Malawi needs English, from Kindergarten, if possible

Recently Malawian authorities announced English is to become the language of pedagogy from as early as Standard 1. Some ‘experts’ have fumed and foamed over the plan saying it is all kinds of bad, I am here to unpack and attack the so called experts and to express support for the plan to Anglicize Malawi.

I completed a year as English major at Mzuzu University before defecting to The University of Malawi. My research project was on language and the theorists that inform(ed) me include Stuart Hall, Noam Chomsky and Karl Marx. This, I state, lest I be deemed a stranger on the issue.

Now that you know I am versed in language dogma, I would like to tear apart what experts have lied to you on the issue.

Japan, China and South Korea do not use English and some say we should follow their models. But these guys have their own established alphabets, we have an English alphabet. The three translated all important texts such as Anne Frank and Calculus; can anyone step forward and write a Chichewa or Chitumbuka book on Econometrics?

We simply cannot do it, we are too poor and we must rely on English, now what is the reason of teaching a child in Chichewa at a young age when he is going to need English when he reaches standard 5 or 6? Would it not be better to give him a head start at standard one?

Knowledge in Malawi occurs in English books, not vernacular, and to know English is by default to know more – English opens up the gates to knowledge.

Public schools currently teach children in Chichewa yet most of the kids in Malawi are not Chewa – if teaching in vernacular is so important for Children, why does every tribe not learn in their language?  You have Sena children learning about Maliro ndi Miyambo ya a Chewa, as if they don’t have Miyambo.

In Tanzania they use Swahili. There is no tribe called Swahili - all tribes have their own languages and dump them for Swahili which is a hybrid language. English will foster unity as no one will be aggrieved of being forced to speak another’s language.

 I did my school in English and Chichewa and went home to speak Chitumbuka; I never got confused or left out. And if Bingu wa Mutharika’s rants are anything to go by, people from areas where we have to internalize three languages ended up dominating the university system so much that they introduced Quotas.

Back to China, Japan and South Korea, these countries are the biggest importers of English teachers. They are proud, yes, but they need English – English is just too important to play with. In China now English is mandatory to graduate.

How many people speak Chichewa or Chitumbuka or Yao? What will having a good command of vernacular benefit us in 2030? Where can we apply miyambi in ICT or International Business? Let us stop the drama and get aggressive with modernization.

Russia abandoned its Communism, China too – the only way out of poverty is going full throttle into Western ways and the best way to start is by language. English will put us at par with the developed world; vernacular will keep us dancing Beni.

Most experts that speak against using English from grade one are well off people who learnt in English in the 80s and whose children go to English speaking private Kindergartens and primary schools. Why are they trying to condemn the rest of the nation to a useless vernacular curriculum?

Scholar’s of Jean Piaget and other educational psychologists say a child can uptake up to five languages, I mean, their brains are like sponges, everything that comes, they absorb, ably. It’s why kids are so good at learning new languages.

The experts cry that there are not enough teachers to teach in English but you mean the current teachers in schools cannot speak English and yet they allowed to teach?

The experts say English will confuse students as it is unfamiliar, they forget that the pupil only spends half a day at school and spends the rest of the day at home where they are spoken to in vernacular –if their logic is anything, wouldn’t the teaching of maths similarly confuse them since maths is as unfamiliar?

I heard someone warn that English would cause the Chichewa speaking standards to plummet, to him I say: who cares? Again, in 2015 what does speaking good Chichewa get you? Some airtime on the radio during the poetry segment, I bet, and that’s all.

These Karangas are just spooked tribalists parading as experts, first they seem oblivious of the fact that Malawi is highly linguistically diverse and therefore using vernacular is potentially oppressive as, like has been the case so far, one vernacular language will be imposed on many groups.

The experts also seem to underrate the fact that children are not empty slates; they are intelligent and can handle pretty much everything the system throws at them in school.

If we can, let us introduce English in pre-school and in our homes, let us talk to our children in English – vernacular will take Malawi nowhere and the more English the kids know, the better  chances they have in excelling life, after all from standard 5, everything is in English.

