- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- Zimbabwe acquired 69 new buses this week. The arrival
of the buses made headline news on Zimbabwe's radio and television stations
on Thursday 7th July 2005. For the first twenty six minutes of the main
hour long news bulletin on Thursday evening, the only story was the 69
buses. Video footage showed a line of parked shiny blue and yellow buses
stretching as far as the eye could see. This was followed by a string of
interviews with prospective passengers either standing next to or seated
in a stationary bus.
-
- At one point the glories of the shiny, blue and yellow
buses were contrasted with a parking lot full of stranded, dusty country
buses - stranded because of the now dire shortage of fuel across the
country.
The absurdity of reporting on new buses arriving when almost the entire
country has come to a standstill this week, was striking.
-
- Thirty sevenminutes into the same evening news bulletin,
Zimbabwe television reported on the 4 bombs that had devastated London
on Thursday morning. In less than two minutes ZBC TV told the entire story
of the London horror. They then moved on to explain, yet again, why our
government was still breaking down peoples homes in mid winter in their
drive to restore order. Millions of Zimbabweans, literally, have
experienced
terror at first hand in our country in the last five years, and we offer
our love, support and prayers to the victims and families of the horrific
bombs in London.
-
- Watching some of the film footage of thousands of people
walking out of London on Thursday was strikingly similar to scenes in
Zimbabwe
this week. An eerie silence has descended across Zimbabwe as we are now
a country completely crippled without fuel. We wake up to silence as people
walk to work, rush hours are non existent and literally hundreds of people
line the roads desperate for lifts. Stocks in shops are dwindling and
businesses
are barely ticking over as there are fewer and fewer customers able to
travel. One friend told me this week that sales in their normally busy
business had dropped by 40 percent in the last five days. The reality of
a country coming to a dry and grinding halt does make the story of the
69 buses rather ludicrous doesn't it?
-
- I will end this week on the latest absurdity to come
out of Zimbabwe and I quote from the government owned press:
-
- "Harare City Council has rescinded all land sale
agreements made between 1998 and this year and is now reselling the land
at market rates to the same buyers, where necessary," the official
Herald newspaper reported, citing Harare Town Clerk Nomutsa Chideya.
-
- When things can't get much worse, the silliest things
cause great hilarity. How about this gem doing the rounds:
-
- "The new Barbie doll on the market comes with: no
shoes, no clothes, no make up, no car, no food, no house and no farm. It's
called... Zimbarbie"
-
- Until next week, with love,
cathy.
-
- Copyright cathy buckle 9th July 2005.
http://africantears.netfirms.com
-
- My books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African
Tears"
and "Beyond Tears" are available from:
- orders@africabookcentre.com
- www.africabookcentre.com
- www.amazon.co.uk
-
- in Australia and New Zealand:
- johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au
-
- Africa:
- www.exclusivebooks.com
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