I have just read that South Africa could be facing a deficit in providing hotel accommodation for visitors during the 2010 World Cup. According to South Africa’s Mail And Guardian, Fifa’s accommodation agency is believed to be facing a deficit of 9 000 hotel rooms for the 500 000 international visitors expected. They have even resorted to booking rooms in “neighbouring countries” including Mauritius.

And yes, the article does cite Mauritius as a near neighbour.

If we were talking in terms of family relationships here, I would say that South Africa and Mauritius are nothing more than distant cousins. Zimbabwe, on the other hand is South Africa’s own sister!

We also have the Victoria Falls, the Great Zimbabwe and all World Cup tourists would need to do is board a one-and-a-half-hour flight to South Africa after all their sight-seeing, as opposed to a gruelling 17 hour trip from distant places like Mauritus.

But I suppose that goes to show how little noise we are making about tourism in Zim. Last week, while in Victoria Falls, I was really disappointed to see how few tourists there were in that beautiful resort town. What was once a beautiful place seems to be suffering from the same infrastructural decay that is ubiquitous throughout this country.

And when I finally met a bunch of tourists, it was not even in the Zimbabwe side of the Falls, but rather in ‘No Man’s Land’ at the Victoria Falls bridge.

They explained that it was just too expensive for then to be tourists in Zimbabwe, much as they would have loved to see the Falls from the vantage point of the Zim side.

It was sad for me to hear. And even sadder for me to realise that we are doing little, if anything to encourage tourism in our nation in the build up to 2010.

And thus we have been overlooked by Fifa as a “near neighbour” and sister, instead fading somewhere into the distantness of a lost relative.

“Dollar for two” has taken on a whole new dimension in Harare.

At first, the phrase – which has recently become popular since Zimbabwe’s conversion to using US dollars – only applied to buying foodstuffs like packets of crisps and biscuits which were priced at 50 US cents (which hardly anyone in Zimbabwe has).

But now, even the kombi drivers are using it. Yes, if you want to get on a kombi around Harare these days, you must either have a companion travelling with you (so that you pay the round figure of one dollar) or have 50 cents, or 5 rands on you.

It seems that the kombi drivers who had been tolerating passengers making use of the Zim dollar equivalent of 50 cents – which is 3 trillion dollars – have since tired of the worthless currency.

And so if you happen to be travelling alone these days and only have US dollar notes on you, you have to be sure to latch yourself onto a fellow passenger who has a coin on them – or else find some other way to travel.

A friend of mine recently had to walk all the way from Avondale to Hatfield after he failed to produce changed money in order to get on a kombi.

“I had two options,” he said. “Either I was going to get on the kombi and pay my dollar note and leave my change with the driver, or I was going to walk.”

The second option – although gruelling – was more appealing to him. Some kombi drivers say that if you don’t have change, they can write you a receipt so that you can travel on that the next time. But many passengers aren’t buying that.

Where exactly are passengers meant to get 5 rands for travel in a coinless economy? And why won’t kombi drivers accept those trillions anymore? After all, all they do is continue to circulate among passengers as change. I wouldn’t be surprised if very soon, kombi fares are pegged at one dollar – just another headache for so many Zimbabweans who are fighting just to get by.

In a recent blog Dewa Mavinga challenged Zimbabweans to become active citizens rather than passive subjects. Kubatana sent out an email asking our subscribers to comment, and here are the responses:

I totally agree with Dewa Mavinga. As Zimbabweans, we need to be progressive thinkers. Let us act holistically and put our nation at heart. All Zimbabweans need to promote this country as a Land of Forgiveness, rewrite its history and embrace the new dispensation. Yes, as opined by Martin Luther King, ‘Our lives begin to end the minute we become silent about things that matter’, let us be proactive and act as citizens of this resource-endowed country. We should also shoulder the blame for the problems bestowing the country. We have been silent for too long, waiting for others to build and/or destroy this country. As Zimbabweans, I think this is totally unacceptable. Lets work together and promote the Zimbabwe We Want and ‘Proudly Zimbabwean’ brand. – Lazarus

