Folks I must admit that I have been inactive in the blog world since July 2008. My job is just too involving and has had barely time to blog except for routine face book chats. Besides, making a transition from being a student to a fully fledged professional is not a simple thing either. Nonetheless I thank God for wonderful achievements and a rich professional life that I have enjoyed in 2008. If there is any cynic, bring them on, and will testify gracefully about the wonder and power of our Lord Jesus. Happy New year to you all. God first.
Despite the many great things that have happened in my life in 2008, it is important to reflect on the great challenges that our country, MALAWI still faces. Malawi and its underpriviledged people means much to me than my individuality. In 2008, lots of our women have lost lives giving birth...lots of babies have been dumped in latrines, young girls have been defiled...many lives have been lost from illnesses otherwise treatable but medication has not been available in the very remote parts of our country. Our young people continue to be used as instruments of violence amongst selfish politicians who will do anything to get elected. We still have children that have to walk long distances to school simply because certain fraudster contractors never built schools despite getting paid from the public purse. So slow moves the wheels of justice to the benefit of corrupt moguls...I would even call them our version of oligarchs!!!Most of our rural people are still going hungry and a teacher has a responsibility of 200 children. Our nurses frustratingly work over night to save lives in conditions that have no respect for their own health...Remember the slogan Health for all by 2000!!! A wonderful chorus...a vision 2020 that seems more of a titanic portrait!!!
Yet the acclaimed economic growth seems not to be trickling down. Food prices have hit us to the extent that even the so called middle class...who often take a huge burden to acre for our extended families barely seem middle class enough. Poverty continues to worsen and livelihoods keep fast sliding into the valley of death...Come 2009, we will never learn lessons as country men. Our reason will be put to test but as usual the political masters will come and sing lies and convince the unsuspecting poor voter with heaps of slogans that promise heaven just like former US President Hoover with his “chicken in every pot and car in every garage” slogan.It never worked and the Great Depression happened. We gnash our teeth later. They will use and dump us as usual...they will divide us..they will let us fight each other while they dine and wine together..smoke designer cigars as we bury our own mothers dying giving birth,...as we weep they celebrate, as our blossoming hopes get plucked away by their vicious bees to make them more honey...we walk down tailed like a thieving dog towards a valley of premature death!!!
Let 2009 be a year of reckoning and seeking of divine intervention in a way that enlightens forces that determine our livelihoods, put aside their egos and spare us more suffering. Putting the faith in our Lord Jesus should reign over any lip, mind and soul in our MALAWI of 2009….that we jealously fought for. We need a better deal for our children, women and generations to come!!!Why are we still the least developed country in the world after years of many crazy political slogans and biblical quotes in the NATIONAL BUDGETS?
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
A Tribute to a Mother
Its been a month that I published an article. Pressures of being an "adult" student and work have been so taxing on me. I feel relieved now and look forward to other things. The Lord has been wonderful to me. The end of my study coincides with the 17th anniversally of my late mother who was called into the glory of the Lord on 17th July 1991. I was away to a boarding schooling and never saw the last moments of her life and what she could have said to me.
Its a painful experience to loose a parent, a mother for that matter. It is even worse when it happens when you only clock 15, young, immature and in dire need of parental care. The last day that I saw my ill mother was on 14 May 1991, in the company of my friend Martin..It was Kamuzu day..I have one photo with Martin..we were the small boys of our class then...interms of looks. It was the day that I cried for my mother while she was still alive. I thought she was loosing her battle with life. She consoled me as a brave woman with authority over her son. It was an emotional moment but she assured me she will be fine. My own father, who was taking care of her put on the face of a brave man and both them told me not to worry and concetrate on my studies. Both were teachers..and teachers want the best of their children.
It was taxing moment for me. Very emotional one. I went into prayer for my mother on a number of occassions with prayer mates, Haxwell and other friends in our SCOM group. It was such a beautiful Wednsday, July, 17, 1991..that i was so much into my books and had been preparing for my form 1 History exam. Evenets began to unfold. After class..I was asked to see the headmaster and they put me in Government White Landrover to see my late uncle Chipundwe in Rumphi town...we never found him...end of story i thought until in the middle of the night when the unexpectec happened. All my roommates were awakened except me..my bags packed while I was asleep. It looked like I was a mad person on pills and my tenders not sure how to handle me. When I woke up..the face of my uncle and my mums boss in the middle of night was evidence that my dear Jerine was no more...I have a few recollection...I know what has happened...Life was not be the same. Getting into that MG 347K lorry in the middle of the night, next to the coffin of my mother, in the cold of the night, as we meandered through the dusty roads of Kazuni, Mpherembe, Kafukule up to Hannock Ngwira Village has never escaped my memory. Jerine was no more. It was real. No jokes. The sight of my siblings, much younger that me at 15, added more pain. The thought of an elder brother who had to kept out of the know to finish a Junior exam..put much burden on me. I couldnot handle the situation. So we laid her to rest in the afternnoon of July 18, 1991 at our Hannock Ngwira home. Death is painful.
