I have watched over the years how the Zimbabwean government and the responsible authorities around the country watch certain illegal habits grow in cities and towns until they become the normal thing to citizens. And just from out of the blue they pounce on the unaware “law-breaking” citizen with an operation to punish them. Illegal settlements did not just wake up one day and appear. They were there for some time and the City Fathers would see these and leave the residents until the residents felt homely and legal. But in the end they experienced the harsh Operation Murambatsvina.

For years retailers with or without liquor licenses were selling alcohol. In supermarkets alcohol was being sold until the time they closed their doors overriding their liquor licenses which regulates them to sell liquor up until 8pm. But who stopped them? They sold beer until people thought buying beer from a supermarket after 8pm was legal. But again they got slapped with a reminder of the regulation just when business was good and everyone expected to buy beer whenever they wanted.

For years we have been witnessing car sales sprout in and around the city. Name any major road in Harare and you will find a number of car sales. If one needed to open a car sale they only needed some poles and fence and an open area along a major road, and boom they were in the car trading business. But now the Harare City Council is conducting a clean-up exercise to wipe out all illegal car sales. Where has the City Council been while some of these “businesses” have been trading for more than 5 years at specific locations?

Today my nerves raged a bit as I read a story by Chipo Masara, an environment journalist with The Standard newspaper who reported how human waste is among Harare’s “litter” in the CBD. The areas most affected are kombi ranks where the City has failed to provide toilets. For the rank marshals, the hwindis and all vendors in the surrounding areas, using the city center as a ‘bush’ is now seen as normal. To them urinating in containers and throwing them on the street is considered to be ok. So the next thing is we will have the City as dirty as you can imagine and our City Fathers will pounce on us with an Operation Wawetera Papi to fine anyone relieving themselves in the wrong places. I wonder what they are waiting for?

Those in authority should make sure from the onset that people know what is wrong and right.  Is it that our police force that should be helping with the enforcement of laws in the country is diverting most of their energy to political related stuff? To me they seem to be doing a really good job implementing POSA, AIPPA, the Criminal and Codification Act and all the other draconian laws that exist, at the expense of our country’s upkeep and well being as a whole. Such issues need to be addressed as the glory of the Sunshine City will continue getting lost to an extent where trying to get back to how we once were will mean building a new city altogether.

Yesterday the Herald headline read ‘ZANU PF popularity surges: Poll’.

I was shocked to see how the Herald, which is a state controlled paper, was quick to praise this survey titled “Change and ‘New’ Politics in Zimbabwe” done by a US based NGO Freedom House. The survey like any survey poses challenges to its findings due to its delimitations and as noted in the report it mostly concentrated in the rural areas. Honestly in Zimbabwe where freedom of speech is non-existent who would answer saying that they support or belong to opposition parties? According to the survey 47% of the respondents refused to indicate who they would vote for. Of the 53% who declared their preference 31% chose ZANU PF and 20 the MDC. My point of fear of disclosure is brought to light as shown that many people feared disclosing their political affiliation.

It’s so easy to say I support ZANU PF because you know you are not stepping on anyone’s toes. But when one publicly says they are for the MDC you are mostly likely to irk a few people and place your life at great risk in your community especially in rural communities. I was enlightened in the other findings of the survey, which somehow newspapers reporting on this story ignored.
-85% are ‘sure’ or ‘very sure’ that they will be casting their ballots in the next elections
-47% of those who said they would vote in the next elections stated ‘this is the election that will make the difference’.
-A total of 35% respondents in this survey (compared with 16% in 2010) now believe that the next round of elections will be free and fair.

These are among other findings summarised on the Freedom House website.

The last time such a report was published saying MDC was the most popular ZANU PF quickly rubbished this report and Herald did not even report on it. And because this year’s report shows ZANU PF as the most popular party, the Herald took the story to their front page and the MDC was quick to rubbish this report. I believe the ballot in a free and fair election will show who the most popular party is. May the best party win in the next elections!

Walgreen a pharmacy in the US specialises in the provision of pharmaceutical services to people living with HIV. This has led to debate on the use of specialised HIV community pharmacies. A study conducted in the US shows that users of HIV-specialised Walgreen pharmacies proved significantly greater adherence to (the degree to which patients follow their prescribed drug regimen) and persistence with their therapeutic drug regimens (the time to treatment discontinuation). In these pharmacies the staff were specially trained to provide HIV services helping HIV infected individuals to be more compliant with their ARV drug.

Now taking this back to my country, statistics reveal that an estimated 1.3 million people are living with HIV in Zimbabwe making it one in every ten is HIV positive of the over 12 million estimated population. Zimbabwe whose prevalence rate is high in Africa, still has what I will call a ‘black corridor syndrome’ in regards to HIV and AIDS. In this black corridor syndrome I mean many people living with HIV keep their HIV status a secret and some even go to the extent of hiding it from their partners. In this black corridor people try to get their ART treatment in the darkest places possible without anyone finding out. They visit private doctors and some import their ART drugs not only because they can afford to, but also because they want to keep their HIV status unknown. People who suffer from this black corridor syndrome take their drugs behind a closed door or change containers that carry their drugs. All this is done to keep it as a secret as much as possible.

