Mozambique’s best known visual artist, the charismatic Malangatana Ngwenya (Mah-LANG-gah-tah-nah en-GWEN-yah), known by his first name and named UNESCO Artist for Peace in 1997, died last Wednesday, January 5th, 2011, in The Pedro Hispano Hospital in Matosinhos, Portugal, after a prolonged illness.

After the massive disruption caused by last week’s food riots, Maputo was returning to normal .

Both the public bus company TPM, and the privately-owned minibuses known as “chapas” were providing passenger transport, and Maputo residents attempted to catch up on the shopping they had been unable to do over the previous three days.

World-renowned political organizer and one of Africa’s most celebrated poets, Dennis Brutus, died early on December 26 in Cape Town, in his sleep, aged 85. He was an outstanding reader of his own work and a passionate, forceful advocate and activist to the very end. Brutus’ political activity initially included extensive journalistic reporting, organizing and, after being banned in SA, he fled to Mozambique but was captured and deported to Johannesburg.

While working in data processing management for financial services I learned a practical principle: a suitable remedy to a problem must itself be monitored and adjusted as needed; otherwise, the expected remedy may become an unexpected problem making things worse.

The above principle reoccurred to me when, a couple of days ago, I watched Damned By Debt Relief by Worldwrite featured on Current TV.