By Emmanuel Luciano
THE Musicians Association of Malawi (Mam) has been in the news not for the wrong reasons as some would have it but for the right ones. This association’s executive is yet to hold its Annual General Meeting three years after being ushered into office.
Reason the powers that be in Mam give for failing to hold even a single AGM, for a grouping that represents the interests of musicians in the country, has always been lack of funds.
More recently, the association failed to hold a scheduled AGM in Mzuzu as the year was drawing to an end for the same reason of lack of finances.
The going has been a rough one for the executive that is yet to produce audited accounts of its operations in the three years that it has been in office. It was not surprising, therefore, to see squabbling and heckling characterising the running of affairs in Musicians Association of Malawi.
But with only three months to go before the month of April, when the mandate of the present executive committee expires, according to its president Wellington Chatepa, it appears the storm of trouble rocking the association is failing to abate.
Wellington Chatepa says the association will hold its AGM in April not anytime between as previously arranged.
This has irked some quarters within the association that feel the executive is unconstitutionally running the organisation by not holding the AGM.
Chatepa says they are trying to raise funds for the April AGM to take place without any hurdles.
“Actually the elections are due in April that is when our mandate expires. We had no AGM all these years because we had no money. The one we were to hold in Mzuzu failed to take place because we only had K50 000 which came from Mr. Wawanya one of the trustees instead of K400 000,” he says.
Chatepa dismisses those who were agitating for ‘early’ elections as individuals who were just bent on ousting the existing committee for unknown reason.
Overton Chimombo, one of the candidates that were ready to pit themselves against Chatepa in the failed Mzuzu AGM, however, says the executive is executing the functions of the association illegally.
“Holding the AGM in April is against the wishes of the majority of the people. There were issues that the office is being personalised a lot and that’s why we called for an AGM.
“According to our constitution, the president or the secretary cannot approve anything without the approval of the general assembly. Even the spending that is being done now is illegal because it has not been approved by the general assembly. There is no accountability. Right now we hear the president is busy conducting some Mam projects with funding from donors in the Centre but how do donors find activities of the association without audited accounts? Chimombo asks.
Vice secretary for Mam’s southern region chapter Diwa Khwiliro says members did not agree to shift the AGM to the month of April.
“We agreed that the elections or the AGM be held as soon as we have the money. If we find sponsors today we can have the election this week. The president is not a trust to make that decision alone,” Khwiliro says.
But Mam central region chapter chairman Edward Munjeru says holding the AGM in April would only be the rightful decision.
“The term of office is really supposed to end in April and that’s when we should have the lections because by then we will have found people to sponsor us,” says Munjeru.
Chairman of the trustees Geoff Gondwe says it was disappointing that members did not understand the significance of holding an AGM.
“Lack of money should not be a reason for acting unconstitutionally. That’s the price you pay for democracy. People should not water down AGMs because it is at this meeting where leaders renew their mandate. You can’t execute plans without the authority of the people who put you in office.
“It is at AGMs where plans and budgets of the organisation are approved. The assembly looks at the expenses incurred or whether they have spent within budgets.
Gondwe says he expects the association to have audited accounts ready by they hold the AGM.
“If they want to have the AGM in April, perhaps they want to give themselves time to prepare. The accounts haven’t been audited all these years and as a constitution requirement their books have to be done prior to the AGM,” he says.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Made in China: New song of development or begging for neocolonialism
By Emmanuel Luciano
Blue Diamond, a nightclub that is mostly frequented by animated students and some zealous outgoing adults, is perched at Sunnyside close to Colony Casino in Blantyre. This place can be reached using the Chikwawa road past Catholic Institute. Those driving from Victoria Avenue, downtown Blantyre, will only take a minute to get there. That is how close Blantyre is to Beijing.
And there is Machaina in Lilongwe, a name of a nightclub that needs no introduction for Lilongwe revellers who spend their time at Bwandiro.
At Trade Fair in Blantyre, on the opposite left of the Chamber’s house if you are entering the fair grounds using the main gate, there is a tiny restaurant which is run by people whose identity is easily deceived by a language that somewhat sounds Greek save for some guttural sounds that accompany it. Not that they serve any Chinese food at this place, no. It’s the same food you find in most second rate restaurants in town. And that’s how near mainland China’s Peking can be to Malawi.
If you have never been to any of these places you need not worry that you have never visited mainland China in Malawi because there are numerous China shops in all cities and towns that sell Chinese and other products at prices Malawians can afford.
But it’s not that easy to get to Taiwan in Malawi. In Blantyre you have to scale the walls of the timber factory at Green corner in Blantyre or that of their nail factory at Mapanga. You also need to do a lot of travelling, say travel some 30 kilometres away from Zomba town to reach Namasalima Rice scheme where the Taiwanese are running a rice growing project.
If you are in Lilongwe, to reach Taiwan in Malawi, only ask around for a location of the fertiliser factory which the Taiwanese are running.
Naysayers of Malawi establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing, in what is being termed as the country’s strange way of asking to be hit by a wind of neocolonialism, have argued their cases well.
Proponents of the red China-Malawi relation have also articulated, with passion of a soothsayer, the enormous economic gains that the country is going to get by establishing ties with mainland China at the expense of its 40-year-old relationship with Taiwan.
The debate appears to have been boringly exhausted but there are others like Malawi Watch’s Executive Director Billy Banda who argues that the train of thoughts on whether Malawi should stick to Taiwan or jump ships to join Beijing is being derailed deliberately to curtail the apparent healthy debate.
Perhaps Banda is right considering that the Malawi’s supposed move to dump Taiwan is now considered as Taiwan’s worst diplomatic crisis since the island broke ties with its long-time ally, Costa Rica.
Banda says there is no need to establish another tie with red China because he believes that Malawi already has relationship with Beijing.
