I think we could do with this in Zimbabwe, although I suspect our Tweets would end up as bird seed. But really, if you could send Mugabe and Tsvangirai a tweet, what would you say (hmmm don’t be rude now!):

Chavez joins twitter
It is known mainly for transmitting celebrity trivia and narcissism, but in the hands of Hugo Chavez, twitter has become something else: a tool of government. Venezuela’s president has harnessed the social networking and microblogging service for his socialist revolution by encouraging the population to tweet him their concerns. Chavez’s Twitter account, @chavezcandanga has exceeded 720 000 followers after establishing a reputation as a way to bypass bureaucracy and appeal directly to the president. It has been gaining 2 000 followers daily.
Source: The Mail &Guardian

“Like a very good dark chocolate this is a delicious novel with a bitter sweet flavour.”

Available from Weaver Press at $12 each.

Visit their web site to order your copy Today, and support Zimbabwean publishing!

I’ve just received a copy of the Prime Minister’s weekly newsletter and I note that its printed by Cape Press. I’m wondering whether that’s a Zimbabwean printing company (with a seriously odd name) or whether Mr Tsvangirai is Proudly South African?

“If you’re going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet.” Keith Richards

Zimbabwean activists and journalists should explore using the much talked about WikiLeaks web site as a conduit for exposing the corruption and profiteering of those in power in Zimbabwe. Apparently WikiLeaks receives an average of 30 classified documents every day from sources around the world. Read this extensive interview with Julian Assange, the inspiration behind WikiLeaks.

A new title is now available from Weaver Press:

Narratives of Hope: It Starts with us
Full-colour illustrations
pp.128; 180 x 235 mm
Price US20

Documenting Development through Stories of Change

It Starts Within Us is the product of a group of Zimbabwean NGOs who sought to discover their relevance in promoting development. They named this exercise ‘Makadii-Linjani’, or ‘How are you doing?’ and engaged with communities to discover if their development partners had benefited from their intervention – or not.

This important book not only documents stories of change but interrogates the process of evaluation, allowing members of marginalized communities to speak for themselves, and providing the reader with a ‘narrative of hope’. We discover how the need to change and develop begins with the harsh realities of poverty – exacerbated in Zimbabwe in the past decade by the effects of an economic, social, and political crisis of debilitating proportions.

Insights about how a people-centred approach to development can be sustained, even in difficult operating environments, will be of interest to any development practitioner, researcher or academic as well as to the general public interested in restoring development to a country that has seen much that has undermined the process.

The Makadini-Linjani project and this publication is supported by the Church Development Service (Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst – EED), an association of protestant churches in Germany.

‘Poverty was screaming in my household, at one time I ended up thinking that poverty was mine.’ Sarah Matongo

For more information and to buy a copy of Narratives of Hope contact Weaver Press via their web site

The Information & Publicity Department of the Union for Sustainable Democracy (USD) suggests in a recent press statement that the Mbare Chimurenga Choir must be banned. Or alternatively that the MDC should “grow some balls” and stop Zanu PF jingles from being played on Zimbabwean radio. Hmmm. But radio is state-controlled even though the Generally Pathetic Agreement (GPA) was signed a long time ago.

It also occurs to me that Zimbabweans in general need to grow some tits and balls because it appears that a good many of us continue to pay licence fees, and thus help fund Mugabe’s media.

Here’s the full statement from USD:

Mbare Chimurenga Choir song must be banned

The Union for Sustainable Democracy calls on the Unity Government to prohibit the blatantly partisan music of the Mbare Chimurenga Choir from being aired on state radio and television. Without any doubt, the song Nyatsoteerera is intentionally provocative. Playing it on ZBC stations goes against the object, spirit and purpose of the Global Political Agreement that promotes bi-partisanship over partisanship.

In our country’s current sensitive and fractious circumstances, it boggles the mind how a party to the inclusive government can arrogantly seek to promote and perpetuate disunity and do so with such breathtaking impunity disguised as giving effect to the legacy of our liberation struggle. Even worse, how could such a song ever be regarded as an ‘expression of nationhood’? It is clinical madness!

It is calculated to provoke and belittle well-meaning individuals such as Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai while scandalously and desperately trying to give life to a dead and now decomposing party. Such behaviour cannot be defended and must simply be stopped in the national interest.

There is ample evidence that ZANU PF entered the Government of National Unity only to retain a hold on power and never out of a genuine desire to work collaboratively in the national interest after decades of mismanagement.

Whereas the Unity Government has afforded Tsvangirai’s MDC some opportunities to mend things for the benefit of the country, the advent of the Unity Government has provided Mugabe’s ZANU PF with much needed time and resources to regroup and, having secured themselves in a somewhat politically acceptable position, they are now gradually dispensing with the services of the MDC and, in typical ZANU PF fashion, they are doing so with breathtaking arrogance.

The MDC must accept its share of the blame for this resurgence of ZANU PF. Since joining the Unity Government they have adopted a largely impotent stance that has made it easy for Mugabe and ZANU PF to disregard any idea of a real partnership.

It seems that many in the MDC have become compromised and have, regrettably, taken their eyes off the ball in large part because they have tasted the privileges of government office. Zimbabwe needs committed, pragmatic parliamentarians who will concern themselves more with getting the job done than with just being in politics for its own sake.

Because the Mbare Chimurenga Choir’s commercial, jingle, song – whatever label one chooses to attach to their composition – continually regurgitates the divisive and patently false mantra that President Mugabe and his two deputies, John Nkomo and Joyce Mujuru, are the ones running the country and that the MDC are nothing more than junior partners, it must forthwith and in the national interest be prohibited from airing on our public broadcaster ZTV as well as on our public radio stations.

In the meantime, the MDC needs to grow some balls.