Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Zimbabweans GO HOME!
Opposition leaders are calling on all Zimbabweans to go home and vote lest incumbent President Robert Mugabe wins yet again.
Millions fled the country amid its economic collapse and are now unable to vote against the president who caused it. If they don't return, Mugabe's chances of staying in power are boosted.
But few are likely to return, having sacrificed too much to get out in the first place.
An estimated 3.5 million have fled Zimbabwe to neighbouring South Africa and other countries, some risking their lives through crocodile-infested waters to make the trip illegally.
Zimbabwe opposition leaders Simba Makoni, a former finance minister, and Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), would have strong support to oust Mugabe among those who have left.
“Many of you are in the diaspora because you have seen home turn into hell... You have the opportunity to change this,” Makoni urged in a newspaper advertisement carried by South African newspapers over the last few weeks.
“Every vote counts, so please come home and let your voice be heard.”
The country's laws bar citizens from voting outside the country. Analysts say most of the Zimbabweans who left in the last eight years blame Mugabe’s and ZANU-PF for the economic crisis, but many are in no position to make the trip.
Those who are out of the country are sending money back to their families and possibly keeping Mugabe safe from the the simmering tensions and keeping their families alive, fed, clothed and in fuel.
Meanwhile Xhinua reports that Zimbabwe's Industrial Development Corporation has so far managed to repay about US$2.8 million of the US$17.9 million owed to the Chinese Eximbank. The loan was used to fund construction of the SinoZimbabwe Cement Plant in 1997. Under the agreement IDC was supposed to make two payments in March and September of every year loan repayments were due to start in 2006.
The cement company received exchange control exemption from upfront open market sale of 25 percent of its export proceeds to the Reserve Bank in order for the IDC to meet its loan repayment and payment of technical fees to the offshore shareholder.
The Chinese bank restructured the loan two years ago making it lighter for the parastatal to service its loan.
Exim bank advanced the first loan in 1997, while the second one was dispatched to IDC in 2000. IDC holds a 35 percent stake in the cement company with the other 65 percent stake belonging to the Chinese Building and Material Company. Both companies are public entities.
Millions fled the country amid its economic collapse and are now unable to vote against the president who caused it. If they don't return, Mugabe's chances of staying in power are boosted.
But few are likely to return, having sacrificed too much to get out in the first place.
An estimated 3.5 million have fled Zimbabwe to neighbouring South Africa and other countries, some risking their lives through crocodile-infested waters to make the trip illegally.
Zimbabwe opposition leaders Simba Makoni, a former finance minister, and Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), would have strong support to oust Mugabe among those who have left.
“Many of you are in the diaspora because you have seen home turn into hell... You have the opportunity to change this,” Makoni urged in a newspaper advertisement carried by South African newspapers over the last few weeks.
“Every vote counts, so please come home and let your voice be heard.”
The country's laws bar citizens from voting outside the country. Analysts say most of the Zimbabweans who left in the last eight years blame Mugabe’s and ZANU-PF for the economic crisis, but many are in no position to make the trip.
Those who are out of the country are sending money back to their families and possibly keeping Mugabe safe from the the simmering tensions and keeping their families alive, fed, clothed and in fuel.
Meanwhile Xhinua reports that Zimbabwe's Industrial Development Corporation has so far managed to repay about US$2.8 million of the US$17.9 million owed to the Chinese Eximbank. The loan was used to fund construction of the SinoZimbabwe Cement Plant in 1997. Under the agreement IDC was supposed to make two payments in March and September of every year loan repayments were due to start in 2006.
The cement company received exchange control exemption from upfront open market sale of 25 percent of its export proceeds to the Reserve Bank in order for the IDC to meet its loan repayment and payment of technical fees to the offshore shareholder.
The Chinese bank restructured the loan two years ago making it lighter for the parastatal to service its loan.
Exim bank advanced the first loan in 1997, while the second one was dispatched to IDC in 2000. IDC holds a 35 percent stake in the cement company with the other 65 percent stake belonging to the Chinese Building and Material Company. Both companies are public entities.
Labels: Africa, Exim bank, loans, Mugabe, Zimbabwe
Sunday, February 24, 2008
85 trucks of food
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
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
Sunday, February 17, 2008
We are ready
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
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
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
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
