NOVEMBER 2007
Your verified, online Newsletter for Rhodesians & Zimbabweans Worldwide.
Sign up today and get a free music download.
Please note in order to post your own message/search or reply you must be a Verified Member of the web site.Please note in order to post your own message/search or reply you must be a Verified Member of the web site. Join today and share in the memories - Reunite with Rhodiechat "Your Rhodie/Zimbo Community". Find your old friends from school, college, university, next door now and around the world. Read their profiles, view their photos, and reunite! Search our huge selection of photo's, videos, audio or post your own
We have one of the largest mailing lists within the Rhodesian/Zimbabwean Community to which a monthly newsletter is submitted. If you are searching for someone..this is the place.
You never know who maybe looking for you
Your Privacy is protected via an internal messaging system. Once you feel secure with the contacting party it's up to you to reveal your contact info. This is a verified web site - no hiding behind an alias and always protected.
Prejudiced remarks or defamation of any kind is not permitted. Subscription info is on the front page of the web site.
THE MISSING PERSONS BUREAU
Member: J.R,Dudine - Real Name: Jennifer Dudine (nee Shelton)
Country: United StatesAbout Me: I was born in Bulawayo, lived on and off in Rhodesia & SA. Moved to SA permanently in 1974 with my parents. Lived in SA until 8 years ago, when my husband got a transfer to the USA. I have 3 children, 2 in college and one is a junior in high school.
Looking for SHAYNE KELLY. She has a daughter STACY KELLY DU BOIS (not sure of surname or spelling). Shayne has two brothers, Clifton and Patrick. Last known whereabouts, Johannesburg, South Africa. Shayne also lived in Rustenburg until her divorce in about 1986 or 1987.
Member: terrymck54 - Real Name: Terry McKeown
Country: AustraliaAbout Me: Went to Prince Edward. Worked for Lyons Brooke Bond. Recce Platoon 1st Batt. Now live Perth W Australia
Looking for Howie Bell, believed to be working in the diamond industry in South Africa. His father owned Bells Jewelers in Salisbury.
Member: bdee - Real Name: Brian de la Rosa
Country: BotswanaI am looking for some very close friends and would like to make contact with Marion Clarke who lived in Greendale. She married an Officer in the RLI and moved to the Durban area. Also looking for Cheryl Milne who lived in Bulawayo, Judy Laing of Bulawayo, Louise Kirsten of Bulawayo and Carol Davies of Bulawayo who married Pete Bailey and is now in the UK.
Member: astridb - Real Name: Astrid Breckmann
Country: DenmarkHi I'm looking for a young woman called Yolanda Joubert. She must be 25 - 27 years old. In 1998 we were exchange students together in Illinois. She stayed in a town called Morton. She said her parent were Afrikaner farmers and that she attended a boarding school but I don't know where in Zim they lived.
She went back home to Zim in Dec. 1998. And after that we heard about Mugabe's farm invasions. Her father was talking about the possibility of moving to Botswana (I think). Then I never heard anything again. I sure hope nothing ever happened to them. Who knows, maybe they moved to South Africa.Member: KathyH - Real Name: Kat Hall
Country: United KingdomLooking for Sheree - ex Roosevelt (73-78). The last I heard of her she was married to Paul and had two boys I think and was still in Harare.
Member: peter.newbery - Real Name: Peter Newbery
Country: United KingdomI am interested in the finding anything about the following who went to Cranbourne with me. Andrew Strong who I last saw in 1978 when he was accepted by Air Rhodesia as an apprentice. Nick Fergus who I last saw in the 1980s. He was a pilot flying out of Charles Prince Airport and latter from Salisbury Airport for Afrit Air
Member: paulw - Real Name: Paul Williams
Country: SpainAbout Me: I lived in Rhodesia from 1974 to 1990. I played football for Raylton and Hatfield and Snooker for Raylton, Catholic Center and The Piston Club.
I am trying to find a friend of mine. His name is Stephen Pepper, we went to Cranbourne Boys High in the mid 70's. And I worked with/for him at Industrial V- Belts in Masasa in the late 80's. I am led to believe he is now living in the USA.
