Where Is Our Moral Compass?

When the leader of the most powerful country in the world is caught on camera bragging about the fact that he can grab women’s bottoms or worse their privates and he can get away with it because of the fact that he is a billionaire, it begs the question WHERE IS OUR MORAL COMPASS?

Where Is Our Moral Compass?

For most of the people in the said country go on to vote and make the same person President of the country ,does it mean that if one has a lot of money they can get away with Murder? Subsequent to those despicable events being splashed all over the newspapers  across the globe, the man is still ruling the country as if nothing untoward has happened .It pains me to try and understand the kind of trauma the ladies who were attacked by this Neanderthal must have gone through then and are going through as I write.Why has it been business as usual? Why have there been no consequences? Is it because the guy is a billionare?or is it because this is a men’s world and men will get away with anything ?

Closer to home, a so called leader pockets millions of  rands as backhanders  from companies bidding to supply his country with weapons ,then he spends more than FIFTEEN MILLION RANDS from the country trying to defend the indefensible. This is obliviously money which could have been used to expand businesses in the country or better still start new ones so that the high number of unemployed people would have been lessened. For some people then to go on to defend this person and even go to the extent of vowing that they would kill for and even die for such a person begs the question What has gone wrong ?Why is it so difficult for people to do the right thing and resign from their lofty positions once there is a whiff of scandal in their dealings or conduct.

Has our moral compasses gone so off the mark that people can act so offensively to the general populace with impunity. What makes it okay for the “small fry” who pilfers the office stationery to be sentenced to months in prison and yet the C.E.O who misappropriates millions goes scotch free?

Be Aware Of Whom You Are Dealing With

During 2015, I hooked up with some guys in a venture which I thought  was a surefire means of making money,the money gurus always advise that  we have multiple streams of income in order to create wealth.

Be Aware Of You Are Dealing With

We used to go and buy anytime gift cards from South Africa for resale in Zimbabwe.One of the guys who was involved in the venture was a former student of mine ,so in my mind I was thinking what could go wrong right ?. I  Used my contacts to put  together some cash so that I could buy into the business.We hard a fruitful two or three months in  which we really worked very hard and the returns were quite pleasing. I never took the time to really investigate my partners.

The first signs of trouble was when the guy who ha d all the contacts and knew where the gift cards were bought in the Republic of South Africa went to buy cards and he came back having misused some of the proceeds to pay for his own expenses .We just verbally reprimanded him and proceeded to sell the cards that he had brought  with him.About two  months later the younger brother of my former student  ,who works and lives in South Africa came home and since we were planning to send someone down there to buy some more stock we thought it prudent to ask him to go and buy the stock for us then he would put it on one of the buses that ply the Joburg,Harare route.He never did what we asked for and holding him to account proved to be difficult as he changed his contact number and it was like money thrown down the drain.

Then in January 2016 ,the former student  indicated that was accompanying a friend of his who had come to Zimbabwe on business and he asked me for the three thousand rands which I was keeping ,this was a fresh injection of funds from my sister who wanted to buy into the card selling business .I had been keeping this money waiting for an opportunity to send one of the guys to go and buy some more stock.Two days after going to South Africa ,he came back without the  cards instead he had bought some stuff for a client of his and a water bottle to display water which had been purified in their water purification  plant.He promised that as soon as money from the water purification plant started coming in he would reimburse me the three thousand rands.

After having been sent from the pillar to the post several times  and finding out that the money was not forthcoming,  I finally resolved to approach the small claims court at Makoni  Magistrates’ court .I was not really sure how the case would pan out but I was convinced that the judiciary officer would be able to cut through the bull and get to the truth.I knew that I did not have to be a drama queen but just present my case as  emotionless as possible and be factual. Fortunately for  me the defendant ended up tripping himself up because he admitted that I had indeed given him the money but he had not misused it ,the clinker was when he asked for continuance of the matter so that he could produce customs declaration forms from home ,this was duly granted for the following week on the 30 th of November.Truth be told it was difficult for me to sleep on the night of the 29^th as my earlier bravado seemed to dissipate. On the morning of the case I woke up bathed and dressed,when I got to court I got some reassurance that the defendant was rattled since he could not come and greet me like the first time and he could not look me in the eye.We appeared before the court sometime before lunch and the matter was postponed for later in the day.We were asked to continue our case well after three pm,  after all the other  cases had been dealt with .Fortunately for me the defendant did not have any prove of having brought back any cards and I was able to pock holes in his defense when given a chance to do so by the magistrate.At the end he told us to come back the following Monday the 4^th of December for the judgement.When I went to the clerk of court’s office on the day there was no judgement,I had to endure two more trips to the court before   I got the judgement on the 12 th of December ,when I learnt that the defendant had been told to pay back the money including the costs of serving him the court papers.

