Isidingo - The Need

this is what I did at work today

“We should carefully says a word; Speaks may drive the others, may hit sinks the others, may appreciate the others, encourages the personal maidservant, may appreciate the others.”

edited

Mashi are you writing to my newspaper?

Dear Family and Friends,
Headline news on the propaganda mill one day this week was that three trillion Zimbabwe dollars had been raised for President Mugabe's 84th birthday party. I thought about what you could do with that much money but before I could work it out I had to check in a dictionary just exactly how much a trillion was.

My sources say that a billion is a thousand million and a trillion is a million million. This means that for the President's birthday celebration being held in Beitbridge, there is a pile of money which on paper is a 3 followed by 12 zeroes. Even in Zimbabwe's collapsed state, 3 trillion dollars is a huge amount of money. It didn't take long before my kitchen table was littered with bits of scrap paper covered with handwritten sums.
Why didn't I just use a calculator you might ask. That's simple, there are
too many digits and so this sum had to be done by hand.

The calculations took some time to perform and the results were shocking.
For three trillion dollars I could buy three million kilograms of maize meal at the present Grain Marketing Board price of a million dollars a kg.
This, of course, is assuming that the GMB had any maize meal for sale,which they say they haven't. Allowing half a kg of maize meal per person, 6 million Zimbabweans, half the population of the country, could have had one decent meal with the President's birthday party money. A friend who is far more mathematically minded than me, and had more patience with all those lines of zeroes, worked the figures out a different way. 85 trucks, each holding 35 tonnes of maize, could have been filled with the three trillion dollars of birthday party money.

Moving away from the dollars, I went in search of ingredients usually found at a birthday party. Three major supermarket chains which have outlets all over the country were visited. The cake came first on my list but there was no flour, sugar, margarine, baking powder, milk or eggs in any of the supermarkets. Puddings and sweet treats were next on my list but there was no jelly, instant pudding, custard, biscuits or tarts to buy.
Sandwiches, I thought, they are good for parties but there was no bread or rolls, no
spread, cheese, cold meats or sandwich fillings to buy. What about a hot meal I thought but there was no maize meal, rice, pasta or potatoes and so that idea was also a non starter.

The shopping list and the search for ingredients was a pointless exercise but at least it was easier than trying to understand the latest official inflation figures. In January 2008 inflation was one hundred thousand, five hundred and eighty percent - it is the stuff of hellish nightmares and the reason why we parents can't sleep at night.

Trying to understand three trillion dollars was utterly absurd for an ordinary mum in a collapsed country. Hardest of all though was knowing that half the population of the country could have gone to bed tonight on a full stomach if the birthday party had been sacrificed for the suffering,hungry people of a country whose 84 year old ruler has been in power for almost 28 years.
Until next time, thanks for reading,
love cathy.
Copyright cathy
buckle 23 February 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

Labels: Mugabe, Zimbabwe

What do you think?

After years of denial, Britain has finally admitted that American planes were allowed to land on British territory to refuel during rendition flights in 2002. British Prime Minister David Milliband said this week that "contrary to earlier explicit assurances," the CIA had confirmed using an American-operated airfield on the British Territory of Diego Garcia.
Apparently the CIA "forgot" that they had done this when a few years ago the British public was up in arms over the idea.
How hard can it be to remember where these flights landed? Surely someone must be in charge.
As Tony Blair has stepped out of politics in the UK and gone into running the world, and Dubya's days are numbered, it seems a lot of skeletons will be crawling out of the collective cupboards.
Tomorrow, according to the UK Telegraph, a former SAS soldier will spill the beans on how the SAS detained and interrogated rendered prisoners. If what he says proves to be true it will unmask the Blair government for the lying lap dogs that everyone already knows they are. There is no way on earth Blair could claim he knew nothing if what Ben Griffin said is true.


