Zimbabwe -- Starving to Death

Africantears.com ^ | 10/26/02 | Cathy Buckle

[ReaganIsRight]

Zimbabwe - Starving To Death From Cathy Buckle cbuckle@zol.co.zw> 10-26-2

Dear Family and Friends,

I have watched international news coverage recently of horrors going on in other parts of the world to try and put the crisis in Zimbabwe into perspective. Maybe it's because I'm a woman or maybe it's because I'm getting older, but lots of things reduce me to tears these days. The night club bombing in Bali, the sniper in Washington and the rebel taekover of a Russian theatre have all caused much despair in my heart. When you see ordinary people losing everything that they treasure and just sobbing in the street you begin to wonder if the whole world has gone mad. Amidst all these tragedies there are two common factors and that is that when something goes horribly wrong, the worlds cameras are there and the citizens of a country turn to their police and army for help. These two binding factors are the very things that Zimbabwe so desperately needs. We have no one to turn to for help and the feeling of aloneness is utterly soul destroying. A few weeks ago I wrote about the wife of the commander of Zimbabwe's army seizing one of our last farms and telling the owners they had better leave in a hurry because she hadn't tasted white blood for 22 years. This week the news broke that this very woman not only seized someone's farm and destroyed their lives, she went on to sell all the farmers produce and pocket the money. Jocelyn Chiwenga sold the stolen produce to the Sainsbury supermarket chain in England and realised half a million pounds in the process. Contacted by newspapers, Sainsbury's supermarkets said they thought the farm had been legally taken over and the owners compensated.

This is one example of thousands which demonstrate how alone we have become and how so few people really know what is happening here. Farmers have not been paid, compensation has not been given and not one single part of the entire land re-distribution here has been legal. There are no foreign journalists left in Zimbabwe to tell our story and no one for us to turn to for help inside the country because the very people who should be protecting us, are at the head of the pillage and destruction of Zimbabwe. If the world's cameras were here then I wouldn't have to tell you that Zimbabwe is slowly and painfully starving to death. I won't bore you with the increasingly long list of staple food items that are no longer available in our shops but the tragedy for us all is just beginning. This week I travelled from Marondera to Harare and the view from the window can only be described as utterly desolate. On the 67 kilometre journey through what was always prime and very productive farm land there is literally only one crop to be seen on the side of the road. This is a small 5 hectare square of tobacco. The dairy cows are gone. The beef herds no longer exist, there are no sheep or goats to see. The timber plantations have been felled and cut up into piles of wood which are being sold on the roadsides by thin, hungry men. Youngsters stand with jars of wild honey and women with small enamel bowls of wild Mahobohobo fruits. The vegetable stalls are all gone. You can no longer buy fresh farm produce as there are no plums or mushrooms, no potatoes or oranges. There is absolutely nothing here anymore. Most of the fencing has gone and leaves a deserted and desolate look to the countryside.

The biggest tragedy of it all is that there is no sign whatsoever of any production on all these farms that have been seized by our government and security forces. There is no sign of land preparation, the fields have not been ploughed and the soil has not been turned. Sweeping fields which once held wheat, maize and vegetables or were filled with sheep and cattle are lying barren. The only thing to see is little dusty footpaths zig-zagging into the horizon. There is a hand painted sign on the main highway which says "Wooden flowers for sale" and further on two men sit with their wares which are varnished tree roots and drift wood. This morning I wept as I held an emigrating friends dog in my arms as it was euthenased and then I carried it home to be buried in my garden. The vet is no longer able to bury dogs as his property too has been taken over in this insanity which our government says is correcting historical imbalances and giving land to the landless. An entire country has been destroyed by a political party determined to stay in power but not interested in the suffering of the people. When will the world hear our cry for help?

Until next week, with love, cathy.

http://africantears.netfirms.com Copyright Cathy Buckle 25th Oct 2002

[ReaganIsRight]

Got this up early, please ping your list Clive.

[backhoe]

AfricaWatch:

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Rhetoric of blame is now a white lie (AFRICA, HEAL THYSELF)
The Daily Telegraph ^ | September 3, 2002 | Tim Butcher
"I remember Africa in the 1960s, everyone was filled with high expectations after independence. Forty years on, Africa is a series of kleptocracies, many worse off than they were under colonial rule. Almost all of the common people in relative worse shape to the rest of the world than they were before independence. Africans after 40 years have no one to blame but their own leadership for their problems. The leaders want to deflect blame to the West. The West's not buying it anymore..."

