rjt

__________________
Mr Delors said that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the community, The Commission to be The Executive and The Council Of Ministers The Senate. NO! NO! NO!
(Margaret Thatcher 30 Oct 1990)

Ignore List: The Prophets of ST Al the Unelectable.

SilverFalcon

A few years ago we did some building and one of the builder's workers was from Zimbabwe. He befriended us in the way in which this happens here when you are the only people someone knows where he can go if he gets into difficulties or maybe has nowhere to sleep.

His name was Prince and he was at that time about twenty years old. He was a good looking decent lad with good English and had been working as an AIDS helper in Zimbabwe before being forced to come to SA to look for some kind of work. All he could find was mortar mixing work on building sites or occasional garden work, etc.

He told us about his life and it was difficult to think of how this differed from the lives of other twenty year olds in other parts of the world. Prince used to have to sleep under the stars on the building sites with his very few possessions wrapped in a cloth or in a plastic bag under his head, or they were stolen while he was sleeping. He asked us if he could keep them in our garage eventually as he had nowhere to stow his cash or bread and few clothing items while he was at work. He slept in our garage on several occasions because he had nowhere else to go. He thought it was paradise. He had warm food from us, electric light, blankets and security. But it didn't and couldn't last.

Work was scarce and he was hounded by locals who felt nervous about their jobs being taken by immigrants. Eventually he had to move on. He showed us a picture of his mother and "beloved" in Zimbabwe. There they were, looking out of a dog eared photograph, standing in a wasted field much like the ones from the pictures in the above BBC series and holding some of their meagre produce from a shack garden somewhere in the middle of nowhere. A few drought stricken melons and a misshapen pumpkin. Poverty that defies description and that strips the human soul of all faith in life itself. Yet they were smiling for the camera. Prince smiled too as he said goodbye and told us he would need to take money home to them and that we would see him again on his return.

But Prince never returned. Often I wonder what on earth happened to him. I try not to think of him lying dead in some field, the victim of robbers, his mother and "beloved" still waiting for him to bring money home. The months lengthened into years and Prince is now just another lost Zimbabwean in the desperate struggle of these people to survive something no ordinary citizen ever dreamed would happen and no one like Prince ever wanted in the first place - violence, poverty, suffering and no hope of ever being able to fix things.

When next some liberal fool tells you that you should welcome immigrants and asylum seekers tell them that they are simply trying to assuage their misdirected guilt and remind them that their "help" does not do anything for the millions who stay home and suffer the indignity and horror of slowly fading from the world, stricken by policies implemented by stupid meddling individuals like themselves who have no idea what being in serious trouble really means.

And while you're at it, kick them up the jacksie for people like Prince. He doesn't need their pseudo sympathy and their sanctimonious meddling, he needs his country back.

__________________
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolour in the rain.
Don't bother asking for explanations,
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat.