First stunning thing this week. Information that the Zimbabwe government may deport the Libyan Ambassador for flying the rebel flag.

Stunning!

I mean, denial is a wonderful place. I go there often. ‘In denial’ is usually the note that goes with my blank stare and far away look. However, I think this really takes the cake for life with your head up your ass! They are almost as ‘lost in space’ as Gadaffi himself, the man of the HUGE floor mural that people are now pissing on in Tripoli! And who issues radio statements that he is going to fight to the last against the cockroaches, and die in Libya, and … he is nowhere to be found. Even the cockroaches do not know where he is. But he is defiant! From some safe hole where he is doing his Saddam/Gbago impersonation. While he lets others die for him. And it appears he let others kill, (in great numbers) for him too.

Now there is a real man for you!

And the second stunning bit from that same information. The GNU has ‘unified’ and come to a decision to deport someone! This must be a first – a government decision! But I suspect someone gave out the wrong information. Who actually said this? I really do not think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the Prime Minister, (the government) made any statement. Some ignorant hack in the President’s office (living in denial, and in the past, with his head up his ass), or some other executive type person (army or police), may have said something, but not ‘the government’.

First off, the government is the majority party in parliament, headed by the Prime Minister. They make the laws of Zimbabwe. And I suspect they made no law about deporting ambassadors. The President is the head of the Executive, the chief civil servant. And the Executive is the body of people that implement, or carry out, the laws of Zimbabwe. They do not make them. They are bound by them, and must do what the Government tells them to do. They must enforce the law. (Or be lawless, undisciplined, warlords.) And they do not make policy. Let alone ‘deport’ other people’s ambassador’s.

Then, more stunning (but ‘slow burn’) information. 100 prominent South Africans sign some letter protesting NATO’s bombing of Libyan killers (tanks, and other mechanisms of ‘civilian’ control). Why? Who are they (and don’t tell me the names, I can find that myself)? They cannot sign any letter 10 years ago to say, “please help the people suffering under this evil murdering dictator most foul”. But now they can sign a letter against the ‘will bomb for oil’ boys. So who are these people who can only see what they want to see? But seem quite incapable of looking around and calling out evil wherever they see it. The can only look around and call out evil when it suits them. So who are they, and why should we listen to them? Seems their ‘values’ are a bit suspect.

And the Africa Union (that organisation founded and consisting of Heads of State and Government) wonders why it has been ‘marginalised’? Well, what did happen to the peer review mechanism? Are you also unable to see and deal with evil? Except when it suits you. Or are you really only a body to represent African heads of State, and have nothing to do with African people.

Dear AU. You are marginalised because you only deal with marginal issues, and even then, at the margins. If you took a stance, had some values, and pursued them, you would not be a marginal (holiday trip) body.

On doublespeak, I hear on the BBC, interviews with foreigners in Libya and Tripoli, wanting to get out. Why? The new power in Libya is killing Africans (or might kill) people who are suspected as being Gadaffi mercenaries. But hang on, Libyans are Africans! After all, Libya is in Africa, and Gadaffi is one of the main founders/movers of the African Union. Oh, does the BBC mean ‘blacks’? It seems quite clear that all blacks are not Africans, and all Africans are not black. So why can we not speak properly?

And Zapiro’s cartoon also had me laughing and smiling for some time. His, “Signs of Libya”. NATO planes over head with banners, ‘Will bomb for oil concessions’. His Zuma character on the street corner with the sign, ‘No coherent foreign policy, Please help’, and the wall poster behind him ‘lost, road map’ and to contact the AU.

And now, big (but not really) scandal on Shell Oil spills in the Niger delta. Over the past 20 years, or more. Compare this to the small spill, over months, in the Gulf of Mexico. I have no desire to go back to my earlier blog on the USA, their gross oil over consumption, and how their backyard contrasts with our backyard. And the one response I got, “fuck you”. But I would like to ask, “was I right?”, or “was I right?”. The ‘will bomb for oil boys’ are, without doubt, a bad bunch. But where does the buck stop? At producers, or consumers? They will bomb for oil, and poison whole nations of people, but not in their back yard.

Rather than arguing about what social media can’t do, focus on what it can, urges Aaron Bady writing for MIT’s Technology Review this week. He looks at the role of tools like Twitter and Facebook in the Egyptian revolution, and without giving credit to them for “starting” the revolution, or even “causing” the revolution, he makes a thoughtful, reasoned argument for appreciating what they can do. He counters arguments from the likes of Malcolm Gladwell, that social media organising revolves around ‘weak ties,’ by suggesting that sometimes weak ties are exactly what you need to keep people working together – and not getting bogged down in disagreements over the detail.

Read more here – It’s worth it.

I downed tools a couple of weeks ago to take time out with my family on a houseboat on Lake Kariba.  My siblings and our families are split across 3 countries, so opportunities to reconnect are a celebration. This reunion was particularly celebratory as we were gathering for my brother’s imminent wedding in Nyanga.

The journey up to Kariba was unremarkable with the exception of the fabulous signs displayed on the roadside by worm sellers trying to attract the custom of fishermen and women headed for the lake. Reading the signs, there are clearly different varieties of worms to be had – connoisseurs can choose from ‘red worms of note’ and ‘puffadder worms’.

Pufadar worms ahead

We enjoyed 6 days together, spending each of our 5 nights at a different mooring along the seemingly endless margin of this giant body of water. Every morning a few of us would wake before dawn to meditate and reflect on our beautiful environment. Shortly after sun up the rest of the family would rise for a quick cup of something hot before separating for a few hours to windsurf, paddle a canoe or head out in a tender boat to fish and game watch.  After a late breakfast we’d unmoor and slowly head back out into the deep water to enjoy another day in the sun, en route to our next berth. Because all around is national park, you’re not allowed to walk on the land unless you are accompanied by a park ranger. With so much fun to be had on and in the water, none of us were complaining.

