Last Friday I went to have a look at the Zimbabwe Association of Female Photographers (ZAPF) exhibition. It is an amazing illustration of talent, as well as being a great cause for female empowerment. It expresses women’s abilities and has given a chance for female photojournalists in Zimbabwe to demonstrate their talents in an exceptional display.

The exhibit has a wide variety of photography, from landscape to portrait and nature. The exhibit is well displayed and each piece carefully explained. I would highly recommend anyone with an interest in art to have a look.

Many of the pieces carry strong messages, from political to social. A particularly captivating piece was the exhibit “Pimp My Kombi” by Nancy Mteki. This exhibit explores “the notion of public transport as a social environment, marked by gendered power relations in which the woman remains objectified”, as described in the caption.

Another particularly prominent piece was “The Referendum Grid”, a collaboration of the work of Angela Jimu, Davina Jogi, Cynthia Matonhodze and Annie Mpalume. This politically striking series shows various images taken during the referendum, displaying a variety of emotions and attitudes. The different images contrast each other making it holistic and captivating.

I would advise anyone with an interest in art, or with a bit of time to spare to go and have a look at the exhibition at 15 Princess Drive, Newlands. It is open until the 24th May from 1pm to 2pm during the week and 10am to 1pm on Saturdays and is a couple of hours well spent!

There is nothing more beautiful than a sunset on the Zambezi River, and listening to the hippos while drinking a nice cold beer. And Mana Pools is possibly the best place to do this.

Recently I went on a four-day trip to Mana with a friend, and was amazed by the beauty and serenity. There is an abundance of animals along the river (especially at this time of the year with the bush so dry) from herds of elephant and waterbuck to lions and hyenas. As my friend said there is nowhere else in the world were you can set up a scottle and make breakfast while the sun rises with waterbuck and hippos less than 500 metres from where you are sitting. On one particular morning, we sat quite peacefully eating our breakfast as a lioness (only about 300 metres away) summed up her chances swimming across the river, dodging the crocodiles.

It is the best place to escape from the stress of everyday life as you feel totally submerged in the remoteness. Even in the main camp there is a general respect for everyone else’s privacy giving a very relaxed atmosphere to kick back and watch some game, or just chill under a tree with a good book.

We have all heard the bad effects of drinking Coca Cola, how it will rot our teeth and poison us, but then again, so will most soft-drinks, and in fact, most processed food. However, it is not just the drink itself that is getting flack at the moment, but also the actual company. Recently the Coca-Cola company has had a lot of problems in a multitude of countries over their environmental and social implications on the respective countries it is based in. They are accused of doing terrible damage to the environment and having a dodgy work policy. I even have a friend who refuses to drink any Coca-Cola product, not because it is bad for her, but because she wants to boycott the company altogether.

However, it is difficult to point fingers so quickly, because although there are a lot of issues with Coca-Cola deals, such as the current law suits in India, their policies are not all bad. Coca-Cola does support some significant causes, such as “Fighting for an AIDS free generation”; a project in collaboration with other companies like Nike, Girl and Converse. Their aim is to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child by 2015. They also are one of the biggest sports sponsors, sponsoring major events such as the FIFA world cup. It was also the first commercial sponsor of the Olympics in 1928.

As with most big commercial companies, Coca-Cola does have problems with corruption and dodgy policies but overall one of its biggest problems seems to be its connection with the United States, in modern colonisation. The idea of “Coca-Colanisation” had been brought up in many parts of the world, accusing the United States of colonising countries with big corporate companies such as Coca-Cola.

