Malawi at 55: We must be puzzling God!
Malawi must be puzzling God. Much as Jonathan Iwegbu in Achebe’s Civil Peace insists that ‘nothing puzzles God’, there is something about our so-called Warm Heart of Africa and the poorest nation on earth that must be disturbing our Creator.
It is cogent that whosoever bewitched us as nation must have used very strong roots. The tree must have been be created for this country, and Malawi only; for, it seems there are no more roots of that very same tree for other countries.
We needed brothers—or cousins, at least.
There are cousins, of course. Those war-torn countries are. But wait a minute! We are not war-torn. We have not seen war. In fact, most of us would be utterly clueless if a ‘friendly’ war broke out. We wouldn’t know, surely, where to run to or hide. We have known peace. Peace par excellence if you asked me.
But, in the last 55 years we have been free of colonial rule, we have cavorted with immeasurable mediocrity and stupidity that has failed us to make headway progress. Instead, we continue to nose-dive at a supersonic speed with no life savers in sight.
We are doomed. Malawi is doomed. Tribalism continues to proliferate. Swirls of heavy corruption, executive arrogance and a decaying civil service continue to suffocate us all—with no clue of how to end the nonsense.
And, you wonder that while some of our brothers have suffered the worst, maimed by wars—such as Rwanda and Mozambique—and continue to be twenty-times better than us, we continue to wallow in indescribable hopelessness. At times, to the extent of begging food, experiencing blackouts and water shortages when we have one of the freshest lakes
in the world.
Our universities that have been in existence since 1964, and have produced engineers, agriculturalists, and many more, have failed to remain relevant. Not even a simple hand machine for our frail women breaking quarry stones. Not even simple treadle pumps for irrigation along Songwe or Rukuru or Shire. Just impunity!
Surely, and seriously, God must be puzzled with us as a nation.
May be the next 55 years should help us to re-think our strategies, which must encapsulate viable and doable initiatives to move our country forward. Are we not tired of puzzling God—with our mediocrity?
What about this: we have no brains at all. Not even think.
The paradox is: If the country was inhabited by Whites, would it be in the condition it is hitherto?
Of course not! They would always find a way. But we? waste time in demos, good for nothing!
Pathetic.
Unfortunately, the word ‘demo’ is English; and besides we have seen the whites, Chinese, Japanese, South Americans including Africans conducting ‘demos’.
Thanks Ambuje Kakaya, in fact I meant ‘demonstrations’. An example: many people were unhappy when Trump won in 2016 and it was dubbed a “stunning upset”. Some people demonstrated to show their disagreement but only for a few days if not 1 or 2 and did not destroy public or private property. They stopped because they new it would not help. FYI: not interested in politics.
Malawi poverty is self inflicted. Kamuzu used to tell us that chuma chili nthaka and Malawi has no mineral resources. But by 1970, Malawi Geological Survey had found sediment for oil in the lake. Currently, we have gold , rubby, saphires etc. Who are benefitting ? Politicians and amwenye. Wake up Malawi
It is easy to write about the failures of gvts forgetting how we as citizens have failed the gvts. We are good at critising the gvts as though we are holly people. Yet deep down in our hearts if we do an honest reality check we are corrupt like the gvt officials we are critising. To us we think we are better than those who are running the gvt. One who steals K1000 is not different from one who steals K5bn. Both are thieves. The only difference is that the one stealing K1000 does not have the opportunity to steal more. Otherwise he/she can become a bigger cash gater than the renowned cash gaters. Therefore when we want to critisize we must turn our eyes towards our hearts in our inner being and ask ourselves: Am I not a thief, a corrupt person…….? Otherwise most of us are typical hypocrites but we are pretending to be holly here on social media. We are corrupt people and thieves. If given an opportunity to work at Reserve Bank, we can rob the entire bank without thinking about the future generation. Lets be positive also in our criticisms. Lets appreciate the good things that others are doing and not dwell on the negatives only. To show you that you are a good leader, look at how you manage finances in your home and lead your family. If you were doing the right things there, your family could have been far greater than it is now financially. Be honest and don’t be a hypocrite. Face yourself too. If you are a bad leader of your family of 3 people you can’t become a good leader of a villsge or government.
WHAT INDEPENDENCE ARE YOU PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT?
You all been drinking from the wrong well.
LETS ADMIT DEMOCRACY HAS FAILED. Kamuzu knew it and the west knows it, but in 1994 you thought women in trousers was a great idea. FOH.
China know democracy is the best sold lie.
And here’s the fact- THE CHURCH knows it just as well democracy invokes greed.
Here’s the list-
China, Russia, UAE, Vatican, Monaco, UK, USA,
I thank all of you for your comments. Now, let us go and have a coffee at Mugg & Bean.
There is sense even when a nosense speaks.
Mwana akalilira mtsatsi msemere. God can not be puzzled and in fact he pre-warned us through the British that this country is too poor to stand on its own. They tried to attach us to countries we are envying now but because of a certain greedy party called MCP it said NO!
MCP had no development agenda for this country apart from shifting the capital to their home region. Instead of using the R100 million, which today is over R1 billion, to develop mines and agricultural processing industries they used to construct capital hill.
There was also another U$100 million from Japanese govt in the 70s. Guess what it was used for: constructing a brand new airport and about a thousand residential houses in Lumbadzi. Less than 5 planes use that per day! Njovu yoyera yeniyeni.
And yet another U$70 million was used to construct a brand new stadium in LL but in a year the stadium hosts less than 5 games!
So God can’t be puzzled in fact he is celebrating that i told these guys.
