THE MARTYR IN US
By Richard Chirombo
Life is very short- though a little longer than when human beings begun.
This fact has, throughout the long ages, spurred the human mind to concoct ways through which living could be overly productive. The main purpose is that all passengers in this short journey may ultimately, when all this is over, stand up and claim to have had a good ride during their brief span.
The Romans and Greeks, people with a long history of martyrdom and martyrs, realized this thousands of years ago, and concluded that only under circumstances beneficial to a family, community or empire should man take his life away. Yet, at first, the Romans and Greeks frequently committed suicide and no one thought it immoral.
This could be one of the reasons people, especially in Rome , found it a bit unnerving to pay with their lives the price of freedom from fear and oppression. The country is replete with a long history of martyrs it begins to appear as if martyrdom was just one of those avenues of passing time.
A martyr, for a start, is someone who dies or suffers greatly for his beliefs. And this has often raised questions over the real difference between martyrs who die for national causes, and those who die or suffer purely for personal gain.
This is a thin line historians struggle to cut through, and raises questions over whether there is a ‘private’ martyr (those who die for personal gain, but happen to share a common lack with a given population that people begin to believe they sacrificed their lives or comfort for them), those who do it because of fear that, if they do not do it, someone else will do it, or those who fall into it because, if they did not, nobody could do it (the courageous type who dare authority and challenges it to a contest of either reason, psychological warfare or pure militancy.
Experts into human behaviour, including renowned author Michael Steven Bleby, indicate that real martyrs are those who die or suffer greatly for the sake of others, so long as they are indispensable.
Bleby adds that if someone suffers death or injury because of opposition to injustices, and it is highly probable that if someone else was in the same position at the same time, then they could have done it as well- forget about calling such people national heroes, let alone national martyrs. They merely found themselves at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons!
Real martyrs often sprout if- in the face of a cohesive, political elite, or a bureaucracy of a dominant ruling class- the ordinary man, with ordinary hopes and aspirations cannot have their voice heard, or have no prospect of a positive response from those in authority. A martyr, like a Biblical prophet, then rises up.
In other words, national martyrs are shaped by circumstances, especially when social injustices abound, at least according to Dr. Pearson Ntata, Director for the Centre for Social Research at Chancellor College, a constituent college of the University of Malawi.
It is an act of courage or, in other words, a matter of the contest of the human mind with oppressive social, political, economic, religious, cultural realities. Their objective is not to understand the world or oppressive systems and leaders anymore; it is to change circumstances.
Not that such people have no qualms about it, or do not care about their lives. They may have some inner arguments about the meaning of what they have set out to do, and are sometimes wary of their own missions and explanations. But they always do it for the common good, and next generations are always there to revere them.
‘This is understandable,” says Undule Mwakasungura, Chairperson and Executive Director for the Human Rights Consultative Committee and Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, respectively. “Why am I saying so? Because, in most cases, national martyrs’ battles revolve positive hope for the future; a future they will never be there to enjoy.”
It must really be some sort of strange human behaviour; fighting for a world you may not be there to see. But this is in-built for the human being, as old as time itself, says Mwakasungula. In other words, he says, martyrdom has no timeline as evidenced by the fact that, while we already have so many martyrs around the world, people continue to die for what they believe in.
The word martyr has even become more prominent during the past forty years.
Civil society organisations and political parties point to the late Speaker of Parliament, Rodwell Munyenyembe, as a classic example of Malawi ’s modern day martyr: He lost his life in the process of fighting for peace in a chaotic August House that was the 2004-2009 crop of Members of Parliament.
And, yet, he died in the so called peaceful Malawi .
“He (Munyenyembe) was a man of peace and order; he is a martyr,” said People’s Federation for National Peace and Development Executive Director, Edward Chaka. Mwakasungura, Billy Banda of Malawi Human Rights Watch, and even Alliance for Democracy sole legislator Khwauli Msiska agree.
Martyrdom is timeless because life never proceeds along a straight line; it is replete with twists and turns, and these are the surprises we get in our everyday life. It is not unlike life to often have alternative political, religious, economic dark ages looming. These are mainly caused, like most before, by the kick back of human mismanagement of ourselves and others, and the scanty basic resources on which modern civilization is based.
The only difference could be that, this time, global is the scale.
Historians such as professor Kings Phiri will always agree that human history has always been about challenges, inventions, opportunities and discoveries. And the world now continues to face a myriad of challenges, some of which need human courage to surmount. A martyr’s mind would thus convince him not only to get angry, but act in a way most likely to bring about positive change, even if it translates into the loss of their own lives.
The real martyr cannot bear the sight of his country collapse under the weight of tyranny and oppression but will fight for the future, a world where freedom and respect for human rights enjoy same privileges accorded to such basic necessities as the water we drink, food, shelter, clothes, oxygen.
Sometimes, individual efforts have resulted into whole revolutions and mass protests. But whether martyrs’ courageous acts will broaden into a full scale revolution depends entirely on the scale of oppression.
And whether the efforts of people who engage in martyrdom acts will be appreciated, depends entirely on a nation’s perspective. In Malawi , for example, the general feeling seems to be that somebody still living cannot be a martyr, to the effect that most of those upon which martyrdom is bestowed are humans no longer being.
A good case in point could be that of Dr. Vera Chirwa. She must be a living martyr by all standards because she, too, suffered alongside her husband Orton. It was because of something they, like the rest of the then widely traveled population, believed in.
Today, do we cerebrate her life? That is everybody’s soul-searching question. But one thing is for sure; she has suffered her fare share of humiliation.
Remember the time she openly declared her intention to contest for the Mgwirizano Coalition presidency? People seemed less enthusiastic about it that she was forced to complain, publicly.
“People don’t want to support me because I am a woman,” Dr. Chirwa complained at the time.
This brings us to the question of how Malawian society perceives martyrs. Gender stereotypes still rule and, because of that, male names dominate the list of martyrs. In the absence of national standards on what qualifies one to become a national martyr and hero, society is sure to continue overlooking women for such accolades.
“This is very sad in deed. It is high time Malawians started looking beyond gender stereotypes and recognized that women, too, can influence positive change. Gone are the days when it was accepted to say ‘Behind every successful man there is a woman’. These people work together, taking equal, measured steps. Women contributed a lot towards independence and the respect for human rights,” says Emmie Chanika, executive director for Civil Liberties Committee.
Chanika feels that Malawian women have played a pivotal role in boosting men’s morale, especially needed when men are about to go on tough missions. It begins with preparing the man’s mind, putting it in positive, confident gear. But they get little, or no, public appreciation from their efforts.
The human rights activist is speaking common sense. Various psychological studies have shown that unity of the spirit (conscience) is far more important than unity in form (the outward composure of people). That is why we have prisoners of conscience, they conclude, when there is no freedom of mind, and this happens when people see things go haywire and merely watch.
One’s unity in form (physical appearance) will always be overwhelmed by the war within. That could be the reason such prisoners of conscience as Jack Mapanje, Atati Mpakati and others are highly respected: They saw the lack of unity in spirit and responded in form by putting their thoughts on paper, going into exile.
Courageous people know there will always be challenges of reason and that, after reaching the limit of endurance, there will be need to throw every ounce of energy into the struggle for individual and national survival. This they do after convincing themselves that they will carry the struggle to the bitter end, with no compromises in mid journey.
When things do not go according to plan, the martyr-minded individual has to make touch choices: Should I seek peace and court disaster, or fight on and die a free man in the process? Should I give up and access the conditions of a dictated surrender? It must, however, be remembered that the martyr is a peace-minded individual, who will never cease to send out peace signals of one kind or another. All they do is fight for what they believe in.
Martyrs’ day is all about cerebrating the living, and those no longer being, who once realized the full meaning of the ‘point of no return’ and contributed towards what we now call freedom- both in spirit and form.
John Chilembwe could be one such person, though varying schools of thought are beginning to develop over his real intentions, and real position in Malawian society. The fact remains that he died, and died because he wanted real freedom for himself and others.
There are no arguments among Malawian historians over this. Renowned historians Desmond Dudwa Phiri and Kings Phiri see nationalistic traits in the Chiradzulu hero, and say his efforts helped open up the minds of people as to the real meaning of freedom.
His Western experiences helped spur him into action, and that is a true trait of a national hero. Chilembwe was a man of many missions: as a pastor, he would have loved to see his congregation grow. And, yet, he put freedom at the top of his priorities and died believing in freedom for all people.
Political analysts agree that a real martyr and national hero is one who dies fighting for those common symbols of an independent nation state: A national flag; national anthem; national currency; and emblem. They also agree, however, that before the emergence of the State, political martyrs were hard to come by because life was still all about chiefs.
It was expected that chiefs were not supposed to order their people, but depend on them, and protect them. Except for the occasional tussling over chieftainship, life was largely good, with little conflict.
Then, came the phenomenon of the national state. It traces its history to 500 BC in Mexico , following the foundation of the Monte Alban as a new Capital for the Zapotecs. Whether this move was prompted by the need for local cooperation in managing water resources or by common interests in defence remains unclear.
What is clear is that it was evident- from the site’s architecture, its symbolism, and the rulers dominance over the surrounding villages and further conquests- that a more powerful and centralized form of rule had arisen: the State.
That gave rise to cases of political martyrdom, as opposed to the more dominant religious martyrdoms. It is important to note that, though human beings are always striving towards perfection, what they aspire for never becomes perfect. So there is always one type of conflict or another. The result is that national states level in the richness of these conflicts.
Thus, in this in built conflict, conservationists will always battle with developers, pedestrians with motorists, city officials with vendors, evaluators with ratepayers, rivers with industrial pollution, multistory buildings casting shadows of solar machines, opposition politicians fighting those in authority.
In the process, some will always loose their lives and be martyred by their own, or next, generations.
As Malawians commemorate those courageous figures wearing the tag of martyrdom, it must always be remembered that some of tomorrow’s martyrs could now be living in us. Those in power should also remember that leadership is a balanced affair; real leaders prevent conflict from degenerating into the shedding of blood or human suffering for those proffering dissenting; the common practice is to accommodate those views and include them into our programmes of national action.
But, as fate has it for us, there will always be martyrs. Where, and whenever progress is slow, martyrs arise. Some of these may be living, hiding, in us.
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Friday, April 16, 2010
What Richard Chirombo Says About Love: Love is An Eternal Commodity
By Richard Chirombo
They were people of the 3rd Century, when the world was very much a loosely meshed network, and great pockets of territory remained untouchable and untouched.
But it can be said that the two Roman martyrs- who happened to have fallen on the incidental luck of having five things in common: the name Valentine; 3rd Century as the time canvas on which they left their legacy; Roman ancestry; staunch Christian believes; and shared a vulnerability to those ‘human weaknesses’ now elevated to strengths called passion, charity and compassion- were men of no specific world.
Like their legacy, they could have lived in any era and country because of the universality of that heart-attacking weevil christened love.
The Two Valentines, after which Valentine’s Day is aptly named and remembered every February 14, might not have seen it coming; that their humble efforts could one day touch and influence the world. But their acts of love, compassion, passion and charity left an indelible mark in their ancient world, an impression that has gently holed through the long ages and now stays with us, if not within.
Today, people across the world treat February 14 every year as a special day to celebrate love and affection to either loved ones, friends or even strangers as a measure of how much they care for them. Some even go a step further than the usual sending of Valentine’s cards by donating to charity or passing candy gifts along.
Mutual exchange of love notes and messages has also become part of the norm that the heart-shaped outline, the figure of the winged Cupid, fresh flowers and, in other countries, dove-shaped curios have come to symbolize modern love.
Love, as they say, is the round heart around which the human soul flourishes. The result has been that the story of man cannot be separated from love or hate. This is one of the reasons early Greek and Roman philosophers never ceased to be intrigued by it, and dedicated whole life times, or at least part of them, trying to break its parts into bits and chunks of sense. For the Greeks, a philosopher was not worth his salt without adding a tree on this half-explored desert, one that dresses up through up through continued studies, opinions, experiments and varied conclusions.
But reputable Greek writers such as Hesiod and Homer, and other reputable voices in the names of Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Melissus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Protagoras came to one conclusion: love may be inseparable to man and the history of human existence, yes, but it (love) lives longer than the human being (life span).
It is dynamic, too. Look at Valentine’s Day, for instance. It merely started with acts of charity, but has now come to be associated with romantic, even erotic, love- thanks to changing trends in the High Middle Ages, when the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer, who so loved, as many of the people in that era, courtly love that they mixed the two recipes of pour charity and courtly love to set up a concoction of more outward expression.
At first, people could feel it in the heart and embark on charitable causes without showing it outside (pour charity), now they could show it (affection) and cerebrate it openly. This was unlike the real cerebrations associated with February 14, a month replete with one or two sorts of historical cerebrations throughout the ages.
Roman history, for example-of which the two Valentines are part- sheds more light into the fact that February was a month of cerebrations. The feast of Lupercalis (which used to fall on February 15) comes to mind. Historians have come to agree that this festival later came to be associated with cerebrations of the two Valentines’ lives.
St. Valentine is largely regarded as the patron of lovers, a development that has become part of the historical background of St. Valentine’s Day in such countries as Rome and, now, other countries including Malawi .
As the days go by, and some original aspects of the day get diluted in the name of present freedoms, changing times and dynamism, one thing is bound to stand the test of time. At least that is the impression one gets after wandering through the writings of Gorgias, that Greek philosopher who may be dead and soil now, yes, but still lives in ink and paper.
Gorgias made his impressions of love and the changing times clear, and said while some aspects of love, including the way people express it were bound to change with the changing times, the word of mouth, recorded messages (as in letters, memory cards and other forms of written communication) and physical presence (being there for those we love and care about) would remain a powerful means of putting one’s emotions, impressions and ideas across.
Of the word of mouth, for instance, he said: “Words are tremendously powerful and produce the most godly like effects in smallest, most obscure bodies; for words can put an end to fear, assuage grief, effect joy, love, affection, and increase pity. The same argument applies to the power of words with respect to the soul’s disposition as to the disposition of drugs with respect to the body’s nature.
“Just as different drugs draw off different humours from the body and some put an end to an illness, others to life, so it is with words- some cause pain, some pleasure, some fear, some courage, and some drug and enchant the soul with evil persuasion. It is possible to see that the power of the word of mouth (as in trying to convince someone you really care), though it may lack the appearance of compulsion, has the same strength,” said Gorgias.
Gorgias adds that love and the word of mouth form a powerful combination, one that will naturally produce in many men and women great love, desire or hatred. As for recorded messages, he says a carefully worded communication will produce the same desire as the word of mouth.
Then, there is the question of being there (physically present) for someone (or sending images) and how that fans the fire of love. His take: the sculpting of statutes and production of images affords the eyes divine delight, and will increase love and desire for physical closeness.
“If, therefore, the eye is entranced by the body and (say) a woman delivers up her soul to an eager contest of love, what is so strange in that? If love, being divine, has divine power from the gods, how can the weaker reject or fight against it?
Today, as if following Gorgias’ bidding, the effect of a Valentine- a card that one sends, usually without putting the actual name on it, to a loved one or somebody they care about- has not dissipated’ nor has the word of mouth ceased to carry seeds of persuasion and effectiveness. What has changed, if anything, is the technology.
People can now communicate through various means, other than the traditional card-sending gesture. And Mike Mangani, Managing Director for Salima-based ‘Get a Card’ shop, sellers of memory cards in infuriated.
“The business of selling cards (greeting, well-wishes, love, among other card types) was hot just five years ago. Now, with the proliferation of internet communication, mobile phone text messages and others, we are taking to the back stage. In fact, I had six employees three years ago; now, I only have two because there is no money coming. The good thing, though, is that people are still communicating,” said Mangani.
For Chawezi Tembo, a Diploma student at the Malawi Institute of Journalism, there is no reason for memory card sellers to complain. The proliferation of new technologies has just made communication easy, and increased the infectious rate of love.
“As people get increased access to channels of communication, it is the whole country that stands to benefit from, say, stable relationships and marriages. When there is stability in these set ups, we may one day work up to discover that with simple acts of communicating one’s affection and love on Valentine’s Day, we have come over some of the biggest challenges in this millennium: HIV and AIDS, promiscuity, and HIV and AIDS,” said Tembo.
But this, too, will not be strange. Pierson Ntata, Director for Chancellor College-based Centre for Social Research, says people are always in the process of shaping and re-shaping, adapting and re-adapting, themselves to the environment they live in.
Always, some things are bound to change, and others not- as human beings react to circumstances around them.
But some things never change entirely, he says, only small moderations are made to accommodate new trends.
That could be one of the reasons Malawians have reacted differently to the challenge of HIV and AIDS. Others have warmly embraced Western cultures and others have not.
Traditional Authority Karonga of Karonga (district) agrees. Malawians were not known for expressing their love in public, and on a specific day as happens on Valentine’s Day. It (love) more or less lived in the heart, a family secret analogous to a one-month-old fetus.
You do not go about advertising it; you, sort of, keep it in the heart, yet it is a treasured thing.
“But now things have changed. It is becoming common for old people to show their affection in public on February 14. That is change, and we cannot object to it wholesome. But we must remember, also, to keep our culture intact. Lest we lose both our love and culture, a disaster of catastrophic proportions because we will have nothing to call our own,” said Karonga.
The traditional leader, in summing up, says while people may not fight against love per se (because love will never change and is eternal), they can change some aspects of it- the way people express it, for example.
“Respectable people cannot kiss and cuddle in a shopping mall just because of February 14. That is against our culture. But people can send each other cards, though this was not part of our culture. In adapting to the environment, you single out the positives, add them to what you have been practicing all along, and a nation will never adopt corrupted morals.”
Whatever the case, the truth remains that, at first, Valentine letters were sent anonymously. But, with new technologies such as cell phones (and their famed text messages), e-mail addresses, newspaper messages, among other things that make it equally difficult to be anonymous, it may be a matter of time before one of the aspects associated with Valentine’s Day (the sending of anonymous messages) may go with the winds.
But love and affection, outstanding survivors through out the long ages, will be there on February 14 next year.