“People should be able to differentiate two different sets of ties. We already are pursuing economic ties with mainland China. There are so many businesses from China that are operating in the country with our knowledge, ofcourse. So what else do we want?
“People are talking about economic gains, but we don’t go into diplomatic relations with any country as a profit-making venture because that relation may be a sugar-coated pill that is going to eventually destroy us,” Banda says.
The fact that there is a lot of speculation surrounding the Malawi-China relation does not help matters either as it is also generating conjectures that the ties are meant to advance an agenda that is not going to benefit the majority of Malawians.
“The government is playing hide and seek by allowing information that cannot be properly substantiated to circulate. This is not quite healthy. Diplomatic ties are not done for personal reasons but for the benefit of people of this country today, tomorrow and the future generation.”
“As a civil society, we will be watching closely the progress to see whether the decision to switch to China has been made in good faith. Any advancement that comes out to have induced benefits should not be made. What reasons does government give for going for China?” says Banda.
The Parliamentary Committee on International relations said earlier this week that it was going to meet to debate on the matter, but the Malawi Watch Executive Director says “the committee should consult widely on the issue regarding Taiwan and Mainland China.
“The committee has been idle for too long yet this is an issue that involves foreign policy which cannot be left to the executive alone to decide. There are issues like Malawi’s latest position on Nepad. Was the Malawi-Scottish partnership properly reported to Parliament and exhaustively discussed for instance?”
The question of foreign policy, at the time Malawi is at diplomatic loggerheads with Libya and in the news over its relation with China, excites even those in opposition.
UDF’s Sam Mpasu, who at one time secured computers for his Ministry of information from Beijing when UDF was in power, says the UDF government never made any ties with Beijing.
“It’s not proper that anyone in opposition should be dragged to say much on the country’s foreign policy. We in UDF are being blamed for the issue of Libya and Taiwan.
“But foreign policy is an extension of the domestic policy. What you do inside determines who your friend is. Governments deal with governments. But we deal with political parties and it’s mainly Liberal Democrats in the UK and the Democrats in America because we are a democratic party.”
As Dr. Chris Alden, an authority on China writes in the Commonwealth Press Union Magazine of August 2007, “for the investment starved African continent, China’s arrival has been overwhelmingly welcomed with open arms.”
“At the same time, there are signs of disquiet on the part of local trade unionists as the use of Chinese labourers and conditions in some Chinese enterprise has tempered the initial unbridled enthusiasm.”
As Alden continues in his article, Leveraging the Dragon: Toward "An Africa That Can Say No" in eAfrica of March 2005, Africa, when approaching China, needs to re-orient the very premise of its engagement with China from a residual liberation paradigm, … where Africa needs to consciously promote and preserve its interests.
As wrote Fred M’membe, editor of The Post, Zambia found itself in a precarious situation for not properly bargaining in its deals with China.
“It doesn’t seem we’re engaging the Chinese in the most beneficial way. China investment in Zambia is, in many respects, continuing the pattern established with the West---which has left Zambia poorer.
“We continue to place very little value on our natural resources and a much higher value on capital required to exploit them,” Mwembe wrote in CPQ Magazine of August 2007.
As Banda says, the rush for China should have come after a well-thought out cost-benefit analysis that would translate those ties into a new song of advancement other than a new form of colonialism.
Blue Diamond, a nightclub that is mostly frequented by animated students and some zealous outgoing adults, is perched at Sunnyside close to Colony Casino in Blantyre. This place can be reached using the Chikwawa road past Catholic Institute. Those driving from Victoria Avenue, downtown Blantyre, will only take a minute to get there. That is how close Blantyre is to Beijing.
And there is Machaina in Lilongwe, a name of a nightclub that needs no introduction for Lilongwe revellers who spend their time at Bwandiro.
At Trade Fair in Blantyre, on the opposite left of the Chamber’s house if you are entering the fair grounds using the main gate, there is a tiny restaurant which is run by people whose identity is easily deceived by a language that somewhat sounds Greek save for some guttural sounds that accompany it. Not that they serve any Chinese food at this place, no. It’s the same food you find in most second rate restaurants in town. And that’s how near mainland China’s Peking can be to Malawi.
If you have never been to any of these places you need not worry that you have never visited mainland China in Malawi because there are numerous China shops in all cities and towns that sell Chinese and other products at prices Malawians can afford.
But it’s not that easy to get to Taiwan in Malawi. In Blantyre you have to scale the walls of the timber factory at Green corner in Blantyre or that of their nail factory at Mapanga. You also need to do a lot of travelling, say travel some 30 kilometres away from Zomba town to reach Namasalima Rice scheme where the Taiwanese are running a rice growing project.
If you are in Lilongwe, to reach Taiwan in Malawi, only ask around for a location of the fertiliser factory which the Taiwanese are running.
Naysayers of Malawi establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing, in what is being termed as the country’s strange way of asking to be hit by a wind of neocolonialism, have argued their cases well.
Proponents of the red China-Malawi relation have also articulated, with passion of a soothsayer, the enormous economic gains that the country is going to get by establishing ties with mainland China at the expense of its 40-year-old relationship with Taiwan.
The debate appears to have been boringly exhausted but there are others like Malawi Watch’s Executive Director Billy Banda who argues that the train of thoughts on whether Malawi should stick to Taiwan or jump ships to join Beijing is being derailed deliberately to curtail the apparent healthy debate.
Perhaps Banda is right considering that the Malawi’s supposed move to dump Taiwan is now considered as Taiwan’s worst diplomatic crisis since the island broke ties with its long-time ally, Costa Rica.
Banda says there is no need to establish another tie with red China because he believes that Malawi already has relationship with Beijing.