All those who are against the plan should state the importance of vernacular in an English world – This is a great opportunity for Malawi to transform into a nation, so far these so called experts want it to remain a village.

So let those Chanco students who petitioned government against English bask in their vain pursuit of attention, let tribalists root for their vernacular, ignore them, do this for a prosperous Malawi.

Some of you are worried because you cannot perfectly get around English, you failed to learn, you are untrainable - we should focus on the kids that are to come. 

Fighting Movies to Watch Before you Die

It’s a long shot, it’s like when someone asks you what your favourite song is – I usually do not answer because I have so much songs that I hold dear and cannot make each unique ones compete. However if I have to name 20, I would feel safe.

So, what are the hard hitting movies from China and in the martial arts world that have a lasting effect on me? Here is my list of 20 and they are not in any but alphabetic order.

36 Chambers of Shaolin (1978)

Starring Gordon Liu. It is funny and painful to watch as Gordon tries to learn fighting; the kung fu training still rings in my head.

American Ninja 5 (1993)

Starring David Bradley and Lee Reyes, the scene where he meditates and shakes off cuffs is epic.

American Shaolin (1992)

Who doesn’t remember the song: ‘There aint No Cure for the Shaolin Temple Blues?  Which is interrupted by the jealous master! Of course the movie makes fun of the Shaolin. Starring (among others) Reese Madigan, Kim Chan and Daniel Dae Kim.

Axe Gang aka Kung fu Hustle (2004)

It was directed, co-written and co-produced by Stephen Chow, who also stars in the lead role. The land lady is the star of the movie, but Chow is simple funny and good with Kung fu. Love the scene where he tells a woman that he cannot beat her because she is a farmer and therefore to the economy.

Black Sheep Affair (1998)

Zhao Wen-Zhou is Yim Dong, a Chinese security officer who is assigned to the Chinese Embassy in the Russian republic of Lavernia after he disobeys orders on a hijacking crisis. The tense scene is in the bathroom in the prison, my brother loves this movie!

Bodyguard from Beijing (1994)

The movie sparked rumours in my country, Is Jet Li gay? He simply won’t touch the women in his movies like Van Damme…lol… but this movie is epic and the storyline unique. The baddest scene for me was when the bad guy went to get the body of his brother from the mortuary – epic!

Bullet in the Head (1990)

 John Woo movie, you know him. This movie takes you from the city to the jungle, from friendship to betrayal, from war to handiwork and you cannot watch it without being haunted by that bullet in the head.

Eastern Condors (1987)

Directed by Sammo Hung, who also starred in the lead role. The film co-stars Yuen Biao, Joyce Godenzi, Yuen Wah, Lam Ching-ying, Yuen Woo-ping, Corey Yuen and Billy Chow. You get the picture; it has got war, betrayal, handiwork and some good comedy like when Biao does a coconut to take out a foe. And the soundtrack is great.

Enter the Fat Dragon (1978)

Sammo Hung. Funny and Fierce.

Fist of Legend (1994)

Jet Li. Japanese, explosive. He goes into a class full of Japanese and leaves unscathed with many broken bones!

In the Line of Duty (1985)

Michelle Yeoh, John Shum Kin-Fun, Cynthia Rothrock, Mang Hoi, Tsui Hark, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Richard Ng Yiu-Hon, Billy Ching Sau-Yat, Chung Faat, Kong Lung, Dick Wei, James Tin Jun, Chan Ging, Mai Kei, Ka Lee, Tai Bo, Wu Ma – cast sells itself.

Kick Boxer (1989)

Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and former world kickboxing champion Dennis Alexio – You should see the final fight – seriously, Tong Po should have won!

One Armed Boxer (1971)

Jimmy Wang Yu. With just one hand, he did the impossible even with just one finger! That inflatable Shaolin guy was also the boss.

Ong Bak (2003)

By 2003, I thought martial arts was dead, and then came Tony Jaa, his knee and elbow must be insured, they are too precious!

Only the Strong (1993)

Starring Mark Dacascos, it is considered to be the only Hollywood film that showcases Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, from beginning to end. If you are not still haunted by the soundtrack, Paranaue, you are just a hater!

