Oh yes I am back on my blog, how I missed it and all
you who read my blog. I guess I owe you an explanation
as to why I was so quiet yet a lot of interesting events
where happenning around Zimbabwe. If it will give you
any consolation, even though I was very quiet I was
very much aware of what was going on around me. I
could have wrote what I thought about what was happenning
but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, because my
heart had been shaken and caused me to suffer from
writer's block. There you have my explanation, happy now?
Anyway seeing as to how I have started writing on the blog
again, I think I have bounced back from the heart problem.
Thank God, Monika and the group at Mackinac Island I am
back to my normal self again. Chipo, my friend did give me
US$1O so that I start writing on my blog again, putting
into practice the saying, "A penny for your thoughts,"
and factoring in 11 million percent Zimbabwean inflation
rate. I can't deny that she motivated me to write this
article but Chipo my friend before you do it again let
me make one point very clear here, money can't buy my
views just like it can't buy the finer things in life,
but hey it can buy food, beauty products and make my life
more comfortable so thank you very much for hiding your
genorosity under your need for me to write something on my
blog to entertain you or poke your brain.
Let me talk about the topic that is making headlines in
Zimbabwe. While I was quiet I noticed there were the
Government of National Unity (GNU) talks which went
through one deadlock after another and stretched on
for months yet when they started they were supposed
to take only two weeks, and the longer it took to
reach an agreement the more the country's economy
collapsed and the more the ordinary Zimbabweans
sank deeper and deeper into poverty and hunger. I had
started to call the GNU talks the, "Going Nowhere Union"
talks until eventually after so many deliberations a
power sharing agreement was reached only last week.
While many Zimbabweans rejoiced over the deal I found
myself describing rejoicing so soon after the deal with
just one phrase, "Much ado about nothing." To me the
deal was just a piece of paper that I could only start
rejoicing over once what is on that piece of paper is
implemented in such a way that it changes the lives of
ordinary Zimbabweans to the better. As we speak the
power sharing agreement is already experiencing some
glitches so early in its inception. Which party gets
the Finance Ministry and the Home Affairs Ministry
as well as many other key Ministries is where the
problem lies but I don't see why that should be a
problem at all.
In Zanu PF's hands the Ministry of Finance caused
the economy to suffer one near-death experience after
another and reduced most Zimbabweans to extreme
poverty so I find it very absurd that Zanu PF would
want to head that Ministry again. It doesn't need
a rocket scientist to know that money will start
trickling into RBZ from international donors only
if the MDC is heading the Finance Ministry. Is
Zanu PF so far gone that it can't read that writing
on the wall. Also in Zanu PF's hands, the Ministry
of Home Affairs became so laden with corruption,
incompetence and unethical and unprofessional behaviour
so much that the rule of law flew out of the country at
the speed of light. Why Zanu PF would still want to head
that ministry is only so as to protect themselves from
the atrocities they perpertrated on innocent people
and MDC will loose its popularity if it allows them
to do that. Let me end this topic by appealing to the
leaders of both parties to put the interests of the people
at heart first instead of their own interests, in every
decision they make. That way I am sure there won't be
any glitches in trying to implement the deal and they
should also always remember that the international
community is watching the goings-on in the country
very closely and lets be very honest on that, they
wouldn't want to invest their money on a win-lose
deal where the MDC is on the loosing side. Zanu PF,
whether you like it or not you have got to give MDC
a lot of lee-way if you want the country to recover
from the economic quagmire that it is in right now
and save the Zimbabwean masses from hunger and poverty
which has reached unprecedented levels.
Chipo my friend this is where your US$10 gets used up.
If you feel that you have been short-changed, you can
come to my house and get the remaining kilograms of
mealie-meal from the 10kg bag of mealie-meal which is
the only item I managed to afford to buy after
changing the US$10 for Zimbabwean cash. What an abnormally
and ridicoulsly expensive country this nation has become.
