A 9pm meet and greet at Harare International Airport isn’t the most wonderful thing to do on a Saturday night in the city that is permanently politically asleep. But welcoming a babe back in town softens the blow. A bit. The pot holes and dimly lit streets makes the going challenging. I usually try and aim my arrival at any working traffic light when it’s green so that I avoid any wannabe cling-ons. The up-side of making this journey in winter is that the police are nowhere to be found. It’s too cold for them to be out soliciting bribes from motorists en route to the airport. The last time I was stopped, a smartarse Hatfield policeman asked me if I was a man or a woman. My hair might be short and my tits small, but please.

Just past the last traffic lights there’s a whole lot of furniture and other household effects on the side of the road outside a block of flats. I noticed some people curled up under blankets on sofas, their roof a canopy of stars. The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) recently issued a statement on the spate of evictions in Harare because tenants can’t pay their rent in foreign currency. This has become the latest demand from landlords in Zimbabwe.

When I got to the airport car park the boom was UP. Free parking? Unlikely I thought, so I pressed the ticket dispenser to make sure that I wasn’t being tricked. Nothing came out so I drove in and then I thought I’d better clear things up with the guy at the exit to avoid any arguments and potential penalties for not having a ticket. He was sound asleep with his feet up on the counter. I knocked three times to wake him up. He asked me if there was anyone manning the gate in the absence of the non-working ticket machine and I said no and he said well you’ll just pay the minimum then. Z$300 billion. I asked if I could pay him in old coins. He wasn’t amused.

Inside the airport not one arrival/departure screen showed any signs of life. Not even a faint flicker. Upstairs in the cafeteria a few lost souls propped up the bar. In the display cabinet plastic flowers and fruits outnumbered the few dried out queen cakes. And downstairs the only sign that worked was this little green man marking the exit door. It was right next to a portrait of Mugabe which I thought quite apt.

On the way out I was asked for my ticket.

So I said, the boom was UP, and there was no-one there, so here’s my 300 billion. And didn’t we already Have this conversation? He grumbled an acceptance. And we headed off into town, ready to dodge red lights all the way.

With inflation recording 2,2 million percent and economists like Erick Bloch believing it is over 9 million, the economic situation is so bad and distasteful.

For over 4 months the elected legislators and senators have not yet been sworn in. Fresh farm invasions emerged. Zimbabwe saw a number of activists brutally beaten, raped, arrested, killed and tortured.

The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has poor signals, accidents, overloading and inefficient departure and arrival times. Road transport has been hit hard by the high shortage of spares and fuel.

Water supply has been affected terribly and it is difficult to get drugs in health institutions which are affecting health service delivery. Raw sewage invades suburbs and rent is now payable in forex.

Zimbabweans, who were expecting the March 29 elections to give them the Zimbabwe they yearn for, were let down big time.

Soldiers and Zanu (PF) militia forced MDC activists to drink Paraquat, a highly toxic herbicide used for weed control.

Zimbabwe’s education has been seriously compromised under the Mugabe administration, producing a poor standard of graduates. The June Ordinary and Advanced level ZIMSEC examinations are still to be marked due to lack of funds to pay the markers.

Hundreds of political prisoners are still languishing in Mugabe’s filthy prison cells country-wide on flimsy, trumped-up charges.

Making calls through cell phones requires extraordinary patience. The networks can no longer cope because of congestion.

Harare has been gripped by a sudden wave of burning transformers, and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) puts the blame on vandals who are draining transformer oil.

Hey, all of this is happening and we have only just entered the second half of 2008. Only God knows why?

WOZA’s courage and conviction continue to inspire Zimbabweans – including poet John Eppel who recently wrote a Song for WOZA.

This week, 300 members of WOZA and MOZA (Women / Men of Zimbabwe Arise) marched through the streets of Bulawayo without police interference – a welcome change from the 8 March International Women’s Day protest at which women were brutalised by riot police in Bulawayo. This week’s demonstration is also the first protest since the 28 May protest in Harare that resulted in 14 members being incarcerated in remand prison for several weeks.

According to WOZA, this week’s action aimed to draw politicians’ attention to “bread and roses” issues – bread representing food and roses representing the need for lasting dignity. The protest also sought to test the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently signed by Zimbabwe’s politicians to determine whether freedoms of expression and assembly truly have opened up.