- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- This week has been an exercise in such absurdity that
you wonder how anything at all has functioned - and how we have survived
it.
-
- Monday began with an electricity cut at 7.30 am which
lasted for 7 hours. The power came back on but not for long and we ended
the day after 11 hours of no power. I met a man on Monday with agonising
toothache. He went to have it extracted but the dentist couldn't help -
his surgery had neither electricity nor water.
-
- Tuesday we again spent most of the business day in silence,
going another 10 hours without electricity, and the water pressure dwindled
to a fast drip. There were no street collections of garbage due to no fuel
and a friend phoned and said butchers were complaining their meat was smelling
and going off in the heat. The story resurfaced about the wrong fertilizer
that had been imported by the government from South Africa. 70 000 tonnes
had come in but was found to be too high in some elements and was unsuitable
for use on most soils. Apparently high sulphur levels could reduce yields
or even destroy crops if used on the wrong soil types. The real bone shaker
was yet to come though as the press reported that, oops, the fertilizer
had already been delivered to the GMB for giving out to farmers. Double
oops, as the GMB said they'd already started distributing it across the
country.
-
- Wednesday, could things get worse? Yes. There was no
water at all, not even a slow drip but there was electricity so hey, we
shouldn't be too capitalistic and ask for both services - even though we
pay for them!
-
- Thursday the water came back on but now it smells of
sewage, is the colour of urine, has a thick yellow sediment and oily bubbles
on top. Headline news was of a lavish ceremony with Mr Mugabe giving out
99 year farm leases to 120 new farmers. Some of the beneficiaries include
a high court judge and a chief correspondent on ZBC TV. The caption below
the picture on ZBC TV was: "99 year farm leases very constitutional."
Then followed an interview with some expert or other who said the 99 year
leases were "very very legal." It is not clear if the 120 leases
were for farms where compensation has been paid to farmers for infrastructure
and stolen crops, or to farm workers for loss of livelihood, or to any
of the men, women and children who were subjected to all manner of human
rights abuses ranging from theft to arson, rape, looting, torture and
even murder. It's not funny, very funny or even very very funny, but somehow
we carry on and so we limped into Friday.
-
- Friday word hit my home tome that 20 000 new mobile telephone
lines were available for sale. No one knew if it was the government owned
phone company or the private one doing the selling so there was pandemonium.
At the post office there were riot police trying to get people to calm
down and get in a queue - and all this for the chance to legally buy a
telephone line. How crazy can things get!
-
- It's been a very difficult week for ordinary people in
Zimbabwe and it gets harder and harder to hold things together and keep
pretending to be normal. I end on a note of hope which I saw at Speech
Day at my son's school. Even in such appallingly hard times our schools
take such care and pride to turn out fine, well mannered, caring and clever
young men and women. All credit to these schools and their dedicated staff
who could have fled to easier and greener pastures but haven't because
they have hope and vision. Zimbabwe owes them and other professionals a
great debt. Until next time, love cathy. Copyright cathy buckle 11 November
2006. http:/africantears.netfirms.com My books "African Tears"
and "Beyond Tears" are available from: orders@africabookcentre.com
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