Gremlin Drive-in Restaurant in Harare

Here's a menu from 1977!

How many memories of pulling into Gremmies!

Small world

I only realised today, when talking to others, that the young lady (left in the picture above) used to come along to Sunday School most Sundays with her sister, to the Avondale Church of the Nazarene.

Shelly was Isaacs before she married Dave (oops, forgot the surname). They have recently moved from London to Swansea, in Wales. When Rose and I met Shelly yesterday, we knew we had met her before, but could not make the connections!

Too many places, too many discombobulated journeys of people from Zim days who have gone to so many different places. Her mum, Janice, was in Children's Theatre with me and my brothers in the late 60s and early 70s, and her granny (Di Issacs) was someone I worked with in the Building Society in Harare. Small, small world.

Only in Zimbabwe

Here is a real email message sent out to all customers by Zimbabwe Online, a major ISP in the country ruled by King Robert 1 of Jongwe. At least they have a sense of humour.

Subject: ZOL downtime and emergency maintenance


Dear (name removed)

This is a brief update of our considerable downtime today (Monday 16th March) from about 2pm to 5:30pm. We are also announcing emergency maintenance that will take us offline from approximately 8pm to 10pm tomorrow (Tuesday 17th March).

Unfortunately every backup system including generators, UPS and routers were totally flummoxed by 2 painters painting the building where our satellite dish is housed. Being diligent men, they decided to remove a junction box to paint behind it. Unluckily that box belongs to Telecontract and houses a fiber optic cable joint connecting to ZOL. This took down not only ZOL, but many ISP connections on the same fiber.

We are operating on a temporary solution now, but to fully repair this damage Telecontract have advised us that they will have to redo the entire joint. This will take approximately 2 hours, and will be done at 8pm on Tuesday 17th March.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused. Sometimes human brilliance just shines through regardless of the best laid plans!

Best Regards
The ZOL Crew

Brief visit

We were delighted when Rod and Angela Marsh popped in for tea and an all too brief time to catch up. They now live in Staffordshire, but in our previous lives in Zimbabwe, I had the privilege to pastor them. Angela's parents were also in our first church.

The emasmasculation of King Robert I of Jongwe

Graphic courtesy of BBC - see the article here

Is it finally so, that we are starting to see the emasculation of Robert Mugabe? Will he slowly and unceremoniously be marginalised and put out to pasture? I have my doubts, but will rejoice if this new power-sharing scheme can move beyond the current stalemate in selecting which party gets which cabinet posts. The battle is far from over.

African leaders apply pressure on Mugabe

A time for great sadness

This is hard to watch from England at any time, harder when you know these people.

Today's news that the African Union refuses to sanction Mugabe is disheartening. I used to believe in the justice of the liberation struggle - but all these recent events make mockery of it all. It is racism and hatred, pure and simple, but it does seem that racism and hatred is only racism and hatred when perpetrated by white people. The kind of ugliness and lies and greed and violence committed by Mugabe and his people is somehow being held up as a standard of righteousness by African leaders who so hate anything Western (except their capital) that I very much fear for the future of Africa now. So very sad.

Wither Zimbabwe?

I am afraid that the events in Zimbabwe during the past weeks are for me, just too painful to be blogging about. I've heard about too much violence, learned firsthand about people I know who have been brutally assaulted, and had to listen to so many lies and self-delusion from ZanuPF spokespeople, that I just don't feel like adding my voice to the many who (fortunately) are blogging away about events back home. Yesterday's announcement by the MDC that they will not contest the Presidential election run-off is just so sad because it is a huge blow for democracy, for truth, and for justice. Sadder, is that I doubt the rest of the world will do much of significance - some hot air and rhetoric for a few weeks is about all I am expecting from the free world who cared very little beyond the price of petrol and one or two percentage points of inflation.

Say a prayer for Zimbabwe today. Robert Mugabe has said this weekend that only God is able to remove him from power. I don't like to order God around, but I am sure hoping He will not take to kindly to King Robert's deluded proclamation of divine appointment, and that He might just move His hand towards the 'remove that man' button I believe He could press at any time.

