Regular readers of this blog will remember that I predicted that President Robert Mugabe will not relinguish power and that presidential elections due in 2008 would be pushed off to 2010.
Well, if anybody doubted me, news from Harare this week that infact that is what is going to happen vindicates me, as it were. Need I say more??
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Monday, September 25, 2006
ZIM FARMERS GO TO GHANA, RESULT OF STUPIDITY
Reports that Zimbabwean white farmers are finding new homes and land to till in Ghana and Nigeria are not surprising but outright sad.
Look, I am a black Zimbabwean and I know too well the arrogance and oppressive nature of some of the white farmers I grew up seeing and sometimes interacting with.
But if the truth be told, they were the driving force behind Zimbabwe's robust economy. All anybody needed to do was just teach them some virtues of respecting human rights. Chasing them out of the country was the worst mistake.
Now Zimbabwe, a country once known as the bread basket of Southern Africa, is now the begging bowl of the region, all because our leaders decided to play up their own stupid arrogance on the expense of 12 million people.
As a result, our people are starving when our farmers are now filling the stomachs of Ghanaians, Nigerians, Mozambicans, South Africans and so on. Stupid, stupid, stupid I say.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Look, I am a black Zimbabwean and I know too well the arrogance and oppressive nature of some of the white farmers I grew up seeing and sometimes interacting with.
But if the truth be told, they were the driving force behind Zimbabwe's robust economy. All anybody needed to do was just teach them some virtues of respecting human rights. Chasing them out of the country was the worst mistake.
Now Zimbabwe, a country once known as the bread basket of Southern Africa, is now the begging bowl of the region, all because our leaders decided to play up their own stupid arrogance on the expense of 12 million people.
As a result, our people are starving when our farmers are now filling the stomachs of Ghanaians, Nigerians, Mozambicans, South Africans and so on. Stupid, stupid, stupid I say.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Friday, September 15, 2006
MACKAY'S STATEMENT ON ZIMBABWE PRETENTIOUS
The brief statement issued by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Peter Mackay, on Thursday to condemn the authoritarian government of President Robert Mugabe’s rampant human rights violations in Zimbabwe falls short in terms of its intended goal to show support for people in my home country.
MacKay’s statement followed this week’s arrest, detention and assault of dozens of Zimbabweans participating in a labour-organized peaceful demonstration against the government’s self-serving policies which have seen Zimbabwe’s economy plummet from being one of the top five in sub-Saharan Africa to be among the worst in just six years.
Six years in which hundreds have been killed, thousands have been tortured and jailed while millions have been forced into exile, including some Canadian-born white farmers whose properties were taken over or destroyed in an extra-constitutional land redistribution exercise authored and directed by Mugabe’s Zanu PF government.
And all Mr. MacKay can say is: "I am deeply troubled that the Government of Zimbabwehas once again denied its people their rights to freedom of expression and association as well as the right to peaceful assembly. Canada condemns the arrest of these peaceful demonstrators and calls for their immediate release. "Canada urges Zimbabwe to refrain from the use of intimidation, violence and repression and to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of its citizens, and we have conveyed our concerns to Harare," he said.
Canadians out there may wonder what the fuss is all about. The fuss is that Canada and Zimbabwe have a history of suffering together and supporting each other in politics and business, so much that a run of the mill statement like this becomes really pretentious.
Canada and Zimbabwe were both British colonies, once upon a time. Canada was one of Zimbabwe’s strongest western backers during its fight for independence and when self-rule came in 1980, Canada and Zimbabwe shared the brotherhood of Commonwealth countries.
Not only that. Canada became one of Zimbabwe’s biggest investment sources and it still is. Now, here lies the problem that Mr. MacKay and others in government may not see yet, but will soon.
Mugabe’s Zanu PF government is prepared to stay in power forever with the backing of a well-oiled machinery of the army, the police, former freedom fighters, a Hitler Youth-type militia and an overzealous support base backs it in this.
This machinery demonstrated its capability to plunder in 2000 when they invaded farms, destroying Zimbabwe’s primary economic sector, agriculture. The same machinery will not blink if an order is given to go after mines, industry and other sectors.
Then, the ripple effect, both in human and economic terms, will be felt in the neighborhoods of Toronto because Canadians own companies in Zimbabwe and some work there.
Canada and other leading democracies, Britain and the US particularly, have both national and international obligations to intervene in Zimbabwe more directly and urgently than just to issue out lame statements.
Canada has joined other western countries to impose travel sanctions on Mugabe and Liberal MP, Keith Martin has proposed a Bill to arrest Mugabe whenever he comes this way.
With all due respect, Mugabe is not a mouse that goes for a piece of cheese on a trap. He will never come here. He goes to countries that are more welcoming to him, like Cuba where he is visiting right now as I write.
Mugabe is an intelligent man who uses a strong arm to oppress the people of Zimbabwe and he needs the same strong-arm treatment applied on him. Mr. MacKay could start by engaging Zimbabweans directly to get the accurate picture, not to rely on news reports.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
MacKay’s statement followed this week’s arrest, detention and assault of dozens of Zimbabweans participating in a labour-organized peaceful demonstration against the government’s self-serving policies which have seen Zimbabwe’s economy plummet from being one of the top five in sub-Saharan Africa to be among the worst in just six years.
Six years in which hundreds have been killed, thousands have been tortured and jailed while millions have been forced into exile, including some Canadian-born white farmers whose properties were taken over or destroyed in an extra-constitutional land redistribution exercise authored and directed by Mugabe’s Zanu PF government.
And all Mr. MacKay can say is: "I am deeply troubled that the Government of Zimbabwehas once again denied its people their rights to freedom of expression and association as well as the right to peaceful assembly. Canada condemns the arrest of these peaceful demonstrators and calls for their immediate release. "Canada urges Zimbabwe to refrain from the use of intimidation, violence and repression and to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of its citizens, and we have conveyed our concerns to Harare," he said.
Canadians out there may wonder what the fuss is all about. The fuss is that Canada and Zimbabwe have a history of suffering together and supporting each other in politics and business, so much that a run of the mill statement like this becomes really pretentious.
Canada and Zimbabwe were both British colonies, once upon a time. Canada was one of Zimbabwe’s strongest western backers during its fight for independence and when self-rule came in 1980, Canada and Zimbabwe shared the brotherhood of Commonwealth countries.
Not only that. Canada became one of Zimbabwe’s biggest investment sources and it still is. Now, here lies the problem that Mr. MacKay and others in government may not see yet, but will soon.
Mugabe’s Zanu PF government is prepared to stay in power forever with the backing of a well-oiled machinery of the army, the police, former freedom fighters, a Hitler Youth-type militia and an overzealous support base backs it in this.
This machinery demonstrated its capability to plunder in 2000 when they invaded farms, destroying Zimbabwe’s primary economic sector, agriculture. The same machinery will not blink if an order is given to go after mines, industry and other sectors.
Then, the ripple effect, both in human and economic terms, will be felt in the neighborhoods of Toronto because Canadians own companies in Zimbabwe and some work there.
Canada and other leading democracies, Britain and the US particularly, have both national and international obligations to intervene in Zimbabwe more directly and urgently than just to issue out lame statements.
Canada has joined other western countries to impose travel sanctions on Mugabe and Liberal MP, Keith Martin has proposed a Bill to arrest Mugabe whenever he comes this way.
With all due respect, Mugabe is not a mouse that goes for a piece of cheese on a trap. He will never come here. He goes to countries that are more welcoming to him, like Cuba where he is visiting right now as I write.
Mugabe is an intelligent man who uses a strong arm to oppress the people of Zimbabwe and he needs the same strong-arm treatment applied on him. Mr. MacKay could start by engaging Zimbabweans directly to get the accurate picture, not to rely on news reports.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Monday, September 11, 2006
MY PERSONAL 9/11
As September 11 gives way to September 12, 2006 and official 9/11 commemorations come to an end, I too mark another milestone in my life, I turned one year older.
I am one of thousands of people in the world who were and will be born on a day now so infamous that one has to make sure they assume the right demeanor and adjust their tone before uttering it or anything connected to it, lest listeners misconstrue you to be reveling in the loss of that day.
In fact, I have no problem with my birthday being eclipsed by all the solemn attributes to the 3 000 innocent people who lost their lives to terrorism on that fateful day in 2001 and those so killed in similar tragedies before and after that day. It is the least I can do to honour them.
The last time I had a full-fledged birthday party was in 2000. Then came September 11, 2001, a sunny Tuesday in Harare. I was running around preparing for my journey to Texas, USA.
