Ekari Writes

There are times in life when one has the opportunity to be a part of something greater than oneself, and it just feels awesome . I was invited to perform at British Council's Go Green Malawi awareness event,  a gathering of artists from all mediums, adding their voices, paintbrushes and movements to one cause... climate change. It is a phenomenon which many of us may be aware of, but there are many more that are not fully awakened to the effects of it.  I was lucky enough to be given the freedom to come up with whatever I wanted to, as long as it was no more than 3 minutes long. I decided to write and perform a piece of poetry entitled "environMEnt". It expresses the reason why I choose to study the environment in the first place.  Here is the video - somewhat fuzzy unfortunately, but at least the audio is alright. Note: the first line was not filmed in time so it seems like it starts in the middle. The poem begins - " I woke up one day and realised, you can't...

Happy UN Day! I had the great fortune of attending my first UN Townhall meeting which was to commemorate UN Day on the 24th of October. The first thing I learnt about Townhall is that it doesn't take place in a town hall. After some speculation I came to the conclusion that Townhall was not a description of the physical structure, but rather a meeting of the minds of staff from all UN derivative groups such as UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, etc, to discuss current agendas.  This year, the main agenda was (suitably) climate change. Speaking on the issue was Professor S. Chiota, who teaches at Chancellor College (Chanco), and is the regional programme director of the Leadership for Environment and Development Southern and Eastern Africa - LEAD SEA ( http://www.leadsea.mw/ ) . What I had expected was a presentation of the facts and figures of the effects of climate change in Malawi, with graphs and pie charts showing how things have been getting progressively...

It's not every day that I find a car parked right outside my door. I was delighted and surprised at this red beauty, and on closer inspection, I realised that it was electric! Completely chargeable, no fuel tank, 100% eco-friendly. I applauded the owner as an example to all enviro-conscious citizens of the world (he was not available for an interview. I was told he had gone on a lollipop run). Here are the specs on the new model: It's a 4x4 roofless convertible, perfect for your open air adventures. Not the greatest for foul weather days, but I'm sure you would rather be in bed with a hot cup of coco made by Mommy anyway. It has adapted the Mini Cooper/Smart Car approach to saving space - and as you can see, it can park virtually anywhere, including the veranda. It's an automatic, so it's quite simple to drive with no pedals, but rather a button at your feet which serves as an accelerator. The entire chassis was made of plastic - the seats, steering wheel, t...