Beware of dogs

In Homer’s The Odyssey, Telemakhos is highly disturbed by the plunder being done to his father’s household by the gluttons courting Penelope, his mother, upon rumours of the purported death of his great father, Odysseus. In trying to savage whatever was left of his father’s estate, he sought the assistance of his fellow Akhians to disperse the marauding suitors but to no avail.

Then Telemakhos sought the wisdom of the gods and the gods through Athena, daughter of Zeus, advised him to embark on a journey in search of the truth of his father’s whereabouts before dealing with those suitors destroying his father’s household. With the help of the gods, Telemakhos was reunited with his father, Odysseus the great warrior and together they managed to defeat the suitors who nearly destroyed the great household.

Such is the case now with Malawi. With all the prospects of the country doing well through its natural resources, Malawi keeps on growing poorer each passing day. All this through the exploitation the country is facing due to the greed of a few misguided gluttons.

Just take stock of the Kayelekera uranium mine project in Karonga. Many truths and lies have been fed into the minds of the ever respectful and easily cheated and fooled Malawians. Up to now nothing can be proudly shown as what Malawi as a country benefited from the mining project apart from the problems that the communities surrounding the mining site are now grappling with.

Instead of that project benefiting the whole country it just brought happiness to the privileged few and miserly to the voiceless many.

Another case is that of the railway project passing through Mwanza, Neno and Balaka districts. As the project was about to commence, Malawians living in the districts were promised a lot of things hence they anticipated an improvement in their social needs. There were promises of improved road networks, construction of bridges on some difficult-to-access places not forgetting the upgrading of some health facilities apart from the compensation to those who lost their customary land to the project.

Like Telemakhos’ Akhaians, the country’s privileged few have become deaf and dumb that they are unable to hear the pained murmurings from the affected people making them unable to speak for the voiceless people crying for the total fulfillment of promises made to them before the project began. Probably those responsible have become visually impaired that they are unable to notice what people are crying for as they wish for an improvement in their social amenities.

A few months ago, people of Lisungwi in Neno blocked the road to the Mota-Engil camp site in protest against many unfulfilled promises the company made prior to the commencement of the construction project that has passed through their area.

Houses have been destroyed by the heavy construction activities that were going on in these areas. Sources of their drinking water have been contaminated by the heavy pollution that the areas have been exposed to. Patiently, these people waited with hope that the company was going to at least relieve them of some of their critical needs but to no avail. The road network in Neno which was worsened by the heavy duty vehicles and machinery during the construction work has become a great headache to members of the community.

Like Telemakhos, the affected people have tried to seek help from their leaders but assistance has not been forthcoming. Instead the leaders have always been at the forefront accusing the concerned members of the communities that they have been jeopardizing this development while always siding with the contractor. It is known that some of the local leaders were given luxurious vehicles by the contractor and that might be the reason they have always been on the side of the contractor.

With this mindset, Malawi will always cry and wish for genuine development that is always not forthcoming. Maybe Malawians must pluck a leaf from Odysseus’ son and cry to God for wisdom on what to do.

However, on Philippians 3 verse 2 God is warning Malawians to ‘beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision’. True indeed only when Malawians are going to be worry of the dogs and evil workers masquerading as leaders is Malawi going to benefit as a country from its natural resources. This is going to leave smiles on everybody’s face not only the few greedy ones whom the scriptures are equating to dogs.