Zimbabwe: The storm is over and if bees can do it so can we.

With MDC finally agreeing to form a coalition government with Zanu PF, I want to believe that the storm is over now in Zimbabwe and in my optimistic mind I can actually see the sunshine in the horizon and an atmosphere of tranquility that usually follows a violent storm. Those who love nature and take note of it will know what I am talking about, the tension that was building up in Zimbabwe and almost reaching breaking point has been eliminated and in its place there is a serene atmosphere pregnant with hope and optimistic expectations that feels like sunshine after a violent storm. In the low-density area where I lIve there is no open jubilation because in September last year when the GNU agreement was signed some people openly celebrated only to have their hopes dashed a few days later, so now people are cautious about celebrating too soon and prefer to have a wait and see attitude. Personally I have chosen to accept this new development in Zimbabwe with an optimistic mind, I know just how the suffering of the ordinary people in Zimbabwe had reached unprecedented levels and I know how the ordinary people were now in desperate need of a solution to end their plight and I want to believe that the three GNU leaders will work together to rebuild the nation they had destroyed so that ordinary Zimbabweans can once again lead a comfortable life. For some of my fellow bloggers to now dwell on pointing out how they think this union is a mistake and predict doom or dwell on how Tsvangirai has been outwitted by Mugabe is rather inappropriate if they have the country's best interests at heart. What Zimbabweans need to do now is support the three leaders in their efforts to rebuild the country and talking negatively about the union will not influence the good team dynamics desperately needed by the two political rivals for the union to be fruitful. Each and every Zimbabwean has to do his/her part, working diligently to restore the country to good health. I remember writing an article on this blog back in 2007, (on the 23rd of October 2007 to be precise) about how Zimbabweans need to work together like bees to rebuild the nation, what I said in that article is very much appropriate for this moment in the history of Zimbabwe. The article was entitled, " If bees can do it why can't we," and in case you don't get time to search through the archives on my blog I have pasted it below.

So there I was sitting on the bench in the garden admiring God’s great art when along came a number of bees buzzing and en-route to collect nectar on the roses. As I watched the honeybees a thought came to me about how our country would become a developed nation if we worked together in harmony like bees, each one of us doing our part excellently in rebuilding the nation.

The honeybee has one of the most highly developed social structures in the animal kingdom. At the heart of the hive, which may house as many as 80 000 bees is the queen but these 80 000 bees don’t just sit around watching their queen. Each bee has a specialized duty to fulfill. The forager bees encounter the perils of the outside world to collect food. The water collector bees bring in moisture to regulate humidity in the hive. The plasterer bees make a kind of cement to repair the hive. The fanner bees station themselves at the entrance of the hive and fan the scent of the hive outward to signal the location of the colony to lost or disoriented bees. The scout bees keep the hive alerted to opportunities and dangers of the outside world. The variety and specialization of the worker bees seem endless and they all work towards one objective of maintaining the social soundness of their bee kingdom.

So as I looked at the forager bees collecting nectar from the roses I couldn’t help but wish we Zimbabweans could all work harmoniously together, doing our different parts in rebuilding our nation. I imagined a scenario where there are registered Bureau de Changes in the country whose rates will be competitive with no black market rates to talk of thus making it possible for foreign currency from our Diaspora relatives and from tourists and cross border traders to eventually find itself in the RBZ coffers. I then imagined industrialists being able to get foreign currency to buy some raw materials and working industriously to produce all the goods needed in the country. I then imagined the wholesalers buying the goods from the producers at reasonable prices and selling them to retailers after factoring in a reasonable profit margin and the retailers selling the goods to customers at get rich slowly prices that don’t cause inflation to keep rising. The result being a sound economy in our country. I also imagined all the workers in all the different industries in the country doing their work excellently without corruption resulting in excellent institutions and infrastructures in the country.

This is not an unreachable day dream. The Japanese are the technological superpower that they are because of their ability to work together like bees towards the development of their country. The Chinese are hard workers who are always as busy as bees, working diligently for the development of their country and as a result they have become a powerhouse to reckon with. The Germans had a high rate of inflation like ours long back but through innovation and a development friendly attitude by the German citizens they managed to rise up and rebuild their economy. There was a time when Ireland’s economy had become so bad that it suffered a brain drain larger than the one we are suffering now but through working like bees with a mindset inclined towards sustainable development, Ireland now has a very sound economy. Right next to our borders is Zambia whose weak Kwacha currency we used to make jokes about but just visit the country now and notice how much foreign currency is exchanged legally in the many registered Bureau de Changes in the country and also notice how strong the Kwacha has become as compared to the Zimbabwean dollar. This is a result of all stakeholders in Zambia working in harmony towards the same goal of the improvement of the economy.

If all these other countries managed to do it, so can we. If bees can do it so can we. The state of our economy is not because we failed in economics it is because not all of us has the soundness of our economy at heart. If only we would all do our part in rebuilding the nation, working like bees to do so, in no time this economic meltdown will be history. We shouldn’t kill our economy because of politics. Let us aim at leaving a legacy of a healthy economy for our grandchildren and future generations unborn to time, if not our children.

So my message to Zimbabweans as they look at the horizon with a gleam of hope is that Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Mutambara can only be able to rebuild this nation of Zimbabwe if and only if each and everyone of us contribute in the positive ways we know how, just like bees. Let us all be the change that we want to see in Zimbabwe. To Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Mutambara I say to you even though I never supported any of your parties and I dream of Makoni ruling this nation I will support all of you in your efforts to rebuild our beloved Zimbabwe but take note that supporting you doesn't mean that I will not point out your mistakes as you try to rebuild the country. I will continue to be an objective and analytical voice writing my opinions about the goings on in this country on this blog, I will continue to exercise my freedom of expression.

Zimbabwe: Annual subscription of an essential service not paid up

The backbone of Zimbabwe's telecommunications, data and internet services, Telone, did not pay their annual subscription of approximately US$3000 to AfriNIC an internet governing body that allocates addresses to all African networks. AfriNIC has threatened to block most of the IP addresses connecting the entire Zimbabwe's internet network if it doesn't get that money soon. If that happens most of the nation of Zimbabwe will be shutdown from the rest of the world in terms of internet connection. Despite constant reminders since the beginning of this year 2009, that
money still hasn't been paid and if I were to dig around for more information I am sure I will also find out that there are many other very important annual subscriptions that haven't been paid up. If they didn't pay AfriNIC then it probably means that our internet uplink providers like Intelsat, Teleglobe, Equant and SAIX where probably not paid as well. That is on the internet side, so what more on the voice network side which involves a lot of inter-connection charges between countries to be paid up. To make matters worse there are some very essential parts for the proper functioning of the Mazoe satellite dish that went faulty years back and still haven't been replaced and if you hear how small the amount needed to buy the new part is you will wonder if Telone management is serious with their work.

