Posted on 04/11/2010 9:03:41 AM PDT by greyfoxx39
Generators
Saturday 10th April 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
When you ask people how they've survived this dreadful decade in Zimbabwe, almost everyone mentions the name Gideon Gono (Governor of the Reserve Bank.) People say they would have been able to salvage something if it hadn't been for Gono's incessant printing of money - and bragging about it; for his inability and unwillingness to control government spending; for his looting of foreign currency from private bank accounts, and for his removal of zeroes from the currency: 3 were taken off in 2006 and 10 in 2008. It's hard to understand how any of us survived really and inevitable that we will feel the repercussions for a very long time to come.
For the first time in most people's lives we do not have savings to fall back on in case of accidents, illness or unemployment. Savings accounts we had in banks, post offices and investment centres have disappeared as each removal of zeroes literally stole our money away in front of our very eyes. You have to look at your bank balance, remove thirteen digits and then understand the state we are in here. Life insurance policies and pension funds have been similarly looted.
Anyone who held their assets in cash and savings and not in immovable property, has lost everything. Anyone who held their assets in land, livestock, crops or anything to do with farms and agriculture, has lost everything.
Trust funds established for disabled, sick and disadvantaged people have evaporated in the last decade. One friend told me how her parents had established a trust fund for their mentally handicapped son and built it up every month throughout their lives. When her parents died their assets were sold and also put into the Trust leaving enough money in the fund to support the disadvantaged man for the rest of his life. Thanks to the gross economic mismanagement of Zimbabwe, there is nothing left in the Trust Fund, in fact it ran dry four years ago and the handicapped man now lives entirely on charity in a dilapidated state institution.
Pensioners are in an equally perilous position, life savings lost in hyperinflation, assets sold and cash lost in repeated currency devaluations and no way to replace anything as their age forces them into a retirement of virtual penury.
Facing a future in such perilous conditions it brings little comfort to follow the ongoing seizure and auctioning of Reserve Bank assets. The Reserve Bank ordered and took possession of 60 tractors from Farmtec which they gave out to farmers in an attempt to persuade them to grow food on the farms seized by Zanu PF. Well, the food never got grown and the tractors never got paid for and now Farmtec want their money back - US 1,2 million dollars in fact! We follow the saga with interest as Reserve Bank assets get taken by Sherrifs and put up for auction. So far we've heard that some tractors have been repossessed along with chains, hoes, wheelbarrows, furniture, fridges and hundreds of generators. Hearing about the generators being auctioned brings back memories of Mr Mugabe dishing them out at every election rally in 2008 saying that every town would be electrified thanks to this Reserve Bank programme. Writing this letter by hand during another 16 hour power cut all I can say is : I don't think so!
Now we wait, holding our breath, to see if enough money will be raised through the sale of these movable assets to pay the Farmtec debt or if some of the lavish properties we've heard so much about will be next. Maybe it is true that what goes around comes around after all, albeit very slowly.
Until next time, thanks for reading, love Cathy
You have proof that I don't? Meaningless question.
If you don't know who or what the Regulator handle means, you really don't know much about America, doya?
“You have proof of that?”
Count me as a giggler. I think it’s funny as hell.
I told that to an idiot from "Zimbabwe" the other day, and he looked at me dumbfounded.
He had a book titled "DINNER WITH MUGABE: The untold story of a freedom fighter who became a tyrant". I laughed and said the man was never a "freedom fighter", that only a fool would believe that, and that Ian Smith should have annhilated ZANU-PF.
He was taken aback and started stammering, "but..but..".
It was obvious that the white people there were nothing more than credulous morons who were basically food waiting to be eaten, the Eloi to Mugabe's Morlocks.
Three million have left? They bring with them their disease: liberal weakness. They should have been forced to stay and fight, to die if necessary, but fight nonetheless.
Even Mugabe knew that.
So, this is a reason for the diatribe against my posting Buckle's letters?
I don't suppose it occurs to you that these threads are a method of encapsulating the failure of the liberal policies in Zimbabwe and giving a benchmark for the possible future of the US?
Do you even READ these letters I post? The ones from 2005 vs. the current ones, I believe, give a snapshot of where Obama is taking us, and while there are many of us on FR who can see the parallels, there are possible lurkers out there who haven't.
Do YOU have current sources that show the mistakes made by the Rhodesians that you can post here, instead of taking out your anger on my posting of Buckle's letters? I welcome them if you do.
Thank you for posting the Buckle Letters.
The slow motion genocide in Southern Africa will take another decade to complete but the complicity of the victims through the course of this tragedy ought to illuminate our present position in world history - on the edge of a fathomless abyss.
Thanks again.
Thanks for your support.
On her website, she plugs her various books (presumably her collected essays) on how things are in Zim. So presumably she's there to do research on her books (assuming that she hasn't left long ago and is faking it all).
If she's really still there, then she's a fool. It's only a matter of time before she's killed, gutted, and roasted by starving Zims, and she won't get any warning before it happens.
