Davie Chingwalu, Southern Region Police Headquarters Public Relations Officer, is sad; sad that leaders of Civil Society Organisations (CSO) and government officials are commenting on the suspicious fire that gutted Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI) offices in Chichiri, Blantyre.
IPI offices were gutted by fire on Friday, with preliminary reports indicating that unknown people thronged the offices Thursday night, and petrol-bombed them. They unknown people also took the on-duty guard hostage.
However, the guard later surrendered himself to his employers.
IPI Executive Director, Rafiq Hajat, was in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, on the fated day. He is one of the leaders that have formed a pressure group, the Forum for the Defense of Democracy, in response to what they call 'deteriorating democratic standards'.
The fire has caused an uproar in Malawi, with CSO leaders trading barbs with government officials over he real cause of the fire.
For instance, Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) Chairperson, Undule Mwakasungula, was quoted in the Sunday newspapers blaming the fire on recent threats by President Bingu wa Mutharika to 'smoke out' CSO and opposition leaders responsible for the bloody July 20 demonstrations.
The demos put Malawi on the world map for the wrong reasons following the death of, at least, 18 people. Now the number of July 20 demos victims has risen to 19 following the death of one more 'victim'.
But Mwakasungula's, and other CSO leaders, comments could, naturally, not go without a response from government, or Mutharika's spokesperson Dr. Hetherwick Ntaba.
That is how Ntaba came onto the scene, with accusations of his own against CSO leaders.
Ntaba blamed the fire on CSO leaders themselves, saying some of these leaders were 'burning their own houses' as a fundraising measure and bid to woo more project financiers.
Ntaba said there was financial mismanagement and embezzlement of funds at IPI, citing it as one of the possible reasons IPI could have burnt its own offices.
The sentiments have angered Hajat, who has since demanded an apology from the Presidential Spokesperson. The human rights activist has warned that, should Ntaba fail to apologise, he will take an undisclosed action.
Probably, this action could be a lawsuit.
But this option (of lawsuit) stands to be a litmus test for Malawi's 'previlege' rules.
Under the Laws of Malawi, sitting Presidents cannot be sued for sentiments or actions made in their official capacity.
But the law is unclear on whether Spokespersons, duly appointed by the President to speak on his behalf, are also covered by the immunity that applies to incumbent presidents.
There are two schools of thought to the role of Presidential spokespersons. One argues that they cannot be sued, since they speak for the 'immunised' president; while the other school of thought purpots that they can be sued since they (spokespersons) are not in the personage of the President.
That is to say, Ntaba (in this case) cannot be said to be representing the exactitude of Mutharika since Mutharika has some hair on his head while Ntaba's head is relatively balded.
Mutharika is also taller than Ntaba, while Ntaba maintains a straight posture when walking- as opposed to Mutharika, who bends his back abeat as he moves along.
But, on the other hand, Ntaba can truly represent Mutharika since they both are relatively more educated than the majority of Malawians: they are both doctors.
The list is endless.
But, before people exhaust examples and proffer accusations and counter-accusations, Police Spokesperson Chingwalu wants a stop to all this 'noise'.
Chingwalu, soft-spoken and logical in his arguments, says debate on the IPI fire is piling more pressure on Police officers investigating the matter and could pre-empt findings.
"It is not good to be commenting on these issues. We urge both Civil Society leaders and government officials to stop commenting on these issues and give us (Police) a chance. It is not good to comment on these issues," Chingwalu told Zachimalawi today.
Zachimalawi cannot agree more with him. Reason dictates that we leave all issues in the hands of police.
As Chingwalu says,"Police officers are well-trained to come to the root of issues like these. I am sure we will come to the root of this issue, and put all matters to rest."
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Thursday, September 8, 2011
Sad that Professor Landson Mhango is Gone
He was a rarity of man.
He did put Malawi on the world map with his unique knowledge of designs.
He was a genius; a man of special skills.
And, today, we are saying he is gone.
It is so sad a day for Malawi.
We have lost more than one man.
He did put Malawi on the world map with his unique knowledge of designs.
He was a genius; a man of special skills.
And, today, we are saying he is gone.
It is so sad a day for Malawi.
We have lost more than one man.
Bulletin of the Oppression of Women
July 14 - September 7, 2011
July 14, 2011
Saudi Arabia (Hat tip to GatesofVienna)
One-hundred and forty-five physical attacks were committed by wives against their husbands in the Saudi city of Jeddah in one month, writes Saudi daily Al Yawm, citing a report from the police in the province. The number of cases of is 20% higher than during the same period last year.
July 16, 2011
UK (Hat tip to Christopher Holton)
A top advocate for Muslim women's rights has welcomed Baroness Cox's Bill, which is designed to curb the problems caused by Sharia courts operating in England and Wales.
Cassandra Balchin, co-founder and Chair of the Muslim Women's Network-UK, said that in her work with Muslim women, she had found "anecdotal evidence of gender discriminatory arbitration". And this included family cases, "which ought to be beyond any arbitration tribunal's jurisdiction."
Lady Cox's Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill is designed to stop a parallel legal system taking root and it also aims to ensure equality before the law for women. Cassandra Balchin says that some Muslim women have a tougher time in Britain than in many Muslim countries. Background HERE.
July 17, 2011
Iran (hat tip to JihadWatch)
Iran's morality police unit commenced its annual campaign last month to uphold the Islamic dress code and raise "moral security" in the streets of Tehran, leading to many arrests and fines. Local media published pictures of police men and women belonging to the "chastity squads" who detained for questioning women who were not wearing their traditional hijab headscarf properly.
UK (Hat tip to IslamIn Europe)
A London based women's charity has launched a campaign to raises awareness of forced marriages. Statistics show that the majority of victims come from a South Asian background. 64% of forced marriage cases related to Pakistani victims, 15% related to Bangladeshi victims and 8% related to Indian victims.
July 20, 2011
Egypt (hat tip to Grendel)
The incidences of Muslim men using violence and sex to convert Christian girls has gone up since the January revolution.
July 21, 2011
Saudi Arabia (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
An article by Raymond Ibrahim on a new Saudi fatwa that defends pedophilia as 'marriage' for girls of any age.
Pakistan (Hat tip to BareNakedIslam)
Records at Edhi Foundation show that more than 1,200 newborns were killed and dumped in Pakistan last year, an increase of about 200 from the previous year. Families view many of these children as illegitimate in a culture that condemns those born outside of marriage.
Statistics show that roughly nine out of 10 are baby girls, which families may consider too costly to keep in a country where women frequently are not allowed to work.
July 22, 2011
Australia (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
A man who claimed it was culturally acceptable for him to have a sexual relationship with a primary-school child who later bore him a son will spend up to 10 years in jail. The 31-year-old, now classified as a pedophile, had claimed his cultural background meant age was not a relevant factor in choosing a wife or sexual partner, the County Court in Melbourne heard.
But in sentencing the man, who migrated as a refugee from a north-Asian country, Judge Lisa Hannan said his continued sexual relationship with the girl - from the age of eight until she fell pregnant - was repulsive and defied morality.
India (Hat tip to IronicSurrealism)
A 17-year-old dalit girl was gang raped and brutally murdered in Sadar police station area of Alwar district on Wednesday night. The girl was strangled by at least four men who have been arrested. The accused had dumped her body on railway tracks after murder.
July 24, 2011
Turkey
Hundreds of people in Istanbul called on Sunday for the Turkish government to be more proactive about protecting women from domestic abuse. People in the crowd carried mock coffins and wedding dresses as they marched down one of the busiest pedestrian thoroughfares in Istanbul. Protestors also carried signs bearing the names and faces of murdered women.
According to a 2009 report released by the Turkish government, 42% of women surveyed said they had been physically or sexually abused by their husband or partner.
July 25, 2011
Gaza (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Most safe-houses in the Gaza Strip are meant to provide protection for armed militants on Israel's target list. Now Gaza is offering protected shelter to battered Palestinian women.
Its lone women's safe-house, opened two months ago, has had eight clients, all guarded by police from the Islamist Hamas movement that runs the enclave and enforces a conservative though not radical Muslim religious code.
Jordan (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
A Jordanian man has been charged with killing his 35-year-old sister when she was released from detention over allegedly having sex outside marriage, a judicial official said today. "The suspect, in his 40s, was charged on Sunday with premeditated murder after fatally shooting his sister five times in Zarqa," northeast of Amman, the official told AFP.
July 27, 2011
Pakistan (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
A man gunned down six of his daughters on suspicion that two of them were in relationships with boys in the neighbourhood. On Tuesday morning, Arif Mubashir called his teenage daughters to his room and shot them while the rest of the family, including their mother, watched. His wife Musarrat called the police after the incident.
July 30, 2011
Afghanistan
A teenage boy and girl riding together in a car and were yanked into the road by a group of men demanding to know why they were together. An angry crowd of 300 surged around them, calling them adulterers and demanding that they be stoned to death or hanged.
When security forces came and rescued the couple, the mob's anger exploded. They overwhelmed the local police, set fire to cars and stormed a police station. The riot lasted for hours and ended with one man dead, a police station charred and the two teenagers, Halima Mohammedi and her boyfriend, Rafi Mohammed, confined to juvenile prison.
August 10, 2011
Canada (Hat tip to JihadWatch via Werter5075)
A Toronto religious leader who police say has travelled the world has been charged with 13 sex offences, and investigators believe there may be more victims, both here and abroad. Mohammad Masroor, 48, is the imam at the Baitul Mukaram Islamic Society on 3334 Danforth Ave. He has been teaching there since he came to Canada in 2008. Masroor was arrested Aug. 10 and charged with 13 sex-related offences allegedly committed against five victims. The assaults allegedly occurred between Nov. 1, 2008 and July 28, 2011.
"The victims are both male and female," Det. Const. Karen Armstrong said. "We believe there are other victims as (the accused) has lived and worked worldwide."
August 12, 2011
Pakistan
On April 14, two men entered Asma Firdous' home, cut off six of her fingers, slashed her arms and lips and then sliced off her nose. Before leaving the house, the men locked their 28-year-old victim inside.
Asma, from impoverished village in Pakistan's south, was mutilated because her husband was involved in a dispute with his relatives, and they wanted revenge. er fate is familiar in parts of Pakistan's remote and feudal agricultural belts, where women are often used as bargaining chips in family feuds, and where the level of violence they face is increasing in frequency and brutality
August 15, 2011
Kurdistan (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
A mullah in Iraqi-Kurdistan talked in a Friday sermon about the new bill against domestic violence that passed the parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan in June. This law also forbids the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Various clerics and members of Islamic groups started a campaign against this law and demand from the president of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Mr. Massud Barzani not to sign the bill.
The mullah is one of the outspoken opponents of this bill. In his sermon he defends FGM as a Islamic practice of the Shafi'i law school. Additionally he defends the right of men to beat their women and children.
USA (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
A husband contracted to have his wife killed on the street and lied to the police about the murder.
After his wife had been shot to death on the street and he had been wounded, Kashif Parvaiz told the police here in her quiet hometown in New Jersey that three men had accosted them and, before opening fire, called them a name that is offensive to Muslims in America: "Terrorist."
August 16, 2011
USA (Hat tip to CreepingSharia)
A Brooklyn, N.Y. man, who served as an Islamic studies instructor at a school in South Plainfield until June has been charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old female, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan announced today. Matthew Nesbitt, also known as Islam Abualwaan, 26, was arrested about 1 a.m. on Aug. 13 in Piscataway and charged with one count of sexual assault, Kaplan said.
August 20, 2011
Norway
Norway tackles Muslim immigration and the resulting problem of human rights for women.
August 22, 2011
Video and Transcript of a debate: Robert Spencer vs. Moustafa Zayed: Islam Guarantees Women Equality of Rights with Men
China (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
An asylum seeker from Pakistan, accused of killing his estranged wife because she had lived "against Islamic law," will appear in Kowloon City Magistrates' Court today charged with murder.
The naked body of the woman, 35, was found on Tsing Lung Tau beach on Friday morning. Her throat had been slashed.
Tahir was arrested on Saturday morning, about 19 hours after the body was found. According to reports, Tahir allegedly told police he gave his wife a drug-laced drink in the park. They then took a 52X bus to Tsing Lung Tau beach near 44 Castle Peak Road. At the beach he allegedly stripped her to humiliate her, slashed her throat and threw the body on the ground. He buried her belongings behind a bush.
August 27, 2011
Kuwait/Saudi Arabia
"Cultural Lessons from Girls of Riyadh and Kuwait"
August 31, 2011
Libya (Hat tip to InfidelsAreCool)
A father slit the throat of his three teenage daughters in an 'honour killing' after they were raped by Gaddafi loyalists during the siege of the port city of Misrata. The father is said to have carried out the 'honour killings' because of his humiliation and shame at the rape of the sisters - aged 15, 17 and 18 - in Tomina, on the outskirts of Misrata. The victims were not named.
