A local cellphone company has just launched a life insurance policy that you pay for by topping up on your airtime. Sounds great but then this is Zimbabwe, where hope is at best uncertain.* There are some very country-specific policy exclusions, as listed at the end and in small print of a glossy promotional booklet distributed with the Sunday papers:
"Any one of the following conditions will result in the Underwriter being absolved from any liability to make payment:
- if death is as a result of epidemics as defined and declared by the World Health Organisation (no claims for cholera, then)
- if death is caused by an aviation accident (roll on Air Zimbabwe)
- if death is a consequence of judicial sentence of death penalty (best not to be convicted of treason)
- if death is a consequence of illegal actions as may be defined in terms of Zimbabwean law (if you're practising as a reporter, presumably)
- if death is a consequence of war, invasion, act of foreign enemy (the West?), hostilities or war like operations (whether war has been declared or not -- what does this say about what they're expecting during the next elections?), riots, mutiny, civil commotion, civil war, rebellion, insurrections, conspiracy or siege.
It all reads horribly like a prophecy. Especially in the light of Morgan Tsvangirai's comments today that he sees "nothing wrong" with a Tunisia/Egypt style uprising...
* Valerie Tagwira The Uncertainty of Hope, novel, 2008
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