Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Living in the Twilight Zone
Congrats to all of you who also ‘survived’ Judgment Day. And as the Malawi Sunday Times headline so eloquently stated; this was an epic fail.
It’s an interesting time to be here in Malawi (although my mother may beg to differ).
Since the diplomatic debacle where the British High Commissioner was sent packing; Britain along with several other EU countries have suspended aid to Malawi:
http://nyasatimes.com/national/britain-germany-and-eu-cut-aid-to-malawi.html
Although President Bingu won’t admit it, this is a huge blow for Malawi. It has also left some of my expatriate friends wondering about their contracts. There is a lot of uncertainty at the moment. How much worse can things get? I have a feeling this is only the beginning.
The current lack of funds in the government these days is being taken out on motorists:
“The Government has . . . asked the police force to intensify traffic patrols and raise money on the spot from offending motorists. The city streets are awash with traffic police hoping someone would not have their vehicle papers in order or over speeding and fine them K5000. The police force is under instruction to raise K28 million every week and immediately remit the same to the Ministry of Finance.”
As if the police don’t harass us enough already. Even if everything is in order, they are now scouring for anything they can to get money out of us. I once had a police officer, frustrated he couldn’t find anything out of order with my car resort to saying: “Well, your car is really dirty.” I’ve also heard via a friend who works for the IMF that the next fuel crisis hitting Malawi soon will be crippling. I’ve bought a bicycle.
To add to Bingu’s charm these days, in true Mugabe style, Bingu went ahead to publically compare homosexuals to dogs recently:
http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/malawi-leader-says-homosexuals-worse-than-dogs.html
I have no idea why people think he is intolerant. Last year Malawi made headlines around the world as two homosexual men were jailed for getting engaged publically. The two men were released after Bingu caved to international pressure. I can’t help but wonder if this was to be case today whether the outcome would be the same. Make no mistake, this issue also reverberates through the international community.
Anyway . . onto more personal news. My beautiful dog Tess had 6 beautiful strong part ridgeback puppies on May 27th. They are lovely, and I'm a touch obsessed with them. They haven't opened their eyes yet, but I can see them getting bigger by the day. I will keep one for myself, so any name suggestions are welcome. My oldest friend in the world, Andrea got married on the long weekend. I was extremely sad to miss it - but the pictures look stunning. On this weekend past, my running friend Charlotte from Toronto ran her first Marathon in Ottawa. I'm extremely proud and she is such an inspiration for me. I will get there. My work life is still a touch upside-down, but work is slowly progressing. I will need an entire post just to talk about work. In the meantime, I'm trying to keep my head in a good space, and out of the Lilongwe poison!
X
It’s an interesting time to be here in Malawi (although my mother may beg to differ).
Since the diplomatic debacle where the British High Commissioner was sent packing; Britain along with several other EU countries have suspended aid to Malawi:
http://nyasatimes.com/national/britain-germany-and-eu-cut-aid-to-malawi.html
Although President Bingu won’t admit it, this is a huge blow for Malawi. It has also left some of my expatriate friends wondering about their contracts. There is a lot of uncertainty at the moment. How much worse can things get? I have a feeling this is only the beginning.
The current lack of funds in the government these days is being taken out on motorists:
“The Government has . . . asked the police force to intensify traffic patrols and raise money on the spot from offending motorists. The city streets are awash with traffic police hoping someone would not have their vehicle papers in order or over speeding and fine them K5000. The police force is under instruction to raise K28 million every week and immediately remit the same to the Ministry of Finance.”
As if the police don’t harass us enough already. Even if everything is in order, they are now scouring for anything they can to get money out of us. I once had a police officer, frustrated he couldn’t find anything out of order with my car resort to saying: “Well, your car is really dirty.” I’ve also heard via a friend who works for the IMF that the next fuel crisis hitting Malawi soon will be crippling. I’ve bought a bicycle.
To add to Bingu’s charm these days, in true Mugabe style, Bingu went ahead to publically compare homosexuals to dogs recently:
http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/malawi-leader-says-homosexuals-worse-than-dogs.html
I have no idea why people think he is intolerant. Last year Malawi made headlines around the world as two homosexual men were jailed for getting engaged publically. The two men were released after Bingu caved to international pressure. I can’t help but wonder if this was to be case today whether the outcome would be the same. Make no mistake, this issue also reverberates through the international community.
Anyway . . onto more personal news. My beautiful dog Tess had 6 beautiful strong part ridgeback puppies on May 27th. They are lovely, and I'm a touch obsessed with them. They haven't opened their eyes yet, but I can see them getting bigger by the day. I will keep one for myself, so any name suggestions are welcome. My oldest friend in the world, Andrea got married on the long weekend. I was extremely sad to miss it - but the pictures look stunning. On this weekend past, my running friend Charlotte from Toronto ran her first Marathon in Ottawa. I'm extremely proud and she is such an inspiration for me. I will get there. My work life is still a touch upside-down, but work is slowly progressing. I will need an entire post just to talk about work. In the meantime, I'm trying to keep my head in a good space, and out of the Lilongwe poison!
X
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