To the women, as women's month comes to a close

I celebrate all the women of the world for their compassionate hearts that make them so sweet. Every person has at one time or other needed a shoulder to cry on and most of the times the person who offered him/her that shoulder was a woman. It could have been your mother, your sister, your aunt, your niece, your grandma, your aunt, your cousin, your sister-in-law, your mother-in-law, the woman next-door, your female workmate or your wife. There are women all over the world whose hearts can accommodate you and give you that understanding, that sympathy, that hug, that reassurance, that advice, that counselling just when you need it the most. It is what we women are known for and let us keep it up for it makes the world so human.





All of us women, old and young, hold special memories of good times we've shared with other women. We've had our share of hard times and our women friends were there to make us feel better. We've shared our hearts, our time, our secrets, our fears, our hopes and our dreams. Let us never break the chain of women friends so that we grow old holding each other's hands as friends.





What's so poignant about the picture above?
Well, it shows a line of little girls holding hands facing the immensity of ocean waves. Alone they might be washed away, but together they stand strong. Thank you women for holding each other's hands somewhere along the way when one of us women was facing a wave of their own. I hope you will continue to reach for my hand or any other woman's hand when your own wave threatens.


Let us women not spoil the goodness we are known for with petty issues like gossip, jealous, envy or competition.


Some woman will always be prettier and younger looking than you but that is no reason to be jealousy of her.




Some woman will always be smarter than you but that is no reason to try and bring her down.




Some woman's house will be bigger than yours or they will drive a better car, or their children will do better in school or their husband will fix more things around the house but that is no reason to try and compete with them.

Just let it go and be happy by loving yourself and your circumstances.


Think about it.
The prettiest woman in the world can have trouble in her heart. And the most highly favored woman on your job may be unable to have children. And the richest woman you know, she's got the car, the house, the clothes....might be lonely.
And the word says 'If I have not Love, I have nothing.'


So, again, love you. Love who you are. Look in the mirror in the morning and smile and say.
"I am too blessed to be stressed with petty issues and too anointed to be disappointed, jealousy or want to live beyond my means as I compete!"
"Winners make things happen. Losers let things happen"


Be blessed women of this world and hey love that special someone with all your heart, because, 'To the world you might be one person, But to that one special person you just might be the world'.

Zimbabwe: All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Zimbabweans are holding their breath as they wait for the outcome of the talks between President Jacob Zuma of SA and the three GNU principals namely Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara. In these talks the three principals are going to raise the outstanding issues in the GNU that are hindering progress, one of the major issues being the appointments of Gideon Gono and Johannes Tomana as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor and Attorney General respectively. I have constantly blogged about how Gideon Gono in his capacity as the RBZ governor economically sabotaged the country and will continue to do so if nothing is done about his removal. I believe that what makes evil triumph is because good men don't continue to speak out against it. I am afraid that evil like no rule of law, no respect of human rights and property rights, unfair police and justice system and economic corruption and sabotage will continue to triumph in Zimbabwe if President Jacob Zuma in his capacity as the SADC chairman does not reprimand the perpetrators of such evils. It's about time that SADC shows that it has got some teeth that bite and is not just some social gathering of Southern African presidents with no significant fruits to write home about. The onus lies on President Jacob Zuma to use these talks to show the whole world that SADC is a force to reckon with.

Let me stress to you that all that is needed for evil to triumph in Zimbabwe is for the good man Jacob Zuma to do nothing about it and if he doesn't do anything about it he will start being labelled as part of the evil just like Mbeki before him. It's not only Zimbabweans who are watching closely the outcome of these talks but also South Africans and the whole world over and so under-rating the importance of these talks will put a negative dent on Zuma's political career.

Let me end this article by inserting some parts of the petition that was send to Tsvangirai recently on the 21st of July 2009 by the Anti-corruption trust of Southern Africa, concerning the firing of Gideon Gono as the RBZ governor which is one of the outstanding issues. I got it from the website www.kubatana.net on the following link.
http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/demgg/090721actsa.asp?sector=ECON&year=0&range_start=1

Petition to investigate the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and its principle officials


Your Excellency,

We, the undersigned concerned institutions do hereby call upon your good offices, in the interest of accountability and transparency, to facilitate the setting up of an Independent Commission of Enquiry into the conduct of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and its Principal Officials. The proposed Commission is required to fully and conclusively investigate allegations of incompetency, unprofessionalism, corruption and illicit dealings of the RBZ and its principal officials.

