Watipaso Mkandawire of Chihoro Village

New Year’s Eve Thoughts: Part 2

2011-12-31T10:39:00.000-08:00

International Entrepreneurship: NICO leading the way

International entrepreneurship is the study of cross-border entrepreneurial behaviour focusing on how actors discover, enact, analyze and exploit opportunities in the creation of new goods or services.

I have always been impressed by leadership of one Felix Mlusu (MD of NICO Holdings), who I understand is preparing to hand-over the baton to my friend Vizenge Kumwenda. Vizenge was one year ahead of me at Chichiri Secondary School and I have always known him as a smart, intelligent and hard-working lad. I am not surprised where he is now. Soon he will be leading one of the most innovative companies in Malawi. NICO is a very dynamic and visionary company and this boils down to leadership and international entrepreneurship.

McDougall and Oviatt’s (2000, p. 903) defines international entrepreneurship as a “ combination of innovative, proactive and risk seeking behaviour that crosses national borders and is intended to create value in organizations”. A modification of McDougall and Oviatt’s (1994) definition of entrepreneurship is given by Stevenson and Jarillo (1990, p. 23), for them entrepreneurship is “a courageous managerial value creation process through which an individual engages innovative, proactive, calculated risk-taking behaviour designed to prosecute foreign business opportunities presented by multinational market successes and imperfections for financial and non-financial rewards”. Firms always strive to achieve growth and make more profits; one way of doing so is to expand the market for their products or services by going into international markets. The reasons for planning to internationalize seem to be the same for all the firms (i.e. profit, expansion, market opportunity)

I believe NICO has shown that international entrepreneurship after realising that Malawi is a small market and they can only increase value for their company by investing abroad. If I am not wrong NICO is now operating in Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania and Zimbabwe. A couple of months ago I sat with Vizenge over breakfast in AVENIDA hotel in Maputo. His mission was to explore further investment in Mozambique. I know they will do it.

This is what our leadership should be promoting. I would be surprised if Malawi Government or its leadership has ever taken any interest to ask NICO how they can support them to grow their international operations. My bet is using Zero Deficit Budget Government has been seeking ways to tax NICO.

What does a country gain in internationalisation? Exactly what our dear President is accusing Game Stores and Shoprite. You repatriate the profits and dividends. You create a market for your goods and services. You create employment and learning experience for your highly skilled citizens. Take for example Peoples (formerly PTC). Operating outside Malawi means you have outlets for your Malawians raw and processed goods. If you open operations in a highly sophisticated market, it means your home producers improve on quality to meet market requirements. It means your dividends and profits will be a forex inflow for the country.

It is high time Government takes interest and sits down on the table with companies like Press Corporation, National Bank, NBS, Mulli Brothers, MTL, and the little that we are left with to strategise and help grow these companies out of Malawi.

Let 2012 be a year of smart thinking Malawians and we will not achieve this if we look inward. Let us look outward. The world is too busy to wait for Malawi. We are irrelevant and a destruction with our strange ideas.

Happy New Year from Chihoro Castle

New Year’s Eve Thoughts: Part 1

2011-12-31T10:25:00.000-08:00

The Malawi leadership first needs to understand its own current trade and investment strategy and how its policies are affecting the strategy. Both domestic and foreign investors make decisions on the basis of prevailing policies and the policies have to convince them that they will make a profit. For foreign investors, policies also have to allow them to repatriate their profits back home. For leadership to make public demand to know location of investors’ bank accounts and accuse retailers like Game stores and Shoprite of stealing Malawi’s forex is sad.

Let’s start from the beginning. Government had a choice to either accept or deny Game stores and Shoprite opening up shops. I assume when they were allowed, Government understood how the retailers operate. Since capital account is closed, Government monitors any repatriation of profits and dividends. The two stores operate in 10-15 countries in Africa and have a defined business model that provides for re-stocking products from South African, local suppliers and other supply countries. What is required is to know their supply chain management and try to make a breakthrough in getting a bigger share.

Obviously the retailers are not saints but they should be treated as partners because they are partners. Their contribution to the economy is huge which Government on their own cannot provide. They have created employment, pay taxes, procure services on local market, have local bank accounts, pay electricity, telephone and water bills, buy Malawi fuel(when available) etc. Game Stores (Zambia) is the most profitable Game stores in Africa. www.massmart.co.za/pdf/massmart_game_lusaka.pdf Maybe it’s not a good yardstick but as the article states, 60% of its employees drive to work. It tells a story of the kind of employees Game has employed. Shoprite has 16 shops in Zambia (has 2 in Malawi). The two retailers are productive investors in SADC and it is up to each country to maximise the benefits that they bring.

Why then Mr President the outburst? In trying not to accept responsibility, our leadership is everyday scratching for blame targets. Blame the British; blame NGOs; blame gays; blame IMF; blame Americans; blame opposition; blame tobacco and cotton buyers; now blame foreign retailers! Please don’t make us a laughing stock! Malawian people are smarter than what you are portraying. We all know that Malawi’s tragic fall has fingers pointing in one direction: Bad and misguided policies! These (too many to reproduce) have led to lack of foreign exchange and low prices of our crops which has had ripple effects in the whole economy. Now we don’t have fuel, drugs, electricity, water, and decency. The fact that Game and Shoprite repatriate their dividends and profits is not a reason for our lacking forex as they have always repatriated since they opened operations. You could do justice to the people that employed you (Malawians) by giving us in figures the contribution of Game and Shoprite to our economy against the forex they repatriate. This should include the PAYE; Corporate tax, VAT; utilities; employment etc. Then you can go back on the public platform and make more accusation as to why foreign retailers should fund our Zero Deficit Budget.

Where does Malawi go from here? I discuss this in Part 2 of my New Year’s Eve Thoughts

Happy New Year from Chihoro Castle

My Daughter Speaks

2011-08-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

My daughter happens to be one of the most talented bloggers I know. I look up to her writing and I liked this one so much I thought I'd steal it from her. For more, take the time to visit her blog: www.thatafricankid.tumblr.com

So I found this ancient treasure (not kidding, it falls apart even more with every page I turn) in a charity shop while waiting for my friends to turn up for lunch (they’re both black fyi so I was in there a LONG time). Written in 1892, during the Victorian era (when Africa was nothing more than an exotic mystery to many*) by an English writer, I was intrigued, to say the least, how a white man came to tell a story of “the most beautiful of Zulu women”.

A sleepless night in, a cup of strong coffee and several chapters later, I was a little bemused when the narrator confessed: “I believe her blood was not all Zulu… her eyes were softer and larger than those of our people, her hair longer and less tightly curled, and her skin was lighter”, revealing that “the beauty of Nada was rather as is the beauty of the white people” as her grandfather was a white man.

Now this tells me two things (maybe more): (a) Just when you thought that beauty was JUST beauty, turns out there are TWO kinds of beauty, and one of them is superior (b) Nada is “fairest” in the land of the Zulus because she has Caucasian blood in her.

What troubles me is the fact that these are the opinions of a black, Zulu man- portrayed and presented to us by an English writer. In a world defined by “us” and “them”, is this how “they” really imagined us- somehow believing that “their” beauty was more beautiful than “ours”? It took reading a few chapters of this book to realise that perhaps the white Englishman, writing over a century ago, saw that the black man regarded himself as inferior even before the black man understood the implications of such seemingly harmless thoughts. And perhaps, if we will learn to accept beauty in a multitude of places, then people are just people; there is no “us”, no “them”, just people. Guard your minds, follow my blog (Hahaha that was a joke but it made me feel important) .

(*Africa remains nothing more than an exotic mystery to many today)

“It’s DPP’s Time to Eat”

2011-08-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

I was chatting with my good wife Fula and we agreed that I should change my name from simple Watipaso Mkandawire to “Hon. Prof. Watipaso Chihoro-man Wa Mukandawire”. My wife will now be called Ms Fula Wa Mukandawire.. Oh Yes.... Wa Mukandawire Woye! Inunso Woyee.

Fula at first thought it was not a good idea to add Professor, but I convinced her that despite having not taught at any University, I have written enough trash both, on my blog and on Malawitalk and Nyasanet to earn the Professorship. My local Community University in Watford run by my good friend from Kashmir will present the award to me before Christmas.

You see, things start happening in life when you elongate your name. Michela Wrong summarised change of name so well in her book entitled “It’s our Turn to Eat” when she argued that “the give-away is the moment a leader adds an extra segment to his name”. Sounds familiar? The give- away is also when wardrobe changes. You wear Rolex. You carry flywhisk. You carry a walking stick. Remember Ngwazi Mkango Wamuyaya Dr HKB? Remember Mzee in Gikuyuland? Remember General Field Marshall Idi Amin Dada or Kaka? Remember Prof. Dr Alhaji Yaya Jamme? Remember Yowere “Kaguta” Museveni? Remember King Phata of Ngaluland? Remember Julius “Mwalimu” Nyerere? Remember Bakili “Kuntunda wokumbamanda” Muluzi? Remember Daniel “Totoitich” Arap Moi?

Fula had initially argued that the change of wardrobe and acquisition of assets has nothing to do with adding prefixes to names. “You have to have a business or a job that earns you real kwayelas”, she reasoned. But she forgot that Wa Mukandawire dreams in colour and had already figured how he will earn the kwayelas. You see, I have not only added prefixes to my name, I have now qualified as one of the banana mafia as my name makes me the son of Ngaluland. Fula was so impressed and she immediately filled my glass with that wicked red drink she enjoys most, encouraging me to spill the beans.

Then her eyes shot up, Ahhhh, is that the reason why the Sergeant of Diesel Petrol Palibe prefers to be called Zakhala? No No No, I interrupted Fula. The Sergeant’s strategy and mine are different. The sergeant’s strategy is to destroy this Mandasi woman. Wa Mukandawire’s strategy is to join in the eating. Fula lost interest and plainly told me that it was my bedtime and my declaration meant I was denied of the wicked red drink......and more. It was a long empty night!

IMPACT OF TRAVEL BAN: SILENT DEMONSTRATIONS

2011-08-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

MALAWI is slowly but surely isolating itself from the World Community. Following the Budget Statement read by Hon. Ken Kandodo (MP) and most likely major contents provided by HE President Wa Muthalika, Malawi has been missing out in most international meetings. Not only are most of the meetings critical to Malawi’s development agenda, travel, to these regional and international meetings is an incentive for civil-servants for their continued professional duties in Government.

It is common knowledge that the take-home pay by most civil servants is obscene and these hard-working (including lazy) civil servants survive and acquire assets through allowances that they receive when they travel on duty.
More often than note, those in leadership positions are easily fooled by shallow-minded rent-seeking advisers. This is typical of what we are seeing in our country today. The Mzati Nkolokosa article is one case in point, where he argues that the agitation for demonstrations has nothing to do with the economic challenges the country is facing, but rather the anger by Northerners because of the policy on quota. Because of short-term benefits they enjoy, the advisers fail to see the bigger picture.

Whilst Civil Society, opposition parties and Churches are advocating for street demonstrations, civil servants denied of their privilege of trips abroad, are actively demonstrating silently as the country grounds to a halt and isolates itself from the world family. Malawi’s voice is simply silent and physical bodies absent in most international fora including in countries where we have diplomatic offices.
Invitations to various meetings/conferences are issued to Ministries and in turn Ministers and Principal Secretaries ask the Big Kahuna as to whether they should attend. More often than not, the answer is a big No. Civil Servants end up filing away the invitations. "Why bother to send the invitation to Malawi Embassy or High Commission in that country to represent the country"? Obviously the hosting country will call the Malawi Embassy or High Commission as to whether Malawi will attend. The Ambassador or High Commissioner having no clue about the meeting, let alone whether the “M” Politburo has agreed to Malawi’s participation, simply says, I will get back to you. The meeting takes place, no apologies from Malawi and no one attends and no one bothers to find out what decisions have been taken. That is now the order of the day. It is probably embarrassing for most Malawi’s civil servants and diplomats to sit behind the new flag which represents the new working order where only one man knows it all.