September 4, 2011
Jordan
A Jordanian man was charged on Sunday with killing his 24-year-old widowed daughter in hospital after she gave birth to twins, a judicial official said.
The official quoted the suspect as saying "I was shocked that she was pregnant. I was enraged and shot her dead because she did something shameful." The woman has been a widow for four years.
Murder is punishable by death in Jordan but in so-called "honour killings" courts can commute or reduce sentences, particularly if the victim's family asks for leniency.
September 7, 2011
UK (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
The parents of murdered teenager Shafilea Ahmed have been charged with killing her, Cheshire Police said on Wednesday. The 17-year-old's decomposed remains were discovered in Cumbria in February 2004 after she disappeared from her home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003. She was the victim of a suspected honour killing. South Cumbria coroner Ian Smith later recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, saying he believed the teenager was probably murdered.
Cheshire Police said today the teenager's father, Iftikhar, 51, and mother Farzana, 48, have been charged with murder and will appear at Halton Magistrates' Court, in Runcorn, later today. The couple have always denied any involvement in their daughter's death.
Shafilea was a bright and intelligent young woman who wanted to go to university and become a lawyer, the inquest into her death was told.
July 14, 2011
Saudi Arabia (Hat tip to GatesofVienna)
One-hundred and forty-five physical attacks were committed by wives against their husbands in the Saudi city of Jeddah in one month, writes Saudi daily Al Yawm, citing a report from the police in the province. The number of cases of is 20% higher than during the same period last year.
July 16, 2011
UK (Hat tip to Christopher Holton)
A top advocate for Muslim women's rights has welcomed Baroness Cox's Bill, which is designed to curb the problems caused by Sharia courts operating in England and Wales.
Cassandra Balchin, co-founder and Chair of the Muslim Women's Network-UK, said that in her work with Muslim women, she had found "anecdotal evidence of gender discriminatory arbitration". And this included family cases, "which ought to be beyond any arbitration tribunal's jurisdiction."
Lady Cox's Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill is designed to stop a parallel legal system taking root and it also aims to ensure equality before the law for women. Cassandra Balchin says that some Muslim women have a tougher time in Britain than in many Muslim countries. Background HERE.
July 17, 2011
Iran (hat tip to JihadWatch)
Iran's morality police unit commenced its annual campaign last month to uphold the Islamic dress code and raise "moral security" in the streets of Tehran, leading to many arrests and fines. Local media published pictures of police men and women belonging to the "chastity squads" who detained for questioning women who were not wearing their traditional hijab headscarf properly.
UK (Hat tip to IslamIn Europe)
A London based women's charity has launched a campaign to raises awareness of forced marriages. Statistics show that the majority of victims come from a South Asian background. 64% of forced marriage cases related to Pakistani victims, 15% related to Bangladeshi victims and 8% related to Indian victims.
July 20, 2011
Egypt (hat tip to Grendel)
The incidences of Muslim men using violence and sex to convert Christian girls has gone up since the January revolution.
July 21, 2011
Saudi Arabia (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
An article by Raymond Ibrahim on a new Saudi fatwa that defends pedophilia as 'marriage' for girls of any age.
Pakistan (Hat tip to BareNakedIslam)
Records at Edhi Foundation show that more than 1,200 newborns were killed and dumped in Pakistan last year, an increase of about 200 from the previous year. Families view many of these children as illegitimate in a culture that condemns those born outside of marriage.
Statistics show that roughly nine out of 10 are baby girls, which families may consider too costly to keep in a country where women frequently are not allowed to work.
July 22, 2011
Australia (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
A man who claimed it was culturally acceptable for him to have a sexual relationship with a primary-school child who later bore him a son will spend up to 10 years in jail. The 31-year-old, now classified as a pedophile, had claimed his cultural background meant age was not a relevant factor in choosing a wife or sexual partner, the County Court in Melbourne heard.
But in sentencing the man, who migrated as a refugee from a north-Asian country, Judge Lisa Hannan said his continued sexual relationship with the girl - from the age of eight until she fell pregnant - was repulsive and defied morality.
India (Hat tip to IronicSurrealism)
A 17-year-old dalit girl was gang raped and brutally murdered in Sadar police station area of Alwar district on Wednesday night. The girl was strangled by at least four men who have been arrested. The accused had dumped her body on railway tracks after murder.
July 24, 2011
Turkey
Hundreds of people in Istanbul called on Sunday for the Turkish government to be more proactive about protecting women from domestic abuse. People in the crowd carried mock coffins and wedding dresses as they marched down one of the busiest pedestrian thoroughfares in Istanbul. Protestors also carried signs bearing the names and faces of murdered women.
According to a 2009 report released by the Turkish government, 42% of women surveyed said they had been physically or sexually abused by their husband or partner.
July 25, 2011
Gaza (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
Most safe-houses in the Gaza Strip are meant to provide protection for armed militants on Israel's target list. Now Gaza is offering protected shelter to battered Palestinian women.
Its lone women's safe-house, opened two months ago, has had eight clients, all guarded by police from the Islamist Hamas movement that runs the enclave and enforces a conservative though not radical Muslim religious code.
Jordan (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
A Jordanian man has been charged with killing his 35-year-old sister when she was released from detention over allegedly having sex outside marriage, a judicial official said today. "The suspect, in his 40s, was charged on Sunday with premeditated murder after fatally shooting his sister five times in Zarqa," northeast of Amman, the official told AFP.
July 27, 2011
Pakistan (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
A man gunned down six of his daughters on suspicion that two of them were in relationships with boys in the neighbourhood. On Tuesday morning, Arif Mubashir called his teenage daughters to his room and shot them while the rest of the family, including their mother, watched. His wife Musarrat called the police after the incident.
July 30, 2011
Afghanistan
A teenage boy and girl riding together in a car and were yanked into the road by a group of men demanding to know why they were together. An angry crowd of 300 surged around them, calling them adulterers and demanding that they be stoned to death or hanged.
When security forces came and rescued the couple, the mob's anger exploded. They overwhelmed the local police, set fire to cars and stormed a police station. The riot lasted for hours and ended with one man dead, a police station charred and the two teenagers, Halima Mohammedi and her boyfriend, Rafi Mohammed, confined to juvenile prison.
August 10, 2011
Canada (Hat tip to JihadWatch via Werter5075)
A Toronto religious leader who police say has travelled the world has been charged with 13 sex offences, and investigators believe there may be more victims, both here and abroad. Mohammad Masroor, 48, is the imam at the Baitul Mukaram Islamic Society on 3334 Danforth Ave. He has been teaching there since he came to Canada in 2008. Masroor was arrested Aug. 10 and charged with 13 sex-related offences allegedly committed against five victims. The assaults allegedly occurred between Nov. 1, 2008 and July 28, 2011.
"The victims are both male and female," Det. Const. Karen Armstrong said. "We believe there are other victims as (the accused) has lived and worked worldwide."
August 12, 2011
Pakistan
On April 14, two men entered Asma Firdous' home, cut off six of her fingers, slashed her arms and lips and then sliced off her nose. Before leaving the house, the men locked their 28-year-old victim inside.
Asma, from impoverished village in Pakistan's south, was mutilated because her husband was involved in a dispute with his relatives, and they wanted revenge. er fate is familiar in parts of Pakistan's remote and feudal agricultural belts, where women are often used as bargaining chips in family feuds, and where the level of violence they face is increasing in frequency and brutality
August 15, 2011
Kurdistan (Hat tip to JihadWatch)
A mullah in Iraqi-Kurdistan talked in a Friday sermon about the new bill against domestic violence that passed the parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan in June. This law also forbids the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Various clerics and members of Islamic groups started a campaign against this law and demand from the president of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Mr. Massud Barzani not to sign the bill.
The mullah is one of the outspoken opponents of this bill. In his sermon he defends FGM as a Islamic practice of the Shafi'i law school. Additionally he defends the right of men to beat their women and children.
USA (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
A husband contracted to have his wife killed on the street and lied to the police about the murder.
After his wife had been shot to death on the street and he had been wounded, Kashif Parvaiz told the police here in her quiet hometown in New Jersey that three men had accosted them and, before opening fire, called them a name that is offensive to Muslims in America: "Terrorist."
August 16, 2011
USA (Hat tip to CreepingSharia)
A Brooklyn, N.Y. man, who served as an Islamic studies instructor at a school in South Plainfield until June has been charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old female, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan announced today. Matthew Nesbitt, also known as Islam Abualwaan, 26, was arrested about 1 a.m. on Aug. 13 in Piscataway and charged with one count of sexual assault, Kaplan said.
August 20, 2011
Norway
Norway tackles Muslim immigration and the resulting problem of human rights for women.
August 22, 2011
Video and Transcript of a debate: Robert Spencer vs. Moustafa Zayed: Islam Guarantees Women Equality of Rights with Men
China (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
An asylum seeker from Pakistan, accused of killing his estranged wife because she had lived "against Islamic law," will appear in Kowloon City Magistrates' Court today charged with murder.
The naked body of the woman, 35, was found on Tsing Lung Tau beach on Friday morning. Her throat had been slashed.
Tahir was arrested on Saturday morning, about 19 hours after the body was found. According to reports, Tahir allegedly told police he gave his wife a drug-laced drink in the park. They then took a 52X bus to Tsing Lung Tau beach near 44 Castle Peak Road. At the beach he allegedly stripped her to humiliate her, slashed her throat and threw the body on the ground. He buried her belongings behind a bush.
August 27, 2011
Kuwait/Saudi Arabia
"Cultural Lessons from Girls of Riyadh and Kuwait"
August 31, 2011
Libya (Hat tip to InfidelsAreCool)
A father slit the throat of his three teenage daughters in an 'honour killing' after they were raped by Gaddafi loyalists during the siege of the port city of Misrata. The father is said to have carried out the 'honour killings' because of his humiliation and shame at the rape of the sisters - aged 15, 17 and 18 - in Tomina, on the outskirts of Misrata. The victims were not named.
September 4, 2011
Jordan
A Jordanian man was charged on Sunday with killing his 24-year-old widowed daughter in hospital after she gave birth to twins, a judicial official said.
The official quoted the suspect as saying "I was shocked that she was pregnant. I was enraged and shot her dead because she did something shameful." The woman has been a widow for four years.
Murder is punishable by death in Jordan but in so-called "honour killings" courts can commute or reduce sentences, particularly if the victim's family asks for leniency.
September 7, 2011
UK (Hat tip to AtlasShrugs)
The parents of murdered teenager Shafilea Ahmed have been charged with killing her, Cheshire Police said on Wednesday. The 17-year-old's decomposed remains were discovered in Cumbria in February 2004 after she disappeared from her home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003. She was the victim of a suspected honour killing. South Cumbria coroner Ian Smith later recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, saying he believed the teenager was probably murdered.
Cheshire Police said today the teenager's father, Iftikhar, 51, and mother Farzana, 48, have been charged with murder and will appear at Halton Magistrates' Court, in Runcorn, later today. The couple have always denied any involvement in their daughter's death.
Shafilea was a bright and intelligent young woman who wanted to go to university and become a lawyer, the inquest into her death was told.
John Hopkins Cancer Update
AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY ('TRY', BEING THE KEY WORD) TO ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY.
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between age 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.
3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, but also to environmental, food and lifestyle factors .
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet to eat more adequately and healthy, 4-5 times/day and by including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.
CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful . A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses, but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt .
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus . By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells are being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little other meat, like chicken. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment . About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C)..
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate , which have high caffeine Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. Water: best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat, it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy cancer cells.. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit . A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily , and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer
cells.
1. No plastic containers in micro .
2. No water bottles in freezer .
3. No plastic wrap in microwave ..
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between age 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.
3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, but also to environmental, food and lifestyle factors .
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet to eat more adequately and healthy, 4-5 times/day and by including supplements will strengthen the immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.
CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful . A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses, but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt .
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus . By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells are being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little other meat, like chicken. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment . About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C)..
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate , which have high caffeine Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. Water: best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat, it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy cancer cells.. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit . A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily , and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer
cells.
