Malawi's inflation quickened to 9.3 percent year-on-year in September from 9.1 percent in August, mainly on higher food costs, the National Statistical Office said on Thursday.
Malawi's Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe in August revised the southern African country's year-end inflation rate forecast upward to 8.5 percent from the 6.5 percent seen earlier, citing higher global oil prices.
The NSO said food inflation had gone up by 7.3 percent in September compared to an increase of 6.7 percent during the same period last year.
"Non-food inflation has also risen by 0.2 percentage points on the month before to 11.4 percent," it added.
Food accounts for 58.1 percent of Malawi's consumer price index.
The southern African country's second consecutive surplus harvest of the staple maize grain helped reduce inflation from 15 percent in June 2006 to single digits in early 2007.
Thursday, 16 October 2008
David Banda's dad shocked by Madonna-Ritchie split
THE father of the Malawian toddler adopted by US singer Madonna and her British film director Guy Ritchie says he is shocked at news of their divorce but wants her to keep the child.
"I am shocked but not too sad. I only met Madonna and her husband once in court when we were signing the first documents for adoption in 2006," Yohane Banda said by telephone from his village of Mchinji, 110km from the capital Lilongwe.
"As I have always said, Madonna loves the child, and I want to encourage her to keep loving the boy despite the divorce," he said.
"I allowed my son to be adopted in order to escape poverty. If he was still here, he could have probably died."
The couple adopted David Banda when he was 13 months old, after the poor and illiterate Yohane Banda brought his son to an orphanage. The mother died shortly after giving birth.
He said he hoped the divorce will not disturb the three-year-old's upbringing.
"Madonna and her husband were a lovely couple when I met them. We only met once and I didn't have time to know them better," he said.
It is almost two years to the day since that drama on the tarmac of Malawi's Lilongwe airport, when Madonna's private jet was refused permission to take off with David Banda on board.
The singer was impatient to fly the boy back to Britain after spotting him in an orphanage and deciding that he was the one she wanted - the one child, of the million orphans in Malawi, she wanted to adopt.
The usually ruthlessly efficient Madonna had made one oversight: she had forgotten to apply for a passport for the 13-month-old.
She was accused of "fast-tracking" the adoption because under Malawian law prospective parents have to be resident in the country for 18 months.
Madonna may have embarked on a mission to save the country with her Raising Malawi project but she didn't fancy sticking around there for 18 months waiting for the go-ahead to take David back to London.
David arrived safely in Britain a few days later.
The infant born in a hut in the remote village of Lipunga to a father who earned a pittance growing onions and tomatoes now has his own room in a Marylebone townhouse, expensive toys and clothes and his food prepared by macrobiotic chefs.
And everywhere he goes, he is accompanied by a huge entourage.
This madness was supposed to be balanced by stable family life.
With the announcement that David's adoptive parents are to divorce, that is no longer the case.
One of the key factors in the marriage breakdown is said to have been Guy Ritchie's opposition to Madonna's desire to adopt another Malawian child.
Back in Malawi, news of the divorce has been met with dismay. The majority of Malawians are devout Christians who believe strongly in marriage and family.
Once the divorce has been finalised, it seems likely that Ritchie will remain in England and Madonna will spend more time in the US.
Whatever settlement is reached, it seems likely Madonna will be granted primary custody of David.
The immediate future, however will be taken up with visiting the various cities on the itinerary of his mother's Sticky&Sweet tour.
Her entourage is a part of David's life but he still appears bewildered by their presence.
However many child-sized BMWs, music systems and designer outfits his adoptive mother buys him, nothing seems to have been able to take away the haunted look in his eyes.
"I am shocked but not too sad. I only met Madonna and her husband once in court when we were signing the first documents for adoption in 2006," Yohane Banda said by telephone from his village of Mchinji, 110km from the capital Lilongwe.
"As I have always said, Madonna loves the child, and I want to encourage her to keep loving the boy despite the divorce," he said.
"I allowed my son to be adopted in order to escape poverty. If he was still here, he could have probably died."
The couple adopted David Banda when he was 13 months old, after the poor and illiterate Yohane Banda brought his son to an orphanage. The mother died shortly after giving birth.
He said he hoped the divorce will not disturb the three-year-old's upbringing.
"Madonna and her husband were a lovely couple when I met them. We only met once and I didn't have time to know them better," he said.
It is almost two years to the day since that drama on the tarmac of Malawi's Lilongwe airport, when Madonna's private jet was refused permission to take off with David Banda on board.
The singer was impatient to fly the boy back to Britain after spotting him in an orphanage and deciding that he was the one she wanted - the one child, of the million orphans in Malawi, she wanted to adopt.
