Peace, only peace, reigns here

Dear Diary,

One thing I like about the life at Munda wa Chitedze Farm where I relocated from the hustle and bustle of your city, is that I have peace and peace only.

You see, time for us at the farm to foam at the mouth is long gone. Tranquility reigns in our hearts and we are all happy about it.

Look, what good would it do us to stop our work on the farm to wonder why the globe-trotting by President Lazarus Chakwera continues? This matter of draining the little that remains of our forex with such trips has become so trivial in the ruling elite’s ears so much that even if we were to roll on the ground, smear ashes on our bodies and wear sackcloth, nothing would change.

Why should we foam at the mouth over trivia?

You see, speaking at Ngwenya on Sunday, Chakwera said everyone that thinks he is the best thing ever to happen to our being, is a hater and stranger to the truth!

These are the things that would make you worry. But don’t you worry. Touch your heart, with the right hand and say three times: “All is well.”

You are a hater and stranger to the truth when you point out that people are starving in the villages. Don’t worry, the government has started distributing relief maize across the country.

In Blantyre, for instance, beneficiaries were ferried from the townships to the Kamuzu Stadium to get their 50-kilogramme bags of maize. Photos were taken, and spread on social media for all to see that the distribution exercise is on course.

Why would the Department of Disaster Managemen t Af fai rs (Dodma) let a few people come from Machinjiri, Bangwe, Chilomoni and, ay, Ndirande to the stadium to get relief maize? What was the criteria for those going to the stadium to get maize?

Dear Diary, like I said, had I been in the hustle and bustle of your city, I could have by now been foaming at the mouth over such kind of trivia. But I will not.

You see, the logic is simple. Dodma could not go to a primary school in Ndirande and announce that they were there to distribute maize to those who need it.

If at all they were transparent, they could have gone with the maize at Chirunga ground in the populous town and made a roll-call for the beneficiaries!

Your guess is as good as mine! The officials would not dare that because they know full well that the maize they distributed for photo opportunities was a mere teaspoon drop into the Indian Ocean.

To illustrate this drop, Mtumbwinda came into the light in recent times when it was reported that people were sleeping over chitedze. The question on chitedze as a food, we already know here at the Munda wa Chitedze Farm because it is just like kalongonda which is found in most of our markets. But then, 1 400 of 8 000 households in the area will get the relief maize.

We cannot foam at the mouth because the President is somewhere at a very important United Nations General Assembly, as part of his tour-du-monde and such questions from the farm will attract strange responses from the propaganda mill.

We are tilling the land in preparation for the rainy season. Never mind that there is news that fertiliser prices have gone up.

We have told everyone on the farm to collect enough urine from their homes which we will use in our gardens! We have also struck a deal with the council to collect more from their toilets. Sitikugona. n

With Kondwani Kamiyala

‘You see, the logic is simple. DoDMA could not go to a primary school in Ndirande and announce that they were there to distribute maize to those who need it. If at all they were transparent, they could have gone with the maize at Chirunga ground in the populous town and made a roll-call for the beneficiaries!’

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