Of course our beloved President once experimented with the travel ban in COMESA when he was Secretary General. The result of the experiment is why today we have the Professor as our President. Silent demonstrations!
Yes we may smoke out street demonstrators but can we smoke out silent demonstrators? After August 17, perhaps Silent Demonstrations adopted by civil servants will serve us right.

http://www.faceofmalawi.com/2011/07/pictures-20july-malawi-demonstration-picture-malawi-protests/

Is JB and BM two sides of the same coin?

2011-08-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

BM was so appealing to the grass roots, so is JB. BM was comfortable with people of all class and mainly the grass roots. BM was genuinely compassionate and free-giving, so is JB. BM had a sense of humour, so does JB.

The difference perhaps as is the case with a coin is that JB may be “Heads” and BM probably “tails”. That is not to say one can decide in a coin that Heads is better than tails or vice versa. The difference between Heads and Tails is that when tossing a coin, one is made to choose the different sides. For the purpose of this story, let us say JB is Heads and BM is tails.

Let us start from premise of why the two are two sides of same coin apart from similarities described above. Both JB and BM emerged soon after the country was governed by “the so called” educated elites who looked down upon Malawians. Whereas HKB repeatedly reminded us how he found us “literally naked”, B”W”M has questioned the shallow thinking of Malawians and organised lectures to remove our ignorance. Both HKB and BMW ruled with a “know it all” attitude and never tolerated criticism and those that criticised where either fed to crocodiles or smoked out! HKB and BWM both lived a “life of pomp”, swimming in luxury.

BM had to emerge out of shadows of HKB and no wonder when I visited Sanjika Palace for the first time in 1997, standards had gone down considerably. A waiter serving luncheon attended by over 100 people including visiting Asian business captains had “mamina” (mucus) nearly defying gravity and dropping into the bowl of beef curry he was serving. Esteemed senior UDF’ers sitting next to me sent him packing.
If JB were to win the next elections, she would emerge and try to take over from King of Ndata and as a “mandasi woman” she will be trying to fit into the big boots whilst selling mandasi.

Well. As Malawians we have to continue experimenting. I believe that as a Malawian who is past his life expectancy, I would rather choose Heads over tails. Yes I like mandasi, but that is not the reason why I would choose Heads. I believe in JB not because I think she will be a saviour but because she will make a better President than BM or BWM. JB is self-made and ambitious. She will however re-write Malawi’s and SADC’s history by becoming the first female President in Malawi and SADC. She will pay special attention to “tomato” and “mandasi” sellers. She will dedicate her energies to education and business growth. She will provide a platform for team work. She will provide Malawians with warmth in her “Chi Joyce Banda”.

But, here is caution to the “Heads” I have picked. This will only be possible if those in PP are able to establish a governance structure that will not make her “King” or “Queen” of Mandasi Sellers. There will be a need for a PP governance structure where party (PP) will not be synonymous to JB and vice-versa. I can only hope that PP will be the first party that will introduce decentralisation that will make the grass root make more decisions regarding their political and economic lives.
Is JB ready to lead Malawi? I want to believe that she is more than ready. Her interview with Brian Banda was impressive. If what she says is what she believes in, then we have a gem that will make us shine. I am aware that when she was Foreign Minister, one of her weaknesses was yielding to Peter Muthalika who took centre stage in international meetings despite being a mere Adviser. Perhaps as she showed during Brian Banda’s interview, at times being humble and respectful is no weakness.

I however doubt if people surrounding her are ready to support and create the first successful female President of Malawi. I doubt that they share her vision and her outlook to life. I however agree with her on her take on the so called recycled politicians. They are first and for most Malawians. One would ask, what is the difference between the current Cabinet and BM’s cabinet? I would say the only difference is that they fear BWM than they feared BM, otherwise most remain opportunists. How I wished JB teamed up with the recent DPP “fall out” DP.

When I was in Malawi soon after 20/7, the overwhelming message I got was, Let us support JB. My cry is, “let us help build PP into a modern party that will introduce civilised and professional politics”. Then other parties may emulate what it takes to run a professional party. Imagine MCP being democratic!

The Presidency is for JB to lose. Perhaps the magic is in the “Chi Joyce Banda”. Ife ndiye Tatopa!.

Malawi TenderPreneurs ...HAKE! Kasi ndi LUTING'I IYI (Is it Looting)

2011-07-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

Malawi TenderPreneurs ...HAKE! Kasi ndi LUTING'I IYI (Is it Looting?)

It amazes me when guns go out blazing from the "holier than thou" DPP leadership calling Malawians "thugs and looters" following the July 20 demonstrations! Agreed, there is no justification for lawlessness and looting during such demonstrations, but hey, do not throw stones when you live in a glass house.

When I read South African papers about the bad boy Julius Malema and his $16 million mansion with a bunker built from a US$13,000 monthly salary, I suddenly realised that this new breed of business persons rightly called TenderPreneurs are killing Africa. Malawi has it's share of TenderPreneurs.

These TenderPreneurs (TEPs) have enriched themselves over the last couple of years under DPP Government and every single day new TEPs are emerging. TEPs emerge because political leadership need "hero worshippers" or "praise singers" who have no time to question bad policies or bad governance. They hate the country and simply love themselves. They care less of a girl from Mbwindi village who at tender age of 3, barefoot, if lucky, has one meal a day, has to help her widowed mother dig mice and carry carry out household chores instead of being in school?

In the current Malawi, it is common knowledge that Lucrative contracts are given to political loyalists, tribal affiliates and family members who overnight become rich (not wealthy) and with their briefcases full of new business cards go around the world claiming to be Malawian business elites! Remember, We had them during MCP and UDF regimes. Interestingly, many of the previous TEPs finally know where to find a shoe repairer and those posh cars have but disappeared.

Well, one would ask, what is wrong with rational beings grabbing opportunities? What is wrong is that TEPs and their promoters are simply looters. Think about it. These loyalists and those in leadership positions have been looting the public coffers willy nilly over the last couple of years with dubious businesses and projects. When they wake up in the morning, it is always about what else is available for free? 24/7 they loot and loot and loot, scheme new ways of grabbing public resources. They are simply LOOTERS. They are not ashamed to show off their newly acquired riches, building obscene houses and multiple "White elephants" that would make the truly wealthy beings wonder and blush. Their newly acquired riches makes them arrogant and in their minds they believe that they have done what Napoleon could not do. They grab whatever comes into their way, be it wives or contracts or properties?

Now, here is the irony. A simple Kawale-man, chihoro-man, mbayani-man, double-bend man, out of anger and the long-suffering due to lack of jobs and other economic opportunities joins a protest march. In the process, as they pass the high street, someone shouts, "the shop belongs to a TEPs. The marchers to pounce on the shop and help themselves to a few drugs, some bread, toothpaste, cement, sobo, blankets etc and ... Guess Who throws the first stone? The same TenderPreneurs , the same looters, the same so called leaders who have milked us clean as we watched!

July 20 was about the fight against systems that TenderPreneurs and LOOTERS have built to sustain their newly found lifestyle. They even wonder why car-less povos complain about lack of fuel or black-outs when they have no electricity in their homes.

As Malawians prepare for August 17, let us show the TEPs that we are not like them. We are a breed that is preparing for a better Malawi, where there will be no place for " LOOTERS In Leadership.

Africa, Mindset, Development and Doctors

2010-10-28T03:14:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I said “AFRICA” and not “AFRICANS”. This is deliberate because it is Africa that needs to be developed and it is African Doctors working in Africa that need change in mindset. Africans are as exposed as anyone in the world. With globalisation, knowledge is no longer a scarce resource. However, many doctors living in an African environment operate as if knowledge is very scarce.

There are so many things one takes for granted living in a western country like the United Kingdom. For example, when I go to see my doctor (here in UK referred as GP), one thing that strikes me is that he/she has a computer right there and a pile of books. Once or twice he/she goes on-line to check for something or refers to the books. I have therefore made it a habit that before I go and see my GP, I “Google” and try to understand what I may be suffering from. This helps me ask relevant questions. Turn the page and go to Malawi or Zambia (where I lived for 4 years). Apart from papers and some books on the desk, doctors have no computers and probably have no access to internet in their offices.

In my first early history lessons, I learnt about the different types of history which included “written and remembered” history. It seems our medical personnel in Africa prefer to use remembered history and find “written history” either a nuisance or unnecessary. As someone once said, “If you want to hide anything from an African, put it in a book”. It seems this is true for our medical personnel. My wife once had a gynaecological problem and a doctor in Zambia after one visitation and a scan boldly said, “I have to remove your uterus”. The reason was simple. My wife had confirmed that we did not intend to have any more children. Therefore removing her uterus was, to the doctor, the best solution. If this surgeon had read new medical findings he would have known that removing uterus is only recommended when the condition is life threatening. The reason might be that a woman’s body minus the uterus could bring other complications or imbalances. When the doctor was asked when he could perform the operation, he quickly said, "If you want, tomorrow"! Was motivation money? I am glad we went and read and consulted. We flew to South Africa, and my wife still has her uterus!

I had surgery in 1995 in the USA to remove a duodenal ulcer. Years later, in 2007, as I advised a friend with ulcers in Malawi, he was not even aware (nor his Doctor) that nowadays anti-biotics are part of ulcer treatment. In 1982 two Australian scientists, Robin Warren and Barry Marshall showed the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (now known as H. Pylori in medical field) plays a key role in the development of both stomach and intestinal ulcers. They were eventually awarded a Nobel Prize for medicine in 2005.

A friend recently shared a story of how three different doctors in an African country kept giving her antibiotics for over a year and told her that it was a gynaecological problem. The diagnosis after more than 3 scans kept changing. The last time she was told that the doctor would open her up to see what the problem was! She decided to go to South Africa and within a day, it was discovered that she had Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Google it if you want to know IBS. Imagine the trauma of being opened and being told that it was IBS and closed again.

This may look simple, but imagine the loss of life as a result of poor diagnosis, money spent on irrelevant drugs, time spent going and visiting doctors, resources used to go for medical treatment in South Africa etc etc. This all adds up and continue making our health systems expensive and strained. Yet we have qualified and competent personnel. It only takes a change of mindset to reverse this trend. Doctors have to start reading. Doctors have to be innovative. Medical practice is only for those that understand that the world is changing on a daily basis and they have to keep in touch with the changing world.

Perhaps Doctor should only be given a licence to practice if they have access to internet and subscribe to modern journals, and perhaps they should go for exams every two years. This however means in countries like Malawi, Internet infrastructure should be made available and affordable. Doctors can send patients’ scans abroad by email to get a second opinion before giving a diagnosis. This try and error method is a disaster.

If I was Malawi Government...I would not deliberately create rebels

2010-02-28T03:03:00.000-08:00

If I was Malawi Government, I would make “Rhoda Nyirenda” my star and model student of the year. I would ensure that the country does not lose or waste Rhoda Nyirenda’s brains. I would live to my pronouncement of promoting women’s emancipation – and that I believe that the world would be a better place if Governments educated women. I would show that I can lead Africa by example.

If only I was Malawi Government, I would ensure that Rhoda Nyirenda does not suffer discrimination. I would parade and showcase her to Malawian girls as a living example of what a girl is capable of achieving.

If I was Malawi Government, I would desist from creating a rebellious Rhoda Nyirenda. I would reward her for her hard work rather than punish and discourage her. I would desist from making her lose her confidence and think she is not good enough for Malawian Universities. I would surely desist from making her think she is less Malawian that everyone else. I would protect her and ensure that she does not become vulnerable to the world’s evils and eventually end up as a “teenage mother”.