1. No plastic containers in micro .
2. No water bottles in freezer .
3. No plastic wrap in microwave ..
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
MALAWI'S NEW CABINET, ANNOUNCED 7th September 2011
Ngwazi Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika: Has exercised his powers to appoint new cabinet
President; Commander in Chief of Armed Forces; Statutory Corporations; Civil Service and Civil Society: His Excellency PRESIDENT BINGU WA MUTHARIKA
Safemotherhood Coordinator, Maternal and Child Health, HIV and Aids, Nutrition, Malaria and TB Coordinator : H.E Callitsa Mutharika: The First Lady of the Republic
Deputy Minister in the Office of the President and Cabinet: Mr. Nicholas Dausi
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation: Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika
Deputy Minister: Mr. Kondwani Nankhumwa
Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Affairs: Mr. Goodall Gondwe
Deputy Minister: Vera Flamenga Chelewani
Minister of Education, Science and Technology: Dr. George Chaponda
Deputy Minister: (Basic Education) Wictor Songazaudzu Sajeni
(Higher Education) Otiria Jere
Minister of Finance: Dr. Ken Lipenga
Deputy Minister: Dr. Cornelius Mwalwanda
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security: Professor Peter Mwanza
Deputy Minister: Magret Roka Mauwa
Deputy Minister: Kingsely Namakhwa
Minister of Justice: Mr. Ephraim Chiume
Minister of Transport and Public Infrastructure: Mr. Sidik Mia
Deputy Minister: Catherine Gotani Hara
Minister of Local Government and Rural Development: Mr. Henry Mussa
Deputy Minister: Chimango Chimpimpha Mughogho-Gondwe
Minister of Information and Civic Education: Mrs Patricia Kaliati
Minister of Trade and Industry: Mr. John Bande
Minister of Lands: Mr. Yunus Mussa
Deputy Minister: Rev. Dr. Christopher Ngwira
Minister of Home Affairs: Mr. Aaron Sangala
Minister of Gender: Mrs. Reene Kachere
Deputy Minister: Ms Nasrin Pillane
Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture: Mr. Daniel Liwimbi
Minister of Labour: Dr. Lucious Kanyumba
Minister of Youth and Sports: Mr. Symon Vuwa Kaunda
Minister of Health: Dr. Jean Kalirani
Deputy Minister: Ralph Jooma
Journalists attacked while covering protest in Angola
New York, September 6, 2011—Angolan security forces attacked journalists covering an anti-government protest on Saturday in the capital, Luanda, news reports said. At least two dozen people were arrested and several others injured as police blamed the violence on protesters.
Security forces attacked several journalists during the protest in Luanda’s Independence Square. The journalists said to be attacked were identified as Alexandre Neto, a local correspondent of the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Voice of America; cameramen Hugo Ernesto and Nicolau Chimbila of Portugal’s state broadcaster RTP; and reporters Coque Mukuta of Radio Despertar and Ana Margoso of Novo Jornal. Angolan state broadcaster TPA also reported that its news team had been attacked, allegedly by protesters, according to news reports.
Neto told CPJ that police and unidentified men in plain clothes knocked him down and seized his backpack with his cell phone, camera, passport, and driver’s license. The items were not returned, local journalists said. RTP broadcast footage showing unidentified men in plain clothes attacking one of its cameras and knocking down a member of its crew. RTP Luanda Bureau Chief Paulo Catarro reported that one of the station’s cameras had been broken.
Security agents also attacked Portuguese journalist António Cascais, who was conducting journalism training in Angola, as he left his hotel to walk toward the demonstration, news reports said. The agents threw Cascais on the ground, searched his pockets, and confiscated a digital camera and two phones, local journalists said.
“We condemn the security forces’ use of violence and intimidation to prevent journalists from covering anti-government protests,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “The authorities must return all confiscated journalistic material and pay compensation for damaged equipment. They should also hold to account all those responsible for the violence against the media.”
The few hundred protesters had gathered to call on President José Eduardo dos Santos to step down after 32 years of rule, news reports said. Police and unidentified assailants began to attack the participants after a group of protesters attempted to march to the presidential palace to demand the release of Pandito Nerú, one of their leaders, who had been abducted at gunpoint earlier that day by security forces.
Saturday’s protest was at least the second time since March that Angolan authorities have sought to obstruct journalists from covering public protests that call for democratic and economic reforms, CPJ research showed.
http://www.cpj.org/2011/09/journalists-attacked-while-covering-protest-in-ang.php
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide since 1981
Security forces attacked several journalists during the protest in Luanda’s Independence Square. The journalists said to be attacked were identified as Alexandre Neto, a local correspondent of the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Voice of America; cameramen Hugo Ernesto and Nicolau Chimbila of Portugal’s state broadcaster RTP; and reporters Coque Mukuta of Radio Despertar and Ana Margoso of Novo Jornal. Angolan state broadcaster TPA also reported that its news team had been attacked, allegedly by protesters, according to news reports.
Neto told CPJ that police and unidentified men in plain clothes knocked him down and seized his backpack with his cell phone, camera, passport, and driver’s license. The items were not returned, local journalists said. RTP broadcast footage showing unidentified men in plain clothes attacking one of its cameras and knocking down a member of its crew. RTP Luanda Bureau Chief Paulo Catarro reported that one of the station’s cameras had been broken.
Security agents also attacked Portuguese journalist António Cascais, who was conducting journalism training in Angola, as he left his hotel to walk toward the demonstration, news reports said. The agents threw Cascais on the ground, searched his pockets, and confiscated a digital camera and two phones, local journalists said.
“We condemn the security forces’ use of violence and intimidation to prevent journalists from covering anti-government protests,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “The authorities must return all confiscated journalistic material and pay compensation for damaged equipment. They should also hold to account all those responsible for the violence against the media.”
The few hundred protesters had gathered to call on President José Eduardo dos Santos to step down after 32 years of rule, news reports said. Police and unidentified assailants began to attack the participants after a group of protesters attempted to march to the presidential palace to demand the release of Pandito Nerú, one of their leaders, who had been abducted at gunpoint earlier that day by security forces.
Saturday’s protest was at least the second time since March that Angolan authorities have sought to obstruct journalists from covering public protests that call for democratic and economic reforms, CPJ research showed.
http://www.cpj.org/2011/09/journalists-attacked-while-covering-protest-in-ang.php
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide since 1981
Update on and Appeal for Support towards TWR Malawi
PRESS RELEASE
Silver Jubilee Celebrations
Appealing for support: TWR National Director, Victor Kaonga
Trans World Radio (TWR), a non-denominational broadcaster, seeks the support of individuals, friends,companies, churches and partners towards the celebration of 25 years of work in Malawi.Since 1986 when its radio work officially started, TWR has seen thousands of lives transformed in Malawi andbeyond.
This year, we are also celebrating ten years (from 2001) of broadcasting on a national FM network with aclean signal using English, Chichewa, Chitumbuka and Chiyao.Hundreds of testimonies through letters, emails, SMS and personal meetings abound each month.
Many Malawiansin one way or the other have been impacted by TWR through its shortwave broadcasts in the early years when workwas pioneered by among others former MBC broadcaster Mr. Pearson Chunga (based in Swaziland).As such, we have organized listener celebrations in Mzuzu on Sunday 25thSeptember 2011 at Katoto FreedomPark.
Later on, the main celebrations move to Blantyre on Sunday 16thfor an inter-denominationalthanksgiving morning Service and an open celebration show in the afternoon. The main closing event is on Saturday 22ndOctober at Lilongwe Community Centre Ground.Ahead of that other special activities include having women take full charge of the airwaves beginning Monday 12thSept to 18thSeptember.
This is to let women who have never been on air to celebrate in a special way by handlingbasic production and presenting radio programmes. A similar opportunity was made for the children in Augustduring their school holiday.TWR is also working on installing a new transmitter in Mchinji and host an appreciation dinner on Friday 21stOctober. The funds raised will go towards the expansion of TWR FM signal to Karonga and Chitipa.Operating under the theme is “Thus far, has the Lord helped us” from 1 Samuel 12:7, the Silver Jubileecelebrations are an opportunity to celebrate God’s goodness to and through TWR Malawi in the last 25 years,launch a new listeners’ radio project and see a strengthened resource base.
TWR remains committed to holistic programming thereby build good character in the citizens in addition to helpingthe Church in its mission to reach people through the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.
We remain committed to provide information, inspiration and entertainment in Malawi.As such ongoing financial support, patronage and sponsorship especially in this special season will help TWRcontinue to being useful to Malawi and beyond. For details on how to support (which will be acknowledgedpublicly), contact the undersigned.
Signed
Victor Kaonga,National Director
Mobile: 0999338902
TWR MalawiP.O. Box 52525252
LILONGWE
E-mail:radio@twrmw.org
www.twrafrica.org
Silver Jubilee Celebrations
Appealing for support: TWR National Director, Victor Kaonga
Trans World Radio (TWR), a non-denominational broadcaster, seeks the support of individuals, friends,companies, churches and partners towards the celebration of 25 years of work in Malawi.Since 1986 when its radio work officially started, TWR has seen thousands of lives transformed in Malawi andbeyond.
This year, we are also celebrating ten years (from 2001) of broadcasting on a national FM network with aclean signal using English, Chichewa, Chitumbuka and Chiyao.Hundreds of testimonies through letters, emails, SMS and personal meetings abound each month.
Many Malawiansin one way or the other have been impacted by TWR through its shortwave broadcasts in the early years when workwas pioneered by among others former MBC broadcaster Mr. Pearson Chunga (based in Swaziland).As such, we have organized listener celebrations in Mzuzu on Sunday 25thSeptember 2011 at Katoto FreedomPark.
Later on, the main celebrations move to Blantyre on Sunday 16thfor an inter-denominationalthanksgiving morning Service and an open celebration show in the afternoon. The main closing event is on Saturday 22ndOctober at Lilongwe Community Centre Ground.Ahead of that other special activities include having women take full charge of the airwaves beginning Monday 12thSept to 18thSeptember.
This is to let women who have never been on air to celebrate in a special way by handlingbasic production and presenting radio programmes. A similar opportunity was made for the children in Augustduring their school holiday.TWR is also working on installing a new transmitter in Mchinji and host an appreciation dinner on Friday 21stOctober. The funds raised will go towards the expansion of TWR FM signal to Karonga and Chitipa.Operating under the theme is “Thus far, has the Lord helped us” from 1 Samuel 12:7, the Silver Jubileecelebrations are an opportunity to celebrate God’s goodness to and through TWR Malawi in the last 25 years,launch a new listeners’ radio project and see a strengthened resource base.
TWR remains committed to holistic programming thereby build good character in the citizens in addition to helpingthe Church in its mission to reach people through the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.
We remain committed to provide information, inspiration and entertainment in Malawi.As such ongoing financial support, patronage and sponsorship especially in this special season will help TWRcontinue to being useful to Malawi and beyond. For details on how to support (which will be acknowledgedpublicly), contact the undersigned.
Signed
Victor Kaonga,National Director
Mobile: 0999338902
TWR MalawiP.O. Box 52525252
LILONGWE
E-mail:radio@twrmw.org
www.twrafrica.org
DRC pro-opposition TV station burned down in pre-election violence
New York, September 6, 2011—Unidentified armed men today torched the studios of a private television station that aired programs favorable to Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, local journalists and news reports said.
At around 2 a.m., a dozen men threw tear gas into the studios of Radio Lisanga Télévision (RLTV), based in the capital, Kinshasa, and poured gasoline on the premises. They then used Molotov cocktails and incendiary grenades to set the station on fire, news reports said. Two RLTV employees escaped the flames by climbing onto the station’s rooftop through an air conditioning shaft, Mamie Mareza, the station’s news director, told CPJ.
“We condemn the political violence directed at Radio Lisanga Télévision based on its support for a candidate ahead of the presidential elections,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “Congolese authorities must conduct serious and credible investigations into this criminal act.”
Witnesses allegedly identified one of the assailants as a member of the youth league of President Joseph Kabila’s ruling People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), local journalists said. The owner of RLTV is a politician who supports Tshikedi, according to news reports. Political tensions have been rising between supporters of Kabila, the incumbent, and veteran opposition leader Tshikedi, who has formally registered to challenge Kabila in the presidential elections scheduled for November, according to news reports.
The station attack followed the ransacking of PPRD headquarters, which Kabila supporters blamed on members of Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress party, news reports said. PPRD militants threatened revenge for the attack on their headquarters, Mareza said.
RLTV has been under recent pressure from the government and its supporters, CPJ research shows. In June, machete-wielding armed men injured the presenter of “Support Etienne Tshisekedi,” a nightly talk show. In July, authorities temporarily forced RLTV off the air on allegations of inciting violence. In August, the station received anonymous threats after broadcasting footage of empty rows of seats at a local stadium during the PPRD convention, news reports said.