Every now and I again I stopped to field calls from family and friends who wished me a happy birthday. Around 3 pm, Zimbabwean time, I fielded a different call. A colleague asked if I was near a television. I wasn’t. I was driving.
“Go home immediately and watch TV,” he said in an eerily quiet voice.
I rushed home and switched on the TV just before the first tower collapsed. The calls I made and received after that had nothing to do with my birthday. They were all about what was happening in the US, who was doing it, why, how would it end and whether I was going to be able to travel to the US.
I have no doubt my story was repeated a thousand times around the world in one form or another.
After that day, it never felt necessary for me to party. Well meant congratulations and presents have been treasurable enough, thank you.
Today became a measured exception though. Colleagues at work threw me a small do in the office. Two delicious cakes, some non-alcoholic wine and appropriate presents from special friends. It was befitting the day.
In the end, when others worry about whether they will get all excited and drunk and ruin their special day, I prayed that the day ends without some devilish commemoration from, you know who!
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
I am one of thousands of people in the world who were and will be born on a day now so infamous that one has to make sure they assume the right demeanor and adjust their tone before uttering it or anything connected to it, lest listeners misconstrue you to be reveling in the loss of that day.
In fact, I have no problem with my birthday being eclipsed by all the solemn attributes to the 3 000 innocent people who lost their lives to terrorism on that fateful day in 2001 and those so killed in similar tragedies before and after that day. It is the least I can do to honour them.
The last time I had a full-fledged birthday party was in 2000. Then came September 11, 2001, a sunny Tuesday in Harare. I was running around preparing for my journey to Texas, USA.
Every now and I again I stopped to field calls from family and friends who wished me a happy birthday. Around 3 pm, Zimbabwean time, I fielded a different call. A colleague asked if I was near a television. I wasn’t. I was driving.
“Go home immediately and watch TV,” he said in an eerily quiet voice.
I rushed home and switched on the TV just before the first tower collapsed. The calls I made and received after that had nothing to do with my birthday. They were all about what was happening in the US, who was doing it, why, how would it end and whether I was going to be able to travel to the US.
I have no doubt my story was repeated a thousand times around the world in one form or another.
After that day, it never felt necessary for me to party. Well meant congratulations and presents have been treasurable enough, thank you.
Today became a measured exception though. Colleagues at work threw me a small do in the office. Two delicious cakes, some non-alcoholic wine and appropriate presents from special friends. It was befitting the day.
In the end, when others worry about whether they will get all excited and drunk and ruin their special day, I prayed that the day ends without some devilish commemoration from, you know who!
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
SOMETHING WRONG WITH ZIM'S INFO CHIEFS
Can someone tell me what really is wrong with Zimbabwe’s information ministers? What do they really have against journalists? Do they understand our job at all?
Since the time of the professor from HELL, Jonathan Moyo, every information minister has been accusing journalists of all sorts of things.
Paul Mangwana -a learned lawyer, no less- accuses Zimbabwean journalists of working undercover to advance Western interests and denigrate President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Reports from Harare say Mangwana charges that some reporters have dedicated their careers to working with Zimbabwe's enemies to bring about regime change. Well, at least he knows there is need for regime change.
They are “willing soldiers in a war that is not theirs", he reportedly said.
Mangwana is holding the portfolio in an acting capacity following the death of substantive minister, Dr. Tichaona Jokonya who was on record threatening journalists with death for working for Western media. He called us “traitors”.
“The unfortunate thing about a traitor is that you are killed by both your own people and the person whom you are serving,” Jokonya warned us and we all shook with fear!!
It all started with Jokonya’s predecessor, Prof Moyo who came into the ministry in 2000 with such hatred of journalists that he literally drove many into jails and exile. Some have actually attributed some deaths of journalists to brutality authored and directed by the professor.
He actually made a public announcement that all journalists living Zimbabwe were spies and should be dealt with accordingly. Spies are almost always killed or at least jailed for long stretches of time.
I don’t know about my colleagues back home and elsewhere in the Diaspora, but I wouldn’t know how to spy even if I was offered the chance to.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Since the time of the professor from HELL, Jonathan Moyo, every information minister has been accusing journalists of all sorts of things.
Paul Mangwana -a learned lawyer, no less- accuses Zimbabwean journalists of working undercover to advance Western interests and denigrate President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Reports from Harare say Mangwana charges that some reporters have dedicated their careers to working with Zimbabwe's enemies to bring about regime change. Well, at least he knows there is need for regime change.
They are “willing soldiers in a war that is not theirs", he reportedly said.
Mangwana is holding the portfolio in an acting capacity following the death of substantive minister, Dr. Tichaona Jokonya who was on record threatening journalists with death for working for Western media. He called us “traitors”.
“The unfortunate thing about a traitor is that you are killed by both your own people and the person whom you are serving,” Jokonya warned us and we all shook with fear!!
It all started with Jokonya’s predecessor, Prof Moyo who came into the ministry in 2000 with such hatred of journalists that he literally drove many into jails and exile. Some have actually attributed some deaths of journalists to brutality authored and directed by the professor.
He actually made a public announcement that all journalists living Zimbabwe were spies and should be dealt with accordingly. Spies are almost always killed or at least jailed for long stretches of time.
I don’t know about my colleagues back home and elsewhere in the Diaspora, but I wouldn’t know how to spy even if I was offered the chance to.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
I HAVE HAD IT WITH JONATHAN MOYO
I don’t know about y’all Zimbabweans out there, but I am really getting it up to my nose with Jonathan Moyo.
The professor keeps running his mouth (or is it his pen) about the flaws in the Zanu PF government policies and the persons of President Robert Mugabe and his officials, the latest victim being Zimbabwe Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono.
Now, hold it! Put those knives back in their sheaths before you stab me. I am not in anyway defending Mugabe and his cronies, far from it.
My beef with Jonono is that all that is happening in Zimbabwe may have its roots in Mugabe’s misguided economic (war veterans grants of 1997) and foreign (DRC war) policies and related cases of fiscal mismanagement.
However, when the professor got onboard the doomed Zanu PF train via the Constitutional Reform Exercise of 1999, he took the leadership of a propaganda machine that promised utopia to believers and condemned doubters to death, jail, and exile and never imagined suffering.
Talk about any aspect of the Zimbabwean society, Jonono had a hand in ruining it. In the five years that he was part of Mugabe’s government, he did more damage to the country than any of Bob’s other ministers combined.
Let me talk about the field I know best, journalism. Jonono single-handedly destroyed journalism in Zimbabwe. True, there was oppression and persecution of journalists during the times when Nathan Shamuyarira, Chen Chimutengwende, Mai Mujuru and others were at the helm of the Information ministry, but when the professor came along, oppression and persecution became simply HELL.
I will be surprised if any journalist in Zimbabwe can stand up and say they enjoyed professional freedom during Jonono’s time. The man was just terror, the bin Laden of Zimbabwean journalism.
If it were not for Jonathan Moyo I would not be here and I am sure I am not the only one who feels like this. Even those who may have been showered with favours by the good professor, I know for certain that they too were burdened by his attentions and demands and right now, a lot are embarrassed that they ever knew him.
Prof Moyo destroyed my beloved Ziana, ZBC, and Zimpapers and, even though they fought hard, he managed to extinguish all the fire in the independent and foreign press.
There is simply no more journalism worth talking about in Zimbabwe right now, all thanks to Jonono.
Prof, do not seek to be holier than thou. It doesn’t even suit you!!
TO READ MORE ABOUT MY WRITING, VISIT;
www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
The professor keeps running his mouth (or is it his pen) about the flaws in the Zanu PF government policies and the persons of President Robert Mugabe and his officials, the latest victim being Zimbabwe Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono.
Now, hold it! Put those knives back in their sheaths before you stab me. I am not in anyway defending Mugabe and his cronies, far from it.
My beef with Jonono is that all that is happening in Zimbabwe may have its roots in Mugabe’s misguided economic (war veterans grants of 1997) and foreign (DRC war) policies and related cases of fiscal mismanagement.
However, when the professor got onboard the doomed Zanu PF train via the Constitutional Reform Exercise of 1999, he took the leadership of a propaganda machine that promised utopia to believers and condemned doubters to death, jail, and exile and never imagined suffering.
Talk about any aspect of the Zimbabwean society, Jonono had a hand in ruining it. In the five years that he was part of Mugabe’s government, he did more damage to the country than any of Bob’s other ministers combined.
