The pursuit of knowledge

Dear Readers,

In pursuit of more knowledge I have started some advanced educational programme that is taking most of my time. I started lessons on Monday and have been busy ever
since such that I see myself not getting as much time to blog my mind away as I used to. Will still write on this blog of course, writing is my passion, but will not be writing everyday.

The good thing about this programme is that everyday we have lessons online via skype chat conference connections with the lecturer and my classmates with webcams connected, that enable us to actually see each other while we interact in the online classroom. It's really amazing, this leverage of technology and I being a technology lover am enjoying myself immensely. I want to convey my immense gratitude to my anonymous sponsor who is one of you readers out there. He/She read my articles on this blog and was so impressed, thought I had a lot of intellectual potential that he/she could invest in and paid tuition for me, for some online degree at some University in USA. I am not sure whether to call it a scholarship, or a bursary, or a benevolent fund but what I am sure of is that this person is the missing angel or some saint and I wish he/she would come out in the open and tell me who he/she but I was told that he/she said we will meet the day I will graduate. I live for that day which is in four years time. Life is turning out to be very interesting for me, I am so happy to be doing this degree, it is something I have always wanted to do but didn't have the money to pursue. Words are failing to express the gratitude I am feeling and how happy I am feeling, its so intense and therefore unexplainable.

It's only four days since we started the online lessons but already I have become so popular with my contributions in the class which my classmates always find unique, philosophical, humanity-filled and topped with some sly humour. Some of them didn't even know where Zimbabwe is and those who knew thought Zimbabweans were so backward and dull which is why they let Mugabe and his cronies step all over their rights. They were surprised to hear me talk so intelligently in each of the ten subjects and some of them had to ask me if I had been in Zimbabwe all my life or had actually done my education in some Western nation. The perception that most people have about Zimbabweans is very wrong and I am happy that I have been given the chance to correct that perception in this online classroom that I am a part of.

You might be wondering why I am not telling you exactly what programme I am doing and with what University. I don't want my boss and my workmates to know because the last time I embarked on some part time study and told my boss and workmates about it they heaped a lot of work on me so that I don't get free time to study and I had to shout to the boss my piece of mind for him to allow me to go on study leave when it was towards writing exams, he had refused to allow me to go on study leave. Such is the calibre of most managers here in Zimbabwe, instead of encouraging employees to reach their full potential they instead make sure they nip you in the bud so that you stay were you are and can never have a higher position than them or earn more money than them. No wonder Zimbabwe is taking so long to become a developed nation.
Anyway let me conclude this post by saying I am not doing this course so that I take anyone's position, am doing it for my own stisfaction. Had to say that just in case the boss or a workmate stumbles on this article.

I will be in touch with you dear readers, will update you about my progress.

Love, peace and happiness always
Eusebia

Zimbabwe: Profit & public trust

The economic crisis in Zimbabwe resulted in some businesses throwing good business ethics and corporate social responsibility out of the window, as they took advantage of the economic chaos to make profits at the expense of the consumers. I can give examples of such businesses who exploited consumers and lost the trust of the consumers or forced the consumers to change their buying habits as the consumers decided to make do without those business products or services. Now that there are signs that the economy is slowly going back to normal, no matter what good business ethics and corporate social responsibility those businesses try to practise now it will take a very long time for them to win the consumers' trust again. These businesses are going to suffer now as things get back to normal and they can no longer exploit consumers. This is a lesson for businesses to value public trust above making profits because public trust happens to affect profit-making in the long term.

