Watching Americans celebrate, particularly at Ground Zero, you would think that the death of this one man meant the death of all terrorist organisations, and that they – never mind the rest world in which American embassies and consulates are peppered – are safe forever. One college student is quoted as saying ‘Yeah it was right to kill him. He took down the [Twin] Towers. He was a threat to the security of our nation.” The US homicide rate is among the worst in the industrialised world, surely this is a more pressing matter than killing a man who to all intents and purposes posed a lesser threat to national security?

Bin Laden was summarily executed without trial. American security operatives effectively invaded Pakistan and killed a man. I’m fairly certain that this violates all sorts of international treaties and human rights conventions. Members of former president Bush’s administration say that water boarding, a controversial form of torture, was crucial in extracting information on Bin Laden’s whereabouts. I know for certain that this is a direct violation of the Geneva Convention. But these inconvenient rules and laws don’t really apply to the United States do they? While the former president Musharraf of Pakistan has raised his objections regarding the operation, the sitting president is doing his best to kiss America’s ass. His country needs aid.

Unlike the case of Saddam Hussein, images of whose dead body were mercilessly displayed all over the international media, there is a frightening absence of any actual evidence that bin Laden is dead. It’s difficult to understand how this can be so when the operatives who killed him were able to record the entire event for the benefit of Barack Obama. Are we really supposed to believe that after he was killed, not one single man or woman involved in ‘Operation Geronimo’ took a photograph? It is no wonder then that terrorist organisations are refusing to take Obama’s word for it. I wouldn’t either.

It’s ironic that bin Laden was code named Geronimo, after an Apache leader who fought against the United States and Mexico for pretty much the same reasons and bin Laden waged his war against the United States. I’m sure the American government at the time called him a terrorist too. In view of the lack of evidence for bin Laden’s demise, it is interesting that when Geronimo was eventually tracked down by American authorities he managed to live to old age as a prisoner of war.

So now that bin Laden is dead is the world really a safer place? Not really. And exactly what significance does bin Laden’s death have on the Muslim minority of extremists fighting a jihad? Will this single act stop them dead in their tracks and force them to realise that their cause is a lost one? Or will it just add more fuel to the fire? Possibly. It’s just another example of American imperialism. America has shown the same disregard for the sanctity of human life, sovereignty, and the international conventions that that she accuses third world dictators of having. And quite frankly, I’ll take Mugabe or Chavez over American hypocrisy any day.

Newsday today reports that:

A ten-year-old Harare schoolgirl made good use of technology – video recording a rapist related to her as he attempted to rape her.

The girls uncle first raped her two years ago, then made another attempt three months later. But this time the girl recorded him as he uttered sexually explicit words.

The article goes on:

Regional magistrate Simon Rogers Kachambwa said the girl had struck the court as a credible witness who volunteered to spill the beans and told her mother what ordeal she went through.

“She did not tell her mother when you (Chikwanda) fondled her, even later on another day when you had sexual intercourse with her,” Kachambwa said.

“She felt it was too much when you asked her to do it again and she decided to record you on her phone as you spoke. “It was very fortunate that she did not like what you had earlier done to her and you did not know that you were dealing with an exceptionally intelligent niece.”

The last remarks by the magistrate are worrying. If she had liked it then what? Would he have walked free to do it again? Or would her family then have married her to her uncle?

My understanding is that sexual intercourse with a minor, whether they like it or not is a crime that is subject to imprisonment. The jail term of nine years the perpetrator received from the magistrate is disappointing.

Regardless, I say good for her.

The Zim Dollar is about to make a come back, and BabaGilbert can barely contain his excitement. He is going to make it big with BNG Merchant Bank (Baba naMai Gilbert). Watch this video clip from Colours of Dreams currently on at HIFA.

This video shares a clip from the HIFA performance Burn Mukwerekwere Burn, which discusses xenophobic violence in South Africa through the story of two Zimbabweans caught in the middle of it.

ABQ 8021 Licensed to Ziuku in Ardbennie

The man driving this kombi tried to run me off the road last night on Borrowdale road at 9;30. He crept up to my bumper then suddenly switched on his brights. When I took my foot off the gas and slowly began to reduce my speed he switched on his hazards and did not decrease his speed. He changed lanes as if to pass me, but returned to my lane. I got his license plate number when he finally passed me.

He had a kombi full of people all going to Hatcliffe, and was speeding. Meanwhile our legislators are more concerned about having every motorist in Zimbabwe install a fire extinguisher in their cars.

How many more tens of thousands of people must die in kombi related accidents before dangerous drivers like this are taken off the road?

BabaGilbert comes home unable to contain his excitement; a well placed friend of his has given him good news. After years of being reduced to scrounging to make ends meet selling chicken feet and airtime he and his wife are about to make a quick recovery. His connection has told him that the Zimbabwe dollar is about to make a comeback. The Unity Government and the multicurrency system ruined his dealer business, but things are about to change. When the Zim-dollar comes back BabaGilbert is going to make it bigger than before; he is going to open a bank.

Next door lives a teacher, Justice. His girlfriend, Happiness Dube, won’t let him forget that she is their primary bread winner. Happiness has managed to maintain her business through the transition, doing deals in town during the day and drinking and partying all night. For Justice nothing has really changed since the days of the dollar. He is still underpaid, unable to buy his girlfriend a decent engagement ring. Scorned by Happiness and convinced that the dollar is about to make a comeback, Justice quits his teaching job and joins Baba naAmai Gilbert Merchant Bank as a manager.

Colours of Dreams is an hilarious tongue in cheek portrait of those Zimbabweans who prospered in the last days of the Zimbabwe Dollar.