No one has any confidence at all in Zimbabwe's ability to grow food on farms again this year.

As you approach the capital city the view is of men and women bent over and digging. Everywhere people are digging holes and dropping pips into the ground as at last the rains have arrived. After so many years of hunger and then a cruel and punishing eighteen months when there was no food to buy in the shops because of chronic misgovernance, we don't take anything for granted anymore. If there's a place to grow food for a single meal, people are clearing that space. Within a few metres of railway lines and roads, outside people's homes and alongside every stream and river bank the land is being turned over. Around cemeteries, next to water and sewage works and even in between and underneath massive electricity pylons, mealie madness has gripped urban Zimbabwe.Water siltation, soil erosion and environmental protection have gone completely by the wayside and authorities seem not to care as our towns and cities have been turned into a maze of unplanned, un-contoured, hotch potch food growing plots. Scrappy strips of cloth, empty plastic bottles and rusty tin cups and bowls planted atop sticks, demarcate people's plots.

No one, it seems, has any confidence at all in Zimbabwe's ability to grow food on farms again this year. As people scramble desperately to plant on roadside squares, the madness goes on with renewed vigour on farms. This week we heard, not in the State media but on short wave radio, how farms in Chegutu are under attack by politicians. One farm employing over 1400 people was being forcibly taken over by a senior political player despite High Court Orders and SADC tribunal rulings protecting the farm. On this one single farm 20% of the country's wheat used to be grown. A quick glance at the recent list published in the Zimbabwean newspaper of multiple farm owners within Zanu PF says it all. Included are Ministers, Governors, the Commissioner of Police, Head of prisons and numerous other senior officials Agriculture has had no choice but to move into urban areas while the farm grabs continue. It has become common to see sunflowers, wheat and sweet potatoes growing on urban roadsides. Outside one new suburb approaching Harare someone has even planted tobacco along the roadside.

Closer into the capital city the filth starts and doesn't stop all the way into the centre of Harare. Streets named after famous Zimbabweans and regional leaders and heroes are a disgusting disgrace. The roads are lined with litter: plastic, glass, tin and paper are everywhere. Great piles of uncollected garbage sit waiting for local authorities to collect -ten months after they took office. Mounds of empty drinks tins, seething with clouds of newly hatched mosquitoes are to be found everywhere, you can almost see the malaria epidemic waiting to happen, not to mention diarrhoea and other water borne diseases.

And then, amidst the dirt and the grime and when you least expect it, you see the little gem that has the ability to raise a smile. Outside State House, in full army camouflage uniform, helmet on his head and holding an AK 47, a young soldier is behaving a bit strangely. He's sort of swaying and nodding his head and for a moment you think he must be sick. His camouflage jacket opens a fraction and then you see it. He's got a shiny iPod clipped into his belt, a little wire crawls up his chest and ends in an earpiece. The protector is listening to music while he stands guard!

I end this week on a note of congratulation and recognition for Jenni Williams and Magadonga Mahlangu who have just been awarded the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award by President Barack Obama. We are so proud of you.

Copyright cathy buckle 21 November 2009.

www.cathybuckle.com

For information on my new book: "INNOCENT VICTIMS" or my previous
books, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears," or to
subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write to: cbuckle@mango.zw

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Why do you still live in Zimbabwe Cathy been reading your articles for while. I think the best thing that you should do is leave the place that you so revile. by Buffdaddy on November 29 2009, 11:21 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Faark I love reading your letters cathy, but why do you stay? by The Joker on November 29 2009, 11:56 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

