Posted on 01/31/2004 3:17:35 AM PST by Clive
Dear Family and Friends,
Every day I travel 4 kilometres to take my son to school. Sometimes by car and other times by bicycle we go along the road which has become a muddy swamp with more potholes than flat surface as the rainy season progresses.
Richard's junior school is on the outskirts of the town and just beyond it are smallholdings and plots which range in size from 4 to 22 acres. According to our Ministry of Agriculture these are known as peri urban plots and for the last couple of months there has much been much talk about the government of Zimbabwe acquiring peri urban plots to make yet more land available.
The little smallholdings beyond my son's school are already largely owned by black Zimbabweans and from these little pieces of land come fruit, vegetables, chickens, eggs and an array of bagged and bottled home produce. Every day I see these plots and smallholdings and wonder how much longer they will be there as the government just goes on and on with its seizure of land.
This week our parliament pushed through amendments to the land acquisition act. A legal parliamentary committee had clearly stated that the amendments were unconstitutional and urged against their adoption. The rights of Zimbabweans were apparently of no consequence because Zanu PF ignored the recommendations and adopted the amendments anyway. With President Mugabe's signature, the amendments will become law.
One of the amendments says that the government no longer has to serve the land owner with a notice of acquisition, now it just has to state its intention to take the land in the government gazette. The first that the land owner or smallholder will know about the loss of their home, livelihood and land will be when the men arrive at the gate.
This latest amendment to Zimbabwe's land seizures makes the business of both large and small scale food production absolutely pointless to title deed holders. It now makes no difference if you have planted a hundred acre field with tobacco or a ten acre smallholding with fruit trees. Either way there is no guarantee that you will be there in four months or four years time to harvest your crop, so why bother.
A few months ago many traditional communal farmers sat idly under trees because they could not afford to plough their land and plant a crop. Those small farmers said it didn't matter anyway because when they were hungry the international aid agencies would come and feed them.
Those same international aid organisations are now saying that the numbers of people needing food in Zimbabwe has risen from five to seven and a half million - this in a country which only has a population of 11.5 million.
As every season comes to an end and still we are starving, there is always someone else to blame. First it was the whites, then the west, then the banks and now, according to ZBC TV, the fault is with the meteorological department.
This week ZBC reported that new farmers were accusing the Met Dept of giving inaccurate weather forecasts which had resulted in farmers growing the wrong varieties of crops.
The only blame lies with our government. Those same laws that they created to stop white Zimbabweans from growing food, they can use against black farmers and plot holders who do not support them. Until title deeds are again respected under law there will be hunger and hyperinflation in Zimbabwe.
It is easy to apportion blame and even easier to obey your own constitution
Until next week, with love, cathy.
It's not my country that's being turned into a socialist nightmare. Miss Buckle made her bed. Now she can lie in it.
As far as not knowing what it's like...well if you've seen one socialist third world crap heap you've pretty much seen them all.
....go be a hero..
My country has plenty of heros. It's Miss Buckles country that seems to be sorely lacking them. Perhaps it's her that should take your advice.
Best of luck.
L
Yea like that'll happen....right after an entire troop of Howler Monkeys fly out of my butt.
L
Welcome to Free Republic.
Now, regarding this?
you are a moron..i am sorry but you have never encountered the situation she faces daily...i have...i used to live there.
You might want to keep a civil tongue when addressing one of our older members.
We don't know who you are- you may be what you claim.
You may not.
BTW, using instant text message "no caps" is frowned upon in most forums. It makes you appear to be illiterate.
I lobbied to prevent Rhodesia and South Africa from being sacrificed on the altar of Political Correctness, for whatever it's worth. And I lost that battle. Cathy Buckle is a fool not to have already left. Death awaits her. Pity. See tagline...
People like you are usually just a talker. I know your kind. If not you are to instable emotionally to think rationally to make a difference in these kinds of situation. I picture you run behind a stone and hide rather than being a hero. Pathetic.
Then they quite willingly handed over their 'weapons of war' as Mugabe called them, leaving themselves defenseless against what everyone with half a brain knew was coming next.
After that it was the inevitable expropriation of private property to redress some imaginary past grievances invented by this charlatan Mugabe.
I too, lobbied against what happened to Rhodesia and SA but in the end...well we both know what happened.
Now we get to watch Miss Buckle send her pitiable dispatches to the outside world as what is left of hers is taken away bit by miserable bit. At what point do we say "Grow a spine woman. They're going to kill you and your family anyway. Take a few of the bastards with you."
