We awoke to the news that Tonderai’s wife had been abducted . . .

Plaxedes and her two young children were trying to move to a safer place at night
They had a driver and the next door neighbour to help
Plaxedes and her two children were thrown out of the car on to the side of the road,
the neighbour was shot in the face and chest
the driver, car and all their possessions were taken

the neighbour is presumed dead
the drivers where-abouts are still unknown
and the lives of one innocent young woman and her children are changed forever
deprived of their father/husband/friend/protector
their home and possessions
their belief that the world is a safe place

Micheal, the chef from the cafe heard his wife and mother had been beaten
he took the bus to his rural home to find how they were
and was arrested on arrival
taken to the militia base where he was told that in order to avoid further beatings of his family
he had to play his part . . .
the graveyard shift at the rural bus stop from 10pm to 6 am
watching who was arriving in the area
and reporting them to the base.

Rural and urban Zimbabweans are being forced to all-night pungwes
are being beaten unless they wear the Zanu t-shirts and head scarves

and tomorrow we are instructed to go and vote
for the monster who created this energy

or else . . .

Finally the African leaders begin to show their shock
finally they distance themselves from this violence
the global reaction is one of outrage

what has been present for 8 years suddenly visible

wringing of hands
‘what is to be done? what is to be done?”

what is to be done?
‘how’, as Morgan asks, ‘do we get rid of a dictator democratically?’

and in the mean time
as the world wrings its hands – waiting for a solution
we have run out of them here
Praxades, and her children, and Michael, and his wife and mother,
and hundreds of thousands of the people of this land
stand in the face of uncontrolled evil

the ultimate cost
being peaceful comes with the price of death

This entry was posted on June 26th, 2008 at 4:35 pm by Bev Reeler and is filed under Elections 2008, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.