"Exterminate all the Brutes"

This is how it looks, when students at Poly ride the newspaper.

(This image shows the american moonlander, that stands in the entrance of the Polytechnic)

When I was looking for the title for my Malawi project I’ve chosen a cite from the book of Joseph Conrads “heart of darkness”: “Exterminate all the brutes” describes the character of the classical imperialist, the insulanian, who came to impose his way of living, his moral and religion onto another world.

Some of us might believe, that this a view from the old colonialstic times. Malawi is just a free country for 40 years now and the western companies have found new ways to put african countries in their dependency.

I would like to remind of the “memorandum of understanding”, that Microsoft tried to do with the education Minister in Malawi about a year ago, so that the Microsoft operating system has to be used in Malawian schools only.

That time some students and systemadministrators of the University of Malawi have prevented this “pact with the devil” by writing an open letter. Even Bill Gates himself seems to have understood, that the fight on the operating systems is already lost for him. Why else should he quit Microsoft and do more engagement for his “Bill & Melinda Gates Foudation”? The Gates are wageing a neoimperialist crusade with the spreading of genetically manipulated seeds and american pharmaproducts. It’s also grotesk to read the following statement on the Gates Foundation Website: “And because information can change lives, we support public access to computing in libraries worldwide.”
Bill Gates didn’t support in his past the standardisation of formats (e.g. Open Document Format) but supports the introduction of softwarepatents in the european government.

But Bill Gates and Microsoft are only two examples out of the large comples image of africa. Many other western companies and single person own big parts of the local economies. The Tea plantations that go from the south of Blantyre down until Moçambique are almost all into the hands of white Landlords. While the malawian workers are employed for a very poor salery.
The seeds, that are sold to the Malawians in the shops are sold as “newest technology” and contain genetically manipulated sterile seeds, that can not be used after growing for producing seeds again, but has to be bought every year because of the sterile seed.

This principle describes the same way, that DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) works. Music, that is digitally DRM tagged, can only be listened to for a restricted time and cannot be used any more afterwards. This method of selfdestruction is imposed after an american model to other cultures and leads to the destruction of culture and culture-goods.

Today the “American Corner Blanytre” was opened. An extension of the Library of the Polytechnic, that should be accessible to the public and not only to the students of the University. Under the argument to provide Malawi a plattform for knowledge and education, the american government evangelises and propagates its own country ind Malawi.

In this way a lot of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisation) are doing propaganda for western products. The strategy to sell african citizens anti-AIDS vaccine emerges to be a marketingstrategy much more than development aid. The moneys, that flow through the NGOs into such projects are flowing directly back into the western worlds pharma industies. Meanwhile the africans remain with their role of a guinea pig.

Also Madonna would better give away her music to the world using the creative commons license, than to go on a shoppingtour to Malawi to buy a new kid like a new handbag.

The spriral of neoimperialism makes it hard for african countries to stand on their own feet.

There shall not lack education to the “illiterate” africa. Not only the students, but also the public should have access to the Information of the Polytechnic Library.
That’s why the 13th of November the US embassy wants to open the “AMERICAN CORNER BLANTYRE” (ACM). The ACM is some sort of reading are, where the Malawian public can use the Internet for their research as well, as the books that were brought from an american Library. So far this seems to be a nice idea. A deed of which the american embassy is proud of itself.
But what else would you call more imperialistic than development aid: The furniture was entirely produced in the united states and imported to Malawi. Under the cover of altruism in this way the american industrie is assisted more than the local one. We all know that in Blanytre you can find a lot of very nicely produced furniture made out of the best Malawian woods (Mulanje Ceder, Mahagoni wood etc.) and you would assist the local industry. (Here I’d like to take reference to the locally produced CD-duplicator case.)
This way you would make sure the impact to the local carpenter would be longer lasting and effective.

When I look at the American Corners bookshelves I see that about 20% of the shleves are yet filled with books. The books are about american topics only. (I’ve put a list of some of the book titles.)
The Librarian said, that this was part of the deal between the Polytechnic Library and the US embassy and that the exchange between the two cultures should be established. What american culture is ment here? The Culture of the fear of evil?
Why should the history of the sectret war of Hillary Clinton, nor the american ideas on how to sweap the world of evil be in any ways of interest? What is happening here is not about helping nor donating. It is about occupation. It is the trial of manipulating the thinking and undermine the local Culture and Economy.

