"Nyika yaora" Can talks solve anything?

Zimbabwe's economy has gone to the dogs with the highest inflation in the world. Every sane Zimbabwean should be wary about the situation. The living conditions for almost everyone have decreased tremendously, many no longer afford to acquire even the basics. Vulnerable communities such as orphans are dying because of hunger, if you have never witnessed this, get it right this is a true Zimbabwean story.

July 21st 2008 shall be remembered for the signing of the MoU by political parties to begin inter party talks to solve the crises. Now the question is, Can the talks bring something good on our tables? post your comments here

Chipanga confesses his presidential ambitions

Hosia Chipanga, a popular sungura musician has confessed that he wanted to join the presidential racer in the March harmonised elections. Chipanga only decided to call it quits when he failed to follow all necessary channels to be in the competion as he thought were very undemocratic.

Having failed to make it into the race, which eventually pitted four candidates — President Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai, Simba Makoni and Langton Towungana — Chipanga now wants the existing political parties to merge and form one party.

He suggest the party be called MAPIPI — which stands for the Modern African People's Institute of Political Independence which will be God driven and have its roots in the people. www.herald.co.zw  accesed 19 July 2008

"I wanted to contest as a presidential candidate during the March presidential elections. In fact, I tasked my lawyers to make an application for me," he said.

Chipanga started seeking legal guidance on the 2008 Presidential election in September last year, according to the correspondence he had with his legal practitioners, C Mutsahuni Chikore and Partners.

The Chitungwiza-based sungura artiste only decided against contesting at the beginning of this year when he was advised of the legal requirement that his nomination papers had to be signed by 10 supporters from each of the country's 10 provinces.

Chipanga feels the requirement is autocratic, binding and repressive.

"I felt this requirement was one way of trying to bar prospective candidates from entering the race. I decided not to pursue it further because I felt it was very binding.

"Naturally, as you all know, I have more than just one 'supporter' in each and every province of the country because when I hold my shows there, many people attend my shows and these could have easily signed my application," said Chipanga.

He added that this was not the first time that he had dabbled in politics.

"I was a politician first before I became a musician, but if I tell this to people they won't believe it.

"It started on September 13 in 1977 when I had a vision in which I was told to change the world, just like the Biblical John the Baptist.

"The first and closest political organisation that I formed was called the Organisation for International Peace and those who were there then might remember the time I was arrested by members of the CIO."

For many a Zimbabwean, Chipanga's political ambitions will be dismissed as a joke but he claims to have solutions to all the problems the country is currently facing.

"I wanted to show people the kind of leadership that is divine and God-inspired. All the suffering and problems that people the world over are going through is a result of lack of Godly wisdom. I tell you, I hold the keys to all these problems and I am willing to share them for our nation's good if I am approached.

"I don't have anything against any political party or leader and that is why I sang the song Sahwira Wenyika in which I am urging the ruling party and the opposition to come together as brothers," Chipanga said.

Despite missing out on the 2008 election, Chipanga — who is currently working on a new album — said he has decided to start "laying the groundwork now" ahead of the next presidential elections.

Fwd: Public demands removal of zeros... Gono under fire

Members of the public have this week advocated for the slash of several zeros from the local currency by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to facilitate transactions in the purchase of goods and services and accounting procedures, a survey revealed. 

Zimbabwe's inflation has hit a record approximately nine million percent with the smallest purchases costing over three billion. A cigarette by the street side is going for five billion while an ordinary t-shirt at a flea market costs over a trillion dollars. Some newspapers especially the privately owned are going for $ 70 billion dollars.
 
The majority of machines can count up to $10 billion, an amount which is equal to a charge per trip by commuter omnibuses from location to town in Gweru. Even the Automated Teller Machines (ATM), once the pride of banks and building societies are no longer functional due to many zeros. Mobile phone operators have already slashed zeros to make it easier for transactions.

Computer accounting systems have also been affected, as they are not compatible with so many zeros and this has compromised the accuracy of accounting systems.

If implemented this would be the second time the central bank will be slashing zeros.
 
In 2006 the bank deleted three zeros in an operation dubbed Sunrise but due to the hyperinflation, the local currency has accumulated more zeros than in 2006.

The slashing of zeros will come as a welcome measure to the many Zimbabweans who have been grappling with carrying large sums of money.

