Wednesday, 28th January 2009
Howzit
Foreign currency mid-rates updated...
-o00o-
Last evening, I was able to send out the following email:
"It is almost 6 in the evening and B and I have just returned from yet another visit to the hand unit.
First of all, we saw the surgeon, who's eyes opened wide with delight when he saw the wound.
Quickly, I was shuffled off to another area in the clinic where a nurse set about removing the big heavy PoP cast - I hated that cast! - and then, bless her, she removed the stitches AND washed my arm in a luvverly warm soap solution!
B, in the meantime, had taken off for the pharmacy as the surgeon changed one of my antibiotics as I had returned a high "alkaline phosphatase" - from Wikipedia: "Alkaline phosphatase: An enzyme made in the liver, bone, and the placenta and normally present in high concentrations in growing bone and in bile. Alkaline phosphatase is released into the blood during injury and during such normal activities as bone growth and pregnancy. It is measured in a routine blood test.
Abnormally high blood levels of alkaline phosphatase may indicate disease in bone or liver, bile duct obstruction, or certain malignancies. The enzyme is often elevated in the leukemic cells in chronic myelogenous leukemia."
Given that I am NOT pregnant...
Anyway, once the wretched cast had been removed, and the arm washed, I took a couple more pictures.
I am sure that you will all agree that even to the untrained eye - and my eye is NOT trained - that the improvement and recovery is quite stunning.
Sadly, the pins are not in place and that will be done at a later stage - hopefully by keyhole surgery, but I doubt that.
Finally, the therapy girls built a lightweight thermoplastic brace to replace the cast. This is removable for cleaning purposes, but it does not get removed when I shower - the arm will remain in a bag - cleaning will be done by sponge by my long suffering wife and best friend, B, on a daily basis.
As I sit here in front of my PC typing this, I finally have an overall concept of what I have been through, and how much support I have had from my wife, my family and my friends all over the world - and I am humbled. Thank you all so very much.
I don't need to go back to the clinic until 24/2 so you will be spared further photographs for a while.
I am so grateful to you all for the phone calls and emails. A true inspiration. Thank you one and all.
And what a wonderful birthday present for B (28th) - although I have organised some other pressies for her... lol...
Y'all take special care."
You will no doubt recall that I had a commenter rip into my writings earlier this week. Well, yesterday I discovered that I had been quoted by The Guardian newspaper here in the UK - and not everyone disagreed with my opinions:
"What has Zimbabwe agreed Zimbabwe should do?" a confused Amanda Atwood, from Zimbabwean human rights campaign Kubatana, asks on the organisation's blog.
The radio says there has been a deal at the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and that the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is to be sworn in as prime minister, she says. But Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change remains disappointed and had not agreed to the deal as it falls well short of its expectations.
Robb Ellis, a former Zimbabwean policeman, reckons President Robert Mugabe has never been interested in sharing power. "Mugabe is driven by a need to remain in control," he writes on his blog. "It goes against the basics that power be shared, and for that reason alone, the summit will result in another absolute waste of time."
Ray Hartley, the editor of South Africa's Times newspaper, agrees. "The whole talks thing has become a regional farce, with heads of state paraded about in increasingly ludicrous garlands of dead flowers as the talks charade drags on. The fact is that there is no political will from Mugabe and only the most flaccid interest from Tsvangirai in making this power-sharing arrangement work."
Atwood claims the confusion about the outcome of the talks stems from the opposition ambivalent position. "Does Operation Flip Flop continue?" she asks. "Will the MDC continue to waffle its way through these negotiations – when the very notion of negotiating with an entrenched and recalcitrant dictator is absurd?"
She also highlight Tsvangirai's weak bargaining position. "Tsvangirai is more desperate than Mugabe – desperate enough that he's willing to negotiate in the first place," she says.
How can Mugabe be genuinely interested in sharing power with Tsvangirai, when the president's mouthpiece, the Herald newspaper, continues to portray his rival as untrustworthy stooge of the west?
