adminA common definition distinguishes between true deserts, which receive less than 250mm of average annual precipitation and semi-deserts or steppes, which receive between 250 millimetres and 400 to 500mm.
Deserts can also be described as areas where more water is lost by evapo-transpiration than falls as precipitation. This game called life — from which everyone is certain to retire in a lifeless state — resembles a huge desert in which everyone has to craft surviva tactics.
In this life, gentle reader, it is important for people to create their own space and defend it to maintain dignity and a measure of success.
Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, everyone has a critical role to play in life, but that does not mask the fact that people are not with their own problems.
Mumwe nemumwe anetwake twunomunetsawo!
While gulping the wise waters at a watering hole in Glen Norah last weekend, Ghetto Blast had to play the role of the United Nations after a young lass flung herself on the way of an oncoming lorry in a suicide bid.
She had had enough of men promising her marriage, yet they did not turn up when all was set for the traditional ceremony.
“Changu chitsinha here? Regai ndife zvangu, zvanyanya izvi,” shouted the tearful member of the fairer sex while being pulled off the tarmac. We were to later learn that at least five men had separately helped themselves to her cookie jar on the promise of marriage only to vanish when her family was ready to accept lobola.
Hers is a desert of being used. Guys trying out their tricks see a training board in her. What a shame!
Everyone has a little cross they bear, but just like a dog’s life, someone has to live it.
Vanondichengeta varikumatenga wo,
Ndine zvinondinetsa mumoyo mangu,
Ini ndakamirira ruzhinji panyika,
Rwurikuchema nzara vashoma vachiguta.
Chave chitsidzo here midzimu inoera . . .
Kuti pasi rino tiri venhamo?
Ini ndaiti zvichapera kana ndakura,
Ndisingazive zvichatonyanya!
Vamwe vanoti kupfuma ishungu,
Inga shungu ndinadzo wani?
Ndinongogaro chema sendakabarirwa nhamo,
Ko vana vevamwe vanoigona seiko? Sang Karikoga Leonard Zhakata in the song, Kumatenga.
The song is an outcry from someone seeking to crawl out of poverty. It proceeds to say that even those who appear to be living large have their own type of problems no one would ever love to bear.
Gentle reader, that we are nearer the end of the year is a barometer with which to measure how deep in financial distress we are. An honest look at one’s earnings against expenses and goods acquired shows a serious mismatch that may make one drown in his or her tears. But this is not a one-size-fits-all affair. It varies from one individual to the other.
Most people, however, complain that the money they earn does not last till the end of the month. This has resulted in them embracing the gospel of prosperity which in the end milks them and leaves them worse off.
“E-eh, e-eh vakuru! Kudenga kwandipa kuchiti mari yamunotambira haikwane pane zvamunoshuvira,” is a common entry line by self-styled prophets in the vleis of Harare who know that almost everyone is in financial crisis. As I commit pen to paper gentle reader, the world is awash with shapely women of tantalising beauty who struggle to get someone to walk them down the aisle yet ugly rural girls will be enjoying sweet marriage.
It does not end there for these women.
Whenever they fall in love with someone, they just fail to nurture the love flower until it eventually wilts.
Rudo imoto runotokuchidzirwa. But that is usually not before they would have been set pregnant and left in the lurch. Each man is in his own desert.
There is a good number of well-qualified people who struggle to land a job, but wait until they are employed.
They will be busy running up and about seeking doctors’ permission to be off their work stations resulting in their managers seeking their ouster after failing to enjoy the fruits of their service.
Some men are in the desert of being mugged.
Be it midnight, daybreak or early evening, their bodies will be struggling under the weight of punches by strangers seeking to wring cash from them.
Constant arrests is also a type of desert some people often find themselves in.
While walking even from church, people in this kind of desert are lucky to pass through policemen on patrol without being sjamboked or being detained because of crimes they do not know.
They, however, get released easily and the cycle starts all over again. Other people are in the desert of dating so many people yet none of their lovers thinks of spending the rest of their life with them.
While some of these calamities befall people unsolicited for, some use their long mouths to create problems. These are the kind of people who make statements they cannot support with the benefit of facts and end up being held accountable.
There are women who leave the comfort of their homes to gossip about someone just to destroy the life of that individual.
“Kamunhu ikako ndakakazvonda asi hapana chakakanditadzira,” you often hear people saying in the kombis. Some people hate the husbands of their siblings with a passion that they always try to cook up issues just to create friction in the home.
That again is a type of a desert which needs to be avoided. Another desert which seems to be affecting most people today is that of people who always expect to be given something yet the scales of favour never tip the other side.
Such people will call you names for not giving them money at a funeral even when you were also broke because of the prevailing economic outlook.
Gentle reader, we are all wading through difficult times, but creating problems for your neighbour does not make your situation any better.
Inotambika mughetto.
Online Reporter