Until this time around last year, I used to subscribe to the view that mob justice, especially on suspected thieves, however aggrieved one was, was never a solution to a slow, if not, a failed justice system. That was until I came face to face with the face of evil itself when my colleagues and I were confronted by over 25 panga-wielding men of the night: robbers.
In the immediate aftermath of that incident, the little sympathies I had for thieves who found themselves at the mercy of mob justice disappeared and I found myself one of the foremost proponents of mob justice. Time, of course, has mellowed down my feelings but I still find myself confused. I don’t know whether mob justice has merits at all or, indeed its ugly side.
The police, especially, have been quick to promote the ugly side of mob justice as they claim — rightly or otherwise — that it takes away the element of justice from the suspects. But, somehow, I suspect the police have another good reason for campaigning against mob justice and that scares me.
There have been cases — documented or otherwise — of people who have been killed or maimed in the heat of administering mob justice. The police, of course, have, in some few instances, arrested the ‘mobsters’ and a few of these have faced the law and convicted for taking the law into their hands.
But, as I suspect, the reason why the police discourage mob justice is not on account of their passion to see justice done. We have had cases too numerous to mention of suspects who have died in police cells because of ‘sanctioned police torture’ and there’s hardly any justice in that. Mob justice takes the pleasure off the police to toy around with the suspects themselves.
About two years ago, one of my friends (he’s no thief — at least, he hasn’t been caught yet!) found himself at the mercy of the law enforcers for a crime which should haven’t been a crime at all. He had gone to some entertainment joint and the crime he committed was to have asked for his change from the gatemen who seemed rather reluctant to do so. Naturally, he hit the roof.
A policeman, who had been hired by the place’s owners, appeared from wherever he had been hiding and hit my friend in the face with the butt of his gun. Dazed with the impact, he staggered a bit and made the mistake of bumping into the policeman who found himself sprawling on the floor the next moment.
The next thing my friend knew, he was handcuffed and hauled off to a police cell where, for the next 24 hours, one police officer after another came to challenge him to a fight. He politely refused their offers but by the time he came out of the cell, he had a lacerated back, the scars of which he still bears to date. How different is that from mob justice?
Indeed, how different from mob justice is the case of Emmanuel Chibwana, a journalist with Zodiak Broadcasting Service, whose face was disfigured by a police still arrogantly marketing itself as a reformed police?
I’m not too sure what the so-called police reform programme involved because other than putting up buildings here and there, I feel the whole exercise was a waste of money.
Former president Bakili Muluzi changed the name of the Malawi Police Force to Malawi Police Service because the former was intimidating and not suitable for its image but has anything really changed? Would dressing a lion in a sheep’s skin, without changing its ‘lion-ness’, make it meek? I doubt it.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
When poverty courts hunger
When Elvis Sukali, communications and media officer for Oxfam Malawi, called me to say he had a British musician called Sandi Thom whom he wanted me to interview, the first question I fired at him was: Sandi who?
I must confess, I’m addicted to music and I know a fair number of musicians — local and international — but Sandi Brown was not the one name I could pretend I knew — a fact I, shamelessly, confessed to the musician when I met her last Wednesday evening.
Sandi Thom, born on August 11, 1981, is a Scottish musician with two albums to her credit, Smile... It Confuses People (2006) and The Pink & The Lily (2008). The first album reached number one in, among other countries, the UK and Ireland, number five in New Zealand, 11 in Australia and 43 in France while the single ‘I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)’ was number one in the UK, Ireland and Australia, three in New Zealand and 16 in Germany.
But Sandi did not visit Malawi early this month to promote her name and her music or, as some would assume, on a mission similar to Madonna’s.
Sandi is an ambassador for the charitable organisation, Oxfam Scotland and she was in the country to see for herself the hunger situation in Malawi so that she could raise awareness of the problem in Scotland.
In Malawi, the musician visited some areas in Chiradzulu, Blantyre rural and Lilongwe to see for herself the situation on the ground. To say she was confused by the paradoxes of Malawi and its people would be an understatement.
“It’s a beautiful country,” she said. “The land is vastly beautiful. The people I visited in the villages, in the school, I have admiration for their genuine strength in human spirit even though they are facing problems.”