US$3000 should not be a lot of money for a big company like Telone that is the backbone of Zimbabwe's telecommunications, data and internet services so the question is why hasn't such a small amount of money been paid up yet. Is it because Telone the giant Titanic has finally sank after many years of mismanagement or is this a reflection of the mismanagement that is slowly sinking the company? The
employees at Telone can actually testify how the company is sinking and has been paying them a pittance of a salary for the past two years up until now with this month's salary being as little as 90Trillion Zimbabwean dollars which is equivalent to 20US dollars at today's exchange rate. Working for Telone has become a community service or a form of voluntary slavery because by merely coming to work employees are
actually subsidising the company and not the other way round. Or are these the results of POTRAZ the telecommunications governing body, governing Telone in such a way that it doesn't make profits, always refusing to approve Telone's profitable tariff proposals and insisting that they base their tarrif increases on very old assets that can never justify a tariff increase which is in line with the hyper-inflationary economic environment in Zimbabwe? Makes me think of the minimalist view that is sometimes very good for business, which is based on the underpining
philosophy that a governing body that governs least is best. Or is this because of Gono,the Reserve Bank governor, not allocating Telone the foreign currency that they need to pay out their subscriptions.? Or is the problem bigger than what I have mentioned above and actually the dictatorship government's way of censorship, cutting away bloggers like me and online media from communication with the rest of the world.? Whatever the reason is Zimbabweans are not amused.

This I am sure is one example of the Reserve Bank governor's priority list that is questionable. How he runs around so fast to buy expensive cars, plasma televisions and satellite dishes for the Zanu PF elites and is so fast to give them foreign currency at very low exchange rates as a holiday allowance but when it comes to
allocating foreign currency for essential services like communications and the buying of chemicals needed by the water authority to purify recycled water so that it is germ-free leaves it until it has become a crisis. All those former ministers and parliamentarians who used to complain about how he has practically taken over the running of the country have all gone quiet now after Gono bought their loyalty with latest model four wheel drive cars. Let me digress a bit. Is it just me or have you Zimbabweans noticed that since the time Gono insisted that all companies given a license to trade in US dollars should bank their foreign currency everyday the US dollar has become so scarce on the ground as if once the money goes to the Reserve bank it is no longer circulating.? Is this because the reserve bank of Zimbabwe is restricting the free circulation of the US dollar by taking ages to allocate companies the foreign currency they would have applied for.? If so what is the reason for doing that? Is there a reason or is it merely incompetence.?

Don't put all your eggs in one basket

When other countries are making sure that they don't put their eggs in one basket and are therefore diversifying into other baskets Zimbabwe is moving most of its eggs into that basket that other countries are moving away from.

Ever since the global financial crisis which has resulted in the fall of the US dollar against other currencies, most countries have started to divest themselves of their US dollars, but they are doing it slowly to avoid a panic that might wipe out the value altogether. That is exactly what China, holder of billions of dollars of U.S. debt is doing, slowly diversifying into other currencies and it is not the only country doing that. The plummeting value of the U.S. dollar, long considered the bedrock of global finance has resulted in most countries loosing confidence in the U.S. economy and the US dollar and having doubts about the worthiness of the US dollar as the international trading (or reserve) currency. This fall of the once mighty US dollar from grace is primarily because of America's dependence on debt. The subprime mortgage crisis was the trigger, itself a reflection that too many Americans were over their heads in debt. American banks had made it possible, through credit cards, personal loans and mortgage loans for Americans to live way beyond their means, buying things they want regardless of whether they can really afford the items or not. Many of them failed to pay back the loans and started filing for bankruptcy to get out from under credit card debt. To counter that move
banks then launched a major campaign to have the U.S. Congress change the law so that it will be harder for Americans to avoid their accumulated debts. The law was changed and resulted in most Americans struggling to pay back their mortgage loans and credit card bills ending up in foreclosure. Americans have been overspending for decades, both at the personal and governmental levels. At the governmental level the U.S. lives beyond its means, by buying and importing more goods from abroad than it sells, thereby creating a trade deficit, and it also spends more than it takes in, leaving a budget deficit. The US government is then forced to borrow billions of dollars every day, much of it from China and the central banks of other wealthy nations who are more than willing to lend to America mainly because the US dollar is the world's trading currency. "There are limits," warns economist White. "If the dollar drips lower and at some point the Chinese and the Europeans say they don't want to hold dollars, and they all rush to cash them in, then it could be a very nasty situation." That nasty situation, if it happened, could cause a global run on the dollar, with nations such as China trying to cash out of trillions of dollars held by its central bank. In turn, this might cause a rupture in the worldwide
financial network and lead to major restructuring as central banks tilted toward the euro or another currency.

The question that most nations are now asking themselves is now that the US dollar has become weak and unstable how long will it continue to be regarded as the international trading (or reserve) currency, when there are other stronger and stable currencies like the euro and the pound. This seems to be the question that the Zimbabwean economy policy makers, Gono being one of them, failed to ask themselves before coming up with the decision to completely dollarise the Zimbabwean economy. The only good thing about their decision is that either way using US dollars is much better than using the inflation-laden Zimbabwean dollars which have become completely worthless but all the same they shouldn't put their eggs in one basket because the world over economists and policymakers have a lingering question as to whether they should maintain the anemic dollar as a reserve currency or switch to euros instead. Some argue that market forces will eventually bring the dollar back, as confidence in the U.S. financial system revives. After all, the Chinese aren't likely to cash in their dollars anytime soon, these people say, and the
world still finds the U.S. a prime place to invest its money and buy stocks, despite the recent economic bumps. Yet that might not hold true forever as the lesson of the change of the reserve currency from the British pound to the US dollar forty years ago after World War 2 shows. Prior to World War 2 the British pound was the international trading (or reserve) currency. Helping with this international standing of the pound was the fact that the currency was on the gold standard. That meant pound notes could be exchanged for gold. The Bank of England guaranteed this, and Great Britain had the gold to back up the currency, no matter how many people might wish to convert their money into the precious metal. Back then who would have dreamed that things would change but they did. The Great Depression happened in Britain and it had to take its currency off the gold standard although it still continued as a major trading currency. By this time the US dollar was also in use for international trade. After World War 2 Britain was greatly improverished and by 1967 it was still having serious financial difficulties. Manufacturing had declined. To boost the manufacturing sector, the Labour government at the time decided to devalue the pound thereby making exports cheaper and more competitive. Those behind this decision did not foresee that it would lead to the death of the British pound as an international trading currency. That was the time the American dollar became the world's main trading currency. This is the lesson that now makes the global market take a more cautious view of the relative strength of both the U.S. economy and the dollar itself compared to the Euro and the Pound and is causing most countries to decide to move some of their eggs from that one basket to other baskets.

