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(ZIMBABWE GUARDIAN) Zimbabweans thriving in spite of sanctions

Zimbabweans thriving in spite of sanctions
By: Patson Tsodzo
Posted: Thursday, April 1, 2010 2:02 am

DEAR EDITOR - When I visited Zimbabwe last month, I learnt a few lessons and would like to share them with your readership.

I was one of those people who woke up and switched on my computer reading news about Zimbabwe all day in my little room and little secluded world and thinking the worst of Zimbabwe.

The news I read about Zimbabwe was very depressing to say the least, such that when I got on the South African Airlines plane to go home after years of indecision, I wasn't sure what to expect. I feared the worst. I had been told that I would be arrested at the airport for "simply living in England" for 15 years.

I was shocked when I arrived at Harare International Airport and the CIO were out of sight. I was even more shocked when I got to my parents' house in Mabelreign without any incident.

I spent four weeks in Zimbabwe touring many places including Kariba, Victoria Falls, Masvingo (Great Zimbabwe) and could not believe that this was the same place I was reading about on the internet.

Just like any other country, there are pockets of poverty and pockets of affluence. The gap between the rich and poor is increasing, but the same is happening all over the world.

When I visited my rural home in Buhera, I was even more shocked to see communal farmers doing well, although the drought had dealt them a huge blow this farming season and complained that the government should give them more support. On average, they were all optimistic about the future. Their major concern was getting the seeds and the implements to work the soil and produce.

I was glad to take off my shoes and just walk barefoot on the land of my ancestors. I visited my father's grave which was well looked after and paid my respects. I saw old friends and relatives who killed a chicken for me and we drank traditional beer.

I also went to South Africa where my brother lives, and saw a different country from the one I was reading about. In South Africa, since my last visit three years ago poverty, at least among the black population was on the increase and unemployment rife. My brother told me that there is a homicide every hour in Johannesburg and tens of thousands of black South Africans live in absolute poverty in Soweto.

In Zimbabwe, I saw a new breed of entrepreneurs who are doing well, buying houses and starting big businesses. This breed of young entrepreneurs is a resilient lot. They fight hard day and night to succeed; and they do. They are not gullible to cheap politics and they are sharp.

These young people are excited at the prospect of becoming big businessmen and the indigenization programme has got them excited.

I am sorry to say that the propaganda that is spread by our own people outside Zimbabwe is so far removed from the reality. Yes, there is political conflict, but that is not unusual in a country that is coming out of a decade of sanctions and sanctions-driven poverty.

I hope that journalists who are lying daily to the people of Zimbabwe and to the world, are able to one day go home and see for themselves. Being in this country (Britain) will give one a blinkered vision and you start believing your own lies and your own propaganda. I now know that some of those people who spread these falsehoods are making a living out of these lies. Otherwise why are they doing that?

I am already making plans to go back home, not to settle, but to invest and establish a second home. My wife and kids are excited at the prospect of going back to our Motherland every summer and whenever we can afford it, on holiday.

Shame to all those who cannot go back because they have spent decades lying and spreading propaganda to a point where they are almost discredited and no-one in Zimbabwe wants to know them. The worst nightmare one can ever have is not being able to go back to their place of birth, or where they grew up, just to reconnect and restrategize.

As for me and my family, we are currently planning our next vacation in the beautiful country called ZImbabwe.

Labels: PROPAGANDA, SANCTIONS, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 3:20 PM