This request has been necessitated by a plethora of allegations that have been leveled against the RBZ by a number of stakeholders, which in our view should be investigated.

Further to a host of allegations that were leveled against the bank and its staff, we all hold the view that there was failure to comply with Section 6 of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act Chapter 22:15.

Some specific allegations leveled against the RBZ and its officials include:-

Looting of institutional and individual bank accounts:-
The RBZ and its principal officials have been accused of looting individual and institutions bank accounts. Shining examples include: the looting of money belonging to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Africa University Public Sector Management Programme, Hivos (a Dutch development organisation) and others. In most of these cases the money was withdrawn without the consent of owners. There are many other victims who will be prepared to testify if an opportunity for them to do so is created. You will agree with us that this behaviour, if it is true, is criminal and constitutes a flagrant violation of national laws such as the Prevention of Corruption Act. We are also concerned that the allegations against the RBZ which are true, are damaging and have grave implications to accountability, transparency and integrity principles espoused in human rights and anti-corruption treaties such as the SADC Protocol against Corruption, AU Convention on the Preventing and Combating Corruption and the UN Convention against Corruption to name a few.

Involvement in the illicit buying of diamonds from Marange
There are also reports that the RBZ was or is involved in the illicit buying of diamonds from Marange, a serious contravention of the Kimberley process, which is a joint governments, industry and civil society initiative to stamp out the flow of conflict diamonds used by some movements to finance wars against legitimate governments or movements. We hope you will agree with us that trade in these illicit stones has fuelled devastating conflicts and serious violations in Zimbabwe and other countries such as Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone.

Part of this petition is
1. That you empower the existing Anti-Corruption Commission of Zimbabwe to carry out its duties and responsibilities independently and effectively, and
2. That the government of Zimbabwe ratifies/accedes to or otherwise abide by the provisions of UN Convention against Corruption of 2004, the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption and the SADC Protocol Against Corruption.

We trust that your good offices will positively consider this request since we all want to see Zimbabwe regaining its glory once again.

Zimbabwe: The neighbor that arranged the political marriage of convenience is coming for marriage counselling.

Six months have gone by since the political marriage of convenience between Mugabe and Tsvangirai which was arranged by the then head of the neighboring household, Mbeki. Now the head of the neighboring household is Zuma and today he is visiting the Mugabe and Tsvangirai family called Zimbabwe whose parents have been having some marriage problems ever since the conception of the marriage of convenience. Zuma is expected to act as a marriage counselor for this troubled marriage when he comes as well as officiate at the family's annual agricultural show. The wife Tsvangirai has high hopes that Zuma will judge in his favour which is how the majority of the Zimbabwe family want him to because father Mugabe has showed disrespect to the sanctity of marriage as stated in the marriage contract. It has also emerged that father Mugabe is a gold digger whose main motive in agreeing to the marriage of convenience was because he thought that doing so would automatically open floodgates of donor funding for the Zimbabwe family whose bank coffers are at very low levels. He wasn't alone in thinking so, "the wife" Tsvangirai also thought he had the magic wand to make that happen and it only dawned on him that his magic wand can not cast any financial breakthrough spells when he went globe trotting waving his magic wand and came back with much less than he expected. What the couple failed to realise was that the donors were more concerned about the respect of human rights, property rights and the rule of law for the benefit of the Zimbabwe family than about Tsvangirai sharing "power" (the power is fake) with the autocratic Mugabe.

