Dear readers of the JCTR Bulletin,

It is here!  The fourth quarter JCTR Bulletin NO. 62 is finally out.  Anxious indeed we must have kept you.  We are very thankful to all of you who keep writing for this publication.  We have and everybody else who reads this publication has undoubtedly benefited from your deep and analytical reflections.  We encourage you to continue giving these powerful reflections, articles and reactions.

Strategic planning, HIV/AIDS, serious illness and faith, the constitution, rural development, reconciliation, etc., are some of the major topics you will find in this issue of the Bulletin.  There are, as many of you realize, important topics for Zambia, Malawi and of course the rest of Africa.

Talking about strategic plan -- partly the reason for the huge delay in producing the fourth quarter Bulletin for 2004 -- the JCTR has been heavily preoccupied with the planning process designed to strengthen our work for the next three years in responding to the many social, economic, cultural, environmental, political, religious, etc., challenges of Zambia and Malawi.

I remember someone who wrote that there was a man who was busy sawing a log and he had remarkably been doing it for so many hours with all the signs of hard work and exhaustion.  Much as he realized that the saw he was using was not sharp enough he continued do it.  He claimed to have been too busy to pause for a while and sharpen the saw!

This situation happens to all of us as individuals or organizations.  Sometimes we find it difficult to sit down to plan carefully because we are too preoccupied – too busy to plan.  Little do we realize that the process of careful planning will help us “sharpen the saw” and lead us to high levels of efficiency and great outcomes.  To be at the “cutting edge” of issues requires careful planning and it means finding time to do so.  However, I would like to urge caution, and that is to say there must be proper balance between planning and execution of tasks or implementation.  Otherwise you run the risk of doing plan after plan.  Further it is important to realize that planning itself is not a one-off thing, otherwise when one pauses only once to sharpen the saw it will eventually get blunt.  So there is need for periodic reviews to ensure that the “saw” is at all times sharp to deliver effectively.

But one area where we need to “sharpen our saw” in both Malawi and Zambia and Africa at large is in the area of education.  Sadly to say there has been striking deterioration in the quality of education.  But even more disappointing is not just the issue of quality but the realization of the purpose of education.  I think, and everyone will agree with me that things have really gone wrong.  I know for certain that education, be it formal or informal, should be designed to relate to the environment, to meet the challenges of society.  Kwegyir Aggrey (prominent 20^th Century African scholar, whatever you describe him) argued or put forth the proposition that education should train the mind, encourage good character and should be original.  On all these three important accounts, education has failed in our context.  What we have is a caricature of education trying to meet both instrumental and intrinsic values.

We are trying to address problems of democratization, poverty, hunger, corruption, disease, HIV/AIDS and other various social evils without realizing that if we do not put right our education the problems will continue to be with us.  Shouldn’t we be seriously talking about a thorough and radical review of our education system?  Sadly, what I am doing here is just talking.  Let me end this letter with a beautiful quote from Pope Paul (VI).  I find his message useful and instructive to the work of the JCTR in particular:

Between evangelization and human advancement – development and liberation – there are in fact profound links.  These include links of an anthropological order, because the man who is to be evangelized is not an abstract being but is subject to social and economic questions.  They also include links in the theological order, since one cannot dissociate the plan of creation from the plan of redemption.  The latter plan touches the very concrete situations of injustice to be combatted and of justice to be restored.  They include links of the eminently evangelical order, which is that of charity: how in fact can one proclaim the new commandment without promoting in justice and in peace the true, authentic advancement of man?  We ourself have taken care to point this out, by recalling that it is impossible to accept ‘that in evangelization one could or should ignore the importance of the problems so much discussed today, concerning justice, liberation, development and peace in the world.  This would be to forget the lesson which comes to us from the gospel concerning love of our neighbour who is suffering and in need.’ (Evangelization in the Modern World, # 31)

Muweme Muweme
Editor