Let's just say that Ms. KnuckleHead's weepy missives are more comedy than enlightenment...maybe include a rolling eyes emoticon?!
I’m done with this. If you don’t like the thread, just don’t click on it.
My thought too.
I guess then we'll be treated to the hand wringing "What happened to Dear Cathy?" posts...like anyone wouldn't be able to figure it out
I like reading Buckle’s letters. How anyone could find them funny is bizarre to me.
I’ve been wondering just who this “Cathy Buckle” is, myself. She’s obviously educated and well-spoken — why then is she is Zimbabwe? How does she keep her head attached to her shoulders; does she have some kind of UN or diplomatic credentials?
Is this a pen name? Is this person really located in Zimbabwe? What is her profession?
No answers.
This does not pass the smell test to me. She (if she's a real person and not just a pseudonym) is probably writing a 'composite report' from anonymous informants inside the country. If she's anywhere near Zim, I would be extremely surprised.
Given the outspoken nature of the letters and the fact that people DO read them, there is no way that Mugabe's thugs wouldn't have arranged for her to be "tragically killed" in a robbery or carjacking gone wrong.
The kicker is that she supposedly is keeping her young child in that hellhole too. Child abuse, if it's really happening. Which I doubt.
Is that why you read them? Is this comic relief for you? Do think these letters carry a wisdom - even if hindsight - and carry a warning for all who read them; including brain-dead Liberals, right here in America. There is always a chance, of course, that they may recognize something here, before their lights go entirely out.
A message here as well, to the rest of us; to never imagine that things cannot succumb to what has been, heretofore, an umimaginable degradation of our Country.
A message of hope as well; and inspiration of strength by people who are suffering a longstanding evil, having it's way in their Country.
Is that why you read them? Is this comic relief for you? Do think these letters carry a wisdom - even if hindsight - and carry a warning for all who read them; including brain-dead Liberals, right here in America. There is always a chance, of course, that they may recognize something here, before their lights go entirely out.
A message here as well, to the rest of us; to never imagine that things cannot succumb to what has been, heretofore, an umimaginable degradation of our Country.
A message of hope as well; and inspiration of strength by people who are suffering a longstanding evil, having it's way in their Country.
Zimbabwe News Zimbabwean African Tears Cathy BuckleGOOD News -Zimbabwean Cathy Buckle has written a new Book "Innocent Victims"/Innocent Victims is the story of how Meryl Harrison rescued thousands of animals ...
THIS WEEK - January 2010 - July 2008 - June 2009 www.cathybuckle.com/ - Cached - Similar Zimbabwe news this week Cathy BuckleApr 2, 2010 ... Breaking News -Zimbabwean Cathy Buckle has written a sequel to African Tears. Her new Book "Beyond Tears" has been published ... READ MORE. ... www.cathybuckle.com/thisweek.shtml - Cached - Similar
Show more results from www.cathybuckle.com Catherine Buckle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaCatherine Buckle or Cathy Buckle is a Zimbabwean writer living in Marondera, Zimbabwe. She and her husband bought "Stow Farm" and spent over ten years ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Buckle - Cached - Similar
Curiously I couldn't find much. A woman with a PC and an internet connection, deep in the African countryside far from ZANU-PF thugs? How does that work - do they have ISP's and copper wire to the Rhodesian outback?
So I really don't know. Have to take it at face value - maybe some woman who has managed to keep her head down, operates under a nom de guerre?
And at face value, her letters are mystifying: why would anyone stay? And if they did, why not organize and fight?
Just putting up with it while boo-hooing all the time is insane. The Maquis fought back against the Nazi's, for Christ's sake, and they were far, far better organized and ruthless then the dimwitted tribal thugs that Mugabe has.
From Wiki:
Catherine Buckle or Cathy Buckle is a Zimbabwean writer living in Marondera, Zimbabwe. She and her husband bought "Stow Farm" and spent over ten years turning its rocky grounds into fertile soil, making the farm productive and viable. However, in 2000 she lost her farm, home and livelihood to a group of "war veterans" who claimed rights to her land.
Buckle has written three books for children. Most recently she has written African Tears[1] and Beyond Tears', two books telling about her struggle after she lost her farm and how, when she returned to it two years later, it had been turned into a squatter camp.
Despite heavy pressures on writers by the Zimbabwean Government, Buckle writes a weekly e-mail telling of the current situation in Zimbabwe which is sent around the globe.
If one takes the time to explore the website HERE and scroll to the bottom, one can link to
Now, I can't and won't claim that Buckle is genuine, or Cross for that matter, but I believe them to be.
I have posted Zimbabwe thread links posted by other FReepers along with these letters, and it certainly appears that they are describing the situation accurately.
If anyone on this thread can actually prove anything other than that, please do. So far, there have been accusations with no sources.
Very well put. And she probably still doesn't 'get it'.
I find it passing strange that this thread has been highjacked with posts about whether or not Buckle is genuine or is she stupid, the fact that we have a Mugabe wanna-be moving to destroy our country is totally ignored. Quite strange.
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