There are so many Zimbabwean women who don’t like what they see when they look in the mirror. They look at their skin, and wish it would be lighter and brighter, because they believe that then, they will be prettier. Even when I was in high school, it was commonly believed that if a girl (or guy, come to think of it), was light, they were automatically more attractive. This really used to frustrate me, as I thought that some of these “pretty” girls really weren’t pretty at all. It’s attitudes, and silly beliefs like this, that I thought people left behind, when they finished high school, but it seems this that is one belief that haunts so many of Zimbabwe’s women, throughout their lives.

When you look in the mirror and see something you don’t like, it really bothers you, right? You try all you can to remedy it. If it’s a pimple, you try squeezing, drying it with toothpaste and all manner of face washes, masks and creams. You do everything you can to get things back, just the way you like them. In the same way, a lot of women are doing everything in their power to remedy their complexion “problems”. I can’t help but think that, while some of us looked at Michael Jackson’s pasty skin and chastised him for how he had gone too far with the lightening creams, there were many among us who secretly envied him, and longed to know his secret. Now, Zimbabwean women have skin lightening secrets of their own. Illegal and controlled legal substances, that drastically change the appearance of the skin, making it light and bright. The most popular of these are Diprosone ointment and Hydroquinone – oral tablets and creams. Below are the dangerous facts about these drugs. Facts that so many of our women choose to ignore:

Diprosone is a topical corticosteroid, commonly used to relieve the effects of eczema and other skin irritations, due to its anti-inflammatory qualities. This prescription-only substance is however, only used on a short-term basis, as it can cause real, lasting damage to the skin. Many women ignore the recommended dosages and opt to use it daily, as a skin lightener, and to promote hair growth. Prolonged use, or in this case, misuse makes the blood vessels more prominent, can lead to bacterial infections, causes the skin to eventually degenerate, making it thinner, more fragile and susceptible to bruising, then eventually, skin cancer, liver damage, kidney damage or poisoning. Hydroquinone tablets and creams work by basically lessening the concentration of melanin in the skin. It banned in many countries around the world. The long term side-effects are the similar to those mentioned above. One can also begin to get blue-black pigments are deposited onto the skin, (I’m sure you may have seen some unnaturally light women in Harare, with purplish lips).

It is clear that these are very dangerous substances, even in the right hands. So, where are women getting these substances? Well, getting these prescription drugs is easier than you think. One can even get them from their hairdresser, or in some of the Nigerian shops in Harare’s Gulf complex. The dream of lighter, brighter, (and eventually whiter), skin is one that can now come true for the women of Zimbabwe. More and more women are taking the plunge and taking their skin on the road to disaster and ruin. The side effects I mentioned earlier will happen to all its users, eventually.

From IFEX:

UNESCO won’t honour Africa’s longest-serving dictator with namesake prize

UNESCO has once again announced it will not reinstate a life sciences prize funded by and named after Africa’s longest-serving dictator, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, report Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The decision comes after passionate lobbying by IFEX members and other international and African rights groups. On 27 September, IFEX and 10 members and partners sent a letter to UNESCO director general Irina Bokova, urging her not to reinstate the UNESCO-Obiang prize given the “well-documented record of human rights abuse, repression of press freedom, and official corruption that have marked his rule.”

On 3 October, prominent authors, scientists and other public figures, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, also sent UNESCO a letter decrying the prize and pointing out that it is likely funded by corruption, given criminal investigations in France and Spain into the source of the Obiang family’s mass wealth, including luxury cars.

Due to international outcry, the prize has never been awarded since its launch three years ago, despite yearly efforts by Obiang and other African diplomats to have it reinstated. UNESCO has not yet taken the step rights groups would like to see, however, which is the final cancellation of the award.

As Tutu Alicante, executive director of the non-governmental group EG Justice, argues, “The UNESCO Board needs to end this debate once and for all by rejecting this prize outright. UNESCO delegates should not let themselves be bullied into backing a public relations campaign by President Obiang.”

MSF – Belgium has opened a rape clinic in Mbare at the Edith Opperman Mbare Polyclinic. The clinic offers free services and is open from 7:30 am to 4:30pm everyday including Sunday.

The clinic offers medical attention needed as a result of rape as well as HIV and STD prophylaxis. Rape victims are advised to seek treatment within 72 hours for the most complete care.

Some nights I like to read bedtime stories to my 3-year-old son. I have been told, and strongly believe reading aloud to my son, even before he is able to read and write himself, is very beneficial. I find bedtime reading is another way I can bond with him, and get to know his likes and dislikes, gauge what and how much he knows and teach him new things, as he tends to ask so many questions after a story.

He loves to be read to and often recites parts of the stories along with me as I read. You see, I have a small collection of books, and they are all now quite familiar to him. I would really like to add to this collection, and introduce him to more stories he is not familiar with, and, most importantly, Zimbabwean stories.

It is saddening to think that my son has never been read a Zimbabwean bedtime story. I’ve read to him about penguins and polar bears in the snow, kangaroos and koalas in the Australian outback, seals and dolphins swimming in the ocean, all things which are foreign and irrelevant to our sub-tropical, land-locked nation.  I fear he may be learning more about the world out there than he is about the world around him. I think its important to read stories to our children, involving things, places and people that they can really relate to.

The formative years of children are the most important, and many lessons they learn at this stage have a lasting impression on them. I want my son to grow up learning about our country, every step of the way.

A while back, I searched high and low, for local (in both authorship and subject matter) books for children below 5 years and was disappointed.  Apart from the age-old “Sunrise Readers” collection that was recommended to me on one of my many quests, are there any Zimbabwean children’s books out there, for this age group?

Every year, the first Monday of October is set aside to commemorate Habitat Day. On this day reflections are made on the state of our towns and cities, basic rights for all, and access to adequate shelter. For Amnesty International, World Habitat Day is a global day to take action to end forced evictions and other human rights violations suffered daily by people living in slums and informal settlements. In commemoration of this years’ World Habitat Day, Amnesty International Zimbabwe remembered the survivors of Operation Murambatsvina with the theme “End Forced Evictions’. Many families were displaced and left homeless when the government of Zimbabwe initiated its unpopular and inhuman Operation Murambatsvina. Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle then followed to resettle these families but, however, today years later no proper essential facilities and services have been provided for these families such as sanitation, education, housing and health.

A drama group from Hopley and Hatclife settlements where many of the families affected by Operation Murambatsvina are settled took time to remind Zimbabwe of how they are living. They had their own exhibition of their plastics shacks at the Harare Gardens. Some operate hair saloons, or bars and some sell firewood, or vegetables. The shacks take various shapes and forms but they all exhibit the plight of how our government has failed its people in so many ways. In these informal settlements education is a privilege whereas it should be a right for all children. In these settlements safe drinking water does not exist, as their water sources are unprotected wells. ‘The walls have ears’, is a saying you wont be caught saying in these settlements because their housing is little more than thin plastic.

Therefore Amnesty International of Zimbabwe in remembering the survivors of Operation Murambatsvina is calling on the government of Zimbabwe to:
End all forced evictions
Adopt guidelines based on the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development Based Evictions and Displacement
Provide free primary education for children living under Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle