- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- The prolonged effects of trying to survive the highest
inflation in the world are grinding us down. When you ask people how they
are, I mean how they really are, they say they are tired, they can't sleep,
the worries just go round and round and there is no relief in sight.
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- Almost every day the propaganda machine here cranks out
the usual rant and rave about how private companies and businesses are
putting their prices up. The state media say that these people are "sabotaging
the economy" and "fuelling inflation" and they keenly name
names of who has been arrested or fined that day. No sensible or even rational
explanations are given as to how a businessman can stay afloat when he
is ordered by the state to sell goods for a lower price than he paid for
them. Blind adherence to government stipulated prices is dictated and common
sense does not seem to enter into it. The state media says nothing, however,
about the price rises and complete lack of ethics and fair trading in government
organizations and companies. It seems they are exempt from obeying their
own rules
-
- You don't ever post a letter here now without first checking
how much postage rates are. They change - every month! Last month it cost
60 dollars to post a local letter, this month that same stamp costs 100
dollars and no one arrests the Postmaster! (And please remember that you
have to add three zeroes onto every price in order to get the real costs
- before the convenient removal of digits a couple of months ago ) Postage
rates now go up so often that it is very rare to buy a local stamp which
actually has a price printed on it. Local stamps these days just bear the
words: 'Standard Postage.' It is not clear what standard is at hand, so
we just take it to mean 'inflation standard.'
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- Parents all around are already beginning to panic about
how they are going to afford government school fees in January. One friend
I spoke to said his daughters fees at a government school were two and
half thousand dollars this term and were increasing to 15 thousand for
the January term - an increase of six hundred percent.
-
- Then we come to water. In my home town on the same day
that the water bills were hand delivered there was a national news report
on the colour and quality of the water in the area. Actually, to say the
bill is "hand delivered" is a bit silly because in reality the
flimsy bit of paper, not stapled closed or even folded in half, is just
thrown through the gate onto muddy ground! The news report said, yes -
it was true that raw sewerage was flowing into the dam which supplies the
town with water and yes, it was true the pump was also broken. Appropriate
film footage of foul brown slush pouring into our only source of drinking
water and a man kicking the broken pump, illustrated the report. For this
disgusting service there are no apologies or medical assistance, refunds
have not been given and the costs for deteriorating service continues to
go up and not down.
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- Then comes the mess that is called electricity. It is
now not unusual to see factories working at night. They do so, not because
they are working double shifts to keep up with demand, but because at night
there is less chance of machines shutting down in the incessant power cuts.
This week a notice appeared in the state run Herald newspaper advising
people to conserve electricity promising that if they did: "the streets
will be safer with better lighting." Oh Right, you say, what street
lights! In a four kilometre journey in a built up residential area, passing
one church, one hospital, one nursery school, one junior school and scores
of private homes, just six street lights are working. It has been like
this for over a year. Knowing that less than five percent of our street
lights presently work, does not offer much of an incentive to save power.
I am sure the fifty or so families near me who had no electricity for three
days this weeks, feel likewise!
-
- There is good news from Zimbabwe this week. It is raining,
our vegetable gardens are growing and so are the sounds of protest. For
the next fifteen days people are being called on to bang pots and make
noise for a few minutes at exactly 8 pm every night. This week there were
five minute noise protests during the lunch hour in Harare and Bulawayo
and prayer protest gatherings too. Storm clouds are gathering.
-
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- Until next time, thanks for reading,
-
- love cathy.
-
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- Copyright cathy buckle 25 November 2006.
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- My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond
Tears" are both available at: orders@africabookcentre.com Recent letters
can be read at: http:/africantears.netfirms.com
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