Human and Community Development

Words demystified; CIVICS Very often we are intimidated by certain words that are in their essence very important in our everyday lives. One of these words is Civics. The definition of civics is given by the Merriam Webster as the study of the rights and duties of citizens and how government works. Other dictionaries such as McMillan, Oxford and Cambridge share the same meaning with emphasis on the understanding of the rights and duties of citizens. Perhaps the word citizen has to be demystified again in order to give CIVICS its non-partisan and significance to every Zimbabwean. A citizenship is simply being a member of a society or a state or a country. There are other complicated definitions of the word but we can leave them for later discussions. So anyone who is a member of any country has a need to partake his or her social responsibly (rights and duties) to it. The rights and duties in any regard, they should promote the wellbeing of every member particularly paying ...

Mediocrity is a word mostly used and mostly underrated. The problem is not on the word. It is in the understanding of the reality which we relate to the word. Have you noticed how we almost do things to fulfillment. We don’t really get there, we just get almost there and we presume we have done it. In many cases we don’t see the magnitude of that tendency but that is mediocrity. We often comfort ourselves saying that “we are just average” as if that is tolerable. I have noticed a donor wishing to give breakfast to orphans donating 50kg of Sugar. But what the donor did not realize is we had to sell 25kg of it to buy mealie meal so as to have the porridge served. This is not disrespectful of the efforts one makes but it is a call to pursue a fulfilling outcome. It is a call to excellence or in some circles, Magis. If one decides to spend a day with family at home and you lock yourself on Cable or DSTV all day, that’s mediocrity – you almost spent a day with them. If you go to church eve...

Just yesterday I removed a rather inappropriate link on one of our Christian groups. One of my friends had shared it unintentionally. I did not ask him because I knew he would say I don’t know how it happened. This reminded me of a rather developing sociological phenomenon. As a people we are becoming “increasingly” sleep walkers. We no longer apply the logical rule of “Stop, Think, ACT”. Perhaps it is the routine world we are living in or the busy schedules we go through each day. WE NO LONGER PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS. In some way we have become robots. Being void of detail in our human experience renders us less human. That affects us in our relational experiences with each other and with the world around us. If one can see the face of another and not notice the tears on it, there is no detail there. If you can shake one’s hand and not notice the bruises on it, there is no detail there. If you can eat a meal and not notice too much or less fat in it, there is no detail there. You ar...

The complex world we are living in tends to implore us to worry about our inadequacies. Perhaps the need to conform in some sense in the contemporary cultures drive us in that direction. Such desire and world view very often creates anxieties which limit our sense of contentment. Today people living with intellectual difficulties invite us to live life in simplicity. To derive contentment from within and not so much from the gifts of the world.  Such a view invites us to appreciate the world from inherent gifts of love, joy, smiles, laughter, forgiveness and solidarity. It is this simplicity of life which draws us towards self actualization and genuine contentment. My experience this weekend makes me admit beyond doubt that truly we have so much to learn from those we perceive as the weak. Perhaps our fears lie in the understanding that the world-view of those with intellectual disabilities can truly change the world for the better… which will question our logic of existence and...