The sound of history repeating.
Posted on 06/19/2004 3:10:36 AM PDT by Clive
Paralysed Saturday 19 June 2004
Dear Family and Friends, I have been trying to think of a word that most accurately describes life in the small Zimbabwean town in which I live. Lots of words come to mind, many of which are unrepeatable but I think the most appropriate ones are paralyzed and exhausted.
Taking my soon to be 12 year old son shopping for a pair of long trousers for his birthday, we stopped in the middle of the road along with all the other pedestrians and cars and stared at a little parade of school children passing to commemorate what was World Environment Day.
It was a very cold and windy morning and empty packets, bags and other litter swirled and accumulated on the kerbs. Some who stopped to watch were the men who push great hand carts piled with firewood they have cut from trees on the newly liberated farms. Others who stopped were the women who carry 20 litres buckets filled with little fish they have caught in nearby dams, again from newly liberated farms.
There was one thing all of us who watched the parade had in common - we had all just survived a month of drinking the most foul water that both looked and smelled like sewage. For weeks we had been complaining to the Municipality. The water is green, we cried, it smells, we shouted, it has "things" floating in it.
None of us had dared to walk through the streets carrying posters saying "we demand clean water" or "we refuse to pay to drink sewage" so we did nothing, boiled the water twice and prayed that diarrhoea would not paralyze our children.
For over a month the entire town had suffered and now we stood staring at a parade commemorating "Environment Day". The irony was staggering.
As we stood on that street corner I looked at scores of people and I suppose the most common expression on their faces was exhaustion. There were no smiles and there was no chatter, just a sort of paralysis. Having lived here all my life I suppose the most striking thing about my home town is the silence. You seldom hear people laughing, seldom hear people talking in the street. The most dominant feeling is one of suspicion and of people looking over their shoulders to see who is listening.
When the parade had passed my son and I crossed the road and went into a big clothing shop. It was mid morning and we were the only customers in the entire shop. Eager sales staff, desperate for a buyer surrounded us. One escorted us to the rack of trousers, another hovered and held the coat hangers, another accompanied us to the fitting room and waited outside and two more sat at tills empty of customers. "How's business?" I asked. "It is paralyzed," came the response.
We are a town and a country paralyzed and exhausted. We listen to the incessant propaganda on State radio and then to the horrors reported on Short Wave Radio Africa and it is like living in two different countries at the same time.
We hear that the Governor of the Reserve Bank is in America, England and South Africa urging Zimbabweans to send their money home through his new systems, but we know those same people will not be allowed to vote when it comes to election time.
We hear of new fighter jets being ordered and wonder if it is the Zimbabweans in exile whose money will pay for them.
We hear that inflation has apparently gone down to 450% and yet the price of bread, maize and milk continue to go up.
We hear of a bumper harvest and yet we see the empty fields and we are tired, so tired of it all.
Until next time, with love, cathy.
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Sounds so similar to the jews who didn't leave Nazi Germany.
bump
Bump for the end of Mugabe.
Even if Mugabe goes, his replacement will likely be as bad (or worse). Sub-Saharan Africa is headed right back to the stone age under the twin woes of socialist/communist black leadership and AIDS. I see no indication of possible change.
"so we did nothing, boiled the water twice and prayed that diarrhoea would not paralyze our children."
If I had a young child living in conditions like this, and if I had the ability to get out, I would. The analogy to the Jews in Nazi Germany is apt. What were they, and what is she, waiting for?
I have read some of her letters before & I felt like she was doing a service for her dying country by staying writing them. I had no idea she had children. Now I think she is being an irresponsible parent & keeping her child in a place of danger. Hometown or not she needs to get out. She is a fool.
The sound of history repeating.
"Hometown or not she needs to get out. She is a fool."
Our thinking has been on a parallel track. In addition, and I do not know if the information is correct, I have read that she initially supported the "land reform" of the Mugabe government based on the typical liberal thinking that whites were guilty of something for having turned the country into an agricultural paradise.