Sandi has never been to Africa. She constructed her worldview of Africa from what she got from the media but even that did not prepare her for the situation that confronted her in Malawi.
“I didn’t know what to expect. I have never been to Africa before. I have been to so many places in the world through music but nowhere that is so highly impoverished. I had not imagined it would be that bad,” said Sandi.
But the shock could never have been greater for Sandi by the paradoxes she was confronted with: “Although they [Malawians people] are so much far worse off than anybody I know, they are more alive than the people I know who have everything. And that’s the thing touched me most.
“I’ll try and do my best to send the message to the people back home to reconsider [helping the people]. It’s our responsibility when you consider the reason why these problems [hunger] occur.”
Lately, there have been calls for the western countries to renegade on pledges of aid made to poor countries like Malawi so that the west, too, can solve its current financial crisis.
But Sandi, having seen the debilitating effects of hunger at close range, feels that abandoning the pledges made should be the last thing the west can do.
“I know the people are feeling the effects of the credit crunch and the financial crisis but the one thing I will say to the people back home is that we feel it in a small way compared to the way people feel it here, it’s completely different circumstances,” Sandi said.
Oxfam Scotland is today (October 16, 2008) launching Oxfam’s £15 million World Food Crisis Appeal. The purpose of the funds is to pay for the organisation’s international development and humanitarian work on food and agriculture, and to campaign for changes to the flawed trade and agricultural polices that have left poor farmers vulnerable.
In Malawi, fertiliser and seed subsidies have gone a long way in making sure that the people harvest enough. But Malcolm Fleming, media and public relations manager for Oxfam Scotland, says the situation in Malawi is complicated.
“Malawi has had surpluses for the last few years because of the fertiliser subsidies. But we have visited some areas which didn’t harvest enough,” said Fleming.
“The World Food Crisis is hitting the poorest hardest. Women and children are especially vulnerable. Many of the people we met in Malawi were already down to one meal a day, and it’s expected things will get worse in the months ahead, with food prices possibly rising further still.
“There are many factors behind the crisis, but it is clear from talking to subsistence farmers in Malawi, that climate change has affected their ability to get a decent harvest. Many spoke about erratic rains, and unpredictable seasons,” said Fleming.
But, if that were all, the situation would not be as complicated.
“People are facing rising costs of food and people spend a large part of their income on buying food,” he said.
Chipped in Sukali: “The benefits of the fertiliser subsidy are likely to be eaten up by the rising cost of foods.”
It is not a point far removed from the truth and unless some action is taken, Malawi could be headed for a situation Fleming is hesitant to refer to as a ‘crisis’.
“However whatever the reasons behind the crisis, it’s clear that financial donations made now will help save lives in Malawi and elsewhere around the world in the next few crucial months. I urge everyone to make a donation today,” said Fleming.
But what is Sandi’s last word on the situation she saw in Malawi?
“My visit to Malawi opened my eyes to the extent of poverty and the harsh reality of how some people live and how rising food prices are affecting them.
“You have to ask yourself what you would do if you were in the situation many Malawians face. If you had a family to feed but the prices were doubling or tripling. The people I met in Malawi, and many millions like them around the world, need people here to show generosity when they need it most,” she said.
I must confess, I’m addicted to music and I know a fair number of musicians — local and international — but Sandi Brown was not the one name I could pretend I knew — a fact I, shamelessly, confessed to the musician when I met her last Wednesday evening.
Sandi Thom, born on August 11, 1981, is a Scottish musician with two albums to her credit, Smile... It Confuses People (2006) and The Pink & The Lily (2008). The first album reached number one in, among other countries, the UK and Ireland, number five in New Zealand, 11 in Australia and 43 in France while the single ‘I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)’ was number one in the UK, Ireland and Australia, three in New Zealand and 16 in Germany.
But Sandi did not visit Malawi early this month to promote her name and her music or, as some would assume, on a mission similar to Madonna’s.
Sandi is an ambassador for the charitable organisation, Oxfam Scotland and she was in the country to see for herself the hunger situation in Malawi so that she could raise awareness of the problem in Scotland.
In Malawi, the musician visited some areas in Chiradzulu, Blantyre rural and Lilongwe to see for herself the situation on the ground. To say she was confused by the paradoxes of Malawi and its people would be an understatement.
