To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.
This is what writer Yann Martel observes in his winner of The Man Booker Prize for the year 2000, Life of Pi.
I am no philosopher of stagnation. I believe we must aim at progress—and doubt should never root us to a state of despair.
However, I am so bitter with our entertainers that I am not ashamed to say I doubt whether they will ever get better.
This is so because I believe some people and systems believe there is so much speed in immobility.
Such people remain the same, even if their stand is hazardous to personal progress or that of their careers and industries.
I would like to pick our musicians as an example. They are almost ahead in the race for rot in the entertainment sector.
Even at the end of a long string of concerns from their fans, our performers still have the audacity to come on stage hours behind schedule.
And as if to rub the salt in, they will spend half an hour on sound check…yes, the very sound check organised bands take care of hours before the show.
A case in point is a reggae show in Blantyre last weekend where the dance party only got underway as late as 7pm when the adverts billed it for 1pm.
What does this mean?
I now know for a fact that when you really want to ride on progress and forget the forces that slow your flow in this life, some things just remain painfully the same.
What is the role of the venue owners, Musicians Association of Malawi (MAM) or the fans in addressing this problem?
Otherwise, some of our big bands are becoming a pain in the neck.
No band must grow bigger than its fans. Similarly, no ‘big’ band must grow bigger than the people that patronise it. That is a recipe for disaster.
It is on the fans’ shoulders that bands stand tall to pluck the fruits of fame. Fans have the power to decide an art group’s fate.
Don’t provoke their wrath.
