Becoming The Muse

If you were having coffee with me I would be glad to see you… Woza December I would greet you, you know how December is like the Friday of month, there’s just something about December that brings out the festive spirit. New Folder, New month loading.…

I see the Christmas decorations are going up in stores and all sorts of Christmas Specials going on. Although I haven’t heard any shops particularly playing Christmas jingles, the Christmas season wont really begin until I hear my Mariah Carey’s unmistakable vocals belting out … All I want for Christmas is you….

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that I haven’t had any news about the Harare City’s Christmas lights usually by now First Street will be decked out for Christmas and an official lighting ceremony on the cards alongside invites for carols by candle-light… . Also the Mayor who usually presides these ceremonies is somewhere behind bars on yet to be disclosed charges but am guessing its probably something to do with abuse of office and corruption.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that pirate public taxis i.e. combis have now taken to new upgrades in their war with police. Police have a habit of smashing the windows of illegal combis picking and dropping passengers at undesignated points. They even used to throw spikes to deflate the tyres but it was deemed reckless after it resulted in accidents some which were fatal.

You would think these combis drove out of a set of Death Race or Mad Max or some Destruction Derby video game but nope they are rolling in the mean streets of Harare. The government remains adamant that taxis can only operate if they are registered under a state-owned franchise ZUPCO (somebody say monopoly) Regardless that they are grossly insufficient to ferry the commuting public especially now in the rainy season.

They can chase after pirate taxis all they want but as long as the banned combis (which was initially done as a COVID measure) as long as they outnumber the ZUPCO buses its not a battle that is likely to end any time soon.. I mean who wants to queue for hours and hours in the rain no less.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that the guys who make the rules are out of touch with the situation on the ground. Its easy to say ban pirate taxis when you drive your own car bought by taxpayers money. Speaking of tax payers the Minister Of Finance unveiled the 2021 budget which just, in short, is about how they intend to squeeze people with more taxes, tax this, tax that.

It’s the festive season how would you be increasing the tax on liquor and tobacco? Well there goes the Christmas spirit.

While import duty has been scrapped on cheese (who knew, I cant afford cheese anyway) books carry an import duty of upto 45% I always wondered why books as so expensive after seeing some local authors rant about how ridiculously overpriced their books are in Zimbabwe and of course throw in the book shops which are out to make a crazy profit. And you can no longer import a vehicle older than 10 years without a special import licence (to protect the local industry they say… what local motor vehicle industry?)

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you about one of my favourite arts awards held in Bulawayo.. Bulawayo should adopt me already. Bulawayo Arts Awards are sponsored by Roil cooking oil to honour creative arts in Bulawayo.

Anyway the award ceremony on Saturday night came to an end when police came on stage and presumably told them to end the awards… Covid regulations I guess, we still have a curfew from 10pm to 6am. Even though some people violate it, we see pics of them having parties and celebrations and other events with zero social distancing and no masks but then not all citizens are equal, some are amore equal than others.

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that, scandal rocked the disbursement of COVID funds to the less privileged when it emerged that people linked to high ranking govt officials were on the list while they clearly were not under-privileged and so the beneficiaries list had to be edited with some even stepping forward to request their names be removed saying they must have been added in error.. okay then…

If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that December I will be doing whats become a tradition on this blog, to end the year by doing my own personal awards just going looking back and celebrating the highlights and the best moments from the year… feel free to join us in doing the Best Of The Year #BOTY2020

I just wanted to mention how Maradona’s first name now makes sense Die-go.

Too soon? I will show myself out thank you.

What’s going on in your neck of the woods?

~B

PS is Father Christmas an essential service or we will be cancelling Christmas too due to COVID restrictions?