Tragic Accident

A friend and fellow American diplomat here was killed in a car accident in Zambia on Thursday, April 5, 2007. He and his wife Eileen were traveling to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, when the car blew a tire and flipped. They think he was killed instantly. His wife has a broken shoulder. Luckily, some people from Lusaka were passing by (going to Lake Malawi) and picked her up to take her back to Lilongwe. Another car was heading to Lusaka and picked up John to take him to the morgue in Lusaka. The American Embassy in Lusaka is taking care of his body there. Eileen has gone back to her home of New York for medical support and to be with her family. They are about 60 years old and John had planned to retire after finishing his assignment in Malawi. He worked for the US Department of Treasury.

This is a very difficult time for us here since this is the first person we’ve lost in the American diplomatic community here in a long time. It’s also very tragic because it was such a freak accident and surprise.

John was a technical advisor on the project I am managing and a key person in the project. He interacted with tons of Malawian government officials and had a lot of relationships here. While most of the American diplomatic community here knows, it was take a while to get a message out to our government counterparts.

My heart goes out to Eileen and her family as they deal with this extremely difficult loss.

Malawi : Failure in export extension deal threatens textile jobs

Government of Malawi was unsuccessful to close the tax-free export extension deal with the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).

These extensions allow duty-free export status to Malawi’s textile industry. Now textile companies will face heavy tax tariffs while exporting to South African Development Community (SADC) region.

Sacu includes Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland as well as Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. These countries export duty free textiles and garments with in SACU.

Ministry of Trade sources revealed the reason for this rejection of extension is that Malawi failed to meet some Sacu requirements. Most imported goods enter the sub-region through South African ports, have to share a system of custom revenue which Malawi failed to meet.

This unproductive result will now threaten 6,000 jobs available in textile and garment manufacturing sector as SACU remained an important export market for the country.

Villagers raise Malawi centre funds

By John Ballard

Comment

The centre in Tambala

A WEST Wiltshire village will be getting a taste of Africa after raising thousands of pounds for AIDS orphans in Malawi.

The Jubilee Hall in Bratton is hosting a fun-packed African themed evening on Saturday featuring quizzes, singing, video clips of life in Malawi and even African food.

The event has been organised as a way of thanking the people of Bratton for supporting children in the country blighted by poverty, natural disasters and HIV-AIDS.

Members of Bratton Community Church have funded a network centre in the south east African country, which will help feed, educate and support up to 400 children whose lives have been shattered by the AIDS epidemic.

Villagers and local businesses also packed a lorry last September with equipment, including computers, books, furniture and tools to kit out the centre, which has been built by the charity, Friends of Mulanje Orphans (FOMO) in the village of Tambala.

Steve Desport, 53, who is a member of Bratton Community Church, said: "It's been amazing how it has all unfolded and that we have been able to help in this way.

advertisement

"From the start we felt we were being guided into talking to the right people to help these children, but the support not only from the church in Bratton, but also from other people and businesses in the village and west Wiltshire, has been fantastic. It's amazing how the Great British public respond when they see a specific need."

Mr Desport, along with fellow church members Trevor Pictor and Neil Griffiths, went to Tambala in late 2005 and the trio were so moved by the plight of many children in the area, they decided to help, and got involved with FOMO, which provides assistance to orphaned children, many of whom have lost their parents to AIDS.

The Tambala centre will ensure the youngsters get four good meals a week and will have pre-school education in a country where there is no pre-school provision, and only those who can pay for it receive a secondary education.

Mr Desport said: "The kids in Malawi are amazing, they are very giving and loving, and don't seem to complain or ask for anything.

"This centre is all about helping them help themselves."

As well as being a celebration, the get-together at the Jubilee Hall, which starts at 6.30pm, will be used to help make people aware of the continuing fundraising campaign, which is currently aiming to provide children in Malawi with mosquito nets.For more information on the work of FOMO visit www.fomo.co.uk

'We Cannot Leave the People in their Hour of Need'

At the moment, Africa is suffering from two droughts, one in eastern Africa and one in the south. Malawi is one of the most affected countries in the south, Kenya one in the East. Both countries asked for assistance, but both should be able to feed their own people. Kenya’s western region had a bumper corn harvest. And Malawi has got this big Lake Malawi to water the soil. As long as we bring corn from the United States or other countries they will never begin to use their resources effectively

Bono: Malawi is landlocked, remember that. It’s great having a lake, but for trade you need access to ports. They have no infrastructure of their own and they have to deal with the infrastructure of their neighboring countries and the ports belonging to neighboring countries before they can become effective in trade. I think it’s worth remembering that. The lake also has bilharzia disease. They can’t exactly use it for tourism. I am watching people queuing up to die: three in a bed, two on top and one underneath. And I don’t believe I should have to see that. I don’t believe anyone should see that.

'That's about what our household earns per week'

I had to look up 'Malawi" in Wikipedia. The entry told me that the country of Malawi was born a month after I was, November 1962. If you are unfamiliar with the realities of poverty in small countries, I recommend your brace yourself before reading further in the article. Here a few hints. Malawi's exports value only $596 US dollars per person, per year. That's about what our household earns per week. And according to a 2005 Food and Agriculture Organization report 25% of the population would not have enough food to survive that year. Being who I am, I am appreciative to have learned this sad stuff about Malawi, but I am unable to spend more time at this moment learning more.

So I move on to a more optimistic sector of information, the music of Malawi. I find out something fascinatingly unexpected. "Malawians have long been travellers, and as a result their music has spread across the African continent" And that in the late 1960s Malawi had its own form of jazz which "has little in common with its American namesake" based on traditional acoustic music. These days there is a folkfusionist group from Malawi called Pamtondo, (site heading is 'Where a little of Malawi meets the world in Scotland')

Pamtondo refers to women at the mortar pounding flour, and a wonderful painting or mural of this is HERE. After reading about the famine in Malawi, the name of the group has even more resonance. And then I read this ARTICLE about the meaning of the music and its connection to women by John Lwanda. GREAT article. Please read it if you are at all interested in African jazz.

Then I decided since I was 'there' I'd learn more about that area of Scotland (Bothwell). I had learned (in the Wiki article) that the first European in Malawi had been Dr. David Livingstone. And here on the Pamtondo site I learn that John Lwanda lives across the river from Dr. David Livingstone's birthplace. Small small world indeed.

On the Pamtondo website they mention "the famous Tunnocks Bakery"in Uddingston so of course, being hungry for breakfast, I had to find out what they are famous for. Ah! they are famous for Tunnocks Tea Cakes and Caramel Wafers. Hmm. Maybe our local Hillers carries them. I'll check next time I'm there. But wait! Someone has said (on a site about Strathclyde's best bakeries) that Tunnocks makes "the best Scotch Pies ever".
What is a Scotch Pie?

You know, I found a recipe for Scotch pie on a site called rampantscotland.com (love the name)
It seems to be a sort of mutton or lamb pie (source of the endearment 'Lambie Pie'?)
here is a link to the SCOTCH PIE recipe
And now to explore Rampant Scotland dot com
Hmm. This may take a while. their header says
13,000+ Scottish-related Links, regularly updated. 3,700 Web page features on Scotland and the Scots.

I'd better get some breakfast first.