“It’s a beautiful country,” she said. “The land is vastly beautiful. The people I visited in the villages, in the school, I have admiration for their genuine strength in human spirit even though they are facing problems.”
Sandi has never been to Africa. She constructed her worldview of Africa from what she got from the media but even that did not prepare her for the situation that confronted her in Malawi.
“I didn’t know what to expect. I have never been to Africa before. I have been to so many places in the world through music but nowhere that is so highly impoverished. I had not imagined it would be that bad,” said Sandi.
But the shock could never have been greater for Sandi by the paradoxes she was confronted with: “Although they [Malawians people] are so much far worse off than anybody I know, they are more alive than the people I know who have everything. And that’s the thing touched me most.
“I’ll try and do my best to send the message to the people back home to reconsider [helping the people]. It’s our responsibility when you consider the reason why these problems [hunger] occur.”
Lately, there have been calls for the western countries to renegade on pledges of aid made to poor countries like Malawi so that the west, too, can solve its current financial crisis.
But Sandi, having seen the debilitating effects of hunger at close range, feels that abandoning the pledges made should be the last thing the west can do.
“I know the people are feeling the effects of the credit crunch and the financial crisis but the one thing I will say to the people back home is that we feel it in a small way compared to the way people feel it here, it’s completely different circumstances,” Sandi said.
Oxfam Scotland is today (October 16, 2008) launching Oxfam’s £15 million World Food Crisis Appeal. The purpose of the funds is to pay for the organisation’s international development and humanitarian work on food and agriculture, and to campaign for changes to the flawed trade and agricultural polices that have left poor farmers vulnerable.
In Malawi, fertiliser and seed subsidies have gone a long way in making sure that the people harvest enough. But Malcolm Fleming, media and public relations manager for Oxfam Scotland, says the situation in Malawi is complicated.
“Malawi has had surpluses for the last few years because of the fertiliser subsidies. But we have visited some areas which didn’t harvest enough,” said Fleming.
“The World Food Crisis is hitting the poorest hardest. Women and children are especially vulnerable. Many of the people we met in Malawi were already down to one meal a day, and it’s expected things will get worse in the months ahead, with food prices possibly rising further still.
“There are many factors behind the crisis, but it is clear from talking to subsistence farmers in Malawi, that climate change has affected their ability to get a decent harvest. Many spoke about erratic rains, and unpredictable seasons,” said Fleming.
But, if that were all, the situation would not be as complicated.
“People are facing rising costs of food and people spend a large part of their income on buying food,” he said.
Chipped in Sukali: “The benefits of the fertiliser subsidy are likely to be eaten up by the rising cost of foods.”
It is not a point far removed from the truth and unless some action is taken, Malawi could be headed for a situation Fleming is hesitant to refer to as a ‘crisis’.
“However whatever the reasons behind the crisis, it’s clear that financial donations made now will help save lives in Malawi and elsewhere around the world in the next few crucial months. I urge everyone to make a donation today,” said Fleming.
But what is Sandi’s last word on the situation she saw in Malawi?
“My visit to Malawi opened my eyes to the extent of poverty and the harsh reality of how some people live and how rising food prices are affecting them.
“You have to ask yourself what you would do if you were in the situation many Malawians face. If you had a family to feed but the prices were doubling or tripling. The people I met in Malawi, and many millions like them around the world, need people here to show generosity when they need it most,” she said.
I’m not saying anything…
I wish I could say something final, authoritative even, on the markets which seem to be passing on the unfashionable tendency of catching fire when no-one expects to but I can’t.
Zomba market was up in smoke the other day. So, too, was Nkhata-bay. Mangochi market was razed to the ground. The cause of the fires was unknown; but burning candles were suspected to have caused the fires. Mzuzu ‘Taifa’ market was burnt, not just once, but twice. Cause, again, unknown, but the candle, again, is the main suspect. For someone visiting Malawi for the first time, he would think the country never had candles in a long time.
Now, we have Ndirande Market. Again, cause unknown, but anything from the usual suspect, the candle, to an electrical fault, owing to the fact the fire started a few minutes after electricity had been restored (and Ndirande gets more than its fair share of blackouts) was culpable.
So far, our ‘forensic experts’ (and I’m assuming we have any) have failed to get at the root of the fires.
