Thousands bid farewell to celebrated Mzimba photographer

LUCKY MKANDAWIRE

Grief swallowed up Chanthomba village in Mzimba when thousands of people from far and beyond bid farewell to Winston Ng’ambi, a popular and respected photographer in the district.

Late Ng’ambi, popularly known as Mandevu or OG Issa was born in 1962 and died recently in the district after a long battle with backache, according to family members.

Over 2000 people attended his burial at his Chanthomba village in the area of Inkosi ya Makosi Mmbelwa IV.

In their tributes, the speakers described the veteran photographer as a humble person who was always handy to the needy people and embraced every person regardless of the status.

“The nation has lost a visionary and resourceful man who has greatly contributed to the development of the country’s economy through photography. He was a simple, very modest and supportive individual,” bemoaned Group Village Headman Peter Ndawandawa.

At the time of his death, late Ng’ambi was the regional chairman and national executive committee member of the Photographers Association of Malawi (PHOTAMA).

And reacting to the Ng’ambi’s death, PHOTAMA Secretary General Amos Kwadzanji said the association had lost a member who dedicated his life to progress the art of photography in the country.

“Ng’ambi was had a humble personality. He was an accomplished artist and very productive to the association. His death is a big loss to the photography industry in Malawi,” grieved Kwadzanji who attended the burial ceremony was among  a  and

Hundreds of people from all walks of life on Sunday paid their last respects to a renowned Mzimba based photographer Winston Mandevu Ng’ambi.

According to family members, late Ng’ambi died peacefully at his home village, Chanthomba, in the area of Paramount Chief Inkosi ya Makosi Mmbelwa IV after a long illness.

At the time of his death, late Ng’ambi was regional chairman and national executive committee member of the Photographers Association of Malawi (PHOTAMA).  

In his eulogy, PHOTAMA Board Member Justin Chinkhuntha said the association had lost a pillar of photography not only in the region but the country as a whole.

“Late Ng’ambi was the mainstay of photography. He committed his life to developing the art of photography. You will all bear witness that a photograph and him were inseparable. So his death has robbed us a bank of inspiration and creativity,” mourned Chinkhuntha.

The departed admired photographer, nicknamed Mandevu while others fondly called him OG Issa, planted several photo collection depots in rural areas across northern region and was also an agent for Green Colour Photo studio.

Late Ng’ambi is survived by a wife and six children. 

MALAWI DUPLICATES ZIMBABWE CRISIS

By ELIAS MAMBO, ZIMBABWE INDEPENDENT

LONG winding queues snake around every service station in Malawi as motorists hunt for the scarce commodity. The scenes are reminiscent of Zimbabwe before the formation of the coalition government in 2009 with motorists queuing for what seems like an eternity.

The queues tell of the true story of a Malawi on fire. They tell a story of shortages, corruption, aggressive youth militia, mediocrity and duplicity in the political discourse of the country's leadership. Actually, the whole story reads like a novel authored in Harare.

Political analysts in Malawi wonder how a country with an economist as president could slide into such unprecedented economic turmoil where there are no essential medicines in hospitals, rampant fuel and foreign currency shortages, and virtually no learning and teaching materials in public schools.

Impoverished Malawi is presently locked in a diplomatic row with its former colonial master and biggest donor Britain over a leaked embassy cable which referred to President BinguWaMutharika as "autocratic and intolerant of criticism".

That leaked cable led to the expulsion of Britain's ambassador to Malawi Fergus Cochrane-Dyet. The actions of the self-styled "Ngwazi", which in the local Chichewa language means a God-given leader, are a reflection of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who is a close ally of WaMutharika.

Analysts are drawing parallels between Mugabe and WaMutharika, who has been criticised for a series of increasingly autocratic moves seen as restricting political freedoms.

Mugabe plunged Zimbabwe into dire straits by expelling white farmers in a chaotic fast track land reform programme resulting in the European Union withholding funds. Like the case of Zimbabwe, soon after the expulsion of its ambassador to Lilongwe, Britain reacted swiftly by kicking out Malawi's representative in London and suspending aid worth US$550 million.

This freeze has dealt a body blow to the budget of a country which has for long relied on handouts, and intensified a dollar supply crunch that is threatening the Kwacha's official peg at 175 to the United States dollar.

Prompted by the fuel shortages and soaring costs of imported goods, Malawians took to the streets in July to protest against WaMutharika's rule. His government responded with brute force leaving 20 people dead in the ensuing crackdown.

These scenes mirrored Zimbabwe in 1998 when riot police, armed with batons, shields and automatic rifles, fired teargas at demonstrators who had used bricks and logs to block streets and intimidated others to stay away from work in demonstrations against the rising cost of food stuffs.

Reuben Chilera, director at the Excutivewrite, a political think tank, said: "We are almost a Zimbabwe, both in the economy and in political governance. There are similarities in terms of their president (Mugabe) and WaMutharika.

