Every Malawian I've met takes pride in the moniker "a God-fearing nation." However, the appalling behaviors that occur in this country, which appear to have abruptly worsened, contradict this sentiment. Things have gotten worse this year, almost as if we were attempting to outdo ourselves in terms of violence, lawlessness, and impunity. There have been more school vandalisms than we can count, cases of mob justice in every corner of the country, teen drug abuse, street (kid)violence, robberies, murders, car-jackings, and human trafficking.
We are frustrated because we do not see any meaningful steps taken to address these major issues . Now the best we are doing is gradually learning to live in all of this chaos. People no longer feel safe at home, on the streets, or even on public transportation.
Are we being true to ourselves if we are accepting that whatever is going on in this country is a right representation of a God-fearing nation, or that is just something we use as a pretext for some of the crimes committed? The elderly are accused of witch craft and get hunted down mercilessly by their own communities, gay people are abused both online and offline often by ostensibly God-fearing people, criminals get touched in the street, women and girls get harassed everyday for how they dress and for just existing.
While there are many variables to blame for this new -norm, the economic crisis has a long arm in all of this (many academic publications have been written on the relationship between economic indicators, crime, and violence). In this economy, the average Malawian is either underpaid, unemployed, or barely making ends meet making people resort to illegal means of making money. What’s even worse is that as a country, we lack a strong security structure; I mean look at how street kids terrorize and own the streets of Blantyre.
I also believe that Tabloid journalism also has had its role. While other countries are attempting to move away from sensational journalism/tabloid newspapers, it appears sensationalism is the only way for most social media pages to remain relevant or attract traffic. They have established a society that appears to live only on negativity. They normalize harassment against women, girls, homosexual people, and other outcasts by regularly utilizing them as click bait.
Isn't it time we asked ourselves if we are truly deserving of the moniker "a God-fearing nation”?
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