They were people of the 3rd Century, when the world was very much a loosely meshed network, and great pockets of territory remained untouchable and untouched.
But it can be said that the two Roman martyrs- who happened to have fallen on the incidental luck of having five things in common: the name Valentine; 3rd Century as the time canvas on which they left their legacy; Roman ancestry; staunch Christian believes; and shared a vulnerability to those ‘human weaknesses’ now elevated to strengths called passion, charity and compassion- were men of no specific world.
Like their legacy, they could have lived in any era and country because of the universality of that heart-attacking weevil christened love.
The Two Valentines, after which Valentine’s Day is aptly named and remembered every February 14, might not have seen it coming; that their humble efforts could one day touch and influence the world. But their acts of love, compassion, passion and charity left an indelible mark in their ancient world, an impression that has gently holed through the long ages and now stays with us, if not within.
Today, people across the world treat February 14 every year as a special day to celebrate love and affection to either loved ones, friends or even strangers as a measure of how much they care for them. Some even go a step further than the usual sending of Valentine’s cards by donating to charity or passing candy gifts along.
Mutual exchange of love notes and messages has also become part of the norm that the heart-shaped outline, the figure of the winged Cupid, fresh flowers and, in other countries, dove-shaped curios have come to symbolize modern love.
Love, as they say, is the round heart around which the human soul flourishes. The result has been that the story of man cannot be separated from love or hate. This is one of the reasons early Greek and Roman philosophers never ceased to be intrigued by it, and dedicated whole life times, or at least part of them, trying to break its parts into bits and chunks of sense. For the Greeks, a philosopher was not worth his salt without adding a tree on this half-explored desert, one that dresses up through up through continued studies, opinions, experiments and varied conclusions.
But reputable Greek writers such as Hesiod and Homer, and other reputable voices in the names of Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Melissus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Protagoras came to one conclusion: love may be inseparable to man and the history of human existence, yes, but it (love) lives longer than the human being (life span).
It is dynamic, too. Look at Valentine’s Day, for instance. It merely started with acts of charity, but has now come to be associated with romantic, even erotic, love- thanks to changing trends in the High Middle Ages, when the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer, who so loved, as many of the people in that era, courtly love that they mixed the two recipes of pour charity and courtly love to set up a concoction of more outward expression.
At first, people could feel it in the heart and embark on charitable causes without showing it outside (pour charity), now they could show it (affection) and cerebrate it openly. This was unlike the real cerebrations associated with February 14, a month replete with one or two sorts of historical cerebrations throughout the ages.
Roman history, for example-of which the two Valentines are part- sheds more light into the fact that February was a month of cerebrations. The feast of Lupercalis (which used to fall on February 15) comes to mind. Historians have come to agree that this festival later came to be associated with cerebrations of the two Valentines’ lives.
St. Valentine is largely regarded as the patron of lovers, a development that has become part of the historical background of St. Valentine’s Day in such countries as Rome and, now, other countries including Malawi .
As the days go by, and some original aspects of the day get diluted in the name of present freedoms, changing times and dynamism, one thing is bound to stand the test of time. At least that is the impression one gets after wandering through the writings of Gorgias, that Greek philosopher who may be dead and soil now, yes, but still lives in ink and paper.
Gorgias made his impressions of love and the changing times clear, and said while some aspects of love, including the way people express it were bound to change with the changing times, the word of mouth, recorded messages (as in letters, memory cards and other forms of written communication) and physical presence (being there for those we love and care about) would remain a powerful means of putting one’s emotions, impressions and ideas across.
Of the word of mouth, for instance, he said: “Words are tremendously powerful and produce the most godly like effects in smallest, most obscure bodies; for words can put an end to fear, assuage grief, effect joy, love, affection, and increase pity. The same argument applies to the power of words with respect to the soul’s disposition as to the disposition of drugs with respect to the body’s nature.
“Just as different drugs draw off different humours from the body and some put an end to an illness, others to life, so it is with words- some cause pain, some pleasure, some fear, some courage, and some drug and enchant the soul with evil persuasion. It is possible to see that the power of the word of mouth (as in trying to convince someone you really care), though it may lack the appearance of compulsion, has the same strength,” said Gorgias.
Gorgias adds that love and the word of mouth form a powerful combination, one that will naturally produce in many men and women great love, desire or hatred. As for recorded messages, he says a carefully worded communication will produce the same desire as the word of mouth.
Then, there is the question of being there (physically present) for someone (or sending images) and how that fans the fire of love. His take: the sculpting of statutes and production of images affords the eyes divine delight, and will increase love and desire for physical closeness.
“If, therefore, the eye is entranced by the body and (say) a woman delivers up her soul to an eager contest of love, what is so strange in that? If love, being divine, has divine power from the gods, how can the weaker reject or fight against it?
Today, as if following Gorgias’ bidding, the effect of a Valentine- a card that one sends, usually without putting the actual name on it, to a loved one or somebody they care about- has not dissipated’ nor has the word of mouth ceased to carry seeds of persuasion and effectiveness. What has changed, if anything, is the technology.
People can now communicate through various means, other than the traditional card-sending gesture. And Mike Mangani, Managing Director for Salima-based ‘Get a Card’ shop, sellers of memory cards in infuriated.
“The business of selling cards (greeting, well-wishes, love, among other card types) was hot just five years ago. Now, with the proliferation of internet communication, mobile phone text messages and others, we are taking to the back stage. In fact, I had six employees three years ago; now, I only have two because there is no money coming. The good thing, though, is that people are still communicating,” said Mangani.
For Chawezi Tembo, a Diploma student at the Malawi Institute of Journalism, there is no reason for memory card sellers to complain. The proliferation of new technologies has just made communication easy, and increased the infectious rate of love.
“As people get increased access to channels of communication, it is the whole country that stands to benefit from, say, stable relationships and marriages. When there is stability in these set ups, we may one day work up to discover that with simple acts of communicating one’s affection and love on Valentine’s Day, we have come over some of the biggest challenges in this millennium: HIV and AIDS, promiscuity, and HIV and AIDS,” said Tembo.
But this, too, will not be strange. Pierson Ntata, Director for Chancellor College-based Centre for Social Research, says people are always in the process of shaping and re-shaping, adapting and re-adapting, themselves to the environment they live in.
Always, some things are bound to change, and others not- as human beings react to circumstances around them.
But some things never change entirely, he says, only small moderations are made to accommodate new trends.
That could be one of the reasons Malawians have reacted differently to the challenge of HIV and AIDS. Others have warmly embraced Western cultures and others have not.
Traditional Authority Karonga of Karonga (district) agrees. Malawians were not known for expressing their love in public, and on a specific day as happens on Valentine’s Day. It (love) more or less lived in the heart, a family secret analogous to a one-month-old fetus.
You do not go about advertising it; you, sort of, keep it in the heart, yet it is a treasured thing.
“But now things have changed. It is becoming common for old people to show their affection in public on February 14. That is change, and we cannot object to it wholesome. But we must remember, also, to keep our culture intact. Lest we lose both our love and culture, a disaster of catastrophic proportions because we will have nothing to call our own,” said Karonga.
The traditional leader, in summing up, says while people may not fight against love per se (because love will never change and is eternal), they can change some aspects of it- the way people express it, for example.
“Respectable people cannot kiss and cuddle in a shopping mall just because of February 14. That is against our culture. But people can send each other cards, though this was not part of our culture. In adapting to the environment, you single out the positives, add them to what you have been practicing all along, and a nation will never adopt corrupted morals.”
Whatever the case, the truth remains that, at first, Valentine letters were sent anonymously. But, with new technologies such as cell phones (and their famed text messages), e-mail addresses, newspaper messages, among other things that make it equally difficult to be anonymous, it may be a matter of time before one of the aspects associated with Valentine’s Day (the sending of anonymous messages) may go with the winds.
But love and affection, outstanding survivors through out the long ages, will be there on February 14 next year.
How to Lower the Risk of Breast Cancer
Lower the risk of breast cancer by following the recommendations of the studies that have been done, and learn from those who have had breast cancer. M.D. Anderson is one of the large cancer centers that does research in the field, and their work is helpful in understanding the risks.
Some risks are uncontrollable, like age and hereditary, but there are risks you can avoid, too.
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions
1.
Step 1
Lose the weight.
Keep your weight down since weight gain and obesity are risk factors. A diet high in saturated fats also creates a risk.
2.
Step 2
Get to work.
Physical inactivity is one of the risks, so it is important to get exercise regularly.
3.
Step 3
Eliminate the oral contraceptives.
Birth control pills have hormones that create some risk for breast cancer.
4.
Step 4
Do not consume alcohol.
Alcohol consumption in a quantity of more than one drink a day is considered a risk factor.
5.
Step 5
Cut the tobacco use.
Tobacco creates an additional risk for all cancers, including breast cancer. Avoid second-hand smoke, too.
6.
Step 6
Eat fruits and vegetables, and not much red meat.
Diet has a significant bearing on the risk of breast cancer.
7.
Step 7
Learn your family history to study the genetic risks.
We have an article in Resources below to help you learn your family history for genetic risk of disease.
8.
Step 8
Take care of yourself.
Have routine screenings and do the BSE self-exams as recommended by the studies. Recommendations include a mammogram every one to three years after the age of 20, and every year after the age of 40. You cannot control aging which is one of the key risk factors, but you can be alert and practice early detection recommendations.
9.
Step 9
Practice a healthy lifestyle.
Lower the risk of breast cancer by using the information learned from the years of research on the subject. Practice a healthy lifestyle with exercise and proper eating, screening and self-exams, and knowing your genetic risks to lower the risk of breast cancer.
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2 simple grocery items will lower your blood pressure naturally!
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Detoxamin -1 in Chelation
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www.detoxamin.com
Lower Your Blood Pressure
Prevent And Lower High Blood Pressure Drug Free. Try This Now
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Heart Disease
Learn more about Heart Disease and thrombosis! Visit ThrombosisAdviser
www.Thrombosisadviser.com
Tips & Warnings
*
We often write about medical issues and the consumer. See Resources below for more articles on these subjects.
*
copyright 2009 Linda Richard
*
Feel free to link to this article or send it to a friend.
*
This is not medical advice, but is the current information available to lower the risk of breast cancer. Consult your physician if you need medical advice.
Some risks are uncontrollable, like age and hereditary, but there are risks you can avoid, too.
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions
1.
Step 1
Lose the weight.
Keep your weight down since weight gain and obesity are risk factors. A diet high in saturated fats also creates a risk.
2.
Step 2
Get to work.
Physical inactivity is one of the risks, so it is important to get exercise regularly.
3.
Step 3
Eliminate the oral contraceptives.
Birth control pills have hormones that create some risk for breast cancer.
4.
Step 4
Do not consume alcohol.
Alcohol consumption in a quantity of more than one drink a day is considered a risk factor.
5.
Step 5
Cut the tobacco use.
Tobacco creates an additional risk for all cancers, including breast cancer. Avoid second-hand smoke, too.
6.
Step 6
Eat fruits and vegetables, and not much red meat.
Diet has a significant bearing on the risk of breast cancer.
7.
Step 7
Learn your family history to study the genetic risks.
We have an article in Resources below to help you learn your family history for genetic risk of disease.
8.
Step 8
Take care of yourself.
Have routine screenings and do the BSE self-exams as recommended by the studies. Recommendations include a mammogram every one to three years after the age of 20, and every year after the age of 40. You cannot control aging which is one of the key risk factors, but you can be alert and practice early detection recommendations.
9.
Step 9
Practice a healthy lifestyle.
Lower the risk of breast cancer by using the information learned from the years of research on the subject. Practice a healthy lifestyle with exercise and proper eating, screening and self-exams, and knowing your genetic risks to lower the risk of breast cancer.
Ads by Google
I had high blood pressure
2 simple grocery items will lower your blood pressure naturally!
www.BartonPublishing.com/LowBP
Detoxamin -1 in Chelation
Beats IV, most effective chelation Proven by Published Studies
www.detoxamin.com
Lower Your Blood Pressure
Prevent And Lower High Blood Pressure Drug Free. Try This Now
skreviews.info/highbloodpressure
Heart Disease
Learn more about Heart Disease and thrombosis! Visit ThrombosisAdviser
www.Thrombosisadviser.com
Tips & Warnings
*
We often write about medical issues and the consumer. See Resources below for more articles on these subjects.
*
copyright 2009 Linda Richard
*
Feel free to link to this article or send it to a friend.
*
This is not medical advice, but is the current information available to lower the risk of breast cancer. Consult your physician if you need medical advice.
How to Exercise to Prevent Breast Cancer
While no one specific or "magic" exercise can reduce the risk of breast cancer, increased exercise routines will lower the risk. The reasoning lies with a woman's body mass index. Exercise causes the body to burn calories and lose fat, leading to a lower body mass index, lowering the risk of breast cancer. Another way exercise can reduce the risk is by delaying a woman's menstruation, reducing exposure to estrogen.
From Quick Guide: Go Pink: Breast Cancer Awareness
*
How to Defend Yourself Against Breast Cancer
The best defense against breast cancer thus far is early detection: The earlier it's detected, the easier … More
*
How to Prevent Breast Cancer With Alternative Medicine
While studies show 80 percent of all breast lumps are not cancerous, the emotional turmoil of finding thes… More
*
How to Exercise to Prevent Breast Cancer
While no one specific or "magic" exercise can reduce the risk of breast cancer, increased exercise routine… More
*
How to Prevent Breast Cancer
More than 200,000 people are newly diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Knowing how to prevent this ins… More
*
How to Eat to Prevent Breast Cancer
The truth is, we are miles away from any guaranteed protection against breast cancer. But, at this point,… More
*
How to Reduce the Risk of Breast Cancer
Reports show that four out of every 100 women who are sixty years old will be diagnosed with breast cancer… More
4 of 6
More: See All Articles in this Quick Guide
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
* Walking shoes
* Pedometer
Take More Steps to Reduce and Maintain a Healthy Weight
1.
Step 1
Buy a pedometer to track how far you walk and strive to walk 10,000 steps a day, which is estimated to be 5 miles. Knowing how many steps you take will help you to reach the 10,000 steps a day goal. Women who are at a normal, healthy body mass index should be between 18.5 percent and 25 percent to help prevent breast cancer.
2.
Step 2
Take the stairs whenever possible, which forces you to walk extra steps. If you find that you are not getting near your goal for the number of steps you take each day, a few extra flights of stairs where you used to take the elevator will help you reach your goal as you prevent breast cancer. If several flights of stairs are too much at first, get off the elevator a floor early and take the last flight by foot.
3.
Step 3
Park your car away from work, school or the shopping mall. This will add valuable steps, that will help increase your cardiovascular intake. You can also enjoy the extra time you avoided fighting for a spot by taking a nice stroll though the parking lot.
Encourage Pre-Teens to Start Exercising Early
4.
Step 1
Encourage young children to start exercise routines early in life (such as playing team sports in school). Girls who exercise extensively as children can delay their first menstruation, limiting their exposure to estrogen. Extended exposure to estrogen has been linked to increased breast cancer risk.
5.
Step 2
Sign you and your children up for a weekly yoga or pilate's class. This will encourage your children to exercise routinely, while balancing the mind and the body. It will also help children to form a habit of exercise which will help prevent breast cancer in the future.
6.
Step 3
Model healthy eating and exercise routines for your children.
Ads by Google
Risks of blood clots?
Learn more about blood clots and thrombosis here. Visit us now!
www.Thrombosisadviser.com
Find Your Inner Skinny
Do You Want To Lose Fat Shed Inches and Build Lean Muscles?
www.nataliamoaten.com
The Cancer Project
Nutrition and Diet Resource for Cancer Prevention and Survival
www.cancerproject.org
Functional Rehab System
Complete rehab system for Isotonic, Isometric, Isokinetic & CPM therapy
www.btetech.com/PrimusRS
Tips & Warnings
*
See a doctor before starting any exercise regimen to determine personal needs and limitations.
*
Purchase a supportive pair of walking shoes for exercising. If you walk early in the morning when it is still dark outside, wear bright colors to alert drivers of your presence.
From Quick Guide: Go Pink: Breast Cancer Awareness
*
How to Defend Yourself Against Breast Cancer
The best defense against breast cancer thus far is early detection: The earlier it's detected, the easier … More
*
How to Prevent Breast Cancer With Alternative Medicine
While studies show 80 percent of all breast lumps are not cancerous, the emotional turmoil of finding thes… More
*
How to Exercise to Prevent Breast Cancer
While no one specific or "magic" exercise can reduce the risk of breast cancer, increased exercise routine… More
*
How to Prevent Breast Cancer
More than 200,000 people are newly diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Knowing how to prevent this ins… More
*
How to Eat to Prevent Breast Cancer
The truth is, we are miles away from any guaranteed protection against breast cancer. But, at this point,… More
*
How to Reduce the Risk of Breast Cancer
Reports show that four out of every 100 women who are sixty years old will be diagnosed with breast cancer… More
4 of 6
More: See All Articles in this Quick Guide
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
* Walking shoes
* Pedometer
Take More Steps to Reduce and Maintain a Healthy Weight
1.
Step 1
Buy a pedometer to track how far you walk and strive to walk 10,000 steps a day, which is estimated to be 5 miles. Knowing how many steps you take will help you to reach the 10,000 steps a day goal. Women who are at a normal, healthy body mass index should be between 18.5 percent and 25 percent to help prevent breast cancer.
2.
Step 2
Take the stairs whenever possible, which forces you to walk extra steps. If you find that you are not getting near your goal for the number of steps you take each day, a few extra flights of stairs where you used to take the elevator will help you reach your goal as you prevent breast cancer. If several flights of stairs are too much at first, get off the elevator a floor early and take the last flight by foot.
3.
Step 3
Park your car away from work, school or the shopping mall. This will add valuable steps, that will help increase your cardiovascular intake. You can also enjoy the extra time you avoided fighting for a spot by taking a nice stroll though the parking lot.
Encourage Pre-Teens to Start Exercising Early
4.
