- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- This week Zimbabwe made international news almost every
day as the English cricket team hovered over the border while the
politicians
and assorted spokesmen argued and threatened, issued ultimatums and huffed
and puffed about who would and would not be allowed into the country.
Finally, by Friday, it looked as if the cricket matches were going to
happen
and the reporters were going to be there and while it was good that
Zimbabwe
was in the world news, as far as I was concerned it was for all the wrong
reasons.
-
- To the best of my knowledge most people in Zimbabwe don't
give a damn about cricket anymore. Our inspirational players are gone
after their black armband protest; our national team has been politically
cleansed and anyway, most of us don't have time to worry about cricket
- we've got far more important things on our minds. I was asked this week
how bad things are now compared to four years ago. At the time of the
question
I was in a meeting and we were talking about the desperate conditions of
hundreds of people who live in wooden shacks in the back streets of
Marondera.
-
- Their houses, if you can call them that, are made of
rough timber off-cuts, lined with cardboard boxes for insulation and roofed
with pieces of broken asbestos, rusty sheets of tin or old plastic
fertilizer
bags. In these dreadful hovels which have neither water nor plumbing,
whole families are literally living on the floor which is just compacted
dirt. They have no money and do not work because there are no jobs for
8 out of 10 Zimbabweans. They have only the food given to them by
charities,
churches and well wishers because they cannot afford to buy any of the
food in the shops. The children do not go to school. HIV is common as
is TB and it is the most abominable way for any human being to have to
live. To make matters worse, our local hospitals and clinics are
desperately
short of money. This is now the second month in a row when our local
hospital
has not even been able to dispense phenobarb to unemployed epilepsy
outpatients.
-
- These are the real things that ordinary people are
worrying
about in Zimbabwe. Long after the shouting, batting and bowling is over
and the cricket players have gone home, nothing will have changed for the
ordinary people of Zimbabwe. We will still have 80 % unemployment, 209%
inflation and a life expectancy of just 35 years. I don't now how many
multi millions or billions of dollars these cricket games have involved
but for sure they could have got people out of rickety wooden shacks and
into decent brick houses with water and electricity are maybe, luxury of
luxuries, a flushing toilet.
-
- Until next week, love cathy
-
- Copyright cathy buckle
- 27 November 2004
- http://africantears.netfirms.com
-
- My books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African
Tears"
and "Beyond
- Tears" are available in the UK from:
-
- orders@africabookcentre.com
- www.africabookcentre.com
-
- in Australia and New Zealand:
- johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au
-
- and in Africa:
- http://www.kalahari.netwww.kalahari.net
- http://www.exclusivebooks.comwww.exclusivebooks.com
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