I have been pushed to write this piece following the recent landmark judgement delivered by Justice Dingiswayo Madise on the attempted murder of a boy with albinism.
I am one of the many people who are mostly skeptical of the decisions or judgements our courts pass to offenders. However, Justice Madise has proved to me that there are still some judges who belong to the original Malawi where offenders wouldn’t go scot-free without getting their equal share of punishment. These evil minded people must rot in jail as they incline on their evil.
But I still want the Judiciary of Malawi to prove its relevance to society by showing that they belong to that original Malawi; this time cashgaters must rot in jail.
As you read this, there are numerous innocent people dying on the floors of our hospitals that have no medicines. These people are bread winners for their families and needy children. This is happening because someone selfishly stole money from Government coffers which could have been used to buy drugs. Such acts do equate to mass murder.
I am waiting for the day I will hear a cashgater getting a convincing sentence will be made during the day; not an ‘owl judgement.’
During my college days, our lecturers would tell us to emulate the philosophy of Charles Dickens. In the book: A Tale of Two Cities; Dickens says: “My country is dearer than my life. We were told to fight and die for our nation, we should be proud to see our nation doing better and contribute to its rise. Does that exist among us, especially those who are close to the ‘ scare currency’ of our nation?”
Where are the morals that depicted the freshness and greatness of this nation? With culpable ignorance on our shoulders, we bring our morals into a brink. Philosophers believe that moral evil is the result of any morally negative event caused by the intentional action or inaction of an agent, such as a person. An example of a moral evil might be murder, or any other evil event for which someone can be held responsible or culpable.
This concept can be contrasted with natural evil in which a bad event occurs without the intervention of an agent. The dividing line between natural and moral evil is not absolutely clear however, as some behaviour can be unintentional yet morally significant and some natural events (for example, global warming) can be caused by intentional actions.
The distinction of evil from ‘bad’ is complex. Evil is more than simply ‘negative’ or ‘bad’ (i.e. undesired or inhibiting good) as evil is on its own, and without reference to any other event, morally incorrect. The validity of ‘moral evil’ as a term, therefore, rests on the validity of morals in ethics. We are intentionally killing the culture of compassion among ourselves.
See how bizarre family life has turned into? A biological father sniffing sexual relationship with his daughter— the mother conceals the affair. Where are our morals?
There are issues of sexual harassment in offices, where male bosses harass female juniors for either promotion or favours even to get employed; isn’t this stupidity of a nation we are building? Much as I appreciate that women are sexually harassed in offices, I have also realised that most women are architects of all that- they entice their bosses deliberately for their personal gain. Are we surprised why HIV/Aids is still a problem in modern Malawi?
Do we realise that it is unlawful to harass a person (an applicant or employee) because of that person’s sex. Harassment can include “sexual harassment” or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.
Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, however, and can include offensive remarks about a person’s sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general.
Both victim and the harasser can be either a woman or a man, and the victim and harasser can be the same sex.
Although the law doesn’t prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted).
The perpetrator can be the victim’s supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.
We are living in a nation where girls do not want to marry their age mates, they want men who are already established and ‘experienced’-they say age is just a number. We are living in a nation where success is forced not attained with dignity-that’s why am not surprised to see ‘unremorseful thieves’ every day in their suits.
That Malawi where people would be afraid of being leaders not that they couldn’t be good leaders but they felt they owe their people a great responsibility-that one is gone. Today, everyone wants to be a chief and be praised. That spirit of servitude is gone. That Malawi where hard workers would be promoted on merit and the qualified would be offered job-those days are gone, if you didn’t make a name or you don’t belong a family that made a name; your qualifications won’t save you. I am afraid, I will never belong to this Malawi. Do you belong to the new Malawi?
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