Letter
from Malawi to Geneva – another mission over.
I started writing this letter on 31 October 2011,
when I was in Lilongwe, Malawi. I will
finish it today – 29 November, in Geneva.
Too often, time just seems to slip away.
*****
Tonight, is Halloween in the US, and – following a
Skype conversation between Austin and Lilongwe -- I know that Jesse and Arianna
(as the donkey Eeyore) are out “trick
or treating”. What I am not clear about
is what Jesse will be wearing...I trust something appropriate to the role of
escort for my granddaughter. Meanwhile,
grandson Kyle sent out an SOS asking if anyone had a purple cape he could
borrow which I can only assume means that he is going to be in full Zorro or
Matador or Vampire attire. However,
where I am – in Lilongwe – there is none of this drama.
What there is are long
lines of cars and trucks at the gas pumps – and long queues of people with
jerry cans to fill with petrol or diesel, if they can get it. They stand in the heat for hours to buy fuel,
because Malawi has little foreign exchange and hence no “gas”. That people have, for the most part, not
given into “pump rage” is remarkable, but I don’t know how long this calm will
last. I witnessed a similar phenomenon
in Katmandu a few years ago, which eventually erupted into anger and violence.
Even the most patient people can tolerate only so much. The crux of this particular crisis is the
fact that Malawi’s President, Bingu wa Mutharika, took umbrage at a comment
made by the British High Commissioner in a cable released through Wikileaks –
describing the President of being “increasingly autocratic and intolerant of
criticism”. [Which happens to be an
accurate observation.] So Mutharika expelled the High Commissioner -- and
Britain, which provided aid to the extent of £19
million in annual budgetary support --
cut off the money. Hardly a
surprising response. The World Bank and
the EU have also suspended direct budgetary support (35% of Malawi’s budget was
from foreign aid) because of political restrictions and the government’s
crackdown against protests in July 2011.
While the
President has backed down in retracting the expulsion order, he has still not
said “mea culpa, I am sorry” and hence aid has not been resumed. What will really hurt will happen later this
month (November) if the government is unable to distribute the fertilizer
supplement that farmers depend on – and more than 80 percent of the population
in Malawi is rural and farming. Malawi is, I am told, the 6th
poorest country on this planet.
Be that as
it may, when I arrived, the jacaranda trees were in full blossom, the boughs
weighed down with hugh clumps of violet flowers, splashed against a pale blue
skyline. Then slowly, as the days past,
carpets of purple petals formed beneath the trees, as the wind blew them from
the branches onto the ground. And now, the brilliantly garish red flamboyant
trees are in flower – a typically African site – especially in the countryside
set against the mud brown huts with their thatched roofs.
I have only
been here less than a month. This is a very short (one month) mission to help
the UN Country team and the government factor
protection concerns into their contingency planning process – what we talk
about in the jargon as “mainstreaming” protection, or applying a “protection
lens” to the planning process. Concretely, what it means, is to make sure that
when UN agencies and the government are responding
to an emergency, they are sensitive to the human rights concerns that might
arise. For example, if there are camps for displaced persons, to ensure that
there are separate toilets and washing facilities for men and women, that there
is enough light there at night so women and girls can use them safely (not fear
being sexually attacked), that some latrines are built keeping in mind the
needs of persons with disabilities (e.g., not just a hole in the ground with
two board across but possibly a seat to sit on or at least hand holds) and that
the hole is not so big that a child can fall in. Really basic stuff. Believe me, it is difficult to balance in a
primitively designed latrine, especially is squatting is not your usual posture,
and I am not (yet) disabled. Or, to ensure that the dead are not just buried
quickly (which may be necessary for health reasons) but that mortal remains are
first identified (e.g., photographed) so relatives know they have died are not
“missing” persons. A big concern in an emergency is lost documentation (birth certificates,
health cards, school records) – so we try to get the government to agree that
such documents can be replaced easily at little or no cost, something they
always resist doing. Yet, without a health card, you often can’t get medical
care. Without IDs, children may be denied permission to attend school. As I
said, no rocket science – really basic stuff. For example, in distributing
food, that it be given to the women (not the men); that the most vulnerable
(pregnant women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities) are
prioritized; that the chronically ill or people living with HIV/AIDS can
continue to get their medication; that women or girls who were raped have
access to medical care including PEP kits to prevent pregnancy. So I participated in the planning process and
a final document will shortly be circulated that I will review one more time.
