More About Malawi

Most Malawians have to cope with a more or less constant lack of means to finance basic commodities like food or fertilizer, clothes and school fees for their children, not to mention medical emergencies, funerals etc. This particularly applies crucially to families in the rural areas, but a look at the average salaries of unskilled or semi-skilled jobbers like cleaning staff, household helpers, shop assistants etc. quickly reveals that also many city inhabitants, even if at all they have a regular income job, can hardly cover their living costs with their salary (which are considerably higher in the city, mainly due to rents and lacking possiblity to grow own food instead of buying it). There is no state support or social security net. An obligatory pension funds regulation has been passed mid 2011 but will take years until anyone will benefit from it, and due to its current nature of securing only a one-off payment once an aged employee is retired and the beneficiary age is far beyond the statistiscal life expectancy or even the age in which people often tend to physically not be able to work anymore due to the hardship of life and bad nutrition since childhood. Unemployment isn’t covered, and though private health insurance companies are trying to develop the market and schemes for low income earners have recently been estab- lished, only a  minority of city employees have access to comprehensive health services at an affordable rate in case of sickness. The majority of people here, often named “the poor”, also know that with better education, more training and start-up capital accessible, they would have aimed higher. Many of them indeed dream of a better, at least a bit safer and easier, life, and a future for their children. It is a valid assumption that Malawi like many other so-called “third-world countries” might probably have developed differently without the historical burden of colonialism and the decades of brain-washing by dictatorial leadership. Pushed to function within the capitalistic, money-oriented Western economic system which does not find its perfect match in neither the mentalitiy, value system, efficiency patterns nor the readiness of Malawians to compete and fight against each other instead of cooperating, Malawians have long been educated by their own leaders to depend on and even expect gifts from abroad and considering development aid a necessary, legitimate basis for life. Despite the efforts by recent governments to promote more emancipation of Malawi from too high dependency from international partners, at this point in time, more than half of Malawi’s natioanl budget still depends on development aid. Furthermore, the country currently had to undergo a critical economic downturn with extreme scarcity of foreign exchange and related scarcity of imported goods, including petrol and diesel, which has led to a crucial hike in prices, closing of many businesses, and temporary chaotic situations on the roads. Though after the regime change in February 2012, the atmosphere is on change and collaboration again, but the long overdue devaluation and slow economic relief impact most decisively the people with low incomes who are now even burdened more by immensely increased living costs and can now afford even less than before to e.g. take a minibus to the next hospital or pay for the education of their children... It is still to be seen how long it will take until the promising economic growth of until about 2011, which saw increased wealth-creation also by the new government.