But I have become suspicious of these fires (and that’s not because Ndirande Market, my home market, is involved). When the market was burning down, I was about 10km away (and I guess that exonerates me as a suspect).
When I heard Ndirande Market was burning down, the first thought that crossed my mind was not about where I would get my relish for the next day. Rather, as I suggested to a colleague, I suspected more than a candle burning out its loneliness away.
Days later, I still can’t shake off that feeling. I have tried to but I just can’t.
How is it that of late we have too many lonely candles which seem so single-minded to wage a vindictive war against humanity? Is there some company that is manufacturing these malfunctioning candles which seem to possess foul-tempered souls?
But then I would be foolish enough to give inanimate objects like candles the credit, as it were, for wrecking havoc on humanity. Still, I need to find suspects as an armchair forensic expert and that brings me to the vendors themselves.
For quite a while, we have had complaints from people saying money is not as abundant as it used to be during you-know-who’s tenure. I’m not so sure if they plucked their money from the trees then but I’m certain that some people (at least I know a few) got loans (as they still do now) from banks, other micro-finance lending institutions and loan sharks.
Loan-sharks haven’t learnt the language of mercy yet nor have they mastered the skills of negotiation. So, once you get a loan from them, you have to pay, even if it means when you buried and rotting; they’ll still find a way to make you pay.
Banks and micro-finance lending institutions can be merciful when it suits them and not the customer. And that’s very rare.
So, weighed down by the interests rates, I somehow suspect some traders could be starting the market fires (that is, after they have already cleared their goods) and beg for mercy from the lending institutions. But that’s just my suspicion and it’s premised on the fact that a desperate person will employ desperate measures.
High on my list of suspicions, however, is politics. But having said that, I will let the world to judge me but my worry now is: Which market burns next?
Watch out!
Zomba market was up in smoke the other day. So, too, was Nkhata-bay. Mangochi market was razed to the ground. The cause of the fires was unknown; but burning candles were suspected to have caused the fires. Mzuzu ‘Taifa’ market was burnt, not just once, but twice. Cause, again, unknown, but the candle, again, is the main suspect. For someone visiting Malawi for the first time, he would think the country never had candles in a long time.
Now, we have Ndirande Market. Again, cause unknown, but anything from the usual suspect, the candle, to an electrical fault, owing to the fact the fire started a few minutes after electricity had been restored (and Ndirande gets more than its fair share of blackouts) was culpable.
So far, our ‘forensic experts’ (and I’m assuming we have any) have failed to get at the root of the fires.
But I have become suspicious of these fires (and that’s not because Ndirande Market, my home market, is involved). When the market was burning down, I was about 10km away (and I guess that exonerates me as a suspect).
When I heard Ndirande Market was burning down, the first thought that crossed my mind was not about where I would get my relish for the next day. Rather, as I suggested to a colleague, I suspected more than a candle burning out its loneliness away.
Days later, I still can’t shake off that feeling. I have tried to but I just can’t.
How is it that of late we have too many lonely candles which seem so single-minded to wage a vindictive war against humanity? Is there some company that is manufacturing these malfunctioning candles which seem to possess foul-tempered souls?
But then I would be foolish enough to give inanimate objects like candles the credit, as it were, for wrecking havoc on humanity. Still, I need to find suspects as an armchair forensic expert and that brings me to the vendors themselves.
For quite a while, we have had complaints from people saying money is not as abundant as it used to be during you-know-who’s tenure. I’m not so sure if they plucked their money from the trees then but I’m certain that some people (at least I know a few) got loans (as they still do now) from banks, other micro-finance lending institutions and loan sharks.
Loan-sharks haven’t learnt the language of mercy yet nor have they mastered the skills of negotiation. So, once you get a loan from them, you have to pay, even if it means when you buried and rotting; they’ll still find a way to make you pay.
Banks and micro-finance lending institutions can be merciful when it suits them and not the customer. And that’s very rare.
So, weighed down by the interests rates, I somehow suspect some traders could be starting the market fires (that is, after they have already cleared their goods) and beg for mercy from the lending institutions. But that’s just my suspicion and it’s premised on the fact that a desperate person will employ desperate measures.
High on my list of suspicions, however, is politics. But having said that, I will let the world to judge me but my worry now is: Which market burns next?
Watch out!
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