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March 15th, 2008 | #81 |
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[Sweden and Australia feed the niggers Mugabe is starving to death. Why? Remember that Sweden was one of the worst culprits in "feeding" the ANC now wrecking South Africa. There is no limit to the damage done by moralizing do-gooder liberal utopian fantasists, especially when they work in conjunction with jews.]
AUSTRALIA The Federal Government says it will give the United Nations World Food Program an extra $2 million to provide food aid to Zimbabwe. Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance Bob McMullan says a UN assessment shows more than four million people in Zimbabwe will need food assistance over the next year. SWEDEN The Swedish government, through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) yesterday donated $7.2 million (N835.2 million) toward humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe, according to New Ziana. |
March 15th, 2008 | #82 |
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[Who does the writer blame? White farmers. They held all the arable land. Well, what was that arable land doing when Whites showed up? Growing jungles and weeds. Niggers didn't know how to work it.]
Shine is gone in Zimbabwe's 'Sunshine City' A visit to Harare reveals how far the once-vibrant capital has fallen under President Robert Mugabe. By MICHAEL VALPY, Toronto Globe and Mail It's a shock, entering Robert Mugabe's decaying, crumbling capital. The former urban gem of Africa, once prissy in its orderly efficiency, now is sinking into a rank detritus of uncollected garbage, potholes, broken traffic lights and collapsing public services. Harare, the Sunshine City of the tourist brochures, sparkled as recently as a decade ago. It was an intentional, sturdy metropolis of commerce and finance, trade, manufacturing, government, shops and professional services. The sun remains, but the shine is gone. Harare stinks. I lived here two decades ago as the Globe and Mail's Africa correspondent. I have come back for a look at the country as its campaign gets underway before the presidential elections March 29. Because foreign journalists are unwelcome at the moment, I have entered as a teacher of religion. Theft of sewer, telephone, electrical and water-supply equipment is pandemic. The public nuts and bolts, the cables and pipes, of this city of nearly 3 million people are literally vanishing alongside the flawed management of what infrastructure remains. Think about this: People selling phone wires for food. Electrical and water supply is erratic (although the reservoirs are full). Elevators in downtown buildings and gas stations are becoming artifacts of a past existence. Public servants in the city parked their cars years ago: no fuel affordable, no fuel to be found. Officially, inflation in this country of 12 million is 100,580 percent. Unofficially (and probably more accurately), it is more than 150,000 percent. All surgery at Harare's Parirenyatwa Hospital, the biggest in the country, has ceased because of a shortage of anesthetic, functioning equipment and medical specialists. Nurses and other workers refuse to come to work because their bus transportation costs are greater than their salaries. With the Zimbabwean currency this week falling to a record low of $25 million for a single U.S. dollar, bus fares can change on a single trip. The University of Zimbabwe's faculty is melting away across the country's borders, joining an estimated 3.5 million of their fellow citizens who have emigrated or otherwise fled. Industry is operating at 20 percent capacity. Two professionals, a husband and wife, say their combined monthly income is $57 million. "That buys four loaves of bread," the wife said. When bread can be found. Clash of contrasts My driver, John, who meets me at the airport, says he needs to buy cooking oil. (I have omitted his last name to protect him from any repercussions for ferrying me around.) When we get into the city, he passes a shop I remember as a fashionable outlet for women's clothes. One rack with three dated and ugly dresses sits in the window. The rest of the store is bare and dark. Its neighbors are barred and padlocked, as are many shops on adjacent streets. Only in Harare's opulent suburb of Borrowdale -- home to diplomats, business and political elites, staff of international nongovernmental organizations paid in foreign currency -- are the Van Heusen dress shirts surreally advertised along the road from the airport. They are likely to be found in Chinese- and South African-owned private shops, which are alongside new-car dealerships, nightclubs, international fast-food outlets and grocery stores filled with goods deliberately displayed without price tags in testament to Zimbabwe's inflation. "Borrowdale," says the wife with the $57 million family income, as if she's mentioning a dirty word. "Two different countries inside one country." Sanctions blamed President Mugabe, 84, and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front government, the country's rulers since independence in 1980, say it is sanctions imposed by Western countries that are to blame for Zimbabwe's economic chaos. Sanctions and not the destruction of the agriculture industry -- the country's economic backbone -- brought about by the government's decision to seize commercial (mostly white) farmers' properties beginning in 2000 and redistribute them to