Launch photos

Some photos from the launch at Tongogara:

http://picasaweb.google.com/O.Sinclair/TongogaraTelecenterLaunch2010#

Successful launch

First of all some complaining: following weekend after weekend tied to the sofa due to either sciatic, leg pains or lately surgery wound on the left foot I think I could have deserved a "mobile" weekend. That is when I go down with a flu and cough of a lifetime... So once more this a report from the sofa at 3 Ussher Close Harare.

Since 2006 I have on and off worked with a project in Tongogara, near Shurugwi in the middle of Zimbabwe. This involves creating a cooperative society out of the members of an earlier project and then assist them in setting up a functional business in the shape of a "Telecentre", a combination of copy-, phone-, computer- and internetshop. After years of struggling to "outlast" things such as hyperinflation, no electricity supplies etc. we could last year finally put the wheels in motion and deliver copier and computers. Following that training on computers (Linux OS Kubuntu and other FOSS software of course) was done and the centre opened and quickly became very popular in the area. Note we are talking about a place where before this the nearest place to make a photocopy or such is around 60 km and a day of travelling away.

Following the success I/we noted that mobile internet worked at the site and decided to go "all out" and install internet and have a "grand opening launch" with various politicians, local chiefs and the Swedish Ambassador invited. Since then me and colleague Arnold have been travelling down to Tongogara every week and this last week we were basically on site the whole week.

It was a lot of hard work but the launch on Thursday was really successful and we had both TV and newspapers plus around a 100 guests attending.

For me it felt GREAT to see something I strongly believe in and have worked with since 2006 come to a successful completion. I myself pay tribute to the people in Tongogara who never gave up as well as to my project-partner Arnold, myself and SCC ROSA.

Just wish I knew if we were on the news as Arnold, a colleague from Ministry of SME and Cooperatives and myself ended up in a put mildly dingy guesthouse in Kwekwe on our way to Gokwe and next Telecentre on the night following the launch. No choice of channels on the TV there... but nice to enjoy the euphoria of a successful ending of a project.

Pain and parenting

Like most parents I have moments when I doubt that I am a reasonably good father and more or less loved by my kids. In all honesty though, most of the time I know that it is not true and whatever issues I might have are very far away from creating a situation where my 2 boys do not like or love me.

Pain however is not a good companion to parenting, at least for me. I guess that people react individually to pain but I am well aware that I become a grumpy, irritable and not very likeable person when I am in pain or sick. Even worse if it is both sick and in pain.

So for more than a week my dear beloved Mia and the boys Bradley and Eric has had to live with a man who, when not being passed out by medics or exhaustion, is likely to ignite and shout for nothing, who hates lying on the sofa the whole day even though that is the best position/cure for the pain and generally gets out of line on a regular basis.

Good then that I do whatever I can when I am on the ups and not the downs. I like cooking. So I spent the better part of Saturday making a cake, pancakes for lunch, preparing a pizza for dinner (Mia did everything but the dough though and she is really good at that) and then collapsing on the sofa. Today we went to the local car race course Donnybrook to watch karting carrying a cooler box with hot dogs and cold drinks/beers. That it took around 3 hours before I had to go home is another story.

I guess all we can do is to do our best and be aware of that it is not always enough and then try to make up for the bad moments on the good days.

The sofa

Am stuck on the sofa since Friday following surgery on the left foot. To be more precise, surgery inside the sole of the foot. And I can think of few more inconvenient places to have stitches etc as it effectively renders me immobile.

It is tricky, most tiring and occasionally painful to move around. I am, of course, expected to keep it dry and reasonably clean, not so easy to achieve either in this case. So the sofa it is and now being on the fourth day I am sick and tired of it. It does not help that power disappears for hours at a time ever so often.

Internet from home, with a 3G-modem, is giving an at best "fast as dialup" experience but at least I can just keep it on and try and wait it out. Sometimes it just stops, sometimes it is quite good. Try to work as best I can but even that not too easy since the painkiller/anti-inflammatory medicines I take make me rather drowsy.