If I was Malawi Government, I would, by any means necessary give Rhoda Nyirenda the opportunity and support to continue her education and excel in a career that would help in Malawi’s development. I would call upon all well wishers to support Rhoda Nyirenda and all other deserving students to pursue their university studies.

If I was Malawi Government, I would ensure I find resources and place all the 207 (+) deserving students in higher education either in Malawi or neighbouring countries or postpone their entry into the University until later when I have created capacity to offer them education they deserve.

Unfortunately I am not Malawi Government.

I can only pray that Rhoda Nyirenda and all those deserving students irrespective of their tribal affiliation do not become rebels. They deserve better. So does Malawi!

Silent Night...But Busy Night for the Inn Keeper

2009-12-21T15:01:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, two thousand years ago, a certain business tycoon and his wife decided to turn their humble home into an Inn. Perhaps they wanted to make a few pennies or maybe they realised it was time they made use of empty space left behind by their absent and older children. Unfortunately, business was poor and the long-awaited full occupancy of their inn would keep them waiting just a little longer.

One day, this all changed very suddenly with the Government’s call for an immediate census. It seemed luck was finally on their side! Together, the eagerly anticipated the mass influx of guests who would soon travel hundreds of miles to get themselves registered in their hometown. What the Inn-keeper and his wife had not anticipated, however, was the exceptionally bitter cold and harsh winter that year which had left many desperate for a room, even if it meant sharing.

On one particularly cold and busy day, the Inn-Keeper and his wife would experience a very late night indeed. The pub was full and orders for drinks kept coming. Residents, as well as travelling passers-by trying to down one more beer for the road, kept the Inn-Keeper’s wife occupied until late into the night. Desperate to lock up and end their prolonged shift, the couple eventually managed to push out the last drunkard and finally went to bed.

However, this would not be the end of their hectic day. The travellers, all eager to find a warm, cosy bed, continued to pour in with their donkeys and their children and their luggage. Slightly overwhelmed with his flourishing business, the inn-keeper got to work on a sign which read ‘FULL. NO ROOM IN THE INN’ and returned to his own warm, cosy bed. Just as their eyes were shutting and their sleep deepening, the couple heard loud and desperate knocks on their door. The inn-keeper instinctively ignored the banging and waited for it to stop. However, the knocking became louder and louder to the point where the inn-keeper could ignore it no more.
Afraid that this unwanted visitor would wake the guests up, he briskly ran down the stairs and upon opening the door witnessed an unexpected sight. He ran his eyes up and down the bulky-looking man named Joseph and immediately decided that this man, whoever he was, certainly needed a shave. A dim lamp in the frosty, dark background revealed that this man also had a donkey and that on this donkey lay a visibly tired, but heavily pregnant lady.

With a large lump beginning to form in his throat, the inn-keeper hesitantly pointed at his well-decorated sign hanging at a slightly odd angle but nevertheless clearly visible to all. But as he lifted his finger, he noticed Joseph’s frantic gaze towards the sign and back down to his wife, Mary, who was now breathing very heavily. She looked into the inn-keeper’s eyes and his heart melted on that cold, wintry night. He knew he had to help these people. Suddenly feeling ashamed, he decided that he could not turn them away. However, the inn-keeper soon realised that this decision would bring many more questions and no clear solutions. With no spare rooms, where would he put this couple? What would he feed their donkey? How would he explain this to his wife? In that moment, as if instinctively, the donkey led Mary and Joseph into the barn having smelt fresh hay. Well, it was warmer in there, even if it was a bit smelly, thought the inn-keeper. He was sure the stable would provide some shelter that was comfortable enough for Mary and Joseph.

The warm glow on Joseph’s face was enough to show the Inn Keeper his gratitude. Upon discovering that Mary’s waters had broken, the inn-keeper ran down the paved street, bringing back with him the local village midwife. After shaking hands with Joseph once more, the inn-keeper finally returned to his snoring wife and went back to sleep in a lighter mood. Just as his eyes were shutting and his sleep deepening, the inn-keeper heard a louder and even more desperate knock on the door. The inn-keeper instinctively ignored the banging and waited for it to stop. However, the knocking became louder and louder to the point where the inn-keeper could ignore it no more.

Reluctantly but fearful that the other guests would surely wake up this time, he got out of bed and opened the front door to find shepherds. He ran his eyes up and down the group, deciding that this lot certainly needed a shower. As the inn-keeper furiously lifted a finger towards the sign on the door, the Shepherds stopped him before he could speak. The leading shepherd explained how a host of angels had appeared and told them the good news about the baby Jesus who could be found inside that very inn. The Inn Keeper scratched his head briefly before remembering the unshaven husband, his pregnant wife and their donkey. He led the shepherds to the barn where they all saw that indeed Mary had a baby boy named Jesus in her arms. Bowing down, the Shepherds praised and worshipped God for the baby. Watching them were the proud parents, Mary and Joseph, the inn-keeper and his wife who had now appeared on to the scene. The leading shepherd took the baby in his arms and standing still, took in the moment. He leaned in to kiss the baby and was suddenly interrupted by the inn-keeper’s wife who, now wide awake, protested in the fear of any potential infection of the baby Jesus.

During the early hours of the morning the inn-keeper and his wife finally returned to bed in a much lighter mood. Just as his eyes were shutting and his sleep deepening, the inn-keeper’s wife began to nudge her husband desperately. He instinctively ignored this additional disturbance to his sleep and waited patiently, hoping it would stop. However, the nudging became even more persistent to the point where he could ignore his wife no more. What was it now, he wondered?
“That little boy looks nothing like his father. Do you think that woman cheated on her husband”? Before Joseph had thought of a response, a bright light appeared and shone right into their bedroom window. Half afraid of the guests complaining and half wondering where the light was coming from, the inn-keeper and his wife got out of bed again. Upon opening the front door, they found three strange-looking men conspicuously dressed in eastern attire. As the inn-keeper, now aggravated, furiously called out to them and began to lift a finger towards the sign on the door, the three men stopped him before he could speak. They recalled how they had been following a star from the East. A star that they believed was a symbol of birth of Christ. Looking up into the dark, winter sky, the inn-keeper’s wife let out a gasp when they discovered that the bright light hung directly above their barn. The inn-keeper and his wife led the men to the barn and watched in wonder and in awe as the three men lay expensive gifts by the baby before leaving in the same dignified manner that they had appeared.

Returning to their bedroom more puzzled than ever, the couple made a conscious effort to fall asleep. However, they eyes would not shut and their sleep would not deepen. A series of questions ran through their minds. Who was this baby? Could he really be the messiah? How was it possible that none of the lodgers in the inn had been disturbed by the endless knocking, running up and down the stairs and the sounds of the three men’s camels? Left, with many more questions than answers, the inn-keeper and his wife instinctively got out of bed again early in the morning to resume business as normal.

This is the Christmas story. It tells us of the humbleness of God and that he appears to us in very extraordinary circumstances. Who would have thought that Jesus Christ, the son of God, would be born in a manger inside a village barn, surrounded by animals and located behind a local pub in an Inn? On that cold, wintry night, the inn-keeper and his wife not only received a record amount of guests but they received and hosted the son of God.

As we celebrate the birth of Christ, let us remember and pray for our brothers and sisters in Karonga, Malawi who are in dire need of assistance as a result of two massive earthquakes during the month of December. Let us pray that they should not forget that it is Christmas.

Merry Christmas from Mkandawires in Watford, UK
Watipaso, Francisca, Mopani, Vinjeru, Watipaso Jnr and Sambiro

Throwing the Baby out with the Bath Water:

2009-12-02T03:41:00.000-08:00

Throwing the Baby out with the Bath Water:
Malawi School Closure

Come December 7 2009, there might be chaos and panic amongst thousands of Malawian families. The day marks the opening of new school calendar year and some parents have found out that their children have no school. What is the reason? The Ministry of Education closed down a number of private schools in Malawi that had been found as not in shape to operate as private schools. The blame game starts. Is it Bingu? Is it Bakili? Is it Kamuzu? Is it Mzuzu Corner? Is it Diaspora rhetoric? Well, I would blame Malawi and Malawians and let us all stand and be counted to resolve the challenge.

Well, let us start from why private schools mushroomed. First with population growth, more schools were needed. Second, with free primary education introduced in 1994, even more schools and teachers were needed. The 1994 policy of free education produced a wonderful opportunity for new line of business. Never before had an opportunity arisen to commercialise education. Business in many parts of the world including Malawi is copy-cat. Thus private education movement was born. Former night clubs and taverns, Crop warehouses, private homes and shops overnight became schools in urban and semi urban areas. Those audacious enough built new structures.

Perhaps what was not questioned was the capacity available to run and manage these schools, the health and safety of the structures and the education standards. 15 years later, Government decides that the cancer has to be stopped from spreading and rightly so. Perhaps many of our young persons who joined education stream in mid 1990s have had their future destroyed because of poor education foundation. Perhaps most private school owners paid more attention to their rightful need for profit and neglected the services being provided. Conceivably the regulatory regime was not ready to manage the new industry. The cancer therefore has to be stopped from spreading.

Stopping the cancer from spreading is not easy as we all know. If Doctors decided that the best way to relieve cancer patients is just to take away their lives, everyone will scream, Murderers! I believe there is a better way of stopping the cancer from spreading. Here are a few thoughts. The first step is to set minimum standards of what an education facility should have, which I believe the Ministry has done. This should set standards for facilities, qualification of teachers, curriculum, pupil-teacher ratio, health and safety etc. The second step is to benchmark all education facilities against these standards. The third step is to decide which of the education facilities could be improved with owners’ investment, which ones could be improved with Government intervention and which ones are beyond redemption.

For the facilities that require investment (either public or private), a discussion/negotiations should be held with owners. The Government should negotiate for credit facilities (soft loans) to support the investment requirements and Government should be party to the loan agreement to ensure the resources are used for the intended purpose. The Government could also introduce mobile training for the unqualified teachers and school managers.

For those that are beyond redemption a further thought should be taken regarding what should happen to the students when the facility is closed. This is important as education is a right and to have thousands of children out of school and no one is fending for them is inhuman and criminal. A similar consideration should be given to the other two categories. It is most likely that the existing Government education facilities cannot take over all the pupils and students that are out of schools as a result of closure.

If such consideration had been given, perhaps some schools could have been saved through a public-private sector or private-private partnerships and quick investment could have been made.

What is clear is that in throwing out the dirty bath water, the Government has thrown out the baby as well and innocent children will in the next months be denied the right to education.

For transparency and as way forward, The Ministry of Education should publish the School Closure Report so that parents, students and interested public may know the reasons for closure of each facility and what recommendations have been made for the owners to redress. Perhaps certain schools could be redeemed by communities that have been affected.

If I was a Country called Malawi......

2009-11-08T14:55:00.000-08:00

Statistics and Tertiary Education

A guy called Mark Twain claimed that Benjamin Disraeli once said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”. With that in mind, I browsed through the education statistics documented by UNESCO. The statistics provide very elaborate information that I am sure countries use to determine public policy as well as public expenditure. For example, the statistics ranks the various countries in different categories and policy makers can learn best practices from countries that are doing well and successful. Statistics however, may not tell the whole story. Aaron Levenstein once said, “Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.” One needs to go beyond the statistics and look at the impact on the ground. But for now, here are the statistics:

TERTIARY EDUCATION

Malawi is ranked last in the world (No. 150) together with Vanuatu. Malawi’s total tertiary enrolment rate is 0.3% (about 4,500 students). Compare this with Burundi (12,000) Rwanda (20,000); Zambia 25,000; Zimbabwe (56,000); Uganda (74,000); Libya (375,000).

