Enam and I spent our Easter weekend at the lakeshore: reading, relaxing, and eating pizza al forno. Seeing “Pizza Sundays!!” in bright, gaudy chalk letters on the specials board did make me look twice, but it really did exist, and it certainly was tasty. The cute English couple who manage the backpackers at which we stayed must have had a pizza hankering and a pizza business idea that coincided.
On Sunday afternoon, Enam bumped into a friend of his who offered us a ride in her truck back to Lilongwe on the next day. Nkhata Bay (where we were) is a good 400km north, which quickly turns into an 8-10 hour trip when you have to rely on minibuses and dumb luck. So, yeah, we accepted her offer.
My luck only improved that Monday morning when I climbed into the back seat and found a copy (albeit dated by a couple weeks) of the New York Times. Malawi is a bit starved for current events. Well, I suppose that’s not exactly true, there is, after all, two daily national newspapers. But while Malawians may love their Daily Times and The Nation, I don’t—too much poor grammar, too many mixed metaphors (though these sometime provoke fits of laughter) and too thin on international news of note. Thus, even a dated New York Times is kinda a big deal.
Flipping through the arts and culture section, something fell out of the sports section and landed on the floor of the truck. I leaned over to pick it up, and this is what it said:
LESS THAN $1 A DAY*
And with my brain being hardwired for these kind of things in Malawi, I thought, “Oh, another quaint tale about poverty in Malawi to solicit a donation.” Then I looked again and saw that it was an ad for a NY Times subscription.
Huh. The sale price of this newspaper, delivered daily, was more than what many Malawians live off of.
Don’t worry, I didn’t have a weepy-eyed reaction to reading this, and I didn’t fill up with anger either. For better or for worse, I’m way beyond that stuff. To me it was really the amazing quality of context that struck me. “Less than a dollar a day” could either be rolling off Rod Black’s lips, as he guilt trips you from a Sunday morning World Vision infomercial, or it could be the sales pitch of one the world’s premier newspaper dailies. I’ve gotta take note of this as a writer: the importance of context.
Ok, I’m not solely wrapped up in notions of how to improve my prose. It is pure global injustice that $1 is both a daily subscription price and a level of income that millions of people do not attain year in year out. But better to take something useful from it, though, instead of starting down a spiral of pity or shame. A pity party is the last thing that Malawians need. Being able to afford a daily newspaper would be a much better start.
On Sunday afternoon, Enam bumped into a friend of his who offered us a ride in her truck back to Lilongwe on the next day. Nkhata Bay (where we were) is a good 400km north, which quickly turns into an 8-10 hour trip when you have to rely on minibuses and dumb luck. So, yeah, we accepted her offer.
My luck only improved that Monday morning when I climbed into the back seat and found a copy (albeit dated by a couple weeks) of the New York Times. Malawi is a bit starved for current events. Well, I suppose that’s not exactly true, there is, after all, two daily national newspapers. But while Malawians may love their Daily Times and The Nation, I don’t—too much poor grammar, too many mixed metaphors (though these sometime provoke fits of laughter) and too thin on international news of note. Thus, even a dated New York Times is kinda a big deal.
Flipping through the arts and culture section, something fell out of the sports section and landed on the floor of the truck. I leaned over to pick it up, and this is what it said:
And with my brain being hardwired for these kind of things in Malawi, I thought, “Oh, another quaint tale about poverty in Malawi to solicit a donation.” Then I looked again and saw that it was an ad for a NY Times subscription.
Huh. The sale price of this newspaper, delivered daily, was more than what many Malawians live off of.
Don’t worry, I didn’t have a weepy-eyed reaction to reading this, and I didn’t fill up with anger either. For better or for worse, I’m way beyond that stuff. To me it was really the amazing quality of context that struck me. “Less than a dollar a day” could either be rolling off Rod Black’s lips, as he guilt trips you from a Sunday morning World Vision infomercial, or it could be the sales pitch of one the world’s premier newspaper dailies. I’ve gotta take note of this as a writer: the importance of context.
Ok, I’m not solely wrapped up in notions of how to improve my prose. It is pure global injustice that $1 is both a daily subscription price and a level of income that millions of people do not attain year in year out. But better to take something useful from it, though, instead of starting down a spiral of pity or shame. A pity party is the last thing that Malawians need. Being able to afford a daily newspaper would be a much better start.