But saying things like that makes me a 'moron'. Real nice, eh?
Honestly backhoe I felt sorry for Cathy for quite a while, but then I thought about it. My ancestors started a revolution against the most powerful government on Earth over a hell of a lot less than what Mugabe is pulling. Maybe that's when I stopped feeling sorry for her.
There would be a lot less tyranny in the world if folks would start popping some of these jerks when they start tossing folks off their land, calling them 'oppressors' etc etc...
You take care now.
L
I quite agree with you. One of the sadder facts of being an old-time activist is looking back upon the events you tried to influence, and failed. It is poor comfort to know you were right, when people end up suffering as you had feared or predicted.
You don't know squat about me pal.
I tell you what's pathetic. Pathetic is standing around crying while your neighbors homes and farms are being destroyed by thugs. That's pathetic.
What's the difference between Mugabes bunch and the looters in New Orleans? Nothing. Not a damned thing.
In New Orleans more than just a few looters caught bullets. In Zim....well they write plaintive letters to the outside world after handing over their weapons like little lambs or they take the cowards way out and kill themselves.
Hell if you're gonna kill yourself you should at least take one or two of your tormentors with you. That's a death with some honor, not swinging from a tree for your family to find you.
Rational? Apparently you wouldn't know rational if it walked up to you, introduced itself, and punched you dead in the face.
L
Where there's a will, there's a way.
There is just no will in Africa.
Some person here has a relative who killed himself rather than stand up to the thugs who destroyed his home. I don't know about you, but I can't for the life of me fathom such a reaction.
If my government sent goon squads onto my property and had them burn down everything I worked for....well I might die but it sure as hell wouldn't be a traditional 'suicide'.
The most maddening part about it is that we've seen this all before. We've seen it happen over and over and over again in just the last 60 years or so.
"Never Again" my ass.... That's become a rude joke if you ask me. For some reason a very large chunk of humanity seems to be stuck on "Again-yes please only harder this time."
Mugabe is going to kill these people. You know it. I know it. And deep in their hearts those people in Zim know it. They're dead folks walking; so why not revolt?
I'll quote Janis Joplin here: When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.
Oh well. Those poor bastards in Zim will continue to do what they've been doing, which is nothing. Mugabe and his thugs will continue doing what they've been doing, which is killing people and taking all their stuff. And it happens because nobody stands up and says "Enough!" and fights back.
Anyway, it's nice chatting with you again backhoe. It's good to see I'm not the only one who gets it. I'd apologize for being so harsh, but I really don't think there's anything I need to apologize for. Zim could be a paradise again if the few decent folks who are left would just grow some backbone and do what needs to be done.
Maybe they just don't love freedom enough.
Pity.
L
thank you for welcoming me to your free republic.
with regards to myself i am from where i say i am, my family had two farms just eighty kilometres north of bulawayo. but i dont have to defend that to you or anyone else and the nightmares there arent to be taken lightly.
if i wasnt literate then i probably wouldnt know how to spell half of what i write.
regards again.
true but blair prob wont do much either which is a shame...
You aren't serious? Do you really think Kofi and his boys are going to come riding in on white horses and save the day?
Please. I have very deep sympathy for what happened to you and is happening to others, but the notion that the UN is ever going to do anything rational about any petty tyrant like Mugabe is just a very sad pipe dream.
That country should have been invaded long ago and Mugabe arrested or shot.
Yes, it is. I understand that they all gave up their guns prior to the land seizures. S. Africa now wants to be gun-free and how long will it be until the land seizures start there? Someone needs to get up on their hind legs and revolt. As you and Janis say, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." I've agreed with that sentiment for years.
Carolyn
I agree. It would stupid for her and her family to go down in a hail of Mugabe's bullets. What does that accomplish?
Are there any African nations with a racist government that are run properly, or are they all just third-world hellholes run by petty black African despots?
Hopefully, there would be a few less thugs left in the world. And the next group of thugs who are told to loot another farm and kill the owners might not be so eager to do it.
But it won't happen. Cathy and the rest of the population of Zim are now sheep for the shearing. The smart ones left a long time ago.
Thanks.
L
Yep.
If they're not going to stand and fight, they'd be better off leaving and organizing a seriously dirty invasion.
The United Nations membership is filled with the same dictators as Mugabe. The United States should have pulled out a long time ago. The building should be fumigated and then torn down.
Just for clarification, I wrote a word about "go around killing people out there".
Making sure that the only firearms are in the hands of government police and military.
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