Zimbabwe

I don’t know how many of you have been following the current situation in Zimbabwe? But if you have, you might find the following interesting. It’s an excerpt from an email dated 04/20/08 sent to my parents by some good family friends still living in Zimbabwe, (my parents were born and raised in Zim and we still have friends and family living there).
It reads:

“Not a good day for me, we have not had water for 5 days – taking water from the swimming pool to wash ourselves filling the toilets and general cleaning, using the irrigation tank for drinking and cooking – whoever thought it would come to this – We are just fed up with making plans a b and c – the deep freeze looking rather bare too.”
“I am sitting at my machine with unwashed hair with news on, wondering if that Chinese ship will arrive with its deadly cargo.”
“Just to give you a small indication how quickly the prices change – one week ago I bought a cabbage it cost $45 million (Zim Dollars) the one I bought this week cost $66 million (Zim Dollars). One cabbage = US$1.00 does not sound much when you put into US. Every month we put our domestic’s wages up but it is never enough.”

Tony and Avril are part of some of the wealthier residents of Harare (Zimbabwean capital city), and if they are experiencing the above, I can just imagine what the rest of the population, particularly those in rural areas and informal settlements are going through just to get the basics.
My parents left Zimbabwe in 1981 shortly after the nation gained its independence and the current president of 28 years Robert Mugabe came into power. Subsequently they’ve witnessed from across the South African border the slow decline in the nation’s political leadership and the general lack of quality of the lives of it’s citizens. Now, since the country’s elections on 03/29/08 and the resulting situation, they do not hold out much hope for it’s future

My dad recently related to me in an email:

“… I really think that it is such a mess that even if Mugabe is out it will take decades to repair the damage. The western world is not really interested so will not do anything, and SADC (South African Development Community) is useless with Mbeke saying there is no crisis in Zim – the truth is that they are all a bunch of incompetents in politics for self gain and power. So I do not see any real hope for Zim in the future. I read a report in the Cape Times (local newspaper) yesterday of what they thought it would take to recover Zim and it just looks too much of a task for any new leader there, nor do they have the great amounts of money required to rebuild the economy.”

“This all sounds negative, but I just do not think that Zim (has) a positive future and all that I read in the news papers and the commentaries I hear seem to support my feelings.”

In another emailed to my parents dated 04/07/08, Avril said:

“We … are anything but settled. Since the elections I don’t know what to do with myself, I just can’t concentrate on anything every hour on the hour I watch Sky or BBC news for a glimmer of hope, I feel like a robot, one day elated the next day down in the dumps. We love this country and don’t want to live anywhere else, oh well only time will tell.”

Something my Dad mentioned in his email to me really got me thinking: “The western world is not really interested so will not do anything”. That might not be entirely true, but I think the statement has merit. I feel that if a similar situation had taken place in a region of the world were the West had more of a financial interest, the general Western population would know a great deal more about what was going on. It seems so sad to me that basic human rights are being taken away from people in parts of the world that most westerners (or the rest of the world for that matter) have never even heard of, and consequently have never heard of the struggles of it's peoples. Hence the purpose of this post: There are real people like you and me living in parts of the world right now who are enduring the outcomes of incompetent political leaders decisions, or do not have access to clean water, adequate shelter, basic health care, etc. In some instances, there is probably nothing that we personally can do about it except be aware and raise awareness. I have found that sometimes it’s a little unsettling to learn about the horrid situations that people find themselves in due to no fault of their own; but the thought that if I was in that situation I would at least want people to be aware of me, vastly out-weighs those anxieties. Even though most of us do not have personal ties to these areas of the world, I strongly feel that it would be a worthwhile effort to educate ourselves and our families of their plights.

With regards to the state of affairs in Zimbabwe and many other regions of the world, like Avril said, “only time will tell”. Until then, maybe all we can do is take the advice of my Mom:

“That beautiful country has touched our lives in many ways. Let’s unite our thoughts and prayers for the people there.”

Let me know what you think...

P.S. Today is World Malaria Day - check out the link on the top left hand side of this blog.