Congolese Communication Minister Lambert Mende told CPJ he could not comment on the incident since he was out of the country.
http://www.cpj.org/2011/09/drc-tv-station-burned-down-in-pre-election-violenc.php
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide since 1981
At around 2 a.m., a dozen men threw tear gas into the studios of Radio Lisanga Télévision (RLTV), based in the capital, Kinshasa, and poured gasoline on the premises. They then used Molotov cocktails and incendiary grenades to set the station on fire, news reports said. Two RLTV employees escaped the flames by climbing onto the station’s rooftop through an air conditioning shaft, Mamie Mareza, the station’s news director, told CPJ.
“We condemn the political violence directed at Radio Lisanga Télévision based on its support for a candidate ahead of the presidential elections,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “Congolese authorities must conduct serious and credible investigations into this criminal act.”
Witnesses allegedly identified one of the assailants as a member of the youth league of President Joseph Kabila’s ruling People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), local journalists said. The owner of RLTV is a politician who supports Tshikedi, according to news reports. Political tensions have been rising between supporters of Kabila, the incumbent, and veteran opposition leader Tshikedi, who has formally registered to challenge Kabila in the presidential elections scheduled for November, according to news reports.
The station attack followed the ransacking of PPRD headquarters, which Kabila supporters blamed on members of Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress party, news reports said. PPRD militants threatened revenge for the attack on their headquarters, Mareza said.
RLTV has been under recent pressure from the government and its supporters, CPJ research shows. In June, machete-wielding armed men injured the presenter of “Support Etienne Tshisekedi,” a nightly talk show. In July, authorities temporarily forced RLTV off the air on allegations of inciting violence. In August, the station received anonymous threats after broadcasting footage of empty rows of seats at a local stadium during the PPRD convention, news reports said.
Congolese Communication Minister Lambert Mende told CPJ he could not comment on the incident since he was out of the country.
http://www.cpj.org/2011/09/drc-tv-station-burned-down-in-pre-election-violenc.php
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide since 1981
MALAWI'S NEW CABINET, ANNOUNCED 7th September 2011
President; Commander in Chief of Armed Forces; Statutory Corporations; Civil Service and Civil Society: = His Excellency PRESIDENT BINGU WA MUTHARIKA
Safemotherhood Coordinator, Maternal and Child Health, HIV and Aids, Nutrition, Malaria and TB Coordinator = H.E Callitsa Mutharika: The First Lady of the Republic
Deputy Minister in the Office of the President and Cabinet: Mr. Nicholas Dausi
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation: Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika
Deputy Minister: Mr. Kondwani Nankhumwa
Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Affairs: Mr. Goodall Gondwe
Deputy Minister: Vera Flamenga Chelewani
Minister of Education, Science and Technology: Dr. George Chaponda
Deputy Minister: (Basic Education) Wictor Songazaudzu Sajeni
(Higher Education) Otiria Jere
Minister of Finance; Dr. Ken Lipenga
Deputy Minister: Dr. Cornelius Mwalwanda
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security: Professor Peter Mwanza
Deputy Minister: Magret Roka Mauwa
Deputy Minister: Kingsely Namakhwa
Minister Justice: Mr. Ephraim Chiume
Minister of Transport and Public Infrastructure: Mr. Sidik Mia
Deputy Minister: Catherine Gotani Hara
Minister of Local Government and Rural Development: Mr. Henry Mussa
Deputy Minister: Chimango Chimpimpha Mughogho-Gondwe
Minister of Information and Civic Education: Mrs Patricia Kaliati
Minister of Trade and Industry: Mr. John Bande
Minister of Lands: Mr. Yunus Mussa
Deputy Minister: Rev. Dr. Christopher Ngwira
Minister of Home Affairs: Mr. Aaron Sangala
Minister of Gender: Mrs. Reene Kachere
Deputy Minister: Ms Nasrin Pillane
Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture: Mr. Daniel Liwimbi
Minister of Labour: Dr. Lucious Kanyumba
Minister of Youth and Sports: Mr. Symon Vuwa Kaunda
Minister of Health: Dr. Jean Kalirani
Deputy Minister: Ralph Jooma
Safemotherhood Coordinator, Maternal and Child Health, HIV and Aids, Nutrition, Malaria and TB Coordinator = H.E Callitsa Mutharika: The First Lady of the Republic
Deputy Minister in the Office of the President and Cabinet: Mr. Nicholas Dausi
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation: Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika
Deputy Minister: Mr. Kondwani Nankhumwa
Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Affairs: Mr. Goodall Gondwe
Deputy Minister: Vera Flamenga Chelewani
Minister of Education, Science and Technology: Dr. George Chaponda
Deputy Minister: (Basic Education) Wictor Songazaudzu Sajeni
(Higher Education) Otiria Jere
Minister of Finance; Dr. Ken Lipenga
Deputy Minister: Dr. Cornelius Mwalwanda
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security: Professor Peter Mwanza
Deputy Minister: Magret Roka Mauwa
Deputy Minister: Kingsely Namakhwa
Minister Justice: Mr. Ephraim Chiume
Minister of Transport and Public Infrastructure: Mr. Sidik Mia
Deputy Minister: Catherine Gotani Hara
Minister of Local Government and Rural Development: Mr. Henry Mussa
Deputy Minister: Chimango Chimpimpha Mughogho-Gondwe
Minister of Information and Civic Education: Mrs Patricia Kaliati
Minister of Trade and Industry: Mr. John Bande
Minister of Lands: Mr. Yunus Mussa
Deputy Minister: Rev. Dr. Christopher Ngwira
Minister of Home Affairs: Mr. Aaron Sangala
Minister of Gender: Mrs. Reene Kachere
Deputy Minister: Ms Nasrin Pillane
Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture: Mr. Daniel Liwimbi
Minister of Labour: Dr. Lucious Kanyumba
Minister of Youth and Sports: Mr. Symon Vuwa Kaunda
Minister of Health: Dr. Jean Kalirani
Deputy Minister: Ralph Jooma
Welcome Patricia 'Akweni' Kaliati
Malawi's best female Information and Civic Education Minister ever!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Bridging development gaps through community empowerment
By Richard Chirombo
The truth, that indigenous knowledge and common sense are commodities in which many Chikhwawa people are rich, was there for the taking. But nobody, not even those rich in it, was innovative enough to explore the opportunities that come with this bequest.
The cost, as expected, was high: the apparent lack of basic amenities, strengthened by a litany of unfulfilled expectations.
Not that Traditional Authorities Katunga, Mulilima, Chapananga, Ngabu and Lundu did not know or care about the status quo; that is why Katunga faults the two issues for limiting Chikhwawa people’s definition of ‘good life’ into a mere search for the basics.
“Poverty had become accepted as an inevitable feature of life. There are people who get satisfied leading simple lives that border on resource constraints,” he says.
Indeed, people have come to regard poverty part of the life system that deepening poverty levels have fallen under the same category as earthquakes, flash floods and bad weather- acts of providence, ancestral spirits or God.
It may just be now that these perceptions are changing, thanks partly to President Bingu wa Mutharka’s assertion that- despite the grim picture painted by United Nations Development Programme indices that rank Malawi among the world’s poorest nations- the country is, after all, richer in resources than the spirit of its own people.
The other reason for this mindset change could be the initiative by the Blantyre Synod Health and Development Commission (BSHDC), through its Church and Society arm, aimed at enhancing community participation and advocacy capacity in the quest for satisfactory public services.
Limbani Chipembere, BSHDC Programme Manager for Governance, says their intervention came after realizing that much of the poverty in Chikhwawa could be alleviated through attitude change.
“We realized that people have abundant resources coupled with a well-developed indigenous knowledge system that has been underutilized for a long time in Malawi. The problem was lack of skills on how to harness this knowledge and keep it up to date with latest world trends,” says Chipembere.
So hopeless was the situation that though people realized the dangers of growing millet in the face of non-existent market opportunities, underutilization of land in days that have come to be defined by climate change, the disenfranchising aspect of low prices, and neglect of community problems, they left such problems unresolved for over 46 years of independence.
Add this to the fact that one of the characters of the Chikhwawa people- the drinking of local brews, which turned millet into a cash spinner within the community- was changing fast in this age of bottled-and- packaged lives, the type of life that has relegated gourds to mere relics and historical, other than practical, ware.
Advancements in technology have left indigenous knowledge systems wanting, raising the need to ‘update’ its values. This update, Chipembere enthuses, includes turning local knowledge into a horse that will carry Malawians through the race of poverty to the finish line of prosperity.
“Malawi has a rich cultural heritage and impeccable local knowledge system that have neither been embraced nor improved. We have failed to utilise this resource and, as a result, lagged behind in many crucial areas of development,” he adds.
All these factors have forced the resourceful people of Malawi into the cold arms of self-resignation as they watch their efforts bear unproductive results. A good case in point is the cultivation of millet in Chikhwawa. Besides maize and cotton, farmers peg their hopes on large scale millet farming.
However, experience has shown that, though grown on a massive scale, the crop has left communities in the area of Paramount Chief Lundu poorer and disoriented due to the unavailability of lucrative markets. Farmers have adapted to this challenge by turning millet into a poultry feed and main ingredient in local brews.
Then, there is the issue of villagers from Chinkole in T/A Katunga’s area; they have spent the past 46 years leading subsistence lives, turning them into perpetual dependants of rain fed agriculture and victims of natural shocks. All these years, community members have failed to realize that continuing to farm as individuals when they lack such resources as organic fertilizers and modern machinery is a renewed attempt at hugging poverty.
This scenario, however, is different from the subjects of village headman Namila in T/A Mulilima’s area. Unlike their subsistence counterparts of Chinkole, Namila people have problems with maize surplus and abundance. Too much produce has not changed their fortunes but turned them into fair-trade cry babies.
But these problems are not restricted to farming. Public service delivery systems have their dark sides, too, as communities have come to learn from the experience of Kandeu Primary School in T/A Kasisi’s area. For years, parents and guardians felt so elated seeing their wards go to school, only to get disappointed with pupils’ immediate allergy to learning, a problem whose root was suspected to be witchcraft.
How, community members wanted to know, could children get so enthusiastic about enrolling at Kandeu primary school, only to develop cold feet immediately after? Through Kandeu Village Rights Committee (VRC), people discovered that the real reason was lack of school uniforms. Every time Kandeu pupils came into contact with pupils from other schools at district events, it was easy to trace the majority of them by dressing, or lack of it.
“It (lack of uniform) made them different from other pupils; It made their poverty more visible,” chips in village headman Kandeu.
A Parents-Teacher Association meeting revealed that most parents could not afford school uniform. In fact, it was discovered that some parents only bought school uniform for children in senior primary school classes.
But WARA, a Catholic Relief Services integrated community support programme, came in handy to provide school uniforms to needy pupils in T/A Kaisi’s area.
Chikhwawa District Education officials feel, however, that the Kandeu scenario is not common place, and that the district was not far from meeting Millennium Development Goals on increasing access to primary education. This is a feeling replicated by the subjects of Village headman Mpokonyola in T/A Katunga’s area: asked how they could tackle the problem of absenteeism, they are unanimous in settling for the Parents-Teachers’ Association problem solving set up.
They forget their own problems, though, in their quest to pick the speck in Kandeu’s eye. As consumers, Mpokonyola communities have been subjected to unfair trade practices whenever they go to buy goods and services at Dembo Market.
Some of the maize traders at Dembo are middlemen who work for Mozambican businessmen at a commission. For unknown reasons, apart from the apparent motivation to get quick returns, these Malawian traders have for years been selling substandard maize that, when processed into flour, turns bitter.
Community members confronted the unscrupulous traders to no avail: the traders acknowledged selling ‘bad’ maize but refused to withdraw it from the market. Even the words of village headman Mpokonyola bore no fruits as he reveals:
“The trader was still reluctant saying he was only an employee of a Mozambican trader. The owner of the business was later called and withdrew the commodity while admitting that it was, indeed, substandard. He finally brought good maize”.
Signs on the ground are that each Chikhwawa problem has a solution. In fact, community mobilisation and sensitization campaigns have already created strategic alliances that have evolved into a positive chain of reactions as citizens claim their right to development.
Since July 2009, Chikhwawa has mobilized 40 community based educators and 1,500 members of VRC- all these efforts in pursuit of Section 30 of the Republican Constitution, which guarantees the right to development irrespective of one’s status in society.
“So far, so good,” says group village headman Mbendelana of T/A Kasisi.
In 2009, his subjects realized that Chikhwawa Primary School lacked blocks, teachers and pupils’ toilets, desks, and headmaster’s office. On February 28, 2010, a meeting was held with MP for the area, at which people agreed to contact the British Department for International Development (DFID) for assistance.
“On April 16, 2010, the project, worth over K40 million, started with the construction of two self-contained teachers’ houses, four school blocks with two class rooms each, one head teacher’s office and eight toilets for teachers and pupils. Within three month, it was over,” says Mbendelana.