CIA -- The World Factbook -- Zimbabwe

First it was Rhodesia then SA now America paying the price of silence.

-A Capsule History of Southern Africa--

Parallels between Apartheid SA & USA today

South African Crime Report

ZWNEWS.com - linking the world to Zimbabwe
... Books & Videos. Degrees in Violence: Robert Mugabe and the Struggle for Power
In Zimbabwe This book tells the story of Zimbabwe from the hopeful era of ...

MPR Books - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African ...

Title: "Cry, the Beloved Country" - Topics: World/South Africa

-South Africa - The sellout of a nation--

[A_perfect_lady]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. White people need to get out of Africa. Get out. Get out now. Leave. Escape. GO!! I know it's your home, and I'm sorry, but you are birds in a snake pit. GET OUT!!!!!!! Come to America. Go to Europe.

But

get

out!

Leave them to their own devices. They'll implode.

[Glenn]

Come to America

Do you have any idea just how difficult it is to get to America legally? Or Europe, Australia et al? Now if they were to stroll across the southern border speaking Spanish, that's another story.

[backhoe]

Thanks for looking, and I appreciate your comments.

Sadly agree-- between the hammer of AIDS, and the anvil of corrupt, despotic leaders, any good in Africa will be crushed.

[RayChuang88]

Sadly agree-- between the hammer of AIDS, and the anvil of corrupt, despotic leaders, any good in Africa will be crushed.

Given the incompetence to African political leadership (with the exception of a few countries), I wouldn't be surprised that the African continent loses 25-45% of its population by 2050. It would appear that Malthus is right--but then it was human folly that did this, not forces of nature as Malthus surmised.

[Teacher317]

Given the incompetence to African political leadership (with the exception of a few countries), I wouldn't be surprised that the African continent loses 25-45% of its population by 2050.

And the liberals will cry out (while tearing at their hair) about how it is all America's fault (through inaction); the newspapers will inundate us with stories about how women, children, and the poor were hit hardest; and the UN will make ever-increasing demands for our hard-earned money so that they can use it to "fix" the problem (by giving it the tyrants who caused the starvation in the first place).

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[fogarty]

You're right it is hard to get into America legally. But there are places to go - ANY place would be better than Zimbabwe for white farmers right now.

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

sorry all out of tissues for africa they are led by corrupt dictators and its up to the people to wake and sacrifice their own blood to overthrow these people and start over we did it in 1776 and they can as well

[Travis McGee]

A rich country can easily be reduced to destitution and starvation by a tyrant, but only after the people are disarmed.

[staytrue]

I would like to see the non blacks to be allowed to immigrate to the US. Politically, that is impossible. If you let the african whites in, there will be hordes of blacks, possibly even most of the continent who can make the same claims of persecution, starvation, etc. that they too should be allowed to emmigrate. Denying these blacks the opportunity to escape would be political suicide due to charges of racism. Letting them in would be economic suicide. The whites will have to be sacrificed.

Here is also why big govt. fails big time. Govt. must be "fair" at all costs and at the expense of common sense or practicality. Common sense and practicality require letting the whites in. Fairness demands that they not be let in. Making the govt. less powerful and the individual people more powerful should always be the ultimate goal as there is not a sane individual that would not let the whites in and keep most of the blacks out. There is not a sane govt. that would not do the opposite.

[TEXASPROUD]

I am at a loss of words. What these Marxist-Leninist have done is typical. Wish it were otherwise.

[MrNatural]

What about Canada? Arrive on a temporary visa, on vacation, and cross
into the US. With the help of other South Africans already here, legally,
and others who sympathise with their plight, they could make a go of it here.

I know of many young people from Russia and Eastern Europe who got
into the US as students and never went back. If South Americans can do it, South Africans can do it. Illegal? Maybe, but this is life-and-death:
desperate times call for desperate measures.

[TexasRepublic]

Any white that hasn't or won't make an honest effort to leave Zimbabwe probably needs to be removed from the gene pool anyway.

[snopercod]

How hard would it be to send a little military aid to these embattled white farmers? We must have some surplus WWII tanks lying around in mothballs someplace.

[Righty1]

Absolutely! Or you could found a terrorist funding operation and then ask for amnesty. Our immigration policies are maximized to damage this country. The Klintoons just speeded up a long term trend.

[blam]

"Absolutely! Or you could found a terrorist funding operation and then ask for amnesty. Our immigration policies are maximized to damage this country. The Klintoons just speeded up a long term trend."

Yup. Started in 1964.

[First_Salute]

If we don't get in there and help white and black, this country will become the Afghanistan of Africa.