Can not wait for Friday when this is supposed to come off!

Courtroom Comedy

I just can not stop myself from commenting on this. The full story can be found at Zimbabwe Situation but in short the State has found an IT "expert witness" in the trial against Roy Bennett (MDC member with very strong support, hated by ZanuPF and supposed to be Dept. Minister of Agriculture, at the moment on trial for "treason").

This expert was called in to give statements on the authenticity of some emails that are supposed to be from said Bennett regarding the treason charges. Note that only printed versions seems to exist...

a long quote:

"HARARE - February 24, 2010 - AN information and technology expert-witness who was called in to buttress the State's assertion that emails printed from Peter Michael Hitschamann's laptop were authentic in the ongoing trial of MDC treasurer general Roy Bennett, stunned the court when he revealed that he was not aware of the term hackers.

Under cross-examination from defence lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, State's expert witness Perekai Denchort Mutsetse, who claimed he is a provincial engineer for Africom based in Mutare, stunned the court when he said he was hearing the term "computer hacker" in court for the first time in his life.

"There are no such people called hackers. I am actually hearing that term for the first time here in court. Where are they trained? I don't know anything about hackers. They don't exist," said Mutsetse.

"There is no software that can be used to trace the originality or otherwise of emails. The website that created that email will be shown at the top if
that email is printed out," he said.

Asked whether he was aware that there were people called computer forensic experts Mutsetse said there were no such people in Zimbabwe but might be found in South Africa.

Mutsetse, who claimed that he had several certificates on data communications from the City and Guilds, University of Zimbabwe and Africa University, was also asked about the EnCase software used by computer forensic experts to which he responded, "Where did that come from? There is no such software in Zimbabwe; if it's there you must have brought it in here. I am not in forensics."

After given the example of the hackers who have been hacking information from the US Pentagon for years, Mutsetse simply asked "What is the Pentagon?"

Mtetwa also told Mutsetse that he was not qualified to be identified as an expert who can be called in to give an expert testimony with regards to computers and internet functions.

Instead of responding to most of the questions from the defence lawyers, Mutsetse continuously asked Mtetwa which led to Justice Chinembiri Bhunu to
intervene and ordered the IT expert to respond.

"The witness' function is to give evidence and the lawyer has to ask questions and not the other way round," ruled Bhunu

He said they tried to verify the emails by sending messages to the given addresses but they bounced back to show that they were no longer in existence.

Mutsetse also declined to talk about his position at work arguing that the company's policies do not allowed them discuss it in public. He also denied that he only passed 2 O' Level subjects in 1994 according to a CV that he send to one of his previous employers.

end quote...

You have to ask yourself a number of questions such as: is the guy joking? Is he being deliberately stupid in order to actually help the defence and not the State? Or is it simply that this is the only person the State can find that is not willing to lie in court and so they had to scrape the bottom of the bin?

To be called an IT expert and state that email can not be falsified or traced, being unaware of the term "hacker" and not know what Pentagon is or the attacks on Pentagon (hacker attacks that is) is an insult to everyone in my profession.

But I had a good laugh though...

Birthday bash

During the weekend a certain president in a southern African country celebrated his 86th birthday. That is of course great for him and his family.

However, for the majority of the citizens of the country in question it is nothing but prolonging the pain. The biggest obstacle to recovery of a once well working economy is spelled in the name of one old man.

There are theories that he is in many ways a great leader but, like Mwalimu Nyerere, does not understand finance and economy at all. In a way I hope that this is true. How can you otherwise defend the too-oft-repeated warcry of "sovereignty, indigenisation" etc etc. Can you eat sovereignty? Is it better that a company is owned or run by a local idiot instead of a foreign professional? What puts more money in the State's coffers?

WHY are local parastatals and companies not doing as well as foreign-controlled or owned? THERE lies to question to be answered and the solutions to be found. NOT in "we must own our own resources no matter how much we do not utilise them or frankly waste them".