Anyway, let me get back to the marriage counselling sessions that Zuma is supposed to
contact between the Zimbabwe political marriage of convenience partners. Let me start by telling you the character of this marriage counselor Zuma so that you know the kind of person the Zimbabwe family is dealing with here. Zuma is a versatile politician. He has proven to be an exception to the old adage you can’t be everything to everybody. His political prowess is based on being a political chameleon of note who promises everybody what they want – from the hardcore capitalists to blue collar workers; from the poor black majority to the marginalised Afrikaners. Just show your colour and he will adapt his promises pitch to embrace you, whether he actually delivers the promises is not for me to say, ask South Africans, they are at a better vantage point to give you a correct answer. I can not predict what the outcome of this marriage counselling session will be because the political chameleon who is the marriage counselor might change color depending on who will be addressing the marriage problem to him at that moment in time and the result will be nothing solved. This marriage of convenience needs a marriage counselor who doesn't want to please everybody and makes a decisive fair judgement concerning who is right or wrong and tells the marriage partners of the best way forward without fear or favor. If the political chameleon decides to loose its changing color capabilities when it arrives in Zimbabwe then there is hope that he will provide a definite solution to this marriage.

I am not into marriages of convenience and this particular marriage has not improved the lives of the majority of the Zimbabwe family but the truth is that the collapse of the political marriage of convenience in Zimbabwe will adversely affect not only the Zimbabwe family but all the neighboring SADC families if it causes shortages or politically motivated violence in the country. If that happens, Zimbabwean refuges will flood neighboring countries and squatter there in squalid conditions that will bring the property value of their surroundings down, which is only a minor problem compared to the social and political de-stabilisation of the SADC region which will result . If Zuma counsels the Zimbabwean marriage with that thought in mind he is going to make sure that the marriage of convenience stays intact. On the other hand neighboring countries will benefit from the brain drain that will increase as Zimbabwean professionals flee to stable countries if the political marriage collapses. There their services will be very much appreciated. Take note that it is not only those with brains that will flee the country but even the manual workers will go and help build the infrastructure of neighbouring countries and the humble workers will go and clean the streets and toilets of neighbouring countries. Business in neighbouring countries will boom as Zimbabweans go shopping to cheaper shortage-free neighbouring countries. If Zuma counsels the marriage selfishly thinking of these business benefits then he is going to allow the marriage to collapse.

Let me end this article with an extract from www.kubatana.net to stress the point that its about time that Zuma sets the political record between Zimbabwe and SA right. This extract is a comment that one South African called Sally D made on an article on www.kubatana.net that was talking about the scrapping of visa requirements for Zimbabweans visiting South Africa. This is what she said.

We South Africans are partly responsibile for what’s happened in Zimbabwe and that’s one very good reason why we can’t complain now when millions of Zimbabweans arrive, desperate, at our door. We knew what was coming, our Government knew very well.
Yet on the one hand we had Thabo Mbeki denying the significance of human rights in Zimbabwe (compared with the importance of land redistribution, which bizarrely he thought wasn’t an “upside down view” of Africa), and SA voting to protect Mugabe again and again in multilateral institutions like the UN. On the other hand, South African corporates and utilities eager to ensure that their Zimbabwean business partners could keep up with ever-increasing debt repayments, even as the Zim currency collapsed and the Chefs spirited their millions away overseas. And even now, the SA Government calls for “sanctions” to be removed on these same kleptocrats and their foreign bank accounts.

I can remember the exact place I was when I heard on the radio news that our Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, ably assisted by convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni, reckoned the Zimbabwe Presidential election of 2002 “substantially free and fair”. It was completely sickening!! And COPE supporters should note that Terror Lekota, our brand-new Defender of the ANC’s Democratic Heritage, had previously professed himself
“deeply satisfied” with the reasons Mugabe gave him for refusing international election monitors - despite months of vicious State- sponsored violence against the oppostion, detention and deportation of journalists, and so forth. Someone should ask Lekota whether he’s still satisfied now that the full extent of the plunder and ruin of a beautiful, productive country has become obvious to the entire world, even us; and someone should ask Mbeki why he ever thought that the elimination of property rights could lead to people’s needs being met in Zimbabwe, whilst at the same time telling people that this kind of redistribution would never happen in SA.

Jesus is in every subject & how can a woman not love God?

