If you were having coffee with me, I would welcome you to my tangle of words, and ask you to feel right at home. Also, do watch out for a needle, see, I was doing a bit of sewing a little earlier and I put the needle down briefly and now I can’t find it. Fingers crossed that it won’t unilaterally decide someone’s bottom makes for a great pincushion.
I woke up today wanting to say bye to the by-elections we had over the past weekend but when I switched on my phone… the first notification I got was a news alert that Will Smith hits Chris Rock on Oscars stage… oh and a forecast for thunderstorms.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you I didn’t even know the Oscars were happening while I was sleeping, well, that’s because timezones and also they don’t show on our local TV. If one is lucky, one might run into the highlights… Thanks to the fiasco, I now know that the movie Dune bagged a whole lotta awards and nominations… Looking at the review I wrote for it I am like yep I called it: Dune Movie Review.
Now the only thing everyone is talking about is how Will Smith hit Chris Rock. I am still trying to figure out how much of that whole drama was scripted, and how much of that was an underlying conversation between the trio, with Will finally just thinking “OK enough!” Some people are angry at Will and understandably so with the whole violence isn’t the answer rhetoric. Some say Chris handled the situation very well, and I am here thinking that handling the situation well would have been refraining from making an insensitive joke over Jada’s hair loss.
If you were having coffee with me I would ask you if this is what they mean when they call us unfocused youth? That I sat down to bring you up to speed on my past week and the elections and instead I get side-tracked by theatrics at the Oscars. Anyway, we had By-Elections… To be honest I still don’t understand their full significance, I mean do, but do I really? Its complicated… Oh look!!! Free education next year… yay.
We do have presidential elections coming next year and the by-elections have served as a test run for how the actual elections would proceed and show where the electoral system has faults and what needs attention. The By-Elections were held in 28 National Assembly Constituencies and 122 National Wards to replace vacant elective posts which have occurred through death, retirement and recalls; with recalls making up the most number.
I never quite understood the recall business as it seemed like a pointless excess in political grandstanding which resulted in this 3,7 billlion dollar by-election which I feel was mostly unnecessary… but here we are.
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you how there is talk about the low voter turn-out for the By-Election, which is apparently the norm and it is not unique to Zimbabwe. It’s a reflection on how we need Voter Education to fight Voter Apathy. Explanations on the importance of participation in the electoral process and the significance of each step. The electoral cycle isn’t just about voting and counting the vote, it’s a continuous process.
Unfortunately for the majority, the right to vote means as much as putting your X on a piece of paper and flushing it down the toilet…. So why do it? Because if each one makes a stance, we can be the change we want to see in the world around us and in our leadership.
I had to walk quite a distance to exercise my constitutional right to vote, I don’t know why my name wasn’t at the polling station nearest to me maybe they assume we have cars?… But still I walked… On my way back, I got a lift in a lorry and as I hoisted myself into the back of the lorry, there was a ripping sound as my pants split in the middle. All the way home, I tried to maintain a measure of modesty but I might have flashed my boxers to one or two people.
Anyway, shout out to my Home Economics teacher in primary school who made the whole class learn to sew and knit… Which is how I can be here, sewing up my trousers. I wouldn’t have to jump into the back of a lorry if we had a working public transport system but at least I can sew what I rip.
It rained over the weekend, and I recalled something from our folklore, about how rain during important ceremonies and events is meant to be symbolic of blessings to come. Well as we bid bye to the by-election, I hope this all counts for something. In my area I observed them drill a borehole which is still incomplete and now that the campaigning candidate who was behind it lost the by-election, will they still be going ahead and finishing the project or…
What’s been going on in your neck of the woods… any needles we should be watching out for.
~B
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Becoming The Muse 
I don’t know how much was scripted or not but personally i think you shouldn’t joke around about someone’s sickness cuz you don’t really understand the pain or stress one is going through. It’s not a fun thing when someone is sick (whatever sickness or how life threatening it is) but thats just my opinion. And as for the elections…. those are a real headache.
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It’s 2022 by now comedians should know what’s acceptable as joke material and what isn’t, why does a joke have to be at the expense of someone else anyway especially over something one can’t control?
Elections elections elections one just prays they get over and done with little inconvenience (and loss of time, money and life)
~B
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Bravo to your voting message. Voter apathy is a problem here too, and has been damaging to our communities as we also face voter suppression attempts.
I don’t watch awards shows and am glad I missed the ridiculousness of the Oscars. Crazy.
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I never really watch the awards I just look for the list of the winners and nominees to find movies to watch and tosee if there’s any that might interest me or if my faves made the cut 🤪
Hmmm so voter apathy and voters suppression is a pandemic hey.. Just goes to show if we keep doing the same things we shouldn’t be surprised at getting the same results
~B
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It’s the free education for me 😃 and how that will unfold – if anything will be implemented anyway (It’s obvious I have trust issues)
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Considering that four years ago they announced free education and it never took off… Not holding my breath….
