Just this past weekend, Malawi drew 1-1 against the much feared Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire which features the Chelsea player Didier Drogba. The game took place Kamuzu Stadium in Malawi. Buckaro Thandi made a post praising Malawi's hard work against the Elephants:

In a brief post she writes:

congratulations on the draw with Cote d'Ivoire. That's super. Flames woyee, inenso woyee!

In an earlier post, she laments at the lack of seriousness of the electricity generating body in Malawi ESCOM. She does not seem to believe the report that only 2 percent of Malawi have access to electricity (the truth being 8 percent). On this she then diverts to one of probably the most inspiring stories about the 21-year old William Kamwamba who about seven years ago made a windmill-a development after which a book has just been published.

The book is titled The Boy who Harnessed the Wind.

The windmill he made was able to generate electricity to light bulbs and run a radio set in his home. William came to limelight about three years ago when a Daily Times reporter followed his story in Kasungu  about 150 kilometers north of Malawi's capital. Now a student at the Africa Leadership Academy, William has made Malawi proud as he makes headlines and becomes more present online.

Ndagha captures his personal interaction with the boy:

As I interacted with him, I could sense the passion he has for making a difference in the eletronics in Malawi and beyond. He has a heart for the underprivileged especially that his own story illustrates the challenges facing his family and many Malawi. He is a young man that is determined to see change regardless of the status quo. It appears to me that as he gets more and more exposed, his anger at the energy situation in Malawi is increasing. When the right time comes, for sure he will do greater things.

So while the blogosphere may have been quiet, a lot of action is on and the world is talking.

It appears that the generally many Malawians are happy that the Madonna is able to adopt needy children from Malawi in spite of the fears of what this trend may create.

When she first appeared in Malawi to adopt David Banda in 2006, there were mixed reactions. When the debate over her adoption finally died down, rumors started appearing that the pop star was actually dating Malawi to pick another child: this time a girl Chifundo (Mercy) James.

Blogger Rex Chikoko reported that however the journey seemed a bit tough this time as the High Court Judge Esme Chombo said that according to Malawi's intercountry adoption laws, Madonna could not take the child as she had resided in Malawi for about 18 months. However, an appeal to Supreme Court saw Chifundo get mercy on the basis that residence in modern day world can be anywhere and someone can have more than one residence.

Reactions have been many and many continue debating and discussing what will become of Malawi with such a Supreme Court ruling.

Meanwhile Chifundo has arrived in London.

Madonna's new daughter has flown out of her native Malawi on a private jet headed for London, an airport employee and a person familiar with Madonna's adoption proceedings in this southern African country said Saturday.

The airport employee, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said 3-year-old Chifundo “Mercy” James left late Friday headed to London, with a stop in neighboring South Africa. The girl, the second child Madonna has adopted from Malawi, was reportedly accompanied on the flight by a nanny, a child nurse and a third aide.

A jounalist and regular blogger Kondwani Munthali while writing about the Madonna, was angered by an article in The Gurdian by one Jacques Peretti , which mocks Malawi and another in the Mirror which claims Madonna bribed Malawians with US$19 million to get the child. Sick and very sick reports.

Mr. Peretti when he comes back to Malawi we will take him back to our schools of Journalism that he can learn to report “facts” and not his own creations as he has done. He claims there is a mass grave in Malawi which we bury three babies everyday, my foot.

Munthali says that he wrote his post merely to put the record straight about Madonna's latest adoption.

Given the context of the debate, another blogger, Ndagha stated that he could not understand why Madonna was granted the second child.

Some Malawians have equate Madonna to ‘Ma Donor' meaning she is a donor of funds to the Malawian people especially the lucky few children are under her Malawi Raising Project.

It has to be pointed out that there are more reactions that are not documented in Malawi on Madonna's adoption of children.

While reactions are many, what remains in the mind of Malawians is whether Madonna or other celebrities will not get to Malawi to adopt more children based on the precedent set by the Supreme Court of Malawi ruling.

The Malawi Electoral Commission accepted seven presidential candidates and their presence online may be attributed to their new efforts to sell themselves and woo the electorate—some of which is gradually relying more on the Internet in the country. While the political players go digital, Malawi’s Electoral Commission itself does not have a website of its own, causing some bloggers to complain about official website absence.

The Democratic Progressive Party:

With its presidential candidate Dr Bingu wa Mutharika, it has a website. The party also runs a Facebook account while Mutharika himself has a blog in his name.

New Rainbow Coalition (NARC):

New Rainbow Coalition (NARC):
Its presidential candidate Loveness Gondwe stated in a radio interview that her party has a website. Apart from that, Malawi Politics has ably captured her profile.

United Democratic Front (UDF):

With no presidential candidate presented to date, the UDF as a party does not have its own website. However, its desired presidential candidate, Malawi’s former president Bakili Muluzi, runs one in his own name bearing party colours. The site's presence online faces attacks from enemies like the blog Anti-Muluzi, which is openly against his candidacy.

