Interview!
So I met this writer named Iris Jumbe a little while ago, and she interviewed me for a new website she recently launched.
She’s an interesting character, and the interview is up on www.fontanians.com if you wanna check it out.
Head = swelling considerably. Balls = titanium.
Spain = awesome.
I like her, she definitely sounds like someone I would like to meet. Love her writing style.
Yeah, I think you’d get along 🙂 And there’s not much difference between your Convent accent and her Chisi one. *ba-dum-tshhh*
Geez, Joe, what does a girl have to do to get linked to around here? 🙂
Eleanor, thanks! And don’t listen to him. There were three of us there when we met Mr. Ruzvidzo and I think we firmly established that there were pots calling kettles black. I’m right, Joe. you know I am.
Shall I leave you three alone? Give you some room to, I don’t know, finish. I feel like I’ve just walked in on something. 🙂
Come on, you know you wanna join … we’ll make room.
good article! its good to hear the truth! at least i know the western media aint lying to me about how things are on the ground…
Ok now can you bloggers write something uplifting, i am near suicidal here!
Fantastic interview there Joe! I see Ms Jumbe is still as witty as ever 🙂
So Ms Iris, when you are not slumming it with the locals in the Scud and Nanny (pending a downgrade to Kachasu and Housegirl) where do you ply your trade?
interesting interview. got a bit wierded out by the constant references to “Mr Black” though …
@Joe – links are awesome. Go you!
@klooless, my personal take on it is not so much that the Western media lie but that they only focus on the “sexiest” elements, which compromises the integrity of the reporting.
That’s very nice of you to say @Vimbai. Thank you!
@Eleanor – I actually live in Shanghai – have done for 5 years. And I’m a copywriter, mainly. But I also edit. Thank you for the “Scud and Nanny” reference. Joe thought I was being hard on The Maiden.
Hi @Mos_Native, you feel there was too much “Mr. Black”, huh? I cannot agree – but I do take your point 🙂
Don’t feed the animals, Iris
@Iris – Point taken.
Talking of china- i see another zimbo is doing well up there!
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/showbiz-2791-Zim+beauty+star+of+Chinese+TV/showbiz.aspx
isnt she an ex chisi girl as well….
Iris, urikumaraini, I am in Tokyo!
Eastern delights.
Which ones are the animals, Joe?
@klooless, Yeah, I saw that link a few days ago. She is ex-Arundel, I understand. That is a big deal in a country like China.
@Eleanor – Tokyo? That must mean you guys are already on iPhone 5 or something mad like that already. How people around here would *love* to catch up with your lot.
Oh, that Vimbayi Kajese girl is the daughter of Munyaradzi Kajese, our dear leader’s chief of protocol. I wonder who sent her to the states to get educated … was it him or was it us?
Hmmm. Anyway, I hope her dad’s position didn’t factor into this whole “full scholarship to China” thing, or that our own look east policy influenced her post.
Interestingly, this story came out last year, I wonder why Zim media have only picked it up now? Did it take that long to notice?
Also, some accounts have her as not being very good at the whole news-reading gig. But she’s fit, I’ll give her that. Fit.
Dang! I guess that how the other half live! She is fit.
Iris, don’t believe the hype (read propaganda) about Japan. These people are nothing more than ignorant backward villagers who are living off past glories. Over 90% of the population won’t know or care about the iPhone or whatever other magic dust Steve Jobs is farting out. They still haven’t got to grips with internet banking, how do you tell them about the iPhone/iPad or anything more technologically advanced than an abacus.
@Joe, yeah, I found out that kinda crucial tidbit about Ms. Kajese just as I was about to pick up the phone to see if we could do a feature. So it kinda became a no-go because we don’t do politics.
Speaking of which, if anyone does know some really cool/inspirational / smart / successful Zimbabweans (anywhere in the world) that we should be talking to for the Fontanians, please let me know via fontanians AT gmail
/shameless hawking of wares
Thank you 🙂
So why not do a feature? You don’t do politics, but she’s not a pol is she? She’s the child of a pol.
At what point do we say even the children of pols are png? Maybe put out some feelers.
I say bring it on!
With lots of pikichas!
@Iris – “if anyone does know some really cool/inspirational / smart / successful Zimbabweans …”
tell me again why you interviewed J-Beezy?
(sorry, Beezy, too tempting)
Lol!!!!!!
This is what happens when people run out of intelligent contributions. I’m used to this inevitable degradation in the quality of discussion. It was inevitable.
Hi Joe, to say we don’t do politics is not a comment on Ms. Kajese or her dad. I think it’s important to make that clear because I don’t know either of them. The apolitical stance for the blog is because Zimbabwe politics is extremely emotive and I have never, not once, been privy to a debate on Zim politics today that didn’t end up polarizing people and have people arguing emotionally, rather than rationally, and with inflamed tempers.
