Becoming The Muse

Coffee with Januworry

If you are having coffee with me, I would welcome you to my tangle of words and ask if January, feels like a series of Mondays stitched together into a never ending scarf of eternal winter?

Some say its because people tend to overspend during the holidays KeDezemba Boss… This past holiday I didn’t risk it, I stayed in my lane, as the youngsters call it on the streets. Yet, still that Januworry bug, somehow found me… how are we still barely halfway through the month?

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that part of this Januworry’s worry has been due to the new tax regulations which came into effect in January which has driven the cost of practically everything… and the little you had saved up doesn’t stretch quite as much as you narrow down the list of wants to only needs.

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you its been raining and that while the rain is welcome after the dry hot spell of last year, news of a cyclone in our backyard is unsettling, even when the meteorological services assure us that it wont have any effect on Zimbabwe. 

A leak has developed on the roof, there is dark stain spreading and there’s not much can do about it given the Januworry budget and the belts already tightened to the last notch… who needs to diet when fasting gets imposed on you walletically?

The roads are a mess when it rains, the potholes grow to the size of small graves and all the water and murk being swirled around and into water sources doesn’t help the situation with the cholera outbreak which is reaching alarming levels… 

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that instead of the people coming together to ask for accountability, service delivery and all the promises the government has made about turning Zimbabwean Cities into world class cities… in the past week the people were up in arms over a billboard about equal rights declaring that munhu munhu, meaning a person is a person is advocating for gay rights.

When I saw the image with the billboard on social media, the first thing I noticed was the lady crossing the road wearing a facemask.. which would give the impression that it was taken during the COVID Pandemic and lockdown era.. so the uproar was probably over a billboard that has since been taken down, if it existed at all – a Twitter user shared a photo of where the billboard was said to be located and it doesn’t seem to be there any longer.

Maybe it was taken down or it was a digitally manipulated image, we have come a long way from when the camera never lied… to now where the only truth one can believe is that which you see for yourself. A Harare School, Harare International School also came under fire for having gender neutral toilets cause apparently that promotes and grooms homosexuality… and well, as everyone knows that goes against African Values…

What are traditional African values? 🤡

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) August 20, 2022

If people channelled the energy and way they band together to fight for the African Values, to fight corruption, fight for democracy, service delivery and politicians to uphold their election promises, then life would have a lot less worries.

Meanwhile, the main opposition party which has changed names and colours several times since its inception has an ambiguous social media post that suggests it might be undergoing another rebrand and colour change to a Democratic Alternative in Zimbabwe.. DAZ – No idea what that means for our recently held elections or if we have to wait another 5 years to the next elections … DAZ wild 😅

If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you of a Harare man, who now has worries he probably didn’t expect after being conned USD$100 000 by fake magicians. The magicians claimed they could multiply his wealth 3 fold and demonstrated by turning $10 into $30 and the man handed them $100K, which they disappeared with leaving him with bag full of paper… welcome to Harare.

I wonder what sort of business the man did to have $100k cash, given our rather informal economy where the majority of people barely make enough to cover the basics… I keep thinking of the phrase: One day the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich…

Whats been going on in your neck of the woods? Is your January Januworrying or you are focused?

~B

PS I got a Christmas Card, everyone in the house was shocked when the postman arrived with a package… these ama2k have no idea what letters are.. on the upside at least our postal system still works even though it took a solid two months to receive a card posted for Christmas in November…