- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- For two hours, I have sat staring at a blank email on
my screen wondering what to write about this week. I was going to write
about the report from Redress which documents 8871 cases of human rights
violations in Zimbabwe in just two years. Its a shocking figure which
includes torture, abduction and murder and for a while I tried to count
how many people I'd met or written about who were victims but I gave up
because just remembering the names, faces and voices, engulfed me in anger
and depression.
-
- Then I thought maybe it would be more appropriate to
write about how President Mugabe and his wife have just jetted off to Mauritius
for a SADC summit and how I wondered if this time any of Africa's leaders
would be brave enough to publicly criticise events in Zimbabwe over the
last 4 years or if they were still not ready to stand up and be counted.
-
- That thought also swamped with me anger and depression,
so I thought maybe I should talk about the rumoured impending visit to
Zimbabwe of Kofi Annan. I wondered how you get someone as important as
Kofi Annan, to want to, or even be allowed to leave his 5 star hotel and
really see for himself what life is like in Zimbabwe. How do you show
him fear, people that are too scared to tell their stories, newspapers
that don't exist anymore, bills you cannot pay, food you cannot afford,
eight out of ten people unemployed?
-
- That topic was also pretty depressing so I thought about
the opening ceremony of the Athens Olymics and how proud I felt watching
the small Zimbabwean team walking into the arena, and how ashamed I felt
when the commentator described us as "one of the poorest countries."
Zimbabwe's Minister of Sport wasn't even there in the stadium to stand
and wave with pride at our athletes because he is on the list of 95 Zimbabwean
officials banned from entering EU countries.
-
- For the past two weeks the winds of natural change have
been blowing very strongly though Zimbabwe. The trees have been raining
leaves. The Msasa woodlands stood bare for what seemed like a day and now
they are glorious as they take on their new summer colours. All Zimbabweans,
no matter where they are in the world will know what I mean when I describe
the Msasa canopy as: Crimson, Red, Burgundy, Chocolate, Lime and Hot Green.
-
- Zimbabweans long for more than seasonal change, but it
feels as elusive as ever. We long for some way to shake off the old and
start again with new colours. We long for a political summer, it has been
winter too long.
-
- Until next week, with love, cathy.
-
- Copyright cathy buckle 14th August 2004
|