Soulsearching is something very much lacking +20 years after independence in many former African colonies.

Tongogara comes online

If you know a bit about Zimbabwe's history the name of Tongogara is known as one of the original freedom fighters. It is also the name of a local council nowadays, the Tongogara growth point.

Since 2006 I have been involved in setting up a so-called Telecenter there. It has involved quite a bit of hard work and patience, more for the people involved in Tongogara than for me, as it involved creating a business cooperative, raising funds, finding a place to house it etc etc.

Last year some equipment, including computers, were donated and training was done in October for the operations manager and some others.

Sadly however, we have not managed to find a way to bring telecommunications and thereby internet to the place. TelOne, the landline provider, says the switches in the area are full. The cellphone providers have coverage but very "spotwise" and not for internet anyhow.

But, as I think I have mentioned, Econet has promised coverage and they are also introducing 3G internet. Yesterday we went for a follow-up visit and I brought my 3G-modem just in case.

Boy was I surprised to find that not only could I connect but it was faster than what I get at home... we are now looking at how they or we can fund some modems and next step will be to make it a "true" Telecenter with internet and phones!

Heat, pains, phone and politics

I am spending the week in Maputo setting up an accounting (well ERP actually) system for use here. And it is steaming HOT here! That kind of heat where your shirt is soaked after an hour or so and you have to take a shower after work when it starts to cool down. And the office has no aircon and no fans...

Otherwise the sciatic nerve pain is sloooowly subsiding and I can now at least take reasonably long walks. Not having been able to exercise since November has not had a good influence on my waistline sadly. Am so looking forward to being able to hit the gym again! Weekend before last was in so much pain I could not sit, lie, stand up or pretty much do anything so it has really improved since.

Politics and pomms. Where do they dig up their foreign affairs secretaries in the UK? Straw was hopeless and now David Milliband hands Zanu PF a brilliant reason to refuse to fulfill the agreement they signed over a year ago. This by telling the UK Parliament that "when it comes to sanctions we must be guided by the MDC"... bingo. Exactly what Zanu wanted to hear as they have for months argued that MDC can ask their "western masters" to lift the sanctions, something that is of course nothing but stalling tactics. Well, now they have it "confirmed" by mr. Milliband. How come these oh-so well educated pommies get outwitted by a gang of ageing guerilla-fighters over and over again? When it comes to Zimbabwe they should by know that the less they say the better.

With the help of kind Swedish friends I bought a new cellphone a while ago. I have never really like the idea of "gadget phones" that can do x number of things apart from being phones but I wanted this phone as it can act as a radio transmitter and walkman, thereby assisting me to endure long drives I regularly go for. Well, I have become quite fond of the walkman functions (it is a SonyEricsson W980) and the fantastic headphones that came with it but it turns out that the radio-thing only works in countries where legislation so admits. And that means not in Zim, not in Zambia, not in Malawi and not in Moz. It works in SA - where you have plenty of good radio stations. Will have to see if there is a way to crack this block but apart from that really love the new gadget.

Finally a comment on the president of SA, Jacob Zuma, who is once again caught redhanded when it comes to his sexlife habits. This is the guy who was spearheading HIV/Aids prevention while at the same time admitting to having unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV positive but "it did not matter as he showered afterwards"... for a long time all the cartoonists pictured him with a showerhead. Now it has been revealed that he has recently fathered a child outside marriage. That is, outside the 3 wives he is currently married to. And that the child was conceived while he was busy preparing for his latest marriage... To finally top it off this is again a daughter of one of his supposedly close friends (the HIV lady was a friend's daughter). Well what can you say? I would not let him near my nieces or sisters-in-law for sure and I consider it a huge embarrassement for Southafrica that their president can not control his urges and obviously let's his smaller head do the thinking for him. As for his wives, well it is their headache but I don't get how not even one of them are preparing divorce papers.

