- Dear Family and Friends,
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- When I saw people running down the pavement I knew that
some precious basic commodity must have arrived and that this rush was
the start of the queue. I stepped out of the way so as not to get knocked
down and carried on walking. I was amazed to see people pushing and jostling
to get a place in line to buy the State controlled daily newspaper. This
sudden enthusiasm for a dose of the latest propaganda has apparently got
nothing to do with the government pronouncements but is related to the
chronic national shortage of toilet paper. Not only does the newspaper
double as toilet paper, it is also cheaper with one day's edition of propaganda
costing less than a roll of loo paper.
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- I count myself very lucky that a neighbour hands me down
two second hand independent newspapers every week - not because I want
toilet paper but because these newspapers are now almost impossible to
obtain - even more so than the State controlled ones. When the independent
papers arrive in the town on a Friday morning you've got about half an
hour to get to the roadside vendors before all their copies are sold out
and then its another long week to wait for the next taste of the truth.
To exacerbate this crazy situation, the government's price controllers
recently ordered the Zimbabwe Independent to cut their price from 600 to
150 thousand dollars . This undoubtedly pushes the paper rapidly to the
edge of bankruptcy, even less copies are printed and this means that the
10 or more people reading one carefully handed down newspaper are without
information - and the last one without toilet paper!
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- All is not lost however because we still have Short Wave
Radio Africa and night after night more and more Zimbabweans are sitting
in the dark of the power cuts, using wind up radios and juggling between
the two SW Radio Africa channels - depending on which is being jammed that
night. Here at least people speak freely, not subject to State controls
or even the self censorship we have all made a part of our existence in
order to survive.
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- Its ridiculous to think that we have to listen to a radio
station broadcasting from London to hear news of events in our country
but we do. The reports might be grim, the news depressing and the stories
heartbreaking but at least they are an accurate reflection of everyday
life in Zimbabwe.
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- It doesn't matter what kind of a spin the Zimbabwean
authorities put on their TV and newspaper reports, they are so far from
the glaringly obvious situation on the ground that no one at all believes
them anymore. One outstanding example this week came when the President
was shown on TV news addressing a gathering near Victoria Falls. He told
the audience that he knew people were not getting enough bread but that
they should be patient, not lose faith and trust the Government.
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- What shortage of bread? Surely that should be "what
bread?" It might be selling on the black market for 700 thousand
dollars a loaf but most everyone I know hasn't been able to buy bread for
over three months. Zimbabwe's government has mastered the art of own goals
and forcing us to look outside for real news of events inside is surely
a classic.
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- Until next week, thanks for reading,
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- love, cathy
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- Copyright cathy buckle 24 November 2007.
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- www.cathybuckle.com My books: "African Tears"
and "Beyond Tears" are available in South Africa from: <mailto:books@clarkesbooks.co.za>books@clarkesbooks.co.za
and in the UK from: <mailto:orders@africabookcentre.com>orders@africabookcentre.com
To subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write to: <mailto:cbuckle@mango.zw>cbuckle@mango.zw
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