Britannia Radio

Zimbabwe - The Little Gem

From Cathy Buckle 

11-28-9

 

Dear Family and Friends,   As you approach the capital city the view is of men and women bent over and digging. Everywhere people are digging holes and dropping pips into the ground as at last the rains have arrived. After so many years of hunger and then a cruel and punishing eighteen months when there was no food to buy in the shops because of chronic misgovernance, we don't take anything for granted anymore.   If there's a place to grow food for a single meal, people are clearing that space.  Within a few metres of railway lines and roads, outside   people's homes and alongside every stream and river bank the land is being turned over. Around cemeteries, next to water and sewage works and even in between and underneath massive electricity pylons, mealie madness has gripped urban Zimbabwe.   Water siltation, soil erosion and environmental protection have gone completely by the wayside and authorities seem not to care as our towns and cities have been turned into a maze of unplanned, un-contoured, hotch potch food growing plots. Scrappy strips of cloth, empty plastic bottles and rusty tin cups and bowls planted atop sticks, demarcate people's plots.   No one, it seems, has any confidence at all in Zimbabwe's ability to grow food on farms again this year. As people scramble desperately to plant on roadside squares, the madness goes on with renewed vigour on farms.   This week we heard, not in the State media but on short wave radio, how farms in Chegutu are under attack by politicians. One farm employing over 1400 people was being forcibly taken over by a senior political player despite High Court Orders and SADC tribunal rulings protecting the farm. On this one single farm 20% of the country's wheat used to be grown. A quick glance at the recent list published in the Zimbabwean newspaper of multiple farm owners within Zanu PF says it all. Included are Ministers, Governors, the Commissioner of   Police, Head of prisons and numerous other senior officials Agriculture has had no choice but to move into urban areas while the farm grabs continue. It has become common to see sunflowers, wheat and sweet potatoes growing on urban roadsides. Outside one new suburb approaching Harare someone has even planted tobacco along the roadside.   Closer into the capital city the filth starts and doesn't stop all the way into the centre of Harare. Streets named after famous Zimbabweans and regional leaders and heroes are a disgusting disgrace. The roads are lined with litter: plastic, glass, tin and paper are everywhere. Great piles of uncollected garbage sit waiting for local authorities to collect -ten months after they took office. Mounds of empty drinks tins, seething with clouds of newly hatched mosquitoes are to be found everywhere, you can almost see the malaria epidemic waiting to happen, not to mention diarrhoea and other water borne diseases.   And then, amidst the dirt and the grime and when you least expect it, you see the little gem that has the ability to raise a smile. Outside State House, in full army camouflage uniform, helmet on his head and holding an AK 47, a young soldier is behaving a bit strangely. He's sort of swaying and nodding his head and for a moment you think he must be sick. His camouflage jacket opens a fraction and then you see it. He's got a shiny iPod clipped into his belt, a little wire crawls up his chest and ends in an earpiece. The protector is listening to music while he stands guard!   I end this week on a note of congratulation and recognition for Jenni Williams and Magadonga Mahlangu who have just been awarded the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award by President Barack Obama. We are so proud of you.   Until next week, thanks for reading,   love cathy   Copyright cathy buckle \www.cathybuckle.com For information on my new book: "INNOCENT VICTIMS" or my previous books, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears," or to subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write to:   \cbuckle@mango.zw