Back to School

At long last, Tuesday the 27th of January is back to school for Zimbabwean children, whose parents can afford to pay their fees in US dollars. This is the time of the year when the burden of being a parent is heaviest (especially in a hyper-inflationary economy) as parents run around preparing for their children to go back to school fully equipped with all the required educational resources. (Asika nzou hairemerwe nenyanga dzayo)



My first born daughter Amanda who is fifteen years old and will be writing her Cambridge 'O' level this year is such an intelligent kid who loves learning and has always excelled in all subjects ever since she was at kindergaten. She values education so much that every spare time she gets she allocates it to studying. My aim is to help her reach her full potential in education. My other daughter Emma is eight years old and is very good at Maths but needs a lot of help in writing English (she must have got that trait from her father because the mother has a blog that shouts out loud her ability in writing English), although she is very good at oral English. She has been very unfortunate in the sense that, it was during the time when teachers became so demotivated with the little salaries they were getting that they stopped teaching properly, that she started going to school. This blow had fallen at the most critical period in her life, the period of transition when the newly-awakened mind is at its freshest, most receptive stage and educational concepts that are the foundation of a successful education had to be laid down into her brain. I speak, it must be understood of a mind that had not been previously trained or pressed into a mould or groove by schoolmasters and schools and badly needed that mould so that it could belong to the group of literates. This is the stage when kids are most curious and most eager to learn which needed to be utilised by motivated teachers so that knowledge is most readily assimilated and above everything when the foundations of character and the entire life of the child is mapped out through the knowledge that he/she manages to absorb from the teachers. Parents at home do their part to educate their children but they can't do as much as trained teachers can do in schools. My little daughter together with many other Zimbabwean children is a victim of a government that believes in paying plumbers who fiddle with their toilet more money than teachers who fiddle with our children's brains. Zimbabwean children are like wretched captives, tied hand and foot and left to lie there until it suits Mugabe, Tsvangirai (the leaders of Zimbabwe) and all the policy makers (Gono and all those who determine the salaries of teachers) to set them free and give them their right to proper effective education. OUR CHILDREN ARE WORTH IT.








This year I found myself with a "back to school", bill of US$800 covering the school fees needed for my two daughters and all the groceries, stationary and food provisions they required. Where to get that kind of money when my employer pays me in worthless Zimbabwean dollars which are equivalent to only US$20 became a question that gnawed my mind and made me toss and turn in bed endlessly. (Kurara hope rugare)Years back when my ex-husband and I divorced, I had vowed to myself that I was going to be self-dependent and will not ask him for anything, even the upkeep of the children if he doesn't offer to do it willingly, and ever since that time I have enjoyed sticking to that vow because the economy could still make me afford to be self-sufficient. This year with the US&800 that was needed for my children to go back to school I had no option but to swallow my pride and ask their father to pay their school fees and buy all the required educational resources. I learnt the hard way that pride is a word that exists only in a healthy economy. He failed to raise the whole amount, only managed to come up with US$400 so I had to come up with an idea to raise the other US$400. I decided to gather a lot of goods in my house that I could afford to do without and then have a yard sale today. It turned out to be a sucessful exercise and I mananged to raise the US$400 I needed for my daughters to attend school this first school term of 2009. Thanks be to God for making the Yard sale successful as well as to all the people who did not ignore the yard sale signs and actually stopped by and bought all those different peices of my past. Some of the goods were of great sentimental value to me and I hope and pray that they will add value to the lives of the people that bought them so that they cherish them as much as I did. Only sold them because my children's education is more important than any goods of sentimental value.

A post mortem on Zimbabwe

Mugabe used to be a health tonic during the liberation struggle but is now like a bad wound of a diabetic that is failing to heal, yesterday's hero turned today's tyrant. Tsvangirai used to be the symbol of hope for a nation in distress but with his failure to clinch a GNU deal he is now the symbol of failure to get rid of dictatorship. Zimbabwe used to be the bread basket of Africa but is now a basket case. The economy which had a foreign exchange rate at par with the British Pound when Mugabe took it over from Smith now has a currency that is so worthless that the country has resorted to using the reserve currency. Zimbabwe's education system used to be ranked as one of the best in Africa but is now ranked one of the worst. Harare used to be called the sunshine city because of its smartness but is now called the cholera city because of the germ-infested dirt in its running water system and the dirt all over the city due to the refuse collection services that are now history. Every essential system in the country that used to be efficiently and effectively functional is now either closed like the hospitals for example or functioning unprofessionally, unethically and unprofitably like Telone, (the company that is the backbone for telecommunications, data and internet services in the whole country) for example. In short, Zimbabwe lies in ruins. What exactly went wrong in Zimbabwe, what caused this drastic and steep fall from grace? In this article I will do a post mortem on Zimbabwe and tell you the way I, personally, see it.

Here are the results of the post mortem:
1. Mugabe is the man who was at the helm when the country deteriorated and so this deterioration reflects his bad leadership. Why didn't he take measures to stop the deterioration. Why did he allow some of his ministers to manage the different ministries, corruptly, unethically and unprofessionally. He might have been duped by panel beaten reports from the different ministries which lied that everything was alright but then why didn't he ensure that there were frequent, strict and independent audits in all the parastals and government departments. Why didn't he see to it that justice was applied indiscriminately to everyone irrespective of his/her position in government. He blames his government's failure which caused the country's ills on the West which he accuses of sanctioning Zimbabwe under Tsvangirai's advice yet he has always been quick to shout that he doesn't need the West. The West pulled out their investment from Zimbabwe mainly because of his unprofessional land grabbing exercise that saw commercial farmers being chucked out of farms they had invested in, without any compensation and his constant rhetoric saying bad things about the West. This unprofessional behaviour resulted in investors loosing confidence in doing business in Zimbabwe. Good business etiquette, common sense, good public relations and diplomacy tells you that you don't treat the people you do business with that way because if you do they will take their business elsewhere and for sure that is what happened, investors closed their industries and shops in Zimbabwe and moved to neighbouring countries. My post mortem shows that Mugabe's problem is mainly post traumatic disorder. During the liberation struggle Mugabe was badly tortured by the white Rhodesians under Smith's rule. The story has it that at one time he had his balls electrocuted by the prison guards when he had been imprisoned for fighting to liberate blacks from whites' rule. Such brutal immense torture is bound to affect a normal person psychologically and after independence Mugabe was supposed to be attended to by a psychologist so that he is cured from the post traumatic disorder caused by his horrendious experiences during the liberation struggle but nothing like that happened. His intense hatred of the West and the British in particular shows that he never healed from the inner wounds inflicted on his mind, his heart and his soul by those bad experiences. It is because of his intense hatred of the British that clouded his reasoning and caused him to throw caution out of the window and overreact to Tony Blair's refusal to compensate land to white farmers as previously agreed in the Lancaster House agreement. It is this same intense hatred of the British that makes him regard Tsvangirai's good relationship with the British with suspicion and causes him to hesitate forming a government of national unity with him. As you can see Mugabe's hatred of the West is a sickness that was left to eat away the body for too long and is now costing a life, except in this particular instance it is costing more than one life, it is costing a whole nation. Hatred is a very dangerous emotion which should never be allowed to fester and seethe inside a person for too long. The other problem with Mugabe is his false sense of grandiose that is at best egoistic and at worst myopic. This attitude is a result of him being lied to over the years by his intelligence, his ministers and his relatives that he is still liked by most Zimbabweans and when he saw the crowds that attended his rallies he believed them, not knowing that most of those people who attended had been forced to do so by threats. This is why he was so shocked by his defeat in the March 2008 elections and failed to accept the defeat and while he was in denial he ordered ZEC to cook up the voting figures so that there is a run-off. His statements show that he thinks that he is God's gift to Zimbabwe. Take for instance his remark recently when he uttered repeatedly, "Zimbabwe is mine, mine, mine." Since when has a country belonged to one person. His myopic false sense of grandiose reminds me of another dictator, Idi Amin of Uganda. Idi Amin arrogated on himself the following titles "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in general and Uganda in particular." It is imperative that humility be one of the qualities of the leader of a nation because without that quality a leader can be so egoistic that his decisions will be clouded and always inclined torwards serving his own face and not serving the needs of the people. It is this lack of humility in Mugabe that makes him refuse to see the writing on the wall and continue to cling to power at such an old age. His other problem is the communist ideolgy that was instilled into his brain during the liberation struggle. The Marxist/Leninist theories in his head makes him immune to seeing the goodness of democracy and results in him doing whatever it takes to kill democracy in the country and maintain a one party state system like the one implemented in China.

2.Tsvangirai is the trade or labour unionist turned politician who was brave enough to stand up against Mugabe and his indomitable armed forces and intelligence forces and form a party to contest Mugabe's Zanu PF. Ever since he did that he has been charged with so many crimes by Mugabe's government, all of them meant to silence him and kill his MDC party's potential to win elections and rule the country. Had it not been for Zanu PF's rigging MDC would have started ruling this country as way back as 2002. Tsvangirai is a democrat and it is that fact that makes him have support from democratic Western nations which Mugabe's post traumatic disordered mind interprets as being puppetry. Tsvangirai's main problem is lack of diplomacy, for example his statements of disrespect towards SADC and AU whom he thinks favour Mugabe and are ineffective. Good political etiquette, common sense, good public relations and diplomacy tells you that you don't utter statements like that to your neighbours who are the go-betweens between you and your rival in negotiations that can make or break the country you are aspiring to rule. It is those utterances which showed disrespect that I suspect resulted in SADC taking a stance against him and his MDC party during the equitable power sharing GNU deals even though his demands were reasonable and in line with the definition of equitable power sharing. The overall result is a Zimbabwe in limbo which is sinking deeper and deeper in ruins without any end in sight.

3. Zimbabwe is now a basket case because of most of the new farmers that were given land taken away from white commercial farmers who instead of utilising the land to the maximum come rain or drought, decided to sell the farming inputs donated to them by the government and misuse the agricultural loans granted to them by Agribank. Their being given those farms meant that they had to carry the burden of feeding the whole nation but they saw it as a get-rich-quick opportunity meant for their individual benefit. What the government failed to see when allocating the farms was that commercial farming was like any other business that needs qualified people for it to be successful. The result was a nation in serious hunger, let me apprise you of the current rather desperate hunger situation so that you understand it even more clearly than you do at present. We as a nation are bankrupt of maize-meal, our staple food. We used up our emergency grain supplies long back. They're ... long gone. If there is a sudden shift of weather patterns this year and crops fail again this year... we as a nation will become extinct. This is an issue of immense importance, that has like a thief in the night, stolen away our ability to survive in a drought, yet only a few short years ago, a drought would have been only a minor inconvenience. To make matters worse, because of hyper-inflation in the country, food is not being produced in local industries, it is being imported and as a result costing much more so prices of basic foodstuffs have become unaffordable to ordinary citizens. If people do not know where their next meal is coming from, there will be Trouble, and that's with a capital 'T' and that means trouble for everyone.


Let me end here for today, to be continued so look out for, "A post mortem on Zimbabwe, part two."

Zimbabwe: Patience tested to breaking limits.

The patience of the Zimbabwean people is being tested to breaking limits. Understandably the waiting for a solution for their economic and political woes is unnerving, they are simmering and bristling with resentment over the negative results of the recent GNU talks which were held on the 19th of January 2009. Zimbabweans had hoped that finally their problems were going to be resolved by those two leaders once they agree on equitable power sharing. None of the two leaders, Tsvangirai and Mugabe was willing to come to a compromise concerning their different stances so the country remains in limbo while ordinary Zimbabweans continue to suffer in the ruins that Zimbabwe has become. While the Zimbabwean people wait ad infinitum for a solution these two leaders are wallowing in their riches which make them immune to this suffering. They are both waiting patiently for each other to give in, yet the pathetic situation in the country they are bickering over is such that their patience has become not a virtue but a vice.

Tsvangirai is being treated unfairly by Mugabe and SADC is allowing it for reasons best known to themselves (we can only make assumptions) and so all he can think of doing is wait patiently for the situation in the country to deteriorate to such low levels that Mugabe will be left with no option but to call him and submit to his demands since he holds the key to the positive renewal of this country. But in the game of waiting, Mugabe is the maestro of patient vultures. He will not be hastened. He never backs down, and he has all the aces up his sleeves; like the Armed forces for a start. He also has a lot of pride that may never allow him to submit to Tsvangirai's demands even though they are very reasonable demands that are in line with the correct definition of equitable power-sharing. So it seems Tsvangirai and Zimbabweans have a very long time to wait to exhale. To be precise, knowing Mugabe, he will make them wait until hell freezes over. On the other hand Mugabe has got a hold on SADC leaders that puzzles me and which I am failing to pinpoint and he is utilising it to the maximum. He doesn't want to give Tsvangirai enough power for them to reign together in an inclusive government and this begs the question; what is Mugabe afraid of? He seems to be gripped by a nagging fear, a mortal foreboding that his time is up, with the knowledge that surrendering power spells not only political demise, but maybe physical! There might be another reason, more personal and heart-renting to the old man for his desperate grip on power. Like his marriage to a woman almost 40 years his junior for example. He probably knows very well that she married him mainly because of the power he weilds as President and secondly because of his money. It therefore follows that if he cedes that power in his wife's eyes he would have fallen from grace and Mugabe probably fears that the result will be his marriage will end up on the rocks. Rumour has it that the other reason for his grip on power might be because he is afraid of his military junta who are threatening him to stay put. Stay put or else what? Nobody is sure how exactly he is being threatened but everyone knows that his military junta have a lot to loose if he cedes power. Whatever reason his old brain has for clinging on to power is making him prefer to wait patiently to die in power.

This waiting game between the two leaders has gone too far and is bound to explode in their faces. I want to believe that there is a limit to what the passive and docile Zimbabweans can tolerate. Tension is rising among ordinary Zimbabweans, it seems they are being left with no option but to resort to violence. It seems the river of blood on which Mugabe cruised to the helm, is the same conduit through which he wants to swim or sink out of it. As Zimbabweans suffer from cholera, hunger, hyper-inflation problems, dollarised economy problems when they are paid in Zimbabwean dollars and the epileptic fits of electricity cuts and water cuts on a daily basis will they continue to retreat in powerless silence, behind a bulwark of state oppression? I doubt that very much but then again with Zimbabweans and their fear of the repressive force of Mugabe's crushing machinery I am not very sure if they will rise up in protest, they might choose to suffer silently.

