“She wasn’t afraid to ask questions that took her to places other people didn’t want to go, and wasn’t afraid either if the answers were unfashionable or shocking. In the two main areas of her interest – Nazi Germany and the lives of children in extreme situations – she was able to go further than almost everyone else in her psychological penetration.”

Gitta Sereny, the veteran journalist whose unflinching studies of some of modern history’s most reviled figures attempted to make sense of their crimes, has died aged 91. More from The Guardian

Faced with the world’s worst economic crisis and currently experiencing political uncertainties, Zimbabweans can still afford to be happy. More than our neighbors in South Africa, with Botswana occupying the last position. This is according to the recent 2012 Happy Planet survey.

“Even South Africa’s embattled northern neighbour, Zimbabwe, has a better outlook, being in 115th position, with Ethiopia 94th. Botswana occupies the bottom ranking.” – Sunday Times.

Inspired by a worrying statistic about the paucity of blood donors in Zimbabwe, we recently sent out this text message to our subscribers:

Kubatana! There are only 50,000 blood donors in Zimbabwe. Let’s change that! Celebrate Father’s Day this Sunday and become a donor. Help your family and others.

This prompted a number of responses from our subscribers, some of which we share below:

• I’m one of the 50,000 & I’ve donated 26 units so far.
• I donate blood but I cannot afford it when need arises its so expensive its really disappointing.
• I am among that number. Thanks for the msg.
• I’m donating every 3mths at Kadoma post.
• I don’t see the point coz we donate the blood for free & patients are charged exorbitant prices for that same blood.

Visit the National Blood Service Zimbabwe website for more information – and to find out where you can donate.  Whilst you’re at it, share your feedback with NBSZ about donating blood, and about the expense of accessing blood when one needs it.

Reading a book by a Franciscan friar on the fall of apartheid and came across this quote: “It is often victims who are cursed by memory while perpetrators are blessed by forgetting,” from  The File by British author Timothy Garton Ash. I looked it up and a review by the UK’s Guardian newspaper says it’s an account on the feared Stasi in East Germany. I thought, yet another poignant reminder why the Gukurahundi ghost lives on. Yet I figured it goes even as recent as the 2008 Zimbabwean polls where we find the murders of political activists remaining unpunished, the perpetrators blissfully amnesiac.

Here’s some feedback from some Kubatana members about what’s happening on the ground. Maybe we need election observers Now!

I stay in Warren Park, about a week ago we had people at our doorstep who said they were checking whether we were registered to vote or not. They practically had a voters roll and they checked our names and all our names were there. I asked them whether they were from the Registrar Office, Statistics Office or any office but they said no. Finally after questioning their whereabouts they said they were sent by the Unity Government and they were people from our constituency! They said they were from the 3 political parties and their ‘Seniors’ will make a follow up after them. Do we have such people? Can anyone (or any political party) get the voters roll from the Registrar’s Office?
- from a subscriber in Warren Park, Harare

Thanks for keeping us updated. I have something that is worthy of public knowledge or public consumption. Can anything be done to improve service delivery on the ongoing voter registration exercise especialy in Chitungwiza. The staff there at Makoni seem to have been trained to frustrate people into not registering. The delays, the daily changes in their demands and the reception has done more harm than good to would be registrants. Its sad and the whole of Chitungwiza has one registration centre yet the population is big. Is there anything that can be done.
- from Obey in Chitungwiza