I recently made my way to the capital of those who do not sleep (Harare). I met friends, relatives and strangers. I was expecting to find the country full of thin emaciated people because nearly anything you mention was either out of stock or too costly to be easily afforded. For me was a state of confusion because there were too many zerooooos and could not gauge whether thing were expensive or not. I am not used to speaking like a millionaire because I am not one, there are many here or are they pseudo millionaires. The image I got however is that the haves and the have nots gap has exponentially grown in the last ten year. in the street of Harare i was greeted with the latest and fashionable cars I could dream of, you name it. Even the hummer zoomed past near the waterhole i was patronising. These fuel guzzlers, i do not know how they run them in a country as dry of the precious liquid (fuel). On the other hand however, I had a lot of mouth to feed at this waterhole. I never ran out of "friends" that volunteered to get me one even before it was half way down. At first i thought they were going to buy me one but no i realised. i had to give them the money and pay by buying them one as well "Ndiitirewo one" is the language. I was the boss "Mhene" because I had a lot of "Chibhanzi" money. This is the group of people that go hungry and if lucky have a meal a day they go hungry. They are said to have air pie. I also watched the news on the only television channel, the so called "Chefs" politicians wore designer suits and looked obese both the pro government and the opposition alike.Going on to my roots to see my extended family i was greeted by youths that run along the side of the road trying to challenge passing vehicles with tattered clothes that left most of the body parts uncovered. My grannies were more interested in the cup of tea that they were going to have, assuming i had brought with me some sugar and that they were at least going to have bottled beer at the Growth point which are now dead points instead of the opaque beer they consume day in day out.On this journey, i found that the so called targeted sanctions were hurting the general people, the have nots. the people that have been vulnerable before and after independence. The poor are the ones that can no longer eat not the "Chefs". It is the number of street kids and man that is on the increase. Imagine eating from a bin or tip heaps (See Picture above). The sanctions only foster more dependency and destroy the self esteem of the people not the "Chefs". Do you think this is a correct view of the current targeted suctions. Let us hear from you, have you say by clicking on the comments button and publish your thoughts.
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The US, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe over the land reform programme which corrected a racially skewed land ownership pattern that was a legacy of the colonial era.
Meanwhile, wire reports indicated that the Reserve Bank of Australia had amended the list of those subject to financial sanctions due to their association with the Zimbabwean Government.
"The Australian government has reviewed the list of individuals subject to financial sanctions and has directed the Reserve Bank to remove three individuals and add 27 new individuals to the annex of names," the RBA said in a statement.
The updated annex now contains 183 names.
The RBA said amendments have also been made to 64 entries on the previous list.
The list includes ministers and senior officials of the Zimbabwean Government as well as senior management of state-owned enterprises.
"Any transactions involving the transfer of funds or payments to, by the order of, or on behalf of any person listed in the annex are prohibited without prior approval from the Reserve Bank," the RBA said.
Although these Western powers have tried to hide behind a finger by often claiming that such measures were "targeted sanctions’’ or sugar-coating the restrictions as "smart sanctions’’, analysts have pointed out that these measures were hurting ordinary Zimbabweans.
21 June 2007 10:57
Ordinary zimbabweans are too vulnerable to resist these so called smart sunctions. The more the people suffer, the more restless they become and the more unpredictable they are. In as much as the powers that be want to punish as a way of resolving desputes. This is not what the people of Zimbabwe want.These are the selfish, misguided views of the powers that be. Who are they going to gorvern when everyone is dead.
Mhofu you have correctly summed up this issue of smart sanctions, the powers involved all know how these are going to affect ordinary people. They are not stupid. The European Union imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe in February 2002. The sanctions consisted of travel bans, the freezing of funds, financial assets or economic resources of individual members of the Government, as well as a ban on exports on equipment used for “repression” and a ban on technical advice, assistance or training related to military activities. The EU also suspended development assistance for the financing of budgetary support that would have been offered through its economic development funds.
The International Monetary Fund also followed suit by suspending its assistance to the country. The Europeans also suspended financial support for all projects in Zimbabwe—health, education, food, shelter, infrastructural development, etc except those projects they felt were opposed to the Government and are “helping the ordinary population”.
The United States, Australian and British governments went further to freeze assets of Zimbabwean government officials. Australia recently deported students whose parents are senior Government officials.
When all this was happening, the country’s economy received a huge knock as a result of the sanctions. The whole world is now aware that the sanctions have created suffering to the peaceful people of Zimbabwe. How? the suspending the financial help had a knock on effect where many for services were stopped e.g. help with HIV drugs from the world fund, road projects that made rural areas for accessible, balance of payment support and the employment created by all these projects. This then led to shortages that have racked the populace for almost a decade. Hence the notion that the sanctions are meant to hurt the masses and not the Government as claimed. They supposedly targeted at a few but you can all see that the sanctions are hurting more than the targeted few, hurting more than just the governor and his wife and children but pregnant mothers and their unborn children, the kids who are supposed to go to school, the workers, the sick, the elderly in old age homes, our doctors, rural folks, hospitals and even the dead.
Targeted sanctions are certainly justified .They have wrecked the country and now decide to send their children to enemy countries and educational systems with moneys plundered from the poor.Why can't they send their children to friendly countries like China/Libya for further education ?
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