- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- As I sat at my desk on Saturday morning I thought it
might be of interest to type, for the record, the headline report on ZBC's
8 am radio news because the war of numbers about Zimbabwe's harvest continues.
The headline story was as follows:
-
- "The government says internal food assessments indicate
that the country will harvest an estimated 2.5 million tonnes of maize.
This exceeds the annual national food requirement by six hundred thousand
tonnes."
-
- This week James Morris, the UN envoy for humanitarian
needs in the region, said that if our government's harvest figures were
accurate it would be "one of the most remarkable turnarounds in history."
For those of us with eyes to see, these are just numbers and as we struggle
with day to day and find ways to bulk out our meals, we worry more about
other numbers.
-
- My friend Ernie worries about the number 17 because this
is the number of people he is supporting on his wage which is just below
the almost one million dollar monthly poverty datum line. Ernie supports
himself, his wife and their two children; his widowed sister in law and
her three children; his two unemployed brothers; his mother and six other
members of his extended family. For the last three years some of the 17
people that Ernie supports have also received help in the form of international
food aid. But now our government says it doesn't need that food aid anymore,
it says it doesn't want to "choke" on donor food and Ernie looks
at the number 17, puts his hands over his face and tries to come up with
another way of supplementing his income. He's tried everything from mowing
lawns at the weekends to buying and selling second hand clothes, but in
the end there are just too many mouths to feed and too few hours in the
days.
-
- I worry about the number 5 because that is how many years
Ernie has left before he reaches Zimbabwe's life expectancy which is now
just 33 years. I also worry about the number 34 because that is the percentage
of our population infected with HIV and Aids.
-
- So many people have asked me why we Zimbabweans don't
do something to change our situation here. Listening to human rights lawyer
Beatrice Mtetwa talking on Short Wave Radio Africa last week I found myself
agreeing out loud with her answer to this question. Beatrice said that
the problem is that we are all so caught up with day to day issues like
paying bills and affording food and clothes that we just do not have the
time or energy to worry about the bigger issues of governance, democracy
and human rights. How right she is because when it comes down to it, if
you are supporting 17 people, you cannot afford to do or say anything that
may jeopardize their lives. Everything in Zimbabwe is about numbers these
days, and all the numbers are about politics.
-
- Until next time,
-
- with love, cathy.
-
- Copyright cathy buckle. 26 June 2004 http://africantears.netfirms.com
-
- My books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears"
and "Beyond Tears" are available outside Africa from: orders@africabookcentre.com
; www.africabookcentre.com ; www.amazon.co.uk ; in Australia and New Zealand:
johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au ; Africa: www.kalahari.net www.exclusivebooks.com
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