“People should be able to differentiate two different sets of ties. We already are pursuing economic ties with mainland China. There are so many businesses from China that are operating in the country with our knowledge, ofcourse. So what else do we want?
“People are talking about economic gains, but we don’t go into diplomatic relations with any country as a profit-making venture because that relation may be a sugar-coated pill that is going to eventually destroy us,” Banda says.
The fact that there is a lot of speculation surrounding the Malawi-China relation does not help matters either as it is also generating conjectures that the ties are meant to advance an agenda that is not going to benefit the majority of Malawians.
“The government is playing hide and seek by allowing information that cannot be properly substantiated to circulate. This is not quite healthy. Diplomatic ties are not done for personal reasons but for the benefit of people of this country today, tomorrow and the future generation.”
“As a civil society, we will be watching closely the progress to see whether the decision to switch to China has been made in good faith. Any advancement that comes out to have induced benefits should not be made. What reasons does government give for going for China?” says Banda.
The Parliamentary Committee on International relations said earlier this week that it was going to meet to debate on the matter, but the Malawi Watch Executive Director says “the committee should consult widely on the issue regarding Taiwan and Mainland China.
“The committee has been idle for too long yet this is an issue that involves foreign policy which cannot be left to the executive alone to decide. There are issues like Malawi’s latest position on Nepad. Was the Malawi-Scottish partnership properly reported to Parliament and exhaustively discussed for instance?”
The question of foreign policy, at the time Malawi is at diplomatic loggerheads with Libya and in the news over its relation with China, excites even those in opposition.
UDF’s Sam Mpasu, who at one time secured computers for his Ministry of information from Beijing when UDF was in power, says the UDF government never made any ties with Beijing.
“It’s not proper that anyone in opposition should be dragged to say much on the country’s foreign policy. We in UDF are being blamed for the issue of Libya and Taiwan.
“But foreign policy is an extension of the domestic policy. What you do inside determines who your friend is. Governments deal with governments. But we deal with political parties and it’s mainly Liberal Democrats in the UK and the Democrats in America because we are a democratic party.”
As Dr. Chris Alden, an authority on China writes in the Commonwealth Press Union Magazine of August 2007, “for the investment starved African continent, China’s arrival has been overwhelmingly welcomed with open arms.”
“At the same time, there are signs of disquiet on the part of local trade unionists as the use of Chinese labourers and conditions in some Chinese enterprise has tempered the initial unbridled enthusiasm.”
As Alden continues in his article, Leveraging the Dragon: Toward "An Africa That Can Say No" in eAfrica of March 2005, Africa, when approaching China, needs to re-orient the very premise of its engagement with China from a residual liberation paradigm, … where Africa needs to consciously promote and preserve its interests.
As wrote Fred M’membe, editor of The Post, Zambia found itself in a precarious situation for not properly bargaining in its deals with China.
“It doesn’t seem we’re engaging the Chinese in the most beneficial way. China investment in Zambia is, in many respects, continuing the pattern established with the West---which has left Zambia poorer.
“We continue to place very little value on our natural resources and a much higher value on capital required to exploit them,” Mwembe wrote in CPQ Magazine of August 2007.
As Banda says, the rush for China should have come after a well-thought out cost-benefit analysis that would translate those ties into a new song of advancement other than a new form of colonialism.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Civil servants suffering from Aids to get K5000 monthly
By Emmanuel Luciano
Civil servants who are suffering from HIV/ Aids will get a new lease of life because government will be paying them an extra monthly K5000 to enable them access drugs and food supplements.
The government’s decision to consider the HIV positive civil servants is contained in the circular from the Office of the President’s Department of Human Resource Management and Development ref. No: HRM/GOP/20/61 dated November 5, 2007.
But Principal Secretary responsible for Nutrition and HIV and Aids in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr. Mary Shaba said the civil servants who wanted to benefit from the K5000 monthly portion had to come forward if they wanted to access the facility.
“Though the issue of HIV and Aids is confidential, but what it means is that somebody should be prepared to come forward to provide information to those who are coordinating the issue in offices. You still have to tell somebody in one way or another.”
Dr. Shaba allayed fears of stigma that the monthly K5000 facility might generate in various government offices and departments.
“There are systems in offices that are being used. But we don’t need to have names of the people who are suffering from HIV and Aids.
“We are looking at developing some kind of a coupon system which bears the number of the individual and the code. If I lose my coupon, the number and code will not reveal the name of the owner. We are also using hospital health passport,” she said.
The Principal Secretary said they had already started implementing the facility.
“The issue was already being implemented because some people who needed help came out were assisted with food packages and it was through that system that those who were hiding also came out.”
Executive Director of Nurses and midwives organisation of Malawi Dorothy Ngoma said the monthly amount for the affected health workers was government’s way of implementing the policy on caring for caregivers.
“There was no system for caring for caregivers, yet the health workers who are infected need extra support. They need to buy extra drugs,” Ngoma said.
Ngoma, however, said it would have better if the money were used to buy insurance or a medical scheme for those that are HIV positive.
“It’s an opportunity for those who are HIV positive to buy insurance or Masm because they might be admitted at an expensive hospital to access better treatment at one time,” she said.
But Dr. Shaba said government has already worked out a more detailed guideline that will include a scheme.
“We are looking at the scheme that will go beyond the K5000 to reach the affected households. Once this guideline is discussed then it will be implemented. You realise that K5000 could not be sustainable,” she said.
Civil servants who are suffering from HIV/ Aids will get a new lease of life because government will be paying them an extra monthly K5000 to enable them access drugs and food supplements.
The government’s decision to consider the HIV positive civil servants is contained in the circular from the Office of the President’s Department of Human Resource Management and Development ref. No: HRM/GOP/20/61 dated November 5, 2007.
But Principal Secretary responsible for Nutrition and HIV and Aids in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr. Mary Shaba said the civil servants who wanted to benefit from the K5000 monthly portion had to come forward if they wanted to access the facility.
