Anyone ?????

Does anyone have anything I can smile about today? Any good news out there involving humans? All calls from Zimbabwe are carriers of bad news.
The government is bad
The harvest is bad and there will be widespread food shortages
Sex work is increasing
Poverty in rural areas is increasing
Zimabweans are going to be murdered in South Africa after football.

Am I the only one who feels envelopped with depression about the human state in Southern Africa? This Monday I will go to Vic Falls to cheer myself up, but I know I will be compelled to go and look at the vast number of new graves in such a small town, knowing they are HIV graves and many orphans are left behind.

My old school friend

I got a message from Zimbabwe that my old school friend died in her sleep last Tuesday morning. She was HIV positive. Her older and only sister died of it last year 2009. Her first born brother is seriously ill with it. He has two wives who both are positive. Her other brother was moved from Harare last month to Masvingo rural area (where they come from ) so he can die at home and save on body transportation costs. Their mother is the most wearisome woman in the whole of Africa. I rung her on a neighbour's mobile phone and she cried to me the whole time. She has 11 grand children of which three are known to be HIV positive. They are the lucky ones as they will die much sooner. The others will have a longer but much more misreable orphaned life. Some of them will get HIV (when they are much older) from engaging in sex work or sleeping with sex workers without condoms.

I sent my friend's mother a few USD, more to make myself feel better, than to improve her situation, which is now beyond what money can do.

My friend married at 18 and was very excited about it. Her husband turned out to be a womaniser and a violent man. She had many beatings and an infection. Now 12 years later she is gone. The husband died 4 years ago. For two years after he died, my friend looked after her three children by getting what she could from men. Their wives will be dead women walking as we speak.

The mothers and children we leave behind suffer a lot more than we have suffered from this disease, yet what can anyone do about it? The whole family will be gone before the year is out. Access to ARVs in Zimbabwe is not easy. In any case most men refuse to accept that they are HIV positive unless they can convince their lot that the wife is to blame. HIV in Zimbabwe is spread by men and that is not going to change anytime soon.

Religous cartoons

They will attack in South Africa. Make no mistake about it. They attacked in Europe, USA, and elsewhere so history says they will attack in South Africa. It is a matter of honour now. Mohammed's name needs to be protected against freedom of speech.

While I think it is very poor thinking to attack other people's religions other that to question their integrity, I also think religious people should set an example on behaviour and respect for human life. For a group that thinks it is bona fide, to go and bomb a location where there is a high concentration of humans, knowing many people will die, is deplorable.

A religious person should be in the business of forgiveness and tolerange as well as education. I will listen to any religious person who practices the teachings of his/her religion but I have no real time for anybody who tells me to accept what enforcements he wants to put on me or else he kills me.

But it matters not what I say or think. The fact is they will attack in South Africa, and soon after that, the South Africans will attack foreigners in the new Xeno. The two attacking groups will both feel justified and will think it a bit harsh to be arrested.