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: 2002-11-17 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 11/17/2002 7:32:54 PM
I wish I were an Ethiopian….
[Note, the prices Cathy is quoting below might be Zimbabwean dollars and not be converted to US Dollars. Note how the gaps between rich and poor are wider than ever. That is socialism and communism for you!! Jan]
By Cathy Buckle
I WISH I was an Ethiopian.
If I was I would be filled with pride at the recent announcement made by
that country’s leaders.
Last week the entire Ethiopian government announced that they would
each donate one month’s salary to help people starving to death in their
country.
If I was an Ethiopian I might be hungry, thin and tired but I think my
heart and soul would feel good because at least I would know that the
leaders of the country do care about my suffering and are trying their
best to help me.
What shame upon shame for Zimbabwe’s leaders yet again, with the
announcement of pay rises for our leader, Cabinet ministers and other top
government officials.
Last week, President Mugabe’s salary and those of his deputies,
government ministers and Members of Parliament were increased by an
average 20 percent with immediate effect.
The salary increments were the second since February this year and are
backdated to 1 July 2002.
The latest pay rises come against a backdrop of numerous strikes by
government and parastatal workers over pay increases and better working
conditions.
Two weeks ago health workers in government hospitals went on strike,
crippling the public health sector.
They claim the government misled them when it said their salaries
would be increased in October.
The Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe called a strike, now four
weeks old, over pay. In reprisal more than 600 of their members have since
been sacked.
On the other hand, the strike by Air Zimbabwe engineers over pay
increases and improved working conditions is into its second month.
More than six million Zimbabweans are surviving by trapping mice in
barren fields, putting plastic bags over flying ants’ nests and eating
wild leaves and berries.
Their votes are vital but their hunger and suffering apparently means
nothing.
I could not stop myself from switching on a calculator and doing a few
sums to see just exactly what I could do with my monthly salary, if I was
one of the gallant men leading Zimbabwe in November 2002.
Not allowing for the four months’ back pay on my recently increased
salary and just going by the published figures in the Presidential Salary
and Allowances Notice, this is what I could put in my shopping trolley at
today’s prices – assuming of course that I could actually buy these
commodities and would only have to pay the controlled prices: Ten trays of
eggs; 50 loaves of bread; 100 litres of milk; 100kg of sugar; 100 cobs of
green maize; four jars of coffee; six boxes of teabags; 100kg of
maize-meal; two pockets of potatoes; 20kg of beef; 10 packets of local
biscuits and assorted fruits and vegetables.
Still having well over half my salary left and knowing that I don’t
have to pay my domestic staff or school fees, I might then treat myself to
one watermelon, which now only costs $850. Maybe I’d even buy all my
children one apple. They are only $80 each, after all.
I might then put $50 000 into my savings account and donate one
hundred thousand dollars to the six million starving people I serve.
It is they, after all, who pay my wage, school fees and all those
other allowances I regularly receive.
If I was just an ordinary teacher in Zimbabwe, by the time I’d paid
the transport charges to work and back every day, my domestic staff’s
wages, school fees and rent, I could only just afford to buy the two
pockets of potatoes and 50 loaves of bread on the shopping list –
everything else would be in my dreams.
I wouldn’t be able to donate anything to the six million starving
people in the country or put anything at all into my savings book, but
with a bit of luck I might find some watermelon seeds at the roadside
which I could collect and plant.
At least I would have the empty raffia sacks from the potatoes to use as
blankets and the used plastic bags from the bread to trap flying ants
with, so perhaps my life wouldn’t be so bad after all.
The gap between the rich and the poor in Zimbabwe is now wider than
the Grand Canyon.
Last week, as 100 or more cars sat in queues at the few filling
stations which had fuel outside Harare, an official convoy of armoured
vehicles went past.
At the head of the convoy were two police motorcycles. Behind them
were a Mercedes and a BMW and behind them, 14 armoured vehicles.
Armed and aggressive-looking soldiers glared out at the world which
they had ordered to stop.
They guarded their precious cargo of deadly cannons but did not seem
to realise that the faces looking back at them are those of people near
death already.
What is wrong with you, the men and women who lead Zimbabwe?
How about donating one month’s salary to the more than six-and-a-half
million starving people who supposedly voted you back into power.
Even one week’s salary would do.
I wish I was an Ethiopian.