The King of Mann's Malawi Missions Project Promotes Special Group of Volunteers

King David of the Isle of Man uses his Malawi Missions Project to support the efforts of volunteers working for the charitable organization, Kwaze-Kwasa, a non-profit featuring the work of African artists with proceeds benefiting sub-Saharan AIDS orphans.

London, England (PRWEB) December 5, 2007 -- There are over one million orphans living in Malawi today. The vast majority of these orphans have been left parent-less by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This situation is the same throughout most of the sub-Saharan region of Africa where HIV/AIDS continues to ravage the population.

In addition, Malawi is facing its worst famine in over 50 years. Over 70 percent of the 6 million Malawians that live below the poverty line are in constant danger of starvation. More than a third of the working population is infected with HIV/AIDS. Child mortality is more than 10% for every 1,000 children.

Recognizing the dire situation across the sub-Saharan region of Africa, King David of the Isle of Man (King of Mann) has created the Malawi Missions Project. Designed to generate greater attention and bring crucial support to this part of the world, the King of Mann is starting to endorse a number of different charitable organizations through his Malawi Missions Project that are helping to make a positive difference.

One such organization is Kwaze-Kwasa [USA Inc., www.kwaze-kwasa.com. A Registered U.S. non-profit public charity 501(c)(3), staffed by volunteers, all of Kwaze-Kwasa's items offered are hand made and one is buying direct from traditional African crafters (about 200 artists and artisans) in the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Kwaze-Kwasa's mission is to support impoverished African communities in their daily struggle with HIV/AIDS and poverty by working to eradicate them through sustainable income generation rather than just handouts. 100% of the net profits from the sale of the products (from the sustainable employment programs) fund grass roots community AIDS related projects.

Executive Director and COO, Robert Bruin, states, "When we are gone, we want it said that when we saw millions suffering, millions more at risk, millions more orphaned, and a whole continent in danger of dying; we stood up and did our best to bring hope and support! If each of us cares for one other person this human crisis can be reversed!"

King David's Malawi Missions Project is the focus of his official MySpace page at www.myspace.com/kingofmann and the King of Mann's official website at www.royaltyofman.com. "One will find prominently featured links to Kwaze-Kwasa's Ebay auctions featuring all kinds of wonderfully crafted and authentic African art and jewelry," says King David. "Everyone is thinking of giving gifts at this time of year and I can't think of anything better than to give a gift that has so much meaning and offers so much support."

The King of Mann's official MySpace presence has attracted the support of many celebrity friends and the support of his royal cousins, Princes William and Harry. Among the celebrity friends featured are Madonna, Sting, Elton John, U2, James Blunt, Tom Hanks, Sean Connery and Robert De Niro. "The spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama joined us with his support as well," said King David. "I want to personally thank all of the support we are getting. It is very much appreciated."

To offer your support, please visit King David of the Isle of Man's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/kingofmann or visit Kwaze-Kwasa at www.kwaze-kwasa.com.

Malawi fixed line operator retrenches 389 workers

Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL), a unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, has retrenched 389 job under a restructuring exercise, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.

Horst Holzhaeuser, MTL's chief executive officer, told the Nation that the company was "overstaffed" and needed to shed part of its 2,300-strong workforce to operate efficiently.

"Currently we are catering for about 70,000 customers and a labour force of 2,300 people was just too much for a company of our size," Holzhaeuser was quoted as saying.

Formerly a state-owned company, MTL was partially privatized in February 2006 to the Telecom Holdings Limited consortium comprising Malawi's London-listed global depository receipt Press Corporation Limited (PCL) as majority shareholder and Deutsche Telekom as technical partner.

The Malawi government still holds 20 percent of MTL, which it intends to offer to the public on the Malawi Stock Exchange.

Second Thoughts on Malawi's Fertilizer Subsidies

When the word "simply" appears in a headline about development issues, be very, very cautious. That's what happened in story that the NYT splashed on its front page Sunday: "Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts", by Celia Dugger. The thesis of the story is basically that by doing the opposite of what the World Bank advised and subsidizing fertilizer, Malawi has managed to find itself in a world of agricultural plenty.

One problem is that the article didn't come with hyperlinks: it does things like quote "an independent evaluation financed by the United States and Britain" without giving us any idea of where to find it. What's more, the only people the article quotes are people who support its thesis. All this meant that Brad DeLong was immediately suspicious: "it's very hard to assess what is going on," he wrote, noting that Dugger doesn't even say where the subsidies are coming from.

Nevertheless, it was clear to Mark Thoma who would embrace the article wholeheartedly: "This is very Rodrikian," he wrote. "It's also Sachsian".

Turns out, Thoma's batting .500 on that one. Sachs is quoted in the article, and loves the fertilizer-subsidy program. But Dani Rodrik today gives his blog over to Maggie McMillan, who has some extremely pointed words for Dugger:

Low fertilizer use is indeed one of the Africa’s most vexing challenges. But subsidizing is only a band-aid, masking its high cost and low productivity without sustaining growth...

Dr. Masters and his colleagues at Purdue University did one of the first studies of Malawi’s fertilizer subsidy program, when it was first introduced. They predicted the high payoff reported in the NYT article, but found that it had little to do with the fertilizer subsidy as such. Most of the effect comes from the improved seed that accompanied the fertilizer, and from overcoming Malawian farmers’ credit constraints.

Without underlying change, warns Dr. Dick Sserunkuuma, an economist at Makerere University in Kampala, farmers do not benefit enough from the fertilizer to make the subsidy an effective development strategy. The article makes it sound like farmers in Malawi can achieve international levels of competitiveness simply by applying fertilizer. This is simply not true...

The World Bank has given out lots of loans to African governments for fertilizer and it has good reason to be cautious. For example, in an effort to stave off famine and reduce Ethiopia’s dependence on food aid, in 1995 the World Bank gave two loans to the government of Ethiopia totaling $164 million to support fertilizer use. Fertilizer use increased quite a bit, and with good rains in 2000/2001 there was a record harvest and maize prices plummeted. I was there that year and the sad joke was that farmers had come all the way to Addis to beg on the streets for money to repay their fertilizer loans. Inputs can be productive without being profitable...

More fertilizer use is clearly an important part of poverty-alleviation success stories around the world, driven by the spread of improved seed and favorable market conditions. Subsidized fertilizer can raise output only temporarily. So there is certainly scope for increased fertilizer use in Africa, but it is not the magic bullet that the NYT headline would have us believe.

Many thanks to McMillan for moving the story forward in a smart and non-truculent manner. Now, what are the chances, do you think, that Celia Dugger will respond?