I would’ve left the beauty salon laden with anti-wrinkle skin care products had I had the money. It was the exchanged glances between the staff, beauticians I mean. The secretive “wonder when she had her last facial” looks that convinced me I should have them all – the super-duper sub dermal-plumping, collagen-injecting, youth prolonging miracle creams. Beauty in a bottle, a bit like the adverts on TV – if you use this cream you too can look like Sarah-something-Parker AND own her fabulous shoe collection – never mind that you are swarthy and bearded and vertically challenged. We pooh pooh mere genetics. It is everything to do with the skincare range and directly proportionate to the amount of follow-up sessions you book at the salon. Mendel theory, pffft! I added an extra “f” to that – for emphasis you understand, and in case you may have missed it, had the word been any shorter … but I digress.

As it was, I spent an hour and a half being massaged and exfoliated and tweezed. I left looking plumped, not a wrinkle in sight – but I may have been distracted by the blotchy redness of most of my face – and soft and feeling nothing but 2 wings of tautly stretched, agonized skin where the rest of my eyebrows used to be. Comes from reading outdated lifestyle magazines – bushy is back I screamed as they pinned me down!

I’ve been thinking about us (women) and our body image and how we are all unconsciously programmed. As God didn’t see fit to grant me big boobs (I would’ve settled for medium, anything bigger than a button really – everything you see is courtesy of the genius of Wonderbra), I’ve been considering having breast enlargements. Think about it, if your boobs are bigger, no one notices the bulging belly. You’re just generously proportioned. But if you’re flat chested and have a big tummy … well, it’s not great is it?

I have a friend, well not really a friend, more a relative of a relative – ok, I don’t know her at all – but she had a boob job and swears by it, as does her husband (rather clichéd that, but I don’t think he cares). Anyway, I shall continue to think about it. As it requires saving quite a bit of money I don’t think we are in any imminent danger.

The Senate’s adjourned till July. Cool gig hey.

It’s time for all Zimbabweans to get behind Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and protest the abysmal supply of electricity in Zimbabwe. The responsibility of putting pressure on the Government of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) should not fall only on the shoulders of WOZA. What are YOU doing about it?

WOZA’s campaign demands are:

1. Stop cheating fixed meter consumers, we demand prepaid meters.
2. Please provide cheaper firewood, candles and matches, we do not want to destroy our environment by cutting down trees.
3. We are tired of 18 hour power cuts -provide proper timetables of load shedding.
4. Urgently put in place a proper and transparent billing system. Stop sending metered consumer’s estimates, send ACTUAL bills.
5. Create a smoother process of customer’s claims for  compensation.
6. Review recruitment policy and bring salaries to decent levels with our current economic record. Professionalise staff performance and honesty. No more luxury cars we need transformers.
7. We will record the exact hours we receive electricity for the last 2 weeks of May while we get petition signatures which we will take to Parliament and demand they review your monopoly and poor service. You have cheated us for long enough, after we submit our demand to parliament we will organise a RED card Campaign. Be warned POWER TO THE POOR – ZERO service ZERO bill. HOKOYO!!

Support WOZA on the streets. Let’s all protest and demand better services. Enough of the fat cat, co-called liberation heroes living in luxury whilst Zimbabweans struggle in the dark. Email your support to WOZA at info [at] wozazimbabwe [dot] org

ZimRights yesterday published their daily bulletin evoking the political temperature towards a Zimbabwean ‘Election’.  In their bulletin, ZimRights had this to say: “Recent reports have revealed that ZANU PF said that it is prepared to go for an uncontested election even if other political parties refuse to participate in elections – a repetition of the 2008 June run off.” This concurs with The Herald’s headline of today where President Mugabe speaks on elections and says ‘No to polls delays’.

ZimRights asks: “Is Zimbabwe ready for an election in 2011?’ Have we recovered from the trauma o post 2008 elections?’ “Who can guarantee Zimbabweans a free and fair election?’

A Kubatana subscriber shared with us her experience of going to get her monthly supply of ARVs:

Yesterday morning I was at Parirenyatwa Family Care Clinic (the Opportunistic Infections [OI] Clinic) to pick up my monthly supply of ARVs. As is the norm there were many of us there by 8am – the staff always insist that all patients be there at 7.30am. At 8am one of the counsellors came to the front of the group and asked anyone with a chorus or song. The request for a song means a Christian song as it is the start of a Christian devotion. I am not sure if this is a hospital regulation – and I always wonder about people of other faiths and what they make of this. However, I think whether they like it or not, they have to go through with it as they need the free life-saving and life-long antiretroviral medicines which are unaffordable for many citizens. There were two more songs after the first one, then the counsellor asked if any one patient would volunteer to pray. After the prayer, the counsellor asked if any volunteer wanted to share their story on how being on antiretroviral medicines had assisted them. One woman among the patients stood up and shared how she started antiretroviral therapy in 2005 when she was very ill, and that now she was fit and able to do all her work and chores at home. After the woman finished speaking the counsellor asked the patients to state one thing they had learnt from the story. A few people made some contributions.  The counsellor asked for another volunteer to give a testimony. When no one volunteered she asked for one adolescent to speak. When none of the adolescents volunteered, she just picked on one girl and asked her to speak about her experience with ARVs. The girl seemed very reluctant, but ended up speaking very briefly and in a very low voice. This particular picking on adolescents left a very bad taste in my mouth. The adolescents were highly outnumbered by adults in the reception hall. I felt it was not appropriate to put them on the spot like that, but rather have them share among themselves in their own space. The counsellor is supposed to be a professional and should not coerce people into sharing when they are not ready. It does not matter that we are all in the same clinic for the same condition – our levels of emotional preparedness to tackle personal issues in the public arena are all different, and there is need to acknowledge some people will never get to that level.

MT, Harare

Please share this opportunity with your friends.

Finance Assistant (Database Maintenance): ActionAid
Deadline: 1300 hours on 24 May 2011

Location: Harare
Contract Duration: up to December 2011
Expected Start Date: 1st June 2011

ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency working in over 40 countries, taking sides with poor people to end poverty and injustice together.

Purpose of The Job
The Finance Assistant plays a significant role in capturing financial data and processing of payments to clients in line with AAIZ financial management and accountability guidelines.

Key Strategic Objectives
Capture data within agreed deadlines
Timely reconciliations
Preparation for audits

Principal Accountabilities
Posts transactions & Journals in SUN as and when they occur, and follow up & processing of accountabilities.
Reconcile and monitor staff debtors’ balances.
Maintenance of a sound filing system of all financial documents: Payment vouchers, copies of contracts, correspondence etc
Stamps processed transactions.
Custodian of fuel coupons.
Assist in internal and external audits.
Comes up with quarterly key result areas based on this job description as well as departmental and organizational objectives.

Education
Diploma in accounting

Experience
At least one year experience in the accounting field.

Other requirements and competences
Knowledge of computerized accounting packages, SUN added advantage
Sharp analytical skills
Ability to work under pressure
Ability to work with minimum supervision, but as part of a team

A detailed Job Profile will be made available to short listed candidates.

Applications: To apply submit your curriculum vitae with an application letter to Human Resources, ActionAid International, 16 York Avenue, Newlands, Harare or jobs [dot] Zimbabwe [at] actionaid [dot] org

Although we value all applications, we can only respond to short listed candidates.

NB: Please note that this is a NATIONAL position. Whilst all applicants will be assessed strictly on their individual merits, qualified women are especially encouraged to apply.