According to a Reuters news agency report over the weekend, a 50-something year-old man committed suicide by burning himself outside the Italian parliament. He was protesting against his joblessness, and according to the report, this was one of many suicides related to unemployment as Italians reel under harsh government austerity measures.

It got me thinking about the tough conditions Zimbabweans have endured since good governance and sound management of the economy went out of fashion. It got me thinking about the 80-plus percent unemployment in the country and just how far the jobless have tolerated their circumstances, just what figures we would be counting of self-immolation outside parliament. It does cast a very bad light on the economic injustices that have been endured here, the indignity of fathers failing to provide for their families. Indeed, troubled mothers have been heard saying such horrible things as, “if I could swallow back these kids, I would.”

That’s how bad economic injustice can be, yet the worst that emerges from these miserable circumstances is insistence by the same politicians who sow these seeds of abject misery that they deserve the people’s vote come elections.  From petty crime to crossing the crocodile infested Limpopo to larger-than-life government corruption, all this in different ways has gave its own forms of death and its time we asked ourselves tough questions as we prepare for a bruising time ahead of elections about where are headed and who we want to preside over our economic destiny.

Already, we know that some humanitarian agencies have attracted Zanu PF’s ire for claiming some people have died over the years because of starvation. How do we know some didn’t kill themselves because they couldn’t take it anymore? The story of that Italian is very telling. Yet some will say different societies have different value systems that determine how they deal with these such things suicide, yet the human condition essentially remains steeped in the basic pursuit of happiness.

And politicians have made it their sworn mission to deny people this right to happiness.

It’s not always that one gets to enjoy news details from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). Well, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing this on radio  last night: “Professor Authur Mutambara was denied audience with President Zuma…”

When will Mutambara learn to get off? In his crazy bald head he firmly sees himself as Zimbabwe’s future president and those who saw him “awaiting his turn” to meet President Zuma must have wondered whose constituency he was representing. I can imagine that, because President Mugabe has “allowed” him to bumrush the GPA, the garrulous fop must have pleaded with President Mugabe to let him meet Zuma! The ambitious fool forgot that Zuma would, as the courts decided already, meet his in-law, Welshman Ncube, the same man Mutambara would have liked President Zuma not to talk to! Talk about a useless bald head.

Just for kicks, I leave it to ZBC: “Professor Authur Mutambara was denied audince with President Zuma…” Dimwit.

So Dumiso Dabengwa’s Zapu wants a dead comrade to be buried at the National Heroes Acre. The party has actually written to Zanu PF making the rather ridiculous request. But why? Zanu PF has it on record that the burial shrine is a members only hallowed ground, so what’s likely to change now? Perhaps it’s a case of making the usual necessary noises to heap more muck on Zanu PF that they continue denying kosher national heroes and vanguards of the struggle due recognition. But isn’t that known already?

You have to recall how many times Zanu PF has had to posthumously declare some long forgotten ex-Zipra stalwart a national hero after some botched attempt to ignore the dead hero’s “liberation war credentials.”

The wise leave natural justice to the gods, and Zanu PF has long dared the gods. In those same inscrutable ways this party may well just be burying itself alive.

You just have to ask yourself if any national project will ever escape the opprobrium of political interference. Now we read that the the feared spooks are taking over the Zimbabwe national census as Zanu PF proxies. Small wonder then some people have no problem giving false information to enumerators or simply telling off the enumerators like they would do to ZBC license inspectors. All this because members of the public think the CIO feeds this into data some database to monitor their political activities! People believe these things, and it is thanks to reports that the not-so-secret agents are doing the bidding of Zanu PF in the counting project for nefarious purposes. And who will be surprised if the census findings are disputed as we have seen in the past?

A young man pissed off with his joblessness packed his bags over the weekend to join the rest of his family in the now clichéd but still very painfully true great trek to Jo’burg. Another young graduate of the School of Mines found himself jobless after having tasted the sweet mining dollars for a few months somewhere in Gwanda. He is presently holed up with his old parents somewhere in rural Masvingo contemplating his next move. This young man already has a brother working in Mozambique, I suspect that’s where he is also headed. These two young men whose demographic is considered by some pundits as the largest voting bloc in the country is expected to vote in droves in the coming polls. As some parties cry out for the Diaspora vote, it is a rather harsh reality that these parties either choose to ignore or simply have no clue how to address the issue that some potential voters are actually leaving the country. Talk about life’s painful choices: stick around and fix this joblessness through the ballot and still have to contend with the present hunger pangs. Tough choices, hey, and the usual suspects will add, a tough call for patriotism.

So much about what appears to be glib public statements on zero tolerance to political violence: “An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a since interest in prolonging lives of poultry.” George Eliot, 1866