Step 1
Encourage young children to start exercise routines early in life (such as playing team sports in school). Girls who exercise extensively as children can delay their first menstruation, limiting their exposure to estrogen. Extended exposure to estrogen has been linked to increased breast cancer risk.
5.
Step 2
Sign you and your children up for a weekly yoga or pilate's class. This will encourage your children to exercise routinely, while balancing the mind and the body. It will also help children to form a habit of exercise which will help prevent breast cancer in the future.
6.
Step 3
Model healthy eating and exercise routines for your children.
Ads by Google
Risks of blood clots?
Learn more about blood clots and thrombosis here. Visit us now!
www.Thrombosisadviser.com
Find Your Inner Skinny
Do You Want To Lose Fat Shed Inches and Build Lean Muscles?
www.nataliamoaten.com
The Cancer Project
Nutrition and Diet Resource for Cancer Prevention and Survival
www.cancerproject.org
Functional Rehab System
Complete rehab system for Isotonic, Isometric, Isokinetic & CPM therapy
www.btetech.com/PrimusRS
Tips & Warnings
*
See a doctor before starting any exercise regimen to determine personal needs and limitations.
*
Purchase a supportive pair of walking shoes for exercising. If you walk early in the morning when it is still dark outside, wear bright colors to alert drivers of your presence.
Becareful Malawi Information on Breast Cancer
This is a dedication to Aleke Kadonaphani Banda, who dedicated his last years of life promoting knowledge on cancer.
It is also a dedication to Malawi.
Here we go, cancer:
Since it is the second-leading cause of cancer death in women, most women are concerned about breast cancer and want to lower their risk. Unfortunately, there's no proven way to prevent breast...
# Mammograms
A mammogram is a special, low-dose X-ray that takes a picture of the breast. According to WomensHealth.gov, it is the best way to detect breast cancer early. With early detection, breast cancer...
# Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Coping with a life changing and frightening diagnosis requires extreme coping skills. But luckily there are a tremendous amount of resources out there, and there are a few simple things you can do...
# Cancer Walk
Every year, the American Cancer Society (ACS) hosts a breast cancer walk called "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer." The walk is noncompetitive and aims to fight breast cancer and raise...
# Cancer Survivors
Following a healthy diet plan can help cancer survivors return to a feeling of well-being once treatment ends. As part of the program to help you regain your health and to improve your future...
# Cancer Research
Many types of cancer treatments are available for patients who suffer from the disease. These treatments will help improve the quality of life and also prolong life. Cancer research is an ongoing...
# After Cancer
In 2008, there were 2.5 million women in the United States who had survived breast cancer, a disease that involves the growth of malignant tumors within breast tissue. Surgery to remove the tumor...
# After Mastectomy
A mastectomy is the recommended form of treatment for some breast cancers and can involve removing the entire breast or just part of it (in the more conservative lumpectomy operation). Some...
# Advanced Breast Cancer
When breast cancer is in its early stages, symptoms are rarely present; it isn't until the disease has progressed to its later stages that the warning signs actually become more evident. This is...
# Aids Awareness Month
Every volunteer involved in AIDS HIV Awareness Month events is acutely aware of the need for further public education. Many volunteers have a friend, family member or co-worker who is dealing with...
# Traditional Radiation Vs. IMRT for the Treatment of Postmastectomy Breast Cancer
Radiation therapy is often suggested after mastectomies for patients with advancing breast cancer. There are a number of different types of radiation used with, IMRT being one of the more popular...
# Is There a Correlation Between Breast Cancer & Colon Cancer?
Breast cancer and colon cancer are fairly common and very curable in the early stages. They may have more in common than that, as there seem to be a number of factors connecting the two.
# TP53 Mutations and Breast Cancer Prognosis
Nicknamed the "guardian of the genome," TP53 determines if a cell is too damaged to be repaired and must therefore undergo cell death (apoptosis). Mutations in TP53 are the most common mutation...
# What Are Crystalized Cells in the Breast Tissue?
Scientists are constantly studying new ways to detect and cure breast cancer, while also determining who is most likely to get it. One term that appears in their reports, crystallized cells, may...
# Localization & Breast Cancer Prognosis
According to the American Cancer Society, breast is the second most common type of cancer in women in the United States. In the United States, women have a 1 in 35 chance that their breast cancer...
# What Are the Chances of Surviving Metastatic Breast Cancer?
Metastatic breast cancer is an advanced form of cancer that has spread beyond the breast to distant lymph nodes or to other areas of the body. Survival rates for the disease are relatively low.
# What Are the Treatments for Noninvasive Breast Cancer?
Non-invasive breast cancers indicate the cancer has not spread beyond the ducts or lobules into other breast tissue. Lobules are the glands that produce milk, while ducts carry the milk to the...
# What Are the Benefits of a Mastectomy Bra?
Going through breast cancer and a mastectomy can be very stressful. Whether you have had a partial mastectomy, or a complete radical mastectomy, you may find that wearing a mastectomy bra is...
# How to Understand Breast Cancer Test Results
Breast cancer will affect one out of every eight women, according to statistics from the medical site Medline Plus. It is likely that you or someone you know will experience breast cancer....
# How to Tell a Fibrocystic Lump From Breast Cancer
Finding a lump anywhere on your body can be a traumatic experience, and the first line of thought that goes through nearly everyone's mind is whether the lump is cancerous. When it comes to...
# Government Spending on Breast Cancer Treatment
New U.S. cases of breast cancer have increased about 1 percent per year since 1940. The total costs of pain and suffering for individuals and their families affected by breast cancer can't be...
# How to Shop to Support Breast Cancer
Many companies have jumped on the bandwagon of support for the fight against breast cancer. It's great to join in and let your purchases help this great cause, but be sure to read the small print....
# Signs to Watch for in Breast Cancer
Self-knowledge is power. According to breastcancer.org, approximately 20 percent of all breast cancers are found through physical examination, not mammography. Women who know the signs of breast...
# Information About Breast Cancer That Has Not Spread
Breast cancer is found in one out of every eight women in the United States, according to MedlinePlus. The cancer usually starts in the milk-producing ducts of the breast and spreads to breast...
# Is Metastatic Breast Cancer Malignant?
Metastatic breast cancer is malignant, by definition. The ability to metastasize, or spread, throughout the body is a defining characteristic of a cancer cell. Tumors that lack the ability to...
# Guidelines for Routine Care Following Breast Cancer
After completing treatment for breast cancer, there are many lingering effects that can continue to play a role throughout the rest of a woman's life. It is also important to be diligent in...
# Options for the Last Stage of Breast Cancer
The purpose for categorizing a breast-cancer diagnosis into separate stages is so that your doctors and treatment team can compartmentalize your symptoms and assign different treatment methods....
# Breast Cancer Medicine & Treatment
There are many types of breast cancer medicine available today. Some are forms of chemotherapy and others are not. Chemotherapy medicine includes Cytoxan, while non-chemotherapy medicines include...
# Breast Reconstruction & How to Pick Your Breast Size
Breast reconstruction surgery is usually done at the same time as the surgery for the removal of cancerous tissue; however, it can be done at a later date, due to circumstances or personal...
# Post-Hysterectomy Breast Pain
Breast pain or tenderness is not uncommon in women who have undergone hysterectomies.
# Estriol for Treatment of Breast Cancer
Estriol is a naturally occurring estrogen that is being recreated in compound laboratories for use as a bio-identical hormone replacement to treat menopausal symptoms. There is some question as to...
# Dioxins & Breast Cancer
The Breast Cancer Fund Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognize dioxins to be a carcinogen associated with breast cancers. Dioxins are considered to be the most...
# Breast Cancer Continuing Education
Patients who have endured breast cancer will need a wealth of education and resources even after they have undergone surgery and treatment. Continuing education will help breast cancer patients...
# Definition of a Spindle Cell Tumor
Spindle cell tumors are cancerous masses. They are made up of cells which, when viewed under a microscope have a spindle shape. These cells occur in sarcoma and carcinoma masses.
# Signs & Symptoms of Breast Cancer Metastasis to the Brain
# Thermography & Breast Cancer
Breast thermography is one of the procedures that leads to early breast cancer detection. A thermography exam can also bring about a better understanding of underlying health issues that may...
# What Is the Difference Between a Regular Mammogram & a Bilateral Mammogram?
Mammography is currently the most effective procedure to detect and diagnose diseases of the breast. A "regular" mammogram is generally considered to be a "screening" mammogram for asymptomatic...
# The Best Rated Ohio Hospitals for Breast Cancer Treatment
# Silicone & Breast Cancer
The most common way silicone comes into contact with the breast is through silicone breast implants, which were banned in 1992 by the Food and Drug Administration.
# The Dangers of Mammograms
# Stages of Breast Cancer
# Breast Cancer Research & Men
Research pertaining to breast cancer in men has identified risk factors, types of breast cancer in men, and diagnostic and treatment protocols.
# What Are the Treatments for Estrogen Receptive Cancer?
According to the American Cancer Society, estrogen promotes the growth of about two out of three breast cancers. Treatment of estrogen receptive cancer combines traditional cancer treatments with...
# Link Between Early Menopause & Breast/Ovarian Cancer
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the average age for natural menopause is 51. Menopause before you turn 40 is considered early menopause. Having early menopause is not considered a cause of...
# How Breast & Prostate Cancer are Linked to an Iodine Problem
According to the National Cancer Institute, prostate cancer is one leading cause of cancer death for men, as breast cancer is for women. There is a relationship between iodine deficiency and...
# Psychosocial Effects of a Mastectomy
Women diagnosed with breast cancer may have to consider a mastectomy as one of their treatment options. In addition to the challenge of coping with a cancer diagnosis and breast surgery they must...
# How to Recognize Signs and Symptoms Of Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death for women. Early detection of breast cancer increases the chance of survival for women. Recognizing signs and symptoms of breast cancer in it's...
# How to Be Alert to 4 Signs of Breast Cancer - Lump, Dimple, Rash, or Nipple Discharge
Breast Cancer health alert: Many people are aware that a lump in the breast could potentially be a sign of breast cancer. Whether this mass or tumor turns out to be benign or malignant, you should...
# How to create page on Breast Cancer Journey on NING Network
Should you be battling with breast cancer or have a loved one who is traveling that Breast Cancer road, it is free to join the Ning Network called Breast Cancer Journey. The focus of this network...
# How to Calculate a Gail Score
A Gail score is a indicator of your risk for breast cancer. This score, which is named after Dr. Mitchell Gail, is obtained by using the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool. Although this test...
It is also a dedication to Malawi.
Here we go, cancer:
Since it is the second-leading cause of cancer death in women, most women are concerned about breast cancer and want to lower their risk. Unfortunately, there's no proven way to prevent breast...
# Mammograms
A mammogram is a special, low-dose X-ray that takes a picture of the breast. According to WomensHealth.gov, it is the best way to detect breast cancer early. With early detection, breast cancer...
# Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Coping with a life changing and frightening diagnosis requires extreme coping skills. But luckily there are a tremendous amount of resources out there, and there are a few simple things you can do...
# Cancer Walk
Every year, the American Cancer Society (ACS) hosts a breast cancer walk called "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer." The walk is noncompetitive and aims to fight breast cancer and raise...
# Cancer Survivors
Following a healthy diet plan can help cancer survivors return to a feeling of well-being once treatment ends. As part of the program to help you regain your health and to improve your future...
# Cancer Research
Many types of cancer treatments are available for patients who suffer from the disease. These treatments will help improve the quality of life and also prolong life. Cancer research is an ongoing...
# After Cancer
In 2008, there were 2.5 million women in the United States who had survived breast cancer, a disease that involves the growth of malignant tumors within breast tissue. Surgery to remove the tumor...
# After Mastectomy
A mastectomy is the recommended form of treatment for some breast cancers and can involve removing the entire breast or just part of it (in the more conservative lumpectomy operation). Some...
# Advanced Breast Cancer
When breast cancer is in its early stages, symptoms are rarely present; it isn't until the disease has progressed to its later stages that the warning signs actually become more evident. This is...
# Aids Awareness Month
Every volunteer involved in AIDS HIV Awareness Month events is acutely aware of the need for further public education. Many volunteers have a friend, family member or co-worker who is dealing with...
# Traditional Radiation Vs. IMRT for the Treatment of Postmastectomy Breast Cancer
Radiation therapy is often suggested after mastectomies for patients with advancing breast cancer. There are a number of different types of radiation used with, IMRT being one of the more popular...
# Is There a Correlation Between Breast Cancer & Colon Cancer?
Breast cancer and colon cancer are fairly common and very curable in the early stages. They may have more in common than that, as there seem to be a number of factors connecting the two.
# TP53 Mutations and Breast Cancer Prognosis
Nicknamed the "guardian of the genome," TP53 determines if a cell is too damaged to be repaired and must therefore undergo cell death (apoptosis). Mutations in TP53 are the most common mutation...
# What Are Crystalized Cells in the Breast Tissue?
Scientists are constantly studying new ways to detect and cure breast cancer, while also determining who is most likely to get it. One term that appears in their reports, crystallized cells, may...
# Localization & Breast Cancer Prognosis
According to the American Cancer Society, breast is the second most common type of cancer in women in the United States. In the United States, women have a 1 in 35 chance that their breast cancer...
# What Are the Chances of Surviving Metastatic Breast Cancer?
Metastatic breast cancer is an advanced form of cancer that has spread beyond the breast to distant lymph nodes or to other areas of the body. Survival rates for the disease are relatively low.
# What Are the Treatments for Noninvasive Breast Cancer?
Non-invasive breast cancers indicate the cancer has not spread beyond the ducts or lobules into other breast tissue. Lobules are the glands that produce milk, while ducts carry the milk to the...
# What Are the Benefits of a Mastectomy Bra?
Going through breast cancer and a mastectomy can be very stressful. Whether you have had a partial mastectomy, or a complete radical mastectomy, you may find that wearing a mastectomy bra is...
# How to Understand Breast Cancer Test Results
Breast cancer will affect one out of every eight women, according to statistics from the medical site Medline Plus. It is likely that you or someone you know will experience breast cancer....
# How to Tell a Fibrocystic Lump From Breast Cancer
Finding a lump anywhere on your body can be a traumatic experience, and the first line of thought that goes through nearly everyone's mind is whether the lump is cancerous. When it comes to...
# Government Spending on Breast Cancer Treatment
New U.S. cases of breast cancer have increased about 1 percent per year since 1940. The total costs of pain and suffering for individuals and their families affected by breast cancer can't be...
# How to Shop to Support Breast Cancer
Many companies have jumped on the bandwagon of support for the fight against breast cancer. It's great to join in and let your purchases help this great cause, but be sure to read the small print....
# Signs to Watch for in Breast Cancer
Self-knowledge is power. According to breastcancer.org, approximately 20 percent of all breast cancers are found through physical examination, not mammography. Women who know the signs of breast...
# Information About Breast Cancer That Has Not Spread
Breast cancer is found in one out of every eight women in the United States, according to MedlinePlus. The cancer usually starts in the milk-producing ducts of the breast and spreads to breast...
# Is Metastatic Breast Cancer Malignant?
Metastatic breast cancer is malignant, by definition. The ability to metastasize, or spread, throughout the body is a defining characteristic of a cancer cell. Tumors that lack the ability to...
# Guidelines for Routine Care Following Breast Cancer
After completing treatment for breast cancer, there are many lingering effects that can continue to play a role throughout the rest of a woman's life. It is also important to be diligent in...
# Options for the Last Stage of Breast Cancer
The purpose for categorizing a breast-cancer diagnosis into separate stages is so that your doctors and treatment team can compartmentalize your symptoms and assign different treatment methods....
# Breast Cancer Medicine & Treatment
There are many types of breast cancer medicine available today. Some are forms of chemotherapy and others are not. Chemotherapy medicine includes Cytoxan, while non-chemotherapy medicines include...
# Breast Reconstruction & How to Pick Your Breast Size
Breast reconstruction surgery is usually done at the same time as the surgery for the removal of cancerous tissue; however, it can be done at a later date, due to circumstances or personal...
# Post-Hysterectomy Breast Pain
Breast pain or tenderness is not uncommon in women who have undergone hysterectomies.
# Estriol for Treatment of Breast Cancer
Estriol is a naturally occurring estrogen that is being recreated in compound laboratories for use as a bio-identical hormone replacement to treat menopausal symptoms. There is some question as to...
# Dioxins & Breast Cancer
The Breast Cancer Fund Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognize dioxins to be a carcinogen associated with breast cancers. Dioxins are considered to be the most...
# Breast Cancer Continuing Education
Patients who have endured breast cancer will need a wealth of education and resources even after they have undergone surgery and treatment. Continuing education will help breast cancer patients...
# Definition of a Spindle Cell Tumor
Spindle cell tumors are cancerous masses. They are made up of cells which, when viewed under a microscope have a spindle shape. These cells occur in sarcoma and carcinoma masses.
# Signs & Symptoms of Breast Cancer Metastasis to the Brain
# Thermography & Breast Cancer
Breast thermography is one of the procedures that leads to early breast cancer detection. A thermography exam can also bring about a better understanding of underlying health issues that may...
# What Is the Difference Between a Regular Mammogram & a Bilateral Mammogram?
Mammography is currently the most effective procedure to detect and diagnose diseases of the breast. A "regular" mammogram is generally considered to be a "screening" mammogram for asymptomatic...
# The Best Rated Ohio Hospitals for Breast Cancer Treatment
# Silicone & Breast Cancer
The most common way silicone comes into contact with the breast is through silicone breast implants, which were banned in 1992 by the Food and Drug Administration.
# The Dangers of Mammograms
# Stages of Breast Cancer
# Breast Cancer Research & Men
Research pertaining to breast cancer in men has identified risk factors, types of breast cancer in men, and diagnostic and treatment protocols.
# What Are the Treatments for Estrogen Receptive Cancer?
According to the American Cancer Society, estrogen promotes the growth of about two out of three breast cancers. Treatment of estrogen receptive cancer combines traditional cancer treatments with...
