If you were having coffee with me, I would be happy to have you visit and welcome you to my socially distanced corner of the internet…
Hello May…..
The first of May was a public holiday, Workers Day and it was on Saturday so it didn’t really have that public holiday vibes, people even expected Monday to be declared a public holiday as well but our constitution only allows that a Monday is deemed a public holiday when an official holiday falls on a Sunday… So yeah no Monday holiday.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that for most of the people there really isn’t a difference whether a day is a public holiday or not, well that’s what you get in a country with about 10% of the population formally employed… Its easy to make a sweeping judgement about the state of things, like this image and video which went viral on the internet about youth cheering and running after the car of a flamboyant pastor and entrepreneur some in the hope he might throw money…
In a world of Summer and Spring with Spring being the older generation who were born into a world of sunshine, rain and promise, and the Summer generation born later in a world of oppressive heat, droughts and broken promises, I am a child of Winter, born somewhere between these two generations, watching the world spin between them.
If you were having coffee with I would tell you I am not quite old enough to remember the post-independence time, when everything seemed to be how it should be; yet not young enough to remember no better. I never used a computer until I was 16 years and I had my first phone when I was 19, I saw letters being replaced by emails and those overtaken by instant messaging and Social Media…
The older generation will look at the younger one and call it unfocussed and majoring on minors while the younger generation will look at the older and call it old fashioned and stuck to tradition that have no place in the internet age while I understand and relate with both of these generations. I watch how those who only remember the past engage with those who have the future ahead of them; one no longer has a place in the world while the other has no idea where their place is, as they don’t know how they got here.
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that I was feeling pensive as I blew off the dust from the covers of my passport, its going to expire soon and I haven’t used it. (if you want to sponsor my world travels, *hint hint* I am not even picky, I just want to really know there is more to life…) Applying for a passport is quite an ordeal there is a whole lot of queueing and I don’t know if you have experienced that government bureaucracy where staff go on perpetual tea breaks taking forever to stamp a form that should take 30seconds. No wonder that green passport is gold..
A minister during a visit at the passport offices “arrested” someone who offered that for USD$30 would help him jump the queue to a position up ahead. See, what enterprising youth do is to wake up early morning (if not sleep in at the passport offices even) to secure positions at the head of the queue and then will sell off these vantage positions to people “serious” about their prospects of getting a passport. Well if anyone should be arrested its whoever has created such an inefficient system in a world where I should be able to apply for a passport online and have it delivered right at my doorstep..
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that while one mustn’t focus on the path behind that’s why the windscreen is larger than the rear view mirror… Still to know where we are going we have to know where we have been.
Interesting aside, my cousin’s truck with manual transmission developed a fault and only the reverse gear engaged so drove backwards for about 3km to get back home…
Quick question: which side of the ride do you drive when you are going backwards?
Winter is here, its cold and rainy, what season is it in your neck of the woods?
~B
Becoming The Muse 
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