black farmers lacking the technical knowledge to operate them. [Did you liberals of the Judenpresse ever mention that fact before the farms were stolen? No. You bear a share of the blame, not that you'll accept it.] Sanctions, such as they are, target arms imports and the international travels of Zimbabwe's rulers, not its economy. And the commercial farmers lost their land largely as a result of their own doing, their refusal to share holdings -- 70 percent of arable land held by 1 percent of the population -- conferred on them by Zimbabwe's before-independence, racist colonial legislators. [The usual blame-White bilge. Whites made the lands productive. As not usual but always in the controlled media, Whites are to blame for everything. If a nigger fails, it's always a White man's fault.] How people are surviving in this city, in this country, is simply baffling. The inflation. The 80 percent unemployment. The 21 percent HIV infection rate (with the country now virtually bereft of anti-retroviral drugs). The exodus of Zimbabwe's best and brightest. And now a cataclysmic food shortage looms as a result of horrendous rains that devastated the planting of maize, Zimbabwe's staple food crop. But the news is not all bad. Some commercial farmers have been invited to reapply to the government for land. Others are working as behind-the-scenes managers of farms redistributed to blacks. I saw a number of productive, well-run farms and drove past an agricultural estate owned by a Zimbabwean Cabinet minister with a sign at the gate advertising eggs for sale. A substantial portion of the population is being supported by remittances from about 1 million Zimbabweans abroad -- estimated to be as much as $1 billion U.S. a year, by far the largest inflow of cash into the country. And the rains that ruined maize planting created lush grazing pastures: In a few months there will be meat from now-skinny cows and goats (if anyone can afford it). But in a village two hours north of Harare one sunny afternoon, I watched laughing, joy-filled children race each other home from school along a dirt-track road. I wondered how many short years were left to them before their joy was lost forever in the face of the realities of Zimbabwean life. http://www.startribune.com/world/16695696.html Last edited by Alex Linder; March 15th, 2008 at 05:07 PM. |
March 15th, 2008 | #83 | ||
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,442
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Quote:
This is how the idiots of the world view things. If you own a farm and you refuse to give it to the man-ape hybrids, then it's your fault if the man-ape hybrid in charge steals it from you. Cecil Rhodes would have done White people a huge favor if he had exterminated all the kaffirs down to the last one of them, and then re-settled the land with Whites. Then, repeat the process in a systematic march across Africa. Lastly, when the last nigger was impaled on the end of a lance, built a monument celebrating the day the last nigger breathed his final breath. The world would be a better place. |
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March 15th, 2008 | #84 |
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[Ain't gonna play sew. city] To get to Sinikiwe MaKhumalo's doorstep in Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, visitors have to step on a thin plank perched precariously over a trench that prevents sewage from flowing into her house. The 57-year-old grandmother has endured this arrangement to access her home in the city's Old Magwegwe working class suburb for the past five months after a sewer burst close to her residence. Service delivery has collapsed in Bulawayo, after local authorities recently announced that the municipality was insolvent and unable to cater to the needs of its almost two million residents "The disgusting odour is awful and becomes more unbearable by the day," she lamented over the city municipality's failure to repair burst sewers in her locality. [...] Council workmen at work on a burst sewer in Old Magwegwe told IRIN that maintenance of the aging sewerage system was a daunting task, but it was aggravated by residents flushing down solid objects, causing sewer pipe blockages. "At times we retrieve stones, broken glass, spoons, rags or mops and other hard objects when clearing blockages in the system," council worker Jotham Ncube said. Ncube said most of the families could no longer afford standard toilet paper and have had to resort to newspapers or torn pieces of cardboard boxes for their ablutions. "It is no longer unusual to find entire sheets of a newspaper, used sanitary pads, children's shirts or shorts among items blocking the system", he said. http://allafrica.com/stories/200803140630.html |
March 15th, 2008 | #85 |
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Fixed telephone provider TelOne, has lost more than $900 billion worth of telecommunication cables and equipment to theft and vandalism since January this year, leaving more than 17 000 customers countrywide without services, TelOne spokesperson Mr Phillip Chingwaru said.
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March 15th, 2008 | #86 |
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[Western institutions gave Mugabe honorary degrees. Taken over by jews, "Western" seats of learning have become intellectual shitholes of subversion. They deserve to be burned down, and their cadres-disguised-as-professors slaughtered.]
