Some nights I like to read bedtime stories to my 3-year-old son. I have been told, and strongly believe reading aloud to my son, even before he is able to read and write himself, is very beneficial. I find bedtime reading is another way I can bond with him, and get to know his likes and dislikes, gauge what and how much he knows and teach him new things, as he tends to ask so many questions after a story.

He loves to be read to and often recites parts of the stories along with me as I read. You see, I have a small collection of books, and they are all now quite familiar to him. I would really like to add to this collection, and introduce him to more stories he is not familiar with, and, most importantly, Zimbabwean stories.

It is saddening to think that my son has never been read a Zimbabwean bedtime story. I’ve read to him about penguins and polar bears in the snow, kangaroos and koalas in the Australian outback, seals and dolphins swimming in the ocean, all things which are foreign and irrelevant to our sub-tropical, land-locked nation.  I fear he may be learning more about the world out there than he is about the world around him. I think its important to read stories to our children, involving things, places and people that they can really relate to.

The formative years of children are the most important, and many lessons they learn at this stage have a lasting impression on them. I want my son to grow up learning about our country, every step of the way.

A while back, I searched high and low, for local (in both authorship and subject matter) books for children below 5 years and was disappointed.  Apart from the age-old “Sunrise Readers” collection that was recommended to me on one of my many quests, are there any Zimbabwean children’s books out there, for this age group?

On Tuesday October 3, 2011 I attended a discussion on the topic, The Mobile Audience – Lessons for New Adapters, led by online media expert, Regina McCombs, on new trends in online media, in particular, mobile audiences. The discussion was based on the trends in mobile audiences in the United States (with a few global and even local statistics included), and the lessons that we can learn from.

Very early on McCombs mentioned that she was interested in the potential for mobile in journalism (news and other such information), but I found that her presentation revealed information that can also be used in the exploration of the potential of mobile in many other sectors.

Her talk began with an analysis of Smartphone usage, and most valued features, in the US.  Staying connected, research and news, navigation, entertainment, management and planning were among the major uses, with consumers valuing features such as GPS, social networking, internet browsing and music the most.

She then outlines more statistics on how a) smartphones have replaced PCs, especially in for browsing and searching for information, use of Apps and videos; b) smartphones are changing how people interact online, and how they do things in their daily lives. The main uses outlined were:
·    Staying connected 90% (excluding phone calls)
·    Research n news 82%
·    Navigate 75%
·    Entertainment 65%
·    Managements and planning 45%

Regina stressed multi-tasking as a key factor to consider when developing Apps or mobile pages. People in the US tended to connect to the web on their smartphones in short bursts, usually while doing other things such as waiting in a queue (59%), socializing (40%), on the loo (39%), cooking (27%), watching TV (60%) and so on. It is therefore important for App and mobile pages developers to create products where information can be seen quickly, with shorter versions of things and for less data, in order to grab attention in these small windows of opportunity.

She also shared information on how several companies are now moving away from making Apps for every different device, and are instead specializing more in device detection and automatically orienting their pages to suit these different devices. This is a far better, once-off way of dealing with the varied devices that constitute web traffic. An example of a company employing this clever system is The Boston Globe.

Regina then spoke a little about Tablets and other new forms of mobile Internet access.  According to her currently 69% (29 million) of tablets worldwide are Ipads. By the end of 2011, it is estimated that 62 million Ipads would have been sold. It is clear from these figures that tablets really are a big deal the world over. Tablet owners in the US tend to be mostly male, middle aged or younger, wealthy, racially diverse and early adaptors (ahead of the pack with technology). On average tablet users spend about an hour a day on the devices, mostly at home or while traveling.

Interesting points

The link between breaking of major news events news and mobile online traffic – Regina highlighted that on election night, 2009, 75% of CNN television viewers were also connected on CNN mobile. On 11 March 2011, the day of the Japanese tsunami, CNN once again had record mobile views, in the region of 13,9 million, and a further 1 million CNN App downloads in the next 10 days. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) also recorded that at election time a third of its online traffic was via mobile. I feel that there is something that local media agents can learn from this global trend, in order that they may better position themselves for mobile access.