WE OWE ZIM Thank you Zim we owe you for the pre-view you are giving us as to the inevitable future of this country. The plunders and rapists of the wealth of this country (the ANC) will make sure of that. They will only stop once there is nothing left to . .more plunder. The people of Zimbabwe got what they fought for, the same will also be said about the people of South Africa.... They got what they deserved!!!! . .less by @Boston on November 29 2009, 12:51 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Cathy At the risk of sounding like a rabid racist let me just say - Absolute rubbish Cathy. Absolute trash. You reveal once again the almost cronic lack of knowledge by white africa in general of the lifestyle and condition of existence of black africa in . .more particular. You really think we had it good when you and your kinfolk had full control of all viable land? (apparently legally - you had title deeds now!) You really thought a correction would not happen? You must have thought we naive poor subhumans hadn't the slightest nerve to sacrifice ourselfs once more to correct an absolute travesty of justice in democratic and "prosperous" Zimbabwe. "Prosperous" presumably, because the skilled and experienced white farmers were running the economic engine (agriculture). I guess we should have left you at it because you were running the farms so well and "feeding the nation" Absolute rubbish! 60% of Zimbabwe's staple maize was already being grown by communal black farmers on the most marginal of land - prove me wrong! - 1996 Grain Marketing Board annual report. "Urban farming" has always been a common feature in the townships of Zim. It is a common feature in South Africa. . .less by Robert Mugabe on November 29 2009, 16:22 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Cathy You will see roadside "mealie madness" as you approach the major townships of Jo'burg e.g. Tembisa. It has nothing to do with hunger and in Zimbabwe's case, your half witted attempt to present this as yet another example of blacks suffering at the . .more hands of their tyrannical government.Your attempt to turn this normal recuring township phenomenon into a tool for propaganda is retarded and clearly shows why Zimbabwean white society "lost" "their" land in the particular way it happened - You guys just don't understand the black condition. It is the undoing of most African countries. You hear this "prosperous" Botswana rhetoric when 70% of it people live in poverty. Stop Illusioning and grow up white Africa! The natives are um no longer native! . .less by Robert Mugabe on November 29 2009, 16:30 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

White people listen up Pathetic stuff actually. Move to Sandton, get rich, laugh. The white man will always survive in Africa.Has been the case for 50 years now. lololol. by Tommy on November 29 2009, 20:08 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@ robert mugabe Umm,...you natives will always be natives actually, - its a gene thing,- maybe next lifetime ? - who knows, but for now you're a native and a native you shall stay. But hey, be black and proud man! - get down and boogie or something ! - Stop trying . .more to be like the whiteys. You just can't,--different skull, - different brain, etc. etc. Be happy,- go out and drink youself into a coma, or toy-toy or something,-do what you enjoy most . . .less by Dokktaa-Tea-cups on November 29 2009, 21:07 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@ Robert Mugabe Eish Bob. If the Zim gov(or SA's for that matter) is SO good, why is everything falling to pieces? Let me guess, its the white man and his evil ways? Grow up and get over it! you complain about the racism all the time, yet you throw comments left, . .more right and centre... how about saying something to help instead of just blowing steam... . .less by Eish on November 30 2009, 08:27 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Robert Mugabe All that Zimbabweans want is for the white farmers to return to the farms in order for them to be fed. I dont know on whose behalf you speak. Or is it a case where a Black person speak on behalf of all Blacks. I speak to hundreds of Zim Blacks on . .more a regular basis and they all hate Mugabe with a passion. . .less by ceaser on November 30 2009, 10:07 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

ZIMBOBWHERE Jacob, are you and your friends paying attention, go look, see, this is where you are dragging the rest of us. by Taffy Dee on November 30 2009, 10:26 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

And the ANC people really love this guy Bobby Mugabe? Like with like? No wonder the Malema government are sure to destroy what is left of SA. Take your money and run and all whites better get out now before the ANC take your business your home and your investments. Cathy why are you still trying to live with black . .more people? . .less by Foreign Investors Take Note on November 30 2009, 10:47 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

How long have we got left? It seems that fools like "@ Robert Mugabe" are intent in punishing the white man by destroying the white man's economic legacy. It seems the distinction between destroying apartheid and the South African Africa Economic Powerhouse cannot be made and . .more thus to be really free all aspects of the colonialists has to be destroyed. I'll bet that like the real Robert Mugabe that current ANC elite have stashed sufficient away in those racist Western bank vaults. This will obvioulsy be import to pay for those medical procedures in Western hospitals when the private health system is take over by the Govt health system. WAKE-UP MAN YOU'VE BEEN HAD! . .less by Albie on November 30 2009, 11:18 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