Having trust issues with government promises especially with crucial elections in the horizon is a life skill….
And the way the government seems unable to pay wages for civil servants including teachers who are always a pay day away from striking, how would they then fund free education… If they have the money laying around to do that I would say they should pay teachers better rather than to make education free, otherwise I see the education standard falling
~B
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I hate it when I lose my needle! 🤣 But usually I find it before it gets stuck in someone or me! I hope you found it. Haha!!
Too funny that you woke up to that news. We watched the Oscars and when that all played out it was hard to tell was that scripted? They then cut the sound off when Will Smith was cussing out Chris Rock. My hubby and I at first thought is there something wrong with the TV, then realized that was a very long bleep. The other thing I thought odd was Will Smith’s extremely emotional rambling acceptance speech. Don’t get me wrong as I understand emotions, compassion but he got to where he wasn’t making much sense and just crying so hard I’m like what is going on, dude you are all over the place!! I can’t imagine being in the limelight or famous. It’s not for me that’s for sure. We recorded so that we could fast forward through stuff we didn’t want to watch. I’m glad you voted but sorry your pants ripped and you lost your needle! 🤩🤗
P.S. I’m glad Dune won so many awards, so enjoyed that movie! We haven’t seen the best picture yet, Coda. Have you seen it?
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The strange case of the missing needle has been solved 🤣🤣 it had gotten stuck to the magnetic base of my Bluetooth Music Speaker.
As for the circus at the Oscars (hey that rhymes) 🤣 I am still unsure exactly what went down, because I have so many questions like where was security, how did they know when to kill the audio or perhaps it’s not as live as it seems…. And the delivery of that slap so controlled and Chris stood there head sticking out and hands behind his back…. Like who does that? If it was me:
Well (A) I wouldn’t make insensitive jokes and
(B) once he stood up and started heading over I wouldn’t say oh oh I would run 🤣🤣
And if it wasn’t some sort of grand act cause it’s hard to tell with actors it’s kinda what they do, they can cry on demand To Act, especially when it’s someone winning Oscar for Best Actor in role where he would have been kinda like the way he just behaved……art imitating life… then Will might really really needs help.
~B
PS I haven’t seen Coda, if I had, you would know about it as there would be a review. Also it’s not in my sort of favourite watchlist types 🤪
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Good point about art imitating life, and yes, same reason we haven’t seen Coda, not on our favorite watchlist types either. I think we have much the same movie theme likes! 😆🥴
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Yeah, the oscars are a complete waste of everyone’s time. I’m glad that Smith bitchslapped Rock though. If somebody had made fun of my wife’s appearance in such a public venue, I’d have rabbit punched his throat, leg swept him and then knee-dropped him until I broke his ribs. Rock is lucky someone so controlled as Smith took a swing at him.
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Someone mentioned that if we were of the habit of slapping comedians the world wouldn’t have comedians and the retort to that was nah comedians would just come up with better sets, where in the big book of comedy does it say you have to take digs at other people for your material to be funny….
As you eloquently put it I think will was very controlled in his slap… I had half-expected him to go full Hancock mode and decked him a solid punch that would knock the lights outa him…
~B
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Lupita had me on pins and needles. Her facial expression had me loving her more. If I had been in her shoes, I’m not sure how I would have reacted. Chris and Will, in my opinion, were both wrong. One should always remember that family comes first. We need more people like Will in our communities who aren’t hesitant to speak up and fight for women who don’t have a voice. He, however, went about it in the wrong way. It is never an option to resort to violence.
Chris, on the other hand, was incorrect in that he made a joke about someone else’s illness. One of the things we must learn is to never make a joke about someone’s condition, whether it is health-related, physicality, or disability.I do, however, admire how Chris’ handled himself. He appears to be of a sober mind. He maintained his composure.
Im so glad they both became adults and apologized to each other. That is humanity in action. We can learn a thing or two from them.
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I don’t know what to make of it, because after the Joke Will laughed, Jada rolls her eyes and then Will slaps Chris…but when returning to his seat Will is smirking…a few minutes later Wills yelling Keep my wife’s name out yo fucking mouth. Rock & Smith have confrontational history…be a real shame if Smith lost his Oscar over that incident. The only time it felt real, was Rocks reaction after the slap…maybe a confrontation was planned, but Rock wasn’t expecting it to be as physical ?
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I hope you found that needle and not the hard way.
I had no idea the Oscars were happening either. It’s an event I never really watched but completely stopped paying attention to probably a decade ago. The thing is that they know that viewership is falling, so they had to do something. Like you – I found out about the Oscars by seeing an article about the slap, which made me look into it more. The slap did not look real to me. I think it was acting to hopefully get more people interested, which worked beautifully.
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