Friday.
Last week the desk got a bit messy and ESCOM people did not help much when it got cleared. Unfortunately there was no guest writer to rescue the tradition so we had to go without an article. There was a promise of a mid week article, I guess. It turns out that Richie is not a man of his word as we all thought. Those are bygones, anyway. We are enjoying the article today.
I have every reason to believe that every reader here has had a feel of public transport. A lot is happening around public transport and the thought of writing this made me wonder why I haven’t written 9 articles about this already.
I was not born a long time ago, and I happened to be raised in the country; Mulanje (ndakulira pa Chisitu), Zomba and Chiradzulu. In such areas, I did not get to experience much of a certain element of public transportation as we know it now; intra-city travel .On the other hand, I had my fair share of Stagecoach, Tuwiche, Yanu Yanu and Zisintha rides. A bit of Shire Bus Lines too.
By the time I got to secondary school, buses were close to non-operational on the Blantyre-Zomba road the only option I had was to take minibuses (or m’dula moyo as the late Twaliki Hassan Wisiki aka Adha Mhone used to call them on Malawi Night) to Mzedi where I was for four years. I didn’t have much of a bad experience with those. I have known a great deal about public transport in the past two years and honestly I do not have fond memories of it.
Those of us who have taken our local buses between the cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe can relate to the delays that take place when you travel this distance. Up to now I still do not get why a bus from Lilongwe to Blantyre takes 40 minutes to travel from the depot to Bunda roundabout; but that happens on a majority of the buses, anyway. When you are on the reverse journey, you have those annoying stops at Kameza, Lunzu, Lirangwe, Mdeka, Zalewa and Mwanza turn-off. As if that is not bad enough, once in a while you can get a treat of more stops in some undocumented areas around Manjawira and Phalula. Some would tell me off and tell me to get a coach instead, but it is important to realize that not all of us can afford to “go the distance” with Premier Coaches or to get on that AXA coach, whose fare from Blantyre is equal to that of a return ticket for the same distance on a Zonobiya bus. You will even have some change for dry chips at Ntcheu and some money for the Area 12-Kauma or Chilomoni-Nthukwa minibus, depending on your destination.
The buses we have for intercity travel leave a lot to be desired in terms of reliability and punctuality and it is not unheard of to have a breakdown or something of the sort. The whole idea of inter-city travel freaks some people out just because of the quality of the means of transport between our cities. In fact you cannot plan to go travel between BT and Lilongwe in specified times if you are on our local buses
Just like inter-city travel, travel within our cities on public transport leaves a lot to be desired. Delays are the order of the day and distances that can be covered in 20 minutes on a normal drive can take thrice as long. I have paid dearly for putting too much faith in our public transport and at one time I failed to make it when I had an important appointment. If you think I was negligent, I left home in Lunzu 90 minutes early for an appointment in Ndirande, only to get there an hour and forty minutes later. Then there are the rude conductors who always seem to forget who has given them what bank note. If you get a minibus along the Limbe-Chirimba-Lunzu axis around 6 in the evening you are almost guaranteed that you will hear or be involved in a squabble involving change. I once got involved in such and made it a resolution that I never hand a “Kamuzu” to a Chirimba-Lunzu conductor.
Caller boys have their own way of adding to the trouble of a minibus ride. I am told the whole shouting thing got outlawed, and as such we do not have the typical caller boys, in as much as we still have some who masquerade as something else. A generation of people called “a timing” has risen and these are fellas who get on a minibus to give you the impression that it is almost full, so that you can jump on it. I am told that these guys have developed an extra trade of fishing cellphones and money out of unsuspecting people’s pockets in the town of Limbe. I personally wasn’t surprised to hear this. I guess we all know what to do in such situations, anyway.
While these shunting minibuses have a lot of issues, you do get to see a good side of them once in a while; for the wrong reasons of course. Once in a while you do meet that clown or drunk who puts everyone in a jovial mood and gets everyone to chip in with a comment and laugh at something that doesn’t concern them. Then there are those sunny conversations between the driver and the conductor, or the radio program commenting on minibus operators’ behavior. Such would make you think you don’t have to part with the beauty of public transport for a moment.
