Zimbabwe -- Cathy Buckle -- Good Lord Deliver Us

The Litany Bird is back in my neighbourhood this week and it is cause for considerable comfort to hear its voice these evenings. The fiery necked nightjar is a nocturnal bird and lays its eggs on the ground amongst a small scratch of leaves. Its piercing call, such a familiar Zimbabwean sound in the early evenings and on moonlit nights, is matched to the words Good Lord Deliver Us.

It is amazing that the nightjars have managed to survive another year in our dirty, plundered and ravaged semi urban environment. They have survived the fires that scorched every inch of bush 6 months ago. They have survived the endless flow of men, women and children who walk out into the bush every day with axes to chop trees, hoes to dig roots and packets to collect mushrooms and fruits.

The Litany Birds have miraculously survived the boys who aren't in school anymore because the fees are just too expensive; boys who harvest birds with catapaults and boys who climb trees to take eggs and fledglings in every nest they find.

The Litany Birds have also survived the unemployed young men who walk into the bush in small groups every day. They are armed with crude home made weapons and follow lean and fearsome packs of hunting dogs which flush out every living creature.

This February the Litany Birds are back, they have survived the piles of garbage dumped in the bush, the people and the plunder and they cry out defiantly every evening. Their voices give hope for a similar resilience for our people and country.

The call of the Litany Birds is particularly appropriate for Zimbabwe this week. Over 150 women in Bulawayo and 240 in Harare were arrested for trying to march on Valentines Day. Unarmed women, calling only for dignity and food were arrested. Some of the women carried babies, they too were taken into police cells.

As I sat in the dark this week, in these evenings of incessant power cuts, I listened to the Litany Bird calling out Good Lord Deliver Us and I struggled to find peace. It was hard not to think of ordinary women: mothers, daughters, sisters, some with babies - crammed into police cells. I feel such shame that things like this are happening in our beautiful country and so ashamed that for 6 years we have watched helpless, rudderless and aimless as everything has deteriorated to the most appalling levels.

In one week in Zimbabwe there are now so many horrors that it is hard to accept that such things can really be happening. This week we hear that the Gweru mortuary which can only hold 24 bodies, has over 100 corpses in it. State media reports that the cooling plant in the mortuary has broken and that nurses and doctors are complaining of the smell.

This week we hear municipal authorities in Harare blaming overflowing sewers and burst pipes in the Capital city on dumped babies and aborted foetuses. The cold, callous and inhumane way in which the reports are presented are almost as unbearable as the facts they tell of.

This article was published a week ago. My apologies for the delay in posting it.

This week's article is being posted immediately following this one.

To: blam; Cincinatus' Wife; sarcasm; happygrl; Byron_the_Aussie; robnoel; GeronL; ZOOKER; Bonaparte; ...

"Good Lord Deliver Us."

I don't think the Lord is in charge in Zimbabwe anymore.
:(

3 posted on 02/25/2006 3:16:23 PM PST by dynachrome ("Where am I? Where am I going? Why am I in a handbasket?")

I feel such shame that things like this are happening in our beautiful country and so ashamed that for 6 years we have watched helpless, rudderless and aimless as everything has deteriorated to the most appalling levels.

Well Cathy, you should be ashamed, you've had six years to
work toward the death of that tyrant!

4 posted on 02/25/2006 3:25:47 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)

You'd be surprised:) I think the Good Lord is definitely in charge. Change is surely in the air - things will start to turn around soon!

All the ignorant people are out tonight I see. It's so easy to tell people that they should have fought to their death when you are an anonymous poster - LOL.

when you are an anonymous poster ...

it's easy to call people ignorant.

7 posted on 02/25/2006 3:55:51 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)

Hope you are correct sir/ma'am/?

8 posted on 02/25/2006 3:56:07 PM PST by dynachrome ("Where am I? Where am I going? Why am I in a handbasket?")

Someone needs to tell Cathy that the Lord helps those who help themselves.

9 posted on 02/25/2006 3:57:13 PM PST by Lurker (In God I trust. Everybody else shows me their hands.)

Well Cathy, you should be ashamed, you've had six years to work toward the death of that tyrant!

Don't you think you are being a little hard on her? She is probably taking huge risks publicizing the plight of whites in Zimbabwe. Would you say the same thing to a jew who was writing about Hitler in 1939?

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