Zoom zoom by the way we go to school...

My Godfather has been trying to convince me that Zimbabwean people are cruel. I can't help but point fingers back at a South African man, whose heritage is ridden in the cruelest racial divide known to history and a present ridden in highest, most violent crime stats. Yet, Zimbabweans are cruel to each other is his final answer.

I now concur.

"My weekend special", and it has to be called that this - the true spirit of Brenda Fassie's (may she rest in peace1964 - 2004) song (wink wink) in Zimbabwe was a constant irriteration of how cruel Zimbabweans are to each other. Even if I excuse the bus driver for blasting those 80s hits from Johannesburg to Harare, for the full 22 and a half hours, I struggle to forgive the SINGER - the lady to my left who sang out loud to every eighties beat.

That was the fun side of the cruelness. That border. Every Zimbabwean is treated like a criminal by Zimbabwean officials. The South African officials, are hardly better, but why should they be? The approach to and from certainly looks and feels like prison. The derelict cars parked in rows along the entrance, waiting for potential prisoners to collect no doubt. The unnecessary queues that were winding in figures of eights that day, as everyone tried to keep out of the rain and hail, under an worn asbestos roof. Not a bench for the elderly to sit on, not a toilet that worked well enough to be worthy of human *sh**. Disabled, blind and poverty-striken people, busy with their tin cans, clanging for coins - rands only or US $ notes accepted

Food, warmth, shelter. Three basic needs lacking. The fourth or debatably the first - is love. It's so much easier to abuse your official power, treat people like dirt, keep them waiting and wanting in the rain/hail/heat - all because you... can?! because you're angry at the establishment that underpays or mistreats you? because its the only form of self-worth you can muster up in a day? because, just because. Well, officials become the establishment and the establishment is cruel.

We are cruel to one another. I kept thinking about my friend's maid - who, on a Sunday, her day off, still got up to cook breakfast, set the table and clean up after us. Yes, she gets paid a basic - probably $100 a month. Yes, I have a maid too. Yes, free accommodation in the form of a dingy room at the back of the house. Still feels like modern day slavery. Still feels cruel - have I been away too long? Have I changed my definition of cruelty?

Zoom zoom by the way we go to school.... "a MOTHER nation" should nurture her children.