Let me give you examples of the business practices I am talking about.
1. Zimbabweans have lost trust in banks who were abusing them with very low maximum bank withdrawal limits per person per day that was not even enough to buy a loaf of bread. Trust in banks was further killed when bankers in association with foreign currency dealers set up abnormally high bank transfer foreign currency rates to lure customers who wanted to change their hard currency to Zimbabwean dollars. Once the huge amounts of Zimbabwean dollars equivalent to the hard currency received had been transferred into the customer's bank accounts it was difficult for the customers to access the money from the banks such that those Zim dollars ended up loosing value whilst they were in the bank, before the customers had managed to withdraw them. So this was some sort of conning customers off their hard currency and it created a lot of mistrust in the country's banking system. Now Zimbabweans prefer to keep their hard currency at home, instead of taking them to the bank because they are afraid that if they take them to the bank they will be allowed to withdraw 50cents a day, yet a loaf of bread costs one dollar. It is going to take a very long time for Zimbabweans to have trust in the Zimbabwean banking system again.
2. Zimbabweans have also lost trust in Commuter Minibus operators who had gotten into the habit of increasing commuter fares every other day. This practice upset the pockets of those Zimbabweans who use commuter minibuses as the mode of transport to take them to and fro from work. Most employers ended up contracting buses to take their employees to and from work when the situation had become so bad that most employees could no longer afford to come to work. So commuter minibus operators lost a lot of customers because of exploiting the customers during the economic chaos. For them to get those customers they lost back will take a very long time because it will take a very long time for Zimbabweans to have trust in the commuter minibus operators' pricing system.
3. Zimbabwean shop owners got into the bad habit of charging exorbitant prices for their goods or services and this resulted in most Zimbabweans resorting to doing their shopping in neighboring countries namely SA, Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia where those goods are cheaper. It is going to take time for most Zimbabweans to have trust in the pricing system in local shops and stop going to do shopping in neighboring countries.
4. Zimbabwean manufacturers had stopped manufacturing a large quantity of goods for the local market citing lack of foreign currency to buy raw materials and machine parts yet they would secretly manufacture goods for export. The result was that most Zimbabwean wholesalers, retailers and consumers resorted to going to source the goods that they needed in neighbouring countries. It is going to be very difficult to change these buying habits of Zimbabweans considering that now they are aware of substitute products from other countries which might be better than the local products in terms of quality.
5. Getting the local sugar manufactured by the ZSR(Zimbabwe Sugar Refinery)from the shops had become so difficult, you could only get it from the black market at very high prices and so most Zimbabweans ended up not taking any sugar in their beverages. The same applies to bread, it is now there in the shops but there was a time when it had become so scarce and expensive that most Zimbabweans had replaced having bread for breakfast with having rice, samp, mealie-rice, home-made baked products and potatoes for breakfast. It is going to be very difficult if not impossible for most Zimbabweans to revert back to having bread for breakfast everyday like was the norm before it had become scarce.

The point I am trying to make here is that most Zimbabwean business people need to change the way they do business, which leave a lot to be desired. They need to know that there is such a thing called business ethics and comprehend what it implies for their actions. Business managers ought to behave ethically as they pursue the proper business goal of maximising profits. Some businessmen appear to believe that anything which is not outright illegal, however unethical, can be regarded as proper business conduct. But without ordinary decency, (which goes a long way beyond what the law requires of companies) business could not be carried on. Companies whose actions exploit the public should not expect to be in business for very long, even if there is no law that protects the public from such exploitation. Factoring in reasonable profit margins and honesty in all business dealings will induce the public to trust such companies and will result in a long-term good business relationship between those businesses and the public. Decency is not just good for business, it is essential. Profit maximising by exploiting consumers is indecent. When it comes to maximising long-term business value, decency or honesty is not just the best policy, it is the only feasible policy. Making money for the owners of a business is indeed the main aim of doing business but if companies make that the only aim and doesn't take note of the greater good of the public then it becomes too narrow a view of what a business is for. Business owners are just one group among many kinds of different stakeholders in a business. It is wrong to run a business in the interest of one kind of stakeholder and ignore the legitimate interest of all the others. Businesses certainly need to take account of other interested parties if they are to succeed as businesses in the long run. They must satisfy their customers, get on well with their suppliers, motivate their employees and so forth.
The bottom line is Zimbabwean businesses should put in place pricing systems that are normal and not the abnormally high prices that they were pegging their goods at. They were taking advantage of hyper-inflation to exploit consumers and then blame it all on hyper-inflation. Now that we are using the stable United States dollar and the South African Rand we expect prices not to be exorbitant and to remain stable.

Zimbabwe: The perfect fruit tree that was destroyed now has to be restored.

I had a prophetic vision about Zimbabwe at church sometime last year, on the 29th of June 2008 and wrote about it on this blog in the article entitled, "When all hope is gone in the earthly realm." I am pasting it here today because this time of rebuilding Zimbabwe was part of that prophetic vision.

In that prophetic vision I saw Zimbabwe being depicted as a fruit tree which has been completely destroyed. The Bible verse, Joel 1V4 immediately came to my mind to describe the Zimbabwean fruit tree that has been destroyed, "That which the palmerworm hath left, hath the locust eaten and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten." Zimbabwe used to be a healthy tree with perfect fruit. Every gift and fruit of the Holy Spirit was manifested in Zimbabwe, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. The perfect tree that was Zimbabwe then was rooted and grounded in ethics, professionalism, efficiency, hard work and above all faith in God. Every limb, branch, leaf and fruit was in perfect state and strength. What glorious days of harmonious unity and love we enjoyed during that time as all institutions functioned efficiently and there was no inflation to talk about. Those were the days when the country flowed milk and honey and it was the bread basket of Africa. How we have often wished that we had stopped people from destroying the perfect tree of Zimbabwe.

The falling away and destruction of the perfect tree of Zimbabwe did not occur in one day. It was a gradual deterioration accomplished day by day and stage by stage. One day the palmerworm appeared in the form of greed and corruption by the government ministers and top officials, eating and destroying the tree as they designed and selected uneconomical projects that created opportunities for financial kickbacks and abused their office by fostering their own monopolistic access to markets and they misappropriated confidential information for their personal gain. So as the days went by the gifts and friuts of the Spirit on the Zimbabwean tree began to disappear from view as unselfish love, ethics, professionalism and peace were attacked by the palmerworms who then grew bolder and bolder day by day. The fruits of the Zimbabwean tree began to disappear from the staunch and upright tree. This state of less fruit was indeed a condition worthy of lamentation, but the pity of it all is that the devastation did not stop with the havoc started and wrought by the palmerworms. Other years and other worms joined in the work of destruction where the palmerworm had left off. Some Zimbabwean citizens saw the greed and corruption being inflicted on the Zimbabwean tree by the ministers and top officials who were supposed to be exemplary to the nation and lost all trust in them and this down-streamed lack of trust in the country's leadership infuenced some of them to also partake in corrupt illicit deals. Thus the locust started to destroy the leaves of the Zimbabwean tree as some Zimbabwean citizens started to make illicit payments of "speed money" to officials in the different institutions in the country to facilitate fast transactions or to prevent the application of rules and regulations especially with regard to law enforcement and revenue collection. It was a sad day when the locust had done its work and the leaves were stripped from the tree but that was not to be the last of the destruction, that which the locust had left the cankerworm ate. After the fruit and the leaves had been destroyed, the cankerworm immediately made his appearance and began his work upon the branches and tender shoots of the tree. This destructive insect is an allegory of all those who threw ethics, professionalism and efficiency out of the window because of the toll of hyperinflation which made them resort to unclean ways of making a quick buck. It also represents the businesses that resorted to charging exorbitant prices for their goods and services, prices that were unjustifiably high and gave them profits as high as 200% to 500% and overstretched the pockets of the ordinary Zimbabwean who then had to resort to illicit corrupt deals to make money so as to keep up with the high cost of living. The blackmarket flourished as business managers preferred to sell their goods outside the normal outlets so that they could make some individual gains from the sells. Most Zimbabweans were rubbed the wrong way by the toll of hyperinflation and no longer lived above the world and sin, they no longer walked the narrow path, so long enjoyed by the children of the Lord. As the sap, the life of the tree, was consumed and the branches rotted more and more, things that used to seem unethical or sinful appeared unethical or sinful no longer. The sinners that used to bar themselves outside the doors of the Church now leaned back in comfortable contentment in the cushioned pews and tithed handsomely with their unclean bucks. Christians lowered the high starndard of holiness unto the Lord which they had been holding aloft. Now it trailed bedraggled and unnoticed in the dust. The Holy Spirit as a gentle dove was squashed, grieved and stifled until he silently withdrew his wonder-working manifestations on the Zimbabwean tree. The result is in Joel 1V16 , food, joy and gladness were withheld from our nation. It was not long before the trunk and the roots of the Zimbabean tree began to decay and the caterpillar made his nest in the decayed and rotted hollows of the tree. That which the cankerworm had left became food for the caterpillars. The caterpillars were in the form of anyone who took advantage of the destroyed unhealthy Zimbabwean tree to meet his or her own selfish needs and in so doing further destroyed the nation. Corruption spread in the administrative domain which included among others, nepotism, cronyism, ghost workers on public payrolls, collection of unauthorised fees, falsification and destruction of records, arbitrary administrative action and circumventing established procedures and regulations. In the judiciary corruption appeared in the form of the Zanu PF executive branch pressurising judges to give verdicts not based on justice but on political expediency. We then saw the Zimbabwean tree at the most lamentable condition yet, its perfect fruits gone, eaten and stripped off by the palmerworm ministers and top government officials, leaves gone, denuded off its leaves by the locust corrupt officials in the country's institutions, its branches rotten and the bark peeled away by cankerworm blackmarketeers and business people who wanted to get rich quick with unrealistic profit margins as well as all those ordinary Zimbabweans who instead of coming up with ethical, professional, innovative ways of countering hyper-inflation resorted to corrupt ways of making money, a nest for the caterpillars who further destroyed the tree. In the spiritual realm, the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit gone, holiness gone, justification by faith gone. The angels looked down on Zimbabwe from Heaven and wept. The noble Zimbabwe, the perfect tree which had once stood clad with power and glory of the Holy Spirit, now had nothing left but a name, not even a remnamt of her former splendour. As if that was not enough, the Zimbabwean people's right to freedom of expression and voting for any candidate they wanted was suppressed with beatings, torture, maimings and killings. The graphic language in Isaih 1V6-8, accurately describes the Zimbabwean people with their fruit tree destroyed and themselves beaten up for political reasons. " From head to foot you are sick and weak and faint, covered with bruises and welts and infected wounds, unanointed and unbound. Your country lies in ruins, your cities are burned while you watch, they are destroying and plundering everything they see. You stand there helpless and abandoned like a watchman's shanty in the field when harvest-time is over or when the crop is stripped and robbed."

