Moved over to Google+

Yes, it has been pretty quiet around here. Wanted to let you know that I have moved over to Google+ a few months ago and am loving it there. I find it to be a lovely blogging platform of sorts. Hope to see you there!

Someone has taken note of Mangochi... finally!

It took decades but it has finally happened. Mangochi has been elevated from a district to a town by President Joyce Banda, a step aimed at making the lakeshore town a bustling tourist city. I recently argued that former president Mutharika’s priority of Nsanje as a city may not have been a well thought out one.

Malawi has for the past few years been talking about finding an alternative foreign exchange earner to tobacco and tourism has been top of those alternatives. However there was very little work on the ground to show that efforts were being made to grow that industry. Many tourism facilities are not really up to international standard but not because that there has not been some sort of effort. In the past decade or so the road network has been greatly improved as has the recent hotel grading seen an improvement in lodging facilities. There have also been efforts by the Department of Tourism to market the country albeit not at the same level of quality as our neighbours. There is a lot more that has to be done however and I think this declaration is a first positive sign.

It is my hope that government will throw as much money and effort towards upgrading Mangochi, maybe even more, as it did towards Nsanje to make the district and town world class. Perhaps sooner rather than later the area will be a gateway to the other tourist attractions Malawi has to offer and at the same time attract the much needed investment and visitors the country needs to boost its ever dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

African leaders, you are also human!

Death has today taken the life of another African leader, the six in 36 months. While the illness of Guinea-Bissau's President Malam Bacai Sanha seemed to have been in the public domain and as was that of Ghana's President John Atta Mills the same can not be said of the other leaders who passed on. There was a suspicious secrecy around the illness of Zambia's President Levi Mwanawasa, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua and more recently Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. It got even more sinister when authorities tried to conceal, without much luck, the death of our very own President Bingu wa Mutharika for a good two days.

African leaders are humans not gods. Illness and death is a part of human life. Lets learn to deal with that. Once leaders come to terms with those facts maybe they will also realise that they need to fix the broken health systems they avoid once they fall sick.

Client experiences

Over a week ago I decided to jot down my experiences with clients of my web and graphic design business. I had just received an 11th hour request to complete a project in an impossible time frame. Requests like these come in all the time in different shapes and sizes so I thought it would be good to start collecting these stories for compilation later into a journal. And boy did this particular project take me through a roller coaster!

I get so easily distracted so am hoping I actually get to finish this journal some day soon. Perhaps I should take a day or two off to actually compile old stories that are still very vivid. I also need to document the many errors and mistakes I made and too often never learned from them.

Freelancing in Malawi - you just have to love it!

To bundle or not to bundle

“WIN a NEW SAMSUNG S3! Use K300 on Airtel Internet a week. Use more to increase your chances of winning.”

This is an sms I have received a couple of times over the past few weeks from my mobile operator. I love a good competition and by Malawian standard this is one. What I find difficult to understand though is why Airtel would want us to access internet at just over K4 per Mb when they could encourage us to purchase bundles which will cost us anywhere K3.33 to K1.20 per mb depending on the bundle size.

Some may argue they want to make more money off unsuspecting customers who have never heard about bundles, and there are plenty ignorant ones out there. But I would argue that by promoting bundles firstly they are helping their customers save, one ingredient for a happy and loyal customer. Secondly they would most likely get more customers because according to my research Airtel Data Bundles are amongst the cheaper internet options available. Thirdly they will be taking more cash from more customers for bigger (monthly) bundles which I think should make for better cash flow.

But then again, Airtel has their reasons for not promoting bundles. That now leaves me in a dilemma as to how to access internet – bundleless or bundles. Because the reviews of that Samsung are gooood!

The Dilemma of Mzimba South East Constituents

There is a saying, 'You get what you deserve'. Not very sure if Mzimba South East constituency deserves their member of parliament though. The Nation Newspaper today reports that the MP for the area Rabson Shaba has returned to the Democratic Progressive Party saying he earlier defected to the People's Party because' he was confused during Bingu's funeral'.

There is a place for people of his calibre and it's called a circus. His constituency don't deserve to have a clown representing them, like many other constituents whose parliamentarians are equally 'confused' hopping from one party to another under the guise of confusion, wanting development or whatever other nonsensical excuse.

