I decided on Sunday, in my infinite wisdom, complete with almost-perforated eardrum (there was passionate nose blowing involved, caused by regurgitation, induced by alcohol – but I’ve made the executive decision not to go into any further detail, to preserve what is left of my tattered dignity) to finally embark on my little home décor project.

I recently acquired a new bed, the last one having served for 17 years. And so I needed to purchase a headboard. I duly went to investigate prices and availability, a fruitless and frustrating exercise, and thus my little project was born.

Buying the fabric was the easy part. Many happy hours were spent at granny’s house cutting and stitching, dancing and eating, and generally making the best of a bad situation. I arrived, kids in tow, to 3 functioning sewing machines. I left with only one still working, and granny gamely trying to smile (having spent all of her Sunday supervising me) and trying to convince me that these machines are temperamental and will play up from time to time.

In approximately 7 hours, I managed to produce one cushion, and that was only with a large amount of assistance. I proudly transported the cushion home and placed it in the dining room, in full view as you come in the kitchen door. I was expecting to bask in the warm approval and approbation of my loving spouse. But still I wait. I have since moved the cushion to the bedroom, propped up on his side of the bed where it will eventually hang, directly behind his pillows. No word as yet. I suppose I should be grateful because he might have asked why there’s only one, forcing me back to granny’s to break the last lonely machine, which, let’s face it, I am going to have to do when I make the matching cushion.

Not for nothing did I opt for cookery over needlework at school.

Phillip Toledano has “never been very interested in straightforward portrait photography”. Check out his series of photographs of people playing video games.

Imagine if we banned all mention of the phrase “what lessons can we learn” in Zimbabwe? Essentially our dictatorship wants to turn us into unquestioning dumbos. It’s up to us to resist them.

Zimbabwe ‘Egypt uprising’ activists in treason trial

The trial of six Zimbabwean activists charged with treason for attending a lecture in February about the Egyptian uprising is due to open in Harare.

The seminar by a university lecturer asked “what lessons can be learnt” – which the prosecution says means they were planning a similar revolt.

Charges were dropped against 40 other activists arrested at the same time.

The six accused face the death penalty if found guilty of treason. They all deny the charges.

Read more

‘Poverty was screaming in my household, at one time I ended up thinking that poverty was mine.’ Sarah Matongo

Narratives of Hope: ‘It Starts Within Us’ – Documenting Development through Stories of Change

It Starts Within Us is the product of a group of Zimbabwean NGOs who sought to discover their relevance in promoting development. They engaged with communities to discover if their development partners had benefited from their interventions – or not. This important book not only documents stories of change but also interrogates the process of evaluation, allowing members of marginalized communities to speak for themselves, and providing the reader with a ‘narrative of hope’. We discover how the need to change and develop begins with the harsh realities of poverty – exacerbated in Zimbabwe in the past decade by the effects of an economic, social, and political crisis of debilitating proportions. Insights about how a people-centred approach to development can be sustained, even in difficult operating environments, will be of interest to any development practitioner, researcher or academic as well as to the general public. The stories are accompanied by impressive photographs.

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The Reith Lectures is a series of annual radio lectures given by leading figures of the day, commissioned by the BBC and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. In July, Aung San Suu Kyi spoke at length about her life and what has inspired her activism.

From the NewStatesmen, this caught my eye:

At a screening of the first lecture at Broadcasting House, it was mesmerising to sit and watch ASSK speaking at length (the footage had been recently smuggled out of Burma). Traditional peach silk top. Blue flowers in her hair. A slash of orange lipstick. She is resolutely not a spin-doctored, slick operator. Two things stood out: her use of the old-fashioned word gallantry, and her repeated use of the word passion.

Though ASSK is clearly unbowed, at one point during the live Q&A down the line from Rangoon she admitted that the lights had been switched off by the authorities and she was sitting at the telephone in the dark. How fitting that she had, just minutes earlier, quoted from Ratushinskaya’s prison poem that ends: “It isn’t true, I am afraid, my darling!/But make it look as though you haven’t noticed.”

I hear some treason trials are starting in Zimbabwe today. This is just ridiculous! How can anyone go to jail (or face death) for watching a video? Or more correctly, trying to see a DVD? Almost as fantastical as a Harry Potter movie (which is also in the news).

The people who should be on trial for treason are senior leaders of armed and uniformed groups (which are paid for by the Zimbabwe tax payer) who tell the tax payer who they will, and who they will not, take orders from. As if that body was their personal property, and they are a warlord living in anarchy.

If they will not take orders from the person the tax payer appoints to represent them, they should say so and leave the job – the one they cannot do. To say who they will and will not take orders from, and then stay in charge of that body of armed men, is treason. So dangerous to the country that the punishment for that crime is still hanging.