Internet fever has gripped so many people in Zimbabwe in the past month. There is now a scramble for those phones that can make one get connected. I’m telling you business is now booming downtown in Harare where cheap phones are found. These phones come in different sizes, shapes and weights. Some are even duped to think that the bigger the phone the faster it can get you on the Internet. On the other side it seems the companies in the business of cell phones services and the Internet are out to make a killing by charging exorbitant prices.

As a means of sharing information and communication, I think the Internet as a medium for communication is good, be it on your phone, laptop and desktop machine at home or work. Since the world is now a global village business transactions are now mostly carried out on the Internet. By just walking around town you can see people with phones in their hands trying to get a feel of the World Wide Web. When my mom heard about the Internet she also wanted to have it on her Nokia 1200.

My biggest worry is not about the Internet charges or how expensive the phones are. It’s about the dangers to children of the Internet on phones. A lot of information can be passed around via the Internet and my recent visit to an Internet café reminded me of this notice which was hanging on the wall advising customers that viewing of illegal sites is prohibited. This automatically struck the back of my mind trying to figure out if companies offering internet service especially to phones have put measures that restrict access to illegal sites and downloading of illegal content from the net.

The Internet can be a wonderful resource for kids. They can use it to research, communicate with each other, and play interactive games. As any comprehensive source of completely uncensored and often times erroneous information, the Internet is not an expert teacher or insoluble source of information. Nor is it really designed for children. The Internet is just another facet of socialization for the new generation; as always, common sense and a level head are the best safeguards but as a responsible parent you wouldn’t expect your 8-year-old kid to be level headed. With hopes of better prospects outside the country, young people may be tempted by online human traffickers. I know after reading this article some people may ask “How safe is the Internet for our children?”  Well the answer to that I am still trying to look for myself because just like my fellow countrymen we are still to appreciate the Internet on our phones.

Research shows that the majority of domestic Internet users in developing countries like India, South Africa, Kenya, Philippines and Pakistan access the Internet from a mobile phone rather than a PC. Zimbabwe as a developing country with over 6 million cell phone users, the chances are that 50% of these users will be accessing information via the Internet. By just looking at these statistics the Internet will be good for communication, business and socializing because imagine someone from Mukumbura reading today’s paper on the phone.  So lets welcome this intervention with open arms and use it to the benefit of our country.

Cyrano De Bergerac’s love, Roxanne, has at last acknowledged him.

“Let the world go burn! She knows I live! Oh, for an army to attack, a host! I have ten hearts; I have a hundred arms; I feel. Too strong to war with mortals – Bring me giants!”

Support Childline Zimbabwe this Christmas. If you shop at Spar, consider donating your change, also known as a credit note, Childline. All proceeds will go to making Christmas better for children in need. Participating Spar supermarkets have donation boxes available where you can deposit your credit notes.

Giving this year’s Lozikeyi Lecture, the Minister of Education, Arts, Sport and Culture Minister David Coltart quoted Picasson on the role of art: “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth”.

Impressively Coltart used the lecture to make a powerful argument against censorship, and in favour of artistic freedom of expression. In particular, he argued against the banning of Owen Maseko’s art on Gukurahundi, and described the ban on a more recent piece, in the interest of “public morality,” as “patently ridiculous.”

Whilst he didn’t go so far as to argue that the Censor Board itself be disbanded, or reconstituted, he was none the less far more outspoken about the issue than the MDC-T’s co-Minister of Home Affairs, Theresa Makone was on the same issue. For his troubles, Minister Coltart is now being threatened by war veterans who are insisting that he retract statements he made in the speech, suggesting that Gukurahundi was akin to genocide.

Read the full lecture here – it’s worth it!

Having so bollocked the Zimbabwe International Film Festival for their delays in releasing their 2010 festival programme earlier this year, I figured I’d better jump to when I saw the Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe send through the catalogue for this year’s International Images Film Festival for Women.

The theme for this year is Women of Decision, and films are on in Harare from 19-27 November, and Bulawayo on 1&2 December.

Have a look at the programme here and make a plan to get inspired.

The reason women fight over men is simple – lack.

To many women, a single man can represent a roof over their head, food in their belly, clothes on their back and most importantly – a pride in their bearing.

And quite frankly, I don’t know of many people who wouldn’t fight to protect an “investment” that guarantees them most of life’s basic necessities.

I know that I would fight anyone who tried to take my shelter away, grab my food from me and snatch the sweet out of my mouth.

I would fight anyone who made the mistake of trying to leave me nude by pulling the clothes off my back or even worse, expose me to public ridicule by making me an object of pity.

I would fight any one.

The problem though is not that we want to fight for these things or indeed that we desire to have and keep them.

The problem is that not many of us (women) exert ourselves to pursuing these things for our benefit because we have been raised in a society where having a man equates to having all of the above – shelter, food, clothing and “respectability”.

So women fight other women because they fear to remain homeless, hungry, naked and ‘ashamed’.

I know many women who fight to have shelter, to have food, to have clothing by working damn hard to earn those things and whose sense of purpose gives them all the dignity they require – these are the empowered women; clawing their way to the top; understanding that they can succeed on their own.

I know many women; and I am one of them, who don’t summarize other human beings (read men) into shelter, food, clothes and status.

I find it irksome when women who have the potential to accomplish whatever they want in life opt to take a “short cut” by just getting a man to provide all the things they need and because they have chosen this dependency they make themselves vulnerable to abuse from their benefactor (read man).

Not only that, they find themselves obsessed with chasing off other women who will have had the same idea as they did, which is, “Let me find a man to take care of me.”

It seems clever, especially to the young 24 year old involved with a married older man; because she gets what she wants faster and easier than her age-mates who may make the sensible choice of just working hard and slowly attaining the things they wish to have.

Sweat or tears.

Many women prefer to pay through tears; they prefer life’s billing system to charge them through tears of pain, suffering, abuse, rejection and misery as long as they get to drive around in flashy cars they don’t own, live in houses on whose title deeds their names don’t appear; eat food their money didn’t pay for and wear clothes they didn’t lose a cent to buy.

But men are raised differently; they are raised to expect life’s billing system to charge them in the currency called sweat; they sweat to work, to achieve because they have been told that they have to expect to “keep” someone else, to provide a shelter, food, clothing and ‘protection’ to a woman – they can even marry her so that in return she’ll wash, cook, clean and have babies.

Seems like a reasonable arrangement, right?

Well I don’t think so, I think it is unfair to expect another adult who happens to be male to carry the weight of responsibility for another adult who happens to be female by giving him the sole obligation to sweat all life-long while the role of the woman could just be to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

It seems to be such a parasitic arrangement to me.

One way or the other, we’re gonna pay – women need to start deciding whether they want to keep settling life’s bills through tears because as long as the culture of looking for a man to “take care” of you remains, violence against women will remain a vicious cycle.

This level of one-sided dependence is unhealthy, parasitic and creates a fertile environment for women to be abused and to resort to violence when they feel their relationships are being threatened by other women.

So women fight over men because it is matter of survival for them; it is a matter of lack, of defending a relationship that guarantees the basics they desperately need – shelter, food, clothing (and because of society’s skewed patriarchal thinking) some semblance of human dignity – but this “dignity” aspect is fodder for another article.

I know of some men who abuse women and tell them “you’re nothing without me” – the sad reality is; many women truly HAVE nothing unless a man grants it to them.

Parting shot: Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds (Marcus Garvey)

This article is part of series written ahead of and in cognizance of the 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence