Posted on 01/22/2006 1:44:26 AM PST by Clive
Dear Family and Friends,
A friend recently sent an email describing how activists manage to cope in circumstances where fear, stress, insecurity and unrest continue for long periods of time. Determination, principle and routine, seem to be about the most important factors to consider.
As the situation in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate, more and more activists seem to be falling silent or just disappearing from sight. The recent split of the MDC has left most Zimbabweans feeling alone, betrayed and desperate about how to cope and which way to turn. It is now very difficult to keep depression and despair at bay and prevent "burn-out". Our lives have been in turmoil for six years and many days it seems as if nothing will ever be the same again. Houses for sale are now quoted in billions of dollars, those for rent are in the multi millions, a visit to a doctor is two million dollars and the smallest handful of basic groceries carried in one plastic bag easily costs a million. The horror of this reality comes quickly when you know that an ordinary teacher for example, or a nurse, takes home only five million dollars. The men and women entrusted with educating our children and saving our lives can not afford to live in Zimbabwe any more.
In homes across the country municipal accounts for January have just arrived and they have left residents absolutely staggering in disbelief. In my home town the municipal charges have increased overnight by almost six hundred percent. We should be saying, in disgust and outrage that we will not pay for services not being provided - street lights that don't work, garbage that is not collected, water that is filthy or roads that are collapsing. But we do not; without brave and strong leadership we are a country and a population afraid and so instead we search desperately for ways to survive, to find the money and to pay for almost non existent services.
In the very early mornings you see the real people of Zimbabwe going out to do whatever they can in these wet January days. Men and women and even children who should be in school but can't afford to attend anymore. They go to little roadside gardens to dig and weed maize, beans and pumpkins - crops which are hungry for fertilizer and whose meagre yields will be dramatically reduced when the night time thieves start coming around and helping themselves. Other people go out into the bush to pull down tree branches for fuel wood or they go collecting mushrooms and wild fruits - to eat and to sell. One day after the other, one foot in front of the other we carry on, struggling, praying, hoping - we cannot afford to burn out.
Until next week, love cathy
That statement is as clear a precurser of burn-out as can be found anywhere.
-
This is absolutely heart-breaking Clive and those words are not enough.
Prayers for Cathy and the good folks still left in Zimbabwe.
There's no way to help family and friends if you're dead. Anyone with a plane ticket should use it.
'...they go collecting mushrooms and wild fruit..'(to eat)." Sounds like North Korea in palmier days. One foot in the grave.
Why isn't this being covered in detail by our media? Could it be because this is a black African government? Political correctness again?
Ah Zimbabwe--another Jimmy Carter legacy.
Wonder how long before there is a mass exodus to neighboring countries - Zambia, e.g.
I am finding it less and less credible that she continues to stay in Zimbabwe and write these regular letters. With the economic chaos, lack of regular electricity, and breakdown of government (including the post), how is she mailing or Emailing this material? More importantly, with her obviously negative view of the government, why hasn't Mugabe shut her down? He hasn't hesitated to silence or even kill those who disagree with him, and she has made herself a conspicuous target.
It seems more likely to me that she has multiple confidential contacts within Zimbabwe and is posting her Email communications from a less dangerous location. Since she has mentioned in her letters that she has a young child or children, I would HOPE that is what she is doing.
I just hope she is somewhere where Mugabe's hit men can't get to her . . .
bttt
..... it seems as if nothing will ever be the same again.....
It is rather foolish to even consider such a notion. The change is irrevocable.
Mainly to South Africa but there are large numbers in the UK fighting immigration rulings that have denied them refugee status.
There are large numbers of illegal immigrants in South Africa and many have been summarily deported by the trainload back to Zim.
Reports have put the exodus as high as 3 million out of a country of 12 million but accurate figures are hard to get.
In 2000 the white population of Zim was about 50,000 today the estimates vary between 25,000 and 35,000.
Getting facts our of Zim has become increasingly difficult, including facts about the incidence of cholera and kwashiorkor. There are rumours but the government lies and the foreign press has been virtually excluded and the independent domestic press has been put out of business. Reporters are routinely jailed and harrassed.
I get worried every time Cathy is late with her newsletter.
To where? Who will take these people in. Ask white South Africans with South African passports and without 50000 USD in their pockets who will take them? Nobody. This is the hypocrisy of western governments. These people came there through colonialism but western countries are not willing to take their own back again. Europe has no problems with immigrants from Africa as long as they are not of European descent.
You got it.
Ah South Africa--another Clinton legacy.
I guess I just find it hard to believe that anybody with a family would not have gotten out of Dodge by now. It's true that many Jews refused to believe what was happening in Nazi Germany until it was too late, but now we have that example and the examples of the Ukraine, Cambodia, Rwanda, etc. etc. etc. to show that yes, genocide can happen, and no, the world doesn't intervene until it's too late.
The one loophole is if you can make the claim that you are a political refugee and I don't think it's gotten bad enough in Zimb. to make that case.
Many whites in Zimbabwe have property and their life's savings and life's work there. They would not be able to leave with anything more than the shirt on their backs even if they found a country that would take them. I think this was also the mindset ofmost Jews in Europe during the Holocaust.
Just think about it for a minute. You or I just couldn't up and leave and decide we're going to become a citizen of another country (unless you're Jewish, in which case, you're considered a citizen of Israel). Even if another country would take us, there's all kinds of hoops to jump through. We could go and visit many countries for a time, but unless there was a good reason for us to be there permanently, we'd have to leave.
Many Jews eventually DID try to leave Europe before it was too late, but couldn't find countries to take them in and were sent back.
And there's always that little thing called "hope". People stay because they think things will get better and they think they can be a part of making it better.
I guess if there's a diehard will to leave, there's a way, but it's not as simple as we might think.
Given that choice, I would head for Mexico and enter the U.S. illegally if I had to. With the clothes on my back. My land and money will do me no good if I'm dead - and Mugabe has taken most of the whites' land, and the money's worthless.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.