I left Bhutan on June 8. A few days in Kathmandu, Nepal. Then it was back to Vancouver. A week or so there. Then, June 18, Toronto. June 28, we leave for Blantyre, Malawi.

I’m in Toronto with Journalists for Human Rights, an international ngo that promotes human rights through media development. They’re sending me to Blantyre—Malawi’s second-largest city—to work with a newspaper called the Daily Times. I’ll be in Malawi right through until the end of December.

Malawi is one of the world’s “least developed countries”. The United Nations Human Development Index ranks it 156 out of 170 listed nations. But on the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Peace Index, Malawi places just 39 from the top —higher than any other African nation save Botswana.

Prominent economists such as Paul Collier have empirically illustrated that the poorer a developing nation is, the more likely it is for that country to experience periods of conflict.

People who are born with a life expectancy of just 50.03 years, who struggle with 53 percent of their population living below the poverty line, and who survive on a GDP per capita of just US$800/year—all of which applies to Malawi—are, generally, not happy. And, as Collier explains in his book, Wars, Guns, And Votes: Democracy In Dangerous Places, widespread poverty and desperation are not favourable forces for democracy— another of Malawi’s characteristics—and, historically, have too-often led to lawlessness, and conflict.

What makes Malawi different?

I can’t wait to find out.