Could have got times ten more cash in my bank account
by having someone make an RTGS bank transfer of cash
into my bank account in exchange for the US$10 but getting
the money from the bank at $500 and recently $1000 a day
wouldn't have enabled me to get the mealie meal at that
particular moment I needed it. Can somebody tell me the
reason why Gono is intend on setting the maximum money
withdrawal of money from the bank per person per day to
very low amounts that can't buy anything and reducing
everyone to poverty in so doing. What reason could
possibly be so important as to justify making the people
suffer standing in very long bank queues everyday and waste
a lot of time they could use to be more productive at their
workplaces. All that trouble so as to get a small amount
of money that can't put food on the table in one day. From
an ordinary Zimbabwean point of view that is incompetence
by Gono at its best, try as he might to find an economic
theory to explain it. What good is an economic theory that
sucks in practice? Please MDC rectify that problem as soon
as you get the Finance Ministry that you obviously deserve.
Oh, I feel so great saying exactly what I want about Zanu PF
without fear of my beautiful backside being vandalised. I believe
that the minute the two parties signed that power sharing deal my
freedom to express my views in this country where given back
to me and to every Zimbabwean. Now that is cause for rejoicing,
but wait a while and see if I will be alive and intact as to post
another no beating around the bush article a few weeks from now.
Just kidding, of course this new found freedom of expression is
for real and even if it was not nothing will happen to a small fish
like me. Good luck Zimbabwe and be blessed.
Posts
Seby I think I got my money's worth here so you can keep your mealie-meal. I know you enjoyed spending the money so stop philosophisizing about money not being able to buy the finer things in life even though it is very true. Wasn't it you who told us to
ReplyDeletelearn to tell the need for assistance hid in statements of pride, I could see you needed financial help even though you were not saying it. Please don't hesitate to ask me when you need help, I understand that Telone is paying you very little money that can't sustain you for a week and it hurts me to see you struggling to make ends meet. Why doesn't Telone management just admit that they have failed to run the company and close it instead of reducing intelligent people like you to paupers like that. I am sure if you didn't love internet networking so much you would have left that sinking Telone ship by now.
Anyway let me now comment on the Zim situation. Oh yes Seby you have said it all so frankly without beating around the bush, I hope they read it and it knocks some sense into their greedy and power hungry heads. While ordinary Zimbabweans are scrounging for food
they are busy arguing over who gets what ministry. Damn, how I hate politicians, why are they so inhuman yet they pretend to want what is best for ordinary people. Who do they think they fool, definately not me? If they don't address the problem of hunger and inflation soon most ordinary Zimbabweans are all going to end up
being moving skeletons before becoming corpses soon after that. I guess that is what they want, wosara zvavo nenyika yavo wega wachitongana wega. Am not amused at all with the turn of events concerning the deal.
Seby welcome back to your blog and hey we need to talk. Chipo thank you for motivating Seby to start writing on her blog again with your genorosity.
ReplyDeleteSeby I noticed that you only mentioned the Finance Ministry and the Home Affairs Ministry but if we analyse what Zanu PF did when it was in control of each of the ministries one by one, we will realise that they are not fit to be in charge of a lot more ministries if not all.
In Zanu PF's hands the Ministry of Health reduced state hospitals to being more of morgues (because of the high death rate in the hospitals) than places where the sick could be revived to good health. The poor who didn't have money to pay upfront before being treated where left to die. In Zanu PF's hands the Ministry of Information became an information regulating body whose aim was to suppress the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression and spread propaganda that was meant to mobilise the masses to Zanu PF's school of thought. Jonathan Moyo goes down in history as the man who started killing democracy in Zimbabwe with the draconian bills he drafted when he was Minister of Information.
So frankly speaking I would be happier if the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Information is headed by MDC.
In Zanu PF's hands the Ministries responsible for Water and Electricity
ReplyDeletefailed to provide us with running water and electricity at all times and we learnt to make do with water containers, firewood, candles, paraffin and gel stoves. Our urban standard of living was reduced to the rural standard of living and that didn't amuse us at all. It felt like civilisation in this nation was going backwards while civilisations in all the other nations was going forward. I think if MDC takes over the Ministries responsible for water and electricity we would be brought back to present day civilisation.