Boys starting school

School started this week and for Eric it was his first day in Primary school. A VERY excited boy was ready to go nearly 2 hours before it was time to leave home.

I realise that it will not last with this enormous enthusiasm.. but for now it feels good!

Here a photo of him in his uniform outside Lusitania school where they both learn:

Is Bilbo a blogger?

Just testing the newly installed Bilbo blogging tool, see Blogilo. Otherwise back at work and in full swing.

Eric started primary yesterday, full of expectations and was basically ready to leave home more than an hour earlier than needed. Will post some photos later of our uniformed boys.

For my part I by pure coincidence found a chiropractor and is now under treatment for the sciatic nerve problem. If it is helping I am still not 100 but at least he took time to explain the problem, showed me on the X-rays and generally seems to know what he is doing. And is organised, most welcome after earlier doctor experiences.

Still have some follow-up visits lined up this week but then I hope not to see any doctor until it is time for bp-check some time in June or so.

Zimbabwe still slowly but surely improving. Let's hope that will be the story all throughout 2010!

Doctors, pains and 3G

Following visit to a rather useless "back doctor" who told me nothing I could not figure out myself I find I am still on and off in pain. Apparently a "pinched sciatic nerve" is (quote doctor) "tricky". As I said, nothing I could not figure out myself.

It has become much better with a mixture of rest and a healthy dosis of exercise but some things makes it raise its rather ugly head. One of them being driving long distances, I did some 730 km yesterday and that was not good at all.

Once we are in 2010 I will find a chiropractor but for now I live with it. More seriously, as I see it, I was diagnosed with high bloodpressure and am now trying to come to terms with that and bring it down. On that issue at least I think I have found a decent doctor and I have good support from the National Blood Transfusion Service as I am a donor. Have also found that a surprisingly large number of friends and colleagues have the same problem.

One good result of that and other medical issues is that I have been thoroughly tested, scanned, looked over and pinched at. Apparently I am, except for high BP, in perfect health.

As our landbased telephone line died a while ago (TelOne are "upgrading" they say) all internet access from home disappeared. Given that Econet wireless now have huge billboards advertising the arrival of 3G internet, "browse from your laptop wherever you are", we got a modem and an activated line.

To start positive: it works. Just about. Most of the time. But if this is "3G" then I hope our landline comes back online soon. I can, just about, receive and send emails. From 2 rooms in one corner of the house. I would call that 0.5G or something. Slower than dial-up by far.

Econet are doing their usual thing: First we advertise, launch and oversubscribe. THEN we get the necessary equipment to deal with the traffic it has created.

And, also as usual, Harare is worst hit. Others living in smaller cities are quite satisfied.

As always: patience is a virtue...

Back from Namibia

Just returned from a week in Windhoek, Namibia. Well, it was more like a week in Safari Hotel and Conference Centre, Windhoek. Got out of there Friday afternoon after a very hectic and ambitious program during the INK4DEV week.

Small is one impression of the City Centre (and that was all I managed) and squeaky clean. Quite a nice place but nothing for the "big city lovers" I think.

Limped around with bad pains in right leg the whole week. Turns out that I have an inflamed sciatic nerve so now on medications since yesterday. Let's hope that is all there is to it and not related to some more serious back problem.

It is raining in Harare (most of Zimbabwe actually) and we are NOT complaining. Nice that things cool down a bit and well needed for gardens and farmers.

Home

Boy does it feel good to be home in Harare... in serious need of "recharging batteries" for next trip. That will be to Windhoek, Namibia, a place I have never visited.

So trying to relax but have tons of things to do.. so not so easy. For me the big news is a new release of Kubuntu, version 9.10, that looks good enough for me to upgrade my own (and other) computer from the 8.04 version I use now. Check it out at Kubuntu

And of course the new Windows 7 is also something I look forward to trying out. From what I hear it is way better than Vista (not difficult...) and might be the version that will make many users to finally abandon XP. And of course then Microsoft does NOT make it possible to upgrade from XP to W7 direct... well not my headache.

