Oh...Zimbabwe (436 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.37 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by BillyGoat (View user info) at 2008-02-11 06:32:05 EST
The dust finally settles and the rumble of the diesel engine is still audible even though it must be about 2 km away now. What's left behind are the remnants of the operation.
Locally, they call it Operation Murambatsvina. The international media know it as operation drive out trash. And if trash is one of the myriad of small shacks tarnishing the leafy streets of wealthy Borrowdale, Harare, then they have succeeded. Mounds of plastic, corrugated zinc and bits of cardboard lie pan caked under the backing September sun concealing entire lives beneath them. However, what they do not conceal is the scale of human suffering.
Huddled next to their home are Joy and Farai - mother and son. She cries softly like a door mouse. Meek up to the point of pity. He on the other hand, stands devastated, unable to comprehend what has just happened in the last 5 minutes.
She had come to Harare to work as a maid in the suburbs. To sponsor her son's education, so that he could finish his primary school, and leave with at least a minimum grasp of reading and writing. Her son wouldn't be one of the new generation of kids that were LESS educated than their parents. She would do anything in her power to make sure this didn't happen.
But now she cries with her little boy by her side who refuses to cry with her because he has to show that he is strong. He is a man and men do not cry no matter the circumstance. He watches her as she tries to retrieve their few possessions among the rubble.
Sometimes the dust kicks and catches the back of the throat and she violently chokes. He knows what's coming next and he has trained himself to look away because it saddens him each time he witnesses it. The blood is often mixed with green phlegm but is still bright enough to see in the brown earth. The cough, is like an epileptic fit, which momentarily takes over her being, so that she jerks and splatters everywhere. He's repulsed each time he tries to dodge the disease ridden phlegm. This is his mother for god sake.But this is the Zimbabwe situation.
Everything about his life has been shattered/is shattering or on the brink. These are the small stories that the 'operation' creates.
Life is controlled by a digging implement at the end of a bulldozer.
***
Its 2am in the dense bushes of Manicaland. Farai, along with 20 other people is furiously digging in search of the diamonds that are said to be buried below the wet clay. His companions range from feral kids to educated teachers and accountants who have been driven by poverty to dig the earth. Age or even educational boundaries that might have existed have long been broken and society dictates that one must do whatever it takes to survive.
They dig quickly, in silence on their allocated plot, whilst keeping a look out for government vehicles that routinely patrol the area. Surrounding them are soldiers who have been paid off to keep their mouths shut lest the government finds out about the illegal activities. They also keep a look out as they are reliant on these people for extra income. This is the game. In hunger, law becomes arbitrary, and your personal circumstances influence your interpretation of it.
He had heard of the diamonds from a school friend when the 'Operation' forced him and Joy to return to their humble hut in the middle of Manicaland. He never told his mum about the mine or were he escaped to in the middle of the night, but news travels fast and it didn't take long before she knew. To her he was raising ZWD180000000 or £30(40 euros,$58) needed for his term fees so she didn't mind.
That was 4 months ago, lately, he's had to give up school to become her full time carer as her situation has deteriorated further.
He cooks and washes her, and cleans up after another fit leaves a puddle of vomit and blood on the putrid floor. At night he goes to the mine, to try his luck on finding the elusive diamonds. His mum can't protest. She is simply happy that he hasn't given up and left, like so many have done.
Her realtives, do not visit anymore, due to lack of money and the ever burdening fuel shortage. Writing letters is expensive and telephoning is out of the question. Their only contribution is a 2kg bag of maizemeal that comes about once in six months and that's it.
The few anti retrovirals she had have run out and she has been reduced to taking paracetamol. Even that is dangerously close to finishing, so she saves them on her worst of days.
By day he is to be found trekking 15km bare foot to the district hospital (after making sure his mum is alright) in the hope that he'll buy the drugs with the little money he has earned from mining. Inevitably the queues are too long and the drugs are gone by the time he reaches the dispensary. Of the 5 times he's been there, he has been successful only once and at that time there were only a handful tablets left.
Returning home with the knowledge that tomorrow your money will be worth less than it did today, is soul destroying, but what else can you do when inflation is spiralling out of control. Gone are the days when kids dreamt of being millionaires. Everyone is a millionaire now... hurrah!