What inspired the chief was the level of community involvement. During one of the community members’ monitoring sessions, it was discovered that the door padlocks were of poor quality; community members quickly asked the contractor to fit good quality ones, and durable paddocks were soon purchased and fitted accordingly.
Communities surrounding Kalima Primary School in T/A Maseya also prevented a bad situation from getting worse. High absenteeism levels prompted them to call for a Teachers-Parent-Pupils meeting at which the pupils revealed that absenteeism was a reaction to corporal punishment meted by teachers.
These included severe beatings, orders to dig deeper-than-child height pit latrines or banishment from class. All these punishment forms violated the child’s right to education. People threatened to report the matter to the Primary Education Advisor but the teachers pleaded promised to change.
For three weeks, from early February 2010, VRC members monitored the situation and confirmed that the teachers had really changed.
Millet farming, too, has become lucrative as farmers have utilized the concept of collective bargaining to negotiate their way into produce supply opportunities; so have cotton farmers, though many still complain that they are still attached to exploitative companies through loans on farm inputs offered at the beginning of the planting season. Those who are not bound by exploitative contracts also face the problem of manipulated weighing machines.
But Davlin Chokazinga, Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) Director General warns: “Farmers and, indeed, consumers, should make sure that they buy from sellers with MBS certified equipment. Many farmers are losing a lot in income through manipulated scales. We have intensified sensitization meetings since April this year, and will not hesitate to bring perpetrators to book.”
Farmers have also come around the problem of cheating by forming cooperatives and associations. Propelled by the hope that it will be difficult to fool a dozen eyes, maize, sugarcane, and cotton farmers no longer sell their produce at the farmyard: this task has been designated for focal business points where the market forces of demand and supply dictate shelf prices.
On the community development front, trends have also changed as people take more responsibility. In T/A Ngabu’s area, for example, Constituency Development Funds meant for the construction of a school block were misappropriated and villagers are following up.
It is a success story arising from the jaws of self-defeat. Civil Society Organisations and development partners are there to oil the spirit of community involvement.
“It is a good thing when people start to demand development. It is their right and not privilege as some policymakers want us to believe,” says Chipembere.
The truth, that indigenous knowledge and common sense are commodities in which many Chikhwawa people are rich, was there for the taking. But nobody, not even those rich in it, was innovative enough to explore the opportunities that come with this bequest.
The cost, as expected, was high: the apparent lack of basic amenities, strengthened by a litany of unfulfilled expectations.
Not that Traditional Authorities Katunga, Mulilima, Chapananga, Ngabu and Lundu did not know or care about the status quo; that is why Katunga faults the two issues for limiting Chikhwawa people’s definition of ‘good life’ into a mere search for the basics.
“Poverty had become accepted as an inevitable feature of life. There are people who get satisfied leading simple lives that border on resource constraints,” he says.
Indeed, people have come to regard poverty part of the life system that deepening poverty levels have fallen under the same category as earthquakes, flash floods and bad weather- acts of providence, ancestral spirits or God.
It may just be now that these perceptions are changing, thanks partly to President Bingu wa Mutharka’s assertion that- despite the grim picture painted by United Nations Development Programme indices that rank Malawi among the world’s poorest nations- the country is, after all, richer in resources than the spirit of its own people.
The other reason for this mindset change could be the initiative by the Blantyre Synod Health and Development Commission (BSHDC), through its Church and Society arm, aimed at enhancing community participation and advocacy capacity in the quest for satisfactory public services.
Limbani Chipembere, BSHDC Programme Manager for Governance, says their intervention came after realizing that much of the poverty in Chikhwawa could be alleviated through attitude change.
“We realized that people have abundant resources coupled with a well-developed indigenous knowledge system that has been underutilized for a long time in Malawi. The problem was lack of skills on how to harness this knowledge and keep it up to date with latest world trends,” says Chipembere.
So hopeless was the situation that though people realized the dangers of growing millet in the face of non-existent market opportunities, underutilization of land in days that have come to be defined by climate change, the disenfranchising aspect of low prices, and neglect of community problems, they left such problems unresolved for over 46 years of independence.
Add this to the fact that one of the characters of the Chikhwawa people- the drinking of local brews, which turned millet into a cash spinner within the community- was changing fast in this age of bottled-and- packaged lives, the type of life that has relegated gourds to mere relics and historical, other than practical, ware.
Advancements in technology have left indigenous knowledge systems wanting, raising the need to ‘update’ its values. This update, Chipembere enthuses, includes turning local knowledge into a horse that will carry Malawians through the race of poverty to the finish line of prosperity.
“Malawi has a rich cultural heritage and impeccable local knowledge system that have neither been embraced nor improved. We have failed to utilise this resource and, as a result, lagged behind in many crucial areas of development,” he adds.
All these factors have forced the resourceful people of Malawi into the cold arms of self-resignation as they watch their efforts bear unproductive results. A good case in point is the cultivation of millet in Chikhwawa. Besides maize and cotton, farmers peg their hopes on large scale millet farming.
However, experience has shown that, though grown on a massive scale, the crop has left communities in the area of Paramount Chief Lundu poorer and disoriented due to the unavailability of lucrative markets. Farmers have adapted to this challenge by turning millet into a poultry feed and main ingredient in local brews.
Then, there is the issue of villagers from Chinkole in T/A Katunga’s area; they have spent the past 46 years leading subsistence lives, turning them into perpetual dependants of rain fed agriculture and victims of natural shocks. All these years, community members have failed to realize that continuing to farm as individuals when they lack such resources as organic fertilizers and modern machinery is a renewed attempt at hugging poverty.
This scenario, however, is different from the subjects of village headman Namila in T/A Mulilima’s area. Unlike their subsistence counterparts of Chinkole, Namila people have problems with maize surplus and abundance. Too much produce has not changed their fortunes but turned them into fair-trade cry babies.
But these problems are not restricted to farming. Public service delivery systems have their dark sides, too, as communities have come to learn from the experience of Kandeu Primary School in T/A Kasisi’s area. For years, parents and guardians felt so elated seeing their wards go to school, only to get disappointed with pupils’ immediate allergy to learning, a problem whose root was suspected to be witchcraft.
How, community members wanted to know, could children get so enthusiastic about enrolling at Kandeu primary school, only to develop cold feet immediately after? Through Kandeu Village Rights Committee (VRC), people discovered that the real reason was lack of school uniforms. Every time Kandeu pupils came into contact with pupils from other schools at district events, it was easy to trace the majority of them by dressing, or lack of it.
“It (lack of uniform) made them different from other pupils; It made their poverty more visible,” chips in village headman Kandeu.
A Parents-Teacher Association meeting revealed that most parents could not afford school uniform. In fact, it was discovered that some parents only bought school uniform for children in senior primary school classes.
But WARA, a Catholic Relief Services integrated community support programme, came in handy to provide school uniforms to needy pupils in T/A Kaisi’s area.
Chikhwawa District Education officials feel, however, that the Kandeu scenario is not common place, and that the district was not far from meeting Millennium Development Goals on increasing access to primary education. This is a feeling replicated by the subjects of Village headman Mpokonyola in T/A Katunga’s area: asked how they could tackle the problem of absenteeism, they are unanimous in settling for the Parents-Teachers’ Association problem solving set up.
They forget their own problems, though, in their quest to pick the speck in Kandeu’s eye. As consumers, Mpokonyola communities have been subjected to unfair trade practices whenever they go to buy goods and services at Dembo Market.
Some of the maize traders at Dembo are middlemen who work for Mozambican businessmen at a commission. For unknown reasons, apart from the apparent motivation to get quick returns, these Malawian traders have for years been selling substandard maize that, when processed into flour, turns bitter.
Community members confronted the unscrupulous traders to no avail: the traders acknowledged selling ‘bad’ maize but refused to withdraw it from the market. Even the words of village headman Mpokonyola bore no fruits as he reveals:
“The trader was still reluctant saying he was only an employee of a Mozambican trader. The owner of the business was later called and withdrew the commodity while admitting that it was, indeed, substandard. He finally brought good maize”.
Signs on the ground are that each Chikhwawa problem has a solution. In fact, community mobilisation and sensitization campaigns have already created strategic alliances that have evolved into a positive chain of reactions as citizens claim their right to development.
Since July 2009, Chikhwawa has mobilized 40 community based educators and 1,500 members of VRC- all these efforts in pursuit of Section 30 of the Republican Constitution, which guarantees the right to development irrespective of one’s status in society.
“So far, so good,” says group village headman Mbendelana of T/A Kasisi.
In 2009, his subjects realized that Chikhwawa Primary School lacked blocks, teachers and pupils’ toilets, desks, and headmaster’s office. On February 28, 2010, a meeting was held with MP for the area, at which people agreed to contact the British Department for International Development (DFID) for assistance.
“On April 16, 2010, the project, worth over K40 million, started with the construction of two self-contained teachers’ houses, four school blocks with two class rooms each, one head teacher’s office and eight toilets for teachers and pupils. Within three month, it was over,” says Mbendelana.
What inspired the chief was the level of community involvement. During one of the community members’ monitoring sessions, it was discovered that the door padlocks were of poor quality; community members quickly asked the contractor to fit good quality ones, and durable paddocks were soon purchased and fitted accordingly.
Communities surrounding Kalima Primary School in T/A Maseya also prevented a bad situation from getting worse. High absenteeism levels prompted them to call for a Teachers-Parent-Pupils meeting at which the pupils revealed that absenteeism was a reaction to corporal punishment meted by teachers.
These included severe beatings, orders to dig deeper-than-child height pit latrines or banishment from class. All these punishment forms violated the child’s right to education. People threatened to report the matter to the Primary Education Advisor but the teachers pleaded promised to change.
For three weeks, from early February 2010, VRC members monitored the situation and confirmed that the teachers had really changed.
Millet farming, too, has become lucrative as farmers have utilized the concept of collective bargaining to negotiate their way into produce supply opportunities; so have cotton farmers, though many still complain that they are still attached to exploitative companies through loans on farm inputs offered at the beginning of the planting season. Those who are not bound by exploitative contracts also face the problem of manipulated weighing machines.
But Davlin Chokazinga, Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) Director General warns: “Farmers and, indeed, consumers, should make sure that they buy from sellers with MBS certified equipment. Many farmers are losing a lot in income through manipulated scales. We have intensified sensitization meetings since April this year, and will not hesitate to bring perpetrators to book.”
Farmers have also come around the problem of cheating by forming cooperatives and associations. Propelled by the hope that it will be difficult to fool a dozen eyes, maize, sugarcane, and cotton farmers no longer sell their produce at the farmyard: this task has been designated for focal business points where the market forces of demand and supply dictate shelf prices.
On the community development front, trends have also changed as people take more responsibility. In T/A Ngabu’s area, for example, Constituency Development Funds meant for the construction of a school block were misappropriated and villagers are following up.
It is a success story arising from the jaws of self-defeat. Civil Society Organisations and development partners are there to oil the spirit of community involvement.
“It is a good thing when people start to demand development. It is their right and not privilege as some policymakers want us to believe,” says Chipembere.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Flashback: Saving Natural Resources, Memories
BY RICHARD CHIROMBO
Makanjira: Let us conserve natural resources to save wonderful memories
Wildlife and natural resources once meant little more than nobody’s
property; everything, from trees , game, to wild-products, it was all
for plunder and free- a familiar sign of that long-held prejudice that
there is nothing ‘human’ about being in the wild.
Then came the introduction of fences around national parks, game
reserves and nature sanctuaries; and communities felt they were meant
to deter them from accessing their own endowment, a part of their
inheritance.
That, too, is what went on in the minds of people from the area of
Traditional Authority (T/A) Ng’ambi in Machinga, the abode district of
Liwonde National Park.
They have chosen to believe otherwise now, and have quickly adapted to
the reassuring reality that wild life is for us and posterity; that
the fences are meant to contain problem-animals from wrecking havoc
among human beings and not otherwise.
New thoughts are beginning to emerge, too, with some of the community
members like Michael Jalasi now beginning to believe that, perhaps, in
the early 1900s our ancestors might have been rattled by current
events and the unbeatable logic of despair among wild animals and had
to go out in the woods for a while and think about the consequences of
depleting natural resources faster than they could be replaced.
For 74 year old Ali Zalimu, there never, at first, was a story told to
his children without mentioning wildlife- it was either about the
cunningness of Kalulu the hair, the unscrupulous behaviour of
nocturnal fisi (hyena), the courage of the chameleon as to win a
long-distance marathon against the likes of mighty Cheetah and Lion,
and the beauty of the countryside.
But he recalls that, as early as the 1980s, he began to tell stories
that begun with the end, a sure sign of dreadful fascination with doom
and demise, his faith in imminent extinction of the once beautiful
wildlife getting stronger by the day.