Shaolin Soccer 2001

Stephen Chow. At some point I sat and was like what if soccer could be like that? My favourite scene was when the opponents dropped spanners from their pants and lied they had been in the garage working! 

Shaolin versus Lama (1983)

Alexander Lo, tall and handsome and Lama so tough and proud – he asked him ‘can a student be tougher than a master?’

Snake in Eagle’s Shadow (1978)

Starring Jackie Chan, Hwang Jang Lee and Yuen Woo-ping's real life father, Yuen Siu Tien…when the movie was beamed, the next day was disaster at my primary school as everyone wanted to play the Snake twins!

Tai Chi Master (1993)

My all time best movie from China. Jet Li takes on his brother and displays fine Tai Chi. The soundtrack is one of the best songs to rock to.

Bryan is massive in Thundering Mantis

Thundering Mantis (1980)

Starring Bryan Leung, Cheng Feng and Eddy Ko Hung. I hear Bryan has no kung fu training at all! But what he did in this movie…everyone wanted to be called Ah Chi in my hood. That young boy of his, the death of his master and that cruel pigeon mauling villain!  Did Ah Chi eat him at the end?

What Chinese girls find sexy…cigarettes?

We all have our differences when it comes to the people we would call sexy…in Africa and some parts of America, a woman needs to be plump and should have pronounced hips and behind (for lack of a saner term.)

In China, you are in a different world for sure. Usually when I go to the playground for a jog, I am always amazed at the number of people fighting to make rounds around the laps, most of them are girls and most are those that would pass as super-sexy in Africa, only here in China, they are too fat and are trying to drop weight.

My informer, a Chinese girl who is slim in African terms, insists that even she is fat and when I ask her what a sexy girl looks like, she points to that really slim girl, no meat about her and with that famed high thigh gap.

Well, it seems the Asian male has its own likes, even in Korea my friend Hyejin reports the main reason she is single is because she is a little plus size….but to me, she is totally the woman my mama would love to see me present as a fiancée.

But that is beside the point, what about the men…what type of men do Chinese girls find sexy?

Well, we all know this is a PhD level question…some Chinese are very particular about their men, some prefer exclusively Caucasians, some will take everything African and I have heard some say that they never see themselves dating anything but Chinese.

But to me, the most appealing group of people to Chinese girls is the Korean boy. I think it’s because South Korea invests so much to influence Asia with its movies and soaps and music, Koreans are hot property in the part of town I live and I take Korean is sexy here…

My informant, when I asked her what she finds sexy in a man, said something that blew my mind…she said, some Chinese girls find the smell of tobacco on a guy’s clothes and in his mouth a very big turn on.

I was shocked. But I kind of got it, I see many a Chinese guy puffing away and usually the girl they have on their side doesn’t mind at all and doesn’t seem bothered…

Smoking is to Chinese girls what a six-pack is to American girls? Maybe. Maybe not.

In the end, like a research just out this month, girls will not mind your looks but consider your character…however that is just on paper.

In reality, and this is my thesis, girls want guys with money and magazine looks and that is if you are in a big city like Shanghai…out here in the likes of Jinan, if you say you will marry her, you are as sexy as Austin Powers!

West should Sacrifice Ukraine, otherwise trouble is due

It is simple. The international system is corrupt and power is shared between a few big powers and those powers have enough nuclear weapons to wipe out not just each other, but every other life on earth.

That’s where Ukraine comes in.

Russia can take the whole of it if it wants; Europe cannot protest much until they find a new source of gas to heat their frosty homes.

The EU members have so much trouble in their domestic politics to risks starting a war with Russia, obvious member like Germany do not want war after what history did to them.

The US and Canada are the only ones that can afford to make noise, but not even them can force Putin into anything.

Russia says it will also react if it is sanctioned, and people have been talking of Russia planning to abandon the US currency and dump US debt.

And war is out of the question, the election is nigh in the US, and Americans would not want to get entangled in this one.

George Bush went to one of the most hilarious wars in Iraq, despite protests from the UN and sane heads. Just minutes later, the same US is crying wolf over Russia’s ‘invasion’ of Ukraine.

