this is also interesting
THE TRUTH ABOUT ZIMBABWE
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Looking for a telephone number in my address book the other day I got distracted by the names of people who needed to be erased as they aren't in the country anymore. In the last eight years all of my immediate and extended family members have gone; my lawyer, doctor, optician and chiropractor have emigrated; the vet I took my animals to has left so has the electrician, plumber and car mechanic. Nurses and teachers that I knew are gone, so has a physiotherapist, radiographer and three pharmacists. The farms where I bought meat, eggs, fruit and vegetables have all been taken over and none of them produce anything for sale at all anymore - they have been reduced to dusty weed lands housing a few desperately poor subsistence farmers and their families. The two huge agricultural companies where I bought tools, seed, fertilizer and equipment are all but empty. The stock feed companies where I bought cattle and chicken food, flour, salt and maize meal for many years now have nothing at all to sell, not even a bag of dog food. The polythene factory has closed down, two transport companies have gone, a butchery, abbatoir, florist, sports shop and school outfitters have closed down. The nursery where I used to buy tree seedlings has collapsed and the flower nursery has gone too and then of course come the friends and neighbours who have left.
Food shopping is the tip of the nightmare, then there are the bills. This week I was advised that an account I have with an internet service has been terminated for non payment of 1.4 million Zimbabwe dollars. Paying the bill is almost impossible as Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono has banned inter account and electronic transfers and limited cash withdrawals to 50 thousand dollars a day. If I am to pay my bill of 1.4 million dollars in cash I must queue for 2 - 3 hours a day for 28 days by which time the bill will have gone up at a rate I cannot calculate as inflation stands at 231 million percent. The internet provider have said I can pay the bill with a cheque, but because of inflation the cheque should be for 6.5 BILLION dollars.
It seems absurd to be writing about the weather and birds when we've got no food, fuel or government and inflation's hit 231 MILLION percent, but its these routines of nature that help take our minds off the insanity of life in Zimbabwe. It's the time of year when there should be a frenzy of activity in preparation for the rains and food growing. Seed and fertilizer should be stacked up in sheds waiting to go out to the lands. Tractors should be ploughing and the lands readied but without the inputs it's not happening.
cathybuckle.com
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