Any Label in the World for US3cents

The scene is a haberdashery shop in downtown Harare. They stock the usual stuff: buttons, ribbon, pins, etc. It’s hardly the place where you would find clothing labels such as Wrangler, Tommy Hillfiger and Cherokee. but a man comes in and asks for five Wrangler “labels”. The shopkeeper unflinchingly reaches under the glass-top counter and pulls out five pieces of square cloth. The customer takes out Z$5 million (about 3 US cents) and walks away happily with his labels.

All of a sudden it hits me. He’s a tailor and will immediately multiply the value of whatever pair of jeans he sews by adding the “Wrangler” label to it. I stand there agape and taken aback. (more…)

Written by fungaijames on May 13th, 2008 with no comments.
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What Shade of Brown are You?

I discovered last night that my skin colour is a mix of bistre, sepia and raw umber.

I was writing a poem to someone very special when I came upon the need to use a word that said “brown” but in a more specific way. I wanted to describe skin colour of a particular shade and I needed a word that captured the exact tint of brown I meant. (more…)

Written by fungaijames on May 8th, 2008 with no comments.
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Road to the New York Stock Exchange

Uncle Nigel is living his dream.

Written by fungaijames on May 6th, 2008 with no comments.
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The Man Who Did Not Jump

I was driving along in town just the other day, in the busy mid-afternoon bustle. You know, the sort of vehicular and human traffic that makes the roads a dance of avoidance- at every turn and with every second you are trying to avoid hitting the next guy or the car to the left, to the right in front of you- and yes, trying to avoid being hit by the car behind you. (more…)

Written by fungaijames on April 24th, 2008 with no comments.
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270km to Say I Do

A friend of mine had a wedding in Nyanga on Friday last. Now, one of the first things I thought when I heard that the wedding would be in Nyanga was hey that’s a great way to limit the numbers. Have the wedding far away from Harare (Over 270 kilometres away!) and only those who really love you (close relatives & friends), those who feel obliged to be there (other close relatives and friends) and those who you pay to be there (photographers, decorators, planners, etc) will come. (more…)

Written by fungaijames on April 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
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The Quintillion Question

How many zeroes does a quintillion dollars have? Who cares? Even the biggest economies in the world don’t have budgets that big. The world’s biggest economy, the USA, had a GDP of just under US$14 trillion in 2007. So we can rest assured that the world’s economists and accountants don’t have to worry about how to balance quintillion figures. That’s by and large true, except in Zimbabwe… (more…)

Written by fungaijames on April 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
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To Paddy, on His 88th Birthday

There has been a tremor here
A subtle explosion that we did not feel
A birth of something
That filled up the voids
And now life in large doses
Fills up each second
That tick-tocks us by. (more…)

Written by fungaijames on April 16th, 2008 with 1 comment.
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A Silent Anniversary

Chairs and desks, moving dreams to a new location. Unbundle the packages that are tied up in your head. Move them to the fifth block of bricks. Excitement courses through everything in you that lives or semi-lives- like hair and nails and things like that… (more…)

Written by fungaijames on March 30th, 2008 with no comments.
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Wrapper in a Pothole

A wrapper in a pothole. Spoiling a scene that is a spoilation in itself. Dirt floats on dirt. One mess on top of another.

Written by fungaijames on February 13th, 2008 with no comments.
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A Drone in My Ear

I just learnt from Tsi that the Titanic was built in such a way that all the well-to-do people had their rooms on the upper decks. The poor people were at the bottom where the constant drone of the engine was an auditory passenger for the whole voyage.
(more…)

Written by fungaijames on February 12th, 2008 with no comments.
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