Kondwani Munthali -Malawi

The excitement of many Malawians at the prospect of seeing the United Nations Chief Ban Ki-moon died istantly when everyone realised that he had travelled from New York only to add pressure to Malawi to release the gay couple that had been jailed for 14 years on charges of buggery and gross indecencency. I had the privilage of sitting close to Ki-moon when he assumed the post of spokesperson to the President to tell our Parliamentarians that the President had pardoned the two men and asked parliament to appeal "outdated laws." There are reactions but many are not captured, What do ordinary Malawians think that has been the question. Malawians are angry and horrified. Nobody really expected the two men to stay in prison for 14 years, an appeal process at the Higher Court would have seen the two get a lesser or even suspended sentence. Today from facebook to twitter, one can sense the feeling that everybody is sympathetic to our President, he was held by the Foreign countries a...

The digital revolution makes the media and being part of the mainstream media very interesting. Amid Gay scandals and moves to outlaw polygammy today I am happy just to get out of Malawi and talk of the new World order. The problem with politicians is when you praise them, they expect praises throughout their term of office or they get angry with you to the point of rejecting interviews. There is a party leader in Malawi who has overstayed his welcome and at an appropriate time this blog will address him. Talking of criticism, it is ideologically and career wise suicide to criticise President Barack Obama of the United States of America of handling some global and domestic issues more especially if you are white. More worse if you are a black leader, you try to sound as black as possible, this saw one of the renonwed activists in the USA jumping to critique Tiger Woods for not cheating with a black woman. Barack Obama biggest achievement has been the Healthcare Reform and for that he w...

For one thing, I love my country. I love its flag that is why I am really amused by the idea to change it and far more important I love the third stanza of the National Athem. It ends with all beatiful Malawi. Land of Peace, so fair and blessed. But Monday, 24th May 2010, I found some pride in having the Bingu wa Mutharika as a President. Many people whom I have come across have told me stories of his dreams and aspirations. His frustration when the opposition tried to slow him down. Personally I find the story of how he wrote Mabizinesi Aphindu interesting- mainly at night. But when he spoke during the opening of Parliament, his dreams many people think are impossible were actually real and for many Malawians I believe they will go down as athe day Malawi turned and became a mature nation. I have written on having more universities before, I ahve argued they can be source of foreign exchange and more importantly the fields of research and others can bring in massive transformation to ...

The ruling on Gay engagement as buggery and indecency is something that was expected and generally the feeling is that it is welcome in a deeply conservative society. The worst perfomer are the Gay rights activists who though they could influence our courts with messages from England, South Africa and even nearby borders. First. nobody in Malawi believes that the two poor souls, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steve Monjeza did that on their own accord, and the emergence of well established lawyers raised eyebrows that these two average casual workers suddenly could afford legal representation when they barely could afford lunch. Unfortunately with the current global information access, one can easily deduce the calculated test-the waters plan that later emerged with another wedding in Argentina and in Asia and similar attempts in Kenya. The use of people without any public influence such as Chimbalanga and Monjeza showed how the camapigners view the views of Malawians and our society and some...

Searching for identify: China’s future inspired by the past The emergence of the cultural groups such as Mulhako wa Lhomwe and Mzimba Heritage have sent eyebrows up, with many speculators pointing fingers at notion of domination by some tribes due to the political or leadership roles of some of their tribesmen. To the contrast, China is finding its inspiration from its past and diversity of its people, that harnessing the culture and promotion of all cultures and heritages seems to be growing big everyday as Kondwani Munthali found out in his recent visit to China. China is too big, with 1.3 billion population, a single political system, but its cultural symbols remain part of its traditions and pride for a generation that has been able to sent its people to the moon and building great modern facilities not even the United States of America has been able to at the moment. But Beijing the capital to the remote City of Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province, Chinese people are proud of their cult...