Posted on 11/22/2008 9:27:53 AM PST by Clive
No Welcome mat
22nd November 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Within half a kilometre of a main army barracks and in view of a steady stream of traffic and hundreds of people, a man lay next to a main road leading to the Harare airport this week. Barefoot, painfully thin and with thick, unkempt hair the man lay unmoving on the verge, his feet protruding into the busy road. Standing on the opposite side of the road four men in army camouflage stood hitch- hiking, choosing not to see the man lying a few steps away from them. Is this what Zimbabwean authorities did not want the former UN Secretary General and former US President to see on a planned 2 day humanitarian assessment visit? Is this why these two respected Elders were denied visas to enter Zimbabwe?
Outside banks, building societies and post offices the crowds of people trying to withdraw their own money have grown to multiple thousands. Many people have resorted to sleeping outside the banks in order to be near the front of the queues where they can only withdraw five hundred thousand dollars a day - enough to buy one mouthful of a single cornish pasty being sold at a local bakery this week. Two and a half million dollars was the price tag for this simple take away snack - five days of queuing at the bank to buy one meal for one person. Is this what the authorities in Zimbabwe did not want Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter to see? Is this why they were denied visas to enter Zimbabwe?
On a seventy kilometre stretch of road through what used to be prime agricultural land on the way to the capital city, there is silence and desolation as roadside farms lie unploughed and unplanted while the country remains barren of seed and fertilizer. Even as the rains fall on the land and the ground turns springy underfoot, the weeds are sprouting but not the food. The lushest crop I saw in 70 kilometres was grass being carefully manicured on a golf course. Is this what the authorities did not want Mr Annan and Mr Carter to see and why they were denied visas?
In supermarkets, the majority of which are not allowed to trade in US dollars, the shelves are empty. There are no staple goods, no dairy products, no confectionary, no fast foods, no tinned or bottled products, nothing to eat at all. From all over the country there are first hand reports of people barely surviving by eating roots, wild berries, beetles and insects. Is this what the world's respected Elders were not supposed to see and why they were denied visas to come into Zimbabwe?
Hospitals without disposable gloves, medicines, drips, bandages or disinfectant. Nurses who cannot afford to come to work. Toilets and taps without water. A growing cholera outbreak in all areas of the country with 300 people already dead. Raw sewage flowing in the streets of high density areas. Dustbins which have not been collected in urban residential suburbs since July in my home town. Men, women and children collecting water in bowls and buckets from swampy streams and murky pools. No soap to buy in the shops so no chance of preventing the spread of cholera by washing your hands with soap and water. Is this what Mr Annan, Mr Carter and Mrs Machel might have seen had they been granted visas to see for themselves the humanitarian catastrophe now engulfing Zimbabwe?
We hope that the Elders will not give up on Zimbabwe, even though there is no welcome mat at our doorstep.
Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy
Births, deaths and voters
Sunday 16th November 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Most nights between 11pm and midnight a Spotted Eagle Owl patrols my neighbourhood. He's a big grey and brown owl with bright yellow eyes and distinct ear tufts but it's his haunting, Hu - huuu call that alerts me to his presence in or near my garden. The arrival of the owl often comes at just about the time the electricity is switched on and I think that in the years ahead whenever I hear the Spotted Eagle Owl hooting I will always remember these darkest of days when my home country was collapsing. It is a time when the losers of an election held eight months ago are still clinging onto power even though they cannot even provide the most basic requirements of life..
If we are lucky nowadays the electricity comes on in the middle of the night when we are asleep. It doesn't last long. On good nights we have maybe five hours of electricity before it goes off for the next 19 hours. It is impossible to run a home, business or institution with just a fifth of our power needs. The electricity supply (ZESA) is a government run enterprise and is in a state of almost complete collapse. Zesa no longer send bills to customers - they say they have no paper on which to print the accounts. You have to volunteer payment, usually guessing what you owe, or risk disconnection - leaving you without even those four or five hours of power in the middle of the night. This week the government run ZESA refused to accept cheques from customers - customers who are paying them for not supplying electricity.