Then, I will go to South Africa for a debriefing.
During the
start of the second week of my mission, I managed to get a field trip to
Karonga in the very north of the country. They had had an earthquake there in
2009 and flooding in 2010. I wanted to talk to some of those who had been
affected – who had had their homes and crops destroyed. Malawi is long and thin with Lake Malawi
forming its Eastern border….a beautiful huge lake that has sandy beaches and
tides like the ocean though it is a fresh water lake. We drove north by the
inland road. I had hoped we could return by the coast, but because of the
petrol shortage, that was not possible. So I only saw bits of the lake, in
Karonga and in Nkata Bay. However, I did also get to do a weekend trip to
Dezda, where there is a wonderful pottery, but I exercised great restraint and
only bought one mug and a small pitcher; and Mua, where there is a wonderful
cultural museum. Unfortunately, they do not let you photograph the wonderful
masks they have collected there.
****
Letter
continued – 29 November. Then, for a long weekend before I left
Malawi, I was able to join some new friends and go to South Luangwa National
Park. Some of you may have seen the
pictures I posted on Facebook. It was a magical few days with elephants and
giraffes and hippos and lions and even a leopard. We were able to see lions
mating (a male and female go off together for 4 days, and in that period, they
mate about 60 times – just a minute or two on each occasion (slam, bam, thank
you mam) – which is a very draining process. We also saw a pride of five male
lions eating two buffalo they had killed the day before, and we watched as the
vultures then came and finally the hyenas. Not pretty, but dramatic. And I much
enjoyed the interlude with the new Malawian friends, and their niece and her
husband, newly weds who were visiting from the UK.
So – a
short mission –but OK. I did not get the time to visit the friends I have in
Zambia, or in Namibia, or in Zimbabwe. A shame, but a good reason to return. I did get to meet up with a woman I had worked
with closely on the World Conference Against Racism (wonderful day spent with
her, her husband and their two children) outside Johannesburg and with Edwin
Cameron, who sits on the Constitutional Court of South Africa. I first got to know when he
was a visiting fellow at Harvard so many years ago.
And from
there, with too many bags, I travelled to Ghent where I was a student again,
taking a two week course on Sexual Gender-based Violence, where I also
discovered the charm of the medieval cities of Ghent and Brugge, and the
exquisite cuisine of Flanders. Though I need now to go back on a diet, it was
well worth the pounds I put on – from the Belgian waffles with chocolate and
ice cream, to the mussels with fries, and the beef stew in beer. And the mounds
of smoked salmon. I have been in Geneva for a week where I facilitated a three
day workshop of the Global Protection Cluster (this just happened, it was not
planned, but it all worked out well in the end). I had a brief wander through
the botanical gardens and posted the photos on Facebook yesterday. Tomorrow
morning I fly to Oslo where Norcap (Norwegian Refugee Council and the Norwegian
Foreign Ministry) are celebrating the 20th birthday of their standby
partnership programs, and where the Norwegian queen will make an appearance. I
will be back then in Geneva for another week and fly home to Montreal on 8th
December. (My wonderful neighbor Carole assures me that my heat and hot water
will be turned on for my arrival.) A few days later, on the 14th, I
will fly to Texas to be there to welcome the newest member of our family – a
little boy who’s due date is actually the 14th…but who will arrive
when he is good and ready to do so. I am, of course, super excited, and also
eager to see my gorgeous granddaughter, who turns three later in December.
So… there you have my last months. I don’t know where I will be off to in January. Somewhere, to be revealed as always at the last minute. Let me take this op to wish everyone a fabulous Chanukah, Christmas and Chinese New Year. My email remains the same and, as always, I look forward to hearing from you if you have time to drop a line
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