Today it said: "Tsvangirai and his handlers have never made it a secret that they want the inter-party process taken out of SADC's hands, to the AU [African Union], en route to the United Nations.
"There they hope their handlers can find cause to have Zimbabwe on the agenda of the security council as a prelude to invasion.
"Continued indulgence and dalliance with Tsvangirai only serves to perpetuate endless talks about talks, at a time when Zimbabwe is in serious need of executive guidance."
Meanwhile, Sokwanele, the blog of the Zimbabwe Civic Action Support Group, urges SADC to take action against Mugabe's regime rather than negotiate with it. It says: "State institutions and their agents have become the biggest danger to the Zimbabwean people, together with the failure of SADC leaders to recognise the deterioration of the situation and take firm action against the offenders, who continue to violate SADC principles and the GPA [global political agreement] with impunity. You have one final chance to do the right thing."
Can't be all bad...
Reports today would indicate that the MDC leader. Morgan Tsvangirai, has agreed to form government with Mugabe. The question must be asked: was he railroaded into agreeing, finally giving in because he saw the suffering that would be visited upon the Zimbabwean people if Mugabe is allowed to establish a unilateral government - or is this a positive move, thought out to the nth degree, considering the current situation in the country?
"Zimbabwe
The move comes despite fears that Mr Mugabe will use the arrangement to draw in and marginalise the MDC, as he has done to other opposition groups in the past.
Mr Tsvangirai has consistently refused to join a coalition with Mr Mugabe, who retains strong powers as president under the power-sharing agreement, unless MDC figures are given key cabinet posts, especially the home affairs ministry, which brings control over the police.
But Mr Tsvangirai is under immense pressure from regional leaders to join the government after almost 3,000 Zimbabweans have died of cholera, millions need food aid, and the economy is in a spiral of collapse. Earlier this week a regional summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) inPretoria
A very difficult situation to say the least.
If Tsvangirai does join with Mugabe in government, will Mugabe use his own position and influence in cabinet to hold Tsvangirai's powers at bay, or will he actually allow the MDC leader to perform his function on government?
I think that the question answers itself...
"The MDC issued a statement yesterday saying the summit's conclusions "fall far short of our expectations", but a source close to the negotiations said Mr Tsvangirai believed he had no alternative but to "give it a try".
He would return toHarare
But some of Mr Tsvangirai's closest lieutenants fear that the power-sharing deal has echoes of the Unity Accord of 1987, when ZANU PF merged with Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU organisation and effectively swallowed it whole."
Unfortunately for us interested people around the world, the only way we are going to get the answer to that question, is to wait and see - and by then it would be too late..
And if Mugabe is intent on gobbling up the MDC, by the time we know it, it will be too late...
"Despite Mr Tsvangirai coming first in the first round of presidential polls in March and MDC depriving ZANU PF of a parliamentary majority for the first time since 1980, some observers believe that Mr Mugabe and ZANU PF's determination to retain their grip on the levers of power leaves the MDC with no choice but to implement the power-sharing agreement.
Until now, the opposition has been demanding that its concerns be resolved before it would share in the responsibility for running the country. Only two weeks ago Mr Tsvangirai, who has a history of U-turns, was insisting that outstanding issues had to be concluded before the government was formed, so that it could be effective as well as inclusive.
"We will only be in a government which has the potential to be functional," he said then."
The really sad part about all of this is that Tsvangirai was effectively painted into a corner, his options severely limited.
I am struggling a little this morning, probably due to the fact that my arm got a full work over yesterday afternoon. So I am actually going to pack this posting up for the day. Add the fact that today is my wife's birthday...
I saw this on the internet, and thought that it epitomised the true character of one Robert Gabriel Mugabe...
