Cathy Buckle's Letter From Zimbabwe

Dear Family and Friends,

There has been a nation wide shortage of petrol and diesel in the country ever since the March elections which has now got so bad that it has bought almost everything to a complete standstill. Petrol stations are either completely dry and deserted or they are places where rumours of deliveries are rife and unmoving queues of driverless vehicles snake away into the distance. There may not be fuel for the everyday things like commuter buses and delivery trucks but there is still diesel for destruction.Countrywide the bulldozers continue to growl and roar as they push downwalls, flatten homes and reduce lives to rubble in the fourth week of the government's Operation Restore Order. One day this week I met a man who is in his early eighties and was desperate for just 10 litres of petrol so that he could get his wife to a specialist for medical treatment. The man has worked all his life in Zimbabwe and had prepared well for his old age. He hadn't banked on hyperinflation and economic collapse though and now his entire monthly pension isn't enough to buy even one litre of petrol. The man sat, counting filthy hundred dollar notes into piles, trying to work out just how much money hehad and how many notes he would need. It was almost irrelevant that therewas no petrol to buy because the fact was that 10 litres of petrol represented a years worth of pension cheques .Later that same day I met another elderly man who stood waiting for me near my car and greeted me politely as I arrived. "Can you help me,please. I have nothing to sell and am just an old man." Once a farm worker until the government seized all the farms, the man had then got a job working in a garden in the town. Four months ago the government increased the minimum wage for garden workers by one thousand percent and this elderly man lost his job. He has become just another helpless, hopeless victim in Zimbabwe. I did not ask the man where he was living or if his home had been reduced to a pile of rubble as everywhere there are police,many police, watching and waiting to "restore order". I pressed a note into his hand and felt ashamed that an old man who has lost everything,has been reduced to this.While the western world watches, condemns, appeals and urges intervention,the African Union say they will not criticise events in Zimbabwe. An AUr epresentative speaking on BBC radio said the organisation had other far more important things to worry about than Zimbabwe. What shame on these leaders of Africa who will not even appeal for mercy for women and children, old men and the sick and dying. Will the AU also refuse the west's cancellation of debt? Will the AU refuse to accept western money raised by Bob Geldof and the worlds pop stars? What shame on Africa. With love, cathy. Copyright cathy buckle25 June 2005 http://africantears.netfirms.comMy books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from:orders@africabookcentre.com ; www.africabookcentre.com ; www.amazon.co.uk ;in Australia and New Zealand: johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au ; Africa:www.kalahari.net www.exclusivebooks.com