- Standing outside over yet another smoky fire late one
afternoon this week, a Go-Away bird chastised me from a nearby tree. I'm
sure this Grey Lourie is as fed up of me intruding into its territory as
I am of being there - trying to get a hot meal for supper. For five of
the last six days the electricity has gone off before 5 in the morning
and only come back 16 or 17 hours later a little before midnight. "Go
Away! Go Away!" the Grey Lourie called out repeatedly as my eyes streamed
from the smoke and I stirred my little pot. My hair and clothes stink of
smoke, fingers are yellow and sooty but this is what we've all been reduced
to in Zimbabwe. Our government don't talk about the power cuts anymore
and don't even try and feed us with lame excuses about how the power is
being used to irrigate non-existent crops. We all know it's not true and
the proof is there in the empty fields for all to see.
-
- Something else our government aren't talking about anymore
is the nationwide non availability of bread and the empty shops in all
our towns and cities. Everywhere you go people are struggling almost beyond
description to try and survive and yet the country's MP's, both from the
ruling party and the opposition, do nothing to put an end to this time
of horror. I have lost count of how many weeks this has been going on
for but it must be around three months. None of the basics needed for daily
survival are available to buy. There is no flour to bake with, no pasta,
rice, lentils, dried beans or canned goods. People everywhere are hungry,
not for luxuries like biscuits or snack food but for the staples that
fill your stomach. When you ask people nowadays how they are coping, mostly
they say that they are not, they say they are hungry, tired and have little
energy. This is a national crisis almost beyond description and people
say they are alive only because of " the hand of God."
-
- This week as Monks and then ordinary people in Burma
took to the streets in their thousands calling out 'Democracy, Democracy'
in the face of the police and soldiers, we can't help but wonder why something
similar does not happen here. The chant could be shorter and even simpler
than in Burma and it could just be: 'Food, food,' but without leadership
it seems as elusive as ever.
-
- I end with a story about a man who is epileptic and visited
the local government hospital for his regular check-up this week. It took
four hours before he was seen by a nurse who scribbled in his book that
this was a known case and that the hospital pharmacy should dispense his
prescription of 90 phenobarb tablets at no charge - as they usually do.
This major provincial government hospital had no phenobarb however so the
man went to the biggest and busiest pharmacy in the town. They said the
phenobarb would cost 1.2 million dollars - this is ten times more than
the man's government stipulated minimum monthly wage. I offered to help
and took the prescription to another pharmacy. The exact same tablets cost
250 thousand dollars - nearly five times cheaper. When I gave them to the
man, his eyes shone with tears and he thanked me - 'I thought I would have
to die' he said.
-
- What a way to live, and to die.
-
- Until next week, thanks for reading,
-
- love cathy.
-
-
- Copyright cathy buckle 29 Sept 2007. <http://www.cathybuckle.com>www.cathybuckle.com
My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available
in South Africa from: <mailto:books@clarkesbooks.co.za>books@clarkesbooks.co.za
and in the UK from <mailto:orders@africabookcentre.com>orders@africabookcentre.com
To subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write to: <mailto:cbuckle@mango.zw>cbuckle@mango.zw
|