I read Dewa Mavinga’s piece with interest.  In discussions with friends I have always expressed the same sentiments. From the household, school, community, church, workplace to the political level, we are all expected to obey authority.  Hanzi ingozi, kutuka mai wavabata vane chikomba, one is just supposed to observe and keep one’s mouth shut.  The tragedy is even in civil society structures, the very institutions supposed to champion democracy, the same situation prevails.  We have seen NGOs being run like family businesses and challenging certain practices is taboo.  One can get a label for that. I concur that regardless of how many political parties we may elect into government, our situation would not improve if we do not change our mindset at individual level.  There is so much individualism and self-preservation at the detriment of the public good.  Yes it might be a demonstration of resentment at the status quo, but what would drive a sane person to steal power cables for making trinkets, or for a powerful politician to steal the same cables for export? I don’t believe Zimbabweans are cowards, but this individualism that appears to be ingrained into our thinking is the root cause of our problems.  Take a situation like this: A commuter from Chitungwiza wants to get into Harare, they know the bus fare is R5.  They have R10 to cater for a return journey and some other money to buy one or two things in the city.  They get into a bus with a capacity for 75 passengers.  The bus gets full, and when the bus departs the conductor informs the passengers the fare to town is now R10.  There is universal outcry in the bus and the conductor orders the driver to stop the bus and yells to the passengers “Asingade ngaabude”.  One enlightened person starts arguing with the conductor and the rest of the passengers join saying “hatibude”.  On seeing that the conductor is not budging, you will always find someone who is willing to pay.  When one person pays the rest follow suit.  You will hear some people bragging that if you don’t have money “enda kumusha, kana kugara kumba kwako”, as if they themselves have the money.  They definitely don’t because if you are in Zimbabwe and you have money then you are unlikely to be in a commuter omnibus. My argument here is how can 75 grown up men and women be intimidated by three men armed with nothing but an intimidating voice and scruffy cloths.  Honestly those Hwindis and conductors are not made of iron.  The scenario I describe above happens every day from Tsholotsho to Mutare, but a Zimbo can say is “Zvakawona” and pays. When workers call for a strike, you will always find some who try whatever means possible to come to work.  I know a guy who walked from Chitungwiza to Harare and back for two days because he didn’t want to be associated with fellow striking workers for mere selfish reasons. As Dewa said, we will not go anywhere if we don’t change our mindset, no matter how many elections we have. – Joshua

Participation of all citizens then allows for a robust and energetic society who now will realise their full potential and challenge those who they may see as opposing their scheme of things. Those opposing will also see the other group as healthy opponents or competition and as such opposing views can be discussed in a good natured manner. This is because everyone now is civil enough to understand there is a problem and as such how can we deal with it. Our active participation in any event has created a democratic situation because sides have been taken and people are now critically looking at events around them and taking the necessary action to change it without violence but through active participation. We have now transformed ourselves from ‘Subjects’ to  ‘Active Citizens’ in any capacity. – Lionel

I agree with Dewa that we are part and parcel of the regime that has brought down democratic systems in our country. But this is largely because every generation has a value attached to its existence. The pre-independence generation had a revolutionary (nationalist) approach to life, no wonder they went to war and fought to the end. The current crop is more inclined towards individualism, where even during the toughest of times in Zimbabwe, each family would work towards its own survival, without bothering about the person next door. Note that today in Zimbabwe, a multitude can be made to run for dear life by just a handful of militant Zanu (PF) youths (obviously paid to perform). Upon attaining independence, Zanu (PF) engaged in compulsive politics. Those who did not want to participate were regarded as traitors and were severely dealt with, just like in war time, and this was applied consistently and in a systematic way. The result was the isolation of Zimbabweans into individuals who cannot cooperate to fight back. That even explains why we have the largest number of political refugees in Southern Africa. People cannot fight back, so they escape. It is this culture of isolation that needs to be broken. In my view this will not happen over night because, right now Zimbabweans are even scared of their own shadows. They cannot trust the next person in case he/she is Zanu (PF) and they are considered enemies of the state. By the way if you are against Zanu (PF) or its people, you are an enemy of the state. A new political platform, far-fetched from the WAR politics pursued by Zanu (PF), can be the only answer to reviving the democratic spirit of Zimbabweans. We need to break the perception that this country belongs to Zanu (PF) and all those who went to war. – Farai