Zalimu is one of the people who, once or twice a year, flocks into the
National Park to harvest mushrooms as his wife, Miriam, collects
firewood.
Makanjira: Doing all he can to save Malawi's game
“We are always happy to come into the (National) park and get firewood
that keeps us going for three weeks or a month on end- something we do
periodically when wildlife officials see it fit,” he says.
His once lost his best friend (Ali Itimu) to a marauding lion when he
(the friend) went poaching on May 17, 1991.
“But things have significantly changed today that there are very few
cases of poaching and abuse of resources in protected areas;
communities surrounding these areas are increasingly becoming aware
that the fences are not meant to deter us from visiting these places.
They are for problem animals that wreck havoc in neighbouring villages
from getting out of the protected areas,” attests Alick Prescott
Makanjira, senior assistant Parks and Wildlife Officer in the
Department of Parks and Wildlife, South. The department is now divided
into four: administration, research, wild life management and wildlife
education and extension.
It hasn’t been easy, though, as he observes. Some villagers have a
negative attitude that hinges mainly on memories of domestic animals
that might have been killed by the problem animals- these are hyenas,
elephants, lions and other predators.
“We have also come around this problem through Collaborative Wildlife
Management. Through this initiative, natural resources are managed
alongside villagers around Majete Wildlife Reserve, Mwabvi Wildlife
Reserve, Lengwe National Park and Michiru Nature Sanctuary. These
areas fall within the four divisions,” says Makanjira.
That is why, for instance, the Nyika/Vwaza project helped national
park officials to work together with community members. Schools built
for these communities still stand today, tidy and strong- a living
manifestation of how deep unity of purpose can dig.
For people around Michiru Nature Sanctuary, this sort of unity has a
shape and taste. It comes in the form of a mushroom, which they are
allowed to harvest after maturity. The taste is thus that of mushroom.
Officials say this has been of tremendous benefits, as people no
longer cut trees (live wood), waiting to harvest dead wood at the
right time.
As they wait for the right time, another right time comes: The time
between waiting and hoping happens to be the same grass for thatching
houses matures- so they get an occasional reward of thatched grass.
“This reward doesn’t come from parks, game reserves or nature
sanctuary officials; it comes from nature itself, every year- we just
orchestrate accessibility to these resources at the right time,” he
said.
A question of a little late, but not too late. Malawi used to have
that fastest running animal in the world, the Cheetah, in Kasungu
National Park. No more.
Wild dogs (mimbulu); no more.
Malawi has started to sing funeral hymns for wild game that once was,
and is not.
It pains the likes of Makanjira that, while Malawi can only lay claim
to the fact that we once had such great animals of the wild through
the fossils dug from the ground- animals that once were part of the
warm-heartedness that is us- go to Zambia, and you will get them.
Yet, Zambians and Malawians call themselves brothers and sisters;
their father and mother being that border line in Mchinji.
While this should have been a wake up call, some community members see
no doom and gloom in this but continue to undo the prospects of their
own posterity.
Though positive strides have been made to curve around the problem of
abuse of natural resources, the risk remains for indigenous trees ,
says Daulosi Mauambeta, Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi
(Wesm) executive director.
This abuse has a name, and a tag: Charcoal trade. Mauambeta finds it
shocking that this form of trade has a well established cost
structure, but no action is taken to control it as one way of
promoting sustainable management of natural resources. With his
finger, he points to Lilongwe. Retailers there enjoy 33 per cent of
the production costs, private taxes eat 12 per cent, market fees 3 per
cent, transport 25 per cent, labour 6 per cent and the producer gets
41 per cent from the sales.
Blantyre’s charcoal sales’ cost structure reads like: The retailer
(the last seller, who packs charcoal in small plastic bags) gets 24
per cent, private taxes ‘eat’ 20 per cent, market fee claims 3 per
cent, transport 20 per cent and producers take 33 per cent to
themselves.
In both cases, the producer- who is often the destroyer of trees- gets
the large chunk of money.
“Buying charcoal means encouraging such people,” said Mauambeta.
Blantyre District Forestry Officer, Geoffrey Kanyelele, agrees, but
offers remedies. People in cities are encouraging this sort of
behaviour by buying these products.
But because electricity tariffs are so high for the average citizen,
because only 6 per cent of the country’s population is connected to
electricity and the rest of the population stays in darkness, these
people must grow trees as well.
Kanyelele says most people in urban areas shun away from planting
trees. The reason, he adds, is that some people simply never want to
do something- like planting a tree- no, they fear that that will
benefit someone else!
“That spirit is killing our forests. However, my office is happy that,
in Blantyre, for instance, people come to realize the importance of
replacing trees. It doesn’t matter whether a tree has been felled in
Mwanza or Neno, you can plant one (tree) wherever you are. Surely,
that tree will have an impact,” he said.
The reason, perhaps, is that Blantyre residents have already planted
over 2 million trees half way though the Tree Planting season. He is
so sure that by April 15, official closing date for the exercise,
which started on December 15 and was officially opened by president
Bingu wa Mutharika, things will work out- beyond expectations.
Makanjira: When you hunt game to extinction, you also erase the wonderful memories
“We are coming closer to natural resources again, in terms of tree
planting. Soon, this problem will be behind us. That will happen if
we all become part of the solution,” said Kanyelele.
Makanjira: Let us conserve natural resources to save wonderful memories
Wildlife and natural resources once meant little more than nobody’s
property; everything, from trees , game, to wild-products, it was all
for plunder and free- a familiar sign of that long-held prejudice that
there is nothing ‘human’ about being in the wild.
Then came the introduction of fences around national parks, game
reserves and nature sanctuaries; and communities felt they were meant
to deter them from accessing their own endowment, a part of their
inheritance.
That, too, is what went on in the minds of people from the area of
Traditional Authority (T/A) Ng’ambi in Machinga, the abode district of
Liwonde National Park.
They have chosen to believe otherwise now, and have quickly adapted to
the reassuring reality that wild life is for us and posterity; that
the fences are meant to contain problem-animals from wrecking havoc
among human beings and not otherwise.
New thoughts are beginning to emerge, too, with some of the community
members like Michael Jalasi now beginning to believe that, perhaps, in
the early 1900s our ancestors might have been rattled by current
events and the unbeatable logic of despair among wild animals and had
to go out in the woods for a while and think about the consequences of
depleting natural resources faster than they could be replaced.
For 74 year old Ali Zalimu, there never, at first, was a story told to
his children without mentioning wildlife- it was either about the
cunningness of Kalulu the hair, the unscrupulous behaviour of
nocturnal fisi (hyena), the courage of the chameleon as to win a
long-distance marathon against the likes of mighty Cheetah and Lion,
and the beauty of the countryside.
But he recalls that, as early as the 1980s, he began to tell stories
that begun with the end, a sure sign of dreadful fascination with doom
and demise, his faith in imminent extinction of the once beautiful
wildlife getting stronger by the day.
Zalimu is one of the people who, once or twice a year, flocks into the
National Park to harvest mushrooms as his wife, Miriam, collects
firewood.
Makanjira: Doing all he can to save Malawi's game
“We are always happy to come into the (National) park and get firewood
that keeps us going for three weeks or a month on end- something we do
periodically when wildlife officials see it fit,” he says.
His once lost his best friend (Ali Itimu) to a marauding lion when he
(the friend) went poaching on May 17, 1991.
“But things have significantly changed today that there are very few
cases of poaching and abuse of resources in protected areas;
communities surrounding these areas are increasingly becoming aware
that the fences are not meant to deter us from visiting these places.
They are for problem animals that wreck havoc in neighbouring villages
from getting out of the protected areas,” attests Alick Prescott
Makanjira, senior assistant Parks and Wildlife Officer in the
Department of Parks and Wildlife, South. The department is now divided
into four: administration, research, wild life management and wildlife
education and extension.
It hasn’t been easy, though, as he observes. Some villagers have a
negative attitude that hinges mainly on memories of domestic animals
that might have been killed by the problem animals- these are hyenas,
elephants, lions and other predators.
“We have also come around this problem through Collaborative Wildlife
Management. Through this initiative, natural resources are managed
alongside villagers around Majete Wildlife Reserve, Mwabvi Wildlife
Reserve, Lengwe National Park and Michiru Nature Sanctuary. These
areas fall within the four divisions,” says Makanjira.
That is why, for instance, the Nyika/Vwaza project helped national
park officials to work together with community members. Schools built
for these communities still stand today, tidy and strong- a living
manifestation of how deep unity of purpose can dig.
For people around Michiru Nature Sanctuary, this sort of unity has a
shape and taste. It comes in the form of a mushroom, which they are
allowed to harvest after maturity. The taste is thus that of mushroom.
Officials say this has been of tremendous benefits, as people no
longer cut trees (live wood), waiting to harvest dead wood at the
right time.
As they wait for the right time, another right time comes: The time
between waiting and hoping happens to be the same grass for thatching
houses matures- so they get an occasional reward of thatched grass.
“This reward doesn’t come from parks, game reserves or nature
sanctuary officials; it comes from nature itself, every year- we just
orchestrate accessibility to these resources at the right time,” he
said.
A question of a little late, but not too late. Malawi used to have
that fastest running animal in the world, the Cheetah, in Kasungu
National Park. No more.
Wild dogs (mimbulu); no more.
Malawi has started to sing funeral hymns for wild game that once was,
and is not.
It pains the likes of Makanjira that, while Malawi can only lay claim
to the fact that we once had such great animals of the wild through
the fossils dug from the ground- animals that once were part of the
warm-heartedness that is us- go to Zambia, and you will get them.
Yet, Zambians and Malawians call themselves brothers and sisters;
their father and mother being that border line in Mchinji.
While this should have been a wake up call, some community members see
no doom and gloom in this but continue to undo the prospects of their
own posterity.
Though positive strides have been made to curve around the problem of
abuse of natural resources, the risk remains for indigenous trees ,
says Daulosi Mauambeta, Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi
(Wesm) executive director.
This abuse has a name, and a tag: Charcoal trade. Mauambeta finds it
shocking that this form of trade has a well established cost
structure, but no action is taken to control it as one way of
promoting sustainable management of natural resources. With his
finger, he points to Lilongwe. Retailers there enjoy 33 per cent of
the production costs, private taxes eat 12 per cent, market fees 3 per
cent, transport 25 per cent, labour 6 per cent and the producer gets
41 per cent from the sales.
Blantyre’s charcoal sales’ cost structure reads like: The retailer
(the last seller, who packs charcoal in small plastic bags) gets 24
per cent, private taxes ‘eat’ 20 per cent, market fee claims 3 per
cent, transport 20 per cent and producers take 33 per cent to
themselves.
In both cases, the producer- who is often the destroyer of trees- gets
the large chunk of money.
“Buying charcoal means encouraging such people,” said Mauambeta.
Blantyre District Forestry Officer, Geoffrey Kanyelele, agrees, but
offers remedies. People in cities are encouraging this sort of
behaviour by buying these products.
But because electricity tariffs are so high for the average citizen,
because only 6 per cent of the country’s population is connected to
electricity and the rest of the population stays in darkness, these
people must grow trees as well.
Kanyelele says most people in urban areas shun away from planting
trees. The reason, he adds, is that some people simply never want to
do something- like planting a tree- no, they fear that that will
benefit someone else!
“That spirit is killing our forests. However, my office is happy that,
in Blantyre, for instance, people come to realize the importance of
replacing trees. It doesn’t matter whether a tree has been felled in
Mwanza or Neno, you can plant one (tree) wherever you are. Surely,
that tree will have an impact,” he said.
The reason, perhaps, is that Blantyre residents have already planted
over 2 million trees half way though the Tree Planting season. He is
so sure that by April 15, official closing date for the exercise,
which started on December 15 and was officially opened by president
Bingu wa Mutharika, things will work out- beyond expectations.
Makanjira: When you hunt game to extinction, you also erase the wonderful memories
“We are coming closer to natural resources again, in terms of tree
planting. Soon, this problem will be behind us. That will happen if
we all become part of the solution,” said Kanyelele.
Mwanza's Solitary Fight for Health Rights
BY RICHARD CHIROMBO
Brown particles of dust run into the clear sky as, on the bare grounds of Nankhubwe Community-based organization in Mwanza West, six under-five children play seek and hide and take turns to run over each other, oblivious of what is taking place in their little bodies. Forty years from now, they may not be there to play.
Most of the people from Chiwembu Village know the ‘truth’ about the children; so, they look at the children with heavy interests, shaking their heads as they go towards wherever their legs or bicycles may carry them. They may choose to go wherever they wish to, but their memories will always bring them back to the spectacle of the children creating fun out of the dust.
