On peace and morality
Blessed indeed are the peace-makers because they will be called the children of God. Wars, revolt and suicide bombards cause a lot of misery and generate multiple sufferings.
As regards international viewing, my favourite TV programmes are Al Jazeera at 5am and Focus on Africa at 7:30 pm. Favourite not because they bring me joy but because they acquaint me the sufferings of people in countries where there are insurrections, tyranny and economic hardship.
It is excruciating to see people from west and north Africa, the horn of Africa and Syria arriving in Libya like train cargo, drowning in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross over to Italy and dwell in France, Germany and Britain uninvited by the nationals of those countries.
The image of Africans as servants or even slaves of white people will never be erased if the exodus to Europe continues unchecked. Africa is a land of abundant natural resources, self governing states, and in most region hardly overpopulated. Why are Africans running away from their countries?
Civil wars brought about misrule and greed for power. God bless the late Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, who — when they felt they had served their countries long enough and that people wanted change — voluntarily stepped out of their palaces.
The scenery is different in other countries. When a president has served the two terms he seeks a third one. Those who support him and those who oppose him confront and kill each other. Those caught in the crossfire try to escape to Europe and meet the death they wanted to avoid by drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.
We are a poor country. Though some of our people have lost their lives in South Africa due to xenophobia, their tragedy is minuscule compared with what is taking place in the waters between Libya and Italy. Poor that Malawi is, she has enjoyed relative peace during the past half century. How can we be sure that the peace continue?
The first condition is avoiding extremism. We know some people have grievances against the status quo. People of certain regions or ethnic groups smart under inequalities of economic and political opportunities. This does not mean that the solution can necessarily come through secession of a region or changing Malawi from unitary to federal state. Doing so is extremist reaction. Extremism always brings about misery for everybody.
To respond to such extremism by sayings go ahead, secede we shall crush you as they crushed Igbos of Biatra and the Tamils of Sri Lanka is megalomaniac. Because you have the military and demographic advantage does not justify ill treating the weak. Civil wars of today are extra sanguinary. Advantage of numbers has to certain extent been eroded by the existence of sophisticated weapons. In the days people were fighting with spears the more numerous side usually achieved quick victory. Not so these days.
It took 25 years before Tamil insurgents were defeated. Behold in Nigeria, six years have gone the Boko Haram is still keeping Nigerian government forces at bay and continues to kill people in hundreds. Also see the tears that the al Shabaab is generating in Somalia and Kenya despite the presence of African Union forces. Civil wars like these end with pyrrhic victories. That is no matter which side wins both sides suffer a lot. It is very stupid for anyone to prefer defiance and war to diplomacy and peace. A wise nation learns from the mistakes of other nations.
Poor people who covet the health of the rich expose themselves to scorn by the rich. Poor nations that want the wealth of the rich must be prepared to be bossed over and lectured to. Whether as an individual or a nation other people will treat you as inferior if you allow them to do so.
It is nauseating now and again to hear people of the West pontificating on rights and morals as if their part of the world is reflection of heaven.
When news about enactment of a Marriage Act reached America, some people there condemned the Malawi law for not referring to marriage as including men who develop a special relationship with their fellow men and women who prefer fellow women.
I feel disgusted to call this relationship as marriage. Since the days of Adam and Eve, marriage has taken place only between a man and a woman, not between persons of same gender.
To settle the controversy, if possible linguists should invent a new term for this special relation. In records their relationship should be registered under such terms but not under marriage. It is not marriage. Perhaps it should be called ‘LESODOMIAGE’.
People who eat fish and those who eat snakes do not eat the same thing. The sexual relationship between a man and woman can lead to the birth of a child. The sexual relationship between people of the same sex can never do so. Homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, that is why He does not bless it with procreation.
Thanks to Martin Luther, Africans can access the Bible in their mother tongue. They read for themselves that God burnt the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the very evil that people in the west have embraced and want us Africans to do the same.
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