“Though the issue of HIV and Aids is confidential, but what it means is that somebody should be prepared to come forward to provide information to those who are coordinating the issue in offices. You still have to tell somebody in one way or another.”
Dr. Shaba allayed fears of stigma that the monthly K5000 facility might generate in various government offices and departments.
“There are systems in offices that are being used. But we don’t need to have names of the people who are suffering from HIV and Aids.
“We are looking at developing some kind of a coupon system which bears the number of the individual and the code. If I lose my coupon, the number and code will not reveal the name of the owner. We are also using hospital health passport,” she said.
The Principal Secretary said they had already started implementing the facility.
“The issue was already being implemented because some people who needed help came out were assisted with food packages and it was through that system that those who were hiding also came out.”
Executive Director of Nurses and midwives organisation of Malawi Dorothy Ngoma said the monthly amount for the affected health workers was government’s way of implementing the policy on caring for caregivers.
“There was no system for caring for caregivers, yet the health workers who are infected need extra support. They need to buy extra drugs,” Ngoma said.
Ngoma, however, said it would have better if the money were used to buy insurance or a medical scheme for those that are HIV positive.
“It’s an opportunity for those who are HIV positive to buy insurance or Masm because they might be admitted at an expensive hospital to access better treatment at one time,” she said.
But Dr. Shaba said government has already worked out a more detailed guideline that will include a scheme.
“We are looking at the scheme that will go beyond the K5000 to reach the affected households. Once this guideline is discussed then it will be implemented. You realise that K5000 could not be sustainable,” she said.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Malawi's BBA II representive talks about Juna
Code mending fences with Juna
…‘Were I not evicted I would have broken the bond with Maureen’
…Juna got in touch with Richard’s estranged wife Ricki
Code talks exclusively to Malawi News’ Emmanuel Luciano
The lion roared in the den called Big Brother House. Like a typical predator, the Malawian lion did unusually good job at defending itself where necessary and sometimes killing its prey to survive in the game. There was time to be intimate to preserve sanity and time to be real. Such was the manner of the game.
The threat the lion posed to other remaining dwellers of the house was so big that in the lion’s own words “it was time he was evicted.”
But five minutes before his eviction Code was having a discussion with Maureen about how it was not making sense to be intimate. Time for reckoning had finally come for the lion in the house.
“We had to think positively because we had lost a lot. It was me re-awakening. I have to be honest with you, if I had survived I would have gone back to my room and live my own life.
“I had to break the bond with Maureen especially on the kissing. Of course I would still hold respect for her,” said Code.
That moment before eviction Maureen was talking about her plans to come to Malawi and how Code would “affiliate her to something she wanted like a vocational centre and she invited me to her country purely on a business front,” Code said.
When Code’s name was announced as the next housemate to leave the, the one he planned to break the bond with had he survived clung to him like a leech, kissing him on end yet more drama was unfolding outside the house.
“In as far as the kissing was concerned. I was giving her moment because she had asked for it. I really wanted to go but I thought if I had refused, I would have left her in a terrible situation.
Five minutes after eviction the lion was facing the facts of life.
“Outside I knew what I had done was wrong. But it was something that I had to do to be sane because in that environment you need to be attached to someone.
“I think people have a right to have their perception. But that was just good companionship. Maureen opened up to me in a major, major way.”
The confrontation was as scary as it was emotional.
“Seeing my girlfriend was pure manifestation of her deeper love.” While still in that emotional embrace, “I told her I am sorry and she said, ‘don’t worry too much’. It’s gonna be okay’. I love you still and we will talk’.”
Great expectations make frustrated men but the night Code shared a room with his girlfriend did not seem to bring any frustrations.
“She was telling me how she got to the Big Brother forum and how she started responding on the forum until the last day. She told me how she got in touch with Richard’s wife Ricki after she had left Tanzania for Canada.
“She also talked about how some of the things that were being said were affecting are. They were some bad things that were being said about me which she thought were total ridicule. On things like the pro and cons of our relationship on a multicultural basis which were basically racist comments,” said King Code.
On their relationship, Code said:” One of the things she highlighted on was trust. She asked me if she could still trust me. We are mending fences now. That’s where we are. We are mending fences.”
“She showcased a deeper love for me and I would be a fool to disappoint her and I am not fool. She is the one I love, and you know I composed two songs in the house Cry no More, and Nyenyezi. I told her before we went into the house that; look, Every time you are thinking about me just look into the sky and when you see two stars its me and representation of our unborn baby.”
Asked why on the eve of his eviction he asked Maureen that he “wanted to have quality time with her”, a thing that many viewers interpreted to mean sex, Code said: “What I meant was that we needed time for us just to rectify things that were not rightly said, to thank her for providing emotional support. Basically we needed each other for the emotional support.
“And of all the nights in the world why should she choose the night that is supposedly my last in the house to say she wanted to sleep? Instead of spending sometime with someone you were close with there she was sleeping. Because I am a person who can easily adapt, I moved on. That’s why she apologised and said sorry about last night.”
Asked what could be the first thing she would tell Maureen if she got evicted, Code said: “I would tell her thanks for the emotional support. Tell her shorty is pregnant and I am gonna be a dad. I got back to shorty and that we can still pursue the business plans.”
The Malawian representative who is fondly called King Code by his fans said ‘Guzzle’ was one way of keeping sanity in the house. Guzzle had a way of detoxing us; opening us to each other about our deeper feelings or just having fun,” he said.
‘Malawi lets guzzle at Blue Elephant’
MALAWIAN’s ambassador to Big Brother Africa II, Code Sangala says he is ready to guzzle at his homecoming party at Blue Elephant today as the euphoria of his homecoming from the Big Brother House is hitting Malawians.