African theft comes in cycles It really frustrates me that some racists above seem to think that Africa is a one way bet. There will always be fabulous opportunities to get rich, somewhere in Africa. After much wealth has been created, there will be learders who will stand up . .more and demand empowerment, redistribution and other forms of liberational policies. There will be signs well in advance. A shower cap may be one. When you spot the signs, know that the end of that economy is approaching. you may have 10 or 20 years left. Carefully hedge your bets and remove your capital from anywhere these emerging criminals may emerge to steal your property. Move to an area which had been destroyed by a similar approach and where there is nothing left to steal, and where there may be a newfound desire to build again. You may have 10 or 20 years to do some business there. Alternatively, if all you want is civilised life, then move from the continent of Africa. You will never find any stability here. . .less by Frog on November 30 2009, 12:31 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Robert Mugabe It is very naive to imagine that all is well in Zim now, just as all was not well under Ian Smith. It is easy to measure success of a govt - that does not mean how rich people are but do the schools work, is health care provided and functioning, . .more clean water and sanitation, a roof over the heads of all citizens, lawand order and jobs. If Robert can truly say that all of theseparameters have improved under the current Govt then it is a good govt. Clearly this is not the case and that should be the business of any Govt. All leaders in the world should be evaluated on how they provide and protect the poorest of their citizens not the croneys and loyalists . .less by Hannibal Lecter on November 30 2009, 18:38 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Eish,Ceaser,Hannibal Lecter Ceaser my bud not all Zimbabweans love (the opposite of hate) their leader.Fact! Neither, incidentally, do I suspect all citizens of any given country would at any given time. Tony Blair was eh recalled as Labour leader and by implication Prime . .more Minister of not so Great Britain - a classic palace coup in democratic Britain. Ironically, the British electorate had given Blair a third term 2 years prior (14 years in power! so African isn't it?) But the Bristish public accepted these events because most of them hated him for his lies about Iraq, his corruption e.g. the "cash for honours affair" wherein he gave seats in the House of Lords for money paid to his honest labour party. Meanwhile in Zimbabwe not so long after that, 43% of the Zimbabwean electorate were giving Mugabe a 5th term in March 2008 elections, the most "free and fair elections ever conducted in Zim" - according to the EU and other western "independent observers". Free and Fair presumably, because Morgen van Tsvangissen won them by 47% - a paltry 4% margin.This at the height of Zimbabwe's pain Simba Makoni, a Zanu horse in the race got 8%. . .less by Robert Mugabe on November 30 2009, 21:20 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Eish,Ceaser,Hannibal Lecter So technically, Bob got 43% 8% = 51% meaning that the majority of Zimbabweans don't wish to be governed by Morgen van Tsvangissen/MDC, prefering,seemingly a fusion of Bob Mugabe and Simba Makoni - a Simba Mugabe perhaps? This explains the MDC's . .more junior status in the present government so please stop all that Bob screwed Morgen with SADC tacit support hog wash. The game gets complicated up there my lads! It's about facts and figures and the facts were NOT in the MDC's favour. My point exactly? The British and Zimbabwean electorates both elected leaders who were ruining their countries in one respect or other. Even Bush got re-elected in 2004 at the height of his lowest rankings over the screw up in Iraq. Why? Because these literate electorates (Zimbabwe is a very literate country) were expressing support for policy and national interest rather than personalities. So sure, the hundreds of Zimbos you talk to "hate Bob with a passion" but they sure do love his policies. It's an educated estimation - we hate him but damn he's doing the right thing, so we'll keep him in. I'm trying to help you understand, the increasing deftness of Zimbabweans in that they will pursue national interests at the expence of immediate wellbeing. . .less by Robert Mugabe on November 30 2009, 21:40 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Eish,Ceaser,Hannibal Lecter The MDC has never been able to mobilise Zimbos to mass action (notwithstanding their fair share of the US$23 million the US State Department officially gives to Zimbabwean opposition groups annually under ZIDERA to fight for "democracy" The reason . .more is simply because the literate Zimbabwean is able to distinguish between the policy, the interests and the man. All educated societies behave similarly........As far as the comments by Eish are concerned, I can only say: start thinking my bud. You must begin to understand that the foreign policy positions of the EU and US are eternally do NOT render themselves helpfull to African prosperity. The problem with the white Africans in general is that they are Eurocentric. They forget that they are actually African. e.g. The farm subsidies (a form of socialism) that the EU and US governments give to their agriculture will screw up any farmer in Africa black or white. When the British reneged on paying for land in Zim, it precipitated a chain of events that led to a radicalism which led to the dispossesion of the whites. Had the white farmers acted with Bob as a single national force in pursuing the British to honour their obligations, land reform could well have occured sensibly. But they dared Bob and Bob struck them. . .less by Robert Mugabe on November 30 2009, 22:07 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Eish,Ceaser,Hannibal Lecter Now in all this, you can't extricate the general white mentality from the problem. Your beloved South Africa is a case in point. You have /- 9 million people in Gauteng. 