Malawi suspends parliament as gov't, opposition meet

Malawi's parliament has been suspended while the government and opposition hold talks to avert a political crisis that threatens to derail international donor programmes, senior officials said on Friday.

"Parliament has not met for three days now because of the talks and I have been asked to adjourn until next week," parliament speaker Louis Chimango told Reuters.

President Bingu wa Mutharika invited the opposition leadership for talks this week to end an impasse over the right of parliamentarians to switch their party allegiance -- a sensitive issue which led to a 5-day opposition boycott of the assembly which ended

Yellow Fever vaccinations for Africa

Does Jason Burnham need a vaccination when he passes through Nairobi on the way to Malawi?

We are flying to Malawi with Kenya Airways, which means a transit through Nairobi. We won't be leaving the airport, so does this mean that we won't need a Yellow Fever jab? - Jason Burnham, Stoke on Trent

Sunday times travel expert Richard Green writes: Yellow Fever isn't present in Malawi, but it is in a part of the world that has the right conditions for the disease to take hold, were it introduced.

So if you are flying to Malawi from a country without endemic Yellow Fever ­ like the UK or Europe, or on one-stop flights via South Africa, you won't need a vaccination.

However, if you pass through a country where Yellow Fever is present, like nearby Kenya or Tanzania, you will need proof of vaccination. You can do this by using an internationally recognized certificate, which you'll get automatically wherever you get your jab from, as set up by the World Health Organization (WHO, www.who.int). Note that you must have the jab at least 10 days before you travel, but the good news is that it is then valid for 10 years after that.

The disease principally affects humans and monkeys, and is transmitted via the bite of Aedes mosquitoes, found in tropical areas of Africa and South America. There is a good map at http://www.fitfortravel.scot.nhs.uk/advice/diseases/yellowfever.htm.

The Hospital for Tropical Diseases has a Travellers Heathline Advisory Service (0207 950 7799, www.thehtd.org) for pre-travel advice and how to avoid illness whilst travelling. Also look at the good travel health resources at www.travelhealth.co.uk and www.fitfortravel.scot.nhs.uk.

Ivory Coast artist marvels Malawi

Absolutely splendid and marvelous, that is what the audience who watched Ivory Coast female artist Dobet Gnahore perform in Malawi's commercial city of Blantyre on Wednesday night described her.

Dobet was in a class of her on and true to those that stormed French Cultural Centre (FCC) she came, saw the southern African country’s city and conquered.

Malawian artists who watched her took their hats off and had to say “We have a long way to go in music; we need to practice really hard.”

“I have watched several foreign artists play at French Cultural Centre like Angelique Kidjo but this one was superb and he has taught me a lot of lessons,” said local artist Joseph Tembo.

Dobet is a complete musician and she truly showed the audience what music is all about as a singer, dancer, percussionist and drummist among others.

“She is a performer and she was the best on the night. I wish if she was given all the resources to be coming every month then the country’s musicians can learn a lot. Malawian artists have a long journey to match this,” said Chris Walker.

On stage, her voice, charisma and huge presence impressed the audience and this is the result of several years’ of her theatrical and choreographic work.

The artist played non stop music for hours just after Malawi’s female gospel singer Ethel Kamwendo Banda had also offered the audience something.

Kamwendo Banda played his Chichewa tracks ‘Yehova Ndinu Nokha,’ ‘Chiuta Muwemi,’ ‘Inu Ndinu Yehova,’ and ‘Mwatikondera,’ which rifted the audience.

Then the main artist came: “How are you Malawi, Iam happy to be here.”

She started her show with the song ‘Issa,’ which she said was going out to her mother. The song was in French but the sizeable audience could not resist the African beats as they clapped hands in appreciation.

What also stunned the audience the most was that the female artist was playing with three people from different countries and yet they produced the best music and coordinated well.

On drums was Boris Tchango from Togo, Mehrezi Nabil from Tunisia-backing vocalist and guitarist and Colin laroche de Feline was on bass guitar.

In all her songs she played, she spoke freely of love, death, politics, exploitation of women and children in the African society today.

“ This one goes to all woman out there who are fighting for a better world,” said Dobet before he played her second song ‘Jigun,’ and then later ‘Paleya,’ which she said was going out to her love.

The audience still wanted more no wonder at one point when she said ‘I am tired,’ people thought it was the end of the show. She did not mean she was tired of the show but rather she was tired of politics in her country and in Africa.

She then went ahead to play Na Afriki(Africa my land). Other songs she also played were ‘Dala,’ ‘Yakiyi,’ ‘Abiyan,’ ‘Deuel,’ ‘Yambe Zizam,’ and ‘Nadodo.’

She then went for a rest for a few minutes before coming back, played and then bowed out of the stage as she received an overwhelming applause.

“Thank you Malawi for coming and goodluck. But before you go I have condoms for you for protection,” she said.

In an interview after the show, Dobet said she was happy to perform in Malawi and grateful for the support she got from the audience.

“ Malawi has musicians. I loved her(Ethel Kamwendo Banda) and we exchanged music,” she said displaying Kamwendo Banda’s DVD’s.

Kamwendo also said she was happy to perform alongside the Ivory Coast artist adding that she had been inspired to continue learning.

“I wish more musicians came to see her, she is a powerful female musician. They were only a few of them but they produced the best sound,” she said.

At the end the audience had to sing the concert was worth it and time well spent.