BEGGERS? That’s Malawians, pathetic. Should have kept the name nyasaland, the most suiting.
That’s nyasaland, full of thick creatures.
Is the creator not the one to blame? How could he create such an imperfect world? If he is all powerful and all knowing, he should have known how to deal with sin, evil and imperfection in humanity. Waiting for good life in heaven is the biggest joke spirituality has peddled for years.
I advise you to study your Bible well. You will know why the world is imperfect! God created perfect systems that have become corrupted by evil.
This mediocrity sets in when we praise every Jim and Jack who wakes up one morning and begins to castigated the government machinery without a solution at hand; instead of criticising and suggesting a measure to repair the rot, they just make noise and leave it at that. The problem with Malawians is that even a vendor who has chosen to loot and vandalize people’s property is called a political activist. The worst thing is that the so called political leaders are in the forefront encouraging such heinous acts. In Malawian language “being educated is just one of those things” even PhD holders behave like savages, all that in the name of lining their pockets with proceeds they haven’t sweated for by stealing our hard earned taxes. Those who have tried to build the country to at least it’s envisaged standards, their ideas and efforts are shot down. As long as this selfishness is not nipped in the bud, expect Malawi to get worse in all departments/areas.
Malawians embraced democracy without knowing it’s real meaning and how it operates. The most unfortunate thing is that the country’s illiterate rate/percentage is too high, hence the blind followers, who can even follow although the leader is taking them over a cliff (blind loyalty). Peopke are taking advantage of the rampant ignorance there is. The same political leaders can not even be in a position to show their followers their bank accounts (if they have any at all). That is why during campaigns they borrow heavily thinking that the money will be paid back after getting into government. If they fail they go about organizing social unrests, claiming somebody sat somewhere in Blantyre and rigged as if all the casting of votes is done in Blantyre alone. What a shameful country we have, with greedy, conceited vampires disguised as politicians.
Good writing though the author has diverted to something not related to the issue at hand.
God indeed is wondering the type of species we malawians are
Amen
Indeed but then if the corruption was tagged and dealt with then things could have been seen moving forward. If there was justice in the courts to combat, yes we would have moved forward
If the cashgaters well dealt with,yes we would have moved forward
If any law breakers well dealt with, yes
If the politicians had stopped being nuincance eg caponda uladi, muluzi, pitala with his amwenye deal, the jet case joice, all the cases and the list goes, then its jane and pitala again with billions, then the banks, the albino cases, then is mouthy small head ben with 45 houses in on pne year bought in area 47, presidential villas in area 43 and then kunyoza mai shanil, next are his small balls lingering around the world on social media, a polititician showing off his boy joji to entice women and his kids see how their dad look like when naked, from an expensive new york hotel paid by our money what a mess, why do we still keep them asiur leaders?????????? Any good thing for our kids for their future???????????
If all these were faithfully sorted out
Then YES YES AND I REPEAT YES WE WOULD HAVE AGES AGO MOVED FORWARD OTHER THAN, I DOUBT IT WE SHALL CONTINUE GLORIFYING THEM LEAVING GOD ASIDE.
The best article of all time.
Malawi is where we are because of the following :
1 Our education system is not in line with what is happening in the world today. If you look at the quality of artisans we have in Malawi who claim to have attended so called technical schools you will laugh at the poor services they offer
2 Politicians are not bold enough to end corruption because, they themselves have their fingers in the tills, we keep recycling the same politicians who have failed us. What surprises me is that these people are trained outside Malawi but come back home with absolutely nothing to help this country
3 Introduce comprehensive foundation level education for all children under six well funded and well managed in every village where they are taught basics before they move to primary school. Let’s take a leaf from countries that have successful education systems. We can afford it if we stop stealing
4 Get new town planners the ones we have are sleeping. 55 Years into independence we have no clue whatsoever what we are doing with our cities.
The question remains, WHY?
Leaders are there to lead. An ordinary person can not make policies that can benefit the nation. That’s why leaders who led their nations to the right directions are celebrated. We dont have the right leadership. Period. To those who read or who know history not of a long distance in the past, What did Thomas Sankara did when he become head of state? And what was the result? If people can answer these two simple questions, then al least people will know that we are in the wrong hands.
Malawian leaders are all fools and thieves, they should be put in prison and keys thrown away! No points talking about it anymore. No functional brains absolutely zero brain cells!
Pius Nyondo, do not make me cry. I will be 71 years old during the next election. Hopeless. Hapless. Useless. I am afraid my Lord will use me as fuel for the fire in gehenna. I need to fight tippex NOW.
The problem is we see it as every one else has a problem, but it starts with me. What have I done.
We only build castles in the air of a distant future and do nothing tangible in the present.
What am I doing to move Malawi forward.
The solution is not in the hand of any one person. It is for all of us.
Magufuli is one person who has transformed Tanzania he is the president it’s leadership. Zomati it begins with you pepa pake not true check how the Tanzanian president is doing things
Not on those practice corruption
I do not agree with you above. It can start with you if there is leadership with Vision. Without Visionary Leadership the country perishes. Look at Rwanda, there have been individuals but it was only the visionary Leader Kagame came into power that the Country turned around towards a prosperous nation. Until Malawi has visionary Leadership, I can say with 150% certainty that we are DOOMED
I can say with certainty that what we have is non other than a clueless “traditional Nyapapi”. Magufuli and Kagame could have chosen our model of corrupt leadership but thry chose to be leaders fir their people and their country. We have a traditionsl nyapapi hss chosen to lord over us, protect his tribe and lord over the most corrupt Regine. He must fall.