote on what
people’s favorite article was on Richie Online. Those attempts have been met
with a rather rude voter apathy but from the few who managed to voice out,
people fell in love with the Chronicles of a Traveler. That came in as a
surprise as this was just a tired man’s reflection of the poverty he had seen
travelling across the southern and central Malawi in the name of helping World
Vision International in their monitoring and evaluation efforts. This would
later come to prove one Nkhwachi Mhango’s point. In his opinion (and I might
have mentioned this before), my articles come out interesting when I am writing
more of what is on my mind than commenting on the topical issues around. Fair
point, I think.
I have had varied audiences on Richie Online depending on
the way of advertising. You have to understand that this blog started out in
2012, three years before WhatsApp became a thing (or before I joined WhatsApp).
By then, the best way of throwing the wisdom to the masses was through
Facebook. Tagging was a thing then, but before the confidence kicked in, I
could not just tag forty plus people in a post with the Richie Online link on
it. Perhaps the other thought was just that others couldn’t understand the
content. Then there came WhatsApp and it came with the feature of a broadcast
list. I got trigger happy and immediately added 200 of the 1000 plus contacts
on the Richie Online broadcast; shortly before being told off by a few.
Somehow, others managed to ask me on how they could get on the list and the
readership stabilized at around two hundred. A few lost phones and contacts
later, I found myself committed to only half that number, but here we are.
On the dashboard or admin panel of the blogger website where
I post the articles, I am privileged to see data on when I had the most views
and which article had the most views or comments. From a quick peep, Richie
Online enjoyed the most readership in 2017 with articles getting an average of
250 views compared to the later day 60 to 70. The interesting thing I noted is
that the least viewed article is one titled the Intolerability of Intolerance with only 12 views! What a waste of good wisdom by the readership. The most
viewed article, however, with a whooping 1400+ views is none other than the 21st Century Paradox of Sex. Now that says about you readers and who you have in
your circles. I might get back to that later.
Through the years of writing on this blog, I have tried to
be neutral about pretty much everything. What I have learnt while at it is that
neutrality and impartiality are somehow abstract concepts and it is very hard
to be neutral. This has been demonstrated by the “attacks” I have made on the
ruling elite which led to warning from well-wishers within the readership and
the backing of the same which led to heavily critical responses from the likes
of Joram Nyirongo (one unreasonable guy who writes a column called Mufupika’s
Calabash in the Sunday Times). His point? I was being too soft on el
presidente, hence I am blue blooded.
If you were to ask me as to what I have been doing with this
blog, what I would tell you is that I have been blowing off steam. On the other
hand, when I was not venting out anger and stepping on people’s toes what I was
doing was to share some opinions on what I thought life ought to be lived like.
Now this was not me prescribing a certain set of rules for everyone to go by
like I was doing with hydrochlorothiazide pills in my doctor days. It was me
dishing out facts and throwing out my opinions from the facts hence the motto
of this blog, fact-based opinions. Ndi inayake basi.
The fact that this blog has been a therapeutic tool cannot
be overemphasized. Following the loss of one person I was very close to, I
dropped an article and the few people who had been following what had been
going on quickly picked up the grief in the article and told me they hoped
writing about the ordeal helped with my healing. It did. Perhaps, however, what
these people did not recognize is how much of my troubled life was reflected in
all the articles that came in the Richie Online Love Curriculum and Valentine’s
Day Supplements. One human somehow caught me after his perusal of what is one
of my personal favorites on the blog; relationship politics. While others came
to me to ask if I was writing with reference to the events happening in their
lives, this guy messaged me wondering why I had put my whole life story into
such an article. Such is the beauty of having this blog; it just has this
ability to have a unique sort of bidirectional conversation.
Away from all those things I have been doing, the blog has
been a good awareness and advocacy platform. Guest writers like Counsel Alex
Kamangila, activist and “loud mouth” Pemphero Mphande, Gray Stuff, the Venomous
Hope, Tadala Rambiki, Harry Chikasamba, Edward “TNO” Chikhwenda and many others
tackled and shed light on issues in a way never done before; a way I couldn’t
have done better. A big thank you everyone who put a pen to paper and gave
something to the Richie Online community. It feels good to sit back on some Frida
I would like to finish by expressing gratitude to all of the
faithful readers. Every time I write, I know that there is a whole host of
people who will go through the article without fail. Further to that, I know
that every time I do not write there would be a gang of people asking me as to
why there is no food on the Richie Online Friday table. Once the article has been shared, there are those fault finders who always come out pointing the grammatical errors in the article and there are those who share an article of their own relating to a similar subject. Your input has been
instrumental in keeping the blog alive. And then there are some of you who
share my articles on your statuses with the burning fire emoji. There wouldn’t
have been a better way of expressing your support and appreciation for the
effort that goes into this. Musainire alawansi tikamaliza apa.
We have reached a 200 and I do not think I will stop this
thing anytime soon. I will continue spitting whatever gets to wander in this troubled brain,
stepping on toes whenever necessary. Unsolicited life tips will continue coming
and I will continue to target people whose traits I do not like... in a diplomatic
way hopefully. I will have more crazy guest writers coming in and the controversial
topics will keep coming. Know why? I feel like I owe it to you, the people who
made me push to a 200.
