exchange. It seems to have become the most important thing than the
goods themselves. People would hold on to money than the goods. It
might be good at country level but not internationally. For we don't
eat money but the goods we can.
Going back at personal level: almost every bank and advert insurance
this insurance that with a few savings for help in a time you might
not have money. Health insurance, Life insurance, etc. so many other
public services that at one time were provided free. Oh yes they said
you don't give freebie to people they won't develop. I guess it
matters as well how you define development. Many people who have money
cannot afford to buy a cow which one can have free in the villages.
In a business arena where every body is really trying to maximise
profit goods become undervalued. The highier the product goes in the
exchange chain, the highier the price though the lesser the value
added and the graph of the price against value added would be found
to be exponential.
When we get so much forex as indication of financial growth it is the
same as selling all you maize and keeping the money. Suppose everyone
sells all the maize, where does it go? Surely its just not lying
around somewhere. If it is, when the farmer needs it again later, he
will have to pay a highier price. If it is not, it might have gone
somewhere it can't be taken back(like outside the country for
example). Then when the farmer needs the maize back, there will be too
few available for everyone and not to mention the price which is even
highier. So in the end, we have a country full of money but no food.
Money can be eaten by rats and be useless. At least if one had maize
if eaten by rats there is still plenty to eat and the worst case is
that it will be given to cattle which we can still eat and drink milk.
Is tobacco a solution? Grow so much tobacco, and no sale you just
wasted a lot of resource on imported inputs which we don't eat.
Suppose we grow what we need which if not sold we can still eat.
Maize, Groundnuts, Beans, Bananas, Oranges, Cattle, Chicken, pa dziko
padzikhala pa mwana alirengi. If one has some food and shelter they
can live another day with an empty pocket. But if even food and
shelter they have to buy as well, there comes a day when the pocket
runs dry when they sleep with an empty stomach.
A question I should ask, I don't if I will get the answer from any
reader but its worth asking: can fertiliser be made from tobacco? For
if the buyers don't buy the useless leaves, it can atleast be bought
at its value to give back to the growers and processed into fertiliser
to give back to the fertility of our land. Than selling at a give away
price. Then a farmer disappointed by the sale would also be encouraged
to grow food crops.
I believe the former government(Kamuzu's) limited the growth to a few
who really had the expertize and resources to produce better quality
and it must have been a quotaed growth based on the demand and Malawi
as whole benefitted. Other's who saw these tobacco farmers prospering
found this unfair. While it might not be achievable to return to this
restriction honest truth without restriction would help more while
means are also being found to what tobacco can be useful to Malawi
itself. Letting people see this reality (better what you can eat and
sale, than sale or throw away) and encouraging them to grow food
crops. Practice our good agricultural ways as we used to. Kodi kukhala
ndu nkhokwe pakhomo nchimidzi? Koma chakudya chimasungidwa bwino
munkhokwe than muchipinda (no actellic superguard, no mbewa
mukagwiritsa nthito mouse guard). Kodi tikufuna kuti azungu adzabwere
azatiphunzitse kumanga nkhokwe? A Malawi lekani enawo aziseka ino
konzani moyo wanu.
I know people are being encouraged to be in farm clubs I guess this is
towards cooperate farming of tobacco and other crops which cannot be
managed individually, can be grown in this way. But even these
individual farmers could be encouraged to grow food for their own.
Akuti musangowapatsa zaulere muziwagulitsa azilimbikira nthito. Kodi
zikakhalapo zaulere tisawapatse? Kodi tikachite kuchepetsa zimene
alinazo kuti azikakugula? Kodi tikachepetsa zimene alinazo zina
zipezeka kuti? Kodi kukhala ndi moyo, mesa nkukhala ndi chakudya
ndipogona, ndi kusangala ndi abale ako?
At the end of the day, when everything else is said and done, even the
best economy gives money for free to achieve the balance. I guess now
it becomes a choice of what to give for free: money to buy good
health, food, shelter and clothing or good health, shelter and
clothing so that people are strong and healthy and with peace of mind
to grow their own food or if available, why not all free?
--
Accept The Challenge God Will Guide.