I don’t mind the polarizing bit but I would love for http://www.fontanians.com to be somewhere where people come to say: “Hey, I have an opinion/idea”, rather than “Hey, I’m ready to pick a fight”. And without moderation, that is what too many online discussion forums become. So, directly, or tangentially, we won’t do politics. And sure, that shrinks the pool, but it’s a challenge I accept.
@Mos_Native, my sister raved about Joe’s blog when I asked her about connections I should make during my trip home. He is far from perfect, I agree. Which is kind of stating the obvious, considering he supports Liverpool…
I hear you Iris, you want to avoidn controversy and end up making commentary either way of the common debate. But that’s not what I asked.
Are you excluding her from being featured simply because her father works for RGM? Or are you avoiding it because you believe the debate will degenerate into the usual newzimbabwe.com-type send-her-back-home daughter-of-a-thief commentary?
My question is how you can say you want to avoid politics, yet you appear to exclude her not on her merits, her abilities (or lack of them) or her OWN politics, but her father’s politics.
Isn’t that level of censorship, excluding people on conclusions drawn from apparent political connections in an attempt to appear “neutral”, playing politics in itself?
Not really, Joe. Because I am not “trying to avoid controversy”. I am actually bored by controversy. It is the most pointless thing ever unless you are trying to get a book deal or sell an album.
And it’s not about censorship. Worth mentioning at this juncture that: The young lady in question has no idea who I am or what the blog is and quite probably doesn’t give a hoot either way. So let’s move it into the realm of the hypothetical…
If anyone starts up a new medium – magazine, website, newspaper, TV channel etc. that person has to create an identity pretty quickly. That way, people know what they will get there. And what they won’t. Take the American TV channel “ABC Family”, for example. They show a lot of angsty teen dramas (don’t ask me how I know that) and stories that, more often than not, end happily ever after. What they don’t show is sex or swearing or violence. When I tune into ABC family, I know what I will probably see, and what I definitely won’t. The same, for example, can be said of HBO shows, which are more or less the opposite extreme of the scale.
Now, if ABC family don’t show sex, does that mean they are censoring porn? Or if they don’t show people getting shot that they are making a statement on gun control? It just means they have defined their style, their voice, or whatever you want to call it – and they’re sticking with that.
Our blog is only two posts in. We are pretty flexible and will write at what I hope is the junction of what I think is interesting for us to write about and interesting for people to read about (fingers crossed). There is no censorship. I think we have simply picked a lane and are sticking to it. Which you might argue is semantics, but I see the distinction as being pretty significant.
And now it’s bed time. Thank you for arguing. I will check in tomorrow.
Didn’t like the interview. No tab running, still upset with Minnie, Eddie drunk your whisky, vuvuzela blown in your ear, client site down?
Was at Kyadondo Rugby Club, Kampala, Uganda week ago – watching rugby. On Sunday a bomb went off killing innocent peeps – fucked up.
Joe: the sins of the father is good enough argument for most. But, not referring specifically to this situation, I think a lot of times angori ma jerasi bedzi bedzi. Because it’s not her fault she was born into affluence or her father has a fair amount of influence. She took the chances offered to her and ran with them. Most of us would be willing to commit a fair few heinous sins for such privileges. And you just have to look at Didymus Mutasa’s son to see how horridly it can all go wrong, so I say kudos for her for getting it right.
Good point El. Much as they never admit it, most (if not all) successful folk had that one connections (or sheer lucky moment) that set things in motion. Plenty of talented people dont rise up for lack of that opportunity.
And yes beezy, like Orwell says, to avoid politics is a political stance.
@Iris – I was yanking Beezy’s proverbial …
You’re over-estimating the connection thing there, my friend. There is quite a lot of genuine, fair, honest enterprise.
Saying “most” are successful due to connections is unqualified, and there’s no way for us to poll on who is genuine and who has links helping them out.
Pedant!
By the same argument one can dispute your statement that there is “quite a lot of genuine, fair, honest enterprise.” Because, from *my* perspective that may not be the case and I would venture to discredit your observation if I was so inclined. But indeed, if I was to do that, *I* would be pedantic.
You see my dear fellow, this is the comment section of a blog. We speak from personal perspective with a fair bit of intelligence, reason and objectivity – very different from a dissertation or other academic (or otherwise formal writing) which would require verifiable stats and such …
In short, ease up, stop trying to be a clever prick, and let a man have his say.
Respectfully.
Morning Folks! @Mos_Native, I totally got the tongue-in-cheekness in your quip about “Why Joe?” Honest, I did. Anyway, I think I must file this “politics v. no politics” exchange under “Agree to Disagree”.
Thank you for the fab exchanges – it can be a bit daunting posting on a blog for the first time, be it your own or someone else’s, because you never know what kind of cyber-response you will encounter. I really hope that you will still pop in to the Fontanians from time to time, even if it won’t have any politics and the next piece won’t be about Joe:)