Water supply, controlled by ZINWA, a government enterprise, has collapsed everywhere and this week came the chilling news from Medicens Sans Frontiers that one million people in Harare alone are currently at risk from Cholera. In cities, towns and villages around the country our taps are dry most of the time, apparently because there are no chemicals to treat raw water. Desperate people resort to desperate measures including collecting water from shallow wells dug on open roadside land - even that alongside cemeteries - and from cloudy pools in stagnant streams where mosquitoes swarm in their thousands. Despite this, still we are required to pay water bills every month, for the dirty, smelly water that sometimes splutters out of our taps and into our toilets. ZINWA do not warn us to boil the water, they do not send out accounts and they say that from December they too will not be accepting cheques from customers - customers who are paying them for not supplying water, paying them for disease.
In the middle of this week I went with a cheque to pay for my telephone connection with Tel-One - a government controlled enterprise, and the only fixed line telephone system in the country. To connect to a number outside of my home town has become almost impossible in the last few months with the exchanges being out of order for multiple hours every day. Tel- One no longer send out accounts to customers so you must pay what you think you owe, or be disconnected. Tel- One refused to accepted a cheque for less than two million dollars. The next day a friend went to pay for their telephone connection and had a cheque for three million dollars. Tel- One refused to accept the payment saying they no longer accepted cheques for amounts of less than ten million dollars and said that from next month they will not be accepting any cheques at all.
Government controlled systems are collapsing all around us and ZANU PF have no solutions for any of the massive problems which are closing the country down, chasing away the tourists and leading a nation into starvation and disease. It is time for a new election in Zimbabwe, one in which losers actually lose and winners really win. I leave you with one last thought for those who do not know: the contentious Ministry of Home Affairs does not only contain the Police but also the Registrar General's office where births, deaths and voters are registered. Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy.
Green snake
Saturday 8th November 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Going to visit a friend in trouble this week I saw a very large green snake trying to cross a main road. I was on a service road which ran parallel to the highway and watched in horror at the events that followed. The snake must have already been hit by a car because as hard as it tried, it couldn't get off the road. It raised its head and neck and tried to lunge forward but barely moved at all. Thrashing from side to side, tongue flicking, the snake managed to creep forward a little towards the bush on the roadside but it wasn't enough and freedom and safety was so near and yet so far. Suddenly a stream of cars came by and one hit the snake full on. A gruesome end was inevitable and intervention was impossible. Later, when I passed the same place again, the snake had gone but a handful of people were standing around looking at something on the roadside and the assumption was obvious.
This is exactly how it feels to be in Zimbabwe this November 2008. No matter how hard we try, we just can't move forward. Change and democracy is so near and yet so far away.
People have almost given up hope of ever getting to the other side of the road to freedom and safety in Zimbabwe's journey. It's been eight years since farms were seized, Title Deeds rendered worthless and commercial agriculture destroyed. It's been five years since independent newspapers, radio stations and television channels were closed down. Its been four years since we've been able to buy fuel from filling stations and nearly two years since we've been able to buy food in supermarkets. It's been seven and a half months since we voted to change the government of Zimbabwe. Throughout all these years the assault on opposition politics, private businesses, charities, professionals and all sectors of civil society has been unrelenting as time and time again we've been hit head on but still we struggle desperately to reach the end.
Its a shocking thing to admit but most of us don't know how many Zimbabweans have died in the struggle to change the governance of the country. A conservative estimate must be of at least seven hundred people who have been killed in political violence in the last eight years. Multiple thousands have been arrested and incarcerated for their political associations or for daring to protest. Included amongst these are the outstandingly brave women of WOZA whose leaders Jenni and Magodonga were finally granted bail this week having spent 3 weeks in prison after being arrested during a peaceful demonstration in Bulawayo. We also don't know how many Zimbabweans have had no choice but to leave the country since the year 2000. A conservative estimate must be of at least four million people living in self imposed exile in the region and abroad.
As I write this letter the leaders of the Southern African Development Community are about to meet, again, to discuss Zimbabwe. We wonder if they know that ordinary people here have no food - no maize meal, flour or rice. If they know that it is our main growing season but ordinary people have no seed to plant and no fertilizer for the soil. If they know we are forbidden from drawing enough of our own money out of the bank to buy more than 2 loaves of bread and are having to buy imported food in US dollars and South African Rand. Do they know that hospitals have no medicines and that nurses earn enough to buy only two loaves of bread a month. Do they know that children at most rural government schools have had no lessons for many months and have not written public examinations.
