Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 23:39:59 -0700
To: "Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List":;
From: Zimbabwe Crisis
Subject: ZimCrisis#35 -- Why?
Cc: Press:;
Why? (for Zimbabwe)
Why stay, when all around crumbles
As friends wave good-bye
why remain, despite the tugging fear
Why hang on so fiercely?
Why?
I look out my window and my heart fills
and my eyes fill, but no tears fall.
Why?
Blue skies that stretch forever,
sometimes burning hot, searing
with sunscreen and cokes and kids and braais
Sadza and boerewors and beers and wine and talk and laughter....
Oliver Mtukudzi, or not.
Driving to the farm, or the lake, or the dam, wherever
swirling dust on bush roads
Msasas and Mopanes and Baobabs
kopjes tumbling over each other
Friends I've known all my life.
Bougainvillea, Pointsettia, Flamboyant and Jacaranda
Lusty colours that are not ashamed
Wide streets and mad drivers
and red lights that mean go while you can
and people who still help when you break down
on the side of the road.....
Sometimes a glorious sunny day,
a caress after rainy introspective spells
or after cold winter days
to revive the spirit.
To sit outside and soak up
to be joyous and thankful.
Doves and go-away birds
and even crows.
Birds of every colour, flaunting.
Whilst inside a friend,
the childrens' second mother
makes tea and conversation.
Steely and tumid, huge skies,
cracking apart with lightning
thunder claps shaking the ground
the smell of the first rains
soaking into the parched earth.
and a power cut brings out lamps and candles.
Sunset, when the blue canvas is painted in swirling glory
and a hippo grunts his warning,
a fish eagle gives her soul cry.
That haunting pull.
Gin and tonic or a beer, hands dirty from putting worms on hooks,
The day's catch in the net........
A game drive to see God's gifts
Elephant at play by the water's edge,
Shy buck and lowering buffalo
Towering giraffe
Bushpigs with tails in the air, babies scurrying after
A hyena loping past
the predators wake...
Then the stars come - is there no end to your glory?
And the night sounds
and the edge that is Africa
hidden eyes shining......
distant drums,
smoke
African voices.
Aah those African voices
that whisper in the night
some that plot and scheme and hide their eyes
so as not to see what is being destroyed
others that smile into your eyes and ask how you are today
and take your child's hand
and shake it solemnly
and in that short gesture
there is more in common
more acknowledgement than
you will get anywhere else
no matter how efficient or prosperous
or safe.
So I stay because I am an alien anywhere else
and I don't know what to do anymore to keep you safe
except not to desert you.
Pippa Douie, Africa Day 2000
Craig
Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List
This is currently a manually administered mailing list. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send your request to DELETED. Personal requests for removal will be carried out immediately. Requests from governmental, political or press organisations will be treated less favourably. The purpose of this list is not necessarily to redistribute published news reports. Rather, it is intended to distribute reports from or directly affecting those people in Zimbabwe. If you have seen something before, I apologise. Hopefully that will not be a regular occurrence.
Brief list of helpful sites on the issue:
- Comprehensive news updates -- http://www.1freespace.com/beetee
- Offers of and requests for help for Zimbabweans -- http://pub9.ezboard.com/boffersofhelp
- Commercial Farmers' Union -- http://www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
- Movement for Democratic Change -- http://www.in2zw.com/mdc
- Zimbabwe Democracy Trust -- http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org
- BSAP Pursuit of Zimbabwean Criminals -- http://www.bsaphq.f9.co.uk
To: "Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List":;
From: Zimbabwe Crisis
Subject: ZimCrisis#35 -- Why?
Cc: Press:;
Why? (for Zimbabwe)
Why stay, when all around crumbles
As friends wave good-bye
why remain, despite the tugging fear
Why hang on so fiercely?
Why?
I look out my window and my heart fills
and my eyes fill, but no tears fall.
Why?
Blue skies that stretch forever,
sometimes burning hot, searing
with sunscreen and cokes and kids and braais
Sadza and boerewors and beers and wine and talk and laughter....
Oliver Mtukudzi, or not.
Driving to the farm, or the lake, or the dam, wherever
swirling dust on bush roads
Msasas and Mopanes and Baobabs
kopjes tumbling over each other
Friends I've known all my life.
Bougainvillea, Pointsettia, Flamboyant and Jacaranda
Lusty colours that are not ashamed
Wide streets and mad drivers
and red lights that mean go while you can
and people who still help when you break down
on the side of the road.....
Sometimes a glorious sunny day,
a caress after rainy introspective spells
or after cold winter days
to revive the spirit.
To sit outside and soak up
to be joyous and thankful.
Doves and go-away birds
and even crows.
Birds of every colour, flaunting.
Whilst inside a friend,
the childrens' second mother
makes tea and conversation.
Steely and tumid, huge skies,
cracking apart with lightning
thunder claps shaking the ground
the smell of the first rains
soaking into the parched earth.
and a power cut brings out lamps and candles.
Sunset, when the blue canvas is painted in swirling glory
and a hippo grunts his warning,
a fish eagle gives her soul cry.
That haunting pull.
Gin and tonic or a beer, hands dirty from putting worms on hooks,
The day's catch in the net........
A game drive to see God's gifts
Elephant at play by the water's edge,
Shy buck and lowering buffalo
Towering giraffe
Bushpigs with tails in the air, babies scurrying after
A hyena loping past
the predators wake...
Then the stars come - is there no end to your glory?
And the night sounds
and the edge that is Africa
hidden eyes shining......
distant drums,
smoke
African voices.
Aah those African voices
that whisper in the night
some that plot and scheme and hide their eyes
so as not to see what is being destroyed
others that smile into your eyes and ask how you are today
and take your child's hand
and shake it solemnly
and in that short gesture
there is more in common
more acknowledgement than
you will get anywhere else
no matter how efficient or prosperous
or safe.
So I stay because I am an alien anywhere else
and I don't know what to do anymore to keep you safe
except not to desert you.
Pippa Douie, Africa Day 2000
Craig
Zimbabwe Crisis Mailing List
This is currently a manually administered mailing list. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send your request to DELETED. Personal requests for removal will be carried out immediately. Requests from governmental, political or press organisations will be treated less favourably. The purpose of this list is not necessarily to redistribute published news reports. Rather, it is intended to distribute reports from or directly affecting those people in Zimbabwe. If you have seen something before, I apologise. Hopefully that will not be a regular occurrence.
Brief list of helpful sites on the issue:
- Comprehensive news updates -- http://www.1freespace.com/beetee
- Offers of and requests for help for Zimbabweans -- http://pub9.ezboard.com/boffersofhelp
- Commercial Farmers' Union -- http://www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
- Movement for Democratic Change -- http://www.in2zw.com/mdc
- Zimbabwe Democracy Trust -- http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org
- BSAP Pursuit of Zimbabwean Criminals -- http://www.bsaphq.f9.co.uk
