Freshly Ground cancelled at HIFA

The Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) has a tradition of doing something that ruffles the feathers of the political establishment in Zimbabwe. The opening show is usually the platform where this happens but increased political pressure has made it difficult to have the show pass the strict censorship board with sensitive or critical content.

For the 2014 edition of HIFA the controversy was, perhaps for that reason, not so much around the opening show, but rather the closing show where the South African band Freshly Ground was billed to perform. However, upon arrival in Zimbabwe they were told that they were denied entry - "reason not given" as the band wrote on its twitter profile.

Freshly Ground released a song in 2010 called 'Chicken to Change' in which the ageing Zimbabwean leader is portrayed as a leader that doesn't have the interest of the people at heart and who fears change. Shortly thereafter a performance in Zimbabwe was cancelled. 

It is therefore not a big surprise that the Freshly Ground show was cancelled at HIFA on Sunday May 4th.It was a bold move to invite them - and also for them to accept the invitation. As a matter of fact a mouthpiece for the ZANU-PF party, the newspaper The Patriot, had advocated for a ban of HIFA on the grounds that it had invited Freshly Ground to perform - all that is needed is a reason and inviting Freshly Ground to Zimbabwe was definitely one.

However, HIFA has not been banned yet. It didn't manage to get Freshly Ground to play in Zimbabwe - and that in itself speaks volumes about the political environment in Zimbabwe. Maybe that was simply the point that HIFA (and Freshly Ground) was content making in case the band could not play. 

Last Campaigning in Ghana Before Elections

On 5th December 2012 the two major political parties in Ghana had their final rallies in Accra - after that there was no more campaigning before election day on 7th December.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is the opposition party. The Presidential candidate is Nana Akufo-Addo who was also the NPP Presidential candidate in elections in 2008 where he lost by a margin of no more than 30.000 votes.

The winner in 2008 was John Atta Mills from the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Atta Mills died suddenly in July 2012 after which his Vice-President, John Mahama, took office. John Mahama was later endorsed to be the NDC Presidential candidate for the 7th December 2012 elections in Ghana.

I have witnessed rallies (of sorts) in three places in Africa - Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, and Ghana.

In Zimbabwe in September 2008 when Mugabe and his opponents from the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) signed an agreement (Global Political Agreement/GPA) to enter a unity government. This was an interesting experience that started with the thrill of a spirit of unity where ZANU-PF and MDC supporters were celebrating in the same large crowd in front of the Rainbow Towers in Harare. Until a large group of young men (ZANU-PF supporters) came into the crowd half running and chanting political songs before they started pulling MDC supporters into the group and beating them up (there's a blogpost about that here somewhere).

In Sierra Leone in November 2012 where the opposition party Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) held its last rally in Freetown and the whole town turned SLPP green.
On this day I was advised to stay indoors, but managed to go through town in a car on my way to a bank just near the SLPP party headquarters in downtown Freetown. Walking down the street to the bank a large group of young men came towards me running rhytmically and chanting party songs and slogans and banging on every car that didn't move out of their way.

The extremely intense vibe you get from these groups of young men (often holding sticks, banners, vuvuzelas or other items in their hands) is a little scary to me - especially knowing that young men are the most likely perpetrators of violence in any African election. And they bear a striking resemblance to young men I have seen in news reports and documentaries about genocide in Rwanda, war in DRC, election violence in Kenya and other places etc.

Ghana, however, is highlighted as the democratic beacon of West Africa and the country has had successful elections since 1992 and the transfer of power from ruling party to opposition without major incidents of violence (even if violence has occured here and there).
So when I got the opportunity to attend two rallies in Ghana, I wanted to get as close to the action as possible. Especially because I wanted photos.
Even if the threat of violence did not appear to be a major concern - as it was party rallies and everyone is expected to be friends - I was cautioned by everyone else that I wouldn't get out of the rallies with my phone, money, camera or whatever other valuables I was carrying with me to the rally.