Independent Presidential Candidate:

A new comer to the political scene in Malawi, James Nyondo has a personal website.

Malawi Congress Party (MCP):

Malawi’s oldest party also decided to go online while probably sadly maintaining an earlier site.

While what is online seems to leave out some items that the party actually touts in its rallies, the new website seems to be enjoying a good number of visits due to the need for knowledge about the party that claims to have changed. Some commentators (through the print) have described the website as more beautiful than any other on the race.

Other parties like Peoples Transformation Party (Petra) with Kamuzu Chibambo and Republican Party of Stanley Masauli do not have own websites so far.

Young parliamentary candidates like Chikondi Nkhoma in Lilongwe are using the Internet for passing on their manifesto to the electorate. The young candidate is also on Facebook. Dr Cornelius Mwalwanda of Karonga had a running website (in DPP colours) but it appears he shut it down following losses at primary elections.

News portals like Nyasa Times have been described by some as an online tool meant to serve the interests of one political party over others.

While Internet penetration in Malawi is under one percent, this development seems to appeal to a good number of Malawians within and in the Diaspora as they are now able to read and learn more about their candidates.

Journalist Kondwani Munthali earlier on shared his views on the political developments which are expected to lead to the most contested at both presidential and parliamentary levels. He writes Viva My Country's Democracy:

Yes, I said DPP has no structures to manage itself through primaries, I am glad two Ministers recalled my discussions with them and called me. For UDF how they can managed the situation of Muluzi will be entirely to them. For MCP it seems they have changed indeed, the guys look serious enough to upset tables. For today thats where it ends

Another blogger under Ndagha agrees with Munthali that Malawi's politics this year is getting hotter. He hope that its players have a genuine heart for the Malawians and not necessarily to serve their own interests. He says that for him this year offers hope. How and why?:

For me, the parliamentary race will the most exciting as it will showcase lots of new entrants-most of whom in my view can make important contributions to the country's development. I wish we had popular new faces on the presidential race.

Another journalist Mzati Nkolokosa terms this political time in Malawi as a Season of Rumors. He writes a long post focusing on Brown Mpinganjira who has dumped the party he helped to form and paired himself with John Tembo of the Malawi Congress Party as a running mate.

It is right to call this period a season of rumours. But Brown Mpinganjira must go on to accept that crucial political truths in Malawi start as rumours.

Brown Mpinganjira, the cleverest politician in Malawi according to Jack Mapanje, is good at communication. He knows words that are loaded with meaning, he speaks poetry, and he can confuse people, even journalists, who don’t follow him critically.

Most Malawi's public offices are not fully computerised. While there are some efforts to improve this, it remains a challenge to most government departments and agencies. One of the offices that serves lots of Malawians is the office of the Administrator General where among others, clients are helped with services regarding their deceased estate.

Having attended a short course on data entry, journalist Pauline Kalumikiza writes on the importance of such offices going digital:

The reason is that, it takes so long for them to help the benefiaries due to their manual storage. I think it is laborious and time consuming, because they handle multiple of files so them to take out one, it takes ages.
Most of the times, they will tell you that ‘Sorry come next month, give us time to look for it’. Now Imagine a person is coming from Nsanje to the AG’s office in Blantyre; he comes again as per the arrangement and is told that he should wait for another week, very frustrating isn’t it?

Yes technology has its own disadvantages but I think, the AG’s office would save time and energy by going digital.
We cannot be talking of making ICT accessible to everyone, if our important offices that hold crucial information are still using manual storage system. Zisinthe! (Let things change!)

Mikey McKay has been living in Malawi for a couple of years. He has been very key to the ICT world in Malawi in his own way. Though we almost never covered him on Malawian GV roundups, he is a man who has been in the background encouraging a few ICT pioneers in Malawi. He recently blogged about Thanksgiving which turned out to be an adventure as he had for the first time come face-to-face with a live turkey:

I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it. But I wanted to do it well - I didn’t want to make the turkey suffer - it should be fast. With my resolve set I went for it - and planned to cut the neck in a few strokes. But it wasn’t easy. My strokes weren’t cutting the red loose neck skin. I had to push harder, and grip the neck tighter. Then I pierced the skin, the blood splurted and I pushed with all my might until the neck snapped and I was left with the turkeys face free from its body, opening and closing its mouth in my hand, while its dismembered body quivered and tried to get up and run. George held the body down - it took what seemed like forever - probably 3 minutes or so - for it to calm itself.

Mikey is leaving Malawi in a few weeks, and we wish him all the the best. Thanks for being an encouragement to the Malawi's blogosphere.

AIDS Fight On

While the international and local communities continue planning strategies for the fight against HIV and AIDS, this year's World AIDS Day was commemorated in a different light.

