It was about time we did something different so I booked a table for two at La Fonteine. I sent a text to my dinner date confirming arrangements and she asked what the dress code was. I said “chic grunge”. Then, thinking about the 5 stars that Meikle’s is meant to have, I swiftly sent another text; “more chic than tat.” She turned up in impressive high heels, silver and shimmery. She got taller, I felt shorter. Thank God they were hard to walk in because they were soon ditched for sneakers. On our way to dinner I asked her how long since she’d been into the city at night. HIFA she said. We had a pre dinner drink in the Can Can Bar. The cocktail list is extensive and in a voice infused with doubt, I asked Wellington, the barman, whether he could make All the cocktails so temptingly advertised. In our very Zimbabwean way he said yes but not all. I played it safe and asked for a Cosmopolitan. At the Can Can it’s made with apple juice instead of cranberry juice. It took Wellington a full five minutes to convince me that This Would Be OK; in fact it’s even better than the usual way he said. And it was. I ended up having three. My date settled on an Old Fashioned. She winced when she had her first sip. I told Wellington that this was a good sign. She had two. I sat back and listened to some poetry that materialised out of my companion’s back pocket. She shared a poem by Barbara Ras; you can’t have it all, but there is this. Dinner menus were brought to us at the bar. There was a choice between a set menu or a la carte. Luke, one of the most gracious waiters I’ve ever met, said it would be fine to have a starter from one menu and a main from the other. Flexible restaurants rock! The starters we chose; mushroom soup and salmon pate with prawn toast, were faultless. We both chose the same main course, slow cooked lamb with an aubergine sauce. Again, the food was fabulous. The only down side was the insipid crème brule and the very weak and uninspired cappuccinos. The Can Can Bar and La Fonteine are well worth a visit. Compared with other restaurants in Harare its way ahead of the game and a visit won’t break the bank. You’ll also experience the best service in town. And if you’re worried about the safety of your car, you get free parking in the Meikles Hotel guarded car park. I’ll be back sooner rather than later especially if the pianist adds Fly Me To The Moon to his repertoire.

So is it every straight public person’s responsibility to make life better for ordinary gay people then? What crap.

Jodie Foster says she values privacy, yet it is every gay public figure’s duty to be out, to make life better for ordinary gay people.
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For someone who cheated his way to seven Tour de France medals this is a well-deserved award for Lance Armstrong. According to Foreign Police website the disgraced former world cycling champion was elected by France’s investigative website Rue89.com as the sports bastard of the year weeks before he came on TV with Oprah to confess his sins. Now we know what Lance was on besides the bike to win the races.

Even here in Zimbabwe we have our own Sport Bastard of the Year especially the Asia-gate cheats and the recent officials from the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) involved in the Ballon d’Or-gate for casting fake votes for the FIFA World Footballer of the Year award.

“Only if a coach is to sit on a national selection panel then that person should have international experience, in terms of paragraph 2.2 of the directive”

This directive has infuriated a lot people especially those in the sporting fraternity particularly those who have ambitions to coach or sit on selection panels of national sports. This directive came from the Sports and Recreation Commission and has sucked in the Minister of Sports of Sports and Culture, Senator David Coltart.

The reason why the directive has been seen to be racist in nature is the fact that there are some sporting activities which here in Zimbabwe have been regarded to be for the minority and for the elite. This was due to the fact that it was very rare (and it is still) to see at swimming pool at a government school in Chitungwiza. I remember when I was in primary in my hometown Chitungwiza, there was only one school with a cricket pitch. Every Friday all primary schools in Chitungwiza would gather at St Aidan for a cricket knock out tournament.

Given such a scenario of scarce resources how would do you then expect to groom players who can play these kinds of sports at international level so that one day they can sit on the national selector’s panel? Should we keep on blaming the whites for making the sports elite especially after almost 33 years of independence?

The alleged row at Zimbabwe Cricket seems to have been sparked by the Minister’s directive and some black players who have been sitting on the Cricket Zimbabwe’s national selection panel feel the directive is targeted at them. By throwing in racist allegations these selectors are trying to play to the gallery so that they receive some political sympathy while covering up for the poor results. Regardless of color nobody wants to support losers and that’s the reason why the nation has supported Kirsty Coventry and the Black family without mentioning racism.

My suggestion to the SRC directive is for the government to invest in sports so that no sporting activity will be regarded to be for the minority or elite. Sports have become a source of livelihood and many dreams and aspirations have been to put halt because of lack of resources.

The latest report from Human Rights Watch, Race against time: The need for legal and institutional reforms ahead of Zimbabwe’s elections, paints a sobering picture of the absence of reforms during the past four years of Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity.

The report discusses a range of reforms which would be needed for there to be genuinely free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, and highlights the consistent absence of a willingness by Zanu PF to engage in any of these reforms.

Paragraphs like this are telling:

Genuine and comprehensive institutional reform to end the pro-Zanu PF partisanship of key state institutions such as the security forces, electoral management bodies and public broadcasters are necessary to level the playing field and create an environment conducive to the holding of credible elections. Zanu PF has not embraced such reforms in the name of promoting a more democratic Zimbabwe, but has actively resisted them.

The absence of meaningful institutional reforms to facilitate full restoration of the rule of law increases concern for human rights protections ahead of Zimbabwe’s next elections. The GPA noted that state organs and institutions do not belong to any political party and should be impartial in the discharge of their duties. This declaration remains wholly unimplemented.

With or without a new Constitution, Zimbabwe needs to hold new Presidential and Parliamentary elections by the end of October this year, if it is to respect the term length of the current office holders. But in an environment of continued harassment of human rights workers, there is no prospect of meaningful reforms. To change the environment of fear, intimidation and harassment, these changes would need to have happened already. They would need to be demonstrated through actions on the ground, not just paper laws and policies. International attention will hopefully mean that the 2013 election is less overtly violent than the 2008 one was. But there is little to suggest it will be any more free and fair, or that Zimbabweans themselves will feel any more confident in the electoral conditions and human rights environment than we were five years ago.

I am standing at the checkout at TM. My groceries waiting for someone else’s groceries to go through the till. And someone in the queue behind us is talking on his cell phone. As they will do. Loud and strong, as if they were in the privacy of their office. But we can all hear! The conversation is about that “den of iniquity”, the CMED, (he used to work there), where he has a ‘deal’ going on to get a part for a vehicle, which is hard to get, but through them he can get it at a ‘good’ price.

He continues that what is good for him is what counts. He used to work there, they used him, he deserves, and they are his contacts. What is more, every body does it anyways. He has got to – to survive. Compete in this world. Feed his family.

Corruption is a system. He knows this. If no one bought the stolen goods, they would not be stolen.

So next time you hit a pot hole (easily done since it has rained every day since Christmas,  and the storm drains have not been cleaned since…, so the water stays on the road), think of this man. It is his fault. He is a major player in the corruption system. Open and honest (enough to tell all of TM!). And it is the corruption system that ensures that CMED cannot service vehicles, which means than no one gets to the site to repair potholes.

In it’s simplest form.

In the larger form – by loudly, brazenly, with all the excuses in the world – he is the disease that is corruption. Perhaps not it’s only face, but as guilty as anyone else involved, and therefore he is the reason, the filth, the evilness, the scum, that keeps the potholes on our roads (and many other evils).