Some circus is missing it's clowns!

"Blogging is about Freedom"

Sitting on the panel with Soyapi Mumba of Owinna.com (middle) and award winning blogger Kondwani Munthali (right)

That is how Kondwani Munthali, winner of the MISA Malawi Blogger of the Year Award, put it! Blogging is  something he has enjoyed doing though at times it has put him into direct conflict with his work as a journalist of Nation Publications. Kondwani made this revelation at an Introduction to Blogging event organised by the US Embassy in Malawi last week. Together with Soyapi Mumba and myself, Kondwani encouraged the mainly journalism students in attendance to embrace blogging as it gave them the freedom to express themselves, something they may not always be able to do freely when writing for a publication. Soyapi explained how after he had blogged about William Kamkwamba, the world opened up for the young boy from Kasungu and that managed to get an international scholarship.

Minister of Information Moses Kunkuyu making a speech

Other contributors on the day included Global Voices editor Victor Kaonga, social commentator Jimmy Kainja, Ministry of Health spokesperson Henry Chimbali and Kumbukani Kuntiya who runs Malawi2014  on Twitter. The students had a lot of questions on how to start blogging and best practices.

Grace Nachiola making her presentation

The event was earlier opened by the Charge d'Affaires Lisa Vickers who stressed the importance of social media and blogging. Later the Minster of Information Moses Kunkuyu encouraged Malawians to use social media as it provided an alternative to the mainstream media. US Embassy's Grace Nachiola also gave a presentation on the background to Social Media highlighting key statistics of its growth, influence and use especially by the youthful members of society.

Blogging in practice

After the discussions and presentations the journalism students went through a practical session of creating blogs of their own.

Ghana: Democracy at work

My heart goes out to the people of Ghana on the death of their president John Atta Mills. My congratulations go to John Dramani Mahama on his assumption of the high office and wish him all the best in running the country.

Malawi, or rather a certain section of the country’s political class need to take a lesson in democracy from our friends in the west. The country managed a smooth transition of power within hours of the death of their head of state. It was a simple act of following what the constitution clearly states without any pointless need for legal interpretations. 

Of course the lesson is one for a whole lot of other country’s too!

DPP on Joyce Banda's 100 days

I am not one to listen to much radio but today was an exception. I happened to listen to three different interviews on three different radio stations with three different politicians but all from one political party, the Democratic Progressive Party.


First up was an early Radio Maria interview with Nicholas Dausi who, if I recall correctly, is the new spokesperson for the party. In his usual fashion, Dausi was all emotional screaming down the microphone. For once he was not showing off with any fancy English nor was he quoting Socrates but as usual he was being very economical with the truth. When asked about the first 100 days of Joyce Banda’s presidency he claimed there is nothing positive to point out. All he has seen are dismissals and arrests. He mentioned Matilda Katopola, Alexious Nampota and I think Christoper Ngwira to drive home his point.


Later in the day on Zodiak’s Tiuzeni Zoona programme Peter Mutharika, the party’s interim president, was being interviewed. When it came to the question of the president’s performance his response was that 100 days is too short a period to make a fair assessment. He also stated that his aim is to work with the president for the betterment of the country. How sincere that comment is is subject to debate but he at least sounded it.


Capital Radio’s Straight Talk in the evening had secretary general Wakuda Kamanga as it’s guest. When asked about the performance of government his response was similar to Mutharika’s that 100 days is too short to give a proper assessment but went on to say it's been a mixed bag. On the negatives he pointed out the Section 65 stalemate and rise of crime – a relatively fair comment (and a debate for another day). Unfortunately the interviewer never really gave Kamanga a chance to state the positives but at least we know he has seen one or more if my understanding of 'mixed bag' is correct.


What surprises me is why Dausi was foaming at the mouth spitting fire and brimstone. Which Malawi does he live in? Which patch of sand is his head stuck in? Considering the damage the DPP did to this country is it not somewhat of a miracle the country is actually functioning? With details of plunder by the previous government emerging almost weekly I really wonder how long he will maintain his party’s moral high ground.

Malawi's Tobacco