Anyway - to cut a long story short, I did go to both rallies, and I came back with all my valuables - and a number of photos. The groups of young men running through the crowds, chanting party songs were mostly good entertainment even if they did sometimes seemed to be a little too interested in getting very close to me and dancing/posing for photos. Two young guys came running up to me at some point and were grabbing my lovehandles and giving me titty twisters in a very hectic way that made me feel very uncomfortable, but they took off after app 30 second and were gone in the crowd. Have no idea what that was all about. But I did serve as a reminder of how fast moods can change and things happen. But all went well - and below are the photos to prove it.

NPP Rally - Children's Park, Accra, Ghana. Wednesday 5th December 2012

NDC Rally - International Trade Fair, Accra, Ghana - Wednesday 5th December 2012

When a Number Becomes a Face - World Aids Day 2011

Today, 1. December, is World Aids Day. Today we are reminded of the large number of people still affected by the disease. But with statistics reminding us of the magnitude of the problem, I sometimes tend to forget about the people, the individuals living with the disease. The human faces behind the statistics.

I actually know quite a few people living with HIV – no wonder really since more than 1 in 10 adults in Zimbabwe are HIV positive. But being in Harare you would not always know about people’s status as ARV’s (antiretroviral drugs) are now available to most people.

 However, that is not always the case when you get out of Harare – the further away you get from the bigger towns the less likely people are to have access to ARVs. Furthermore some 3/4 of ARVs available in Zimbabwe come from donors and should the donor for one reason or another pull out, the Zimbabwean government doesn’t have the resources to supply everyone with drugs. This is one of the worries aired by the director of the National Aids Council in November.

Recently I visited a remote rural area in the Zambezi Valley. It was dry and the heat unrelenting. The main challenge people faced there was access to water – for drinking, for washing, for the cattle and for growing crops. And then there was a long list of other challenges such as access to education, access to health care and just about every other developmental issue in the book – and of course HIV was also one of them.

In one village, after inspecting a borehole that a charity had helped build, a lady came up to me and asked me to come with her. She said there was a girl who wanted her photo taken but she was in a hut so we had to go there. On the way she told me that this girl was bedridden because of HIV and couldn’t come out. 

When we got to the hut family members had helped her on her feet and put her in the door opening. Her name was Fungai. And Fungai was indeed very sick. I felt slightly uncomfortable/surprised that they wanted me to take these photos, but I carried on not knowing what else to do. As she was sitting there she was staring intensely at me and I was wondering whether she really wanted her photo taken. Her eyes were very intense and it was obvious that she had been (was) a very pretty girl. Most likely that’s what got her into trouble.
I noticed that her lips were moving as if she was saying something, but I couldn’t hear her. After taking a few shots I went over to her and showed her the photos – she took a quick glance at them as if to pretend she was interested, but most of the time she was looking at me.

And then I heard what she was whispering – clearly not effortlessly. She kept repeating one word in Shona: rubatsiro, rubatsiro – help (me), help (me).

I don’t know what she wanted me to do – and I am sure that she didn’t know either. To her my white skin and the fact that someone from outside was there, probably amounted to the closest thing to help she was ever going to get.

I am pretty sure that this girl never had access to ARVs – chances are she doesn’t even know what ARVs are. Of course I know – but how was I to help her with ARVs?
Fact of the matter is also that the walls of probably every hut in the village would have a similar story to tell about a daughter, a son, a mother, a father, a brother or a sister. So even if I could have helped her it doesn’t solve the big problem.

After showing her and her family the photos – pretending not to hear and understand what she was saying – I told her ‘Good luck’, got up and walked away.

That night, lying in bed, all I saw was her eyes staring at me every time I closed my eyes.

Today I am thinking of her again. It’s been a few months and I don’t even know whether she’s still alive.

What I do know is that HIV is still a huge problem and even if some countries have stopped categorising HIV/AIDS as a terminal disease and are now calling it a chronic disease for which you have to stay on medication for the rest of your life, in a country like Zimbabwe it is still very much terminal.

