After the end of the Zimbabwe dollar era most youths were found jobless since the money changing phase was long way gone. With hopes of finding jobs absolutely bleak most youths resorted to becoming commuter omnibus conductors. As much as I appreciate the fact that some energy was put to good use by these youths now it has turned out that there is another breed of youths who are now working as rank marshals, especially in Harare at the designated pick up and drop off points for commuters.

Nobody knows were that title came from but I guess the job entitles one to maintain order and direct buses at the pick and drop zones in town.  Instead of helping commuters and bus drivers, these rank marshals popularly known as “MaHwindi” are now fleecing passengers. If you go to the Chitungwiza rank station close to Harare Central Police station during peak hours, around 4:30pm, you find commuters stranded and there will be much jostling for the  few buses coming. After talking to one of the bus drivers asking, what is causing this mayhem?  He said “it’s all being caused by the rank marshals, they are chasing away buses by charging exorbitant ranking fees”. The driver went on to say he makes around 10 trips from Harare to Chitungwiza every day and he has to part ways with $3 each trip. This money goes to the rank marshals. If you don’t pay, your bus is not allowed to use the bus station. This money is not accounted for since its going straight into someone’s pocket.

Police should intensify their operations by helping get rid of these touts because nobody needs assistance to get onto a bus and mind you, commuter omnibuses have placards with routes stuck on them.

As if this is not enough, during the same peak hour, commuters are now being charged a minimum of $0.50 to $1 to have a seat reserved for you by the rank marshals. That is if you are in hurry to go home. That’s just like killing two birds with one stone, charging both the commuter and the bus driver. If perhaps the City of Harare were collecting this kind of money everyday one would hope that we would have better shelter at the stations.

It’s always a moment of pride when I find a Zimbabwean author mentioned in the international media. What is largely published about Zimbabwe does a disservice to our country and us. Ours is not a single story. It is always a particularly proud moment when I find that the author is also a woman.  The shortlist for the Twelfth Caine Prize for African Writing was announced recently and Zimbabwean author Noviolet Bulawayo has been shortlisted for her story Hitting Budapest.

Of course the most internationally recognizable Zimbabwean women writers are Tsitsi Dangarembga, Yvonne Vera and more recently Petina Gappah. In an interview with Mazwi literary journal Noviolet discusses why there are only a handful of Zimbabwean women writers:

Of course there are a host of reasons, but I think it also speaks to the trying circumstances of African women, not just Zimbabwean women by the way, as the group that comes last in everything and writing is no exception. Of cause this is compounded by the politics of the publishing industry. Still, I believe Zimbabwean women have compelling stories and those who are writing are doing a good job representing, and I’d like to especially thank those who are writing from Zimbabwe, the little known and unknown ones. To me those are the bad-ass writers, imagine knowing you will never be read beyond your borders, never be an international star but still writing all the same! That’s writing as speaking, as insisting on one’s presence and I think that’s deep.

Big Brother Africa Amplified kicked off recently with 26 contestants from various African countries aiming for the  $200 000 prize money. Vimbai Mutinhiri the daughter of Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Services, and Wendall Parson are representing Zimbabwe in this year’s competition.

In a move to outdo last year’s performance by Munyaradzi Chidzonga on Big Brother, Vimbai pulled a surprise from her bag of tricks by stripping naked. Big Brother tasked the contestants to “help each other out of their clothes using only their gnashers” and Vimbai was paired with Nigerian contestant Vina. Since it was a timed operation, Vina didn’t waste any time with her teeth and our lovely Vimbai had her assets exposed on TV.

With so much to show on the first week many people are wondering how far this year’s contestants will take their acts in order to bag the cool  $200 000.

Watching Americans celebrate, particularly at Ground Zero, you would think that the death of this one man meant the death of all terrorist organisations, and that they – never mind the rest world in which American embassies and consulates are peppered – are safe forever. One college student is quoted as saying ‘Yeah it was right to kill him. He took down the [Twin] Towers. He was a threat to the security of our nation.” The US homicide rate is among the worst in the industrialised world, surely this is a more pressing matter than killing a man who to all intents and purposes posed a lesser threat to national security?

