I think Chikaonda is awesome. I think he is one of those celebrity geniuses who have enough ingenuity-or luck- to be celebrated pre-humorously; lije Albert Einstein. Personally, I was in love with Goodall Gondwe. A man who can carry the whole Ministry of Finance on his shoulders without batting an eye, and somehow tolerate the mockery of a deputy...no, I really admired him. And, of course, his time coincided with that idealistic wave of dreaming in colour, when Malawians had once again started believing we are a sovereign nation, capable of untold achievements. And so I poured over the Millenium Development Goals, and meticulously went over his annual budget, my heart nearly bursting with admiration as I saw in the allocations exactly how he intended to reach the goals. I digress. I had one encounter with Chikaonda. It was six years ago. I was thoroughly young and even more thoroughly idealistic. I joined Economists Association of Malawi (Ecama) thinking it was a good way of channelling all my brilliant education into making Malawi a better place. There was an Ecama event. Chikaonda gave a speech. I took down every word. At some point, either during the speech or after, I cannot remember, he looked my way, and I think our eyes met; I cannot be too sure, you see, it only lasted for a second. And I think he gave me a nod. Again, I cannot be too sure, you see. Rich, important, people have that tendency of never vigorously moving their heads up and down in acknowledgement or greeting. They will always give you one of those imperceptible nods that leave you wondering forever if you imagined the whole thing. Anyway, I dont really know any merits that Chikaonda has. Again, like Einstein, we just know he is brilliant but cannot really go into minutes of what exactly he has added to our living space or culture. The only demerit against him- which others argue that the very fact that it was a demerit against his career makes it a merit to his character; thats, of course, an argument for those more in the know than I- is that little stint at the Reserve Bank. Now to be fair to him, once anybody enters our Banque Centrale, especially at these more visible positions, they really lose all credibility; its like becoming a politician. Ever since the exit of HKB, that office has been exposed as the puppet show. I mean, I have a general, but thorough, respect for the idea of a central bank and its autonomy and yadiyadiya, but if reality seems to be in contrast with an idea from one Presidential term to the other then the reality excels at the expense of the ideal- and that is exactly what has happened to that once coveted and lucrative office. Anyway. Throwback Sunday memory!!
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 12:31:26 +0000
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