Otherwise it is HOT and we are waiting for the rains to start.

Third time lucky

It took 3 attempts... to enter into Mozambique, Niassa province via the Chiponde (Malawi) - Mandimba (Mozambique) borderpost.

Having driven to Lilongwe I managed to get visa with no other problems than the ATMs going on strike in the morning (it had rained...) and the Consulate not opening at 8 am as scheduled. "The man with the keys" had not arrived and staff + visitors patiently waited. After an hour the lady in charge of visas kindly accepted envelopes with applications, passports, money and so on outside the door.

Next day spent a little time in the Malawi SCC office before heading off towards Lake Malawi and the border to Mozambique. Arrived there around 1 pm. No problem on the Malawi side.

Come to the Moz side and enter a very empty border post. Same guy that had so much fun refusing me 2 days ago. "Welcome, you are back. But today is voting day". Yes, and so what? "No crossing the border on voting day".

I have to admit that it was difficult to maintain calm and not start shouting. I stated (truthfully) that I had checked with the consulate in Lilongwe, that my organisation in Lichinga had checked with Immigration and even this borderpost that the border should be business as usual during election day. "No, not for foreigners, only Mozambiquans".

I asked if he seriously thought that the international airport in Maputo was closed to foreigners on this day, he admitted that it was not very likely. But Mandimba was.

What to do? In the age of cellphones: call the office in Lichinga. A flurry of phonecalls to them, to Immigration, to the head of the borderpost and so on. No, the border was closed to foreigners. A couple hours later we had negotiated a compromise. I would get a TIP for the car (import permit) and could sleep in Mandimba next to the border, come at 6 am and get the entry stamp and then continue. The office was making arrangements for accommodation (dodgy guesthouse style).

So I go to the car and ask the soldier manning the boom to open it. "Where is passport stamp?" I tried to explain. No - no stamp no lifting of boom. The Immigration man tried to explain. To no avail. More phone calls - no the army guys are under the Customs authority and there was noone from Customs around. Now what?

It is quite a walk to the "town" and with a suitcase? Or leave suitcase in car at the border? Colleagues now trying to arrange transport from Mandimba to come pick me up.

I had tried to plead with the newly arrived station manager who was now so "irritated" with me that he considered withdrawing his "kind offer".

I asked if I could try the Malawi side again to see if maybe they would allow me back so I could drive the 50 km back to Mangochi and sleep there? Without being refused the "kind offer" if they refused? "Yes, no problem".

Back at Chiponde I hit luck - manning Immigration was an "old friend" I normally chat with when I cross. He shook his head, crossed out the exit stamp. I got my old TIP back and headed for Mangochi. I was angry enough to drive in that manner you hardly remember how you got from A to B.

Now my favorite hotel/lodge was, of course, full. So was the next. At which time I pictured myself driving around looking for lodging the whole evening. Third time lucky, found lodging at Club Makokola. Nice but overpriced.

Slept like a dead person. Up early and back to border... Border very busy and the little round man I have learnt to really despise had no excuse this time, all he could do was to be as slooooow as possible.

Finally arrived Lichinga 4 days later than scheduled...

Mozambique borders revisited

Crossing borders in Africa can be an adventure - and really tiresome. Started Sunday morning from Harare heading for Mangochi, Lake Malawi. Had not bothered with applying for visa at Mozambique embassy due to various reasons.

Mistake. BIG mistake. For starters I think Mozambique Immigration are on a go-slow as it took the guy at Nyamapanda over 1 hour to process my visa. That included starting by counting the various currencies for over 10 minutes. Then looking for the right form, finding the correct receipt book etc etc.

The Malawi border was not much more fun and I arrived late to Lake Malawi, rather tired after 770 km on the road alone.