Code said he didn’t expect to thousands of Malawians to receive him.
“Honestly speaking expected people to welcome me but not that big multitude that included Honourable Billy Kaunda, Roy Comsy and honourable Aleke Banda. I was even excited to meet my Chichiri Dance Troupe,” he said.
“It was a grand welcome. No disrespectful to the president, it felt like a presidential welcome, I felt like a king,” he said.
On today’s homecoming party, Code said he expects a “peaceful and joyful drinking and dancing.”
“There is a guy inside me that likes partying. I am looking forward to guzzling. Some of the hottest deals are done at guzzle places,” he said.
Tapuwa Bandawe of Mathalala Label who are bringing Tay Grin, Dan Lufani and Edgar ndi Davis to the party said all is set.
“We want it to be a hell of the party. We didn’t want it to be only a disco that’s why we brought these guys so that Code and his friends should also have an opportunity to perform,” he said.
…‘Were I not evicted I would have broken the bond with Maureen’
…Juna got in touch with Richard’s estranged wife Ricki
Code talks exclusively to Malawi News’ Emmanuel Luciano
The lion roared in the den called Big Brother House. Like a typical predator, the Malawian lion did unusually good job at defending itself where necessary and sometimes killing its prey to survive in the game. There was time to be intimate to preserve sanity and time to be real. Such was the manner of the game.
The threat the lion posed to other remaining dwellers of the house was so big that in the lion’s own words “it was time he was evicted.”
But five minutes before his eviction Code was having a discussion with Maureen about how it was not making sense to be intimate. Time for reckoning had finally come for the lion in the house.
“We had to think positively because we had lost a lot. It was me re-awakening. I have to be honest with you, if I had survived I would have gone back to my room and live my own life.
“I had to break the bond with Maureen especially on the kissing. Of course I would still hold respect for her,” said Code.
That moment before eviction Maureen was talking about her plans to come to Malawi and how Code would “affiliate her to something she wanted like a vocational centre and she invited me to her country purely on a business front,” Code said.
When Code’s name was announced as the next housemate to leave the, the one he planned to break the bond with had he survived clung to him like a leech, kissing him on end yet more drama was unfolding outside the house.
“In as far as the kissing was concerned. I was giving her moment because she had asked for it. I really wanted to go but I thought if I had refused, I would have left her in a terrible situation.
Five minutes after eviction the lion was facing the facts of life.
“Outside I knew what I had done was wrong. But it was something that I had to do to be sane because in that environment you need to be attached to someone.
“I think people have a right to have their perception. But that was just good companionship. Maureen opened up to me in a major, major way.”
The confrontation was as scary as it was emotional.
“Seeing my girlfriend was pure manifestation of her deeper love.” While still in that emotional embrace, “I told her I am sorry and she said, ‘don’t worry too much’. It’s gonna be okay’. I love you still and we will talk’.”
Great expectations make frustrated men but the night Code shared a room with his girlfriend did not seem to bring any frustrations.
“She was telling me how she got to the Big Brother forum and how she started responding on the forum until the last day. She told me how she got in touch with Richard’s wife Ricki after she had left Tanzania for Canada.
“She also talked about how some of the things that were being said were affecting are. They were some bad things that were being said about me which she thought were total ridicule. On things like the pro and cons of our relationship on a multicultural basis which were basically racist comments,” said King Code.
On their relationship, Code said:” One of the things she highlighted on was trust. She asked me if she could still trust me. We are mending fences now. That’s where we are. We are mending fences.”
“She showcased a deeper love for me and I would be a fool to disappoint her and I am not fool. She is the one I love, and you know I composed two songs in the house Cry no More, and Nyenyezi. I told her before we went into the house that; look, Every time you are thinking about me just look into the sky and when you see two stars its me and representation of our unborn baby.”
Asked why on the eve of his eviction he asked Maureen that he “wanted to have quality time with her”, a thing that many viewers interpreted to mean sex, Code said: “What I meant was that we needed time for us just to rectify things that were not rightly said, to thank her for providing emotional support. Basically we needed each other for the emotional support.
“And of all the nights in the world why should she choose the night that is supposedly my last in the house to say she wanted to sleep? Instead of spending sometime with someone you were close with there she was sleeping. Because I am a person who can easily adapt, I moved on. That’s why she apologised and said sorry about last night.”
Asked what could be the first thing she would tell Maureen if she got evicted, Code said: “I would tell her thanks for the emotional support. Tell her shorty is pregnant and I am gonna be a dad. I got back to shorty and that we can still pursue the business plans.”
The Malawian representative who is fondly called King Code by his fans said ‘Guzzle’ was one way of keeping sanity in the house. Guzzle had a way of detoxing us; opening us to each other about our deeper feelings or just having fun,” he said.
‘Malawi lets guzzle at Blue Elephant’
MALAWIAN’s ambassador to Big Brother Africa II, Code Sangala says he is ready to guzzle at his homecoming party at Blue Elephant today as the euphoria of his homecoming from the Big Brother House is hitting Malawians.
Code said he didn’t expect to thousands of Malawians to receive him.
“Honestly speaking expected people to welcome me but not that big multitude that included Honourable Billy Kaunda, Roy Comsy and honourable Aleke Banda. I was even excited to meet my Chichiri Dance Troupe,” he said.
“It was a grand welcome. No disrespectful to the president, it felt like a presidential welcome, I felt like a king,” he said.
On today’s homecoming party, Code said he expects a “peaceful and joyful drinking and dancing.”
“There is a guy inside me that likes partying. I am looking forward to guzzling. Some of the hottest deals are done at guzzle places,” he said.
Tapuwa Bandawe of Mathalala Label who are bringing Tay Grin, Dan Lufani and Edgar ndi Davis to the party said all is set.
