Are you sure it will take that long?
Posted on 03/27/2010 5:57:49 PM PDT by greyfoxx39
Out of sight is not out of mind
Saturday 27th March 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
The democratic space in Zimbabwe shrunk dramatically this week in a series of events reminiscent of our recent past.
It's a familiar litany which instils fear, silences voices and closes doors that were just beginning to open:
The Mayor of Marondera town together with a Ward councillor and two others were arrested after a rally at a football stadium. The Mayor was held overnight and released without charge. At the time of writing the others were still detained without charge.
A 10 day photo exhibition at an Harare art gallery closed down one day after it was launched. Pictures highlighting human rights violations during the 2008 elections were seized by Police before the official opening by Prime Minister Tsvangirai. The pictures were returned after a High Court order but then attempts to seize them again later that same day, led the organizers to close the exhibition. Even though we are now not able to go and see the pictures, the images are already burned into the minds eyes of hundreds of thousands who witnessed the horrors at first hand when they were happening just 2 years ago.
Out of sight is not out of mind.
Another exhibition behind held to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of people in Bulawayo, was the next to come under the spotlight. Being held at the Bulawayo art gallery, the Gukurahundi Exhibition displayed documents, paintings and graffiti painted onto the walls of the gallery and visible to passers by on the street. Police raided the Gallery, arrested the organiser and confiscated pictures.
Then, in the midst of all this came the news that Finance Minister Tendai Biti had been in a car crash. Side swiped by a haulage truck, the Ministers car was a write off but miraculously he was OK. Need I say more?
A bad week ended on a bad note. Just as we dared hope that South African President Zuma had made some progress in breaking our political deadlock, there was a Zanu PF central committee meeting in Harare. Filmed on ZBC television Mr Mugabe stood at the podium and said that Reserve Bank Governor Gono and Attorney General Tomana were not going anywhere. He said that there was no package deal with the MDC and that no concessions were going to be made. "Sanctions must go! Sanctions must go! Sanctions must go!" Mr Mugabe said to laughter and applause from the audience.
Sanctions: the scapegoat for everything that is wrong in Zimbabwe; it used to be the Rhodesians, then the whites, then the farmers but now its sanctions!
Until next time, thanks for reading,
love cathy
"Beyond Haiti, two other examples of competent verses incompetent government are Zimbabwe and Singapore. The former was once the bread basket of Africa, exporting food to surrounding nations. Now, its people are starving; reduced to butchering and eating the carcasses of dead elephants. Also, its currency has been inflated almost to the point where printing money reduces the value of the paper."
Freepmail me if you would like to be on the Cathy Buckle ping list.
Courtesy ping.
At current trends one of us will be penning Letter From the United States in 20 years.
She might have helped cause this but at least she is one of the few first hand diarists in Zimbabwe giving this a ground-level viewpoint.
Are you sure it will take that long?
What a great name for a writer.
ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
Zimbabwe came about because of the apartheid movement of the late '70's and early '80's. Zimbabwe and South Africa were changed forever by the movement. Zimbabwe has suffered greatly because they "elected" an Obama type, Robert Mugabe, who has remained in power since he was elected.
Mugabe has transformed Zimbabwe into a stinking hell hole....doing what all dictators do to "control" the people...keep them so hungry that they cannot think of anything except where the next meal is coming from.
The people of Zimbabwe do not have the strength nor the equipment to get themselves free.
That phrase scares the hell out of me!
Letters from America:
3/25/2023
I woke up early to get the slugs away from the radish and potato gardens in the backyard. Otherwise we wouldn’t eat. The lettuce is not looking good, but the hanging tomatoes look surprisingly apetizing.
It might be all we have left soon.
Yesterday at the distribution point I only managed to snag a pound of rice and a small box of oatmeal crackers. I couldn’t believe it was all they were giving out, apparently there is another shortage of deliverable food aid.
My neice managed to acquire some barely stale bread, I don’t know how she did that, everyone else said the bakery was closed all day.
A neighbor says he has a bead on some beans and we talked about a trade if he did. Beans now for greens later.
There is talk the government might ban backyard gardens, that they have destabalized the economy and made food aid unequal for those who can’t grow anything. No one could believe this but it was mentioned as being discussed in the White House.
What a bleak life.
bump
Congressman Billybob
What about racism? Racism must be the real problem.
Indeed...
Thank you for the article.
Try and have a good weekend.
My best regards.
Thanks for the link. It doesn’t exactly cheer me up!
I fear you are a prophet.
Thanks for ping; hard to imagine any country tapped in dictatorship making any significant advances given the state of the ‘free’ world; most notably; the current governance as it is unfolding in Washington, D.C. - which is mirroring the finer tunings of totalitarianism.
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.
