This is the first trip I have taken to Malawi that I can admit I didn't fully enjoy. I am one of Malawi's biggest supporters but I have to be honest and admit that I am losing things to support. Malawi used to be beautiful but our countryside is being severely ravaged by its own people. The two key environmental problems I observed: 1. Heavy deforestation and 2. Frequent small-scale forest and countryside fires I drove from Blantyre to Ku Chawe Inn in Zomba then to Kasungu and back down along the lakeshore road covering over 1,200 kilometres. I completely lost track of the forest fires I saw during the day and at night. Even within Blantyre you constantly smell smoke from burning leaves and cars that should no longer be on the road. This pollutes the air and the scenery. Club Makokola is the only place I found that confirmed they do not burn their leaves. They sweep them all into flower beds and use them as compost. It actually looked strikingly pretty. I wish everyone would follow suit. Malawi doesn't have much in the way of natural resources. What we do have, or used to have, is gorgeous countryside and that is now mostly gone. It's more than sad. I often drive into the British countryside and despite the terrible weather the British countryside is lush, inviting and unpolluted. I have never seen a fire being burnt and developments are controlled to minimise environmental pollution. Malawians in Malawi, why are you sitting by the wayside and allowing your country to be destroyed? Is barren countryside what you aspire to leave your children? The poor may claim to need firewood but why aren't they replacing the trees they fell? The soil is very fertile; there are seeds everywhere. Plant trees and use fallen leaves as compost. When you've cut down all your trees what will you do then? Die from hunger and starvation, that is what. This does not have to be a Government-level problem. Everyone needs to take some responsibility. Replace trees that have been felled! Amongst many problems, missing trees means less carbon dioxide is removed from the environment and any strong wind becomes a sand storm. If our country can't match the beautiful scenery of other African countries we can expect even fewer tourists and even less forex than is currently available. I can't believe people don't see the wider repercussions of deforestation and burning fires. Honestly, do you need a degree to see these things? It's time for action. Wake up. Stop sleeping, beer-drinking or whatever it is you do in your spare time, start planting trees and stop burning fires! As you watch this destruction keep in mind that the Sahara Desert was once a forest and we are very much moving in that direction. You've been warned!
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I had no idea that dramatic arts in Malawi had reached this quality. This play was astoundingly awesome. It was extremely well acted, it had great sound effects and they dealt with the tough subject matter in a humorous fashion. If you ever have the opportunity to see this production, grab it with both hands! Description of play from Africa Centre website: Malawi in the 1980s was a dangerous place. People disappeared. Even President Banda’s cabinet were not safe. Banda ordered his Young Pioneers to act against anyone who opposed the president. And Crocodiles Are Hungry At Night is an adaptation of award-winning poet Jack Mapanje’s prison memoir of the same name. In 1987, Jack Mapanje, then a little-known academic, linguist and poet, was imprisoned without charge at Mikuyu prison in Malawi. Despite an international outcry led by Amnesty International and supported by many writers and artists including Wole Soyinka, Harold Pinter and Ronald Harwood, he remained there for 3 years, 7 months, 16 days and more than 12 hours. He was never told why. This is his story. It is a story bursting with hope and humour, and the extraordinary people who survived President Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s attempts to silence his opponents. Living with the threat of death by a ‘car accident’ or being thrown into the crocodile-infested Shire River, Jack Mapanje and his fellow prisoners of conscience survived the dreadful conditions with a spirit of optimism and humanity, which is both uplifting and extraordinary. Everything in this play is true. And Crocodiles Are Hungry At Night the prison memoir was published last year by Ayebia Clarke publishing, and launched at an event hosted by Amnesty International. The book has created a lot of interest both in Malawi and the UK; Jack Mapanje was recently interviewed alongside Nadine Gordimer on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week, and the play has been booked for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s poetry festival in July. The play runs for 105 minutes, and plays without an interval.
A continuum of feelings: happy, sad, anxious, excited, elated, tired, hungry, thirsty, stressed, thrilled, annoyed, hurt, angry... I wish for more of the positive but, you know what? Negative emotions make the positive all the more delightful.