As I recall the events surrounding my mothers passing away, today I celebrate what a great person she had been. From a humble upbringing, being raised by brothers, after my maternal grandparents early death, my mother had been a symbol of resielence. The spirit that i borrowed and I live with it. It is now to celebrate her beautiful life and the never gave up spirit that I feel i got from her in the fifteen years that she had for me. The only thing, that sometimes exerts pain, is that she has not been able to see the fruits of her labour. Dear mother, I will live your dream...and become a son a mother can be proud of.
If you have a mother,celebrate with her. I miss such a thing. I wish she was still here to celebrate my successes. What the Lord gives, he takes away as well. Lets cherish every second of life with family, friends and loved one.
Rest in Peace Jerine Lonely Kundabene!
Its a painful experience to loose a parent, a mother for that matter. It is even worse when it happens when you only clock 15, young, immature and in dire need of parental care. The last day that I saw my ill mother was on 14 May 1991, in the company of my friend Martin..It was Kamuzu day..I have one photo with Martin..we were the small boys of our class then...interms of looks. It was the day that I cried for my mother while she was still alive. I thought she was loosing her battle with life. She consoled me as a brave woman with authority over her son. It was an emotional moment but she assured me she will be fine. My own father, who was taking care of her put on the face of a brave man and both them told me not to worry and concetrate on my studies. Both were teachers..and teachers want the best of their children.
It was taxing moment for me. Very emotional one. I went into prayer for my mother on a number of occassions with prayer mates, Haxwell and other friends in our SCOM group. It was such a beautiful Wednsday, July, 17, 1991..that i was so much into my books and had been preparing for my form 1 History exam. Evenets began to unfold. After class..I was asked to see the headmaster and they put me in Government White Landrover to see my late uncle Chipundwe in Rumphi town...we never found him...end of story i thought until in the middle of the night when the unexpectec happened. All my roommates were awakened except me..my bags packed while I was asleep. It looked like I was a mad person on pills and my tenders not sure how to handle me. When I woke up..the face of my uncle and my mums boss in the middle of night was evidence that my dear Jerine was no more...I have a few recollection...I know what has happened...Life was not be the same. Getting into that MG 347K lorry in the middle of the night, next to the coffin of my mother, in the cold of the night, as we meandered through the dusty roads of Kazuni, Mpherembe, Kafukule up to Hannock Ngwira Village has never escaped my memory. Jerine was no more. It was real. No jokes. The sight of my siblings, much younger that me at 15, added more pain. The thought of an elder brother who had to kept out of the know to finish a Junior exam..put much burden on me. I couldnot handle the situation. So we laid her to rest in the afternnoon of July 18, 1991 at our Hannock Ngwira home. Death is painful.
As I recall the events surrounding my mothers passing away, today I celebrate what a great person she had been. From a humble upbringing, being raised by brothers, after my maternal grandparents early death, my mother had been a symbol of resielence. The spirit that i borrowed and I live with it. It is now to celebrate her beautiful life and the never gave up spirit that I feel i got from her in the fifteen years that she had for me. The only thing, that sometimes exerts pain, is that she has not been able to see the fruits of her labour. Dear mother, I will live your dream...and become a son a mother can be proud of.
If you have a mother,celebrate with her. I miss such a thing. I wish she was still here to celebrate my successes. What the Lord gives, he takes away as well. Lets cherish every second of life with family, friends and loved one.
Rest in Peace Jerine Lonely Kundabene!
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Harare Basket
African politicians are so adept in ignoring human rights abuses perpetrated against their own citizens. Having skillfully mastered terms like sovereignity and neocolonialism, often they shoot their eyes with a bun...and ignore the plight of the suffering masses. Zimbabwe is such a situation..African leaders have not been keen to publicly rebuke a regime that will not stop at nothing to stay in power.
