I returned to Harare last week from doing a course in the US, and I sat on the seemingly endless flight marveling at how trusting we can be in this world, believing that this massive hulk of metal, operated by someone I have never met, could safely ferry me and hundreds of random strangers safely across the ocean and the equator. But when I looked up from my novel several hours into the journey, and the first thing I saw was the southern cross beaming at me from across the night black sky, I breathed with a deep sense of homecoming.

Not 24 hours into my stay, a friend asked me what were my impressions of the place. And I felt defensively less than. Because a lot of my impression was how much the same it is – and largely because of a long host of experiences very similar to those Natasha writes about.

On my first day into town, I met Richard, a young man in a white t-shirt and jeans who insisted on walking with me from the Kensington shops all the way to Samora Machel, despite my insistence that I didn’t feel like a chat with him. He had a clever manoeuvre of pretending to stop to fix his shoes – but really just stalling to see which direction I was going so he could then jog to catch up. That same afternoon it was Tawa, who spotted me at that very Takawira and Samora Machel intersection that Natasha mentioned, and walked me half way to Newlands. And that very evening, it was Robert, a suited man who looked to be in his 50s, who sat staring at me and asking the occasional question whilst I tried to read a book as I sipped my lemonade, waiting for some friends.

But in addition to the psssts and the hello sweeties, I have of course had a wealth of those gorgeously poignant and human moments that make this place so beautiful.

When I landed, to tide me over for a while, a colleague handed me a pile of $1,000 notes with a smile: “We’re back to bricks.” The benefits of the three zero project new money seem already to be wearing off.

Standing in the shops my first morning, trying to get my head around current prices, a man in a security guard uniform approached me.

“Excuse me, madam,” he asked shyly, pointing towards the deodorant shelves. “Please can you help me? When choosing a perfume, how do I select for best efficiency in smelling.”

And I looked at these tins of $20 000 and higher deodorants and wondered how much he earned, if he could afford one, and how long it would last. So we had a bit of a discussion about the merits and challenges of different deodorant brands. Spray vs roll on. If you’re looking for underarm coverage or a full body spray – clothes and all. How long different stay last on you. How much smell per tin. And so forth. In the end, not being the most experienced deodorant buyer myself, I feel I let him down a bit, so I gave him an encouraging smile and suggested he ask some mates for their suggestions as well.

Then as I was walking down Nyerere this morning, I spotted a man making his slow but determined way up the street towards me in his pajama top, shorts and patapatas. He didn’t look up at anyone as he went past, he just plodded on, cane in one hand, small black sports bag in the other. As he got closer, I realised there was plastic tubing coming out of the bag, and up the man’s shorts. Catheter? Feeding tube? Blood transfusion gone awry? I have to confess I didn’t stop to ask. But I did have a small chuckle to myself imagining this guy deciding he’s had enough of hospital, by golly he’s going home – just try and stop him.

What is also familiar is the regime’s intolerance, as are its callous policies and casual disregard for the welfare of its people. But, of course, most strikingly not the same is the brutality we’ve seen over the past few weeks. Not, perhaps, that it should be entirely surprising. If, as a government, you’re able to preside over 1700% inflation, life expectancy dropping by 30 years, and the exodus of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of energetic capable workers seeking better living and working conditions overseas, maybe it’s not really so much of a stretch to shoot a protester, arrest top opposition leadership, klap them upside the head, jump on their legs and stomach, nab them, bludgeon them, and leave them half dead.

But certainly, the violence of the past week or so has had a very different air about it than the more familiar demonstrate-arrest-demonstrate-arrest cycle. What I’m hoping is also different is our (individual and collective) willingness and determination to do something different, to strategise and regroup and get innovative, clever, strong and proactive in our resistance to the status quo – and our insistence in creating something new.

Raymond Majongwe President of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, was arrested on Wednesday for visiting schools in Harare to speak with the teachers there. He was released Thursday night without charge because, like he said, he didn’t do anything wrong. Even Zimbabwe’s repressive laws allow the leader of a trade union to go to his or her members’ work places and speak with them during working hours.

