Protests in Turkey are getting a lot of press attention and social media coverage. With images like these showing inspiring acts of defiance and public courage, it is not hard to know why.

I found this article, about why Taksim is not Tahrir – but how “social media fuelled protests” still have a certain style, very useful. Amongst other things, Zeynep Tufekci writes, social media style protests share these eight characteristics:

• Lack of organized, institutional leadership
• A feeling of lack of institutional outlet
• Non-activist participation
• Breaking of pluralistic ignorance
• Organized around a “no” not a “go”
• External Attention
• Social Media as Structuring the Narrative
• Not Easily Steerable Towards Strategic Political Action

Tufekci points out that, in part because of these characteristics, social media style protests won’t topple governments by themselves. But they do provide important opportunities to signal dissent, and to show those who might be dissatisfied with certain elements of government that they are not alone.

Curious about the 31 July ruling and the implications for Zimbabwe’s elections?

Get to the SAPES Policy Dialogue Forum

Date: Tuesday 4 June 2013
Time: 5pm – 7pm
Venue: SAPES Seminar Room, 4 Deary Avenue, Belgravia, Harare
Topic: The Supreme Court Ruling on Elections: What are the implications?

Chair: Pettinah Gappa, Lawyer
Panellists: Lovemore Madhuku, President NCA
Douglas Mwonzora, MDC-T Spokesman
Welshman Ncube, President MDC-N

All Welcome

Cost: $10 for non-members
SAPES Seminar Club Membership Forms available at entrance

Feel free to visit our website at www.sapes.org.zw

I have to agree with Zimbabwe’s Deputy Chief Justice Malaba, who has said that the Constitutional Court’s ruling that elections in Zimbabwe must be held by 31 July “defied logic.”

As the Guardian points out, Malaba critiqued the ruling for contradictorily both censuring Mugabe for being in breach of his constitutional responsibilities “and at the same time authorising him to continue acting unlawfully” by proclaiming a July date.

And this is exactly the problem. Never mind larger issues like media reform, or the tricky question of redefining just what Zimbabweans are voting for in terms of proportional representation, a new addition with the new Constitution. As David Coltart helpfully spelt out to the Daily News, there are a number of basic steps that have to happen on the way to an election date. All of this means that Mugabe can’t, actually, declare today that an election will be held on or before 31 July – It’s too late for that. So how does Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court set an arbitrary date by which an election must be held – knowing that this will force illegal actions – and thereby violating the rights not only of the disenfranchised voters who brought the legal petition in the first place, but all of Zimbabwe’s other voters?

We asked some of our subscribers whether elections before 31 July could be free and fair, and they were sceptical:

• These elections won’t be free and fair
• No to July 31 election. Not enough time for reforms
• It’s a plan from Zanu PF and its allies not to hold credible elections. It’s risky coz the issue of reforms aren’t ripe.

“Zimbabwe’s authorities cannot expect to create a rights-respecting environment ahead of elections in the context of repression, harassment, and intimidation of civil society activists,” Human Rights Watch’s Tiseke Kasambala said in March.

Personally, it’s hard not to feel like this is playing right into Mugabe’s hands. He gets to “declare” elections without critical reforms because not doing so would be in violation of “the independence of the judiciary.” Meanwhile, the fact that actually having the election before 31 July would, at this stage, require a violation of some of the steps which, legally, have to happen before an election? Well, when did this government ever let the law stop them from doing what they want?

In short, it’s just not possible to have legal elections by the 31st of July, never mind free and fair ones, or credible ones.  Oh yeah – When did that ever stop them either?

I saw this billboard going up on the Borrowdale Road the other day. Aside from my persistent question about the disconnect between the growing number of billboards littering Harare’s streets (city revenue, presumably) and the consistent poor quality of things like pothole repair and road maintenance (absence of city spending), this one caught my eye for another reason.

Okay, so I can read – So I can tell it’s an ad for Raylite Batteries. But what is that woman in the red dress doing in the advert? Like, what does she have to do with the battery? The answer, of course, is nothing. But hey – sex sells, so sexy women sell, so if I put a sexily dressed (faceless, irrelevant, dehumanised) woman up there on the billboard in the general proximity of my battery, my battery, presumably, will also sell.

I note the slogan is “Never add water! Just fit and forget.” Presumably that’s the battery they’re talking about, not the woman.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Africa Day, we invited our subscribers from around Zimbabwe to send us an SMS slogan, and win one of two t-shirts generously donated by graphic designer and generally fun and funky guy Baynham Goredema.

We received nearly 1,500 slogans from across the country, which ran the gamut from silly to serious. So it took some doing to choose our two winning slogans, but eventually we did:

• Africa, our Africa. Laugh dictators and oppressors away. Ha ha ha.
• Africa stop chasing democracy: Ride it!

Where we could connect our subscribers to a location, we mapped them, to show the voices for Africa Day pouring in from around the country:

View Larger Map

You can view the map full screen – and click on points to read different subscribers’ slogans, and zoom in to see some of the denser areas close up.

You can download the full list of slogans here.

Yesterday, we let our subscribers know about the $36 million loan that China has extended to Zimbabwe for “projects.”

One subscriber was concerned that with the Zimbabwean economy as bad as it is, and unemployment being so high, Zimbabwe shouldn’t be taking loans – that is, how will we pay it back?

Unsurprisingly, however, given Zimbabwe’s joblessness, a number of other subscribers were curious how they might benefit from the loan for their own projects.

Some of the feedback we received includes:

• Do any one enter into the loan?
• How will the applicants be considered for these loans?
• How could i get that loan
• Are these projects open to every one of the public
• Iam interested with the China loan how do I go about it many thanks
• Messge ndaiona saka zvakamira sei  pamaprojects acho (I saw your message – So how do things stand with these projects?)
• How can i get to be consideree
• May you kindly shade more light on the loans.
• Looking for projects to help unemployed youths give advice
• How can i get a loan of $500 to start a pig project?
• Hw do i excess the youth loan

I note the Herald article about the loan says that it is for “various projects.”

Since the Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Saviour Kasukuwere, just said on Wednesday that social media helps him interact with young people ~ those at the core of his ministry, I’m asking him via this blog (which I’ll also draw his attention to via Twitter) if he can shed any light on the China loan scheme and the projects it is intended for.

Minister Kasukuwere, two questions:

1) Are there any plans to extend some of the project support the new loan from China will provide to individuals’ or communities’ income generating projects?

2) How may youths (and other Zimbabweans) looking for support in income generating projects access other government support facilities?