What I ultimately learnt was that in business you cannot trust anyone .one has to do the background checks and any agreements have to be put down on paper and signatures appended. Things need to be above board.Also one needs to take matters up with the relevant authorities in case there are disputes.

Chitungwiza Residents Caught In A Debt Trap

Some of the residents of the dormitory town of Chitungwiza ,which lies twenty odd kilometers  southwest of the the capital city Harare have been severely affected by the dire economic and social hardships prevailing in the country.

Chitungwiza Residents Caught In A Debt Trap

Most of the residents are owing the Town council for  rates for  amounts between one hundred and fifty dollars  whilst others  are owing as much as three thousand dollars.During the past month ,the cash strapped council has had to employ the services of debt collectors who went around giving the residents  in arrears letters of demand.As a result the town council headquarters has been a hive of activity as people went to plead for time to pay off the outstanding amounts .

Obviously, the closure of  most  of the businesses that were operating at the industrial complex has not made the situation any easier. Quite a fair number of residents of Chitungwiza used to employed there .The economic downturn experienced by the whole country since 2000 has affected people all over the country with resultant loss of jobs and levels of unemployment  hovering around 90% of the population. Therefore the average income for most households has been seriously hampered.

The result of the depressed economic activities in the industrial area and the country in general  has ensured a vicious circle that has resulted in the council failing to have enough resources to ensure that services are delivered to the residents satisfaction.

Follow Your Heart

I had a disturbing yet interesting chat with a friend of mine whom I normally use as a sound board for any ideas I might have .I had intimated to her that I was in the process of reinventing myself and was involved in the construction industry with a view to starting my own company and creating a legacy for my grandchildren. I was taken aback by what she said ,which summed up to the effect that I was too old and I was supposed to have had these ambitions when I was 25 years old .

Follow Your Heart

Here is a young college graduate who was telling me that my life at fifty odd years is over and I have to prepare for death. If there is anything I have discover of late ,it’s the fact that one cannot stop learning new skills and strive to be better than what they are .I used to be a voracious reader of novels but have since discovered the power of motivational books. One of my nephews, who is studying for his second degree at a university in South Africa, sent me a pdf of the book; THE SLIGHT EDGE by Jeff Olson.I have since learnt that the the tiny steps which one take if one sustains  them and is consistent in implementing them then one would be surprised by the giant steps that one can achieve, so it was in this vein that I was trying to make a few changes to my own situation by not sitting on my laurels and mourning and winging about the difficult economic situation that the country faces in particular the dearth of meaningful employment.

The chance meeting which thrust me into managing a building project for some gentlemen eight months ago, opened my eyes to the endless opportunities which are abound in the construction industry. I have always believed in making my own luck, if one makes an effort and put their profile out there then people are bound to see it ,chances are one or two will take a chance. The most important thing is the fact that one should never  limit themselves.The advance of the Internet has made it very  easy to acquire skills if one just has a few dollars to buy data bundles and the elbow grease to punch the keyboard of a computer .Most of the information that we require to improve ourselves is found on the world wide web.

There are a lot of people who have been inspirational in reaffirming my thinking ;one is the South African musical icon ;Sipho ‘Hotsticks’ Mabuse ,who sat for his matriculation certificate at sixty plus years of age.If my memory serves me well ,there was and old man in Kenya who went to grade one ,when he was 76 years old because he wanted to be able to read his bible.One Zimbabwean whose business exploits I have followed for quite sometime , the world beater Strive Masiyiwa.If his story does not tell one of the need to pursuit ones convictions to their logical conclusion then I don’t know what else can motivate a person.In one of his writings on his facebook page ,he talks about the fact that he started and failed in many business venture but that never deterred him.The fact that he went on to pioneer the mobile business in Zimbabwe is now common knowledge.