An Adventist Development Relief Agency in Malawi thought of mobilizing some people in their project areas under this year’s theme Stop AIDS: Keep the promise with the subtitle Leadership: Lead, empower and deliver. The organization, which has been in Malawi for 26 years, blogged about its recent visit to Machinga:

Community mobilization was done through group village heads and a meeting with the people from Traditional Authority Liwonde occurred on 27th November 2008. Rehearsals were done on 29th November.

The communities lead different activities including drama, songs, traditional dances with HIV and AIDS messages, making the event a success. Most of the groups that did well in their performances were mentored by ADRA Malawi through theater for development training that it offered to its youth clubs and facilitators. For example the best drama group was a youth group from Mangamba another site for ADRA in Machinga.

In a related development, Japan-based Malawian blogger Clement Nthambazale wishes the much-talked about end of HIV could be true.

Is there anything good in Zimbabwe?

Zimbabwe is seen to be like hell by many who have been there or follow the news about the country. But for Malawian blogger Boniface Dulani, Zimbabwe was the only place where he found solace during his 36-hour trip from Malawi to South Africa. Though he acknowledges the problems he saw, he blogs about his unique experiences under the heading A 36-Hour Road Trip to Johannesburg:

Things are bad in Zimbabwe, and this is obvious from the numerous road signs and warnings about the need to be extra vigilant about the cholera epidemic there, the constant flow of people from Mozambique and South Africa into Zimbabwe carrying all manner of commodities etc. But, despite all those challenges, there is a positive story to tell from my trip: Zimbabwe is the only country where I didn’t have to pay any bribes to get both an entry and exit visa. The Zimbabwe immigration officers at Nyamapanda and Beitbridge were also among the quickest to process visas so much that there were never any queues at either end of the border- both on my outward and returning trips.

Meanwhile let me wish all bloggers all the best of the festive season.

Edna Bvalani gives an update about the conference and says that the conference which is the 12th since 1996 is an important one for the African continent:

In this digital era, a journalist need to be more equipped on how to gather and disseminate information as quickly as possible. Hence, it is important to realise that media is a vital tool of information in any democratic, intellectual, cultural, economic and social development of our societies.

During the conference, there was a generous mention of Global Voices as one of citizen media initiatives helping put amplify the voices of the citizens throughout the world.

This author, Victor Kaonga, blogging on Ndagha attended the conference and simply gives it a mention on his blog.

However, his earlier blog post reflects on how Malawi Government is unlikely to connect rural communities to the information highway. His post titled Will Malawi Connect Rural Communities? comes in the wake of a Commonwealth Telecommunication Union sponsored three-day high-level international conference that took place in Malawi. The conference was Africa's biggest ICT forum focusing on Last Mile Solutions for connecting rural communities. However, the author argues that Malawi government does not have adequate telecommunication infrastructure, ICT policies and a supportive financial environment towards connecting not only rural areas but also urban areas.

As the situation is today, the country is a laughing stock as our connectivity is not adequate, hence majority of the country is not benefiting from the modern information and communication technologies thereby still remaining on that side of the digital divide. If the government is to realise the dream of connecting rural areas in Malawi, more commitments and urgency on several issues may help to make the rural connectivity a reality. Otherwise it remains a dream.

Air Malawi should go

An economist and new blogger Watipaso Mkandawire looks at the debate surrounding the selling of Malawi flag carrier Air Malawi, which is said to be in serious financial waters. After giving a range of recent examples of countries that have privatised their national airlines, Mkandawire who has worked for a while on investment issues for Malawi responds to the proposal on privatizing the airline:

I see arguments of those that want to keep the “national asset” as trying to keep 100% of 0 instead of keeping say, 49% or 10% of 100. Air Malawi is technically bankrupt and keeping it as is, is basically betraying tax-payers in Malawi who require these resources for better use (health, education etc). Zambia has no national airline, but its airports are busier than those in Malawi. The private carrier currently operating has grown by the day…..Should Air Malawi be liquidated and a new joint venture established with COMAIR? I will go for it. What do you think?

Malawian advises King Mswati of Swaziland

Regular blogger and journalist Kondwani Munthali writes about the recent 40th national independence day of Swaziland which was attended by Malawi's president Bingu wa Mutharika. In a post titled, Celebrating Poverty: The Moral Story of Swaziland, Munthali implores African leaders to extend advice to King Mswati to stop marrying.

I wish one of our leaders told the King that its time he stopped marrying as many as he wants, it doesnt help with the current Aids epidemic and the image of a nation trying to grapple with modernity and traditional.
There is a sentence that “only the King can change tradition”-I believe His Majesty the King of Swaziland has a capacity to promote the beautiful Swazi culture with real freedoms and public expenditures that show that the King cares. The King is supposed to look after his people first not his many wives!

