Form 5 highs and lows
In the spirit of positivity, we must begin by acknowledging some of the good news. 19 students got 6A* or better in their BGCSE results while one student actually managed a record 11A*. Huge congratulations to them for their hard work and brilliant performance.
Unfortunately it proved to be a spectacular high in what was otherwise a hugely disappointing return for last year’s leavers. The top performing school was Masunga Senior Secondary School with a lowly 43 percent pass rate, while 8 of the top 10 where in the 20 percent range pass rate. That means roughly 4 in 5 students at the top ranked schools failed!
“Should we blame Coronavirus for these results,” questioned one comment. Another said, “These results are getting poorer every year, and the Minister will come and say the students did well. We are losing as a country.”
expected such from Meghan but not Harry. Ruthlessly dismissing Meghan’s suicidal thoughts, Morgan Tweeted, “I wouldn’t believe Meghan if she gave me the weather report.”
Twitter did not take lightly to these comments and proceeded to rip the journalist apart.
Fair play to Piers for staying to fight them off but this didn’t leave him in the best of light. “Only Piers Morgan could shred a woman telling her truth on International Women’s Day,” noted one comment. Another fiery comment read, “Morgan is clearly as racist as the Royal Family he’s defending.”
On Morgan’s daily TV show ‘Good Morning Britain’ he actually stormed off the set in anger after he was called out for his ‘diabolical behaviour’ regarding his defence of the Royal Family.
She had been a bright light in my life, now I am left with our two beautiful twin daughters. I will never forget that day; it is still very vivid in my thoughts as if it happened yesterday. The doctor called me to the hospital to inform me that my wife had passed on. At the time, she had been hospitalised for two weeks and was in constant pain. It broke my heart to see her like that. In the first few days I felt that death had freed her from all that pain and that seemed to comfort me and gave me the strength to carry out the funeral preparations until we laid her to rest.
After the funeral proceedings, all my relatives left our home and I was alone. My older sister took my daughters to give them a change of scenery in order for them to heal. I was left alone in the house, that’s when reality hit me. The love of my life, my closest friend and the mother of my children, was really gone. She had left me sooner than I had expected, we were supposed to grow old together. I felt my world shattering and a deep sense of sorrow filled my heart. I could not sleep, I could not eat, and I lost interest in things I used to enjoy.
I spent most of my days alone in my house, I was hopeless and I couldn’t let my daughters see me like that. My happiness was gone and sadness had become my reality. I remembered that years back when I was still going to clubs I had once tried cat with my friends. I had never used it ever since that time, but I remembered how good it made me feel at the time. I called one of my old friends who was still a cat user. He hooked me up and that’s how my relationship with cat began.
Since I had lost my precious wife, cat became so dear to me. I enjoyed how it gave me so much energy and euphoria. The good feeling and intense excitement that I felt after snorting cat seemed to help me ease the deep sadness that I felt in my heart. This is the reason why I kept using it a lot. Whenever cat would go out of my system it felt like the sorrow and sadness in my heart had multiplied ten times more. I would also experience withdrawal symptoms like vomiting, body aches, sweating, hallucinations, my heart would beat slowly and I would be irritated by the smallest things. I became worse than I was before. So, I just kept using it over and over again, hoping the pain would eventually go away for good. Cat was all I could think about. Everything else became meaningless to me.
I know that some people become addicted to substances after several years but, for me, within a few months of using it, I could not stop using cat. I drifted further and further away from my children and neglected them. I lost so much weight, I had become skinny and barely recognisable. My family members eventually realised that something, more than grief, was wrong with me. They talked to me and made me realise that my actions were stealing another parent from my daughters. I realised that I had never considered how all this is affecting my children, who needed me more than ever.
I decided to seek help so that I could be a better father to my children. I went to BOSASNET for counselling. One of the assignments my counsellor gave me was to write a letter titled ‘Dear Cat’. Though I am writing about letting go of cat, in reality I know that I have started a journey of letting go of my beloved wife and allowing myself to heal. I could not bring myself to continue living without her and that is how I turned to cat to deal with my pain. So, as I sit here, filled with so many thoughts and tears rolling down my face, I type the first few words of my letter, ’Dear Cat’.
If you think that you might have a substance abuse problem, or if you have a friend or family member who does, we encourage you to seek help. For some, it can mean the difference between life and death. You can find BOSASNET on Facebook, or call us on 3959119 or 72659891 for more information.
As I scratched my head while trying to pick a topic for this week, I thought to myself, why not write about almost everything that is trending.
There might not be much breaking news but there is so much happening in the country which makes it difficult to focus on one topic in particular.
And of course there is bad news and good news, though we always seem to have more of the former.
Then there is news that is just of interest, news that has no bearing on our lives but we still find interest in them.
Well, the good news is that maize output is expected to more than triple this year following a very good rainy season. Maize is our staple food so when there is plenty of it, it brings joy to millions of Zimbos.
The country endured severe droughts in the past two years, resulting in hunger and starvation in many households. But this year it truly is a year of plenty as 2.8 million tonnes of
maize is expected to be harvested.
As some would say, as long as there is sadza (phaleche) in the house, everything else seems to fall into place!
Sadly, though, while most of us are celebrating the bumper harvest, thousands of villagers in Chiredzi in the Masvingo province are having sleepless night. This is because the regime seeks to evict them from their ancestral lands to make way for a white commercial farmer who intends to grow lucerne grass to feed his dairy cattle.
There is a huge outcry over this, not only because it would be a clear violation of these villagers’ rights but also because it would be a huge step back as far as land reform programme is concerned. Surely President Emmerson Mnangagwa must re-think his position of wanting to displace more than 10,000 families for the sake of one farmer.
Hopefully the opposition, civic rights groups and other interested parties will rise and put a stop to this.
Now onto other news. A High Court judge this week halted the processing of Genius Ginimbi Kadugure’s estate following the family’s concerns that the will presented is fake as it is not signed.
BENEFIT
It’s not clear yet on who stands to most benefit from the said will but it’s clearly not the siblings and his father as they are the ones contesting the will.
The late rich socialite, who was single, died in a freak car accident in November. He had properties in South Africa and Botswana where he had invested in fuel and gas trading.
Ginimbi stayed at his palatial mansion in Domboshava just outside Harare and owned several expensive supercars including a Porsche, Bentley, Ferrari and a Lamborghini.
Oh yah, then there is the Prince HarryMeghan interview with Oprah which is dominating the international stage. It’s also being much talked about this side.