Other people I would like to trace are: Barry Anderson lived in Hatfield in the 70's
Sean Coles lived in Hatfield in the 70's, Debbie Sheehan went to Roosevelt Girls High in the 70's.
If any one can help me in this matter I would be very grateful. Also if there is anyone who remembers me (I Played Football and Snooker for the Raylton Club 70's & 80's ). Please get in touch.
Member: Cheetah - Real Name: Jill Rosalinde Harkness
Country: AustraliaAbout Me: Born in N Ireland, emigrated to Rhodesia in 1972 and went to school at Northlea(my maiden name is Harkness),Que Que and Hatfield . Emigrated to England and arrived in Australia
Looking for Gary Phillips, (Shark) whenever you read this, in Sydney now and a long way from Umniati and Que Que...hope you find me!
Member: rodorrell - Real Name: Roderick Orrell
Country: United KingdomAbout Me: I was born in Fort Victoria, my father Roger Orrell was in the BSAP and my mother Mary Orrell was a nurse. I have two sisters Kathryn and Tamsin. Kathryn lives in the USA and Tamsin in Berkshire England.
I'm hoping to hear from/find some old college mates who attended Chibero College of Agriculture between 1982/83. Some of the guys I remember are Ross Philip, Johnny Wells-West, Francois de-Chalaine, Wendy Richards, CJ etc. if any of you are out there get back to me guys.
Member: Melangell - Real Name: Melangell Shirley Roe-Stevens
Country: United KingdomAbout Me: Born: Shirley Winter, 1962, S Rhodesia of Pioneering family. School: Umtali - Dominican Convent, Junior School & UGHS Left for Cape Town 1979. Now in UK
I have been wanting to find friends from Umtali for years but not found anyone. I hope some of them are members of this group, or that there are members of this group who may know them? Please let me know. I am particularly wanting to be in contact with Jayne/Robert Mercer, Sonia Zucchi and Elizabeth Forder. I have no idea what their names may be now. In those days I was Shirley Winter.
Just a quick thanks to your web site for helping me find my dear friend CHARMAINE MADDEN. We are so happy to be in contact again... have many years to catch up on. I have been searching for Charmaine (and Shayne Kelly - still not found) on and off for at least 10 years, so it goes to show that one should never give up. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH.
Help with these searches and the many more...post your own "You never know who maybe looking for you"
This newsletter is now sent out to thousands!
RHODESIAN RECIPE'S
PERI PERI CHICKEN from the recipe section of Rhodiechat
2 fresh red chilies (seeded & finely sliced)
1/4 teaspoon dried Basil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
150ml extra virgin spanish olive oil
40g stoned raisins (pulverized)
1 bay leaf
60mls tomato paste
50ml lemon juice freshly squeezed
salt and ground black pepper
1 - 1 1/2 kg chickenMake peri-peri marinade by mixing together all ingredients ( except chicken) and allow to stand covered in china/ glass bowl for 2 - 3 hours.
Butterfly split chicken and keep flat by skewering. Brush inside and outside with marinade and cook under a moderate grill with the inside uppermost for about 15minutes. Brush with marinade occasionally whilst cooking. Turn chicken over and cook for another 20 minutes again brushing with marinade. Serve on a bed of rice garnished with lemon wedges
EDDIE CROSS EDITORIALS
Join in the Discussion in The Message Boards at Rhodiechat.
What Lies Ahead?
I do not like crystal balls – they are notoriously unreliable and can be Misleading. But I felt that we must do some thinking about what lies ahead Of us and what we all have to do to get through the next 9 months.
First of all a time table: I think that the deal being negotiated with ZANU PF under SADC tutelage will be complete by the end of October. It then has to go the SADC leadership for endorsement and confirmation from Mr. Mugabe that the deal is acceptable. Once that is done it will have to go through an acceptance and Implementation phase in Zimbabwe including a Parliamentary process. This cannot take less than 6 weeks and that takes us into December.