Some few excerpts from Robert..." anyone advocating for a devaluation of the Zim dollar is a saboteur and an enemy of state"...a simple economic fundamental that Simba Makoni, Minister of Finance was trying to do in a bid to fix th woes that had bieseged ZIM...."Zimbawe was won through a war..we wont let this country go by a stroke of a pen".... this he says to drive home a point that no matter what happens during the elections, he wont allow MDC rule Zim. He goes on to issue threats of war against his own people. Offence..voting for a different party..a basic democratic right. Now I agree with Morgan "winning elections in Zim is one thing just like getting power is another"
These threats and the actual butchering and battering of innocent Zimbabwenas are not noticed by African leaders. There is no information available to them. After all we live in a world that ties good governance to evidence based policy making. So they say, Zimbabweans must take control of the situation themselves. Yes they have to..the mechanism is a ballot..it does exist. But wait a minute. I deplore such blindness. One Robert is threatening war if he looses and I quote "We are prepared to go to war if we loose the way it happened this other bllody night". Zimbabwe does not operate in a vacuum....its a country reduced to a basket but still a major economy in the region...I dont know whether our leaders have considered this. Businesss in our various countries with links to Zimbabwe are facing in tough. Malawi is not spared.
Why is it taking so long for Africa to act as Zimbabwe ceass to be a basket case but fast turning into a banana republic? Where is the moral voice of Madiba? Now if the guys goes in the bush..what does it mean for the region? Maybe until they shoot someone in our countries. I dont know.
Its funny how memories of our leaders get short. I guess Mugabe can learn some experiences from other leaders like Charles Taylor. He will be haunted one day like late Slobodan Milosevic....dictatorship is not fashionable..not even in my village...Mr Hannock Ngwira, my village headman, exercises some civility in how he runs the village. I am honored to sit in the governing council responsible for teenag affairs. Village teenagers are more notorious than their twon folks..atleast in my native Kabondwe...they carry axes on their shoulders...its part of a ngoni fashion.
Africa lets wake up and save Zim. Its time he left the scene. If you read this, no matter your briefs, say a brief prayer for our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe that face a ruthless government that is killing its own. Why get a whole Biti in leg irons?
Some few excerpts from Robert..." anyone advocating for a devaluation of the Zim dollar is a saboteur and an enemy of state"...a simple economic fundamental that Simba Makoni, Minister of Finance was trying to do in a bid to fix th woes that had bieseged ZIM...."Zimbawe was won through a war..we wont let this country go by a stroke of a pen".... this he says to drive home a point that no matter what happens during the elections, he wont allow MDC rule Zim. He goes on to issue threats of war against his own people. Offence..voting for a different party..a basic democratic right. Now I agree with Morgan "winning elections in Zim is one thing just like getting power is another"
These threats and the actual butchering and battering of innocent Zimbabwenas are not noticed by African leaders. There is no information available to them. After all we live in a world that ties good governance to evidence based policy making. So they say, Zimbabweans must take control of the situation themselves. Yes they have to..the mechanism is a ballot..it does exist. But wait a minute. I deplore such blindness. One Robert is threatening war if he looses and I quote "We are prepared to go to war if we loose the way it happened this other bllody night". Zimbabwe does not operate in a vacuum....its a country reduced to a basket but still a major economy in the region...I dont know whether our leaders have considered this. Businesss in our various countries with links to Zimbabwe are facing in tough. Malawi is not spared.
Why is it taking so long for Africa to act as Zimbabwe ceass to be a basket case but fast turning into a banana republic? Where is the moral voice of Madiba? Now if the guys goes in the bush..what does it mean for the region? Maybe until they shoot someone in our countries. I dont know.
Its funny how memories of our leaders get short. I guess Mugabe can learn some experiences from other leaders like Charles Taylor. He will be haunted one day like late Slobodan Milosevic....dictatorship is not fashionable..not even in my village...Mr Hannock Ngwira, my village headman, exercises some civility in how he runs the village. I am honored to sit in the governing council responsible for teenag affairs. Village teenagers are more notorious than their twon folks..atleast in my native Kabondwe...they carry axes on their shoulders...its part of a ngoni fashion.
Africa lets wake up and save Zim. Its time he left the scene. If you read this, no matter your briefs, say a brief prayer for our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe that face a ruthless government that is killing its own. Why get a whole Biti in leg irons?