I also hope that this time round both MDC and Zanu PF will make sure that they appoint ministers who have knowledge of the different ministries they are assigned to instead of making political appointments of people who are ignorant of the topics involved in running the ministry they are appointed to, like what Zanu PF used to do.
We are aware that most of the MDC MPs are not learned, they are just people who are very vocal and had the courage to stand up against Zanu PF during elections. It would be best if MDC scrutinises the education background of all its MPs first before making the ministerial appointments.
Let me see if I can still do this, I mean comment intelligently on Seby's blog. I happen to be pregnant these days and Ike tells me that the pregnancy has changed me not only physically but also emotionally and I was just wondering if I had changed intelligently as well. Let you blog readers be the judge of that.
ReplyDeleteAs I read through the article and all the comments I wondered why Zanu PF allowed the decay in all those Ministries and what they have to say about wounding our country like that. I also wondered what new ideas they want to implement if they are given those Ministries to head again and why they didn't come up with those new ideas before now.
I know that they always blame the sanctions which resulted in the international community withdrawing aid to Zimbabwe. To a certain extend that is true, but that is only to a very small extend. Most of the decay in the different institutions was a result of incompetence, unprofessionalism, corruption and unethical behaviour being allowed to take root within the institutions such that they destroyed the firm foundations of the institutions resulting in the decay we see today all over the country. They should also ask themselves why those sanctions they blame were dished to the country in the first place. It was because of their undemocratic practices especially during election periods.
My pregnancy is calling so let me conclude my arguement by not beating around the bush and saying that given the track record of Zanu PF and the way the country deteriorated when it was in that political party's hands most Zimbabweans have lost confidence, trust and credibility in that party and all its memmbers and would therefore prefer to have MDC running all the key ministries.
Seby my friend I can see you are back with a bang and as frank and honest as ever. My word of advice concerning your heart problem is that when God closes one door he opens another but the problem is that we keep looking at the closed door and so do not see the new door that God would have opened for us.
ReplyDeleteI want to talk about what happened to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Education when it was in Zanu PF's hands.
In Zanu PF's hands the Ministry of Agriculture gave land back to blacks which was excellent but most of the blacks that where given the land and loans to utilise the land, instead of farming on the land, they let it lie fallow. The Ministry of Agriculture should have made a strict and efficient follow-up as to whether the new farmers were using the land productively and then evict those who were not. In fact in the first place the land should have been given only to those who had the capital and the know-how in the field of agriculture at a commercial level, instead of to every Jack and Jill who had connections in Zanu PF or to the civil servants who were responsible for allocating the land. The result was a country that used to be the bread basket of Africa suffering from hunger. In Zanu PF's hands the Ministry of Education reduced teachers to paupers whose salaries were less than those of less learned people than them and this demotivated the teachers and as a result the standard of education in the country down slided steeply from being one of the highest in the continent to being one of the lowest.
In view of what happened to the afore-mentioned ministries in the hands of Zanu PF I would feel comfortable if they are headed by MDC.
Hello, I like this blog.
ReplyDeleteSorry not write more, but my English is not good.
A hug from Portugal
I would like to ask Zanu PF not to take this article and all its comments personally. We are just stating true facts about how the different ministries failed to deliver as we the ordinary Zimbabweans expected them to when Zanu PF members were heading the different ministires over the past eighteen years. We are not saying this because we support MDC, we don't, neither do we support Zanu PF, we are nuetral patriotic citizens of Zimbabwe who love our country and would like to see it change for the better. Given how most ministries failed when they were in Zanu PF's hands you surely shouldn't blame us for wanting to give a chance to MDC with the hope that they will perform and revive all the decaying institutions in our beloved country.
ReplyDeleteHaving made that very clear let me add some words of advice to both the incoming Prime Minister and the incoming President as agreed on the power-sharing deal of the 15th of September 2008.