Although the CIA attributed its earlier denials to a “flawed records search,” the admission could add to the animosity the government here has aroused over its alliance with the United States in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Miliband’s statement prompted protests from members of Parliament of various parties and from British-based human rights groups that have contended for years that Britain was a knowing or unknowing partner in the American use of rendition flights. The term gained much of its notoriety from the American practice after Sept. 11, 2001, of transporting terrorism suspects secretly to other countries for interrogation.
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, informed British officials of the 2002 flights last week during a visit to London. He issued a statement Thursday to the agency’s staff in Washington saying a fresh review of agency records had shown that the CIA had erred in assuring Britain previously that “there had been no rendition flights involving their soil or airspace” since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Miliband said that he had received a personal apology from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and that she had told him she shared his “deep regret” about the earlier false denials.
Hayden said in his statement, “That information, supplied in good faith, turned out to be wrong.”
He added: “That we found this mistake ourselves, and that we brought it to the attention of the British government, in no way changes or excuses the reality that we were in the wrong. An important part of intelligence work, inherently urgent, complex and uncertain, is to take responsibility for errors and to learn from them.”
Miliband told the House of Commons he was “very sorry indeed” to have to revise the Labor government’s repeated assurances that it knew of no American rendition flights involving British airspace or airfields. The British assurances, in 2005, 2006 and 2007, were given, among others, by Tony Blair, who said in 2005 as prime minister that he was “not prepared to believe” that the Americans had broken faith with Britain over the issue.
“The House and its members will be deeply disappointed at this news, and about its late emergence,” Miliband said.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, visiting Brussels, Belgium, spoke in similar terms. “It is unfortunate that this was not known, and it was unfortunate it happened without us knowing that it had happened,” he said.

Okay Wolf boys, people of the horse, whatever you like to imagine yourselfs to be thisdays. This is just for you... your mighty GK... in Russian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=getW8YH3nS0

Movie looks good but pure fantasy, not so? Why are Mongol chicks so hot and you boys so mugly?

Dear Family and Friends,
Now is not the time to give up! This is the rallying call in Zimbabwe and it's getting louder by the day as elections draw ever closer.
This week I met a friend who had been transferred to a town nearly 400km away. We had not seen each other since August last year and those times, just six months ago, seem like they were from another era. It is hard to believe that back in August inflation had just topped one thousand percent and that now it's sixty six thousand percent. It's a percentage so high that none of us can comprehend what it really means. When I last saw my friend in August, a litre of milk was thirty thousand dollars; six months later it's five million dollars! My friend isn't surviving on his salary anymore. He can't afford for his wife and child to live with him and he survives only thanks to the subsidies given him by his parents who have a plot in the rural areas. My friend's entire monthly salary is sufficient to buy him a two litre bottle of cooking oil and one loaf of bread. It costs more than his entire monthly salary to travel the 400km back to the town he once lived in, to see his friends and relations.

As is the norm in Zimbabwe today we talked about plans for survival. The usual question that was uppermost in the conversation was: Wouldn't it be better to leave the country? Go somewhere that has food in the shops, water in the taps, regular electricity and where even a menial job earns enough for you to pay your rent and buy a month's supply of basic foodstuffs.

Despite all the hardships, we agreed that now was not the time to be making decisions and that we must wait till after the elections. Everyone is just trying to hold on until after the elections.
Hope for real change is now less than six weeks away.
It is undoubtedly going to be a gruelling six weeks. Since the Africa Cup of Nations football games ended, so too did the supply of electricity and many residential areas are back to fifteen hour a day power cuts. With these come water cuts and with 66 thousand percent inflation come prices that change at least once a day and businesses that are closed more than they are open.

There is a feeling of real anticipation in the air of Zimbabwe and whether it is a protest vote or a ballot for a new democratic order, we stand ready to rebuild our battered land. Despite all the negatives attached to every aspect of the coming elections, we are ready.
Until next week, thanks for reading,
love cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle 16 Feb 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: elections, Zimbabwe

Senior officials from the Indian Air Force and the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will be in Russia today to talk about the fifth generation fighter aircraft that the two countries are planning to design, develop and eventually produce.
The Indian team is led by the Air Force's Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Plans) Air Vice Marshal N.V. Tyagi, and includes officials from HAL's Aircraft Upgrades Research and Development Centre, Nashik.
Under an intergovernmental agreement signed last October the two countries will jointly design, develop, and manufacture the fifth generation multi-role jet fighter. Work on the aircraft, already under design by Russian aeronautics giant Sukhoi, is to be modelled along the lines of the successful Brahmos missile joint venture. The prototype is expected to take to the skies in 2009 and be commissioned by 2015.
The fighter will be used by both countries, and be sold for export. The Russian version of the plane will have a Russian engine and the Indian version is likely to have a western engine.
The aircraft is likely to be operational around 2015.

