Rokpa will be screening the film the “Intouchables” followed by a talk by Tom Soper (quadriplegic) and a delicious tea.

Intouchables
This French film is based on the true story of a quadriplegic who develops an unlikely friendship with his unorthodox and very likeable carer. Philippe is a millionaire who was paralysed from the neck down in an accident. Driss is a man recently out of jail for robbery, who inadvertently becomes Philippe’s caregiver. Their relationship is based on Driss’ confidence that Philippe will improve if he escapes his stuck-up lifestyle and samples freedoms beyond physical ability.

The film, which is both wonderfully humorous as well as poignant, has won numerous awards.

Where: Rokpa, 34 Quendon road, Monavale (parking across the road at the Italian Club for $1)
When: 2:30pm Saturday 19 October
Cost: $10 (all proceeds for charity)

Tickets on sale at the 34 Quendon Road office (mornings only), or at the door.

Last week I got to meet Toni Crabb a Zimbabwean Barcelona based visual artist. Toni has been working in the arts industry for the past 23 years and has done quite a number of exhibitions. Drawing her inspiration from things, which worry her, and things which give her energy Toni, inspires conversation through her art work.

In a small village in Spain with 300 inhabitants, she went onto the football pitch and painted the goalpost pink decorating it with flowers, plants chairs making it into a space for doing interviews with people. “I wanted audience participation, I didn’t want to be the one making the images. I wanted to gather images from the audience relating to female sex pleasure. At first I didn’t know if it would work but I got a got a lot of interest and people participating,” Toni said. After showing the audience the sexual response curve – a line that shows pleasure and orgasm – she got people to discuss the results.

Asked on why Toni specifically chose this topic Toni had this to say, “The reason I did this is because there is little imagery that women make that we can actually feel and relate to about our own pleasure and sexual experience.” Other issues that the artist covers in her work are social issues like people’s relationship to the space around them and people’s relationship to the environment. You can follow Toni on her website here.

Zimbabwean security sector is undoubtedly one of the most intelligent in Africa but at the same time undoubtedly the most biased and civil manipulative. The one thing our security and intelligence have done very well since 18 April 1980 is to protect and retain political thrones for the blue bloods in the country. I believe their primary role is to protect the civilians but all the experiences of ordinary people of Zimbabwe at the hands of our National security has left me terrified and so dreading of their capabilities. When they are working to get any of our aristocratic oligarchs in power, they leave no stone unturned but they failed the simplest drill to ensure that Rebecca Mafikeni of the Glenview 29 gets released to receive medical attention. They have managed to silence us on the death of Christpowers Maisiri and declared it void of foul play. They have managed to give lame testimonies and delay court procedures only to keep Morgan Komichi under incarceration but have failed to open up investigations into the massive diamond looting in the country and only waited for the president to give them leads. No one from the urban land invaders has been reported to have been arrested to face justice so far but anyone who is deemed to have taken an opinion against their masters is very quick to be apprehended and face their unjust laws.

Our security sector is a regime security. I have not found anyone ordinary proclaiming faith in their ability to protect us. Money has always been protecting us in Zimbabwe, if you cannot offer a meal for an officer then you might have to think of getting your protection from somewhere else. Recently the Ghananians plus much more criminals in Zimbabweans have got away with serious crimes, not because they had good defense attorneys but because they had good connections in the security sector. Life is highly expendable in this scenario. Survival and safety mostly is dependent on one’s material possessions and relations rather than the simple fact that we are all citizens of Zimbabwe.

The Visa Restriction Index reveals that Zimbabweans can visit 60 nations with just a passport. Zimbabwe has improved by two countries from its 2012 position. The compilers of the list, Henley and Partners state that there are 219 countries in the world. UK, Finland and Sweden have 173 nations allowing their citizens passport only access while Afghanistan citizens can only visit 28 countries with just a passport.

Analytical reports on the Visa Restriction Index have revealed that this list shows that membership of the European Union is a key determinant of ease of movement across frontiers as evidenced by countries who are at bottom of the list – Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Also they have pointed out the imbalance between ease of access for citizens of rich nations and poor nations – no African country made it to the top ten.

crossing the Limpopo from the air
endorses the changing pattern  of reality

from South Africa to Zimbabwe

from a land marked by hundred-mile fences
by  strangely tinted  circular patches of irrigated fields
neat farms
straight roads
making direct connections from place to place

across the wide-winding sandy riverbed
uncoiling itself in slow curves across the bush

to a strange patchwork of small fields
wrapping itself around the slopes of the hills
folding over the floors of the valleys
contour-hugging paths and dusty roads
weave between places
around small woodlands (surprisingly still standing)
along invisible rivers
between dusty thatched homesteads

from a delineated and measured world
well-ordered and supervised by man
to organic chaos where the control of humans
is still held on a tenuous thread

the jacarandas are in full bloom
the paradise fly catchers have returned
the garden is a festive celebration of new life
danced by a thousand insects
and filled with the shouts and laughter of small boys

its home…
with power cuts and water shortage and rising costs
and corruption in full bloom in places of power

chaotic, messy and out of control

perhaps it is just the weather that keeps us here
or the warmth of relationship and connections
and the continuous challenge of rising to the next bit of chaos

it’s good to be back