In Memory of Jack Layton . . .

I was deeply saddened and shocked to hear the news of Jack Layton's passing yesterday. Jack was an inspirational and dynamic leader. Although I have every confidence in the NDP to rally and elect another strong leader to face off against Harper as the Official Opposition, finding someone of Jacks quality and caliber will be extremely difficult. Hearing Jack speak live on several occasions was always such an enjoyable experience. He was such an impassioned individual, you could not help but feel fired up and inspired yourself. Reading his 'letter to Canadians' which he wrote on August 20th, brought tears to my eyes. There is a gaping hole in Canada's political scene.

Rest in Peace and many thanks Jack.

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world." - Jack Layton

'Courage my Friends. Tis not too late to build a better world.'

All Quiet on the Malawi Front . . .

The planned demonstrations in Malawi for August 17th as a follow-up to the July 20th protests were called off by NGOs and Civil Society leaders less than 24 hours before they were scheduled to start. There is a lot of hearsay about the reasons, and it’s often difficult to figure out what is true and what is rumour. Uncertainty about what would happen on the 17th regardless of the protests being called off left many shops and businesses closed. Apparently the demonstrations were called off because the government went about getting the injunction against them the “proper” way this time. In my opinion, any injunction should be protested against, as you are denying the people the right to peacefully protest. Also stated was that time wanted to be given for the UN to mediate, and for more discussions to take place. All of it felt very artificial. You can’t help but wonder who was paid off to stop the protests.

Oh yeah, remember when I was a runner? It’s started to slip from my memory too. But in the last week, something has clicked. I think it’s because life is coming a little more routine, and that’s what I’ve always needed; routine. With my new 24 hour a day job running a lodge, I’ve figured out that the best time for me to hit the gym is actually midday when most people have gone out to do their work or tour around. I ran 8.5km yesterday which is the longest I’ve run in ages. I’m hoping by the end of next week I can break the 10km mark, which I don’t think I’ve done since I’ve been in Malawi. It just feels like its finally working again. I’ll be running a 5km race here in Lilongwe in September. And it might be time for me to finally choose and sign up for a marathon . . . I’ve put it off for too long. Then I will have a specific date to train and work towards.

One of my favourite books is ‘What I talk about when I talk about running’ by Haruki Murakami. One of the things that many runners find useful is having a mantra. My friend Carolyn had hers that I spoke about before ‘Believe. Achieve.’ She has now qualified for the Boston Marathon which is an amazing achievement. There is another one I like that Murakami talks about this in his book: “One runner told of a mantra his older brother, also a runner, had taught him which he pondered ever since he began running. Here it is: Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you start to think, Man this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The hurt part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself. This pretty much sums up the most important aspect of marathon running.”

Bring on the pain

The Protests - Round Two

A second set of protests are planned for tomorrow. There are conflicting rumors. Some say it will be quiet, others say it will be worse than last time. I guess all we can do is wait and see....

DPP: Diesel, Petrol, Palibe

Its 530am. I'm sitting in a petrol queue. Normally I wouldn't queue at 530am, but today I am bitter.

The fuel crisis in Malawi is getting out of hand. Petrol and diesel used to be available on a rotation. There would be no diesel, but petrol, then diesel and no petrol. But, you knew eventually you could get fuel because it would ease off in cycles. Not now. For the last month and a half, there has been no ease. Every time you need fuel, its a struggle. You hear there is fuel or a delivery coming and you RUSH. My friends and I utilise social networks, such as facebook and Blackberry chat to alert one another about fuel availability.

So why am I bitter and sitting in a fuel queue at 530am? Well, its the same fuel queue I sat in last night for 3 hours, and didn't get petrol. I heard from a friend that the Bisnowaty Total station was getting a delivery of fuel in 30mins. So I dropped everything and booted it there. In the 10 minutes it took me to get there, the queue was already quickly growing. I was about 25 cars back - not bad. So, we waited for the tanker to arrive, then about 45 minutes for it to offload its fuel. 3 hours later, I was finally 3 cars back from the pump. The reason that it takes so long to get to the front, is not the number of cars, but the number of people with jerry cans that race to the pumps. Its the fault of the attendants for filling the jerry cans before the cars. But the people with the jerry cans will force their way in, and pay off the attendants to fill their can. It was illegal for sometime to fill jerry cans, which at the time I thought was ridiculous, but now I am totally on board. Especially after I watched a man pull over across the road from where I was queuing, go with a jerry can to the pumps and be back to his car in 10 minutes while I still sat in the queue. I'm not entirely sure if this law is still in place as I have heard conflicting rumours.

Anyway, back to my story, so I was three cars back from the pump. Three hours of queuing was about to pay off. Then all of a sudden, the overhead lights at the filling station mysteriously turn off. We can't blame ESCOM (the Malawi Electricity Company) for this, because it clearly wasn't ESCOM as the street lights were still working, all surrounding lights were still on. Even the filling stations office where they were counting the money was conveniently still on. So the attendants now start refusing to pump fuel even though the pumps are still working. "Its dark, its a security risk. We might get robbed." To put it lightly, this is bullshit. What these places do, is make an excuse to stop selling (in short, they turned off the lights themselves), close down and then sell fuel back door overnight for inflated prices and pocket the extra money. 'Come back tomorrow at 6am.' I was raging. I pushed my way into the office and was yelling, properly yelling. I will not repeat the words I used, but they were colourful to say the least. And I wasn't the only one. The police now show up - because heaven forbid they show up while the station is filling jerry cans illegally (i.e. They are paid off to stay away).

So, here I am: now 630am in the same queue. I've moved about one car length. I'm sure they are once again filling the jerry cans. I can see people pushing cars further up in the line that are completely out of fuel. If I don't get fuel today, I will go on a proper rampage. And when I get up there, they are filling my damn jerry can too.

To explain the title of this post (DPP: Diesel, Petrol, Palibe); this saying has become a joke across the country. The current ruling party led by President Bingu is the DPP. 'Palibe' is the chichewa word that means 'not available' or 'don't have.'

The joys of living in Malawi continue ....