Oh yes that is where the Zimbabwean stood before the coalition government was formed but the prophetic message I conveyed to Zimbabweans during this time of complete humiliation was that the Lord gave us a marvelous promise of restoration. It's all mentioned in Joel 2V21-25, "Fear not, Oh land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you." All that the Zimbabwean perfect tree lost will be restored, not in one day but in the same way it was lost, line by line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, till a completion of this restoration is reached. This restoration is only possible if we have a deeper realisation of what it means to live a life wholly given up and consecrated to the Lord so that the tender shoots and branches of the Zimbabwean tree can be thrust forth on the tree again. As we pray and yield ourselves to the Spirit, God will allocate gifts to everyone of us as the Spirit chooses, he will cause the gifts and fruits of the Spirit to be visible in our midst, in our nation. Yes, Zimbabwe's perfect fruit tree can be restored, it's all in our hands, every Zimbabwean's hands, to restore it or to further destroy it. Our working hard and harmoniously towards the restoration of our country and our prayers will do it, they will encourage all Zimbabweans to act responsibly and change their unethical, unprofessional inefficient and corrupt ways, they will enable an effective coalition government that is accountable through citizen feedback, democratic institutions, a competitive free press and an independent judiciary to be put in place, they will cause businesses to stop pursuing unrealistic profits relentlessly at the expense of the customers and make them realise that when it comes to maximising long-term owner value, honesty is not just the best policy, it is the only feasible policy. Through prayer we can make the relevant people aware that political and business decisions blessed by God and based on honesty and merit if added to good governance, responsive policies and good capacity building sustainable business goals will ultimately lead to the economic turnaround of our nation. Through prayer we can make the mobilised minds of those who agree to be sent to subject their fellow Zimbabweans to inhuman atrocities to always remain loyal to the truth and God, as loyalty to a person, regardless of his or her wrong intentions is not a path to be followed and only encouraged by leaders with a weak moral fibre.