After the dramatic arrest right inside the Kamuzu International Aiport grounds at around 2.45 pm, the UDF Chairman was 30 minutes later whisked into a waiting Malawi Armed Forces Military Plane the 16 Seater Dornier which flew him straight to Blantyre.

Muluzi’s son Atupele confirmed that his father has been charged with treason.

However, government yesterday declined to immediately comment on the arrest which drew tension inside the city of Lilongwe with running battles between the police and UDF supporters who, angered, with the development closed roads especially those leading to KIA…..

“They have arrested the former President apparently on treason charges. They don’t have a warrant, they refused him to leave the airport, they want to take him in a military aircraft to an undisclosed location,” said Atupele, who was the only top UDF politician and Muluzi’s closest ally allowed into the airport grounds, soon after the arrest.

Soon after the arrest Police also instantly moved in to disarm the former head of state’s government security personnel.

The arrest of Muluzi has followed eight senior security and opposition political figures who have since been granted bail.

Meanwhile Malawi's president Bingu wa Mutharika is in Japan for a meeting of African leaders.

There are mixed reactions to the recent arrests. While all this is happening, one Malawian blogger is running a poll on how Malawians look at the recent arrests.

Finally arresting people like Retired General Joseph Chimbayo, Joseph Aironi, John Chikakwiya, Humphrey's Mvula and Kennedy Makwangwala will not solve the current political impasse. I am hesistant to add the military officials also in the cooler for Treason. Some of us saw the signs of times, long time ago, but we chose to ignore it.

Political temperatures have reached boiling point, but it is the man in Karonga who has no food. I was in Lilongwe Kumachenga, when the MCP legislator was screaming that he cannot go to Parliament. I was happy when Bingu called for the talks only to be dejected later when he went on a political rally to reveal what was going on secretly.
I don't know where Malawi is going to as of today, arrests and intimidation seem to be much more like Kamuzu era not a democratic regime people opted for 15 years ago. I hope my country will wake up to realisation that leadership is more
of a gift from God. Restraint and patience develop good leaders and not tempers. I hope in the next few years, posterity will prove many of us right in our decisions and be remembered as “great leaders” who brought impact
on our people than sheer politicking.

In his long post “Cry the Beloved Country,” he bemoans the political developments which he says do not help the rural poor in
Malawi. A week ago Munthali was arrested by the police on allegations that he was behind stories that speak ill of the president in online publications.

When asked why he would like to return as Malawi's president he said because Bingu wa Mutharika (Muluzi's successor) had dumped the party after he was elected president and as such he needed to return the UDF to power! This type of reasoning to me is not only gravely flawed but also defied all logic. Mr Muluzi needs to be reminded that people do not ascend to power to simply punish others or for the sake of being a ruling party. They are placed in positions of authority to serve the people and going by Muluzi's past record, that is not likely to feature high on his agenda.

A prominent Malawian political science commentator and University of Malawi lecturer Boniface Dulani started blogging a few weeks with the sole purpose of sharing his views on politics in Malawi. His recent post is titled On the UDF Convention and Why Muluzi will not get my vote. He critically looks at Muluzi's candidature and the UDF convention which he describes as a joke since its delegates were themselves not democratically chosen:

Even if I was to be persuaded to believe that Muluzi did a wonderful job in his first ten years in office (and it would not be a mean achievement to convince me), I just cannot accept that the UDF does not have any other individuals from within their ranks that are capable of leading the party into the next elections. The only way we know Muluzi has the potential to be President is because he was given the chance to serve in the first place. This only goes to show that what the country, and the UDF, lack is not people with leadership potential, but opportunities to serve. If Muluzi is so important to the UDF, he can serve an important advisory role to a different UDF nominee instead of clinging on to the candidacy himself.

Now to something different about Malawi. The Botswana-based blogger Bennet Kankuzi launched a bog titled I Love Malawi with the primary purpose of sharing photos about Malawi fondly called the Warm Heart of Africa. So if one someone wants to follow the beauty of Malawi, here is the blog to give you some relief from the politics and economy. Below is one of the pictures showing the tea plantations of Southern Malawi:

The heated debate that has ensued in some Malawi's blogs and discussion forums followa female European blog post where she described Malawi's main staple food nsima as “the most disgusting and pointless food in the history of the world.”

Only identified as MissJenn-Malawi and working in Mulanje, Malawi, she had dozens of reactions when her story was spotted by two Malawian bloggers and then published on Nyasa Times.

She has since deleted the blog whose original post was copied by Cryton Chikoko. Meanwhile over 70 comments have been registered some calling for her immediate deportation.

Several bloggers made comments on this story while not writing about it on their blogs themselves. Joe Mlenga who blogs on said

The content I must say is distasteful…but I commend the posting of this write-up.

A female blogger Leah Gondwe said

I wonder if this woman is ok up there…was she thinking that we malawians wont see the article? To hell with being entitled to her own opinion… hope the police get hold of her ASAP before we angry Malawians break her bones, as her address and mobile number are posted on her blog.

