Recently I have noticed that our primary school children are being turned to enjoy this situation we are in. To them it’s normal and for sure it is. They are just own their own!

Going to school is as good as attending Sunday school at churches with no teachers in class to teach them maths and content lessons or to be ‘treated’ for not having done their homework. The freedom they have is just too much and a challenge to the nation. After school they go home to join their friends on the streets to play money-games (soccer) where these coins are now exchanging hands. They can pick them easily from the dumping sites.

In the evening they join the rest of the family where everyone is just paying attention to the TVs and radios to wait for any announcement of the results of talks.

No one pays attention to them whether they have bathed, done their homework, or how they performed at school. The father will be dozing in a corner after working on a hard rock to make three-quarter stones for sale. On the other side of the room their mother is busy counting some coins and a few of these new notes recently introduced after a busy day playing hide and seek with the policemen for selling her goods ‘illegally’.

So with all this happening in their own homes and the environment they live in our children don’t know what is normal and what isn’t. To some extent they even cherish to become a hwindi (conductor) because they don’t have the proper guidance and education for anything more.

The political situation in Zimbabwe is even making matters worse in every sector. The task is simple as it is complex – to rebuild the country and the future of the Zimbabwean child we need bold steps in rehabilitating education, housing and health. So far I see precious little improvement in any of these areas that inspires confidence or offers peace of mind.

Zimbabweans have waited long enough to pass this economic wilderness. Ever since we voted in the Harmonized Elections on March 29th, 2008, life has become increasingly difficult. And if these political leaders do not reach any meaningful agreement soon life for Zimbabweans will only get worse. Many cannot afford basics like bread, meat, mealie-meal. And as the majority cannot afford school fees to send their children to school, we only hope a quick resolution of the crisis will mean a better life for our children.

In the past week prices of basic commodities in the illegal parallel market shot up as the local currency also made heavy losses against major currencies.

Surely, if the ‘X’ can bring all these hardships then I would never again join that voting queue. If I join a queue for sugar, mealie-meal, cooking oil, fuel, cash, and taxis surely it will be smiles back home among my family. But hey, the ‘X’ queue has given me headaches.

Patience is running thin for many Zimbabweans as seen by the high number of people in the streets of Harare and other suburbs seeking to leave the country to become economic refugees in neighbouring countries. People are leaving in their numbers because they have lost faith in these talks of talks about talks. What has worsened the situation for Zimbabweans is that they do not know what the parties involved were/are talking about because of the media blackout imposed on the negotiating teams. But it is the Zimbabwean people’s fate being discussed so we should really have a right to know what the future will be like.

I believe that men and women of integrity and high moral standards still exist in our police force in Zimbabwe but there are some certain unruly elements in it as is the case in any part of life.

I can no longer trust the police because they don’t deal with the situation how they are supposed to. African police always need bribes instead of helping and saving the lives of those who need help.

The police have the constitutional mandate to provide security for the ordinary citizens of the country. However, they extort, intimidate and rob the same people they are mandated to protect. People no longer feel safe or have the patience to wait for the police to arrive at the scene of accident. Instead they settle on their own after an exchange of harsh words and sometimes fisticuffs.

The taxis that ply our roads hardly ever have all their papers so the drivers resort to tipping the officers at police road blocks to escape prosecution. My neighbour owns a Tuck-shop and sells bread. Instead of fining him for overpricing, the police take the bread away and share it amongst themselves.

And how can the police be trusted when drugs/mbanje kept in their custody goes missing among the police force itself?

To increase the effectiveness of the police force in Africa the conditions under which they do their duties must be improved, for example, transport to and from work, accommodation, and protection from physical, social, political and mental harm. Incentives and performance-based rewards can also be introduced.

The police force urgently needs to be policed by another independent body.

As we now approach the rainy season people are preparing their small pieces of land, or A3s as I heard someone saying, around the suburbs of our cities.

I think this is the right time for the Harare City Council to address this – the earlier the better. The council must have a clear-cut policy on urban agriculture that takes into consideration the need to conserve the environment while acknowledging the contribution urban farming makes towards household food security.

Haphazard urban farming has negatively impacted on the environment and in some instances has affected protected conservancies, forests and wetlands. For example, along Mutare road just after Jaggers or 11 months as it is popularly known, the Cleveland Dam is now exposed and the whole plantation of gum trees and the indigenous trees through to Mabvuku turn-off is now history. So it is time for the city fathers to act and protect this area before it is turned into these A3s again.

Urban agriculture, as part of a poverty reduction strategy, needs to be regulated and areas where it should take place should be well defined according to boundaries. There have been cases where the local authority has clashed with residents over urban agriculture, especially where it concerns maize growing. Some residents have had their maize crop slashed because it was grown on unauthorised land.

The Harare City Council should recognise the role urban farming plays in providing food to families and, as such, it should be promoted and not discouraged as long as it is conducted in a manner that does not impact negatively on the environment.

Therefore the council should put big sign boards up advising that the practice of urban agriculture is not illegal and that it only becomes illegal when it is not authorised, or when it is implemented along stream banks and in protected wetlands. This is the best time for the City Council to make this announcement since people are starting to prepare their fields and clearing their small pieces of land.

Yes, it’s good to have our kids back home now that the schools in Zimbabwe have closed for holidays but it’s also interesting to see how life in our high density suburbs changes over this period.

While there are so many libraries in my community you won’t find the kids there. Instead the Internet Cafés are always packed, and the dressing is something else! Half-naked girls and the guys in oversized trousers.

Then suddenly there is confusion between an adult and a student, as the two can now share the same table and drink opaque beer at beer halls.

And there’s chaos at bus terminals creating transport problems because of the students boarding buses and emergency taxis (ET’s) just to have some fun in town.

Sadly, with the desperate socio-eco-political environment and the failing educational system challenges that include astronomically exorbitant fees beyond the reach of the majority, many kids are dropping out of school to become house-maids, well-diggers, grave-diggers and stone crushers.

Poverty, hunger, disease and violence, together with their closest ally, illiteracy, have become distinct features of degraded social conditions in many of our communities. Education, as a vehicle to facilitate peace and development, is undoubtedly of great significance to everyone.

With inflation recording 2,2 million percent and economists like Erick Bloch believing it is over 9 million, the economic situation is so bad and distasteful.

For over 4 months the elected legislators and senators have not yet been sworn in. Fresh farm invasions emerged. Zimbabwe saw a number of activists brutally beaten, raped, arrested, killed and tortured.

The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has poor signals, accidents, overloading and inefficient departure and arrival times. Road transport has been hit hard by the high shortage of spares and fuel.

Water supply has been affected terribly and it is difficult to get drugs in health institutions which are affecting health service delivery. Raw sewage invades suburbs and rent is now payable in forex.

Zimbabweans, who were expecting the March 29 elections to give them the Zimbabwe they yearn for, were let down big time.

Soldiers and Zanu (PF) militia forced MDC activists to drink Paraquat, a highly toxic herbicide used for weed control.

Zimbabwe’s education has been seriously compromised under the Mugabe administration, producing a poor standard of graduates. The June Ordinary and Advanced level ZIMSEC examinations are still to be marked due to lack of funds to pay the markers.

Hundreds of political prisoners are still languishing in Mugabe’s filthy prison cells country-wide on flimsy, trumped-up charges.

Making calls through cell phones requires extraordinary patience. The networks can no longer cope because of congestion.

Harare has been gripped by a sudden wave of burning transformers, and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) puts the blame on vandals who are draining transformer oil.

Hey, all of this is happening and we have only just entered the second half of 2008. Only God knows why?