Sunday, January 27, 2008

 

Gone to the Diaspora

Dear Family and Friends,
Only once in the last seven days has there been electricity, water and telephone services at the same time and that was for less than two hours one afternoon. In the past week electricity has been off for 18 hours a day, every day, and water cuts last for days at a time. This is now the norm of life as everything is approaching, or has already reached, a state of complete collapse. All attempts at normal day to day functioning are virtually impossible.
This week I had a first hand encounter with the precarious state of Zimbabwe's health delivery system and it made me very aware of why we have the lowest life expectancy in the world. My body had been aching for two days and I was racked with fever: dripping with sweat one minute and shaking with uncontrollable cold the next. I knew I needed help and was fortunate to be able to see a doctor - this is a luxury most Zimbabweans rarely have. The first sign of abnormality came after the blood test when the doctor apologised for not providing a plaster - something so simple but
now unobtainable. It was an insignificant inconvenience. Far worse lay ahead. There are four pharmacies in the town and none had the common drug that had been prescribed to treat malaria. An alternative drug was proposed but none of the hemists had this one either. Malaria: so common, so deadly, no drugs for treatment - this was chilling.
My next stop was the hospital, by now I was weak and disorientated and had only got this far thanks to the help of a friend with a car - another rare luxury unavailable to most. Only four patients occupied beds: few can afford the hundreds of millions of dollars needed per night. The hospital also didn't have the prescribed malaria drug, or the alternative that I needed. Finally a course of injections was made available but only if I could pay cash upfront for the vials so the hospital could immediately try and replace them. How many others before me had been down this road and not been so lucky?
Over the next five days I visited the hospital every morning for another precious injection. For three days and nights the hospital had no running water at all. When the doctor did his rounds, nurses trickled water from a jug over his hands after he had examined each patient. A local farmer had helped and provided a bowser of water but this was being carried in, by the bucket load, to flush toilets, clean human waste, wash dishes and equipment and sponge down patients. The hospital, like the rest of the town, was only getting electricity in the middle of the night; water was being boiled outside on open wood fires. A generator was dealing with emergencies, the cost of running it phenomenal.

Every day I felt so privileged to be receiving treatment from nurses working under such appalling conditions. They have left home without a hot meal or cup of tea in the morning. They will return home to carry water from wells, cook outside on open fires and prepare for another day of much the same. And yet always they were polite, professional, helpful and gentle.
On my last day I asked the nurse when she would have time off - I seemed to have seen her there every day. She told me they were short staffed because so many nurses had gone. "Gone to the Diaspora," she said.
"To Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, South Africa, Botswana - anywhere." I asked the nurse what made her stay and she said it was very hard to go. As hard as it to stay.

Until next time, thanks for reading,
love cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle 26 January 2008 www.cathybuckle.com My books:
"African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available in South Africa from:
books@clarkesbooks.co.za and in the UK from:
orders@africabookcentre.com
To subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write to:
cbuckle@mango.zw

Labels: ,


Comments:
I love the way Cathy writes. It would be so easy to rail against the government, become racist, make up funny nicknames for politicians. She can get the crisis across without stooping to those tactics that turn a lot of people off. She is a true gentlewoman.
 
But no one is listening.
 
I call it African Apathy.....Africans are too tolerant. How can you watch a country, once the gem of Africa, self-destruct?
 
"But no one is listening."

Therein lies the rub.
Maybe that's why some people come across as raving racists.
At least they get a response, albeit a negative one.
Any publicity is better than none, the saying goes.
It's not easy.
 
Whether she's a true gentlewomen and she tries to get the message across in a nice way it is not preventing her and millions of others from being screwed over by the savagery of a syphilitic knucklehead. You cannot use "silk gloves" with these bastards. You have to call a spade a spade if you wanna be heard even if it means using "those tactics" that, in fact, turn off only the demented liberals.

For once I have to agree with the Tzarval... if that is what he meant in his statement...
 
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 
What Mugabe is doing is madness. But who will stop him to do this things?
 
I think what Cathy does is the best way to tackle this. If you lower youself to being a "raving racist" you drive people away, and people justify what is happening to you as just deserts. No one wants to be associated with the KKK, AWB, Boere or Nazis. It makes it very hard to sell your cause if you're a drooling, knee-jerk reactionary.
 
Inkonikoni: Do you think the nick-names that racists give to politicians are "funny"?
It always amuses me when they point fingers at blacks, as murderers, criminals, savages, sub-human. How quickly they forget the horrors brought forth by white men. Compared to white men, and Daughter of the Wolf's people, these bad African leaders are rank amateurs.
Let's compare Mugabe's Matabele slaughter with Adolf Hitler's millions, or Stalin's millions.
 
Amadeus, I meant that no one is listening to either of you. As far as the west is concerned, you're old news. For the east you are a resource.
 
To Machet Don't bring my people into this. Yes, they killed and stuff, so what? That is the way we are.
 
No Machette, I don't find the names "funny" but they seem to think they are.
I think it is very disingenuous to say that whites are any worse than blacks at the whole slaughter thing. Your written records don't go back beyond the 1800. Genghis Kahn was doing his killing in the 1200s. So basically no one knows.
 