The problem lies in telling the children they are HIV-positive. How does a parent inform an innocent-looking three-year old they are living positively with HIV, a thing they may not comprehend?
“It is sad; so sad,” says T/A Nthache of Mwanza. “It breaks my heart to know that they may also get infected with Tuberculosis (TB) as their immune system breaks down.”
Chiwembu Village, where the children stay and play, falls under his jurisdiction. So do Silota, Zilima, Kagulo, Kachipanda. All these villages are now united by the universality of challenges, mostly health related, being experienced by community members.
These challenges, says Nthache, are HIV and AIDS, TB and the influx of Mozambicans who scramble for meager resources such as drugs.
”We are caught in the middle of a complicated web; we don’t know what to do, really, but we are trying. As T/A, I have never tired from mobilizing my subjects against HIV and AIDS, and TB,” adds Nthache.
Mwanza district is itself a web, too. Being a border district, it is a beehive of sexual activity for truck drivers, fueling the spread of HIV and AIDS. Mwanza District Hospital is also a web that seems to be catching more flies than it can hold: people from Senzo and Chitungweni villages in Mozambique scramble for meager medical resources with communities from the district.
HIV and AIDS also seem to have sanctioned the help of TB in a conspiracy against good health, concocting a disaster of twin proportions.
Nthache says, as if that were not enough, people from Chikwawa also find it easier to go to Mwanza District Hospital than Chikwawa. All this against resources designated for a single district.
However, those who pile pressure on the meager resources are those who can walk, or cycle or board Matola. Others are incarcerated by circumstances, and forgotten. Take, for instance, prisoners at Mwanza Prison.
”These people live on one meal a day, a trend that seems to condemn, and discriminate against, those who are HIV-positive to their early grave. It is bad, yet preventable,” says Machilika Matemba, an HIV and AIDS activist from the district.
Machilika is executive director for Mwanza AIDS Support Organization (Mwaso), a humanitarian organization formed by people living with HIV and AIDS. It seeks to promote behaviour change, build hope where only desperation exists, and improve the well-being of those infected by HIV in the district.
Mwaso learned from experience that inmates have no leeway to the hospital, a reality that begins with the prison walls: They are tall enough they hinder prisoners’ view of Mwanza District Hospital.
“It is worse for those (prisoners) living positively with HIV and AIDS. One meal a day is not enough for someone in dire need of nutritious food to boost the immune system. It becomes a multiple problem because, when immunity is weak, TB also comes into play,” says Matemba.
His organization thus established a support project at Mwanza Prison for those who cannot scramble for the basic necessities in the open. HIV-positive prisoners always fight two battles: the one within (HIV in their blood), and that outside (scrambling for a share of medical resources and services at public hospitals).
Mwaso’s nutrition and Stop TB campaigns seem to be working, however. Among others, prisoners grow tomatoes, mustard, onions, cabbages, Lettuce, and ask for sputum examination when they cough for three weeks. This applies to both those living positively with HIV or not.
Already, indicators are that the initiative is raking positive results.
Stanley Mbewe, Senior Superintendent for Mwanza Prison, says the facility has 294 prisoners (as of Saturday, September 5, 2010), 43 of whom are living positively with HIV and AIDS.
“The programme has really helped matters here. The biggest challenge remains the general lack of resources. We need wheelbarrows, raking and splaying materials,” Mbewe says.
Not that the funding Mwaso got from VSO is not enough; it is enough for drawing the battle lines against malnutrition, HIV and AIDS, and TB- reaching the end of the battle line is a multispectral issue.
Geoffrey Kumpama, Clinical Officer for Mwanza Hospital, is one of the people pulling the strings towards the battle line, a better end. He says the hospital has been trying its best to tie the loose ends through the work of Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs), who he says are well-equipped with knowledge on TB, HIV and AIDS, Malaria, other Sexually Transmitted Infections, and hygiene.
The challenge, as is typical of Mwanza, , comes from Mozambican service seekers. There are no HSAs on the Mozambican side of the border, making it difficult to trace people with TB, mobilize people to go for Voluntary Counselling and Testing, good nutrition practices, preventing STIs.
The negative effects of this still cross the borders into Malawi, in the form of foreign citizens seeking medical help at Mwanza.
He looks at the positive side: “The bottom-line is that TB is treatable; those living with HIV can still live long, productive lives; truck drivers can prevent STIs, including HIV and AIDS, by employing preventive measures; and HSAs are crucial in medical service delivery,” Kumpama says.
To which Nthache adds: “United, we can make Mwanza district better. By this, we mean nutrition-wise, health, education, social-economic development. It’s all in our hands.”
Brown particles of dust run into the clear sky as, on the bare grounds of Nankhubwe Community-based organization in Mwanza West, six under-five children play seek and hide and take turns to run over each other, oblivious of what is taking place in their little bodies. Forty years from now, they may not be there to play.
Most of the people from Chiwembu Village know the ‘truth’ about the children; so, they look at the children with heavy interests, shaking their heads as they go towards wherever their legs or bicycles may carry them. They may choose to go wherever they wish to, but their memories will always bring them back to the spectacle of the children creating fun out of the dust.
The problem lies in telling the children they are HIV-positive. How does a parent inform an innocent-looking three-year old they are living positively with HIV, a thing they may not comprehend?
“It is sad; so sad,” says T/A Nthache of Mwanza. “It breaks my heart to know that they may also get infected with Tuberculosis (TB) as their immune system breaks down.”
Chiwembu Village, where the children stay and play, falls under his jurisdiction. So do Silota, Zilima, Kagulo, Kachipanda. All these villages are now united by the universality of challenges, mostly health related, being experienced by community members.
These challenges, says Nthache, are HIV and AIDS, TB and the influx of Mozambicans who scramble for meager resources such as drugs.
”We are caught in the middle of a complicated web; we don’t know what to do, really, but we are trying. As T/A, I have never tired from mobilizing my subjects against HIV and AIDS, and TB,” adds Nthache.
Mwanza district is itself a web, too. Being a border district, it is a beehive of sexual activity for truck drivers, fueling the spread of HIV and AIDS. Mwanza District Hospital is also a web that seems to be catching more flies than it can hold: people from Senzo and Chitungweni villages in Mozambique scramble for meager medical resources with communities from the district.
HIV and AIDS also seem to have sanctioned the help of TB in a conspiracy against good health, concocting a disaster of twin proportions.
Nthache says, as if that were not enough, people from Chikwawa also find it easier to go to Mwanza District Hospital than Chikwawa. All this against resources designated for a single district.
However, those who pile pressure on the meager resources are those who can walk, or cycle or board Matola. Others are incarcerated by circumstances, and forgotten. Take, for instance, prisoners at Mwanza Prison.
”These people live on one meal a day, a trend that seems to condemn, and discriminate against, those who are HIV-positive to their early grave. It is bad, yet preventable,” says Machilika Matemba, an HIV and AIDS activist from the district.
Machilika is executive director for Mwanza AIDS Support Organization (Mwaso), a humanitarian organization formed by people living with HIV and AIDS. It seeks to promote behaviour change, build hope where only desperation exists, and improve the well-being of those infected by HIV in the district.
Mwaso learned from experience that inmates have no leeway to the hospital, a reality that begins with the prison walls: They are tall enough they hinder prisoners’ view of Mwanza District Hospital.
“It is worse for those (prisoners) living positively with HIV and AIDS. One meal a day is not enough for someone in dire need of nutritious food to boost the immune system. It becomes a multiple problem because, when immunity is weak, TB also comes into play,” says Matemba.
His organization thus established a support project at Mwanza Prison for those who cannot scramble for the basic necessities in the open. HIV-positive prisoners always fight two battles: the one within (HIV in their blood), and that outside (scrambling for a share of medical resources and services at public hospitals).
Mwaso’s nutrition and Stop TB campaigns seem to be working, however. Among others, prisoners grow tomatoes, mustard, onions, cabbages, Lettuce, and ask for sputum examination when they cough for three weeks. This applies to both those living positively with HIV or not.
Already, indicators are that the initiative is raking positive results.
Stanley Mbewe, Senior Superintendent for Mwanza Prison, says the facility has 294 prisoners (as of Saturday, September 5, 2010), 43 of whom are living positively with HIV and AIDS.
“The programme has really helped matters here. The biggest challenge remains the general lack of resources. We need wheelbarrows, raking and splaying materials,” Mbewe says.
Not that the funding Mwaso got from VSO is not enough; it is enough for drawing the battle lines against malnutrition, HIV and AIDS, and TB- reaching the end of the battle line is a multispectral issue.
Geoffrey Kumpama, Clinical Officer for Mwanza Hospital, is one of the people pulling the strings towards the battle line, a better end. He says the hospital has been trying its best to tie the loose ends through the work of Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs), who he says are well-equipped with knowledge on TB, HIV and AIDS, Malaria, other Sexually Transmitted Infections, and hygiene.
The challenge, as is typical of Mwanza, , comes from Mozambican service seekers. There are no HSAs on the Mozambican side of the border, making it difficult to trace people with TB, mobilize people to go for Voluntary Counselling and Testing, good nutrition practices, preventing STIs.
The negative effects of this still cross the borders into Malawi, in the form of foreign citizens seeking medical help at Mwanza.
He looks at the positive side: “The bottom-line is that TB is treatable; those living with HIV can still live long, productive lives; truck drivers can prevent STIs, including HIV and AIDS, by employing preventive measures; and HSAs are crucial in medical service delivery,” Kumpama says.
To which Nthache adds: “United, we can make Mwanza district better. By this, we mean nutrition-wise, health, education, social-economic development. It’s all in our hands.”
Mwanza Women Empowernment-Ship's Failure to Take Off
BY RICHARD CHIROMBO
The Mwanza woman’s experience is one of a survivor who has never flourished.
It is one painful realization to have come home to gender activists in
the district, prompting them to ask the tough, immoral question:
Should we bank our hopes on disaster, and reap from the cup of
catastrophe?
National disasters have done it elsewhere in Africa- call it the
unintended benefit of a bad experience- and tilted life in favour of
the long-suppressed woman. In Rwanda, for instance, the death of more
men than women in that country’s darkest period of civil war opened a
plethora of opportunity for women that others turned to the roads,
truck driving; many more chose the mechanical and electric engineering
path, among others- tasks hither to reserved for men.
For Emma Kaliya, chairperson for NGO-Gender Support Network (NGO-GCN),
Malawi needs more of ink and paper (with which to formulate requisite
gender empowerment policies and protocols) than the smoking gun or
astray arrow to win the woman’s right place in society.
“Implementation of gender policies holds the key to Malawi’s success,
along with the realization that men have an equal role to play. Gender
is about both men and women,” says Kaliya.
It may be slow, and painful at times, but the destination is clear,
she says. This slow pace down the women empowerment mile is clear in a
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Gender Protocol 2010
Barometer for Malawi, compiled by Kaliya herself through the Malawi
Human Rights Resource Centre.
SADC set aside 28 targets- among them, constitutional and legal
rights; economic empowerment; governance, in terms of both
representation and participation; education and training; Gender-based
violence; peace building; health, HIV and AIDS; media, Information,
Communication and Technology- to be met by 2015.
So far, Malawi has sent out mixed signals. The country scored 57 per
cent in this year’s SADC Gender Protocol Barometer, points slightly
higher than the regional average of 54 per cent.
The good part is that the country has been lauded by the regional body
for coming closer to meeting education and training targets. A score
of eight out of 10 is a mark too high for other SADC member states; a
feat repeated in the target area of governance, where Malawi’s
performance in improving women’s roles in political processes is
matched by a handful other countries.
But that is all there is to Malawi’s walk towards women empowerment as
the country remains far much behind in meeting targets for increased
productive resources, employment and economic empowerment. Scores
ranging from two to six are a smack in gender activists’ faces.
“We need to renew our commitment,” she adds.
But gender activism does not end at putting in place strategic
policies, and renewing commitment. It means much more than that, chips
in Loyce Kachepa, Mwanza District Coordinator for Women’s Legal
Resources Centre (WOLREC).
The path of WOLREC’s efforts in Mwanza- and such districts as Salima,
Zomba, Neno, Mangochi, Mzuzu and Balaka- is always strewn with
Malawi’s other common challenges: high poverty levels, estimated by
the SADC Barometer at 65.3 per cent of the 13 million-plus population;
a less impressive adult literacy rate of 62 per cent, with fewer women
than men able to read; impoverished female-headed households, where 34
per cent of households are female-headed.
Experience has shown that female-headed households tend to be poorer
due to gender disparities in education, resources and access to
opportunities, points buttressed by the 2006 HIV.VAW Survey Report.