The usually ruthlessly efficient Madonna had made one oversight: she had forgotten to apply for a passport for the 13-month-old.
She was accused of "fast-tracking" the adoption because under Malawian law prospective parents have to be resident in the country for 18 months.
Madonna may have embarked on a mission to save the country with her Raising Malawi project but she didn't fancy sticking around there for 18 months waiting for the go-ahead to take David back to London.
David arrived safely in Britain a few days later.
The infant born in a hut in the remote village of Lipunga to a father who earned a pittance growing onions and tomatoes now has his own room in a Marylebone townhouse, expensive toys and clothes and his food prepared by macrobiotic chefs.
And everywhere he goes, he is accompanied by a huge entourage.
This madness was supposed to be balanced by stable family life.
With the announcement that David's adoptive parents are to divorce, that is no longer the case.
One of the key factors in the marriage breakdown is said to have been Guy Ritchie's opposition to Madonna's desire to adopt another Malawian child.
Back in Malawi, news of the divorce has been met with dismay. The majority of Malawians are devout Christians who believe strongly in marriage and family.
Once the divorce has been finalised, it seems likely that Ritchie will remain in England and Madonna will spend more time in the US.
Whatever settlement is reached, it seems likely Madonna will be granted primary custody of David.
The immediate future, however will be taken up with visiting the various cities on the itinerary of his mother's Sticky&Sweet tour.
Her entourage is a part of David's life but he still appears bewildered by their presence.
However many child-sized BMWs, music systems and designer outfits his adoptive mother buys him, nothing seems to have been able to take away the haunted look in his eyes.
HIV: Police women in Malawi highly infected
The Malawi police service has a high HIV prevalence rate among its service women, an update on the Malawi National Response to HIV/AIDS indicates. The report recently presented at the national media conference in Lilongwe indicates that 32 percent female police officers are currently infected with HIV.
Presenting the update, Davie Kalomba head of planning and evaluation in the ministry of health said although the country’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate was currently on the decline in the country, there were some specific groups that continued to register high HIV rates.
“Currently the high risk group is the age block 15 to 24, however it is very interesting to note that the infections were currently increasing in groups that are very knowledgeable,” he said. The update indicates that brothel based sex workers top the chart with an HIV prevalence rate of 70 percent.
Kalomba said the country had more persons living with HIV in rural areas estimated at 630 000 as opposed to the urban which has 179745 persons living with HIV and out of these, 89, 055 are children below the age 15.
“Currently women are the ones that are highly infected as out of the 809, 833 persons living with HIV in the country 473, 000 are women,” he said.
Currently Malawi has had 2.8 million people that have ever gone for HIV testing. In 2007 and 2008 alone the country tested over 1 million people.
As a way of scaling up HIV testing and counseling services the country in 2006 introduced the HIV Testing and Counseling (HTC) week which was the first of its kind in the world and has since been described as a success.
Last year, 187,000 people got tested in the week of which 53 percent were female and 47 percent were male. Meanwhile another HIV Testing and Counseling week is being planned for November.
Presenting the update, Davie Kalomba head of planning and evaluation in the ministry of health said although the country’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate was currently on the decline in the country, there were some specific groups that continued to register high HIV rates.
“Currently the high risk group is the age block 15 to 24, however it is very interesting to note that the infections were currently increasing in groups that are very knowledgeable,” he said. The update indicates that brothel based sex workers top the chart with an HIV prevalence rate of 70 percent.
Kalomba said the country had more persons living with HIV in rural areas estimated at 630 000 as opposed to the urban which has 179745 persons living with HIV and out of these, 89, 055 are children below the age 15.
“Currently women are the ones that are highly infected as out of the 809, 833 persons living with HIV in the country 473, 000 are women,” he said.
Currently Malawi has had 2.8 million people that have ever gone for HIV testing. In 2007 and 2008 alone the country tested over 1 million people.
As a way of scaling up HIV testing and counseling services the country in 2006 introduced the HIV Testing and Counseling (HTC) week which was the first of its kind in the world and has since been described as a success.
Last year, 187,000 people got tested in the week of which 53 percent were female and 47 percent were male. Meanwhile another HIV Testing and Counseling week is being planned for November.
Malawi gov’t repossesses its lake service from private contractor
The Malawi government has repossessed the operations of the Malawi Lake Services (MLS), the main company operating and managing passenger, freight services and shipyard operations of vessels plying on Lake Malawi, from the Glens Waterways Limited (GWL) which had won tender to run the services on Africa’s third largest freshwater lake, APA learnt here Thursday.
