Malawi's Tobacco

Time to Rebuild Brand Malawi!

Over the past year or so Malawi has not been projected internationally in very positive light. The warm heart has been mired in problems, shortages and intolerance of varying kinds and magnitudes. Just 16 days ago a group of men and women, one of them an expert in comparative constitutional law and a past recipient of the International Jurist Award, met in a series of illegal cabinet meetings in an effort to plunge the country into an even greater mess. They attempted to stage a constitutional coup. But alas the numbers just were not adding up, some members grew cold feet, betrayal set in and the plot fell apart faster than it was put together. Suddenly the nation saw glimer of light on the horizon. However the whole episode left Malawi with a battered image, a laughing stock!

Thebe Ikalafeng, a thought leader and branding expert, gave his opinion on how the authoroties handled, or rather withheld, the news of the death of President Mutharika so as to facilitate an illegal transfer of power to the deceased's younger brother.

Nepotism, cronyism and downright executive arrogance was indeed taking this country down a road where the (constitutional) law was thrown out to the dogs, the new law was that prescribed from the political podium. Its time to mend this broken image. Its time to grow Malawi into a strong brand. Its tough work because perceptions are hard to change. It will take time but it must happen and be given the priority it deserves. Every Malawian has his and her work cut out, it's not just a task for Joyce Banda and her government.

My prayer is that all the undesirable attributes Malawi became notoriously associated with over the past few months will be buried together with the late president Bingu wa Mutharika tomorrow never to rear it's ugly head again on this peace loving nation. Malawi has systems and resources, lets use them to build a strong brand Malawi!


God Bless Malawi!

RIP Mutharika, Congratulations JB!

Condolences to the Mutharika family and friends on the loss of their father and friend, Bingu wa Mutharika. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

Congratulations to Joyce Banda on her ascendancy to the high office of the land. We hope that with God's guidance our land will heal and move forward with renewed hope.

The tech solutions we fail to embrace

I am looking at a newspaper cut out on my desk, an advert for pre-qualification for supply of goods and services. The organisations seems interesting and I reckon if I submit my interest my chances of qualification are good. The deadline is a few hours away. The issue I have is that I have to print out the documentation, photocopy my proof of registration and tax compliance, get the document bound and enveloped then drive half way across town to drop it in a tender box.

If Malawi were not facing a fuel scarcity problem and if planet earth was not reeling from deforestation I would not have had a problem with the whole arrangement. But we do have these problems! Luckily there are ways to skirt around both issues - pdf and email! After all this is just an expression of interest, no technical or financial proposals involved. And even if they were involved then I can think of at least one way to get around the confidentiality part - passwords. As a techie it is all straight forward in my head, may be not as easy to implement on paper.

The gist of my argument? We, Malawians, need to realise that technology is here to help us get around some, if not most, problems we are encountering today. Skype instead of physical meetings, e-banking instead of issuing cheques, email delivered pdf's instead of physical delivery. The list goes on. The technology is there, the costs have come down, the learning curve is not at all steep! There is more to the internet than just Facebook and BBM!

Wasn't Mangochi a better candidate for city?

For the past few years there has been a lot of talk from government about turning Nsanje into a city with its own airport, port, banks and other modern amenities. We have seen a scramble for land and construction of a port (of some sort) but for the past year the project has hit a wall for reasons I need not explain.

Wouldn't the effort that went into Nsanje have worked wonders by now had it been done in Mangochi? What Mangochi lacks is a modern airport cable to handle fairly large aircraft's. Everything else is pretty much there - the lake, hotels, banks and the enthusiasm to make tourism work!

Just a thought...

Lost in Translation

Sometimes I can't help but laugh at people who try a bit too hard to be cleverer than everyone else. Here is a case of a certain politician giving an interview to a certain news channel concerning the arrest of a certain activist. Not verbatim but definitely very close!

Interviewer: "Some people say that this is a deliberate campaign against opponents of your government..." (interrupted)
Interviewee: "If in your country you have started campaigning that is okay but here our campaign starts in 2014."

I stooped my head in shame!

Muluzi and the Malawian presidency

I read a Twitter post recently that suggested the African presidency has become such a lucrative business that incumbent presidents all over the continent are busy ensuring they are succeeded by their wives, brothers, sons or any kind of close relative. The trend has been working well in many parts of north, west and central Africa. The attempts to import the concept closer to home need no explanation.

There is however one man who has taken this political meddling to a whole new level. He goes by the name of Bakili Muluzi. During his last years of power we saw how this man tried to extend his term of office by hook and by crook. After those attempts failed he hand picked two gentlemen, gentlemen he thought he could control like little puppets. When his successor stopped talking, walking and acting the ‘puppet’ by showing the world he had a backbone of his own Muluzi kicked Plan B into full swing - impeach the rouge 'puppet' and get the junior ‘puppet’, the second in command into the seat of authority. That plan failed miserably too.

Running out of ideas, Muluzi decided to try to get back into the presidency himself even though the law clearly said he could not. Like any politically hungry and desperate person he was not deterred. That attempt failed. When push came to shove he went into an unworkable alliance with someone he claimed had blood on his hands. Result? Yet another failure!

Well, as predicted, he is at it again. This time around his son is the …er, puppet. His son denies it but his father’s destructive tactics have been laid bare for all to see, except of course for those whose heads are buried to deeply you-know-where to take note.

What is amazing is that each time Muluzi is up to his antics his party suffers a great deal. Cracks and divisions develop, infighting ensues, dirty linen is hung out for all to see. Which begs the question, what is it with Muluzi and the Malawian presidency? Why is he so very desperate to install himself or a proxy in state house? Why does he time and again selfishly advance his own personal agenda ahead of party unity?