And… can we do a Richie Online chat tonight? Kukhala
makombola.
If you are interested, mail me. I will send you the
coordinates.
Thanks for being part of Richie Online.
And the other thing.... Can you stop calling me Richie Online when we meet in the streets? Zikomo
And the other thing.... Can you stop calling me Richie Online when we meet in the streets? Zikomo
Friday, 27 September 2019
One for the Process
It feels good to be back on this keypad typing the 199th
article on Richie Online. We have come far indeed and when I look back at how
the blog has evolved, I am pretty sure I never saw it coming this far.
For those of you that may not know, this started out as an "evangelization platform" – an actual pulpit, if you may. Then, thanks to some
metamorphosis (positive or negative, depending on how religious you are),
Richie Online turned into some sort of megaphone for communicating different
important issues and a bin for emptying madando when they were at the verge of
making my head burst. The thing is that creating and sustaining this platform
has been a joy ride and I have enjoyed every step of the way.
As we approach 200 articles on this blog, I am left with a
question on how I want this platform to be over the coming years. There have
been several suggestions along the way with others suggesting a divorce with
Google for a better platform at RicheOnline.com. Others have gone on to suggest
that I need to commercialize the talent by finding some space in one of the
weekly papers. From the financial perspective, finding a space in the papers sounds
more plausible but that may mean an end to these free pieces that we get to
enjoy weekly (well, not weekly). Perhaps I should get a Richie Online
reader-sponsored trip to Cape Maclear so that I can sit down on the sands
overlooking the clear waters of Cape Maclear. Perhaps a stint on Nthumbi Island
may help with the clarity.
Talking about visions for the future, we have at one point
dropped the “when I grow up I would like to be a policeman” line to the teacher
when we were in junior primary school. I remember blindly saying that I wanted
to be a doctor but that was before the exposure. In the midst of confusions on
ambitions and being bombarded with different career exposures and
opportunities, I ended up being a doctor. That was probably one of the toughest
six years of my life but it was through that process that I ended up being a
doctor. As junior doctors, we tend to have this feeling of being inadequate and
the hunger for more so you tend to hear people saying they would like to become
surgeons, opthalmologists, health economists, physicians, paediatricians,
proctologists and many other weird things that are hard to pronounce. I am in
the pool and I happen to have my own dreams. Looking back at the six years of
medical school, I know that if I am to get to where I want to be, I will have
to go through an equally gruesome process for me to be really good at what I
will be. That brings us to the topic of the day.
As young people (even old ones) we get to have our own
dreams and aspirations. We always have a trajectory which we want our lives to
take in the lines of career, family, finances and whatever else. No one would
like to live a life of a low standard and we all dream in color. I mean, going
back home to a mansion overlooking Chirimba down in Chapima Heights along with
a wife and two beautiful kids wouldn’t be bad. Asa young person, I have always
fallen into conversation with peers on hos we would like to have the best of
cars and houses just like other people have uniquely done in town. The thing
that has been lacking, however is the question of how the others have done it.
I was, last week privileged to attend a celebratory lecture
by Prof Henry Mwandumba, the Deputy Director of the Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome
Trust, the organization I am currently working with. He took us through his
story coming from early primary school through high school to tertiary
education and one thing that came out clear is how he went through a lot of
steps and processes, harnessing the opportunities as they came along. That, is
what I like to call the process of becoming and it is one thing that we need to
learn to accept and embrace if we are to become something.
I have highlighted the issue of career. Most times, we tend
to fantasize different career trajectories, admiring the people who are making
money from consultations in projects, law firms, managing grants, private
practice medics, chartered accountants, ana a Adadi and whoever else people
consider successful nowadays. That is not wrong but to complete the picture, we
need to pause and think about what those people may possibly have gone through
to achieve the current status. That always gives a good picture of the
feasibility of adapting oneself and creating similar paths to success.
It wouldn’t be me if I don’t drag the Richie Online Love
Curriculum into this. You may have seen some memes of beautiful couple with the
opening caption “this could have been us, but….” Around in the social media.
What those try to show are a sense of inadequacy in other relationships (and
perhaps the fact that some are just walking alone without partners/spouses). I
will not talk about picture perfect relationships as that has been discussed in
earlier articles so I will stick to the subject of the day. What we need to
realize is that the relationships you admire take a bit of effort to build. All
night texting until the phone heats up. The endless, hour-long phone calls.
Lots of gifts and spending a lot time together. There will be people who will
discouraging you from the start, telling you that what you are doing us a bit
of an overkill, but the one thing you have to remember is that things don’t
just come to perfection overnight. They need time and effort. Perhaps one thing
that is leading to a lot of breakups, divorces and failed relationships is the
lack of effort.
Another important aspect to include in this discussion is
leadership. As people, we belong to different institutions which require teams
of people to spearhead different operations for their day to day functions.
Getting to be in a leadership position may come as a matter of a simple
appointment or a vote but that is not without problems. Usually, people have
their own biases which affect their choice of leaders. That, then brings us to
the issue I earlier discussed in my article on leadership (well, probably)
regarding the process of becoming a leader. Cutting a long story short,
involves studying the goals of the organization or body you are heading and
having a vision of developing the organization and future leaders for the same.
