Far-fetched reporting

This weekend I had a hectic trip to a neighbouring country
to do some shopping so as to replenish my pantry which had become
empty. It was an uneventful trip but what disturbed me was the news
I heard about Zimbabwe when I was there. The radio news reader said
that some Zimbabweans had resorted to killing dogs and eating dog meat
because of the shortage of meat in the country. He went on to say that
some dog owners where surrendering their dogs to the SPCA citing the
shortage of dog food as the reason to do so while others were doing so because they felt that their dogs' lives were 
at risk from the dog eaters and the SPCA could not cope
with the large number of dogs being surrendered and so was having the
dogs injected with a drug that makes them die peacefully but the drug
was quickly becoming short in supply.

These lies about my country horrified me and spoiled my mood. I shudder
at the professional ethics of the journalist who reported such lies and
felt hurt at the ridicule we Zimbabweans are being subjected to by our very
SADC neighbours whom we thought loved us and would stand by us in truth
through whatever ordeal we go through as a nation. I wondered  if my dream
of the African Union coming up with one big country called Africa which
will be a force to reckon with will ever happen if our very own reporters
report such lies that go against the group dynamics needed for such a union
to be successful.

Besides that the trip was quite exciting. There were four of my friends Chipo,
Clemencia, Agnes, Chipo's sister-in-law and myself and we touched base about
a number of issues and had quite some laughs of glee such that the locals in the
country that we visited were surprised by our jovial mood which they didn't
expect from people who are coming from a nation which has been making
horrifying headlines in their country.