According to spokesperson Owen Singini of the Marine Department, the state arm responsible for the MLS, the government had awarded a five-year concession for the management and operations of MLS assets to GWL, but the latter had failed to fulfill some of the provisions of the agreements.
Given the importance that government attached to the transport sector, he said, government has now determined that the way forward was for the GWL to hand over the concession and a new operator would be identified through the Privatisation Commission (PC) to takeover the operations and management of the MLS.
Singini said as the process of identifying a new operator was already underway, and the MLS will for the moment operate under an interim management from the Marine Department of the Ministry of Transport and Public Works.
MLS has a fleet of seven lake vessels with a capacity of transporting general cargo, passengers, petroleum products and other containers along the 500-km long Lake Malawi.
According to spokesperson Owen Singini of the Marine Department, the state arm responsible for the MLS, the government had awarded a five-year concession for the management and operations of MLS assets to GWL, but the latter had failed to fulfill some of the provisions of the agreements.
Given the importance that government attached to the transport sector, he said, government has now determined that the way forward was for the GWL to hand over the concession and a new operator would be identified through the Privatisation Commission (PC) to takeover the operations and management of the MLS.
Singini said as the process of identifying a new operator was already underway, and the MLS will for the moment operate under an interim management from the Marine Department of the Ministry of Transport and Public Works.
MLS has a fleet of seven lake vessels with a capacity of transporting general cargo, passengers, petroleum products and other containers along the 500-km long Lake Malawi.
Why sad, haunted David Banda is the REAL victim of Madonna's divorce
It is almost two years to the day since that drama on the tarmac of Malawi's Lilongwe airport, when Madonna's private jet was refused permission to take off with David Banda on board.
The singer was impatient to fly the boy back to Britain after spotting him in an orphanage and deciding that he was the one she wanted - the one child, out of the million orphans in Malawi, whom she was going to adopt.
The usually ruthlessly efficient Madonna had made one small oversight: she'd forgotten to apply for a passport for the then 13-month-old.
The tense scene at the airport illustrated well her mighty struggle to adopt the child.
She was accused of 'fast-tracking' the adoption because under Malawian law, prospective parents have to be resident in the country for 18 months before adoption can be approved.
Madonna, 50, may have embarked on a mission to save the country with her Raising Malawi project, but she sure as hell didn't fancy sticking around there for 18 months waiting for the go-ahead to take David back to her Marylebone townhouse.
There was further controversy because David was not actually an orphan. His mother, Marita, had died a few days after he was born, but his father Yohane was alive and had placed the child in an orphanage because at the time he was unable to cope with the baby.
David, of course, arrived safely in Britain a few days after that stand-off and was greeted at Heathrow Airport by a frantic scrum of photographers, journalists and television crews.
A taste of things to come. The infant who had been born in a hut in the remote village of Lipunga to a father who earned £50 a year growing onions and tomatoes now has his own room in a Marylebone townhouse, ridiculously expensive toys and clothes, and his food prepared by a team of macrobiotic chefs. And everywhere he goes, he is accompanied by a huge, crazy entourage.
But this madness, the Madonna circus, was supposed to be balanced by a stable family life.
With the announcement that his adoptive parents are to divorce, that is no longer the case.
One of the key factors in the breakdown of the marriage is said to have been Guy's opposition to Madonna's desire to adopt another Malawian child, three-year-old girl Mercy James.
And now there is yet more uncertainty and anguish in the life of the boy they did adopt.
Back in Malawi, the news of the divorce has met with dismay. The majority of Malawians are devout Christians who believe strongly in marriage and the family.
Yesterday a child protection organisation, Eye of the Child, said it would be closely monitoring the situation.
'We will be watching to make sure that the interests of David have been observed in the divorce,' its executive director, Maxwell Mateware, said.
'If that is not the case we will go to court in Malawi to ensure that he is protected.'
Of course no one can deny that David's prospects in Malawi were bleak and that he is now a healthy child who wants for nothing.
But has he ever really known a happy home life? It seems the problems between Madonna and Guy were going on even when they were in Malawi to adopt him.
According to sources out there, they were sleeping in separate beds at their lodge. They weren't happy. David was, in part, an attempt to revive the marriage.
Whether the growing chasm between Madonna and Guy manifested itself in screaming matches, hurt, sulky silences, or both, it is unlikely that little David has been able to be protected entirely from the misery of the disintegrating, now defunct marriage. Even if he is palmed off with the nanny most of the time.
It was the nanny who arrived with David at Guy's 40th birthday party last month at The Punch Bowl, the Mayfair pub owned by the couple. David was decked out in designer tartan and the nanny wore a matching hat.
Whatever upheaval David now faces, there will be at least one constant in his life: there will be no shortage of cute outfits.
