(From an Australian pastor)

The last couple of years we have sent an update from home to folks about what things are really like in that part of the world. The stuff we are not at liberty to email out from there because of the potential risk to the Lifeline staff and supporters there. The CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) monitor email (especially from people within the “foreign” relief agencies) and we have to be very circumspect how we write from within the country’s electronic system.

So here’s some “other news and observations”..

 ˜ Internal inflation is running at nearly 400%. The effect on local poorly-paid workers has been devastating. Can you imagine losing 30% of your wage EVERY MONTH? They simply can’t keep up their wage renegotiations to keep abreast of this hyper-inflation. It’s the same scenario that saw the German people turn to Hitler in the 1930’s.

 ˜ This has led to a big increase in theft, robbery (including armed). We were blessed in the minimal loss we experienced. I only had a Swiss Army knife stolen – and that was my own fault.

 ˜ Some trivial things – you don’t see broken glass, as all bottles must be returned for deposit refund (like we had 30 years ago). Every visit, we spend time most places fixing shoes with our miracle shoe-goo! I am the patron saint of shoes here! Next year, we will bring book-binding tape too as you can’t get such things here.

 ˜ Corruption is endemic and epidemic! It seems officials from the Govt, to the Councils, to the Police – nobody cares about the “whole”. They are on the gravy train for themselves and are shameless about it. Heaps of new Mercedes in Harare. No problem with fuel for them. Mayors fight for retirement packages that include new houses, cars, etc, etc, while there aren’t enough funds to collect the rubbish and sweep the streets! And no one (except the independent media) calls anyone to account. The judiciary, police, etc, have had their independence compromised and no one dares speak out.

 ˜ The momentum for all this is from the top down. Mrs Mugabe (the 79 y/o Presidents 38 y/o wife) spent UK pounds 11 million in one single shopping expedition to Harrods (in the cursed England!) last year, creating an all-time record at Harrods. Half the booty was stolen at Harare airport on her return and they couldn’t do anything to publicise thew theft, for obvious reasons! What staggers you here is the rank indifference of the snouts-in-the-trough brigade to the unmitigated suffering of millions of their own people. They just don’t even pretend to care (but what an opportunity for the church leaders here to model a different kind of [servant] leadership).

 ˜ The basic amenity side of town life has collapsed. They are dirty (even by African standards). One friend here has built a house in a new subdivision. He paid for water, sewerage, and electricity connections last year (as did all his neighbours), finished the house last January, but can’t move in because none of the services have been connected yet by the Council! The money has been siphoned off somewhere else. Imagine that in Australia!

 ˜ In five weeks, we did not see a single petrol station operating normally. The Govt is bankrupt re foreign exchange and can’t buy enough fuel. So it’s now all black market, brought in by people with access to forex. And you pay! Call to a backyard, someone opens a razor-wire topped gate, and they sell you 20 litre cans (often dirty, line-blocking fuel at that, as we found out the hard way).

 ˜ But the worst bit now, for the first time, is that the Govt refuses to print higher denomination notes. The biggest ($Z500) is now worth less than $A 30 cents!!. And this is in a land where you never use a foreign credit card (because the official exchange rate is 30% of the street (real) rate). For instance, when we bought $A120 worth of beautiful carved animals just before leaving, we counted out (in 10’s), 380 notes!! And if you don’t count them out yourself in front of them, you get told “you are short by..”. We got had a few times this way (always a small amount), and wised up to doing our own public counting in front of whoever you are doing business with. You have to carry around wads of cash bulging from wherever you have “hidden” it!

 ˜ The Govt refuses to print a $Z10,000 note because it denies there is high inflation, blaming the British Govt for sabotage! It’s a comedy of propaganda. Blair’s evil agent-provocateurs spend their time stealing (worthless) notes off the poor locals!!! The local joke is “don’t buy toilet paper because it is cheaper to use the $10 to wipe your backside than a square of toilet paper.” And it’s not too exaggerated now.

