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Just for fun:

16 June, 1976

This is a little early for June 16 -- South Africa's "Youth Day" -- but this week I was substitute teaching for my mum. The students' assignment was to write a poem about 16 June, 1976. So I decided to do the assignment too! 16 June 1976 was the day thousands of South African students marched in protest of the Bantu Education system. Black students were forced to study a sub-standard curriculum and were taught in Afrikaans, the language that, to them, represented their oppressor. Young SA policemen shot unarmed students and ignited violent riots across the country.

Here is a token to those students, in particular Hector Pieterson (above) -- the first child known to have been killed in the June 16 violence.

[this poem should be read aloud....it needs to be vocalized!!]

16 June, 1976:

Amandhla! Amandhla! Amandhla!
Cry Freedom!
The cry, the cry, the cry
becomes a scream
The scream becomes a yell
How can we, how can we
escape from this hell?

Toyi, toyi, toyi, up and down, up and down
All the way through this Soweto town
Toyi, toyi, toyi, can we change, can we change
this system, this apartheid, that will us derange?

We shout, we yell, we fight, we sell
Our future for our past.

Our past we touch, but cannot reach
Our past we know, but cannot teach
Our past we touch, but cannot reach
Our past we know, but cannot teach
Our past, our past
Our past dictates our future.

Our future, what’s our future?
Our futures don’t exist.
How can we touch, how can we hold what it is we do not own?
How can we touch, how can we feel, what has not already grown?
How can we touch, how can we hold, what it is we do not own?
How can we touch, how can we hold what has not already grown?

Our future
Our life
Our future
Our hell.

June 16, it came and went,
How much young hope, blood was spent?
Dreams poured, flooding down the streets
Streets filled with youth, lost, broken, bent.
Our hopes flowed with our shattered lives,
Our broken bodies, broken hearts,
They fled amongst our fleeing feet
Toyi toyi no more, this day is dead.

One shot killed Hector, hope and life
A generation died that night
A nation cut, slashed by a knife
A bloodbath, war-cry, battle, fight.

Where to SA? Where to from here?
A line drawn, ’76, that year
littered with blood, lost hope and fear
A line extends year after year.
’94, so bright a dawn,
A hope that was malformed, stillborn.

South Africa, South Africa
Amandhla! shout or cry no more
No more let children live in screams
And live to grow their adult dreams.

South Africa, South Africa
Free us from our unseemly past
“Let freedom reign” and no more pain
Follow us; please let it last.

Forced nomadicism...!

OK, so I don't think "nomadicism" is actually a word...but is worth a try! And it truly describes my state right now: am in forced "exile" in my own country. How weird is that? Let's go back to April 5 though, when I last posted on here. In the past 2 months Zimbabwe has had an election (presidential AND parliamentary); failed to release presidential results for over a month after the election; released skewed results; holding a re-run in June. Oh, and in-between all that I was almost denied re-entry into Zim after a trip to Botswana, and then told I had to leave the country in 2 days -- which was then extended to 2 weeks. And therefore took myself down to Cape Town. Wow....

The elections? I'm sure I can't add anything new to the discussion around Zim's obviously flawed elections. Needless to say, we are still waiting for change. Imagine, even sitting in another country, I hesitate to write too much about anything political because I know how peculiar they can be with their "media" laws in Zim and I would hate to be refused entry a second time due to this (severely neglected!) blog!! But quite clearly we need change, we want change, and currently Zim is experiencing over 1,000,000% inflation. Insanity? Yea...

I arrived in South Africa to witness the xenophobic violence that has hit this country in the past two weeks. Your heart bleeds for these Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, Angolans, Somalians who are here legally and who are not in a position to return to the chaos of their own countries -- and who have now been displaced, attacked or killed simply because they are from a different African country. Why did this happen? Supposedly because foreigners are taking jobs away from South Africans. Truly? I don't know. I feel there is not enough information shared in S.A. about the need for foreign skills. For example, we have a severe shortage of teachers in South Africa. Without foreign teachers, well-qualified foreign teachers, South African students would not get an education.

