[Stoves] Offtopic: Malawi and responsibility (Andrew, Roger)

Traveller miata98 at gmail.com
Fri Dec 9 12:14:52 CST 2016


No, I hadn't seen Malawi The Poorest Country In Africa: What’s The Problem?
– Peter Yakobe
<http://www.africanliberty.org/malawi-the-poorest-country-in-africa-whats-the-problem-peter-yakobe/>
.

World Bank rankings have the same data and methods problems as "stoves and
health" - oops!!

I went to Malawi 2-3 times back in 2002-3, and once my car broke down on
the way back from a distillery. I think African poverty is often hidden -
as hungry stomachs.

My hypothesis is that perhaps 3/4 of the people who have lived up to the
local life expectancy levels over the last 30-odd years have lacked "filled
stomachs" at least 10% of the days of their lives.

Of course, the neo-imperialists - I mean no offense; we Indians have
practiced internal repression and deceit far longer than the Europeans have
anywhere, and we are neo-imperialists too - seeking to publish on "stoves
and health" in Lancet should have a qualifier - "We did not assess lifetime
nutritional conditions of the subject populations or their influence on
incidence of pneumonia, receptivity to foreign researchers and monitors,
ignorance of what we are doing to or with them and why."

I beg to differ with Mr Yakobe, who seems to have an ideological axe to
grind. (No problem; so do the GACC-ians and Blogal Burdens of Disease like
me.) From whatever I saw just that one day a few hours outside of Blantyre,
Malawi does not have a problem producing. Malawi had ample sugar to turn
into ethanol that was transported to European firms to blend with their
bottled drinkable alcohol. One way to contribute to the Burden of Disease
in Europe (US had some sugar ethanol import restrictions, I think). Malawi
did not have producing mangoes.

Malawi did have a problem with land use management and crop selection, if I
remember correctly. Members of this list could've helped select proper
crops and use the wastes for charcoal-making.

Because Malawi may have had a problem in charcoal production and transport.
I remember tens if not hundreds of charcoal bicyclists (I think I posted
some pictures a while back).

Some 25+ years ago, some other colleagues did a superb analysis of the
biomass supply chains in Malawi to show that Malawi could produce
sustainable bioenergy supplies for cooking and other thermal uses at a
lower cost with investments in the entire supply chain.

Alas, that study remained on paper. So did a small proposal I did for
financing gelfuel production and distribution.

I am aghast at Mr Yakobe's attack - "We produce children and run away from
responsibility yet we want the children to access quality education and
live good lives, shame." To "produce children" is God's work, some might
say, as is "to produce usable stoves for specific contexts"; to "produce
estimates" is devils' job. (IHME folks did say they did "super-human" work;
they might think is angelic, I smell the devil.)

I don't know the death rates from AIDS now; back then, roaming around the
countryside - I think one trip to Lake Malawi for a fancy meal - I
confirmed that death was a growth sector in Malawi.

I mean, coffin-making. Which was also said to be a major contributor to
deforestation. (Not charcoaling.)

Researchers of "Stoves and Health" propaganda, unite! You have nothing to
lose but your delusions. (Unless making fools of others is your addiction.
I am still trying to cure myself of it.)

Nikhil

------------------------------
>
>
>
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf
> Of Roger Samson
> >Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 12:21 PM
> >To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
> >
> >Subject: Re: [Stoves] report with dissapointing results from cleaner
> cookstoves
> >
> >I read the study a little deeper. These were poor households found within
> a poor country http://www.africanliberty.org/
> malawi-the-poorest-country-in-africa-whats-the-problem-peter-yakobe/,
>
> <SNIPPED>
>
> Just a question, did anyone else only see Roger's comments when Tom
> replied rather than his original post?
>
> AJH
>
>
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