Honestly speaking this is not a time to sit on our laurels looking at Tsvangirai, Biti and all those other 70 ministers to do the rebuilding for us while we sit, this is the time to roll up our sleeves and get busy contributing in the rebuilding in the way we know how. This is the time to pray whole-heartedly for the restoration of our nation Zimbabwe and to thank God for making us survive the cholera, the hunger the stress and the economic chaos. All Zimbabweans out there I will leave you pondering about the words of this song, "Kana vakomborerwa usazokanganwa kutenda Mwari." Thank you God for blessing us with life against all odds and would you please continue to bless us as we rebuild our Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe: The road to recovery

The Zimbabwean coalition government is faced with a big challenge to reverse the economic failure which was a result of many years of bad governance full of mismanagement. The country is suffering from an awful cocktail of high unemployment, slow growth, high inflation, rampant corruption, very low agricultural, manufacturing and mining activities, a germ-infested water supply system, constant elecricity black-outs and brown-outs, telecommunication systems with a lot of downtime, a non-functioning health delivery system, an unreliable transport system with pot-holed roads, daily derailment of trains and sub-standard service in the country's airlines. The coalition government which is now in place in Zimbabwe should now focus on how to transform this chaotic economy into a vibrant economy. Economic changes that position Zimbabwe for positive future growth and poverty reduction with a macroeconomic policy that encourages foreign direct investment and economic diversification should be put in place as soon as possible.

The coalition government's plans for development in the country should put the rescucitation of the water supply system and the reopening of hospitals and schools on top priority. Most water pipes and sewage pipes in the country are broken and oozing water and sewage all over the city, towns and residential areas and so these need to be repaired or replaced as soon as possible. Chemicals to purify the germ-infested water supply system should be sourced and bought in bulk. This should be given top priority so that cholera can be eliminated completely and the deaths from cholera can stop. The country has an abudance of rivers and fresh water lakes so serious lack of water in Zimbabwe should be unheard of but it is heard of because the problem lies in the inefficient production and distribution systems of the water supply authority in the country. Substantial investment is needed to rehabilitate and expand the water supply systems in all of Zimbabwe's water supply systems , while water production and delivery capacity will have to be increased by more than 400% to meet a projected growth in demand when the economy booms. The development of new water production facilities which can also be used for electricity generation should be part of the water supply development plan. Rural water supply systems also need to be rehabilitated. A large proportion of the rural water supply system is not functioning at all or is not functioning properly but can be reconstructed and repaired. The impact of a major rehabilitation effort aimed at rural water supply systems would yield substantial economic benefits in terms of increased agricultural production and improved living conditions.
A complete revamp of the health delivery system needs to be done with emphasis being given to the supply of medicine and all resources needed to provide an efficient health delivery system as well as the competitive remuneration of all hospital staff so that they are motivated to offer excellent care to patients. This should be given top priority so that when the hospitals re-open they will be regarded as places where the sick can be healed and not as morgues to store the dead as had become the case prior to their closing.
The coalition government also needs to appreciate the value of teachers to the development of future generations who are going to carry on the country's legacy when the adults of this generation have all gone senile or died. It should give them salaries that show that appreciation. Contrary to what some blogger reported, the teachers are happy with the US$100 as a temporary measure for now and are in schools teaching earnestly but they are hoping that that is not the full amount of their salary considering that US$100 is the amount of money that most primary schools charged as school levy per child this term. If a teacher teaches a classs of 40 pupils where each pupil has paid a school levy of US$100 for a school term of three months and is then paid only US$300 for teaching 40 pupils for three months then don't you think it would be better for the teacher to make arrangements with three parents of pupils to teach only those three pupils at his/her home for three months and have their parents take turns to pay him/her US$100 each month. This would be less workload for the same amount of money and a big advantage to the three children, because they are few they will be given maximum attention in mitigating their educational weaknesses. My appeal to the coalition government is not to give the teachers a chance to think along those lines by giving them competitive salaries because failure to do so would further destroy the education system.