JESUS IS IN EVERY SUBJECT
My first born daughter Amanda will be writing "O" Level examinations at the end of this year. I noticed that every morning when I enter her bedroom to tell her that I am leaving the house to go to work she will be reading the bible and not any of the other subjects. So this morning I asked her if she wasn't neglecting other subjects because of her love for God and she said,
"No mum its just that I can't start studying without reading the bible first, although I know that Jesus is in every subject"
When I asked her what she meant by saying that Jesus is in every subject this is the interesting response that she gave me, which I found awesome and worth sharing.
"In ATHLETICS he is the first and last, the Alpha and the Omega.
In ACCOUNTS he balanced five thousand men with five thousand fish.
In AGRICULTURE he is the true vine.
In ART he made a masterpiece, that's me.
In BUILDING he is the foundation of our lives.
In BUSINESS he is an effective leader.
In BIBLE KNOWLEDGE he is the perfect teacher.
In CHEMISTRY he is the base of the church.
In COMPUTERS he deleted our sins.
In ENGLISH he speaks with knowledge.
In FASHION & FABRICS she touched the hem of his garment and was healed.
In FOOD & NUTRITION he is the bread of life.
In FOOD SCIENCE he turned water to wine.
In GEOGRAPHY he calms the storm.
In HISTORY he is the rock of ages.
In MATHEMATICS he told his disciples to forgive seventy times seven times.
In MEDICINE he is the giver of life.
In MUSIC he is the Lord of dance.
In PHYSICS he broke the law of gravity when he ascended into heaven.
In POLITICAL SCIENCE no weapon fashioned against him shall proper.
In SHONA ndiye mambo wemadzimambo.
In WOODWORK he is the carpenter.
So in every subject that you study you can praise the Lord"

HOW CAN A WOMAN NOT LOVE GOD?

This sermon from my daughter Amanda had me thinking about God and Jesus as I went to my workplace. I thought about how the number of women who love God is more than that of men who love God, then I said to myself, "How can a woman not love God when he is all things that she wishes in her love partner and doesn't get in its full measure."

I love God because,
"He is a gentleman,
He is confident,
He is a provider and protector,
He is rich and powerful in character,
He owns everything, there is nothing He wouldn't do for me
He perfects all things concerning me,
He anticipates my wants and needs,
Every day He tells me and shows me how much He loves me
I don't have to perform in order to earn His love
He keeps all of his promises
No one can influence His opinion of me
He is the ultimate intimate partner
He can't "disown" me because I am a part of Him
He prepares a table before ME (Selah)
He covers me and doesn't expose me
He wrote his loving words down so that I'll never forget how He feels about me!"

NOW THAT'S LOVE!!!
Any man, who wants pointers on how to love a woman, should study GOD!
Women wake up every day and thank God for being the best "man" in your life!

TO ALL THE WOMEN OF MERCY SEAT INTER-DENOMINATIONAL 5am to 6am MORNING PRAYER GROUP AT 62 MEGAWATT HOUSE, cnr J.Tongogara Avenue/4th Street AS WELL AS ALL WOMEN WHO LOVE GOD AND TO ALL THOSE MEN WHO DO THEIR BEST TO EMULATE GOD, BE BLESSED!!!!

Wisdom to divorced single mothers from my life journals.

On the 27th of July, I turned 41years of age. Don't look shocked, I know I have this beautiful face and gorgeous figure that makes me look like I am 30 but its true that I am 41years old now. Anyway, in celebration of my birthday, I took two weeks away from the madding crowd to make a date with myself and ponder and reflect about life and what it has taught me. It was an exciting interlude in which I first pampered myself in the way that makes me feel good and then had that appendicitis operation I had been dreading to have for weeks and then read through the journals I wrote over the years, as I recuperated from the operation. As I read through the journals which I started writing when I was 10 years old, my life started to rewind in front of me and I enjoyed seeing how life moulded me into the woman that I am today and it occurred to me that life is actually very interesting and good.





