Zimbabwe Absurdity

Hey y’all, it’s my birthday today! But hold the cards, it’s not a big one; the decade is not changing!

My morning habit includes a compulsory juicing up. That’s the slang term for a bit of electricity. I have a small box of electronics that I attach to my left quadriceps muscle with electrodes in an effort to get it to build up quicker after the knee op in February. It certainly stimulates the muscle – the contraction is impossible to resist and I do believe it’s working although I have only been using it regularly for about 3 weeks.

Anyway, I was lying on the bed listening to the satellite radio and pondering not my advancing age but trees. There is an acacia about 20m away in the garden that I planted when I first moved into this house about 3.4 years ago (it’s weird how thought trains work, I was reading about parsecs last night which are a unit of astronomical measurement and one is the equivalent of 3.26 light years – never mind) and it must be close to 3m high already. I have a mild obsession with planting trees; I must have inherited it from my mother. I’m always picking up tree seeds and germinating them and then looking for places to plant the trees. This garden is pretty much full up; I think I have planted 9 since I have been here!

I regard the number of trees planted as a contentment indicator. I have moved 3 times in the past 7 years that I have lived in the Harare environs and this is the first garden that I have felt the planting compulsion. Yes, I certainly like living here. The view on a clear day is a good 70km to the Great Dyke where we often (used) to paraglide and there are no other houses clearly visible. It is the best of both worlds; close enough to town (8km to Borrowdale) to be convenient and far enough to be in the country. It is also only 2km to my business. There is a cloud on the horizon though. This farm where I live, ART Farm (Agricultural Research Trust) was set up in the 80’s (I think) as a research farm to serve the mainly commercial farming interest. As such it is theoretically not under threat from the land redistribution policies of the government. That does not mean much as we found out 3 weeks ago when an “official” from the ZANU PF Youth League decided he wanted some property and promptly moved into a house at the other end of the farm. The ART employee spent a very uncomfortable night and then moved out. ART Farm is an amalgamation of several title deeds and the one in question has had a Section 8 (intent to acquire) on it for some years though it is a house, some sheds and a small piece of land. One does have a right to challenge the Section 8, which was duly done, but that means little. The mood amongst the management is pessimistic and with good reason. Past experience shows that this is the thin end of the wedge and the greed factor will soon set in.

But for the moment it’s a special day. It’s also a beautiful day so maybe I’ll plant a tree – my little bit of immortality. Now where to plant it?