Grabbing tourism by the tail

AN ENORMOUS elephant has successfully eluded darting with a sedative and seems reluctant to be relocated – so a conservationist grabs the beast by the tail and pulls.

The bulky pachyderm barely notices the assault, contemptuously flicks its tail free and flees into the African bush.

It is later found, darted and relocated.

The trouble with African elephants – Earth's biggest land-based mammals – is that they congregate in large numbers in small areas.

What's more, they eat a lot.

Just watch an elephant use its trunk to rip entire branches from trees and shovel them into its mouth. At many a waterhole in South Africa and Botswana, upwards of 50 highly sociable elephants turn up to drink together at dusk.

Visitors can drive through vast areas where it seems almost every tree is dying, if not dead.
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Like Australia's koalas, elephants eat themselves out of house and home.

Pressure from growing human populations only makes it worse.

Farmers complain hungry elephants flatten their crops. If given the chance, they kill the marauders.

Recently, I watched helplessly as elephants rampaged through a cornfield in next-door Zambia.

Some environmentalist sources suggest five million elephants roamed Africa in the 1930s, but competition for land eroded elephantine habitats.

Worse, poaching for valuable ivory sped up the population decline.

Conservation groups estimate there are around 600,000 African elephants left, with numbers on a slow increase.

However, although population growth is widely welcomed, it is not without potential problems.

When more elephants are present than vegetation can support, some human experts propose culling.

Emotional debate inevitably ensues. Opponents of culling range from those who advocate doing nothing and letting nature take its course, to those who encourage alternatives such as contraception.

A third way is relocation, moving elephants back into areas from where they have all but disappeared.

This method has been successfully used in South Africa, but is expensive.

Malawi, a small and poor central African nation, is trying relocation financed by paying tourists observing the activity.

Malawi's Liwonde National Park has more elephants than its landscape can support and nearby farmland is often raided for food.

Government policy supports relocation to Majete Wildlife Reserve and other degraded Malawian parks where elephants are now rare.

Following a successful relocation initiative last year, five groups of tourists will this year join missions to relocate 70 elephants that will be moved in cohesive family groups to avoid stress.

Tourists who go on these tours aren't allowed to engage in dangerous derring-do such as grabbing elephants by the tail, but they will be in the thick of the action, observing from helicopters the darting of targeted creatures, including large bulls.

Back on the ground, they will accompany teams moving sedated elephants into sturdy crates and on to large trucks for road trips south.

They will then watch when the elephants are freed in groups.

In between, the visitors will stay in luxury safari lodges and sightsee from the air as well as by road in four-wheel drive safari vehicles.

Aside from elephants, hippos and crocodiles are common in Liwonde National Park. Monkeys screech constantly in the trees but lions are seldom seen.

Elephants are numerous at South Luangwa National Park, in neighbouring Zambia, so it is commonly added to Malawian itineraries.

Wildlife conservationists say relocation programs have been proven to work with many types of wildlife.

But for novice observers a nagging question remains: why can't elephants be relocated simply by tugging their tails?

Malawi’s President Holds Out Olive Branch to Opposition

Malawians have reportedly welcomed as good news ongoing peace negotiations between President Bingu Wa Mutharika and opposition political parties. President Mutharika reportedly called for the peace negotiations to resolve the ongoing political impasse between the opposition and the government. The move comes after opposition parliamentarians began an indefinite boycott of parliamentary activities over the failure of the speaker of parliament to rule on Section 65.

A constitutional provision, Section 65 bars legislators from leaving parties that sponsored them into power and joining another party inside Parliament. President Mutharika is expected to lose out if the Speaker of parliament makes his ruling after several members of the opposition were allegedly lured to switch sides. Mustapha Hussein is a senior political science lecturer at the University of Zomba Chancellor College. He tells reporter Peter Clottey that Malawians are hopeful about the prospects of the ongoing talks.

“Malawians have reacted positively and they are encouraging the parties in the conflict, that is Bingu Wa Mutharika and the opposition, to continue their dialogue so that solutions can be found to diffuse the tension that has been there,” Mustapha noted.

He said previous peace negotiations between the government and the opposition have fallen below expectations before.

“Based on previous experiences, the tendency has been talking about the need for dialogue. But in the past we haven’t seen the practical steps. Leaders have not walked the talk in other words. So, in this case Malawians are hoping that these talks will address the root causes of the problems that we have been seeing and that they will come up with meaningful alternative or solutions to address the problems,” he said.

Mustapha said Malawians are hopeful that this round of peace negotiations between the government and the opposition would yield positive results.

“We hope that the prospects would be good. We should remember that currently the opposition has been boycotting the sitting of parliament although we have now seen some going into parliament. In the past we’ve seen problems related to the passing of the budget. So we hope that through this dialogue there would be less tension in parliament, a conducive environment for discussion and for deliberation in the House would be created and that our members of parliament would objectively look at the budget and pass it without the tension that surrounded the exercise before. And we hope that political tensions among political parties, the fighting or the fracas that you see among party supporters will subside because of this move,” Mustapha pointed out.

He reiterated the hope of ordinary people for a resolution of the political impasse between the opposition and President Mutharika’s government.

“We hope the results or the outcome of the discussions would be to the benefit of the ordinary Malawian development wise, coming up with meaningful policies, this is our hope. We hope the discussions are not simply done to pave way for passing of the budget and then they return to their old ways, we are hoping for a change in the operation of our political leaders and a new thinking or some sort of new relationship, working relationship between the opposition and the government so that they all have unity of purpose to serve the interest of Malawians,” he said.