Not encouraging. I then went to the next table. I was excited when I saw Malawi right at the top! Number 2! Yes, Malawi ranks second in the world (Vanuatu is ranked first) in terms of public spending per student at tertiary level. Tertiary education gets 18% out of the education budget and with this Malawi spends $1,492 per student (MK208000). Is this good news? Well if you spend so much money on a small fraction of your population, when same money can be spread to more people, it is not good news. The lowest ranked on the chart, is Brunei that spends US$8.5 per student. Namibia spends US$147 and South Africa, US$61.

For argument’s sake, let us assume Malawi adopts best practices and reduces public spending per student at tertiary level to US$500 per student. With the same budget, we could easily triple the enrolment from 4500 to 13,500 students. If we learnt from Zambia who, allocate US$330 per student per year from public coffers, we could increase the number of students to 22,000! Is this rocket science? Talking about budgets, a guy called Russell Lewis tells the following story:

“Give us a copper Guv," said the beggar to the Treasury statistician when he waylaid him in Parliament square. "I haven't eaten for three days."
"Ah," said the statistician, "And how does that compare with the same period last year?"

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Vocational education has never been given the priority it deserves in Malawi. Compare this to countries like Ethiopia, Cameroon , Canada, Libya, Israel South Africa, who have student enrolment of between 100,000 – 400,000 students. The graduates from these vocational schools form your artisan group of plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. Malawi is reported to have an enrolment of less than 800 students (even lower than Seychelles a country of 88,000 people).

Robert Hayden was probably right when he said “In God we trust. All others must bring data”. Given the statistics and the opportunities that Malawi has (i.e.
Malawi is already spending too much money per student) where should our priorities be? I believe that our priority should be in tackling two issues. First, at a stroke of a pen, initially increasing University enrolment at least threefold (from 4500 to 13,000) and increasing vocational enrolment to 10,000 in the next 5 years. This is still small considering that you have 50,000 students finishing form 4 every year. But the change would mean that the University can absorb more that (80-90%) of MSCE qualifying students (currently the figure is only 25%). This will require a complete change in university financing system including amount of tuition and fees students will be expected to pay. All logistics of managing University will have to be contracted out and University should no longer be involved in providing accommodation, food etc. University’s role should only be teaching. Providers of accommodation will only guarantee campus space to first year students. From second year, students should, at their expense (others will get scholarships) stay outside campus. The change however should ensure disadvantaged students and those from social and economically deprived families have access to government scholarships.

Secondly, Government will have to review capacities of schools that have been producing poor results and schools in disadvantaged areas. Deliberate policy should be made to direct public investment into these areas to capacitate the schools. Probably for the next 5 years, donor support should be directed towards human capacity (i.e. teachers, learning material and lecturers) to support the programme.

Chihoro is Beans: Home Sweet Home

2009-10-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

The climax of my holiday was when I realised that I was no longer as young. What made me realise this was whilst driving from Blantyre to Lilongwe, having watched Malawi (Flames) hold Ivory Coast to a one all draw, ahead of me was a Toyota Coaster belonging to University of Malawi. I followed it for a good 5 miles as what I suspect were students, performed all acts of stupidity, as they dangerously leaned out of windows and cars driving on the opposite side swerved to avoid them! I last saw such an act when I was in primary school, going to youth rally at Kamuzu Stadium. How time flies. I overtook and smiled in amusement at these stupid boys who were sons of someone!

The previous day, I was fascinated with the change in Flames supporters. It was all red and colourful. I had a K10, 000 VIP ticket, courtesy of Baba (Gaston Mwenelupembe). I was impressed that the tickets had numbers, meaning I had a seat as per my ticket. Indeed I had a seat, but, two fat guys next to me had two ticketless children aged probably 10 and 11 and we were supposed to share the seat! “Madala tingopanga squeeze ndi mafanawa, nanga tiamane chikopa? (Sir, let the five of us just share these three seats so that we do not deny the kids entertainment!) My foot, I was sweating and heating up inside. I decided to act the Malawi way and share, in case I was told I had exhausted our quota! Please FAM and Sports Council, either tickets are sold matched with chairs, or let us go back to old system where even with a ticket you were not assured of chair. I nevertheless enjoyed the match having shared my K10, 000 ndi mafana. But we can improve on the noise. I loved the boooooooo on Drogba and “DROGBA WHO? Poster!

I drove to Lusaka during the time I was in Malawi. I dreaded the journey because of the famous potholes on the road (especially between Sinda and Petauke), which I knew inside-out during my 5 years living in Lusaka. To my surprise, I never stumbled into a single pothole throughout my journey. Thanks to RB (President Rupiah Banda). I understand his young wife has business in Eastern province. It was great to enjoy Mosi once again at Times Cafe and Car wash.

What would a trip to Malawi be without Chihoro village? I had to drive Mpatsa 7 as Gorodi is still as it has always been. Maybe now with Quota policy, the road would be upgraded to bitumen standard. Apart from dust and fact that we had funeral in family, Chihoro was fun. But I was disappointed that we had no beans at the village. For me no beans, no relish! Whatever happened to this policy of beans beans beans? I forgot to ask my Dad whether this was due to quota policy! I did a bit of tour and Homestead (primary school) still had those grass-thatched pit latrines and vyungu - still flourishing with green maize. The numbers of folks at Chihoro have diminished over the years and wonder what the village will be left of in the next 20 years.

Driving back, we stopped at Phwezi. The previous day Four Form students had run amok and had been expelled from school. They were only to come and write their exams the following week. I looked at infrastructure at Phwezi and felt sad that boys still bath at the river, the buildings were still as pathetic and the food being served was, to say the least, undesirable. I had a chat with students who will be our leaders of tomorrow. Maybe it is time owners of Phwezi sat back and make a decision to give students not only good education, but good learning environment.

Meeting Kalenga Jere at Diplomats was my highlight of my trip. He had flown all the way from Solomon Islands to go attend “Lake of Stars”. Having had my phone stolen at Diplomats that night, it was time to bid farewell to Malawi. It was not to be. As I pushed a trolley of ufa, beans, rice, matemba and my little bag at Kamuzu International Airport, I noticed there was no one at the SA check-in counter. I asked someone when the counter would be opened. He looked at me and said, Madala, zitseko zandege atseka. Mwachedwa. (You are late, the flight is about to take off!) You must be kidding, I said. This is 1pm, the flight is supposed to leave at 2.55pm. “That is the old timetable. From October 1, SA leaves at 1pm from Lilongwe to Johannesburg. Just wait for the Mai Wandawanda, she will help you!” Never forget that lesson. In Malawi, always reconfirm your flight irrespective of what your Azungu agents tell you. I looked at my ufa and matemba bag and called a number. Come back and pick me up. Flight has left. Well, had I flown that day, I would not have had the chance to meet DAIRE KUMWENDA the next Thursday and hear his views about the Quota policy. That was 15 October.

Having swallowed fansidar on 18 October, I can happily join John Kauta today 25 October in Brunei for yet another BBQ and a couple of beers despite the fact that Brunei is a dry country.

Quota Policy

2009-10-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

I arrived in anticipation, a cold Carlsberg green, after years of drinking lousy English beers. I thought it was a joke, but I noticed the shabby looking guy was damn serious. “Your ID sir” he said whilst chewing and blowing the gum. The only ID I had on me was my driver’s licence. “Ahhhh, Mkandawire”! He said. “I am sorry but your quota is filled up. Try the next pub. Most of you do not go there”, he mused. “What do you mean quota is filled up?” I queried. He took his register and starting going through the list. Munthali, Nyirenda, 4 Mwaungulus, 2 Kasambalas, 2 Matiyas 3Singanos, Nundwes, 6 Bandas but 4 from the kukaya. You know Manchester United is playing today and your friends rushed to ensure they fill up the quota. “But Matiya and Singano...... Before I finished, the bouncer said, “I know, but we know that they never paid lobola, so they are both Mkamwinis in Mbalachanda! I was lost!

I left still confused and headed for “Peoples” and buy my Green and with fewer “breath gadgets” during the day, drunk my cold beer whilst driving. I decided to visit my friend and was sure that I would be able to watch the match with him. As I arrived, the watchman opened the gate for me. My friend greeted me warmly and ushered me into his home and his children were watching cartoon network. “Welcome back home”, he said. I know you are a Liverpool fan, but unfortunately, you cannot watch the match today because I exhausted my TV quota for this week. He said a colleague would keep him updated on scores. When I asked him why we cannot go and watch the match at the hotel, he told me that he had exhausted his “out of home” quota and he was stuck till the following week. “What is this quota business?” I asked and told him how I was kept out at the club.

He told me that Government was implementing a Quota policy and it had to be strictly observed. He indicated that the new ID card has made it possible to implement the quota. For example a quota will now be implemented in tobacco and cotton growing, foreign exchange allocation, international football matches, booking hotel rooms, passports, drivers licence, owning retail shops, buying of vehicles, international travel etc. If the trend does not change, quota will be extended to “red light streets” as it seems it is dominated by people from one area and this is not equitable distribution of income. “What about market vendors?” Well, he said. That has already been implemented, including fish mongers, tailors, sumagulalas etc. “What is sumagulalas? I asked. Ohh that. These are people that carry things on their heads across borders. You mean Smugglers? I mused?

He told me that quota was good for the country and homes. It brought stability and unity. Imagine a situation with no diversification in red light streets! It would be boring, no? He told me that I had to understand principles of economics. When there is scarcity, resources have to be shared. I asked him whether we had run out of ideas on how to increase the resources. He told me that was not the point. Don’t you understand that when supply increases, prices go down? You have to keep demand always high and supply low. That is the only way you can yield power and control the market. I asked him whether that was not legitimising sharing of poverty and whether it was fair to deny those life fish mongers and tobacco farmers to pursue their dream by curtailing their numbers, when all they knew is that trade? He said, the idea was that fish mongers would also now try to grow tobacco and tailors should attempt to become teachers and those book- worms should dirty their hands by catching fish or growing tobacco. It is called Diversification and Equity. I got more confused!

When I asked for another green, he told me that unfortunately, I had exceeded my quota for the day. I left for my humble home and wondered whether my wife would not impose a quota restriction when I arrived home!

You know you are in Vanuatu when........

2009-08-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

.........you watch and listen to string bands....
A small Island in Vanuatu called Emau produces some of the best Vanuatu string bands. Watch at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6S_t_ASSmk

String Bands are popular in Vanuatu. Apart from String Bands in Emau island, you have several strings bands in almost all the villages in Vanuatu. The String Band style comes from Polynesia. It came to Vanuatu towards the end of World War II, when the archipelago was still jointly ruled by France and Britain (1906-1980).

The musicians play string instruments (box guitars, ukuleles, one-string bass (Babatoni)) and percussion (drums or tambourine). The songs are sung by a single person or by the whole band in chorus. The theme of their songs, range from politics, economic, social, and developmental aspects of life. The songs are in Bislama (the everyday language of Vanuatu), in English, French or one of the regional languages. It is now common to find Christian songs or international pieces especially I found Lucky Dube’s songs quite popular.

As you land at the airport in Port Vila, you will find the songs of the “Airport” string band quite refreshening after hours of flying.

When I visited a holiday resort in Efate (main island where you find Port Vila), I watched a 2-man string band. I failed to convince the man playing the babatoni that he can use his foot as well, rather than just using the hands (like late Michael Yekha). He laughed it off, I guess being less of a musician, I failed to use the right vocabulary for him to see sense. I nevertheless enjoyed the music though after listening to one, you have listened to all.

Interestingly, I never found a string band at any of the kava bars! I wonder.

Watipaso Mkandawire of Chihoro Village: Vanuatu Kava

2009-07-31T23:26:00.000-07:00

Watipaso Mkandawire of Chihoro Village: Vanuatu Kava

Vanuatu Kava

2009-07-31T23:02:00.000-07:00

Visiting Vanuatu is always an experience worth narrating. I start with kava.
Kava has a long history in Vanuatu, and its use can be radically different from island to island. For many of the islands, kava is considered a sexually charged drink, and women are forbidden from drinking it. Kava is consumed in various ways throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures.