They're both using a heavy hand in terms of their governance, in terms of how they want to rule. And also disregarding other branches of government -- the judiciary, the legislature.

Like Zimbabweans, Malawians right now are frustrated. Malawians are disgruntled in terms of how the country is being governed, how the economy is moving.

They want to have more voice. Malawians are distressed by what they see as the hypocrisy of their government, which came to power denouncing the corruption of the previous regime, but rapidly became embroiled in scandals of its own."

Mutharika, who came to power in 2004, has been subject to intense criticism for expelling rivals from the ruling party, expanding presidential powers and signing laws that have restricted protests, media freedom and lawsuits against the government.

These moves have alienated foreign donors. Long fuel queues, failure to pay civil servants, badly run municipalities, power blackouts, forex and water shortages, rising costs of living - all these have been experienced by Zimbabweans before.

Echoing Mugabe's anti-West rhetoric "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again", Malawi seems to be marching headlong toward disaster and it is high time Sadc acted to avoid another Zimbabwe.

COP 17 youth caravan delegates bring climate hope to Malawi

By SIMBANI MEDIA 

DECEMBER 13, 2011: Eight of Malawi’s youth who were part of over 145 youths drawn from Africa on the ‘We have faith-act now for climate justice’ campaign, have returned. 

They arrived after clocking over 5,000 kilometers of travel in safari trucks, confident their involvement was a great part to the Sunday December 13 signing towards an extension to the Kyoto Protocol, and a positive move to climate fund, among major great agreements. 

Travelling under the umbrella of Malawi’s three main Christian mother bodies, the Malawi Council of Churches (MCC), Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) and the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM), the team attended several meetings before engaging in the Conference of Parties (COP 17) summit which just closed in Durban, South Africa. 

Getting to grips with COP jargon, the group first attended the Conference of Youth (COY 7) summit at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal’s (UKZN) Howard Collage campus for three days, where they were brought abreast with climate science, handling COP 17 issues, and many more. 

Taliona Matapa, M’theto Lungu and Reverend Francis Juma represented MCC, whilst Mwiza Mankhamba and Dominic Nyasulu were on the ECM delegates. 

“We are going to move on with this initiative where we wish to engage more faith youths in climate matters,” said Matapa. 

“Now that the climate fund is sure to get the financial support that African and other poor countries need to redress their climatic shortfalls from rich countries, it is very important that the youth must move with the world in making this a reality.” 

Leader of the Malawi youths, Lungu said he was hopeful that faith leaders will be joined in their commitment to push for a theology of climate change and justice by political, traditional and all other leaders. 

“We want an engaged community. It is the poor of the poor that suffer more. It is disheartening that the church seems to have been sidelined, particularly its youth, in climate issues for many years. We want to use our wider church constituency to reach out to all corners of the country and the world in preaching the theology of climate justice. 

“We want to carry out meaningful activities including those as simple as planting more trees across the country, moving for policies that will see climate as a subject at primary and secondary school levels.” 

Lungu added: “We want top adopt law makers including our Members of Parliament on climate issues. We want to sensitize more people, and we want to do this now and not tomorrow. This is the start of a new era that will see the youth not only get involved in making change in political and other spheres.” 

“We look forward to seeing a youth community that leads change in this noble cause. We want our voice not only to be held, we want our efforts to be appreciate and mostly supported – we are crying climate justice now!” said Lungu, who is Public Relations Officer at MCC. 

An environmental activist, Nyasulu on his part said the caravan was a great experience where a lot was exchanged and learnt, and that he is optimistic faith youths will work together with all stakeholders to care for mother earth. 

“The climate caravan we were part of may have started matters. For us, we want to also make a ‘national caravan’ where we can undertake more activities on climate change and justice. We are discussing of creating a strong network that will make things move under our faith leaders,” he said. 

Other youths on the campaign but representing other youth organisations included Dumisani, Emma Kalea, and Heather Maseko. 

Youths on the African Climate Change Campaign Caravan driving from Nairobi to Durban included those from Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, DRC, Rwanda, Nigeria, Cameroun, Uganda and others from Norway, USA, Canada and Denmark.

http://www.simbanimedia.com/features/309-malawi-cop-17-climate-justice-youth-delegates-return.html

Malawians struggling to make ends meet

By CENTRE FOR SOCIAL CONCERN

December, 10, 2011

SURVEY: Without a doubt Malawi is facing an economic slowdown and people are struggling to make ends meet.

In his “Statement on the Status of Economy” in Parliament, Finance Minister Dr. Ken Lipenga indicated that the economy would slowdown by 0.9, from 6.9% to 6% in the current fiscal year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections paint a gloomy picture, hinting that the economy will grow just by 2% compared to the 6% growth rate the previous years.

