. . . with thanks to Ginny and Kate

The earth has warmed – bare feet on warm soil
aaahhhhhh
the air is filled with the perfume of jasmine and syringa
and the canopy of new flushed Masasa
glows gold in the setting sun

People usually consider walking on water or thin air a miracle.
But I think the real miracle is…
to walk on the earth.
Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize:
a blue sky,
white clouds,
green leaves,
the black curious eyes of a child,
our own two eyes.
all is a miracle
-Tich Nhat Hanh

Ginny was the first to be owl-ed
sitting on her veranda in July
shelling peas
her hair lightly brushed
as if in a blessing
touched by talons
in silent flight

the Spotted Eagle Owl was an old friend by now
she first arrived in April
calling from the trees
silhouetted at dusk on the chimney

one night when Gin came home in May
she spent 24 hours in the kitchen
watching her cook
they set up a rapport
eye to eye

When Gin left again, and the owl moved across to Daniels’
speaking to him at night
perching over his door

Gin and Pete came home in June,
and she moved into the nest high up in the rafters, under the thatch on the veranda
appearing outside their bedroom window at early dawn
calling gently
with a mouse dangling from her beak
as if an offering

In the last month all the families came home
Andrew and Jess and Nathaniel from US, Rory, Rebecca and Kieran and Fiona and Tiggy from UK, Shan and James and Bev and John from Capetown

and us locals – Daniel, Kate, Gin, Pete, Mel, Tony and me

we have all been owl-ed
walking the paths between our houses at night

out of the silence of the trees
a gentle ruffling on our heads
and then she lands
on a branch ahead
and then watches us through owl-eyes

All is a miracle

This is what happens to our votes in Zimbabwe.

The artist, Owen Maseko, is currently challenging Mugabe’s ban on his exhibition depicting Gukurahundi, the 1980s Matabeleland massacres.

South Africa has been putting pressure on Zimbabwe to adopt a democratic approach to running the country. One of the fundamental aspects of  a democracy is the freedom of press. Without this essential element a country cannot claim to be democratic and fair if its people’s ability to express their views is oppressed. South Africa is being somewhat hypocritical in their conduct, as government backs proposals for a new law aimed at muzzling the press. “If the protection of Information Bill becomes law South Africa will have crossed a dangerous threshold towards a corrupt, dysfunctional and impoverished autocracy.”

I met a distraught woman this week and my went heart to pieces. This is a fifty something year-old Zimbabwean grandmother who I see each day and pass the usual greetings and that’s where it ends – no personal stories, just the mutual goodwill that comes with African ubuntu. She went on and on about how she had made two long trips to the city’s largest referral hospital on foot and wasn’t looking forward to making another two trips the next day. Who are you visiting there and what are the doctors saying is the problem? I ask. No, the person died last week and the people at the hospital have been giving us all sorts of stories about why they have not been able to perform a post-mortem so that we may be able to begin funeral arrangements, the poor woman says. All this has taken seven days, I exclaim in disbelief. Ah, other people who came after us have had their post-mortem papers and left to bury their relatives and I think the hospital staff wants us to give them money for the post-mortem to be done and the body released to us. There she said it! Let’s be grim and morbid a bit: Imagine a relative rotting in what we know are malfunctioning morgues just because some poorly paid government person wants a bribe? Is that what the hardships here have turned us into? They say all this evil began at the top, but I refuse to be turned into that group of Africans for whom African-ness long departed from their consciousness and conscience. I wish I could go on about the poor woman’s grief but I’m so damn pissed off.

Yesterday, I debated whether or not to blog my phone call with the Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF). On the one hand, it felt rude and insensitive and reactive. On the other hand, I was reminded of one of Bev’s favourite Michelangelo quotation, which often inspires our work: Criticise through creating. That is, the notion that it is through speaking up, not keeping quiet, that we inspire change or improvement.