Let me talk about the field I know best, journalism. Jonono single-handedly destroyed journalism in Zimbabwe. True, there was oppression and persecution of journalists during the times when Nathan Shamuyarira, Chen Chimutengwende, Mai Mujuru and others were at the helm of the Information ministry, but when the professor came along, oppression and persecution became simply HELL.
I will be surprised if any journalist in Zimbabwe can stand up and say they enjoyed professional freedom during Jonono’s time. The man was just terror, the bin Laden of Zimbabwean journalism.
If it were not for Jonathan Moyo I would not be here and I am sure I am not the only one who feels like this. Even those who may have been showered with favours by the good professor, I know for certain that they too were burdened by his attentions and demands and right now, a lot are embarrassed that they ever knew him.
Prof Moyo destroyed my beloved Ziana, ZBC, and Zimpapers and, even though they fought hard, he managed to extinguish all the fire in the independent and foreign press.
There is simply no more journalism worth talking about in Zimbabwe right now, all thanks to Jonono.
Prof, do not seek to be holier than thou. It doesn’t even suit you!!
TO READ MORE ABOUT MY WRITING, VISIT;
www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
FRANCE DESERVE TO BE WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS
Isn’t revenge so sweet? Those of you who watched the Euro 2008 Group B match between France and Italy will agree with me that the World Champions were outclassed by the runners-up.
It was total humiliation and there could never be any excuse. If the World Champions missed some key players like the villainous Metarazzi, France missed the retired inspirational captain, Zidane and Fabien Barthez among others.
Italy cannot even claim bad officiating because the referee today was perfect, making the right calls all the way. Italy was simply a Grade B team. Having seen their performance in their 1-1 draw with Lithuania, I knew they would not go far with France.
Les Bleus were just a class act. They took me back to 1998 when they won the championship. They were just so polished you could not fault any department and their goals were results of perfection by a team out to prove that they should be the world’s beaters.
Do I hear someone calling for a re-take of the World Cup final and crown the deserving team? I second.
www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
It was total humiliation and there could never be any excuse. If the World Champions missed some key players like the villainous Metarazzi, France missed the retired inspirational captain, Zidane and Fabien Barthez among others.
Italy cannot even claim bad officiating because the referee today was perfect, making the right calls all the way. Italy was simply a Grade B team. Having seen their performance in their 1-1 draw with Lithuania, I knew they would not go far with France.
Les Bleus were just a class act. They took me back to 1998 when they won the championship. They were just so polished you could not fault any department and their goals were results of perfection by a team out to prove that they should be the world’s beaters.
Do I hear someone calling for a re-take of the World Cup final and crown the deserving team? I second.
www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Saturday, August 19, 2006
A SABHUKU CAN RUN ZIMBABWE BETTER - MAPFUMO
Thomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo, aka Mukanya, should be happy.
Last Monday morning, just before sitting down to an interview with in Toronto, Canada, he received news from his Oregon base. He and his family’s political asylum application had been accepted by US authorities.
“That is great news,” I said.
“I should not have been forced to do it. No Zimbabwean should be forced to seek refugee protection abroad. It is humiliating,” Mukanya responded, betraying a controlled anger with President Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship.
“I fought for that country in my own way. We all fought for it, and yet some people are now claiming everything, including the right to oppress us, suppress our views and just burn our country,” added the typically defiant Mapfumo.
The man considered by many as Zimbabwe’s best known musical export is also hailed as one of the unsung heroes of Zimbabwe’s liberation war.
In the 1970s when others were crossing over into Mozambique and Zambia to participate in a guerrilla uprising that brought independence in 1980, Mapfumo used his music to fight the “people’s enemy on his turf”. He was thrown in jail for it.
After independence, Mapfumo was soon throwing salvos at the Zanu PF government which fast turned into a corrupt regime and slowly degenerated into the dictatorship it is today.
“I really feel sad about what is happening at home,” said Mukanya whose latest album, Rise Up was banned in Zimbabwe because it highlights the problems inflicted on the people of Zimbabwe by the government.
“Educated people are supposed to know better but they have degrees of destruction,” he said in reference to Mugabe and most of his ministers who are university graduates. “Yet, tikaisa sabhuku anotogona kutonga nyika zvirinani 'if we put a mere village headman in office in Zimbabwe, he may do a better job'.”
The aging music guru believes that Zimbabwe’s problems would best be solved through dialogue between Mugabe’s Zanu PF and Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
However, he said on his last visit to Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai invited him for an exchange of views.
“For hours we talked with Tsvangirai and I believe he has very good and workable ideas which he is ready to share with Mugabe, but the old man does not want to share anything,” he said.
Mukanya also lamented that despite that there are an estimated 3-4 million Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, they are not doing anything to force change in Zimbabwe.
“There are enough of us out here to cause change in Zimbabwe through lobbying, advocacy and other means, but typically, we are not united,” he said.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Last Monday morning, just before sitting down to an interview with in Toronto, Canada, he received news from his Oregon base. He and his family’s political asylum application had been accepted by US authorities.
“That is great news,” I said.
“I should not have been forced to do it. No Zimbabwean should be forced to seek refugee protection abroad. It is humiliating,” Mukanya responded, betraying a controlled anger with President Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship.
“I fought for that country in my own way. We all fought for it, and yet some people are now claiming everything, including the right to oppress us, suppress our views and just burn our country,” added the typically defiant Mapfumo.
The man considered by many as Zimbabwe’s best known musical export is also hailed as one of the unsung heroes of Zimbabwe’s liberation war.
In the 1970s when others were crossing over into Mozambique and Zambia to participate in a guerrilla uprising that brought independence in 1980, Mapfumo used his music to fight the “people’s enemy on his turf”. He was thrown in jail for it.
After independence, Mapfumo was soon throwing salvos at the Zanu PF government which fast turned into a corrupt regime and slowly degenerated into the dictatorship it is today.
“I really feel sad about what is happening at home,” said Mukanya whose latest album, Rise Up was banned in Zimbabwe because it highlights the problems inflicted on the people of Zimbabwe by the government.
“Educated people are supposed to know better but they have degrees of destruction,” he said in reference to Mugabe and most of his ministers who are university graduates. “Yet, tikaisa sabhuku anotogona kutonga nyika zvirinani 'if we put a mere village headman in office in Zimbabwe, he may do a better job'.”
The aging music guru believes that Zimbabwe’s problems would best be solved through dialogue between Mugabe’s Zanu PF and Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
However, he said on his last visit to Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai invited him for an exchange of views.
“For hours we talked with Tsvangirai and I believe he has very good and workable ideas which he is ready to share with Mugabe, but the old man does not want to share anything,” he said.
Mukanya also lamented that despite that there are an estimated 3-4 million Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, they are not doing anything to force change in Zimbabwe.
“There are enough of us out here to cause change in Zimbabwe through lobbying, advocacy and other means, but typically, we are not united,” he said.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
MUKANYA, STOP CROUCHING AND DANCE SOME
If you were not at El Mocambo, Toronto on Friday night, I know you want to me to tell you what Mukanya was up to and I will tell you, of course.
For more than 2 hours, Thomas Mapfumo, the Lion of Zimbabwean music, did what he knows best. He took his sizeable (I mean really sizeable) audience back to the good old days with such yesteryear hits as “Chipatapata”, “Chiruzevha Chapera”, “Corruption” and many more until he fittingly closed with “Bhutsu Mutandarika”.
When I got to the El Mocambo Club -seeing the small crowd- I was fearful that Mukanya might do what those who claim to know him better accuse him of doing, that is, play just a few minutes and take off complaining that he was such a big name who only performs to big crowds.
Well, none of that happened, in fact Mukanya performed as if he was in front of 60 000 fans in The National Sports Stadium back in Harare.
I am not about to give excuses for Mukanya, but the small crowd could have been that he performed to a large non-paying crowd on Monday and the thrifty among us took advantage. After all most of us are still on social assistance!!
I have some advice though for Thomas Mapfumo: Mukanya, people do not like it or enjoy it when you crouch down, right to the floor to sing. Are you in agony, they want to know.
Also, audiences want to see you dance all the time, not shuffle a little and then stand up there and watch them with what most construe as a bemused or disapproving stare while Loveness, your backing singer and dancer, is literally killing herself with fancy footwork.
Just thought I should say this and hope that when you come next time there will be a more upright Mukanya to listen to, watch and dance with.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
For more than 2 hours, Thomas Mapfumo, the Lion of Zimbabwean music, did what he knows best. He took his sizeable (I mean really sizeable) audience back to the good old days with such yesteryear hits as “Chipatapata”, “Chiruzevha Chapera”, “Corruption” and many more until he fittingly closed with “Bhutsu Mutandarika”.
