Zimbabwe Absurdity

Monday is Heroes Day in Zimbabwe, a national holiday. According to the letter I was hand delivered to my office earlier this week  “Once again it is the time for us to celebrate the day when we remember Zimbabwe’s heroes.

These men and women who did not only contribute to the total political liberation of out country, but guided and contributed to the Zimbabwe we now live in. (Do I detect a trace of irony here?) Others had dreams, which have to be fulfilled.” I am really clueless as to the meaning of the last sentence.

Yes, once again, ZANU-PF was on the scrounge and once again they were trying to gain a veneer of respectability by using the owner of Eskbank Farm to write the letter. He even had the cheek to start off “Dear Friends and Comrades”. Get it right mate, I am neither of those.  He had even “…set three million ($3 000 000-00) as minimum contribution per farmer”.  This so that “In view of the above current hard times…” they could have a party. Forgive me for being slow but why don’t they just stand on a street corner and shake a donation tin? Then on Thursday the local ZANU-PF representative called by “just to see if I’d come to any decision” regarding the donation. When I said that I could not see why I was being asked to contribute to the ZANU-PF coffers he very quickly said no, ZANU-PF was just organizing the party and donations were not at all compulsory. Well thank goodness for that. Then he received a call on his cell phone and walked out. Yesterday I did not spend too much time around the office as “…pledges and donations..” had to be in “..by 10/08/2007 at Eskbank Farm (Deadline for contributions 10-08-2007)”. I guess not everyone can be trusted to recognize the official date format. I showed the letter to the others who have businesses on the premises and it generated little enthusiasm.

This morning I went past a small orphanage not far from here that I support with vegetable seedlings. There are about 11 children there, not all are orphans, some are from abusive homes and are in foster care, others abandoned by parents leaving the country or unable to support them. Most are pre-teens and all colours are catered for. The cat is also a stray and because there was no cat food it was being fed milk and bread. Cats are obligate carnivores so although I am not a cat person I dropped off some pets’ mince for it. We also had a great time sieving sand for the fish tank that unknowingly had been filled with gravel from a lithium ore!

Like most underprivileged children the kids there are very easy to entertain though I must add that they are well cared for. The couple running the setup where hoping to retire but got caught up in looking after these needy children.  They get by entirely on donations from various organizations and individuals and are as far as possible self sufficient. Heroes indeed.