Zimbabwe -- Cathy Buckle -- Fishing worms and firewood

When I went grocery shopping this week in my little home town of Marondera there was no salt, sugar, cooking oil, mealie meal or milk.

Standing in the supermarket with only the weekly newspapers in my basket there was a sudden shout from the back and I hurriedly got out of the way as a sea of people ran past me to a stock door and pushed and jostled to get to the man who had a trolley load of salt.

In less than 5 minutes the crush was over, the salt was depleted and we went back to staring at the shelves full of things so few of us can afford.

With no sugar or milk, condensed milk is the obvious alternative but the little tin which cost sixty dollars a few months ago is now $187.

But our government and leaders seem completely oblivious to the suffering of their people. They remain absolutely resolute in their determination that the farmers who are still willing and able to grow food will not be allowed to do so.

All week on ZBC television we have been bombarded with government statements about how there is no going back on the land redistribution, how white farmers must get off their land within 45 days and will not be allowed to grow any food.

Yesterday I went on a four hour journey through what used to be one of the most productive farming areas of the country and the view from the window was horrific. There are just miles and miles of nothing to see.

Most of the time it was hard to know just exactly where I was as almost all the road signs have gone, the tin stolen to be made into pots and pans.

In all the little towns on the road the sales yards are crammed full of second hand farm equipment waiting to be auctioned - but there are no buyers.

The signs of neglect and squalor are visible in all the towns with pot holes, litter, shanty flea markets, beggars and street kids being an almost accepted part of the scenery.

The fields which at this time of the year should be bursting with crops of irrigated wheat and winter vegetables are deserted, brown and weed filled.

Fence lines along the road have completely disappeared for dozens of kilometres and everywhere trees have been chopped down by the new settlers for firewood.

A large part of the journey was through smoke filled air and there were few stretches of the road where there was not a fire burning.

It was cause for both exclamation and excitement to see a farm that was still working, to see a 20 hectare square of green wheat being irrigated.

I looked with great interest at all the settlers, squatters and war veterans that are visible from the road but what I saw did not give any cause for hope whatsoever.

As on our Marondera property, Zimbabwe's new farmers are concentrated in camps near the roadside and are living in appalling conditions. Their houses are tatty little shacks covered with thatching grass or old plastic, their complexes are surrounded by felled trees and the men sit around in groups near the edge of the road.

There was no sign of any production at all and small herds of cattle look painfully thin.

On a four hour journey through Zimbabwe's prime agricultural land, the only things on the side of the road available to buy were fishing worms and firewood. One man had half a dozen pockets of sweet potatoes to sell but at Z$100 a kg, he didn't have many takers.

At the end of a long and tiring day I got home to the news that yet another friend had been forced off her farm. Given two hours notice to vacate her house, she lived through that day of hell which has now become commonplace in Zimbabwe.

This morning she and her family are homeless and jobless and their life lies in boxes and cartons on a friends lawn.

The home they built, the lands they tended, the workers they employed are now just memories and I could not find the words to tell yet another white farmer how dreadfully sorry I was for their loss and anguish.

Within months they will leave the country of their birth because they are farmers and know no other way to earn their living. They will have to go somewhere where they are allowed to grow food.

These people need to stand up and Revolt and overthrow their Gov't. or get out. How did they Not see things exactly like this were going to happen? How much longer is it going to be before the US is asked for even more money to fix a problem they created? And how much longer before the American people either don't send our money (yea that will happen, lol) or US forces are sent over to solve this with Conflict?

I feel terrible for the people under the Zimbabwe Gov't. How these IDIOTS think that by taking over fertile ground that is producing food for the people of the region and just to TAKE IT AWAY in an instant and give it back to the people who they think should have it, is going to improve their situation is beyond me. Where in the Blue flame do they think they will now get the food that the Farms were JUST producing. UN-F'N Believable

" These people need to stand up and Revolt and overthrow their Gov't. or get out. How did they Not see things exactly like this were going to happen? How much longer is it going to be before the US is asked for even more money to fix a problem they created? And how much longer before the American people either don't send our money (yea that will happen, lol) or US forces are sent over to solve this with Conflict?"

IT was our government that was the enabler for this disaster!!!! During the Carter and Clinton administrations, a policy to not oppose communist revolutionary movements was blatently undertaken. During the Carter years, it was more important to solve the pressing problems of killer rabbits and during the Clintoon years, it was more pressing to hire easy interns. Seriously though, Jimmy Carter's decimation, with the assistance of the Demosocialist Congress of the time, of our military-intelligence apparatus enabled all of this to happen. Regan and Bush Sr. elected to contain this problem in our own hemisphere. Then comes the Klintoon legacy. Since communism per se was allegedly defeated, Bubba saw no reason to oppose the expansion of "freedom movements" against allegedly tyranical govenments. And in Africa, as a payback to Jesse Jackson and the radical reverse racists of our country, and to satisfy the Eurosocialists who ran the U.N. all opposition to the black dictators who assumed power in South Africa and Zimbabwe was eliminated. Who cares if a half million die? Hell, it's a half world away and it would interfere with the intern pursuit. Plus we know that Rather would only give it 20 seconds during his newscast. Instead of analyzing the true nature of these "liberated" nations and their communist governments, the focus was placed on the oppressive nature of the racist financial world which prevented these corrupt regimes from getting more powerful. The U.S. let this happen. Now our tax dollars will feed the communists as usual. Instead of drawing a line in the sand, Bush is no better than Klintoon or Carter. We will no longer create embargos like those against Cuba. We will simply cowtow to the left, sell out to the U.N., and continue the worldwide socialization and creation of a U.N. government to manage every nation's affairs in the world; including our own country.

I will never understand how an apparently intelligent, literate, seemingly quite nice (white) farmer could find herself in the situation she describes and spend her time writing missives about it while standing in line wishing she could buy a hundred plus dollar can of milk:
INSTEAD OF GETTING THE HELL OUT OF ZIMBABWE!!!

This mess has been building for years, there was ample evidence that it would come to some sort of purge as soon as the initial (liberal) thrill over the demise of Fhodesia wore off.

Same goes for South Africa.
Today the mainstream news would have us believe that SA is the moderate neighbor trying to alleviate Zim's food problems (draught you know..). Tomorrow the news will be ignoring precisely the same kind of horrors there as they prefer to ignore today in Zimbabwe.

First off, that's Zaire$100, not US$100. I don't know the exchange rate, but I suspect that if you walked into the store with a US$5.00 bill they'd probably kiss your feet.

Secondly, the real cue to get out was when the "veterans" imposed gun control. It was obvious to me and many here that the situation would only go downhill from there. We were right, of course, though I doubt many here could have imagined how bad the situation would become; I know I for one couldn't have.

Currency Converter

Live mid-market rates as of 2002.06.30 19:56:25 GMT.

1 ZWD = 0.0181984 USD
1 USD = 54.9500 ZWD

With no sugar or milk, condensed milk is the obvious alternative but the little tin which cost sixty dollars a few months ago is now $187.

187.00 ZWD (Zimbabwe Dollars) = 3.40309 USD (United States Dollars)

One man had half a dozen pockets of sweet potatoes to sell but at Z$100 a kg, he didn't have many takers.

100.00 ZWD (Zimbabwe Dollars) = 1.81984 USD (United States Dollars)

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