AFRICA/MALAWI - Rampant corruption aggravates the damage caused by drought

Friday, 27 January 2017

Lilongwe (Agenzia Fides) - Drought is bringing the people in Malawi to their knees. This is what Fr. Piergiorgio Gamba, a Monfortan missionary says to Agenzia Fides, "the water level in Lake Malawi has dropped a lot. The water from the Shire River no longer allows the electric turbines to function so there is no electricity for up to 20 continuous hours. Only rain can resolve the lack of energy that has destroyed hundreds of small companies. It has become dangerous even to buy food that has no guarantee of hygiene".
The population does not receive any help from the government because, as the missionary writes, "unfortunately, the government excels in one aspect: the endless corruption that now appears in all its shameful presence in the wheat trade".
"The corruption in which the Country has sunk into has a definite cause and it is corruption of democracy starting from the top. There are still two years to the 2019 general election but the election campaign that is funded by plundering the same aid given to Malawi for the poor has already started. Only a strong position taken by the citizens, only a recovery of values of community and justice can put an end to this scourge that destroys the soul of Malawi".
But the missionary expects "a revolution from below, from the people that take in their hands the construction of their future". "Is it too much to ask a population that often chooses silence and forbearance to dissent? The innate goodness of people brings them to defend those who oppress them. It can be a gift in a continent that has too many wars, but also - and this is what many social and religious leaders of Malawi say - can also become a sentence of an endless impoverishment and social deprivation with uncontrollable consequences", concludes the missionary. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 27/01/2017)


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