Mumba must not go to Mumbai, Dubai
January 29 2025
Greetings from the Munda wa Chitedze Fa r m, w h e r e I relocated from the hustle and bustle of your city. Peace, and only peace reigns supreme at the farm and its surrounding villages.
You see, at the farm we are so worried with the infodermic in our midst. The villagers are suffering from too much information in their hands, all thanks to social media. They all seem to know anything that has happened, if at all it does. The worry is that they are unable to sieve the truth, half-truth and outright lie.
The infodermic is spreading more than the cholera and Covid-19 epidemics that we know. And, the infodermic in our hands is spreading fast and charlatan content creators are feasting much on the misinformation and disinformation flying around. Sadly, some of those misinforming content creators are eyeing for political positions come September 16.
With all the revenge porn, sexual harassment, child abuse, body-shaming, libel and slander and fraud adding salt to the infomania, is the Malawi Communiactions Regulatory Authority in any way justified to procure a system to monitor and evaluate the state of misinformation and disinformation in Malawi. Some quarters believe the equipment, which has the scent of the ‘Spy Machine’ of old, is just bent at suppressing freedom of expression and speech, while Macra says it is important to check the trend.
At the Munda wa Chitedze Farm, we are on the middle of the wall, being a non-aligned farm. But then, can Macra come out in the open on how they granted Hashcom Ghana Limited the K4.5 billion contract, since searches indicate the company is non-existent where they should be easily found, the cyberspace?
The question Macra seeks to address can best be dealt with in better ways than playing Big Brother or Tom and Jerry. What people need is affordable Internet rates that will help them access credible Malawian sites more easily than being fed second-fiddle and unverifiable material shared in social media platforms. If you ask me, what some service providers dish out as 5G network, is not to that billing.
Have you noticed how airtime is acting like a cousin to water vapour these days? And then, look, the mobile telephone service did away with scratch cards, which is a very brilliant age. But then what happens when you buy airtime via mobile money platforms? I come in peace, only in peace!
Dear Diary, President Donald Trump is back with a bang. A big bang. For most people, the real Trump comeback in the Opus (Office of the President of the United States) has been shaking with the numerous presidential orders he has been executing since taking oath. Trump, the first American controlling the affairs of State after being convicted, has surprised many, not only for pardoning those found guilty of storming the Senate, but also ordering a nine-month stop order on US aid global projects.
A l t h o u g h t h e U S Government has so many interests in various sectors in Malawi, the sting is felt harder with the news that the United States Aid for International Development (USAid) will be a gross hit on Malawi. That is more so because of the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), under which many benefit from the provision of anti-retroviral therapy.
The sting is felt, with Trump emphasising, America First. We are torn because the feeling of our being part of the American global deal with stickers on cars, computers, cameras and so many people screaming From the American People will all be history.
Oh Dear, I have been so long-winded, but I still have to say what was eating me up. The new Minister of Labour, Engineer Vitumbiko Mumba has done enough of the familiarisation tours, and must get back to work, if at all he is going to win the great war he has started. He has won the battles, so as the general he must leave the battlefront for the foot soldiers
He has shown the foot soldiers what they must do to the abusers in factories, foundries, estates and plantations, supermarkets and what not. Now he must give the labour officers and inspectors to hit the ground running to follow his footprints and discover the estate workers who wear no protective garments in shameful conditions, with others drinking from unprotected wells and relieving themselves in tea plantations.