State of our mediocrity: Readers react

This week, we are at Nkhamenya, Kasungu, where we will be camped until we get an opportunity to visit Kanyika in the Kingdom of Mzimba. As we prepare to familiarise ourselves with this place, the only place away from Rumphi, where Aford still has its flag flying, we—Shekh Jean-Philippe LePoisson, SC (RTD), Abiti Joyce Befu, MG 66, AMAI (RTD), Mzee Native Authority Mandela and I—the Mohashoi, have given the floor to you, our readers, major stakeholders in our country, our one and only home. Here are some of your rejoinders:

Mediocrity at local banks: I totally agree with you. It always pains me when I think of how slothful we Malawians are when it comes to doing things; yet we dream of economic development. Take, for example, our local banks. They have 10 teller cubicles and you will find only four of them are operating. You spend at least one hour just to cash a cheque, if they will not delay you with cheque verification. I once confronted my bank because their ATMs always have network problems during month-ends. I was surprised to get an excuse of technical problem as an answer. Can’t we find lasting solutions? Why do banks still keeping personnel without technical expertise? We are truly a nation of mediocrity.—PN

Three months later, bank can’t replace ATM card: State of our mediocrity…. Just imagine, I am into the third month; my bank is failing to replace my ATM card. Every time I call they give me an excuse. Now I am told the machine broke down!—Anonymous

Mediocrity everywhere: Normally, I don’t read any of the columns in Malawian newspapers because I have seen it all and no one can say anything new anymore. But yours today, ‘State of our mediocrity’, caught my attention,. It’s nice to see that someone sees this country for what it really is and I tell you it angers me when I think about it. I even feel like weeping when I realise there isn’t much I can do about it. Go to the hospitals, banks, post office, schools and shops; anywhere I go to there is this mediocrity and I hate it. No one wants to move forward. Everyone is accepting that this country cannot generate enough power for itself and pump enough water to its citizens. All that revenue collected but our market places still remain junk sites, our schools without books, our hospitals without medicine… I can go forever but hey I’m happy I have encountered a fellow intellectual we share the same ideologies… Keep in touch.—Anonymous

Only good at population doubling: Thanks for joining Patrick Musa (Damn Losers) in condemning our retrogressive disposition as a country. Everything is falling apart and we watch and smile. Maybe the only consolation is that as a country we seem to be doing very well at doubling the national population! Very fast in this department. Sad indeed.—PK

Mediocrity in primary education: This is what the World Bank found about Malawi’s primary education: “[That] Malawi is offering poor and deteriorating quality education in primary schools can be concluded by the Southern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) scores and national examination pass rates. The percentage of children who reached a minimum level of mastery in reading in English has been reduced by half over the 1998–2004 period, and was barely 9 percent in 2004. In mathematics, 98 percent of the students did not possess skills beyond basic numeracy and none of them had skills beyond competent numeracy. Compared to other countries, Malawi fares poorly, being at the bottom of all the Southern ACMEQ countries in English reading and next to last in mathematics.”—JFB

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“Which countries constitute this so-called SACMEQ?” Abiti asked drily.

“I think they are Seychelles, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, Zanzibar, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi,” Jean-Philippe said.

“You mean we are worse at reading English than Portuguese-speaking Mozambique and Arabic-speaking Zanzibar?” AMAI asked, shocked at the reality before her.

“Well, the World Bank is not another mediocre local research institution to be doubted. Is it?”