# Link Between Early Menopause & Breast/Ovarian Cancer
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the average age for natural menopause is 51. Menopause before you turn 40 is considered early menopause. Having early menopause is not considered a cause of...
# How Breast & Prostate Cancer are Linked to an Iodine Problem
According to the National Cancer Institute, prostate cancer is one leading cause of cancer death for men, as breast cancer is for women. There is a relationship between iodine deficiency and...
# Psychosocial Effects of a Mastectomy
Women diagnosed with breast cancer may have to consider a mastectomy as one of their treatment options. In addition to the challenge of coping with a cancer diagnosis and breast surgery they must...
# How to Recognize Signs and Symptoms Of Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death for women. Early detection of breast cancer increases the chance of survival for women. Recognizing signs and symptoms of breast cancer in it's...
# How to Be Alert to 4 Signs of Breast Cancer - Lump, Dimple, Rash, or Nipple Discharge
Breast Cancer health alert: Many people are aware that a lump in the breast could potentially be a sign of breast cancer. Whether this mass or tumor turns out to be benign or malignant, you should...
# How to create page on Breast Cancer Journey on NING Network
Should you be battling with breast cancer or have a loved one who is traveling that Breast Cancer road, it is free to join the Ning Network called Breast Cancer Journey. The focus of this network...
# How to Calculate a Gail Score
A Gail score is a indicator of your risk for breast cancer. This score, which is named after Dr. Mitchell Gail, is obtained by using the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool. Although this test...
How to Lower Breast Cancer Risk
Breast self examinations are highly encouraged for women to take control over the health of their breasts
Know thy breast. Monthly self-breast examinations are imperative in order to detect any abnormal bumps and lumps in the breast. Unfortunately, breast examination studies have concluded that self breast examinations put too much fear and anxiety about finding a lump, so women haphazardly avoid feeling themselves when she feels as she must go on the 'breast cancer hunt.'
Women should be strongly advised to do breast self examinations anyway because early detection is key. Also, fear not about thinking of it as going on a cancer hunt. Many women who may detect a lump in the breast may find out later that it is malignant. But by doing self examinations, you are taking charge of your health and your body.
Step 2
Caution what you put into your body. Alcohol is a triple no-no for women who have a family history of breast cancer in their family (also, low alcohol consumption is just as important for women without genetic tendencies). Experts have concluded that while a glass of red wine can lower risk of heart disease, having more can increase a breast cancer risk. So if you are a wine drinker, aim to have no more than a glass per day. If you suffer from an alcohol addiction, get help immediately as this can dramatically increase breast cancer risk.
Step 3
Get more calcium and vitamin D into your system. Growing number of studies have proven that women need to up their vitamin D intake because 75% of women are alarmingly deficient in this mineral. Eat more fortified dairy products and drink more milk; skim, vitamin D and goats milk are highly suggested. Increase your fish intake, which provides healthy levels of omega 3 (but it is highly suggested you take flaxseed oil supplement daily). You should aim to have a 1000 IU of vitamin D per day.
Step 4
Exercising has been found to cut your risk by at least 30%. Simply a little more than 3 hours a week of cardio and resistance training lowers estrogen levels (which is linked to cancerous tumors in the breast). Doing fitness activities keep you at a healthy weight.
Step 5
Watch your estrogen levels. When a woman has too much estrogen, (if they have started their menstrual cycle before 12 or have had their first child after 30) estrogen stays in breast cells longer than normal. Talk to your ob-gyn about your risk factors and also, check to see if the Pill or other contraceptives increases your estrogen levels.
Know thy breast. Monthly self-breast examinations are imperative in order to detect any abnormal bumps and lumps in the breast. Unfortunately, breast examination studies have concluded that self breast examinations put too much fear and anxiety about finding a lump, so women haphazardly avoid feeling themselves when she feels as she must go on the 'breast cancer hunt.'
Women should be strongly advised to do breast self examinations anyway because early detection is key. Also, fear not about thinking of it as going on a cancer hunt. Many women who may detect a lump in the breast may find out later that it is malignant. But by doing self examinations, you are taking charge of your health and your body.
Step 2
Caution what you put into your body. Alcohol is a triple no-no for women who have a family history of breast cancer in their family (also, low alcohol consumption is just as important for women without genetic tendencies). Experts have concluded that while a glass of red wine can lower risk of heart disease, having more can increase a breast cancer risk. So if you are a wine drinker, aim to have no more than a glass per day. If you suffer from an alcohol addiction, get help immediately as this can dramatically increase breast cancer risk.
Step 3
Get more calcium and vitamin D into your system. Growing number of studies have proven that women need to up their vitamin D intake because 75% of women are alarmingly deficient in this mineral. Eat more fortified dairy products and drink more milk; skim, vitamin D and goats milk are highly suggested. Increase your fish intake, which provides healthy levels of omega 3 (but it is highly suggested you take flaxseed oil supplement daily). You should aim to have a 1000 IU of vitamin D per day.
Step 4
Exercising has been found to cut your risk by at least 30%. Simply a little more than 3 hours a week of cardio and resistance training lowers estrogen levels (which is linked to cancerous tumors in the breast). Doing fitness activities keep you at a healthy weight.
Step 5
Watch your estrogen levels. When a woman has too much estrogen, (if they have started their menstrual cycle before 12 or have had their first child after 30) estrogen stays in breast cells longer than normal. Talk to your ob-gyn about your risk factors and also, check to see if the Pill or other contraceptives increases your estrogen levels.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
See you again Aleke Kadonaphani Banda
A thousand years from now.
Oh, some joined you yesterday,
And many more today.
See you again Aleke,
Five hundred years from now,
When on the lap of Jesus Christ we shall cry.
See you again Aleke,
Two hundred years from now,
When on heaven's bosom we shall laugh.
See you again Aleke,
A hundred years from now,
An eternal world to enjoy.
See you again Aleke,
Fifty years from now,
And our bodies will sicken no more.
See you again Aleke,
Perhaps hours from now,
Somewhere beyond the blue sky.
See you for the last time today,
When from Chirimba Township's grounds you shall descend,
To the worlds unknown.
Oh, some joined you yesterday,
And many more today.
See you again Aleke,
Five hundred years from now,
When on the lap of Jesus Christ we shall cry.
See you again Aleke,
Two hundred years from now,
When on heaven's bosom we shall laugh.
See you again Aleke,
A hundred years from now,
An eternal world to enjoy.
See you again Aleke,
Fifty years from now,
And our bodies will sicken no more.
See you again Aleke,
Perhaps hours from now,
Somewhere beyond the blue sky.
See you for the last time today,
When from Chirimba Township's grounds you shall descend,
To the worlds unknown.
See you again our friend, Aleke Kadonaphani Banda:
RICHARD CHIROMBO
Aleke Kadonaphani Banda is a Malawian script. On this script are
written stories of politics and courage. In politics, where he begun
at the age of 14, he furnished his life situation; courage and hard
work provided the theme.
His story could be likened to the river Ruo. Like most rivers with
Ocean (big) connections, it starts small, but sure-footed, clawing
from Mulanje Mountain. It then pours into the mighty Zambezi River (it
is still Luo, somehow, because the waters still carry the scent and
famed spirits of Mulanje).
In the big Indian Ocean, where Zambezi rids its chest of all our
tears, Malawi begins to live and becomes part of the big story, the
ocean. It is no longer Luo or Zambezi; it is a big, mighty, salty
ocean.
So, too, with Aleke Banda. It started small in 1953 when, at the
tender age of 14, he ascended to the position of district secretary
for Nyasaland African Congress in Que-Que, Zimbabwe. His background
might have been limited to the basic description of a young man from
Tukombo. No more.
Why? Because, at that age, he was not yet national, let alone
regional. He might have been in a foreign land, Zimbabwe, but people
still saw the ‘Tukombo’ in him, a community member. Like Ruo on
Mulanje Mountain.
It must have been difficult also, at that time, to say “Mr. Aleke
Banda’. He was only 14. Is that why he was fondly referred to as
‘Aleke’ or AKB? Is that the reason Banda sounds so heavy in the mouth?
Love and admiration force us to define adorable figures in simple,
digestible forms. And Aleke was one such individual; a man of courage,
high integrity, so hard working, honest, transparent and easily
accessible.
These attributes came handy whenever he was caught in the net of
adverse circumstances, most of which orchestrated by people who
imagined enemies where none existed, and created holes of mistrust in
the smooth air. He was hard working, giving out his best at a time
other people (ministers, public officials) were busy buying time in a
world where there is no spare time.
For instance, in March 1973, he was dismissed from cabinet and
banished into internal exile due a Zambian newspaper report that
purported that he could be the next best person to replace first
president, Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Banda. He paved his way out by asking
for special consideration of his case. Men of integrity and courage
fear no reviews.
This was a time, between 1964 and 1980, when government and politics
had dropped into a vacuum of objectives that there was no clear
direction. Aleke might have realized that instances of courage on
isolated and unimportant issues have no great significance, and so
invoked that better title deed for real politicians: courage under
fearful pressure.
Moral courage is great and admirable in itself; but it must be pointed
out that it almost never appears except as part of that greater entity
called character. In short, moral courage is allied with other traits
which make up character: honesty, deep consciousness and seriousness,
a firm sense of principle, candour, and resolution.
As Ernest Hemingway once said, “Courage is grace under pressure”.
Aleke’s heart remained home to all these. A man who knew that all
conventions, conferences, and agreements are founded upon the
principle of mutual concession. This is the spirit he wore when, in
July 1960, he was secretary of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP)
delegation to the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference in London,
where the country’s first constitution was drafted.
In December of that same year, he was to become secretary of the MCP
delegation to the Constitutional Conference at Marlborough House. This
culminated into self-government for Nyasaland and secession of
Nyasaland from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Not that Aleke, looking at the outcomes of the meetings he attended,
did not value compromise. There is always need for compromise, but
this compromise should always be on issues not principles. So he held
on to the Honourable ship of principles, and held on to the end. He
had inherited these principles from the hours he was born in Zimbabwe,
on September 19, 1939, nurtured them for over 50 years of political
and public life, and went with them when the sun finally set on
Friday, April 9, 2010. A giant star with humble beginnings had fallen
in South Africa, and the clouds followed suit in Malawi- they turned
black. Everything, too, seemed to take the direction of black.
Aleke was a shining star because everything he founded lived. Nation
Publications Limited and Malawi News are neighborly examples. Now that
star has stopped shining, but its soft, gentle light will be felt for
a long time to come. A hole now occupies the place he took for himself
through hard work and dedication. What remains is an enormous hollow
of blackness it scares.
In Tukombo, especially, where he served as Member of Parliament from
2004 to March 2009, it is all dark and gloom. Before that fateful
Friday, Tukombo Girls Secondary School, Youth Development Centre and
Agriculture Scheme, not forgetting a revolving fund he set up, were
living examples of Aleke’s social spirit and forced smiles on people’s
faces. Now, they are a reminder of the Aleke who was, and will never
be. At least in Physical form. He lives on in their minds.
These developments came about because Aleke knew that the essence of
democracy is faith in the wisdom of the people and their views. But he
realized, also, that politicians are not merely seismographic
instruments, recording shifts in constituents’ opinion. Voters elect
MPs because they have confidence in their (candidates’) judgements and
their ability to exercise that judgement from a position where they
would determine what their own interests are, as part of the nation’s
interests.
This means MPs should occasionally lead, inform, correct, and
sometimes even ignore constituents’ opinion if they are to exercise
fully that judgement for which they were elected, as John F. Kennedy
rightly pointed out.
So Aleke, of his own accord, resorted to developing Tukombo during his
tenure as People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) MP, and people are now
happy with what he achieved. The tears that rolled down their cheeks
were also tears of joy. Here was a life well lived.
We live our life well when we are, among other things, fit for exact
ethical discussions, clear in seeing general truths, active in
development, unrelenting in our pursuit of truth ,justice and human
rights freedoms, fond of inquiry and constructive debate, penetrated
and restrained by common values and a shrewd common sense. We must
also have a tenacity of purpose, a lofty and inflexible courage, an
unbending will that never flinches before antagonists.
Aleke Kadonaphani Banda: What a man to have all these! Contrast these
with modern day politicians. Aleke’s characteristics are unhappily out
of tune with politics being employed in the Democratic Progressive
Party (where constructive criticism is dessent), United Democratic
Front (where the will of the leader is supreme to the common will of
party followers), Malawi Congress Party (where progress is determined
by how deep you stick your legs into the waters of yesteryears), and
other small political parties (where the leader has been the leader
forever, dragging their parties into one-man alliances, and party
conventions are synonymous with selling power).
A politician in Malawi, it seems, must be the man or woman of the
political party; never a man, or woman, of the whole country. The
country is so totally given up to the spirit of partisanship that not
to follow blindfolded is an expiable offense. Narrow partisanship is
killing us.
But Aleke could stand firm, even if it meant giving rise to the term
‘Minority of oSne’. That is what he did when the UDF imposed Bingu wa
Mutharika as the party’s torch-bearer. He simply resigned as UDF’s
vice-president on May 18, 2003. He was not happy with the turn of
events, which prompted the then State President Bakili Muluzi to sack
him from cabinet.
The same old Aleke story: Compromise on issues; never on principles.
It is this same spirit which drove him, and others like the late Orton
Chirwa, to found the MCP on September 30, 1959. It was a giant,
courageous move. Visionary, too. That decision turned out to be the
impetus for change.
Given an expanded base of public support, and blessed by a new brand
of no-nonsense native leaders like Aleke and Chirwa, Nyasaland came
close to setting- or up setting (the way you look at it), the national
agenda.
It is like what Bertrand Russel, the eminent British philosopher and
mathematician, said about real politics and power: “It is the
production of intended effects”.
This means that many people in society have influence, but they do not
exercise power unless they can actually change the course of events.
Using this definition, we see that Aleke had both influence and power,
but, instead of clinging to it, he and Chirwa gave it freely to Dr.
Banda.
The good thing about Aleke’s machinations was that Nyasalanders got
inspiration and stopped acting like the ghosts they had become.
Instead, they started to act and behave like the warriors they had
once been before the partition of Africa. That was when the Ngoni were
Ngoni with the spear, the Lomwe could not be chased from a Kalongonda
party, and the Chewa were simply unbeatable with their Alauli
(traditional prophets). The Tonga were too dangerous on hill tops
while the Tumbuka could not be tempered with at their own backyard.
Everyone, a warrior.
What the colonialists and partitioners did was to break this
invincible spirit and plant feeble seeds. Aleke saw through this and
acted in the common interests of people. No outsider could now predict
if they could recognize any limits to Nyasas’ lively sense of
reparation. The refuddled politicians knew only one thing; that
nothing could stop the likes of Aleke.
It was a long struggle, one in which Aleke, Chirwa, among others,
participated. Early European settlers and historians treated them as
amorphous, out-of-focus beings, not far removed from local vegetation
and animal life, and deserving of a similar fate.
Their aspiration to decide their own destinies became a rubric kept
deliberately out of their reach.
Aleke and other nationalists saw where the rubric was hidden and
wanted to reach it. They realized, also, the comforting belief that
nothing which could be imagined was impossible. These were views
shared by many who saw themselves becoming the ghosts in their own
country’s history.
How could a majority people become aliens in their own country,
displaced within their own homeland when settlers took prime land, and
forced to live in fear under the rule of an intrusive minority of new
‘conquerors’.
People got so tired they needed redeemers. It was Aleke Banda and
others who were the smiths!
In Blantyre’s Chirimba Township a smith of hope, accomplishment,
courage, high integrity, and principles will now lie dead, but
peaceful anyway, knowing he achieved what many people could only dream
of. A nation, history and long script is now laid for our adoration,
appreciation and politics good lessons. Like Luo, starting humbly from
Mulanje, he is now part of the larger story, the story of Malawi.
His life might have been winding and long at times, like Zambezi, but
it reached its destination in admirable order. It proceeds along a
straight line of success. Those who take the same path may not stray.
That came clear after news of his passing on spread: there was an
ominous silence- a silence of both mediation and shock.
To rise from an origin both humble and obscure, in 1953, and become
the district secretary for Nyasaland African Congress in Que-Que,
Zimbabwe; to organise Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia students in that
political organization disguised as Bwafano Photographic Club, and
edit the school magazine that was Ukuqolotsha Kwe Nyati; to found the
Southern African Students Association as secretary general.
To co-found the Malawi Congress Party in 1959; to be part of the
negotiating team with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in
Zomba, 1960, and fight for the abolition of the Federation of Rhodesia
and Nyasaland; to found and become first editor for Malawi News.
To become Minister of Finance, Agriculture, Information and Tourism,
Trade and Indu-
stry, Works and Supplies, Economic Planning, among others: to be part
of the April 19
1960 landmark delegation to meet Ian Macleod, British Secretary of
State, and be part of
the July 1960 MCP delegation to Lancaster House Constitutional
Conference in London.
To chair the 1972 annual conference of the Commonworth Parliamentary
Association
held at Kwacha Conference Centre; between 1963 and 1973, to serve as League of
Malawi Youth and Commander of the Malawi Young Pioneers
And then to be dismissed from cabinet in March 1973 by a mere foreign newspaper
Report likening him to Kamuzu’s possible heir. To be detained, from
January 1980,
for 12-and-a-half years without trial at Mpyupyu and Mikuyu prisons;
then, to rise again
in December 1993 and become United Democratic Front’s first vice-president. To
become, in May 1994, Minister of Finance under the UDF regime, and
then resign from
the party on May 18, 2003 to join the People’s Progressive Movement
(PPM) three days
later.
To rise to the PPM presidency on January 9, 2004; to get diagnosed
with lymphatic
leukemia cancer in 2006, and then retire voluntarily from politics to
concentrate on
raising awareness on cancer.
And then to die, after suffering a stroke, at Morningside Medi Clinic
in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
Thus ends the extraordinary career of a man who had made an indelible
mark on the history of his, and our, times. So many things, including
Malawi and democracy, first lived in the heart and mind of Aleke Banda
before they wore the court of reality and took real form.