Not everyone is passive, unfortunately the guys with the big bucks (heavy duty logistics) only seem to want to support MDC. But we will keep trying. – Comrade Kundayi

So Zimpapers, which ‘allegedly’ is not a parastatal has launched its own daily paper called H-Metro. I’m tired of this, don’t buy the Herald, cancel your subscriptions. RIGHT NOW! Not tomorrow when you’ve had a moment to think about how difficult your life will be without state sponsored drivel. The Herald et al are not the only sources of news in this country. Neither are they fair, balanced or accurate. It is not a defense to say that you need to know what’s going on in the country, you know what’s going on in the country! We as consumers and citizens are being taken advantage of. The longer we lie down quietly, the longer it will keep happening.

I’m not saying go out into the streets and march on Zimpapers, I don’t have the same amount of courage as those who do so. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to sit helplessly while the government violates my freedom. We still have the freedom to spend our money where we will. I’m saying hit Zimpapers and by extension the Government of Zimbabwe, where it hurts the most, in their wallets. Clearly, they refuse to pay attention to my vote and my voice. If the 20 000 people who are currently buying the Herald everyday, stop, perhaps the State will begin to listen.

Like untamed animals they live out cold in the open, in the tall dry grass that shields their existence from the rest of the world. An eternal stench of a combination of urine, feces and sweat hangs like a halo over their small compound. There are no toilets or water taps in sight. It is a miracle they survived the cholera. In the middle of winter, half-naked kids from anything between ages 2 to 16 loiter listlessly with blank expressions and mucus running freely from their noses. A few metres outside the compound are the posh mansions of the leafy Borrowdale and Gunhill suburbs.  Obscene opulence overlooks dire poverty; it is hard to imagine you are in the same neighborhood. Just opposite the main entrance to the compound stands the renowned Celebration Church. Borrowdale road is abuzz with posh cars zooming past at high speed oblivious to the mushrooming squatter camp amidst the tall dry grass. Sirens wail off in the distance, grow closer, and then fade away as the presidential motorcade zooms past. What the dwellers of this veld call home are two-meter high shelters made of highly flammable materials like grass, cardboard, plastic, and if you are extremely privileged, pieces of asbestos and scrap metal. Running water is a luxury that cannot be envisioned in this lifetime and bathing is an achievement. Some of the residents have lived here for many years; some were born here.

Amidst the shrieks and laughter of playing children, the soft moans of an old man in pain can be heard. After a hit and run accident on the busy Borrowdale road, he was lucky enough to be taken to hospital by kind passersby. His leg was put in a cast. It’s been about six months now and the old man cannot afford to have the cast removed. Just inside the race course a few metres away, corpulent women in their expensive spandex tracksuits take their vigorous health walk along the tracks that are sometimes graced by majestic racehorses. They often walk in groups of three as a precautionary measure, lest one of the squatters attempts to have a go at them. The squatters call the wealthy rotund women horse-pipes.