SOME FACTS:
- Between 2002 and 2006 it is estimated that the Zimbabwean population decreased by four million people

- Infant mortality has doubled since 1990

- Zimbabwe has a higher number of orphans, in proportion to its population, than any other country in the world, according to UNICEF. As many as one in four children in Zimbabwe are orphaned as a result of parents dying from AIDS.

To hear the story of Esther, a young HIV positive girl, go to http://zimbabweschildren.org/ - she becomes part of the orphan statistics during the filming of the documentary.  

Miracles in Lusaka with Doctor Muyonjo

When I first tried to force myself into putting something on this blog, I choose a light but serious issue - anal itch.

The inspiration was from an article in the Zambian newspaper, The Post, in which a Doctor Brown Kamanga explained what anal itch is ("an irritating sensation around the anus" - surprise!) and he offered advice on how to deal with anal itch (I've always wondered how to go about it myself).

The article (which can be found in the first post on this blog) was called 'Anal itch: embarrassing but avoidable'.

The photo that accompanied the article was a depiction of various deodorants and the caption read 'don't stick these up your...' - well not really, but something to that effect anyway.
I am not sure I agree with the choice of photo - after all you could have put just about anything there which is not supposed to be used back there (a Boeing 447, power tools, kitchen utensils.. well you name it), but I suppose that a photo that truly depicted the core of the matter could have caused one or two of The Post's readers to choke on their toast.

Anyway, this post is not about anal itch. It is about miracles in Lusaka. And Manwood.

The reason why I am mentioning the article about anal itch, is that this post was inspired by a Zambian when I was in Lusaka recently - much like the post about anal itch was inspired by The Post when I was in Lusaka in 2008.
And since I haven't updated this blog in a while this post will hopefully help me get started again - like the post about anal itch helped me get started in the first place. In both cases on a light note, I admit.

Ok, enough of the suspension - I am sure you would all like to know about miracles in Lusaka. And maybe even about Manwood too.

We all know that you can't sit around waiting for miracles to happen. Miracles happen when you least expect it, in places where you don't expect it. In my case I was driving through Lusaka and as I stopped at a red light a guy came up to my car to hand me a flyer. I usually never accept flyers from strangers, but in Lusaka the red lights take for ever to change, so I thought I'd take it anyway hoping to stay entertained while I waited for the light to change. And boy was I up for a life changing experience.

Here's the flyer:

The doctors of Zambia really know a lot, I have to say. Even though Doctor Muyonjo, who is advertising in this flyer, doesn't specifically mention anal itch, I am absolutely positive that he has got some good advice on how to deal with that too. What can I say - I'm impressed.

Doctor Muyonjo does just about anything that any other doctor does (and doesn't do) - and on top of that you can add marriage counselling, financial advice, legal advice, he removes bad luck, he solves family differences (even among family members!), he can turn your enemy into your best friends (if only Bush and Osama had known) and much much more. And we're not talking about normal advice - we're talking advice on miracle level. It sounds to me like it doesn't get any better - but hang on. It does get better.

You might think that Doctor Muyonjo is just in it for the money, but that's not the case at all. He charges 50.000 Zambian Kwacha for a consultation - that's like 10 USD!! For that kind of money you can fly from almost anywhere in the world for a consultation with Doctor Muyonjo and still pay less than legal fees alone would set you back in Europe or US!

Phone number is on the flyer so if you have a problem like any of the problems on the flyer (I bet you do), you know who to call!

Psst.. did I forget about Manwood? Well it's all in the flyer, but I can tell you that Manwood will do something real good for your manhood. You fill in the blanks..

Julius Malema - possessed or just plain poisonous?

Last week as I was typing away on my computer something in the background caught my attention. It was a news story on the radio about a possessed man. The possessed man's name was Julius Malema.

Now I paid attention for two reasons. Firstly I find possessed people fascinating. But more importantly the possessed man, Julius Malema, happens to be the leader of the ANC Youth League.