When I got to the El Mocambo Club -seeing the small crowd- I was fearful that Mukanya might do what those who claim to know him better accuse him of doing, that is, play just a few minutes and take off complaining that he was such a big name who only performs to big crowds.
Well, none of that happened, in fact Mukanya performed as if he was in front of 60 000 fans in The National Sports Stadium back in Harare.
I am not about to give excuses for Mukanya, but the small crowd could have been that he performed to a large non-paying crowd on Monday and the thrifty among us took advantage. After all most of us are still on social assistance!!
I have some advice though for Thomas Mapfumo: Mukanya, people do not like it or enjoy it when you crouch down, right to the floor to sing. Are you in agony, they want to know.
Also, audiences want to see you dance all the time, not shuffle a little and then stand up there and watch them with what most construe as a bemused or disapproving stare while Loveness, your backing singer and dancer, is literally killing herself with fancy footwork.
Just thought I should say this and hope that when you come next time there will be a more upright Mukanya to listen to, watch and dance with.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Thursday, August 17, 2006
GIRL CHILD NETWORK WINS AWARD
Zimbabwe’s Girl Child Network (GCN) has won the first ever United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Red Ribbon Award for addressing gender inequalities that fuel the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The award was presented to GCN founding director, Betty Makoni by Her Royal Highness, Princess Mette-Marit of Norway on Wednesday night at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada.
AIDS is not something that one can raise a glass to in a toast, particularly when one considers how much it has devastated our country.
However, an award like this is a cause for some form of celebration, if only to congratulate Ms. Makoni and her staff and sponsors for assisting more than 20 000 girls most of who call the network and its members, home and family respectively.
The GCN oversees more than 300 clubs where girls are sheltered and shielded from imminent HIV infection and eventual death, usually as victims of their blood relatives like fathers and brothers.
Ms. Makoni, makorokoto, amhlope – rambai makashinga. The world is watching and applauding.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
The award was presented to GCN founding director, Betty Makoni by Her Royal Highness, Princess Mette-Marit of Norway on Wednesday night at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada.
AIDS is not something that one can raise a glass to in a toast, particularly when one considers how much it has devastated our country.
However, an award like this is a cause for some form of celebration, if only to congratulate Ms. Makoni and her staff and sponsors for assisting more than 20 000 girls most of who call the network and its members, home and family respectively.
The GCN oversees more than 300 clubs where girls are sheltered and shielded from imminent HIV infection and eventual death, usually as victims of their blood relatives like fathers and brothers.
Ms. Makoni, makorokoto, amhlope – rambai makashinga. The world is watching and applauding.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
MAPFUMO IS BACK, REALLY!!
He is here, he is performing and you just don’t know what you are missing.
Yes, the Lion of Zimbabwe, Thomas Tafirenyika “Mukanya” Mapfumo is in Toronto (the meeting place). He is here on the invitation of the organizers of the International AIDS Conference but he will also perform independently on Friday at the El Mocambo on College and Spadina in downtown TO.
But that is in the future. On Monday night he headlined the Strength of Africa Concert, which is part of the AIDS Conference’s side shows. I am not much of a music critique, but I will tell you this; the man had the several hundreds of revelers crammed at the small Harbourfront Theatre all dancing and singing along.
I know that many people had dismissed Mapfumo as a washed up old man. Well, the old man went ol’skool on Monday night and it was just fantastic.
You should have been there to witness the frenzy that followed after he hit the note “Zvandaive ndiri mwana mudiki, Mai vachandida…” Zimbabweans, Canadians and other people at the concert were soon dancing chinungu.
And that dancing girl, Loveness, she is just something!
But for someone resident in Toronto, it would be outright shameful if I were to finish this story without mentioning Soul Influence, the locally based Zimbabwean acapella troupe.
The girls are beautiful, soulful and their melodious voices just melted my heart. Lead singer, Dorothy Gettuba, not only does she claim ownership of the stage, she engages the audience with her teasing animation. The boys! Well, that bass, the tenors, what a fitting way to start off a concert that was rocking all the way until it ended and we had to go home reluctantly.
While Mapfumo is an experienced performer reclaiming his position at the top of African music, especially with his new album, Rise Up, there is a great future in Soul Influence. And I am glad to here that they have a new album in the works and possibly a DVD.
I will definitely be at El Mocambo on Friday night and I have purchased my copies of Mapfumo’s Rise Up and Soul Influence’s first album. If you haven’t bought yours, what are you waiting for?
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Yes, the Lion of Zimbabwe, Thomas Tafirenyika “Mukanya” Mapfumo is in Toronto (the meeting place). He is here on the invitation of the organizers of the International AIDS Conference but he will also perform independently on Friday at the El Mocambo on College and Spadina in downtown TO.
But that is in the future. On Monday night he headlined the Strength of Africa Concert, which is part of the AIDS Conference’s side shows. I am not much of a music critique, but I will tell you this; the man had the several hundreds of revelers crammed at the small Harbourfront Theatre all dancing and singing along.
I know that many people had dismissed Mapfumo as a washed up old man. Well, the old man went ol’skool on Monday night and it was just fantastic.
You should have been there to witness the frenzy that followed after he hit the note “Zvandaive ndiri mwana mudiki, Mai vachandida…” Zimbabweans, Canadians and other people at the concert were soon dancing chinungu.
And that dancing girl, Loveness, she is just something!
But for someone resident in Toronto, it would be outright shameful if I were to finish this story without mentioning Soul Influence, the locally based Zimbabwean acapella troupe.
The girls are beautiful, soulful and their melodious voices just melted my heart. Lead singer, Dorothy Gettuba, not only does she claim ownership of the stage, she engages the audience with her teasing animation. The boys! Well, that bass, the tenors, what a fitting way to start off a concert that was rocking all the way until it ended and we had to go home reluctantly.
While Mapfumo is an experienced performer reclaiming his position at the top of African music, especially with his new album, Rise Up, there is a great future in Soul Influence. And I am glad to here that they have a new album in the works and possibly a DVD.
I will definitely be at El Mocambo on Friday night and I have purchased my copies of Mapfumo’s Rise Up and Soul Influence’s first album. If you haven’t bought yours, what are you waiting for?
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Thursday, August 10, 2006
FAECES IN MUGABE'S FOOD??
Here is a big stinker forwarded to me by a sister, Eunice Mafundikwa, who seems to know how to make me laugh until I am hurting all over.
The story below is actually an abridged version of a news report in the Financial Gazette in Zimbabwe, written by Kumbirai Mafunda. If it were not for Eunice, I would have missed it, and in that order, if it were not for this blog, some of you would have missed it.
A typographical error that replaced a "v" with a "d" on a menu item during President Robert Mugabe and his family's flight to the Far East last Friday, left a (for lack of a better word) horrible taste in the mouth.
President Mugabe and family were on a flight to China when they were handed a menu card where an item should have read Chimukuyu and Dovi (dried beef in peanut butter source), which is one of Mugabe's favorite dishes.
But there was a disastrous typo when a 'd' replaced the 'v' on 'dovi' to read dodi (faeces). Yummy, huh!!
The typo was discovered by Mugabe's young son, Robert Jr. See what happens when you insist on children reading everything carefully?
The national airline on Tuesday reacted to the embarrassing stinker by suspending four employees, Masi Gambanga, the cabin services manager, Victoria Munzara, the acting flight services officer, Chipo Sikireta the secretary to the senior flight operations manager and an unnamed worker who is employed in the reservations section.
Was that really necessary? I don't really think this stinker of a job was deliberate and I am certain the meal did not actually have poop in it.
I read a lot of Mugabe's speeches and despite that they would have gone through a lot of editing by many staffers and the president himself, fellow journalists will agree with me that we would find a typo here and there, but were those staffers suspended? Of course not.
I think transport minister, Chris Mushowe just over-reacted when he ordered the suspensions. But, thats just me!!!!!!!!
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
The story below is actually an abridged version of a news report in the Financial Gazette in Zimbabwe, written by Kumbirai Mafunda. If it were not for Eunice, I would have missed it, and in that order, if it were not for this blog, some of you would have missed it.
A typographical error that replaced a "v" with a "d" on a menu item during President Robert Mugabe and his family's flight to the Far East last Friday, left a (for lack of a better word) horrible taste in the mouth.
