DOES anyone ever get anxious when the BBC Breaking News jingle comes on and they think it is a story on Zimbabwe? I do. Infact, I have been a nervous wreck since March 30, when I was waiting anxiously to hear the progress of the elections.
I expected the coverage to be just like of any coverage of elections elsewhere. Still I waited anxiously, hoping when things change, I can finally go home and start contributing to the Motherland. I was fed up with England. I am fed up with England, but I can’t really go home right now, given the sorry state of affairs. I shouldn’t have left because it’s getting increasingly difficult to make that decision to go home.
Yet, it is increasingly getting difficult to stay in the United Kingdom. Things have changed here too. I find it increasingly difficult even to afford the basic foodstuffs on a meagre wage I get from my infrequent (and illegal) agency jobs. I have had to change jobs six times in the last year, or maybe six months. I have lost track of places I have worked; but not the job that I do – care work. I have maintained the same job since I came here from Zimbabwe where I was working as a banker, and a very high level one too.
I wish the British could just sort things out. Surely, they can’t condemn Mugabe and condemn us here. If the British say Mugabe is a dictator, why are they making it difficult for us to stay here. I have applied for asylum, I was denied. I was denied assistance. I cannot get a descent job, where I can work (legally) and contribute taxes, so that this country can move forward.
I just hope that next time I hear the BBC Breaking News jingle, it will be either British PM calling for sanctions to be lifted against Zimbabwe, so that economic prosperity can be realized and some of us can try and go back home; or it will be news that all Zimbabwean asylum seekers and illegals have been granted an amnesty to live and work in the U.K. and contribute positively to the country, rather than strain the resources that are fast becoming expensive for British citizens.
Nyarai Chimutsa
ARTICLE ATTACHMENTS
READER OPINIONS
Arthur Gwagwa • arthurgwagwa@yahoo.com Subject: Asylum is not the answer! Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:11:18 • Your article highlights the plight of a average Zimbabwean in the UK. However, what we need now is not to be given asylum in the UK but to ensure that the political parties negotiate in good faith to find a long lasting solution interms of the MoU they signed.
The British government and the EU at large need to desist from interference and calling for further sanctions. They need to think in terms of setting up a fund to support Zimbabweans they will be repatriating back home. Once things are sorted out at home, we wont need asylum and in any event there wont be any legal basis to claim it.
It is only the pressure we suffer in the diaspora that will force us to go home, so its a blessing in disguise in a way.
Ranga • n/a Subject: n/a Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:12:35 • Nyarai, I have a problem with the claim that economic sanctions are solely to blame for the Zimbabwean crisis. I agree that targeted sanctions also hurt the ordinary person. As a result, I'm one of those who are against sanctions whether smart, targeted or comprehensive. The Zimbabwean crisis started in the late 1990s before the West imposed targeted sanctions on ZPF leadership. Rather than limiting the causes of the crisis to sanctions, we need to identify the internal forces behind the crisis as well. ZANU PF are propagandists and I'm not surprised that some of us get hoodwinked by them. Good luck Nyarai.
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