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Unsung heroines: Malawian grandmothers and rural women
We are a very ungrateful society at all levels. In our homes, communities, social gatherings, workplace and even at the political playing field. Notwithstanding 52% of Malawian population, our service to the suffering of grandmothers and the rural women is awful to say the least.
The rural woman deserves a very big pat on which ever part you can think of. She has come of age and maintained our existence as a nation that continues to struggle with corrupt male chauvinism. Not forgetting the ageing grand mother who is now burdened with costly decisions of their children in the light of AIDS. A 2005 poverty study shows that some households in rural Malawi are as big as 27 and its the women that are taking care of such households. No one seems to care and most often we think this normal
Despite all these burdens the rural woman moves on. I imagine the ever increasing number of orphans that rock our country. As we go enmasse to the graves, the rural woman seems to bear the most burden. She still has to walk long distances to fetch water. She has to give birth in dangerous circumstances often without the help of a trained medical practitioner. She has to walk long distances to access a poorly stuffed clinic to vaccinate her baby. No one seems to care. She has to farm while the males are drinking kachasu and expecting to be fed as if its their right to do so. She has to endure abusive husbands who for some reason have been programmed to think beating a powerless woman is cultural. The women suffer in silence and they dont faulter. They still lead us.
Come election time. They are ferried in lorries all over the country to sing for ungrateful corrupt politicians with their big bellies. Politicians who pride themselves in riches aquired through unorthodox means. The rural woman is then told to vote..they are the ones that put politicians in power.
Rural women are the biggest voting block in Malawi. They make people Presidents and MPs....and they are the ones least served by them. Whither Malawi! I cry for the rural woman and the grandmother! What a nation! Very ungrateful.
The rural woman deserves a very big pat on which ever part you can think of. She has come of age and maintained our existence as a nation that continues to struggle with corrupt male chauvinism. Not forgetting the ageing grand mother who is now burdened with costly decisions of their children in the light of AIDS. A 2005 poverty study shows that some households in rural Malawi are as big as 27 and its the women that are taking care of such households. No one seems to care and most often we think this normal
Despite all these burdens the rural woman moves on. I imagine the ever increasing number of orphans that rock our country. As we go enmasse to the graves, the rural woman seems to bear the most burden. She still has to walk long distances to fetch water. She has to give birth in dangerous circumstances often without the help of a trained medical practitioner. She has to walk long distances to access a poorly stuffed clinic to vaccinate her baby. No one seems to care. She has to farm while the males are drinking kachasu and expecting to be fed as if its their right to do so. She has to endure abusive husbands who for some reason have been programmed to think beating a powerless woman is cultural. The women suffer in silence and they dont faulter. They still lead us.
Come election time. They are ferried in lorries all over the country to sing for ungrateful corrupt politicians with their big bellies. Politicians who pride themselves in riches aquired through unorthodox means. The rural woman is then told to vote..they are the ones that put politicians in power.
Rural women are the biggest voting block in Malawi. They make people Presidents and MPs....and they are the ones least served by them. Whither Malawi! I cry for the rural woman and the grandmother! What a nation! Very ungrateful.
Encounter with Bingu and his Cotton Economics
I must admit. I have meant Bingu once as Minister of Economic Planning in a Mangochi resort as a team of taskforce economists on the Malawi Growth Strategy in 2003. Something that i remember is his belief in cotton as a wonder crop to fix some of the problems Malawi is facing. Mining also featured highly and if i recollect myself, he said "I dont want a strategy that says we should be exprting sand" but some thing of value.
In today's discussion I look at cotton and revisit some of the beliefs Bingu had. For me it was an opportunity I cherish to talk directly with a person who i thOught was likely to be president in few months.I WAS CORRECT..it was so informal..no cops and all those folks that put on those dreaded helmets brandishing various military hardware that i have seen on TV. This is not the point. Some humour? Maybe. After all we are on cotton while on top of the Kabondwe Table mountain in my home village. No vipers and mambas..winter is fast approaching..so cool unscary chat.
Cotton prices slumped in the mid 1990's and our production has never peaked or atleast reached the highest record we had in 1986. Yet it offers the best opportunity for our farmers who for some reason have been cornered to believe that no maize no life. The rise of the textile industry in Asia has given hope. The African growth opportunity Act (AGOA) is offering more incentives for us to exploit the market in the US.
