After four decades of freedom from colonialism Zimbabwe is free from electricity too. Those of us who got into solar after seeing the writing on the wall long ago tend to be snobbish about it. Don’t you know God Giveth What The Government Hath Taken Away? Didn’t you see the ruling party ZANU PF bringing…
The world wouldn’t be in the kak it is in today if more men like “Whisky Bill” Davidson had been running it. He wouldn’t like kak, southern Africa’s word for shit; he would prefer ‘cactus,’ the world is in the cactus, the cactus has hit the fan. Bill never swore, and certainly not within earshot…
Zimbabwe is celebrating 43 years of independence tomorrow, the anniversary of freedom from colonial rule. An astonishing 75.4 per cent of our present population are “born free” in or after 1980. So they wouldn’t know much about legendary reggae and Rasta pioneer Bob Marley coming to Zimbabwe to perform at the independence gala that saw the…
THE HOME FOR THE BEWILDERED In the clinic, the Home for the Bewildered, they asked me if I had smuggled anything in. How do you find your way to a place like this in Africa? Picking at the old bones of a life can hurt. Perhaps there was a history of compulsion and addiction, topped…
My dear, intelligent Border Collie went to doggies’ heaven. Heaven because I can’t see how she could ever have sinned. Gabby, originally named after the angel Gabriel, succumbed to kidney failure. Her ever present loyal, gentle, adorable, playful and often boisterous nature was an enormous loss. Her little friend and companion, Jessie the Jack Russell,…
An algorithm is a formula that solves problems: x+y = z. Got it? No, the formula goes so much further than that. Heaven forbid, it can now be called “a deep, many layered neural network.” So that’s why Facebook algorithms puzzle us and choose what posts we see. to psychologist and behavioral scientist Gerd Gigerenzer,…
Our justice system is considering whether to rid our judges of bleached horsehair wigs, a vestige of colonialism. As Zimbabwe approaches the 43rd anniversary of independence from Britain on April 18, a survey of opinion on the matter has been done, but not in a high profile way and no outcome has been revealed. It…
Zimbabweans, and hopefully the world, are trying to get their heads around last night’s first Al Jazeera broadcast on our region’s gold mafia. On social media, heads are spinning this morning. The facts and figures still need to be digested but the overall picture is clear. We are at the mercy of corrupt leaders, aided…
What a bummer, man! That is what we would have said in the old hippy days about a disappointing experience. Like the time the getaway car broke down. Our getaway car, a VW with bells on it and joss sticks inside, sped away from the norms of the day before it eventually spluttered to a halt…
Sometimes I am accused, even in retirement, of being irresponsible or reckless with the little money I’ve got from a lifetime of reporting and writing. Oh, I do give to worthy causes – like school fees in Zimbabwe’s broken but costly education system. They are not my children but I help the kids of needy…