Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lilongwe (Agenzia Fides) - A sad Christmas is what was celebrated in Malawi, reports to Agenzia Fides Fr. Piergiorgio Gamba, a Monfortan missionary who for decades has been engaged in the African country.
"What I want to say must not be seen as a complaint or because I want to judge, even though many aspects seem negative, but simply a challenge to start again" stresses Fr. Gamba.
Christmas was characterized by "a series of attacks against banks and places of commerce with violence and several policemen were killed. The Chinese community is protesting and calls for more security and threatens to leave the Country", says the missionary.
"The delayed rains worry farmers who are over 80% of the population. The program for the distribution of fertilizers has not yet materialized. Without fertilizers, there will be no harvest able to feed the population, and distributing fertilizers when the rains begin means planning a certain disaster, complain the farmers, because with the rains, roads are impassable", continues Fr. Gamba.
There is also the strike of the judiciary and the blocking of foreign donations which cover 40% of the state budget (see Fides 06/12/2014), and, as Fr. Gamba reports, the Reserve Bank of Malawi has even launched a campaign that teaches good use of banknotes that must be continually reprinted at a cost of 14 billion Kwacha be added to the 7 billion to import paper money printed abroad. This is just one aspect of the economy of Malawi based on exporting raw materials and importing manufactured goods of all kinds. As Fr. Gamba says "Malawi exports an entire forest of timber and imports toothpicks, exports cotton and imports clothes, exports millions of kgs of tobacco and imports cigarettes". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 29/12/2014)