Yet, somehow I belive that authorities have somehow faultered. I am not competent to talk about the privatisation of Mapeto...i still belive it was the right thing to do except for the controversy. However, I have read in recent media reports that Mapeto is finding it hard to get the amount of cotton that it requires. I think there is something fundamentally wrong but very easy to address. Action from the Malawi government has not been strong enough to revive fortunes from this cash crop.
My synthesis is that there are lot of opportunities in this crop. The action that I have seen from governement is price regulation. There have been contracted battles about prices yet easy solutions are available and yet we are still in our slumbers. We have been slow in adopting biotechnology...call it genetically modified varieties. If you have problems with GMOs on cotton, perhaps this is the time to rethink. GMO cotton varieties have been proved to be high yielding, resistant to diseases and weeds....and no known environmental and health effects....its not food after all......and therefore requires no chemicals. Our current cotton varieties require heavy use of chemicals that often pollute the environement. Remember RIPCORD? Very deadly chemical used in cotton! Professor Kym Anderson, an eminent trade Economist, has shown that countries in Africa are likely to gain if they adopt GMO cotton varieties currently in use in China and the US.
Given the pace at which trade negotiations are going under the Doha Development Agenda, it will take many years for the US and the EU to remove subsidies to cotton. This means that our farmers will find it hard to compete fairly. Adoption of Cotton GMOs would lessen the costs farmers incur particulary on chemicals. GMO varieties on cotton are the sole domain of biotechnology firm, Mossanto, which is opertaing in Malawi. Why are we still in the slumber? It is time to move as quickly as possible and give those farmers in Nsanje, Chikwawa, Balaka, Salima, Rumphi and Karonga a new lease of life while giving the cotton user industry a locally sourced material and save some forex for drugs?
Lets get out the mountain. Its cold but pick any bush fruit as you descend save for a cobra bite.
In today's discussion I look at cotton and revisit some of the beliefs Bingu had. For me it was an opportunity I cherish to talk directly with a person who i thOught was likely to be president in few months.I WAS CORRECT..it was so informal..no cops and all those folks that put on those dreaded helmets brandishing various military hardware that i have seen on TV. This is not the point. Some humour? Maybe. After all we are on cotton while on top of the Kabondwe Table mountain in my home village. No vipers and mambas..winter is fast approaching..so cool unscary chat.
Cotton prices slumped in the mid 1990's and our production has never peaked or atleast reached the highest record we had in 1986. Yet it offers the best opportunity for our farmers who for some reason have been cornered to believe that no maize no life. The rise of the textile industry in Asia has given hope. The African growth opportunity Act (AGOA) is offering more incentives for us to exploit the market in the US.
Yet, somehow I belive that authorities have somehow faultered. I am not competent to talk about the privatisation of Mapeto...i still belive it was the right thing to do except for the controversy. However, I have read in recent media reports that Mapeto is finding it hard to get the amount of cotton that it requires. I think there is something fundamentally wrong but very easy to address. Action from the Malawi government has not been strong enough to revive fortunes from this cash crop.
My synthesis is that there are lot of opportunities in this crop. The action that I have seen from governement is price regulation. There have been contracted battles about prices yet easy solutions are available and yet we are still in our slumbers. We have been slow in adopting biotechnology...call it genetically modified varieties. If you have problems with GMOs on cotton, perhaps this is the time to rethink. GMO cotton varieties have been proved to be high yielding, resistant to diseases and weeds....and no known environmental and health effects....its not food after all......and therefore requires no chemicals. Our current cotton varieties require heavy use of chemicals that often pollute the environement. Remember RIPCORD? Very deadly chemical used in cotton! Professor Kym Anderson, an eminent trade Economist, has shown that countries in Africa are likely to gain if they adopt GMO cotton varieties currently in use in China and the US.
Given the pace at which trade negotiations are going under the Doha Development Agenda, it will take many years for the US and the EU to remove subsidies to cotton. This means that our farmers will find it hard to compete fairly. Adoption of Cotton GMOs would lessen the costs farmers incur particulary on chemicals. GMO varieties on cotton are the sole domain of biotechnology firm, Mossanto, which is opertaing in Malawi. Why are we still in the slumber? It is time to move as quickly as possible and give those farmers in Nsanje, Chikwawa, Balaka, Salima, Rumphi and Karonga a new lease of life while giving the cotton user industry a locally sourced material and save some forex for drugs?
