Litter, litter, litter...

I am not one to chuck out an empty juice bottle or plastic bags card from my car window but I have not always been like that. It was in the 90’s when my brother-in-law reprimanded me for throwing out an empty crisps packet along the Salima-Balaka road. On long distances I now usually have an empty plastic bag that I will deposit junk in whereas when town driving I will just throw it on the car floor until I get home and clean it out.

The rainy season is upon us, or hopefully so. Along the roads and in storm drains the litter has piled up – empty tin cans, used scratch cards, plastic bags, you name it. Once the rains start those drains will either be blocked or their contents deposited into the nearest stream or river. In both cases it will present a very unpleasant sight and a health hazard. But what can we do about it? What incentives can we give to people not to discard junk anyhow?

Last year I asked a colleague of mine, who was working for Zain at the time, to consider running a promotion where used scratch cards would be exchanged for tree seedlings during the tree planting month. The exercise would not only be about planting trees but also give a chance to Zain to educate people on the need to discard their used scratch cards, and all other litter, in the proper way. The suggestion came to nothing.

The bottom line is that there is very little education out there on the damage we are doing to our environment by carelessly discarding our waste all over the place. But even if there was no damage taking place who the hell do we expect to clean up after us? We complain about how littered our streets are yet down the same road we contribute to its mess. A few initiatives to clean our streets by marketers, some public education and a bit of common sense should help.

Kamuzu Central Hospital service delivery

This afternoon my wife visited a relation who was bitten by a snake last Saturday evening and rushed to KCH the same night. The young man was given pain killers, put on a drip and told to wait for a doctor. As of noon on Monday no doctor had attended to him!

A year ago a young lady was involved in a bus accident in Dedza and was rushed to KCN with a cut on her forehead. It must have been on a Friday evening. The wound was not attended to the whole weekend. Rather she was told that the wound would be stitched up come Monday. When Monday arrived the nurses said the wound was not clean and as such could not be sown - there was still grass and other foreign objects from the accident a few days earlier that the nurses never bothered to clean.

Now am not sure if this is a precedent but these two cases where people are not attended to over weekends raises some questions about the seriousness of the hospital staff in providing quality health care considering they are a big referral hospital. These two incidents sound like emergencies to me and to have them wait for days before being attended to by a doctor is sad, very sad actually.

Some of these ads!

I have just been listening to a radio advert for one of the telecoms operators. In the ad a young man is writing to his uncle in Australia telling him just how cheap it is to make an international call to him.

I was left rather baffled by it all. Is it REALLY necessary for him to tell his uncle about calling rates? Are there no better things to tell his uncle like the current fuel shortage? And anyhow if the rates are so cheap why not just make the darn call and tell him all about the rates?

One thing I know is that if any of my nephews or nieces called me up to tell me how cheap international calls were on Vodacom or whatever other network my response would be “wasowa nkhani zonena, eti?”

The cost of fakes

I have been procrastinating about getting a duplicate key made because I had no desire to get stuck in the traffic going across the Lilongwe bridge. But when puss came to shove I dragged myself for the journey.

My first stop was at a hardware shop next to the police mobile force. I walked in and all the ‘shop attendants’ all seemed busy with nothing. After capturing their attention and showing them the key I wanted duplicated they said they don’t duplicate those kinds of keys. I couldn’t be bothered to ask why seeing the lackluster attention (or inattention) I got. I proceeded down the road to Lambat’s. Oh, what a difference. The owner greeted me from quite far off, took my key and said it was a fake Chinese key and they don’t do duplicates for those. Despite it being written UNION he spotted the fake. He explained that any credible key cutter in town will not or can’t duplicate these fakes.

I started my tiring journey back across the bridge in the heat and dust of the afternoon. I burnt fuel which I hear is running low at most of Lilongwe’s pumps. I wasted my time and effort but at least came out of the whole experience a little smarter: these Chinese fakes cost a lot more that you initially think!

Litter bugs

Street pole advertising seems to have taken root with almost every electricity pole decorated with some form of marketing message or the other. Over the past week I passed two work men and their supervisor replacing MTL boards with new ones just across the road from Maula Parish on my way into town. To my dismay, on my way back I found that the old wrapping had just been discarded by the road side all along where they had been working!

I am not sure if we could call those people marketing practitioners but if they are then marketing comes with responsibilities. Littering our lovely city is a bad practice that we need to ditch. And coming from a contractor of such a big brand leaves a lot to be desired. If they don't consider themselves marketing practitioners then their trade better come up with a code to guide disposal of old marketing material.

Busy not dead!

It has been a while since I blogged. But you can take heart that am not dead ... yet! Just been busy putting a few things together and should be back blogging like a mad man very soon.

Electricity demand to rise 70% by 2015

From a local newspaper last week.

The Ministry of Development Planning and Cooperation has said that electricity demand is expected to rise by 70% from the current 344 megawatts to 571 megawatts by 2015 and 854 megawatts by 2020. Currently the country only produces 282.5 megawatts, 95% of that from hydro-plants on the Shire River and the remaining 5% from Rukuru river.

The Ministry has said that development of Kapichila and procurement of stand-by generators should undertaken in the short term to add 110 extra megawatts to bring supply to 392.5 megawatts at peak times. Minister Ken Lipenga said Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) resources will compliment efforts to increase generation in the medium to long term. (Malawi is to access $300 million grant from MCA to improve the energy sector). Only 7% of the population has access to electricity laving 93% to rely on firewood and charcoal.

In my personal opinion there are two things missing from the report, unless if it was not reported.
1. Use of alternative sources of energy like solar, bio-gas and wind at least for things like office space/ factory lighting, water pumping and water heating. Also the use of natural methods of air cooling (especially in commercial structures) to reduce reliance on air conditioners.
2. Use of the ministry of information and civic education to educate people on using electricity sparingly, converting to energy saver bulbs, etc.

My greatest concern however is the use of stand-by generators. Malawi experiences regular fuel problems (like the current diesel shortage) and we intend to compound it further by buying large generators!