Becoming The Muse

Coffee with sketchy thoughts

If you are having coffee with me, I would welcome you to my tangle of words. By now you know the drill, make yourself at home put your feet up, the wifi password is you have to read my blog first…. No spaces.

Having Starlink internet has revolutionised internet uptake in Zim. And even when one isn’t on Starlink, the Starlink Effect is still in play with service providers bending over backwards to offer more value to the consumers. While I am not a fan of the billionaire who gave the world Starlink and I am wary of all the power that comes with it and its corrupting influence, gotta hand it to the man and the cards he plays.

So…Department of Government Efficiency… well, I think our government would benefit from having such a department but as with all things, it would likely end up being a vehicle to line someone’s pockets… I mean with just a few executive decisions the man’s worth went up by $70 billion…

Meanwhile, users are leaving the platform formally known as Twitter…… According to media reports since the US elections over 1 million new sign ups have been registered on the Bluesky platform, a fediverse decentralised social network created Jack Dorsey, a former Twitter CEO….

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that I joined Bluesky back when you needed exclusive invite codes from existing users who only got a limited number of periodic invitations. This was when Mr Musk had just acquired Twitter and people were jumping ship… Anyway, you can still find me on Bluesky as Beatonm5.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that Zimbabwe’s cube sat ZimSat-2 was successfully deployed. Looking at some of the things it can potentially do, one can see how other countries have been several steps ahead, from agricultural monitoring to urban mapping and geological surveys classifying potential minerals..

Wait, does that mean other countries have substantial information about whats going in other countries via satellite observations or there’s standard protocols on …spying, maybe I watched too much espionage stuff. And our government is preoccupied with licensing WhatsApp Business groups that collect personal identifiable Information to have registered and trained Data Protection Officers…

Anyway, so far, the only cool thing ZimSat-2 has done is to broadcast the Zimbabwean flag and national anthem. Talk about raising the Zimbabwean flag high as Zimbabwe joins the elite group of countries with space interests. You can track its location via SatNogs

And while we are busy looking to the heavens, I can imagine how a view of Zimbabwe at night from a bird’s eye might  probably look like darkness. Remember those power blackouts we get, well they got a lot worse, and can go anything from 24 to 72 hours without electricity. The power utility company says its because of depressed power generation due to a fault at the Hwange Thermal station and low water levels at Kariba dam…

If you were having coffee with me and were a regular visitor you might point out that wasn’t this the same thing they said the other time and the time before that and the time before that, either they are bad at maintaining the power station or there’s more to the story.

Also, I recently saw a concerning article on how the power utility, Zesa Holdings, owes US$430 million to Hwange Electricity Supply Company (Hesco) for unpaid power supplied which could result in a shutdown in operations and more power crisis. Could this be why we are having more hours of loadshedding?

Hesco is jointly owned by the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) which has 64%  shareholding and Sinohydro Corporation of China holding the remaining 36%. But the bulk of unpaid debt seems to be for Sinohydro Corporation which leaves one wondering what kind of deal was signed up for that power plant to be commissioned.

If you were having coffee with me, I would ask how you would keep yourself occupied during 16+hours of darkness… well for starters you crack a joke and laugh…

Then use your wireless earphones to make some art…

And make a terrible pun about The Nail Clipper Symphony in Snip Minor played on the Grand Clipper

Whats been going on in your neck of the woods… any sketchy thoughts?

~B