Mugabe, please unclench fist

Yesterday I had a very late night watching President Barrack Obama's inaugration on TV. I just could not unglue my eyes away from the inaugration which was being screened live on most channels. Often, during Mr. Obama's speech, I felt strong emotions even though my viewpoint is usually analytical and objective. My emotion is understandable, the man is a skilled charismatic politician, expert in techniques of giving speeches that sway the passions of all those he will be addressing so that they see his vision and agree with it. Besides that fact my emotions were also due to the fact that in Obama I have finally found a hero to look up to after searching in vain for one for many years and I am sure I am not the only one who regards him as his/her hero.

The highlight of President Barrrak Obama's speech that made me ponder about the situation in Zimbabwe is this one. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
This part of his speech showed how he is not going to tolerate leaders who practise bad governance and I couldn't help thinking that when he said this he was refering to Mugabe. It gave me a little bit of hope that maybe he is the man who is going to help us get out of the mess that is Zimbabwe but only if Mugabe unclenches his fist.



The pictures below will tell you why my mind thought Obama was refering to Mugabe, I will not say much, the pictures will say it for me.









The other highlight of Obama's speech made me drop a tear from the compassion for humanity it exuded. It assured me that with Obama at the helm the poor and the disadvantaged will not be marginalised or sidelined and there won't be any indifference to the plight of the suffering. This is the part I am talking about,
"To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it."
The speech left me with hope that indeed with President Barrack Obama at the helm, peace, love and happiness unto the whole world could be realised.

President Barrack Obama, I wish you the best.

President Barrack Obama, I wish you the best.



Time is slow for those who wait for good things to happen and it was indeed slow for me as I eagerly waited for the twentieth of January 2009 to arrive so that Barrack Obama the man I respect and admire for his exceptional demeanour that saw him win the election against a lot off odds, could be inaugrated. Since I am one of his avid supporters with a lot of widgets dedicated to him on my blog, I would have loved to attend his inaugration ball but unfortunately I can't attend because of financial constraints but I will be there at the inaugration in my mind and heart, cheering him on as he stands on the highest pedestal in the world. In my mind I will be cheering him on using his own election campaign creed, " Yes Obama, you can. Yes Obama, you can." In my heart I will be cheering him with my own wishful thinking, "Yes, Obama, you are the man who will heal the world and bring peace, love and happiness unto the whole world." At the back of my mind I can't help imagining what he will be remembered for when his term in office is over. Will he be remembered for extricating America from Iraq, or for preventing Pakistan from dissolving into nuclear-armed chaos or for easing the tension with Iran or for rebuilding the US economy? Or perhaps failing to do all, or any of those? Well, there are good and bad possibilities everyone, remember life is so full of twists and turns that along the way may result in a person being remembered for an entirely different issue from the one he/she intended in the first place. My imaginations of what the world will become with Obama at its helm are all good but they are just that, imaginations, it is now up to him to write the history of his tenure in office in such a way that he will be remembered in a good way. The ball is now in your court Mr President, sir.





Today Barack Obama will become the most powerful man in the world and it's not just the USA which is expecting him to deliver them from their problems but the whole wide world is expecting a lot from him. For starters he is faced with a financial crisis worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s and unfortunately there is no wand that the new President can wave to magic this situation away so coping with the financial crisis will definately dominate the first part of his term of office. The ebb and flow of presidential fame are often at one with the ebb and flow of the economy, so Obama, the 44th holder of the USA Presidential office will be defined by his handling of the present economic crisis. This is something that needs his urgent attention so that the many Americans who voted for him can continue to believe that, "Yes, he can." For you to appreciate just how grave the problem of the economic crisis that he has to solve is let me furnish you with the details. A crumbling housing market has left millions of Americans facing foreclosure, income inequality is at its greatest, and a credit squeeze has pushed homes, student loans and even cars out of the reach of many families. To make matters worse the bottom fell out of the financial markets in September 2008, swallowing up people’s retirement savings and resulting in a very high surge in unemployment. As a result of these darkening economic conditions, Americans have become both angry and frightened, angry because of the excesses and stupidities of Wall Street and frightened because as the malaise has spread beyond the financial community to the real economy they have begun to suffer directly. That fear shows in a catastrophic loss of consumer confidence. The Bush administration deed try its best to rescue the situation by looking back at history to the Great Depression of the 1930s and drawing lessons from how Franklin D. Roosevelt did it back then. It sprang into action, rescuing banks so that depositors don't lose any money and pumping liquidity into the system so that the banks can continue lending. But if the financial institutions are probably past the very worst of the crisis, their recovery has hardly begun. Meanwhile the real economy is still very unstable. So the first challenge for the new President will be to help Americans recover their sense of optimism in the US economy. But there is something even bigger stalking the US economy and that is the fact that the US economy has increasingly lived beyond its means which shows up in the huge current account deficit, shows up too in a large fiscal deficit and a very low household savings. The USA has been able to have a very high standard of living beyond its means by borrowing and not only borrowing but borrowing big because other countries have been prepared to lend to it and by so doing the USA has mortgaged its future to overseas lenders who could pull their money out at the slightest whiff of a budget crisis, or simply if they come up with a better alternative for investing their money. So the challenge facing the 44th president is to explain to Americans that the country needs to become less
dependent on others for physical resources, most notably oil, but more importantly less dependent on the rest of the world for financial resources. To wean the country off such dependence will be even harder than shepherding it through the financial crisis. It needs to get saving again both at a national and family level. The US economy remains huge, flexible and powerful but it has undermined its own strength by its self-indulgence and those of us who like and admire the USA, as I do, would feel more comfortable were the new President to start nudging the country towards a more sustainable economic future.
Some 46 million US citizens – out of just over 300 million – have no health insurance, and in President Obama’s election he promised to offer coverage to everyone for the first time since Bill and Hillary Clinton’s failed attempt to get a deal in the early Nineties. This is no easy thing but if the relevant people cooperate, yes, he can do it. There is also the issue of social security that he needs to take care of.
President Obama will balance precariously atop an economic see-saw. On one side, there is an urgency to use government money to ease the financial hardship and to reflate the economy. On the other side of the see-saw, Mr Obama’s room for manoeuvre is crimped by the budget deficit, already expanded twice to reflect the nationalisations of mortgage giants and the signing of the $700bn banking bail-out package. Faced with much lower than expected tax receipts because of the recession, President Obama could find that longer-term spending priorities – from subsidies for
alternative energy, through universal healthcare to social security reform – have to be postponed. One of the problems he faces will be the expectation that a new Administration can make a swift and material difference to the country's economic prospects. But even helpful policies take time to have effect. Fortunately, however, economies are self-healing. While 2009 does look very difficult for the US economy, with most predictions suggesting it will shrink overall, there are reasonably solid hopes for a recovery in 2010.






