Saturday
Feb232008
Happy Birthdat Robert Mugabe
Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 1:34PM Yup, the old dictator, human rights abuser, and all round corrupt leader, Robert Mugabe, is 85 years old today...
My mom always says 'If you don't have anything nice to say, rather just say nothing.'
So, here goes....
NOTHING
Reader Comments (6)
Mmmm, I think your Mum and mine must've studied the same "How to Raise Your Children" book!
So I too shall say nothing..............
LOve & blessings Janet
PS. How long do we have to wait for the news? The suspense is killing me!!
Nothing it is!
"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing,
of just going along,
listening to all the things you can't hear,
and not bothering."
*
~Pooh's Little Instruction Book
Morning Dion! Hope you had a good night! Was just wandering about your friend who was taking food to the Zim Pensioners. How is he doing?
Love & blessings Janet
-----Original Message-----
From: Cathy Buckle [mailto:cbuckle@mango.zw]
Sent: 23 February 2008 04:54 PM
To: African Tears
Subject: 85 trucks of food
Dear Family and Friends,
Headline news on the propaganda mill one day this week was that three
trillion Zimbabwe dollars had been raised for President Mugabe's 84th
birthday party. I thought about what you could do with that much money but
before I could work it out I had to check in a dictionary just exactly how
much a trillion was.
My sources say that a billion is a thousand million and a trillion is a
million million. This means that for the President's birthday celebration
being held in Beitbridge, there is a pile of money which on paper is a 3
followed by 12 zeroes. Even in Zimbabwe's collapsed state, 3 trillion
dollars is a huge amount of money. It didn't take long before my kitchen
table was littered with bits of scrap paper covered with handwritten sums.
Why didn't I just use a calculator you might ask? That's simple, there are
too many digits and so this sum had to be done by hand.
The calculations took some time to perform and the results were shocking.
For three trillion dollars I could buy three million kilograms of maize
meal at the present Grain Marketing Board price of a million dollars a kg.
This, of course, is assuming that the GMB had any maize meal for sale,
which they say they haven't. Allowing half a kg of maize meal per person, 6
million Zimbabweans, half the population of the country, could have had one
decent meal with the President's birthday party money. A friend who is far
more mathematically minded than me, and had more patience with all those
lines of zeroes, worked the figures out a different way. 85 trucks, each
holding 35 tonnes of maize, could have been filled with the three trillion
dollars of birthday party money.
Moving away from the dollars, I went in search of ingredients usually found
at a birthday party. Three major supermarket chains which have outlets all
over the country were visited. The cake came first on my list but there was
no flour, sugar, margarine, baking powder, milk or eggs in any of the
supermarkets. Puddings and sweet treats were next on my list but there was
no jelly, instant pudding, custard, biscuits or tarts to buy. Sandwiches, I
thought, they are good for parties but there was no bread or rolls, no
spread, cheese, cold meats or sandwich fillings to buy. What about a hot
meal I thought but there was no maize meal, rice, pasta or potatoes and so
that idea was also a non starter.
The shopping list and the search for ingredients was a pointless exercise
but at least it was easier than trying to understand the latest official
inflation figures. In January 2008 inflation was one hundred thousand, five
hundred and eighty percent - it is the stuff of hellish nightmares and the
reason why we parents can't sleep at night.
Trying to understand three trillion dollars was utterly absurd for an
ordinary mum in a collapsed country. Hardest of all though was knowing that
half the population of the country could have gone to bed tonight on a full
stomach if the birthday party had been sacrificed for the suffering, hungry
people of a country whose 84 year old ruler has been in power for almost 28
years. Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy. Copyright cathy
buckle 23 February 2008.
www.cathybuckle.com My books: "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are
available
in South Africa from: books@clarkesbooks.co.za and in the UK from:
orders@africabookcentre.com
To subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write to:
cbuckle@mango.zw
ROBERT MUGABE MUST DIE !!!!
HE IS WORSE THAN HITLER EVER WAS.
HITLER IS A LITTLEBABY AGAINST HIM.
PUT A BULLET THROUGH HIS HEAD. GIVE THE COUNTRY A WHITE LEADER AND YOU WILL SEE THE DIFFERANCE IN 1 YAER,
CKK
Dear anonymous,
Thank you for your comment. I am afraid that I cannot agree with the content of it. I do not advocate any form of violence.
I do however share the frustration with many that we (South Africa) are doing so little to change what is clearly a very corrupt and abusive situation.
It pains me that we have such an inept president in South Africa who seems to have been co-opted by Mr Mugabe.
What I advocate is prayer, diplomacy and political intervention.