“Kings and lords come and go and leave nothing but statues in a desert, while a couple of young men tinkering in a workshop change the way the world works.” - Terry Pratchett from The Truth

Last week, at Sailing School, I decided to get away for a bit of a relaxed sail, and so jumped on my boat and sailed off to the other side of the lake, anticipating a gentle and relaxed sail. And it was a gentle and relaxed sail for the first bit. I managed to make myself comfortable on the boat, open my beer, then lay back and relax. Unfortunately I didn’t realise there were fishing nets laid out all across the section of lake I was sailing on, which isn’t usually a problem because my boat can sail over them, but a bit of net caught on the rudder, so thinking it was a quick fix job, I just casually leant over the side of the boat to pull it off. Unfortunately at this very moment, I went over another net, which made the boat judder, resulting in me falling off the back. I did grab for something to hold onto, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the only thing I grabbed was my life jacket. Which left me in the water while my perfectly balanced boat sailed into the sunset alone.

I then spent the next ten minutes fighting to get my life jacket on while trying to cut myself free (luckily I had a knife in my pocket) from the net my foot got caught in, in my vein attempt to swim after the boat. After I realised my boat was not stopping any time soon I started my long (and terrifying) swim towards the very far away land. After about five minutes of hard swimming and screaming my lungs out, I came to the very scary realisation that no one could either see or hear me, and since the boat was still on a perfectly straight course (amazing boat!), no one had reason to be worried. I was over a kilometre from shore and was not getting picked up any time soon. It is a very scary realisation that there is absolutely nothing you can do to help yourself, especially when you are swimming on your own, surrounded by nets full of fish, in a dam infamous for crocodile attacks. At that moment I suddenly thought about the H-metro headline, and wondered if they would write about the silly little girl who got chomped by a crocodile while swimming among fishing nets. And that’s when I started swimming hard again. I could think of nothing worse than my entire life being reduced to a badly worded headline about a ridiculous incident.

Luckily for me, some friends had seen me sailing across and had sailed out to try race me, and, noticing a screaming, splashing idiot in the water far away from any land or boat, went to investigate. They managed to pull me, exhausted, onto their boat and let me recover a bit before dropping me back in the water close enough to my boat to save it (not an easy thing to get back in that water). I have never felt so relieved in my life as the moment they pulled me onto their boat; by that stage I had been in the water for almost half an hour, swimming against the wind and fighting not to get caught in the nets around my feet. I realised just how dangerous sailing can actually be and decided that from now on, wearing a life jacket all the time is a very good idea!

I’m certainly not going to end up an H-metro headline yet!

The US Embassy Public Affairs Section held a discussion on the problem of waste and the challenges of disposing of it, particularly in urban areas. The discussion, lead by Environment Africa, explored various ways of preventing littering and cleaning up the environment, using the expression “the carrot or the stick” to described how people can either be encouraged to not litter through incentives or through punishment.

An incentive could be offered as is done in Botswana, where people are paid to clean the streets around their area. Or a punishment could be enforced, as is enacted in the Environmental Management Act – Any person found littering should be fined no more than a level 3 fine (about $20). Another suggestion was creating a situation like in Rwanda, where once a month everyone is required to spend a few hours on a designated day, cleaning the area around where they live. While it has encouraged a cleaner environment, it has also helped bring people together after the atrocities of the Genocide 19 years ago through collective acts of community service.

However, all suggestions have their disadvantages, as incentives would be expensive, the fine of no more than $20 could have little impact on people and finding one day where everyone can drop everything and spend a few hours doing community service would be difficult. An ideal situation would be a combination of different approaches, as is suggested by Environment Africa. They bring awareness to the importance of a clean environment and the dangers of pollution, leading campaigns and outreaches to educate communities on the issues.

Environment Africa also has a focus on “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”, looking towards innovative ways in which waste can be put to use. Several examples were shown; from recycled paper, which was turned into playing cards, and art made out of old cans. There was a strong emphasis on the need for innovation, looking towards young people to find new and creative ways to deal with the increasing build up of waste in both rural and urban areas.

However, the main message was this is our environment, which is everyone’s responsibility. To protect Zimbabwe and all the beauty, we all need to take responsibility and make an effort.

Photo: Environment Africa