“We want it to be a hell of the party. We didn’t want it to be only a disco that’s why we brought these guys so that Code and his friends should also have an opportunity to perform,” he said.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
A bite away from death
A bite away from death
By Emmanuel Luciano
There is a killer on loose. Rabies is mercilessly decimating Malawians.
“Rabies is a very scary disease. Once signs have shown in a man it’s a death sentence. It is very dangerous unlike Aids which you can survive through ARVs. When you have signs you cannot live more than seven days. The maximum one has lived in history is 14 days. ”
That’s how the veterinary surgeon, Dr. Kholiwe Mkandawire, portrays the threat that rabies poses.
On a daily basis, dogs are biting more and more people in Malawi. The press statement from government, which Secretary for Health Chris Kang’ombe and secretary for Agriculture Patrick Kabambe signed, says “Blantyre ADD is leading in registering dog bites cases with an average of 125 dog bites cases per month.”
This staggering statistic translates into 1500 people being at risk of dying of rabies in a year in Blantyre ADD alone if they don’t access the anti rabies vaccine.
It appears all over sudden dogs are on the loose in the country as more people are dying of rabies.
The current rabies status, Dr. Mkandawire says, warrants calling it a crisis.
“One case of rabies in a dog is enough to call it an outbreak because that dog is likely bite another dog, a person and wildlife. One bite can cause 100 cases of rabies,” she says.
Of the reported deaths, Blantyre recently registered two deaths while Malawi News’ investigation revealed that seven people died of rabies in Mulanje alone.
Dr. Mkandawire believes there are many unreported deaths of rabies throughout the country. Many people, says Dr Mkandawire, who take dog bites as normal in villages and do not bother to seek medical attention.
“No where in the world are people are people dying of rabies at the rate Malawians are dying of it. Three to four people die of rabies in Viphya every month.”
But a report of the study done at Queens Elizabeth Hospital for three years beginning March 2002 and posted on the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention website, indicate that rabies encephalitis is an important cause of death among children in Malawi.
The study also showed that 14 of 133 children who died from suspected Central Nervous System infections had rabies.
The report of the study says since this was a hospital-based study, the number of rabies cases in the community was likely to be much higher.
According to the report, “in some parts of Africa, up to 100 rabies cases are estimated to occur for each 1 officially reported.”
The report further says lack of diagnostic facilities and difficulties with the system hinder national reporting of rabies in Malawi.
Dr. Mkandawire however says cases of rabies are supposed to be rare occurrences.
“I remember my university professor telling me that you will never see a rabies case because it is rare in Europe and America,” she says.
The cases of the Dowa and Dedza beasts, in the eyes of the veterinary surgeon, are a pure scenario of rabies that was transferred to wild animals.
“We don’t control rabies in the bush. The rabies virus perpetuates itself by causing the madness to attack but villagers don’t know how to explain these things,” she says.
The ministry of Agriculture’s department of Animal Health and Livestock Department has “introduced annual rabies week vaccination campaign whereby dogs across the country are vaccinated free of charge.”
But Dr. Mkandawire, says, the campaign is not effective.
“The vaccination campaign really is very cosmetic. For you to control rabies really you must have coverage of 80 to 90 per cent of the vaccination of all the population of dogs. You cannot cover that in two to three weeks.
“There are no enough funds to give the boys allowances for the two weeks that they would be vaccinating the dogs.
“Inside sources told me that those who were doing the campaign in Blantyre were only given allowances for three days. You can’t take for granted the allowances of the workers in this campaign,” she says.
The Department of Animal Health and Livestock Development hasn’t been conducting shooting campaign of stray dogs because, as Malawi News understands, of problems in procuring bullets since through decentralization, each assembly has to buy for itself bullets.
But director of animal Health and Livestock Development Dr. Wilfred Lipita told Malawi News recently that it was no longer easy to carry a shooting exercise of stray dogs.
“The dogs are being clever these days. During the day they are not seen around and probably come out at night,” he said.
Dr. Mkandawire says it is 150 times cheaper to prevent rabies than to cure it hence government should pull its resources together on vaccination of dogs.
“For instance anti rabies vaccine for dogs cost K100 while a brand of human anti rabies vaccine cost K3000 on average per dose and for one to be treated he needs five injections which translates into K15 000,” she says.
“We don’t need to wait. We can control rabies. Government needs to import veterinary surgeons from countries like Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana while we are sending our young men to school. Imagine they are only four doctors in the whole Animal Health and Livestock Department,” she says.
The rabies crisis has prompted Kholiwe to hire a Kenyan veterinary surgeon to assist her in combating rabies.
“If Kholiwe can do it what can stop government from hiring veterinary surgeons? We also want sanity in the department of Animal Health and Livestock Development. This should be government’s priority,” she said.
By Emmanuel Luciano
There is a killer on loose. Rabies is mercilessly decimating Malawians.
“Rabies is a very scary disease. Once signs have shown in a man it’s a death sentence. It is very dangerous unlike Aids which you can survive through ARVs. When you have signs you cannot live more than seven days. The maximum one has lived in history is 14 days. ”
That’s how the veterinary surgeon, Dr. Kholiwe Mkandawire, portrays the threat that rabies poses.
On a daily basis, dogs are biting more and more people in Malawi. The press statement from government, which Secretary for Health Chris Kang’ombe and secretary for Agriculture Patrick Kabambe signed, says “Blantyre ADD is leading in registering dog bites cases with an average of 125 dog bites cases per month.”
This staggering statistic translates into 1500 people being at risk of dying of rabies in a year in Blantyre ADD alone if they don’t access the anti rabies vaccine.
It appears all over sudden dogs are on the loose in the country as more people are dying of rabies.
The current rabies status, Dr. Mkandawire says, warrants calling it a crisis.