EDINBURGH University in Scotland and the United States’ University of Massachusetts and Michigan State University are considering recalling the honorary doctorate of laws degrees they conferred on Robert Mugabe. This campaign, its timing and the rhetoric behind it are the epitome of Western hypocrisy, an insult to all victims of state-sanctioned violence in Zimbabwe, Gukurahundi victims in particular. Robert Mugabe’s honorary degrees should stay. They represent a period of madness in history where a genocidal dictator went on the rampage and the international community, the West in particular, either looked the other way or cheered him on. Any university that respects human rights should never ever have awarded Mugabe an honorary degree during the 1980s or any other period. A public apology to Zimbabweans is the only sincere protest against Mugabe’s rule that these universities can offer. The three universities awarded Mugabe the degrees during the watershed decade of government crackdown on political dissent under the guise of fighting rebels in Matabeleland and the Midlands. State-directed violence punctuated 1984, 1986 and 1990, the years, respectively, Edinburgh University, University of Massachusetts and Michigan State University, honoured Mugabe. Edinburgh University is reportedly reviewing the dictator’s honorary degree. Recall petitions are under way at the two US universities. The period 1980 to 1983 was the most critical with mass disappearances, beatings, rape and murder of innocent villagers. [Monkey Mugabe took power in 1980] With the urging of then Minister of State Security, Emerson Mnangagwa, the North Korea-trained 5th Brigade, Central Intelligence Organization and Zanu PF militias “burned down the villages infested with dissidents”. Hundreds were burned alive in their huts. Thousands were shot in public executions. At Lupane on March 5, 1983, for example, the 5th Brigade rounded up and shot 62 young men and women on the banks of the Cewale River. 55 died and seven survived with gunshot wounds. Often, the 5th Brigade forced the victims to dig their own graves in front of family and fellow villagers. In places like Tsholotsho state-sponsored terror forces routinely rounded up dozens or even hundreds of civilians and marched them at gun point to a central place. There they forced them to sing songs praising Mugabe and Zanu PF, before executing them. These atrocities continued in 1984, the year Edinburgh University awarded Mugabe an honorary doctorate of law. The New York Times of June 21 even reported that “Robert Mugabe’s supporters went on a rampage and killed five supporters of Joshua Nkomo in Kwekwe”. In the same year, it was clear that Mugabe intended to tighten his already fledgling dictatorial rule. With the forced merger with ZAPU in 1987 in mind, the Zanu PF congress created the notorious Politburo and adopted a new party constitution that called for the creation of a Marxist-oriented one party state. In 1986, the year the University of Massachusetts awarded Mugabe an honorary doctorate of law degree, the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights reported that Mugabe’s forces continued the “systematic campaign of terror and repression against the minority Ndebele-speaking people…” By the time of reconciliation in 1987, up to a variously-reported 20 000 innocent people had been murdered. Ironically, the following year, Mugabe extended a complete amnesty to all perpetrators of violence and pardoned mass murderers on both sides of the conflict. By pardoning the murderers, Mugabe personally assumed culpability for their heinous crimes. It’s important to point out that to this day, no official apology has been extended to the victims. Many continue to grapple with the trauma. To achieve real harmony between the minority Ndebele and the rest of the country in the post-Mugabe era, Zimbabweans will have to engage in an emotional, lengthy and potentially-divisive “truth and reconciliation” process. Michigan State University honored Mugabe in 1990, the same year Zanu PF supporters unleashed Gukurahundi-style violence on supporters of the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM) during the general election. Five candidates were murdered. Those considering rescinding the degrees are simply trying to rewrite history and absolve themselves from culpability. They are engaging in a spectacular act in self-cleansing and self-exoneration. An honour is not the piece of paper it is written on. It is something intangible, a value. In the collective Zimbabwean memory is etched the horror of Gukurahundi and the validation Mugabe received through numerous honors. Mugabe’s name will indelibly decorate the roster of exemplary global citizens. Since 1885, the University of Massachusetts has awarded nearly 2,000 honorary degrees to world leaders, renowned scholars and writers. Other recipients include former UN Secretary General, Kofi Anani, Toni Morrison and Nelson Mandela, both Nobel Prize laureates. At Michigan State University Mugabe joins former US President Bill Clinton and former Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chretien. By inducting Mugabe into this exclusive club, the universities ignored the victims of Mugabe’s violent rule. They abused the sanctity of honorary degrees. An honorary degree is awarded as a decoration for exemplary global citizenship. According to University of Massachusetts policy, honorary degrees are awarded out to people "of great accomplishment and high ethical standards.'' So, what really happened? Why did these and other Western universities fete and honor the dictator in spite of all these glaring atrocities? Mugabe may be a serial honorary degree collector but he applied for none of them. He was nominated and selected. Let’s not forget that the nomination process is stringent. Several persons are nominated. A strict committee review follows prior to approval. There can only be one reason why the Gukurahundi massacres escaped the radar: euphoria. Even as Mugabe’s killing machine pulverised Matabeleland and the Midlands, the West and much of the world were too ecstatic over the overthrow of the racist white regime of Ian Douglas Smith to notice. Mugabe was the hero of the day, a rare African statesman. These universities just had to be part of his celebrity status. would-be killers, as long as their actions were deemed to be safeguarding the security of the country. The immunity was granted following the kidnapping of foreign tourists by the so called dissidents. [...] The West used Mugabe and vice, versa. Mugabe had his double personality to thank. At his most Gukurahundi-era evil, he was the humane revolutionary who ended the oppressive white regime of Rhodesia. He either successfully masqueraded as the model of African democracy or the excitable West picked him for one. He successfully played the relentless anti-apartheid campaigner. He became the African international statesman the continent rarely produced. We are not naïve to believe the Western assertion that Robert Mugabe now stinks. This is a new, repackaged accusation for an old crime. We are now witnessing a stampede to expose the real Robert Mugabe. On the surface the West has come to its senses and realized its faux pax. In reality, it’s all politics as usual. All universities have decisive protocol for awarding honorary degrees but none for their revocation. The three universities couldn’t just wake up in the morning and recall their degrees. New rules for revocation would have to be drafted, debated and passed before they can be implemented. My guess is that Mugabe, now 83, will be lying comfortably in his grave before any of his honorary degrees are officially withdrawn. The West’s double standard will not help its regime change agenda either. The lavish patronage Mugabe received at his most ruthless is fresh in the collective Zimbabwean memory. We are not blind to the sympathy currently lavished on some leaders of the struggle against the dictator. [...] http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/opinion261.16302.html Last edited by Alex Linder; March 15th, 2008 at 06:41 PM. |
March 15th, 2008 | #89 |
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In Zimbabwe, a nation dominated by government owned media, keeping up with the political realities is an impossible and risky undertaking. Media in Zimbabwe is dominated by a state owned daily newspaper, and state owned radio and television. All reports carried by state media are unsurprisingly partial to the government.