Let me randomly share with you the highlights of my life journals that I found interesting as I read them recently when I turned 41. What particularly struck me was the descriptions I gave of people when I first met them and how different to those descriptions the people turned out to be after getting to know them better. One of the writings in my journal that I found interesting and which I think is worth mentioning is the description of my ex-husband that I wrote in 1989 when I first met him. How his first impression on me turned out to be totally different from the man whom I eventually shared my life with briefly taught me that first impressions of people should not be trusted. Appearances and reality usually diverge dear readers, that is one of the wisdoms that life has taught me. For 41 years now I have been studying my fellow men and yet there still remains some mystery about the human species, I do not know everything that has to be known about them. I certainly hesitate to engage a maid on her face, and yet I suppose it is on the face that for the most part humans judge the persons they meet. We draw our conclusions from the shape of the jaw, the look in the eyes, the contour of the mouth. I wonder if we are more often right than wrong. Why novels and plays are so often untrue to life is because their authors, perhaps of necessity, make their characters so perfect and fitting to the role they play. They can not afford to make them self-contradictory, for then the novel or play becomes incomprehensible. Yet self-contradictory is what most humans are. We are a haphazard bundle of inconsistent qualities. The mixture of incongruities that make up a human being defy logic sometimes. I now disagree when people tell me that their first impressions of a person are always right, I think they must have small insight or great vanity. For my own part I find that the longer I know people the more I know the type of human beings that they are. So my advice to you dear readers is to take a very long time to get to know the true character of a person and never to judge a person by the first impression they give you.

As I read through my journals I realised that all the turning points in my life started with a simple thought that I implemented which then resulted in life-changing transformations. Allow me to share with you some of the simple thoughts that resulted in transitions in my own life.

1. Facing the winds of life
It was in 1994 and I had finally managed to separate from my abusive, alcoholic violent ex-husband and was feeling pity for myself. Pity at how my marriage had turned out to be and pity that I was going to bring up Amanda, our daughter, alone as a single mother. And then a simple thought of wisdom entered my mind and I wrote it down in my journal and gave it the title, "Facing the winds of life." This is what I wrote.
Self-pity is intrinsically bad and life goes on while I am pitying myself. Meanwhile I can decide whether I will continue to feel sorry for myself or look around me to see where my life is heading with this self-pity. Sometimes the winds of life are cold and cruel and I have to dress for the windy weather. I have wrapped my face in a woolen scarf of feeling sorry for myself as I wait out the storm but it is important to know when to remove the scarf. If I wrap the scarf too tightly around my eyes, my ears and my heart I am most likely to miss the change of season. The winds of life can carry me through my life whether I want to go or not, I'll inevitably be blown through good times and bad times. As I am blown, I can curl up tight into a little ball of self-pity trying to protect myself from seeing, hearing and feeling what is going on around me, or I can face the wind, throwing my arms open to embrace the wind.
So it was with that simple thought that I decided to stop pitying myself and embrace my single life and the serenity and independence that came with it as well as embrace being a single mother and the responsibilities and unshared everyday shows of love from my daughter that came with it. Since that day I have never felt pity for myself for being a single mother, I accepted my situation and learnt to enjoy it. So my advice to you dear readers is not to waste life pitying yourself because as long as you pity yourself happiness will elude you. Just face the winds of life head on and deal with them accordingly.

2. Realising that the caterpillar has become a butterfly
It was in 1999, five years after I had separated from my ex-husband and I had built a cocoon around myself, to protect myself from being hurt by love again. Many a man tried to penetrate it and failed. At first I was so engrossed in bringing up my daughter and building a new comfortable life for the two of us such that I had no time to feel lonely but in 1999 I started to feel lonely. The new feelings of loneliness frightened me and I tried very hard to eliminate them by keeping myself busy with studying and work but every free moment I would get the loneliness would creep in. As I puzzled over where the feelings of loneliness were coming from a simple thought entered my mind and this is what I wrote in my journal.
It's easy enough for me to see how the caterpillar became the butterfly. I can look at the transition from the outside. The caterpillar on the other hand, is wrapped up in that cocoon and can't even look in the mirror to see if it looks as bad as it feels. One day it chafes and pushes to get out of the walls of its own making and finally wakes up to find it is a new creature. My transformation to a woman who feels lonely is equally mysterious and magical. First there is the surprised stage. Here I am my own old self, then one day my present life doesn't fit anymore. But I don't know how to make it fit, I struggle with my new feelings in my old self. Until one day I finally shed the cocoon. The feelings of hurt from my past marriage have disappeared,I am healed, which is why I now can feel lonely. It is a transformation based on accumulated changes. It's a process in which I have turned from being a caterpillar to being a butterfly.
With this simple thought I made the decision to start dating again. So my advice to you dear readers is for you to recognise the instance you turn from caterpillar to butterfly so that you can be all the butterfly you can be.