Julius Malema is one of the most controversial names in South African politics these days - and that gives you a pretty good hint at exactly how controversial he is. He is a staunch supporter of the ANC president Jacob Zuma and Julius has said that he is not only willing to die for Zuma, he is also willing to kill for him. Julius's comments about the woman who was alledgedly raped by Zuma was "she had a nice time" - based on some obscure reasoning that women ask for taxi money if they liked 'it', but leave early in the morning without asking for money if they didn't like 'it'. Julius Malema has an ability to make it to the frontpage of South African newspapers for radical, absurd and aggressive comments that have earned him the name Julius 'foot-in-mouth' Malema.

And since he is in the ANC his 'foot-in-mouth' comments are very often directed at other political parties and their members. But not all seem to mind. One such party is the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) who has called Julius Malema "the Grand Hero of all opposition parties". An IFP spokesperson told News24:
"Never in the history of the ANC has any human being effectively sabotaged the ANC as much as our Grand Hero Julius Malema"

But not all opposition parties subscribe to that opinion - they are really offended by his comments. Like really really offended. One such offended party is African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP). According to a press statement released in the beginning of March 2009, the ACDP is annoyed with Julius Malema's arrogance and glorification of thuggery. Well that's understandable. What is more interesting is that ACDP seems to know something that the rest of us don't - namely why Julius Malema is such an arrogant p.. well.. person.

I guess ACDP being a Christian party may have a hotline to the 'big boss' up there who feeds them inside info that is not available to the rest of us. Things like.. um.. the fact that Julius Malema is possessed by evil spirits!!

With that kind of information the obvious thing to do must be to release a press statement telling the whole world about it. And that's exactly what ACDP did.

And it was this piece of interesting news that had made it to the news on the radio that I was listening to.

Like many other news stories it was very brief and it didn't satisfy my need to know more. So I had the option of holding hands with myself asking the 'big guy' in the clouds for some more info - or try google. I chose the latter.

For some strange reason the news was not all over the place (i.e. the internet). On the ACDP website the press statement was nowhere to be found. But I found one blog, Jozi Journo, where the blogger - being a local journalist - had seen the actual press statement. In the press statement Julius Malema is in one place referred to as 'he of the displeasing metric results' - hinting at the poor grades Julius Malema got in school in woodwork and mathematics (and apparently everything else too).

The following excerpt is copied from Jozi Journo's blog exactly like she copied it from the ACDP press statement:
"We believe that only a man under the spell of the evil spirits which once attacked Legion of Gaderines can spew the kind of things coming out of Malema's mouth, yet never lose any amount of sleep. We now have good reasons to suspect that those evil spirits have left the pigs and have found a new home in the young man. We therefore call upon all Christians and citizens to join us in praying for Malema so that these spirits could leave him in peace. Although very little is know about Malema's late mother, we should also pray for her spirit to rest in peace in the wake of Malema's reign of madness."

You should take the time to read the full blogpost at http://jozijourno.blogspot.com/2009/03/julius-and-evil-spirits.html

Well what can I say? Elections are set for 22. April 2009 in South Africa - and this is only the beginning. I think it's safe to say that it will be an entertaining month..

Inflation1

Efter omkring fire måneder i Zimbabwe er jeg begyndt at have en sådan nogenlunde forståelse af, hvad det vil sige, at bo i et land med hyperinflation. Men det er ikke det samme som, at jeg forstår mekanismerne bag.

Det jeg har en forståelse af, er det, jeg har brug for at forstå, for at overleve og få mine finanser til at vare en måned.

Forleden faldt jeg over artiklen "ZIMBABWE: A day in the life of hyperinflation", som giver et meget godt indtryk af, hvilke udfordringer zimbabwerne står overfor, naar de skal få pengene til at række.

I artikelen kan man blandt andet læse, at Zimbabwe i juli havde en inflationsrate på 231 millioner procent - altså lidt mere end en kvart milliard procent. Det er meget. Også i forhold til inflationsraten for juni, der var på 11, 5 millioner procent - selvom det også er meget.

Statistikerne kan ikke følge med
I avisen The Herald kunne man i august læse, at Zimbabwe Statistik er tæt på at opgive at offentliggøre inflationsrater, da det simpelthen ikke længere kan følge med. Ikke mindst fordi en stor del af landets økonomi nu fungerer 'under radar-højde'. Altsaa i en parallel økonomi, hvor prisudviklingen i sagens natur er svær at overvåge.