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March 15th, 2008 | #90 |
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There are two opposed groups; if you are pro-government, people suspect you are a member of the feared Central Intelligence Organization (CIO). And if you complain about the status quo like most Zimbabweans do, the dreaded CIO place you on surveillance under suspicion of stoking up violence and baying for the regime change. Once labelled thus, one quickly becomes known a western stooge. Families have been torn apart by these suspicions.
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March 15th, 2008 | #91 |
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15 Mar 08
The Elephant Killing Fields of Zimbabwe I was sent this extract by Samira, my sister in law, who lives in Mozambique. It made my blood boil. I don’t know who the author is, but the story speaks for itself. Emmanuel. A family holiday should not encompass the sights that we saw in Zimbabwe this last December. We decided to go north-west of Hwange National Park to Kazuma Pans after bitter disappointment in Hwange’s poorly maintained campsites with no electricity or running water, the relative exorbitant park fees, rangers openly drying game meat even in the public toilets and seeing nothing more than a few very skittish animals fleeing from the sounds of our vehicles. Sometimes the animals fled so fast that we were uncertain as to what it was we had seen “Was that a cheetah or a baboon?” one of the kids would ask. No one was certain. One of the Hwange Wardens, however, tried to discourage us saying “You’ll never make it, the road is treacherous, I got stuck 7 times on that road only yesterdayŠ.. anyway, there are no animals there, go up to Zambezi National Park, it’s better”. According to an old brochure, it states that “Kazuma Pans is a 30 000 hectare sanctuary for animals outside of the private hunting concessions” and so we thought it would offer more than what we had seen thus far and decided to go regardless of his warning. Well the road to Kazuma fell short of his description. We wondered what the Warden was trying to do Â* chase us out of the area or cover something up. Kazuma Pans is like no other park we’ve visited in Africa with massive expansive pans filled with newly sprouted bright green grasses with patches of water and the occasional palm tree. One can see for a kilometre or two across the pans and it is a birders paradise with various storks, ducks and birds of prey including Crested Eagles. Yet at night, it is eerily silent with no animal sounds at all, except for the rain frogs. No people and strangely no animals. We felt like the last people on earth. We decided to drive across the pans to other side on a morning game drive. The only significant sighting was a herd of some 400 buffalo grazing on the pan but as we approached they took fright and they heavily galloped off with their little tails curled up. We came across an elephant skull and skeleton that had been blanched white in the scorching sun. The magnitude of the skull, the length of a rib and size of the femur bones was astounding and something none of us, especially the children, had ever seen close up before. Maybe this sighting was rather unusual. Don’t elephants cover up their dead? We continued down the road, but within a short period you could smell the sweet stench of a carcass. Another elephant. This time it was more recent with most of the skin still intact, but again no tusks. The positioning of the twisted body looked peculiar with its head wrenched away from its body, its mouth gaping open as if calling out in pain. It was horrific and the children became quiet as the adults looked knowingly at each other. This elephant did not die naturally. For then we saw the bullet hole in this once majestic giant. It was time to move on. As we turned the next corner, we all gasped as before us is a scene from “The Killing Fields”. In this green field of bush with young sprouting Mopani trees were twenty plus elephant carcasses and bones scattered everywhere. Lots of bones. Carcasses with beautiful yellow butterflies sitting on them. Added to the sweet decaying smell was an oily odour. The bones are blackened as if they have been burnt with diesel. Perhaps it is to discourage scavengers or else to hide the evidence. That distinct smell haunted us all for days after. Just how many dead elephants were there in this field? Who did this? The children stayed in the cars looking forlorn with tears falling and only a few of us had the courage to walk through the field. I had mistakenly taken a tail for an infant’s trunk. Where were the babies as there was no evidence of them? What had happened here? Were only the adult elephants taken out and the remainder of the herd fled? Who did this? Who would allow this to happen? This killing field is no more than a few hundred metres from Kazuma Hunting Lodge. Kazuma Hunting Lodge? But there is not supposed to be any hunting in Kazuma. Well that’s changed. The Lodge was unoccupied as the hunting season is over for the year. In the middle of the lodge is a thatched structure incorporating the reception, lounge and bar with two elephant skulls at the entrance. Behind the bar, we found the visitors book. The vast majority are Americans boosting of their successes: “Shot the big four in 10 days” “An 80 pounder on the first day” “We came to the place of the elephants. Secured a 65 pounder, 43″ sable and a 7′ 6″ leopard was the icing on the cake. Hope to be back soon”. “Meals prepared from our game were superbŠ We wish we could bring all our new friends home with