I have travelled a bit and I think our public transport could use a bit of organization. The idea of advance tickets and fixed departure and arrival times on our local buses is not something we would call far-fetched and our buses could use more polite operators and routine maintenance. The biggest challenge to this, however, would be the cost that would come with the services.
A friend of mine who has been to Amsterdam once told me that you just need a fiver (5 Euros) to get a ticket that will allow you to get on any bus of that company within a period of 24 hours. That is an equivalent of about K4000 to travel any distance; Kachere to Mpemba, Lunzu to Chilobwe, Chilomoni to Chigumula. While this may be a fair deal to those who travel a lot, some would think that it is a waste. Out there this is a great deal used by many (grab a tip if you want to visit Amsterdam).
Intercity travel is dominated by trains out there, and you would pay an equivalent of K20, 000 or so to travel a distance equivalent to the Lilongwe-Ntcheu one. For that you get a nicely fixed schedule, no unnecessary pick-ups and comfort. I am not sure if we have people who would be willing to pay such amounts here, but it is such costs that are helping people get the nice services elsewhere.
So…
What are we saying? Public transport out here leaves a lot to be desired, and while it is bearable, all of use could use a more comfortable option. Prescription? Y’all guys should buy cars, because gone are the days when cars were deemed luxurious (if you have one and you think it is a luxury, contact me for special prayers. While waiting for the day you will walk into that BeForward of CFAO office, at least get a coach when travelling between the cities and jump on a taxi when moving within, for comfort's sake. When you have some extra to spend, that it. Other than that, we still have national bus company and our minibuses. They are not that bad, anyway.
Shout out to anyone reading this while on Public transport. You are a survivor.
Special shout to readers Alfred and Mphatso who are getting engaged this Sunday. All the best, lovebirds.
Friday, 28 October 2016
Friday, 14 October 2016
Handling Money
It is another Friday.
There is a lot going on in the country and more than half of those things should not be happening at all. Blackouts are still haunting us and getting worse by the hour as promised by the power supplier a couple of months ago. The leader of the nation is nowhere to be seen and at some point not even his Minister of Information had sufficient information about his whereabouts and when he is coming home. People are leaving such crucial information about a public officer to our imagination and blaming us when we paint him with diagnoses and worse. Anyway. Such is life, I guess.
The other big thing going on is the Mother’s Day Holiday. So much talk around the day and there are a lot of things people plan to do for their mothers. With my account being in the red zone, I can only stand and watch my sisters bring some goodies for my mum while I wonder whether to leave home (to relieve her of my presence for the big day because I am a bit of trouble) or to stay home and bore her with my long stories (complaints about being unemployed, mostly) because she deserves more of my time. I guess I have some hours to figure that out, but to those who have means, let us surprise our mothers (where mother includes but is not limited to biological mother) on their day.
This whole Mother’s Day holiday has reminded me of the messages that circulate in the social media in similar seasons; about how other people spend so much on MG2 when their parents hardly have anything to it. The messages always have this funny ending citing the punishment that it reserved for those; some lightning strike or something. It is something that is circulated for fun but from it all of us have how and what we spend on to learn. Reflecting along the same lines got me thinking about spending and handling money in general.
Money is one of the most discussed subjects across the globe and the most interesting thing is that whenever we are talking money, most times we tend to be discussing things to do with how to make it. I mean, the whole cash gate and IFMIS thing; that probably took some meetings in some nicely air conditioned room by the beach in Mangochi or Salima, right? Just thinking. The point is that money drives a lot in this world and being a Malawian you have at least two problems that somebody is cashing out on. Fact.
While the making of money is a widely discussed issue, little attention is paid to the handling of money. I was once ambushed with a difficult question by one speaker in a church meeting. He asked us as to what we would do if we were to find all the material resources and money we ever dreamt of in our possession in an instant. The answers that we had were not that convincing as most of us had a more self centered attitude towards money and all we wanted was to have billions in dollars without a clear idea of what we wanted to do with them. While this might have changed for me and and most people who have had the time to think about this crucial topic, not everyone thinks about this and that has cost a lot of people some opportunities to do something positive or make a difference in their own or other people's lives.
If you take a look at cash gate convicts, you will hear that some were caught with millions in cash in the trunks of their cars. They had enough to use at home and elsewhere but that money just had to stay there, to be taken out a million at a time whenever they had figured something to do with it out.