All that cannot happen overnight and when we are vying for leadership positions
or choosing leaders, this is one quality we should be looking for; we need someone
who has gone through the process of being a leader.
We could apply the same reasoning of going through the
process to the fields of parenting, ministry (I have a couple of men of the
collar who read this), development and many other fields of life. Finances?
Perhaps I should add a bit more on this one. You may know the popular actor and
martial artist, Jackie Chan. According to reports I read (not sure how true,
but let us assume it is), Jackie Chan is not leaving any inheritance for his
child. Asked as to why, he was quoted saying that if his son is an able man, he
will make his own money – adding that if he is not able then there is no reason
as to why he should waste the money Jackie worked hard for. There is a
phenomenon we observe more often than not when rich people die leaving worth
for their children. Sometimes all the money and assets get blown away faster
than they were built and the children end up being broke. That, in my view
happens when the people end up with huge amounts of money without going through
the process of making money. No more explanations.
I could continue writing, but I guess I have communicated
and you have gotten the point having endured the article to this end. If you
have gone through the right ones of the past 198 articles, you might have
noticed that I am more of an outcome oriented than a process-oriented person. I
like to focus on the end as opposed to the means. That being said, the process
of becoming is also important ad that is why students need to study for the knowledge
and not for exams. Cheating? Non-starter.
One might wonder as to how different this article is from the call to action I wrote earlier. While acting is the bridge between a dream and
actualization, there is a need for the understanding of the processes involved.
That guides the action and keeps it focused. Eeetu.
I am taking suggestions on what we can do for the Richie
Online 200th article celebration next week. Lakeside party? Barbecue
in Naperi? T-shirts? A fun truck around the major cities, maybe?
Friday, 13 September 2019
Of Priorities, Means and Ends
It feels good to be back to my writing ways. The one Friday on
which I missed the opportunity to write feels like years. Perhaps some of you
would not understand as you think that writing these Friday pieces comes as a
burden. I would refer you to the first paragraph of the Venomous Hope’s article
in which he was trying to remind us how morally bankrupt we are as a nation. In
that paragraph, he quoted some human who once stated that what we do in writing
is to bleed our ideas on a piece of paper. I could not agree more because for
me, this sort of bleeding relieves me of some toxic thoughts. One main purpose of
this blog is to, therefore let out the bad energy. Before you stop reading,
however, I would like to point out that I am not writing to blow off steam.
Well. I might be, but it is not something that you should worry about.
Earlier today, I found myself talking to a guy who refers
himself to as the man without a face. That is pretty odd considering that he
has a proper face and he has not been known to hide it. The conversation? I was
trying to convince him to sign an online petition that is poised to stop the
Malawi Government from constructing two stadia for the country’s tow big teams.
Perhaps I should go on to state the obvious for those who do not follow current
affairs.
During the campaign period, el presidente surprised me when
in his whistle stop at Chirimba, he pointed out that he like Nyasa Big Bullets
and Mighty BeForward Wanderers. I found that a bit odd because one of the
reasons I am still not married is that I like one team and the ladies that
always catch my interest are fans of the other. Anyway, that might be an
exaggeration but we all know how much of a rivalry there is between the two
teams. In other words, it is technically impossible to love both teams; unless
of course, if you are a politician looking for votes in the presidential election
(I might come back to this). To demonstrated his true affection for the two
teams he loves the most, H.E. pledged to build a stadium for each team. Those
of us who hardly every take anything seriously dismissed it as political talk
but months down the line we are seeing the move gain the ground.
In the 2019/20 budget statement (which I have not yet read),
there is an allocation for the start of the construction of the said stadia. When
we talk about the budget, I hardly look at what is happening to taxes where.
The first thing I look at is how much has gone to the health budget and once I
see that it is south of 15 percent as prescribed by the Abuja Declaration, that
is bad budget. This is what I did to the current budget statement but the issue
of the building of sports arenas also caught my attention as it got me
wondering as to how we prioritize things in the Warm Heart of Africa.
As you would imagine, the idea of constructing sports arenas
for privately owned sports teams did not go well with some of us and a social
media backlash followed. Fans of the very teams that have received the
unmerited favor from the country’s leadership stood shaking their heads,
wondering why the government is building a stadium and not expanding maternity
services at Chavala Health Center or ensuring an uninterrupted supply of
aspirin at Ndunde Health Center. To them (or us), that was a minor issue being prioritized
and that is wrong.
While people were arguing in WhatsApp groups and discussing
in their offices, one human thought of a brilliant idea. He started an online
petition against the move to construct the stadia. The goal, as written on the
website is to collect 1000 signatures. For those of you who are not savvy with
how the collection of signatures works, you go on the website where the
petition is being hosted, sign up using your e mail and then click on the “sign
petition” button. I am not sure as to what happens with the signatures in such
cases here. What I saw early in my life was that when one Jeremy Clarkson was
fired by the BBC, one fan started an online petition which collected over a
million signatures. What they did, then was that they printed the petition and
the names of all signatories and marched to deliver the petition to BBC offices,
taking a tank to lead the way in the streets of London HRDC style. Despite the million
signatures, Mr Clarkson was never reinstated and he later joined Amazon.