Bin Laden was summarily executed without trial. American security operatives effectively invaded Pakistan and killed a man. I’m fairly certain that this violates all sorts of international treaties and human rights conventions. Members of former president Bush’s administration say that water boarding, a controversial form of torture, was crucial in extracting information on Bin Laden’s whereabouts. I know for certain that this is a direct violation of the Geneva Convention. But these inconvenient rules and laws don’t really apply to the United States do they? While the former president Musharraf of Pakistan has raised his objections regarding the operation, the sitting president is doing his best to kiss America’s ass. His country needs aid.

Unlike the case of Saddam Hussein, images of whose dead body were mercilessly displayed all over the international media, there is a frightening absence of any actual evidence that bin Laden is dead. It’s difficult to understand how this can be so when the operatives who killed him were able to record the entire event for the benefit of Barack Obama. Are we really supposed to believe that after he was killed, not one single man or woman involved in ‘Operation Geronimo’ took a photograph? It is no wonder then that terrorist organisations are refusing to take Obama’s word for it. I wouldn’t either.

It’s ironic that bin Laden was code named Geronimo, after an Apache leader who fought against the United States and Mexico for pretty much the same reasons and bin Laden waged his war against the United States. I’m sure the American government at the time called him a terrorist too. In view of the lack of evidence for bin Laden’s demise, it is interesting that when Geronimo was eventually tracked down by American authorities he managed to live to old age as a prisoner of war.

So now that bin Laden is dead is the world really a safer place? Not really. And exactly what significance does bin Laden’s death have on the Muslim minority of extremists fighting a jihad? Will this single act stop them dead in their tracks and force them to realise that their cause is a lost one? Or will it just add more fuel to the fire? Possibly. It’s just another example of American imperialism. America has shown the same disregard for the sanctity of human life, sovereignty, and the international conventions that that she accuses third world dictators of having. And quite frankly, I’ll take Mugabe or Chavez over American hypocrisy any day.

Newsday today reports that:

A ten-year-old Harare schoolgirl made good use of technology – video recording a rapist related to her as he attempted to rape her.

The girls uncle first raped her two years ago, then made another attempt three months later. But this time the girl recorded him as he uttered sexually explicit words.

The article goes on:

Regional magistrate Simon Rogers Kachambwa said the girl had struck the court as a credible witness who volunteered to spill the beans and told her mother what ordeal she went through.

“She did not tell her mother when you (Chikwanda) fondled her, even later on another day when you had sexual intercourse with her,” Kachambwa said.

“She felt it was too much when you asked her to do it again and she decided to record you on her phone as you spoke. “It was very fortunate that she did not like what you had earlier done to her and you did not know that you were dealing with an exceptionally intelligent niece.”

The last remarks by the magistrate are worrying. If she had liked it then what? Would he have walked free to do it again? Or would her family then have married her to her uncle?

My understanding is that sexual intercourse with a minor, whether they like it or not is a crime that is subject to imprisonment. The jail term of nine years the perpetrator received from the magistrate is disappointing.

Regardless, I say good for her.

The annual ZIBF for 2011 has been set for the 28th to the 30th of July in the Harare Gardens. Running under the theme “Books for Africa’s Development”, the fair hopes to regain its rank of being the best in Africa. A two-day Young Person’s Indaba on the 25th and 26th of July will pave way for the Book Fair. Read more form the Herald website.

This event promotes the love of books, reading and writing. It is a well-known fact that when there were no televisions or computers, reading was the principal leisure activity. Thus Africans possess a strong traditional orientation to oral and cultural forms of education, communication and entertainment. Information transmitted through song, dance and storytelling is more widely embraced.

Book Fairs across Africa aim to encourage cross-border trade in books and create a reading culture in the region. They do so by bringing together the book chain functions; authorship, publishing, distribution and readership. ZIBF by virtue of taking an international stance accommodates writers, publishers, booksellers, reading clubs and libraries from Africa and the developed world.

We hope to see the stature of ZIBF grow to enable it to be considered as the one of the top International Book Fairs in the world. Thus librarians, documentalists and publishers, authors, writers should all come together to make this a success. Exhibitors can choose a display option that best fits their needs from a single or double dedicated space devoted exclusively to them.

On their Facebook page ZIBF wrote:

“The ZIBF was the biggest and best book fair in Africa during the 1990s. Sadly, it’s now gone the way of many other things in Zimbabwe.”

Exhibitors please rekindle the experience by emailing information [at] zibfa [dot] org [dot] zw or events [at] zibfa [dot] org [dot] zw to receive an Exhibition Stand Application Form. Early application is advised to avoid disappointment.