Mr President listen to this very carefully. We are living in a Globalisation era these days in which all countries of the world interact, communicate and do business as if we are one big nation and in a globalised world talking about colonisation, imperialism and passing rhetoric innuendos and hate speeches about the West is grossly inappropriate. In the globalisation era we are trying to co-exist with each other and your rhetoric innuendos and hate speeches do not exude the co-existance that we are trying to achieve. Mr President, let bygones be bygones and forgive the British for colonising us many years ago, we have since forgiven them and we urge you to do the same. Lets be very frank here Mr President, in this present day and age no one would want to colonise our country, its not worth it. Besides, colonisation and imperialism are words that are no longer there in the Globalisation era. Those two words did exist those days when you were fighting for the freedom of Zimbabwe but they have since been replaced by one paradigm shift after another. Somewhere along the years you must have missed the mind shifts. Instead of concentrating on hating the West and blaming them for every ill that happens in our nation let us concentrate on developing our business markets so that our nation becomes a force to reckon with in terms of trade and commerce in the globalised world.
I am sorry if you feel insulted by my telling you this but it was about time that someone had to tell you that your rhetoric hate speeches are so undiplomatic and embarass us as a nation in this globalisation era we are living in. Let me conclude by saying that we do appreciate how you liberated Zimbabwe in 1980 and will always honour you for that even if you retire from politics or from the face of the earth.
My word to Mr Prime Minister is that we know that you are not very learned but we believe that one doesn't have to be very learned for one to be able to run a country. As long as you choose the right intelligent people to advise you and to run the key ministries you are home and dry. Make sure that power doesn't go into your head and make you arrogant and refuse to listen to advice. Also remember that your strength lies in the fact that most Zimbabweans love you because you are in touch with the plight of the ordinary Zimbabweans. Always remember that there is a very thin line between love and hate so if you want most Zimbabweans to continue loving you make sure you remain in touch with the ordinary people's needs and deliver those needs. Zanu PF has always labelled you as a puppet of the West and how you handle the issue of land redistribution will determine whether they were right or not. Everyone will be watching that issue very closely and it is an issue that can make or break you. Let me conclude by thanking you Mr Prime Minister for bringing democracy back into Zimbabwe. Had it not been for you I wouldn't have the freedom to write all this on my blog and the comments from my friends wouldn't be so frank and straight to the point. With these few words of advice I rest my case.
Seby you forgot to give advice to the incoming Deputy Prime Minister so let me do it myself. My word of advice to the Deputy Prime Minister is that we know that you were once the most notorious hooligan at the University of Zimbabwe but you should realise that the office you have been given is quite a high office that requires you to eliminate all those traces of hooliganism and be more cultured and polished. In fact I think it will be very good for the country if you and both the incoming Prime Minister and the incoming President attend some lessons on diplomacy. We also want to bring to your attention that your involvement with NASA earlier on in your career makes most Zimbabweans suspect you to be an agent of you know what country I am talking about. How far true that is, only you knows. All I can say is that by appointing you as Deputy Prime Minister we the people of Zimbabwe have put a lot of trust in you and don't expect you to betray our trust or abuse that office. Lastly but not least I personally think that with your knowledge of Robotics you can give advice to the Minister of Technology so that our country can increase its use of Computer Aided Manufacturing and thereby increasing the production of goods in the industries.
ReplyDeleteLet me conclude my comment by saying that we might be very ordinary women who talk and criticise too much but our motives in airing our views so blatantly are very grand, the only motive we have is to make our country a better place to live in. Its up to you readers of the blog to sift what we have said and separate what you think is chaff from what you think is wholesome grain and use the wholesome grain wisely.
Hi everybody, first of all thank you Eusebia for being back on your blog. I will chant half the night - Seby is back!
ReplyDeleteThank you Chipo, for that thought which cannot be valued in money.
I would love to read all your comments straight away, however it must wait until I am back from a 10 days business trip. Must pack and prepare.
God bless you all and keep a special eye on Seby.
P.S. we often wonder what politicians talk for weeks, months and years - because the home ministry is now in MDC hands, Seby is free now to write what she thinks - halleluja! Lord, let her think and write and love ...