President Mugabe and family were on a flight to China when they were handed a menu card where an item should have read Chimukuyu and Dovi (dried beef in peanut butter source), which is one of Mugabe's favorite dishes.
But there was a disastrous typo when a 'd' replaced the 'v' on 'dovi' to read dodi (faeces). Yummy, huh!!
The typo was discovered by Mugabe's young son, Robert Jr. See what happens when you insist on children reading everything carefully?
The national airline on Tuesday reacted to the embarrassing stinker by suspending four employees, Masi Gambanga, the cabin services manager, Victoria Munzara, the acting flight services officer, Chipo Sikireta the secretary to the senior flight operations manager and an unnamed worker who is employed in the reservations section.
Was that really necessary? I don't really think this stinker of a job was deliberate and I am certain the meal did not actually have poop in it.
I read a lot of Mugabe's speeches and despite that they would have gone through a lot of editing by many staffers and the president himself, fellow journalists will agree with me that we would find a typo here and there, but were those staffers suspended? Of course not.
I think transport minister, Chris Mushowe just over-reacted when he ordered the suspensions. But, thats just me!!!!!!!!
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
ZIMBABWEAN BEATEN BY TORONTO POLICE
Some things we read about or see on television and we think, ah, they would never happen to us, or who ever was involved, deserved it.
I confess that I had thoughts like that when I saw Rodney King being beaten by four white police officers in Los Angeles more than a decade ago.
Well, I think differently now because a similar incident -not so much in scope and scale- happened closer to home.
Last month a Zimbabwean friend of mine found himself on the receiving end of two white Toronto police officers’ batons and booted feet, for trumped up charges, so he claims.
The case is now in court but my friend gave me permission to write about it as long as I do not reveal his name.
According to him, on the eve of Canada Day he received a call from his sister in the US about a family emergency back in Zimbabwe. He had to get in touch with the family rather urgently and he needed a long distance phone card to do that.
It was around midnight but he figured he could dash to the nearest convenience store and buy a card right then and so he went out, bought the card and started back to his apartment.
“I was walking along this lane when two people, a man and a woman, approached me rather aggressively. I tried to avoid them but they kept coming my way until I almost bumped into them. To avoid that I pushed the woman, who was closest to me, aside and passed them,” he said.
The couple turned to follow accusing him of assaulting the woman. Just then, a police car came round the corner and he flagged it down to seek protection from the increasingly aggressive couple.
The police car stopped and two officers got out. One came over to my friend while the other officer approached the couple.
“I was still explaining to the officer what had happened when the other one came towards us and informed me and his partner that the couple had accused me of demanding drugs from them,” my friend said.
He claimed that the officers, who had already released the couple before hearing his side of the story, started beating him up and kicking him. They looked at his identification papers and when they realized he was a refugee, they increased the beating.
‘What do you want in my country?’ one officer is said to have asked repeatedly as the other one added that they would make sure my friend was sent back to Zimbabwe.
When they were done, the officers called for an ambulance and the paramedics treated the guy right there but left him with the officers who then took him “downtown” for booking.
“At the station they claimed that I had resisted being arrested and they had to use force that was why I had cuts on my face and other places,” he told me.
He was charged with assault with intent to buy drugs and he spent the long Canada Day weekend in the slammer. He has a lawyer and his case is going through the court process.
Watch this space for updates to the case.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
I confess that I had thoughts like that when I saw Rodney King being beaten by four white police officers in Los Angeles more than a decade ago.
Well, I think differently now because a similar incident -not so much in scope and scale- happened closer to home.
Last month a Zimbabwean friend of mine found himself on the receiving end of two white Toronto police officers’ batons and booted feet, for trumped up charges, so he claims.
The case is now in court but my friend gave me permission to write about it as long as I do not reveal his name.
According to him, on the eve of Canada Day he received a call from his sister in the US about a family emergency back in Zimbabwe. He had to get in touch with the family rather urgently and he needed a long distance phone card to do that.
It was around midnight but he figured he could dash to the nearest convenience store and buy a card right then and so he went out, bought the card and started back to his apartment.
“I was walking along this lane when two people, a man and a woman, approached me rather aggressively. I tried to avoid them but they kept coming my way until I almost bumped into them. To avoid that I pushed the woman, who was closest to me, aside and passed them,” he said.
The couple turned to follow accusing him of assaulting the woman. Just then, a police car came round the corner and he flagged it down to seek protection from the increasingly aggressive couple.
The police car stopped and two officers got out. One came over to my friend while the other officer approached the couple.
“I was still explaining to the officer what had happened when the other one came towards us and informed me and his partner that the couple had accused me of demanding drugs from them,” my friend said.
He claimed that the officers, who had already released the couple before hearing his side of the story, started beating him up and kicking him. They looked at his identification papers and when they realized he was a refugee, they increased the beating.
‘What do you want in my country?’ one officer is said to have asked repeatedly as the other one added that they would make sure my friend was sent back to Zimbabwe.
When they were done, the officers called for an ambulance and the paramedics treated the guy right there but left him with the officers who then took him “downtown” for booking.
“At the station they claimed that I had resisted being arrested and they had to use force that was why I had cuts on my face and other places,” he told me.
He was charged with assault with intent to buy drugs and he spent the long Canada Day weekend in the slammer. He has a lawyer and his case is going through the court process.
Watch this space for updates to the case.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
ZIMBABWEAN SCULPTURE ON TORONTO ISLAND
Torontoans love to have fun in the sun at the park. Among the most popular destinations are the islands on Lake Ontario. So, on Monday, my family and I and our dear long suffering friends, the Njobos and the Mlambos went off to wind down the long weekend on Centre Island.
As the kids frolicked in the sand and splashed in the numerous pools on the island, and our women shyly waded into knee-deep water, Njobo and I were wandering around looking for nothing in particular.
Our aimless walk-about was actually rewarded in a big way. We had a "stoney" surprise. We bumped into one of the several stone sculptures prominently positioned on the lush lawns.
“This looks very Zimbabwean,” said Njobo as we approached the magnificent figure of a beautiful African woman with a child made out of shiny black marble.
“Only those stone carvers back home can produce such an exquisite piece of art,” I agreed as we knelt down to read the small card nailed next to the sculpture.
And, lo behold, it was indeed a Zimbabwean work of art by one John Mutasa. What excitement that induced in us. All of a sudden what was beginning to look like a boring afternoon for the two of us was now exciting.
We searched around like kids on an Easter egg hunt and found at least two more sculptures by an M. Mamvura and there could be more. We were so proud to be Zimbabwean and we proudly showed our kids their heritage.
I don’t know about Njobo and others, but I have already declared to myself that I own part, no! parts of Centre Island on behalf of Zimbabwe, thanks to SaMutasa naVaMamvura and others.
Now, when anyone asks me where they can go and spend an afternoon, I direct them to "our" Centre Island and I make sure they undertake to marvel at our sculpture.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
As the kids frolicked in the sand and splashed in the numerous pools on the island, and our women shyly waded into knee-deep water, Njobo and I were wandering around looking for nothing in particular.
Our aimless walk-about was actually rewarded in a big way. We had a "stoney" surprise. We bumped into one of the several stone sculptures prominently positioned on the lush lawns.
“This looks very Zimbabwean,” said Njobo as we approached the magnificent figure of a beautiful African woman with a child made out of shiny black marble.
“Only those stone carvers back home can produce such an exquisite piece of art,” I agreed as we knelt down to read the small card nailed next to the sculpture.
And, lo behold, it was indeed a Zimbabwean work of art by one John Mutasa. What excitement that induced in us. All of a sudden what was beginning to look like a boring afternoon for the two of us was now exciting.
We searched around like kids on an Easter egg hunt and found at least two more sculptures by an M. Mamvura and there could be more. We were so proud to be Zimbabwean and we proudly showed our kids their heritage.
I don’t know about Njobo and others, but I have already declared to myself that I own part, no! parts of Centre Island on behalf of Zimbabwe, thanks to SaMutasa naVaMamvura and others.
Now, when anyone asks me where they can go and spend an afternoon, I direct them to "our" Centre Island and I make sure they undertake to marvel at our sculpture.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Sunday, July 30, 2006
IF YOU HOUGHT TSVANGIRAI WAS WASHED OUT
The campaign for the Zimbabwe presidential election expected in early 2008 is on.
No, there was no formal announcement by anyone but events in Harare in the past week suggest the fight is on and, once again, it is going to be President Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF and Morgan Tsvangirai, representing a coalition of the opposition parties.
