Malawi: Moving on Despite the Politics of Section 65 · Global Voices
The phenomenal story of 19 year-old Malawian blogger <PERSON> continues to attract attention from around the globe. <PERSON> began making headlines after his appearance at the TEDGlobal 2007 conference in Tanzania, in June, where he talked about how he built a windmill using locally available resources in a remote part of Malawi where the easiest means of energy is fuel, wood, kerosene and candlelight.
Earlier he had dropped out of school after his parents were unable to afford his tuition fees. After achieving fame through the efforts of Malawian bloggers who first wrote about the story following a news item in a Malawian newspaper, and after hitting BoingBoing.net, Digg, Reddit, and Metafilter, <PERSON> has now been featured on My Hero.
As videos from the TEDGlobal 2007 conference become available online, <PERSON>’s speech at the conference can now be accessed through the conference’s website, on Youtube, on his blog, and also as a download. <PERSON> has also been writing about how he is making use of the money people have been donating through his blog, using some of it for home supplies, as well as preparing to go back to school:
When planting season comes, I will use some of the funds to buy seed, fertilizer and urea for my family's crops of maize, ground nuts and beans.
I have also opened a bank account and put funds in so that my family is now prepared for medical, food or other needs and/or emergencies. I have started saving for the rest of private secondary school, boarding and university, too.
Still in the tech realm, <PERSON> has had plenty of tech news to report about on his blog. <PERSON> announces a campaign by bloggers around the world to unite against all forms of abuse, by blogging against this vice on September 27, 2007. <PERSON> announces that the campaign is being driven by Blogcatalog. <PERSON> also informs his readers that his blog is now viewable in ten major languages, by use of a free widget, from Google Translator Widget Blog. 830
This makes <PERSON>’s blog now readable in Arabic, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, French and Korean. The other piece of news <PERSON> has for his readers is the forthcoming launch, on August 29, 2007 of MyLiveSearch, which <PERSON> says technology enthusiasts have been waiting with bated breath for.
For <PERSON>’s African readers and others interested in Africa’s technological solutions, the most exciting news is perhaps what <PERSON> announces as the invention of a new, low cost computer that runs on solar energy.
<PERSON> points out that over 2 billion people in the developing world live in rural and remote communities that lack basic access to information and communication technologies–telephony, computing, Internet access. In response to this need, Inveneo, a non-profit social enterprise, creates and sells highly affordable and sustainable ICTs that are specifically designed for organizations–governments,NGOs,private enterprises–that serve rural communities with vital services that include education, health care,economic development,relief and telecentres. This is great stuff! You can visit their site and make a paypal donation. Theirs is indeed a great cause.
<PERSON> reports that the computer is already available in Uganda, for US$941, which the government there says is tax-free. <PERSON> expresses excitement about this innovation, while also observing that the cost is too high for ordinary people in rural areas, the main target of the gadget. <PERSON> ends his post by inviting the company, UK-based Inveneo Inc, to Malawi where he says it will be most welcome.
Moving on from the world of technology, the political atmosphere in Malawi has been hyper-charged for the past two months. No two terms have so dominated Malawian discourse in the last decade as have “Section 65” and “Budget.” Section 65 refers to the section in the Constitution of Malawi which forbids members of parliament from moving away from the party that sponsored them into parliament to another party also represented in parliament without a by-election.
President <PERSON>, who himself left the party that sponsored him to win the presidency and started his own party, asked the courts to clarify the section, in the hope that the courts would rule in his favor as well as that of more than 60 members of parliament who also left their own parties to join the president in his new party.
The courts ruled on June 15 that Section 65 was indeed valid, and tension has been the order of the day in Malawi since then. 830