http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/cathybuckle/ en-us Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:18:43 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2104186/posts Hope Saturday 20th September 2008 Dear Family and Friends, On the evening of the 15th September 2008 I sat outside as dusk fell over Zimbabwe and I could almost hear a sigh of relief rising up from our broken country. It had been a day of such high expectation and with so much emotion that sitting quietly as the sun fell and the stars rose was necessary for the soul, to take it all in and to look back, and forwards. The "Zimbabwe Situation," as our collapse is called, started at different times for different people. For me it began... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2104186/posts#comment Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:18:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2076945/posts 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... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2076945/posts#comment Sun, 7 Sep 2008 23:40:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2063244/posts Dear Family and Friends, The will of the people. It is impossible to believe that 140 days after Zimbabwe voted for an MDC Parliament and an MDC President the will of the people has yet to be accepted or implemented. After nearly five months we remain locked in a truly horrible state without sworn in legislators, without a parliament and without legitimacy. Everything around us is falling apart so fast now and yet the people and party in power for the last twenty eight years simply refuse to go. The electricity is now off more than on - in my... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2063244/posts#comment Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:43:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2059025/posts Dear Family and Friends, Coming into Zimbabwe by road from South Africa is an experience not to be missed - for all the right and all the wrong reasons! As you approach Musina, the last South African town before the border with Zimbabwe, you are struck with a feeling of being in a place of great majesty and ancient history. Giant Baobab trees stand dramatically in the dry, scratchy scrub land. It's hard to take in their massive and strangely upside down appearance. They are leafless as summer approaches and you are left wondering if some great hand from above... Letters written by Cathy Buckl http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2059025/posts#comment Sat, 9 Aug 2008 13:53:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2041299/posts Dear Family and Friends, It is now clear that the will of the Zimbabwean people as expressed in the March 29th elections has been ignored and, as a result we find ourselves in the deepest crisis. Hundreds of people: men, women and children have started arriving at foreign embassies in Harare, begging for temporary refuge and humanitarian assistance. First it was the South African embassy, then the American embassy: crowds of people who are cold, tired, homeless, hungry and frightened and who have nowhere else to go and no one to turn to. They don't shout, scream, protest and demand,... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2041299/posts#comment Sun, 6 Jul 2008 01:51:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2031298/posts Dear Family and Friends, Every time the man insulted and complained in his ugly, raised voice, I could feel droplets of his spit on my neck. He was standing so close behind me that I felt distinctly uncomfortable. There must have been about twenty of us waiting in the queue at the supermarket but no one commented or said a word about the abusive tirade. The owners of this sort of behaviour are well known to us all and to stay safe we stay quiet. "Hey Manager," he shouted, "someone send for the manager. Why must I wait like this?... Letters from Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2031298/posts#comment Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:51:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2020865/posts Which way now? Saturday 24th may 2008Dear Family and Friends, They say that a picture speaks a thousand words and if that is true then a deafening roar filled the African sky this week. We have seen images so dreadful that they are haunting our thoughts and are etched into our memories. From The Zimbabwean newspaper comes the picture of a victim of political violence. A 22 year old woman beaten so badly that her buttocks have been reduced to cavernous holes." A mess of raw flesh" is the description used by Peter Oborne, the shocked writer who met Memory,... Letters from Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2020865/posts#comment Sat, 24 May 2008 22:31:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1690776/posts Dear Family and Friends, This week I write about peculiar and mixed messages. This is very similar to what our lives have become here - disjointed, fragmented, confusing and almost always with nothing guaranteed. Everyone thought there would be an extension to the 21 days given by the Reserve Bank to hand in old currency and convert to the new money - that isn't really money and has been pruned of three digits. It seems we Zimbabweans haven't learnt a thing though, least of all the lesson that what we most expect is that which is least likely to happen.... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1690776/posts#comment Sun, 27 Aug 2006 13:17:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1698609/posts Dear Family and Friends, I think that like most people I have an intense love hate relationship with Zimbabwe these days. It seems you have to go through all manner of hardships and horrors in order to truly be able to call yourself a Zimbabwean. These are Zimbabwe's rites of passage and they are not for the feint hearted. Land seizures; cancellation of title deeds; state acquisition of personal property and equipment; being removed from the voters roll; being called an 'alien' in the country of your birth and residence; having your own money seized from you by the state;... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1698609/posts#comment Sun, 10 Sep 2006 00:07:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1703095/posts Dear Family and Friends, On Friday morning, escorted by uniformed police, two young girls carried a banner through the Marondera town centre which proclaimed: "Protect Life On Earth." Behind them marched the Prison band in spotless bottle green uniforms with shining gold buttons and all carrying gleaming musical instruments. Behind the band came dozens of drum majorettes, young girls in bright and colourful uniforms. At the rear of the procession, which had bought the town to a standstill, were more police and an ambulance. There were reporters and ZBC TV camera men and on the Green tents had been erected,... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1703095/posts#comment Sun, 17 Sep 2006 16:45:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1683264/posts Dear Family and Friends, Two weeks into the change of Zimbabwe's currency and there is no shortage of horror stories about some of the things that have gone on. Stories of people being dehumanized at road blocks - ordered to strip and then being subjected to indecent searches in the hunt for concealed currency. Stories of multiple billions of dollars being seized, of mourners being ordered to open coffins and of huge bribes being demanded and given, to bypass the regulations and get old currency back into the banking system. The banks are full to bursting with depositors, the lines... Letters from Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1683264/posts#comment Mon, 14 Aug 2006 11:34:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562632/posts Dear Family and Friends, A friend recently sent an email describing how activists manage to cope in circumstances where fear, stress, insecurity and unrest continue for long periods of time. Determination, principle and routine, seem to be about the most important factors to consider. As the situation in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate, more and more activists seem to be falling silent or just disappearing from sight. The recent split of the MDC has left most Zimbabweans feeling alone, betrayed and desperate about how to cope and which way to turn. It is now very difficult to keep depression and despair... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562632/posts#comment Sun, 22 Jan 2006 09:44:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1511642/posts Dear Family and Friends, A friend of mine recently had occasion to visit a commercial farm that had been seized by the government for re-distribution. Just five years ago every acre of the farm had been involved in intensive agricultural production. Eggs, tobacco, beef, maize and mutton had come off this land every year. Over 50 men had been employed on this farm less than five years ago and these men, with their wives, children and extended families had lived and thrived on this property. And now, my friend who visited this farm recently, said that what he had seen... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1511642/posts#comment Sat, 29 Oct 2005 17:15:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1463177/posts Dear Family and Friends, In a report this week the Washington based Centre for Global Development said that the purchasing power of the average Zimbabwean had plunged to levels that prevailed over 50 years ago in 1953. The CGD, which tracks economic and developmental trends, said that gains made by Zimbabwe over the past five decades had been wiped away in the last six years. The CGD said that the scale and speed of income decline in Zimbabwe was greater than that seen during recent conflicts in the Ivory Coast, the DR Congo and Sierra Leone. These are chilling figures... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1463177/posts#comment Sun, 14 Aug 2005 17:02:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1413406/posts Are Zimbabwean thug Robert Mugabe's increasingly brutal crackdowns on virtually every segment of society leading the country toward inevitable civil war? In a race against North Korea to claim the world's biggest basketcase title, the government recently attacked poor citydwellers and announced plans to nationalize all farmland, abolishing private land ownership. The Radio Equalizer http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1413406/posts#comment Tue, 31 May 2005 00:04:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1196505/posts 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... Letters written by Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1196505/posts#comment Sun, 22 Aug 2004 00:24:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1140678/posts Dear Family and Friends, Most days when I watch the main evening news on television, I wonder if the news writers live in the same country as me. The Zimbabwe that they describe is worlds apart from the country that I wake up in every morning. For the last couple of weeks we have been bombarded with propaganda which tells us that the country is booming, the economy is on the mend, a bumper harvest is being