While Sunga said

I think we should not bash the posting of the article. What is clear is the fact that she did not handle the shock of eating nsima with goat well. I have been around a few countries on the continent and got a few culcural shocks but did not express myself the way she did. There are better ways doing it and getting the message across. She scores pretty low on my diplomacy scale.

The reactions by Malawians to this post on nsima has also shown some Malawians also need to excercise restraint as some comments seem to go beyond mere expressing their feelings about their lovely food. This is the caution by this author on his blog ndagha where he wrote in reflection over the saga:

Some comments made by Malawians can also be said to have been and are equally offensive to the author. If indeed Malawians have been offended, it would have been fair to express that in a mature manner as doing as some of the comments only makes one fail to differentiate between the blogger and the one commenting.

In fact some of the comments were really showing that some people just found an opportunity to vent their anger on the azungu instead of simply registering your disgust at her way of writing. I am sure it is fair to say “I have been offended by what you have written” other than insulting the author. It is one thing to say how you feel about something and it is another to attack someone.

Nsima known by many different names in most Sub-Saharan countries is made from maize, cassava, etc, and eaten along with relish.

This is not the first time that visitors to Malawi especially from Europe and US tend to blog on some lifestyle or cultural things that offend some Malawians. The reactions to the nsima post has not only shown that gradually Malawians are reading blogs by others but also that some have been encouraged to create their won and express themselves.

Marriage and Child care

Sunganani Manjolo has a passion for family and children care. His blog is full of ramblings on marriage, family and all the in between. Based in Lilongwe, Malawi, Manjolo blogs from experience as a married man and having been associated with Christian ministries, he shares practical tips for a modern young professional. He started blogging February 2007.

One of his earlier posts was on Praying With Your Spouse raised and listed some benefits to him after he had practised what he blogged about:

I am beginning to be more open to her (I think she likes it)

I am praying and thinking about her more often. (I think she must like it)

There is a sense of growing intimacy about the entire practice.

New Language Blog

The Internet is a place where the dominant language is English and this poses a challenge to seekers of information in other languages or of their own. A blog called Manyani Choyowoyero cha Chitumbuka is dedicated to teaching the Tumbuka language dominantly spoken and used in Northern Malawi. It was introduced March 2007 by Tobias Kumwenda who claims to be a proud Malawian and always striving to beat the odds in ICT sector.

Here is a taste of the lessons from his blog:

(Sghawa = Groundnuts), (Ntchunga = Beans), (Kabichi = Cabbage),

(Chinanazi = Pineapple), (Mphatata = Sweet Potatoes), (Mpunga = Rice)

(Mchele = Salt), (Shuga = Sugar), (Mbambayila = Irish potatoes)

The Eye Specialist blogging

Dr Khumbo Kalua who blogs under his name is currently a Lecturer and Researcher at University of Malawi's College of Medicine and Senior Eye Specialist in Blantyre, Malawi. He prides himself in having studied at several Universities in 3 continents. Being a medical specialist, his blog mostly focusses on health and medical issues affecting Malawi's health system.

His latest post titled “Primary Health Workers: Is Quantity better than Quality in Malawi” takes the reader to the challenges Malawi's primary health system has but also highlights the role of its players:

HSA’s (Health Surveillance Assistants) are the first level of contact with the patients in the community and they are supposed to give health promotion (HSA were first recruited in Malawi for Cholera prevention programmes), but unfortunately currently they do a lot; give immunisations to children, treat fever in children, treat pneumonia, malaria, supervise patients on TB and ARV, give support to home based care, implement NGO’s programmes and many other duties.

Career Woman

Fingani Mphande started blogging late 2007. She has so far written about the International Women's Day and Being a Career African Woman. Her latest post on “Being a Housewife” takes her to her home in Malawi away from Sweden where she is researching on malaria. She reflects on the importance of respecting women who spend most of their days at home:

There are several men who would prefer a house wife because they will manage the home full time and may also respect their husbands more because that is their only source of income. As for me I would say a house wife is a woman whom we have to respect in society even though she is not a career woman (like lawyer, secretary, doctor, scientist, you name it), being a house wife is a career on its own.