Mobile advertising and its potential for revenue – Regina revealed something about the problems faced with online advertising, in the sense that people are now playing catch-up in the area of online advertising. With the development and growth, many failed to recognize and make the most of the commercial value or potential of mobile advertising. Google has now launched a page dedicated to mobiles advertising, in a bid to drum up more business in the sector.

Apparently 40% of online mobile users from Zimbabwe have smartphones. I have a smartphone myself, and it is nice to see that, network allowing, I’m not doing too badly at making the most of my device’s capabilities, according to these statisticsglobal standards. This cannot be said for many smartphone owners in Zimbabwe. At the moment, l would say, (and I think many of you would agree), that most smartphones are just being used as GSM phones, cameras, music players, and light internet browsers. Yes, they are flashier, and more expensive, but these phones don’t really get the chance to serve their real purpose and be “smart”. Even though it is true that many of the things a smartphone can do are either not supported by Zimbabwean networks or are too expensive to even be considered, many people just have no idea how smart their phones really are. Smartphone social networking Apps such as WhatsApp and Nimbuzz, the Gmail App, CNN App and a few more, are among the few apps available in Zimbabwe

A problem that was identified in the discussion was that Zimbabwe is not producing enough online content. We Zimbabweans need to package current, local information in such a way that is attractive, relevant, practical and useful. It is also necessary to explore how people can make money by putting this information online, as many people, especially those in the print media, are hesitant to put information online, because they fail to see how they will make money from it. Wouldn’t it be useful to have a mobile website where, for example, tobacco farmers can get objective, up to the minute updates on what’s happening on the sales floor (delays, price hikes of falls, weather), at the click of a few buttons?

In the office there are so many thing that we throw away everyday, without batting an eyelash. Lots of paper, boxes and other office waste are tossed in the trash without an attempt to reuse or recycle. I want to put an end to this mindless wastage and challenge you all!

Maybe you’re an environmental warrior, green artist, engineer or an artist in a creative rut, struggling for inspiration for you next masterpiece? Whoever you are I challenge you to find a creative, innovative and lasting use for these empty CD cases.

I have taken some of the plastic lids home in a bid to reduce the waste. I made a few small holes in the bottom of the lids, turned them over, and am now using them as seedbeds for my flower and vegetable seedlings in the garden. My 3-year-old son – with a little inspiration from his mum – has also started his own mini-garden using the lids. But this is just me … an “unartistic”, “uncreative” person. I’m sure all the colourful, creative-geniuses in our local artistic community will come up with something even better, and more interesting.

So go on … get creative … go green. I DARE YOU!

Last week I was part of a very interesting discussion with a few Zimbabwean tertiary students, from universities all over the country, on the issue of sexual harassment in tertiary institutions. The group was a balanced mixture of male and female students, and they were all in agreement about the existence and prevalence of sexual harassment in their different institutions.

They spoke of the large number of students being forced into sexual relationships with authority figures, especially lecturers. These students are often threatened with failure of courses, despite the quality of their work, if these sexual demands are not met. When given a choice between failing a course, which in many cases they have struggled to raise the funds for, and having sex with a lecturer to guarantee that they can continue their studies successfully, many young women, (and indeed a growing number of male students too), end up giving in for the sake of their education. This is not to say that all sexual relationships between students and lecturers are all non-consensual. There are indeed some female students who actively pursue lecturers in order to have relationships with benefits (but this not what we are discussing today).

One of the students made a powerful and startling statement with regard to these ‘sexual exchanges’ between students and lecturers, and introduced me to the idea of negotiated rape.

“There are many rapists now who can give you room to negotiate with them, even to use condoms.”

Negotiating with a rapist? Pretty hard to imagine! I guess maybe because I have never thought of the issue of rape in that way before; never thought that there would even be room or time enough to negotiate for anything in the heat of the moment. To me, the word rape has always dredged up images of brutal beatings; ripping of clothing; use of weapons; women being dragged off into the bushes and left for dead, all by unidentifiable monsters, or of uncles or teachers etc,  taking advantage of young children in private and threatening them to keep it a secret. However, from the way she put her point across, I got the distinct impression that the encounters she was describing were quite “civilized”, a far cry from the way I have always imagined rape.  Both parties appear to get a chance to talk things over beforehand, and there also appears to be quite a bit of flexibility on the part of the ‘rapists’. It fells quite strange to be using the words rape and negotiate in the same phrase, but the more I think about it, the more sense it seems to make. I’m also not sure if other people, or relevant organizations are seeing things in the same way as this young lady, but I hope that they are paying attention and at the very least feel prompted to further investigate the matter. After all what is the real meaning of rape anyway?