The other batch of people? Young graduates of course. These are the people who find some jobs with an actual salary after toiling with school. They are in the late 20's or early 30's and they have no dependents whatsoever. A 32' screen is already at home with DSTV subscribed. Fridge is full (if at all anthu mukumaikabe zinthu mu fridge) and everything is well with a six figure sum in the account to spare. What do they do? Drink themselves to death, of course. While I personally do not condemn drinking, I think there are good and tolerable levels to it and people just shoot through the roof with this thanks to excess money. And then there is this thing of renting a house in a small township just for sexual endeavors. Zikuchitika ndithu and while it is not everyone doing that, there are people doing that. And I am not only talking about the young graduates.
The two examples cited above just show how sometimes money can change people and it is worthwhile to note that not everyone has gone that trail. There are a lot people who haven't lost their heads despite having fat wallets and accounts. That in itself begs the question as to what leads to some of these things people do because of money.
A lot of abuse of money comes iin due to the fact that some of the money people get is not earned. No hard work whatsoever and then someone has millions all of the sudden. Ndalama yatsoka or ya minyama, some have called it and interestingly enough it happens because the handlers in question didn't have a clue of what was coming their way and thus did not prepare for it. We all have done that, at some point. This is a thing others have called getting rich without going through the process of getting rich.
The other reason is some mere lack of planning. That needs no explaining. If you do not see beyond 10 years from now saving and investing seriously do not resonate at the same wavelength with your thought processes.
You might have your own reasons and theories on the reasons that read to the same phenomena of mishandling money, but I think on the most part it is because most of us have never reflected on the question I was asked; on what we would do if we had all we dreamt of. The solution to that is of course simple and you can start reflecting on it now. The interesting thing is that the thought of such things brings in some discipline and positivity in one's spending habits. Try it.
If you are the sort of person who believes in the significance of discipline with spending, you should also pay attention to the way you make money. Generally people who get money through dubious means end up blowing it on "nothings" (apart from the few who have built mansions in Lilongwe). People who have earned their money on the other hand, are more prudent with the fruit of their sweat and exercise discipline with the way they spend. Again, there are some exceptions to this and they have to be acknowledged.
Take home message?
There are some rules of money that people have written and sold books about. While you might not have time to read all of their writings, it is important to understand that there has to be a bit of discipline exercised in the earning and spending of money; and that the two are linked.
During my orientation week at the College of Medicine, one Dr Cornelius Huwa (Hi, Coach) who was talking to us about financial management told us that the reason most of us do not progress financially is that we spend most of our time learning trades that help us to make money, while we have no knowledge of how to manage it. Probably high time everyone invested in the knowledge of financial management.
Management is wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and potential mothers on the Richie Online readers list.
There is a lot going on in the country and more than half of those things should not be happening at all. Blackouts are still haunting us and getting worse by the hour as promised by the power supplier a couple of months ago. The leader of the nation is nowhere to be seen and at some point not even his Minister of Information had sufficient information about his whereabouts and when he is coming home. People are leaving such crucial information about a public officer to our imagination and blaming us when we paint him with diagnoses and worse. Anyway. Such is life, I guess.
The other big thing going on is the Mother’s Day Holiday. So much talk around the day and there are a lot of things people plan to do for their mothers. With my account being in the red zone, I can only stand and watch my sisters bring some goodies for my mum while I wonder whether to leave home (to relieve her of my presence for the big day because I am a bit of trouble) or to stay home and bore her with my long stories (complaints about being unemployed, mostly) because she deserves more of my time. I guess I have some hours to figure that out, but to those who have means, let us surprise our mothers (where mother includes but is not limited to biological mother) on their day.
This whole Mother’s Day holiday has reminded me of the messages that circulate in the social media in similar seasons; about how other people spend so much on MG2 when their parents hardly have anything to it. The messages always have this funny ending citing the punishment that it reserved for those; some lightning strike or something. It is something that is circulated for fun but from it all of us have how and what we spend on to learn. Reflecting along the same lines got me thinking about spending and handling money in general.
