The Journey continues

So many things have happened since the last update on this blog. Politically, socially and economically things have changed, but the question is: has it changed for the better? Many people seem to be carried away with developments of the recent days which has obscured their rationality on issues. I fear for this since it will re-invent the 'Yes Sir' syndrome and take the country back to its old days. 

I will muse over these latest developments in the coming days and try to analyse and see them from another vintage position.

I hope to keep this blog active once more.

Unmask the perpetrator of women undressing

Lately good news has been in short supply in this country. Fuel and forex scarcity has ceased to be newsworthy whilst people are dumbfounded and dont know what to do with some of the effects of the shortage of the two. Stories from the hospitals are not good to the ear as ambulances are unable to move patients due to lack of fuel; ESCOM on the other hand seems not inspiring hope of a Malawi with power all day as it is supposed to be. Then as we ponder over these and many more issues, the nation is bombarded with a new phenomina of 'men' undressing women supposedly not well dressed.
I wouldnt want to go into the legallity of each dressing since the progressive constitution of this country provides for such freedom of dressing. My interest is on why would somebody in his normal frame of mind just decide to demean our women like that? Several theories are being peddled on what could be the root cause of all this madness. It has been argued that the current economic hardships in the country could be one of the causes of this issue whilst others have theorised that it could have been political.
I hold a view that anybody is free to challenge. With drug shortage in hospitals and accompanyng stories due to the economic downturn in the country one could have thought of triggering something that could divert peoples attention from the real issues for some days. However this, to me , has boomeranged and as it has made people to quickly rise and condemn the act promptly.
Another point of interest is the way Presidential aides have handled this whole scenario. The President was slow to come out to condemn the act and when he did, he seemed to have outdated information. How could the President call on Human Rights defenders to come out and condem the act when in fact they were the first to do just like that. This shows that the Presidential media team is not abreast with what is happening and advise the President accordingly. On a serious issue like this one, we did not need to be hit with history of women empowerment but rather brief and up to the mark address on the barbaric act and way forward lest peole dont take Presidential addresses seriously. Next time, let the Presidential media team advise the big Kahuna when to speak to the nation. Check for prime time not just anytime. 15hrs during the day is not prime time.

Miss what????

Yesterday, Tuesday 29 November,2011 I did have one of those rare chances to watch Malawi Television, never mind the MBC TV thing which is illegal, after almost two years of not watching this station. Let me declare myself here that I have been an employee of this media house for almost five years. But frankly I rarely watch this station. Why? That is topic for another day. Whilst cheering a brother in-marriage who was not feeling well, had the previllege to watch Miss Warm Heart of Africa TV show on his television set. To say the least, save for the graphics of the backdrop, I was generally not impresed with the show's production. Presentation was dull for such a showbizz show, visuals were of low quality with some seemed out of focus, people in the visuals looked squashed, credits being rolled in peoples faces and the sound man would have done a better job on Young Kay, who was a guest in he show.
That aside, my curiosity was and still is on what is beauty? Is it manifested through twisted movements, showing one's body or through choreographed pictures of supposed queens? Who has a mandate to define beauty in this country. Is it the Miss Malawi Pegeant organizers or the Miss Warm Heart of Africa beauty pegeant organizers? All that I know is that those organizing these two pegeants were once one entity organizing Miss Malawi pegenat together and separated along the way that lead to birth of Miss Warm Heart of Africa. Bone of contention was the procedure to identify the beauty queen. This difference just add weight to the notion that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. So there is no surprise that some gentlemen in suits sitted in an air-conditioned boardroom somewhere failed to define beauty hence parrallel beauty pegeants. Ministry of Tourism often uses such beauty queens to champion Malawi's tourism potential, which of the two would the ministry recognise and work with? Who would go to represent Malawi at the Miss World beauty contest as real representative of this country?
I blame all this confusion on Ministry of Tourism for behaving spectator on what it was supposed to be lead player. How did the Miss Malawi Beauty pegeant found its way out of the ministry to an extent of somebody registerng it as personnal business and yet it, the ministry, salivates at using such a beauty to attract foreign tourists? It has put itself in awkward situation in which it will have two queens, for what? It is time, government tourism officials woke up from their slumber. Reposes the rights for the beauty pegeant contests and bring order to the activity, instead of living it to money-hungry individuals who are turning Malawi into a laughing stock.

Beauty really lies in the eyes of the beholder!

Traditional 'doctors' and advertising

Malawi claims to be a God fearing nation. This analogy is no longer objective, as it depends on how one understands and intepret God fearing. I would not want to wade into stormy waters of who dominates over the other between christianity and Islam, as recent National Household and Population census figures have not been inspiring, to say the least. For instance, the 1998 census was doged with alot of problems including that of enumarators who could not return data collected to the National Statistics Office-NSO to foce it pay their wages. Allegations of political machinations to show which ethinic group was the largest in this country, also made it on the list of challenges that left some of us doubt the authenticity of such figures.
That is a topic for discusion at some time in the future, but today am focusing on media industry and traditional healers who often enjoy being called 'Doctors'. Both electronic and print media are these days awash with advertising for their services. Others have taken the unconventional approach of advertising their trade by occupying strategic positions as it is the case at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. They perched themselves near the entrance into the hospital's premises. That is well and good for visibility.
However, I have problems to understand services the claim to render like marriage protection, protecting peoples homes, charming wayward husbands or wives back into their marriages and even have the audacity to claim that they help business people through coaxing customers to patronise their businesses. I choose to brand the latter as corrupting peoples mind.
Now this is where the hypocrisy comes into play. How do they, i.e the traditional healers, then go and seek conventional advertising in the media for their services if they have ability to charm customers to patronise somebody's business? Why not do the same for themselves?
On the other hand, I question our media industry ethics. Granted that advertising is an intergral part in the sustainability of the industry. However, I would believe that this survival should not be on the pretex of feeding Malawians half truths and lies. Currently, to my knowledge and government contends, AIDS has no cure and yet a radio station can accept to sell 30 minutes of airtime to a traditional doctor who claims to cure AIDS. Whose interest is media serving in this case? Does this border on ethics or morality? So in a nutshell, I have a conviction that the media industry should change this survival tool of having our media industry being awash with traditional healers adverts that come in different forms and brands. Strange names as well, which I am conviced dilutes the medical profession and real Doctors who spend time and resources to qualify to be one. How could one just wake up from his dream and claim to have been directed by his late grandfather's spirit to be a traditional doctor, and straight away claims to be 'Doctor'? Let marketing experts be inovative enough to find other sources of financing media industry operaions rather than feasting on lies and illusions of the traditional medicine.

Welcome

I welcome you all to my world of thinking and perspective at issues around us through this blog. On this page I will be blogging on a variety of issues that border on taking care of the needs of the whole human being. This ranges from education, health, social issues, economic issues where appropriate and many other issues of national concern.

The journalist in me will have this page to express my take on issues outside the official line of duty. Through the ten years that I have been practising as a journalist, I have moved from private media to public media and then to Civil service as Public Relations Officer to the Office of the Auditor General. This I belive has equiped my mind to look at issues differently from the norm as well as trained my eyes to be sharper than before.

Your comments and suggestions on issues discussed here are most welcome.

Once again, welcome to my world.