It’s all beginning to come together nicely
EVERYONE loves a rags-to-riches story. It melts the heart and engenders a fuzzy feeling borne out of the realisation that great trials and tribulations often precede tales of incredible victories and triumph.
SUCH stories give humanity hope even in the darkest of times. Hope, which is a viable and tradable human instinct, gives us the spiritual, mental and physical fortitude to survive and thrive.
Everyone craves a happy ending, and this is why creatives — novelists, filmmakers, singers, among other artists — are merchants of hope.
They sell us dreams and aspirations that we long for.
It reminds Bishop Lazi of the 19th century English novelist Charles Dickens, who once tried to break the mould through his 1861 book “Great Expectations”.
We are introduced to a love-smitten Pip who wants to woo the cold-hearted Estella.
But the young Pip could not get through to his love interest as she had been raised by a very bitter ogress, Miss Havisham, her adoptive mother, “to avenge her broken heart”.
As the plot evolves, one would expect, as many people would naturally do, that Dickens is priming the reader to emotionally invest into an expected outcome where the two would eventually find love, overcome the extraordinary obstacles between them and live happily ever after.
In the original manuscript of the novel, it is this predictable and mundane ending that the novelist tries to avoid.
According to the original plot, Pip later coincidentally runs into Estella on a London street.
She, however, had remarried after losing her first husband, which put paid to any possibility the two would end up together.
Not surprisingly, many of Dickens friends who read the manuscript, particularly Edward Bulwer Lytton, were not in the least impressed by such an anti-climatic, unexpected and disappointing ending.
Never mind that this was purely a work of fiction, they forced him to consider an ending that gave hope that the two could end up together.
Dickens grudgingly obliged. Kikikiki.
You see, stories that nourish the mind, heart and soul are stories that give hope.
We begin dying the moment we lose hope. One of the most inspirational and impactful stories in the Bible is the book of Job.
In the beginning, we are introduced to this fabulously wealthy and God-fearing man who is the proud father of seven sons and three daughters.
He, however, unexpectedly falls into successive misfortunes.
His children die in an accident, while his
fortune — made up of 7 000 sheep, 3 000 camels, 500 oxen and 500 she-donkeys — is either pillaged or destroyed.
As if that is not enough, he develops troublesome malignant ulcers.
He survives through all this and more in the unfailing belief and hope that God will come through for him.
In the end, he is not disappointed. Not only does God restore his health, but he also restores and doubles his wealth as well.
Job 42:12-16 tells us that: “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.
He had 14 000 sheep, 6 000 camels, 1 000 yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.
The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch.
Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
“After this, Job lived 140 years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died, an old man and full of years.”
Trials and tribulations
We have been through a lot over the last four years.
2019 was particularly bad.
It is the year in which Zimbabwe, after two successive drought seasons, experienced its worst drought in 40 years, but we survived.
As if that was not enough, in March the same year, we were mercilessly hit by Cyclone Idai, which the United Nations weather agency described as one of the worst weather-related disasters ever to affect the Southern Hemisphere. Again, we survived.
But before the year was out, the coronavirus was detected in China and it has since evolved into one of the once-in-a-century pandemics.
Thank God, we are also weathering the storm. Tough times do not last, but tough people do.
As Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiongo says in his 1986 novel “Matigari”, there is no night so long that is does not end with dawn.
The year 2022 is promising to be a very good year.
All things being equal, by June we will
know whether the country has commercially exploitable oil and gas in Muzarabani after the drilling of exploration wells. The signs thus far are encouraging. We are beginning to see some serious British investors such as Algy Cluff sneaking back into Zimbabwe after a brief sabbatical.
His company, Cluff Energy Africa, has since agreed to fund about 33 percent of the exploration costs in exchange for a 25 percent stake in the project.
It would be naïve to think that a tycoon like Cluff, who has made his money from investing in the resources sector, would merely risk his money without doing the necessary due diligence.
Just for perspective, experts believe that gas and oil deposits in Muzarabani are comparable in size to the recent gas find by French energy major Total in neighbouring South Africa.
How this project is likely to proceed in the new year will likely shape the outlook for 2022.
While we might not know for sure how this will pan out, we are certainly cocksure that Lake Gwayi-Shangani, which is beginning to impound water this season, will definitely be completed in the new year, including the pipeline to Bulawayo.
Again, all things being equal, parched Bulawayo’s water woes would be permanently over.
Bishop Lazi always tells folks that they cannot even imagine the significance of limitless water supplies to Bulawayo, where most of our fathers and forefathers traditionally migrated to find decent jobs because of burgeoning industrial and manufacturing activities.
Equally important is the fact that as the 245-km-long pipeline snakes its way to Bulawayo, it will naturally create a life-giving greenbelt for communities along its course and consequently lift people’s living standards.
The benefits will undoubtedly be immense. It will definitely be one of the major highlights of the year.
Relatedly, before this major milestone, President Mnangagwa would have commissioned Chivhu Dam, which is already nearing completion.
The project is significant in many ways. Not only will it provide reliable and potable water for the town, but it will also prime it for major developments attendant to the US$1 billion steel plant taking shape in Mvuma.
A lot of money has since been sunk into the project, which again will likely be commissioned by the President soon.
Need we also mention the new Parliament building in Mount Hampden that will be completed in the new year? Or should we also talk about the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport that will be substantially complete by 2022?
We should also not forget that the Beitbridge Border Post modernisation project is scheduled for completion by November the same year.
Perhaps one of the major projects that will come on stream is the Hwange Thermal Power Station expansion project.
Unit 7 is expected to be commissioned by September, while Unit 8 is mostly likely to be done by year-end, adding a whooping 600MW to the grid.
So, essentially, in the new year we are likely to have an unremitting stream of glad tidings from multiple projects such as Lake Gwayi-Shangani, Chivhu Dam, US$1 billion steel plant, new Parliament building, RGM International Airport, Hwange Unit 7 and 8, and the Beitbridge Border Post modernisation project, among others.
There are separate investments that are also being pursued by the private sector.
The country is really one big construction site.
But some Zimbabweans are special species. Despite all these encouraging signs, you hear them complaining that the country is at a standstill and failing to attract meaningful investments.
Really?
In their view, real investment can only come from the West, but even then, where does Mr Cluff come from? Isn’t he as British as they come?
Zimbabwe is on the move.
We, however, need to budget for headwinds likely to be caused by the coronavirus, which, according to some scientists, might possibly be running its full course. We all hope so.
As we approach Christmas, one of the most important days on the calendar, it would be important to pray for an end to this pestilence.
Accordingly, the Bishop will be taking a two-week sabbatical to do precisely that.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year!
Remember, 2022 promises to be an incredibly transformative year.
It is all beginning to come together. Bishop out!