- Dear Family and Friends,
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- This week the world watched how bad behaviour on a reality
TV programme in the UK became international headlines. Diplomatically
described as "alleged racist bullying" by women celebrities on
a Big Brother TV series, the story ran as top world news for four days.
People held protests and burnt banners in India, the British Prime Minister
had to answer questions in the House of Commons and viewers of the TV programme
increased from 1,7 to almost 6 million people in four days.
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- In Zimbabwe, while this was happening, reality was also
on display; not on TV with histrionics, not with make up and nail varnish,
but just the grim, grinding reality of everyday events that the world seems
to have turned its back on.
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- Long before dawn I received a phone call with the news
that an elderly man had died. For the family the pain and grief of the
loss was almost immediately swamped with the horrific reality attached
to dying in Zimbabwe in January 2007. Doctors have been on strike for over
a month and hospital mortuaries are overflowing. The body of the deceased
had to be moved, immediately. Petrol has increased in price from 2900 zim
dollars a litre on Monday to 3400 dollars a litre by Friday. It was going
to cost a whole month's pension for the new widow to have her late husbands
body moved the few kilometres to the funeral home.
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- None of the man's family are left in Zimbabwe. The request
was made for a cremation so that the ashes could be later given to the
family. Cremations are undertaken in Harare but there is no gas in the
country for the ovens.It may be three weeks, at the very least, before
a cremation could be done. For each single day that the body was kept at
the funeral home the widow would be charged half of her entire monthly
pension.
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- A wood fuelled cremation could be done but only in Mutare,
a town 180 kilometres away. The funeral home wanted 700 000 dollars to
transport the body - the same as two and half years of the woman's pension.
The quoted cost for the cremation, including the transport, was the same
as five years of the widow's pension.
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- A simple burial in a local cemetery in the least expensive
coffin now costs 400 000 dollars. This is the same as six months salary
for one of the doctors presently on strike.
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- Young and old, professionals and workers - we are all
alike in this horrible reality of Zimbabwe - we cannot afford to live or
to die here.
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- This is reality in Zimbabwe. Not reality TV, not a game
show, just grim, sickening reality. We are a country that needs and deserves
the world's attention. Is anyone watching?
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- Until next week, thanks for reading,
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- love cathy.
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- Copyright cathy buckle 20 January 2007 http://africantears.netfirms.com
My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available
from orders@africabookcentre.com
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- To subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write
to: cbuckle@mango.zw
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