While on politics, recently Malawi's president made a cabinet reshuffle which saw health minister Marjorie Ngaunje left out paving way for Khumbo Kachale. As you may discover, because of name similarity, it was easy for the only eye specialist in Malawi Dr Khumbo Kalua to be mistaken that it is him that got the top job at the Health ministry especially that he got an sms about the appointment. He blogs about his missed opportunity to be an honourable cabinet minister:

The reaction to the message was with mixed feeling; firstly why did the big boss not communicate to me /or tip me before electing me; and that if this was true then what would happen to my community job as an eye specialist.
I looked at the reasons why possibly I could have been considered for the post and they looked to be many; I have worked in the ministry of Health and have over 12 years experience as doctor; (I) am a specialist Dr, and possibly I am rightly qualified. Factors against me being elected were that I am non political, non partisan and I stick to my profession ethics and have difficulties in following bureaucratic ministerial procedures. Overall I considered it was going to be a good opportunity for me to be a health minister; (get) the six figure salary, the Mercedes Benz with the personal driver, the games played in parliament….. I thanked the one (whoever it was) who had suggested my name to him who appoints. Yes I was ready to cancel my flight and get back to Blantyre Malawi and this time on a business class ticket. Well after many years of hard work my life seemed to have been transformed overnight.

Challenges of African universities

A Malawian studying in Bostwana, Benett Kankuzi, complains about the challenges that researchers in Africa are facing. In his post titled The challenges of doing academic research in Africa, he laments at the lack of support from governments which provide inadequate funds. He says as a researcher visiting other countries he cannot rely on the hosts to take care of him

because normally host institutions do not have funds for these expenses. This is because most universities in Africa are funded by their governments and definitely the funding is never enough. Of course its understandable since the governments have “priorities within priorities” in their national budgets. The governments have to fight for national food security, clean water, infrastructure development etc for the masses and funding academic research would never make it into the priority list.

However, this situation might lead others to conclude that there is no academic research being done in Africa which is not necessarily true. Unfortunately, world university rankings take research publications into account. So you better not be surprised to see many African universities not faring well in the rankings!

Scanning through the fifty or so blogs by Malawians, it seems many have not been posting in the last few weeks but Malawi's Internet discussions have been awash with the politics at home, in Kenya and US road to White House.

A few days ago foreign affairs minister announced that Malawi has switched its diplomatic relations from Taiwan to Mainland China. The news has been received with mixed reactions though a quick overview shows that a significant number of Malawians seem to welcome the new love affair which effectively makes Malawi dump Taiwan after 40 years of marriage. Malawi was one of the few remaining African countries who were yet to fall in love with China.

Lilongwe-based Austin Madinga blogging under the heading Enter The Dragon has questions which he hopes the foreign affairs ministry can clarify the benefits from the new marriage with mainland China:

My most pressing (question) is apart from promising to buy tobacco and uranium from Malawi, what else are they likely to buy? Is Mainland China an open market for Malawian businesses? Will it not be one way traffic for cheap (and sometimes lethally toxic) goods?

Barnett Kamkuzi while asking a question Which Way for Malawi? Taiwan or China, seems to support the shift to Mainland China. He writes:

Malawi needs the money. The President of Malawi, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, has an ambitious and well-meaning vision to establish the Shire-Zambezi Waterway which shall lead to the construction of an inland water port that shall unleash Malawi from its disadvantaged position of being a landlocked country. And definitely this shall turn around the economy of Malawi. And just imagine, communist China is offering to finance this much needed project! In addition to this, Malawi will be selling its main forex earner, tobacco and sugar to China. With the anti-smoking lobby in the West, China will definitely be an alternative lucrative market for Malawi's tobacco. And lets not forget that China is emerging as the biggest trading partner with Africa and Malawi would not want to be left out. Of course, others have described China recent relations with Africa as neo-colonialism but after being given several raw-deals from the West, it seems Africa wants to try the East!

Journalism leaving a lot to be desired at the state broadcasters

As 2009 gets closer, Malawi and its people are getting more and charged with various issues affecting their country. How the media performs and especially public media is a hot issue for discussion in Malawi. The country's foreign relations too are getting more and more into focus as whatever happens elsewhere politically offers a lesson or two to Malawians.

As part of his new year resolution, it seems journalist and blogger Kondwani Munthali has quit from the state broadcaster Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) to save his face from sad events surrounding the profession at the broadcaster. He has gone back to the newspaper he started with a few years ago. He blogs about his personal frustration with MBC:

I want to agree with many Malawians that the Corporation has sunk to its lowest levels professionally that sticking around the place casts doubt on your integrity. This is a place where young professionals fight for presidential trips, this is a place where a health story will not be priortised over a dead mans letter written in 2000. Bootlicking, gossip and the new format of shameful reporting has emerged at MBC that sticking around the place will only kill ones career than improve it.

On a related issue Peter Jere in South Africa backs the Malawi Television programme which some commentators in Malawi is a propaganda tool by government. Blogging under Of Mizawanya and Political education in Malawi, he says that the television programme is used for educating young Malawians of their political heritage:

Therefore, it is vital for the youth to know where the nation is coming from and what it went through socially and politically so that they better understand why they are witnessing what is currently happening in our country politics today and at the same time our young people shall be able to know where we are going as a nation politically. So we think these Mizwanya guys are doing a mighty job and filling in the gap that our education system could have done long time ago to education and inform our youth and others on who did what in our political history. This helps in decision making in case some of those who committed various serious crimes would want to stand as leaders. The electorate needs to be given enough information on all the leaders regarding what they are and what they have done in our history so that the best achiever could be chosen otherwise we will end up choosing someone who is not the right person to rule the country.

