Zimbabwe -- Cathy Buckle -- Fragility of Hunger

Cathy Buckle Newsletter | July 27, 2002 | Cathy Buckle

[Clive]

Dear Family and Friends,

This morning I got an email from farmers recently evicted from their home detailing their ordeal and all the horrors they have been through at the hands of men who call themselves war veterans and government supporters. Their letter ended with these words: "In the meantime, like many others in Zimbabwe, the workers and their families, my wife and I are all unemployed and have no fixed abode." There are now hundreds of people in exactly this situation in Zimbabwe and unless there is a miracle within the next fortnight, this number will become hundreds of thousands as the government closes down 3000 commercial farms around the country.

There are more and more cases now where farm workers, desperate to secure as much money as they can for the bleak months that inevitably lie ahead, have begun barricading their employers into their houses. Farm workers, often with the assistance of government supporters, threaten violence and refuse to let the farmers and their families out until they are paid enormous sums of retrenchment money.

You can hardly blame them either and have to understand the reality of a country in economic collapse. One man earning one small salary has to support far more than just his wife and children. There is almost always a huge extended family consisting of unemployed brothers and uncles, orphaned children whose parents have died of Aids and friends who have lost their jobs and belongings in the political turmoil of twenty nine months.

This tragic situation is being ignored by our government and is not confined only to farmers and their workers. Everyone is climbing onto the bandwagon. Many house owners now demand rent in US dollars, property and car prices have soared into multi millions and basics like food, clothes and education have become unaffordable for most.

A few days ago, speaking on BBC Radio 4, Bob Geldof said that people were "bored stupid" of seeing images of starving people in Africa. This may be so but I think for me one of the most important lessons I have learned, thanks to war veterans and politicians, is the incredible goodness and kindness of ordinary people.

Last week I wrote about my destitute 84 year old neighbour begging for a loaf of bread. I had him round for tea yesterday and his eyes filled with tears and his hands shook around the first cup of tea with milk and sugar that he'd had for two days. He has not shaved for over a week because he cannot afford shaving cream, soap or even razor blades anymore. When he left I hugged him and could feel his ribs and the fragility of hunger. Many, many people are going to die of hunger in Zimbabwe in the months ahead.

It is not our fault that we have been unable to stop an incredibly powerful government from dragging us into this hell. Many people have been speaking out to try and effect change for 29 months and perhaps now, as things reach rock bottom, many more will begin to put aside their fear and speak out too.

Dozens of people have asked me how they can help Zimbabwe in cash and kind and I hope by next week to have a number of reputable organisations to suggest.

Until next week, with love, cathy

[Clive]

-

[Jonathon Spectre]

Africa is what Africans have made it.

The time to get out was six months ago.

[backhoe]

Those who are skeptical about the horrid conditions in Africa ( largely "not talked about" by the media ) need to look here:

AfricaWatch:

AfricaWatch: for AfricaWatch articles. 

Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register

[harpseal]

Dozens of people have asked me how they can help Zimbabwe in cash and kind and I hope by next week to have a number of reputable organisations to suggest.

The speaking these people need to do comes out of the muzzle of a gun. They can die on their knees or maybe die fighting.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[another cricket]

It is not our fault that we have been unable to stop an incredibly powerful government from dragging us into this hell. Many people have been speaking out to try and effect change for 29 months and perhaps now, as things reach rock bottom, many more will begin to put aside their fear and speak out too.

Your first problem was in not having a big stick of your own. You should have started arming your own army 29 months ago. Instead you negotiated from a position of weakness. This is something that only works when you are dealing with a civilized opponent. Your opponent was not civilized and so you lost.

Your second problem was disunity with many people frantically feeding their neighbors to the sharks in hopes of being spared.

The rest of the world is not going to come to your rescue and fight for you. We have our own problems.

Your options are now three. Get out and live. Stay and die. Stay and stand together and fight with no promise of sure victory.

If you chose to get out there are people who will help you. If you chose to stay and fight there are people who will help you get weapons. If your choose to stay and die we will morn you.

The next move is up to you.

a.cricket

[gcruse]

Who cares? They seem to lack the will to save themselves. Well, the colonial masters are gone. It's do or die.

[ZOOKER]

Dozens of people have asked me how they can help Zimbabwe in cash and kind and I hope by next week to have a number of reputable organisations to suggest.

If Mugabe is using this famine to destroy his opposition (I consider this a certainty),
won't any organization that Kathy Buckle lists in her column be immediately targeted?

To achieve his aims, Mugabe has to control every food source, right? Hope someone is watching any charity Buckle mentions.

[Movemout]

Which would you choose for your family? I could fight and die but I wouldn't want to leave behind a family, exteneded or otherwise.

[Lancey Howard]

Cathy Buckle is a truly amazing individual, and a good writer.
Against all hope she hangs in there, hoping for a miracle.

But asking people to throw their money down the third world toilet that is Zimbabwe is a little bit over the top. Cathy, that toilet has been flushed and it is swirling fast. The only part left is that final gurgle as the sewage disappears down the soil pipe.

[Lancey Howard]

There are more and more cases now where farm workers, desperate to secure as much money as they can for the bleak months that inevitably lie ahead, have begun barricading their employers into their houses. Farm workers, often with the assistance of government supporters, threaten violence and refuse to let the farmers and their families out until they are paid enormous sums of retrenchment money.

You can hardly blame them either and have to understand the reality of a country in economic collapse

Whew!
It is hard to have sympathy for these farmers at this point. The time to flee was two years ago.

[LarryLied]

The speaking these people need to do comes out of the muzzle of a gun. They can die on their knees or maybe die fighting.

Israel just shipped Mugabe $105 million in arms (the entire deal is $1 billion). And Israelis are in country training his thugs how to use them. Fresh from stealing over $12 million in food from starving people in Zambia, "former" Mossad agent Ari Ben-Menashe is on a $400,000 retainer doing PR work for Mugabe and no doubt scouting the terriority for loot. This same scenario has played out in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola. Sell arms to destablize the country, get paid in smuggled diamonds (cheaper diamonds to feed Israel's $12 billion a year diamond industry) and buy, for pennies on the buck, any other resource you can grab from starving, frantic people.

[CDHart]

"But asking people to throw their money down the third world toilet that is Zimbabwe is a little bit over the top."

I agree. They should have gotten out a long time ago. Anything sent now will only enrich Mugabe and his thugs. My husband and I talked about how hard it would be to leave a job or a business, one's home and family. I guess people keep thinking that "it can't happen here." But it can happen anywhere.

Carolyn

[Malesherbes]

Sadly, Zimbabwe is like a canary in a mine - what happens there first, later happens in South Africa. The European population in South Africa is already leaving, and soon there will be a mass exodus. All this is met with silence by the liberal West.

[harpseal]

The problem is my family would be dying anyway in this case. Better Massada than marching meekly to the camp. The illusion of choice and hope is what allowed the Germans to succeed so completely with their death camps. It is, however, merely an illusion.

It is a very sad situation.

[topher]

I know someone who is supposed to return to Zimbabwe. I have a chance tomorrow to try to talk her out of it.

Since she is a White Woman and alone, I give her a 20% to 50% odds of being alive in 5 years (and she is perfectly healthy now).

Any suggestions?

[Clive]

Why is she going back

Is she working for an NGO?

Have you shown her the threads on Zim under *AfricaWatch?

This is like a Jew going back to Germany in 1935.