DPP is actually the Democratic People’s Party, President Bingu’s party currently ruling Malawi. Recently, I have heard people not-so-affectionately referring to it as “Diesel Petrol Palivi”, palivi meaning “it is without”.
I’m sure most of you have heard about the recent demonstrations happening in Malawi due to the rapidly declining standards of living and Bingu’s blatant political and financial corruption. I don’t know the details but by far the biggest problem Malawians are upset about (and Bingu ignores) is the petrol crisis. There is no fuel anywhere, and when it is found, it is exorbitantly expensive. Transportation is a nightmare, which translates to zero access to hospitals for those living in the bush, very few deliveries of medicine to health centers, etc. And food prices are going up at the same time the value of kwatcha is going down. As a result, things are getting exciting.
Exhibit A: The July 19-21 demonstrations in the three major cities. A total of 19 dead, including 2 policemen, 70-something-crazy in the hospital with bullet wounds, millions of kwatch in looting damage. Most of the violence occurred in Mzuzu, the city in the north and my closest pocket of civilization. Again, I don’t know the details, Peace Corps was quick to put us all essentially on house arrest and travel ban. In Chikwina, things were very quiet. We’re 20km into the bush so even if there was petrol to have, we would still not have petrol. I’m probably tucked into the safest, quietest place in the world. However, if Bingu does not address the complaints (which he won’t) more protests are scheduled for August 17-19 in the bomas, that means in all the town and major trading centers. I was talking to my good friend, the African Presbyterian Pastor and my adopted African father, about what he thought about the demonstrations. He said that when Malawians, famous for being the most peaceful, passive country in Africa, are angry enough to get off their butts, join together, and protest, you KNOW things are bad (I’m paraphrasing, he didn’t use the word “butts”).
Intially, we were all pretty nervous they would have us evacuated. I’m still pretty nervous. Hey, remember a few posts ago when I said that foreign aid just needs to leave Malawi so they can figure it out themselves? Oops. Now that Briton has pulled out 5.2 billion and America pulled out 53 billion in aid, and the protests are gonna be rough this month, and the other Canadian Azungu in my village IS being evacuated this week, things don’t look too reassuring for THIS foreign aid worker. While I still think it’s a good thing that Malawi will now be forced to less reliant on foreign money, I have no desire to leave myself. But Peace Corps usually waits as long as possible to evac a country, so I’m not THAT worried. But I’m still worried. I really am safe though, guys. Not to worry, I have a lot of people looking out for me here and Doug…barks. He’s not the most effective security guard. He’s just not that menacing, unless you’re a chicken. I mean the animal, a chicken. They’re scared shitless of him.
I’ll try to keep you posted better after the next round of demonstrations this month once the inevitable travel ban is lifted.
No comments:
Post a Comment