As if the economic crisis is not enough, the international community is expecting the US and its new leader to
do more than get its own house in order but also put the whole world in order. After eight years of a Bush administration which divided, ignored or patronised most of the world's nations, world leaders are bubbling with excitement at the prospect of a more creative, transatlantic partnership with President Barack Obama. Where George W. Bush pronounced, bulldozed and failed, Barack Obama is expected to listen, cooperate and then decide.
These are the issues that President Obama has to face internationally.
AFGHANISTAN
First and foremost is the seven year war against the Talibans in Afghanistan. The US invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban and installed a democratic government that gives no shelter to al-Qa’ida but still USA is far from pronouncing victory in Afghanistan since the military situation in that country has deteriorated sharply and Osama Bin Laden is still at large. President Obama has already pledged additional US troops to help beat back a resurgent Taliban but negotiation with less militant Taliban leaders is being mooted as a promising tactic. The world expects Obama to deal with the war in Afghanistan and restore peace.
IRAQ
Then there is the Iraq war that made Bush so unpopular. Iraqis, with the exception of the Kurds, will in general be overjoyed to see the back of President Bush because polls have always revealed that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was popular outside the Sunni community but the US military occupation was never accepted. From the very start back in 2003 President Obama opposed the invasion of Iraq. In line with that initial opposition to the attack of Iraq he promised to withdraw a great bulk of US forces from the country, giving a rigid deadline of 16 months for all troops to leave. The Iraqi government is confidently demanding that the US withdraw its combat troops from the cities at the end of June 2009 and from Iraq entirely at the end of 2011 and that fits in perfectly with Obama's deadline. What is still to be considered is the size and the role of the US military presence that will necessarily remain in Iraq. Once Bush's self-destructive policy of confrontation is reversed and Obama talks diplomatically and seriously to Iran and Syria who have been making sure that the US occupation of Iraq never stabilises then one of the main sources of instability in Iraq will disappear.
THE MIDDLE EAST
Iran, has persisted with its domestic nuclear programme despite sanctions and tough rhetoric from the Bush administration and much of the international community. With intelligence agencies unable to be certain how close Iran is to being able to make a nuclear bomb, or whether it intends to build one, there are no easy decisions for the new USA President. By defusing the Iran crisis President Obama could create a markedly better atmosphere in the region, including progress in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. President Obama was attacked on the campaign trail for being willing to talk to “America’s enemies”, meaning Iran, but those who attacked him about that are unable to show that their solution of attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities would work. Because of that attack he might be a bit reluctant to engage with Tehran, on the grounds that he has a much better chance of building an international coalition to stop Iran building nuclear weapons.
The Bush administration made a late, but ineffectual, push to secure a new peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, but the recent political upheaval in Israel has shown that the Middle East crisis is far from over. Bush has left for his successor a good starting point for negotiation for an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, however flawed, than Clinton left for him after the collapse of Camp David. It is beset with problems including the control of Gaza by Hamas, whom President Obama has said he won't talk to unless they transform their stance. And many Palestinians, their hopes raised and dashed so often before, are anyway sceptical if an Obama presidency will make much difference. The Middle East and the rest of the world hopes that he will at least make the Middle East a first term priority unlike what Bush and several other presidents before him did.
PAKISTAN
Pakistan hopes that President Obama will promote global peace and stability and their opinion matter because Pakistan is the crucible of south Asia whose stability is key to containing the spread of Islamic militancy. President Obama once talked of India and Pakistan finding a solution to the Kashmir problem. He said Pakistan needed to concentrate on dealing with militants, rather than the perceived threat from India. Many thought it was just a statement, but some in India believed he was proposing a US involvement in the issue. More than a year ago, Obama angered Pakistan by voicing his support for airstrikes against al-Qa'ida militants inside
the country on the border with Afghanistan and even the deployment of troops if Islamabad "cannot or will not act" against them. His promise to "take out" militants in the tribal areas was not well received.
RUSSIA
Vladimir Putin’s Russia has asserted itself anew as an aggressive regional power, suppressing some internal dissent, using its importance as a major supplier of oil to pressure neighbours, and finally using military force to humble Georgia in a conflict that put territorial disputes back on the international political agenda.
John McCain had advocated throwing Russia out of the G8 economic grouping, but the new Democratic administration will be wary of turning Russia into a pariah nation when its co-operation is required on so many other international security issues. President Obama will no doubt hope that the falling oil price and the domestic effects of the global economic crisis will crimp Mr Putin’s room for manoeuvre but unfortunately it won’t necessarily make him more predictable.
LATIN AMERICA
Latin America hopes that from now on the treatment of immigrants in the United
States will be more humane. It hopes that under President Obama, legalising the estimated 15 million illegal workers in the US and introducing a temporary worker programme, as well as securing borders will be taken as a priority. Pending free trade agreements, drug trafficking and energy policy are just some of many regional issues that need urgent attention and all of them require that President Obama "extend a hand" to Latin America, as he promised in his campaign.
THE EU
The EU is looking forward to a closer and more trusting cooperation between the United States and Europe. France is very eager to work with Obama and happy that the Bush administration which orchestrated a bullying campaign of denigration of all things French after Paris had actively opposed the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 is now gone. Poland and the Czech Republic hope that President Obama will ignore Democratic Party misgivings and push ahead with the Bush administration's plans for an anti-missile defence and radar shield based in Poland and the Czech Republic. The
shield which was angrily opposed by Moscow is likely to become a key litmus test of future US and European dealings with Russia. Most people think that an Obama presidency was likely to bump against fundamental differences of interest between Europe and the US on issues ranging from trade, to climate change and how to
handle a more assertive or belligerent Russia.
AFRICA
Africa was almost invisible in President Obama's campaign position papers, with references to Sudan, AIDS and aid all largely indistinguishable from those of John McCain but that didn't stop Africans from pledging their support with so much enthusiasm that at times it seemed to be an African, not an American election. Africa hopes that President Obama will take steps to eradicate poverty in this continent by helping all African countries to come up with capacity-building sustainable development programmes as well as help Africa to bridge the digital divide. It also expects President Obama to continue what Bush started concerning combating AIDS in Africa. Most African countries are thinking that since President Obama's father was an African he will be very generous in giving aid to African countries but that expectation is bound to clash with reality because it won't be entirely up to him, his hands will be tied in a foreign policy agreed upon by Congress and Senate. Personally I am hoping that President Obama will be able to inspire African leaders to embrace democracy and follow democratic principles. President Obama is feted as a symbol, as a communicator and as an agent of change, and many suspect his greatest impact in Africa is likely to be limited to the first of those three. What the reality would be will unfold as he starts playing the ball which is now in his court.






