Of Coffee With Peace And Stability

If you were having coffee with me, I would be happy to see you, I trust you know your way around and if you are new, make yourself at home put your feet up. Tell me what its like out there… Our winter season is over and August has been living up to its name of being windy. Nyamavhuvhu the Shona name for August loosely means the meat is full of sand (which in the old days would have been blown in while drying in the sun) or the -vhuvhu which could be from vhuvhuta a Shona word which describes the blowing wind…

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that grandmother really loved her tea and wanted it served in a proper teacup with its accompanying saucer. She preferred it served boiling hot, but then would pour some of it into the saucer to cool it and drink from there… Daintily balancing her cup in the saucer she would dip her bread into the tea cup, it was fascinating to watch and for a while I copied this habit even though recalling this memory… I cringe a little. I prefer my bread, biscuits or scones dry and crunchy thank you very much.

Speaking of dry, there’s been a little bit of rain showers, which is all and good even though the weather cant make up its head if it wants to be hot and windy or cold and windy. Its also been ruining my plans to have a hair washday as every time I schedule to have my washday routine the weather decides otherwise…

If you are so wise can you explain to me how come ever since August begun every time I set out to have a proper wash day cycle the weather suddenly goes cold and cloudy…

And I had postponed washday till it was nice and warm😂 pic.twitter.com/oublMQZh0M

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) August 20, 2020

It’s a bit nippy out, so I will serve the tea boiling hot… When I was used to have tea with my grandma and I complained that it was too hot, she would say “add more sugar” and like magic the tea would get cooler or at least sweeter distracting me from the heat. Years later during chemistry class I learnt about endothermic reactions that absorbed heat energy from the surroundings, the dissolving of sugar into a solution is endothermic.

I wished my grandma had been alive so I could ask if she knew that science explained how dissolving sugar would absorb heat from the tea thereby cooling it. I had always put it down as one of those crazy things grandmas said, I guess there was buried wisdom in the other crazy things too, I should have paid attention.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that our government seems to be trying the same formula in this teapot shaped country, though they might have a missed a few pages in the book of how to cool down your tea. When someone says their tea is too hot, you don’t tell them that the tea is fine and insist that anyone who says otherwise is wrong and a terrorist agent advocating for cold beverages and you certainly don’t arrest them for that or having a cook book on how to serve tea.

The SADC heads of state had a very successful virtual meeting and though they did not discuss anything about the Zimbabwean situation… A newspaper in Namibia carried a headline on how they had commended the president on peace and stability.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that the government would have us think there is peace and stability and anyone who says otherwise is wrong, like the Catholic Bishops who wrote a circular which has in the past week gotten several strong worded responses from the government.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that a group of people who had been charged with holding a workshop to destabilise the country for being in possession of the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire have been acquitted. The arresting officer said to have seen the book was written “Pedogogy” and then searched in phone and saw that it meant training [not exactly correct, but anyway]. So he arrested them. *When asked what exactly in the book constitutes the offense* He said I don’t know, I didn’t read it…

Job Wiwa Sikhala a politician and Vice National Chairman for the opposition party was arrested on charges of inciting public violence meanwhile its been over a month since Hopewell Chin’ono and Jacob Ngarivhume have been in prison denied bail several times for similar charges. They tried to appeal on grounds of changed circumstances since the date of protest in question 31 July has passed but the state argued that 31 July is now a movement and if they are let out on bail will cause chaos.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that the Treasury Secretary says the radical economic transformation policies adopted by President at the advent of the Second Republic, despite their short-term political unpopularity, are beginning to pay off as the economy is stabilising…

Well once upon a time the government also said there were enough fuel reserves to last 48 months, but here we are. Exactly a fortnight ago I was celebrating how they had said that the power situation had stabilised and we would have uninterrupted power supply till the end of the year, again here we are. Loadshedding seems to back, each day we experience a couple of hours of unscheduled power black outs, no explanation, no warning…  coincidentally, the power cuts started when the former Minister Of Energy was relieved of his duties. I am not saying anything I am just pointing out the coincidence. *Sips Coffee*

The day my laptop battery dies… That's when the electricity starts being funny…there's an old proverb "When the ancestors give you a wound they want the flies to eat you…" https://t.co/RwCgcdEJRa

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) August 17, 2020

If you were having coffee I would tell you that our neighbouring country South Africa, eased down lockdown conditions and here’s another coincidence so did ours. The curfew hours have been shortened from 6pm-6am to 8pm – 6am and essential businesses can now operate upto 4.30pm from the previous 3pm.

So whats happening in your neck of the woods? Ours is peaceful and stable, inflation is at is at 837%. 8,6million Zimbabweans are food insecure out of a population of 14.4 million, health workers have been on strike for over 60 days now but there is no crisis here…

~B

PS whats going on in Mali seems a lot like déjà vu