Perhaps the SADC leaders do know all these things and will find the courage to insist at last that the voices of the ordinary people must be heard and respected. We voted in March, chose new leaders and have been writhing on the road for too long. Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy
-
The “O” has all of the solutions on everything involving the entire world, which he’s keeping quiet about until after January 20, 2009!
I know what you are saying be all know that the “O” has no real solutions. Real solutions are from our Lord, which he ain’t. All of “O”’s solutions lead to various forms of slavery to the state.
Mugabe has gone mad and is not the same as he was decades ago. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe is a signatory to the ICC and the people who are holding Mugabe in power have no way out without charges being filed. I am sure without a doubt if they had a way to exit, they would and there would go Mugabe. And South Africa and the surrounding countries who have taken a hit from the refugees from Zimbabwe are not going to do anything to cross those who are holding Mugabe in power. And also unfortunately, it needs to be mainly an African solution and not some former colonial power’s solution which is what is happening in the ICC at present. If those who hold Mugabe in power had a way out and a guarantee they would not be prosecuted, probably would be the end of Mugabe. People in Africa truly do not like it when a former colonial power tells them what to do. I don’t see the former colonial powers in that area turning lose and there is no negoiating with a crazy person. And without a doubt, Mugabe like Idi has gone mad. There is nothing anyone can do when a country’s leader has gone mental other than take away those who hold him in power or have the guy executed. Historically, the CIA has never been good at that kind of thing. But I have never been to Zimbabwe myself, gotten close but never did, so I maybe wrong. I have talked to many many Zimbaweans who are in other African countries and European countries and saw some older films of Mugabe on TV from decades ago versus now and the differences are startling and it shows what people have told me, the guy has gone crazy in his older age. It is sad really. That was one of the few places in Africa at one time that was producing food and now look at it.
Cholera is beginning.
That is the beginning of the end.
There will be cannibalism in Zimbabwe soon.
-ccm
I bet you were just like Cathy and cheered when Mugabe came to power. What you call mad is the fruit of socialism.
I thought that Mugabe was only a front for a military junta now anyway..... does Mugabe still make the decisions (such as they are) or is he merely a figurehead?
Anyway, whoever is (not) ruling, what a catastrophe the place has become.
I wonder who will write “the letters” when the US collapses into socialism...and the Obama government controls it all...
Enchante wrote: “:
I thought that Mugabe was only a front for a military junta now anyway...”
I heard it was a mixture of both but the people behind him that I refer too are the military ..
I would like to think that some of us wouldn't let it happen, but I have my doubts.
You are completely wrong about that. He's been a murderous Communist since at least the 1960s.
volslover
Since Oct 10, 2008
Which is it - are you young and ignorant of mid-20th century history, or are you just a newcomer who got bored with DU.
“Until next time”, she writes.
It’s beginning to look very much as if Zimbabwe is about to implode into a festival of real world socialism, where everyone is equal in their capacity to suffer and die.
I pray for a Ceaucescu style retirement for Bob Mugabe - tomorrow if at all possible!
Actually I have work experience in Africa and have studied the area and work with far more Zimbabweans than you probably will ever know. And I never hid the fact of being a PUMA moving to the right and I never have signed up on DU or lurked there either.
What are you, someone, who misses the good old days of Rhodesia?
And you are right, Mugabe was a socialist but most of Africa was as well. The unfortunate part of Africa is that no matter how a leader gets into power of Africa through whatever government form they come in, extremely very few leave power. And I am willing to hang out there to say not only was Mugabe an extremist but he is now stark raving mad like Idi Amin was.
Only a racist wouldn’t miss the ‘old days of Rhodesia’. Back then the African locals were well fed, had decent health care, jobs. Now they are starving, dying of disease, have no access to health care.
Think of how well off everyone in Rhodesia would have been if Ian Smith hadn’t had to work around the embargos.
There are 3 people to blame for each African baby that dies in Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe, Jimmy Carter, and James Callaghan.
Yeah..., the "place" was called Rhodesia then, wasn't it?
Yes, I do, along with the locals who had food, water, medical attantion, clothes, cattle and a lot more freedom than they have now.
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