Posted on 09/07/2008 4:40:24 PM PDT by Clive
Dear Family and Friends,
If you come first in a running race, why would you give ninety-nine percent of the gold medal and prize money to the person who came second? The answer is obvious but as each day passes it seems the real winner, and the will of the majority of Zimbabweans is not going to be respected. The people and political party who came second in Zimbabwe's March 29th elections are simply not going to step down and their refusal to accept defeat has sent us into a dizzying collapse out of all control.
The rich are getting much, much richer; the poor are virtually destitute and the middle class has all but disappeared as Zimbabwe moves into trading in US Dollars. No one in government - winners or losers - has said or done anything to stop people charging in US dollars and all control now seems to be lost. For the last few weeks medical specialists have been charging their patients in US dollars. You have to provide hard currency (US dollar bank notes) in order to see a dentist, have an operation, receive the services of an anaesthetist and lately you even need US dollars to buy prescription medicines from pharmacies.
The trend has spread to spare parts for machines and to computer accessories and the more this US dollar trading goes on unchecked and uncontrolled so the pattern spreads. Now even locally produced goods are being charged in US dollars: meat, eggs, potatoes and milk.
As people do their own thing and while there remains a non functional government and non existent authority base, the situation grows worse and worse. We are now in a sudden greedy spiral of US Dollar inflation in Zimbabwe. A pocket of potatoes that was selling for 5 US dollars last week now suddenly costs 8 US dollars. The same is happening to meat prices and to property rentals.
For the vast majority of people who have no access to US dollars, life has become simply unbearable these last few weeks. Pensioners who have no foreign currency and cannot buy life sustaining medicines; people who are sick and in pain but cannot see dentists, specialists or undergo operations. One friend described how she took a desperately sick man with gangrene to a government hospital this week only to be told that they were not accepting any admissions as they simply have no resources : no drugs, linen, food or equipment. After much pleading, long negotiations and under the counter payments of huge amounts of money, the sick man was finally taken in. He had to provide his own bedding and linen, bandages, dressings, medication, drugs and food.
Health for all by the year 2000 has been the the clarion call of Zanu PF since they took power and yet after 28 years this is the state we are in. And still they talk of sharing power?
Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy
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The same thing just happened to me in Philadelphia
Mugabe has set a Thursday deadline for Tsvangirai to cave into his demands (with Mbeki’s connivance no doubt) or he will form a government.
But it was inevitable. You cannot continuously debase the national currency and expect anything different. That currency has to have real value to people or they will just refuse to honor it for everyday transactions. That is what has happened in Zimbabwe and the stage is now set for either starvation or revolution or both. Would anyone be surprised to see stores and hospitals broken into and looted? Better than dying of starvation or from lack of medication. It will happen.
And this while the world looks on and wrings their hands. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable.
When the left destroys a country.... Now the smug self righteous eurotrash and holly wood libs can celebrate
Well there you go.
Try putting those potatoes in a bag and paying for them at the check-out counter.
Putting them in a pocket and trying to steal them is obviously causing an additional charge.
my advice is, if Obama wins, switch to euroes because the dollar won’t be worth sheeeeet
Sarcasm and US elections aside;
We're told that Ms Bickle was a white liberal facilitator of Mugabe's rise and replacement of an Anglo/Boer government with the same tribal dictatorship she now bemoans.
I know that Zimbabwe is a cesspool, I know that NO amount of international handwriting is going to make it all better, and I know that other African states will follow.
Are these frequent missives of despair her idea of penance?
An altogether pathetic and dismal story to say the least. . .There are warnings here for others,of course. (A 'Hello' example: Those who think it would be a 'great' CHANGE for America; if we as citizens give up our power and turn it over to 'the ONE'.)
That said; I see no one coming to the rescue here! What pain and suffering - and sacrifice, the good people of Zimbabwe have had to endure.
The Collected Letters of Cathy Buckle should be required reading for leftists, they believe they will be immune from these policies.
Oh, wait a minute, I just woke up. Boy, that was really a weird dream!
She still seems to be doing alright.
Either productivity continues to decline or those dollars are counterfeit.
The root cause was the government destroying economic productivity, then they started printing money to make up for lost revenue.
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