Dual Citizenship?
In his erratic ramblings, a UK-Based Malawian blogger Cryton Chikoko debates about dual citizenship which he says is a better evil for many Malawians in the diaspora due to economic challenges in their home country. Though not clear if he is considering to turn British himself, he picks a leaf from other Malawians who have decided to return home:

Professionals with international exposure are the highly skilled people that Malawi needs. These are people who can significantly help in the social services and development of the country. Goodall Gondwe and Mutharika himself are some of the examples. The Rambler appreciates their contributions to the nation although they came back after they had given their very best in foreign lands. Anyway the nation is still enjoying the residue!

There are many professionals who are stuck as citizens of foreign nations not because they want to but it is all for economical reasons. One Canadian “Malawian” nurse told me that she embraced the Canadian citizenship “for convenience but at heart I am a Malawian and that cannot change.” Dare you browse “Nyirenda” in facebook. There are loads of Nyirendas in the US alone chiwelengelo cha Usisya kulengelatu! (more Malawians known as the Nyirenda in US than one famous place in Malawi).

Mzuzu-based blogger known as mile has welcomed this initiative with a post titled ICT Development in Malawi.

I wrote once on my first personal website that I wanna be able to browse the internet from my home village in Mzimba. Thanks to Celtel I am able to do that now on my phone though I am still limited to checking a few pages and emails only. Still I wanna browse everything and be able to download software on my laptop when I am there so that my software development isn't limited to location. High Cost of ICT Services. I wonder why something that somewhere else is very cheap could cost so much her.

Compulsory HIV test???

Sub Saharan Africa is home to about 25 million persons living with HIV. While in many countries voluntary counselling was promoted to help check infection, new Malawian blogger Benett Kankuzi feels it is time testing for HIV became compulsory. Based in Botswana which has HIV prevalence rates, he says there are many reasons why compulsory HIV test should be pursued:

• Each citizen will know their status and therefore plan their individual lives properly. This will help individuals not to live in an “ostrich” state by pretending that they do not have the virus yet they don’t exactly know their sero-status.
• Voluntary testing has failed to entice many people to go for the test. Just ask yourself on the number of people who have gone for HIV testing voluntarily. Personally, have you already done so?

At the same time, a health journalist Kondwani Muthali updates his blog with the latest HIV and AIDS acronoyms. You might think I made a mistake above when I wrote persons living with HIV. The word ‘A' is dropped and Kondwani gives more instructions:

UNAIDS has revised the acronyms once again, so now people living with HIV are called PLHIV, and young people living with HIV are implicitly called YPLHIV. Old acronyms were PLWHA, PLWA, PLWH, PWH and YPLWH, YLWH, YLWH….With reference to those living with HIV, it is preferable to avoid certain terms: AIDS patient should only be used in amedical context (most of the time, a person with AIDS is not in the role of patient); the term AIDS victim or AIDS sufferer implies that the individual in question is powerless, with no control over his or her life. It is preferable to use ‘people living with HIV' (PLHIV), since this reflects the fact that an infected person may continue to live well and productively for many years.

Another health-related issue in this round-up has to do with the impact lack of running water has on education for pupils in Malawi. It is reported that many girls drop out as soon they reach adolescence as they cannot bear the inconvenience and embarrassment of having to do without water. Pilirani Semu Banda quotes Government statistics in Malawi that 10.5 percent of girls drop out of school each year as compared to 8.4 percent of boys. In addition to this, around 22 percent of primary school age girls do not attend school at all, while 60 percent of those enrolled do not attend regularly.

Blogging under the title Lack of Running Water Puts Girls' Education at Risk, the lady journalist writes about the challenges that girls especially face when there isn't any running water at school.

The hard-working, resolute 13-year-old attends a primary school that has no running water. All 350 pupils at Rita’s school have only two pit-latrines to share, and there is no tap where they can wash their hands after using the toilet.

Rita says she and other adolescent girls find these poor sanitation conditions even more awkward when it is time for their monthly periods: “It’s so difficult to concentrate in class when you know there is no water to clean up with at break time. I usually prefer staying home every time my menses come.”