Af samme grund blev inflationsraten for juli først offentliggjort for nylig (10. oktober) og der foreligger ingen statistik for august og september. Men det er nok ikke helt forkert at gætte på, at vi forlængst har rundet en milliard procent.

"Hvad er det i US dollars?"
Når man taler om penge i Zimbabwe, så forholder man derfor altid beløbet til US dollars. Hvad belæbet er for en ydelse/et produkt i zim-dollars, siger nemlig for det meste ikke så meget, fordi inflationen forringer pengenes værdi hurtigere end du kan sige Mugabe. Så det skal altså oversættes til US dollars.

Og hvis man skal 'oversætte' et zim-dollar-beløb til US dollars, så skal man naturligvis kende vekselkursen - og det er især her man skal holde tungen lige i munden. For der eksisterer nemlig flere vekselrater.

Cash eller transfer
Det vigtigste at kende til er forskellen mellem cash-raten og transfer-raten. Cash-raten er den kurs, der fortæller hvor mange zim-dollars du fysisk får i hånden, når du veksler kontanter. Transfer-raten siger noget om, hvad en zim-dollar er værd, når du betaler med en check eller overfører penge - fx med et betalingskort (et lokalt betalingskort vel at mærke - VISA er stort set ubrugeligt her).

De to rater er ikke ens. For hvis man betaler i en butik med en check eller et betalingskort, så går der i realiteten fire til fem dage, før butikken rent faktisk modtager pengene. Og derfor tager transfer-raten højde for inflationen op til dage frem i tiden.

Helt konkret er den kontante vekselkurs (cashraten) på gaden i dag omkring 1USD:20.000ZIM og transferraten er 1USD:120.000.000ZIM - eller med andre ord får man 20 tusinde zim-dollars for 1 USD til cash-raten og 120 millioner zim-dollars for en USD, når man bruger transferraten. Man får altsaa 6.000 gange flere zim-dollars hvis man bruger transferraten.

Og hvad betyder det så?

Der er stor mangel på kontanter i Zimbabwe og derfor har Nationalbanken (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe - RBZ) sat et loft for, hvor meget zimbabwerne kan hæve i banken om dagen. Pt er loftet på 50.000 zim-dollars eller 2,5 USD. Da mange zimbabwere derfor har svært ved at få fat i kontanter, så er butikkerne tvunget til at tage i mod checks og betalingskort - og de sætter derfor priserne efter transferraten. Ogsaa selvom det langt fra er alle, der har adgang til check-hæfte eller betalingskort.

Det betyder, at fire ruller toiletpapir, som måske koster to USD, er prissat i butikken efter transferraten, hvilket altså bliver 240 millioner zim-dollars. Men hvis man ikke har check-hæfte eller betalingskort og skal skaffe kontanter efter cashraten, så koster fire ruller toiletpapir 12.000 USD. Eller sagt paa dansk, så koster fire ruller toiletpapir i omegnen af 65.000 gode danske kroner, hvis de betales i kontanter.

Da jeg ankom til Zimbabwe i juni 2008, var forskellen på cash-raten og transferraten ikke så stor, så de foerste fire ruller toiletpapir jeg anskaffede mig, fik jeg nærmest kastet i nakken til 120 kroner. Jeg kunne ogsaa få en Carlsberg daaseoel (33ml) til 85 kroner. Den holdt jeg mig fra, men af hygiejniske årsager kneb jeg ballerne sammen og købte det dyreste toiletpapir jeg nogensinde har tørret røv i.

Lovlydighed lig med personlig fallit
Som den gode anti-korrupte verdensredder jeg er, så burde jeg jo naevne, at man faktisk også godt kan veksle USD til Zim-dollars lovligt i banken her. I bankerne er kursen dog på en god dag halvdelen af, hvad man får på gaden - på en dårlig dag (dem er der flest af), får man helt ned til en ottende-del af, hvad man får, hvis man veksler sort. Havde jeg været lovlydig og vekslet i banken, så ville toiletpapiret, jeg købte i juni, altsaa have kostet mig mindst 240 kroner og i værste fald op mod 1.000 kroner.