Having just received the programme via email, with a request to put it up on the Kubatana website, I’m pleased I spoke up. It might have been more frustrated than constructive, but at least we know have the programme to share.

Download the Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF) 2010 programme here and make sure you take in some quality international films throughout the coming week.

Photo Credit: Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights

Last week, a friend and I went on a run that took us half way around the Borrowdale Race Course. The route reminded me about Natasha’s blog about the community living around the track, and their opinion of horse-piping.

The community was still there as we went past. As Natasha wrote, the contrast between the grass and cardboard shacks this community lives in  – exposed in the vlei in desperate conditions – and the enormous mansions of Gun Hill and Borrowdale which surround them is sobering and disturbing. But still, this was home for the people who lived there. Or it was until police raided the settlement and burnt it in a midnight raid yesterday, according to this statement from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights:

Police blatantly violate the right to shelter in raid and burning of Borrowdale settlement

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), is greatly shocked at the unbecoming conduct of identified members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) who at about 00:30 hours on 25 August 2010 raided and destroyed an informal settlement at Borrowdale Race Course in Harare.

At least thirty police officers, easily identifiable due to their police uniforms believed to be stationed at Harare Central Police Station and the nearby Highlands Police Station proceeded to order the settlers to remove their possessions from the shacks and go and built homes in their rural areas. After 10 minutes elapsed, the ZRP members, some of whom were armed, and also accompanied by police dogs, ordered all the settlers to embark into the police vehicle and proceeded to torch at least a hundred shacks. This was done despite the fact that some of the settlers had not managed to remove their possessions. The settlers were then detained in the cold weather until the early hours of the morning when they were taken to Harare Central Police Station.

Most of the settlers whose shacks were torched down are victims of Operation Murambatsvina and some of them are employees of the Borrowdale Race Course. They moved to the settlement after being rendered homeless when their houses were destroyed under the widely condemned clean-up campaign while some of them started to reside at this settlement in 2000. From time to time the police were said to have raided the said settlement, arrested the settlers on the pretext of hunting down thieves and eventually releasing them without any charges being leveled against them.

ZLHR lawyers attended to Harare Central Police Station to assist the detained settlers who were not easily locatable due to the fact that the police have not made any entries in their detention book. ZLHR lawyers, managed to locate the 55 settlers who include 5 minor children at 13:30 hours. Lawyers have since been denied access to the settlers by the Criminal Investigation Department section represented by one Superintendent Muchengwa who advised lawyers that the clients will be allowed legal representation once they have been formally charged.

ZLHR condemns the unlawful and unprocedural actions taken by the police. Evicting and burning down the settlers’ houses without adequate notice and without providing alternative accommodation and the arbitrary deprivation of property that ensued following the illegal torching of the shacks is a violation of their right to shelter and to family life, which are guaranteed under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which Zimbabwe is a voluntary State Party.

It is also disheartening that the police chose to carry out such a vindictive action against the settlers during this cold spell when they don’t have any powers to evict people. Only the messenger of court or Deputy Sheriff can carry out evictions on the strength of a valid court order which does not exist in the case at hand. Further, it is also sad to note that these arbitrary illegal actions were carried out after the Mayor of Harare had written a letter to residents assuring them that all informal settlers will not be evicted unless alternative accommodation is secured.

No lessons have been learned from the failures and illegalities of Operation Murambatsvina, and the state – through the City Council and the Ministries concerned are urged to bring to an end such illegalities and attend to issues of lack of adequate housing in a lawful and orderly manner.

ZLHR, urges the police to carry out investigations into this illegal conduct that is tantamount to arson as defined in the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and bring those accountable for these inhumane acts to justice.

ZLHR, further wishes to remind the police to be mindful of the right of all accused persons to legal representation of their choice, and the right to be informed of any criminal charges upon arrest.

ZLHR calls upon all state actors to desist from violating the economic and social rights of innocent citizens but to work towards the progressive realization of these rights as in accordance with Zimbabwe’s human rights obligations.