He saw a real Malawi in his mind during the colonial period, and
patriotically loved his country when it could be pointed on paper. Now
Malawi has grown, and will keep him in her heart in Chilimba.
History asks: Did the man have integrity? Did the man have
unselfishness? Did the man have courage? Did the man have consistence?
Aleke answers no more; his works and a legacy he has left us with will
do that for him.
Malawians only hope that Aleke’s grave will never become a lonely
grave, forgotten and unknown.
But history will remember the September 2007 Media Institute of
Southern Africa Press Freedom Award for his contribution to media
freedom and development; our mouths will profess the Diversity Leader
Lifetime Achiever Award of November 2008 as a manifestation of people
who die to live in our hearts; while the November 14, 2009 Mzuzu
University Doctor of Philosopher Degree (Honoris Causa) for great
service to the nation will always remind us of a man from a small
community (Tukombo) who influenced his nation.
Aleke Kadonaphani Banda is a Malawian script. On this script are
written stories of politics and courage. In politics, where he begun
at the age of 14, he furnished his life situation; courage and hard
work provided the theme.
His story could be likened to the river Ruo. Like most rivers with
Ocean (big) connections, it starts small, but sure-footed, clawing
from Mulanje Mountain. It then pours into the mighty Zambezi River (it
is still Luo, somehow, because the waters still carry the scent and
famed spirits of Mulanje).
In the big Indian Ocean, where Zambezi rids its chest of all our
tears, Malawi begins to live and becomes part of the big story, the
ocean. It is no longer Luo or Zambezi; it is a big, mighty, salty
ocean.
So, too, with Aleke Banda. It started small in 1953 when, at the
tender age of 14, he ascended to the position of district secretary
for Nyasaland African Congress in Que-Que, Zimbabwe. His background
might have been limited to the basic description of a young man from
Tukombo. No more.
Why? Because, at that age, he was not yet national, let alone
regional. He might have been in a foreign land, Zimbabwe, but people
still saw the ‘Tukombo’ in him, a community member. Like Ruo on
Mulanje Mountain.
It must have been difficult also, at that time, to say “Mr. Aleke
Banda’. He was only 14. Is that why he was fondly referred to as
‘Aleke’ or AKB? Is that the reason Banda sounds so heavy in the mouth?
Love and admiration force us to define adorable figures in simple,
digestible forms. And Aleke was one such individual; a man of courage,
high integrity, so hard working, honest, transparent and easily
accessible.
These attributes came handy whenever he was caught in the net of
adverse circumstances, most of which orchestrated by people who
imagined enemies where none existed, and created holes of mistrust in
the smooth air. He was hard working, giving out his best at a time
other people (ministers, public officials) were busy buying time in a
world where there is no spare time.
For instance, in March 1973, he was dismissed from cabinet and
banished into internal exile due a Zambian newspaper report that
purported that he could be the next best person to replace first
president, Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Banda. He paved his way out by asking
for special consideration of his case. Men of integrity and courage
fear no reviews.
This was a time, between 1964 and 1980, when government and politics
had dropped into a vacuum of objectives that there was no clear
direction. Aleke might have realized that instances of courage on
isolated and unimportant issues have no great significance, and so
invoked that better title deed for real politicians: courage under
fearful pressure.
Moral courage is great and admirable in itself; but it must be pointed
out that it almost never appears except as part of that greater entity
called character. In short, moral courage is allied with other traits
which make up character: honesty, deep consciousness and seriousness,
a firm sense of principle, candour, and resolution.
As Ernest Hemingway once said, “Courage is grace under pressure”.
Aleke’s heart remained home to all these. A man who knew that all
conventions, conferences, and agreements are founded upon the
principle of mutual concession. This is the spirit he wore when, in
July 1960, he was secretary of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP)
delegation to the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference in London,
where the country’s first constitution was drafted.
In December of that same year, he was to become secretary of the MCP
delegation to the Constitutional Conference at Marlborough House. This
culminated into self-government for Nyasaland and secession of
Nyasaland from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Not that Aleke, looking at the outcomes of the meetings he attended,
did not value compromise. There is always need for compromise, but
this compromise should always be on issues not principles. So he held
on to the Honourable ship of principles, and held on to the end. He
had inherited these principles from the hours he was born in Zimbabwe,
on September 19, 1939, nurtured them for over 50 years of political
and public life, and went with them when the sun finally set on
Friday, April 9, 2010. A giant star with humble beginnings had fallen
in South Africa, and the clouds followed suit in Malawi- they turned
black. Everything, too, seemed to take the direction of black.
Aleke was a shining star because everything he founded lived. Nation
Publications Limited and Malawi News are neighborly examples. Now that
star has stopped shining, but its soft, gentle light will be felt for
a long time to come. A hole now occupies the place he took for himself
through hard work and dedication. What remains is an enormous hollow
of blackness it scares.
In Tukombo, especially, where he served as Member of Parliament from
2004 to March 2009, it is all dark and gloom. Before that fateful
Friday, Tukombo Girls Secondary School, Youth Development Centre and
Agriculture Scheme, not forgetting a revolving fund he set up, were
living examples of Aleke’s social spirit and forced smiles on people’s
faces. Now, they are a reminder of the Aleke who was, and will never
be. At least in Physical form. He lives on in their minds.
These developments came about because Aleke knew that the essence of
democracy is faith in the wisdom of the people and their views. But he
realized, also, that politicians are not merely seismographic
instruments, recording shifts in constituents’ opinion. Voters elect
MPs because they have confidence in their (candidates’) judgements and
their ability to exercise that judgement from a position where they
would determine what their own interests are, as part of the nation’s
interests.
This means MPs should occasionally lead, inform, correct, and
sometimes even ignore constituents’ opinion if they are to exercise
fully that judgement for which they were elected, as John F. Kennedy
rightly pointed out.
So Aleke, of his own accord, resorted to developing Tukombo during his
tenure as People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) MP, and people are now
happy with what he achieved. The tears that rolled down their cheeks
were also tears of joy. Here was a life well lived.
We live our life well when we are, among other things, fit for exact
ethical discussions, clear in seeing general truths, active in
development, unrelenting in our pursuit of truth ,justice and human
rights freedoms, fond of inquiry and constructive debate, penetrated
and restrained by common values and a shrewd common sense. We must
also have a tenacity of purpose, a lofty and inflexible courage, an
unbending will that never flinches before antagonists.
Aleke Kadonaphani Banda: What a man to have all these! Contrast these
with modern day politicians. Aleke’s characteristics are unhappily out
of tune with politics being employed in the Democratic Progressive
Party (where constructive criticism is dessent), United Democratic
Front (where the will of the leader is supreme to the common will of
party followers), Malawi Congress Party (where progress is determined
by how deep you stick your legs into the waters of yesteryears), and
other small political parties (where the leader has been the leader
forever, dragging their parties into one-man alliances, and party
conventions are synonymous with selling power).
A politician in Malawi, it seems, must be the man or woman of the
political party; never a man, or woman, of the whole country. The
country is so totally given up to the spirit of partisanship that not
to follow blindfolded is an expiable offense. Narrow partisanship is
killing us.
But Aleke could stand firm, even if it meant giving rise to the term
‘Minority of oSne’. That is what he did when the UDF imposed Bingu wa
Mutharika as the party’s torch-bearer. He simply resigned as UDF’s
vice-president on May 18, 2003. He was not happy with the turn of
events, which prompted the then State President Bakili Muluzi to sack
him from cabinet.
The same old Aleke story: Compromise on issues; never on principles.
It is this same spirit which drove him, and others like the late Orton
Chirwa, to found the MCP on September 30, 1959. It was a giant,
courageous move. Visionary, too. That decision turned out to be the
impetus for change.
Given an expanded base of public support, and blessed by a new brand
of no-nonsense native leaders like Aleke and Chirwa, Nyasaland came
close to setting- or up setting (the way you look at it), the national
agenda.
It is like what Bertrand Russel, the eminent British philosopher and
mathematician, said about real politics and power: “It is the
production of intended effects”.
This means that many people in society have influence, but they do not
exercise power unless they can actually change the course of events.
Using this definition, we see that Aleke had both influence and power,
but, instead of clinging to it, he and Chirwa gave it freely to Dr.
Banda.
The good thing about Aleke’s machinations was that Nyasalanders got
inspiration and stopped acting like the ghosts they had become.
Instead, they started to act and behave like the warriors they had
once been before the partition of Africa. That was when the Ngoni were
Ngoni with the spear, the Lomwe could not be chased from a Kalongonda
party, and the Chewa were simply unbeatable with their Alauli
(traditional prophets). The Tonga were too dangerous on hill tops
while the Tumbuka could not be tempered with at their own backyard.
Everyone, a warrior.
What the colonialists and partitioners did was to break this
invincible spirit and plant feeble seeds. Aleke saw through this and
acted in the common interests of people. No outsider could now predict
if they could recognize any limits to Nyasas’ lively sense of
reparation. The refuddled politicians knew only one thing; that
nothing could stop the likes of Aleke.
It was a long struggle, one in which Aleke, Chirwa, among others,
participated. Early European settlers and historians treated them as
amorphous, out-of-focus beings, not far removed from local vegetation
and animal life, and deserving of a similar fate.
Their aspiration to decide their own destinies became a rubric kept
deliberately out of their reach.
Aleke and other nationalists saw where the rubric was hidden and
wanted to reach it. They realized, also, the comforting belief that
nothing which could be imagined was impossible. These were views
shared by many who saw themselves becoming the ghosts in their own
country’s history.
How could a majority people become aliens in their own country,
displaced within their own homeland when settlers took prime land, and
forced to live in fear under the rule of an intrusive minority of new
‘conquerors’.
People got so tired they needed redeemers. It was Aleke Banda and
others who were the smiths!
In Blantyre’s Chirimba Township a smith of hope, accomplishment,
courage, high integrity, and principles will now lie dead, but
peaceful anyway, knowing he achieved what many people could only dream
of. A nation, history and long script is now laid for our adoration,
appreciation and politics good lessons. Like Luo, starting humbly from
Mulanje, he is now part of the larger story, the story of Malawi.
His life might have been winding and long at times, like Zambezi, but
it reached its destination in admirable order. It proceeds along a
straight line of success. Those who take the same path may not stray.
That came clear after news of his passing on spread: there was an
ominous silence- a silence of both mediation and shock.
To rise from an origin both humble and obscure, in 1953, and become
the district secretary for Nyasaland African Congress in Que-Que,
Zimbabwe; to organise Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia students in that
political organization disguised as Bwafano Photographic Club, and
edit the school magazine that was Ukuqolotsha Kwe Nyati; to found the
Southern African Students Association as secretary general.
To co-found the Malawi Congress Party in 1959; to be part of the
negotiating team with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in
Zomba, 1960, and fight for the abolition of the Federation of Rhodesia
and Nyasaland; to found and become first editor for Malawi News.
To become Minister of Finance, Agriculture, Information and Tourism,
Trade and Indu-
stry, Works and Supplies, Economic Planning, among others: to be part
of the April 19
1960 landmark delegation to meet Ian Macleod, British Secretary of
State, and be part of
the July 1960 MCP delegation to Lancaster House Constitutional
Conference in London.
To chair the 1972 annual conference of the Commonworth Parliamentary
Association
held at Kwacha Conference Centre; between 1963 and 1973, to serve as League of
Malawi Youth and Commander of the Malawi Young Pioneers
And then to be dismissed from cabinet in March 1973 by a mere foreign newspaper
Report likening him to Kamuzu’s possible heir. To be detained, from
January 1980,
for 12-and-a-half years without trial at Mpyupyu and Mikuyu prisons;
then, to rise again
in December 1993 and become United Democratic Front’s first vice-president. To
become, in May 1994, Minister of Finance under the UDF regime, and
then resign from
the party on May 18, 2003 to join the People’s Progressive Movement
(PPM) three days
later.
To rise to the PPM presidency on January 9, 2004; to get diagnosed
with lymphatic
leukemia cancer in 2006, and then retire voluntarily from politics to
concentrate on
raising awareness on cancer.
And then to die, after suffering a stroke, at Morningside Medi Clinic
in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
Thus ends the extraordinary career of a man who had made an indelible
mark on the history of his, and our, times. So many things, including
Malawi and democracy, first lived in the heart and mind of Aleke Banda
before they wore the court of reality and took real form.
He saw a real Malawi in his mind during the colonial period, and
patriotically loved his country when it could be pointed on paper. Now
Malawi has grown, and will keep him in her heart in Chilimba.
History asks: Did the man have integrity? Did the man have
unselfishness? Did the man have courage? Did the man have consistence?
Aleke answers no more; his works and a legacy he has left us with will
do that for him.
Malawians only hope that Aleke’s grave will never become a lonely
grave, forgotten and unknown.
But history will remember the September 2007 Media Institute of
Southern Africa Press Freedom Award for his contribution to media
freedom and development; our mouths will profess the Diversity Leader
Lifetime Achiever Award of November 2008 as a manifestation of people
who die to live in our hearts; while the November 14, 2009 Mzuzu
University Doctor of Philosopher Degree (Honoris Causa) for great
service to the nation will always remind us of a man from a small
community (Tukombo) who influenced his nation.
Aleke Kadonaphani Banda at COMESA Hall
Yesterday I took some time off and visited COMESA Hall in Blantyre, when Great politician and media guru Aleke Kadonaphani Banda lay in state.
It was so sad, seeing Aleke the great lying there. Motionless.
Here is a man who did so much for his country. And now, he lies there, out of Malawi.
Oh, Aleke.
You are the man.
Today, as Chirimba waits to take you as its own, In Chirimba where whenceforth you shall lie, please remember that we know how great you are.
In us, our minds and hearts, you live.
There is so much space for you there. AKB.
It was so sad, seeing Aleke the great lying there. Motionless.
Here is a man who did so much for his country. And now, he lies there, out of Malawi.
Oh, Aleke.
You are the man.
Today, as Chirimba waits to take you as its own, In Chirimba where whenceforth you shall lie, please remember that we know how great you are.
In us, our minds and hearts, you live.
There is so much space for you there. AKB.
Owings Chawanda Yappings
NBS BANK LIMITED
NBS BANK: That is what it means to move and change with the winds of the times.
It is a story that started as The New Building Society- formed after amalgamation of the Central African Building Society, Commonworth Century Building Society and First Building Society- had been incorporated under the Building Societies Act on February 7, 1964.
Since then, .the Society continued to operate raising funds from the public and advancing them by way of mortgage loans against the security of lands and buildings.
This state of affairs, where it operated almost monopolistically in mortgages, lasted until the liberation of the financial market in Malawi opened the mortgage business to financial institutions registered under The Banking Act, 1989.
The society could, however, not offer products traditionally marketed by banks. This made it increasingly difficult to compete and satisfy the expectations of its customers. A decision was thus made to convert the building society to an authorized dealer (commercial) bank.
And so begun a new story of NBS Bank.
NBS Bank was incorporated as a Limited Liability company on March 14, 2003 and was registered under the Banking Act of 1989 on March 1, 2004. Commercial banking operations started on July 1, 2004.
The Bank was listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange on June 25, 2007. The objective of listing was to increase the Bank’s productive capital base to be deployed in expanding core banking operations. Another objective was to increase the public ownership of the Bank.
A broader shareholder base, including staff participation, is expected to enhance NBS’s image. The listing has improved access to lines of credit and greater ability to attract deposits, apart from extending loan and advances’ opportunities.
The listing was also in line with National Insurance Company Limited’s (NICO) philosophy of diversifying shareholdings in its companies through the public.
Before listing, the shareholding was as follows;
NICO Holdings Limited: 74%
Malawi Government: 16%
National Investments Trust Limited (NITL): 10%.
Now, after listing, the shareholding is as follows:
NICO: Holdings Limited: 60%
Public members: 28.7%
NITL: 8.1%
ESOP: 3.2%
NBS Bank total deposits, on average, amount to K2, 000, 000, 000.
On average, net operating profits hover above K413, 000, 000. Profits growth has consistently been over 55%, raising prospects for more growth.
The general picture is that of improving trends after the government of Malawi, through the Privatization Commission, made available 48, 000, 000 shares for the Initial Public Offer, while NBS Bank offered a further 93, 333, 000, resulting in a total of 141, 333, 000 being available for subscription by the public at an offer price of K2.60 per share.
The offer started on May 28,m 2007 and closed on June 15, 2007. The total number of applicants received was 11, 304. Shares offered were 141, 333, 000 amounted to 367, 465, 800 and shares applied for were 1, 252, 125, 700 amounted to 3, 255, 526, 820. This translated to a subscription rate of 8.9 times. It remains on of the highest IPO subscriptions on Malawi Stock Exchange, save for TNM shares, which were scrambled for.
On investment opportunities that exist, share holding comes quickly to mind. The bank also has good conditions for real estate investments, and has seen an increased customer base, mostly rural farmers and low-income town dwellers.
Like all Authorized Dealer Banks, Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of Malawi remain some of the influential institutions.
BLUE FINANCIAL SERVICES
Blue Financial Services is one of the financial institutions established during the past five years, following government’s loosening of government’s loan borrowing procedures for its workers (civil servants).
In the past, money borrowing processes took long, partly because of government’s long-chain of command (bureaucracy) and a poor credit payment culture. This is a hangover from the sad reality that a savings culture remains a luxury for much of the country’s population.
It thus follows that, because people do not save (bank), they cannot borrow and repay loans successfully.
However, this status quo seemed to change with the establishment of various government loan initiatives, including the Malawi Rural Development Fund (MARDEF). Officials have been reporting improving trends, with the repayment reaching as high as 95%.
Financial services companies such as Blue then started coming in, eager to cultivate from improved loan repayment culture, and increased demand for loans as not all citizens could get access to public loans.
At first, the main borrowers were civil servants, a trend that fell in line with one of the conditions for the immerging financial services providers: the need for borrowers to be in stable employment.
Civil servants flocked to Blue and other service providers. However, because government gave them the much needed go ahead and acted as the guarantor (surety), 56% of government workers went for the loans.
Some of them, however, started flouting on the loans, prompting government to stop guaranteeing the loans.
