Tuesday, 10th October 2006

Howzit

Well, the one-handed house is sort of in order and I have some sort of normality creeping in...

B is in the Medical Assessment Unit at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. She phoned me last night and was really struggling. I will go in to see her after lunch. My thanks to those who have been passing their love and best wishes to B and those who have B in their prayers. Bless you all. UPDATE: My good lady just phoned (I haven't even started this posting really) - they concur that she has pleurisy, but that they have no beds, so will be sending her home later today! Whilst I am happy that my best girl is coming home, I am a little concerned that they should want to chuck her out with little or no treatment - hopefully they will send a District Nurse to visit each day to keep an eye on her... Update 1630 hrs - my good lady just phoned - they've changed their minds and will be moving her and keeping her in overnight. Now this, in itself, creates problems for both B and I. Firstly, B did not have any lunch as they said she was going home - once they changed their minds, lunch had come and gone, so B hasn't had anything to eat apart from a slice of toast this morning... And visiting hours are only for one hour in the afternoon because of the superbug MRSA, and that has already come and gone (visiting hours, not the superbug) - so I don't get to see my wife today! I have also been trying to get the system to do something constructive to assist me as my wife is my carer and she's not here... For some reason they do not seem to be very interested and I am having to rely very heavily on my mother and a neighbour to assist where I am unable to do things... Trust me, I hate being disabled, but I am learning to hate the system as well!

AND please don't forget to have a look at the new book on sale here....

-o00o-

"Candidates from the ruling ZANU-PF party romped home with huge margins in by-elections held at the weekend, although accredited election observers voiced concern about the way the poll was conducted.

The by-elections in the ZANU-PF bastions of Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central provinces coincided with celebrations marking the seventh anniversary of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and were widely seen as an acid test of the opposition's ability to penetrate government-held strongholds."

As usual, with any election held in Zimbabwe, there are always questions over the exact number of correctly registered voters, and then further questions over the figures given in the results - they never seem to co-relate...

Like if there are 10 000 people registered as voters, then ZANU PF wins by over that figure...

"The election was not free and fair. I refuse to concede defeat, because there are so many irregularities I have observed."

-o00o-

I'm not so sure I understand this story...

"Zimbabwe's central bank on Monday ordered the immediate closure of all money transfer agencies, citing poor performance and "defiant behaviour".

"With immediate effect, all money transfer agencies are cancelled," Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono said in a statement.

Institutions whose money transfer licences were cancelled included Standard Chartered, Banfords and Stanbic Bank.

"All local accounts for these entities should be closed forthwith. This withdrawal has been occasioned by non-performance and defiant behaviour by most players in this sector."

With my limited understanding of the fiscal sector, I still think that this is rather like cutting off their nose to spite their face. Slowly we see Zimbabwe putting up the shutters and closing out the world at large. Just how do people outside the country get money to their families inside the country? So now Gono is dictating to people outside the country! And he's only the Reserve Bank Governor! This tells us something about the power the powers that be believe they hold. Dillusions of grandeur I fear...

-o00o-

Let's stay with Gono and his military-style bank leadership...

"Zimbabwe's central bank governor today raised the country's main lending rate by 200% points to 500% in a drive against skyrocketing inflation and a severe economic crisis.

Central bank governor Gideon Gono also said Zimbabwe's major financial houses - commercial and merchant banks, building societies and discount houses - had met a Sept. 30 deadline giving them nearly a year to raise their capitalisation to $10 million.

"In fine-tuning the monetary policy, with inflation reduction as the over-riding objective of the central bank, it has become necessary that additional resources be implemented for us so as to stabilise the economy in the medium term," Gono said in a statement. "With immediate effect, the central bank has raised the accommodation rate from 300% to 500% for secured lending and from 350% to 600% for unsecured lending," he added."

So his "zero to hero" attempt to save the economy has been a disaster. Lopping three zeroes off the currency and doing a currency switch (which saw many honest people lose life-long savings) was just a stalling tactic... There never was going to be an honest, transparent attempt to save the economy. That would mean a toal removal of the Mugabe regime.

And they have set up their stall with little intention to move anytime soon.

-o00o-

"A leading black commercial farmer has berated newly-settled farmers for wasting vast tracts of land they acquired during the controversial land reform programme in 2000.

Wilson Nyabonda, president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU), said the new breed of farmers were not utilising their land productively for the benefit of the country. Instead the land they acquired during the land "reform" programme was now derelict.

Nyabonda told new farmers in Odzi, near Mutare at a farmers' fundraising dinner at Odzi Country Club, that he was very disappointed by the failure of the majority of new farmers to properly utilise the farms they got after the unceremonious and often violent eviction of white commercial farmers by government supporters.

"After touring farms here in Odzi, I got very disappointed because there is no production," Nyabonda said. "Our people are not doing anything at the farms. Something must be done because we can not allow things to continue like this."

Before attending the dinner held last week, Nyabonda, also vice-chairman of Tanaka Power, a major producer of agricultural equipment in Zimbabwe, toured several farms in the Odzi area, a bastion of commercial farming activity before the farm evictions in 2000."

This is what I have touched on again and again and again. In Zimbabwe, occupying the land, or just having your name on the ownership documents is more important than the use of the land. Many of these 'new farmers' wouldn't know one end of a tractor from the other - yet they will use the land to secure bank loans knowing that they could sell the land for a HUGE profit and service the loan, and never have to get their hands dirty.

And the people that used to work the land - the white commercial farmers and their work forces - are either out of work, struggling to survive or have left the country...

-o00o-

"Marking the seventh year in existence of his opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC founding president Morgan Tsvangirai declared that President Robert Mugabe and the ruling party should not blame him and other opposition leaders if Zimbabweans take the law into their own hands to remove Mr. Mugabe."

It has been a baptism of fire for the MDC - these last 7 years have seen intimidation, violence, threats and death - yet they keep on going. I can do nothing but admire their tenacity - lesser mortals would have packed it up a long time ago, "...some political observers suggested that the main opposition party has ground to make up before it will have recovered the position it attained in 2000, when it came close to claiming control of parliament in the general elections held that year.

The rival MDC faction of Arthur Mutambara would seem to have even more ground to cover. Mutambara has been drumming up support around the country, but does not appear to have established a grass roots following on the scale Tsvangirai has."

-o00o-

I'm off to make sure that everything is sorted, ready and waiting for B when she gets back

Take care.

'debvhu