The IFLA/UNESCO Public Library Manifesto of 1994 defines a public library as, “The local centre of information, making all kinds of knowledge and information readily available to its users.’ The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users and was founded in 1927.

The main Harare City library is at the Civic Centre and there are branch libraries in Greendale, Highlands, Hatfield, Mount Pleasant and Mabelreign. I stay in Chisipite so I decided to visit the Highlands Branch Library.

The location of the library is a good one opposite to a primary school, just off the main road making it accessible to users from other suburbs such as Eastlea, Newlands and Chisipite.

My visit made me to give my blog this title because the infrastructure is all there. All that needs to be done are upgrades. Library updates should be done in a similar fashion as upgrades of computer operating systems. Operating systems change now and then due to transformation in consumer needs, preferences and expectations and advancements in technology. We have witnessed operating systems running on MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows XP, Vista, Windows Live and Windows 7 just to name a few. My visit to the library was more of an experience of using a computer with an operating system of MS-DOS in this day and age.

The out-datedness, the unattractiveness, the slowness … you name it I experienced all that by merely entering the library.

The library’s opening hours are on the negative. Two thirds of the time the library is closed. I can justify the full day closure of the library on a Thursday because its important to do so that administrative work can be done without the librarian being disturbed by patrons.

Let’s hope the relevant authorities start taking our libraries seriously and upgrade them for the benefit of all Zimbabweans.

They have become real dare devils, and you begin to ask if these are the sort of people who would be on the frontline of street protests. They are so far the only members of an “organised union” who have stood up – rightly or wrongly – to assert their right to “fight the power.”

With their daring demeanor – perhaps psychedelic based as the stereotype goes – they have become a pain in the arse for law enforcement, and one has to imagine that determination being transfered into the broader public psyche as an ingredient for street protests. All over the country they have been tagged a lawless lot, and that’s exactly what street protestors pushing for democratic reform have been called.

Sometimes you just have to marvel at the valour of the kombi drivers and touts as they take on the cops – all else notwithstanding!

In her obituary of Yvonne Vera, Ranka Primorac wrote: “The most courageous among them [her other books] is The Stone Virgins, the first work of fiction that openly exposes and condemns the government sponsored violence [Gukurahundi] against civilians in Independent Zimbabwe.”   Primorac goes on to praise its “stylistic mastery and political bravery.”  Yet The Stone Virgins has never been banned; Vera (who, curiously, received the Tucholsky Award of the Swedish PEN for a writer in exile or undergoing persecution) never went into exile, was never persecuted, never even harassed.  The novel was published in 2002 when the government’s policy of re-crafting and subverting the law to support its ideology of “patriotism” was in Operation [upper case deliberate].  How come they left her alone?  I can think of two reasons: first, that Primorac is wrong about Vera’s political courage; second, The Stone Virgins is a novel written in turgid English, and was never likely to influence the restless povo, for most of whom books are unaffordable, and English is very much a second or third language.

By blurring distinctions between dissidents, pseudo-dissidents, and soldiers; between war and massacre; by the timing of the atrocities described in the novel, Vera creates self-protecting ambiguities.  For example, the brutal murder of the shop owner, Mahlatini takes place in 1982, before the Fifth Brigade was officially mobilised.  His killers are called “soldiers”.  Just before he dies, the author puts a suggestive thought in his mind: “He did not want to see who was killing him, just in case he recalled something about the eyes, the forehead, the gait of this man.”  Just in case his killer was a local?

The saintly man, Cephas, associated with the mazhanje (umhobohobo) fruit of the eastern highlands, is Shona (his tagged on surname, Dube, notwithstanding); the diabolical man, Sibaso, associated with the marula fruit of Matabeleland, is Ndebele.  Dissidents and pseudo-dissidents did commit atrocities, some hundreds, mainly against whites and so-called sell-outs; but the Fifth Brigade, targeting innocent rural folk, killed, raped, and maimed tens of thousands.  Vera’s choice of perpetrator in this context seems somewhat skewed.  No wonder she wouldn’t allow copies of Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace, to be displayed in the Art Gallery shop when she was the Director – the same art gallery where Owen Maseko’s exhibition remains sealed off to the public.  So, Ranka Primorac is wrong – there is nothing in The Stone Virgins that” openly” condemns and exposes Gukurahundi.  On the contrary, it is full of lyrical self-censorship.

The second reason why the authorities might have left Yvonne Vera alone recalls the words of the writer, Stanley Nyamfukudza: “One of the best ways to hide information in Zimbabwe is to publish it in a book.”  The Board of Censors tends to overlook the written word because the vast majority of people in this country have little access to books, especially fictional books.  The visual arts, township drama, and performance poetry are another story!  The Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiongo was imprisoned not for his novels in English but for his plays in Kikuyu.  The authorities don’t want the masses to get too excited.