One global issue that stands out which he needs to take action on as soon as possible is that of climate change. While scientists continue to argue that climate change is the transcendent threat to civilisation, environmentalists fear that the issue could be pushed down the international agenda, due to an economic crisis that could make countries reluctant to do anything that might curb growth. Where the Bush administration usually stood aloof, Mr Obama has promised to kick-start international negotiations, which could include widening the nascent systems of carbon caps and trading schemes. The new president will also be pushing the US to do its part, under the promise of “energy independence” for the nation, with new money for alternative fuels. Bringing in a low-carbon economy is very near the top of President Obama's list of priorities. It was bottom of the priority list of George W Bush, the oilman son of an oilman father, surrounded by oilmen cronies, and the shift President Obama so strongly symbolises will be felt here as much as anywhere. President Obama might charge off into a low-carbon future with all the fantastic energy and scientific inventiveness that built the atom bomb first and put a man on the Moon first by building the smart grid. But he will also have to decide on whether to disappoint green campaigners by pushing for more coal power plants and using offshore drilling as a stop-gap measure to reduce reliance on foreign oil. The world's effort at countering global warming was held back for eight critical years by George W Bush. Barack Obama's America might yet lead the way forward, even if it is not quite in the way people are currently expecting.
That in brief is what the whole world is expectng from President Obama and as you can see the man has all the world's problems on his shoulder and I pray that he will be able to tackle them all and heal the world.

What will Bush be remembered for & what will you be remembered for?

There are people who when they leave make you sigh with a sense of loss but there are also those who when they leave make you sigh with a sense of relief. It is every good person's intention to leave a good legacy but whether one actually manages to do that is a different matter altogether. The legacy you leave behind is what you will be remembered for. Life is so full of twists and turns that along the way may result in a person being remembered for an entirely different issue from the one he/she intended in the first place.



The outgoing US President. George W. Bush, I am sure wanted to be remembered as the US President that put a stop to terrorism and a stop to the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction but the decisions and choices he made during his term in office will make him be remembered for entirely different issues, most of them bad. Bush came into office eight years ago promising to put in practice a minimalist government, his rationale being the underpining philosophy that government is best that governs least but he exits today having governed a lot and made a mark with his free-market intervention. During his campaign for the presidency post he also promised to come up with a humanitarian-filled foreign policy but he leaves with not so humanitarian wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still haunting the lives of Americans and a diminishing U.S. reputation abroad. The billion dollar war in Iraq drags on, with a body count of some 4,000 U.S. soldiers to date, what is so humanitarian about that. He was the president who pledged that he would not pass on big problems to his successor but he leaves behind for Barack Obama, an economy that is in an atrocious shape with a trillion dollar deficit and most Americans in poor financial shape. Millions of Americans are out of work with the unemployment rate at a record high. A lot of American homeowners are delinquent on mortgage payments or are in foreclosure because of a meltdown of the housing market. The Dow Jones industrial average, in 2008, suffered the worst decline since 1931, and giant companies like General Motors were found gasping for breath. Life is so full of twists and turns which may inhibit a person from fulfilling his/her intentions and for Bush the twist and turn came in the form of the September 11 bombings which made him focus most of his attention on pulling all legal limits in targeting terrorists and resulted in most of his original campaign promises turning to dust.

Somewhere beneath the rubble of every endeavour gone awry are the tiny seeds of goodness and I dug for them in the history of Bush's tenure in office and here is what I came up with. Bush concentrated his attention, energy, troops
and resources on protecting Americans from terrorist attacks without a blue print to help him deal with it and in a way he was successful because for sure terrorists have not struck America again. Then there was his ambitious effort to combat AIDS which resulted in huge amounts being allocated to the funding to fight AIDS in Africa and for sure it went a long way in combating AIDS in Africa. Blanket criticism of Bush misses an important reality which is that not everything was Bush's fault. Congress and Senate are responsible for passing laws and were as usual responsible for policy and they passed a law to attack Iraq. Last but not least, in most instances Bush may not have admitted failure publicly but his turnaround in policy showed that at least he realised his mistake and was willing to change and try something new. For example the Bush administration made a series of massive blunders in 2003 and 2004 among which was the invasion and occupation of Iraq which was undertaken without first winning international legitimacy and without first gaining support from neighboring Arab states and which as a result led to tension within Iraq, tension within neighbouring Arab states and tension internationally. But starting from 2005 and up to now as Bush leaves office, he has been making some efforts to repair the situation with new approaches in handling Iraq. Change did not extend to all areas, and in many places it was too little, too late, but that
there has been a shift to the center in many crucial areas of foreign policy is simply undeniable.

Anyway the bottom line is are Americans better off or worse off than they were when Bush took office? The answer is undeniably that they are worse off and based on that question Bush's perfomance appraisal report card is abysmal. He will be remembered by many as the worst President that ever took office in USA but don't blame Bush and his minions, blame the Americans that put him in office two times. Personally, I , as a humanitarian will remember him as the President whose reaction was a bit too much on the indifferent side when New Orleans was hit by a Tsunami, memories of a flood-ravaged New Orleans with many African Americans being left to die, remain fresh in my psyche.

Bush's era is over and done with so now let us leave him to rest in peace and concentrate on you and me. Even though some of us hold no position of authority we enter and leave some territories, some worlds, some lives and those we leave behind will remember us for something. What will you and I be remembered for? I want my daughters to remember me for teaching them to sprout and bloom where ever they are planted, be it on rich soil or barren soil but whether this is actually what I will be remembered for is a different matter altogether because life is so full of twists and turns that along the way may result in a person being remembered for an entirely different issue from the one he/she intended in the first place.

I let off steam through blogging and .........

We are going into the third week of 2009 and yes in reality we are indeed in a new year but here in Zimbabwe we feel like time is moving us backwards in civilisation. While the rest of the world is moving ahead we are moving backwards. Running water and electricity remain scarce commodities in our towns, refuse collection services have since stopped, hospitals have closed, schools are still closed and those who have no source of getting US dollars or Rands have resorted to barter trade. Everywhere you look you see poverty, cholera sickness, malnourished children, AIDS full blown because of lack of a balanced diet and slim bodies in oversized clothes that used to be tight fitting. In such an environment life can be so intolerable that it can rob you off your peace of mind and your happiness but only if you let it.