us. I guess we will have to be happy with Jim’s leopard, eland, kudu, sable, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, hyena and baboon”. The last recorded hunt was in August 2007 with three hunters from Utah, Minneapolis and San Diego. I feel deeply saddened at the trophy hunters’ brazen bragging and their evident lack of understanding, but it was this entry that turned my sadness to rage: “169 elephants in 8 days. Nowhere comes close”. Not a wonder then that we did not see any game and the few buffalos ran away. Rob and Barry Styles of Buffalo Range Safaris are frequently mentioned as the professional hunters. The brothers have been linked with Mugabe cronies and it appears that the Zimbabwe Government has sanctioned these activities for financial gain from the American trophy hunters’ fees as they plunder the last remaining game from Zimbabwe’s national parks. Zimbabwe has long had game watchers and game hunters together in the same vicinity. However, the game hunters have now claimed this land and game watchers are no longer welcome. This is not “the place of the elephants” for we never saw a single live elephant. It is an elephant graveyard. We won’t be back soon. I guess the game is over. http://baraza.wildlifedirect.org/200...s-of-zimbabwe/ |
April 1st, 2008 | #92 |
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No question
Easter Sunday - 23rd March 2008 Dear Family and Friends, When Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF came to power in April 1980, inflation in the newly named Zimbabwe was 7%. Twenty years later, Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF were still in power and in June 2000 Parliamentary elections were held in the country. Farm invasions had been underway for nearly four months and inflation was at 59,3%. A standard loaf of bread cost sixteen dollars, a single banana was four dollars and a dozen eggs were thirty five dollars. Zanu PF retained power in the elections. In March 2002 Presidential elections were held in Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe was again the candidate for the ruling party and had just turned 78. Farm invasions were continuing, companies and businesses had been invaded and inflation was 113%. Maize meal, sugar, cooking oil and margarine were not available in shops and a dozen eggs cost a hundred and fifty dollars. Mr Mugabe was declared the winner of the elections. In April 2005 Parliamentary elections were held in the country. Zanu PF and Mr Mugabe had been in power for 25 years, factories were closing or relocating to other countries. Most commercial farms had been taken over and inflation was at 129%. Daily electricity cuts of 2-4 hours were commonplace, fuel queues stretched to many hundreds of vehicles and the shops were bare of sugar, salt, margarine and other basics. A loaf of bread cost four thousand dollars and a single banana was one thousand dollars. Zanu PF were declared the winners of the election. In November 2005 elections were held for the previously disbanded Senate. Inflation in the country was at 502% and a loaf of bread cost twenty thousand dollars. On the 29th of March 2008 Zimbabwe will hold combined Parliamentary, Presidential, Senate and Municipal elections. Mr Mugabe is 84 years old and is again standing as the head of the party. Zanu PF have been in power 28 years. Inflation stands at over 100 thousand percent. Electricity cuts last for 16 hours a day at least, water is rare, fuel only obtainable to people with US dollars. Shops are empty of all goods. A loaf of bread costs 7 million dollars (actually 7 billion dollars as three zeroes were removed from the currency.) A dozen eggs costs 36 million dollars (actually 36 billion dollars) and a single banana is 3 million (actually 3 billion dollars). There is no question who to vote for in a few days time. We must vote for ourselves, our children and our physical survival.The time is now, the power is in our hands. Until next time, love cathy. Unchartered water Sunday 30th March 2008 Dear Family and Friends, We finally arrived at the March 29th elections in typical Zimbabwean splendour. It was a glorious day with a clear, bright blue sky, a warm sun and everywhere an overwhelmingly positive feeling. The mood was one of anticipation and relief that at last this momentous day had arrived and it would surely mark the turning point and define the future of Zimbabwe. Voting started with long queues at a few polling stations in my home area but nothing even remotely similar to the elections of 2002 and 2005 when we had waited for ten or more hours to vote. This time people waited for short periods and by mid day the queues had reduced considerably. The actual voting process was efficient and streamlined and many polling stations were completely deserted by early afternoon - hours before the close of the election. At 7am on the 30th March, 12 hours after polling stations had closed and counting had been underway, there was still no official information or any election results. By 11 am, 16 hours into the counting process numerous phone calls had come in from excited, exhausted people telling of major opposition wins but still no official announcements were forthcoming. On the government controlled ZBC television there were no analysts, commentators or even news stories of Zimbabwe's most crucial election. Finally at midday a short announcement was made by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. They said results were being collated and verified and would be announced in "due course." As I write this letter the polls have been closed and counting has been underway for over 27 