Akon Madness

Akon was in Harare recently. The event of the year in a town where not that much usually happens. So half of Harare showed up to see Akon perform. Akon gave a teary speech about how he had spent a miserable childhood in the slums and now wanted to give something back to Africa (by selling expensive tickets to his concert). The real highlight of the concert was, however, seeing Akon crowd surfing in a huge plastic ball. As you may already have guessed the attempt failed miserably. The problem was that the audience was so excited of having Akon in a plastic ball in their very own hands that they refused to pass it on to others. At one point the plastic ball with Akon inside disappeared into the crowds. Everything went silent until Akon irritatingly screamed from inside the ball ”Get off of me! Get me out of here!” In the end thirty body guards were needed to drag the plastic ball with Akon inside from the hands of the enthusiastic crowds back unto stage. If that wasn’t bad enough, Akon decided to do the exercise one more time. He slowly explained the intention of the exercise as if describing a game to a five year old. The same thing happened again.

Akon's visit raises questions about the importance of good will ambassadors and other celebrities who strive to contribute to development efforts. Are they really promoting change or simply easing their own bad conscience about the state of the world?

Red Light

To be stopped by the police is something that may happen on a daily basis in Zimbabwe. The police may stop you for real or fictional reasons. The other day a friend of mine was stopped for allegedly having driven against a red light. There were no red lights to be seen, which my friend pointed out to the police officer. The police man responded, "Well, surely you must have driven against a red traffic light sometime in your life. See you in court on Monday." This example serves to highlight how engrained corruption becomes in a society where salaries of civil servants is not sufficient to meet their basic needs. The same is true for the judicial system where a lawyer may earn 140 USD per month, which is not much considering the living costs in the country. Still it is easier for the individual to support the system rather than work against it. After all a change must start with the political leaders in society.

A Zimbabwean Tiger Woods Story

Tiger Woods affairs and recent divorce from his Swedish wife, Elin, cannot have escaped anyone's attention. In fact it has beeen quite well covered in the media even here in Zimbabwe. My work colleagues, however found Elin's behaviour difficult to understand when they read about it in the papers. If Elin had been a Zimbabwean woman, they argued, it would had been a different scenario. Elins mother would had immediately paid her daughter a visit and asked:

-Is he a good father to the children?
-Yes
-Does he provide food on the table?
-Yes
-Does he come home at night?
-Yes
-Then what's the problem?

It makes one realise that there are many cultural obstacles remaining before women can enjoy equal rights in Zimbabwe.

The Former Bread Basket of Africa

Zimbabwe used to be known as the bread basket of Africa. Today the country relies on imported goods mostly from neighbouring South Africa. My neighbours, Mr and Mrs Whiteman, used to possess large areas of land outside of Harare. Since President Mugabe's land reform started in 2000 they have been forced off their land. Today they struggle to find the means to survive in a small apartment in Harare. The lack of productivity in the country is also often said to be a result of land reform. The land, it is argued, has been given to people who do not have the means to cultivate the land. Yet the problem is not as black and white as it is often perceived in media. The fact remains that land has not been distributed fairly in the past. Question is, however, how far back one should go in time when determining how land ought to be distributed. Moreover, the land reform which was meant to benefit land less poor has mostly been given to high level government and military officials. In the words of the founder of the Green Belt movement and Nobel Price winner Wangari Maathai “As long as there is no trust and confidence that there will be justice and fairness in resource distribution, political positioning will remain more important than service.” I believe this is true also for Zimbabwe.