crossing the Limpopo from the air
endorses the changing pattern  of reality

from South Africa to Zimbabwe

from a land marked by hundred-mile fences
by  strangely tinted  circular patches of irrigated fields
neat farms
straight roads
making direct connections from place to place

across the wide-winding sandy riverbed
uncoiling itself in slow curves across the bush

to a strange patchwork of small fields
wrapping itself around the slopes of the hills
folding over the floors of the valleys
contour-hugging paths and dusty roads
weave between places
around small woodlands (surprisingly still standing)
along invisible rivers
between dusty thatched homesteads

from a delineated and measured world
well-ordered and supervised by man
to organic chaos where the control of humans
is still held on a tenuous thread

the jacarandas are in full bloom
the paradise fly catchers have returned
the garden is a festive celebration of new life
danced by a thousand insects
and filled with the shouts and laughter of small boys

its home…
with power cuts and water shortage and rising costs
and corruption in full bloom in places of power

chaotic, messy and out of control

perhaps it is just the weather that keeps us here
or the warmth of relationship and connections
and the continuous challenge of rising to the next bit of chaos

it’s good to be back

“More begets the urge towards even more. At least Hollywood stars affect learning by having mansions filled with bookshelves and art. The palaces and mansions of Borrowdale Brook are all marble staircases and obviously homes to show-offs and dunces. All this in the name of a liberation ideology, so that self-conceit blends with self-deceit – as the ideologues liberate the economy for themselves.” Stephen Chan, Conversations with Morgan Tsvangirai (2010)

Southern African Political Economy Series (SAPES)

Policy Dialogue Forum

Topic: Towards the final resolution of the land question: principles and framework for compensation

When: Thursday, 3 October 2013
Time: 5pm – 7pm
Where: SAPES Seminar Room, 4 Deary Avenue, Belgravia, Harare

Chairperson: Rudo Chitiga
Speaker: Charles Taffs, CFU President

Google kicks off ‘Africa Connected’ Competition
Deadline: 11 October 2013

Google is calling on entrepreneurs, creators, innovators and web-lovers in Nigeria and across Africa to share their stories of how the web has transformed their lives and work.  Whether you’re a photographer, an entrepreneur, a fashion designer or a community activist, if the internet and Google tools have played an important role in your success, Google wants to hear from you. In the next five years, 7 out of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies are predicted to be in Africa, and the Internet is playing an important part in this.  Google’s new initiative, ‘Africa Connected: Success stories powered by the web’, aims to gather the largest collection of inspiring stories about ventures established online by Africans, in Africa.

Five successful entrants will win $25,000 each, and will also have the opportunity to work with a Google sponsor over a six-month period.

“Google wants to hear from young, spirited entrepreneurial web adopters in Nigeria and other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa who have a healthy disregard for the impossible and who are using the web and technology to do cool and extraordinary things to rise above their circumstances, change their world, and achieve success. We want to showcase the amazing achievements happening in the new Africa”, says Affiong Osuchukwu, Google Lead for the Africa Connected initiative.

Categories for entries include Education; Entertainment/Arts/Sports; Technology; Community and NGOs; and Small Businesses. 20 semi-finalists will be selected from initial entries to take part in an interview and to produce a short promotional video. A judging panel made up of Googlers and external judges will then determine the 10 finalists.  The 5 winners, in whose lives the web and Google have played a pivotal role, will then be selected by the online voting public.

For more information and to enter the Africa Connected contest, visit here

Timeslive reader comment: “The tyrant is so frail that he can’t even hold his arm up anymore. Zimbabwe, like Africa, deserves what it gets. Now will all the Zimbos in South Africa please go home, you have had your free and fair elections absent of violence.”

Xenophobic attacks in the making?

The sight of vandalized street bins is now common in the streets of Harare. Blame might be placed on City workers for not efficiently emptying these on a regular basis. But then again the vandalized bins can be blamed on citizens who are just in a bad ‘habit’ of destroying property. The picture of a burnt bin is the most baffling and one wonders what was going through the mind of the person who burnt litter or threw a burning substance in the bin? What is also surprising is someone who throws litter in an already full bin. Many times people complain about the incompetence of our government but then again who are they to lay blame if the ordinary people in the streets are not able to take care of little properties such as bins entrusted to them for the betterment of the environment they live in.