Waiting, while the country continues plummeting downwards
There is still no clarity on the run-off - when it will be or even if the opposition will participate. So, everyone is waiting again.
But not the teachers: today’s news is that they are threatening to go on strike in response to a campaign of violence against them.
Teachers have traditionally assisted in running elections. The Progressive Teachers Union said Sunday the violent campaign against them — respected figures in local communities — was meant to instill fear and prevent them from participating as polling officers in the runoff.
“Whoever is calling himself the government should act to stop violence in schools or we will be forced to act,” the union said, adding it was considering calling a nationwide strike.
The union said 133 members were assaulted in the past week and 496 were “interrogated over election matters.”
When you think about it, what choice do the teachers have? Their salaries are poor and add to that a climate of violence it wouldn’t be surprising at all if even more packed their bags and headed to South Africa in search of a better, safer life.
The regime’s tactics of violence are simply destroying the country’s potential to rebuild even further. With each successive day, it seems that the only direction the Zanu PF government understands when it comes to development is ‘reverse’.
A friend of mine relayed a conversation that he had with a schoolteacher recently, who told him that he earned just enough to get to work six days a month. This teacher said that from now on he’d only be going to work to teach for six days a month.
My employer has an elderly worker who does general caretaking work. This man - who should be retired - is responsible for the care of twelve children, most of them are his grandchildren. He looks after them because their parents died of AIDS. Two of the other children in his care are his sister’s grandchildren - she had inherited the care from her own children who also died of AIDS, and after her own death her brother took charge.
My employer said this guy had to buy takkies (lightweight canvas shoes) for each of the children with the hope this would see them through their school days and normal use. He found that one pair of takkies now costs Z$879 million.
To put that in context, one pair of takkies costs more than the gross pay written about in my colleague’s pay day woes post that we posted last week. And this elderly man, who earns less than my colleauge, needs to buy twelve pairs.
I asked my employer what this poor old man was going to do, to which my employer dryly responded: “You mean, what am I going to do…?”. We both fell about laughing. The cost of this gentleman’s kids’ takkies will now be added to the cost of their education and all paid for by my employer. He told me that school fees for a Form 1 child are now in the region of Z$10 billion. Inflation is about 10% a day.
We laughed because there is nothing else to do, but it really is not funny at all.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to be this elderly man, inheriting the responsibility of so many children after enduring the terrible pain of seeing his children die of a horrible illness one by one. Then, at his age, exhaustedly going about the motions of working in a job (which is essentially created for him by my employer simply to help him earn a living) but to every single day worry about what will happen to his dependants when he dies.
He is the last thing standing between them and the streets. He must know that and it must be frightening.
When I allow myself to think about the lives that the elderly and the very young are living in our country my heart literally aches with the enormity of the tragedy that has been created by this government. The middle ages - those who are self-reliant - can crawl under the fence and try scrape a living to send home, but the daily ordeal of getting through to the next day is being carried by those who should either be enjoying a childhood, or relaxing in their twilight years. It’s unforgivable.
The teachers’ strike will be yet another hardship for the children; but what choice has this government left them with?
May 5th, 2008 11:35
Hope, thanks for giving us stories to shorten the wait.
I would like to rewrite these stories positively.
We have a teacher who earns enough to pay transport for six days - so he uses that money to go to school for six days - and then what choices does he make about the six days, what does he do on the other days?
What is the process of thinking about what to do, priorities etc.?
The ’sawhira’ process is also very interesting. I think there is no word in English for friends who have become relatives.
Zimbabweans resist writing positive stories. Do you know that South Africans call us ‘drama queens’? Partly we like the sad story. Partly we are ‘passive aggressive’ - we believe if we cry loudly enough, daddy will give in to our demands - and we all know who daddy is. Eh? And we don’t really trust our ‘big brother’ to fill daddy ’s shoes? Ney?
Truthfully, you have written stories about incredible leadership. We have a teacher who has a real dilemma - and goes about it positively. We have a grandfather who understands his priorities and mobilizes support for his family. We have people in the community who understand we only have a future if the circle is drawn not around our own families but also one family after that - 360 degree families!