One popular human in Malawian circles today happens to be
one Timothy Mtambo. He has been in the spotlight for leading demonstrations
that are calling for the resignation (or firing?) of the chair of the country’s
electoral body through the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (this word reminds me
of the Mgwirizano Coalition). Reason? The elections were not free and fair. A bunch
of demonstrations and millions of kwacha in damaged property later, a letter of
resignation from the Senior Counsel, Justice of Appeal is yet to be seen. The
President clearly stated that he was not going to fire her either. I am told
there are more demonstrations coming up but if I am to be honest, I am not too
optimistic that the demonstrations will breed the desired outcome.
You have spent some time reading this, but what am I trying to
communicate here? Sometimes it is good to discern between things that can be
changed using certain means and those that cannot. Someone posted a picture of
a sign on her WhatsApp earlier this week. The sign read “Give me Coffee to
change things that I cannot…. And wine to accept things I cannot”. In other
words, if you take the wine, changing things wouldn’t necessarily work. That is
the case with the so-called peaceful demonstrations and online petitions. A
case of bringing a knife to a gun fight.
Perhaps we should conclude. The first thing is that we
should not major minors and before we pay for DSTV we need to make sure that we
have food for the month. Izi zomanga ma stadium m’dziko mukusowa zinthu
zofunikirazi, musamazipange pakhomo panu. Further to that, you should learn to
discern. Pause and think about whether something can be changed or not. If you think
something can be changed, you need to think about how best it can be changed
before focusing your efforts on things that hardly have an effect. And oh….
Money and sex may not be the best ways of winning someone’s heart over. Just
had to run it for you.
Weekend yamaluzi iyi. Koma muona kuti mupanga bwanji.
Friday, 30 August 2019
A Morally Bankrupt Nation
by the Venomous Hope
A renowned journalist and Nobel Prize winner, Ernest
Hemingway, once said "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down
at a typewriter and bleed." And
when you're an avid reader of Richie Online you would agree that the proprietor
bleeds articles that should be considered in UNESCO's heritage archive. I
cannot speculate how he juggles between his regular job and being a scribe,
perhaps some first grade muti is involved. Therefore, returning as a
guest this week is both a privilege and a challenge as I have to at least get
close to his unusually very high standards. It's the reason I am still bleeding
beyond the stipulated deadline despite knowing all week that I will have to chip
in on this pulpit.
The challenge, herein, is that a lot has already been said
especially on the post-20 May Election hullabaloo, if you sway an argument to
the one side of the coin you risk the wrath of zealots who subscribe to the
other side. There's is no neutrality when talking about politics. You only have
to write and let the people decide your fate. In the words of Hemingway, ‘always
do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth
shut.' No wonder Hemingway ended up committing suicide.
Well,
suicide is not a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I would hope that
those whose eyes are fixed on the Constitution Court will accept their fate,
whatever it may be, without fast-tracking their days of going to hell. Remember
one former cabinet minister (MHSRIP) during that cash bleeding and very short
regime of Amayi? He had written in his suicide note that he was facing political
threats and was living in fear, and he thought of just finishing the job
himself. By the way why didn't anyone make some forensic inquiry to find out
about the nature of the threats? We are very good as a country in instituting
commissions of inquiry on every trivial problem that we can't make sense of, as
long as its results will be in will satisfy the political establishment of that
time. Godfrey Kamanya's fate needed similar soul searching. Of course, he had
just realized he had lost his parliamentary seat, but like every prominent
investigation in Malawi, the files were left on some police shelf to rot, well,
that is if they are still there with the spate of fires across the country. My
point is that we have a very serious problem that has paralyzed every sector.
It is
going to take a lot of political will, and of course a carton of paracetamol,
to accept the inevitable court decision. MCP and UTM are challenging the
results of Presidential Elections, and want the court to nullify and call for
fresh ones. We can't just think people will accept the court's decision and go
back to their everyday doings. If at all what we have seen with the Anti-Jane
Ansah demonstrations, the volume will be more blasting once the verdict is
delivered. People should be prepared that the verdict might be ugly for the
side they support and if that is the case they will have to accept. It will be
political suicide if both sides think they'll have it their way, knowing them
too well they probably all have prophets under their employ who have assured
them that gods will smiling for them.
It
is always important to seek God's help when disagreements are order of the day.
We have always seen religious leaders taking lead in the liberation struggle.
After all, we tend to mention it to anyone who cares that we belong to a God-fearing
nation. It stems from the fact that we have too many churches than are needed,
and countless prophets, muftis, apostles, and I can bet my mose, even
successors to Jesus Matiki. Our political history has quite a number of
paragraphs that these prominent men and women of God laid their hands on. The
famous 1992 Pastoral Letter that intensified the ouster of the real Ngwazi,
Public Affairs Committee’s deeds over years, the Gule Wamkulu leading the demos
in some parts of central region, and not forgetting one Levi Nyondo, whose
prayer was answered right away by Bingu at some point, are just a few of
examples of how we cannot completely sieve out religious traditions with
politicking. We needed more from religious leaders in this time than any other
time since in our history since independence. But when you go through a
political discourse over the last two months with regard to the role men God
have played you begin to question what’s in it for them. The stakes are high
and some have seen it as an opportunity to harvest for themselves.