Here were financial service providers that were millions, in excess of K2 billion a year, facing a new financial challenge. When Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Bright Nsaka, announced that government would no longer play the ‘I-know-them’ tag, shock waves kissed comfortable temples.
The hope was gone.
This has not gone unfelt in Blue. Officials at Blantyre’s Blue offices (adjacent to National Bank of Malawi- Henderson Street Branch) confided that, where as they would receive at least 250 people a day, they are now lucky to receive 50.
They blame government’s decision in 2009 for that.
For example, in January 2009, Blue Blantyre made K60.8 million in interest rates; in February, the figure was K64.6 million, while in March the figure reached K67.2 million.
The case is different this year. In January, Blantyre Blue offices made K8.1 million, in February K6.7 million, while in March the figure rose to K8 million. Things are not good, said employees.
In January 2009, Blue Blantyre had 13 workers. Six have lost their work in the wake of government’s decision.
Blue Financial Services was clearly affected by government’s decision, as evidenced by the fact that the company was failing to offer the house it promised in a ‘Win a House’ Promotion. The promotion took place in late 2008, with the company promising to build a house for the winner in Salima, a Central Malawi Lakeshore district.
When a Lilongwe woman won, the company had no funds, and started negotiating for a new deal: it wanted to pay cash, instead of the house.
Blue officials, however, said the delays were because they wanted their officials from South Africa to attend the hand over ceremony.
It took the efforts of the Malawi Lotteries Board, the body mandated to regulate promotional competitions, to intervene. NLB Operations Manager, Ofwa Alide, worked over-time to make sure that Blue paid.
As it is, Blue’s line of work is on the road back to normal, before government’s decision. Investors would, however, kill a fortune if they include non-permanent employees- so long as there are proper loan repayment mechanisms.
The Reserve Bank governor and Chief Secretary to the President have control over the operations of financial services. For RBM, the role is direct while the Chief Secretary does so through government directives.
Overall, it has not been a good time for financial service providers. What with RBM’s decision to close Foreign Exchange Bureaus, initiate new mechanisms for authorized dealer banks, low import cover, and a neck-breaking global financial crisis from whose effects Malawi is still reeling?
There is sunshine, however, and this is one area to invest. Only that borrowers/operators should not depend on one sector of employees but diversify.
RESERVE BANK OF MALAWI
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SUPERVISION OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
1. Revised minimum capital requirement
The RBM revised minimum paid up capital for banks and other financial institutions (leasing companies and discount houses) to K850.0 million and K250.0 million respectively. Therefore, all existing banks and other financial institutions whose paid up capital was less than K850.0 million and K250.0 million respectively are required to meet this new requirement which took effect on 1 January 2009 and exiting banking institutions were given a moratorium of 18 months from the effective date.
2. Credit Referencing
In a bid to improve credit risk assessment and preparation towards Basle II, banks, Bankers Association of Malawi and RBM have joined hands towards introduction of a credit reference unit. Efforts have been made towards endaging a service provider and drafting the enabling law. The Bill awaits enactment by Parliament.
3. Risk Based Supervision (RBS)
Pursuant to adoption of RBS by the RBM in 2007, the bank reviewed Risk Management Programmes (RMPs) from banks, held walk through presentations on RMPs by banks, conducted bank-wide presentations to give feed back to banks on generic observations on their submissions, conducted pilot risk based examinations, drafted the RBS examination manual and officially launched RBS on 9th January 2009. The RBM also issued guidelines on effective RMPs preparation.
4. Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Terrorism (AML/CFT)
There have been several anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) developments in the Reserve Bank of Malawi. The Reserve Bank of Malawi through Bank Supervision Department issued a Customer Due Diligence Directive (CDD Directive) in 2005 under the Banking Act. The Directive requires the banks to, inter-alia, appoint Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officers, put in place Know Your Customer (KYC) policies and report any suspicious transactions to the Reserve Bank of Malawi. With the enactment of the Money Laundering, Proceeds of Serious Crime and Terrorist Financing Act, 2006 (ML & TF Act), the obligations placed on the banks through the Directive have been amplified.
In May this year considering the enormous task of monitoring AML/CFT compliance in the financial sector, the Reserve Bank through Bank Supervision Department created a separate section within the department to monitor compliance with AML/CFT obligations placed on the banks through the CDD Directive and the AML/CFT Act.
NUMBER OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN MALAWI
As at end December 2008, the banking sector comprised eleven banks. These are National Bank of Malawi, Standard Bank Limited, First Merchant Bank Limited, NBS Bank Limited, INDEbank Limited, NEDBANK Malawi Limited, Malawi Savings Bank Limited, Opportunity International Bank of Malawi Limited, ECOBANK (formerly Loita Bank), FDH Bank Limited and International Commercial Bank (ICB). FDH Bank and ICB were licensed in 2008. In addition, First Merchant Bank owns a subsidiary, Leasing and Finance Company.
RULES ON APPOINTMENT OF COMMERCCIAL BANK DIRECTORS
It is not correct that RBM changed the rules on appointment of directors.
In approving appointments for commercial bank directors, the RBM is guided by the Banking Act (1989), Directive on Appointment of New Directors and Senior Management Officials (issued in March 2006) and International Standards pertaining to Fit and Proper Test for Directors embedded in the Core Principles for Effective Supervision.
In May 2009, all banks, discount houses and the leasing company were issued with a circular letter requesting them to regularize positions of any directors, and senior management officials who were already in those positions when the Directive was issued and were not vetted under the said Directive. Financial institutions were given 12 months from May 2009 to fully comply with the requirements of the Directive.
It is normal that after a thorough assessment, the Bank rejects names of persons proposed as directors of commercial banks who fail to pass the fit and proper test. Their side is heard from the information submitted by their banks. We are however not able to provide you will details and number of those rejected.
NBS BANK: That is what it means to move and change with the winds of the times.
It is a story that started as The New Building Society- formed after amalgamation of the Central African Building Society, Commonworth Century Building Society and First Building Society- had been incorporated under the Building Societies Act on February 7, 1964.
Since then, .the Society continued to operate raising funds from the public and advancing them by way of mortgage loans against the security of lands and buildings.
This state of affairs, where it operated almost monopolistically in mortgages, lasted until the liberation of the financial market in Malawi opened the mortgage business to financial institutions registered under The Banking Act, 1989.
The society could, however, not offer products traditionally marketed by banks. This made it increasingly difficult to compete and satisfy the expectations of its customers. A decision was thus made to convert the building society to an authorized dealer (commercial) bank.
And so begun a new story of NBS Bank.
NBS Bank was incorporated as a Limited Liability company on March 14, 2003 and was registered under the Banking Act of 1989 on March 1, 2004. Commercial banking operations started on July 1, 2004.
The Bank was listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange on June 25, 2007. The objective of listing was to increase the Bank’s productive capital base to be deployed in expanding core banking operations. Another objective was to increase the public ownership of the Bank.
A broader shareholder base, including staff participation, is expected to enhance NBS’s image. The listing has improved access to lines of credit and greater ability to attract deposits, apart from extending loan and advances’ opportunities.
The listing was also in line with National Insurance Company Limited’s (NICO) philosophy of diversifying shareholdings in its companies through the public.
Before listing, the shareholding was as follows;
NICO Holdings Limited: 74%
Malawi Government: 16%
National Investments Trust Limited (NITL): 10%.
Now, after listing, the shareholding is as follows:
NICO: Holdings Limited: 60%
Public members: 28.7%
NITL: 8.1%
ESOP: 3.2%
NBS Bank total deposits, on average, amount to K2, 000, 000, 000.
On average, net operating profits hover above K413, 000, 000. Profits growth has consistently been over 55%, raising prospects for more growth.
The general picture is that of improving trends after the government of Malawi, through the Privatization Commission, made available 48, 000, 000 shares for the Initial Public Offer, while NBS Bank offered a further 93, 333, 000, resulting in a total of 141, 333, 000 being available for subscription by the public at an offer price of K2.60 per share.
The offer started on May 28,m 2007 and closed on June 15, 2007. The total number of applicants received was 11, 304. Shares offered were 141, 333, 000 amounted to 367, 465, 800 and shares applied for were 1, 252, 125, 700 amounted to 3, 255, 526, 820. This translated to a subscription rate of 8.9 times. It remains on of the highest IPO subscriptions on Malawi Stock Exchange, save for TNM shares, which were scrambled for.
On investment opportunities that exist, share holding comes quickly to mind. The bank also has good conditions for real estate investments, and has seen an increased customer base, mostly rural farmers and low-income town dwellers.
Like all Authorized Dealer Banks, Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of Malawi remain some of the influential institutions.
BLUE FINANCIAL SERVICES
Blue Financial Services is one of the financial institutions established during the past five years, following government’s loosening of government’s loan borrowing procedures for its workers (civil servants).
In the past, money borrowing processes took long, partly because of government’s long-chain of command (bureaucracy) and a poor credit payment culture. This is a hangover from the sad reality that a savings culture remains a luxury for much of the country’s population.
It thus follows that, because people do not save (bank), they cannot borrow and repay loans successfully.
However, this status quo seemed to change with the establishment of various government loan initiatives, including the Malawi Rural Development Fund (MARDEF). Officials have been reporting improving trends, with the repayment reaching as high as 95%.
Financial services companies such as Blue then started coming in, eager to cultivate from improved loan repayment culture, and increased demand for loans as not all citizens could get access to public loans.
At first, the main borrowers were civil servants, a trend that fell in line with one of the conditions for the immerging financial services providers: the need for borrowers to be in stable employment.
Civil servants flocked to Blue and other service providers. However, because government gave them the much needed go ahead and acted as the guarantor (surety), 56% of government workers went for the loans.
Some of them, however, started flouting on the loans, prompting government to stop guaranteeing the loans.
Here were financial service providers that were millions, in excess of K2 billion a year, facing a new financial challenge. When Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Bright Nsaka, announced that government would no longer play the ‘I-know-them’ tag, shock waves kissed comfortable temples.
The hope was gone.
This has not gone unfelt in Blue. Officials at Blantyre’s Blue offices (adjacent to National Bank of Malawi- Henderson Street Branch) confided that, where as they would receive at least 250 people a day, they are now lucky to receive 50.
They blame government’s decision in 2009 for that.
For example, in January 2009, Blue Blantyre made K60.8 million in interest rates; in February, the figure was K64.6 million, while in March the figure reached K67.2 million.
The case is different this year. In January, Blantyre Blue offices made K8.1 million, in February K6.7 million, while in March the figure rose to K8 million. Things are not good, said employees.
In January 2009, Blue Blantyre had 13 workers. Six have lost their work in the wake of government’s decision.
Blue Financial Services was clearly affected by government’s decision, as evidenced by the fact that the company was failing to offer the house it promised in a ‘Win a House’ Promotion. The promotion took place in late 2008, with the company promising to build a house for the winner in Salima, a Central Malawi Lakeshore district.
When a Lilongwe woman won, the company had no funds, and started negotiating for a new deal: it wanted to pay cash, instead of the house.
Blue officials, however, said the delays were because they wanted their officials from South Africa to attend the hand over ceremony.
It took the efforts of the Malawi Lotteries Board, the body mandated to regulate promotional competitions, to intervene. NLB Operations Manager, Ofwa Alide, worked over-time to make sure that Blue paid.
As it is, Blue’s line of work is on the road back to normal, before government’s decision. Investors would, however, kill a fortune if they include non-permanent employees- so long as there are proper loan repayment mechanisms.
The Reserve Bank governor and Chief Secretary to the President have control over the operations of financial services. For RBM, the role is direct while the Chief Secretary does so through government directives.
Overall, it has not been a good time for financial service providers. What with RBM’s decision to close Foreign Exchange Bureaus, initiate new mechanisms for authorized dealer banks, low import cover, and a neck-breaking global financial crisis from whose effects Malawi is still reeling?
There is sunshine, however, and this is one area to invest. Only that borrowers/operators should not depend on one sector of employees but diversify.
RESERVE BANK OF MALAWI
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SUPERVISION OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
1. Revised minimum capital requirement
The RBM revised minimum paid up capital for banks and other financial institutions (leasing companies and discount houses) to K850.0 million and K250.0 million respectively. Therefore, all existing banks and other financial institutions whose paid up capital was less than K850.0 million and K250.0 million respectively are required to meet this new requirement which took effect on 1 January 2009 and exiting banking institutions were given a moratorium of 18 months from the effective date.
2. Credit Referencing
In a bid to improve credit risk assessment and preparation towards Basle II, banks, Bankers Association of Malawi and RBM have joined hands towards introduction of a credit reference unit. Efforts have been made towards endaging a service provider and drafting the enabling law. The Bill awaits enactment by Parliament.
3. Risk Based Supervision (RBS)
Pursuant to adoption of RBS by the RBM in 2007, the bank reviewed Risk Management Programmes (RMPs) from banks, held walk through presentations on RMPs by banks, conducted bank-wide presentations to give feed back to banks on generic observations on their submissions, conducted pilot risk based examinations, drafted the RBS examination manual and officially launched RBS on 9th January 2009. The RBM also issued guidelines on effective RMPs preparation.
4. Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Terrorism (AML/CFT)
There have been several anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) developments in the Reserve Bank of Malawi. The Reserve Bank of Malawi through Bank Supervision Department issued a Customer Due Diligence Directive (CDD Directive) in 2005 under the Banking Act. The Directive requires the banks to, inter-alia, appoint Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officers, put in place Know Your Customer (KYC) policies and report any suspicious transactions to the Reserve Bank of Malawi. With the enactment of the Money Laundering, Proceeds of Serious Crime and Terrorist Financing Act, 2006 (ML & TF Act), the obligations placed on the banks through the Directive have been amplified.
In May this year considering the enormous task of monitoring AML/CFT compliance in the financial sector, the Reserve Bank through Bank Supervision Department created a separate section within the department to monitor compliance with AML/CFT obligations placed on the banks through the CDD Directive and the AML/CFT Act.
NUMBER OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN MALAWI
As at end December 2008, the banking sector comprised eleven banks. These are National Bank of Malawi, Standard Bank Limited, First Merchant Bank Limited, NBS Bank Limited, INDEbank Limited, NEDBANK Malawi Limited, Malawi Savings Bank Limited, Opportunity International Bank of Malawi Limited, ECOBANK (formerly Loita Bank), FDH Bank Limited and International Commercial Bank (ICB). FDH Bank and ICB were licensed in 2008. In addition, First Merchant Bank owns a subsidiary, Leasing and Finance Company.
RULES ON APPOINTMENT OF COMMERCCIAL BANK DIRECTORS
It is not correct that RBM changed the rules on appointment of directors.
In approving appointments for commercial bank directors, the RBM is guided by the Banking Act (1989), Directive on Appointment of New Directors and Senior Management Officials (issued in March 2006) and International Standards pertaining to Fit and Proper Test for Directors embedded in the Core Principles for Effective Supervision.
In May 2009, all banks, discount houses and the leasing company were issued with a circular letter requesting them to regularize positions of any directors, and senior management officials who were already in those positions when the Directive was issued and were not vetted under the said Directive. Financial institutions were given 12 months from May 2009 to fully comply with the requirements of the Directive.
It is normal that after a thorough assessment, the Bank rejects names of persons proposed as directors of commercial banks who fail to pass the fit and proper test. Their side is heard from the information submitted by their banks. We are however not able to provide you will details and number of those rejected.
Aleke Kadonaphani Banda: A script of many lessons
RICHARD CHIROMBO
Aleke Kadonaphani Banda is a Malawian script. On this script are
written stories of politics and courage. In politics, where he begun
at the age of 14, he furnished his life situation; courage and hard
work provided the theme.
His story could be likened to the river Ruo. Like most rivers with
Ocean (big) connections, it starts small, but sure-footed, clawing
from Mulanje Mountain. It then pours into the mighty Zambezi River (it
is still Luo, somehow, because the waters still carry the scent and
famed spirits of Mulanje).
In the big Indian Ocean, where Zambezi rids its chest of all our
tears, Malawi begins to live and becomes part of the big story, the
ocean. It is no longer Luo or Zambezi; it is a big, mighty, salty
ocean.
So, too, with Aleke Banda. It started small in 1953 when, at the
tender age of 14, he ascended to the position of district secretary
for Nyasaland African Congress in Que-Que, Zimbabwe. His background
might have been limited to the basic description of a young man from
Tukombo. No more.
Why? Because, at that age, he was not yet national, let alone
regional. He might have been in a foreign land, Zimbabwe, but people
still saw the ‘Tukombo’ in him, a community member. Like Ruo on
Mulanje Mountain.
It must have been difficult also, at that time, to say “Mr. Aleke
Banda’. He was only 14. Is that why he was fondly referred to as
‘Aleke’ or AKB? Is that the reason Banda sounds so heavy in the mouth?
Love and admiration force us to define adorable figures in simple,
digestible forms. And Aleke was one such individual; a man of courage,
high integrity, so hard working, honest, transparent and easily
accessible.
These attributes came handy whenever he was caught in the net of
adverse circumstances, most of which orchestrated by people who
imagined enemies where none existed, and created holes of mistrust in
the smooth air. He was hard working, giving out his best at a time
other people (ministers, public officials) were busy buying time in a
world where there is no spare time.
For instance, in March 1973, he was dismissed from cabinet and
banished into internal exile due a Zambian newspaper report that
purported that he could be the next best person to replace first
president, Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Banda. He paved his way out by asking
for special consideration of his case. Men of integrity and courage
fear no reviews.
This was a time, between 1964 and 1980, when government and politics
had dropped into a vacuum of objectives that there was no clear
direction. Aleke might have realized that instances of courage on
isolated and unimportant issues have no great significance, and so
invoked that better title deed for real politicians: courage under
fearful pressure.
Moral courage is great and admirable in itself; but it must be pointed
out that it almost never appears except as part of that greater entity
called character. In short, moral courage is allied with other traits
which make up character: honesty, deep consciousness and seriousness,
a firm sense of principle, candour, and resolution.
As Ernest Hemingway once said, “Courage is grace under pressure”.