"Robert Mugabe returned today from five years in exile and told a tumultuous rally of his supporters that there would be no more injustice based on race and colour. He emphasised that there would still be a place for private farmers and that only underutilised and abandoned land or land owned by absentee landlords would be used to resettle peasants.”
The Times, January 28, 1980
Take care.
'debvhu
"It is almost 6 in the evening and B and I have just returned from yet another visit to the hand unit.
First of all, we saw the surgeon, who's eyes opened wide with delight when he saw the wound.
Quickly, I was shuffled off to another area in the clinic where a nurse set about removing the big heavy PoP cast - I hated that cast! - and then, bless her, she removed the stitches AND washed my arm in a luvverly warm soap solution!
B, in the meantime, had taken off for the pharmacy as the surgeon changed one of my antibiotics as I had returned a high "alkaline phosphatase" - from Wikipedia: "Alkaline phosphatase: An enzyme made in the liver, bone, and the placenta and normally present in high concentrations in growing bone and in bile. Alkaline phosphatase is released into the blood during injury and during such normal activities as bone growth and pregnancy. It is measured in a routine blood test.
Abnormally high blood levels of alkaline phosphatase may indicate disease in bone or liver, bile duct obstruction, or certain malignancies. The enzyme is often elevated in the leukemic cells in chronic myelogenous leukemia."
Given that I am NOT pregnant...
Anyway, once the wretched cast had been removed, and the arm washed, I took a couple more pictures.
Sadly, the pins are not in place and that will be done at a later stage - hopefully by keyhole surgery, but I doubt that.
Finally, the therapy girls built a lightweight thermoplastic brace to replace the cast. This is removable for cleaning purposes, but it does not get removed when I shower - the arm will remain in a bag - cleaning will be done by sponge by my long suffering wife and best friend, B, on a daily basis.
As I sit here in front of my PC typing this, I finally have an overall concept of what I have been through, and how much support I have had from my wife, my family and my friends all over the world - and I am humbled. Thank you all so very much.
I don't need to go back to the clinic until 24/2 so you will be spared further photographs for a while.
I am so grateful to you all for the phone calls and emails. A true inspiration. Thank you one and all.
And what a wonderful birthday present for B (28th) - although I have organised some other pressies for her... lol...
Y'all take special care."
-o00o-
You will no doubt recall that I had a commenter rip into my writings earlier this week. Well, yesterday I discovered that I had been quoted by The Guardian newspaper here in the UK - and not everyone disagreed with my opinions:
"What has Zimbabwe agreed Zimbabwe should do?" a confused Amanda Atwood, from Zimbabwean human rights campaign Kubatana, asks on the organisation's blog.
The radio says there has been a deal at the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and that the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is to be sworn in as prime minister, she says. But Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change remains disappointed and had not agreed to the deal as it falls well short of its expectations.
Robb Ellis, a former Zimbabwean policeman, reckons President Robert Mugabe has never been interested in sharing power. "Mugabe is driven by a need to remain in control," he writes on his blog. "It goes against the basics that power be shared, and for that reason alone, the summit will result in another absolute waste of time."
Ray Hartley, the editor of South Africa's Times newspaper, agrees. "The whole talks thing has become a regional farce, with heads of state paraded about in increasingly ludicrous garlands of dead flowers as the talks charade drags on. The fact is that there is no political will from Mugabe and only the most flaccid interest from Tsvangirai in making this power-sharing arrangement work."
Atwood claims the confusion about the outcome of the talks stems from the opposition ambivalent position. "Does Operation Flip Flop continue?" she asks. "Will the MDC continue to waffle its way through these negotiations – when the very notion of negotiating with an entrenched and recalcitrant dictator is absurd?"
She also highlight Tsvangirai's weak bargaining position. "Tsvangirai is more desperate than Mugabe – desperate enough that he's willing to negotiate in the first place," she says.
How can Mugabe be genuinely interested in sharing power with Tsvangirai, when the president's mouthpiece, the Herald newspaper, continues to portray his rival as untrustworthy stooge of the west?
