We just got this image and caption in from a subscriber. Given the loadshedding we’ve been experiencing lately, it seems entirely apt: “With these ZESA blackouts imagine what would happen if Zimbabwe was hosting the World Cup? I think the situation was going to be as above.”

So there’s this thing that we Africans do that is a little bit funny, but also actually quite a serious issue.

Let me set the secenario for you by introducing you to the imaginary Mr. Y and his wife, Mrs. Y who will help me illustrate my point.

The Ys are a family who earn enough money from their combined salaries just to get by each month, as well as take care of their three young children. Mr. Y works with an NGO where his pay is lukewarm, and Mrs. Y is a nurse in a public hospital. Her pay is definitely cold.

So you would think that the Ys try by all means to live within their means right?

Far from it!

Rather, they rent out a house in some  plush suburb (though they are three months behind on paying up and the landlord is threatening to take them to court) and their children go to that private school up the rolling highlands where the red-hot fees ensure that Mr. Y can never save enough money to fix that dent on the bonnet of his car.

Speaking of his car, Mr. Y drives a C Class Benz – black in colour, tinted windows with reams gleaming that seem to make time slow down with each revolution of the fine specimen’s tyres.

Oh, and doesn’t Mrs. Y just love to drive that Benz to church on Sundays and ‘humbly’ remind Jehovah’s children how blessed in the blood of Jesus  she is to be in possession of this stunning vehicle.

If only they knew that it wasn’t actually her car, or even her husband’s. Nope. The car belongs to Mr. Y’s brother who’s fled to the UK and entrusted the keys to his most prized possession to Mr. Y. whose old tired jalopy is now hidden from public view, locked up in the car shed.

So you get the picture, right?

This is a story about a family that on first appearance seems to have it all going on BUT is actually living a horrible lie.

What for?

Esteem in the eyes of society, of course. Hey, you gotta show that you’ve done something right with your life and the Ys are just trying to ‘keep up with the Moyos’.

I remember an American friend visiting Zimbabwe once asking me a very interesting question.

“Why do so many African families have this fixation with flat screen TVs and leather sofas ?!”

She just couldn’t get why everyone either had those two items, or was saving up towards them.

It got me thinking.

Why is that so many people own terribly expensive phones, and yet can’t even afford to load air time onto the things every month? Why is it that every woman worth her salt in society owns a microwave or washing machine and often never actually uses them?

Like I said before, it’s all about APPEARANCES. When purchased for all the wrong and misguided reasons, these things become status symbols that people use to say, “I’ve made it, unlike you!”

Such reasoning reflects an innate fear of inadequacy that many of us have. You must have a legacy, you must show up all those people who said you wouldn’t amount to much, you must have something to show for all that suffering you endured growing up in some rural area reading for your exams by candlelight.

It’s really sad that in African cultures, we tend to gauge success by trivial things like possessions. And it’s sad too that so many young people strive for that ideal with such singular purpose that they lose sight of the real dreams for their lives.

Who cares what the neighbours think? They will talk regardless of what you do, or don’t do; own or don’t own. A life lived on behalf of the perceptions of others about you is not your life, especially if you really don’t like leather sofas anyway!

The 2010 soccer World Cup is finally underway, and we see the whole of South Africa as well as the rest of the world united in “World cup fever”.

Prior to the World Cup, South Africa was in chaos, with the murder of Eugene Terreblanche  leader of the AWB, following some controversial “hate speech by Julius Malema: “shoot the boer”.  I believe that the 2010 soccer world cup has helped South Africans to overcome their differences and embrace and share this amazing event together. Many South Africans have put their differences aside and united in support of their nation. The 2010 soccer world cup illustrates how powerful sport can be in terms of uniting people, we have seen this in the past with the 1999 rugby world cup, where Nelson Mandela sported Francois Pienaar’s number six rugby jersey. This event was crucial in transforming South Africa from a divided nation to a unified one.

An interesting article from Slate:

From 1977 to the present, have you had sexual contact with another male, even once? You’ll have to answer that question, word for word, on a donor form if you want to give blood in this country. The form, authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and reaffirmed 10 days ago by an FDA advisory panel, offers three possible answers: “yes,” “no,” or “I am female.” If you check “yes,” you’re done. You’re forbidden to donate blood.

Why? Because, as the FDA explains, men who have had sex with men—known in the blood world as MSM—”are, as a group, at increased risk for HIV, hepatitis B and certain other infections.” To protect blood recipients from this risk, your blood must be excluded.

Maybe you fooled around with a guy 30 years ago and have spent the rest of your life as a celibate priest. Maybe you’ve been in a faithful same-sex marriage for 40 years. Maybe you’ve passed an HIV test. It doesn’t matter. You can’t give blood, because you’re in the wrong “group.” On the other hand, if you’re in the right group—heterosexuals—you can give blood despite dangerous behavior. If you had sex with a prostitute, an IV drug user, and an HIV-positive opposite-sex partner 13 months ago, you’re good to go.

Read more

I’ve just stumbled across Memory Chirere’s blog.

Highlights include an interview with Brian Chikwava, Reflections on Zimbabwe turning 30, and an obituary for Ruzvidzo Stanely Mupfudza, which features this paragraph:

A week before your death, I bumped into Ignatius Mabasa at an Avondale ice cream shop and he said he had seen you! He said you had talked. And as the kids ran around, licking their ice cream and bantering amongst themselves, Ignatius said you said that you felt that most of what you had written in the past was rather bleak and you were reworking some of your unpublished stories and poems (and novels too) because you now realized that, after all, life was a positive thing. We were impressed and were almost certain that one full volume of your work would eventually come out.

For fear of being massacred I would wish that this blog did not have my name but for the hope of starting a ka anti soccer society I will gladly like this blog to bear my name. I hate soccer, why on earth would grown men run around chasing a ball. Of all the things to run after a ball it’s hideous. Thank God this world cup frenzy comes once after four years. Don’t get me wrong I am glad it’s happening only next door and I have watched a match or two. That’s just the problem – I have been forced to watch these matches coz the people I live with watch the live match then the retake and the analysis never stops. What I hate the most is that everyone has got something to say; everyone thinks their point makes sense more than other people talking at the same time. OK back to the so-called sport to those that are anti soccer we could start a society. And if you are not convinced why you should join the society here are ten good reasons:

1. Soccer encourages child labor. What are all those children doing on the pitch before the match? Are they are going to be paid for standing there with those soccer players?
2. You have to keep on cheering even if your team is losing. You can’t just leave the match after paying an arm and a leg to be there.
3. What’s with soccer players thinking that soccer is the only worthwhile sport? I guess it takes skill and class to understand another sport
4. They pay the announcers to say, “Oh he runs after the ball and now he throws it.”Yes he kicks it away. I don’t get that
5. I really would like to agree with the people that say we must ban the vuvuzelaz. What’s the point of watching the game when you are almost deaf?
6. You can head the ball but you can’t use your hands?
7. The throw in all of a sudden and you can use your hands. They should make up their minds.
8. The players run for 90 minutes only to lose. Save my energy for the better!
9. The referees: so much power given to one man gives me the creeps.
10. Why is it when a player scores he runs off to celebrate on his own. Most of the time his other team members have to run after him but he keeps running away.