- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- As we come towards the end of our rainy season we hear
the news that one in four Zimbabweans are in urgent need of food aid.
-
- We are not surprised.
-
- Since the start of the season 6 months ago, everyone
has been commenting on the dramatic absence of crops on farms. Travel in
any direction, towards any of our country's borders and you see grass,
weeds and derelict farms. The best crops are those planted on roadsides
and little squares of vacant land in urban areas. There has been so little
growing on our farms this season that even before Christmas the farming
organisations were warning that this year was going to be the worst ever
recorded. Now we know that they were right.
-
- The Red Cross are quoted as saying that the hunger situation
in some parts of the country is as bad as they have ever seen it.
-
- Erratic rain, too little rain and too much rain are the
three reasons being publicly given by the Red Cross. They do not, perhaps
dare not, say anything about the fact that on the few farms that were growing
food this season, continuous
-
- invasions by Zanu PF officials and army personnel destroyed
what little production was going on. The few people who were actually trying
to grow food were stopped because their skin is white. They were harassed,
intimidated, threatened, evicted and even arrested. In one shocking case
the Chipinge Magistrate ordering the eviction of farmers was himself lined
up to be a beneficiary of the seized farm. It is almost beyond belief that
for 10 years in a row this has been going on. The greed of a very few highly
placed and already rich people, continues to result in the suffering of
so many.
-
- The continuing lawless situation on the farms is one
of many issues that has not changed or been tackled by the unity government
running Zimbabwe. Every year that it continues, it is getting harder and
harder for anyone to produce anything. Men and women who used to crowd
at the farm gates for jobs have gone. They are scared to work on farms
knowing that at any time an arbitrary bod with a fancy government double
cab or an army uniform might come down the driveway and evict them all.
-
-
- Others won't work on farms because the wages they receive
amount to less than 50 US dollars a month. Even being given a free house,
water and food rations simply isn't enough because there are school fees
to pay, clothes to buy and the basic needs of everyday life. And then there
are the people who don't even try and work but rather wait to be given
handouts.
-
- The beneficiaries of Zimbabwe's land seizures have had
ten years to practice how to grow food. They've had free land, free buildings
and infrastructure, free seed and fertilizer, free tractors and diesel
and yet one in 4 people in the country are hungry. No one is fooled anymore,
not even the most radical of radicals whose silence is leaving people going
to bed hungry tonight.
-
- Until next week, thanks for reading,
-
-
- love cathy
-
-
- Copyright cathy buckle 13 March 2010. <http://www.cathybuckle.com>www.cathybuckle.com
-
- For information or orders of my new book: "INNOCENT
VICTIMS" or previous books "African Tears" and "Beyond
Tears," or to subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write
to:
-
- <mailto:cbuckle@mango.zw>cbuckle@mango.zw
|