 ˜ So the banks have run out of cash. The saddest sight was everywhere we have been in Zimbabwe, people queueing from dawn at ATM’s and only getting $Z5000 each ($A3). My friend’s wife got stuck in Harare for several extra days because she couldn’t withdraw enough cash to pay for her bus fare back here (900k trip). Imagine what the collective effect of such inefficiency is on the overall performance of the economy?! The queues are unbelievable.

 ˜ Forex is at a premium as people seek to get out. Mainly whites. There’s a property for sale 30km from Bulawayo (pop 750,000) PO that is a farm, with a camp for groups up to 100 people. Lifeline used Willow Park for two years for the Ministry Training Program. It has a large manager’s residence, chapel, staff accommodation, etc, etc. Yeah, it’s run down, needs lots of maintenance – but they can’t sell it for $US15,000!!! The fuel shortage means no one goes out there. The forex shortage means few spares are available to fix many of the basics.

 ˜ There is great respect for Christianity, freedom of worship, and quite a lot of freedom of the press. It is much safer than Sydney here. The western media reports of violence are greatly misreported. There is violence here, but it’s in the political arena. In the past four years about 10 white farmers have been murdered. Some for political revenge, some the victims of robbery. In the same period, some 2500 white South African farmers and families have been murdered! But the Mandela / Mbeki Govt can do little wrong in the eyes of the biased Western media. Treat the locals with respect and dignity and they immediately respond.

 ˜ You are careful about theft, but there is no drug problem (and attendant muggings, etc); young women are much safer in public; the school system has great respect for teachers and honours the importance of a proper education. School violence is negligible. Mugabe has ensured everyone gets and values a basic sound education.

 ˜ Homosexuality is almost unknown. Africans generally consider it an abomination because it is against nature’s order. Pornography is almost unknown. No porn magazines in shops, Internet cafes have signs forbidding access to porn sites, advertising does not flaunt sex at the public to sell, sell, sell. People are taught in their culture to respect older people, and it shows right through the daily activities. Few girls dress provocatively. This is regarded as the behaviour of prostitutes who want to attract males for sex.

 ˜ AIDS is epidemic here. The total population is actually declining as more people die (mostly of AIDS) than are born. The masses of fresh graves really gets to you. The hetero-sexual promiscuity of the native culture has really trapped them. It’s not helped by the fact that so many men work a long way from home and only go back to their families once a month. And now, bus fare increases are making even that more difficult. some men are spending 50% of their wages on transport! So, the prostitutes are busy; there is a lot of adultery, unfaithfulness, and fornication – with a massive AIDS pool still growing unchecked. Recent statistics are that a male Zimbabwean will die by 40 (male) and 30 (female)!!! I can scarcely believe this, but the grave sites back it up.

 ˜ The harvest was reasonable this year, but not enough to see the ordinary people through to next harvest. Already, there are a lot of people living on one meal a day (usually sudza, cabbage, and relish). The food-aid is an issue of great dissension, as the re-settlers get cheap mealie while the old farm-worker families, who worked for the white farmers (average of 50+ families per farm) get no help for food. The discrimination is disgraceful. If you are not a ZANU-PF supporter, you can starve for all the Govt agencies care. And they even try to take church aid and redirect it to their own supporters.

 ˜ Lastly, what does the future hold for Zimbabwe? The people are passive, disarmed, and mostly resigned to their fate. But there are reports of changes coming in the December Govt big convention. That Mugabe may leave and hand over. But, he has trained no one in his 23 years of power. Most I have talked with think he will never join with MDC to redress the nation’s ills. Neither will his yes-men queueing up to take his place (he is nearly 80 now and quite frail in real life). There is a disgraced ZANU-PF leader, Simba Makoni, who spoke economic sense and paid for it – several think he would make an adequate compromise candidate for national leader. MDC leadership is unproven. Morgan Tsvangirai was previously a union leader and history shows they rarely make good national leaders (sorry about that, Simon Crean). I doubt they would withstand the temptation to go the corruption way too once they get their own snouts in the trough. My own personal gut-feeling was that within a year, there will be a change for the better. But, I have no proof.

As we always say when flying home, “we will never, never complain about Australia and our lifestyle!!”. But once you have been close enough to this kind of third world situation, you are always more determined to use your assets wisely and compassionately than before you felt the pain, and heard the cry of the oppressed.