- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- This week, for the first time in many months, I actually
managed to find a petrol queue in which I felt confident of reaching the
front before stocks ran out. At the pumphead there was a little piece of
white paper stuck next to the cost per litre indicator. On the paper was
written: X 100. In other words the price I paid last time I had queued
here in May 2003 had to be multiplied by 100 and on the rare occasions
when petrol stations have fuel it now costs one hundred and sixty eight
thousand dollars to fill a standard sixty litre tank.
-
- In the 2 hours it took for me to get to the front of
the petrol queue there was not much to do except think about what is happening
to our country. A young black woman came to my car window carrying a large
enamel basin filled with wild mahobohobo fruits which she was trying to
sell in order to earn a few dollars with which to buy a meal that night.
The woman smiled at me. "Aren't you Catherine?" she asked. I
said I was and apologised for forgetting her name, something I seem to
spend my life saying to people these days! "I am Chipo's sister"
she said and at the words my heart went into my mouth because it had been
two years since I had lost all contact with Chipo's family and had not
even been able to offer my condolences properly. "Chipo died,"
she said. I nodded and said how sorry I was. I asked about Chipo's baby
son and who was now caring for the child. The last time I had seen the
boy he had been a fat, gorgeous baby who smiled and dribbled in my arms
and his mother had clapped with cupped hands when I gave her all my own
son's baby clothes. "No," the woman said quietly, " I am
sorry, Chipo's baby also died."
-
- Aids is ravaging Zimbabwe and I am no expert on the topic
but you don't have to be here because the disease and its effects are all
around us all the time. Official estimates are that 3000 people are dying
from Aids here every week, I think the number is probably far, far higher
than that. 7 out of 10 people are unemployed in Zimbabwe and there are
hundreds of thousands of people who are HIV positive but cannot afford
the anti retrovirals, let alone one decent meal a day. Everywhere you look
you see Aids staring you in the face. The obituary notices in the newspapers
and the dates on headstones in the cemeteries are filled with people who
have died in their twenties and thirties. In almost every shop and street
you see young men and women as thin as skeletons, with sunken eyes, grey
hair, swollen feet and sores on their faces and necks. On hospital cards
you read the doctors' reports of the sudden onset of epilepsy and arthritis
or prolonged diarrhoea. The recommendations are always: "improve nutrition,
needs milk, eat fruit and vegetables, take vitamin supplements." To
anyone living in a country with 525% inflation these words are a joke.
Milk, fruit, eggs and vegetables have become unaffordable to the vast majority
of people and so, young women like Chipo and her beautiful son, just fade
away and die.
-
- Since October 2000 when government supporters chased
my family off our farm, three of our seven employees have died of Aids.
Two others are HIV positive. The daily assistance I used to be able to
give to those employees with milk, fruit and vegetables from the farm,
stopped in 2000. The free condoms I used to give out every month stopped
too. The nearest farm clinic was long since closed down by government supporters
grabbing land for their political masters.
-
- As I drafted this letter President Mugabe was threatening
to pull Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth saying that we were still members
of the UN and proud of our association with that body. On the 1st of December
it is World Aids Day and I as listened to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's
words, I could not help thinking about the men and women who had lived
and worked on our farm. Mr Annan said he "tries to speak for the poor
and the voiceless." His voice and that of the UN have been deafening
in their silence when it comes to the plight of millions of desperate Zimbabweans,
dying of Aids, hunger and the simplest of diseases. Our government nurses
and doctors are still on strike here. Sick people depending on vitamins
or drugs coming by post from relations outside the country are also lost
now as postal workers continue with their strike which has now been going
on for 14 days.
-
- This letter is dedicated to the lives, loves and in memory
of the men and women who worked on our farm and have now died of Aids:
Emmanuel, Josephine and Wilfred and also to a friend, Chipo, and her baby
son.
-
- Until next week,
- with love, cathy.
-
- Copyright cathy buckle, 29th November 2003. <http://africantears.netfirms.com>http://africantears.netfirms.com
- My books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears"
and "Beyond Tears" are now available outside Africa from: <mailto:orders@africabookcentre.com>orders@africabookcentre.com
; <http://www.africabookcentre.com>www.africabookcentre.com ; <http://www.amazon.co.uk>www.amazon.co.uk
; in Australia and New Zealand: <mailto:johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au>johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au
; Africa: <http://www.kalahari.net>www.kalahari.net <http://www.exclusivebooks.com>www.exclusivebooks.com
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