Another note on the frog situation...

I met a Lilongwe resident who told me this story:

He was a part of the protests. The people were ready to demonstrate on the 20th of July. But a court interdict suddenly prevented them. They were irritated. The police came on the morning. There were journalists there. Suddenly the police decided to start man-handling the media. The people became restless. The police (stupidly) fired tear gas into the crowd. This, according to Dagrous, was a big mistake. The crowds easily over-powered the police. The crowds were cross with the government, therefore any government building or car was burnt (so there was burning). This apparently happened only in the townships - the government owned shops, PTC, and parked (due to no fuel) cars were torched. Thank goodness there was no petrol or diesl in the cars. Could have been chaotic if explosions were also reported!

Also, now the people were cross with the police. And the police were driving around. And then their cars would run out of petrol, right in front of the crowds and that would frustrate the police because they were easy targets for the crowds and so more violence occurred.

On the second day they police were better prepared.

However, it was some of the police who were showing the crowds which cars to burn and generally enticing them in anti-government riots.

Dargous, my informant, tells me that he is a little worried about the 17th of April, the date the demonstrators have given tot he government to sort their issues. The police will be better prepared and the people maybe more angry. In fact, he thinks that now the Malawi has been given a taste of what they can do, these types of demonstrations will continue until Bingu is out of office, in 2014. You see, Malawians (he tells me) are not scared of dictators. The president before Bingu was one. And now people have seen that they can oppose Bingu.

But he also laughs and assures me this will not be like Libya.

He says the president just uses big, difficult and intimidatory language and is unlikely to carry it out. Unlikely, but we admit a small possibility exists.

There is no strong opposition part in Malawi, it is the civil society that has taken on that role. It was the civil society that brought Bingu to power and they have now turned on him with as much power.

It's just unfortunate that the president thinks that he knows everything because he worked for the World Bank. He wont take advice...

Interesting fact: did you know that he went into exile in about 1994, exile in Zim. Him and Bob are good mates because of this. You see, the president before Bingu (unsure of his name - always a he that is a dictator, never a she...) made it mandatory that all carry a party card and the Jehovah's Witnesses refused. And they were hunted for it.

So that's the story from a well informed (worked in government, tourism, teaching, and is now an independent consultant) Lilongwe citizen.

Viva!

Don't throw the frog out with the bath water

The streets of Lilongwe were earily quiet. We drove down the main streets at 6.30 pm and there was no one about. No restaurants were open. We had run out of a lot of our food.

Three days later, I went back to the streets of Lilongwe. And they were as busy, hot, dustly, invasive and normal as they had been before the "riots".

I have put riots in inverted commas becasue they were definitely not as the media portrayed them to be. The looting, many locals believe, were just a few opportunists looking at getting some free things. The burnt out, flame gutted buildings? Well both Game and Shoprite, two of the reported burnt buildings were still clean and filled with good when I went to buy a tent, three days after the demonstations. Either something (renovations) works suprisingly swiftly in Malawi. More likely, no such burning happened.

The fires raging on the side of the road? True, there were probably fires. But outsiders don't understand. One local said, "it's the dry season. We burn our dry sh**". Meaning that dry leaves and other garden material is quite openly burnt on the side of the road. In fact, this morning, almost a week later, I saw fires on the side of the road... of piles of leaves gardeners had just raked up.

That these demonstations are akin to Libya and the Middle East up-risings? Please excuse me, and all the locals and neighbouring country peoples I have spoken to, for laughing out loud. Like the Middle East??? Media people, it really isn't. Malawi doesn't have the money to mobilise it's forces so much. There is no gold, or oil or other valuable resources that greedy outside forces want to get their hands on (and therefore interfere).

The president knows he is in trouble. Malawians aren't happy. Maybe, before these demonstations are likened to the Middle East uprisings, let us wait until the deadline given to the government (sometime in August) to sort their issues. Maybe then it might be worthy of being likened to Libya. But I hightly doubt it.

So the media, don't throw the baby out with the bath water - this isn't the end of normal life in Malawi.


The frog you say? Well, there was a frog in the tub of water in the kitchen at Nature's Gift Permaculture - gave us all a fight at 6am in the morning!