"It would be better if the zeros are slashed because business is greatly inconvenienced by many zeros and large sums of money are difficult to handle.  What does it benefit to be called a trillionnare when you are still very poor?  We appeal to RBZ to consider slashing of zeros as soon as possible," said an interviwee

Economists, however, say while this would retain the current accounting systems, which are failing to cope with the many zeros; it is a short-term measure and an indicator of failure on the part of government in the war against inflation.

In what they said would be a 'cosmetic measure' analysts say the decision would not tackle the major problem of inflation and foreign currency insufficiency.

"In a few months the zeros will be back again, they should deal with the root cause not the symptoms," said a top banker.

The reason why gender balance should be promoted

Societies have made important gains in addressing the problem of domestic violence, particularly in the area of service delivery to its victims. However, millions of women are battered by their intimate partners every year in countries around the globe.

www.answers.com/topic/domestic-violence?cat=biz-fin

History and Outrage

During the 1960s, the women's liberation movement began drawing attention to violence committed against women, and the battered women's movement began to form. At its core was the outrage of women who argued that individual cases of violence against women in the home added up to an enormous and unacceptable social problem. By the end of the 1970s, statistics proved that isolated cases of abuse were part of a shocking national problem. Victims became more visible; so, too, did the inadequacy of society's response. The battered women's movement emerged, becoming one of the most powerful social justice and service movements in United States history.

Shelters and hotlines began to spring up around the country. What began as a social, service-based response to crisis began to take on political urgency. The staggering numbers of women and children turning to shelters perpetually outpaced the growth of the movement. The shelter work uncovered endless horror stories: law enforcement officials who mislabeled domestic disturbances, judges who ruled in favor of perpetrators, and health care providers who mishandled violence-related injuries. At every turn, women seeking help could expect indifference, hostility, and endangerment. It became clear that helping women in crisis required more than front-line emergency services. It required changing the established social institutions and creating or changing the laws that affected them. During the 1980s, a vibrant network of nearly two thousand domestic violence programs in the United States organized into state coalitions, formed to take on the challenge of pressuring social institutions to adequately respond to victims.

The 1990s proved to be a watershed decade. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA, 1994) was passed, a major federal bill that provided more than $1 billion to assist shelters, train law enforcement personnel and judges, and support other crime-prevention efforts addressing violence against women. The decade also saw, via live television, the trial of football legend O. J. Simpson for allegedly murdering his former wife, Nicole, and her friend. Though he was eventually acquitted of criminal charges, Simpson's case prompted unprecedented media coverage of the issue of domestic violence.

Dilemmas and Opportunities

The domestic violence movement clearly has a rich history of achievement. The critical front-line service provision crisis response, while central to saving some women's and children's lives, can never realize its mission: to reach out to all victims. Despite its rapid growth, the service system is unable to keep pace with widespread need. Prevalence statistics and anecdotal evidence all point to the epidemic nature of domestic violence: Nearly one-third of American women (31%) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. Yet only a small fraction of abused women ever go to a shelter.

The domestic violence movement's agenda remains predominantly shaped by the quest to improve services for, and to make laws accountable to, domestic violence victims. As a result, the notion of domestic violence prevention in North America and most of Europe relies heavily on punitive criminal intervention. Although the movement has consistently educated policymakers and other institutions, the advocacy community has not focused collective attention on developing an agenda for preventing domestic violence at its earliest stages.

The criminalization of domestic violence and the sensitizing of criminal justice agents should by no means be abandoned. However, emphasis must also be given to other sectors of society, including communities of faith, health delivery systems, and workplaces. Preachers, doctors, employers, coworkers, friends, and family members are all in a prime position to reach out to help women facing abuse, as well as to let batterers know—perhaps for the first time—that their behavior is simply unacceptable. Evidence suggests that many battered women are actually more comfortable talking with friends and family members about the violence in their lives than with trained domestic violence professionals whom they do not know. Developing leadership within each of these arenas, then, represents a huge potential for disseminating more broadly messages that can begin to change the social norms.

Unfortunately, pervasive cultural acceptance of domestic violence at all levels of society helps to explain how the justice system has historically responded to domestic violence. Typically, police have not taken the problem seriously, rarely arresting perpetrators. When battered women persevered and tried to press charges, district attorneys often refused to support their cases, and the cases that did make it to court were likely to be dismissed.

