And if you think that achieving something, if you think that solving something, if you think a career or a relationship will quiet that voice, it will not. If you think that happiness means total peace, you will never be happy. Peace comes from the acceptance of the part of you that can never be at peace. It will always be in conflict. If you accept that, everything gets a lot better. – Joss Whedon

Groupon Inc former CEO was fired on 1 March 2013 and he said, “After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today. If you’re wondering why… you haven’t been paying attention, from controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that’s hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.” This is what he wrote in a memo to the people of Groupon. What attracted me here is that he wrote in the most candid way that most of us struggle to do.

On 11 October 2010 Newsday published a story entitled ‘perpetrators apologise for political violence. In Matebeleland South, Zanu Pf member Makheyi Ncube lifted up his hands in front of the whole community and confessed his involvement in the 2008 election violence and the people were appeased by the humility he showed. Here is a man who did not choose the finger pointing solution but rather went head on with the problem in question. 2008 stands out as a very bad year in the history of Zimbabwe and I am surprised that there is no political party which has stood up to accept not even a single wrong.

Zimbabwe lost more than 300 hundred lives to political violence. Sometimes I get so angry to the extent that I feel that I have to be alone at a secluded place because some of the stories we had prior to the June 27 elections were so painful. Zimbabwean politics has in the past three decades lacked men of valour who not only think of today but uphold a quality of forecast and goal. If an honourable man apologises, he will only look stupid today but he knows the value of time and process of healing. In five years time when he starts preaching peace and campaigning again for re-election, it is easy for the people to see the sincerity in his talk because he is a man who sets a precedent of standing for the truth rather than justifying evil behaviour.

I am not a politician by profession myself but the bible that I read in John 8 vs 32 says to both me and the politicians that, ‘And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free’. If a politician knows the overwhelming evidence that his supporter killed someone (truth), what more soothing (free) would he need in his campaign camp than this?

I think a man who does not accept his own failures is just but an ignorant liar and should never be taken seriously because if he falters, the next thing is that he wants to craft a patch to make it an excuse to cover his own junk. Only noble and patient men do the honourable thing to accept their flaws. In Shona people say, ‘munhu anomira patsvina dzake’ (a man stands with his own dirt). The moment you try to justify your wrong doings, you will force other innocent people to step in and deal with your dirt.

Volunteer or make a donation to the SPCA…

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Africa Day, we invited our subscribers from around Zimbabwe to send us an SMS slogan, and win one of two t-shirts generously donated by graphic designer and generally fun and funky guy Baynham Goredema.

We received nearly 1,500 slogans from across the country, which ran the gamut from silly to serious. So it took some doing to choose our two winning slogans, but eventually we did:

• Africa, our Africa. Laugh dictators and oppressors away. Ha ha ha.
• Africa stop chasing democracy: Ride it!

Where we could connect our subscribers to a location, we mapped them, to show the voices for Africa Day pouring in from around the country:

View Larger Map

You can view the map full screen – and click on points to read different subscribers’ slogans, and zoom in to see some of the denser areas close up.

You can download the full list of slogans here.