Pastor Dr Jane Ansah is not wanted anywhere near MEC’s
offices, and probably some Pharisees want her out of this Judea altogether. This
bone of contention has led to some sponsored mediation between those that want
her head on the spike and those that splattered selfies with her on social
media platforms during victory banquets of DPP. Asofa from BCA Hill met HRDC leaders,
Chilima, Chakwera and also Mutharika (you need to be a very deep cover agent to
know his schedule these days). Clearly, he has failed to bring them all on one
table because just like the contesting opponents, Atcheya is also an interested
party. He has a lot to lose or gain albeit depending on whatever version the
court verdict will be. Then PAC entered the fray but the egos are just too big
to tune down, or more realistically, PAC is seen by most cadets and sympathizers
to be pro-opposition and hence not neutral.
Then we saw another alternative
PAC going under the eating name of Interfaith Forum for Peace, Justice and
Dialogue. The grouping consist of Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe (recently Board chair
for MERA), as its interim chair, CCAP’s Timothy Nyasulu, Bishop Brighton Malasa
who is barred by some of his Anglican parishes, and Sheikh Dinala Chabulika, a
prominent MBC analyst, just to mention a few (Google can give the list in a
blink). They said they strive to be exemplary in character, word and deed in
order to protect our nation. They will be ‘patriotic, peaceful, and prayerful,’
as part or the statement reads, ‘in order to achieve their objectives of bringing
peace in the country.’ There is also a line that they are “leaders of
integrity, impeccable standing and peace lovers in society...” Fumbi ndiwe
mwini.
Most critics think the grouping has been stamped in to
undermine the influence of PAC which arguably is in sympathy with the
activities of HRDC especially on the demos, to what end we will never know. The
fact, however, is that all these religious leaders have made a wrong approach.
The real issue is not about Jane Ansah, the demos have become more of a
struggle about life. I have seen people who have never even protested under
their roof come out to vent their anger in solidarity with HRDC. When you
compare the standard of life now than during 2014 we are worse off this time.
This kind of anger has been brewing over the years now because when you elect
people you expect some notable changes. The way they patronized campaign
rallies was clear indication that they will not accept anything that did not
reflect their votes.
The crust, herein
is that we need to dissect the needs of Malawians and focus more on what can
unite everyone. Right now, everyone’s focus is on the ConCourt and you cannot
invite people to come to the table to discuss the same. The fact that the demos
are riddled by violence is an indication of frustration against those in
leadership position for not doing more. Very few pious religious leaders are
taking part in these negotiations and, maybe most are saving their necks. A lot
of negativity has engulfed the religious stream to the extent that we cannot
rely them to provide a moral campus for this trying time. Just recently, one priest
was chased in Karonga by own parishioners for mismanaging funds. Of course, we
cannot generalize, but there is some kind of moral decay for all to see. The
loss of trust coupled with various social ills like lack of job opportunities
especially among the youth, high crime rate, Jane Ansah, high costs of food,
corruption and the first filling station in Neno since civilization. Those that
won the elections haven’t done anything apart from err commissioning warships
(I know what you’re thinking…). Perhaps if DPP had started working on some of
these issues maybe Malawians would have been a bit patient with the court case
and not throng to the streets.
As more reverends
like outspoken Viphya’s own Mzomera Ngwira are being declared bankrupt by the
courts, the nation is gaining ground in creating immoral citizens. In no time
very soon, we will see some men taking to the streets if their wives have
unusually reduced the amount of mitanda yansima on their plate. The precedence
being allowed to take root of burning people’s properties, undressing women and
other evils is just a sign that the preaching is falling on deaf ears. People
no longer trust their religious leaders, they just respect them so that one day
they will not forget to preach on their funerals. In the words of Ernest
Hemingway, the best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.
Let the men of collar cast the first stone.
Enjoy your Friday
folks.
Friday, 23 August 2019
From the Memes; the Science of Heart Breaks
Yeah. Another Friday.
It is very hard to come up with another article especially
when you are coming from the weekend when one of your most fierce critics said
you had written something wise. On the other hand, it is pretty easy to come
back from heavy criticism. If you are at the bottom, you can not go any lower
so I know I am pretty okay now.
As you have noticed, I have started off from last week’s
article. While some of you kept the negative responses to yourselves, some
people were free enough to spit it in my face. Others started giving me a list
of names of people who they thought the article was targeting. While I realized
that those were perfect fits, I hadn’t really thought about them when I was
writing. That showed me something; my article was relevant and relatable and
that is what Richie Online is for. While on the same, others thought I was so
full of negative energy and I was unnecessarily reacting to things a person of
my nature shouldn’t be reacting to. Well. First of all, you hardly my nature
so… Lets leave it there, anyway. Two good people I will not mention said
“ndinatokota”. Well. I do not think my language was that harsh, either. You
should have seen another version of the same message that one friend of mine
sent me immediately after he had read mine. Plus, someone had to say what I
said, especially in this world where people cannot eat a meal or wear shoes
without first uploading on Instagram. If the article hit you, just disregard it
because it hit me too when I read it the next day. Steam blown.