I vowed to myself that I won't let the economic and political environment in this country affect me to the extend that it steals my peace of mind and happiness so against all odds I always seek to obtain from life whatever freedom from pain and suffering I can have. Of course I admit that the way to happiness is hard to travel when shadowed with the oppression of tyranny and when governed by undemocratic policies but I try to deal with that in the only way I know how and that is write down the whole truth and nothing but the whole truth,(so help me God)about how Mugabe and Tsvangirai are both holding the ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe at ransom in their pursuit for power. Yes blogging is my way of letting off steam and it helps me a lot because on my blog I have the freedom to say my piece of mind without fear of being abducted like what they did to Jestina Mukoko. I support the essential human right of free speech, a fundamental building block of free society, affirmed by the U.S. Bill of Rights in 1791 and by the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. I guess some Zimbabweans are right now saying, "Don't be so sure blogger, because this is Zimbabwe which no longer has any rule of law and it doesn't respect freedom of expression." I feel safe saying whatever I want because I happen to be supporteded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation(EFF) which is a leading civil liberties group defending rights in the digital world. EFF defends the Internet as a platform for free speech and believes that when you go online, you have a right to exercise your human right freedom of expression. EFF gives me a basic roadmap to the legal issues I may confront as a blogger, lets me know my rights as a blogger, and encourages me to blog freely with the knowledge that my legitimate speech is protected. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy which happens to be the political ideology I stand for and Internet bullies and undemocratic politicians shouldn't use their warped laws to stifle legitimate free expression. Let me take this opportunity to share with you readers the rights that I have as a blogger which EFF made me aware of, just in case you have no time to visit their website which is on address http://eff.org and read it from there. These are the blogger rights that I am talking about and bloggers out there your support of EFF in cash or kind will be greatly appreciated since EFF is a not for profit organisation that depends on your support to sustain it.

1. A blogger has the right to blog anonymously. EFF has fought for your right to speak anonymously on the Internet, establishing legal protections in several states and federal jurisdictions, and developing technologies to help you protect your identity. With your support, EFF can continue to defend this right, conducting impact litigation to establish strict standards to unmask an anonymous critic in more jurisdictions.

Blogging is my life, I start blogging as I eat my breakfast, this is the time I think about the topic to write on that particular day. If I don't write anything on a particular day it means that I would have skipped breakfast because of financial constraints and will be having one meal that day, namely supper. That is the reality of the life we ordinary Zimbabweans are leading here in Zimbabwe.

2. A blogger has the right to keep sources confidential. In Apple v. Does, EFF is fighting to establish the reporter's privilege for online journalists before the California courts. With your support, EFF can defend news bloggers from subpoenas seeking the identity of confidential sources in more jurisdictions.

Blogging is my life, I blog during breaktime at my workplace, instead of wasting my time joining in office gossip or woman's gossip because I want to be truly angelic.


3. A blogger has the right to make fair use of Intellectual Property. In OPG v. Diebold, Diebold, Inc., a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, had sent out copyright cease-and-desist letters to ISPs after internal documents indicating flaws in their systems were published on the Internet. EFF established the publication was a fair use. With your support, EFF can help fight to protect bloggers from frivolous or abusive threats and lawsuits.

Blogging is my life, I blog during lunchtime, since I can't afford to buy myself lunch in this hyper-inflationary and US dollarised Zimbabwean economy because my employer pays my salary in worthless Zimbabwean dollars.


4. A blogger has the right to allow reader's comments without fear. In Barrett v. Rosenthal, EFF is working to establish that Section 230, a strong federal immunity for online publishers, applies to bloggers. With your support, EFF can continue to protect bloggers from liability for comments left by third parties.

Blogging is my life, I even blog in the library, it is a passion that consumes most of my free time and makes me feel at peace afterwards when I have written it all on my blog. It feels like a heavy burden would have been lifted off my shoulders because I would have let out all the bottled up thoughts and feelings.

5. A blogger has the right to protect his/her server from Government seizure. In In re Subpoena to Rackspace. EFF successfully fought to unveil a secret government subpoena that had resulted in more than 20 Independent Media Center (Indymedia) news websites and other Internet services being taken offline. With your support, EFF can hold the government accountable for investigations that cut off protected speech.

Blogging is my life, and with my WiFi networked laptop I can blog anywhere anytime even if undemocratic politicians decide to seize my server or block me.


6. A blogger has the right to freely blog about elections. EFF has advocated for the sensible application of Federal Election Commission rules to blogs that comment on political campaigns. With your support, EFF can continue to protect political blogs from onerous campaign regulations.

Blogging is my life, it gives me a sense of freedom that I had never felt before and if I do it outdoors I feel one with nature and the universe and the resulting peace that engulfs me really overwhelms me sometimes.


7. A blogger has the right to blog about his/her workplace. EFF educates bloggers on their rights to blog about their workplace and offers developed technologies to help anonymous whistle bloggers. With your support, EFF can help shape the law to protect workplace bloggers from unfair retaliation.

Blogging is my life, I even blog about my workplace, like the time I wrote an article entitled, "Let the truth be told."

8. A blogger has the right to access as media. EFF educates bloggers on their right to access public information, attend public events with the same rights as mainstream media, and how to blog from public events. With your support, EFF can fight for bloggers rights to access as media.

Blogging is my life, every night, after my good night prayers before I sleep I blog about my pursuit for peace, love and happiness, amid adverse conditions in this country, Zimbabwe, where I live in.

9. A blogger must know his/her rights and be prepared to defend them. EFF has created the Legal Guide for Bloggers to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger and a guide on How to Blog Safely. With your support, EFF can expand and update these guides.


Blogging is not the only way I am using to retain my peace of mind and my happiness in this ruined Zimbabwe. I try to find joy in everything I do and when things get tough like they did recently when I ran short of food and didn't have any US dollars to buy the food with, I joke and pray about it and then ask for help from my friends and relatives. As I go through my everyday living I have learnt to concentrate my mind on the things that give me pleasure. I have noticed that it is the simple things in life that can provide me with happiness and make life in this hyper-inflationary economic environment and chaotic political environment in Zimbabwe tolerable. The pictures below show where I am harnessing my peace of mind and happiness from. Every picture tells a story of how peace of mind and happiness can be quite easy to achieve if you set your mind to it and learn to enjoy everything you do through out the day and learn to see and appreciate the beauty and goodness around you.



I enjoy watching romantic and comedy films and they have the ability to divert my mind away from the pathetic situation in the country I live in.







The education system here in Zimbabwe has gone down so much that it seems like it's non-existant and I can't just sit and watch, an important legacy, education, that I thought I would leave my children with not being fulfilled so I have resorted to teaching my own children everyday after work. If I don't, no one will, since I can't afford to take them to private colleges.



I have never been a woman who loves to do housework, have always been the odd woman out and over the years I have managed to keep my house spic and span clean and very smart and orderly through giving commands to the housemaid. Now that Gono's policies are making it impossible for me to pay a housemaid I have resorted to doing the work myself. Suprisingly enough I am enjoying every minute of it. If my mother was alive she would be so happy to see me enjoying doing housework and being good at it, because housework is something that always came between my mother and myself during my teenage years.



I always take myself out for a date, take time to get to know myself better each day.
I know that humans are such complex creatures whose mindset can change ever so often and so if I don't take time to meditate and ask myself questions each day and ponder about my love and what makes me happy I may never keep up with my changing mindsets, my changing feelings and my changing needs.


Amid the adverse economic and political conditions that are in Zimbabwe I can still afford to smile, write sense on my blog and have a good night's sleep and that is all thanks to God, my friends and relatives who provide me with food when I run short and my own will power that is determined to make me peaceful and happy in spite of everthing in this country going wrong.