“One case of rabies in a dog is enough to call it an outbreak because that dog is likely bite another dog, a person and wildlife. One bite can cause 100 cases of rabies,” she says.
Of the reported deaths, Blantyre recently registered two deaths while Malawi News’ investigation revealed that seven people died of rabies in Mulanje alone.
Dr. Mkandawire believes there are many unreported deaths of rabies throughout the country. Many people, says Dr Mkandawire, who take dog bites as normal in villages and do not bother to seek medical attention.
“No where in the world are people are people dying of rabies at the rate Malawians are dying of it. Three to four people die of rabies in Viphya every month.”
But a report of the study done at Queens Elizabeth Hospital for three years beginning March 2002 and posted on the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention website, indicate that rabies encephalitis is an important cause of death among children in Malawi.
The study also showed that 14 of 133 children who died from suspected Central Nervous System infections had rabies.
The report of the study says since this was a hospital-based study, the number of rabies cases in the community was likely to be much higher.
According to the report, “in some parts of Africa, up to 100 rabies cases are estimated to occur for each 1 officially reported.”
The report further says lack of diagnostic facilities and difficulties with the system hinder national reporting of rabies in Malawi.
Dr. Mkandawire however says cases of rabies are supposed to be rare occurrences.
“I remember my university professor telling me that you will never see a rabies case because it is rare in Europe and America,” she says.
The cases of the Dowa and Dedza beasts, in the eyes of the veterinary surgeon, are a pure scenario of rabies that was transferred to wild animals.
“We don’t control rabies in the bush. The rabies virus perpetuates itself by causing the madness to attack but villagers don’t know how to explain these things,” she says.
The ministry of Agriculture’s department of Animal Health and Livestock Department has “introduced annual rabies week vaccination campaign whereby dogs across the country are vaccinated free of charge.”
But Dr. Mkandawire, says, the campaign is not effective.
“The vaccination campaign really is very cosmetic. For you to control rabies really you must have coverage of 80 to 90 per cent of the vaccination of all the population of dogs. You cannot cover that in two to three weeks.
“There are no enough funds to give the boys allowances for the two weeks that they would be vaccinating the dogs.
“Inside sources told me that those who were doing the campaign in Blantyre were only given allowances for three days. You can’t take for granted the allowances of the workers in this campaign,” she says.
The Department of Animal Health and Livestock Development hasn’t been conducting shooting campaign of stray dogs because, as Malawi News understands, of problems in procuring bullets since through decentralization, each assembly has to buy for itself bullets.
But director of animal Health and Livestock Development Dr. Wilfred Lipita told Malawi News recently that it was no longer easy to carry a shooting exercise of stray dogs.
“The dogs are being clever these days. During the day they are not seen around and probably come out at night,” he said.
Dr. Mkandawire says it is 150 times cheaper to prevent rabies than to cure it hence government should pull its resources together on vaccination of dogs.
“For instance anti rabies vaccine for dogs cost K100 while a brand of human anti rabies vaccine cost K3000 on average per dose and for one to be treated he needs five injections which translates into K15 000,” she says.
“We don’t need to wait. We can control rabies. Government needs to import veterinary surgeons from countries like Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana while we are sending our young men to school. Imagine they are only four doctors in the whole Animal Health and Livestock Department,” she says.
The rabies crisis has prompted Kholiwe to hire a Kenyan veterinary surgeon to assist her in combating rabies.
“If Kholiwe can do it what can stop government from hiring veterinary surgeons? We also want sanity in the department of Animal Health and Livestock Development. This should be government’s priority,” she said.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Review -- Chimombo’s ‘Aids artists and authors’:A look at creative arts responses to Aids
Reviewed By Emmanuel Luciano
The theme of Aids as a source of artistic inspiration has brought and borne many artistic products in the form of poems, short stories, novels, paintings, and even films.
Though the didactic role artists have played in the fight against HIV/Aids since its discovery in the country in 1985 is well documented, not much academic study has been done in this area so as to critically look at the artistic responses to the pandemic.
Professor Emeritus Steve Chimombo’s Aids artists and authors is the book that critically dissects the creative works that the theme of Aids solicited from 1985 to 2006.
This is the not the first time though that Chimombo, the literati, is involved in a project of this nature. Actually this is the author’s fourth book in which he is analysing popular responses to ‘selected social-political event in Malawi’.
In Malawian Oral literature the author examined the use of folklore in contemporary society while in the Culture of Democracy, a book he co-authored, the emphasis was on the society’s responses to the transition from dictatorial to democratic rule. The Epic of the Forest Creatures is an analysis that was handled in a poetic form. Other works by Chimombo need no cataloging just as the author himself need no introduction.
But in Aids artists and authors, however, the author exposes the bathos and pathos of the literary genres of short stories, poems and the novel that captured the Aids theme from 1985 to 2006. How the Aids theme was explored in the visual arts has also been tackled to a greater extent.
It is interesting to note, for instance, how the authors’ handling of the theme in their works was largely influenced by the knowledge they had about the disease. In earlier writing the writers were picking up the beliefs, misconceptions people had about Aids and incorporated them in their works.
Though Chimombo has covered everything that needs to be said about the way the works of art, it is the structural problems, the jargon used, the character employed that demonstrates that HIV/Aids might not have been covered properly after all. The language of Aids campaigns inevitably creeps in sometimes rather awkward places…It is obvious not much communication is taking place here (Page 104).
It is not surprising, therefore, that while applauding other writers in the case of short story the author says: At one end of the instinctive evaluative scale we have an almost formless mass of text masquerading as a short story because the editor published in a column labelled such (page 108).
The book also demonstrates that there was little coverage of the Aids theme in the novel and visual arts area. Masa Lemu’s Masks of Aids and The grave Diggers, and David Scot’s The Shadow of Aids seem to be the only noted paintings to have been exhibited on Aids. Aids on stone, as the book demonstrates, was also peripherally covered.