Majongwe pointed out that he was picked up after the headmistress of Mabvuku High School reported him to Law and Order. What is it that makes some people want to support the regime by turning other people in? This headmistress goes to the same shops, she rides the same commuters, she sees the same vendors as the rest of us. What does she gain from turning in Majongwe?

Apparently, she was upset that she heard him saying that the teachers are earning 17 bananas a day. If that really is what she heard, she was right to be taken aback. Teachers are actually earning more like 4 and a half bananas a day, according to Majongwe. That’s right. The average teacher on the average salary earns enough to buy 4 and a half bananas a day.

Meanwhile, Mugabe seems to be agreeing with Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono that it’s a good idea to freeze prices and wages at the current level from 1 March to 30 June. Seeing as how inflation is Enemy Number One (1) and has now been declared illegal. But already, nurses, doctors, teachers, and others are striking for higher wages, because their salaries are far below what they need to survive. If wages don’t go up before this planned freeze, we’re looking at even more trying times ahead.

Male students at the University of Zimbabwe are going to find themselves turfed out of res when the campus opens for classes later this month.

I couldn’t find a written news article on it, but according to Studio 7 VOA , the University of Zimbabwe information department has issued a statement saying that no male students will be housed on campus when the semester begins in two weeks time.

The government has announced fee increases of between 300% – 2000% for university students, and the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) has pledged an indefinite boycott should these increases not be reversed.

The UZ plan will evict some 1500 of the 4000 campus residents from their accommodation, and will open the housing up for women. The move is clearly meant to reduce the potential for student organising and mobilisation in the face of student protests. University students had suggested that they would come to campus when the new semester begins, but would refuse to go to classes.

One student who was interviewed on VOA said a number of UZ students will now not be able to attend lectures due to high transport costs. The students get government grants of less than $5,000, which isn’t enough to cover even one day’s transport to and from the university, much less lodging costs or regular commuting costs to the university.

UZ Student Representative Council Vice President Clifford Hlatshwayo called the plan “barbaric and diabolic,” and rightly described it as gender discrimination.

Imagine being in your final semester at university and not being able to finish because you’ve been kicked out your residence and you can’t afford to go back and forth to campus. Imagine being a first year student and not getting to even start your programme for similar reasons. I can understand the frustration and outrage at this move. It is just one more example of the state’s authoritarian and arbitrary decision-making style that sweeps aside any sense of what people really need and want.

So when I heard that Hlatshwayo also said that the action was turning the UZ into more of “a girls’ high school” than a university, I decided not to take offence. Sure, he could more accurately and less patronisingly have said that it was turning it into a women’s university. But he didn’t.

As much as I sympathise with his and other male students’ entirely understandable frustration, a small part of me does wistfully imagine that the women might surprise us, and this could be a big break for female solidarity, mobilising and resistance. If the UZ thinks 1500 angry men are a threat, imagine 4000 women organising their complaints – including, for example, the fact that the $5,000 grant doesn’t provide enough for sanitary ware either – and facing down the university administration with outrage and determination.

Clearly the UZ administration has never heard that expression: the female of a species is more deadly than the male.

This morning, someone pointed me to Gapminder, a fun easy to use webpage that tracks all kinds of different population and demographic data, like life expectancy and income per capita. So I selected Zimbabwe, and watched the data tell the story I already knew – the staggering decline in income per capita, and the crash in life expectancy, since 1992.

Countries like Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho, also devastated by HIV/AIDS have seen their life expectancies decline similarly, but their income per capita has been more firm.

So then, given everything I’ve been hearing about Guinea lately, I decided to have a look at their changes in income and life expectancy over the past years. The country has seen a slow and steady improvement in both life expectancy and income per capita. But Guineans still aren’t satisfied with the past 22 years of President Lansana Conte’s government.

In April 2006, Conte sacked the Guinea’s prime minister and took over that role in addition to remaining President. On 10 January 2007, trade unions in Guinea called for the third general strike in a year, demanding government reforms.

The strike lasted almost three weeks, and was combined with protests by demonstrators calling on Conte to resign. At least 60 people were killed in the demonstrations. These deaths are part of what led Conte and the unions to negotiate. Conte agreed to let go of some of his power and re-establish the position of Prime Minister, and the unions agreed this was enough for them to end the strike. The new Prime Minister has yet to be named, but clearly Guineans hope she or he will bring new life into the government.