Traditionally it is prepared by either, chewing, grinding or pounding the roots of the kava plant. The ground root/bark is combined with only a little water, as the fresh root releases moisture during grinding. Pounding is done in a large stone with a small log. The product is then added to cold water and consumed as quickly as possible.

The kava I consumed was ground by hand using a piece of coral and a kava board to catch the ground kava root. In Vanuatu kava is drank in a specific order and if there are any special guests present as was the case with me, they are given the honor of consuming the first shell of kava and I simply said, Tankyu, tumas.

I noted a couple of things as I consumed kava at a kava bar on a Friday afternoon after my busy day of meetings. First kava makes you salivate and no wonder everyone was spitting. At the same time, traditionally, kava owners may feel offended if you do not spit because it might mean their kava is not as strong. So, Skiusmi (Excuse me) there I was spitting!

Having drunk the kava I found an interesting story on the net.

Traditional Vanuatu Kava Recipe
• Gather kava roots from field.
• Return back to the village with whole kava root bundle.
• Use machete to cut into more manageable pieces.
• Give the virgins of the village the kava for them to chew up and spit out.

This is a process called mastication. This is done because there are no machines or grinders. Also the virgins are the only ones with teeth due to lack of proper dental hygiene.

• The piles of masticated kava are then soaked in coconut or rain water for a period inside of a Tanoa.
• Strain the mixture through coco fibers into a coconut shell.
• Drink warm.

Having drunk the kava and experienced what people who drink kava experience, I was not sure whether I was drunk, or the opposite, but certainly I felt funny, so did my TV in the room. That was my Gudnaet! This was not my first time to drink kava, but certainly compared to the Fiji kava, this was the most potent and effective. I wonder who chewed and spat the kava before this preparation! I certainly prefer Vanuatu Tusker!

But hey, morning later, I gud nomo! That is Vanuatu kava for you

The Witch in the Village- Humphreys Mvula

2009-05-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

Gilbert Katemecha was my class captain in Class 4N (1981) at Chichiri Secondary School in Blantyre. He came from Likoma Island (Kaka) and had a head for Mathematics. Somehow, the system was unfair with him because he never went to University despite that brilliant maths head. I am not sure where he is now. I was very noisy in class and though School prefect, I would always appear on list of noise makers compiled by one Katemecha. I recall one day, down with Malaria, and dozing on my desk, the class was as usual noisy and Katemecha joined in the discussion. Our Headmaster, Mr Mulagha (RIP) walked in and in his usual flamboyant voice with Chitipa/tumbuka accent, he said; “Katemecha, Who was making noise?” Katemecha, stood up, and since he had not written a list of noise makers, he grinned and said, “Watipaso”, (and everyone burst out laughing knowing that I had slept throughout). I was nevertheless punished that day.

This incident taught me that when you have a history behind you, you are vulnerable. This is true in villages where you are suspected of being a witch. Any unexplained death, the witch becomes the first suspect.

It is alleged that Humphrey Mvula was the mastermind of 2004 rigging. No one has proved this. Over the years, many people have whispered on the role Humphreys played. But in a democratic country, innocent until proven guilty is what we believe in. I am writing this article with tongue in cheek as I know Humphreys Mvula and he is a person that during my troubled times in Malawi as CEO of MIPA, would always give me professional advice. I would read his advice between lines, and the message always seemed to be that I was being viewed by “the powers” as not being politically correct. I still value his advice.

I was however not surprised when news came up that Humphreys had been locked up on suspicion of having a parallel tallying centre.

Looking back, it is alleged that the reason why President Kibaki in Kenya had hurriedly organised a quick swearing in ceremony was because he was shocked that the opposition (Raila) had also rigged and they (Orange Party) did a better job that he (Kibaki) was trailing badly in the votes. This has never been proven.

Perhaps realising that opposition can also rig, and realising that there is a “James Bond” amongst the opposition in Malawi, I would suspect that the arrest of Humphreys Mvula was more preventative than Police having full evidence of the alleged crime. Being miles away, I can only assume. I hope I am right and that Humphreys will walk free.

In Malawi, we have witty and intelligent Malawians. Humphreys is one of them. I had the privilege of interviewing him in mid 1990s for post of Executive Director of National Sports Council. I was at that time Board member of Malawi National Sports Council and Chairman of Appointments Committee. He never got the job, though he was impressive.

The challenge in our country is utilising these intelligent Malawians for the benefit of the country. When we treat them as criminals, criminals they will be. It is not easy, but it can be done.

The “Witch” was made in God’s image and he is useful. Together we will build.

The Yellow Farm

2009-05-20T04:51:00.000-07:00

One Journalist early this year reflected on how God hardened the heart of Pharaoh as Moses asked him to “let his people go”. God brought many calamities to Egypt and its people such as rats, drought, insects, including killing all the first born sons. It seems we read these bible stories as fiction instead of learning from these incidences and asking God to give us the ability to listen.

As DPP and Bingu are ushered into Government, I think the biggest loser in this whole election is the UDF. Despite the fact that it is what I would call a Party of a “Landlord and Tenants”, UDF had built a formidable organisation and had style, glamour and splendour when it came to campaigns. The spicing of the events by Lucius Soldier Banda and before that the “Tanzania troops” was not something one could ignore. Without realising, even if you were not a fan of the Party, you would sing along and dance to the famous “Yellow” song. The Party brought in intellectuals who in all fairness were level-headed and many times believed that they could change face of Malawi for the better.

Unfortunately, the landlord could not allow the tenants to be part of decisions in determining the future of the farm. The landlord always decided what to plant, how many acres, what fertiliser to use, where to source all inputs, which market to sell the crop, and who gets paid and who starves. The landlord would also decide whether the tenants would work on that farm that year, or they would be sent to another farm, or indeed bring in new temporary tenants. In silence and praise the bowed and kissed the landlord’s feet.

The “Yellow farm” is now reaping what they sowed. For a Party of UDF’s magnitude and infrastructure, the envisaged number of seats that they are expected to win calls for a long hard look on the way forward. The obvious one is for the Chairman to step down and let the remnants map way forward. There is a lot to salvage and I am sure with “Yellow” in the heart of people like Brown Mpinganjira, (aka BJ), Jumbe, Mtafu and perhaps Chilumpha, the Party can be revamped. They should learn from the miserable destruction of AFORD, for which the “landlord” played a part.
Muluzi builds and destroys. He deserves a Statue in Malawi for many people will look back and ask? How did one Bakili Muluzi manage to toy around with our lives and destiny whilst we watched? Well God did harden his heart and he became Malawi’s Pharaoh

I wish UDF all the best in rebuilding the party. Democracy can only thrive in Malawi with strong competition and co-operation.

DOES ZIMBABWE KNOW IT IS CHRISTMAS

2008-12-25T06:33:00.000-08:00

DOES ZIMBABWE KNOW IT IS CHRISTMAS?

Morgan Tsvangirai was born in Gutu in 1952 and his father was carpenter and bricklayer. In the same year he was born, Robert Mugabe was studying at the University of Oxford. Had Mugabe known that Morgan was born, he probably would have ordered the killing of all boys under the age of two because a Carpenter had given birth to a son. Unfortunately, no wise men passed through Oxford University and he was no King Herod at that time and Morgan did not have to flee to Botswana

56 years later, Mugabe rules over Zimbabwe and he decided to remind us that Zimbabwe means RUINS and he will bring its meaning for all to see. Zimbabwe is named after ruins. Mugabe renamed Rhodesia as Zimbabwe after independence. Rhodesia was named after Cecil Rhodes, who also partly studied at Oxford in late 1800s.

The Greater Zimbabwe is said to have been a powerful wealthy state between AD 1250 and 1450, according to historians and its wealth was founded on cattle and subsequently trading gold, copper and ivory to Arab Merchants on the Indian Ocean coast in return for ceramics and cloth. By the 15th century the city had fallen into irreversible decline and for the next 300 years was known only to the outside world by hearsay, inspiring wild and romantic speculations linking it with the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon’s Mines.

At Independence in 1980, and years after, Zimbabwe was a bustling wealthy country. It was a dream shopping paradise for (Boyis and punas) from Bulantaya (Malawi).

I spent a couple of my Christmas holidays in Zimbabwe (Harare (Epworth), Chitungwiza, Victoria Falls, and Lake Kariba). These were memorable moments for me and my family and we have always cherished the happy occasions.

As we celebrate this Christmas in cold Watford, I keep thinking and echoing what Alex Matthews said in his Blog: http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/alexmatthews/2008/12/23/does-zimbabwe-know-it%E2%80%99s-christmas/ Does Zimbabwe Know it is Christmas?

I called my Dad and Mum in Chihoro Village today to wish them happy Christmas. Phones work and they were dining and having sobo (no wine or Carlsberg in Chihoro village because Dr Laws gave us the land on condition that there would be no polygamy and no alcohol). Of course, Dr Laws was not Jesus and he had his reasons of restricting alcohol. Except my Dad and Mum, my Uncles, residents of Chihoro village imbibe, some actually swim in mkontho. They seemed happier, complained of grannies who were unwell, and that it was muddy because of rains, but they were having a good time. I have tried to contact my relations in Zimbabwe to extend my best wishes but to no avail. I however wish them well and just to remind them that THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS IS JESUS. Zimbabwe may look like a Manger, but remember Jesus was born in a manger.

I wish Zimbabweans and all those in Zimbabwe a Merry Christmas and my Christmas present to them is 2 CORINTHIANS 8 verse 9

Let 2009 be your year

Malawi Parliamentary Elections 2009: Get Rich in 5 Years

2008-12-02T06:11:00.000-08:00

Introduction

By end of 2004, indirect campaign for 2009 had already started. Not that those that who inspired to stand 2009 were concerned that the incumbents were not capable or that the electorate deserved better, rather that in 2009, their income capacity could only be boosted by being part of the game. Being an Honourable MP is a career in Malawi, less risky, but where the returns “look” lucrative. In a reasonable short spell of time, most Honourables are able to become rich (not wealthy). I have no idea how the Honourable MPs all of a sudden become rich and maybe it is an area requiring research. Maybe when you become an MP, you become wiser and you are able to direct your income into productive investment. Maybe some of the electorates take care of your basic requirements and all your income is invested. I invite MPs to send their comments and educate us so that we could also aspire to become rich Honourables.

It is therefore not surprising that the activities surrounding primaries among the various parties for candidates for 2009 have been explosive and attracted thousands of candidates across the spectrum of the society, from retired University Professors, international civil servants, former CEOs, to bus drivers, farmers, retired government clerks, musicians etc. I understand that in some constituencies, you had as many as 30 candidates competing in primaries. What the political commentators are predicting though is that none of the parties will have majority in parliament. There will also be lots of Independent MPs. But this article is not about the prediction, rather it is about the preparations for 2009 elections and whether as a country we are getting a good deal out of our MPs. My answer is definitely NOT. The crop leaves a lot to be desired. The inability has nothing to do with education or experience. It has everything to do with the following:

• MPs understanding of their role
• Accountability of MPs to parties rather than electorate
• Detachment of MPs from their constituency in terms of place of abode
• MPs reasons and vision of being an MP
• Status of Democracy in the parties

Role of Members of Parliament

My understanding of an MP is that he/she represents a constituency having gained the right to represent the people in that constituency when he/she received more votes than any of the other candidates during an election. The job of an MP, therefore is to work in Parliament on behalf of all the people in that constituency, - even those who did not vote for him/her, and even if they strongly disagree with the views of the MPs political party, to help with matters for which Parliament or Central Government is responsible for.

