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WELL, by now the reader may know that this is the ironic title of a 20th century novel by American Edith Wharton (any relation to one Bruce Wharton?) The irony lies in the fact that while the New York of that time maintained a façade of moral and political correctness, which made what is called polite society, in their private lives these people were evil.

And especially so, they fornicated and engaged in adultery, which society always frowns upon.

A whole gamut of academic literature is dedicated to the subject of the hypocrisy of this society, expounded in the novel.

Take these explanations, for example in readily available literature:

We are told this New York “society ignores reality and pretends to act innocently to the extent that physical violence doesn’t exist, and a kiss in public, much less sex, is scandalous.”

Secondly, this society acted as hypocrites by hiding fundamental moral “contradictions”.

“Not only were people, particularly women, expected to be pure and innocent, pretending not to know the occasional unpleasantness of reality; they really did fulfil this expectation.”

Thirdly, “Both men and women enforced this society’s superficial values of who was socially acceptable to associate with, how to behave, who to marry, and what were proper professions.”

Lastly, it is pointed out that women could not have illicit sexual affairs, “but as long as husbands kept their affairs hidden from their wives, men committing adultery was acceptable.”

End of innocence

In fact, when you read the novel, which has also inspired a lot of other artistic creations, it does not take a lot to conclude that the book carries a wrong title, altogether.

It must have been “End of the age of innocence”.

In fact, innocence could never be part of humankind, flawed species as such we are.

One could say you can pretend to be innocent and flawless for some time but true colours always shine through and you are exposed for the hypocrite that you are.

Let’s say that is the beauty about time.

It reveals its secrets, and in its own time.

Like what we were told about the tell-tale signs of something mysterious, buffeting.

It must have been Hamutyinei who told us about the slow movement of the big, mysterious and monstrous fate, which walks slowly so that its spots get to be seen.

Yet they are never revealed in totality and you have to piece together all the various parts of its jigsaw. An angry community.

You guessed right.

We are bearing some sad news. There has been a murder in the community and the people are angry; very angry.

The people are journalists and the community is journalism in Zimbabwe which is at the moment up in arms against a corporate giant that shall remain nameless but whose murderously notorious traits have to date been released in drips and drops that one can well count but still spotted the façade of a good citizen.

That corporate ransacked one of our homes and raped and violated twin prized possessions called freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

Both freedoms are canonised by the supreme law of the land.

The giant, which itself has been bullying friend and foe alike because of its vast wealth, enlisted the coercive arms of society and, curiously its very own running dogs were more vicious than the usually no-nonsense law-enforcement officers.

The giant imposed itself on the home, violated and pillaged it before making off leaving blood and tears trailing.

It was a fine mess.

But if the bully monster thought it would have its way, it was mistaken.

There was outrage.

The small community, even with its poverty and want, which sometimes — many a time — relies on the beneficence and benevolence of the monster, has raised arms.

And somewhere yesterday, the bully’s representatives got a strong message that the age of tyranny is nearly over.

Of course tyranny is never too easy to let go.

In the next few days we are going to see the monster flexing its muscles.

But the community is likely to give as much as it gets.

The reason is simple.

The monster once enjoyed a lot of respect and goodwill but that age of innocence is gone — and gone forever.

It’s going to be a war.

Bitter Biti

We may have wanted to draw parallels between the corporate giant and one Tendai Biti but the similarities are just too few.

Maybe except the attribute of arrogance.

Biti is not a giant — his ego is — whether politically or as a lawyer, his profession.

He is fighting a losing cause against one Morgan Tsvangirai.

But that is not new.

What is new is that this week he needlessly spared some barbs for the Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Mudenda over his unhappy fate.

He filed a court application, which he lost, accusing Mudenda of having had divined “the Tsvangirai group is the legitimate group in our organisation.”

He complains that he had been recognised “as a secretary general of the MDC and had in fact understood that there were now two centres of power in the MDC.”

Where does UMDC come in all this, Mr Biti?

And where does “Renewal” fit in this material MDC?

It is only the foolishly and foolishly arrogant that won’t see, understand and internalise the fact that Biti forfeited his right to belong to the MDC — MDC-T, the party that elected him to Parliament two years ago, the moment he dreamed up his UMDC project, whether it has held a congress or not, if that is his argument.

He, too, can run so long with that pretence but it will eventually fall away. It has, already done, to those that have eyes to see. Which is why it was only prudent to run, as UMDC, for the by-elections that have been precipitated by various reasons, not least his and 20 others’ expulsion.

We can understand that Morgan is too afraid of elections, which he will lose by a significant margin and is hoping that his boycott will blight the reputation of President Mugabe as leader of the African Union and Sadc.

But Biti has to quickly assert himself as a political entity if he entertains a reputational gain.

Giving it a try won’t hurt, will it, or he is a coward, too?

Mourning Rhodie called Muckraker
Muckraker, a columnist with a local weekly, has a reputation for being nostalgic over Rhodesian days and apologising for the erstwhile settler regime.
Well, this week, he did not disappoint.

He fulminated about the popular protests taking place in South African academia regarding the place of Cecil John Rhodes’ statue and the legacy of the notorious imperialist.

Here he goes:
“A group of unrepresentative students at the University of Cape Town have decided they don’t like a statue of Cecil Rhodes who was once prime minister of the Cape.

“They have expressed their objection to Rhodes by throwing faeces over his statue.
“So much for education! The vice-chancellor Max Price could show some backbone by standing up for his university . . . And besides, there are far more pressing problems in South Africa that need urgent attention than fighting statues of historical figures.”
You cannot fail to see his consternation at the protests — whatever their form — against the arch-imperialist.

The “unrepresentative” group has actually sent the whole nation into soul-searching and made news, with politicians also jumping into the fray.
Even the vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Max Price, seems amenable to the idea of removing the statue of the vile Rhodes.
A news agency reported a few days ago Price had revealed “that a move to remove the Rhodes statue currently present on the campus has been supported by various leadership groups at the university.”

He wrote an email to students and staff saying,
“I am now in a position to confirm that the proposal I have earlier made in my personal capacity — that the statue of Rhodes be removed from its current location — has been supported by all these constituencies and that the SLG will make this proposal to the Senate, which meets this Friday (yesterday).”
So, it’s too bad for mourning Rhodie Muckraker, Price is actually a very progressive academic and more importantly, no amount of backbone can derail historical consciousness that abhors pillagers and homosexuals like Rhodes.
(And does Muckraker think that because Price is white it makes the University “his university”?)

The protests actually provide an inspiration for former Rhodes’ subjects to clean their lands of his infamy and his undignified remains.