With all the strikes growing in Zimbabwe now, maybe we have something similar in store. Reflecting on this with a colleague, she commented “Mugabe is at his weakest right now because of the economic crisis, but the opposition is failing to use this to their advantage.”

I hope she’s wrong. I don’t know if all this is enough to make Mugabe agree to let go of some of his power. But if Gapminder is anything to go by, we’re well past our turn. As they said on SW Radio Africa tonight, no matter what Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono does, ordinary people continue to struggle from day to day as prices rise and shortages persist. And even Gono recognizes that, if government does not increase wages, workers will have no choice but to join labour action.

With strikes, threats of strikes, go slows and discontent by nurses, doctors, teachers, Tel-One employees, farm workers, university lecturers, and even the Zimbabwe Military Academy, as well as the ZCTU threatening a general strike starting 23 February, maybe double oh seven really will have some surprises in store.

I left Zimbabwe in July 2006 with $20 million in my bank account and $20 million in cash. I knew that inflation would be a problem, but I thought I had set aside enough to last me awhile when I got back in December.

I accepted that six months later my $40 million would be able to purchase a fraction of what it had in July. But I wasn’t expecting my currency to stop existing altogether.

I’m not the only one whose money went from hero to zero when the government “restructured” the economy and binned the old bucks. I’m hoping to donate my $20 million (in a thousand $20,000 notes) to an art school looking for innovative wall-or toilet-papering solutions. As for my $20 million bank balance that is now a sorry $14,000 (Operation Sunrise + Bank Fees)? That’s anyone’s guess.

Of course when I got back, I couldn’t stop adding three zeroes back onto all the prices to make more sense of things. And I kept asking myself – would I really have spent $2 million on that coffee? $1 million on that newspaper? $700,000 for that bus ride? And of course I wouldn’t have. Six months ago. But six months is an eternity in 1200% inflation. And head spinning price increases are just part of the routine. It was hard to shake off the feeling that they just chopped off those zeroes so they could keep raising prices – and psychologically people wouldn’t catch on quite so quickly.

Which makes me think maybe the ruling party has a plan. Unlike the opposition.

Earlier this month, the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, a coalition of NGOs and individuals in the pro-democracy movement, announced its next campaign. Its 2007 demand? “We want to vote in elections in 2008.”

But as one person in the audience pointed out, it’s not enough to call for elections any more. If the next Zimbabwean elections are as rigged, or as unfree and unfair as the ones in 2000, 2002 or 2005, they really won’t make much of a difference. So as an afterthought, the Save Zimbabwe Campaign amended its demand to read: “We want to vote in elections in 2008 under a new Constitution.”

As a slogan it doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue. But more importantly, as a strategic campaign platform, it misses the point.

The current regime’s interest in the Constitution is to make it more repressive, not less. Its idea of a People’s Constitution is one in which the people agree to sign over even more power to the ruling party than it has already stolen. Short of that, Zanu PF isn’t interested in reforming the Constitution, or rushing its plans. And until the Save Zimbabwe Coalition develops a carefully thought out, well coordinated, spirit-lifting campaign that mobilizes a significant amount of popular support, the ruling party has no reason to listen to it.

The MDC is facing similar difficulties. It has watched the ruling party rig parliamentary and presidential elections three times in the past seven years. And it has failed to take advantage of popular discontent over these stolen elections each time.

Now, the MDC has announced its support for the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, and is joining the chorus calling for elections in 2008. This despite the fact that the party is under funded, under staffed and lacks capacity to take on any national issue, much less a national election.

And a national election which everyone knows will be rigged demands even more resources and better organization. The parallel tabulation systems, the independent vote counters, support for post-election demonstrations to demand an honest tally of the ballots all require substantial funding and preparation. Unfortunately, if MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai’s prevarication on SW Radio Africa’s Hot Seat this week is anything to go by, the opposition is far from prepared for this.

Zimbabwean pro-democracy activists need to harness some speed from the inflation rate and become faster thinking and more adaptable. And they need to learn some lessons from the ruling party, not in vote rigging, patronage or authoritarianism. But in strategy development, campaign planning and organization.