HOW CONGRESS GET ELECTED
AMERICAN DEMOCRATY
THE 9/11 COMISSION REPORT
LEGISLATING FOREIGN POLICY
IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE
AGAINTS ALL ENEMIES
CHALLENGE OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM
AMERICAN STATE AND LOCAL POLITICS
DEMOCRATY AND EDUCATION
PARTIES, POLITICS, AND PUBLIC POLICY IN AMERICA
THE PRESIDENCY IN A SEPARATED SYSTEM
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON LIVING HISTORY
GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
REFLECTIONS ON WATER
WHO IS RUNNING AMERICA? THE CLINTON YEARS
THE LIES OF GEORGE W. BUSH
ALL THE PRESIDENTS SPIN
KEEPING A WATCHFULL EYE

FREEDOM TRAIN
COLONOLIAN MASCULINITY
ROSA PARK: MY STORY
AND THE WINNER IS…
FIND WHERE THE WIND GOES
“WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE”
COLOR ME DARK, THE DIARY OF NELLIE LEE LOVE
BILL CLINTON, MY LIFE
JOHN F. KENNEDY
THE STORY OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
AMERICAN SPHINX
THE CONQUERORS
BEYOND THE RIVER

GOVERMENT BY THE PEOPLE
CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES
THE CONQUERORS
AMERICAN DREAM
NEW LANDS, NEW MEN
HILLARY’S SECRET WAR
TRUTH AND DUTY
OUR ENDAGERED VALUES
THE BIG CHANCE
AN OUTLINE OF AMEICAN HISTORY
CRUCIBLE OF POWER
AMERICAN THOUGHT BEFORE 1900

So we’re desperatly waiting for the 13th of November. 🙂

The last 3 days I worked with 4 students of the IT dept. on the setup of the servers for the thinclient Network, that will be installed at the library. The students first installed the motherboards, I’ve brought from Switzerland into the ATX cases. Then I needed 2 days, to download the newest Edubuntu 6.10 CD from the Internet. The post of Ramon as well, as the short Edubuntu Documentation are very helpful for the students. It’s the first time for them to configure an LTSP Server.
The next days the students will work out a presentation for the upcoming official handover of the system, so that they will be prepared to demonstrate it to the public.

After the lessons in IT Department, the students understud to profit of the time that Alex stays at Poly.
So they come to visit him in the office at the library to solve and clear their questions and problems.
On the picture you can see 2 students from the IT Department, who will reach their degree in mid november. They are actually woring on their Free Software diploma project.

During my last stay in Malawi in 2004 when I’ve set up the GNU/Linux System at the Polytechnic Library and I was given an office in the very same building. Now 2 years later when I arrived with the thin-clients the Librarian Martin Thawani decided to give me the same office. We needed more than a day to tidy up the mess, because the room has been used meanwhile as a storage place to put the old computers, monitors and other malfunctioning hardware. It was somehow sad to see, that the computers at the Library were not maintained nor upgraded meanwhile. But the good news was, that they are still running nicely. And aperantly that was the reason, they were not updated.

Many students and lecturers were very happy, that I decided to upgrade them and extend the Library Network with the thin-clients. The computers at the Poly Library are scarce and many students use the internet access for research on their projects.

Therefore the Librarian Mr. Thawani has officially introduced me to the Principal of the Polytechnic Dr. Charles Mataya. After a short technical explanation on the thin-client system and talk about Nathalies and my background he was very happy to see what is going on. Therefore he asked Mr. Thawani to organise the official handover of that thin-client system between me an the Vice Chancellor of the University of Malawi. And also de media shall be invited to this handover. Further the Principal of the Polytechnic asked me to probe for a possible relationship between the Polytechnic an the University of applied sciences and arts in Zurich (HGKZ).

The past 4 days I introduced some of the IT classes of the Polytechnic into the upcoming server hardware, that will be installed at the Library of the Polytechnic. I hope to find people who are interested in maintaining the thinclient system later on. That’s why I’m thinking of dividing the system in two parts: one for training at the IT dept. and the other part as a running environment in the Library. David Chigama a GNU/linux lecturer from Zimbabwe would love to study and maintain such a System.

Five days after our arrival in malawi, the administrative issues are sorted out in the way, that we can move on for a visit at the Polytechnic (University of Malawi).
The Lecturers, the Librarian, the Secretaries, the Drivers as well, as the Porters are pleased about seeing the old face again. We’re welcome in a very warm way in Malawi

Today Ramon and myself have taken some pictures of the Thin Clients, that will be brought to Malawi soon.

These S300 & B220 FUTRO Fujitsu-Siemens Thin Clients will be used for a LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) configuration together with 2 Intel Core 2 Duo Servers, that will be set up in the Library of the Polytechnic in Blantyre. Depending on the intentions of Mr. Thawani, the Librarian of the Polytechnic, they will be used for surfing the internet and browsing the database of the Library.