Performance of MPs

A number of MPs can claim success in performing the above functions, but I would be surprised if these numbered more than 10% of the MPs. I do not believe being a at all funerals is what the MPs is elected for. I challenge anyone to give contrary views. MPs spend most of their time serving interests of their party leaders and accumulating what they desired in their new career. Most MPs have become contractors, briefcase businesspersons, suppliers of medicines, maize traders, etc. Most if ranked would get 1 out of 6 with 6 being a reasonable performance and 0 being non- performer.

Honourable MP, Where Do you Live?

To be in tune with ones constituency, it is important that MPs should spend most of the time with the people. I fully appreciate the fact that rural Malawi may not be the most ideal place for a former Professor or CEO to live, but then why take up that challenge? One of the criteria for allowing someone to be a candidate could be that he/she must have a home/house in his area and that a higher percentage of his time should be spent in his constituency. Many of our MPs are based ku Tauni (in towns and cities) and worse still, they probably visit their constituencies closer to elections, if at all. No wonder the MP turnover in Malawi is very high.

Honourable MP, Who is your Boss?

One may then ask the question of accountability. Who are MPs accountable to? Is it the electorate or a political party that they belong to? What about the independent MPs? Since the removal of the recall provision, there is reduced risk in taking “Honourable MP” as a career. Why not get rich in 5 years and even if I am not elected again, so what? Make hay whilst the sun shines! This is still a troubling ground and we have to get MPs answerable and the current political parties may not be the right instruments as they themselves may not be accountable.

Party Caucus and Democracy within parties

[The word "caucus" itself comes from the Native People of America and means "to gather together and make a great noise]." http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/primaries.htm

The parties prevailing in Malawi currently have one common feature, dissenting views are strictly prohibited. Although there is a difference in checking dissent, the end result is the same. There seem to be three cases on how the Party Caucus reaches out decisions:

Case 1: Party President present his/her view and makes it clear that should be the party stand and then asks individual members of the Party Caucus of their opinions. {How do you present a dissenting view in this case?}

Case 2: Party President present his/her party’s position or view and questions are not tolerated and reminds MP of their obligations;

Case 3: Party President announces an important issue and hints that if he/she was an MP, he/she would take option B, but it is up to MPs to choose the option they prefer. One brave MP chooses option A and he/she is dressed down and reminded where he/she was picked from

I have never attended any of the Caucus, so I may be miles away from reality but if a few examples reported in the press are anything to go by, I may not be very far from the truth. Please challenge me

Primaries: Do they make sense in Malawi?

As we prepare for 2009, we have read about nullification of primaries, harassment of women candidates, cases of each candidate bringing his/her own committee, candidates protesting because no one stands behind him/her during voting when he/she brought a whole load of supporters to vote for him/her. Maybe our democracy is confused. We are trying to combine a British and USA system and our hybrid is not working. If in Malawi we consider Party as supreme then let the Party Executive nominate candidates, based on agreed criteria within their party and do away with these primaries that are only creating “rich” Chiefs and Village Headmen. On other hand, if we believe the electorate is supreme, then let us have primaries that make sense and make them official with elections being managed and monitored by Electoral Commission.

If we go for the latter option, therefore, I think it will be necessary that primaries for 2014 elections should be managed, organised and conducted by the Electoral commission. Like in the USA, primaries are part of the official activity. Our primaries are chaotic, procedures flawed or unknown, and at the end of the day, may not bring out the best candidates. It will be argued that it will be expensive. Perhaps political parties should pay a specific fee to the Electoral Commission and the Commission would use these resources for the primaries. It is thus imperative that candidates wishing to stand, should pay money to their parties and in turn this money will be paid to the electoral commission. This will ensure that Electoral Commission determines and approves candidates and is able to send monitors and announce results. It is headlines like the following that makes primaries a farce:

LILONGWE, Malawi, Nov 24 (IPS) - Malawi’s primary elections are getting ugly for women candidates. Shoving, derogatory songs and being pelted with stones are just some of the intimidating tactics aimed at discouraging women from contesting the primary elections that will select candidates for the parliamentary polls in May 2009.

Gertrude Nya Mkandawire, one of the strongest members of parliament (MP) for the ruling Democratic People’s Party (DPP), recently withdrew from the primaries in her Mzimba Solora constituency, in the north, where she was running against 10 men.

Lilian Patel, an MP and chair of the Malawi Parliamentary Women Caucus, blamed party leaders for these problems. Just like the DPP, the other main political parties -- the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) -- are headed by men.

"All political parties in the country have failed to put up deliberate efforts to ensure that women are propped up," said Patel, a UDF member. { http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44827 ]

On Nov. 13, a primary election in the lake district of Nkhatabay ended with a stampede, when DPP supporters started throwing stones after a dispute over eligible voters. Three women were contesting these primaries.

Conclusion

I think whereas our democracy could be described as the most dynamic in the region (on account of ruling party having less MPs, ruling party becoming opposition on account of President resigning from party; Parliament and Judiciary court battles, Crossing the floor (AKA Section 65) etc) the dynamism has not necessarily worked to strengthen democracy, transparency and accountability, has not brought economic development, has encouraged greed and use of fear as weapon, has created less democracies in political parties, and above all, has created POLITICS as a 21st Century Career for Malawians who want to get RICH within 5 YEARS.

Of Global Financial Crisis and Karthik Rajaram

2008-10-09T13:43:00.000-07:00

Of Global Financial Crisis and Karthik Rajaram

The late Karthik Rajaram, 45, born in India, grew up in Bangalore and graduated in 1985 from the now famous Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai is said to have shot his mother-in-law, wife and three children to death before killing himself sometime between Saturday evening 4 Oct and Monday morning 6 Oct. in their home on Como Lane, California. Cause of killing and suicide? Credit crunch and stock exchange collapse. He was unemployed and his investment was wiped out on the London Stock Exchange.
When I heard that Karthik Rajaram had killed his family and himself, I quickly looked at my own tragedy by logging in to check my investment. I was shocked to see the negatives and the free fall of my investment. I quickly called the investment adviser who re-assured me that I should not pull out what was remaining. He actually advised me that if I had some spare change sitting idle, this is time to buy more!!! Okay, I never went hope to wipe out my family. I guess Karthik loss was just too much to bear.
As I still thought about Karthik and markets continued their downward plunge with both London and Washington making promises of bail-outs, I saw a headline in the Evening Standard of 9th October which read “London Tycoons lose billions in meltdown”. The scale is frightening. Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian tycoon and owner of giant steel plant Arcelor Mittal and the richest man in UK lost £21.4 billion. It is estimated that over the last four months, he was losing £7 million per hour!!!, Anil Agarwal of Vedanta Resources, (one of the large copper mining companies in Zambia) lost almost $3 billion on the London stock exchange. The total estimated loss for 10 only London tycoons is about £31 billion.
The Credit crunch is a nasty flu that is working its way down and will sooner than later catch up with our countries that are already vulnerable. But our countries have faced worse calamities than the credit crunch, as our needs are at the bottom. Most people do not lose investments because they have none. They long for food, clothing and shelter. Our needs are Physiological as described under Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which is the first lower level. Our political debate is based on these needs and hence there will be no bail out package for the few who have moved up the ladder on Maslow’s hierarchy.

From Cape to Cairo: Adios Mbeki

2008-09-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

President J.F. Kennedy is known to have been the first to use and promote “Affirmative Action” which was introduced to create opportunities for the disadvantaged minority. The issue of “minority” is probably, key to Affirmative Action and its programmes. You could for example targeted women, gay, religious groupings, tribes etc.

The South African experiment of Affirmative Action, popularly known as Black Economic Empowerment “BEE” was introduced in 1994, as a way of bringing opportunities to those that were disadvantaged because of Apartheid policies. There has been a lot of criticism regarding the BEE programme. According to critics the policy has failed and it has only benefited a few and created black bourgeoisie, with the rest still in dire poverty.

It is interesting that the world is surprised that 14 years after BEE was introduced the policy has not fully achieved what it intended to. Was it not obvious? Did the world understand JFK at all? Affirmative action was for the Minority and not Majority. How do you create interventions for the majority? The whole essence of governance is dealing with the macro and such interventions deal with micro! So of course, the minority within the majority were able to benefit from BEE and within a decade become mega-millionaires. {Note: The argument, by all means is not to undermine some of the good programmes that BEE introduced and many have benefitted from}.

I would therefore argue that Affirmative Action, introduced to provide economic- opportunities and well-being for the majority, has catalysed the creation of a number of economic layers in the South African Society. The next Government of Jacob Zuma will have to deal with the negatives vibes arising from these layers. The prominent ones are:

1. The Corporate White that discovered that they were better off leaving the Blacks carry the flag whilst they made money in South Africa and in the rest of Africa (that was probably dormant and sleeping);
2. The new Corporate Black and emerging middle class that have benefited from BEE and silently enjoy their riches;
3. The docile flag carrying blacks that continue to wonder when real freedom is coming but still have faith and struggling every day;
4. The active flag carrying blacks that have decided to share in the wealth by any means necessary – hence engaging in crime;
5. The Afro-phobia group that sees the hard-working makhwere-khwere as enemy number one and denying them of the promised-land.

For the first group (Corporate White) they saw opportunities by quickly realising that the world was becoming flat (according to Thomas L. Friedman) and with no cold war, new technological advancement (computers, internet, and world wide-web, etc.) and more importantly the group, being accepted as Africans (following end of Apartheid) the world was at their feet. They decided to go for it and conquer Africa. They toured Africa and using the former intelligence gurus of South African Defence Forces, they targeted specific sectors (some sectors in collaboration with Government). These included Information, Technology and Communications (Cable Television (DSTV), Mobile phones (e.g. MTN), etc), Financial services (South African Financial Institutions and Banks moved into the region at amazing speed, e.g. STANBIC, NEDBANK, INVESTEC etc), Energy (Southern Africa Power Pool, Caborra Bassa, INGA dam etc), Mining, Construction, Insurance services, Airline (New routes for South African Airways), Hotels and Tourism in general (Sun, Holiday Inn etc). This was not the end. They had to bring South Africa closer to the real munthu (people). They thus targeted retail outlets to introduce South African produce/products through outlets like Shoprite, Pep Stores, GAME, furniture shops, Woolworth, etc etc. Of course by Germans allowing South Africa to have Mercedes Benz and BMW production centres, fellow Africans flocked to get the C class to manoeuvre them in their pot-holed roads. Since those that bought C-classes were influential people, then the Group Five and other construction companies were at hand to seal the potholes.

The story did not end there. When Tsotsis come to town, you need high walls and electrified fences, and a resource was already at hand – the former South African Defence force retirees who created security companies. Opportunities were just too many outside South Africa for this group. They found it a good social responsibility to be seen participating in the BEE programme. They welcomed the emerging black bourgeoisie to share the domestic spoils as they explored lucrative spoils abroad.

For the emerging bourgeoisie, life had just begun. To hell with communism they declared. They moved from Soweto to new suburbs (Sandton, Midrand etc), where they belonged, behind the wall fences and electric gates. They are the new investors on Johannesburg stock Exchange. They are the decision makers in new Government, corporate lawyers, accountants, CEOs and Managers of new emerging companies, Deal makers etc. Politics became less interesting except to ensure that the politicians shared in what they were getting. They know the game and they try to make sure the Tsotsis cannot get to them. Hard work, they say, pays-off.

A group not included which could be part of Group 2 are the business vultures that have descended on the land of Gold. These mainly include Nigerians, Chinese and other nationals from African and Asian countries. Their business lines vary from legal to illegal.

The third, fourth and fifth group have members that move back and forth in the three groups, although others may have decided to stick in one group. They happily join any demonstration. They run small businesses including the famous taxis. They are part of the thousands who passionately follow football. They run gangs in townships. They are faithful church goers. They work in factories and every 5pm they rush to get a taxi back to makomboni. They buy their groceries from little shops set up by ada Banda from Usisya or Mahomed from Somalia, or Fungai from Harare or Pinhero from Beira.

