For the past two weeks there has been a conference on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in The Hague. Whenever CITES meets, the issue of ivory trade grabs the headlines.

Francis Nhema, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment and Tourism has been attending the two week conference. He is calling on CITES to allow Zimbabwe permission to sell it’s ivory from stock piles. Botswana, Namibia and South Africa are in support with Zimbabwe on this one!

However, the Dutch-based NGO ZimbabweWatch feels otherwise. ZimbabweWatch staged a demonstration this week drawing Nhema’s attention to the many endagered species in Zimbabwe. Pascal Richard, ZimbabweWatch co-ordinator said in a statement,

“How can Nhema talk of protecting elephants when he fails to protect or even acknowledge the basic rights of his fellow human beings? Endangered species in present-day Zimbabwe are  journalists, trade unionists, members of the opposition, human rights activists, student leaders, lawyers and clergymen, to name but a few.”

Have a look at the Endangered Species in Zimbabwe poster produced by ZimbabweWatch here.

While CITES can protect animals as endagered species, who is going to protect Zimbabwe’s endangered human species?

The past seven days in Hilversum, Holland have been enjoyable but also full of complications. Imagine staying with 25 people from 17 different countries – you all speak English but have ‘accents’ so there’s often a communication breakdown.

We are here for six weeks studying “Internet for Journalists” at the Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC).

What has been the major talk amongst participants during our first week has been the number of access cards that have been given to us. We each have a bus card, hotel card, meal card, RNTC door access card, computer access card and phone cards to call kumusha (home). These cards have to be on you all the time if you want life to move smoothly for yourself.

Day by day we have had to adjust to the ‘Dutch way of life’ and this includes making sure that you are in time for meetings. If you have a 9am meeting and you arrive at 9.05am you are regarded as late. It is very different from the way we do business in Harare where some meetings start 30 minutes late and it is considered normal.

Going to bed before it gets dark has been a challenge, darkness falls around 10pm. It just looks strange closing the curtains and jumping into bed around 8.30pm when light is still there.

However, what puts a smile on my face is knowing that there are no water and power cuts like back home. You can take a bath anytime without having to imagine what you will do if water goes and you have soap in your eyes. It is also pleasing to note that you can wake up and do your ironing in the morning without worrying that ZESA is forwarding your kilo watts to our ‘new’ farmers that have been farming for the last five years.

This weekend a friend will be taking me to meet a homeboy staying in Holland. I wonder how many Zimbabweans are in Holland but I hope there is a sizable number that can cook sadza with meat and vegetables.

I’ve just received a reply to an email I sent to a friend informing them that I had been offered a fellowship to study at the prestigious Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC).

All he said was good luck in your studies and don’t come back until there is CHANGE. He added “find something else to do there to kill time”.

I just laughed off his suggestion and I wondered how do you kill time in Amsterdam after you have over stayed?

In June last year, I spent a week in Amsterdam where I was taking part in a seminar called Expression Under Repression organised by Hivos. Before my return home, I took a stroll in the city famous for it’s “red light district“. I met a guy from Sierra Leone, at first I thought he wanted to con me, but then I realised he was just trying to be friendly.

He told me about his wife and three kids and how he was struggling to get his asylum papers in order. He said his main challenge was the Dutch language as he was supposed to be fluent if he was to pass the integration test. This guy had been there for over four years.

My ‘guide’ then asked me if I was planning to return to Zimbabwe. I told him yes, I’m going back. He was dejected probably wondering how stupid I was not to stay. It got me thinking about why it is often tough for young Africans to get a VISA to travel to Europe. They just go and stay low, as the saying goes.

Life may be tough in Zimbabwe but I don’t think “staying low” in Amsterdam will do me justice. I have told myself that if I am going to leave Zimbabwe, I will get my papers in order and be free as I move around in whatever country I decide to settle in.

Through my travels, especially in South Africa, I have seen people in self imposed exile suffer. They struggle to make ends meet, doing menial jobs and when pay day comes, their employers call the police and they have no choice but to run.

Such is the reality as I pack my bags in a few days time. I just wonder how you pack for self imposed exile? What do you take, what do you leave?

