Ill Health

Most times in the press you hear of petty thieves pleading for mercy in court rooms because of ill health on their part which most times are rejected by magistrates and judges. They are simply told that if they knew of their predicament, they would not have pick pocketed old women.

However, I have noticed that their is a certain breed of petty thieves, those who prey on the poor while holding high offices who seem to get away with this argument. The most recent case in question is that of the former president next door in Zambia. He has asked the state not to prosecute him until a panel of doctors determines if he is fit to stand trial. How fit do you have to be to stand trial? In the first case why do you have to be fit? So many other petty thieves, who plundered on a much smaller scale, don't get accorded that luxury. So why them?

Magic number

I went to some computer shop today to buy some RJ45 connectors. After a while some guy walks in and ask's for a catalogue as he would like to buy a couple of things for some project. The sales lady says they do have one but have currently run out. Anyways the sales lady agrees to take him around the show room.

He: How much is this?'
She: 'K55,000'
He: 'and this printer?'
She: 'K55,000'
He: 'and this?'
She: 'K65,000'
He: 'and this UPS?'
She: 'K55,000'
He: 'I also have a laptop that has a virus on it. How much will it cost to get it sorted out? K55,000 I guess since everything in here seems to cost K55,000!'

Rude man!

Farewell Mr Wolfowitz

So finally he has 'decided' to go. What was so difficult about that, I wonder? I guess the same thing Robert Mugabe and Bakili Muluzi and all the others who cling to power find hard to do too. Maybe when Paul Wolfowitz next sits down for tea with George Bush, he could give some insight into this contagious power hungry disease afflicting so many African, err..., world leaders.

Load shedding driving me nuts

For the most part 2007, ESCOM has been load shedding for one reason or another. It’s either they are fixing screens damaged by trash in the Shire river or repairing a turbine that was damaged during flooding in the power station or rehabilitations works or some other excuse. Frankly speaking, am sick and tired of load shedding and so are numerous other people. Escom to should get it’s house order and simply provide the power. Why not import power from Mozambique? After all Caborra Basa is under generating.

One other thing that gets me thinking is why people are not thinking of alternate means of sourcing power. There are plenty property developments taking place all over the country and these people are waiting to tap into Escoms power grid, the very same grid that is failing to provide ‘Power All Day, Every Day’ to it’s current clientele. How about solar? Some people have argued that initial investment in a solar powered system is expensive. I will argue that a K300,000 investment into a house that will cost you K11m to build sounds reasonable, after all there are very few, if any, recurrent monthly costs. Others have argued that during a few days of bad weather the system does not work properly. I will argue that our friends in Europe have longer spells of bad weather yet they have fully harnessed the solar powered system. How about wind power?

Now am no expert in alternative power sources but I really think we should have embraced these technologies some time back. Escom are a big let down and I don’t see them getting any better.

Chinglish (Chichewa-English)

English came by ship!

Rats

Early this morning i walked into some office and waited patiently to be served. While I sat there, some man walked out of the office with two mouse traps that had successfully reduced the rat population by two. Later he walked back in, mouse traps empty much to my joy. My joy was short lived however when i was driving out to find that the rats had just been thrown onto the road outside. Now how unhygienic can one get? Who does expect to pick up his mes for him? Anthu ena ngosaphunzitsika!

Locals being milked?

Recently in the news, Illovo Sugar Malawi reported that it had made K6.8 billion pre-tax profit. After tax profit was K4.8 billion up from K2.8 billion in the previous year. It is reported elsewhere that Illovo Malawi contributed the most to Illovo Groups profits ahead of all the others (South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Swaziland).

Now someone tell me that local Malawians are not being riped off by Illovo! In the next few months, I bet, Illovo will increase their sugar prices 'due to rising production costs' yet they are making such obscene profits on the backs of the poor. Shame!