Of Coffee With Long Table Talks

If you were having coffee with me, I would welcome you, and we would have a long table to talk from because that’s how intimate conversations are handled you see…

The viral image above of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron over a very long table, has been subject to a lot of internet chatter. They say an image speaks a thousand words, I think that one could write an epic series of Game Of Thrones proportions.

According to Reuters the reason for the 13-foot table was because Emmanuel Macron had refused a request by Kremlin to take a Russian COVID-19 test to prevent Russia from getting hold of Macron’s DNA. Was it COVID distancing taken too far or did Putin have a message to send…. hmmm 🤔

Have some bread with a stylish ribbon around it. Happy Valentine!!!

If you were having coffee with me I would ask if you remember the drama with schools failing to open properly I wrote about in Coffee With Back To School well the past week was fraught with twists in the education department.

First, the government revised its remunerative package for civil servants which included 20% salary increase in ZWL$ salary backdated to January 2022 and an additional USD$100 converted from their  ZWL$ salary at the official rate effective from March 2022.

At a quick glance, it does seem like the government met its employees half-way but then when you remember that the teachers were asking for a salary of $540 then these increments seem more like meaningless placations… As for the non-monetary benefits, while duty-free importation of cars seems like a relief how would civil servants afford cars on a salary of about $175….

If you were coffee with me I would tell you that shockingly the Ministry of Education went on to summarily issue out three months suspension notices to all officials who had not reported for work since schools opened on Monday the 7^th of February.

It’s not a shock coming from a government that once upon a time fired all the nurses. Anyhoo the nurses are threatening to go on strike in solidarity with their colleagues in the teaching profession. Well, before you applaud their support, it’s not without its benefits since they are also civil servants and would benefit from improvements in the salary packages for teachers.  

Some are questioning the legality of the suspensions as technically the employer of teachers is not the Ministry Of Primary and Secondary Schools Education but rather as civil servants such labour actions should be dealt with by the Public Service Commission. When teachers want to have talks over their salaries the Ministry refers them to the PSC saying those are their employers and now they suddenly remember they have the authority to suspend striking teachers.. you cant make this up.

It’s a very weird situation and the learners are the ones who suffer the most for it. I don’t know if it’s a reflection of the Education system or my growing old el oh el…But I got mail the other day and my nieces had no idea what a letter was, they were very confused with the mysterious package which had my name on it, delivered by a postman.

The postman just delivered a letter addressed to me, believe it or not our postal services still work… even if it's 2months since date of posting 🤔🤣

Anyhoo my nieces are asking me what this is😭😭 They have never seen a letter😂 pic.twitter.com/Lp5FeyBU6J

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) February 9, 2022

On the upside, our postal service still works, even though you get to see why traditional mail is called snail mail, the postmark shows it was mailed on 6 December 2021 only to arrive 2 months later. Oh, if you are curious what was in it, it was a handmade Christmas card from Matt and Jess. Matt is the blogger and artist extraordinaire of A Prolific Potpourri.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that once again the president commissioned new ZUPCO buses. Sometimes I wonder what happens to these buses which are always being commissioned and yet never see them on the public road.   Where do they go after they get commissioned? Questions I ask myself while I struggle to find a pirate taxi that doesn’t look like it might have suspicious individuals with absolutely no good intentions.

If you were having coffee with I would ask if you ever heard the story of the crocodile with a tyre around its neck, I mentioned it in a 2020 article Coffee With Monkey Business. How time flies, I must be having fun arent I?

Conservationists had been trying to lure the croc and free it since 2016, perhaps they should have invited it to a long table talk sooner…. They finally managed to catch it safely and the tyre around its neck removed….

Whats been going on in your neck of the woods? Have you had any long table talks?

~B