hours and still not a single official result from even one constituency has been announced. Tallying results publicly displayed at individual polling stations, the MDC have declared that they have a strong advantage. British Foreign Secretary Lord Malloch Brown has said that it is "quite likely that Mr Mugabe has lost the election" and Pan African Election Observers are expressing growing concern at the lack of official results. As each hour passes without any official results, anxiety and suspicions are growing. We are in uncharted water. Never before has there been a complete media blackout after an election. We can do nothing but hope and pray that somehow we will emerge from this with a true and honest reflection of the will of the people. Perhaps by the time you read this letter the facts will be known, I hope so. Until next time, love cathy. http://cathybuckle.com/march2008.shtml |
April 1st, 2008 | #93 |
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Mugabe’s sister and the white farmer
Zimbabwe's beleaguered President Robert Mugabe has not only recalcitrant voters to cope with. He also has to deal with a personal tragedy. His elder sister, Sabina Mugabe, died in hospital on Sunday, after a long illness. Sabina served her brother's Zanu-PF party for 20 years as an MP. But she is best remembered for the manner by which she acquired a previously white-owned farm in Mugabe's controversial land redistribution programme. She was known to tour farming areas in her black Mercedes, looking for choice properties, and in 2002 she visited the 400-acre Gowrie Farm of Terry Ford, in Norton, 40 kilometres west of Harare. Sabina told Ford that she wanted his farm. Ford refused to hand it over. Later that year a gang of so-called war veterans began to threaten Ford, but the farmer, described by friends as a 'gentle giant', still refused to go. After a night of further threats, his body was found by neighbours in the morning. He had been badly beaten, then shot in the head. Ford was, by most counts, the tenth white farmer to lose his life in the cause of land reform in Zimbabwe. It was claimed at the time that Sabina was in no way connected. http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people...e-farmer,23270 |
April 3rd, 2008 | #94 |
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Israeli startup accused of rigging Zimbabwe's elections
Coming soon: Florida By Sylvie Barak: Thursday, 03 April 2008, 5:12 PM A SMALL ISRAELI STARTUP has found itself embroiled in the political storm surrounding the recent Zimbabwean elections, with accusations that the ruthless dictator of 28 years, Robert Mugabe, has tried to use its software to rig the recent vote. Cogniview, a data conversion software startup based in Israel, was accused by the newspaper “Zimbabwe Online” of providing software, able to alter PDF files, to Mugabe’s ZANU party, to change voter registration lists and rig the vote in their favour. They also accuse the company of working with the Israeli secret service, Mossad, to keep the dictator in power. Cogniview CEO, Yoav Ezer, told the Inquirer in a phone interview that he had been “completely surprised” by the allegations, adding, “they are science fiction to us”. There is currently major tension in the African nation as election results trickle in at snail’s pace, increasing the suspicion by most of the country’s opposition and observing foreigners that Mugabe and his cronies are desperately trying to make last ditch attempts to falsify votes and keep themselves in power. Ezer explained what he thought had led to the confusion about his company being spread through the Zimbabwean press. He claims that open source PDF converting software developed by his company a year ago, CC PDF converter (available for free online), which allows anything printable to be converted into PDF, was used by officials to compile voter data. The program adds a Creative Commons license to the last page of its documents, including a link to Cogniview’s website. The voter-roles provided to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) by Zimbabwean officials were in PDF format and had this very link attached, on the final page. This led the MDC to jump to the angry conclusion that it was all an Israeli concocted Mossad plot, to fiddle with their democracy. The accusations started coming in thick and fast, flooding the tiny ten employee company with accusations of selling “the Zimbabwean people for 20 pieces of silver” (or $3 million dollars as the rumours have it) by working for Mugabe. Eventually, Ezer realized that the accusations could seriously damage his company’s reputation, and went online to blog his refutation of them. The post, entitles “codswallop” says “here’s my official response … this story is NOT TRUE. In fact it could have only been more fictional if we were accused of using alien technology." He also told the Inquirer that not only did Cogniview not have any connection to the Zimbabwean elections, they also had no prior connection to Zimbabwe whatsoever. Ezer added that he was happy that people in Zimbabwe appreciated his company’s software, but that it was free and available to anyone, anywhere. Ezer also said that he had been in contact with an exiled MDC activist by the name of Phil Matibe, who currently resides in the US, and that Mr Matibe had promised to discuss the matter with party leadership in order to secure a retraction of the accusations. To prove that his company had nothing to do with either Robert Mugabe or the Israeli Mossad, Ezer said that any “respectable party” (by which he means the UN, US, or European Union) who want to investigate the matter would get Cogniview’s full cooperation. He said that they would be given unlimited access to the company’s legal and financial records, and that they could feel free to interview any company employee. He added, “Heck, they can strap us all to lie-detectors - we have nothing to hide”. http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...ccused-rigging |