Isn’t Mugabe supposed to retire in 2008, you may ask. And, oh, who chose Tsvangirai as the candidate for what opposition coalition?
It is no rocket science really.
Mugabe has been making the same moves he has made over the last 26 years to announce, indirectly, that he is not gonna let anyone or anything make him lose Zimbabwe house to any opposition leader, particularly Tsvangison.
He has put loyal army personnel in key positions in most strategic institutions, he has since announced an intention to pay war veterans more money and millions of taxpayers Zimkwachas have been allocated to strengthen the National Youth Service (Green Bombers) which we had been made to believe was being disbanded.
To top it all, the president has employed his oldest and most effective trick. Berate his ministers. Call them useless and corrupt and even initiate their arrest and trials. Remember the likes of Kumbirai Kangai in 2000, Chris Kuruneri in 2004 and now Brighton Matonga and possibly other ministers, are in the firing line.
The trick works wonders. Ministers get arrested, ambitious party cadres campaign hard in the hope to fill vacated positions and the masses say; “Ndiva Mugabe chete vanogona”. Before you know it, its another 6 years of Gushungo rule.
On the other hand, Tsvangirai is getting smart by the day. He knows that more than anything, his only chance at grabbing Zim House from Cde Handiende is to lead a united front of all opposition parties.
Contrary to earlier reports that he would boycott a church organized coalition building meeting, he turns up and once he got the chance to stand on the podium, he invites his biggest rival, Arthur Mutambara of the other MDC faction, for an embrace.
My God! It worked like magic. Mutambara was soon gushing that he would have no problem deferring to Tsvangirai. Anybody still thinks Tsvangirai is not intelligent?
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
No, there was no formal announcement by anyone but events in Harare in the past week suggest the fight is on and, once again, it is going to be President Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF and Morgan Tsvangirai, representing a coalition of the opposition parties.
Isn’t Mugabe supposed to retire in 2008, you may ask. And, oh, who chose Tsvangirai as the candidate for what opposition coalition?
It is no rocket science really.
Mugabe has been making the same moves he has made over the last 26 years to announce, indirectly, that he is not gonna let anyone or anything make him lose Zimbabwe house to any opposition leader, particularly Tsvangison.
He has put loyal army personnel in key positions in most strategic institutions, he has since announced an intention to pay war veterans more money and millions of taxpayers Zimkwachas have been allocated to strengthen the National Youth Service (Green Bombers) which we had been made to believe was being disbanded.
To top it all, the president has employed his oldest and most effective trick. Berate his ministers. Call them useless and corrupt and even initiate their arrest and trials. Remember the likes of Kumbirai Kangai in 2000, Chris Kuruneri in 2004 and now Brighton Matonga and possibly other ministers, are in the firing line.
The trick works wonders. Ministers get arrested, ambitious party cadres campaign hard in the hope to fill vacated positions and the masses say; “Ndiva Mugabe chete vanogona”. Before you know it, its another 6 years of Gushungo rule.
On the other hand, Tsvangirai is getting smart by the day. He knows that more than anything, his only chance at grabbing Zim House from Cde Handiende is to lead a united front of all opposition parties.
Contrary to earlier reports that he would boycott a church organized coalition building meeting, he turns up and once he got the chance to stand on the podium, he invites his biggest rival, Arthur Mutambara of the other MDC faction, for an embrace.
My God! It worked like magic. Mutambara was soon gushing that he would have no problem deferring to Tsvangirai. Anybody still thinks Tsvangirai is not intelligent?
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
MDC LAWSUIT COULD DAMAGE COMMUNITY
MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, A COMMUNITY IS VIEWED THROUGH THE CONDUCT OF ITS LEADERS AND OPINION MAKERS. IT IS IN THIS LIGHT THAT I HOPE THE FOLLOWING STORY WILL SERVE AS A CAUTION TO THOSE OF US IN IT AND A WARNING TO THOSE WHO MAY FIND THEMSELVES IN A SIMILAR SITUATION.
So, here goes:
Something very disturbing is happening among us, the Zimbabwean community in Toronto. A fight of sorts between politicians and journalists, no less.
A fight that has a potential to damage personal reputations and community harmony in a foreign land.
The vice chairman for MDC Toronto, Mr. Andrew Mudzingwa is suing journalist Mrs. Mazvita Irene Mlambo for alleged damaging statements published on the MDC Toronto Yahoo Group.
According to a letter of intent to sue, sent to Mrs. Mlambo by Mr. Mudzingwa’s lawyers, Levine, Sherkin, Boussidan – Barristers, the MDC leader was particularly ticked off by Mrs. Mlambo’s assertions, on July 1st, 2006, that he was “involved in fistfights at parties” and “pilfering funds and benefiting himself”.
The letter stated that Mr. Mudzingwa will seek “general damages, special damages and aggravated damages together with interest and costs arising from your actions”. The journalist was given seven days from July 25th, 2006, to make “a clear and unequivocal apology and retraction” if she did not want the lawsuit to proceed.
Mrs. Mlambo is seeking legal advice.
Under normal circumstances, this matter would be stuff that makes interesting reading and the writer and readers alike would gleefully follow the whole saga as it unfolds. Except, this is really a sad example of how we, as a people excel at throwing pot shots at each other and rubbing each other with mud.
In fact, I am as much part of this saga as the two antagonists and I will explain how.
Sometime in January, in my capacity as a journalist, I asked a Mr. Cornellius Msimbe of MDC Dallas, what he thought of the split of the party in Zimbabwe. My idea was to find out how MDC members in the Diaspora were affected by the split and how they were reacting to it.
Mr. Msimbe contacted Mr. Andrew Manyevere, the chairman of the Toronto MDC to find out who I was. Despite that we lived as neighbours in Dallas and that my wife, was in his executive, Mr. Manyevere said he did not know me and he went on to call me such names as “prostitute”, “unclean” and “enemy of the people of Zimbabwe”. He went on to state, in the MDC Toronto Yahoo Group, that he was going to launch an inquiry into my activities.
A concerned MDC member forwarded Mr. Manyevere’s statement to me. I did the responsible thing, I e-mailed Mr. Manyevere seeking explanation – I never got it.
I also wrote to his executive, through vice chairman, Mr. Mudzingwa, seeking a clarification of my crime and why an Inquiry was being launched into my activities – I never got a response from him either.
Many, within MDC Toronto, urged me to sue for the same reasons that Mr. Mudzingwa is suing Mrs. Mlambo –defamation and possibly worse. I did not do that out of respect for Mr.Manyevere as an elder and also because I knew that I was far from being a “prostitute”, “unclean” or an “enemy” of anyone.
But then, sometime in June, Mr. Mudzingwa used the same MDC Toronto Yahoo Group to praise certain journalists at my expense. He implied that they knew journalism better than me because I wrote about faults in MDC Toronto.
Again I was urged to sue, but I did not even so much as react, again because of respect for Mr. Mudzingwa’s views and also because I know my trade and my work speaks for itself.
However, Mrs. Mlambo did not take kindly to Mr. Mudzingwa seeking to divide journalists and particularly for the MDC’s top leadership’s propensity to target me. She did not have to do this, but somebody had to defend our profession and she stood up for us.
Mr. Mudzingwa may feel that he has a right to sue Mrs. Mlambo and surely nobody can begrudge him that.
However, I just need to remind Mr. Mudzingwa that when he accepted his position in MDC, he should have known that all sorts of things will be thrown at him and a lot of his decisions and judgement willbe questioned, sometimes in not so charitable language. He, as a community leader should learn to accept some of these criticisms as a source of inspiration in his leadership role.
At stake, more than anything, is our reputation as Zimbabweans. We stand to lose more with this unnecessary fight than we can gain, individually or as a community.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Monday, July 24, 2006
AFRICENTRIC NONSENSE
So, the Toronto District School Board believes it has found a solution to the problem of black children lagging behind in schoolwork.
The "solution" is a program called Africentric Curriculum to be launched in November with 10 social study units that it's hoped will interest black children enough to do better in class.
Among the units will be lessons on Canada's first black politicians and prominent black artists.
The "gem" of them all is a math unit on racial profiling, where students will grapple with data on how and why Toronto police "treat black people more harshly than whites."
This exercise is "not to get students all worked up about racial profiling" says University of Windsor education professor, Andrew Allen.
It is "to allow them to use data about who gets stopped by police to come up with their own conclusions and develop a critical view of the world."
Really, professor? Further, is the aim here to help black students catch up with their schoolwork? I don't think so.
What I see in all this Africentric nonsense is institutionalized racial profiling.