While laws have strengthened the ability to respond to domestic violence cases, covert attitudes that condone battering explain why inaction is the norm rather than the exception. According to a 1996 public opinion survey, almost half of Americans (47%) currently believe that men sometimes physically abuse women because they are stressed out or drunk, not because they intend to hurt them. Clearly the domestic violence movement has yet to cultivate widespread attitudes that condemn violent abuse of women.

Recreating a Sense of Outrage

One of the greatest challenges facing the domestic violence movement is the widespread perception that spousal abuse is a "private matter." Domestic violence is often perceived as private business between two individuals that requires therapy rather than intervention. Creative approaches are needed in order to move a private matter into the sphere of public concern and to translate that public concern into a widespread social consensus for action. A successful strategy would include the following: a comprehensible institutional change approach to empower individuals to make contributions through the institutional structures that touch their daily lives; an emphasis on prevention that is partnered with an ongoing commitment to victims; a multifaceted media campaign that begins to change the collective social consciousness; and a reigniting of the community-based, political activism that spawned the movement in the first place.

For example, in the early 1990s, The Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) began to explore ways to strategically inject the politics of outrage back into the domestic violence movement in the United States, combining media and community-based activism into an overall approach. In 1994, the FVPF launched a nationwide media and grassroots organizing campaign called "There's No Excuse for Domestic Violence." It targets the friends, family, and coworkers of victims of abuse who sanction the violence with their silence and whose actions can help change social norms. The campaign includes public service announcements that trumpet the campaign's key messages that "domestic violence is everybody's business" and "there's no excuse for it." In one powerful print ad, viewers are confronted with the image of a man brutally beating his cowering wife, under the words: "If the noise coming from next door were loud music, you'd do something about it." These public service announcements provide a toll-free number individuals can call for a free action kit, which details concrete ways people can address abuse in their workplaces and communities.

These and other programs that generate and communicate this kind of collective sense of indignation about the problem of domestic violence work toward a broader, more comprehensive approach that involves ever more components of society. Their aim is to proactively affect public policy and wide-ranging institutional policies, community responsibility, and individual action, and to move a "private issue" into a public space in which domestic violence is forbidden.

What next Zimbabwe?

I'M LOOKING BEYOND YOU. . . Tsvangirai decided to pull out

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, has withdrawn from the country's presidential election, saying an escalating campaign of violence by President Robert Mugabe's youths has made a free and fair poll impossible.
"We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate shame of an election process," said Mr Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change.
Mr Mugabe had "declared war by saying that the bullet has replaced the ballot," Mr Tsvangirai said.
"We believe an election that reflects the will of the people is impossible," he said, appealing to United Nations, African Union and Southern African Development Community to "intervene and stop the genocide".
The MDC and Mr Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the March 29 election, but according to election officials, failed to win an absolute majority needed to secure the presidency.
A second round ballot was due to be held this Friday, 27 June.
But Mr Mugabe and his militia have waged a campaign of murder, rape and violence against the MDC, which claims 86 of its members and supporters have been killed and 200,000 displaced from their homes.
"We in the MDC cannot ask them (the voters) to cast their vote on June 27, when that vote could cost them their lives," Mr Tsvangirai told a press conference in Harare.
Mr Tsvangirai, who has been arrested while campaigning several times in the past fortnight, only to be released without charge each time, said there was a state-sponsored plot to keep the 84-year-old Mr Mugabe in power.
Mr Patrick Chinamasa, Mr Mugabe's justice minister, denied there was a campaign of violence, claiming Mr Tsvangirai was quitting because he feared losing the run-off poll.
"There's no genocide taking place anywhere, justifying any intervention. He's only saying that to bring foreign intervention in this country," Mr Chinamasa said. "With respect to the reasons he gave for withdrawing, it is not true that it's due to political violence because it is his party that has been instigating violence."
On the legitimacy of Mr Mugabe's apparent victory by default, Mr Chinamasa said: "What legitimacy do you lose when a candidate withdraws, fearing defeat? The situation on the ground is now very supportive of us and Tsvangirai knows he faces certain defeat.
"He spent a lot of time outside the country talking to people who do not vote. Tsvangirai must write formally to ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) advising that he is withdrawing from the race, in which event there will be one candidate, meaning there will not be a poll. If he doesn't, the poll will take place."
There has also been a campaign to target MDC officials and their families.Mr Tendai Biti, a top MDC Secretary General and lieutenant to Mr Tsvangirai, is in custody on a treason charge and other offences that carry a possible death penalty. A magistrate has ordered him held until at least July 7.
Mr Mugabe, who has ruled since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, has repeatedly vowed never to turn over power to the opposition, which he brands a puppet of Britain and the United States.
On Friday, he warned that "only God" could remove him from office and said the MDC would never rule Zimbabwe. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Educated yes...but what next?