Labels: brahmos, India, Russia, sukhoi

Comparing the run up to Russia's elections to the noise and hoopla of the American brawl, makes them seem much more dignified. This is because there is no urgent need for a "change" in the Kremlin. People in Russia don't want that. They want a steady leadership that will not allow the country to slide into chaos.

However, listening to Dimitry Medvedev speak it seems as if he is desperate to appease the west by making all the right sounds - protection of personal property, freedom of press, protection of personal freedom, tax cuts to stimulate certain areas of growth, an increase in pensions to keep up with inflation. Many of these policies seem out of step with Putin's, and he is at pains to point out that he is not Putin's man.
The heir apparent to Russia's throne, Dimitry Anatolyvitch Medvedev, said on Friday that his programme would include reforming the tax system to support economic growth. He will also work towards making the country's judiciary independent from government control and he promised to further clean up the executive and legislative branches of power.
Speaking in Krasnoyarsk, Medvedev, 42, repeated his earlier promises to protect personal freedoms and an independant media.
In contrast to the more forthright Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, he did not mention the military or Russia's rising military powers.
On the issue of the United States, Medvedev talked about co-operation and did not mention a huge gap between the countries' ideals on issues such as the US missile defence shield, and Kosovo.
Putin, on the other hand, was making his intentions crystal clear.
"We consider that the one-sided support of a declaration of independence by Kosovo is not moral or right," he said at a press briefing on Thursday. "Are you not ashamed in Europe of the double standards you are applying to settle the problem?"
On the missile issue he said; "Who asked the Czechs or the Poles if they want to have these systems on their land. Who asked them? In my understanding these countries are not thrilled about these systems".
Responding to the accusations of a power struggle with Poland he pointed out that Russia has not taken a single action to worsen ties with Poland. “We provide Poland with all of the energy resources it needs, without any limitations, without any cut offs... and we do not plan to cut anything off in the future."
But he did say that Russia had asked the parties of the missile crisis to stop, and no one had taken note. He once agained warned that Russia would repond "appropriately" if the missiles were deployed.
It seems that Dima Anatolyovitch is a much softer, more diplomatic man than Putin. Is this perhaps because of his age, and does he have what it takes to manage a country like Russia?
As he said last month "We need to understand clearly: If we want to become a civilized state, first of all we need to become a lawful one."

Labels: kosovo, medvedev, putin, Russia, US

Now the Aussies are telling us what to do, wit some US backing of course. Oh boo hoo hoo don't kill da whales, we wuvs them. Yous can't kilt da dolphins, dey's soooo cuuuuuute.
Back off man!
We don go to your home and tell yous what to eat. What makes yous think yous can come to my home an tell me what to eat? Dat's just cultural biggotry man. We don take der animals dat are endagered. So why's CNN doing DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER IN JAPAN, and why's Aussies photographing whaling ships in international waters and making a big fuss about it.
I got some photos dey might like to see, like on how dey slaughter der cows. Cos cows, man, dey're good people. Yous ever spend time wid cows? Dey's got family and emotions and intelligence. Yous think killing a cow is A okay but yous are gonna tell us we can't kill dolphins?
How would yous feel if da Japanese and da Chinese came an screamed an yelled outside your slaughter houses? Yous'd all be like "What the fuck???" "Get the fuck outta Australia man!"
So dat's how I feel.

