On a recent visit to the US, my family and friends were not only happy to see me, they also got a kick out of seeing my 50 billion dollar notes.  There were some dropped jaws at the site of all those zeroes. And laughs with stories I told about how confusing it can be to pay for things and receive change.  Importantly these reactions were combined with inquiries and concern surrounding an economy which requires 100s of billions to buy a loaf a bread.  What I find unsettling are the places where the concern seems absent.  Where interest in Zimbabwean Dollars has inflated into hyper-insensitivity.  This got me thinking about the dark side of the internet.

Let’s start with eBay.  I thought maybe the sale of Zimbabwean Dollars on eBay was an urban myth.  Not the case. I found an economist/blogger who identified three on-going auctions with prices ranging from US$49.72 to US$71.  He also reproduced an interesting graphic from The Economist showing that 100 billion is the 4th highest-denomination banknote in history.  The highest is the 1946 Hungarian 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Pengo (one quintillion I think).  Other sites reported 100 billion notes going for AU$87 and US$152.50.  I see the benefit of eBay as a way for people to unload their junk onto someone else and make a little money.  Nothing wrong with that.  But this, I think is too much.  Selling Zimbabwean Dollars on eBay for profit is not right. Particularly if seller and buyer have no knowledge of the situation in Zimbabwe.

In addition to this insensitive free-for-all on eBay, I shake my head in confusion and anger over the places sales are being discussed/advertised.  One site is called Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things. What world do the creators of that website live in if they think hyperinflation in Zimbabwe is a wonderful thing?  And next, the comments people make.  On a site called ask.metafilter.com there is a post where the person is seeking Zimbabwean Dollars with the reason given: I wanna pose for pictures on my myspace page with my billions of Zimbabwe dollars on display, just stacks and stacks of it… maybe even make a little youtube movie where I flash my Zimbabwe dollars in my hands and yell, I’m rich, bitch!

I wish I knew the dockworkers instrumental in stopping the Chinese weapons from being unloaded in South Africa.  If I did, they might have some advice as to how to shut down the sale of Zimbabwean Dollars on eBay.  Perhaps it’s not neatly parallel or fair to compare the sale of weapons to a dictatorship with a few people making money on eBay.  However, there are similarities in the underlying end results.  In both cases, a set of people are operating (consciously or unconsciously) with seemingly no concern around the difficult and unjust realities for a much larger set of people.

Most parts of Mabvuku and Tafara have had no water for the past couple of months, and with some of the new stands it’s almost a year or two now.

The residents are deeply concerned by the persistence of the water crisis in these suburbs despite the countless assurances by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) that they will improve their service delivery. The residents of Mabvuku and Tafara are worried that the absence of running water is a health time bomb. There is always such a stench coming from the toilets and burst sewer pipes. The persistence of the water crisis simply means the constant exposure of the residents to a health disaster.

At first people used to walk a long distance to fetch clean water for cooking and drinking. Then a couple of weeks ago, I heard somebody offered to have some hand pump boreholes sunk in these two suburbs, none of them is working after only being used for almost a week.

Apart from that, it now appears almost every household in these two suburbs have dug their own wells at their own premises to save time and shorten the distance they would have traveled to look for clean water from relatives and friends living in Zimre Park and Greendale or from unprotected sources, a situation which threatens their dear lives.

The residents are worried and angry to see dry taps and burst sewer pipes everyday. I would like to remind ZINWA that it is not a privilege for residents to get clean water, but rather it is a right.

Here are some good observations from Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) taken from their recent press statement on the current negotiations between Zanu PF and the MDC.

We are an organisation owned by its 60,000 members who hold qualifications in daily survival and degrees in nonviolence despite the deeply polarised political environment in Zimbabwe since 2000. WOZA was born in the community and seeks to draw the attention of preoccupied politicians to people’s needs, namely bread and butter issues; or as WOZA likes to put it, bread and roses issues – bread representing food and roses representing the need for lasting dignity.

At the moment, the highway that is Zimbabwe has two ‘vehicles’ going in opposite directions, Zanu PF, the so-called ‘liberation war’ party and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). These parties speed along preoccupied with their own importance, hardly ever taking the off-ramp to consult with the suffering masses.

Zimbabweans have lost faith in politicians’ ability to return life to the living. We do not think power sharing or a government of national unity (GNU) can work in Zimbabwe. We need an independent and impartial transitional authority under African leadership. African leaders should not dictate that a GNU be the only solution to our crisis.

Read the full statement here

It is encouraging to see that despite the challenges of this world and the hurt going on there are still people who sacrifice to save lives. On Friday night 27 June 2008, I was watching the 46664 concert live on television in celebration of Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday. The concert held in London was graced by a number of international artists under the theme, ‘It’s in our hands.’

Annie Lennox is one particular artist who touched my heart in her efforts to make a difference in the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS. During the concert she showed the audience a picture of a 7 year old child with full blown AIDS whose poor health was being worsened by malnutrition and lack of treatment to boost the immune system. She then showed another picture of the same child after taking treatment and following a proper diet . . . this was such a moving experience to me.

It got me thinking that if each one of us had such a selfless heart, this world could be a better place. I believe that even the smallest of gestures like helping a neighbor in need either in cash or kind means a lot to the recipient no matter how small. Echoing Madiba’s words, ‘there is still so much work in Africa’.