It’s just hilarious…here is a quote from one John Kerry…

"It's an incredible act of aggression. It is really a stunning, willful choice by President Putin to invade another country. You just don't in the 21st Century behave in 19th Century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext." 

I wonder what century it is in the US, in the wake of the US support to Libyan rebels, Syrian Rebels, Afghanistan…the list s both wrong and long!

The only way out here is Appeasement Policy 2.0, Let Russia dance all it wants in its backyard and maybe if Putin is not challenged, he will not go far in some of these crises.

Ukraine has to be a the pawn that save world peace, it has to go, otherwise Cold War 2.0 will only hurt the West more….

Annoying things foreigners do in China

Welcome to China, you are no longer in your home country. Here is a list of things some foreigners do while in China that piss me off and make me ashamed as a visitor in China.

It’s China, not Oxford

A group of foreigners was asked their impression of China and almost all of my friends spoke of lack of English speaking service providers…one even said the city had some signs with flawed English.

I never said a thing, but wondered if we would find some Chinese speaking receptionists in Sweden (not real country of the friend.)

I think it is foolish pride to expect people of another country to play by your rules, if anything, if you come to China, YOU learn some survival phrases.

Some people eat dogs and frogs, get over it

Went to the market and this friend of mine could not believe his eyes, he whips out his camera and takes photos of crabs and frogs and gasps at the dogs hanging by the wire for sale.

I think its hypocrisy to declare others' dishes  worst; especially us, people from the West…some eat bacon everyday without ever being questioned. Why is dog eating specially disgusting? Just because you worship your dogs it doesn't mean they are also gods universally.

So, if you are not buying dog, pass and don’t be a drama queen about it, it really is embarrassing.

Stop whining and eat your dinner

I have sat with wai guo ren (foreigners) on dinner tables and it constantly eats me when they complain about this and that… ‘No salt in the rice…this is horrible,’ ‘is this chicken? It’s too soft,’ ‘I don’t know this vegetable…’

I have cooked for Chinese people and they do not particularly like the way I treat my rice or fish and it would be ridiculous to expect the same food in China, 19 hours from your home, by a plane traveling at 800Km/h

Stop spoiling the gig for everyone else

Some foreigners are in places where they are the first foreigners seen there. These brothers and sisters bear the torch for others to come. Yet some sleep around, breaking the hearts of young girls, some stoop as low as petty crime.

The result is the community labels all foreigners coming in their wake as bad…people should really only travel with purpose and if it is sex you want, ask nicely without having to promise marriage or raping!

I could go on and on, but in a nutshell, you are now in Rome, chill, act like you are one of the natives and stop whining and acting all deviant, you stink.

Weighing Japan and China's Response to Ukrainian Crisis

So, according to Reuters the West has imposed sanctions on Russia…Visa bans, etc...so far many Western delegates have stayed away from the Sochi Olympics 2.0 Opening.

After the sanctions were announced, something caught my attention: the reaction of China and Japan!

Here is a how Reuters put it:

“Japan endorsed the Western position that the actions of Russia constitute "a threat to international peace and security", after Obama spoke to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

China, often a Russian ally in blocking Western moves in the U.N. Security Council, was more cautious, saying economic sanctions were not the best way to solve the crisis and avoiding comment on the Crimean referendum.”

That’s a sharp difference in how the two nations deal with foreign policy and it would be interesting to have some expert analysis…here is my naïve analysis however.

Japan

Effectively Japan has sided with the US, and that has made it a de facto enemy of Russia and in case of a war, a nuclear bomb would be sent to Tokyo alongside the US and other Western nations.

Why did Japan take this risk?

Oh many reasons, America will increase its trust in Japan, Japan has always declared itself as a Western Nation, Japan in bandwagoning with US for protection from Russia who it has territorial disputes with, Japan is a democracy and wants it prevailing in Ukraine.

China

Pros

China can be a Russian enemy or a US enemy on the issue but we will never know because they are playing the doctrine of the golden mean. China can easily avoid being gassed in case of war because they never declared the side they are on.

