Posted on 08/21/2004 5:24:44 PM PDT by Clive
Dear Family and Friends,
I have lost count of the number of meetings, workshops, summits, conferences and gatherings of African leaders that have taken place in the last 54 months.
As each one has come, and gone, our hopes have been raised, and then dashed, that just one leader would publicly speak out about events in Zimbabwe.
Each time I have watched TV coverage of the gatherings and tried to make sense of it from the perspective of an ordinary person.
I have watched the shiny limousines pull up and the impeccably dressed people emerge. I have looked at Africa's leaders and even though I know they are Big Men, I also know that they are ordinary people who have to do exactly the same things as me every day in order to survive.
I have watched the body language as handshakes, kisses and embraces have passed between leaders. I have listened to the speeches, looked at the audience reaction and tried to read between the lines, wondering what really went on behind closed doors.
Judging by the TV coverage, there was something different about the SADC Summit which has just ended in Mauritius. There was the predictable rant at the West and the predictable silence about the crisis in Zimbabwe but there was also the distinct impression that things had gone on behind closed doors, the distinct feeling of democracy being born.
The faces of Africa's leaders who sat at the top table spoke volumes. Most of the faces showed pride, dignity and achievement but one or two did not.
It was a delight to watch gifts being presented to, and accepted by, the two African leaders who are at the end of their terms of presidency and will be handing the governance of their countries on to new blood.
Zimbabwe was one of the 13 African countries representing 212 million people in the SADC region who unanimously ratified common electoral principles and guidelines at the Summit in Mauritius. Among the agreed guidelines are freedom of the press, equal access to the media, judicial independence, upholding civil and political liberties and impartial electoral institutions.
Zimbabwe has parliamentary elections due in just 6 months time and if we are to come remotely near to achieving even one of the SADC electoral principles our government have got a huge amount of changes to make.
It makes me feel giddy to think that I could actually wear an opposition T shirt without being stoned. Or to believe that one of these days I will switch on my TV or radio and hear a member of the opposition speaking about the state of affairs in Zimbabwe.
I can hardly believe that police permission will not be needed to hold a meeting at which politics is discussed.
I cannot imagine how it will feel to be able to buy, read or write for a daily independent newspaper again.
I find feelings of hysteria rising within me to think that a judge might uphold my constitutional rights and that the Zimbabwean police would then enforce the court's rulings.
I think I'll stop here because it all leaves me feeling very light headed.
Until next week, love cathy.
Each time it was to impress foreign leaders, usually to give his fellow African heads of state an excuse to say that the issues have been resolved.
Each time the African heads of state have accepted the undertakings as if they had already been performed.
Each time, Mugabe has broken his undertakings before the ink of his signature had dried.
She's gone off the deep end if you ask me. This sounds like something out of the movie, Brazil.
I hate to say it but I'm starting to wonder how much of her writing is true. If I was a white person in Zimbabwe right now...well, I wouldn't be there, I would have run for my life months ago. She has to be out of her mind if she sees what's going on in Africa right now - and still thinks she should stay there.
Still, if she is making it all up, what could her motivation be? Does anyone have any info on her or know if she is the real deal?
She was a big Mugabe supporter back in the day. She got what she wanted.
People stay when they should go for all sorts of reasons. Up until this last letter their was a consistency, a determination, about her writing, but this last one makes me wonder.
She has lost it.
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