reality check

game · Guru

reality check

Ngwazi · Guru

quote:

Originally posted by: game
"honourable menbers, allow me to present this topic which needs a bit scrutiny from all of us.i happened to brouse on one of the forums from malawi and i came across a very interesting topic,someone said something like "why is it that countries like malawi,zimbabwe,and zambia dont perform well on the economic platform?" After digesting some of the facts raised i thought it would be wiser if i share it with my fellow malawians on this forum.are this countries prone to economic crisis or luck of accountability in the administrations that generates to poor economic perfomance?because if you look at it since Mugabe's controversiall land reform program zimbabwe's economy has reached rock bottom and this in my opinion has affected all the countries that trade with zimbabwe, was'nt it in early 90's when malawi's kwacha was equivalent to mighty dollar,how can a countries economy plunge headlong in such a short period of time?"

game,most countries fail to perform economically because of the calibre of the political leaders that they have.You have to remember that politicians everywhere in the world once they are in power,try to shape up the economic policies of the government in the direction they desire or according to their beliefs.In the western world such beliefs are mainly to stimulate growth and development for example by regenerating areas that have been neglected,raise taxes inorder to increase expenditure on public services or increase interest rates to avoid overheating of the economy or reduce the rates to encourage people to spend inorder to bring back confidence in the markets,they do this by giving independence and appointment of well qualified personnel in key positions in the central bank as is the case with Alan Greenspan inthe U.S.A or the Bank of Englands Dr King.However in most african countries appointments to such positions are done as part of the patronage system and this leads to poor or bad economic decisions,they are appointed to help "loot"the economy and help to conceal such behaviour,they lack accountability.Mugabes land redistribution policy was a good one before politics hijacked the whole concept,the carrot and stick approach where the farmers would have been offered money first then forced to sell part of their land(thru legislation) if they proved uncooperative should have been followed so as to avoid an agriculture dependent economy from collapsing as it eventually happened.The kwacha has been the victim of poor economic policies,mismanagement of greater scale(corruption&patronage) by the previous regime that led to donor aid freeze.But some countries like Japan deliberately devalue their money to make their exports look attractive to any importing country.

Abromovich · Member

The major problem in Africa Malawi inclusive is political leadrship and governance as Ngwazi pointed out. Our political have cultivated a certain culture one of not serving the people but poeple serving them. This leads them to a situation of wanting to acheive personal goals and ambtions at the expense of their beloved nations. Now where does it take them? They abuse public resources meant for development both social and economical. They overspend to suit their lavish style of living those palaces, those fatty overseas bank accounts. Let me not talk much on this as the Ngwazi as given you some hints.

The second problem that we have is we the poeple. We are very lazy, we have an attitude problem, we have the 'I must bring him/her down' syndrome. Instead of helping one another we create un healthy competition we look down upon others awanso angapange chani. Let us take our country Malawi for example, you find that I can have a very good business paln present it to the banks but as long as the manager is not my friend I will never have that loan but mean while if a friend to the bank manager applies he will be given the monies start the business live a lavish life the business folds and the bank loses out. Another good example is kuzidelala or may be trying to associate our selves with a certain group. People in Malawi fee that cement from Zimbabwe is better that Portland Cement. But if you look at the quality of cement you will find that Portland is far much better but because people have the attitude of saying oh! the house I have built everything was imported. Yes it is good to import but we forget that we are losing as a country because our economy wont expand our brothers and sisters at Portland are losing jobs because the sales are going down it is becoming unprofitable for Portland hence the option of scaling down operations or compeletly folding up.

On the land issue in Zimbabwe I see nothing wrong only that whites are failing to understand. I have been to Zim and I have travelled by road through the country and seen those vast and massive land owned by one white person. I asked myself a question does any black man own this type of land in UK and USA may be you can answer me.

Paudah_Paf · Member

I like the title of your post Game, it points to the heart of the matter.

While others have made valid points concerning political and economical mismanagement of African nations nobody seems to realise the fundamental issue.

FOOD SECURITY.

In a nutshell. The Industrial Revolution could never have taken place without the preceding Agrarian Revolution.

We have a simple problem in Africa. We consume far more than we produce and we pay through our noses for it.
How many processed goods do we import per capita?
You'd be shocked at the answer.

Look at what you're dressed in now and the location surrounding you and tell me how many things are Malawian.

Then tell me how many are South African, Oriental (Far-East China, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan), Near-East(India, Arabia), European or American.

Even our packaging (and other) industries import the bulk of their raw materials!

Now what if we were producing more food than we could consume?
Storing as much as we possibly could and exporting the surplus?
After all, most industrial nations no longer have the agricultural capacity to supply their concrete jungles with fresh produce.
Hence tasteless (but good-looking) genetically modified vegetables and meats.

Yet we take a cross section of Malawi and find all this land lying fallow.

Why are we concerned about fancy roads and modern cities when we have no agricultural backbone?

If you play any RTS (Real Time Strategy) Games like I do you soon learn that food supports and enhances all other endeavours INCLUDING trade.

We need to get people farming, both livestock and crops. A happy well-fed man will not have the time to be jealous of his neighbour.

Our worries stem from our hunger.

This post is already too long but allow me just one example please:
There's a special offer on DSTV currently on in Botswana and Namibia where they pay ZAR 20/= (20 rands! Malawi eqv K 400/=) for a bouquet.
Yet we are still suffering forking out K 6,000/= per month for services that are not targeted at us anyway. For those of you on DSTV, when was the last time you saw an advertisement that was valid outside South Africa? Or goods we could buy in our shops here?

It goes on and on...
Let's feed ourselves first, then manufacture for ourselves and one day (hopefully) export and reverse this impossibly unfavourable balance of trade.

The successful models are there, we simply need men of fibre, true LEADERS to guide us in the path towards economic stability and prosperity.