With the advent of desktop publishing and information mediums like email pretty much any citizen can, and has become a publisher. But with the freedom to publish comes the need to engage both responsibility and accountability. Within civil society Information Officers are playing at being journalists, sometimes with good results and sometimes with disastrous ones.

I took umbrage with Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition on Tuesday in regard to how they reported on the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) Valentine’s March in Harare. Caught up in the hysteria of “breaking news” (something we information activists need to break out of) Crisis issued an Information Alert which stated:

More than 1000 WOZA activists were brutally assaulted by riot police and had police dogs unleashed on them as they were marching in Harare. The march was for love where Zimbabweans were called upon to dwell in peace and harmony.

As I pointed out to Crisis, police dogs were not unleashed on the demonstrators and during the march there were no brutal assaults. And indeed if over 1000 WOZA activists had been assaulted, this particular protest march would go down in the annals of Zimbabwe’s history as being the most savage of all the Zimbabwe Republic Police force’s acts of violence.

Just as we pro-democracy activists demand accountability in publishing from the state-controlled press so we must demand the same accountability of ourselves.

Meanwhile WOZA has reported on police brutality experienced by WOZA members in Bulawayo. Whilst WOZA acknowledges that this disgusting behaviour is perpetrated by some members of the police force they emphasise that others engage professionalism in their work. Here’s an excerpt from their statement:

The petty nastiness of the Zimbabwe Republic Police was again evident today. Having informed those on support yesterday that the breakfast feeding time had been changed to 5am, volunteers were mobilised to provide food at 5am but were kept waiting until 7am, the normal feeding time. A woman at Queens Park was consistently denied her ARV medication. Reports have also come in that several members were forced to eat the paper placards that they had been carrying during the demonstration – some of these read, ‘love can bring a brighter day’ and ‘From WOZA with love’. Despite the inability of some officers to choose love over hate, WOZA would like to salute those officers who did treat our members with respect and professionalism and who recognized that WOZA is fighting for a better future for ALL Zimbabweans.

Recently Kubatana helped WOZA get on the net. Please check out their web site

On Valentine’s Day I got a red rose from Alberto, our shopping center’s resident hairdresser. He had installed himself in his doorway and was giving out flowers and kisses to various woman as they passed by – me included. Then my travel agent had their messenger deliver a couple of roses which charmed me because I certainly don’t rate as a frequent flyer. But this year I didn’t get any chocolates which is just as well because I’m protecting the few teeth I have left in my mouth.

Anyway why I mention this is because I’ve just read a rather interesting article, which has this as its introduction:

I received a Valentine’s Day message this week – from the US. Only it did not contain expressions of love and devotion; it was a wake-up call to everyone who gave or received the traditional gifts of flowers or chocolate or perhaps a diamond or two. The message came from the Washington-based International Labour Rights Fund (ILRF) and comprised the fund’s special Valentine’s Day report on the conditions of the flower growers in Colombia and Ecuador. ILRF project director Nora Ferm gave some of the unlovely details concerning cocoa production in Ivory Coast and provided facts about how diamonds had been used to fuel conflict in Africa.

The article also mentions the poor conditions of workers in the horticultural sector in Kenya and Zimbabwe.

And it got me thinking about how little attention we generally pay to where our food comes from, where our rubbish goes and how our tax dollars get spent.

In a recent Kubatana email newsletter I asked our subscribers to write 800 words on tactics to challenge oppression. One of my favourite responses is from a woman who offered some real basic suggestions to help improve our lives in Zimbabwe. Here is some of her advice:

Free yourself from fattening the ruling party and any government institution by:

Avoiding all occasions you can be forced to donate for birthday bashes of the president and others like him.

Do not harm yourself and family but if possible do not attend functions that have no other meaning than glorifying the ruling party and the existing politics.

Give support to those that are standing up against the devastating government policies by providing safe accommodation.

Only pay taxes when you really have to.

Annoy ruling party officials and government institutions with rightful requests:

Report potholes in the road, uncollected waste, burst water pipes.

Visit the ministries/the town council/Zesa and put down claims about all issues caused by lack of maintenance.

Reach out and help someone (and yourself)

If you have a room free at the place you live, rent it out to a fellow Zimbabwean at a fair price.

Keep on talking with each other about what’s happening and what’s possible, support each other not to give up but that everyone is needed to bring change.

If you haven’t done so yet start wherever possible in your vicinity with growing maize, potatoes, veggies, pumpkins, tomatoes and onions.

Make use of all reusable plastics, pots, pans and bottles as planting material and fill it with seedlings.

Plant an easy growing fruit tree and a Moringa tree close to your dwelling to help you to maintain your health.

Take care of young people and encourage them to go to school and not to join the national service, the army or the police out of despair.

Befriend policemen and soldiers living in your vicinity. Make them see that serving the people means something else than serving the ruling party.

Do not buy The Herald because it only reflects Government viewpoints.

Don’t watch ZTV and do not listen to the radio. Instead meet with friends and family, sing and dance together, tell stories, read a book to your children.

It’s raining heavily in Harare right now but just a short while ago the skies were clear for the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) Valentine’s Day March. They brought it forward a day so that the police wouldn’t completely squash it.

So there I was sitting in my car on Kwame Nkrumah Avenue and suddenly the loudest, most joyous and defiant singing filled the air and round the corner came hundreds of WOZA women carrying roses, leaflets and copies of the People’s Charter.

And I felt, in that moment, that anything is possible and most especially, that with women as brave as this, we have hope.

Traffic stopped. Pedestrians stopped and smiled and cheered. People whistled and clapped.

The WOZA march made its way to Parliament where their singing and roses were met with tear gas. Undaunted WOZA re-grouped, turned and marched back into town. At the corner of Chinhoyi Street and Kwame Nkrumah Avenue fairly close to Zanu PF headquarters, I came across police with their dogs intent on cowering this fabulous group of women.

Many women might have been arrested, but the WOZA spirit is alive and well.

Yesterday we had a power cut in our shopping centre from about 9am until 10pm. Not being one to sit in a slump I took myself off to do some local area research. What I discovered:

- the optician across the road has ancient dusty sunglasses on sale for about Z$149 000 a pair

and that next door to them

- Kenge gourmet sandwiches are selling for Z$10 000 bucks a bap.

As I wandered through the shopping centre the contents of a letter I received the day before came to mind.

I am a male adult aged 48 years. Presently I am a pensioner getting a paltry sum of Z$13 000/month pension. I worked in the Police for a period of 27 years having joined in January 1977 in the then British South Africa Police. Please help me.

Maybe he can join the 30 vendors moving about the shopping centre selling to survive. I made a list of what they’ve got in their hands on any given day:

electric power strips
flowers
mangoes
shoes
bananas
steering wheel covers
brooms
windscreen wipers
onions
feather dusters
padlocks
naartjies
potatoes
wallets
door locks
buddie cards

I was smacked in the face on Friday when I read Amanda Atwood’s blog where she listed all the strikes taking place in Zimbabwe at this time. And I thought, maybe, just maybe something is shifting.

Here’s an excerpt from Njabulo S Ndebele’s book Fools & other stories to give us hope and strength

If the fish in a river
boiled by the midday sun
can wait for the coming of evening,
we too can wait
in this wind-frosted land,
the spring will come,
the spring will come.

If the reeds in winter
can dry up and seem dead
and then rise
in the spring,
we too will survive the fire that is coming
the fire that is coming,
we too will survive the fire that is coming.