Maybe we should begin by exploring the meaning of the word ‘rape’ and the issue of consent. According to Wikipedia rape can be defined as the act of having sexual intercourse with a person without their consent. It can be carried out with the threat or use of physical force, duress (coercion), abuse of authority (e.g. sexual harassment) or with a person that is incapable of giving valid consent (a minor).

So, given this definition of rape, can we say that these lecturers are rapists, or is this sexual harassment? The problems with concluding whether, the incidents in our nation’s universities can be classified as rape, or just sex, lie within the issues of consent and duress, and how the latter usually affects the former. I mean, how does one prove that they have or have not given their consent, in a situation where they have been given no other choice but to consent? It seems to me that the line between rape and sex within this context is becoming even more blurry. Even though the women I speak of are not treated brutally/monstrously as we most times imagine is the case when we think of how rape occurs, are they still not, in essence, being raped?

In some way, I feel that most of us, (male and female), have gotten into a comfort zone about how we now define rape. This has to change! We must update our thinking so that our ideas on how to solve these problems can continue to be current and relevant to the situation on the ground. I’m also not sure if other people, or relevant organizations agree with the concept of negotiated rape, but I hope that you are paying attention, and at the very least, feel prompted to further investigate the matter.

Everyday I have a fight. Everyday I exchange words with some man. Not my own man, just some random guy I won’t remember seeing soon after I’ve finished biting his head off. It’s not my fault though they make me do it. They enrage me! In fact they enrage the entire city.

I’m talking of course about combi drivers and/or hwindis. These men have us up in arms over a few small pieces of silver. Fighting our way to and from home, EVERYDAY! They almost always act surprised when you ask them for your change. Before you get into a combi, they treat you so well; asking you if you want to go where they are going, and even helping you carry any luggage you might have. But once you’re in, they reveal their true selves, demanding payment for the trip, with change of course, even before you’ve safely taken a “seat”.

All combi users dread/loath the days when they have no coins or tickets for the journey ahead, because we all know that we will most likely  have to put up a fight for change. Often passengers are given their change, combined with someone else’s (dollar for 2 or kuchatiswa) and left to somehow split this money on their own.

We are faced with such tremendous inconveniences for what should be a purely mundane activity – taking the bus. As passengers, we have had to sometimes become excessively aggressive, even towards each other, in order to walk out of combis with change that rightfully belongs to us. In many instances, these daily battles are fruitless, leaving us frustrated.

I have now taken to praying for peaceful and uneventful trips, because I know that with my terribly short temper, I will NEVER hesitate to lock horns with any hwindi. My anger in these situations usually overrides logic, reason, fear and especially my better judgement. I don’t suffer fools easily, and why should anyone, for that matter.

I thought that the purpose of a hwindi is to collect money from passengers and then sort out the change. Now, if we have to sort out our own change, what then is the point of having a hwindi who takes up valuable space in the combis, adding to our discomfort? I hear that combi drivers in South Africa go it alone. There is no such thing as a hwindi there. Lucky them!

Something needs to be done about this change issue! Below is my personal (and I’m sure, shared) plea to hwindis, combi drivers and owners alike, all over Harare:

Dear combi-people

I’m sure that by now you are aware of the change problem in your industry. What are you doing in order to alleviate some of the stress this is causing us, your ‘valued’ customers, and even yourselves? Aren’t you tired of fighting with us all day, everyday, about the same thing? It’s now time for you all to put your hands together and come up with a convenient and lasting solution to this madness.

I would like to commend the owners and operators for Westgate, Ashdown Park, Mabelreign etc. for managing to organize an official, nearly trouble-free ticketing system for their routes. Why don’t the rest of you follow their example? In fact, why is there not an official, cashable (possibly pre-paid), acceptable ticket for the whole of Harare? Surely that is possible?

Yours truly,
Enraged Passenger