Another point: during South Africa's liberation struggle foreign countries gave refuge to thousands of South Africans involved in the struggle. Other African countries gave us military bases nad tremendous support, without which we may not have achieved freedom. And we repay these foreigners' children, now seeking refuge in South Africa, with death and complete alienation. It is disgusting.

I have always had mixed feelings about being a South African. As a child I felt ashamed to be a product of the apartheid system and to be living in a country that so obviously discriminated against certain sectors of society. But after 1994 I felt liberated, as an individual and as a citizen. I felt like my country of birth had done something monumental -- taken freedom without heeding the natural pull towards civil war. We achieved what many countries have not achieved: a rainbow nation.

But during the past two weeks I have again felt ashamed to be South African. At a time when we should all be working together to build a stronger country and continent we have taken the lower road, the more shameful road of attacking people who are "different." We should know better.

Onion economics (oh, and elections)

While Zimbabwe holds its collective breath, hoping that this is indeed the "Final Push" (i.e. that our president is finally going to step down and respect the electoral laws and vote of the people) we continue with our upside-down lives. I say "upside-down" because it is only in Zimbabwe that you could have hundreds of millions of dollars in your bag (if not billions) and yet still not be able to afford a basic meal!

In fact, I've decided to call Zimbabwean economics "Onion Economics." Let me explain: a few nights ago some friends and I were discussing how expensive onions and tomatoes were. Yes, we can almost understand onions being expensive. Why? Because we are importing them. (crazy, yes, but true) But tomatoes grow easily in Zim and are in fact more expensive by weight. Why? And why exactly are these two simple vegetables (some may claim tomato is a fruit, but that's a debate for another day) more expensive than beef?? None of this makes sense!

Last week I bought 3 small onions for $40,000,000. Yes, $40 million! Admittedly that is equal to approx. US$1 on the parrallel market here in Zim, but it is a huge amount of money for 3 small onions. When my friends and I were bemoaning the state of the onion, one also mentioned how he used to use an onion without thinking about the cost of it. And if an onion went bad in his fridge, he simply threw it away. Now, however, is a different story: now we use half an onion, and leave the other half in the fridge. When we find that half, we split it in half again and almost miraculously manage to make a single onion stretch over 3 meals! This is why I call this craziness "Onion Economics." Now we await some concrete election results...

To change, or not to change...that is the question!

It is the question indeed. Or at least it is the question du jour! “Change what?” I hear you ask. Forex, of course!

Yesterday I heard that world-renowned Zimbabwean musician, Oliver Mtukudzi, will be performing at the Harare International Conference Center this weekend. The ticket cost? A mere $100 million for pre-booked tickets; $200 million at the door! No big deal, right?

Right! Unless you don’t have hundreds of millions to throw away on a night out.

But this is where the dilemma of being a foreigner (with the requisite “forex,” or foreign currency) becomes an issue. Do I pass up a chance at watching this incredible musician for a matter of US$4? Just because I don’t have the Zim cash on hand? Or do I suck it up and change the forex and go to the concert? The problem with changing forex is that you know you won’t be able to buy it back (hence my panic in my previous posting!)

I decided it was worth the US$4 and today managed to get the incredible rate of Z$25,000,000:US$1…so guess I’ll be going to see Tuku on Saturday! That is, if the tickets haven’t sold out……but what are the chances of that in these times of hyperinflation?!

"How is it in Zimbabwe?"

This is a question I often get asked -- or variations thereof. "What is life like there?" "How do you live in Zim?" "How do you survive?" "Why are you there?"

Well, I won't attempt to answer all of those questions, but I can answer what my life is like:

Unfortunately a lot of it comes down to economics, and I would like to illustrate this by a couple of examples. (now, I give these examples ACUTELY aware that I live a very privileged life compared to millions of people living here...so although these things affect me, imagine the person who is earning 1/100th of what I am and has a family to feed)

My last post was about being a billionaire. Ha ha ha....