The following day when I come to Mandimba, Mozambique border to Niassa province, at around 9.30 am or so I am told they can not issue me with a visa at the border... why now, I try to find out. After much deliberating in poor English (my Portuguese is extremely basic), calling in Amisse (one driver from SCC who happened to be nearby), discussing with Andreas (Finance Manger in Lichinga) and on and on it is finally explained that if you have 2 single-entry visas issued at borders you must have the next from an Embassy. A rule noone had heard of. The station Manager is the only guy who can overrule this, albeit at an extra cost. And he is in Malawi... hurrah. So I turn back to start driving to Lilongwe instead in order to get said visa.

Now when I get to the Malawi borderpost I have recently left they refuse to let me back in "as I had not really been anywhere"... they seriously suggested I spend 24 hours in no-mans land! Refused to believe noone on Moz side would issue a visa and so on. After much begging and wringing of hands it took a beer and promise of drinks on the return leg to get back in. By then mentally rather hammered.

Arrived dog tired in Lilongwe last night, slept like a log. This morning start visa process. The ATMs went on strike after a short rain... and the Mozambique Consulate that is supposed to open at 8 am was not open by 9 am. The "man with the keys" had not arrived and staff plus other applicants patiently waited outside the door. Finally the lady in charge of visa applications accepted our forms, photos, passports and money outside the door.

I now finally have a visa (multiple entry...) and ATMs are working so I could pay back the cash I borrowed to pay for it.

Question is: dare I try tomorrow or is Karma and whatever destiny, fate and Gods not on my side this time?

Sunday from hell

Some days one should not wake up and/or leave the bed.

The day started EARLY in order to catch the bloody 7.20 flight to Johannesburg and then continue to Maputo. That means waking up around 4.30 - 5 in order to shower, pack the last stuff and get to airport in time.

Only to get to the car and find that it had been broken into and the speakers stolen. Plus a "nice" square hole in our garage "wall". Great start of the day.

Then I get to Johannesburg airport and try to cash my VAT refund cheque from last week's short visit to Southafrica. Only to be told that it will take 8-10 WEEKS to get the cheque ready. Yes you read it - weeks not days.

Then I had a brief moment of panic while boarding because suddenly my passport was missing. How it managed to get to the very very bottom of my bag I don't know. But when I find it is when I realise that my valid visa for Mozambique is in my old passport that was replaced due to running out of pages. At home is that where that passport is. And I do not carry cash enough to pay for an entry visa since I know I carry a valid visa. Hurrah.

So when I arrive in Maputo I met a guardian angel in the shape of a guy called Simon who lent me money to get a visa and then waited for me to get Moz money to pay him back. Simon, wherever you are and if you ever read this - you restored my faith in humankind and the world this day.

Then I take a taxi to the hotel where I was booked. Given the nature of this day of course there was no room in my name, in fact all rooms were booked and no room for me... I managed to get hold of Miguel, the manager of the office I am to visit tomorrow, and we chased around for a hotel room. Eventually we found one. Boy am I going to sleep tonight and hope that tomorrow turns out different.

Really not very happy

Life sometimes. For various reasons we were in Southafrica last weekend and then reclaimed VAT for whatever we shopped. To be reimbursed in O.R Tambo (Johannesburg) airport. Great. The only problem being that when I now went to the VAT refund place here (am at airport in question in other words) I am told it takes 8 - 10 weeks for the refund cheque to be ready... talk about trying to discourage people.

And more headaches: yesterday we had a really nice day at Rocklands, the kids swam in the pool and Mia and I just relaxed. Came home, watched TV and all that. Only to find out when we headed for the airport that thieves had neatly cut a hole in our garage wall, managed to open the Corolla and steal the speakers. So now we have a square hole in the metal fence "wall" and I hate leaving Mia alone with that kind of problems.

Well well, Maputo here we come.

Computers and Mana Pools

Just a comment on the sometimes somewhat weird world that happens to be my profession. As I work on my laptop that has Kubuntu Linux as OS I sometimes need to run various versions of Windows for support reasons. I do this by running something called VirtualBox - an environment where I can run other systems "inside" my Kubuntu main OS. That way I have Windows XP Pro, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista installed and can run them without rebooting.

