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Showing posts from October, 2008

Ode to Child Soldiers

Ode to Child Soldiers If he were your son your brother, your nephew your grandson would you turn a blind eye and hope that "it will all work out in the end"? as the visions of what he's forced to do made to do taught to do keep him awake at night and make him delirious during the day If he were your son your cousin, your friend your own would you hope he'd forget the "skills" of murder rape and crime he's been made never to forget would you pray it away think it away brush it off if he were your own? What would you do? or most importantly What Would Jesus Do? pic from www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk

On Malawi's Finance Minister being # 1 in Africa

I heard it from a good source (still trying to get all the official info.) that our Finance Minister, Goodall Gondwe has been voted best Finance Minister in Africa. Ah! the joy of hearing a positive report on a continental scale. Congratulations to him and I wish him all the best in the implementation of his policies. Komanso a DK (Turtles) ndiye kuti ntchito mukugwira nanga sinanga Capitol Hill yonse ili mweeeeee ndi chimwemwe. Ayi, gwirani ntchito musawachititse manyaza a Bwana Gondwe kumeneko!

A Bee in my Bonnet

What do you do when you have a bee in your bonnet? Of course we are not being literal here but what do you do? You either take off your bonnet and get rid of the bee or let it sit in there and expire on it's own. I don't know if anyone ever tried to make a flap in their bonnet so that the bee could have good ventilation in the hopes that it can make honey in there. Suppose that did happen, then the bee being in the bonnet becomes beneficial. What am I trying to say? I've usually looked for negative solutions to what could potentially be a positive "problem". I've just recently learned that I don't have to run from confrontation. Where there is a bee, there should be honey in the offing. Deduce that... "Let today be your SOMEDAY. Aspire to inspire before you expire." Anon.

University of Malawi Quota System

I used to hear when I was a child that the quota system was introduced in the University of Malawi student selection and Kamuzu Academy student selection to limit the number on Northerners entering into those institutions. I was doubtful then, thinking everybody thought Northerners didn't deserve to be treated so. Forward to 2008, suggestions are put forward that the quota system at UNIMA be re-introduced. The suggestions were put into effect and in today's paper I read that 2 senior staff members went to court and got a court injunction to stop this quota system. I thought, well, they sound like learned men, they are probably doing it for some good reason. Then I read their names, and their lawyer's name.... Northerners! What do you know? It looks like they probably know what I knew as a kid. Hail Entering institutions on MERIT and down with the quota system!! Let all be free to enter! Amen

A lesson for me

DISCLAIMER: The thoughts from the book mentioned below contains ideas that I believe are effective and helpful, the beliefs held by the author in his personal life are in no way my own. I apologize to all men and women for my uneducated opinions in regards to men/women relationships in entries such as the October 1 “Quoting Jaime on Vain Games Men Play.” It's a blessing to have embarked on a new personal development research, I am actually studying myself now, finding out what I need to know about relationships. There IS so much to learn especially for one who thought being 25+ is enough to take on the challenge. Expecting I would be using the phrase, "I already knew that" often. I am reading John Gray’s “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”. Man, there is so much I need to learn from that book. Some critics have made their comments on that book, as for me, ME LIKEY because I relate so much to the women described in there, and here I was thinking I was pretty A

Rest in Peace Chimwemwe Festino

Two people sat together on the night bus, or the “night compost” as we called it then. It was sometime in 1997. I was 16, he was much older. Fresh on my mind was the fact that I was going to my 3rd Secondary School. I had attended Kamuzu Academy for my first year of Secondary, had been very playful there and was deemed not capable of making it into the next class- I had been 11- I have since forgiven myself for failing everyone. Hmm. I had proceeded to study at St. Theresa’s High in Swaziland, my parents decided to return to Malawi a year and a half before I completed my Secondary-I have since forgiven them for failing me. Hmm. I was now riding on the bus to my third and last Secondary School. A boarding school. About 7 hours from home. The school was Mary Mount Girls Secondary School in Mzuzu. He was heading to Mzuzu for goodness knows what. All I remember was we sat next to each other and started to talk. Strangers heading in one direction. Chit chat. I wanted to sleep

Journey into the Mind

What makes a mind? What breaks a mind? Does being mindful of something make one’s mind better than the one who never minds? Never mind. I just want to know, What makes a mind strong? What makes a mind weak? Does being headstrong help one get one’s way better than the one who is naïve? Bear in mind, I do know that minds are made Minds are broken Minds are strong Minds are weak Minds accomplish Minds destroy Mind your manners Never mind Don’t mind me, bear in mind, Remind me…what am I on about?

