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.