Money is one of the most discussed subjects across the globe and the most interesting thing is that whenever we are talking money, most times we tend to be discussing things to do with how to make it. I mean, the whole cash gate and IFMIS thing; that probably took some meetings in some nicely air conditioned room by the beach in Mangochi or Salima, right? Just thinking. The point is that money drives a lot in this world and being a Malawian you have at least two problems that somebody is cashing out on. Fact.
While the making of money is a widely discussed issue, little attention is paid to the handling of money. I was once ambushed with a difficult question by one speaker in a church meeting. He asked us as to what we would do if we were to find all the material resources and money we ever dreamt of in our possession in an instant. The answers that we had were not that convincing as most of us had a more self centered attitude towards money and all we wanted was to have billions in dollars without a clear idea of what we wanted to do with them. While this might have changed for me and and most people who have had the time to think about this crucial topic, not everyone thinks about this and that has cost a lot of people some opportunities to do something positive or make a difference in their own or other people's lives.
If you take a look at cash gate convicts, you will hear that some were caught with millions in cash in the trunks of their cars. They had enough to use at home and elsewhere but that money just had to stay there, to be taken out a million at a time whenever they had figured something to do with it out.
The other batch of people? Young graduates of course. These are the people who find some jobs with an actual salary after toiling with school. They are in the late 20's or early 30's and they have no dependents whatsoever. A 32' screen is already at home with DSTV subscribed. Fridge is full (if at all anthu mukumaikabe zinthu mu fridge) and everything is well with a six figure sum in the account to spare. What do they do? Drink themselves to death, of course. While I personally do not condemn drinking, I think there are good and tolerable levels to it and people just shoot through the roof with this thanks to excess money. And then there is this thing of renting a house in a small township just for sexual endeavors. Zikuchitika ndithu and while it is not everyone doing that, there are people doing that. And I am not only talking about the young graduates.
The two examples cited above just show how sometimes money can change people and it is worthwhile to note that not everyone has gone that trail. There are a lot people who haven't lost their heads despite having fat wallets and accounts. That in itself begs the question as to what leads to some of these things people do because of money.
A lot of abuse of money comes iin due to the fact that some of the money people get is not earned. No hard work whatsoever and then someone has millions all of the sudden. Ndalama yatsoka or ya minyama, some have called it and interestingly enough it happens because the handlers in question didn't have a clue of what was coming their way and thus did not prepare for it. We all have done that, at some point. This is a thing others have called getting rich without going through the process of getting rich.
The other reason is some mere lack of planning. That needs no explaining. If you do not see beyond 10 years from now saving and investing seriously do not resonate at the same wavelength with your thought processes.
You might have your own reasons and theories on the reasons that read to the same phenomena of mishandling money, but I think on the most part it is because most of us have never reflected on the question I was asked; on what we would do if we had all we dreamt of. The solution to that is of course simple and you can start reflecting on it now. The interesting thing is that the thought of such things brings in some discipline and positivity in one's spending habits. Try it.
If you are the sort of person who believes in the significance of discipline with spending, you should also pay attention to the way you make money. Generally people who get money through dubious means end up blowing it on "nothings" (apart from the few who have built mansions in Lilongwe). People who have earned their money on the other hand, are more prudent with the fruit of their sweat and exercise discipline with the way they spend. Again, there are some exceptions to this and they have to be acknowledged.
Take home message?
There are some rules of money that people have written and sold books about. While you might not have time to read all of their writings, it is important to understand that there has to be a bit of discipline exercised in the earning and spending of money; and that the two are linked.
During my orientation week at the College of Medicine, one Dr Cornelius Huwa (Hi, Coach) who was talking to us about financial management told us that the reason most of us do not progress financially is that we spend most of our time learning trades that help us to make money, while we have no knowledge of how to manage it. Probably high time everyone invested in the knowledge of financial management.
Management is wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and potential mothers on the Richie Online readers list.
Friday, 7 October 2016
Random Thoughts on Standards
I read a lot of things in these social networks and here is one of my favorites from the past week. It is about electricity of course.