So if we write the positive stories - where do we go? We feel better for a start. We move along and we don’t wait for people who are dead weights - we know when they see us leaving they will pick up their blankets and follow us - of course they are zimbos so they will use passivity as a weapon and delay, and delay. Don’t worry. Just leave some branches tied together so they can find their way when they know we are not coming back. They will catch up!!
Our way is forward! That is where we are going!
May 5th, 2008 11:41
I cry for the tragedy this has become and feel powerless to help whilst the men with the power to help do nothing, infact they are making the peoples plight even worse. Why do educated men do these things? They have sold their souls to the devil. In the past few years 4 of my friends and aquaintances have committed suicide through despair and depression living in Zimbabwe. Yes I cry…. like many others. Lord hear our cries…
May 5th, 2008 12:26
@scotchcart
Are you for real? Are you seriously suggesting they spin things? I can’t believe what I am reading.
I do not think, for a single second, that this old guy has the words, ‘Oh well, let me look on the bright side…‘ running through his mind. What he’s doing is what is necessary to survive and by the sound of it it is bloody HARD.
I am totally capable of seeing the strength in this story without it being re-presented/spun for me … e.g. the employer standing by the guy … but I would be a bit annoyed if Zimbabweans started doing a Tony Blair on us and did things that amounted to sanitising the truth for sensitive international audiences.
I want to know the truth and that is why I come to this blog. If it upsets me and disturbs me then so what. I live in a stable country and I am not nearly as upset or disturbed as the guy in the story.
I admire your positivity but I think you need to put some boundaries on it, and I think that in this case spinning positively insults the experience of the people, and it patronises them.
They (and we) are not kids. They have crap lives and in spite of it they found their way to voting against Bob. I am an adult…I can hear the truth and deal with it.
We need to stand by them in respect of the TRUTH and in respect of their STRENGTH.
NO TO SPIN !!!!!!
May 5th, 2008 16:11
do the journalists at the herald and zbc live in the same zimbabwe that everyone else who feels the pain of living zimbabwe lives? i’m sure the sekuru must be feeding them very well not to see things with the same spectacles as the people in tsholosho, mhondoro, sanyati, etc. they should be the first people to be swept aside when the democratic “gukurahundi” comes.
May 5th, 2008 16:40
Dear friends let us not fight about this. Both of you are looking at a difficult situation and searching for ways forward.
May 5th, 2008 16:54
Not sure who you are referring to Miko!
May 5th, 2008 17:38
People must be allowed to feel what they feel and say what they want to say. I am not fighting by making this comment but I am going through a bad time right now with my family having troubles in Zimbabwe and I did not like to read the bit where you said Zimbabweans like the sad story or they are drama queens. My mothers story is sad but that does not make me a drama queen if I tell it. I think that maybe it is not the Zimbabwean people who have the problem here, and I think that maybe it is the South Africans who do not want to hear the truth.
I left a reply on the story above this one for Beth who is seeming to feel guilt for her sadness because she is not being positive today. She must not be sorry. I am not fighting, I am just saying it… Maybe you need to reply there to her scotchcart
We must be positive but we must also be able to share our experiences. If the South Africans do not like it they must go read South African stories.
How many people living in Zimbabwe read this blog? We must consider how they must feel too when they read what we say from outsider perspectives. We do not need to add guilt to there already big basket of troubles
May 5th, 2008 18:37
Sorry Diaspora-UK, I can’t find Beth’s comment.
You are feeling angry, I am sorry.
May 6th, 2008 12:03
I am not angry Scotchcart, so you must not be sorry. It is good to have someone positive like you but I’m just saying that there are many voices and feelings and sometimes I think if we expect someone to be positive when they are suffering we only make their berdon more heavy. We must not make people feel as if they cannot express their sadness. Do not think I m angry becasue I am too tired to be angry and I kep my anger in one place for zpf only.