- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- The news in Zimbabwe this week has definitely
been cause for saying: if you don't laugh you'll cry. Inflation raced up
by another hundred and fifty percent from last month and now stands at
1193,5%. How are we surviving it - frankly we aren't and yet still the
absurdity goes swirling around in the propaganda mill and no one believes
a word of it.
-
- This week one of the main stories making
headline news on state owned television was that we are apparently in the
process of reaping a bumper harvest. An above average rainy season has
produced a bumper maize crop apparently and we should rest assured that
there will be abundant food for the next twelve months. The report reminded
us that maize is a controlled crop and can only be sold to the state owned
GMB (Grain Marketing Board) who are paying 31 million zim dollars for a
tonne of maize. There are, apparently, some "unscrupulous traders"
who are selling their maize privately for 37 millions dollars a tonne and
this was illegal and these people would face "the full wrath of the
law."
-
- The GMB army man being interviewed by
ZBC TV said that the security of farmers delivering maize to their depots
was paramount. As if addressing kindergarten, he said that 31 million dollars
a tonne represented a lot of money. He said that if a farmer came with
10 tonnes of maize then for sure that man would be in a lot of danger carrying
around so much money. For this reason, said the GMB army man, it would
be safer if the GMB didn't pay the farmer all the money at once, it would
just be too risky. His exact words were: "we don't want to put our
farmers at risk by making them carry so much cash around." The army
man forgot to mention the fact that inflation is making the money literally
worth less for every day the GMB hold back on paying up in full.
-
- The next part of the report was that
the GMB have now got 80 permanent and 320 mobile depots where people can
deliver their maize. The army man did not acknowledge the fact that the
price of fuel went up from 200 to 260 thousand dollars in the last seven
days so most people can't afford to move their crop off their front doorstep
anyway.
-
- Then the army man told us just exactly
how secure the country is as regards our staple food of maize. He said
the crop was coming in well so far and that as of last week (around the
1st June) depots all over the country had a total of six thousand metric
tonnes in store. What only six thousand tonnes - can that be right I thought?
Two and then three more times the army man said there were "already
six thousand tonnes in store in GMB depots." A few scribbles on a
bit of paper followed by days of asking lots of people for their opinions,
the result is horrifying. If we assume a population of 12 million people,
allow an average consumption of half a kilogram of maize per person per
day, then we need 6 thousand tonnes of maize a day. So, we have one day's
worth of food in stock in 400 GMB depots.
-
- The absurdity of this nightmare is the
fact that the GMB are actually prepared to give out such horrifying figures
on national television. Don't they think we can all work these numbers
out - even with a stick in the sand in the dusty village. If we don't laugh
we'll cry.
-
- Until next week,
-
- love Cathy.
-
- Copyright Cathy buckle 10 June 2006 http://africantears.netfirms.com
My books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available
from: orders@africabookcentre.com ; www.africabookcentre.com
|