Posted 12:45, 25 March 2008
by Philip Barclay
Dinner with a (Zanu-PF) MP standing for re-election. While I'm catching
up on my calorie deficit, he's in philosophical mood. Our time may be
up. I don't think I can hold on to my seat. We have to admit that
people are tired and hungry and some of them are angry. Of course, our
problems date back to what the IMF did to us in the 1980s and that
nasty letter your Clare Short wrote to our President in 1997. It might
be time to move to the UK and join my family…
We carry on into the evening. We don't agree about the causes of
Zimbabwe's problems, but he's an honest man and he knows that his party
is facing the lash of a furious electorate.
Posted 11:13, 18 April 2008
by Philip Barclay
There's a right way and a wrong way to approach a cordon of Zimbabwean
riot police. I usually try and carry it off with a self-confident
swagger, as if a line of big cops in crash helmets and heavy boots
carrying nasty sticks is an everyday hurdle. I try to look like a man
who has proper business in Zimbabwe's High Court, rather than what the
state media portrays me as: a colonialist who is sabotaging Zimbabwe's
economy because he wants to restore white supremacism. As I reach the
thick blue line I manage a cheerful Good morning! How are you sirs?,
in the Zimbabwean style. This usually elicits some tentatively cheery
responses and a gap in the cordon big enough to walk through. And the
technique works today.
I note that there are no officers in the line, which is good as it
means there's nobody to order the cops to start hitting me. But then
again if they do start hitting me there's no one to tell them to stop.
Posted 11:46, 11 April 2008
by Grace Mutandwa
The counting of the presidential votes seems to have hit a major snag.
It seems the figures are not adding up or where they do, they are not
what they are supposed to be. We the voters of course have no right to
know what has happened to our votes. All we are being told is to be
patient and remain peaceful.
Zimbabweans are an amazing people. They ought to be in the Guinness
Book of Records for their patience and great sense of humour even in
times of hardships and adversity.
Posted 10:32, 10 June 2008
by Philip Barclay
I am making yet another election monitoring trip in Masvingo this week,
along with our human rights officer. We get a call saying there has
been a bomb attack on the MDC in Zaka and that people are dead. By the
time we reach the MDC office, two policemen are standing some distance
from it, instructing us to leave the area. I must admit I lose my
temper a little. I ask the more senior policeman why he is obstructing
international observers going about their proper business. I ask him if
he had arrested anyone for murder. I ask him if he, in fact, knows
exactly who has done this. The policeman says he had orders to obey. I
ask him if he's heard of the international tribunals where war
criminals are put on trial, and the Nuremberg defence.
We hear that a man injured in the attack has been taken to a hospital
in Masvingo. We zoom over there and find the man – bandaged hands and
feet and burnt hair. His story of what happened is horrible. Six MDC
officials, sleeping in their office, were woken by an armed gang at
4am. The armed men forced the officials to lie down and shot three
people immediately. (I pray to any available God that they were killed
outright). Petrol was poured over them all and they were set alight.
The man I am talking to managed to tear off his clothes, beat out the
flames burning his body and escape.
If you are one of the few people in this world who believe there is not
a ghastly crisis in Zimbabwe; if you believe the brazen official lies
that the MDC is responsible for the violence; or if you believe that a
fair election is possible when opposition party workers are being burnt
alive, I urge you to reflect on what you have just read, and think
again.
Posted at 10:22, 27 October 2008
by Philip Barclay
Cleanliness is an aptly-named cleaner at the embassy. I bump into her
on my way out of the building, dressed in a very smart, black outfit.
She tells me that her sister Godliness has just passed. Zimbabweans
like euphemisms: people don't die, they pass, they became late or they
go to be with God. Cleanliness is composed. I say she must be upset.
Ah, it's all right. She's not unfeeling, death is just so much more
everyday here and her sister's was expected.
Godliness had HIV, I suppose? Sure. But we don't mention about that. It's our African taboo. Nobody says that anyone has HIV.
Posted 08:59, 24 December 2008
by Grace Mutandwa
At 23:38hrs on the last Saturday before Christmas I finally walked out
of the Spar supermarket in my neighbourhood. The shop had looked like a
bombsite. Trolleys laden with people's wishlists (goods that never made
it to the checkout) littered the shop. Bags of sugar, packets of salt,
exotic ciders, cans of imported beer, defrosting chickens and a turkey
or two, all left because money had run out. I am trudging along buying
this or that, ticking the boxes to ensure that those few relatives I
can help will at least have one decent meal on the day Jesus Christ was
born. I am not sure I am still a believer. Too much pain has passed
through the country this year.
Posted 16:17, 19 January 2009
by Philip Barclay
Monday morning. It's been a weekend of doughnuts and I'm drinking too
much again. A can of Namibian beer seems easier and tastier than water
flavoured with the sulphuric tang of purification tablets. In Zimbabwe,
alcoholism is a prophylactic for cholera. For some reason Harare's
powers that be cut off the British embassy's water supply in December.
It's not clear if this was another sign of Zim's water system failure
or a protest at our policy of saying that Mr Mugabe's government is not
altogether the best thing since sliced bread.
Posted at 13:27, 16 February 2009
by Grace Mutandwa
Tsvangirai's inauguration speech was a far cry from the man who took
the first steps towards change in September 1999. He was confident and
spoke eloquently about the challenges ahead. As prime minister, he
promised to help restore the rule of law, respect of human rights. In
the heat of the moment apart from promising an independent media, the
new prime minister promised foreign currency-denominated salaries.
Unless he has his own foreign currency printing press, I do not know
where he will get the money.
My sincere hope is that he will deliver for his own sake and more
importantly for the sake of all Zimbabweans who stood by the MDC
through thick and thin. Political |prisoners still locked behind bars
|will also hold him to his promise. Wherever this new road takes him,
may the force be with him.
Who are the bloggers?
Philip Barclay has worked for the Foreign Office since 1999, when he
made a career change that took him from London Transport to
international diplomacy. Before working in Zimbabwe where he is Second
Secretary, he held posts in London and Poland.
Grace Mutandwa is a Zimbabwean former journalist who joined the British Foreign Office as a press officer in 2002. – The Independent
Post published in: News