Nothing much will happen until we get the silly season behind us and that takes us into January 2008.
The deal will try to create reasonable conditions for two things – a Political campaign between political parties in Zimbabwe and the subsequent conduct of a poll of all registered voters. The critical thing is how do you do this and in my view the conditions required simply cannot be created in three months. I therefore think that June 2008 will be the earliest that the actual poll can take place.
What everyone has to understand is that this is the only show in town. There is no other route back to sanity and we are stuck with this process even if we do not think it will work or we think it is a set up and we are the fall guys.
I think about the present situation and wonder if we will ever get to December, let alone March or June! Just today I had to buy 40 liters of fuel for my vehicle so that I can go up to Harare on Wednesday for a policy workshop. 40 liters cost me Z$28 million. While I was there – buying diesel from a young couple who were pastors at a Community Church in Chipinge and are now trying to make a living trading fuel from their home in Bulawayo, I bought some beef from another young man – also from Chipinge who had slaughtered three cattle and was selling the product in one kilo lots out of their kitchen. He was going to then buy fuel and head back to Chipinge.
Just look at these exchange rates – April 21 950 to US$1; May 29 167 to US$1; June 175 000 to US$1; July – no trade (price controls); August 192 300 to US$1; September 350 000 to US$1; October the 8th 585 000 to US$1. That is the devaluation of the local currency on the open market in 6 months. The dollar has devalued to 27 times its value in April 2007. Prices are again moving by the day and there is no end in sight. If my estimate of present inflation is right – about 20 000 percent per annum, we can see how rapidly the local currency is depreciating and there is no hope of the State every keeping up with the pace of change.
The DMB – operating under price control is paying its suppliers 38 000 Dollars a liter for fresh whole milk delivered to its dairies. That is 6 US cents a liter. Quick way to go bust! So we have a critical shortage of milk and all milk based products. The official price of Maize meal – and we consume 3000 tonnes a day, is Z$13 800 a kilogram or Z$14 million dollars a tonne. The free market price is R3 500 a tonne or Z$300 million a tonne – a direct subsidy by the State of Z$340 trillion dollars a year.
That is one parastatal on its own. Add to that the railways, ZESA and a myriad of other State controlled institutions and you know why the Reserve Bank must print money – trillions of dollars of new money every day. Money supply according to outdated statistics provided by the Reserve Bank is now over 18 000 percent up year on year – close to the estimated inflation numbers.
Bus fares are now Z$300 000 a day for most workers – they earn much less than this, on top of this they must search for food and other basics every day and pay through the nose for everything when they find it. Add to this miserable scenario the shortages of water and electricity black outs for half the day every day and you can easily understand why 4 million people have fled the country to South Africa and thousands more decamp every day. I have seen estimates of our population that put it as low as 8 million people left in the country. I think that is low, but it is certainly not the 12 million estimate I see used by the media every day.
We entered the hyperinflation League of Nations in March 2007. Only 21 Countries have been through such conditions in the past 100 years. The
duration of such conditions ranged from 2 months to 48 months. They all recovered from this nightmare in a comparatively short time by adopting a fairly standard series of reforms and these were either adopted by the party in power and implemented (Mozambique) or they were implemented by a new government once the old regime had been overthrown or voted out of office (Zambia).My own guess is that ZANU PF is now incapable of making the painful changes that are required to get things right again. The man in charge is beyond it all and the succession struggle is tearing ZANU PF apart. Zanu PF is committed to the course they have set and they have no alternative strategy. Their most recent grand recovery plan is simply not worth the paper it was written on. Therefore I think we are stuck with hyperinflation until the elections. That will mean that Zimbabwe will have to cope with these horrendous conditions for another 9 months, at the very least.
How do we cope? Individually we will simply have to go on making a plan and getting by on a daily basis. In our business lives those of us who want to be here and ready to take advantage of the turn around must also strategize and ensure that our business survives. Operate on a cash basis and watch the fundamentals every day. Do not give in to the intimidation or price controls and resist the so-called “indigenisation”.
