CATHY BUCKLE'S WEEKLY LETTER FROM ZIMBABWE !

Dear Family and Friends,

Visiting an elderly couple this week the talk tuned to their recent sixty
second wedding anniversary and the knowledge that sticks in my mind is that they
have been married longer than I have been alive. I asked the couple about their
children and grandchildren and they told me of developments in their lives - one
family in South Africa and another in England. How very sad it is to take in the
fact that there is nothing to keep Zimbabwean children in Zimbabwe any more.
Even worse is the fact that Zimbabwean parents now actively encourage their
children to leave the country - to go to places where there is training,
opportunity, stability and - the prize of all prizes: jobs.

This week an opposition MP has been exposing the horrific facts about life
expectancy in Zimbabwe. Men are expected to stay alive for 37 years and women
for just 34 years. Today you can expect to live longer than this even in Sudan
or Iraq. When you know those figures you know why parents encourage their
children to leave Zimbabwe. If you think about the fact that a woman is only
expected to live for thirty four years, you must also think of the children she
bears when she is twenty five - they will be orphaned before they even get to
senior school. What then are the chances for those orphaned children - will they
live as long as their mother did, will they even be able to finish school and
learn a trade in order to support themselves and their children - it is very
unlikely and paints a very bleak picture for the future of Zimbabwe.

Talking about all this with another elderly man, recently widowed and in his
seventies, he wiped a tear away. He said I'd make him think of his three sons,
all in their thirties. One son he had buried last year, he was just thirty
three. Another was now in Malawi, trying to make a living as a stranger in a
strange land and the third was desperately trying to find a place where he could
settle and survive - he had tried and failed in four countries in the last five
years. Nowhere felt as good as "home" - if only there was a way for him to
survive and make a decent living he would come home to Zimbabwe in an instant.
In true Zimbabwean style we cracked jokes as I left - it is not the done thing
to leave people on depressing notes in these dreadful times and so we laughed
about his new underpants. He had finally managed to save enough money to buy
three pairs of new underpants - each costing the same as half of his entire
monthly pension.

In a couple of weeks time the ruling Zanu PF party will be holding their annual
congress. They have been in power for 26 years, just eight years less than most
women are expected to live. At the time of the Zanu PF Congress in 2004
inflation was 132%, by December 2005 it was 585% and now it is 1070%. What
disgrace for a party who have 26 years experience at running a country. Maybe
this year the delegates will find the courage and moral responsibility to stop
patting themselves on the back and start thinking about the ordinary people:
about the children who can't wait to get out of the country; about the parents
who can't wait to send them away. About the elderly who are destitute and alone
and about the orphans - over a million of them. If the delegates to that
conference want to grow old in Zimbabwe and have their grandchildren playing
barefoot in the sun nearby, then those delegates know what must be done and that
it must be done now.
Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy

Copyright cathy buckle, 18 November 2006
My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are both available at:
orders@africabookcentre.com
Recent letters can be read at:
http:/africantears.netfirms.com