In an interview which was published in the Sunday Mail dated 01- 07 July 2012 the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti was quoted saying that violence lead to the splitting of the Anglican Church. I would agree with the Minister if he were trying to say a well-known bishop used violence to remove Anglicans from their premises. The renegade Bishop who is now dabbling in politics is on a looting and invasion spree and violence has been his most powerful tool throughout the campaign. The Honorable should have asked for the correct position from the church, probably he could have given a better comment. Anglicans are peace loving and God fearing people and I am sure by trying to associate the Anglican Church with violence really does give a wrong impression of the real events. Since the Minister is part of the Inclusive Government, people expect him to give the correct picture of the Anglican saga.

“Don’t chase my devils away, because my angels may flee too.”
- Rainer Maria Rilke

“Do married men have affairs for the bad sex?” asked Rielle Hunter, mistress to then US Presidential hopeful John Edwards when she appeared on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight. Morgan took a pause before he continued with the interview. Apparently according to Hunter who has written a book on her scandalous affair with Edwards which produced a child, she had the best sex of her life with Mr. Edwards, apparently explaining what drove the relationship. Yet it was a relevant question with resonance in Zimbabwe, many thousands of miles away, where the so-called small-houses have become a virtual cultural phenomenon, with purists mourning the morally straight and narrow ways of our forefathers. Are these extra-marital relationships always about sex, great or otherwise? You listen to pub tales where grown men find the pub as some kind of refuge from what they see as henpecking back home. It’s clear then that some men take to the bottle, while others take to extramarital relationships to deal with whatever is happening on the home front, yet there is no doubt that a lot of explanations that emerge seem to be solely based on common-sense street-based sociology which has done nothing to understand the growth and acceptance of what other researchers say has become a major springboard for HIV/Aids.

A young preacher who this year returned to the motherland after spending five years of Bible school in Mauritius said to me the other day that when he left Zimbabwe, he had never heard such a term as “small-house” and it had to be explained to him recently by fellow churchmen what it meant. He seemed genuinely lost, and all I could think of was, “well, my friend, you’ve been away too long.” The fact that the preacher appeared dumbfounded that small-houses had become common-place, accepted even, it did point to a need to better understand what drives this “small-house” business without haughty moralising. But then, there are many out there who see everyman as a potential candidate for Cheaters the television show. Others go an extreme extra mile and see everyman as a potential rapist!

Yet I find myself having to ask whether indeed it is all about sex, whether great or mediocre, or something else. Years ago NBA superstar Dennis Rodman had a fling with Madonna, and he made sure he told the tabloids about it: “I thought she was gonna be an acrobat, not a dead fish,” or something to that effect. Another Hollywood wise crack was asked by a hack who thrived on the salacious what he expected from a woman he took to bed. The hack must have expected a blow-blow breakdown about acrobatics and such, but the Hollywood guy responded: “Nothing, she must just lie there.” Ergo, why do men keep having extramarital affairs, is it about the great sex as some would have the world believe? In developed countries, some have explained it off as a sign of mid-life crisis, I wonder then in a country where life expectancy for men is under forty, when does mid-life set in?

Watched Zanu PF chief doctor of spin Rugare Gumbo in last night’s news bulletin talk about Daniel Shumba’s bid for a “prodigal son” return to the higher echelons of the party he cursed for poor governance and lack of democratic principles a few years ago.  Shumba left the party after seeing what every other Zimbabwean seemed to notice, that this party Zanu PF was no place for progressives. And his chosen way to make himself heard? He formed his own political party, the United People’s Party.

It’s crazy why people who seem better off and can lead productive lives as private citizens minding their own business always seem to think entering gladiatorial politics is the way to go, their own contribution to the betterment of humankind. Of course not many Zimbabweans even know Shumba formed a political party of his own, and it just became one of those outfits that make very forgettable appearances in the run up to elections and quietly disappear soon after. Think such parties as the African National Party, Peace Action is Freedom for All and others in between.

And now, Daniel Shumba has once again rekindled his courtship with Zanu PF, only to be told he must line up like everyone else and join from cell level and then work his way up. And this for a guy who was once a Zanu PF provincial chairperson! No favours here comrades, we don’t forget that easily. And yes, he must first publicly announce that he has disbanded his political party. I cannot even start to imagine what is going in this guy’s mind after what Gumbo told the nation on national telly. And in classic Zanu PF-speak, Shumba “expelled himself” from the party!

Surely Shumba must have shoved it and went on with his many businesses, than subject himself to such humiliation, first at the
2008 ballot back then when he had to launch a constitutional court application to contest and now at the hands of Zanu PF itself. I suppose Shumba’s flaw is that, like many other ill-informed Zimbabweans, the future of Zimbabwe lies with Zanu PF, those types who are obsessed with being members of this party of the miserable past simply because it offers them unbridled avenues to self-aggrandisement. Everyone knows this by now, but then for Shumba to be told that he must re-join the party as an ordinary card-holding member ought to be yet another lesson for all Zimbabweans Africans that there is life beyond politics. But then he did once say that forming the United People’s Party was a joke. Yeah right, look who’s laughing now!

An excerpt from an article in The Week about poets involved in Poetry Parnassus running alongside the Olympics.

Stars of the festival line-up include two Nobel laureates, Ireland’s Seamus Heaney and the Nigerian Wole Soyinka. Heaney has been called “the greatest poet of our age” by a number of academics and critics. Soyinka, who has been arrested several times and imprisoned twice for his human rights stance, writes largely about what he describes as “the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it”.

The term of office for the United States of America (USA) Ambassador to Zimbabwe comes to an end this year. Ambassador Charles Ray took some time to reflect on his three-year term of office in Zimbabwe at a US Public Section function organized by DefZee yesterday. Ambassador Ray began his term of office in 2009 when he presented his credentials to President Robert Mugabe.  Prior to his current Zimbabwe mission Ambassador Ray served in the US army and retired with rank of Major. He held several key positions including serving as US Ambassador to Cambodia from 2002 to 2005 and Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Freetown, Sierra Leon.

In a brief speech Ambassador Ray challenged Zimbabwean youths not to restrict their learning to classrooms and textbooks but by reading widely. He also encouraged the youth not to fear failure. In his sentiments the Ambassador said taking initiatives to address some of the challenges affecting people in the community and not to wait for the government or other people to do it for them could create a better community in Zimbabwe.

In his three-year term in Zimbabwe the Ambassador highlighted how divisions have contributed to the challenges affecting the development of the country. Chief among them, the divisions in the society along tribal lines and those who view themselves as superior because they took part in the liberation war against those who didn’t, and the “born frees” against the older generation. Ambassador Ray said the best way for young people to participate in politics is by building better economic securities and this will enable youths not to be politicians but to be the power behind politicians. Responding to a question from the public on foreign trade the Ambassador concurred that every country goes into a business relationship with another for its self-benefit so there is need to exercise extreme caution in how a country does its business transactions. On how the Black community in America view President Obama, Ambassador Charles Ray said the once a president is elected into office in America he is guided by the constitution and he will be serving the American people not a particular section of the people in the country.

Commenting on the relationship between USA and Zimbabwe, Ambassador Ray pointed out that room for dialogue has been created and the two countries can now engage in discussions on how to find ways of making life better for average Zimbabweans.