To the business of the day…
I should mention right at the start that this article has
been fueled by memes. For some reason, people have been posting a lot about
heart breaks this week. One human posted about how heart breaks are good for
one’s career. Another one posted about how people need to realize that if they
are not dating for marriage then they are dating for a heart break and another
went on to post about pieces of a broken heart. I got fascinated by another who
posted about how a heart break sensitizes and prepares one for the next of its
kind. All of these but one was posted in the form of memes on a WhatsApp
status. You probably have seen that and you probably know where I am going with
this.
Pieces of a broken heart. One meme that I saw was a quote
from a player who was wondering whether is was just that his heart got broken
into so many pieces and each piece started loving a different person, earning
him the player name. Now I know that some of you may take this as something
funny as I did, but I am sure that there is a whole fraction of humanity that
would say that with seriousness. Two reasons. For some, it may just be an
excuse for promiscuity. For others, however, it might just be an issue of
insecurity and paranoia in which case people jump into a relationship with one
foot while staying on the outside with the other so that they can pull out
easily. You already know what happens in that case. The slightest mistake one
or their partner leads to a feeling that things may not work out and so such
people end up jumping from one relationship to another, switching at the
smallest of threats. The funny thing is that these guys don’t really count
these unions as proper relationships in this transient phase to full recovery.
Heart breaks being good for one’s career? Now that is very
debatable. I am not too sure as to what the person who authored that might have
been driving at but I ca n speculate. You get heart broken, forget everything
else and focus on school and career. This might work or might not because there
are some people who simply cannot function without a support system in the form
of a spouse. Such people would always try to find someone with whom to share
their lives with at the closest convenience and should they be the kind that
are too careful, the heart break leads to a downward spiral with numerous stops
in relationships with different people.
And then to another big one. A heart break prepares you for
the next one. Now this was a pure meme which had a funny picture and the words,
“Remember how you thought you would die after your first boyfriend left you?
Look at how you are all cool now, ready for the next breakup”. Whether this is
good or not is subject to debate but this is a reality in the later day. Once
someone succumbs to the first breakup, the subsequent ones become very
tolerable and almost desirable. Someone gets dumped today and they continue to
live their life their own way. The explanation? “Amafuna ndidzilira?”
That is
how we have ended up with a broken generation with people who can’t love fully.
On the other hand, it might be good because we need people who can move on, so
this goes both ways.
Those were the memes and the possible explanations and
implications but there is something about heart breaks that made me dedicate a couple
of days to the study of the same. Firstly, we have to understand that not all
breakups result into heart breaks and that in this modern-day world (in which
people have shifted from sex before marriage to sex before a relationship),
heart breaks may come from without a relationship. You can smell the complexity
of that.
Some have defined a heart break as a state of intense
emotions with a big sense of longing especially in the case of a lost lover.
That definition is accurate and in a way it sheds light on what is wrong with
this world of dating. In the first place, the idea of having a sense of longing
following losing a lover means that we are more prone to accepting them back,
thus giving them a chance to hurt us again. On the other hand, we need to move
on and that gives a chance for someone to either rebuild us or to break us
further. This is why the reminder I posted earlier might just be the wisest
thing I have seen this week; if you are not dating for marriage, then you are
dating for a heart break. Let me get to that.
The normal demands that our dating ventures end up in
marriage of sorts, or so we used to think before things got to their current
state. In that case, people need to focus their efforts on getting to know and
build each other on the way to marriage. That is something that has to be
mutual but the problem is that it is hard to sense whether someone is for real
with their intentions and whether they will not flip along the way. What we can
do, however, is be sincere and give it our best, ensuring that we have those
intentions of dating for marriage (or are otherwise making it clear; things I
do not encourage on a normal day). The tricky thing is that once people jump
into the dating ship, people tend to enjoy each other’s company and that in
turn makes them lose themselves whenever they lose their partner. That is why
people who are dating need to end up being a thing after this whole dating
business because once they get married chances are that they will stay
together.
There we are then. There are so many things we could say
about heart breaks and we could write a whole book. As I write, I am looking at
a bunch of YouTube videos about how to cope with heart breaks and how to fix broken
hearts. Whether those are something to go by is a story for another day, but we
know that we have people who are waging wars against heart breaks. Perhaps I
should also point out that not all people who claim to be heart broken are in
that state. Some of us are just out here abusing other people in the name of
having broken hearts and that is not something we should deem normal. Perhaps there is some sort of universal way of
ensuring full recovery from a heart break and we should research it and put it
right here on Richie Online. Until then, we will stick with time as a healer
and YouTube videos for resolution.
Have a wonderful weekend.
And the other thing... If you want to follow this up with a discussion, call me at 1900 hours CAT.
Friday, 16 August 2019
Of Appearing and Being
It is a wonderful Friday and after a week-long leave of absence I am back with something of the article’s sort. Last week I was busy meditating on the court proceedings and watching Liverpool FC thump Norwich city in the opener of the English Premier League and that was enough to distract me from writing the much needed article. How sad. This time, I have taken time away from the work of the day to complete this before it is too late.