China can easily play the guy that brokers peace between the two warring factions because it supports nobody (on paper).

Cons

However, China’s style of lying in the middle can be seen as cowardice by the West or Russia and both parties cannot fully trust it because they are not sure who China s rooting for or not.

But it is a great move, most people confronted with such a dichotomy would go Russia or West…forgetting that there is a third side of the either-or fallacy, the neutral side which is safer, though it makes you look like a coward, a bit.

Picking a foreign policy position is not an easy task, as we can see.

The secret life of China’s gays

I come from a country where being gay is punishable by 14 years in jail, but still more I was at the heart of  gay rights struggle there, I went around meeting gays and telling their stories… then I moved to China.

It is legal to be gay in China; no one should come and cry wolf or a river that they are oppressed on account of being gay here in the Middle Kingdom.

One more note about me…I am one athletic guy, if you were gay [or open-minded…lol], you would love to be on my side…you get the picture, but am not gay.

Never mind my narcissism

What am saying is, there are gays in China, the law doesn’t bar them, but they have no pride or courage to live normal life.

In 2010, the AFP cited experts who estimated there were about 30 million homosexuals in China, and 20 million of them are men.

Since arriving in China, I have frequently been hit on by gays. At first I thought it was my athleticism or maybe the way I do stuff, but sad (or good?) for me it was not that.

The guys that hit on me told me they are free to approach a foreigner and say they are gay because foreigners are (said to be) open-minded. That is they never dare tell their Chinese friends they are gay.

Huffington Post has on record Qingdao University's Zhang Bei-chuan  who reportedly told China Daily that about 90 percent [16 million] of the nation's gay men get married to heterosexual [and lesbians] women in an effort to conform to social norms.

I understand their position, imagine being the only child in a society that expects so much from a child and you turn out to be gay or a hooker and in some cases, even a singer.

When I discuss the question of gays with my Chinese [and Africans too] friends they get worked up and simply do not accept homosexuality as a reality, let alone in China.

China’s gays need to come out; there are risks of hiding: gays usually have higher rates of STDs because while living on the DL, they create cells and live dangerously, and they sometimes think ST diseases’ are for heterosexuals. Then there are risks of suicides.

However, I sit and imagine a Chinese gay guy, with his parents aging and aching for an heir and in a society that cherishes honour and losing face is haram.

But like Africans in South Africa, or America and gays in Malawi learnt, the majority is usually very happy to see gays hiding and if they do not come out, they will never get their rights.

Meanwhile I have to explain to this boy, who actually offered me money [the audacity!], that I have may have gay looks, but am actually a fan of the female form.

‘Don’t Marry Outside Your Race’

You are dating a Chinese girl and thinking of marrying her? Are you African and you fancy an Indian lass? Don’t do it, man, interracial marriages and unions are not sanctioned by God, and God forbids it. That’s the message of one Pastor Donny Reagan who runs the Happy Valley Church of Jesus Christ in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Inspired by one William Branham, remember him? Branham believed that that his own existence presaged the Second Coming of Christ and he also believed the doctrine of the Serpent's Seed: the notion that Eve's act of dooming mankind involved her actually having sex with the Satanic serpent of Genesis, and that her son Cain, and a generation of "giants", was the offspring of this union.

The Serpent's Seed doctrine has been used by religious white supremacist groups, like Christian Identity, to justify a belief in separate lineages for the races: white, pure, from Adam and Eve; black, evil, from Eve and the serpent.

Reagan prattles his anointed thoughts in a 2013 video that went viral in 2014.

Reagan’s message is simple, he first starts by saying that he has many colored friends and referred to black women as beautiful and therefore cannot be racist, and he says God made us the way we are and therefore trying to change our God-given colour is not right.

‘If a violet... God made it and it was white, let it remain white. If it's blue, black, brown, whatever the flower is, let it alone. If corn was raised a certain way, yellow corn, don't mix with white corn. If you do, you mix it up, then it can't breed itself back again,’ he said to a cheering audience.