View Images of damage to University of Zimbabwe building

I received a call around 1.30am last Wednesday from friends who are studying and staying on campus at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ). “Please can you come and get us, we are stranded in Borrowdale. The university has been bombed,” so they said.

For a moment, I did not know what to do. I wondered if I should continue with my sleep or creep out of the blankets and help them. Having stayed on campus during my studies in Bulawayo, I know that if the riot police come, there is no time for explanations. You have to run for cover.

Luckily enough, I still had a few litres of fuel in my car and I decided to help them out.

On my way, I thought maybe I should pass through UZ and see for myself but I changed my mind fearing that I might come face to face with the police and they would ask me a lot of questions that I might not be able to answer.

There was very little traffic on my way to Sam Levy’s Village in Borrowdale where I was picking up my friends. As I approached the Village, there were a number of young men strolling around and I suspect they were also coming from UZ where they had run away from the ‘dreaded riot police’ who were said to have been called onto the campus.

I picked up four of my friends packing my Beetle tight and I made my way back home. As I tried to ask what happened there were a lot of theories which I just could not lace together.

The following morning, I took them back to UZ to see for myself what happened the previous night. A building which was once a dining hall was in ashes. The room had collapsed and all I could see were metal frames of desks and chairs that were being stored in this building that is less than 20 meters from one of the ladies hostels.

According to The Herald newspaper, there has been a spate of ‘terror bombings’. If this building was indeed bombed, it would the 11th one. And if it was a bomb whoever made it must have been knowing what they were doing.

What do you do when you attend a gospel music show and are inspired? Don’t you put your hands up in the air and shout, “Amen, praise the lord”? Well, I would.

Apparently some people in our government think otherwise. The Media and Information Commission (MIC) whose business it is to accredit newspapers and journalists think some gospel music producers have taken the gospel too far. According to The Standard newspaper, Geoffrey Chaparadza who was involved in the production of the album was summoned by the MIC to explain why he had produced an “opposition music album”.

For those who don’t know, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) uses the open hand as its symbol.

So when the authorities saw the album cover titled, “Zim-Praise Volume 1″ they began to panic because the album has people with open palms praising the lord.

Such actions by the authorities are worrying. Do we now have to praise the lord with clenched fists? By so doing someone will also question why we are declaring our support for the ruling party ZANU PF because their party supporters raise clenched fists whenever they chant their slogans.

Those interested in getting a copy of the album will have to wait a while. The album is not yet stocked in any music shop for very obvious reasons. It’s not clear if the producers will give in to the authorities and re-design the album cover.

However, I must say the 15 new songs on the album are uplifting. So please forgive me when I raise my hands and praise the lord as I listen to Bethen Pasinawake’s Tinokurumbidzai (We Worship You Lord).

This week, Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Auction Floors were meant to open for trading, weeks earlier than normally scheduled. Although the first few weeks at the floors are usually slow while farmers wait for competitive prices, not one farmer brought forward their golden leaf.

The tobacco farmers are said to be telling ‘Gono’, our Reserve Bank Governor, to give them a favourable exchange rate that will allow them to match their production costs.The concerns of the tobacco farmers are legitimate. If you spend XYZ on production you would also expect to be paid an amount that is more than XYZ and is profitable. Previously Gono created a special exchange rate for tobacco farmers but this year it seems he has had enough of farmers.

Recently the governor announced he would no longer be assisting our A2 farmers with any inputs or subsidised fuel as has been the case over the last seven years. It seems like its payback time for the farmers who have said: if there isn’t “devaluation”, then you won’t get any golden leaf.

Speaking on our one and only television station last night during News @ 8, Gono warned farmers not to hold the state to ransom over the exchange rate. “Lets not fight, it’s not necessary,” the governor said. He said that the government has given farmers subsidies in the form electricity, fuel and free inputs. The governor added, “this is tantamount to biting the hand that feeds you”.

The Financial Gazette reported today that there were no bookings at the Tobacco Auction Floors. The paper quoted the acting Chief Executive of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) as saying the tobacco farmers wanted an exchange rate in line with the parallel market. The official rate of the Zimbabwean dollar is pegged at $250 to the greenback while the parallel market rate is $13 000.

Will the farmers continue to hold the state to ransom? Only time will tell.