Equally, the Foreign Affairs Minister Peter wa Mutharika acknowledged at a rally in Mzuzu that “the country is going through an economic crisis” and he attributed the crisis to global trends.

These assertions fall short of inspiring hope among Malawians because government hasn’t yet outlined aclear and prudent policy prescriptions to revive the economy.

Proposals to borrow money from foreign banks to boost forex import cover to solve the fuel crisis; suggestions to further re-align the kwacha to reflect its true market value; proposition to further hike fuel prices and a contentment to perpetuate a taxation regime that hits the low-income earners harder remain artificial moves, as they don’t address the underlying issues affecting the economy.

Actually, such measures only postpone the problems. Malawi ought to create a positive economic environment influenced by improvements in macroeconomic policies and structural reforms.

The estimated growth equation indicates that per capita real GDP growth is positively influenced by economic policies that raise the ratio of private investment to GDP, promote human capital development, lower the ratio of the budget deficit to GDP, avoid overvalued exchange rates, and stimulate export volume growth.

There’s need to promote alternative sustainable eco-friendly sources of energy. In the absence of these, promises by the minister of finance that 2012 will be a good year are more of a wish than real.

Uncertainty exists as to what policies should be pursued in the context of the current crisis. People need answers. The current session of parliament should seize the opportunity to ask profound questions pertaining to the values and priorities to be adopted to guide the nation through these difficult times.

What future do we want from the current crisis? What choices should be made now to ensure such a future? What values will shape this period of our history – those that represent self-interest and sectional concerns, or those which reflect the common good and the protection of the weak among us?

A recent HNDP Human Development Index Report (2011) which measures “the expansion of people’s freedoms and capabilities to lead lives that they value and have reason to value” has ranked Malawi at 171 from 153 in 2010.

The slump in the index is attributed to more countries entering the index this year but an analysis of the movement of the actual indices reveals that Malawi hasn’t registered much progress in view of the county’s economic growth for the past years which was at 6%.

Alex Nkosi, Programme Officer for Social Conditions (CfSC) Programme, says “this means that the economic gains that Malawi has garnered in the recent past are not making a real dent in the pervasive poverty to enable significant improvements in social conditions.”

Correspondingly, the CfSC’s Urban Basic Needs Basket for November shows that the cost of living on essential food items continues to skyrocket.

CfSC noted that in November 2011, maize, beans, usipa, utaka, kapenta and bread have increased tremendously from the previous month, while others have maintained or slightly gone up.

The price of maize has surged upwards tremendously. Mzuzu, the hardest hit, witnessed an average maize price rise by 28.2% (K2, 200 per 50kg bag) in November as compared to average price in October which was at K1580. On average, the same trend has been observed in all the major cities: in Lilongwe it went up by 11%, Zomba 13% and in Blantyre maize registered an increase of 10%. Most sellers in the market attribute the increase to scarcity of the commodity and an increase in the cost of transportation.

In Zomba the price of bread has gone up by 27.8%. In October (on average) a loaf of bread was at K153 and in November it went up to K212. The survey revealed similar trends in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu where prices have gone up by 25%, 20% and 11.4% respectively.

According to Bread Bakers, the price increase is attributed to an increase of the cost of wheat flour (most of which is imported) and transportation costs in delivering the commodity.

All in all, the average cost of the CfSC food basket for a family of six rose by 10.9% from K29, 470 in October to K33, 107 in November. The average total Basic Needs Basket comprising food and no-food items for a family of six for Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Zomba and Blantyre has increased to K61, 778 in November from K57, 407 in October, 2011.

Of great concern is the rise in the price of maize, a staple food for Malawians and bread, a commodity mostly used by those who live in towns.

Behind the statistics are millions of Malawians struggling to survive. The following is Nkosi’s observation:

“The increasing gap between people’s income and the cost of living invokes a question as to how poor Malawians are making ends meet.

“As the figures indicate; the obvious consequence of the rising costs of food items is that the purchasing power of low-income and middle-income consumers continues to deteriorate resulting to diminishing levels of disposable income.

“Lack of disposable income has adverse effects on the economy since its people’s ability to spend that stimulates the market. Being a rainy season, low-income earners will be hit hard by this sharp rise in the cost of living because most households will have to buy farm inputs in the midst of nonexistent disposable income.

“Now, more than ever we need to reassert the importance of the value of uMunthu – social solidarity, fairness, and compassion. We need to see ourselves as citizens with a shared responsibility for the common good.

"And most significantly as servants of the people, our politicians must recognise the symbolic importance of their being willing to sacrifice some of the considerable financial benefits they enjoy, in a context where millions of Malawians are unable to meet their minimum food requirements to live a dignified life.

“Forfeiting the proposed unprecedented salary increase [300%] for the MPs would be a good gesture in the right direction!”