President Robert Mugabe's antics are well known all over the world. We see the news reports, we hear about the political deadlocks, we read about an inflation rate that looks more like a misprint than a real statistic, and we get a glimpse of the human suffering; but can we actually conceptualize daily life in Zimbabwe?
Catherine Buckle, author of the books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears", lives in Zimbabwe and documents daily life there in a collection of letters. These letters can be read on a website dedicated to her, www.cathybuckle.com
In one letter, written on 12th July 2008, entitled "I Am Failing Them", Cathy makes reference to an attempted shopping trip, where there was virtually no food available - but a butternut squash carried a price tag of 30 billion Zimbabwean dollars. When she queried the price, the man in the shop showed her his earnings. He had earned 28 billion dollars for the month - less than the price of a butternut squash; and he had a family to support.
Catherine Buckle's writing style is so beautiful, so descriptive and so pertinent, so easy to read, that I cannot and will not attempt to describe or reproduce the atmosphere or content of her letters in my post. I urge you to read those letters yourself at www.cathybuckle.com, or go directly to her October 2008 post.
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Doing the Splits.
I doubt that any breakaway party from the ANC will seriously harm the outcome of next year's general election, but I do rather look forward to hearing from an opposition party rising from the ranks of the ANC.
I feel that many ANC supporters have voted for the ANC on the basis of loyalty towards the Struggle, rather than in support of their performance and service delivery. However, in the event of a breakaway, ANC supporters will be able to make choices based on performance, without feeling that they're being disloyal.
As much as Zuma may shout about "Disloyalty To The Party", those breaking away are no less faithful to the struggle than are those who remain. They were all in it together until this point. The disagreements arise from differences of opinion in respect of where the ANC is headed, how it is led and how it has behaved or performed.
This makes things very interesting for the country as a whole. Criticisms flung back and forth between factions from the same party is likely to bring a number of crawlies out of the woodwork into the light - and force at least a few more people to make decisions they couldn't - or didn't have to - make before.
Events between now and next year's elections will be very interesting indeed.
I feel that many ANC supporters have voted for the ANC on the basis of loyalty towards the Struggle, rather than in support of their performance and service delivery. However, in the event of a breakaway, ANC supporters will be able to make choices based on performance, without feeling that they're being disloyal.
As much as Zuma may shout about "Disloyalty To The Party", those breaking away are no less faithful to the struggle than are those who remain. They were all in it together until this point. The disagreements arise from differences of opinion in respect of where the ANC is headed, how it is led and how it has behaved or performed.
This makes things very interesting for the country as a whole. Criticisms flung back and forth between factions from the same party is likely to bring a number of crawlies out of the woodwork into the light - and force at least a few more people to make decisions they couldn't - or didn't have to - make before.
Events between now and next year's elections will be very interesting indeed.
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Appeal From African United Partnerships
I received the following letter from the African United Partnerships blog recently, concerning their efforts to provide much-needed training in the Cameroon, to help combat the frighteningly high rate of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS:
"Hi Mike,
I started a blog meme project for saving children and thought you would be interested in getting involved. African United Partnerships needs the help of fellow bloggers. Our goal is to save 200 children's lives in Africa by preventing the transmission of AIDS/HIV from mother to child. To do this, we need to raise $6,600 and your help by blogging and spreading the word about this cause. That's just $33 to save a single child's life. We are working with 12 health service stations in Africa to train people with methods of preventing mother to child transmission (pMTCT) of AIDS/HIV. This is all done through pre- and post natal care training and implementation."
Hans Strock
http://blog.africanunitedpartnerships.org
The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2007 was an estimated 22,000,000; the highest number for any one country being South Africa, at an estimated 5,700,000. The estimate for Cameroon was 540,000.
Apparently there is very little understanding amongst both women and clinic staff in Cameroon about the transmission of the deadly virus from mother to child, or how to prevent it. In fact, they don't seem to even understand that it might be prevented. The aim of this project is to begin the appropriate training there on a limited sale, in the hope that their success will open doors for the expansion of the programme.
I received a full report from Hans concerning the project; I'm sure that they would be happy to provide it to anyone who requests it.
To quote their conclusion in the report:
"The growing infection of children through MTCT (mother to child transmission) requires well thought through and targeted interventions to prevent more children from living with HIV from birth. This project is structured to do just this. Starting small (small is beautiful), the project will seek to make an impact that would stand out as self-evidence for scaling up. This show case aspiration calls for a resourceful pooling of leadership and managerial skills to promote effective and efficient implementation."
If you would like to learn more about this project, please visit their website at http://blog.africanunitedpartnerships.org
Frankly, HIV/AIDS isn't just about dying. For little children with full-blown AIDS, the physical suffering that these poor little people have to endure before they die can be a fate worse than death. They are just little children. They don't know why they feel the way they do.They suffer and they're frightened. And it may not have been necessary. Anything that anyone can do to help to prevent these little babies from being condemned to this terrible fate before they are even born, is well worth doing.
"Hi Mike,
I started a blog meme project for saving children and thought you would be interested in getting involved. African United Partnerships needs the help of fellow bloggers. Our goal is to save 200 children's lives in Africa by preventing the transmission of AIDS/HIV from mother to child. To do this, we need to raise $6,600 and your help by blogging and spreading the word about this cause. That's just $33 to save a single child's life. We are working with 12 health service stations in Africa to train people with methods of preventing mother to child transmission (pMTCT) of AIDS/HIV. This is all done through pre- and post natal care training and implementation."
Hans Strock
http://blog.africanunitedpartnerships.org
The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2007 was an estimated 22,000,000; the highest number for any one country being South Africa, at an estimated 5,700,000. The estimate for Cameroon was 540,000.
Apparently there is very little understanding amongst both women and clinic staff in Cameroon about the transmission of the deadly virus from mother to child, or how to prevent it. In fact, they don't seem to even understand that it might be prevented. The aim of this project is to begin the appropriate training there on a limited sale, in the hope that their success will open doors for the expansion of the programme.
I received a full report from Hans concerning the project; I'm sure that they would be happy to provide it to anyone who requests it.
To quote their conclusion in the report:
"The growing infection of children through MTCT (mother to child transmission) requires well thought through and targeted interventions to prevent more children from living with HIV from birth. This project is structured to do just this. Starting small (small is beautiful), the project will seek to make an impact that would stand out as self-evidence for scaling up. This show case aspiration calls for a resourceful pooling of leadership and managerial skills to promote effective and efficient implementation."
If you would like to learn more about this project, please visit their website at http://blog.africanunitedpartnerships.org
Frankly, HIV/AIDS isn't just about dying. For little children with full-blown AIDS, the physical suffering that these poor little people have to endure before they die can be a fate worse than death. They are just little children. They don't know why they feel the way they do.They suffer and they're frightened. And it may not have been necessary. Anything that anyone can do to help to prevent these little babies from being condemned to this terrible fate before they are even born, is well worth doing.
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