Next development priority should be given to the agricultural sector so that hunger in the country can be eliminated. Agriculture dominates the Zimbabwean economy although its share of GDP declined steadily ever since the farm invasions. Agricultural transformation for Zimbabwe is imperative and for this reason the coalition government needs to improve the agricultural sector so that it is competitive. Order in the agricultural sector should be restored and the new farmers should be provided with capital and agricultural inputs (on loan of course) so as to revive effective agriculture in the country. Effective agriculture can be realised and agriculture expanded on condition that real progress is made with regard to the following issues:
i) Seed and fertiliser production should be increased or should I say revived so that it is readily available to anyone who needs it and the price of the seeds and fertilisers should be made affordable not only to large scale farmers but also to small scale farmers. Inadequate seed and fertiliser availability as well as unsatisfactory seed quality combined with seed exhaustion are some of the problems that have been causing low agricultural production.
ii) The lack of modern agricultural practices results in wastage of both the agricultural inputs and outputs and poor quality of the outputs and so it is essential that the coalition government makes plans to ensure that technical knowledge in farming, harvesting, handling, transportation and storage practices is imparted to all the farmers. Dry storage facilities and cold storage facilities should be enforced to be properly maintained or installed on the farms.
iii) The water supply on most farms is in very poor condition and dams and irrigation systems have to be built at the farms so as to ensure agricultural outputs even during drought spells. Electricity should be installed on the farms as well, because lack of electricity and enough water on the farms is a major deterrent to prospective investors in agro-industrial enterprises.
iv) Transport of agricultural products from the farms to the different markets be it by road, rail or air should be made efficient. Particular attention should be given to upgrading roads from farms to markets because the poor conditions of some of the roads often results in product damage and the late arrival of produce at markets. When exporting the farm produce by road, the delays at customs and excise posts during the transport of export products provide a serious obstacle. Air cargo space needs to be improved in respect of the availability of air cargo flights, air cargo capacity and the cost thereof.
V) Marketing of the agricultural products in world markets should be done by an agricultural corporation like ARDA which should also be responsible for helping farmers to obtain the capital they need. The farmers definately need capital for investment in irrigation, agricultural machinery, storage facilities, start-up losses and transport for carrying stocks.
The type of investments that are needed in the agricultural sector are those that will make use of Zimbabwe's raw materials and natural resources and process them into higher value goods. I am talking about agro-processing like canning or the manufacture of value-added products. This moving up the value chain is essential and ensures prices that are not dependent on variable factors like is the case with raw farm produce.

Next development priority should be given to the country's transport, power and manufacturing sectors. The current state of Zimbabwe's road infrastructure with potholes all over the roads can be an impediment to attracting foreign direct investment. The country is in dire need of infrastructural investment to upgrade and develop roads, rails and airlines.
The power infrastructure run by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) is under-resourced and therefore inefficient and the distribution system is in need of rehabilitation. The long periods of power black-outs and brown-outs every single day is a serious obstacle to economic activity. The frequent power cuts not only disrupt business operations but also increase the cost of doing business. A recovery of the power sector especially with regards to distribution is urgently required. The demand for electricity in Zimbabwe is substantially higher than can be supplied domestically and the resultant shortfall has to be imported from neighboring countries. The electricity supply available from both domestic and imported sources is currently at its limits and this deficiency has severe macro-economic implications. The importation of electricity and fossil fuels consumes valuable foreign exchange and has a negative effect on the balance of payments. It is therefore advisable that the development of an electricity generation project be one of the many things the coalition government aims to do. The coalition government also needs to draft a new energy policy which aims to attract new private investment. Tax concessions and other incentives should be offered for investment in hydro-electricity and the utilisation of Zimbabwe's rich geo-thermal resources.
Zimbabwe's manufacturing sector used to be very high and vibrant but is now very low and the managers in the manufacturing industry have been citing shortage of foreign currency to buy raw materials and to service machinery as the reason for low production. So the coalition government needs to allocate manufacturing industries the foreign currency that they need for them to increase production to high levels. The coalition government should also come to an understanding with the manufacturing industries, the wholesalers and the retailers that they should price their goods with a reasonable profit margin that does not exploit consumers and their failure to do so would make the coalition government invite foreign companies to come and flood the market with cheaper priced goods that will make them go out of business. It's about time that Zimbabwean businesses are made aware that business is not only about making profits, it is about making profits with corporate social responsibility in mind and being the first to be considered among many other factors.

