[English] Re crikey.com.au

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Hi all,

Fwiw, Crikey have been around for ages .. they have a way with words

       http://www.crikey.com.au  

> From:   "postman at crikey.com.au" <postman at crikey.com.au>
> Date:   30 Jul 2008 20:18:34 +1000 
> Subject:   Building sluggish, Wiki corruptible, Nelson beatable 
 

Building sluggish, Wiki corruptible, Nelson beatable 
   
Crikey - The daily email that peeks behind Australia's closed doors.
Can you read this edition of Crikey? If it was mangled by your email 
program, see it online.

   
 30 July 2008  
 
 
 Dear Squatters,

The news cycle grinds away. Today's big issue, tomorrow's forgotten cause. 
Remember Zimbabwe?  Life in Harare, apparently, goes on: 

Dear Friends, 

We have survived the worst week yet -- no water since 12th of this month & 
still no water, power came on briefly on Sunday and then again yesterday 
morning, after being off for seven days. Associated with power-out is the 
lack of telephone. Now also total lack of food and money. 

We are allowed to draw only 100 billion dollars per day from our bank 
accounts. This is currently worth less than 20 UK pence or 40 US cents or 
two South African Rand. It is a criminally cruel policy which is causing 
extreme suffering and costing huge unnecessary transport costs to get to 
the bank daily & then stand in the queue for hours. 

This daily maximum withdrawal is not enough to buy even a single bread 
roll which this week cost 140 billion dollars. On Saturday 1kg of potatoes 
was 110 billion, 1kg of oranges 500 billion, so one cannot buy anything 
for the daily drawn-sum and then by the next day everything has again 
increased beyond one's purse. 

Supermarkets are empty. Vegetables available only from street vendors. Our 
telephone calls are 2.2 billion dollars per unit. We are desperate for 
relief. On Friday 25th exchange rate was 850 billion dollars to the US. 
Inflation was 150 quintillion percent (that is 150 plus 18 0's ). We try 
to keep each other going but it is extremely difficult. It is 
incomprehensible that the world will not come to our aid. 

The bank employees are helping themselves to client's money and all 
municipal and state services have collapsed. There is no justice to be 
found anywhere. 

My farming friends who had their larger farm expropriated now do not have 
enough grazing for their dairy herd. They were told to reduce their herd, 
but the shortage of milk is already so critical that most children never 
see milk. We are told that we are lucky to have enough water to drink! 

These farmers are daily threatened by a police chief who wants to move 
into their remaining small farm. He has brought a contingent of police to 
squat on the farm to make sure that they do not remove anything from the 
farm. They are in terror for their lives and those of their workers but 
trying to hang on. There is no recourse to justice or help from any 
quarter. Common human decency has left us. These farmers supply me with 
two litres of milk and six eggs and sometimes vegetables each week. 
Without this food I would have nothing. 

Last week we ran out of bread, having rationed ourselves to one thin slice 
per day to make it go further. The bread which we brought back from 
Johannesburg in April lasted us four months. 

The sun still shines & birds are chirping in the garden & spring is 
coming. The warmer weather helps our mood. 

Love to all ... 

--

Cheers Crikey
Stephen Loosley
Member, Victorian
Institute of Teaching