Talking of Liverpool FC, this is the team that beat my Chelsea who three days after they were mortally wounded by Manchester United. The beginnings of the football season haven’t been good for those of use who support the blue boys from west London but that is okay. It is only football after all.
What fascinates me in the football season is the growing fanaticism that I am beginning to see over the years. Every other football fan that I know always has at least the home kit of their favorite European club. I joined the frenzy this season by buying my own Valencia home kit but I doubt that it was because of my love for the team. It was rather the love for the nicely designed Puma shirt. And then there is this thing of couples buying new season jerseys and going for photo shoots… Ndimafuna ndikambe zampira but I think we should divert to this.
Back in the day, our relationships used to be way stealthy. When you were dating, you always made sure that you met in the most secret of places and you avoided public appearances. Knowing in-laws was something that was reserved for the advanced stages of the relationship and the picture of relationships was a perfect opposite of what is happening in the later day where we search our in-laws on social media and offer them a bottle of something. Then there were the photos. In those days, there used to be a photographer moving around with his bike, taking and distributing pictures. When dishing out, he would hide those pictures of couples he had taken in some bushes and even when dispatched to the owners, those were puctures that used to be hidden behind others in our photo albums. Fast forward to 2019, we have couples movine around with custom t shirts to a photo studio where they have their pictures taken. And on most occasions, the pictures are delivered into a phone or memory card for posting on Instagram or WhatsApp (I am told Facebook is not much of a thing nowadays).
This whole thing of pictures and all gives me the impression that sometimes all people want is to give out the impression that they are in love and all is well. That is not wrong and perhaps most of these people are truly in love and enjoying it. What it has done, however is to give other the urge to go for such things as photo shoots just to create that flashy image before they actually earn the grounds for doing so through building a strong bond between them. Some of us started going for photo shoots before it was cool but chances are that the people we went with are married with 7 kids. At the moment, we are desperately searching for the contacts of the ladies with whom we took pictures in the bush beyond Chingalangande hill as those were the ones with whom we had real love.
I am not just saying this because I am a swazi (as my friend Tuntufye calls me) but the whole point is that we have more people striving to make an impression that things are well; more that we have striving to actually make things well. Think of the church. Nowadays we have our religious leaders who are teaching us lots of exciting things about God and how we ought to operate in this world as his children. On the other hand, the very same people that preachings are being wasted on walk out of church to resort to the very things their pastor was teaching them minutes ago. Or worse still, it is the pastors who spearhead vice. Not too good.
Perhaps we should talk about something called success. Now this is something that is getting complicated by the day because people are redefining success and teaching others how to succeed. Teaching someone how to succeed, if you think about it, is not something you would call a bad thing. Rather, it is something I would call noble. One of the problems that comes with it, however is that the definition of success tends to be more subjective than it is universal. For others, success would be defined by the kind of car they are pushing in town while for some it is about how much they have in either their accounts or investments. Then we should consider those who measure their success by the number of spouses.
In the modern day, most young people enter the job market or into business fresh from tertiary education with a mission of proving a point that they are doing well. And then there are those that leave college for various reasons, trying to prove to everyone that they can walk down the same lane as Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. That becomes a problem because in the midst of trying to prove a point people tend to make costly mistakes that ensure that they never get to achieve the financial success they portray to the outside world.
There is another issue of charity and making impact in this world. I appreciate the efforts that some people I know are putting in towards the betterment of the lives of others and the good of the environment but the rate at which organizations are proliferating in this country makes me wonder if they are up for anything beyond taking high definition photos for some websites while building a profile. Do not get me wrong. It is good to help, but the motive matters. If we only do things to show off as opposed to doing something for the impact it has on the nation or someone’s life, then we have a big problem. I should say no more for the fear of being stoned by the huge number of CEOs that patronize Richie Online.
So… There you go. There is a lot of pretending happening out there. There is too much focus on appearing to be something good with little if any focus on the attempts at attaining the actual status we like to portray. The question we should be asking ourselves is that of how much the picture we paint to others will cost us. On another note, I am not saying that we should not dress well, drive nice cars or live in nice houses. Neither did I declare going for a photo shoot with your spouse at Bensam Studios a taboo. All I am saying is that there has to be a balance between the impression you give and what you really are. On the other side, we need to be able to take a shower and wear some deodorant to ensure that people manage to see the positive side of us.
Signing out…. There is no second chance at making a first impression. Mind the picture you paint and balance it with what you are.
Friday, 2 August 2019
Standards: a Comment on Comments
It is one wonderful Friday and after some time we are back to putting pen to paper. You might be wondering as to why I went AWOL (Google that if you do not get it). Well. I had a tummy ache and I was just tired. I am afraid I have run out of better excuses, but all in all, we are back. Sometimes people just get too busy for things that matter and that is what has been happening to me in the past two weeks.