When the above mentioned development issues have been dealt with the coalition government should then concentrate on developing a strategy to promote economic diversification and attract foreign direct investment. Economic reforms that encourage local investment and FDI into Zimbabwe needs to be implemented. An economic policy thet protects investment and is favourable towards the enforcement of property rights, the relaxation of capital controls and the provision of incentives has to be put in place. The macroeconomic policy that should be implemented should focus on developing a more efficient tax system, accelerating effective divestiture from public enterprises and increasing investment in human capital especially in the areas of education and health services. Zimbabwe also needs a strong financial system with more effective regulation and supervision of the banking system. The coalition government could also consider building up a bond market, offering low-risk investment opportunities for institutional investors worldwide. The coalition government should commit itself to making the private sector an engine of Zimbabwe's growth by pursuing investor friendly policy reforms . With that aim in mind an advisory body of national and international corporate leaders that advise the President and Prime Minister on issues that can enhance the business operating conditions in the country to attract new investors into potential growth sectors and transform Zimbabwe's economy should be set up.

That, dear readers is my own opinion aboout how Zimbabwe can travel the road to recovery. Let me conclude this article by appealing to all potential donors to put aside their mistrust of Mugabe and his Zanu PF party members and help the coalition government with funding that will make it possible for it to carry out all the projects needed for the complete recovery of this dying nation. With donor funding the road to recovery will not be bumpy and it will help the nation to set up sustainable development projects that will enable it to stop depending on donor funding most of the time. To Zimbabweans I would like to say that we have a long way to go but if we work together in harmony like bees we will achieve our goal in no time and the final results will be as sweet as honey.

Zimbabwe: Its time to quit the demolition crew and join the construction crew.

I remember writing an article entitled, "It's time to quit the demolition crew and join the construction crew," long back on this blog for the mere reason of inspiring some reader out there. I want to copy and paste it below right now as a message to some media, some bloggers and some people who are digging deeply and groping for issues to criticise the Zimbabwean coalition government with. Don't get me wrong, I am not against constructive criticism, I actually think it is good since it helps in building the nation. What I am against is destructive criticism that is done for the mere reason of destroying what is being built so as to discredit the builders and gain ground in one's own selfish interest, be they political interests, asylum cases interests or for the mere reason of being vindictive over the commercial farms taken from white farmers without compensation or to feed one's hatred for Mugabe. As much as we all know how Mugabe's one party dictatorship tendencies and the gross violence by his Zanu PF youth yesteryears ago are all very wrong, I am sure most Zimbabweans will agree with me that the rebuilding of the nation that the coalition government is trying to do is a worthy cause that is in the best interest of every Zimbabwean and the least we can do is support the coalition government and we don't support them with destructive criticism, we support them with constructive criticism.


I have seen people with noble visions having their visions crushed by critics. There are two modes of criticism. There is one which crushes to earth without mercy and another mode which believes that no vision is entirely in vain and so scrutinises circumstances, motive and objective before it criticises and then help with advice. The first kind of criticism demolishes and the other helps to construct. For most of us the first kind of criticism comes more easily. It takes little thought, less effort and even less wisdom to kill with criticism. The demolition critics are interested in making themselves look good by making others look bad, they talk much and do absolutely nothing to help. When we find ourselves encountering this demolition criticism from ourselves or others our best defense is to try to ignore it and take it as an article of faith that even though we make mistakes we are great because at least we dared to try. The second kind of criticism which is thoughtful and careful coming from ourselves and others is invaluable because it actually recognises and encourages the worth of the efforts we are making, even as it points out how we might grow differently.

Years ago Theodore Roosevelt said this about critics, "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with dust and sweat and blood, and who if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory no defeat."

Visionaries and all coalition government leaders, when you get pelted by unfair criticisms as you stand for your vision just remember what Theodore Roosevelt said back then. To all critics, I say it's time to quit the demolition team and join the construction crew.