As inflation bites and this group (3,4,5) lose jobs, they start loudly calling Ada Banda Makhwerekhwere. A South African friend of mine recently returned from his one month holiday in Cape Town depressed. He now understands why it is estimated that 50 people are killed everyday in South Africa as a result of violence (robbery, mugging etc). He saw what he could term as “end of being nice to each other”. No Ubunthu. People actually look for an excuse to get into a fight. When he was in Cape Town, three people were killed following a fight. Reason? They were arguing about size of penis!! It is laughable but true. He also saw a copy of an official letter from a local Chamber of Commerce sent to a Somali business association warning them that, “Go Home. Do not get surprised if we torch your businesses”. This is August 2008!

Has all this been created by Affirmative Action? Probably not; But I believe that the choice of policy (i.e. Affirmative Action) as a solution to empowerment of majority has partly contributed to creation of a dangerous society where one can justifiably say “South Africa is a Time Bomb”. But time bombs are good when you know they exist as you can try to disable before they go off.

Adios Thabo Mbeki! I was at one time a great admirer of Poet Thambo Mbeki. I enjoyed listening and reading his speech, “I am an African”. I still believe he honestly served to take South Africa to greater heights. His philosophy as expressed in this speech was enriching and said a lot about his resolve. I quote:
“I am an African.
I have seen what happens when one person has superiority of force over another, when the stronger appropriate to themselves the prerogative even to annul the injunction that God created all men and women in His image.
I know what if signifies when race and colour are used to determine who is human and who, sub-human. I have experience of the situation in which race and colour is used to enrich some and impoverish the rest. It gives concrete expression to the sentiment we share as Africans, and will defend to the death, that the people shall govern.
Like many who suddenly think they are the only ones created to serve human-kind, he got emotive and fell under the “Third Term Sword” and his lines from “I am an African”.

Being a descendant of Khoi, the San, European migrants and Malay slaves, Mbeki made the world problems his problems and he felt it was his responsibility to contribute to solutions in Ivory Coast, Burundi, DRC, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe etc. He worked diligently and did achieve solutions – maybe not always sustainable. Mbeki is probably not the right person to stop the “time bomb” from exploding as he probably has no idea it exists.

As Africa, we can only hope that the time bomb was set to explode after another decade, because if it were to explode in the next 3 years, the dust will spread and contaminate everyone from Cape to Cairo.

Should Malawi Government finally let go Air Malawi?

2008-09-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

According to today’s (9th September 2008) Nation Newspaper, the Government has offered British Airways-owned Comair 49 percent shareholding in Air Malawi for K490,000, (about US$ 3,500) including an "irrevocable option" to increase the prospective buyer’s stakes to 80 percent. The Nation concludes: “spelling the final death of the national carrier”.

According to the paper they sourced a shareholders’ agreement which indicates that Comair’s shares will go up to 80 percent and government will provide and guarantee loans for the new company. The paper further quotes People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) president Aleke Banda, as saying the sale will be a huge mistake for government to dispose off Air Malawi in a hurry.
"It is important to preserve some of the national assets. Actually, government should do everything possible to save the airline. I know of countries that are regretting their decisions to dispose their airlines in a hurry," said Aleke who made a similar appeal together with UDF finance spokesperson Friday Jumbe in Parliament. The two served as finance ministers before.

Opinions in Malawi are varied. I have always been for selling off the airline. I negotiated the first coming of COMAIR in 1998-99 when I was Chief Executive of MIPA. I stumbled upon their impressive financial performance when I was in a Cape Town hotel. On my way back to Malawi, I stopped over in Johannesburg and met the CEO interesting him of the Air Malawi opportunity. After a month, a COMAIR team came to Malawi and as MIPA we organized meetings with all stakeholders including Privatisation Commission. COMAIR then had 12 planes with a workforce of fewer than 400 people. Air Malawi had effectively 2 planes and with over 800 members of staff.

It stunned COMAIR. They were however keen to offer a sub-franchise of British Airways (subject to Air Malawi equipment passing the BA tests), not on account of what they saw in the books, but rather the routes that Air Malawi had, which was an added value to its strategy of targeting tourist markets. When Government at that time dragged their feet, we helped COMAIR get traffic rights to fly into Malawi (South Africa – Malawi Agreement provided for each country being able to have two airlines fly into each other’s country).

I see arguments of those that want to keep the “national asset” as trying to keep 100% of 0 instead of keeping say, 49% or 10% of 100. Air Malawi is technically bankrupt and keeping it as is, is basically betraying tax-payers in Malawi who require these resources for better use (health, education etc). Zambia has no national airline, but its airports are busier than those in Malawi. The private carrier currently operating has grown by the day.

I flipped through newspapers and websites and found what I already knew that what Malawi Government is trying to do, is a world-wide phenomenon because national airlines are no longer assets, national assets are those that give your money and not those that drain your cash. Here is a sample of what I found.

1. JAT AIRWAYS TO BE PRIVATIZED
Jun 05, 2008: Serbia decides to privatize national airline
Serbia has decided to privatize JAT Airways, the Balkan country’s national airline, over the course of the summer. The flag carrier will be officially listed for sale by the end of the month,

2. Libyan state airlines to merge ahead of sell-off
Published: 25 July 2008 16:21
Tripoli plans to streamline flag carriers into single, profitable business to attract international investors.

3. Italy's national airline files bankruptcy
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • AUGUST 30, 2008
ROME — Alitalia said Friday it has sought bankruptcy protection, taking the first step in a plan to reshape Italy's unprofitable and debt-laden national carrier.

4. KUWAIT, April 28 (Reuters) –
Kuwait's government started the sales process of its loss-making national carrier, Kuwait Airways Corp [KA.UL] (KAC), state-owned Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported on Monday, citing the cabinet affairs minister.
Kuwait's parliament in January approved a government plan to sell 40 percent of the carrier to the public and 35 percent to a long-term investor within two years.

5. Argentina Agrees to Sell Majority Share of Its Airline
By SHIRLEY CHRISTIAN, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: July 20, 1990
LEAD: Argentina, which agreed last month to sell its national telecommunications company to Spanish and American interests, has now agreed to sell a majority share of the national airline, Aerolineas Argentinas, to a consortium led by the Spanish airline Iberia.

The few articles above highlight the reality in the world of flying. Should Air Malawi be liquidated and a new joint venture established with COMAIR? I will go for it. What do you think?

GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF UNIVERSITY OF MALAWI

2008-09-06T10:28:00.000-07:00

Introduction

The author argues in this paper that the current System Governance and Management of the University of Malawi (centralised management of the University of Malawi) has outlived its usefulness and is more of a liability to the development of higher education in Malawi. The current management system promotes inefficiencies in the constituent colleges that have become perpetually dependent on Government funding and are unable to raise own funds. In addition, the system has encouraged duplication of resources much of which goes to cover overheads as opposed to the core business of training and development including expansion in enrolment.

System Governance and Management

The current regulatory framework tilts more towards the old school of thought, in which the role of the government is to control tertiary institutions. There is a need to move towards the new school, which supports autonomy with accountability in universities and government regulation and oversight of non-university institutions. The need for this change is strengthened by the fact that:

· the changes in the Malawi labour market, specifically, the demands for technology and the speed with which the technology changes, require that workers have the skills to select, adapt, and apply existing technologies properly and remain active, life long learners;

· changes in the demand for tertiary education which has risen as the proportion of youth attending and completing secondary school continues to climb;

Policy & Investment Framework (PIF)

The Malawi Education Sector Policy & Investment Framework (PIF) 2000-2012 proposes policies that will guide the development of the education sector in Malawi in the new millennium. One of the key policy states that, “The Government shall aim at increasing the participation of Malawians in tertiary education from 3,300 in 1997 to 12,000 by 2012.” One of the key stated strategies is to increase the University intake of full time students by optimising use of the available physical and human resources by intensified use of facilities during nights, weekends and holidays as well as joint time tabling across faculties.

The new policy direction and strategies were adopted as, a result of work undertaken internally through institutions like Malawi Institute of Management and by cooperating institutions such as the World Bank.

Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) Report

In 1998, the Malawi Institute for Management (MIM) carried out an analysis of the university sector and made a number of proposals and recommendations on the management of the university sector. Implementation of these recommendations has been limited. Apart from the establishment in 1998 of Mzuzu University, there has been little expansion of higher education.

The MIM Report observed that central administration is preoccupied with operational matters when it should really be concentrating on providing a strategic policy framework for university operations and activities. This would result in the transfer of some of the functions, carried out by central administration, to the constituent colleges and would improve efficiency in decision-making processes.

Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper – Tertiary sector analysis

The PRSP document acknowledges that the University central office uses its limited financial resources inefficiently. It notes that the University of Malawi spends more than half of its resources on boarding and administration yet student to staff ratios remain very high. Further, the poor linkage between industry and the curriculum undermines the quality of higher education. The country can best address this challenge if colleges are autonomous, able to design and determine their own programmes. Strong constituent colleges will be able to cooperate with industry as well as foreign institutions in the best interest of their programmes.

Government proposes in the PRSP that the University should become less dependent on subvention through cost recovery and decentralization and that to support this, it would:

Recruit pro-vice chancellor at UNIMA to facilitate implementation of reform programme and business development;
Establish a National Commission for Higher Education to plan and co-ordinate tertiary activities by 2002;
Review and redefine the role of the University Office;
Reduce staffing and unit cost of administration expenses by 20%; and
Decentralize the administration to constituent colleges

The Government recognized that it could achieve its objective of increasing access to higher learning by reviewing the role of the central office. In my view, Government should go further by abolishing the office. The University office has redundant positions like numerous Registrars, Librarian, Finance people, etc. Constituent colleges have similar positions. Apart from the cost, it is the fighting over who is in charge that has deterred the growth of programmes of the constituent colleges.

Implementing Reforms in Malawi

Apart from reduced funding, the rigidity and irrelevance of the centralised management system has constrained the constituent colleges to become innovative and operate outside the defined bureaucratic boxes. Government under the PIF had proposed progressive management policies of higher education by committing to initiate appropriate legislation to promote the decentralization of public university administration. Among some of the strategies, Government states that it would amend the University of Malawi Act to allow constituent colleges, independent status by 2001 and it would establish a National Commission for Higher Education by 2002 to co-ordinate and regulate tertiary education development. If implemented, the above would have catalysed review of the current centralised administration.

Malawi has one of the lowest proportions of enrolled tertiary students per 100,000 inhabitants in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1990s, several neighbouring countries have focused on expanding tertiary programs in education, agricultural sciences, communication, science and technology and their efforts have generated increasing productivity and diversification of production. In contrast, Malawi has not sufficiently focused on these subject areas. The number of university graduates has remained low and is inadequate to satisfactorily, contribute to the objectives of socio-economic development and poverty alleviation. This calls into question the proficiency of the leadership of the centralised University office as well as its relevance. There are fundamental inefficiencies, many of which arise from the small scale of operations, blurred vision and inability to implement strategies.

Though the funding from Government over the years has diminished, the University office has failed to increase efficiency in the use of resources. It is also important to note that the share of recurrent expenditures allocated to higher education (15–20 percent) is higher than the share allocated to secondary education (10–15 percent), if one was to look at the numbers whereby approximately 275,000 pupils are enrolled in secondary education while only about 4,000 students are enrolled in higher education institutions.

The inefficiency in use of resources is also reflected by the fact that an approximate average of 50 percent of university recurrent expenditure between 1997/98 and 2001/02 went to ‘personal emoluments’ and ‘benefits’ This may still be case now. On the other hand training and staff development’ received below 1 percent and ‘research, publications, conferences, workshops’ together accounted for 1–2 percent.

