Cathy's letter from Zimbabwe

Dear Family and Friends,

Almost every day now I hear the country I live in being described as a"collapsed state". The way people talk so easily and casually of our"economic meltdown" puts in mind a square of chocolate sitting in the sun melting into a soppy pool. I hear South African leaders talking about economic "challenges" in Zimbabwe and the UN talking about human rights"challenges" and I wonder what happened to real words that mean real things. Words like catastrophe, disaster, chaos and crisis which really describe things in the Zimbabwe I live in, but it seems these are not diplomatically acceptable words and so they talk of "challenges". It has certainly been a very bad week in Zimbabwe and I am not sure if some of the events listed below would be classified as challenges so leave you to fill in the adjectives for yourselves.On Monday the electricity went off at 6 am and only came back on six hours later but didn't stay for long. At 3.30 in the afternoon the power went off again and didn't come back on until 10pm that night.

On Tuesday a desperate father told me how he'd taken his daughter to Harare airport for a 6am flight to the UK. There were no lights in the airport public toilets and so men used the glow from their mobile phones to light a slippery path to the urinals. No announcements were made about the 5 hour delayed departure of the international flight which went toUganda first to get fuel before finally heading to London.On Wednesday the government announced that the public could now go and buy fuel from a named service station but that we would have to pay in foreign currency. Aside from the fact that it has been illegal for ordinary people to posses foreign currency for a number of years, the electricity blackouts were increasing and spreading and so petrol couldn't be pumped anyway.On Thursday there was no electricity from 8am to 6.30 pm and when I phoned to enquire after having been off for 10 hours I was told that there was no foreign currency with which to buy power. On the same day my friend who is an epileptic went to the hospital for his monthly check up. He waited for three hours in a queue but didn't see a doctor because they "hadn't come yet". In simple English this actually meant that junior doctors weren't there as they were on strike for an 800% pay rise. My friend didn't get any phenobarb for his epilepsy as there wasn't any at this main provincial government hospital.

On Friday morning I got up long before dawn to try and cope with days of backed up emails but that was pointless as the electricity was gone by 7am. In the town, the supermarkets were also without power, meat had defrosted and the shelves were bare of basics that we all desperately search for :- bread, sugar, soap, margarine, cooking oil. Outside another supermarket a sea of people, standing in lines four deep stretched along the main road for over four hundred metres. They had heard that they maybe a delivery of sugar. Outside the post office was a sign which read: "No electricity, phones not working". On Saturday morning, as I write this hurriedly before the power goes off, we have no water because the pumps need electricity, generators need diesel. In a couple of days time it is Heroes Day here, a time when we remember the people who died to give Zimbabwe independence. I wonder wha tthey would think if they could see these "challenges" twenty five years after their sacrifice.
Until next time, love cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle6th August 2005http://africantears.netfirms.com/My books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" areavailable from: orders@africabookcentre.com ; http://www.africabookcentre.com/ ;http://www.amazon.co.uk/ ; in Australia and New Zealand:johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au ; Africa: http://www.exclusivebooks.com/