Yes, we are at the beginning of yet another 365 days. We have toiled and soiled our hands to get through 2012. See, nothing comes easy; we must work for whatever we achieve.

Though some may quote the Holy Bible as saying, "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, either do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6), the truth is that they move out of their comfort zones to go and find the food.  Sometimes they encounter predators and may perish in their quest for food!  God has given us the hook and the bait. We must go fishing. If we go hungry, it will be because we are lazy!  Can somebody say Amen? As we look forward to the next 365 days, we must take stock of what we have done with the past 365 days and convince ourselves that we need another mandate of 365 days or else we might not be worth another term!  Most people are always expecting the incoming year to be better than the outgoing one, for reasons best known to them. This brings me to the so-called New Year’s Resolutions. You can call them vows. Or expectations. Or anticipations. Whatever you like. I stopped making New Year resolutions long time ago because most of them are never attainable, while others are a mere farce. People talk of quitting drinking or smoking. Or changing jobs. Or getting married. But all these resolutions just fall by the wayside within a few weeks of the new year. Now what is the point of making them in the first place?  As for me, I make my resolutions as and when I deem then necessary. Like the other day I decided to quit drinking and driving (when I drink, I don’t drive) because the "Blue Boys” had nabbed me and one of them wanted to handcuff me because the alcohol in me was telling me that I was stronger than him!  I was saved by one senior officer, who happened to come by. When he was told that there was a guy utari tayari (not sane), who had refused to blow into the huhamo gadget, he asked me what my name was and when I told him that I was Mfashumwana, he forgave me and I made a resolution never to drink and drive again!Whenever I drink, I either take a taxi or hire someone to drive me home. This costs me just a few thousand francs. On the other side of the fence, if you decided to drink and drive, you could spend days incarcerated or pay a heavy fine of not less than two hundred thousand francs, or both!  Let me hope most people who occasionally drink and drive will make the same resolution.