I was listening to the radio in the morning in the kombi I was in, from home to town. The radio was tuned into Power FM where Bridget Gavanga (‘Bubbling B’) and Dr Zobha were on the morning show. Just before the 8 o’clock news Bridget hit us with some interesting news. She said that a Russian Orthodox Church had said that Russian women dress like strippers because they wear ‘figure-hugging outfits and full-on makeup’, and those who drink and wear mini skirts are to be blamed if they are raped. To cap it all she carried on to say that those who dress provocatively can’t find decent husbands! Read the story here.

Before Bridget could even finish reading this she was receiving some remarks from her co-DJ Dr Zobha. People in the kombi also started to comment. Dr Zobha asked an interesting question, “Akazviona kupi?” (“Where did the Orthodox see this?”). Which she chose to ignore. The story swiftly shifted to focus on Zimbabwean women. All the female people in the kombi kept quiet including myself.

One gentlemen noted that some women wear very short skirts and dresses, such that when they are asked to bend to pick up something, the skirt will ride down to the waistline and their under garments will be revealed. (“Ukati munhu akotame anonge pepa pasi, ka skirt kaya kanoenda kumusuna pantie rongosara rakadongorera”). All the men did have a laugh. It was quite sad that I went mute. I belong to the school of thought that believes one should wear what they feel most comfortable in, period. But all that I know of ‘body politics’ just ran out and I kept listening. Another man pointed out in the kombis as a female passenger is drooping off, you find them trying by all means to pull down their tops to cover their backs which tend to be revealed as one bends to get out of the kombi.

But the Orthodox did condemn men too. Those who wear ‘shorts in the city or team tracksuit bottoms with flip-flops’ but no one said a word about this. The whole conversation focused on how women dress.

Now I was wondering and asking myself, why were I and all the other ladies quiet? Is it because it’s the truth?

Victor Kunonga invites Sam Mataure & Enock Piroro

Victor Kunonga, the legendary afro jazz maestro calls on his highly gifted friends and jazz spitfires – Sam Mataure (drums) and Enock Piroro (bass guitar) for an enthralling afro Jam session, packed with the unexpected.

Bring your dancing shoes!

Alliance Francaise, 328 Herbert Chitepo Avenue, Harare
Friday 21 January 2011
8pm till late.
CC: $10
For more information contact: Tsungi Zvobgo on 0774 433 209 or email tsungiz [at] gmail [dot] com

Below is an excerpt from a recently published Pastoral Letter from the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference:

We urge our political leaders to:

i) Prioritize poverty eradication by using proceeds from natural resources like diamonds, land, etc., for the development of the whole nation and all its citizens. In its final message, the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops noted that Africa is rich in human and natural resources but ‘many of our people are still left to wallow in poverty and misery, wars and conflicts, crisis and chaos. These are very rarely caused by natural disasters. They are largely due to human decisions and activities by people who have no regard for the common good … .’
(No. 5).

ii) Stop the active and tacit collusion of those undermining the fight against corruption. Corruption is a cancer destroying our nation.

iii) Prosecute wrong doers and widely publicize any disciplinary action so that no one is seen to commit crime with impunity.

iv) Desist from intimidating and mistreating members of the public, the media, civic communities, etc. Uphold human rights.

v) Uniformed forces should maintain peace and security for all citizens at all times and especially before, during and after elections, and do so impartially.

vi) We implore our political leadership in the coalition government to reflect deeply on the timing of elections bearing in mind the unhealed state of the nation and the fragile state of the economy. They shoulder a heavy responsibility to serve and save Zimbabwe. They must think and act in pursuit of the Common Good. In the event of elections, implement the SADC guidelines in full.

vii) We expect our members of Parliament to make an effort to spearhead the mitigation of the pressing needs of the people they represent and desist from being preoccupied with enriching themselves.

Protests in Tunisia are continuing, with demonstrators objecting to the dominance of leaders from the toppled president’s party in the country’s new “inclusive government.” They say the dictator may have gone, but the dictatorship is still there.

They are also concerned about the elite transfer of power which created the unity government, and are demanding more grounded constitutional reforms. Speaking in an interview with the BBC yesterday, the spokesperson for the Communist Workers Party of Tunisia said “We don’t have a constitution. We have a document that has been written, and rewritten, to maintain the dictatorship.”

Sound familiar?

Ethan Zuckerman recently published a great blog on Facebook. Here’s an excerpt, but read the whole post.

Algorithms, Unbirthdays and Rewiring Facebook

Tuesday was my birthday, and I spent the day largely offline. That meant that Wednesday morning, my email inbox featured hundreds of messages from Facebook, each alerting me to a birthday greeting on my Wall. (I’m an infrequent Facebook user, so I usually find these sorts of alerts useful and haven’t disabled them.) On the one hand, this outpouring of online affection was wonderful – I felt grateful to be remembered by people I’ve not spoken to since high school.

On the other hand, it’s basically impossible to respond to the flood of messages with anything other than “Thanks!” And, of course, there’s usually nothing to the message than the greeting itself – the message is symbolic, not substantive. Which left me thinking

-    I should be better about logging onto Facebook and sending my own symbolic, semantically void greetings
-
and then

-    I should write a Facebook ap that partitions my friends into 365 roughly equally sized groups and encourages me to say hi to that specific, small set of people on that day. I’d occasionally reach someone on their birthday (though I could add additional logic to pick only unbirthday folks.) Unbirthday notes would arrive on days when people weren’t overwhelmed, and might actually spark a conversation and a chance to catch up.

Socially transgressive, or a helpful hack for building actual conversations between out of touch friends? Would other people resist such a rewiring of Facebook and the social norms it embodies, or embrace it?

The Tunisian protests that saw President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali flee the country on Friday after 23 years in power began when a young man set himself on fire after police had confiscated merchandise he was selling on the streets. The demonstrations that followed – and their success in forcing Ben Ali out of power – have sparked similar incidents of self-immolation in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania.

The Zimbabwean government might well be tempted to ban the use of matches here – to prevent similar protests. But with so many power cuts, how would people light their candles and cooking fires? Hmmm. That might make things worse.