WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2002-08-19 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 8/19/2002 1:05:50 PM
Anything that is alive, w"ll eat…
“It is God,” Charles Simampale concludes simply. “I don’t know what happened but they both just went blind. First him,” he says gesturing over his shoulder to his younger brother sitting on a rock nearby, “and then his wife.” When you have to contend with the wrath of the elements, a starving family, crying children and two adults who are unable to help to sustain a 12-person household, it must be comforting to think that this is the plan of a higher being. Simampale, 32, and his brother Myros, 28, built their little settlement in a valley that would have been pretty had the grass not turned pale gold and the trees not lost their leaves. A small stream dried up months ago. The Simampales last received mealie meal from the Zimbabwean government in March. Five months later, they think their village, between Kamativi and Binga, about 250km east of Victoria Falls, has been forgotten.
With no rain, no food and no income, many families and small communities like theirs have upped and left. The area is among the worst affected by the drought, which has turned large parts of the country into wasteland. What was once a busy tourist route is now almost deserted. Abandoned villages serve as an eerie reminder of the life that once was. Kilometres of devastated landscape are punctuated by dry riverbeds. Some of the riverbeds have become playgrounds for children; in others, adults burrow for water. The elder Simampale says he has never had stable work and made a living by catching and selling fish. Now, to fish, he has to make a 60km journey to the Zambezi River. His wife, Nancy, walked off that morning in search of something – anything – to feed the little ones. She came back empty-handed. About 30km down the road, Philemon Msaga has arranged carved ornaments and animals on the side of the road. He is one of few artists who live in hope that the tourists will soon come back and buy their crafts. Others abandoned their stalls long ago to go in search of food. “It is hard at the moment. We have to hunt in the field for food . . . Anything that is alive we eat . . . We dig wells in the river to get a little bit of water,” he says.
It’s 4pm and several hundred people are queuing outside the Saba Trading Store, where a man is standing on stacks of mealie [maize] bags, shouting out names from a long list. He is a representative of the local government department that has provided 197 bags of mealies to be sold at Z510 a 50kg bag (R98 [$10] at the official rate) to the locals. But many people who have been waiting since dawn cannot afford to buy food. From the crowd emerge several aggressive young men, some in Zanu PF T-shirts. It is clear that they are in authority at the distribution point. The agencies distributing food in Zimbabwe have become a new force in the country. Political wrangling seemingly takes precedence over people’s hunger. Catholic Bishop Robert Ndlovu says a consignment of maize to Binga was stalled for about six weeks by the government because of the involvement of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, which has earned the government’s wrath for investigating human-rights abuses. “In order not to jeopardise the project, we now use the Catholic Development Agency to distribute the food,” said Ndlovu. “Everyone is affected and the situation is desperate.”
[Comments: Note the lack of rain at this time of year, and the emphasis on “drought” is somewhat wrong because this region has no rain during winter so of course everything will be dry. This does not explain how it was that they ran out of food at the end of summar (April), when the maize is generally harvested. We are a mere few months into winter and these people are starving. The next harvest is 8 months away… Jan]
Source:Sunday Times (SA)
Published:Sun 18-Aug-2002
Author: Ranjeni Munusamy
URL: http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID…br>