In such a society where people living with HIV shun disclosing their status, it means walking into a specialised HIV pharmacy will therefore not be an easy thing. Not that I am pre-judging already but if one is seen walking into such a pharmacy anyone who sees him or her will assume they are HIV positive. In the end it will mean that using services provided by HIV specialised pharmacies will be equivalent to disclosing your status. I believe in these pharmacies because through specialization they are able to meet the needs of people living with HIV hence increasing their patient outcomes. But at the same time I am concerned of certain factors. Won’t it be segregation towards HIV positive people and what of HIV negative users? It’s a battlefield of the mind already and would Zimbabweans embrace specialised HIV pharmacies?

I laughed my lungs out reading President Mugabe’s words to encourage women of Zimbabwe to have babies. “We want more children. Give us more children you women. Muri kurambirei navo? Mimba makapirwei? Aiwa musanyime (Why are you refusing to have children when you have the wombs. Do not be stingy).

Many have attacked the President for encouraging this in such an economy. Talk of HIV, poor health care facilities, unemployment … the list is endless. Some have affirmed his words saying increased numbers will mean increased strength for the nation. I was really touched in the sense that the President’s ‘joke’ portrays the African belief that failure to have a child should be blamed on the woman.There are many childless marriages in the country and in some where adoption is not an option for them, the husband remarries another wife to bear children for him. But who said a childless marriage means the woman is barren or is at fault?

Zimbabwe Youth Festival artistic director, Tenford Chitanana, has launched his documentary titled, “Toindepi: Reflections of a Discarded Generation”. The documentary which details the lives of youths in Zimbabwe’s Hatcliffe area which was greatly affected by Operation Murambatsvina. Speaking at the launch at a Food For Thought session at the US Embassy Public Affairs Section Chitanana said, “The future is not inherited but I feel it is borrowed. Its unfortunate young people have no space to walk into the future”. These words conceded with the various views shared by youths present who felt they were being marginalized and abused in some instances.

The film goes through the lives of three youths who face various challenges. From being an unemployed breadwinner, a young mother, and dropping out of school but despite the challenges they face in their community these youths have dreams they wish to achieve one day. Moreblessing, who chronicles his life mostly in the film, dreams of being a politician and wishes to run as a Councilor for his ward in the next elections.

They work hard and they dream big but the system has failed to provide at least just one of their major needs which is education. There is only one formal high school in the community, which cannot meet the needs of all the youths in the area. Thus the youths are forced to attend ‘make shift schools’ which at the end of the day mean nothing since they are not recognized by the education ministry and prospective employers. The young mother sees her future brighter if only she can be afforded decent education in her community through the building of a formal school for all. Not only for herself but also for the generations to come.

Chitanana hopes that his film will inspire the youths of Zimbabwe to envision their tomorrow despite today’s challenges and struggles. Thus he poses the question Toindepi (Where do we go) and hopes from this documentary and other works that the youths will be enabled to come together and map a way forward to work together for the future.

I wasn’t shocked when I read the findings of a recent report in the UK on parenting which revealed that most fathers and mothers lie about their baby’s sleeping habits. One in every three parents of the more than 11,000 parents interviewed on Netmums lies about their child’s sleeping habits to show they are perfect parents. The reason being there is so much pressure faced by mothers and fathers to show that they are good parents.

Luckily I don’t belong to this one third, my numero uno (my number one), which is what I call my son, who is 7 months, picked up his sleeping routine naturally. I tried to work on a routine when he was a month old and after three nights of trying I gave up. Now he is able to put himself to sleep and can sleep ‘well’ at night. When I say well I mean he doesn’t cry, in fact I don’t give him the chance to cry when he is hungry. I’m very alert so I can hear him toss and turn and before he knows it, milk is delivered. He sleeps for his 10+ hours, which means if he goes to bed at 7pm I expect to be woken up by him playing and humming at about 5am.

I have been one very lucky mother. But still at times I find myself under pressure to compare him with other babies. Being a first time mum I read a lot of baby magazines. You know how professional editors are, when they write that a baby at such a certain month should be able to do this, they quickly write at the end ‘Note that babies are different and their development will differ too”.

Having been hit by this true line in magazines I resorted to looking around for babies at church or in a kombi or in the supermarket and comparing them with my numero uno. At times especially at church I would ask how old the baby was and I would weigh the baby in my hands and do a silent eye-to-hand-heart comparison. This was becoming more of a bad habit for me and I had to face the reality that not all babies are the same. I quickly knocked some of level of sense in my head that, yes I can compare my numero uno, with Betty’s sunshine but these two are different and yes I should take heed of the editors note and live by it.

I have learnt that there is more I can gain from engaging in a conversation with the mother at church sitting next to me than calculating the baby’s weight. There is more to benefit from having coffee with Betty and have our angels play together. And definitely my numero uno will benefit a lot if I take him out of those walls he is used to seeing everyday.