Yes the city council knows about the squatters, although they would like to pretend they do not exist. In fact, it is pretty obvious that the city council is behind the constant ‘police-raids’ that often happen at night. They have tried on many occasions to evict these homeless people. Evictions are now part of life for most of them, for that’s how they got here in the first place. After the government blitz of 2005 dubbed Operation Murambatsvina that destroyed illegal settlements, a lot of helpless people found themselves without a roof over their heads and trekked north to Borrowdale, where the open space next to the racecourse provided temporary haven, till Operation Garikai gave them the promised new homes. It has been five years. Now anyone who has lost his or her job or simply cannot cope with the dollarized lifestyle of Harare simply gravitates towards the camp. But that’s not all. The founders of the squatter camp were originally women married to the racecourse laborers. They were kicked out of the servants’ quarters because, whenever they did their washing, their children’s white nappies ‘panicked’ the donkeys. Living in mud huts turned out a convenient and cheaper option. Now over 200 men, women and children live there.

The police have a fetish for coming at night. At one time they started a fire that engulfed the decrepit little homes. The camp dwellers ran away momentarily, but soon returned to the only place they could have a modicum of quiet. The police have come again on and off, and last time, they bundled everyone into lorries and went and dumped them at the Pomona dumpsite. They are destined to be trash for the rest of their lives. What the government can’t deal with, it attempts to hide under piles of garbage. Only these are human beings we are talking about, see.

Because they are poor and homeless, they are automatically regarded as criminals. Anyone who has had a break-in immediately suspects them. Then the police have reason to celebrate a baton-throwing head-bashing field day.

When you are dressed in rags, smelling of sweat and are of no fixed abode, it is next to impossible to find a job. So they live mostly on handouts and rubbish bins. Very few kids go to school and those who do, it is just a meaningless routine that can be constantly broken to sell wares or beg for alms on the roadside. When you pay them a visit, they all gather around, anticipating you have probably brought them their meal for the day. If not, you are still received with warm, friendly smiles. They are grateful for anyone who cares to listen or bring their little ones some sweets. All they want is a roof over their heads and a decent meal. They are the victims of a dysfunctional economy and a government that has failed to repair the damage it inflicted on the poor in its botched urban clean-up operation. This is not fiction. Next time you are driving down Borrowdale road, or horse piping along the racetracks of Borrowdale racecourse, just take a moment to have a look among the tall grass and think twice about the kind of government you would like; one that reduces some human beings to nothing but trash or one that takes responsibility for its actions.

Most importantly, what are you going to do about it is the question?

It has often been said that the greatest battles are fought in the mind. This is certainly true in the case of Zimbabwe, particularly in our tortured struggle for democracy, good governance and human rights. If the struggle is approached with a mind already defeated and not open to possibilities, as is often the case, then there is small wonder how a very small group of predominantly old and frail men can subjugate millions of people for decades without as much as a whimper from the long-suffering masses.

Much like a bird caged and kept in captivity for most of its life, even when the cage is removed, the bird refuses to fly away, because, in its mind, the cage remains, making the physical absence of a cage irrelevant.

The Zimbabwean education system further compounds the crisis of a defeated mindset by lacking the ability to produce people who are critical and analytical, but perfect academics who regurgitate what they are fed by the teacher who is supposed to know all, but remain blinkered to the world around them. I will explain, lest one take offence at what, at first, may seem a reckless statement.

Our education system and socialisation has broken our collective spine, and prepared us to be meek subjects who shall obey authority without question and not empowered citizens with rights and ability to challenge authority. The MDC in government should seriously consider putting forward a proposal to inject civic education and critical thinking into our educations system from primary school level.

Back in the days as a student activist at the University of Zimbabwe I was often exposed to this attitude that to question authority is sheer madness, foolishness or utter stupidity. Whenever I pointed out the shortcomings of the then ZANU-PF government, often I would be dismissed with the following words: Ndivo vafana veku univhesiti vanoitira weti mumafiriji, havatendi hurumende inovapinza chikoro, musavatevedzere (These are the university boys who urinate in fridges, they are an ungrateful lot, do not listen to them) – this was in apparent reference to a students demonstration at the university of Zimbabwe where some students had, according to the State run Herald newspaper, overturned fridges at the institution and urinated in them in protest against poor catering services there.