Reforms in other African countries

In other countries where similar strategies have been adopted and implemented, countries have seen notable changes. For example, University of Dar-es Salaam (UDSM) had 3,300 students during the 1994-95 and following reforms, enrolment tripled to 11,000 by 2003-04. One of the key components of UDSM's transformation strategy has been cost-cutting by contracting out a large part of non-academic services.

In the case of the National University of Lesotho (NUL), they decided that a more effective use of its resources would allow a sizeable increase in enrolment. NUL's plan calls for a three-fold expansion, from 3,500 students in 2001 to 10,000 in 2007. In Mozambique, there has been a quadrupling of enrolment from 4,000 in 1990 to nearly 17,000 students in 2002. Finally, since its decision to recruit fee-paying students in the early 1990s, the undergraduate enrolment at Makerere University has increased from 3,361 in the 1993-94 academic years, to 22,000—the large majority fee-paying—in 2003-04.

The main lesson from the reforms carried out by these Universities is that they started concentrating on their core business (training and development) and they made operational decisions in terms of the new programmes and growth in enrolment.

Successful Universities like University of Dar-es-Salaam have improved learning conditions by increasing faculty salaries so professors need not work outside jobs, by instituting mechanisms to monitor teaching hours, and by enabling peers and students to evaluate teaching. They have restocked libraries and begun to develop their capacities to provide information services. They have installed new laboratory equipment and provided Internet connectivity. Often they have made management more effective—in part by transferring responsibilities to faculty or department levels. Successful tertiary institutions have frequently developed new study programs to meet the demands of their countries' rapidly changing economies. Very little, if any, has happened at the University of Malawi.

Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, Malawi has an opportunity to increase access to higher education, quality of its graduate and expansion of programmes if it abolishes the University Central Office and can constitute independent Universities, for example, as follows:

Chirunga University (formerly Chancellor College)
University Teaching Hospital (Medical school and Colleges of Nursing);
Bunda University (Formerly Bunda college);
Blantyre University (formerly Polytechnic)

If Mzuzu and Livingstonia are Universities, surely, the four above have the muscle, content and relevance to be independent universities with autonomy to make business and academic decisions, guided by Government regulations through a National Commission for Higher Education.

To summarize, it is clear that we need to restructure the tertiary sector (University) in Malawi with respect to funding, efficiency, quality, management and relevance. The country needs to expand university education enrolment and graduate output, but it must do so strategically to ensure that programs and graduates meet the demands of both society and the economy. This will not happen unless decentralisation is meaningful with central administration completely abolished or it is trimmed to a very small office and plays no operational function.

Malawi Economic Performance Analysis

2008-09-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

OF UDF and II Thessalonians 3:10-12
Overview This note looks at the performance of UDF Government during their second term from 1999 to 2004. Whereas there was reasonable discipline and commitment in the first 3 years of UDF rule, evidenced by increased investment, donor flows and some stability in the economy (between 1994- 97) the second term was a disaster. UDF throughout this period made rosy policy pronouncements, and these were also contained in the UDF manifesto and re-enforced by Presidential statements during official and political meetings. These included pledges to introduce tight budgetary controls, improve fiscal discipline and eliminate corruption and abuse of state resources etc. The country experienced fiscal instability throughout this period to the extent that donors suspended donor aid and Malawi failed to attain the HIPC Completion Point under the Fund/World Bank programme.

What happened: Deceit, Public Relations, Incompetence or Ignorance?

By 2004, the following was the scenario in the Malawi economy

-An economic economic basket case with a staggering domestic debt burden, perilously low foreign reserves and no donor assistance.
- A historic inability of government to live within its means, with the budget deficit before grants ballooning to 10.5%, 18.6% and 14.7% of GDP in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively;
- Within the overall budget envelope, sectoral allocations of resources were re-shuffled to the detriment of key sectors such as education, health and agriculture;
- Donor displeasure with the lack of fiscal discipline and poor governance manifested itself in a virtual absence of balance of payments support from 2002;
- Government failure to control expenditure with domestic debt by 2004 in excess of K50 billion or 150% of annual domestic government revenues;
- Government borrowing drove money supply growth on annual basis to over 30%.

Throughout this period, UDF made noble statements, which included pronouncements and predictions on the direction of the economy. The statements ended frustrating stakeholders as they were not being translated into appropriate government policies. During this period, briefcase business-persons who ventured in procurement of goods and services on behalf of government prospered. It was normal for contracts for procurement of drugs, construction services and even procurement of large equipment such as “transformers” to be given to individuals, and at times Government are said to have advanced the businesspersons funds to enable them provide the goods or services. The result was shady work or indeed non- delivery of the said goods. By early 2004, for example, it was quite obvious that high interest rates and currency depreciation were symptom of economic malaise rather than the cause thereof. By May 2004, foreign exchange reserves were a low 1.2 months of import cover and total banking reserves were only 2.76 months. The UDF appetite to luxury consumption and reward to cronies (especially in public procurement) led to drain on foreign exchange which became unavailable on the market as soon it came on the market. With no donor support forthcoming, the business sector was being squeezed making the economy unable to grow.

One cannot doubt competence and economic knowledge of those in charge of the economy at that time. Following Dr Chikaonda’s departure, Hon. Friday Jumbe became Minister of Finance. Both Minister of Finance and Governor of Reserve Bank and those involved in the Cabinet Committee on the Economy (charged with managing the economy) understood basic economics and this was demonstrated in their statements, pronouncements and of course academic background. One can only conclude that the 3rd Republic (1999-2004) was full of deceit and were masters at propaganda.

UDF were masters of deceitful public pronouncements and a good example is statement by former Minister of Finance, Hon. Friday Jumbe when he presented his second budget Statement in June 2003. UDF was very good and admitting failure and placing blame on controlling officers and promising a new direction every year: and I quote;
“In the case of Malawi, high interest rates have mainly been attributed to the Government’s appetite to spend more than available resources. The resulting high interest rates have made it impossible to nurture meaningful economic activity. As a nation, we now are faced with an economy that is failing to grow, people whose abject poverty has unbelievably become part of their life. It is for this reason Mr. Speaker, Sir that the theme of this Budget Statement is Macroeconomic Stability: A Precondition For Economic Growth Poverty Reduction in Malawi.” “98. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I emphasised the need to leave within our means by only spending the resources that are available so that fiscal deficit which is a key source of our difficulties is brought to check. This is the reason the theme of this statement is Macroeconomic Stability: A Precondition for Growth and Poverty Reduction in Malawi. Government borrowing to meet ballooning expenditures has resulted in unfriendly interest rates and taxing inflation. Walking in Shoprite with a thousand Kwacha today will see one walk out almost as empty handed as one walked in. Let us desist spending more than we have in order to improve the macroeconomic environment of this country”. {Hon. Friday Jumbe, June 2003, Budget Statement}

All the promises, despite his famous Thessalonians quote, seem to have been an agreed UDF PR strategy to excite stakeholders, but in truth, no machinery was in place to implement the beautiful pronouncements.

Hon Jumbe during his 2002/03 budget presentation said, and I quote:
“ 11. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as we interface with and try to economically empower our people, we should impart the philosophy that they have the right to live and the right to feed themselves. This is also in the wisdom of Saint Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians in which he wrote: “For while we were with you, we gave you this charge, ‘If anyone does not want to work then he should not eat either.’ For we are hearing that some of you are living in idleness, not working but busy in other people’s affairs. Such persons we direct and charge in the Lord Jesus Christ that, by doing their work quietly, they earn their own living” (II Thessalonians 3:10-12)). This means that everyone, led by the highest political leader, should think, dream and talk of prosperity and do the best they can to achieve the country's goal of poverty reduction.” {Hon. Friday Jumbe, June 2002, Budget Statement}

What Happened after the Pronouncements?

It was business as usual. The annual average inflation was 30%, 28% and 21% in 2000, 2001 and 2002 respectively The base-lending rate for the commercial banks, for example, had remained at around 46 percent since July 2001, resulting in lending rates of around 54 percent in the early 2000s making it impossible for business take-off.

Government having no source of financing after the freezing of donor support continued the consumption upsurge by borrowing on the local market using Treasury Bills. For example, between April 2003 and November 2003, total stock of TBs increased from K31 billion to K42 billion of which K32 billion were held by Banks, Discount Houses and Non-Banks, with an average yield of about 40%.

In layman’s language, what did this mean? The government’s appetite to consume denied private sector the opportunity to access resources as banks felt comfortable with risk-free lending to Government through TBs and a high yield. The 2000 -2004 period saw a major increase in net credit to government from commercial banks mainly in uptake of Treasury bills. The result was increase in Domestic Debt from 3.4% of GDP in 1998/99 to 25% of GDP by 2004 and correspondingly domestic interest rate increased from 2.1% of GDP to 9.2% o partly right. But, the question is, with pronouncements and capable Ministers, why did the economy fail to respond? Why did UDF fail to deliver? Maybe the answer is in (II Thessalonians 3:10-12)).

Watipaso (April 2007)

RELIEF FUNERAL HOME – GIVING MALAWIANS A DECENT BURIAL

2008-09-06T08:58:00.001-07:00

Relief Funeral Home was incorporated in April, 2005, as a business name operating as a subsidiary company under AWJ Holdings Limited. We started operations in April 2007 after 2 years of facing numerous challenges. Our services include the following: Body collection and mortuary, Embalming, Hearse services, Body storage, Flower services, Mobile body fridge hire, Lowering device hire, Burial service, Accessories (Blankets, sheets etc.), provision of caskets and coffins, Radio adverts, processing of Death Certificate and other documentation, Arrangement of post-mortem services and Body exports.

I once participated in body washing and preparation at the Kamuzu Central Hospital mortuary. I was bothered about the condition of the mortuary and the fact that there was “no decency in death”. The mortuary which was built to store 54 bodies was piled up with over 100 bodies. We literally had to pull out “our body” from the pile of “once distinguished individuals”. This was in late 1990s. It was only in 2004 when I decided that when I die, my body will deserve some decency. This was after I had witnessed many burials in Lusaka, which have well run professional funeral homes. I joined up with my colleagues Captain Alick Sakala, Jacob Mwanza both Zambian nationals to form the company. Joshua Nthakomwa, who is managing the company, has now taken up shares in the company.

It was very difficult to find premises to operate from. Since its incorporation in 2005, the company only found premises in 2007. The general response had been that if they were going to let out their premises to Relief, then they would never use it for other business again. So, they either out-rightly rejected or raised their rentals to unrealistic amounts so as to cover anticipated “risk.” Even in the current premises, we are not allowed to store bodies.

Malawians have for along time have been comfortable with making of coffins and providing of hearse services. Embalming was seen as a domain of hospital/College of Medicine. Most bodies prepared by Mortuary Attendants (who are unqualified) are covered in “powder soap” (surf, OMO) as a way of preservation. But we all know what happens that by the following day, bodies are in a poor state.

Unfortunately the industry being almost non-existence is not regulated and not only has Government allowed “Mortuary Attendants” to use Government facilities to make money for their own pockets, but have allowed Government, in a sense lie to the public that the Mortuary Attendants are embalming the bodies.

We operate a mortuary (at Likuni Hospital), and in the minds of many, mortuary services are for Government and hospitals to undertake. Therefore, for a private company to operate a mortuary is weird. However, the mentality is less now than it was to those who have been exposed to the concept. People are beginning to realize (though very slowly) the need for such a professional service. Relief Funeral Home is the only private sector operation in Lilongwe undertaking professional embalming and body export/repatriation.

Despite providing an essential and critical service in Malawi, our 2007 land application to construct our own premises remains shelved in Ministry of Lands.

Relief still operates on hope and it is my dream that before I die, Relief will bring full “decency in death” by providing state of the art funeral services.

Our offices (only booking and display) are at Pacific Parade, Area 10 in Lilongwe and we can be contacted on 01-265-794 875 and email: nthax@yahoo.co.uk