So, why Owen Maseko?  Again, I can think of two reasons: first, his exhibition is courageous to the point of recklessness in its exposure of what has now been officially classified as genocide; second, as a visual artist his work is immediately accessible to the restless povo.  It speaks a universal language.

The first I ever heard of Deng Xiaoping was in my O Level history class. We were learning Chinese history, the excesses of Chairman Mao, the suffering of the Chinese people during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Then in stepped Deng Xiaoping, Dengism and the beginning of a new era. To hear my history teacher describe it, Deng was the Messiah, and the Chinese Communist Party the flock gone astray.

According to Wikipedia, the Peoples Republic of China is one of the last five communist states in the world. China’s government has been variously described as communist and socialist, but also as authoritarian, with heavy restrictions remaining in many areas, most notably on the internet, the press, freedom of assembly, reproductive rights and freedom of religion.

Deng Xiaoping served as de facto leader of China for almost twenty years. He put it firmly on the path to becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world. All without the trouble of having regular elections, ‘people driven’ constitutions or misfortune of an Inclusive government. This, despite China effectively being a one party state. In a 2008 Pew research Centre survey 86% of Chinese people expressed satisfaction with the way things were going in their country and with their nation’s economy.

When ZANU PF looks East I wonder what it is looking at. Is it examining the Chinese Communist Party’s successes and failures and how these may be instructional for them too? The same words that describe the Chinese Communist Party may be applied to them. It is not far-fetched that ZANU’s policies could successfully be implemented. Then an all ZANU PF government could also have an 86% approval rating from it’s oppressed citizens. Oppression is subjective. If most people are happy most of the time, are they really oppressed?

Democracy was never a prerequisite for a successful government or economic growth. It’s a nice idea, but I would wager that the majority of people, including myself, would give up a measure of freedom in return for prosperity. China’s one billion plus population is nothing to laugh at.

When ZANU PF looks East it sees the fat wallets of Chinese investors and turns a blind eye to the deals that short change the people. While the president lectures about sovereignty, his ministers systematically turn Zimbabwe once again into a client state for a different ideology.

As Bev blogged the other day, in a recent meeting Harare East residents argued that if the government of Zimbabwe made land available for free under the land reform program then why should a dead corpse be made to buy land from the City of Harare?

We thought they had a point, so we asked our SMS subscribers for their opinion.

The 100+ responses fell broadly into two camps, with about 30% of respondents suggesting that charging for a burial plot was fair – the belief being that these funds should go to servicing the cemeteries, paying grounds people, and so forth.

Unfortunately, many Zimbabweans have lost a lot confidence in their government and elected officials – and thus are cynical about whether burial fees would be appropriately used. This is one of the reasons why around 70% of respondents agreed with the Harare East residents, that there should be no charge for burial plots.

Responses seemed to divide cleanly along the lines of whether the respondent thought the money would get put to relevant use – and not pocketed or politicised. Thus, it’s worrying that 70% of respondents were opposed to the charging of burial fees; it suggests that 70% are also sceptical about the integrity of government and our elected officials.

Read a sampling of replies below:

• I think they must pay since that land needs to be serviced, but the rates must be affordable.
• If land was given for free, this also means grave yards are also land. So land is for free. Corpses should not pay.
• My answer is City of Harare have no right to charge them. Burial fees because the land was given free. They mustn’t search for money with an axe on their shoulder.
• We have to understand that our leaders are gold diggers. We must not pay for the dead. Never.
• Grave yards need to be maintained so payments is required.
• Land Reform Act: free land yes I don’t think we pay for the land but for the service done by City Council, however they should cut the current cost to half thus how I think.
• I think burial fees must be paid because that piece of land will never be used again.
• We are not supposed buy land for burial if land is ours.
• How can dead person pay something?
• It’s right to pay for all services in the city. It’s not right to extend the land issue to things like these.
• Free land, free burial.
• If land was parcelled out for free during land reform, then burial should be free, after all the fund won’t benefit residents no charges for your birthright please!
• Is it not a way to raise revenues? Also I’m not aware of the city’s by-laws.
• People are cheated and robbed of their hard earned cash in broad daylight.
• They should not pay.
• I think that’s a challenging question to their MP. These guys take people for a ride. They use people for them to benefit. It’s bad.
• In fact the sense’s not about land but its all about fundraising of the city council. That’s where they get their salaries. That’s what l think.

If I got rid of my demons I’d lose my angels
- Tennessee Williams