To be fairly critical of authority’s misdeeds is to label oneself a pariah. Everyone must conform to the norm. Do not put your head above the parapet, or it will be chopped off, or so the advice goes. To many in Zimbabwe, decency is about being careful not to rock the boat, not to ruffle feathers, but to avoid any confrontation and get through life quietly, meekly.

The late iconic Zimbabwean singer Leornard Dembo, perfectly captured this mindset in one of his songs entitled Manager, where he admonishes those who confront the manager at work because they forget they have families to feed. A relative of mine also reflected this mindset during my days at the university when she advised me thus: “Don’t you forget your background. Your parents struggled in abject poverty to send you to school, and you have seven siblings – don’t you start trouble at university. The moment other students start demonstrating, take the first bus out of campus and come home and lie low until it’s over.” It is advice I gladly ignored, but which, I am sure, was not uncommon.

This mindset focuses on short term gains of being safe in the crowd but, sadly, compromises on the bigger picture. It normalises the abnormal and celebrates fear and mediocrity. The few people who keep trashing our rights can do so with impunity because the majority have accepted as normal that which is obscene. Joseph Chinotimba can boast, with all the audacity, that he “farms people” and no-one bats an eyelid. Muchadeyi Masunda, Harare Mayor on a Movement of Democratic Change ticket can use government resources, in such difficult times, to buy himself a US$152 000 luxury vehicle – and that is normal! To make matters worse, there are people within the purportedly progressive democracy movement who will be upset when the issue is raised. Why? Because leaders should not be questioned, they are always right! Or some such load of rubbish.

But what I find most astounding about this mindset that has crippled Zimbabwe’s democracy and human rights movement is the quite illogical expectation that someone must fight on their behalf to bring about change. In beer halls, in churches, in schools, at work, Zimbabweans analyse, they know exactly what is wrong with governance, they are fully aware of the root causes of our multilayered crisis. But that is as far as it goes. A learned colleague has found a term for this phenomenon: paralysis of analysis. They do not want to take action themselves, at an individual level. But moan that not enough is being done to liberate Zimbabwe! Of what use is your thorough and superior understanding of the crisis if you are not prepared to act on it?

Sometimes I come to the conclusion that we get the leaders and type of governance we deserve. Do we honestly believe that ZANU-PF, so comfortable in the seat of power, will voluntarily give up power? Or that democracy and fundamental rights will be presented to us on a silver platter? To entertain such hopes is to dream in broad daylight. We must say, “Enough is Enough,” and then, at an individual level, commit to playing each his or her part to liberate the country. I will borrow this statement from the English and say, “Zimbabwe expects each man to do his duty.” Be the change that you want to see in Zimbabwe. The mantra should be, “None but ourselves!” If not yourself, then who should act on your behalf while you remain in your comfort zone?

For democracy, good governance and a culture of respect for human rights to thrive it does not just happen. There must be a critical mass of people prepared to advance and defend these ideals at all costs. The collective mindset must accept that it is right, a sacred duty even, for one to defend principles and ideals of democracy and to openly declare that position without having to look over the shoulder. The collective mindset should focus on the greater goal of justice and freedom for all ahead of short-term personal security which, in any case, cannot be guaranteed even if one thinks that the safest way out is to collaborate with the oppressor.

Unless there is a radical transformation of the mind, individually and collectively, which leads to action from within Zimbabwe, then victory for democracy and human rights will be postponed indefinitely. Even if new leaders or new political formations come on board, without a change of mindset, which catapults us from meek subjects to bold citizens with rights and who know and stand up for their rights, the result will be the same. That is, a few people in power will continue to trample on the dreams   and rights of the majority and get away with it.

Already Muchadeyi Masunda, the rogue Harare Mayor, has shown that his MDC jacket does not stop him from taking people for granted, but, is it not with the implicit consent of Harare residents?

As you reflect on our individual role and contribution, to either aiding or resolving the crisis in Zimbabwe, ask yourself: Am I a subject or a citizen? What action will I take as my personal contribution to the development of a new Zimbabwe?