Dangerous couple of snakes

Got a spare billion?

VICTORIA FALLS HOTEL, Zimbabwe. One person, one meal, and a bill for one billion, two hundred and forty three million, two hundred and fifty five thousand dollars ... excluding the tip of course. When Rose and I stayed at this same hotel on our honeymoon, nearly 30 years ago, the total food bill for two, for six days, was $65.00. Quite a lot has changed!

Photo souce: Andy Gibb (original source not known)

The coming storm

If the world does not act with pressure upon African leaders to do something about their fallen angel, Robert Mugabe, the evidence is mounting that he will stop at nothing to ensure he wins the rematch at the polls between him and Morgan Tsvangirai. The violence is real. People are not just being hurt, they are being killed. The country is a complete and utter waste of incredible resources and talents. Bob is a hero in Africa, African leaders are blind to his meglomania and atrocities. Surely eneogh is enough, and surely such moral bankruptcy from Mugabe deserves the attention of the world's influential people - even if Zimbabwe cannot offer oil, or diamonds.

How much is a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe?

Well, have a listen, have a laugh!

powered by ODEO

If Mugabe gets to contest the election again

This has been posted before, but thinking about the next three weeks as King Robert I of Jongwe will no doubt wage war on anything and everything that is decent and honourable, made me think about it again.

All the king's horses, all the king's men ...

Is it the start of a new day for Zimbabwe?

7:30 PM and our house is on complete tenterhooks, watching the news and expecting Robert Gabriel Mugabe to make an address to the nation. Will he hand on to power? Will he concede defeat and go with the diplomacy and manners he is capable of? Will the army force his hand to stay? Will the cronies in his party scramble and run? It is all just too much.

My friend Will

Oh well, Will Gwata lost in his very first parliamentary election, to an MDC candidate. In the photo, he is on a bus in Harare drumming up support in the old fashioned way. Here is what Will said on his own Party blog:

My bid for the Harare Central parliamentary seat has failed. The MDC clinched it. However, this is only a battle lost and by no means the war. So watch this space. I am retreating to lick my wounds today and tomorrow but I expect to be back in circulation on Tuesday. Thank you for your support all the same. If you wish to catch a glimpse of some of the goings on from yesterday please visit http://cdpzimbabwe.blogspot.com/

The Frog and the Prostitute

Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, called Simba Makoni, who is challenging him for the top job in an election at the end of this month, a prostitute and a frog. See article [From The Economist, 28 Feb 2008]

The Zimbabwe Mafia

Ever wondered who is driving all those fancy cars and lives in the biggest houses in Zimbabwe? This edition of Zimbabwe News Update (get it here: http://odeo.com/show/17692953/view) has a fascinating view of it all. Where Mandebvhu sources his stuff, I shall not ask, but if you are interested in Zimbabwe, give this a listen.

Zimbabwe inflation reaches 150,000 %

Read the article from SWNEWS - so what would you do with a ten-million dollar note in your pocket? Actually, it would probably not even pay for lunch at a take-away.

A stirring poem for the Rhodie diaspora

Last November, an icon of Rhodesia, Ian Douglas Smith, died. I am not too sentimental about the 'old Rhodie days' preferring much more to lament the 'good Zimbo days' and the many happy years we had in Zimbabwe between 1980 and 2002. However, Sinclair Ellis wrote the following poem. One interesting memory about Mrs Ellis is that in the 60s and 70s she was well known for her paintings of cats, on copper, and signed SINCLAIR. Like many diaspora communities, the scatterlings of Zimbabwe and Rhodesia, are making new lives in other places, and for the most part, I think those communities are better for their influence.


When our songs will be forgotten,
The peace dream will be dead,
The flame lily will wither,
Our memories have fled.

When the last of our ashes
Is lost in wind and rain,
Yet somewhere in the scatter
Our blood lines will remain.

When the last of us has given
All we had to give,
Within the nations of the earth
Our heritage will live.

by Sinclair Ellis (December 2007)