Lets get out the mountain. Its cold but pick any bush fruit as you descend save for a cobra bite.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Bingu and Bakili on Economic Philosophy
I try to see the resemblance in the minds of Bingu and Bakili on economic philosophy and draw contrasts.
Bingu and Bakili in the first instance are subjected to common external economic forces like need for structural and stabilisation thinking of World Bank and its cousin, the IMF. How they have reacted to these forces and reformed our economic system reflects their differing philosophies.
Bakili has hard a tough ride with the IMF and World Bank. On paper, though he did what any politician could do for diplomacy sake. However, Bakili is a left wing politician and it is very difficult to implement IMF ideals. You know Chavez? He too is a left wing politician. I would classify Bingu as a centre right politician and so are his economic credentials.
The fundamentals are that Bakili yielded to what was privatisation, a belief that the world bank will defend to the last line. Some success stories have been cited like Dairy board as well as questionable privatisation of Railways. Bakili is a left wing politician who through the poverty reduction strategy, championed welfare of the underpriviledged by direct provision of services to them. Give them money, give them free fertiliser. In other words Bakili's economic philosophy is not really pro-growth economic growth. I reckon his thinking is that growth does not reduce or put it simple, rarely improves the welfare of the marginalised. His current speeches do point to this philosophy in how an economic system should operate. Populits left wing ideas....displaying commodities and massive public shopiing at Metro! Some have argued that Bakili being a business person his ideas are pro-business, I disagree. He is a workers' and marginalised mass grouping folk.
Bingu, is in sharp contrast and i call him an economic liberal. If you follow Asutralian politics, I would call Bingu, John Howard and Goodall Gondwe Peter Costello. The striking difference between the two is that Bingu is more pro-business than Bakili . His belief in the Zambezi Shire water way and committent to cutting budget deficits are ideals of a liberal economic philosopher. Bakili and Bingu differ on how they engage the poorest person in the economic process. By clinging to a starter pack, Bakili is an economic conservative. On the other hand, Bingu and his subsdies stand in the grouping of liberal economists that belive in engaging households in the economic sytem through some effort. Getting them to work to afford a subsidised bag of fertliser. Thats the story.
Well it is difficult to discern which philosophy has an urge over the other. I reckon the ecology in which an economic system operats is crucial. The efficiency of the judicial system, property rights and non-discretionary policies in management remain crucial to successful outcomes. These, to my knowledge, have remained the same and Malawi is still stagnant.
What is the best way? Well, lets reserve it for the "thoughts of the native son" as he goes to the table mountain in a moment.
Bingu and Bakili in the first instance are subjected to common external economic forces like need for structural and stabilisation thinking of World Bank and its cousin, the IMF. How they have reacted to these forces and reformed our economic system reflects their differing philosophies.
Bakili has hard a tough ride with the IMF and World Bank. On paper, though he did what any politician could do for diplomacy sake. However, Bakili is a left wing politician and it is very difficult to implement IMF ideals. You know Chavez? He too is a left wing politician. I would classify Bingu as a centre right politician and so are his economic credentials.
The fundamentals are that Bakili yielded to what was privatisation, a belief that the world bank will defend to the last line. Some success stories have been cited like Dairy board as well as questionable privatisation of Railways. Bakili is a left wing politician who through the poverty reduction strategy, championed welfare of the underpriviledged by direct provision of services to them. Give them money, give them free fertiliser. In other words Bakili's economic philosophy is not really pro-growth economic growth. I reckon his thinking is that growth does not reduce or put it simple, rarely improves the welfare of the marginalised. His current speeches do point to this philosophy in how an economic system should operate. Populits left wing ideas....displaying commodities and massive public shopiing at Metro! Some have argued that Bakili being a business person his ideas are pro-business, I disagree. He is a workers' and marginalised mass grouping folk.
Bingu, is in sharp contrast and i call him an economic liberal. If you follow Asutralian politics, I would call Bingu, John Howard and Goodall Gondwe Peter Costello. The striking difference between the two is that Bingu is more pro-business than Bakili . His belief in the Zambezi Shire water way and committent to cutting budget deficits are ideals of a liberal economic philosopher. Bakili and Bingu differ on how they engage the poorest person in the economic process. By clinging to a starter pack, Bakili is an economic conservative. On the other hand, Bingu and his subsdies stand in the grouping of liberal economists that belive in engaging households in the economic sytem through some effort. Getting them to work to afford a subsidised bag of fertliser. Thats the story.
