and the times, they are a changin'....

so, since my last entry was a bit of a snapshot into the ugly place that is my thought process... i guess i should give a a bit of perspective on what's going on in malawi right now... as it has been quite a journey in itself to be in a country during a political shift like what has been going on here. i in no way claim to have any expertise in the going ons.. but this is what i have been able to decipher throughout my time here.

as i mentioned in my first post, i found myself walking into the country just days after the death of the president, bingu wu mutharika.

it seems the dude was really good for the country during his first term as president... he overhauled a lot of things and really made steps in the right direction for a country that has a GDP that is in the bottom 10 in the entire world, and a population that has seen malnutrition and hiv/aids rates rise continually over they years. however, after being re-elected... bingu was called into question and negative international press after calling for police to shoot unarmed malawians during a protest, as well as kicking the UK's ambassador to malawi out of the country for alleged comments about how he was running the country. during these incidents, the then vice-president joyce banda spoke out against the president's actions.. and the president subsequently kicked her out of their political party. however, due to the constitution... joyce banda remained as vice president and formed her own opposition party. after all of this, there was plenty of talks that the president was now grooming his son to be the next president.

so, when bingu died... there was a lot of uncertainty as to who would be president and what the future of the country would look like. eventually, it was passed that joyce banda would be africa's second female head of state, and take over the presidential duties until there is the already scheduled election in 2013.

after years under what many perceived as dictator-like rule with worsening conditions for people... the expectations on banda were probably unfair and bigger than any one person could deliver on... but it it seemed as though immediately the changes started to come... instantly banda went through the cabinet and dismissed member after member who had allegations of corruption. and within weeks, there were neighboring countries who lent or gave large amounts of fuel to combat the intense fuel shortages. however, now some time since the donations... the fuel is now becoming scarce, and there is often fuel queue's at stations that are 20 or more vehicles long that hold up traffic, and often once getting to the front of the line you find out that it is all gone. 

another change has been the change of the national flag. a few years back, the former president changed the flag from the flag it waved after independence (a flag with a half-sun, signifying that the sun was rising on malawi, and that there was good to come) to a new flag with a full sun... bingu stating that the independence flag was no longer relevant and that the sun had now risen entirely on malawi. these were not the sentiments shared by the population, and many people opposed the change. and within less than 2 months of his death, joyce banda has changed the flag back to the independence flag.

joyce banda is also a big human rights advocate, and there have also been plenty of talks about not only changing the laws that currently make homosexuality illegal, but also of holding a referendum in regards to legalizing gay marriage.

however... hands down the largest change to hit this country has been joyce banda's decision to reverse the former president's mandate to keep the national currency set at a specific rate (150 kwacha per dollar) and unlock the kwacha and put it onto the market to fluctuate according the world bank and IMF's standards. due to the combined fact that the kwacha's value had been unchanged for so long and malawi's GDP and standard of living had been decreasing for some time; the currency took an immediate and intense devaluation. it moved from 150mk per dollar to 260mk per dollar. not a small shift.

the devaluation of the kwacha has hands down had the biggest effect on this country... fuel prices are now at 500 kwacha (approx. 2 canadian dollars) per litre... which would be cause for outrage in canada, not to mention that well over half of malawi's population live on less than it costs for a litre of fuel. the devaluation's effect on fuel costs then effects transport, which means that prices for everything have been growing incrementally... all of this while wages have not increased, leaving a population that was for the most part already working to survive; now scrambling to meet their basic needs. it has also seen crime rates increase significantly. some of this increase can probably be attributed to the new president deciding to not keep up the 'shoot to kill' law that the former president had put in place for his police, but a lot of it has simply had to do with the growing divide between the rich and the poor, and the extreme effects that the devaluation has had on the everyday citizen of malawi.

due to the amount and the scale of the changes that have happened over the short time since joyce banda has taken over as president... it has brought malawi back into the good books of the international community and has seen already the IMF and the UK pledge a huge amount of money to help stabilize the country during the tough times ahead. the return of donor dollars will also hopefully put an end to to the country's intense shortage of foreign currency, which makes it really hard on business' who are trying to import or export or do any sorts of dealings outside of malawi. the lack of foreign currency empowered a large black market for currency which found the rates being almost double that of what the fixed rate was... which admittedly was a temptation to large for me to resist when changing my personal money, haha. but, hopefully with an increase in foreign dollars coming into the country... the black market will diminish and the banks will again be competitive.

all in all, i couldn't have asked for a more interesting few months to spend in a country. on top of the experiences of spending a larger chunk of time in a foreign culture and working within that culture, the addition of the political change and development that has happened has only added another dimension to my experience. it has definitely made me think a lot more about the development portion of involvement in africa, and made me really interested in what kind of press these types of things get in north american press... it's a bit hard to imagine it has gotten much due to the 'more exciting' things going on in somalia, mali, and sudan. also, it feels weird being here and wondering what is happening back home. with the amount to keep up on here, i have had zero time to give to updating myself on the going on's in canada... i have heard nothing beyond who won the provincial election in alberta (and that was tough news to get as it was) and that the kings are poised to take the cup... and i definitely have had a hard time with the lack of communication from friends and family. some of this is definitely self-imposed and unavoidable.. but it's been a lot more difficult than i expected not being in the loop and hearing from people.

on the update side of things... i have had my time here at the centre take a bit of a turn from what i had planned. due to some unforeseen circumstances, i have been left in a leadership role here... and have found myself overseeing the operations of the centre for the last 3 weeks of my stay in malawi. definitely wasn't expecting that to be the case, but i'm rolling with the punches and definitely learning a lot. as if i didn't have enough questions surrounding responsible involvement in a third world country.... now i get to live them out as i am day to day meeting with the malawian staff and trying to figure out how to keep this joint afloat until the directors get back.

so that's where things are at for me right now... definitely miss everyone back at home and am excited to get the updates and breakdowns when i return.

peace and love.