Every day I remind myself of how lucky we really are. Sometimes I remind others, too. My granddaughter doesn't like it. But that's okay. Eye rolling is one of the least painful forms of rejection.
Regards,
SandraC
We could always have it worse...
by nvrgnbk 37 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
nvrgnbk
Zimbabwe
Dear Family and Friends,
On Friday morning in small town Zimbabwe the big ten-tonne trucks were visible
soon after nine in the morning and they were filled to overflowing with weary
"cheer leaders." Men, women and youths who looked dusty, wind tossed and tired
and theirs was certainly not a position to be envied. It was hard to know where
all these people had come from but they weren't familiar faces so they must have
been collected from somewhere in the surrounding rural areas. Crammed into two
open topped trucks, there were perhaps 50 people in each, sitting on the floor ,
squashed up against each other like livestock going to slaughter: without
dignity or individuality - just faces, numbers to swell the crowd.
It only took a few seconds to work out what was going on when the vehicles
turned into the local ruling party offices in the town. The trucks were from a
well known parastatal and had the Zimbabwe flag wrapped around and tied onto
bumpers and roll bars. These vehicles aren't buses and undoubtedly don't have
permits to transport people but they have become very familiar to us in the past
eight years, disgorging great crowds of people at ruling party rallies and
meetings. When the worst of the farm invasions were going on, the big white
vehicles with the red and blue stripes on the doors bought fear, dread and a
feeling of finality to farmers and their workers. They trucks came carrying
masses of people who would swarm over fields, camp outside gates, barricade
roads and sing, drum and shout, throwing stones at walls, windows and roofs
until the occupants were beaten into submission and left.
Some of the people in the trucks on this last day of November 2007 were wearing
clothes and head scarves adorned with the President's face and that gave the
game away. They were here on a brief stop over but were on their way to Harare
for what had been advertised as the "Million Man March" - a show of support of
President Mugabe's candidature in the 2008 elections.
As I passed the loaded trucks, for a brief moment I tried to catch someone's
eye to see if I could spot political fervour, a dedicated zealot, even a
believer in the cause but it wasn't there. I saw weary images, lean faces,
pronounced cheek bones - tired people, the same as the rest of us. Like
everyone else they are also surviving with the bare minimum of food and money;
their children are malnourished and many are no longer in school ; their
hospitals and clinics have few staff and even fewer drugs and they are
scratching out a living in hard, primitive conditions. So why then, after seven
years of chronic decline would anyone willingly support a party which cannot
even ensure basic food in the shops. Undoubtedly those big trucks would be empty
if the ruling party had not taken such pains to ensure that as we went into the
next election they had complete control over the supply, price and availability
of food, seed, fertilizer, fuel, water, electricity and now even of bank notes.
Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy. Copyright cathy buckle 1
December 2007.
www.cathybuckle.com
My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available in South Africa
from: [email protected] and in the UK from: [email protected] -
beksbks
What can WE do? That's an honest question, I drive myself crazy trying to answer it. Mostly over the misery right here in my own country.
-
nvrgnbk
From: Cathy Buckle <[email protected]>
Date: 9 Dec 2007 10:16
Subject: Flame Lillies and Quadrillions
To: African Tears <[email protected]> Dear Family and Friends,
It was a rare occasion this week when the electricity happened to come back on
at the same time as the main 8 pm evening news on ZBC TV. Normally at this time
of the evening the power still hasn't come back on and we are grinding into the
15th or 16th hour of the day without electricity. The headline story and
accompanying film clip on the local news was of President Mugabe and his wife at
Harare airport preparing to depart for the EU Africa Summit in Portugal.
Ministers, security personnel and VIP's were lined up on the tarmac and formed a
corridor of smiles and hand shakes and inaudible little comments.
In the same week as our leader and his wife and the official delegation were
heading for Europe, Air Zimbabwe announced that one return air fare from Harare
to London had increased to 804 million Zimbabwe dollars. To put that price into
context is the recently publicised information by the Teachers Union saying that
government school teachers presently earn an average salary of just 17 million
Zimbabwe dollars a month.
The same week that our President flew to Lisbon, a couple of South African
visitors invited me to tea at a local restaurant. I queued at my local bank but
was again limited to how much of my own money I could withdraw and was allowed
to take just five million dollars. Immediately I spent three million dollars
buying one light bulb and one jar of peanut butter and so with just two million
dollars left, I hoped I wasn't paying for tea. At the restaurant three cups of
tea, one waffle and one toasted sandwich were ordered. The bill came to 7.2
million dollars.
Back in Portugal President Mugabe and his wife
didn't have any waiting around when they landed. They were ringed by security
men and hurried out of sight to their hotel. Meanwhile at home in Zimbabwe at
least three hundred people stood patiently in a winding line to buy milk from a
bulk tanker. Outside the banks the queues went into multiple hundreds and
outside a virtually empty supermarket an enormous crowd, uncountable in size,
pushed and jostled for a chance to buy a bag of maize meal. The day before a
similar desperate queue had resulted in riot police, baton sticks to control the
crowd and injuries.
This week as our President and his wife dine with 80 other world leaders in
Portugal there are still no staple foods to buy in Zimbabwe's shops. Our schools
have just broken up for the Christmas holidays and the search for food and lines
to withdraw pathetically small amounts of our own money from the banks are
getting longer and more desperate by the day. Roadside vendors are selling
pockets of potatoes for 11 million dollars; if you can afford them, it means a
grueling three days of queuing at the bank just to put potatoes on the dinner
plate. If you are a government school teacher, they will cost three quarters of
your entire monthly salary.
To put these figures into perspective, or perhaps not, this week the Minister
of Finance presented a 7,8 quadrillion dollar budget for the coming year. None
of us have worked out how many zeroes this is yet and calculators can't help
either.
Zimbabweans are facing an extremely hard Christmas this year but as always we
look for hope. Many events are drawing closer and all hold the opportunity to
bring relief to a battered and beaten country. The summit in Portugal will be
followed soon after by the Zanu PF Annual Congress, then the result of talks in
South Africa, then the MDC Annual Congress and then, in March next year,
Parliamentary and Presidential elections.
I will be taking a short break to draw strength and calculate the quadrillions
but wish all Zimbabweans, friends and supporters of the country a peaceful and
Happy Christmas. I saw the first crimson Flame Lily of the season in the grass
on the roadside this week and it heralds the end of another year and the start
of what must surely be a better time for us all. Until my next letter in the New
Year, with love, cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle 8 December 2007. www.cathybuckle.com -
BlackSwan of Memphis
We could indeed have it worse.....
a fair warning the following you tube link is a heart string pull...if you don't like mushy, sad stuff...ya know....might not be your thing...
-
nvrgnbk
That was beautiful, BSoM.
Thanks.
-
BlackSwan of Memphis
your welcome nvr.... a perspective change hm?
SO
The question DOES remain....
What Do We Do? What Can We Do?
I would really like to hear some thoughts.
The ONE thing that comes to mind is One.Org...but even then.....not sure what to make of that....It feels like if we have millions of people that are willing to help, willing to do something....what can be done that will really directly impact the lives of these people?
-
myelaine
I have a sweet little friend in Ghana...his name is Arimayau Ibrahima...he's 5...red is his "admirable" colour...he wants to grow up...and be a teacher...
Arimayau asked God to richly bless me...and He has...
I love you Arimayau...
michelle