Aleke’s heart remained home to all these. A man who knew that all
conventions, conferences, and agreements are founded upon the
principle of mutual concession. This is the spirit he wore when, in
July 1960, he was secretary of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP)
delegation to the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference in London,
where the country’s first constitution was drafted.
In December of that same year, he was to become secretary of the MCP
delegation to the Constitutional Conference at Marlborough House. This
culminated into self-government for Nyasaland and secession of
Nyasaland from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Not that Aleke, looking at the outcomes of the meetings he attended,
did not value compromise. There is always need for compromise, but
this compromise should always be on issues not principles. So he held
on to the Honourable ship of principles, and held on to the end. He
had inherited these principles from the hours he was born in Zimbabwe,
on September 19, 1939, nurtured them for over 50 years of political
and public life, and went with them when the sun finally set on
Friday, April 9, 2010. A giant star with humble beginnings had fallen
in South Africa, and the clouds followed suit in Malawi- they turned
black. Everything, too, seemed to take the direction of black.
Aleke was a shining star because everything he founded lived. Nation
Publications Limited and Malawi News are neighborly examples. Now that
star has stopped shining, but its soft, gentle light will be felt for
a long time to come. A hole now occupies the place he took for himself
through hard work and dedication. What remains is an enormous hollow
of blackness it scares.
In Tukombo, especially, where he served as Member of Parliament from
2004 to March 2009, it is all dark and gloom. Before that fateful
Friday, Tukombo Girls Secondary School, Youth Development Centre and
Agriculture Scheme, not forgetting a revolving fund he set up, were
living examples of Aleke’s social spirit and forced smiles on people’s
faces. Now, they are a reminder of the Aleke who was, and will never
be. At least in Physical form. He lives on in their minds.
These developments came about because Aleke knew that the essence of
democracy is faith in the wisdom of the people and their views. But he
realized, also, that politicians are not merely seismographic
instruments, recording shifts in constituents’ opinion. Voters elect
MPs because they have confidence in their (candidates’) judgements and
their ability to exercise that judgement from a position where they
would determine what their own interests are, as part of the nation’s
interests.
This means MPs should occasionally lead, inform, correct, and
sometimes even ignore constituents’ opinion if they are to exercise
fully that judgement for which they were elected, as John F. Kennedy
rightly pointed out.
So Aleke, of his own accord, resorted to developing Tukombo during his
tenure as People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) MP, and people are now
happy with what he achieved. The tears that rolled down their cheeks
were also tears of joy. Here was a life well lived.
We live our life well when we are, among other things, fit for exact
ethical discussions, clear in seeing general truths, active in
development, unrelenting in our pursuit of truth ,justice and human
rights freedoms, fond of inquiry and constructive debate, penetrated
and restrained by common values and a shrewd common sense. We must
also have a tenacity of purpose, a lofty and inflexible courage, an
unbending will that never flinches before antagonists.
Aleke Kadonaphani Banda: What a man to have all these! Contrast these
with modern day politicians. Aleke’s characteristics are unhappily out
of tune with politics being employed in the Democratic Progressive
Party (where constructive criticism is dessent), United Democratic
Front (where the will of the leader is supreme to the common will of
party followers), Malawi Congress Party (where progress is determined
by how deep you stick your legs into the waters of yesteryears), and
other small political parties (where the leader has been the leader
forever, dragging their parties into one-man alliances, and party
conventions are synonymous with selling power).
A politician in Malawi, it seems, must be the man or woman of the
political party; never a man, or woman, of the whole country. The
country is so totally given up to the spirit of partisanship that not
to follow blindfolded is an expiable offense. Narrow partisanship is
killing us.
But Aleke could stand firm, even if it meant giving rise to the term
‘Minority of oSne’. That is what he did when the UDF imposed Bingu wa
Mutharika as the party’s torch-bearer. He simply resigned as UDF’s
vice-president on May 18, 2003. He was not happy with the turn of
events, which prompted the then State President Bakili Muluzi to sack
him from cabinet.
The same old Aleke story: Compromise on issues; never on principles.
It is this same spirit which drove him, and others like the late Orton
Chirwa, to found the MCP on September 30, 1959. It was a giant,
courageous move. Visionary, too. That decision turned out to be the
impetus for change.
Given an expanded base of public support, and blessed by a new brand
of no-nonsense native leaders like Aleke and Chirwa, Nyasaland came
close to setting- or up setting (the way you look at it), the national
agenda.
It is like what Bertrand Russel, the eminent British philosopher and
mathematician, said about real politics and power: “It is the
production of intended effects”.
This means that many people in society have influence, but they do not
exercise power unless they can actually change the course of events.
Using this definition, we see that Aleke had both influence and power,
but, instead of clinging to it, he and Chirwa gave it freely to Dr.
Banda.
The good thing about Aleke’s machinations was that Nyasalanders got
inspiration and stopped acting like the ghosts they had become.
Instead, they started to act and behave like the warriors they had
once been before the partition of Africa. That was when the Ngoni were
Ngoni with the spear, the Lomwe could not be chased from a Kalongonda
party, and the Chewa were simply unbeatable with their Alauli
(traditional prophets). The Tonga were too dangerous on hill tops
while the Tumbuka could not be tempered with at their own backyard.
Everyone, a warrior.
What the colonialists and partitioners did was to break this
invincible spirit and plant feeble seeds. Aleke saw through this and
acted in the common interests of people. No outsider could now predict
if they could recognize any limits to Nyasas’ lively sense of
reparation. The refuddled politicians knew only one thing; that
nothing could stop the likes of Aleke.
It was a long struggle, one in which Aleke, Chirwa, among others,
participated. Early European settlers and historians treated them as
amorphous, out-of-focus beings, not far removed from local vegetation
and animal life, and deserving of a similar fate.
Their aspiration to decide their own destinies became a rubric kept
deliberately out of their reach.
Aleke and other nationalists saw where the rubric was hidden and
wanted to reach it. They realized, also, the comforting belief that
nothing which could be imagined was impossible. These were views
shared by many who saw themselves becoming the ghosts in their own
country’s history.
How could a majority people become aliens in their own country,
displaced within their own homeland when settlers took prime land, and
forced to live in fear under the rule of an intrusive minority of new
‘conquerors’.
People got so tired they needed redeemers. It was Aleke Banda and
others who were the smiths!
In Blantyre’s Chirimba Township a smith of hope, accomplishment,
courage, high integrity, and principles will now lie dead, but
peaceful anyway, knowing he achieved what many people could only dream
of. A nation, history and long script is now laid for our adoration,
appreciation and politics good lessons. Like Luo, starting humbly from
Mulanje, he is now part of the larger story, the story of Malawi.
His life might have been winding and long at times, like Zambezi, but
it reached its destination in admirable order. It proceeds along a
straight line of success. Those who take the same path may not stray.
That came clear after news of his passing on spread: there was an
ominous silence- a silence of both mediation and shock.
To rise from an origin both humble and obscure, in 1953, and become
the district secretary for Nyasaland African Congress in Que-Que,
Zimbabwe; to organise Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia students in that
political organization disguised as Bwafano Photographic Club, and
edit the school magazine that was Ukuqolotsha Kwe Nyati; to found the
Southern African Students Association as secretary general.
To co-found the Malawi Congress Party in 1959; to be part of the
negotiating team with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in
Zomba, 1960, and fight for the abolition of the Federation of Rhodesia
and Nyasaland; to found and become first editor for Malawi News.
To become Minister of Finance, Agriculture, Information and Tourism,
Trade and Indu-
stry, Works and Supplies, Economic Planning, among others: to be part
of the April 19
1960 landmark delegation to meet Ian Macleod, British Secretary of
State, and be part of
the July 1960 MCP delegation to Lancaster House Constitutional
Conference in London.
To chair the 1972 annual conference of the Commonworth Parliamentary
Association
held at Kwacha Conference Centre; between 1963 and 1973, to serve as League of
Malawi Youth and Commander of the Malawi Young Pioneers
And then to be dismissed from cabinet in March 1973 by a mere foreign newspaper
Report likening him to Kamuzu’s possible heir. To be detained, from
January 1980,
for 12-and-a-half years without trial at Mpyupyu and Mikuyu prisons;
then, to rise again
in December 1993 and become United Democratic Front’s first vice-president. To
become, in May 1994, Minister of Finance under the UDF regime, and
then resign from
the party on May 18, 2003 to join the People’s Progressive Movement
(PPM) three days
later.
To rise to the PPM presidency on January 9, 2004; to get diagnosed
with lymphatic
leukemia cancer in 2006, and then retire voluntarily from politics to
concentrate on
raising awareness on cancer.
And then to die, after suffering a stroke, at Morningside Medi Clinic
in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
Thus ends the extraordinary career of a man who had made an indelible
mark on the history of his, and our, times. So many things, including
Malawi and democracy, first lived in the heart and mind of Aleke Banda
before they wore the court of reality and took real form.
He saw a real Malawi in his mind during the colonial period, and
patriotically loved his country when it could be pointed on paper. Now
Malawi has grown, and will keep him in her heart in Chilimba.
History asks: Did the man have integrity? Did the man have
unselfishness? Did the man have courage? Did the man have consistence?
Aleke answers no more; his works and a legacy he has left us with will
do that for him.
Malawians only hope that Aleke’s grave will never become a lonely
grave, forgotten and unknown.
But history will remember the September 2007 Media Institute of
Southern Africa Press Freedom Award for his contribution to media
freedom and development; our mouths will profess the Diversity Leader
Lifetime Achiever Award of November 2008 as a manifestation of people
who die to live in our hearts; while the November 14, 2009 Mzuzu
University Doctor of Philosopher Degree (Honoris Causa) for great
service to the nation will always remind us of a man from a small
community (Tukombo) who influenced his nation.
Aleke Kadonaphani Banda is a Malawian script. On this script are
written stories of politics and courage. In politics, where he begun
at the age of 14, he furnished his life situation; courage and hard
work provided the theme.
His story could be likened to the river Ruo. Like most rivers with
Ocean (big) connections, it starts small, but sure-footed, clawing
from Mulanje Mountain. It then pours into the mighty Zambezi River (it
is still Luo, somehow, because the waters still carry the scent and
famed spirits of Mulanje).
In the big Indian Ocean, where Zambezi rids its chest of all our
tears, Malawi begins to live and becomes part of the big story, the
ocean. It is no longer Luo or Zambezi; it is a big, mighty, salty
ocean.
So, too, with Aleke Banda. It started small in 1953 when, at the
tender age of 14, he ascended to the position of district secretary
for Nyasaland African Congress in Que-Que, Zimbabwe. His background
might have been limited to the basic description of a young man from
Tukombo. No more.
Why? Because, at that age, he was not yet national, let alone
regional. He might have been in a foreign land, Zimbabwe, but people
still saw the ‘Tukombo’ in him, a community member. Like Ruo on
Mulanje Mountain.
It must have been difficult also, at that time, to say “Mr. Aleke
Banda’. He was only 14. Is that why he was fondly referred to as
‘Aleke’ or AKB? Is that the reason Banda sounds so heavy in the mouth?
Love and admiration force us to define adorable figures in simple,
digestible forms. And Aleke was one such individual; a man of courage,
high integrity, so hard working, honest, transparent and easily
accessible.
These attributes came handy whenever he was caught in the net of
adverse circumstances, most of which orchestrated by people who
imagined enemies where none existed, and created holes of mistrust in
the smooth air. He was hard working, giving out his best at a time
other people (ministers, public officials) were busy buying time in a
world where there is no spare time.
For instance, in March 1973, he was dismissed from cabinet and
banished into internal exile due a Zambian newspaper report that
purported that he could be the next best person to replace first
president, Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Banda. He paved his way out by asking
for special consideration of his case. Men of integrity and courage
fear no reviews.
This was a time, between 1964 and 1980, when government and politics
had dropped into a vacuum of objectives that there was no clear
direction. Aleke might have realized that instances of courage on
isolated and unimportant issues have no great significance, and so
invoked that better title deed for real politicians: courage under
fearful pressure.
Moral courage is great and admirable in itself; but it must be pointed
out that it almost never appears except as part of that greater entity
called character. In short, moral courage is allied with other traits
which make up character: honesty, deep consciousness and seriousness,
a firm sense of principle, candour, and resolution.
As Ernest Hemingway once said, “Courage is grace under pressure”.
Aleke’s heart remained home to all these. A man who knew that all
conventions, conferences, and agreements are founded upon the
principle of mutual concession. This is the spirit he wore when, in
July 1960, he was secretary of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP)
delegation to the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference in London,
where the country’s first constitution was drafted.
In December of that same year, he was to become secretary of the MCP
delegation to the Constitutional Conference at Marlborough House. This
culminated into self-government for Nyasaland and secession of
Nyasaland from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Not that Aleke, looking at the outcomes of the meetings he attended,
did not value compromise. There is always need for compromise, but
this compromise should always be on issues not principles. So he held
on to the Honourable ship of principles, and held on to the end. He
had inherited these principles from the hours he was born in Zimbabwe,
on September 19, 1939, nurtured them for over 50 years of political
and public life, and went with them when the sun finally set on
Friday, April 9, 2010. A giant star with humble beginnings had fallen
in South Africa, and the clouds followed suit in Malawi- they turned
black. Everything, too, seemed to take the direction of black.
Aleke was a shining star because everything he founded lived. Nation
Publications Limited and Malawi News are neighborly examples. Now that
star has stopped shining, but its soft, gentle light will be felt for
a long time to come. A hole now occupies the place he took for himself
through hard work and dedication. What remains is an enormous hollow
of blackness it scares.
In Tukombo, especially, where he served as Member of Parliament from
2004 to March 2009, it is all dark and gloom. Before that fateful
Friday, Tukombo Girls Secondary School, Youth Development Centre and
Agriculture Scheme, not forgetting a revolving fund he set up, were
living examples of Aleke’s social spirit and forced smiles on people’s
faces. Now, they are a reminder of the Aleke who was, and will never
be. At least in Physical form. He lives on in their minds.
These developments came about because Aleke knew that the essence of
democracy is faith in the wisdom of the people and their views. But he
realized, also, that politicians are not merely seismographic
instruments, recording shifts in constituents’ opinion. Voters elect
MPs because they have confidence in their (candidates’) judgements and
their ability to exercise that judgement from a position where they
would determine what their own interests are, as part of the nation’s
interests.
This means MPs should occasionally lead, inform, correct, and
sometimes even ignore constituents’ opinion if they are to exercise
fully that judgement for which they were elected, as John F. Kennedy
rightly pointed out.
So Aleke, of his own accord, resorted to developing Tukombo during his
tenure as People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) MP, and people are now
happy with what he achieved. The tears that rolled down their cheeks
were also tears of joy. Here was a life well lived.
We live our life well when we are, among other things, fit for exact
ethical discussions, clear in seeing general truths, active in
development, unrelenting in our pursuit of truth ,justice and human
rights freedoms, fond of inquiry and constructive debate, penetrated
and restrained by common values and a shrewd common sense. We must
also have a tenacity of purpose, a lofty and inflexible courage, an
unbending will that never flinches before antagonists.
Aleke Kadonaphani Banda: What a man to have all these! Contrast these
with modern day politicians. Aleke’s characteristics are unhappily out
of tune with politics being employed in the Democratic Progressive
Party (where constructive criticism is dessent), United Democratic
Front (where the will of the leader is supreme to the common will of
party followers), Malawi Congress Party (where progress is determined
by how deep you stick your legs into the waters of yesteryears), and
other small political parties (where the leader has been the leader
forever, dragging their parties into one-man alliances, and party
conventions are synonymous with selling power).
A politician in Malawi, it seems, must be the man or woman of the
political party; never a man, or woman, of the whole country. The
country is so totally given up to the spirit of partisanship that not
to follow blindfolded is an expiable offense. Narrow partisanship is
killing us.
But Aleke could stand firm, even if it meant giving rise to the term
‘Minority of oSne’. That is what he did when the UDF imposed Bingu wa
Mutharika as the party’s torch-bearer. He simply resigned as UDF’s
vice-president on May 18, 2003. He was not happy with the turn of
events, which prompted the then State President Bakili Muluzi to sack
him from cabinet.
The same old Aleke story: Compromise on issues; never on principles.
It is this same spirit which drove him, and others like the late Orton
Chirwa, to found the MCP on September 30, 1959. It was a giant,
courageous move. Visionary, too. That decision turned out to be the
impetus for change.
Given an expanded base of public support, and blessed by a new brand
of no-nonsense native leaders like Aleke and Chirwa, Nyasaland came
close to setting- or up setting (the way you look at it), the national
agenda.
It is like what Bertrand Russel, the eminent British philosopher and
mathematician, said about real politics and power: “It is the
production of intended effects”.
This means that many people in society have influence, but they do not
exercise power unless they can actually change the course of events.
Using this definition, we see that Aleke had both influence and power,
but, instead of clinging to it, he and Chirwa gave it freely to Dr.
Banda.
The good thing about Aleke’s machinations was that Nyasalanders got
inspiration and stopped acting like the ghosts they had become.
Instead, they started to act and behave like the warriors they had
once been before the partition of Africa. That was when the Ngoni were
Ngoni with the spear, the Lomwe could not be chased from a Kalongonda
party, and the Chewa were simply unbeatable with their Alauli
(traditional prophets). The Tonga were too dangerous on hill tops
while the Tumbuka could not be tempered with at their own backyard.
Everyone, a warrior.
What the colonialists and partitioners did was to break this
invincible spirit and plant feeble seeds. Aleke saw through this and
acted in the common interests of people. No outsider could now predict
if they could recognize any limits to Nyasas’ lively sense of
reparation. The refuddled politicians knew only one thing; that
nothing could stop the likes of Aleke.
It was a long struggle, one in which Aleke, Chirwa, among others,
participated. Early European settlers and historians treated them as
amorphous, out-of-focus beings, not far removed from local vegetation
and animal life, and deserving of a similar fate.
Their aspiration to decide their own destinies became a rubric kept
deliberately out of their reach.