So much happened in the time I took my forced leave from writing. There was a heavy debate on language proficiency and intelligence after some lawmakers were caught grossly assassinating the Queen’s language in broad daylight. There have been demonstrations and negotiations with people throwing in a lot of propaganda and useful and useless comments alike. I have been away from it all and I was focusing on doing my work and educating the masses about science and research through any platform I was offered. It is now time for me to comment because as per the regulations, no issue can be declared over before the Richie of Richie Online comments on it.
Shall we talk about the youngest member of parliament? Of course we should. Perhaps I should start by saying that she impressed me (and still does). I know people who are more educated and who supposedly mounted stronger campaigns but did not manage to win that seat. She is in parliament and that is a no mean achievement. I hope she represents her people well in parliament, if that is a thing.
Let us take a left turn then. The praise she received as the youngest parliamentarian, however was short lived as she was to later receive a social media roasting of a lifetime for her poor command of spoken English. In a television interview clip that you probably have (or had) in your phone, she was seen expressing her joy over the building of a bridge that had made movement easy in her area. The video was shared with lots of laughing emojis and mean captions which prompted some sects of society to quickly move to her defense. I am that guy who likes to comment on comments, so rather than comment on her interview, I will comment on the comments that people made on the interview.
Others came in and quickly pointed out that the critics who had opened a heavy barrage of fire on the young lady were broke while she was swimming in money. Now that was a lame argument if you are to ask me. Unwarranted as the attacks on her already weak communication skills were, this counter argument was rather misplaced. Another group of humans, however went on to say that even some who were criticizing Fyness were doing it in broken English themselves. Now that wasn’t too bad an argument. It is close to being related to the subject matter, but what I like the most about it is that it is one jab against hypocrisy.
I was rather amused by two more arguments that sounded a bit deeper. Some people, in their wisdom argued that the interview by the parliamentarian showed the failure of the system to screen for people who are supposed to be in the August House. Now that makes sense. If you are to think about it, parliamentary business is conducted in English and that makes the ability to communicate in English a basic qualification for being a parliamentarian. If you think of the actual job description of a member of parliament (osai zokugulirani mabokosi kapena kumanga ma bridge) which is making the laws that govern the land, you wouldn’t need to be much of a scholar to find the accentuation of the point I just made on English being important. I am not too sure as to how far my fellow young person went with education and how far one has to go with education for them to have masterly over English (considering that after six years of college I still have to ask Harry to draft me an application letter). That led to yet another interesting proposition.
You probably guessed it because you or someone in your circle proposed the same thing, but people called for the inclusion of Chichewa in government business. I found that interesting because it took me back to the time I used to like reading the Together Magazine. In one of the old editions, there was a dossier on the inclusion of local languages in tertiary education and government business. In my view, that was yet another lame argument because of the motive behind it. I like to think that the call for the inclusion of local languages is meant to accommodate those who cannot speak the exotic language that is English and I have a problem with that.
I will let those who say that communicating in English is not a measure of intelligence stone me on this but if anything, we are supposed to be raising the standards and ensuring that people who make decisions that affect the country are well conversant with basic national and international affairs. Having some sort of basic education is one of the qualifications that come into play and considering that we are considered anglophone, in which case our education is delivered in English, people who are in decision making positions should be able to communicate in English for an hour or two without getting a headache. The English proficiency in this case is just the basic thing. The more important thing is that people should have an understanding of governance systems and everything else that matters about their roles. Calling for the inclusion of local languages, then, indirectly removes one screening tool that could ensure that people who make decisions for us are savvy about what is best for us. I am not too sure that we can afford to dumb down things to the level where other who do not qualify can now participate. If that was the case, Richie Online articles would have been drafted in Chichewa and posted on electricity poles at Zingwangwa market.
Before I forget, I should respond to the esteemed ladies and gentlemen that emphasize on the fact that English is not a measure of intelligence. That it very true but intelligence is not all that matters when you get to some posts. I am very intelligent (as some of you may know) but I would perform badly if you were to make me the chief auditor of your company. Point is that knowledge matters and being an MP requires knowledge. Unfortunately, some of you would argue with me because you are okay with your member of parliament rubber stamping a budget document or bill which he has no idea of. English may not be a measure of intelligence, but it highly correlates with knowledge. In the case of a parliamentarian, we need both.
One guy called the Daydreamer once sent me a letter on this issue of English and if you did not read it, you should check it out. In his view, the standards of learning are dwindling and this has been manifested by the comparatively poorer command of English shown by products of the Malawi school system. I would like to think that this is the real cause of worry over one interview because there are a lot of us whose communication should have been better having gone through the system.
I have spent a lot of time commenting on the negative comments. There was one positive one too. I saw a couple of bystanders indicating that it was not good to laugh at a young person who was struggling with English but to get them help. Now that might not be for you and me, but I believe the young parliamentarian needs that help. Further to that, she needs the insight, and she should realize that she will need to get better with her communication skills in English; not just for the interviews but also for her growth in various fields. That young lady has potential and she has a whole lot of opportunities ahead of her. I would hate to see her miss out because of a language or lack of knowledge.
I would leave it right here, for now. One thing we should all learn from this is that there are standards for everything and we need to maintain high standards. Whenever there are people who are not up to our expected standards, trolling may not be the way to go.
Let me go. Mawa ukwati.
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