Am I the only one that thinks this very literate woman is also insane? FFS get a grip Cathy, at the very least stop apologising for Africans being Africans. They are a pre-modernistic society, and have not yet found the "missing link" which will allow them to compete on equal footing with the rest of the world. (some people claim they might even be the missing link ;-)
 
machette is a very apt nickname...

don't you think june bug??


and TzarVal I guess you are bloody right, I should pay you more attention...genuine!
 
Daughter of the Wolf, I like your thinking but the rest of the western world doesn't like killing too much. It has been sanitised so that even child raping cannibalistic serial killers are pitied and said to be "sick".
 
Attila
Yes you probably are the only one who thinks Cathy is crazy. I admit i haven't read every word she's ever written but nowhere have I seen her apologise for Africans being Africans.
 
Tsar, I like your "take no prisoners" thoughts. I think that is why Western Europe is sinking. "If you become soft, a harder man will come along and take everything you've got."
Maybe this also applies in Africa. The blacks were losers. The whites came and took what they had. The whites became soft. Now the blacks are taking it back.
 
This comment has been removed by the author.
 
Attilathehun: I hate to be the one to point this out, but the foam at the mouth racists aren't achieving anything either.
Amadeus, yes it is a good name. What is it about Africa and machettes? First bit of trouble and out they come, like in Kenya.
Anon: "I call it African Apathy.....Africans are too tolerant. How can you watch a country, once the gem of Africa, self-destruct?"
Do you think that is what Cathy is doing? I don't. I think she's an incredibly brave woman who gets her message out to the world without placing herself or her family in any danger. The way she writes allows people to agree with her and be associated with her.
 
I love the way Cathy writes too, but I also like Mein Kampf, literacy and a way with words is not prerequisite for reflecting reality. June--calling me a racist is not the insult you've been brainwashed to believe it is. It merely reflects the fact that you are unwilling to even consider the possibility that the races are different (you are in fact narrow minded ;-). You do however think that some need upliftment and "affirmative action". That is a total contradiction. If we were all the same, surely we are all equally capable of achieving. By the by, where do you draw the line? Just by acknowledging the existence of race, you are in fact being a racist.

If you acknowledge the fact that we are all different (note: I made no mention of SUPERIORITY) then you have to admit that some are better equipped to deal with a modern world. After all, that is basically what an iq test does. It measures your capability in the world we all have to live in. Now if you have a background that starts in a mudhut, you have a severe handicap, one unlikely to be overcome. Being emotional and saying "Ag shame" is not going to change a damn thing. Africans have not evolved to the point where they can be trusted to govern themselves. There are simply just not enough good African leaders to overcome the handicap. The world can not afford a resource like Africa to be ruined by incompetence and greed. This planet is for all of us, and the fittest and best equipped should manage it (note-manage,not rule)--I dont care if they are Arab, Chinese, Russians or fucking Bushmen from the Kalahari. What has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt is that Africans are not capable of doing it. NEITHER ARE AMERICANS or stupid Dutchmen in Benoni. This bullshit AFrica for Africans and Europe for Europeans and America for Americans is all a load of crap-- We need universal birth control, Global resource control and a qualified franchise for all under a world government--with serious teeth. The first to go should be the USA--biggest warmongers in recorded history. Balances of trade scrapped, in fact Nationalism in all forms banned.--You vote for world government representatives based on qualifications for the job. And while I'm on this rant, lets kill all the friggin politicians too. NO JUNE--I'm not a racist, I hate most stupid people equally. I am however not for letting ignorant cu?#s like Jacob Zuma be put in charge of the destiny of a nation of 50 million people. Any system that allows that HAS to be wrong.
 
Attila: I fully agree with you. We are not all created equal. Some people are at a disadvantage. Just like you would be if you were dropped in the middle of Mongolia, you woul die. Daughter of the Wolf's people survive there and that is a something like an IQ test. IQ tests are very eurocentric, and don't actually measure the ability to adapt or lead or how honest someone is.
I am quite well aware of the disadvantages of being born in a mud hut. But even you have to admit that not all blacks have been born in mud huts and even those who do can go on to be great people. I wonder if you were born in a mud hut how far you would get.
I in fact do acknowledge the difference in people, and even celebrate it.
Calling people names and making snide remarks about them being the missing link is just immature.
I like your idea of a world government and a I agree that democracy is not the answer.
I don't think you'll find many people on this blog who would disagree that America is the world's largest warmonger.
However there are many decent, hard working and educated blacks in Africa. How do you think they should be part of your uber-world?
 
Attila, right on! Power to the strong.
 
In the world Attila comes from the "man from Benoni" would be in charge of that kaffirs. It wouldn't matter if those kaffirs could have been scientists, doctors, priests, tribal elders, fathers, grandfathers, anyone with a black skin. They would all be his slaves.
Zuma is the best thing for South Africa. He will take what is ours and give it back to us. And all you whities can fuck off back to Europe or die.
 