I would have loved if the author had included some recent songs from other artists other than only zeroing on Black Paseli’s contribution.
Considering that the nature of the project necessitated the author to furrow in a large volume of archive material, he needs to be commended for thus dissecting the works of art that inundated the country from 1985 to 2006.
It might as well become a recommended if not a prescribed text for studying Aids and creative arts in Malawi.
Published by Wasi Publication, this 226-paged book is available in all bookshops in the country.
The theme of Aids as a source of artistic inspiration has brought and borne many artistic products in the form of poems, short stories, novels, paintings, and even films.
Though the didactic role artists have played in the fight against HIV/Aids since its discovery in the country in 1985 is well documented, not much academic study has been done in this area so as to critically look at the artistic responses to the pandemic.
Professor Emeritus Steve Chimombo’s Aids artists and authors is the book that critically dissects the creative works that the theme of Aids solicited from 1985 to 2006.
This is the not the first time though that Chimombo, the literati, is involved in a project of this nature. Actually this is the author’s fourth book in which he is analysing popular responses to ‘selected social-political event in Malawi’.
In Malawian Oral literature the author examined the use of folklore in contemporary society while in the Culture of Democracy, a book he co-authored, the emphasis was on the society’s responses to the transition from dictatorial to democratic rule. The Epic of the Forest Creatures is an analysis that was handled in a poetic form. Other works by Chimombo need no cataloging just as the author himself need no introduction.
But in Aids artists and authors, however, the author exposes the bathos and pathos of the literary genres of short stories, poems and the novel that captured the Aids theme from 1985 to 2006. How the Aids theme was explored in the visual arts has also been tackled to a greater extent.
It is interesting to note, for instance, how the authors’ handling of the theme in their works was largely influenced by the knowledge they had about the disease. In earlier writing the writers were picking up the beliefs, misconceptions people had about Aids and incorporated them in their works.
Though Chimombo has covered everything that needs to be said about the way the works of art, it is the structural problems, the jargon used, the character employed that demonstrates that HIV/Aids might not have been covered properly after all. The language of Aids campaigns inevitably creeps in sometimes rather awkward places…It is obvious not much communication is taking place here (Page 104).
It is not surprising, therefore, that while applauding other writers in the case of short story the author says: At one end of the instinctive evaluative scale we have an almost formless mass of text masquerading as a short story because the editor published in a column labelled such (page 108).
The book also demonstrates that there was little coverage of the Aids theme in the novel and visual arts area. Masa Lemu’s Masks of Aids and The grave Diggers, and David Scot’s The Shadow of Aids seem to be the only noted paintings to have been exhibited on Aids. Aids on stone, as the book demonstrates, was also peripherally covered.
I would have loved if the author had included some recent songs from other artists other than only zeroing on Black Paseli’s contribution.
Considering that the nature of the project necessitated the author to furrow in a large volume of archive material, he needs to be commended for thus dissecting the works of art that inundated the country from 1985 to 2006.
It might as well become a recommended if not a prescribed text for studying Aids and creative arts in Malawi.
Published by Wasi Publication, this 226-paged book is available in all bookshops in the country.
Monday, July 16, 2007
'Kudikilira Mzungu':Poetry from Felix Njonjonjo
| Reviewed by: Emmanuel Luciano Gospel Kazako and Benedicto Wokomaatani Malunga’s Kuyimba kwa Alakatuli was the best thing that ever happened in the world of vernacular poetry in the country. The poetry enthusiasm of the two marked the springboard for emerging poets who wanted to fully venture into vernacular poetry. Though Gospel and Benedicto arguably made vernacular poetry popular with their recitals on the local radio station, the emergence of Nyamalikiti Nthiwatiwa and Felix Njonjonjo Katsoka as new generation vernacular poets revitalised poetry recitals altogether. But Njonjonjo and Nyamalikiti have their vernacular poetry background in what they started as ‘Chiphwelemwe Cha Msangulutso’ when they were still in college at Chanco in Zomba. A holder of Bachelor of Education degree, Njonjonjo has decided to take his poetry a mile further by releasing a 15-track album, Kudikilira Mzungu. Employing a satirical tone, Kudikilira Mzungu pours scorn on the fickleness that is Malawian politics. Politicians are ridiculed for changing party allegiance like a chameleon as evidenced in Majeremusi whose innuendos and subsequent images it creates are pleasing to the ear. The country’s currency, Kwacha is scoffed at for its instability: Iwe tandionetse khongono zako ndizotani?..Yabwera liti Euro kuti ikulikhe?.../ Khungu lako ndi lamakwinya lonyozoloka/ Fodya tikukulimirayu sakukwana…kuti ubwelere mphamvu? You would admire the alliteration, the crafting of words and the symbolism that the images carry in Ndichani Chizunguza Bongo, a poem that poses a question on what actually is in a beer or alcohol to make people go crazy: Ndichani chizunguza bongo choti njo muntonjani/..chimadensa msana mukadansana/..ndi bangalanji kam’banga/…kapena amakhala petulo ndi Rhoda Mpetuloda? The larger than life issues of HIV/ Aids are discussed in Akadakhala Malungo while Adapita Davideko makes a mockery of the NGOs that have been fighting Madonna’s adoption of David Banda. The tendency of attributing everything good to the 'Mzungu’ is discouraged in Kudikira Mzungu. I haven’t listened to good vernacular poetry for a while but this one would make those who appreciate art green with envy at the artistry of Njonjonjo. Save for the few poems that are too long for the easily distracted mind, it’s a must have for those who like ‘good things’. Recorded at Baptist Media Centre, the album is available for sale at Baptist Media Centre and other outlets throughout the country. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)