Today it said: "Tsvangirai and his handlers have never made it a secret that they want the inter-party process taken out of SADC's hands, to the AU [African Union], en route to the United Nations.
"There they hope their handlers can find cause to have Zimbabwe on the agenda of the security council as a prelude to invasion.
"Continued indulgence and dalliance with Tsvangirai only serves to perpetuate endless talks about talks, at a time when Zimbabwe is in serious need of executive guidance."
Meanwhile, Sokwanele, the blog of the Zimbabwe Civic Action Support Group, urges SADC to take action against Mugabe's regime rather than negotiate with it. It says: "State institutions and their agents have become the biggest danger to the Zimbabwean people, together with the failure of SADC leaders to recognise the deterioration of the situation and take firm action against the offenders, who continue to violate SADC principles and the GPA [global political agreement] with impunity. You have one final chance to do the right thing."
Can't be all bad...
-o00o-
"Zimbabwe
The move comes despite fears that Mr Mugabe will use the arrangement to draw in and marginalise the MDC, as he has done to other opposition groups in the past.
Mr Tsvangirai has consistently refused to join a coalition with Mr Mugabe, who retains strong powers as president under the power-sharing agreement, unless MDC figures are given key cabinet posts, especially the home affairs ministry, which brings control over the police.
But Mr Tsvangirai is under immense pressure from regional leaders to join the government after almost 3,000 Zimbabweans have died of cholera, millions need food aid, and the economy is in a spiral of collapse. Earlier this week a regional summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in
A very difficult situation to say the least.
If Tsvangirai does join with Mugabe in government, will Mugabe use his own position and influence in cabinet to hold Tsvangirai's powers at bay, or will he actually allow the MDC leader to perform his function on government?
I think that the question answers itself...
"The MDC issued a statement yesterday saying the summit's conclusions "fall far short of our expectations", but a source close to the negotiations said Mr Tsvangirai believed he had no alternative but to "give it a try".
He would return to
But some of Mr Tsvangirai's closest lieutenants fear that the power-sharing deal has echoes of the Unity Accord of 1987, when ZANU PF merged with Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU organisation and effectively swallowed it whole."
Unfortunately for us interested people around the world, the only way we are going to get the answer to that question, is to wait and see - and by then it would be too late..
And if Mugabe is intent on gobbling up the MDC, by the time we know it, it will be too late...
"Despite Mr Tsvangirai coming first in the first round of presidential polls in March and MDC depriving ZANU PF of a parliamentary majority for the first time since 1980, some observers believe that Mr Mugabe and ZANU PF's determination to retain their grip on the levers of power leaves the MDC with no choice but to implement the power-sharing agreement.
Until now, the opposition has been demanding that its concerns be resolved before it would share in the responsibility for running the country. Only two weeks ago Mr Tsvangirai, who has a history of U-turns, was insisting that outstanding issues had to be concluded before the government was formed, so that it could be effective as well as inclusive.
"We will only be in a government which has the potential to be functional," he said then."
The really sad part about all of this is that Tsvangirai was effectively painted into a corner, his options severely limited.
-o00o-
I am struggling a little this morning, probably due to the fact that my arm got a full work over yesterday afternoon. So I am actually going to pack this posting up for the day. Add the fact that today is my wife's birthday...
I saw this on the internet, and thought that it epitomised the true character of one Robert Gabriel Mugabe...
"Robert Mugabe returned today from five years in exile and told a tumultuous rally of his supporters that there would be no more injustice based on race and colour. He emphasised that there would still be a place for private farmers and that only underutilised and abandoned land or land owned by absentee landlords would be used to resettle peasants.”
The Times, January 28, 1980
-o00o-
Take care.
'debvhu
posted by Robb WJ Ellis at 6:42 AM
Union Jack (1963 - 64, 1998 - ??)
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