Emergent Malawi
Sir; I would like to make a few points which Mr Lamont's parliamentary delegation may have missed (January 5).
He implies that the tourist industry has potential.
Malawi has initially no big game, no big waterfalls, no big dams, no coast line, no snow-capped mountains, no desert, no ancient ruins; so what is the attraction? Anyway Mr Lamont must realise by now that tourism has proved to be a very mixed blessing in most parts of the world. In this instance it provides poorly paid and menial employment for a meagre number of Africans.
Does Mr Lamont recall that in the sixties Dr Banda banned the mini skirt? I wonder if that boosted the infant tourist industry.
Mr Lamont has observed that the infant mortality rate is high and there is no starvation. Could these two facts be related in some obscure way? Did he also observe that the population growth rate is one of the highest in Africa? How does that affect the numbers of the unemployed whom he did not mention?
He refers to increasing arbitrary arrest' but does he remember what happened to many thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses?
He has heard that the village structure of society has been brutalised and is disintegrating in Zambia and South Africa but he did not also hear that thousands of Malawians choose to work In those two countries (not to mention Rhodesia where the Malawi workers are often preferred by the whites) so that they can send money home to their relations and at the same time help the economy. , I wonder if the "very senior official" who has such a high regard for Lonrho also supplied Mr Lamont with the news that there is "little corruffr don."
Every year since Independence the Malawi budget has been balanced by the British taxpayer. Could that he why Dr Banda does not indulge 01 Brit-bashing?
I see no mention of the aid received from South Africa.
Apropos "the rough Scotsman " I can't help feeling that Scotland and her church have little to be proud of: pr Livingstone, Dr Banda, Mr Macleod and Mr Lamont? 1 Temple House, WardMRwoaadngl;ls' glinaali gint°11
London N19
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