We cannot compete on an international platform because: 1. Our pricing is out of kilter 2. We're too bureaucratic PRICING Every time I want to hire a consultant for anything, British prices are always higher than American, Canadian and of course, Asian. On top of that, there's this 20% VAT thing which completely makes a good price look stupid e.g. my email marketing company quoted me £600 and then I get a bill for £720 - wtf? Oh, it's VAT, sorry, we forgot to tell you about that. Like seriously, you didn't think that would be a significant thing to mention in all our discussions? Luckily, I hadn't signed the contract yet - but I did! BUREAUCRACY Businesses need to be willing to negotiate and they need to make decisions fast to compete on an international platform. For instance, when I was selecting a developer for my app, Fat Creep, the British contender would say stuff like "I have a meeting with my partner on that this afternoon". I don't give a monkeys about your meetings, I need a decision now! The Asians would take things away and respond extremely fast. At what level can Britain compete? Primary industry i.e. agriculture etc, we don't have the land and the weather is not amenable to the growth of very much. We cannot compete well here. Secondary industry i.e. manufacturing, America is a developed economy just like Britain but input prices are way lower - how do you explain that? People are able to start making a product so much more easily than you can here. Are the British just too darn greedy? Why can't they cut their pricing to match America? Tertiary industry i.e. services - this is where we should be able to compete! However, I took a brief look at the many resources I now use as an entrepreneur related to technology and they are mostly American!! My email management tool (mailchimp), my webhost (weebly) and all the artists I have hired to do pictures for me. My accountant had to be British but even what he said was a cheap price for his services made me feel a little screwed. I haggled, of course, because my name wouldn't be Heather if I didn't! A successful business, even one with only a single full-time employee depends on so many other suppliers. Every business receipt represents a supplier, I want to use British but I'm sorry, right now they need to jack up - big time!
I'm currently reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson and realising that there are many practices that we now think of as new that are actually darn old: 1. Self publishing Lots people that wrote books self-published them or funded the printing in days gone by. Some lost a fortune as a result. What we now accept as the "traditional" publishing system actually replaced self-publishing and we've now come full circle. 2. Working past retirement Most people stopped working when they died or when they simply didn't have the physical capacity to. This was especially true amongst the educated classes - they worked for the joy of working and discovering new things. They were many tinkerers. Seeing retirement as a time when you completely stop work and get paid money anyway only came in post-world war 2. Regulators decided it was humane and fitting for the "civilised" world to give the elderly a break. It's an ideal situation that is in fact completely untenable. To support retirees you would need an ever increasing class of working people; with the decline in both birth rates and death rates this won't happen. 3. Working from home Many scientists in the old days worked from home. I imagine they rolled out of bed at 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. and continued where they'd left off the night before. Now we're trying to revert to this old way of working - funny. Admittedly, you will find that many early scientist came from privileged backgrounds and were unbound by the need to earn a living wage. 4. Being a jack of all trades A lot of entrepreneurial literature talks about how the ease of technology means the same person can do lots of previously "specialised" tasks. This is true but people in the olden days didn't specialise either. They didn't have the advantage of all this technology we now have but they all dabbled in a multitude of trades. If you look at profile of distinguished people of old you'll frequently see "Biologist, Chemist", "Writer, Geologist". Amongst the writers you'll find many people that wrote books on very different topics - "Economics, Psychology, Beauty". On the other hand business schools also espouse the benefits of focusing on just one business. Personally, I think the idea that you'll do better if you just stick to one thing is complete rubbish. If you've got four start ups on the go because you simply want to make money you'll probably fail. If you've got four start ups because you're passionate about all them and are committed to consistently producing some output for all based on a focused schedule - that's a successful result in itself. Next time you're confronted with a new idea, know that it might just be an old idea coming back.
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By Heather Katsonga-WoodwardI'm always thinking, debating, considering and revising my views - some of those deliberations will be shared right here. |