Last year, when some Malawians poked fun at a Zambian mayor caught dozing in office, our neighbours went mad on social media and rained vitriol on us reminding us how pathetic we are as a nation.<\/p>\n
Some years ago, the eccentric former South Africa president Jacob Zuma made a stunningly brutal remark by referring to our roads as finest examples of backwardness. Msholozi might have been accused of diplomatic gaffe and, as expected, incensed a few Malawians but what he said was an ugly truth.<\/p>\n
As a nation, we need to concede that somehow, we have given people all the reasons to poke fun at us. We are a laughing stock in the region and the world. It is our own making. While our neighbours are progressing at supersonic speed, we have chosen to put a reverse gear. It is not surprising that we have been rated the third poorest country in the world.<\/p>\n
Last week, we had shocking and disturbing news when four young souls were brutally sent to their graves after what passed for a school block fell on them. The Minister of Education sheepishly told us that the government has learnt a lesson and would do better next time. You can trust me, that is all and nothing more will be done.<\/p>\n
For two decades, all Malawians have been given are a retinue of false political promises without action. But as they say, we all deserve the leaders we have and surely for our docility and amnesia, we deserve these bad leaders who have taken turns to bring shame on the nation.<\/p>\n
As a country, we seem to be very good at doing everything wrong. From politics to sports, from governance to morality and what have you.<\/p>\n
Just this month, the nation sent its bunch of shameless age cheaters to South Africa to embarrass the nation in the Cosafa Cup. Cosafa Cup, for those who care to know, is a Mickey-mouse soccer tournament contested by hapless Southern Africa teams such as Botswana, Lesotho, Bafana Bafana and Mauritius. Even at such a tournament, the Flames could only manage a solitary goal and were sent home the earliest.<\/p>\n
I am beginning to understand a colleague who said he had resigned to the hopelessness of this country. He believes we are a cursed nation and we need serious exorcism if at all something good should happen to us.<\/p>\n
Next year, as we always do every five years, we will have another chance to elect who should govern us. If you ask me, there is a pretty good chance\u2014actually a high likelihood\u2014that we are going either to extend the mandate of the crop of thieves we currently have or we will substitute these ones for another gang which will do nothing but loot the little we have.<\/p>\n
The fault, as William Shakespeare said, is not in the stars but in us. As Malawians, we have abandoned our destiny and have been blinded by political colours such that we cannot see when things are outright messy as they are.<\/p>\n
If you want to know how damned we are, you should read the political stupidity on social media. The political jingoism is just irritating and the fact that most of the peddlers are the youth, we must be very afraid that we will remain a nation of arrested development as we are. We might even be worse.<\/p>\n
What Malawi needs is a national revolution of collective minds. We cannot go on this way as a nation that only finds itself on top for corruption, poverty and diseases. We need to set our standards high and stop celebrating smaller things.<\/p>\n
Take, for instance, for 54 years all the country has achieved in world football is sending a young boy to be a football carrier at the World Cup. Actually, that is the closest Malawi has gone to a World Cup. If we do not start thinking big, we will continue being a global laughing stock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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