So what now? Once the divorce has been finalised, it seems likely that Guy will remain in England - it has been reported that he will keep Ashcombe House, the country estate in Wiltshire - while Madonna will spend more time in America.
Madonna is David's mother, she is a controlling woman. She is certain to want David to be with her. Whatever-settlement is reached, it seems likely that Madonna, by virtue of being the mother, will be granted primary custody of David.
When it became clear that the marriage was terminal earlier this year, Madonna took off to New York, where she feels most comfortable.
In June, she took David to a game of the Cincinnati Reds versus the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
She was also seen out and about with David - and nanny in tow of course - along with her friend, Gwyneth Paltrow. And, of course, there was a visit with David to the Kabbalah Centre.
Madonna is obsessed with her own celebrity version of the mystical religion. But whether David will share her enthusiasm is another matter.
New York could become his new home and he faces the prospect of much criss-crossing back and forth across the Atlantic in order to see Guy back in Britain. In time, he may have to get to know a new stepmother and a new stepfather.
The immediate future, however will be taken up with visiting the various cities on the itinerary of his mother's Sticky & Sweet tour.
At the end of last month, Madonna took David and her other son, Rocco, out for a walk in Athens - where she was performing a concert - accompanied, as usual by the massive entourage.
The entourage is a part of David's life, but he continues to appear bewildered by their presence, as if always looking back at his previous life in Malawi.
However much he is spoilt and pampered, however many rocking horses, child- sized BMWs and state-of-the-art music systems and designer outfits his mother buys him, nothing has been able to take away that haunted look in his eyes.
He will be lucky, as he grows older, to escape feelings of guilt over the fact that he has another father, who lives in a village in Malawi where there is no running water or electricity, where the evening meal is nsima, a type of gruel made from maize flour, cooked over a log fire.
His mother's obsession these days is to stay looking as young as possible as she enters her 50s. In Malawi, where an estimated 38 per cent of the population are infected with HIV/AIDS, anyone who reaches that age is regarded as lucky.
His father has remarried and he and his new wife, Flora, have a young son, Dingiswayo, who is nearly three months old.
Dingiswayo, if he is lucky enough to grow into a healthy adult, will become a farmer like his father.
David, meanwhile, will attend a private school somewhere close to where his divorced mother decides to settle. Dingiswayo will grow up in obscurity; David will be scrutinised wherever he goes.
At the outset, when the adoption furore began, David's father Yohane gave a number of interviews - contradictory at times, it must be admitted - which implied he had been given the impression he would still be David's father.
The nice rich lady would simply be taking care of David for him and offering him a better life.
He did not appear to understand the full implications of what he had agreed to do. All of this will weigh heavily on David in the future.
Now that his parents are to divorce, will David still get a sister from Malawi? You might think that Madonna would now give up her plans to adopt Mercy, but Madonna is used to getting her way.
If it happens, David, no doubt, will welcome his new sister as an addition to this now broken family with heartfelt joy. It will bring him closer to Malawi and to his roots.
Back in Lipunga, Yohane will today be thinking of the son he gave away - and wondering if it was a huge mistake for him, but most of all for a confused little boy called David.
Scots singer in Oxfam cash plea
Scottish singer Sandi Thom has returned from a visit to east Africa to launch Oxfam's £15m World Food Crisis Appeal.
The charity said it needed the cash to pay for its ongoing international development and humanitarian work on food and agriculture.
It will also campaign for changes to trade and agricultural policies which impact on "poor farmers".
The appeal has been launched to coincide with the United Nations World Food Day.
Ms Thom, who is from Aberdeen, spent a week in Malawi with Oxfam meeting families and communities affected by rising food prices.
"My visit to Malawi opened my eyes to the extent of poverty and the harsh reality of how some people live and how rising food prices are affecting them," she said.
Many of the people we met in Malawi were already down to one meal a day, and its expected things will get worse in the months ahead, with food prices possibly rising further still
Malcolm Fleming
Oxfam Scotland
"You have to ask yourself what you would do if you were in the situation many Malawians face.
"If you had a family to feed but the prices were doubling or tripling. The people I met in Malawi, and many millions like them around the world, need people here to show generosity when they need it most."
Oxfam Scotland's Malcolm Fleming, who accompanied Ms Thom, said: "The world food crisis is hitting the poorest hardest.
"Women and children are especially vulnerable. Many of the people we met in Malawi were already down to one meal a day, and it is expected things will get worse in the months ahead, with food prices possibly rising further still.
"Whatever the reasons behind the crisis, it's clear that financial donations made now will help save lives in Malawi and elsewhere around the world in the next few crucial months."
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