How much money do we lose?
I was reading a newspaper article in which there was this story of crocodiles. Some considerate people had gone to Mangochi to, among other things, visit a crocodile farm.
At the crocodile farm, they observed that these crocs were being ill-treated. They reported this issue to the authorities as responsible citizens should do. When the authorities were alerted, an investigation was conducted. The owner of the crocodile farm was taken through the due process of the law, pleaded guilty and fined.
As part of the judge’s decision or verdict, it was determined that the crocs be killed (of course at a fee and at the expense of the crocodile owner). Up to this point, nothing is really strange to me.
But things turn, at least for me, when the story continues, and reads that when the crocs were killed, they were burnt! My goodness, how can you burn all the nice leather from over 200 crocs? Seriously? Are you out of your mind?
Ladies and gentlemen, crocodile leather is expensive. Just because these crocs had been abused in life does not mean their leather was not valuable. There was need to harvest this leather, prepare it and sell it. Whose money this should have been, is not the question here. It was money and somebody could have used these “aloe velas”.
The problem with Africans is that we are in the habit of burning things. When we harvest from our gardens, instead of burying the crop residues, we burn them. When we disagree with our politicians and we start protesting or demonstrating, we burn things including shops.
When our relatives die and we are overwhelmed by grief, we collect some of their remaining clothes and other property such as houses and pictures, and burn them. When stocks of ivory or rhino horns are confiscated by the law enforcers, all over Africa, we pile these up, gather around, pour kerosene and set them ablaze.
The world cheers, we appear on CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera. We smile and pictures are taken. The rest of the world is looking at us and wondering: How foolish these people are? That ivory trade is largely banned to protect elephants from extinction and that does not mean that when found, this ivory must be destroyed. The ivories could be stored by the state, or used by the state. I doubt if by doing that it will encourage elephant killing.
I was encouraged by the State President who, when he opened an orientation workshop for cabinet minister in Mangochi recently that “there is no ceremonial cabinet” in this country. The President said the cabinet is responsible for policy and every Jim and Jack should not wake up in the morning claiming they had policy to promulgate.
This is a welcome decision by the government. This reminded me that the Medical Laboratory Policy expired a few years back. I hear there is a National Alcohol Policy and this other policy and that other legislation. As we revitalise our country, may be one option is to scour through all the ministries, departments and many other places: How many draft policies and draft legislation and draft this and that is now with cabinet?