SUBSTITUTING BOOKS FOR GUNS . . . Graduates have lost faith in education, come what may they are prepared for anything..... in Shona kusiri kufa ndokupi?

By Golden Maunganidze

The education system in Zimbabwe has gone to the dogs. Hate me or love me, take it or leave it but this is the truth. This might sound to be too harsh and soar to swallow especially to those who are in top government positions. Yes, i'm not being mocking anyone here but my heart bleads as write this article.

Since history immemorial, education has been ranked as the most effective tool anyone in the world can get in order to live a happy life. This is certainly the reason why Zimbabwe was advocating for education for all for the especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s but now it seems everything has been turned upside down.

After studying for about 20years right straight from grade zero up to university level when someone acquires a first degree. Truly with a first degree anyone in the family, relatives and friends would be happy that its another soul ready for Canaan. This is however, the opposite of a Zimbabwean graduate. One can actually cry upon realizing what is awaiting a Zimbabwean student. I have been assessing the life after University in Zimbabwe.

In a batch of about 50 students, it is not surprising to find out that less than five of them would get formally employed. Shame. When I asked some of my colleagues at university to tell me their dreams after school, shame they all told me that they would want to cross to either South Africa or Botswana just to look for greener pastures, shame. This is true, about 10% of them had passports and the rest dont. What only came in my mind was that they have gained degrees yes but the crocodile infested Limpopo is waiting to swallow them up.

Help to save troubled Zimbo students. Do you have a business idea, help these guys and save life

Shun political violence, pray for peace

By Golden Maunganidze

She is not joking, this child is praying for our country!

With only a week away from June 27, it is every Zimbabwean's role to make sure that peace and tranquility prevails during the elections. it is high time that everyone discover that violence does not pay. Elections come and go.

No one should be persecuted for his or her own party, political party is like a religion and therefore anyone is free to choose the leadership of own self.

Let me take this time to challenge everyone to pray for our country so that we manage to hold peaceful elections. Many people around the globe have talked about Zimbabwe and thousands have fled from the country to so called greener pastures but we still have a chance to shape our destiny. So many have talked about the Kenya style, Is it that we want?

Everyone has a role to play. If you were crying without anyone hearing, this is the time to make a cry which will rescue a sinking economy, hyperinflation, stink coruption and high levels of nepotism that have been haunting our country for a long time now!

When money loses value...

By Golden Maunganidze

To the left, a bin was pictured with useless bearer's cheques mixed with rubbish , ready to be burnt as gabbage. To the right is a man struggling to handle his money but the money is not enough to help him pull through the whole month. (images from google).

It is nolonger surprising to see someone stealing a paperbag leaving bundles of bearer's cheques। Yes the paperbag has become very important, more valuable than billions of dollars in Zimbabwe. Suddenly everyone has to become a farmer in order to use "Special Agro Cheques" even to buy a plate of Sadza and vegetables,the cheapest meal that you can find in a restaurent. A wrecked economy so to say. It is a crime to burn money but if those guys from city council really want to be honest with us, they have so far burnt billions of dollars which they get in bins every morning. If one moves around the city in the morning just to check what would have been deposited in rubish bins during the night, that person will discover that every bin contains some cheques.

At first, people laid the blame on the Reserve bank governor Dr Gedieon Gono, but i have a different opinion altogether. Dont you think that the inflation is nolonger caused by the markert forces, it is now physchological driven. Everyone want to get bumber profits per every commodity that he gets. Surely its unjustfied to buy a shirt which cost around 90 billion dollars.

In shona a saying that "Mari marara" would mean a rich man but today it can be a true reflection of our money. If you find it in bins and no one eager to pick it and place it in the wallets then what can we say besides "mari ava marara?

June 27, Zimbabwe must decide

Zimbabweans in queues to vote in the just ended harmonised elections the future is in your hands... go and vote to decide.

