Zimbabweans are like Cockroaches....When the extinction comes.....the ONLY things that will survive are Zimbabweans and Cockroaches! Those folks are the absolute Salt of the Earth...and tougher than dried Elephant hide. There are NO finer !! Here is to Russell Caldecot.....who is in S.A. undergoing further surgery this month. Brennan

I agree with you 100% -- well maybe not the cockroach analogy. They serve as a model to all of us of perseverance and grace in the face of adversity.

Zimbabweans laugh it off
14/01/2008 21:25 - (SA)









Zim registers Aids 'curers'

10 stranded on Zim island

Water shortages hit Harare

Zim police hit on churches

'Humanure' used for Zim crops

Opposition threatens violence

Birthday bash for Mugabe

Zim to pay up for Malawi maize

Zim cop stoned to death








Harare - If you hear a Zimbabwean housewife boast that she's off to buy the head of a cow, don't think she's found a secret supply of meat. She plans to buy a cabbage.

And if she says she's cooking pig's head for supper over an outdoor fire, of course, because there won't be any power, she's also talking about cabbage.

Meat has been in desperately short supply in Zimbabwe since July, when President Robert Mugabe's controversial 50% price cut emptied shop shelves and butchers within days.

And although the precious commodity is slowly creeping back into stores, it is doing so at prices way beyond the purses of most.

Inflation, now rumoured to be well over 24 000% and climbing, is wreaking havoc on the lives of all but the very rich.

A chicken this week cost at least Zim$24m, more than a teacher's monthly salary. A packet of sausages cost Zim$30m. That is US$1 000 at the official exchange rate. No wonder cabbage is the country's new meat.

Dark humour

In these tough days, Zimbabweans have found their own unique brand of humour. No surprises: it's heavily laced with sarcasm.

As power cuts bite - Zimbabwe is reported to have had electricity imports from South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) cut - witty Zimbabweans have found a substitute meaning for ZESA, the state-run Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority. It is the Zimbabwe Electricity Sometimes Available company, according to letter-writers to the independent press.

The state-run Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) has also been renamed: it's the Zimbabwe No Water Available authority - a particularly apt name for the water body this week. Monday marked the start of what a ZINWA official warned would be a week-long water cut for Harare and parts of the capital's sprawling dormitory town of Chitungwiza.

Examples abound: a columnist for the weekly Standard has coined a new name for the government mouthpiece, the Herald. Tongue-in-cheek, he calls the newspaper the Herald of Total Honesty.

And the pothole-riddled capital city with its frequent sewage pipe bursts and its diarrhoea outbreaks is Ha-Ha-rare. Things in the place once called the Sunshine City just aren't that funny any more.

With bank queues still snaking their way outside most banks as desperate customers wait for cash and with crunch polls Zanu-PF says it?s sure of winning now only two months away, there's little hope of a let-up in the situation.

For many Zimbabweans, there's a lot of truth in the popular saying: if you don't laugh, you'll cry.

Sapa-dpa

Hope all goes well for Russ.

Russell is in the forefront of my prayers and all my Zimbabwean friends are there also, we truly cannot feel all of their pain. I stand in awe of them.