Graduation

So recently, I've just been extremely busy helping my boss put together a magazine. We really need to get this magazine out for July 25 so we have been working our asses off to get the rest of the content into the magazine. So the other day my mom sent me pictures of my older brothers university graduation. The people who attended were my mom, my aunt, and my younger brother. Sadly, I missed the graduation because I am in Malawi. When I looked at the pictures of course it made me feel awful that I wasn't there to be with my family. Secondly, looking at the pictures made me reminisce about school because that was also my old university. I did a degree in English and another in Journalism. My brother's graduation was for his second degree. He did a degree in Computer Science and Actuary Science. So immediately you can see the difference eh? he he. anyway thirdly looking at the pictures made me really take notice of how fast everyone is growing up. I mean my brother is older than me but in the picture was my younger brother as well. In about a week or so he will have his high school graduation. My God this means I am truly getting old. Between me and him there's a nine year difference and him and my brother 10 years. imagine. that's a huge gap. But in the picture my younger brother looked so grown. It was scary. I swear it was yesterday when he would follow me everywhere. I remember when kris kross was big that was mid 90's or so, I dressed him up in baggy pants and big hats. I mean he was young so of course if his big sister wanted to hang out he would agree. I remember dragging him along to all kinds of movies at the theater. And of course he would love it. Then as I started growing up more. I got friends. Then a boyfriend. The trips to the theater with he and I became fewer and farther between. I regret that. Now looking at the pictures I realized I missed so much of his life. I mean I was in university while he was going through those horrible changes in high school. You know puberty and hormones. Those years can be traumatic. I don't know what kind of parental difficulties he had in detail. I don't know much. And these days all I can manage to get from him about his life is a fine. It's typical I know cuz I was the same way but it's sad. I just look back and wish I had really been there for him. In any case, it's a result of the age difference that we really have become strangers and now being in Malawi makes it even more difficult. I think I hate graduations. They just make you reflect on life and they make you feel old. Graduations are a celebration of finishing school but I also think they are a big slap in the face. It's the schools way of saying, "GET OUT, GO TO THE REAL WORLD. YOU'RE TOO OLD FOR THIS PLACE!" Yup I officially hate graduations.

WAPi blog

please visit the WAPi Malawi blog to find out more information on what WAPi is. http://wapimalawi.wordpress.com. I actually decided to go to wordpress because of the layout and features they provide you on the blog. I will soon be changing my blog address to wordpress. I actually prefer it. so soon I will direct you to my new blog but till then keep checking in regularly here. My goal for the next few months is to get caught up with all the work I have to do, start freelancing. I'm aiming to do at least one article. And lastly I want to write a sonnet. That's all for now. peace. A

Love

So me and a friend were talking about Love the other day. We just realize we don't truly understand what it is. I mean we as in people are constantly saying the word i love you all the time. But really what is love? Okay, one friend said the best example is the love of Jesus. Okay but then when it comes to romantic love, how are you suppose to know the difference between real love, obsession, infatuation and lust? I don't know. Another friend said that often when you first meet someone it starts with infatuation and lust and then turns into love. I just don't know. Yes, we can use the example of Jesus, you know self sacrifice as our best example but taking the love Jesus showed us and using it to dissect whether you are in love with a man or a women is extremely difficult. I also took the example of sex and the city, it's the final episode of the series where carey says to her boyfriend that she's looking for love, real love, and then she goes on to describe real love as "ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't live without each other love", but is that even real love. I don't know is real love suppose to be ridiculous, inconvenient and something that you can't live without. is that love or lust? help me out here people.

LAZINESS

So, I know I still haven't told you what WAPi is. Honestly it's because of laziness. WAPi stands for words and pictures. It's a bi-monthly event that is being put on by British Council Malawi, this is a project that I am involved in. But that's all that I'm telling you. It's laziness, that I haven't done more. Like posted pictures or said more about WAPi. My plan is to start a WAPi blog but again...laziness. That's the problem when you get lazy it is so hard to bring yourself out of that rut. I just don't know how to drag myself out. I just feel so exhausted, unmotivated and creative. I think it's cause all my energy went into this event. Then we had it, and now I have no more creative energy left. I knew an energy boost but I dont know what will boost it. Any suggestions?

All's Quiet on the southern front

The results are in and Dr. Bingu Wa Mutharika, leader of the DPP, Democratic Progressive party) is now doing his second term as Malawi's president. He was inaugurated today in Blantyre. I live in Lilongwe so I didn't get to go and see the ceremony. Nor do I have any pictures, yet. But I am trying to get some. It was great to see so many Malawians out voting and then it was even greater to see that Malawians were so peaceful the next day. I mean I was telling someone and laughing about it when we were driving around on the streets the next day that it didn't even seem like there was an election. People were so chill. But Malawians are relatively chill anyway. I mean u had the occasional honking of the horn and wagging of the index finger (a symbol of the DPP party), but that was it. In the west, what we think about when we hear about politics in Africa is corruption, chaos and genocide. I mean we know about places like the Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, DRC, Zim, etc...where you hear about detaining of opposition leaders, killings of political supporters, fighting by rebel leaders or whatever. But while it has happened in many African countries it doesn't happen in all. That's not to say that I necessarily believe Malawi's election weren't without problems. I mean the elections were free, but were they fair? It depends what your definition of fair is. One of the biggest problems is that where political parties get their money from for their campaigns is not questioned. There are no checks and balances. And secondly, the DPP had an incredible media power providing them with only positive coverage. TVM, Malawi's only tv station, and also MBC the radio broadcaster who has incredibly strong signals across the country gave the DPP a huge platform to convince the public why they should be in power. The media is a powerful tool that can always be used to sway people's decisions. Yes, there are private radio stations who provided fair coverage but their signals are not as strong as MBC's so unfortunately those who heard the bias coverage of TVM and MBC didn't have the other radio stations to balance out the messages. Some would consider the use of state media by the DPP is a form of rigging but that's not for me to decide, it's for Malawians to decide. Despite this, what we need to remember is that Malawi became a democracy in 1994. Western democracy is much older than Malawi's. They are still fresh. And I think that as time goes on, Malawians will start to demand more and more from their politicians and their media. Clearly, this election is showing that Malawi's politics is evolving. In this election, people voted based on the issues and ignored regional or tribal divisions as previously was the case. People made decisions based on not which leader came from their area but what each leader could do for them. DPP has done a great job on the economy, the Kwacha is strong, food security has improved, development is occurring and so many other things are happening under the DPP government. Yes, the government has it's problems but what government doesn't. In Canada, we still have not settled the issue with aboriginal people. We have first nations people who are suffering on reserves because of poor health care, lack of employment opportunities, clean water and social support for the family structure. In the United States, issues of racial inequality and systemic racism still persist. There are complaints of media bias in Canada and in the United States. Lack of coverage for Palestinian issues and pro-Israel coverage. So I mean no society is perfect. Without passing judgment on one society or saying how much better our democracy is then theirs lets remember that ours has a few stains as well. I commend Malawi for setting a great example to the rest of Africa. Congratulations to all Malawians for carrying out a peaceful elections!

A quick note

The pics aren't in order. the order was messed up when i uploaded them but because it takes way too long to upload pictures, I am not taking them down and putting them up again. You'll figure it out.

Malawi polling in pictures part 2