Machette-thanks for proving my point--being a kaffir is more a reflection of your mindset than an indication of race--I know many "white" kaffirs, some even from Benoni and a bunch from Sandton, your litlle kneejerk branded you one as well. June, you are still being a closet racist. If you read my post carefully, you will notice I dont care who "manages" the world. The decent hardworking "black" has as much chance as an Eskimo, Jew, Mongolian or dutchman to be a manager. However, remove the trappings, power, priviledge of being a "ruler" from the position. Since time immemorial there have been "good" people who wanted to make the world a better place. The problem is that power corrupts, insidiously and completely. It does'nt help that any debate always seems to descend into ad-hominem attacks. Maybe the base nature of mankind is a part of the problem.
 
Au Baas Attila, it is truely wonderous that you are being so generous to us mud hut people... now that you're feeling the heat.
 
Democracy like we know today can not work in place like Africa, mideast, Russia and China. There must be orthority or no one can make things work.
 
Mshi said (Jan 29)...

The whites became soft. Now the blacks are taking it back.

I disagree: the blacks are not taking anything back, they are fu##ing everything up.


Morover it is deceitful to say the blacks are "taking it back". Vast parts of africa were not their native land.
 
@ Attila

why aren't you posting on SAS anymore?
 
Attila: Vast parts of Africa didn't belong to blacks? I think you are getting a little more narrow in your view. Some parts of South Africa belonged to other people who were displaced.
I think that all of you judging people simply by the colour of their skin is just ridiculous.
 
To non-imouse. I dont post on SAS for a few reasons.
1. Too many idiots.
2. They are unwilling to consider anything other than their own narrow view, and as such are a waste of time. Lets face it, the refusal or inability to consider different points of view, relegate you to the past. The future moves on apace, its like a conveyor belt--if you dont keep walking, you fall on your ass.
3. And lastly--The Uhuru Guru started snding me very offensive emails, basically telling me that he would like to have sex with my wife, my dog, my children--everyone I knew, and to please Fuck off from his blog forever. In other words, just a more articulate version of Jacob Zuma. Why waste time on losers? They, and Cathy Buckle are 2 sides of the same losing coin--dogmatically sticking to failed ideas and beliefs.
 
I don't think Cathy has failed ideas or that what she is doing is accepting or apologising.
Realistically what can a woman in her position actually do?
 
I'm not familiar with Cathy's personal circumstances (finance, mobility etc). I would think she should just walk away, start over somewhere else. Life is too short to perpetuate your own misery. Ever see that movie Groundhog Day? Well, living in Africa is a bit like that--same shit, different day--every day.
 
Same shit different day is like living in Russia too.
 
I too have wondered why Cathy doesn't just leave, just as I wonder why the millions of white South Africans don't just leave, now, while the going is relatively good. They can see what's coming, and yet they stay. Many because they have nowhere else to go. Others because they have family with nowhere else to go. Some believe things will get better. Perhaps - and this is pure speculation, Cathy believes that she has a duty to be there, to chronicle the lives of ordinary people under Mugabe's regime. She is, after all, a journalist.
But your own frustrations with her content are unrealistic. You have not said what a woman in her circumstances should do. A woman living in Zimbabwe with a child. I can't recall her ever mentioning a husband. So let's assume he's out of the picture. What is she supposed to write about? Something inflamatory that would get her arrested, brutalised and leave her son unattended? Or how about the truth - that it is not just whites (or Boere as some websites would like you to believe) that are suffering - but EVERYONE.
I don't know how much you have travelled overseas, how many different cultures you've been in contact with, but from my own personal experience I can tell you that White South Africans are still thought of as being "skop die kaffir" racists. As far as many people are concerned we all lived on huge wine or game farms and our regualr activity was beating the poor innocent blacks. So now that the tide is turned against us, it's very difficult to garner any sympathy. It would be like a German trying to settle in England in 1946.
Generally people do not relate and do not feel any urge to protect die Boere, save for a miniscule few who are extreme right wingers. Unless you tell them things in a sensible manner and explain that the victims in this drama are not just the villains from the previous act, and that not all the villains from the previous act are actually villains, but inherited this problem merely by the accident of their birth - are you going to get any sort of action.
If the majority of people overseas see whites as getting their come uppance, none of their politicians would dare to move to do anything to help whites.
You're an intelligent man, surely you can see this.
That is one of the reasons the African Crisis website and the SAS website are so horrendously bad for whites in South Africa. They perpetuate the picture that we need to let fade. It's akin to having someone living in Germany, starving and beaten and screaming Heil Hitler - er give us some food please. Sometimes I wonder if they really are whites of whether they are a propaganda machine of the right wing blacks.
So what Cathy does is extremely important in that is dispels the myth that it is only the whites that are suffering. And therefore it is worth our while to spread her message as much as we can, so that the people from whom we need help are morally able to give it to us.
 
Okay Amadeus, they are taking the land back, and taking the rest away. The point is that the white became fat and sleepy and a hardier people came along. Just like happened in the past with Genghis Khan. The Chinese and Europeans and those inbetween had allowed themselves to become soft and were not able to stand against the harder Mongols. And that is the way of nature and the world.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?