“We must look beyond mere activism and inculcate the spirit of a
rights-based approach to development. After all, Section 30 of the
Malawi Constitution makes it clear that everyone, including women, is
entitled to development. It is high time people started demanding
development, instead of being over-grateful when public officials due
their rightful role: bringing social-economic development,” says
Kachepa.
A rights-based approach is the sure way women could begin to view such
efforts as the 50:50 Women Empowerment campaign as repayment of a
public debt policymakers have defaulted on for many years, she adds.
“Women deserve to be in decision-making positions; it is not something
up for discussion, it is a right.”
It is this kind of boldness that forces Maggie Sundu, Gender Desk
Officer at the Association for Progressive Women (APW) in Mwanza, to
declare that (in the spirit of the 50:50 campaign) there is but only
one ‘political party’ in Malawi.
“And such a political party is the woman; the Malawian woman.”
Sundu says this is the reason NGOs have been campaigning for the
woman’s vote in either Presidential, Parliamentary and Local
Government elections. The Democratic Progressive Party, United
Democratic Front, Malawi Forum for Unity and Development, People’s
Transformation Party, Malawi Congress Party, Malawi Democratic Union,
Malawi Democratic Party may be there in the wards and constituencies,
yes; but when there is a lonely woman fighting for a political slot,
the woman is the political party.
This is a point that has pitted gender activist against gender
insensitive political parties.
Noel Msiska, acting executive director for APW remembers going to
Rumphi in the Northern region prior to the 2009 Parliamentary
elections.
“One political party sent emissaries to ask us the question: ‘which
political party is this?’. We said we were fighting for the promotion
of women, but members of most political parties got none of it. The
Malawian woman deserves better,” says Msiska.
Of all the places in Malawi, Mwanza district qualifies for one that
has kept the woman in the kitchen much longer than necessary. While
the country has been moving slowly, but upwardly, towards empowering
the local woman (in the 1994 General Elections, 10 women Members of
Parliament made it to the August House; in 1999, 18 women; 2004, 26;
and 2009, 42 women), Mwanza is yet to have a female councilor.
Yet, during the 2000 Local Government Elections, the Southern (where
Mwanza is) and Central region scored higher (at 30 per cent women
representation) and the Northern region lower, at 10 per cent, the
Mwanza woman was totally counted out.
Phillip Mponda Banda, District Community Development Officer- a
position falling under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community
Development- has a clear picture of the problem.
The Mwanza man, says Mponda Banda, has so many ways of building
self-confidence, esteem and asserting himself in the largely male
chauvinistic society.
Take, for instance, the bicycle he uses to ferry charcoal or people at
Mwanza Central District. When he uses the bicycle to eke a living, he
has so many people (the passenger) to talk to, and this builds his
confidence.
Other men take to Bawo, where politics, social and economic talk
dominates discourse. At the football pitch, it is not only goals he
talks of; he often indulges in political and general leadership
debate.
During political campaigns, in church meetings: the Mwanza man plays
the leading role.
“All the time, the woman is in the kitchen, or in the garden
performing back-breaking manual work. All she thinks of is feeding her
family, taking care of the children, and obeying the husband-
especially for those married under dowry customs. All this has left
women behind, and has not been good for Mwanza,” says Mponda Banda.
Mponda Banda still hopes for the better, however. He takes comfort
from the Millennium Development Goals, Malawi Growth and Development
Strategy and National Gender Policy- all of which encourage women
empowerment.
He also hopes that, one day, Mwanza Central and Mwanza West (the
district’s only constituencies) will have women at the top. However,
Mponda Banda urges people not to confuse gender activism with
feminism, saying gender activism is all about women and men working
alongside each other.
“In other words, it means that where there is a man, a woman should
be. This can be achieved by analyzing the needs of people involved,
and channeling more resources towards the disadvantaged (equity).”
But there is a danger for Malawi; the country only has ONE chance to
meet the SADC 2015 Gender Protocol targets: With the Local Government Elections that were slated for 2011 now postponed to 2014, there is only the 2014 presidential and Parliamentary Elections to look up to.
It is Malawi’s most challenging governance test.
The Mwanza woman’s experience is one of a survivor who has never flourished.
It is one painful realization to have come home to gender activists in
the district, prompting them to ask the tough, immoral question:
Should we bank our hopes on disaster, and reap from the cup of
catastrophe?
National disasters have done it elsewhere in Africa- call it the
unintended benefit of a bad experience- and tilted life in favour of
the long-suppressed woman. In Rwanda, for instance, the death of more
men than women in that country’s darkest period of civil war opened a
plethora of opportunity for women that others turned to the roads,
truck driving; many more chose the mechanical and electric engineering
path, among others- tasks hither to reserved for men.
For Emma Kaliya, chairperson for NGO-Gender Support Network (NGO-GCN),
Malawi needs more of ink and paper (with which to formulate requisite
gender empowerment policies and protocols) than the smoking gun or
astray arrow to win the woman’s right place in society.
“Implementation of gender policies holds the key to Malawi’s success,
along with the realization that men have an equal role to play. Gender
is about both men and women,” says Kaliya.
It may be slow, and painful at times, but the destination is clear,
she says. This slow pace down the women empowerment mile is clear in a
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Gender Protocol 2010
Barometer for Malawi, compiled by Kaliya herself through the Malawi
Human Rights Resource Centre.
SADC set aside 28 targets- among them, constitutional and legal
rights; economic empowerment; governance, in terms of both
representation and participation; education and training; Gender-based
violence; peace building; health, HIV and AIDS; media, Information,
Communication and Technology- to be met by 2015.
So far, Malawi has sent out mixed signals. The country scored 57 per
cent in this year’s SADC Gender Protocol Barometer, points slightly
higher than the regional average of 54 per cent.
The good part is that the country has been lauded by the regional body
for coming closer to meeting education and training targets. A score
of eight out of 10 is a mark too high for other SADC member states; a
feat repeated in the target area of governance, where Malawi’s
performance in improving women’s roles in political processes is
matched by a handful other countries.
But that is all there is to Malawi’s walk towards women empowerment as
the country remains far much behind in meeting targets for increased
productive resources, employment and economic empowerment. Scores
ranging from two to six are a smack in gender activists’ faces.
“We need to renew our commitment,” she adds.
But gender activism does not end at putting in place strategic
policies, and renewing commitment. It means much more than that, chips
in Loyce Kachepa, Mwanza District Coordinator for Women’s Legal
Resources Centre (WOLREC).
The path of WOLREC’s efforts in Mwanza- and such districts as Salima,
Zomba, Neno, Mangochi, Mzuzu and Balaka- is always strewn with
Malawi’s other common challenges: high poverty levels, estimated by
the SADC Barometer at 65.3 per cent of the 13 million-plus population;
a less impressive adult literacy rate of 62 per cent, with fewer women
than men able to read; impoverished female-headed households, where 34
per cent of households are female-headed.
Experience has shown that female-headed households tend to be poorer
due to gender disparities in education, resources and access to
opportunities, points buttressed by the 2006 HIV.VAW Survey Report.
“We must look beyond mere activism and inculcate the spirit of a
rights-based approach to development. After all, Section 30 of the
Malawi Constitution makes it clear that everyone, including women, is
entitled to development. It is high time people started demanding
development, instead of being over-grateful when public officials due
their rightful role: bringing social-economic development,” says
Kachepa.
A rights-based approach is the sure way women could begin to view such
efforts as the 50:50 Women Empowerment campaign as repayment of a
public debt policymakers have defaulted on for many years, she adds.
“Women deserve to be in decision-making positions; it is not something
up for discussion, it is a right.”
It is this kind of boldness that forces Maggie Sundu, Gender Desk
Officer at the Association for Progressive Women (APW) in Mwanza, to
declare that (in the spirit of the 50:50 campaign) there is but only
one ‘political party’ in Malawi.
“And such a political party is the woman; the Malawian woman.”
Sundu says this is the reason NGOs have been campaigning for the
woman’s vote in either Presidential, Parliamentary and Local
Government elections. The Democratic Progressive Party, United
Democratic Front, Malawi Forum for Unity and Development, People’s
Transformation Party, Malawi Congress Party, Malawi Democratic Union,
Malawi Democratic Party may be there in the wards and constituencies,
yes; but when there is a lonely woman fighting for a political slot,
the woman is the political party.
This is a point that has pitted gender activist against gender
insensitive political parties.
Noel Msiska, acting executive director for APW remembers going to
Rumphi in the Northern region prior to the 2009 Parliamentary
elections.
“One political party sent emissaries to ask us the question: ‘which
political party is this?’. We said we were fighting for the promotion
of women, but members of most political parties got none of it. The
Malawian woman deserves better,” says Msiska.
Of all the places in Malawi, Mwanza district qualifies for one that
has kept the woman in the kitchen much longer than necessary. While
the country has been moving slowly, but upwardly, towards empowering
the local woman (in the 1994 General Elections, 10 women Members of
Parliament made it to the August House; in 1999, 18 women; 2004, 26;
and 2009, 42 women), Mwanza is yet to have a female councilor.
Yet, during the 2000 Local Government Elections, the Southern (where
Mwanza is) and Central region scored higher (at 30 per cent women
representation) and the Northern region lower, at 10 per cent, the
Mwanza woman was totally counted out.
Phillip Mponda Banda, District Community Development Officer- a
position falling under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community
Development- has a clear picture of the problem.
The Mwanza man, says Mponda Banda, has so many ways of building
self-confidence, esteem and asserting himself in the largely male
chauvinistic society.
Take, for instance, the bicycle he uses to ferry charcoal or people at
Mwanza Central District. When he uses the bicycle to eke a living, he
has so many people (the passenger) to talk to, and this builds his
confidence.
Other men take to Bawo, where politics, social and economic talk
dominates discourse. At the football pitch, it is not only goals he
talks of; he often indulges in political and general leadership
debate.
During political campaigns, in church meetings: the Mwanza man plays
the leading role.
“All the time, the woman is in the kitchen, or in the garden
performing back-breaking manual work. All she thinks of is feeding her
family, taking care of the children, and obeying the husband-
especially for those married under dowry customs. All this has left
women behind, and has not been good for Mwanza,” says Mponda Banda.
Mponda Banda still hopes for the better, however. He takes comfort
from the Millennium Development Goals, Malawi Growth and Development
Strategy and National Gender Policy- all of which encourage women
empowerment.
He also hopes that, one day, Mwanza Central and Mwanza West (the
district’s only constituencies) will have women at the top. However,
Mponda Banda urges people not to confuse gender activism with
feminism, saying gender activism is all about women and men working
alongside each other.
“In other words, it means that where there is a man, a woman should
be. This can be achieved by analyzing the needs of people involved,
and channeling more resources towards the disadvantaged (equity).”
But there is a danger for Malawi; the country only has ONE chance to
meet the SADC 2015 Gender Protocol targets: With the Local Government Elections that were slated for 2011 now postponed to 2014, there is only the 2014 presidential and Parliamentary Elections to look up to.
It is Malawi’s most challenging governance test.
Stalemate
Zero-Zero,
(without mentioning names)
Just like that.
A man travels all the way from Spain,
To warm the dust-smitten benches at the anti-natural stadium.
Another one, now dread-locked
Watches the entire episode with one corner of his eye focused on the action thereis,
And with the corner of the other eye watching a tactless mentor,
So-blessed with the black-staff!
But one wriggles in pain,
His heart stripped bare to the arm,
In the battle for the manned-posts.
It is hush all over,
In the air,
On the streets,
In the homes.
It is a hush because it is all quiet in the hearts!
(without mentioning names)
Just like that.
A man travels all the way from Spain,
To warm the dust-smitten benches at the anti-natural stadium.
Another one, now dread-locked
Watches the entire episode with one corner of his eye focused on the action thereis,
And with the corner of the other eye watching a tactless mentor,
So-blessed with the black-staff!
But one wriggles in pain,
His heart stripped bare to the arm,
In the battle for the manned-posts.
It is hush all over,
In the air,
On the streets,
In the homes.
It is a hush because it is all quiet in the hearts!
Friday, September 2, 2011
Burn The Tunisians Bad maFlames!!!
Oh, maDear Flames of Malawi, just do it this Saturday. Do it and go there, where the African Cup of Nations' battle is fought and won.
Richard Chirombo, Speaking to 15 year-olds on 5 July 2008, Said...
"The wonderful thing about life is that, after puberty, nobody seems to remember their childhood voice."
Rchard Chirombo:The wonderful thing about life is that, after puberty, nobody seems to remember their childhood voice
He might have forgotten his own childhood voice!
Rchard Chirombo:The wonderful thing about life is that, after puberty, nobody seems to remember their childhood voice
He might have forgotten his own childhood voice!
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