While this is news to celebrate, the Malawian blogger on africa-aphukira (African Rebirth) chronicles serious biases by Euro-American media and scholars against Africa in not crediting the recent archeological finding to a Kenyan, Fredrick Manthi, who, in fact, is Senior Research Scientist, Palaeontology Department, National Museums of Kenya, and has a PhD in the field. The author Steven Sharra argues that Africa should be given its due credit just like Dr Manthi whose work has not been duly credited:

When the news broke out in August of this year that new archaeological research in Kenya urged huge reversals in the conventional wisdom about the theory of evolution, the chasm in the reporting between the African media and the Euro-American one was astoundingly wide. Almost all of the media in the United States and in Britain who wrote about the news attributed the finding to Maeve Leakey and other Euro-American scientists. The African newspapers, on the other hand, attributed the discovery to Kenyan palaeontologist Dr Fredrick Kyalo Manthi. One writer, writing in the Daily Nation of Kenya, pointed out the discrepancy, while everyone else just reported on the finding and its hard facts.

He continues:

The question for us now becomes how to move beyond the cliché that describes the blatant anti-Africa biases not only in the EuroAmerican media, but also in the entire knowledge enterprise. Africa and Africans continue to occupy a liminal, marginal space in the Euro-American imaginary, and the media representations of the Kenya fossils story make that glaringly clear. What is perhaps not as easy to articulate, however, are the effects this travesty has on the image of the continent, its people, their histories and possible futures. The story of Dr Kyalo Manthi and the way the Euro-American media has portrayed it is another reminder of the ongoing struggles for the re-assertion of Africa and Africans both on the continent and outside. They are not struggles for their own sake; rather, they are struggles about the truth of an entire group of people striving to tell their own stories to a world long used to hearing tales of the hunt from the hunter’s perspective.

Traffic counter frustrates blogger

Clement Nyirenda had a rude Saturday when he discovered that he could not track the traffic to his blog just because Statcounter had had a problem. He writes:

To begin with, I have always pointed out on this blog that I really like Statcounter. I signed up for Statcounter in the early stages of this blog and it has become my tracker of choice. This tracking software provides free information on 500 page views per month…..

But after a ruined day, he says had humbly confessed that they had a problem which ruined his day.

Now, I am pleased to report that the Statcounter Support team humbly confessed that indeed they had a problem and that they were really embarrassed because of what had happened. They further assured me that they will work on my account and ensure that I get back all my stats. After a few hours, my two projects were back to life with all the stats for the period when no new stats were being displayed. I have now renewed my love for Statcounter.They handled this crisis professionally.They were very humble and really worked to help me not to lose any stat. I have since deleted my account from the lesser known stat provider. I will stick to Statcounter.

The just ended budget session in Malawi approved only 1 Kwacha to the state broadcaster Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). Opposition parties and some commentators had argued that the state broadcaster did not deserve any funding as it is merely a mouthpiece of the ruling party and government. This is happening at a time in Malawi when there are about eighteen radio stations and a couple of newspapers, which provide alternative views to the nation unlike the pre-multiparty days when there was only MBC.

Blogger Hastings Maloya supports the decision to give MBC only 1 Kwacha (less than a cent in any European or US currency) for a full year:

Now the people of Malawi are free to chose which radio station to tune to. Malawians can make a judgement as to which radio station breaks the news and which one has most entertaining and quality programming. We are free to listen to what we like and switch off what makes no sense. Even advertisers have the freedom to fly their adverts on radios of their choice depending on what audience they are interested in. The question still remain, why should Malawians contribute to MBC when the radio is not open to the listeners’ choices? In a free society that we are Malawian citizens should be free today to criticise their government, and offer thoughts. This is not happening on MBC. Malawi enjoys freedom of expression and opinion, and this can be strengthened by a fairly leveled playing field for radio broadcasting. MBC, as it is now with the changed landscape that we are in, does not deserve any public funding. Let it receive if the laws say so and we should work tirelessly to re-look at those laws and see whether they are making sense for the time that we live in.

One of the major tribes in Malawi is Tumbuka whose peoples mostly occupy Northern Malawi. The tribe comes from the Nkhamanga Kingdom which dates back to over three hundred years ago. The recent elevation of Themba la mathemba Chikulamayembe to the position of paramount chief has excited Malawi born and blood relation of the chief, Mercy Gondwe. Though she missed the occasion, which took place at the Nkhamanga Headquarters in Rumphi, she writes:

This is extraordinary honour to the chief as well to us the Nkhamanga people….. This is very important and something that we the Nkhamangas have always wanted. Am very happy about this and I think people will be move d forward and it will make a difference to Nkhamanga. I believe as the first paramount chief, His role will be quite challenging and he has more to do ahead of him. I wish him all the best.

Normally a day in October is set aside each year to celebrate when the chieftainship started operating.

And this round-up should end up with another excited Malawian blogger Soyapi Mumba who now has an Apple's iPhone:

I recently had the privilege of holding and playing with Apple's iPhone. Wow, What an experience it was! It was wonderful to play with the device's on-screen keyboard, iTunes' Cover Flow, shifting photo slides, turning the little animal 90 degrees and the like. What I realised after playing with the iPhone is that there is new paradigm of User Interfaces from What You See is What You Get (WYSWYG) to What You See is What You Touch (WYSWYT).