Cathy Buckle's Letter From Zimbabwe

Dear Family and Friends,

I was at the counter in a small shop in Marondera this week when an elderly woman came in clutching two bags of white sugar to her chest."Please help me" she said to the shop attendant. "Can you spare me an old newspaper or a brown paper bag to put my sugar in. It is not safe for me to walk like this." A few doors down, a small supermarket had received a truck load of sugar and people had been queuing on the pavement for most of the night.

As opening time approached, so did the bully boy queue jumpers and people who were cold, tired and hungry surged forward to try and protect their place in the line. Within minutes an orderly line had degenerated into a seething mass of pushing, shoving and shouting and then the police were there too, trying to keep order. By mid morning the pavement was completely clogged and swarming with people and the police were still there but a few at a time some were getting the chance to buy two bags of sugar. The elderly woman said that some people had been beaten and two had been hurt but there was nothing anyone could do and she was just grateful that she had got to the front and got her two precious bags of sugar.Can you imagine not feeling safe to be seen carrying a bag of suga rthrough the streets?

How absurd that life should have degenerated t othis, just five months after Zanu PF said they had won the people's mandate to rule Zimbabwe for their 25th year.This little example is a very representative picture of life here today.Everywhere people are on some sort of a desperate mission in order to survive and whole days and nights or more are sacrificed in an attempt to make the smallest of gains - a bag of sugar, litre of fuel or bottle of cooking oil.There is now an overwhelming "us and them" existence in Zimbabwe.

While luxury double cabs and top of the range Mercedes cruise our highways, ordinary family cars sit standed in unmoving fuel queues. In most fuel lines lately, the cars no longer park one behind the other, now they park side by side at an angle to stop the bully boys from pushing in. The vehicles are filthy, covered in dust and almost always driverless, guarded by youngsters who wait for days at a time on the off chance of a delivery.

Again I end on a sad note by reporting that the 37 tonnes of humanitarianaid donated by South African churches on the 1st of August remains blockedby Zimbabwean officials. Until next week, with love, cathy.
Copyrightcathy buckle 27th August 2005 http://africantears.netfirms.comMy books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available from:orders@africabookcentre.com ; johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au www.exclusivebooks.com