Some Development Issues and Debates

By Greenwell Matchaya For me, this week of August, shall live in infamy since 2008. I had woken up early on one lazy Saturday morning on the 23 rd August 2008 . I did not go to work that morning as I was generally preparing to leave for the United States to continue with my doctoral studies. My mind was pre-occupied with how I was going to survive the winter that was sure to come, despite the fact that I had survived even more ruthless cold conditions in the Scandinavian region a few years before. The UK at the time was not bad in terms of weather. Aside from the unpredictable daily weather, the worst that could happen in terms of temperatures at the time, where I lived, was a minus 4 Degrees Celsius. Everything changed abruptly that morning, with a phone call from my cousin in Malawi reporting that my father whom I fondly call, among other names, “ the Insightful one” had died. The circumstances of the death were traumatizing. Apparently, he and his friends wer...

Legal Analysis corner    2019 April Greenwell Matchaya, PhD Driving around Cape Delgado you are blessed with moments of nice reception such that you can listen to Malawi radios without interruption when you are lucky.   So, when I opened my radio on 17 April 2019, I understood a Zodiak presenter as reporting an incident in which an ambulance driver (from Area 25 Clinics) who, in an attempt to save lives of patients and a child who was on oxygen, did not stop in respect of a president’s convoy and was subsequently asked   to appear before the police in Lilongwe. It was immediately clear that the police thought the driver’s act of driving while a presidential convoy was passing, was wrongful. Was it? It is common knowledge that where a president’s convoy is using a public road, the law requires that all other road users should in general, stand still or use alternative roads where applicable. The reasons are intuitive, and could include safe...