Posted on 09/04/2005 4:50:19 AM PDT by Clive
Dear Family and Friends,
It was cause for great sadness to watch Zanu PF MP's clapping, dancing and singing in Zimbabwe's parliament this week after the announcement that their two thirds majority had secured the latest amendments to our country's constitution.
The rights of individual Zimbabweans are being systematically stripped away and for this the ruling party cheer - as if the country was theirs alone, for all time. The latest amendments allow government to withdraw passports from people whose travel is deemed to be against the national interest. A 65 member Senate is to be reintroduced even though the economy is shrinking and Ministers say that 90% of their annual budgets are needed for wages and allowances.
The constitutional amendments also forbid citizens whose land was seized by Zanu PF from having their grievances heard in court. The Minister of Justice, being interviewed by a South African television programme, insisted that this latest prohibition on seeking legal recourse was aimed at white skinned Zimbabweans only. The wording of the constitutional amendment however, does not mention skin colour at all, so one can only wonder how long it will be before this same provision is used against other out of favour Zimbabwean farmers. However, according to the propaganda, this was the end, once and for all, of white farmers and for this "achievement" Zanu PF MP's and even the Vice President, danced in the aisles of parliament.
One after another a string of "analysts", "commentators" and "experts" have been paraded on state owned TV to praise the constitutional amendments. None have questioned why there was not a referendum or if this is what 11.6 million Zimbabweans really want. The government says that this now brings "finality" to five years of land seizures and that all agricultural land belongs to the state.
Most ordinary Zimbabweans have got absolutely no idea what is going on on the farms anymore and they are not alone in their confusion. Every season the government announces they are conducting an "audit" of who is on which farm as if they don't know themselves. They say they are investigating why production continues to fall monstrously short of national requirements.
The few commercial farmers still left operating after five years of utter mayhem are permanently sea sick as the orders from officials change literally by the week - get off your farm, stay on it, give up half of the farm, have an unwritten lease but give us the title deeds, oops we changed our minds and want it all, put your crop in we'll protect you, get out by tomorrow, this is our farm and our crop.
And so Zanu PF MP's might be dancing in the aisles and congratulating themselves but it doesn't actually change a thing. People are tired, hungry and destitute, inflation is soaring and it is as uncertain as ever on the farms. Just weeks away from the main planting season there is little sign that anything is about to change anytime soon - regardless of the constitutional changes or the skin colour of the Zimbabwean out there on the farm.
I am going to take a break from this letter for a few weeks but please keep watching and caring about Zimbabwe and until next time, thanks for reading, with love, cathy.
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zimbabwe will soon be another aids infested,third world country dying by it's own hand.i believe every white citizen should leave.let the black"majority"figure out how to work a farm.si vis pacem,para bellum
This is just another move by the real racist to overthrow another government.
Zimbabwe is lost. It is long past time to get out and start over. Let the brownshirts stew in the cesspool of their making.
?
I would suggest that you leave as soon as possible.
"I am going to take a break from this letter for a few weeks but please keep watching and caring about Zimbabwe and until next time, thanks for reading, with love, cathy."
May we interpret this to mean Cathy is packing it in and leaving (finally) Zimbabwe?
State-sponsored looting in Zimbabwe.
Execute Mugabe and perhaps this will change....but eliminating this Nazi will only result in another like him who is probably waiting in the wings.
The whole country needs to be exterminated.
"The whole country needs to be exterminated."
No, the people of Zimbabwe do not need to be exterminated. They need the blessings of liberty and democracy.
You are ignorant. I have many friends there.
Zimbabwe, like South Africa, has many educated people...alas, most are in South Africa or the UK, since there are no jobs in Zim and many who stayed behind to help are being thrown in jail...or are in rural areas without means to let the story out.
Even though I have friends, it has been one month since they've emailed...and their emails and letters are vague, since the mail is read and China has given the government the capacity to monitor emails...
There is a major drought right now...but it's like Kansas, with droughts about two years out of ten...but in previous droughts the government sent in food...but now, you only get food if your village voted for mugabe...so remember that next time the press states he "won" the election...
Ignorant about what?
Yes, I'm ignorant about lots of things. But what was it about my post that inspired your response?
if that isn't ignorant, I don't know what is knowledgable.
The "bronwshirts" are the government? The People who were told they would starve if they didn't vote for Mugabe? People in Hatfield, who ran small stores and kiosks? Or did you mean Sister Patricia Walsh, whose HIV clinic was destroyed by Mugabe's thugs?
Do youy think Cathy Buckle regrets her support of the revolution?
ah, but Mugabe also went after the Nbelele tribe and educated Mashona democracy leaders.
One of my friends brother was hiding out with her last year because he supported democracy, and his family was afraid he would "disappear"...
As for white farmers: When I was there 20 years ago, we had "refugees" when they took land from our reserve and gave it to white farmers, and displaced the people 100 miles north, to a lower area...and many died of Malaria, since they had no resistance (only Africans growing up in low areas have resistance...those growing up at high altitudes got cerebral malaria, just like white people who didn't take medication )...
We had land reform here in the Philippines...our family lost most of it's land, to the farmers who worked it...there are ways to do such things legally. The problem is that Mugabe is a Marxist, and is copying Russia and the kulaks, not the Philippines giving the farmers a chance to buy their own fields...
If you look at the decline of the situation...there are only two upcoiming outcomes...either they start a war with a neighboring state or some type of coup occurs. The delivery of various Chinese weapons makes the situation slide more toward the warfare situation, which gets the country concentrating on some other trouble. But with starvation right around the corner (farmers not producing enough to feed the country)...then I doubt if warfare really fixes anything. Its amazing how this situation has traveled over the past 15 years. They were making a ton of money off major farm operations and actually selling into other regions of Africa. Everybody was making money. And today...its complete opposite.
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