The first edition of Tedx was launched in Harare under the name Tedx Harare. This independently organised event was packed with interesting speakers, music performances and Tedtalk videos. The idea of TED started 25 years ago in USA to create spaces for idea sharing and discussions. And finally it has now reached Zimbabwe.

The speakers included some of Zimbabwe’s researchers, entrepreneurs and artists and they all lived up to expectations with inspirational and stimulating performances and presentations. The presentations created an environment where everything was just free from any political and religious agenda. Zimbabwe is awash with so much talent that it begs the question how and where we are getting it wrong as a country. Among the most inspirational presentations was the one done by researcher and academic Oswald Jumira. Oswald explored and shared ideas on how we can make technology work for the next generation and us. He talked on how technology creates challenges, which can be turned into opportunities and make our country move forward and compete in the global village. In the presentation he emphasized the need for government, companies and individuals to invest in technology since it strengthens the future of the next generation.

In one of the Tedtalk videos, Chimamanda Adichie explores the Danger of a Single Story. This Tedtalk got me thinking especially on the way news is reported in Zimbabwe by different newspapers and organisations in mainstream media. A good example of the danger of a single story is how election campaigning in Zimbabwe has caused a lot of stereotyping among citizens. One lesson to learn from this presentation is not to make early judgements on a particular situation or story and not to work on assumptions. This was a wonderful way of educating people about the single story perspective.

Live music performances during the breaks from Tina Watyoka added more life to the event. The other presenters who left the audiences with questions and inspirational answers included Max Soutter and Sarah Norman.

The next edition Tedx Harare is expected to be bigger with more speakers coming to share their ideas and innovative skills with the people of Zimbabwe.

Had an good and interesting few weeks. Good places to go (Matopos), good meetings (different people), good meals (chocolate pudding), good conversations (some senior people), good listening (very outspoken, very un-Zimbabwean), and good information (some people just ‘know’ things), and some very trustworthy (old acquaintances).

So some of the things said, and realised, bear repeating.

“Why did you leave the MDC?” “Because it used to be a movement.” And it is claimed,by the questioner, that it still is. But I really do not think so anymore. So many contrary indications.

I remember as the Caucus assistant secretary for the MDC City Councillors, when Mudzuri was Mayor (exectuive, not ceremonial). That is, I was allowed to do all the work. I took the minutes of the MDC councillors meetings (i.e not the City of Harare meetings, but the meetings of the political party at that level meetings). I realised, and we all said, “Makwavarara, she is a problem”. So I wrote letters to the party. All the levels, all the bosses. Femai, the Province Secretary. Chaibva, the shadow Local Government minister.

And I was told, “Ah Laban, you are fighting the wrong enemy”.

Then, Muduzuri was fired (as we all were in the end), and Makavarara took over as Mayor. Murambatsvina followed, and the official MDC response, “Ah, we did not know!”

So, they are a bunch of liars. That is to say, politicians (since all politicians are liars). Moreover, the aim is, as any political partie’s should be, to gain power. The enemy is not ‘corruption’, the enemy is Zanu PF (the other big political party). I was fighting the wrong enemy. But then, I thought the MDC was a movement. They will tell us, in their round about political way, Once we are in power, we can then stop corruption”. This may be true, but one must not forget, they are politicians (and therefore liars).

And then out comes the Mail and Guardian with the front page headline, “Tsvangirai At TheTrough”. So it seems I am not the only one who believes they have left their movement roots, and become a political party. Seeking power, not change. Perhaps a change in who benefits from power, but not a change in the benefits.

So, how is it a movement anymore? They are just a bunch of chefs. New chefs. The Ceremonial Mayor of Harare earns a big salary every month, someone said. Ministers all have new cars. And deputy ministers. And permanent secretaries. And nice cars at that (but even then, they cannot make them last more than a couple of years without major pay offs for repairs). So it would certainly seem the new chefs are not part of a movement for a change of the system. Just a change of the beneficiaries. And Budiriro remans with unhealthy water.

So, while the time has come to criticise them as one would any lying political party, (the joke about nappies and political parties in not a joke) I will still support them as making a change – any change, will lead to less concentration of power. And I will continue to predict, “two years”. Two years and Zanu PF (the losing party, the former ruling party) will be ‘the other’ big political party. This will be good. But certainly not the answer. Two political parties is a step towards the answer. But the answer is DEMOCRACY, not the MDC. So I will continue to work for popular involvement at the local government level. Perhaps not so far as Obote, who banned political parties, but I like his thinking. Along the right lines.

I’ve just heard a jet scream past overhead. Perhaps it’s a fly-over as part of the funeral parade for the late ret. Gen. Solomon Mujuru.

Since his death earlier this week, I’ve been carrying in my head the Shona expression, wafawanaka. It equates to the English language notion that one should not speak ill of the dead.

On Tuesday morning, Kubatana sent out a text message informing our subscribers about Mujuru’s death. At the time, details were sketchy as the full story was only just coming out. But we sent out a message with the basic details, and received the expected handful of condolence messages in response.

Perhaps, in part, this is because Mujuru was genuinely as respected as he was feared. But a blog post by Mathula Lusinga today caught my eye: Why is everyone good when they die? “Mujuru the good”?

Mathula asks Zimbabweans to reflect honestly about both the positive and negative impacts Mujuru may have had on the country. But importantly he also challenges the notion that once someone dies those who remain behind lose the right to be critical about the deceased. It’s a comment worth contemplating not solely in connection with Mujuru, but for all of us left reflecting on those who have died before us.