Labels: australia, dolphin, Japan, Russia, slaughter

Just for fun, as business has become almost non-existant this week in Asia, I decided to trawl sites on the net, like Rense and The Ugly Truth and such. It struck me that Americans love to feel threatened. I know not all of them are reading this crap - and believe me it is crap, but those who do all nod along like daisies in chorus to ideas of a "new world order" the jewish, CIA, FBI, communist, banker, feminist, reptilian alien uber government that wants to destory "The American Way of Life".
The mention of one of these people gets Noiks frothing at the mouth. He calls himself Dr Henry Makow. I think he should be "Dr Wacko". Here is a man - and I use the term very loosely - who only ever does it in the missionary position. He believes that homosexuals and feminists are destroying the world and are definitely "out to get" good, wholesome, decent Americans. THEY have emasculated men, he rages. Feminism is a communist cult.
I think he believes this because under communism women were liberated, with the idea of equality for all. In the Soviet Union women had fought alongside men to protect Rodinya against the facists. Many of them died. Today women still serve in the armed forces in key positions and across all disciplines.
The difference here is that Russian men have not allowed themselves to be emasculated. They have not surrendered and slunk off into the corner to whine about it and blame "THEM". They don't mind working with women and welcome them for their ability and competence. Russian men don't fear that women will take their jobs, they get their jobs on their abilities, not through some strange job reservation project.
We know these people frown on equal rights for women and gays, Wakow actually puts up Muslims as being the people to follow. I am not joking.
The writer of the blog Ugly Truth has this to say . . . "He points to the resources the NWO forces have devoted to painting Muslim women as oppressed by their male-dominated societies: ‘Look at all the attention paid to the burkha and headscarf while failing to show the low rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock children in the Middle East.’ he says. ‘They see the success they have achieved in the West by confusing the roles of women and men and are repeating it in the present ‘war on terror’."

Labels: makow, sexuality, ugly truth, US

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20080202091033680C139920

SA's Eskom power company has come up with some innovative ways of blaming it power shortages on the people, says IOL. You have to wonder who thought this lot up and why that intelligence was not put to use on working out how to provide MORE power.

Innit amazing dat de Amerikans all say dey against da Iraqi war. Dat dey all wanna pull out and stuff. I wonder why dat is. Maybe because deys losing. Maybe because loads of Amerkian boys n girls are getting wounded and kilt. Who knows. It's not becos dey tink it's wrong.
But yous can see now dat dey don really mean it. Dey just wana make all da right noises for da peeps overseas.
If dey did mean it, den folks like Ron Paul and Denis Kunich would be front runners in da political olympics. But deys aren't even close.
Dey whine about da oil prices but check out da companies' profits, dudes. Dat is just wicked.
But let da Russians wanna put up da prices of gas going to like da Ukraine and den der's trouble. Da American support da stuff dey whine about. And dat dey shout about democracy to everyone means dat dey should take more responsibility for what dey vote for.

Watching the news about Kenya makes me wonder about the past and the future of Africa. I remember when the whites were in control and bright-eyed blacks begged for help to secure a better future for themselves. They pointed to the slums and poverty and unfair laws and said all that would change under their government.
Well, it has not. The biggest slum in Africa is in Kenya, a country that has had independence for a long time. It seems they are no closer to solving their issues than they were under British rule. They have not moved forwards in the way they would if they were run by whites.
Looking at Asia and Africa, Asia has suffered worse wars more recently. It too was used as a chessboard for proxy war by the US. Yet most of it is recovering well. Africa, however has not.
Now a disagreement over polls in Kenya has the country falling apart. The African Union has its hands in its pockets. Sooner or later those affected by this meltdown will come to the west with outstretched hands.
Let them burn, I say. Che was right when he pulled out.
People communist and capitalist died for Africa, and all to no avail. The only thing that could help the continent would be further colonisation. It is patently obvious that it is unnable to get itself out of the mess and will not managed to do that for decades to come.

It's almost da mighty SOOPER TOOSDAY when loads of yankees will head to da caucases. Kind of like a stampede by sedated sheeps. So I watches da CNN debate lead by der weepy Andersen Cooper. All da candidates for de GOP were dere. Romney, Huckabee, McCain and Paul. But Romney an McCain got to really take up most of da time wid der lil bitch fights. Let us face it. Cooper can't organise a tea party for school children. Da only man in the whole room talking any sense was the guy wid the funny eyebrows, Ron Paul. But no one talked to him, Cooper kept da focus all on er udda dudes. Looks like da war will just go on.