What upsets me is the fact that some of the challenges we face in Africa are self inflicted. For instance, to look at Zimbabwe and the way the economy has gone down and the health delivery system also deteriorating, some individuals still find time to intentionally cause physical harm to others, all in the name of politics. Surely this should be a time for those who directly or indirectly perpetrated violence during the election period to reflect on their actions and what they think they achieved.

It is time we realize that indeed, the responsibility to improve the world we live in lies in each and every one of us. Africa belongs to us Africans and it is only us who can make conscious decisions about our future.

I packed my bag and in it I put some honey, butter, bread and a can of mace. Destination? I was going to check out the polling stations in my area and then have some breakfast with a couple of comrades. OK so the mace might be ineffectual when faced by a gang of militia but it made me feel a tiny bit safer. In the Greendale and Highlands suburbs of Harare the voting queues were really, really (I mean really) small. Which I took to be A Good Sign.

Despite the heavy Zanu PF intimidation Zimbabweans look like they’re shunning the poll.

Later in the morning we decided that today was a good day to visit two inspiring women activists detained in Chikurubi Female Prison. Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, the leaders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) have spent 29 days in prison. Read about their case here.

We took the back route to Chikurubi Prison, more by mistake than by design, so we spent a bit of time driving through the bush on the outskirts of Harare. At one point we had to stop and ask for directions. I guess today wasn’t the best day to be doing this and my nerves were jangling, quite a bit. When we finally arrived at the prison gates we handed over our IDs and the warder wrote our names, ID numbers and who we were visiting on a small scrap of paper. After a 10 minute walk through the dust and lots of laundry hanging in the sun, including several versions of Robert Mugabe’s election campaign T shit (oops, my spelling mistake), we finally got to the prison building where Jenni and Magodonga are being held. For 30 minutes we sat on a small wooden bench chatting with them through a fence. They are both well and in good spirits but they’ve had enough of sleeping on a concrete floor. They want to go home. I handed a few small gifts through the holes in the fence; an orange, potato chips, sweets and a few sanitary towels. The warder banned the jar of honey for some reason.

As I was lying in the bath this morning I was getting increasingly agitated (no amount of radox could help) about the fact that Tendai Biti, the Movement for Democratic Change secretary-general gets released from prison as part of an elite political deal, but Jenni and Magodonga are still in detention. An example of women either being forgotten, or fucked over by the system.

Please help to draw more attention to the unjust incarceration of Jenni and Magodonga by writing to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, asking them to step up the pressure.

As usual fearful rumours are circulating fast and furiously in Zimbabwe. And new media is aiding and abetting their viral spread.

I had a “cold one” yesterday evening with a friend of mine, and over our chill out at the end of the day drink, she showed me a text message that she’d just received. The message warned that an informal curfew was in place and that people should be in their homes by 9pm. It was attributed to some fictitious civil society organisation. The whole thing had the regime’s fingerprints all over it. But instead of sending it smartly into text message wasteland, people have been forwarding it to one another and spooking themselves shitless. One has to ask WHY? Why let unverified, random information curb your movement and frighten you?

And then there’s an email that’s doing the rounds which suggests that if you voted in the 29th March election then you have to vote in this one. Otherwise the regime will interpret your absence as MDC support and they’ll come and track you down and chop your head off. That’s an awful lot of paperwork and chopping that they are going to have to do to follow through on this ridiculous suggestion. Again its regime propaganda put out there to intimidate us.

Of course it’s difficult to stay optimistic, hopeful and confident amidst the violence and the harassment that so many of us are experiencing, but at the very least we have to court our courage, rather than let the regime fill us with fear.

And in the meantime, at Kubatana we’ve received frustrated emails from various subscribers criticising the MDC’s late withdrawal from the election. Here is what Shepherd and Regis had to say:

Lest there is some confusion as to where I stand, I do not support the leadership of Robert Mugabe and I condemn the violent campaign he has been waging. But Morgan has showed his lack of leadership skills in the past few days and has left me wondering what his true motives for opposing Mugabe are. He spends months globe trotting only to come back  when  there  is  barely  enough  time  to  campaign. Zanu PF was  already  on  a  violent  campaign  trail  then. Why  didn’t  Tsvangirai  pull  out  of  the  presidential  run off  then? He has chosen to pull out at the last moment and will hand Mugabe the legitimacy he so craves. Zanu PF supporters will vote tomorrow and a handful of MDC supporters will also vote. Guess what that means? And whats this drama of rushing to ‘hide’ in the Dutch Embassy? What happened to him when he eventually came out? Nothing. Whats this nonsense of calling a press conference where only the foreign media was invited to announce his withdrawal before officially informing ZEC and before informing the electorate? Whose struggle is it anyway?

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Yes, I agree that boycotting is the best but would it not be absolutely wonderful if we had more time then we all mobilise the voters to all go and vote tomorrow but spoil our votes. Just imagine more spoiled votes than those who vote for Mugabe. It would show massive support for Tsvangirai but at the same time show that this election is a sham. I wish the withdrawal had been much earlier is this message would have got ot the voters!!!