If the SADC process is the only game in town, then the MDC remains the only organisation that can unseat Zanu PF in the coming election. I think we are going to get a shot at that for the first time under reasonable conditions. You should play your part in that process – we need your help and
cooperation. We must restore the political structures destroyed by the State across the country, campaign for the hearts and minds of the voters and prepare to effect the turn around that we are all looking for after the election has done its thing.I can tell you that the leadership of the MDC is doing their bit – we are working around the clock and making sacrifices to get things moving on the ground. We are taking risks on a daily basis and in some instances putting our lives and freedom on the line. What are you doing? No point in moaning and complaining – our future has always been in our own hands, this time we at least have some external assistance and support – even if it is conditional and half hearted.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 8th October 2007
Democracy and the Rule of Law
When we attained our Independence in 1980, we did so in style. Changing the guard democratically, creating new democratic structures for the State and local government and at the same time we preserved a well developed system of law supported by an independent Judiciary of surprising quality and experience. These achievements after a long drawn out civil war and decades of abuse by successive governments that were determined to protect the security of the State at the expense of the rights of the individual, were significant.
Since then it has been downhill all the way. First Gukurahundi and the smashing of ZAPU as a political entity. In a savage, secret campaign over 7 years, the Zimbabwe regime under Mr. Mugabe sought to achieve total hegemony over the political structures of the country. The rules of both democracy and law were flaunted; the rights of millions denied, the media controlled and manipulated and both the Judges and the international community were silent.
Once Zapu had been silenced, the State continued its attempts to control and silence centers of dissidence. One by one the key social institutions were infiltrated and subdued until the number of truly independent social institutions in the economic system or in open society at large could be counted on the fingers of one hand. There were flashes of resistance – Margaret Dongo, Enoch Dumbutshena, but they were soon snuffed out.
By the mid nineties only the Trade Unions and some Churches remained independent of the State and able to express themselves in the interests of their members and society at large. The State was arrogant and took the view that at last it was totally in control, the one Party State had been achieved in all but name, at the expense of both democracy and the rule of law – the two great achievements of the liberation struggle over a 80 year period.
Then the MDC took shape and suddenly the world molded by Mr. Mugabe looked threatened and fragile. The struggle against the rule of law and democratic forces took on a new meaning and intensity. In the ensuing battle hundreds have been murdered, millions displaced and hundreds of thousands subjected to beatings and worse at the hands of the so-called “forces of law and order”. All the basic tenets of real democracy have been abused and distorted as the regime sought to defend its hold on power with increasing ruthlessness and desperation.
At first these abuses received little attention from the world community. African leaders went one step further and tried to defend the indefensible and the unjust activities of what had become a rogue regime in every sense of the word. One by one the independent Jurists were dealt with to be replaced with pliant and complacent men and women who were willing to compromise their training and ethics for a mess of porridge.
But at last the international community came out and said; enough is enough! Recognition was withdrawn and the regime in Harare formally defined as a rogue regime. We are also now classified as a “failed State”. But it took the African States much longer to step up to the line and agree with their international counterparts. Mugabe was one of their own they argued, he was a hero of the liberation process and could not be touched. But even they have now accepted that the Mugabe regime has gone a step too far. At the SADC summit on the 29th March this year, that was in fact the main message given to Mr. Mugabe behind closed doors.
At that crucial meeting the regional leaders agreed that the crisis in Zimbabwe was home grown, had gone on long enough and had to be brought to an end. They agreed hat the regime in Harare had to open discussions with the much-maligned MDC and put in place arrangements for the next elections that were scheduled for March 2008. They put South Africa in charge of the process and gave President Mbeki their total support.
And so, in a country that still claims it is a “democracy”, we have spent the past 8 months negotiating the conditions that will allow our people the simple right they fought for over a period of 80 years – the right to vote under free and fair conditions for the leadership of their choice. 8 months of tough, unrelenting, behind closed doors, negotiations to restore the very conditions that were ours in 1980.