Last week I decided I better renew my British passport, as it expires in March. I was delighted to learn I could pay for the renewal in Zim dollars (or Zim kwatchas, as we often refer to them...!) I called AND emailed the British Embassy to check on the Zim$ amount and was told to come in and renew it before Monday, as the price would be adjusted on Monday. The renewal fee was Z$1.5 billion (now, I am earning a bit over a billion/month...so you do the maths!) But that was OK, I had been paid for a music gig in US$, so I arranged to change some money at a very high rate -- Z$20million:US$1, which almost covered the full renewal fee.

So Friday morning, rushed around trying to avoid traffic in town (because my car fanbelt has broken and I can't afford to fix it!) and met up with my reliable forex trader; changed the money; ran downtown to the British Embassy. Of course the elevator wasn't working, so I ran up the eight flights of stairs to get to the Consular offices. Handed in my papers and pile of Zim dollars, only for the woman behind the counter to say "Sorry, our fees went up today to Z$4.5 billion." Ahhh........!!!! So I promptly ran down the eight flights of steps and went back to work. And spent the next hour making sure I could change my Zim dollars back into US$ -- which I will change in a few weeks when the rate flies up enough for me to renew my passport! Crazy.


Then there was the saga of the packet of chips. On Saturday morning I met with a few friends for coffee, and had popped into the supermarket to pick up some groceries. I didn't pick any up, because I was horrified at the prices: a 150g packet of local chips was being sold for Z$55million!!! A HUGE amount of money here (well, at least it was last week!) But one of the friends I met assured me that at another supermarket they were going for a meagre $20million. So after coffee I rushed off and bought a few packets, narrowly missing the price increase there -- by the afternoon they were also charging $55million!!


So what is life like here? Yes, we may be having our big build-up to the March 29 elections. But on a day-to-day basis, 100,000% inflation reduces all of us to simply rushing around trying to beat the daily price increases, and stretching the fixed amount in our pockets to the upwardly-rising costs!

Crossing the $1,000,000,000 mark (yup, that's $1billion!!!!)

By the end of this month I will finally be considered a billionaire!! What more could I want out of life, right?! Wrong!

Apparently the Zim government has just released last year's inflation figures -- 66,000%!!! Incredible. Absolutely incredible! What I'm referring to as incredible is not necessarily the inflation figures -- those are completely understandable given the level of corruption and mismanagement rife in Zim at the moment. What is incredible is that this figure can be released in the national media and not elicit even a murmur of dissent from the general population. Perhaps we have learnt our lessons well.

So with these figures in mind, and with bakers pushing for bread to be $5,000,000/loaf, I am relieved my salary has crossed the billion dollar line. I just hope by the time I receive the money I can still afford what is in the shops! Now I will be walking around, like everyone else here, with a brick of our new (and already out-inflated) $10,000,000 notes!

In Zim we used to joke that everyone's a millionaire. I'm guessing that joke needs to be updated, upgraded perhaps, like inflation!

The party continues...!

And now to portray a slightly different side of Zim. For a few days our power situation was "dodgy" (as we say here) and electricity, at best, intermittent. (i.e. 24 hours off; 11 hours on; another 24 hours off, and so on) And then, for one blissful week I had uninterrupted electricity for 7 full days!! During this time we had a birthday celebration for two dear friends -- Wadzi and Chiyedza, both in the picture below. For a while I thought that perhaps Zesa had forgotten to turn us off, until Saturday evening when I was again plunged into darkness for a few hours.

It's a funny thing here in Zim: we have so little, and yet we have so much. The party we had at my place last Friday reminded me of why I'm here. Sounds like a silly thing, but a group of people -- many of whom didn't know each other -- and are from varying racial and social backgrounds, came together to celebrate. Music pumped; braais (barbecues!) were made; meat was cooked...and all in a torrential downpour!! Did the Zimbos let the pouring rain and imminent floods deter them? Hell, no!! The party continued.

And that is what never fails to amaze me. No matter what dire situation is thrown at Zimbabweans -- no money in the banks; no water in the taps; no teachers in the schools -- the party somehow continues. People smile; people help each other; life goes ON! Perhaps there's a lesson to be learnt here...?!