August 11, 2005

via my Mother | Understanding the current state of Zimbabwe from the words of a mother to her children

My mother was born in a small town called Chester-le-Street, Durham County, in Northern England. At the age of 8 her Father, finding the employment situation in Durham (this would be th 1949 time frame) difficult at best (he was a Teacher by trade) discovered that in the then British Colony of Rhodesia (South Eastern portion of Africa; northern and southern Rhodesia would eventually become Zambia and Zimbabwe respectively) the employment opportunities were quite good. Named after Cecil Rhodes [from Wikipedia]: < who was an English businessman and the effective founder of the state of Rhodesia who became quite wealthy from the natural resources found in this part of Africa which, of course, made the opportunity to work at the Wankie Colliery(Now called Hwange, nearby Hwange National Park, one of Africas largest wildlife preserves) seem somewhat appealing.

I could go into greater detail but will save that for another post, another day... What this post is about is all too important to let my family's history take center stage. Suffice it to say that those who grew up in Zim (as it is refered to by the British population who either have lived, or in some cases (like several of my relatives) still do) tend to stay in very close contact through email, newsletters, and sites such as the popular zimdays.com. This letter was recently forwarded to my mother who forwarded it to me asking me to post this to my blog. I recently made a post regarding the horrific acts currently taking place in Zimbabwe: that of torching and bulldozing the shanty towns of Zimbabwe -- an act which was recently condemned by the UN (details in the above link.) but it seems has had no effect as these crimes continue to devastate the people of this region.

I have no idea what we can do about this, if anything. But maybe we can. As such, please take the time to read this...

[UPDATE: Huh, thats wierd. I found this exact same letter on congress.org that is, as far as I can tell, word for word > except its states the increase of costs as 250% instead of 600%. Obviously Congress.org is probably the more accurate of the two and it doesnt make the situation any less significant... just kind of a strange thing to see...

Actually, seeing this on Congress.org listed as a SoapBox Alert helps drive home even further the importance of doing anything we can do to help. And the above linked article is a place to enter your zip code. It then takes you to an email interface to send a message directly to the Congressman or Senator for your part of the United States. Probably not a lot needs to be said other than "Are we helping in anyway already? If not, why not? And further, when will support from the US be made available? If you can justify sending troops to Iraq you sure as hell can justify sending aid to citizens on the brink of Genocide... Or maybe you don't like your job and I should vote for your challenger at the next election?" This is what I am about to send Orrin Hatch, Robert Bennett, and Rob Bishop > I bet you'll come up with something better when you write yours...]

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Letter from a mother in Zimbabwe to her children in UK
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 19:45:47 +0100

Dear all,

Below is something I found on a Zim news website. I'm pretty sure all of you are (semi-) aware of what has been going on in Zim over the last few weeks. A few people I've spoken to back in Zim say that it is just horrific. People are having to sleep on the roadsides in winter and there are huge areas of burnt homes and buildings. I know that we cannot change
it all, but I have always believed that we can create a huge awareness over here, where we are free to express how we feel and free to say whatever we want. Therefore, please, please, please let's all help out the people in Zimbabwe and the country we have all grown up in! We may not ever get to live there the way we have, but we have a responsibility to put away all of our bitterness and anger and help the people there who are so obviously helpless. I have read horrifying stories over the past few weeks -
people are actually burning all of their worldly possessions because they cannot afford to move them to their rural homes and no-one will buy them. What is happening is utterly ridiculous! Martin Luther King once said, "When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust stat us quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice". All I'm asking is that you pass this (and anything
else I send you) on to as many people as you can. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am sick of this! It's time to do something - better late than never I guess! Let's not just sit here and read everything and sympathise, but remain passive. Let's try and do as much as we can. It really will take very little effort, only a few minutes of your time. This is our fight too, believe it or not, regardless of whether you're going to go back there eventually or not or what the colour of your skin is! For those of you who are not from Zim, please pass this on to your friends and family too, the more publicity we get, the better. At the end of the day, it is our home.

See Below

My Dearest Children,

I know you don't want to hear the bad things that are happening here because it makes you worry about us, but it is really awful feeling that I cant tell you because you don't want to know. But we are all terrified at what they are going to destroy next........I mean they are actually ploughing down brick and mortar houses and one white family with twin boys of 10 had no
chance of salvaging anything when 100 riot police came in with AK's and bulldozers and demolished their beautiful house - 5 bedrooms and pine ceilings - because it was "too close to the airport"...so we are feeling extremely insecure right now. You know - I am aware that this does not help you sleep at night, but if you do not know - how can you help? Even if you put us in your own mental ring of light and send your guardian angels to be with us - that is a help - but I feel so cut off from you all knowing I cannot tell you what's going on here simply because you will feel uncomfortable. There is no ways we can leave so that is not an option. I just ask that you all pray for us in the way that you know how, and let me know that you are thinking of us and sending out positive vibes..that's all. You can't just be in denial and pretend its not going on. To be frank with you, its genocide in the making and if you do not believe me, read the Genocide Report by
Amnesty International which says we are IN level seven (level 8 is after its happened and everyone is in denial). If you don't want me to tell you these things then it means you have not dealt with your own fear, but it does not help me to think you are turning your back on our situation. We need you to get the news OUT that we are all in a fearfully dangerous situation here. Too many people turn their backs and say - oh well, that's what happens in Africa. This government has GONE MAD and you need to publicize our plight or how can we be rescued? You cant just say "oh you attract your own
reality". T he petrol queues are a reality, the pall of smoke all around our city is a reality, the thousands of homeless people sleeping outside in 0 Celsius with no food water, shelter and bedding are a reality. Today a family approached me, brother of the gardener's wife with two small children. Their home was trashed and they will have to sleep outside. We already support 8 people and a child on this property and electricity is going up next month by 600% as is water. How can I take another family of 4 - and yet how can I turn them away to sleep out in the open? So I am not asking you for money, or a ticket out of here - I am asking you to FACE the fact that we are in deep and terrible danger and I want you to pass on
our news and pictures and don't just press the delete button for God's sake. Help in the way that you know how. Face the reality of what is going on here and SEND OUT THE WORD. The more people that know about it, the more chance we have of Unit ed Nations coming to our aid. Please stop ignoring and denying what's happening. Would you like to be protected from the truth and then if we are eliminated how would you feel? Surely you would say "if only we knew how bad it really was we could have helped in some way".

I know we chose to stay here and so we "deserve" what's coming to us. For now we ourselves, have food, shelter, a little fuel and a bit of money for the next meal - but what is going to happen next? Will they start on our houses? All property is going to belong to the State now. I want to send out my Title Deeds to one of you because if they get a hold of those I
can't fight for my rights. We no longer have SW radio which told us everything that was happening because the Government jammed it out of existence - we don't have any reporters, and no one is allowed to photograph. If we had reporters here they would have an absolute field day. Even the pro government Herald has written that people are shocked, stunned, bewildered and blown mindless by the wanton destruction of everyone's homes which are supposed to be "illegal" but which a huge percentage of them actually do have licenses for.
Please my children - have some compassion and HELP by sending out the articles and personal reports so that something can be DONE.

Love
Mum