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This year has been a good Christmas, most people agree, with Zimbabweans relishing the so many things now going right.
For a start, it is the first festive season for three years where people have been able to travel freely and gather freely. The last two were under lockdown rules needed to limit the danger and infection of Covid-19; this year we can move around freely, travel freely and gather freely. And most of us have done this by all accounts.
Local resorts are full, as the hospitality businesses lay out the welcome mats and relish their return to full normality and prosperity, and get what amounts to their Christmas bonus as their business booms. They seem to be doing a good job as among all those thronging resorts, places of entertainment and even the most lowly bars and eating houses, no one is complaining.
In the run up to Christmas most shops and supermarkets said business was good, at least once the bonus payments within the private and public sectors came through, with the civil service for a change leading the pack with not just a full month’s pay, but that bonus in foreign currency and then another US$200 added on top, after President Mnangagwa found the Government had enough money to pay the bit extra, even after he had already authorised something extra for Christmas for pensioners.
This was not just a retail bonus. Around 80 percent of the goods on our shelves are now made or grown in Zimbabwe, so that extra demand meant that our factories and farmers also won through with larger orders and more business.
All this went smoothly thanks to the successful efforts by the Government, backed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, to stabilise the currency and defeat the speculators whom, as mid-year approached, seemed to be well on their way to wrecking our Christmas at the year end on their way to wrecking our economy.
Instead they were beaten, and beaten in ways that should see them lose a lot of money, so they will have to think again before they try anything like that.
A lot were borrowing money to arbitrage exchange rates over time, buy buying black market currency and when it had shot up in value enough selling it at a large profit and paying back their loans with interest.
When interest rates hit 200 percent, and this and other measures simply stopped the black market rates changing, a lot of people came short unable to make a profit, and in some cases unable even to break even in their black market dealings, and then having to pay back their loans with the high interest bills.
While most people were having a far more prosperous Christmas as a result of the ensuing stability and the near totally stable prices over the past few months, we doubt if anyone is going to commiserate with black market speculators who lost their money.
And their troubles could well brighten Christmas even more for the rest of us.
This stability is why many people after receiving a bonus were able to put aside the money they needed for school fees and other January payments, and still had something left over to brighten the festive season.
This shows, more than anything else, why a stable currency and stable prices are so important. We are seeing what must remain normal.
Many people have been fortunate to visit family in rural areas and have seen for themselves just what happens when good rains start failing early the Government and other financiers get the inputs out to the farmers on time. When the whole world goes green it is good to see so much of that green is coming from the crops we will be eating later this year.
Amid the secular celebrations and the fun, and the religious services and celebrations, we need also remember those who might not have had that wonderful a Christmas. Some were very poor through no fault of their own, just old or vulnerable. Others were dealing with deaths in the family.
There were many offering a helping hand and this is something that the rest of us need to think about when we are finding life coming right. Churches and a raft of civil society organisations do sterling work on helping the vulnerable cope, and if they can get a bit extra around Christmas they try to brighten the lives of those they help a bit more.
We can all find some group who can use however little we can pass on.
At one time, before political changes, most urban authorities had mayors Christmas cheer funds that mobilised vast number of small gifts into respectable sums that did exactly what the title says, brought cheer to those at the base of the ladder over Christmas, not so much survivable care, since the Government does that, but that bit extra so they could join in.
Perhaps the new councils to be elected next year could think about starting that up again.
And then we should remember all those doctors and nurses on duty, looking after the ill and repairing those of us injured in accidents.
It goes with the job, but it would be easier if there was less to do, of the rest of us followed advice on how we manage our lives and the advice on how to avoid becoming an accident statistic.
This assumes a lot of important this evening and tonight, as many return home after the long Christmas break and traffic builds up.
Even if we are the careful driver, and the one who obeys the rules of the road and does not drink and drive, we still have to cope with those who do not obey road rules and drive with a bottle in their hand. We need to be doubly careful.
But all of this should not overshadow what this Christmas means for so many.
As a lot of those we interviewed told us, this is one of the best Christmases ever, and that comes from so much going right, and going right because a raft of policies introduced over the last four years are now producing the predicted results.
Online Reporter