Newsletter 2014

BUSINESS
A significant catchment area of my business was company canteens. With many Zim companies downsizing or shutting down altogether, they are no doubt grappling with serious survival issues. So I guess it is fair to assume that sadza cooking is the least of their worries at this stage. To cut a long story short, that market segment has all but collapsed.
In response to this loss my new business development efforts gained impetus this year. To that end, I signed a collaborative deal with Vibes Electrical Control to develop new products and markets. So watch this space.

Like most of the world, Zimbabwean industry is reeling from Asian competition. True to African culture, there is no shortage of conspiracy theories, especially among politicians. So they continue to prop up contradictory labour laws. Rather than protect the workers, the laws seem to hasten the demise of what employment opportunities remain!

In March I discovered a tick with its mouth parts already embedded in my waist. The tick may have been tiny but it certainly packed a punch. Within days I was down with tick-bite fever. That can be a very nasty illness. Its symptoms are close to what I'm told are the symptoms of malaria! The silver lining is that tick-bite fever only ever strikes once, like mumps. My treatment was a week's course of tetracycline that cost a princely sum of US$1. Yes $1 for a week's course! That is how cheap the Indian pharmaceutical companies are making drugs. It's little wonder then that the Zimbabwean pharmaceutical industry has been decimated. Similar carnage is being replicated across most sectors of industry. 

POLITICS
For a while after my dismal performance in the local council elections last year I decided that politics was not for me.The Christian Democratic Party failed to gain traction and is now derelict.
However, the longer I observed the stagnation and corruption around us, the more I viewed it as an opportunity. In other words when a system is that sub-optimal, it should be possible to make a difference even with just mediocre ability. I am also inspired by Rabbi Joachim Prinz's words, "The most disgraceful,the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence."
So I have joined another nascent political effort. Most of us in Zimbabwe were bred in servility. So we tend to wait for a master of one form or another to organize us. For the same reason participation in politics is frowned upon, especially by the middle classes. Which only affords opportunists and pretenders a field-day.

TRAVEL
I had been keen to visit The Black Forest in Germany

ever since I read about it in Hans Krebs' autobiography in my student days. That dream came true this year.

For my report on the trip, please see the previous post on this blog. 

STUDY
We now have two doctors in the family. First my niece Nyasha

Then my sister Grace got her PhD last month.

If school grades are anything to go by, then she is the brightest in the family.
As for me I am still wrestling with my mathematics degree.  At the rate at which I'm going, I could easily hit retirement before I finish it! I've been at it ever since I was a lot younger.

SPIRITUAL LIFE
Parkinson's Law reigns supreme in my life. I have shed a number of responsibilities yet I'm still busy! This year I retired from the Easyworship Team (video projector operators) at the Church.

Some years before that I retired from the sound mixing desk and leading a Bible Study group. However I don't seem to have accrued a corresponding amount of disposable time. I must be squandering the savings somehow. One way I did that this year was by helping on the Alpha Course at the Church, a 10-week commitment. Even as a helper I learnt something new. Even if I hadn't gained anything, the desserts and cookies were worth it!
(Parkinson's Law states that work expands to use up the time available).

ENTERTAINMENT
When I returned to Zimbabwe in my twenties after studying abroad, a major culture shock hit me. It related to access to decent radio stations or rather lack of it.  The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation was not satisfactory, to put it mildly.

After spending a significant chunk of my adolescence in arguably the pop music capital of the world, I had to endure serious withdrawal symptoms. I sorely missed BBC, Capital Radio London and to some extent County Sound Radio Surrey. The only times I got a fix was when I travelled to South Africa and could savour Radio Jacaranda.

A permanent solution to my withdrawal symptoms only came relatively recently in the form of an app called TuneIn Radio.

A very powerful app that gives access to thousands of radio stations over the internet. I can now listen to BBC, Capital Radio and Jacaranda FM as often as I want. Ironically I don't listen to them that much anymore.They too have been superseded by other emergent giants. The station I now listen to more than any other is Jack FM of Berlin.

The advent of iTunes was a godsend to my needs too especially here in the backwaters of popular culture. I grew up in an era when a lot of music was available only on albums. Unfortunately padding nearly always comes with the territory of albums. So when I got my first iPod I immediately noticed that iTunes had liberated us from having to put up with any padding.  So right from the outset I resolved to keep my playlist free of any padding, everything on it has got to be worthwhile. So far I have managed to purchase all music I wanted from iTunes as singles. It all worked well until Sept 2014 when Apple inserted a U2 freeby in everyone's playlist!

Unfortunately the album was free for a reason, it sounds like 100% padding!
I already had some U2 songs on my playlist, but I'm afraid I did not find anything I liked on the freeby. I believe there now are tools available to remove the freeby. If anyone knows how I can access the tools please let me know.

CHRISTMAS SEASON CELEBRATIONS
My mother turned ninety this year. To celebrate it we are expecting a bigger family gathering next week than we've ever had for any Christmas season before.

I wish you all grand Christmas celebrations too.