- Dear Family and Friends,
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- You can sum up the two major events of the past week
in a sentence: diamond suspension: not happening; action on unity government:
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- another deadline, yes another one. Poor Zimbabwe, disappointed
and let down again and sadly we are not surprised about either the blood
diamonds or the blood stained politics.
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- You can't sum up in a few words the present, desperate
situation regarding agriculture. I went on a short journey this week, heading
south east through countryside once alive with agricultural production:
tobacco, maize, fruit, potatoes, cattle and sheep. Now, almost a decade
into land reform, the view is of destruction..
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- Roadside woodlands of indigenous Musasa and Mupfuti (Prince
of Wales' Feathers) trees are being hacked down by Zimbabwe's new farmers.
Instead of ploughed or growing fields, the view is of raw tree stumps overseen
by men in scrappy pole and thatch huts. The tragic irony is that this is
open woodland area and all around there are deserted, unused fields. The
new caretakers of Zimbabwe's
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- countryside have not grown any food to harvest and so
instead they are slashing, burning and destroying yet more land. Even more
ironic is the fact that in the dams visible from the road, there is still
water for irrigating and so drought or a lack of water cannot be blamed
for no production.
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- Further along the journey eastwards there is a Grain
Marketing Board depot. Once thriving, bustling places now the red roofed
building with flags fluttering, has no customers or activity. A single
cream and brown ox, harnessed to a rusty two wheeled cart stands outside
flicking flies off his back. On farms which at this time of year should
be, and used to be, green with tobacco or maize as far as the eye could
see, now there are deserted unploughed fields and a few mud and thatch
huts.
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- Grasslands once crowded with cattle, sheep and even game
animals are now empty. For almost the entire 120 kilometre journey the
roadside fences are gone and handfuls of scrawny cattle with huge horns
graze on the verges. At the railway line which crosses the main road a
faded rusting sign reads: 'Flashlights not working.'
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- Then, between kopjes, comes a single brief glimpse of
a green field - blink and you miss it. The sign- board on the road gives
it away, it is one of last original commercial farmers that has managed
to hold on.
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- In white paint on a rock high up in a kopje someone has
painted the word 'Jesus.' The image sticks in your mind as after a while
you try not to look at the legacy that Zanu PF have given to Zimbabwe and
try not to think about what they have done to our children's heritage.
And you try not to concentrate on how hungry people are going to be or
how the assault on producing farmers continues day after day because of
the colour of their skin.
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- Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy. Copyright
cathy buckle 7th November 2009.
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- www.cathybuckle.com
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- 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:
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- cbuckle@mango.zw
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