He argued:

“What—what business would a beautiful, young, intelligent colored girl want to marry a white man for, and have mulatto children? What would a fine, intelligent colored girl want to do a thing like that for? I can't understand it. And what would a white woman want to marry a colored man, with mulatto children? Why don't you stay the way God made you?”

Reagan actually vowed that he will never bless or see to any mixed race wedding.

So, I sat there after watching the video and thought…does he have some sense or is he racist? And I concluded inside me, but will let you draw your own conclusions.

I heard on CCTV that in Shanghai, there are 5000 mixed race marriages every year, I think….I wonder how pissed God is. And Reagan is not alone; many races are very suspicious of mixed race marriages.

There was one point I agreed with the learned pastor on, he said some dark races marry other races to run away from their colour and try to improve it. He said these people are powerless and cannot fix their colour and would like to fix it in their children.

This is a big truth for some people who have eaten the bait of colonialism and think they are one or several steps down the ladder by being darker and want to lighten up things by either bleaching their skin or marrying a ‘fairer’ race…as I said, this is a topic for another day.

As for Reagan, he forgets that the current tomato was a bitter small berry and has come this far by hybreeding, he forgets that corn is now better and a real world hunger douser because it has been crossbred a zillion times.

Reagan says it is unnatural to mix races, and inherent in that statement is that fact that he assumes different races are different species…a lion and a zebra cannot produce offspring, that’s unnatural.

The rest of the debate lingers in your mind; I believe that many people are already of a certain racial stand and that nothing really happens later in life to change them.

Why are Chinese dumping disabled babies?

The BBC reports of a welfare home in Guangzhou where more than 260 children had been left at since 28 January this year.

An official from Guangzhou told the BBC that all of the 260 infants dumped at had illnesses, such as cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and congenital heart disease.

Abandoning children is illegal in China, but homes like this material one were opened up to give the infants some survival chance compared to them being dumped in the streets.

But why would anyone want to dump a baby? Some people would say the parents are cruel but in my uneducated view, it is Chinese society that is cruel.

With the strict one child policy on one hand and the society looking at the male child as a benefactor in later years of the parents’ life, Chinese society has become one where a healthy male child is the gem.

I have heard stories of mothers aborting their very advanced pregnancies just because the baby in there is a girl.

The BBC speculated that it is thought that many parents abandon ill babies because they fear they cannot afford the medical care required, but more than just bills, it’s the question of society wanting a child to take care of the parents later, and one which expects a child to be some whiz in class, sports and even music.

Reality needs to settle in, some babies are born with defects, and unless there be a law banning disability, society must face up and take the burden.

Big salute to the Chinese families that only had a chance to have one baby and they kept it even after it was a girl or disabled.

Atheism fueling China’s Rise, Lessons for Africa

According to a 2012 Gallup poll, 47% of Chinese people were confirmed atheists ranking as the most atheist nation on earth.

Public Speaker, Media Trainer TJ Walker and video blogger an American, commenting on the poll said this is a good recipe to China becoming the superpower to rival America.

Walker says that the Chinese’ lack of religion will make them progress as they will not be weighed down by superstition, their schools will focus on science instead of teaching what is in line with ‘some old book.’

 Let’s not make this about US versus China; I want to discuss the developing world, especially Africa. Gallup actually has another poll that lists poor countries as being the most religious. 

For Example, the people of Malawi, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Niger, Sri Lanka (very poor and sorry nations) were asked by Gallup: Is religion an important part of your life? And behold 99% of the respondents said ‘yes.’

China was a nation of peasants not long ago, among other factors; I think the fact that religion is excluded from daily life has made it a very successful story.

On a Sunday in say, Jinan city, students still attend their classes at university, traffic still flows normally and banks are open like on normal week days, construction work goes on unchecked everywhere.

Compare that to Malawi, very poor, with 99% of its people saying religion rocks and is important in life: government offices are abandoned by Friday noon, no work for two days and people report for work on Monday still dazed from drunkenness, banks close by 3pm and do not open over the weekends.

In the capital city of Malawi, Lilongwe, on a Sunday, you can have a car race in the highway as it is abandoned; shops close as people flock to churches.