Currently I am testing out next version of Kubuntu Linux, "Karmic Koala", to be released October 2009. And I find it so good that I write this, visit Facebook, chat and check one of my (many...) email lists from within the pre-release of Karmic. So I sort of swap between my main version and the new depending on what I am doing...

Otherwise I am really looking forward to go to Mana Pools next weekend for the annual Game Count. Feel in bad need of a break.

Thoughts on Africa

Interesting article from BBC on Africa and poverty: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8215083.stm
In the same vein Barack Obama has made some statements:
http://tinyurl.com/kr44uc
http://tinyurl.com/l4k75o
A Zimbabwean friend of mine commented "it takes a goffal to call a spade a spade".

Not much to write about

I was actually asked why I have not updated the blog for some time. Well at least that means that it is being read by one person!

I guess the reason is that sometimes life just sort of goes on. The winter in Zimbabwe has been continued awfully cold, good thing we have plenty of firewood after taking down 6 dead trees.

No new house woes except for a TV gone dead. Constant power blackouts and surges are not nice to your electronics, that is something we have learnt the hard way. After much searching we found a guy who said he could fix it. That is now 2 months ago I think and he is at the moment "waiting for spare parts" since 3 weeks or so. I strongly suspect the truth is that it is beyond repair (in Zimbabwe at least) but he doesn't want to admit it.

Good thing that at the time I asked if any Swede leaving the country were selling their TV! One lady called and said she had an old but large and good TV. But she was not selling it until she was leaving in August. I told her to please come back to me as she basically did not ask for any money to talk about.

Last week she called, on Sunday we picked it up. Mia and syster Cynthia had to do all carrying as I was suffering from lumbago. As she had said it is an old Philips TV but large screen, good picture and no faults we have found. Bingo! Moved the "kids TV" back to their bedroom and they have hardly been off Playstation since.

In Zimbabwe the somewhat limping unity government continues amid constant infighting. Maybe it should be called non-unity government? However, most of us still enjoy the slow progress and every small step towards "normalcy" that takes place.

Some things are plain weird though. Like City of Harare insisting on residents paying water bills in areas that have not had city water for the past 2-3 years.. excuse but paying for WHAT now? The idea being that if we do not pay they can not fix the system so we can get water. Hm, never heard that logic before, once water come back will I then get x months of free water?

Same goes for newly introduced system of road tolls on major highways. Most of them are in awful shape yet we are supposed to pay for using them... I have never before heard of paying tolls BEFORE a highway is fixed. From all my experience you either use tax money for maintenance or you let a commercial entity fix the road and that company then charge toll for that.

Another "funny" one - TelOne (only fixed phoneline supplier) announces proudly that they will introduce a new billing and reading system. Cause the existing one is in shambles and have not survived hyperinflation, new currency etc. Fine with me. But they still send skyhigh bills to everyone and insist on full payment without any proof of usage, metering etc. Que? We pay an amount every month that I consider reasonable, no more. They want to cut us off fine go ahead. Have not heard of anyone they have actually cut - they need every dollar and they know it.

My final rant for today: cellphone rates. All 3 providers in Zimbabwe have had their rates approved by referring to "regional rates". Nonsense, in short. Don't know who helped them to establish those rates but they are way higher than neighbouring countries.

Two very simple examples: In Mozambique I have a local "pay as you go" sim-card. When I am there I buy a 4-dollar top-up. I get 100 free sms (local) on that. I hardly ever use the full amount in a week even though I sms to Zimbabwe once or twice a day and make local phonecalls.
In Zambia I also have a local card. I normally buy 2 dollar top-up for a week! No free sms but I can sms to Zimbabwe once or twice daily and make some local calls.
In Zimbabwe it is no problem to spend 5-10 us dollar in less than a week. Only on local calls and sms.
Regional rates my foot.