In life, none of us are all good or all bad. We battle our various issues and challenges, make our various decisions, and make our mark accordingly. If our friends and family are honest with us, they’ll tell us both what they love and value about us, and what we do that drives them crazy. No one is perfect when they’re alive. So why must the memories of the deceased which we share be only positive? If I cling to the notion that one can’t speak ill of the dead, surely I do so at the expense of my own critical intelligence, reflection and expression.

A friend of mine recently told me that she’s decided to work for the government.  She is a person I admire who has worked in the development field with nongovernmental organisations all over the world for several years. Naturally I laughed, and pointed out that faced with such a large bureaucracy her grand ideas would waste away. The system would beat her I said, and eventually she’d spend the whole day reading the newspapers and all the while she’d make less money in a month than she currently spent in a weekend. Undaunted by my cynicism, she remained optimistic. ‘How can you change government’, she asked, ‘if you don’t try?’

Both of my parents have spent their entire working careers as civil servants. They both have a background in the human sciences with multiple degrees, and undoubtedly would have found more lucrative careers outside the government. I have listened in on their long conversations about sexism, being passed over for promotions and corruption. I have seen how little they are remunerated for the great amount of time and energy they put into their work. My mother even calls her job community service; while my father is motivated by investing in the dream he watched so many die for. But even with all the frustrations, and sometimes thanklessness that comes with what they do and where they work, the one thing that has never changed is their faith in the dream that is Zimbabwe.

The trouble with your generation’, my father often says to me, ‘is that you aren’t willing to make sacrifices for anything.’ Considering my reaction to my friend’s news, I can’t say I disagree. Like so many Zimbabweans I’m quick to point out what is wrong with our government, and country, and even quicker to take sides in the ZANU-PF / MDC tug of war. Often it is without trying to understand why things are the way they are, or why the other side has picked the position it has picked. For us there is no middle ground, just good guys and bad guys, haves and have-nots. And because we are pulled in different directions we don’t create change or progress in our development, we only create divisions. Unlike, big picture people, like my parents and my friend, we have become caught up in the smaller details such as petty party politics and power struggles. Zimbabwe is a dream we all have to work towards, one life, one bad piece of legislation or bureaucratic process at a time. Just imagine if everyone went to work, not wanting self-aggrandisement, power and money, but instead worked to be the change they wanted to see. Imagine what kind of Zimbabwe that would be.

I see there is a lot of heat concerning the questionable “spending habits” of the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and other senior MDC officials in government and how they are abusing public funds. And heck, they are being investigated by “the law,” and they well could find themselves behind bars where they previously have been guests and would no doubt not relish a night at Matapi!

While of course one cannot afford the luxury of ignoring politicians bloating their faces with money meant for the poor, building humongous manors when across the road are hovels housing dirt poor families, or travelling by air first class when the ordinary Jack has to travel in those ramshackle death-traps called long distance buses they already know will falter, veer off the road and plunge into a ditch, one still has to question this rather apocryphal due diligence of the public defenders who have taken these coalition partners to task about how they are spending public funds. And this is in a country where we have folks who have been in government for barely three years being investigated for alleged fiscal malfeasance when we have men and women who have been at it for three decades exhibiting an indefatigable streak of kleptocracy still holding their heads high and with no lawman daring to throw the book at them.

That is why it has been fairly easy for MDC officials and supporters to dismiss the investigations on the USD1,5 million for the PM’s house and the foreign trips of the FM’s staffers as part of a grand plot that no doubt will unravel as we head for the next polls. We are obviously watching closely how this will pan out, yet I can see a flood of “sympathy votes” in the offing! But it is something to imagine how resources to investigate the abuse of government resources have never been diligently spread to challenge over the decades on anything from the 85 percent disability gratuity claims by men and women who “died for the country” but still walk the earth, housing funds meant for poor civil servants looted without batting an eyelid, tender scams from as far back as the 1980s that remain unpunished, the bankrupting of Roger Boka – we could go on and on and on, but then the hypocrisy of the founding fathers has become legendary. Remember the old man frothing about corrupt colleagues and threatening the wrath of the gods on offenders long before anyone imagined he rule “his Zimbabwe” with anyone? We are not asking that these people not be investigated, we are asking that there be consistency.

Great ain’t it?

Zimbabwe Government rethinks South African GMO chicken imports ban. Government rethinks left-hand vehicle ban. Government rethinks second-hand car import. Government rethinks beer ban. Government rethinks plastic bags ban. Government rethinks mining law. Government rethinks indigenisation Bill. Government bans trousers in parliament. Government rethinks trouser ban after female MPs threaten to bare all. Zimbabwe joins Malawi, bans farting. Government rethinks stinking law. Government bans laughing at presidential portrait. Government rethinks funny bone ban. Government bans sex in dark places. Government sees the light, rethinks sex ban. Government bans sex work. Government rethinks sex ban, minister says okay to have sex while working. Agriculture production slumps. Government rethinks violent land-grab. [Well, that’s pushing it.] Mugabe rethinks GNU, so does everybody! Government rethinks condom ban in schools. Minister says sex is basic human right, even for students. Government outdoes itself, rethinks thinking.

Plato wrote that a better world can become a reality only if it is ruled by philosopher kings, in other words people who think. Thinkers as it were. Curiously, in Zimbabwe rethinkers come aplenty, and we all know where that has got us!