Legend has it that Colonel Sanders,the American founder of the multinatioinal  KFC,started the business when after retiring  and finding that his pension payout could not meet his requirements.The business he started from his kitchen is now known in all continents of the world.

So given the many people who have pursued their dreams and have achieved phenomenal success,then why should I not dream with my eyes open and follow my heart. 

Cry The Lost Generation

Monday, the 19 th of March  2018, was my first encounter with the effects of drug abuse.I had spent a leisurely three hours of the morning with a nephew of mine who had just completed his MSc,after he dropped me off at the main bus stop in Harare,I boarded a bus that was Chitungwiza bound

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Cry The Lost Generation

The first part of the twenty kilometers of the journey was kind of eventless. Things turned at the first bus stop after the St Marys Police Station, the bus was supposed to let off passengers whilst others boarded. The conductor ,who was standing just inside the bus on the steps ,asked the Youngman (in his early twenties) to get further into the bus as he was afraid that he would fall off the bus .The young man flatly refused and started to berate the conductor at the top of his voice.Bus and mini-bus taxi conductors are well-known for being brash or outright rude to passengers once they are onboard but this one met his match in the irate young man who told him that he was not going to pay and there was nothing that the conductor could do about it.Try as he would ,the conductor was unable to force the young man off the bus.The young man ,who was wearing some really dark sun glasses proceeded to assault the conductor  whilst calling the conductor all sorts of names  and alluding to the fact that he was a person of loose morals. The conductor did not take kindly to the tirade and tried to punch the Youngman but he proved to be too powerful for him. Efforts by most of the elderly people on the bus to urge the conductor to ignore the irate young man fell on deaf ears.

At the first bus top in Zengeza, the argument nearly spilled over into the bus as the two antagonists continued to trade punches but the young man was winning the fight ,at this stage the conductor retrieved an iron bar used with the wheel spanner ,seeing this the young tyrant quickly jumped off the bus and sauntered away leaving the conductor fuming since the driver was restraining him.

I have heard stories of how the unemployed youths in the townships abuse substances like cough mixture and others in order to have a high and forget about their troubles for some hours but this was my closest  encounter with one who was intoxicated. One’s heart bleeds for this lost generation which cannot seem to shake off the despondence of unemployment and the need for personal fulfillment.

It Is Not Where You Start But How You End

Edgar Mangwende is the epitome of the cream that rises to the top of the milk. Born in a family of six, he is the fourth child. His father was a driver for the national airline; Air Zimbabwe , his mother was and still is a hustlepreneur according to the lingo of the youth.

It is Not Where You Start But Where You EndAdd caption

One can hardly describe his upbringing as one that was well-to-do, but certainly the prevailing  standards in the newly post colonial Zimbabwe,they did not starve. A story which I remember quite clearly was one where his father flatly refused to go and be humiliated at Edgar’s primary school during a parents meeting(consultation day).His reason was that Edgar and his younger brother were not the sharpest tools in the shed and would hover around the last group of learners in their respective classes. Presumably they had not fully grasped the concepts of studying  and applying themselves. The father would boycott these occasions.

He was however surprised when the “O” level examination results came out and found out that the erstwhile dullards had passed well enough for them to proceed to form five and six after which they dully qualified for university. After four years of study Edgar was able to attain a BSc(Hon) in Horticulture form the Midlands State University. He proceeded after a few years of strife ,in which he could not secure any meaningful employment .He ended up joining a Multi-Level Marketing company where he used to sell green tea and other herbal remedies to clients in and around Harare. Edgar’s never die attitude and acute sense of purposed however ,eventually led him to be accepted         to study for an MSc  at the University of Pretoria .According to him ,times were hard. He would go without meals at times until one of his lecturers challenged his students to excel at an assignment he had given and he promised that the the best student would be sent to Scotland for a month-all expenses paid.Edgar set out to look for part-time work to finance his meals and for the resources he needed in order to complete the assignment .He did this with flying  colours and was able to pay his own way for the study visit to Scotland .Soon after he came back and completed his studies upon which he commenced  to write his book ,The Cage Mentality-From the mind to the Mountain top, whilst completing his PhD in Plant Pathology.

Whether his book bombs or not ,the fact that he has been able to achieve all these from his humble beginnings attest to the strong will,never die attitude that marks him out as one whom will certainly make waves in both his chosen field and whatever community he will choose to live in.