Gr8 weekend for Malawi!!

Two Firsts for Malawi. Malawi had two firsts this weekend: #1. The Malawi Football national team qualified for the first time ever in the Africa Nations Cup, or so I hear, and #2. Malawi’s Big Brother Africa representative, Hazel Warren is the first Malawian housemate to ever survive a nomination for eviction. On second thought, Zein might have been nominated alongside Bruna in BBA1. Ah forget it! It’s still great that with that much competition Hazel survived. Congratulations Malawi! Way to go on the international arena! Malawi woyee!! Kinnah woyee!! Inenso woyee!! Story below: ----Blantyre, Malawi - Malawi's less-fancied national football team, the Flames, scored twice to reverse a first-half goal deficit and send the much-fancied DR Congo out of the Africa Cup of Nations in an explosive match played at a packed Kamuzu Stadium in Malawi's commercial capital, Blantyre. Twenty-year-year-old Chiukepo Msowoya's 80th-minute goal means Malawi now has the best chance in o

Making Good on a Promise

The Buckaroo made good on the promise to find out more about the little old lady that showed up on our doorstep, yes, the one with the Cape accent in the last entry. It turns out she IS from the Cape in South Africa. Hers is a grim story. Years ago she was married to a Malawian pilot who brought her here to live. Her husband died in an accident later on and, I can’t believe people do this but, yes, her in-laws came after all the property she owned with her husband. She became a destitute. She decided she was going to continue to live here for the sake of her children. Now all her children are grown but one of them died leaving behind 3 orphans. She now has to work (and she’s clearly a senior citizen) to support these children and herself. She's too old to work full-time for my friend so she works once a week for her and once a week for one of the neighbors. I don't know is she works anywhere else. She lives just outside of Lilongwe City in a high-density peri-urban locat

Reverse Xenophobia

I got a fright this morning when I thought I had woken up in South Africa (Mzansi)! I now live in a new part of town with a friend and my friend was happily entering the new day in another part of the house when I heard a knock. I assumed it was one of the people employed by my friend, I opened the door and found this little old lady on the door step. she is black so I spoke to her in Chichewa. She responded in a strangely familiar English accent, it took me back to the time I lived in Swaziland and watched TV 1 (now SABC 3 or something or other). Now for those of you who don't know what TV 1 is, before Mandela's time, TV 1 was the channel in South Africa you watched if you wanted to watch the shows that appealed to Afrikaans-speaking South Africans. I picked up a few Afrikaans words and phrases thanks to that channel in those days like "Goeie more Suid Afrika!" just before the morning news and "Ja" and "Asseblief" etc. The English accents that

Dollar Dollar Bill Y'All

According to AP News, "Washington's financial bailout plan is now law." Recovery is on the way but it's time to wonder...is this Global Village idea ideal? When America has a shake up in their economy, we all have a shake-up in our economy. And some are so keen, this past week some stood on the figurative roof tops and proclaimed "your end is nigh Africa, the American economy is in recession." Well just because someone gets on a roof top doesn't qualify him to speak intelligently on such matters, it only makes his voice heard by more than a couple people. I'm not an economist but all I know is that maybe we need to get the chinks out of this Global Village thing so that shake ups in one area of the world don't spell doom for the rest of the world. Wishful thinking? Maybe...

Quoting Jaime on Vain Games Men Play

Disclaimer: This entry is based on a conversation with a very "young at heart" man. His views may be different from your own. My take on this might change by tomorrow. He might be more vain than regular guys. This is just an insight, nothing's set in stone... Enjoy! Jaime is a few years younger than me, he doesn’t know it but he’s still young enough to spill the secrets of the trade to the Buckaroo without too much prompting from me. How do I describe Jaime? Apart from being young and successful, he has a way with the ladies, hence the nickname he has borrowed from US star LLCoolJ (Ladies love cool James). So after going through some icky emo-stuff I cornered Jaime with the question, “Why do (grown) men act funny when a woman starts to like them back?” Following is the, ahem, conversation I had with him: Buckaroo: So, ayise (friend), tell me, why is it that men act so weird? when a woman a guy has taken his time pursuing does actually begin to fall for him, the g