Hvad gør man så?
Efterhånden som forskellen mellem cash-raten og transferraten er vokset - og jeg er blevet mere hjemmevant - har jeg lært at undgå supermarkederne. Frem til fornylig havde jeg ikke sat mine ben i et supermarked i næsten to måneder. Mine indkøb har jeg gjort fra privat-adresser i Harare, hvor folk sælger smuglervarer fra Sydafrika og Botswana - og fra enkelte specialbutikker, der har taget i mod US dollars under disken (det bliver man arresteret for). Derudover har jeg været i Botswana, Mozambique og Sydafrika for at købe ind. Og det er sådan en stor del af zimbabwerne overlever - selvom min priviligerede situation i øvrigt slet ikke kan sammenlignes med de fleste zimbabwere.

Så det er altså et lidt grovkornet eksempel på, hvordan det er at leve i Zimbabwe anno 2008. Jeg har undladt et par detaljer om lovliggørelsen af US dollars-butikker (hvilket er grunden til, at jeg igen sætter mine ben i et supermarked), om butikker der opererer med flere forskellige priser afhængig af, hvordan du betaler og hvad man gør for at skaffe udenlandsk valuta, når man er løbet tør. Men så er der jo materiale til et andet indlæg.

The price of power

Amidst these times of negotiating on a power sharing deal in Zimbabwe, you may think that this post is on politics. But it's not.. not really anyway. And the again - maybe it is.

Well, the post is on electricity. On service delivery - and the lack thereof.

Today (Saturday 18th October) at 8 PM it will be exactly 21 days - or three weeks since I found myself cooking meatballs in complete darkness. There was a power cut. And until this day the power hasn't returned.

I've been relying on electricity from a dodgy generator (to say the least) and that has kept me in darkness for the past nine out of ten days and the bill for trying to get the generator running properly is now approaching 500 USD. The fact that the generator hasn't been working most of the time of course means that I didn't spent a lot of diesel, which would have set me back app. 26 USD every three days.

Now in the mean time the residents of my frustrated neighborhood met last week with the power company ZESA to try and find out what the problem is and how it can be solved (in Harare/Zimbabwe electricity is simply refered to as ZESA [Caesar] - i.e. "We haven't had ZESA for three weeks"). 

Apparently two transformers (don't know exactly what they do, but they seem to be important) burned and ZESA doesn't have the money to replace them. Each transformer costs somewhere in the vicinity of 10.000 USD.

Yesterday I received an 'invitation' for another meeting for residents on Monday. The purpose of the meeting is to find out how many residents are willing to donate money to ZESA to buy two new transformers. 

In other words: on top of the money one would pay for the electricity provided, which should cover costs of maintenance, we would have to pay 300 USD because ZESA is more or less broke.

Now as a matter of principle I would never pay that money - but on the other hand, I'm getting  desperate for power. My refrigerator has nothing but warm beer in it, my electrical gate doesn't work, I haven't been able to watch TV for three weeks, most of the time I can't get water from my borehole (depends on electricity), the alarm system for the whole property is off, I can't use my computer at home etc etc. 

But my selfish needs seem to count less when I think of the fact that the reason for ZESA being broke is essentially political. Those in power for the past 28 years have managed to ruin the country and all institutions in it - so that basic maintenance - and hence service delivery - is now being neglected. 

Now I could get the means to pay to keep ZESA going, but should I, when the governement seems to be utterly indifferent? Furthermore I happen to live in a wealthy neighborhood where (most) people can actually afford to pay 300 USD to satisfy their own needs for electricity - even though it may not seem fair. But for the vast majority of people in Zimbabwe 300 USD is an enormous amount of money, which they would never be able to pay. 

So if I and the rest of the residents in my neighborhood pay for the transformers, wouldn't we be helping a corrupt and abusive government to cement its position that everything in Zimbabwe is fine...?