Even as we have been negotiating the very basic conditions that should be the norm in any sane society, the regime has continued to pound the official opposition to death. Our leadership has been hounded, meetings banned, unreasonable conditions imposed on other meetings, billions of dollars of destabilization money has been poured into the CIO for the purpose of making our lives a living nightmare. They decided the urban worker was the enemy and they have set about smashing what remains of the economy and driving millions of voters out of the country. This action has been similar to a long-range artillery barrage in advance of an infantry assault over the trenches.
Many doubt we will even get to an election – let alone have a free and fair contest. I just want us to be able to vote in secret and without any fear of recrimination. The people will do the rest.
As for the rule of law! You must be joking! We have a Chief Justice who occupies a farm stolen from its rightful owners and who last week gave his assent to the wholesale theft of private assets from farms. A Chief Justice who pays scant regard for the welfare of his colleagues and the lower ranks in the Judiciary. We live in a society where even if you can clearly identify the killers and link them to an incident of political murder, no dockets are opened and no prosecutions are mounted. Not a single political murder since 2000 has been investigated and prosecuted – not a bad record for a so-called system of Justice.
In fact we live in a society where the whole system of Justice has been subverted and citizens have absolutely no recourse when it comes to the protection of either their person or their property. In 1980 I would never have imagined that we would be in this state of affairs some 27 short years down the line.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 11th November 2007
UDI SPECIALS
To celebrate the 42nd Anniversary of UDI on November 11, we are offering Ian Smith's book The Great Betrayal for $29.95, including a copy of the photograph of the Cabinet signing the Declaration of Independence. For details please go to Memories of Rhodesia.
UDI week only ...available till November the 18th.To celebrate the 42nd Anniversary of UDI on November 11, we are offering a package special you get a Professional quality photograph of the Cabinet signing the Declaration of Independence. (photos are produced from a lab negative and are approx 20cm (8inches) by 25cm(10inches)) in size. They are shipped in a protective hard cover plastic sleeve.With the photo you also get a CD of the UDI speeches also includes a bonus track digitally formatted from LP "Christmas in Rhodesia", plus a embroidered Rhodesia flag patch, a Rhodesia Was Super Bumper sticker and a Flame Lily Leather Keychain..all this for $29.95 only available for one week till November the 18th from www.Lekkerwear.com
Rhodesian Flag patches are currently in Production, these are fully embroidered custom made patches and are currently on a pre-order special of 2 for 1. more information at www.Lekkerwear.com
SPECIAL NOTE RE CHRISTMAS DEADLINE
Lekkerwear Christmas apparel orders have to be in this week for air shipment, if you miss we can offer express post however that gets expensive.
Memories of Rhodesia & Flame Lily Books Deadline will be December 15.
LOST & FOUND
FOUND
I would like to tell you a story, in 1979 I was seconded to the Rhodesia Light Infantry as a weapons instructor from the Royal Marines Commandos, then in 1980 I was with the South Africa Police working as liaison between them, the British and the ZIPRA PF. Apart from falling in love with your Country, I met and fell in love with a fantastic girl. I was in Zimbabwe for three years and was told that one day I would be back, because once it gets into your blood you are hooked. That is true. I have spent the last 24 years looking for Helen, this week I found her and it is all thanks to your help and chat room.
Thank you just does not seem enough, I will always be in your debt, if ever I can be of service please call.
Gratefully yours
Calvin
Join in on the discussions in the Message board of Rhodiechat. Members intros, General Discussion, The Seven wonders of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe (share yours), Lost Friends & Family, In Memory, Sports, Vacation Spots, Where we ate drank, Zimbo/Rhodie Slang, Recipes and more
The Move is on...To a Verified, Modified, Spam Free Site
Accessed at www.Rhodiechat.com
NEW BOOK & VIDEO TITLES NOW AVAILABLE
 |
|
Flame Lily Author Services
 |
|
Brought to you by the Rhodesian-Zimbabwean Mail Service, hosted by www.memories-of-rhodesia.com
To unsubscribe from our mailing list click here
