These Zimbabwean riot policemen and women aren’t facilitating a rally by Morgan Tsvangirai, they’re blocking it. Time for Mugabe to go. Time for the Unity Government to go.

Who run the world? Girls!
Beyonce Knowles, Song: Run the world (Girls), Album: 4, 2011

In a world where the majority of women are still struggling with basic human rights issues, it is hard to see how this song applies to us all. Sure, it’s easy for Beyonce, with all her millions to sing about running the world, especially when it’s a possibility for her. But how can I say I run the world when my husband beats and rapes me; or when I can’t get the promotion I deserve, unless I sleep with my boss; or when I get paid less that men who do the same job that I do? How can women say ‘We run the world!’, when, according to the UN statistics division 2010 we account for about two thirds of the 774 million adult illiterates worldwide; and whilst we also make up the majority of HIV positive adults in parts of Africa and the Middle-East, and while only about 50 women (excluding monarchs) in global history, have been Heads of State and Government.

The answer is not in the positions we hold, but in how we define the term ‘running the world’. The focus should not be on control and visible power and leadership structures. Running the world is not about being in charge of it, but who ultimately does the work. I believe we run the world because it could not function without our efforts, (however mammoth or miniscule). We are the more downtrodden of the sexes, and yet we find the strength to just get on with it. Several studies show that housework, rearing of children and employment (formal and informal), included, women work twice as hard as men in a day. Imagine if for one day, all the women on the planet did no work. Who’d run the world?

Musician, Beyonce Knowles’ song, reminds us all of the true identity of women. Many a time, we lose a sense of our identity and power and let our feelings, jobs and duties in the home, shortcomings and disappointments, challenges and defeats define us as women. This song is a wake-up call, so, wake up, women of the world!

Remember, we are powerful beings, and we do run this world, whether we are acknowledged and appreciated for it or not. You may feel like what you do is little or nothing in the grand scheme of things. But what is this grand scheme, but an accumulation of small efforts, like your own? Let the men worry about who’s in charge, while we get on with business.

Now I’m not saying that we should just be content with what we have and suffer on, because after all “we (secretly) run the world”. No! I’m merely reminding women of our importance, and it is my hope that knowing that we play a major part in the world, will help us feel empowered enough to go our there, come out from behind the scenes, and take charge. The world would benefit from a more feminine touch.

Bulawayo residents held a “peaceful march” yesterday to protest against Zesa for what we already know is lousy service. No police to beat up the marchers apparently. Here is the catch as later reported on national radio: the marchers demanded the resignation of the Parastatals minister and his energy colleague. It ain’t no coincidence that they both belong to the PM’s MDC. Now juxtapose that with previous marches by WOZA protesting about the same bloody shoddy service. One August  headline screamed “28 arrests in Woza demo over Zesa bill.”

And we all know whose resignation WOZA has always demanded!

For some time people in various cities in Zimbabwe have faces the realities of poor service delivery and mismanagement by local authorities and some of these challenges have gone unreported due to lack of reporting channels. Most people used to prefer the traditional media channels like radio, TV and newspapers to report poor service delivery cases. But these methods have got their own challenges like poor coverage resulting in few cases being reported.  For example its not every time we report a burst pipe in our neighborhood and the problem is automatically covered in the press and we get immediate attention of the council to come and repair it.

Recently I went to buy lunch at a local restaurant and I came across this funny flier. At first I thought it was one of those being distributed by companies advertising their products in town.  So as I read through I got so much interested with the “For Free” part. It’s very rare in Zimbabwe to hear something being offered for free. So I read the whole leaflet and unlike the rest of the fliers I have been given in town this one I didn’t throw into the rubbish bin because I wanted to check the website address on the flier.

So I logged on to www.pupurafakazazim.com.

These are two Shona and Ndebele words joined together to read Pupura and Fakaza. This is an organisation created to provide a platform for us citizens of Zimbabwe to report our social service delivery problems in our cities. For one to send a report you just sent a text message typing your problem and location to a number on the flier. And this text message is for free.  The organisation compiles the text messages and forwards them to the relevant authorities.  If you want to check the reports you just log on to the organisation’s website address and select the category you want to view. Since the website uses a programme powered by USHAHIDI there is a provision to see a map of the area from which the problem was reported. This kind of a service lets make our local authorities accountable by reporting and informing about our concerns in the areas we live. Hopefully this service will spread to other towns so that it doesn’t only serve residents of Harare.

I think many Zimbabweans feel the same.

This is a banner from Occupy Durham, building on the momentum generated from the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Not that we care anymore, since it seems he was killed in Sirte, 20 October 2011.

But for a while, (I have just been for a 6 weeks holiday) Zimbabwe was top of the list for him to flee to. Like the tyrant Mengistu before (who I think still lives in my Ward)!

However, in order to be safe, Gaddafi would have to know he was not jumping into the fire (from the frying pan). He would not want to do a Charles Taylor – fleeing his war crimes and taking refuge in Nigeria, which country promised him safety for the rest of his life. But then, two years later, bundled him off to the Hague, where he now sits in prison (although I assume it is better than being hauled from a concrete pipe, beaten and then shot to death).

So why didn’t Gaddafi snivel into Zimbabwe? He had the money, the local contact, bunkers to use?

He did not come here, or attempt to, because, (like all tyrants) he needed to avoid democracy. And he can see that democracy is coming back to Zimbabwe. And even the local tyrants are going to suffer from it in the next two years.