3 million of these live in shacks and they earn less than R900 a month - . .more Government grants. But livid whites wonder why crime is unbearable and want the government to kill the thugs. These 3 million blacks are actually refugees fleeing the poverty of the former bantustans and generally following the legacy of arphartheid labour policy which taxed the okes in the Khayas to induce migration to the cities. Difference is, it was controlled back then - now it is not. (the ANC can't do pass laws) The solution in my view is to reform the rural economy, decentralise the economy and sterm the flow of desperate men to the cities. This will come painfully. You will need white farmers to act in union with the black government to provide economic opportunities in rural KZN. But have the whites been listening? They are still playing their colonial sport - the cheat the native game - while social tensions fester. But Cathy Buckle, Afriforum and Solidarity aren't telling them how dangerous this is. Eventually, the polarised political landscape will breed some opportunistic characters . .less by Robert Mugabe on November 30 2009, 22:27 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Eish,Ceaser,Hannibal Lecter who will start a race war under the pretext of redistribution. The ANC too will become radical as they try to match the new political competition and before you know it, South Africa is Zimbabwe and we all wonder what happened whereupon the general . .more white guy will tell you it's the African way. Cathy Buckle can offer so many insights to prevent this but she's so caught up in her hate for Bob - a consequence of her folly as a white farmer. Can whites in general understand this kind of logic? . .less by Robert Mugabe on November 30 2009, 22:37 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Cathy Iwe Cathy, rega kuti ngwaudza ne kunyepa kwako. Uri bharansi rakaita sei risingaoni kuti game re mabhunu rakafa kare mu Zimbabwe? Manje tirikuda ku rova land grab South African phase kupera kwe world cup. Majaira ku jaira. But ticha mamisana chete!! . .more Ende land tichangoitora muchida musigande, kusvikira magona kugara zvakanaka ne mabhoyi . .less by Mabhunu Muchapera on December 01 2009, 02:09 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@rob mugabe above Your last sentence:-"Can whites in general understand this kind of logic?"sums you lot up perfectly. When you have finally f#cked up EVERYTHING on our continent and blamed EVERYBODY except your own mindless toy-toying, barbaric mobs for the . .more chaos, you then blame whites for their "inability to understand the 'logic'" of un-civilized savages . You clown. . .less by Pioneer on December 01 2009, 07:24 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Zim - the typical African theme park Replete with all the usual characteristics - unaccountability, denial, obfuscation, self-justification, unresponsiveness etc. etc. And bankrupt of course. Unable to feed itself. The masses battling the elements and disease. Suffering....always, . .more while the elite live in splendour. If black Africans are not fleeing the continent crossing the Mediterranean on rickety boats, 2,500 so-called educated Zimbos trek 1800km to once again work as cheap labour on white-run Hexriver farms. As some moron noted above "It's an educated estimation - we hate him (Mugabe) but damn he's doing the right thing, so we'll keep him in." What more can possibly be added? This lot truly seems to be self-loathing. . .less by KKK on December 01 2009, 10:44 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Robert Mugabe I am astonished that you believe the last zim elections were free and fair and that is why Mugabe won. thousands of names removed from voters roll, banning all opposition newspapers, banning almost all opposition meetings, beting up opposition . .more supporters, the list goes on endless. The fact that Morgan Tshangerai even got about 40% of the vote was a miracle. We know the reason why Mugabe went after the farmers in Zim. It was because he lost the referendum. It has nothing to do with land. He had twenty years to sort out the so called land issue but did nothing until he lost the referendum. The fact remains Zim is destroyed. People will not vote for a political party that destroys a country and allow people to starve. We all know Bush stole the election but because something happens in a first world country it is then ok if it happens in Africa. I agree with you that it is easy to breed opportunistic characters to revolt on farms as it happens now in the townships, ostensibly rioting against service delivery. it only takes one person to start a riot . .less by Ceasar on December 01 2009, 10:56 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

