Category: REALITY BITES

REALITY BITES, SYSTEMS ON TRIAL

Zimbabwean Government, A Forecast Is Not a Disaster Plan

Hurricane Isaias came ashore near Destin, Florida, United States, on Friday night last week as a Category 2 storm. Its winds were 105 mph at landfall. By early Saturday, more than 726,000 customers in Florida and Alabama had lost power, and some Panhandle counties had briefly suspended emergency response because conditions were too dangerous. Everyone saw this coming. Forecasters had warned of storm surge of … Continue reading Zimbabwean Government, A Forecast Is Not a Disaster Plan

Unknown's avatarKumbirai Thierry Nhamo1 Comment
REALITY BITES

Zimbabwe Wants the World’s Money But Hasn’t Earned the World’s Trust

The IMF has signed off on another review. Harare is celebrating the wrong number. Zimbabwe wants back into the international financial system, and on October 8 it got a small step closer. Several outlets reported that the International Monetary Fund had completed the second review of the country’s 10-month Staff-Monitored Programme. Expect the government to treat it as a victory. It is a progress report. … Continue reading Zimbabwe Wants the World’s Money But Hasn’t Earned the World’s Trust

Unknown's avatarKumbirai Thierry Nhamo3 Comments
REALITY BITES

President Mnangagwa, You Cannot Lecture a Farmer Out of a Drought

Zimbabwe’s farmers do not need another speech telling them the climate is changing. They need the means to survive it. Today, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has urged traditional leaders to mobilize rural communities toward climate-resilient farming ahead of the 2026/27 season. He spoke at the launch of the Pfumvudza/Intwasa program in Chivi, where he also warned that the country should expect normal to below-normal rainfall. The … Continue reading President Mnangagwa, You Cannot Lecture a Farmer Out of a Drought

Unknown's avatarKumbirai Thierry Nhamo8 Comments
Politics, REALITY BITES, Reflection

Today Is a Good Day, Apparently

My phone started ringing like hell on Wednesday evening. Friends, readers, as well as people I haven’t spoken to in months. “Could it be that Wicknell is dead.” “Is it true?” “You’re in Marondera. What’s happening?” “Can you confirm?” The funny part was that I was probably as uninformed as they were. Maybe more. The helicopter had gone down somewhere around Marondera. Six people were … Continue reading Today Is a Good Day, Apparently

Unknown's avatarKumbirai Thierry Nhamo12 Comments
REALITY BITES, Reflection

Jesus, Empire and the Problem With Reclaiming What Was Never Ours Alone

There are essays you read and immediately know you disagree with. Then there are essays that make you uncomfortable precisely because you agree with enough of them to have to think harder about the parts you don’t. “The Paradox of Deification of Jesus Christ,” written by Lovemore Chishamba  is the second kind. I have to say that I love the essay’s anger. That may sound … Continue reading Jesus, Empire and the Problem With Reclaiming What Was Never Ours Alone

Unknown's avatarKumbirai Thierry Nhamo16 Comments
REALITY BITES

Australia’s Bird Flu Problem Is About to Stop Being a Bird Problem

A dead pelican on a beach is ordinarily a wildlife story. The pelican found at Edithburgh on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula this week was different. It tested positive for H5 bird flu, the first confirmed case in an Australian pelican since the virus arrived on the continent. It was one of five new positive events reported that day, alongside a silver gull, two crested terns … Continue reading Australia’s Bird Flu Problem Is About to Stop Being a Bird Problem

Unknown's avatarKumbirai Thierry Nhamo27 Comments
REALITY BITES

Tendai Ruben Mbofana is Confusing Etymology for Ideology

Every language has a graveyard of words that used to mean something specific and now mean whatever the room decides they mean. My dear mentor Tendai has just built an entire column on the false idea that words are haunted forever by wherever they were born, and that failing to research a phrase’s family tree before you say it is some kind of moral failure. … Continue reading Tendai Ruben Mbofana is Confusing Etymology for Ideology

Unknown's avatarKumbirai Thierry Nhamo26 Comments
REALITY BITES, Reflection

$1 Million Cash on a Church Altar

Twenty plastic-wrapped bundles of US$100 notes, stacked in full view of a packed congregation. That was the scene at United Family International Church in Chitungwiza this past Sunday, as Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa presented his followers with a US$1 million cash gift from businessman Wicknell Chivayo. The room, by all accounts, erupted — cheers, whistles, applause, the unmistakable sound of a miracle being witnessed in real … Continue reading $1 Million Cash on a Church Altar

Unknown's avatarKumbirai Thierry Nhamo15 Comments
Dispatch, REALITY BITES, The Rising Ledger

Nine Countries Cut Interest Rates Before The Bombs Dropped

Nine African countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year cut interest rates, citing lower inflation, high foreign demand for their local-currency denominated bonds and current account surpluses. Nine countries. Months of careful fiscal management. Coordinated monetary policy. The quiet, unglamorous work of keeping economies stable enough to grow. Then on February 28th the bombs started falling on Tehran … Continue reading Nine Countries Cut Interest Rates Before The Bombs Dropped

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