Well it is difficult to discern which philosophy has an urge over the other. I reckon the ecology in which an economic system operats is crucial. The efficiency of the judicial system, property rights and non-discretionary policies in management remain crucial to successful outcomes. These, to my knowledge, have remained the same and Malawi is still stagnant.
What is the best way? Well, lets reserve it for the "thoughts of the native son" as he goes to the table mountain in a moment.
Thoughts of a native
Some folks have commented on my blog and its always interesting to hear them. I get encouraged to come up with pieces that are insightful to rock the mind and offer some hope. Today I go on top of Kabondwe table mountain as I pass the Kaphikhulas in my native Mzalangwe village in rural Mzimba-Malawi. I did not know that my village is home to the only table mountain in Malawi. I learnt about such mountains in high school geography. My own uncle Japhet t he used to call it "Table Monkey". I never figured out what he meant until high school days. Its a table mountain...if you have been to Cape Town then you know what I am talking about.
Lets cut this story short. I am on top of the mountain and thinking aloud about Malawi--or -a country that I call home. On the mountain we think and brainstorm while enjoying bush fruits in matwatwa, matunduluka, mahuhu, etc. But what baffles my mind is that since we got the British out in 1964 things have not changed..perhaps they continue to worsen. I simply dont understand and I am looking for solutions on the mountain amid malauding puff adders and other dangerous snakes that feel their habitat encroached. They are charging hard like a gorgeous but angry robin displaying that marvelous virgin breast.
We hav been cheated in this country for long. The political rhetoric has corrupted our minds since 1964 and the mind of a typical us remains static. A culture of silence has been systematically cultivated. Political and social vultures have taken control right from the workplace, to the family home and even in our prayer houses. Somehow our self belief has been compromised by forces that be and cancerous ideas cultivated in our brains. That now we think about today and nothing else. So sad.
Who is going to save this country from systems that poison our self belief. The journey has never taken off since 1964. The mind of everyone continues to rot while colleagues in and around our borders match ahead and Nyasaland continues to struggle with a booming coffin making industry. Cry beloved Malawi. Are we a banana or a coffin society? We continue bickering and busy calling each other wakumwera or mpoto forgetting that in each of the regions north or south do exist. We are all in the middle of the North and South Poles. What is all this fuss about? Culture of poverty or what? Give me a break!!! We continue to derive hapinness in the suffering of others. Our leaders in whatever organisations have not been spared this malaise and we revolve in the same mediocrity of a caged chicken unaware of a butchers knife.
Malawi has to move forward or else it will soon perish! I am no sadist but at the top of the mountain i can feel the pain of native sons. Dreams of a country that are fast cementing their positions in cemetries. Thoughts of native. Really?
Lets cut this story short. I am on top of the mountain and thinking aloud about Malawi--or -a country that I call home. On the mountain we think and brainstorm while enjoying bush fruits in matwatwa, matunduluka, mahuhu, etc. But what baffles my mind is that since we got the British out in 1964 things have not changed..perhaps they continue to worsen. I simply dont understand and I am looking for solutions on the mountain amid malauding puff adders and other dangerous snakes that feel their habitat encroached. They are charging hard like a gorgeous but angry robin displaying that marvelous virgin breast.
We hav been cheated in this country for long. The political rhetoric has corrupted our minds since 1964 and the mind of a typical us remains static. A culture of silence has been systematically cultivated. Political and social vultures have taken control right from the workplace, to the family home and even in our prayer houses. Somehow our self belief has been compromised by forces that be and cancerous ideas cultivated in our brains. That now we think about today and nothing else. So sad.
Who is going to save this country from systems that poison our self belief. The journey has never taken off since 1964. The mind of everyone continues to rot while colleagues in and around our borders match ahead and Nyasaland continues to struggle with a booming coffin making industry. Cry beloved Malawi. Are we a banana or a coffin society? We continue bickering and busy calling each other wakumwera or mpoto forgetting that in each of the regions north or south do exist. We are all in the middle of the North and South Poles. What is all this fuss about? Culture of poverty or what? Give me a break!!! We continue to derive hapinness in the suffering of others. Our leaders in whatever organisations have not been spared this malaise and we revolve in the same mediocrity of a caged chicken unaware of a butchers knife.
Malawi has to move forward or else it will soon perish! I am no sadist but at the top of the mountain i can feel the pain of native sons. Dreams of a country that are fast cementing their positions in cemetries. Thoughts of native. Really?
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