reaped and inflation is plummeting. The Zimbabwe government's figures say that inflation dropped by 78% in the last month. In the same week... Lettere from Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1140678/posts#comment Sun, 23 May 2004 10:52:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1106185/posts Dear Family and Friends, The propaganda in Zimbabwe has reached new boundaries in the last fortnight. First it was the mercenaries and their bolt cutters that made headline news every night and still appear on virtually every television bulletin. Now it is the BBC documentary on Zimbabwe's youth training camps. Day after day ZBC have vehemently denied any wrong doing in Zimbabwe's youth training programme. They deny the allegations exposed in the film, deny rape, instruction in torture, human rights violations and victimization of supporters of the political opposition. Unbelievably this week, ZBC even flighted the entire BBC documentary here... Letters from Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1106185/posts#comment Sat, 27 Mar 2004 14:33:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1087289/posts Dear Family and Friends, The end of February marks the end of Zimbabwe's fourth year of chaos, and it is a month which will always be remembered as the time when the madness began. For exactly four years I have been writing this weekly letter from Zimbabwe and on this anniversary I thought it would be appropriate to take a few sentences from my letters in each of Zimbabwe's first four February's in the 21st century to show that it is political power and not race or land that took us from breadbasket to begging bowl. Shortly after the referendum... Letters from Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1087289/posts#comment Sat, 28 Feb 2004 13:00:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1068876/posts 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... Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1068876/posts#comment Sat, 31 Jan 2004 11:17:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/941701/posts If a man comes up to you in the street and asks you for your wallet, do you beg him to take your cellphone too? Do you strip off your clothes and shoes and give them to him and then lie down on the tarmac and say: “Oh please, here are my house keys, this is my address, go and clean out everything else I own too?” No I haven’t gone mad, but I begin to think Zimbabwe has, because this is exactly what we are allowing our government to do and have been for the last three years and... The Daily News (Zimbabwe) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/941701/posts#comment Mon, 7 Jul 2003 16:59:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/909044/posts Dear Family and Friends, It was with deep shock and disgust that Zimbabwe learned this week that our police commissioner Augustine Chihuri has been appointed the Honorary Vice President of Interpol. The double standards shown by European countries to the horrific state of our daily lives in Zimbabwe leaves me just spitting with rage. One minute they describe us as being in the grip of a "brutal regime" and back this up with graphic reports of police attaching electrodes to mens' testicles, and the next minute they confer awards on the Police Commissioner. A police spokesman in Harare said the... Letters from Cathy Buckle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/909044/posts#comment Sat, 10 May 2003 10:15:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/845815/posts Who will be controlling our economy when crisis is over? 2/18/2003 7:03:43 AM (GMT +2) By Cathy Buckle When I was a little girl growing up and desperate for any excuse not to go to school, my parents would tell me that I could only stay at home if it snowed. In Zimbabwe, day after day throughout winter I looked up at the skies for snow but it never came. I wish I was still a little girl looking for snow because there is no shortage of it in Zimbabwe at the moment and I think I’d be off school... Daily News (Zim) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/845815/posts#comment Tue, 18 Feb 2003 11:46:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/776668/posts Zimbabwe - Starving To Death From Cathy Buckle cbuckle@zol.co.zw> 10-26-2 Dear Family and Friends, I have watched international news coverage recently of horrors going on in other parts of the world to try and put the crisis in Zimbabwe into perspective. Maybe it's because I'm a woman or maybe it's because I'm getting older, but lots of things reduce me to tears these days. The night club bombing in Bali, the sniper in Washington and the rebel taekover of a Russian theatre have all caused much despair in my heart. When you see ordinary people losing everything that they treasure... Africantears.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/776668/posts#comment Sun, 27 Oct 2002 10:00:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/719458/posts Dear Family and Friends, In less than 3 weeks time 3000 commercial farmers will be forced to leave their properties on the orders of the Zimbabwe government. 3000 men and women who are still willing and able to grow food for the nation will no longer be able to do so. In a desperate attempt to prevent this disaster, the leaders of the Commercial Farmers Union held a Press Briefing a few days ago. Farming President Colin Cloete said: "We appeal to our State President for an audience." This urgent plea for dialogue where Cloete hoped to beg the government... Cathy Buckle Newsletter http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/719458/posts#comment Sat, 20 Jul 2002 14:10:49 GMT