With only two and half weeks to the polls, Zimbabwe must decide on who they want to be the President for the next five years. As campaigns get hotter, we must pray for peace, free and fair elections and peaceful post election environment. President Robert Mugabe of the Zanu PF party and Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), will battle it out for the second time after both of them failed to gunner up the constitutionally required 51% of the total votes on March 29.

Lets continue to pray for peace.

The Publisher tours streets in Masvingo

Masvingo is the oldest city in the country but there is a great difference between Masvingo and Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru and other cities. Residents call the powers that be to foster development in this city. No need to remind the government that Great Zimbabwe monuments are in Masvingo, shrines in which the country;s name was driven from.

The city fathers must also make sure that the streets are clean, just besides Maunganidze are rubbles which have been in this street (2nd street) near Sisk shopping centre for more than a week. The health of citizens is at risk

Z$ Billion mania takes over... all prices hang above billion

By Golden Maunganidze

He scratches his ashen head, cudgelling his brains to cook up an idea of how he can scuff up the billion dollars needed to board a bus from Zaka to Masvingo where he is supposed to undergo a health check-up process at Masvingo General Hospital.
To travel from his home to town and back demands almost six billion today and the old man is even afraid that if the inflation-conquered economy remains unabated, the bus fare would even double before the week ends.
Despite the fact that he is a senior citizen, a sign which is supposed to translate to wisdom, Mr Mutandwa (80) fails to find a solution in the endeavour to beef up his ailing pocket.
Many options suddenly flood the old man’s mind- “Can I sell the only six chickens that I have?”

To him, the idea is brilliant, but what then would he slaughter for his grandchildren when they come for holiday in August as usual?
Selling a goat is an option already out of bounce as he sold them all to pay second term school fees for his three grandchildren whose parents succumbed to the ravages of HIV and AIDS.
Every commodity the old man thinks of is demanding not less than a billion. To him life has become unbearable as he no longer has anything that he can sell to generate such billions which are currently minimum charges for basics.
His ailment is heart problem and such an economic situation’s contribution is worsening his already precarious health condition.
Such is the “billion mania” that has come to soil the socio-economic fabric of our once beloved Zimbabwe.
The prevailing situation has pummelled the rural folk into submission on the financial front as theirs is not a well monetarised economy.
They have nothing to sell which can generate such astronomical sums of money.
Their fate has been sealed; they have been condemned to the abyss of financial exclusion.
One wonders whether they will ever continue with normal life as basics are curbed to the few cash ‘barons’ and ‘baronesses’ in society.
Though buses are plying some routes in the rural areas, it should be learnt though with grief that these buses have become mere decorations as they have totally become unaffordable.
Distinct dichotomies have developed between the urban and rural folk as travelling using both private and public transport has become a fairytale due to the prohibitive costs that have imposed an almost despotic reign on travellers.
People can no longer afford to go and console their beloved and bereaved friends, be it in rural or urban areas.
Family solidarity, which was usually fostered through members meeting and discussing issues, has been left in tatters as transport woes hold sway.
Transport sector players would argue that their business is sailing in stormy waters, thus analysts should not merely get fascinated by sums of money charged as bus fare, but consider the real value of the money.
Mr Henry Chivhanga of Chivhanga Transport said that: “Though we sympathise with our clients, you have got to appreciate the various economic challenges that have besieged our business. We have soaring fuel prices, erratic fuel supply on the market coupled with surging prices of spare parts,” he said.
Five litres of both diesel and petrol fetch from Z$5 billion to Z$7 billion on the parallel market, where the commodity can be accessed, which translates to increases in bus fares.
The saying, “before you think of buying anything, count billions” has gained cult status in the country, a rude dismissal of the million and subsequently, the millionaires we admired in the late nineties. Suddenly a grade one kid is now a billionnare.
It is however, very difficult to get a billion in the pocket but unfortunately the moment you realize that you have it; thus the very moment you find that the amount is too little to buy anything of significance.
Zimbabwe is probably the only country with pedestrians who are billionnares, a country where a sweet can costs way above half a billion. For one to be safe in as far as financial transactions are concerned, people speak of forex. its no longer suprising to hear a pre-school kid telling you exchange rates. Recently we were talking of millionnares, to billionnares, trillionnares and now we hear quadrillionnares and quintillionnares, then a critical question will remain unanswered. What next?