Studying statistics on how many black people are arrested and how "badly" they are treated by the police as compared to white criminals does not make a black student understand and suddenly be able to balance a math equation.
What I get from all this, and no doubt many students will too, is a scare tactic, perhaps to vividly warn black children of how the system allows police to mistreat people like them.
Shouldn't the fact that some Toronto police officers, who are supposed to "serve and protect" all of us are known to treat black people harshly, make it necessary that they attend lessons to deal with the data showing how they are doing a disservice to the black community?
And how does learning about the first black Canadian politicians and leading artists, in a two-week "Africentric" (whatever that means) program, help a student solve a physics or chemistry problem, or write a legible English composition?
If the idea is to address the problem of non-inclusion of black achievers in the formal curriculum for all Canadian students, the solution is simple, rework the curriculum and include the kind of heroes and achievers that black children will identify with.
Why is there an assumption that white or Asian students will not or should not be inspired by black luminaries?
And why should we assume that black students will not be inspired by achievers of other races?
There are deeper problems in the black community that began a long time ago when some people had a "bright idea" to treat blacks as sub-human.
Over the years, remedies have been made to a large extent and continue to be made.
However, amid all the efforts made to ensure equal treatment of all people, there come others -- including black people who should know better -- who get carried away with the idea of pleasing us and end up harming us instead.
When white children fail or lag behind in school, does the TDSB send them to some Eurocentric program to inspire them?
Of course not. They get tutors. They go to summer school. They do extra lessons until they improve.
This is what should be recommended for black students.
Their parents should be notified to help, either by giving their child extra home schooling on the particular subject they are failing or engaging tutors to help out.
Granted, many black families cannot afford such services as tutors. Therein, you see, lies the real problem -- economic inequality.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
The "solution" is a program called Africentric Curriculum to be launched in November with 10 social study units that it's hoped will interest black children enough to do better in class.
Among the units will be lessons on Canada's first black politicians and prominent black artists.
The "gem" of them all is a math unit on racial profiling, where students will grapple with data on how and why Toronto police "treat black people more harshly than whites."
This exercise is "not to get students all worked up about racial profiling" says University of Windsor education professor, Andrew Allen.
It is "to allow them to use data about who gets stopped by police to come up with their own conclusions and develop a critical view of the world."
Really, professor? Further, is the aim here to help black students catch up with their schoolwork? I don't think so.
What I see in all this Africentric nonsense is institutionalized racial profiling.
Studying statistics on how many black people are arrested and how "badly" they are treated by the police as compared to white criminals does not make a black student understand and suddenly be able to balance a math equation.
What I get from all this, and no doubt many students will too, is a scare tactic, perhaps to vividly warn black children of how the system allows police to mistreat people like them.
Shouldn't the fact that some Toronto police officers, who are supposed to "serve and protect" all of us are known to treat black people harshly, make it necessary that they attend lessons to deal with the data showing how they are doing a disservice to the black community?
And how does learning about the first black Canadian politicians and leading artists, in a two-week "Africentric" (whatever that means) program, help a student solve a physics or chemistry problem, or write a legible English composition?
If the idea is to address the problem of non-inclusion of black achievers in the formal curriculum for all Canadian students, the solution is simple, rework the curriculum and include the kind of heroes and achievers that black children will identify with.
Why is there an assumption that white or Asian students will not or should not be inspired by black luminaries?
And why should we assume that black students will not be inspired by achievers of other races?
There are deeper problems in the black community that began a long time ago when some people had a "bright idea" to treat blacks as sub-human.
Over the years, remedies have been made to a large extent and continue to be made.
However, amid all the efforts made to ensure equal treatment of all people, there come others -- including black people who should know better -- who get carried away with the idea of pleasing us and end up harming us instead.
When white children fail or lag behind in school, does the TDSB send them to some Eurocentric program to inspire them?
Of course not. They get tutors. They go to summer school. They do extra lessons until they improve.
This is what should be recommended for black students.
Their parents should be notified to help, either by giving their child extra home schooling on the particular subject they are failing or engaging tutors to help out.
Granted, many black families cannot afford such services as tutors. Therein, you see, lies the real problem -- economic inequality.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
NYERERE A SAINT?
Controversy with a potential to divide the Catholic Church is brewing in the most unlikely place, Africa, following the nomination of former Tanzanian president Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere for sainthood.
The late African statesman's nomination last year by bishops of the diocese of his native Musoma district is already causing a re-look at the Catholic Church's criteria of declaring someone a candidate for sainthood.
Catholic doctrine states that apart from living strictly by the tenets of the church's teachings, an individual has to have done outstanding faith-guided deeds for humanity when they were living and caused documentable miracles after their death.
It is these merits that Nyerere's supporters have to publish with testimonials to prove the late politician is worthy of joining the exclusive class of people holier than most mortals. That is going to be an uphill struggle.
Not because Nyerere was a politician, as some people are already implying. What will prove difficult is to follow the rules of the process of beatification and fulfil them as expected. Nyerere was known to have been attending Mass and following all the steps of Catholicism on a daily basis and he often fasted.
Fr. Michael Meunier, a Toronto priest who worked in East Africa in the 1990s and is a proponent of the beatification of the late president, recounted to me a story of how a few years before his death, Nyerere was being honoured for his work. Nyerere was said to have not touched the food he had been given because it was during Lent. One of his hosts suggested that when Nyerere meets with God in Heaven, he would confidently declare that he accomplished the work he was put on earth to do.
"Nyerere replied that only Jesus Christ has the right to stand before the Lord and say He accomplished His work. He said when he gets before the Lord, he would only say 'I tried,'" said Meunier. The question is what did he try and how did it turn out vis-à-vis his proposed beatification.
Compared to such candidates as the late Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Nyerere's case will be rather arduous to prove. He attended Mass every day, fasted and did other Christian things, but thousands more unknown people could have done that and even have surpassed him.
As a politician he is as revered as the likes of Nelson Mandela of South Africa and he led his people to self-rule as well as democracy by the time he retired in 1985. However, it is in that process of becoming a national leader and continental statesman that he made decisions and actions that would make his beatification controversial.
Upon leading Tanzania out of British colonial rule in the early 1960s, Nyerere introduced his own brand of socialism, Ujamaa (familyhood), a policy of communal agriculture modelled on Mao Zedong's collectivization in China — minus the brutality.
Ujamaa failed dismally and by the time Nyerere resigned from the presidency and declared "I failed" in 1985, Tanzania had been reduced from Africa's largest exporter of agricultural products to the largest importer of the same.
Tanzania still has not recovered from that disastrous policy and is now rated one of the world's poorest countries. Nyerere is considered father of Pan Africanism and is one of the leaders who came up with the idea to start the Organization of African Unity.
He was personally instrumental in the formation, funding and successful execution of the independence movement that swept east and southern Africa from the late 1960s right up to 1994 when South Africa became democratic. However, during all that time, Nyerere was suppressing the need for multiparty democracy in his own country.
He also took his country to war with Uganda to drive out the brutal dictator, Idi Amin, but in his place, he re-imposed another dictator, Milton Obote, whose authoritarian rule had caused Amin to come to power in the first place. He was also instrumental in the coup that brought France-Albert Rene to power in The Seychelles.
Of the freedom movement protégés he supported actively, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has turned out to be a dictatorial monster in the same mould as Idi Amin. Admittedly, Nyerere cannot be penalized for actions of the Obotes and Mugabes, but his own actions in it all will make his candidacy for beatification very hard to defend.
In my view, Nyerere was an African scholar-turned-politician who played his part to free the people of Africa admirably. He led his people with the compassion only a true Christian could do, but his desire to produce a perfect community in the region also caused him to make some mistakes. Will these mistakes stand the test of beatification? I doubt it.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
The late African statesman's nomination last year by bishops of the diocese of his native Musoma district is already causing a re-look at the Catholic Church's criteria of declaring someone a candidate for sainthood.
Catholic doctrine states that apart from living strictly by the tenets of the church's teachings, an individual has to have done outstanding faith-guided deeds for humanity when they were living and caused documentable miracles after their death.
It is these merits that Nyerere's supporters have to publish with testimonials to prove the late politician is worthy of joining the exclusive class of people holier than most mortals. That is going to be an uphill struggle.
Not because Nyerere was a politician, as some people are already implying. What will prove difficult is to follow the rules of the process of beatification and fulfil them as expected. Nyerere was known to have been attending Mass and following all the steps of Catholicism on a daily basis and he often fasted.