It's at private moments like these- stuck in a hole, away from his mother- when Farai can afford to let out a little cry, thinking of his mum and the piles of worthless notes littering their little hut. Each night he works harder, and yet nothing materialises. Quitting is not an option because his mum is now dependent on him. He'll do anything. The answer used to lay with God, but now it's firmly bound in the earth in the shape of a black stone.
He furiously hammers away until he's knocked out and has to take a breather. Even his blind faith can't compete with the fatigue generated by 5 hours of intense digging. He braces his back onto the wall and slides down to the soggy clay.
His arms ache from the digging but he has to replace the battery on his borrowed torch before he can truly relax. The batteries were also borrowed from a neighbour in exchange for some of Farai's profit. As he does this, a brilliant beam flashes above him and in his exhaustion he has failed too hear a Government jeep that's advancing towards the mine.
Already there are shouts and people scrambling for the bushes. Some succeed and some fail. He HAS to succeed. Losing as they say, is not an option. He makes a grab for the wall and digs his foot in one of the indents but fatigue and wet clay work against him and he comes crashing to the base of the hole narrowly missing the pick axe that he had been digging with.
The fall knocks the torch out of his hand and it lends on its back, flicking the switch thereby emitting the light from the hole. It's a mad scramble to grab the torch but its too late and It's no surprise then, that he is soon spotted.
The jeep stops just next to the hole and two guards jump out. In their hands are SA80 rifles that have been provided by the Chinese as a token of thanks for the new collaboration between the two countries. Their uniforms also from the Chinese are immaculate, and the jeep and fuel, are all paid for by who else, but the new allies.
The guard looks in the hole, and sees the boy, all 4" 5' of him, staring up to him, with face illuminated by a torch somewhere below him. The boy is dumbstruck, with mouth agape and eyes paralyzed by fear. He is not trembling; he is merely looking up, wondering why the people he used to look up to have so badly let him down. Wondering why his beloved country has turned to waste. Wondering why the system has fucked him so hard in the ass.
He is wondering why a grown man would point a gun at a small child.
And if he'll pull the trigger and erase him from this demonic place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR0VTZxUVi8&feature=related
User Reviews
Submitted by rorrim (user info) at 2008-02-12 11:13:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by HellRazer (user info) at 2008-02-12 11:03:24 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
WTF? I'm not reading all that.
Submitted by polyamorousaj (user info) at 2008-02-12 10:42:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This was good, but you need to spellcheck.
Submitted by TheGoat (user info) at 2008-02-11 17:45:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Camwhoring, now, don't make me laugh!i'm not quite prepared for the battering.
Submitted by Lib (user info) at 2008-02-11 17:42:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
WOW
Submitted by orphelia (user info) at 2008-02-11 17:16:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No no. It wasn't grammatical errors that lead me (mistakenly) to that conclusion. I just thought I remembered, when you first joined, in one of your comments you put you were from a country that was non English speaking?! My bad.
Oh well, I am not the language police, I don't mind such errors too much. I am prone to them myself.
Fact is, you write some lovely little gems that often get overlooked by a large proportion of Uber. Camwhore or something, that always raises ones profile hehehehe ;)
Haha I said you weren't English speaking. How dumb I am. How nice of you to take it so politely :)
Submitted by TheGoat (user info) at 2008-02-11 17:05:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
lol @ orphelia. The grammar needs polishing for sure.
But grammatical errors don't necessarily mean that English is not my first language.
Loads of kids in English speaking countries can barely speak their own language and this has been emphasized and re-emphasized in the media. Dumbing down, yada, yada, yada.
Submitted by orphelia (user info) at 2008-02-11 16:37:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Ltap - I always got the impression that, like a few people on this site, English isn't his first language??
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2008-02-11 13:31:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Ltap (user info) at 2008-02-11 10:08:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Have a +1 just because it was a pretty good story, but the bad grammar kept it from being a +2.
Submitted by orphelia (user info) at 2008-02-11 07:58:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
First thing I read this morning, I really liked it.
I can't believe it had no reviews for so long.
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2008-02-11 07:41:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
WTFINRAT! Here's how I came up with this rating:
I didn't.