Not even the blacks who wanted an end to white rule and Mugabe (other than his thugs) deserve what's happening now. But, they're going to get it good and hard. Southern Rhodesia (I'll no longer use that silly Z name) is heading for status as a North Korea look-alike.
Sounds so similar to the Russians Orthodox Christians who didn't leave Lenin's Communist Dictatorship.
How many whites live in Zimbabwe. I'v heard alot of have left in the last 5 years.
Cathy Buckle estimated about 70,000 whites in her column about a fortnight ago, but I think that the figure is overly optimistic and probably based on old information.
The population of Zim was about 12.5 million in 2000 and estimates are now about 11.5 million.
Numbers are widely different depending on the sources and the age of the data.
There is also an estimate that the volkerwanderung that started as a consequence of the farm invasions has now reached a figure of 3 million souls, internally and externally.
What got sub-Sahara Africa temporarily out of the stone age was its conquest and colonization by Europeans. Europe and the US no longer have any interest on re-colonizing Africa.
Ah, the phony environmentalism of a Communist dictatorship (which is what Zimbabwe is).
What did we tell you? Communism doesn't work.
I believe they (white)farmers had their farms liberated from them. That is the reason why these people are so destitute with no food or water. The farmers have been thrown into exile. I am not quite upto speed on this though. The head of state wants all white people out of Zimbabwe by 2006 I saw in a previous article on Fr. The whole thing I find quite hateful and racist on the part of the head of state. I don't understand why our government isn't doing anything about making sure the farmers are put back on the farms to provide food to the people.
I know she feels 'African' and loves her land, but it must be clear to her that the scum running the place have the same fate in mind for her as the Nazis did for Jews. Starting over with nothing would be better than staying and letting the kaffirs slowly degrade you and your children and eventually kill you. Her children deserve better. At least get them out!
Not exactly. The Bantu invasions (very roughly somewhat after the time of Christ), largely but not entirely displacing the ancient Khoisan-speaking peoples (who are NOT black), moved southern Africa from the Stone Age into the Iron Age. In the latter medieval period, some Bantus were even flirting with civilization (e.g. the city-states on the coast, the Great Zimbabwe, and the Kongo Kingdom).
European colonization occurred mostly in South Africa and barely at all in the equatorial and interior portions of the Continent. The difference between mere conquest and colonization involves the movement of large numbers of people into colonies.
In the area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Belgians had no civilizing effect whatsoever, but merely taught, spread, encouraged, and instigated barbarous civil wars. The result: about the same as those anti-capitalist anarchists desire for America, insofar as I can tell.
Even today, South Africa is a fairly prosperous, semi-capitalist free country, as are Namibia and Botswana. All three are racked by tremendous challenges: human immunodeficiency virus, a lax attitude toward sexual promiscuity and sex crimes, crime (especially in South Africa). But that doesn't mean that they won't succeed permanently. Right now, I'm still optimistic on these three.
In equatorial Africa, Benin has been a stable, free country for some time, as are Ghana, Mali, and Senegal, but all have struggling, socialist economies. Several fairly large kingdoms existed in this part of the world during the medieval period. I'm somewhat less optimistic on this region, but if they can shed socialism and adopt agricultural practices geared toward soil conservation, these countries probably will prosper when the multi-decadal oscillation in precipitation in the Sahel swings toward "wet." (William Gray believes this swing has occurred, but that these countries are too dependent on drought-related foreign aid to tell the world.) There's also some problems with sectarian (Muslim/Christian) violence in these parts that could inhibit the development of prosperous civilization.
As for the rest of the countries on the African Continent (except Spain), I don't see much in the way of true civilization any time soon (at least a decade, probably the better part of a century for most).
P.S. Zimbabwe is a Communist dictatorship. As such, its prospectus is the same as the Soviet Union: death and dissipation.
I forget where I read it but I heard that chinese were buying the farms. Any truth to that rumor?
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