Being Zimbabwean

As I walk and mingle with people on the streets or in shopping malls, I see people who seem to be happy going about their own business of living without a care. However what I may never know is what is really going on in their lives because all they reflect is ‘all is going on well face’ they have a skill of hiding their frustrations.

Only those close to me who I pour all my frustrations on know that behind my ‘all is well impression’ I am struggling despite me going on with life as normal as I can. Within me I am very frustrated annoyed to be precise, that feeling you get when you feel upset as a result of being unable to change anything or achieve anything.

This is what being Zimbabwean is and has been for at least 38 years, I am sure those who follow my blog have read some of the frustrations I have shared in some of my posts in the past. I am frustrated because the beautiful country I was born and grow up in can hardly be recognized now.

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You can see from this photograph that Harare was once a very functional growing city so were the rest of the cities including Gweru where I was born. I am frustrated because the once promising nation is slowly deteriorating things have got far far worse since my last post. Corruption has reached unprecedented levels that I wonder sometimes if it will ever be curbed.

In the past week alone it has been revelation after revelation of how the nation has been robbed of millions of dollars by people who are supposed to be governing. The result of these corrupt practices in key institutions f our nation has resulted in government failing to deliver the services which make life worthwhile for the population. People have gone days on end without electricity, pensioners find it hard to make ends meet because government can not pay the, hospitals have no medication or equipment to for health care. Government failed to be prepared for last season’s drought as a result many Zimbabweans are on the verge of starvation. All these factors are causing me to frustrated and helpless as I am unable to change the way our nation is being governed.

Being Zimbabwean pauses a serious threat to life I would not be surprised that many Zimbabweans are suffering from serious mental health issues simply because life has become a challenge people are not living they are just surviving. Thank God for social media because people who live in countries like my own where freedom of speech is a rare commodity can express our feelings on social media.

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Wordless Wednesday – My Rome Pilgrimage Part 2

Wordless Wednesday – My Rome Pilgrimage Part 1

Confussed

It is almost three months since I last posted anything, partly because I experienced what I think is a technical fault which I have not been able to resolve. I tried to get word press on the third of January 2019 and got the following response and I quote:

” My apologies to you all for this problem I will figure out how to put it right”

I may have wrongly assumed this response was from the WordPress help team but since nothing has changed two months on I got it wrong. I also tried to share my problem on the forum but never got any response. It has been discouraging, the problem is every time I try to import photos from my facebook to use on some of my posts they no longer show except as a link. I do not know how to put it right. If any of you fellow bloggers who may read this I would appreciate any help I can get to get myself back on track.

I know mine is free domain plan perhaps if I upgrade it things will be normal again.

A problem

Happy New year to you all. Throughout the festive seasons I did not have an opportunity  to write new posts or even visit my blog.

I was surprised  when I was following  up some developments only to discover that some photographs  I imported  from my Facebook account do not  show except as a link.

• My apologies to you all for this  problem I will figure out how to put it right.

Wordless Wednesday -Frosty winter mornings

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday -Streams

 

Day 3 : Creative Writing Challenge : Distortion

 

Browsing through a photographic website I saw distorted image, a lot of thoughts went through my mind, if the person who took this photograph wants to be a serious photographer he has a lot to learn in order to perfect his skills. This post follows on the first two of this challenge where I focus on the turmoil which continues in my native land.

The collins dictionary defines dictionary defines distortion as an act of giving misleading accounts of issues at stake. In the world of post truth  politicians seem to be the ones misleading the nation they lead by distorting the truth about the issues that affect people’s lives.

When the interim president was sworn in after the events of November a year ago this month, he promised to govern in a different way from the way we had been governed for the three decades. As the nation was yearning for a change it was prepared to give the benefit of the doubt, and ignored his chequered past hoping he meant business this time round.

It is becoming clear that all that the president has been saying from the time he sworn in  was only rhetoric which is not backed by a will to act instead he has done the opposite.  One of the reason for the coup was according to the ruling party was to ‘restore legacy’ I want to believe they alone knew what they meant by that. The rest of the nation me included  concluded that the “new dispensation” was about working hard to resuscitate the economy so that the much needed jobs may be created.

It was disheartening to hear that all our government spent time in their first session in parliament was discussing what model of vehicles should be bought for the  300 parliamentarians. While they were discussing the vehicles 12 lives had been lost to cholera, that to me is a distortion of what  it means to be representatives of the people in the house of assembly and making decisions which affect people’s lives.

It is possible for government to put in place a scheme whereby the parliamentarians would purchase their own vehicles which they can use for their work without having to make tax payers to provide cars for them The tax payers money should be to make all services like purifying water, deploy workers in communities to promote hygienic lifestyles which prevent diseases. A quick calculation of how much it will cost tax payers to provide these vehicles  at US$60.000 each  is US$5,400,000 which is more than enough to sort out the drinking water systems.

Hard working Zimbabweans have nothing to show as rewards for their hard work and find it hard to save money to do things all working people do  like going away for holidays. The more I read and hear of the kind decisions that are made in the assembly leaves me wondering as to who is serving who, the answer is simply that the majority of us are serving those in government.

My wish is for the population to challenge their own representatives and demand accountability of all the promises they made especially the president. I am aware that there those who feel the president should be given more time, the only problem with that  school of thought is so far a year on there do not seem to be any signs of doing things different from the previous government.

The only regret is  the kind of opposition we have it must by seen to challenge the way the nation is is being governed instead they oppositions parliamentarians have voted for the controversial cars living them in a tricky position. It does seem like we trapped by politicians who get into politics for their own agendas.  There is a need for politicians to be seen to be wanting to reflect a leadership style which is not distorted if the electorate is to trust them.

 

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday – Clouds