living in hope Mugabe & ZANU did not inherit a stinking cesspool from their former colonial masters - this disastrous mess is their own creation of neglect, greed, incompetence and stupidity. They made it exclusively for themselves and must clean it up . .more themselves. At least the desparate locals decided not to eat their seed grain and are planting it instead in the hope their crops will not be stolen by the iPOD dancing army this time. Will food security and pragmatism finally trump hate speech and ZANU klepto -ideology? . .less by mayday on December 01 2009, 15:52 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@ROBERT MUGABE ignore this verbose little native fellow by GILBERT on December 01 2009, 16:18 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Mugabe aka Ebagum ...what can I say about your diatribes? This...your ilk have muntu lated a prosperous region. Period by izoizo on December 01 2009, 16:35 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Disaster Commentators pro the current regime in Zimbabwe are all on the take and trying to cash in for as long as possible. I was up there 2 weeks ago and shocked at the dilapidated state of the roads, buildings and land in general. If that is what the . .more average Zimbabwean wanted why are millions down here in SA, my gardener and house maid included. No I am not a racist, I am a proud black South African. . .less by James on December 01 2009, 18:05 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Pioneer "When you have finally f#cked up EVERYTHING on our continent and blamed EVERYBODY except your own mindless toy-toying, barbaric mobs for the . .more chaos, you then blame whites for their "inability to understand the 'logic'" of un-civilized savages . .more . You clown"...... I have an excellent idea. You show me how destructive Africans have been and the reasons why - think a bit - and I'll show you how destructive Caucasians have been and the reasons why. The point of all this is simply to show you that humanity is the same. The average man in downtown London, Madrid, Coppenhagen,Rome etc will behave the same way at a football game as the average darkie from Soweto when he decides the ref is biased. The average English kid living in poverty on the infamous British Council Estates (now virtual military zones) will exhibit a propensity to the same despodency and deliquency as the black kid in Alexandra in the same conditions. Neither racial superiority nor inferiority - just plain crazy humanity. Here's my exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wbe__hMCNc&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFj-tuIHR00&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPCfzS-ulB8&feature=related . .less by Robert Mugabe on December 01 2009, 20:17 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@KKK and Mayday What sort of civilisation could breed Adolf Hitler? The proud Aryan Germanic peoples offcoarse! White as snow. Civilised to the core. Members of the noble Caucasian race. Well, as it so happened, the caucasians slaughtered 70 million of mostly each . .more other over 5 years (and as evidenced by the video postings above, still want to wipe each other off - eh um don't show the blacks those video clips, they might think we are the same) Okay, the Hutus tried to emulate that in Rwanda 50 years later, baging 8oo ooo Tutsi skulls. But the worst African genocide isn't anywhere remotely close to the worst caucasian genocide: 14 million souls a year, plus the cheering and the "responsinveness" and "accountability" ( I mean really, where do you get the nerve to lecture us on these things?) as Hitler butchered 6 million inferior beings of jewish stock. The irony however, is that after the madness, they began to build each other. . .less by Robert Mugabe on December 01 2009, 20:55 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@KKK and Mayday So now Germany - chief aggressor - is now biggest economy in Europe built by Marshall Plan US money. Self inflicted German misery attracts self interested US money. Go figure! But no! the Africans must sort themselves out "They made it exclusively . .more for themselves and must clean it up themselves" Childish thinking indeed! Go read books my friends! cheerio!! . .less by Robert Mugabe on December 01 2009, 20:56 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@Robert Mugabe Hey Bob, didn't know they also burnt tyres in the strees in civilised Europe. Thanks for the videos above. Eye openning! But you are dead right - we're all just human beings behaving in our own unique ways by So called Black Diamond on December 02 2009, 07:31 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Sign of things to come Someone should shove this article in Motlante's face and up his rear end after his genocide inciting remarks about South African farmers. The ANC has a perfect example unfolding before them of what happens when the agricultural sector collapses. . .more But wait! If they thought the service delivery riots were bad just wait for the food riots. . .less by Brickmaker on December 02 2009, 08:02 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

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