- Dear Family and Friends,
-
-
- It was a rare occasion this week when the electricity
happened to come back on at the same time as the main 8 pm evening news
on ZBC TV. Normally at this time of the evening the power still hasn't
come back on and we are grinding into the 15th or 16th hour of the day
without electricity. The headline story and accompanying film clip on the
local news was of President Mugabe and his wife at Harare airport preparing
to depart for the EU Africa Summit in Portugal. Ministers, security personnel
and VIP's were lined up on the tarmac and formed a corridor of smiles and
hand shakes and inaudible little comments.
-
- In the same week as our leader and his wife and the official
delegation were heading for Europe, Air Zimbabwe announced that one return
air fare from Harare to London had increased to 804 million Zimbabwe dollars.
To put that price into context is the recently publicised information by
the Teachers Union saying that government school teachers presently earn
an average salary of just 17 million Zimbabwe dollars a month.
-
- The same week that our President flew to Lisbon, a couple
of South African visitors invited me to tea at a local restaurant. I queued
at my local bank but was again limited to how much of my own money I could
withdraw and was allowed to take just five million dollars. Immediately
I spent three million dollars buying one light bulb and one jar of peanut
butter and so with just two million dollars left, I hoped I wasn't paying
for tea. At the restaurant three cups of tea, one waffle and one toasted
sandwich were ordered. The bill came to 7.2 million dollars.
-
- Back in Portugal President Mugabe and his wife didn't
have
-
- any waiting around when they landed. They were ringed
by security men and hurried out of sight to their hotel. Meanwhile at home
in Zimbabwe at least three hundred people stood patiently in a winding
line to buy milk from a bulk tanker. Outside the banks the queues went
into multiple hundreds and outside a virtually empty supermarket an enormous
crowd, uncountable in size, pushed and jostled for a chance to buy a bag
of maize meal. The day before a similar desperate queue had resulted in
riot police, baton sticks to control the crowd and injuries.
-
- This week as our President and his wife dine with 80
other world leaders in Portugal there are still no staple foods to buy
in Zimbabwe's shops. Our schools have just broken up for the Christmas
holidays and the search for food and lines to withdraw pathetically small
amounts of our own money from the banks are getting longer and more desperate
by the day. Roadside vendors are selling pockets of potatoes for 11 million
dollars; if you can afford them, it means a gruelling three days of queuing
at the bank just to put potatoes on the dinner plate. If you are a government
school teacher, they will cost three quarters of your entire monthly salary.
-
- To put these figures into perspective, or perhaps not,
this week the Minister of Finance presented a 7,8 quadrillion dollar budget
for the coming year. None of us have worked out how many zeroes this is
yet and calculators can't help either.
-
- Zimbabweans are facing an extremely hard Christmas this
year but as always we look for hope. Many events are drawing closer and
all hold the opportunity to bring relief to a battered and beaten country.
The summit in Portugal will be followed soon after by the Zanu PF Annual
Congress, then the result of talks in South Africa, then the MDC Annual
Congress and then, in March next year, Parliamentary and Presidential
elections.
-
- I will be taking a short break to draw strength and calculate
the quadrillions but wish all Zimbabweans, friends and supporters of the
country a peaceful and Happy Christmas. I saw the first crimson Flame Lily
of the season in the grass on the roadside this week and it heralds the
end of another year and the start of what must surely be a better time
for us all. Until my next letter in the New Year,
-
-
- with love, cathy.
-
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- Copyright cathy buckle 8 December 2007. <http://www.cathybuckle.com>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
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