It is ironic how people go to church to ask for success and work this little, I thought the best way to succeed was to work hard? Laborare est orare!

And the coming in of these noisy Nigerian and African-American inspired Pentecostal churches is making things worst. I know someone who told me she wakes up at 3am to pray so she can find a job. You meet an African in China and the first thing they ask you is about churchgoing.

Even in America, Gallup listed Mississippi as the most religious state, I looked up the state and it is the poorest of America’s states. Poor US states like Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Alabama are very religious and have more Africans.

The African, wherever he may be, thinks that there is something beyond the clouds that can lift them from woes. So in the 500 years of slavery he prayed and God was busy. Exit Slavery and enter colonialism and the African prayed but the gods and God never listened until the 60s.

Now, while the rest of the world has moved on and is racing to sharpen their sciences; nuclear weapons, medicine, industry and even graphics, the African is still praying and to a foreign religion.

No offense, but the God of Israel has one son and that son is Jewish (no African represented in heaven) and all his activities happened in Israel, but right now the Christian in Central Africa Republican is more passionate than the Pharisees of old.

Islam:  Muhammad and the holy sites are far from Africa and yet the African in Nigeria or Somalia thinks they can somehow pray hard and receive some mysterious blessings.

Religion is the biggest hurdle hampering development (universally) and the fact that the Communist Party in China bans it among its members makes a rational government and there are no stupid questions when issues such as stem cell research or abortion rise.

If the Vatican says condoms are not holy and the African would rather get HIV than use the condom; one day the people of Darfur will be rescued by faith.

Even as an African reading this, you are thinking,'he is going to burn in hell,' which is the very thing i am talking about, you are too bound by religion and cannot see that Africans live in hell and there is no other hell after they die.

And sadly, the more religious countries are, the more intolerant they are… for example, just imagine a Jew marrying an Ethiopian and how his uncles would react or a Hutu marrying a Tutsi and the violence in CAR sums up this one.

And its embarrassing how Africa claims to be so religious but the HIV statistics shows they are having too much unprotected sex with multiple partners and the tribal hatred, the homophobia and the corruption all reek of satanism than Islam or Christianity. 

Instead of working to realize that religion has not worked for Africa and the African this far, right now many Africans are crying and have their eyes shut (not studying) trying to placate a God with a Jewish son and an Allah with his base in Mecca.

So many in Africa and in the developing world accept poverty because religion teaches them that its actually difficult to go to heaven as a rich man; that it is not bad to die young or poor because there is good life in heaven - roads paved with gold and all.

Education, especially sciences are viewed in suspicion, religion teaches that all that is not sensible can be explained with faith and that questioning God will only run you mad. Such big African heads and yet afraid to ask questions.

Universities coming up in Malawi now overwhelmingly offer theology courses as if the graduates will pray the nation to prosperity.

Right now the Africans in Jamaica, in America or Nigeria probably think that their riches and blessings are around them and can be unlocked by praying hard. In China, however, all the Chinese does is work around the clock and blessings flow and most Chinese cannot even say who Deborah was (or even Saul.)

As Karl Marx argued Religion is the opiate of the masses; the rich love religion because it makes the poor accept their state and keep working at cheap rates; the poor love it because it offers them reason to live on.

Is it not funny that South Africans were robbed, killed and oppressed for decades and they ‘forgave’ their oppressors overnight and continue to live in oppression with little protest? The answer is…religion.

The European that brought religion is now in the pub enjoying some cold beers; the African is praying hard, waiting for blessings and riches…the Chinese are going to the top, as Confucius taught them never to mind heaven, hell or life after death.

Just a thought, in heaven, there will be many Africans in heaven, drinking wines, walking on paved roads, singing all day and they will finally laugh as the Chinese and Europeans burn in hell.

That’s after we die, now, now take our oil, land, don’t give us education or vaccines and we won’t use condoms - if death comes its God’s wish and remember its easier for a rich man to enter heaven than it is for a camel to pass through a pin hole. (Mark 10:25)

Sigh. Prayer is really just doing nothing and hoping that someone somewhere is doing something about a given problem.