Fr. Michael Meunier, a Toronto priest who worked in East Africa in the 1990s and is a proponent of the beatification of the late president, recounted to me a story of how a few years before his death, Nyerere was being honoured for his work. Nyerere was said to have not touched the food he had been given because it was during Lent. One of his hosts suggested that when Nyerere meets with God in Heaven, he would confidently declare that he accomplished the work he was put on earth to do.
"Nyerere replied that only Jesus Christ has the right to stand before the Lord and say He accomplished His work. He said when he gets before the Lord, he would only say 'I tried,'" said Meunier. The question is what did he try and how did it turn out vis-à-vis his proposed beatification.
Compared to such candidates as the late Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Nyerere's case will be rather arduous to prove. He attended Mass every day, fasted and did other Christian things, but thousands more unknown people could have done that and even have surpassed him.
As a politician he is as revered as the likes of Nelson Mandela of South Africa and he led his people to self-rule as well as democracy by the time he retired in 1985. However, it is in that process of becoming a national leader and continental statesman that he made decisions and actions that would make his beatification controversial.
Upon leading Tanzania out of British colonial rule in the early 1960s, Nyerere introduced his own brand of socialism, Ujamaa (familyhood), a policy of communal agriculture modelled on Mao Zedong's collectivization in China — minus the brutality.
Ujamaa failed dismally and by the time Nyerere resigned from the presidency and declared "I failed" in 1985, Tanzania had been reduced from Africa's largest exporter of agricultural products to the largest importer of the same.
Tanzania still has not recovered from that disastrous policy and is now rated one of the world's poorest countries. Nyerere is considered father of Pan Africanism and is one of the leaders who came up with the idea to start the Organization of African Unity.
He was personally instrumental in the formation, funding and successful execution of the independence movement that swept east and southern Africa from the late 1960s right up to 1994 when South Africa became democratic. However, during all that time, Nyerere was suppressing the need for multiparty democracy in his own country.
He also took his country to war with Uganda to drive out the brutal dictator, Idi Amin, but in his place, he re-imposed another dictator, Milton Obote, whose authoritarian rule had caused Amin to come to power in the first place. He was also instrumental in the coup that brought France-Albert Rene to power in The Seychelles.
Of the freedom movement protégés he supported actively, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has turned out to be a dictatorial monster in the same mould as Idi Amin. Admittedly, Nyerere cannot be penalized for actions of the Obotes and Mugabes, but his own actions in it all will make his candidacy for beatification very hard to defend.
In my view, Nyerere was an African scholar-turned-politician who played his part to free the people of Africa admirably. He led his people with the compassion only a true Christian could do, but his desire to produce a perfect community in the region also caused him to make some mistakes. Will these mistakes stand the test of beatification? I doubt it.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Saturday, July 15, 2006
SIMBA HAD US ALL SINGING "NDIJESU CHETE"
Little Simbarashe Edmore Jowa was laid to rest in Brampton on Saturday. As the last shovelful of dirt was thrown onto the mount that is to be the permanent mark of what was once a vivacious young boy, I felt renewed pain in my heart. The kind of pain all parents feel.
For Simba’s parents and others who have lost children, it is the pain of finally realizing that “my son, my daughter” is really gone.
For the rest of us, it is the pain of knowing that it could have happened to us. It is the kind of pain that comes because you want to take some of the pain off Edmore and Nyaradzo’s hearts, but you know you cannot.
I did not know Simba or his parents. In fact, when I first heard the sad news on CTV on Monday night, I was not paying attention, so all I heard was that two kids were rescued from some creek and one drowned. It was sad news but I was removed from it.
Then the following morning I bought the Toronto Sun newspaper and there his picture was, beaming like all kids of his age always are. The name “Simbarashe” hit me hard. He could only be Zimbabwean. As I read the story and recalled what I had half seen on TV the previous night, my heart sank.
I had just left my own seven-year-old son at home. He is as active as Simba must have been. I imagined someone calling me with the sad news that my son has been in an accident. Just the thought scared me and my heart went to the Jowas immediately.
Today, as I joined hundreds of other Zimbabweans, Canadians and other nationals celebrating Simba’s last day among us, I marveled at how Simba managed, in death, to bring us together.
My wife and I met a number of people we had last seen years ago in Zimbabwe, some of them relatives we did not even know were here in Canada. No doubt other people had similar experiences.
Simba’s departure even brought out the best of speakers to rally the Zimbabwe community together and urge more unity and full integration into the Canadian society, so Simba’s living peers could live longer and prosper, closer and around his final home than to move away.
Simba, to me you are a seed that we planted today here in Canada. God took you away from us for a purpose and that purpose is to unite us all the children of Zimbabwe.
Rest in Peace Big Guy and we shall always sing your song, “NdiJesu Chete.”
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
For Simba’s parents and others who have lost children, it is the pain of finally realizing that “my son, my daughter” is really gone.
For the rest of us, it is the pain of knowing that it could have happened to us. It is the kind of pain that comes because you want to take some of the pain off Edmore and Nyaradzo’s hearts, but you know you cannot.
I did not know Simba or his parents. In fact, when I first heard the sad news on CTV on Monday night, I was not paying attention, so all I heard was that two kids were rescued from some creek and one drowned. It was sad news but I was removed from it.
Then the following morning I bought the Toronto Sun newspaper and there his picture was, beaming like all kids of his age always are. The name “Simbarashe” hit me hard. He could only be Zimbabwean. As I read the story and recalled what I had half seen on TV the previous night, my heart sank.
I had just left my own seven-year-old son at home. He is as active as Simba must have been. I imagined someone calling me with the sad news that my son has been in an accident. Just the thought scared me and my heart went to the Jowas immediately.
Today, as I joined hundreds of other Zimbabweans, Canadians and other nationals celebrating Simba’s last day among us, I marveled at how Simba managed, in death, to bring us together.
My wife and I met a number of people we had last seen years ago in Zimbabwe, some of them relatives we did not even know were here in Canada. No doubt other people had similar experiences.
Simba’s departure even brought out the best of speakers to rally the Zimbabwe community together and urge more unity and full integration into the Canadian society, so Simba’s living peers could live longer and prosper, closer and around his final home than to move away.
Simba, to me you are a seed that we planted today here in Canada. God took you away from us for a purpose and that purpose is to unite us all the children of Zimbabwe.
Rest in Peace Big Guy and we shall always sing your song, “NdiJesu Chete.”
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
Sunday, July 09, 2006
SOMEONE IS KNOCKING SENSE INTO ANNAN
I said it, didn't I? That it was totally irresponsible for Kofi Annan to let an openly pro-Mugabe former Tanzanian president, Benjamin Mkapa to mediate in Zimbabwe's crisis.
It made me believe rumours that Annan is actually coverting the presidency in his native Ghana. He, by the way, is leaving his United Nations Secretary-Generalship in December and may find himself without a position of influence, hence the idea that he may be eyeing John Kufour's throne and that he wants to stake the support of the Bad Boys of Africa Group (BBAG) for which Mugabe is an integral part.
Anyway, it was heartening this weekend to read that pressure is being applied on Annan's UN to be directly involved in efforts to talk sense into Mugabe to relinguish power in Zimbabwe.
Reports from Washington say diplomatic movers want UN Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari to be called on to help advance the mediation process. Gambari, the UN’s top political officer, actually has the backing of the United States, Britain, Denmark and Japan among other democracies.
Lets hope Mugabe allows Gambari to do his job.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
It made me believe rumours that Annan is actually coverting the presidency in his native Ghana. He, by the way, is leaving his United Nations Secretary-Generalship in December and may find himself without a position of influence, hence the idea that he may be eyeing John Kufour's throne and that he wants to stake the support of the Bad Boys of Africa Group (BBAG) for which Mugabe is an integral part.
Anyway, it was heartening this weekend to read that pressure is being applied on Annan's UN to be directly involved in efforts to talk sense into Mugabe to relinguish power in Zimbabwe.
Reports from Washington say diplomatic movers want UN Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari to be called on to help advance the mediation process. Gambari, the UN’s top political officer, actually has the backing of the United States, Britain, Denmark and Japan among other democracies.
Lets hope Mugabe allows Gambari to do his job.
TO READ MORE OF MY WRITING, PLEASE VISIT; www.torontosun.ca/News/Columnists/Madawo_Innocent/
http://www.catholicregister.org/
http://www.durdesh.net/issue002/page24.pdf
http://www.canadiannewcomermagazine.org/
http://www.thecanadian.ca/
http://www.zimcanada.com/
http://www.jexcanada.com/
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