Aleke and other nationalists saw where the rubric was hidden and
wanted to reach it. They realized, also, the comforting belief that
nothing which could be imagined was impossible. These were views
shared by many who saw themselves becoming the ghosts in their own
country’s history.
How could a majority people become aliens in their own country,
displaced within their own homeland when settlers took prime land, and
forced to live in fear under the rule of an intrusive minority of new
‘conquerors’.
People got so tired they needed redeemers. It was Aleke Banda and
others who were the smiths!
In Blantyre’s Chirimba Township a smith of hope, accomplishment,
courage, high integrity, and principles will now lie dead, but
peaceful anyway, knowing he achieved what many people could only dream
of. A nation, history and long script is now laid for our adoration,
appreciation and politics good lessons. Like Luo, starting humbly from
Mulanje, he is now part of the larger story, the story of Malawi.
His life might have been winding and long at times, like Zambezi, but
it reached its destination in admirable order. It proceeds along a
straight line of success. Those who take the same path may not stray.
That came clear after news of his passing on spread: there was an
ominous silence- a silence of both mediation and shock.
To rise from an origin both humble and obscure, in 1953, and become
the district secretary for Nyasaland African Congress in Que-Que,
Zimbabwe; to organise Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia students in that
political organization disguised as Bwafano Photographic Club, and
edit the school magazine that was Ukuqolotsha Kwe Nyati; to found the
Southern African Students Association as secretary general.
To co-found the Malawi Congress Party in 1959; to be part of the
negotiating team with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in
Zomba, 1960, and fight for the abolition of the Federation of Rhodesia
and Nyasaland; to found and become first editor for Malawi News.
To become Minister of Finance, Agriculture, Information and Tourism,
Trade and Indu-
stry, Works and Supplies, Economic Planning, among others: to be part
of the April 19
1960 landmark delegation to meet Ian Macleod, British Secretary of
State, and be part of
the July 1960 MCP delegation to Lancaster House Constitutional
Conference in London.
To chair the 1972 annual conference of the Commonworth Parliamentary
Association
held at Kwacha Conference Centre; between 1963 and 1973, to serve as League of
Malawi Youth and Commander of the Malawi Young Pioneers
And then to be dismissed from cabinet in March 1973 by a mere foreign newspaper
Report likening him to Kamuzu’s possible heir. To be detained, from
January 1980,
for 12-and-a-half years without trial at Mpyupyu and Mikuyu prisons;
then, to rise again
in December 1993 and become United Democratic Front’s first vice-president. To
become, in May 1994, Minister of Finance under the UDF regime, and
then resign from
the party on May 18, 2003 to join the People’s Progressive Movement
(PPM) three days
later.
To rise to the PPM presidency on January 9, 2004; to get diagnosed
with lymphatic
leukemia cancer in 2006, and then retire voluntarily from politics to
concentrate on
raising awareness on cancer.
And then to die, after suffering a stroke, at Morningside Medi Clinic
in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
Thus ends the extraordinary career of a man who had made an indelible
mark on the history of his, and our, times. So many things, including
Malawi and democracy, first lived in the heart and mind of Aleke Banda
before they wore the court of reality and took real form.
He saw a real Malawi in his mind during the colonial period, and
patriotically loved his country when it could be pointed on paper. Now
Malawi has grown, and will keep him in her heart in Chilimba.
History asks: Did the man have integrity? Did the man have
unselfishness? Did the man have courage? Did the man have consistence?
Aleke answers no more; his works and a legacy he has left us with will
do that for him.
Malawians only hope that Aleke’s grave will never become a lonely
grave, forgotten and unknown.
But history will remember the September 2007 Media Institute of
Southern Africa Press Freedom Award for his contribution to media
freedom and development; our mouths will profess the Diversity Leader
Lifetime Achiever Award of November 2008 as a manifestation of people
who die to live in our hearts; while the November 14, 2009 Mzuzu
University Doctor of Philosopher Degree (Honoris Causa) for great
service to the nation will always remind us of a man from a small
community (Tukombo) who influenced his nation.
Leasing and Finance Company, Standard Bank, INDEbank, National Bank of Malawi: From Owings Chawanda
LEASING AND FINANCE COMPANY LIMITED (LFC)
Leasing and Finance Company (LFC) has passed the stage where it would be described as history in the making; it is history.
The institution was established to provide asset and real estate loans on flexible collateral terms, and won the hearts and acclaim of people looking for the easy way out on real estate investments.
In a way, it could be argues that LFC influenced the conversion of New Building Society into a bank, christened NBS. Now, NBS is listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange.
How did Leasing and Finance Company, a relatively nascent company, bulldoze the elephant that was New Building Society into turning to real time banking? The story cannot be separated from the history of mortgage in Malawi.
For a long time, New Building Society enjoyed some monopolistic advantage, making it the only option for mortgage needs for over three decades. When multiparty politics of government came in 1994, after the June 14 Referendum on whether people wanted multiparty democracy of a continuation of the one party regime, things changed.
Market liberalization became the buzzword. So came other mortgage service providers, including Leasing and Finance Company Limited.
Actually, Leasing and Finance Company did not fall from the sky; it (the idea to establish it) originated right here in Malawi, within the corridors of National Bank of Malawi (NB).
In short, LFC was a subsidiary of NB.
At least until some two years ago when NB Board of Directors decided to make a strategic move. The Board reached a consensus to get rid of LFC as a subsidiary and make it a Division within the Bank.
And so died the history of the name Leasing and Finance Company. It its stead came Asset Finance Division, the successor of what remained (in terms of property) of LFC.
But the Asset Finance Division still maintains LFC’s portfolio of products, which include real asset/estate finance.
Though LFC moved from Chayamba Building in Blantyre (where Izwe Loans now operates) and now occupies the second flour of NB’s Henderson Street (Blantyre Main), it maintains the same staff members.
And nothing has really changed because LFC had blue corporate colours. So does NB.
Like father like son; only that the son has gone back to the father’s nest.
Opportunities for asset finance borrowing exist in Asset and Finance, though companies wishing to enjoy these facilities must have sound collateral.
NATIONAL BANK OF MALAWI (NB)
National Bank of Malawi was established in 1971 after the meager of Barclays Dominion Colonial Oversees (DCO) and Standard Bank., which had its origins in the Republic of South Africa.
The merger of the two companies brought together complementary operations and helped the Bank provide a countrywide range of products and financial services.
Today, NB is Malawi’s leading bank, with a network of 25 service centres. Plans are in the offing to increase the number of these centres in strategic areas.
The Bankers Association of Malawi, whose chairperson in National Bank of Malawi’s Chief Executive Officer George Partridge, has been imploring local banks to establish shop in rural areas as well as under-banked communities.
NB has shown willingness to play ball, with the establishment of, at least, three branches in areas deemed out-of-focus by most financial institutions.
NB was listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange on August 21, 2000 with an over-subscription of 3.4 times.
The Banks shareholding, as at December 31, 2009, is as follows:
Press Corporation Limited: 51.8%
Old Mutual Group: 25.0%
Members of the Public: 22.0%
Employees (ESOP): 1.2%.
The Bank has 9 directors comprising 7 non-executive and 2 executive directors.
The non-executive directors are mainly appointed by main shareholders, Press Corporation, to provide strategic direction and control of the bank.
Opportunities for investors wishing to own shares exist through the Malawi Stock Exchange.
Those who can influence the bank include Press Corporation Limited, the main shareholder, and Reserve Bank of Malawi governors.
Currently, the bank is constructing a headquarters in Blantyre, and opportunities exist in infrastructure development for the bank. Construction firms stand a good chance of winning contracts.
There are also investment opportunities for computer and other IT equipment providers.
INDE BANK
INDEbank (as the owners write it) is a registered financial institution under the Banking Act of 1989, and is engaged in commercial banking business.
INDEbank has partner organisations in AMSCO and DEG, which have built the human resource capacity of the Bank.
It also has partnership relationships with the African Export Import Bank (Afrexim-bank) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). These have helped INDEbank in positioning itself to support Malawian exporters in medium term project financing.
INDEbank runs a number of subsidiaries. These are:
1. Indetrust Holdings Limited: 51% control. Nature of operations including renting out of property e.g. INDEbank House, Blantyre
2. Indetrust Limited: 100% ownership. It is a pension fund manager (Dormant company)
3. INDEbank Financial Services Limited: 100% ownership. Nature of operations- Dormant company.
The Bank has four branches and two agencies. Three branches are in Blantyre and one in Lilongwe.
The two agencies are in Mponela (Central region) and Luchenza (Southern region).
The INDE group f companies has exposure to the following risks from its use of financial instruments:
1. Credit risk
2. Liquidity risk
3. Market risks
4. Operational risks, and
5. Currency risk
The group has been making steady profits, averaging 177 million pre-tax during the past two years.
Opportunities exist to invest in INDE group but the problem is that most of the subsidiaries are doing the same work that would be done by contractors, thereby cutting out on private sector opportunities.
Government and Press Corporation Limited (not forgetting Reserve Bank of Malawi) have influence over the group.
STANDARD BANK LIMITED
Standard Bank is a comeback kid. Only that the kid never wants to go back home; he establishes his own household, instead.
The name Standard Bank is not new in Malawi. The company was there in the 1970s, before it merged with Barclays Bank Dominion Colonial Overseas (DCO) in 1971 to form National Bank of Malawi.
The merger of the two banks was good for Malawi, as it brought financial services to a large chunk of the national population. And so the name Standard Bank disappeared in Malawi, only to appear again after the year 2003.
Standard Bank (South Africa) bought majority shares in the then Commercial Bank of Malawi (CBM), which converted Commercial Bank of Malawi into Standard Bank.
In other words, Standard Bank helped make what we now call National Bank of Malawi and disappeared. When time came to re-set shop in Malawi, Standard Bank (the new kid) never wanted to go back home (buy National Bank of Malawi) but establish its own household in CBM.
The Standard Bank Group’s Global Leadership Centre (GLC) plays an important role in developing excellence among executive and operational leadership. The GLC offers internationally designed management development programmes aligned to global best practices.
In 2008, for example, William le Roux, Head of Corporate and Investment Banking and Robert Otieno, Head of Global Markets, finished their terms of secondments to Malawi and returned to their home countries: South Africa and Kenya, respectively. Locally trained and groomed locals succeeded them.
The bank has been implementing growth strategies and improved its management information systems, with main focus on Personal and Business Banking, as well as Corporate and Investment Banking.
The bank’s profit after tax has been increasing from K1.3 billion in 2007 to K2.1 billion in 2008. New financial reports have been delayed by auditors but insiders say the bank has not been affected by the global financial crisis and stands to improve on last year’s performance.
Standard Bank has various committees that control various aspects of operations. These include:
1. Board Committees
2. Board Audit Committee
3. Board Credit Committee
4. Credit Risk Management Committee
5. Asset and Liability Committee
6. Executive Committee
The Bank revised its code of ethics in 2007, and the new code is designed to empower employees and enable faster decision making at all levels. This will reduce the delays involved in communicating with South Africa (headquarters).
Alex Chitsime is the bank’s current chairperson.
Opportunities exist in all aspects of financial service provision, but also in infrastructure development.
Leasing and Finance Company (LFC) has passed the stage where it would be described as history in the making; it is history.
The institution was established to provide asset and real estate loans on flexible collateral terms, and won the hearts and acclaim of people looking for the easy way out on real estate investments.
In a way, it could be argues that LFC influenced the conversion of New Building Society into a bank, christened NBS. Now, NBS is listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange.
How did Leasing and Finance Company, a relatively nascent company, bulldoze the elephant that was New Building Society into turning to real time banking? The story cannot be separated from the history of mortgage in Malawi.
For a long time, New Building Society enjoyed some monopolistic advantage, making it the only option for mortgage needs for over three decades. When multiparty politics of government came in 1994, after the June 14 Referendum on whether people wanted multiparty democracy of a continuation of the one party regime, things changed.
Market liberalization became the buzzword. So came other mortgage service providers, including Leasing and Finance Company Limited.
Actually, Leasing and Finance Company did not fall from the sky; it (the idea to establish it) originated right here in Malawi, within the corridors of National Bank of Malawi (NB).
In short, LFC was a subsidiary of NB.
At least until some two years ago when NB Board of Directors decided to make a strategic move. The Board reached a consensus to get rid of LFC as a subsidiary and make it a Division within the Bank.
And so died the history of the name Leasing and Finance Company. It its stead came Asset Finance Division, the successor of what remained (in terms of property) of LFC.
But the Asset Finance Division still maintains LFC’s portfolio of products, which include real asset/estate finance.
Though LFC moved from Chayamba Building in Blantyre (where Izwe Loans now operates) and now occupies the second flour of NB’s Henderson Street (Blantyre Main), it maintains the same staff members.
And nothing has really changed because LFC had blue corporate colours. So does NB.
Like father like son; only that the son has gone back to the father’s nest.
Opportunities for asset finance borrowing exist in Asset and Finance, though companies wishing to enjoy these facilities must have sound collateral.
NATIONAL BANK OF MALAWI (NB)
National Bank of Malawi was established in 1971 after the meager of Barclays Dominion Colonial Oversees (DCO) and Standard Bank., which had its origins in the Republic of South Africa.
The merger of the two companies brought together complementary operations and helped the Bank provide a countrywide range of products and financial services.
Today, NB is Malawi’s leading bank, with a network of 25 service centres. Plans are in the offing to increase the number of these centres in strategic areas.
The Bankers Association of Malawi, whose chairperson in National Bank of Malawi’s Chief Executive Officer George Partridge, has been imploring local banks to establish shop in rural areas as well as under-banked communities.
NB has shown willingness to play ball, with the establishment of, at least, three branches in areas deemed out-of-focus by most financial institutions.
NB was listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange on August 21, 2000 with an over-subscription of 3.4 times.
The Banks shareholding, as at December 31, 2009, is as follows:
Press Corporation Limited: 51.8%
Old Mutual Group: 25.0%
Members of the Public: 22.0%
Employees (ESOP): 1.2%.
The Bank has 9 directors comprising 7 non-executive and 2 executive directors.
The non-executive directors are mainly appointed by main shareholders, Press Corporation, to provide strategic direction and control of the bank.
Opportunities for investors wishing to own shares exist through the Malawi Stock Exchange.
Those who can influence the bank include Press Corporation Limited, the main shareholder, and Reserve Bank of Malawi governors.
Currently, the bank is constructing a headquarters in Blantyre, and opportunities exist in infrastructure development for the bank. Construction firms stand a good chance of winning contracts.
There are also investment opportunities for computer and other IT equipment providers.
INDE BANK
INDEbank (as the owners write it) is a registered financial institution under the Banking Act of 1989, and is engaged in commercial banking business.
INDEbank has partner organisations in AMSCO and DEG, which have built the human resource capacity of the Bank.
It also has partnership relationships with the African Export Import Bank (Afrexim-bank) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). These have helped INDEbank in positioning itself to support Malawian exporters in medium term project financing.
INDEbank runs a number of subsidiaries. These are:
1. Indetrust Holdings Limited: 51% control. Nature of operations including renting out of property e.g. INDEbank House, Blantyre
2. Indetrust Limited: 100% ownership. It is a pension fund manager (Dormant company)
3. INDEbank Financial Services Limited: 100% ownership. Nature of operations- Dormant company.
The Bank has four branches and two agencies. Three branches are in Blantyre and one in Lilongwe.
The two agencies are in Mponela (Central region) and Luchenza (Southern region).
The INDE group f companies has exposure to the following risks from its use of financial instruments:
1. Credit risk
2. Liquidity risk
3. Market risks
4. Operational risks, and
5. Currency risk
The group has been making steady profits, averaging 177 million pre-tax during the past two years.
Opportunities exist to invest in INDE group but the problem is that most of the subsidiaries are doing the same work that would be done by contractors, thereby cutting out on private sector opportunities.
Government and Press Corporation Limited (not forgetting Reserve Bank of Malawi) have influence over the group.
STANDARD BANK LIMITED
Standard Bank is a comeback kid. Only that the kid never wants to go back home; he establishes his own household, instead.
The name Standard Bank is not new in Malawi. The company was there in the 1970s, before it merged with Barclays Bank Dominion Colonial Overseas (DCO) in 1971 to form National Bank of Malawi.
The merger of the two banks was good for Malawi, as it brought financial services to a large chunk of the national population. And so the name Standard Bank disappeared in Malawi, only to appear again after the year 2003.
Standard Bank (South Africa) bought majority shares in the then Commercial Bank of Malawi (CBM), which converted Commercial Bank of Malawi into Standard Bank.
In other words, Standard Bank helped make what we now call National Bank of Malawi and disappeared. When time came to re-set shop in Malawi, Standard Bank (the new kid) never wanted to go back home (buy National Bank of Malawi) but establish its own household in CBM.
The Standard Bank Group’s Global Leadership Centre (GLC) plays an important role in developing excellence among executive and operational leadership. The GLC offers internationally designed management development programmes aligned to global best practices.
In 2008, for example, William le Roux, Head of Corporate and Investment Banking and Robert Otieno, Head of Global Markets, finished their terms of secondments to Malawi and returned to their home countries: South Africa and Kenya, respectively. Locally trained and groomed locals succeeded them.
The bank has been implementing growth strategies and improved its management information systems, with main focus on Personal and Business Banking, as well as Corporate and Investment Banking.
The bank’s profit after tax has been increasing from K1.3 billion in 2007 to K2.1 billion in 2008. New financial reports have been delayed by auditors but insiders say the bank has not been affected by the global financial crisis and stands to improve on last year’s performance.
Standard Bank has various committees that control various aspects of operations. These include:
1. Board Committees
2. Board Audit Committee
3. Board Credit Committee
4. Credit Risk Management Committee
5. Asset and Liability Committee
6. Executive Committee
The Bank revised its code of ethics in 2007, and the new code is designed to empower employees and enable faster decision making at all levels. This will reduce the delays involved in communicating with South Africa (headquarters).
Alex Chitsime is the bank’s current chairperson.
Opportunities exist in all aspects of financial service provision, but also in infrastructure development.
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