Last Saturday I popped into a pharmacy at about 815am and the saleswoman was drinking a can of Red Bull. Where do you go from there I thought.

Then I went into Spar which has opened up just next to Pick and Pay – go figure. Spar didn’t have any decent milk so I went to Pick and Pay. Maybe that’s why we’re seeing supermarkets mushroom all over Harare – shopping can be a bit of a hunt and peck affair. In Pick and Pay the cashier seemed weighed down by the new year just a few days in.

Later on I went for a walk in the Botanical Gardens. Good value for money but better get in quick I reckon before our local authorities give the go-ahead to build another shopping mall on some free land. We walked down to the National Parks offices like we did the day before. On our way a red Camry stopped and a man in it asked us where we were going to which we replied we’re turning around in the car park. He appeared to work at National Parks, given his officiousness. He told us to “get out”. Nice. There’s no sign that says no entry. There’s no sign that says anything. When tourists come to Zimbabwe some of them walk in the Botanical Gardens, what a nice welcome that would have been. We were two Zimbabweans, what a nice way to treat us.

Well as the New Year begins not many people have a clear picture of what the year holds for them and I am one of them. Social and political problems of 2012 continue to haunt our faltering government of national unity (GNU) in 2013 but the big question is, is it gonna be referendum or elections or maybe pay increase for the civil servants?

The issue of a new constitution for Zimbabwe drags into 2013 unresolved and it could be a blessing in disguise for the legislators who are currently faced with end of term in office. Faced with fear of leaving office empty-handed some of the legislators are already demanding what’s due to them before the term expires. With an unimpressive record to show for the time they got elected into office some political parties have blocked conducting primary elections to avoid embarrassing the so-called “top brass”.

Such a move killed my hopes of aspiring to be a politician of some sort. Maybe next time when democracy is not just a bar talk.
 
Election manifestos full of development promises from both parties were washed down the drain as political entrepreneurship took center stage. As people continue to wallow in poverty the only hope they have is in the next ballot which will be held this year. On the New Year’s eve civil servants issued an ultimatum to the government to engage them in salary negotiations. Not much was yielded from last year’s negotiations with the government. Good timing indeed to bargain, maybe this year will be the year for the “servants” as parties in the GNU will be trying to please the electorate. A popular prophet saw gold for Zimbabwe in 2013 but the prediction also had death and turmoil. Whether you believe in prophecy or not let’s just sit back watch as the events of 2013 start to unfold.

I was lying face down having a massage this morning (commercial, not private sadly) and I hear a woman bring her daughter in for a manicure and a pedicure. When I was growing up it was just about making sure your finger and toe nails were clean, not styled. And then, horror of horrors, a request was put in for her daughter to have three (3) blackheads removed. In other words squeezed out. Which made me wonder why the mother was outsourcing such a gross job.

Yesterday I was running up Kew Drive, the road where our PM now lives and where you sometimes see MDC youth sitting outside. You need to wear sunglasses if you look in their direction; they are so shiny. Shiny heads, shiny suits and shiny shoes. Sweet. Anyway trudging up the cycle track I saw 5 young boys probably all under 11. They made a point of blocking the cycle track. Aggressive little shits. You’d never see girls acting this way in Zimbabwe.

Gender activist Betty Makoni describes how women face war in their homes and how she feels about leaving Zimbabwe because of persecution from the State:

The last thing any human rights defender wants to do is to leave her home, work and settle in a foreign country. This was my last option during my time of despair and persecution in 2008; only the man I shared my home with knew as I grabbed my handbag and sped out of the door to run for safety.

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Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.
- William S. Burroughs