"Nkula Hydroelectric Power Plant has a design capacity of 124 MegaWatts. The first unit was commissioned in 1966 and the last in 1992. Tedzani Hydroelectric Power Plant has a design capacity of 92 MegaWatts. The first unit was commissioned in 1973 and the last in 1995. Kapichira Hydroelectric Power Plant has a design capacity of 129 MegaWatts. The first unit was commissioned in 2000. Wovwe Mini Hydro has a design capacity of 4.35 MegaWatts. Mzuzu Diesel Unit has a capacity of 1.1 MegaWatts. Likoma Islands Diesel Units have a capacity of 1.05 MegaWatts. Chizumulu Islands Diesel Units have a capacity of 300 KiloWatts.
The total pojected installed capacity for the ESCOM system, inclusive of standby thermal plants is around 353 MegaWatts, however the present distribution is 288 MegaWatts.
Initial plans in 1966 was to produce 300 MegaWatts for a projected 30 year period to 300,000 homes and industries. However, 50 years later it seems no plans were made after the 30 year period elapsed to improve the infrastructure or increase the electricity generation.
At the moment Malawi requires 1 GigaWatt (1,000 MegaWatts) of electricity generation capacity for a projected 1 million homes, including industries. The reason there are massive blackouts is due to the fact that ESCOM can only generate 288 MegaWatts instead of 1,000 MegaWatts. That's a whopping 712 MegaWatts shortfall."
Well. Some of you are wondering why I am posting that. I am not working for ESCOM, by the way and I am just sharing something I saw on Facebook and later on WhatsApp.
Some of you might think that I would like to take a swipe at ESCOM yet again. Not at all. I just dragged ESCOM into this because I wanted a relatable example.
When the above "statement" was posted on Facebook in the so called My Malawi My Views group, it attracted a diverse range of views. People were divided into two groups; pro-ESCOM (those who heavily defended the supplier) and pro-electricity (those who still questioned why we still have blackouts). Of course there were some unclassified fellas who were calling for the head of Peter Mutharika. We always have some votes turning out to be null and void during general elections, anyway. I guess these are the people.
The people that caught my attention from the discussion were those that were pro-ESCOM. Some argued rationally to say that the supplier had a limited capacity and cannot make up for the deficit as it is. These has the voice of reason and what I had for them was the question as to why they were not finding the means to make up. They failed to give convincing answers, anyway, because the question was probably way above their pay grade.
The other group that came to the party provided the lamest arguments I have ever heard in any of the electricity talks anywhere: "There are people out there suffering with wars around them, hunger and disease outbreaks and all you can complain of are blackouts?" That statement and other similar expressions got me worried about the adults we are keeping in this country and if you are with them on this, I am worried about you too.
I have a problem with that argument because what we have here is that we either we have someone trivializing the issue or rather that someone has no regard of something called a standard.
Since the coming of civilization, man has made many important advances that his life easier and more comfortable. That is very important and I consider electricity to be one of such important inventions. I actually think that everyone should have access to electricity (as opposed to electricity having access to people which is the case in many low income countries including ours). In fact to me electricity is a basic need for everyone but just as some inventions like the plough haven't yet found many of us after thousands of years of being used in ancient civilizations, more than seven tenths of the nation is yet to have access to the commodity. The rest of the people have intermittent access to electricity; 18 hours of darkness and 6 of lights everyday. Pretty much.
That has me wondering as to why someone would have the courage to go on a public forum to say that we should not voice our views on the lack of power because we are enjoying peace. No one said that you can only have one of these, anyway and there are some countries where a consistent and universal power supply nicely coexists with national peace.
There is a spirit of lack dwelling among us and it cries out loud to justify the mediocrity around us. While the challenges we have around us may be inevitable, we should always acknowledge that they are challenges and they need to be addressed for us to have a better life.
We have grown in a country where we have a lot of challenges but we need to rise above our challenges when defining the standard of life for ourselves. There is something called a standard in life and all of us need to define that of our own and for the people around us. We need to create our own worlds for us and for others in this so-called failed state where a basic need will be such. It is probably the only way through which some of our friends and family will get to live the best lives they can live.
Back to the ESCOM statement, I like to believe that knowing a problem is the first step to solving it. I hope that the same rule applies to dear ESCOM otherwise I only see problems being highlighted there with no accompanying solutions. Worrying. Very worrying.