3. Letting go of winter so as to feel spring
Having made the decision to start dating again so as to kill the loneliness which I had started to feel, it wasn't easy to give up the single life I had become accustomed to and embrace the idea of constantly updating someone about my life. Was so used to being alone and doing my own things and having no one to answer to or consult, no one to feel left out and hurt if I make my own decisions without their knowledge. The thought of giving up my independent singleness made me hesitate to start dating although the feelings of loneliness where becoming like an intermittent pain in the neck. I was in a dilemna as to what to do, whether to say goodbye to the independence of a single life and kill loneliness or to continue with my independence and stay lonely. And then a simple thought entered my mind which I wrote in my journal. This is what I wrote.
The old die so that the new may be reborn. Plants, animals, people, all experience this rule of nature, dying and being reborn, either literally or figuratively. When we decide to make a conscious change, say to move to a new house, take a new job, begin a new life in a new country, get out of a bad relationship or begin a new love relationship, we decide to make that change because we expect a new "spring growth" to result from it. But for that spring growth to be a reality, there has got to be the death and destruction of the old like that experienced in winter when leaves die from cold, death and destruction of the status quo which had become the comfort zone. Losing the familiar is hard, no matter how pleasant the contemplated change may be. Sometimes it's enough to simply remind ourselves to persist, the change will be worth it. Sometimes we get stuck in "winter." We stay there, not being able to embrace the new and living. At these times, the best we can do is to let the uncomfortable dying process happen so that there is new "spring growth" in our lives.
With that simple thought I decided to let go off my single life and allowed one man to charm his way into my life. I let go the winter in my life so that I could begin to feel spring and that dear readers is my advice to you.

4. Making new footprints in pursuit of happiness.
Love relationships are complex and rarely do two lovers completely click in all aspects of life. There are bound to be some differences here and there and the extent of the differences will determine if the differences can be shrugged off or can not be tolerated. My first love relationship after my divorce was all roses at first but became thorny as years went by as he started to take me for granted. I was left with the dilemma as to whether to ditch him or to tolerate and continue with the relationship. If I ditch him what would the Zimbabwean cultural society think of me, they might think I am the one who has a problem of not tolerating men. But then if I don't ditch and stay unhappily in the relationship because of fearing what the society will think about me I will remain unhappy for the rest of my life. This dilemma was very difficult to solve, until one day when a thought entered my mind which I wrote in my journal. This is what I wrote.
The way to get beyond the footprints that I've made in this life is to make more footprints. If I have been plodding along in size eight hiking boots, I can't trip away en pointe in size five ballerina slippers, yet I don't have to keep marching along the same well-worn track. I can change shoes and walk in new directions. That's transformation, getting beyond the footprints of my girlhood, my married life, my divorce, my first love relationship after my divorce into a new life in which I am fully happy. As I become who I am in my new single life, I remember how I made the old footprints, I remember the running, hiking, jumping, twirling, plodding and the dancing that made the old footprints and can decide which of those I want to repeat. As I make new footprints that can make me happy I will remember the paths that served me well and avoid those that ended at a cliff and to hell with society and its judgement. Only God has the right to judge me.
With that simple thought I decided to end my first love relationship after my divorce and make new footprints leading a single and celibate life. Surprisingly enough I didn't feel lonely this time around. I had learnt that solitude is the antidote to loneliness and so would spent my alone moments in solitude indulging in my passion for writing. That is when I started blogging. If not blogging I would study or research, ponder and meditate about this and that or pray or play with my children. It was a very happy life I started leading even though I had no man to share my life with but that is not to say if the right man comes along asking for my hand in marriage I won't accept. It's just that I have stopped feeling so lonely that I start thinking that I definitely need a male companion. With or without a man in my life I can be just as happy and happiness is what we all seek for from life, or isn't it? So my advice to you dear readers is that your happiness is more important than what pleases the society and so you should always choose what makes you happy which might not necessarily be what makes the society happy. The other advice is that you should never depend on someone giving you happiness, your own happiness comes from within you and you are the only one who can dish that happiness to yourself, a man or someone can only add to the happiness that you already have within yourself.