April 5th, 2008 | #95 |
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A pebble on the road
Wednesday 2nd April 2008 Dear Family and Friends, It has been an excruciating three and a half days waiting for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to announce the results of the March 29th elections. At the time of writing this letter at 3.30 pm on the 2nd April 2008, the full parliamentary results have not yet been announced. None of the figures for the Presidential, Senate and Local Council elections have been announced at all. The results are coming out at un-advertised intervals and at rate slower than a snails pace. The waiting has been utterly exhausting, not to mention cause for considerable suspicion but, as we Zimbabweans are so good at doing, we have waited patiently and calmly. After all, we've been waiting for change since February 2000 so a few more hours or days is a mere pebble on our rocky road. On the evening of the 1st April 2008 after hours of frantic international media speculation about deals, talks and resignations, MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai addressed a press conference. As one, those of us who had access to the broadcast, sat forward in our seats. Mr Tsvangirai's words will go down in the history of this long and painful struggle we are nearing the end of. In part he said: "I would like to thank the millions who came to reclaim their dignity and invest in the change they can trust. The votes cast on Saturday was for a change and a new beginning. It was a vote for jobs; it was a vote for food, for dignity, for respect, for decency and equality, for tolerance, for love and for trust." Mr Tsvangirai urged the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to proceed with haste in announcing the full results of the election and said that the MDC would be disclosing their own tabulated totals on Wednesday. He said there were no deals, talks or resignations and wouldn't be until all results had been announced officially. At 1.30pm on Tuesday the 2nd of April 2008 the MDC announced that they had won the parliamentary and presidential elections in Zimbabwe. Speaking at a press conference in Harare, MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti announced the following results based on figures which had been displayed outside polling stations as prescribed by electoral law. 2,832,243 votes had been cast. 99 parliamentary seats had been won by the MDC (Tsvangirai) 96 seats had been won by Zanu PF 11 seats had been won by MDC (Mutambara) 1 seat had been won by independent Jonathan Moyo. 3 further parliamentary seats were subject to by-election and Mr Biti said the MDC were confident of securing victory in these constituencies too. With regard to the results of the Presidential votes, Mr Tendai Biti announced the following percentages: 50,3% to Morgan Tsvangirai 43,8% to Robert Mugabe 7 % to Simba Makoni As a result of the above figures Tendai Biti said: "Morgan Richard Tsvangirai has won this election." Two hours after the MDC had announced victory the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission produced another batch of 11 results which give Zanu PF 93 seats, MDC (Tsvangirai) 96 seats, MDC (Mutambara) 9 seats and 1 seat to Independent candidate Jonathan Moyo. A further 7 results are still outstanding. Its not clear how this is going to end but what is clear is that the avalanche towards change has started. It may take a few days or even a few weeks but we will continue to wait patiently until we can stand up with dignity and self respect and say that we are proud to be Zimbabweans. Until my next letter, thanks for reading this update. With love cathy. "That's the moment you should quit politics" Saturday 5th April 2008 Dear Family and Friends, As we stand exhausted and betrayed at this critical moment in Zimbabwe's crisis, it seems pertinent to look back over the last few days and record who said what. On the 29th March shortly after casting his ballot Mr Mugabe said: "We are not in the habit of rigging... We don't rig elections. I cannot sleep with my conscience if I have rigged," On the 29th March, sure that Zanu PF would win the elections, Mr Mugabe said: "We will succeed. We will conquer. Why should I cheat? The people are there supporting us. The moment the people stop supporting you, then that's the moment you should quit politics." On the 29th March asked if he would participate in a run off Presidential election should the result not be decisive, Mr Mugabe dismissed the suggestion and said: "We are not in the habit of boxing matches here. We knock each other out in the first round." In an evening press conference on the 1st April MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai said: "Zimbabwe will never be the same again; the people have spoken with one voice. I would like to thank the millions who came to reclaim their dignity and invest in the change they can trust." In the evening of the 1st April the world media went into a frenzy and reported that a deal had been done and Mr Mugabe was about to step down. The news didn't last long and a CNN reporter said: "What's clear is that nothing is clear." On the 2nd April at a press conference MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti announced election results based on figures displayed as public notices outside polling stations. Biti said: "Zanu PF have lost this election. Morgan Richard Tsvangirai is the next president of Zimbabwe." On the 3rd April, long before the results of the Presidential election had been announced, Deputy Minister of Information Bright Matonga said: "Zanu PF is ready for a run-off, we are ready for a resulting victory. ... we only applied 25 per cent of our energy into this campaign... we are going to unleash the other 75 per cent that we did not apply in the first case." On the 3rd April the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said: "If he (Mr Mugabe) wants to come here, the (Malaysian) government should welcome him. If he has lost, he has to accept the decision of the people, that is the best thing he can do." On the 4th of April, before the results of the Presidential election had been announced, Zanu PF Secretary Didymus Mutasa confirmed that Mr Mugabe would contest in a re-run. He said: "We are down but not out. Absolutely the candidate will be Robert Gabriel Mugabe - who else would it be other than our dear old man?" On the 4th April, hinting at what will inevitably be the slogan if there is re-run of the election, war veteran leader Jabulani Sibanda said: "It now looks like these elections were a way to open for the reinvasion of this country [by the British]." And so now we wait. We thought our poor broken country had suffered enough and that at last our prayers had been answered - it seems not - not yet. Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy. http://cathybuckle.com/april2008.shtml |
November 14th, 2008 | #96 |
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Zimbabwe Hyperinflation to Set World Record
by Tom McGregor Fri, Nov 14, 2008, 05:45 PM Inflation levels are on pace at 13.2 billion percent a month and could surpass an all-time record within weeks. The most recent figures put the nation’s annual rate at 516 quintillion percent – 516 followed by 18 zeros – overtaking Yugoslavia in 1994 and placing it behind only Hungary in 1946. The Daily Telegraph of London reports that, “with goods unavailable and official statistics widely distrusted, the Cato Institute in Washington calculated the figures based on exchange rate movements and market data.” Hungary in post World War II, monthly inflation reached 12,950,000,000,000,000 percent with prices doubling every 15.5 hours – Zimbabwean prices are currently doubling every 1.3 days. The most notorious hyperinflation, Weimar, Germany in 1923, is in a distant fourth place, at 29,525 percent a month with prices doubling every 3.7 days. The consequences are appalling for ordinary Zimbabweans and they must spend the money as soon as they get it before losing its value. Yet, the dysfunctional economy reveals that goods are in desperately short supply, and they need to spend hours foraging to find things to buy. Consequently, there comes a point where the inflation rate makes little practical difference. Supermarkets in Harare are only accepting U.S. dollars and South African rands, leaving many Zimbabweans without access to foreign currency in very dire straits. According to the Telegraph, the latest official figure for inflation in Zimbabwe – dating back to July – is 231 million percent a year. Robert Mugabe’s government blames foreign sanctions for the economic turmoil. An expert believes that the only way to halt the rise was to abolish the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which plays a vital role for the regime. Comments (1)add comment ... written by Steve Heath , November 15, 2008 29 nations have suffered hyper-inflation in the last century. We stand to be one of the next. It may be beyond our control. The Global economic summit this weekend could very well result in a chain of events that sets hyper-inflation in motion. It may take several months. We have some very serious problems, which require solutions that are not being put forward by either party. I hope people start realizing this. It's too late to stop the pain and consequeces. It is never too late to start preparing for the aftermath. Hyper-inflation may or may not be in the cards. It depends on how we respond to this crisis. We need to realize that things will never be the same-at least not in the next decadeor so, maybe in our lifetimes. We are entering a new era. The present world financial system, which is based on U.S. dollar supremacy is over. I hope Obama understands this. If not, I hope Republicans begin to understand this. We have a serious period of readjustment in which we need to start the process of getting back to financial responsibility and sanity. http://www.dallasblog.com/2008111410...ld-record.html |
November 29th, 2008 | #97 | |
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A Blast From The Past.
Quote:
http://wasearch.loc.gov/sep11/200111...esfinished.htm
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December 2nd, 2008 | #98 | |
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Zim Soldiers Chimp Out.
Quote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ca/7759060.stm
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December 6th, 2008 | #99 | |
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Quote:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa...=ib_topstories
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December 6th, 2008 | #100 | |
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More On The Chimp Out. Soldiers Executed.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/
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