"Nkula Hydroelectric Power Plant has a design capacity of 124 MegaWatts. The first unit was commissioned in 1966 and the last in 1992. Tedzani Hydroelectric Power Plant has a design capacity of 92 MegaWatts. The first unit was commissioned in 1973 and the last in 1995. Kapichira Hydroelectric Power Plant has a design capacity of 129 MegaWatts. The first unit was commissioned in 2000. Wovwe Mini Hydro has a design capacity of 4.35 MegaWatts. Mzuzu Diesel Unit has a capacity of 1.1 MegaWatts. Likoma Islands Diesel Units have a capacity of 1.05 MegaWatts. Chizumulu Islands Diesel Units have a capacity of 300 KiloWatts.
The total pojected installed capacity for the ESCOM system, inclusive of standby thermal plants is around 353 MegaWatts, however the present distribution is 288 MegaWatts.
Initial plans in 1966 was to produce 300 MegaWatts for a projected 30 year period to 300,000 homes and industries. However, 50 years later it seems no plans were made after the 30 year period elapsed to improve the infrastructure or increase the electricity generation.
At the moment Malawi requires 1 GigaWatt (1,000 MegaWatts) of electricity generation capacity for a projected 1 million homes, including industries. The reason there are massive blackouts is due to the fact that ESCOM can only generate 288 MegaWatts instead of 1,000 MegaWatts. That's a whopping 712 MegaWatts shortfall."
Well. Some of you are wondering why I am posting that. I am not working for ESCOM, by the way and I am just sharing something I saw on Facebook and later on WhatsApp.
Some of you might think that I would like to take a swipe at ESCOM yet again. Not at all. I just dragged ESCOM into this because I wanted a relatable example.
When the above "statement" was posted on Facebook in the so called My Malawi My Views group, it attracted a diverse range of views. People were divided into two groups; pro-ESCOM (those who heavily defended the supplier) and pro-electricity (those who still questioned why we still have blackouts). Of course there were some unclassified fellas who were calling for the head of Peter Mutharika. We always have some votes turning out to be null and void during general elections, anyway. I guess these are the people.
The people that caught my attention from the discussion were those that were pro-ESCOM. Some argued rationally to say that the supplier had a limited capacity and cannot make up for the deficit as it is. These has the voice of reason and what I had for them was the question as to why they were not finding the means to make up. They failed to give convincing answers, anyway, because the question was probably way above their pay grade.
The other group that came to the party provided the lamest arguments I have ever heard in any of the electricity talks anywhere: "There are people out there suffering with wars around them, hunger and disease outbreaks and all you can complain of are blackouts?" That statement and other similar expressions got me worried about the adults we are keeping in this country and if you are with them on this, I am worried about you too.
I have a problem with that argument because what we have here is that we either we have someone trivializing the issue or rather that someone has no regard of something called a standard.
Since the coming of civilization, man has made many important advances that his life easier and more comfortable. That is very important and I consider electricity to be one of such important inventions. I actually think that everyone should have access to electricity (as opposed to electricity having access to people which is the case in many low income countries including ours). In fact to me electricity is a basic need for everyone but just as some inventions like the plough haven't yet found many of us after thousands of years of being used in ancient civilizations, more than seven tenths of the nation is yet to have access to the commodity. The rest of the people have intermittent access to electricity; 18 hours of darkness and 6 of lights everyday. Pretty much.
That has me wondering as to why someone would have the courage to go on a public forum to say that we should not voice our views on the lack of power because we are enjoying peace. No one said that you can only have one of these, anyway and there are some countries where a consistent and universal power supply nicely coexists with national peace.
There is a spirit of lack dwelling among us and it cries out loud to justify the mediocrity around us. While the challenges we have around us may be inevitable, we should always acknowledge that they are challenges and they need to be addressed for us to have a better life.
We have grown in a country where we have a lot of challenges but we need to rise above our challenges when defining the standard of life for ourselves. There is something called a standard in life and all of us need to define that of our own and for the people around us. We need to create our own worlds for us and for others in this so-called failed state where a basic need will be such. It is probably the only way through which some of our friends and family will get to live the best lives they can live.
Back to the ESCOM statement, I like to believe that knowing a problem is the first step to solving it. I hope that the same rule applies to dear ESCOM otherwise I only see problems being highlighted there with no accompanying solutions. Worrying. Very worrying.
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