Swallows on the mooring rope

Actually there was only one of our party competent to windsurf with hippo and crocs plentiful in the water all around us. The rest of us waited for a ‘nursery site’ later in the day – any deep water far offshore, somewhere on our daily journey between evening moorings.

In between swimming and eating we read books, played games and revelled in the warmth generally absent during the winter months in other parts of Zimbabwe.

We saw remarkably little traffic on the lake – a scattering of kapenta fishing rigs, a pair of yachts and a handful of other houseboats – all a clear sign of the decline in tourism to Zimbabwe. Also in less abundance was game. We saw plenty of hippo and crocs and some lovely sightings of elephant and impala – even one remarkable sighting of a rhino and its baby – but there were no buffalo to be seen at all. I expect this is largely as a result of the lake being incredibly full and grazing being in short supply.

Elephants - Kariba

I always have mixed feelings about the pleasure I derive from being on the lake. It is a magnificent expanse of water, but underneath lies a sunken world – once home to communities of people and a diverse variety of plants and animals – now displaced or lost forever.

It was always going to be difficult to run with the hares and hunt with the dogs, and the indigenisation drive is just one of those things that show how this has become more than real if this metaphor is to be located in the country’s body politic. The fact that “a moderate” like Gono has attempted to steer Minister Kasukuwere away from a bank takeover drive that is a patently kamikaze-inspired policy but has still met the very obduracy that has landed the country in this mess ought to tell us something about the extent the Prime Minister’s MDC is emasculated.

We read the other day that Minister Biti was to meet Minister Kasukuwere over this bank takeover after some tough talk from Gono who himself has never found favour with Biti. It becomes a convoluted matrix of politics meets economics, and we can be sure that these power games have no ordinary Zimbabwean at the centre of indigenisation or economic reconstruction. It is dumb even to imagine that Gono would agree on anything with the MDC based on what we already know, and just what is it that can be read in the public spat with Kasukuwere? Are we seeing an overt emergence of moderates who have no place in the Zanu PF scheme of radicalism?

Zimbabweans have long been conditioned to read developments here in very emotive binaries because of the polarised politics of our post-independence history, and it will take some leap of faith for anyone to believe that “God’s banker” is reading from the same hymn sheet with men who have labelled him a terrorist. So are we now expected to see Gono and Biti punching from the same corner and cheer that indeed we have made that turn for the common good, or just dismiss this as another episode of the protracted battle for the control of the country’s resources by a group of people who still have to prove themselves that it is the Zimbabwean people who matter?  You just have to have your ear on the streets to understand how Zimbabweans think.

I commute to work everyday and everyday I hear this statement “Rovera bhora mberi driver” coming from the commuter omnibus crew. After hearing this statement you have to prepare yourself for a Formula 1 kind of driving along Zimbabwe’s narrow pothole infested roads. 20 people who have lost their lives in another accident along Harare-Bulawayo road.  I read this sad story in the Herald and one of the passengers in the Chawasarira bus narrated how it all started and I quote,

“From Mbare, the bus was speeding and they were racing with the Lofombo bus. Conductor nemaloader vanga vachingoti rovera bhora mberi driver, vachimhanyisana. (The conductor and the loaders were urging the driver to speed.) As he was overtaking, I heard a sound of something bursting and the next thing I saw was blood in the bus,” she said.

It seems like some people are driven by the passion of making money at any cost. The reason why these two bus drivers in this story were over speeding is “targets”. Bus owners set a target of the amount money their workers are supposed to bring to the company at the end of each day. So in order to meet the target, bus drivers tend to over speed and reach the target and make extra money for themselves. Even at a time when the bus develops a mechanical fault you find out that there was little attention paid for servicing the bus leading to passengers putting their lives at risk. I remember at one time Mhunga Bus Company lost its operator’s license after a series of accidents but it didn’t take long for the same company to come back on the roads.

Although bad roads can contribute to these road accidents the main cause is still over speeding and negligence. Lately the small commuter omnibuses “kombis” have been given a new name “Go Faster” meaning it can take you to your destination in a short time. Of late this name has been translated to “Go Faster to Heaven” because of the rate at which these buses are killing people. As Zimbabweans should we continue to be silent and listen to the conductor edging his driver to go full throttle when we know we do something?  Should we allow bus operators to continue making profits at the expense of our lives? Isn’t it time we tell bus conductor that our lives cannot be compared to a soccer ball just waiting to be tossed around?

So, the Libyan ambassador Taher Elmagrahi got himself into trouble for hoisting the “rebel flag” in Harare.

You just have to ask yourself when he actually had the flag in his possession for him to raise it as soon as word got out Gaddafi literally had one foot in the grave. Could be Libya’s point man in Harare always was a sympathiser and was waiting for that aha! moment. And of course all that claim about “following the people’s will” is just but a ruse veiled as diplomatic-speak, meaning he could have defected long ago had he the gall to dare Mugabe, a known long-time ally of the Libyan strongman! After all, we have just been told our own Sylvester Nguni made generous donations to his employer’s political opponents, meaning he could well just be waiting for his own aha moment and then he like Pilate will wash his hands of his allegiance to the regime and claim he is “following the will of the people of Zimbabwe” when the moment arrives. But then why not?

Who then can you trust in this wily game of politics? It’s great though when folks show their true colours, or in the case of Nguni, when their true colours are exposed in a court of law of all places! From the terraces, we damn sure are loving it.