Note: Freedom Of Speech Is Still Banned In Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe: the New Klling Fields

The following is a disturbing report from Bulawayo Agenda, a civic group based in Bulawayo.

Victoria falls: - Sunday, 26 Oct, 2008 the Red Cross Society delivered food aid for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis patients. It’s a generally accepted notion that taking medication on empty stomachs worsens ailments.

Lack of basic commodities and the inaccessibility of sufficient money to buy food have led to many people going for days without food.

Hunger has forced many Zimbabweans to eat indigestible things like rinds and dried seeds.

Eating such things has resulted in many people suffering from constipation. Amongst the people who lack sufficient food are those who have to take medication daily but are failing to do so as they are advised to take medication after having eaten satiating food.

Health conditions are worsened by taking medication on empty stomachs
in as much as they are worsened by not taking medication at all.

The report also added that Environment Africa had suspended the distribution of maize and groundnut seeds amidst fears that people were now washing off the
fertilizer and eat the grain.

RGM's Creepie Crawlies

The so-called Zimbabwe's war veterans have threatened to take action against opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and urged President Robert Mugabe to form a government without him.

Jabulani Sibanda, that Johnny-come-lately who chairs the militant grouping of “war veterans” of Zimbabwe's war of independence, said Tsvangirai was stalling the power-sharing deal, still in a deadlock over cabinet posts.

"He is leaving the people of Zimbabwe with one option: to take action," Sibanda told The Herald.

"If he behaves the way he is behaving, this nation will take action to defend itself from him." Defend itself? How? What has Tsvangirai done foe the nation to defend itself?

What he means by “nation ”are basically thugs who masquerade as the keepers of Zimbabwe. Jabulani Sibandawas under ten years old when Zimbabwe’s first prime minister, Robert Mugabe was sworn in in 1980.

The so-called war veterans are just a bunch of brainless psycopaths who claim that they are prepared to die for the president,and yet have shown cowardice whenever MDC supporters retaliate against their brutality.

This bunch of hooligans was responsible for the farm invasions which have led to the hunger situation that is prevailing in the country today.

Several white farmers were killed by these thugs, and during elections they have routimnely raped, murdered, tortured and terrorised villagers and urban supporters of the MDC.

They have so far done nothing to develop the country.Everywhere you look, raw sewerage and treated water flows from every hole in every corner, due to the incompetence of the Zanu PF reaction. ZINWA, and yet they don’t defend the nation against such shoddiness. Most suburbs have not has normal electricity for the past three years, and the shops are empty. Transport fares, rents, food prices, and everything else goes up every day.

And what are the “war veterans” doing about this?

Now they dare address themselves as “the nation”. One just wishes they would go back under the rock they crawled from.

What a bunch of pathetic failures!

F**K ALL POLITICANS

I got up on the wrong side of the bed today, feeling angry about my inability to do something about the world’s wretched people, but mostly feeling angry about politicians.

I hate politicians. I despise them. I loathe the motherf**kers. They are lairs, they are thieves, they are murderers.

In our society there are some people who really feel good whenever they donate or give to the needy. Good for them. But I always find it difficult to give money or food to a beggar, even though something always tugs at my heartstrings whenever I pass one. The reason being that it really won’t make any difference.

Increasingly in my travels, I have come across a motley crew of beggars; some who look so pathetic you can’t help flooding yours eyes with tears of guilt.

Most beggars are down and out people who have tried everything in their power except stealing, to get a decent meal.

But what really hurt my feelings are the children accompanying these beggars. And then there are those who are all alone, presumably orphans or children who have been chased away by their step-mothers.

Zimbabwe, like any other African country, is awash with them.

In Blantyre I recently came across a young boy, around ten or eleven, who looked so hungry he couldn’t have been faking it. He was standing outside a store, looking expectantly at the faces of customers who had just bought their lunches. His eyes darted everywhere, hoping that someone would throw him leftovers. I bought him a Fanta and a big bun, but I do not know what he got for the next day, or the day after... And I was too angry to ask his name.

Blantyre has a disturbing number of women beggars who are usually accompanied by at least four to five children each, most of them malnourished and dirty. But compared to Blanytre, Zimbabwe’s beggars are in a worse position because their poverty is entirely the making of Zanu PF’s asinine and vindictive brutality on its own people.

I tried to fight back the emotions that were welling up within me, but instead I found myself getting emotionally angry. Yes, angry with Africa’s politicians. They have the power to end these cases of poverty, but what do they do? They loot and loot and loot.

Bakili Muluzi (the Loser) is busy preparing himself for a come back of sorts: to contest next year’s presidential elections. The buffoon wants to become president again, even though the constitution bars him from doing so.

The only reason he wants to come back is to get back at Bingu Wa Mutharika, whom he handpicked, for turning against him. The amount of money he is spending in campaigning could feed several hundreds of beggars for a year.

Africa’s poverty has been caused largely by politicians who spent the greater part of their time talking bullshit instead of changing the lives oft their people for the better.

But kudos to Mutharika for all the good work he has been doing in Malawi since he became president. He recently pledged to embark on a "green belt" programme to enable the country, in the long run, to say goodbye to hunger and international food aid. He recently appealed at the UN General Assembly to the G-8 countries “to support us to create a green belt around our lakes and along our rivers to irrigate land up to 20 kilometres from the shores. The Malawi government plans to grow a lot of rice, wheat, maize, millet, cassava, potatoes and beans for the local and international market”.

He said: "The green belts, if implemented, would help us harvest crops all year round, thereby curbing any food shortages that haunted the country in the past. We have been blessed with abundant water resources, which can be used to make the green belts programme work,"

Let’s hope he won’t start exporting all the food once they get a surplus, just like a certain mad leader to the southwest of Malawi did some time ago. And let’s hope he wins a second term so that his dreams are realised.

Bingu Wa Mutharika recently won a United Nations (UN) Global Creative Leadership Award for consistently addressing national issues with a goal of developing actionable solutions and new partnerships(whaever that means!).

Mutharika also scooped the first ever Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Network (Fanrpan) food security policy leadership award for reviving the country’s fertilizer subsidy programme recently.

Good on ye mate.

But all the same : f**k Africa’s politicians.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist Mwana Wevhu (a pen name which means "son of the soil" - Freedom Of Speech Is Still Banned In Zimbabwe) is a freelance writer who lives In Zimbabwe. Click here to contact Mr. Wevhu.